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 Li Zhanshu (C, rear), chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, speaks at the closing meeting of a bimonthly session of the 13th NPC Standing Committee in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 31, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing) The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) closed its five-day bimonthly session Friday, adopting laws on e-commerce, soil pollution prevention, and individual income tax. President Xi Jinping signed presidential decrees to release the laws. Presiding over the closing meeting, Li Zhanshu, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, said that the legislation on soil pollution prevention and control is a major task decided by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, calling for efforts to protect the environment with the legal force and win the fight against pollution. Li said members of the NPC Standing Committee fully recognized the work on drafting individual books of the civil code, stressing continued in-depth deliberation. Legislators said the State Council and related authorities should earnestly implement the CPC Central Committee's decisions and plans on the economy, ensuring the annual economic and social development goals will be achieved, he said. Li asked the State Council to formulate coordinated regulations to enable individual income tax to better play its role in adjusting income distribution and boosting the economy. Li said the NPC Standing Committee should uphold the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC over advancing law-based governance in all areas, shoulder due missions and responsibilities in the process, as well as fully perform functions as stipulated in the Constitution and the law. Li called on the NPC Standing Committee to improve legislation efficiency and the Chinese socialist system of laws. ADOPTED LAWS The revised individual income tax law states that the minimum threshold for personal income tax exemption will be raised from 3,500 yuan (about 513 U.S. dollars) to 5,000 yuan per month or 60,000 yuan per year. It adds special expense deductions for items like caring for the elderly, children's education, continuing education, treatment for serious diseases, as well as housing loan interest and rent. The revised e-commerce law will protect legal rights and interests of all parties and maintain the market order, requiring all e-commerce operators to fulfill their obligations to protect consumers' rights and interests as well as personal information, intellectual property rights, cyberspace security and the environment. According to the new law on soil pollution prevention, national standards for soil pollution risk control will be set by the environmental authority of the State Council based on soil's contamination status, public health risks and ecological risks, among others. The law also states that a nationwide soil condition census should be conducted at least once every 10 years. OTHER LAWS & REPORTS The legislators reviewed bills on the draft farmland occupation taxes law and draft vehicle purchase taxes law, as well as State Council reports including the enforcement of the national economic and social development plan this year. At the closing meeting, lawmakers also voted to approve a treaty of extradition between China and Barbados. Li also presided over a chairpersons' meeting of the NPC Standing Committee, during which they heard draft decisions on e-commerce, soil pollution prevention, and individual income tax and decided to put the decisions to a vote at the closing meeting. After the session concluded, Li presided over a lecture on compiling the individual books of the civil code. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has all the markers of a rising star in American politics. He won his last election by more than 73 percentage points. Since then, he has traveled to Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina, all four of the early presidential primary states, prompting political observers to believe he will make a run for the White House in 2020.But a labor dispute between the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and the teachers union threatens his popularity. On Friday, teachers in the nation's second-largest school district voted to authorize a strike if negotiations continue to stall.Theres nothing more fraught with political risk than a school labor strike, says Stephen Goldsmith, former mayor of Indianapolis, who now teaches public policy at Harvard University. It affects a lot of people, and it affects the future of your city indirectly because the schools are the feeder to the future of the city.In Los Angeles, unlike Chicago and New York, the mayor has no control over the schools. Garcetti could theoretically sit this one out. But instead, he has offered to referee.I will do anything that I can to make sure there is not a strike, or, if a strike is called, to directly intervene in negotiations," he said last week. If Garcetti intervenes, Goldsmith says practically every potential outcome comes with inherent risks for the mayor's political future.A deal that leaves the district with a fiscal crisis could sully his reputation as a manager. A deal not fully supported by the union could cost him a key constituency.I am not sure the benefits to Garcettis intervention, for him, outweigh the risks, Goldsmith says.Labor tensions have been high this year. Teachers walked out in Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Oklahoma and West Virginia this spring, citing low pay, poor benefits and inadequate education funding. In Oklahoma and West Virginia, statewide strikes lasted two weeks. Last week, teachers in Washington state went on strike , and teachers in Seattle voted to strike at a later date.In Los Angeles, teachers are demanding a 6.5 percent raise, more guidance counselors and smaller class sizes. Student enrollment is dropping and with it funding has decreased. But teachers are weary of the districts financial forecast. In early 2017, it predicted a deficit beginning in July of this year. Those estimates have been pushed back twice. Now, the district says it won't run a deficit until fiscal year 2020 Because the district has in the past claimed to be in financial crisis and then funded faculty and staffraises and met some teacher demands, the district's negotiating strategy may not work this time.It seems that the history in L.A. is they have always found the money. So the union says you cried wolf 10 or 15 years ago and you found the money, says Darline Robles, former superintendent of the Los Angeles County Office of Education and an education professor at the University of Southern California.Garcettis plan to interject in the disputecomes as the relationship between the two sides continues to deteriorate. Last Monday, the teachers union filed an unfair practices charge with the states Public Employee Relations Board. It claims the district interfered with the strike vote and failed to provide financial documents crucial to the negotiations. The district fired back less than 24 hours later, filing its own complaint accusing the teachers union of not bargaining in good faith.Garcettis offer to mediate the dispute comes with the support from national education advocacy groups like Great Public Schools Now and from LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner, who was once the mayors political rival. (Both men vied for the office in the 2013 mayoral race.)For its part, the teachers union has balked at Garcetti getting involved in the negotiations. In a statement issued this week, the union said: We appreciate the Mayors offer of assistance with negotiations. ... At this point, UTLA believes the most productive pathway is through what is in the law -- state mediation.That sentiment would make any further involvement by Garcetti troublesome for him and the contract talks.Both sides, management and labor, have to see the person as someone they respect. It has to be both sides who see this as helpful to negotiations, says Robles, the education professor. If they dont, that third party [Garcetti] is set up for failure. (TNS) The public got a first view Thursday of new voting systems the state of Georgia might implement in 2020 elections while critics called for an immediate return to paper ballots to restore confidence in the process.At a meeting of the statewide Secure, Accessible and Fair Elections (SAFE) Commission, held in co-chair Rep. Barry Fleming's home county of Columbia County, six voting systems vendors demonstrated their technologies after morning panels on voting rights, access, security and intergovernmental relations.The "Clear Vote" system uses the "vote visualization" system which creates a scan of every bubble mark on a paper ballot, said Bill Murphy, sales director for vendor Clear Ballot.The scan results in an exact record of each mark that elections officials can review and audit on the spot, Murphy said. Ballots can be printed in advance or generated for voters as they appear at the polls, he said. The system includes a touch-screen system to mark ballots for voters with disabilities, he said.Voters take their filled-out ballots to a scanner, which alerts them to issues with missed or over-votes before they cast it.The company recently implemented a system in King County, Wash., which includes Seattle, and provides election auditing technology in Broward County, Fla., he said.Unisyn's voting system is easy, requiring poll workers only "plug it in" to start voting. Dropping the ballot in a scanner, they are asked to review an image of it before casting, said representative Wes Wagner. The company has contracts in Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Arizona counties, he said.Elections Systems and Software has statewide contracts with Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Arkansas, Delaware and West Virginia, said regional sales manager Mac Beeson.Company representatives emphasized the company's ballot-marking device, which produces a printed list of a voter's choices, and its digital scanner, which gives a voter the option of voting a fresh ballot before casting the vote."We're focusing on while the voters are in front of the machine, let the voter make the decision," Beeson said.The scanner, the "DS 200," drops the ballots into a blue bin that election workers pop out and wheel away, while results are placed on an encrypted thumb drive, he said.The company also offers straight paper-ballot voting and hybrid systems, said regional sales manager Jeb Cameron.The ballot-marking system makes all ballots accessible to people with disabilities, so voters need not identify themselves as needing assistance, he said.The system would cost anywhere from $20 million to more than $100 million depending on its configuration and the number of units, he said. None of the companies could give specific cost estimates.Hart Intercivic's "Verity Voting" system reads each contest and a voter's choices directly from a paper ballot, rather than a bar or QR code, and has systems in 11 states, a company representative said.Smartmatic voting systems has a contract with Los Angeles County and has supported elections around the globe. The multinational company was founded in Venezuela and now headquartered in London.Director of U.S. services for the company, Ed Smith, demonstrated a system of four components, including a poll book, which verifies a voter, a ballot marking device, a ballot scanner and an election management system.Smith said the system was the only one demonstrated Thursday that "from its inception" had complied with elections security protocols."We do not tabulate from bar codes," and use optical character recognition instead, he said.Several who spoke during the meeting's public comment period said they were concerned about election security.John Fortuna, a Green Party candidate for state senate, said the state needs paper ballots and ballot scanners at each polling place.The ballot-marking devices "amount to very expensive pens and pencils" for able-bodied voters, he said.The state needs "complete transparency on every aspect of the bidding" for the system, and to "make certain the lobbyists are not raking the citizens over the coals," he said.In contrast with the concerns, former Republican party official Dave Barbee called the need for a paper trail "metal hats" and said he trusted every vote he'd cast since the last time paper ballots were used.With paper ballots, "somebody always found another box that had ballots that weren't counted," Barbee said.Priscilla Smith called into question Secretary of State Brian Kemp's role in the process as a candidate for governor and urged the commission to represent voters' interests. Kemp co-chairs the commission."I don't know who is going to represent us if you don't," she said.Smythe DuVal, the Libertarian candidate for secretary of state, said hand-marked paper ballots with post-election audits were the "gold standard" for voting.Rick Barron, elections director for Fulton County, said a switch to paper will make early voting difficult in the populous county."The biggest complaint with paper ballots in early voting is voters receive the wrong ballot," he said. "Whatever system you end up deciding on, please be sure it accommodates early voting."Garland Favorito, co-founder of Voter GA, said he warned the state about its current voting system before it was implemented for its lack of results that can be audited."At least half or more of the presentations you saw today were for unverifiable voting systems just like we have been fighting for 16 years," Favorito said. Bloomberg Philanthropies What Works Cities Launched: 2015 Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab Founded: 2011 John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Founded: 1950 How can technology enable deeper resident participation in local government, including program planning, design and delivery? To what extent can technology solutions empower residents to make decisions through greater access to information, positioning them not just as creators of data but also as active consumers? MetroLab Network Founded: 2015 New York University Center for Urban Science & Progress Founded: 2012 Urban Center for Computation and Data Founded: 2012 For city governments, getting the most out of their digital transformations requires planning, engagement with residents and the ability to measure the impact of their investments. But because of limited resources and the demands of their day-to-day work, sometimes cities can be reactive to grant announcements or vendor pilot projects, leading to disjointed efforts.Several nonprofit foundations and academic centers have focused their efforts on supporting planning and development, best practice guideline creation, and cross-pollination between cities. Each has its own area of expertise and focus. Some are grant-making organizations, while others have received grants from the federal government and foundations to bring together city departments and researchers to develop tools and new approaches. Here are profiles of six of the organizations having a significant impact on how smart cities are developing across the country.Part of philanthropist and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg Philanthropies American Cities Initiative, What Works Cities was launched in April 2015 to enhance the use of data and evidence-based decision-making in cities. The What Works Cities initiative is a three-year, $42 million effort to support mayors and local leaders in 100 mid-sized U.S. cities with technical assistance, access to expertise and peer-to-peer learning opportunities.When we looked at the landscape of cities using data to effectively manage local government, most of the great work was happening in large cities, said Simone Brody, executive director of What Works Cities. Mid-sized cities were eager to take on this kind of work but didnt have the knowledge or skills to do so. To fill this gap, Bloomberg Philanthropies stood up What Works Cities, bringing together five expert partners that provide pro bono technical assistance to city staff, helping them build the capacity and skills to use data to make more informed decisions, deliver more effective services and programs, and ultimately, improve residents lives.Brody stressed that the technical assistance is designed to be issue-agnostic. Our goal is to help cities build capabilities that can be applied to all local issues theyre looking to address, she said.What Works Cities brings city leaders and staff together with peers in other cities as well as experts and resources. This community is committed to learning from each others challenges and building on each others work, enabling them to accelerate the pace of progress.One example of a What Works Cities project is Seattles work with Bloomberg partner Government Performance Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School to revamp its contracting practices with providers of homelessness services. The changes ensure providers are measured on their ability to place people in permanent housing, rather than just providing services along the way. A portion of the contract value is also tied to hitting established performance metrics.In May 2018, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced an additional $42 million investment to deepen and expand current efforts, as well as lower the population threshold so that smaller cities with populations of more than 30,000 can participate.Smart city efforts often involve using sensors and connected IoT devices to bring more efficiency to lighting, transportation or public safety. Yet following a broader definition, the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab (GPL) helps governments get smarter in several other ways with performance improvement, procurement and results-driven contracting.GPL conducts research and holds national competitions to select government partners for technical assistance, usually in the form of consulting help from a Kennedy School government innovation fellow. Philanthropically funded, GPL is one of five technical assistance partners for the What Works Cities initiative. In that program it is assisting cities that seek to adopt results-driven contracting strategies for critical grants and procurements. Of the 100 cities in that program, GPL has worked with 26.Sometimes it is difficult for governments confronted by daily operational challenges and frequent crises to think about how to address important long-term priorities, said Gloria Gong, director of research and innovation. A lot of our work fits into a definition of a smart city or smart government because it involves developing tools and approaches that can balance the difficult day-to-day work of running a government with trying to accomplish things in a more strategic way.GPL, for example, helped Chicago social services agencies redesign how they use data and metrics in their outcome contracts to re-envision cross-agency cooperative services.We are thinking about smart cities in a broader sense, agreed Hanna Azemati, program director. We think about it as governments that are modernizing the way they operate in their core functions by better utilizing up-to-date technologies and partnering with the private sector to make sure they can adopt all the tools available to help them use data to better support, track and analyze performance.She cited several projects GPL has done with the city of Boston, including smart streetlights, procurement of an IT system to oversee capital works programs, and development of a tool to better prioritize capital works projects based on specific goals.GPL also worked with Charleston, S.C., on improving the use of data on vendor management in waste collection. The city wanted to know in real time when a vendor was unable to finish a route or experienced property damage so it could be better prepared to respond to residents, she said.Although the nonprofit Knight Foundation has been funding civic technology projects for some time, it jumped into the smart city space in 2017 when it announced $1.2 million in grant support for six cities to explore how the Internet of Things (IoT) can be deployed responsibly and equitably. Akron, Ohio; Boston; Detroit; Miami; Philadelphia; and San Jose, Calif., all received planning grants.Lilian Coral, director of national strategy and technology innovation, leads the foundations smart city strategy development. We see a real opportunity to bring the needs and preferences of the residents back to the center of the conversation, she said. We want to see if we can engage more residents and show them the value of this work.In a March 2018 blog post, Coral highlighted a series of questions Knight hopes to address, including:Coral admitted that engaging more residents around smart city efforts is a challenge. But that is what we saw as the opportunity and the missing piece, she said. We think it is critical and aligns with our mission. Unlike other groups in this sector, we have strong and deep relationships in the communities where we work because of the history of Knight in those cities. We are a tried and tested partner.She said the foundation is already developing a few initiatives with city partners taking this resident engagement approach and future rounds of funding would follow.The Obama Administrations Smart Cities Initiative included federal agency efforts as well as those involving the private sector. One of its offshoots was the MetroLab Network, a nonprofit organization established to foster university-city partnerships to drive research and development related to technology, data and analytics in government.The idea behind MetroLab was to take the idea of an institutionalized partnership between city and university and bring that to greater scale, said Ben Levine, the organizations executive director. We wanted to see if technologies or approaches can be scaled across cities. We thought it was important to have an organization to facilitate convening, programming and communication.MetroLab launched in 2015 with 22 partnerships between cities and universities and has since doubled its membership in the United States. With funding from the MacArthur, Annie E. Casey and Kresge foundations, MetroLab has an annual budget of between $500,00 and $750,000.Although the idea of scaling approaches from one city to another has been a challenge across the country for years, Levine said MetroLab is starting to see some cross-pollination: An algorithmic approach to fire inspections developed in Pittsburgh with Carnegie-Mellon University is being adopted elsewhere, and Chicagos data science approach to restaurant inspection prioritization has taken off in other cities. We maintain a library of over 100 such projects as a resource, he said.MetroLab engages with its members to think about methods and approaches to elevate the work they are doing. As a guiding framework, it has created a list of 10 principles for successful city-university partnerships. As public service agencies work on integrated data systems, MetroLab has also established a data sciences and human services lab that researches how the disciplines intersect. The emerging area requires a framework to deal with ethical considerations and transparency, Levine said.For the last two-and-a-half years, weve done a good job of creating a community of practice that didnt exist before and have been an effective convener, Levine said. Now we are ready to move to the next level and expand the set of resources available to do this work.The Bloomberg Administrations Applied Sciences NYC initiative made underused city-owned properties available to universities if they would start or expand applied sciences or engineering programs. In 2012 NYU took the administration up on its offer and created the Center for Urban Science & Progress (CUSP), now housed at an old transit headquarters building in downtown Brooklyn.Our mission is to develop tools of data science to help city agencies do what they do better, said Mike Holland, executive director. We have a one-year masters degree program. The goal is to equip students with data science tools plus the urban context to effectively apply those tools in a coherent way.One component of the degree program is a capstone project for which CUSP solicits project ideas from city agencies that students can work on. For instance, students have worked with the parks department to bring together existing park data to develop a quality matrix.Those masters degree students are starting to fan out across the country in smart city-related jobs. Approximately 20 percent of students have taken jobs with city, state or federal agencies. Another large percentage are hired by big consulting firms that do public-sector work, while many others have been hired by tech companies, large and small.CUSP faculty members are also involved in larger research projects that may be exportable to other cities. One such project that received $4.6 million in funding from the National Science Foundation is called Sounds of New York City (SONYC). It combines a network of sensors and a cellphone app to more effectively monitor, analyze and mitigate noise pollution. We set out to develop a machine learning algorithm to identify and classify the sources of sounds that New Yorkers call 311 to complain about, Holland said.Another faculty member is working on the concept of quantified community by developing lightweight sensor networks to monitor the baseline behaviors of a neighborhood. The idea is that when vendors make claims about smart technologies, cities can better measure whether interventions are making a difference.The Urban Center for Computation and Data (UrbanCCD) grew out of work researchers at the University of Chicago and the Argonne National Laboratory were already doing informally by partnering with city of Chicago departments to help them more effectively use their data to improve city operations.One UrbanCCD focus is urban measurement exploiting new Internet-connected hardware and software to help cities measure their environments and operations. Its Array of Things project, established with a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation, includes more than 100 nodes collecting data on temperature, humidity, air pressure, magnetic field, vibration, light and air quality. It publishes the results openly for scientists, city officials and residents to use.UrbanCCD also works to apply urban computational modeling to planning and design for major projects that involve zoning and investment over hundreds of acres of city land.With funding from NSF and the MacArthur Foundation, UrbanCCD has created an analytics platform called Plenario, which seeks to make the data released by cities, federal agencies, and other sources more accessible. We are providing a way for people to search for and explore data about the city that would help them with a data science project, said Director Charlie Catlett. If a health scientist wants to investigate the impact of heat waves on different communities, it searches our Array of Things data and Chicago open data sets, and presents available data sets.On the educational front, in 2013 UrbanCCD helped create a data science for social good summer program, which has since spun off and become independent. It involves a partnership with Chicago public schools, and has trained more than 400 students to think about urban and environmental measurement and to design devices that can help.Catlett said a key goal is to help other cities besides Chicago deploy its tools and approaches. Our default approach is open source and we think about how we can enable other cities to take advantage of this technology to replicate it locally.In fact, the Array of Things project has created a partnership program that is attracting international interest. We have 100 devices installed in Chicago and 30 installed or shipped in a half-dozen other cities in the U.S., Catlett said. There are cities around the world wanting to try this technology out with four to six units, he added. This partnership program is going to be a major focus of our expansion over the next year or more. 1. How is your time as CIO with DOR serving you in your new role? 2. Whats your vision for enhancing the relationship between citizens and the state? 3. What is your top priority as CIO? 4. Whats your approach to attracting and retaining talent? Tim Bottenfield is new to the role of state CIO as of July, but hes no stranger to government IT, having spent the last seven years as chief information officer for Montanas Department of Revenue (DOR). Previous work in data-rich forestry science as well as 25 years spent at Alabamas Auburn University bring a fitting background to C-level tech, and Bottenfield plans to use that experience to drive efficiency and strengthen staff connections.What helped for many years was that in my early career at Auburn I got to wear almost every hat imaginable in the IT world. But I think the key thing I bring into this job [from DOR] is the fact that I was able to build good rapport with my agency peers. And Im coming into the position of state CIO with the perspective of having worked as agency CIO, and one of the main goals is to be able to continue to build rapport with the agencies to be able to recognize that they are the portal to the citizens.Institutionally, Ive got to lead the way and show that the way were going to be able to best serve the citizens is being able to serve the agencies. We are moving in a direction where we have a more consistent approach to presenting information and interacting with the citizens. But I think weve got a ways to go, and collaboration with the agencies is where were going to be able to make strides. Weve got to be able to take new technologies, and those at our fingertips right now, and be able to work together to make sure that were doing it in a consistent fashion, that we dont have maybe Agency A, B and C over here doing things in one way and then weve got another group of agencies doing it another way. We just need to keep looking at that, make sure that were working together and that we stay in concert with each other.It doesnt really matter if youre the Department of Revenue, if youre the Health and Human Services agency everybody gets the fact that security is really the No. 1 thing. We just cant let our guard down. Its not a sexy thing to talk about, but it has to be central to every single thing that we do. It has to be paramount. We do the best that we possibly can. Of course, we wish we had more resources in that area, and I dont think well ever get to the point where were not clamoring for more resources in security. We must have a consistent approach to it. Im very pleased to come into a situation where security is taken so seriously and we have staff working really hard on it.Across a lot of sectors, people are getting concerned about the dwindling numbers of trained people, and were starting to see that crunch in IT. We especially feel that in Montana from time to time, being a small state. A lot of times our tech experts graduate from college and theyre gone. Were dealing with a situation in Montana where unemployment is very low, so now theres a premium on those folks that are trained and its a dogfight to get exceptional people in the door and to hold on to them. And thats especially tough in government and state government. Were all also struggling a little bit with the cultural shift in the way younger people are thinking when they get out of college now. Most young people arent getting into an organization and thinking that theyre going to be there for 30 years. If we can get somebody trained and keep them for five to six years, thats kind of the shift in our mentality now in hiring. Finding the Best Fit Meeting Top Needs? On Sept. 11, 2001, in the nations worst public safety communications breakdown, firefighters in New York Citys World Trade Center were unable to receive warnings to evacuate the North Tower, which collapsed, killing hundreds of first responders. During hurricanes Katrina and Rita, commercial wireless networks went offline as flooding ensued, making it impossible for federal troops and emergency officials to communicate with each other, and bringing chaos to rescue efforts.In the wake of the countrys worst terrorist attack and unprecedented natural disasters, one of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Report was to stand up nationwide, interoperable communications for all first responders. The result was the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), created by Congress as part of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 and partially funded with $7 billion.FirstNet selected AT&T in 2017 to build and manage its broadband network and offered success-based payments of $6.5 billion over five years. AT&T said it would spend roughly $40 billion during the 25-year contract to construct, run and maintain the network. Fifty-six states and territories, and Washington, D.C., joined FirstNet by late 2017, with a few meeting the opt-out deadline with just days to spare.This March, FirstNet launched its core network in a controlled introduction to a limited customer base. Rival Verizon also said its competing core network, entirely self-funded, would be generally available to all members. Often left unsaid is the fact that, regardless of state-level participation, individual local first responder agencies retain the option to join either network or none. By late July, more than 1,500 public safety agencies had joined FirstNet, enabling more than 110,000 connections with the adoption rate doubling from April to June. Verizon has declined to release exact subscriber numbers.The communication landscape for first responders and law enforcement is still being redefined by the arrival of these broadband networks, with significant questions around what they could ultimately look like, when the large-scale transition will occur and how agencies should accomplish it. Critical communication has unquestionably been improved by these national systems, according to first responder association officials who have firmly endorsed FirstNet.However, with roughly 18,000 law enforcement agencies in existence nationwide, its clear the vast majority have not yet joined either FirstNet or Verizon. A key reason is that while police, sheriffs and firefighters in the same jurisdictions today may all still use different, noncompatible communications systems, emergency personnel are traditionally cautious about relinquishing devices that have been proven to work.FirstNets two linchpin attributes are priority and pre-emption. Priority guarantees first responders traffic will take precedence over any commercial traffic on Band Class 14, the spectrum thats exclusive to FirstNet members during incidents but available to commercial subscribers at all other times. Pre-emption achieves priority, literally displacing commercial traffic in a crisis. A growing number of FirstNet-certified devices undergo a unique certification process of around 3,500 tests aimed at verifying higher security and reliability before being approved to accept network SIM cards, according to Scott Agnew, AT&T assistant vice president of product marketing for the public sector.While the network currently has just a handful of Band 14-enabled devices, that number is expected to rise. To date, Band 14 has been added to more than 2,500 sites nationwide and is live in 40 states. AT&T plans to add Band 14 to more than 10,000 additional locations, and its seen as key to closing gaps in rural coverage. Because this is public safety, it is treated at a much higher level from a security and reliability standpoint, said Agnew.Verizons network also offers priority, pre-emption and heightened security to its members, according to Nicholas Nilan, the companys director of product development for the public sector. But rather than keeping first responders in a certain spectrum class, Verizon offers them access to the entirety of its network. A 2015 study led by the RAND Corp. affirmed the emergence of a future broadband network that would let law enforcement seamlessly and securely communicate over whatever local point of access is the best fit. Nilan underscored that point, emphasizing Verizons mission to meet a tremendous need for interoperability.The question remains, and the goal remains, to provide interoperability across multiple levels between networks, between commercial carriers, and that requires commercial carriers coming to the table to discuss interoperability and make sure that we all align on it, he said.Eddie Reyes, chairman of the Communications and Technology Committee at the International Association of Chiefs of Police and an executive fellow at the Police Foundation, explained that law enforcement communication systems remain fragmented nationwide and described police, firefighters and paramedics as cynical and not likely to let go of technology they trust when a new thing comes along.FirstNet, said Reyes, really hasnt been driven around the block enough times yet, it hasnt proven itself, prompting officials to take a toes-in-the-water approach as opposed to a head-dive approach. Thats the case in Prince William County, Va., where Reyes is director of the Office of Public Safety Communications. The county has compared FirstNet-enabled devices side-by-side for about 30 days with those on its current carrier. For now, the county is piloting the network on fewer than 10 cellphones and in-vehicle computers.To me, the real test is going to be when things get really hectic and really busy and a commercial wireless network provider typically gets busy because were on that highway with everyone else, said Reyes. We dont have pre-emption and priority on our wireless carrier whereas, of course, with FirstNet, its going to be tested if were going to have a higher level of resiliency, once a major emergency happens.But officials in Wake County, North Carolinas second most-populous county at more than 1 million residents, are gearing up to migrate from Verizon to FirstNet during the next 12 to 18 months, citing an increasing reliance on mobile broadband data connectivity, and FirstNets ability to provide it on a dedicated spectrum. In an email, Wake Countys Information Technology Director John Higgins and Jon Olson, the countys EMS deputy director and chief of support services, described connectivity as mission-critical, pointing out that by late 2019, the county intends for every first responder unit to be able to exchange data with the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center and agency public safety apps.As demand on wireless networks increases based on expanded use of current technology and the implementation of emerging technologies for public safety, so grows the need for a first responder-only information highway that a dedicated broadband network will provide, said Higgins and Olson.Tom Jenkins, president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs and fire chief for Rogers, Ark., agreed that FirstNet has spectrum real estate in Band 14, and characterized its provider AT&T as genuine with caring about members. While he believes all first responder disciplines are important, Jenkins pointed out that firefighters, with their varied assignments, have a need for improved access to online information that is tough to rival.Rogers, a city of nearly 70,000 in northwestern Arkansas, has upgraded all accounts from AT&T to FirstNet in what it considers a cost-effective move. Not all fire personnel are on the core yet, but those who are got their first real demonstration of the networks potential during a Fourth of July fireworks show. With residents actively sending and receiving photographs, texts and video, the fire chief said his staff saw a clear difference in latency between its smartphones, which were FirstNet-enabled, and its iPads, which were not. While voice communications are generally considered most important to Rogers and Wake County, both local agencies view being able to send and receive large amounts of data as increasingly vital.Its an exciting time to be able to solve what is probably the most critical element of using data in a public safety environment, and thats reliability and redundancy, and for them to have that priority, said Jenkins. He pointed out that interoperability could be an Achilles heel going forward. To ensure connectivity during peak times of usage, AT&T and Verizon also offer portable wireless towers known as COLTs and COWs (Cells on Light Trucks and Cells on Wheels, respectively) to boost bandwidth at large events like the July Fourth celebration on the National Mall. Recently, FirstNet launched its first such dedicated resource, the Satellite Cell on Light Truck (SatCOLT), which was utilized to keep public safety officers connected at a July Fourth celebration in Chino, Calif.Officials at the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) in Washington, D.C., a research think tank on policing, said their group hosted a March 2010 meeting for stakeholders, including the Federal Communications Commission, that made the case for this dedicated spectrum, meaning Band 14. PERF Executive Director Chuck Wexler called FirstNet the culmination of what many in law enforcement had been asking for. He and PERFs chief operations and strategy officers agreed FirstNet will likely help overcome the communications difficulties of 9/11, but said challenges around adoption policies, equipment rollouts, and usage remain as agencies move to join FirstNet.What happens when a department adopts it? How do you communicate? How are officers given equipment? How do they use the voice and texting and driving to a call? There are just practical issues. A lot of policing is a word-of-mouth kind of enterprise in which people will look to hear whats working and what isnt, Wexler said. PERF will host a meeting for early adopters in September to hear their impressions of FirstNet and will compile case studies based on their experiences.The 2015 RAND study, done in conjunction with PERF, RTI International and the University of Denver, also emphasized the need to be able to make sense out of all the new data. The top 10 needs the study identified for law enforcement broadband communications included guidance on acquiring, managing and using mixtures of technologies; processes and procedures to help public safety answering point (PSAP) employees prioritize incoming data; and concepts, policies and procedures for mutual aid networks in a post land-mobile-radio/FirstNet/broadband era.Its important for local governments to be aware of their transition process onto a dedicated broadband network, the costs for a full life cycle, and to avoid buying technology because it sounds cool, said John Hollywood, the studys project leader. Go into that with a sense of what you plan to do with the FirstNet devices in terms of improving response, improving ongoing both day-to-day responses and large-scale communications. We tell people, Go in with use cases, go in with a plan. New Ferrari president Louis Camilleri says he is not ready to confirm Kimi Raikkonen for 2019. This weekend is Camilleri's first Italian grand prix as the chief of the Maranello company, following the death of Sergio Marchionne. "We have a different style, but I miss him a lot. He was extraordinary, ambitious and very intelligent," he is quoted by La Gazzetta dello Sport. As for the F1 team, Camilleri said he is happy with Sebastian Vettel and also Raikkonen. The Finn does not yet have a contract for 2019, but it is believed that after Marchionne's death, Raikkonen is now the favourite to stay. "This is a great team and we are happy with how it is going," Camilleri said. "I do not think we need big changes. "We have Vettel who is the Ronaldo of formula one and Kimi who is a great friend. His future? The final decision will be Maurizio Arrivabene's but we need time. It is not an easy decision," he added. (GMM) Michelin has ruled out bidding to return to formula one in 2020. The FIA has put out a tender, but it will require the successful applicant to build current-spec tyres in 2020 before switching to low profile 18-inch wheels the year after. In a statement, the French company said it is concerned about the different regulations for 2020 and 2021, "as well as the deterioration of performance as a part of the show". Michelin said it will therefore not be responding to the tender. "I knew they wouldn't come," an insider told Speed Week at Monza. "No team has been contacted by Michelin. But it's very different with Hankook, who have certainly talked to some teams. "Whether the FIA has received an application from Hankook, I don't know. But we know that Pirelli wants to continue," the insider added. (GMM) Business Mahira Khan, Ahad Raza named Pakistan Pavilion's official Ambassadors at Expo 2020 Dubai Mahira said, I feel so proud to be the official Pavilion Ambassador. Its been such a pleasure going around the Pavilion from the landscapes to the rich history and the diversity you see, you will be amazed at what all Pakistan has to offer. It really is a Hidden Treasure. Haiti - FLASH : Senator Solomon target of unidentified gunmen Late Friday afternoon, unidentified gunmen opened fire on Sen. Jean-Marie Solomon's vehicle at the Bicentenaire while en route to his department. If the Senator escaped unscathed from this attack, his driver, Mackenson Cesar, an agent of the Departmental Unit of Maintenance of the Order (UDMO) was wounded in the head and transported to the hospital Saint-Francois de Sales. The doctor who took charge of the senator's chauffeur indicates that the bullet touched the skull but that the vital prognosis was not engaged. Following this attack still in shock, Salomon said "This only confirms that in Haiti there are areas of lawlessness. If a senator's vehicle is not safe, what about the population ?" An investigation is in progress and for the moment, the reasons and the origin of this attack remain for the moment unknown. Remember that Tuesday around midnight it was the residence of Senator Joseph Lambert, President of the Senate to be the subject of an attack by explosive under the fire of unidentified individuals https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25403-haiti-security-the-residence-of-the-president-of-the-senate-attacked.html See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25403-haiti-security-the-residence-of-the-president-of-the-senate-attacked.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25301-haiti-flash-true-attack-of-parliament-or-staging.html TB/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Politic : Inauguration of the Professional Training Center of Hinche Friday, President Jovenel Moise, accompanied by Maguy Durce Director of the National Institute of Vocational Training (INFP) and Koldo Echebbaria Representative of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Haiti, in the presence of the Deputy of the constituency of Hinche, Fred Piton, of the Mayor of the commune Jonel Jn Baptiste, of Deputy Delegate Emmanuel Frantz Piton and several local authorities and personalities of the civil society, inaugurated the Hinche Vocational and Technical Training Center (CFPTH), located in Marmont. Built on a plot of 27,050 m2, including 6 pavilions, this modern vocational training center, with a futuristic architecture whose construction cost, financed by the IDB, is estimated at about 5 million US dollars, was realized by a local firm. With a capacity of 3,000 learners, the Center offers programs in 7 sectors : water exploitation and treatment, civil construction, information and communication technology, clay works, agricultural products processing and general mechanics, divided into 35 trades. "The construction of the Vocational Training Center, a tool for building the future in the heart of the Central Plateau, will enable young people to free themselves from the fear of unemployment" declared Maguy Durce, Director General of the INFP. "The materialization of the Hinche Vocational and Technical Training Center is a modern vision for the development of technical and vocational education," stressed Koldo Echebbaria, IDB Representative. Recall that after Trou-du-Nord https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24760-haiti-politic-inauguration-of-the-professional-training-center-of-trou-du-nord.html and Jacmel https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24818-haiti-jacmel-inauguration-of-the-vocational-and-technical-training-center.html , Hinche is the 3rd city to receive a Technical and Vocational Training Center since the beginning of the five-year term of Jovenel Moise. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24760-haiti-politic-inauguration-of-the-professional-training-center-of-trou-du-nord.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24818-haiti-jacmel-inauguration-of-the-vocational-and-technical-training-center.html HL/ HaitiLibre Country United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, 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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 As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS! OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those. North Adams Schools Set Opening Day 2019 NORTH ADAMS, Mass. Elementary and high school students in the North Adams Public Schools in Grades K-8, along with Drury students newly transferring from another school, will begin school on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019. On Wednesday, Sept. 4, all students in kindergarten through Grade 12 will attend school. Both days are full days of school. Breakfast and lunch will be served at all schools starting on Tuesday, Sept. 3, and one breakfast and lunch will be provided free of charge daily. Additional meals may be purchased for a fee. Contact Cory Nicholas, food service director, at 413-776-1631 or cnicholas@napsk12.org with any questions. Lunch menus are also posted here. Cancellations are listed on television on Channels 6, 10, and 13, and broadcast on the radio at WBEC FM 95.9, WUPE FM 100.1 and AM 1110, WNAW AM 1230, WBRK AM 1340 and FM 101.7. They are also posted on the district's website www.napsk12.org as well as on www.iberkshires.com and www.facebook.com/NAPSK12 and on Twitter at @TheNorthAdamsPS. Additionally, families are contacted via School Messenger. The district encourages families to provide a second number for School Messenger in the event of an unscheduled early release. On early release days, elementary schools are dismissed at 11:30 a.m. and students at the high school are released at 11 a.m. All schools will be open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. beginning Tuesday, Aug. 27, to conduct school business, including the registration of new students. Make sure your childs school has your current telephone number(s) on file as well as an e-mail address. You may contact Nancy Rauscher at nrauscher@napsk12.org or at 413-776-1458 to update information or to provide a second contact number. The school calendar is posted on the district website. Indian American actor/comedian Aziz Ansari will be returning to work in September, with new stand-up shows in South Carolina, and Tennessee. In this photo taken on Jan. 7, 2018, Actor Aziz Ansari poses with the trophy for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy during the 75th Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images) Indian American entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal openly wept as San Francisco Superior Court Judge Tracie Brown remanded him into immediate custody for violating the terms of his probation on domestic violence charges. Chahal ignored India-Wests requests for comment as he entered the court. (copyright Sunita Sohrabji/India-West photo) Judge Meenu Sasser, who recently battled and defeated esophageal cancer, is on a mission to reform the judicial system. The Indian American judge has been dubbed the rocket by court watchers for her break-neck speed in dispensing with foreclosure cases in the wake of the housing crisis, the Palm Beach Post said. (15thcircuit.com photo) Former CEO of Infogroup Inc. Vinod Gupta and the company he founded, DatabaseUSA, have denied the allegations in the lawsuit, saying DatabaseUSA's business was different because it didn't try to compile its own information like Infogroup. (Everest Group photo) UK: Syrian Terrorists Cant Possibly Be Planning Chemical Weapons False Flag, Because Russia Said They Are By Caitlin Johnstone In a recent meeting with the press, British ambassador to the United Nations Karen Pierce told reporters that it is absolutely unthinkable that the terrorist factions in the terrorist-held Syrian province of Idlib could possibly be planning a terrorist attack using chemical weapons with the intention of blaming it on the Syrian government. Her reasoning? Since the Russian government has been warning of this possibility, the exact opposite must necessarily therefore be true. Yes, really. There are many terrorist organizations in Idlib, a reporter asked as a follow-up to previous questions regarding Russias allegations that terrorist factions had received a large batch of chemical weapons which they intend to use in a false flag attack. Why do you rule out that they would perpetrate such an attack? Because this story is coming from the Russians, Pierce responded, with a straight face, and without honking a novelty-sized bicycle horn and saying Wocka wocka! It is much more likely for this to be a smoke screen for things that the Syrian authorities are planning to do, Pierce continued. The way to deal with any terrorists who are in Idlib is to ask the UN to negotiate safe passage, such as has been done before. So lets recap: it is the British governments official public position that the extremist jihadist factions who have been holing up in their final stronghold preparing for the long-awaited military confrontation in Idlib would have no incentive whatsoever to stage a false flag chemical attack in order to rally western reinforcements against the Syrian government and thereby escape defeat. Far more likely, in the British governments estimation, is that the warnings of such an attack are a smoke screen to cover for the Syrian governments plan to perpetrate its own chemical attack in order to accomplish the key strategic goal of suffocating a few dozen children. Oh yeah, and terrorists should be given safe passage to areas where they can safely regroup, because thats the thing that you do with terrorists now. Never mind that those terrorist factions would stand everything to gain and nothing to lose in a last-ditch false flag attempt to recruit powerful allies to their cause. Never mind that these are actual, literal terrorists who have no qualms about killing civilians in order to advance their cause. Never mind that US National Security Advisor John Bolton has already effectively guaranteed those same terrorists that the US and its allies will join in their aggressions against the Syrian government by publicly announcing that any chemical attacks will be met with the strongest retaliation yet. All of that is invalidated by Russians having said something about it, because if Russians say something, the opposite of what they said must necessarily be true. Because God is drunk and everyones crazy. Were all familiar with the classic movie trope of the battle scene in which the protagonists have been beaten back and are surrounded by the enemy hordes, awaiting their certain doom, only to hear a trumpet blast and see reinforcements storming over the hills to save the day. The audience is relieved, and they watch with delight as the villains are attacked from both sides and driven off. Well, the occupiers of Idlib are in that exact situation, except it isnt heroes whove been beaten back and surrounded, and those reinforcements are not coming. Unless they can arrange a miracle. This past April the US, UK and France launched airstrikes against Damascus in retaliation for an alleged chemical attack allegedly perpetrated by the Syrian government against civilians in the city of Douma. The strike was launched with no investigation having taken place whatsoever into the nature of the civilian deaths, and subsequent investigation found no evidence implicating the Syrian government in a chemical attack. This is unsurprising, because the Syrian government had no incentive to use chemical weapons in a battle it had already won at that point and every incentive not to provoke the wrath of powerful western military forces just to suffocate some kids to death. This is all public knowledge. We know with 100 percent certainty that the terrorist militants occupying Idlib have been made 100 percent aware that (A) the US, UK and its allies will launch an aggressive military assault against the Syrian government in response to any reports of chemical weapons use, (B) such a military assault would take place without any investigation into the nature of the chemical weapons use, which would instead be immediately blamed upon the Syrian government, and (C) killing the civilians they are holding hostage with chemical weapons is literally their only hope of escaping the military onslaught that the Syrian government and its allies are preparing to launch. We know all of these things for an absolute fact. Even if you dismiss the intelligence which Russia supplied to the US saying that a false flag chemical weapons attack is being prepared for in Idlib, it is self-evident that the jihadist militants would have every motive to stage one if given the opportunity. Keep an eye on this one, please. Syria is a key strategic region that the western power alliance has been plotting to take control of for decades, and it is entirely possible that they will pounce on any opportunity to prevent the Syrian government and its allies from shoring up control of the nation and bringing stability to the region. Stay skeptical. Caitlin's articles are entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking her on Facebook, following her antics on Twitter, checking out her podcast, throwing some money into her hat on Patreon or Paypal, or buying her book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy Can War Be Avoided and the Planet Saved? By Paul Craig Roberts August 31, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The Russian Government and President Putin are coming under pressure not from US sanctions, which are very good for Russia as they force Russia into independence, but from Russian patriots who are tiring of Putins non-confrontational responses to Washingtons never-ending insults and military provocations. Russian patriots dont want war, but they do want their countrys honor defended, and they believe Putin is failing in this job. Some of them are saying that Putin himself is a West-worshipping Atlanticist Integrationist. This disillusionment with Putin, together with Putins endorsement of raising the retirement age for pensions, a trap set for him by Russias neoliberal economists, have hurt Putins approval ratings at the precise time that he will again be tested by Washington in Syria. In many columns I have defended Putin from the charge that he is not sufficiently Russian. Putin wants to avoid war, because he knows it would be nuclear, the consequences of which would be dire. He knows that the US and its militarily impotent NATO allies cannot possibly conduct conventional warfare against Russia or China, much less against both. Putin also understands that the sanctions are damaging Washingtons European vassals and could eventually force the European vassal states into independence that would constrain Washingtons belligerence. Even with Russias new super weapons, which probably give Putin the capability of destroying the entirety of the Western World with little or no damage to Russia, Putin sees no point in so much destruction, especially as the consequences are unknown. There could be nuclear winter or other results that would put the planet into decline as a life-sustaining entity. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter So, as I have suggested in many columns Putin is acting intelligently. He is in the game for the long term while protecting the world from dangerous war. Whereas I endorse Putins strategy and admire his coolness as a person who never lets emotion lead him, there is nevertheless a problem. The people in the West with whom he is dealing are idiots who do not appreciate his statesmanship. Consequently, each time Putin turns the other cheek, so to speak, the insults and the provocations ratchet upward. Consider Syria. The Syrian Army with the help of a tiny part of the Russian Air Force has cleared all areas of Syria but one of the American-instigated-financed-and-equiped forces sent by Washington to overthrow the Syrian government. The remaining US proxy force is about to be eliminated. In order to save it, and to keep a Washington foothold that could permit a restart of the war, Washington has arranged yet another false flag chemical attack that the presstitute and obiedient Western media will blame on Assad. President Trumps National Security Adviser, a crazed, perhaps insane, Zionist Neoconservative, has told Russia that Washington will take a dim view of the Syrian/Russian use of chemical weapons against Assads own people. The Russians are fully aware that any chemical attack will be a false flag attack orchestrated by Washington using the elements it sent to Syria to overthrow the government. Indeed, Russias ambassador to the US explained it all yesterday to the US government. Clearly, Putin hopes to avoid Washingtons orchestrated attack by having his ambassador explain the orchestration to the American officials who are orchestrating it. https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-30/russian-ambassador-gave-intel-us-officials-showing-planned-chemical-provocation This strategy implies that Putin thinks US government officials are capable of shame and integrity. They most certainly are not. I spent 25 years with them. They dont even know what the words mean. What if, instead, Putin had declared publicly for the entire world to hear that any forces, wherever located, responsible for an attack on Syria would be annihiliated? My view - https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/08/29/a-book-for-our-time-a-time-that-perhaps-has-run-its-course/ and that of Russian patriot Bogdasarov https://www.fort-russ.com/2018/08/a-russian-response-to-a-new-us-attack-on-syria-should-include-sinking-the-carriers-not-just-shooting-at-their-missiles/ is that such an ultimatum from the leader of the country capable of delivering it would cool the jets of Russophobic Washington. There would be no attack on Syria. Bogdasarov and I might be wrong. The Russian forces deployed around Syria with their hypersonic missiles are more than a match for the US forces assembled to attack Syria. However, American hubris can certainly prevail over facts, in which case Putin would have to destroy the sources of the attack. By not committing in advance, Putin retains flexibility. Washingtons attack, like its previous attack on Syria, might be a face-saver, not a real attack. Nevertheless, sooner or later Russia will have to deliver a firmer response to provocations. I am an American. I am not a Russian, much less a Russian nationalist. I do not want US military personnel to be casualties of Washingtons fatal desire for world hegemony, much less to be casualties of Washington serving Israels interests in the Middle East. The reason I think Putin needs to do a better job of standing up to Washington is that I think, based on history, that appeasement encourages more provocations, and it comes to a point when you have to surrender or fight. It is much better to stop this process in its tracks before it reaches that dangerous point. Andrei Martyanov, whose book I recently reviewed on my website, recently defended Putin, as The Saker and I have done in the past, from claims that Putin is too passive in the face of assaults. https://russia-insider.com/en/russia-playing-long-game-no-room-instant-gratification-strategies-super-patriots/ri24561 As I have made the same points, I can only applaud Martyanov and The Saker. Where we might differ is in recognizing that endlessly accepting insults and provocations encourages their increase until the only alternative is surrender or war. So, the questions for Andrei Martyanov, The Saker, and for Putin and the Russian government is: How long does turning your other cheek work? Do you turn your other cheek so long as to allow your opponent to neutralize your advantage in a confrontation? Do you turn your other cheek so long that you lose the support of the patriotic population for your failure to defend the countrys honor? Do you turn your other cheek so long that you are eventually forced into war or submission? Do you turn your other cheek so long that the result is nuclear war? I think that Martyanov and The Saker agree that my question is a valid one. Both emphazise in their highly informative writings that the court historians misrepresent wars in the interest of victors. Lets give this a moments thought. Both Napoleon and Hitler stood at their apogee, their success unmitigated by any military defeat. Then they marched into Russia and were utterly destroyed. Why did they do this? They did it because their success had given them massive arogance and belief in their exceptionalism, the dangerous word that encapsulates Washingtons belief in its hegemony. The zionist neoconsevatives who rule in Washington are capable of the same mistake that Napoleon and Hitler made. They believe in the end of history, that the Soviet collapse means history has chosen America as the model for the future. Their hubris actually exceeds that of Napoleon and Hitler. When confronted with such deluded and ideological force, does turning the other cheek work or does it encourage more provocation? This is the question before the Russian government. Perhaps the Russian government will understand the meaning of the orchestrated eulogies for John McCain. It is not normal for a US senator to be eulogized in this way, especially one with such an undistinguished record. What is being eulogized is McCains hatred of Russia and his record as a warmonger. What Washington is eulogizing is its own committment to war. Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West , How America Was Lost , and The Neoconservative Threat to World Order . ==See Also== Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy By Peter Koenig and Press TV August 31, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - U-S President, Donald Trump, has threatened to withdraw from the World Trade Organization. Trump, in an interview with Bloomberg News, said he will pullout from the organization if it QUOTE does not shape up. The U-S president warned that he could even take action against the WTO. Trump has complained that the US is being treated unfairly in global trade and has blamed the World Trade Organization for allowing it to happen. Regarding tariffs, Trump said he will enact import duties on 200-billion dollars-worth of Chinese goods as early as next week. Following his remarks, Asian stock markets dropped and partially erased gains made in this weeks global rally. Trump has ignited a global trade war by slapping sharp tariffs on goods from the E-U, Canada, Mexico, and China. PressTV What is your take on this? PK Well, it looks like this latest threat to exit WTO goes into the same direction as his trade war with the EU and with China, and also with the new NAFTA Agreement which so far was negotiated only with Mexico and does not include Canada; it eventually would have another name. The new trade agreement with Mexico was negotiated like all trade agreements with the US, behind closed doors. Canada was invited to also join, but as far as I know, no decision has been taken yet. At the outset it looks like the new draft agreement with Mexico is worse than the original with all the rights and benefits going to big US corporations. In the case of Mexico, it is really only a draft; nothing has been accepted yet. It will be subject to Mexican approval once the new President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is sworn-in in December 2018. What Trump is doing or attempting to do with tariffs and with sanctions is dividing the world, breaking up alliances, i.e. trade alliances in the case of WTO. Its the old rule: Divide to Conquer and conquer in this case means that when alliances like WTO in the creation of which by the way the US and the EU were instrumental are broken up, the US will engage in bilateral agreements with individual nations like in the case of the new NAFTA negotiating with Mexico alone, dictating her terms to weaker nations. If Canada will be ready again for a NAFTA-like agreement, the process will be similar, with Washington in the drivers seat. What transpires from these negotiations, or tariff impositions like China and the EU, or even the reneging of the Iran Nuclear Deal is Make America Great Again, meaning really American Corporatism, not the people. New bilateral trade deals will continue to allow bilateral outsourcing to cheap labor countries, for example between the US and Mexico and the export of highly subsidized US goods. In the case of agriculture, NAFTA killed hundreds of thousands of small farming businesses in Mexico which was one of the key reasons for the massive increase of illegal migration to the US. This will hardly be different in a new agreement. Thats why nothing is done yet. The progressive new President, Lopez Obrador, may not easily submit to a flagrant one-sided agreement. The case of tariffs on China for 200 billion worth of merchandise has a different purpose namely to degrade the value of the Chinese currency, the Yuan, which is emerging rapidly as one of the worlds foremost reserve currencies, to the detriment of the US dollar. The Trump move is meant to discourage countries to adopt the Yuan among their reserve currencies. Some success was indeed registered by Trumps announcement the Asian markets dropped drastically wiping out much of the gains made during last weeks rally. This, however, will be short-lived, as investors realize the hot air behind the threat and that these tariffs will really make hardly a dent in Chinas economy which is dominating the Asian market and doesnt really depend on exports to the US. If the US would indeed exit WTO which is by no means sure, since Trump likes to play god, threatening, fearmongering and then negotiate under conditions of intimidation and coercion so, if the US would actually get out of WTO, they the US might set themselves up as sort of a competitor to WTO, negotiating individual bilateral deals with nations especially weaker ones. They would no longer be under the oversight of WTO and as with the International Court of Justice to which the US does not belong complaining would be meaningless. But we are not there yet. Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a water resources and environmental specialist. He worked for over 30 years with the World Bank and the World Health Organization around the world in the fields of environment and water. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He is the author of Implosion An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! - Essays from the Resistance. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter ==See Also== Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy Economic conditions are worsening in the Yemeni capital Sanaa against a background of rising tensions between the Yemeni government and the Lebanese group Hizbullah The Feast of the Sacrifice celebrations in the Yemeni capital Sanaa in August reflected the mounting economic straits in the areas under the control of the Ansar Allah (Houthi) Movement, according to local Yemeni sources who said the Houthis had tightened security in the capital, imposed a curfew at night, and arrested a number of Internet activists. Commerce in Sanaa is suffering due to the political and security conditions in the country as a whole. Merchants are complaining of the slump in trade due to the war and the plummeting value of the Yemeni riyal, one source told Al-Ahram Weekly, adding that such things are natural in times of war. However, the recent holiday exposed the extent to which Yemeni families were unable to celebrate in the traditional way. Many people could not afford animals to sacrifice or the customary holiday joys, such as buying new clothes for children. This applies in particular to government employees who have not received their salaries for a long time and are dependent on international relief. Some service sectors such as the communications sector are thriving, however, because of the rise of a new class of Houthi businessmen who have taken over various companies and utilities. They force other merchants out of business and replace them by Houthi loyalists, the source said. Certain quarters of the capital have been targeted for more stringent security measures. A curfew went into effect in the Al-Rayan district at 9 pm, and people were arrested for breaking it. The security measures were tougher during the feast days in all quarters of the capital because the Houthi authorities were determined to maintain tight control over the situation during the holiday period, one source said, since this coincides with the anniversary of the founding of the General Peoples Congress (GPC) Party. The economic conditions have also drawn attention to the role of UN agencies in Sanaa. The internationally recognised Yemeni government has complained that UN reports on conditions in the capital are based on misleading information and are indicative of sympathies with Houthi views. As one source pointed out, the government has also levelled such charges against the UN on numerous previous occasions Meanwhile, a wave of rising tensions between the government and the Lebanese Hizbullah group reached a new peak earlier this week when the government lodged a complaint with the UN Security Council against Hizbullahs meddling in Yemen. On Monday, Yemens Ambassador to the UN Abdullah bin Mubarak asked the Security Council to launch an investigation into Hizbullahs support for the rebel Houthi Movement in Yemen and charged that it was trying to sabotage the forthcoming negotiations in Geneva. He accused Iran of engineering these developments. Shortly before this, the Yemeni Embassy in Washington lashed out against a meeting that Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah had held with a Houthi delegation in Lebanon. The Houthis recent visit to Nasrallah adds yet another incontrovertible piece of evidence to the many proofs of Hizbullahs destabilising role in Yemen and its support for the Houthi militias, read the embassy statement on its Twitter account. The statement drew attention to the fact that this meeting had taken place just two weeks before the round of consultations between the Yemeni parties set for Geneva on 6 September. In the context of the forthcoming talks, one person who had served as a member of the delegation representing the GPC, the party founded by former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, in previous negotiating rounds between the Yemeni factions, told the Weekly from Sanaa that the pro-Saleh contingent of the GPC would not be taking part in the forthcoming talks. He explained that the Houthis had kept many members of the contingent under house arrest or close surveillance while some, most notably GPC Deputy Secretary-General sheikh Yasser Al-Awadi, had left the capital for their home towns and no longer appeared in public for fear of their lives. The visit by the Houthi delegation headed by Ansar Allah Movement Spokesman Mohamed Abdel-Salam to Beirut to meet with Nasrallah on 20 August triggered Yemeni Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Yamani complaining to his Lebanese counterpart Gebran Bassil of Hizbullahs support for the Houthi rebels. Al-Yamani charged that Hizbullah had deviated from the brotherly course and damaged the solid and long-established relations between Lebanon and Yemen through its training and support of the Houthi militias. Some Lebanese politicians have also lent their voices to the criticisms of Hizbullah, according to the Lebanese Masdar Diplomacy (Diplomatic Source) news site. They say that the visit was a violation of the rules of diplomatic protocol in Lebanon, which recognises only the legitimate Yemeni government represented by its ambassador to Lebanon. The politicians demanded to know how the Houthi delegation had been permitted to enter Lebanon and who had arranged the visit. The current escalation between the Yemeni government and Hizbullah was triggered by a speech by Nasrallah on 29 June in which he praised the courage of the Houthi militias and said that he wished he were a fighter in their ranks. * A version of this article appears in print in the 30 August 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Yemeni tensions with Hizbullah Search Keywords: Short link: August 31, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - This mornings papers (August 30 2018) settle something that we have been debating for a while. A front-page report in the Indian Express says Police to Court: Those held part of anti-fascist plot to overthrow govt. We should know by now that we are up against a regime that its own police call fascist. In the India of today, to belong to a minority is a crime. To be murdered is a crime. To be lynched is a crime. To be poor is a crime. To defend the poor is to plot to overthrow the government. When the Pune police conducted simultaneous raids at the homes of well-known activists, poets, lawyers and priests across the country, and arrested five peoplehigh-profile civil rights defenders and two lawyerson ludicrous charges, with little or no paperwork, the Government would have known that it was stirring up outrage. It would have already taken all our reactions into account, including this press conference and all the protests that have taken place across the country, before it made this move. So why has this happened? Recent analyses of real voter data as well the Lokniti-CSDS-ABP Mood of the Nation survey have shown that the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are losing popularity at an alarming pace (for them). This means that we are entering dangerous times. There will be ruthless and continuous attempts to divert attention from the reasons for this loss of popularity, and to fracture the growing solidarity of the opposition. It will be a continuous circus from now to the electionsarrests, assassinations, lynchings, bomb attacks, false flag attacks, riots, pogroms. We have learned to connect the season of elections with the onset of all kinds of violence. Divide and Rule, yes. But add to thatDivert and Rule. From now until the elections, we will not know from when, and where and how the fireball will fall on us, and what the nature of that fireball will be. So, before I speak about the arrests of lawyers and activists, let me just reiterate a few points that we must not allow our attention to stray from, even while it rains fire, and strange events befall us. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter 1. It has been a year and nine months since November 8 2016 when Prime Minister Modi appeared on TV and announced his policy of demonetization of 80% of the currency in circulation. His own Cabinet seemed to have been taken by surprise. Now the Reserve Bank of India has announced that 99% of the currency was returned to the banking system. The Guardian in the UK reports today, that the policy has likely wiped 1% from the countrys GDP and cost approximately 1.5 million jobs. Meanwhile, just the printing of new currency has cost the country several thousand crores. After Demonetization, came the Goods and Services Tax a tax that is structured in ways that have dealt a further body blow to small and medium businesses that were already reeling under Demonetization. While small businesses, traders and most of all the poor have suffered enormously, several corporations close to the BJP have multiplied their wealth several times over. Businessmen like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi have been permitted to decamp with thousands of crores of public money while the government looked away. What kind of accountability can we expect for all of this? None? Zero? Through all this, as it prepares for the 2019 election, the BJP has emerged as by far the wealthiest political party in India. Outrageously, the recently introduced electoral bonds ensure that the sources of the wealth of political parties can remain anonymous. 2. We all remember the farce in Mumbai at the Make in India event inaugurated by Mr Modi in 2016 at which a massive fire burned down the main tent of the cultural festival. Well, the real bonfire of the idea of Make in India is the Rafale fighter plane deal, that was announced by the Prime Minister in Paris seemingly without the knowledge of his own Defense Minister. This is against all known protocol. We know the bare bones a deal had already been put in place in 2012 under the Congress led UPA government to buy planes that would be assembled by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. That deal was scrapped and reconfigured. Hindustan Aeronautics was surgically excised. The Congress Party as well as several others who have studied the deal have alleged corruption on an unimaginable scale and have questioned the involvement in the offsets deal to Reliance Defence Limited, which has never built a plane in its life. The Opposition has demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe. Can we expect one? Or must we swallow this whole fleet of planes along with everything else and not even gulp? 3. The investigation by the Karnataka police into the assassination of the journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh, has led several arrests which have in turn led to the unveiling of the activities of several right-wing Hindutva organizations like the Sanathan Sansthan. What has emerged is the existence of a shadowy, full-blown terror network, with hit-lists, hide-outs and safe-houses, flush with arms, ammunition and plans to bomb, kill, and poison people. How many of these groups do we know about? How many are continuing to work in secret? With the assurance that they have the blessings of the powerful, and possibly even the police, what plans do they have in store for us? What false-flag attacks? And what real ones? Where will they occur? Will it be in Kashmir? In Ayodhya? At the Kumbh Mela? How easily they could derail everything everything with some major, or even minor attacks that are amplified by pet media houses. To divert attention from this, the real threat, we have the hue and cry over the recent arrests. 4. The speed at which educational institutions are being dismantled. The destruction of Universities, with fine track records, the elevation of phantom universities that exist only on paper. This is arguably the saddest thing of all. It is happening in several ways. We are watching JNUJawaharlal Nehru Universitybeing taken down before our very eyes. The students as well as the staff are under continuous attack. Several television channels have actively participated in spreading lies and fake videos that have endangered the lives of students, and to an assassination attempt on the young scholar Umar Khalid who has been mercilessly defamed and lied about. Then you have the falsification of history and the idiotification of the syllabuswhich will, just in a few years time, lead to a kind of cretinism from which we will be unable to recover. Finally, the privatization of education is undoing even the very small good that the policy of Reservation did. We are witnessing the re-Brahminization of education, this time fitted out in corporate clothes. Dalit, Adivasi and OBC students are once again being pushed out from institutions of learning because they cannot afford the fees. This has begun to happen already. It is completely unacceptable. 5.Massive distress in the agricultural sector, increasing numbers of farmers suicides, the lynching of Muslims and the relentless attack on Dalits, the public floggings, the arrest of Chandrashekhar Azad, leader of the Bhim Army who dared to stand up to attacks by Upper castes. The attempt to dilute the Scheduled caste and Scheduled Tribes Atrocity Act. Having said this much, I come to the recent arrests. None of the five people who were arrested yesterday, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bhardwaj, Varavara Rao and Gautam Navlakhawere present at the Elgar Parishad rally that took place on December 31st 2017, or at the rally the following day when approximately 300,000 people, mostly Dalit, gathered to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the BhimaKoregaon victory. ( Dalits joined the British to defeat an oppressive Peshwa regime. One of the few victories that Dalits can celebrate with pride.) The Elgar Parishad was organized by two eminent retired judges, Justice Sawant and Justice Kolse Patel. The rally the following day was attacked by Hindutva fanatics, which led to days of unrest. The two main accused are Milind Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide. Both are still at large. Following an FIR registered by one of their supporters, in June 2018 the Pune police arrested five activists, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawle, Shoma Sen, Mihir Raut and the lawyer Surendra Gadling. They are accused of plotting violence at the rally and also of plotting to kill the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They remain in custody, charged under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. Fortunately they are still alive, unlike Ishrat Jahan, Sohrabuddin and Kauser Bi, who, years ago, were accused of the same crime, but did not live to see a trial. It has been important for Governments, both the Congress-led UPA and the BJP to disguise their attacks on Adivasis, and now, in the case of the BJP, their attack on Dalits as an attack on Maoists or Naxals. This is because, unlike in the case of Muslims who have been almost been erased from electoral arithmetic, all political parties do have an eye on those Adivasi and Dalit constituencies as potential vote banks. By arresting activists and calling them Maoists, the Government manages to undermine and insult Dalit aspiration by giving it another namewhile at the same time appearing to be sensitive to Dalit issues. Today,a s we speak, there are thousands of people in jail across the country, poor and disadvantaged people, fighting for their homes, for their lands, for their dignitypeople accused of sedition and worse, languishing without trial in crowded prisons. The arrest of these ten people, three lawyers and seven well known activists also serves to cut whole populations of vulnerable people off from any hope of justice or representation. Because these were their representatives. Years ago, when the vigilante army called the Salwa Judum was raised in Bastar and went on a rampage, killing people and burning whole villages, Dr Binayak Sen, then the General Secretary of the PUCL (Peoples Union for Civil Liberties) Chattisgarh spoke up for its victims. When Binayak Sen was jailed, Sudha Bhardwaj a lawyer and Trade Union leader who had worked in the area for years, took his place. Professor Saibaba, who campaigned relentlessly against the paramilitary operations in Bastar stood up for Binayak Sen. When they arrested Saibaba, Rona Wilson, stood up for him. Surendra Gadling was Saibabas lawyer. When they arrested Rona Wislon and Surendra Gadling, Sudah Bhardwaj, Gautam Navlakaha and the others stood up for them and so it goes. The vulnerable are being cordoned off and silenced. The vociferous are being incarcerated. God help us to get our country back. Arundhati Roy is an Indian author best known for her novel The God of Small Things, which won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the biggest-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author. ==See Also== Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy By The Saker The things that please are those that are asked for again and again - Horace Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran - John McCain President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price - Donald Trump It is difficult to have a dialogue with people who confuse Austria and Australia - Vladimir Putin August 31, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - It appears that we are coming back full circle: the AngloZionists are again, apparently, preparing to use the very same White Helmets (aka good terrorists) to execute yet another chemical false flag attack in Syria and again blame the government forces for it. The Russians are, again, warning the world in advance and, just as last time, (almost) nobody gives a damn. And there are even reports that the US is, yet again, considering imposing a (totally illegal) no-fly zone over Syria (I have not heard this once since Hillarys presidential campaign). And just like last time, it appears that the goal of the US is to save the good terrorists from a major governmental victory. It appears that my prediction that each click brings us one step closer to the bang! is, unfortunately, coming true and while the Empire seems to have given up on the notion of a full-scale reconquest of Syria, the Neocons are clearly pushing for what might turn out to be a major missile strike on Syria. The fact that firing a large number of missiles near/over/at Russian forces might result in Russian counter-attack which, in turn, could lead to an major, possibly nuclear, war does not seem to factor at all in the calculations of the Neocons. True, the Neocons are mostly rather stupid (as in short-term focused) people, with a strong sense of superiority and a messianic outlook on our world. However, it baffles me that so few people in the USA and the EU are worried about this. Somehow, a nuclear war has become so unthinkable that many have concluded that it can never happen. The other thing which the Neocons seem to be oblivious to is that the situation on the ground in Syria cannot be changed by means of missile strikes or bombs. For one thing, the last US attack has conclusively shown that US Tomahawks are an easy target for the Syrian (mostly antiquated) air defenses. Of course, the US could rely on more AGM-158 JASSM which are much harder to intercept, but no matter what missiles are used, they will not effectively degrade the Syrian military capabilities simply because there are so few lucrative targets for cruise missile strikes in Syria to begin with. Considering that the US knows full well that no chemical attack will take place (or even could take place, for that matter, since even the USA have declared Syria chemical weapons free in 2013) the White House might decide to blow up a few empty buildings and declare that the animal Assad has been punished I suppose. But even if completely unopposed a US missile attack will make no military sense whatsoever. So this begs the question of what would be the point of any attack on Syria? Sadly, the rather evident answer to that is that the upcoming missile strike has less to do with the war in Syria and much more to do with internal US politics. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Russian and Syrian options There are a few differences too. The biggest difference is that this time around the Russian naval task force in the eastern Mediterranean is much bigger than last time: 15 ships including two advanced frigates, the Admiral Grigorovich and the Admiral Essen (see a detailed report here: https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/russia-sends-largest-naval-fleet-ever-to-syrian-waters/) and two 636.3-class advanced diesel-attack submarines. That is a lot of anti-ship, anti-air and anti-submarine firepower and, even more crucially, a lot of advanced early warning capabilities. Since the Russian and Syria air defense networks have been integrated by single automated fire system this means that the Syrians will very accurately see what is taking place in and around the Syrian airspace (this is especially true with the Russians keeping their A-50U AWACs on 24/7 patrol). What has me most worried are the various reports (such as this one) which says that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week that Moscow would be held responsible if any chemical attack occurs. If by Moscow will be responsible the crazies in Washington DC mean morally responsible, then this is just the usual nonsense. But I am afraid that with certified nutcases like Bolton and Pompeo in charge, the US might be considering attacking Russian personnel in Syria (not necessarily at the well defended Khmeimin or Tartus bases). These guys could easily target various installations or Syrian military units where Russian personnel are known to be deployed and declare that they were not deliberately targeting Russians and that the Russians hit were clearly involved with the Syrian chemical weapon forces. The US has already targeted Russian nationals for kidnapping and detention, they might start killing Russian nationals next and then place the responsibility for these deaths on the Kremlin. You dont think so? Just think Skripal and you will see that this notion is no so far fetched. The Russians do have options, by the way. One thing they could do is place 6 (modernized) MiG-31s on quick alert in southern Russia (or, even better, in Iran) and keep a pair of them on combat air patrol over Syria (or over Iran). Combined with the eyes of the A-50U, these MiG-31s could provide the Russians with a formidable capability, especially against the US B-1B deployed in Qatar or Diego Garcia. So far, the MiG-31s have not seen action in Syria, but if intercepting a large number of cruise missiles becomes the mission then they would offer a much more flexible and capable force than the very small amount of Su-35 and Su-30 currently based in Khmeimim. But the key to protecting Syria is to beef-up the Syrian air defenses and early warning capabilities, especially with advanced mobile air defense systems, especially many short-to-medium range systems like the Tor-M2 and the Pantsir-S2. Until this goal is achieved, the USA and Russia will remain in a most dangerous Mexican standoff in which both parties are engaged in what I call a nuclear game of chicken with each party threatening the other side while counting on its own nuclear capability to deter a meaningful counter-attack or retaliation. This is extremely dangerous but there is very little Russia can do to stop the US leaders from coming back to that same strategy over and over again. So far the Russians have shown a truly remarkable level of restraint, but if pushed too far, they next step for them will be to retaliate against the US in a manner which would provide them with what the CIA calls plausible deniability (I discussed this option over a year ago in this article). If attacked directly and openly the Russians will, of course, have no other option left than to hit back. And while it is true that the Russian forces in and near Syria are vastly outnumbered by US/NATO/CENTOM forces, the Russians have a massive advantage over the USA in terms of long range cruise missiles (see Andrei Martyanovs analysis Russias Stand-Off Capability: The 800 Pound Gorilla in Syria for a detailed discussion of this topic). None of the above is new, the world has been been stuck in this situation for well over a year now and there still appears to be no end in sight. Unfortunately, I can only agree with Ruslan Ostashko: only a massive military defeat or a no less massive economic collapse will stop the folks who who confuse Austria and Australia to give up their insane quest for world hegemony by violence. The Saker The Essential Saker II: Civilizational Choices and Geopolitics / The Russian challenge to the hegemony of the AngloZionist Empire. https://thesaker.is/is-the-next-us-aggression-on-syria-already-scheduled/ Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy August 31, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded Wednesday to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who vowed that the Israeli military "will continue to act with full determination and strength" against Iran's military entrenchment in Syria. "Iran, a country without nuclear weapons, is threatened with atomic annihilation by a warmonger standing next to an actual nuclear weapons factory. Beyond shameless in the gall," Zarif tweeted. Iran, a country without nuclear weapons, is threatened with atomic annihilation by a warmonger standing next to an actual nuclear weapons factory. Beyond shameless in the gall. pic.twitter.com/MBoFac8Bvv Javad Zarif (@JZarif) August 29, 2018 Netanyahu spoke earlier Wednesday at a ceremony in the southern Israeli city of Dimona, which is the site of a nuclear reactor. The prime minister described Iran as a threat looming over the region. "Whoever threatens us with our demise puts himself in similar danger," Netanyahu said. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter The prime minister added that Israeli pressure applied on Tehran has helped scare the regime, noting that a speech made by Iranian President Hassan Rohani proved that the Israeli tactic was working. The prime minister also addressed an agreement between Syria and Iran announced earlier this week, stressing that "no threat will deter us." The deal reportedly stipulates that Iran will help Syria rebuild itself in the wake of the civil war. The deal was announced Iran's ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad, is believed to be considering an assault on the last big rebel-held enclave, Idlib in the north This article was originally published by "Haaretz " - Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy By Paul Edwards August 31, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The commedia dellarte mourning of McCain is in full bloom. In a vulgar orgy of pompous, bathetic praise from Congress and the media, he is being piously canonized. To counter this shameless obsequy by attacking him for what he actually was would be an exercise in futility, just as the endless ad hominem hatchet jobs on Trump accomplish nothing. Its more useful to examine the grisly American disease of which he was a champion and cynosure. The son and grandson of Admirals, a bred-in-the- bone military man, he flew a fighter in Vietnam. Shot down--and amazingly not summarily executed--he was held as a POW, and became a lifelong advocate of unlimited use of military force for American world domination. Nothing unusual in that. It is and has been the baseline political credo of all American politicians since Monroe, at least, up to and including Trump, Hillary, Sanders, and Warren. The surest way to the graveyard for political hopefuls is to be seen or slimed as soft on defense. The fact that actual defense of the country has not been necessary since the War of 1812, and is not now, and that the hoax only exists to suck our national wealth into the War Machine has not been effectively articulated. The idea, false to its core, that America must spend astronomic sums to defend its polity and its people has taken on the character of revealed religion in a country where multitudes believe in angels and Endtimes. This appropriation of the wealth of the people by the corporate forces of imperial murder has not come suddenly. Oceans of innocent blood have drenched the world from our military violence since Quincy Adams said of America that she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. World War II proved to Eisenhowers Military/Industrial/Congressio nal Complex the obscene profit to be had from annihilating people, cities, and countries. Schumpeter defined the War Machine far better than Ike did: Created by the wars that required it, it now creates the wars it requires. Since 1945, America, by then firmly in its grasp, has relentlessly scoured the world behind the gross and cynical lie of defense of freedom, to foment, ignite, and expand the brutal, devastating, shock-and-awe gorefests the War Machine has to have. That Korea, Vietnam, and the catalog of Middle Eastern horrors the US perpetrated were failures on a cosmic scale except as cash cows for the War Machine has been of little concern to the most somnolent, propagandized, passive public since that of the Third Reich. These national mass murder atrocities were sold to Americans as defense of our indispensable homeland from barbarian, sub-human others. Some, such as Al Qaida were, absurdly, our Deep States own creations. It is commonly said and believed that the American public is not at fault for its profound, intractable moral cowardice since War Machine swag has kept them in a combination insane asylum, crack house, and human zoo. How else could they have lived with the intolerably bitter truth that their country is the serial violator and exterminator, the voracious destroyer, of so many millions of simple, guiltless, victim peoples? This is where John McCain and his ilk comes in. Exploiting his bogus and accidental credentials, he became a pitch man for the massive con of American purity and idealism as a front for imperialist greed, and made a career promoting and lionizing the War Machine as it raped the peoples of earth and robbed Americans blind in pursuit of its cancerous enrichment. Still, McCain was only a cracked and bent tool. He was always an effect, a symptom; never a cause. The real driver of the War Machine is heartless, soulless, predatory Capitalism. Its credo is exploitation of everything to maximize profit. In a closed system, competing capital conflicts, collides. Greed eclipses reason and war results. The greatest capital concentration requires the most terrible military, in which violence displaces conscience. There never has been, and never can be, Capitalism without war. Indoctrinated, baffled, saddled with a cesspool Congress and the deeply stupid, vulgarian Trump, centrist Americans, desperate for refuge, rush mindlessly to the new War Party, Democrats eager to use McCains $700 billion dollar hogwallow defense bill, to insult and provoke China and Russia, and to attack Iran. Hubris, false bravado, and panic rule; nowhere is there self knowledge and with it, long overdue, sorrow, regret, and shame. Karmic retribution--the pitiless hand of Nemesis--is all America deserves. Needless to say that many Nigerians are very talented as the photo below proves. Angela Merkel was welcomed by President Muhammadu Buhari and members of his government at the State House in Abuja on Friday. Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun who was accused of not participating in the National Youth Service Corps(NYSC) but allegedly forged the certificate was one of those to welcome the German Chancellor. Adeosun since the allegations of certificate forgery has not accepted nor refuted the claims but has left Nigerians in the dark with her silence. Adeosun was photo-shopped into a NYSC uniform as she joined others, to welcome Merkel yesterday by an unknown graphics artist. See photo Original photo Photoshop Ovation Magazine Publisher, Dele Momodu has revealed what he and Senate President Bukola Saraki talked about, concerning Buhari and Tinubu. Both men had the discussion during the Eid El Kabir festival, in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital. Momodu made the revelation on Saturday in an article entitled, How Saraki plans to defeat Buhari in 2019. Momodu said Saraki discussed about the 2019 election, President Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress (APC) national leader, Bola Tinubu, among others. See what Momodu wrote below; Sarakis roadmap to victory is simple. Buhari is going to play the usual ethnic card that only a candidate from North West can win a Presidential election in Nigeria. Saraki feels otherwise. He believes that the pro-restructuring crusaders now have an opportunity to make the Presidency available to other Nigerians. He concedes that it may be difficult for any candidate from North West and North East to compete or beat Buhari hands down, despite the fact that PDP parades more experienced politicians and competent aspirants. What is then needed is to keep North Central on lockdown with a popular candidate from that zone. With the support of PDP stalwarts from the other two Northern zones, Buharis votes would be whittled down to make up the requisite percentages in terms of spread but no more. He believes that it may be a waste of time and resources trying to compete in the Presidents traditional enclave other than to strive to get up to 25%. PDP should instead focus on mobilising the forces from the opposite direction and lockdown four out of the six geo-political zones. Saraki says he is well-positioned to make this happen. With one leg in the North and another in the South, especially the South West, the people would have a higher stake in the Presidency and this will galvanise more passionate voters. If the PDP presents just anyone, there may be voter apathy and Buhari would coast home to victory. As to where his deputy will come from, it would have to be from the South-East/South-south axis, since he has already covered the South West, technically. Theoretically, this would ignite enthusiasm in that region. He believes the APC has played into his hands somehow by this calculation. According to Saraki, the only reason Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been fighting him is because he wants to take over from Buhari in 2023. Where does that then leave the Igbo people who have not been able to produce any Vice President or President since Dr Alex Ekwueme in 1979-1983? In simple Arithmetic PDP needs a candidate who can block the South West and the South East simultaneously since Buhari will still run with Osinbajo This race is getting mathematically interesting and the Saraki option is looking feasible, I thought. However, Saraki said he was only just starting. He said those days are gone when an individual can instruct people to go out and vote as if they have no minds of their own. He plans to challenge and tackle Buhari strictly on issues and not pettiness, which he sees to be the current order of the day. He said the world is driven today by knowledge and not by crude force. He said he is better informed on how to resurrect the comatose economy which collapsed because of the over-simplistic and myopic handling of affairs since Buhari took over. Any student of elementary economics would know that a country can never develop in an atmosphere of obsession for scaremongering, instability, uncertainty, Stone Age policies Nigeria urgently needs a unifier in deed and not in words Im one of the most cosmopolitan leaders around today with every sense of modesty Saraki is looking forward to a serious debate between him, Buhari and other candidates on every aspect of daily life in Nigeria. If Buhari likes, he can stay at home and do the debate by Skype or whatever, but moving forward, we must discuss Nigeria publiclyAnyone wanting to lead a country as important as Nigeria in this century must be someone who can ably represent us in the comity of nations and has a grasp of modern ways of life. Saraki says he has matured with time in various offices and his cumulative executive and legislative experiences are almost second to none in the country You can see this in the way I have conducted the affairs of the Senate, and we are easily the best, but for the occasional and unfortunate distractions from people who see me as serious threat to their personal ambition. They had to feed the President with lies and destroy our relationship. I did all I could to support the government, but I was constantly harassed and treated like a pariah by those desperate to keep a firm grip on Nigeria But he continues to see the positive side of his travails. Perhaps, I would not have declared interest in this race, but they kept pushing me away, demonising me for no reason, but, inadvertently, they made me very popular by their action and some of those who never liked me started pitying me as a victim of oppression. Manchester City boss, Pep Guardiola, has said he will not judge Jose Mourinho, after the Manchester United manager claimed he deserved respect for winning three Premier League titles. Mourinho has come under scrutiny after Uniteds back-to-back defeats against Brighton and Tottenham, which has left them 13th with just three points. The United boss stormed out of his post-match press conference after the 3-0 loss to Spurs at Old Trafford on Monday, demanding for more respect as he made reference to his title wins with Chelsea. When Manchester City boss Guardiola was asked whether he thought Mourinho needed to ask for it, he said: I said many times I dont judge. Of course we are judged for the titles we get now, especially if you have won titles as it can work. There is no doubt about his quality I have never doubted that in the past, I wont now. But it is not only the titles. I have said many times, for example with myself, I have won at amazing clubs with amazing players, but if that had not happened I would not have won titles. But there are many many managers who dont win titles who are excellent. Thats why on one side it happens because you have something special to win titles but the other side managers are so good it is not necessary to win because good clubs, good players sustain you. In many circumstances, the manager cannot control it. That does not mean they are not good. Popular Nigerian comedian, Seyilaw has identified suspected serial fraudster arrested by EFCC as the son of a pastor. Yesterday, the EFCC announced the arrest of one Adeyemi Olufunmilade, a suspected serial fraudster who has allegedly swindled quite a number of Nigerians. He is the Managing Director, Stealth Communication Limited, and once presented himself as Alexandra Moses. He had previously been arrested in Ghana with the assistance of the Ghanaian authorities, and brought back to Nigeria for prosecution, following a complaint against his alleged criminal activities. Meanwhile, even as he is still facing trial before the State High Court, Ikeja, the suspect, who now claims to be Aladura Moses, was said to have floated another company under a different name. Comedian, Seyilaw who has also fallen victim of Adeyemis fraudulent acts, took to his twitter page to identify the suspect as the son of his pastor in the church he attended while growing up. Adeyemi is said to be the son of a senior pastor in the Christ Apostolic Church where he holds a National office. Seyilaw wrote; He is the son of a Pastor in the church, I attended growing up. He defrauded me too. @officialEFCC can I bring my case too? Thanks. His father once asked me, who is your father in this church because I begged for N1000 to complete my Jamb form fee and his son defrauded year later. He also went to his Instagram page to write about the arrest, he wrote; This is one of the very many reasons, I said I will keep helping as much as I can and will never look down on anybody. Another interesting thing that happened to me was when my cousin told my mum that her children can never need help from my mums children because she felt they will do better than us because we were squatting with them. Years later, I had to send money to one of her daughters to be discharged from hospital and many more. God is beyond human thoughts because His thought of you is of GOOD. In this month of SEPTEMBER, as the world look down on you to mock you, the heavens will look down on you to elevate you and flaunt it in their faces in Jesus name. Happy New Month. Mrs. Olufunke Olawuanle Oladapo is a big example of a human wreck. To say she is in distress is an understatement. Mrs. Olufunke Olawuanle Oladapo is a big example of a human wreck. To say she is in distress is an understatement. I ran into the 63 years old retired teacher at a business complex in Ejigbo, a suburb of Lagos. As she circumnavigated the complex twice clutching her phone on one hand and handbag on the other, I was forced to ask what was amiss. She was looking for a lawyer urgently. She said she saw a sign post outside directing her and came into the complex. I directed her to one of the chambers within the compound which was under locks at the time. However, I suggested that she could take the telephone numbers displayed to contact them. She went closer to the office but quickly turned back to me saying she could not read the letters as they were tiny even as her sights were cloudy. I offered to assist again and went closer to help her read the numbers. That was when I perceived the tension boiling inside Mrs. Oladapo. She was seething in anger, breathing too high and almost choking. I dragged a lone chair nearby and asked her to sit down first before asking why she was choking. I am not a medical doctor but I know someone who is in real agony when I see one. Heres her sorrowful and very pathetic tale. I dont want to bore you all with my long tale but if you are patient, you will definitely understand my sad story she heaved a loud sigh. I got married to Adewale Oladapo, a civil engineering contractor at the Ijebu Ode Marriage Registry on 30th of August 1980 so it will be 38 years this August. I was a teacher at Government Technical College Idi Aba, Abeokuta at that time and he told me he just returned from Germany. We had met in 1979 through his step brother. (she brandished her marriage certificate) A year after the marriage, my husband revealed to me that he had fathered a son when he was in class five at Ahmadiya College Ibadan with a female student of St Theresas Ibadan. He said the woman had already remarried with other children and that the child was staying with his grandparents at FESTAC Town in Lagos. At the time, we lived at No; 13 Akinbaye street Isolo near the Obas palace, close to Akinbaye primary school where I was a teacher. My husband was then working at Nigeria Engineering Works(NEW) Ikoyi. He was later to bring in his son Oladayo Oladapo to live with us and he was enrolled at Ire Akari school. Dayo became my son and I became popular as his mum, Iya Dayo. I recall one Saturday morning while I was washing clothes, a post man came with a letter saying we had won a three bedroom apartment at Block 11, flat 3 Iponri Low cost estate, Surulere. We had been processing for it when Lagos state called for it. I went with my husband to inspect it. We had applied when it was advertised. We completed the acquisition process, did the interiors of the flat, furnished it and moved in. I got inter school transfer from Isolo while Dayo was later enrolled at Eric Moore High School. Some years later, while the Lagos Marketing Board was building and allocating shops at the Iponri market again we were lucky to get two allocations as both our applications were approved. My husband used his shop as office where he sold paint as well as a business center while I used mine to sell drinks. He also later started building and later completed a 4 bedroom duplex, two 3-bedroom flats and a Boys Quarters at No 6 Adeleye close off Popoola bus stop Ago, Okota, Isolo. TROUBLE BREWS After many years of marriage my husband started worrying about my childlessness. Peace left the house as he complained ceaselessly. Quarrel was a daily affair News also started flying about his involvement with another woman named Bola who later bore him a daughter Yetunde. MORE PROBLEMS My problems started when my husband died on November 18, 2003. It will be fifteen years this year. The first person I called when the sad event happened was Dayo, my stepson who had moved out of the house by then and he reached his uncle that is my husbands elder brother Alhaji Tunji Oladapo. They both knew he was ill before then and also joined in the care for him. Alhaji Tunji came to ask for all his documents in the house. He ransacked the house and took all documents he could reach including carrying away our generator. He said he had exclusive rights over my brothers property because since their parents died, he was the one who raised him and sent him to school. He said since he was the one responsible for his education, he is his next of kin. After my husbands burial at the property at Ago, Alhaji took over the management of the property. He warned the tenants of the house not to pay rent to any other one other than himself. He told Dayo and his sister Yetunde that for being the most senior, he was in charge of everything including the property at Ago until they were of age. He told them they would get allowances yearly from his management. He also put up a big NOT FOR SALE notice and went away. Yet nothing for me. He managed the system for seven years. EJECTED I still lived alone at our Iponri flat with my late husbands photos to keep me company until after my mourning period when I had to invite a young cousin of mine to live with me. But this lonely peace was not to be for long. One day I returned from school to see my cousin crying outside. By her side were my entire belongings all scattered and thrown outside. I could hear voices of some men inside my apartment and smells of Indian hemp and incense everywhere. When I summoned courage to knock on the door, it was Dayo who answered me that he was advised by his Uncle to come and dislodge me and take over the apartment. According to him, he had called on his uncle to give him a flat at the property at Ago since he was having accommodation problems but was told to go and eject me at Iponri. I collapsed on the floor and shed tears. I called on my late husband to come and save me from this persecution. I slept on the stair case and wore same clothes for three days before the Police waded into the matter. Alhaji was invited. At the station he was asked why they were maltreating me and he said the family was yet to share assets and that he would call me when that was set. Alhaji and Dayo then followed me to the house and packed up some of my property in a Ghana must go bag. Both of them saw me down the staircase and Alhaji paid the taxi saying he would notify me when to come and carry the rest of my property. Dayo who now assumed the role of Olori ebi, head of family and his thugs who came to eject me occupied my flat for three months. He later rented it out and continues to enjoy the benefits from the rent till date. It was not long after that he relieved his uncle of the task of managing the property. He took it all over including the 4 bedrooms Duplex, the 3 bedroom flat and 2 bedroom flat, the BQ as well as the 2 shops at Iponri shopping center which was assigned to us by the Lagos state marketing Board. He then went ahead to share the property himself. He took the apartment at Iponri, also took the 4 bedroom duplex and then gave me the top floor 3 bedroom flat at the back while the lower 2 bedroom flat as well as one of the shops went to his step sister Yetunde. He also kept the BQ saying proceeds from it would be used to service the property. You could just imagine how these people have been sitting on and enjoying the sweat and investment my husband and I made in life without considering me. They are sharing and enjoying all the benefits while I continue to squat from one friend to the other. They were not there when I was going about to the marketing Board and LSDPC to process the low cost apartment. They were not there when we were building Ago duplex but they have thrown me away like rag just like that. My fear now is that Dayo is plotting to take away from me that 3 bedroom flat he said was my inheritance. He has been going to the tenant on that flat to harass and terrorize him and family. If he succeeds in doing that, it would mean that I have lost all I labored for in this world. I even fear for my life too. MY PLEA My plea is that President Buhari, Governor Ambode of Lagos, Chief Justice of the Federation, Chief Judge of Lagos and all well thinking people of the world including human rights organizations to see the kind of injustice towards me by my step son and his family over my husbands properties in the past fifteen years. I am not denying Dayo and Yetunde as my husbands children and wonder why even though the Oladapo family are not denying me as one and only wife of their son Adewale why should they be supporting my disinheritance from my husbands estates? I want a judicious sharing of the estates of my husband so that I benefit from what we both worked hard to acquire. Does the law not recognize a bona fide wife in the administration of estates? Ohhh! I have been totally dehumanized and traumatized since the death of my husband. This month of August 2018 marks the 15 years of my husbands death and by November, it will be 38 years of our wedding. But I was ejected, physically thrown out without any considerations. I have not known peace. Life has been a hell for me that I have lived at the mercy of the church; Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministry and other well meaning Nigerians. I was of the Foursquare church but my husband who was originally a Muslim got healing at Mountain of Fire so we joined the church years before his death. My BP is high as well as other health conditions caused by the harrowing experience I have been subjected. God once saved me from near depression because there is no rest of mind. Is it because I bore no children? (she starts to sob again, this time inconsolably causing the interview to end). Vanguard The minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has denied insinuations that he appointed Tonye Dele Cole as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Rivers State, saying that he did not have the power to do so. The Nation Sokoto state Governor and a presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has expressed optimism on emerging as his partys flag bearer for the 2019 polls.Tambuwal who said he is the most credible and favoured, made the remark while responding to questions from newsmen in Sokoto. I am confident that the PDP presidential ticket will favour me Gods willing. ThisDay Pleads for more German investors Merkel pledges to improve joint business relations Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari has said his administration would always uphold the sanctity of the law in governing Nigeria. Buhari, who made the pledge yesterday, during a bilateral meeting he had with visiting German Chancellor, The Sun The National Chairman of Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Alhaji Balarabe Musa, has informed party members that he will be vacating his position for a younger person due to his failing health condition The out-going chairman who is 80 years, made this known when he declared open the 54th meeting of. Guardian Three members of the ruling All Progressives Congress in Osun state House of Representatives on Saturday dumped the party to join Action Democratic Party (ADP). The defectors Hon. Debo Akanbi representing Ede North, Hon. Abdullahi Ibrahim representing Iwo and Hon. Tajudeen Famuyide representing Ilesha West Daily Times The Gombe State governor and presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo has appointed Dr Ayoade Adewopo Daily Trust The Governor of Lagos State, Akinwumi Ambode is reportedly in a closed door meeting with his political aides and executive council members to take a final stand on his future political ambition as the primaries draw closer. Leadership Mr Abraham Gbileeka, the General Manager of Benue Urban Development Board, says the board has marked no fewer than 300 buildings that contravened law for demolition in Makurdi. He said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Makurdi that most of the affected structures were built on water channels. Tribune The forum of Local Government Chairmen comprising of Elected Chairmen of Local Government areas and Local Council Development Areas in Oyo state has described the aspiration of Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala to vie for the Governorship Washington is using financial blackmail against the Palestinians by cutting off aid in its efforts to support the Israeli agenda in Palestine Palestinian experts agree that Washington is now using a money for politics strategy in Palestine, meaning that in order to receive aid the Palestinians must first agree to accept all US conditions. This is now its preferred modus operandi, especially under the administration of US President Donald Trump, regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The US State Department has announced that more than $200 million in aid to the West Bank and Gaza Strip will now be redirected to other programmes, according to a decision by Trump. The aid will be withdrawn under the Taylor Force Act that reduces US financial aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) in order to guarantee it is spent in accordance with US interests. Observers believe that the decision is blatant political and financial blackmail on the part of the US, which wants to impose its Deal of the Century on the Palestinians. It follows an earlier decision to freeze $65 million in funds to the UN refugee agency UNRWA even as the Israeli government has received some $40 billion in US aid over the past decade. Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLOs Executive Committee, condemned the move and said Washingtons bullying and punishing a people under occupation would diminish its standing in the international community, its deplorable behaviour indicating its political and moral bankruptcy. The US was acting in complicity with an occupation that has stolen land and resources and has imposed economic sanctions that further punish the victim and reward the aggressor, she said. Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the PLOs Executive Committee, also condemned Washingtons decision, adding that the Palestinian people rejected any preconditioned assistance. He said the decision was a scandalous admission of the true nature of US aid, which was to intervene in the domestic affairs of other peoples and influence their sovereign choices. Aid is not charity to our people, but the duty of the world community which is responsible for the continued Israeli occupation that has blocked Palestinian development and economic and social growth, he said. Jack Youssef Khazmo, a Palestinian commentator, said the hostile policies followed by the US aimed to please Israel and bolster the strategic alliance between the two countries. They were an affront to the many Arab leaders who rely on the US and comply with directives that insult the Arab nation, he said. The withheld funds are very small compared to what the Arabs have given to the US in the form of $500 billion in Arab investment, Khazmo said. Disregard of the Arab position was also due to the Palestinian cause now taking a backseat in the US. The greatest insult was not the cutting of financial aid, but the US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the right of return of the Palestinian refugees, he added. He urged the PA to continue to refuse US mediation and urged it to join those opposed to US policies in the region. Political analyst Thabet Al-Amoor said that improving peoples lives was an urgent necessity in Palestine. Historically, the goals of the Israeli occupation have been to paint the issue as a purely humanitarian one, and after 1948 Palestine was portrayed as simply a humanitarian issue with its people needing clothing, food and other basic needs. Today, the world is still prepared to give priority to the humanitarian over the political, he said, meeting the humanitarian needs of the Palestinians without transitioning to a just and comprehensive political solution to the Palestinian cause. Al-Amoor cautioned that it was impossible to separate the political and humanitarian, however, because the political serves the humanitarian. Ending the occupation, the return of the refugees, the status of the holy sites and the question of Palestinian rights all converged and could not be compromised for the sake of meeting humanitarian needs, he added. Omar Shaaban, a Palestinian economics expert, said the budget of the PA would not be immediately impacted by Washingtons decision to slash $200 million in aid because it did not directly benefit from it. The US administration does not directly fund the PA budget, but the EU and other donors contribute regularly, as do civil society, the private sector, and international agencies operating on the ground such as UNRWA, the World Bank and UNDP, Shaaban explained. He said the US had decided to suspend assistance in December as it slashed its contributions to UNRWA. US aid, he noted was dispensed through US institutions and companies working in the Palestinian Territories, such as USAID and others. The impact of the US decision became apparent several months ago when the decision was announced, with many US agencies terminating contracts with local employees, NGO partnerships and some humanitarian and employment programmes, he said. It is certain that the US withdrawal of these funds, already frozen for a year, will amplify the economic crisis in the Palestinian Territories and increase unemployment, especially among young people and women, he added. Shaaban believes that supporting self-funding, an austerity approach to exclude unnecessary spending, increasing remittances from Palestinians abroad, and improving cooperation with friendly countries are ways to avoid political pressures attached to aid money. In January, the US substantially reduced its share of the UNRWA budget, forcing it to fire more than 250 employees. Relations between the Trump administration and the PA have been frozen since Trump announced on 6 December that the US would officially recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The decision was met with widespread international rejection and Palestinian anger. Trump then said at the end of January he would make aid contingent on the Palestinians returning to the negotiating table. He froze $215 million in US aid that should have gone to Gaza and the West Bank for humanitarian and development needs. The PA budget has a large deficit and living conditions in the Gaza Strip under Hamas rule are deteriorating quickly due to the siege by Israel. The 2018 budget of $5 billion has a $1.2 billion deficit, and foreign aid amounts to only $775 million. Withdrawing the US aid will impact humanitarian and infrastructure projects in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The White House has so far not decided to alter the $61 million in funds earmarked for PA security forces this year, since Israel views cooperation with these Palestinian agencies as necessary to prevent attacks. The Palestinians insist that the status of Jerusalem must be decided through peace talks, as does the international community. While Washingtons recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital was welcomed by Israelis, it was condemned in the rest of the world and by Palestinians who want East Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state. The international community views East Jerusalem as occupied land, and foreign embassies cannot be located there before its status is settled. For Palestinian leaders, the right of return of the Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and especially Syria is key to possible negotiations with Israel. Some 750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their land when Israel was created in 1948, and their descendants now amount to five million people, according to UNRWA, though Israeli television has reported that the White House has decided to recognise only 500,000 of them. In 2018, Washington earmarked $65 million to UNRWA even though it paid $360 million in 2017, or around one third of the agencys funds. * A version of this article appears in print in the 30 August 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: US blackmails the Palestinians Search Keywords: Short link: Former vice president Abubakar Atiku has caused tongues to wag after he wept, as he obtained the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) nomination form for presidential election. According to reports, some support groups, had gone to the Presidential aspirant and volunteered to buy the nomination form for him Hence Atiku, couldnt hold the tears back. Reason H.E @atiku broke down in tears: Atiku was in his campaign office preparing to go purchase His form, but unknowing to him, his youths support group contributed money to do that on his behalf, they presented it to him in his office, he was overwhelmed by the show of love. pic.twitter.com/R7L3PM3R4r Abdul Basit (@AA_Basitt) August 31, 2018 A lot of Nigerians, berated Atiku for trying to blackmail the emotions of Nigerians and called him out for what they termed gimmicks. They took to social media to express that they cant be swayed by Atikus tears. However, they were those he felt Atiku had genuine reasons to wipe, and said they were fully behind him. See what they wrote below So because @atiku wept to show his emotions, y'all want to start dragging him. Real people weep to express loss, joy, gratitude, frustration and more. It might have been a gimmick as you chose to interpret it but I choose to see a human who's true with his feelings, not a robot. Adebola (@enitioluwafe) September 1, 2018 If it worked for Buhari, who knows? Maybe it will work for Atiku in 2023. pic.twitter.com/Dq5nanvc9v Dolapo Oni (@Dolarpo) September 1, 2018 Atiku's tears can't deceive Nigerians! If he really cares about Nigeria, he should return all the loot that belongs to Nigerians. Real tears will come when he looses the Primaries & the worst tears would come after winning the primaries then loses to BUHARI at general elections! A Boy Like Me! (@ishaqmamii) September 1, 2018 When PMB cried he won hearts but when atiku is crying people are laughing Mr Bukhari Suwaid (@suwaidybaba) September 1, 2018 @bukolasaraki is a criminal who sees the back of others but completely blind to the dent on his own back. His presidential ambition is inordinate but if PDP is careless, he will get the ticket, that was why Atiku wept yesterday. Atiku knows he has a great gambler and crook to Jubril of Sudan till 2023 (@Gen_Buhar) September 1, 2018 https://twitter.com/moofasar/status/1035786739544219648?s=19 The Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) has faulted president Muhammadu Buhari for a statement attributed to him, that Nigerians caught up in their attempt to illegally enter Europe, are on their own. The president was said to have told Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany this, while they met at the State House on Friday. In a statement signed by Kola Ologbondiyan, its National publicity secretary, the party said the statement shows that the President is not bothered by reports that over 10,000 Nigerians died in the Sahara desert while trying to leave Nigeria. President @MBuhari has shown that he is not bothered that no fewer than 10,000 Nigerians died in the deserts between January to May 2017 alone, while trying to escape the economic hardship and escalated insecurity occasioned by his misrule. @OfficialAPCNg pic.twitter.com/Z0FrcCJWsu Official PDP Nigeria (@OfficialPDPNig) September 1, 2018 The opposition party also accused the president of failing woefully as it said, it was wrong for Mr President to say that those Nigerians left, to find greener pastures, but hasnt done anything to solve the problems. Malta the blockchain island Malta is aiming to become a leader in cryptocurrency by creating a sound regulatory environment for virtual financial assets and distributed ledger technology From asset registration to the financial industry, iGaming and blockchain-based platforms, jurisdictional innovation has always been securing Malta's economy and allowed the country to specialise in niches that the majority is sceptical of. Blockchain and cryptocurrency regulations will likely repeat that success and create a safe space for operators in these industries to function. On July 4 2018 the Maltese Parliament approved three bills establishing the first regulatory framework for blockchain, cryptocurrency and distributed ledger technology (DLT). Although there were countries that had passed legislation in relation to initial coin offerings (ICOs), Malta is the first country to provide a regulated environment for operators in the blockchain, cryptocurrency and DLT space. The first law, known as the Malta Digital Innovation Authority Act, establishes the Malta Digital Innovation Authority (DIA) and certifies DLT platforms. This law focuses on internal governance arrangements and outlines the duties and responsibilities of the DIA to certify DLT platforms to ensure credibility and provide legal certainty to users wishing to make use of a DLT platform. The second law, known as the Innovative Technology Arrangement and Services Act, deals with DLT arrangements and certifications of DLT platforms. This bill is primarily concerned with the setting up of exchanges and other companies operating in the cryptocurrency market. The third law is known as the Virtual Financial Assets Act and establishes the regulatory regime governing ICOs, cryptocurrency exchanges, wallet providers, etc. The brave new world of cryptocurrency is surrounded by a number of questions and ambiguities. This is only to be expected given its relative infancy and the speed with which it is evolving and gaining ground. Cryptocurrencies are generally categorised as follows: Coins these are cryptocurrencies that are designed specifically to be used as a means of payment. These have a similar use as fiat money, however they would be digital instead of physical. Investment tokens these tokens are similar to equities, debentures or derivatives. They grant rights to a form of return, similar to dividends in the case of equities. Utility tokens these are tokens used to access goods and services offered in the platform of the issuer who has a contractual obligation to exchange these tokens with a good or service or allowing the use of the platform offering various services or goods. Hybrid these would have the characteristics of two, or all, of the above. Income tax A central issue in this unfolding debate, crucial in terms of exactly how regulation is to be established and enforced, is how our current tax regimes should factor in cryptocurrencies. Do these need to be radically reinvented or are there fundamental doctrines and concepts in tax law that can, without being stretched too far, be applied pragmatically to the crypto space? Accepting cryptocurrencies as a means of payment does not change the way businesses' taxable profits are calculated. However, when cryptocurrencies are used as tokens and their holders are involved in cryptocurrency exchanges, the tax implications are likely to become more complex. Many jurisdictions are using the working principle that cryptocurrencies can ultimately be treated as "intangible property" and that therefore general tax principles applicable to property transactions could also be applied to cryptocurrency exchanges. If such a transaction results in a gain or profit, then how are taxation rules, particularly Maltese tax law in this case, best applied? The first aspect that must be established is whether the gain resulting from a crypto exchange is of a capital or income nature. Although the Maltese Income Tax Act contains no provisions on how to differentiate between income and capital, there is a significant body of case law that provides a basis on which to classify a gain as capital or income with some confidence. Just like trading in bonds, company shares or commodities, cryptocurrency transactions considered to be of an income nature are taxable in terms of the Income Tax Act A rather cliched but extremely effective analogy that is often used is that of a fruit-bearing tree, where the tree represents the capital property and the fruit is the business income resulting from that asset. However, it is well known in tax circles that some ambiguity can arise when seeking these classifications and very often specific cases are not clear-cut. This is where the question of intent becomes all-important, that is, the intention at the time the transaction took place, and this remains one of the leading tests used by regulators and courts to decide whether any form of revenue is income or capital in nature. In general terms, proceeds will be income in nature if the assets were acquired with the intention of selling it at a profit. However, if the asset is acquired and held with the intention of producing further income from that asset then it is treated as capital in nature. The "badges of trade" are widely accepted indicators to help determine the intention and nature of a transaction. These include the quantity and nature of the goods; the incidence of transactions; supplementary work on the asset being sold; and the interval of time between when the asset was acquired to when the asset was sold. Also of note is the method of acquisition and disposal, because an asset acquired through inheritance or as a gift is less likely to be the subject of trade. As with any other transaction, this framework can be applied to gains resulting from cryptocurrency transactions to classify this as income or capital and it is this assessment that will determine the applicable tax rules. A person buying and selling cryptocurrencies on a significant scale by investing significant sums of their own and/or other people's money, and also investing considerable amounts of time and energy is very likely to be considered as trading. Just like trading in bonds, company shares or commodities, cryptocurrency transactions considered to be of an income nature are taxable in terms of the Income Tax Act, which includes a blanket provision requiring gains or profits derived from transaction of an income nature to be taxed, irrespective of the type of asset. On the other hand, if the gain is derived from a capital transaction this would only be taxed if it arises from an asset listed in Article 5 of the Maltese Income Tax Act. This list, however, is clearly specified in the Act and is limited to transfers of immovable property, securities, intellectual property, beneficial interest in a trust and partnership. Therefore, if the capital gain in question is derived from an asset that is not listed in Article 5, no tax will apply. Until new models are presented, the current "income vs. profit" rules for determining the taxability of gains in this sphere remain the determining factor. This awareness should guide any individual or business entering the crypto space and inform their decisions in this regard. VAT Although there are no provisions in the Maltese VAT Act that deal with cryptocurrencies, as an EU member state Malta can rely on the EU VAT Directive. In terms of the EU Directive, cryptocurrencies are treated as follows: Income received from mining activities will generally be outside the scope of VAT on the basis that the activity does not constitute an economic activity for VAT purposes because there is an insufficient link between any services provided and any consideration received. Income received by miners for other activities, such as for the provision of services in connection with the verification of specific transactions for which specific charges are made, will be exempt from VAT under Article 135(1)(d) of the EU VAT Directive as falling within the definition of "transactions, including negotiation, concerning deposit and current accounts, payments, transfers, debts, cheques and other negotiable instruments". When cryptocurrencies are exchanged for fiat money, no VAT will be due on the value of the cryptocurrencies charges made over and above the value of the cryptocurrencies for arranging or carrying out any transactions in cryptocurrency will be exempt from VAT under Article 135(1)(d) as outlined above. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued a judgment ruling in October 2015 that the exchange of traditional currencies for units of the 'bitcoin' virtual currency are not subject to VAT. In this case David Hedqvist, a Swedish national, requested a preliminary decision from the Swedish Revenue Law Commission to establish whether VAT should be paid on the purchase and sale of bitcoin. Following a commission ruling that bitcoin should be exempt from VAT, the Swedish Tax Authority appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court, submitting that the transactions that Hedqvist intended to effect were not covered by the exemptions in the VAT Directive. After referring to the ECJ, it was decided that transactions to exchange traditional currencies for units of bitcoin and vice versa constitute the supply of services for consideration within the meaning of the VAT Directive. However, the ECJ also held that the transactions are exempt from VAT under the provision concerning transactions relating to 'currency, bank notes and coins used as legal tender'. This is a key ruling, since it not only obliged member states to exempt transactions relating to 'currency, bank notes and coins used as legal tender', but it also defined bitcoin as a currency, rather than a commodity. This judgment dealt with currency exchange transactions. Nevertheless, in all instances, VAT will be due in the normal way from suppliers of any goods or services sold in exchange for cryptocurrency or fiat currencies. The value of the supply of goods or services on which VAT is due will be the value of the cryptocurrency at the point the transaction takes place. What's next? It appears that that certain parameters are now being established and ground rules acknowledged, as various jurisdictions are setting out clearer rules of engagement with this sector. The G20 Summit held in Argentina last March issued a clear statement that cryptocurrency is a key area, with many leaders and industry experts agreeing that effective regulation is needed sooner rather than later to prevent money-laundering, tax evasion and other financial crimes. Beyond this consensus, however, countries are taking a decentralised approach to the issue and views on cryptocurrency regulation can differ from state to state. Guidelines are expected to be issued by the Maltese Tax Authorities to clarify the tax treatment of cryptocurrencies both from an income tax and VAT perspective we are hopeful that these would answer questions such as how the taxable profit or gain on a cryptocurrency exchange is determined, whether any crypto transactions would fall outside the scope of Maltese tax, what happens in the case of losses, what records need to be kept and what would need to be reported to the Maltese Tax Authorities. The coming months will tell whether common strands will begin to emerge in the tax treatment of cryptos between countries, particularly among EU member states. Nicky Gouder ARQ Group Ewropa Business Centre, Level 3 701 Dun Karm Street, Birkirkara, BKR 9034 Malta Tel: +356 2549 6000 ngouder@arqgroup.com Nicky Gouder, tax & private clients partner of ARQ Group, completed his Association of Chartered and Certified Accountants (ACCA) course in 2010. Following that, he specialised in taxation and completed a diploma in taxation offered by the Malta Institute of Taxation in 2011 and read for the advanced diploma in international taxation provided by the Malta Institute of Management. He also graduated in business management from the University of Malta in 2007. Nicky is specialised in international taxation with a focus on domestic legislation and has significant experience in handling a wide portfolio of local and international clients operating in various industry sectors. He is also very much involved within the investment migration industry and advises a number of clients on residence and citizenship opportunities both in Malta and beyond, and participates in a number of international conferences discussing migration issues. He is also a lecturer of the advanced taxation module for the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants course provided through the Malta Institute of Accountants and participates in a number of tax conferences both on a domestic and international level. He is one of the three founding partners of the Capstone Group, which was set up in 2010 and specialises in accountancy, tax, audit and advisory. Nicky is also a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and the Investment Migration Council (IMC). Luana Scicluna ARQ Group Ewropa Business Centre, Level 3 701 Dun Karm Street, Birkirkara, BKR 9034 Malta Tel: +356 2549 6000 lscicluna@arqgroup.com www.arqgroup.com Luana Scicluna, head of tax at ARQ Group, is specialised in international taxation and has considerable experience on corporate restructuring projects and succession planning. She assists several local and international clients with handling their tax affairs in Malta and provides advice on the tax implications of a wide range of transactions. Luana is an accountant by profession, concluding her bachelor of accountancy (hons) at the University of Malta in 2009, following which she furthered her studies in taxation through a diploma in taxation offered by the Malta Institute of Taxation and an advanced diploma in international taxation offered by the Chartered Institute of Taxation (UK). Luana is also a lecturer at the Malta Institute of Taxation and participates in a number of Maltese and international tax conferences. 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 Russia and the Syrian regime have been encouraging the return of the Syrian refugees to their country, though the latter can have little confidence in either, writes Bassel Oudat in Damascus On 15 August, the regime led by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad announced the opening of the Nasib border crossing between Syria and Jordan and prepared buses, cars and ambulances to transport the thousands of people who were expected to return to their homes from refugee camps in Jordan. Russia asked Jordan to put pressure on the Syrian refugees to return home, but no refugees in fact did so since they are afraid of returning to Syria while the Al-Assad regime remains in power despite years of difficulty in refugee camps in neighbouring countries. The UN refugee agency the UNHCR declared 21 conditions that needed to be fulfilled before the Syrian refugees can return. There must be security and stability, clemency for political activists opposed to the regime, and arrangements for those who have fled conscription. None of these conditions has been met, meaning that the UNHCR cannot support the return of the refugees. Some 13 million Syrians, or 60 per cent of the population, were displaced during the conflict in the country, the largest refugee movement in the world in recent decades. Half of these were displaced inside Syria, while the rest fled the country. The refugees inside the country tried to stay near safe areas mostly under the control of the regime. Most of them are poor, and many lived in temporary shelters in schools and public buildings at 3,400 locations in 2017. They were also forced to flee from one area to another depending on the fighting. Most internal refugees from the rebel areas are women, children and older people, with younger men often staying behind to fight or to avoid arrest by the regime. Businessmen in many cases supported the regime, even partnering with it before the revolution. Refugees fleeing outside the country have gone to neighbouring countries or beyond. Turkey has opened its borders to Syrian refugees, taking in 3.43 million, according to 2018 figures from the Turkish Ministry of the Interior. Most of them are under 30 years old and have effectively contributed to reviving Turkeys economy. They have lived relatively well, with access to health services, work and education. Lebanon has been less welcoming of Syrian refugees, and it closed its doors to them in 2015. According to UNHCR figures, the number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon has dropped to less than one million, many of whom face severe difficulties. Some 60 per cent live in extreme poverty on less than $3 a day per person, and they are discriminated against by the local population. They are not allowed to work or travel freely, and they may be harassed or assaulted. Jordan hosts 1.5 million Syrian refugees, more than 80 per cent of them living outside refugee camps and most below the poverty line. They are assisted by familial ties in Jordan, but the refugees are often still exploited and suffer harsh living conditions on the outskirts of poorer towns. About half the refugee children do not go to school. Syrian refugees have also gone to other Arab countries, including 230,000 to Egypt (according to government figures published in July this year), 100,000 to Sudan, 250,000 to Iraq and 26,000 to North African countries. The Gulf countries have not taken any Syrian refugees. Many refugees also left for Europe, mostly Germany, which hosts more than 500,000 Syrian refugees. Sweden has accepted more than 100,000, Austria 50,000 and the US has accepted 100,000. European governments and NGOs have made great efforts to assist and train the Syrian refugees, often providing them with financial aid. After the Helsinki Summit between the US and Russian presidents in July, Moscow announced a plan to send back 1.7 million Syrian refugees to their country and its readiness to provide processing centres, assistance and protection with the Syrian security agencies. It asked Europe and the US to cooperate with the plan and assist in rebuilding Syria, but both objected and linked the return of the refugees to implementing a political solution in the country. Russia has its own plans for a political solution in Syria, namely amending the current system without encroaching on its interests in the long term and restructuring the military and security agencies to allow the regime to remain in power. This is against the political solution adopted by the international community in Geneva in 2012. Russia wants other countries to share its influence in Syria, while it maintains its military and political grip. It wants the West to help address problems resulting from the conflict, namely the return of the refugees and the reconstruction of the country that it cannot afford alone. It is manipulating the refugee issue to prevent an international solution, forgetting that the regime the people fled from remains in power, and that most refugees will remain outside the country until a political solution removes the incumbent regime. Washington has declared that there can be no reconstruction in Syria without holding Al-Assad accountable for his crimes and a real political transition in the country, including a new constitution and general elections. France has said it will not participate in the reconstruction before a real political transition takes place along with transparent elections. Russia is trying to work with host countries such as Jordan and Lebanon to bring back the refugees, but it cannot guarantee their safety. They Syrian regime feels victorious with the support of its allies, and it is trying to restore conditions to their pre-2011 level before the destruction of the conflict. Russia is attempting much the same thing, and both want the refugees to return under the umbrella of the regime. However, the political, regional and global conditions are not right, and there are no guarantees of safety for the returning refugees, which explains why many have decided to stay away. There are still substantial risks for anyone who returns, including the lack of infrastructure in destroyed areas, instability, the lack of security and harassment by the regime including arrest. Returning now could be a trap. The return of the refugees from the neighbouring countries is contingent on changes in the political situation and steps towards a political solution that removes regime control over all aspects of society, ends its security and military domination, halts its authoritarianism and contains enough international guarantees to protect the returning refugees. There must also be services in place and the start of widespread reconstruction to protect people who have lost their homes and livelihoods. The push factors for the Syrian refugees are clear: escape from oppression and war. These things must be addressed before there can be a solution to the refugee issue. Oppression and violence by the regime pushed millions of Syrians to leave their homeland, and their return is linked to a democratic political solution that guarantees the rights and safety of all. * A version of this article appears in print in the 30 August 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Change before return Search Keywords: Short link: While the debate on impeaching US President Donald Trump has been heating up in Washington, the death of US senator John McCain has further deepened the divide over his future The White House lowered the US flag to half-mast on Saturday, raised it back up, and then on Monday lowered it again after the death of senator John McCain in an unusual and confusing break with protocol on the passing of a national leader. McCain, a prisoner of war in Vietnam, long-term US senator from Arizona, and 2008 Republican Party presidential nominee, died of brain cancer on Saturday at the age of 81. This prompted many Americans to lower their flags to half-mast in a traditional gesture of respect. However, US President Donald Trump, who had clashed with fellow Republican McCain over various issues and said during his campaign that the senator was not a war hero, wavered in his approach to what is normally treated as a gesture of courtesy and respect. McCain, who was a frequent Trump critic, told his family he did not want the president to attend his funeral. Instead, he asked that former presidents Democratic Party Barack Obama and Republican George W Bush pay him tribute. Trumps White House lowered its flag on Saturday, then raised it back up following the minimum period under the law. Trump also delayed issuing the customary proclamation for flags to remain at half-mast for longer than the two-day minimum. Finally, under pressure from veterans and members of Congress, Trump said in a statement later on Monday that he respected McCains service to the nation and had ordered flags to half-mast. McCains disdain and disapproval of Trump was obvious in the last speech he wrote and asked to be read after his death. A family spokesman issued a farewell statement from McCain in which he said of the United States that we weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries... We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been. After a day of ignoring questions about McCain, Trump broke his silence during a gathering of evangelical Christian leaders at the White House on Monday evening. Our hearts and prayers are going to the family of senator John McCain... And we very much appreciate everything senator McCain has done for our country, he told the religious leaders. American presidents normally follow Congresss lead on the death of a prominent lawmaker and order flags lowered until sunset on the day of burial. Critics of the president saw his reticence as a final slight against McCain. John Lawrence, a history professor at the University of Californias Washington Centre, said that the disparity between the Congress and White House policy is obviously noticeable and somewhat shocking. Trumps clash with Congress comes at a time when he needs its support, especially the Senate, in order to avoid an impeachment scenario that has been growing in strength in Washington. This has come after Trumps former election campaign manager Paul Manafort was convicted last week on tax and bank fraud charges and Trumps former personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges. Cohen also said Trump directed him to pay off two porn stars who said they had affairs with Trump, payments that prosecutors say were in violation of campaign finance laws. The resentment among several Senate members on how Trump reacted to McCains death also came at a time when the US president clashed sharply with his attorney-general, Jeff Sessions, amid reports that he would fire him. This means that Trump would need to go to the Senate to approve a new appointment. Sessions fired back at Trump late last week after the president gave a scathing assessment of his leadership at the justice department. Sessions, a former senator from Alabama, was one of the first Republican lawmakers to back Trumps presidential election bid and has implemented his hardline immigration policies in the role of attorney-general. But Trump has repeatedly criticised Sessions for recusing himself from overseeing a probe into Russias alleged interference in the 2016 elections and whether Trumps campaign colluded with Moscow. Trump denies any collusion and calls the investigation a witch hunt. I put in an attorney-general who never took control of the justice department, Trump said in a Fox News interview on 23 August. He took the job and then he said, Im going to recuse myself.... I said, what kind of a man is this? In a rare rebuttal, Sessions quickly moved to defend himself. I took control of the department of justice the day I was sworn in, he said in a statement. While I am attorney-general, the actions of the department of justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations. Senator Lindsey Graham, close to Trump and a defender of Sessions, said he believed Trump would appoint a new attorney-general but should wait until after the congressional elections in November, in which the Republicans are seeking to maintain control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Under pressure over the Cohen and Manafort cases, Trump has renewed his criticism of Sessions and reprised his complaints about the justice department and the FBI, accusing them of treating him and his supporters unfairly. The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Trump had discussed with his lawyers a possible pardon for Manafort but had been persuaded to wait until after the November elections. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll showed a slight drop in support among Republicans for Trump following the Manafort conviction and the Cohen plea. The poll found that 78 per cent of Republicans approved of Trump, down from 81 per cent in a seven-day poll that ended on Monday. Overall, 37 per cent of adults said they approved of Trumps performance in office, down from 43 per cent in the earlier poll. Trumps approval numbers have been relatively stable since he took office in January 2017 when compared with his predecessors, and his popularity has not wavered much among Republicans. Trumps former lawyer, Cohen, testified on 21 August that at the direction of the president he had arranged six-figure hush payments ahead of the 2016 presidential elections to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Both women have said they had affairs with Trump, which he has denied. Cohen gave his testimony in a New York courtroom as part of a deal with prosecutors in which he pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, tax evasion and bank fraud. Trump said on Twitter on Wednesday that the campaign finance violations to which Cohen pleaded guilty were not a crime, even though prosecutors and Cohen agreed that they were. His lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has said the payments were personal in nature and unrelated to the campaign. US legal experts have been debating whether a president can be charged with a crime while in office. A number of legal experts have said that a president cannot be indicted while in office, and that if a president commits a crime the appropriate recourse would be impeachment. The US Constitution specifies that the president can be impeached for treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanours. The US Supreme Court has not ruled on whether a sitting president can be charged with a crime, but in a 2000 memorandum the department of justice concluded that criminal proceedings could interfere with the presidents ability to carry out his job. Other experts have said that a sitting president can be indicted, arguing that no person is above the law. As the debate on impeachment heated up in Washington, Trump warned in his Fox News interview that everybody would be very poor and questioned how he could be impeached when he had improved economic conditions. If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash, I think everybody would be very poor, Trump said in response to a question on whether he believed the Democrats would try to impeach him if they won back control of Congress. You know, I guess it says something like high crimes and all I dont know how you can impeach somebody who has done a great job, Trump said, referring to the Constitution. Trump said during the interview that he would give himself an A+ if asked to grade his performance in office so far, citing his successful appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and predicting that Brett Kavanaugh, his next pick, would be confirmed as well. * A version of this article appears in print in the 30 August 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Growing debate on Trumps impeachment Search Keywords: Short link: We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Myanmar's military has released 75 child soldiers, a UN agency said, its first discharge this year as part of a gradual process to end decades of forced recruitment of underage fighters. There are no concrete figures on how many children are still among the estimated 500,000 troops that serve in Myanmar's military, or the ethnic rebel armies that it battles in the country's border regions. The state's army has released 924 children and young people from its ranks since signing a deal with the United Nations in 2012, according to Friday's statement released by UN child protection agency UNICEF. The child soldiers released will have to attend reintegration programmes to return them to civilian life, a process that will contribute to "bringing lasting peace in Myanmar as productive citizens", the statement added. Experts say that as long as the army and ethnic armed groups continue warring within Myanmar, children remain at risk of recruitment. They are usually kidnapped or taken by force from public spaces like parks and train stations in their towns, before being threatened with jail time if they refuse to be conscripted. UNICEF added in addition to the army there are seven other "persistent perpetrators" that recruit child soldiers including the Kachin Independence Army and the Shan State Army South -- both ethnic groups that continue to engage in skirmishes with the Myanmar military. Search Keywords: Short link: PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A former Multnomah County Health Department employee accused of sexually assaulting someone in Portland has been arrested in California. KATU-TV reports 64-year-old Sandy Ortiz was arrested earlier this month and has been booked in Multnomah County Jail on two counts of sex abuse. According to investigators, Ortiz met the victim while working at the Multnomah County Health Department's Northeast Health Center. The investigation started in May 2018 when the victim told police he was sexually assaulted by Ortiz from the summer of 2000 through the summer of 2001 at Ortiz's apartment. Multnomah County Health said in a statement that officials learned that police had contacted Ortiz about abuse allegation in late June. He was placed on administrative leave July 2 and resigned in mid-July. It wasn't immediately known if Ortiz has obtained an attorney. ALBANY, Ore. -- A painter in Albany is suing his former boss for $800,000, after he said he was fired for refusing to go to bible study. His employer said that's not the case. Ryan Coleman said he started working at Dahled Up Construction last October. He said he was struggling to find work when released from prison when Joe Dahl, Owner of Dahled Up Construction, hired him as a painter. "I'll always be grateful for Joel for doing that for me," said Coleman. He said Dahled Up Construction often gives people second chances; both Coleman and Dahl said they have a criminal past. He said within a few weeks, Dahl started requiring employees to attend an hour-long bible study once a week. Being Native American, he said he practices a different religion from Dahl. "If I had known it was something mandatory from the beginning, I never would have began working for him," said Coleman. Coleman said he doesn't go anywhere without this medicine bag: "When I pray to the Creator this is what I hold in my hand, like a Christian would a cross." Coleman said he was paid for the time he spent in bible study, but it still didn't sit right with him. After missing a bible study in April, Coleman said was fired. "It was the first, the first I didn't show up...and he let me go," said Coleman. "I don't expect anybody to pray to God. I don't tell them who they can believe in," said Dahl. He said none of his people are required to attend bible studies. Dahl said he didn't fire Coleman; he said Coleman left voluntarily: "When this all came about he was on call and got employment with another payment company." Coleman is suing Dahl for Religious Discrimination, Whistleblower Retaliation and Wrongful Termination. Andy Lewinter, an Employment Lawyer in Eugene, said cases like this are often hard to sort out. He said circumstantial evidence plays a very important role. "One key piece of circumstantial evidence is very often the close timing of a certain event to when the employee got fired or suffered as adverse effect," said Lewinter. As for Coleman and Dahl, neither side is budging. "This is different. This is stressful," said Dahl. "Its unfortunate that weve come to this point," said Coleman. According to court documents, Coleman and his lawyer are asking for $50,000 for lost income and for $750,000 for mental stress, humiliation, inconvenience and loss of enjoyment of life. Turkey's foreign minister called for a new chapter in testy diplomatic ties with Greece on Saturday, even as he berated the neighbouring country for providing a safe haven for Turkish "criminals." Eight Turkish commandos are seeking asylum in Greece after commandeering a helicopter to flee Turkey following a failed coup attempt against President Tayyip Erdogan in July 2016. Turkey describes the fugitives as criminals involved in the coup plot, and has demanded that Greece hand them back. Greek courts have so far rejected Ankara's requests. "The situation in our relations today is not to the benefit of our countries. Building trust is important. We should open a new chapter in our relations," Mevlut Cavusoglu told Ta Nea newspaper in an interview released on Saturday. "We should continue the process of bilateral talks without any conditions. This is the way to solve our problems." He repeated demands, however, for the eight commandos to be sent to Turkey to face trial. "The Greek justice system, contrary to the rules and the principles of the international law, is letting the culprits go unpunished and is violating the victims' rights," Cavusoglu was quoted as saying. "We remain determined in our effort to make sure that the fugitive coup perpetrators will be extradited and stand trial in Turkey," he added. Long-time regional rivals, the two neighbours have been at odds over a host of issues from ethnically divided Cyprus to rights in the Aegean Sea. Rhetoric on both sides in recent months has taken a marked turn for the worse, particularly after the collapse of peace talks in Cyprus in July 2017. The European Union depends on Turkey to keep a tight lid on immigration from the Middle East, where the war in Syria has killed hundreds of thousands and pushed millions from homes. Under a 2016 deal, Ankara has to take back all migrants and refugees, including Syrians, who cross to Greece illegally across the sea. In return, the EU has to take in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey and reward it with more money, early visa-free travel and faster progress in EU membership talks. Cavusoglu said Turkey respected the deal and that the EU should now keep its promises, including granting the visa-free travel, extending a second three billion-euro tranche for the Syrian refugees and making progress on EU accession talks. Search Keywords: Short link: MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) -- Sen. Ron Wyden is proposing legislation for the federal government to pay for the hotel stays of people fleeing their homes because of wildfire smoke. The Mail Tribune reports the Democratic U.S. senator's bill would open up an existing Federal Emergency Management Agency program, which covers temporary lodging for people who can't immediately return home following a disaster, to include smoke as an eligible reason for lodging assistance. Wyden says he considers wildfire smoke as a public health emergency. He says the smoke in Oregon and other parts of the West is creating "clean air refugees." Wyden says some details for the Clean Air Refugee Assistance Act still need to be worked out. A cost estimate has not been figured yet. ROSEBURG, Ore. -- The GED program at Umpqua Community College has been recognized as the best at any community college in the state for the second year in a row. According to statistics from the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission, UCCs program is the only community college GED program in the state to have a third of its students get their GED. Students and officials said that is because of the support their program offers to get students to the next phase in their lives. Before entering the GED program, students go through a core skills program to enhance their life skills. Monique Reinwald, the Assessment and Tracking Coordinator for the Adult Skills Program, said their whole program, which includes GED classes, helps students prepare for what they want to do with their life. Students that are going to be ready to go into the work force, going to be ready to take that next step, whether it be coming to UCC or doing some sort of training program, or theyre going to go out into the community and maybe go into the military, Reinwald said. At only $20 for a 10-week course, Reinwald said its an affordable way to get started on a new path. Former GED student Jennifer Hagerty said they will assist you with anything you need to get into and through their courses. If they have transportation issues, we have gas cards and bus passes, Hagerty said. If you have barriers for child care, they have lists of people you can contact. If you need clothes, they have a clothes closet. If you need food, they have a food closet. If you need school supplies, they have school supplies. Hagerty completed the GED course in 2015 and is now enrolled as a nursing student at UCC. With two special needs kids at home and a job, she said she had to work hard to complete the program. Hagerty said she couldnt have done it without UCC. A lot of people -- sometimes theyre afraid to ask for help or they dont know that its okay to need help, and at the Woolley Center they just made me feel that I could go to them with whatever I needed, Hagerty said. Their main goal was my success. UCC offers GED courses in Tri-City, the Woolley Center on Harvard in Roseburg, and their main campus. You can learn more about their GED program on their website. Minister of Public Enterprise Hisham Tawfik recently announced that the ministry would begin plans to restructure the public sector in September with a view to improving companies performance and paying off their debts. Meetings would be held with each of the state-owned companies to discuss the ministrys vision for reform according to the situation of each company, he said. He added that plans given to the companies would be set according to a comprehensive study of each sector. Egypts public sector includes 121 companies in different areas affiliated to eight holding companies with 210,000 employees. These companies have been criticised for being inefficient and making losses that in some cases have reached 90 per cent of their capital. President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi has asked the government to draw up plans to reform the public-sector companies and increase their share of the economy. Speaking during the inauguration of projects in Beni Sweif in August, he said that financial assistance could be provided to upgrade the performance of these companies, but positive results would also be necessary. He asked the minister concerned to track the assets of the public-sector companies and act accordingly. This is an important step because if there are unused assets owned by the public-sector companies the government could use them to pay off the sectors debts, Ehab Al-Dessouki, head of economics at the Al-Sadat Academy for Administrative Sciences, said. The plans include different approaches to the problem of the companies debts, mainly due to the National Bank for Investment, the Ministry of Electricity,and the Ministry of Petroleum. The debts currently exceed LE40 billion, and Tawfik said that paying them could be through cash installments during a fixed period, shifting the ownership of shares in the companies, or employing unused assets to the benefit of creditors. According to Tawfik, the plans will start with a dozen companies, setting out clear steps to help them stand on their feet again. Mohamed Al-Batal, head of administration at the state-owned Nasr Company for Spinning and Weaving in Al-Mahallah Al-Kobra, said that as part of the reform plans last week his company had been requested by the Holding Company for Spinning and Weaving to send a detailed statement of the Companys workers, salaries and bonuses over the coming three years and the ages of retirement of all workers. He said that the plans should be combined with investment to buy new machines to replace older ones that were no longer able to compete with the private sector. Although there had been many unsuccessful attempts at restructuring his company in the past, Al-Batal said that workers were optimistic and hoped the plans would succeed. Mokhtar Al-Sherif, a professor of economics at Mansoura University, said that the public sector was a gigantic machine that had enabled the country to build its military infrastructure after the 1967 defeat. However, since the second half of the 1970s the sector had deteriorated due to a lack of investment, the failure to upgrade machines and the neglect of training for workers. To restructure the sector, the government needed to provide funds to upgrade the technology of these companies, Al-Sherif said, questioning why the state had earlier stopped developing the public sector. Ahmed Al-Sayed Al-Naggar, former chairman of the board of Al-Ahram, wrote in an article on Ahram Online in 2016 that since 1975 there had been an organised destruction process in the public sector in mismanaging some of its companies and turning them into loss-making units that could be sold off to local, Arab and foreign investors. These deals had seen horrendous wastes of public money and unprecedented levels of corruption, he said. He added that the judiciary had decided to return some of these companies to the state in the light of the corruption that had tarnished some privatisation deals. The public sector became an orphan when it came under the control of the Ministry of Investment from 2004 to 2016. During this period, the ministry took charge of privatising it, while the idea of reforming it was discarded. Even when it was reported that there were ongoing reforms, these were actually unfair sales of the best pieces of land owned by some companies to the benefit of creditors and banks, Al-Naggar said. Besides tackling the debt burden of most public-sector companies, the governments plans include a programme for initial public offerings (IPOs) of 23 of the most successful companies over a period of 24 to 30 months. The total value of the shares to be listed is estimated at between $4.5 and $5.7 million. The aim of the move is to expand the companies ownership and to revitalise the Egyptian stock exchange. Our target is to improve the companies performance and to allow private-sector participation in their boards, Tawfik said. The first stage includes five companies, with the government planning to start with the sale of the Heliopolis Housing and Eastern Tobacco in October. The other three companies on offer in the first stage are Abu Kir Fertilisers, Alexandria Containers and Cargo Handling, and Alexandria Mineral Oils. The government is expecting to secure LE30 billion from the first stage and LE100 billion overall from the offerings. The move is a partial privatisation since the government will keep more than 51 per cent of company shares. Experts believe that the step will help the government bridge its budget deficit and allow businessmen to hold shares in public-sector companies and be representatives of the shareholders on their boards. This will mean improved governance and corruption control, they say, and will also force the companies to disclose their dividends and financial statements. However, Al-Dessouki said the government should carefully study which companies to offer for sale and which should be kept in the states control before acting. He said that earlier privatised companies had proved that companies sold to major investors had the opportunity to succeed more than those sold in public offerings. Investors on the stock exchange seek profits and are not really interested in the activity of the company concerned. They wait until prices increase, and then they sell their shares. They have also often refused to join the boards of directors, negatively affecting the companies performance, he said. Privatisation has gone through two phases in recent decades, the first from 1991 to 1997 and the second from 2004 to 2010. During the privatisation process, 382 state- owned companies were fully or partially privatised and countless lawsuits were then filed resulting in the cancelation of many deals. Interim president Adli Mansour later issued law 32/2014 to prevent any party other than the contracting parties filing lawsuits against contracts made between the government and another party or investor. *A version of this article appears in print in the 30 August 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Public-sector revamp Search Keywords: Short link: AUSTIN, Minn. A bicyclist was taken to the hospital after being hit by a car Friday morning. Austin police say it happened on South Main Street near 9th Place SW. A 61-year-old Austin man was riding his bike when a car driven by John Goetz of Austin pulled through the intersection to turn north onto Main Street. The bicyclist was taken by ambulance to Mayo Clinic Health System in Austin with what are described as non-life threatening injuries. Austin Police Chief Brian Krueger says Goetz claimed he didnt see the bicyclist before pulling into the intersection but two other witnesses told officers Goetz rolled through a stop sign just before the collision. Goetz has been cited for failure to yield. CRESCO, Iowa A teen who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a younger child gets a suspended sentence. Taylor Jurgensen, 18 of Dunkerton, pleaded guilty in Howard County District Court to one count of 3rd degree sex abuse. Authorities say he abused a child of 12 or 13 years of age in April 2017. Jurgensen received a 10 year suspended prison sentence and three to five years of probation. He must stay at the West Union Residential Facility for up to one year and must also register as a sex offender. AMHERST TOWNSHIP, Minn. - 21-year-old William E. Stutzman from rural Harmony has died after a hit-and-run collision involving a buggy. According to the Fillmore County Sheriff's Office, the Amish man died at Gunderson Hospital in La Crosse, Wisc. Connor Keene Connor Keene PREVIOUS STORY AMHERST TOWNSHIP, Minn. An arrest has been made after a hit-and-run collision involving an Amish buggy. The Fillmore County Sheriffs Office says a 911 call about the crash came in around 3:45 pm Friday. It happened near the 18000 block of County Road 21. Three Amish males in the buggy, ages 21, 19, and 17 years old, were hurt and the 21-year-old was taken to the hospital with what are described as serious, life-threatening injuries. The vehicle believed to have struck the buggy was found west of the collision scene in the 33000 block of County Road 16. The Sheriffs Office says it was hidden in a hayfield alongside a cornfield. The vehicle had been abandoned. The K9 unit from the Houston County Sheriffs Office was called to the area and after a short search, Connor Keene, 24 of Canton, was found and arrested. Keene has been booked into the Fillmore County jail where the Sheriffs office says he will be held until he can be arraigned for criminal vehicular operation of a motor vehicle. CRESCO, Iowa Stealing an SUV results in probation for a northeast Iowa teen. Brandon Joseph Kimber, 19, pleaded guilty to operating a vehicle without the owners consent. Cresco police accused him of driving away in a Toyota Venza that had been parked in front of the Subway shop on 2nd Avenue SE on January 16. The SUV was later located at the Caseys General Store in West Union. A tip led to Kimbers arrest. Hes been sentenced to one to two years of supervised probation. MASON CITY, Iowa - If you're looking for something to do this Labor Day weekend, there are a couple of events in Mason City to keep in mind. The Cannonball Cross Cyclocross Race is being held on the north side of East Park, and is expected to draw in racers from both Iowa and Minnesota, as well as other states, and to be a spectator friendly event. So far, registration is up 35% over last year's race. For participants, the race will be held rain or shine, but if there is lightning, the event will be postponed. Also in East Park is the annual Craft Beer Shindig and Street Food Fair, featuring 40 types of beer from across Iowa, as well as ciders and wine, food trucks and vendors, and local and regional musicians. Justin Merritt is with Mason City Brewing, which has organized the event since its inception in 2013, with this year marking the first year the event has been held for two days. He says that the possibility of rain won't deter them from having fun. "If it's just sprinkling, we are still able to serve beer. People will be able to bring their ponchos and their umbrellas. But if it gets bad, we can always move stuff to the brewery. A little bit smaller venue, but definitely have the ability to do that too," Merritt said. "Usually there's several thousand people, kind of goes back and forth, people come and go throughout the day. Like last year, even with the rain, it was still around 3,000 people, was our estimated attendance.," says Merritt. The Shindig wraps up Saturday night. Egypt and China signed on Saturday five cooperation agreements during a visit by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to the east Asian country. According to official news agency MENA, the agreements included cooperation in the fields of industrial quality, cooperation in projects related to productive capacity, a loan, and a Chinese-funded electric train that will run to Egypts planned new administrative capital. In 2017, Egypt announced its plan for the $255 million electric train project to run to the new capital. Officials have said it will save millions of dollars in fuel subsidies and reduce traffic. The project will be financed through a loan from China to be paid back over 20 years. The agreements also included the manufacture of an Egyptian satellite, as well as a framework agreement for future projects in the coming three years. The signing took place in a meeting between El-Sisi and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. Both leaders had also held another meeting to discuss ways of boosting bilateral ties across various fields and issues of mutual interest. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is in China for a four-day visit, he is also set to participate in the China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Forum held on 3 and 4 September. Search Keywords: Short link: ROCHESTER, Minn. - John McCain's funeral services at the Capitol were televised across the country. At the Rochester VFW Post 1215, the funeral was on their televisions all morning. Watching McCain being laid to rest brings a feeling of pride for veterans, explains Senior Vice Commander Chad Stowers. "We're very proud of what he did. He led POWs where he was staying; He was a Vietnam War veteran; He was a champion of veterans' rights, so that's what the veterans are going to remember him for." One major mistake I made in 2017 was selling Kirkland Lake (KL.T) too early. Today it is by far the best performing North American listed gold producer from a share price perspective. I recommended Kirkland Lake to my subscribers at $7 per share. Last month, the stock cracked $30 per share. Kirkland Lake Gold is a company that I am very familiar with. And I have owned it several times. The company started out like most do. Several management teams and ideas came together at the right time. And in the right sequence. The first meeting the new management team at Crocodile Gold had in 2015 was with me in my Vancouver office. After the meeting, I bought 10 percent of the company. The first report published when I opened the doors of Katusa Research was on this company. In fact, the first institutional level report published on their new business plan with Crocodile Gold becoming Newmarket Gold was the report I published. Newmarket Gold merged with Kirkland Lake Gold, and under Tonys leadership, Kirkland Lake has become the $5 billion powerhouse it is today. Then in the November 2017 issue of Katusas Resource Opportunities titled Get Ready to Buy: Bargain Season is Coming, I recommended Kirkland Lake Gold to my subscribers. The market failed to recognize the cash flow generation of the newly merged company, and the incredible assets that came from the Newmarket side of the transaction. A company with such high-quality assets and cash flow should have been trading at a premium. Instead, it was trading at a significant discount. One of my favorite peer comparison metrics is the Enterprise Value per Ounce multiple. Its an apples to apples comparison between a companys Enterprise Value (Market Cap + Debt Cash) and its gold production. At the time it had an enterprise value per ounce of gold produced much lower than its peer group This was just one of many comparables I published in the report to my subscribers. Another comparable I used was the companys cash flow per share compared to its peer group. The chart below shows the Price to cash flow of the intermediate gold producers from 2016. At the time of that Nov 2017 publication, the stock was trading at CAD$8.29. But I was not comfortable buying at those prices. I wanted to buy it like an alligator under CAD$7.00. And thats the guidance I wrote to my subscribers: There is no need to rush out and buy a full position and wait for the repricing back to the peer group. This will take alligator-like patience. Accumulate stock slowly and always buy on weakness; do not overpay for the stock. A couple of weeks later, patience prevailed. We were able to purchase the stock under the buy target. My investment thesis was proving correct over the next several months as the market started to wake up to Kirklands potential. Take a look Months later, Kirkland Lake Gold was the top performing gold stock in the first quarter of 2017. We closed our position with a big gain. Yes, I sell too early. I know. My wife tells me all the time. So does Doug Casey. But they have both done incredibly well with me. To succeed in resource stocks, you must be willing to stalk assets and wait for exactly the right time to buy . When the stars align and we get a great price on one of our stocks, we strike. As I often say, you are the alligator. Your list of assets is your prey. By stalking, youll get them at the right time, at the right price. Now its Kirkland Lakes Turn to Justify its Share Price Today, Kirkland Lake is Eric Sprotts largest publicly disclosed resource position. He owns 22 million shares, roughly a CAD$560 million piece of the company. Other companies have seen their share prices depreciate in these tough precious metals markets. Meanwhile, Kirkland Lake shares have appreciated sharply. Given this unique situation, I believe Kirkland Lake should backfill their share price. Its a polite way of saying that Kirkland Lake is expensive relative to its peers. Eric, Tony, and the crew at Kirkland Lake are smart. I believe they will use their currency advantage, aka expensive stock, to buy an undervalued gold producer. Management know this. I know this. Investment Bankers know this. And now you know this. So, why am I focusing on Kirkland Lake? Because the share price is ahead of itself. And management, being smart, will use their expensive share price paper to take over an undervalued producer and improve the value of Kirkland Lake. Below, I detail my methodology for finding these next takeover targets. Who Will Kirkland Lake Buy? Katusas Gold Producer Takeover Methodology I called a meeting of the Katusa Research brain trust and we got to work. For those readers that want to know the criteria that we used, here you go. First, you want to identify single producing projects that are: Not owned by majors; Located in non-AK47 nations; Producing at least 75,000 ounces of gold per year. Ill save you some time and tell you this. There are over 600 producing gold mines in the world. I ran the criteria above through more filters and cross-referenced my mining database. I then eliminated the following: Low-grade projects; Projects with short mine lives (less than 8 years with no exploration potential); High-cost mines (cash costs of more than $800 per ounce; general rule of thumb if cash costs are $800, all-in sustaining costs could be as high as ~$1,200 per ounce). Again, Ill save you the time. I came up with a list of 89 potential mines. From the remaining list, we combed through each individual project. This is the criteria that we used: Who would it be a good fit for? Does mining the deposit need a unique skill set which discourages many potential suitors? Are there any potential synergies with mines operating nearby? Is there some low-hanging fruit to be plucked which creates extra value for the buyer? Kirkland Lake Gold has the market cap (CAD$5.3 billion) and the cash (CAD$400 million) to make significant waves in the gold sector. I believe gold is going lower and gold equity prices will drop with it. I also believe that tax loss season (just a few months away) will add to the selling pressure, and that this will happen to even the most likely takeout candidates. If youre a director or on the management team of a gold company, you need to know if youre on their radar. Im ready. Are you ready for the coming race for the best undervalued gold assets in the world? Dream Away is co-directed by Marouan Omara and Johanna Domke Egyptian documentary film Dream Away has been selected for the official competition of the 2nd El-Gouna International Film Festival and the 62nd BFI London Film Festival. El-Gouna International Film Festival will open on 20 September, while the London Film Festival will be held between 10 and 21 October. The film is directed by Egyptian director Marouan Omara, and German director Johanna Domke. They previously worked together on the documentary Crop. Last year, the film took part in the Final Cut workshop programme of the Venice Film Festival in Italy. Dream Away follows the struggles of rural youth from modest backgrounds living in the Egyptian resort city Sharm El-Sheikh and working within the tourism industry. In this westernised environment, some find the values of freedom and independence to which they have aspired since the 2011 Revolution, while others equate the vacationers behaviours with sin. To all of them, life in Sharm El-Sheikh seems balanced between ancient, deeply-rooted traditions and the Western model of consumption, independence and sexual freedom. The film is Omaras first feature-length documentary. After studying filmmaking at the Art and Technology of Cinema Academy, he went on to direct several short and mid-length films and documentaries. His other films include Azziara (2015), and One Plus One Makes a Pharaohs Chocolate Cake, which premiered at the 67th Berlinale within the Forum Expanded segment. Domke is a visual artist and filmmaker. She has exhibited her work in France, Denmark and Germany, among other countries. She won the Award of the International Video Art Forum in Hamburg in 2006. For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter [email protected] on Facebook atAhram Online: Arts & Culture Search Keywords: Short link: How the Turkish lira crisis could hit the Egyptian economy The recent Turkish economic crisis casts heavy shadows on the overall economic situation in Turkey and how this might also hit emerging markets. However, discussion about this subject is controversial and requires a fair understanding of the Turkish economy over the past two decades. One also needs to appreciate the historical, religious, political and economic relations between Egypt and Turkey before any attempt is made to explore the recent currency crisis in Turkey and expectations about its potential impact on emerging markets and Egypt in particular. Turkey and Egypt share deep-rooted ties, as both countries have maintained strong historical, religious, cultural and social relations. Historically, Egypt was also part of the former Ottoman Empire for three centuries. Diplomatic relations between Egypt and Turkey date back to 1925 when the two countries exchanged diplomatic representatives. However, relations between them since then have gone back and forth between coldness and warmth. They have been extremely friendly at times and strained at others. In 1925, Turkey established diplomatic relations with Egypt at the level of charge daffaires. The Turkish mission was upgraded to ambassadorial level in 1948. In 2005, both countries signed a free-trade agreement. In 2008, Egypt and Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding to expand military relations and cooperation between the two countries. However, relations have also been relatively tense on many occasions in the history of both countries, including during the rule of Gamal Abdel-Nasser in Egypt in the 1950s and 1960s. They also strongly deteriorated in the period following the 30 June Revolution and the overthrow of former president Mohamed Morsi. Subsequently, the Egyptian government expelled the Turkish ambassador from Cairo. According to the US Central Intelligence Agency, Turkeys largely free-market economy is driven by its industry and, increasingly, its service sectors. The recent period of political unrest has given way to domestic uncertainty and security concerns, which are generating financial market volatility and weighing on Turkeys economic outlook. Between July 2016 and March 2017, three international credit-rating agencies downgraded Turkeys sovereign credit ratings, citing concerns about the rule of law and the pace of economic reforms in the country. According to economic research prepared by the A&T Bank in 2017, Turkeys exports to Egypt decreased by 12.5 per cent to $2.7 billion in 2016, and imports rose by 18.7 per cent to $1.4 billion compared to 2015. The trade volume between Turkey and Egypt stood at $4.2 billion in 2016 and is on a descending trend. Egypt mainly imports mineral fuels, oils, distillation products, iron and steel and machinery, nuclear reactors and boilers from Turkey, while it mainly exports plastics, cotton, articles of apparel, accessories and man-made staple fibres to Turkey. Surprisingly, the Turkish lira fell in one day on 10 August 2018 by 14 per cent. It has also fallen by more than 45 per cent against the US dollar since the start of the year. The deterioration of the currency increased after the US imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imported from Turkey, as well as sanctions over the continued detention of an American pastor in Turkey since 2016. However, the real reasons for the steep decline in the value of the lira are due to a number of other factors, notably the increased volume of borrowing, especially from the private sector. Turkeys trade deficit between exports and imports also increased by 37.5 per cent compared to the previous year to reach $77.06 billion during 2017. And the reduction of Turkeys credit rating by the rating agencies further added pressure on the Turkish lira and weakened confidence in it and in the Turkish economy. However, what does the Turkish lira crisis mean for the rest of the world? Some experts have warned that the crisis may extend to other emerging economies despite the fact that Turkeys economy accounts for just one per cent of the world economy. This was evident when the European markets fell sharply following the crash of the Turkish lira, particularly in countries with banks exposed to the Turkish currency. Emerging-market currencies have continued to slide as investors worry about contagion. Investors who have strong doubts that other emerging markets could follow in Turkeys footsteps, are pulling their money out of countries such as India and Argentina. This could happen in Egypt as well. There are worries that Egyptian markets could be flooded with unnecessary Turkish products sold cheaper than similar Egyptian ones. This, of course, could harm fair practices. Moreover, the tourism sector in Egypt will likely face greater competition from Turkey after the fall of the Turkish lira, making Turkey more attractive and a cheaper tourist destination particularly for Russian and Ukrainian tourists. The export sector in Egypt may suffer as well as a result of the Turkish crisis, as Turkeys exports of products would be cheaper than similar Egyptian products due to the weak Turkish lira. In addition, investors might be attracted away from the Egyptian stock market to benefit from the deteriorating lira. * The writer is vice-chairman of Metropolitan Egypt Consulting. * A version of this article appears in print in the 30 August 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Turkish contagion? Search Keywords: Short link: Rhee Jae-sung, left, president of the Seoul Tourism Organization (STO), answers questions from reporters at a press conference held in downtown Seoul, Tuesday. / Korea Times photo by Lee Suh-yoon The U.S. Department of State has issued a new North Korea travel advisory for its nationals, according to its website. "Do not travel to North Korea due to the serious risk of arrest and long-term detention of U.S. nationals," it said Friday (Washington D.C. time) in a message posted by the bureau of consular affairs. It stated that individuals can't use a U.S. passport to travel to or through the communist nation without a "special validation" from the department. Special validations are granted in very limited circumstances, including for diplomatic or humanitarian activities. The state department calls on those with a special validation to "draft a will and designate appropriate insurance beneficiaries and/or power of attorney." U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a red card as he meets with FIFA President Gianni Infantino in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., Tuesday. Reuters By Oh Young-jin What state is the ROK-U.S. alliance in? On the basis of a series of unilateral moves by Washington, it appears to be in so sorry a state that it is an open question whether it can effectively work toward denuclearizing North Korea. This unilateralism, typical of U.S. President Donald Trump, is running the risk of driving a wedge into the alliance, giving an edge to the North in the nuclear negotiations. But Trump obviously can't learn from experience dealing with the North is frustrating work that may never be done alone. On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis said the U.S. would undo its decision to suspend joint military drills with South Korea. Mattis' remarks were aimed at pressuring the North, which reportedly threatened to pull out of the ongoing negotiations with the U.S. Trump expressed his first regret about the North's foot-dragging, canceling Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to Pyongyang. The present and future of preschool education of the Republic of Uzbekistan The Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan pays special attention to the early development of preschool education. This is one of the priority directions of state policy. Understanding the extreme importance of the early stages of child development led to the need for a new ministry _ the Ministry of Preschool Education, which was established on the initiative of the President on Sept. 30, 2017. Currently, there are 6,154 preschool education institutions in the country, and about 33 percent of preschool children are covered by preschool education. It should be noted that at the time of the creation of the Ministry, the total number of DOWs was only 4,893, thus their number increased by 1,261, which became possible due to the transformation of branches into separate preschool education institutions, new construction and development of the non-state sector. The created favorable conditions for attracting private capital to the sphere of preschool education, as well as simplification of the licensing procedure, led to the fact that in a short time the number of non-state preschool education institutions increased by 2.5 times. Now in the republic there are 568 non-state preschool education institutions. The development of the regulatory framework and the conditions for public-private partnership (PPP) in preschool education has become a major step towards the development of a network of non-state preschool education institutions. On April 5, 2018, Presidential Decree No. 3651 was signed, which approved the Regulations on Public-Private Partnership in the field of preschool education. This document provides various models of public-private partnerships as well as a number of benefits, including tax and customs, and the possibility of obtaining preferential loans for the organization of preschool education institutions. Since the creation of the Ministry of Preschool Education with the assistance and support of the UNICEF International Children's Fund, positive results have been achieved in a short period of time: A draft law on the early development of children of preschool age was developed; State requirements for the development of children of early and preschool age have been improved; The curriculum of preschool education based on the competence approach has been developed; Implementation of the Education Management Information System (EMIS) was launched. To address the personnel problem, short-term courses for the retraining of pedagogical staff in the sphere of preschool education were organized for the first time, and this was the first time not only for people with pedagogical education, but also for providing people with higher non-pedagogical education a flexible entry into the profession. The government also pays attention to stimulating labor, in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan of 28.02.2018. "On measures to improve the terms of payment for certain categories of employees of state preschool education institutions" provides for a two-step increase in wages for Dow workers. At the same time, a higher wage increase was felt by those teachers who have higher education. In order to create an innovative and stimulating education environment in conjunction with the Ministry of Construction of the Republic of Uzbekistan, considering the state of existing preschool education institutions, the Departmental construction norms and rules have been revised, based on the best international practices and taking into account modern requirements. The international experience of leading countries was studied, including: Korea, Great Britain and Finland. Particular attention was paid to constructive and planning solutions such as: standalone buildings of the kitchen, dining room with a heated passage from the main building, insulated floor in the group rooms. Also, when designing preschool education institutions under construction, there will be separate rooms for groups of short-term stay and universal (music, sports) halls. Construction will use energy-saving materials and products (insulation of the facade of the building). For 2018, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan approved the Address Program for the Republic, which provides for new construction of 40, reconstruction of 298 and overhaul of 29 preschool education institutions. The system of organization of healthy nutrition is revised _ it is allowed to conclude contracts with direct suppliers, seasonal menus have been developed, the system of outsourcing of services for catering in Tashkent and the Syrdarya region is launched in a pilot mode. International cooperation is actively being established in the spheres of training, retraining and advanced training of pedagogical and managerial personnel in the field of preschool education, creating media content, developing new teaching and methodological and didactic materials, and the construction of preschool education institutions. At the initiative of the Ministry of Preschool Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan, on July 2, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan adopted the Resolution "On the Establishment of the Puchon University (Republic of Korea) in Tashkent," where already in the academic year 2018/2019, education will be organized in the direction of preschool education. Already today, you can give examples of attracting foreign investment in the form of sponsorship. So, Dow No. 324 of Mirzo-Ulugbek district of Tashkent is completely reconstructed and equipped according to the Korean model for the new academic year with the support of the company New Millennium and the University of Sijon (Republic of Korea). The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) has reconstructed and equipped the DOW No. 1 of the Kagansky District, Bukhara Region, Dow No. 104 of Samarkand and DOW No. 323 of the Yakkasaray District of Tashkent. By International Children's Day with the support of domestic sponsors, attracted by the Ministry of Preschool Education, the non-functioning preschool No. 48 in Nukus was put into operation for many years. Under the decision of the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan to support children from socially vulnerable segments of the population, half of the children will attend this DOW free of charge. Currently, the Ministry of Preschool Education is actively working to attract foreign investment and implement various projects with international financial institutions. In the period from 2019 to 2024, the project will be implemented jointly with the World Bank "Improving Early Childhood Development," worth $60 million. Also, cooperation is envisaged for the development of projects with the Asian and Islamic Development Banks. As a result of systemic reforms, the Ministry of Preschool Education provides for a significant increase in the coverage of children up to 2031 to 85 percent. Particular attention will be paid to children at the age of six, covering them with compulsory free one-year preparation for school. Beginning in September 2018, a gradual transition will be implemented for one mandatory free year training of children for school, which will be piloted in all regions of the republic, in a number of selected areas. Thus, the coverage of children aged six by 2021 will reach 100 percent. The main directions of increasing the enrollment of children aged three to seven with preschool education are: Construction of new preschool education institutions; Reconstruction, major repairs, equipping of vacant and vacant premises and buildings; Development of alternative forms of preschool education institutions with a flexible work schedule, such as: short-stay groups, family preschool education institutions, the creation of preschool education institutions on one floor of new buildings under construction; Development of a network of non-state preschool education institutions on the basis of public-private partnership; Step-by-step transition to compulsory free one-year preparation of children for school aged six to seven on the basis of preschool education institutions, general schools and mahalla committees. International Significance of the UN Resolution on Strengthening Cooperation in Central Asia At the plenary session on June 22, 2018, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution on "Strengthening regional and international cooperation to ensure peace, stability and sustainable development in the Central Asian Region." According to the Uzbek Foreign Ministry, which made a statement on this event the next day, the draft of the document, developed by Uzbekistan along with other Central Asian states, was unanimously supported by all U.N. members. International Significance of the UN Resolution on Strengthening Cooperation in Central Asia At the plenary session on June 22, 2018, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution on "Strengthening regional and international cooperation to ensure peace, stability and sustainable development in the Central Asian Region." According to the Uzbek Foreign Ministry, which made a statement on this event the next day, the draft of the document, developed by Uzbekistan along with other Central Asian states, was unanimously supported by all U.N. members. International Significance of the UN Resolution on Strengthening Cooperation in Central Asia At the plenary session on June 22, 2018, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution on "Strengthening regional and international cooperation to ensure peace, stability and sustainable development in the Central Asian Region." According to the Uzbek Foreign Ministry, which made statement on this event the next day, the draft of the document, developed by Uzbekistan along with other Central Asian states, was unanimously supported by all U.N. members. BACKGROUND: Certainly, this event can be described as historical one not just for Central Asian countries. If we give insight into the nature of the resolution, it is difficult to overestimate its significance in a broader, international context. From the conceptual point of view, the adoption of the resolution marked a new stage in the history of Central Asian countries as the region has been consolidating. Moreover, for the first time the Central Asian states have confirmed their ability not only to make joint actions to solve all common regional problems, but also to ensure the wellbeing and prosperity of Central Asian nations since they gained independence in 1991. IMPLICATIONS: Importance of the Resolution for Uzbekistan Initially, the adoption of such kind of document was initiated by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev at the 72nd session of the U.N. General Assembly in September 2017. In his speech in New York concerning the organization of the International Conference on Central Asia in Samarkand in November 2017, the Head of the Republic of Uzbekistan proposed to develop a U.N. resolution after the conference in order to support the Central Asian countries' efforts to ensure security and strengthen cooperation in the region. The adoption of the resolution was not only evidence of the implementation of Uzbekistan's initiative, but also confirmation of international recognition and support of Tashkent's new regional policy. The reason of this is simple: "Our main goal," President Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted at the Samarkand Conference, "is to turn Central Asia into a stable, economically developed and prosperous region through joint efforts." All partners of Uzbekistan from near and far abroad as well as highly influential international organizations totally understand and support our country. The world community clearly understands that Uzbekistan's modern policy is aimed at full disclosure of our nation's potential in the region without contradicting the other countries' interests. Shavkat Mirziyoyev's foreign policy course opens the way for the development of the entire region. Importance of the Resolution for Central Asia The Central Asian countries _ Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan _ not only actively supported Uzbekistan's initiative, but also cosponsored the U.N. General Assembly resolution on Central Asia. The document reflects mutual support of the Central Asian states' initiatives, which have made a significant practical contribution to strengthening regional security and ensuring sustainable development. Particularly, the outcomes of the debate in the Security Council on Afghanistan in January 2018 when Kazakhstan chaired the U.N. Security Council as well as the regular holding of the World Nomad Games in Kyrgyzstan were reflected in the resolution. Moreover, the resolution included the results of the international conference dedicated to the problems of combating terrorism and extremism which was held in Tajikistan in May 2018. Central Asian countries welcomed an upcoming Summit of the Heads of States of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea in Turkmenistan. They have also supported Uzbekistan's initiative on the annual convening of the Central Asian countries leaders' consultative meetings. In fact, the resolution has become Central Asian states' consolidated response both to regional problems, challenges and threats of globalization. Furthermore, the Central Asia countries have significantly strengthened their roles as independent actors of the international relations system as well as their capacity of being responsible for our region's present and future. During the period of independent development of Central Asian countries such positive dynamics in the region is unprecedented. Nowadays they have reached a qualitatively new level of regional cooperation. And what are the reasons of this success? Firstly, objective historical conditions that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Central Asian states gained their independence during the bipolar world order disintegration, associated with the emergence of new challenges and threats to stability, increased geopolitical rivalry and escalation of armed confrontation in neighboring regions. In addition, the security situation in the region was complicated by the heavy burden of internal political, socio-economic, ideological and other problems that the Central Asian countries faced in the 1990s and subsequent period. At that time, newly independent Central Asian states were occupied with vital issues of state building, the search for self-identity in the global world. Essentially all states of the region lacked experience both in domestic and foreign affairs and had to concentrate, especially on their own problems, as well as on the most acute threats to regional security. In particular, as American expert S. Comell notes, Uzbekistan played a very important role in Central Asia for 25 years. Since the early days of its independence, the country has taken a firm stand against radicalism and extremist ideologies, and has pursued a strong policy aimed at preventing the spread of extremist ideology in the region. Deeply aware of the Central Asian nations' interests and destinies as well as the indivisibility of security, Uzbekistan has always committed to the priority of ensuring regional security as an important factor for development. In this context, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev's words are not casual: "During the most difficult periods of the region's modern history, unlike many others, Uzbekistan managed to maintain peace and stability, to avoid escalating local conflicts into a major interstate confrontation as well." Consequently, Central Asian countries'5 political systems and administrative institutions were formed and strengthened. Their own models and concepts of national development were elaborated and implemented. With the integration into the international relations system the Central Asian countries have accumulated great experience in building foreign policy, that requires a fresh look at the strategic prospects and advantages of regional cooperation in a globalized world. Secondly, Uzbekistan's new regional policy in Central Asia. As the director of the Center for Central Asia and Afghanistan Studies of Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) A. Kazantsev mentions, Uzbekistan has demonstrated quite a serious potential in resolving regional conflicts. Over the past two years, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev from scratch has managed to solve all the problems that existed in Central Asia, thereby laying the foundations for solving regional problems. Currently, Central Asian countries express a firm readiness for constructive changes in bilateral and multilateral relations. The states of the region are more than ever concentrated on consolidating their efforts to increase their competitiveness in the world and strengthen the international political entity of the entire region. Importance of the Resolution for the international community The adoption of the U.N. resolution on Central Asia is an unprecedented event in the newest history of the states of the region, as it was unanimously supported by other countries from almost all continents of the world Australia, North and South America, Asia, Africa and Europe. According to the Uzbek Foreign Ministry, all the leading partners of Central Asian countries, including Russia, China, the United States and the EU, took active participation in the consultations on the document drafting. In fact, the world community expressed its firm and unconditional support for Central Asian countries' efforts to deepen regional cooperation, which is one of the most important factors of stability and development of the region. At present, it is acknowledged that Central Asia's security is an integral part of global security. In the current period when some regions of the world have been witnessing political tensions and conflicts, the strategic prospects for regional cooperation in Central Asia are of particular importance for international security. Growing uncertainty, turbulence and imbalances in the global economy require from Central Asian state a closer, coordinated interaction to find ways and implement common regional development projects. Admittedly, the international community, including states of the region, recognizes that only a stable, dynamically developing and prosperous Central Asia can become an attractive, constructive and long-term partner. If the countries of the region are successful in this direction, then Central Asia can "become a new geopolitical laboratory of stability and peace in Eurasia." CONCLUSIONS: The U.N. resolution on Central Asia, without any exaggeration, marked the entry of Central Asian countries into a new era of interstate relations. The Central Asian states uniquely placed their stake on regional cooperation and received the entire world community's support. Today, there is solid reason to say that such changes have encouraged international partners to fundamentally reconsider their approaches to Central Asia. This gives them hope and confidence in maintaining security, development and prosperity of a strategically important region, located in the heart of Eurasia. AUTHOR'S BIO: Dr. Batir Tursunov is Deputy Director of Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan. 4 By Jung Hae-myoung A hungry burglar has landed himself in hot water after breaking into several restaurants to eat rather than steal. The man, 23, broke into a Korean galbi restaurant in Gwangju in the middle of the night and started cooking the dish in a frypan after raiding the fridge. After eating, he cleaned up the table, washed the dishes and left the building. His next foodie foray happened a few days later when he broke into an Italian restaurant. A security camera caught him in the act of eating two cups of yogurt and leaving. The burglar, surnamed Lee, was released from prison in April after serving a year and two months behind bars. The suspect, with more than 10 criminal convictions, was apparently more interested in eating than stealing money, according to his latest charges. Gwangju police have been investigating Lee over the break-ins. Although he dreamt of becoming a wrestler, Lee now lives in an empty building and sneaks into closed restaurants to sate his hunger, police said. They alleged he gets most of his basic needs from stealing. Police said Lee was raised by relatives until he was in high school. He started living as a nomad after graduation. "We once offered him Chinese food that we were going to order for delivery while we were investigating him," a Gwangju police officer who met Lee told Yonhap. "Apparently this guy had sneaked into this Chinese restaurant before and said he saw cockroaches in the kitchen. We never get Chinese food from that place now." By Oh Young-jin Can anybody hold Google to account and seek punishment of it for its advertisements? Hardly, because, after all, you choose them and you are given an option to switch them off. Or maybe not. A latest example is a Google ad inviting people to meet "beautiful Russian woman." It starts as a "rolling ad" that follows you up and down as you scroll on a website. The rolling ads are everywhere. The revenue they generate is calculated by the number of clicks they get and the money is shared between Google and the websites. Clicked, one moves to the page where he or she is asked to sign in. The background is myriad pictures of young women, in the style of an old high school yearbook. The next time you log in, that "meet" ad multiplies. In one case, there are two plus the existing one. One is embedded in the block of banner ads and another is at the bottom, on its side, promoting a chat room operated by the same dating company. A click on these ads shows a different photo and this time reveals scantily clad women inviting one to continue the process to join this dating service. At stake are some issues. First, these rolling ads serve as bait to lure people to use the service. Anybody can check in including children. The entry-level identification check on the site is easy to dupe, requiring only name and date of birth. Web-savvy kids would navigate it hands down. Google's treasured line of defense logic in a case like this is: it's an algorithm that provides personalized ads to meet the needs and tastes of a given individual. The decision is yours and Google is just a matchmaker and facilitator of the deals. That appears detached for the world's biggest search engine that is used around the world, irrespective of age, gender, culture and other barriers. Does it mean in the eyes of Google that children are just another segment of its clientele and are left to their own devices? Second, what about the underlying negative messages regarding race and gender? Why Russian women and how are they different from women of other nationalities? Does this ad mean Google is willing to dodge new norms of the #MeToo age? Google stands by a customer protection policy that reminds one of that borrowed from the smokestack industry. A click at the top of the rolling ad explains how one reports "inappropriate" ads and switches off unwanted ads. Indeed, a click on the "x" replaces the ad with others. But a real giveaway about Google's ad policy can be found at the upper part of the same customer page, explaining that the ads are pushed to you based on your history of visited sites on Google and Google's analyses of your preferences. This sounds like a Google disclaimer, telling you: "Customers, don't blame us, you have got what you deserve." Do we hear it right? By Hannah Jun This week, most Korean universities will be busy hosting lavish graduation ceremonies for their students. But with recent data from Korea's Ministry of Education suggesting that a half of Korean universities may close within the next decade due to low matriculation, many faculty members and government officials are clearly not in the mood to celebrate. To be fair, we have known for years about the coming mismatch between potential university spots (too many) and the actual number of incoming students (too few). When I came to Ewha three years ago, the school's president addressed the urgency of this danger at the first general faculty meeting I attended. The key takeaway was that our school would have to enhance its competitiveness to withstand the future crisis. But what has changed in the past few years is not the possibility of university closures. Rather, it's the speed at which we are facing this prospect. Based on the most recent data, the number of students wishing to attend university stood at 519,857, very close to the 512,036 students who matriculated this year. But due to falling birthrates and, subsequently, a decline in students eligible to enroll, the number of students hoping to enter university is estimated to fall to 427,566 in 2021 and 398,157 in 2023. So what can we do to address this mismatch? First, we shouldn't assume that secondary school students in Korea will automatically choose to study at local universities. Korea already sends a large number of students abroad and there is wide availability of useful (and free) information online. In other words, we must provide more convincing reasons for students to make the time and resource commitment to study at local universities. Another option that should be taken more seriously is the active recruitment of motivated international students. Countries such as the United States host roughly a million international students (close to 5 percent of all undergraduate and graduate students), with Canada, Australia and other English-speaking countries following suit. Granted, most universities in Korea have made efforts to encourage international student matriculation at the undergraduate and graduate levels. But for the most part, there is still a long way to go when it comes to providing appropriate administrative support, funding, student services, English-language lectures and potential opportunities for student-faculty collaboration. Whether we will face a hard-landing domino scenario is still up in the air. But given these changing dynamics, we should waste no time in doing some serious soul-searching and re-strategizing regarding the future of Korea's universities. Suggested picture: any photo showing university students (either graduation or bustling campus) Hannah Jun, Ph.D. (hannahjun@ewha.ac.kr) is director of the Center for Global Social Responsibility (CGSR) and professor of International Business at Ewha's Graduate School of International Studies, specializing in corporate sustainability and branding strategy. Image from Unsplash By Amanda Price For some time now, there has been a melee of discussion, dissension and disagreement over the role and raison d'etre of freedom of the press in South Korea. Not unlike the Goliath of biblical times, this topical giant has been circling us as if we were frightened Israelites who only momentarily poke our heads out of our tents then duck inside again. I am no David. I don't pretend to be a David and I have no slingshot, river rocks nor can I throw with pinpoint accuracy. Perhaps it may help if we stop hiding in tents, poking our heads out, allowing the topic to become so threatening and waiting for "Davids" to finally slay the giant. Freedom of the press isn't a topical giant and it doesn't have to be an endless debate. To understand freedom of the press, in South Korea or in any nation, means that we need to understand what it means to live with it and without it. The absence of freedom of the press is a key to understanding the critical need for freedom of the press, which is why South Korea's press is so important. Without this empathic appreciation for the absence or presence of "freedom of the press," most arguments seem circular. Those with lots of knowledge and very little real experience stand on any point of the circle, reluctant to give an inch. "Let people say/write whatever the hell they want!" some shout. "Show some discretion," others respond. "Recognize the damage that fake news creates," people warn. "Refer to role of the press and its responsibility," still more argue. To understand the situation in South Korea today, one should enter the discussion knowing where South Korea's press has come from or, rather, what is has gone through. To understand the chaos that the Korean press underwent, one must travel back 100 years. The first Korean newspaper, the Hansung Sungo, was published in 1883. Several other Korean papers followed fast on its heels. The purpose of these newspapers was predominantly to provide a changing Korea with information that was both educational and edifying. The papers talked about loyalty to a Korea that did not require fawning over the king's officials and they emphasized the need for governments that served the needs of all Koreans. These papers also shone light on the need for Korea to take its first precarious steps into the dawn of a new century. Somewhat incredibly, these papers performed the function of scrutinizers, writing about corruption and incompetency in government departments. During these formative years, Korean newspapers were just on the verge of becoming significant social facilitators for change and progress. These papers, potentially, acted as a social forerunner in a Korea that was ready for new ideas. Tragically, these new social leaders had a very brief lifespan. They would be assassinated before they were much more than 22 years old. By 1905, Korea had been occupied by Japan and its newspapers were almost as quickly appropriated. A new sheriff was in town and he did not much like folk talking behind his back. In fact, this new sheriff had some re-educating of his own to do, and he did it with alarming precision and efficiency. W.E. Berry, one of the authors of "Revisiting Four Theories of the Press" (a daunting title in itself), provides us with quite an exacting definition of freedom of the press. He wrote: "A truly free press would be free not just of state intervention but also of market forces and ownership ties and a host of other material bonds." Suddenly, I'm imagining a group of journalists sitting on a deserted island searching for a signal. One thing I don't imagine is the Korean press under Japanese occupation. Having quoted that idealistic definition, here is my humble and less succinct attempt at a definition: "Freedom of the press is independence from any influences, be they external, such as governments, or internal, such as media CEOs or senior editors, that create obstacles OF ANY KIND that deter or create hindrances, or downright demand that journalists be less than journalists." What I'm talking about here is not just freedom of the press, but freedom to be journalists. At the core of each of these freedoms is that also much-debated word, "ethics." Ethics is what makes great journalists. Ethics is what sets you apart from the mud-rakers and rabid pack of news hounds, and ethics can cost you your job. Dealing with the suppression and liberation of national and personal identity, the struggle for political autonomy (even to understand the concept), the violation of human rights and the attempted destruction of an entire culture, unfortunately left little time for discussing journalistic ethics. Under the Japanese occupation, journalists worked for the Japanese, regardless of what it said on any pay check. Those who refused lost their jobs and often things far more important. Koreans grew to view the press and newspapers as a means to an end, not for their sake, but the new government. As a force with an agenda to wield and a penchant for power, the press not only influenced the minds of the readers, it shifted cultural understanding, enforced political and economic policies and made gods out of men. The new Japanese colonists were quick to realize that Korea's newspapers could do at least two things more effectively than any other social influences. 1. The papers could foster resentment toward the Japanese occupiers, highlighting the illegal nature of the treaty, the occupation and the mistreatment of the Korean royal family. 2. Alternatively, the newspapers could be hijacked to re-educate and assimilate Koreans into the new lives they would be embarking on. The Japanese governor-general took control of the press and, conveniently, most newspapers transitioned reluctantly into becoming propaganda machines, teaching the virtues of Japanese culture, Japanese language, Japanese concepts of justice and punishment, and essentially how fortunate the newly occupied Koreans were to have an occupation full of endless opportunity for improvement. By 1907, to update repressive policy to truly oppressive strategy, the Japanese Department for Home Affairs implemented a rule that no Koreans could create a newspaper without its permission and without the payment of money to the Japanese coffers. Of course, there were always those "wayward" journalists and writers who decided to swim against the tide. Underground newspapers did much to keep the Korean Independence Movement both alive and growing. When the Independence Movement gained traction and true grit in 1919, new publications rose up with the people. But rather than hunting them down, the Japanese occupiers switched tactics and, with no desire to create national martyrs or heroically outspoken Korean nationalists, they reeled in the press when they were becoming too outspoken. The Korean press created papers such as Donga Ilbo and Kaebyok, which publicly scuffled with the colonizers until 1941 the year all Korean-language newspapers were officially outlawed. Enter the cavalry or rather the Americans! (No disrespect intended). At the end of the Japanese occupation, newspapers appeared almost overnight, most heralding a new era from different perspectives. There was still a pro-Japanese conservative element that continued to write in favor of the previous colonizers and those who'd been interred or tortured by the Japanese who wrote newspapers with a strongly national and anti-Japanese theme. There was also a pro-communist delegation who wrote to promote the ideologies that the South would ultimately reject. Of course, there were newspapers that filled the middle ground and wrote for the average Korean about issues that affected them in their everyday life. Either way, it was widely known which newspaper took which political stance. At this time, Korea was rather like a taut piece of cloth being pulled in every direction. To quieten this somewhat chaotic and unstable environment, the occupying Americans saw fit to impose legislation that required Koreans to apply for licenses to open and run newspapers. Americans, like the Japanese, realized the power of a free press, but had no desire to take control of it or profit from it. Needless to say, freedom of the press had greatly improved from the time of Japanese occupation, but journalists were still unable to be fully independent of both internal and external influences. The climate was still too politically charged to write without the aid of a lightning rod somewhere in the room. This electrically charged environment, as we know all too well, erupted into a storm of unthinkable proportions when war between the South and the North finally broke out. The American Civil War was the first time the press introduced "war correspondents" and the Korean War was the first war to introduce a female war correspondent. Maguerite Higgins, from the Herald Tribune, was one of the first war correspondents to arrive in the newly war-torn Seoul. She reported the unthinkable realities of the war back to the States, but the only news that really mattered during the war was what the Korean and ally intelligence could provide on oncoming assaults and enemy strategies. No doubt the allied war correspondents worked with Korean journalists. One of these courageous men was Han Kyu-Ho. Previously a reporter from the Seoul Shinmun, he had given up his post to become a war correspondent. Tragically, he was killed on June 29, 1950, while covering front-line action with a South Korean Army unit. Bill Shinn was a Korean-born correspondent who was curtailed in his reporting because he broke with army protocol as he tried to report the invasion of Incheon. I don't know if a book has been written about their lives, but it should be. South Korea's press was under the strictest regulation since the occupation, both to ensure communist forces were not alerted to military secrets and because there were few printing presses that had not be blown up. The Korean press, having only just recovered from the occupation, was now, literally, in a shambles. The press machine in the North, by contrast, had already ordered all civilians within two miles of the 38th parallel to evacuate. They then dropped leaflets into South Korea threatening invasion. While censorship has always controlled the North Korean press, even war did not seem to stop it from churning out its propaganda. The end of the war did not, as one would hope, see an end to the control of the press. A succession of administrations manipulated and abused the press to gain both power and maintain the illusion of an orderly Korea. Fear and power drove censorship of the press; fear of those who would upset the artificial stability and the maintenance of power for those wanting/needing to control the newly found Republic of Korea. The experimental days of a strained democracy, the years under dictator/leaders would keep the South Korean press restricted by censorship. Speedily invented government policy made it illegal to criticize the government (yes, illegal!). Journalists who challenged the new status quo were slapped on the wrist (with hand cuffs) and those who did it twice were imprisoned and charged with all manner of violations. Some even disappeared. I hope that the following analogy sums up the second half of South Korea's 20th century with regard to freedom of the press: Consider that you are in hospital sitting next to a patient whose doctors are reluctant to give the "all clear." After all, your friend has survived torture, post-traumatic shock, the horrors of war, famine, assassination attempts and abuse at the hand of political regimes. For most of his life he's been in danger from political policies rather than protected. You are watching the isoelectric line on a heart monitor and at times it shows a regular-looking pattern, but as pressure on the brain increases, the line become erratic and spikes indicate that his heart is struggling to cope. The doctors and nurses rush in and you expect a crash cart to follow, just as the isoelectric line indicates the crisis has passed. You are glad that this particular doctor was on the midnight shift. You've noticed that not all doctors are equal and not all value the freedom that comes with life the same way you think it should be. You feel relieved, your friend is alive, but if the next doctor is more concerned with a possible promotion, or suppressing discontentment among the temporary staff, or making sure the hospital's CEO lives a life of luxury, your friend's life may be at risk again. But today, your friend is in rehabilitation. The compassionate physio says he's recovering at a remarkable speed. He is able to function in society and contribute to it as well. He is getting stronger day by day. For almost 100 years, the majority of South Korea's press has been controlled, manipulated, abused, silenced, tortured, jailed and forced to write the opposite of what they believe and yet they have survived. Assassination attempts failed. More than survived, they are no longer victims, no longer stuck in a past that once defined them. Of course, they have been exceptions. Some gave in to the lies to live, others sold out their integrity for a sack of rice or a promise that their families would not be visiting them in jail. South Korea's press is, understandably, rehabilitating. The reforms of the late 1980s and 1990s gave rise to a new breed of journalism and a new press. They had vastly improved freedom to write about sensitive issues, they could form trade unions and, most importantly, they could hold the government to account when it was appropriate. Are there still internal and external pressures on the media? Are there hindrances? Like the rest of the world, their battle for the right to report independent of these sources is not over. Still, they have covered political protests, rallies, culturally sensitive issues and even a few social "no-go" zones. No journalist, as far as we know, has disappeared. Yet despite these changes, the public is wary. There is an underlying suspicion that a significant sector of the press is still under a political thumb. There are enough Koreans alive to remember the press that collaborated with the Japanese occupiers, the press that didn't question allied decisions. There are still more that remember the students who were jailed, the nationalists who protested for democracy and justice, the people who disappeared. The word for this distrust is kwonunyoochak . After 100 years of seeing the press manipulated, a little reluctance, is perfectly normal. Perhaps the most encouraging and exciting truth is that the world "ethics" is becoming a part of the South Korean press in the 21st century. This should not be under-estimated and, more importantly, under-valued. Ethics is the beating heart of journalism, the foundation of the press and the essential element of South Korea's communication with a global community. Calls for government intervention have come from some sectors but freedom of the press cannot be legislated. Lying, corruption and deliberate subversion can, however, be responded to on legal grounds. This is the balance for almost every nation and their media, but it is especially needed in a country that is at the crossroads of its own nationhood. Imperatively, South Korea must listen to what is not being said and report on the silences (the words of someone wiser than me). As far as honest reporting goes, North Korea is a Picasso painting, not a pre-Raphaelite masterpiece. Ethics demand that we call it as it is. We cannot ignore crimes against humanity, massive disparity of wealth that cripples the have-nots, nor a regime that attempts to control the thinking of its citizens. Ethics demands articles about the lack of safety regulations that threaten the elderly, the hospitalized and the very young. It insists that the government is always in the spotlight so that it is the transparent instrument of justice that it should be. It highlights the abuse of workers and temporary employees so that they no longer live in the dark shadows and it talks about mental health and suicide as the social problems they are. It does not sugar coat the unification process as if readers are too naive to realize that a totalitarian regime is about to become their new BFFs. Ethics talks about things that make us feel uncomfortable. Ethics writes in a way that makes people think of solutions. Freedom of the press is also courage of the press. It is at the heart of democracy and without it, journalists are just reporters and the press goes to the highest bidder. Freedom of the press is not writing "what the hell you like," it is, as I quoted above, listening to what is not being said, and having the courage to write the silence. Amanda Price is the former Director of Hillcrest College's International Student Department. She is the founder of Griffith University History Readers and now writes full time. She can be reached at amanda-price@bigpond.com. Looking down on one of the Han River ports in the late 19th century. By Robert Neff In the 1880s, Mapo was a bustling and important river port of Seoul. It was fairly large the port and the surrounding area had about 16,000 people and it was notorious for its inhabitants' shrewdness in depriving naive farmers and traders from the countryside of fair prices for their goods. Haggling was not always the tool of choice. The region had many highwaymen and river pirates who preyed on lone travelers or poorly manned boats and occasionally murdered their victims. An early British visitor in 1883 noted the port had "a busy appearance" due to the many junks (boats) going in and out of it. He described the junks as weighing between 60 and 100 tons and "constructed of large beams, joined together by wooden pegs" with two masts and carried in their bows, "a large windlass, like an exaggerated spinning wheel, with which they haul up the anchor." Two years later, another British visitor gave a less-than-flattering description of the port: "The little town of Ma-po, the river port of Seoul, looks picturesque from the opposite side of the Han River; but the effect is destroyed once one gets into its narrow streets, with all the dirtiness and none of the quaintness of a Chinese town the houses little better than thatched mud huts, with none of the glittering sign-boards and grotesque carvings which afford some slight compensation for the squalor and vile odors of the towns in this empire." He and his companions passed quickly through the port but noted that red chili peppers were everywhere "the red pods being piled up in a little heaps of half-a-dozen each on the pathway in front of the house" and noted that, from a distance, the roofs of the Korean homes appeared to be painted red but on closer examination revealed that they were covered with these peppers drying in the sun. Junks at a Han River port in the late 19th century. By Hwang Jae-ho South Korea is quite a fluid society that faces a variety of news every morning. Among the stories, domestic politics' intense ideological struggle creates dynamic situations. The ideology debates not only are limited to the redistribution of wealth and welfare, but also stretch to foreign policies; because the diplomatic policies are very directly involved in national survival in the mid- and long-term perspective, not simply related to the party's victory, which is only a short-term interest. Since diplomatic decisions aim for the ultimate goal, national survival, rather than calculating good and evil, each political force seeks different paths for this destination. As Donald Trump's era has come, the domestic powers' struggles are heating up more and more. The National Assembly of the Republic of Korea has 299 seats. The Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) with 129 seats does not exercise a majority. The Liberty Korea Party (LKP) with 112 seats, the Bareunmirae Party with 30 seats, the Party for Democracy and Peace with 14 seats and the Justice Party with five seats are the five other major parties. Progressive powers of the DPK, the Party for Democracy and Peace and the Justice Party occupy 148 seats compared with the conservative powers of the LKP and the Bareunmirae Party occupying 142 seats. The Justice Party and Party for Democracy and Peace are the most positive toward China, and the ruling DPK shows gradual enhancement, while the LKP and Bareunmirae Party still have doubts on China and give priority to the alliance with the United States. The conservatives fundamentally attach absolute importance to the alliance with the United States. During the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, the appearance of the Stars and Stripes alongside the Korean flag presents the sense of kinship of the alliance. The current government seized power by attracting the disappointed moderate and moderate-conservatives from the impeachment of President Park. Early on, the government recorded high support ratings of 80 percent, originating from the resulting disappointment and the reflective benefits of the ruling conservative party due to the impeachment, President Moon Jae-In's modest personal character, and the productive North Korea policies. However, support has dropped to near 50 percent, mostly because of current economic problems. Not only is the reason for this drop economic policies, but also welfare distribution issues and North Korea policies. The progressive government is generally favorable to improving relations with North Korea, aims to move beyond the excessive dependency on the United States and is keen to strengthen its relations with China. President Moon Jae-In emphasized the need to make India and ASEAN countries the fifth diplomatic axis following the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, but the basic frame is how to balance the U.S. and China. Korea's policies toward China have been promoted ever since first diplomatic relations in 1992. Since then, there have been four conservative regimes Roh Tae-woo, Kim Young-sam, Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye and three progressive regimes Kim Dae-jung, Roh Moo-hyun and Moon Jae-in. Roh Tae-woo first established diplomatic relations with China, and his northward policy was the ultimate accomplishment of South Korea's North Korea policy. South Korea's diplomatic relations with China let South Korea take the overwhelming strategic advantage over North Korea. On the other hand, Lee Myung-bak made the alliance with the U.S. the priority while pursuing only economic benefits with China. However, Park Guen-hye, though she is from a conservative regime, recorded the best relations with China by attending the China Victory Day Parade and signing the ROK-China free trade agreement. At the same time, the government also recorded the worst relations over the THAAD deployment and the disappointment when China did not support South Korea on the North Korean nuclear issue. Thinking about South Korea-China relations in the progressive regimes, it was overall comfortable. In Kim Dae-jung's period, China highly appreciated South Korea's strategic decision on North Korea under the U.S. toward diplomacy. In addition, his Sunshine Policy enhanced communication and interactions with China. Roh Moo-hyun had to go through the historical dispute regarding Goguryeo, but his government constantly aimed for a close partnership with China. President Moon and China mostly agree with each other's thoughts and benefits in terms of North Korea policy; although the two are still struggling and making slow process due to the former Park government's THAAD deployment side effect. THAAD was one of the most significant issues in the 2016 presidential election. Since the conservatives' media manipulation, that THAAD is an absolute necessity for South Korean security though it is a part of the U.S. security strategy, was effective on the public, the progressive parties could not fully oppose the deployment for fear of losing votes. Therefore, even though Moon's government considered the relationship recovery with China very important, it had to follow public opinion. The major views in Korea eventually sit between either the U.S. or China. The choice that one side welcomes usually brings a negative impact on the opposite side. So far, readers might be able to see two facts in this article. Firstly, South Korea-China relations do not wholly depend on either South Korea's conservative or progressive regimes. For example, the ROK-U.S. alliance was strengthened during the President Roh Moo-Hyun period through sending Korean troops to Iraq. Also, President Park, from the conservatives, accomplished the ROK-China FTA and attended Beijing's Victory Day Parade in 2015. Secondly, the enhancement of the U.S. alliance and relations with China at the same time is the immutable dilemma for all South Korean governments throughout the era. From now on, domestic politics will more competitively discuss South Korea's foreign policies and future; there will be three criteria in the further talks. The first is disappointment about the U.S. for damaging the value of the alliance. For now, the U.S. is forcefully acting with the whole of international society, with the view that South Korea's domestic resistance of the U.S. will not be serious. However, if this level of disappointment rises to a certain level, anti-U.S. emotions might flow out onto the streets. The second is the progress of inter-Korean relations. Not unification yet, but if the peace regime is possible in a long-term perspective, the importance of U.S.'s existence in our own security might be reexamined. Third, China might arise as the alternative to the above concerns. The domestic parties' identities and stances must be changing according to chronological changes. The U.S.'s national interest-chasing attitude rather than its value at the inter-Korean Summit and DPRK-U.S. Summit was quite a shock to the domestic conservatives; because how the U.S. acts and thinks is the top priority worth to them. In other words, they might pay attention to China's leadership both in qualitative and quantitative terms. In this sense, the progressive powers would cultivate friendly relations with China, and especially will more carefully evaluate this if China's leadership is qualified or not. Hwang Jae-ho is the director of the Global Security Cooperation Center, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul. Albion, IN (46701) Today Mostly sunny skies this morning will become overcast during the afternoon. High around 45F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 28F. Winds light and variable. Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. 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. Nestled on the bottom floor of a quaint blue house with white trim just on the rim of tourist activity at 862 Prospect St., Suite A, is a creative space that attracts adults and children alike. Art Me San Diego opened its doors in mid-June and classes have been pretty much sold-out every week since. Owner Sarah Jacob said shes thrilled with the welcoming response. We have a lot of the same students who stop by every week, which makes my job super busy because I have to come up with new projects all the time! she said with a wide grin. Jacob said shes had the vision for creating an art studio since she was an art major in college, and then through all her years as a real estate agent. As an art student, she trained in every medium, and wanted to continue her passion for all types of art by starting her own business. For her, its all about following her dream. And her dream starts with kids, but it doesnt end there. Kids are amazing! she exclaimed. They look at things and theyre not tainted nor jaded by what somethings supposed to be like or how its supposed to look. They can paint a flying hippopotamus if they want, and I love that. I love that passion, I love that creativity, and I love that freedom. I embrace it. Theres no wrong way to art in my eyes. Jacob has a daughter, Kate, 12, who takes a lot of the classes alongside her mom. When the Light visited the studio, Kate was gluing sparkles to a birdhouse she made. Shes constantly on social media, Jacob added, where she finds cool art projects and is always forwarding me things ... its kind of cool to get feedback from her, a peer of my students. Jacob said she still works in real estate on the side, but insists the decision to open the studio was the right move. This has taken over my whole world, and I love it, she said. Theres nothing more satisfying than having people enjoy what theyre doing and reaching into their creative side. Im inspired by seeing little kids grasp their creativity and the happiness and freedom it brings them. Branching out, Jacob catered to the tourist crowd by offering a Beach Souvenir Craft Workshop that included making Breach Wreaths. Saturday mornings are reserved for Slime classes. She plans to expand by inviting artists to lead specialty classes like macrame, adult painting, ceramics, or maybe a flower-crown class for kids. Adults can sign up for Paint & Sip Nights every other Saturday, where supplies are included, music is provided, and refreshments are offered or you can bring your own wine (BYOW). Private parties are welcome, too. We live in an artists community and there are so many artists who dont have a space to work in. I think its almost endless to what I can bring in and offer here, she said. Find the class schedule at artmesandiego.com or call (858) 280-5999. In order to get a bank account in the U.S., customers need to provide their name, date of birth, address and an identification number, which may or may not indicate a persons citizenship, federal regulators say. But recent reports show that banks are also explicitly asking for an individuals country of citizenship. The Miami Herald in an article Thursday recounted how a PhD student from Iran who was studying at the University of Miami had his Bank of America account frozen after documentation he had provided as proof of legal residency was not accepted. In another incident, the Kansas City Star reported last month that a Wichita-born mans account with the Charlotte, N.C., banking giant was frozen after he ignored a form asking if he was a U.S. citizen or held dual citizenship. Advertisement Christopher Feeney, a spokesman for the bank, said that all banks are required to maintain complete and accurate records of their customers in order to comply with regulations, including those issued by the Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces economic and trade sanctions. The regulations are not meant to determine immigration status, he said in the statement. Like other banks, we ask for information about citizenship so that we can comply with the country-specific sanctions as well as customer due diligence requirements mandated by the U.S. government. Bank of America isnt alone. A U.S. Bank spokeswoman said the institution requires individuals to state their country of citizenship as part of so-called Know Your Customer rules to prevent against crimes such as money laundering. A JPMorgan Chase Bank spokeswoman said the bank asked customers about their citizenship, along with other questions such as residence and occupation, as part of regular due diligence. And a spokesman from Citibank said customers may be asked to provide a variety of information, including citizenship, as part of the companys compliance with policies ranging from anti-money laundering to economic sanctions laws. However, individuals do not need to be a citizen to open a bank account in the United States, according to a spokesperson with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates all national banks. The federal Bank Secrecy Act, though, requires banks to establish the identity of all their customers in order to comply with laws designed to detect money laundering, terrorist financing and other financial crimes. As part of that protocol, banks must collect a taxpayer identification number; for a non-U.S. person, there are other options if he or she does not have the taxpayer number. Among them are a passport number with country of issuance or an alien identification number, according to the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, which develops standards for federal monitoring of financial institutions. Banking consultant Bert Ely said banks must adhere to Know Your Customer regulations, which help them discourage and ferret out possible financial crimes. However, the interpretation of those rules can vary. Theres a lot of judgment calls that get made in these areas, said Ely, principal of Alexandria, Va.-based Ely & Co. Inc. These requirements are also reviewed by federal examiners, said Beth Mills, spokeswoman for the California Bankers Assn., an industry trade group. Theres a number of questions banks may ask customers, she said. Citizenship may be one of those. These laws have been in place for well over a decade, but the California Reinvestment Coalition, which advocates for fair lending for low-income and minority communities, said it has been receiving a handful of questions about bank inquiries. Executive Director Paulina Gonzalez said there is increased fear in immigrant communities about the potential consequences of revealing citizenship due to the current political climate. To have a bank ask a question related to citizenship, there is, I think, a fear that spread that if I answer this question, where does that information go, she said. Feeney, of Bank of America, said citizenship status was not considered in establishing bank accounts and was not shared with any other party. samantha.masunaga@latimes.com aurora.percannella@latimes.com Twitter: @smasunaga, @auropercannella Verity Health System, the nonprofit operator of six California hospitals, filed for bankruptcy protection Friday, blaming mounting losses and debt that had forced it to seek a buyer for some or all of the facilities. The company said its six hospitals, including St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles and St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, will stay open. Last year, Nantworks, the Culver City company controlled by Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, bought Integrity Healthcare, the company that manages Verity. His goal was to revitalize the hospitals, many of which are in lower-income neighborhoods. Soon-Shiong, a physician and entrepreneur, bought the Los Angeles Times this year. Advertisement Rich Adcock, chief executive of Verity Health, said the company had more than $1 billion of debt from bonds and unfunded pension liabilities. The company also needs cash to make seismic repairs to its aging facilities, he said. The hospitals were originally owned and operated by Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. The system had struggled financially for years and was approaching bankruptcy when it began looking for a buyer in 2014. Integrity Healthcare, a company created by New York hedge fund BlueMountain Capital Management, took over the hospitals in July 2015. Last July, when Soon-Shiong bought Integrity, he said the hospitals were in need of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of new equipment such as imaging machines and neonatal intensive care units. He said he planned to bring new and improved services to the hospitals, including expanded oncology, transplant, orthopedic and cardiology services. Theres going to be a huge capital need, Soon-Shiong said then. Theres been little investment because these hospitals could not afford it could hardly keep the doors open. Nantworks-related entities have contributed over $300 million within the last year comprised of unsecured and secured loans and investments, Adcock said. The proceeds were used to fund operational costs, pension obligations and capital improvments on the buildings and medical equipment. Only a third of the contributions were secured by property, including medical office buildings. Verity was expected to pay Integrity $60 million over the last year in management fees, but most of that was deferred, according to a recent public filing. The filing said $20 million was payable in cash. After years of investment to assist in improving cash flow and operations, Veritys losses continue to amount to approximately $175 million annually, Adcock said. The losses mounted despite the $300 million cash infusion from Dr. Soon-Shiong and his Nantworks entities. Dr. Soon-Shiong said that the Daughters of Charity had struggled for decades to provide care for the poor. We felt a moral obligation to help the underserved by taking on the challenge. Sadly, the damage done by years of underinvestment, coupled with an inability to get adequate reimbursement from insurance companies for the care we were providing, made this restructuring inevitable. Verity executives said they have secured up to $185 million in financing that would keep the hospitals open and pay employees and suppliers as the company is restructured. Besides St. Vincent Medical Center and St. Francis Medical Center, Verity owns and operates four hospitals in Northern California: OConnor Hospital in San Jose, St. Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy, Seton Medical Center in Daly City and Seton Coastside in Moss Beach. The system employed more than 6,000 people last year. The restructuring allows the company to continue talking to potential buyers of some or all of the hospitals. Any sale will now be supervised by the bankruptcy court. It must also be approved by regulators. The company said its aim with the restructuring and sale was to preserve the original mission of these hospitals providing high quality care to patients in underserved communities. David Miller at SEIU-UHW, which represents many of the hospitals employees, said the union was disappointed the company chose to file for bankruptcy, which could put employee pensions at risk. We think there were other paths out of this, Miller said. Its a very destructive approach. The case was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the central district of California in Los Angeles. melody.petersen@latimes.com Follow @melodypetersen on Twitter Neil Simon, the smile guy Regarding Charles McNultys Curtain Falls for a Broadway King [Aug. 27]: To borrow a well-worn theatrical aphorism: Neil Simon spent the bulk of his professional life in the difficult, often painful, crafting and recrafting of comedic gems. He finally got to the easy part. John H. Mayer Camarillo Advertisement :: McNultys appreciation of Neil Simon made mention of Simons early television work on Sid Caesars Your Show of Shows, but lets not forget that that he wrote 20 episodes of The Phil Silvers Show between 1958 and 1959, a fact that Silvers often mentioned in later interviews. Alan Warner Los Angeles :: As a longtime theater writer for a community newspaper in Long Beach, I am blessed to see and review live stage productions on a regular basis. Remembering some of Simons comedy conceits can easily bring a smile to my face. One shining example of a perfect Simon comedy moment is the bit in The Odd Couple where Felix has brought the sisters, Cecily and Gwendolyn, to tears with the sad story of his recent divorce, just as Oscar enters the room, champagne in hand, and asks, Is everybody happy? only to realize the buzzkill effect Felix has had on the evenings possibilities. Ben Miles Huntington Beach So much seems politicized now Christian Bale as Batman in Christopher Nolans 2008 film The Dark Knight. (Warner Bros. Pictures) Toward the end of his excellent piece on The Dark Knight [Dark Knight Haunts our Days, Aug. 28], film critic Justin Chang indicates that he has little interest in feeding Nolans movie through a contemporary partisan filter. He already has. Earlier in the article he makes this prescient observation: When something stands out as boldly on the horizon as The Dark Knight, there is an excellent chance that it will bring imitators, trolls and jokers out of the woodwork, destabilizing the culture to such an extent that some will begin to regret the existence of that original something to begin with. The analogy, while perhaps unintended, is inescapable. As the current political process, driven by a truly original something, continues to draw pointless battle lines between opposing points of view, between winning and losing, lets hope that, like Mr. Changs hope for the movie, the country will outlive the traumas of the present and will rise to the challenges of the future. Bob Hunka Los Angeles :: Somewhere in Changs article on the 10th anniversary of The Dark Knight there should have been a mention of director Christopher Nolan stating that his vision of a chaos-driven Joker (Heath Ledger) was directly inspired by the title character of Fritz Langs 1933 film The Testament of Dr. Mabuse. Fred Janssen Long Beach Where are the 99-seat listings? Did I miss something? The 99-Seat Beat, one of the best things The Times has done for its readers in a long, long time, seems to have gone AWOL. Ive attended several excellent productions recently as a result of reading about them in 99-Seat-Beat every week, and its absence has been noted, with great regret. Perhaps this is just a summer hiatus and 99-Seat Beat will return in a few weeks, if so, no worries. If not bring it back. Beryl Arbit Encino Editors note: The 99-Seat Beat has indeed been on a brief hiatus. It returns next week. Curiosity piqued by a vault film Edward James Olmos in the 1982 movie The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez. (Embassy Pictures) Regarding Akiva Gottliebs Chasing a Classic of Chicano Cinema [Aug. 25]: Please follow up when The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez is released back in theaters. Maybe moviemakers took more chances back then. Bob Wieting Simi Valley :: What was the one word that was mistranslated that triggered the incident. Also, what was the outcome of the trial? Herbert Glass Los Angeles Editors note: The word was caballo. Gregorio Cortez was asked if he had obtained a caballo (male horse) and answered no because he had obtained a yegua (mare). After multiple trials, Cortez was found not guilty for the death of Sheriff Morris and guilty for the death of Sheriff Glover. He was sentenced to life but pardoned after eight years. Popularity is a losing contest Regarding: Underrated / Overrated: The Oscars Pandering [Aug. 19]: This is a discussion we shouldnt have. The popular film category shouldnt exist. After all, hasnt a popular film, by definition, already won by being popular? Aside from the redundancy all this category does is marginalize popular film. Its worse for Black Panther. At a time when the academy has faced such strong criticism for its lack of diversity, it now runs the risk of placing Black Panther in a ghetto. Heres a film with a largely African American cast and African American director and writers, and the academy opens the possibility of segregating it. Michael Solomon Canoga Park Physician offers different review Regarding Daryl H. Millers review Sweet Offerings From This Waitress [Aug. 6]: Last week I saw the musical Waitress at the Pantages. I was mortified by a script that has a gynecologist engaging in repeated sexual liaisons with a patient. In California and in most U.S. states that is felonious behavior, even with the consent of the patient. This musical does harm to the publics understanding of an important red line in the doctor-patient relationship that should not be crossed. I dont care how many Tony Awards the show won. The plot line is seriously flawed. William I. Brenner, MD Beverly Hills An architect designs for life I read Carolina Mirandas article about architect Lorcan OHerlihy [A New Vision of L.A., Aug. 21] and I want to thank him for what he doing with nonprofit housing developers, giving the homeless in Los Angeles safe and healthy living spaces. The structures are innovative and efficient, taking into consideration sunlight, cross ventilation, open courtyards and even the best placement of windows. Thank you to OHerlihy for doing the right and decent thing and not getting lost in the greed of catering to just the very wealthy. Susan Jackson Sherman Oaks Lets remember Panther origins Glenn Whipps article about the Oscar campaign of Black Panther [Ready to Rule, Aug. 24] claimed that the movie was a celebration of black culture. A closer look casts serious doubt on this claim. The Black Panther character was created by two white men in an effort to capitalize on black consumers. They also created a black character who dresses up as a gorilla and is named Man-Ape. The Afrofuturist nation of Wakanda acquired its technology not through hard work and ingenuity but through sheer luck when it fell out of the sky. Wakanda chose not to use this technology to save millions of their African brothers and sisters from the slave trade. Settling political disputes [is] accomplished through ritualistic fights to the death. Finally, the black women that make up the Dora Milaje are subservient to their monarchical male ruler and were originally created as concubines. This all sounds more like the perpetuation of racist stereotypes than a celebration of black culture. Michael Conklin Grand Junction, Colo. Still going after all these years I see in The Times style section that Charo remains venerable as ever [Delivering for a Meal Charity, Image, Aug. 26] some half-century after her Las Vegas performance that I was privileged to once attend. David Deweese Rancho Mirage The conversation continues online with comments and letters from readers at latimes.com/calendarfeedback calendar.letters@latimes.com Good morning. Im Paul Thornton, and it is Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018. The National Weather Service has made official what those of us who suffered and sweltered through this summer long suspected: This July and August combination was the hottest in Los Angeles recorded history. Lets take a look back at the week in Opinion. Since John McCain died of brain cancer a week ago, tributes remembering the Arizona Republican senator as a war hero, bipartisan maverick and all-around decent human being have been pouring in. Had McCain died during any presidential administration, the eulogies would have been just as heartfelt and the sadness just as strong as now but surely the grief is felt more acutely given our present circumstances. McCain himself mentioned these circumstances in his final statement, a moving tribute to the country he served and a passionate appreciation for the ideals the late senator felt it embodies. Do not despair of our present difficulties, but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here, McCain wrote. Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history. It is perhaps this statement that best exemplifies what Doyle McManus, an Opinion contributing writer and former columnist, wrote Americans were really mourning about McCain: McCain is an object of reverence for his personal courage, which was considerable when he exerted it, and for his old-fashioned civility in political battle. His concession speech to Barack Obama at the end of the nasty 2008 presidential campaign Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and his country. [He] will be my president. was a model of grace amid disappointment. But plenty of politicians, even in the age of President Trump, still manage to behave civilly toward their opponents. McCain was more complicated and more interesting. What distinguished the Arizonan most was his adherence, worn on his sleeve, to a rigorous code of honor inherited from his father and grandfather, both decorated Navy admirals combined with his recurring habit of falling short of his own standards and reproaching himself for his failings in public. Nearly all politicians cut corners on their way to the top. Few of them apologize when they do. (The current president of the United States, who loathed McCain, never apologizes for anything.) None, at least none in recent memory, ever apologized as fully and relentlessly as McCain. All honest politicians hate the squalid little tradeoffs that politics demands the favors, the compromises, the truckling to campaign donors. But most of them express their distress in private. McCain felt compelled to express his in public. ... No wonder he found himself in bitter opposition to Trump, whose standards of honor and valor have proven undetectable. >> Click here to read more Readers compared President Trump and McCain. For them, the death of the longtime Arizona senator serves as a stark reminder of how totally the GOP has fallen into line behind a president who has far less honor than the man they nominated for Trumps job 10 years ago. One reader wrote, McCain the American hero will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol juxtaposed with Trump, the American embarrassment who will just lie. Another wrote about Trump not being invited to McCains funeral: What did President Trump expect? To continue without consequence bullying and humiliating people in his attempt to cover up his bottomless well of insecurities and feelings of inferiority, unconscious though they may be? A good McCain legacy: an international league of democracies. Columnist Jonah Goldberg says establishing a group of democratic nations alongside the United Nations, whose membership includes anti-democratic autocracies, would fulfill McCains vision of promoting American ideals abroad. It would also have the effect, Goldberg says, of combating the nationalism on the rise both worldwide and within the United States. L.A. Times California can rescue the Amazon rain forest. Trees filter out carbon dioxide and replenish our supply of oxygen, and many of those trees without which our efforts to fight climate change would be futile are located in the Amazon rain forest. So what does this have to do with our state? California already has a cap-and-trade system up and running; all it needs to do to help the Amazon and preserve humanitys best weapon in the battle against global warming is to create credits for saving whole forest landscapes. New York Times Mexico has Trump figured out. The American president, like a hostage-taking madman, was threatening to blow up the North American Free Trade Agreement and his Mexican counterpart, like a skilled hostage negotiator, did what he needed to calm Trump and defuse the bomb. Sure, this involved stroking Trumps ego by taking part in a bizarre White House phone call and enduring some momentary humiliation, write Andres Martinez, but in the end, the goal is to preserve the health of the North American economy. L.A. Times Members of the Los Angeles teachers union have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, the union announced Friday. Tensions continue to build over contract negotiations, with the union and school district lately accusing each other of acting illegally. A strike authorization does not mean that a strike will occur, but it gives the unions board of directors the power to call a walkout without returning to the membership for approval. The authorization was expected; the main unknown was the size of the mandate and it was considerable, which was widely expected. About 81% of teachers cast ballots. Of those, 98% voted for the authorization, according to preliminary totals. Advertisement This is a historic number, said union secretary Arlene Inouye, who chairs the bargaining team. Our members are pretty upset with Supt. Austin Beutners disrespect for educators. Patara Yontrarak, a veteran math teacher at King Middle School, voted to authorize a strike. I felt sad and disappointed that we have to go this far, Yontrarak said. He said its difficult to take seriously the districts claims of financial hardship because officials have squandered money through such mistakes as mismanaging construction projects and a billion-dollar effort to give every student an iPad. In a statement, Los Angeles Unified School District officials noted that unions representing most other employees have reached contract settlements. Students and families will bear the brunt of a strike, the statement says. We hope our shared responsibility to put students first will prevent a strike and lead to a common sense resolution that recognizes the hard work of our employees while addressing the safety and instructional needs of students and the financial solvency of L.A. Unified. Los Angeles teacher Patara Yontrarak is prepared to walk out if union leaders give the word. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) United Teachers Los Angeles represents about 31,000 teachers, nurses, librarians, counselors, social workers and psychologists in L.A. Unified. In talks over more than a year, salary has been a sticking point, but far from the only one. Beutner has suggested that teachers could emerge with a deal similar to that of other unions that have settled with the district about 6% over three years. The union wants a 6.5% raise that would include retroactive pay and not phase in gradually, and wants to keep the door open for later raises over the expected three-year term. The union also wants to reduce class sizes by hiring more teachers and add many more nurses, librarians and counselors. The district says these proposals while desirable would push the nations second-largest school system into immediate insolvency. The unions 69-page proposal covers a broad range of district operations. It includes a demand that teachers be given more control over how many and which standardized tests their students take, with the goal of limiting the number of these exams. The district considers such decisions to be the province of management. On its side, the district wants a teacher-evaluation metric that has four levels instead of three including a new category of highly effective. In the past, union leaders have expressed concern that expanding the rating system could lead to selective raises based on subjective judgments rather than seniority and qualifications. The interaction between the two sides has gotten more heated in recent days. UTLA accused the school district of trying to smear its president, Alex Caputo-Pearl, by improperly releasing his disciplinary records in response to a public-records request by radio station KPCC. It concerned a 2014 dispute over whether Caputo-Pearl, then a teacher, had improperly left his campus to campaign for the union presidency. The Times wrote about the issue when it first arose. The new information that the district released was that, in March 2014, it had reprimanded Caputo-Pearl and decided to suspend him for three days, beginning at a time TBD, or to be determined. In 2014, the district had declined to release the disciplinary decision, asserting that any discipline would be confidential and could not be released. Officials took a different position last week, citing case law related to public records. Caputo-Pearl filed a grievance over the district discipline, which is still pending, according to the district. The union says the district essentially dropped its pursuit of the case after Supt. John Deasy resigned in October 2014. L.A. teachers union leader Alex Caputo-Pearl on Friday got the strike authorization that he wanted from members. Caputo-Pearl addresses the media in 2014. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) On Monday, the union filed an unfair-labor-practice charge over the disclosures, accusing the district of unlawfully interfering with the unions strike authorization vote and failing to provide key public information and financial documents that the union has requested. The next day, the district responded with its own unfair-labor-practice charge, saying that the union has not negotiated in good faith. District officials say the union has failed to compromise or limit its demands in any meaningful way and seems determined to head toward a strike as quickly as possible. In violation of labor rules, the district wrote in its complaint, UTLA has engaged in [a] course of conduct calculated to time a strike for a period where it can inflict maximum punishment on children and parents so that UTLA may extract financial concessions from the district. The states Public Employment Relations Board moderates such disputes and has the power to impose fines and other penalties. howard.blume@latimes.com Twitter: @howardblume UPDATES: 7:25 p.m.: This article was updated with comments about the vote from the union and the school district as well as additional background. This article was originally published at 6 p.m. Attorneys for the U.S. government and immigrant families who were separated at the Mexico border discussed how to accelerate the reunification process during a hearing Friday in San Diego. The Trump administration has been under increasing pressure to speed up the process following allegations that three youngsters were sexually abused while in U.S. custody. The government of El Salvador said the three, ages 12 to 17, were victimized at shelters in Arizona. Most of the 2,600 children who were separated from their parents last spring before the administration agreed to stop the practice have been reunited, but hundreds remain apart more than a month after a deadline set by U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego. In trying to reunite families, the Trump administration has put the onus on the American Civil Liberties Union, asking that the organization use its considerable resources to find parents in their home countries, mostly Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. The governments of those countries and nonprofit organizations have been trying to locate the families. Those efforts have included posting public notices and putting hotline numbers on billboards in the hope that a parent missing a child might see the signs and call. Every day that these children are separated and left in government facilities does more damage, Lee Gelernt, an ACLU attorney representing separated families, said during the hearing Friday. Even if the facilities were palaces, the separation of young children from their parents causes potentially permanent trauma. Advertisement Gelernt told Sabraw that as many as 200 cases could be resolved in the next week or two. Those include families who want to be reunited in their home countries and those who want to waive their right to reunification and keep their child in the United States to pursue asylum. The judge said the administration also can expedite cases in which families have expressed the desire for the child to be sent back, without worrying about violating a temporary halt on deportations of families seeking asylum. Justice Department attorney Scott Stewart said the government wants to remove any roadblocks. There are a lot of folks that want to move forward with reunification, he told the judge. More than 300 parents who have been deported are waiting for their sons and daughters to be returned to them in their homelands. Many are growing increasingly anxious. Among them is Evelin Roxana Meyer, whose 11-year-old son, Eduardo Almendarez Meyer, was recently told that he wont be leaving the U.S. until Nov. 27. He has been held at a government-contracted shelter in Brownsville, Texas, since being separated from his father in early June. The boys mother said her husband was told when he signed his deportation papers that his son would be waiting for him in Honduras. Now itll be six months before we see him? Oh my God, Meyer said Friday, crying during a telephone interview from her hometown of La Union. I dont know why its taking so long. My son is worried. He tells me, `More time here, Mommy? Oh, no. Why? I dont know what to tell him. Five women have now filed lawsuits against the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, accusing a deputy of sexually assaulting them while they were being held at the womens jail. Two of the women, in a case filed Friday, also claim the department fostered an unsafe environment by failing to implement federal standards that would protect inmates from sexual harassment and abuse. The accused deputy, Giancarlo Scotti, was arrested last year and placed on unpaid leave after inmates told a teacher theyd been assaulted at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood. Scotti, 31, was charged in February in connection with sexually assaulting six inmates from March through September 2017. The inmates in the criminal complaint arent named, so its unclear if those who have filed civil suits are the same women. Advertisement But one woman now claims Scotti harassed and groped her in late 2016, widening the period of allegations against the deputy. The woman alleges that in December 2016, Scotti coerced her into an elevator and grabbed her breast. The inmate, who is now being held in immigration detention, said a Sheriffs Department official certified her as a victim in a criminal investigation into Scottis actions as part of her petition for a U-Visa. The document allows some crime victims who cooperate with law enforcement to stay in the U.S. when they would not otherwise be authorized to do so. Spokespeople for the district attorneys office and the Sheriffs Department did not immediately respond to questions Friday evening about whether investigators have identified additional assault victims. Attorneys representing the deputy in related cases, Gilbert Nishimura and Janet Keuper, did not return requests for comment. The two women who filed the lawsuit Friday were awaiting trial at the time they were assaulted, said one of their attorneys, Justin Sterling. The second woman in the suit alleges Scotti touched her breasts and forced her to give him oral sex through a slot in a cell door in September 2017. The woman, who was released from the Lynwood jail on Thursday, claims the assault was caught on surveillance camera and the footage was shown to her when she was interviewed by investigators. The Times generally does not identify people who report being victims of sexual assault. Inmates cannot legally consent to sexual intercourse with deputies under state and federal law. Two women who accused Scotti of sexual misconduct in a civil lawsuit in November reached a settlement with the county in April. Sterling, who also represents those women, said the county Board of Supervisors has not yet approved a payout in that case. An independent report released in March found the Lynwood facility was out of compliance with numerous mandates under the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act that are designed to keep inmates safe and limit opportunities for abuse. Auditors noted flaws in the jails complaint process and said female inmates could be seen showering. These federal safeguards exist for a reason, to prevent nightmares like this, said Erin Darling, another attorney representing the women in the latest suit. The department has said it has made improvements under the federal anti-rape law, including fixes to the inmate complaint process. The Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission, an independent watchdog agency, has taken up the jail rape guidelines as a major focus of its efforts to reform the agency. Department spokeswoman Nicole Nishida said the agency would not comment on pending litigation. She said Scotti is still on administrative leave without pay. maya.lau@latimes.com Twitter: @mayalau A San Diego Superior Court judge has issued an arrest warrant for the wife of an El Cajon councilman after she failed to appear for a scheduled hearing in a case in which the couple is being sued for fraud and defamation. Judge Timothy B. Taylor issued the order Friday against Jessica Kalasho, one of the co-defendants in a civil lawsuit against El Cajon Councilman Bessmon Ben Kalasho and his for-profit business group, the Middle Eastern Chamber of Commerce. It was not immediately clear Friday if police or sheriffs deputies would search for Jessica Kalasho and arrest her on sight, or if she would be given an opportunity to turn herself in to law enforcement or to the court. Jessica Kalasho was supposed to attend whats called a debtors review, a proceeding at which plaintiffs are allowed to question defendants about their personal assets. Neither Kalasho nor the couples lawyer returned a message seeking comment on Friday. Advertisement One of the allegations leveled by the plaintiffs lawyers is that the Kalashos have hidden personal assets to avoid paying a potential judgment. They are being sued for allegedly creating false social-media accounts to disparage their critics. Jimmie Davis Parker, one of the lawyers suing the councilman and his wife, said the Friday development would not deter him from pursuing the case. Its unfortunate that the Kalashos continue to fail to respect the law and todays failure has resulted in a San Diego County judge issuing a warrant for the arrest of Mrs. Kalasho, he said. Notwithstanding the Kalashos disrespect for the process, we will continue to press for justice in the case and look forward to bringing the matter before a jury. Ben Kalasho was not required to appear in court Friday, but his wife was scheduled to appear and to bring documents related to their financial status. At a similar hearing two weeks ago, when Ben Kalasho failed to fully cooperate with the plaintiffs lawyers, Judge Taylor threatened to send the councilman directly to jail, and issued a contempt order he later recalled. How would you like to spend the weekend in custody? the judge asked Kalasho when the litigants returned to court Aug. 17 to discuss the lack of progress in the debtors review. If you dont quit fooling around, Im going to have you placed in custody. The judge also reminded Kalasho that he is an elected official who should set a better example for his constituents. This is a disgrace, Judge Taylor said. Sir, you are a public official elected by the people of El Cajon. Youre treating this like a game. The councilman agreed to cooperate more fully but the plaintiffs attorneys are not satisfied and are preparing paperwork asking the judge to hold Kalasho in contempt. Kalasho and his wife were sued last year by a group of plaintiffs, including two contestants in the Miss Middle East USA Beauty Pageant, an event promoted by the for-profit chamber of commerce that Kalasho runs out of his Fletcher Hills home. One contestant accused the councilman of offering her the crown if she slept with him; the other said Kalasho or his wife posted her face on photos of naked women on the internet following a dispute over the prize money. The other plaintiffs, a San Diego lawyer and a group of restaurant owners, accused the couple of creating fake social media profiles to disparage their businesses. Kalasho denied the allegations in a counter lawsuit, which was soon dismissed. The debtors review was scheduled because the Kalashos were accused of hiding $1 million or more in personal assets ahead of a potential jury award. Kalasho was a Democrat. He was criticized by Republicans and Democrats alike at a recent council meeting for his legal troubles, and then he attempted to register to vote as a Federalist. Because that is not a qualified party in California, he has been reclassified on voter rolls with no party preference. McDonald writes for the San Diego Union Tribune. Iowa authorities confirmed Friday that recorded phone calls citing the slaying of an Iowa college student are being used to promote white supremacist views, but they said theres little they can do despite the outrage it has stirred. Prosecutors have no authority to step in because theres no apparent effort to deceive anyone for commercial purposes, said Lynn Hicks, a spokesman for the Iowa attorney generals office. Hicks said Iowa law addressing robocalls, or auto-dialing, bars using the equipment for fraudulent purposes, but there are all kinds of exceptions for noncommercial purposes and for nonprofit organizations. He called it a really tricky 1st Amendment issue. Its unclear how many of the robocalls have been made since they began Tuesday, two days after Mollie Tibbetts funeral in Brooklyn, Iowa. Advertisement Authorities have said the University of Iowa student was abducted while she was out for an evening run in Brooklyn on July 18. Authorities say the man charged in her death, 24-year-old Cristhian Rivera, is in the U.S. illegally. President Trump and other politicians quickly noted that element of the case and called for changes to immigration law. Riveras lawyer contends that he is a legal resident. The robocalls reference comments Tibbetts father made in defense of Latinos when he addressed friends and family at her funeral. The calls question whether his daughter would feel the same if she were still alive and describe Rivera as an invader from Mexico. The calls also reference immigrants living the U.S. illegally when saying: We dont have to kill them all, but we do have to deport them all. The calls were first reported by an Iowa political website, Iowa Starting Line. The recordings say the calls are being paid for by the Road to Power, an Idaho-based group with a website and neo-Nazi podcast linked by officials to an Idaho man who, according to local media, distributed racist CDs in a high school parking lot in Sandpoint, Idaho, in December. The man didnt return a phone message Friday from the Associated Press. The caller ID shows a Brooklyn area code and local prefix, but Ted Atkinson with the Brooklyn Mutual Telecommunications Cooperative said its unclear where the calls are coming from. Shortly after Rivera led investigators to Tibbetts body in a cornfield this month, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said local residents were heartbroken. We are angry that a broken immigration system allowed a predator like this to live in our community, and we will do all we can to bring justice to Mollies killer, she said at the time. But on Thursday, Reynolds said: Its unconscionable that somebody would take and utilize a tragic death like Mollie Tibbetts. Its just ridiculous, unconscionable and repulsive. Nearly 100 people held a prayer vigil Thursday in Des Moines to support the Tibbetts family and urge community unity in the face of the robocalls. Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It is Saturday, Sept. 1. Heres what you dont want to miss this weekend: TOP STORIES One of the big winners from President Trumps push for a new military service called space force may be one of his least favorite places: California. It stands to see a surge in government and industry jobs and billions of dollars in contracts for satellites and other technology if Congress approves the space force when it takes up the proposal next year, industry experts and former military officials said. Los Angeles Times Story behind the story Advertisement Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox often cites his role in the financial turnaround of a Chicago potato-chip company as evidence of the sharp business mind hed use to run California. But there is another aspect of his relationship with the family that owned the snack company. They alleged financial misconduct, a case that led to Cox paying a $1.7-million settlement in 1999, according to court documents obtained by the The Times. Cox has denied any wrongdoing and called it a frivolous lawsuit. Los Angeles Times Net neutrality update Nearly nine months after federal regulators voted to do away with net neutrality rules instituted under the Obama administration, state lawmakers sent a broad proposal to Gov. Jerry Brown that would bring the rules back to California. Los Angeles Times AROUND CALIFORNIA A faster DMV? An inside look at how the Department of Motor Vehicles is cutting wait times in some offices. Sacramento Bee Yikes: The costly bill ahead for California from climate change. CALmatters Time to breathe: The author of a high-profile measure to curb paid conversion therapy, which purports to change a persons sexual orientation, said he is shelving his bill Friday in hopes of finding consensus with religious communities that vigorously opposed the proposal. Los Angeles Times Sad story: ER actress Vanessa Marquez was shot and killed by South Pasadena police after, officer say, she pointed what turned out to be a BB gun at them during a welfare check. Marquez was best-known for her recurring role as nurse Wendy Goldman on the popular medical drama. Los Angeles Times Vanessa Marquez as Nurse Wendy Goldman on a 1995 episode of ER. (Alice S. Hall / NBCU Photo Bank) Man with the money: The Rams on Friday agreed to terms on a contract extension for star defensive lineman Aaron Donald, who will be the NFLs highest-paid defensive player. He is reportedly receiving a six-year, $135-million contract. Los Angeles Times Fighting back: The crackdown on tech immigrant workers sparks a backlash in Silicon Valley. Mercury News Dangerous move: Homeless people, pushed out of the Santa Ana River, are going into storm drains. Orange County Register E-I-E-I-O: A judge rules that Rep. Devin Nunes is indeed a farmer. Fresno Bee Made with tiger blood? Probably not a surprise that a strain of pot named after Charlie Sheen is pretty potent. L.A. Taco Its legit: As its film division heats up, Netflix has its sights set on a best-picture Oscar nomination, and step one is to dominate the fall film festivals. Los Angeles Times Going gaga: A new Star Is Born is captivating Hollywood. Hollywood Reporter Get the Essential California newsletter THIS WEEKS MOST POPULAR STORIES IN ESSENTIAL CALIFORNIA 1. Building a vast new city on L.A.s northern edges: A solution for the regions housing crunch? Los Angeles Times 2. A cliffhanger in Pacific Palisades. New York Times 3. Ode to Alcatraz: How the Rock went from perfect prison to tourist mecca. San Francisco Chronicle 4. It seemed like a done deal, but new efforts are underway to open Hollister Ranch to the public. Los Angeles Times 5. The Lebowski property tax break. CALmatters ICYMI, HERE ARE THIS WEEKS GREAT READS A desperate search: Sometimes equipped with only a name, and sometimes not even that, advocates are searching Guatemala for deported parents whose children are still in the United States. A wrenching story about the detective work that could reconnect families. Los Angeles Times To infinity and beyond: How much money will Elon Musks ego cost him? Wall Street Journal Meet Malcolm D. Lee: Despite earning Hollywood success with movies like Girls Trip, this African American director says hes still playing his dues. California Sunday Magazine Drinking the ...: The cult that created a California wine empire. San Francisco Chronicle 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. UPDATES: 10 a.m.: The item about GOP governor candidate John Cox was updated to include his denial of any wrongdoing. To the editor: Jonah Goldberg characterizes the late Sen. John McCain as old-fashioned but might agree that McCains farewell statement boldly expresses devotion to the ideals that inspired America and are essential to a meaningful life. I read his dying words through my tears: To be connected to Americas causes liberty, equal justice, respect for the dignity of all people brings [sublime] happiness. Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves. We are citizens of a nation of ideals, not blood and soil. Do not despair of our present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America. This brought Abraham Lincolns words to my mind: It is for us, the living, to be dedicated to the unfinished work which they who fought here so nobly advanced. Advertisement Patricia Casey, Fallbrook .. To the editor: Goldbergs beautiful eulogy to McCain, noting that the senators vision of a shared commitment to freedom is the alternative needed now, gets it half right. As a lifelong Democrat who has admired McCain since my days at the U.S. Naval Academy in the early 1970s, I believe that the profound national mourning for McCain springs from the great mass of Americans in the political center. We long for the days of bipartisan civility, when a Republican like McCain could work across the aisle with liberal Democrats like Sens. Russ Feingold and Ted Kennedy. Our patriotic democracy is threatened today not only by populists on the right espousing the vile rhetoric of nationalism, as noted by Goldberg, but also by take-no-prisoner progressive populists on the left. In todays polarized environment, Democrats, Republicans and the growing unaffiliated middle should be looking for candidates who aim to fill this void. Lorin Fife, Valley Village .. To the editor: Goldbergs support of McCains idea for a league of democracies, which would exclude all authoritarian states, might be of service on the world stage, although it should not become an excuse for dropping out of the United Nations. A major problem is presented by the fact that the democracies of the world might not consider us a suitable member. Chuck Almdale, North Hills Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook Newsoms budget proposes $3 million for Alzheimers research, brain task force By Melody Gutierrez Amyloid plaques, shown here in human brains, are a hallmark of Alzheimers disease. (UCLA School of Medicine) Gov. Gavin Newsom will call for the creation of a brain health task force and dedicate $3 million annually from the states general fund to Alzheimers disease research in the budget proposal he will release Thursday, a source close to the administration said. The money for Alzheimers research would target the new grants at understanding why the disease is more prevalent in women and people of color. Former California first lady and Alzheimers activist Maria Shriver pushed for the funding to be included in the state budget. Shriver said in a statement Wednesday that the funding would make California the first state to make understanding our brains a priority. The states former first lady, whose late father Sargent Shriver was diagnosed with Alzheimers, founded the Womens Alzheimers Movement, an advocacy group raising awareness about womens increased risk for developing the disease. In 2011, she wrote a comprehensive assessment on the disease, to which Newsom then mayor of San Francisco contributed a portion called What one city is doing. This is personal to me, just like it is to millions of California families, Shriver said. Alzheimers is one of the largest medical, social and economic crises in our state, and of our time. I am so proud that, once again, California is leading the way. Wiping out Alzheimers is going to require bold thinking, and there is no doubt in my mind that California is home to bold thinkers who can make this happen. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gov. Gavin Newsom orders reinvention of troubled California DMV By Patrick McGreevy A line of people stretches around the South L.A. location of a California Department of Motor Vehicles Office on Aug. 7. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday ordered an overhaul of the California Department of Motor Vehicles, which has been plagued by hours-long wait times at field offices, computer crashes and voter registration errors involving tens of thousands of customers. Just a few days after taking office, Newsom appointed a top advisor to a new DMV Reinvention Strike Team to revamp the beleaguered agency over the next six months. By any metric, California DMV has been chronically mismanaged and failed in its fundamental mission to the state customers it serves and the state workers it employs, Newsom said in a statement, adding Its time for a reinvention. The governor appointed state Government Operations Agency Secretary Marybel Batjer to lead the strike team with a goal of modernizing the agency and enacting changes that improve customer satisfaction, employee performance and transparency. Newsom also ordered an accelerated review of initial findings of an ongoing audit ordered last year by Gov. Jerry Brown. The action was welcomed by lawmakers who have been critical of the DMV, including Assemblyman Vince Fong (R-Bakersfield). The egregious management failures of the DMV have been self-evident, which is why I have been calling for new leadership and a comprehensive independent audit of this troubled state agency over and over again as the problems grew significantly worse, Fong said. Last summer, Californians seeking new driver licenses complained of wait times of four to six hours at DMV offices, which the agency blamed partly on snafus caused by a rush of people trying to get Real IDs, a new identification card design required for airline passengers starting in late 2020. Delays were also blamed on computer crashes at DMV offices as the agency struggled to update its aging automation systems. The DMV also admitted that there were an estimated 23,000 errors as people either were unknowingly registered to vote or mistakes were made in their registration status as part of the states new motor voter program. The agency registered to vote as many as 1,500 people with legal U.S. residency but no citizenship. Last month, DMV Director Jean Shiomoto retired from the agency. Legislators were angered earlier this week when the DMV said it needed an additional $40 million to prevent the return of long lines at its field offices. In addition, the agency has been under fire for issuing driver licenses in the last year that do not comply with the federal Real ID standards requiring two forms of identification by applicants. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California police unions are preparing to battle new transparency law in the courtroom By Maya Lau Just as a landmark police transparency law is going into effect, some California police agencies are shredding internal affairs documents and law enforcement unions are rushing to block the information from being released. The new law, which begins to unwind Californias strictest-in-the-nation protections over the secrecy of law enforcement records, opens to the public internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. But the lawsuits and records destruction, which began even before the law took effect Jan. 1, could tie up the release of information for months or years, and in some instances, prevent it from ever being disclosed. The fact that police unions are challenging this law is on some level not surprising, said Peter Bibring, director of police practices at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, one of the principal supporters of the new law. They have a long history of fighting tooth and nail against transparency. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Secretary of State Alex Padilla begins second term with challenge to ensure every Californian is counted By Jazmine Ulloa Secretary of State Alex Padilla takes the oath of office as his family stands by his side on Monday in Sacramento. (Jazmine Ulloa / Los Angeles Times) Secretary of State Alex Padilla was sworn in for a second term on Monday, saying he would continue the battle to protect the right to vote at a time when voter suppression efforts, online disinformation campaigns and interference from foreign adversaries have polarized the public and threatened to undermine trust in U.S. elections. I am doubling down on our fight here in Sacramento and in Washington, D.C., to defend our democracy, he said. Working on the front lines with so many of you, I know that our collective resolve has never been stronger. But the loudest applause came when Padilla promised to fight back against the Trump administrations changes to the U.S. census, saying he will ensure every Californian gets counted. Padilla, a former state senator and Los Angeles City Council member from the San Fernando Valley, led the cause for a new motor voter registration law in 2015, and a new system for online business registrations. But the programs have had experienced problems: More than 23,000 Californians were registered to vote incorrectly by the state DMV, the agency reported last year. On Monday, Padilla said he would continue to push back against false claims of voter fraud in California and pointed to the states voter turnout as proof that his office was involving more people in the democratic process, a promise he made when he was first sworn in four years ago. More than 12.7 million voters cast ballots in the Nov. 6 midterm election, representing roughly 65% of the states registered voters, the highest number of any midterm election since 1982, according to state certified results. I made that promise based on a shared belief that we are a stronger democracy and a better California when we hear all voices from all corners of California, and when those voices are not just heard but counted, Padilla said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Ricardo Lara, Californias first statewide officeholder to come out as gay, sworn in as insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara on the floor of the state Senate in 2016. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) Ricardo Lara took the oath of office as California insurance commissioner on Monday, pledging action to boost healthcare coverage and combat climate change. Lara, a Democrat from Bell Gardens, is the first elected statewide officeholder in California who has come out as gay. He began his speech in downtown Sacramento by thanking LGBTQ leaders who came before him and celebrated the occasion. Today, because of you, weve shattered the pink ceiling, Lara said. In his inaugural speech, Lara announced the creation of an executive position in his office to address climate change. There is no other industry that has the necessary expertise to ensure that California is prepared to mitigate and reduce risk to our communities and our environment, Lara said. Our planet cant wait. Im ready, and I hope you are too. Lara served as a state legislator and in 2017 introduced a bill to create a single-payer healthcare system in the state. He promised to work with new Gov. Gavin Newsom to expand coverage across California. Lara was sworn in by retired U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who declared unconstitutional Californias Proposition 8 gay marriage ban. State Sen. President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) was on hand for the ceremony along with multiple other state lawmakers. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print New California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis says she will help expand access to universities in the state New Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, center, is shown in June talking with attendees at the Power to the Polls rally in Sacramento. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) More Californians should be given access to public universities, Eleni Kounalakis said as she took the oath of office Monday to become the states first woman elected lieutenant governor. Kounalakis was given the oath of office by Gov. Gavin Newsom, her predecessor in the job, who pledged they would work together. As lieutenant governor, Kounalakis serves on the University of California Board of Regents and the California State University Board of Trustees, she noted in a speech at her swearing-in ceremony at the main Sacramento Library. In that role, she said, she will be committed to expanding access to affordable public higher education here in our state. Its wise, its smart and it is the best way to address our rapidly changing digital economy. Kounalakis is former president of a development company founded by her father, Angelo Tsakopoulos, and served during the Obama administration as the U.S. ambassador to Hungary. In November, she won her first run for statewide office. Also attending the ceremony were House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California meets Dutch Newsom, who steals the show at his fathers inauguration By Taryn Luna Gov. Gavin Newsom gives his inaugural address while holding his youngest son, Dutch. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) In the California political world, all eyes were on Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday until his 2-year-old son stole the show. Dutch, the youngest of four children in the Newsom brood, climbed onstage in the middle of his fathers inaugural address in a tent outside the Capitol on Monday. The unplanned moment saw the 51-year-old governors big day interrupted by the toddler, bringing levity to the ceremony. Newsom was recounting Gov. Jerry Browns last inaugural speech and reference to the Sermon on the Mount, a biblical story about two men who built separate homes on sand and rock, when Dutch approached his father, a pacifier in his mouth and blanket in hand. Now more than ever we Californians know how much a house matters and children matter, Newsom said, improvising as he scooped the boy into his arms. The governor kissed Dutch on the cheek and held him for several minutes as he continued with the speech. This is exactly how it was scripted, Newsom joked. Newsom eventually put his child down and Dutch walked to the edge of the stage before retreating behind the podium to hide from his mother, First Lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The crowd roared. Siebel Newsom was able to briefly divert her son only for him to return to the stage minutes later. She grabbed him again and this time, the crying toddler did not reemerge. When fires strikes, when kids cry and the earth shakes, well be there for each other, Newsom said. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who said the moment humanized Newsom, threw cold water on any theories that Dutchs cameo was planned. No, I know it was not, Garcetti said with a laugh after Newsoms speech concluded. I could see that look of absolute abject terror [on Newsoms face]. Weve all been there. Kids always think its about themselves and theyve proved it. California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) agreed. I worked in early childhood education for 20 years and theres no way you can ever get a child to do anything when you want them to do it, Rendon said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Fiona Ma takes oath as Californias new treasurer By Liam Dillon State Treasurer Fiona Ma. Fiona Ma took the oath of office in Sacramento on Monday as the states 34th treasurer, promising to boost Californias economy. Ma previously served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, in the state Assembly and on the California Board of Equalization. I want to thank everyone for entrusting me with this important job. I understand my role here as your state treasurer is to build that financial wall around California so that we will remain the fifth-largest economy, Ma said in brief remarks. That is my promise to you. California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye administered the oath to Ma. Following the ceremony, Ma held an ice cream social for guests. On Wednesday, she will host a public event in San Francisco to celebrate her swearing-in. State Treasurer Fiona Ma takes the oath of office. (Liam Dillon / Los Angeles Times) Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Expectations are high for newly sworn-in state schools chief Tony Thurmond Tony Thurmond shakes hands with retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge Gordon Baranco after taking the oath of office. (Melody Gutierrez / Los Angeles Times) Tony Thurmond took the oath of office as Californias state superintendent of public schools on Monday, promising a labor-friendly agenda before the teachers, students and Democratic officials who filled an auditorium at McClatchy High School in Sacramento to watch him being sworn in. We cant close the achievement gap without a great teacher at the head of every class, Thurmond said Monday to applause. We have to make sure we provide quality compensation and support to our teachers and our classified staff and all the educators who support our kids. Thurmond, a Bay Area Democrat who served in the state Assembly, won a hotly contested and expensive race with the help of labor leaders against charter school executive Marshall Tuck. The race took several days to sort out after Tuck held an initial lead in early returns on election night before falling behind thereafter. Thurmond was sworn in Monday by retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge Gordon Baranco. He was joined on stage by labor rights leader Dolores Huerta and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount). Thurmonds former colleagues in the state Assembly took turns praising him and promising to be an ally in improving schools. Many said they expected Thurmond would be a strong leader focused on improving student outcomes. We know we are going to work hard to give you the money you need and the budget you need to fully fund education and our schools so we can put our money where our mouth is and make sure our children have everything they need, Assemblywoman Connie Leyva (D-Chino Hills) said. As state superintendent, Thurmond will oversee the education of 6.2 million students at 10,000 schools. Thurmond was a member of the West Contra Costa County School Board and a Richmond city councilman before he was elected to the state Assembly. Tony is the right man at the right time to fight the federal, Donald Trump, Betsy DeVos anti-child, anti-education, anti-civil and -human rights agenda, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said. Tony is going to do that for us. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print State Controller Betty Yee takes oath of office with call for more affordable housing and healthcare State Controller Betty Yee California Controller Betty Yee took the oath of office Monday for a second term, saying she still has work to do addressing problems that include a lack of affordability in housing, healthcare and higher education. A San Francisco native, Yee is the chief financial officer of California the fifth-largest economy in the world having first won election to the post in 2014 before winning reelection in November. No region is spared from the widening inequality and increased poverty that plague our state, fueled by the lack of affordable, stable housing, the cost of healthcare and transportation, limited educational opportunities, student loan debt, displacement caused by disasters and more, she said. Yee was administered the oath of office by California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento before an overflow crowd that included state Senate leader Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra and San Francisco Mayor London Breed. As a public official it is about governance that delivers results and stays accountable while upholding the underlying value of dignity for all, Yee said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra begins new term promising to fight Trump policies California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra ( (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)) California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra on Monday took the oath of office for a new term, saying he would continue his role as a leading challenger to Trump administration actions that he believes are counter to the states interests. Becerra, a former 12-term congressman, has become a national opposition figure to Trump, having sued the federal government 45 times since he was appointed as the states first Latino attorney general in 2017. Weve been a little busy stopping the dysfunction and insanity in Washington, D.C., from infecting California, Becerra told an audience during a swearing-in ceremony at the California Museum in Sacramento. Whether its the criminals on our streets or the conman in the boardrooms or highest office of the land, Becerra said, the California Department of Justice, well, weve got your back. Becerra won his first statewide election as the states top cop in November, two years after he filled the post vacated when predecessor Kamala Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate. He has peppered the Trump administration with lawsuits challenging federal policies on healthcare, the U.S. census, the environment and immigration. Our state builds dreams, not walls, he said in a direct criticism of Trumps proposal to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. Just last week, Becerra led a coalition of 17 Democratic attorneys general in announcing an appeal of a federal judge in Texas that ruled the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The ACA has been the law for nearly a decade and is the backbone of our healthcare system, Becerra said last week. This case impacts nearly every American workers covered by employers, families, women, children, young adults and seniors so we will lead the ACAs defense as long and far as it takes. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement California Democratic Party Vice Chairman Daraka Larimore-Hall announces bid to lead group By Christine Mai-Duc Daraka Larimore-Hall. (Dominic Parisi / Courtesy of Daraka Larimore-Hall) Daraka Larimore-Hall, a top official at the California Democratic Party, said Monday hes running to replace former chairman Eric Bauman, who resigned abruptly in November after being confronted with allegations of sexual misconduct. Larimore-Hall, a longtime state party activist and former chairman of the Democratic Party of Santa Barbara County, was one of the party leaders who urged Bauman to resign following the allegations. In an email to supporters announcing his bid, he urged both structural and cultural change at every level of our Party. He also repeated his call for a top-to-bottom investigation of the allegations, the party and its culture. In a Times investigation, 10 party activists and staff members said Bauman made crude sexual comments and engaged in unwanted touching and physical intimidation in professional settings. In order to be where we need to be for 2020, we have to confront the culture of abuse and fear that allowed someone to behave in such a vile way for so long, Larimore-Hall said in an interview. We cant brush it aside or think that our activists or our candidates or our donors are going to forget about this overnight. Larimore-Hall said his first priority would be to fully investigate the allegations and restore rank-and-file confidence in the partys leadership. The second would be to refocus the party on political priorities as the 2020 presidential election nears. The Bauman episode, Larimore-Hall said, threatens to derail the Democrats plans to help defeat President Trump and keep the seven congressional seats gained in the midterm elections. Its definitely a crisis, Larimore-Hall said. But the component parts the energy, the enthusiasm, the volunteers, the infrastructure its still there. We just need to direct it toward something. Larimore-Hall was elected vice chairman of the state party in February following Baumans razor-thin victory over Bay Area activist Kimberly Ellis. Ellis has announced another bid for the chairmanship and former state Senate leader Kevin de Leon is also mulling a run. The vote will take place at the partys May convention in San Francisco. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Newsom will vow to seize this moment, and swipe at Trump in Monday inaugural address By Melanie Mason Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and his family attend an Inauguration Family Event at the California Railroad Museum in Sacramento on Jan. 6. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Building on the theme of California exceptionalism that defined his campaign, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will depict the state as a guardian of progressive values and a counterweight to President Trump in his inaugural address Monday, according to excerpts of his prepared remarks. What we do today is even more consequential, because of whats happening in our country, read the excerpts obtained by The Times. Peoples lives, freedom, security, the water we drink, the air we breathe they all hang in the balance. The country is watching us. The world is waiting on us. The future depends on us. And we will seize this moment. The speech casts Californias political stakes in a decidedly national scope, promising an agenda that will unify and be an example to the rest of the country. It contrasts the governing goals of Newsom, a Democrat, with that of Trump, the incoming governors perennial foil. We will offer an alternative to the corruption and incompetence in the White House, the excerpts say. Our government will be progressive, principled, and always on the side of the people. Newsom campaigned on an ambitious and wide-ranging platform, promising sweeping solutions on housing, healthcare, education and other issues that rank among Californians top concerns. In the weeks after his election, he struck a more muted tone, taking pains to emphasize his fiscal caution and need for patience in achieving those goals. The inaugural excerpts indicate a return to lofty pledges. While Newsom will vow to prepare for uncertain times ahead by building budgetary reserves and paying down debt, the prepared remarks quickly turn to a vow to be bold. Newsom has already floated several proposals for his first budget that carry significant price tags, including a nearly $2-billion plan to boost early childhood development for low-income families and a dramatic expansion of paid family leave from six weeks to six months. When asked for a preview of his inauguration speech during a news conference Sunday evening, Newsom predicted pundits would criticize his address as short on specifics. Well, of course, Im at an inaugural, Newsom said. But Ill be very detailed in the budget, a few days later. And then we will architect, in much more nuance and detail, in state of the state. I really see this as three opportunities to communicate over the next few weeks our agenda, our vision for the state. Times staff writer Taryn Luna contributed to this report. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Newsom-hosted benefit concert raises nearly $5 million for wildfire victims By Taryn Luna Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom speaks at a concert to benefit wildfire victims at the Golden 1 Arena in Sacramento on Jan. 6. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) On the eve of the gubernatorial inauguration, Californias political class rubbed elbows in Sacramento for a benefit concert hosted by Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and headlined by the rapper Pitbull. Newsom told the crowd gathered at the Golden 1 Center on Sunday evening that the fundraiser brought in nearly $5 million for the California Wildfire Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that supports the families of fallen firefighters and communities affected by wildfires. You know, a lot of folks feel anxious about not just politics, but government, Newsom said on stage before introducing the rapper and activist Common. But those firefighters, they are the antidote to the fear and cynicism; they are the manifestation of why government matters and why you should care. Top sponsors, including Salesforce, Kaiser Permanente and other interest groups, paid up to $1 million each to support the cause and curry favor with the new administration. Nathan Click, a spokesman for Newsom, said organizers sold more than 7,000 tickets. Several state lawmakers attended the concert alongside Capitol staff, lobbyists and business types, who mingled on the floor of the arena and offstage in private VIP areas. The rock band X Ambassadors and a duo called the Cold Weather Sons from the town of Paradise, which was destroyed by fire in November, were among several performers who entertained the crowd during the four-hour event. The California Rises concert is the final in a series of festivities held Sunday to celebrate the inauguration of Californias 40th governor. Earlier in the day, Newsom attended a private brunch at Sacramentos Crocker Art Museum and his inaugural committee hosted a free party for families at the California State Railroad Museum at the Old Sacramento Waterfront. Newsoms inauguration is set to begin at 11 a.m. Monday on the steps of the Capitol. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Inauguration fever hits Sacramento as Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom prepares to take office By Phil Willon Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom holds his son, Dutch, as he and his family attend an inaugural event at the at the state Railroad Museum Sunday. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Incoming Gov. Gavin Newsom doesnt officially take the oath of office until Monday, but the parties celebrating his inauguration were in full swing all day Sunday. Newsom and his family were mobbed by well-wishers at the California State Railroad Museum at the Old Sacramento Waterfront in the afternoon, where his inaugural committee hosted a free party for families. He just has charisma. Hes able to really connect with people, said Rosielyn Pulmano, an attorney from Elk Grove who came to see Newsom with her husband, two sons and her niece. I think he cares about working Californians and a lot of their issues. Newsom arrived with his wife, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and their four young children, and the governor-elect spent a good deal of his time wading through crowds, taking selfies with supporters and signing autographs as music boomed in the background. As the family toured the inside of the museums locomotives and the bevy of exhibits, Newsoms two-year-old son, Dutch, was wide-eyed, impressed by all the train cars and seemingly a little overwhelmed by the crowd. Newsom said that for his son, all that was missing from the museum was Thomas the Train, popular fictional locomotive in childrens books and cartoons . If theres one thing I can contribute to Sacramento maybe its getting a Thomas the Train exhibit for the two years olds, Newsom joked when talking with reporters afterward. Newsom said he wanted to include such an event in his inaugural festivities to highlight families and children, whose wellbeing will be among the top priorities of his administration. Youll see that not only as a preamble to the inaugural and the budget that well be submitting next week, but I think itll be a big part of the administration, Newsom said. The museum event followed a private, high-dollar brunch at Sacramentos Crocker Art Museum. A steady rain failed to dissuade as many as 200 guests who sipped wine and dined on chicken and salmon while waiting for a photo with Californias new first couple. Seen at the event were representatives of some of the states most powerful political interests, among them organized labor, healthcare companies and tribal gaming interests. A few other high-profile guests attended, too, including Larry Baer, CEO of the San Francisco Giants, and Erika Jayne, a singer and cast member of the reality TV show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Im excited to see someone like Gavin young, vibrant taking over the state and leading us into the future, Jayne said after attending the brunch with her husband, attorney Tom Girardi. Hes got a lot of great plans. Attendees said the event, which was closed to reporters and held under a tent in the museums outdoor atrium, did not include prepared remarks by Newsom. Among those seen leaving the event were representatives of AT&T, the California Medical Assn., Uber, Kaiser Permanente and the State Building and Construction Trades Council. A fundraising invitation obtained by The Times offered bundled tickets to all of the inauguration events, including those on Sunday and the Monday ceremony, ranging in price from $25,000 to $200,000. The money will be collected by a committee specifically organized to pay for Newsoms inaugural weekend. Sundays festivities are scheduled to end with a benefit concert headlined by Pitbull at the Golden 1 Center, home of the NBAs Sacramento Kings, to raise money for the victims of Californias recent deadly wildfires. Among the attendees at @GavinNewsoms pre-inaugural leadership brunch: Real Housewife of Bev Hills @erikajayne. Im excited to see someone like Gavinyoung, vibranttaking over the state and leading us into the future. Hes got a lot of great plans. pic.twitter.com/561NHiy2XQ Melanie Mason (@melmason) January 6, 2019 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement As Newsom inaugural events begin, he unveils more state budget promises on education and paid family leave Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, seen here last April, will propose new state budget efforts on paid family leave and education subsidies. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Californias incoming governor, who must send his first state budget plan to the Legislature this week, has already signaled a significant new focus on programs to help families and children from infancy to college. Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom campaigned on a platform that included a number of child-focused efforts specifically aimed at helping lower-income families. The price tag for the initial efforts is expected to approach $2 billion a cost paid out of an unrestricted tax revenue windfall that could be one of the largest in state history. Newsom may also seek help for families through new subsidies paid by California employers. The governor-elect is expected to propose a dramatic expansion of paid parental leave from six weeks to six months according to an internal document provided by a source close to the Newsom transition team, first reported on Sunday by the New York Times. The document doesnt offer a full explanation for how the program will be funded, saying instead that the budget will set a goal of ensuring that all newborns and newly adopted babies can be cared for by a parent or a close family member for the first six months. Employers across the state are currently assessed a payroll tax that helps offer a subsidy to parents who temporarily leave their job to care for a newborn. Newsoms plan, according to the document, would pay for some of the new costs by shrinking the mandated cash reserve of the state fund that administers the program, allowing more of the money to be paid in benefits. The increase in paid leave would not all happen at once but instead be phased in over a multi-year period. A task force to help implement the expanded care plan is also envisioned, according to the document. It would determine whether two parents could split the six months of paid leave and whether an extended family member could be enlisted to help care for the child of a single parent over the six-month period. The incoming administrations focus on young children will also include $1.8 billion in new spending on early childhood education programs, with a particular focus on training childcare workers and pushing for more California schools to offer full-day kindergarten. Those costs, according to an overview memo obtained by the Los Angeles Times, are considered to be a one-time expense while leaving the long-term costs of the effort to be determined later. More community college students would get free tuition under a third initiative expected in the new governors budget plan. Newsom will propose spending $40 million to offer a second year of tuition-free college to California students, according to an outline provided by a transition official, first reported by Politico. Students are already eligible for a single year of paid tuition under a plan agreed to by Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers in 2017. The incoming governor embraced the idea of free community college during the 2018 campaign as part of a broader focus on additional investments in higher education. Education is an economic development strategy, Newsom said at a higher education forum last spring. We need to significantly increase the investment from the general fund of this state on higher education. Theres no greater higher return on investment. Whether the proposal would be targeted to students based on a familys financial need is unclear. Many low-income students are already eligible for fee waivers at community colleges. The new governor must submit his full state budget plan to lawmakers no later than Thursday. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gavin Newsom and his family decide Sacramento is the place to be The Old Governors Mansion State Historic Park in Sacramento. Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will move his family into the mansion. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and his family will give up the Marin County life and move to the Victorian-style governors mansion in Sacramento after he takes the oath of office Monday. Newsom and his wife, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, had debated whether or when to relocate to the state capital since his election in November. The couple have four young children and expressed reservations about moving in the middle of a school year. To best serve the people of California while also maximizing family time together, the Newsoms have therefore decided to move to Sacramento, said Newsoms spokesman, Nathan Click. On Monday, they will move into the Governors Mansion along with their four children, their two family dogs, and their family bunny rabbit and reside there for the immediate future. The Newsoms currently live in Marin County. Gov. Jerry Brown and his wife, Ann Gust Brown, moved into the grand house in 2015 after it underwent $4.1 million in renovations to update electrical and plumbing systems, as well as to remove lead-based paint and install a fire sprinkler system and other security features. The mansion was built in 1877 and has been home to 14 governors, but before Brown it had not housed a California governor for nearly half a century. The state bought the mansion from a wealthy Sacramento hardware merchant, Albert Gallatin, in 1903 for $32,500. It was one of the few California homes at that time to have indoor plumbing. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Newsom announces top labor, business liaisons as he prepares to take office Julie Su will be secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency for Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times) Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom on Friday named two advisors on issues related to the California economy, each recognized for their expertise on business and labor. The incoming governor will appoint Julie Su as secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency and Lenny Mendonca as chief economic and business advisor and director of the Governors Office of Business and Economic Development. Su, 49, has served as state labor commissioner under Gov. Jerry Brown since 2011 and has led an office tasked with the enforcement of Californias labor laws. She won a MacArthur Foundation genius grant in 2001 and previously worked as a civil rights attorney representing low-wage workers. In her new position, Su will be tasked with coordinating the work of several workforce departments in state government, including those that administer unemployment benefits and oversee the relationship between agriculture workers and employers. Mendonca, 57, has been a longtime advocate for rethinking government operations as co-chairman of the nonprofit organization California Forward. Previously, he was partner at McKinsey & Co., a global management consulting firm. While he will be a key advisor to Newsom on the states economy, Mendonca will also lead the office often referred to as Go-Biz, designated as a high-level way to encourage job growth and economic development. In his new role, Mendonca will help ensure that California is rolling out the welcome mat to current and future California businesses and growing a sustainable economy for every Californian, said a statement from the Newsom transition team. Newsom will take the oath of office as governor Monday. He has previously selected key advisors on the state budget, legislative affairs and the executive branchs wide array of agencies and departments. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Joshua Groban, aide to Gov. Jerry Brown, sworn in to California Supreme Court By Taryn Luna California Supreme Court Justice Joshua Groban gives remarks after he is sworn into the court by Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday. (Taryn Luna) California Supreme Court Justice Joshua Groban, a lawyer and longtime aide to Gov. Jerry Brown, was sworn into the states highest court Thursday in Sacramento. The ceremony marked Browns fourth appointment to the state Supreme Court and gave the seven-member bench a Democratic majority. We live in a highly chaotic, ever-changing and ever-confusing world, Groban said in prepared remarks at the Stanley Mosk Library and Courts Building. But Im happy to report that Im joining an institution whose fundamental purpose, at core, is to provide stability and consistency amidst this chaotic place we live. I look forward to doing that with a sense of reflection, respect, fidelity to the law and compassion. None of Browns appointees, Groban included, have judicial experience. Groban served as legal counsel to Browns 2010 gubernatorial campaign and joined the administration as a senior advisor to the governor, overseeing the appointments of some 600 judges over the last eight years. Prior to working with Brown, Groban, 45, practiced law for more than a decade. In perhaps his final public appearance before his successor, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, takes office next week, Brown pushed back on notions that he stacked the court. I dont want this to be known as a Brown court, the governor said before administering the judicial oath of office. First of all, the so-called Brown appointments do not agree with themselves and nor should they. They are individuals. They will differ. Its not anybodys court. The governor called the court a high calling and said Groban possesses the values for the job. Probably, next to my wife, Ive talked to no person as much as Ive talked to Josh Groban, Brown said. I think youve talked to him more, Californias First Lady Anne Gust Brown interjected. I cant tell you what the hell hes going to do, Brown later quipped. I warned him, dont screw up, at least not at first. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement California campaign watchdog agency seeks law barring use of campaign funds to fight harassment claims Former state Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia). ( (Steve Yeater / Associated Press)) Elected officials accused of harassment or discrimination would be barred from using political contributions to cover their legal defense costs under legislation proposed by Californias campaign watchdog agency. The state Fair Political Practices Commission has agreed to pursue a law change to clear up confusion after an attorney for one former state lawmaker argued political funds could be used in such legal defenses. Commission Chairwoman Alice Germond said putting a prohibition into the law would provide some much needed clarity. As chair, I would like to show the public their lawmakers are held to a standard that is above reproach, Germond said in a statement. People dont give money to campaigns for lawmakers to use it to defend their own bad behavior, so lawmakers shouldnt be able to use it in that manner. The issue came up a year ago when an attorney for former Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) sought a formal opinion from the FPPC after the Senate launched an investigation that later concluded Mendoza likely engaged in a pattern of harassment against female aides. Mendoza resigned in February under threat of expulsion by the Senate. In a Jan. 10, 2018, letter, Cassandra Ferrannini, an attorney for Mendoza, wrote to the FPPC that she believed Mendoza should be allowed to establish a legal defense fund able to defray his legal expenses in defending himself against the allegations. The use of campaign funds for attorneys fees under these circumstances would fall squarely within the scope of legislative matters, since it involves the alleged conduct of a legislator with regard to legislative staff that he supervised, Ferrannini wrote. The commission staff originally issued an advice letter that said Mendoza may use campaign and legal defense funds to defend himself from claims of sexual harassment that arose directly out of his activities or status as a candidate or elected officer. But the panel later rescinded the letter after some members questioned using campaign funds to fight sexual harassment claims. That left uncertainty about what was allowed, which Germond said could be cleared up by a new law. The FPPC is still looking for a legislator to carry the bill, a spokesman said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Californias landmark police transparency law takes effect after court denies police union effort to block it California Supreme Court building (Eric Risberg / Associated Press) A new state law allowing the public disclosure of internal police shooting investigations has gone into effect after the California Supreme Court on Wednesday denied a bid by a police union to block it. The law opens to the public for the first time internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Employees Benefit Assn. challenged the law last month, asking state Supreme Court justices to decide that the law only apply to incidents that occur in 2019 or later. The court rejected that request Wednesday, allowing members of the public to seek all applicable records held by police departments. Union president Grant Ward said in a statement that his organization was disappointed with the decision and is now seeking other legal options. We feel this is a statewide issue and should be considered accordingly, Ward said. Last month, the city of Inglewood authorized the destruction of more than 100 police shooting investigations and other records in advance of Jan. 1, when the disclosure law was scheduled to take effect. California law requires police departments to keep such records for five years, and Inglewood City Council voted to destroy records older than that. Mayor James T. Butts has said the decision had nothing to do with the new law. In Los Angeles, Police Chief Michel Moore has said that complying with the new disclosure rules could take hundreds of thousands of hours of work. State Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), the author of the transparency law, has said she has no immediate plans to propose changes to it. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Few complaints of racial profiling are sustained by police agencies in California, state panel finds CHP Officer J. Nelson stands outside the office of Gov. Jerry Brown as activists in 2015 support requiring the tracking of police stops. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Law enforcement agencies in California sustain few citizen complaints of racial or identity profiling, according to a report Wednesday by a state panel set up to help reduce bias in policing. The states Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board recommended in its annual report that law enforcement agencies improve training and adopt clear guidelines for tracking and reporting data on who is stopped by officers. The panel said that 453 law enforcement agencies in the state received 9,459 civilian complaints in 2017, including 865 complaints alleging racial or identity profiling. Of the racial and identity complaints that reached a disposition that year, 1.5% were sustained, 14.6% resulted in officers being exonerated and 83.9% of complaints were not sustained or were determined to be unfounded, the report said. A clearer picture of the issue is expected from a 2015 law that requires police agencies to report demographic data on all detentions and searches. The first reports by the eight largest agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, are due to be submitted in April. California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, whose office oversees the board, said tracking of all detentions and searches will be helpful to understand the scope of the issue. The Boards recommendations will help make our law enforcement agencies more transparent and promote critical steps to enhance, and in some cases, repair the public trust, Becerra said in a statement Wednesday. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California housing crisis podcast: What Minneapolis decision to end single-family zoning might mean for California A view of downtown Minneapolis in 2014 (Stephen Maturen / Getty Images) Theres a national movement brewing to roll back zoning rules in cities that only allow one house on a plot of land. The epicenter of that movement is Minneapolis, which passed a plan last month to eliminate single-family zoning citywide and let landowners build duplexes and triplexes on residential property. On this episode of Gimme Shelter: The California Housing Crisis Podcast, we talk about the reasons why Minneapolis leaders took this action, including their desire to combat a history of racial exclusion and spur more housing density to fight climate change. We also debate how Minneapolis decision might affect housing politics in California. Our guest is Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender, who helped shepherd the new zoning rules to passage and a former San Francisco city planner. The episode also crowns 2018s Avocado of the Year the most ridiculous story exemplifying Californias housing woes and includes our predictions for the most under-the-radar important themes in housing politics in 2019. Gimme Shelter, a biweekly podcast that looks at why its so expensive to live in California and what the state can do about it, features Liam Dillon, who covers housing affordability issues for the Los Angeles Times Sacramento bureau, and Matt Levin, data and housing reporter for CALmatters. You can subscribe to Gimme Shelter on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Google Play and Overcast. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement How young immigrant Dreamers made flipping control of the House a personal quest By Jazmine Ulloa Gabriela Cruz, who was brought to the U.S. illegally when she was 1, couldnt vote, but in the final hours before the Nov. 6 election, she was making one last run to get people to the polls. The sun was setting in Modesto when she found Ronald Silva, 41, smoking a cigarette on a tattered old couch behind a group home. He politely tried to wave her off until she reminded him he had a right that she as an immigrant without citizenship didnt have. It could really make a change for us, said Cruz, 29. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will propose almost $2 billion for early childhood programs (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Seeking to frame his new administration as one with a firm focus on closing the gap between children from affluent and poor families, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will propose spending some $1.8 billion on an array of programs designed to boost Californias enrollment in early education and child-care programs. Newsoms plan, which he hinted at in a Fresno event last month, will be a key element in the state budget proposal he will submit to the Legislature shortly after taking office Monday, a source close to the governor-elects transition team said. The spending would boost programs designed to ensure children enter kindergarten prepared to learn, closing what some researchers have called the readiness gap that exists based on a familys income. It would also phase in an expansion of prekindergarten and offer money to help school districts that dont have facilities for full-day kindergarten. The fact that hes making significant investments with his opening budget is really exciting, Ted Lempert, president of the Bay Area-based nonprofit Children Now, said Tuesday. Whats exciting is the comprehensiveness of it, because its saying were going to focus on prenatal through age 5. A broad overview document reviewed by The Times on Tuesday shows that most of the outlay under the plan $1.5 billion would be a one-time expense in the budget year that begins July 1. Those dollars would be a single infusion of cash, an approach favored by Gov. Jerry Brown in recent years. Most of the money would be spent on efforts to expand child-care services and kindergarten classes. By law, a governor must submit a full budget to the Legislature no later than Jan. 10. Lawmakers will spend the winter and spring reviewing the proposal and must send a final budget plan to Newsom by June 15. Though legislative Democrats have pushed for additional early childhood funding in recent years a key demand of the Legislative Womens Caucus those actions have typically come late in the budget-writing season in Sacramento. Quite frankly, to start out with a January proposal that includes that investment in Californias children reflects a new day, state Sen. Holly J. Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) said. The governor-elect will propose a $750-million boost to kindergarten funding, aimed at expanding facilities to allow full-day programs. A number of school districts offer only partial-day programs, leaving many low-income families to skip enrolling their children because kindergarten classes end in the middle of the workday. Because the money would not count toward meeting Californias three-decades-old education spending guarantee under Proposition 98, which sets a minimum annual funding level for K-12 schools and community colleges, it will not reduce planned spending on other education services. Close behind in total cost is a budget proposal by Newsom to help train child-care workers and expand local facilities already subsidized by the state, as well as those serving parents who attend state colleges and universities. Together, those efforts could cost $747 million, according to the budget overview document. An expansion of prekindergarten programs would be phased in over three years at a cost of $125 million in the first year. The multiyear rollout would, according to the budget overview, ensure the system can plan for the increase in capacity. Lempert said the Newsom proposal is notable for trying to avoid the kinds of battles that in recent years pitted prekindergarten and expanded child care against each other for additional taxpayer dollars. The reality is we need to expand both simultaneously, he said. Another $200 million of the proposal would be earmarked for programs that provide home visits to expectant parents from limited-income families and programs that provide healthcare screenings for young children. Some of the money would come from the states Medi-Cal program, and other money from federal matching dollars. Funding for the home visits program was provided in the budget Brown signed last summer; the Newsom effort would build on that. Emphasizing a policy area with broad appeal in his first state budget could reflect Newsoms political sensibility about the challenges ahead. Democratic lawmakers and interest groups will be especially eager to see how Newsom addresses the demand for an overhaul of healthcare coverage in California especially after a 2017 effort to create a single-payer, universal system fizzled. The path forward on healthcare is complex and costly, making early childhood education a more achievable goal in the governor-elects early tenure. Newsom is likely to face considerable demands for other additional spending. In November, the Legislatures independent analysts projected that continued strength in tax revenues could produce a cash reserve of some $29 billion over the next 18 months. Almost $15 billion of that could be in unrestricted reserves, the kind that can be spent on any number of government programs. Kim Belshe, executive director of the child advocacy organization First 5 LA and a former state health and human services secretary, said the initial Newsom budget proposal suggests the next governor will focus on a comprehensive approach to improving outcomes for children from low-income families. School-ready kids deserve quality early learning, strong and well-supported families, and access to early screening services, Belshe said. Newsom understands the whole child, multifaceted needs of our kids and is clearly ready to lead. Mitchell, the chair of the Senate budget committee, said shes eager to see the details of the governor-elects proposal to determine whether it might signal the beginning of an even broader expansion of early education efforts. Similar efforts have been hindered by a lack of money and ongoing debate over which services to help children 5 and younger need state funding the most. Universal preschool, in particular, has been debated for more than a decade. California voters rejected a ballot measure to fund a full prekindergarten system in 2006. Its clear theres a new movement afoot trying to engage on investment for universal preschool, Mitchell said. How we invest, and how we prioritize that investment, is going to be a great conversation for the coming months. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California Politics Podcast: A final conversation with Gov. Jerry Brown No Californian has served longer as governor, signed more laws, granted clemency to more felons or waged more high-profile campaigns than Gov. Jerry Brown. Brown will leave behind a unique legacy when he packs his last belongings for the trip from the governors mansion in Sacramento to his Northern California ranch. His final two terms in office could be his most consequential. The governor reviewed some of the more notable moments from the past eight years in a far-reaching interview with The Times on Dec. 22. This weeks podcast episode includes extended portions of that conversation. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement A sagging economy could doom a 2020 ballot measure to raise commercial property taxes, Gov. Jerry Brown says Gov. Jerry Brown, at his Colusa County home on Saturday, said a ballot measure to raise commercial property taxes could struggle in 2020. (Randall Benton/For The Times) An effort to remove commercial property in California from the tax limits imposed by the landmark Proposition 13 could be felled by an economic slowdown, Gov. Jerry Brown said. In a Saturday interview with The Times at his Northern California ranch, Brown said liberal activist groups that have successfully placed the proposal on the November 2020 statewide ballot shouldnt read too much into early poll numbers showing support for the plan. That isnt as easy as you think, Brown said. Because youre going to be in a downturn of the business cycle. And youre talking many kinds of business. And the cost of doing business in California is already high. The ballot measure would allow counties to more frequently assess the market value of commercial property in California than allowed under Proposition 13, a 1978 ballot initiative that amended the state constitution to place strict limits on assessing property values and taxation for both homeowners and businesses. An analysis of the new measure, which qualified in October for the 2020 ballot, estimates it could bring in some $10.5 billion a year in new tax revenue. The business community will fight it, Brown said. And the minimum wage, the family leave, the environmental rules business[es] have left California, thats going to be the big argument. And I think thats something you really have to think a lot about. The governor, who leaves office early next month due to term limits, declined to either endorse or oppose the ballot measure. He said Californias economic health in two years time could be a key factor in how voters weigh the proposal. Well be in a recession by then, Brown said. So its anybodys guess. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Inglewood to destroy more than 100 police shooting records that could otherwise become public under new California law By Jack Dolan Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts (Maria Alejandra Cardona / Los Angeles Times) The city of Inglewood has authorized the shredding of more than 100 police shooting and other internal investigation records weeks before a new state law could allow the public to access them for the first time. The decision, made at a City Council meeting earlier this month, has troubled civil liberties advocates who were behind the state legislation, Senate Bill 1421, which takes effect Jan. 1. The law opens to the public internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. The legislature passed SB 1421 because communities demanded an end to the secrecy cloaking police misconduct and use of force, Marcus Benigno, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said in a statement. Inglewood PDs decision to purge records undermines police accountability and transparency against the will of Californians. California law says police departments must retain records of officer shootings and internal misconduct investigations for five years. The city of Inglewood, however, had kept records longer than that, including case files of police shootings dating to 1991. State Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), the author of SB 1421, intended for her bill to allow public access to all qualifying records held by a department, no matter the date of the incident. Inglewood City Council approved the destruction of records that have been in the police departments possession more than 100 cases longer than required by law. The city staff report and council resolution describing the action makes no mention of the new police transparency law. Instead it says the affected records are obsolete, occupy valuable space, and are of no further use to the police department. It added the traditional method of destroying such records is to shred them. It is unclear whether the records have since been destroyed. A spokesman for the Inglewood Police Department along with Inglewoods city manager, attorney, clerk, four council members and Mayor James T. Butts, a former Santa Monica police chief, did not respond to requests for comment. Inglewoods City Hall is closed the last two weeks of December. The Inglewood Police Department has a reputation for secrecy and using excessive force. In 2008, the departments officers fatally shot four men in as many months, three of whom turned out to be unarmed. The U.S. Department of Justice launched a civil rights probe and found significant flaws in the way the department oversaw use-of-force cases and investigated complaints against officers. Civil rights advocates still question why Inglewood police opened fire on a couple found sleeping in a car in 2016, killing them both. California police have a long history of shredding records to avoid scrutiny of their actions. In the 1970s, the LAPD famously destroyed more than four tons of personnel records after defense attorneys began requesting them as part of criminal cases against their clients. The move resulted in the dismissal of more than a hundred criminal complaints. In response, the Legislature demanded that records be preserved but then took other measures, supported by police unions, to ensure the public had very little access to them, making California the most secretive state in the nation when it comes to police misconduct. Skinners legislation begins to unwind those laws, which have been on the books since 1978. No video or audio of the Dec. 11 council action is available on the citys website and neither are meeting minutes or any record of the decision. A city spokeswoman, Courtney Torres, confirmed that the council had voted in favor of the police records purge, and said all the relevant reasons for the decision were included in the city staff report. The Jan. 1 implementation for SB 1421 has prompted other police officials to act. A police union in San Bernardino is asking the state Supreme Court to determine that Skinners bill only applies to incidents that occur in 2019 or later. Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore sent a letter to Skinner earlier this month warning that complying with the law in regard to older records in the departments possession could take hundreds of thousands of work hours. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Federal officials question California DMVs process for issuing Real IDs (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has notified the California Department of Motor Vehicles that its process for providing residents with federally recognized identification cards is not adequate. DMV spokesman Armando Botello said Friday that 2.3 million residents who received Real IDs under the current process will have to submit additional documentation when their cards are renewed in five years but will be able to use them in the meantime. The DMV is developing a way for residents to submit more documentation online or via email to comply with the stricter federal requirement, he said. But some state legislators are upset about delays in notifying them of the problem and say Homeland Security could eventually require additional documentation provided by current holders. The DMV has known for a month that millions of Real IDs theyve been dolling out are potentially invalid, Assemblyman Jim Patterson (R-Fresno) said. The DMVs only hope is that the Department of Homeland Security takes pity on California and gives the DMV more time to fix this mess. Real IDs are a new kind of driver license and identification card that federal law will require legal residents to present when boarding domestic flights or visiting military bases and other federal facilities starting Oct. 1, 2020. The DMV has only been requiring one form of documentation, including a current lease or utility bill, to verify the residence of a card applicant. But the federal government said in a Nov. 21 letter to the agency that two such documents are needed. On Friday, DMV Director Jean Shiomoto released a letter defending the current process but said her agency will start requiring a second document to prove residency in April. In order to minimize confusion among our customers, the CADMV will work to inform individuals who have been issued a Real ID under the current process that their card will be accepted for official federal purposes, even if their renewal occurs after the October 1, 2020, final enforcement date for Real ID, Shiomoto wrote to the federal agency. Legislative officials worry there is still a possibility that those issued Real IDs in the past might be required to present a second document to have their cards designated as compliant. The more complex process for obtaining Real IDs has led to hours-long waits for customers at DMV field offices this year, although wait times have been reduced recently by an increase in staffing. Shiomoto last month announced that she is retiring amid problems with the motor voter registration system and after the governor ordered an audit of her agency in response to the long wait times. On Friday, Assembly Republican Leader Marie Waldron of Escondido blasted the DMV for waiting a month to tell legislators of the problem. This is unacceptable and flies in the face of security for our citizens, which is what Real ID was created for in the first place, she said in a statement. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom taps Keely Bosler to be his finance director Keely Bosler, the director of the California Department of Finance, will continue in that role under Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom. (California Department of Finance) Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom on Friday appointed Keely Martin Bosler as director of the California Department of Finance, continuing the role she has served under Gov. Jerry Brown since August. Bosler will become Newsoms chief fiscal advisor, and will play a pivotal role in shaping Newsoms spending plan for the state that will lay the foundation for his top policy priorities. Newsom must roll out his first budget plan within days of taking office on Jan. 7. Californias brighter future depends on a strong, stable fiscal foundation, Newsom said in a statement released Friday afternoon. Keely is an accomplished public servant of sound fiscal judgment. She understands that state budgets are more than numbers on a page they are value statements affecting the fate and future of millions of families reaching for the California Dream. We are fortunate to have her on our team. Prior to being appointed finance director, Bosler served as Browns cabinet secretary for two years and, before that, as the chief deputy director for budget in the Finance Department for three years. Earlier this year, Brown picked Bosler to lead an audit of the Department of Motor Vehicles, which had come under fire for long wait times at DMV field offices and numerous computer problems, including errors in the new motor voter program that registered Californians to vote. As we have discussed, long wait times at the Department of Motor Vehicles do not reflect the high standards of service that Californians expect from their state government, Bosler wrote in a letter in September to DMV Director Jean Shiomoto. The audit is still ongoing, but Shiomoto has since announced she will retire at the end of the year. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Californias legislative analyst, after decades of nonpartisan research for lawmakers, calls it a career Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor, who has led the state research unit since 2008, will retire on Dec. 31. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Only five people have led the independent research office of the California Legislature since its creation in 1941. And each of them has had a pretty simple mantra to live by in reviewing public policy proposals and government programs: Call it like you see it. The job of any analyst, to me, is you maintain that nonpartisanship, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor said. Taylor, 65, will retire from the post at the end of December after a four-decade career with the research team that began, as he likes to tell it, just after the passage of the landmark property tax rollback, Proposition 13, in 1978. He became the leader of the office, with the title of legislative analyst, in October 2008. Two months later, state government found itself in arguably the worst fiscal crisis in its history a projected shortfall that ultimately grew to $42 billion by the following winter. There were forces beyond our control, Taylor said of that time. But dont underestimate the policy changes that were made afterward. Those changes, most notably a boost in taxes paid by high-income earners and a robust state budget cash reserve fund, have helped lead to successive years of fully funded government services. The state is projected to have some $24 billion in reserves by the end of the current fiscal year. Taylor announced his intention earlier to step down this year. Leaders from both houses of the Legislature select the analyst, who leads a staff of almost five dozen researchers. The office provides in-depth reports on pending legislation, as well as on broader policy topics like education and healthcare, and produces an independent analysis for every proposed ballot measure. A succession of lawmakers and governors alike have praised or panned the work of the Legislative Analysts Office based on their own political worldview. Taylor said his staff is mindful that they work for legislators, but try to ignore the rhetoric that follows the release of a major report. People are going to do what theyre going to do with our information, he said. They dont always like it, but they appreciate that we give them our best advice. Taylor oversaw a transformation in the way the Legislative Analysts Office distributes its information, embracing the release of research reports through social media instead of relying on traditional printed copies and journalist roundtable events. But he said the work of the researchers has remained largely unchanged through the decades. Having an independent take on things, I think, is good for the Legislature, he said. No replacement for Taylor has been announced, which means a short transition for his eventual successor before Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom sends his first budget proposal to lawmakers in early January. Taylor, who lives in the Sacramento suburbs, said he will honor the tradition of his predecessors in stepping away from public policy debates in order to give the new analyst space to lead the team as he or she sees fit. He said he hopes to travel in the coming years and spend time with his children who have moved to the East Coast. Forty years in state government, Taylor said in why he was stepping aside now. Isnt that enough? Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gov. Jerry Brown sues to save California sentencing laws By Don Thompson, Associated Press (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown sued Thursday to protect one of his signature actions in office, a voter-approved measure that allows most prison inmates to seek earlier release and participate in rehabilitation programs. His administration filed a lawsuit challenging a pending 2020 initiative that seeks to toughen criminal penalties as part of an effort to roll back reforms adopted by voters within the last decade. Browns lawsuit in Sacramento County Superior Court contends the measure lacked enough valid signatures to overturn a previously approved constitutional amendment. County officials and California Secretary of State Alex Padilla certified the signatures in July but said they were submitted too late to qualify for last months election. The lawsuit names Padilla and the ballot measures official proponent, Nina Salarno Besselman, president of the advocacy group Crime Victims United. Padilla said the measure exceeded the required roughly 366,000 valid signatures, equal to 5% of votes cast for governor in 2014. Browns lawsuit says he used the wrong threshold. It says changing the state Constitution requires 8%, or more than 585,400 signatures. That makes the pending initiative more than 150,000 signatures short, the lawsuit says. Hes wrong, said Jeff Flint, a spokesman for the campaign backing the measure. He predicted a judge will be reluctant to reject a measure that already has qualified for the ballot. The secretary of state told us how many signatures are required, and thats how many we collected, Flint said. Padillas office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The measure would reverse reforms adopted by voters through Proposition 47 in 2014 and Proposition 57 in 2016. Proposition 57 allows most inmates to seek earlier paroles, and Proposition 47 reduced some drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. The combination has helped keep Californias inmate population below a population cap set by federal judges. Corrections department spokeswoman Vicky Waters said the measure gives corrections and parole officials broad discretion to protect our communities and fashion a rational system of rehabilitation and punishment. This new initiative unlawfully seeks to supplant the departments constitutional authority to implement these critical reforms to our criminal justice system. The pending initiative would shorten the list of crimes that qualify for earlier parole and change some theft crimes from misdemeanors back to felonies. It would also increase the number of crimes for which DNA is collected, a list that was limited when some crimes went from felonies to misdemeanors. Those supporting the tougher penalties say easing criminal penalties has increased the number of dangerous criminals on the streets, but those backing the changes say they have helped reduce mass incarceration and rehabilitate convicted criminals. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California Supreme Court orders records unsealed in pardon of ex-state Sen. Roderick Wright Former state Sen. Roderick Wright (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times) The California Supreme Court has granted a request to unseal court records involving Gov. Jerry Browns decision last month to pardon former state Sen. Roderick Wright for felony convictions involving lying about living in his legislative district, officials said Thursday. The court order was in response to a request by the nonpartisan First Amendment Coalition, which argued that the public has a right to know what information went into the governors decision to grant clemency to Wright. This is an important victory for public access to court files involving the exercise of executive clemency, said coalition spokesman Glen A. Smith. We are gratified the court has recognized that these decisions should be subject to the same public access rules that apply to other judicial records under California law. The court gave Browns office until Jan. 2 to redact confidential material before giving the court documents that can be released to the public. The court files submitted by the governors office include letters of support for a pardon and an internal review of Wrights case. The court denied a motion to unseal the records of all clemency cases but left open consideration of requests on other individual cases. Browns office is currently evaluating the courts decision, said spokesman Brian Ferguson. The governor argued against unsealing records in a recent court filing that said confidentiality is consistent with historical practice and is supported by state law. In pardoning Wright on Nov. 22, the governor wrote: He has shown that since his release from custody, he has lived an honest and upright life, exhibited good moral character, and conducted himself as a law abiding citizen. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement California political watchdog agency fines BART, urges prosecution over using public funds for campaign A Bay Area Rapid Transit train leaves the station in Oakland in this 2013 file photo. (Ben Margot / AP) Californias state political watchdog agency on Thursday imposed a $7,500 fine against the Bay Area Rapid Transit District and called for a possible criminal or civil prosecution over allegations the district used public resources to campaign for a 2016 bond measure. The state Fair Political Practices Commission levied an administrative fine against BART for its failure to disclose spending on YouTube videos, social media posts and text messages to promote Measure RR, which authorized $3.5 billion in general obligation bonds. Though the panel lacks authority to seek criminal charges over the misuse of public funds, it also urged county district attorneys in the BART service area and the state attorney general to pursue possible criminal or civil charges over the spending of taxpayer dollars for campaign purposes, Commission Chairwoman Alice Germond said. It is the concept of misusing public funds that I think we all here are very disturbed about, and we want to send a warning and not create a precedent that is a minor, little slap on the wrist, Germond said, adding that the referral to criminal prosecutors would further send a message that this is wrong. Commissioner Brian Hatch also called for the state Legislature to consider granting the FPPC power to go after public agencies that spend taxpayer money on campaigns. Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) called on the agency to increase the fine to the maximum level of $33,375. The proposed $7,500 fine represents a slap on the wrist for a very serious violation of the law and the publics trust, Glazer said in a letter to the panel. In supporting the fine recommended by the staff, Germond said BART has agreed to pay the penalty. Somebody did something wrong and they have admitted it, she said. A staff report said there were factors in favor of a fine below the maximum. Although the Commission considers BARTs violations to be serious, the absence of any evidence of an intention to conceal, deceive, or mislead; the voluntary filing of the delinquent campaign statement; and the absence of a prior record are mitigating, the report said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California police union seeks state Supreme Court review of new law disclosing internal investigation records Los Angeles Police Department officers. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) A police union is asking the California Supreme Court to block the release of internal officer investigations before a new state law takes effect next year. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Employees Benefit Assn. filed a petition Tuesday asking justices to rule that only investigations of incidents that occur after Jan. 1 would be available under the law and not those the department has on file from years prior. The litigation comes after this years passage of Senate Bill 1421, which opens to the public for the first time internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. The law goes into effect Jan. 1, and the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department has told the union it intends to make available in response to public records requests all the information it has. The union is very concerned about any plans to retroactively apply Senate Bill 1421, Grant Ward, the unions president, said in a statement. We believe retroactive application violates our members rights and we hope the California Supreme Court will consider the serious issues raised by our legal challenge. The bills author, Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), does not agree with the unions interpretation. She has said her legislation should apply to all the records in a police departments possession because the law simply declared that affected records were no longer confidential. If the record exists, its disclosable, Skinner said. A decision on what records will be available under the law is key to how far-reaching it will be. If the court restricts access to incidents that occurred prior to 2019, those cases will not be subject to public scrutiny. The police union in San Bernardino County is not the only one raising concerns about the law. Earlier this month, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore sent a letter to Skinner expressing concern that his agency would be overwhelmed if the law required the department to disclose older incidents. Even if the law only applied to the previous five years, Moore wrote, it could take nearly 300,000 hours of work to comply with its provisions. The LAPD operates with a guiding principle of Reverence for the Law; as such, we will diligently comply with SB 1421, Moore wrote. We maintain, however, that a retroactive implementation of SB 1421 will be exceptionally burdensome and would require significant reallocation of front-line investigative personnel. Skinner said if complying with the law becomes untenable for law enforcement agencies that maintain records for a long time, she would consider modifications. But she said agencies did not raise this concern during discussion over the bill. SB 1421 went through multiple committee hearings, multiple floor debates, extensive opportunity for all parties to weigh in on concerns with its structure, she said. That was not an issue that was raised by law enforcement at the time. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gov. Brown warns of backlash for Republicans in 2020 if Obamacare repeal is upheld Gov. Jerry Brown at the National Press Club in April. (Alex Wong / Getty Images) Gov. Jerry Brown warned Republicans on Tuesday that repeal of the Affordable Care Act would devastate the partys political chances in the 2020 election. Brown, speaking at a Sacramento Press Club event moderated by Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton and Brown family historian Miriam Pawel, said a federal judges ruling last week to strike down the 2010 law if upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court will build such a backlash that the Democrats will not only take over the Senate, theyll win the presidency and will win with the kind of momentum, particularly on the issue of healthcare, that [the law] will be replaced probably with something even better. The governor, who leaves office in less than three weeks, said he did not believe the ruling by a Texas judge would ultimately prevail. I think the decision will probably be overturned, Brown said. Few states have embraced the law championed by former President Obama more than California, both through its healthcare exchange, Covered California, and by expanding access to government-funded services under Medi-Cal. Some 12 million Californians now receive healthcare through Medi-Cal, and Brown said a final ruling affecting the federal dollars that subsidize that care would be a serious blow. California would not be able to afford it without the subsidy, the governor said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Bars in Los Angeles, San Francisco could stay open until 4 a.m. under new bill A bar in Sherman Oaks (acuna-hansen) For the third year in a row, a California lawmaker is trying to keep bars open until 4 a.m. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is reintroducing legislation that would allow Los Angeles, San Francisco and seven other cities to extend the sales of alcohol in bars, clubs and restaurants by an additional two hours. Nightlife brings people together, fosters creativity and innovation, supports small businesses, and creates middle-class jobs, Wiener said in a statement. Its time to embrace our nighttime economy and give our cities the tools they need to foster the best nightlife possible. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill by Wiener, writing: I believe we have enough mischief from midnight to 2 without adding two more hours of mayhem. Should this years measure, Senate Bill 58, advance through the Legislature, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom would decide whether to sign it into law. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has endorsed SB 58, saying the city should have more flexibility than it does now. Every community has its own needs, and cities should be able to make informed decisions about what nightlife hours make sense for residents, visitors, and neighborhoods, Garcetti said in a statement. The bill would create a five-year pilot program where Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, West Hollywood, Long Beach, Coachella, Cathedral City and Palm Springs could decide to allow restaurants and bars within their cities to serve alcohol until 4 a.m. with the approval of the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Bars in Los Angeles and San Francisco could stay open until 4 a.m. under new bill A bar in Sherman Oaks. (Acuna-Hansen) For the third year in a row, a California lawmaker is trying to keep bars open until 4 a.m. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is reintroducing legislation that would allow Los Angeles, San Francisco and seven other cities to extend the sales of alcohol in bars, clubs and restaurants by an additional two hours. Nightlife brings people together, fosters creativity and innovation, supports small businesses and creates middle-class jobs, Wiener said in a statement. Its time to embrace our nighttime economy and give our cities the tools they need to foster the best nightlife possible. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill by Wiener, writing: I believe we have enough mischief from midnight to 2 without adding two more hours of mayhem. Should this years measure, Senate Bill 58, advance through the Legislature, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom would decide whether to sign it into law. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has endorsed SB 58, saying the city should have more flexibility than it does now. Every community has its own needs, and cities should be able to make informed decisions about what nightlife hours make sense for residents, visitors and neighborhoods, Garcetti said in a statement. The bill would create a five-year pilot program where Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, West Hollywood, Long Beach, Coachella, Cathedral City and Palm Springs could decide to allow restaurants and bars within their cities to serve alcohol until 4 a.m. with the approval of the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Californias DMV director announces retirement amid problems with motor voter program (Kent Nishamura/Los Angeles Times) The director of the California Department of Motor Vehicles will retire at years end with a number of questions unanswered about the implementation of a major voter registration system and long wait times experienced by customers for much of the past summer. Jean Shiomoto will not continue in her current role as Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom takes office, and announced to staff several weeks ago her intent to retire at the end of the year after 38 years in state service, spokesman Armando Botello said in an email to The Times on Friday. Newsoms transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on who might lead the department in 2019. Shiomoto was appointed DMV director by Gov. Jerry Brown in the fall of 2013, having served in prior leadership roles with the department. DMV officials have been sharply criticized by lawmakers in recent months for delays in serving customers at its field offices across the state. Last week, DMV officials revealed errors in registering California voters for the November election mistakes that followed a series of problems in the rollout of the states new motor voter registration system. Secretary of State Alex Padilla last week said he had lost confidence in Shiomotos leadership as a result of the voting registration problems. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement New law could break the stalemate over housing on the site of a near-vacant Cupertino mall By Liam Dillon For more than a decade, developers have tried to build new housing on the site of an all-but-empty mall in Cupertino, a city in the heart of Silicon Valley and home to Apple headquarters. A well-organized group of neighbors, upset about traffic, building heights and the potential loss of the communitys suburban lifestyle, turned away every plan. Now, for the first time, the stalemate might be broken thanks to a decision made in the state Capitol. In an effort to address Californias housing affordability problem, legislators passed a law last year that requires cities and counties to approve housing projects if they comply with local zoning rules and other standards, forcing some resistant communities to agree to new homebuilding. In September, the city of Cupertino, citing the state law, approved developer Sand Hill Property Co.s proposal to build an office park and more than 2,400 homes where the Vallco Shopping Mall sits. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Local government was a last bastion for struggling California Republicans. Not anymore By Mark Z. Barabak Theres no shortage of watery metaphors to describe the disaster that befell California Republicans this midterm election. A blue wave. A Democratic tsunami. But the most apt may be a flood, with the casualties steadily rising as the vote count climbed in the days and weeks following Nov. 6. Eventually half the GOP congressional delegation was washed away, along with the entire slate of statewide Republican candidates. In Sacramento, Democrats claimed 29 of 40 state Senate seats and seized three-quarters of the 80-member Assembly the largest number since 1883, when Chester A. Arthur was serving in the White House. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print For the Republicans left in Californias Legislature, fewer lawmakers will have to do more work By John Myers From January to late summer every year, the California Legislature is a perpetual motion machine. And in the new year, the people most likely to struggle in keeping up will be Republicans, vastly outnumbered but still responsible for representing millions of the states residents. There are 22 standing committees in the state Senate, plus at least a dozen more subcommittees or special committees. And after Novembers election, only 11 Republican senators will be left to divvy up the work. To the victors go the spoils. To the vanquished go the extra assignments. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Californias DMV failed to finish registering 329 new voters before November election (Los Angeles Times) Officials at the California Department of Motor Vehicles said Friday that the agency failed to send information for 329 new voters to state elections officers in time for the November election, the latest revelation in a string of mishaps regarding voter registration. Secretary of State Alex Padilla responded with a blistering letter, calling on Gov. Jerry Brown or Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom to replace Jean Shiomoto, the DMV director. The Director of DMV has lost my confidence and trust, Padilla wrote. In all, the agency revealed that 589 mailed voter registration records that should have been processed under election deadlines werent sent to Californias secretary of state until late November, including forms from 260 drivers who had intended to update their address on existing voter registration records. The DMV had been instructed to not send registration forms that came in after Oct. 22, but the voters in question had forms that were postmarked before the deadline. In some cases, when the postmark wasnt legible, the agency said, documents inside indicated the voter had intended to finish their registration in time for the Nov. 6 election. The DMV recognizes the pause in transmittals was an error and affected the timing of the registration of the 589 individuals referenced above relative to the November election, Shiomoto wrote in a letter to Padilla on Friday. The pause was due to a misunderstanding on the part of the department, for which we take responsibility. Those who were trying to update their address for voter registration would not have been blocked from casting ballots. But officials said its unclear whether any of the 329 new voters were able to participate in the election. Shiomoto said in her letter that DMV will work with elections officials. The errors were not related to previous DMV mistakes about registering voters, problems associated with the rollout of the states new motor voter law. In those cases, multiple registration forms were sent to local elections offices for some voters, some people were assigned the wrong political party preference and others who are noncitizens were incorrectly placed on the list of registered voters. DMV officials have yet to respond to questions posed by The Times over the last several weeks about who knew of those mistakes and when. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Newsom appoints a labor advocate and a former staffer as his chief deputy Cabinet secretaries By Taryn Luna A labor advocate and a San Francisco political operative have accepted positions in Gov.-elect Gavin Newsoms new administration. Angie Wei, a Capitol insider with deep ties to organized labor in California, will serve as a chief deputy Cabinet secretary with a focus on policy development. As a legislative director and chief of staff at the California Labor Federation, Wei has represented more than 1,200 unions and 2.1 million workers in Capitol fights over a host of policy issues, including drug-pricing transparency and paid family leave. The governor-elect also tapped Jason Elliott, a policy advisor to Newsom during his time as mayor of San Francisco and a chief of staff to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, as another chief deputy Cabinet secretary overseeing executive branch operations. Elliott and Wei will serve under Ana Matosantos, Newsoms previously Sen. John McCain never attained the American presidency he twice sought, yet official Washington gathered for a farewell memorial on Saturday that had all the splendor and solemnity of a state funeral, marked by bipartisan tributes that doubled as implicit but extraordinarily powerful rebukes of the divisive incumbent president. Under the soaring Neo-Gothic arches of Washington National Cathedral, two former presidents who thwarted McCains aspirations to that office delivered back-to-back eulogies, joining current and former members of Congress, Cabinet officials, diplomats and military officers to honor a man hailed as a war hero and statesman, yet acknowledged as a flawed and complicated character. The dual keynote role for Democrat Barack Obama and Republican George W. Bush, before 2,500 invited guests who filled the polished pews, was McCains idea his final, poignant nod to the bipartisanship he championed. It served also as a veiled yet unmistakable remonstrance of the uninvited President Trump, who spent the morning tweeting from the White House before repairing to his Virginia golf club. That undercurrent ran through the eulogists remarks as well. Advertisement So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty, trafficking in bombast and insult and phony controversies and manufactured outrage, Obama said. Its a politics that pretends to be brave and tough, but in fact is born of fear. John called on us to be bigger than that. He called on us to be better than that. Bush, who defeated McCain in a rancorous race for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination that left the senator embittered for several years, said that McCain respected the dignity inherent in every life, a dignity that does not stop at borders and cannot be erased by dictators. He was honorable, always recognizing that his opponents were still patriots and human beings. Perhaps above all, Bush added, John detested the abuse of power. Obama, who vanquished McCain in 2008 after the senator had succeeded in winning the GOP nomination, noted McCains choice of his two former adversaries as eulogists, saying, What better way to get a last laugh than to make George and I say nice things about him to a national audience? Despite their many differences on foreign policy, Obama said he and McCain stood together on Americas role as the one indispensable nation, believing that with great power and great blessings come great responsibilities. We never doubted the other mans sincerity or the other mans patriotism, Obama added, or that when all was said and done, we were on the same team. In past months at his home in Sedona, Ariz., before dying of brain cancer a week ago, McCain personally presided over many of the preparations for his remembrance. They included an abundance of symbolic touchstones from his life and career, along with the instruction that Trump not be included. While the president was absent, the implicit criticisms in the eulogies made him a palpable presence. Meghan McCain eulogizes her father, Sen. John McCain, at Washington National Cathedral. Perhaps the clearest slap at Trump, whod continued to deride McCain at political rallies to the end, came from daughter Meghan McCain, who delivered the first of the eulogies. She invoked the presidents signature slogan, saying, The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again, because America was always great. That evoked the first applause from an audience that included some administration officials, among them Trumps daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. In another dig at Trump, who received repeated medical deferments to avoid serving in Vietnam, Meghan McCain said her fathers mourners lamented the passing of American greatness the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who lived lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served. While the eulogists celebrated McCain as a statesman-warrior, they also were at times unsparing, if affectionately so, in their critiques of him as he was. Amid praise for his patriotism, courage and civility, they also variously described McCain as cantankerous, contrarian, sometimes ego-driven and occasionally given to lapses of judgment that brought him lasting regret. Its no secret, Obama said, that he had a temper. And when it flared up, it was a wonder to behold his jaw grinding, his face reddening, his eyes boring a hole right through you. Not that I ever experienced this firsthand, mind you, he added, provoking laughter that echoed through the cathedrals majestic nave. The memorial service was a cap to days of public commemorations that started in Arizona and continued at the Capitol Rotunda, where McCain lay in state Friday, only the 31st American accorded that honor. Present throughout was McCains 106-year-old mother, Roberta, taking in the tributes to the man she still called Johnny. The McCain family plans a private burial service on Sunday at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., where the senator the son and grandson of four-star admirals graduated in 1958. Among the attendees at Saturdays service were former President Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former Sens. Robert Dole, the longtime Republican Senate leader, and Joe Lieberman, the former Democrat whom McCain later said he would have preferred as his 2008 vice presidential running mate, rather than Sarah Palin, who was not invited. Related: Two funerals and a wedding: The shunning of Donald Trump Lieberman, in his eulogy, said of McCain, He regularly reached across party lines because he knew that was the only way to solve problems. Near the end of the 2-hour proceedings with music consisting mainly of patriotic hymns, soprano Renee Fleming affectingly performed the Irish ballad Danny Boy, which friends and associates said McCain liked to listen to in the months following his diagnosis last year. His wife, Cindy, who otherwise was stoic through the days of public ceremonies, raised a hand to her mouth as tears filled her eyes. Former President Obama delivers a eulogy for the Arizona senator at the National Cathedral. Earlier Saturday, a rainstorm had let up when the hearse carrying McCains casket across town from the Capitol to the cathedral stopped at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where Cindy McCain left a wreath of red and white roses accented with blue flowers, and a ribbon that read, In honor of all who served. McCain endured nearly six years of torture in captivity after being shot down as a Navy pilot over Hanoi, but later became a champion of postwar reconciliation and was widely admired in Vietnam. The senators wife was silently escorted down the inclined walkway alongside the memorial wall by Defense Secretary James N. Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, two former Marine generals McCain knew well and whose appointments by Trump reassured the senator even as he expressed doubts about the presidents fitness for office. At the deepest point of the monument, where the wall angles, a sailor placed the wreath on a stand, and the small group, which included McCains seven children, paused for prayer. As they slowly walked back to the motorcade, assembled tourists broke into applause. On Friday, after McCains body had arrived in Washington on a government plane, at his first stop an honor guard made up of members of the branches of the U.S. military carried his casket into the Capitol Rotunda, where members of Congress, governors, diplomats and military officers were waiting. There, a half-hour ceremony offered up the sometimes uncomfortable spectacle of Trumps principal political allies hailing McCains long public service. The president asked me to be here, on behalf of a grateful nation, to pay a debt of honor and respect to a man who served our country throughout his life in uniform and in public office, said Vice President Mike Pence. John McCain, war hero, political maverick and GOP standard-bearer, dies at 81 House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who abandoned his resistance to Trumps nomination to throw his weight behind the presidents agenda, called McCain one of the bravest souls our nation has produced. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who for years had battled bitterly and ultimately successfully against McCains signature priority, campaign finance reform, described him as an American hero. We thank God for giving this country John McCain, McConnell said. Throughout the steamy afternoon and into the evening Friday, thousands of members of the public filed through the Rotunda to pass by McCains casket, which rested on a pine catafalque built more than a century and a half ago for President Lincoln. laura.king@latimes.com @laurakingLAT jackie.calmes@latimes.com UPDATES: 3:35 p.m.: This article was updated with additional context, details from the cathedral service and an Obama quote. 10:45 a.m.: This article was updated with an Obama quote. 9 a.m.: This article was updated with more remarks from Obama. 8:45 a.m.: This article was updated with remarks from Presidents Bush and Obama. 8:20 a.m.: This article was updated with remarks from Joe Lieberman. 7:50 a.m.: This article was updated with Meghan McCains eulogy. 6:45 a.m.: This article was updated with Trumps tweeting. 6:20 a.m.: This article was updated with details of the Vietnam memorial visit and guests at the cathedral. This article was originally published at 3 a.m. As Californias Legislature worked toward its deadline to adjourn just after midnight Saturday, two years of governing and decades of political leadership slowly gave way to the clock. More than 200 bills were on the last days agenda, and hundreds more were considered over the course of the final week. Most were written by Democrats, who dominate the membership of both houses. Republicans could do little more than play the role of antagonist, warning in their floor speeches of overreach by the majority party. Proposals passed in the final days promised changes both momentous and minor in the lives of Californians. Lawmakers voted to end the states felony murder law so that a killers accomplice would not be sentenced to life in prison. They said yes to a limited number of cities keeping bars open until 4 a.m., and to a nationally noticed mandate for women to hold at least one seat on the board of any corporation headquartered in California. National attention was also showered on a bill to make plastic straws available only by request in sit-down restaurants, and another to make water or milk the default beverage for kids meals sold in restaurants. Advertisement And yes, lawmakers also declared surfing to be Californias official state sport. It followed a decree in 2017 that Augustynolophus morrisi is the official state dinosaur. California Gov. Jerry Brown signs overhaul of bail system, saying now rich and poor alike are treated fairly Time and again, though, the 92nd session of the California Legislature was driven by events barely on the radar when members of the Senate and Assembly decided to run for office in 2016. In each instance, national conversations sparked fierce internal debates about how best to respond. The session began with the election of President Trump and ended with a historic reckoning about allegations of sexual misconduct within the Legislatures ranks. Trumps effort to change the national narrative on illegal immigration drew an unprecedented challenge by legislative Democrats, highlighted by a sweeping sanctuary policy that has limited local law enforcement cooperation with federal agents. If you want to get to them, you have to go through us, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) warned in his welcoming speech on the first day of session in December 2016. Rendon and Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) pushed through a package of immigration laws that helped shape the narrative of a resistance against the Republican president rooted in California. Partisanship during some periods of the two-year legislative session seemed at an all-time high. Tempers cooled, it seemed, when talk turned to Californias leadership on climate change. In the summer of 2017, eight Republicans in the Legislature broke ranks to ratify an extension of the states cap-and-trade climate program. The Assemblys Republican leader was subsequently demoted. Another Republican who broke ranks, Oceanside Assemblyman Rocky Chavez, found himself pilloried for the vote by Democrats in his bid for a Southern California congressional seat. It was a reminder that bipartisanship in the modern era comes with risk. When we do things here, have a longer view, Chavez told his colleagues in a farewell speech on the Assembly floor Friday. Its really not about us. But it was about them and their staff members and the political industry that helps win elections when more than 140 women penned a scathing letter last October about a pervasive culture of sexual harassment. Three Democrats were accused of improper behavior and resigned as a result; others were investigated and admonished, the latest being an Orange County Republican about whom allegations were revealed just hours before the final gavel fell after midnight Saturday. Lawmakers also agreed to offer a glimpse into the way sexual harassment is investigated under the Capitol dome. Protected by a 43-year-old law limiting public access to misconduct records, but facing legal action over the laws opaque nature, legislative leaders agreed to the voluntary disclosure of some but not all of the documents. When Senate Democrats picked a new leader, Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), she acknowledged that the public should see role models and not reprimands when it looks to the Legislature. True culture change holding ourselves to a higher standard requires the active, everyday enlightened participation of every person who works in and around this Capitol, Atkins said in March. Atkins made history in her ascension last spring to the powerful post: She is the first woman to lead the Senate and only the third person to ever have led both houses of the Legislature. Her predecessor, De Leon, will face fellow Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein in November. The author of a wide array of high-profile laws, including the so-called sanctuary state policy and efforts on climate change and gun control, De Leon was ineligible to remain in the Legislature under Californias original term limits law. Five other state senators will follow him out the door. So, too, will the man whose presence loomed large over the legislative session that ended on Saturday, Gov. Jerry Brown. Since his return to the governors office in 2011, the iconic Democrat has wielded considerable influence over the legislative process. Knowing that legislators havent overturned the veto of a governor since 1979 Browns second term in office he has courted and cajoled Democrats to send him bills that he could sign. Lawmakers freely admitted that some of the last bills of 2018 depended on the man whose office is on the Capitols first floor. All roads lead through the governors office, Assemblyman Chris Holden (D-Pasadena), the author of the regional power grid bill, said on Thursday. Even so, Brown did not always get what he wanted. On Friday night, Atkins announced she would hold the proposal for California to join other Western states in a regional electric grid something thats been on the governors wish list for a long time. The announcement to reject the regional grid plan might have served as a symbolic end to an era of legislative acquiescence to the states chief executive. The Legislature is now dominated by Democrats and Republicans elected under a term-limits law that allows them up to 12 years in their current posts. By the time the next governor takes the oath of office in January, they will be the ones who are seasoned experts in the capital city. I think that definitely changes the balance of power, Rendon said last month at an appearance before the Sacramento Press Club. Its a good thing for the Legislature to be empowered. Not that lawmakers have struggled for relevance over the last two years. Eighty-eight percent of the bills sent to Brown in 2017 were signed into law, and theres no indication he will be noticeably stingier when reviewing this years bills by the Sept. 30 deadline. For now, the verdict on the Legislatures year rests with voters. Democrats will aim to restore their supermajority status in the Senate and expand their dominance in the Assembly. Republicans, running in the shadow of a fiercely partisan national midterm election, will attempt to hunker down and warn their constituents that GOP legislators are a valuable check on Democratic power in Sacramento. Travis Allen, the Republican firebrand assemblyman from Orange County who lost the June primary for governor, wore his rejection of Democratic bills as a badge of honor in bidding the Assembly farewell on Friday. Ive voted no so many times Ive broken the button on my desk, Allen said with a smile. john.myers@latimes.com Follow @johnmyers on Twitter, sign up for our daily Essential Politics newsletter and listen to the weekly California Politics Podcast With an urgency sparked by two consecutive years of deadly fires, California lawmakers have sent to Gov. Jerry Brown a collection of proposed laws to bolster prevention efforts and the readiness of residents, along with a controversial plan in which utility companies could pass some wildfire-related costs onto customers. The breadth of the public policy proposals that won final approval late Friday including efforts to increase defensible space around homes and buildings, and a mandate for backup batteries in garage door openers that hinder a fast getaway when the power is knocked out offers a reflection of how deeply the devastation has been felt by Californians and their elected representatives in Sacramento. Were angry and we have every right to be angry, Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) said on Friday night during the legislative debate. The question is, what do we do about that? No proposal was more far-reaching or contentious than Senate Bill 901, the summers marquee wildfire measure and one of the last to be approved on Friday night before the Legislature adjourned for the year. The bill authorizes a five-year, $1-billion effort to reduce fire threats through tree and brush thinning programs that would include year-round prescribed fire. It would also streamline regulatory approval of fire reducing programs, and loosens some of the existing rules that govern the size of trees that can be removed. Advertisement Assembly GOP Leader Brian Dahle (R-Bieber), whose district felt the full brunt of the deadly Carr blaze that swept into Redding, held up a large map during debate on Friday that showed the fire danger across California. Youre going to burn if we dont do something fast, Dahle said as he moved the map from side to side so lawmakers could get a better look. We need to turn California from red back to gold. But consumer groups and large industrial stakeholders were enraged by provisions in SB 901 that will offer financial help to utility companies. Though the bill was scaled back from an earlier effort to rewrite a liability standard that applies to the companies when their equipment is involved in sparking a fire, it nonetheless offers new power to the California Public Utilities Commission to offer concessions when appropriate. It was the kind of change that threatened to derail the work of the special legislative committee that crafted the main fire proposal. A handful of lawmakers rekindled that frustration and anger on Friday, particularly when it came to a discussion of how SB 901 could offer relief to Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the utility found responsible in some of the Northern California blazes in 2017. Climate change will be deadlier, more destructive and costlier for California than previously believed, state warns Why are we rushing to bail out PG&E with its history of cutting safety as a business decision? Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) said. The bill allows the company to borrow money for its 2017 wildfire costs while using money collected from ratepayers to pay back the loan. PG&E lobbied lawmakers heavily for help, warning that Wall Street investors could downgrade the companys credit rating without relief from the Legislature. That, supporters said, could mean the San Francisco-based company and other investor-owned utilities facing fire costs would have to scale back ambitious clean energy efforts that are being counted on to help support Californias climate change agenda. Every single one of us can find problems in this report, said Assemblyman Chad Mayes (R-Yucca Valley), who served on the conference committee that crafted the plan. It is not perfect, but it is good. A series of other bills that moved through the Legislature in its final days aims to improve Californias fire readiness in the coming years. A second proposal, Senate Bill 1260, would give permission for more planned prescribed burns with an effort to cooperate across lands owned by the federal and state government, along with private landowners. Assembly Bill 2911, also approved Friday, gives electric utility workers new access to private land to trim trees and brush away from power lines, and boosts other efforts to create defensible space around structures. An additional bill could provide financial incentives for landowners to profit from wood products made with small trees removed to aid in fire prevention. Other efforts approved by lawmakers sought to bolster fire safety and protection. Senate Bill 833 would improve emergency alert systems in communities across the state. Even the danger faced by a garage door that wont go up when the power is out trapping a homeowners car and preventing a quick escape was considered by the Legislature; a bill sent to the governors desk would require those door openers to be sold with backup batteries in place. But questions remain about whether the bills, if signed into law, will do enough to protect communities where more Californians live. Theres too much focus on the rural areas, in my view, said Michael Wara, a climate researcher at the Stanford Woods Institute, who also cited the challenge of local resistance to tree thinning. What needs to happen is a community-level change. Thats the challenge. Lawmakers said they were aware that the efforts approved in this legislative session were only the beginning of a complicated discussion. Many lamented that it had taken the scorching of some 1.2 million acres to create action in Sacramento and on the part of utilities, large companies that for years were supposed to harden their systems against fire danger. The bill forces utilities to take wildfire prevention seriously, Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) said of the conference committee report. And its about damn time. The governor didnt immediately signal whether hed sign the main bill, SB 901, or the others, but he has long pushed for a solution to give extra help to utility companies that follow the rules when it comes to fire prevention. Still, neither lawmakers nor interest groups supporting the bill could say how much of the cost would ultimately be borne by utility customers. That determination will ultimately be made by state utility regulators. Under the bill, they may impose fines on companies that dont substantially comply with mandated fire mitigation rules. Assemblyman Marc Levine (D-San Rafael) criticized the effort in SB 901 requiring regulators to conduct a stress test of a utilitys financial health when deciding how much the company can afford to pay in wildfire damages. Levine said that would effectively serve as a cap on a utilitys liability costs. Its a cap for shareholders, but not for ratepayers, Levine said during debate in the Assembly. Californias heightened fire dangers struck a personal chord with a number of legislators during the final weeks of action in Sacramento. Many represent communities recently touched by fire, from Shasta and Lake counties in the north to Riverside County in the south and along the coast in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Others were witnesses to almost two weeks of thick smoke that crept into downtown Sacramento in early August, a constant reminder of the stakes at hand. Wara said lawmakers and their constituents must be prepared to do much more and sooner than they may realize. That includes a more focused look at the limitations of existing insurance for both utilities and homeowners, he said. This is a problem weve been building over 40 years, Wara said. Weve been living on borrowed time. john.myers@latimes.com Follow @johnmyers on Twitter, sign up for our daily Essential Politics newsletter and listen to the weekly California Politics Podcast Endorsing a dramatic departure from decades of secrecy surrounding policing in the state, California lawmakers have moved to undo some of the nations strictest rules keeping law enforcement records confidential, particularly involving officer killings of civilians. Legislators approved two landmark measures late Friday, one that would give the public access to internal investigations of police shootings statewide, and another that would allow the release of body camera footage of those incidents. Supporters of the legislation, which must be signed by the governor to become law, said it would boost confidence in law enforcement at a time when multiple disputed police incidents have led to protests in California and nationwide. The bills open up some transparency to help rebuild that trust between law enforcement and communities, said Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), author of the open-records bill. Public safety requires the cooperation and trust of a community. Advertisement Heres how California became the most secretive state on police misconduct Skinners measure, Senate Bill 1421, would begin to unwind a confidentiality law passed four decades ago by opening records from investigations of officer shootings and other major force incidents, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. Californias existing rules protecting the confidentiality of misconduct records not only prohibit the public from seeing them, but also deny prosecutors direct access a standard that exists in no other state. A recent Times investigation found that past misconduct by law enforcement officers who testify in court is routinely kept hidden by Californias privacy laws. Supporters of the SB 1421 hailed the decision as a move toward increased trust between law enforcement and the public. The backdrop of Black Lives Matter and other movements pushing for changes in the criminal justice system helped move the transparency measure forward, they said. For years, black, brown, indigenous, and poor communities have been subjected to systemic harassment, violence and brutality by police but left little recourse to pursue justice, Melina Abdullah, a professor of Pan-African Studies at Cal State L.A. and a member of the Black Lives Matter movement, said in a statement. SB 1421 will finally shine a bright light on whether and how police departments are holding officers accountable for these abuses of power. Before Fridays decision, police labor unions had blocked several prior attempts to weaken the confidentiality rules. Labor groups have long contended that the laws currently in place protect police officers from unwarranted intrusion into their lives, and say the changes could put them at risk. Assemblyman Jim Cooper (D-Elk Grove), a former captain in the Sacramento County Sheriffs Department, said the bill could make it easier to identify internal department whistleblowers. Because sustained cases of misconduct are high-profile within an organization, the accused officer will know who was there and who wasnt, Cooper said. At a time it has never been more important to safeguard the identities of whistleblowers, this bill falls very short. A separate bill that would require police departments to make some body camera footage public also advanced on Friday, the final day for lawmakers to consider bills for the year. The body camera measure would require departments to release footage of most officer shootings and other serious uses of force within 45 days unless doing so would interfere with an ongoing investigation. Supporters said the legislation, Assembly Bill 748, was modeled on the Los Angeles Police Departments recently implemented policy to release videos within a similar timeframe, adding that the increased public access also would better relations between law enforcement and communities. We have spent millions of dollars up and down the state in all our local jurisdictions to deploy body cameras and record the footage, said Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco). This would provide greater transparency. Police groups argued that the plan would override the ability of departments to set their own rules for disclosure. Lawmakers also worried that the measure didnt give enough weight to the privacy interests of officers and the public. We need to be more deliberative about this and get it right, Assemblyman Jay Obernolte (R-Big Bear Lake) said during debate on the Assembly floor. The passage of the body camera bill breaks a deadlock over the issue in the Legislature in the last four years. Multiple attempts to pass measures to make the footage public or restrict access statewide had failed before Friday. AB 748 makes a forceful move toward open access to body cameras, said Adam Marshall, an attorney tracking state legislation with Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The bill represents one of the strongest commitments to transparency for body cameras among the legislation thats been passed in the country, Marshall said The approval of SB 1421 also represents a dramatic departure from lawmakers past decision-making on police transparency issues. Multiple efforts in years past to roll back restrictions on access to records have met their demise amid fierce lobbying from police labor unions. Former state Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), who authored police transparency legislation that failed a decade ago, said in a recent interview that taking on law enforcement labor groups left scars. Its a pack. Like wolves coming at you, Romero said. Other [legislators] see it, and youre basically like meat thrown to the lions. Police labor unions have been strongly opposed to SB 1421. The Peace Officers Research Assn. of California, the states largest public safety union, as well as the Los Angeles Police Protective League argued that the current disciplinary process is unfairly deferential to department management. Making records of those investigations public would further punish officers, they said. Decisive votes for both bills occurred in the state Assembly, which has multiple Democrats with close ties to police. Initial tallies for the pair Friday left them a half-dozen short of passage, as numerous Democrats declined to weigh in. But they both advanced late in the evening. On Thursday, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents rank-and-file Los Angeles Police Department officers, gave $4,400 a piece to a dozen Assembly Democrats seen as friendly to law enforcement interests the maximum-allowable donation as they were set to decide on the police records and body camera bills. Tom Saggau, a spokesman for the union, said board members approved the campaign contributions last week, and that they had no connection to the two bills. We never tie a political or charitable contribution to any political or legislative action, Saggau said. We urge the people we support to vote their conscience. Unlike in previous attempts at changing the confidentiality rules, law enforcement wasnt united against SB1421. Last week, the California Police Chiefs Assn. announced its support for the legislation, echoing arguments from civil rights advocates about its ability to help increase the publics trust in police. Gov. Jerry Brown has not taken a position on either measure. Brown signed the bill implementing the states strict police confidentiality rules in 1978, when he was in his first term. Coverage of California politics liam.dillon@latimes.com @dillonliam UPDATES: 3:25 p.m. Sept. 1: This article was updated for clarity. This article was originally published at 11 p.m. Aug. 31. Have you experienced an unusual number of mosquito bites this summer? Have they landed mostly below the knee and especially around your ankles? And did the six-legged perpetrator fly off unnoticed, like a mosquito ninja, after feasting on your blood? If the answer to all these questions is yes, then your neighborhood is probably infested with an invasive mosquito that is moving rapidly across Southern California, driving residents and vector control specialists crazy. Advertisement Its called Aedes, and its a real problem. They are spreading like wildfire, said Susanne Kluh, director of scientific and technical services for the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District. Our phones are exploding. Los Angeles County is home to two particularly troubling types of invasive Aedes mosquitoes. Aedes albopictus, also known as the Asian Tiger mosquito, arrived first, having hitched a ride with shipments of lucky bamboo from China in 2001. Vector control specialists monitored plant nurseries across the county and soon stopped finding the mosquitoes in their traps. They thought the insects had been eradicated. However, in 2011, residents in El Monte began to complain about unusually aggressive, daytime-biting mosquitoes plaguing the neighborhood. The Asian Tiger had resurfaced. Three years later, vector control discovered another, more sinister species of Aedes mosquito in L.A. County Aedes aegyptai. Genetic testing suggested it came from South America, and it has proved to be even more difficult to control than Aedes albopictus. This one has really been a game changer for us, Kluh said. We really havent been able to get a handle on it. Before these two Aedes species arrived, most of our mosquito bites came from a species of mosquito known as Culex. These mosquitoes still make up the majority of L.A. Countys mosquito population, but because theyd rather bite birds than humans, they dont bother us as much. Aedes mosquitoes, on the other hand, prefer humans and will even follow you into your car or home to get a blood meal. Their coloring black with white stripes on their legs and thorax makes them harder to see than the amber-colored Culex. Whats more, Aedes prefer to bite people below the knee where they are less likely to be observed. The two types of mosquitoes also have different biting styles. Aedes females are skittish, and they will attack several times in a row to get enough blood to lay their eggs. A Culex mosquito prefers to take one long, lazy drink. That makes it easier to slap and kill her before she can fly away. The Culexs egg-laying strategies differ as well. Culex females generally lay a raft of 100 eggs on a fairly sizable body of water an ornamental pond, a neglected swimming pool, a bucket of water, a bird bath. Dump out the water and the eggs die. Aedes females use those sources of waters too. However, because their larvae can survive in just one-eighth of an inch of water, they can also lay their eggs along the edge of a plant saucer, in a bottle cap or even in the depression of a wrinkled old bag of chips that gets hit by a sprinkler. Aedes lay a few eggs here, a few eggs there because they dont know which one of these little sources is going to dry up, Kluh said. They dont want to put all their eggs in one basket. Aedes will also attach their eggs to the dry surface of a container, which means they can survive even if the water gets dumped out. The next time the container fills with water, the eggs will hatch even if thats five years later. All this has made controlling Aedes extremely difficult. Our field agents used to just trudge through peoples backyards and walk right to that swimming pool or right up to that hot tub and find what they were looking for, Kluh said. Now her team has to check for signs of mosquito larvae in upturned bottle caps embedded in ivy, in starter plants adorning the porch and in the saucers beneath potted plants. We really had to retrain our entire workforce to look at a yard very differently, she said. If the Aedes mosquito population continues to grow unchecked, it may soon be very uncomfortable to spend time outside in Southern California. The experience you might have in New York or Florida or Indiana thats what we have to look forward to here in California, said Kelly Middleton, outreach coordinator for the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District. It will make spending time outdoors pretty miserable. For the 1,200 people who called her offices in August, that reality is already here. But what has vector control specialists really worried is the growing likelihood of an outbreak of mosquito-borne disease. Culex mosquitoes have traditionally been responsible for about 100 to 150 known cases of West Nile virus a year, but they cant transmit Dengue fever, yellow fever, Zika or Chikungunya. Aedes most definitely can. It is really a scary scenario, Kluh said. So far, no Aedes mosquito in Southern California is known to have transmitted a disease to people. But vector control has a game plan in case it does happen. The good news is that local communities have the power to stop Aedes mosquitoes from breeding, at least in their immediate area. These mosquitoes rarely fly more than 200 yards in their lifetime. That means if you and your neighbors remain vigilant about emptying even tiny sources of standing water on your properties, you can keep them under control. Make it a campaign, Kluh said. Talk to everybody you share fences with and make sure nobody has saucers or starter plants or lawn drains that are not screened. She did this with her neighbors in Azusa and has seen a remarkable improvement. No matter what else happens in the rest of L.A. County, you can keep this out of your neighborhood and continue to enjoy your time outdoors, she said. deborah.netburn@latimes.com Do you love science? I do! Follow me @DeborahNetburn and like Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook. MORE IN SCIENCE Excitement generated from another year of successful fundraising and grant-giving was tempered by a call for even more support from Burbank Arts for All Foundations Trena Pitchford. The nonprofits executive director celebrated her organizations financial success and impact, while laying out future plans at the first community-engagement event of the new school year Wednesday morning at the Ovrom Community Center. We did a lot last year, and this year were looking to do more, Pitchford said. Burbank Arts for All handed out 37 grants last year, totaling $92,018.56. Some of the highlights included ukuleles for fifth-grade music classes and hallway museum galleries at four elementary schools. During the past 12 years, the foundation has awarded $482,718.90 in grant money, with the average size of an endowment totaling $1,644.55. The number of grants and totals donated grows when other projects, such as a fundraiser to encourage 1,000 people to donate $100 each for musical-instrument repairs, are factored into the tally. With our grant-making program and the giving that we were able to help with the 1,000 for $100 and the Music is Instrumental campaigns, weve raised $544,893.97 and given 293 grants, Pitchford said. She also outlined the growth of arts programs in the district since 2005, the year before the foundation began awarding grants. For example, Providencia Elementary School provided only visual-arts and media curriculum under the arts program 13 years ago. Now, Providencia offers general music from transitional kindergarten to fifth grade, ukuleles, string instruments, dance and theater, along with visual arts and media. While the district itself has added some of those programs, others have been made possible through fundraising efforts led by the foundation. Burbank is a special town, Pitchford said. Arts education is one of the biggest investments we can make for our future, both individually and collectively as a community. It has an impact on the economic level for Burbank, but it also has a social, cultural impact for the students, parents and citizens. While few specific plans were laid out for the 2018-19 school year, the organization is planning to launch a new website and find opportunities to be more effective in fundraising efforts. Weve been looking for ways to make an even bigger difference for the lives of kids, and we always look to streamline our processes, Pitchford said. As we move into this next school year, there is more that we can do, but we cant do it alone. As for upcoming grants, the foundation is accepting applications for its fall cycle with the deadline set for 5 p.m. on Sept. 17. Foundation members will consider grant proposals from educators for projects set only during school hours that are curriculum-based and have a direct connection to learning, fulfill a need or gap in arts education, utilize the money within a year and are aligned to district and California Visual and Performing Arts standards. For more information, visit burbankartsforall.org/grants. Saundra Montijo, the foundations program and outreach manager, is encouraging district art educators and those with some art included in their classes to apply. Our grants fund district arts-education programs, parts integrated into other core subjects, facilities upgrades, supplies and materials, Montijo said. We run the gamut from all different arts forms: visual, music, theater, dance, media and culinary arts. andrew.campa@latimes.com Twitter @campadresports A bill to create a regional Orange County agency to finance 2,700 homes for homeless people recently cleared the state Legislature on the same day one of the leading advocates who helped get the bill passed suddenly left her job. Heather Stratman, who officials and advocates say led the effort to get the bill passed, stepped down from her job as the chief executive of O.C. cities on Aug. 23 the same day the bill had its final, unanimous vote on the floor of the state Assembly. Ive greatly enjoyed and appreciated the opportunities Ive had to tackle complex regional issues like housing, sober living reform and pension stabilization, Stratman, who was CEO of the Assn. of California Cities Orange County, said in a statement released by the association. I have learned a great deal and created deep relationships, all of which I will take with me throughout my career. The passage of AB 448 represents a real opportunity for regional collaboration, bringing the cities to the table with the county to build out the 2,700 units of [permanent supportive housing], as well as the opportunity to bring home Orange Countys fair share of state funding to support the build-out of the units, alleviating the financial pressures for the cities. I am honored to have been a part of the effort, Stratman added in a follow-up statement. This is a monumental time for Orange County, she said. The bill has been closely watched in O.C. as the community grapples with an ever-worsening homelessness crisis. It would create the Orange County Housing Finance Trust, a joint agency among city and county officials to coordinate and speed up funding to build permanent supportive housing for homeless people. Since its language was introduced at the end of May by a bipartisan group of legislators, the bill has sailed through the legislature as Stratman and others worked to rally support. The legislation received back-to-back unanimous votes in committees and the full state Senate and Assembly over the span of three months. No arguments were submitted in opposition to the bill, according to a committee staff analysis for the final floor vote. The bill now heads to Gov. Jerry Brown who will decide whether to sign it into law. In the city associations statement, its president, Jennifer Fitzgerald, said Stratman was leaving to pursue other endeavors. The board of directors is grateful for Heathers service to this organization and wishes her every future success, Fitzgerald said in the statement. Dave Kiff, the longtime Newport Beach city manager, was chosen serve as the city associations interim executive director for three months, starting Sept. 5. Kiff retired from Newport Friday. Kiff worked as an aide to Marian Bergeson, the late state senator and county supervisor, from 1988 to 1996, when he was in his 20s and early 30s. More recently, Kiff has been closely involved in the homelessness issue among Orange County city managers. Officials and advocates close to efforts to address homelessness in OC said Stratman has been instrumental in building support for housing homeless people and the 2,700 units plan. Her departure was a significant loss for the effort, they said. A local government official in Orange County closely involved in homelessness policy, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said Stratman demonstrated incredible leadership on the homelessness issue along with other staff at the association. Their consensus-building was incredible, the official said. Were devastated about Stratmans departure, the official added. For years, blaming and finger pointing among city and county officials has been one of the main roadblocks to alleviating homelessness in Orange County, according to a May report by the county grand jury. The grand jury supported the citys associations regional plan to build housing, and called on county and city officials to form a regional body to implement it. The Legislatures final staff analysis of the housing trust bill, quoting the bills author, said a recent UC Irvine study found that Orange County government and cities, plus non-governmental organizations, could save $42 million a year on healthcare and law enforcement, among other expenses, by moving [unsheltered] homeless from the streets into permanent supportive housing. Currently, the county has a total of 2,546 units of permanent supportive housing, all of which are at full capacity. In order to ensure that sufficient numbers of permanent supportive housing units are built, the Orange County government and the 34 cities need a single purpose joint powers authority that will serve as a convener of all stakeholders and collaborators, the analysis states. Under the bill, the housing trust can receive public and private money and issue bonds to raise upfront money to build housing for homeless people and people with very low incomes. The entire homeless housing efforts price-tag is estimated at $900 million, said Dan Young, a former Santa Ana mayor and Irvine Co. homebuilding executive who has been closely involved in the housing trust effort. This is a bill that puts the cities at the table, for cities who choose to join the regional agency, Young said at a federal court hearing in June. You have a seat at the table for $900 million-worth of money. Nick Gerda writes for Voice of OC. He can be reached at ngerda@voiceofoc.org. This story was reported by Voice of OC, a nonprofit investigative newsroom, as part of a publishing agreement with TimesOC. A Newport Beach resident is asking an Orange County Superior Court judge to dismiss his lawsuit against the city that alleged a contingent of City Council members met secretly to plot the ouster of the city manager. Chuck Groux filed a request for dismissal with prejudice, meaning the case couldnt be refiled. The request came after Judge Craig Griffin tentatively sided with the city. Groux claimed that Mayor Marshall Duffy Duffield, Mayor Pro Tem Will ONeill and Councilmen Scott Peotter and Kevin Muldoon violated the Brown Act, the state open-meetings law, by meeting surreptitiously to plot Dave Kiffs firing. He also sought a court-appointed special prosecutor to investigate the matter, arguing that City Attorney Aaron Harp was either complicit or derelict in allowing the alleged meetings to occur. An earlier complaint by another resident, filed directly with the city, also accused the four council members of maneuvering to push Kiff out eight months before his contracts previously scheduled expiration. Kiffs last day on the job was Friday. The four accused council members have denied the allegations, as has Kiff. However, the city issued a formal commitment letter after the earlier complaint promising not to violate the law while emphasizing that the surreptitious meetings never took place. The citys outside attorneys argued that the commitment letter negated Grouxs claim, and in a tentative ruling in August, Griffin agreed. hillary.davis@latimes.com Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD After months in the works, proposed tweaks to Costa Mesas much-debated small-lot ordinance will finally go to the City Council for review Tuesday. The revisions up for consideration which were recommended by the citys Planning Commission in May include setting a new minimum lot size for small-lot projects at 7,260 square feet, requiring greater distance between buildings and increasing the overall open space needed. Commissioners also recommended establishing additional standards pertaining to driveway and lot width on certain properties specifically those that are accessible via an alley and flag lots with long driveways. Originally adopted in 2014, the small-lot ordinance was designed to ease development standards for proposals of 15 or fewer detached homes in areas zoned for multifamily units. However, the ordinance has been a point of contention for years. Critics say it has allowed overly dense and haphazard building harming local neighborhood character and creating traffic and parking problems in the process while supporters say the ordinance gives property owners the flexibility to redevelop or renovate their land and potentially create needed new housing. Council members have the option of approving the Planning Commissions recommendations, or making other revisions as they deem appropriate. Tuesdays council meeting starts at 6 p.m. in City Hall, 77 Fair Drive. Needle exchange Also on Tuesday, council members will decide whether to extend an urgency ordinance prohibiting the establishment and operation of needle-exchange programs in the city for another 10 months and 15 days. According to a staff report, This temporary restriction will provide time for the city to study these issues and for the City Council to enact long-term policies and regulations. The moratorium originally approved Aug. 7 for a 45-day period was adopted in response to the California Department of Public Healths decision to greenlight a proposal from the Orange County Needle Exchange Program to distribute syringes and other supplies in parts of Costa Mesa, Anaheim, Orange and Santa Ana for the next two years. In Costa Mesa, the program would run on West 17th Street between Whittier Avenue and the city boundary with Banning Ranch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays and Sundays. Advocates of such programs say they are intended to help prevent the spread of diseases like HIV and Hepatitis C by providing clean needles and supplies to intravenous drug users. However, opponents including Costa Mesa and Newport Beach city leaders and law enforcement have raised public safety and health concerns and said the proposed operating area is inappropriate given its proximity to homes, businesses and schools. The City Council also voted in early August to join a lawsuit seeking to stop the program. Fairview Park trains An agreement that would allow residents to continue riding the rails in Fairview Park for the foreseeable future also is up for council review. The proposed contract extension would allow the Orange County Model Engineers to continue operating their trains at the park for at least the next 20 years with two, five-year extension options beyond that. Under their long-standing agreement with the city, first entered into in 1988, the Model Engineers operate a 7.5-inch gauge railroad with more than 5 miles of track on the eastern side of the park as well as a maintenance yard, gift shop and restroom. The nonprofit club also provides free public train rides on the third weekend of every month. luke.money@latimes.com Twitter @LukeMMoney With less than two weeks before the official November election ballots are printed, a state appellate judge Friday ordered the city of Huntington Beach to submit briefs justifying why local lawyer Jerry Friedman was disqualified as a candidate for city attorney. Friedman, who earned his law degree at the University of West Los Angeles in 2013, was disqualified by City Clerk Robin Estanislau on July 30 because he didnt graduate from a law school accredited by the American Bar Assn., one of the citys four requirements to run for the office. About a week later, Friedmans attorney, Christine Kelly, petitioned the California Supreme Court for an order to stop the city from enforcing the rule. She also requested that the city pay her fees. The case was passed down to 4th District Court of Appeal Judge Kathleen OLeary, who made Fridays order. Kelly contends the accreditation requirement is unique, arbitrary and capricious and violates Friedmans fundamental right to hold elected office. On Friday, Friedman said in a statement that he has no problem with a few basic qualifications ... but the requirement for an attorney to have graduated from special schools means the city will only allow special candidates to run for office. This requirement is offensive to democracy. City Attorney Michael Gates, who is running for reelection in November, has called Friedmans legal action politically motivated and inappropriate and said it doesnt make sense to challenge only one of the four requirements. He said Friday that he remains confident the court will rule in the citys favor. Were happy to appear and file our briefs and continue defending the citys charter, Gates said. The citys brief is due Sept. 7 and Friedmans reply is due Sept. 12. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Sept. 21 in Orange County Superior Court. But even if Friedman were to win a favorable ruling, he would have to wait until the next election cycle to appear on the ballot because the official cutoff date is Sept. 11, according to Neal Kelley, the Orange County registrar of voters. Friedman said his attorney is trying to move up the hearing. Gates said that if Friedman received a favorable ruling within a practical deadline, the city would appeal. In 2010, the city reviewed possible amendments proposed by the Huntington Beach Charter Commission to clean up obsolete language, according to Estanislau. Voter-approved amendments included stricter qualifications for the city attorney, city clerk and city treasurer. This is Friedmans second dispute with the city this year. In April, Gates took legal action intended to stop Friedmans client Daniel Horgan from circulating a petition seeking to put a proposal on the local ballot to ban semiautomatic and automatic guns in Huntington Beach. Gates argued that Horgans proposal was unconstitutional, invalid and not entitled to a place on the ballot. 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 gun petition, making the case moot. In July, Friedman filed a court motion seeking $14,385 from the city for 46 hours of work on behalf of his client. A judge denied his request Aug. 3. Priscella.Vega@latimes.com Twitter: @vegapriscella State Sen. John Moorlach has been admonished for violating the Senates code of conduct after a woman complained that he put her in a headlock and gave her a noogie during a reception. According to documents released by the Senate Rules Committee on Friday, Moorlach (R-Costa Mesa) was the subject of a June complaint by a woman who said he grabbed her, put his arm around her neck and gave her a noogie while taking a photo at a reception for GOP lawmakers sponsored by a healthcare advocacy group. An investigator hired by the Senate determined that Moorlach acted in a way that bothered the woman, who was identified only as a member of the public who worked for the healthcare group. While your behavior also does not appear to be sexual in nature, it is still considered unwanted behavior and as such is inappropriate and a violation of our policy, wrote state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) and state Sen. Anthony Cannella (R-Ceres), vice chairman of the Rules Committee. The letter also said Moorlach had been warned about inappropriate behavior in the past regarding touching an employee on the stomach. Senate leaders warned that Moorlachs actions will be closely monitored and that any further violation of the policy could lead to stricter punishment. I am a fun-loving individual who is guilty of occasional playfulness, Moorlach said in a statement. I apologize for giving a noogie to someone who requested a photo. It was done during a light-hearted moment with others present. However, I will discontinue this innocent and gregarious behavior in the future. Los Angeles Times 2 forums set for Newport Beach council candidates Newport Beach City Council candidates will have back-to-back forums in Corona del Mar next week. The Corona del Mar Chamber of Commerce will present one from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Thursday at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club, 1601 Bayside Drive. The Friends of Oasis will hold a forum starting at 10:30 a.m. Friday at the Oasis Senior Center, 801 Narcissus Ave. Chamber of Commerce to present first Laguna council forum Laguna Beach City Council candidates will have their first chance of the election season to discuss local issues and address the Chamber of Commerce and Laguna Board of Realtors during a forum Thursday. The meeting will start at 6 p.m. in the City Hall council chamber at 505 Forest Ave. Another candidate forum, this one presented by Village Laguna, will begin at 7 p.m. Sept. 17 at the Laguna Beach Community and Susi Q Center, 380 Third St. Topics ranged from Russian trolling to his love for the Oakland Raiders when Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) spoke during a question-and-answer session with students from Daily High School Wednesday afternoon. Schiff began with a 10-minute introduction and then opened the floor for questions at the event hosted at the First United Methodist Church of Glendales Carlson Fellowship Center. The meeting was announced as Schiffs first visit to speak with Daily students. Schiffs 28th district includes Glendale, Montrose and La Crescenta, and the 58-year-old congressman received his share of inquiries, along with some cheers and even a few playful boos. I love the chance for our kids to engage civically, ask questions and learn about the entire voting process, Glendale Unified Supt. Winfred B. Roberson Jr. said. Hopefully, they will be encouraged to register to vote and get engaged as citizens and make a difference. Schiff, the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, spoke about the groups investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 general election. You might not know it, but youve probably seen Russian handiwork on your phone, on your computer, Schiff said. The Russians have been involved for quite some time in a clandestine social-media campaign that is designed to divide some Americans from other Americans. Schiff added, What the Russians do is they look for fault lines in American society and they try to exploit [them]. There were rounds of applause at various times during the 45-minute question-and-answer session. The first came when Schiff said he would support a ban on separating undocumented immigrant families. Daily High School student Melody Kizirian, 16, asks a question to Rep. Adam Schiff at First United Methodist Church of Glendale on Wednesday. Eleven students with prepared questions asked Schiff about homelessness, problems in Congress and what he likes about his job. (Tim Berger / Glendale News-Press) I think its completely inconsistent with the values of this country, Schiff said to a large ovation. Im going to do everything I can to make sure we protect dreamers. Theyre our friends, theyre our neighbors and theyre contributing to our society and theyre Americans in every way except for a piece of paper. At the event, 11 students were preselected to ask questions. Melody Kizirian asked Schiff about any potential measures Congress can take to promote bipartisanship. It was kind of nice that you could ask directly to someone who works with the big bosses, you know, Kizirian said after the session. Usually, when you have concerns, youll talk to your friends or family, so it was nice to talk to someone who does help people. Melanie Cuevas asked about a topic close to her heart. On Oct. 1, 2017, Cuevas remembers cutting her birthday celebration short when news of the Las Vegas shooting began to break. For me, it was easy to ask Congressman Schiff about gun control because of the shooting that happened on my birthday, Cuevas said. Its always intrigued me whats going to happen with the guns and gun laws, so I asked. Though most questions were serious, there was also time for levity, such as when Schiff admitted he is a Raiders fan to a smattering of boos and cheers. I appreciate the Raider hat, Schiff said as he pointed to a student in the audience. I am a part of Raider nation, and I think were going to be good this year, which its been a long time coming. andrew.campa@latimes.com Twitter @campadresports A majority of justices on Brazils electoral court voted late Friday to bar ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from running in Octobers presidential election, virtually ending any chance that the front-runner will get on the ballot. The decision, although long expected, leaves tens of millions of voters without a candidate and adds uncertainty to the race to lead Latin Americas largest nation. After several hours of debate late Friday, five justices had voted against Lulas candidacy and just one in favor. One more was still to vote, though the majority was enough to seal Lulas fate. Supreme Court Justice Luis Roberto Barroso cast the first vote, saying barring Lula was very simple due to the conviction and upheld appeal. Advertisement There is no margin here for the electoral court to make any other evaluation but the one showing there is a conviction, and that conviction matters in the candidates eligibility to run, said Barroso. Justice Edson Fachin disagreed, citing a recent call by a U.N. human rights committee calling for Lula to be allowed to run while he appeals his conviction. While justices were debating, the Workers Party put out ads on its social media channels featuring Lula, holding to a strategy to keep the former president front and center as long as possible. Lula was wildly popular as president of Latin Americas largest nation between 2003 and 2010. President Obama once called him the most popular politician on earth. But Lula and his Workers Party have lost much of that appeal over the last several years amid a sprawling corruption probe that has ensnared many top businessmen and politicians, including Lula. Lula, serving a 12-year-sentence for corruption and money laundering, is the front-runner despite being in jail. Under Brazilian law, he is ineligible to run because his conviction was upheld on an initial appeal. But Lula and supporters had hoped the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, which makes final decisions on candidacies, would allow him to run. Lula has long argued that he should be allowed to run because his conviction was a sham. Judge Sergio Moro convicted Lula of trading favors with construction company Grupo OAS in exchange for the promise of a beach house apartment. Moro said the Workers Party should replace Lula within 10 days, and he should not appear as a presidential candidate in free airtime that is given to political parties on nationwide TV and radio starting on Saturday Lulas lawyers complained the court was rushing a decision because they submitted their defense only on Thursday, noting that the court rarely holds sessions on Fridays. In a statement late Friday, the Workers Party said it would appeal. Earlier this year, the Supreme Federal Tribunal, the nations highest court, denied a petition by Lula to get out of prison while he continued to appeal. With Lula out of the race, former Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad was expected to take his place on the Workers Party ticket. Currently Haddad is candidate for vice president. Polls show tepid support for his bid as replacement, but the party hopes Lulas popularity could boost the former mayors hopes. On Saturday, Haddad was scheduled to visit Garanhuns, a city in Brazils impoverished northeast where Lula was born. Palestinians on Saturday condemned the U.S. decision to end its decades of funding for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, calling it an attack on the Palestinian people and accusing the Trump administration of trying to remove sensitive core issues from the negotiating table as it says it is preparing a Mideast peace initiative. The announcement raised new questions about the viability of any future U.S. peace plan. President Trumps Mideast team, led by his advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner, has been working on a plan for about a year and a half but has not said when it will be made public. The Palestinians accuse the U.S. of being unfairly biased in favor of Israel, citing a series of steps by the White House. Trump has recognized Jerusalem as Israels capital over Palestinian objections and last week cut $200 million in development aid to the Palestinians. Fridays decision cut an additional $300 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which serves millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants across the region. The Palestinians say these steps are aimed at imposing outcomes for two of the most sensitive issues in the conflict the fate of contested Jerusalem and the plight of Palestinian refugees without negotiations. Advertisement What is the American administration doing? They are preempting, prejudging issues reserved for permanent status, said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator. They are undermining the moderate forces in Palestine and Israel, he added. Those elements that want to achieve peace peacefully based on a two-state solution are being destroyed. He said extremists across the region had been given gifts. UNRWA was established after the war surrounding Israels establishment in 1948 to aid the 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes. Today, it provides education, healthcare and social services to about 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The agency is also a major employer in the Palestinian areas. The U.S. in recent years has supplied nearly 30% of UNRWAs budget. But early this year, it suspended roughly $300 million in planned assistance, pending a review. Fridays decision formally cut that money, as well as future assistance to the agency. In a statement, the U.S. called the agency an irredeemably flawed operation. It said the U.S. was no longer willing to pay for a very disproportionate share of UNRWAs costs and criticized what it called the agencys fundamental business model and fiscal practices and its endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries. The statement largely echoed Israeli claims that UNRWA perpetuates the conflict by promoting an unrealistic Palestinian demand that refugees have the right of return to long-lost homes in what is now Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said UNRWA should be abolished and its responsibilities taken over by the main U.N. refugee agency. In Lebanon on Friday, the U.N. refugee agencys commissioner, Filippo Grandi, ruled out taking on the Palestinian refugee issue. No! The Palestinians in the region are the responsibility of UNRWA, he said. UNRWAs spokesman, Chris Gunness, said the agency expressed deep regret and disappointment with the U.S. decision. He rejected in the strongest possible terms the U.S. accusations that its operations are flawed. These very programs have a proven track record in creating one of the most successful human development processes and results in the Middle East, he said. The European Union, the largest contributor to UNRWA with its member states, urged the U.S. to reconsider its regrettable decision. It said it would continue its assistance to the agency and discuss funding alternatives with other partners. The U.S. budget cuts have already hit UNRWA hard. In an interview with the Associated Press last month, UNRWAs commissioner, Pierre Kraehenbuehl, said his agency only had enough money to operate its hundreds of schools through the end of September. He said he is planning a major fundraising campaign to keep operations afloat. Selam : At least seven people were killed and 37 people were injured in a Thiruvalla-bound bus collision near Selam in Tamil Nadu. Six among the deceased were identified as Keralities. The accident occurred during the wee hours of Friday. According to the reports, the bus from Krishnagiri rammed into the Bengaluru -Thiruvalla Yatra Travel while overtaking a lorry. The injured were rushed to the nearby hospital. Death toll is likely to rise. Epson displayed its array of business systems that can help enterprises step up their game. EPSON showcased its array of business technologies as it joined this years Stores Asia Expo, held recently at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City. Organized by the Philippines Retailers Association, the said expo coincides with this years 25th National Retailers Conference, gathering over a thousand top executives of retail giants in the local and international markets. The Stores Asia Expo also featured over a hundred exhibitors, offering products, services, and solutions for business enterprises.As one of the exhibitors, Epson displayed its array of business systems that can help enterprises step up their game to meet the needs of todays customers, as well as to stay ahead in the increasingly demanding industry. As a tech company, Epson understands that businesses are now urged to integrate the latest digital technologies to adhere to their customers demands. In today's digital shift, customers demand more engagements that is why we are constantly introducing cutting-edge products and solutions that can help not just meet their expectations but also, to exceed their vision," said Eduardo Bonoan, Director of Marketing Division of Epson Philippines.Among the products featured by Epson during the event are its advanced solutions, from its range of Point-of-Sale (POS) receipt, Label, and inkjet printers, to some of its latest projectors, such as the Interactive and LightScene projectors. With our obsession to details, Epson combines inventiveness in technology with equally inquisitive insight to understand, anticipate, and overcome the new and evolving challenges of our customers. We always engineer effective and compelling solutions that yield both performance gains and cutting-edge advances that enable new possibilities," added Bonoan. The remains of the late Senator John McCain are lying in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda Friday as Americans continue to mourn the loss of the long-time legislator and war hero. McCain's remains were flown Thursday to Washington from Arizona, the southwestern U.S. state he represented in Congress since he was first elected in 1982. Hundreds of members of Congress are expected to attend a ceremony in the rotunda, an honor that has been bestowed upon just 30 Americans throughout the country's history. McCain's coffin will rest on a wooden platform known as a catafalque, which was first used in 1865 to support the casket of assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. President Donald Trump was not invited to Friday's ceremony or McCain's funeral on Saturday, a decision viewed by many as a rebuke of Trump. A bitter feud between Trump and the two-time presidential hopeful took root during Trump's 2016 campaign, when he mocked McCain for getting captured during the Vietnam War and said McCain was not a war hero. Vice President Mike Pence will, instead, speak at the ceremony and other administration officials will be present, as will McCain's widow, Cindy, his seven children and his 106-year-old mother, Roberta McCain. After Friday's ceremony, McCain will lie in state for the rest of the day for public viewing in the rotunda, where his flag-draped coffin will be presided over by a Capitol Hill Guard of Honor. Market Participants Betting on Nafta Deal between US and Canada The Canadian Dollar strengthened to a two month high against US Dollar earlier this week. Market participants seem to bet on possible inclusion of Canada in a new Nafta pact. The U.S. has just concluded a successful bilateral talk with Mexico on Monday. Under the new agreement, cars need to have 75% of their content originate in the U.S and Mexico. The current Nafta requires 62.5% originate within North America. Under the new deal, 40-45% of auto content need to be made by workers who make more than $16 per hour, favoring the U.S. and Canada. President Trump has threatened to put 25% tariffs on Canadian-made cars if a three-way deal cant be reached. The major disagreement between Canada and U.S. is Canadas insistence that the dairy supply management system is not open for negotiation. Trump has repeatedly said Canadian tariffs on some dairy products are unfair for U.S. producers. However, Prime Minister Trudeau on Wednesday has defended the supply management system that controls production of some Canadian farm products. The dairy issue is a difficult one for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The majority of domestic dairy industry is in Quebec and Ontario, and if they cave in the U.S. demands, they risk losing a lot of votes. If a deal can be reached, the Bank of Canada can continue to focus on the domestic economy without worrying about trade disruption. Trump told reporters at White House on Wednesday that talks with Canada is going well. They want to be part of the deal. And we gave till Friday and I think were probably on track. Earlier this week Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada is trying to reach agreement with the U.S. this week but wont sacrifice its goal of getting the right deal. Talks with Canada should continue through the end of the week with aim to include Canada in trilateral deal. If the deal is successful, the Canadian Dollar may rally a lot further. USDCAD Short Term Elliott Wave Sequence USDCAD shows a 5 swing sequence from 6.28.2018 high, favoring further downside while rally stays below 8/13 high (1.3178). A 5 swing sequence is part of 7 swing WXY or also often referred to as double correction. The structure calls for further downside to 1.265 1.275 area as far as current rally in swing #6 fails below 1.3178. A successful outcome of the Nafta talk this week could cause pair to extend lower as the chart is calling. If you want to know the next path in USDCAD or other instrument, you can join our 14 days FREE Trial here > I want to get my 14 days FREE Trial We cover 78 instrument using Elliott Wave in 4 time frames. Welcome to EWF. By EWFHendra https://elliottwave-forecast.com ElliottWave-Forecast has built its reputation on accurate technical analysis and a winning attitude. By successfully incorporating the Elliott Wave Theory with Market Correlation, Cycles, Proprietary Pivot System, we provide precise forecasts with up-to-date analysis for 78 instruments including Forex, Commodities, Indices and a number of Stocks & ETFs from around the World. Our clients also have immediate access to our proprietary Actionable Trade Setups, Market Overview, 1 Hour, 4 Hour, Daily & Weekly Wave Counts. Live Screen Sharing Sessions, Daily Technical Videos, Elliott Wave Setup and Weekend videos . Copyright 2018 ElliottWave-Forecast - 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. 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. The Montana Department of Commerce works with statewide and local partners, private industry and small businesses to enhance and sustain economic prosperity in Montana. - Montana Is On The Move weden is regarded as the poster child of cashless countries and is expected to become the worlds first cashless society by March 2023. This means that cash will not be a generally accepted means of payment in Sweden. This journey has been powered by various factors such as a robust card payment system, strong internet infrastructure, a popular mobile payment app, supportive legal framework and a cultural mistrust of cash. Jonas Hedman, associate professor at the department of digitalization at the Copenhagen Business School, believes that becoming cashless is inevitable, not just for Sweden, but for other countries as well. The greatest problem for working parents appears to be school hours and frequent closures. A recent report from the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, lays out stark statistics: Schools are closed for an average of 29 days a year, not counting summer vacations, and fewer than half of public elementary schools offer before- and after-school care. By Alice Gomstyn https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/on-parenting/how-schools-are-failing-working-parents/2018/08/30/cea76c7e-9461-11e8-810c-5fa705927d54_story.html?utm_term=.37c8c8968f90 Les membres du Cabinet ont pris note des action du Universal Postal Union, des soucis des chauffeurs de van, des amendements au Dangerous Drugs Act entre autres. 1. Cabinet has taken note that the 27th Universal Postal Congress which is currently being held in Abidjan, Cote dIvoire, adopted on 14 August 2021, a resolution on the implementation of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 73/295 on the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965. The resolution provides that: (a) the Universal Postal Union formally acknowledges henceforth that, for the purposes of its activities, the Chagos Archipelago forms an integral part of the territory of Mauritius; (b) the International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union should request Mauritius to keep the Universal Postal Union regularly informed of any decisions regarding international postal operations in the Chagos Archipelago, including any authorisations to maintain the operation of international mail processing centres by foreign entities in the Chagos Archipelago. The international mail processing centres currently established in the Chagos Archipelago are operated by Australia Post of Australia and Royal Mail of the UK; (c) the International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union should cease the registration, distribution and forwarding of any and all postage stamps issued by the so-called British Indian Ocean Territory; (d) the International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union should ensure that Universal Postal Union documentation does not include any references to the so-called British Indian Ocean Territory or to the Chagos Archipelago as part of the member country of the Universal Postal Union known as the Overseas Territories of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; and (e) the International Bureau should take any other measures deemed necessary to ensure due implementation of UN General Assembly Resolution 73/295. 2. Cabinet has agreed to the National Land Transport Authority (NLTA) implementing the following measures in view of the difficulties being faced by the contract bus operators due to the COVID-19 pandemic: (a) vary the licence of contract bus operators involved in the conveyance of tourists to also allow them to carry employees up to 31 December 2021; (b) review the replacement age of Standard and Executive vehicles used for the conveyance of tourists from 8 to 10 years and from 12 to 14 years respectively; (c) extend the validity of Public Service Vehicle Licence for contract bus operators involved in the conveyance of tourists and which could not be renewed due to COVID-19, up to 30 June 2022; (d) extend the delay to implement a Public Service Vehicle Licence for contract bus operators (tourists and school children), up to 30 June 2022; (e) extend the delay to implement a Public Service Vehicle Licence in respect of taxi licences and contract bus operators (employees) from 31 August 2021 to 31 December 2021; (f) vary the licence of contract bus operators conveying school children to also allow them to carry employees up to 31 December 2021; and (g) extend the delay to renew a Petrol Service Station Licence from 31 August 2021 to 31 December 2021. 3. Cabinet has agreed to Mauritius nominating Le Morne, Old Grand Port and Pamplemousses villages to participate in the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Best Tourism Villages Initiative. The overarching objective of the Initiative is, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, to make tourism a positive force for transformation, rural development and community wellbeing. It seeks to advance the role of tourism in valuing and safeguarding rural villages along with their associated landscapes, knowledge systems, biological and cultural diversity, local values and activities, as well as gastronomy. The selected villages under the UNWTO Best Tourism Villages Initiative could benefit from one of the following three awards: (a) the Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO Label; (b) the Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO Upgrade Programme; and (c) the Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO Network. The announcement of the Best Tourism Villages which would receive an award would be made on the occasion of the 24th session of the UNWTO General Assembly to be held in October 2021 in Morocco. 4. Cabinet has agreed to drafting instructions being conveyed by the Ministry of Health and Wellness to the Attorney Generals Office to amend the Dangerous Drugs Act so as to empower the Forensic Science Laboratory to carry out examination of suspected illicit drugs by a sampling strategy based on the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) guidelines. 5. Cabinet has taken note that a National Survey among People Who Use Drugs in Mauritius would be conducted by the National Drug Secretariat of the Prime Ministers Office in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Wellness, the UN Resident Coordinators Office and the World Health Organization. The Survey would provide comprehensive information including the socio-demographic characteristics of drug users, their living conditions, their employment status, age of onset of drug use, frequency and patterns of drug use and extent of drug use which would guide the national drug response. 6. Cabinet has agreed to the promulgation of the Mauritius Fire and Rescue Service (Fire Safety Plan and Fire Certificate) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 to provide for the issue of digital Fire Certificates and a revised fee structure. An e-Licensing System for fire certification has been developed and it would enable online applications, e-payment of fees and automated issuance of Fire Certificates in digital format with effect from mid-September 2021. The new system would substantially decrease processing time and would result in improved efficiency and governance. With the new digitalised Fire Certification System under the National Electronic Licensing System, the fee structure would be rationalised. 7. Cabinet has taken note that the SMEs Division of the Ministry of Industrial Development, SMEs and Cooperatives would extend the existing SME Employment Scheme to holders of National Certificates from the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Institutes as announced in Budget Speech 2021-2022. Prospective placees of TVET Institutes are expected to hold at least an MQA approved Level 3 National Certificate in accordance with the National Qualifications Framework. Registered SMEs would be able to benefit from any mix of placees up to a maximum of two, irrespective of the category (Graduate or Diploma Holder or TVET Certificate Holder). Eligibility of SMEs would be verified and certified by SME Mauritius Ltd. 8. Cabinet has taken note that the Tourism Authority would sign an Implementation Agreement with the National Productivity and Competitiveness Council for the execution of the COVID-19 Occupational Safety & Health and Resource Efficiency Project for the tourism industry. The objective of the project is to engage into capacity building of employees of tourist accommodations (Hotels, Tourist Residences, Guesthouses, Domaines), restaurants, pleasure craft operators, Destination Management Companies, Travel Agencies, taxis based at hotels and airport, amongst others, with a view to contributing to the promotion of Mauritius as a safe destination. 9. Cabinet has taken note of the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic prevailing across the world. Some 214.7 million cases have been reported globally, of which 192 million persons have been successfully treated. With regard to Mauritius, as at 27 August 2021, there were 4,643 active cases of COVID-19, out of which five were serious cases. Over the past week, six deaths were attributed to COVID-19. Cabinet has also taken note of progress in the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme. As at 26 August 2021, 803,035 persons had received a first dose of vaccine (representing 64 percent of the population). 735,513 persons had been fully vaccinated (representing 59 percent of the population). Cabinet has further taken note that the quarantine period in Mauritius has been extended up to 31 December 2021. 10. Cabinet has taken note that the Mauritius Housing Company (MHC) Ltd would set up, under the Companies Act, a wholly owned subsidiary, namely MHC Properties Ltd. The MHC Ltd holds a non-bank deposit taking licence from the Bank of Mauritius and such companies are not allowed to engage in renting and leasing activities. All immoveable properties such as land and buildings of MHC Ltd would be transferred to the subsidiary. The main objects of the MHC Properties Ltd would be as follows: (a) management, maintenance and renting of existing properties of MHC Ltd; (b) promote property development in Mauritius and Africa; (c) act as syndic for MHC projects; and (d) any activities directly or indirectly related to real estate development. 11. Cabinet has taken note of the findings of three Research Projects undertaken by the Road Safety Observatory of the Ministry of Land Transport and Light Rail in collaboration with the University of Mauritius. The Research Projects are: (a) The Road Traffic Death and Injuries: The Shadow to GDP and Welfare in Mauritius- the objectives of the Study were to assess the consequence of road accidents and injuries on the Gross Domestic Product together with the associated socioeconomic costs and investigate into the impact of road accidents and injuries on the welfare of affected families and individuals; (b) Understanding Road Users Behaviour and Attitudes in Mauritius the objective of the Study was to capture trends and statistics for an enhanced road safety policy by decision-makers; and (c) Understanding Pedestrian Use of Crossing Facilities in Mauritius the aims of the Research Project were to identify pedestrian blackspots in Mauritius, investigate pedestrian perception of crossing facilities, explore the general behaviour of pedestrians along roads and at crossings, investigate pedestrian perception on the attitudes of other road users at crossings and assess the effectiveness of sensitisation campaigns. 12. Cabinet has taken note of a programme of collaboration and activities proposed by Facebook to the Ministry of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation, geared towards building awareness on responsible online behaviour, critical thinking and understanding social issues shared via digital technology, with the ultimate objective of enabling safe, responsible and productive use of the social media platform. Facebook has submitted a programme of activities aiming, inter alia, at: (a) reducing the spread of false news, harmful contents and misinformation; (b) reducing hate speech/incitement to violence which may trigger civil unrest, social disorder and economic hardships; and (c) showing to the Government of Mauritius and its people the steps taken by Facebook to tackle misuse of the platform and how it is seeking to support economic recovery in Mauritius. A series of activities and workshops would be held in Mauritius during the last quarter of this year and at regular intervals next year. These activities would target small businesses, the Mauritian population in general and high level Government stakeholders. 13. Cabinet has taken note of the fire outbreak reported on 24 August 2021 at around 18 25 hours on board the Taiwanese fishing vessel RUEY CHIEN TSAI 112, which was berthed at the entrance of the Port. The 18 crew members onboard had been safely evacuated. Cabinet has also taken note that the fire had been extinguished on 26 August 2021 at around 14 00 hours but it re-ignited on that same day, late in the night. However, in the morning of 27 August 2021, the firefighters of the Mauritius Ports Authority were able to control and subdue the fire. No leakage has been observed except for a minor sheen of oil around the vessel. Cabinet has further taken note of actions/measures taken by the Ministry of Local Government and Disaster Risk Management, the Ministry of Environment, Solid Waste Management and Climate Change, the Ministry of Blue Economy, Marine Resources, Fisheries and Shipping, the National Coast Guard, the Mauritius Fire and Rescue Service and the Mauritius Ports Authority to deal with the incident. The National Emergency Operations Command had been activated to monitor the situation and to chart the way forward. The National Oil Spill Committee and a dedicated Crisis Committee were also closely following up the matter in collaboration with all stakeholders. 14. Cabinet has taken note that the 42nd Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG) Task Force of Senior Officials and the 21st Council of Ministers Meetings were being held from 26 August to 07 September 2021 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. 15. Cabinet has taken note of the reconstitution of the Board of Governors of the University of Technology, Mauritius, with Mr Deonanan Raj Makoond, GCSK, as Chairperson. 16. Cabinet has taken note of the appointment of Mrs Sangheeta Saulick as Chairperson of the Board of the National Womens Council. 17. Cabinet has taken note of the appointment of Mr Dayanand Kurrumchand, OSK, as Deputy Chairperson of the Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund Committee. 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. South Korea is sending a special envoy to North Korea next week to discuss the arrangements for a third summit between the two countries' leaders. A South Korean presidential spokesman said Friday the as-yet-unnamed envoy will travel to Pyongyang Wednesday. "The special envoy will discuss a wide range of issues, including the specific date for the South-North Korea summit, development of the South-North Korean relationship, denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the establishment of peace on the Korean Peninsula," the South Korean presidential spokesman said. 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. 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 [] Infotainment Alobo Naga releases Ningu Kumtsu (All of Us) Dimapur, Aug 31 | Publish Date: 8/31/2018 12:42:21 PM IST The release is a classic remake, in a jazz mood, of the legendary song by Rocky & Group on August 31. Rocky was one of the most influential singers during 1970s and his talent and influence is still felt long after his tragic death. Considered one the first Naga music stars, he was the frontman/lead singer of the band Rocky & Group in the 1970s. The group was so famous and popular; and were even flown in by helicopters to perform shows all over India. By profession, Rocky was a soldier in THE GREAT NAGA BATTALION Border Security Force (BSF) and was posted at SATAKHA, a small town under Zunheboto district. Ningu Kumtsu is one of his legendary hit songs. The song talks about how we are all destined to die; and our earthly possessions cannot bring salvation of the soul. This song was and is loved and sung all across the Sumi land. While paying tribute to this legendary singer, Alobos remake of the song is dedicated to the old souls to reminiscent and for the young to get introduced to this wonderful music. One Interesting thing was the entire music video was shot in one take using iPhone X by Toshi Longchar. Alem Alia of Tribes Music made the music. One can watch the video from Alobo Nagas YouTube channel. Infotainment Pak temporarily closes consulate in Afghanistan Islamabad, Sep 1 (Agencies) | Publish Date: 9/1/2018 12:32:22 PM IST Pakistan has temporarily closed its consulate in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad over intervention by the provincial governor and a lack of security. In a letter to the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pakistans embassy in Kabul complained about intervention by the governor of Nangarhar province and requested that he refrain from interfering in the functioning of the consulate. The Pakistani mission also requested that Afghan authorities restore security on the premises. It said the consulate will remain closed until security arrangements are completed to the embassys satisfaction. The closure of the Jalalabad mission is a reflection of strained relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Both blame each other of harboring militants along the porous border. By Reuters WASHINGTON: The World Bank expressed "strong support" for Argentina on Friday, days before the government of President Mauricio Macri was set to unveil new economic measures in a bid to calm market jitters that sparked a 30 per cent dive in the local currency. "The World Bank expresses its strong support to Argentina in the current context of continued market turbulence," a spokesman for the global poverty-fighting institution said. The World Bank plans to make $1.75 billion in previously announced commitments available to the country within the next 12 months, the spokesman said. A program to strengthen and expand support for children would be considered by the World Bank board within several weeks, he added. By Express News Service BENGALURU: A 63-year-old goods truck driver was killed by a gang of three following a parking row on Rajkumar Road in Rajajinagar on Thursday night. Soon after the incident came to light, the police nabbed the trio, who was under the influence of alcohol. The deceased Sriram R was a resident of Prakash Nagar near Navarang. The arrested are Janardhan, who runs an online business; Rajashekar, an interior designer and Karthik, a sales executive. The police said at 8.45 pm, Karthik and his friends were standing on a footpath near the Navarasad Bar. Sriram wanted to park his Tata Ace vehicle on the spot and asked them to move, but the trio asked Sriram to park it somewhere else. Sriram told them that it was his regular parking spot and pushed them. The three friends pushed Sriram inside his vehicle and the latter hit Karthik on the head with a spanner. Furious over this, the three repeatedly kicked Sriram who tried to escape. But the gang followed him and banged his head on the wall and killed him. They then ran away from the scene. Sriram's brother Danoji Rao and vehicle's owner Surash approached the Rajajinagar police. Based on CCTV footage, police arrested the trio. Jayanthi Pawar By Express News Service CHENNAI : A 17-year-old boy riding pillion in a bike was thrown from the MIT flyover in Chromepet after the bike hit the sidewalls and died on the way to hospital on Friday. Even as passersby were shocked by the freak accident, police said they had found 1.2-kg ganja in the backpack of the deceased.The bike was driven by a 16-year-old friend of the deceased, who the police suspect was also under the influence of drugs.The boys on their way from Tambaram and going towards Hastinapuram and when they climbed the bridge, the rider lost control, police sources said. The 16-year-old boy, a school dropout, had borrowed the newly purchased bike from his father. As the rider was taking a left turn on top of the bridge, his vehicle rammed into the safety wall and the pillion rider was thrown off from a height of about 35 feet, said the investigation officer. The passersby rushed the boy, who sustained severe head injuries, to the hospital where they declared him brought dead. The rider who sustained injuries on his hand was taken discharged after treatment. Investigations revealed that the deceased would often go to Madurai to purchase ganja and sell it in the city. He had roped in his school friend. The sellers usually target and hire schoolchildren and dropouts as peddlers to escape the radar said police.A relative of the deceased waiting at the mortuary at Chromepet GH told Express the boy had dropped out of school after class 8. His father had abandoned the family and due to financial constrains, he had to give up studies. His elder brother worked in a petrol bunk and looked after the family. The victim also worked in the same bunk for a while and later quit, she said. She added that the police claimed to have found ganja from his bag, but that did not belong to him. He would ask for `5 or `10 and never more than that. With that money he cannot afford even a meal, let alone drugs, she said. The relative further said that on Friday, he left home around 10 am to meet his friend. Around 12 noon the police informed the boy had fallen off the bridge and died. He would have celebrated his birthday on September 12, she added. The vehicle did not bear a registration number as it was brand new. The turn on the MIT Bridge is dangerous. The boy took a deep turn and rammed the wall, he added.Chromepet traffic investigation wing and law and order police have registered cases separately against the rider. The duo already had theft cases registered against them, the police added. Vijaya Pratap By Express News Service HYDERABAD:As the morning sun gleamed, the colossal Buddha statue basked in the restored glory and a multitude of his replicas reflected the brilliance. Standing on top of the Borobudur temple (near Yogyakarta in Indonesia), I was overwhelmed by its splendour and magnitude. I could also sense an immediate connect between India and Indonesia: a link between our cultures, similarities, values and philosophies. I was much impressed by the total resurrection of a lost legacy, today hailed as the worlds largest Buddhist temple as well as one of the greatest Buddhist monuments in the world. Borobudur is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist Temple near Yogyakarta in Central Java, Indonesia. Built in the 9th century during the reign of Sailendra of Sumatra (Sailendra Dynasty), the temple was designed in Javanese Buddhist architecture, which blends the Indonesian indigenous cult of ancestor worship and the Buddhist concept of attaining Nirvana. The temple also demonstrates the influences of Gupta art that reflects Indias influence on the region, yet there are enough indigenous scenes and elements incorporated to make Borobudur uniquely Indonesian. The monument is both a shrine to the Lord Buddha and a place for Buddhist pilgrimage. The journey for pilgrims begins at the base of the monument and follows a path around the monument and ascends to the top through three levels symbolic of Buddhist cosmology that represent three layers of Buddhist theory: Kamadhatu (the world of desire), Rupadhatu (the world of forms) and Arupadhatu (the world of formlessness which denotes Nirvana or Sunyata). The monument guides pilgrims through an extensive system of stairways and corridors with narrative relief panels on the walls and the balustrades. Borobudur has the largest and most complete ensemble of Buddhist reliefs in the world. The monument consists of nine stacked platforms, six square and three circulars, topped by a central dome. The temple is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. 72 Buddha statues, each seated inside a perforated Stupa surround the central dome. From a birds eye view, the temple is in the shape of a traditional Buddhist Mandala. Central to a great deal of Buddhist and Hindu art, the basic form of Mandala is a square with four entry points and a circular centre point. Restoration Evidence suggests Borobudur was constructed in the 9th century and abandoned following the 14th-century due to the decline of Hindu kingdoms in Java and the Javanese conversion to Islam. There is another theory stating that Borobudur was left to the ravages of nature in between the 12th to 14th centuries when the power of Java shifted to the east of the island. The reason for this shift is unknown but it is often speculated that there was a volcanic eruption and the people moved away. There are manuscripts that relate stories of Javanese revisiting the site in the 18th century. But it was the rediscovery by the British Sir Thomas Stanford Raffles (the then British ruler of Java who was advised of its location by native Indonesians) in 1814 that led to greater recognition and also preservation efforts. In 1815 Raffles commissioned an initial clean up where 200 labourers spent 45 days felling trees and moving earth from the remains. Documentation and interpretation of the reliefs revealed some Sanskrit instructions left for the carvers. Borobudur has since been preserved through several restorations. The Indonesian Government and UNESCO undertook this largest restoration project between 1975 and 1982. Following which, the monument was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Cinnamon Route In 1982, a 21-year-old Englishman named Phillip Beale (former British Royal Navy) was in Indonesia to study traditional ships and marine traditions. When he climbed the Borobudur Temple he found ten panels depicting sea vessels, indicating that the ships of the Borobudur may have been a part of a famous shipping route that linked Indonesia to Africa many centuries ago. The Cinnamon-shipping route took vessels carrying spices from Indonesian waters across the Indian Ocean, past the Seychelles, Madagascar and South Africa to Ghana. Borobudur is still used for pilgrimage; once a year, Buddhists in Indonesia celebrate Vesak (the birth, enlightenment and passing away of Buddha) at the monument. Isnt it wonderful that a culture that was lost is not only restored with great care but also celebrated time and again? When priceless heritage structures are restored to their former glory, it reflects an elevated society and benefits the future generations. Tell me, dear friends; is there a lesson for us to learn from here? Fact File: Getting there: Air Asia, Air India and Singapore Airlines have good connectivity and reasonable fares. Try to avoid Malaysia Airlines as their flights are often badly delayed with irresponsible and discourteous staff being insensitive to passengers needs in times of crisis. Visa: Free visa on arrival Currency: 1 Indian Rupee = 207.92 Indonesian Rupiah (one feels like a millionaire here!!) Stay: Sheraton Yogyakarta Resort and Spa is an absolutely delightful place. Borobudur is 38 km from Yogyakarta city. Weather: Mostly hot and humid any time of the year. Carry light cottons and sunscreen. Shopping: Batik, puppets, woodcarvings and Rattan goods. (The author is a documentary filmmaker and travel writer; she blogs at vijayaprataptravelandbeyond.com) By Express News Service KOCHI:The dams could have been used more imaginatively to store and disburse water, said Muralee Thummarukudy at an event organised by the Kerala Management Association on Friday. Muralee is a disaster management expert and the operations manager of Post Conflict and Disaster Management of the United Nations Environment Program. He stated natural hazards-turned-disasters are precipitated by the high density of human settlements in sensitive areas. Most disasters were avoidable. He had predicted many of these disasters since 2011 based on historical data. We need to be prepared for eventualities and build a better, safer, greener Kerala. The future depends on what we decide today. Plan for the future where mistakes of the past are not repeated, said Muralee. On the question of possible UN assistance, he said the organisation will be helpful in assisting in loss assessment, recovery framework and designing a possible rebuilding process which takes into account disaster risk reduction. Toned milk for anganwadi, LPS kids Kochi: Toned milk will be provided to the anganwadi and LP School students in the various flood-hit places in Ernakulam and Thrissur districts. The toned milk will be provided by the National Dairy Development Board to students in Paravur, Alangad, Parakadavu and Mala block panchayats. The students will be given ready-to- drink 180 ml milk packets. HDFC loan for flood-hit houses Kochi : HDFC on Monday decided to contribute to rebuilding properties ravaged by floods in Kerala by providing Home Improvement Loans with zero processing fee and at a lower rate of interest. Home Improvement Loans are for properties in Kerala, though the customer can be stationed anywhere. This will be valid only for all loan applications submitted up to October 31, 2018. Vypeen block panchayat members to donate Kochi: Members of Vypeen block panchayat will donate their one-month salary to Chief Ministers Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF). Besides this, a sum of C2 lakh will be handed over from the block panchayat fund for the relief work. Cochin College Alumni honours fishermen Kochi: The Cochin College Alumni Association has organised a function here to honour the 25 fishermen who were actively involved in the rescue mission to help people of the flood-affected areas. These fishermen played a key role in rescuing the residents from Paravur Kottappuram Gothuruth area which was worse affected by the floods. The fishermen were from Cherthala Arthunkal region. By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: You are not alone. We are with you, actor Khushboo told the people of Kerala on Friday. Other 80s actors Rajkumar, Lissy and Suhasini who were with the Tamil star echoed the same sentiment after they landed at the Thiruvananthapuram airport in the afternoon. The team of yesteryear actors was here to donate funds raised by the collective of South Indian 80s actors towards the flood relief operations. We would like to tell the people of Kerala that you are not alone and that we are all with you. We have to ensure that the state is brought back to its glory, said Khushboo. Kerala is called Gods Own Country and its glory has to be restored, she added. They later handed over a cheque for Rs 40 lakh to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The fund is being contributed as the combined effort of South Indian actors of the 80s to help rebuild the state. The 80s exclusive club of sorts was formed in 2009 and have been organising meet-ups ever since. This time, the bevy of actors came together to raise funds for the Chief Ministers Distress Relief Fund. This is our duty, our responsibility, to help out. We couldnt come in person and help out earlier. So we collected the funds amongst us, friends and neighbours, said Lissy on the contribution which is being extended towards the Relief Fund. Most of us had donated in our individual capacity. This is the collective effort of the actors of the 80s, added Lissy. We have all collectively made the effort. This is to show our solidarity with the people of Kerala, added Khushboo. Terming the people who relentlessly helped out in the relief operations as heroes, Lissy emphasised that they were just doing their bit for Kerala. The public and rescue workers have worked to the extent of putting their lives at risk. They are the real heroes, she said. By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: Stage is set for the inaugural of India Post Payments Bank operations in Andhra Pradesh from September 1. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the pan-India programme from Delhi, Union Minister for Health JP Nadda will participate as the chief guest in the programme in Vijayawada. Speaking to mediapersons, Chief Postmaster General (AP Circle) K Balasubramanian said they are looking to have 13.25 lakh accounts opened in the State by the end of current fiscal. The very objective of India Post Payments Bank is to provide banking facility to all the people in the country. Since India Post has a better network and reach than any, we expect more people to become our customers in a short time, he said. According to him, IPPB has an advantage in the form of postman - the last mile delivery agent, who has now been imparted with financial knowledge and equipped with smartphone and biometric device to offer financial services at the doorstep of people even in a remote location. On September 1, a total of 650 branches of the IPPB will be launched across the country, of which 24 will be in Andhra Pradesh. Initially, there will be 120 access points, which will be expanded to 10,490 by December 31. IPPB will be the first financial institution to be using the QR Cards and promoting 100 per cent smart, paperless and transparent financial transactions, said Prashanti, IPPB Vijayawada manager. She said initially, the transactions (withdrawal and deposits) have been limited to `5,000 with a token service charge. By Associated Press ISLAMABAD: Bottles of alcohol were found in the hospital room of an incarcerated former Pakistan Peoples Party minister in Karachi on Saturday. The bottles were found during a surprise visit by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar to the Dr Ziauddin Hospital. Nisar said while inspecting the hospital, he went to Sharjeel Inam Memon's room and found the alcohol bottles. Former Sindh information minister Memon, being probed for alleged corruption, was shifted from a jail in Karachi to the hospital for treatment for a heart ailment. "When Sharjeel Memon was asked (about the liquor), he said they (bottles) were not his," Justice Nisar said later at the Supreme Court's Karachi registry. Following the findings, police and jail officials rushed to the hospital and shifted Memon to the jail and sealed his room. Superintendent Police Umar Shahid told reporters that police have taken custody of the material seized from the room. The seized items have been sent to a laboratory for forensic tests, the officer said. "Nobody will be spared and those responsible will be dealt with according to the law," he said. Police have also arrested Memon's driver and one of his servants. The driver told reporters that as far as he knew, the bottles found in Memon's room contained oil and honey. Justice Nisar, who reportedly photographed the alcohol bottles, also warned of consequences to those who broke the law. Memon is accused of embezzling around Rs 6 billion while heading the Sindh Information Ministry. Nisar also visited the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) where Hussain Lawai and Anwar Majeed, accused in the money laundering case, are admitted. He examined various items in their rooms and also confiscated some records from Majeed's room. Both Lawai and Majeed are considered close to former president Asif Ali Zardari, who is also being probed in the same case. Alcohol is banned in Pakistan but it is believed that certain sections have access to liquor. By IANS KOLKATA: National award winning Director Rituparno Ghosh, who holds a special place in the hearts of the West Bengal public, was paid soulful tributes by eminent personalities on his 55th birth anniversary on Friday. "Rituparno (Ghosh) is no longer with us. But his works are immortal. Today is his birth anniversary. We miss you, Ritu," Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted. Ghosh, who started his career as a creative artist at an advertising agency, is hailed as one of the most creative filmmakers in Bengali cinema in the post-Satyajit Ray era. He won more than 12 National Film Awards as also accolades at international film festivals. Actor Prasenjit Chatterjee, who worked closely with Ghosh, poured his heart out on Twitter: "August 31. It's Rituparno Ghosh's birthday. On this day, what more could we have to offer to a person who loved us and cinema so dearly?" "We wish to bring to you an endeavour that gives us a deep insight into his extraordinary mind. Happy birthday, Ritu," he said. Actress Rituparna Sengupta, who got the National Award for Ghosh's film 'Dahan' also paid tributes on Facebook: "Ritu Daa, It's your birthday today... a thousand memories shuffled through my mind of the days we worked together in 'Utsab' and 'Dahan'. "You will always stay alive in our heart as a marvellous filmmaker and equally talented and great human being. Happy birthday, Rituparno Ghosh," Sengupta added. Ghosh died of cardiac arrest at his residence here on May 30, 2013. Palaparthi Srividya By Express News Service Movie: Paper Boy Director: Jaya Shankar Cast: Santosh Shobhan, Riya Suman, Tanya Hope Rating: 2.5/5 Rich girl, poor boy: this is probably the oldest concept in the book and yet somehow finds relevance in the current scenario. Based on just that is the movie Paper Boy. Ironically however, even this workable trope feels outdated and lacklustre for simple reasons in this film. Megha (Tanya Hope) who finds out that she doesnt have too long to live due to a fatal disease, believes that she was born for a purpose. She chances upon Ravi (Santosh Shobhan), a paper boys diary and as she reads it starts his love story. Ravi falls in love with Dharani (Riya Suman) after finding that she shares similar ideologies as him through the books that they pick up in the colonys library. They meet, friendship happens, and over a serious of tedious montages and monologues, love happens. They break up due to Ravis hurt pride when Dharani lies to her friends that he is a software engineer. While that constitutes the first half, the second half has its own set of conflicts and resolutions until Megha interferes to change their lives. The film leaves you with a lot of questions. Why did they break up the first time? How exactly did the misunderstanding get resolved? What was Dharanis noble intention behind lying to her friends about Ravi, upon realising which he goes running to Kerala to apologise to her? Why did Ravi take such a horrifyingly extreme decision? But it looks like logic is something that was meant to get washed away in all the heavy emotion. Those emotions however were sincere. You would cheer for the impossible love to be fulfilled but would also understand the reality that is evident. The pair do share a few sweet moments that would really make you smile, but the rest is pretty much a melodramatic blur. Paper Boy is old-fashioned to say the least. Proof of that was the force-fitted comedy track of Bithiri Sathi which has absolutely no relevance to the story. The film needed a boost of updation. And updated does not mean dropping obsolete references of cab services, e-papers and apps. It means doing away with needless fat jokes at the cost of artistes like Vidyu Raman. Speaking of artistes, Santosh, Riya and even the supporting cast performed well in a few intense scenes. But it almost seemed like nothing more was asked of them. Paper Boy is indeed a simple and sweet love story albeit burdened by the so-called commercial elements. If only it was as honest as it was played out to be... Rochana Mohan By Express News Service CHENNAI : Models wearing matte black clothes and intricately done braids walked on the ramp, followed by men and women dressed in their wedding best, and then a group of women dressed in a rock aesthetic completed the walk. The grand finale was a series based on nature, with models wearing headdresses and gowns that flowed onto the ramp and spilled off the stage when they turned. Choreographed by Jeffrey Vardon and called The Look, the walk was the last event at the 20th year celebrations of A Cut Above, a beauty salon run by Rathi Nilakantan and Nina Reddy in Savera Hotel. The event held at the hotel on Thursday, saw the participation of many patrons of the salon, including the chief guest for the evening, Jyotika Saravanan. A Cut Above is a home away from home. Whenever I go there, I am treated in just the best way. I am very happy that this is a show put by women, with the men sitting at the back, for once. According to a popular saying, a woman is only helpless when there is wet paint on her nails, and these women are a proof of that, said the Tamil actress, who also distributed gifts to the salon staff from the management soon after her speech. As part of the salons vision, Nilakantan completed a certificate course held by Nirmala Bhatt in beautification in Australia so that she could train the women and men who work at the unisex salon. I wanted my parlour to have a caring and friendly atmosphere, and not look like a typical one. We always use the best products, and I bring it from Malaysia. We were the first of our kind back then, and we set the trend for all the newer parlours, Rathi said. The event ended with the models, clients, staff and friends sharing stories and laughing over drinks and dinner. The Look The fashion walk was choreographed by Jeffrey Vardon and called The Look. It was the last at the 20th year celebrations of A Cut Above, the beauty salon run by Rathi Nilakantan and Nina Reddy in Savera Hotel. It was held at the hotel on Thursday By IANS SAN FRANCISCO: The Harvard University has teamed up with Google to develop a machine learning-based model to predict aftershock locations post a quake. It may help in the deployment of emergency services and assist in evacuation plans, a researcher said. "We teamed up with machine learning experts at Google to see if we could apply deep learning to explain where aftershocks might occur," Phoebe DeVries, Post-Doctoral student at the Harvard, wrote in a Google blog post. Earthquakes typically occur in sequences -- an initial "mainshock" (the event that usually gets the headlines) is often followed by a set of "aftershocks." Though these aftershocks are usually smaller than the main shock, in some cases, they may significantly hamper recovery efforts. Even though the timing and size of aftershocks were understood and explained by established empirical laws, forecasting the locations of these events has proven to be more challenging. Using deep learning algorithms, the team analysed a database of information on more than 118 major earthquakes from around the world, to predict where aftershocks might occur. From there, they applied a neural net to analyse the relationships between static stress changes caused by the mainshocks and aftershock locations. The algorithm was able to identify useful patterns. They developed a system, detailed in the journal Nature, that, while still imprecise, was able to forecast aftershocks significantly better than random assignment. The novel model opens up possibilities for finding potential physical theories that may allow us to better understand natural phenomena, DeVries noted. "This machine-learning-driven insight provides improved forecasts of aftershock locations and identifies physical quantities that may control earthquake triggering during the most active part of the seismic cycle," the researchers stated in the paper. Ramananda Sengupta By Express News Service KATHMANDU: The fourth BIMSTEC summit concluded in Kathmandu on Friday with leaders of the regional grouping pledging to reinvigorate the process of economic and strategic integration. Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli handed over the chairmanship of the seven-member grouping to Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena after releasing the draft of the Kathmandu declaration, which was unanimously adopted by the member states. According to Oli, the declaration eloquently captured the collective wisdom, thought and vision of a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable Bay of Bengal region. Launched in 1997, the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation comprises Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Together, these nations are home to around 1.5 billion people, or 22 per cent of the global population, with a combined GDP of $ 2.7 trillion. However, conflicting priorities and divergent interests among the member states have blocked the grouping from achieving its aim of regional economic, political and cultural integration. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Oli to review bilateral relations and witnessed the signing of an MoU on a preliminary engineering-cum-traffic survey on a broad gauge line between Raxaul and Kathmandu, after which the two leaders jointly inaugurated the 400-bed Nepal-Bharat Maitri Pashupati Dharmashala at Kathmandu. Modi also met the Prime Minister of Thailand, Prayut Chan-o-cha, the President of Myanmar, Win Myint, and Lyonpo Tshering Wangchuk, chief advisor of the Bhutan government. By PTI AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat government today told the High Court that police are not stopping anyone from meeting quota agitation leader Hardik Patel, who is on an indefinite fast at his house here since August 25. Patel-led Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) has moved the court, alleging that police are not allowing people to meet him. The PAAS has sought removal of police from outside Patel's house on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Advocate General Kamal Trivedi today told the court that nobody was being stopped from meeting Hardik. The petition came up for hearing before Justice A Y Kogje, as Justice R P Dholaria had yesterday recused himself from the case. PAAS lawyer Babu Mangukia said he had himself seen police preventing people from meeting Hardik, and driving them away from the bungalow. Police were only allowing lawyers and politicians to go inside, he alleged. Trivedi said the government will file an affidavit with evidence to prove its claim that nobody was being stopped from going in. Justice Kogje then adjourned the hearing to September 4. Hardik Patel started his hunger strike on August 25 for demands of reservation for the Patidar community in jobs and education, and a loan waiver for farmers. By Express News Service MUMBAI: Activists are being put in jails to divert attention from the original perpetrators of the violence on January 1, Adv Susan Abraham has said. Susan is the wife of Vernon Gonsalves who is under house arrest for suspected Maoist links. "The first FIR lodged in the Bhima Koragaon violence had named Sambhaj Bhide and Milind Ekbote. But, government doesn't want to act on that FIR and wants to divert attention hence it has been arresting the activists," Abraham said while speaking to The New Indian Express. "The police not revealing what they did in the first three months of the case, when they had arrested Ekbote, and then they suddenly started seeing involvement of Maoists," she added and further said that now, the police is leaking so called evidences which won't be admissible in the court of law. "This is being done to create a public opinion against the accused in the case, so that people won't ask them anything against Bhide and Ekbote," Susan said. She also said that the fresh arrests of human rights activist were effected to deviate attention of the people from the Nalasopara arms haul case where Sanatan Sanstha is suspected to have been involved. "The ATS had got explosives, bombs, arms. everything, and yet the Sanstha is not declared an unlawful activity. This shows the bias," she said. READ HERE: Arrested activist Vernon Gonsalves' son says charges against his father 'false, laughable' "Why the police did not even mention the "letters" in the court if those were so important," she asked. "Pune police have stated 18 reasons in remand application but, there is not a single mention of any letter or procurement of arms. This kind of maligning of the accused is being done even when the matter is in the domain of the court is illegal and is being done to divert people's attention," she added. Dr Anand Teltumbde, whose name was added in the FIR as accused by the police recently and whose house at the campus of Goa institute of management was raided in his absence too has condemned the act. "It is distressing that the state stoops to such lows to malign a defenceless citizen like me, who even in the face of it could not be connected with such bizarre activities. I have been an alumnus of IIM Ahmadabad and had my entire career in corporate world ending with Managing Director and CEO of a holding company. Even, thereafter, when IIT Kharagpur invited me to join its faculty, I taught Business management for over five years and launched India's first Big Data Analytics programme in management this year. Can any sane person link up this background of mine with the bizarre stories police is churning out through so called letters," he said in his statement. "My family, my vast friend circle, my corporate contacts, everything is devastated with this false campaign the police launched for whatever intension," he said. Former Supreme Court Judge Justice (Rtd) P B Sawant too condemned the act of police where certain "letters" were read out. "Police is acting at the instance of the present government to malign the innocent citizens who are exercising their fundamental rights. Since the case is before the court they will now have to prove everything that they have said with strong evidence in the court," he said. "I hope that the people will know the truth very soon," he added. By PTI MUMBAI: Human rights activist Anand Teltumbde refuted Saturday the Maharashtra police claim that he had attended a convention in Paris which was allegedly funded by Maoists and dismissed as outrageous charges of the Naxal link. Teltumbde, who teaches at a management institute in Goa, was among the activists and lawyers whose homes were raided by the Pune police on August 28 on suspicion they had links with Maoists. "These are all false allegations to malign and defame my image. I dont know any Maoist leader and I am not having any relation with this," Teltumbde told PTI over the phone. "I keep going abroad for academic conferences. It is all on official invitations and everything is well documented," he said. The raid on the home of Teltumbde, a Goa Institute of Management professor and Dalit writer, was part of multi-city searches carried out by the Pune police in connection with an event held in Pune in December last year. Five Left-wing activists were arrested during the searches and they are under house arrest till September 6 as per a Supreme Court direction. Teltumbde is not among them. ALSO READ: Rights activists' arrests: Arundhati Roy, Jignesh Mevani, others demand action against Maharashtra police In a press briefing here Friday, the Maharashtra Police had cited a letter, allegedly written by "Comrade Prakash", that mentions about arranging funds for a human rights convention attended by "Comrade Anand" in Paris. However, the police did not say when the convention was held. The letter also mentioned allocating Rs 10 lakh annually to organise international seminars on Dalit issues, they had said. The press meet was addressed by Additional Director General (Law and Order) Param Bir Singh. Dismissing these charges, Teltumbde said, "I dont know any Maoist leaders and I have not received any letters. Police should think before levelling allegation, they should see my background, the work I which I did, I don't have time to do all these things," he said, adding "this is all outrageous". "My profession and whatever I do is all in public domain. This is a deliberate attempt by the police to trouble common people. I keep writing on various issue and I will be always critical," he said. Teltumbde alleged harassment of activists by the police. "Only because the police have rights and they will do anything they want, this is not done," he said, alleging "they are harassing us by doing such things". The August 28 raids were carried out as part of a police probe into the Elgaar Parishad, an event held in Pune on December 31, 2017. Police say "provocative speeches" delivered at the event was one of the reasons for violence at Koregaon-Bhima village in Pune district the next day. By ANI ST. JOHN'S: India has submitted second extradition request to Antigua and Barbuda government for the extradition of Indian fugitive Mehul Choksi, who has acquired the citizenship of the Caribbean country. Indian High Commissioner in Guyana, Venkatachalam Mahalingam, visited St. John's, capital of Antigua and Barbuda on August 30, for the third time in recent weeks to meet senior Government officials on the Choksi's extradition matter, Antigua media reported. Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne received Mahalingam and both held extensive discussions on the extradition of fugitive Indian businessman. Gaston Browne, the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, was accompanied by the senior officials of his country, including Attorney-General, Hon. Steadroy 'Cutie' Benjamin, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Anthony Liverpool; and Ambassador Colin Murdoch who is a senior advisor to Browne, reported the news portal, Antigua News Room. The website claimed that High Commissioner Mahalingam submitted the second extradition request from the Indian authorities, with amended charges. The Attorney-General assured Mahalingam that the documents would be put in the hands of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Mahalingam, who also had extensive discussions with the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was assured of the full support of the Antigua and Barbuda government by the Prime Minister. The high profile meeting came after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), through the Ministry of External Affairs, wrote a letter to the authorities in Antigua, asking them to arrest the fugitive diamantaire. The multi-crore rupees scam was detected by the Punjab National Bank officials earlier this year, after Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi, allegedly cheated the bank to the tune of two billion dollars. India has been trying hard to bring back Choksi from Antigua and Barbuda under the provision of a law of the island nation, which provides for extradition of a fugitive to a designated Commonwealth country. Prasanta Mazumdar By Express News Service GUWAHATI: The Karbi Anglong police on Saturday filed an 844-page charge-sheet in the June 8 lynching of two youth from affluent families of Guwahati in Karbi Anglongs Dokmoka. The charge-sheet was filed in a local court in Karbi Anglong district headquarters Diphu. Earlier, 48 people, including the prime accused Alphajos Timung aka Alpha, were arrested by the police under Sections 302, 341, 427, 143, 144, 147 148, 149, 109, 332 and 186 of the Indian Penal Code. Assams Director General of Police, Kuladhar Saikia, said, The case has been taken to a fast track court for immediate justice of the two youth. ALSO READ: Panel submits report on lynching to GoM headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh Two friendsNilotpal Das, a sound engineer, and Abhijeet Nath, an engineering dropoutwere bludgeoned to death by a mob on the suspicion that they were child abductors. They were lynched at Panjuri Kacharigaon, a tribal village, located some 200 km east of Guwahati. They had gone to the place on a days vacation to capture the sounds of nature. Both were nature lovers. Meanwhile, the family members of Abhijeet demanded death sentence for the accused persons. We want that there is no lacuna in the charge-sheet to thwart the accused persons from being granted bail. We demand that they are given the strongest punishment so that it sets a precedent and nobody dares commit such a crime in the future. We want that they are hanged, Abhijeets mother said. Anand ST Das By Express News Service PATNA: Union minister and RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha on Friday dismissed reports about a seat-sharing formula of the NDA in Bihar and indicated that he would prefer to be with the ruling coalition.No meeting of NDA constituents to discuss sharing of seats has taken place, so far. I will put forth my partys demands when a meeting is held, said Kushwaha, a day after an unofficial seat-sharing formula floated by the BJP was met with shock and disbelief by many RLSP leaders. There are some people in the NDA who do not want Narendra Modi to become the PM again. Such people are intentionally spreading rumours to trigger conflicts within NDA, he said, regarding the reports about the RLSP offered only two seats.Even though Kushwaha declined to name anyone, RLSP leaders said he was referring to four senior leaders in the JD(U) and the BJP who did not want the RLSP as a part of the NDA. Despite his strained relations with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Kushwaha said the NDA had strengthened after Nitish returned to the alliance last year. In July, Kushwaha had said Nitish should not be the NDAs CM candidate in 2020.We are the people who make kheer. We are not among those who day dream. We want to make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister once again, he said to a media query on RLSPs plan on whether it would join hands with the RJD-led Grand Alliance. Asserting that his kheer remark was utterly misconstrued just like some blind men describing an elephant, Kushwaha said the RLSP would launch social and political programmes Paigam-e-Kheer from September 25 and Dalit Atipichhra Adhikar Sammelan in October. The Paigam-e-Kheer programmes would be held in every district of Bihar with the participation of all communities and religions in order to spread the message of social harmony and justice for all. With September 25 being the birth anniversary of Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Deendayal Upadhyay, BJP leaders said the RLSPs proposed programmes indicate Kushwahas plan to remain in the NDA. By IANS NEW DELHI: The Law Commission on Friday floated a consultation paper on family law reforms and suggested changes to several provisions including 'no fault' divorce, alimony, age of consent for marriage, bigamy and marriage registration. "The consultation on family law reforms in India discusses a range of provisions within all family laws, secular or personal, and suggests a number of changes in the form of potential amendments and fresh enactments," said a press release. "The paper discusses the introduction of new grounds for 'no fault' divorce accompanied by corresponding changes to provisions on alimony and maintenance, rights of differently-abled individuals within marriage, the 30-day period for registration of marriages under Special Marriage Act; uncertainty and inequality in age of consent for marriage, compulsory registration of marriage, and conversion." Under Hindu law, the paper discusses problems with a provision such as restitution of conjugal rights, and suggests inclusion of concepts such as 'community of property' of a married couple, abolition of coparcenary, rights of illegitimate children. It has further suggested addressing self-acquired property of a Hindu woman. Under Muslim law, the paper discusses the reform in inheritance law through codification of Muslim law on inheritance, but ensuring that the codified law is gender-just. "The paper also discusses the rights of a widow, and the changes in application to general laws such as introduction of community of (self-acquired) property after marriage, inclusion of irretrievable breakdown of marriage as a ground for divorce," reads the release. Under Parsi law, there are suggestions relating to protecting married women's right to inherit property even if they marry outside their community, as per the release. The paper also suggests the expansion of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2015, to make it into a robust secular law that can be accessed by individuals of all communities for adoption. "There are suggestions for amending the guidelines for adoption and also a suggestion to alter the language of the Act to accommodate all gender identities," as per the release. The paper also discusses lacunae within custody and guardianship laws, statutory or customary, and suggests that the 'best interest of the child' has to remain the paramount consideration in deciding matters of custody regardless of any prevailing personal law in place. "Although the Sixth Schedule provides exemptions to states in the North East and tribal areas, we suggest that efforts of women's organisations in these areas be acknowledged and relied upon to suggest ways in which family law reform could be aided by the state even when direct intervention may not be possible," it said. By Express News Service MUMBAI: Maoists were planning to purchase grenade launchers and bring them to India via Nepal or Manipur. One of the letters exchanged between the comrades clearly mentions this, Maharashtra Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Parambir Singh said on Friday. Rona Wilson spoke about procurement of weapons in letter to Comrade Prakash. He wanted a grenade launcher and four lakh rounds, Singh said, while reading out part of the letter. The mail letter also spoke of ending Modi raj with a Rajiv Gandhi-type incident and also sought money for procuring grenade launchers, he added.This letter was written on April 18, 2017, Singh said. Among the decrypted data recovered from electronic devices seized from the arrested Maoists activists, the police have recovered catalogues of Russian and Chinese-made grenade launchers. One of these was with Ronas letter. Singh showed a copy of the catalogue to the media that had information on the Russian-made GM 94 grenade launcher. While stressing that the police would be pleading particularly for Vara Vara Raos custody, Singh read out parts from letters that said VV (a short form for Raos name used by the comrades) has the authority to communicate with the counterparts in Nepal and Manipur who were to help deliver the weapons. Most of the documents recovered from the electronic devices are from the year 2017, while some of them are from 2018. These are in the form of reports, letters, memos, minutes of meetings and communication with members of the central committee of the banned Maoist organization and amongst themselves, Singh said. Singh read out letters exchanged between Vara Vara Rao and Surendra Gadling. One of them spoke of the pressing need to do Sukma-like heavy ambush, while the other was regarding the 80 vehicles burnt at Surjagarh in Gadchiroli on instructions from Rao. Another letter has Rao writing to Gadling about money not reaching the foot soldiers in Gadchiroli. By ANI IMPHAL: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has seized Rs 48 lakh in cash from a woman during an investigation into the activities of proscribed terrorist organisation Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP). The agency is investigating the March 2017 case under Sections 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 20 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act relating to the activities of the organisation. The money was seized from K Pramodini, an employee of RIMS Imphal Manipur. It was produced by Pramodini in the presence of independent witnesses. The amount belongs to N Sobita Devi, wife of accused Dr Mutum Shyamo Singh (Ex Director JNIMS Hospital, Imphal, Manipur). The NIA found out that the amount was handed over to Pramodini by Sobita Devi for the purpose of concealing the terror funds which were collected by Mutum Shyamo Singh as part of his activities in support of proscribed organisation KCP. NIA had arrested Mutum Shyamo Singh on July 6, for his active involvement in KCP. Search was conducted at that time in his house and Rs 40,03,000 in new currency and Rs 1,00,000 in old currency were also seized as proceeds of terrorism. During the investigation of this case, accused persons Khoirom Ranjit Singh, Commander in Chief of KCP, and his associates - Irungbam Sanatombi Devi and P. Prem Kumar Meitei - had been arrested and chargesheet was filed on July 10 last year before the NIA Special Court in Delhi. A supplementary charge sheet against Sanabam Inaobi Singh has also been filed in the instant case on May 24. Further investigation in the case under Section 173(8) of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) is continuing. By PTI NEW DELHI: Human rights activist Sudha Bharadwaj, one of the five activists arrested in multi-city raids by the Maharashtra Police, has outrightly rejected the claims made by the investigating agency and said a purported letter implicating her was "totally concocted" to criminalise her and human rights organisations. The police had Friday claimed that Bharadwaj had written to one "Com Prakash". Reacting to this in a handwritten statement, Bharadwaj, who is under house arrest, Friday said the purported letter shown by the Pune Police is a "mixture of innocuous". READ | Police targeting Dalit rights activists post-Bhima Koregaon violence: CPI-M She claimed a number of human rights lawyers, activists and organisations were deliberately named to cast a stigma over them, obstruct their work and incite hatred against them. "It is a totally concocted letter fabricated to criminalise me and other human rights lawyers, activists and organisations," the letter said. The activist-lawyer said the "fabricated letter" had not been brought before either before the Pune Court or the Faridabad Chief Judicial Magistrate while seeking to "whisk" her to Pune. In a media briefing Friday, the police had released details of seized letters related to five activists arrested in June in connection with the Bhima Koregoan violence that took place in January. Early this week, the police raided the homes of activists and lawyers from five states---Varavara Roa in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Bharadwaj in Fariadabad and Gautam Navalakha in Delhi. Harpreet Bajwa By Express News Service CHANDIGARH: Aam Aadmi Party MLA and senior lawyer H S Phoolka today threatened to resign if no case was registered against former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and former director general of police Sumedh Singh Saini in the context of Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report on sacrilege by September 15. Phoolka, who has been fighting cases of 1984 anti-Sikh riot victims, said that due procedure was not followed by the police in firing incidents and Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in which two people died in 2015. He also dared Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and five of his cabinet colleagues Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Manpreet Singh Badal, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Charanjit Singh Channi and Navjot Singh Sidh who had participated in the debate on this report in the Assembly on August 28. Phoolka alleged most of the Congress MLAs including the five ministers had demanded while participating in the discussion on the sacrilege report in Vidhan Sabha that both Badal and Saini be made accused in the police firing case. ALSO READ: Parkash Singh Badal indicted for police action against anti-sacrilege protesters "I have given a fifteen day ultimatum to the five cabinet ministers to get the case registered against Badal and Saini and thereafter SIT should investigate. If they cannot do it, then they should resign from their posts. I will be the first one to quit on September 16 if these ministers fail to get a case registered against Badal and Saini till September 15," said Phoolka who is MLA from Dakha seat. Citing report of Justice Ranjit Singh Commission, Phoolka said Badal and Saini could not be made accused in connection with sacrilege incidents and only Dera Sacha Sauda head could be booked, alleging that some Dera workers were involved in the sacrilege of religious texts. The Punjab chief minister had on August 28 announced that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Punjab Police would launch a time-bound investigation into the sacrilege cases as well as the firing incidents by withdrawing cases from the CBI. The state government has already booked four cops including the then SSP Moga Charanjit Sharma on the charge of murder pertaining to police action in Behbal Kalan firing. The government has issued show cause notices to several senior police officials including the then Director General of Police (DGP) Saini whose role came under scanner in the firing incidents. SAD holds mass protests Meanwhile Shiromani Akali Dal today held mass protests in all 117 assembly constituencies across the State in protest against the Congress governments deep rooted conspiracy to weaken Sikh institutions as well as the Sikh panth in league with radical elements as well as AAP leaders to vitiate the peace and communal harmony in this border state. In each constituency, thousands of SAD workers along with senior leaders took to the streets, raising slogans against the Congress government as well as its stooges. Effigies of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh and Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar as well as radical leaders like Baljit Singh Daduwal were burnt on the occasion. Senior leaders who led these protest at different constituencies include Maheshinder Singh Grewal, Sikandar Singh Maluka, Jathedar Tota Singh, Dr. Daljit Singh Cheema, Prem Singh Chandumajra and Hira Singh Gabria. At all protest sites, SAD workers condemned Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar for threatening them that they would not be allowed to enter villages. They warned the Congress party that they stood for maintaining peace and communal harmony and that it should desist from instigating violence in the State. The SAD said that the Congress Government in league with radical groups was hatching a conspiracy to defame the SAD in order to take control over the Sikh religious institutions including the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). They said that the Amrinder Singh Government was trying to implement its age old anti-Sikh agenda of dividing the Sikhs for its petty political goals as it did in 1980s to take control over the Sikh religious institutions as well as push the State back in to the dark era of terrorism. Voices of dissent within SAD Also more voices of dissent against SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal have been rising from within the party. Now former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee (SGPC) Chief Jathedar Avtar Singh Makkar openly expressed his voice of dissent on the strategy and tactics adopted by the SAD leadership on the issue of Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report and the incidents of sacrilege. He has openly criticized Sukhbir Badal's decision to boycott the discussion on the report of Justice Ranjit Singh Commission in Punjab assembly. Makkar even openly criticized SAD leadership's decision to burn effigies of Justice Ranjit Singh and others and appealed to all the parties to desist from such protests and tactics. (With inputs from PTI) By PTI PANAJI: BJP ally Goa Forward Party (GFP) said Saturday that it is "committed" to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, and it does not see any reason to reconsider this "commitment". Parrikar flew to the United States for medical treatment two day ago. "We are committed to Manohar Parrikar for this tenure. This is our commitment, anything beyond that or anything minus that will be based on circumstances," GFP chief and state agriculture minister Vijai Sardesai told PTI. "At the moment there is no such development which is forcing us to reconsider our commitment to Parrikar and the BJP," he said. "I am reiterating that the letter of support (given by his party) has been a very unique one. First time perhaps in the history of India, some political party gives a letter of support saying I support the individual but not the party," he said, speaking about the party's support for Parrikar. "We mean what that letter says," Sardesai said. Asked if GFP could have an alliance with the Congress in future, Sardesai said, "Politics is dynamic. Let us not think about the future." After the 2017 Assembly polls threw up a fractured verdict, the GFP, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and independent MLAs supported the BJP on the condition that Parrikar, then Defence Minister, should return as chief minister of the coastal state. Ejaz Kaiser By Express News Service RAIPUR: The opposition Congress in Chhattisgarh submitting a memorandum to the Election Commission sought an inquiry into an alleged large-scale irregularities leading to "inclusion of over 8 lakh bogus voters who were traced during the scrutiny of the electoral rolls". A significant number of "probable duplicates" within each constituency, nearly 2 per cent of the size of the electorate, are found in the draft electoral roll published by the state chief electoral officer on July 31 this year, a private agency 'politics.in' hired by the opposition Congress underlined in its report and pointed-out the alleged irregularities and omissions. Congress while highlighting the findings of the agency claimed "probable duplicates" on various parameters and argued a "non-compliance-" of 'Manual on Electoral Rolls, 2016' in Chhattisgarh. Compared to other states the Chhattisgarh registered the highest voter turnout at 77 per cent during 2013. "In this election, the Congress party got only 97574 votes less than the ruling BJP. Had there been no fake voters the results would have been different", claimed the Congress president Bhupesh Baghel and the politics.in. The opposition presuming massive irregularities averred that there were around ten seats that the BJP won through such bogus voting and formed the government in 2013. The Congress gave a detail presentation before the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) O P Rawat in Raipur and urged the Election Commission on Saturday to ensure the "fake and duplicate names" be weeded out from the electoral rolls. Following the scrutiny of the electoral rolls of Chhattisgarh, it was emphasised that the state has seen a steady and uniform growth of 2-3 lakhs electors every year since 2003 assembly elections. "But surprisingly it was found that between 2013 and 2014, there was a growth of nearly 8 lakhs voters which is not consistent with the growth of the population in the same duration", it was pointed out. However, the ruling BJP junked the allegations of Congress on electoral roll irregularities. "The Congress should trust the EC. It appears the Congress president has begun exploring the reason on the defeat of his party in the upcoming elections from now onwards", said the BJP spokesperson Shivratan Sharma. The CEC on Saturday told that the final publication of the electoral rolls in Chhattisgarh will be on September 27. The revision of electoral rolls has been extended till September 7 allowing the people to submit their objections and suggestions about the voters' list. The election to the 90-member House in Chhattisgarh is scheduled to be held later this year. Aishik Chanda By Express News Service KOLKATA: An influential social worker and Trinamool Congress leader was shot dead at point blank range by unknown assailants while he was returning home at Itahar in Uttar Dinajpur on Friday night. TMC leader and social worker Bikash Mazumdar succumbed to his injuries after being taken to Raiganj super-specialty hospital. The ruling party called a 12-hour bandh in Itahar in protest against the killing. Itahar was witness to pitched battles between TMC and Congress cadres a few days ago in which some 20 people were injured. On the other hand, investigation has revealed that miscreants from across the state border of Jharkhand might be involved in the incident where a three-year-old boy was shot in the head after his mother and winning BJP candidate Putul Mondal joined TMC to enable the ruling party to form board in Manikchak gram panchayat in Malda district. Accordingly, vigil has been increased along the riverine border of Jharkhand and West Bengal in Malda district. It has come to light that Putul Mondal's house came under attack three times before the shooting on August 30. The condition of the child continued to be critical and he is under medical observation for 72 hours. Minhaz Merchant By United States Defence Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will arrive in New Delhi on September 6 to kick off the first annual 2+2 India-US dialogue with their counterparts Nirmala Sitharaman and Sushma Swaraj. The US administration has been preoccupied with a host of domestic and foreign policy issues. So the inaugural 2+2 dialogue, initially scheduled to be held in Washington, was postponed twice and relocated to New Delhi. The 2+2 dialogue comes at a crucial time in regional and global politics. Pakistan has a new prime minister. The Taliban is gaining strength in Afghanistan. It controls, directly or indirectly, an estimated 44 per cent of Afghan territory. The US and China are locked in a trade war. North Korea and Iran remain defiant in the face of US sanctions. Britain and the European Union (EU) are embroiled in acrimonious negotiations over Brexit. For India, an increasingly turbulent world presents challenges and opportunities. The 2+2 dialogue next week could be an inflection point in the oscillating relationship between Washington and New Delhi. The US needs India to counter the rise of China in the arc from the South China Sea to the Horn of Africa. The US-China confrontation over future economic and military supremacy could well lead to Cold War 2.0. The US has shut out Chinese companies from access to advanced US technology. Blinking first, Beijing has sought urgent talks in Washington to resolve the trade conflict. The US has the ammunition to win a protracted trade war with China. It can impose punishing tariffs on Chinese exports to the US valued at $507 billion. Beijing can only retaliate with tariffs on US exports to China valued at $137 billion. For the first time, as the Chinese economy slows down, murmurs of dissent against President Xi Jinping have begun to appear even on tightly controlled Chinese websites. Meanwhile, Malaysia has shelved Chinese projects valued at $22 billion which are part of Beijings Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). A key part of the BRI is the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Opposition to the BRI is mounting in countries like Sri Lanka because of the high level of debt it imposes. Malaysias Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was blunt in his criticism: We do not want a situation where there is a new version of colonialism happening because poor countries are unable to compete with rich countries in terms of just, open, free trade. It is all about borrowing too much money which we cannot afford ... So we must find a way to exit these projects and at the lowest cost possible. For India, three issues will stand out. First: With a Taliban-leaning prime minister Imran Khan, ensconced in Islamabad, India and the US will have to work on a robust strategy to tackle terror groups operating on Pakistani soil with Pakistani army support. Unlike the previous US administrations, the Trump government has taken a strong stand against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pompeo, in a phone call, warned Imran recently that Pakistan must tackle all terrorist groups. This could include the Laskhar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. On his overnight stopover in Islamabad on September 5 en route to New Delhi, Pompeo will deliver that message in person to the Pakistani army chief. The Bush and Obama administrations had focused only on the Taliban and the Haqqani network which attack US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, leaving out the Punjab-based LeT and JeM which are funded and armed by the Pakistani army and aimed at fomenting terror in India. The US made a historical blunder in 2003. Instead of doubling down on the shock and awe war it had unleashed on al-Qaeda after 9/11, then US President George W Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq on the false pretext that Baghdad was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. Fifteen years later, the consequences of the US invasion are stark: a fractured Syria, a Kurdish separatist crisis, a denuded Iraq and Islamist terrorism. As the US diverted troops and resources to the invasion of Iraq, the Taliban regrouped in Afghanistan with Pakistani army support. By the time the US turned its attention back to Afghanistan after killing Saddam Hussein, it was too late. The Taliban are now such a serious military threat that the US has reconciled to the terrorist group sharing power in a future coalition Afghanistan government. The second issue for Sitharaman and Swaraj is achieving a balance in Indias long-term national interest. This involves building a stable relationship with China and cementing the close strategic partnership with the US. The two are not mutually exclusive. The third issue is the twin points of friction emerging between Washington and New Delhi. India is set on buying the advanced S-400 anti-missile system from Russia. It also imports crude oil from Iran on which US sanctions take final effect in November. India has got a provisional Congressional waiver for the S-400 but Russian weaponry remains a sticking point in closer India-US military ties. The dialogue could bridge the gap in the two countries positions. The problem with Iran, which accounts for a significant amount of Indian crude imports, is more knotty to untangle. India has two months to replace Iranian crude with supplies from the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Worse, the TAPI gas pipeline and further development of the Chabahar port in Iran could be collateral damage. At the 2+2 dialogue, Sitharaman and Swaraj have to play their cards well to limit the damage by leveraging Indias position as the balancing pivot between China and the US. Amareswar Galla By Festivals have been an integral part of the spiritual and recreational lives of people across the world for millennia. They are critical spaces for ensuring the sustainability of the cultural diversity and intangible heritage of humanity. As sites for the promotion of peace through cultural understanding, festivals have in recent years become secular events bringing together artists and audiences through creative programming. While traditional festivals such as Kumbha Mela in India, a spectacle like no other, attract over 20 million people, it is the smaller ones that provide the building blocks in the contemporary world facing challenges of safeguarding heritage values from the forces of rapid globalisation and homogenisation. Korea showcases its creativity through spectacular events. Gwangju has become an intellectual and creative centre of excellence in the world promoting an inclusive and global aesthetic through its Contemporary Art and Design Biennales. On the other hand, Cheongju International Craft Biennale and the Gangneung Danoje Festival, a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity that was inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Heritage Representative List in 2008, are champions for safeguarding living heritage. In its recent commitment to promoting cultural diversity in general and multiculturalism in particular, Korea promises to promote such events to further cross-cultural understanding and dialogue through the First Voice of carriers and transmitters of cultural values and creativity, much needed to promote peace in the world. Peer Gynt performed in 2012 Oz Asia Festival, Adelaide. | Image Courtesy: Oz Asia Festival, Adelaide, South Australia In Australia, a close friend of the Republic of Korea, with its location in the Asia Pacific Region, festivals have become critical for the recognition of it cultural diversity. For example, the Dreaming and Boomerang Festivals showcase the contemporary creativity of Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Straight Islanders informed by the knowledge systems that are dynamic and have evolved over thousands of years. Festivals foster the linguistic and cultural diversity of Australia. One such example is the unique OzAsia Festival that celebrates Australias creative links with Asia in all its manifestations from culinary heritage to film, in dance and theatre, through visual arts and music, and dialogue and intellectual engagement. Ade and Peni_Ontosoroh from 2013 festival. Photo by Arief Budianto Festivals OzAsia Festival is an annual two-week event presented by the Adelaide Festival Centre. (www.ozasiafestival.com.au) It is the premier Australian event contributing to meaningful cultural exchanges with Asia. Each year the festival focuses on a particular Asian country. Most importantly, the program includes traditional and contemporary artists from Asia and Australian artists who identify with the heritage of an Asian source community. It also showcases cross cultural collaborations. A signature event of the OzAsia Festival is the Moon Lantern Festival. It is held on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month of the calendar. The Moon Lantern Festival is a celebration of inclusiveness and our ability to live together in harmony. The day is full of performances from various cultural communities, workshops, food and market stalls, culminating in a stunning Moon Lantern Parade at sunset. The Honourable Hieu Van Le, Lieutenant Governor of South Australia and OzAsia Festival Patron said that Australia is looking forward to an Asian Century. The OzAsia Festival provides an important means of understanding and appreciating Australias neighbouring Asian Countries. Cultural engagement and the arts can help build bridges, understanding and tolerance like nothing else can. Jump from 2010 and 2013 Contme Performance. | Image Courtesy: Oz Asia Festival, Adelaide, South Australia. The founders of the OzAsia Festival considered it important that Australia should take the initiative and establish an international event that explores the relationship between Australia and Asia through its Diaspora communities of Asian origin. The Festival explores ways in which, using creativity as a means, it can commence a process of better embedding the values of cultural diversity and sustainable development into our regional cultural policies and programs. It is a landmark activity that involves all tiers of government and a wide range of other civil society institutions, to model a new kind of partnership that includes those working across different levels in cultural policy and planning, the community sector, business, service delivery and educational institutions through students and academics. Tan Dun NuShu - The Secret Songs of Women OzAsia Festival. | Image Courtesy: Oz Asia Festival, Adelaide, South Australia. The role of festivals as agencies of soft power has become increasingly significant in Asia for promoting a cultural of peace. Most of us will recall that the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (November 2001) came into being in a post-September 11 world and, consequently, its significance was lost in the environment of global shock that existed at that time. The Universal Declaration argues for a new global understanding of the value of cultural diversity. It is designed to protect the international intellectual, economic, spiritual and moral values of cultural diversity. The Declaration affirms cultural diversity as the vital resource to protect cultural rights, bio-diversity, individual self-value, social harmony, cross-cultural communication and to humanise globalization. Its significance, as an international policy framework, is that it can be adapted to national purposes through national policies, government and private sector institutions, community advocacy and local government planning. The Declaration continues to help transform civil society. It has the potential to improve our community harmony, our relationship with our environment and the way we develop our economy through a new understanding of the physical and human world. The international community made a further committment to promote the values of the Declaration through the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, which provides an international framework for promoting creativity and cultural diversity through festivals. Moon Lantern Festival, Oz Asia Festival, Adelaide. | Image Courtesy: Oz Asia Festival, Adelaide, South Australia. In Andhra Pradesh, the expanding recreational spectrum of new and burgeoning middle classes provide a ready audience for domestic festival consumption. They want choice. Experiences. Comfort. Cleanliness. Service. Quality. Value for money. They also bring with them the globalising force of their tastes and preferences with the cultural representations in festivals reduced to the tourist gaze and the middleclass perspective. The biggest challenge for Andhra is to bring together the recreational and leisure with cultural and heritage content. Festivals are of all kinds, from recreational to creative engagement, largely focused on possible economic outcomes in contemporary societies. They have also become central to culture, health and wellbeing for new generations that are addressing alienation and breakdown of traditional family life and associated support. I have often said that all tourism is cultural and that the visitors increasingly expect more than pure Disneyesque recreation. This is particularly so if we want international or even national visitation. My work experience in Australia was focused on social, cultural and economic and environmental outcomes from festivals. International standard setting advocacy has created an inclusive discourse on culture that cuts across the UN SDGs. (https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/ ) It includes several explicit references to cultural aspects. The following SDG Targets are significant. They provide windows of opportunity to ensuring that we locate culture through festivals in the SDGs and in doing so promote the safeguarding of all forms of cultural diversity: SDG 4. Target 7 refers to the aim to ensuring that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for global citizenship and the appreciation of cultural diversity and of cultures contribution to sustainable development. SDG 8. Target 3 addresses the promotion of development-oriented policies that support productive activities as well as, among others, creativity and innovation. SDGs 8 & 12. Targets 9 & 12.b respectively refer to the need to devise and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism, including through local culture and products, and to the need to develop suitable monitoring tools in this area. Festivals in tourism could promote or diminish deep local cultural elements. SDG 11. Target 4 highlights the need to strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the worlds cultural and natural heritage. Festivals are a critical means to attract investment in safeguarding. In summary, festivals have the capacity to facilitate community engagement and development by providing a mediating space in which participants are endowed with the capacity for educational and stimulating engagement. This can be facilitated through participatory measures with members of the community, cultural practitioners, and community elders. This in turn will enhance a sense of local residency and belonging as well as providing constructive cultural economics and sustainable development. The personality of festivals provides a human face to globalization. By Express News Service ALAPPUZHA: After a painful 17-day lull, the houseboat industry in Alappuzha has revved up again. On Friday, a new batch of foreign tourists enjoyed cruising along the backwaters. According to District Tourism Promotion Council (DTPC) secretary M Malin, the tourists had arrived in Alappuzha from Turkey.DTPC and houseboat owners welcomed them and the operations restarted with due earnestness. Seven boats operated on Friday. We expect more tourists by next week, Malin said. Also Read | Houseboats turn homes for flood-affected Kuttanad and Kumarakom The industry, he said, suffered a huge setback in the floods, with the entire operations coming to a standstill by August 14.But the industry participated actively in the rescue and evacuation of people from Kuttanad, he said.As many as 1.5 lakh people were saved by the Tourism Department with the help of houseboats and other boat operators of Alappuzha. The jankhar arranged to evacuate people from the interior areas of Kuttanad was a big relief. All Kerala House Boat Owners Association (AKHBOA) president Josekutty Joseph said the industry suffered an average loss of Rs 1.2 crore per day during the floods.Cruising remained paralysed for 17 days, causing a loss of Rs 20.40 crore. Mass cancellations happened after floods. Tourists have now started to reach Alappuzha, and we accorded a warm reception to the first batch. Another batch from Tamil Nadu also cruised on Friday, Josekutty said. More than 500 houseboats, he said, were engaged in rescue and evacuation of people from Kuttanad. In addition, more than 200 boats were used as temporary shelters for the affected people, including the owners and staff within the industry, Josekutty said.We have also distributed relief materials worth lakhs of rupees to people staying in camps. Tourism Department deputy director Abhilash Kumar and DTPC secretary M Malin offered us all help for the rescue operations. Having been jolted by the Nipah virus scare during the March-May period, the year has been bad for the tourism industry, said Josekutty. After witnessing a large number of cancellations due to Nipah, the industry had barely started on the path to revival when the first bout of flooding hit Kuttanad in July. The flow of tourists reduced and the operators placed restrictions on cruising to the interior areas of Kuttanad, including Kainakari panchayat. The massive floods which affected the region on August 14, destroyed the industry, he said.In previous years, a good amount of tourists arrived at the time of the Nehru Trophy Boat Race. But even the boat race was cancelled this time, he said. By Express News Service KOCHI:The Kerala Government continues to stick to its guns about heavy rain being the sole cause of the recent flood. But the High Court decision to turn a letter sent to one of the judges into a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) will definitely pose some uncomfortable questions when the case comes up for hearing on September 12. Express accessed the report and documents submitted by Joseph N Rappai of Chalakkudy along with his letter to the High Court.It says the Indian Meteorological Department had forecast widespread rain from June 1 to August 17 in the state. The cumulative rainfall chart prepared by Meteorological Centre in Thiruvananthapuram shows the state recorded excessive rainfall, a 41 per cent rise over normal during this period. But high excess rainfall was recorded only in Idukki (89 per cent rise at 1749.1 mm) and Palakkad (75 per cent rise at 1254.2 mm). It further points out that the dams were filled up to 70-80 per cent as on July 18 but the government did not do what was essential to prepare for the rain predicted for the last week of July and first three weeks of August. This, despite the authorities being aware that the rivers and canals downstream were full from the July rain.Therefore, it was no secret these water bodies would not be in a position to absorb more water from dams. Floods would not have occurred if government had opened dam shutters on July 25 The government knew dam water must be released to accommodate rain water as the monsoon period was only half over. Yet they did not release water in mid-July, end of July or even early August. It is clear that the floods would not have occurred anywhere if the government had opened the shutters on July 25, the dams could have had the capacity to hold the rain water from mid August, says the report. Meanwhile, a retired KSEB officer who had served for many years in Idukki, Idamalayar and Poringalkuthu dams, said, Kerala has been fighting with Tamil Nadu to fix the water level of Mullaperiyar dam at 136 ft, as holding water above this level is not deemed safe for the dam. Therefore, where was our preparedness when the level crossed 136 ft and it became evident the water released would flow down to Idukki dam? It is one thing Tamil Nadu did not release the water initially. At the same time, there was no preparedness at the Idukki dam to receive the water from Mullaperiyar, he said.The story is even more damning in the Pampa region, as the entire focus was on Idukki. And we know what happened in Idukki, he added. When Express spoke to a serving KSEB engineer, this is what he had to say: There was absolutely no need to hold water in Idamalayar dam till August 9 as the KSEB knew this is known to be one dam in Kerala that gets filled fast. Similarly, more water should have been released from Poringalkuthu dam from August 1 onwards to get it ready for water from Sholayar dam in Tamil Nadu as there is an agreement that Tamil Nadu would release water every March 1 and October 1 from Sholayar to Kerala. Poringalkuthu is another dam which gets filled fast as its catchment area is vast. It was the decision to keep the shutters of Idukki and Idamalayar dams open at the same time that aggravated the flooding to a great extent as the entire volume of water flowed into Periyar, the KSEB engineer added. Key points in the report Districts flooded after Aug 14 and 15 not flooded before dams were opened The districts had 41 pc excess rainfall, leading only to swelling of rivers Floods receded after dams stopped release of water Flooding only along rivers into which water was released from dams Areas away from rivers, despite receiving excess rain, not flooded Rajesh Abraham By Express News Service KOCHI:In a big boost to Keralas overseas fundraising plans, international rating agencies have assigned a good rating for Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Boards (KIIFB) Rs 5,000-crore masala bonds issue, slated to hit the market in the coming weeks. The rating agencies have assigned a rating which is a notch below Indias sovereign rating, Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac said on Friday. Indias sovereign rating is BBB-. One notch below the sovereign rating is BB+. Isaac said the fundraising by KIIFB will go ahead as planned, and the roadshows will be held in September or at the latest in October. The masala bonds issue will go ahead as planned, he said, adding that this should not be linked to the Rebuild Kerala fund mobilisation being undertaken by the state government. KIIFB has been assigned to finance separate infrastructure projects. The funds collected will go only for those projects. The state cannot touch those funds or divert the funds for other projects. And this is protected by the KIIFB Act, Isaac said. RBI nod for masala bonds KIIFB had appointed Standard & Poors and Fitch Ratings for rating the masala bonds issue. Official sources said though KIIFB has appointed two rating firms, it can choose the highest ratings amongst the two.Finance Minister Thomas Isaac said that KIIFB has received all the statutory approvals, including from the Reserve Bank of India, for the masala bonds. Earlier, Axis Bank and Standard Chartered Bank were appointed arrangers for the masala bond, which is a rupee denominated bond, which will be listed on London and Singapore stock exchanges. The funds will be raised in tranches over a period of 10 years, according to government sources. The infrastructure funding arm has approved a total of 367 projects requiring a total investment of over Rs 22,000 crore. Isaac to meet Jaitley Meanwhile, Thomas Isaac is travelling to Delhi on September 11 to meet Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and other key officers in North Block.The purpose of the visit is to request the Central government to raise the states borrowing limit from 3 per cent to 4.5 per cent of the GDP, considering the dire financial situation brought about by the floods.If the limit is raised to 4.5 per cent of GDP, the state can raise Rs 10,500 crore. Thomas Isaac to meet Arun Jaitley on September 11 to urge him to raise Keralas borrowing limit By Express News Service HYDERABAD: In a significant order, a division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Friday ordered an inquiry into the alleged irregularities taking place in medical admissions of AP and Telangana States under NCC quota. The bench approved the proposal of the NCC Directorate nominating Deputy Director General Brig Rovin to conduct the investigation, and made it clear that the probe should be completed and a report be filed before the court on or before September 10. While rejecting the petitioners plea to direct the universities to admit them, the bench made it clear that both the varsities (Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences and NTR University of Health Sciences) involved in these cases should inform the candidates who have already gained admission under the NCC quota that their admissions would be treated as provisional and that their continuance would depend on the outcome of the investigation relating to the genuineness of their claims for appropriate priorities. The bench comprising Justice V Ramasubramanian and Justice J Uma Devi was passing this order in petitions filed by the aspiring students seeking directions to the authorities to treat them as priority in the NCC merit list for admission into MBBS/BDS courses for the academic year 2018-19. The petitioners were aggrieved either by the grant of wrong priorities or by the alteration of priorities earlier granted to them, and seeking admission to undergraduate medical courses under the one per cent quota reserved for NCC cadets. After hearing the case, the bench said that this court had no reason to suspect the credentials of the NCC Directorate, which was entrusted with the task of preparing priorities. But the way in which they sought to defend themselves, on the basis of truncated documents, which were unrelated to the issue raised and the way in which they had contradicted themselves, indicated that all was not well in the matter of preparation of priorities. By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:State ministers will travel to various countries in October to mobilise funds for reconstructing the flood-ravaged state. Announcing the Cabinet decision here on Friday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said ministers will target the Malayalee diaspora spread across countries. Pinarayi said ministers and officials will travel to the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, other European countries, the US and Canada to mobilise funds. Though Loka Kerala Sabha has its members spread across the globe, the idea is to coordinate the fund mobilisation with the help of ministers, he said. Briefing the media about the Cabinet decision taken on Thursday night, Pinarayi said ministers will also meet Malayalees living in major cities across India to mobilise funds to help reconstruct Kerala. He said the CMs Distress Relief Fund has been receiving funds from different parts of the world. People even directly approach the CMO to contribute money to the fund. By Express News Service JAGATSINGHPUR: Residents of several villages in Raghunathpur block in Jagatsinghpur district on Thursday staged a protest in front of the local forest beat house demanding the construction of fences and compensation to farmers whose crops were damaged by animals from Dhartangada forest. Sources said owing to acute shortage of grass and vegetation in the forest, animals, especially spotted deer, throng the villages in search of food. They feed on paddy crops, green grams and vegetables. The animals have been giving sleepless nights to the residents of around 11 villages. Farmers, who were expecting a bumper yield and availed loans from cooperative societies, are devastated as their standing crops have been damaged by the animals. Thousands of acres of land at Ramchandrapur, Gopalpur, Salijanga, Deulishai, Erandphal, Kaladhari, Pandara, Pitamabarpur and Puranabasnt villages, situated near the forest, have been destroyed by the animals, mainly the spotted deer. Earlier, the affected villagers had demanded that barbed wire fences be erected to restrict the entry of the animals to agricultural land. No steps have been taken by the Forest department in this regard, they alleged. A farmer Nimani Das hailing from Pitambarapur village said the spotted deer have destroyed paddy and green gram, which he had grown on his two acres of land. Meanwhile, Forest Range Officer Balram Sahoo said the Forest department has given a proposal to the State Government for erection of barbed wire fence but paucity of funds has delayed the project. The Forest department has disbursed `1.63 lakh to the affected farmers towards compensation for crop damage this year. The rest will be compensated after their damage is assessed through GPS system, he added. By Express News Service CHENNAI : A division bench of the Madras High Court has granted exemption to former Union minister P Chidambarams wife Nalini, son Karti and daughter-in-law Srinidhi from appearing before the Special Court for Economic Offence Cases in the City in connection with the black money case, till September 14. The bench of Justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad gave the relief, while passing interim orders on the appeal moved by Nalini, a senior advocate, her son and daughter-in-law, on Friday. The issue pertains to alleged non-disclosure of assets and bank accounts held by the trio in foreign countries. According to the IT department, the trio had failed to disclose the property they jointly own in Cambridge worth Rs 5.37 crore. It amounted to an offence under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, it said. Karti had failed to disclose an overseas account he holds with Metro Bank in the UK and investments he had made in Nano Holdings LLC in the US. He has also failed to disclose investments made by Chess Global Advisory, a company co-owned by him, which also amounts to an offence under the Act. Assailing the prosecution, the trio approached the Madras HC. By Express News Service CHENNAI : Municipal Administration Minister SP Velumani on Friday refuted the allegations levelled by DMK president MK Stalin over the Smart City project being implemented in 11 cities across Tamil Nadu. In a statement here, the minister said Stalins remark that there was no progress in the Smart City project had exposed the fact that the DMK leader did not know anything about the execution of this project. For the past one year, this project has been going on in full swing in all 11 cities and the work is now in different stages. In Chennai, under the project, 33 works have been taken up at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore and of this, 20 works have been completed at a cost of Rs 310 crore while works on multi-storeyed parking slot in T Nagar, pavement for pedestrians, modernised parks, among others were going on, Velumani noted. As for Stalins charge on setting up of the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC), the minister said that after a due tender process, bids were opened and work order was given to Keltron since it quoted the lowest bid. Keltron has been fulfilling the electronic requirements of ISRO and it is also engaged with the Kolkata Metro Rail project, he added. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Brace yourself for a tough Sunday! Traffic may go haywire in the wake of Pragathi Nivedana Sabha at Kongara Kalan, with the party using about 70 percent of TSRTC bus fleet, potentially threatening the operations of public transport in districts and the city. IT Minister KT Rama Rao himself has urged public not to travel on this Sunday unless its an emergency. Public have been advised to plan their journey much in advance.Though the initial estimates were to draw about 5,000 buses of the 10,525 buses available with the TSRTC, on Friday it emerged that about 6,647 buses would be hired by the TRS to commute people from 31 districts. Though we thought the initial demand was less, it increased in the last few days from all the depots equally, said Somarapu Satyanrayana, chairman TSRTC.RTC is expecting `15 crore revenue on Sunday. Considering that the occupancy of buses will be less on Sunday, being a public holiday, the department hopes that inconvenience to the public would be minimal. TRS mega meet: Brace up for traffic chaos tomorrow Meanwhile, the Hyderabad police have issued a traffic advisory to ensure smooth flow of vehicular movement to the venue where 25 lakh people are expected. The advisory will be in force from 10 a.m, on Sunday to 12 a.m, on Monday, especially on the ORR.Around 20,000 plus farmers from Khammam led by MP Srinivas Reddy have started for the meeting in 2,000 tractors. They will be reaching the venue a day before the meeting to beat the traffic, KTR tweeted on Friday. About 880 RTC buses About 880 RTC buses from 11 depots of Karimnagar have been booked to ferry people to Pragathi Nivedhana Sabha of TRS, which will be held on September 2 in Hyderabad. Officials say that except Garuda, Rajadhani, Vajra and 20 Super Luxury service buses, all the other buses have been booked for the mega meeting. RTC Regional Manager P Jeevan Prasad said that Karimnagar region will earn `2.40 crore as revenue for making bus arrangements for a day. Congress leaders had previously accused that the RTC buses are being misused by TRS. However, Nizamabad MP K Kavitha responded by saying that the buses have been hired on a rental basis as has been practice in the State. People advised to reach venue early Participants arriving to attend meeting on tractors are advised to come on Saturday itself and leave the venue on Monday (September 3) morning hours only. A helpline number has been set up at Adibatla for assistance: 9493 549 410 / 9493 549 411. Avoid movement on ORR and the adjoining service roads between 10:00 am to midnight onSeptember 2. Heavy traffic likely along the following roads Kukatpally-Miyapur- Hafeezpet- Gachibowli - ORR Route Uppal- Nagole- LB Nagar- Sagar Road Private bus operators proceeding towards Vijayawada and Bangalore are requested to depart during the early hours as there may be heavy traffic along these roads from 8 pm, on September 2 to 1 am, on September 3. Movement along National/State Highways leading to Hyderabad will be more on September 2 between 8 am and 6 pm. Similarly movement from Hyderabad along all National / State Highways will be more on September 2 between 7 pm and early hours of September 3. Autos, two wheelers, tractors prohibited on ORR. Parking places located close to the public meeting venue. Vehicles should be parked at designated places. By Associated Press DETROIT: As Aretha Franklin was remembered at her funeral Friday as a proud black woman who also used her magnificent voice to stand up for the black community she loved, several speakers used the moment to continue to demand respect for black America. Amid the gospel, personal reflections and grief were calls to register and turnout to vote in November and condemnation of President Donald Trump, who, upon her death, referred to Franklin as "someone who worked for me" a comment that rankled many African-Americans. "No she used to perform for you," the Rev. Al Sharpton said to cheers and applause from the crowd. "She worked for us. Aretha never took orders from nobody but God." The casket of Aretha Franklin is carried to her burial ground at Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit, Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. (Photo | AP) Franklin's civil rights legacy was mentioned often during the eight-hour service and was tied to her faith and roots in the black church. Many also mentioned her father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin, and his civil rights leadership, which influenced his daughter from a young age. Late Friday, Franklin was laid to rest in a mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery, the final resting place of her father. None of the politicians present including former President Bill Clinton and former Attorney General Eric Holder took the opportunity to turn the event partisan. Michigan Democratic House Rep. Brenda Lawrence took a moment to recognize Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, whose funeral is Saturday. ALSO READ | Music icon and 'Queen of Soul' Aretha Franklin dies at 76 But others seized on Trump's comments and Franklin's message of dignity to speak to the present social and political climate. In pointing out the long lines to pay tribute to Franklin this week, the Rev. Jesse Jackson lamented that the lines to vote often aren't nearly as long. WATCH | Mourners gather to honour Aretha Franklin, Queen of Soul "Aretha was on the battleground for 60 years," Jackson told the audience. "We have long lines to celebrate death and short lines for voting. Something is missing. If you leave here today and don't register to vote, you're dishonouring Aretha." Judge Greg Mathis, one of Franklin's many friends who often talked politics with her, said that his last conversation with Franklin earlier this summer was about the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan, where government negligence has left residents living with lead-tainted water since 2014. CaptionPallbearers carry the casket out of Greater Grace Temple at the end of the funeral for Aretha Franklin, Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, in Detroit. Franklin died Aug. 16, 2018 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 76. (Photo | AP) "Her last words to me ... were "'Go back up there and sock it to 'em!,'" Mathis told the crowd before vowing that he would in her memory. Some made a statement without saying a word. When she was shouted out from the stage, California Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters who has called frequently for Trump's impeachment and is a campaign rally punching bag for the president acknowledged the crowd with the "Wakanda salute," from the movie "Black Panther," closing her fists and crossing her arms over her chest to applause. Many in the audience, including President Clinton, stood and cheered. ALSO READ | She made our world a better place: Taylor Swift on Aretha Franklin "Everybody just point over there and tell her, 'We got your back!'" said Bishop Charles H. Ellis III, pastor of Greater Grace Temple, which the audience shouted in Waters' direction. Georgetown University sociologist Michael Eric Dyson took several shots at Trump in his remarks, assigning the president several nicknames: "orange apparition," ''lugubrious leech," ''doppleganger of deceit and deceit," ''lethal liar," ''dimwitted dictator," ''foolish facist." "She ain't work for you," Dyson shouted over applause. "She worked above you. She worked beyond you. Get your preposition right." By PTI HAVANA: Cuba's Catholic Church has called on the public to reject a plan to legalize gay marriage in the country's proposed new constitution, describing it as "ideological colonialism" imposed by rich countries. Santiago de Cuba archbishop Dionisio Garcia called on Cubans not to "ignore what nature has given us" for fear of "regrettable consequences." In an online message, the Episcopal Conference called on Cubans to look for "other legal ways" to protect homosexual unions. "That should not be taken as an argument to change the definition of an institution of the natural order, such as marriage," the message added. Spearheaded by Mariela Castro, the daughter of former president Raul Castro, the changes to the new constitution would include a provision that defines marriage as between "two people" rather than "a man and a woman." Garcia said "these ideas" are alien to Cuban culture and stem from the "cultural imperialism" of powerful countries that use the effect of globalization "to create a uniform culture that accepts and adopts its criteria (while) disqualifying those of others." He said rich countries were using their power to "influence less developed countries in need of economic aid." Garcia's comments come after a group of five churches and evangelical denominations published a statement claiming that "marriage is exclusively the union between a man and a woman." After the 1959 revolution, Cuba was a hostile place for the LGBT community, although in 2010 Fidel Castro did admit responsibility for "injustices" perpetrated against homosexuals. And while employment discrimination based on sexual orientation was banned, same-sex civil unions remained off limits. A new constitution to replace the 1976 version has been approved by parliament and submitted to public debate. Some 8.5 million residents over the age of 16, as well as 1.4 Cubans living abroad, have been invited to take part in the discussions at universities and in workplaces, which will continue until November 15. The results will be presented to parliament in December with a referendum on whether or not to adopt the new constitution slated for February 24. The new constitution would also recognize the role of market forces and private enterprise in the Communist island's economy. But the church is hoping to have the provision recognizing same-sex marriage removed before the issue gets to referendum. By PTI WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump will visit France and Argentina this November, while giving the ASEAN Summit in Singapore a miss, the White House has announced. Trump will participate in a November 11 event in Paris commemorating the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I, and would then travel to Buenos Aires to attend the G-20 Summit, the White House said on Friday. The US president will, however, skip the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and the East Asia Summit in Singapore, and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Papua New Guinea. He has asked Vice President Mike Pence to attend these, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said. The vice president will, in these meetings, highlight the United States' vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific, based on respect for sovereignty, the rule of law, and the principles of free, fair and reciprocal trade. "The vice president looks forward to meeting with our allies and partners from across the region to advance security, prosperity and freedom for all," Sanders said. The president will also visit Ireland after attending the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the conclusion of World War I in Paris, she said. "The president's participation in this event will highlight the sacrifices that Americans have made, not only during World War I, but also in the century since, in the name of liberty. While in Europe, he will visit Ireland to renew the deep and historic ties between our two nations," Sanders said. Later in November, Trump will attend the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. "The G20 Summit will be an opportunity for the president to highlight his pro-growth economic policies on an international stage and meet bilaterally with other key world leaders," Sanders said. Trump will also travel to Colombia to discuss opportunities for greater collaboration in security, counter narcotics, and regional affairs with the Duque administration, the White House press secretary said. By AFP JERUSALEM: From the transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem, to the halting of US aid to Palestinians, US President Donald Trump has made key moves in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Here is a timeline of the key developments since 2017: Silence on settlements On January 24, 2017, Trump's administration refuses to be drawn on whether he backs Israel's decision to approve 2,500 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank, the biggest project of its kind for years. "He wants to grow closer to Israel," his spokesman says. First break with Palestinians On February 15, welcoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House, Trump halts Washington's quest for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying he would back a single state if it led to peace. ALSO READ | United States cut in aid amounts to 'cheap blackmail': Palestinians On March 27 new US ambassador Nikki Haley promises an end to bias against Israel at the United Nations. Trump at Western Wall On May 3, Trump hosts Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas at the White House, saying of a Middle East peace agreement: "We will get it done." ALSO READ | Trump adviser Jared Kushner questions Palestine president Mahmud Abbas' desire for peace with Israel On May 22, Trump becomes the first sitting US president to visit the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old Town. Netanyahu announces new US military aid. Alleged' occupation In September, US ambassador to Israel David Friedman, a longtime friend and advisor of Trump, angers Palestinians by downplaying the Israeli occupation of the West bank. Jerusalem On December 6 Trump says "it is time to officially recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel", breaking with the policies of his predecessors and provoking criticism worldwide. ALSO READ | Netanyahu: US embassy opening in Jerusalem "a great day" Palestinians express rage. Palestinians have since refused all contact with the American administration, and no longer accept the United States as a peace mediator. Slap of the century On January 14, 2018 Abbas denounces White House peace efforts as "the slap of the century". On January 16 Washington holds back $65 million, more than half of what that had been earmarked for the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. Washington says its move is not linked to tensions over Jerusalem, but it further heightens tensions with the Palestinians. ALSO READ | Opening of US embassy in Jerusalem will make it easier for peace in Middle East: John Bolton On January 25, Trump accuses Palestinians of disrespecting the United States after it snubbed Vice President Mike Pence during his visit to the Middle East. He threatens to withhold aid worth hundreds of millions of dollars until they accede to US-brokered talks. US embassy in Jerusalem On March 5 Trump hosts Netanyahu at the White House and says US-Israel ties have "never been better". On May 14, the transfer of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem coincides with a bloodbath in the Gaza Strip, where about 60 are killed from Israeli fire. ALSO READ | Pakistan expresses concern at shifting of US Embassy to Jerusalem On June 1 the United States vetoes a UN draft resolution calling for protection measures for the Palestinians and on June 19 announces its withdrawal from the United Nations Human Rights Council over its alleged bias against Israel. Halt to US aid The United States announces on August 24 it has cancelled more than $200 million in aid for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, then on August 31 decides to end funding for UNRWA, saying the organisation was "irredeemably flawed". By PTI ISLAMABAD: Pakistan government has decided to go ahead with the sale of luxury surplus vehicles of the Prime Minister House under the austerity drive of the new government, said a report on Saturday. A list of the luxury vehicles has been prepared to be sold during an auction set for September 17 at the Prime Minister House. The fleet of luxury vehicles includes eight BMWs, three cars of 2014 model, three 5000cc SUVs and two 3000cc SUVs of 2016 model, the Dawn reported. The list also contains four Mercedes Benz cars of 2016 model. Two of them are 4,000cc bullet-proof vehicles. There are 16 Toyota cars. One of them is 2004 Lexus car, one 2006 Lexus SUV and two 2004 Land Cruisers. Eight cars range from 2003 to 2013 models, the report said. Apart from these, four bullet-proof Land Cruiser vehicles of 2015 model are also up for auction. There is one Honda Civic 1800cc car and three Suzuki vehicles, including two Cultus cars and one APV, all of them are of 2013 model. The list also includes a 1994 model Hino bus, it said. Prime Minister Imran Khan, after his swearing on Aug 18, moved into a modest three-bedroom house of his military secretary along with two servants. He had announced that he would not be staying in the sprawling PM House which has a staff of 524 and fleet of 80 vehicles, keeping his pledge to cut down the expenditure of the cash-strapped government. By Associated Press MANAGUA: The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is expelling a United Nations human rights team two days after the body published a critical report blaming it for the violent repression of opposition protests. Guillermo Fernandez Maldonado, chief of the UN's human rights mission in Nicaragua, said Friday that he and his team were leaving the country. "We are suspending any planned activity," he said. In a statement, the UN human rights regional office for Central America said that it had received a letter Thursday from the foreign ministry notifying it that the government's invitation was over. "The letter indicates that said invitation was extended with the purpose of accompanying the Verification and Monitoring Commission and that with the reasons, causes and conditions finished that spurred said invitation, the invitation is considered concluded," according to the statement. The UN statement said the team will continue monitoring and reporting on the situation remotely. It was a rough day for the UN in Central America. While the human rights mission was preparing to leave Nicaragua on Friday, military vehicles surrounded the U.N.-backed anti-corruption mission headquarters in Guatemala's capital. Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales is facing an attempt to strip his immunity so he can be investigated for illicit campaign financing. The UN Security Council will discuss the situation in Nicaragua on Sept. 5. The report released Wednesday by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights described repression in the country that stretched from the streets to courtrooms, where some protesters face terrorism charges. More than 300 people have been killed since popular protests began in mid-April triggered by cuts to the social security system. Ortega reversed the cuts, but demonstrations quickly expanded and turned into a call for him to step down. In July, the government forcefully cleared the last of the roadblocks erected by protesters that had snarled the country's traffic. It also retook the last of the university campuses occupied by students. The UN report called on the government to immediately halt the persecution of protesters and disarm the masked civilians who have been responsible for many of the killings and arbitrary detentions. It also documented cases of torture and excessive force through interviews with victims and local human rights groups. In response, the government said that the report was biased and did not consider that its actions occurred in the context of what it alleges was a failed coup attempt. It said the report ignored the violence afflicted against members of his Sandinista party. Ortega has called the protesters "terrorists" working in coordination with domestic and foreign interests which want him removed from office. The government also accused the UN team of overstepping its authority in violation of Nicaragua's sovereignty and said the UN had not been invited to evaluate the human rights situation, but to accompany the commission working to end the crisis. A national dialogue aimed at finding a resolution ultimately stalled, and Ortega accused the Roman Catholic bishops who were mediating talks of working with coup mongers. Denis Moncada, Nicaragua's foreign minister, met with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres this week in New York. Guterres' spokeswoman said after the meeting that Nicaragua's path out of the crisis had to be "politically inclusive." By UNI ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has shut down its consulate in Afghanistan's Jalalabad, citing security concerns and Nangarhar Governor Hayatullah Hayat's 'undue intervention' in the affairs of the Pakistan diplomatic office. A report in Radio Pakistan, quoting spokesperson of Pakistan embassy in Kabul, said the government of Afghanistan has duly been informed of this development on Friday, and intervention of the Nangarhar Governor was a "complete violation of the Vienna Convention of the Consular Relations 1963". The Afghan government has been informed that the consulate in Jalalabad "will remain closed until the security arrangements are complete to the satisfaction" of the Embassy of Pakistan in Kabul. By PTI NEW YORK: Six Indian nationals are among over 300 people arrested by American authorities for criminal activities and violating the country's immigration laws during a month-long crackdown across six states. Federal officers with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) arrested 364 criminal aliens and immigration violators during a 30-day enforcement action across Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin. Those arrested during this operation came from 25 countries, including six from India. Other nationalities included Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and and Ukraine. Of the 364 arrested, 187 had criminal convictions, 16 were women and 346 men and 236 were from Mexico. From the Chicago area, ICE arrested a 25-year-old man from India in Champaign, Illinois. He was convicted of criminal sexual abuse on July 30 and remains in ICE custody pending his removal. More than half of the aliens arrested by ERO deportation officers during this operation had prior criminal histories that included convictions for crimes such as assault, attempted murder, burglary, child neglect, child sexual exploitation, domestic violence, drug trafficking and illegal re-entry after deportation. "This operation targeted criminal aliens, public safety threats, and individuals who have violated our nation's immigration laws," said Ricardo Wong, field office director for ICE ERO Chicago. By UNI WASHINGTON: The United States' top spy catcher said Chinese espionage agencies are using fake LinkedIn accounts to try to recruit Americans with access to government and commercial secrets, and the company should shut them down. William Evanina, the U.S.counter-intelligence chief, told Reuters in an interview that intelligence and law enforcement officials have told LinkedIn, owned by Microsoft Corp., about China's "super aggressive" efforts on the site. He said the Chinese campaign includes contacting thousands of LinkedIn members at a time, but he declined to say how many fake accounts U.S. intelligence had discovered, how many Americans may have been contacted and how much success China has had in the recruitment drive. German and British authorities have previously warned their citizens that Beijing is using LinkedIn to try to recruit them as spies. But this is the first time a U.S. official has publicly discussed the challenge in the United States and indicated it is a bigger problem than previously known. Evanina said LinkedIn should look at copying the response of Twitter, Google and Facebook, which have all purged fake accounts allegedly linked to Iranian and Russian intelligence agencies. "I recently saw that Twitter is cancelling, I don't know, millions of fake accounts, and our request would be maybe LinkedIn could go ahead and be part of that," said Evanina, who heads the U.S. National Counter-Intelligence and Security Center. It is highly unusual for a senior U.S. intelligence official to single out an American-owned company by name and publicly recommend it take action. LinkedIn says it has 575 million users in more than 200 counties and territories, including more than 150 million U.S. members. Evanina did not, however, say whether he was frustrated by LinkedIn's response or whether he believes it has done enough. LinkedIn's head of trust and safety, Paul Rockwell, confirmed the company had been talking to U.S. law enforcement agencies about Chinese espionage efforts. Earlier this month, LinkedIn said it had taken down "less than 40" fake accounts whose users were attempting to contact LinkedIn members associated with unidentified political organizations. Rockwell did not say whether those were Chinese accounts. "We are doing everything we can to identify and stop this activity," Rockwell told Reuters. "We've never waited for requests to act and actively identify bad actors and remove bad accounts using information we uncover and intelligence from a variety of sources including government agencies." Rockwell declined to provide numbers of fake accounts associated with Chinese intelligence agencies. He said the company takes "very prompt action to restrict accounts and mitigate and stop any essential damage that can happen" but gave no details. LinkedIn "is a victim here," Evanina said. "I think the cautionary tale is, 'You are going to be like Facebook. Do you want to be where Facebook was this past spring with congressional testimony, right?" he said, referring to lawmakers' questioning of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Russia's use of Facebook to meddle in the 2016 U.S.elections. China's foreign ministry disputed Evanina's allegations. "We do not know what evidence the relevant U.S. officials you cite have to reach this conclusion. What they say is complete nonsense and has ulterior motives," the ministry said in a statement. But Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Beijing's exploitation of LinkedIn "demonstrates the length to which Chinese intelligence will go, and the 21st Century counter-intelligence challenges facing us in a world where everybody's got an online footprint." Ex-CIA officer ensnared Evanina said he was speaking out in part because of the case of Kevin Mallory, a retired CIA officer convicted in June of conspiring to commit espionage for China. A fluent Mandarin speaker, Mallory was struggling financially when he was contacted via a LinkedIn message in February 2017 by a Chinese national posing as a headhunter, according to court records and trial evidence. The individual, using the name Richard Yang, arranged a telephone call between Mallory and a man claiming to work at a Shanghai think tank. During two subsequent trips to Shanghai, Mallory agreed to sell U.S. defense secrets - sent over a special cellular device he was given - even though he assessed his Chinese contacts to be intelligence officers, according to the U.S. government's case against him. He is due to be sentenced in September and could face life in prison. While Russia, Iran, North Korea and other nations also use LinkedIn and other platforms to identify recruitment targets, the U.S. intelligence officials said China is the most prolific and poses the biggest threat. U.S. officials said China's Ministry of State Security has "co-optees" - individuals who are not employed by intelligence agencies but work with them - set up fake accounts to approach potential recruits. They said the targets include experts in fields such as supercomputing, nuclear energy, nanotechnology, semiconductors, stealth technology, healthcare, hybrid grains, seeds and green energy. Chinese intelligence uses bribery or phoney business propositions in its recruitment efforts. Academics and scientists, for example, are offered payment for scholarly or professional papers and, in some cases, are later asked or pressured to pass on U.S. government or commercial secrets. Some of those who set up fake accounts have been linked to IP addresses associated with Chinese intelligence agencies, while others have been set up by bogus companies, including some that purport to be in the executive recruiting business, said a senior U.S. intelligence official, who requested anonymity in order to discuss the matter. The official said "some correlation" has been found between Americans targeted through LinkedIn and data hacked from the Office of Personnel Management, a U.S. government agency, in attacks in 2014 and 2015. The hackers stole sensitive private information, such as addresses, financial and medical records, employment history and fingerprints, of more than 22 million Americans who had undergone background checks for security clearances. The United States identified China as the leading suspect in the massive hacking, an assertion China's foreign ministry at the time dismissed as `absurd logic. Unparalled spying effort About 70 percent of China's overall espionage is aimed at the U.S. private sector, rather than the government, said Joshua Skule, the head of the FBI's intelligence branch, whose responsibilities include ensuring the flow of intelligence to the bureau's counter-espionage operations. "They are conducting economic espionage at a rate that is unparalleled in our history," he said. Evanina said five current and former U.S. officials - including Mallory - have been charged with or convicted of spying for China in the past two and a half years. He indicated that additional cases of suspected espionage for China by U.S. citizens are being investigated, but declined to provide details. U.S. intelligence services are alerting current and former officials to the threat and telling them what security measures they can take to protect themselves. Some current and former officials post significant details about their government work history online - even sometimes naming classified intelligence units that the government does not publicly acknowledge. LinkedIn "is a very good site," Evanina said. "But it makes for a great venue for foreign adversaries to target not only individuals in the government, formers, former CIA folks, but academics, scientists, engineers, anything they want. It's the ultimate playground for collection." Champaign, IL (61820) Today Intervals of clouds and sunshine in the morning with more clouds for later in the day. High 48F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight A few clouds from time to time. Low 27F. Winds light and variable. Zimbabwe and China have excellent bilateral relations anchored in a shared history and friendship that dates back to the days of the liberation struggle and President Mnangagwas second visit to China since his ascendency in November last year is expected to inject new vitality and renew the call for a shared future with the Asian country. In an announcement on her Twitter handle, the family said: The funeral will be held at Our Lady of the Wayside Catholic Church, Mt. Pleasant, Harare, on Friday 7 September at 10am. Light refreshments will be served afterwards, followed by a private cremation. (Newser) California is once again sticking a thumb in the eye of the Trump administration, this time over net neutrality. Lawmakers on Friday passed the toughest net neutrality law in the nation, less than a year after the feds did away with such rules, reports the Los Angeles Times. The measure is now on Gov. Jerry Brown's desk, though he has not taken a public position on it. California wouldn't be the first state to create its own rules requiring that internet service providers such as Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon treat all web traffic equallyinstead of, say, slowing down content from a business rivalbut it would be the largest. ISPs already have vowed to challenge such efforts in federal courts, and California's entry into the fray would make it a good bet that the fight will land in the Supreme Court, reports the Washington Post. story continues below It would have huge implications for the US, because California is so central to all things 'net and is the worlds eighth-largest economy, says University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias. Consumers groups back net neutrality, while the industry argues that "the internet must be governed by a single, uniform and consistent national policy framework, not state-by-state piecemeal approaches," as a statement from USTelecom puts it. California's law actually goes further than the net neutrality laws struck down by the FCC, notes the New York Times. For example, it would ban what's known as "zero rating," which allows companies to not count certain apps or streaming services against a customer's data limit, as a way to play favorites. The AP's example: AT&T wouldn't be able to exempt videos from CNN, which it owns, from a cap that applies to competitors. (Read more California stories.) (Newser) Lawyers for George Papadopoulos describe their client as the "first domino" to fall in the Robert Mueller investigation, but they say their client doesn't deserve to go to jail next week when he's sentenced for lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts. The filing submitted by attorneys for the former Trump campaign adviser says he is "ashamed and remorseful," per CNN. The lawyers depict him as playing a minor role in the controversy and say he lied "to save his professional aspirations and preserve a perhaps misguided loyalty to his master, apparently referring to Trump. The Washington Post, meanwhile, notes that Papadopoulos is for the first time suggesting that Trump himself encouraged him to follow up on Papadopoulos' 2016 proposal to arrange a meeting between Trump and Vladimir Putin. story continues below "While some in the room rebuffed George's offer, Mr. Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr. Sessions who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it," the lawyers write. "George's giddiness over Mr. Trump's recognition was prominent during the days that followed." That contradicts Sessions' own testimony before Congress, in which he said he offered "push back" when the idea was first floated. The meeting never came to pass. As Politico notes, Papadopoulos seems to have been the first person in the Trump camp who learned that Russians had access to Democratic emails that might be useful to the campaign. He admitted lying to the FBI about his contacts with a professor based in London who informed Papadopoulos about the emails, and he could get up to six months in jail. (Read more Robert Mueller stories.) (Newser) A Florida man's Aug. 15 arrest is now making headlines due to a weirder aspect of it: It allegedly involved a "wet willy." Joseph Jean Sireci was arrested on a battery charge and an arrest affidavit (it's near the bottom) from the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office details the incident, which started with a domestic disturbance call made from his Fort Pierce home. The Miami Herald reports Sireci's live-in girlfriend said she came home from work to find him drunk and on the living room floor; an argument followed and she left with her daughter to go to another home. story continues below She said the 47-year-old went with them and "continued to drink and be belligerent," per the affidavit. When they headed home, she says Sireci gave her a wet willy by wetting his finger and sticking it in her ear and that the "belligerent" behavior continued. The responding deputy noted that Sireci said he was not drunk. He has been released on $2,500 bond. (Read more weird crimes stories.) Mumbai: Stocks: The market gained for sixth consecutive week, with benchmark Sensex rallying 393.27 points to close at 38645.07, while the broader Nifty rose 123.40 point to finish at 11,680.50. Broad-based rally lifted the key indices to muster gains for the week in the midst of August F&O expiry bedevilled by depreciating rupee amid rising crude oil and deficit concerns. The first two days saw the market marking record closing highs supported by favourable global cues bolstered by statement by US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powells gradual approach on monetary policy tightening. Also Read | Hyundai Santro 2018 launch on October 23; know expected specs Further the revival of new US-Mexico trade agreement and subsequent global positivity induced solid liquidity in to the domestic market. However, the plunge in rupee to life time record lows at 71 per US dollar on rising crude and deficit concerns led investors wary, the stock market further hurt by reports of US President Donald Trump was preparing to impose more tariffs on China. Caution as well as August F&O option expiry day led to profit-booking bouts for next three days of the week, while buying in Index majors or fundamentally strong stocks helped the market to erase losses and end week with ample gains. Read More | Delhi weather: Heavy rainfall lashes National Capital The BSE Sensex started the week higher 38,472.90 and hovered between all-time high of 38,989.65 and low of 38,562.21 before ending the week at 38,645.07, showing gain of 393.27 or 1.03 per cent. (The Sensex garnered 1,980.70 points or 5.43 per cent during past five-week sessions). The Nifty also resumed higher by 11,605.85 and touched a zoomed to new high at 11,760.20 and low 11,595.60, before the index finally settling at 11,680.50, a rise of 123.40 points, or 1.07 per cent. Buying was led by Power, Metal, IT, HealthCare, Teck, PSUs, FMCG, Capital Goods, IPOs, Auto, Banks, Realty, Oil & Gas and Consumer Durables sectors. The broader midcap and smallcap companies shares also ended with substantial gains. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched a scathing attack on the Congress and blamed the previous UPA government for bad loan mess in the countrys banking sector and asserted that every penny given to defaulters will be recovered. Addressing a gathering at the launch of India Post Payments Bank in Delhis Talkatora Stadium, Modi said, Loans were given on phone calls made by namdars (dynasts). The prime minister gave himself a clean chit for banking mess in the country, saying that Swift action is being taken against 12 biggest defaulters who were given loans before 2014. I want to assure the country that none of these big loans was given by our government. Modis party the BJP had also pinned the blame for the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud - Indias biggest banking scam - on the previous Congress government. Also Read | PM Modi hails Q1 GDP figures, says Congress left Indias economy on a landmine Diamond czar Nirav Modi, his uncle Mehul Choksi, who, the Congress claims were close to Prime Minister Modi, allegedly defrauded the Punjab National Bank by making fraudulent transactions of over Rs 11,300 crore through 151 letters of understanding. The Congress had rebutted the allegations citing CBIs FIR in the case that stated that 148 Letters of Understanding (LoUs) out of total 151 were issued under the Modi government in 2017. Claiming that all the loans in excess to Rs 50 crore were reviewed properly in the last four years of his government, Modi said, Since coming to power in 2014, the NDA government has analysed the enormity of the situation and asked banks to strictly recover dues. During the last four years, all loans in excess of Rs 50 crore have been reviewed and ensured that terms are strictly complied with. Every penny of loans given at the behest of namdars (dynasts) will be recovered. Also Read | PM Narendra Modi launches India Post Payments Bank; know all about it The prime minister also held the Congress party responsible for the economic mess. Just a few days after our government came to power, we realised that the Congress had left the nations economy on a landmine. Our government brought out the true picture of NPAs and the scam of the previous government, he added. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Union minister K J Alphons said Saturday that he has collected Rs 32.13 lakh form the Indian diaspora in China towards Kerala flood relief. In a tweet, he said that he will hand over the money to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. ALSO READ | BJP collects data on temples, Hindu priests in poll-bound MP "Collected Rs 32.13 lakhs from Indians in Shanghai, China, for flood victims in Kerala. Cheques will be delivered to CM on return from China," he tweeted. The minister thanked the Indian diaspora in China and the Consulate General of India in that country for the humanitarian gesture. Alphons is on a visit to China. He conducted road shows in Beijing, Wuhan and Shanghai to promote tourism. ALSO READ | Arvind Kejriwal announces doorstep delivery of govt services For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Sonam Kapoor now Sonam K Ahuja is no new chameleon in the fashion industry. Her taste in fashion sense is known and revered by her fans and celebrities alike. She is bold in her fashion sense and has never shied away from experimenting with them. Her androgynous look while attending JIO MAMIs Word to Screen market screen, welcome dinner once again gathered everyones attention because of her effortlessly, androgynous look. Fashion designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Jean-Paul Gaultier are some of the few famous fashion designers to pioneer the androgynous look. Katharine Hepburn famously owned and popularised her androgynous look that hadnt been done before in mainstream Old Hollywood. Also Read | Why Rihannas Beauty line is the new holy grail for makeupholics Sonam was among the few ladies who dared to stray far from the typical, sequined dress look, she became an alluring symbol of liberation and independence for women. The androgynous look was back then la movement, a message for gender fluidity. And, given the fact that Sonam K Ahuja is a fan of the Hepburns make it all the more sense why she chose this androgynous look. The Neerja actor made a bold statement like her famous predecessors while attending the Screen Market. She wore a tawny brown blazer with a darker shade trousers from Y/Project. To compliment her bold androgynous look, she donned a wavy, curls by Alpa Khimani. Her makeup by Arti Nayar and a clutch form Louis Vuitton. Also Read | Things you will notice when you decide to go makeup-free For her accessories she wore a flashy, silver hoops and rings by Rhea Kapoor. She sure did look different and many did not particularly share the same taste as she did. However, all there is to say is that, mixed reviews have never tethered this fashion chameleon from trying something different. Islamabad: Japan has agreed to extend over Rs 2.6 billion grant assistance to Pakistan for two projects, according to a media report on Saturday. The notes to this effect were signed and exchanged on Friday during the visit of State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan Kazuyuki Nakane. The Express Tribune reported that the two schemes include the installation of a weather surveillance radar, worth around 2.1 billion Japanese Yen (Rs 2.3 billion), in Multan City and a project for human resource development scholarship, worth around 330 million Japanese Yen (Rs 360 million). Also Read | India ready to help Sri Lanka in any way: PM Modi to Sirisena Japan has been supporting Pakistans stable and sustainable growth since the diplomatic relationship between the two countries was established in 1952, Nakane said at the signing ceremony. Under the strong leadership of the new Prime Minister, Imran Khan, along with the leadership for economic development, particularly, the new Finance Minister, Asad Umar, we believe that Naya Pakistan will be definitely realised, he said. Umar was also present at the signing ceremony for the projects. Nakane said the two projects will help further development of Pakistan and contribute to strengthening the friendly relationship and cooperation between both the nations. Read More | Indian-origin DBS employee loses job for posting image of torn Singapore flag The total amount of assistance for weather forecasting of Pakistan has reached about 10 billion Japanese Yen (Rs 10 billion) with the commitment to provide funds for the Installation of the weather surveillance radar in Multan City, he said. So far, Japan has supported the installation of four weather radars in the cities of Islamabad, Karachi, Dera Ismail Khan and Rahim Yar Khan. Japan has been providing its technical cooperation to Pakistan for human resource development since 1954 and so far, over 6,500 people have received fellowships in the island country. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. paraklisi St. Anthimos, who in the world was known as Argyrios K. Vagianos, was born on July 1, 1869 to devout peasants, Konstantinos and Argyra, in Chios, in the region of Agios Loukas Leivadion. He left elementary school early to become a shoe mender.St. Anthimos of Chios (Feast Day - February 15)At the age of nineteen he visited the Skete of the Holy Fathers founded by the monk Pachomios, who had been the spiritual counselor of St. Nektarios. With the blessing of the elder, Anthimos returned home and built himself a small hut and dwelt in it.His only help in his spiritual contests was an icon of the Mother of God given to him by his mother later known as Panagia Voithia (the Helper), which soon began to work miracles, drawing many to his hermitage. He had returned home to relieve the suffering of his parents and help the poor of his village as well. After a time he retired to the Skete of the Holy Fathers, and it was here that he became a Small Schema monk and took the name Anthimos given by Elder Pachomios. After this he was put in charge of building the Convent of Saint Constantine. However, he soon fell ill and his abbot sent him home to his parents for the sake of his health. At home, despite the fact that he was caring for his aged parents and practicing his shoe mender's trade, he continued to live as a monk, spending nights on end in prayer and sometimes living only on bread and water for extended periods every two days. "Not even for a minute," he said later, did he give himself rest, and even spent nineteen nights awake in prayer. He took his inspiration reading about the lives of the great ascetics, and in this way he was able to conquer every assault of the devil. At the end of his feat, he was rapt in ecstasy and his spirit was carried up into paradise amid the angelic choirs, while he repeated without ceasing: "Lord have mercy."Increasing numbers of visitors came to his hermitage and wonderworking icon of the Theotokos, and in 1909, at the age of forty, he received the Great Schema by the successor of Pachomios, Hieromonk Andronikos. The people of Chios wanted him to be ordained to the priesthood, but his bishop refused due to the Saint's lack of education. At the prompting of Anthimos' godfather, the Bishop of Smyrna ordained him instead in 1910. At the moment of his ordination there was an earth tremor, accompanied lightning and claps of thunder. Since his virtues and miracles provoked the jealousy of certain priests, he left the region. After a pilgrimage to Mount Athos in 1911, he returned to Chios, where he became chaplain to a leper hospital. Soon the hospital, which had fallen into spiritual corruption, became a spiritual center, as much like a monastery as a hospital. Saint Anthimos tended many of the sickest with his own hands, working many miracles of healing; some of his recovered patients became monks or nuns (such as Venerable Nikephoros the Blind). Thirty-eight people were freed of evil spirits through his fasts and his prayers before the icon of the Mother of God.With the notorious 'Exchange of Populations' of 1922-1924, refugees poured into Chios, many of them destitute nuns and girls. Ever since his youth, St. Anthimos had dreamed of founding a monastery on a certain steep uninhabited site that he knew of. Now, in response to a vision of the Mother of God, St. Anthimos received permission to found a monastery there in 1927, and he confirmed this by drawing lots three times following the Divine Liturgy. He built the monastery in 1930, which opened with thirty nuns and grew rapidly, despite the opposition of many who said that setting up such a community was out of date. The Monastery of Panagia Voithia, as it came to be known, soon housed eighty nuns and was known throughout Greece as a model of monastic life. Father Anthimos served as priest to the nuns, and continued to receive the many faithful often sixty or seventy per day who came to him for prayer or counsel. He carried on this ministry for more than thirty years, working many miracles of healing. When he was too old to work with his hands, he retired to his cell and prayed that he be enabled to serve his neighbor until his last breath.On January 27, 1960 St. Anthimos celebrated his final Divine Liturgy. He reposed in peace at the age of ninety-one on February 15th, mourned and revered by the whole island of Chios. The remains of St. Anthimos are in the church inside of the monastery he founded and still work miracles along with the holy icon of Panagia Voithia. He was canonized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate on August 13, 1992.The following account is taken from an interview with Protopresbyter Andrea Dafnou who knew St. Anthimos:"I have been found worthy to receive the blessing of two sacred personalities, while still alive, that were canonized. One of these is St. Anthimos of Chios. When I was a child, I injured my eye. I was afraid that, if my father found out, that he would beat me. I remember it had become bruised as well. What would I do? I thought that I should go to the holy man up at Panagia Voithia Monastery. I told him my problem. He read a prayer over me, crossed me, and healed me! Receiving his blessing, I left.The other holy personality that I had the blessing to meet was another Saint of Chios, Saint Symeon, the abbot of Psaron. From the age of 8 I would go to the Monastery and learn letters studying the Psalms of David! I remember he was a strongly built man and upkept the monastery buildings with much love. At night they would hear him go to a gorge next to the Monastery and break stones, in order to, as he would say, tame himself through work and for the devil to not battle against him. In the morning he would be prompt for Services. I was blessed, from the age of five, to be near him" (, num. 55, Winter 2003-04).Sayings- Humble-mindedness will bring all the virtues.- What do people do when their hands and faces are dirty? They turn on a tap and allow the water to clean away the stains. We should imitate them. Only, we should open two taps our eyes, so that an abundance of tears of repentance pour out, which will wash out all the poisons of this futile world which have infected and dirtied our wretched souls."- "The Panagia is the only mother of all Christians. And who does not call upon her? Because the sufferings of mankind are many in this vain world, nowhere else can we all find relief, except in the Panagia. When you are sitting there quietly, a thought suddenly comes to you and brings darkness. Where will you go to be loosed from this darkness? To the Panagia. All the Saints are our helpers, but above all is the Panagia.She has the riches of great compassion. She has great love for mankind, especially for sinners. For this reason she never ceases to mediate to her Son, and the Son takes great joy when His mother intercedes on behalf of mankind. For this reason she brought us His mother and granted her to us that we may have her as a source of salvation."Video on the Life of St. Anthimos of ChiosApolytikion in the Third ToneO new boast of Orthodoxy, and newly-adorned flower of purity, you shared the name of Anthimos of Nikomedia, and shared his virtues and way of life, O new seal and adornment of the venerable ones. O Father Anthimos, the boast of all Chios, entreat Christ God to grant us great mercy.St. Anthimos in 1957St. Nikephoros the Leper and St. AnthimosLast Liturgy of St. Anthimos on January 1, 1959Cell of St. Anthimos at Panagia Voithia MonasterySt. Anthimos resting in his cellRepose of St. AnthimosTomb of St. AnthimosBlessing the foundation of Panagia Voithia MonasteryPanagia Voithia MonasteryPanagia VoithiaInterior of the church of the MonasteryFirst church dedicated to St. Anthimos in Livadion, Chios Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi yesterday thanked Bahrain for its supportive stances. This came as His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa yesterday visited President Sisi, who was on a visit to the Kingdom, at Gudaibiya Palace. HM King Hamad and President El Sisi exchanged cordial talks, and reviewed the solid brotherly bilateral ties, as well as the steps to be taken to develop the frameworks of cooperation between the two countries in various fields. The two leaders stressed the importance of continuous joint consultation and coordination for the best interests of the two countries and their brotherly peoples. They also discussed regional and Arab issues of mutual interest. HM King Hamad lauded the Egyptian Presidents fruitful visit to Bahrain, noting that the visit aims to strengthen bilateral ties. HM the King stressed that Egypt has been, and will remain the essential pillar of Arab and regional security, and that its strength is the strength of all Arab countries. The Egyptian president expressed thanks and appreciation to HM King Hamad for the gracious welcome and hospitality accorded to him throughout the visit. President El Sisi lauded HM the Kings role and keenness to enhance bilateral relations towards outstanding levels, praising Bahrains stances in support of Egypt and its people. He wished Bahrain and its people ever-lasting progress and prosperity, under HM the Kings leadership. HM King Hamad hosted a lunch banquet in honour of the Egyptian President. Then, President El Sisi and his accompanying delegation left the kingdom yesterday, wrapping up his official visit to Bahrain. His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on Thursday visited Bahrain National Museum, in the presence of His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa. They were received upon arrival to the museum by Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities (BACA) President Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa and senior BACA officials. HM the King and President El Sisi held cordial talks which centered on strong historic relations binding Bahrain and Egypt. HM the King then hosted a dinner banquet in honour of the Egyptian leader and the accompanying delegation. The two leaders then toured the Bahrain National Museum and were briefed by (BACA) President Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa on the exhibition and photos showcasing the unique Pearl Trail, which features on the Unesco list of World Heritage Sites. It is also the cornerstone of efforts aimed at renovating the old town in the governorate of Muharraq. The Pearl Trail exhibition, being held at the Bahrain National Museum, showcases the envisioned architectural site through miniatures, photos, studies conducted on the project. Shaikha Mai stressed the BACA drive to implement the directives of HM the King to document Bahrains longstanding culture and civilization and protecting them as a source of inspiration for future generations. Authorities have urged the returnees from Hajj to use an online service to rate the service provided by the Hajj agency that they had availed. The Information and eGovernment Authority (iGA) and the Ministry of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments are encouraging citizens and residents who have availed an agency to facilitate their Hajj to leave their feedback on their experience with the agencies. The authorities have called on the Hajis to give an honest evaluation of their experience with the agencies by visiting the Bahrain. bh website. The Information and eGovernment Authority in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments are providing the service on the website. The feedback will be directed to the Ministry, and is expected to help the Ministry better understand the quality of service provided by various agencies. The citizens and residents can visit the hyperlink http://bh.bh/ Hajj to leave their evaluation. The service, however, is only available in the Arabic language. The board of directors of the Bahrain Society of Engineers (BSE) has not decided to review the qualifications of its 2,200 members as reported by some newspapers and media outlets, societys director of information Huda Sultan said. In a statement issued, she said that the BSE has followed a precise system to ensure the validity of applications and qualifications submitted for membership. As a result of this system, BSE could confirm its acceptance of members with accredited qualifications. However, in order to come up with a more integral system of qualification review, BSE will develop a more comprehensive mechanism to ensure that the correct decisions about membership applications are made. A record amount of cocaine was seized from a freighter that arrived at the Port of Yokohama earlier this month, customs officials said on Friday, reports Kyodo News On August 6, the freighter, which originated in Columbia, arrived in Japan after stopping in Mexico. The previous month, staff members at Yokohama Customs were tipped off about "suspicious baggage" aboard the vessel. Officials subsequently seized a total of 115 kilograms of cocaine --- with a street value 2.3 billion yen --- from backpacks aboard the ship. The contraband was wrapped in bundles weighing 1 kilogram each. Officials suspect that the cocaine was one part of a shipment in a smuggling operation mistakenly left aboard the ship after it left Mexico. The seizure is the largest on record in Japan for cocaine. The previous record was 95 kilograms, which was found aboard a freighter at the same port in September, 2016. A total of 118 kilograms of cocaine washed ashore at Yokosuka City, Kanagawa in November, 2013. An All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain in Ekiti State, Dr. Olusegun Osinkolu, has clarified that the victory recorded by Dr Kayode Fayemi in the July 14 governorship election would serve as a catalyst to his senatorial ambition rather than stalling it.Osinkolu, who is gunning for the APCs ticket to represent Ekiti North Senatorial District in 2019, said the fact that he came from the same local government with Fayemi shouldnt serve as impediment to his senatorial aspiration, calling on those sharing such sentiment to bury the thought.Speaking with newsmen in Ado Ekiti on Friday, Osinkolu added that he is still pursuing his aspiration with vigour and that he stands a good prognosis to get the partys ticket and win the election based on his acceptability among the members of the party.He said the constitution of the APC doesnt foreclose peoples aspiration based on territorial location for any elective position provided such aspirant is acceptable to his party and the electorate .Let me say this expressly that Dr Kayode Fayemis victory in the last election will help in propelling my victory if given the partys ticket. Our party members are ready to give me their nods to get the ticket, having laboured so hard to launder the image of the party in the past.I was one of the few heroes that fought the partys course during the long drawn legal battle culminating in Dr Fayemis first coming as a governor of this state. I contested for Senatorial seat twice in Ekiti North and lost narrowly to Senator Olubunmi Adetumbi in 2011 and 2015 respectively.In spite of the shortcomings in the primaries, I never betrayed the party by rocking the boat. I still committed my resources to ensure the party won in 2011 but lost in 2015 when Senator Adetumbi was represented as the candidate of our party.Putting it succinctly, I have always been a committed ad unwavering party man. I believe in party supremacy and that accounted for why I have been spending personal resources to put the party together since the APC lost in 2014 in Ekiti North .I offered myself as the rallying point during the trying period. I gave them a sigh of hope that we have not lost everything after the 2014 catastrophic defeat we suffered before the light came after the tunnel with the enigmatic victory recorded by our leader, Dr Fayemi on July 14.The National Executive Committee of the party at a meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, the National Chairman of the Party, Com. Adams Oshiomhole and other partys top notches like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Thursday in Abuja said whoever will get the partys ticket must emerge through Direct or indirect primary, not imposition.So, if I become the preference of the party members based on convictions about my unblemished past records , nothing can change that, because the sovereignty lies in the people when it comes to election.Instances abound, where top elected official and Senator came from the same constituency. In 2011, the late Deputy Governor, Mrs Funmilayo Adunni Olayinka and Senator Babafemi Ojudu, who represented Ekiti Central senatorial district were from Ado Ekiti Local Government., among other innumerable similar political situations across the country.Whether I come from Dr. Fayemis local government or constituency cant take preeminence over the 1999 constitution, APC guidelines and Constitution and the power of the people. This can only apply to appointive positions not elective, Osinkolu expressly stated.Osinkolu promised to support the candidate adopts by the party in Ekiti North if he loses the primary, but I never envisaged losing out because the people knew and appreciated the sacrifices I had made in the past before the party got to this present situation.He appealed to party leaders to conduct credible and acceptable primary in the September primaries for candidates with high acceptability among the electorate to get the tickets and record resounding victories for APC. Lauretta Onochie, President Muhammadu Buharis aide on Social Media, has said that all that Nigerians need to do is follow that man that knows the way.Onochie referring to her principal further said that world leaders said: We cant have enough of Nigerias Leader. We must learn from him, how he has managed to keep Nigeria afloat after such deathly heist by a gang of PDP looters.She made this known on her Facebook pageWE HAVE THE BEST.World Leaders: We cant have enough of Nigerias Leader. We must learn from him, how he has managed to keep Nigeria afloat after such deathly heist by a gang of PDP looters.PDP: Hes not good hes not good. He wont loot and hes wont let us loot. We cant even openly spend our looted funds. Hes also empowering the poor and the vulnerable.Imagine how we would have shared the recovered Abacha loot! We will use a CUPP to scoop up falsehood and hate campaign to stop him.ME: In your dreams will you smell having control over our nation again. Never again.God has blessed our nation with a leader who loves our nation. All we need to do is follow the man wey sabi road to prosperity.WE HAVE THE BEST.World Leaders: We cant have enough of Nigerias Leader. We must learn from him, how he has managed to keep Nigeria afloat after such deathly heist by a gang of PDP lootersPDP: Hes not goodHe wont loot, he wont let us loot.https://t.co/3gyhN1Rvrz pic.twitter.com/tobj4s9eol Lauretta Onochie (@Laurestar) August 31, 2018 Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar on Friday revealed that the late former Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, General Shehu Musa YarA... Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar on Friday revealed that the late former Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, General Shehu Musa YarAdua brought him into politics. The Waziri of Adamawa disclosed that he learnt the rudiments of partisan politics from the late YarAdua. Speaking at the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, National Secretariate in Abuja, Abubakar said, The man who actually brought me into politics, the late Shehu Yardua, when he invited me as a young man told us to break the regional siege that every part of this country had been subjected to. He asked us to reach out to every Nigerian across the Niger. To him and for him, that was a major objective; so when he died and I decided to build the Yar Adua centre in his memory, we got an architect to design the uncompleted bridge. Former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has approached the Federal High Court in Abuja, alleging plot by the Nigerian Police ... Former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has approached the Federal High Court in Abuja, alleging plot by the Nigerian Police Force, NPF, to infringe on his fundamental human rights. He prayed the court to quash and declare as illegal, a summon Police issued for him to appear at its headquarters to be interrogated over allegations bordering on conspiracy, criminal defamation, inciting publication, injurious falsehold and conduct likely to cause a breach of peace. Cited as respondents in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/917/ 2018, were the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, the Nigerian Police, and the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN. Specifically, the former Minister, who is a frontline critic of the President Muhamadu Buhari-led administration, prayed the court to declare that the said letter of invitation by the police was unlawful, unjustifiable, illegal and unconstitutional. He contended that the invitation which originally asked him to report to the Force Headquaters last Tuesday, was vague and ambigious. The plaintiff, through his lawyer, Dr. Kayode Ajulo, urged the court to declare that in accordance with the 1999 constitution, as amended, he cannot be so invited by law enforcement agents for undisclosed reasons and without adequate notice. He told the court that the invitation letter was so vaguely construed that I became apprehensive and concerned about the intentions of the Nigerian Police and what my fate could be, should I visit the 1st and 2nd respondents office without filing this application. According to him, being aware that activities of the respondents could have negative impact on his freedom of movement, liberty and dignity, he decided to approach the court to enforce his fundamental rights. He begged the court to stop the police from inflicting on him any form of unlawful arrest and detention. Meanwhile, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba has ordered that all the relevant court processes be served on all the respondents to enable them to appear on September 13 for hearing. The court made the order after it okayed that the matter be heard during vacation. However, regardless of the suit, Fani-Kayodes lawyer said he has prevailed on his client to honour the Police invitation on September 4, which is the rescheduled date. In a letter dated August 31 and addressed to the IGP, Ajulo drew attention of the Police to the suit. Though he acknowledged need for all the parties to avoid any action capable of overreaching the suit, the plaintiffs lawyer confirmed the availability of his client. Nevertheless, as our firms practice and our clients position is, being a nationalist, patriotic and responsible Nigerian, we hereby confirm that our client will honour your invitation as scheduled for September 4, 2018 by 12 noon, read part of the letter with reference No: KACCL/OR/377/18. Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, says various world leaders queuing to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari shows the president is o... Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, says various world leaders queuing to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari shows the president is on the right course. Shehu said this on Saturday while reacting to a derogatory comment about Buhari credited to US President Donald Trump. According to a report by Financial Times, the US president reportedly told his aides that he never wanted to meet someone as lifeless as Buhari again. Speaking when the president arrived in China for the 7th summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), Shehu reiterated that the presidency is not worried about the said comment. He said visits of British Prime Minister Theresa May and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Nigeria show there is something about the president that world leaders admire. As a policy, we said that we are not going to answer the American President, he said. However, the fact that the entire world and world leaders are queuing up to meet President Muhammadu Buhari, is an indication that there is something about president Buhari, there is something about the Nigeria he now leads, that the world likes. Shehu said some world leaders did not want to meet with Nigerian leaders in the past. I think that Nigerians themselves should better look at this from this positive point of view, as a major development, he said. We had situations in the country in the past where key world leaders didnt want to meet our own leaders, all of that has changed in the last three years. On what is expected of the presidents trip to China, he said: You know that from the last summit in South Africa, the Chinese financing of projects in Nigeria has more than doubled under President Muhammadu Buhari and so therefore, we expect that if the same momentum is maintained, we hope that going forward, all of the projects that are outstanding like the Kaduna-Kano rail project, the coastal rail scheme, Mambilla power project, the second phase of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport expansion project, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja/ Kano and all of these projects, they will move more steadily and thankfully, we have virtually everyone who matters on our own side. President Muhammadu Buhari says his administration will always uphold the sanctity of the rule of law in governing the country. President Muhammadu Buhari says his administration will always uphold the sanctity of the rule of law in governing the country. Buhari said this after widespread criticism that national security is superior to the rule of law. Speaking during a meeting with German Chancellor Angel Merkel on Friday, Buhari said the rule of law embodies all the rightful mechanisms for conflict resolution, both within the country, and in dealing with all foreign partners. He said all the agreements signed with the European country will be fully respected. Buhari received the German chancellor, who was accompanied by top government officials and a business delegation, at the presidential villa in Abuja. The president said unity and harmony in every society can only be preserved by observing the rule of law, and ensuring that agreements reached in good faith are followed through to the mutual benefit of countries. He said his administration remains focused on delivering a peaceful, economically viable and politically stable polity to all Nigerians. The president expressed gratitude to Germany for the fair treatment of migrants. Buhari said Nigeria looks forward to improving its trade figures with Germany, which had taken strong interest in investing in the country and supporting the government in providing effective services in security, education and creation of jobs. Buhari said the economy was already responding to the diversification reforms and the stimulus of the government as growth is now largely driven by the non-oil sector. I enjoin you to invest in Nigeria because this is the best time to do so, he added. Buhari said the successful political transitions since 1999 were clear indications of the countrys stability and preparedness to welcome more investments that will bolster the economy. In her remarks at the meeting, Merkel said Germany is prepared to further strengthen bilateral and business relations with Nigeria, which, according to her, controls 60 percent of ECOWAS economy. The German Chancellor said the population growth and opportunities in the economy can always be explored to improve employment situation in the country. Merkel said the three memoranda of understanding signed during the visit represent a starting point for a healthier and deeper partnership with Nigeria in areas of security, trade, immigration and education. The federal government signed a memorandum of understanding with Volkswagen of South Africa for the manufacturing of Volkswagen vehicles in Nigeria, while Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL Plc) signed a memorandum of understanding with Petkus Technologies GMBH for the supply of seed and grain processing machines. The founding father of Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra and Biafra Independent Movement, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, has disclosed that the 19th anniversary celebration of the Biafran independence will be a non-violent one.The celebration is billed to take place on September 13, 2018 in all the zones of MASSOB in the entire Southeastern and South southern states.Uwazuruike, who spoke through the MASSOB National Director of Information, Sunday Okereafor on Friday, stated that the freedom fighting group was happy that for 19 years, the group had maintained peace and non violence in their quest for the actualisation of Republic of Biafra, in the face of crackdown by Nigerias security operatives.He stated that the primary essence of peaceful celebration was to tell the world that non violence was the surest and highest weapon to fight a common enemy, which he called Nigeria.Kudos to MASSOB to have kept the struggle without violence for 19 years now. The Igbo nations should expect Biafra without gunshot. I want to assure all of them agitating for Biafra and entire Biafran land that the much-coveted Biafra Republic is at our doorstep, he said.He, however, advised that Nigerias military should leave the Igbo nation alone and channel their strength to the troubled Northern area where he said, was bedeviled with incessant mass murder of innocent citizens.He vehemently frowned on the attack of MASSOB members and office at Nworieubi in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State.It is a shame to Nigerias military that the non-violent MASSOB freedom fighters are always attacked, leaving their protection of territorial integrity of the country, the primary mandate for which they were established, he added. The Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, MFM, has filed a libel suit against an online media platform and its publisher over what it described as a series of false, malicious and defamatory publications against the ministry and its General Overseer, Dr. D. K. Olukoya.In the suit filed at the High Court of Akwa Ibom State, Uyo Judicial Division, the ministry and its General Overseer are asking for N10bn as exemplary damages; a written apology/retraction to be published in the online platform, three nationally circulating newspapers and two internationally circulating magazines, one of which must be the TIME International.The MFM also wants the court to direct the online platform to pull down and erase from the world-wide-web each of the offending stories published between 2013 and June 30, 2018. They are also praying for a perpetual injunction restraining the defendants by themselves, their agents, servants, privies or other persons howsoever called or described from further publishing and disseminating libelous stories and statements against the Claimants or any of them.Originating processes in the suit were on Thursday August 30. 2018, served on the Defendants by substituted means pursuant to the order of the court by posting on the gate of their premises at No. 13B Isaac John Street, Ikeja GRA, Lagos National President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Rev Dr. Felix Omobude has urged the Federal Government to expedite action in rescuing abducted Dapchi school girl, Leah Sharibu from the captivity of Boko Haram.Omobude in a statement in Benin City called on the Nigerian government to free the girl.He said: The Federal government should act fast now by doing the needful and spare no efforts in securing the release of Leah, who had been held hostage for the past seven months. The PFN is considerably worried that it is taking the government such a long time to secure the release of Leah from the Boko Haram enclave. The PFN, therefore, calls on President Muhammadu Buhari to do the needful. Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, a leader of the Parliamentary Support Group, PSG, a body of die-hard followers of President Muhammadu Buhari at th... Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, a leader of the Parliamentary Support Group, PSG, a body of die-hard followers of President Muhammadu Buhari at the National Assembly, has revealed that the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has promised to protect the interests of lawmakers loyal to the party. Senator Omo-Agege spoke to Punch on the issue of automatic ticket for loyal party members. Omo-Agege, who represents Delta Central in the Senate, said, Now I am speaking in respect of my colleagues in the National Assembly: the party has made it clear that our interests will be adequately protected. Asked the partys plan in protecting their interests, Omo-Agege said, That is a determination to be made by the NWC but I cannot see any of my colleagues being left alone by the Adams Oshiomhole-led NWC. I believe that the interests of all senators and House of Representatives members who stood by Mr. President and the party and have continued to do so, will be adequately protected. Asked if the protection was by way of automatic tickets, the senator said, I didnt say so. As far as I am concerned, our interests will be adequately protected. We have received this assurance. And in my capacity as the Secretary of the PSG for Mr. President in the Senate, I can guarantee that. Omo-Agege added, With respect to the presidential primary, there is no problem at all. We want everyone to nominate Mr. President. We are looking forward to seeing Mr. President nominated by about 16,000,000 APC members. With respect to other offices like those of governors, senators, House of Representatives members the decision will be made by the State Executive Committee of the party in consultation with all stakeholders. Ovation Publisher, Dele Momodu has shared his conversation with the Senate President Bukola Saraki about the 2019 election, President Muha... Ovation Publisher, Dele Momodu has shared his conversation with the Senate President Bukola Saraki about the 2019 election, President Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress (APC) national leader, Bola Tinubu, among others. Momodu made the revelation on Saturday in an article entitled, How Saraki plans to defeat Buhari in 2019. Momodu said he and Saraki spoke during the Eid El Kabir festival, in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital. He recalled that the presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) expressed confidence that he would defeat Buhari in 2019 and that he dared the president to a debate. Momodu wrote: Sarakis roadmap to victory is simple. Buhari is going to play the usual ethnic card that only a candidate from North West can win a Presidential election in Nigeria. Saraki feels otherwise. He believes that the pro-restructuring crusaders now have an opportunity to make the Presidency available to other Nigerians. He concedes that it may be difficult for any candidate from North West and North East to compete or beat Buhari hands down, despite the fact that PDP parades more experienced politicians and competent aspirants. What is then needed is to keep North Central on lockdown with a popular candidate from that zone. With the support of PDP stalwarts from the other two Northern zones, Buharis votes would be whittled down to make up the requisite percentages in terms of spread but no more. He believes that it may be a waste of time and resources trying to compete in the Presidents traditional enclave other than to strive to get up to 25%. PDP should instead focus on mobilising the forces from the opposite direction and lockdown four out of the six geo-political zones. Saraki says he is well-positioned to make this happen. With one leg in the North and another in the South, especially the South West, the people would have a higher stake in the Presidency and this will galvanise more passionate voters. If the PDP presents just anyone, there may be voter apathy and Buhari would coast home to victory. As to where his deputy will come from, it would have to be from the South-East/South-south axis, since he has already covered the South West, technically. Theoretically, this would ignite enthusiasm in that region. He believes the APC has played into his hands somehow by this calculation. According to Saraki, the only reason Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been fighting him is because he wants to take over from Buhari in 2023. Where does that then leave the Igbo people who have not been able to produce any Vice President or President since Dr Alex Ekwueme in 1979-1983? In simple Arithmetic PDP needs a candidate who can block the South West and the South East simultaneously since Buhari will still run with Osinbajo This race is getting mathematically interesting and the Saraki option is looking feasible, I thought. However, Saraki said he was only just starting. He said those days are gone when an individual can instruct people to go out and vote as if they have no minds of their own. He plans to challenge and tackle Buhari strictly on issues and not pettiness, which he sees to be the current order of the day. He said the world is driven today by knowledge and not by crude force. He said he is better informed on how to resurrect the comatose economy which collapsed because of the over-simplistic and myopic handling of affairs since Buhari took over. Any student of elementary economics would know that a country can never develop in an atmosphere of obsession for scaremongering, instability, uncertainty, Stone Age policies Nigeria urgently needs a unifier in deed and not in words Im one of the most cosmopolitan leaders around today with every sense of modesty Saraki is looking forward to a serious debate between him, Buhari and other candidates on every aspect of daily life in Nigeria. If Buhari likes, he can stay at home and do the debate by Skype or whatever, but moving forward, we must discuss Nigeria publiclyAnyone wanting to lead a country as important as Nigeria in this century must be someone who can ably represent us in the comity of nations and has a grasp of modern ways of life. The Presidency on Saturday boasted that world leaders are on a queue to meet President Muhammadu Buhari.This, it said, was contrary to what happened in the past when world leaders did not want anything to do with Nigerian leaders.The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said this in an interview shortly after Buhari and members of his entourage arrived Beijing, China for the 7th Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation scheduled to hold between September 3 and 4.Shehu said world leaders good disposition towards Buhari was an indication that there was something about the President and about the country he leads that the world likes.He also reiterated the Presidencys position that it would not respond to a statement credited to United States President Donald Trump that Nigerias President Muhammadu Buhari was lifeless.The presidential spokesman said, You know that as a policy, we said that we are not going to answer the American President, however, the fact that the entire world and world leaders are queuing up to meet President Muhammadu Buhari, is an indication that there is something about President Buhari, there is something about Nigeria he now leads, that the world likes.I think that Nigerians themselves should better look at this from this positive point of view, is a major development.We had situations in the country in the past where key world leaders didnt want to meet our own leaders, all of that has changed in the last three years. South Korea's new coronavirus cases spiked to over 2,600 on Wednesday, two days after the country began its "living with COVID-19" scheme as part of a broader plan to gradually lif... Classrooms are heating up in a Cape Coral school this week, but not because school has just begun. Ida Baker High School is having mechanical issues with its air conditioning unit, according to officials, making select classrooms uncomfortable for students and teachers alike. Lee County School District spokesperson Rob Spicker said things should be back to normal following the holiday weekend. The air conditioner is not working at full capacity, he said in an email. About 8-9 rooms are not fully cooling because of it. Parts are on order and repairs should hopefully be completed by Tuesday. Ida Baker is doing its best to accommodate students and teachers who are using the affected areas. Chilled water is being provided to students and teachers in those rooms, said Spicker. He added that additional revenue from the proposed half cent sales tax referendum would help combat issues like this in the future. This is an example of why the District is asking voters for a half cent sales tax, Spicker wrote. The HVAC system at Ida Baker is scheduled for an upgrade with revenue raised by the referendum. The Breeze reached out for comment on Oasis High School, where reports indicate the municipal charter school is facing a similar issue with its air conditioning. Neither city of Cape Coral nor officials with the citys school system responded with comment as of late Friday afternoon. Connect with this reporter on Twitter: @haddad_cj MIAMI The Coast Guard warns boaters throughout the Coast Guard 7th District to use extra caution while out on the water this Labor Day weekend. Annually, Labor Day weekend has a high volume of boaters on the water as it marks the unofficial end of the traditional beach and boating season. Coast Guard crews, along with local and state law enforcement agencies, will be patrolling, conducting safety checks, and watching for individuals boating while intoxicated or operating in an unsafe manner. Consider these boating safety tips before leaving the dock: * Never boat under the influence (BUI): It is illegal to operate a boat while under the influence of alcohol or drugs in every state. There are stringent penalties for violating BUI/BWI laws, which can include large fines, suspension or revocation of boat operator privileges and jail terms. Alcohol use is the leading known contributing factor in fatal boating accidents. * File a float plan: Leave a detailed float plan with a friend or family member who is staying back. The sooner a craft can be reported overdue, the more likely a positive outcome will result. Facts need to be quickly and accurately conveyed in an emergency. Your float plan should include detailed information that rescue personnel need in order to find you. For examples of a float plan, and for more information, visit www.floatplancentral.org before you go. * Wear a life jacket: Life jackets save lives. In 2017, 68 percent of all fatal boating accident victims drowned. Of those, approximately 82 percent were not wearing a life jacket. Accidents can leave even a strong swimmer injured, unconscious, or exhausted in the water. * Take a VHF-FM marine radio: Cell phones may lose signal off shore and run out of batteries after a day on the water. They are helpful, but not reliable for emergencies. VHF-channel 16 is the marine emergency channel. It should only be used for emergencies. Boaters can reach the Coast Guard on marine-band radios at any time, day or night. * Monitor weather broadcasts: Watch for current storm and small craft advisories. The National Weather Service broadcasts marine weather forecasts regularly. Forecasts can be heard by tuning in to channels 1 through 5 on a VHF marine radio or by checking the NWS website at www.weather.gov * Have a signaling device to communicate an emergency: Boaters should have a signal flares, whistle, horn, or signal mirror, in addition to an emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) to alert first responders to the location of a water emergency. * If you see something, say something. If you see someone in danger or someone you suspect may be boating under the influence, contact the Coast Guard via VHF channel 16 or to local first responders via 911. * Download the Coast Guard boating safety mobile app. Features included on the app are the latest safety regulations and navigation rules, as well as immediate access to filling a float plan, checking the weather, and reporting pollution hazards or suspicious activity. Visit uscgboating.org/mobile/ The Coast Guard 7th District is one of nine district offices nationwide and has the responsibility for all Coast Guard operations in South Carolina, Georgia, the Florida Peninsula and the entire Caribbean basin, which includes 34 countries and territories. This encompasses an area of 1.8 square miles and includes the largest concentration of cutters and aircraft. Source: U.S. Coast Guard 7th District Southeast There are only two kinds of story, holds a quote often attributed to Leo Tolstoy: a man goes on a journey, or a stranger comes to town. When it set about producing A Beginners Guide to the Internet, a community service video geared to viewers unfamiliar with the World Wide Web, internet portal company Lycos went with the latter. That stranger, a history teacher and aspiring comedian named Sam Levin, comes to a town named Tick Neck, Pennsylvania, his car having broken down early in a cross-country drive to a gig in Las Vegas. In order to update his manager/sister on the situation, he stops into the rural hamlets only diner and orders coffee, half regular and half decaf and the telephone book. Sam doesnt make a call; instead he unplugs the diners phone, connects the line to his computer, looks up his internet service providers local number, and (after the requisite modem sounds) gets on the information superhighway. Today we know few activities as mundane as going online at a coffee shop, but the townspeople, innocent even of e-mail, are transfixed. Sam shows a couple of kids how to search for information on haunted houses and college scholarships, and soon the students become the teachers, demonstrating online games to friends, chat rooms to a cranky old-timer (I dont like this word network at all. Network of what? Spies, probably) and even state government feedback forms to the mayor of Tick Neck (who describes herself as not much with a keyboard). Though at times it feels like the 1950s, the year was 1999, perhaps the last moment before Americas complete internet saturation before social media, before streaming video, before blogs, before almost everything popular online today. The video for Internet newbies starring John Turturro was made available for free rental on the community service shelf of over 4,000 Blockbuster Video stores, West Coast Video stores, public school libraries and classrooms across the United States, says a contemporary article at Newenglandfilm.com. The production was funded by Lycos who has instituted a campaign to better educate the public about the World Wide Web. Those of us on the Web in the 1990s will remember Lycos, which ran one of the popular search engines before the age of Google. Launched in 1994 as a research project at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh (which might explain A Beginners Guide to the Internets setting), Lycos was in 1999 the most visited online destination in the world, and the next year Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica acquired it for a cool $12.5 billion. Turturro, not to be outdone, had in 1998 ascended to a high level of the countercultural zeitgeist with his role in the Coen brothers The Big Lebowski, the purple-clad bowler Jesus Quintana very much not a stranger anyone would want going online with their kids, but Turturro has always had a formidable range. History hasnt recorded how many newbies A Beginners Guide to the Internet helped to start surfing the Web, but the video remains a fascinating artifact of attitudes to the internet during its first period of enormous growth. My family doesnt own a computer, the young boy tells Sam, and my dad doesnt like em. He says facts are facts. (That last sentence, innocuous at the time, does take on a new resonance today.) The boys teenage sister excitedly describes the internet as like going to the library, department store, and post office, all at the same time. Entering his credit card number to buy an auto-repair manual for the skeptical mechanic, Sam says (with a strange defensiveness) that its completely private. Ive done it before and its not a problem. As with any stranger of legend who comes to town, Sam leaves Tick Neck a changed place though not nearly as much as the Tick Necks of the world have since been changed by the internet itself. Related Content: How to Send an E-mail: A 1984 British Television Broadcast Explains This Simple Process From the Annals of Optimism: The Newspaper Industry in 1981 Imagines its Digital Future In 1999, David Bowie Predicts the Good and Bad of the Internet Whats the Internet? Thats So 1994 John Turturro Reads Italo Calvinos Fairy Tale, The False Grandmother, in a Short Animated Film Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities and culture. His projects include the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles and the video series The City in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Facebook. We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. Patently Apple posted a report on Friday titled "Apple Watch still the Runaway Smartwatch in the World in Q2 2018 with Series 1 still the Preferred Model." Then a rumored photo of Apple Watch 4 came to light showing a thinner model. While Google was to challenge Apple Watch by introducing the Pixel Watch later this year, a company official told Tom's Guide in an interview that their first watch won't debut this year. With barely a month to go until Google holds its annual Pixel event, it seems as though one of the most anticipated announcements won't be happening. In an interview at IGA on Friday with Miles Barr, director of engineering for Wear OS, former Macworld reporter Caitlin McGarry of Tom's Hardware learned that Google won't be releasing a watch this year, as had been previously rumored. Barr said in the interview: "To think of a one-size-fits-all watch, I don't think we're there yet," Barr said. "Our focus is on our partners for now." The report further noted that "For now, Google works with companies who make Wear OS devices to approve designs and suggest new features, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future rather than make its own watch." While Android fans will be sorely disappointed not knowing whether the project was canceled, delayed, or simply never existed, it sure sounds like Google just lost their nerve, chickened out or simply dropped the ball. Google's Pixel smartphone has yet to make a dent against the iPhone and the thought of being unable to make a dent against Apple Watch probably forced their hand in the short run until they could actually bring something new to the wearables sector that could take Apple by surprise. Of course that may never happen. For now, you could check out the full Tom's Guide report here. 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. News and commentary on organized crime, street crime, white collar crime, cyber crime, sex crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, espionage and terrorism. Trump Predicts Fall Of Iranian Regime 08/31/18 Source: Radio Farda In an interview with Bloomberg News in the Oval Office on August 30, U.S. President Donald Trump speculated that the regime in Tehran might fall in the near future. Trump made this prediction based on his perception that his administration's policies were hurting the establishment in Iran. "When I came into here, it was a question of when would they take over the Middle East," he said. "Now, it's a question of will they survive." Trump did not elaborate further on the matter. Related Book by Stephen Kinzer: Overthrow: America's century of regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq The Trump administration has taken a number of measures against Iran including leaving the 2015 nuclear deal and reimposing sanctions. Upon the direction of the president, the State Department has spearheaded a global effort named by State Secretary Mike Pompeo as the "maximum pressure campaign" against Iran. European countries and other remaining signatories of the JCPOA pact are attempting to save the deal with Iran. During the first half of 2018, Iran saw numerous countrywide protests linked to poor economic conditions. Related Book: The Coup: 1953, The CIA, and The Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations Iran Arrests Two More Lawyers Bringing Intense Pressure On Defenders 09/01/18 Source: Radio Farda Iranian intelligence officers arrested two human rights lawyers Payam Dorfeshan and Farrokh Forouzan Friday August 31, reported lawyer Mohammad Najafi on his Facebook page. Iranian human rights lawyer Payam Dorfeshan Dorfeshan and Keykhosravi are the defense lawyers of the family of Kavous Seyed Emami, an environmentalist who died in jail in February. The Iranian government claimed that Emami committed suicide, while his family and lawyers rule out the possibility of his suicide. Human rights activists have said that the cause of Emami's death could have been torture or psychological pressure while in custody. The two lawyers were arrested while visiting the family of Arash Kaykhosravi, a human rights lawyer who was detained last week with two other rights lawyers, Qasem Sholeh-Sadi and Massoud Javadieh in front of the Iranian Parliament while protesting the violations of civil rights by the Iranian government. No reason has been given for the arrest of the two lawyers. The new arrests bring the number of Iranian human rights lawyers in jail in Tehran to more than ten. Other human rights lawyers jailed in Iran for defending human rights include Abdolfattah Soltani, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, Mohammad Seyfzadeh, Sara Sabbaghian, and Maryam Kian Ersi. Iranian authorities also jailed Zeinab Taheri, the lawyer of the Gonabadi Sufis earlier in this year and released her on bail later. The Sufis' other lawyer, Mostafa Daneshjou has also been in jail since July. Meanwhile, Iranian authorities have taken actions targeting human rights defenders and activists such as human right activist Narges Mohammadi, and Farhad Meysami, a human rights defender who was arrested by Intelligence Ministry officials on August 1 for protesting compulsory hijab laws. International human rights watchdogs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have reported about the Iranian government's mounting pressures on human rights lawyers and defenders since President Hassan Rouhani first took office as President in Iran in 2013. Human Rights Watch Middle East Director Sarah Leah Whitson said in an August 17 statement that "Iranian authorities blatantly disregard due process rights of human rights defenders such as prominent lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh" who has been in jail since late May. The HRW has called on Iran's authorities to immediately release prominent lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, saying her arrest and the new charges against her reveal the "grave degree the Iranian judiciary is criminalizing human rights activism." According to the Human Rights Watch, "Apparently what authorities fear greatly is advocating respect for human rights." The Ministry of Intelligence under President Hassan Rouhani "has tried to present itself to Iranians as a more 'lenient' security agency, but like the Revolutionary Guards Intelligence Organization it is an integral part of the state's repressive crackdown against human rights defenders," Whitson said. Meanwhile, an AI report released in 2017 said, "The Iranian authorities have waged a 'vicious' crackdown on human rights defenders since Hassan Rouhani became president, demonizing and imprisoning activists who dare to stand up for people's rights." "In a succession of cases, people have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms, sometimes exceeding a decade, for acts that should not even be considered crimes. These include contact with the EU and the UN, as well as with media outlets, international trade union associations and human rights groups based outside Iran - including Amnesty International. The activists are often labelled 'foreign agents' and 'traitors' by Iranian state media," Amnesty International added. Legal practitioner and member of pressure group, OccupyGhana, Ace Ankomah, has taken on critics of the yet-to-be-built national Cathedral. Ace Ankomah, who is a music writer and guitarist, said persons advocating for the relocation of the project outside the capital city, Accra, should rethink their arguments. When people talk about the church and that the church does not deserve land in Accra to build a cathedral that sits only 5,000 people and that they should find a place for us at motorway as if we are cursed lepers. They forget that the vast majority of the best schools in Ghana were built by the church. Mfantsipim, Wesley Girls, Saint Peters, why do they have saint in their names? Ace Ankomah insisted that Christians deserve a cathedral in Accra since they have contributed their quota to the country in terms of education and missions. Some of the best hospitals have been built by missions and all we want is a land on which we will build as our thanks to God for placing us on this land they say take them to somewhere in Dodowa, take them to somewhere else. They should bring them to my hometown in Achiase, we will welcome you, he added. Government has received backlash over its decision to evict some nine Court of Appeal judges and other residents around the Ridge area in Accra to pave the way for the construction of the National Cathedral. Although government says the project will be funded by private institutions, some Ghanaians say they dont believe such assurance. The Coalition of Muslim Organisations, Ghana (COMOG) on Wednesday chastised government over the project saying it constitutes an interference in religious matters in a secular state like Ghana. COMOG in a statement on Wednesday says it suspects the construction of the national cathedral is a state project, adding that government is only using the clergy as a cover-up. The coalition would like to express serious concern about the increasing involvement of the Government of Ghana in religious matters and its implication for national unity and cohesionJust as the Government of Ghana has not been involved in the construction of religious edifices for Muslims, Traditionalists, Hindus etc, it should not be involved in the efforts by Christians to build themselves a cathedral, COMOG stated. Source: Citi 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 President Akufo-Addo has symbolically stated that German Chancellor Angela Merkel deserves the new cloth Merkel Fata Ghana, named after the German leader. The presentation of a customized Ghanaian traditional cloth to the German Chancellor, one of Europes most powerful leaders, was the highlight of the latters official visit to Ghana. The cloth, named by President Akufo-Addo as Merkel Fata Ghana, which when loosely translated means Ghana deserves Merkel, was handed over to Dr. Merkel on Thursday, August 30 when she paid a days historic visit to Ghana. Incidentally the president welcomed the German leader to the Jubilee House in the Merkel fata Ghana cloth. Her visit to Ghana, which comes after similar visits by some powerful European leaders such as French President, Emmanuel Macron, is the first of its kind by a German Chancellor in over 10 years, and it is seen as a testament of the growing interest by world leaders in the Akufo-Addo administration and Ghana at large. President Akufo-Addo, DAILY GUIDE learnt, purposefully gave her the cloth as a gift for not rejecting his invitation in March 2018 to visit Ghana. Dr. Merkel assured President Akufo-Addo at the time that she would surely visit Ghana and true to her words, she did actually visit the country. She held bilateral talks with the Ghanaian leader whose vision is to transform the countrys industrial sector, thus getting the German automobile giant, Volkswagen (VW) to express interest in establishing an assembly plant in Ghana to feed the West Africa sub-region. Checks by this paper revealed that the pink, black and gold coloured fabric with broom-like designs was produced specifically in the country for the German Chancellor by GTP. The Merkel Fata Ghana cloth is similar to a hand-woven Kente cloth, which was named after Helena Ritz Fathia Nkrumah, born Fathia Halim Ritzk, who was an Egyptian and wife of the late President Kwame Nkrumah. President Akufo-Addo, who has virtually become a friend of many powerful world leaders, presented the German Chancellor with another Kente cloth by name 3dwene se dweneso and rich locally made beads to match. Dr. Merkel was completely ecstatic about the honour done her by the Ghanaian leader and expressed her profound appreciation to the President. Entourage and Partnerships The German Chancellor, who was on a three-nation tour of Africa, arrived in Ghana with a large number of German investors. At a joint press conference with President Akufo-Addo, she stated emphatically that the investors were particularly interested in setting up companies and establishing joint partnerships in Ghana. Also, she disclosed that German companies that are already operating in Ghana are looking for ways to expand their footprints with the intent of helping to provide job opportunities and improve the economy of Ghana which is key on Mr. Akufo-Addo administrations agenda. The Chancellor assured her Ghanaian counterpart that her country was prepared to support Ghana in building its infrastructure and shaping its energy sector to be more efficient in adapting to new challenges. Deal Throwing more light on the VW deal, President Akufo-Addo said an agreement between Volkswagen, Government of Ghana and a local Ghanaian company was reached after a business meeting. At a joint press briefing on Thursday, President Akufo-Addo said, there are so many areas that our bilateral relationship has offered us, but the key part of it, for me is the emphasis on investment and trade cooperation. He emphasized Ghanas determination to deal with matters confronting the country such as youth unemployment, desire of our youth to seek greener pastures elsewhere by improving the management of our national economy. President Akufo-Addo stressed that the stronger the economy we have, the more opportunities it gives to the young people and obviously, the pressure that will be on them to embark on those hazardous undertakings, will be dealt with. He told the press that in so doing, weve set for ourselves a vision of a Ghana Beyond Aid, a Ghana which will depend more and more on mobilizing its own internal resources to confront the issues of development that there are before us. In all of this, President Akufo-Addo indicated that there are a lot of opportunities here, and we are hoping that this business delegation that you have brought with you will see the opportunities that there are in several of the flagship programmes of our government, the One-District-One-Factory, the industrial parks, that we are determined to create. President Akufo-Addo also assured Chancellor Merkel of Ghanas continued cooperation with the international community on issues bordering on illegal migration. On the threat of terrorism, President Akufo-Addo thanked Chancellor Merkel and Germany for the assistance in tackling the jihadist menace. Within our modest means, we will continue to play our effective role, because clearly it is in our interest to do so. Its in our interest to contribute to ridding the region of these instruments of destabilization and destruction, he added. 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 It is common for companies to organize various informal events where workers can come with their partners. One of those... Contributing Web Editor Doug Wyllie Last month several Black Lives Matter protesters "crashed" the wedding of one of the two Sacramento police officers reportedly involved in the fatal shooting of Stephon Clark. This incident of trespass occurred despite the fact that Sacramento police had not released the names of the two officersboth of whom had received death threats. And it shows the reach of social media. "I think they need to be approached in spaces where they're a little more vulnerable," Sacramento BLM founder Tanya Faison told CBS News. I was incensed at this incident. I was not, however, surprised. Frankly, I'm a little astonished that such invasions haven't yet occurred in even greater number. Remember when Anonymous "hacktivists" released personal information of more than four dozen Cincinnati (OH) Police Department employees in 2016? Or when the group hacked the IACP website and released the names, addresses, and other information of thousands of officers in 2011? It's no secret that groups like Antifa and Anonymous are simpatico, and when you add BLM activists to the mix, you have a troika of anti-police groups that is not to be underestimated. And clearly, their tactics include attacks on officers when they are "a little more vulnerable." Consequently, officers must maintain vigilant watch for threats while off duty. Here are five off-duty safety tips I've accumulated over the years. 1. Armed and ReadyI don't know too many officers these days who are not armed off duty. However, I do know some who may be armed, but are anything but ready. If you carry your off-duty piece someplace on your body other than where you carry your duty weapon, you have to traindraw repetitions, dry fire, and live fireso that when the moment comes, you're able to take appropriate and immediate action. Remember: When the time to perform arrives, the time to prepare has passed. 2. The Family Plan"Oranges!" That's the code word a friend of mine uses to tell his wife and kids to "get on the ground and/or take cover"and to do so as fast as possible. Have a plan to communicate the presence of a threat to your family. Regularly remind your family about the need to quickly heed those commands and ask questions later. And without making them paranoid, teach your kids to pay careful attention to their surroundings when "officer mom" or "officer dad" is not around. For a LEO family, "stranger danger" is an even more hazardous menace. 3. Take-Home CarsI've never been a fan of take-home cars. They're a giant billboard parked in front of an officer's house announcing, "There's a cop in heremaybe his wife and kids, too." I understand that in some jurisdictions, these cars are a necessity, so if you must take the panda home, toss a car cover on it. 4. Avoid ContactMy dad once told me, "Don't do stupid things with stupid people in stupid places, and you'll probably be OK." That's a good rule of thumb. You're a professional. You know where bad stuff is more likely to happen, and where you're at least relatively safer. Trouble may still find youjust don't give trouble an "assist" by looking for it. 5. Study SafetyThere are two books I believe every police officer should read. The first is The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker, an expert on predicting and preventing violence. The second is Left of Bang by Patrick Van Horne and Jason Riley. Van Horne is the founder and CEO of a behavioral analysis training company. Riley is a Major in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. Read these books. Become a student of safety. Having some knuckleheads crash your wedding sucks. I truly feel awful for that officer, his bride, their friends, and their family. But things could have been far, far worse. The threat of being attacked, assaulted, or ambushed while off duty is very real, and that threat is not going away. Anti-police groups and individuals are more likely now than ever to obtain a ton of information about you from online sources and well-protected police databasesand use it to bring you harm. For these peopleand their hatred of you and your fellow LEOsthere is no "off duty." Doug Wyllie is contributing web editor to POLICE. Comic book costume players interact with the public at last year's Superhero September event. (No children from the Child Advocacy Center are pictured.) Photo courtesy Sean Reavie Phoenix Crimes Against Children detective Sean Reavie is a self-described comic book "nerd." And in recent years, the two-time Arizona Police Officer of the Year has channeled his love of superheroes to help the city's most needful kids, the ones who are physically or sexually abused and the ones who are neglected. Reavie is the creator and organizer of a charitable effort called Superhero September, which raises money to provide toys and apparel as well as other comforts for the children his detective unit is tasked with protecting. The program is named for the types of toys it provides. Photo courtesy Sean Reavie Superhero September was inspired by wall art of Batman and the colorful villains that plague Gotham City that Reavie saw back in 2015. That art started him thinking about the fact that many superheroes have tragic back stories of childhood trauma, and their stories are ultimately about rising above that trauma to become heroes. Batman's parents were killed in front of him when he was a boy. Spiderman is an orphan who saw his beloved Uncle Ben murdered by a robber. Thinking about that, Reavie decided to inspire the kids coming to the Child Advocacy Center, where he works, to see themselves as superheroes. "The little kids who came here were sad and afraid and they would leave here sad and afraid," Reavie says. And he wanted to change that. With cooperation from Childhelp Children's Center of Arizona, a charity that also operates from the Child Advocacy Center, Reavie set about adding some comic book touches to the facility. At first his plan consisted of decorating the walls of the playroom with superhero art. Then he decided to take the next step. He had the magazine racks filled with comic books. After that he got a bunch of capes and masks so that the kids could play superhero. Which led to giving the kids superhero stuff they could take with them when they left the center. Reavie says he put out a request to fellow officers for kid-size superhero T-shirts and superhero action figures. "What I wanted was 100 T-shirts and action figures. I shared what I was doing with my police friends and pretty soon I had a desk full of the stuff," Reavie says. Photo courtesy Sean Reavie All of this effort led to the first Superhero September four years ago. That was a fairly low-key event. The public wasn't invited, just first responders. But some of those first responders dressed up like comic book heroes, which sparked the interest of Phoenix's TV3news. The TV3 story led to huge growth of the event. Local store managers donated gifts cards, the public got involved, and there was more press. Last year Superhero September raised $22,000. This year Reavie and the other volunteers working to produce Superhero September: The Fantastic Fourth are planning to raise $50,000 in cash and products. Reavie says this year's effort includes 20 fundraisers, nine events, and a big celebration Sept. 8 featuring 45 hobbyist costume players from AZ Heroes United in full superhero gear, an Infinity Stone scavenger hunt presided over by Thanos (villain of the Marvel blockbuster movie "Avengers: Infinity War"), face painting, and much more. Throughout the month the superhero actors will also be going on shopping sprees in area stores. Reavie says Superhero September needed to grow because he realized the mission had to expand. "Its great to give a kid an action figure of their favorite superhero to change their outlook. It's even better to have that kid leave here (from the Child Advocacy Center) clean with a full stomach and in new clothes and shoes," he says. Superhero September is now providing the children who come to the Center with food, clothing, shoes, school supplies, plus the toys and comic books. Some companies are even donating diapers, according to Reavie. "We are really resonating with people," Reavie says. "I had a good idea and above average people said, 'That's a great idea. How can we help?'" Those "above average" people include the Phoenix Police Sergeants and Lieutenants Association, the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, the United Phoenix Firefighters, Childhelp, the professionals and volunteers who work at the Child Advocacy Center, local businesses, and even the Phoenix Police marketing team. Through that marketing, Superhero September has been the subject of numerous TV news items and print stories in the Phoenix area and beyond. But so far no other city has tried to copy the Superhero concept. Reavie would like to see that happen and he would be glad to discuss it with fellow officers. But his focus is Phoenix. Reavie sees the charity as an extension of his duty. "Uncle Ben in Spiderman said, 'With great power comes great responsibility.' By being sworn as a detective to take care of children and defend them, I have a great responsibility and it goes beyond the criminal case I am investigating. We have the power and the responsibility to protect these children. And while they are here at the Center, we can do so much for them." Reavie admits that some people may believe his approach to changing the outlook of abused and neglected kids is "simplistic." And at the beginning even he asked if the superhero concept was really doing any good. Then he saw something that convinced him that he was on the right track. "A 6-year-old girl, a sex abuse victim, came into the Center. She was terrified. All she would do is cling to her mother's leg. Finally, we coaxed her into the playroom. Then she just hid in the corner. I had the playroom staff find her a cape and a mask. They gave her a Batgirl-like cowl and cape in pink. She put it on. And within seconds, that little girl got up and ran over to the other kids in the playroom and told them, 'I'm a superhero, and I'm here to save all of you.' After seeing that I knew this works. It's a direct way to completely change these kids' affect. They put on that costume and they're kids again." Superhero September: The Fantastic Fourth is scheduled for Sept. 8 from 9 a.m. to noon at 2120 N. Central Ave. in Phoenix. 5.11's Flex-Tac Poly/Wool Class A uniform has a classic look but uses advanced technology. (Photo courtesy 5.11 Tactical) A team at 5.11 Tactical spoke to hundreds of law enforcement officers from around the world and asked them what their ideal class A polyester-wool blend uniform would be like. After getting an idea of just what officers wanted, the company set to work making it a reality. The result is the 5.11 Tactical Flex-Tac Poly/Wool Class A uniform. David Hein is vice president, Global Professional Division and Merchandising Operations at 5.11 Tactical. He was instrumental in helping develop the new uniform based on officer feedback. "Talking to all these officers, they wanted something more comfortable, lighter weight, with a traditional look that resists spills," says Hein. "The great thing about our product is you can get it wet and it doesn't smell [like other wool uniforms]. And you can put it in the washing machine." This is because the uniform pants and shirts are made of an engineered fabric that incorporates high-quality Australian Merino wool, thanks to a partnership with Woolmark. The Australia-based company specializes in creating wool fabric blends. "We went to them with a challenge: a fabric that incorporates our Flex-Tac technology that you can treat with Teflon and meets our abrasion, durability, and comfort expectations," says Hein. Through collaboration, they developed Flex-Tac Poly/Wool patented technology. Hein says the Australian Merino wool selected for the Flex-Tac Poly/Wool Class A uniform is the best you can buy on the planet. It's comfortable because it absorbs moisture and provides thermal regulation, keeping you cool in hot weather and warm when it's chilly outside. And it naturally resists odor. The wool is also resistant to abrasion and retains its shape and color. Hein adds, "UV protection is critical because officers are out in the sun so much of the day, and wool inherently provides that." The two companies worked closely together throughout the uniform development process. This included incorporating Flex-Tac mechanical stretch into the fabric and perfecting the cuts of both the men's and women's styles. "I think our women's uniform fit is second to none," says Hein proudly. "With the mechanical stretch built into the shirt and pant, this uniform is truly a really great fitting product and it gives it that professional look." If alterations need to be made to men's or women's uniforms, 5.11 can do it. That includes attaching any components of the kit that every uniform piece in the line comes with. Epaulettes, badge tab, camera/radio loop, name badge support strip, and a microphone loop arrive in a separate bag with each uniform. "If the dealer doesn't have the ability, we have a custom shop in our warehouse in Northern California to customize any uniform in any way the officer or agency needs," says Hein. "Think of it as the 5.11 tailor." The Flex-Tac Poly/Wool Class A uniform line includes long- and short-sleeve shirts and pants for men and women. Women's shirts are available in sizes xs to xl in regular and tall and men's shirts come in sizes small to 6xl in short, regular, and tall. The pant is available in women's sizes 2 to 20 and in men's sizes 30-inch to 60-inch waist. All come unhemmed, so the length can be customized either by the dealer or the 5.11 custom shop. Hein says this wide range of sizes "covers probably 99% of officers." Both shirts and pants are available in midnight navy, silver tan, and black, and pants are also available in sheriff green. "With those colors we believe we're covering probably more than 95% of the market," Hein says. "I'm happy to say, we generally exceed people's expectations, especially with fade resistance." 5.11 Tactical Flex-Tac Poly/Wool Class A uniforms are now available, with an MSRP of $95 for shirts and $110 to $115 for pants. "Our goal is keeping the officers safe in their ability to do their job better. The uniform is no exception to that," says Hein. "We're making sure we have provided and exceeded that expectation, while achieving the ability to create something that's lighter weight, more breathable, and has that performance standard you've come to expect from 5.11." https://www.511tactical.com/woolmark-polywool-uniforms 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: The Chinese leader is today facing some open, or less subtle, criticism from within the party and from liberal intellectuals who are increasingly concerned by the concentration of power in his hands and the increasing authoritarianism of the regime, says Claude Smadja. IMAGE: Since Chinese President Xi Jinping removed the two-term limit on president, the only noticeable change has been the way the official propaganda machine has toned down any gloating about Chinas new advances on the international scene, and the almost elimination of any mention of the Made in China 2025 initiative -- one of the top signature projects of Xi. Photograph: Themba Hadebe/Pool/Reuters Has Chinese President Xi Jinping overplayed his hand in displaying too much overconfidence and asserting too early and too strongly Chinas ambition to be very close to the center of the international stage? Has he underestimated Donald Trumps determination to re-balance -- and in fact revisit -- the United States-China trade and economic relationship? If this is the case, to what extent will this impact the Chinese leaders authority and grip on power? The rumour mill in China has been abuzz with speculations about these questions, with some observers even wondering if this is not the opportunity some of the previous leaders in the power structure -- former presidents Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao -- had been waiting for to put into question the decision made last March to remove the two-term limit on the presidency, effectively allowing Xi to remain in power for life -- if he wishes so. Given the shroud of secrecy surrounding the inner workings of the Chinese top power structure, these kinds of speculation might remain just speculation with no outward signs that the presidents authority or his grip on power has, in any way, been substantially diminished. The only change noticeable in the last period has been the way the official propaganda machine has toned down any gloating about Chinas new advances on the international scene, and the almost elimination of any mention of the Made in China 2025 initiative -- one of the top signature projects of President Xi. There has been a belated realisation in Beijing that the ambition outlined in this project to establish China as a high-tech superpower and the grave concerns this has created in the US and Europe -- that Chinas industrial policies would put European and American firms at a disadvantage -- were generating a very serious backlash. Which leads to the central question behind the present trade war initiated by the Trump administration: Is it just a way to deal with the huge and increasing trade deficit that the US has with China? Or are we rather witnessing the start of a war for technology supremacy between the two most powerful countries on earth? One would tend to consider that the latter interpretation might be closer to the reality than the former: It is not only trade that Washington is concerned about but also the much broader question about US security and supremacy if Americas technological edge keeps getting eroded by Chinas advances. IMAGE: The Chinese leader is today facing some open, or less subtle, criticism from within the party and from liberal intellectuals. Photograph: Jason Lee On August 13, US President Trump signed into law The Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act, which expands and tightens the scrutiny and the review process undertaken until now by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. FIRRMA clearly has Chinese investments in the US in its sights. In fact, to put it in stark tones, the logic of the whole process has now turned upside down: Instead of considering that an acquisition of a US company by a Chinese one should proceed if no national security implications can be assumed, any new Chinese acquisition is now considered as potentially affecting US security unless proved otherwise. And the new law intends also to scrutinise joint-ventures that US companies might undertake outside the US with foreign companies if potential national security implications can be surmised. Washington can take solace from the fact that Germany, the United Kingdom, and Australia are also tightening scrutiny on Chinese acquisitions. For the US -- and some European countries -- these new laws are just ways to deal with an emerging power that they see flouting the rules. For China, what is happening now is a new avatar of a containment policy aimed at slowing down or even derailing the countrys ascent to its deserved place on the international stage. This is where we get back to the question of how the present situation might impact on Chinese President Xis authority and grip on power. The Chinese leader is today facing some open, or less subtle, criticism from within the party and from liberal intellectuals who are increasingly concerned by the concentration of power in his hands and the increasing authoritarianism of the regime. He might tone down the regime propaganda machine on the personality cult built around him and the countrys achievements and its ambitions. Moreover, much greater discretion about Made in China 2025 and its objectives will also certainly continue. There will definitely be some concessions made to foreign companies operating in China in terms of their range of activities or even opening new domains such as financial services and markets. However, such a course correction -- more caution and maybe a slowing down of the pace -- will not mean a change in the objectives. Chinese President Xi has grown in power -- and surrounded himself with people who, by and large, share his vision about Chinas future. The country will again rely on its extraordinary resilience, the fact that its power structure of command and control allows it to implement and enforce decisions fast, to go through the difficulties created by the present punitive tariffs, and the new ones that might be implemented soon by the Trump administration on Chinese imports. The emphasis that had been put at the beginning of the year on deleveraging and reduction of financial risk is now being balanced by a looser monetary policy, new financing for infrastructure projects, and companies whose exports may suffer from the new tariffs. This will not mean any decisive eroding or weakening of Xis leadership. First of all, because there is nobody inside the party who has the stature or the support base to be seen as an alternative to him. And, even more important, because in what is presumably the most important challenge that the Chinese leader has had to face since coming to power, he can count on the nationalism that can be easily stirred up against any country portrayed as conspiring against Chinas economic future and its due place on the international stage. For the moment, Beijings reaction to the Trump administration measures has been relatively subdued apart from the official rhetoric against Trumps bullying. Some Xi Jinping partisans have been disappointed by what they see as the lack of decisive reaction, which has even been attributed to dissensions between hard-liners and advocates of more concessions to the US. If the present trade war were to endure, and if the Chinese suspicions -- that this is a facet of a new anti-China containment policy were to be confirmed -- Xi will have to decisively show his mettle or see his authority seriously put into question. Claude Smadja is President of Smadja & Smadja, a strategic advisory firm. You can reach out to him on Twitter @ClaudeSmadja. No one was surprised when Rajendra Singh was found shot and killed in broad daylight, not far from the local police station, notes Geetanjali Krishna. Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com I can't get the photograph of Rajendra Singh out of my mind. He is laughing, proud moustache curled upwards and eyes looking fearlessly at the camera. He looks like a man who isn't afraid of anything, even death. And from all accounts, that's exactly what he was. Here's his story. Sixty-two-year-old Rajendra Singh used to live in East Champaran, Bihar. Till 2010, he ran a petrol pump and lived comfortably with his family. Things in his village were, however, far from ideal and Singh used to raise his voice against any case of corruption he came across. After he was beaten up and left for dead, possibly by people he had threatened to expose, Singh decided to become a full-time activist and whistle-blower. "His first case was when he exposed the embezzlement of rations in the local anganwadi," narrated his son-in-law Rajesh Ranjan when I recently met him in Delhi. Next he took up the matter of corruption in MNREGA and in school teacher appointments. "Things really heated up when he discovered that contraband confiscated by Sangrampur police, which included timber and three quintals of marijuana, had been misappropriated," said Ranjan. Singh refused to back down and withdraw his complaint in spite of, first polite intercessions, and when these didn't work, violent threats. "Instead of acting on his information, the police filed the counter case against him for impeding government functioning," said he. The cases against him continue to pile up and often when he had no money to pay a lawyer, he argued them himself in court. Undeterred, Singh filed over 100 Right to Information applications and continued to discover and expose corruption. Until June 2018, Singh had survived three more assaults after that first murderous attack. He was attacked with a knife, almost run over by a jeep and then, brutally assaulted with an axe. How many more murderous attacks could he survive, his family wondered? Ranjan said these experiences convinced Singh that he would soon be dead. This only compelled him to dig deeper into yet another case of corruption. The village headman had appointed his brother-in-law and other relatives/friends as teachers in the government school. They had furnished fake degrees to secure the posts. Singh filed an RTI query seeking information on these appointments, after which all these teachers were forced to resign. "By this time, he felt he could be killed any day," said Ranjan. Finally, in 2017, Singh wrote to the DIG of Muzaffarpur, detailing all the threats and attempts on his life. No police protection was given. In fact, the police did not even act on his letter. "My father-in-law started living each day as if it were his last," Ranjan narrated. "He stopped giving any family members lifts on his bike, fearing our proximity to him might endanger us," he says, adding Singh began repaying all his debts, big and small. Ranjan recalled how Singh began calling his two daughters more frequently during this time. Each call felt like a farewell. No one was surprised when Singh was found shot and killed in broad daylight, not far from the local police station. The braveheart paid, not only the price for being a whistle-blower and anti-corruption crusader, but also the price of belonging to a country that is yet to implement a law to protect people like him. 'The youth associated with this movement were extremely talented.' 'But I personally believe violence cannot change anything in the world.' IMAGE: Harivansh Narayan Singh takes charge at his office at Parliament. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI Photo Harivansh Narayan Singh, the newly elected deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha, tells Shikha Shalini about his new role in the House, how he will put to use his journalistic and other experiences and what he expects from the leaders in the House. How will you deal with challenges, like maintaining peace in the House between the ruling party and the Opposition, to improve the level of debates, and maintain the dignity of the Rajya Sabha? I was the candidate of the National Democratic Alliance, but now I am a non-aligned member in the House. I will try my best to maintain the dignity of our Constitution and work in accordance with the rules and procedures of the House. Prior to the four years in politics, I was in journalism for about four decades, from where I observed politics closely. When I became a member of the Rajya Sabha, I went to Bihar to participate in a programme in the land of Babu Kunwar Singh who fought against the British in the Revolt of 1857. During that programme, people asked me questions and I put forth the same questions in Parliament. A child asked me, "Our entire parliamentary system is based on the Westminster model; we follow the same democratic system but why don't we follow the same decorum in our Parliament? If Members of Parliament disrupt sessions, why are they allowed to avail of the facilities in Parliament?" I couldn't answer the question. Earlier the level of debate and dialogue in Parliament was very high. However, we all have to find these answers together because I believe politics ultimately changes the system. Today, the country is facing so many pressing issues. Issues like population density, employment opportunities, safe drinking water, migration from villages to large cities -- many leaders across party lines want to discuss these meaningful issues. There could be some usual ideological differences in democracy, but we need to find solutions. I will try for a mutual and cooperative communication process in the House for which I will need the support of members of the House. IMAGE: Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu greets Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh as Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar looks on. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI Photo The Bharatiya Janata Party has the maximum number of MPs and legislators with serious criminal charges. What would you suggest to political parties for improving the level of politics? Political parties and leaders will have to consider why they are in politics. Apart from creating a welfare society, our aim is to give strength to the weaker sections of society like the Dalits and Adivasis. To be relevant among the people, all parties have to look within. You cannot diagnose the problem until you reach the depths of any crisis. Without considering the basic problems, the parties cannot make their roots strong. You said that Mahatma Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narayan were your ideals. They were not MPs but were a source of inspiration for millions of people in this country. Don't you think some efforts are on to make them irrelevant? You are right. Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narayan were never involved in the politics of power. I come from Jayaprakash Narayan's village. Once people of our village met him and asked him to use his reputation to build a road to the village so that the villagers don't have to cross a river by walking 20 km. He replied that while the road would be constructed if he asked someone to do so, he was also answerable to other five-and-a-half million villages of this country. That was the politics of selfless concern. He showed dignity in politics. In that era, leaders could afford to leave the politics of power. But one who chose the politics of power also marked their impact on Indian politics. There are so many leaders and chief ministers of different parties whose contribution motivates us. There are many who have made parliamentary democracy enriched with their debate. You can count dozens of names like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Prakash Veer Shastri, Nath Pai, Indrajit Gupta, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and Nitish Kumar. Today, political leaders face the challenge of ensuring credibility in politics. On my part, I will try to ensure there are meaningful debates in the House. IMAGE: Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Singh outside Parliament. Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI Photo You have been a journalist. You are now an active parliamentarian. What will be your next step? Life has been challenging for me since childhood. For about four to five months, my village used to be flooded. Children in our village would study under trees. This is how I started my journey. The social concern that I got from my village led my way. I never thought that people like us could be part of the power centre in Lutyens' Delhi, the place meant for the elites. Take the examples of the French Revolution, Russian Revolution, the Revolution in China that inspired society to move forward. In the freedom movement, you see the ideological battle changes the system. The idea behind the Naxalbari movement too was great. The youth associated with this movement were extremely talented. But I personally believe violence cannot change anything in the world. The JP movement brought new energy into politics. After that, ideological politics went backward and now, technology is changing the world. As far as my role is concerned, I will have to be impartial towards everyone because this is the demand of my Constitutional position. I would urge my political allies to think about current problems otherwise we will lose the ground. When the media favours a government, its credibility decreases. It is seen more often nowadays. What's your opinion? Since 1991, our country followed liberalisation, which was aimed at profit maximisation. This has led to major changes in our media too. Consequently, the media became capital-intensive. The media that changed the country and contributed in the struggle for Independence was not capital-centric. Then, journalism was not a business. Today, if you wish to set up a media empire, you need loans and, of course, it costs money to maintain that. To maintain an independent existence in that scenario is tough. However, no one is stopping committed journalists from making a dedicated cooperative and starting their independent ventures. Why can't India have such experiments? In London, such experiments led to the birth of The Independent, which came into existence but failed later. I personally almost revived a dead newspaper of merely 400 copies. There was a challenge before me to establish Prabhat Khabar in front of big business houses' newspapers. The question of forest and tribal land was very important. We will discuss this some other time. There are allegations that your paper had a big role to play in bringing together the Janata Dal-United and BJP and it favoured the present government. What do you have to say about that? I can invite anyone for a social audit of the newspaper when I was editor. But it has to be a public body headed by people who are unbiased. The then Press Council chairman Justice Markandey Katju targeted the Bihar government, alleging that the media wrote in favour of it. He formed a committee for an investigation. Prabhat Khabar had written a two-page letter replying to his allegation and said that our newspaper published reports against the government. We provided a list of reports that was against the government. It is very easy to make an allegation in our society. This too is the right of people and I have nothing to say on this. We fought against the misdeeds that took place before 2005. We worked on serious issues including exposing the fodder scam. I was editor in Jharkhand from 2000 to 2014, when ministers, administrative officials, a chief minister, and chairman of the state public service commission went to jail because they made a mockery of the selection process. It was the same newspaper that exposed this. As far as Bihar is concerned, we have tried to show the good efforts that were being done. I am no longer editor, but I would like to tell you that if Prabhat Khabar was a government-supported media venture, it would not have been able to raise its circulation from 400 copies to 1 million. It earned credibility, that's why its circulation increased. If differences on seat sharing were to erupt between the BJP and the JD-U for the 2019 poll, what will be your role? The House has given me a Constitutional position. I do not have to deal with these things. I must be within the limits of my post. IMAGE: Members of Jan Ekta Jan Adhikar Andolan display placards during a protest against the arrests of activists in New Delhi. Photograph: Kamal Kishore/PTI Photo Sudha Bharadwaj, one of the five activists arrested in multi-city raids by the Maharashtra Police, has rejected outright the claims made by the investigating agency and said a purported letter implicating her was 'totally concocted' to criminalise her and human rights organisations. The police had Friday claimed that Bharadwaj had written to one 'Com Prakash'. Reacting to this in a handwritten statement, Bharadwaj, who is under house arrest, said on Friday that the purported letter shown by the Pune Police is a 'mixture of innocuous and publicly available facts and baseless fabrication'. Various legal and democratic activities such as meetings, seminars, protests have been sought to be de-legitimised by alleging that they are funded by Maoists, she said. Bharadwaj claimed a number of human rights lawyers, activists and organisations were deliberately named to cast a stigma over them, obstruct their work and incite hatred against them. "It is a totally concocted letter fabricated to criminalise me and other human rights lawyers, activists and organisations," she claimed. The activist-lawyer said the 'fabricated letter' had not been brought before either before the Pune Court or the Faridabad Chief Judicial Magistrate while seeking to 'whisk' her to Pune. In a media briefing Friday, the police had released details of seized letters related to five activists arrested in June in connection with the Bhima Koregoan violence that took place in January. The police also claimed they have 'conclusive proof' to link Left-wing activists arrested in June and this week to Maoists, saying one of them spoke of a 'Rajiv Gandhi-type event to end Modi-raj'. Early this week, the police raided the homes of activists and lawyers from five states -- Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Bharadwaj in Fariadabad and Gautam Navalakha in Delhi. Bharadwaj said she knew Navalakha as a 'senior and respected' human rights activist whose name has been mentioned 'in a manner to criminalise and incite hatred' against him. The activist-lawyer also said she knew the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group well and had never solicited any funds from them, least of all from any banned organisation. Meanwhile, the family of Gonsalves on Saturday rejected the police charges against him and termed them 'fabricated' and diversionary. His son Sagar Gonsalves said charges against the Mumbai resident arrested by Pune Police on August 28 were false. "I was present when searches and raids were conducted at our home and I know what the police have seized," said Sagar Gonsalves. He said the police were 'talking in the air' when they made the allegations at their press conference on Friday. "I could not stop laughing when the police were levelling false charges with the so called letters," he said. The activist's wife Susan Abraham, who is a lawyer, called the police action a ploy to divert attention from the real culprits behind the Koregaon-Bhima violence that took place on January 1. "The letters read out by the police during the media briefing are manufactured. None of these letters were filed or submitted to the court," she said on Saturday. She accused the police of not following the set procedure for carrying out such probes. "The police have not followed the procedure established by the cyber laws for seizure of electronic data, she said. "The police have planted these fabricated letters because none (of them have been) filed in court and this is against GRs (government resolutions) and the Bombay High Court judgment prohibiting leaking information to media during investigation," she said. Revealing evidence in a case is against the basic principles of criminal investigation and violates the rights of an accused, she said. "This all is being done to divert attention from the real culprits behind the Koregaon-Bhima violence which is the Bhide-Ekbote gang," Abraham added. Milind Ekbote of Samast Hindu Aghadi and Sambhaji Bhide, the founder of Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan, are accused of orchestrating the violence. But both have denied these allegations. Abraham said that 'imaginary assassination plots' were being 'invented' to divert attention from the killings of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, M M Kalburgi and journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh. She claimed it was being done to deflect from demands being made to ban the right-wing Sanatan Sanstha, which has been accused of having links with people arrested in connection with these killings as well as the seizure of explosives by the Maharashtra anti-terror squad. Human rights activist Anand Teltumbde also refuted the Maharashtra police claim that he had attended a convention in Paris which was allegedly funded by Maoists and dismissed as outrageous charges of Naxal link. Teltumbde, who teaches at a management institute in Goa, was among the activists and lawyers whose homes were raided by the Pune police on August 28 on suspicion they had links with Maoists. "These are all false allegations to malign and defame my image. I dont know any Maoist leader and I am not having any relation with this," Teltumbde told PTI over the phone. "I keep going abroad for academic conferences. It is all on official invitations and everything is well documented," he said. Teltumbde said, "I dont know any Maoist leaders and I have not received any letters. "Police should think before levelling allegation, they should see my background, the work I which I did, I don't have time to do all these things," he said, adding "this is all outrageous". "My profession and whatever I do is all in public domain. This is a deliberate attempt by the police to trouble common people. I keep writing on various issue and I will be always critical," he said. Teltumbde alleged harassment of activists by the police. "Only because the police have rights and they will do anything they want, this is not done," he said, alleging "they are harassing us by doing such things". A nephew of Telugu poet Varavara Rao claimed on Saturday said the Maharashtra Police's 'conclusive proof' and all the evidence is 'cooked up'. He said there was nothing new in the claims of the police. "All this was said in June. It is nothing new. It is illegal to hold a press conference when the Supreme Court asked the evidence to be submitted on September 6," Venugopal, a nephew of Varavara Rao told PTI. He said the matter was sub judice and termed it contempt of court. "This police officer does not have a right to hold a press conference," he said. The police officer knew that the 'evidence' was cooked up and he had gone to the press only to defame those arrested, he claimed. The apex court asked him to give details to it and not to the press. "It set one week duration. Within the one week, he comes out to press, just to defame these people. This is trial by media, conducted by the police," he said. "I'm not going into merits and demerits of this evidence. That is not evidence... That is concocted, fabricated," he said. The Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party and even the Shiv Sena had issued statements in June, saying the evidence being cited by the police were all cooked up and politically-motivated, Venugopal claimed. Addressing a press conference in Mumbai on Friday, Additional Director General (Law and Order) Param Bir Singh said an email exchanged between activist Rona Wilson and a Maoist leader, spoke of ending "Modi-raj" with a 'Rajiv Gandhi-type incident'. Wilson was arrested in Delhi in June in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence in Maharashtra in January. Besides Wilson, other activists-lawyers were arrested in June by the Pune Police are Sudhir Dhawale (from Mumbai), Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut (all from Nagpur). All the activists arrested in June and early this week had links with Maoists, Singh had said. A local court in Srinagar on Saturday directed further investigations in the case involving Army officer Major Leetul Gogoi fraternising with a local woman and asked police to submit a report by September 18. The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Srinagar also observed that the investigations into the case have been conducted in a very casual manner without ascertaining the real facts. "Keeping in view the contents of the application and report submitted by the concerned police station, I am of the considered view that the matter needs further investigation, in light of the observations mentioned hereinabove, the court said in the order. Hearing a petition filed by chairman, International Forum for Justice and Human Rights (IFJHR), Muhammad Ahsan Untoo, the CJM directed station house officer (SHO), police station Khanyar here to submit a detailed report by September 18. "SHO police station concerned shall submit a detailed report by or before next date of hearing on September 18, the order said. The court said it appears that the 'investigation in the matter has been conducted in a very casual manner without ascertaining the real facts'. "Role of Sameer Malla, an army personnel, has not been ascertained by the investigating agency as to why he accompanied the said girl to the hotel," the order said. As per the statement recorded before the executive magistrate during enquiry, Major Gogoi has uploaded his name as Ubaid Armaani thereby creating a fake Facebook account that also needs thorough investigation in terms of IT act, the order said. Untoo had filed an application before the CJM on May 23 after Maj Gogoi was detained by police following an altercation at a hotel here where he was allegedly trying to enter with an 18-year-old woman. The army officer, who was at the centre of the 'human shield' controversy last year, has recently been indicted by an Army court of inquiry (CoI) for 'fraternising' with a local woman, paving the way for possible court martial. A disciplinary action has been recommended against Maj Gogoi after the CoI, conducted by a brigadier, indicted him for the Srinagar hotel incident on May 23. The findings of the CoI have been vetted by the General Officer Commanding of the 15 Corps, based in Srinagar. Image only for representation. An Indian citizen, who was the chief executive officer of two information technology companies in the United States, has been arrested in connection with a multi-year visa-fraud scheme involving forged and fraudulent documents to get visas such as H1B for over 200 foreign workers. Pradyumna Kumar Samal, 49, was taken into custody as he arrived from an international flight at Seattle airport. The criminal complaint describing the visa-fraud scheme was filed under seal in April 2018, soon after Samal fled the United States while the investigation was ongoing. He remained out of the country until this week when he was arrested by law enforcement. The criminal complaint describes how two companies incorporated by Samal in 2010 and 2011 in Washington state engaged in a scheme sometimes referred to as a 'bench-and-switch' scheme, to exploit foreign-national workers, compete unlawfully in the market, and defraud the US government. According to the investigation that began in 2015, Samal served as the Chief Executive Officer of 'Divensi' and 'Azimetry' in Bellevue, near Seattle. Both companies were in the business of providing information-technology workers, such as Software Development Engineers, to major corporate clients. The complaint alleges that Samal submitted, and directed his employees to submit, forged and false application materials to the United States government, making it appear as if two corporate clients already had agreed to use several foreign-national employees named in the applications. However, neither client had agreed to do so. The forged documents included forged letters and fraudulent statements of work, which appeared as if they had been signed by senior executives at the two clients. After the US Citizenship and Immigration Services relied on the false representations and approved the work visa applications, Samal's companies benched the foreign nationals, leaving those foreign nationals unpaid unless they were able to place those employees at actual end clients. Nearly 200 workers may have been brought in under the phony applications. The employees were forced to pay Samal's companies a partially-refundable 'security deposit' of as much as $5,000 for the visa filings, regardless of whether they were assigned to any projects that provided them with income. Visa Fraud is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $2,50,000 fine. *** Indian-origin woman sentenced on health care fraud charges An Indian-origin woman has been sentenced to over five years in prison for health care fraud and making false statements related to a health care benefits programme. Vilasini Ganesh was sentenced on August 28 to 63 months in prison, US Attorney Alex Tse said. Ganesh, 47 and her husband Gregory Belcher, 56, both of California were convicted of the charges in December last year after an eight-week trial. The evidence at trial demonstrated Ganesh submitted a series of false medical claims related to the family medical practice she owned in California's Saratoga town. She submitted claims for days when a patient had not been seen by the provider and claims for patients who had been seen by a physician provider who no longer was affiliated with her practice. Additionally, she billed insurers with claims that certain patients were seen 12-15 times in a single month. In July 2017, a federal grand jury indicted Ganesh and Belcher, charging them with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering as well as on multiple other counts of health care fraud. During Ganesh's sentencing hearing, Judge Lucy Koh said that Ganesh obstructed justice by misrepresenting her understanding of the legal system, the amount of money she was paid by insurers, and whether she understood that it was improper to 'upcharge' when submitting claims to insurers. In addition to the prison term, Koh sentenced Ganesh to a 3-year term of supervised release and ordered her to pay restitution in the amount of over $344,000. Ganesh will begin serving the prison sentence on November 1, 2018. In April this year, Belcher was sentenced to a year and a day in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. Chief Justice of India's office has recommended Justice Ranjan Gogoi to be the next CJI, ANI said on Saturday quoting sources. Earlier this week, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had reportedly asked CJI Dipak Misra to recommend the name of his successor, setting in motion the process of change of guard in the Supreme Court. Justice Misra retires on October 2. Sources in the Law Ministry said the letter was delivered to the CJI recently. Justice Ranjan Gogoi is the senior-most judge of the top court after the CJI. Speculations over Justice Gogoi's appointment as the next CJI emerged following an unprecedented press conference by four senior-most judges, including Justice Gogoi, in January this year when they had criticised Justice Misra over various issues, especially the manner of allocation of cases to certain benches. Justices J Chelameswar (since retired), Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph were among those who addressed the press conference, perhaps a first in the history of Indian judiciary. As per the Memorandum of Procedure which governs the appointment of members of the higher judiciary, 'appointment to the office of the Chief Justice of India should be of the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court considered fit to hold the office'. It stipulates that the Law Minister would, at an appropriate time, seek the recommendation of the outgoing CJI for the appointment of the next. Under this process, after receipt of the recommendation of the CJI, the Law Minister puts it before the prime minister who advises the President in the matter of appointment. 'Whenever there is any doubt about the fitness of the senior-most Judge to hold the office of the Chief Justice of India, consultation with other Judges...would be made for appointment of the next Chief Justice of India,' the document states. Law Minister Prasad had recently said that the government's intention on the appointment of the next CJI should not be questioned. He had also said that when the incumbent names the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court as his successor as per convention, the executive will take a call. He was responding to a question at the Law Ministry's annual press conference on whether the government would follow the laid-down conventions and procedures to appoint Justice Ranjan Gogoi as the next Chief Justice when incumbent Justice Misra demits office. "The question is imaginary...as far as the appointment of the Chief Justice of India is concerned, the convention is clear...the sitting chief justice names the senior-most judge (of the top court) as his successor. When the name comes to us, we will discuss it," he had said. With inputs from PTI Union minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey stirred a controversy on Saturday with his remarks that Congress president Rahul Gandhi suffers from 'some mental disease like schizophrenia' and 'is no more than a 'naali ka keeda' (sewer worm) before the prime minister', drawing strong criticism from both the opposition and National Democratic Alliance member Janata Dal-United. The Bharatiya Janata Party leader also targeted Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is serving jail term in fodder scam cases, saying he has been 'cursed by the poor' and 'is paying for his own sins'. A furious Congress said the BJP has exposed its 'fake respect' for Hindu traditions by insulting Gandhi while he is on a pilgrimage to the Kailash Mansarovar shrine. The RJD too hit back saying the BJP leadership, which is 'busy making an event out of the death of Atal Bihari Vajpayee', should have learnt how to conduct oneself in the public from the late prime minister. The minister made the objectionable remarks when his views were sought by reporters in Sasaram on Gandhi's pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar and efforts by opposition parties like the Congress and RJD to form a nation-wide 'Mahagathbandhan' (Grand Alliance). . , . , , . ... A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. Jain monk Tarun Sagar (file photo) Tarun Sagar ' title='Jain monk Tarun Sagar '>Jain monk Tarun Sagar passed away at a temple here early on Saturday after a prolonged illness, an official said. He was 51. Sagar, who was suffering from jaundice and other ailments, breathed his last at around 3 a.m. at the Radhapuri temple here, a temple official told. President Ram Nath Kovid and Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief over his demise. "Sad to hear of the passing of Jain Muni Shri Tarun Sagar Ji Maharaj. Known for his 'Kadve Parvachan'. He spread the message of peace and non-violence in the society. "Our country has lost a well-respected spiritual leader. My condolences to his countless followers," Kovind tweeted. "Deeply pained by the untimely demise... We will always remember him for his rich ideals, compassion and contribution to society. "His noble teachings will continue inspiring people. My thoughts are with the Jain community and his countless disciples," Modi tweeted. Sagar was earlier admitted to a private medical centre in Delhi. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh also offered his condolences, saying Sagar was the sources of inspiration. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said he was "pained to hear of the sad demise". "His teachings and ideals will always inspire humanity." Born in Madhya Pradesh's Damoh district on June 26, 1967, Sagar has a huge following in the Jain community. Lets talk about the Ombudsman Maiava Iulai Toma and his Office. They have become the latest public officials to call on the Government to slow down with the plan to bring back corporal punishment for disciplinary reasons. For those who do not know, the Government is working on an amendment to the Education Act 2009, which proposes that teachers in schools are allowed to use reasonable force to discipline children. Since the plan was revealed, it has met a lot of opposition. And in Maiava and his Office lending their voice to the call, they have joined a long list of highly respected public officials who have called for caution. Which is extremely important. The call from Maiava was revealed in a front page story titled Defer reasonable force law, says Ombudsman published on yesterdays Samoa Observer. The story points out Maiava has asked to defer the amending of the law until Parliament and the Government have considered the Inquiry Report and its recommendations. In the meantime, Ombudsman Maiava has reminded Members of Parliament that they have the responsibility to protect the children. Its everyones responsibility and obligation to ensure that our children are protected from any form of violence. There has been an increasing number of teachers being brought before the courts because of assault. Maiava is correct there. We have said this time and time again. We must warn the government that they need to proceed with caution. We accept that the issue of dealing with problematic students is complex and there is no one-size-fits-all kind of solution, but we caution that greater care is needed to ensure that in our haste to fix a problem, we do not unknowingly create more problems. The question is how does one measure reasonable force? What is reasonable force anyway? Reasonable force in the eyes of an abusive teacher could kill a student? And what is a reasonable circumstance? Who is the judge on what is a reasonable circumstance and what is not? Getting back to Maiava, he said it is not clear how the amendment will address violence in schools and teachers who enjoy disciplining children. The link is unclear of how the amendment will resolve the issue of violence in schools the only thing the new proposed change will do is to empower those teachers who enjoy disciplining children, said Maiava. The impact to violence on children will be grave and this amendment will not help at all both violence and reasonable force cannot be treated in isolation. We couldnt agree more. See, unless someone in the Government can clearly define what reasonable force and reasonable circumstances are, we believe the Government needs to proceed with absolute care. In other words, the government needs to think carefully and consult widely about its plan to allow teachers to smack students again, under the guise of discipline and correction. If it didnt work in the past, it is unlikely to work now, especially given the time and age we live in. Folks, this conversation believe it or not is happening in 2018 yes this is the 21st century. Its sad, isnt it? And this comes after all those thousands of tala spent on workshops, meetings, conferences where our leaders travelled the world to get ideas on how to change behaviour and get rid of violence in the community. So on one hand you are telling people to stop violence and on the other hand you are encouraging violence by reviving something that had been outlawed? In our opinion, this is a poor attempt to solve a problem that has many roots with the main root leading back to what happens within individual families and the relationship between parents and children. Let us remind our readers again today. Discipline comes from the word disciple. The art of discipleship in a nutshell is to follow the examples set for us. When it comes to children, discipline is not the job of teachers and the education system. That is the job of parents and families at home where attitudes and behaviour should be shaped. The problem weve seen is that when the job of discipline is left to teachers, they do not know where to stop. A slap turns into a whack. A simple cane suddenly changes to a 4x4 piece of wood so that discipline becomes an all out assault. We have seen this happen before and there is no guarantee that it will not happen again. Dont get me wrong. I believe, like all Christian parents, that there is a place for discipline. But discipline means a lot more than smacking our children. It means a lot more than the rod and the cane. It means to spend quality moments with them, communicate with them, love them and tell them why we do the things we do. If we have to slap them on the wrist, its got to be done with love. Ive seen parents whack their young toddlers across the face in the name of love and discipline. That is not discipline, it is assault and they should be held accountable for it by the law. The fact of the matter is that charity begins at home. If children are brought up in a peaceful environment and taught the right lessons about discipline including those verses from the Bible about love, respect and good behaviour -they will find it very hard to stray from it. Thats what we think anyway. What about you? Have a wonderful weekend Samoa, God bless! The youngest in the line up of 9 contestants vying for the McDonald's Samoa Miss Samoa 2018 crown, Erin Noelani Taefu has nothing but admiration for Deputy Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa. Impressed with Fiame's presentation to the contestants at a courtesy call on Friday morning, the 18-year old Miss Samoa Australia is so infatuated with Fiame's successful career that she is seriously considering following her new idols footsteps into the political arena. "She is a very very influential advocate for women rights," says Erin. "Her long years of services to Samoa as one of the longest serving Cabinet Ministers before elected as Samoas first Woman Deputy Prime Minister, symbolises her willpower and determination. "But what impressed me the most is Fiame's uncompromising stand for women empowerment, not to mention her pride in our fa'aSamoa. "She is an inspiration to all Samoa women." And her father Taefu Patea Taefu is not the least surprised with his daughter's aspirations. "Erin is strong-willed and determined to achieve what she sets out to do," said the proud father in Apia this week from Down Under with Mrs Maletina Taefu to support their daughter, the first in the family of seven girls to compete in the pageant. "She is always proud of her Samoan heritage," he added. "Miss Taefu knows what is expected of her in the Samoan upbringing for young women," complemented Pastor Sekolasitika Lemana-Satui, with the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Brisbane. "She serves her parents, her family, her church, her community with a strong sense of obligation in her church youth group. "She is reliable, committed and carries herself with poise and humility," continued Pastor Lemana-Satui who is also a Justice of the Peace in the Magistrate Court in Brisbane. "Miss Taefu is well respected by her peers who look up to her for her good example and her pleasant, easy to get along with personality." Straight after graduating in 2017 from the Glenala State High School in Brisbane she went straight into the workforce as an Administrative Assistant with the Blenners Transport Company. She wants to gain valuable experience as she begins her journey to hopefully realise her political ambitions in the future. "I do believe that Erin is destined for a bright and successful future," echoed Past Taeauga Ropati Frost with the Assembly of God Church of Samoa in Australia. "She is hard working, diligent and conscientious in the task that has now been bestowed on her as Miss Samoa Australia. "She has very unique qualities and virtues such as humility, honesty, trustworthy and a dedicated Youth Leader." Erin is grateful for the unexpected exposure in the limelight and adamant that it is her destiny because its her Father in Heaven's plan which she must follow and obey. And she is not giving up on pursuing a University Degree in the future but for now her responsibilities as Miss Samoa Australia in the Miss Samoa Pageant is paramount. Improving health care management for critically ill children in Samoa was the center of discussions during a paediatric basic course undertaken by local doctors and nurses. The two-day programme was facilitated by eight intensive care doctors and nurses from Australia and New Zealand. An initiative of the National Health Services (N.H.S.) and Ministry of Health (M.O.H.), the course aims to boost skills and services provided by health professionals towards the treatment of severely sick children. N.H.S. Director of Intensive Care Unit, Dr. Dina Tuitama said the 40 nurses and doctors who attended had the benefit of improving their skills and knowledge to not only assess sick children but treat them as well. The hospital has always been supportive of ways to improve the health care system so that it can cater not only for adults but also for children. Dr. Dina said because of children arriving sick and unwell, there is potential that they can help them improve if they are able to notice, diagnose and treat them early. She added it is a new approach in improving health care systems. The cause of death through illnesses for the majority of children not only in Samoa but throughout the world is from infection and trauma. But this course goes beyond that in adequately assessing sick children and also building confidence for health professionals in delivering a higher care they need. The hope is to continue this workshop so that we will no longer need specialists from overseas but will be catered locally, Dr. Dina said. Associate Professor of Paediatrics Intensive Care Specialist from Lady Cilento Childrens hospital in Brisbane, Dr. Bruce Lister, said they were invited to bring the Paediatric Basic Course to Samoa and it was a course that is developed and taught all over the world. A course designed to bring basic knowledge and skills to doctors and nurses who are working with critically ill children and the value of the course is to bring material and teach the course with the intention that in the future, local doctors and nurses will continue teaching this course themselves in Samoa. In Samoa, it is quite evident that there are some highly trained doctors and nurses who will have the ability of teaching this course in Samoa and hopefully come back in the future to support them carry this course forward. The objective is to improve outcomes for the children who are critically ill and injured and require critical care, Dr. Lister said. He said intensive care is a complex area to work in; they deal with a whole range of diseases and injuries. We find that the best outcome is when we train individual people not only doctors but also nurses. We have encouraged a structured approach to managing these children, and with the intentional purpose of this course in giving doctors and nurses a better understanding of the underlined disease processes but also the pharmacology and physiology of the body so they can actually understand the right treatment given to get the best outcome, he added. The eight specialists comprised of doctors and nurses who joined Dr. Lister in conducting the course were Irma Bilgrami, Michael Gordon, Jane Harnischfeger, Steve Keeley, Katie Moynihan, Fiona Miles, and Fiona Perelini. A famous French post-impressionist artist of the 1800s will be the subject of an upcoming talk show series written and directed by a local Samoan artist. First Impressions: Paul Gauguin (2018) is a five-part episodic talk show, written and directed by local artist and faafafine, Yuki Kihara. Paul Gauguin (7 June 1848 8 May 1903) spent a decade living in Tahiti leading up to his death in the early 1900s and by historical accounts, his paintings created during his time in the Pacific are believed to feature Mahu or the Tahitian third gender The series features panelists from Samoas faafafine community who discuss their first impressions of Paul Gauguins artwork. During the filming, the faafafine cast express their varied views on Gauguins paintings which are believed to represent the artists western perceptions of Indigenous Pacific/Tahitian culture, women and possibly faafafine. According to Kihara, by introducing the paintings only at the time of filming, they were able to capture an authentic and immediate reaction and according to the artist, the responses toward each of the five paintings were varied and reflected the myriad of opinions by individuals born and raised in Samoa. They were also expressed in either Samoan or English. Speaking to the Samoa Observer, Kihara said the talk show was a platform she chose to highlight the dynamism and intelligence of the faafafine panelists. I wanted to provide a platform where Faafafine can contribute to artistic, social and political dialogue in the current cultural landscape in Samoa that continues to see Faafafine from a singular and narrow perspective. Kihara said Its my hope that First Impressions: Paul Gauguin can highlight the dynamism, intelligence and wit of each panelist in addition of their humor and curiosity. The series was moderated by Anastasia Fantasia Vancouver Stanley (aka Queen Hera), and features panelists Charlize Leo, Vanila Heather, Keli Tuatagaloa Laban, Dallas Siatini and Saunoa Poai (aka Sandora). Kihara points out that it was interesting as well as impressive to see the use of unique vocabularies between the host and the panelists, These vocabularies are obviously code words to describe something else, its almost like a whole new language or polari which I myself as a Faafafine still struggle to keep up with, because the Faafafine community are constantly developing new words no one else can understand except among their own peers. However, regardless whether you can de-cipher them or not, its still interesting just listening to them string polari sentences together. Two of the five episodes will be presented during the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association (I.L.G.A) Oceania Conference held from 29th till 31st August 2018 at Taumeasina Island Resort but Kihara hopes that any viewers will be able to see themselves being reflected in the conversations. First Impressions: Paul Gauguin (2018) has received local support in Samoa, from Samoa Stationary and Books, Frankies Supermarkets, Matniuel Screen Printing & Signs and the Centre for Samoan Studies at The National University of Samoa. The filming of First Impressions: Paul Gauguin (2018) which involved a total of 27 people including cast and production crew were conducted at the National University of Samoa. Plans are currently underway to air each of the 5 episodes of First Impressions: Paul Gauguin (2018) weekly on local television station in Samoa. Each episode is 13-minutes in duration First Impressions: Paul Gauguin (2018) was commissioned by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen presented in conjunction with a major exhibition 2 entitled Gauguin: A Spiritual Journey at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco opening 17th November 2018 till 7th April 2019. The exhibition will tour the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in 2020. Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi Prime Minister of Samoa Address at the Lowy Institute in Sydney Chairman Sir Frank Lowy AC and Board, Executive Director Michael Fullilove, Experts and operations staff, Jonathan Pryke, Director of the Pacific Islands Program. I thank you for the invitation to provide a Pacific perspective on the new geostrategic landscape. The hundreds of islands in the Pacific may appear only as small dots on world maps but, they are situated in a large strategic area. For the Pacific, now is a time of profound change; and this change is occurring at an unprecedented pace. Geo-strategic competition between major world powers has once again made our region a place of renewed interest and strategic importance. Climate change and disaster risk affects our people in a variety of ways including increased severe weather events, scarcity of food and water, and displaced communities. Information and communication technologies (ICT) are burgeoning, and with them issues relating to accessibility, cyber security and cyber enabled crime. While many countries are reshaping the global rules and institutions into ways that might not always support our interests or reflect our values, as Pacific countries, we remain resolute to assert such. What immediately comes to mind is the NZ Labour Governments antinuclear policy in the eighties. It became a part of national and cultural identity and was an assertion of sovereignty and self-determination. An assertion that was taken up across the Pacific islands region and became a defining cause and concern for the South Pacific Forum as the Pacific Islands Forum was then known. The Pacific region is again seeking to assert its common values and concerns. Under the flagship of our Blue Pacific identity, we are building a collective voice amidst the geopolitical din on the existential threat of climate change that looms for all of our Pacific family. The Blue Pacific identity was endorsed by the Leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum when we met in Samoa last year. It represents our recognition that as a region, we are large, connected and strategically important. The Blue Pacific speaks to the collective potential or our shared stewardship of the Pacific Ocean. At this juncture we would like to note Australias longstanding membership of the Forum and endorsemet of the Blue Pacific identity as reaffirmed at the Forum Leaders meeting in 2017. We are also appreciative of the inclusion of a Pacific chapter in Australias White Paper. As such all Pacific leaders are prepared to assert their common/shared interests namely security, prosperity, regional stability and constructive diplomacy and to be done in a way that elicits understanding and clarity of purpose. And we can do so without resorting to offensive and inflammatory remarks. There is polarisation of the geopolitical environment. The concept of power and domination has engulfed the world; its tendrils extending to the most isolated atoll communities. The Pacific is swimming in a sea of so-called fit for purpose strategies stretched from the tip of Africa, encompassing the Indian Ocean and morphing into the vast Blue Pacific ocean continent that is our home and place. And what is being asked of the inhabitants and longstanding stewards of the largest ocean continent on the Blue Planet? - to ensure freedom of navigation and open skies for strategic access. The precious resources and assets that we have, offer immense value and potential to the major powers of the world. At the same time these resources are the cause for panic especially for countries that have been given to believe they are little and for too long classified have nots. However, we are susceptible to being characterised as countries that have little, and that we should be grateful for whatever is offered to us. I see us increasingly empowered to reject this characterisation. We are highly protective of our means of livelihoods, for example, embracing regional action to ensure the sustainability of our fisheries resources. And we are actively asserting our ambitions to ensure that there is inheritance for the generations to come. But, we are also beset with dilemmas; as we seek to develop: do we give up our sovereignty, our uniqueness? An upgraded port, for example, may bring greater connectivity and opportunities for growth in some ways, but could it represent a ceding of sovereignty in other ways? There is a clear need to reinforce and support existing and promising approaches particularly those that are non-partisan and non-interventionist. The reality is stark we are again seeing invasion and interest in the form of strategic manipulation. The big powers are doggedly pursuing strategies to widen and extend their reach and inculcating a far reaching sense of insecurity. The renewed vigour with which a Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy is being advocated and pursued leaves us with much uncertainty. For the Pacific there is a real risk of privileging Indo over the Pacific. There has been a reluctance to engage in open discussions on the issue and to share information to assist us in decision making. Our Blue Pacific continent is becoming an increasingly contested space. The question for us is how prepared are we to tackle the emerging associated challenges? Regional and national stability has never been more critical in order to maintain peace and security, prosperity and wellbeing of all Pacific peoples and of peace. At the very time the region has become a more crowded and contested strategic space. I get the sense that our traditional Forum partners left the neighbourhood, even if momentarily, and are coming back to claim a jurisdiction under their watch and to consider a re-energised Pacific strategy. Such an approach must be genuine and durable and premised on understanding, friendship, mutual benefit and a collective ambition to achieve sustainable results. And in the process, our partners have fallen short of acknowledging the integrity of Pacific leadership and the responsibility they carry for every decision made in order to garner support for the sustainable development of their nations. Some might say that there is a patronising nuance in believing that Pacific nations did not know what they were doing or were incapable of reaping the benefits of close relations with countries that are and will be in the region for some time to come. In cases where emerging partners have engaged with Pacific countries without conditionality, the relationships are perceived to be associated with corruption or unprecedented environmental degradation. One has the tendency to be bemused by the fact that the reaction is an attempt to hide what we see as strategic neglect. The Framework for Pacific Regionalism identifies security as one of the four objectives of Pacific regionalism Security that ensures stable and safe human, environmental and political conditions for all.[1] While the Pacific region currently enjoys a period of relative stability, drivers of instability exist in the region and beyond. The 2017 State of Pacific Regionalism Report indicated that shifting global and regional geopolitics is creating an increasingly complex and crowded region that places the Pacific at the centre of contemporary global geopolitics. This trend, coupled with broader challenges such as climate change and disaster risk, rising inequality, resource depletion, maritime boundary disputes and advances in technology, will continue to shape the Pacific regional security environment. Pacific Island Forum Members have a proud history of working collectively in response to events and issues that have challenged regional security, peace and stability, from the 1985 Rarotonga Treaty that created a nuclear free zone in the South Pacific, to a collective approach to addressing the existential threat of climate change. The Pacific regions current geopolitical and geostrategic context underlines the need for an integrated and comprehensive security architecture, incorporating an expanded concept of security. A stable and resilient security environment provides the platform for achieving the regions sustainable development aspirations. In recognition of this, in 2017, Forum Leaders agreed to build on the Biketawa Declaration and other Forum security related declarations as a foundation for strategic future regional responses, recognising the importance of an expanded concept of security inclusive of human security, humanitarian assistance, prioritising environmental security, and regional cooperation in building resilience to disasters and climate change.[2] Leaders have also prioritised action on climate change and disaster risk management, fisheries, and oceans management and conservation all of which have significant security elements. Thus, Biketawa Plus is an outward looking declaration that acknowledges the changing geostrategic regional environment and commits members to work closer together to promote collective sovereignty (including through the Blue Pacific narrative), to strengthen information sharing and to combat new and emerging security risks. At their 46th Meeting in Port Moresby, Forum Leaders reiterated that climate change remains the single greatest threat to the livelihood, security and well-being of the peoples of the Pacific. While climate change may be considered a slow-onset threat by some, in our region its adverse impacts are already felt by our Pacific islands peoples and communities. Greater ambition is necessary to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees and Pacific island countries continue to urge and faster action by all countries. The Blue Pacific narrative, which Forum Leaders endorsed in 2017, sees the region as a large oceanic continent, the Blue Continent. Pacific island countries manage 20% of the worlds ocean in their Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs). However, the ability to effectively secure the Blue Continent is constrained by its significant size, as well as the limited capacity and capability of countries border management systems. Maritime threats in the region encompass a broad range of issues from maritime boundary disputes, trafficking of drugs, wildlife and other contraband, human trafficking and people smuggling, arms smuggling, illegal fishing, accidents and disasters. As Pacific leaders we strongly believe in being part of a Blue Pacific continent that is free from military competition, a Pacific that remains free from unrest and war that affect many other parts of the globe. We welcome those that are committed to have honest conversations with Pacific leaders on good governance and transparency, open media, inclusive participation, domestic stability and developing resilience to enhance our economic prospects, and self reliance. The Pacific has undertaken significant adaptation and mitigation strategies in response to climate change; the existential threat faced by some of our low lying atoll states are being faced now. Investment in climate resilience projects such as improving food and water security, climate proofing infrastructure and land reclamation for urban development, will help protect Pacific homelands and cultures, and also reduce migration challenges in the years to come. Climate change is also increasing the frequency of destructive natural hazards, such as cyclones. In 2015, Forum Leaders endorsed the Framework for Resilient Development in the Pacific a global first for climate, disaster and low carbon development. We would welcome support to enhance resilience and preparedness particularly when we are experiencing disasters which can wipe 30 percent off a Pacific countrys GDP. The recent disasters in the region have exposed the affected countries and communities to extreme economic, social and environmental impacts. While there is some financial products available for FICs to cope with the aftermath of natural disasters, there is very limited support for countries to build better and prepare to absorb the imminent threats from climate change and natural disasters. Global research shows that for every $1 spent on building resilience to catastrophic events saves up to $7 in response and recovery. The Pacific Resilience Facility proposes to set-up a regional fund to assist Forum Island Countries government, private sector and communities to co-finance and leverage additional funding for resilience investment of new projects and/or retro-fitting existing infrastructure projects to make them risk resilient. The strategic objectives of the proposed Pacific Resilience Facility are to strengthen the collective, cost-efficient and contextualised financial resilience by building strategic and genuine partnerships with key development partners and building national capacity development. It is important to note that the Pacific Resilience Facility addresses the current gaps in development financing and complements the existing initiatives in the region. We are very appreciatve of the Lowy Institutes tool on Aid Mapping the Pacific which will inform decision making in the relevant areas of develoment cooperation in our respective countries. In my view, the Blue Pacific platform offers all Pacific countries the adaptive capabilities to address a changing geostrategic landscape. The opportunity to realise the full benefits of the Blue Pacific rests in our ability to work and stand together as a political bloc. And the challenge for us is maintaining solidarity in the face of intense engagement of an ever growing number of partners in our region. We should not let that divide us! In this regard we are looking forward to Australias stepped up engagement with the Pacific, including through: stronger partnerships for economic growth, for security and stronger relationships between our people. Thank you. Australias Deputy High Commissioner, Amanda Jewell, has reiterated Australias support for equal human rights and long standing friendship with the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (I.L.G.A.) Oceania. She was speaking on a panel on day two of the I.L.G.A. Oceania Conference 2018 where she was joined by the United States Embassy Charge dAffaires Tony Greubel. Australia advocates strongly for equal human rights, and an end to violence and discrimination, for L.G.B.T.I. persons globally, she said. Australia is proud to support a range of initiatives and civil society to promote equal human rights and development, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. We do this out of a firm belief that all individuals are entitled to respect, dignity and legal protection regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Ms. Jewell highlighted Australia as a proud member of the Equal Rights Coalition (E.R.C.), which fulfills an important role as an information sharing and consensus building mechanism on positive developments in the protection of L.G.B.T.I. human rights, and on concerning country situations. The 2018 Global L.G.B.T.I. Human Rights Conference hosted by the E.R.C. in Vancouver, Canada 5-7 August included a session co-hosted by Australia and Canada on the intersecting challenges faced by indigenous peoples who also identify as L.G.B.T.I. We are very pleased to co-hostwith the U.S., A.P.C.O.M. and Samoa Faafafine Associationthis follow-up event today, aimed at ensuring that Pacific regional N.G.Os and human rights defenders that could not travel to Vancouver can receive a detailed read-out of this event. Australia has provided support through a number of funding opportunities, including this weeks I.L.G.A. Oceania Regional Conference. There is an acknowledged need for capacity building amongst L.G.B.T.I. civil society organisations in the Pacific, said Ms. Jewell. Australia is a donor to the Global Equality Fund, which is administered by the US State Department, where we have provided $275,000 AUD since mid-2016 and are looking to continue this support, resources permitting. Australia makes representations on these issues of repression of human rights, discrimination and violence against L.G.B.T.I. individuals both directly with bilateral partners and through the Universal Periodic Review process. Samoa is basically home for Kiwi-couple Norma and Ron Ebsworth. This is their fourth visit to Samoa, and this time its a special trip for the couple. They explained that they wanted to personally fly to Samoa and visit Aleipata School because six months after Tsunami hit Samoa about 35 years ago, Ron was involved in rebuilding the school. Ron told the Dear Tourist team he wanted to come and see the nine classrooms and the host family he had stayed with for three months during the rebuilding phase. They flew in from Auckland on Sunday and visited the school. It was interesting to see how they expand it, it is really good. When we started in Lalomanu there was nothing, Ron said. Because they frequently visit Samoa, they highlighted some visible changes. Norma pointed out a number of restaurants, cafes evident in Apia, which according to her husband was not the same 35 years ago. Ron said there were also more street lights around Apia compared to when they were rebuilding the school. It is a kind of natural charm I think that it lost over the past years, the people are still lovely, and its just a different way now, the atmosphere in Samoa is very different. I guess it changed because people see tourism as a source of income. I think if it changes too much it wont be Samoa anymore, Ron said. Norma added: So you have to get that balance. I think it is okay for cities to grow because people expect a certain amount of offers. Norma said the only thing that could be improved in Apia is the number of public washrooms. Ron pointed out the amount of rubbish he saw around the streets is something that needs to be changed and is not good for tourists, locals and the environment. They said this could be their last trip to Samoa, but if there was something to return to, it would be the authentic Samoan culture. Microsoft will begin requiring its contractors to offer their U.S. employees paid leave to care for a new child. It's common for tech firms to offer generous family leave benefits for their own software engineers and other full-time staff, but paid leave advocates say it's still rare to require similar benefits for contracted workers such as janitors, landscapers, cafeteria crews and software consultants. "Given its size and its reach, this is a unique and hopefully trailblazing offering," said Vicki Shabo, vice president at the National Partnership for Women and Families. The new policy affects businesses with at least 50 U.S.-based employees that do substantial work with Microsoft that involves access to its buildings or its computing network. It doesn't affect suppliers of goods. Contractors would have to offer at least 12 weeks of leave to those working with the Redmond, Washington-based software giant; the policy wouldn't affect the contractors' arrangements with other companies. Leave-takers would get 66 percent of regular pay, up to $1,000 weekly. The policy announced Thursday rolls out over the next year as the company amends its contracts with those vendors. That may mean some of Microsoft's costs will rise to cover the new benefits, said Dev Stahlkopf, the company's corporate vice president and general counsel. "That's just fine and we think it's well worth the price," she said. Microsoft doesn't disclose how many contracted workers it uses, but it's in the thousands. The new policy expands on Microsoft's 2015 policy requiring contractors to offer paid sick days and vacation. Other companies such as Facebook have also committed to improve contractor benefits amid unionization efforts by shuttle drivers, security guards and other contract workers trying to get by in expensive, tech-fueled regions such as the San Francisco Bay Area and around Washington's Puget Sound. Facebook doesn't guarantee that contract workers receive paid parental leave, but provides a $4,000 new child benefit for new parents who don't get leave. A much smaller California tech company, SurveyMonkey, announced a paid family leave plan for its contract workers earlier this year. Microsoft said its new policy is partially inspired by a Washington state law taking effect in 2020 guaranteeing eligible workers 12 weeks paid time off for the birth or adoption of a child. The state policy, signed into law last year, follows California and a handful of other states in allowing new parents to tap into a fund that all workers pay into. Washington will also require employers to help foot the bill, and will start collecting payroll deductions next January. A federal paid parental leave plan proposed by President Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, could rely on a similar model but has gained little traction. "Compared to what employers are doing, the government is way behind the private sector," said Isabel Sawhill, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who has urged the White House and Congress to adopt a national policy. Sawhill said it is "very unusual and very notable" that Microsoft is extending family leave benefits to its contract workers. Microsoft already offers more generous family leave benefits to its own employees, including up to 20 weeks fully paid leave for a birth mother. Microsoft's push to spread its employee benefits to a broader workforce "sends a message that something has to happen more systematically at the federal level," said Ariane Hegewisch, a program director for employment and earnings at the Institute for Women's Policy Research. Until then, she said, it's helpful that Microsoft seems willing to pay contracting firms more to guarantee their workers' better benefits. "Paid family leave is expensive and they acknowledge that," Hegewisch said. Otherwise, she said, contractors with many employees of child-bearing age could find themselves at a competitive disadvantage to those with older workforces. Republican state Sen. Joe Fain, the prime sponsor of the measure that passed last year, said Microsoft's decision was "a really powerful step forward." By applying the plan to contractors and vendors around the country, "it really creates a pressure for those state legislatures to make a similar decision that Washington made." Former Member of Parliament and businessman Hans Joachim "Joe" Keil has passed away. A family member Michael Kapisi told the Samoa Observer that Mr. Keil, passed away Friday afternoon at his home in Lotopa. He was 74 years old. He said Keil was in the United States and arrived back in the country on Wednesday. Since his passing members of the public have paid tributes to Mr. Keil on social media. His son, Allan Keil, also posted following the death of his father. All of my father's sisters have a common trait of strong, independent women. All of my father's brothers have a common trait of being part-time stand-up comedians, and think they are the favorite uncle to their nieces and nephews. That may be true for all of them, but only one uncle can claim the title of The Godfather. Hans Joachim Keil 1944-2018, he said. Family friend Tony Brunt made reference to the many tributes on social media to the former minister, who died after a battle with cancer. I want to record my appreciation of him as a friend and as a towering figure in Samoan historiography. Joe had many strings to his bow and, along with his wife Celine, performed many acts of quiet philanthropy and public service in the islands, but the one I was most familiar with was his service to the preservation and promotion of Samoan history, he said. According to Mr Brunt, the late former politician was the founder of the Samoa Historical and Cultural Trust and was its chairman and main financier. He and his small band of dedicated patriots on the trust committee have commissioned, published or republished many books on Samoa. I was most grateful for the Trusts support in 2017 when they published in hard copy the first volume of my pictorial history of the Germans in Samoa. Our thoughts are with Celine and the Keil Family at this time, he said. The Administrators for the Germans in Samoa Facebook page also paid tribute to Mr Keil. Those familiar with contemporary Samoa will recognize the name of Hans Joachim "Joe" Keil a former member of Samoan parliament and a pillar in the Apia business community. Since his retirement from politics, Joe has been busy with McDonalds and TV3, two of his former business interests. What is perhaps less well known has been his involvement in preserving the cultural and historical legacies of Samoa. The Samoa Historical and Cultural Trust the foundation behind the research and publication of this Germans in Samoa book and so many others was his brainchild, and he has served as its director and biggest supporter since its inception more than three decades ago. Joe recently passed away in Samoa after a brave battle with cancer. Today all of Samoa and others who knew and loved Joe in so many places of the world mourn the passing of this wonderful man, who helped and inspired so many throughout his life. We honor Joe and are grateful for his friendship and guidance. We feel privileged to be able to carry on this work in his spirit and pray for his continued support, now from the other side, he said. Tanu Bernard Tafaifa also passed his condolences to the family, saying the late former politician was a legend and he will not be forgotten for his contribution to the country. CHEMNITZ, Germany (AP) Police in eastern Germany halted an anti-migration protest march that emboldened far-right activists started Saturday hoping would launch a nationwide movement capable of challenging the political establishment. A trio of nationalist groups held separate daytime rallies in the city of Chemnitz over the Aug. 26 killing of a German citizen, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq. The two largest groups also organized a joint nighttime march, thinking a broader force might emerge from the display of unity and take hold. If the number of people who attended is any gauge, the envisioned far-right movement was in the earliest of embryonic stages. It drew about 4,500 participants, Saxony state police reported before citing security concerns as the reason for ending the event early. The demonstrators screamed and whistled angrily as officers broke up the protest. The march was stopped several times along the way as counter-protesters blocked the route and the police officers deployed to keep them and the marchers apart flooded into the street. The counter-protesters numbered about 4,000, the state police said. The opposing camps clashed in Chemnitz on Monday, the day after the fatal stabbing of the 35-year-old German citizen and the arrests of the migrants on suspicion of manslaughter. Scenes of vigilantes chasing foreigners in the city's streets have shocked people in others parts of Germany since then. Police, at times, were unable to control the earlier protests and clashes. Leaders of the two groups that combined forces on Saturday night cultivated a different image for the "mourning march," wearing dark suits and carrying white roses. However, the mood at the event bringing together previously isolated clusters of nationalists from lawmakers to Hitler-saluting skinheads darkened as the sun set. People from both ends of the political spectrum could be seen drinking beer and shouting slurs at police. The tension in the air reflected the polarization over Germany's ongoing effort to come to terms with an influx of more than 1 million refugees and migrants seeking jobs since 2015. The right blames Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to allow in hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers from war-torn countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan for multiple problems. Some far-right supporters argued before the killing in Chemnitz that migrants are responsible for an increase in serious crimes, especially attacks on women. The anti-migrant sentiment has been particularly strong in Saxony state, traditional strongholds of groups that sought to inspire a nationwide movement on Saturday night: the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, or PEGIDA, and the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which has won seats in federal and state parliaments with an anti-Muslim platform. While the share of foreigners residing in Saxony remains below Germany's national average and displays of Nazi symbols are outlawed across the shame-marked country, far-right sympathizers mobilized with exceptional speed on the night of the Chemnitz slaying and the days after. German Justice Minister Katarina Barley said Saturday that authorities should investigate the role of networks from the radical far right in spearheading the week's protests. "We do not tolerate that right-wing extremists infiltrate our society," Barley told weekly newspaper Bild am Sonntag. "It's about finding out who's behind the mobilization of far-right criminals." Local police appeared to have been caught unprepared when the slaying triggered the protests, which attracted crowds openly engaging in Nazi veneration and devolved into violence. The protests were sparked by a fatal stabbing early Sunday morning of a 35-year-old German man, Daniel Hillig. Two asylum-seekers, a 22-year-old Iraqi and a 23-year-old Syrian, have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter. German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, known for his anti-migrant stance, said Saturday that he understood why "the people in Chemnitz and elsewhere are upset about the brutal killing" but added "there's no excuse for violence," Funke Media Group reported. "We need a strong state and we have to do everything politically to overcome the polarization and division of our society," Seehofer stressed. While anti-migrant protests took place in Germany before, especially during the early 1990s, a strong and vocal opposition usually was there to provide a counterforce. Artists organized concerts to raise awareness, and ordinary citizens lined up in miles-long human chains to protest violence against newcomers. Chemnitz, a city known for its hardened neo-Nazi scene, at first attracted a comparatively weak response to the recent anti-migrant activity. Some 70 left-leaning and pro-migrant groups organized the "Heart not Hatred" rally that got in the way of Saturday's far-right march. "I've a lot of experience with far-right protests in Chemnitz," Tim Detzner, a member of the Left Party in Chemnitz, said, noting that the street riots this week "reached a level of aggression, brutality and willingness to use violence that we haven't known before." For the third time in as many years, California lawmakers have rejected a plan pushed by Gov. Jerry Brown that would have expanded the state power grid to as many as 14 western states. The bill, authored by Democratic Assemblyman Chris Holden of Pasadena, was denied a vote on the Senate floor before the gavel was brought down on the legislative session for the year late Friday night. The demise of the legislation was a rare defeat for Brown, who leaves office late this year after serving 16 years over two terms as California governor. Lawmakers missed an opportunity to further open the market for solar, wind and other forms of renewable power, and to accelerate our movement away from coal and other dirty fossil fuels, in a way that is affordable and reliable for consumers, said Donald Furman, leader of a group called Fix the Grid pushing for the measure. Advertisement Despite todays setback, California must continue to lead on climate and clean energy policy, particularly in the face of a hostile federal administration. The death of the legislation signaled that legislative leadership was unwilling to cross potent political forces that opposed the bill, like organized labor and public utilities, or do bidding for a governor not long for office. AB 813 will not be moved to the Senate floor for a vote this year, said Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego. We will continue this important discussion next year. Among other things, Assembly Bill 813 would have eliminated much of Californias authority over the transmission network by doing away with the governors ability to appoint the board running the California Independent System Operator, or CAISO. Thousands of miles of transmission poles and wires would have been managed by a panel of energy-industry insiders and regulated by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has been accused of being more friendly to utilities than its California counterpart. The Holden bill drew support from CAISO and some environmental groups, who said it would streamline grid operations and allow California to market its excess solar and wind power to nearby states. Ralph Cavanagh, co-director of the energy program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, was a supporter of the bill. The Legislature just couldnt get to yes but the need for western grid integration grows more obvious each day, he said. And if California doesnt lead the inevitable transition, others will. Californias wind and solar generation are growing faster than our inefficiently managed electric grid can put them to use. Were literally throwing away pollution-free electricity during certain periods, and the problem will only get worse. CAISO projected savings to consumers of up to $1.5 billion a year. A study from 2016 acknowledged the change would likely lead to the loss of thousands of construction jobs. Consumer advocates and some environmental groups, meanwhile, worried that California was wrongly ceding oversight of the grid to the coal-friendly Trump administration. They also said it would undermine plans to generate most or all of the electricity consumed in California from renewable sources. California dodged a dangerous bullet that would have subjected our electricity market and grid to big-money, fossil-fuel interests who wanted to break down the clean energy protections California has enacted over the past decade, said Loretta Lynch, a former utilities commissioner and opponent of the bill. Toni Atkins and the Legislature have shown true leadership in beating back this wolf in sheeps clothing. This bad bill would have made Californias clean energy future vulnerable to Donald Trump and his coal cronies who would have run amuk not only in our electricity industry but also would have damaged our economy. California has protected itself and its clean energy leadership. San Diego attorney Michael Aguirre, who represented the Imperial Irrigation District, agreed. California has made an historic commitment to be 100 percent renewable while avoiding the mistake of AB 813, which would have transferred renewable jobs to other states, he said. The idea of transforming the state power grid into a regional, multistate enterprise was first included in 1996, when California lawmakers deregulated the electricity sector. The change stalled after out-of-state companies manipulated the market in 2000 and 2001, driving up power rates in California by $20 billion or more and prompting rolling blackouts across the state. The electricity crisis helped spark the successful recall effort in 2003 against then-Gov. Gray Davis. The proposal resurfaced in 2015, when Brown signed a law directing CAISO to study the impact of a implementing a multistate power grid. The 2016 analysis was issued but the bill failed to pass after questions were raised about how grid officials would integrate the operations of nonprofit CAISO with PacifiCorp., an Oregon utility owned by the Berkshire Hathaway empire controlled by investor Warren Buffett. Supporters of the project tried a different approach the following year, when they reintroduced the plan in the final days of the 2017 legislative session. Holden pulled the legislation days later, after community groups mobilized to defeat the proposal and newspaper editorial writers across the state urged lawmakers not to enact such a significant change without a fuller public debate. A Superior Court judge ruled Friday that a candidate for the San Miguel Consolidated Fire Protection District board of directors, who is the son of a sitting member of the board and bears the same name, must make clear on his ballot statement that he is not his father. The younger William A. Kiel was ordered by Judge Eddie Sturgeon to use the Roman numeral II after his name to distinguish himself from his 62-year-old father, also known as William A. Kiel, a current member of the seven-member board. The younger Kiel, 22, also was ordered to change his occupation from businessman to entrepreneur and to pay the court costs incurred by San Miguel Fire Board member Theresa McKenna, which she estimated to be about $850. McKenna sued the younger Kiel and the County of San Diego/Registrar of Voters Michael Vu. The Registrar was involved because ballot statements of candidates fall under his oversight. Advertisement The ruling had to be made quickly, Sturgeon said, when he learned that the Registrar of Voters was sending the candidates names and their ballot statements to the printer this weekend and all information for the ballot would be needed before 4:30 p.m. William A. Kiel (Courtesy San Miguel Consolidated Fire District) San Diego County Senior Deputy Counsel Timothy Barry updated Kiels verbiage at the hearing, which ended about two hours before he had to have the information to the Registrar. McKenna said that Kiels ballot statement and other necessary documents did not make the distinction between him and his father. McKenna and two other incumbents are seeking re-election this November. The elder Kiel was first elected in 2012 and re-elected in 2016. He and three others on the board are seated until the 2020 election. The San Miguel Consolidated Fire District Board serves about 135,000 residents in unincorporated parts of East County. What is his legal name? Sturgeon peppered the younger Kiels attorney several times until J.B. Haskett clarified that Kiels birth certificate has a second on there. Haskett brought up Congressman Duncan Hunter, the embattled lawmaker who has the same name as his father, who preceded him in Washington, D.C. He wasnt required to put Junior, Haskett said of the younger Hunter. The analogy didnt quite work as the elder Hunters middle name is Lee while the junior Hunters is Duane so the middle initial helped to distinguish the father from the son. Sturgeon said he found it hard to believe the attorney did not see how the names of the two Kiels could easily confuse voters without some sort of clarifying information to separate the two. There is a board member named William A. Kiel and candidate who is William A. Kiel who is different, Sturgeon said. There is no distinction. You dont find that misleading, counsel? Come on. McKenna asked the judge to order Kiel, a part-time student at Cuyamaca College, to list his age on the ballot but Sturgeon denied the request, saying that II would be enough clarification for the voters. Theresa McKenna (Karen Pearlman/U-T) McKenna also asked for several changes in the wording of Kiels ballot statement that disparaged the current fire district board members. The judge agreed that the younger Kiels assertion that the board wastes money in such a reckless manner was to be struck from his ballot statement. The judge also said that Kiels request to be known as a businessman, which could describe his father, a retired civil engineer, would need to be changed to entrepreneur. McKenna has maintained that the father has been directing his sons candidacy in order to gain an extra vote on certain issues. She shared with the judge several specific times, including minutes from past meetings, when the elder Kiel was on the losing side of 4-3 votes by the board. The elder Kiel denied those accusations and said that his son had expressed an interest in politics. He said the younger Kiel was paying the attorney, not him. Kiel, who works at a Smart & Final in East County and lives with his parents in the Jamul area, also has a side business selling Magic the Gathering trading cards. The judge said he could use trading cards entrepreneur if he wanted and McKenna gave her OK, but Kiel rejected that change. After the hearing, Kiel said he understood the judges rulings. He also admitted that his first foray into politics has been a learning lesson, albeit an expensive one. I dont like backing down, and I hate losing, but this makes me want to push to do better, Kiel said. This isnt going to change my views on politics. I feel I filled out the (candidates ballot statement) correctly, because it said first name, middle name and last name, and didnt ask for a suffix. I think not having the word incumbent with my name would have let people know who I am. Sturgeon also told the parties that he lives in the San Miguel Fire area. He laughed when he told McKenna and Kiel that he would not be voting for either them, or anyone running in their election. This is only the second time two candidates with the same name have been connected politically. In addition to the Hunters succession in Congress, in 2010 two men with the name Robert B. Divine were running for a seat on the Grossmont Union High School District. Both Divines had the same address in La Mesa, but on the candidates listing, one had Bob listed with his name, the other had Brian. Neither won a seat on the board. karen.pearlman@sduniontribune.com Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says she has no intention of taking any action regarding any possible use of federal funds to arm teachers or provide them with firearms training. DeVos comments came Friday after a top official in her department, asked about arming teachers, said states and local jurisdictions always had the flexibility to decide how to use federal education funds. Frank Brogan, assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education, said arming educators is a good example of a profoundly personal decision on the part of a school or a school district or even a state. President Trump and DeVos have said schools may benefit from having armed teachers and should have that option. DeVos said Friday that Congress did not authorize me or the Department to make those decisions about arming teachers or training them on the use of firearms. Advertisement Her comments were in a letter to Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the House committee overseeing education, and were posted by the department on Twitter. I will not take any action that would expand or restrict the responsibilities and flexibilities granted to state and local education agencies by Congress, DeVos wrote. Democrats and education groups have argued that the funds are intended for academics, not guns. DeVos heads a federal commission on school safety that was formed after the deadly Valentines Day shooting at a Florida high school. An early draft of the commissions report recommends that states and communities determine based on the unique circumstances of each school whether to arm its security personnel and teachers to be able to respond to violence. The drafts section on training school personnel was reviewed by the AP. That approach, the draft says, can be particularly helpful in rural districts where the nearest police unit may be far away. Other recommendations included employing school resource officers and ensuring they worked closely with the rest of the school staff. In an interview with the Associated Press on Thursday, Brogan cited the school marshal program in Texas where school employees can volunteer to carry weapons on campuses after undergoing training. Educators from some remote rural schools also told the panel that they rely on armed school personnel because the police may take too long to arrive. Others, however, argued that arming teachers is dangerous and could make schools feel like prisons. Brogan said the Every Student Succeeds Act, a bipartisan law that shifts education authority to states, provides about $1 billion in annual funding for various school needs, including 20% specifically set aside for school safety. The people at the local level whove been there for years could make the decisions about what services to purchase, what equipment to buy to fulfill the general broad obligations laid out in that law, he said. It would be up to Congress, not the U.S. Department of Education, to place any restrictions or barriers to use those funds for purposes not currently in the law, a department spokeswoman said. An actress from the hit TV series ER was shot and killed by police in California after allegedly brandishing a BB gun that resembled a semi-automatic handgun during a welfare check. Vanessa Marquez, 49, played nurse Wendy Goldman on the primetime medical drama between 1994 and 1997. She was shot at 1:48 p.m. Thursday when officers with the South Pasadena Police Department conducted a welfare check in an apartment complex for a female resident possibly suffering from a medical condition, the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department said in a statement. Officers were called to Marquezs residence by her concerned landlord around noon, officials said. Advertisement The responding officers requested paramedic assistance when they noticed Marquez was having seizures, the sheriffs department statement said. While speaking to her, officers became aware she was possibly suffering from mental health issues, became uncooperative, and appeared to be unable to care for herself, the statement said. A Los Angeles County mental health clinician was on scene with the officers and continued to speak to Marquez for more than an hour and a half in an attempt to offer her medical care. Marquez then armed herself with a handgun and pointed it at the officers, at which time an officer-involved shooting occurred, officials said. She was transported to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead. No officers were injured. The weapon recovered at the scene was a BB gun and described as a replica semi-automatic handgun, the sheriffs statement said. She was lovely, through and through. So kind and sweet, friend Paula Guthat told the Daily News in a phone interview. Guthat, 48, said she communicated with Marquez over Facebook Messenger on a daily basis, mostly regarding their shared love of classic movies. The Detroit-based friend confirmed what Maquez shared publicly on social media that Marquez suffered from the autoimmune disorder Celiac disease. She was having seizures, and they were not under control. Its really, really tragic, Guthat said. She didnt have insurance, and I cant help but think if she had just gotten the care she needed, her conditions wouldnt have spiraled into a disastrous state and she would still be alive. Vanessa Marquez, 49, played nurse Wendy Goldman on ER between 1994 and 1997. (NBC/Courtesy Everett Collection) The friend said she found it difficult to believe Marquez turned violent or pointed a gun at police. I think she was depressed and frustrated she couldnt get the help she needed, but outside of that, I think she was as sane as I am. Its tough when someone has a chronic illness. It wears you down. Im sure she had moments of real frustration and despair, Guthat said. Beyond her medical issues, Marquez was also struggling financially, Guthat said. She also told me she was afraid her landlord was going to evict her and she was afraid of being out on the street, Guthat said. We will miss her. Ill miss her terribly. Marquez was in the news last October as the #MeToo movement led many actresses to share their experiences in Hollywood. In a Twitter post, she publicly accused George Clooney of helping blacklist her when she spoke up about alleged harassment on the set of ER. I had no idea Vanessa was blacklisted, Clooney said in a statement to Deadline. I take her at her word. I was not a writer or a producer or a director on that show. I had nothing to do with casting. I was an actor and only an actor. If she was told I was involved in any decision about her career then she was lied to. The fact that I couldnt affect her career is only surpassed by the fact that I wouldnt, he said. Marquez appeared in episodes of Seinfeld and Melrose Place before landing her role on ER. Following her stint on ER, Marquez appeared in three episodes of the sitcom Malcolm & Eddie with actors Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Eddie Griffin. Marquez said in Facebook post last November that she was terminally ill. She said in addition to Celiac disease, she also suffered from Fibromyalgia. Authorities on Friday identified a 22-year-old man who was struck and killed by a pickup while standing on Interstate 5 in Chula Vista early Thursday morning. Bryce Alan Bussell was spotted in freeway lanes of northbound I-5 just before the deadly crash, which happened about 4 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol and San Diego County Medical Examiners Office. Bussell was reportedly looking up at the sky before he was hit by a northbound Nissan Frontier. The Frontiers driver suddenly saw a figure in front of (the) vehicle and (was) unable to stop in time, according to the Medical Examiners Office. The driver pulled over, called 911 and cooperated with the CHP. Bussell was pronounced dead at the scene without life-saving efforts due to obvious fatal injuries, the Medical Examiners Office said. Advertisement Twitter: @Alex_Riggins (619) 293-1710 alex.riggins@sduniontribune.com An elderly couple was found dead from unspecified traumatic injuries Friday morning inside a home in unincorporated El Cajon near the Blossom Valley area, sheriffs officials said. An in-home caregiver discovered the couple, whose names and ages were not released, about 8:10 a.m. inside a home on Toya Lane, a dead-end road in a neighborhood north of Blossom Valley Elementary School, San Diego County sheriffs homicide Lt. Rich Williams said. Deputies responded to the home and found both the man and woman obviously deceased, Williams said in a statement. Both had traumatic injuries. Williams told the Union-Tribune by email Friday afternoon it is too early in the investigation ... to draw conclusions about whether the incident might be a murder-suicide. But he wrote sheriffs homicide detectives are not looking for any outstanding suspects at this time, and we have no reason to believe there is any danger to the community. Advertisement The San Diego County Medical Examiners Office was expected to conduct autopsies on the couple to determine the cause and manner of their deaths. Anyone with information about the case was asked to call the sheriffs homicide unit at (858) 285-6330, or after hours at (858) 565-5200. Anonymous tipsters can also call San Diego County Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477. Twitter: @Alex_Riggins (619) 293-1710 alex.riggins@sduniontribune.com U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers reported seizing 112 pounds of methamphetamine valued at more than $369,000 hidden in a pickup truck bed at the San Ysidro Port of Entry Wednesday. San Diego CBP Director of Field Operations Pete Flores said in a press release that the drugs were detected by a canine team, which he credited as a vital tool in helping secure the border. At about 6:40 a.m. Wednesday, CBP officers at the San Ysidro border crossing reportedly encountered a male U.S. citizen, 24, driving into the border crossing in a Nissan Frontier. As the driver waited to enter the U.S., a canine team that had been screening vehicles in line detected something at the undercarriage of the pickup, according to the press release. Advertisement CBP officers directed the truck to an area for further inspection, where the ports imaging system detected anomalies in the bed of the vehicle. Officers reported found 68 wrapped packages of methamphetamine hidden below a false bed in the pickup. The driver was arrested and turned over to Homeland Security Investigations agents for further processing, and the vehicle was seized. 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 Grant Hill man was shot in his home Friday night, and San Diego police arrested his girlfriends son as the suspected shooter. A call about a shooting at a house on Imperial Avenue just east of 29th Street came in at about 11:15 p.m. Friday, police said. Officers discovered the victim with two gunshot wounds to his stomach on the sidewalk outside the house. Officers learned the shooting followed an argument between the man, 59, and his live-in girlfriend. During the argument, the girlfriends son, 27, pulled out a gun and shot the man twice in the stomach, police said. Advertisement The victim left the house and collapsed on the sidewalk. He was taken to a hospital and treated for wounds that are not considered life-threatening. Police arrested the suspected shooter at the scene. 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 man who taught at a San Diego high school earlier this year was behind bars Friday in San Bernardino County for allegedly sending nude photos of himself and trying to meet with an online contact he thought was a 14-year-old boy, authorities said. Riverside County resident Javier Francisco Armijo, 44, was arrested Aug. 14 in Rancho Cucamonga after it turned out the teen he believed he was chatting with was actually an undercover police detective, San Bernardino County Sheriffs Detective Donald Patton said. Armijo temporarily taught English and video/film for Canyon Crest Academy during the 2017-2018 school year, the San Dieguito Union High School District said in a statement. San Bernardino law enforcement authorities also identified Armijo as a school teacher by trade (who) is not currently employed at any school but who had previously taught at various schools in the Temecula Valley area. Advertisement San Dieguito Union High School District officials said they did not receive any complaints about this employee during his brief time teaching on the Carmel Valley high school campus. The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing suspended Armijos credential Aug. 21, citing unspecified misconduct, according to online records. Armijo was one of nine men arrested during the nine-day decoy operation, Patton said. He and all but one of the other men are accused of sending nude photos of themselves to the decoy account. All nine men agreed to meet the fake teen in Rancho Cucamonga for sexual acts, but were instead arrested by undercover detectives. Armijo was being held Friday in a San Bernardino County jail in lieu of $275,000 bail. The San Dieguito Union High School District said that although it didnt receive any complaints about Armijo, it was encouraging anyone to share any relevant information with law enforcement. The safety of our young people is our highest priority, district officials said. Those with information about Armijo were asked to call the San Diego Police Departments northwest division at (858) 523-7000 or the Rancho Cucamonga Police Departments detective bureau at (909) 477-2800 ext. 2850. Twitter: @Alex_Riggins (619) 293-1710 alex.riggins@sduniontribune.com The state Legislature wrapped up its annual session in a sprint that saw it pass boldly liberal legislation on bail reform, renewable energy and net neutrality. On these hugely important issues, California may inspire other states to follow its lead. Or not. Being bold doesnt always mean being smart. And these measures have unresolved issues and deserve scrutiny as each is implemented. Take, for starters, the newly enacted law that eliminates personal wealth as the key factor in whether an accused criminal suspect is jailed while awaiting trial. When a compromise bill from state Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, emerged, critics werent just the bail bondsmen who have long profited because of punitive state laws. Critics included the activists who fought against the bail system in the first place because it had turned county jails into the equivalent of modern-day debtors prisons. Under the compromise, suspects will be rated on their potential danger to society. Those judged low risk will be freed and those judged high risk will be jailed. The fate of those in the middle will be evaluated by judges, who get final say on their detentions. Advertisement This infuriates reformers who worry judges will be inclined to lock people up rather than run the risk of having to face either recall or future election challenges because someone they let go committed a heinous crime. That seems alarmist; only one state judge has been recalled since 1932. On the other hand, that recall of respected Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky just happened in June. Voters were infuriated after Persky sentenced a Stanford swimmer who sexually assaulted a woman behind a dumpster to just six months in jail. Still, this judicial discretion is definitely worth watching. A reform of bail reform may at some point make sense. Hertzberg admits his bill isnt perfect. The bill committing California to get 100 percent of its electricity from carbon-free energy sources like solar and wind power by 2045, by Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, is also motivated by idealism. But it too alarms well-meaning people. If signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, some energy experts warn that it will put the Golden State on track to having perhaps the most expensive energy in the nation which is a bad thing in the state that is the epicenter of American poverty. As with past mandates, it treats natural gas the same as oil, even though it is far cleaner and extremely cheap. Does that make sense? If Brown listens to the California Independent System Operator (Cal ISO) the nonprofit agency that operates much of the states power grid he may reconsider the idea. Or not, hes such a climate change combatant. But Cal ISO cautioned that a 50 percent renewable goal would lead to so much more energy-creating capacity than the state needs that solar and wind operators would either have to often sell electricity for below market price or to build costly power storage sites. What about now? Thankfully, there seems to be far less of a risk with the third bold measure adopted by the Legislature. If signed by Brown, it would establish an even stronger version of the net neutrality rules that were scrapped in December by the new Republican board majority of the Federal Communications Commission. It would ban internet service providers from slowing down or refusing to allow specific websites and video streams and would forbid ISPs from charging websites for faster loading of pages. Some question where states have the authority to act like mini-FCCs. Telecommunication firms warn that the bill would raise consumer costs. But if the bills main effect is to return to the sort of internet regulations seen in the final years of the Obama administration, its hard to see a major downside. Easier to see after this session? A new California. Twitter: @sdutIdeas Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion Readers cant get online access to the Union-Tribune in Europe. Former longtime U-T news staffer Carl Larsen was in Oslo, Norway, and Gothenburg, Sweden, last week and wanted to know what was happening back home so he checked the U-T website but was blocked. Why? he asked. Whats happening is the General Data Protection Regulation that went into effect May 25. The European Parliament approved it in April 2016. Advertisement Its designed to protect European citizens privacy. It requires online content providers, such as news sites, that collect data on readers to adhere to rules. The data are used to sell targeted ads aimed at the readers. Heres what Larsen saw on his screen when he went to the U-Ts website: Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in most European countries. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to the EU market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. The U-Ts website is still operated by the papers former owner, Tronc. Biotech entrepreneur Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong and his investment firm, Nant Capital, bought the U-T in June from Tronc. Some transitioning is still occurring. Content providers that fail to meet the European privacy rules risk steep fines. Instead of working to comply, Tronc shut off access to its properties, such as the U-T, Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune. Other papers prepared over the past two years to meet the regulations. European readers can access, for example, The New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today. Larsen emailed a link to what he saw when he went to the Posts site. It gave European readers three options to access news: 1. Free: Read a limited number of articles each month. You consent to the use of cookies and tracking by us and third parties to provide you with personalized ads. 2. Basic subscription for $6 a month: Unlimited access to washingtonpost.com on any device. Unlimited access to all Washington Post apps. You consent to the use of cookies and tracking by us and third parties to provide you with personalized ads. 3. Premium EU Ad-Free Subscription for $9 every four weeks. Unlimited access to washingtonpost.com on any device. Unlimited access to all Washington Post apps. No on-site advertising or third-party ad tracking. Heres what greets readers if they want to access USA Today news. It appears that youre visiting us from a location in the European Union. We are directing you to our EU Experience. This site does not collect personally identifiable information or persistent identifiers from, deliver a personalized experience to, or otherwise track or monitor persons reasonably identified as visiting our Site from the European Union. We do identify EU internet protocol (IP) addresses for the purpose of determining whether to direct you to USA Today Networks EU Experience. Its expected the U-Ts new ownership will provide a site that will adhere to the European rules, and then readers can access the papers content. Panel on fake news A receptive and engaged audience attended the Fake News, Real Problems discussion last Saturday during the second Festival of Books, sponsored by the U-T and KPBS at Liberty Station. The panelists were Matthew T. Hall, the U-T editorial page director; Lora Cicalo, U-T managing editor; and journalist Brooke Binkowski, former managing editor at the myth-debunking site Snopes.com. Why should readers care about fake news thats news that is truly phony? I would like to see people understand more how corrosive and how powerful disinformation and propaganda are, Binkowski said in an email to the readers rep, and how threatening they can be to democracies. She added another take to consider: But most of all I want people to understand that this is directly related to the financial degradation of the news industry that really started to spiral after 2007. Fewer reporters means more misinformation and disinformation, which means less trust overall in journalism. I asked Binkowski for more of her thoughts on readers and fake news. She was so gracious that she wrote more than I can fit here, so Ill include those comments in next weeks column. The Bryan Mitchell experiment is officially back on. The right-hander will start Mondays game in Arizona against the Diamondbacks. Were still in discovery mode as far as what guys are going to be with us going forward, Padres manager Andy Green said. Hes got an opportunity with the work hes put in over the last couple months on rehab to get back to the point where he is a part of our future. Hes going to have to pitch his way there. Nothing is going to be handed to him. Were definitely going to give him the ball and the opportunity. It will be Mitchells first major league appearance since June 6 and his first start since he went 2 1/3 innings against the Dodgers on May 5. In seven starts, Mitchell had a 6.74 ERA and 2.00 WHIP over just 32 innings. Advertisement Mitchell, 27, was placed on the disabled list June 20 with an elbow impingement he said had been bothering him for a few weeks. Its a good time to fit an extra pitcher into the rotation, as it allows the Padres to push rookie Joey Lucchesi back a day after he threw a career-high 108 pitches on Wednesday. Lucchesi will start Tuesday against the Diamondbacks. How many starts Mitchell, acquired from the Yankees along with Chase Headley in a December trade for Jabari Blash, gets to prove himself is largely dependent on how he fares. The Padres already have five starters they want to get work over the final four-plus weeks with five off-days mixed in. We have six guys in that rotation and multiple off days, Green said. And the understanding (is) that any time we hand the ball to one guy that limits the other guys opportunity. And if theres enough rest, it might not be wise to do that. Another debut Reliever Rowan Wick will become the 15th player to make his major league debut for the Padres this season. The 25-year-old right-hander, a converted position player the Padres claimed off waivers from the Cardinals in February, had his contract purchased from Triple-A El Paso and will take the roster spot of Kirby Yates, who was placed on the bereavement list. Wick had a 2.67 ERA and 1.28 WHIP in 54 innings between Double-A San Antonio and El Paso. He was going to be called up Saturday when rosters expand. Clayton Richard, who had knee surgery Thursday, was transferred from the 10-day to the 60-day disabled list to make room for Wick on the 40-man roster. Really good, not great Rookie left-hander Eric Lauer threw five hitless innings Thursday in his first start off the disabled list. It wasnt because he was particularly energized or feeling particularly sharp. It was the opposite, actually, after getting on a major league mound for the first time in a month due to a forearm strain. The results were better than I felt, he said. It wasnt necessarily a game where I thought everything was dialed in. I just felt like I hadnt been there in a while. It throws off your rhythm a little bit. You dont feel as smooth on the mound. Lauer, who threw 81 pitches, struck out two and walked two, gave much credit to catcher Austin Hedges. It just felt like me and Hedgy were connected, he said. It felt like he was back there playing a video game calling pitches, and I was just trying to execute those pitches. Lauers average fastball velocity (92.2 mph) was the third-highest it has been this season, and he mixed in a few more sliders than normal. But he said that pitch wasnt doing all the biting he would have liked. There are definitely times a lot you dont feel like everything is working, he said. Those are the times they tell you you have to lock in and make the results rather than having everything work out because everything feels good. kevin.acee@sduniontribune.com Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. LOS ANGELES, Aug. 31, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP (GPM) announces an investigation on behalf of Hill International, Inc. (Hill International or the Company) (HIL) investors concerning the Company and its officers possible violations of federal securities laws. If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate. On August 13, 2018, Hill International announced that the Company received a notification from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) informing the Company that the NYSE had determined to commence proceedings to delist the Companys common stock. According to Hill International, the determination to commence delisting proceedings was due to the Companys noncompliance with SEC filing deadlines. If you purchased Hill International securities, have information or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Lesley F. Portnoy, Esquire, of GPM, 1925 Century Park East, Suite 2100, Los Angeles, California 90067 at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9224, by email to shareholders@glancylaw.com , or visit our website at www.glancylaw.com . If you inquire by email please include your mailing address, telephone number and number of shares purchased. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. Lewes, DE -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/31/2018 -- This report studies the global Time Delay Relays market status and forecast, categorizes the global Time Delay Relays market size (value & volume) by manufacturers, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top manufacturers in United States, Europe, China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan and other regions. Time delay is defined as the controlled period between the functioning of two events. A Time delay relay is a combination of an electromechanical output relay and a control circuit. The control circuit is comprised of solid state components and timing circuits that control operation of the relay and timing range. Typical time delay functions include on-delay, repeat cycle (starting off), interval, off-delay, retrigger able one shot, repeat cycle (starting on), pulse generator, one shot, on / off delay, and memory latch. Each function is explained in the table below. Time delay relays have a broad choice of timing ranges from less than one second to many days. At present, in the European and American developed countries, the time delay relays industry is generally at a more advanced level, the world's large enterprises are mainly concentrated in Japan Europe and USA. Although Japanese companies such as Omron and Panasonic has large scale, the European/American based companies, such as Schneider Electric, Rockwell Automation, ABB, have more advanced equipment, strong R & D capability, the technical level is in a leading position. China's relay industry has developed into a national industry with certain research and production capacity, industry product mix has gradually improved, currently China has become international Relay large consumption country, but the production technology is relatively laggard, it can only produce some low-end product, although the new production lines is increasing, the high-end product is still relying on import. But for time delay relays industry, the downstream demand is relatively weak, only few companies provide timing relays and the high-end products mainly rely on multinational companies. The global Time Delay Relays market is valued at 470 million US$ in 2017 and will reach 660 million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of 4.5% during 2018-2025. The major manufacturers covered in this report Omron TE Connectivity Panasonic Crouzet Control Siemens Schneider Electric Finder Carlo Gavazzi ABB Phoenix Contact Sprecher+Schuh Rockwell Automation Fuji Electric Dold Eaton Honeywell GE Schrack Hager Mitsubishi Electric Geographically, this report studies the top producers and consumers, focuses on product capacity, production, value, consumption, market share and growth opportunity in these key regions, covering United States EU China Japan South Korea Taiwan We can also provide the customized separate regional or country-level reports, for the following regions: North America United States Canada Mexico Asia-Pacific China India Japan South Korea Australia Indonesia Singapore Rest of Asia-Pacific Europe Germany France UK Italy Spain Russia Rest of Europe Central & South America Brazil Argentina Rest of South America Middle East & Africa Saudi Arabia Turkey Rest of Middle East & Africa On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Single Time Ranges Multiple Time Ranges On the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, including Industrial & Control Automotive Electric and Electronic Equipment Other The study objectives of this report are: To analyze and study the global Time Delay Relays capacity, production, value, consumption, status (2013-2017) and forecast (2018-2025); Focuses on the key Time Delay Relays manufacturers, to study the capacity, production, value, market share and development plans in future. Focuses on the global key manufacturers, to define, describe and analyze the market competition landscape, SWOT analysis. To define, describe and forecast the market by type, application and region. To analyze the global and key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks. To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth. To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments. To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the market To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the market To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies. In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Time Delay Relays are as follows: History Year: 2013-2017 Base Year: 2017 Estimated Year: 2018 Forecast Year 2018 to 2025 For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered. Key Stakeholders Time Delay Relays Manufacturers Time Delay Relays Distributors/Traders/Wholesalers Time Delay Relays Subcomponent Manufacturers Industry Association Downstream Vendors Spanning over 104 pages "Global Time Delay Relays Market Research Report 2018" report covers Time Delay Relays Market Overview, Global Time Delay Relays Market Competition by Manufacturers, Global Time Delay Relays Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018), Global Time Delay Relays Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2018), Global Time Delay Relays Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type, Global Time Delay Relays Market Analysis by Application, Global Time Delay Relays Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis, Time Delay Relays Manufacturing Cost Analysis, Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers, Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders, Market Effect Factors Analysis, Global Time Delay Relays Market Forecast (2018-2025), Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix. Please visit this link for more details: https://www.marketresearchreports.com/mrrpb5/global-time-delay-relays-market-research-report-2018 Find all Computing and Electronics Reports at: https://www.marketresearchreports.com/computing-electronics For related reports please visit: https://www.marketresearchreports.com/search/site/Time%2520Delay%2520Relays Read our Interactive Market Research Blog About MarketResearchReprots.com MarketResearchReprots.com is world's largest store offering quality market research, SWOT analysis, competitive intelligence and industry reports. We help Fortune 500 to Start-Ups with the latest market research reports on global & regional markets which comprise key industries, leading market players, new products and latest industry analysis & trends. Contact us for your market research requirements: https://www.marketresearchreports.com/contact New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/01/2018 -- The study aims at listening, analyzing and delivering actionable data on the competitive landscape to meet the unique requirements of the companies and individuals operating in the Turkey Flexible Cords market for the forecast period, 2018 to 2025. To enable firms to understand the Turkey Flexible Cords industry in various ways the report thoroughly assesses the share, size and growth rate of the business worldwide. To get Free Sample Report Copy click here @ https://www.marketexpertz.com/sample-enquiry-form/17575 Various research techniques are applied to produce data on competitors' strategies; past, present and future sales and purchasing trends. Business owners planning on surveying the present customers and reaching the target audience will benefit from the demographic data from different regions, to infer dynamic market shifts. Perspectives on different disruptive forces that are believed to have a transformative influence on the future sales make the document valuable. Insights on where the Turkey Flexible Cords market should be heading during the forecast period, 2018 to 2025 and how major vendors are transforming the business today are also explored when drafting the report. The study explores what the future Turkey Flexible Cords market will look like. Most importantly, the research familiarizes product owners with whom the immediate competitors are and what buyers expect and what are the effective business strategies adopted by prominent leaders. To help both established companies and new entrants not only see the disruption but also see opportunities. In-depth exploration of how the industry behaves, including assessment of government bodies, financial organization and other regulatory bodies. Beginning with a macroeconomic outlook, the study drills deep into the sub-categories of the industry and evaluation of the trends influencing the business. To Purchase this Report click here @ https://www.marketexpertz.com/checkout-form/17575 - What will be the marketing and pricing strategies followed by the prominent vendors operating in the Turkey Flexible Cords market for the forecast period, 2018 to 2025? - What are new uses for the existing products or services and how have they contributed in increasing the demand for products or services? - What are the general conditions prevailing and influencing the business environment of the Turkey Flexible Cords market? - Who are the major manufacturers exploring new regions for their products and services? - What will be the status of demand and supply and distribution channel requirements worldwide in the coming years? - What will be the market share of the Turkey Flexible Cords market over the various time periods? Browse Full Report @ https://www.marketexpertz.com/industry-overview/turkey-flexible-cords-market About MarketExpertz Planning to invest in market intelligence products or offerings on the web. Then Market Expertz has just the thing for you - reports from over 500 prominent publishers and updates on our collection daily to empower companies and individuals catch-up with the vital insights on industries operating across different geography, trends, share, size and growth rate. There's more to what we offer to our customers. With Market Expertz you have the choice to tap into the specialized services without any additional charges. Contact us 40 Wall St. 28th floor New York City, NY 10005 United States sales@marketexpertz.com +1-800-819-3052 Proposed Arrangement with GoGel Holdings Inc. provides Tangelo Shareholders with certainty of value, immediate liquidity, and significant premium Shareholders reminded that Proposed Arrangement is value maximizing and is the ONLY viable option available The Special Committee and the Board of Directors of Tangelo recommend that Shareholders vote FOR the all-cash transaction in advance of proxy voting deadline of 10:00 a.m. (Toronto Time) on September 7, 2018. For assistance voting contact Kingsdale Advisors at 1-866-581-1489 or contactus@kingsdaleadvisors.com TORONTO, Aug. 31, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On July 10, 2018, Tangelo Games Corp. (Tangelo or the Company) (TSX-VENTURE: GEL), entered into an arrangement agreement (the Arrangement Agreement) with GoGel Holdings Inc. (GoGel), pursuant to which GoGel will acquire all the issued and outstanding common shares of Tangelo (Tangelo Shares) for C$0.02565 per Tangelo Share in cash by way of a statutory plan of arrangement (the Arrangement). The price per Tangelo Share in the Arrangement Agreement provides shareholders of Tangelo (Shareholders) with certainty of value, immediate liquidity, and a significant premium with an implied aggregate fully diluted equity value for Tangelo of approximately C$4,727,009.77 million. This news release is issued for the purpose of providing Shareholders with additional information in respect of the Arrangement and to assist in their deliberations. Additional Information Relating to Certain Non-Binding Proposals In 2016, as outlined in the management information circular of Tangelo mailed to Shareholders on or about August 16, 2018 (the Circular), Tangelo, with the assistance of a financial advisor, began a strategic review of its alternatives with the goal of improving Tangelos capital position to meet its debt obligations and increase value for all shareholders. Through this exhaustive process, which extended throughout 2017, Tangelo engaged in discussions with multiple prospective strategic partners and financial investors. In early 2018, management of Tangelo met with a strategic third party (the Third Party) that expressed interest in acquiring Tangelo. On May 1, 2018, the Third Party made a confidential non-binding proposal to acquire all of the Tangelo Shares, whereby Shareholders would receive C$0.0260 per Tangelo Share and the holders of debt under Tangelos term loan facility (the Term Loan) (including Third Eye Capital (TEC) and a syndicate of lenders) would receive aggregate cash consideration of US$49.6 million in complete satisfaction and discharge of the outstanding debt balance (approximately US$73.4 million), which represented a total enterprise value for Tangelo of approximately US$53.3 million and a shortfall of approximately US$23.8 million of the outstanding debt owed to TEC and the syndicate of lenders under the Term Loan (the First Proposal). Following the First Proposal, TEC made an offer that contemplated the Arrangement. Subsequently, the Third Party made a revised non-binding proposal to acquire all of the Tangelo Shares, whereby Shareholders would receive C$0.0310 per Tangelo Share and the holders of debt under the Term Loan (including TEC and a syndicate of lenders) would receive aggregate cash consideration of US$52.6 million in complete satisfaction and discharge of the outstanding debt balance (approximately US$73.7 million), which represented an enterprise value for Tangelo of approximately US$57.1 million and a shortfall of approximately US$21.1 million of the outstanding debt owed to TEC and the syndicate of lenders under the Term Loan (the Second Proposal). After careful review, the Special Committee of Tangelo ultimately determined that such non-binding proposals with the Third Party were simply not viable opportunities as, among other things: (i) TEC, in its role as administrative agent on behalf of a syndicate of lenders, informed Tangelo, pursuant to its contractual right under the Term Loan to approve certain fundamental transactions, that it would not accept any offer that would permanently compromise any outstanding debt owed under the Term Loan; and (ii) TECs proposal under the Arrangement represented a total enterprise value for Tangelo of approximately US$74.2 million, which is larger than the total enterprise value for Tangelo offered under both the First Proposal and Second Proposal. More specifically, under the First Proposal and Second Proposal, approximately US$23.8 million and US$21.1 million, respectively, in outstanding debt under the Term Loan would be permanently compromised. As a result of the First Proposal and Second Proposal undervaluing Tangelo, and because the First Proposal and Second Proposal required significant and unrealistic concessions from TEC and the syndicate of lenders in respect of repayment under the Term Loan, and the contractual rights of TEC and the syndicate of lenders relating to such repayment, neither the First Proposal nor the Second Proposal made by the Third Party could be accepted by Tangelo and as such neither non-binding proposal provided a viable alternative to the Arrangement. Other than the confidential non-binding proposals from the Third Party, there have been no bona fide prior offers that relate to the subject matter of or are otherwise relevant to the Arrangement that have been received by Tangelo during the 24 months before the Arrangement was announced. As disclosed in the Circular, the Special Committee, having received legal and financial advice, carefully reviewed the First Proposal, Second Proposal, and the offer under the Arrangement, and unanimously determined that the Arrangement is in the best interests of Shareholders and unanimously recommended that the Board of Directors approve the Arrangement. The Special Committee and the Board of Directors continue to recommend that Shareholders vote FOR the Arrangement. Additional Information Relating to the Fairness Opinion In connection with the Arrangement, Echelon Wealth Partners Inc. (Echelon) was retained to consider the fairness, from a financial point of view, of the consideration to be received by Tangelo shareholders pursuant to the Arrangement. In its fairness opinion, Echelon stated that the Arrangement was fair, from a financial point of view, to the Shareholders. A part of their analysis, Echelon reviewed, considered, and relied upon or carried out, among other things, the following: a) Trading Range a comparison of the Consideration to the result of a historical trading analysis of Tangelo; b) Comparable Companies Trading Analysis a comparison of the Consideration against the implied share price of Tangelo based on publicly available financial data of comparable companies; c) Precedent Transactions Multiples Analysis a comparison of the Consideration against the implied share price of Tangelo based on valuation multiples of precedent transactions in the gaming sector; d) Precedent Transactions Premium Paid Analysis a comparison of the Consideration against the implied share price of Tangelo based on premiums paid in precedent transactions across the gaming sector; and e) Discounted Cash Flow a comparison of the Consideration against the results of a discounted future cash flow analysis of Tangelo. Subject to the assumptions and limitations in its fairness opinion dated July 11, 2018, Echelon has provided the following additional details regarding the results of its application of the five methodologies identified above: Trading Range Echelon compared the public trading values of Tangelo over the last 12 months to the Consideration and determined that the Consideration was in line with the historical trading data of Tangelo. The trading range for the last 52-week period for Tangelo was between $0.015 and $0.045, placing the Consideration ($ 0.02565) within this range. Comparable Companies Trading Analysis Echelon compared public market trading statistics of Tangelo to corresponding data from selected publicly-traded companies that it considered relevant (the Comparable Companies Trading Analysis). Echelon considered the multiples of Enterprise Value to Last 12 Months Revenue (EV/LTM Revenue), Enterprise Value to Expected 2018 Revenue (EV/2018E Revenue), Enterprise Value to Expected 2019 Revenue (EV/2019E Revenue) (together, EV/Revenue Multiples), Enterprise Value to Last 12 Months EBITDA (EV/LTM EBITDA), Enterprise Value to Expected 2018 EBITDA (EV/2018E EBITDA), and Enterprise Value to Expected 2019 EBITDA (EV/2019E EBITDA) (together, EV/EBITDA Multiples) to be the most relevant metrics for Tangelo in consideration of the Comparable Companies Trading Analysis. Echelon examined EV/Revenue Multiples and EV/EBITDA Multiples for each of the comparable companies and then applied a range of selected multiples to the corresponding data of Tangelo to calculate an implied share price of Tangelo. The Comparable Companies Trading Analysis resulted in the following multiples: EV/LTM Revenue: 1.2x to 2.9x EV/2018E Revenue: 0.7x to 2.3x EV/2019E Revenue: 0.6x to 2.1x EV/LTM EBITDA: 5.4x to 9.4x EV/2018E EBITDA: 6.4x to 22.6x (skewed by outliers, median at 7.4x) EV/2019E EBITDA: 6.0x to 7.5x These multiples resulted in the implied share price ranges below (within which the Consideration placed or exceeded): EV/LTM Revenue: Negative to $0.06 EV/2018E Revenue: Negative EV/2019E Revenue: Negative EV/LTM EBITDA: Negative EV/2018E EBITDA: Negative to $0.77 (skewed by outliers) EV/2019E EBITDA: Negative Precedent Transactions Multiples Analysis The precedent transactions analysis considers transaction multiples in the context of the purchase or sale of a public company. Echelon reviewed publicly available information in connection with 15 transactions involving companies that it considered relevant (the Precedent Transactions Analysis). Echelon considered the multiples of EV/LTM Revenue and EV/LTM EBITDA to be the most relevant metrics for Tangelo in consideration of precedent transactions. The Precedent Transactions Analysis implied an EV/LTM Revenue range of 1.3x to 2.4x and a negative share price range (due to the large amount of debt Tangelo carries). In addition, the EV/LTM EBITDA range was 9.6x to 18.2x, implying a share price range of below zero to $0.41 per share, within which the Consideration placed. Precedent Transactions Premium Paid Analysis Echelon compared the premiums represented by the Consideration, calculated with reference to the 1-day VWAP, 20-day VWAP, and 30-day VWAP Premium of Tangelos respective share prices on the TSXV as at July 11, 2018 to premiums paid for shares of target companies in select change of control transactions (the Precedent Premiums) considered by Echelon to be relevant (the Premium Paid Analysis). The premium ranges of the 1-day VWAP, 20-day VWAP and 30-day VWAP Precedent Premiums were 11.4% to 53.2%, 14.0% to 72.1%, and 15.0% to 69.0%, respectively. If these premiums were applied to the share price of Tangelo as at July 11, 2018, the implied share price would have been in the ranges of $0.017 to $0.023, $0.017 to $0.026, and $0.017 to $0.025, respectively, and within which the Consideration placed or slightly exceeded. Discounted Cash Flow The Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) approach separately considers each subsidiary, consolidates the projected revenue and cost items, and calculates the present value of future cash flows of Tangelo. For this analysis, Echelon discounted the after-tax, future free cash flows of Tangelo over a period of 5 years, assuming a terminal value, at a prescribed discount rate to generate a present value (the Fair Value). All forecasts of future free cash flow for Tangelo were based on Tangelo operating estimates. The DCF approach also requires that certain assumptions be made to derive the Fair Value including, among other things, depreciation and amortization, capital investment, working capital, and discount rates. As part of the DCF analysis, Echelon performed a range of sensitivity analyses on a variety of factors. This included calculating a range of estimated share prices for Tangelo implied by the DCF analysis utilizing a range of terminal value multiples and a range of discount rates. The DCF analysis resulted in a share price range of $0.0034 and $0.0327, within which the Consideration placed. Additional Information About the Arrangement A description of the various factors considered by the Special Committee and the Board of Directors of Tangelo in its determination to approve the transaction and recommend that the Tangelo shareholders approve the transaction, as well as other relevant background information, is included in the management information circular sent to the Tangelo shareholders in advance of the Meeting. The management information circular, the Arrangement Agreement, and certain related documents were filed with the Canadian securities regulators and are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Vote Today for this Value-Maximizing Offer Shareholders are reminded every vote counts regardless of how many shares they own and to vote their proxies by September 7th, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. (Toronto Time). If you have any questions, please contact Kingsdale Advisors at 1-866-581-1489 toll-free in North America, or 416-867-2272 outside North America or by email at contactus@kingsdaleadvisors.com. Shareholders that have questions about depositing their shares to the arrangement including with respect to completing the applicable letter of transmittal, please contact TSX Trust, who is acting as depositary under the arrangement, by telephone at 1-(866)-393-4891, by facsimile at 416-361-0470 or by email at TMXEInvestorServices@tmx.com. About Tangelo Games Corp.: Tangelo Games Corp., the parent company of Tangelo Israel and Tangelo Spain, is a developer of social and mobile gaming for desktop, iOS and Android platforms. Tangelo Israel and Tangelo Spain design, develop and distribute their top ranked social casino-themed games within online social networks (such as Facebook) and mobile platforms (such as Android and iPhone). All of the Tangelo Israel and Tangelo Spain games are free to play and generate revenue primarily through the in-game sale of virtual coins. For further information, please contact: Spyros P. Karellas President & CEO Pinnacle Capital Markets LTD. Mobile/Office:416-433-5696 www.pinnaclecapitalmarkets.ca spyros@pinnaclecapitalmarkets.ca Skype: spyros.karellas Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements and information include information and statements as to managements expectations with respect to, among other things, the completion of the Arrangement. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of words such as may, will, should, plans, expects, intends, anticipates, believes, budget, and scheduled or the negative thereof or variations thereon or similar terminology. Forward-looking statements and information are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements and information are not guarantees and there can be no assurance that such statements and information will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Tangelos expectations are disclosed in Tangelos continuous disclosure documents which are filed with Canadian regulators on SEDAR (www.sedar.com), including in the circular that was mailed to Tangelo shareholders in advance of the meeting. Such factors include, amongst others, the receipt of all necessary approvals to complete the arrangement, the timing of the meeting, the receipt of any superior proposals, and the completion of all conditions to the arrangement. Tangelo expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements and information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. All written and oral forward-looking statements and information attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements. September 1, 2018 Following the announcement by the Company of July 26, 2018 of a Leniency Agreement with Brazilian Authorities CGU (Ministerio da Transparencia e Controladoria-Geral da Uniao- "CGU") and AGU (Advocacia Geral da Uniao - "AGU") and Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. ("Petrobras") that allowed the Company to resume normal business activities with Petrobras, the Company has now also signed an additional agreement with the Brazilian Federal Prosecutor's Office (Ministerio Publico Federal - "MPF") (the "Agreement"). The Agreement means that the Company has now also reached a final settlement with the MPF over alleged improper sales practices before 2012, in addition to that with the Brazilian Authorities and Petrobras. As with all such agreements signed by the MPF, the Agreement is subject to approval by the Fifth Chamber of the MPF. Earlier comments by the Fifth Chamber in 2016, when it did not approve an earlier agreement, have been addressed. As such it is anticipated that approval from the Fifth Chamber should be forthcoming. Under the Agreement, the MPF commits to refrain from initiating new legal proceedings against the Company under the Improbity Law, Anti-Corruption Law and Public-Procurement Law in relation to the legacy issues in Brazil. The MPF and the Company will jointly request the court to formally close the Improbity Lawsuit filed by the MPF in 2017, including the associated provisional measure to secure payment of potential damages. Once approved the case will be closed and the agreement will become fully effective. The Agreement provides - in addition to the amounts agreed in the Leniency Agreement - for the payment of an additional fine by SBM Offshore of BRL 200 million (Brazilian Reais) (approximately US$ 48 million). The additional fine is to be paid to Petrobras in instalments: an upfront payment of BRL 60 million, with seven BRL 20 million installments thereafter. This additional agreement brings the total amount of the provision established by the Company in respect of legacy issues in Brazil from US$ 299 million to US$ 347 million. CGU, AGU and Petrobras have expressed support for this additional agreement with the MPF. Erik Lagendijk, Chief Governance and Compliance Officer and Member of the Management Board commented: "We are pleased that following the recent agreement with Petrobras and Brazilian Authorities we now also have reached an agreement that removes the uncertainties around the remaining litigation risk over our historical legacy issues in Brazil." Corporate Profile SBM Offshore N.V. is a listed holding company that is headquartered in Amsterdam. It holds direct and indirect interests in other companies that collectively with SBM Offshore N.V. form the SBM Offshore Group ("the Company"). SBM Offshore provides floating production solutions to the offshore energy industry, over the full product lifecycle. The Company is market leading in leased floating production systems delivered to date, with multiple units currently in operation and has unrivalled operational experience in this field. The Company's main activities are the design, supply, installation, operation and the life extension of floating production solutions for the offshore energy industry. As of December 31, 2017, Group companies employ approximately 4,800 people worldwide. Full time company employees totaling c. 4,300 are spread over offices in key markets, operational shore bases and the offshore fleet of vessels. A further 500 are working for the joint ventures with two construction yards. For further information, please visit our website at www.sbmoffshore.com. The companies in which SBM Offshore N.V. directly and indirectly owns investments are separate entities. In this communication "SBM Offshore" is sometimes used for convenience where references are made to SBM Offshore N.V. and its subsidiaries in general, or where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular company or companies. The Management Board Amsterdam, the Netherlands, September 1, 2018 Financial Calendar Date Year Trading Update 3Q 2018 - Press Release November 15 2018 Full-Year 2018 Earnings - Press Release February 14 2019 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders April 10 2019 Trading Update 1Q 2019 - Press Release May 16 2019 Half-Year 2019 Earnings - Press Release August 8 2019 Trading Update 3Q 2019 - Press Release November 14 2019 For further information, please contact: Investor Relations Bert-Jaap Dijkstra Director Corporate Finance and IR Telephone: +31 (0) 20 236 3222 Mobile: +31 (0) 6 21 14 10 17 E-mail: bertjaap.dijkstra@sbmoffshore.com Website: www.sbmoffshore.com Media Relations Vincent Kempkes Group Communications Director Telephone: +31 (0) 20 2363 170 Mobile: +31 (0) 6 25 68 71 67 E-mail: vincent.kempkes@sbmoffshore.com Website: www.sbmoffshore.com Disclaimer This press release contains inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation. Some of the statements contained in this release that are not historical facts are statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements based on management's current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance, or events to differ materially from those in such statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results and performance of the Company's business to differ materially and adversely from the forward-looking statements. Certain such forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes", "may", "will", "should", "would be", "expects" or "anticipates" or similar expressions, or the negative thereof, or other variations thereof, or comparable terminology, or by discussions of strategy, plans, or intentions. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in this release as anticipated, believed, or expected. SBM Offshore NV does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update any industry information or forward-looking statements set forth in this release to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. Nothing in this press release shall be deemed an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities. English Icelandic Enclosed is information on candidates to the Board of Directors of Eimskipafelag Islands hf. to be elected at the Shareholders Meeting 6 September 2018. Deadline for declaring candidacy has passed. According to the Company's Articles of Association the Meeting elects five members and two alternate members for the Board of Directors. As five declared candidacy to the Board of Directors and two to the Alternate Board of Directors the candidates will be elected to the Board of Directors without ballot at the meeting. Information on the candidates is attached. Eimskipafelag Islands hf.'s Shareholders Meeting will be held on Thursday 6 September 2018 at 16:00 (GMT) at the Company's headquarters in Korngardar 2, Reykjavik, Iceland. 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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(0x7f3fd74d9278)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd78c9de8)', '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(0x7f3fd74d9278)') 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(0x7f3fd78c9de8)') 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(0x7f3fd74e3118)') 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(0x7f3fd78c9de8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd78c9de8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fc53dc570)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd7806a50)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd7806a50)') 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(0x7f3fd70f4238)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6db05c0)', '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(0x7f3fd70f4238)') 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(0x7f3fd6db05c0)') 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(0x7f3fd70ff1d8)') 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(0x7f3fd6db05c0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6db05c0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd62214f0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd6e23f10)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd6e23f10)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 Ghost ship in Myanmar waters earlier towed by Indonesian-manned vessel: navy Yangon, Sept 1 (AFP) Sep 01, 2018 A stranded vessel empty of crew and goods that was found in Myanmar's waters this week was being towed by a ship with 13 Indonesian nationals before it became unmoored, the Myanmar Navy said. Fishermen came across the rusted and empty vessel, bearing the name "Sam Rataulangi PB 1600", drifting in the Gulf of Martaban, about 11 kilometres (seven miles) off the coast of Myanmar's commercial capital. Myanmar Navy personnel boarded the vessel to investigate the situation this week, and shed some light on their search in a post on the navy's official Facebook page late Friday. "It was the view that the ship could have been towed by another ship after two cables... were found at its head", the post said. The navy's coastal radar records showed the movement of two ships on Sunday and Monday in the Yangon and Sittaung rivers -- which run into the Gulf of Martaban. Based on these findings, the navy scoured the waters for a second ship and found the "Independence" vessel, carrying 13 Indonesian crew members, about 80 kilometres from Yangon's shores. After questioning the crew members, the navy discovered that the Independence departed Jakarta on August 13, towing the old vessel bound for a ship-breaking factory in Bangladesh, the Facebook post said. "They faced bad weather when they arrived south of Yangon River", the navy said. "The cables attached to the ship broke, and the ship was floating along with the tide and it was difficult to continue its journey." Old and unseaworthy vessels are often towed to Bangladesh's southern Chittagong province, which houses a thriving -- and controversial -- ship-breaking industry. According to the Marine Traffic website, which lists the movements of ships around the globe, the vessel was built in 2001 and had a deadweight of 26,500 tonnes. The navy said the investigation is ongoing. An official from the Indonesia Foreign Ministry confirmed Saturday that they had received word of this case and said the embassy in Yangon was handling it. "It is the boat that was arrested; the Indonesians are just the boat crew," Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, director at the ministry's Indonesian citizens protection department, told AFP. Iraq hosts military chiefs from Iran, Russia and Syria Baghdad, Sept 1 (AFP) Sep 01, 2018 Senior Iraqi military commanders hosted their Russian, Iranian and Syrian counterparts in Baghdad on Saturday to discuss security cooperation and information-sharing in the Middle East, where the Islamic State group continues to carry out attacks. The Iraqi defence ministry said it had received delegations led by their respective deputy chiefs of staff, to "strengthen cooperation and coordination in terms of security and intelligence between these countries". Russia is fighting rebels and jihadists in Syria alongside President Bashar al-Assad's forces, while Iran is a key ally of both Baghdad and Damascus. The four countries had created joint operations rooms to coordinate the fight against IS, now driven out of all urban centres in Iraq and largely confined to desert holdouts in Syria. In a rare address last month, the jihadist group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi urged his followers to continue their fight. According to jihadist expert Hisham al-Hashemi, there are still 2,000 IS fighters -- nearly all of them Iraqi -- active in four regions of Iraq. Their aim is "to take revenge on those that ousted them", he said. Despite major setbacks in Iraq and Syria, in July IS managed to carry out a string of coordinated attacks in southern Syria that killed more than 250 people. Devdiscourse News Desk 29 Aug 2018, 05:25 PM Algeria, South Africa International Relations and Cooperation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and her Algerian counterpart exchanged views on the political, security and development on the African continent. (Image Credit: Twitter) International Relations and Cooperation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu says South Africa and Algeria remain firm in their support for the independence of Western Sahara. The Minister said this during a media briefing after bilateral talks with Abdelkader Messahel, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Peoples Democratic Republic of Algeria, who is on a working visit to South Africa. Sisulu and her Algerian counterpart exchanged views on the political, security and development on the African continent. In this regard, we noted with concern the continued instability in some of our sister countries and regions. We have thus agreed to continue working together to advance peace, security, stability, unity and economic development of the continent. On Western Sahara, we have reaffirmed our position which is the attainment of the right for self-determination and decolonization of the Saharawi people and the rapid resolution of the conflict within the framework of international legality. We thus welcome the efforts of the African Union (AU) Special Envoy for Western Sahara, former President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique and the United Nations (UN) Secretary General Personal Envoy for Western Sahara Horst Kohler, aimed at mobilising the international community to implement all the AU and UN Resolutions on Western Sahara, she said. At the heart of the conflict, Western Sahara remains Africas longest-running territorial dispute and an issue of continental and international law and diplomatic controversy, having been on the decolonization agenda of the UN and AU for more than 50 years. Morocco contends that Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, is an integral part of its kingdom, mainly driven by the expansionist ideology of the so-called Greater Morocco. On the other side, the Polisario Front, which is campaigning for the territorys independence, demands a referendum on self-determination. The AU has maintained over the years the inalienable right of the Saharawi people to self-determination. It has called on the UN to determine a date for the holding of the self-determination referendum for the people of Western Sahara, a view that Pretoria has been vocal about. SADC conference in support of Polisario Front The Minister said, meanwhile, that SADC will soon host a conference in support of Polisario and the people of Western Sahara. We believe in their right to independence. It is their inaliable right every state has. We regard Western Sahara as a sovereign state and in that regard, we hosted the leader of Polisario on a state visit very recently in recognition of that status. We provide Polisario with the necessary financial assistance to conduct their administrative work and we have offered to host a SADC conference in support of Polisario. So SADC will be supporting Polisario in full, it is a resolution that we have just taken now at the SADC conference and South Africa will be hosting that conference as a measure of that continued support of Polisario and the people of Western Sahara, she said. SA, Algeria sign 33 agreements, MoUs Meanwhile, Sisulu said the visit by Algeria has allowed the two countries to reaffirm their historic and strategic partnership. She said that during their talks, the two countries were able to review their bilateral cooperation. We have thus noted with satisfaction the depth and extent of our cooperation as demonstrated by the existence of 33 bilateral agreements and memoranda of understanding which cover a wide range of fields such as trade and industry, diplomacy, defence, energy, arts and culture, sports, science and technology, agriculture, education and health. While we note the 33 bilateral agreements and memoranda of understanding, we have nonetheless emphasized the need that these agreements are fully implemented for the mutual benefit of our peoples. In our discussions, we have also emphasized the need to pay particular focus on economic cooperation, encouraging further trade and investment and strategic cooperation between our state-owned companies, she said. (SPS) 062/SPS/ Devdiscourse https://www.devdiscourse.com/Article/140145-sa-and-algeria-ink-33-agreements-reaffirm-support-for-western-sahara The Chinese Navy recently received twelve twin engine L-15 jet trainers to provide more, and less expensive, training for pilots. As a trainer, the L-15 is cheaper to buy and cheaper to operate than using carrier fighters for training. The L-15 has two engines, which is more the norm for navy fighters because they spend more time operating over salt water where engine failure is more of a problem than over land and all that salt water creates more reliability problems. This L-15 purchase by the navy is a big deal because since it first flew in 2006 the L-15 has been offered to the Chinese armed forces and foreign customers, without much success. In 2012 it sold twelve to an unidentified customer. In 2014 it sold six to Zambia and the Chinese Air Force has bought a few for evaluation but so far no larger orders have materialized. This is odd because the L-15 seems to be an excellent trainer that is economical to purchase and maintain. Back in 2006 a Chinese aircraft manufacturer (Hongdu) confidently offered for sale the L-15, a 9.5 ton twin-engine, two seat aircraft with a max speed of 1,200 kilometers an hour and a max range of 2,600 kilometers (or combat radius of 600 kilometers is used as an attack aircraft). The L-15 was touted as a more suitable trainer for pilots headed for high performance (like the Su-30, F-16 or J-10) aircraft. It was, but Hongdu underestimated the competition. In 2010 an attack version of the L-15 jet trainer was offered for sale. Normally, the L-15 just carries a trainee pilot and an instructor. But the attack version has a pilot and a weapons systems officer. The L-15 has six hard points to hang about three tons of weapons from. The problem Hongdu missed was that the Chinese were in the custom of moving new pilots to the actual jet fighters they would specialize in and let them get their advanced training there, on the job so to speak. Combat squadron commanders had come to depend on this because it seemed to work and there were never any real complaints about that. With the creation of a carrier aviation force, with the need for pilots to develop better flying skills sooner, the L-15 seemed to have found a place. Air Force pilots will admit that learning to operate off a carrier at sea is more difficult than anything non-carrier pilots have to train for. The completion of the L-15 never seemed able to overcome was the older K-8, which is a smaller, cheaper Chinese jet trainer that is also built by Hongdu. The K-8 is a 4.3 ton, two seat aircraft. The trainee and instructor are replaced by a pilot and observer on combat missions. Max speed is 800 kilometers an hour. The K-8 entered service in 1994, and over 500 have been built. The aircraft can be fitted with a 23mm cannon, and carry nearly a ton of missiles and bombs. The primary customers are Chinese but Egypt, Burma and Pakistan also use the K-8. The aircraft sells for $10 million each. The L-15 sells for 50 percent more and carries more than twice as many weapons. But so far, Chinese military aviation has found it more economical to buy the K-8. Hongdu expects that to eventually change and that is why it has kept the L-15 in production for twelve years and constantly updated it. Items About Areas That Could Break Out Into War August 31, 2018: Indonesia continues to cope with violence caused by religious and ethnic disputes which have both resisted permanent solution. Islamic conservatism and radicalism are largely under control but Islamic terrorist groups still survive. Ethnic unrest and separatism are a more serious problem. This is mainly about Papua (the western half of New Guinea, the fourth largest island in the world), and bitter memories of losing nearby East Timor to a separatist uprising that, after more than 20 years of unrest, resulted in East Timor becoming independent. Indonesia is trying to avoid a similar fate for Papua. There have long been periodic outbreaks of ethnic violence in Papua, but now it is getting worse. Papua was long seen as less of a problem, and a more distant one, than Islamic terrorism. Most Indonesians consider the establishment of East Timor in 2002 as nothing less than foreign interference and stealing of part of Indonesia. Australian soldiers led the peacekeeping force during this operation, and Indonesians hold Australia largely responsible for this "land grab". The rest of the world accuses Indonesia of atrocities in their brutal treatment of the population in East Timor, beginning when Indonesia invaded the province after the Portuguese colonial government left in 1975. An East Timor declaration of independence was ignored by the Indonesian invaders and over a hundred thousand East Timorese who resisted or protested were slaughtered. East Timor was always a very poor and small (1.1 million people) part of Indonesia, and an even more poverty stricken independent nation. Indonesia didnt lose much, except nationalist pride. Independent East Timor is propped up by foreign aid and growing business with neighboring Indonesia. In contrast, Papua has fewer people, more territory and less of a local economy. But Papua does contain huge quantities of valuable natural resources. In light of the many problems the UN encountered as East Timor gained its independence, there is not much enthusiasm for assisting Papua separatists. Indonesia is determined not to lose Papua, the way they did nearby East Timor (also populated largely by Melanesians). Papua is much larger and populated with more of a less-educated population with a more tribal culture. As Papuans gain more education and political skills, Indonesia will have more difficulty holding onto the place. At the moment, the government is trying to tag the separatists as violent. But the evidence for this is often murky, and the Indonesians security forces have often carried out secret attacks and tried to blame them on someone else. There is definitely some violence but a lot of it is just local tribes that have long been hostile to any outsiders. Papua is a large area that is thinly populated 900,000 people most of them belonging to one of the more than 300 Melanesian tribes. It is the poorest part of Indonesia, with some thirty percent of the population being extremely poor. The Papuans, who were ruled as a Dutch colony for centuries, were granted independence by the Dutch in 1961, but a year later Indonesia invaded and no one went to the aid of the Papuans. The UN called for a referendum to determine what the Papuans wanted, but Indonesia never allowed that to happen. The UN has continued to protest and pressure Indonesia, but nothing has changed, except for growing separatist violence. The government has responded by arresting and prosecuting anyone who openly demonstrates support for separatism. This has provided the incentive for more Papuans to join the non-violent and violent separatist groups. Most Indonesians do not want Papua to be independent. In addition to lots of valuable natural resources, there's lots of unused land that can be occupied by Moslem migrants from crowded parts of the country. But that causes friction because the native Papuans are Melanesian, who look quite different from the majority Malays. Moreover, the Melanesians tend to be Christian while the Malays are almost all Moslems. The Malays are better educated and dominate the government and police. The Malays are also very corrupt and have done little to improve the lives of native Papuans over the last half century. There are a lot of Melanesians outside of Papua, and they are increasingly subject to violence by Malay Islamic radicals. The situation in Papua got worse in 2018 when WPNLA (West Papua National Liberation Army), one of the two armed rebel coalitions, declared the start of a new offensive. WPNLA also claimed that it had gained the allegiance of more of the many armed separatist factions in Papua and that this would enable it to wage a sustained campaign. Their demands were the same one Papua separatists have been using since the 1970s; another vote on independence, but only after all Indonesian security forces have been withdrawn. The last referendum, in 1969, was generally considered rigged. Indonesia spent three decades using a lot of violence putting down Papuan protests. That ended when the Suharto dictatorship was overthrown in 1998 and replaced by an elected government. This encouraged the separatists but armed resistance was sparse and often carried out by uncoordinated factions. That slowly changed over two decades and now there are believed to be over two thousand armed separatists and a growing number (nearly a majority now) willing to operate in a coordinated fashion. The separatist demand that bothers the government most is about shutting down foreign run mines and oil/gas operations. The most hated of these is the Freeport operation which is one of the largest copper/gold/silver mining facilities in the world. It employs nearly 20,000 people, most of them Papuans getting paid much less than foreign workers (but far more than what the average Papuan makes). The problem with the Freeport mine is the massive pollution is causes because waste from the mining and refining operation pollutes a major river system that remains polluted even when it reaches the sea, a hundred kilometers to the south. At first, the growing number of attacks in 2018 were denied by the security services. By the middle of the year, those denials no longer worked. Police and soldiers in Papua responded to these incidents but their actions were not immediately reported because in Papua the police restrict the media and much of the violence takes place in isolated settlements. Eventually, the truth gets out but that only shows that police have been using terror tactics for at least a decade, killing a separatist every month or two and calling the incident one involving criminal, not political (separatists) activity. The WPNLA took credit for most of the attacks and often made it clear the targets were Malays from the Moslem majority of Indonesia coming to settle in a remote area and provide information for police about what native Papuans are up to. As the WPNLA reports via the Islamic terrorists piled up it became obvious that the security forces silence was about cover-up, not a lack of separatist violence. The Papuan separatists gave a long struggle ahead of them and after fifty years the separatists are more determined than ever before. That has the government concerned but not worked. Not yet. Islamic Terrorism The religious problems are all about JAD (Jemaah Ansharut Daulah), an Indonesian Islamic terror group that had affiliated itself with ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant). At the end of July, a court finally outlawed JAD which enabled police to more effectively investigate, capture and prosecute JAD members and supporters. What finally convinced the government to push for a ban and the passage of a stronger counter-terrorism law was a series of bloody attacks in May that JAD took credit for. These attacks were largely against Christian churches and other targets in East Java. These attacks triggered a massive police and public backlash that quickly led to numerous arrests of known or suspected ISIL supporters. Since these attacks police have arrested nearly 200 suspects and killed another 17 who resisted arrest violently. Interrogations and captured documents indicated a larger membership of JAD then previously believed. There was also proof that Aman Abdurrahman, the cleric that played a key role in forming JAD, encouraged the recent attacks even though he has been imprisoned since 2009. Abdurrahman was put on trial again and condemned to death. The date of the execution (by firing squad) has not been set but the police made it clear that they have more than a hundred JAD suspects under surveillance all and all of them would be arrested just before the execution of Abdurrahman. This is meant to cripple any plans JAD might have to carry out revenge attacks. Some known JAD leaders are still at large and being sought. New laws were passed making it easier to arrest terrorism suspects and hold them longer for interrogation. Islamic terrorism continues to be a threat that is closer to where most Indonesians live and easier to report on. Yet ISIL has very little local support. Only about four percent of Indonesians approve of ISIL violence, the lowest percentage in Moslem majority nations. That is still a lot of people (over ten million) but the fact that over 90 percent of Indonesians oppose ISIL makes it a lot easier for the security forces to hunt them down. Despite that ISIL leaders had apparently deluded themselves into believing that they could gain a lot of local support by carrying out several horrific attacks during a short period of time. Al Qaeda had tried this over a decade earlier in Indonesia and failed spectacularly. ISIL failed to note how the al Qaeda in Indonesia fail developed because ISIL, as a more radical offshoot of al Qaeda, believed they were immune to past realities. They were not and that may provide other Moslem nations with another example of how a Moslem majority country can tolerate Islamic conservatives while also being able to crush Islamic terrorism. Most of the recent Indonesian attackers were known supporters of ISIL who had traveled to Syria to live in (and fight for) the caliphate and then returned when the caliphate collapsed. Most of the Indonesians who went to Syria did not come back. Even many of those who were not killed believed they were safer outside of Indonesia. The 500 or so known returnees underwent screening and extensive warnings to not support Islamic terrorist activity while back in Indonesia. Even before these attacks, the government was trying to get the counter-terrorism laws changed to deal with the way ISIL operated (indoctrinating entire families and advising them to conceal their religious fanaticism). In 2017 the government admitted that the popularity of ISIL had led to counter-terrorism forces detecting small groups of ISIL supporters in all but a few of the 33 Indonesian provinces. The May 13-14 attackers belonged to JAD, which had ordered its members to make attacks like these after a May 8th incident at a high-security prison for convicted Islamic terrorists, including some senior JAD leaders. Five prison guards died while preventing 156 prisoners from breaking out. After that the failed prison break there was another incident on the 10th where a policeman, standing guard in front of a West Java police hospital was stabbed by a man who turned out to be an Islamic terrorist. The attacker was shot dead by other police but was identified. Police have intercepted and arrested or shot dead (if resistance was encountered) several armed men intercepted as they sought to get close to the prison where the escape attempt was being suppressed. This did not indicate that ISIL was planning a larger series of attacks. So the JAD attacks came as a surprise and in response, the government surprised ISIL by banning JAD and finally passing the stronger counter-terror laws. Within a few days of the last May attack police, especially Detachment 88 were allowed to arrest dozens of people they had been watching but could not touch because ISIL had, until then, purposely not been violent inside Indonesia. Now the entire country was on high alert and the government quickly obtained the new anti-terrorism law they had been seeking. The new law gives the police and military the power to arrest potential terrorists. This kind of power is unpopular with many Indonesians who remember the decades of military dictatorship that used similar powers to suppress any critics. The military leaders insist they will not abuse the new law and that may well be true if the military is constantly watched for misuse of the new arrest powers. The Indonesian remains relatively free and unrestricted. Meanwhile, the government called for all Indonesians, especially those active on the Internet, to report any suspicious activity. That has worked in the past after a major attack (like the one in 2002) and worked again. Police were soon getting lots of tips and detailed information about what turned out to be JAD/ISIL members trying to hide in plain sight. The problem is this ISIL stealth mode does not stand up to a lot of scrutiny, especially by neighbors. The counter-terrorism intelligence experts quickly reconstructed the how to manual Indonesian ISIL supporters created to avoid police attention. Suddenly the local ISIL threat was a lot larger than believed. On the plus side, many of these ISIL members were still going through training and preparations for major attacks and could be jailed before they were ready. What had the most impact on Indonesians was the use of children as suicide bombers. During the first attack, there were survivors who described how the mother triggered the vest her nine year old daughter was wearing before setting off her own. Indonesian Moslems knew this sort of thing took place elsewhere, like in Syria, Iraq and Nigeria. But to have it happen in Indonesia, the most populous (264 million people) Moslem (87 percent of the population) nation was horrific. Indonesia had always practiced a less fanatic form of Islam, in large part because Indonesia was not converted via conquest but gradually via contact with Arab merchants and seamen. The foreign Moslems attracted converts via personal example, not aggressive preaching and threats of physical harm. But that made it easier for more conservative clerics to attract some Indonesian Moslems who were willing to defend Islam against the heresy rampant throughout Indonesia. Another target was the large non-Moslem minorities of Indonesia. The government tried to placate the Islamic radicals and that seemed to work for a while until it didnt. Now is another of those they have gone too far moments for the Islamic radicals and a growing number of Indonesians are becoming less tolerant of intolerant Islamic conservatives. Some of this shift in attitude is in self-defense. As Islam spread peacefully through Indonesia (until Christianity showed up and provided some competition) only some local Hindus, Buddhists and so on proved able to resist the conversion trend. That conversion was helped by the fact that most of the conversions were carried out by Indonesian Moslems who were tolerant of those seeking to keep some of their traditional (and ancient) practices. This is something Christian missionaries had learned to do, with great success. But Islam was different because back in Arabia and Egypt (where the most authoritative Islamic scholars tended to live) the word was that no such modifications were tolerable. But Indonesia was far away and no one ever seriously proposed a military expedition to rectify this incorrect thought. Then came the Arabian oil wealth in the 1950s and soon there were Arab Islamic scholars opening up madrassas (Islamic religious schools) and building new mosques all over the world, paid for by powerful, pious and now petroleum rich Arabs who sought to protest Islam. All this was to make it clear that a true Moslem did not keep any old religious practices around. Most Indonesians ignored this, but a small minority became believers and by the end of the 1990s there were millions of Indonesians who favored this stricter Islam. Politicians found that the Islamic parties could deliver votes reliably as long as you supported the new lifestyle laws they wanted. So far the Islamic parties, for all their fanaticism, are very much a minority and the majority of Moslem politicians do not want to outlaw traditional Indonesian Islam, which tolerates alcohol, night clubs, education and modern fashions for the women and a lot of other stuff that makes the country prosper and brings in the tourists. Extreme groups like ISIL are forcing Indonesia to decide how tolerant it will be of an intolerant form of Islam. One nasty side effect of all this enthusiasm for defending Islam was increased intolerance of any actual or suspected religious disrespect from non-Moslems. For example, a Buddhist woman was recently convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to 18 months in prison because she complained (privately, to friends) that the sound volume of public address system used by the local mosque was too loud and it would be nice if they turned it down. That casual comment turned into a rumor that Buddhists were critical of Islam and saying unspecified nasty things. That soon resulted in a mob of Moslems attacking a local Buddhist temple. That led to the woman who made comment being tracked down, arrested and prosecuted. The reaction to all this from most Indonesian Moslems and the Moslem clerical establishment was largely negative. These mob actions and prosecutions for blasphemy were seen as unjust and embarrassing by most Moslems. Moreover Moslems were fed up with getting bullied by a righteous minority. Another such embarrassment occurred recently when some Indonesian clerics tried to ban the use of a new measles vaccine that contained tiny amounts of material from pigs. There was no substitute available and Islamic clerics in other Moslem majorities where the vaccine had been used declared that this sort of thing was allowed under Islamic law. In short the more Islamic than thou attitudes that enabled ISIL to get established and grow in Indonesia had backfired. This recent and quite major outbreak of ISIL violence was not unexpected, but ISIL did manage to gain the element of surprise. Up until May, there had not been much Islamic terrorist violence in 2018, even though a lot of Indonesian ISIL members were coming back from Syria and other places where ISIL had been crushed. In February there was an attack on a church in Java. The attack consisted of an attacker armed with a sword. He was subdued but not before he wounded several people. That attack did not set off calls for a major crackdown because it was apparently a lone wolf operation. It was the high-security prison breakout attempt on May 8th that did get the attention of counter-terrorism experts. The prison contained dozens of key Islamic terrorist leaders and technical experts. Such an effort to get them out of a heavily guarded prison indicated that many of the returned ISIL members had been busy, and discreet. Four days later the attacks on Christians showed that the local ISIL activists were desperate, determined but not prepared for a major effort. Indonesia has established a remarkable record of suppressing Islamic terrorist violence within its own borders but that has resulted in most Indonesian Islamic terrorists fleeing the country and showing up elsewhere. This approach to suppressing Islamic terrorist activity required continuous and active measures to detect and arrest Islamic terrorists. But ISIL was different, even though most Indonesian ISIL recruits also fled the country. Until recently there was no indication that something big was coming. While the war against ISIL in Syria and Iraq was raging during 2016 Indonesian counter-terrorism forces crippled ISIL efforts to expand into Indonesia. Counter-terror forces crushed MIT (Mujahadeen Indonesia Timur, or Mujahadeen of Eastern Indonesia), the last of the older Islamic terrorist organizations still active in the country. MIT was long led by Santoso (single names are common in this region), who openly declared MIT part of ISIL in 2014. In 2016 a series of raids and arrests left Santoso dead and MIT reduced to fewer than ten active members. MIT carried out some attacks before 2017 but suffered heavy losses in the process. Since 2014 MIT concentrated most of its efforts on recruiting and setting up trained cells of terrorists in other parts of the country. After late 2014, with the Islamic state established in eastern Syria and western Iraq Indonesia cooperated in identifying its citizens suspected of going overseas to work with Islamic terrorist organizations. Thus hundreds of Indonesians were arrested overseas (usually in Turkey) and deported to Indonesia to face prosecution or, at the very least, constant surveillance. This was because many Indonesians remembered what happened when several dozen Indonesians who went to fight in with al Qaeda in Afghanistan during the 1980s. Many of these men returned to Indonesia and formed Islamic terrorist groups that, after 2001, carried out several spectacular attacks, including one in 2002 that killed nearly 200 foreign tourists. This resulted in a major counter-terrorism campaign that eventually killed or drove into exile nearly all the active Indonesian Islamic terrorists. There was a real fear that some of those ISIL members returning from Syria will try to emulate what the Afghan veterans did. In 2015 police revealed that they were monitoring returning ISIL men and would act against any suspected of engaging in terrorist activities in Indonesia. Many arrests since then are apparently a result of that surveillance program. ISIL responded by urging members to conceal their Islamic radicalism as much as possible. There were some forms of Islamic terrorism that were more acceptable with Indonesians and ISIL exploited that by attacking non-Moslems. That had already led to increased counter-terror activity each year on Java and Sumatra before Christmas. Police make numerous arrests and seized bombs or bomb components intended for attacks on Shia and Christian communities. Christians are ten percent of the population while Shia are less than a half percent of Indonesian Moslems while Buddhists and Hindus are about two percent. These minorities are not evenly distributed so there are areas that are all Moslem and easier for Islamic terrorist groups to recruit and survive. The Christian islands used to be almost entirely Christian, but since the 1980s the government has encouraged (with laws, money and land) Moslems from overpopulated areas to move to less populated Christian territories. This has created frictions on islands like Sulawesi that are not entirely religious. Islamic terrorist groups began forming in the late 1990s and concentrated their attacks on non-Moslems, both local and foreign (tourists). Since 2013 small ISIL type (or affiliated) groups gave been appearing and single out Shia Moslems as well as Christians and other non-Moslems (or Moslem sects ISIL does not approve of). Islamic conservatives in the government (especially parliament and the judicial system) deliberately target Christians by accusing them of anti-Islamic acts. These accusations are almost always false but because of the way politics works in democracies with a Moslem majority, such accusations mobilize many Moslems who are willing to demonstrate, often violently, in support of defending Islam. That explains why Islamic terrorism continues to survive in Indonesia. The government does not want to offend the many Islamic conservatives out there. The Islamic conservative politicians use religion as a tool to get what they want, which often has nothing to do with religion or the infidel (non-Moslem) threat. Islamic political parties are unable to gain wide popularity but together they have gained control over 10-20 percent of the seats in parliament. The percentage varies depending on how active Islamic terrorists have been. But there is something else unique about Indonesia, the nation with the largest Moslem population in the world. Islam is not the state religion of Indonesia as it is in most other Moslem majority nations. Indonesia officially recognizes five religions; Islam, Roman Catholicism, Protestant Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. The founders of the Indonesian state (formerly a Dutch colonial government) found the Dutch approach to religion (deliberately allowing multiple religions and prohibiting religion based persecution) could work in Indonesia because the Dutch had demonstrated that. So Islamic political parties face a formidable number of constitutional and cultural challenges to gaining control of the government. Most Indonesians are fine with letting the Islamic parties operate openly as long as they observe the laws and constitution. So far that has worked. The recent ISIL attacks, especially those using young children, puts the Islamic politicians on the defensive for a while. The major Islamic party, the PKS (Prosperous Justice Party) has, since 2004, managed attract and keep about eight million voters. The next elections are in 2019 PKS is expected to once more escape any blowback from the outbreak of ISIL violence. While PKS is led by Moslem clerics it has managed to hold onto voters by playing down Islamic lifestyle rules (over blasphemy and vaccines) and concentrating on reducing corruption and promoting what Westerners would see as a socialist economic platform. PKS also encourages more foreign investment and economic expansion. Yet lurking in the background is the fact that Islamic scripture (depending on who is interpreting it) approves of and encourages violence against non-Moslems and Moslem heretics. Islam is the only major religion to be burdened by that and it is a persistent problem that no one has found a permanent fix for. Indonesia, however, is the only Moslem majority nation that deliberately prohibits Islam from dominating the nation. No Indonesian ruler ever invoked defending Islam to justify his rule. Indonesia does allow a lot of experimentation. For example, the province of Aceh (the first part of Indonesia to be converted to Islam centuries ago) was allowed to implement Islamic law as part of a deal to end a separatist rebellion. Aceh is still subject to federal laws and the use of Islamic (sharia) law does not appear to have made life better for the people of Aceh. Most Indonesians expect Islamic terrorism to be similarly tamed. So far Islamic terrorism is still around, regenerating each time it is crushed. There are important lessons to be learned from the "Global War on Terror" that has been going on since the 1990s. For one thing economic and social changes during 20th century made it possible for anyone to be a terrorist. Worse, defeating the "leadership" will not necessarily end the conflict. In fact, because of new technology and more money, there doesn't have to be a "leadership" at all. Anyone with an alleged-grievance or a "vision" can undertake their own "war." This sort of one man movement has happened even before Islamic fanatics made this sort of misbehavior into a massive and sustained problem. In the past terrorism had many colorful individuals. New York City had "Mad Bomber" George Metesky in the '40s and '50s. The "American Republican Army" undertook two bombings in 1961. The "Unabomber", Theodore J. Kaczynski, was active from the 1970s to the '90s. These were actions of "super-empowered individuals," people with grievances, access to explosives and enough skill to plant bombs without getting caught. Fortunately, such crazed but capable people are rare. Terrorist movements attract a lot of the less-educated, less-skilled and less-successful (and more easily caught), but they are well funded, have mass appeal in the Islamic world and are the continuation of a cycle of Islamic terrorism that goes back over a thousand years. Modern terrorism is largely organized and nearly 90 percent of the victims and perpetrators are Moslems. In other words, the enormous increase in terrorist activity and deaths began in the 1970s and peaked in 2014 was, and is, all about newly wealthy Moslems at war with each other. Although efforts were made to go after non-Moslems, over 85 percent of those killed or displaced were other Moslems. Over a trillion dollars in oil income has gone to Moslem nations in the Middle East, particularly Arabia, since World War II and a lot of it was in turn donated to charities. In the Moslem world, anyone who defends Islam by force is worthy of charity. During this peak in terrorist activity, five nations (Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria, in that order) accounted for 80 percent of all terrorism related deaths in 2013 and even more in 2014. Four Islamic terrorist organizations; ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant), al Qaeda, Boko Haram and the Taliban accounted for nearly 70 percent of all terrorist deaths. Many of the lesser terror groups are also Islamic. In fact, of the top ten nations by terrorist activity (Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, Syria, India, Somalia, Yemen, Philippines and Thailand) only India and the Philippines had a significant minority of terrorist deaths that were not carried out by Moslems. In those two countries, the minority terrorists were leftist rebels who had not noticed the collapse of radical socialism in 1989. Meanwhile, the rapid growth in Islamic terrorism violence caused the total number of terrorist acts to increase 44 percent in 2013 over 2012. Mainstream Islamic scholars long opposed the theological misdeeds of the terrorists but were either shouted down, terrorized into silence or ignored (especially by key media in the Islamic world) or murdered. As more Moslems were killed as "collateral damage" to Islamic terrorism, the more pressure there was on Islamic scholars to openly condemn the sins of the killers. Even before September 11, 2001, Pentagon and State Department officials were making this point, without much success. The theological errors of the current crop of Islamic terrorists have been around since the end of World War II and have never been a secret. Moreover, the goals of the terrorist groups (Moslem Brotherhood, Salafists, al Qaeda, ISIL and so on), were initially the removal of the tyrants running, and misruling, Moslem nations. For that reason, these Islamic terror movements were widely popular, until they started killing a lot of the people there were supposedly fighting for, not against. Moslem theologians knew they were vulnerable to a very physical backlash if they openly criticized these "heroes," so they kept quiet, as did a lot of Moslems living in majority Moslem communities. The current outbreak in Islamic terrorism is largely self-inflicted and is kept going by the ease with which young Moslem men will get involved. This is not unusual. For example, there is a similarity in ages of the Iraqi terrorists, and common criminals back in the United States. In both cases, 80 percent of the suspects were between 18 and 25. This is the prime age for criminal and anti-social behavior and has been for a long time. In the United States, it was also the case that young criminals tended to be poorly educated, and often illiterate. What was different with Islamic terrorism is that there was a lot of money available for dedicated (willing to die) soldiers of Islam. That money did not always come via Moslem charities (which were some hijacked, by force, by Islamic terror groups). After World War II it became increasingly popular in the booming Western economics to spend more on charitable works. Unlike in the past, if there was a disaster anywhere on the planet government and private groups were ready to go in with free food, medical care and much else to prevent mass deaths from starvation, disease and privation. Eventually, it was noticed that local outlaws (including Islamic terrorists) could get this aid, often by force or via extortion. It was years before this reality was generally recognized and there is still no solution for these malignant side effects. This pattern accounts for the popularity of Islamic terrorism in the Moslem world. The poor economic, political and scientific performance of the Moslem, especially the Arab, world when compared to the West leaves young Moslems with few options. There are practical reasons for this lack of progress. For example, the Arab world didn't adopt printing until two centuries after it became common in the West. This was partly due to the complexities of written Arabic. There are thousands of rules governing how Arabic letters are joined, and it was difficult for typographers to make it work. A further complication was resistance from the Islamic religious establishment. Printed Arabic had to be very much like written Arabic, otherwise one was defaming the language of the Koran, which is God's word. This is one of the (many) reasons the Arab world publishes books at a tenth the rate of the rest of the world. The lack of books leads to knowledge being transmitted more slowly. That brings up another obstacle. For a thousand years, there has been a struggle between a large segment of the Islamic clergy, and Moslem scientists and engineers. In a pattern that persists to the present, Islamic conservatives condemned many things that are "new" as "un-Islamic." Thus the al Qaeda enthusiasm for this attitude is nothing new. The price paid for this attitude has been enormous. Moslem countries contain a disproportionate number of the illiterates compared to the rest of the world. Arab college students are much less likely to study science and engineering than are non-Moslem students. The West produces more than a hundred times as many Nobel prizes in science, per million people, than does the Islamic world. The education shortage results in less wealth. GDP of all Islamic countries is a fifth of the European Union and the United States (which contain half as many people.) Unemployment rates are much higher in Islamic countries, and most are ruled by dictators or monarchs. Without science, education and democracy, you find that science and economic progress cannot flourish. It's only recently become fashionable among Moslems to attribute their problems to internal conditions. The Saudi financed Arab Reform Movement tries, with limited success, to overcome this "blame the outsider" attitude. Even the Saudi royal family believes in the goals of the Arab Reform Movement, and the need for the Islamic world to invest more in education and economic freedom. But thousand year old habits are difficult to erase quickly. This is why Westerners can speak with educated Moslems and come away thinking that friendly relations between the Western and Islamic world are more likely than not. But among the vast majority of poorly educated, and often illiterate, Moslems, the West is feared and hated. Moslems with some education are envious of the West and until recently comprised most of the migrants to the West. Moslem tyrants play on this, as they have for centuries, to blame the misery the tyrants have created on infidel (non-Moslem) foreigners. This easily translates to accusations of a Western war on Islam. The poor economic performance, and tendency not to allow women to be educated, leads to many young, ignorant, unemployed men. These are prime prospects for Islamic radical groups. The pitch is that it is all fault of someone else and that if we kill enough of the right people (local tyrants, and their foreign allies) then all will be right again. It won't, it hasn't, but it works great for recruiting of the young, clueless and desperate. In the past, most, but not all, major wars had a religious component but the most destructive one in history (by percentage of existing human population killed) was the Mongol wars of expansion (1206-1405). This was a multi-generational effort that was neither religious nor ethnic. The Mongols simply had a superior military system, practical and innovative leadership and an urge to conquer and were quick to incorporate other groups (especially the Turkish peoples) and anyone with useful skills. While many Mongols adopted Islam by the end of the effort, Buddhism was also very popular and any religion was tolerated if the practitioner obeyed the laws. During these two centuries of conquest, the global population (most of it in Eurasia) was about 380 million. The Mongol conquests killed (directly) about 47 million (12 percent). If you count their key roles in spreading the Bubonic Plague during that period, you could double their death toll to nearly 100 million (a quarter of the world population during their conquest). Nothing since has come close, in large part because global population growth exploded after 1400, reaching a billion in the early 19th century, two billion by the 1930s, three billion by 1960, four billion in the 1970s, five billion in the 1980s and six billion by the end of the 2oth century. Thus while the wars caused by radical socialism (nationalists and internationalists, Nazis and communists) killed nearly 200 million in the 20th century (1920-1980), it was a much smaller percentage (seven percent) of the global population than what the Mongols inflicted. Islamic terrorism, as deadly as it is, does not attract the talent or innovation that made the Mongols and radical socialists so deadly. But Islamic terrorists do excel at terrorizing even if their ability to follow up is not nearly as impressive. A MAN has been sentenced to five years and six months in prison for attempting to rape a woman in Stratford in June. Paul Lulian Comanescu, 32, of Birmingham Road, Stratford, pleaded guilty to attempted rape at Warwickshire Crown Court on 12th July 2018. Comanescu admitted to carrying out the attack on the woman - who is in her 30s - in the early hours of 2nd June. He started to talk to the woman as she walked along Clopton Road. When they reached a grassy area at the junction with Clopton Road and Arthur Road he attacked her. The woman's screams scared the man off and alerted people in the surrounding houses who came to her help and called the police. Comanescu was arrested two days later following a positive DNA match. The conviction followed an investigation by Warwickshire Police CID. Papers were also served for Comanescu's deportation upon release from prison. Detective Inspector Liam Barry said: "This was a shocking attack that terrified the victim. I'd like to recognise her bravery throughout the investigation; her support and the overwhelming evidence against Comanescu undoubtedly led to him entering an early guilty plea. "Fortunately, sexual offences at the hands of strangers are extremely rare but when they happen they have a huge impact on the victim and cause concern in the wider community. "I would like to pay tribute to all the officers and staff involved in this investigation. Their skill and professionalism led to Comanescu being quickly identified and arrested. "We welcome today's sentence; Comanescu is a dangerous individual and jail is clearly the best place for him." Business schools should examine state institutions and recommend changes View(s): A senior Minister has urged business schools in the country to examine the operation of all government institutions in the country and make recommendations to eliminate inefficiency, waste and corruption. This, according to Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Science, Technology, Research, Skills Development, and Vocational Training and Kandyan Heritage, would help to improve their performance so that the tax paying public will get their moneys worth and the country can be transformed into a modern forward looking one. He was speaking as the Chief Guest at the recent inauguration of the International Conference on Business Innovation organised by NSBM, the Green University, at Homagama. The Minister while thanking NSBM for organising the conference, complimented it for being perhaps the best business school in the country, at present. The minister pointed out that there is fierce competition in the field of business schools and that a great effort is needed to stay ahead. Dr. Amunugama, according to a media release issued by the ministry, had noted that business schools must impart the latest and best knowledge available to their students and said that this required the continuous sifting of the creation of new knowledge that is going on all the time, throughout the world. The minister referred to the phenomenon of information over-load and said that it is the duty of all educational institutions, including business schools to have systems going, to sift through this continuous stream of new knowledge, separating out the essential from the non essential and transfer the best to their students in the teaching-learning process. Discount culture hurts Sri Lankas top tea brand View(s): Dilmah, Sri Lankas and the worlds top single origin Ceylon Tea, has been seriously affected by what it calls the discount culture. Thirty years ago Dilmah was launched as a single origin pure Ceylon tea, grown and packed in Sri Lanka. Today, it is the same tea in every respect. In several territories including Australia and Europe, we are now forced to sustain huge losses as retailers do not entertain any price revision to their buying prices, whilst their own margin keeps improving all the time. Traders, large and small are the cause of poverty in the world. If they pay a fair price to farmers for their hard work in producing the cup of tea, coffee or chocolate, poverty will become history, noted Dilmah Chairman Merrill J. Fernando in the companys 2017-18 annual report released this week. He said retailers globally are relying on heavy discounts to increase sales. Big trading brands revel in this discount culture as price cutting is funded by compromising the quality of products even though that happens at the expense of taste, wellness and the producer. The result, he points out, is a poor product which most consumers would not touch, if they knew the truth about what they eat and drink today. Some years ago, all branded products around the world had to declare the origin of their contents by law. This was the customers only guide to quality of their brands. Now they sell tea just tea that comes from anywhere as long as it is the cheapest. The brand names however remain the same. Customers are made to pay for old brand names, not quality, he said. On fair trade, he said Fair Trade is strictly a marketing strategy aimed at gaining the sympathy and support of consumers without addressing the causes of unfair trade. Fair Trade provides enhanced profits to retailers, importers, and everyone in the supply chain except farmers, the most deserving segment of the industry. Fair Trade must start with the farmer, by assuring producers of a fair price for their hard work and dedication in producing your cup of tea, he said. Grundfos offers innovative water solutions for Sri Lanka By Bandula Sirimanna View(s): View(s): Danish pump manufacturer Grundfos will be joining hands with Sri Lankan authorities to bring innovative water technologies alive in the country following its restructuring of regional operations as part of a strategy to drive growth across the Asia Pacific, company officials said. Asia Pacific operations will now come under four geographical clusters including East Asia, South Asia, Oceania, and Indochina providing a stronger focus on local requirements, the company announced. The aim is to develop new solutions as regards water treatment, water quality monitoring and new digital solutions, as well as to ensure even better use of efficient pump technologies for the countries in the region. Supplying world-class pumps in Sri Lanka for 25 years, Grundfos is today focused on commercial building services, water utility, and supporting industry with leading pump and water solutions, Regional Managing Director of Asia Pacific Region, Kim Jensen told the Business Times in an e-mail communique recently. Grundfos biggest projects are supplying pump solutions for Shangri-La Colombo under its commercial building services arm, upgrading works for Lion Brewery as part of industry, as well as supporting the construction of a water treatment plant for the Vavuniya General Hospital, the second largest hospital in the Northern Province. From an industry perspective, a key sector the company is focused on is the beer industry, where they provide various water transfers and booster pumps required in their production process, as well as for the gloves production industry, he disclosed. Grundfos Sri Lankan partners, Analytical Instrument and Hayleys provide after-sales services to the industry and commercial building services sectors, respectively. Sri Lanka has also recently been hit by the worst drought in 40 years, he said adding that technology could play a significant role in mitigating droughts, in the form of data gathering to determine drought intensities, data-based analytics to detect and prevent water loss through pipe leaks, rainwater harvesting, and energy-efficient water supply. To help drought-stricken cities tackle periods of water scarcity, Grundfos has supplied solutions that are able to utilise abundant solar energy to power water supply, such as the SQFlex submersible pumping system. The pump system offers the perfect water supply solution in remote areas where water is scarce and the power supply is non-existent or unreliable, he said. Outside of flood management, Grundfos supplied to water treatment plants in the Mannar and Vavuniya districts. The Danish company is optimistic about Sri Lankas ongoing mega mixed-development projects, including the Colombo Port City, Regional Business Director-water utility in Asia Pacific Region Tan Chee Meng said pointing out that the company is in talks with customers for other upcoming projects. Grundfos has stepped in to address the issue of water leakage with forward-looking water utility solutions such as the Demand Driven Distribution system which uses an intelligent software that automatically adjusts water flow through the use of remote sensors at the end user points of use, he revealed. Probe on Peoples Bank GMs increment package By Bandula Sirimanna View(s): View(s): The Government has rejected the extension of service of the General Manager (GM) of the Peoples Bank and was probing his annual salary package, amidst reports of mismanagement and mounting, bad loans at this state institution. The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Public Enterprise had accepted the recommendation of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) not to extend the contract service of Peoples Bank GM N. Vasantha Kumara who is currently drawing a monthly salary of Rs.2.1 million, COPE Chairman, and MP Sunil Handunnetti told the Business Times. The two ministries have informed this decision in writing to COPE following revelations that an overdue increment with arrears of Rs.75 million was paid to the Peoples Bank GM and former Senior DGM, he said adding that this payment has been made as per a board paper presented to the board of directors of the bank by the GM himself. This was one of the rare occasions where the government has taken prompt action responding to a COPE recommendation, he pointed out. Meanwhile a top official of the Ministry of Public Enterprise disclosed that the bank has been directed to improve its credit quality and enhance recovery mechanisms in the wake of startling revelations by the COPE on mismanagement and bad loans. The bank has issued loans amounting to Rs. 38,000 million in 2017. Out of this amount, Rs. 3,607 million (9 per cent) has been identified as non-performing loans by 31 May 2018, COPE Chairman and MP Handunnetti divulged Out of this, the bank has failed to obtain a single installment from loans amounting to Rs. 140 million, he said adding that this default in repayments was a never ending process in the bank. COPE has also directed the management of the bank to provide details on its recent digitisation project where there was an additional expense payment of Rs. 84 million. We have asked for further details on that as the bank authorities informed COPE that the money was spent for foreign trainers who carried out familiarisation of digitisation, he said. The required process to become the first digitised bank started in June 2015 aimed at creating a total solution using the current core banking platform, a senior official of the bank said. Loan portfolios of the bank depend on the exposure to the Government including State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) which hinder the ability to extend loan facilities to new developing sectors of the economy and diversification of the product portfolio, he pointed out. According to Treasury data, loans and advances increased by 7.8 per cent in January-April 2018 to Rs. 1,158 billion. The bank recorded a profit before tax of Rs. 7.8 billion for the first four months of 2018 in comparison to Rs. 4.6 billion witnessed in the corresponding period of 2017. UN expert on debt and human rights to visit Sri Lanka View(s): The UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, will conduct an official visit to Sri Lanka from September 3 to 11 on the invitation of the Government. My visit aims at collecting firsthand information and examine questions related to debt and other financial obligations from a human rights standpoint, said Mr. Bohoslavsky in a media statement issued by the UN. The purpose of the mission is to identify good practices, challenges and potential gaps to be addressed. An important objective of my visit is to study the effects of public debt and related polices on the full enjoyment of human rights. I am particularly interested in understanding how human rights standards are integrated in economic policies and examining ongoing reforms and programmes aimed at inclusive growth. I would like to grasp how these measures translate into potential improvements and challenges for the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights. During his visit, the Independent Expert will pay specific attention to the incorporation of human rights standards in international development financing, microfinance, and efforts deployed to prevent and combat illicit financial flows in the country. I look forward to engaging with the authorities of Sri Lanka, civil society, academics, the international community and other relevant stakeholders, Bohoslavsky said. The Independent Expert will hold a news conference in Colombo on Tuesday, September 11. He will submit a comprehensive report about his visit to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2019. A grand Maharaja style wedding at Temple Trees hall View(s): It was a lavish, fairy-tale wedding for more than 1,500 guests at one of Sri Lankas best known addresses on Thursday. Chatura, the son of Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, and a parliamentarian himself was given in marriage by his father Rajitha Senaratne at a gala wedding ceremony at Temple Trees the official residence of the Prime Minister. The reception was held at the new block built by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa next to the old bungalow cum office and used for mass receptions hosted by the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa and now by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Though previous Presidents or Prime Ministers have attested marriage registrations, there has been no full blown ceremony at the Temple Tree venue, raising questions if the same facility would be made available, henceforth, to the ordinary people who are often cramped for places to hold weddings. Crowned Suwapathi (Chief of Health) at a national ceremony just last month, father Senaratne, one of the official spokespersons of the coalition, may have had to pay Rs. 450,000 for the new hall adjoining the main building the price for renting the space for functions. Minister Senaratne told friends that he had to choose Temple Trees as the venue only because he could not obtain a booking at any of the leading hotels in Colombo. True. They are full on such occasions since those hiring it book it many months, often a year in advance and pay cash down. Cabinet ministers, parliamentarians, businessmen, military officers and close supporters of Minister Senaratne and his son attended the ceremony. The wedding invitation was in an opaque glass box with artificial rose petals. The decor in the hall gave the ambience of a Maharajahs Palace, said a guest. The catering was from a star-class hotel. The table decoration was a collection of fruits apples and oranges among them surrounded by flowers. The cake was tall, and all but touched the roof. If social media lambasted Senaratne for the extravaganza, the Minister was not ruffled. During a speech, he took the opportunity to take credit for bringing the yahapalanaya government to power and vowed he would deal with those corrupt. Video clips went viral on WhatsApp. In one, a callers voice is heard reportedly calling Temple Trees with a photo of the Premiers official residence in the backdrop. He asks how much it would cost to book the premises for a wedding and what kind of food was being served. A female voice who replied gave the name of a colleague and directed the caller to make inquiries from her. Whos trying to pull the wool over whose eyes? A query during this weeks Cabinet media briefing regarding how some doctors were allegedly trying to scare patients about the quality of cataract lenses prompted a light-hearted exchange between a journalist and Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne. Journalist: You spoke highly about the price reduction of drugs. I went to see an eye specialist recently and asked him about cataract lenses. I asked him if I should buy one of the brands, of which you said the prices had been reduced. He told me not to be a fool and the price reduction was for inferior quality brands. He told me that I should buy good quality imported lenses that the doctor recommends. What do you have to say? Rajitha Senaratne: After getting the doctors advice, it is you (the patient) who have to go to the shop to buy the lens. You can always check the tag on the lens holder to see where the lens was manufactured. You can see if its American made and then check by how much the price has been reduced now. Journalist: But, Minister, Im going to purchase a cataract lens because Im having trouble with my vision. How do you expect me to read the small print? Rajitha Senaratne: Are you saying you are almost blind? Journalist: Well, I cant read whats written in small print. Rajitha Senaratne: I cant help you there. Why dont you ask someone who can see? It seems to me that the doctor you went to see is also having trouble with his vision. Perhaps he too needs cataract lenses. Journalist: That doctor continues with his private practice. I can even show you the place where he does it. Why dont you shut down the practices of such doctors who deceive patients? Rajitha Senaratne: If we did that, we will have to shut down a large number of practices. There will be hardly anyone left. Sirisena recalls mobike pillion ride from Embilipitiya to Colombo At the ancestral residence of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Medamulana, there were interesting moments. The occasion was the funeral of Rajapaksas brother Tudor Chandra. During a thirty-minute meeting with Mr. Rajapaksa, President Maithripala Sirisena recalled how he had come to the sprawling residence some years ago. I was among those going canvassing house to house for votes for Mahinda Rajapaksa, he said. On one occasion UNP mobs were planning to assault him but fortunately he had received advanced information. A supporter had readily agreed to smuggle him out of the area in a motorcycle. He rode on the pillion from Embilipitiya to Colombo, Mr. Sirisena recalled, laughingly. As the duo were talking, two other Rajapaksa brothers, Chamal and Gotabaya, walked in. A Presidential Security Division (PSD) personnel had taken along with him a tea cup and a saucer a routine practice for both security and hygienic reasons. He watched the tea being made and called upon a volunteer, who was among many assisting, to give the cup of tea to Garu Janadipathithuma or the President. The volunteer took the tea cup with the saucer to former President Rajapaksa. He was confused and later realised it was meant for President Sirisena. The PSD personnel accompanying Sirisena questioned the volunteer. You were told to give it to the Janadipathi thuma. Yes, I gave it to him. Rajapaksa. Eya thamai magey Janadipathi thuma, or he is My President, he said. The matter ended there. Another instance was when Finance and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera visited the Rajapaksa household. The former President who shook hands with him remarked jokingly, I hear you have got married? No, no. I have not, replied a somewhat embarrassed Samaraweera. He hurriedly turned to the lady standing by and introduced her as Lakshmi Jeganathan, his Personal Secretary. I know her, I know her, replied Mr. Rajapaksa. FBI speaks of probe on Rajapaksa assets A team of Sri Lankan judicial officers visited the United States recently on a US government sponsored tour. The last item on their itinerary was a visit to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) headquarters. The FBI top brass gave them an overview of white collar crimes and said that the Government of Sri Lanka had requested the agency to find the assets of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family. One of them said FBI personnel had been visiting Sri Lanka frequently and one officer was in fact stationed in Colombo. They had made available details of cases and hoped there would be action. One in the delegation said, We are aware of that. We are also aware of other instances of such crime at present, like the Central Bank bond scam. Jokes apart, whats Maliks position There were some humorous moments at last Tuesdays weekly Cabinet meeting. Whilst the ministers took their seats, the usual practice under President Maithripala Sirisena is to meet Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in his upstairs office at the Presidential Secretariat. Thereafter, when their brief meeting is over, he checks with officials whether the ministers have turned up. When the go ahead is given, both the President and the Premier take the lift downstairs to the cabinet room, once upon a time, the well of the House of Parliament. This time Premier Wickremesinghe was away in Vietnam. Ministers who enter through one door traditionally had their eyes fixed on the other door for the President to arrive. This time, however, it was Development Strategies and International Trade Minister Malik Samarawickrema who accompanied President Sirisena through the same entrance. They had come down the same lift. Sirisena quickly exhorted to the Ministers present: Here is our acting Prime Minister. I am not, I am not, declared Minister Samarawickrema as he gestured with his hands in apparent disapproval. There was laughter all round. One staunch SLFP minister remarked if it was a joke, the message was not lost. Killing of children for ransom and Sri Lankas nightmares View(s): The progress of ongoing criminal investigations into the grisly killing of several Tamil youths following a racket of abduction for ransom, spearheaded allegedly (here, I use the term quite deliberately) by a Naval officer and others during 2008-2009 will be the crucible on which this Government and this Presidencys commitment to promises made, will be tested most severely. Fair differences between then and now Unlike other instances of the killing of youths, such as what occurred in Trincomalee in 2006, ready excuses cannot be offered as to the chain of evidence becoming cold or pointing to key witnesses living overseas being reluctant to return to testify, as would be naturally the case given the trauma that they have had to undergo. It must be fairly acknowledged that one distinguishing feature of the current yahapalanaya administration is that the Navy suspect was arrested and produced before court which would have been out of the question if the Rajapaksas were still in power. Then again, the fact that the Court inquiring into the matter had proceeded to act according to law is also another demonstrable difference when compared to the past. These officers of the state must be commended to the highest extent possible for carrying out their functions with due diligence despite the enormous and impossible strains put on them by political forces. However and despite these undoubtedly positive developments, the key question here is whether the chain of impunity at the highest levels will be broken and those responsible for enabling these acts to take place and persistently protecting the perpetrators will be held accountable to law. For ultimately, systemic impunity is the core issue, not really the arrest, questioning or even punishment of minions who will doubtless be replaced by other minions in the correct political circumstances, perpetuating these crimes from which we have suffered as a nation for decades. Indeed, the arrogance with which the suspect in this ongoing case smiled and strutted while in handcuffs testifies to this web of impunity. Central issue of tackling the chain of command Sri Lanka is no stranger to the killing of children. The periodic uncovering of graves with the skeletal remains of massacred children decades ago or nearer in time, is just one manifestation. From the killing of child monks in Aranthalawa in 1987 by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to the children caught up in reprisal attacks by armed forces stationed in the North and East at the height of the conflict and including the vast numbers of children killed in the South during the second insurrection of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, this earth should weep blood for the countless innocents mowed down in the course of grievous sins committed by ambitious men. This week marks the International Day of Disappearances as the month comes to an end. These are reflections that are therefore opportune in this context. Disappearances and extra-judicial killings mark the lowest ebb of a nations functioning. As long as these crimes remain unpunished, from the highest levels of those who protected or enabled such atrocities whether in the military chain of command or in the state prosecutors office to those carrying out the acts, only nonsense can be spoken of reconciliation. Put simply, families of those who have had their members disappeared or killed, will not be satisfied by money payments handed out to them or by a state official blandly informing them that a crime has occurred. This, they already know. What they seek is formal state acknowledgement of these acts at the minimum and as a necessary corollary, the chain of impunity to be broken. Our constitutional jurisprudence has consistently stressed the principle that superior officers exercising responsibility over subordinates who commit rights violations, will themselves be held responsible. There are, of course, some notable and puzzling exceptions to this rule as was evidenced in the Embilipitiya Case where the commanding officer of the camp where Sinhalese school children had been detained and disappeared during the eighties in the deep South, due to a personal vendetta of individuals was not held liable in law. In the Supreme Court, he was given the right to be promoted to the rank of Major General on the basis that he had been acquitted in the criminal courts on the basis that he could not directly be responsible for the enforced disappearance of the children at the army camp. The lenient position taken by the Supreme Court at the time belied constitutional considerations and the protection of rights Parents of the victims had, in fact, testified that they had brought their appeals to this commanding officer in order to find out what had happened to their children but that he had done nothing. The law must take its course Certainly these were not precedents that afforded reassurance that the Rule of Law was being upheld with fear and favour to none. Writing for the International Commission of Jurists in 2010, I pointed to the fact that the refusal on the part of Sri Lankas highest court even when the Bench was otherwise proactively responding to violations of fundamental rights, was a major failing (Still Seeking Justice, ICJ). But despite some aberrant decisions in the exercise of its constitutional jurisdiction, the Court has upheld the principle is that a superior officer protecting a subordinate who engages in atrocities or acquiescing in that act, will be held responsible. As a matter of law therefore and applying these principles to the ongoing case of the Navy abductions, those who chirrup airily that officers implicated at the highest levels of Sri Lankas military hierarchy only helped the suspect, must acquaint themselves with the fact that this, as assessed by authoritative local precedents and notably under international law, cannot absolve the individual of legal responsibility, under the criminal law and certainly in terms of constitutional protections. What remains is for the law to take its course. Political interference in that process will only be the last nail in the yahapalanaya coffin. That much must be categorically said. These killings of children were at the heart of a ransom racket and had pure and common greed behind them. They speak to a particular horror that stands in a category all of its own. It is a nightmarish and devilish blemish on this nations memory and must be exorcised with maximum force. The two Silvas in Punch and Judy show: Hulftsdorp Sarath and Beliatte Mervyn Former Chief Justice Sarath Silva stands accused of violating the bar of legal practice for judges after leaving the supreme bench View(s): View(s): Once he was the Chief Justice of Lanka. Bewigged in ermine and frocked in purple. Enthroned on the supreme bench of the land as the fount of justice, the mountain source from which the Nile of all Lankas laws flowed. The final arbiter of the nations sacrosanct laws, whenever a conflict of high import arose. But much water has flowed under the Pons Asinorum the Asses Bridge since then. And the fall of the former Chief Justice Sarath Silva from his exalted state of grace to tumble down to a derelict ignominious state must give rise to alarm and needs retelling if only for the everlasting benefit of the young ones as a warning of the sad, contemptuous ghastly fate that await those who rush to compromise their principles for expediency. That the life and present times of this Silva present a tragic tale with a moral message: That silver locks do not represent wisdom: that high office, however fancifully adorned in scarlet, does not necessarily spell perpetual infallibility. Alas, in Hulftsdorp Silvas case, it has not been so. He shares the same Punch and Judy box with another Silva: Beliattes Mervyn Silva, who hails from the alien area across the Benthara river divide from which terrain wise forefathers have warned the rest of Lanka, not even to entertain a kitten which has still not opened its eyes. In Biblical terms Sarath Silvas fall may even be referred to as the fall of Archangel Lucifer from the Kingdom of God to mourn not his banishment from heavenly grace but to gloat in exile upon his own his pathetic plight and take satanic delight in declaring his stiffened will to wreak vengeance and wage war on God Almighty who. Sole reigning, holds the tyranny of heaven. And mutter to his fallen namesake Mervyn Silva, this Beelzebub, who needs no introduction, What though the field be lost, all is not lost. The incorrigible will to serve the nations craving to have not one but two to keep the people amused by our occasional comic ranting, is still with us. For a mind on its own can create a heaven of hell or a hell of haven. And help keep us in the public spotlight and thus assure us, though pronounced dead, we are still alive and kicking in the dustbin. Though Sarath is Sarath and Mervyn is Mervyn and though the twain may never have met, one common bond ties them together and holds them on track as twin trains of thought, albeit the direction to their common destination maybe through different idiosyncratic routes Both are confirmed and committed full time publicity seekers at heart, who mind not in the least to work overtime and spend the midnight hour in drafting the most outrageous things to say which they know for sure will make the morning news. Even though their latest expressions of their ever changing loyalty, their ever vacillating stance, their shifty opinions writ on shifting sands to be washed away the following day by their own waves of a different froth and foam, invite media criticism and naturally attract public odium, these Two Silvas luxuriate lapping it up, like chameleons do, poised still in statuesque sucking up the sunshine whilst it lasts. For the bliss it brings them to be the focus of newly created self-serving attention. The new selfie shot of their latest twisted twitter. And, though they maybe poles apart, one a lawyer, the other wearing the political knuckle duster, one common purpose has bound them together to deliver their own brand of justice their relative positions of power and office had rendered unto them, according to the impulses of their own political needs and urgings. And both have slammed knockout punches against the Lankan public which has gone unquestioned and unchallenged during the previous regime, merely because it served the interests of their political masters to have them do their work. And which must be questioned and challenged now. One Silva who, whilst seated upon the brimstone stool of justice, and breathing the alpine air of Hulftsdorp Hills unpolluted ozone which his respected predecessors had left undisturbed, prevented the Criminal Investigative Department from carrying on with their investigation into the controversial Helping Hambantota case to seek whether Mahinda Rajapaksa had instead helped himself to 80 million bucks that came from sympathisers abroad to ease the plight of those who had fallen victim to the Tsunami tragedy in December 2004. In an in interview dated August 21, 2011 with senior journalist of the Sunday Times Chandanie Kirinde of the Sunday Times whom possessed the merit to win a Best Journalist of the Year award at the Editors Guild Award ceremony last month. Q: You headed the Supreme Court Bench that heard the Helping Hambantota case where there were allegations of misappropriation of public funds directed at the President? Do you regret the judgment given in this case? His answer: The Helping Hambantota case came soon after Mahinda Rajapaksa was declared the candidate for the 2005 presidential election. An investigation had been started on a complaint made by UNP MP Kabeer Hasheem that Mr. Rajapaksa had defrauded Rs. 70 million of tsunami relief funds. Mr. Hasheem had no personal knowledge about this but the basis of his complaint was a newspaper report. The Police had started investigations in the most suspicious circumstances and within a few hours their report was forwarded to the Attorney General who said there was a prima facie case. At this point Mr. Rajapaksa invoked the jurisdiction of the court alleging he was being politically framed. He feared that he would be arrested and remanded and thus deprived the opportunity to contest the presidential election. So in that situation we directed that this investigation could not proceed until the Supreme Court further heard this matter to prevent him from being arrested and remanded at the time of the presidential election. Had that happened he would have been immediately removed from his candidature. It was a case of the criminal procedure code being used to frame a political opponent. Mahinda Rajapaksa showed the court that the money that was received was deposited in an account and his secretary Lalith Weeratunga also filed an affidavit and said the money was in this account. We had no intuition to say that Mahinda Rajapaksa was a hugely corrupt person and certainly there were no allegations of corruption against him at that time. This was a political vendetta between Mahinda Rajapaksa and from what I see the then President Chandrika Kumaratunga. I would still hold that judgment if I had to give it all over again. There was no question of embezzlement of that money. The President has had the benefit of the due process of the law on several occasions including when he was arrested and remanded for murder and allegations of corruption. I have said this before. If that was indeed his judicial view, then why the repentance later when he, in an interview with the BBC Sinhala Service Sandeshaya on October 18, 2014, publicly apologised to the nation over the Supreme Court verdict delivered by him with regard to the Helping Hambantota case in 2005, where Mahinda Rajapaksa was accused of embezziling 80 million from the Helping Hambantota Aid project, thus releasing the then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa from being braced with manacles and let loose to go for gold and contest for Lankas presidency. He made the apology for the BBC to broadcast his conduct unbecoming as a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court worldwide when he bit the dust and said: When considering all these, I wonder whether the Helping Hambantota case was true or not. A serious doubt is raised. Therefore, I must apologise to the nation and ask their forgiveness. I think I have a doubt as to whether that decision was correct or not. Back then, we presumed that he (Rajapaksa) would never misuse such an amount of money. But when considering the rampant corruption that has come into the limelight at the present, it is apparent that this is a habit of his. So why the abject confession, garbed in the coarse cloth of the penitent? Which stripped of the last string of his vestige and exposed him naked? Why did he, in 2014, have to go down on his knees a former Chief Justice, mind you and confess that he had acted out of political motives and beg the nation to forgive him for his supreme transgression and revealed to the world at large his judicial judgments were heavily tainted and tarnished by the lacquered varnish of his then existing political creed and that it was the touchstone of his legal opinion, dressed up in drag as being the law of the land? Until then, no chief justice has ever apologised for a verdict he had delivered in the past. Probably, no one had to, for the judgments they delivered would have been given devoid of politics and based on law. Sarath Silvas apology was an instances unheard of, in the history of Sri Lankas judiciary and a big black blot on its undisputed and unsullied reputation as being the Temple of Justice tarnished by a political poosari holding pooja to light the hopes of a presidential candidate achieve his dreams of winning the crown . Now, for the moment, shall we shelve this upper crust Sarath whose shelf life has long expired without him realising it but who tries to revive anew the staleness of his legal loaf to its former crispness by burning it in the furnace of controversial fires; and focus, instead, on the other Silva, namely low life Mervyn who also carried the baton and held his own to be the Chief Justice of the street and summarily dispensed his sense of justice in his own one man dingo court according to the precedents sets by Lankas kings of yore. While Hulftsdorp Silva played Tsar on the hill, down south Beliatte Mervyn acted as the Vizier of justice on the street enforcing his own set of laws concerning crime and punishment with reference to none. To cite a striking example which is still ever green in public memory and remains vividly etched in its collective conscience, his brave heroics enacted before the medias television cameras when surrounded by his ministerial bodyguards, he ordered a poor Samurdhi official to be tied to a tree and subjected to humiliation and grave pain of mind and physical discomfort merely because he had turned up late for work. This was just one instance of Mervyns dispensation of summary justice. In the long litany of the many instances where he ran amok, two will suffice to illustrate the principal enforcer of Rajapaksa law on the street. One, when he stormed with a mob the Maharajah owned Sirasa television station down Dawson Street in Colombo 2. The other, when he stormed on his own the people-owned Rupavahini where, for once, he got his just deserts assaulted as he was by the infuriated employees and had to flee the scene under police escort. But blessed as he was by the caliphs at the Rajapaksa court, his word was law on the street, and no legal consequences ensued as it would have naturally followed if such outrage had been committed by anyone else who was not a Rajapaksa stooge, a Rajapaksa sacred cow. Both Silvas sought refuge in religion when they lost their political fiefdoms to enforce their own brand of political justice according to their own political bent at the given hour of their own practical advancement. Sarath Silva, who was elevated to the judiciarys topmost slot by former President Chandrika turned tables when the winds of change blew the advent of the Mahinda tsunami. But he, the matchmaker and best man of Mahindas marriage to Shiranthie, was to betray Mahinda, too, and chose to cast his lot with Mahindas bitter foe, General Fonseka and spoke volumes on his behalf. But after Mahinda triumphed and Fonseka was jailed and then later released, this former chief justice, who begged the nations forgiveness, turned circle to become the nations most pious Chief TV Buddhist on the Buddhist Channel from which pulpit he delivered his weekly sermons on the Abhidharma, expounding it to a mesmerised audience who had no inkling of the deep meaning of the third basket in the Buddhist Tripitaka except to stare and wonder how such a small head as Saraths could hold all he knew. He was preaching to the common Buddhist lot who havent the foggiest of the third book in the Buddhist canon, expounding its deep and complex meanings to an audience still in Buddhisms kindergarten, busy debating the five precepts and observing it as a ritual with another three sils thrown in on Poya days without realising that the five precepts, though the Buddha urged his followers to adhere, formed the foundation of a harmonious society, and predated the Buddhas advent and were, and still are, the very basis of law. He was in that unique position on televisions altar where the preacher did not understand what he preached and the preached did not understand what was preached except to say sadhu, sadhu at sermons end, in the same manner Sarath Silva had interpreted Article and Clause of the Constitution and held it as Daniels Judgment to a public who, ignorant of the law, perforce must place their trust and bestow their faith on the Supreme Courts Chief Justice. And have no choice but to accept his final say, his final word as the word of God and then say Sadhu, Sadhu or so be it at its end. Alas, the same cannot be said of the down south Mervyn Silva. He does not have within him the intellectual prowess of his clone, the smooth and suave, the savviness of a pseudo-intellectual mind blaster. He, too, was the upstart from south of the border wagging his tail, at Rosmead Place Colombo 7, faithfully tailing Anura Bandaranaikes footsteps at every turn, twist and event. Then turned tail and bit the hand that had fed him and joined the Mahinda coterie and, after a period of nearly eight years of the high life in the Rajapaksa kennel, was suddenly booted out and denied his daily bone. He, too, whilst turning again the Rajapaksas, turned to religion. Though he, whilst possessing the gift of the gab in abundance and the appealing Sinhala idiom and catchy phrase ever ready on his foul tongue. But what he lacked upstairs, he made do from the heart. His ingenuity was such he built a temple in Kelaniya, dedicated to the Preserver in the Holy Hindu Triumvirate Lord Vishnu and offered the people not the intellectual banana his counterpart in high office dealt to make the public slip on his plantain peel of judgments but the whole fruit platter of a pooja vattiya of faith. Then, of course, behind the white upasaka cloth Sarath Silva draped around him as he became the born again Buddhist evangelist and behind the Brahmins poona nula that Mervyn hijacked to put around his neck amidst the gold chains he wears , there is another common trait, a golden thread that binds both though yet again the carat is different. The private lives of public men are a fit subject open to public discussion, especially in the case of the former chief justice turned chief TV Buddhist, turned from being Chandrika fan to Mahinda lackey, turned again from being anti-Mahinda to pro-Sarath Fonseka supporter and now who is back in the saddle and made Piggott to ride the Rajapaksa horse out of the stable to the winners enclosure. Not a bad record, is it, for a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Lanka, self-confessed maverick who trespasses beyond his judicial ambit. As for Beliattes Mervyn, in an attack on a politician who had no children from his marriage, he said, in his typical fashion: This nerd cannot even produce a child. See me. Not only do I have children of my own at home in Beliatte but also have children next door, in my neighbours homes. What a southern son of the soil stud he must be? Whats his secret? Southern Mee kiri? But as a warning, though he may have taken the biblical command to its extreme extent and not only loves his neighbour but his wife, too. As it is said, the difference between knowledge and belief is that the mother knows the child is hers whereas the father can only have the belief that the child is his. And whilst Mervyn maybe battling a psychological war of doubt over knowledge and faith which perhaps may have caused his temporary retreat to silence, it has now emerged that Sarath Silva, on the other hand is actively engaged, behind the scenes, in not only being the resurrected fan of Mahinda Rajapaksa but has already joined the Helping Mahinda to run again for the presidency and become his legal advisor. A familiar role, no doubt, for him to play. But last week his presence at the official residence of the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa down Wijerama Road in Colombo 7 whilst Rajapaksa was being questioned by the CID as to the call he had received from Karu Jayasuriya over the Keith Noyhar incident, and his alleged interjection and active participation as a legal advisor has raised the question whether he had violated the constitution which bars judges of the Appeal and Supreme Court from engaging in legal practice whatsoever upon ceasing to be a judge. Sarath Silva will probably come up with an answer that he was present at Mahindas residence not as his legal advisor but that he had only dropped in as an old friend unannounced and unaware that the CID had an appointment to meet the former president. Be that as it maybe, isnt it rather shabby for a former chief justice to have been present and to have allegedly interjected on Mahindas behalf? As the former chief justice of Lanka he must well know what he may have told hundreds who came before him for judgment that ignorance of the law is no defence. And well versed with the subject, dont you think that he should have made his excuses and left the Rajapaksa residency rather than risk bringing the whole legal edifice into contempt even as the former Minister and Mahinda crony Mervyn has served to bring the Diyawanna House into contempt whilst he was there and even now when he is out? Smart Classrooms for 150 more schools- MoE View(s): The facility of Smart Classrooms, under the Ministry of Educations (MoE) programme to provide high-tech facilities for Educational activities, will be given to 150 more schools. This would be the final phase of the programme under which a total of 342 schools will have the option to be used as a teaching facility. Under the final phase, the MoE targets 50,000 students to benefit, at a cost of Rs 1,000 million, for the purchase of tabs, laptops and infrastructure facilities. The programme was first launched in 42 schools in 2016 and thereafter, in Stage II, 150 more schools were given the facility. Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam said there were limitations in giving the facility to all schools, as they require certain basic facilities such as internet.. He said, as facilities to other schools improve, they intend providing the Smart Classroom facilities to other schools as well in the future. He said that, though the facility appeared to be new in Sri Lanka, in foreign countries it was being used widely. Minister Kariyawasam said the relevant content too has now been developed. He said that, students allowed to continue their education until 13 years, will also have the option to learn IT related studies in future. DW Inspiring todays youth to become tomorrows conservation heroes View(s): In a bid to inspire, engage and educate school children all across the island on the importance of protecting the rich fauna and flora of the country, the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society of Sri Lanka (WNPS) set up its youth wing in 2007. The WNPS is the third oldest Non- Governmental Organisation and has played an integral role since its inception in 1894 in the success of conservation policy and governance in Sri Lanka. In the past, the organisation was responsible for the establishment of Sri Lankas first National Parks (Yala and Wilpattu) and the formation of the Department of Wildlife (DWC). Today, 124 years after its inception the organization is expanding its vision in conservation to include the youth of the country, the organisation said in a release. The Youth Wing of the WNPS was established in November 2017 with a goal to educate school children all across the island on the importance of conservation. The WNPS Youth Wing has run a series of interactive programmes with schools since the beginning of 2018 with the core objective of the school programme being to communicate and raise awareness amongst the children on environmental and conservation issues and engage them in programs organised by WNPS, giving them a voice and the chance to make a change. The WNPS invites prominent figures in the environment and conservation movement in Sri Lanka to visit schools as a guest speaker. Engaging presentations on topics such as the importance of conservation followed by a stimulating discussion on the threats brought on by deforestation, pollution, human elephant conflict and other national issues pertaining to wildlife and nature. The WNPS Youth Wing builds a rapport with the children who show an interest in wanting to join the platform and collaborate to lead a program within their respective school. We organise and give an opportunity to these children to connect and experience Sri Lankas wildlife first-hand by visits to the national parks, the elephant transit home and walks in the wetlands in the suburbs of Colombo. Quiz and poster competitions have been also planned to encourage further engagement with the subject via creative means, the release said. For 2018, the WNPS has successfully initiated the programme in 9 Schools in Colombo and 2 schools each in Lunugamverhera, Udawalawe, Wilpattu and Galgamuwa. Working with schools located outside the national parks is a crucial aspect of the agenda. Many of these children despite living at the fringes of these national parks have never had the opportunity to visit and experience the beauty and diversity of Sri Lankas national parks. Thus, giving these children an opportunity to experience wildlife in their domain can be a way to inculcate a sense of wonder for the natural world and inspire them to be passionate custodians for the fauna and flora that surrounds them. While the results of such efforts as a nation may take years if not decades, before they reach fruition, planting the seed in making a difference is what the WNPS hope to achieve through this project, the release said. This vision is supported by NDB Banks generous sponsorship of the programme to instil a passion amongst Sri Lankan youth, inspiring them to become the conservation heroes of tomorrow. Bus driver and conductor arrested for alleged sexual abuse of schoolgirl By Shelton Hettiarachchi View(s): View(s): A bus driver and a conductor have been arrested over the alleged sexual abuse of a 15-year-old schoolgirl in Nuwara Eliya. The conductor was reportedly an accomplice to the crime as he had prevented the girl from alighting from the bus in Pussellawa. According to police, on Thursday, the students father had asked her to get into a bus heading to Kurunegala and instructed her to get off at Pussellawa. However, a driver of a bus heading from Nuwara Eliya and who was familiar with the route the girl usually took had asked her to get into his bus assuring her that she could get off at Pussellawa. When the bus reached Pussellawa, however, the conducter had not allowed her to alight from the bus, police quoted her as saying. The bus had proceeded to Kandy and back to Nuawara Eliya, all the while with the girl in it. Once the bus returned to Nuwara Eliya, the conductor claims he had returned home. The girl was abused after the bus was parked in Nuwara Elia town, police said. That night when the girls mother called the boarding where the daughter was staying she was informed that she had not returned. A complaint was lodged and by next evening the suspects had been arrested. The driver was identified as Narankotuwegedara Ratnaweera (33) alias Kawuda, a father of three while the conductor was Vishwanathan Thirubakaran (36). They were produced yesterday before the Nuwara Eliya Acting Magistrate Vijaya Wickrema and remanded until September 14. Dual citizenship: Many Lankan families trapped in legal vacuum By Namini Wijedasa View(s): View(s): Each time seven-year-old Shanara arrives at the Bandaranaike International Airport, she is the only one in her family of six who must show a visa to enter the country of her parents birth. Like many other children in her predicament, the girl was born during a four-year period when the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration had stopped granting dual citizenships to Sri Lankans holding foreign nationalities. So her parents were British at the time of her birth. In March 2015, the suspension of dual citizenship was lifted. Shanaras parents, Roshika Ranasinghe and Yohan David, applied for and obtained Sri Lankan passports in addition to their British ones. Their three older sons, who were born before the parents became British, also have two nationalities. But Shanara is trapped in a legal vacuum. Under Sri Lankan law, a person born outside the country will be deemed to be a citizen only if, at the time of birth, his or her mother or father is a citizen of Sri Lanka. At least one parent should be Sri Lankan. Roshika and her husband were born and raised here. While working in England on their Sri Lankan passports, they had three of their children. And, as offspring of Sri Lankan parents, the boys qualified for Sri Lankan as well as British citizenship (Britain, like Sri Lanka, allows dual status). Then Roshika, a doctor, and Yohan, an engineer, met the criteria for and obtained British citizenship. Our daughter was born in 2011 in Singapore to two British parents as dual citizenship was on hold in Sri Lanka, she said. When it was restored, five of us were eligible. Our daughter was not. Umar Azeers brother (who did not wish to be quoted) is in a similar situation. He and his wife became eligible for British citizenship while dual status was suspended in Sri Lanka, Umar said, on behalf of his sibling. There wasnt even a hint of when it would be restored so they did not know how long they would have to wait. To stay on as Sri Lankans, Umars brother and wife would have had to fork out a large amount each year for their British visas. And the visa conditions kept changing so they were neither here nor there, he said. Therefore, they got British citizenship, hoping to apply for Sri Lankan passports one day. Today, both are dual citizens but their childrenborn between 2011 and 2015are not. And they were turned down again as recently as a week ago. He is a doctor and would like to give back to the local community, Umar said. But he needs visas for his kids to visit and they only get four weeks at a time after which they have to extend. It is not known how many children are similarly affected. The Department of Immigration and Emigration is aware of the problem, said the Deputy Controller (Citizenship). The advice of the Attorney Generals Department has been sought and a recommendation is expected. In 2015, a total of 816 dual citizenships were issued by the Department. This rose to 2,538 the following year while the number was 2,598 in 2017. But Immigration officials also pointed out that dual citizenship is a privilege, not a right. When you are born to Sri Lankan parents, citizenship is an inherent right, said M L D Niroshana, Deputy Commissioner/Controller (Policy and Development). Dual citizenship is a different status. Any Government can take a policy decision to suspend it. At least one of the parents must be a Sri Lankan citizen, dual or otherwise, for an offspring to qualify for citizenship, he continued. If this is not the case, the child is considered to be the offspring of a foreigner and does not have the right to Sri Lankan citizenship. The issue at hand, however, is different. And it is one that causes real practical difficulties for the families concerned. It isnt only that some members need visas while others dont. This is stopping educated Sri Lankans from returning home and giving back. A banker resident in Singapore (he did not wish to be named) whose son is not entitled to citizenship said the boy even had sufficient points to enter a prominent national school in Colombo but that his status prevented it. This was keeping the family from resettling here. Their son was born in England in 2011. The parents were British at the time and had applied for dual nationality but could not get it because it was suspended in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan High Commission in London refused to register the babys birth as there was no legal avenue to do so. We found that there is no provision for the situation of my son because, technically, we were not Sri Lankan at the point of his birth, he continued. They subsequently had a daughter who, like her parents now, has dual nationality. I left Sri Lanka in 2001 to study in England, he said. I shifted to Singapore five years ago because its the closest I can be, physically, without being home. I want to come back and contribute to the country. I would be happy to bring my savings and set up something here. But I cant because of this situation. My son will probably need a student visa or something like that. And it makes things complicated. Nothing can be done at their level, Immigration Department officials said. A policy change is needed and, possibly, legal respite. The children of foreigners clearly do not have the right to citizenship under prevailing legislation. Even these children do have the option of gaining Sri Lankan citizenship when they are 18, by proving descent. But that is a long time to wait for their families. Insurgents are waging losing battles against States, says global terrorism expert Dr Ucko View(s): Dr. David Ucko was among the international and national experts who addressed the Colombo Defence Seminar 2018, the Sri Lanka Armys (SLA) annual conference held for the 8th time at the BMICH on August 30-31 A global terrorism expert this week observed that the Islamic State (ISIS) is rapidly facing defeat by conventional forces similar to the predicament the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had faced in Sri Lanka when they switched from asymmetric tactics to conventional warfare. Since the defeat of the Tamil Tigers by the Sri Lankan Government we havent seen many insurgents going toe-to-toe against States, said Dr. David Ucko, Programme Director at the College of International Security Affairs, National Defence University, USA. They tend to lose or, at least, they dont win. Localised insurgencies must be recognized as potentially existential threats to the notion of State. This is the insurgents dilemma, Dr Ucko said, noting in recent times their difficulty of challenging or defeating a State and setting up as a sustainable source of power. The track record, he pointed out, was abysmal. There are not many recent cases of insurgent groups winning militarily over a State and establishing themselves as the new authority. He did warn, however, that there is a rise of a different kind of insurgency which acts as a disruptor. These are localized insurgencies, he classified, where the group survives by aiming, not for regime change, but for shared sovereignty with the State. Its subversive agenda is thereby pursued without provoking a military response from the Sate. Dr. Ucko also pointed to urban areas being under quasi control of criminal elements, with law enforcement and public institutions having given up. Such spacessuch as parts of Mexico and Colombiacould be fertile ground for many security concerns and threats. The seminar brought academics, strategists and high-ranking military officers together in multiple sessions of dialogue and knowledge-sharing. There were around 800 participants, including 100 from abroad. The topicSecurity in an Era of Global Disruptions- drew insight into the evolutionary nature of national security concerns and the challenges they pose to governance in an increasingly interconnected and unpredictable world order. There was a broad consensus that disruptions are likely to increase, posing significant global and national security implications. Key conclusions from the seminar included the need for enhanced communication between stakeholders and the public; the necessity of a whole nation policy approach to counter these disruptions; the requirement for regional and national preventative and migratory strategies for; and the need for joint multi-domain preparedness. This years theme underscores the timely need to address the evolving nature of the new threat environment, which does not fall within the scope of the traditional security, said Army Commander Lt Gen Mahesh Senanayake in his welcome address. Armed forces worldwide find themselves becoming the first responders to a range of situations where civilian life is significantly affected. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe drew attention to non-traditional threats ranging from natural disasters, climate change and human displacement to violent extremism. Todays battlefields are growing, converging and compressing, he said, thereby creating a need for a more comprehensive and integrated effort than ever before. Economies have progressively become the most decisive and influential factor in projecting national power beyond a nation state, the Prime Minister said. The role of national militaries will eventually expand from safeguarding national security to building an effective international security community in order to furnish the rising demand of security for global supply chains and overseas interest, he observed. Collaboration and best practices were needed to reduce the vulnerability of the national cyber infrastructure, Mr Wickremesinghe said, adding that technology-driven new mediaincluding social mediawas another emerging source of non-traditional threat. Global warming, rising sea levels and erratic changes in weather will adversely affect Sri Lankas agriculture, which accounted for seven percent of the countrys GDP and employment for 23 percent of its population, Mr Wickremesinghe said. The changes will also affect Sri Lankas energy security as 40 percent of power generation was from hydro sources. He recommended the inclusion of energy security policies designed to reduce Sri Lankas dependency on imported energy sources be incorporated into the National Security Plan. The national security scales are shifting from military security towards human security, said Dr Lauren Twort, a Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute of Britain. Threats include natural hazards and environmental calamities, urban violence in the form of crime and open warfare, and human-induced threats such as large-scale industrial pollution. Sri Lankas Government expenditure due to natural hazards was Rs 1.7bn between 2007 and 2010, Dr Twort said. The 2016 floods also hit Sri Lankas industrial activities. Due to climate change, rapid economic growth, disorganized land use and reclamation have increased flood risk in Sri Lanka. She cited an Institute of Policy Studies report that estimated that natural disasters cost Sri Lanka 1% of GDP in 2017. Disruptions in nature and human societies throughout history have led us to where we are today, said Prasad Kariyawasam, Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the valedictory statement. For example, human population growth led to farming and migration, the exploration for new land, extracting resources from the land; scientific inquiry into modern farming techniques, medication and new discoveries to cure and treat disease; the search for new markets for trade which continues even now; space and undersea exploration; the formation of the system of Nation States and the demarcation of boundaries through war and peace; evolution of rules and regulations; the multilateral rules based international order; and the financial operating system that we know today, he said. Disruption, Mr Kariyawasam asserted, is a fact of life that runs through and across time. These are nothing new or unique to this era. Only humans have made massive changes to our eco-system as a single species. PM invited for McCains funeral, but couldnt go View(s): Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had to turn down a request from the widow of US Senator John McCain to attend his funeral yesterday in Washington DC, citing the absence of President Maithripala Sirisena from the country on state business and the requirement for him to be at home. The late US Senator, considered a national icon, had scripted his funeral arrangements in which he had specifically asked that US President Donald Trump be not invited for his funeral and for former Presidents George W. Bush and President Barack Obama, both of whom ended Sen. McCains bid for the White House, to deliver the eulogies at the memorial service. US Senator McCain, a US naval officer during the Viet Nam war was held a Prisoner of War in Ha Noi for five years and served as a US Congressman for 35 years. His widow, Cindy McCain, visited Sri Lanka in 2004 when Prime Minister Wickremesinghe was in office. Devinda Subasinghe, Sri Lankas Ambassador to the US from 2002-2005, was present at yesterdays funeral. PM: This is how I will make my country rich by 2025 By Ranil Wickremesinghe View(s): View(s): This is an important moment in Sri Lankas development, as the country continues to deliver on its plans for economic development and stands on the cusp of a transition to a knowledge-based economy. Since the country and its people saw a vibrant transition in its political landscape in January 2015, further bolstered by the August 2015 general elections that formed a national unity government a first ever political experience for the country since its nearly seven decades of independence Sri Lanka has put in place many of the building blocks needed to reinvigorate its socio-economic and political architecture. We have achieved many positive gains over the last three years through bold policy initiatives and pragmatic strategies that enabled the country to win back recognition and friendly engagements with the rest of world. This has been a key foreign policy achievement of our government. Doors are open again for constructive and friendly engagements that have eased economic and political pressures. However, as per the expectations of all our people, there is more to achieve and the government plans with due diligence to make Sri Lanka regain its centrality in the Indian Ocean and become a knowledge-based, highly competitive hub with a dynamic social-market economy. The progress Sri Lanka has delivered over the past three years, and the success of its plans going forward, are naturally influenced by the global economic downfall and heavily tied to strategic trade relationships, in particular trade relationships across the Asian region. It is no secret that Asia is the future economic engine, and in our endeavours to make Sri Lanka a rich country by 2025, it is our intention to engage Asia more steadily, utilising the strategic access to major growing markets in the region, from India, Pakistan, China, Japan and ROK to the ASEAN. Developments in Africa are also important in looking to South-South engagements and cooperation. While we undertake this re-orientation, we also continue to strengthen our partnerships with the West particularly our top export markets of the United States and Europe. Our economic policy, Vision 2025, is firmly embedded in several principles, including a social market economy that delivers economic dividends to all. In the first place we need to ensure we have a skill pool that matches the job markets demands. Sri Lankas education system is being transformed through progressive and important policy reform: the minimum length of schooling has been increased to 13 years, while better education is being brought to rural areas through the Nearest School Is the Best School programme, and Sri Lanka is investing in more teachers and better training. Also, opportunities for vocational training in selected areas during school education will be introduced. Further, we have taken action to empower new and innovative ideas by strengthening the intellectual property regime in Sri Lanka. The plan for an Empowered Sri Lanka identifies the priorities of raising incomes, ensuring employment and housing for all, and improving the quality of life for all citizens. The plan is delivering impressive results. The current government has created over 460,000 jobs and helped more than 260,000 families secure a home. Strong progress is being made on plans to bring opportunities to rural communities by building necessary infrastructure such as roads and bridges, connecting rural and urban areas and linking Sri Lankas economic hubs. A programme, Enterprise Sri Lanka, has been launched to encourage young and educated entrepreneurs, who will receive loans to start SMEs. The government has also invested in some mega projects, including the Colombo Megapolis constructions to build a city of the future and irrigation projects including the Moragahakanda-Kaluganga Dam, to generate green energy and provide water resources for agro-production. With a domestic market of 20 million consumers with a modest per capita income, Sri Lanka recognises the importance of external demand for sustained, high and long-term growth. This is why the country is rolling out a plan to strategically position Sri Lanka as the hub of the Indian Ocean, securing opportunities for local businesses in global production networks and ensuring that the country is capitalising on opportunities to enter new global value chains. This outward-looking approach will increase the efficiency of the domestic economy, contributing to a better life for all Sri Lankans. Sri Lanka is mindful of the shortcomings in its macroeconomic policies and institutional capacities that are required to respond to the challenges. We have encouraged strong public-private partnerships, and enabled institutions to become more transparent and efficient. We want them to function with independence, while ensuring transparency through being in compliance with norms set by the parliamentary oversight committees. The drive to end corruption is strong. We have enacted policy and legislative changes to facilitate doing business with Sri Lanka it now ranks second in South Asia, according to the World Bank. We have also played a constructive role in promoting international and regional initiatives in many areas, ranging from the environment and climate change to maritime security and migration. It is our commitment to use the strategic potential of the country, including its vibrant maritime connectivity, for enhancing friendly cooperation with all partners while reaping the economic benefits for all our peoples. For the first time, Sri Lanka has now been linked to the large ASEAN region by entering into the free trade agreement (FTA) with Singapore. To have struck its first comprehensive trade agreement (including not only goods but services and investment) with a country like Singapore, regarded as one of the most open economies, with high-quality institutions, is an important milestone for Sri Lanka, and a major achievement for the current government. The Singapore FTA is a strong step towards closer integration with ASEAN, and in fact was signed in the same month that Singapore took over the chairmanship of ASEAN for the year 2018. It signals to ASEAN that Sri Lanka is interested in the region, and signals to the world that it is serious about reform. The investment and trade resulting from the Singapore FTA is expected to drive the earning potential of Sri Lankans. Having created hundreds of thousands of jobs, the government is now focused on turning these into better paying jobs for people, in particular for youth and the younger demographics. The government has been clear that FTAs like this one are about opportunity, development and delivering a better standard of living for our people. Sri Lanka has already begun preliminary discussions with another ASEAN country Thailand on a potential FTA, and formal talks were launched during the visit of the Thai prime minister to Colombo in July. This, too, is an important milestone, with Thailand taking over the ASEAN chair next year. At present, Sri Lanka has dialogue partner status in ASEAN, as a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum along with 26 other countries. But the country will be using its trade agreements with Singapore and potential trade agreement with Thailand to bring it closer to obtaining observer status in ASEAN, with the goal of an FTA, as well as linking to the RCEP the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement. The purpose of closer engagement with ASEAN is to generate more foreign direct investment (FDI), diversify export markets and create new technology and people linkages. ASEAN is important as a source of FDI inflows and a market for Sri Lankan exports. We have set ourselves the target of doubling exports by 2020 as part of our new National Export Strategy launched recently, which lays emphasis on the diversification of exports by strengthening emerging sectors, to chart the next export growth cycle of Sri Lanka. With our nation already delivering increased FDI and record growth in both its traditional and high-growth export industries, alongside its plan to redefine its international trade relationships, Sri Lanka is confident in its ability to deliver on its export targets. ASEAN has and will be a major part of Sri Lankas growth strategy and its Engage Asia policy. The 27th World Economic Forum on ASEAN in Ha Noi, Viet Nam, provides me with the opportunity to showcase the landmark changes in Sri Lanka and our growing economic interconnection with the ASEAN region and beyond. It will build upon the foundations of the historical and cultural ties that have existed for many centuries, and which bind our people irrevocably. (Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will be participating in the World Economic Forum on ASEAN in Ha Noi, Viet Nam from Sept 11-13.) Courtesy the World Economic Forum Wildlife officials to be armed with AK 47 rifles About a thousand new personnel also to be recruited for full-scale war to end human-elephant conflict View(s): View(s): Wildlife officials will be armed with Russian-made Kalashnikov AK 47 assault rifles under a Rs. 42 million project to protect elephants from poachers and to save human lives in the human-elephant conflict, the Cabinet has decided. These weapons, more sophisticated than the standard issue of Chinese-made T-56 assault rifles, are to be bought on a recommendation by Sustainable Development, Wildlife and Regional Development Minister, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka. The total number of AK 47s to be imported is 2,568. Field Marshal Fonsekas Deputy Minister, Palitha Thevarapperuma, told the Sunday Times that the purchase of assault rifles would be connected with the human-elephant conflict, caused mainly as a result of people encroaching into the jungle habitats of elephants. At present wildllife officials are reluctant to intervene when civilians and elephants are threatened, he said. The proposal is for the purchase of 1,500 firearms this year, each valued at Rs.16,000 with the total cost at Rs. 24 million. Next year, 1,068 weapons, each valued at Rs. 17,000 would be bought at a cost of Rs. 18 million. Of these, 2,334 firearms will be issued to small maintenance groups at wildlife parks, while 234 will be issued to Assistant Rangers. The new proposal envisages the construction of a 2,651 km long electric fence in places identified as having elephant threats. This will be connected to the existing electric fence of about 4,349 km.The Deputy Minister said they had identified the cadre requirements of around 1,000 new personnel for the Wildlife Department, including 20 veterinary surgeons, 117 wildlife rangers, 234 assistant rangers, 234, wildlife guards, 19 development officers, 150 heavy machinery operators and 200 drivers. He said they would also deploy Civil Defence Force personnel and maintenance officers for around-the-clock surveillance. In the past five years, some 375 people have died in incidents related to the human-elephant conflict, with 1,177 elephant deaths and 5,800 instances of property damages also being reported. Wildlife group fires at move to buy guns The Wildlife and Nature Protection Society (WNPS) yesterday questioned the decision to buy automatic weapons to solve the elephant-human conflict, warning this could lead to the deaths of more elephants. The WNPS also said it believed that extending the electric fences would not be the answer to the crisis. What was needed was to re-position the existing fencing to places where they would be more effective. More than 70 percent of wild elephants live outside of protected areas. That is where most of the conflicts take place, the group said. It is alleged that political expediency rather than the results of scientific research and conservation necessity had determined the placement of the fences. These ill-conceived activities must be first stopped before arming wildlife officials. It urged the Government as a matter of urgency to gazette and then implements the National Management Policy for the Conservation of the Wild Elephants. An insider goes to the heart of a kingdom By Yomal Senerath-Yapa View(s): View(s): The Kandyan kingdom has always intrigued; from Robert Knox of the 17th Century down to this day when you cross the ancient boundaries of the Uda-rata or amble around the shady lake, with regal buildings rising from the green hills forming an amphitheatre. Kandy is an enigma with its lofty aristocratic traditions and culture. Only a true son of the land could envision a full-blooded picture of this last stronghold of the Sinhalese monarchy. Chamikara Pilapitiyas genealogy can be directly traced back as far as 1592 when Wimaladharmasuriya the First was king of Kandy. Chamikara has had a passion for history from his young days at Trinity College. His book Mahanuwara Yugaye Aprakata Witti is the fruit of ten years hard labour, in the course of which he unearthed a good number of unpublished primary sources- sannas or royal grants, ola leaf histories, and works of poetry- found in old homes and temples. He would salvage manuscripts destined to dusty oblivion in libraries and museums here and abroad- including in New York, Russia, Amsterdam and London. When Chamikaras father, Ariya Sumana Bandara, was on his deathbed, as tradition dictated he imparted family lore to him as the youngest son of the family. These included old Kandyan military secrets as well as secrets regarding the family lineage: enough to intrigue and fire the young man to embark on a quest into the heart of unknown Kandy. The quest, which would take him to many faraway places, would gather enough material for two magisterial volumes, a work justifying long days snatched off holidays from the tea industry- and precious family time: searching for lost tunnels in thick jungle, tracking ola manuscripts in ancient vihares, or braving wild mountains to locate old beacons and fortresses. In all the ventures his immaculate ancestry opened for him doors that would otherwise have been locked with those typically gigantic temple keys. The book is testimony to the fact that a lot of valuable material, written records as well as oral traditions, remain locked in the pettagamas and libraries of Kandyan temples and houses as well as in the memories of its monks and nobility. Chamikaras passion for firearms and military history has obviously been a catalyst in pulling him into this research- the history of the kingdom being full of epic battles fought in dramatic hill terrain with classic and ingenious strategies and intriguing firearms- a great range from native to European armament. So the book is scattered with profiles of guns- from the first Sri Lankan cannons to artillery guns used in the First World War. The book is also a Kandyan Almanach de Gotha of sorts where many important families appear, tracing the evolution of the Kandyan nobility as courtiers of Sinhalese kings, then under the Nayakars, and consequently emerging as part of a new English-educated local elite under the British. Also recorded in it is a grand story of the East meeting the West; where the indigenous landscape slowly gives way to advancing galleys and plate armour, heralding a new dawn. The two volumes come well illustrated though in black and white. Among the previously unpublished sketches and maps are a picture from the Netherlands, dating from 1766, of the Kandyan army on parade, and a map of the City of Kandy drawn by the Dutch during the invasion in 1765. Also produced in the book are the horoscopes of King Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe, his Queen Rengammal, the chatelaine Ehelepola Kumarihamy and Veera Puran Appu- warrior and freedom fighter. Stitched onto the fabric of the book, which runs like a vivid mural of Kandys story till the Second World War, are gems of interchapters. These leaven the work with colourful insight into the age, on a range of subjects from the mukkaru, an ancient race probably of Arabic extraction who came here in search of precious stones, and the Bandaras, local chieftains who were later deified, to the great revivalist Buddhist monk Weliwita Saranankara Sangharaja. He hunts down King Raja Sinha IIs personal gun, with which he shot at an African mercenary who tried to kill him, and the nittewo, a fierce half-human pygmy race that is said to have inhabited the jungles of the Eastern province more than three centuries ago. Of the final two extensive chapters, the first is on the Sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha, the Diyawadana Nilame and the Dalada Maligawa, while the second chapter deals with the privileged circle of aristocratic families from which the Diyawadana Nilame is selected. Attached to the end of the book are a number of addenda on the illustrious Pilapitiya family. The book is a meticulously researched academic work, but at the same time it is an exciting narrative you can dip into and be swept away by. The period it covers was one of high drama, and the saga, within each chapter, is broken down to snippets- each with its pithy title, so that the reading is lucid. It was, also, a hugely dynamic age- so much change occurring in five centuries that makes the preceding millenia look a flatland of calm and peace in comparison. Yet woven into it also is personal history- not just of princes and courtiers and high personages but also of Corporal Barnesley who escaped the 1803 Kandyan wars with his almost severed head held in place with hands and lived to tell the tale- and the young terrorist from Kegalle, an innocent young man whose life was cruelly forfeited following the war of 1848, and his father killed in his attempts to save the son. A hallmark of the early part of the period covered is the heavy inconsistency between local sources and the records left by the colonists. Chamikara, thanks to the unique vantage point he has gained with his research, is able to bring in a great degree of balance and accuracy into the midst of clashing narratives. The work is also a rich collage of documents from the period: from the famous 1815 Kandyan Convention to the food rations granted to the king of Kandy held prisoner by the British, and the exquisite treasures that stately walawwes would yield to the colonists who kept records glittering with detail. Whether as a reference book, that will sit easy on an erudite shelf, or as lighter reading, the book is a rare offering with new insight into a kingdom on the cusp of the Modern Age, divesting itself of the medieval. The fruit of the authors sleuthing into the past will spill out on to two more publications, to appear soon, focusing on his passion for the military: The History of Sri Lankan Fire Arms, and The Secret Tunnels of Sri Lanka. Close encounter with tradition By Oshani Alwis Catch the Guru Gedara Festival at the Chitrasena Kalayathanaya today View(s): View(s): The four-day celebration of Sri Lankan traditional arts and crafts, the Guru Gedara Festival was launched at the Chitrasena Kalayathanaya, Colombo on August 30 as the first immersive traditional arts experience of its kind in the country. Shedding light on local art forms which are fading away, the Chitrasena Vajira Dance Foundation gathered the most respected gurus of each traditional art with the hope of promoting these arts and crafts among the younger generation. Commemorating the 75th year of the Kalayathanaya, homage was paid to dance legend Chitrasena who pioneered the expansion of traditional Sri Lankan dance forms. At the opening of the Guru Gedara Festival, the Chitrasena clan- Vajira Chitrasena, his daughters and granddaughters paid tribute to his memory. Heshma Wignaraja, Festival Director, addressed the audience stating that her greatest inspiration is her grandmother, Vajira. Back in the old Kalayathanaya in Kollupitiya, I experienced a guru gedara created by my grandparents where some of the most celebrated artistes frequently gathered bringing in both traditional and modern forms of art showing how a modern guru gedara should function, recalled Heshma. The Pahan Maduwa Shanthikarmaya was the highlight of the evening. The ritual, a spiritual part of the Sabaragamuwa tradition of dance, is performed to invoke the blessings of the gods by lighting of the lamps. A segment of the ritual was performed to mark an auspicious beginning to the festival wishing prosperity to the Kalayathanaya and all the participants. Dancing to the beat of the traditional Davula, clad in colourful Pabalu Andum Kattalaya with the Netti Malaya (head gear), was a talented dance troupe from Ratnapura guided by Yohan Punchinilame. The festival features huts- each demonstrating traditional masks, drums, gok craft, puppetry, dance costumes and accessories respectively presented by the gurus Karunadasa Olaboduwa, Wimalasena Elpitiya, Chaminda Mahawattage, Gamwari Premin, R.M. Anura Kumara, P.A. Somasiri and Milton Gunasiri. Dance demonstrations, workshops, discussions and cultural performances will also be showcased at the Kalayathanaya premises at 590 Elvitigala Mawatha Colombo 5. The Guru Gedara Festival, open to all from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m, ends today, Sunday, September 2 with a traditional ritual, Veediya Kapeema starting at 7 p.m. Letters to the Editor View(s): Not quite a tsunami but certainly a swell The not so recent local government elections led to much hype and hoopla from some sections of the media. What appeared to be a united Joint Opposition (JO) at the time clamoured for the results to be translocated into the central Parliamentary complex and for the previous regime to be restored to the halls of power. An O level mathematics student would have told you that the numbers simply did not add up to allow the recall of ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The JO had no absolute majority in the local bodies contested for and a one-to-one numerical victory for the President would not have been in the JOs favour. With the hype abating and the government standing resolute, many of the cracks in the JO have been revealed and their political base weakened. The slow grinding legal inquiry process has been ongoing. The Presidential Commission into SriLankan Airlines, the deals with Chinese companies, wilful disregard for human rights and the laws of the land have reduced the opposition to shouting from the rooftops regarding the various purported Free Trade Agreements (FTA) and the rising cost of living etc. The inevitable postponement of the Provincial Council elections is certainly to the liking of the TNA leadership of Messrs Sampanthan and Sumanthiran who along with the government will be happy to see the back of the current chief minister Justice CV Wigneswaran. The current political atmosphere appears to be in limbo. This is in the context of the activities of trade unions and the attitude and response of the ordinary people at large. Take for example the following recent events: The General Medical Officers Associations (GMOA) endless wildcat strikes and generally disruptive actions have affected poor patients who cannot easily access private medical care. We the people now hold the medical profession in very low esteem. We question the need to reward such a profession with lucrative tax exemptions, travel allowances, or indeed the number of holidays and leave days annually. Their constant attempt to interfere with the economic policies of the government where their knowledge of the subject would be cursory has irked other professional groups. The resignation of the President of the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC), Professor Colvin Gunaratne, formally a Professor of Medicine at the University, Colombo was directly attributable to the interference in governance issues of the SLMC by the GMOA. Looking at membership of medical councils from the Tamil Nadu Medical Council (established in 1914) to the General Medical Council in the United Kingdom it is noticeable that trade unions are not part of the regulatory council. The council usually consists of senior doctors, a representative from the colleges, experienced individuals from other professions and the public. The main function can be summarised as protecting the public and being supportive of doctors. Any medical practitioner being accused of clinical negligence or gross professional misconduct, following extensive preliminary investigations may be asked to appear before the Medical Council for arbitration. Rightly, as members of a trade union, the union may be asked by the individual doctor to represent them at a hearing. The current situation in Sri Lanka makes this well nigh impossible if the GMOA controls the SLMC. There is a gross conflict of interest. Recently, following an accident on the railways the drivers union and locomotive operating engineers union (LOEU) embarked on a series of wild-cat strikes placing an enormous burden on the travelling and working public. Their anger was seemingly directed at the railway workers particularly when it was revealed that some engine drivers earned up to Rs.200,000 per month! Reforms regarding conflict resolution between employers and employees need to reflect the modern workplace practice. Arbitration, consultation and the balloting of members prior to strike action needs to become common practice. The disruption of the commercial centre of Colombo between Ward Place, Lipton Circus and Kollupitiya on a regular basis imposes untold hardship to workers, school children and businesses. Actions such as those by IUSF are meaningless. They cannot be called strikes since these students have no labour to withdraw! The recent sentence of 19 years rigorous (6 years concurrently) imprisonment for Galagoda Atte Gnanasara Thera, General Secretary of the notorious Bodu Bala Sena was significant. We the public applaud it as justice being seen to be done and want to move forward with the development of the economy as the critical need of the hour. The government has been remarkably open about the difficulties that lie ahead. The servicing of external debts, the need to collect taxes, and increase productivity in all sectors to generate more income internally and in foreign exchange has been explicitly stated. There seems to be more of an understanding of the globalized world economy and the inevitability of being subjected to fluctuating world prices. The technocrats in government, along with banking institutions are seemingly being allowed to get on with it without political interference. The need for monetary and fiscal control is mandatory for long-term gain. The Indo-Sri Lanka accord of 1987 designed to stop the internecine war, devolved limited powers to the newly formed Provincial Councils (PC), eight in all, the North and East being one. The imminent dissolution of most of the Provincial Councils, as per their constitutional mandate has posed a problem for some and an opportunity for reform to others. As your columns revealed recently, most PCs have been found wanting on service and economic delivery. Many elected individuals to local bodies are corrupt and the calibre of officials at the provincial or district levels is poor. The failure to pass the delimitation legislation last week where even the proposing and tabling Minister voted against it has probably placed the PCs on the back burner at least until the Presidential elections in two years time.It is however, time to reflect on whether the original set-up is of relevance today particularly in the context of the contemplated introduction of a new constitution for the Sri Lankan state. The JO with its problems of rifts and rivalries within the coalition has no tangible alternative policies for development or handling of the financial crisis and debt. We the people however, have a sense of further pain with the rising cost of living but detect a possible change of fortune in the long term. This change may not be a tsunami but certainly it is a swell. Ravi Perumalpillai Via email We need a monument and info centre on the Vadaya I was interested to read about the religious ceremony at Rankoth Vihara in Panadura to mark the 145th anniversary of the Panadura Vadaya and the lecture on the Vadaya at the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka (Sunday Times 2, August 26), however, it is disappointing that there is no monument to the Vadaya at the site, adjacent to the beach in Panadura, where the actual debate took place. There should also be a museum or visitor-centre nearby where locals, visitors and tourists can learn more about the Vadaya. Information should be provided on the organisation of the debate, who attended, speeches given daily, how the event was reported in Sri Lanka and elsewhere and the significance of the Vadaya to the Buddhist revival in the 19th century. It would be desirable for the monument to be erected and the centre opened in time for the 150th anniversary commemorations in 2023. R. P. Fernando UK Looking back through the lens of time Ismeth Raheem writes on early photography in then Ceylon View(s): View(s): The exact date and location of the landfall of the daguerreotype process in Sri Lanka is still a matter of dispute. Three possible destinations, which can vie for this distinction are Colombo, Kandy and Jaffna. The exact date and location of the landfall of the daguerreotype process in Sri Lanka is still a matter of dispute. Three possible destinations, which can vie for this distinction are Colombo, Kandy and Jaffna. In 1843, four years after its discovery was announced in Paris in 1839, several firms and individuals were advertising the Daguerreotype process in Colombo. Notices were placed in the public press both in The Colombo Observer and The Ceylon Times. Portraiture was a genre, the mainstay of the Daguerreotype process and prices ranged from as high as 4-10. A particularly serious problem with daguerreotypes in Colombo and coastal towns was the deterioration of the images on the plate, due to the salt -laden air and high humidity. This drawback was highlighted in a journal Young Ceylon (1850) devoted to the Arts. Six years ago a Mr. Barrow established himself in Colombo and Kandy as a DAGURREO TYPE ARTIST and many persons had their likeness taken by him, which cost them 4-10 each- but in a short time almost every one of them became defaced and obscure, and are laid aside of no use. The undersigned had qualified him and restored many of them to their original state, so to continue-for the small fee of 7s.6d.for small and plain ones and 10s. For the larger with ornamental background-for more than two belonging to a family an allowance will be made. Apply to Mr. Phebuses shop Braille Street, Fort where the undersigned will be found on Mondays and Thursdays where Portraits may be left with the address of the owner. John Vanderstraaten. Jnr But there is no evidence of their practice being continued either by the signatory John Vanderstraaten Jnr or the daguerreotypist Barrow. Over the years 1850-60, the daguerreotype process spawned a lively side- trade countrywide and in the urban centres. Often the daguerreotype portraits were mounted in a protective frame, usually in silver and surmounted under a glass or crystal. Some were highly decorative and incorporated all manner of designs- forming pendants, brooches, earrings and bracelets-and a variety of ornaments, and often tinted by dusting finely coloured pigments on the surface of the plate. One of the enigmatic figures in this medium was James Parting (c.1844-1860) who advertised himself as a Daguerreotypist and Watchmaker. He is listed in the Ceylon Almanac and Compendium of Useful Information from 1850 to 1854. Partings contribution to photography rests on a single assignment. The Ceylon Observer newspaper commissioned him to document the cutting of the first sod of the Railway close to the present Malgahakanda Station, an event of great historic importance. He was, though only partly successful an engraving of his daguerreotype image appeared in the London Illustrated News (October 9, 1858). Notices of the daguerreotype process appeared concurrently in Kandy with its cooler climate, and lesser humid condition it was considered more ideal than Colombo to set up a studio. Although Galle, the main port of call for imports and shipping was also a possible contender for the early establishment of the daguerreotype process, no records of this practice have come to light. By the 1850s the new advances from the development of photography spawned the stereoscopic views, which enabled armchair travellers to gaze on remote sites of towns, villages, archaelogical sites and landscapes of distant countries -all from the comfort of their living rooms. Jaffna and the discovery and use of the Daguerreotype and Calotype process 1840-1860 In the development of photography, although Jaffna seemed isolated both in its geographic location and lack of connectivity, on the contrary there is sufficient evidence that daguerreotype photography was practised in Jaffna, with the encouragement of the American Christian Mission (ACM). This is borne out by the articles by Swaminathan Kandiah Lawton (1851-1919) and Henry Martyn (1812-1861), both prolific commercial photographers active during that period. In an article, published in the Penrose Pictorial Annual in 1912-13, titled When was photography introduced into the East? Lawton describes in detail how by chance he unearthed, a camera, and other equipment and materials related to the daguerreo process in a rubbish dump at the headquarters of the ACM at Vadukottai, Jaffna. Lawtons discovery throws an interesting light on the early use of the daguerreotype in Jaffna: Here I found many years ago, during my early days of photographic study, a complete set of Daguerreotype apparatus as described in a scientific journal of 1839, with polishing machines, appurtenances of vaporizing with iodine and mercury, and some polished metallic silver -surfaced plates. The date of the importation of this set I could not have ascertained, but as it retained the hinged front door of the dark slide, operated by semi-circular handles from the back, which was very soon improved upon by the substitution of the sliding shutter, it should have been made by 1840 or so. Certain it is that Daguerreotype process was demonstrated to the students in the early forties, for one of them a Tamil of great scientific attainments had opened a studio in Main Street of Jaffna and supplied photographs by the Daguerreotype process. Lawton further adds- It is therefore almost certain that the first photographic Camera to travel to the East was a Daguerreotype one referred to above and its first home the Ottley Hall of the Batticota Seminary. The Tamil of great attainment Lawton refers to, can be certainly identified as Henry Martyn who had a thorough knowledge of mathematics and chemistry and was equipped with a mind to cope with technical issues. Martyn first enrolled as a student at the Vadukottai School and later as a seminary teacher between 1832-1843. When in 1853 the dagurreotype process, camera, chemicals and material were offered to Martyn, by the official of the American Christian Mission College at the Ottley Hall Vadukottai (spelt originally as Batticota) he disentangled the process within a few hours. To record this historic event Martyn managed to take a group portrait image of the students and teachers attending this meeting. J.H. Martyn (a descendent of Henry Martyn) in a reference in a fascinating historical account Notes on Jaffna [1923], also recounted this incident: The American Missionaries were the first to introduce the photographic art to Ceylon. They obtained the necessary apparatus, chemicals and printed directions in 1853, and made a number of trials which were unsuccessful. It was then suggested to them by an admirer that he should be given an opportunity. To try his hand in the new art, accordingly Martyn was invited to a meeting of Batticota Church. On his arrival, the Senior Missionary, the Revd. F.P.Hastings entrusted the photographic apparatus to him. Inspired, Martyn went on to assemble the necessary equipment, and materials to establish his own studio in Jaffna town. The other significant personality in the development of early photography in Jaffna was Swaminathan Kandiah Lawton (1851-1921). Born in 1851, in Manipay, Jaffna, unlike Martyn, Lawton represented the third generation of Tamil students who enlisted at the Vadukottai institution. He came under the influence of Reverend Dr. Eurotas Parmelee Hastings (1821-1890), who was one of the leading educationists of the American Christian Mission. Arriving in Ceylon in 1846, Rev. Hastings served here in various stations established by the American Mission in Jaffna till his death in 1890. Hastings returned to America in 1852-53 and again in 1869-72 and would have brought back with him the necessary cameras, chemicals, material and the technical information, of the daguerreotype process from the U.S where these were freely available. Lawton recalled in an article how as a student aged 15, on a visit to Kandy, he was shown an image of a photograph on a glass support. Although lacking professional advice he sourced the only published material available to him in a journal The Photographic News. Both the current photographic processes Daguerreotype and Calotype were all set in great detail. The greatest setback for Lawton was the lack of photographic equipment and materials, which one took for granted in Europe. Being a self-trained photographer he substituted the materials available to him. Lawton even suggested that one should manufacture their own camera and he employed craftsmen in his village to achieve this aim. Unfailingly Lawton took care to publish the results of many such experiments in the prestigious Penrose Pictorial Annual. Over the years from early 1896 1914, he contributed as many as eight articles- probably the only photographer from this country to do so regularly, and in such detail. But as a self -trained photographer he was adept in working in the Wet and Dry Collodion method, which later superseded the daguerreotype and calotype techniques. But whether Lawton himself had undergone training to acquire the skill of a daguerreotypist is unclear from his writing. Lawton later went on to set up a commercial studio, one of the most well known and probably the longest running firm [1870-1910] of its type in the Jaffna Peninsula. By the turn of the century, his studio was still operating with photographic techniques, which had long been superseded. In 1903, the then President of the Amateur Photographic Society Justice H.L. Wendt (Lionel Wendts father) sought out Lawton, in his studio in Manipay, Jaffna. Wendt made this gruelling 250 mile trek over several days, before the advent of the Railway and motorised transport, in order to observe the obsolete technique still in use in Lawtons studio and to verify the result had his portrait taken by him. The commercial practice, which Lawton established, served the citizens of Jaffna for almost half a century, till his death in 1921. His son K.R. Lawton followed in his fathers footsteps and was equally inventive and produced excellent results in his work. Often photographic historians tend to confuse Swaminathan Kandiah Lawton with his namesake Joseph Lawton (c1864-d.1872), the English photographer who was also practising over the same period in Kandy. Joseph Lawton was widely known for the documentation of the archaeological sites of Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, and Sigiriya, producing the earliest known images of them. ( The writer acknowledges with thanks the efforts of Mark Edward Balmforth, Fulbright Scholar in sourcing much of the Lawton material from the Penrose Pictorial Annual 1898-1910) They came from far and wide (1845-1858) The swift dispersal worldwide of both the Daguerreotype process and Fox Talbots Calotype process was a truly remarkable phenomenon.Travel by sea and land was a laboriously slow process. A voyage to Calcutta or Colombo around the Cape, could take several weeks and direct communication such as telegraph and telephone were still years away. In spite of all these drawbacks as early as October 1839, William O Shaughnessy reported his experiments with the new photogenic drawings at a meeting of the Asiatic Society in Calcutta. Daguerres discovery in India provoked three long articles on the subject in the Bombay Times in December the same year and cameras were available from Thacker, Spinks & Company, Calcutta in 1840. In the decade between 1845-1855 there was an invasion of visiting amateurs and professional photographers from Europe to Ceylon. Jules Itier (1802-1877) One of the first recorded foreign daguerreotypists to visit Ceylon was Jules Itier. On his return as the leader of the French Governments Trade delegation to China from 1843 until March 1846, Itier visited Macao, Vietnam, Singapore and Ceylon. By September 19, 1845 Itier disembarked at Galle on board the Lady Wood arriving from Singapore and spent over a month travelling to Colombo, Kandy and Nuwara Eliya. He left Galle on the steamer Hindustan heading for Egypt. Unfortunately, all we are left with is a hazy view of Galle harbour. Alexis de La Grange (1829-1917) Frenchman Alexis de La Grange, embarked in 1849 upon a two-year trip to India,Ceylon, Java, Malaysia and Singapore. He travelled with his statesman cousin, Felix Lambrecht, who published Souvenirs in 1873, and it is believed that some of the images taken in Ceylon in 1848-49 by de La Grange were reproduced, as engravings in the work. Frederick Fiebig (1801-1880.c.) The German-born Frederick Fiebig was probably the most enigmatic of photographers. Fiebig was multi-talented had multiple vocations and was a jack-of-all-trades a pianist, conductor, Freemason activist, artist, engraver, lithographer, and photographer. This meant that references to him would turn up in Calcutta, Chennai, Macao, Hong Kong, Singapore, Ceylon, Cape Town and Mauritius and he even visited China and Myanmar. Fiebig arrived in Ceylon in the Steamer Oriental, in 1852. Among the passengers on board the Oriental was Lady Dalhousie, wife of the Viceroy of India who had been prescribed a period of convalescence in Nuwara Eliya. Of the 400 or more images from Fiebigs collection of photographs purchased by the British East India Company, London, in 1856, almost 70 represent the first recorded hand coloured Calotype photographs and were the earliest views of the newly emerging urban centres of Colombo, Kandy and Galle. Eliphalet M.Brown.Jr (1816-1886) New York-born Eliphalet M. Brown Jnr. was an accomplished daguerreotypist, lithographer and artist (historical, portrait and marine themes) practising at his studio in New York. In 1852 Brown was personally handpicked as the daguerreotypist to accompany Commodore Perrys expedition to Japan in 1852-53. Browns skills both as an artist and daguerreotypist proved invaluable to Perry for the expedition he was undertaking. Brown reportedly took more than 400 photographic images during the two-year expedition. Several of the lithographed plates of the Government published Narrative of the Expedition are attributed directly to Browns daguerreotypes. But we can only attribute to him the four engravings of Galle that are inscribed with his name. Hermann and Robert Schlaginweit The German born Schlaginweit brothers Hermann (1826-1882) and Robert (1833-1885) visited India and travelled south to Ceylon during the years 1854-57. Of these images the Wolvendahl Church in Colombo in 1857 probably best illustrates the effort of Robert Schlaginweit. Many of the surviving images included the so-called portraits of indigenous people (native types) which are norms of nineteenth century photography. Baron Hermann von Konigsbrunn (1823-1912) A distinguished landscape painter who spent eight months in Ceylon from January 8, 1853, he took as many as 200 photographs and left on November 1854 for Austria. The expedition included Franz Ritter von Friedman and Karl von Schrmarda (1819-1908), Professor at the University of Graz. This is in no way the end of the story of the introduction of the Daguerreo and Calotype processes in Ceylon. The history of photography witnessed the arrival of some of the greatest names in 19th century photography. The list includes: John Thomson (1837-1921) first to document thoroughly archaeological sites of China and Cambodia; Samuel Bourne (1834-1912), the pictorial- photographer of the Himalayas; Julia Margaret Cameron, eminent British portraitist; William Henry Jackson (1843-1942), first to capture the American wilderness; Felice Beato (18320-1909), the first war photographer and more recently Henry Cartier Bresson (1908-2004). Many were visitors but others like Cameron were long-term residents. Mastering grammar, mastering a language By Madhubhashini Disanayaka Ratnayake View(s): View(s): Parvathi Nagasundaram, I have observed first hand, is someone for whom, very simply, life is service. Her work has been in the field of English language teaching and her impact has been far reaching. She retired from the state university system in 2006, and continued her work as a writer of text books, the first work, Essential Grammar, a reference book for teachers coming out in 2012 the 7500 copies already sold speaking of its importance to the teaching community. Here she talks of her second book, Grammar for Communication which came out in July this year. Tell me about your journey that made you end up as one of the most respected grammarians and English teachers of this country. My journey in this world started in Burma, now Myanmar and when I was one, my family came back to Sri Lanka, then Ceylon. I had my primary education at Kandy Girls High school and my secondary at Jaffna College. I followed the English teacher training programme at Palaly Teachers College way back in 1963 and after completing my training, I taught in various government schools in the Central and Northern Provinces. After teaching for about 15 years I followed the degree programme at the University of Peradeniya first externally and then internally. In 1986 I joined the National College of Education, Pasdunrata from where I was sent on a scholarship by the British Council to follow a Masters Course in Applied Linguistics at the University of Reading, U.K. I worked in the College of Education for five years and then joined the National Institute of Maharagama as a Project Officer. Later I joined the University of Sri Jayewardenepura from where I retired in 2006. During all these years of service my students came first to me; I loved all of them and respected them and treated them all alike irrespective of their ethnicity, religion or social status and they reciprocated it. With regard to my being considered a grammarian, when I started teaching English in 1965 after my training at Palaly Teachers College, my knowledge of grammar was almost zero because I was not taught grammar in school nor at the training college. I learnt grammar on my own in order to teach my students. My Guru was A Practical English Grammar by A.J.Thomson and A.V. Martinet. At that time the Structural Approach was used to teach English Language and I had to have an in depth knowledge of grammar to give my best to my students. What exactly is the role of grammar in learning English as a second language? I think grammar plays a vital role in learning English as a second language, particularly for students who do not have adequate exposure to English in their home background. I totally agree with Rod Ellis who says mastering the grammar and vocabulary of a language helps one to master that language. But, regrettably, grammar teaching in Sri Lankan schools has not been very successful. That is because students gain only explicit knowledge of grammar which helps them to successfully complete grammar practice exercises given in class. The grammatical knowledge gained this way does not enable them to use it for communication. What teachers should do is, in addition to explaining the rules of grammar and getting students to apply those rules to do grammar exercises they should be provided opportunities to use the grammar points they have learnt in speaking, listening, reading and writing activities so that these grammar points become internalized. That is what I have attempted to do in my latest book Grammar for Communication. What would you like to tell students who are struggling with learning basic English in this country? Three factors that contribute toward language learning are exposure to the language through reading and listening, opportunities to use the language in speech and writing, and motivation to learn the language. I would advise them to read widely in English, watch English programmes on TV and listen to news both in Sinhala or Tamil and then in English in order to gain exposure to English. They should also talk to their friends in English. But unless they have intrinsic motivation to learn English nothing would help them. Students should be made to understand that learning English will be fruitful only if they use it for a variety of purposes in meaningful contexts. I know of so many who have become proficient in English entirely on their own efforts. Of course, learning English this way would be more successful if they had the guidance of a competent and committed teacher. You are now retired after years of service to the university system and you are still writing and still teaching, why? Well I am still teaching because I can still teach the same way I taught before I retired and also because I enjoy it. The moment I cannot teach this way I will stop teaching. I will never ever cheat my students for the sake of earning some money. Another reason why I still teach is my students who are heading English departments in various universities somehow persuade me to work in their progammes. I have been involved in the English Language Teaching programme in this country for more than five decades, as a teacher, teacher trainer, trainer trainer and a university academic. I have always been concerned about the falling standards of English and have tried my best to remedy it by teaching on various teacher training programmes and conducting hundreds of workshops for thousands of teachers around the country but to no avail. I have also written a grammar book for teachers. Since none of these helped to enhance the standard of English in the country, I have now started addressing the students directly. The book Grammar for Communication which I have written as a grammar guide for students should help them gain explicit as well as implicit knowledge of grammar. At the moment I am writing a book on improving vocabulary and God willing I hope to write two more books on improving reading and writing for students. This will be my last effort to improve the standard of English in the country. Michelle happy to win award for novel on burning issues View(s): Sri Lankan- born Australian author Michelle de Kretser has won her second Miles Franklin Literary Award this year for her novel The Life to Come, presented at the Melbourne Writers Festival last Sunday. Established in 1957, through the will and bequest of My Brilliant Career author Stella Maria Miles Franklin, the award highlights a novel of the highest literary merit which presents Australian life in any of its phases. Michelle is the third woman after Thea Astley (four times) and Jessica Anderson (twice) to win the $60,000 annual prize more than once. I am so pleased that in this past week, which saw a lurch to the right in Australian politics, that this book has won the Miles Franklin and that a first-generation Asian immigrant has won the award, the Sydney-based author told AAP. That sends a very good message to the majority of Australians who refuse the politics of race and hatred. Her first win was for her fourth novel Questions of Travel, which was also awarded the 2013 Australian Literature Society Gold Medal, the 2013 Prime Ministers Literary Awards for fiction, and shortlisted for the 2014 International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award. The Life to Come is de Kretsers sixth book, which follows a loosely linked group of characters across Sydney, Sri Lanka and Paris. Pippa, a struggling Australian writer who longs for success, is the connecting factor to the rest of the characters: Celeste, who tries to convince herself that her feelings for her married lover in Paris are reciprocated, Ash whose life and relationship are affected as he tries to blot out the memory of a tragedy from his childhood in Sri Lanka, and Christabel, an immigrant from Sri Lanka who struggles to find balance in her new life in Sydney. In the authors own words, it is an exploration of our flawed perceptions of other people and the way our understanding of the world shifts over time and according to changes in context. In her acceptance speech de Kretser called out disgraceful politicians about the treatment of refugees on Nauru and Manus Island. She read out the names of asylum seekers who had died there in the past five years, saying we have not forgotten, we will not forget. It was important to just write about some of those issues of race, migration and asylum seeking in the novel [because] they are ongoing matters of importance to Australia and the world, the author adds. Shedding the labels of deaf, blind or disabled women By Randima Attygalle View(s): View(s): Sunithas name is translated into a woman of well conduct. Being born to deaf and illiterate parents in India, did not hinder her from shaping her own destiny. Sunitha herself has a hearing disability, yet her accomplishments have far outstripped her problems. True to her name, Rama has turned out to be a goddess to her own community. Founder Chairperson of the Disabled Women Association of Nepal, Rama is committed to advocacy on disability rights. Our own Sandamali- necklace of moonshine as her name suggests, has illuminated her life despite her vision impairment. Employed as a computer instructor at a private firm, Sandamali is today committed to empowering others with disabilities. Shedding the labels of a deaf, blind or disabled woman, the delegates of the WILD (Womens Institute on Leadership and Disability) Asia 2018 were proclaiming loud and clear that their unique identities emerge superior to the tags attached to them by society. Sharing with fellow participants, what their names translate into, during the session on accomplishments and challenges of the eight-day interactive workshop in Colombo, the 15 delegates from India, China, Nepal and Sri Lanka, justified the dictum of the WILD Loud, Proud and Passionate. Initiated by Mobility International USA (MIUSA) together with the Employers Federation of Ceylon (EFC), the Colombo programme held end May, marked MIUSAs first-time presence in Asia. We have a very highly respected network of WILD alumni in the region and we realized that Sri Lanka specifically has the expertise needed to carry out this programme, Project Manager, WILD, Susan Dunn, told the Sunday Times. She further remarked that having a model in place, which moves beyond identifying problems is imperative. The WILD model builds confidence and skills of women with disabilities to name and combat discrimination while at the same time, gaining personal and professional experiences that prepare them to soar into new heights as leaders. To accomplish this, disabled women leaders need to feel positive about themselves, their bodies and their potential, says Susan. This is what our motto Loud, Proud and Passionate is all about. A US-based non-profit organization, MIUSA is committed to empower people with disabilities around the world to achieve their human rights through international exchange and international development. MIUSAs training sessions are fashioned to prepare people with disabilities to take leadership in advocating for inclusion across a wide range of sectors, including education, employment, micro enterprise, violence prevention, access to health care, technology and policy making. Calling for increased civil society partnership in championing a better world for those with disabilities, Susan further noted: disability inclusion is everyones issue, just the same as womens empowerment, environmental justice, etc. We all must support one another, move out of our silos and work together for a better world. WILD-Asia is one of the ways in which were creating a world as it should be. Citing The Gender, Disability and Development Institute, a component of WILD, as an excellent example of leaders from the disability community and other civil society actors coming together to share information and strategies to change policies and practices, she further remarked that this mutual learning and collaboration will lead to full inclusion of women with disabilities in society. In tune with MIUSAs mandate, the participants of the WILD, as its Project Manager explains, are to be equipped to share their confidence, skill and practical strategies with other girls and women with disabilities in their home communities. Endorsing this, the Manager of the Disability Network, EFC, and the local trainer for the WILD Asia, Manique Gunaratne says that WILD encourages its delegates to become agents of change by empowering those with disabilities at the grass root level. A woman with a disability is triple-handicapped- firstly for being a woman, secondly for having a disability and thirdly for not being empowered. The delegates of the workshop, as Manique explains, were selected through an open application process and reviewed by a panel. Four local delegates were among them. The programme which was also a celebration of diversity and mutual learning and sharing, enabled a dialogue among the participants in areas such as education, gender equality, economic empowerment, reproductive health and policy change, bringing with them their expertise in these fields. Adding further character to the programme were the sessions on yoga and self defence, cultural events and the MIUSAs photo exhibition, themed Brilliant & Resilient: Celebrating the Power of Disabled Women Activists. This international travelling exhibition featured portraits and vignettes of 30 women activists with disabilities from around the world. The workshop, as Manique points out further, was also aligned with the EFCs vision of promoting social harmony through productive employment. The EFC is the national employers organization and the employer constituent for Sri Lanka in the ILO through its membership of employers drawn from a multitude sectors. The EFCs Network on Disability and its disability resource centre which is internationally accredited, serves as a link between the business community and the organizations dealing with disability issues to facilitate mainstreaming its work. The WILD programme was supported by the Channel Foundation and MIUSAs Womens Leadership Fund. Sigalas story: Lessons not just for children View(s): Sigala was a wealthy youth who lived in the time of Lord Buddha. To fulfil a promise given to his father, Sigala worshipped the six directions- East, West, North, South, Up (sky) Down (earth) every morning. The Buddha, witnessing Sigalas ritual preached the Sigalovada Sutta to him, interpreting the true meaning of the six directions. A new book by Ven. Muruthamure Pannaloka Thera, resident at the Dhamma Sarana Buddhist Temple, Australia, focuses on the noble teachings of the Buddha in the Sigalovada Sutta, Sigala- Buddhas Guidance to a Better Life. In Sigala,Ven. Muruthamure Pannaloka Thera looks to promote social and spiritual values for a better personal and social life preached by the Buddha. The book is written to convey a clear message not only to children but also teens and adults, giving a comprehensive insight on the Buddhas teachings of the Sigalovada Sutta. The book relates the story of Sigala, prequel to the story of Oneli and Matthew who live in modern times. Their parents teach the two children the moral values of the Sutta which help in shaping their personalities and lives. The Buddhas preaching of the noble human qualities of self-control, good manners, proper conduct and a sense of modesty derived from eliminating the four vices of conduct, the four motives of actions and the six channels of wasting wealth are specifically explained with colourful illustrations by Mangala Kalansuriya. The book also explains the Buddhas interpretation of the six directions-East stands for parents and children, South for teachers and students, West for husband and wife, North for friends, Down for employers and employees and Up for clergy and lay people with duties and responsibilities that should be fulfilled by each of the groups. The book is not on sale but will be distributed to Dhamma Schools and school libraries soon. Requests for copies could be made through Ven. Muruthamure Pannaloka Thera, Dhamma Sarana Buddhist Temple, 329-335 Greens Road, Keysborough, Victoria 3173, Australia or by calling +61397690872. Sigala is published and printed by the Dhamma Sarana Buddhist Temple, Australia and Neo Graphics (Pvt) Ltd. The Red Mustang selected for Montreal World Film Festival View(s): The Red Mustang, a short film by 27-year-old director Rehan Mudannayake has been selected for the prestigious Montreal World Film Festival, where it will play in the Short Films World Competition.The Red Mustang has been selected along with 13 other short films from over 2000 submissions globally. It was nominated for the Best Short Film prize. A dark, suspenseful drama that tackles topical themes of sexual harassment, and the abuse and manipulation of power, the film follows a young, desperate graduate who gets more than she bargains for when she is interviewed by a powerful company CEO. The Red Mustang is the first ever Sri Lankan fiction film to discuss sexual harassment, and addresses many of the inequalities that women encounter in South Asia and the world over. The film stars Francesca Mudannayake and Dulika Jayamanne. It was screened twice on Tuesday, August 28 at the Cinema Imperial in Montreal. ACS Hameed: A symbol of communal harmony By Latheef Farook View(s): View(s): The late Foreign Minister Abdul Cader Shahul Hameed, who passed away on September 3, 1999, was much loved by members of all communities for his dedicated service to the country. Even today, he is remembered as a symbol of communal harmony and an example to be emulated by todays politicians who thrive on racist politics. For the uninterrupted 39 long years, from 1960 to 1999, Marhoom Hameed represented the Akurana electorate, which was later re-demarcated as Harispattuwa. He continued to win the electorate where the Muslim population was only 14 percent, because the Sinhalese overwhelmingly voted for him, although there were many Sinhalese candidates. At national level politics, he was an ardent supporter of the late President J.R. Jayewardene and stood by him during good times and bad times. JR also, in turn, rewarded him for his loyalty by appointing him as the first foreign minister a post held by prime ministers since independence in 1948. His political life was also a shining example for most Muslim politicians who, in later years, formed their own political parties and paved the way for communal politics and the present sorry state of affairs. In Parliament, Hameed always made valuable contributions on almost every subject. This was possible because he was a voracious reader. He was also entrusted with the task of preparing the party manifesto for the general elections. As the foreign minister between 1977 and 1987, he was the chairman of the Non-Aligned Movements Ministerial Conference and was deeply involved with the resolution of many international problems, including the US-Iranian crisis. He played this international role, while looking after the interests of his constituency. With troubleshooting being his forte, he was also associated with many delicate negotiations with NAM nations. He played a crucial role in the peace process between the Liberation Tigers of Tamils Eelam and the government with the aim of bringing about a solution to the ethnic conflict. His role in this regard was highlighted in the book titled The Will to Freedom by Adele Balasingam, wife of LTTE chief theoretician Anton Balasingham. On his role in the peace talks, Adele, in her book, said; Hameed acted with patience in the course of peace talks. He was a man of stature and planned his argument as if he was playing a game of chess. He was responsible for opening up Sri Lankan diplomatic missions in many countries, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Libya, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea. Thanks to these missions hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans got employment in these countries. Recognising his contribution as foreign minister in foreign relations, Hameed was honored with an honorary doctorate in 1978 by the Hank University in South Korea followed by an honorary doctorate by the Sri Jayewardenepura University. In President Ranasinghe Premadasas government, he held the post of Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, and later, as Minister of Justice and Highesr Education Planning. Despite his busy schedule, he managed to author many books such as The Foreign Policy Perspective of Sri Lanka, In Pursuit of Peace, On Nonalignment and Regional Co-operation, The Owl and the Lotus and Spring of Love and Mercy. Military top- brass as historians By Gamini Weerakoon View(s): View(s): Until the lions have their own historians, the tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters An African proverb. I was reminded of this quote while reading a Sunday Times political commentary about President Maithripala Sirisenas attempt to get former top brass of our defence services to compile the history of the near-three-decade War against the terrorists. Undoubtedly the retired service chiefs will have intimate knowledge of what went on during the three decades. But they are all honourable men who cant let their own side down. Simply not done old boy, is the motto of the officer class. The esprit de corps prevails among our retired warriors like most of those in other countries who donned the military regalia, and it is quite unlikely that they will let their own side down. They need not, and perhaps will not, utter falsehoods. Like in most professions the military, too, has its ways of saying things in their gobbledygook what George Orwell referred to as double speak. Sri Lanka, too, was developing its own strategic defence lingo in the closing stages of the conflict. Remember that classic: Humanitarian War? As a journalist who has known both military top brass and historians, I have grave doubts about military men becoming historians in as much as professional historians closeted in academia turning out to be admirals or generals. Nonetheless, in these days, there is a substantial proportion of the populace that believes in military men being Supermen capable of any feat such as repeating Dutugemunu feats or beautifying Colombo-7 roads. Some generals have already dashed out lengthy Rambo tracts on how the War was won. That, however, is not the main problem of our military historians. The history of the Sinhala Lions will demand on what the Tamil Tigers did for three decades. Despite the ghastly and reprehensible performances in many respects they did give the Lions a good 30-year run. Can our former top brass even under patronage of the President be able to present that aspect too? President Sirisenas proposal obviously demands an editor preferably a historian to collate the accounts of the former service commanders. But whether it will reveal what really happened during the period in question is anybodys guess. The tragedy of all history and historians down the ages is that most histories of wars are written mostly by the winners. Churchill correctly said history is written by winners and went on to write the history of a war, in which he was the chief dramatis personae. Winners write about the valour and heroism of their combatants on land, air and sea, brilliant strategies of the generals and admirals and flying chiefs: And, of course, of their commanders-in-chief the war commissars. The losers dont write the history of their battles; nor are they able to do so even after decades of the war ending. There are no Nazi historians and Japanese war lords as historians of note to speak about. There are professional historians of note, particularly in academia meticulously trying to separate facts from fiction and propaganda but even these historians are at times accused of being biased. European (including English) historians by remarkable coincidence are unanimous on controversial issues particularly during World War 11. Has there been prosecution of war criminals of the Western Allied Forces in World War II? Despite the notable and quotable treating history their versions as something sacred and sacrosanct, it is taken with a pinch of salt by a great many, including historians. Sri Lankas unique history as stated in the Mahavamsa has generated fume and fury to explosively high levels. The War is over but not the furious arguments on reconstruction and deconstruction of history. All history is about news of the past. So it is natural that just as much there is Fake News and News, there will be Fake History and History. Bertrand Russell described the history of the British Conservatives (Tories) as Hiss Tory. Is all history hissing about history? Tribute to a legendary comrade-in-arms By Maj Gen Nirmal Dharmaratne, Commander of the Special Forces Brigade (2007-2009) Major General Chagie Gallage WWV RWP RSP VSV USP USAWC View(s): View(s): Major General Chagie Pamoda Gallage, a true patriot, a soldier to the inner bone, an inspiring military leader and a gentleman to the fingertips, hung up his uniform on the August 31, 2018, after 35 years of arduous service to the nation, having reached the maximum permissible age of service (55 years) in the Army. Having known Major General Gallage for over three decades, I trust that I can pen many distinct attributes of him with absolute authority and accuracy. Major General Chagie Gallage, whom I will respectfully and fondly call hereinafter as Chagie, was my senior colleague in the Army, an officer of repute of the prestigious Gajaba Regiment, who always upheld the customs, traditions and ethics of the organisation, left a legacy that cannot be repealed in the Sri Lanka Army and in the Gajaba Regiment. General Gallage is no doubt a national figure. To gain such recognition he did not blow his own trumpet; neither did he write an autobiography. It is the humility embedded in his persona that brought him this adulation. Although, Chagie became popular among Sri Lankans because of the decisive role he played in the final thrust against the LTTE terrorists in 2007-2009 period, he has always been popular among his comrades in the Army, among his batch mates, among old Anandians, among the motor-racing community of Sri Lanka, among his relatives and friends. A keen ruggerite and a scout at school, Chagie joined the 19th Intake of the Army as an Officer Cadet in 1984. Chagie took to the military career like a fish taking to water. I recall seeing him for the first time at the Military Academy in Diyatalawa from a batch junior to him, and the essential attributes of a great military commander were evident all over in him, even at that very formative stage of his military career. Tough and robust, both mentally and physically, Chagie was so charismatic and inspiring to watch. Chagie as a person is ever so willing to help others always. He is one in a million who has never changed his qualities from his youth to date. That is to say that if you had known Chagie in 1984 when he was twenty years of age, and then even in 2018 in his mid-fifties, you would meet the same character, which is not so with many others. He was an adornment to the positions he held, and did not use the positions to adorn himself. This no-nonsense officer could also get stubborn easily and stand for what is right against all odds, which sometimes got him into troubles too. Chagies contributions to the Gajaba Regiment have been outstanding. The Gajaba Regiment is synonymous with Chagie Gallage. Chagie as a young subaltern, in the mid-eighties, was a skillful and tactically sound combat fighter who operated along with his rifle-company in many areas of the Jaffna Peninsula. His first independent command was to guard the Nagadeepa (Nainativu) island in 1986 with his platoon. He played a key role in Operation Vadamarachchi and Operation Clean-sweep the two military operations led by the two great late Generals Kobbekaduwa and Wimalaratne to drive the terrorist out of the Jaffna peninsula in 1986. I presume that Chagies stint at the Sri Lanka Military Academy (SLMA) as an officer instructor is one of his most memorable. Working under the late Major General Gamini Gunasekera, Chagie not only excelled in training Officer Cadets, but also became one of the pioneers of organising motor racing competitions in the Army, in partnership with the Sri Lanka Auto-Sports Drivers Association (formerly SLARDAR), and promoted the flourishing sport, the journey of which began at Fox-hill, Diyatalawa. The motor racing track at Gajaba Regiment in Anuradhapuara is a result of Chagies hard work. During most of his long and enduring military career, Chagie served either in an operational area or at a military training institute. He is one of the few officers who always commanded respect not only from his subordinates but also from his superiors and peers. Battle-hardened Chagie was the first choice of any senior military commander, to include in their team of field commanders for operations. Thus, Chagie was seen in almost all major combat operations in all fronts, in the North and East, during the period from 1985 to 2009. Some called Chagie a meticulous man because he goes into minute details of any assignment, and that particularly is the reason for his success. Be it official or private, he was always well focused on whatever he was doing. Duty was always at his heart that he would stay the whole day in uniform doing his job exceeding the expectations of his superiors. Chagie would do all the work around him disregarding whether that work is within his purview or others, and would stay back-stage without claiming credit for the achievement. By doing so, he gained a reputation among the senior officers and confidence among the juniors. This was one of the reasons for his seniors to count heavily on him, and his juniors to place faith on him. Calmness in a crisis is a much required quality of a good battlefield commander. Once during an intense battle at Karadipokku in Kilinochchi, as Operation Sathjaya was underway in 1996, the Army suffered heavy casualties and the battle was about to be lost. It is at this crucial moment that Chagie came in voluntarily without waiting for instructions from superiors, and led his elite Airmobile troops to fight gallantly and restored the situation and at the end Chagie too was wounded. While being treated at the Advanced Dressing Station (first aid point just behind the line of fire) the LTTE fired a barrage of mortars at that location. At this moment, while other casualties were yelling in agony, and running around for cover carrying their saline bottles in hand, Chagie lit a cigarette. During the Humanitarian Military Operation, Chagie as a Brigadier commanded the Commando Brigade, which had been grouped with some infantry battalions, with which he moved into action against the LTTE in the Eastern Province in 2006. Chagies leadership was instrumental in liberating the Southern part of the Eastern Province that included the LTTE stronghold Thoppigala. Then Chagie switched to the Wanni theatre with the beginning of operations in the Northern front in 2007. He raised the Task Force-1 there and launched it from Mannar front, along with Commando Brigade, which was later driven by Chagies closest pal in the Regiment, Maj Gen Shavendra Silva until the completion of Eelam War, and which was later upgraded as 58 Division. Thereafter, being away from battle due to a brief illness, Chagie returned to the field in 2009 to Command the 59 Division in Mullaitivu. On completion of the campaign, Brigadier Chagie Gallage was promoted to Major General prematurely ahead of most of his peers, on merit. Chagie not only earned gallantry medals multiple times for his bravery in battle, but he also worked hard to get gallantry medals for his juniors too. Chagie is extremely innovative; he can devise things when the resources are scarce or unavailable. I recount how, Colonel Chagie, as the Commandant of Army Training School in Maduru Oya, in 2004, was instrumental in conceptualising and forming the highly skilled Special Infantry Operations Teams (SIOT) of the Army, together with Lt Col Ralph Nugera, realising a vision spelt out by the then Inspector of Infantry, Major General Sarath Fonseka. It was these SIO teams, that boosted the fighting capacity of the infantry and fought as vanguards of the advancing Army during the Humanitarian Military Operation. On another occasion, during the middle of the same military campaign, the Army encountered a highly fortified LTTE fortifications built on Ditch cum Bund, commonly known as DCB (a line of bunkers coupled with about 10 foot wide water obstacle in front of them). These obstacles severely hindered the movement of the advancing Army. Chagie as the Director Training, under the direction of the Army Commander, created special teams and trained them on a special battle drill that eventually enabled the troops to successfully cross these LTTE obstacles. Any Army would pick one of its highly professional and unswervingly loyal military officers to command its Presidential Guard force that provides protection to the Head of State. His superiors at that time had no hesitation in recommending Chagie to that vital appointment, which he held successfully for four years from 2010. Matured to the core, totally dedicated to excellence in all its manifold facets from command to instructional, the Army received Chagies services as a Tactical Level Commander and thereafter as an Operational Level Commander. The Army in particular and the country in general have received tremendous service from this great legendary military leader of our time. Yet he never grumbled about what he did not get in return. The leadership of Maj Gen Chagie Gallage should be researched and documented, for the benefit of budding military leaders. A good source for such a research is his close associates, both in and outside the Army, who know his inner qualities well. It is my sincere wish, as well as that of many others whom I know, that the outstanding potentials of Major General Chagie Gallage (retired) may be utilised for the benefit of this country for a few more years. Take A Mulligan: The Big 7-0 Here is the $64,000 question. Just exactly how old is old? In my teens, I figured it was about 35 but when I was getting close to that age, it ... I am offering the solution to a problem most Republicans don't know they have -- that they can be outmaneuvered and thrown on the defensive endlessly, on nearly any issue, because they accept as true Democrat lies about the Republican Party. To correct that misperception and to help the Republican Party get 'back to basics' is why I'm a man on a mission. A few years ago, after one of my speeches, a man told me "Do you know what your problem is? You're too far ahead of your time!" My efforts to show Republicans how they would benefit from celebrating the heritage of our Grand Old Party have been arduous, but if this were easy someone else would have already done it. Among my speech topics are Reconciling the Tea Party and the GOP; Barack Obama, the Worst President Ever; Socialism, the new Slavery; Appreciating the Heritage of our Grand Old Party; Returning to the Founding Principles of the United States; The Womens Rights Achievements of our Grand Old Party; Abraham Lincoln, Republican; Frederick Douglass, Republican; Martin Luther King and the Republican Civil Rights Legacy. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin - (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta, Indonesia Sun, September 2, 2018 00:01 1158 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308770de923 4 Inforial Free With vast natural resources, diverse tourist attractions plus a strategic location, Banten is poised to become the worlds great investment destination. Banten province is witnessing an upward trend in annual foreign direct investment (FDI). The value of realized foreign investment and domestic investment has been on the increase for the last three years. In 2017, investment flowing to Banten reached Rp 55.82 trillion (US$3.8 billion), higher than the previous year, which stood at Rp 52.23 trillion, with 2,980 projects. Correspondingly, entering 2018, thanks to the Banten provincial administrations persistence in promoting the regions investment potential, Banten has seen an upward trend in investment. The realized investment for the first semester of 2018, for instance, was recorded at Rp 29.99 trillion, with 2,055 projects, according to the Investment Activity Report (LKPM) obtained by local investment office One-Stop Integrated Services (DMPTSP). The increase in the realized investment has signified foreign investors growing interest in investing their capital in Banten. Based on the report, realized foreign investment in Banten province for the first semester ranked third after West Java and Jakarta, with an investment value of Rp 21.97 trillion from 1,518 projects. Meanwhile, domestic investment ranked seventh, with investment value of Rp 8 trillion and 537 projects. The increase in the value of investment annually has proven that Banten has become one of the main investment destinations, for both foreign investment and domestic investment. Even from 2015 to 2017, Banten ranked in five big positions and as of the first semester of 2018, realized foreign investment jumped to the third position in investment destinations in Indonesia. Relying heavily on the regions potential and geographical location is highly insufficient to boost investment growth. Through the DPMTSP, the Banten government has taken breakthrough steps, which include enhancing the ratio of the ease of doing business, changing the behavior of bureaucrats, establishing a taskforce to settle bottleneck related to business license, ensuring security, et cetera. To fulfill investors substantial need for a simple, quick and effective service related to business permits, the Banten administration has applied an online one-stop-integrated service, making it unnecessary for investors to repeatedly visit relevant technical agencies to meet the proposed license conditions. Related to the high demand for a quick and efficient business license process, a significant step has also been taken by enhancing the capacity of officers in charge to enable them to provide better services and to create ease and comfort for prospective investors to start and develop their business. In this respect, the Banten administration has also obliged all of its regency and town administrations to set a taskforce whose major tasks are to bridge, solve and reduce the obstacles in the investment process, either in the license application phase or the implementation (debottlenecking). The taskforce is expected not only to help the Banten administration monitor the investment process but also to handle the arising license-related issues. Apart from that, the Banten administration has also set up an integrated licensing program, or online single submission (OSS), to comply with Government Regulation No. 24/2018 on the electronic integrated business services, aimed at providing ease for investment in Indonesia. Under the OSS system, investors can handle nearly all of the licensing process, starting from the making of a corporate deed to obtaining a commercial license. Investment security for investors Ensuring comfort and security is a prerequisite for investments. Therefore, the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) has teamed up a mutual work team with the National Police, with the two parties signing a working guideline for the coordination of protection and security for business in 2016. As an investment destination, the Banten administration, in collaboration with the regional police, is always ready to maintain the investment climate. The Banten provincial government ensures security for the investors, starting from the licensing process, an inventory of the possible security disruptions around the investment activities to quick assistance in the event of a demonstration and unwanted violent actions by thugs. Investment in tourism sector Banten Governor Wahidin places the tourism sector as his priority program because Banten has great tourism potential, which includes special economic zone (SEZ) Tanjung Lesung. According to him, it is highly important to manage tourism destinations well and give a good impression to tourists visiting Banten. Currently, the Banten provincial government is focusing on the improvement of road access to local tourist attractions, including the area of Sultan Banten, known as Banten Lama (Old Banten) and Tanjung Lesung Beach. For this reason, local administration has spurred the acceleration of various strategic national projects (PNS) to boost tourism in Banten, such as the SEZ of Tanjung Lesung, reactivation of the Labuan-Panimbang railway, the development of an 84-kilometer-long Serang-Panimbang toll road and the revitalization of Banten Lama. The efforts to revitalize Banten Lama have seen much progress following the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Banten provincial government and the Serang municipality in July. For example, a canal in the area, which was formerly a slum and dirty area where illegal businesses operated, has been cleaned up as it will be developed into a water tourism facility. An old mosque has also been revitalized, with its front yard already looking clean, neat and orderly. A bus terminal has also been built close to the house of prayer to provide more tourists with easy access to the site. The initial phase of the development of Banten Lama is expected to be completed in December. Banten Lama will have a new face as a religious tourism destination and is expected to attract more domestic and international travelers, which will boost investment in tourism and other sectors. On the other hand, the government is focusing its attention on boosting investment to develop tourism potential. As one of the 10 national priority destinations, the Tanjung Lesung Beach area takes center stage, especially with the area expected to welcome 1 million tourist arrivals in 2019, as the government has targeted. The Tanjung Lesung area covers an area of 1,500 hectares, with diverse tourism potential, including the beauty of the natural beach, flora and fauna diversity and a wealth of exotic cultures. Apart from the property and leisure sectors, investors can also take the opportunity to invest in the transportation and logistics sector and other service sectors that support tourism business-related activities in the area. The Special Economic Zone (SEZ) status for the Tanjung Lesung area is expected to make the area attractive to investors. The status of Tanjung Lesung Beach area as an SEZ is expected to benefit investors because the area has already provided what investors need: the master plan for long-term development, basic infrastructure such as power supply, a clean water plant, a waste management plant, land with certificates etc, according to Poernomo Siswoprasetijo, president director of PT Banten West Java Tourism Development, a developer of the Tanjung Lesung Beach area. . (./.) The first feature film to touch on the Paris jihadist attacks premiered Friday at the Venice film festival just months after another was pulled over protests by survivors. Amanda tells the story of a young man who is left to look after his seven-year-old niece after her mother is killed in an attack on a Paris park. Although the attack itself is fictional, the film by French director Mikhael Hers draws on the shock and trauma in the French capital after the November 13, 2015, massacres in which 130 people died. French public television was forced in December to put on ice a controversial love story starring Sandrine Bonnaire set on the night of the killings at the Bataclan concert venue. Although Ce soir-la (That Night) had by then finished shooting, executives promised it would not be shown until all of the survivors and families of victims were consulted following protests. Claire Peltier, the partner of one the people murdered at the Eagles of Death Metal concert, had set up a petition calling for the "scandalous" film to be shelved. She said it was far too soon for "such a painful" story to be revisited. But the makers of the new film told AFP that Amanda is not directly about the 2015 attacks but rather about the trauma they created in those left behind. Hers insisted that he wanted to "bear witness to the Paris of today" and the movie only "comes partly from the attacks". "The attacks had a powerful impact on people. Unconsciously there's the fear of a shooting whenever you hear a loud bang; there's a hazy tremor of insecurity when you're on a cafe terrace or in a crowded public place," he added. Read also: Paris attacks documentary shows victims' defiance in face of horror - Did not talk to survivors - "There's as great a chance as ever of dying in a road accident but it's a new feature of daily life." The producers admitted that Hers did not "sit down and talk to the survivors one-on-one but he read all their official testimonies." "He didn't want to make a direct comparison between his characters and the experiences of the victims," a spokesman told AFP. Hers said the film "fits into a much bigger picture of a period when people are tormented by an awareness of our fragility." Sociologist Gerome Truc, author of Shell Shocked: the Social Response to Terrorist Attacks, who worked with the film, said it was more a portrait of the "Bataclan generation" in post-attacks Paris. While the aftermath of a fictional attack in Paris is briefly shown, the film is "about all terrorist attacks and the ordeal that an attack represents," he said. The main focus of the story is the relationships between the young uncle and his niece (Vincent Lacoste and Isaure Multrier), and his wounded musician girlfriend played by Stacey Martin. "The story of David and Amanda is set in Paris, but it could be London, Baghdad or Bombay," Truc said. Netflix screened a documentary mini-series, Attack on Paris" in May based on testimony from dozens of survivors, and the bestseller You Will Not Have My Hate, a moving rebuke to the attackers by Antoine Leiris, the husband of one of the victims, has been adapted for the stage. American cosmetics brand Urban Decay has decided to discontinue its original Naked eye shadow palette, shocking many makeup enthusiasts. Founded in 2010, the palette was seen as a game-changer as it allowed both aspiring and professional makeup artists to create a variety of looks. Those planning to stock up on the palette may rejoice as it is still available at Urban Decay stores. Urban Decay PR & social digital manager Rahadian M. Saputra told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that the palette was still up for grabs in Indonesia. Although it is still at the normal price, Rahadian shared that it would have special offers for the palette. Read also: Five local makeup products for everyday use After expressing shock at the sad news, several media outlets have reported that the brand was probably going to launch a new eye shadow palette called Naked Cherry. Cosmopolitan reported that Instagram account @trendmood1 shared photos of the palette on Tuesday. In the leaked photos, Naked Cherry is seen to feature wearable colors, such as shimmering pinks, warm peaches, deep burgundies as well as brown shades. At the time of writing, Urban Decay Indonesia has yet to give a statement regarding Naked Cherry. But were pretty sure the new palette will be able to mend our broken hearts after the loss of the original Naked. (wng) There is a lack of equality between men and women in the workplace, especially higher up on the career leader. According to data from the World Bank, women comprise 47 percent of entry-level professionals and the number decreases with middle and high-level management positions. Women make up 20 percent of mid-level management positions, and only 5 percent of CEOs and board members are women. For managerial roles, women are the least represented in corporations. A recent study found that few women hold high-level managerial positions in e-commerce. Women comprise 65 percent of all online shoppers, yet the number of women in top management positions at 13 e-commerce companies stands at only 31 percent. Only 36 percent of division heads in the industry are women, and the number is even lower for female CEOs and vice presidents at 21 percent. The study found that the same phenomena applies across the region. There is a lack of women in the e-commerce industry in Singapore with a participation rate of 34 percent; the rate is 37 percent in Vietnam, 40 percent in Thailand and 42 percent in Malaysia. The Philippines has Southeast Asia's highest rate at 55 percent. Indonesia holds the lowest rate at 31 percent. Indonesia is ranked 10th in the World Economics Forum's Gender Gap Index. This means that it is far behind other developing countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand in gender equality. Indonesia has great potential to increase its GDP to US$135 billion by 2025 if more women take on roles in productive sectors, according to McKinsey & Company. But what are the factors that hold women back from corporate success? There are several challenges that we need to overcome: Lack of support networks A report from Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) states that there are several reasons that make it difficult for women to climb the career ladder, with the biggest constraints being motherhood (41 percent), family responsibilities (41 percent), non-supportive environments (31 percent) and gender discrimination (24 percent). According to the managing partner of Grant Thornton Indonesia, Johanna Gani, there is a lack of female leadership because Indonesian culture is still strongly influenced by hierarchical structures and patriarchy. With this collective mindset, there is a belief that men should hold leadership roles as they are perceived to be more competent. As reported by Tirto, 30 million Indonesian women have made the decision to not climb the career ladder. Sintesa Group CEO Shinta Kamdani said that there was a perception that having an expanded role would disrupt the balance between work life and home life. As a result of these social norms, many Indonesian women are afraid to pursue certain high-level positions. Lack of confidence Another factor holding women back in the country is a lack of confidence. Women often undersell themselves and underestimate their potential, power and influence in the workplace. In contrast, men are typically quite confident in themselves and their capabilities. A Bain & Company survey of over 1,000 women shows that women in middle management positions lack confidence in rising to the top. Male colleagues at the same level had access to same-sex mentors to help them to navigate these issues. Mentoring and a supportive environment are keys Empowering women has long-term positive socioeconomic impacts. Mentorship is a crucial component of career success, offering both mentor and mentee opportunities to learn and grow. With mentorship and training, women are able to tap into strengths that they may not have been aware of. Women also require a supportive social environment that allows them to excel. Director of PT Marga Mandala Sakti Wiwiek Santoso said that women could not be expected to have all the responsibilities at home in terms of taking care of children and household affairs. Therefore, there is a need for cooperation with husbands to strike a balance between the workplace and home. Women are also advised to be more proactive in empowering themselves by developing a broad range of skills, actively working on building their self-esteem and helping other women to grow both personally and professionally. A study by MSCI shows there is a positive correlation between the presence of women in corporate leadership and performance. Companies in the MSCI World Index with strong female leadership generated a return on equity of 10.1 percent per year versus 7.4 percent for those without women in leadership roles. Considering the research concluded that gender diversity in high-level positions has significant benefits for both productivity and profits, Indonesian enterprises need to be more proactive in supporting gender diversity in management and board positions to optimize growth. (kes) *** Indah Mustikasari is an observer-thinker who is passionate about human behavior. She works at Kuala Lumpur-based company iPrice. It was too good to be true. A mural sporting Banksy's alleged signature in a declining town in northwestern Spain that had caused a sensation when it appeared overnight in April is not by the legendary street artist, his website said Friday. The cheeky, stencilled image of two Guardia Civil police kissing had appeared on a white wall that had been "reserved for Banksy" in Ferrol, where a street art festival set up in 2008 to breathe new life into a dying neighbourhood takes place every year. At the time, Spanish media was rife with speculation as to whether the image -- which strongly resembles one of the artist's most famous images portraying two British cops kissing -- was actually his. But as the annual festival kicked off on Friday, AFP sent an email to Banksy's official website banksy.co.uk asking whether it was indeed his. The response was: "It is not by Banksy." The story started in 2017 when Estrella Galicia, a beer brand that had just started sponsoring the festival, took out ads in several British cities and newspapers calling for Banksy to join in. Read also: Banksy's lesser known works on show in London The festival was created by Eduardo Hermida in 2008 who decided to get fellow artists to plaster walls and even doors in the district of Canido with their versions of Diego Velazquez's famed 17th century "Las Meninas" painting. The aim was to breathe new life into his beloved neighbourhood, in an industrial town dubbed Galicia's Detroit for its population decline and abandoned spaces. "Dear Banksy, we have reserved a space for you on one of our streets so that you can freely express your most personal interpretation of Las Meninas and help us to make our neighbourhood a more beautiful place to live," read Estrella Galicia's ad. That was in October 2017. Then in April appeared the mural in the style of the mysterious artist, generating huge excitement. As the months went on, doubts crept in that it was indeed Banksy's. Speaking to AFP on Friday, Hermida said he had also written to that same official website asking and that they had never denied it was Banksy's. He added he had even received an email coming from Banksy's website early this year asking him for the exact localisation of the white wall, on which the image appeared months later. NBC News tried to thwart an investigation into sexual harassment claims against former Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein by calling off and even threatening its own journalists, media reports said. According to reports in The New York Times and Daily Beast, NBC sought to stop the investigation led by journalist Ronan Farrow and producer Rich McHugh. NBC denied the reports. McHugh was quoted by the Times as saying he was told after spending months on the investigation not to interview one of Weinstein's accusers and that the order came from "the very highest levels of NBC". "Three days before Ronan and I were going to head to L.A. to interview a woman with a credible rape allegation against Harvey Weinstein, I was ordered to stop, not to interview this woman, and to stand down on the story altogether," McHugh, who left NBC in mid-August, told the daily. The Daily Beast, meanwhile, citing unnamed sources, reported that NBC, pressured by Weinstein's lawyers, threatened to "smear" Farrow if he kept pursuing the Weinstein story. Farrow later took the story to The New Yorker, where its publication sparked a series of investigations against Weinstein that ultimately led to criminal charges and inspired the #MeToo movement by victims of sexual harassment. NBC, a unit of Comcast, denied the allegations, repeating its claim that Farrow had failed to obtain credible accounts before leaving the network. Read also: Weinstein indicted for sex crimes against third woman "The assertion that NBC News tried to kill the Weinstein story while Ronan Farrow was at NBC News, or even more ludicrously, after he left NBC News, is an outright lie," NBC said in an emailed statement on Friday. NBC said that in August 2017, after eight months of reporting efforts "Farrow believed his reporting was ready for air" but that the network disagreed because "he did not yet have a single victim of -- or witness to -- misconduct by Weinstein who was willing to be identified." The spokesperson said that when Farrow decided to take his investigation to The New Yorker, "NBC News told him 'we will not stand in your way.'" The television group said the victims named in the print report were not available when Farrow was at NBC. Farrow won a Pulitzer Prize for his articles on Weinstein starting in October 2017. After the Weinstein story broke, star NBC host Matt Lauer was forced to resign over sexual harassment allegations, and former NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw has faced accusations of unwanted advances. Matilda Hagerman laughs with her friends as she queues at a man-free music festival, which kicked off in Sweden on Friday in protest against a wave of sexual assaults at festivals in recent years. "This festival was necessary because of everything that happened during festivals last year," says the 27-year-old student with long pink hair and purple lipstick as her friends nod in agreement. Held in Sweden's second-largest city of Gothenburg, the two-day Statement Festival, forbids men but not transgender people. It was announced last year after police received four rape and 23 sexual assault reports at Sweden's largest Bravalla Festival, which was cancelled this year as a result. "What do you think about us creating an awesome festival where only non-men are welcome until ALL men learn how to behave?" Swedish comedian Emma Knyckare, who founded the Statement Festival, tweeted at the time. Located inside an industrial building in Gothenburg's harbour, only female bands are performing and neither male security guards nor journalists are allowed to enter. Rebecka Ljung, spokeswoman for the festival, told AFP "thousands" of women were expected to attend the festival. Under cloudy skies, the festival got started with women holding beers and smiling and walking harmoniously in groups. With two main stages for the mainly Swedish women performers, there was plenty of space to rest outside on pink colored seats at the center of the site, turning the festival into a convivial place in contrast to traditional festivals. "This place feels like a safe-zone where women can just get together and have fun and celebrate ... especially in light of the assaults that have happened at other festivals," said Julia Skonneby, a 34-year-old performer. "It feels like a certain tension is gone... we're here to make a statement together," Hanna Gustavsson, a 31-year-old designer, chimed in. Statement, launched after raising more than 500,000 kronor ($54,000) through crowdfunding, defines a transgender person as "a person who does not identify with the sex assigned to them at birth". This means transgender women born as men are allowed to attend. Only men who identify with the sex they were born with, also called cis men, are banned. Read also: India's women-only comedy show tackles breasts, bras and bias - Discriminatory? - The Scandinavian country is one of the most gender equal countries in the world. After receiving several complaints, the Equality Ombudsman (DO), a government agency that promotes equal rights and handles discrimination complaints, has asked the festival to specify what it means by "cis men". "We want to examine whether the festival is compatible with discrimination laws," the agency's spokesman Clas Lundstedt told AFP, adding it would take a couple of weeks to reach a conclusion. Festival-goer Gustavsson said she thought it was fair to bar men. "I don't believe in complete separatism but I think it's very important to have this festival right now." According to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, 4.1 percent of women reported that they had been the victim of a sexual crime compared to 0.6 percent of men in Sweden. Knyckare told AFP that the MeToo wave exposing sexual assault unveiled "serious problems" in Sweden, one of the most gender equal nations in the world, at not only festivals but several institutions. "It seems like men have woken up to how huge the problem with sexual violence is," she told AFP. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, September 1, 2018 06:51 1159 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308770c771c 1 City mob-attack,car,West-Jakarta Free A mob destroyed a black Grand Livina car near the Transjakarta bus shelter in Mangga Besar, West Jakarta, on Thursday. The car driver, identified as Franky and who was allegedly under the influence of drugs, was heading to Harmoni intersection, when he hit a motorcyclist at around 1 p.m., Tamansari Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Ruly Indra said on Friday. Franky claimed that he was consuming crystal meth inside his car [when it was parked] at Lokasari, Ruly said as quoted by kompas.com. The 39-year-old driver sped up when other drivers asked him to stop. He later entered a Transjakarta bus lane, where Franky hit another motorcyclist and a road divider The car finally stopped and a mob immediately attacked the car, while the police took Franky into custody. The police are still investigating where Franky obtained the drugs. "We cant say the source of the drugs because anyone can purchase them anywhere, he said. The front part of the car was damaged from hitting the road divider and being smashed by the mob. The two motorcyclists whom Franky hit were not injured. The police found sleeping pills and zip lock plastic bags, which had been used to hold the crystal meth, as admitted by Franky, in his car. The police are still hunting the perpetrators of the mob justice. No matter what, we cant permit [mob justice], Ruly added. (stu) The Japanese and Chinese governments are considering realizing a visit by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to China on Oct. 23, exactly 40 years after the Japan-China Peace and Friendship Treaty entered into force, it has been learned. Abe is expected to stay in the country for about two nights and three days and have a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other officials to show improvements in bilateral ties, according to a diplomatic source knowledgeable about Japan-China relations. The visit can be realized only if Abe secures his third consecutive term as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in the LDP presidential election on Sept. 20. It would mark the first visit to China by a Japanese prime minister other than for international conferences in the country since a December 2011 visit by then Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, September 1, 2018 06:21 1159 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308770c7468 1 City ex-convict,corruption,Jakarta-council,Councilors Free The Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) decided on Friday to allow former corruption convict Mohamad Taufik to run in the 2019 legislative election. Following Bawaslus decision, the Jakarta General Election Commission (KPU Jakarta), as the party challenged by Gerindra Party politician Taufik for its decision to scrap him from the list of potential legislative candidates, will hold a meeting with the KPU to discuss the decision. KPU Jakartas decision to remove Taufik, the current Jakarta Council deputy speaker, was based on the KPU Regulation No. 20/2018 on legislative and regional council candidates, which bars former corruption convicts from taking part in the 2019 legislative elections. The regulation stipulates that political parties are not allowed to nominate members who have been convicted of sexual assault, drug abuse or corruption. Taufik filed an appeal to the Supreme Court to challenge the KPU regulation. KPU Jakarta commissioner Nurdin said on Friday that the commission would meet with the general KPU, to discuss the decision. KPU Jakarta could only follow instructions from the general KPU, he added. Taufik was found guilty of corruption in 2004 when he was head of KPU Jakarta in a corruption case involving the procurement of election materials. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison for causing state losses of Rp 488 million (US$32,866). Taufik has also emerged as a candidate for Jakarta deputy governor after Sandiaga Uno left the position to run in the presidential election next year as a vice presidential candidate alongside Gerindra chairman Prabowo Subianto. (stu) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, September 1 2018 Boeing and Indonesian aircraft company PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI) signed on Wednesday a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to explore collaborative areas of opportunity to include manufacturing technology, certification, as well as support and maintenance of vertical lift products. We see this memorandum as an important step in support of Indonesias vision for current and future economic development as well as the growth of the countrys aerospace sector, said Boeing Southeast Asia president Skip Boyce said in a press release on Thursday. Boyce said the MoU demonstrated commitment to the growth of Indonesias aerospace industry and providing advanced capabilities to the armed forces. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, September 1, 2018 15:22 1159 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308770d389a 1 National fugitive,vaccine,AGO,Prosecutors-Office,graft Free The North Sumatra Prosecutors Office has arrested a fugitive who had been on the run after being convicted of corruption in a meningitis vaccine graft case. The office arrested the graft convict, Iskandar, 52, in Medan, North Sumatra, on Wednesday. Iskandar was transferred to Pekanbaru, Riau, on Thursday and is currently being held in Pekanbaru Penitentiary. We put him in Pekanbaru Penitentiary Class II-A after a health examination, said the Pekanbaru Prosecutors Office head of special criminal investigations, Sri Odit Megonondo, on Friday, as quoted by Antara. In 2014, Iskandar was sentenced to four years imprisonment and a fine of Rp 200 million (US$13,605), or an extra months imprisonment, for inflating the cost of administering the meningitis vaccine for 12,701 prospective umrah (minor haj) pilgrims from 2011 to 2012. Iskandar was not detained because he had been involved in an accident. However, he absconded in early 2018 and allegedly moved to Batam, Riau, and Medan. During his time in Medan, Iskandar worked as a doctor at the Estomihi Hospital and a maternity clinic, as well as teaching at the Medan Senior Institute of Health Science (STIKES). The graft case occurred when Iskandar was the head of the Pekanbaru Health Agency. He delegated authority to his subordinates, Suwignyo and Mariane, to charge the prospective pilgrims for administering the meningitis vaccine. The Health Ministry has set the official cost of the vaccine at Rp 20,000 per person. However, in practice, the price ranged from Rp 200,000 to Rp 550,000 per person, with the eventual markup amounting to Rp 759.3 million. (sau/ahw) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, September 1, 2018 18:06 1158 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308770d9874 1 Business Jokowi,jack-ma,Asian-Games,Alibaba Free President Joko Jokowi Widodo welcomed the billionaire co-founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Jack Ma, at Bogor Palace on Saturday. The President and the billionaire held a meeting partly to discuss the Asian Games 2022, which will be held in Hangzhou, China. Hangzhou is the city where Ma lives, as well as the location of Alibabas headquarters. During the meeting, Jokowi also expressed hope that the giant e-commerce firm would increase its investment in Indonesia. Thank you for the sustainable commitment in the e-commerce and economy sector in Indonesia. I am waiting for good news from you today in regards to Alibabas commitment in Indonesia, Jokowi said to Ma, as quoted by antaranews.com. The President also said he was impressed by the technology firm, recalling his visit to Alibabas headquarters in Hangzhou on Sept. 2, 2016, in between the G20 Summit. I am glad that after visiting [Alibabas headquarters in] Hangzhou, Alibaba has committed to investing further billions of dollars in Indonesia, he added. During the meeting, Jokowi was accompanied by Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung, Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi, Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution, Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Puan Maharani and Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara. The meeting also addressed the current digital economy situation in Indonesia, as Ma serves as an adviser to Indonesias e-commerce steering committee. Jack Ma plans to attend the closing ceremony of the 18th Asian Games on Sunday. (sau/ahw) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung Sat, September 1, 2018 16:12 1158 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308770d82f2 1 National shooting,bandung,toll-road Free The Bandung Police in West Java are currently investigating the shooting of a woman on the Pasteur toll road at dawn on Friday. We have instructed the investigation unit to dig deeper into this case, Bandung Police chief Comr. Irman Sugema told The Jakarta Post. According to the police, the 21-year-old victim, identified only as H, visited a nightclub in Dago, Bandung, along with four friends. In the club, one male friend of H became involved in an argument with two strangers. The nightclubs parking officer helped break up the quarrel. At around 4 a.m., H and her friends left the nightclub by car. While heading to Purwakarta, West Java, on the Pasteur toll road, an unidentified gunman opened fire on the car. H was sitting in the back on the right-hand side of the car when the incident took place. The bullet hit her in the back of the neck. She was immediately taken to the Dustira Hospital prior to being transferred to Hasan Sadikin Hospital on Friday afternoon. Hasan Sadikin Hospitals head of emergency, Dodi Tavianto, said H was suffering from serious blood loss when admitted to the hospital. (sau/ahw) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Yangon Sat, September 1, 2018 14:50 1159 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308770d2c3b 2 SE Asia Myanmar,ship,vessel,Navy Free A stranded vessel empty of crew and goods that was found in Myanmar's waters this week was earlier being towed by a ship with 13 Indonesian nationals before it became unmoored, the Myanmar Navy said. Fishermen came across the rusted and empty vessel, bearing the name "Sam Rataulangi PB 1600", drifting in the Gulf of Martaban, about 11 kilometres (seven miles) off the coast of Myanmar's commercial capital. Myanmar Navy personnel boarded the vessel to investigate the situation this week, and shed some light on their search in a post on the navy's official Facebook page late Friday. "It was the view that the ship could have been towed by another ship after two cables... were found at its head", the post said. The navy's coastal radar records showed the movement of two ships on Sunday and Monday in the Yangon and Sittaung rivers -- which run into the Gulf of Martaban. Based on these findings, the navy scoured the waters for a second ship and found the "Independence" vessel, carrying 13 Indonesian crew members, about 80 kilometres from Yangon's shores. After questioning the crew members, the navy discovered that the Independence departed August 13 from Jakarta towing the old vessel bound for a ship-breaking factory in Bangladesh, the Facebook post said. "They faced bad weather when they arrived south of Yangon River", the navy said. "The cables attached to the ship broke, and the ship was floating along with the tide and it was difficult to continue its journey." Old and unseaworthy vessels are often towed to Bangladesh's southern Chittagong province, which houses a thriving -- and controversial -- ship-breaking industry. According to the Marine Traffic website, which lists the movements of ships around the globe, the vessel was built in 2001 and had a deadweight of 26,500 tonnes. The navy said the investigation is ongoing. The Waldorf Astoria Bangkok hotel has officially opened. Managed by Hilton, the luxury hotel is the first Waldorf Astoria in Southeast Asia. In Asia, it has previously opened in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, China. Waldorf Astoria in Bangkok is located in the Ratchaprasong intersection, near the Erawan Shrine, Gaysorn Village mall and both lines of Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTS) Skytrain. Martin Rinck, executive vice president and global head, Luxury & Lifestyle Group, Hilton, through a statement said the Waldorf Astoria brand had a long-standing legacy of defining the hospitality experience for the modern-day traveler. Hong Kong-based architect Andre Fu and his design studio AFSO took a holistic approach that united the buildings contemporary architecture with Thai tradition. Read also: Hilton to open Southeast Asias first Waldorf Astoria in Bangkok The hotel has 171 guest rooms and suites, and its top three floors comprise three dining outlets. There are Bull & Bear that specializes in grilled meats and seafood, The Loft bar that was inspired by the original 1935 Waldorf Astoria Bar Book and The Champagne Bar that offers a more intimate environment. Meanwhile, chef Fae Rungthiwa Chummongkhon helms the hotels signature restaurant Front Room, bringing a touch of Nordic to Thai flavors based on her experience of working at Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe. The Brasserie serves traditional French brasserie fare daily from breakfast through dinner, and Peacock Alley caters afternoon teas and light meals. Waldorf Astoria Bangkok is located at 151 Ratchadamri Road, Lumpini, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand. (wng) carnival-esque . Born in Zimbabwe and now based in LA, Shungudzo or Shun, was first spotted back in 2017 for her politically-engaging, socially-conscious single 'Long Live The Billionaire' which boasts a brilliant chorus,Watch them bombs bursting in air / Long live the billionaire / Ashes fall down on my hair / Long live the billionaire. The track is reinforced with heavy acoustic chords which reflect Shun's own personal experiences immigrating to America, and add poignancy to her lyricism. Her latest single Paper exudes the same profound and socially challenging lyrics, but with a danceable,beat. Her critique of the paper that people blindly pursue (reduces money to its mere physical form and highlights our obsessively consumerist culture. Again, Shuns own experience is interwoven into the songs lyrical DNA:she explained in a recent press releaseIn the verses, Shuns delicate voice contrasts the thudding beats that take full control of the songs chorus, with funky, syncopated synths riding the Caribbean-style rhythm. Innately catchy in its production, 'Paper' also allows Shun to push social issues to the forefront of her lyrical discourse. Its about time we acknowledge the truest of truths: the Swedes are just very very good at making pop music. Slowly but surely over the decades, the Nordic pop protagonists (Robyn, Lykke Li, Tove Lo...And yes, ABBA) have sneaked their way into our charts and our hearts, and 2018 is no different. Next up in the line for European domination is sensational electronic duo I Am Karate. We had a chat with frontwomen Erika Ahlstrom and Marta Pettersson , who certainly champion their countrys pumping creative scene. Sweden is full of uber-talented people making music, and you can learn so much if you reach out. Marta tells us. Everyone is so ambitious and hard working and it rubs off on you. It certainly rubbed off on this pair. After a chance musical encounter in 2014, native Swedes Erika and Marta decided to start a band together and thus, I Am Karate was born. The girls kicked off their journey together with a self-released, self-titled EP and two singles Elevate and Bitter - both recognisable for their uplifting harmonies and daring electronic playfulness. In 2016, they were nominated Best Unsigned Act in GAFFA Magazine, signed to Universal Music and their dizzying, sultry single Swayze was spotted on The Times Essential Tracks list. Erika harks the pairs musical influences back to two giant female presences in the pop space - and who (since their slew of singles releases) theyve been likened to by fans and critics alike. Robyn is like the pop queen of Sweden...And Grimes is an inspiration because even if she makes great pop songs she always stays quirky and special. That really reminds you to be bold and keep the weird stuff when you write or produce a song! While their modern influences are very much in tune with one another, there are some distinct differences in their early musical upbringings. For Marta, her early childhood consisted of The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. My own first record was The Cardigans Long Before Daylight...I was obsessed with Nina Perssons voice. I could sit for hours and sing with her even though I didnt understand the lyrics. But, like a true pop princess, Lucky by Britney held a special place in her heart. Erika, on the other hand, got a taste of something a little bit different. Its a bit embarrassing to say cause I dont have a first album with like Bob Dylan or The Beatles. Mine is a real tacky Hindu-imitating Swedish guy called Dr. Bombay. Cant get the lyrics out of your head mind once youve heard them: Caaalcuttaaaa, I am a taxi driver in, Calcuuttaaaaa Shoot forward a few years to the mind-busting year that is 2018, Erika and Marta have put a firm stamp on UK and European audiences, with two explosive new singles Expectations and News. News, on the surface, glimmers with hope; its a frantic but fun chase to the spotlight. But Marta tells us that, for the first time, theres much more to this dancefloor-filler than at first glance. When we wrote [News] we had a pretty clear picture of a person in mind, a character who will do whatever it takes to shine in the spotlight at whatever (Instagram, work, etc) and is kind of one-dimensional in her thinking. She doesnt think about the consequences of what she is doing, she gladly throws herself off a roof if it means she can get people's attention. And today I think many people are acting more or less like the main character in the song, and its unusual for us to write a song that is kind of poking on a state of mind of our generation. Even after digging deep into the lyrics, News exploits ticking hi-hats and a bouncy, tropical rhythm for the perfect dance anthem. Marta and Erikas airy, floating vocals are reminiscent of their Swedish pop queen Robyn and attract a similar following: people wanting to let their hair down, dance until their feet are sore and rest in the early hours of the following morning. But, I had to ask Marta, is Stockholm the place for such endless energy? Stockholm is no Berlin, our city has more of low-key vibe going on. During the summer a place called Tradgarden opens up and Ive had some really great dance-til-you-drop-but-you-cant-stop-nights there! So, maybe its time to transfer their energies across the continent and shower our cynical British bones in some new Swedish pop glory? Wed L-O-V-E to head over to the UK and meet people, play concerts and just experience London. Ive never been there yet! (Shame on me I know. Its bad). Erika tells us, to our delight. Yeah, it would be so nice to visit UK Marta continues, We are having so much fun and lately weve been more creative than ever. So its no doubt about that youll be hearing more from us and in a not so distant future well be booking the tickets for London! Weve got our sparkliest outfits at the ready. Relax, smart robots wont take your job at least not in our lifetime but you may need to retrain. Get a grasp of IT skills now to stay ahead of the pack, says the leading technology journalist and author, Ryan Weeks. Here, Ryan discusses the possible impact of disruptive technology on students... Tell us about Pimple, your new book, and who it will appeal to. Pimple is the satirical story of a new app an Uber for the sex trade and how its rise to prominence changes the lives Londons pimps and prostitutes. It will appeal to those students studying technology or finance but also to a wide range of people who use apps on a daily basis. What do you mean by the term, digital disruption? Digital disruption is a term used to describe a situation in which a technology-optimised business (like Uber or AirBnb) begins making inroads into a long-entrenched industry (like taxi driving or accommodation). Is digital disruption a good or bad thing for society? Its both and thats not a cop-out! The benefits for consumers are clear. Tech disruptors generally offer better, faster and fairer (and sometimes cheaper) services by leveraging their superior technology. But at the same time they begin to shift customer expectations, and that will often result in job losses. For example, in banking we are seeing thousands of bank branches close each year. Meanwhile the mobile-only banks (Monzo, Starling, etc.) have no branches at all. There are media reports that most UK workers could be replaced by robots and/or automation within the next few decades. Do you agree? I dont think so. I think theres a number of important factors to remember. The workforce is adaptable, and while future of work may look very different, with the right approach from policy-makers and companies, the workforce can retrain in order to remain relevant. A recent report by PwC, for example, suggested that more jobs would in fact be created than would be destroyed by Artificial Intelligence in the next few decades. What is the likely impact of digital disruption on students specifically; is there any point studying for a degree in engineering, for instance, if the sector will be fully automated in the near future? And should students consider studying only specific jobs that are impervious to digital disruption and, if so, what are those jobs? Thats a difficult question. I dont think all students should be funnelled into a narrower range of jobs, but I could be persuaded that more of an emphasis on IT skills and perhaps even coding might be a sensible thing in schools, regardless of what students go on to study at university. I think people will need to be at least more digitally competent, if not necessarily expert. Will technology ever reach saturation point i.e., will we reach a point where no further innovation is practically needed? Well, wed be looking very far into the future indeed at that point, because a saturation point would imply, to my mind, that all the worlds problems have been solved. Perhaps more realistic is the prospect (still far off) of a post-work world in which automation has taken hold to such an extent that large swathes of the population are without jobs. It is at that point that we will need to start thinking about solutions like Universal Basic Income, which the Labour Party is considering piloting in its next manifesto. What are your plans for the future? I am currently working on a book about the way in which the legacy of the British Empire shines through in day-to-day life despite almost limitless examples, it is proving challenging! Ryan Weeks is the editor of AltFi.com, one of the leading news and intelligence resources for fintech in the UK. His new novel, Pimple, explores the dramatic consequences of technological disruption. It is out now through Amazon UK priced 10.99 in paperback and 99p in eBook. The 12th of August was World Elephant Day, designed to draw attention to the conservation work being carried out to protect them and the human threat which is still an issue to these mammals survival. At the current rate, humans are poaching elephants for their ivory at a faster rate than they can reproduce. Annually, 8% of the world elephant population is poached. An estimated 415,000 elephants remain, so that means that this year, around 33,200 elephants will be killed for their ivory. The African Wildlife warns that at current poaching rates, elephant populations may be extinct in the wild within our lifetimes.In 2018 countries across the African continent called on the EU to ban the ivory trade completely and with no exceptions. Currently, the trade of raw ivory is illegal in Europe, but a trade in Ivory antiques is still illegal, which allows traffickers to transport raw ivory within the system. In 2017, The Times released statistics revealing that Britain ha[d] exported more ivory antiques since 2010 than any other country. This is continuing to fuel the ivory industry around the world, allowing poaching to still makes millions each year in the death of these mammals. Safari Bookings, a company operating specialised safari tours, released some information ahead of World Elephant to tell us more about how conservation is being achieved in the holiday destinations they offer: Botswana Botswana contains of Africas elephant population. It is a stable country allows for a perfect elephant haven and is a leader in low-impact, upmarket tourism. Read more about how to explore Botswana here Kenya Kenya is home to the organisation ' Save The Elephants ' which: "aims to secure a future for elephants, and to sustain the ecological integrity of the natural places where they live". Despite being based in Kenya, this company operates across Africa, aiming to achieve and maintain a harmonious relationship between elephants and people. In their recent project in partnership with Disney, they introduced Bee Hives to farms in order to keep elephants away from crops and avoid confrontation between both species. STE also works in schools to spread awareness of the need for conservation and also takes on a supportive role, offering the brightest students the opportunity to go to high school and college by providing scholarships. Malawi Malawi's recent conservation work with elephants has established them as an elephant haven. It is the base of the non-profit conservation organization 'African Parks' which takes on direct responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of protected areas in partnership with governments and local communities. Efforts are being made across the globe to educate and train people in the conservation of elephants, protecting them from poaching and other human dangers. Humans are the biggest threat to the elephant population and although it is great to see such a big response in Africa, it is important that other countries around the globe are educated and made aware of the dangers they inadvertently create for the elephant species. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. 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. Homebase have released a list of the 42 stores set to close after the struggling DIY chain was saved in a deal with the company's landlords. Earlier today Homebase agreed to close the stores as part of a deal that means the chain will be given rent reductions on 70 shops and temporarily discounted business rates. The stores will finish trading during late 2018 and early 2019, and are expected to lead to around 1,500 redundancies. Homebase have 241 shops across the UK and 11,000 employees. The High Street chain's problems began two years ago after it was bought by Australian giant Wesfarmers for 340million. Struggling DIY chain Homebase have announced they will be closing 42 stores across the country in a last-ditch deal to save the High Street store Homebase have 241 shops across the UK and 11,000 employees but many jobs will now go Wesfarmers alienated Homebase's loyal customers by stripping out home furnishings and attempting to rebrand as Bunnings - a popular chain in Australia and New Zealand. After struggling for two years, Wesfarmers sold Homebase to Hilco for 1 in May. A total of 16 Homebase stores have already been shut this year and the business has also axed 303 jobs at its head office in Milton Keynes. Homebase boss Damian McGloughlin said: 'We are pleased that an overwhelming majority of our creditors, including such a proportion of landlords, have supported the plans laid out in the CVA. 'We now have the platform to turn the business around and return to profitability. This has been a difficult time for many of our team members and I am very grateful for their continued support and hard work. Home base store closures mapped: Dozens of stores will close across the UK, it has been announced Which Homebase stores are closing? Aberdeen Bridge of Don Aberdeen Portlethen Aylesbury Bedford St Johns Bradford Brentford Bristol Canterbury Cardiff Newport Road Croydon Purley Way Droitwich Dublin Fonthill Dublin Naas Road Dundee East Kilbride Exeter Gateshead Grantham Greenock Hawick Inverness Ipswich Limerick London Merton London New Southgate London Wimbledon Macclesfield Oxford Botley Road Peterborough Pollokshaws Poole Tower Park Robroyston Salisbury Seven Kings Solihull Southampton Hedge End Southend Stirling Swindon Drakes Way Swindon Orbital Warrington Whitby Advertisement 'We can look to the future with great confidence, and we will be working closely with our suppliers to capitalise on the opportunities we see in the home improvement market in the UK and Ireland.' The firm said it would try to redeploy affected staff. The retailer is closing the stores via a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), a controversial insolvency procedure used by struggling firms to shut under-performing shops. CVAs have been adopted by a host of retailers including New Look, Carpetright and Mothercare, despite the property industry expressing disdain for the procedure, arguing it leaves them out-of-pocket. Envisioning Ethiopias Future Advertisements It is interesting to note that when the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi (hereafter referred as Meles) was born, his mother, Woizero Alemash Gebre Leul, named him NegasiThe Future King in Tigrigna. Ironically, in opposition to his mother whose desire was to see Negasi as the future king of Ethiopia, in 1975, Negassi (also known as Legesse) joined the Tigrai Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) under a pseudo name or nom de guerre, Meles (a nod to Ethiopias most vocal student leader, Meles Tekle, who was slaughtered by the Derg in 1974), to fight against Ethiopias military government, or Derg. In 1991, when Ethiopias military junta, or Derg, was dismantled by Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), Meles assumed the presidency during the transitional period (1991-94). In 1975, however, when the Ethiopian House of Representatives unanimously elected Meles, he became the Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia until his death in 2012. When Dr. Abiy (or abbiyot, the Dergs favorite slogan for the revolution it usurped from the Ethiopia university students) assumed the Chairmanship of the EPRDF that eventually led him to become Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia on April 2, 2018, he stood at a crossroad. Prime Minister Abiy (hereafter referred as Abiy) could never have reconciled his premiership with the title of future king, a title planted in his mind by his mother, Woizero Tezeta Wolde, when he was seven years old. Had he become king, as his mother had wished, Abiy would have followed the footsteps of Emperor Tewedros, Yohannes, Menelik, Lij Eyasu ?, Empress Zeweditu, and Emperor Haile Selassie. As stated above, the late Meles and the current Abiy were expected to be kings of Ethiopia by their mothersthough both ended up as Prime Ministers. Considering Meles tenure of 21 years in relation to with Abiys mere five months in office, the purpose of this short easy is to compare Meles vision and accomplishment with Abiys vision. Understanding Meles history can provide lessons and help guide Abiys future. Highlights of Prime Minister Meles Vision and Accomplishment During seventeen years of military rule (1974-1991), Ethiopia came close to disintegration. When the late Prime Minister Meles assumed power, Ethiopia was ravaged by famine and insidious civil wars. As 17 ethnic-based armed groups fought against the Derg, the country was crumbling to pieces (Forum of Federation, 2010). To maintain its existence, the despotic military junta relied heavily upon borrowed funds from the Soviet Union and other western multi-lateral institutions. For example, in 1991, Ethiopias external debt amounted to over 50 percent of the countrys Gross National Product (Desta, 2014). As the EPRDF came to power in 1991, Ethiopia experienced poverty, poor education, and deteriorating healthcare programs. Realizing Ethiopias tremendous burden, Mengistu, then head of the Derg, fled the country and sought asylum in Zimbabwe. As the wave of the future, Meles advocated for the developmental state modeli.e., the state controls the entire economyas practiced by South Korea. Meles ruling party envisioned that Ethiopias renaissance would eliminate poverty, accommodate Ethiopias inherent ethnic and religious diversity, and elevate the country to sustained inclusive middle-income status by 2022. To advance the democratization process and improve the effectiveness of the state and local administration in Ethiopia, the EPRDF endorsed a federal government structure that entitled the Nations, Nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia to self-government. Stressing self-determination, it gave the nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia further rights to secession. To accommodate ethnic and religious diversity and raise ethnic self-awareness of the Ethiopian masses, the EPRDF established an ethnic map. That is, it categorized the country into nine ethno-linguistic regional states. Furthermore, the newly designed autonomous regional states were encouraged to practice local administration and to use their local languages and culture to serve as mediums for communication and instruction. Advertisement Entitled to self-rule in their languages and cultures at the grassroots, the late Prime Minister Meles believed that all peoples of Ethiopia would eventually participate on equal footing in all affairs. As enshrined in the Federal Constitution, the new Ethiopiacomposed of mosaic of cultures and languageswould a) be decentralized, b) entitle local inhabitants to manage their local affairs in an autonomous fashion, c) effectively utilize its own languages, d) develop its own culture, and e) participate on an equal basis in the countrys common federal political activities (Forum of Federation, 2010; de Waal, 2018). Rather than follow the Washington Consensus program or the neo-liberal model, Meles assiduously focused on the East Asian model of developmental state, tailored to invigorate Ethiopias economy. During his tenure, Meles enabled Ethiopia to rebound and: a) achieve a steady economic growth for more than fifteen years, b) revitalize its health care services and other related social development projects, c) reengineer and rejuvenate the structure developments of modern roads, railways, hydro dams (such as the construction of Ethiopias Grand Millennium Dam Project), air transport, state housing, and telecommunications services, d) galvanize universal primary and higher education, e) launch the Growth and Transformation Plans (GTP) to minimize poverty, and f) attain the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations. Today, the late Meles is still recognized an effective leader for his pivotal domestic and international roles. Based on the above achievements and for laying down the threshold conditions necessary for Ethiopias development, optimists still consider the late Meles a visionary, charismatic, compassionate, and highly transformational leader. However, leadership cannot be based on a zero-sum game. Some political opponents blame Meles for not being a good listener, depicting him as an attention seeker. Furthermore, during Meles time, horrendous human rights violations and massive land grapping from the poor reportedly took place. Also, as claimed in the Ethiopian Constitution, the Ethiopian government structure was never collectively ruled. Others claim that Meles purposely designed the executive branch of government to increase his own power to control the local inhabitants (the Africa Development Bank, 2009). Moreover, the Meles critiques claim he single-handedly inserted the Leninist idea of self-determination to be Article 39 of the Ethiopian Constitution though self-determination was never tolerated in the Soviet Union. Similarly, the idea of self-determination including cession was dropped from Chinas Constitution in 1975 because it instigated unnecessary tension among the Chinese people (Desta, 2017). Nowadays, critics insist that Article 39 should be scrapped from the Ethiopian Constitution. Abiys Vision for Ethiopia: The Way Forward During the EPRDFs last three years of laziness and ineptitude, the restless Querro, Fano, and Zerma youth nearly took over Ethiopias political landscape. This disorder created a golden opportunity for Abiy, the leader of the Oromo Peoples Democratic Organization (OPDO), to assume the chairmanship of the EPRDF and emerge as Prime Minister of Ethiopia on April 2, 2018. As an outspoken and persuasive preacher with the courage to lecture human physiology to his senior ministers, Abiy tentatively articulated the following vision for Ethiopia: If Ethiopians heal their wounds, forgive, love, trust one another, and remain united (ENDEMER), Ethiopia would prevail. A few months weeks after the populist Abiy assumed the premiership, he labored intensely to capture the attention of the disaffected youth, touring the country to examine the pulse of the Ethiopian people. He a) lifted the countrys state of emergency, b) condemned the brutal treatment of prisoners, c) released all political prisoners and convicted criminals from Ethiopian jails, d) amended anti-terrorism law, e) unlocked a number radios and websites, f) reunited the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, g) attempted to create peace with opposing Islamic adherents, h) welcomed opposing forces and certain disgruntled Diasporas to their country, i) reshuffled Ethiopias defense and national security leadership, j) stood against the sanctioning of forces to fight demonstrations in Ethiopia; and k) reviewed the divisive nature of ethnic federalism (see for example, Metho, April 7, 2018). However, Abiy is showing an ideological shift and bypassing some important deliberation with EPRDF members. As result, Abiys actions appear to suffer from fundamental leadership deficit (Wikipedia, 2018). For instance, the EPRDFs policy dictates state-owned enterprises. However, without conducting well-designed studies to investigate whether domestic businesses or the diaspora can afford to participate, in the name of increasing Ethiopias dwindling foreign-exchange reserves, Abiy is attempting to liberalize the economy and semi privatize the most lucrative state-owned mega companies, such as Ethiopian Airlines, Ethio-telecom, and electrical power within both domestic and foreign companies. Delighted with Abiys new economic direction, it is not surprising that the World Bank has promised to give $1 billion in direct budget support to Ethiopia in the next few months. Meanwhile, Abiys tactical moves to lure Saudi Arabia and other African countries have earned him much praise for his foreign policy initiatives. For example, when Abiy visited Saudi Arabia in June 2018, he managed to secure the release of more than 1000 Ethiopian prisoners from Saudi Arabias prisons. To help Ethiopia with its foreign exchange shortage, Abiys diplomacy has helped him to convince the United Arab Emiratis to deposit $1 billion in Ethiopias central bank in order to increase Ethiopias foreign exchange reserve from less than two months worth of imports to a three-month reserve required by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In June 2018, Abiy orchestrated peace meeting between the president of South Sudan and his rival, Rieck Machar, in Addis Ababa. In May 2018, Ethiopia signed an agreement with the government of Djibouti to secure an equity stake in the Port of Djibouti. Similarly, Abiy and the President of Kenya signed an agreement to construct logistic facility at Lamu Port. In June 2018, bypassing preconditions Ethiopia has insisted on for years, and by caring less to involve the affected local people, Abiy single-handedly decided to implement the 2000 Algiers Agreement, concomitant with the decisions of the international boundary commission. After twenty years, diplomatic relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea are finally in full swing. Advertisement Summary and Conclusions Based on the South Korean developmental model, Meles established a vision for Ethiopia designed to eliminate poverty, accommodate diversity on equal footing, and attain inclusive middle-class status by 2022. According to World Bank, since Ethiopia has achieved sustained economic growth averaging 10.9% per annum for the last fifteen years, and Ethiopian poverty has declined by 33%. More particularly, undernourishment fell from 75% to less than 50%. Meanwhile, households with improved living standards measured by electricity, and running water doubled from 2000 to 2011. Finally, Ethiopia progressed towards the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in the areas of education, child morality, HIV/AIDS, and Malaria (World Bank, 2015). In contrast to the Derg era that attempted to socialize all Ethiopians into one culture, language, and value system, Meles created a self-governed federal system that attempted to maintain equality of all nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia. On the other hand, Abiy has candidly asserted that Ethiopias development would be based on the willingness of the Ethiopian people to aggregate (ENDEMER), heal their wounds, love each other, forgive each other, and trust each other. While both Meles and Abiy have set the direction and the road map for Ethiopias future, Meles vision seems to be specific, purpose driven, directional, and future oriented. On the other hand, Abiys vision seems populist, evangelical and non-operational. Abiys concept of Medemer is too vague and his concept of MEDEMAR has become a laughable concept. Opposing his own party, the OPDO, Abiy seems to be entertaining the formation of a centralized Federal system in Ethiopia. For example, he intervened to dismantle the leadership structures of the autonomous regional Ethiopian Somaliland and the Southern region rather than allowing them to solve their domestic problems. Except for the early honeymoon days of Abiys reign, the political upheavals in Ethiopia have yet to subside. Ongoing problems include: 1) conflicts over boundaries between regions (Amhara and Tigray, Somali and Oromo); 2) conflicts over rights of residence in localities that have demanded to be divided and possibly create new states (southern region); 3) conflicts over the status of indigenous peoples and settlers such as in Gambella and Beni Shangule; and 4) inter-communal violence (de Waal 2018). It is sad to notice that while the Federal Government looks on, a number of innocent Tigriganes have become victims of mass atrocities. Economically, Abiy tends to embrace the neo-liberal developmental model over the developmental model initiated by his party, the EPRDF, which created unprecedented economic growth in Ethiopia. Under Abiys strategy, Ethiopians can expect economic dependency, and a few billion of dollars from the United Arab Emirates or the World Bank wont begin to solve Ethiopias remaining issues. Advertisement Instead, the Abiys government must create a shared vision with visionary leadership that encouragers the participation of Ethiopias unemployed youth. If Ethiopias youth (Querro, Fano, and Zerma ) continue to feel economically marginalized, Abiys slogan of MEDEMAR, or any measure of tough federal response, wont save Ethiopia, but spark social and political upheaval similar to the Arab Spring in 2010. Therefore, as suggested in my book, Re-Thinking Ethiopias Ethnic Federalism, Abiys government must design a comprehensive sustainability program to shift modern capitalist economies toward a sustainable employer of last resort (Desta, 2017). References: Africa Development Bank (2009). Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia: Country Governance Profile , Governance, Economic & Financial Reforms Department (OSGE), Country Regional Department East (OREB). Allo, A. (June 7, 2018). Ethiopias new Prime Minister has had a Stellar two months, can he keep it up? Available at Https: www.cnn.com/2018/06/07/africa/ethiopia-abiy-ahmed-rtransformation-intl/index.html, accessed 8/25/2018. Araia, G. (August 16, 2018). Political Leadership and Political Economy in Contemporary Ethiopian Politics. Available at http: Awww.ethioobserver.net/Political_leadership_Ethiopian_Politics.html, accessed 8/18/2018. De Waal, A. (2018). The Future of Ethiopia: Developmental State or Political Marketplace. World Peace Foundation. Desta, A. (2014). From Economic Dependency and Stagnation to Democratic Development State. Trento, New Jersey: The Red Sea Press. Desta, A. (2017). Rethinking Ethiopias Ethnic Federalism. Germany: Lambert, Academic Publishing. Ethiopia. The constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (1994-95). Forum of Federations-The Global Network on Federalism and Devolved Governance (2010). PM Meles Explains his vision for Ethiopia. Available at http://www.forumfed.org/events/pm-meles-explains -his-vision-for-ethiopia/, accessed, 8/20/2018. Metho, O. ( April 7, 2018). Act now to empower the Ethiopian vision of Prime Minister Abiy or the work of the people to bring change may be wasted. Available at https://ecadforum.com/2018/04/07/act-now-to-enpower-the-ethiopian-vision-ofprime-minister-abiy/, accessed 8/16/2018. Wikipedia, (2018). Abiy Ahmed: the 15th Prime Minister of Ethiopia . Available at https://en-wikipedia.org/wiki/abiy_ahmed, accessed, 8/18/2018. World Bank (2015). Ethiopia Poverty Assessment. Available at http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic./poverty/publication/ethiopi-poverty-assessmen, accessed 8/28/2018. MBABANE The TSC was biased. This was the observation of dismissed Mbekelweni High School Head teacher Mduduzi Bhembe on the ruling made by the Teaching Service Commission against him. The commission dismissed Bhembe from the teaching service after finding him guilty on eight counts of misconduct. His dismissal, according to the TSC, was with effect from June 25, 2018. Bhembe is also the former President of Eswatini Principals Association, formerly known as the Swaziland Principals Association (SWAPA). Among other charges, he was found guilty of having assisted Nontsikelelo Dlamini, who was a private candidate in the school, to copy from a Physical Science Paper III answer script belonging to Mlungisi Machawe Vilakati after the paper had been written. He was also found guilty of forging a signature of one of the invigilators, Ephraim Khumalo, in the Mathematics Paper I and III and Physics Science Paper III examination answer scripts envelopes. trained Bhembe was further found guilty of having used Malungisa MacDonald Seyama and Jabulani Dlamini, both teachers of Information Technology (IT), as invigilators for Physical Science Paper I yet they were not trained to invigilate by the Examination Council of Eswatini. This is said to have happened during the 2012 SGSE Examination. Bhembe has since taken the TSC to the High Court where he is seeking an order reviewing and setting aside the decision of the commission to dismiss him. He told the court that the TSC allegedly failed to apply its mind to the issues before it arrived at the decision to terminate his services. Bhembe, in his founding affidavit, submitted that the evidence of the security guard, Makhosini Fakudze, was not consistent. He said it was critical for the TSC to highlight in its ruling how it handled the allegedly conflicting versions presented by the security guard. Bhembe informed the court the evidence Fakudze gave in the confession he recorded before a magistrate was different from his oral evidence. The commission never interrogated this and I submit if there was any doubt on the credibility of the witness, I am advised the benefit was to be given to me as the accused. He submitted that the TSC should have stated its reasons to find Fakudzes oral evidence to be truthful against what he said in his confession. Bhembe said it would have been better for Fakudze to disown the confession when he gave his evidence before the TSC. mention He stated that it was mind-boggling for the TSC to mention that the version given by Fakudze was very close to the events that took place at the school. This, according to Bhembe, allegedly showed that the commissions version of events indicated that it had a pre-conceived decision resulting in bias on its part. Fakudze told the commission that he had been engaged by Bhembe to take the blame for his own protection. Bhembe was also convicted of opening sealed envelopes containing answer scripts. He told the court that the TSC allegedly did not show the basis upon which it found him guilty on this charge. On being found guilty of forging the signature of one of the invigilators, Bhembe informed the court that the handwriting expert stated that he could not say that he was the one who forged the signature. He alleged that the TSC did not call the invigilator to give evidence making it not clear how it arrived at its decision. On the charge of using the two teachers who were untrained as invigilators and being convicted on it, Bhembe alleged that the TSC did not mention any evidence in its ruling. He alleged that no evidence was led and despite that the two teachers were still at the school, they were not called to testify. He maintained that he trained the teachers to invigilate. hearing The former SWAPA president further stated that one of the commissioners at the hearing felt that this charge should fall off, but he was still found guilty on it. This is yet another scenario of showing the lack of application of its mind on the part of the commission, Bhembe submitted. In respect of the charge of allegedly allowing and assisting Dlamini to copy, Bhembe submitted that before he was charged, at the instance of the school grantee, he was directed to file a report and state that indeed the candidate copied with the assistance of the security guard. The pupil who was allegedly allowed by Bhembe to copy said she was afraid to reveal the person who assisted her to copy because that individual would lose his job. She also said she was assisted by a security guard who had keys to the head teachers office. Bhembe mentioned that the pupil should have been called to give a proper version of what transpired and not rely on hearsay evidence. Bhembe said he was implicated by the security guard who at the time was arrested in South Africa for rape. Initially, he was suspended by the Ministry of Education and Training on October 5, 2015 following 48 complaints of alleged misconduct against him. According to the Ministry of Education and Training, in most instances, he would take scripts of one Machawe Vilakati, who was a full-time pupil, and give them to the female private candidate to copy. MBABANE A South African man, who allegedly smuggled livestock worth over E500 000 into the country, has accused the police and members of the community policing forum of kidnapping him from his home to arrest him. Mduduzi Mabuyakhulu (30) of Manyiseni has been charged with 10 counts of contravening the Stock Theft Act No.11/1987. He is alleged to have stolen 145 cattle, 48 goats and 18 sheep between 2009 and 2016. The total value of the livestock is E555 400. Mabuyakhulu was arrested on December 9, 2016 by Lubulini police. He was initially charged with four counts but the charge sheet was later amended to 10 counts. The suspect has been kept in custody since his trial resumed on September 12, 2017. Through his attorney, Noncedo Ndlangamandla of Mabila Attorneys, Mabuyakhulu filed an application for bail at the High Court on Thursday. He alleged that the local police, members of the community police forum and community members arrived at his home in Manyisa at night and broke down the door to his house. He alleged that they smuggled him into the country during the night and handed him over to the army. Mabuyakhulu claimed that the soldiers assaulted him severely. He alleged that he suffers from pain around the waist area due to the alleged assault and he has been in and out of hospital. According to Mabuyakhulu, the alleged kidnapping was reported to the South African police who conducted an investigation. He stated that the South African police met him at Big Bend Correctional Services to interview him on how he arrived in the country. He further alleged that officials from the South African High Commission intervened and they attended his case at the Big Bend Circuit Court. MBABANE Finally, he bows out! That is none other than Cleopas Sipho Dlamini who had been the Chief Executive Officer of the Public Service Pension Fund (PSPF) for 16 years. Taking over from him will be property investment and development expert Langalakhe Percy Dlamini. Langalakhes appointment was announced by the Minister of Public Service Owen Nxumalo during a press conference held at the organisations head office in Mbabane, yesterday. Langalakhe is currently the Business Development Manager at the Swaziland National Provident Fund (SNPF). When introducing Langalakhe, the minister described him as a business manager who has developed a strong career background in investment analysis and financial management. Dlamini takes over the reins at PSPF from Cleopas Sipho Dlamini who has graciously retired. The appointment of the incoming CEO has further received blessings of Their Majesties, Nxumalo revealed. The minister disclosed that the man from Velezizweni, Mankayane, had been offered a three-year contract, with effect from November 1, 2018. In a separate interview, the minister was asked if part of Dlaminis role would be to solve the impasse between the fund and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA). The stand-off was caused by the FSRA headed by Sandile Dlamini who instituted an investigation into the operations of the PSPF. However, Cabinet blocked the investigations launched by the FSRA. In his response, Nxumalo said Dlamini had been mandated to do everything expected of him. In fact, that is an internal issue, which he needs to sort with the board. The board will brief him about that issue. That will depend on if its still there because FSRA was given a directive. FSRA was told about governments position on this matter. If there will be any problem arising from that issue, he will need to solve it. A resolution was made. The board was also given a written resolution on the subject, the minister added. By Trend Following the ceremony of signing documents, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin made press statements. Story still developing Gulf Air, the national carrier of Bahrain, has launched a key initiative in co-operation with the Royal Charity Organisation that permits all passengers to donate coins or notes of any currency onboard its flights for the RCO. The project was launched by Zayed R. Alzayani, Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism and Chairman of Gulf Airs Board of Directors and Dr Mustafa Al Sayed, Secretary-General of the RCO on board its flight from Bahrain International Airport to London Heathrow. This initiative is aimed at activating social responsibility and allowing passengers to participate and contribute to charitable work, said the national carrier in its statement. Alzayani praised the Royal patronage of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, who is also RCO's Honorary President, and His Majestys attention and patronage of charitable and humanitiarian work inside and outside the kingdom, it stated. He also praised the efforts of Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the RCO, and his role in the charity scene to provide a better life for all. Alzayani accliamed the spectrum of charitable and humanitarian activities of the Royal Charity Oranisation and confirmed Gulf Airs commitment in giving back to the community and in contributing to such intitatives driven by RCO for Bahraini orphans. On the noble inaitiative, Dr Al Sayyid said this co-operation comes within the community partnership programme to provide support, care and opportunities to orphans. "Donations will be allocated to support health and education programs for the underpreviliged families and children,' he noted. Mohammed Salahuddin, one of the passengers on the said London flight, was the first person to make donation. He expressed his admiration to the project and wished success to both parties in this colloboration. The Gulf Air-RCO donation project is being held for the first time in Bahrain and promotes the principle of community partnership to encourage travellers to donate excess money change by placing it in special envelopes that are located in seat pockets onboard Gulf Air flights.-TradeArabia News Service Dhaka, Sept 1 (UNI) A British man of Bangladesh origin was sentenced to life in prison on Friday over a plot to kill Prime Minister Theresa May by first detonating an explosive device to get in to her Downing Street office and then using a knife or a gun to attack her. Naa'imur Rahman, 21, of north London, planned to detonate an improvised explosive device at the heavily guarded gates of Downing Street and gain access to Mays office in the ensuing chaos and assassinate her, according to police. He was convicted last month of preparing to commit acts of terrorism and at London's Old Bailey court on Friday was given a life prison and will serve 30 years behind bars. Rahmans target was the prime minister but he had no qualms about killing innocent bystanders in the process of reaching her," said Dean Haydon, the UK's Senior National Coordinator for Counter Terrorism. "At one point he told a covert counter terrorism officer that even if he could not reach the Prime Minister, he just wanted to strike fear into people. As he put the plot together, Rahman believed he was corresponding online with members of the Islamic State (IS) militant group. However, he was actually talking to undercover officers from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Britain's MI5 domestic spy agency. He was arrested last November shortly after unwittingly meeting an undercover police officer and collecting what he believed was a homemade bomb but was in fact a harmless replica. After his conviction in July, police said Rahman had been in contact with an uncle who had travelled to Syria and joined IS and who had encouraged his nephew to carry out attacks in Britain. Rahman had been planning to carry out the attack for two years but his resolve was hardened when he heard that his uncle had been killed in a drone attack. Britain is on its second highest threat level with an attack considered highly likely. Last year, there were four deadly attacks and the head of MI5 said in May that a further 12 Islamist plots had been foiled since the first of these in March 2017. Earlier this month, a man was charged with attempted murder after a car careered into people and a barrier at London's parliament, with police saying the incident was being treated as an act of terrorism. UNI MAZ SHK1552 What Happened In windy conditions and playing against the other two teams on the top of the leader board on the Montgomerie course, the USA posted a 54-hole score of 19-under 415 to extend its lead to five strokes over defending champion Republic of Korea and six over Japan. With one round remaining on Saturday, the USA will attempt to win their 14th Espirito Santo Trophy, and first since 1998. It was a really tough day, and everyone had to grind, said USA captain Stasia Collins. We were on 12 and we had two players at plus 3, and I told them that their scores might count, and they had to grind it out. They worked very hard and made some birdies coming in. It was great. One of those players was McCormack medal winner and World No. 1 Jennifer Kupcho, who shrugged over a shaky start and posted three birdies on her last four holes for 1-under 71. I was struggling with putting so I decided instead of lining up the ball, I would set the ball down like I do in practice, said Kupcho, who won the 2018 NCAA Womens individual title playing for Wake Forest University. I dont focus that much and I just hit it. It worked really well, and I made some putts and got my confidence back and I birdied the last two holes, which was a bonus. 2014 and 2018 U.S. Womens Amateur champion Kristen Gillman rebounded from a three-stroke drop in two holes to finish with an even-par 72, which gave the Americans a team total of 143. The Korean team, which began the day one stroke back, was briefly tied with the USA in the middle of the round. Their top player, Ayean Cho, posted a 1-under 71 but the other counting score was a 4-over 76 from Seo Yun Kwon for a days total of 3-over 147. Japan kept its place in third position at 421 followed by resurgent host Ireland in fourth at 430 and Italy, Germany and Peoples Republic of China tied for fifth at 431. Completing the top 10 were Austria in eighth at 432, Mexico in ninth at 433 and Denmark in 10th at 434. Security officials cordon off an area inside The Central Railway Station in Amsterdam on August 31, 2018. (Photo: AFP / Germain MOYON) The assailant was late Friday evening identified as an 19-year-old Afghan man with a German residency permit. "We are seriously taking into account that there was a terrorist motive," Amsterdam police spokesman Frans Zuiderhoek told AFP. Earlier witnesses described scenes of panic as gunshots rang out and thousands of commuters and tourists were evacuated from the rail terminus shortly after midday. "Around 12.10 a man in the west side tunnel of Amsterdam Central Station stabbed two other people and directly after that he was shot by the police," another police spokesman Rob van der Veen said, adding terrorism was not being ruled out by investigators. "The two people are very badly injured, and they were brought to the hospital," he said. "We are looking at all scenarios, also the worst scenario, which is terrorism." 'SOMETHING BADLY WRONG' One witness said he saw a young man "stumble" into his flower shop at the station with a bleeding wound to his hand. "Shortly afterwards I heard some shots and I know something has gone badly wrong," Richard Snelders told the ANP news agency. A while later he saw another man lying on the ground nearby, he said. "The first thing that comes up in your mind is that it's a terror attack. After all, you are at Amsterdam Central Station. There was a lot of panic," Snelders said. Police quickly arrived at the scene with video images showing police ordering the suspect in English to "stay down" after he had been shot. "It happened really quickly," Snelders said. Images posted on social media showed security guards ushering passengers towards exits and paramedics arriving at the scene with stretchers. Police spokesman Zuiderhoek said the knifeman's condition was not life-threatening, but that he had been shot in the lower body. "At this moment he is under police custody in hospital. He is being questioned about his motive," Zuiderhoek added. Dutch police were also in close contact with their German counterparts in regards to the suspect's background, he added. PLATFORMS CLOSED OFF Initially, police said that the station - located in the Dutch capital's historic canal-ringed city centre - had been evacuated and closed off to all rail traffic. However, police shortly afterwards issued an update to say there was "no talk" of a complete evacuation and that only two platforms had been closed off to passengers. An AFP correspondent at the scene said police at the time cordoned off an area inside the station shortly after the incident and herded throngs of people outside. "A large group of people, including foreign tourists," were patiently waiting outside the station, the correspondent said, adding that a "large number of police" were present". The two platforms which were cordoned off were reopened for rail traffic two hours later, police said. A special police department opened a routine probe into why police shot the man. The Netherlands has so far been spared from the slew of terror attacks which have rocked its closest European neighbours in the past few years. But amid a number of scares and reports that people linked to some of those attacks may have crossed briefly into the country, top Dutch security and intelligence officials have stressed that the threat level is substantial. Police declined to speculate on the reasons for Friday's incident, but the Afghan Taliban in a statement Thursday called for attacks on Dutch troops following plans by Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders to stage a Prophet Mohammed cartoon competition in the Dutch parliament. Wilders, who received several death threats has since cancelled the competition which has angered Muslims and sparked protests, saying he wanted to "avoid the risk of making people victims of Islamist violence". Around 250,000 people travel through Central Station every day, according to statistics provided by the Amsterdam.info travel guide. Swathes of central Bago region are under water after a dam levee collapsed AFP/Thet AUNG The deceased were three men and one woman, said Phyu Lei Lei Tun, a director at the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement. "According to the information we got as of this morning, four people were killed and three went missing during the floods," she said. A large swathe of central Bago region has been inundated after the Swar Chaung dam spillway collapsed, causing a deluge of water to drain out of the levee into surrounding villages and farmland. READ: Myanmar dam breach floods 85 villages, thousands driven from homes The intense flood waters devastated the rural flatland region where more than 60,000 people reside primarily in easily damaged bamboo and wooden houses. While some were able to wade through chest-deep water on the first day to get to higher ground, many families are still stranded as search and rescue efforts led by the military attempted to reach them on Friday. Phyu Lei Lei Tun confirmed that more than 36,000 people were displaced and residing in 68 temporary shelter camps set up in monasteries on higher ground. This dam breach comes just weeks after a Laos dam collapsed, causing at least 35 people to be killed while scores remain missing. Southeast Asia's monsoon season often brings heavy rains to the region, causing widespread flash floods in Myanmar that recently forced 150,000 people to flee their homes. AkzoNobel's colourful paints were used to create the frescoes The programme, launched on August 22, is part of a series of activities co-organised by AkzoNobel, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Ly Son Marine Reserve, and other partners aimed at preserving the marine environment around the island. As a programme under the Let's Colour initiative, AkzoNobel aims to use the power of the colours and superior features of its products to help protect, preserve, and inspire Be (Little) Islet, Ly Son Island. Accordingly, the Ly Son painting programme included activities like drawing 12 pieces of 3D frescoes, painting corridors, and recoating houses for people on Be Islet, Ly Son Island in Quang Ngai province. This is the second year that the programme has been implemented after its first launch in June 2017 with 12 frescoes focusing on messages of protecting the marine environment and the harmony between humans and nature while calling for the community to take action to preserve the marine environment by reducing the use of nylon, single-use plastic utensils, bottles, bags, etc. in their daily lives as well as collecting plastic waste from the sea. The existence of a fresco village will also help Be Islet to attract tourists, helping local people improve their livelihoods and reduce the pressure to exploit near-shore fisheries and other unsustainable marine exploitation practices. The fresco village is expected to become a tourist destination We believe that a village in the middle of the sea with artful frescoes containing clear messages will inspire locals and visitors to consciously preserve the beauty of one of the most unique places in Vietnam, said Le Nhung, a member of the volunteer team. Besides, AkzoNobel believes that if locals find that their island is made greener and more beautiful through the creativity and enthusiasm of the artists, they will take more initiative to protect the environment. This is the second time AkzoNobel has collaborated with partners to organise a fresco painting programme. AkzoNobel not only provided all paints and coatings to the volunteer artists of the Ly Son painting programme 2018, it also provided support to mix colours and gave detailed instructions on the painting process to help artists to accomplish the best quality frescoes. To withstand the extreme climate of Ly Son Island, this year, AkzoNobel has chosen and provided more than 7,000 liters of Dulux Weathershield paintthe most premium exterior paint of the company. Pamela Phua, general director of AkzoNobel Vietnam Paints, emphasised: Supporting the conservation of natural resources to improve local peoples lives is one of the key focuses of our corporate social responsibility activities. We are delighted that the Ly Son painting programme has brought so many benefits to the community. Certainly, AkzoNobel will continue to accompany this meaningful project in the future. ForbesBooks published its first book by a Vietnamese author This was the first time that ForbesBooks published a book by a Vietnamese author. The book was released to celebrate Vietnam's National Day (September 2) because the author is a Vietnamese businesswoman. Competing with Giants is the story of a family-owned business in Vietnam in the post-war era, which has successfully competed against multinational corporations (MNCs). The book is written by Tran Uyen Phuong after completing a leadership training programme at Harvard University in 2012 in collaboration with the two co-authors. The book is the life story of the family-owned business as well as an economic research about the Vietnamese business environment following the transition to a market economy. The book also depicts corporate governance towards global integration and shares experience on the competition between local companies and MNCs. With the motto nothing is impossible" throughout the book, its dream big and take action to achieve that dream. 2012 marked the 15th anniversary of Tan Hiep Phat Group. It was also the year leading beverage maker Coca-Cola proposed to buy Tan Hiep Phat for $2.5 billion. At the time, founder Tran Qui Thanh rejected the proposal because he desired to develop a Vietnamese company into a global brand. Despite the ups and downs, Tan Hiep Phat still maintains its leading position in the Vietnamese beverage market. With the efforts to expand into the global market, Tan Hiep Phats products are now available in 20 countries and territories. Competing with Giants shares how a local company can compete with far larger corporations and hold on to the lead in the domestic market. Speaking at the event in New York, Tran Uyen Phuong said that this is the first book sharing information with those who are looking to enter the Vietnamese market or learn how the country works. The book describes a real story with a view to motivate people and encourage those who think life is tough and something is impossible. After being published in the US, Competing with Giants will be translated into Vietnamese and published in Vietnam. This is the second book by businesswoman Tran Uyen Phuong. Her first book titled The Story of Dr. Thanh's Family was published in 2017 and sold 400,000 copies. According to Hiroshi Otsuka, chairman cum general director of Musashi Seimitsu from Japan, the book offers an insight into how and why Vietnamese businesses are silently rising to become global players. Meanwhile, William M. Doheny, former CEO of Coca-Cola Vietnam, said that the book generously shares experience and best practices to help people from entrepreneurs, startups to MNCs to improve their performance in emerging markets and identify changes in globalisation. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close On 25 August 2018, the US Senator John Mc Cain died at the age of 81. The mainstream transnational press presents him as a hero of the Vietnam War; a man of integrity; one who refuses to yield. They characterize him as the total opposite of todays US President Donald Trump. But this champion of liberty displayed his heroism by participating as a pilot in the US air bombings against Vietnamese civilian installations. This was how his plane was brought down in 1967, by Soviet Anti-air force when they bombed an electric central. The son of a US admiral who would one day be appointed head of US Pa Com [1], John McCain was then captured and became a prisoner of war. For five years he was imprisoned in Vietnam where he was apparently tortured. Having been freed, he returned to the US, and was elected in 1982 to the House of Representatives. He then switched Chambers, and became a senator in 1986. McCain, presented as a man of integrity, was one of the five senators known as the Keating Five, so called because they accepted bribes from the banker and financier Charles Keating, who wanted to bury a series of scandals. In 2000, McCain competes for nomination as the Republican candidate for the presidential elections. His rival in these primaries, George W. Bush, does not believe that McCain was a hero in Vietnam and even accuses him of betraying the US, recalling the confession that McCain signed as a prisoner of war, a confession that McCain attributes to torture. In 2008, McCain was the Republican candidate for the Presidential Elections standing against the democrat Barack Obama. The New York Times reveals that various companies had financed his campaign in 2000; their way of rewarding McCain for the positions he took as Chair of the Senate Committee for Commerce. It is difficult to classify McCains positions on domestic politics: he supports imposing criminal sanctions on women that have abortions but is against torture. Since 1993, McCain has simultaneously exercised his mandate as senator and president of IRI, the US organization tasked with bribing right wing political parties throughout the world. IRI which stands for International Republican Institute is one of the main tentacles of NED (National Endowment for Democracy). Ned also acts as a secret service for all the Five Eyes (Australia, Canada, the United States, New Zealand and the United Kingdom). By holding the office of President of IRI for 25 years, McCain has violated the basic principle of separation of powers. It was only at the beginning of August 2018 that John McCain was replaced as President of IRI by Dan Sullivan who was also a senator. As president of IRI, John McCain participated in organizing a number of State coups and supported without exception all British and US wars. McCain prepared, for example, the failed coup detat against the constitutional president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, the toppling of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the constitutional president of Haiti, the attempt to topple Mwai Kibaki, the constitutional president of Kenya, and more recently, the toppling of Viktor Yanukovich, the constitutional president of Ukraine. John McCain was the man calling the shots and orchestrating the Arab Spring. It was he that gave the go-ahead to begin the wars against Libya and Syria in a meeting with the Secret Services of US allies in Cairo, in February 2011. Afterwards he travelled to Lebanon where he conferred on MP Okab Sakr, who had links to todays Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the task of guaranteeing a supply of arms to the jihadists to topple the Syrian Arab Republic. Whilst in Lebanon, Mc Cain took the opportunity to visit the Lebanese locality in Ersal and decided to set up there a fall-back base that the jihadists will later use, against Syria. In May 2013, the US Senator John Mc Cain illegally moved into Syria. He was covered though, being under Israels protection. On Syrian soil he met with several jihadist leaders (see photo) one of which was Mohammad Nour, who had just kidnapped 11 Lebanese civilians. Voltairenet took the position that on that occasion John McCain also met with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the future caliph of the Islamic Emirate (Daesh). This accusation was denied at the time by Mc Cains office, even though the photo above shows them together at that meeting (al-Baghdadi is the one circled in red on the left). However a year later, on 16 September 2014, when he made a guest appearance on Fox News Sean Hannitys Show, McCain himself states that he met with Daesh leaders and is in constantly in touch with them. Meanwhile he explains that the US has to use all rebels to put an end to the Syrian Arab Republic (see video). The fact is that John McCain participated in destroying an entire region of the world. And he did so knowing exactly what he was doing and afterwards il regrette rien. It appears that the President of Lebanon, Michel Aoun, had a telephone conversation with his Syrian partner, Bashar al-Assad. This is remarkable because since the beginning of the war in Syria, only the Russian President, Vladamir Putin and the President of South Ossetia, Anatoli Bibilov, have had official contacts at this level with the Syrian Arab Republic. Most states in the world consider that the war in Syria is a civil war whereas Russia and South Ossetia have declared that it is aggression by foreign powers, executed on the ground by jihadists. In June 2012, various Lebanese parties concluded the Declaration of Baabda [1] by which they undertook not to allow Lebanese institutions to intervene in the war. This poses a problem as the signatory parties are themselves engaged there: the first to intervene was the Courant du Futur (Hariri) on the side of the jihadists and then much later, the Hezbollah on the side of Damas. As for President Michel Aoun, he considers that following the Putin-Trump Summit of Helsinki (16 July 2018), the policy of backing off can no longer be justified. Thus the Lebanese President would therefore be in a position to recognize the victory of President Bashar al-Assad and to negotiate directly with him for the refugees to return and for the normalization of Syrian-Lebanese relations. On the contrary, the other Lebanese political leaders who considered the Trumps presidency as a passing mishap and the Helsinki Summit as a failure, achieving nothing, are still faithful to the Declaration of Baabda thought up by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on the evening before the first Geneva Conference. The USS Sullivans destroyer (DDG-68) of the US Navy with 56 cruise missiles on board has been prepositioned in the Persian Gulf. Simultaneously, a US Air Force B-1B strategic bomber with 24 AGM-158 JASSM air-to-surface cruise missiles arrived at Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar. On August 29th, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on all parties involved in Syria to show restraint. On August 30, 2018, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Syrian counterpart, Walid al-Muallem, in a joint press conference, accused Britains MI6 of preparing a chemical attack in Syria to justify an attack on this country by the West. Lavrov said the attack was organized by the White Helmets, an NGO created by MI6 that has already participated in the fighting many times. Al-Muallem said the White Helmets had just abducted 44 children in Idleb governorate to sacrifice them during the operation. English-speaking experts from the British company "Olive" arrived at Kafr Zita to supervise the staging. In Moscow, Alexei Tsygankov, head of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of Conflict, said that the White Helmets had been transporting toxic substances to Saraqib. In Moscow, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that MI6 had just created a Twitter account for the fictional girl, Hala, who was responsible for reporting live on the chemical attack and attributing it to the Syrian government. In Washington, the Russian ambassador, Anatoly Antonov, warned the administration against any participation in this false flag operation. It is bad enough that the President of the United States is breaking long-standing ethical standards in US government, but when President Donald Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, stepped into the contentious battle over corruption in another country, Romania, he embarrassed the United States by speaking out against clean government; he made the uphill battle for democracy advocates in Romania even steeper; and he muddied US foreign policy, taking a stand directly contrary to that of the US State Department. Romanians have been fighting what may be a losing battle to uproot corruption in their country. The tens of thousands who have taken to the streets to defend the rule of law had until now seen the United States as an ally. That's why, when a local news site published a letter from Giuliani to Romania's President, it detonated a bombshell of disbelief. Political Figures - US Rudy Giuliani Biochemistry Continents and regions Corruption Democracy DNA Donald Trump Eastern Europe Ethics Europe Forms of government Genetic biochemistry Genetics Government and public administration Government bodies and offices Health and medical Louis Freeh Medical fields and specialties North America Romania Science Society The Americas United States US federal government White House Incredibly, Giuliani's letter to the country's largely-ceremonial President urged Romania to throttle the National Anticorruption Directorate, known as DNA, claiming that anti-corruption efforts were causing "damage to the rule of law ... under the guise of effective law enforcement." Giuliani proposed that "amnesty should be given to those who have been prosecuted and convicted through the excesses of the DNA." And he warned that the anti-graft drive risks driving away foreign investment. Giuliani is an independent lawyer and businessman. He is free to defend criminals and crooks. But he is also a very high-profile lawyer for President Trump. People around the world see him on television speaking on Trump's behalf. So, his words, even if he maintains they have no connection with the US government, carry special resonance. Romanian citizens and the country's opposition have fought valiantly to stop the ruling party's campaign to defang the DNA in a battle for the future of a country in a region where authoritarian governments have been steadily dismantling democratic practices. Half a million people took to the streets last year to protest a bill that decriminalized certain forms of corruption. And when the ruling party fired the head of the DNA, Laura Codruta Kovesi, the late Republican Sen. John McCain, along with Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat, wrote Romania's Prime Minister to express America's concerns. The State Department, the European Union, and other prominent organizations have spoken up in favor of the besieged anti-corruption campaign that Giuliani denigrated. Romanians have come to expect support for democracy from the United States, so Giuliani's letter came not only as a shock, but also as a deep disappointment. The prominent entrepreneur and activist Sebastian Burduja published an open message to Giuliani, saying, "Your letter, Mr. Giuliani, is far from what we would expect from a fighter for democracy, freedom and the rule of law." He demanded to know if Giuliani was speaking for the President. "Is this your letter," he asked, "or is it a message that represents the position and official policy of the US government?" He went on to explain the disastrous consequences that entrenched corruption has had for his country. By now you've probably guessed why Giuliani is suddenly so interested in the intricacies of Romanian justice: It's about money. Giuliani acknowledged he sent the letter on behalf of his company, Giuliani Security & Safety, which had been retained by another firm with an unsettling pedigree, Freeh Group International Solutions, a company owned by former FBI director Louis Freeh -- who counts among his clients Gabriel Popoviciu, a Romanian sentenced to seven years in prison for corruption in a fraud and corruption case, and Alexander Adamescu, another Romanian under investigation by DNA for bribery. The common practice of former US government officials selling their services and using their contacts in part to benefit the highest bidder is a disturbing facet of US public life. One would hope that, at the very least, they would screen their customers for ethical behavior and perhaps avoid clients who pay him to push against an entity whose purpose is to clean up pervasive corruption. That may be legal, but when the advocacy that runs contrary to US policy is being carried out by a man who is so closely associated with the President, the problem is not just optics. It may directly undercut US interests. Notably, not everyone was displeased with Giuliani's letter. The letter received high praise from the leader of Romania's ruling party, Liviu Dragnea, of the Social Democratic Party, the party that has been trying to blunt the DNA's powers. It is he who spearheaded the push to fire the DNA's Kovesi. Dragnea noted approvingly in a Facebook post that Giuliani "puts his finger on the wound." As it happens, Dragnea would benefit from Giuliani's proposed amnesty. One of the country's most powerful politicians, he's barred from serving as prime minister because of a 2015 conviction for election fraud, for which he was given a suspended sentence. He is expected to appeal a guilty verdict and a prison sentence on another case of abuse of office. Giuliani's letter looks like it was written by Dragnea, according to one opposition politician. And it echoes a plan by Freeh, to "restore the rule of law in Romania." It is that concerted attack on efforts to restore faith in Romania's institutions that has produced massive demonstrations by people trying to salvage the democracy they built after breaking the shackles of one of the most repressive communist regimes of the Cold War era. They had dreamed of a Western-style democracy, and viewed the United States as a source of inspiration and support. It's a sign of our times that now the same lawyer who is defending the embattled President of the United States is selling his services to those trying to roll back the rule of law in Romania. If Giuliani values what's left of his reputation, he should screen his client list while he serves as Trump's lawyer. And he should keep quiet on issues related to foreign policy as long as his name is associated with the US presidency. With Mississippi one step closer to getting a state lottery Alabama could become the only southern state. and one of just five states in the entire country, without a lottery. We know there are two sides to this debate about a lottery, but everyone WAAY 31 talked to Friday in Huntsville is for it. "I'd buy a lottery ticket in a heart beat if it was here. At least every week," said Brett Williamson. He'd like to see the money raised through the lottery go to education, but he wouldn't mind seeing it spent on other things for the state as well. "I think it would help fix the infrastructure of the roads and stuff like that. That way we can stop busting our tires," said Williamson. Governor Ivey told WAAY 31 Friday she supports peoples right to vote on the issue. That would happen if the Alabama legislature passed a constitutional amendment allowing the state to have a lottery. That would not require Governor Ivey to take a firm stance on the issue one way or the other. "Ivey's afraid of her evangelical base. She doesn't want to; she thinks they're going to say bad things about her. They're going to say she's not a christian, or you're going to go to hell if you vote for a lottery. Some crazy stuff. We've heard that for years," said former U.S. Congressman Parker Griffith. Governor Ivey also said the state is doing well financially and if the state uses money wisely there would be no need for money from a lottery. Griffith disagrees with the Governor. "This state is out of money. This state basically is bankrupt. We do not like raising taxes. In loo of raising taxes we need to do the lottery," said Griffith. One Huntsville woman said she'd like to see a lottery with the money going to education. However, she worries that it could be used in other ways. "Think about how many people will buy tickets and how much money will be going in, so you want to know the money is being properly used," said Raquel Carr. Another woman we talked to said the prize of so much money for education is worth the risk. "There's always risks that you take. You take a risk every day. You get in your car you drive and you risk being hit by a car. I mean, come on. Let's get it together. Get the lottery," said Misty Braden. Griffith told WAAY 31 it is likely nothing will happen with this issue until after the November election. By WestKyStar & MSU Staff Aug. 31, 2018 | 03:26 AM | MURRAY Several students in the Hutson School of Agriculture at Murray State University have made their childhood dreams a reality.Fueled by their passion for agriculture, Ally Grote, Sydney Hunter and Cassidy Neal completed summer internships with regional and national organizations in the agriculture industry.I was raised on a cattle farm, and I knew from a young age I wanted to work with cattle and horses, Grote said. Animal nutrition has become my passion.Ally Grote is a junior from Bowling Green, Missouri, studying animal science. Beginning in May 2018, Grote worked with Purina Animal Nutrition in Labadie, Missouri. Her main responsibility was to conduct a market analysis on beef cattle, equine operations and farms.I was able to go outside and interact with a variety of cattle farmers and equine owners, Grote said. Through this, I have been able to gain their perspective on why farmers and ranchers favor one product over another.At the end of her 12-week internship, she traveled to Minnesota to present her research to a panel of Purina Animal Nutrition employees.After graduation, Grote aspires to apply her knowledge of ruminant nutrition to work for a feed company maybe even Purina.Murray State has given me the courage to aim high when seeking internships, Grote said. My internship with Purina Animal Nutrition has been extremely helpful in networking and preparing me for my dream career.Sydney Hunter has been dreaming of a career in agriculture since joining her local 4-H chapter.I realized there were so many facets of agriculture to become passionate about, Hunter said. 4-H opened my eyes and really made me want to be an advocate for agriculture.Hunter is a graduate student from Evansville, Indiana, studying agricultural science. She spent her summer as an operations management trainee for Archer Daniels Midland, a grain processing company in St. Louis. Most of her days were spent at the companys grain elevator, completing tasks ranging from organizing electrical panels to assisting in company-wide safety trainings.By working alongside managers on special projects, Hunter was able to develop her soft skills of leadership and communication. The hard skills of working in a grain elevator, such as operating a conveyer or measuring materials, were exposed to Hunter in her agriculture classes at Murray State.The basic classes required in the agriculture department really helped me with my understanding of a grain elevator, Hunter said. Grain is not something I ever saw myself doing, but I am so glad I got out of my comfort zone and pushed myself to try new things.Hunters post-graduation plans are to work as an animal nutritionist or feed sales representative.By gaining hands-on experience in grain processing this summer, she is confident she will have an advantage over applicants in the job market.I think pursuing an internship is important because youre able to get real world experience on top of your schooling, Hunter said. If you think youre even remotely interested, apply!Like Hunter, Cassidy Neal found the excitement of agriculture in a similar organization: Future Farmers of America (FFA).While I was in FFA, I was exposed to a variety of agriculture fields and really became interested in horticulture, Neal said.Neal is a senior from Murray studying agriculture education. For six weeks of her summer, she traded working in Kentuckys fields and farms for a seat at the U.S. Capitol: interning for Congressman James Comer, the state representative for Kentuckys first district.As an agriculture fellow, I did the traditional intern work but also had the opportunity to attend hearings, briefings and meetings with Congressman Comers agriculture constituents, Neal said.Neals work on the national level afforded her the opportunity to give tours of the U.S. Capitol, network with industry leaders and gain a new perspective on agricultural education.My favorite part of the internship was meeting with various agriculture constituents, Neal said. They had such interesting stories and were incredibly knowledgeable about their fields. I was able to learn a lot about Kentucky agriculture even when I was in D.C.The impact of this internship will not stop with Neal but will continue on throughout her career as an agriculture educator.This internship allowed me to learn a lot about agriculture policy and the political aspects of the industry, Neal said. These experiences will be beneficial to tell students in my future classroom.MSU provides an Opportunity Afforded for more than 10,000 students through a high-quality education with experiential learning, academic and personal growth and the ability to secure a lifetime of success. Since 1922, the true value of higher education has been found at Murray State University, where our commitment is to afford endless opportunities for developing leaders in the community, the country and the world. The Universitys main campus is located in Murray, KY, and includes five regional campuses.For more information about Murray State University, please visit murraystate.edu. 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. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Sep. 01, 2018 | PADUCAH By West Kentucky Star Staff Sep. 01, 2018 | 12:27 PM | PADUCAH Authorities in McCracken County arrested a Metropolis man Friday on cocaine trafficking charges. The McCracken County Sheriff's Department says drug detectives got a tip Friday alleging that 26-year-old Joshua Tre Taylor was selling cocaine. Deputies also found that Taylor had an outstanding warrant for trafficking cocaine. Detectives said they contacted Taylor and bought cocaine from him in the parking lot of a Paducah business on Cairo Road. Deputies then stopped and arrested him on Jacobs Avenue. Taylor's girlfriend and their one-year-old child were also in the vehicle. She was released, but could be charged at a later date, detectives said. During the investigation detectives seized about eight grams of cocaine, 10 doses of acid and drug paraphernalia. They also seized $2,659 in cash. Taylor was booked into the McCracken County Regional Jail. He's Charged with cocaine and acid trafficking, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, second degree wanton endangerment and a McCracken County indictment warrant charging him with trafficking in cocaine. Deputies said more charges are possible as their investigation continues. Man injured after travel app confusion on I-24 results in another accident Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 31, 2018 | PADUCAH By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 31, 2018 | 07:21 PM | PADUCAH The service on Thursday of two search warrants has led to charges being filed against five people. According to Paducah Police, detectives served a search warrant at a home in the 2600 block of Fairmont Street. They found a quantity of methamphetamine, pipes commonly used to smoke methamphetamine, and digital scales. Detectives arrested 29-year-old Brent A. Watkins of Paducah on charges of first-degree possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine), and possession of drug paraphernalia. They also cited 38-year-old Misty Raven Trodglen and 32-year-old Matthew Stice, both of Paducah, on charges of possession of drug paraphernalia. A follow-up investigation led drug detectives to a home in the 3700 block of Hinkleville Road. A search warrant yielded 1/2 ounce of methamphetamine, spoons, and hypodermic needles, located in a small safe. Detectives said that 27-year-old Eric Grubbs claimed that he owned the safe. He was arrested on charges of first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance, (second or greater offense), and possession of drug paraphernalia. Also, present in the home was 25-year-old Trisha Winter of Salem. She was arrested on a bench warrant that charged her with failure to pay a fine. Watkins, Grubbs, and Winter were taken to the McCracken County Regional Jail. Trodglen and Stice were cited and released. President Donald Trump again threatened to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement if Canada doesn't concede to new terms. In a Saturday morning tweet, Trump said there is "no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal," referring to the tentative bilateral agreement the United States reached with Mexico earlier this week. Business, economy and trade Canada Continents and regions Donald Trump Government and public administration Government bodies and offices Government organizations - US International trade Latin America Mexico North America Political Figures - US Politics The Americas Trade and development United States US Congress US federal government White House Economic policy Economy and economic indicators Free trade treaties and agreements International relations International relations and national security International trade law Trade regulation and policy Trade treaties and agreements Treaties and agreements "If we don't make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse,Canada will be out," Trump said. He also urged Congress not to "interfere" with negotiations "or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off." The United States and Mexico announced a preliminary bilateral trade deal on Monday after resolving an issue over auto manufacturing. Canadian officials rejoined the talks this week. But the fate of NAFTA became uncertain Friday when the United States and Canada failed to come to an agreement on rewriting the three-nation trade pact before a US-imposed deadline that would have allowed them to sign a new deal before Mexico's president-elect, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, takes office on December 1. Negotiations are scheduled to resume on Wednesday. Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland said at a press conference Friday that she will continue to work for a trade deal that is in the country's best interest. She said she believes a trilateral trade pact that benefits all three countries can be achieved. "We know a win-win-win agreement is within reach and that's what we're working towards," Freeland said. Trump has repeatedly threatened to tear up NAFTA, saying the 24-year-old trade pact has cost American jobs. He's also frequently complained that Canada is treating the United States unfairly. The United States runs an overall trade surplus with Canada, one of its biggest trading partners. Trump wants Canada to end its steep tariffs on US dairy products, claiming they hurt US farmers. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pledged to protect his country's dairy industry. Trump on Friday also threatened new tariffs on Canadian cars if the country doesn't comply with US-terms of a new trade deal. The White House was required to give Congress an official 90-day notice before entering into a new trade deal. Since the administration notified Congress Friday, Trump will be allowed to sign the deal by November 30. Even then, Congress could still block the deal. It's unlikely any rewrite of NAFTA would come up for a vote until 2019. Procedure rules allow the president to sign the trade deal first, before Congress votes on it. The text of the agreement does not have to be submitted to Congress until September 30. The governments of Canada and Mexico must also ratify the agreement. If they don't, there's no deal. WAPPINGER, N.Y. (AP) - State police say a 7-year-old boy has died in a fire that destroyed a house in upstate New York. Troopers arrived at the burning home in the Dutchess County town of Wappinger shortly after a 911 call at 5:22 a.m. Friday and were told a child was inside. Police say officers went in without protective gear but couldn't find the child because of flames and smoke. Fire personnel used a ladder to enter a bedroom window and found the unconscious child. The boy, identified as Sean Burlingame, was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. The other five people in the house were able to escape before the arrival of emergency personnel. A trooper was treated for smoke inhalation. The cause of the fire is under investigation. (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) Salisbury, N.Y. - Two weekends ago we aired a story about Ronald Barnes, a 79 year old disabled man from Salisbury Center in Herkimer County who collected cans while out on his ATV, then donated the proceeds to St. Jude's Children's Hospital. Sadly just four days after our story aired, Barnes passed away unexpectedly. Now there's an effort underway to continue his generosity, in his name. Officials with the Salisbury Ridgerunners Snowmobile Club have decided to hold a can drive in Ronald Barnes' name and continue to donate the proceeds to St. Jude's. It will be called the 'Can Man Can Drive', as many in this part of Herkimer County knew Barnes and called him 'The Can Man'. It will be held at the Salisbury 500, the Salisbury Ridgerunners Snowmobile Club's annual snowmobile drag race event which is set for next Saturday. Barnes used to use the Salisbury Ridgerunners snowmobile trails to get around on his ATV, and along the way he would pick up cans. When we did our original story with Barnes on August 19th, he was so proud of the fact that he turned 50,000 miles on his vintage 1984 Suzuki ATV and was very thankful to the snowmobile club for letting him ride his ATV on the trails to get around. Salisbury Ridgerunners Snowmobile Club President Frank Boepple says a club member named Alex Tyoe came up with the idea and everyone in the club quickly got on board with it, "Ron Barnes was one of the nicest men you would ever want to meet, and we hope to turn this into an annual event and do it every year for a fundraiser." Alex Tyoe, who came up with the idea, says she hopes everyone brings some cans next Saturday, "We used to see him all the way down in Poland picking up cans, I mean he went far. I was like well we should really do it for him because that's what he would've wanted, and turn them in the St. Jude's." The Salisbury 500 snowmobile drag races, also known as the Grass Drags, are set for next Saturday, September 8th at 11:00 A.M. at the club's property on Curtiss Rd. in Salisbury and spectators are urged to bring a bag of cans to donate to the cause. Admission to the event is just $5.00. ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - A former prison employee has pleaded guilty to charges that she had an inappropriate relationship with an inmate at the same New York prison where another female employee aided the escape of two killers. State Inspector General Catharine Leahy Scott's office said Friday that Denise Prell pleaded guilty this week to misdemeanor counts of promoting prison contraband, sexual abuse in the third degree and official misconduct. Sentencing will be in November. Investigators say Prell lost her job as a tailor shop supervisor at Clinton Correctional Facility last year. In June 2015, two inmates aided by a civilian employee escaped from the prison near the Canadian border. One was killed by police. The other was captured. The inspector general released a report Friday that found "substantial" security improvements since the escape. (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) 8/31/2018 4:09:35 PM (GMT -4:00) A national memorial service is being held Saturday morning at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. to honor the life of Sen. John McCain of Arizona. On Friday, the Capitol Rotunda was packed as McCain's colleagues on Capitol Hill offered a final farewell, and the public then had their chance to say goodbye to the senator who served 34 years in Congress. McCain - who was a six-term senator, a former Navy pilot, and a Vietnam War POW - will be buried at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The national memorial service is set to begin at 10 a.m., with NBC's coverage beginning at 9 a.m. When it begins, you can watch live here, or tune into WKTV NBC. Two people are behind bars after deputies responded to a complaint of a woman passed out in a vehicle in London. The Laurel County Sheriff says they received the call just before 2:00 p.m. on Friday. When deputies arrived at the location on East Laurel Road, they say they found 29-year-old Bobbie Rose, of Pleasant Grove, asleep in the vehicle. Deputies say a search of Rose revealed multiple needles, and suspected methamphetamine, along with what appears to be Neurontin. According to deputies, a man outside of the vehicle but associated with Rose appeared unsteady on his feet, with glassy eyes and slurred speech. Identified as 44-year-old George Robinson of East Bernstadt, he was found to be in possession of suboxone, gabapentin, and needles. Deputies say Robinson told them the needles were for treatment of diabetes. Both Sizemore and Robinson were charged with public intoxication and multiple counts of possession. They were taken to the Laurel County Detention Center. Lafayette, IND. (WLFI) - A historical Lafayette church is receiving a large sum of money to help continue restoring its structure. Trinity United Methodist Church will receive $50,000 for their restoration project. The project is funded in part by a grant from the U. S. Department of the Interior, National Park Services Historic Preservation Fund Program, which is administered by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology. The church is only one out of 11 projects across the state to receive the money. The purpose is to help strengthen and preserve Indiana history. Trinity United Methodists building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Senior Pastor Tracey Leslie says they need to have the money to make sure the work is done right. There are very few companies that will do work of this time period and those companies are obviously very specialized because the work is so highly specialized, she said. Its really essential to preserve the structural integrity of the church building. She said they have slowly been fixing each wall of the church over the years. This is the second time they have received this grant money to help restore the structure. There were some situations where water was coming into the building, she said. Obviously any time you've got an opening and water starts to come in, if that's not addressed its going to lead to all kinds of problems. Problems that are not cheap to fix. She said the grant will only cover about half of the total cost of fixing one wall. They have a goal to have the project completed by 2019. Leslie said they are also taking outside donations. Click here to learn more. Lafayette, IND. (WLFI) - Elected officials are wanting to see more counselors in Indiana schools. According to recent numbers, Indiana is eighth in the nation for largest number of students per school counselor. Meaning there is more strain on counselors to address student's career and behavioral problems. It's 50 students to one career counselor and we need not only career counseling, and skilled career counselors but also we need behavioral counselors, said Indiana District 27 State Representative Sheila Klinker. Klinker is part of the Interim Study Committee on Education. They are discussing current workload of career counselors and how to get them more funding. Lafayette schools are currently in the beginning stages of setting up The Greater Lafayette Career Academy for students. However there are still a lot of problems to solve. "The current workload of our school corporations career counselors is too many," she said. Klinker says this is putting unnecessary pressures on everyone. "There's a lot of pressure on both the parents and the students as well as the teachers," she said. But she is advocating to help fix this problem in schools, not just in her district, but across the state. "Makes it necessary to not only encourage greater funding per counselor but also to encourage the state to fund this sort of work," she said. She said there is demand for more than just the traditional counselors. Klinker said multiple school districts from Tippecanoe County and surrounding counties will feed into the new academy and she wants the students to have adequate support from counselors. "We want a situation where we not only have guidance counselors and behavioral counselors but also those who are strictly dealing with careers," she said. Klinker believes the biggest hurdle is financing, and this year is a budget year at the statehouse. If the study isn't ready for this legislative session, they may need to wait until 2021 They plan to discuss this issue more when they meet again on October 4th. 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 Graduate builds his career thanks to universitys future leaders programme This article is old - Published: Saturday, Sep 1st, 2018 An accounting graduate who has landed his first job with a construction firm has praised Wrexham Glyndwr Universitys advice and support for helping him build his career. James Rumsey, 22, originally from Abergavenny in South Wales, completed a BA (Hons) in Accounting and Finance at Glyndwr this summer and is now forging a role as an accounts assistant at Rhostyllen-based Knights Construction. James, who started work at Knights Construction earlier this month, has credited a leadership programme run by the Wrexham Glyndwr University Careers team for boosting his confidence and helping prepare him for his new role. He said: Being an accounts assistant is what I was aiming for after I graduated, so I am really pleased to have got the job. Its been really interesting so far Im really enjoying it and its a great company to work for. I am providing accounts assistance to management across the company and starting to learn the ropes and looking forward to getting further involved over the next few months. Knights Construction are a construction company who specialise in concrete flooring they work in sectors such as agriculture and utilities. Its great my role is in the finance division which takes a lot of getting used to. Im currently just enjoying going to work every day its definitely not a chore. The Future Leaders programme, which ran throughout the summer at the University, helped introduce a group of students who had been nominated by their lecturers to take part to a wide range of leadership skills. He is urging now current and prospective Glyndwr students to make the most of the Careers teams advice and guidance. James said: I would definitely advise other students to use the careers service whenever they can. They are a huge help when you are at University if you really want to get ahead, you will find your way there everyone should know about them. The opportunities are there and the advice is there to help you if you want to make it happen, it will. Consultant Rachel Hughes-Turner, who led the Future Leaders programme, said: Its fascinating to see how the students all take something different from the Future Leaders course. It allows them to reflect on their past experiences and then start applying what they have learnt to their search for work. Theres also so much value in bringing together a cross section of high-potential students from different disciplines. Not only do they learn from each other; they are also building a network of contacts, both fellow students, and the many external speakers who so generously give up their time to share their experiences too. More than anything, students have commented on the increased confidence that the course has given them which is a source of huge personal satisfaction. Im so pleased that Glyndwr University are investing in students to help them bridge from study into work. James is one of hundreds of undergraduates from Glyndwr whose studies have led to employment. A graduate destinations survey showed that 93.5% of Glyndwrs UK undergraduates were in work or further study six months after completion of their studies. Careers Adviser Andrea Hilditch said: The whole team here is absolutely delighted that James has taken the first step in his chosen career. Helping to recognise and nurture the potential in students like James is what our work is all about. Working with students like James to help them recognise and develop their skills with courses such as the Future Leaders programme to complement their degree helps prepare our students for the world of work as James experience shows! Find out more about Wrexham Glyndwr Universitys Careers team and their work here. One person arrested for arson in Wrexham This article is old - Published: Saturday, Sep 1st, 2018 North Wales Police have said one person has been arrested on suspicion of arson overnight. This morning the Wrexham Town Inspector twitter account, appearing to be from Chief Inspector Mark Williams, tweeted: One arrested for arson last night. Great to see the community, police and partners working together to #helpstopdeliberatefires Put a stop to arson, call 101 to report In what appears to be a busy few hours for police, the National Police Air Service helicopter was overhead twice. Firstly for over an hour in the early hours of this morning, then later around 8am. There is no detail on if the helicopter activity is linked to the arrest, with many complaining about very noisy quad or motorbikes around town at midnight. One eyewitness has told us they saw a car and two motorbikes being pursed by police around 12:45am along Rhosnesni Lane, an area that appeared to be of particular interest to the helicopter at a similar time. At 4am the Cheshire and North Wales Police Alliance Armed Policing Unit tweeted the below image of a car that was stopped and seized, they also said ten minutes later another illegal driver off the road in Wrexham this time for being unfit through drink/drugs. Earlier this week the unit posted a picture of them specifically patrolling the Caia area. Volunteers needed to help run Wrexham-based support group This article is old - Published: Saturday, Sep 1st, 2018 A leading sight loss charity is calling for volunteers to help run a Wrexham-based support group for people with macular disease. The Macular Society is appealing for anyone living locally who would be willing to give up some of their time to help organise and run the groups meetings, with help from the charitys services and volunteering team. The group is also looking for people to assist with general tasks such as booking guest speakers. The Wrexham Macular Support Group meets on the third Thursday of each month (excluding August, December and January), from 1-3pm, at Avow: Association of Volunteer Organisations in Wrexham, 21 Egerton Street, Wrexham LL11 1ND. It is one of 25 groups of its kind in Wales and more than 400 in the UK offering vital information, encouragement and friendship to people who are affected by macular disease. The groups next meeting will be on Thursday 20 September. With an ageing population there increasing numbers of people are being affected by age-related macular degeneration (AMD). In Wales AMD is the leading cause of blindness, with around 6,300 people diagnosed every year. Marian Williams, Macular Society regional manager, said: The Wrexham Macular Support Group provides a real lifeline for people living locally with sight loss. The peer support offered by the groups is absolutely vital its incredibly reassuring for people to know that there are others who truly understand their situation. With more than 200 people in the UK being diagnosed with macular disease every day, the existence of our support groups has never been more important. If you have some free time and would be willing to help out, either by helping to organise the meetings or assisting in some other way, we would love to hear from you. We will also be available to support our volunteers as they learn their new roles and provide any guidance they need going forward. In Wales, the Macular Society has been able to establish and run new sight loss support groups and recruit volunteers across the country thanks to more than 340,000 of funding from the Big Lottery Fund, made possible thanks to National Lottery players. For more information about the Wrexham Macular Support Group, please contact Marian Williams on 07495 054 053, or email marian.williams@macularsociety.org Residents in southern Texas whose official birth certificates show they were born in the United States are alarmingly being denied passports in growing numbers. According to a recent report in the Washington Post, attorneys in the Texas border region are reporting an increase in hundreds, if not thousands, of cases in which citizens are accused of having fraudulent birth certificates. The purpose of the accusation is to reject applications for new passports, deny renewals, and revoke old ones, leading to the detention of citizens at the border upon re-entry from Mexico, and in some cases, actual deportation. In a press release responding to the story, the State Department said that it has not changed policy or practice regarding the adjudication of passport applications, adding that the U.S.-Mexico border region happens to be an area of the country where there has been a significant incidence of citizenship fraud. At least at one level, this claim is correct. The policy of denying citizenship rights to a specific group of Americans born in the Southwestern border area is not peculiar to the Trump administration. Both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations followed a version of this policy. The reasoning behind this policy comes from government allegations that, for a period of several decades (ending in the 1990s), some midwives and physicians working in the Texas-Mexico border region provided U.S. birth certificates to babies who were actually born in Mexico. This led to a series of federal court cases in the 1990s in which nine birth attendants were indicted for pleading guilty to procuring and passing on fraudulent documents. These women attested that they were paid, anywhere from $300-$5,000 to produce birth certificates that allowed children born in Mexico to claim American citizenship. Under the George W. Bush administration, the Department of Homeland Security enacted a policy of passport adjudication in response to these cases with the policy continuing under Obama. However, the number of cases declined due to the settlement made in a 2009 class action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The ACLU represented a group of American citizens victimized by the policy, successfully arguing that given the number of births overseen even by the attendants found guilty of malpractice, it was too difficult to determine which birth certificates were legal and which were fraudulent. Prior to the settlement in 2009, both administrations had denied passports to citizens whose birth had been certified by a midwife in the Texas border region. The use of midwives is a common practice in the area due to the high cost of hospital births. The average price for a hospital delivery in Texas in 2017 was $7,349 according to research by Fair Health organization. Additionally, a study by the Texas Association of Counties reveals Texas is one of the poorest states in the country with up to 58.4 percent of residents in the border regions living in poverty. Given these conditions, denying passports to those who are forced to use a particular service due to lack of resources is not just a gross violation of citizenship rights, but a blatant attack on the working class. In addition, it is becoming increasingly obvious that this policy is an extension of the Trump administrations intensified, ongoing war on immigrants. The Washington Post article presents several horrifying stories of citizens being denied their rights through various bureaucratic maneuvers. In one instance, a former US soldier named Juan received a letter from the US State Department informing him that his citizenship was in suspect. In order to prove that he was indeed an American citizen, he was asked to provide a series of documents from his childhood: mothers prenatal care documents, baptismal certificate and rental agreements when he was a child. He was able to locate a couple of the documents but was still denied a passport. The evidence the State Department asks that passport applicants produce is near impossible to obtain, and in some cases it may not even exist, leaving passport seekers in difficult situations. Immigration attorneys have reported passport applicants with official US birth certificates being jailed in immigration detention centers and entered into deportation proceedings. Attorneys have also reported cases where citizens passports are being revoked at the border by Customs and Border Protection agents during re-entry into the US. According these reports border agents target certain citizens, demanding that they admit to being born in Mexico. When the demand is refused, those identified by the agents as being potentially Mexican born are taken to detention centers, pending immigration and deportation hearings. US citizens living in the border region often frequent Mexico for a number of reasons, especially to visit family members. These ominous and fundamentally undemocratic measures show how US citizens are increasingly being targeted by the rapidly growing anti-immigration regime. Under the Trump Administration, the attack against immigration has been at the forefront of the assault on the working class. Not only have immigrants living in the country without proper documentation been the target of the administrations repressive policies, but even those with citizenship are within the scope of fire. As is the case with the condition of hundreds of citizens in the Texas border region, official documents, such as a legal birth certificate, are no longer binding and can be called into question at any moment. The enactment of the current policy is arbitrary and a convenient basis for further suppression of democratic rights in the United States. These few hundred cases are being inflated to justify putting into question the citizenship of millions of people who have been born in the southern border region marks an open assault on the basic citizenship rights of all Americans. In a letter to Congress Thursday, President Trump announced plans to implement an across-the-board pay freeze on the United States federal governments two million employees starting in January should Congress fail to pass a budget in the New Year. Trump, citing budget concerns, told lawmakers, We must maintain efforts to put our Nation on a fiscally sustainable course, and Federal agency budgets cannot sustain such increases. According to Trumps letter, Under current law, locality pay increases averaging 25.70 percent, costing $25 billion, would go into effect in January 2019, in addition to a 2.1 percent across-the-board increase for the base General Schedule. The cynicism of such remarks is highlighted by the recent $1.5 trillion-worth in tax cuts that Trump awarded to the wealthiest Americans last December. According to the Office of Management and Budget, Trumps tax windfall has produced a record federal deficit of over $1 trillion less than a year after its passage in Congress. Congressional Democrats and politicians in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region, which houses over 15 percent of the nations federal workforce, denounced the presidents plans. While the US House of Representatives has passed a budget that ignores federal worker pay, the US Senate has announced a budget that includes a minor pay rise of 1.9 percent. With the House and Senate budget proposals in conflict, any resulting raise will have to be negotiated between the two, with the White House now weighing in on the side of the House. President Trumps plan to freeze wages for these patriotic workers next year ignores the fact that they are worse off today financially than they were at the start of the decade, said American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) national president J. David Cox Sr. Cox and other union bureaucrats have endorsed the Senate bills limited raise, even as the AFGE president noted that federal workers have lost over $200 billion in total income since 2011. In past attacks on federal workers, including a three-year pay freeze from 2011 through 2013 under Obama, federal unions have issued similar impotent protests, all the while pushing their vast resources into getting Democrats elected. Trumps continuing declaration of war against government workers comes just days after a federal judge struck down several executive orders issued by the president in late spring that would have severely restricted the rights of federal employees in government unions. On May 25, Trump issued the orders in accordance with his vows during the 2016 election to reduce the federal workforce through attrition and in his 2018 State of the Union address in which he promised to empower every cabinet secretary with the authority to reward good [federal] workersand to remove Federal employees who allegedly fail the American people. Trumps orders sought to fatally weaken employee rights laid out in a 1978 law, the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute (FSLMRS). The FSLMRS gave federal workers the right to unionize; however, the law prevents negotiations over wages and hours, and prevents federal workers from striking. Thus, federal workers, through their unions, are allowed to only bargain over personnel practices. Trumps order sought to significantly curtail the personnel practices that could be subject to bargaining and attempted to undermine, as Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson stated in her opinion, the right of federal workers to have a say with respect to the terms and conditions under which they will be working. Last Saturdays decision overturned the most pernicious parts of the orders, including Trumps grant of sole authority to government managers to determine how long an employee should have to improve alleged deficient performance before being terminated. Trumps order called for a 30-day period for employees to improve performance, while current union contracts generally have timeframes of 60-120 days. Trumps order specifically barred government agencies from bargaining with unions over the length of time available to an employee to demonstrate acceptable performance. In finding that this violated the FSLMRS, the judge stated it effectively silences workers with respect to one of the most important rights relating to performance-based employment actions. In addition, Judge Jackson overturned a provision in the orders that sought to remove from any collectively bargained grievance-arbitration procedure disputes over either performance evaluations or performance-based monetary awards. Jacksons decision also overturned numerous restrictions on the rights of union officers to engage in union matters during paid working hours, a right explicitly afforded in the FSLMRS. Trumps order flatly prohibited the use of such official time by employees in order to prepare employee grievances and required management approval before any official time could be used. The order also restricted the use of official time, in the aggregate, to one hour per union member employed with the government agency. Finally, the decision overturned portions of the orders that sought to significantly restrict the timeframe and procedures for bargaining between government agencies and federal employee unions. The order on collective bargaining provided that agencies could only devote a limited period of time for reaching an agreement (four to six months). If no agreement was reached in this timeframe, the order called for the agencies to cut off further negotiations and to refer unresolved negotiations to mediation and, ultimately, the Federal Service Impasse Panel for resolution. Trumps order also sought to restrict bargaining to the exchange of written proposals, rather than any face-to-face meetings between management and unions. Judge Jackson found both the timeframe restrictions and the requirement that bargaining be done only through the exchange of written proposals to violate the FSLMRSs requirement that federal agencies bargain in good faith. As with the court orders requiring the federal government to unite separated immigrant families, there are strong indications that the Trump administration is ignoring Saturdays order. Judge Jacksons decision prohibited the Presidents subordinates from implementing or giving effect to the orders that she found unlawful. Neither the White House nor the Office of Management and Budget have said they will comply with the Judges decision. Further, according to emails provided by the AFGE to the Washington Post, Social Security Administration officials in Chicago and Dallas still consider Trumps orders binding. The agency is currently evaluating the judges ruling on the executive orders, said a labor and employee relations supervisor in Chicago. We will not make any changes until that evaluation is complete. Mark Hinkle, a Social Security spokesman, said that in consultation with the Department of Justice, we will continue under our current arrangements with our unions. The AFGE also informed the Washington Post that the Department of Veterans Affairs has instructed local managers not to comply with the ruling pending further guidance. Given that the Department of Justice has informed the Social Security Administration to ignore Saturdays ruling, it is highly likely other agencies across the government have been told to continue the enforcement of Trumps now-illegal executive orders. 404 This page could not be found . Fully three weeks after hundreds of retired Spanish army officers signed a manifesto hailing fascist dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco (18921975), the Podemos party finally broke its cowardly silence on the issue. It was only, however, to support the pro-austerity, pro-war Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) government, and downplay the significance of the officers statement. On August 20, the general secretary of the Podemos parliamentary group in the Spanish Congress, Txema Guijarro, declared: It seems absolutely scandalous to us that officials of a body that is not deliberative, but that instead should obey the public authorities, spend their time issuing comments so disconnected from history and that depend on parameters from 80 years ago. It is really disheartening to see that it is so hard for them to turn the page. Against the officers reactionary manifesto, Guijarro defended the minority PSOE governments proposals for a symbolic removal of Francos remains from the official mausoleum in the Valley of the Fallen: Given the historic conditions, its a gesture that, even if it comes a bit late, seems relevant. He said it is hard to preserve high-quality democracy without recognizing the errors and barbaric acts committed in Spain during a long and sinister dictatorship. These complacent remarks testify to the bankruptcy of what passes for left politics in Europe. The issue is not that the Spanish officer corps is obstinately wasting its time by refusing to turn the page on long-dead disputes. Factions of the army and ruling class, feeling desperate and isolated in the face of growing strikes and political conflict today, are legitimizing fascism in the 20th century so as to prepare for war and the recourse to mass repression in the 21st. In this, they have enjoyed the tacit backing of Podemos. There is deep, historically rooted opposition in the working class in Spain and internationally to fascism. However, the cowardice and complacency of Podemos is a warning: the only way for workers and youth to oppose the drive towards repression and war is to build Trotskyist parties, sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), in opposition to the pseudo left. The officers July 31 statement hailed Franco as the chief architect of Spains history and his unique command of Spain during the Spanish Civil War of 19361939. This consisted of leading an illegal fascist coup against an elected government, plunging Spain into a war during which Franco allied with Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, and sealing his victory with mass executions of 200,000 political oppositionists and militant workers. Significantly, the statement hailed Francos drowning of the 1934 strike and uprising of Asturian miners in blood. As Podemos remained silent, hundreds more retired top officers signed this statement. Originally signed by 181 officers, it now has at least 672 signatories including 62 former generalsroughly one third of the total active number of general officers in the Spanish armed forces. Alberto Asarta, former chief of the UN military mission in Lebanon, and Juan Aparicio Hernandez-Lastras, who led the Spanish army until 2016, have both signed. The statement comes from an army that led four military coups in the 20th centuryin 1923, 1932, 1936 and 1981. Significantly, the signatories include Ricardo Pardo Zancada and F. Javier Dusmet Garcia-Figueras, both convicted for joining the abortive military coup of February 23, 1981, launched by fascist officers hostile to the 1978 transition from the Francoite dictatorship to parliamentary rule. The decision of broad sections of the Spanish army with a record of supporting military dictatorship to explicitly hail the crimes of the fascist regime is a warning to workers in Spain and beyond. After a decade of the deepest economic crisis, social austerity and mass unemployment in Europe since the 1930s, class tensions are at the breaking point. Amid strikes in the ports, airlines and retail in Spain, strikes against austerity in France, and protests against the German ruling elites promotion of militarism, the financial aristocracy is turning towards mass repression. Last autumn, the minority Popular Party (PP) government sent paramilitary Guardia Civil to assault voters in the independence referendum called by the Catalan bourgeois nationalistssending nearly 1,000 people to the hospital as Guardia Civil smashed into election halls, stole ballot boxes and beat peaceful voters, even elderly women. Afterwards, Spanish media discussed plans for sending Special Forces and armored infantry against the Catalan capital, Barcelona. Madrid then imposed an unelected government on the region. While carried out under the PP, the repression enjoyed the backing of the PSOE and of Podemos, who endorsed the PP in the Congress and mobilized no protests against it. In the final analysis, the PP itself was in power only on their sufferance, a point Podemos and the PSOE drove home by jointly mustering a parliamentary majority in May to unseat the PP and then install a minority PSOE government. The minority PSOE governmentwhich depends on Podemos support to maintain a parliamentary majority, and is a PSOE-Podemos coalition government in all but namecontinued the PPs austerity budget, including its multi-billion-euro increase in military spending. The only reason that the Spanish army feels free to announce its fascist colors and plot military action against the Spanish population is that mass popular opposition to Francoism is suppressed by the reactionary role of Podemos and its various allies. The Francoite manifesto is not a statement of strength, but of the weakness and desperation of the ruling class. Their intrigues rely primarily on the fact that they have met no tendency organizing serious political opposition based in the working class. Rather, the army brass only face populist-nationalist middle-class groups like Podemos that support imperialist war, have deep ties to military and intelligence agencies and that, above all, are neither willing nor able to mobilize the vast opposition that exists to Francoism and the European Union (EU). In the vacuum on the left created by Podemos and its evident cowardice and bankruptcy, the Francoites feel they face no meaningful opposition. This only emboldens them to intensify their reactionary conspiring. In the periphery of Podemos, the Valencian nationalists of Compromis were the first to indicate differences with the manifesto. However, it was only to ask for information on how much in public subsidies had gone to the pro-Francoite Asociacion de Militares Espanoles (AME-Association of Spanish Soldiers) that issued the manifestoa request that Compromis then buried in the Senate. The PSOE government has launched a classified investigation of the pro-Franco manifesto. This is simply damage control, aiming to lull the population to sleep and prevent the manifesto from harming the interests of Spanish imperialism. The main concern of the current investigation is that the revelation of broad support for fascism in the Spanish officer corps could undermine the shabby lie that wars in which Spain participates are disinterested acts of humanitarian benevolence. The Defense Ministrys statement on the investigation proclaims that it will not allow the slightest shadow of a doubt [as to the] absolute commitment of all the men and women that make up the Spanish Armed Forces with its Constitution and with the values that in it are collected, whose defense they carry out with total dedication, not only in Spain, but in the missions that they develop abroad in the maintenance of peace and freedom. The responses of Compromis, the PSOE, and Podemos simply echo the positions of the military officers associations, which were the first to protest the pro-Francoite manifesto. Asociacion Foro Milicia y Democracia (Militia and Democracy Forum) and Asociacion Unificada de Militares Espanoles (Unified Association of Spanish Military) urged the PSOE government to break its silence and publicly condemn the manifesto to defend the reputation of the army. The day after Guijarros statement, a small group of 17 officers or their widows, including Podemos member and former Air Force General and Chief of the Defence Staff Julio Rodriguez, issued a brief statement attacking the manifesto. Declaring their total rejection without any ambiguity of the statement of Francoite officers and noting Francos role in leading a bloody and genocidal coup against the legal and legitimate Second Spanish Republic, they wrote: We are not the bearers of a superior morality nor of any sacred historic inheritance. We are simply loyal to the national sovereignty of the Spanish people. Retired naval Captain Manuel Pardo de Donlebun said in a personal note in the statement that, The 600 signatures do nothing more than to reveal to the entire Spanish people what has been obvious only to those who lived a military life, and what the public authorities have persisted in ignoring since the dictators death: the fascist mentality survives in military officialdom. Such remarks underscore the essential bankruptcy of the pseudo-left strategy of relying on factional warfare in the state machine and the security forces. Whatever individual dissident elements may emerge, as a body those forces are committed to defending the interests of Spanish imperialism. This includes the factions of the military and spy agencies that are actually inside Podemos itself. The record of Rodriguez, currently the head of Podemos in the Madrid region, underscores the cynicism of Podemos and the statement. Under his leadership, the Spanish army participated in US-led neo-colonial wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Rodriguez also played a major role in the 2011 NATO war on Libya. It resulted in over 30,000 deaths, a country in ruins and an ongoing civil war between the competing Islamist factions that NATO had supported. In his autobiography Mi patria es la gente (My Homeland is the People, 2018), Rodriguez is very clear about the imperialist character of the war in Libya: The reasons, they said, were humanitarian, but behind these good principles lay others not so noble. He recalls a crisis meeting of the cabinet, which he attended, in which the then PSOE Minister of Industry, Miguel Sebastian, stressed Spains dependence on Libyan gas and oil in discussions of war. The various pseudo-left allies and satellites of Podemos, for their part, have kept silent. The partys Pabloite Anticapitalistas faction has not released any statement on its website or even an article covering the affair on its online magazines Poder Popular and Viento Sur. Corriente Revolucionaria de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras (Workers Revolutionary Current), the Spanish section of the Morenoite Trotskyist FractionFourth International (FT-CI), has not published a single article on the generals manifesto in its daily online publication izquierdadiario.es. Revolutionary Left, the Spanish affiliate of the Committee for a Workers International (CWI), which works in Podemos, have issued no statement of their own. They simply republished an article originally posted in the online daily Publico by former Lieutenant Luis Gonzalo Segura. In his article, Segura, like AUME and Militia and Democracy Forum, criticizes fascist officers and calls for modern 21st century armed forces. The inability of these petty-bourgeois groups to make even the most elementary warning about the implications of the generals statement underscores their own bankruptcy, and the fact that they are themselves barely disguised political satellites of Podemos. The Francoite statement and the response of the pseudo-left groups provide their own vindication of fundamental conceptions of the ICFI. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, a wide range of academics and intellectuals proclaimed that the epoch of revolution and counter-revolution, which had opened with the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and the Russian Revolution of 1917, was over. Francis Fukuyama announced the End of History. However, in the eighteenth year of the new century, the historical problems of the old century are erupting anew. The Stalinist dissolution of the USSR did not resolve the historic contradictions of capitalism that erupted into wars and revolution in the 20th century. Not only has history not ended, but the ruling class itself is now proclaiming that it has to return to its blackest chapters to suppress growing popular opposition. It is a renewed vindication that Trotskys struggle to bring a revolutionary perspective to the struggles of the working class during the Spanish Civil War, against the Stalinists and centrists, continued in the 21st century by the ICFIs struggle against the Stalinist and Pabloite forces inside Podemos. The critical question today is the intersection of the radicalization of the working class, expressed in increasing levels of strikes, protests and rising interest in socialism provoked by deteriorating living standards and the extreme concentration of wealth, with a worked-out perspective for opposing the ruling classes drive to police-state rule and world war. This underscores the urgency to build a section of the ICFI in Spain, to link the growth of workers struggles to a socialist, internationalist and anti-imperialist political movement aiming at transferring state power to the working class. Shortly before last weeks official launch of the campaign for Quebecs October 1 election, the pseudo-left Quebec Solidaire (QS) announced that it would be open to propping up a minority government formed by the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ). Currently leading in the opinion polls, the CAQ is a rightwing populist party that advocates draconian social spending cuts, massive tax cuts for big business and the rich, and the deportation of immigrants who fail to pass French-language and Quebec values tests after three years of residence in Quebec. When it comes to serving ordinary people, Quebec Solidaire has always worked in collaboration with any party," QS co-leader and candidate for provincial premier, Manon Masse, said in a La Presse interview. In the case of a hung parliament, Masse explained, QS could support either a minority Parti Quebecois (PQ) or CAQ government, although she added that with the latter party QS has major differences over our vision of the economy. I think, continued Masse, the first collaboration, whether with the Parti Quebecois or the CAQ, will be on reform of the voting system. This is not the first time that QS has publicly voiced its hope to hold the balance of power under a minority government led by the Parti Quebecois (PQ), the Quebec ruling class alternate party of government since the 1970s. That QS is now open to bargaining with, and potentially propping up a government formed by, the right-wing populists of the CAQ illustrates how quickly this pseudo-left party, based on the affluent middle class, is turning to the right as it seeks to convince the ruling elite that it poses no danger to the existing order and should be granted greater influence, even a share of governmental power. QS's bottom-line condition for supporting a minority PQ or CAQ government speaks volumes about its pro-capitalist orientation. QS is not demanding an end to austeritya promise that would in any case be meaningless coming from a party that has ravaged public services like the PQ or from a sworn enemy of the welfare state like the CAQbut a reform of the current first-past-the-post electoral system to include an element of proportional representation. The QS leaders calculate such a reform would increase the partys weight in the National Assembly, paving the way for its further integration into the ruling establishment, including participation in capitalist governments, where it would provide a left cover for the continuing assault on the working class. Electoral reform is part of a whole program of demands Quebec Solidaire advances in the name of expanding democracy. Some of these demands, such as its calls for affirmative-action and the election of a Constituent Assembly to draft the constitution for an independent capitalist Quebec, are deeply inimical to the struggle to unite the working class against Quebec, Canadian and international capitalism. But even when not championing anti-democratic proposals, the QS campaign to expand democracy blithely ignores the manifest shift of the ruling class in Canada and around the world toward the criminalization and suppression of social opposition, and thereby promotes the most dangerous illusions in putrefying bourgeois democracy. Significantly, the call for electoral reform, which is also a hallmark of the Green Party, is viewed favourably by a minority faction of the ruling class that is concerned with the mass alienation from the established parties and electoral politics and is seeking new political mechanisms to trap workers within the capitalist framework. Quebec Solidaires class character, its defence of the current social order and opposition to any genuine working-class challenge to austerity, was exemplified by the role it played in assisting the trade unions in isolating and politically defanging the 2012 Quebec student strike. At its height in May 2012, the student strike brought hundreds of thousands of workers onto the streets and threatened to become the catalyst for a broader working-class movement against the entire ruling-class austerity agenda. Terrified at this prospect, the union bureaucrats declared the strike over and, under the slogan From the street to the ballot box, redoubled their efforts to channel the strike and broader movement against austerity behind the big business PQ. In tandem with the union campaign to derail the strike, the QS in June 2012 proposed the PQ join it in an electoral alliance. Then, just a few days before the September 2012 Quebec election, QS pledged to provide unconditional support to a PQ minority government for at least a year if it held the balance of power. The unions and QS thus blazed the path to power for the Pauline Marois-led PQ government, which, during its 18 months in office, imposed annual hikes in university tuition fees, slashed social assistance, criminalized a province-wide construction strike, imposed austerity budgets and fanned the flames of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant chauvinism through its Charter of Quebec Values. Quebec Solidaires principal role is to resuscitate illusions in the programme of Quebec sovereignty or independence, which articulates the aspirations of a section of Quebec's ruling elite to strengthen the Quebec state so as to make it a more effective tool for advancing its interests against the working class and its rivals in English Canada and internationally. The promotion of Quebec nationalism also serves to ideologically underpin class ruleto divide Quebec workers from their class brothers and sisters in Canada, the United States and overseas. From its founding in 2006, QS has been oriented toward the petty bourgeois Quebec nationalist milieu and the PQ, which it touts collectively as the big sovereignist family. Last year, when QS congress delegates rejected a leadership-endorsed proposal to pursue an electoral alliance with the PQ, the WSWS explained that the divisions within QS were tactical. The lower ranks of the party leadership feared QS would be discredited by publicly joining hands with a party long associated with savage cuts to health care, education and other key public services, and the promotion of Islamophobia. Since then, QS leaders have worked night and day for a political rapprochement with the PQ. Last December, QS merged with Option Nationale (ON), a small party formed on the initiative of former PQ MPs on the basis that the PQ had become too soft in promoting independence. QS seldom says a word about the PQ's decades-long record of imposing austerity or its open promotion of anti-immigrant chauvinism. On the rare occasions it criticizes the PQ, it is for having pushed Quebecs secession from Canada to the backburner. During an interview on Radio-Canada last June, Masse, obviously annoyed by the journalist's insistence on presenting QS as aggressive towards the PQ, said: It's funny that you say that because we never talk about the PQ. Quebec Solidaires recent offer of political support to the CAQ, which is a natural extension of its strident nationalist orientation, is far from an aberration. QS-like forces around the world are increasingly aligning with right-wing nationalists. SYRIZA, the Greek radical left party that QS presents as a model, was elected in 2015 promising to fight the austerity demands of the European Union and IMF. As soon as it took power, it made an alliance with the Independent Greeks, a right-wing party with links to the Greek army. Based on the privileged middle class and rooted in Greek nationalism, SYRIZA quickly reneged on its promises and imposed more drastic social cuts than its predecessors. It has since helped spearhead the EU's brutal attacks on refugees. Another example is the CUP (Popular Unity Candidacy), the so-called left wing within the separatist movement in Catalonia. Two delegates from this party were invited by QS to its December 2017 congress. There they defended the CUP's decision to support a right-wing Catalan nationalist government and to vote in 2017 for its austerity budget. To applause from the QS faithful, the CUP representatives insisted this was the price to pay to obtain a referendum on Catalan independence. Quebec Solidaire works within the PQ-led sovereignist movement, reaches out to the right-wing populists of the CAQ, and models itself after reactionary new left parties that have imposed or supported brutal attacks on the working class. In the run-up to Quebecs October 1election, under conditions where the establishment parties are increasingly discredited and resistance to capitalist austerity is growing among working people, QS is once again offering its services to the ruling class, to dissipate, divert and derail working-class opposition. In an online presentation over the weekend, the director of the Teamsters general packaging division Denis Taylor delivered a full-throated defense of the UPS concessions contract that will boost profits, cut wages and erode working conditions for nearly a quarter of a million UPS workers. The brief 25-minute August 25 event was billed as an online conference call, but no workers were permitted to speak or ask questions in response to Taylors statements. Workers were invited to leave questions after the call and told that the answers would be published later through Teamsters media platforms. The contract has provoked widespread opposition among rank-and-file workers. It maintains poverty-level wages for the vast majority of the workforce, more than 70 percent of whom are part-time and can start out earning as little as $10 per hour in the warehouses. Most of these workers are forced to work second jobs to make ends meet. The agreement also creates a new tier of hybrid driver/warehouse workers, who earn up to $6 per hour less than current drivers, can be forced to work on Sundays, and can be shifted between driving and warehouse work. This will be used to not only destroy higher-paid driving jobs but establish a precedent for extending the conditions of part-time work in the warehouses to the deliveries. Faced with the task of explaining why this amounted to a great victory for workers, Taylor addressed what he called workers hang-ups about the contract. Among these was the misnomer that we are creating a classification of employees that creates a two-tier system of drivers with this company. This was wrong, he said, because we have had a two-tier system at UPS for a very, very long time. The new hybrid position will not be a second tier, in other words, but a third one. Taylor noted that the UPS employs thousands and thousands of 22.3s, a classification of lower-paid full-time warehouse workers created in 1997. For that second tier, compared to the 22.2, full-time inside employees, the difference in rate is approximately $5 per hour, he said. Taylor remarked that when we put the 22.3s in the contract, in 1997, they were not well received by workers, who said this was nothing more than a two-tier system. But now, workers have learned to love the lower-paid work they have no option but to accept, he claimed. The 22.3 positions are very popular, Taylor declared, and I believe that the 22.4 jobs will be as well. In perhaps the only true words stated throughout his entire speech, Taylor told workers to not be surprised at the unions sellout, because it is no different than what we have always done. Indeed, Taylors reference to the 22.3 position is particularly revealing in this regard. The Teamsters agreed to the creation of the role as part of their sellout of a 16-day national strike at UPS in 1997. At that time, the new position was presented as a great victory, which would allow part-time workers to obtain full-time jobs, despite being on lower wages than existing full-time employees. Following the Teamsters shutdown of the strike, UPS proceeded to lay off more than 15,000 workers as part of their restructuring operations. This experience is especially significant because the Teamsters was led, at that time, by Ron Carey, who was backed by the Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), a faction of the union apparatus that presents itself as an opposition to the old guard Teamsters leaders, led by current union president James P. Hoffa. Careys and the TDUs sellout of the 1997 strike is universally presented as a victory by both the TDU and various pseudo-left publications such as Jacobin magazinewhich is affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of Americaand Labor Notes. An entire mythology has been created around this to promote the lie that the Teamsters can be reformed to fight for workers interests. The TDU does not oppose the destruction of workers conditions. It currently controls six out of 24 of the Teamsters executive board, and its aim is to control all the highly-paid leadership positions in the Teamsters. Its call for a no vote in the present contract is aimed at dissipating workers anger and maintaining the stranglehold of the pro-company union over workers. In opposition to the TDU, the Socialist Equality Party and the WSWS UPS Workers Newsletter urges workers to take the conduct of the struggle out of the hands of the union by electing rank-and-file workplace committees. Such committees should formulate their own demands, including the elimination of all tiers, the transformation of all part-time jobs into full-time positions and a 30 percent across-the-board raise. Preparations must be made now for strike action in defiance of the Teamsters. Taylor did not seek to explain why an agreement that supposedly improves workers conditions has been celebrated by UPS management and its financial investors. Wall Street has responded to the unveiling of the tentative agreement on July 10 by sending UPS share prices up by more than 11 percent. While Taylor is the chief negotiator in the current contract, the title is disingenuous, since it implies an adversarial relationship between the company and the union, which, in reality, are conspiring together against UPS workers. Nor did Taylor answer the warnings made by drivers themselves, that the new 22.4 hybrid workers will be overworked and used to reduce the number of hours provided to existing drivers. It was a misnomer to say that this company will work 22.4 drivers to the death over the weekends, take our Monday work and lay us off, he declared. That is a stretch of the imagination. Taylor concluded by warning workers not to trust unnamed groups who were trying to attempt to get you to turn down the contract. It is the intention of this group and these parties to put you out on strike. This is in line with the Teamsters efforts to browbeat and threaten workers seeking to oppose the current contract since its release. The union has dispatched its officers around the country to warn that workers will lose their health benefits if they go on strike, and that any future offer will be worse if workers vote no. It has meanwhile slandered opposition to the deal as the work of Internet trolls. Taylors comments are another demonstration of the fact that the Teamsters is not an organization that represents, or can be forced to represent, workers. Like its counterparts in every country around the world, it functions as an agency of the corporations and the state to cut workers wages and suppress strikes. The defeat of the conspiracy by UPS and the Teamsters requires a break from the union and the formation of independent rank-and-file workplace committees, in every hub and warehouse. In addition to coordinating opposition to the sellout contract, these committees must reach out to other sections of workers, including autoworkers, steelworkers, teachers, Amazon and other logistics workers, to prepare a common struggle. The WSWS UPS Workers Newsletter urges workers who want to take up such a fight to contact us today. The following is a Lydian Armenia press release. During the last 12 years the Amulsar project has been diligently conducting Environmental studies and associated mitigation measures to ensure compliance with both Armenian regulatory requirements and international best practices. Over this period of time the Company invested, in good faith, approximately half a billion dollars and is poised to complete that investment and provide long term benefits to stakeholders including in particular to local communities and Armenia as a whole. Over the last three months, Lydian has been illegally prevented from continuing its construction work, expecting the Government to apply basic rule of law. The failure of the government to follow the rule of law has caused both serious financial and moral losses, which continue and are escalating as a result of the Governments conduct. Since July 6, the Government initiated inspections at Amulsar. The Company has always been transparent and prepared for any inspection. Prior to the inspections, we notified the Government representatives that the Head of the Inspection Body, Artur Grigoryan, an activist, has consistently expressed biased, unsubstantiated negative opinions against the Amulsar project clearly evidencing a serious conflict of interest as Head of the Inspection Body. Taking this into consideration, we believe that he could not lead the Audit in a fair, objective and professional manner. Resolution published by the Inspection Body and following public statements made by Artur Grigoryan are aimed at cancelling the largest foreign investment project without any legal or scientific basis, and with amateurish reasoning. While the inspection group was not able to identify any serious issues that could be a reason for public concern, Artur Grigoryan has issued unreasonable and unlawful conclusions, disregarding any consideration for the seriousness of his mission and consequences of such irresponsible behavior. While we insist that Amulsar has been designed and is being constructed to meet the highest environmental standards, this has not been recognized by the Armenian Government. There are forces that are taking advantage of the Governments inaction who seek to undermine and discredit the Amulsar project to satisfy their own interests. Both genuinely unknowledgeable and paid disruptive activists as well as irresponsible elements in the region are used for this intention. This onerous situation that started more than three months ago has serious consequences harming thousands of Armenians and their families in respect of the Lydian situation directly and strikes an irreparable blow on the investment reputation and the economy of the country. The Company calls Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to take urgent steps towards elimination of the ongoing illegality around the Amulsar Project and stop illegal actions against this international company by government agencies. Top photo courtesy of Lydian Armenia Here's a look at Nepal, a mountainous country on the southern side of the Himalayas of Southern Asia. It shares Mt. Everest, the world's tallest mountain, with China. Many believe the Buddha was born in what is now Nepal. Major earthquakes occur about every 75 years in the region because of tectonic activity, according to GeoHazards International, which reports "earthquakes in Nepal killed more than 11,000 people in the 20th century alone." 2015 Nepal earthquake Accidents, disasters and safety Asia Belief, religion and spirituality Buddhism Business, economy and trade Earthquakes Economic indicators Economy and economic indicators Gross domestic product Himalayas Kathmandu Mount Everest Natural disasters Nepal Ram Baran Yadav Society South Asia India Religious groups Elections and campaigns Government and public administration Politics Government bodies and offices Legislative bodies Political Figures - Intl Fast Facts Resignations Communism Forms of government Continents and regions Mountains (by name) Physical locations Heads of government About Nepal (Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal): (from the CIA World Factbook) Area: 147,181 square kilometers (slightly larger than Arkansas) Population: 29,384,297 (July 2017 est.) Median age: 23.6 years Capital: Kathmandu Ethnic groups: Chhettri 16.6%, Brahman-Hill 12.2%, Magar 7.1%, Tharu 6.6%, Tamang 5.8%, Newar 5%, Kami 4.8%, Muslim 4.4%, Yadav 4%, Rai 2.3%, Gurung 2%, Damai/Dholii 1.8%, Thakuri 1.6%, Limbu 1.5%, Sarki 1.4%, Teli 1.4%, Chamar/Harijan/Ram 1.3%, Koiri/Kushwaha 1.2%, other 19% Religion: Hindu 81.3%, Buddhist 9%, Muslim 4.4%, Kirant 3.1%, Christian 1.4%, other 0.5%, unspecified 0.2% (2011 est.) GDP (purchasing power parity): $71.59 billion (2017 est.) GDP per capita: $2,700 (2017 est.) Unemployment rate: 3% (2017 est.) Other Facts : Nepal is one of the world's least-developed and poorest nations. About one-fourth of its population lives below the poverty line. (CIA Factbook) Nepal is a former monarchy that is now a federal democratic republic with multiple political parties. About three-fourths of its terrain is mountainous. Eight of the world's 10 tallest mountains are along Nepal's border. Mt. Everest's summit is 8,848 meters above sea level, the highest spot on Earth. Kanchenjunga, which straddles Nepal and India, is the third-highest mountain in the world. Nepal's flag is the only one in the world that is neither square nor rectangular. The shape is formed from two connected pennants. Siddhartha Gautama, also known as the Buddha, was born in Lumbini, now part of Nepal, around the sixth century BC. Timeline: Pre-18th century - Nepal is divided into small kingdoms. 1768 - Gorkha ruler Prithvi Narayan Shah becomes ruler of the entire valley, uniting the kingdoms of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhadgaon. The king declares Kathmandu to be the capital in 1769. 1814-1816 - Nepal and the British East India Company war over lands in the Terai, or the lowlands. Nepal signs the Treaty of Sagauli in 1816, ceding about one-third of its territory. 1846 - Jang Bahadur stages a coup and becomes prime minister. He eventually sets up a dictatorship by turning the monarchy into a government figurehead, establishing the hereditary rule of his family. The family, which adopts the honorific title of Rana (monarch), rules for more than 100 years (until 1951), leading to the isolation and economic underdevelopment of the country. 1857 - The Sepoy Rebellion against the British begins in India. Bahadur takes thousands of troops in to support the British, helping to quell the revolt and sealing Britain's support of his rule in Nepal and beginning a tradition of Gurkhas serving in the British Army. January 15, 1934 - An earthquake with a magnitude of 8.1 occurs in Nepal-Bihar, India, killing 10,700 people. 1948 - After India gains its independence from Britain in 1947, Nepal's leaders lose crucial support and are pressured to introduce reforms. The prime minister announces the first constitution of Nepal, which calls for a state legislature with two chambers, an independent high court, and a prime minister with executive power, assisted by a council of at least five ministers, but the constitution is soon suspended amid opposition from conservative Ranas. November 1950 - Revolt begins against the Rana regime as the Nepali Congress Party's Liberation Army engage soldiers in the Terai. February 1951 - The Rana era of rule comes to an end as King Tribhuvan is restored to the throne after the last Rana oligarch, Mohan Shamsher, agrees to hold elections. May 29, 1953 - Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay of Nepal are the first to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. December 14, 1955 - Nepal joins the United Nations. February 18, 1959 - The first national elections are held, and the Nepali Congress Party wins. B.P. Koirala later becomes prime minister. December 1960 - King Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Deva seizes power, suspends the parliament and key parts of the constitution. January 1972 - King Mahendra dies and is succeeded by Birendra. May 1991 - G.P. Koirala, the brother of Nepal's first elected prime minister (in 1959) is appointed to head the government after the Nepali Congress wins a majority (110 of 205 seats) in parliament in general elections. The moderate Communist Party of Nepal ends with a strong position as opposition with 69 seats. 1994 - The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) is founded and party leader Manmohan Adhhikari voted into power after Prime Minister G.P. Koirala resigns and recommends new parliamentary elections to the king. 1995 - Prime Minister Manmohan Adhhikari resigns after being accused of favoring his party members. The communist government is dissolved by Parliament. 1996 - A Maoist insurgency sets off a 10-year civil war, and by 2000, almost two-thirds of the country is affected by the strife. June 1, 2001 - Crown Prince Dipendra goes on an alcohol and drug-fueled shooting rampage during a party at the palace, killing nine people, including his father and mother, the king and queen. Dipendra dies three days later of self-inflicted gunshot wounds. 2006 - A UN-mediated peace accord is signed by the government of Nepal and the Maoists. According to the International Red Cross, some 15,000 people die and 1,300 are declared missing due to the 10-year civil war. May 2008 - The monarchy comes to an end as the new assembly votes in favor of declaring Nepal a democratic republic. July 21, 2008 - The country's first president, Ram Baran Yadav, is elected. August 2008 - Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, commonly known as Prachanda, is elected prime minister and forms a coalition government. May 2009 - Pushpa Kamal Dahal resigns after the president overrules his decision to fire a senior military official. Communist leader Madhav Kumar Nepal is named the new prime minister. June 2010 - Madhav Kumar Nepal resigns as prime minister amidst political pressure. He agrees to act as a caretaker until a new prime minister is elected. February 2011 - Parliament elects Communist Party leader Jhalanath Khanal as the new prime minister. August 2011 - Jhalanath Khanal resigns as prime minister, acknowledging he was unable to form a national consensus government and integrate former Maoist rebels. Baburam Bhattarai, 57, vice-chairman of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) becomes the fourth prime minister since Nepal became a republic in 2008. May 2012 - Baburam Bhattarai resigns as prime minister, but stays on as caretaker. March 2013 - President Ram Baran Yadav Chief Justice Khilraj Regmi is appointed prime minister until a new Constituent Assembly is elected. November 2013 - Constituent Assembly elections are held which lead to Sushil Koirala, a cousin of B.P. Koirala, of the Nepali Congress party becoming prime minister in February 2014. October 2014 - At least 39 people from around the world die after exceptionally heavy snowfall in the mountains, one of the deadliest such tragedies in the history of Nepal. April 25, 2015 - A 7.8-magnitude earthquake strikes, less than 50 miles from Kathmandu. A 6.7-magnitude aftershock on April 26 adds to the damage. The death toll is over 8,000, and the number of people injured is more than 17,000, according to the National Emergency Operations Center. October 28, 2015 - Nepal's parliament elects Bidhya Devi Bhandari, the country's first female president. August 2017 - Sixty-five thousand homes are destroyed and at least 143 people are killed in Nepal due to massive flooding and landslides. US intelligence and military targeting experts have drawn up a preliminary list of Syrian chemical weapons facilities that could be struck if President Donald Trump were to order a new round of airstrikes in the country, multiple US officials tell CNN. A decision to take action has not been made, but one administration official with direct knowledge of the current situation told CNN the military "could respond very quickly" if Syria launched a chemical weapons attack, and the initial targeting data assembled would give the Pentagon a head start if the President decides to take action. 2018 Russian spy poisoning Biological and chemical weapons Bombings Continents and regions Diseases and disorders Eastern Europe England Espionage Europe Government and public administration Government bodies and offices Government departments and authorities Health and medical Idlib Intelligence services International relations and national security Middle East Middle East and North Africa Military Military operations Military weapons National security North America Northern Europe Poisonings Russia Syria Syria conflict The Americas United Kingdom United States Unrest, conflicts and war Weapons and arms Weapons of mass destruction Government organizations - US International relations Political Figures - Intl Sergey Lavrov State departments and diplomatic services US Department of Defense US federal departments and agencies US federal government US officials stress they are worried that an impending Assad regime assault on the rebel stronghold of Idlib could involve the use of chemical weapons if the rebels are able to slow regime advances. The regime has moved armed helicopters closer to Idlib in the last few weeks, according to two defense officials. The US is concerned they could eventually be used to launch another chemical attack using chlorine-filled barrel bombs, though they are readily available for a conventional assault. Officials stress they are also worried that an assault on the city using conventional weapons could leave thousands dead and deepen the humanitarian crisis along the Syria-Turkey border. Diplomatic tensions rising Diplomatic tensions with Russia are also rising over Idlib. On Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Russia's foreign minister on Twitter: "Sergey Lavrov is defending Syrian and Russian assault on Idlib. The Russians and Assad agreed not to permit this. The U.S sees this as an escalation of an already dangerous conflict." On Thursday, Lavrov told Western nations not to "play with fire" over Idlib. "It's well known that the progress of Syrian resolution, humanitarian solutions and fight against terrorism is not to everyone's liking," Lavrov said, adding that the White Helmets, a group of unarmed volunteer rescue workers, were preparing to stage a chemical strike to blame on the Syrian government as a pretext for military action. "Another such provocation is being prepared in order to hinder the anti-terroristic operation in Idlib, and we, having our facts on the table, through our Defense Ministry and Foreign Ministry clearly and firmly warned our Western partners -- don't play with fire," Lavrov said. On Friday, the Pentagon responded, "Russia has recently launched a concentrated disinformation campaign to discredit the United States and international partners and allies... Specifically, Russia has suggested that as a pretext for United States strikes against the Assad regime, humanitarian organizations in Syria were planning a chemical weapon attack. This is absurd," Pentagon spokesperson, Cmdr. Sean Robertson said. "That Russia is seeking to plant false lies about chemical weapons use suggests that Moscow is seeking to deflect from its own culpability when these heinous weapons are used. Russia's efforts to obscure the truth only underscore its years-long role in abetting the murder and mayhem conducted by the Assad regime," Robertson added. Pentagon monitoring Russian activity in Mediterranean The Pentagon is also closely watching Russian military maneuvers in the eastern Mediterranean. The Russian Ministry of Defense says 26 warships and more than 30 combat aircraft will be part of what the Russians say will be large scale exercises the area. A US official with direct knowledge of the latest assessments tells CNN the US believes the Russians may have engaged in the buildup of naval warships to be ready for what they believe might be US strikes in response to the Assad regime using chemical weapons. By having so many ships there, the Russians can attempt to use their shipborne radars to blanket that area and "see" any potential US Tomahawk missiles coming, the official says. One scenario the US is considering is that Russian shipborne radars could then cue Russian S-400 class anti-air systems on the ground in Syria and try to shoot US missiles down. This would give the Russians a better chance of shooting down US missiles than in April 2018 when Russia was unsuccessful after the US, UK and France launched strikes against targets at three sites after an alleged chemical weapons attack on civilians in the Damascus enclave of Douma. The US intelligence community has a very good understanding of what the Russians are trying to do with this seaborne strategy, officials tell CNN. It is also well known that the US military could use jamming and electronic warfare countermeasures against any Russian military efforts. In the April strikes against Syrian chemical targets, US and allied ships and aircraft fired from not only the Mediterranean but the Red Sea and North Arabian Gulf to avoid Russian detection. The State Department has shared concerns about "any kind of escalation" of violence in Idlib with the Russian government, according to State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert. "We have shared the concerns that we have about any potential offensive taking place, we have shared those concerns with the Russian government at many levels," she said Wednesday. As US intelligence continues to look at Russian military strategy and motivations, the official also points out the Russian naval presence contradicts all of Moscow's public statements about the situation. The US views this move by the Russian as evidence they are indeed aware the regime would be the one responsible if chemical weapons are used the official says. The US has said they will hold the Assad regime accountable if chemical weapons are used in an attempt to retake Idlib, according to an NSC official. National security adviser John Bolton also issued a public warning, saying in Israel last week: "Just so that there is no confusion here, if the Syrian regime uses chemical weapons, we will respond very strongly. And they really ought to think about this a long time before they come to any decision because there is no ambiguity in the US position on this point." Update 4:15 p.m. MDOC Commissioner Pelicia Hall is requesting the assistance of two outside agencies to investigate inmate deaths in August. "I have been communicating with the FBI and the Mississippi Department of Public Safety regarding our deaths," Commissioner Hall said today. "While we believe that most of the reported deaths during the month of August are from illnesses or natural causes, such as cancer and heart disease, based on available information, we are seeking assistance from others outside the department in the interest of transparency. My administration is committed to ensuring that all individuals in the department's care receive appropriate medical care." Update 08/31/18 3:44 p.m. The Clarion-Ledger identifies the inmate as Earl Davis, 55. He died at Promise Hospital in Vicksburg. The newspaper reports he had been hospitalized for nearly three weeks. See the original post below. GREENE COUNTY, Miss. (WTVA) - Another inmate has died in Mississippi, bringing the August total to 15 deaths. MississippiToday.org reports a male inmate housed at South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Leakesville died on Thursday, August 30. Greene County Coroner Ladd Pulliam says the unnamed inmate died of natural causes. GRACEVILLE, Fla. (WTXL) - A food service supervisor at a local correctional facility has been arrested, accused of having sex with an inmate and lying about it. Former Graceville Correctional Facility food service employee Madison Carter has been charged with sexual misconduct and perjury. According to an arrest affidavit, the cook supervisor allegedly had sex with an inmate on April 15, around 3 a.m. Witnesses told investigators that Carter and the inmate went into the staff dining restroom to have intercourse. Surveillance video showed the inmate entering the restroom, followed minutes later by Carter. Investigators note that Carter and the inmate were alone in the area for almost 12 minutes before someone knocked on the door and Carter came out of the restroom. One witness said the inmate was mopping inside the staff dining area when Carter came out, however, the witness didn't see the inmate there before knocking on the restroom door. Documents say the inmate later admitted to the act, saying that Carter suggested it. During her interview, Carter denied having sex with the inmate, alleging that the inmate was inside the staff dining room mopping while she used the restroom. She claimed that DNA from the inmate wouldn't be found on her body nor would hers be found on him. The next day, investigators collected DNA from Carter and the inmate. They note Carter's husband voluntarily submitted to a DNA collection as well. The samples were sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for analysis. Documents say the FDLE report indicated Carter had a mixture of DNA from both the inmate and her husband on her. Her DNA was also found underneath the inmate's fingernails. Based on the investigation, Carter was charged with sexual misconduct and perjury on August 15. Following her arrest, Carter was transported to the Jackson County Jail. WAKULLA COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - A registered sex offender has been arrested in Wakulla County after deputies discovered he was using multiple Facebook accounts to look for juveniles to be actors in homemade pornographic videos. The Wakulla County Sheriff's Office says that Dwayne Creery was arrested on two counts of failure to provide internet identifier. WCSO says that Creery came to the sheriff's office on June 8 for his mandated sex offender registration. Creery has been a registered sex offender since October 1996 for lewd and lascivious acts and exhibitionism on a victim under the age of 16. During an interview, Creery was asked if he had any social media accounts he had previously failed to report. He admitted to having a Facebook account with the username, "Dwayne DZ Nutz" but said he didn't use it. Detectives informed Creery he was required to report the Facebook account within 48 hours of its creation but he denied prior knowledge of the restriction regulations. After Creery left, deputies searched his Facebook account. The search revealed that the account was created in 2012, was currently active, and detailed numerous conversations with various people. The topics included drugs, producing homemade pornography, and looking for 16-year-old girls to be actors in the pornographic videos. WCSO says that through the search, they were able to find a second account that Creery had not reported with the username DZ NUTZ DZ NUTZ, which had a picture Creery with an altered image covering his face. On Friday, Creery came back to WCSO to update his vehicle information. According to deputies, he said that he had just purchased a new motor home and had just returned from cross country travels. Deputies say Creery admitted to having a second Facebook account and, when confronted with the records of his messaging on Facebook, he admitted to being the author of the messages. He claimed that he was joking around when he sent the messages and never followed through with the plans. Deputies say Creery stated that 16 is the age of consent in Georgia. Based on the evidence, Creery was arrested. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Republican Congressman Ron DeSantis comments Wednesday morning after the Florida primary election, talking to Fox News about his opponent, Andrew Gillum, prompted some faith leaders in Tallahassee to demand an apology. More than a dozen met at Bethel Missionary Baptist Church Friday morning. Reverend Dr. R.B. Holmes, Junior, said while the Congressman did not call Mayor Gillum a "monkey," the term has been used historically in a "very derogatory context." He said the president's endorsement of DeSantis shouldn't influence the Congressman's rhetoric. Reverend Holmes said the local faith community encourages all candidates to run campaigns that unite, not divide. "Congressman DeSantis has to be responsible for his own words and his own language, because language does matter," said Rev. Holmes. "Because this is a national conversation around the term 'monkey this up,' I pray to God that he will understand that many of the people he is asking to vote for him are offended." Other faith leaders said this is an opportunity to rally supporters of Gillum to go to the polls in November in record numbers. DeSantis responded to the allegations on Sean Hannity's show. Andrew Gillum also responded to the allegations. "He's apparently given up the whistle. They've gone to the bullhorn with these kinds of tactics, but they're not going to work. We tried this one time: Donald Trump. This is a page from his playbook," said Gillum. "Basically tried to divide this country and my state. And I want them to know that Florida voters are smarter than that, that we're going to reject the politics of separation." DeSantis and Gillum will face off in the race for Governor during the November general elections. Early voting for that begins Oct. 27. China and Africa feel close and understand each other, although they are thousands of miles apart. Chinese and African peoples share weal and woe, although their skin colors are different. Over the past 60 years, Chinese and African peoples have joined their hands to go through hardship and developed brotherhood. Xinhua News Agency released a video The Family ahead of the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit in Beijing. (Source: Xinhuanet) Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 03:23:21|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close A statue of ancient Chinese educator and philosopher Confucius is seen in front of the National Technical University of Ukraine in Kiev Aug. 31, 2018. The statue was unveiled on Friday. (Xinhua/Chen Junfeng) KIEV, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- The statue of ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius was unveiled in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, on Friday. Designed by Ukrainian artists Mykola Znoba and Veronika Dirova, the bronze statue was inaugurated in front of the prominent Ukrainian educational establishment -- the National Technical University of Ukraine (NTUU), which is also known as Igor Sikorsky Kiev Polytechnic Institute. The statue was gifted to the NTUU by the Chinese Embassy in Ukraine in acknowledgment of the long-lasting ties between the Ukrainian university and Chinese educational establishments and research centers. Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, Mykhailo Zgurovskyi, president of the NTUU, said the installation of the statue is a landmark event for the university as Confucius is known not only as a prominent philosopher but also as a wise teacher. "This event has a great symbolic meaning," Zgurovskyi told Xinhua. Confucius (551-479 B.C.) founded a school of thought, deeply influential on later generations, known as Confucianism. He was also the first to set up private schools in China that enrolled students from different social classes. Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Du Wei lauded the installation of Confucius statue at the NTUU, which is the alma mater for many students from China. "The National Technical University is a world-famous renowned educational institution. For 120 years of its existence, it educated many professionals, who work around the world. Students from China also study at the university," Du said. The NTUU started to enlist Chinese students in the 1950s. Since then, more than 1,000 Chinese citizens have studied in the university. Currently, the NTUU cooperates with 21 Chinese universities on more than 500 joint projects in space sector, aviation, biomedical engineering and other areas. Mykola Movchan, Ukraine's deputy minister for youth and sports, said that the installation of the Confucius statue in Kiev will not only contribute to the development of the ties between Chinese and Ukrainian universities, but also further the relations between the two countries. "The opening of the Confucius statue is another step in the development of our friendly relations with China. We have a lot of plans for bilateral cooperation," Movchan said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 03:33:24|Editor: yan Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- American researchers have developed a completely passive, solar-powered way of combating ice buildup without energy-intensive heating systems or chemical sprays that are environmentally harmful. The study published on Friday in the journal Science Advances described the simple system based on a three-layered material that can be applied or even sprayed onto the surfaces to be treated. It collects solar radiation, converts it to heat, and spreads that heat around so that the melting is not just confined to the areas exposed directly to the sunlight, according to the study. Once applied, it requires no further action or power source and it can even do its de-icing work at night, using artificial lighting. "Icing is a major problem for aircraft, for wind turbines, powerlines, offshore oil platforms, and many other places," said the paper's co-author Kripa Varanasi, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "The conventional ways of getting around it are de-icing sprays or by heating, but those have issues." The usual de-icing sprays for aircraft and other applications use ethylene glycol, a chemical that is environmentally unfriendly. Plus airlines tend not to use active heating, both for cost and safety reasons. Varanasi and other researchers resorted to the energy given off by the sun. They found that it was not necessary to produce enough heat to melt the bulk of the ice that forms. When the boundary layer, right where the ice meets the surface, melts enough, it can create a thin layer of water, which will make the surface slippery enough so any ice will just slide right off, according to the study. They developed a three-layered system with the top layer an absorber, trapping incoming sunlight and converting it to heat. The material is highly efficient, absorbing 95 percent of the incident sunlight, and losing only 3 percent to re-radiation. In principle, that layer could in itself help to prevent frost formation, but it has two limitations: It would only work in the areas directly in sunlight, and much of the heat would be lost back into the airplane wing or powerline and would not help with the de-icing. The team added a spreader layer, a very thin layer of aluminum, just 400 micrometers thick, which is heated by the absorber layer above it and very efficiently spreads that heat out laterally to cover the entire surface. Finally, the bottom layer is simply foam insulation, to keep any of that heat from being wasted downward and keep it where it's needed, at the surface. The three layers, all made of inexpensive commercially available material, are then bonded together, and can be bonded to the surface that needs to be protected. The system could even find wider commercial uses, such as panels to prevent icing on roofs of homes, schools, and other buildings, according to Varanasi. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 04:38:36|Editor: zh Video Player Close A Palestinian protester uses a slingshot to hurl stones at Israeli troops during clashes on the Gaza-Israel border, east of Gaza City, on Aug. 31, 2018. Around 180 Palestinians were injured on Friday during clashes with Israeli soldiers on the borders between the eastern Gaza Strip and Israel, the Gaza health ministry said. (Xinhua) GAZA, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Around 180 Palestinians were injured on Friday during clashes with Israeli soldiers on the borders between the eastern Gaza Strip and Israel, the Gaza health ministry said. Among the 59 admitted to hospitals, a 20-year-old female paramedic and a 10-year-old boy were in critical condition, Ashraf al-Qedra, the Gaza health ministry spokesman, told reporters. Hundreds of young Palestinians gathered in eastern Gaza close to the borders with Israel, calling for the end of an Israeli blockade imposed on the coastal enclave since 2007, eyewitnesses said. They also released dozens of arson balloons from eastern Gaza into Israel, while cutting and pulling the barbed wires of the border security fence, according to eyewitnesses and local media. In response, Israeli soldiers fired dozens of tear gas canisters and live gunshots at the demonstrators, they said. Medical sources and paramedics said dozens suffered suffocation after inhaling tear gas, and around five were shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers' gunfire. Earlier in the day, Hamas called for people to join the 23rd Friday "Great March of Return" anti-Israel rally through mosques' loudspeakers. Senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya has said the weekly protests would only stop when Israel lifts its siege on Gaza. The anti-Israel rally, which began on March 30, has so far left 171 Palestinians killed and more than 18,000 others wounded, according to a Gaza health ministry statement. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 06:29:00|Editor: yan Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- After a trove of funding cuts, the U.S. State Department said here on Friday that the United States will not provide assistance funding any more for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). According to a statement issued by Heather Nauert, the spokesperson of the State Department, the Trump administration "has carefully reviewed the issue and determined that the United States will not make additional contributions to UNRWA." Saying that "the United States was no longer willing to shoulder the very disproportionate share of the burden of UNRWA's costs," she said that the overall international response to address the problem "has not been sufficient." She also attacked the UNRWA for its alleged "budget gap" and "failure to mobilize adequate and appropriate burden sharing." "The fundamental business model and fiscal practices that have marked UNRWA for years ... is simply unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years," she said. The United States will no longer commit further funding to this "irredeemably flawed" operation, said Nauert. "Palestinians, wherever they live, deserve better than an endlessly crisis-driven service provision model. They deserve to be able to plan for the future." She added that the United States will intensify dialogue with the United Nations, host governments, and international stakeholders about new models and new approaches to reform the agency, which may "include direct bilateral assistance from the United States and other partners, that can provide today's Palestinian children with a more durable and dependable path towards a brighter tomorrow." The U.S. State Department said last week that President Donald Trump has ordered it to "redirect" economic aid to the Palestinians that are worthy of more than 200 million U.S. dollars. The U.S. aid cut came after it threatened to reduce financial support to the Palestinians unless they agree to return to the negotiation table with Israel, which has been stalled for four years. Palestinian officials said the U.S. move comes in line with President Donald Trump's attempt to ignore the final issues of the Palestinian-Israel peace process, removing the issues of Jerusalem and the refugees "off the table," which he also wrote on his Twitter account after he recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital on Dec. 6, 2017. The UNRWA said recently it has succeeded in reducing deficit from 446 million dollars to 217 million dollars, but warned that it would have to cut its services because of the deficit. The UN agency runs over 700 schools serving almost 525,000 children and offers healthcare for some 3.5 million refugees through a network of 150 clinics. In addition, UNRWA's food and cash assistance program offers some 1.7 million dollars to extremely vulnerable refugees. Throughout the region, the agency serves 5.3 million Palestinian refugees. China has formerly urged the international community to help the UNRWA overcome its financial crisis in order to uphold its obligations towards millions of refugees who rely on the UNRWA services, particularly in the Gaza Strip, where the humanitarian crisis deepens. Earlier in August, China signed an agreement with UNRWA to provide 2.35 million dollars support to the Gaza food program for 2018. Members of Abu Amer family of Palestine living in difficult conditions look out from their slum's window, in Nuseirat Refugee Camp, central Gaza Strip, on Jan. 11, 2018. (Xinhua/Wissam Nassar) WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- After a trove of funding cuts, the U.S. State Department said here on Friday that the United States will not provide assistance funding any more for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). According to a statement issued by Heather Nauert, the spokesperson of the State Department, the Trump administration "has carefully reviewed the issue and determined that the United States will not make additional contributions to UNRWA." Saying that "the United States was no longer willing to shoulder the very disproportionate share of the burden of UNRWA's costs," she said that the overall international response to address the problem "has not been sufficient." She also attacked the UNRWA for its alleged "budget gap" and "failure to mobilize adequate and appropriate burden sharing." "The fundamental business model and fiscal practices that have marked UNRWA for years ... is simply unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years," she said. The United States will no longer commit further funding to this "irredeemably flawed" operation, said Nauert. "Palestinians, wherever they live, deserve better than an endlessly crisis-driven service provision model. They deserve to be able to plan for the future." She added that the United States will intensify dialogue with the United Nations, host governments, and international stakeholders about new models and new approaches to reform the agency, which may "include direct bilateral assistance from the United States and other partners, that can provide today's Palestinian children with a more durable and dependable path towards a brighter tomorrow." The U.S. State Department said last week that President Donald Trump has ordered it to "redirect" economic aid to the Palestinians that are worthy of more than 200 million U.S. dollars. The U.S. aid cut came after it threatened to reduce financial support to the Palestinians unless they agree to return to the negotiation table with Israel, which has been stalled for four years. Palestinian officials said the U.S. move comes in line with President Donald Trump's attempt to ignore the final issues of the Palestinian-Israel peace process, removing the issues of Jerusalem and the refugees "off the table," which he also wrote on his Twitter account after he recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital on Dec. 6, 2017. The UNRWA said recently it has succeeded in reducing deficit from 446 million dollars to 217 million dollars, but warned that it would have to cut its services because of the deficit. The UN agency runs over 700 schools serving almost 525,000 children and offers healthcare for some 3.5 million refugees through a network of 150 clinics. In addition, UNRWA's food and cash assistance program offers some 1.7 million dollars to extremely vulnerable refugees. Throughout the region, the agency serves 5.3 million Palestinian refugees. China has formerly urged the international community to help the UNRWA overcome its financial crisis in order to uphold its obligations towards millions of refugees who rely on the UNRWA services, particularly in the Gaza Strip, where the humanitarian crisis deepens. Earlier in August, China signed an agreement with UNRWA to provide 2.35 million dollars support to the Gaza food program for 2018. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 07:04:11|Editor: zh Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations on Friday welcomed the released of 75 children from Tatmadaw, the Myanmar armed forces, and called for the release of all remaining children in the military. Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said Virginia Gamba, the special representative for children in armed conflict of UN chief, welcomed the release and called for freeing of the remaining children. "She called it an important step in the protection of children in the country," Dujarric told reporters here at UN headquarters during a regular briefing. "She is encouraged by the positive step taken by the government following her visit to Myanmar in May." "She strongly advocated for the release of all children as well as access to Rakhine, Shan and Kahn states and adoption of children rights law," the spokesman said. "She calls for the release of all remaining children from Tatmadaw ranks and for continued collaboration with the United Nations." The United Nations says it does not have numbers of children still in Tatmadaw, nor for that matter worldwide, but Gamba told reporters here in June more than 21,000 "grave violations of children's rights" were verified to have occurred in 2017, up from 15,500 the previous year. More than 10,000 children globally were killed last year, she said. In 2017, Gamba said, 849 children had been released from the Myanmar military since 2012. Northern Rakhine State, in Myanmar's northwest, has been racked by attacks from government military and civilian militias, sending more than 700,000 ethnic Muslim Rohingya fleeing into the Cox's Bazar District in neighboring Bangladesh's southernmost region, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said. They joined an excess of 200,000 Rohingya who earlier were routed from Rakhine, the agency said. The refugees reported killing, raping and the torching of villages in response to an Aug. 25, 2017 deadly Rohingya rebel attack on Myanmar security posts. The United Nations has been seeking unrestricted access to Rakhine to assess damage and interview remaining residents. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 07:14:12|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Friday urged governments to take immediate action to safeguard younger generations from the immediate and long-term impacts of so-called "extreme weather events." The devastating floods in southern India, wildfires ravaging the western United States and the record-breaking heatwaves baking countries across much of the northern hemisphere, are putting children in immediate danger while also jeopardizing their future, UNICEF said in a press release. "In any crisis, children are among the most vulnerable, and the extreme weather events we are seeing around the world are no exception," said Ted Chaiban, UNICEF Director of Programs. "Over the past few months, we have seen a stark vision of the world we are creating for future generations. As more extreme weather events increase the number of emergencies and humanitarian crises, it is children who will pay the highest price." These extreme weather events during June and July, causing injury, death, environmental damage and other losses. UNICEF stated that although individual weather events cannot specifically be attributed to climate change, their increasing frequency and severity correspond with predictions of how human activities are affecting the global climate. These conditions have numerous impacts on children. For example, they contribute to the increased spread of "childhood killers" such as malnutrition, malaria and diarrhea, UNICEF said. Heatwaves put children at risk, with infants and younger children more likely to die or suffer from heatstroke, while floods threaten their survival and development through causing injuries or death by drowning, or compromising water supply and damaging sanitation facilities. Meanwhile, poor families are particularly affected by drought, which can lead to crop failure, livestock deaths and loss of income. "As the world experiences a steady rise in climate-driven extreme weather events, it is children's lives and futures that will be the most disrupted," Chaiban noted. "Therefore, it's vital that governments and the international community take concrete steps to safeguard children's future and their rights. The worst impacts of climate change are not inevitable, but the time for action is now." UNICEF has proposed an "agenda for action on climate change." It calls for strengthening health systems to respond to a changing climate and more extreme weather events. Other measures include increasing investment in climate resilient agricultural, water and sanitation services, educating children and young people about the issue of climate change, and reflecting their needs in national strategies and action plans. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 07:19:14|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday announced the appointment of Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert of the Netherlands as his Special Representative for Iraq and head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI). She will succeed Jan Kubis of Slovakia, to whom the secretary-general is grateful for his service. Hennis-Plasschaert brings over 20 years of political and diplomatic experience, having served in several high-level government and parliamentary positions. She was Minister of Defense of the Netherlands (2012-2017), the first woman to be appointed in that role. As minister, she oversaw the Central Staff, Support Command, the Defense Material Organization and the four Royal Netherlands Armed Forces: Army, Navy, Air Force and the Military and Border Police. In this role, she had oversight of Dutch involvement in military operations in Mali, Afghanistan and Iraq, building close collaboration with the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and UN partners. Hennis-Plasschaert also served as a member of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands (2010-2012) and a member of the European Parliament (2004-2010). She worked for the European Commission in Brussels and in Riga, Latvia, and for the City of Amsterdam. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 07:41:22|Editor: zh Video Player Close A worker prepares to deliver bottles of clean drinking water to Basra in Baghdad, Iraq, Aug. 30, 2018. People in Baghdad organized a campaign to deliver bottles of drinking water to residents who suffered from a shortage of clean portable water in Basra city. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood) In this file photo taken on Oct. 8, 2012, a Grizzly bear mother and her cub walk near Pelican Creek in the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, the United States. (AFP Photo) LOS ANGELES, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Environmental groups Friday hailed a federal court's decision to temporary halt grizzly bear hunts in and around Yellowstone National Park in the United States that was set to start this Saturday. A hearing was held Thursday in the federal court in Missoula of the U.S. state of Montana, in which a coalition of local tribal and conservation interests tried to challenge the Trump administration's decision to strip Yellowstone's grizzly bears of endangered species protections. Even though U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen delayed his ruling at that day but he endorsed the groups motion later and warranted a temporary restraining order (TRO) stalling the bear hunting season for 14 days. In a 5-paper order, Christensen said he needs time to decide whether the federal government should reinstate federal protections for the bears since "the court finds that the plaintiffs' arguments raise serious questions going to the merits." In the order, he also wrote that the impending hunt would cause irreparable harm to grizzly bears "because once a member of an endangered species has been injured, the task of preserving that species becomes all the more difficult." Tim Preso, Earthjustice attorney who showed up in the hearing, hailed the order as a big victory for conservationists. "As we explained to the judge today, the removal of protections for Yellowstone's iconic grizzlies was illegal. The bears should not be killed in a hunting season made possible by an illegal government decision," he said in a statement issued by Earthjustice Friday. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made a decision last June to strip Yellowstone's grizzly bears of endangered species protections. This move led to the Wyoming state drew a plan for trophy hunting of grizzlies, authorizing a hunt beginning Saturday for 22 grizzly bears in the area surrounding Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. State of Idaho also has authorized a hunt for a single grizzly bear starting on Sept. 1. A dozen bear hunt licenses have been issued by the states out of thousands of applications. It would be Wyoming's first hunt since 1974 and Idaho's first since 1946. Since then, wildlife advocates then filed a lawsuit against the decision, arguing that grizzly bears are nowhere near recovery as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service evaluated and continue to need the strong protections of the Endangered Species Act. Tens of thousands of grizzly bears once lived in North America, but hunters killed most of them in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The population of grizzlies living in Yellowstone dipped to just 136 before it was classified as a threatened species in 1975. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initially declared a successful recovery for the Yellowstone population in 2007 and tried to lift the hunt ban, but a federal judge ordered protections to remain in place. The government's own estimate of the Yellowstone grizzly population was 695 in 2016. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 09:04:25|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close ISLAMABAD, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's Finance Minister Asad Umer said on Friday that the government will address all 27 deficiencies pointed out by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in the country's anti-money laundering system earlier this year. Addressing to the Senate, the upper house of the country's parliament, the minister said that the National Executive Committee (NEC) headed by himself will review the action plan so as to handle the deficiencies related to currency smuggling and alleged terror financing by proscribed organizations in Pakistan. On June 30 this year, the FATF formally put Pakistan in a grey list and identified it as a country with "strategic deficiencies" in its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regime, notifying the steps the country must take to address the shortcomings. Pakistan made a commitment to the action plan, which it would implement over the next 13 months. Failure to negotiate the action plan could lead Pakistan to the blacklist, the FATF statement said in June. The deficiencies identified in Pakistani anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing regime include inadequate monitoring and regulatory mechanisms, low conviction rate on unlawful transactions, poor implementation of United Nations Security Council resolutions and cross-border illicit movement of currency by terrorist groups. The FATF said it would "closely monitor" Pakistan's efforts to implement its action plan to accomplish the above objectives through legal, regulatory and operational reforms. Umer told the Senate that a FATF delegation visited Pakistan earlier in August to review the steps taken by Pakistan. "The government is taking steps to overcome the deficiencies identified by the FATF," said the minister, adding that Pakistan had reservations about the procedure used for putting Pakistan on the grey list and that there is no chance of any kind of immediate sanctions on Pakistan. Photo taken on May 25, 2018 shows the Multan-Shujaabad section of the 392-km Multan-Sukkur Motorway in Multan, the largest transportation infrastructure project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Multan in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal) ISLAMABAD, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said on Friday that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is an expression of Pakistan's geo-social relationship with China. Reaffirming the government's commitment to CPEC at a press briefing, the minister said, "This (relationship) is not geo-strategic, it is socioeconomic and geo-economic, and we want to complete it (CPEC), and further expand it." Chaudhry said that under CPEC, there are 22 billion U.S. dollars worth of energy projects in Pakistan and 6 billion on installing infrastructure in the country. "Projects worth 42 billion U.S. dollars have yet to start under the project, so it is vital that our close economic relations with China continue." Prime Minister Imran Khan also spoke highly of Pakistan-China relations ever since he won the general elections on July 26. Khan said that the new government would further develop friendly exchanges and cooperation with China. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 09:34:31|Editor: ZX Video Player Close KUANTAN, Malaysia, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- As Malaysians marked the 61st National day on Friday, many working at the Alliance Steel company here were joined by their colleagues from China to celebrate. A grand performance was held at the Alliance Steel Friday evening, attracting some 1,000 Malaysian and Chinese employees. The event also provided opportunities for the local staff to show the workplace to their families. It was the first time that the 24-year-old Muhamad Fariduddin Bin Afandi to bring his wife into the compound of Alliance Steel since he started working here three months ago. Fariduddin's wife was impressed by the modern factory and she was satisfied with his work here. "The work is not so difficult, and the pay is good," she said. With an investment volume of 5.6 billion ringgit (1.4 billion U.S. dollar) and an annual output of 3.5 million ton of steel products, the Alliance Steel was the first project materialized under the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park, which itself is a government-to-government cooperation project between Malaysia and China. Alliance Steel has so far employed some 2,500 Malaysian staff, said Steve Hu, deputy general manager of the company, adding that the company would not succeed without the support of the Malaysian government and the participation of Malaysian people. "We hope this kind of event could build up the sense of family among our Chinese and Malaysian staff and our company could better be integrated in Malaysia as part of our vision of In Malaysia, For Malaysia," he said. "We hope the Alliance Steel could serve as a bridge for close cooperation between Malaysia and China," he said. In this file photo taken on April 27, 2018, South Korean President Moon Jae-in (2nd L) meets with top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un (2nd R) at the Peace House, a building on the South Korean side of Panmunjom. (Xinhua/Inter-Korean Summit Press Corps) SEOUL, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in will send his special delegation to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Sept. 5, Moon's office said Friday. The presidential Blue House said in a press release that Moon decided to send a special presidential delegation to the DPRK's capital city of Pyongyang on Wednesday. The South Korean side sent a message by wire to the DPRK earlier in the day, proposing to dispatch special envoys of Moon. The DPRK side responded in the afternoon, saying it would accept the delegation, the Blue House said. Moon's special envoys will have extensive discussions with their DPRK counterparts, covering a concrete schedule for the upcoming inter-Korean summit between Moon and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un. Moon and Kim agreed to hold their third summit meeting in Pyongyang before the end of September. The current leaders of the two Koreas met in April and May each. The South Korean special envoys will also discuss with DPRK officials the development of inter-Korean relations and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula as well as the settlement of peace on the peninsula, according to the Blue House. Following their April summit in the border village of Panmunjom, Moon and Kim signed the Panmunjom Declaration in which they agreed to completely denuclearize the peninsula, stop all hostile acts and increase exchange between the two Koreas. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 10:24:39|Editor: zh Video Player Close MANILA, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Six villagers were killed when unidentified gunmen abducted a Filipino business couple in a southern Philippine town, police said on Saturday. Police officer Edwin de Ocampo of the Zamboanga del Norte provincial police said the gunmen broke into the house of the couple in a coastal village of Sirawai town in Zamboanga del Norte province and forcibly took the victims around 5 p.m. local time on Friday. De Ocampo said a neighbor of the victims, a member of the military's militia force, tried to rescue the victims but was killed in a brief shootout with the kidnappers. Five more villagers were also gunned down by the kidnappers as they escaped, De Ocampo added. He said a child was also wounded in the crossfire. De Ocampo said that a pursuit operation has been launched to rescue the couple. Police said it was the second abduction incident in Sirawai town this year. Early this year, a family of six were also abducted in the town. The victims were later recovered in the remote Sulu province, police said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 11:34:49|Editor: zh Video Player Close PHNOM PENH, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Conservationist groups on Saturday called for joint efforts to conserve vultures in Cambodia as the rare birds are currently on the edge of extinction due to poisoning, food shortages and habitat loss, according to a joint press release. The groups including the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Angkor Center for Conservation of Biodiversity (ACCB), the BirdLife International and Cambodia Vulture Working Group made the calls as the International Vulture Awareness Day was marked. They said the conservation of vultures could help reduce the spread of disease because they eat only the flesh of other dead animals and also generate income for local communities through ecotourism. "Unfortunately, Cambodia's vultures are facing an increasingly high risk of extinction, as continuous monitoring surveys have shown a 50 percent decline in number since 2003," the release said. "It is of great concern that only 121 of these majestic birds were recorded in this year's national census, the lowest number on record since 2003," it said. "Recent assessments indicate that poisoning is the major threat to vulture populations in Cambodia." With global populations declining at an alarming rate, Cambodia's three vulture species, namely Red-headed (Sarcogyps calvus), Slender-billed (Gyps tenuirostris), and White-rumped (Gyps bengalensis), are all listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as critically endangered. "Northern Cambodia is the only place in Southeast Asia where vultures can still be found in large numbers, tourists come to see them at our vulture restaurant at Dong Phlet in Chhep Wildlife Sanctuary," said Simon Mahood, WCS's senior technical advisor. But during the past five years, at least 30 vultures had been killed in Cambodia due to widespread indiscriminate use of deadly poisons and pesticides across the country, which was severely impacting the vulture populations and also threatening human lives too. Besides poisoning, Cambodia's vultures suffer from habitat loss and food shortages caused by low numbers of wild ungulates -- a major food source for vultures -- and domestic cattle, the release said, adding that the increased levels of forest loss also negatively impact the birds through loss of nesting sites and reduction in natural prey availability. "The low number recorded this year and the 50 percent decline since 2003 in Cambodia's vulture population are an alarming trend and we have to increase more efforts to address the root causes to this decline; otherwise, this important and rare bird species will be disappeared from the only place in Southeast Asia where we can still see them," said Seng Teak, WWF's country director. Even more concerning news for Cambodian vulture conservation this year is that the veterinary drug diclofenac is now available in Cambodia, the release said, adding that in India, this drug is responsible for a decline of more than 90 percent of the country's vulture populations. "If a cow or a buffalo had been treated with diclofenac shortly before its death and vultures then feed on the carcass, they will die as diclofenac is highly toxic to vultures, even in very small amounts," said Julia Stenkat, ACCB's veterinarian. Bou Vorsak, Cambodia program manager of BirdLife International, said to save the birds from extinction, all kinds of conservation support and participation from local communities at vulture target sites, decision makers, and Cambodian people are needed. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 12:39:56|Editor: zh Video Player Close TEHRAN, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) killed four members of a "terrorist" group in clashes in the country's southeastern border with Pakistan, Press TV reported on Friday. The clashes with the "terrorists" occurred near the Iranian city of Saravan in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, the IRGC said in a statement. The "terrorist team" sought to enter the country from the border area with Pakistan aiming to carry out "destructive and anti-security measures," it said. Three of the militants were also wounded in the clashes, it added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 12:44:58|Editor: zh Video Player Close MEXICO CITY, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Mexico on Friday described U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of his intent to sign a newly renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico as a "step forward," but hoped Canada could be included in. "I hope that Canada joins, that it (NAFTA) is a tripartite agreement as it was when it began, and that it isn't a bilateral agreement," Mexican president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told a press conference. "In the case of Mexico, progress has already been made, but there is no reason to exclude Canada. We hope that the Canadian and U.S. governments understand that," said the president-elect, who will take office on Dec. 1. Also on Monday, outgoing Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto insisted during a phone call with Trump that Canada should also be included in a final deal. Trump announced on Monday that the United States has reached a trade agreement with Mexico that would pave the way for overhauling the NAFTA. U.S. President Donald Trump has notified Congress of his intent to sign the trade agreement with Mexico, with Canada welcome to join the deal "if it is willing," the White House said. The United States and Canada ended their first round of bilateral negotiations without reaching an agreement on Friday and will restart talks on Sept. 5. In a brief statement on Monday, Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo and Foreign Affairs Minister Luis Videgaray, said that they will continue following U.S.-Canada negotiations. "Mexico will participate in negotiations on trilateral issues while continuing to push for an agreement including Canada," said the ministers. Talks on renegotiating the NAFTA began in August 2017 as Trump threatened to withdraw from the trilateral trade deal, which he claimed harmed U.S. industries and jobs. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 12:44:59|Editor: ZX Video Player Close RAMALLAH/GAZA, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian authority has condemned the decision of the United States to stop funding the United Nations' Palestinian refugee agency. "We totally reject and condemn this American decision of stopping its funding to UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East)," said Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), in a statement late Friday. The U.S. decision aims to close UNRWA which was founded on UN resolutions, Erekat said. The U.S. State Department said earlier Friday that "the United States is ending all funding for the UN's Palestinian refugee agency." It described UNRWA as "irredeemably flawed." The U.S. administration has "carefully reviewed" the issue and "will not make additional contributions to UNRWA," spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. Ahmad Abu Houli, a PLO member in charge of the refugee issues, said in a statement that "the UN members and the hosting states of UNRWA should immediately work on finding alternative donors." He said "the aim of the United States to end aid to UNRWA clearly shows that the United States has plans to end the agency and liquidate the Palestinian cause as well as practice pressure and political blackmail on the Palestinian people and their leadership." Meanwhile, Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, also condemned the United States for ending aid to UNRWA. UNRWA provides services to about five million registered Palestine refugees in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, including education, health care, relief, social services, infrastructure, and camp improvement. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 13:05:02|Editor: zh Video Player Close BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Lesotho, Motsoahae Thomas Thabane, is paying an official visit to China on Sept. 1-7, during which he will attend the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) to be held on Sept. 3-4. The visit to China is the first of its kind by him in the capacity of Lesotho's prime minister. Thabane, 79, was Lesotho's prime minister from June 2012 to February 2015, and has held the same office since June 2017. In October 2006, he became the founder and leader of the All Basotho Convention (ABC) party after leaving the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) party. During his political career, Thabane had served as the prime minister's advisor, minister of foreign affairs, minister of home affairs and public safety, and minister of communications, science and technology, among others. Thabane holds a bachelor's degree in literature from the University of South Africa. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 13:25:07|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close CANBERRA, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Australia's free trade agreement (FTA) with Indonesia will provide a boost for struggling farmers, according to the nation's Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Simon Birmingham concluded trade negotiations with Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Jakarta on Friday, bringing eight years of negotiations to an end. Under the deal, which will be signed by leaders of both countries in November, 99 percent of Australian goods exported to Indonesia will not be subjected to tariffs. It comes at a time when Australian farmers are under intense pressure from the nation's worst drought in 50 years. "A renewed economic partnership with Indonesia is particularly a major boost for Australian farmers with the grains, live cattle, dairy and horticulture sectors to benefit from greater certainty of access and lower tariffs," Morrison and Birmingham said in a joint statement on Saturday. "As a result, Australian farmers will be able to export 500,000 tonnes of feed grains such as wheat into Indonesia tariff free. This is a significant boost for the Australian wheat industry, building on our substantial milling wheat exports." Indonesia was only Australia's 13th largest two-way trade partner in 2017 despite the two nations being close neighbours. Speaking in the wake of the announcement on Friday, Morrison said the relationship between the two countries was "underdone". "It is a massive win-win. I mean, this is a skills transfer and sharing. This is building up capabilities within economies," he said. "That is the part of the relationship where we need to do some more heavy lifting, the economic relationship." Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 13:50:11|Editor: zh Video Player Close By Jamila Najmuddin COLOMBO, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Inclusive infrastructure and social projects in Sri Lanka will help boost the island country's economic growth, while active participation in regional cooperation and integration (RCI) will enhance connectivity, trade and investment with other countries in the region and beyond, Wencai Zhang, vice president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), told Xinhua in a recent interview. At the conclusion of a three-day visit to Sri Lanka, Zhang said he was glad to see ADB-funded projects in the island country in general had been well prepared and implemented and would bring tangible benefits to the local population. In the village of Handapanagala, Zhang spoke to residents who had benefited from an energy project. He also visited a technical college in Southern Province, which offers vocational training courses, and the site of a proposed Integrated Water Productivity Improvement Project. When asked to comment about projects assisted by China and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Sri Lanka, Zhang said "In Sri Lanka, BRI has been supporting the country to build major infrastructures, such as highways, ports, airports, and urban development. Inclusive design and quality implementation are key to extend the project benefits to the community and the people. Sri Lanka may take advantage of BRI and other RCI mechanisms such as South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) to unleash its economic potentials". The ADB vice president also noted that China's investments in Sri Lanka's social sector such as health, agriculture, irrigation, and education are increasing. "The development of infrastructure together with social sector projects would jointly improve the livelihood of local people and boost employment and eliminate poverty." Zhang added. Noting that Sri Lanka faces a number of development challenges including the recent low economic growth compared to other countries in the region and the demand for more structural reforms, Zhang said the ADB is committed to supporting Sri Lanka's continued development drive, with innovative and integration solutions, in line with ADB's new long-term corporate blueprint, Strategy 2030. Zhang also said in the future the ADB is willing to co-finance with any organization or government who aimed to carry out development projects in Sri Lanka, including China. As of July 31, ADB's active project portfolio in Sri Lanka stood at 35 projects with a net loan amount of 3.9 billion U.S. dollars. Zhang said ADB expects to sign a total of 1 billion U.S. dollar in financing for nine projects in 2018. Over the next three years, commitments will total 3 billion U.S. dollars addressing ports, railways, roads, secondary and higher education, electricity transmission and distribution, fisheries, irrigation, wastewater management, drinking water, sanitation, and support for small and medium enterprises. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 14:00:13|Editor: zh Video Player Close RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- The Brazilian government on Friday condemned terrorist attacks in Iraq that had left more than a dozen people killed. "The Brazilian government condemns the terrorist attacks committed in Iraq on Wednesday, in the city of al-Qaim in Anbar province, near the Syrian border, and on Thursday, near Kirkuk," the statement said. The two attacks have left more than a dozen people killed and at least 15 injured. In the statement, the Brazilian government reaffirmed its support to the Iraqi government in fighting terrorism. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 14:05:16|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres (Xinhua file photo) UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday regretted the United States' decision to end aid to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Describing UNRWA as an important agency that provides essential services to Palestine refugees and contributes to stability in the region, the UN chief said that UNRWA "enjoys his full confidence," according to a statement issued by Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for Guterres. "The U.S. has traditionally been the largest single contributor to UNRWA. We appreciate its support over the years," the secretary-general said. "(UNRWA) Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl has led a rapid, innovative and tireless effort to overcome the unexpected financial crisis UNRWA has faced this year," said the UN chief, adding that "it has expanded the donor base, raised considerable new funding, and explored new avenues of support. In addition, UNRWA took extraordinary internal management measures to increase efficiencies and reduce costs." "UNRWA has a strong record of providing high-quality education, health and other essential services, often in extremely difficult circumstances, to Palestine refugees who are in great need," Guterres noted. The secretary-general called on other countries to help fill the remaining financial gap, so that UNRWA can continue to provide this vital assistance, as well as a sense of hope, for this vulnerable population. The U.S. State Department announced Friday that Washington will not provide assistance funding any more for UNRWA. UNRWA runs over 700 schools serving almost 525,000 children and offers healthcare for some 3.5 million refugees through a network of 150 clinics. In addition, UNRWA's food and cash assistance program offers some 1.7 million dollars to extremely vulnerable refugees. Throughout the region, the agency serves 5.3 million Palestinian refugees. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 14:10:18|Editor: zh Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. State Department said Friday that James Jeffrey, the newly-appointed special representative for Syria engagement, will travel to Israel, Jordan, and Turkey on Sept. 1-4. Jeffrey looks forward to meeting with key allies and partners on his first official trip abroad as special representative, the State Department said in a statement. In Israel, Jeffrey will meet with senior government officials to discuss the shared interest regarding Syria, the maintenance of Israel's security, the statement read. In Jordan and Turkey, Jeffrey will meet with leaders and other senior officials. Jeffrey, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, was appointed by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier this month. His current job was a new position Pompeo created to work on the Geneva peace process to resolve the Syrian issue. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 14:25:20|Editor: zh Video Player Close SEOUL, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's export topped 50 billion U.S. dollars for four straight months to August, a government report showed Saturday. Export, which accounts for about half of the export-driven economy, gained 8.7 percent from a year earlier to 51.2 billion dollars in August, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. It was the biggest-ever August figure, surpassing 50 billion dollars for four months in a row. Import increased 9.2 percent to 44.3 billion dollars, sending the August trade surplus to 6.9 billion dollars. The trade balance stayed in black for 79 months. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 14:30:21|Editor: zh Video Player Close NEW DELHI, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- At least 28 students were injured after their school bus overturned in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, police said Saturday. The accident occurred at Bhadarej village in the state's Dausa district. "The bus carrying some 30 school children turned turtle after its driver lost control of the speeding vehicle while negotiating a turn," a police official said. All the 28 injured have been rushed to a nearby hospital by local residents, he added. A probe has been ordered into the incident, the official said. "The bus driver has been booked for rash and negligent driving. He will soon be arrested," he added. India has the highest number of road fatalities in the world. Road accidents occur mostly due to poor driving or badly maintained roads and vehicles. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 14:45:25|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Seychelles President Danny Faure at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 1, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling) BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday met with Seychelles President Danny Faure ahead of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. With profound traditional friendship, China and Seychelles have always treated each other sincerely, friendly and equally, and always been committed to unity, cooperation and joint development, Xi said. China supports Seychelles in independently taking a development path suitable to its own national conditions, and is willing to keep close exchanges with Seychelles, enhance political mutual trust, and engage in cooperation in the fields of people's livelihood, infrastructure, tourism and maritime economy, Xi said. China is aware of the multiple challenges Seychelles is faced with as a small island nation and is ready to increase South-South cooperation with the country on tackling climate change, Xi said. China welcomes Seychelles' active participation in the Belt and Road construction by giving full play to its favorable geographic location, Xi said. For his part, Faure said, with traditional friendship, relations between his country and China have been increasingly consolidated. Seychelles sees China as an important partner, and thanks China for the long-term precious help, Faure said. Seychelles is ready to enhance communication with China on governance, take the joint building of the Belt and Road as an opportunity to conduct more bilateral cooperation, support each other in international affairs, and lift bilateral ties to a new height, Faure said. The two leaders witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 14:50:26|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng (R) meets with Seychelles President Danny Faure in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 1, 2018. (Xinhua/Yan Yan) BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng on Saturday met with Seychelles President Danny Faure ahead of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Han called upon the two countries to enhance political mutual trust, and promote more progress of cooperation in all areas. He also welcomed Seychelles' active participation in building the Belt and Road so as to inject new driving force into bilateral ties. Noting that Seychelles has received strong support from China since the establishment of diplomatic relations, Faure said Seychelles pays close attention to relations with China and is willing to enhance cooperation with China on Belt and Road development, especially infrastructure building. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 14:50:27|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Beninese President Patrice Talon at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 1, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing) BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Beninese President Patrice Talon on Saturday ahead of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Stressing that the 21st century is the century of Asia and Africa, Xi said Africa has huge potential of development and that the African lion is set to make a roaring comeback and gallop forward in the new era. China and Africa are good brothers, good friends and good partners, Xi said. "We will not forget the profound friendship and precious support of the African people for the Chinese people," the president said. Having made progress in its own development, China will work more firmly with African countries to support and help each other, seek common development, and build a closer community of shared future, he said. Xi noted that China is willing to exchange the experience of governance and improve people-to-people ties with Benin, and to jointly develop the Belt and Road to make it a new bond between the two countries with ancient civilizations. Talon said African countries including Benin are working hard through reforms to increase the capability of governance, seek long-term development and change their fates. Noting that the Chinese people, led by President Xi, are advancing toward the goal of national rejuvenation, Talon said China's experience of success is worth learning and that China's support and help is of great value. Benin is willing to strengthen exchanges with China, he said, expressing confidence that, with cooperation with China, his country and Africa will realize faster development. After the meeting, the two leaders witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 15:00:28|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close by Ronald Ssekandi LUWEERO, Uganda, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- At a middle school called Everest College in Luweero town of the Luweero district in central Uganda, Smith Mugisha said that he already has learned the Chinese language for nearly one year. Customs in the Chinese culture must be followed in Chinese language learning, just like chopsticks have to be used when eating food, Mugisha said in a recent interview with Xinhua. Mugisha is among the 500 students at this middle school who have enrolled to learn the Chinese language. Culture is key in learning the language, echoed Vanessa Kawiwambe, another student at the school. She said Ugandans need to position themselves to reap the benefits from the increasing trade and economic ties with China. Kawiwambe hopes to become a lawyer in the future and one day she will be able to provide legal services to those Chinese companies setting foot in Uganda. At home, Kawiwambe also teaches her mother basic Chinese. She hopes that they both will be fluent in speaking Chinese some day. Angela Nyiriek, Kawiwambe's schoolmate, told Xinhua that she desired to be an engineer in the future. She said she hoped to be able to work for Chinese construction companies when she returned to her home country South Sudan in the future. Namisi Moses Apollo is their Chinese language teacher. He takes them through the intonations, while they repeat after him to perfect their skills. Apollo is the only Chinese language teacher at the school and there are lots of lessons scheduled for him. Acknowledging the challenges in teaching the Chinese, like lack of learning aid materials, and a specific classroom block for the Chinese language students, he perseveres in his efforts to widen the future prospects for the students. "Understanding the Chinese culture is going to help our people know how to deal with the Chinese people," he said. Apollo himself studied Chinese when he got a scholarship to pursue his bachelor's degree in international trade in China. He spent about one year at Nanjing Normal University for the Chinese language preparatory classes before proceeding to Liaoning University in Shenyang for his degree. In 2013, Apollo went to Dalian University of Foreign Languages where he obtained his Master's degree in Chinese language teaching. He dreams of chasing his doctorate degree in Beijing. Apollo is among the few Ugandans qualified to teach the Chinese language in the country, although the Ugandan government hopes that there will be more Chinese language teachers in the country as it is deepening its economic and trade ties with China. China remains one of the main sources of foreign direct investment in Uganda. In the last five years, Uganda government figures show that Chinese investment grew to 3 billion U.S. dollars with a potential of creating 45,000 jobs, and bilateral trade value in 2017 hit over 800 million dollars. SCALE UP Currently, over 100 secondary school language teachers in Uganda are taking Chinese language classes, and 35 of them are likely to acquire the skills for teaching the Chinese language. The teachers will be the basic staff as the government prepares to introduce the Chinese language learning into school curriculum. Yet, some private schools like Everest College, Luyanzi College and British School of Kampala are already teaching Chinese on their own. Teaching the Chinese language at Everest College is a pilot project of the Confucius Institute of Makerere University, Uganda's top university. The institute has 80 university students studying Chinese as one of their subjects for a bachelor's degree and over 2,000 people taking short-term courses in Chinese. The institute management said they planned to increase the number of Chinese language teachers to cater for the rising demand for the Chinese language learning. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 15:05:30|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Wang Huning (C), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, attends the closing ceremony of the 10th National Congress of Returned Overseas Chinese and Their Relatives in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 1, 2018. Wang met with overseas guests, representatives from Hong Kong and Macao, as well as new and old leadership members of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (AFROC) before the closing ceremony. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin) BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The 10th National Congress of Returned Overseas Chinese and their Relatives concluded in Beijing on Saturday. Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, attended the closing ceremony of the congress. Wang also met with overseas guests, representatives from Hong Kong and Macao, as well as new and old leadership members of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (AFROC). The list of chairman, vice chairpersons, secretary-general and standing committee members of the 10th committee of the AFROC were announced. The congress called on all returned overseas Chinese, their relatives and Chinese people living overseas to bring honor, make contributions, and enlarge the circle of friends for China in the new era, with plenty of guts, drive, and ambition as well as resolve. The Ninth National Congress of Returned Overseas Chinese and their Relatives was held in December 2013. The first congress was held in October 1956 in Beijing. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 15:15:34|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close SEOUL, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's exports hit a new record high in the January-August period as solid demand for locally-made chips and oil products raised a monthly export above 50 billion U.S. dollars for the fourth straight month, a government report showed Saturday. Exports, which account for about half of the export-driven economy, reached 399.8 billion dollars for the first eight months of this year, up 6.6 percent from the same period of last year, according to data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. It was the biggest reading ever recorded in the eight-month period. If this trend continues for the next four months, the country's 2018 exports could exceed 600 billion dollars for the first time. In August, export amounted to 51.2 billion dollars, up 8.7 percent from a year earlier. It was the largest August figure, topping 50 billion dollars for four straight months. Import increased 9.2 percent over the year to 44.3 billion dollars in August, sending the trade surplus to 6.9 billion dollars. The trade balance stayed in the black for 79 months through last month. The country's brisk export stemmed from manufacturing recoveries in major economies, especially in China and the United States, the expensive crude oil and higher prices for key export items. Oil product export surged 46.3 percent in August from a year earlier, surpassing 3 billion dollars for 10 months in a row on the back of higher crude oil price. Semiconductor shipment jumped 31.5 percent to 11.5 billion dollars in August, marking the biggest monthly figure. The chip export exceeded 10 billion dollars for the fourth consecutive month. Petrochemical shipment touched a fresh monthly high of 4.35 billion dollars, while general machinery export topped 4 billion dollars for six months through August. Automobile export inched up 0.5 percent, ending the six-month downward trend due to the launch of new models in the U.S. market by local carmakers. Exports for steel products and computers posted a double-digit growth, while those for display panels, textiles and auto parts managed to grow last month. Shipment of telecommunications devices, such as smartphones, declined 15.5 percent as local companies increased production in overseas factories. Exports for home appliances and ships reduced by a double digit. By region, export to China, South Korea's biggest trading partner, expanded for 22 straight months on demand for locally-made semiconductors, petrochemicals, general machinery, oil products and steel products. Shipment to the United States rose for four straight months on demand for South Korean chips, general machinery, oil products and vehicles that offset soft demand for smartphones and electronic products. Exports to Japan and Southeast Asian countries logged a double-digit expansion, but those to the European Union (EU), the Middle East and India declined last month. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 15:30:36|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close SAN SALVADOR, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Newly-established diplomatic ties between El Salvador and China serve to consolidate the existing relationship in trade and other areas, said Salvadoran Foreign Affairs Minister Carlos Castaneda. Their recent decision to formalize ties also reflects El Salvador's policy of opening up to the world "without bias" as it looks to drum up more business and cooperation, said Castaneda in an interview with Chinese media outlets at the ministry's headquarters in San Salvador. As part of the agreement, El Salvador joined 177 other countries in adopting a United Nations resolution that upholds one-China policy. Diplomatic ties entail stronger trade exchange and increased growth potential for El Salvador's small and medium-size enterprises, but also other sectors, such as education and tourism, said Castaneda. A Salvadoran delegation is set to travel to China over the coming days to flesh out bilateral projects in trade and investment, culture and tourism, education, science and technology, for the benefit of Salvadoran society at large, he said. One of the delegation's priorities will be to promote public works projects as part of China's Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to drive global growth by promoting the infrastructure, connectivity, financial mechanisms and public policies needed to spur trade, especially between the world's emerging and developing regions. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 15:35:38|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- The United States and Canada failed to meet a Friday deadline imposed by the Trump administration to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as major differences remain in bilateral talks. "Our officials are continuing to work toward agreement," U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer said Friday in a statement, adding the USTR team will resume trade talks with its Canadian counterparts next Wednesday. The White House has pressured Canada to accept the preliminary agreement it struck with Mexico on Monday to update the 24-year-old trilateral trade deal. But Canada insisted that it would only sign a new agreement that is good for the country. "Canada will only sign a deal that's a good deal for Canada, we are very, very clear about that," Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters in Washington after wrapping up talks with U.S. officials on Friday. One of the major sticking points in the talks is Canada's dairy market, according to media reports. Canada wants to keep its dairy system, known as supply management, while the United States complained that these agricultural policies will limit sales of U.S. dairy products to the Canadian market. The White House had set Friday as the deadline to complete the NAFTA negotiations because it wanted to notify Congress in time for Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto to sign the new deal before his successor takes office on Dec. 1. The Trump administration must notify Congress 90 days before signing a trade agreement, according to U.S. trade laws. U.S. officials have indicated that they are prepared to go ahead and sign a NAFTA deal only with Mexico if they are unable to reach a deal quickly with Canada. But the U.S. business community and many lawmakers have insisted that the NAFTA deal should remain a trilateral pact. "Anything other than a trilateral agreement won't win congressional approval and would lose business support," President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Thomas Donohue said Friday in a statement. "We appreciate the hard work of the negotiators from all three countries, and urge them to stay at the table and remain focused on concluding a deal that includes the U.S., Mexico, and Canada," he said. It is still unclear whether the United States and Canada will work out their differences in the next few weeks. Trump has threatened to slap additional tariffs on imported autos from Canada if the two sides are unable to reach a new trade deal. "If a deal doesn't happen, we'll put tariffs on the cars coming in from Canada, and that'll be even better," Trump said on Thursday. Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, believed it was premature for the president to announce his intention to sign a trade agreement "when so many difficult issues remain unresolved." "It sure looks like the president is more concerned with announcing a deal during election season, rather than getting the best deal possible for American workers, based on his rush to make an announcement before negotiations are close to complete," he said in a statement. Talks on renegotiating the NAFTA began in August 2017 as Trump threatened to withdraw from the trilateral trade deal, which he claimed harmed U.S. industries and jobs. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 15:40:39|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Guinean President Alpha Conde at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 1, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling) BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday met with Guinean President Alpha Conde ahead of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). Noting that Guinea was the first sub-Saharan African country to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, Xi said the comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership between the two countries developed rapidly in recent years. China cherishes the traditional friendship between the two countries and is willing to work with Guinea in the Belt and Road construction in a bid to deepen such friendship and turn it into fruitful cooperation, Xi said. The Chinese president also called on the two countries to maintain close communication and coordination on issues such as safeguarding multilateral trade system and peace and security in Africa, so as to protect the common interests of the two countries and all developing countries as well. Conde said next year will mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of Guinea-China diplomatic ties. Guinea values its participation in the Belt and Road construction and hopes that the initiative could boost connectivity in energy and telecommunication, and contribute to the industrialization process of Africa. African countries speak highly of important concepts China put forward in international relations as well as its leading role, Conde added. The Guinean president also said he believed that the upcoming Beijing summit of FOCAC will be a big success and will elevate the Africa-China comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership to a new level. After the meeting, the two presidents witnessed the signing of documents on bilateral cooperation. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 15:45:41|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close QALAT, Afghanistan, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Two Taliban senior commanders namely Mullah Asad and Mullah Sangari were killed as fighting aircraft targeted the militants' hideout outside Qalat city, the capital of the southern Zabul province on Friday, provincial police chief Mohammad Mustafa Mayar said Saturday. According to the official, the aircraft of the U.S.-led coalition forces conducted the sorties against Taliban hideouts in Amki area, a suburban of provincial capital Qalat city on Friday afternoon, killing both the commanders on the spot and injuring few others. Mayar, however, didn't provide more details. Taliban militants haven't commented. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 16:00:43|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close LIBREVILLE, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Gabon regards China highly for its efforts to strengthen cooperation with Africa, and wishes to accelerate and strengthen cooperation with China, Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba has said. The president will take part in the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on Sept. 3-4. Speaking of the FOCAC Johannesburg summit in 2015, Bongo said in a recent interview with Xinhua that the South African summit was held at a time of sluggish global economy. "Despite the crisis, Chinese leaders have shown interest in investing in Africa," he said, adding that it was very important for Africa's economic development. "China has set a good example that we want others to follow," he said. In response to Gabon's tightening macroeconomic situation caused by the drop in the price of oil, the country made an economic recovery plan in 2016, and put foreign direct investment at the heart of the revitalization of the Gabonese economy, Bongo said. "The development of Sino-Gabonese relations and the level of investment of Chinese companies in Gabon, which has steadily increased over the years, testify to our desire to strengthen Chinese investment in our country," he said. The president said the economic crisis has not become an obstacle to strengthening cooperation between the two countries. "China has not stopped supporting Gabon in its development, even during its most difficult times," he said, expressing gratitude to the Chinese leaders and investors for their confidence in his country. "We are seeing significant growth of trade between our two countries," Bongo said, adding that China remains Gabon's number one trading partner. Initially, Chinese investors were involved primarily in the core sectors of lumbering and mining, and bilateral cooperation was focused on trade, the president said. "Since then, our cooperation with China has been extended to the sectors of defense and culture," he said. China has offered many scholarships to Gabonese students and also advanced training courses for public officials, he said. At the upcoming Beijing summit, Gabon will work to attract more Chinese investment in the core fields of agriculture, mining, lumbering, tourism as well as the high and new technology industries, he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 16:10:47|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Mahfouz Taha(1st L), Egypt's Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) vice chairman, attends the China Harbour Engineering Company's start ceremony of the 100-day construction competition in Sokhna Port of Suez Governorate, Egypt, Aug. 28, 2018. The Chinese investment in Egypt's SCZone has been a success story of the productive China-Egypt economic partnership, Mahfouz Taha, SCZone vice chairman, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview. (Xinhua/Meng Tao) by Mahmoud Fouly AIN SOKHNA, Egypt, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese investment in Egypt's Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) has been a success story of the productive China-Egypt economic partnership, Mahfouz Taha, SCZone vice chairman, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview. Taha hailed the investment attracted by Chinese industrial developer TEDA to the economic zone, including China's fiberglass giant manufacturer Jushi, which has helped Egypt become one of the largest fiberglass producers and exporters in the world. "We consider a developer like TEDA and a tenant like Jushi our partners in development. TEDA is the largest industrial developer in the SCZone, which is another success story," the Egyptian official said. Located in TEDA's industrial zone in the Ain Sokhna district of Suez province east of the capital Cairo, Jushi Egypt has recently celebrated the completion of a 200,000-ton fiberglass production base in its factory. Jushi is currently the largest Chinese manufacturing project in Egypt with an investment of more than 600 million U.S. dollars. It has an annual production of more than 220 million dollars and an annual export of about 200 million dollars. Taha said that Jushi has not only provided more than 2,000 job opportunities for Egyptians, but also paid the Egyptian treasury more than 300 million Egyptian pounds (about 16.8 million dollars) in taxes and over 600 million Egyptian pounds in customs over the past four years. "Our relationship with the Chinese group of investors here in Egypt is based on partnership and we regularly meet together and resolve any problems facing them. Jushi's achievement is one of the results of this cooperation," Taha said. TEDA is currently developing a total area of 7.23 square km in the Suez Canal economic region. "TEDA completed the first phase of development of about 1.25 square km in two years, and it is currently working on the second phase that targets the development of 6 square km," Taha explained. He added that the rise in Chinese investment in Egypt has turned the strategies and policies of the China-Egypt partnership into a reality. "We wholeheartedly welcome Chinese investments in Egypt and they have the full support of the Egyptian leadership and government," he added. In recent years, the Sino-Egyptian ties have been elevated to the level of comprehensive strategic partnership, thanks to the strong support from the leaderships in both countries. Accompanied by a high-profile delegation of ministers and officials, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi is scheduled to visit Beijing to attend the summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) slated for Sept. 3-4. Taha revealed that four contracts on new Chinese investment in the Egyptian economic zone are expected to be signed during Sisi's visit in Beijing. "One of them is about the establishment of a factory for China's textile giant Shandong Ruyi Technology Group with huge investments and thousands of job opportunities," Taha pointed out. He noted that the other contracts are about another textile factory, a factory for gypsum board production and a factory for producing modern construction materials. The SCZone senior official also commended the work of China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) that has recently started the main phase of the construction of a new terminal basin for Emirati corporation DP World, the main investor and container operator in Sokhna Port in south of the Suez Canal. Taha said that Egypt offers many incentives to attract foreign investors, including a new investment law, an investment-friendly environment, security, cheap utilities and skilled workers. "Egypt is the best choice for the Chinese investments in Africa, the Middle East and the Arab world," he said. He stressed that his country eyes further cooperation with China in the economic zone in the light of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) . Proposed in 2013, the initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. It aims at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient Silk Road trade routes. "We are stretching our hands to our Chinese friends and we are encouraging all aspects of the BRI," said the Egyptian official, stressing that Egypt can be a main hub for the initiative rather than a transit point. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 17:21:00|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close DAMASCUS, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- A car bomb went off near a position of the rebels in Syria's northern city of Azaz near Turkish border on Saturday, leaving an unknown number of people killed and wounded, activists said. The car exploded near a local council of the rebels in the city center of Azaz, located in the northern countryside of Aleppo province. The local councils are pro-opposition civil institutions set up in rebel-held areas in Aleppo and Idlib. The party behind the explosion has not been identified yet amid a state of lawlessness and infighting in rebel-held areas in northern Syria. On July 19, 2012, rebels opposed to the Syrian government succeeded in capturing Azaz, which is a highly valued area due to its proximity to the Turkish-Syrian border as it's a logistical supply for the rebels. The Islamic State (IS) took control of Azaz in October 2013 but withdrew from the city in February 2014 and the Turkey-backed rebels assumed control over it. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 17:26:01|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close DUBAI, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) payment solutions provider Network International has partnered with China's Alipay to provide mobile payment service to Chinese shoppers, the firm announced on Saturday. Operating in the Middle East and Africa region, Network International said its support of Alipay, a third-party online payment solution provider, will strengthen UAE merchants' offering to the growing number of Chinese shoppers in the UAE. The service will be available since October. Network International, with its new N-Genius platform that can facilitate multiple payment methods on one device, will act as both settlement partner and solution provider for mobile-based transactions via Alipay at points of sale and for online purchases. Established in 1994, Network International serves more than 70,000 merchants and 200 financial institutions across 55 countries. Paul Clarke, Network International Product and Innovation group head, said Alipay, headquartered in Shanghai, is one of the world's largest online and mobile payment platforms. Alipay was founded by Alibaba Group chairman Jack Ma in 2004. Its parent company is the world's most valuable fintech firm Ant Financial, an affiliate company of Hangzhou-based Alibaba Group. The UAE, with approximately 10 million inhabitants, has a community of about 200,000 Chinese expatriates. In addition, 453,000 Chinese tourists visited Dubai in the first six months of 2018, representing a 9 percent increase year on year, according to the government-controlled Dubai Tourism authority. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 17:46:04|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close KHARTOUM, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations - African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) spokesperson on Wednesday praised the efforts of the Chinese peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region in a interview with Xinhua. Ashraf Eissa, the spokesperson, laud the Chinese Peacekeeping Engineering Unit and its role in establishing the most recent base of the mission at Golo area in Sudan's Central Darfur State. "In March 2018, the Chinese engineering unit assumed the task of establishing UNAMID's temporary operating base in Golo, an area with volcanic rocks," said Eissa. He said the area is dangerous in Darfur, with hostilities between the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM)/ Abdul-Wahid Mohamed Nur faction and the Sudanese army. "Despite these challenges, the Chinese engineering unit has managed to complete the construction of the base, with high efficiency in less than two months," Eissa said. He said the unit has paved the road linking the base to Golo town in Central Darfur, established the base's fence and 11 watchtowers, and installed all water and electricity networks together with a total of 4.85 km of communication wires. He explained that the base, established by the Chinese engineering unit, is composed of residential buildings, offices and other facilities, including an underground shelter. Eissa further reiterated that the Chinese engineering unit, in establishing the Golo base, has applied the international standards observed in international peacekeeping missions, saying "what has been done at Golo base reflects the efficiency and capability of the Chinese engineering unit together with its great role and important services provided to UNAMID." He added that "since UNAMID establishment in early 2008, the Chinese engineering unit has been providing important and vital services, whereas it contributed to the establishment of the mission's infrastructures, particularly construction of camps, protective fences and watchtowers." In the meantime, the UNAMID spokesperson commended the Chinese Peacekeeping Helicopter Unit, which joined the mission in 2017 and is hailed as "the backbone of UNAMID operations." The team, which serves 29 field sites of the mission, has implemented 778 flight hours and transported 4,995 peacekeepers and more than 20,000 tons of goods and various materials, said Eissa. The Chinese helicopter unit comprises of 140 military personnel and four Mi-171 helicopters, and carries out tasks such as air patrol, transport of peacekeeping forces, evacuation of rescued personnel and air supplies. In early 2008, the UNAMID was deployed in Darfur, a region which has been witnessing military clashes between the Sudanese army and the rebels since 2003, which according to UN statistics has left 300,000 dead and displaced around 2.5 million others. The UNAMID is considered as the second biggest peacekeeping mission in the world, after the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. China has been actively involved in the UN peacekeeping operations for over 25 years. There are now 2,622 Chinese peacekeepers putting their lives at risk in restive regions around the world, according to a UN report published in July 2016. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 18:21:12|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- China is always ready to engage in serious, substantive and pragmatic negotiations and consultations to address the economic and trade issues on the basis of mutual respect and a balanced approach to resolve the concerns of both sides, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai has said. "This has to be a process of goodwill for goodwill and good faith for good faith," Cui said on Thursday while addressing a working lunch at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. Meanwhile, he warned that people "should give up the illusion that China will ever give in to intimidation, coercion or groundless accusation." Cui accused some people "who are in high places or are advising the government and leaders on economic and strategic issues" of lacking common sense. "They believe that they could disrupt the global supply chain in defiance of all the economic imperatives without any damage to their own economy. They believe that they might keep monopoly of innovation forever and prevent others from making innovations and benefiting from technological progress," the ambassador said. "They believe that they could point finger at others and escape the heavy responsibility of addressing the increasing economic and social divides at home. They believe that they could make themselves great by making everyone else their enemies," he added. Cui called on people in the think tanks of China and the United States to show the way forward and draw up the roadmaps for the two countries to build a new type of relations between major countries. The ambassador said that he is still confident that Beijing and Washington would be able to overcome their difficulties and build a strong and steady relationship, "as long as we have a clear understanding of today's world, as long as we have a clear vision of our common future." Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 18:26:13|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close RAMALLAH, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- A Egyptian security delegation arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah Saturday in an effort to facilitate internal Palestinian reconciliation, a Fatah official said. Member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party Central Committee, Hussein Al-Shaikh, said the delegation is "composed of the Egyptian intelligence apparatus to brief President Abbas on the latest consultations, and to continue deliberations on the issue of internal Palestinian reconciliation." He added that Fatah party is "ready to implement any steps to be agreed upon to end the division and overcome obstacles in its path." Last Wednesday, Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi held talk over a telephone call, where Abbas stressed the importance of Egypt's role overlooking the national reconciliation, according to official Palestinian news agency. More than one agreement on national reconciliation was reached under Saudi, Qatari and Egyptian sponsorship, but none of them reached a tangible breakthrough to end the division that began since the Hamas seizure of power in the coastal enclave in 2007. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 19:09:13|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close African student Kabey Heritier Lweny practises singing a Chinese song before a volunteer performance for residents of a local community in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, Aug. 29, 2018. Kabey, who comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, came to Guangdong University of Technology as a Chinese language major about a year ago. The rich Chinese cuisine and culture have always appealed to him, but it's by taking part in various volunteer activities that has made him embrace the life in Guangzhou ever more closely. "I grew to learn more about the Chinese traditions and lifestyles as I joined Chinese volunteers in their community services," said Kabey. To him, volunteering offers a more direct way to feel what China is like, while the university only teaches vocabulary and grammar. In Guangzhou's Dengfeng community alone, over 30 foreign expats have registered as volunteers in the past three years. According to Kabey, volunteer activities can serve as effective platforms to help young Africans who are keen to know China better. (Xinhua/Deng Hua) Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 19:26:21|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BERLIN, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Eight people were injured in a fire that followed an explosion in an oil refinery near southern German city Ingolstadt, local media reported. The explosion took place early Saturday morning. Approximately 3,000 to 4,000 residents have been evacuated as a precautionary measure due to black smoke, reported local media "Bayerischer Rundfunk" . Local media, Focus online quoted the police as saying eight employees of the Bayernoil company were injured and three of them were hospitalized, some with serious injuries. The cause of the detonation is still unclear. There are still several burning places on the site, the flames are not under control, the Focus Online reported. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 19:56:26|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close BERLIN, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- German scientists discovered that a herbal ingredient from traditional Chinese medicine showed promising results in weight loss, and the findings were published in the latest edition of the journal "Diabetes". Scientists at the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen (Helmholtz Center Munich) were able to show that the herbal active substance, Celastrol, used in Chinese medicine, leads to a significant weight loss and to an improvement of diabetes in obese mice. Researchers were able to show that celastrol specifically activates satiety centers in the brain, which play a central role in the control of body weight. Katrin Pfuhlmann, lead author of the study, described the effect as follows in a statement posted on the center's official website: "Normally, those affected lose their satiety because the corresponding hormone leptin no longer works. The drug celastrol we investigated restores leptin sensitivity and hence satiety. " The researchers observed a significantly altered eating behavior in overweight animals. "The administration of celastrol resulted in significantly reduced food intake in the mouse model," reported Paul Pfluger, leader of the study. "Accordingly, we were able to determine an average loss of about ten percent body weight within a week." To what extent the findings can also be confirmed in humans is still unclear, according to the authors. However, study leader Pfluger is confident, "The satiety hormone leptin in humans and the mouse is almost identical, so celastrol has great potential." Clinical trials are currently under way in the US, Pfluger said they are expecting the first data from there. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 19:56:26|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close A business owner (1st R) sells small commodities to an African dealer at Yiwu International Trade City in Yiwu, east China's Zhejiang Province, Jan. 5, 2017. (Xinhua/Tan Jin) by Xinhua writers Liu Baiyun, Wang Pan and Jin Zheng GUANGZHOU/NAIROBI, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Walking on Baohanzhi Street in Guangzhou, capital city of south China's Guangdong Province, Felly Mwamba greeted a patrolling security guard in Chinese, spoke French as he introduced local businesses to a fellow countryman, and was randomly stopped by an acquaintance for a quick chat. Mwamba, a businessman from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is known as a "civil diplomat" of the Africans living in the Dengfeng community, where over 800 African residents live among more than 1200 registered foreigners. But the flow of people is two way, and a growing number of Chinese are calling Africa home. Alongside rapidly developing bilateral ties, China-Africa people-to-people exchanges are booming. HOMEGROWN NEIGHBORHOODS Baohanzhi Street, where Mwamba lives, is nicknamed "African Street." After living in Guangzhou for 15 years, Mwamba has earned himself a reputation for building bridges between Chinese and Africans in the city and beyond. Guangzhou is home to the densest population of Africans in the country and is China's main port for entry and exit. In 2017, roughly 320,000 Africans entered or left China through Guangzhou, according to local customs. "I'm lucky to be here at the best time of China-Africa trade," Mwamba said in fluent Chinese. "I often tell my friends that no matter where my business extends to, China will always be my base." Every day tons of made-in-China products, such as clothes, household appliances, mobile phones and motorcycles, are shipped to Africa. Meanwhile, African products such as crops, sea food and coffee are exported to China. "The Xiaobei business district where Baohanzhi Street is located fully reflects the pragmatic, win-win and inclusive features of China-Africa economic and trade cooperation," said Liu Jisen, executive vice president of the Institute for African Studies at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. "Many African people regard Guangzhou, especially Xiaobei, as the starting point of their dreams," Liu said. As similar African communities in other Chinese cities such as Yiwu in Zhejiang Province are likewise embracing opportunities, a growing number of Chinese neighborhoods are emerging in Africa. For many Chinese living in Nairobi, a typical Saturday morning in the Kenya-China Supermarket is spent eating steamed rice rolls and chatting in a traditional tea house. Chinese businesses are ubiquitous, including restaurants, a farmers' market, hair salon, hardware store, clinic and souvenir shop. Today, there are at least four Chinese "business districts" in the country. When Song Ai, founder of Chinya Tea Development Co., LTD in Kenya, first arrived here, common Chinese snacks and premium tea from China were scarce. Not anymore. Song attributed the drastic change over the past decade to the closer relationship between China and Africa. "I think with the Belt and Road Initiative, more and more Chinese people like me will get the chance to pursue their dreams in Africa," she said. BRIDGING THE GAP In Kenya's Maasai Mara National Reserve, a Chinese man dubbed "Simba" has many titles, such as "friend of Mara" and "hero of wildlife conservation." Simba, whose real name is Zhuo Qiang, is the first Chinese to work full-time on wildlife conservation in Africa, and the first Chinese to register a non-profit organization on the continent. Years of hard work in jointly building a wildlife theme park with local Masais have paid off. For the past five years, the size of Kiniyei Conservancy, where he now works, has doubled, and the number of poaching cases have dropped. The number of lions roaming the park has increased from 12 to 30, and the numbers of cheetahs, spotted hyenas, zebras, wildebeests, giraffes and antelope have all doubled. Zhuo, who hails from the southwestern city of Chongqing, said his dream is to introduce this model of wildlife conservation to other African countries and bring his valuable experience back to China. Over the years, hundreds of young Chinese volunteers have set foot on the African continent. Their hard work, be it in education, health care or agriculture, is widely recognized and appreciated by local residents. "With more and more well-educated young people going to Africa, non-governmental exchanges between China and Africa run deeper," said Huo Jiangtao, an assistant at the Institute for African Studies at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. Likewise, more and more African volunteers have been actively involved in social work in China. Michel Tshimbombo Musampa is one of them. The 20-year-old is from the Republic of the Congo and lives with his family in the Dengfeng community of Guangzhou. Besides doing his part in running a family business, Musampa volunteers to lend a hand to newcomers from his motherland and visits local seniors who live alone. Musampa said that he wants to serve the community because he was helped by the community and wants to return the favor. In Dengfeng, more than 30 foreigners have become registered volunteers. "Foreign volunteers have played an important part in bridging our service to foreign residents," said Wang Haige, who offers services to foreigners at the Comprehensive Service Center for Dengfeng Community. According to the Exit and Entry of Guangzhou, among the nearly 7,500 African students who live in the city, a quarter take part in cultural and voluntary activities. "China-Africa cultural exchange is on the rise, especially among young people," said Liu Hongwu, director of the Institute of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University. "And this will provide a solid foundation for the further development of bilateral relations." SHARED FUTURE Mouhamadou Moustapha Dieng, a Senegalese businessman who has been living in Guangzhou for 16 years, plans to set up a packaging factory in Senegal. Dieng's idea is to set up a processing factory in Senegal by importing a production line from China. The reason is simple: to ensure that the seafood and agricultural products that cannot be exported now due to a lack of processing capability reach the Chinese market in time. Research by the Guangdong government has found that smaller retail businesses dominated Guangzhou's markets involving African buyers 10 years ago. Today, the percentage has dropped to 15 percent, while more than 60 percent of procurement by African businesspersons is done in bulk purchases. "That is to say, China-Africa trade is becoming more standardized," said Liu Jisen from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. According to Chinese customs statistics, the volume of trade between China and Africa reached nearly 100 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of the year, an increase of 17.3 percent. Dieng said he is very interested in measures proposed by the Chinese government to bolster China-Africa economic and trade cooperation. He hopes the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing will bring the two partners closer together. Dieng added that he plans to send his 17-year-old son, who is learning Chinese in a Confucius Institute in Senegal, to study at a Chinese university. Like Dieng, Zhu Layi, the founding president of the Africa-Guangdong Business Association, also has high expectation for the upcoming summit. These days, Zhu is involved in the construction of the Ogun-Guangdong Free Trade Zone, a park located in Ogun State of Nigeria in West Africa, and Kenya's Pearl River Special Economic Zone in East Africa. He also plans to set up an African business school. "In the future, more ordinary people will be involved in and benefit from China-Africa cooperation," said Liu Jisen. "The Chinese dream and the African dream will be more deeply integrated." (Video editors: Luo Hui and Geng Linlin) Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 20:21:30|Editor: ZX Video Player Close Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) meets with Burkina Faso's President Roch Marc Christian Kabore who is on a state visit to China and will attend the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 1, 2018. (Xinhua/Shen Hong) BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Saturday met with Burkina Faso's President Roch Marc Christian Kabore ahead of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. China will promote bilateral cooperation with a focus on agriculture, medical care and health, human resources, and energy that touch upon development and people's livelihoods, said Li, encouraging competitive Chinese enterprises to invest in Burkina Faso. Kabore called upon the two countries to enhance cooperation in various fields including personnel training, health, agriculture and energy and achieve mutual benefits. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 20:36:35|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close WARSAW, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- "We are obliged to make an appeal once more: no more war", Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki wrote in a letter read on Saturday in Wielun, central Poland, where the events commemorating 79th anniversary of World War II outbreak were held. "We must send a message that we will continue to make an effort to build peace, again and again. In a place sanctified by the blood of the innocent, we are obliged to make an appeal once more: no more war", Morawiecki wrote. During the ceremony in Wielun, also the memorial roll-call was read. In the presence of state and local government authorities, an honorary salvo was made and flowers were laid at the monument to commemorate the victims. At the same day, ceremonies were also held at Westerplatte, northern Poland, at the site of the first clash between Polish and German forces in September 1939. The observances commenced at 4:45 a.m.local time with the presence of the prime minister, Speakers of lower and upper house of the Polish Parliament and government representatives. In his speech, Morawiecki called on Westerplatte to become a place of concord. At the end of ceremony, delegations of authorities as well as war veterans laid flowers and lit candles at Monument to the Defenders of the Coast. Wielun and Westerplatte peninsula were two first sites under attack. Wielun was a city bombarded by the Nazi Germany on Sept. 1, 1939, with almost 1,200 civilian victims. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 20:36:35|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Taliban militants stand hand cuffed after being captured by Afghan security force members in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, Sept. 1, 2018. Afghan forces in cleanup operations against Taliban outfit in the eastern Ghazni province have captured six militants on Saturday, provincial police chief Farid Ahmad Mashal said. (Xinhua/Sayed Mominzadah) GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Afghan forces in cleanup operations against Taliban outfit in the eastern Ghazni province have captured six militants on Saturday, provincial police chief Farid Ahmad Mashal said. The security forces, according to the police officer, launched the mop-up Saturday morning outside provincial capital Ghazni city and so far have arrested six armed insurgents. Taliban militants, in a surprise move on Aug. 13, overrun Ghazni's provincial capital Ghazni city and ruled it for four days during which a number of people including civilians had been killed and several government and private buildings were destroyed or burned to ashes. Ghazni police chief said the cleanup operations would last until the militants are wiped out of the area to ensure lasting peace there. Taliban militants are yet to make comment on the situation. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 20:51:37|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close RAMALLAH, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian government slammed on Saturday the U.S. decision to cut financial aid to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeinah said Abbas is considering going to the UN General Assembly and Security Council "to challenge the U.S. decision," reported official Palestinian news agency (WAFA). Meanwhile, the government spokesperson Yousef al-Mahmoud said in a press statement that the U.S. decision "is rejected and condemned." He said the decision is a grave flaw and fault by President Donald Trump's administration "in service of the Israeli occupation and animosity towards the Palestinian cause." The spokesman accused Washington of "making up hostility against our cause, people and leadership," and following the blind extremist policy that harmonizes with the Israeli occupation." The U.S. Department of State said in an official statement earlier Friday that "the United States is ending all funding for the UN's Palestinian refugee agency." It described UNRWA which offers humanitarian services to over 5 million Palestinian refugees in the region as "irredeemably flawed." The U.S. administration has "carefully reviewed" the issue and "will not make additional contributions to UNRWA," spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. Hanan Ashrawi on Saturday on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) described the U.S. aid cut move as "inhumane and reckless." The Palestinian refugees are "being victimized again" by the U.S. administration, Ashrawi said. Ashrawi warned that this step would lead to "the destabilization of the entire region and the creation of unimaginable suffering and hardship for the Palestinian refugees." The United States is doing Israel's bidding and destroying the very foundations of peace and stability by taking all permanent status issues "off the table," including the right of return for refugees and occupied Jerusalem, Ashrawi added. She called on international community to "shoulder their responsibilities towards Palestinian refugees and provide the necessary support and financial assistance UNRWA needs to fulfill its mandate." Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki condemned the U.S. decision on UNRWA, saying "the United States will never succeed in dismantling the UN agency or marginalize the Palestinian refugees issue," WAFA reported. "Palestine will work closely with Jordan to protect UNRWA since its role from birth was to provide assistance to the Palestinian refugees until the right of return or an acceptable agreement between the Palestinians and Israelis is reached," Malki said. He urged his Arab counterparts "to do what they can to protect UNRWA from U.S. bullying and to send a strong message to President Trump that the Arab states will continue to stand with the Palestinian cause in all its components." UNRWA spokesperson Sami Mshasha said in a press statement that the U.S. decision is "surprising, given that UNRWA and the United States renewed a funding agreement in December 2017 which had acknowledged the successful, dedicated and professional management of the agency." The UNRWA also rejected being criticized as "flawed" in its work at schools, health and emergency programs, highlighting "the international state community, our donors and host countries have consistently praised UNRWA for its achievements and standards." Saeb Erekat, PLO Executive Committee Secretary General said in an emailed press statement "we totally reject and condemn this American decision of stopping its funding to UNRWA." Ahmad Abu Houli, member of the PLO in charge of the refugee department, said in an emailed press statement that "the UN members and the hosting states of UNRWA should immediately work on finding alternative donors instead of the United States." Meanwhile, Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman in Gaza also condemned the U.S. decision of ending aid to Palestinian refugees' agency UNRWA and its attempts to make doubts over the Palestinians right of return. UNRWA, initiated by the UN resolution 70 years ago, provides services to registered Palestine refugees in its five regions, namely Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, offering education, health care, relief, social services, infrastructure, camp improvement and microcredit. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 21:31:47|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close MOSCOW, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The murder of Alexandr Zakharchenko, leader of Ukraine's independence-seeking Donetsk region, has increased tension in the region, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Saturday. Zakharchenko's death "does not contribute to the formation of conditions for at least a promising start to the implementation of the Minsk agreements," Peskov told a daily briefing. He called the murder of the Donetsk leader a provocation, and it remains unclear who was behind the attack. "This is a blatant provocation aimed at hindering the implementation of the Minsk agreements," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday. The Minsk agreements consist of a first protocol that the Ukrainian government and the rebels reached under the mediation of Russia, France and Germany in September 2014 in the Belarussian capital of Minsk, and a more detailed renewal of the agreement was signed in February 2015. The Minsk agreements envisage a cease-fire, a withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the contact line, a prisoner exchange, and holding local elections in Donbass, among other measures. Commenting on the murder, Lavrov said that under the present circumstances, it is impossible to hold a new round of the Normandy Four meeting involving Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany as Moscow is analyzing the "serious situation." Zakharchenko, "president" of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, was killed after his car blew up near a restaurant in Donetsk city on Friday. Zakharchenko, 42, was elected in November 2014 during the so-called regional "presidential elections," which were held in the insurgent-controlled areas in Ukraine's Donetsk and Lugansk regions, together known as Donbass, amid harsh criticism from Kiev. Since April 2014, the insurgents in eastern Ukraine have been involved in an armed confrontation with Ukrainian government troops. The fighting has killed more than 10,000 people so far. The Minsk agreements have never been fully implemented, with Kiev and the insurgents accusing each other of breaching them. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 21:31:48|Editor: ZD Video Player Close Wang Huning (R), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, meets with Liberian President George Weah in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 1, 2018. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao) BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official Wang Huning met with Liberian President George Weah on Saturday ahead of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Wang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, called on the two countries to jointly implement the consensus reached between the two presidents and lift bilateral ties and China-Africa cooperation to a new level. Weah said Liberia will adhere to the one-China policy, actively participate in the Belt and Road Initiative, strengthen mutual exchanges and cooperation, and consolidate bilateral friendship. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 21:36:50|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close NEW DELHI, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- A District Reserve Guard (DRG) personnel was killed and three others wounded in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast triggered by Naxals Saturday in central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, police said. The blast took place in Rabdipara village of Sukma district, about 500 km south of Raipur, the capital city of Chhattisgarh. "Today in the afternoon four personnel of DRG were wounded in an IED blast at Rabdipara village here," a police official posted in Sukma said. "However, one of the personnel later succumbed to his wounds." According to officials the wounded personnel were removed to hospital in Sukma town. DRG is a special police raised to counter Naxals in Chhattisgarh. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 21:41:54|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close ADEN, Yemen, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Forces loyal to Yemen's government launched a military campaign on areas controlled by the Shiite Houthi rebels in the southwestern province of Taiz on Saturday, a military official told Xinhua. According to an official of the Fourth Regional Military Command, the pro-government forces backed by the Saudi-led Arab coalition stepped up military operations against Houthis in areas located between Taiz and Lahj provinces. He said that a number of villages in Hayfan and surrounding areas were captured by the pro-government forces following fierce armed confrontations with the Iranian-backed Houthis. The Houthi-controlled sites were shelled heavily with several Saudi-led airstrikes hours before the pro-government military attack, he said. Local tribal leaders confirmed to Xinhua saying that the Houthis have no presence in their villages after Saturday's military operations. "Our tribal fighters engaged in the fighting alongside with the pro-government forces and Houthis fled leaving their weapons behind," a local tribal chief said during a phone call. "Houthis' existence in our villages is totally rejected and we won't tolerate with such militia any more," the tribal source said. Both Yemeni warring rivals stepped up military operations across the war-torn Arab country, just days ahead of a fresh round of peace talks, the fifth of its kind, is set to kick off in Geneva, Switzerland, on Sept. 6 under the auspices of the United Nations. The impoverished Arab country has been locked into a civil war since Houthi rebels overran much of the country militarily and seized all northern provinces, including capital Sanaa, in 2014. Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries intervened militarily and began pounding the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa in March 2015 in response to an official request from President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to protect Yemen and roll back Iran's influence. The internal military conflict between the Iranian-backed Houthis and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government recently entered its fourth year, aggravating the suffering of Yemenis and deepening the world's worst humanitarian crisis in the country. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 21:46:55|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close TEHRAN, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani congratulated Saturday Uzbek and Kyrgyz nations and officials on their national days in separate messages, official IRNA news agency reported. The friendly relations between Iran and Uzbekistan is developing on a daily basis thanks to the mutual interaction and cooperation, Rouhani wrote to Shavkat Mirziyoyev, his Uzbek counterpart. The existing relations will be maintained to ensure common interests and secure the regional security and stability, he noted. On Saturday, Rouhani also said that the steadfast commitment of Iranian and Kyrgyz officials has nurtured the friendly relations between the two countries. The ties between Iran and Kyrgyzstan is developing in the various fields of economy, politics and culture, Rouhani said in a letter to Sooronbay Jeenbekov, president of Kyrgyzstan. The Iranian president said the two countries' relations are based on mutual respect and common interests, expressing the hope that the two countries' comprehensive ties will be further strengthened. The Islamic Republic sets no limit to development of all-out ties with Kyrgyzstan, he stressed. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 21:51:57|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close LONDON, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- A giant bikini-clad blimp of London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Saturday hovered above Westminster in a crowd-funded protest against waves of crime in the metropolitan city. The 29 feet-long balloon was launched in Parliament Square earlier as campaigners came hard on Khan's record on tackling violent crime in the British capital. Khan was quoted by local media as saying that people were "welcome" to look at the balloon but he did not think the swimwear suited him. The dramatic campaign was launched in the wake of the U.S. President Donald Trump baby balloon flown by protesters during the president's visit in July. The fundraising page for the blimp said: "Under Sadiq Khan, we have seen crime skyrocket to unprecedented levels. "It stressed that people in London don't feel safe. London has seen a spike in spate of crimes over the past years. Khan published a new knife crime strategy a few months ago and promised to do everything possible to drive knife crime from the city. The mayor has also called for the government to halt planned funding cuts to the police. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 22:07:00|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close by Tang Lu, Zhu Ruiqing MALE, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- While the 2-km China-Maldives Friendship Bridge inaugurated on Thursday gave the friendship between the two countries a "concrete form," the five weddings held on the bridge on Friday added to it an additional dimension. Under the blue sky and white clouds, the friendship bridge looked majestic and colorful with Chinese and Maldivian flags fluttering in the light breeze, as tender music gave the atmosphere a hint of romance. Indeed, romance was in the offing. The newly-inaugurated bridge was picked as the wedding venue for five couples, who tied the knot in full scale wedding ceremonies. The shy but smiling couples walked slowly across the bridge to accept the blessings of friends and family as scores of cell phone cameras clicked and videographers took shots from various angles. The ceremonies were held in different parts on the bridge with each wedding party allotted an exclusive place complete with all facilities including a dining area to have the wedding feast. Ceremonies over, the couple and guests were served a sumptuous meal on tables laid out on the bridge. One of the grooms told Xinhua that he was very "honored" to be selected to be wed on the "grand China-Maldives Friendship Bridge." "Marriage is a major event in life. The bridge will bring a new life to Maldivians. I hope the bridge will bring us good luck," he said. According to local media reports, when the Maldivian Ministry of Housing and Construction released news about the "Bridge Wedding" in early August, it received overwhelming responses from Maldivian society. It is said that more than 250 couples had applied for registration, from which the ministry selected five couples. Interestingly, it is reported that all couples were required to be unmarried earlier. One of the couples appeared to have sensed the logic in the insistence on having only first timers going through the ceremony on the bridge. "The China-Maldives Friendship Bridge is the first bridge in the history of the Maldives. This is the first time the Maldives has held a wedding on the bridge. We are the first to marry. So choosing to hold a wedding on the bridge is very meaningful for us," the groom said. Connecting capital Male and neighboring Hulhule island where the Maldives' main international airport is located, the bridge makes it possible for locals and tourists to transfer between the two islands within five minutes. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 22:07:00|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 1, 2018. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei) BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday met with Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba ahead of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Xi said the relations of China and Gabon have developed rapidly since the two sides decided to upgrade bilateral relations into a comprehensive cooperative partnership during a China visit by Bongo in 2016. China is satisfied with the current relations and is confident about the prospects of cooperation between the two sides, Xi said. He said China and Gabon should expand exchanges between governments, political parties, and parliaments, and step up efforts to share experiences in state governance. China firmly supports Gabon's independent development path and opposes external interference, Xi said. China welcomes Gabon to vigorously participate in the Belt and Road Initiative, Xi said, adding that he hopes the two countries will strengthen cooperation in areas including infrastructure, energy and minerals, and agriculture, and work to facilitate early realization of the goals of "Gabon Emergent" strategic plan. Bongo said the two countries have a long history of friendship that has taken root in people's hearts. Gabon firmly supports China on issues of major concern and is grateful to China for helping it accelerate the process of industrialization and modernization, Bongo said. Gabon is willing to vigorously participate in the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by Xi as it offers new, significant opportunities to achieve connectivity in Africa, Bongo said, vowing to expand cooperation with China in fields such as infrastructure, health, and human resources. After the meeting, the two leaders witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 22:12:01|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close TEHRAN, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Social Security Organization of Iran and German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to boost cooperation on various insurance related fields, Tehran Times reported on Saturday. Head of Iran's Social Security Organization, Taqi Noorbakhsh, and Deputy Director of DGUV, Joachim Broer, inked the MoU in Berlin on Friday. The agreement focused on diverse areas including rehabilitation and hospital management, as well as sharing experience and staff training courses. Iran's Social Security Organization is a state-run insuring organization which was established in 1975. The organization currently provides insurance coverage for 42 million people, providing 18 types of health and social insurance services in case of unemployment, retirement, disability and death, loss of caretaker and social vulnerabilities, accidents and injuries, health care and medicine. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 22:12:02|Editor: ZX Video Player Close Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan meets with Comoros President Azali Assoumani, who is here to attend the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 1, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling) BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan on Saturday met with Comoros President Azali Assoumani ahead of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Wang said China will continue to adhere to the principles of sincerity, practical results, affinity and good faith and uphold the values of friendship, justice and shared interests in expanding friendly cooperation with Comoros in all areas. Azali said that the two countries always understand and support each other on issues of core interests and major concerns, adding that Comoros is willing to continue to enhance coordination with China and push the development of bilateral ties. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 22:12:03|Editor: ZD Video Player Close Wang Huning (R), a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, meets with Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 1, 2018. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi) BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official Wang Huning on Saturday met with Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba ahead of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Wang, a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, said China will work with Gabon to seize the Belt and Road opportunities, expand cooperation of mutual benefits, and elevate China-Gabon comprehensive cooperative partnership to a new level. Bongo said Gabon is willing to strengthen political mutual trust, step up pragmatic cooperation, and translate the Gabon-China friendship into fruitful cooperation to benefit the people. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 22:17:06|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Zambian President Edgar Lungu at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 1, 2018. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei) BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday met with Zambian President Edgar Lungu ahead of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). Stressing the fact that Zambia was the first country in southern Africa to establish diplomatic ties with the People's Republic of China, Xi said the Chinese government and the Chinese people have always had special and friendly feelings towards Zambia. China is ready to work with Zambia to uphold the fine tradition of friendship and cooperation, promote bilateral ties in a strategic and long-term perspective, and continue to show mutual understanding and support each other on issues involving their respective core interests and major concerns, said Xi. Identifying the Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TAZARA) as an enduring monument to China-Zambia and China-Africa friendship, Xi urged the two sides to further work together to revitalize it in the new era. Based on the construction of economic cooperation zones, the two countries should deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, expand people-to-people exchanges, and devote efforts to plan and prepare for the activities marking the 55th anniversary of the establishment of China-Zambia ties next year, Xi said. Both countries should strengthen the coordination on major international and regional issues to safeguard the common interests of developing countries, Xi added. Lungu recalled the beginning of the two countries' friendship, which was forged and nurtured by elder generations of leaders including Zambia's founding President Kenneth Kaunda and the late Chairman Mao Zedong. Zambia cherishes the friendship with China built on sincerity and equality, and appreciates China's long-term help, especially China's selfless assistance in building the TAZARA, said Lungu. He also expressed strong confidence in China's development and Zambia's willingness to join China in building the Belt and Road, expand the cooperation in various fields under the FOCAC framework, promote the development of Africa and sub-regions, and contribute to the building of an even stronger China-Africa community with a shared future. After the meeting, the two leaders witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 22:17:06|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close by Zhang Yuliang, Tichaona Chifamba HARARE, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Relations between China and Zimbabwe have been elevated to a new level under Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa's leadership, Charge D'Affaires at the Chinese Embassy Zhao Baogang said here Friday. Addressing journalists ahead of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) that begins on Monday, Zhao said both countries had benefited from their relationship under the framework of FOCAC. "President Mnangagwa has done a great job and under his leadership we can see the improvement of the Zimbabwean economy and we can see that the relations between the two countries have been elevated to a new level, and during his latest visit (to China) in April, we have elevated our relations from all-weather friendship to comprehensive strategic partnership," Zhao said. "This is a very, very important position that we have given to the relations between the two countries," he said. Mnangagwa is due to leave for China on Saturday and is expected to hold bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping after the FOCAC summit. Zhao said FOCAC is an important mechanism between China and African countries and leaders will exchange views on how cooperation should evolve and review progress made over the last three years since the Johannesburg summit. The Chinese diplomat dismissed assertions that China is benefiting more from the cooperation with Africa, saying that China sticks to the principles of sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith in cooperation with Africa. As for China-aided projects in Zimbabwe, he mentioned the upgrading of the Victoria Falls International Airport and the Kariba South hydro-electricity project, among others. "I just want to cite a few examples which show that African countries really benefited a lot from the cooperation with China over the last three years," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 22:27:12|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close QINGDAO, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Guan Huashi, a 79-year-old Chinese scientist, is leading his research team to look for new drugs from the ocean. Thanks to scientists including Guan, GV-971, a new Alzheimer's drug extracted from brown algae, completed its phase three clinical trial in July. Alzheimer's is an irreversible, progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memory, thinking skills, and the ability to carry out simple tasks. The disease affects about 48 million people worldwide and the number is expected to increase with the aging population. There is no effective cure. The drug is targeted at patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's. Independent animal experiments also showed that it can regulate the immune system, reduce neuroinflammation and improve cognition. "A phase three clinical trial is the last test before reaching the market," said Guan, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Natural products produced by marine organisms sometimes have pharmacological activity that can be of therapeutic benefit in treating diseases such as cancer, according to Lyu Zhihua, a member of Guan's team and vice dean of the School of Medicine and Pharmacy at the Ocean University of China. "Around 35,000 marine natural products have been discovered by humans. Half of them have biological activity. There are many more unknown natural products in the ocean," said Guan. There are a dozen marine-derived drugs commercially available in the market and many more are in clinical trials. The industry has great potential. Last year, Guan and his colleagues started establishing marine organism sample database and marine drug information database. A 5-billion-yuan (733 million U.S. dollars) fund has been set up to invest in developing new marine drugs. Several challenges, including supply problems and target identification, need to be met for successful drug development of these often complex molecules. "The development of marine drugs is always at a slow pace. For example, the research and development of GV-971 took 21 years," said Lyu. It was like finding a needle in a haystack and then trying to figure out if the needle is useful for these diseases. Approaches are available to overcome the hurdles. In addition to advances in sampling technologies and synthetic medicine, researchers with the Marine Biomedical Research Institute of Qingdao have sought help from supercomputing. Based on supercomputing resources in the cities of Qingdao, Jinan, and Wuxi, researchers match and analyze the three-dimensional structures of 30,000 marine natural products with molecular targets of known drugs. "Traditionally, scientists used one key to open a lock on which they conjecture the key could work. Now with supercomputing technology, one key could be tried on all different types of locks," said Yang Jinbo, chief scientist with the institute. Yang said that the success rate of turning marine natural products into drug leads has been increased from 20 percent to more than 60 percent. Scientists with Guan's team plan to take three to four new marine drugs into clinical trials in no more than five years, such as BG136 for the treatment of colon cancer. Qingdao is famous for its marine science and technology. The city is home to 70 percent of China's marine experts, the deep-sea manned submersible Jiaolong and research vessel Kexue. Guan describes what they are doing as setting up a blue pharmacy store. "Our aspirations cannot be achieved overnight. Generation after generation of Chinese scientists should work hard to seek potential cures for deadly diseases in the oceans." Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 22:32:14|Editor: ZX Video Player Close Li Zhanshu (R), chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, meets with Zambian President Edgar Lungu at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 1, 2018. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu) BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislator Li Zhanshu on Saturday met with Zambian President Edgar Lungu ahead of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Li, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, said the NPC is ready to enhance the exchange and cooperation with the National Assembly of Zambia to provide a legal guarantee on the implementation of the consensus reached between the leaders of the two countries and the outcomes of the upcoming summit. Lungu said Zambia will do its best to consolidate the traditional friendship between the two countries and further strengthen the pragmatic cooperation in various areas to elevate bilateral relations to a new level. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 22:32:15|Editor: yan Video Player Close MADRID, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez returned to Madrid from his tour of South America on Saturday, expressing his satisfaction with the visit. Sanchez visited Chile, Bolivia, Colombia and Costa Rica and gave his impressions of his journey to journalists accompanying him on the flight back to Spain. The Spanish media reported he highlighted the need for Spain to have a greater presence in nations which have not been visited by a Spanish prime minister in over a decade, as was the case of Bolivia which had not received an official visit in the previous 20 years He added that it was important for Spain to change the focus of its visits, not just aiming to strengthen economic ties, but also to collaborate in environmental policies and on issues of human rights and gender equality. Spanish media reported that Sanchez had a concrete agenda, adjusted to the particular interests of each of the four countries he visited. This had the aim of strengthening the bilateral dimension of Spain's relationship with each nation. To this end, his talks in Chile focused on economic relations, while development issues had a high priority in Bolivia, the peace process being most important in Colombia, while environmental issues and immigration were to the fore in his talks with Costa Rican leader. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 23:17:28|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close SINGAPORE, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The 50th Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) Economic Ministers' Meeting and Related Meetings ended here Saturday, with agreements reached between ASEAN member states and its dialogue partners to enhance trade relations. The ASEAN ministers met in consultations with nine of ASEAN's dialogue partners, namely Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Russia and the United States. Chaired by Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing, the meetings saw good progress in deepening and widening economic cooperation between ASEAN and its dialogue partners, according to a press release issued Saturday by the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore, which assumes the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN this year. ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand endorsed the recommendations which will guide the negotiations to upgrade the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area Agreement. Moreover, ASEAN and Canada welcomed the completion of the Joint Feasibility Study and the outcomes of the first set of Exploratory Discussions for a possible ASEAN-Canada Free Trade Agreement, and agreed to continue dialogue on a range of issues. Danish Ministry of Culture announced that the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde can be removed from the list of building to be preserved due to rising sea levels. (Photo courtesy of the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde) COPENHAGEN, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Danish Ministry of Culture on Thursday announced that the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde can be removed from the list of building to be preserved due to rising sea levels. "I think it is the right decision giving the very special circumstances. When built in the 1960s, no one could have predicted the rising water level and the challenges it would cause for preserving the museum building," said Danish Culture Minister Mette Bock in a statement. The Ministry does not believe that the museum can make new efforts and changes in design to preserve the hall, it said in the statement. Located some 40 kilometers west of Copenhagen, the Viking Ship Museum is Denmark's national museum for ships, seafaring and boat-building culture in ancient and medieval times. The Viking Ship Hall, the oldest part of the museum, was opened in 1969. It was designed as a large showcase to display the five Viking ships found at Skuldelev. In 2013, the building suffered millions of kroner in damages due to a winter storm, though none of the ships were damaged. The museum itself had asked for it to be torn down as repairs were impossible. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 23:27:34|Editor: ZX Video Player Close Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) meets with Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo who is on a state visit to China and will attend the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 1, 2018. (Xinhua/Shen Hong) BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Saturday met with Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo who is on a state visit to China, and to attend the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. The two sides should expand cooperation on production capacity, enhance the facilitation of investment and trade, and deepen cooperation in human resources, agriculture, and fisheries, Li said. Noting the bilateral cooperation has improved Ghana's infrastructure, Akufo-Addo said the Ghanaian side is ready to sign a bilateral investment protection treaty as soon as possible to promote the ties to a higher level. The United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) spokesperson praises the efforts of the Chinese peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region. (Xinhua photo) KHARTOUM, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations - African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) spokesperson on Wednesday praised the efforts of the Chinese peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region in a interview with Xinhua. Ashraf Eissa, the spokesperson, laud the Chinese Peacekeeping Engineering Unit and its role in establishing the most recent base of the mission at Golo area in Sudan's Central Darfur State. "In March 2018, the Chinese engineering unit assumed the task of establishing UNAMID's temporary operating base in Golo, an area with volcanic rocks," said Eissa. He said the area is dangerous in Darfur, with hostilities between the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM)/ Abdul-Wahid Mohamed Nur faction and the Sudanese army. "Despite these challenges, the Chinese engineering unit has managed to complete the construction of the base, with high efficiency in less than two months," Eissa said. He said the unit has paved the road linking the base to Golo town in Central Darfur, established the base's fence and 11 watchtowers, and installed all water and electricity networks together with a total of 4.85 km of communication wires. He explained that the base, established by the Chinese engineering unit, is composed of residential buildings, offices and other facilities, including an underground shelter. Eissa further reiterated that the Chinese engineering unit, in establishing the Golo base, has applied the international standards observed in international peacekeeping missions, saying "what has been done at Golo base reflects the efficiency and capability of the Chinese engineering unit together with its great role and important services provided to UNAMID." He added that "since UNAMID establishment in early 2008, the Chinese engineering unit has been providing important and vital services, whereas it contributed to the establishment of the mission's infrastructures, particularly construction of camps, protective fences and watchtowers." In the meantime, the UNAMID spokesperson commended the Chinese Peacekeeping Helicopter Unit, which joined the mission in 2017 and is hailed as "the backbone of UNAMID operations." The team, which serves 29 field sites of the mission, has implemented 778 flight hours and transported 4,995 peacekeepers and more than 20,000 tons of goods and various materials, said Eissa. The Chinese helicopter unit comprises of 140 military personnel and four Mi-171 helicopters, and carries out tasks such as air patrol, transport of peacekeeping forces, evacuation of rescued personnel and air supplies. In early 2008, the UNAMID was deployed in Darfur, a region which has been witnessing military clashes between the Sudanese army and the rebels since 2003, which according to UN statistics has left 300,000 dead and displaced around 2.5 million others. The UNAMID is considered as the second biggest peacekeeping mission in the world, after the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. China has been actively involved in the UN peacekeeping operations for over 25 years. There are now 2,622 Chinese peacekeepers putting their lives at risk in restive regions around the world, according to a UN report published in July 2016. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 23:42:46|Editor: yan Video Player Close NICOSIA, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Cypriot authorities are concerned over the increasing wave of immigrants, Interior Minister Constantinos Petrides said after yet another boatload of refugees arrived at a popular resort on Saturday. "Indeed, there is a worrying upward trend of irregular migrant inflows to Cyprus, " the minister said. He added that authorities are also worried that some of the migrants could pose a security threat. Several groups totaling 92 people arrived in the past 10 days or so in Cyprus, and were intercepted in different areas of the eastern Mediterranean island. The latest group of arrived on Saturday at the popular tourist resort of Protaras, in southeastern Cyprus, less than 24 hours another boat was intercepted in the same area. Both boats seem to have sailed directly from war-torn Syria, about 175 kilometers to the northeast. Authorities said the latest group numbered 25 people, among them nine children, including two infants. Statistics showed that there has been a 56 percent increase in asylum applications in 2017, over 2016, and around 40 percent in the first five months of this year. Cypriot authorities said that they examined some 10,000 asylum applications up to 2017 and there are still 3,000 pending from last year and 2,435 this year, the majority of them by people from Syria. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 23:42:49|Editor: yan Video Player Close LAGOS, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian security forces have killed several Boko Haram insurgents and recovered weapons in Guzamala area of restive northeast Borno in a recent crossfire, the military said Saturday. The insurgents were repelled by the troops of 2 Division Task Force Battalion deployed in the area, Col. Onyeama Nwachukwu, a spokesperson for the Nigerian army said in a statement reaching Xinhua. Nwachukwu said the insurgents were on rampage, looting the community and extorting money from the people but met with a fierce resistance by the land troops of Operation Lafiya Dole who were closely supported from the air by troops of the Air Task Force. He said during the fire fight, overwhelming volume of fire was unleashed on the insurgents from both the air and ground troops, neutralizing several of them and their weapons. The army spokesperson added that the village and the surrounding communities had been stabilized and normalcy restored. He also said that the land troops had been reinforced to conduct more robust fighting patrol in the general area. Reports said at least 30 Nigerian soldiers were on Thursday killed by Boko Haram force in a fight in Borno. The army spokesperson did not confirm the reports. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 23:42:49|Editor: yan Video Player Close MOSCOW, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Russian Defense Ministry on Saturday accused the United States of training militants near its base in Syria and instructed them to launch terrorist attacks. According to the ministry's statement, the information was obtained after the Syrian government troops killed two militants and caught another two near the historic city of Palmyra earlier in the day. The captured said they belong to "the Lions of the East Army" numbering about 500 people near the U.S.-led international coalition's al-Tanf military base. One of the captive said they were trained by U.S. instructors and received weapons and ammunition from the U.S. base. The task of the militants was to conduct a series of terrorist attacks in the area of Palmyra and enable the passage of about 300 militants to capture the city within the next week, said the ministry. Tens of thousands of displaced people from Raqqa and Deir al-Zour are living in the Rukban refugee camp near the U.S. base, but the U.S. troops do nothing to prevent them from being hostages or a "living shield" of militants, the ministry said. UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said in early August that an estimated 45,000 to 50,000 internally displaced people, with some 80 percent believed to be women and children, live under difficult conditions in Rukban camp between Jordan and Syria, reportedly in need of water, hygiene, health, education aid and civil documentation. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 23:47:52|Editor: ZX Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) holds talks with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 1, 2018. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei) BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday held talks with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi ahead of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). The two leaders agreed to jointly advance the China-Egypt comprehensive strategic partnership for greater development in the new era. Egypt is a representative of Arab states, Africa, Islamic countries, major developing nations and emerging economies, with increasing influence in international and regional affairs, Xi said. Noting that China highly values developing the comprehensive strategic partnership with Egypt, Xi pledged to continue to support Egypt in its efforts to maintain stability, develop economy and improve people's livelihood, in pursuing a development path in line with its national conditions, and in playing a bigger role in international and regional affairs. China is willing to strengthen strategic communication and coordination with Egypt and safeguard their common interests, Xi said. He called on both sides to continue to support each other on issues involving their respective core interests, timely exchange views on bilateral relations and major issues of common concern, share the experience of governance, and strengthen exchanges at all levels and in various fields. Stressing that China views Egypt as an important and long-term partner of cooperation in the development of the Belt and Road Initiative, Xi said China is willing to align the initiative with Egypt's Vision 2030 and Suez Canal Corridor Development Project, promote pragmatic cooperation between the two countries, and enhance collaboration in counter-terrorism and security areas. Both as countries with ancient civilizations, China and Egypt should jointly promote dialogue and communication in this regard, Xi said. Noting that Egypt and China maintain traditional friendship and a high level of mutual trust, and hold similar positions and closely coordinate with each other on major international issues, Sisi said Egypt places priority on the comprehensive strategic partnership with China. As one of the earliest countries that support the Belt and Road Initiative, Egypt firmly believes that the initiative will create enormous opportunities for their bilateral cooperation as well as international and regional cooperation, he said. The president said Egypt will continue to support and participate in the Belt and Road Initiative and, as the incoming holder of the African Union rotating presidency, it will also continue to promote cooperation between Africa and China. Stressing that development is what African nations need most, Sisi said the Beijing Summit of the FOCAC demonstrates that China attaches great importance to Africa's development. Egypt fully supports China in hosting a successful summit, he said. Egypt speaks positively of China for upholding a just stance on the Middle East issues and is ready to strengthen coordination with China in multilateral areas, Sisi said. After the talks, the two leaders witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-01 23:57:55|Editor: yan Video Player Close SANAA, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels said they targeted a Saudi warship off Saudi Red Sea port city of Jizan on Saturday, Houthi-controlled Saba news agency reported. "The attack came in revenge for coalition attacks that targeted Yemeni fishermen in the Yemeni coasts and islands," the Houthis said in a statement reported by Saba. The Houthi statement gave no further details. The Saudi-led coalition has not commented on the Houthi attack. On Thursday, the pro-government almasdaronline news website reported that "an airstrike hit a fishing boat off the Yemeni island of Uqban, killing five fishermen and injuring two." Saudi Arabia has warned of the ongoing threats of the Houthi militias on the freedom of navigation and global trade in the Red Sea, which could cause an environmental disaster if allowed to continue. The Saudi government has been accusing Iran of supporting the Houthi rebels through the supply of weapons and missiles. Both Houthis and Iran denied the accusations. The militias frequently respond to airstrikes by the coalition with missile attacks against Saudi Arabia, mainly its border cities. Most of them are intercepted by the air forces. Yemen has been locked in a civil war since late 2014, when the Houthi rebels overran much of the country and seized all northern provinces, including the capital Sanaa. Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab military coalition that intervened in the Yemeni war in 2015 to support the Yemeni elected government of exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The war has so far killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and displaced about 3 million others. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-02 00:02:57|Editor: yan Video Player Close SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Three militants were killed Saturday in a fierce gunfight in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said. The gunfight broke out in Danna forests in Bandipora district about 75 km north of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir. "Three militants were killed today in a gunfight with contingents of Indian army and police in higher reaches of Danna forests in Bandipora," Col Rajesh Kalia, Indian army spokesman told Xinhua. "Weapons and war like stores have also been recovered from the spot." Reports said the contingents of police and army had cordoned off the area on specific intelligence inputs about the presence of militants in the area. The identity of the slain militants was not immediately known. A guerilla war is going on between militants and Indian troops stationed in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989. The gunfight between the two sides takes place intermittently across the region. Kashmir, the Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan, is claimed by both in full. Since their independence from Britain, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir. FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump (R) welcomes visiting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on Oct. 11, 2017. Trump met with Trudeau Wednesday amid new NAFTA negotiations. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu) WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- The United States and Canada failed to meet a Friday deadline imposed by the Trump administration to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as major differences remain in bilateral talks. "Our officials are continuing to work toward agreement," U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer said Friday in a statement, adding the USTR team will resume trade talks with its Canadian counterparts next Wednesday. The White House has pressured Canada to accept the preliminary agreement it struck with Mexico on Monday to update the 24-year-old trilateral trade deal. But Canada insisted that it would only sign a new agreement that is good for the country. "Canada will only sign a deal that's a good deal for Canada, we are very, very clear about that," Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters in Washington after wrapping up talks with U.S. officials on Friday. One of the major sticking points in the talks is Canada's dairy market, according to media reports. Canada wants to keep its dairy system, known as supply management, while the United States complained that these agricultural policies will limit sales of U.S. dairy products to the Canadian market. The White House had set Friday as the deadline to complete the NAFTA negotiations because it wanted to notify Congress in time for Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto to sign the new deal before his successor takes office on Dec. 1. The Trump administration must notify Congress 90 days before signing a trade agreement, according to U.S. trade laws. U.S. officials have indicated that they are prepared to go ahead and sign a NAFTA deal only with Mexico if they are unable to reach a deal quickly with Canada. But the U.S. business community and many lawmakers have insisted that the NAFTA deal should remain a trilateral pact. "Anything other than a trilateral agreement won't win congressional approval and would lose business support," President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Thomas Donohue said Friday in a statement. "We appreciate the hard work of the negotiators from all three countries, and urge them to stay at the table and remain focused on concluding a deal that includes the U.S., Mexico, and Canada," he said. It is still unclear whether the United States and Canada will work out their differences in the next few weeks. Trump has threatened to slap additional tariffs on imported autos from Canada if the two sides are unable to reach a new trade deal. "If a deal doesn't happen, we'll put tariffs on the cars coming in from Canada, and that'll be even better," Trump said on Thursday. Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, believed it was premature for the president to announce his intention to sign a trade agreement "when so many difficult issues remain unresolved." "It sure looks like the president is more concerned with announcing a deal during election season, rather than getting the best deal possible for American workers, based on his rush to make an announcement before negotiations are close to complete," he said in a statement. Talks on renegotiating the NAFTA began in August 2017 as Trump threatened to withdraw from the trilateral trade deal, which he claimed harmed U.S. industries and jobs. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-02 04:13:47|Editor: yan Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Prominent Ethiopian government critic and human right activist, Tamagn Beyene, on Saturday returned home after more than two decades of strong opposition in exile. Beyene, who was welcomed by senior Ethiopian government officials including Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen upon his arrival in Ethiopia, said that recent peaceful transition and reform within the Ethiopian government structure was the major factor for him to return to the east African country. Mekonnen, who commended Beyene for his decision to return home, further called on Ethiopians in exile to follow suit, according to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Thousands of Ethiopians welcomed Beyene, who received street ovation and warm homecoming, upon his arrival in Ethiopia' capital Addis Ababa early Saturday. Beyene is the latest of exiled Ethiopians who are flocking into the east African country following recent reform move by Ethiopia's ruling coalition the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The Ethiopian government, following Ahmed's premiership in early April, has been implementing various decisions aimed at creating a nationwide reconciliation, which include the release of high-level political prisoners, invitation for Ethiopian rebel groups for talks as well as the decision to normalize relations with its regional arch-rival Eritrea. Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had also declared an amnesty invitation for exiled Ethiopian politicians, journalists and human right activists to return home and pursue their political activities in a peaceful manner. Kassa Kebede, foreign policy chief of Ethiopia's former ruling party, is one among the many Ethiopians who have returned home after decades of stay in exile. Kebede, one of the top leaders of the Ethiopian Workers' Party (EWP) that ruled the East African country for 17 years, has been in exile for about 27 years since the current ruling coalition came into power. Notable other activists and journalists that have returned to the east African country also include Jawar Mohammer and Mohammed Ademo. Ademo, a prominent Ethiopian journalist who was also in exile, said upon his return that "my exile and longing for home have come to an end. I am glad that it coincided with this defining and pivotal moment of renewal for Ethiopia. I look forward to both the journey and the challenges." Various popular Ethiopian rebel groups - such as the Patriotic Ginbot 7, Oromo Leberation Front (OLF) and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) - have also similarly declared ceasefire as the Ethiopia's reform process strengthened over the past couple of months. The ONLF, a rebel group operating in the Ethiopia's Somali regional state, is the latest to declare a unilateral temporary ceasefire, saying "Emphasizing the urgent need to foster a climate of peace that can assist the ONLF, the Ethiopian government and other stakeholders in resolving the longstanding conflict in the Ethiopia Somali regional state, the ONLF declares a unilateral ceasefire from Sunday." Mourners attend a funeral of people, mainly children, killed in a Saudi-led coalition air strike on a bus in Saada, Yemen on Aug. 13, 2018. (Reuters photo) RIYADH, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Saudi-led coalition involved in a Yemen war Saturday admitted the wrongdoing in an airstrike that targeted Yemeni city Saada, pledging to hold those responsible accountable, Al Arabiya local news reported. The coalition accepted the findings of the Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT) on the attack that took place on Aug. 9 in Saada, including the mistakes in compliance with the Rules of Engagement regarding the strike. The Joint Forces Command of the Coalition expressed regret over the mistakes, extended its sympathies, condolences and solidarity to the families of the victims, and announced its acceptance of the results and findings of the JIAT. It obliged to revise and enhance its Rules of Engagement, according to operational lessons learned, in order to guarantee non-recurrence of such incidents. It also assured that the victims would be compensated. On Aug. 9, a coalition airstrike hit a school bus in Yemen's northern province of Saada, killing 51, including 40 children. Saudi Arabia has led other Arab countries in the war in Yemen that completed its third year in March in support of the Yemeni exiled government against Houthi militias. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-02 05:24:05|Editor: yan Video Player Close RABAT, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Morocco and Russia vowed Saturday to consolidate their bilateral strategic partnership. The pledge was made by the foreign ministers of Morocco and Russia Nasser Bourita and Sergei Lavrov, respectively, in messages of congratulations to the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The two ministers reiterated their commitment to joint efforts of strengthening Moroccan-Russian relations within the framework of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, signed in March 2016. They commended the "exemplary" relations between Morocco and Russia, adding that they are marked by "deep friendship, mutual respect and a multidimensional partnership." They also noted the positive dynamics of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, hailing convergence in approaches on regional and international issues, particularly concerning strengthening security, peace and development in Africa. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-02 05:29:07|Editor: yan Video Player Close CAIRO, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Al-Azhar, the highest Islamic learning institution for Egypt and the Sunni Muslim world, condemned on Saturday an attack by Boko Haram insurgents that killed 30 Nigerian soldiers in northeastern Nigeria. In a statement, Azhar called on the international community to exert more efforts to halt bloodshed and eliminate terrorist groups. Azhar offered condolences to the Nigerian president, government, people and the families of the victims. At least 30 Nigerian soldiers were killed by Boko Haram rebels in a fight near the border with Niger on Saturday. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-02 05:34:08|Editor: yan Video Player Close HAVANA, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Cuba on Saturday rejected the decision of Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to bar former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from running for a third term, calling the ruling "political." According to a statement from the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the decision deprives Lula of becoming the candidate for Brazil's Workers' Party. "Earlier this year, Lula was imprisoned for political reasons as a maneuver to prevent left-wing forces which carried out social transformations in Brazil to return to power," said the statement. The island's government reiterated its support and solidarity for Lula, who is serving a controversial 12-year jail sentence for corruption and money laundering in Brazil although he still has the right to appeal. On late Friday, the majority of TSE ruled the former head of state can't be a presidential candidate because he no longer has a clear record, under the so-called "Clean Record Law", which rules that people with previous convictions for corruption crimes cannot be elected. Earlier this month, the United Nations' Human Rights Committee said Lula could not be disqualified as a presidential candidate until all his appeals were judged. However, the majority of the TSE judges decided that the UN's stance was not mandatory in this case. With the court decision, the new candidate of the Workers' Party will be Fernando Haddad, who was Lula's running mate. U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a bill signing event at Harris Conference Center August 31, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Xinhua/AFP) WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that there is "no political necessity" to keep Canada in the new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) deal. "If we don't make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out," Trump said via Twitter, threatening to terminate the 24-year-old trilateral trade deal. "We were far better off before NAFTA -- should never have been signed ... we make new deal or go back to pre-NAFTA!", he wrote. Trump's comments came after the United States and Canada failed to meet a Friday deadline imposed by the Trump administration to revamp the NAFTA trade agreement as major differences remain in bilateral talks. "Our officials are continuing to work toward agreement," U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer said Friday in a statement, adding the USTR team will resume trade talks with its Canadian counterparts next Wednesday. The White House has pressured Canada to accept the preliminary agreement it struck with Mexico on Monday to update the trilateral trade deal. But Canada insisted that it would only sign a new agreement that is good for the country. It is still unclear whether the United States and Canada will work out their differences in the next few weeks. Trump has threatened to slap additional tariffs on imported autos from Canada if the two sides are unable to reach a new trade deal. While U.S. officials have indicated that they are prepared to go ahead and sign a NAFTA deal only with Mexico, the U.S. business community and many lawmakers have insisted that the NAFTA deal should remain a trilateral pact. "Anything other than a trilateral agreement won't win congressional approval and would lose business support," President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Thomas Donohue, said Friday in a statement. Talks on renegotiating the NAFTA began in August 2017 as Trump threatened to withdraw from the trilateral trade deal, which he claimed harmed U.S. industries and jobs. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-02 06:04:21|Editor: yan Video Player Close DAMASCUS, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said Saturday that retaking the northwestern province of Idlib from the rebels is a priority, saying it's the duty of the Syrian state to secure all its territories. Al-Moallem made the remarks during an interview with Russia Today, whose content was cited by the state news agency SANA. The minister, who was on a two-day visit to Moscow, said liberating Idlib will be either through reconciliation "which is what we are doing" or through a military action. His remarks mirror the stance of the Syrian government, whose official repeatedly said that efforts to establish reconciliation in Idlib, which is the last major rebel stronghold in Syria, are ongoing amid preparation for a wide-scale offensive if the reconciliation fails. The situation in Idlib is complex as it has emerged as the main destination for the rebels who surrendered in many areas across Syria. The province contains an array of militant groups, including the ultra-radical Levant Liberation Committee (LLC), which is also known as the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front. The LLC is the strongest among other rebel factions in Idlib and it has completely rejected the efforts to establish reconciliation in that province. The group rounded up tens of the reconciliation advocates in Idlib and it has foreign fighters among its ranks. In his interview Saturday, al-Moallem said, "the Nusra Front in Idlib is designated as a terror group in accordance with the resolutions of the UN Security Council and there is a consensus between Syria and its allies on the necessity to liberate Idlib." Al-Moallem noted that a humanitarian corridor was set up through the Abu Al-Duhur air base in Idlib, adding that through that corridor hundreds of families left rebel-held areas in Idlib toward government-controlled ones. "The rebel factions that want reconciliation should declare their stance and commit to their pledges in the reconciliation process, which we are hoping to happen," Al-Moallem said. On the Western threats to use force in case of an alleged chemical attack by the government forces in Idlib, al-Moallem said that the White Helmet organization, which is ostensibly rendering humanitarian services in rebel-held areas, is a Western-backed group that has kidnapped tens of children and smuggled containers of chlorine gas to areas in Idlib through the Nusra Front to stage the attack to frame the Syrian army. He said the organization works in cooperation with the British secret services. Al-Moallem said the preparations for an attack by the U.S., Britain, and France on Syria is not new as the three powers had struck Syria in April over the same allegations of chemical weapons use in the formerly rebel-held Douma district in the Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus. The minister said the attack took place without an investigation, saying "no one believes such narratives" anymore. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-02 06:19:25|Editor: yan Video Player Close LONDON, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May on Saturday ruled out the possibility of a second Brexit referendum, claiming that it would be "a gross betrayal of the British democracy". Her comments came as a signed article by May appeared on the Daily Telegraph website Saturday night. "This government will fulfill the democratic decision of the British people by ensuring that the UK leaves the European Union on 29th March next year -- and that as we do so, we build a stronger, more meritocratic Britain that is fit for the future," she wrote in the article. May said she is confident that her government can broker a "good deal for Britain". She stressed that Britain will finally control its own borders. Regarding the lengthy Brexit negotiations with Brussels, May said Britain will be ready for a no deal if it needs to be. "I will not be pushed into accepting compromises on the Chequers proposals that are not in our national interest," the prime minister said. "As we negotiate a bold new partnership with the European Union, we will continue vital work at home to build an economy that works for everyone," she said in the article. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-02 06:29:26|Editor: yan Video Player Close TRIPOLI, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- France, Italy, Britain and the United States on Saturday issued a joint statement condemning the escalation of violence between government forces and armed groups in the Libyan capital Tripoli since Monday. The continued escalation of violence in and around Tripoli caused many casualties and continues to endanger the lives of innocent civilians, the statement said. The statement urged the warring parties to stop all military actions, warning "those who tamper with security in Tripoli or elsewhere in Libya that they will be held accountable for any such actions." The statement also stressed support for the action plan on Libya proposed by UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame, and called on all parties to "refrain from any action that would jeopardize the political framework established by the UN-led mediation to which the international community is fully committed." The interior ministry announced on Friday a cease-fire in Tripoli under the auspices of the United Nations. However, witnesses confirmed that heavy gun firing and explosions could still be heard in parts of the city. Southern Tripoli has witnessed violent clashes since Monday between government forces and armed militias, which have so far killed 41 people and injured 123 others. The reasons for the clashes remain unknown, with growing tensions and military mobilization over the past few days between armed groups from outside and inside the city. The Interior Minister Abdulsalam Ashour told a local TV channel on Monday that a cease-fire agreement in Tripoli had been reached. However, clashes occurred on Wednesday despite the announcement, according to a local security source. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-02 06:44:30|Editor: yan Video Player Close DAMASCUS, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli missile attack targeted a Syrian air base in capital Damascus early Sunday local time, causing a big fire and triggering the Syrian air defenses to respond. The fresh attack caused at least two loud explosions that were clearly heard across the capital, according to pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV and pro-government activists' reports. The Syrian air defenses were said to have intercepted some of the missiles before reaching the target of the Mazzeh air base in a sprawling neighborhood under the same name in western Damascus. However, other missiles reached the target and caused the explosions inside the air base. Pro-government activists posted online some of the photos, showing big fire rising from the air base. The Israelis have reportedly launched their attack from inside the Lebanese airspace. Meanwhile, eyewitnesses told Xinhua that the Syrian air defenses were triggered after the attack. A source who is near the site told Xinhua that the explosions at the air base are from the targeting of ammunition depots, which triggered a series of explosions at the site. He said on condition of anonymity that a considerable number of ambulances rushed to the site to transfer the wounded to the hospitals, with no information yet on the number of casualties. The Syrian official media is yet to report the explosions but the state TV is airing songs glorifying the victories of the Syrian army. Israel has struck the same air base as well as other Syrian areas repeatedly in recent months, claiming the targeted areas contain bases for Iranian fighters. TONY BUNT'S Ironwood classroom is empty Friday, but will soon be full of students as the school year starts Tuesday. IRONWOOD - Students in the Ironwood Area Schools won't have to worry about forgetting their lunch money after the district announced it will provide free lunches to all students for the year. The lunches are available through the federal Community Eligibility Provision program, which started in 2011 in Illinois, Michigan and Kentucky, and has since launched nationally. The program uses a formula based on the number of free and reduced lunch students in a district. Ironwood became eligible for the program because of changes in how Medicare participants qualify for free and reduced lunches, according to the district's announcement of the free lunches. "After all the complicated math and spread sheets, it turns out we can offer free lunch for all of our students - free lunch and breakfast - at no cost to the district and no cost to the parents because of this federal program," Ironwood Superintendent Travis Powell told the Daily Globe. While this year will be the first the district offers free lunches, Food Service Director Mary Hampston Kusz said it has offered free breakfasts to students for the past 10 years. Hampston Kusz researched the program at a recent state conference, receiving "nothing but positive comments and information." Powell said the move will not only help the students, but reduce the economic burden for district families. "There were many examples of families that were coming to register for school lunch (at the district's Back to School Fair Monday), and then when they learned they were not going to have this expense this year, they expressed tremendous relief," Powell said. While the program means families won't need to apply for free or reduced lunches this year, Powell said there is a survey they need to fill out. The survey takes the place of the previous application and impacts the funding the district gets for various programs. Students will take the surveys home during the first week of school, according to the district's announcement. While the district will reassess the program after the school year to ensure it is functioning as expected, Powell said he expects to continue with it for future years. "This way, we aren't locked into a four, or five-year (agreement) if it doesn't work," Powell said. While the lunches are free to all students, Powell said they will still have to pay for seconds or any of the a la carte items sold during lunch. "That's additional and beyond what the school lunch program (offers)," Powell said. LANSING Michigans Auditor General will review the process the Michigan Department of Corrections used when deciding to close the Ojibway Correctional Facility in Marenisco. Auditor General Doug Ringler informed State Rep. Scott Dianda, D-Calumet, Thursday that Ringlers office had granted Diandas request to review the process behind the decision to close the prison. While auditors will be reviewing the process leading up to the decision, Ringlers letter makes clear it wont be looking whether the decision to close Ojibway was the best option. Please note that we will not provide any conclusions as to whether Ojibway was the most appropriate facility for closure and/or if any closures were necessary, Ringler wrote. Our audit mandate is not to question the discretionary policy decisions made by the executive branch, but instead to independently and professionally audit the process used in making those decisions and how the operations were then executed. The MDOC announced Aug. 14 it was planning to close the prison Dec. 1. The prison has 203 employees, including 116 correctional officers. I want to thank Auditor General Ringler for his quick response to my request and for agreeing to conduct an audit to determine if documentation exists to support MDOCs decision to close Ojibway Correctional Facility. We know that closing Ojibway could result in Gogebic County losing more than $700,000 in state school aid, the local hospital losing more than $1 million in broken contracts, and corrections workers being forced to drive more than 200 miles a day to work in the nearest correctional facility if they can even transfer there, Dianda said regarding the decision. No one understands how MDOC could consider the economic impact, as required by the state budget, and still decide to close this facility. With the livelihood of hundreds of U.P. families hanging in the balance, I am glad that we will now have another audit to determine if MDOC is following the rules concerning prison closure decisions. MDOC spokesman Chris Gautz welcomed the review, saying he was confident it would show the department followed procedure. We welcome their look into this very limited scope of what theyre looking into. Ive seen it described as a full-blown investigation, thats not the case here, Gautz said. We welcome (the review) because we know what we did, he continued, referencing the recent release of documents in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Weve placed close to 600 documents online already that list and show the different members of the community we heard from and spoke to, and the reports we had other state agencies provide us regarding the employment levels, and some stats about the economic activity in the region, Gautz said. He said the department would work with the Auditor Generals office throughout the process, expected to begin next week. The auditors wont be conducting a full audit, the offices state relations officer Kelly Miller said. Rather, it will complete a follow-up to a 2012 performance audit. That audit reported the department did not have sufficient documentation to support its basis for identifying and recommending correctional facilities and camps for closure or consolidation, according to Ringlers letter. Miller said the follow-up will look at what, if anything, has changed since then. If there is a finding issued, Miller said it will be up to the MDOC or state legislature whether any action is taken. We would present them with information and then it would be their decision, what do they want to do with that information and how do they want to handle it, Miller said. The follow-up is focused on whether the MDOCs process complied with the language in boilerplate Sec. 944, regarding an economic impact analysis of the closure. Gautz said the language was added roughly two years ago, after the department closed its Pugsley Correctional Facility in Kingsley. It requires the department to fully consider the economic impact of a closure. All the documents we have provided show we did fully consider (the economic impact), Gautz said. And we knew, we obviously knew this was going to be a very difficult decision and hard on the employees there and it would impact the community. We understood that, we fully considered all of that. He said some have mistaken the requirement to fully consider the impact as requiring the creation of an economic impact report. It does not say that, all it says we have to do is fully consider the decision were making, Gautz said. We feel weve definitely fully considered that and have for several years. While there is no timeline for the follow-up to be completed, Miller said it shouldnt take as long as a full performance audit. The front of the derailed locomotive of the Amtrak Train #89 that struck a backhoe that was on the southbound track , killing two Amtrak employees taht were witht he backhoe An Amtrak passenger train struck a backhoe that was on the track in Chester, PA and the crash led to at least two deaths. Service on the Northeast Corridor between New York and Philadelphia has been suspended. Two Amtrak employees were killed in the crash and that at least 16 people were taken to local hospitals to be treated for injuries. Amtrak said Train 89 was heading from New York to Savannah, Georgia, when it struck a backhoe that was on the track in Chester, about 15 miles outside of Philadelphia. The impact derailed the lead engine of the train. About 341 passengers and seven crew members were on board. 04/03/2016 MICHAEL BRYANT / Staff Photographer Read more It's been more than two years since an Amtrak train killed two track workers in Chester. Now, that event and the harsh criticism from federal authorities that followed has led to new safety standards designed to protect workers doing track maintenance. The new standards will protect Amtrak workers nationwide, and makes good on some recommendations the National Transportation Safety Board made after the Chester crash, including that labor and management cooperate to make rail work safer. "These efforts are not limited to the BMWE [Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees], and they are not limited to the Philadelphia region," said Beth Toll, an Amtrak spokesperson. "Amtrak has held a number of collaborative meetings with labor to develop the [safety management system], and we continue to work with our labor organizations to reduce risk throughout the operation." However, the agreement doesn't include a key NTSB recommendation following the Chester crash: To give workers and maintenance equipment GPS devices that would automatically alert a train and dispatchers to their presence. "My attitude is, Amtrak has to do it," said Steven Ditmeyer, a rail consultant and a former Federal Railroad Administration executive. "It really is not optional." >>READ MORE: Safety took a back seat at Amtrak, feds say. Then workers died The announcement of the changes came in an Aug. 22 letter co-authored by four rail worker unions. "What we can do is resolve to give their deaths meaning by ensuring that every one of us goes home to our families at the end of our tour of duty alive and well," the union letter stated. Five maintenance of way workers have been killed by moving trains in the last four years, the letter states, including the two men killed in the Chester derailment. The most recent, Luke Gsell, 20, died on April 24, in Bowie, Md., less than six months after the NTSB faulted Amtrak for having a poor safety culture. A watchman, Gsell was standing along the edge of railroad ties when he died, signaling an approaching commuter train to alert it to workers' presence. He was struck from behind and killed by an Amtrak train he didn't see coming, according to a document from the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees. The union letter stated the work site should have had seven watchmen assigned, but there were only three that day. Union representatives did not return calls for comment. The death is under investigation by the NTSB. The Maryland crash and the one in Chester both involved trains passing through sites where people were working on tracks. On April 3, 2016, Train 89 en route to Savannah, Ga., hit a backhoe alongside the track in Chester. During a shift change just before the crash, a night supervisor and a day supervisor failed to communicate properly and didn't maintain protections that would have prevented a train from being routed onto a track where workers were present. The NTSB recommended after the Chester crash that there be a system in place for workers to report safety problems and that there be speed restrictions imposed around work zones. The new rules address both points. Workers have long sought a channel to report safety problems without fear of reprisal. Transportation agencies often have a no-fault system of reporting "close calls," incidents that didn't result in an accident but could have. Amtrak hasn't had one since 2014, and meanwhile created a highly punitive safety system. The NTSB found in its 2017 review of the Chester crash that the rail agency had developed a culture that failed to make safety a priority, as fear of discipline trumped concern for safety. The new rules create a panel of labor and management staff who will review complaints from workers and try to fix the safety problem. >>READ MORE: NJ Transit still may miss critical deadline for rail safety system Amtrak has been developing new safety standards since the Chester crash and said a close-call reporting system was a key component of that system. The recent rules changes require a 60 mph restriction for any trains passing alongside tracks where certain pieces of heavy maintenance equipment are being used. The union letter noted the train in the Maryland crash was traveling at 105 mph, too fast for people to get out of the way by the time it was spotted. The train in the Chester crash was traveling 100 mph. The new standards also require watchmen to always stand away from the tracks and promised platforms or stands that could be attached to catenary poles for workers, and would provide information on the number of watchmen needed to safely observe certain stretches of track. Ditmeyer called the changes "very desirable." He emphasized, though, that the automatic speed control system Positive Train Control (PTC) allows many of the safety functions on the railroad to happen without any input from people. PTC is active throughout the Northeast Corridor rails owned by Amtrak, the rail carrier has said, which includes the locations where the Chester and Maryland incidents happened. Toll would not confirm Friday, though, whether PTC was active when Gsell was killed. Ditmeyer noted the 60 mph speed restriction is a good idea, but one that still requires proper communication between workers on the track and a dispatcher. If workers are equipped with devices that would automatically alert a PTC system to their presence, as the NTSB recommended, a communication failure might not result in catastrophe. "In four years, too many people died," he said. "That's too many. GPS and data radios are not that expensive." Amtrak is in the process of testing such systems, Toll said. The facade of one of the towers of the World Trade Center lies in ruins as workmen work in the early morning hours on Sept. 14, 2001. (GARY FRIEDMAN/Los Angeles Times/TNS) Read more Father Mychal Judge was a Catholic priest who served as the chaplain for the New York City Fire Department. On Sept. 11, 2001, as word spread about the terror attacks, Father Judge rushed to the North Tower of the World Trade Center and began to pray over the bodies, and administer last rites to those who were dying. At 9:59 a.m., the South Tower collapsed and sent objects flying into the neighboring building. A large piece of debris hit Father Judge in the head, killing him. Father Judge exhibited everything that is great about the men who serve in the Roman Catholic Church. He is a saint in all but the strictest terms, his halo made of the dust and glass shards that filled the air on 9/11. I tell you his story mostly because I want you to remember him, this man who ran into the maelstrom to give comfort during what were his own final hours. I tell you about him because I want you to remember that this is the template of the priests of my faith, the ones who sacrificed their own lives so that others could be brought closer to God. But I tell you his story for another reason. After weeks of crushing narratives about priests who hurt people, I think it's important to acknowledge the majority of the men who answered a call. These are men who followed a path that very few are capable of managing with grace, courage, humor, and the indispensable gift of humility. Before you accuse me of deflection and of an attempt to minimize the pain of abuse victims, you should know that the first version of this column was a reckoning with the institutional church hierarchy for its sins, crimes, and omissions. It was an examination of the accusations against the pope and the suggestion from an Italian archbishop that Francis knew about the victimization of both children and adult seminarians by now-disgraced Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. My keyboard came loaded for bear, the callouses on my fingers testify to how hard I pounded away at it. But then, I took a deep breath and realized that I was one voice among many. Thousands upon thousands have expressed their solidarity with the victims and their fury at the men and women who helped cover up the trail of tears. My own words would simply echo those sympathies. And so I decided to talk about Mychal Judge, who gave his life for his church and his people. Judge was gay, and struggled to fit into a church that saw homosexuality as evil, but was transformed by the grace of God and the need to create a bridge between that God and the marginalized: sick, homeless, immigrants, the addicted, and those who are gay. And I decided to talk about Father Frans Van der Lugt, a Jesuit who was murdered when he refused to abandon his small community of Christians in the Syrian town of Homs, a town that was under siege in the ongoing civil war. And I decided to talk about priests who have been killed by Muslim extremists in France, by terrorists in the Philippines, by drug traffickers in Mexico. None of this excuses the crimes detailed in the recent grand jury reports. None of this is meant to be a shiny bright thing that steals attention away from the sickening revelations made by Attorney General Josh Shapiro. This is simply a reminder that there are good men who are unable to speak for themselves because they are silenced by their own sorrow and decency. Even though the crimes were committed by others, often before they themselves were even born, these good priests who stand at the altar and minister to the faithful bear, by proxy, their shame. They have been confronted, like politicians at town hall meetings, by furious parishioners. Some have made public penance, and were met with derision and shouts of "nothing you ever do or say will be enough." And the op-ed writers and lawyers and abuse advocates all point fingers and say that only when the constitutions are shredded to eliminate statutes of limitations, and only when we rise up like Martin Luther to drastically change the church, will penance be sufficient. I'm here to say that as we throw bodies into the mouth of the vengeful beast, we stop and reflect on Mychal Judge and his martyred brothers. In nine hours of negotiations, Philadelphia-area Catholic high school teachers and the archdiocese failed to reach a deal on a new contract Friday, with the existing pact set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. This is the second consecutive year that negotiations between the 650-member Association of Catholic Teachers and the archdiocese went past the expiration date. At this time last year, the sides bargained through the Labor Day weekend before reaching an agreement one day before students returned to classes. Indications are pointing toward history repeating itself next week, when the school year begins. "We're not done yet," said Rita Schwartz, president of the Association of Catholic Teachers, "but as long as we're talking, it's good." The sides were scheduled to return to the bargaining table on Sunday and, if necessary, Monday. Schwartz is hoping to finalize an agreement that can be brought to union members at 10 a.m. Tuesday during a general membership meeting at the Sheet Metal Workers Local 19 facility on Columbus Boulevard. The 11,600 students at the 17 area high schools the union represents are scheduled to start classes on Wednesday. >> READ MORE: Philly Archdiocese, high school teachers negotiate down to the wire Negotiators were still divided over teacher pay raises and protection against ballooning health-care costs. Currently, pay for the unionized teachers starts at $39,800; about half are veterans of at least 20 years, making around $54,480. Last year's agreement, another in a long line of one-year deals, awarded teachers a $1,200 across-the-board raise. Their 15 percent share of medical premiums remained the same. In a news release, the archdiocese said its proposals to this point "ensure no teacher will experience a rise in cost for health benefits." It added that salaries for its high school teachers are consistently ranked among the highest in the nation. The last Catholic high school teachers' strike was in 2011, when their walkout disrupted the first two weeks of the school year. "If it's a really good contract, both of you go away a little unhappy," Schwartz said. "So, I'm hoping that we both go away a little unhappy, and that it's done." Kate McClure and her boyfriend Mark D'Amico (center) started a GoFundme page for Johnny Bobbitt Jr. (left), a homeless man who helped Kate when she was stranded. Kate ran out of gas and Johnny spent his last $20 to buy gas for her at this CITGO station. . ELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Philadelphia Inquirer Read more Editors Note: On Nov. 15, 2018, the Burlington County Prosecutors Office announced that the three central figures in this story had been arrested and charged with second-degree theft by deception and other offenses. Prosecutors concluded that their dramatic tale of rescue and redemption had been completely made up. Story detailing the findings can be found here. A lawyer for Johnny Bobbitt Jr. said Saturday a Burlington County couple still had not complied with a court order to hand over what was left of the $400,000 they raised for the homeless man in a GoFundMe campaign. No immediate action was taken in response to the reported failure to meet the transfer deadline, which was Friday afternoon. Jacqueline Promislo, one of Bobbitt's pro bono lawyers from Cozen O'Connor PC, said they do not intend to take any legal action over the weekend. On Friday night, Chris Fallon, another lawyer at Cozen O'Connor, which has set up an escrow account for the GoFundMe funds, said if the money is not transferred over the Labor Day weekend, the firm would file a petition to enforce the court's order. Judge Paula T. Dow in Mount Holly on Thursday ordered Mark D'Amico, 35, and Kate McClure, 28, to transfer what remained of the GoFundMe funds from their savings account into a frozen third-party account. The ruling was made after Bobbitt claimed in a lawsuit that the two had used the money to "enjoy a lifestyle they could not afford," including taking expensive vacations and buying a BMW. Ernest Badway, the lawyer for D'Amico and McClure, declined comment Saturday. Sometimes, it can take several hours for wire transfers to show up in a recipient's account, Fallon said Friday night, adding that the firm would monitor the escrow account over the weekend. McClure, a receptionist for the New Jersey Department of Transportation, and D'Amico, a carpenter, could not be reached Friday. Fallon said they were forced to file the suit and ask that what remained of the $400,000 be frozen after different estimates by Bobbitt and the couple of what was left in the account. "I was afraid if we didn't move quickly with a lawsuit, something might happen. I hope my fear is not realized," Fallon said. "I'm hopeful this is just a misunderstanding, and the money will be delivered to us promptly." How much of the $400,000 remained is unknown. At Thursday's hearing before Dow, the couple's lawyer said Bobbitt had received about $200,000 from the GoFundMe effort since last November, when it was launched. Fallon told the court that his client had received $75,000, including money spent on a camper and a used SUV the couple bought for him, but listed McClure as the legal owner. The camper and the SUV were later sold, Fallon told the court, and Bobbitt is again homeless. After the GoFundMe account was established, the story got national attention and the donations started rolling in. McClure then said the money would go toward buying a house for Bobbitt and a 1999 Ford Ranger, his dream vehicle. She also said two trusts would be set up for him. Months later, D'Amico said, the money was instead put into the couple's savings account. The couple have said they did not want to give large sums of money to Bobbitt because he was struggling with addiction and might buy drugs. The campaign was born after Bobbitt gave McClure his last $20 when she became stranded in Philadelphia in November after her vehicle ran out of gas in Kensington. Bobbitt, a 34-year-old from North Carolina who had been living under an I-95 ramp, gave her all the money he had on him so she could get home. GoFundMe has said it is investigating allegations that the campaign was fraudulent. Lawyers are cold-calling phone numbers in far-flung Central American villages, and enlisting church pastors and schoolteachers to help. They are spreading the word on radio stations, putting up posters and setting up Spanish-language hotlines. They are trying to reach every parent separated from their children by the Trump administration. More than a month after a court deadline passed for the government to reunite families divided by President Trump's border crackdown, nearly 500 children remain in U.S. government-funded shelters without their parents, according to court papers filed Thursday night. Advocates and government officials say it could be weeks, months or longer before they are together. Nearly two-thirds of the 497 minors still in custody including 22 "tender-age" children, who are younger than 5 have parents who were deported, mostly in the first weeks of Trump's "zero-tolerance" policy. Their lawyers are locating parents in their home countries to ask whether they want their children sent back, or would rather have them remain in the United States to pursue their own immigration claims. At the same time, the lawyers are trying to bring some deported parents back to seek permission to live in the United States a decision that might end up with U.S. District Judge Dana M. Sabraw, who issued the reunification order. Other parents are still being vetted or are ineligible to immediately regain custody because they are in custody, in some cases for minor or years-old offenses. Government officials say they are moving as fast as possible, despite legal challenges and complicated logistics including dozens of children who officials say want to go home to their parents, but have not been sent because of atemporary court order that prohibits their deportation. "There are a lot of folks who want to move forward with reunification, and we want as few roadblocks as possible," said Justice Department lawyer Scott Stewart at a hearing Friday. The government expects to reunite all the families eventually, unless parents pose a safety threat or decide that their children should pursue asylum in the United States. Children in those circumstances probably would have relatives or other sponsors they could live with, officials say. If not, they could end up in long-term foster care. The American Civil Liberties Union, which fought for Sabraw's reunification order, suspects the children are agreeing to leave the United States only because they miss their parents, and not because they feel safe in their homelands, ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt said. Lawyers are trying to bring some deported parents back so families can apply for asylum together instead. Experts say the months children spent apart from family members can cause them permanent emotional harm. "I'm really concerned about the longer-term mental health and well-being of the kids," said Christie Turner, deputy director of legal services for Kids in Need of Defense, which provides lawyers for migrant children. "How much damage is being done to them?" The government announced the family separation effort on May 7, saying it was necessary to criminally prosecute migrants who crossed the border illegally with their children. An international outcry prompted Trump to end the practice on June 20. Days later, in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Sabraw stopped the deportation of separated parents and gave the government 30 days to return more than 2,600 children. The government had no reunification system, and officials worked for weeks out of an emergency command center to identify which minors belonged to which adults and explore safety concerns. More than 1,400 children were reunited by the July 26 deadline, in most cases released with their parents in the United States to await immigration proceedings or sent together to an immigration jail. But the pace of reunifications has slowed significantly, leaving hundreds of youngsters scattered in shelters that cost taxpayers about$250 to $750 per child per day. Government lawyers said in court filings that they have contacted virtually all of the 322 deported parents whose children remain in U.S. custody. But the ACLU said they have not been able to reach as many as 80 parents, in many cases because the contact information was "inoperable or ineffective." Sabraw told the government Friday to provide updated information to the ACLU. "Moving with all due speed, of course, is important because many, many families still remain separated and that will continue to be the case until, and unless, these issues are resolved," Sabraw said. "Work hard this weekend over those issues." In one case, the government listed a father's language as Spanish, when he really spoke an indigenous Guatemalan language. When the lawyers reached him, they didn't have an interpreter and had to call back. Advocates say the effect of the separations is easy to see once children are returned to their parents. In one recent video, a curly-haired toddler squirms away from his mother when they are reunited at a Houston airport after 3 1/2 Months apart. "My love," his mother says as the boy refuses to hug her back. "I'm your mommy." He crawls into a corner, and she dissolves into tears. A 7-year-old girl who has been in custody in New York since June could not stop crying when lawyers visited her in early August, Turner said. Taylor Levy, legal coordinator for the Annunciation House, a nonprofit organization in El Paso that aids migrants, said some children were rushed to Texas in recent weeks thinking that they would rejoin their parents, only to be returned to shelters without explanation. Others were reunited with their parents on buses, and then split up again allegedly when the parents refused to waive their children's right to seek asylum so they could be deported together, Levy said. Lawyers say some parents have not gotten their children back because of minor or years-old offenses that normally would not affect custody decisions, including one parent with a 14-year-old theft conviction. In dozens of other cases, advocates say, it is unclear why parents and children have not been reunited. Levy said lawyers at Annunciation House have called U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement several times since the deadline, including once this week, to ask why detained parents are still separated from children as young as 4. She said the officials told them that the children had been released to guardians. But they were still in government shelters. Lauren Connell, pro bono counsel at Akin Gump's New York office, said she has been unable to find out why a 36-year-old Honduran woman remains detained in Sierra Blanca, Texas, separated from her 9-year-old-son. She said the woman, who asked to be identified by her middle name, Marleni, hasn't seen the boy since May, although they speak twice a week. Connell said federal officials told them on Thursday that Marleni and her son would be reunited soon. ICE spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa declined to comment on the case. Some deported parents have told the government they want their children to pursue their immigration cases in the United States, because they think the youths will be safer and have a better future here. That number rose from 139 last week to 167 in this week's filings. At an immigration detention center in El Paso, a 38-year-old Guatemalan woman whom Connell represents is wrestling with that choice. She fled gang violence with her teenage son, who is being held in a shelter in Brownsville. But she failed her initial asylum interview, partly because she was traumatized by the separation from her son, Connell said. On Friday, Connell said her client was told she will have a new asylum interview next week. If she does not prevail, she may leave her teenage son in the United States, where he could live with her ex-husband. The Trump administration says dozens of separated children have made clear to immigration judges that they want to return home to their deported parents, but immigration officials have been delayed in sending them because of a court order barring deportations of children involved in litigation over the forced separations. The government is asking Sabraw to make clear that officials do not need additional court permission to allow such children to leave voluntarily. At the same time, the ACLU says it continues to investigate reports that some parents were coerced into waiving their right to seek asylum, to be reunited with their children. Kenneth Wolfe, a spokesman for the Administration for Children and Families' Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which oversees the federal contractors that care for the children in shelters, says the goal is to find a parent or guardian for every child in U.S. custody not only those who are still separated but also the tens of thousands of teenagers who cross the border on their own each year. Wolfe said the separated children are treated the same as the rest of the more than 11,000 minors in ORR care, many of whom have relatives in the United States waiting to take them in. They get three meals a day, snacks, schooling, sports, medical care, access to lawyers and regular phone calls with their parents. "For our purposes, the services are identical to the others," Wolfe said. "Once we're referred a child, the child is sent to one of our shelters just like a minor who crosses the border alone." Parts of Chester County Friday afternoon received another dose of exactly what they didn't need another dousing of heavy rain. The National Weather Service has posted a flood warning for the western half of the county until 8 p.m., reporting that 2 of 3 inches of rain had fallen. "Combined with the wet soil, we didn't want to take any chances," Alex Staarman, a meteorologist in the weather service office in Mount Holly, said of the decision to issue the warning. As has happened repeatedly in the last several weeks, areas to the west of the city have been pounded with heavy rains. In the 60-day period through Thursday, close to 17 inches of rain had fallen upon Chester County, just over double the long-term average, according to the Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center. But this time, Delaware also was targeted, and Staarman said the weather service had received reports of 4 and 5 inches in the Diamond State. A strong thunderstorm might have knocked out the weather service radar at Dover, Staarman said. More showers are possible for the next several days, however after Friday night they should become "more sporadic," he said. And at the Shore chances are good that Saturday will be rain-free. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger speaks at a memorial service for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018. Read more WASHINGTON Sen. John McCain's funeral Saturday mixed a solemn national memorial to his life with a striking rebuke to President Trump, whose influence on civic life served as an unmistakable backdrop. Under the soaring arches of the National Cathedral, former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, McCain's family, and his friends turned a service draped in national grandeur into a bipartisan tribute to decency and honor, and an affirmation of values they admired in McCain and fear have come under threat. McCain's daughter Meghan made the message clear. "We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness, the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who lived lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served," she said in a passionate eulogy for a Vietnam War hero, former presidential nominee, and statesman who spent more than 30 years in the Senate. With her father's flag-draped casket before her and some of Trump's top aides in the audience, she later added, "The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again, because America was always great." Watch: Trump, meanwhile, was uninvited to an august gathering that drew three former presidents, their wives, two ex-vice presidents, and much of official Washington, including a significant showing from the Senate and U.S. House. During the funeral, he tweeted about the North American Free Trade Agreement and traveled to his golf course in Virginia. The funeral was the final public event after a week of McCain commemorations that had drawn implicit contrasts between the values he espoused and the ones he detested in Trump. This one made the contrast explicit. Bush and Obama, each of whom had defeated McCain in elections and represented different parts of the political spectrum, delivered eulogies that united around themes of respect, compassion, the rule of law, and integrity, even among rivals. "He respected the dignity inherent in every life, a dignity that does not stop at borders and cannot be erased by dictators," Bush said. "Perhaps above all, John detested the abuse of power. He did not abide bigots and swaggering despots." "So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse, can seem small, and mean and petty," Obama said. "Trafficking in bombast and insult and phony controversies and manufactured outrage, it's a politics that pretends to be brave and tough but in fact is born of fear. John called on us to be bigger than that; he called on us to be better than that." It was a remarkable infusion of politics into the kind of national mourning reserved for American giants. But from Meghan McCain's speech, the choice of speakers, and the decision to leave out Trump, it seemed clear that it was what the defiant Arizona senator had orchestrated. "His final message is, 'We are a stronger nation when we work together,' " said former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, a Republican who served as one of McCain's pallbearers. He said the invitations to former political opponents Bush and Obama spoke to McCain's values. "He respected their code of conduct, their moral code," Ridge said in an interview Friday. "He didn't agree [with them] necessarily, but he respected their leadership how they comported themselves as president of the United States and leader of the free world." Ridge and McCain entered Congress together in 1983, and bonded over their shared service in Vietnam. McCain, a fighter pilot and Vietnam War hero who refused an early release from a prisoner of war camp despite enduring years of torture, would go on to serve more than 30 years in the House and Senate, win the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, and become a towering figure in U.S. politics, known for his hot temper, salty humor, and strong convictions. The funeral was the final public memorial for McCain. He is to be buried in a private ceremony Sunday in Annapolis at the U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery, by his alma mater. His willingness, even in death, to take on a president of his own party gave one final glimpse of the unpredictable style that attracted bipartisan praise, despite a complex record that even McCain acknowledged didn't always live up to his ideals. The national outpouring since his death, in turn, has seemed to pay tribute not just to his military service and public career, but also a style of public conduct that has been eroded by hardening political divides, attacks, and grievance factors that Trump has amplified and utilized as part of his political appeal. With members of a sharply divided Congress looking on Saturday, Bush said that if ever Americans "forget who we are or grow weary of our cause, John's voice will always come as a whisper over our shoulder: We are better than this. America is better than this." Obama recounted meeting privately with McCain in the White House, often disagreeing but recognizing "we were on the same team." "He did understand that some principles transcend politics, that some values transcend party," Obama said. "He considered it part of his duty to uphold those principles and uphold those values." Among the more touching scenes was McCain's 106-year-old mother, Roberta, watching from a wheelchair at the top of the cathedral steps as her son's casket was placed into the hearse following the service. The funeral came after McCain's wife, Cindy, placed a wreath at the Vietnam Memorial Saturday morning. The Arizona senator had lain in state overnight in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, a short walk from the Senate floor. Top Trump aides, including his daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, attended the service, along with White House chief of staff John Kelly and national security adviser John Bolton. Former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former presidential nominee and senator Hillary Clinton, were among those in the audience, which drew an array of current and former senators, U.S. House members, and national leaders. Bob Dole, another former Republican presidential nominee and war veteran, was another notable presence, as were former vice presidents Dick Cheney and Al Gore. Television cameras captured Bush sneaking a piece of candy to former first lady Michelle Obama. Notably unwelcome was McCain's vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, whose sharp-edged approach foreshadowed the resentment politics that Trump has embraced. Along with the political messages were warm remembrances. Joe Lieberman, a former Democratic senator whom McCain almost picked as his vice presidential nominee, spoke about traveling the world with McCain, and noted that whenever they visited the leaders of a repressive nation, McCain insisted on also sitting with human rights groups. He also prompted laughter when the observant Jew cracked that McCain got the last laugh by having his funeral on a Saturday, forcing Lieberman to walk there. Meghan McCain recounted not just McCain's military heroism, but also her father's love. "When my father got sick and I asked him what he wanted me to do with this eulogy, he said, 'Show them how tough you are,' " McCain said, fighting through sobs. "That is what love meant to John McCain." NEW DELHI: Senior leader Ahmed Patel on Saturday formally took charge as the new treasurer of the All India Congress Committee, replacing Motilal Vora, who has been managing the party's coffers for a long time. Ahmed Patel has long been the political secretary of former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and had earlier served as party's treasure. He is currently a member of the Rajya Sabha. The Congress leader from Gujarat is also known as a key resource mobiliser for the party. Delhi: Congress leader Ahmed Patel takes over from Motilal Vora as Congress treasurer pic.twitter.com/Qf8ddCzV68 ANI (@ANI) September 1, 2018 Nonogenarian Vora has been made the general secretary in charge of administration. The Congress has been of late facing a severe resource crunch. There were reports that the party is running on overdraft for about Rs 100 crore. He was recently appointed as the new AICC treasurer, replacing octogenarian Moti Lal Vora, by Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Rahul also appointed former Union minister Anand Sharma as the chairperson of the party's foreign affairs department replacing Karan Singh, the Congress said in a statement. Luizinho Salerio was appointed as AICC general secretary in-charge of north-eastern states, excluding Assam, replacing CP Joshi. Former speaker Meira Kumar has been made a permanent invite to the Congress working committee, the highest decision-making body of the party. Patel's appointment was part of the much-talked-about rejig in the Congress party ahead of 2019 polls aimed at reviving the party's fortunes under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. Patel, who was a key operator during the UPAs rule during 2004-14, was also recently named a member of the reconstituted Congress Working Committee. Rahul Gandhi, who has been pushing for generational change in the Congress, zeroed in on Patel after he countered BJP chief Amit Shahs attempts to defeat him in the Rajya Sabha polls from Gujarat last year. He also reportedly played an important role in Gujarat assembly elections in which Congress party performed exceptionally well, improving its 2012 rally. Since Congress party has been facing a financial crunch, Patel assuming charge as the party's treasurer is likely to boost its coffers. Patel's appointment also assumes political significance as the party aims to take on a formidable BJP led by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in the upcoming polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, and the Lok Sabha elections in April 2019. A day after two women went missing from Bihar's Aasra Shelter Home, an inmate of the shelter home, meant for mentally challenged women, died on Friday while undergoing treatment at a hospital. The shelter home in Rajeev Nagar area of Patna has been in the news after two girls died earlier this month. The woman identified as Anamika, a 27-year-old, was brought to the hospital after she complained of breathlessness. Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) superintendent Rajeev Ranjan Prasad said, "Anamika (27), an inmate of the Aasra shelter home, was brought to the hospital in a critical condition yesterday. She had been complaining of breathlessness and was severely anaemic. She died today at 8 pm." Two other inmates of the shelter home, both in their early 30s, went missing since Thursday and an FIR has been lodged at the Rajeev Nagar police station in this connection, SHO Rohan Kumar said. The Aasra shelter home had hit the headlines earlier this month when two of its inmates had fallen ill and were declared brought dead at PMCH. Following the deaths, which had taken place in the intervening night of August 10-11 and evoked an outcry, Manisha Dayal and Chirantan Kumar - who ran the NGO entrusted with running the shelter home - were arrested and sent to jail. Following the arrests of Dayal and Kumar, the Bihar Social Welfare Department had deputed its own personnel at the shelter home for its upkeep as an interim measure. Moreover, a decision has also been taken by the Nitish Kumar government to phase out awarding of contracts to NGOs for running such care units. The news of the death and missing of the women from the shelter home has turned the spotlight once again to the growing cases of atrocities at shelter homes across the country. It may be recalled that the shocking case of alleged sexual abuse and ill-treatment of 35 inmates of a shelter home in Muzzafarpur had triggered a political storm in Bihar. Besides Bihar, similar cases were recently reported from Deoria in Uttar Pradesh and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. In the aftermath of the Muzzafarpur sex scandal, shelter homes across the country are under scanner and the calls for a strict audit of these shelter homes have become louder. New Delhi: In a big boost to the Indian Army, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has initiated the process for buying at least 6.5 lakh assault rifles under the Narendra Modi government's 'Make In India' initiative. According to reports, the MoD has floated the Request for Information (RFI) for 7.62x39 square mm calibre assault rifles, with an effective kill range of 300 metres. The new assault rifles will be manufactured by the Ordnance Factory Board. ANI quoted the defence sources as saying that the whole process will be under the 'Buy and Make (Indian)' with 'Buy' component being kept nil. The development holds significance since the Army is keen to replace around 8 lakh INSAS Rifles which are produced by the Ordnance Factory Board. The RFI being issued is for 6,50,000 new assault rifles which will become the front-line personal weapon system of the important infantry soldier of the Indian Army. Infantry takes on the enemy from the front. It was earlier reported that the Indian Army is eyeing the Kalashnikov AK-103 7.62x51 mm assault rifles for its soldiers. According to Russian news portal SputnikNews.com, senior officials of the MoD along with a team of Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) officials had visited Moscow in April to the Kalashnikov Rifle Works at Izhevsk to discuss fast-tracking the government to government agreement for the licensed production of the upgraded Kalashnikov AK-103 7.62x51mm assault rifles in India. The Army has around 400 units of infantry serving in the most difficult parts. Similarly, several units of the Rashtriya Rifles are also currently engaged in the counter-terrorism operations in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. In order to fulfil the requirement for Assault Rifles, 72,400 units of such rifles are being procured through the 'Fast Track Procedure' from the international market. The Army had recently sent a nine-member team, led by a Brigadier, to five other countries in order to select the best available from the options in those countries. The delegation is back and it is expected to start the process of fast-track procurement soon. The Request for Proposal for the larger procurement is expected to take place by December this year. (With ANI inputs) President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday lamented the legal system is marked by long delays and stated there is a backlog of 3.3 crore cases in various courts across the country, including 58,000 in the Supreme Court. Addressing the National Conference organised by the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association in the national capital, President Kovind said the reasons for delays include -- infrastructure gaps, considerable vacancies, particularly in subordinate courts, and the culture of seeking adjournments as a norm rather than an exception. "Indian legal system is marked by long delays. There is a backlog of 3.3 crore cases in various courts of the country. Of these, 2.84 crore cases are in the subordinate courts. Another 43 lakh are in the High Courts and about 58,000 in the Supreme Court. There are many reasons for such delays. There are infrastructure gaps and considerable vacancies, particularly in subordinate courts. There is a culture of seeking adjournments as a norm rather than an exception. Judiciary is making efforts to curb this practice," said the President. Commending the step taken by the government in cases of litigation, President Kovind said, "In the past, it has been observed that governments and government agencies themselves were parties to many cases of litigation. I must commend the government of India for making a sincere effort to reduce this number." Kovind said, "Government has enhanced threshold for filing appeals in tax disputes in tribunals and courts. In Supreme Court, the threshold has gone up from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 1 crore. The government has also decided to withdraw many pending appeals. There has been a conscious rationalisation of tribunals. 36 identified tribunals have been merged to form 18 tribunals. This prevents overlapping of jurisdictions and provides greater clarity in ensuring early solutions and justice to aggrieved parties." Speaking on the impact of technology on justice, Kovind said, "Technology can be a great enabler of justice. A start was made in 2016 with the opening of Indias first e-court in the High Court of Hyderabad. Since then, the idea of e-courts has spread elsewhere. Innovations such as evening courts and family courts, and the concerted effort made in the delivery of speedy, fast-track judgements in cases of sexual crimes against women, are also noteworthy." "On the pathway of the government's Digital India initiative, the Legal Information Management and Briefing System (or LIMBS) has been introduced as an online mechanism to monitor and streamline court cases, and to reduce the governments own litigation. LIMBS attempts to bring all stakeholders from Ministries to advocates to claimants and others on the same platform. This will check delays and financial costs. So far 2.6 lakh court cases have been placed on this platform," he added. New Delhi: Sudha Bharadwaj, one of the five activists arrested in multi-city raids by the Maharashtra Police, has outrightly rejected the claims made by the investigating agency and said a purported letter implicating her was "totally concocted" to criminalise her and human rights organisations. The police had Friday claimed that Bharadwaj had written to one "Com Prakash". Reacting to this in a handwritten statement, Bharadwaj, who is under house arrest, Friday said the purported letter shown by the Pune Police is a "mixture of innocuous". She claimed a number of human rights lawyers, activists and organisations were deliberately named to cast a stigma over them, obstruct their work and incite hatred against them. "It is a totally concocted letter fabricated to criminalise me and other human rights lawyers, activists and organisations," the letter said. The activist-lawyer said the "fabricated letter" had not been brought before either before the Pune Court or the Faridabad Chief Judicial Magistrate while seeking to "whisk" her to Pune. In a media briefing Friday, the police had released details of seized letters related to five activists arrested in June in connection with the Bhima Koregoan violence that took place in January. Early this week, the police raided the homes of activists and lawyers from five states---Varavara Roa in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Bharadwaj in Fariadabad and Gautam Navalakha in Delhi. Lawyer-activist Sudha Bharadwaj and families of other activists arrested in the recent raids have dismissed the evidence produced by Maharashtra Police to link them with Maoists as fabricated. Bharadwaj, one of the five activists arrested by Maharashtra Police, said a purported letter implicating her was "totally concocted" to criminalise her and human rights organisations. The police had claimed Friday that Faridabad-based Bharadwaj had written to one "Com Prakash". Reacting to this in a handwritten statement, Bharadwaj said the "fabricated letter" had not been brought before the Pune Court or the Faridabad Chief Judicial Magistrate while seeking to "whisk" her to Pune. In a media briefing in Mumbai, the police had released details of seized letters allegedly linking the arrested activists to the violence in Koregaon-Bhima in January. On Tuesday, the police arrested Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Bharadwaj in Faridabad and Gautam Navalakha in Delhi. The family of Vernon Gonsalves also said the charges were "fabricated". "I was present when searches and raids were conducted at our home and I know what the police have seized," his son Sagar Gonsalves said Saturday. "I could not stop laughing when the police were levelling false charges with the so called letters," he said, referring to the police press conference. The activist's lawyer wife Susan Abraham called the arrests a ploy to divert attention from the real culprits behind the Koregaon-Bhima violence. "The letters read out by the police during the media briefing are manufactured. None of these letters were filed or submitted to the court," she said. She accused the police of not following the set procedure for carrying out such probes. "The police have not followed the procedure established by the cyber laws for the seizure of electronic data," she said. In Hyderabad, Telugu poet Varavara Rao's nephew Venugopal said the evidence presented by Maharashtra Police to link the arrested activists to Maoists was "cooked up". "All this was said in June. It is nothing new," he told PTI on Saturday. He termed the police press conference contempt of court, saying the matter was sub judice and the Supreme Court had asked the evidence to be submitted on September 6. The Supreme Court has ordered that the five activists be kept under house arrest till then. "This police officer does not have a right to hold a press conference," Venugopal said, referring to Maharashtra's Additional Director General of Police (law and Order) Parambir Singh. The police have claimed they have "conclusive proof" to link Left-wing activists arrested in June and this week to Maoists, saying one of them spoke of a "Rajiv Gandhi-type event to end Modi-raj". This threat allegedly figured in an email exchanged between Rona Wilson, an activist arrested in June, and a Maoist leader. The Maharashtra Police raids were carried out as part of a probe into the ?Elgaar Parishad', an event organised in Pune on December 31, 2017, which allegedly triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima village in the district the next day. Also on Saturday, human rights activist Anand Teltumbde refuted the Maharashtra police claim that he attended a convention in Paris allegedly funded by Maoists. Teltumbde, a Dalit writer who teaches at a management institute in Goa, was among the activists and lawyers whose homes were raided by the Pune police on August 28. "I keep going abroad for academic conferences. It is all on official invitations and everything is well documented," he told PTI. In a shocking incident, a minor student was allegedly molested by another student inside the premises of a private school on Thursday at Charkop area of North Mumbai in Maharashtra. A case has been registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act. The 12-year-old girl, a student of class 6, was allegedly molested by an unknown boy at the school's canteen between 9 am and 10 am on Thursday. The girl later informed her parents that a boy has come from behind and put his hand inside her skirt. The minor, however, is yet to identify the culprit. The parents staged a protest outside the school premises accusing the school management of not responding quickly to the incident. However, the school's principal has assured them that the accused will be punished. A further investigation in the matter is underway. Police has also informed that they will go through the CCTV camera footage in the school to see if they can get any lead in the case. Kohima: The Nagaland government has launched a campaign to create awareness and better understanding of laws related to child adoption. Advisor to the Department of Social Welfare, MLA Noke Wangnao launched video and radio jingles on legal adoption on Friday, as part of the state government's child protection services. The jingles aim to create awareness and knowledge among the multi-stakeholders and the general public about the concept of legal adoption and issues related to it, said Sarah Ritse, Secretary, Social Welfare Department and Chairman, Child Protection Services. "Adoption done as per the juvenile justice system can ensure a secure and safe future for the child as well as for the adoptive parents," Ritse said. Nagaland has reported around 120 adoptions during the last eight years, officials said. In reports which if confirmed could result in a big blow to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bihar, the Janata Dal United (JDU) is reportedly seeking to part ways with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections following differences with the BJP over seat-sharing in the state. The NDA in Bihar on Thursday finalised its seat-sharing formula for the upcoming elections. As per sources, of the total 40 Lok Sabha seats, the BJP will be fighting on 20 seats, JDU on 12 seats and Lok Janshakti Party will contest on five seats. If Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) fights as a part of the NDA, they could be given two seats in Bihar from the BJP quota. However, reportedly the JD(U) and the BJP had earlier decided to contest elections sharing an equal number of seats. But now the 20-12 seat sharing formula has upset the JD(U) and the idea of parting ways has gained momentum. It is also reported that the party led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will part ways from the NDA in January 2019. JD(U) might also go back and join the 'Mahagatbandhan', according to reports. Patna-JDU spokesman Neeraj Kumar on the question of separation of JD(U) from NDA said, "Those who are daydreaming are making such rumours. There is not a single ounce of truth in this reports." However, he added, "the decision of CM Nitish Kumar has been accepted by the NDA alliance parties. From where did the question of seat splitting arise. All matters will be resolved by meeting". Former minister Vijay Prakash said, "Nitish Kumar should have taken the decision 6 months ago. Only Lalu Prasad Yadav respected to him. JD(U) will be given only 8-7 seats by BJP. As per sources, the seat-sharing formula was finalised in consultations between BJP chief Amit Shah and JDU chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. It is being said that the formula was given the final shape during Shah's recent visit to Bihar. There are 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, and it has been decided that the BJP and JDU divide them equally between them and then share some of the seats with the smaller allies. As per the agreement, LJP will get 5-6 seats out of the JDU's share while the two seats for the RLSP will be given out of BJP's share. It was also decided that if Kushwaha breaks the alliance, the two seats reserved for him will be distributed between BJP and JDU. The seat sharing formula comes at a time when the opposition parties are busy stitching an alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. NEW DELHI: Congress president Rahul Gandhi reached Nepal's capital Kathmandu late on Friday and tweeted a prayer in response to his criticism from the ruling BJP of his Kailash Mansarovar Yatra via the China route. Responding to the BJP's scathing attack, Congress president shared an image of Mount Kailash considered to be the abode of Lord Shiva along with a Sanskrit shloka (mantra) ''Asato Ma Sat Gamaya'', which roughly translates into a prayer asking to be led from untruth to truth. The tweet from the Gandhi scion came after he reportedly reached Kathmandu from he will proceed towards Nepalganj by aircraft and then for Humla near Tibet border by aerial route, as per sources. Rahul Gandhi had decided to undertake the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra after experiencing a near-death-like situation in April when his plane suddenly tanked with violent shuddering due to some technical glitch. The mid-air scare for Rahul Gandhi and his team occurred while they were flying to Karnataka for campaigning in assembly polls. The chartered plane recovered soon and landed safely. Rahul Gandhi's Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage, the route of which was not disclosed due to security reasons, has evoked sharp criticism from the ruling BJP, which has questioned the Congress chief's 'unbound' love for the dragon. ''The pilgrimage, aimed at seeking the blessing of Lord Shiva for prosperity and success of the country and its people, will take about 12 days,'' Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala had said responding to the BJP attack. "Shiv bhakt' Congress president Rahul Gandhi has left for undertaking the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, where he will take the 'parikrama' of Mount Kailash, the abode of Lord Shiva, and of Mansarovar lake. The yatra will take around 12 to 15 days, but the exact route cannot be disclosed due to security reasons," Surjewala said. The BJP was quick to react alleging the Congress chief wanted Chinese ambassador to give him a ceremonial send-off and accused him of holding brief for China everywhere like a "Chinese spokesperson". BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra sought to know from the Congress as to which politicians and officials Rahul Gandhi will meet during his visit to "his favourite country" China. Patra did not comment on Gandhi's pilgrimage, saying it is a personal visit. "You are Rahul Gandhi, not Chinese Gandhi. Why should the Chinese ambassador want to see off a non-Chinese person? There is no such protocol," Patra told a press conference, asking what is the Congress president's "China connection". Surjewala hit back and accused the BJP of trying to create "hurdles" in the yatra, saying by doing so they have invited Lord Shiva's wrath. "An unnerved PM and a rattled BJP have shown their parochial-hateful mindset by mocking this sacrosanct religious journey of Rahulji to Maha Kailash. Calling this auspicious Yatra "honeymoon tourism" by BJP is the vilest attack on Hindu faith and beliefs. "It is indeed sad and tragic that BJP is insulting the abode of Lord Shiva and Maa Parvati by such cheap political tactics. We pray that Mahadeva shows them the path of enlightenment to cleanse their minds and souls from the vile hatred," he said. He said the Congress leader is undertaking the yatra for the country to move ahead and attain success and that the country remains secure. Noting that as per tradition when someone embarks on a pilgrimage, people pray for its success, "but it is unfortunate that the BJP is disturbed over this difficult but spiritual journey". "Even today for petty gains of power the BJP is creating hurdles and conspiring against the yatra. These small and petty conspiracies the BJP can do, but the BJP will not be able to come between 'Shiv bhakt' Rahul and his devotion to 'Bhole Shankar'," he said. Surjewala said Rahul has left for the Mansarovar Yatra with prayers for the country's progress. "Why is the BJP shaken by his the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. Can't he go for the yatra to pray for the progress and prosperity of the country or will he have to take permission from Narendra Modi ji. Has the BJP's arrogance reached such levels? We ask the BJP people to respect the age-old traditions and culture of this country," he said. About Rahul Gandhi's April 26 plane incident, Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation came out with its 30-page report in which it has pinned the blame on the pilots for the near-crash of Congress president Rahul Gandhi's chartered plane at Hubli in North Karnataka. Alleging "intentional tampering" with aircraft, the Congress party had demanded a probe into the "suspicious and faulty performance" of the aircraft. At the AICC briefing, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said the loss of autopilot can be dangerous and the sharp loss of altitude can be so sudden that pilots can find it difficult to recover. "This could have caused a serious accident," he said. The pilgrimage to Mt Kailash, which is considered the abode of Lord Shiva in Hindu mythology and is in the Tibetan Himalayas, is organised every year between June and September. On April 26, the plane carrying Gandhi and some others from Delhi to Hubballi airport in Karnataka developed a technical problem and tilted heavily on the left side. (With Agency inputs) (Reported by Syed Khalid Hussain, Srinagar) JAMMU: After eliminating several dreaded terrorists as part of the 'Operation All-Out', the Army is reported to have prepared a fresh list of terrorists which it seems to target in what is being referred to as the 'Operation All-Out 2'. Though there is no official word about the same, the sources close to the Army have claimed that the security forces operating in Jammu and Kashmir are ready to target a new batch of terrorists belonging to various Pakistan-backed terror outfits. According to sources, the new hit-list prepared by the Army includes top terrorists from Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Al Badr, Ansaar Gazwat-ul-Hind. The new hit-list mentions seven most wanted Hizbul Mujahideen operatives followed by LeT with 6 terrorists, Al Badr 1, JeM 2 and Ansar Gazwat Ul Hind-1. The new hit-list list gains prominence after a spate of encounters and recent abduction of relatives of policemen by terrorists in south Kashmir. Months after the abduction and brutal killing of Army rifleman Aurangzeb, the Pakistan-backed terrorists had killed four policemen in Jammu and Kashmir. In more alarming development, at least nine relatives of J&K policemen were recently abducted and later released by the terrorists from parts of north and south Kashmir. These people were kidnapped by terrorists from Shopian, Kulgam, Anantnag and Awantipora on Thursday night. One among those abducted by terrorist included the brother of a deputy superintendent of police in J&K Police. Those kidnapped by the terrorist were identified as - Zubair Ahmad Bhat (son of policeman Mohd Maqbool Bhat a resident of Arawani), Arif Ahmad Sankar (brother of station house officer Nazir Ahmad Sankar a resident of Arwani Bijbehara), Faizan Ahmad Makro (son of policeman Bashir Ahmad Makro a resident of Kharpora Kulgam), Sumar Ahmad Rather (son of policeman Ab.Salam Rather a resident of Yamrach Yaripora Kulgam), Gowher Ahmad Malik (brother of top police officer DSP Aijaz a resident of Katapora Kulgam), Yasir Ahmad Bhat (son of police officer ASI Bashir Ahmad Bhat abducted from Watho Shopian presently posted at CID Office Humhama Badgam. Two other kin of policemen identified as Nasir Ahmed from Mindora, Shabir Ahmad Zargar of Kangan Tral were also kidnapped by the terrorists. Terrorists also kidnapped Asif Ahmed Rather from Pinglish Tral. He is a son of a policeman Rafiq Ahmad Rather. The kidnappings took place after the security forces went on a rampage following the killing of four policemen in Shopian in south Kashmir. Escalating its offensive against terrorists, the security forces on Wednesday killed two top Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists - Altaf Ahmad Dar and Umar Rashid Wani - in an encounter in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir. The two Hizbul terrorists were identified as Altaf Ahmad Dar alias Altaf Kachroo a top Hizbul commander and his associate Umar Rashid Wani. Kachroo hailed from Redwani village of Kulgam district and carried a reward of Rs 15 lakh on his head. His killing is being seen as a major success in the anti-terror operations in the south Kashmir area. The Director General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), RR Bhatnagar had last week said that as many as 142 terrorists have been eliminated in anti-terror operations in Jammu and Kashmir this year. There are approximately 200-250 terrorists still operating in Kashmir Valley, Bhatnagar had warned. The DG, however, asserted that the law and order situation is "better" in Kashmir compared to 2016-17 and the number of injured personnel has decreased. (With Agency inputs) Imphal: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has seized Rs 48 lakh in cash from a woman during an investigation into the activities of proscribed terrorist organisation Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP). The agency is investigating the March 2017 case under Sections 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 20 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act relating to the activities of the organisation. The money was seized from K Pramodini, an employee of RIMS Imphal Manipur. It was produced by Pramodini in the presence of independent witnesses. The amount belongs to N Sobita Devi, wife of accused Dr Mutum Shyamo Singh (Ex Director JNIMS Hospital, Imphal, Manipur). The NIA found out that the amount was handed over to Pramodini by Sobita Devi for the purpose of concealing the terror funds which were collected by Mutum Shyamo Singh as part of his activities in support of proscribed organisation KCP. NIA had arrested Mutum Shyamo Singh on July 6, for his active involvement in KCP. Search was conducted at that time in his house and Rs 40,03,000 in new currency and Rs 1,00,000 in old currency were also seized as proceeds of terrorism. During the investigation of this case, accused persons Khoirom Ranjit Singh, Commander in Chief of KCP, and his associates - Irungbam Sanatombi Devi and P Prem Kumar Meitei - had been arrested and chargesheet was filed on July 10 last year before the NIA Special Court in Delhi. A supplementary chargesheet against Sanabam Inaobi Singh has also been filed in the instant case on May 24. Further investigation in the case under Section 173(8) of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) is continuing. Hyderabad: A 41-year-old woman from Hyderabad, who was allegedly trafficked to Saudi Arabia's Riyadh, died under mysterious circumstances. The family of the victim suspects that she might have been ''murdered'' by her employer and has sought the help from the External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj in this regard. The family has urged the minister to facilitate the repatriation of her body from Saudi Arabia so that her last rites could be performed here. "My mother Shaheen was approached by an agent who offered her a job in Saudi Arabia and Rs 20,000 salary. Believing his words, my mother left for Saudi Arabia on 20 December 2016. She was first sent to Dubai and then to Saudi Arabia,'' the victim's daughter Baseena told ANI. After reaching there, her employers made her work as a housemaid. She was asked to take care of their children, she alleged. ''Earlier, the agent promised 20,000 salary per month but her employers paid her just 16,000 per month," she said. She claimed that her mother's health started deteriorating since July. "She asked me to request her employer to send her back to India. Her employer promised to send her and then he started torturing and threatening my mother. Later on August 31 2018, we received a call from my mother's employer and he said my mother died and he didn't mention the cause of her death. We suspect they killed my mother," Baseena said. (With ANI inputs) Mumbai: Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas are enjoying a vacation in Mexico. The newly engaged couple took some time off their busy schedule to spend some time together in the country. Fan clubs took to Instagram to share images of the two stars holidaying in Mexico. Take a look at some of the pics here: The former Miss World, who is now a popular name in Hollywood, had met Nick's family in the US before flying to India with her beau for the first time. She had also attended his cousin's wedding! A few days later, the couple visited India and grabbed eyeballs by walking hand-in-hand at Akash Ambani and Shloka Mehta's Mehendi ceremony and pre-engagement bash. Nick and Priyanka even flew to Goa along with the Chopras to spend some family time. Later, they left for the US together. It is there that PeeCee was seen enjoying a bicycle ride with Jonas and his family. In the next few weeks, Nick and Priyanka returned to India again to make their relationship official by announcing their engagement. The couple had a traditional Indian roka ceremony on August 18 with just family and close friends in attendance. With the roka done, it seems to be just a matter of time when the two would take the marital plunge. Priyanka met Jonas at the Met Gala 2017 event for the first time. Washington: United States President Donald Trump will visit France and Argentina in November while giving the ASEAN Summit in Singapore a miss, the White House has announced. Trump will participate in a November 11 event in Paris commemorating the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I, and would then travel to Buenos Aires to attend the G-20 Summit, the White House said on Friday. The US president will, however, skip the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and the East Asia Summit in Singapore, and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Papua New Guinea. He has asked Vice President Mike Pence to attend these, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said. The vice president will, in these meetings, highlight the United States' vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific, based on respect for sovereignty, the rule of law, and the principles of free, fair and reciprocal trade. "The vice president looks forward to meeting with our allies and partners from across the region to advance security, prosperity and freedom for all," Sanders said. The president will also visit Ireland after attending the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the conclusion of World War I in Paris, she said. "The president's participation in this event will highlight the sacrifices that Americans have made, not only during World War I, but also in the century since, in the name of liberty. While in Europe, he will visit Ireland to renew the deep and historic ties between our two nations," Sanders said. Later in November, Trump will attend the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. "The G20 Summit will be an opportunity for the president to highlight his pro-growth economic policies on an international stage and meet bilaterally with other key world leaders," Sanders said. Trump will also travel to Colombia to discuss opportunities for greater collaboration in security, counter narcotics, and regional affairs with the Duque administration, the White House press secretary said. Islamabad: Pakistan government has decided to go ahead with the sale of luxury surplus vehicles of the Prime Minister House under the austerity drive of the new government, said a report on Saturday. A list of the luxury vehicles has been prepared to be sold during an auction set for September 17 at the Prime Minister House. The fleet of luxury vehicles includes eight BMWs, three cars of 2014 model, three 5000cc SUVs and two 3000cc SUVs of 2016 model, the Dawn reported. The list also contains four Mercedes Benz cars of 2016 model. Two of them are 4,000cc bullet-proof vehicles. There are 16 Toyota cars. One of them is a 2004 Lexus car, one 2006 Lexus SUV and two 2004 Land Cruisers. Eight cars range from 2003 to 2013 models, the report said. Apart from these, four bullet-proof Land Cruiser vehicles of 2015 model are also up for auction. There is one Honda Civic 1800cc car and three Suzuki vehicles, including two Cultus cars and one APV, all of them are of 2013 model. The list also includes a 1994 model Hino bus, it said. Prime Minister Imran Khan, after his swearing on August 18, moved into a modest three-bedroom house of his military secretary along with two servants. He had announced that he would not be staying in the sprawling PM House which has a staff of 524 and fleet of 80 vehicles, keeping his pledge to cut down the expenditure of the cash-strapped government. The long list of controversial comments made by Rodrigo Duterte has yet another edition and it may be his worst yet. The Phillippine President recently said that instances of rape would continue till beautiful women exist in the world - essentially shifting the blame on the opposite gender. In a speech recently, Duterte referred to reports that there have been rising incidents of rape in his hometown of Davao. It was far from the kind of reference that many would have been expecting from the former mayor of the city. "They said there are many rape cases in Davao. As long as there are many beautiful women, there will be more rape cases," he said. And as if it was not enough already, Duterte opted to further explain his take on what is considered a heinous crime the world over. "Who agrees to do it on the first request anyway? Will the woman allow it? No. Dont, no, ahhh. Nobody agrees to do it on the first try, he was quoted as saying by a Phillippines-based news outlet called Rappler. Although his spokesperson tried to clarify later that Duterte was only joking, hardly anyone is laughing. On the contrary, women groups around the world are absolutely outraged at what was said openly and without any apparent hesitation. The comments have not just angered feminists and women groups but people at large. This, however, is hardly the first time Duterte has spewed verbal venom. He previously questioned the existence of God - even calling God stupid - and flayed US ambassador to his country as a 'gay son of a wh*re'. Beijing: China is all set to showcase its growing influence in Africa at next Monday's China-Africa summit to be attended by a number of African leaders where President Xi Jinping is expected to announce new projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China is investing billions of dollars in aid and projects, making Africa the most focused destination under the BRI. This is the third-time China is hosting its Africa summit. The inaugural 2006 summit was held in Beijing and followed by another one in 2015 at Johannesburg. Xi will introduce new concepts and proposals for ties between China and Africa, and announce new actions and measures on practical cooperation with Africa during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Beijing summit September 3-4, official media has reported. Themed 'China and Africa: Toward an Even Stronger Community with a Shared Future through Win-Win Cooperation', the summit is expected to be attended by leaders and officials from 53 African states except Swaziland, the tiny African kingdom which still remained allied with Taiwan, spurning Beijing's overtures. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is due to attend it. Xi and Premier Li Keqiang were busy receiving African leaders and holding talks with them. The summit aims to build closer China-Africa ties further dovetailing China's BRI with African development, and set a new path for a higher level of China-Africa cooperation. BRI includes the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) over which India has protested to China as it traverses through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Xi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will both chair a roundtable discussion at the summit where Chinese and African leaders will discuss China-Africa relations as well as international and regional issues of common concern. The interest in the forum is a result of China's growing influence on the African continent and proves the FOCAC has been pragmatic and efficient, it said. The summit will conclude with the signing of a declaration and an action plan, providing guidelines for China-Africa cooperation for the next three years. The documents are expected to build on the outcomes of the Johannesburg summit, during which Xi announced 10 major cooperation plans to promote industrialisation and agricultural modernisation in Africa. Most of the plans have been implemented, it said. China's growing clout in Africa is also drawing criticism that more African countries are getting caught in a Chinese debt trap. At the Johannesburg summit, Xi announced USD 60 billion in funding support for infrastructure development in Africa. The Chinese projects in Africa include the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway and Kenya's standard gauge railway from Mombasa to Nairobi. India too in recent years has stepped up its political, diplomatic and economic engagement with Africa in recent years. During his visit to Uganda in July Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India's partnership currently includes implementation of 180 Lines of Credit worth about USD 11 billion in over 40 African countries. At the last Africa-India Forum Summit, India had committed a concessional Line of Credit of USD 10 billion and USD 600 million in grant assistance, Modi said. Chinese officials have played down reports of India-China competition in Africa. "China and India are the two largest developing countries and also emerging markets. We both want to help and deepen cooperation with African nations. We are on the same page in this regard," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said here in July. Already in the near future, the ecological situation in Donbas can reach a "point of no return". This was stated by Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, the press service of the ministry said. He noted that the ecological aspect of the situation in the east of Ukraine for a long time remained in the background, but now it has significantly worsened. A catastrophe can threaten the whole Europe. "After the relative stabilization of the situation in the combat area, this aspect is becoming more urgent. Experts predict that the ecological situation in the region may soon reach a point of no return and become a serious threat to the ecology of both Ukraine and all neighboring countries. Europe can get a new Chernobyl near its borders, "the minister stressed. He also noted that at the moment the Ukrainian side is not able to fully assess the damage caused to the region, due to lack of access. "Of course, nature has a high potential for regeneration, but it will take years. If nothing is done, then in 10 years Ukraine will be able to reintegrate only 15 thousand square kilometers of lands with a completely destroyed social infrastructure. The issue of environmental reintegration of Donbas is a matter of state security ", said Avakov. Open source Since the beginning of the current day, September 1, the pro-Russian militants have violated the truce 4 times. As a result of fighting, there are no losses in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Joint Force Operations press center reported on its Facebook page. "The enemy fired the aimed fire from grenade launchers and small arms. Militants did not use weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements, and during the day our positions were fired at the areas of Krymske, Svitlodarsk and Shyrokine settlements," the report said. No loss among the personnel of the United forces during the shelling reported. Earlier it was reported that on August 31, the militants opened fire 11 times. Over the past day, none of the Ukrainian servicemen were killed. Already in the near future, the ecological situation in Donbas can reach a "point of no return". This was stated by Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, the press service of the ministry said. He noted that the ecological aspect of the situation in the east of Ukraine for a long time remained in the background, but now it has significantly worsened. A catastrophe can threaten the whole Europe. "After the relative stabilization of the situation in the combat area, this aspect is becoming more urgent. Experts predict that the ecological situation in the region may soon reach a point of no return and become a serious threat to the ecology of both Ukraine and all neighboring countries. Europe can get a new Chernobyl near its borders, "the minister stressed. He also noted that at the moment the Ukrainian side is not able to fully assess the damage caused to the region, due to lack of access. "Of course, nature has a high potential for regeneration, but it will take years. If nothing is done, then in 10 years Ukraine will be able to reintegrate only 15 thousand square kilometers of lands with a completely destroyed social infrastructure. The issue of environmental reintegration of Donbas is a matter of state security", said Avakov. Related: Poroshenko discussed international efforts to de-occupation of Crimea and Donbas with U.S. Congress The representatives of the mission noted that there were fewer violations of the ceasefire, yet the attacks are still being performed Open source OSCE SMM recorded at least 370 violations of the ceasefire since the beginning of the school ceasefire in Donbas (since midnight August 29), as Oleksandr Hug, Deputy Chairman of OSCE SMM, at the briefing in Ukraine Crisis Media Centre, 112.ua reports. In total, since the midnight of Wednesday, when the decision on restoration of the obligations came into force, we documented at least 370 violations of the ceasefire, Hug stated. The representatives of the mission noted that there were fewer violations of the ceasefire, yet the attacks are still being performed. Since it (ceasefire, - ed.) came into force at midnight on Wednesday, we noted the accelerated depreciation of the number of violations The violations continue occurring after another restoration of the commitment. We record them on a low, but still stable level, Hug stated. He added that last week OSCE SMM documented a 10% decrease of the number of ceasefire violations. Reportedly, according to the agreement of the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk, since midnight on August 29 in Donbas the school ceasefire started. However, according to the Joint Forces Operation headquarters, the militants violated the ceasefire in first minutes and shot at our positions from heavy machine guns near Hnutove and Talakivka. OSCE recorded 70 violations of the school ceasefire. Related video: United States provides about 30 percent of the total budget to an agency that provides health, education and social services to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, the media reports. 112 Agency The United States cutts funding for the UN agency, which is helping Palestine refugees. This was reported in the US State Department, informs AP. As the agency marks, it is a question of 300 million dollars of support. The United States provides about 30 percent of the total budget to an agency that provides health, education and social services to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, the media reported. BREAKING: State Dept.: US cuts funding to UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees, ending decades-long support. The Associated Press (@AP) August 31, 2018 Earlier AFP referring to a senior US State Department official reported that the White House will not provide financial assistance to the Palestinians for projects in the Gaza and the West Bank. According to the informant, financial assistance of more than $ 200 million "will now be directed to priority projects elsewhere." The source noted that the decision was made "on the instructions of the president." Ukraine-Israel controversies over the status of Israeli settlements including Jerusalem are over. Ukraines permanent envoy in the UN Volodymyr Yelchenko said that in his interview with Yevropeiska Pravda. In 2016, we abstained from voting for the resolution on the status of Israeli settlements on the Palestine-occupied territories, including Jerusalem. Id say we both actually benefited from the pause in relations announced by Israel. We had a chance to sit and sort things out, he said. Yelchenko said Ukraine explained its stance to Israel. The situation is tightly related to whats going on in Crimea. We cannot selectively abide by the international law in one case and disobey it in another. Such approach matters to us in all principal cases. So I guess this topic is off the agenda. As the UN General Assembly considered this issue (about Jerusalem, - 112 International), we did not vote at all. Submitting this issue at the session of General Assembly, to us, would add to escalation around the status of Jerusalem which is already serious enough,' he said. Yelchenko added that while Israel claims Jerusalem its capital, Ukraine considers Tel Aviv to be the capital of Israel like many states that keep their embassies in Tel Aviv. This is why we opened our embassy there as well, he said. Related: Ecological disaster in Donbas is threat to whole Europe, - Interior Minister According to Lavrov, this is a provocation aimed at disrupting the Minsk agreements RIA news Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov said that after the death of the former leader of DNR there can be no possibility of the Normandy Four meeting, TASS reports. "In the current situation, it is impossible to talk about the next meetings in the Normandy format, as many of our European partners want," he said. In addition, he expressed the opinion that the murder of Zakharchenko is a provocation aimed at disrupting Minsk agreements. "The provocation of Ukraine, it is clearly aimed at hindering the implementation of the Minsk agreements," the Russian Foreign Minister added. Head of the terrorist organization "Donetsk People's Republic Aleksandr Zakharchenko died in Donetsk downtown on August 31 in the result of the explosion. Olena Alekseeva, Zakharchenko's spokesperson, confirmed the information on his death. Soon, a press conference will be held on this matter, reads the message on Mash, a Telegram channel. This is what is known as of now: - Aleksandr Zakharchenko was fatally injured during the explosion in the restaurant called Separatist in the downtown of Donetsk. - Life, a separatist outlet reports that Zakharchenko died in the hospital in Donetsk. - According to the sources of the Russian mass media, one of the guards of Zakharchenko is suspected of his murder. He disappeared from the scene. It is reported on the closure of all crossing checkpoints along the Inter-Entity Boundary Line, in order to search for the suspect. - "DNR" reported on the detention of the Ukrainian saboteurs accused of the murder of Zakharchenko. The number of the saboteurs isn't specified yet. The State Security Service of Ukraine hasn't yet confirmed the information. - As a result of the explosion, several more people were wounded. One of them is a so-called "minister of revenue and duties" of "DNR" Oleksandr Timofeyev ("Tashkent"). According to the RBK online outlet, he is in an intensive care right now. - The Russian MFA accused "Kyiv regime" in the death of Zakharchenko. 'We have every reason to believe that Kyiv regime stands behind his death, which has been repeatedly using similar methods to eliminate dissidents and disliked,' Maria Zakharova, Official Representative of the Russian Federation claimed. - SBU has reasons to believe that the death of Zakharchenko may be the result of the inner criminal conflicts among the militants, in the first place referred to reallocating grab assets, taken away from the owners in 2014-2018. 'We are not excluding the attempts of the Russian intelligence services to eliminate a pretty odious individual who was on the way of Russia, according to the information we obtain. According to the data, either the militants or the Russian intelligence services are standing behind this.' - Russian Investigation Committee initiated a criminal case in international terrorism due to the death of Zakharchenko. - Russian NTV TV channel with a reference to the information of mass media claimed that a serious head injury caused the death. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko in Washington met with the delegation of the US Congress and discussed international efforts to de-occupation of Crimea and Donbas. This is stated on the website of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine. "Further steps were taken to strengthen the international efforts to de-occupation of the Ukrainian Crimea and Donbas." The head of state drew attention to the illegal activities of the Russian Federation in the water area of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait and exchanged views on the threats to energy security in Europe due to the Nord Stream-2 project ", the report says. In addition, Poroshenko expressed gratitude for the support of providing Ukraine with lethal defensive weapons and increased sanctions pressure on Russia. Also Ukraine's progress in implementing reform programs and developing cooperation with the IMF was discussed. Last time, the leaders of South Korea and DPRK, Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un held negotiations in the demilitarized zone in Panmunjom village in April, 2018 Open source The Authorized Representative of South Korea is going to DPRK the next week to prepare the third Summit of the leaders of two countries. Voice of America reports this with a reference to the Presidential Administration of South Korea. A Special Envoy, the name of who is not revealed yet, will arrive in Pyongyang on Wednesday, September 5. According to the Administration, he will discuss a wide range of issues including the accurate date of the summit, the development of the relations between North and South, the nuclear disarmament on the Korean peninsula and the establishment of peace in the region. Related: North Korea accuses U.S. of "preparing criminal conspiracy" Last time, the leaders of South Korea and DPRK, Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un held negotiations in the demilitarized zone in Panmunjom village in April of 2018. During the meeting, they agreed that Moon would visit Pyongyang later in the year. Mass media also reports with a reference to Yonhap agency that on August 31, the authorities of North Korea have officially confirmed the agreement to have the Special Envoy. The identity of the dead isn't established yet since he didn't have any document with him A man with stab wounds was found in the pedestrian subway on Lobanovskyi Avenue in Kyiv. Law enforcement officers are searching for the involved in the murder. The press office of the Police reports. 'At 3:44 a.m., Holosiivskyi District Police Department received a message about a man with stab wounds in the pedestrian subway on Lobanovskyi Avenue. Patrolmen, investigative group and handlers moved out to the scene,' reads the message. Related: Ukrainian died in car accident in Poland The identity of the dead isn't established yet since he didn't have any document with him. Preliminary, the man is 25-30-year-old. He was in dark jeans and a blue tracksuit top. As of now, the police officers are searching for the involved in the offense individuals. The Police questioned the witnesses and watched the recordings from the surveillance cameras. Related: Death of Zakharchenko: All facts as of now 'As a result, several individuals were delivered to the Police Department for undertaking investigational acts and determine their possible involvement in the stabbing of the man,' the Police added. On this fact, the investigators initiated criminal proceedings under the Part 1 of Art. 115 (Intentional homicide) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. up to 15 years of imprisonment is provided for committing such a crime. Open source President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko in Washington took part in funeral farewell to Senator John McCain. This was reported in the press service of the Ukrainian president. "Senator, we are very grateful to you. And that's why now I'm here today, bringing the thoughts and sympathy of a large 45-million nation," Poroshenko said. He added that McCain supported Ukraine at critical moments in the history of our country. "We all remembered him on Maidan during the Revolution of Dignity, when, at minus 26 degrees temperature, he turned to hundreds of thousands of people who stood on Maidan in order to express the words of support, absolutely necessary at that time. Saying that the whole world and the United States of America are together with Ukrainians. And when it was necessary to consolidate the world during the Munich Security Forum, he was the leader and helped us, "Poroshenko said. "Thank you again, you are a real hero of America, and you are a real hero of Ukraine, thank you," said the President of Ukraine. Senator John McCain died on August 25 after a long battle with cancer. He was known as a war hero, a critic of authoritarian regimes and an influential friend of Ukraine. Related: Ecological disaster in Donbas is threat to whole Europe, - Interior Minister 112 Agency On the night of August 31 to September 1, the coast guard of the Russian Federation detained the Ukrainian bulk carrier Amadore in the Azov Sea on its way from Mariupol. This was announced by the editor-in-chief of BlackSeaNews Andriy Klimenko on Facebook. He noted that at 10:00 a.m. Saturday the ship was still stopped. He stressed that such detentions usually last about 3 hours. On the way to the Azov Sea, this vessel was waiting for permission in the Kerch Strait for 119 hours. The owner of Amadore is a company from Odesa. This is the 99th detention (directly in the sea, not counting the checks before and in the Kerch Strait) since May 17, 2018. Earlier Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia's navy in 2018 will receive 26 new ships and vessels, four of which will be equipped with the Caliber missile system, Gazeta.ru reports. "In total, in 2018 the fleet should receive 26 new ships, boats and vessels, including four ships with the Caliber missile system," Putin said. According to the president of the Russian Federation, in 2018 the Russian fleet has already received four surface ships, one anti-sabotage boat and three supply vessels. Earlier Kremlin offered the White House to consider a possibility of the referendum in the occupied Donbas. The idea is that local residents, who live in could the militant-controlled areas could vote for the status of this region. That was the offer of Russian president Vladimir Putin, which he voiced out during the recent meeting with his U.S. colleague Donald Trump in Helsinki, Bloomberg wrote. The outlet referred to two interlocutors who were present during the meeting, where Putin and Russian diplomats participated. According to one of them, Trump asked Putin not to discuss the idea at a press conference after the summit in Helsinki, so that Trump woud have enough time to consider it. The interlocutor added that, according to Putin, the said 'referendum' should take place under the supervision of the international community. Related: Ecological disaster in Donbas is threat to whole Europe, - Interior Minister The UN delivered a humanitarian aid of more than 100 tons to the occupied territories in Donbas region. The press office of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reported. According to the information of the agency, the freight is being delivered to the occupied territories through Novotroitske EECP, which is in Volnovankha District. 'Nine trucks with the humanitarian freight from the UN are headed in the direction of the temporarily occupied territories through Novotroitske EECP. The trucks have been delivering over 100 tons of cargo, among which is the winter and family hygiene kits,' the border officers claimed. Novotroitske entry-exit checkpoint in Donbas region is closed because of the wildfires. The dried grass continued burning and ammunition was detonating, under the order of the Joint Forces Commander, the Red regime was prolonged. At 6:00 a.m., the checkpoint Novotroitske in Donbas resumed its operation. Representative of Ukraine in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group for the resolution of the situation in Donbas Iryna Gerashchenko handed over to the OSCE coordinators in the TCG and the humanitarian subgroup Sajdik and Frisch with a request to address the representatives of the ORDLO and to unblock the work of the EECPs on the boundary line. She claimed this on Facebook. The situation in Donbas is getting extremely troubling, Gerashchenko noted. Related: Militants do not allow civilians to go through boundary line in any direction 'I have received an extremely troubling information from the occupied by Russia Donbas. There are massive delays and arrests of citizens, the militants have blocked the work of all EECP, no one is released from the occupied territory. Basically, FSB created barrier troops who are getting millions of people into a cage by surrounding Donetsk,' she claimed. Also, she claimed that the movement of the people of the occupied territories was precisely blocked on September 1, on the first day of the school term. Related: Putin expresses condolences over murder of Zakharchenko 'I am stressing, that the EECPs are blocked precisely on September 1, when a school term started, when thousands of Ukrainians whose families are separated by the Russian aggression and occupation, are crossing the EECPs. Older people can't go after their pensions, children and students can't get to their educational institutions,' Gerashchenko noted. 'I have already sent letters to the OSCE coordinators in the TCG and the humanitarian subgroup of M. Sajdik and T. Frisch with a request to immediately contact the representatives of the ORDO - to unblock the work of the EECP, also, have sent letters to ICRC to Ukraine with a request to urgently demand the access to the prisons in the occupied Donbas, where people are massively tortured. I am stressing that the country-occupier is responsible for the humanitarian situation in Donbass,' Gerashchenko claimed. Related: Death of Zakharchenko: All facts as of now Reportedly, on August 31, as a result of the explosion in the restaurant in the downtown of Donetsk, head of DNR Oleksandr Zakharchenko died. The Russian mass media reported that Oleksandr Timofeyev, so-called "minister of revenue and duties" of "DNR" has also died. The so-called law enforcers of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic stated that they detained Ukrainian saboteurs who are presumably involved in the assassination of Zakharchenko. Although, SBU hasnt approved the information. ORDO, Separate district of Donetsk region, suspects one of the guards of Zakharchenko in his death. At the same time, the Russian MFA accused "Kyiv regime" in the death of Zakharchenko. It was reported on the closure of all crossing checkpoints along the Inter-Entity Boundary Line because of the incident. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences over the murder of Zakharchenko. Read more about the death of Zakharchenko here. The illegal armed formations in Donbas are not allowing civilians to go through the boundary line in any direction. The residents are stating on much military equipment and checking. Oleh Slobodyan, Assistant of the Head of the State Border Guard Service claimed this on the air of 112 Ukraine. 'The situation hasn't changed. Russian-terrorist forces suspended the crossing in both directions. Currently, the situation remains the same. The border guards and the representatives of other services are working. We are ready to carry out the crossing but the other side is allowing to cross in neither of two directions. We are receiving information from the people on much military equipment in Donetsk region and on many checking. However, you all know that we do not support any contacts with the occupants, this is why it is impossible to approve the information on the formal level,' he said. Related: Zakharchenko's death: Militants state on injuring of 11 people from explosion The residents claim that such a situation will be kept until the funeral of Aleksander Zakharchenko, the dead former leader of so-called "DNR". Reportedly, on August 31, as a result of the explosion in the restaurant in the downtown of Donetsk, head of so-called DNR Oleksandr Zakharchenko died. The Russian mass media reported that Oleksandr Timofeyev, so-called "minister of revenue and duties" of so-called "DNR" has also died. The so-called law enforcers of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic stated that they detained Ukrainian saboteurs who are presumably involved in the assassination of Zakharchenko. Although, SBU hasnt approved the information. Related: Ukrainian MFA reacts on accusation of Russia in murder of Zakharchenko ORDO, Separate district of Donetsk region, suspects one of the guards of Zakharchenko in his death. At the same time, the Russian MFA accused "Kyiv regime" in the death of Zakharchenko. It was reported on the closure of all crossing checkpoints along the Inter-Entity Boundary Line because of the incident. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences over the murder of Zakharchenko. Related: HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK: AUG. 27 31 1. Comments must not be racist, misogynistic, homophobic, or otherwise bigoted. 2. Comments must not involve little more than name-calling and insulting remarks. 3. Comments must not be made by "anonymous" or "unknown". 4. Comments must not try to sneak in some free advertising for themselves (like spam). I invite anyone who wishes to comment on this blog to do so. I enjoy the comments, whether you agree with what I have said or not. But some people want to abuse the right to comment, and since this is my blog, I have decided to lay down the following rules. If your comment violates these rules, it will not be published. Chandan Kumar Mandal is the environment and migration reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering labour migration and governance, as well as climate change, natural disasters, and wildlife. Big, fat Asian wedding In preparing to watch Jon M Chus new Crazy Rich Asianspresently enjoying enormous hype as the first big Hollywood production to come out in a long, long time that features an all-Asian cast, and is directed by an Asian-American to bootI decided to go straight to the source material, namely, the bestselling book of the same name by Kevin Kwan, on which the screenplay is based. BIMSTEC aims institutional shape The fourth summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, which concluded in Kathmandu on Friday, will be remembered for laying the foundation for institutional mechanisms to accelerate the BIMSTEC process, something that had been lacking for two decades since the blocs establishment. Bista moves court against travel ban Former Maoist child soldier Lenin Bista on Friday moved the Supreme Court against the governments act to stop him from travelling to Bangkok, claiming that his right to free movement had been curtailed. Fake rescue: Government eliminates dubious emergency operators The government has chucked out all intermediaries arranging emergency evacuation services for trekkers and mountaineers, and made the agency handling the tour package legally responsible for looking after its customers from start to finish, following revelations of insurance fraud that tarnished Nepals image as a tourist destination. Folk and flawed On the face of it, the ten stories in Folk Gods, a collection of tales from around the sacred Kailash region in Nepal, India and the Tibet Autonomous region of China, are just thatstories about gods and goddesses (if not them, their vessels or other supernatural beings) and their affairs, which usually involve battling demons, witches and ogres or helping humans do the same. 01:23 | Palo Alto (U.S.), Sep. 1. Shot by Fernando Fernandez Leiva, the video was uploaded on Facebook and shared by VIA Television account. The film recording shows Fernandez pointing at the former Peruvian leader and subsequently approaching him. He also asked Toledo about the Odebrecht graft case involving the ex-politician. Visibly irritated, Toledo expressed disapproval of the shooting while rudely demanding Fernandez to turn off the camera and trying to find out if he was a journalist. Toledo who currently resides as a fugitive from Peruvian justice in the United States is accused of crimes of influence peddling, collusion, and money laundering. As is known, the Peruvian Prosecutor's Office issued an 18-month pretrial detention request against him in 2017 for allegedly having received a US$20-million bribe from the Brazilian construction giant, corruption-tainted Odebrecht. Said transaction was made when Toledo was President of Peru (2001-2006). Peru has requested an extradition for him to face the Inca country's justice system. (END) VVS/RMB/MVB A Chilean citizen has posted a video footage showing ex-President Alejandro Toledo having dinner with his wife Eliane Karp and other people at a Palo Alto-based restaurant in California, United States.Published: 9/1/2018 YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. President of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) Bako Sahakyan has congratulated the Armenian people on Artsakh Republic Day. On behalf of the Artsakh authorities and personally myself I extend my cordial congratulations to you on the Day of the Artsakh Republic. September 2 of 1991 is an extremely significant and memorable day in our peoples lives since the proclamation of the free and independent republic has thoroughly and radically changed the course of our history. Our fate was in our hands then and we were the masters and creators of our future. Our generation has assumed a tremendous responsibility both in front of the memory of our ancestors and for the future of the generations to come, our Motherland and the entire Armenian people. It is this sense of responsibility that has helped us throughout all these years to overcome ineffable difficulties and trials, build a democratic, legal and social state, protect our homeland that has found itself in war, restore the destroyed economy, implement various programs aimed at solving citizens social issues, improving peoples living conditions. This very sense of responsibility obliges us be stronger and more solid, united and consolidated, do everything for strengthening and prosperity of our Motherland, fulfillment of our national goals. This is required by the blood shed by our heroic sons and the expensive price the Armenian people paid for their freedom and independence. Dear compatriots, I once again congratulate you on this memorable holiday wishing peace, sound health and new victories to our people and Motherland, Sahakyan said in the address as reported by his office. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. Director of Armenias National Security Service (NSS) Arthur Vanetsyan has held a meeting with Georgias Ambassador Giorgi Saganelidze, NSS said in a statement. At the meeting, Vanetsyan addressed the traditional friendship of the peoples of Armenia and Georgia and noted that strong cooperation and solid working relations with Georgia have great significance for Armenia. In turn, the Ambassador thanked for the reception and also touched upon the strong cooperation and noted that the existing friendly and warm relations between the two countries contribute to effective work. He underscored that the relations should be strengthened and enhanced even more. The Georgian Ambassador emphasized that Armenias stability is of great importance for Georgia. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan has visited the #3 public school of the town of Sevan to congratulate the children on September 1, the day when kids start the school year. Speaking to the children and parents, the Prime Minister said: Today is the first September 1st of new Armenia. In new Armenia, the priority must be the knowledge, and not the grade. It is the skill that will matter and not what you will learn by heart. In new Armenia, the schools should not simply set the task of conveying some information to the children, but to prepare them for flight, because times have come when we must be able to fly and reach very high results, he said. September 1st symbolizes a new chapter in the new Armenia, and we must live happily and with pleasure in this new chapter, Pashinyan added. The Prime Minister toured the school and chatted with the children. The school principal said the visit of the Prime Minister was a surprise. We found out that the PM is coming only 5 minutes before he arrived, principal Lusine Hovhannisyan said. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. Law enforcement agencies have apprehended the second suspect in the armed home invasion which took place on August 28, the Investigative Committee told ARMENPRESS. Three heavily armed gunmen had breached into the home of Arman Mkrtumyan, the former president of the Court of Cassation of Armenia. The attack took place late in the evening when the former court official and his son were inside the house, located in Dzoragbyur, a village about 10km from Yerevan. Mkrtumyan and his son resisted the attack, and were able to neutralize one gunman. The two other attackers opened sporadic gunfire from assault rifles and fled the scene. The neutralized gunman, a 42 year old local of Gyumri, was arrested by first responders and later charged. He was later remanded into custody by a court at the request of the prosecutor. Police were able to gather intelligence and the two suspects who were at-large were identified. The second suspect is a 33 year old police officer, who was arrested on September 1, according to the statement from the investigative committee. Police also found an assault rifle and a handgun, which the suspect used during the attack. Police are still searching for the third assailant. The motive of the attack still remains unclear. Mkrtumyan hasn't made any public statement yet. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. President Armen Sarkissian today hosted children at his official residence to celebrate September 1 Knowledge Day. Children were excited to see the president, and were eager to take selfies. The President was talking to each of the children, asking how old they are and where they came from. Some of the kids were from SOS Childrens Villages, while others were from the Center For Child and Family Support. Some of the children included Syrian-Armenians who repatriated from Syria. President Sarkissian told the kids that from now on every Sunday the gates to his residences park will be open for them to play. I didnt visit schools today, but I invited the children here for several reasons, the most important of which is for the kids to be able to have fun. Ill still have time to visit schools. I will visit the Mkhitar Sebastatsi college Monday morning, Sarkissian said. The President said that he will depart for Artsakh after the event to attend the Republic Day celebrations. One of the reporters asked President Sarkissian if he liked September 1st celebrations as a child, however instead of Sarkissian the question was answered by a 6 year old boy who said yes!. The boy, David Sahakyan, said he is planning to become president in the future. Sarkissian humorously asked the future president permission to speak and said that he too liked going to school as a child and that school was of great value for him. I never had difficulties at school because I had my little secret, a secret that I would like to share with you. During summer holidays I would quickly study the math, geography and Armenian language textbooks of the upcoming academic year with my dad. On September 1st, I already knew almost everything and this day was first of all the day to meet friends for me, he said. He said that education is the path to free thinking and freedom itself, and that each child must discover their talent. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan congratulated Uzbekistani President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on the countrys Independence Day on September 1, Pashinyans office said. In the cable the Armenian PM said in part: Dear Mr. President, Accept my warm congratulations on the occasion of the Independence Day of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Today, new prospects for elevating the bilateral intergovernmental relations to a higher level are opened before Armenia and Uzbekistan, [a level] which will be in line with the level of century-old ties based on friendship and mutual respect of our peoples. I wish good health and good luck to you in implementing your plans. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement will be discussed during his upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin which is due on September 1 in Sochi, according to Russian media. Certainly we will also discuss issues related to the Karabakh conflict and the region. The agenda is rather wide, Aliyev said. Aliyev also said that he meeting will boost the development of Russia-Azerbaijan ties. He also stressed the positive trends in the economies of both countries. We are pleased with the level of development of relations in all fields. Relations are developing fully and very effectively, Aliyev said, adding that a big prospect for commercial cooperation exists. I am sure that trade turnover will continue growing during the years to come also, he said. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan India agrees to build gas pipeline to Nepal India has agreed to build a gas pipeline to Nepal to help it save on fuel transportation costs. According to the Ministry for Industry, Commerce and Supplies, India expressed its willingness during recent talks between Commerce Minister Matrika Prasad Yadav and Indias Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan in New Delhi. YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan has committed more than 150 individual ceasefire violations from August 26th to September 1st in line of contact, according to a statement from the defense ministry of Artsakh. The defense ministry said that Azerbaijani forces fired approximately 2000 rounds at Artsakhs military positions from various caliber firearms during the week. Defense Army units continue maintaining complete control in the frontline, the statement said. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. Armenian law enforcement agencies have located and arrested a 36-year-old international fugitive wanted by the United States on August 31 in Yerevan. Agents located the fugitive, Arsen Hakobyan, based on intelligence reports in a downtown cafe. Police said in a statement that Interpol was searching for Hakobyan in the US for homicide. Although police did not disclose other details, the name of the suspect clearly shows that he is Armenian-born. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) has not discussed the issue whether or not to endorse former President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan in his political activities, BHK President Gagik Tsarukyan told reporters today. We dont have such an issue on the agenda. We will tell you when we will discuss [the issue], he said. Earlier Kocharyan said in an interview that he plans to run for parliament in the early elections, the date of which, however, is still vague. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. President of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan has held a meeting today with the Armenian parliamentary delegation led by Deputy Speaker Eduard Sharmazanov. At the meeting the sides discussed various issues relating to the further enhancement and expansion of inter-parliamentary relations between the two countries, Sahakyans office said. State Minister Grigory Martirosyan and other officials also took part in the meeting. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan The International Defence Industry Exhibition MSPO 2018 in Targi Kielce - the 2018 expo breaks a number of records Compared to the previous year, the number of exhibitors increased to 624, the number of represented countries also sky-rocketed too, from 27 to 31.This is a further confirmation that MSPO 2018 truly deserves its third position in the European defence industry ranking of expo leaders, next to Paris and London trade shows. The 26th MSPOs leitmotif is the 100th Anniversary of Regaining Independence. Thus Poland is the lead-nation of 2018 exhibition, for the second time in the trade-show history. This year's MSPO is held from 4 to 7 September. On 8 and 9 September the Open Days follow the Expo. MSPO is complemented and held parallel to the 24th LOGISTICS EXPO. File picture: The opening ceremony at MSP0 2017, the International Defense Industry Exhibition in Kielce, Poland This year, the record-breaking number of companies, i.e. 624 (including 328 Polish firms) from 31 countries use the MSPO and MTL as the showcase for their products and services. The expos have brought together representatives of Australia, Austria, Belgium, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Lithuania, Germany, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, the United States, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, Hungary, Great Britain and Italy. The exhibitors use 27,000 square meters in the 7 exhibition halls of the Kielce exhibition and congress centre and in its outdoor expo grounds. The 6 helicopters on display will be a real highlight of the expo. MSPO has hosted many presidents of the Republic of Poland. President Andrzej Duda has visited the expo twice. Polish President has also granted his Honorary Patronage for this years trade-show. The Polish Armaments Group has is the 26th MSPO's Strategic Partner. The New Award - "The Best Polish Arms Exporter" The collection of accolades presented at the MSPO is expanded in 2018 to include the "Best Polish Arms Exporter" award. The new distinction is Jadwiga Emilewicz, Minister of Entrepreneurship and Technologys initiative - says the President Mochon. It is also worth remembering that the Republic of Poland's President's prestigious Award for the best product enhancing RP Armed Forces soldiers safety has been presented at the DEFENDER Gala Ceremony for years. Many companies and products are decorated with the Special Mentions of the Minister of National Defence and other ministries. The formal awards presentation also includes presentation of the honours of the Police Commander in Chief, the State Fire Services Commander, the Commander in Chief of the Border Guards Border Guards Laurel, the Head of the Inspectorate for Armed Forces Support, the General Command of Branches of Armed Forces, the Territorial Defence Forces' Commander. Army at your fingertips - the Expo Open Days This year's MSPO Open Days welcome the general public on September 8-9.The Armed Forces Exhibition is held under the banner of "Defence - Cooperation - Sovereignty" and staged in the Expo Halls as well as in the outdoor expo grounds. There are over 30 units of the General Command presented in Kielce - Land Forces, Air Forces, Navy, Special Forces, Inspectorate of Support for the Armed Forces, and Territorial Defence Forces and Military Gendarmerie.380 units of equipment and exhibits will be on display for the visitors to become familiar with. The Armed Forces exhibition is much more than what is on show in the A and B Expo Halls of the Kielce exhibition and congress centre . A vast majority of the display is staged in the outdoor exhibition grounds - this is the state-of-the-art equipment used by the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland - the Leopard 2 tanks, Rosomak armoured vehicles, RAK self-propelled mortars, KRAB self-propelled howitzer to mention just a few. There will be military ambulances, forensic ambulance, submarines and amphibian vehicles, torpedoes, radiolocation stations, rocket launchers, simulators and training systems, shooting ranges, Snieznik training and drill systems. The military universities, educational centres, technical institutes and the Polish Space Agency will also make their presentations. This is also the chance to become familiar with the engineering equipment, small arms, unmanned reconnaissance means, technical workshops, robots, aircraft and ship models, personal food rations and group food supplies as well as didactic equipment. As usual, museums will present an interesting and compelling offer: the Polish Army, the Air Force, the Land Forces museums will be there. The B Expo Hall of the Kielce exhibition and congress centre is the home for the soldier veteran associations, voluntary defence organizations and the Department of Military Health Service with their featured expo stands. More than 1,000 soldiers and army employees will work as a support and the implementation team for the Expo and the general public shows. The Open Days will be complemented with the dynamic show-presentations, including: police dog training shows, shooting demonstrations, aikido and fitness demonstrations staged by operation crews. MSPO problemfocussed discussions - conferences, seminars Conferences and other problem-focussed events have been an indispensable part of MSPO ever since its first edition. Such seminars complement and enhance the expo agenda. Voluntary defence organizations are in the spotlight as there is a special conference in 100 anniversary of regaining independence. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Technology organise the conference whose objective is disseminate knowledge on funds acquisition from the European Defence Fund. The Inspectorate for Armed Forces Support conference Doing business with the army a safe way to earn money is held already for the sixth time. There will also be a scientific conference held under the banner of "The Polish defence industry' and its research and development facilities' contribution in the Polish Armed Forces technical modernization programs implementation. bundance of meetings and press conferences have also been planned by exhibitors. The Targi Kielce International Defence Industry Exhibition is where the global defence industry leaders meet. Polish companies find it a unique showcase for their potentials and technical developments. The expo format is the opportunity to establish a wide network of business contacts. You are most welcome to visit Targi Kielce form 4th to 9th September. Europe's biggest tech show of the year is underway, which means gadget makers from across the globe have unveiled some of their coolest products of the year. IFA - or Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin - takes place at the end of each summer, and is one of the world's largest consumer electronics shows. This year, tech companies ranging from Lenovo to Sennheiser to Bang & Olufsen are presenting cool new products like dual-screen laptops, wireless earbuds, and even a speaker that looks like a free-standing wheel. Google even joined in this year, unveiling the latest version of its Wear OS smartwatch operating system, which becomes available this fall. While IFA is still underway - it doesn't officially end until September 5 - there have already been plenty of exciting new products announced. Take a look at seven of the coolest gadgets announced at IFA 2018 so far: 1. TCL introduced a new, cheaper BlackBerry smartphone called the Key2 LE. TCL - the Chinese electronics company that manufactures BlackBerry phones - announced on Thursday the BlackBerry Key2 LE, a cheaper version of the high-end BlackBerry Key2 it announced earlier this summer. The new device is almost identical to the BlackBerry Key2, with a few key differences: a lightweight frame, decreased battery life, and a slightly less powerful camera. The BlackBerry Key2 LE comes in three colours - slate, atomic, and champagne - and starts at $US400. 2. Sony's new waterproof speaker has a strobe light and Google Assistant. Anyone looking for a durable, portable speaker has a new option with the Sony SRS-XB501G. The new speaker, which Sony debuted at IFA, is water-resistant and dustproof. It has multicolored lights, extra bass, and a flashing strobe, and Sony says it can get up to 16 hours of battery life. Plus, it has Google Assistant built-in. Altogether, it might be the perfect party speaker. The new Sony speaker will cost $US300 and will be available in October. Story continues 3. Bang & Olufsen unveiled the Beosound Edge, a $US3,770 rolling speaker. Danish audio brand Bang & Olufsen launched a brand-new speaker at IFA - and it has a curious shape and size. The speaker, called the Beosound Edge, looks like a giant, hyper-minimalist wheel. You can either rest it upright in a room, or hang it on a wall, and it has a few neat tricks built in: It senses when you're close to it and lights up, and rolling it forward or backward will adjust the volume. The Beosound Edge comes with AirPlay 2, Chromecast 2, and Bluetooth, and works with voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant. The speaker will cost 3,250 Euros - about $US3,770 US dollars - and will be available in mid-November. 4. Sennheiser made a pair of high-end $US300 wireless earbuds. Sennheiser's Momentum True Wireless earbuds might be a game-changer for anyone looking for convenient wireless buds that still sound great. The new buds let you blend ambient sound with your music to make your more aware of your surroundings, and let you use voice assistants like Siri and Google Assistant. The buds are also splash- and sweat-resistant. Sennheiser's True Wireless earbuds only get about four hours of battery life, but can be charged up inside their case. The buds cost $US299 and go on sale sometime in mid-November. 5. Skagen introduced the Falster 2, a new and improved smartwatch with GPS, swim proofing, and a heart rate sensor. Skagen - a Danish-inspired, hyper-minimalist watch brand - introduced on Wednesday the Falster 2, an upgrade to the Falster smartwatch it introduced earlier this year. The Falster 2 looks nearly identical to the previous model, but has a few major differences inside: most notably GPS tracking, a heart rate tracker, and swim proofing. The new watch comes in four colours - rose gold, silver, grey, and black - and has a few new watch faces and programmable buttons. The Skagen Falster 2 starts at $US275, but Skagen hasn't said yet when or where it will be available. 6. The Polaroid OneStep+ is a $US160 Bluetooth-enabled analogue camera. The Polaroid OneStep+ looks and feels like an analogue camera, but it has the ability to connect to your smartphone. You can instantly snap a photo, but you can also use creative tools to edit your images in an accompanying smartphone app and share them online immediately. The new camera also comes with a portrait lens, flash, and rechargeable battery. The OneStep+ costs $US160 and is available to buy now. 7. Lenovo's Yoga Book C930 has both an LCD laptop screen and an E Ink display. Lenovo's Yoga Book C930 is an unusual laptop: It has an E Ink display on one side, and an LCD laptop screen on the other side. Like other Yoga Books, you can have it sit upright like a laptop - using the E Ink display in keyboard mode - or you can fold it over and use the device in tablet mode. The Yoga Book C930 is super-thin - it's 4mm thick at its thinnest point - and weighs less than two pounds. Lenovo says you'll get about 10 hours of battery life. The device will cost 999 Euros and will be available in September. The leader of the Russian-backed republic in Ukraine was just assassinated in a cafe bombing The Prime Minister of the Russian-backed Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, was killed on Friday in a cafe bombing in Donetsk. The explosion also wounded Alexander Timofeyev, the DPR's finance minister. Russian media says several "Ukrainian saboteurs" have since been arrested. The leader of the Russian-backed Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine was killed on Friday in a cafe bombing, according to several reports. Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko was killed after a bomb exploded in a downtown Donetsk cafe called "Separ," meaning Separatist, according to Meduza. The explosion also wounded Alexander Timofeyev, the DPR's finance minister, Meduza reported. Two others were wounded as well, according to Interfax, but it's unclear at this point if they were DPR officers or civilians. https://twitter.com/Liveuamap/status/1035549749955440645?ref_src=twsrc^tfw Multiple people were arrested near the cafe in connection with the bombing, including "Ukrainian saboteurs," Interfax reported. "Read nothing into [these arrests of Ukrainian saboteurs] until we know more details," Aric Toler, a researcher with Bellingcat, tweeted. https://twitter.com/AricToler/status/1035552923877605377?ref_src=twsrc^tfw Russian President Vladimir Putin himself commented on the incident on Friday. "The despicable murder of Alexander Zakharchenko is the latest evidence that those who chose the path of terror, violence, and fear don't want to seek a peaceful, political solution to the conflict, and don't want to lead a real dialogue with the people of the southeast," Putin said. "They are making a dangerous bet on destabilizing the situation." Assassinations on both sides of the conflict in Ukraine between Kyiv and the two Russian-backed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, which has been raging for more than four years, are rather common. The Trump administration notified Congress on Friday it intends to enter a bilateral trade deal with Mexico - and Canada can join later. Talks between US and Canadian officials broke down on Friday, in part due to leaked Trump comments saying the US doesn't intend to compromise. More negotiations between Canada and the US are scheduled for next week, and representatives from both countries said Friday they're hopeful a trilateral deal can be reached. But lawmakers and trade groups were sceptical of Trump's US-Mexico deal, saying Canada must be included in the final version. Lawmakers and trade groups reacted with scepticism and dismay on Friday, after the Trump administration notified Congress of its intent to enter a bilateral trade deal with Mexico - and Canada could join later "if it is willing." Negotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement between US and Canadian officials went on through much of the week, but abruptly fell apart on Friday after remarks were leaked from President Donald Trump, who reportedly said he didn't intend to compromise with Canada at all. According to The Toronto Star, Trump told Bloomberg News reporters on Thursday that any deal reached would be "totally on our terms" and suggested that Canadians would have "no choice" but to go along with the plan out of fear that Trump would impose auto tariffs. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, however, said in a statement Friday that it will continue negotiating with Canada with the intent of eventually including the country in a trilateral NAFTA deal. But backlash against the US-Mexico deal quickly ensued. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called the deal an "incomplete NAFTA notification" in a statement, saying that fixing the trade deal would require both Mexico and Canada. "We still don't know the specifics of this trade agreement, or whether it will measure up to the claims of an Administration with a terrible record of delivering," Pelosi said. "I remain hopeful of progress, but without a final agreement with Canada, the Administration's work is woefully incomplete." Story continues Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, tweeted that his state's economy is intertwined with Canada's - as are most states across the country. "I cannot support a trade agreement to replace NAFTA that does not include Canada, Vermont's biggest trading partner," he said. "There would be grave concerns on both sides of the aisle about proceeding with an incomplete agreement." Beyond just lawmakers, trade groups reacted with concern, and in some cases, anger. "After a week filled with insults directed at Canada, today's announcement that the United States is notifying Congress of its intention to sign a trade deal with Mexico is disheartening," Sharon Treat, senior attorney of the Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy, said in a statement. "America's farmers deserve better. A NAFTA deal without Canadian participation is not a completed deal." The Information Technology Industry Council also said a bilateral deal would risk harming American companies and workers, and negate any positive effects of the trade agreement. "Any such changes to the existing NAFTA agreement would be highly disruptive to global supply chains and to the regional economy," ITI CEO Dean Garfield said in a statement. A suspected thief on the run in Perth has booted a toddler out of a car while fleeing from police. The two-year-old boy, named as Ryan by police, was in the back of a Holden Commodore stolen from a residence at Forrestfield, in the citys southeast, on Saturday about 11.55am. Ten minutes later, Ryan was found at a supermarket in the same suburb but the car was nowhere to be seen. Someone found the little boy and called police. A Perth boy was in the back of a Holden Commodore (left) stolen from Forrestfield on Saturday about 11.55am before being located at a nearby shopping centre (right) about 10 minutes later. Source: WA Police/ Google Maps The information we currently have suggests the stolen vehicle arrived at the supermarket, stopped and the child was pushed out of one of the back doors, Western Australia Police said in a statement. The Holden was found damaged at nearby Gooseberry Hill after 12.30pm without the driver who police believe fled on foot. A man, who is believed to be in his 20s, was later arrested in the nearby Maida Vale area and taken to Midland Police Station to be interviewed. Ryans mum, who does not wish to be named, thanked everyone for helping track down her little boy. On behalf of our family we would like to thank the police, the media and the members of the community who helped share the messages about Ryan on social media, she said. Particularly, we would like to thank the people who came to Ryans assistance when he was left outside the supermarket. The quick response from everyone involved has resulted in us having Ryan back in our arms and we cant thank everyone enough. Anyone with information regarding the incident can contact police on 131 444. Chad forces bombarded rebel positions around Tibesti, a town in the far north on the Libyan border, security and local sources told AFP Saturday. A security source said the bombardment, which followed weeks of monitoring of rebel movements, targeted a site between the localities of Miski and Yebibou. A local source said a dozen local people had been injured in the operation, which it said "targeted a wedding convoy" -- an allegation which could not be independently confirmed. Contacted by AFP, the armed forces made no comment. Chad late last month launched ground and air operations in the area following an attack on a local town in mid-August blamed on a rebel group long based inside Libya. Security Minister Ahmat Mahamat Bachir said the crackdown was designed to deal with an incursion of rebels opposed to President Idriss Deby as well as illegal miners whose arrival in recent years in an area troubled by a gold rush has fomented unrest with locals. Largely desert northern Chad is sparsely populated and home to several rebel groups involved in people trafficking between Chad and neighbouring states Sudan, Niger and Libya. Chadian forces, similar to the soldier pictured in 2013, have monitored rebel movements for weeks before targeting a site between Miski and Ybibou for bombardment India to build Mahakali main canal India has taken the lead to construct the main canal of Mahakali Irrigation Project after 22 years of the existence of Nepal-India Integrated Mahakali Treaty. Iraq risks a jihadist resurgence if it fails to tackle a critical drought and other climate-related security issues, according to a study presented to the UN Security Council and made public Saturday. "The combination of its hydrological limitations, increasing temperatures and extreme weather events puts pressure on basic resources and undermines livelihood security for Iraq's population," the Expert Working Group on Climate-Related Security Risks warned in its report. "Failure to monitor and manage these climate-related risks will increase the risk of ISIS and post-ISIS terrorist groups gaining support and regaining strength within resource-constrained communities," it said. The jihadist organisation, also known as the Islamic State group, seized a third of Iraq's territory in 2014 before being beaten back in a sweeping government offensive last year. The water study, presented to the Security Council in July, draws a clear link between climate change and security. Iraq is in the midst of a devastating drought and water levels are at their lowest since 1931. The flow of water in the country's rivers has shrunk by 40 percent in recent decades, battering the country's agricultural sector threatening the population's water security. The shortage stems from the "climate change and increasingly erratic precipitation across the region, a decline in water flows from Iran and Turkey, weak irrigation systems due to damage to infrastructure during the war, and a lack of economic and political investment," the report read. "The absence of an adequate national water management policy exacerbates and compounds these critical threats." While the agriculture sector is Iraq's top employer after the oil industry, its ministry is alloted one of the lowest federal budgets. The Ministry of Water Resources also suffers financial constraints and has not been able to modernise the country's water infrastructure despite plans being in place for over two decades. Baghdad does not have formal agreements with its neighbours on equitable distribution of water resources. Scarce rainfall and dam projects in neighbouring countries have put more than seven million people living along the banks of the Tigris River at risk of displacement, the report said. Water shortages could also increase inter-communal tensions, particularly in rural areas, it added. The working group urged the UN's mission in Iraq to monitor and report on the risks of climate change and to support the authorities by integrating climate and displacement into their post-IS plans. A bridge crosses a dry riverbed in Umm Abbasiyat, some 60 kilometres (35 miles) east of Najaf, pictured on July 5, 2018 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday warned ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan during a trip to the country that it risks instability if it fails to root out followers of his US-based nemesis Fethullah Gulen. Speaking during an appearance with Kyrgyz counterpart Sooronbai Jeenbekov Erdogan referred to the status of Gulen's network in Kyrgyzstan as an "outstanding question" in otherwise warm ties between Ankara and the Central Asian country. Supporters of Gulen -- a cleric and educator Erdogan once regarded as an ally -- "infiltrate the army, police and other state structures and carry out coups" Erdogan said during the appearance in quotes that were translated into Russian. "We would not want (Kyrgyzstan) to have the same problems we faced," Erdogan said, referring to the 2016 attempted coup that Ankara has blamed on Gulen allies. Gulen, based in the US state of Pennyslvania, has always denied the accusations. After the coup bid, Turkish authorities launched an unprecedented purge against coup-plotters and individuals linked to Gulen, but also against pro-Kurdish officials and critical journalists. Since July 2016, over 55,000 people have been arrested over coup links while more than 140,000 public sector employees have been sacked or suspended. The government has led in parallel a diplomatic offensive to shut down educational institutions affiliated to Gulen in countries around the world. Jeenbekov indicated when appearing with Erdogan in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek that the Central Asian country had already taken steps to bring schools once affiliated to Gulen under government control. To date, Turkey has given no indication that it has been satisfied by Kyrgyzstan's attempts to restructure a chain of schools that are regarded as among the best in the country. The United States' refusal to meet Turkey's demand to extradite Gulen is one of many sore points in a once-strong relationship. Ties between the two NATO members hit a new low last month as US President Donald Trump announced steep new tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminium in response to the detention of an American pastor in Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seen meeting Kyrgyz counterpart Sooronbay Jeenbekov, said he would not want his hosts "to have the same problems we faced," referring to the 2016 failed coup Ankara blames on Gulen backers A group of tenants near Paris whose apartments are to be destroyed to build the tallest skyscrapers in western Europe are refusing to leave after fighting for years to save their homes. The Hermitage towers, two 320-metre (1050-foot) buildings proposed by a Russian property developer, are due to be completed by 2024 in the La Defense business district to coincide with the city's hosting of the Olympic games. Designed by British architect Norman Foster, the towers will stand just four metres shorter than the Eiffel Tower (324m from base to tip) on a location currently occupied by a social housing block which was built in 1974. But twelve of the 250 apartments in the Damiers block are still occupied, according to the landlord, holding up construction in a battle pitting them against developer Emin Iskenderov and his 2.8-billion-euro ($3.3 billion) project. "I was a political refugee," one defiant resident, anaesthetist Tatiana Dinulescu, told AFP as she recalled how she fled the former dictatorship in Romania. "It took time for us to build a new home, and now they're doing this. It's unacceptable." She has lived in the Damiers flats for more than 20 years. The struggle over the Hermitage towers comes amid a push to expand office space and residential sites in the Defense area, a centre of the French financial industry. France is eager to attract banking jobs from London after Britain leaves the European Union, with lobby group Paris Europlace forecasting an estimated 3,500 finance and banking positions could cross the Channel to the French capital. The Defense area west of the capital is the main high-rise zone of the French capital which has tight restrictions on tall buildings and a chronic shortage of space in its historic centre. Future projects in the business district include "The Link", a new 244-metre-high head office for French oil giant Total, as well as the 165-metre-high Saint-Gobain tower to house the eponymous French construction business. Other construction projects, including six high-rise blocks in the capital's 12th arrondissement, have been announced to house the Paris region's growing population which is expected to hit 13.5 million by 2050, according to the French national institute for statistics Insee. - 'Treated like criminals' - Tenants on the site of the future Hermitage towers have been fighting the current owner of the social housing block, Logis Transports, since 2007, but they are now under increasing pressure. Four families had to leave their homes immediately and with no alternative accommodation when police and bailiffs came knocking on their doors at 6.30am on August 1. "They treated us like criminals," explains an evicted tenant who wanted to remain anonymous. Having refused offers of alternative accommodation, she said she was forced to leave her home immediately with her 19-year-old son after fighting for ten years to save her home. "I couldn?t move a muscle without a cop on my back!" she said. But the head of Logis Transports, Sylvie Vandenberghe, defended the actions of the company, saying that "the tenants have been offered numerous solutions." She explained that selling the Damiers flats will allow "the funding of 1,000 social housing residences, with 500 in the local area." Developer Iskenderov hopes to be able to set a start date for construction soon. "We still aim to deliver the project by the start of 2024," he said in a recent statement. The Hermitage towers will sit on the edge of the river Seine next to four smaller new buildings. A group of tenants near Paris whose apartments are to be destroyed to build the tallest skyscrapers in western Europe are refusing to leave after fighting for years to save their homes After a top Brazilian court disqualified ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from participating in October elections, his party on Saturday was mulling whether to persist with their jailed leader or turn to his running mate. Following hours of debate on Friday, Superior Electoral Court judges voted 6-to-1 against the 72-year-old Lula's candidacy, hours before television campaigning for the fall election began. They gave the Workers' Party (PT) a September 12 deadline to find a replacement candidate for what is the most uncertain Brazilian election in decades. But the PT has vowed to "continue fighting with all means" to secure Lula's candidacy. On Saturday, Lula appeared in the party's television campaigning slot, which saw running mate Fernando Haddad promise: "We're going with Lula until the end." Haddad campaigned Saturday in Lula's native state of Pernambuco, where he vowed the party would maintain a political and moral stance in keeping with Lula's leadership "and the desire of over 50 percent of Brazilians." He is also set to visit Lula on Monday in the Curitiba prison where he is serving a 12-year sentence for accepting a luxury seaside apartment as a bribe from a construction firm. "The PT must readjust its strategy," columnist Tereza Cruvinel wrote in the Jornal do Brasil newspaper, but "nothing will be decided before the meeting between Haddad, other party members and Lula on Monday." If Haddad is named as the PT's candidate, Manuela D'Avila of Brazil's Communist Party will assume the running-mate position, according to a previous agreement between the parties. But unlike Lula, former Sao Paulo mayor Haddad commands little popular support. In the latest opinion polls, Lula was awarded 39 percent of voting intentions -- 20 points ahead of his closest competitor, far-right former military officer Jair Bolsonaro. Millions of Brazilians still adore him due to the prosperity the country enjoyed under his leadership from 2003 to 2010. On Saturday, former Argentine president Cristina Kirchner -- herself facing multiple corruption investigations -- expressed support for Lula. "Now they are preventing @LulaOfficial from being a presidential candidate because they know he would win October's elections," she tweeted. Millions of Brazilians still adore Lula due to the prosperity the country enjoyed under his leadership from 2003 to 2010 GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING: A Sydney man has survived a horror crash in Bali but lost his right leg after being trapped under a cement truck. Oliver Doussett, from Sydneys Northern Beaches, had his leg amputated following a horrific crash while on a surfing trip. I saw a cement truck overtaking a car on our side of the road, Mr Doussett, 26, said. My driver had nowhere to go and we went underneath the rear axle of the truck. Oliver Doussett, from Sydneys Northern Beaches, had his leg amputated after he was crushed be a cement truck in Bali. Source: 7 News In excruciating pain, Mr Doussett used a shoelace as a tourniquet and got a taxi to hospital. I saw my leg on the ground with my calf muscle next to my leg. I just kind of scooped up my leg in my hands and put it all back together, he said. I was just counting up to 20 and counting back to one just really telling myself, I got this, we can make it. But squalid conditions led to infections and then earthquake tremors saw doctors and nurses run from his ward. The bed rest was just going side to side, and I thought I cant believe it this is it Im going to die here in an earthquake, Mr Doussett said. Mr Doussetts parents paid for a medivac to Royal Perth Hospital even though he had travel insurance. In Perth, he had his leg amputated. Doctors in Bali treat Mr Doussetts leg. Source: 7 News A doctor from the Perth hospital said the infection could have been life-threatening, but he is now convinced Mr Doussett has a bright future. The 26-year-old had five surgeries and the next 10 days were crucial to his recovery. The surfer could lose more of his leg if the infection returns but he remained determined. Im ready to face that and overcome those and come out stronger than ever, Mr Doussett said. He advised other travellers to really have your wits about you when headed overseas. A GoFundMe page has been started to help Mr Doussett in his recovery. Mauritania, a frontline state in the fight against Islamic extremism, voted on Saturday in legislative, regional and local elections that will test head of state Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz's record seven months before a presidential vote. Military personnel cast their ballots Friday to free themselves up to provide security in the vast and arid west African state with a registered electorate of some 1.4 million. Polling opened at 0700 GMT in the capital Nouakchott but several voters were sent to different polling stations due to last minute changes, an AFP reporter said. President Aziz hailed the "peaceful and democratic nature" of the ballot after casting his vote but a leading opposition figure Mohamed Ould Moloud deplored logistical snags and hinted the outcome could be flawed. "There are voters who have been misdirected and don't know where to vote," he said, adding that there were "serious signs of possible fraud". The opposition boycotted the last polls in 2013 but a record 98 parties are taking part this time. Voting ends at 1900 GMT with results not expected until the middle of next week. There are no international observers. "I voted for people I support in different parties including some from the ruling party and others in the opposition," a woman who identified herself as Fatimatou told AFP. "It's not easy," she added after taking eight minutes to fill in the forms and deposit them in five different ballot boxes. Potential run-off elections would take place on September 15. Aziz, 61, who came to power in a coup in 2008, won elections in 2009 and again in 2014 for a second five-year term. He has been frequently accused by opposition figures and NGOs of rights abuses, including the arrest of a former senator and the "secretive" detention of a blogger. Aziz says he will not seek a third mandate, which would be against the constitution, but statements by ministers and supporters have allowed suspicions to flourish. - 'Assassinating democracy' - Aziz has slammed opposition leaders as "villains" and "troublemakers". He has described some as "dangerous Islamists, racist extremists and the leftovers of former regimes which brought the country to its knees". Earlier this week he accused Islamists of "just awaiting their political failure to take up arms" drawing an indignant response from Jemil Ould Mensour of the Islamist party Tewassoul. "It is Mr Aziz who took up arms against an elected regime and is assassinating democracy," he charged, referring to the 2008 coup. Veteran opposition leader Ahmed Ould Daddah, who heads the Gathering for Democracy (RFD), has urged voters to make "the necessary leap to get rid of dictatorship and generalised bankruptcy". The ruling Union for the Republic is campaigning largely on changes it made in the 2017 constitution, abolishing the senate and bringing in a new national anthem and flag. Voters endorsed the controversial measures in a referendum, while the opposition warned they would give the president more power. After more than a year of detention on corruption charges, former senator Mohammed Ould Ghadda was due to be released on Friday, his lawyer said. However, Ould Ghadda, who led the campaign against the constitutional changes, rejected the conditions set for his release and remained in detention, laywer Mohamed El Mamy said in a statement. Mauritania, which hosted an African Union summit in July, has recently revived diplomatic ties with Morocco, after years of tension over the status of Moroccan-annexed Western Sahara. President Aziz is urging his supporters to flock to his UPR party, denigrating the opposition, who boycotted the last polls, as dangerous Islamists and extremists Opposition leader Ahmed Ould Daddah has urged voters to take a stand to junk "dictatorship and generalised bankruptcy" Palestinians reacted angrily Saturday to a US decision to end all funding for the UN agency that assists millions of refugees, seeing it as a new policy shift aimed at undermining their cause. Washington, which until last year was by far the biggest contributor to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), announced on Friday that it would no longer make any contributions to the "irredeemably flawed operation". The move by President Donald Trump's administration was described as "cruel and irresponsible" by senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi. "The Palestinian refugees are already the victims who have lost their homes, livelihoods and security as a result of the creation of the state of Israel," she said. The US has backed Israel in accusing the agency of perpetuating the Middle East conflict by maintaining the idea that many Palestinians are refugees with a right to return to homes in what is now Israel. But to Palestinians, the right of return for the hundreds of thousands who fled or were expelled during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel's creation is central to their cause. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the American administration was invalidating future peace talks by "preempting, prejudging issues reserved for permanent status" negotiations. Palestinian and Israeli "elements that want to achieve peace peacefully, based on a two states solution, are being destroyed," he told AFP. - 'Destroying' children's futures - Israel however welcomed the US move. "Consolidating the refugee status of Palestinians is one of the problems that perpetuates the conflict," an official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said. Trump had already angered Palestinians by his December recognition of the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and axing more than $200 million in bilateral aid for Gaza and the West Bank. The new policy on Jerusalem overturned decades of precedent and prompted the Palestinian leadership to break off relations with the White House. Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said Washington's latest decision "promotes terrorism" and was a violation of UN resolutions. He said Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was considering appealing to UN bodies to challenge the US decision. UNRWA, established in 1949, was already facing financial crisis after Trump announced a $300 million funding freeze in January. The agency, which helps more than five million registered Palestinian refugees, says it now faces major closures to its network of schools and health centres. Mahmoud Mubarak, director of committees that run 19 refugee camps in the West Bank which accommodate some 500,000 Palestinians, warned of "very serious repercussions". Mubarak said committee representatives would meet Tuesday to discuss their options. In the impoverished Gaza Strip, where most children attend UNRWA schools, 55-year-old Hisham Saqallah said the US move was "political blackmail" that would raise tensions. "If they stop aid to schools, this means destroying the futures of a large number of students and throwing them into the street," he said. "If they stop the aid completely it would have a major effect on our children." - 'Profound' consequences - UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said the agency would try to close a $217 million shortfall. "If not, some of the most marginalised and vulnerable people on the planet may well suffer," he told AFP. "People are going to become more desperate and marginalised," he said, warning of "dramatic, widespread, profound and unpredictable" consequences. Jordan, which is one of just two Arab countries to have signed a peace treaty with Israel, has announced plans to organise a fundraising conference on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York next month. The country's foreign minister on Saturday voiced disappointment at the US decision, saying Amman had worked hard to convince Washington to keep funding UNRWA. "Any decline in the agency's services and any attempt to diminish its role under its UN mandate would threaten dangerous consequences," Ayman Safadi said. "Cutting refugees off from the agency's services will deepen their feelings of deprivation" and create dangerous tensions, he said. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the US would "intensify dialogue with the United Nations, host governments and international stakeholders about new models and new approaches" for assisting needy Palestinians. But Hugh Lovatt, an Israeli and Palestinian affairs analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Washington would find scant support for its push for an alternative aid conduit. He said it was an attempt to "unilaterally take the Palestinian right of return off the table". "But US actions are misguided, dangerous, and won't work... neither Lebanon or Jordan can be expected to play along," he said. he-sa-jod-jjm/par/dco A Palestinian woman in Gaza City on September 1, 2018 Palestinian school girls pose for a picture near a UNRWA tractor in the southern Gaza Strip, on September 1, 2018 A Palestinian child eats pumpkin seeds in Gaza City on September 1, 2018 The Saudi-led coalition fighting rebels in Yemen admitted Saturday that "mistakes" had been made in an August air strike that killed 40 children. The bombing on a crowded market in part of northern Yemen held by Huthi rebels killed a total of 51 people, according to the Red Cross. Fifty-six children were also among the 79 people wounded in the August 9 strike on Saada province, a stronghold of the Iran-backed Huthis bordering Saudi Arabia. The incident sparked a wave of international anger and calls by the United Nations Security Council for a "credible and transparent" investigation. Coalition spokesman Mansour al-Mansour said a coalition probe had found that errors were made prior to the strike, and called for those responsible to be "punished". He told a press conference in Riyadh that "an order had been given not to target the bus, which was among civilians, but the order arrived late". Another error was that "the target did not pose an immediate threat and that targeting the bus in a residential area was unjustified at that time," he said. The coalition had claimed to have targeted a bus carrying rebels. Mansour repeated Saturday that the bus had been "transporting Huthi leaders" according to information from intelligence services. But he admitted the strike had "caused collateral damage". The coalition has been accused of committing numerous blunders in Yemen. It has recognised some of them, but regularly accuses Huthis of hiding among civilians or using them as human shields. - Geneva talks - The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after the Huthis ousted President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's government from the capital Sanaa and seized swathes of the country. The devastating conflict has since left nearly 10,000 people dead and sparked what the UN has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The world body is set to host Yemeni government and Huthi delegations in Geneva next week for talks aimed at charting a path towards reviving UN-backed negotiations that broke down in 2016. Both sides have expressed pessimism ahead of the meetings, but Yemen's foreign minister said Saturday the government would use them as an opportunity to push forward trust-building measures. Most importantly, Khalid al-Yamani told the Saba state news agency, the government wants progress on "the release of detainees and abductees, ending sieges of cities, facilitating the delivery of humanitarian relief and paying civil service salaries" in rebel-held areas. UN investigators said Tuesday that all sides in Yemen's conflict may have committed war crimes, highlighting deadly air strikes, rampant sexual violence and the recruitment of young children as soldiers. Yemenis dig graves on August 10, 2018 for children killed when a Saudi-led coalition air strike hit their bus in a crowded market in rebel-held northern Yemen LESSONS FROM A BANGLADESHI MAN Shahidul Alam is many things. He is a photographer, but also a writer, activist and teacher. Although I have never had the chance to sit with him in a classroom, he has taught me many lessons. Thousands of people attended the funerals of seven soldiers killed in a roadside bombing in eastern Burkina Faso, in a ceremony held under tight security on Friday. The troops were killed by a blast on Tuesday after they were sent to the town of Pama as reinforcements when a police station there came under attack, in the heaviest recent toll for the Eastern Region. "It is needless for me to say that the pain is very strong for the nation, for the armed forces and for the parents," said the Burkina Faso army chief Major General Oumarou Sadou in an emotional service on the outskirts of the capital Ouagadougou. The Sahel state, one of the poorest countries in the world, has been battling Islamist violence since 2015, starting with cross-border incursions in the north. The recent surge of attacks in the east is the result of pressure on jihadist insurgents in neighbouring Mali and Niger, experts say. On August 11, four gendarmes and a civilian were killed when their vehicle struck a mine about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Fada N'Gourma, the main town in the Eastern Region administrative area. A sixth person, also a gendarme, was killed later in a shootout with the assailants. On June 17, a policeman was killed in the town of Comin-Yanga in a simultaneous attack on the local police and gendarmerie stations. Security forces have carried out a wave of arrests, detaining hundreds of people in connection with the attacks. Official figures released in April showed there had been 80 attacks in three years that killed 133 people, many of them state officials. Hundreds of schools and town halls have been closed. Ouagadougou, in the centre of the country, has suffered three attacks in two years, leaving 60 dead. The soldiers were killed by a blast on Tuesday after they were sent to the town of Pama as reinforcements after a police station there came under attack, in the heaviest toll for the eastern region Spanish veteran Alejandro Valverde kept his composure on a tricky finish to claim an unexpected victory on the eighth stage of the Tour of Spain on Saturday. Frenchman Rudy Molard, of the Groupama team, held on to the race leader's red jersey after finishing safely among the peloton. Molard will start Sunday's hilly ninth stage, a 200-kilometre ride from Talavera de la Reina to the ski station of La Covatilla with a 37sec lead on Valverde and a 51sec lead on fourth-placed Briton Simon Yates. Organisers had added spice to the finale of the 195.5km race from Linares, the peloton forced to practically turn back on itself after negotiating a roundabout inside the final kilometre. But Valderde held his nerve to stay in sprint contention and proved strongest in a tight, uphill finish to pip three-time world champion Peter Sagan to the honours. Sagan, of the Bora team, finished third with Dutchman Danny von Poppel (LottoNL-Jumbo) in third place. The Slovakian had secured a record-equalling sixth green jersey for the points competition and won three stages at the Tour de France in July, but appears to be paying for those efforts. After a third-place finish on Monday, Sagan edged closer to a stage win on Friday where he finished second behind Frenchman Tony Gallopin. On a finish that should have been to Sagan's liking on Saturday, the Slovakian was left counting his losses again as Valverde came from out behind his wheel to claim his second stage win of this edition. "I was told how difficult the finish was and that I could even lose time there," said Valverde, who claimed it had not been his plan to win the stage. "As a result, I'd planned not to try and go for the stage win but just not to lose time. "But then I followed Sagan's wheel and in the end overtook him. I know I'm on form, but I even surprised myself." Although 38 years old, Valverde said: "My age doesn't reflect my physical form or my mentality." And on Sunday's stage in the high mountains, he will be hoping to show his younger rivals he can remain in overall victory contention. "It's a real mountain stage tomorrow (Sunday)," said Valverde. "We should really see who has what it takes to make the podium of this Tour of Spain." Spanish veteran Alejandro Valverde (2R) sprints to victory ahead of Peter Sagan (2L) on the eighth stage of the Tour of Spain on Saturday. After a temporary shutdown and repairs over the past several months, the Herman Avenue Elementary School playground in Auburn will be ready for the start of classes next week. The last efforts needed for the playground, District Superintendent Jeff Pirozzolo said, were swings hung up on a new set Thursday. Though Pirozzolo said the district is working on eventually getting a new playground through a voter-supported capital project, he said he is happy with the playground's current state. The playground was temporarily closed in May after a representative with Parkitects, a company which sells and installs playground equipment, determined the equipment was unsafe during a visit after spotting safety hazards such as bolts that had broken through the fiberglass. Later, a representative with the company that made the original parts for the Herman equipment gave suggestions to re-open the grounds, and the district made repairs such as cutting and filing down bolts and adding rubber coating to equipment stairs. The playground was re-opened with the exception of two slides, which were closed until the district received the proper parts. Those parts were added to the slides earlier this month, Pirozzolo said Thursday. Pirozzolo estimated the district will have spent around $7,000 from the district's general fund on the playground in the last few months, with $5,000 worth of parts and repairs plus the labor costs. He said he's glad the amount will be less than the $10,000 total he had estimated earlier this year. Pirozzolo thanked Herman's parent teacher organization and especially leader Mary Beth Leeson for their efforts, as the group paid for the new swing set from Parkitects and donated it to the district. Leeson also started a GoFundMe for a new Herman playground the same day the current playscape was shuttered, but later canceled when the district determined a playground would be part of a capital project the district is preparing. Pirozzolo said the district-wide capital project, which will include the Herman playground and two other elementary playgrounds, will be presented to the district board of education at a Sept. 25 meeting. He said the Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES safety inspector will check the Herman and the other playgrounds by the end of October. "As long as it's safe for the children, that's all I care about," Pirozzolo said. Staff writer Kelly Rocheleau can be reached at (315) 282-2243 or kelly.rocheleau@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @KellyRocheleau. Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 2 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. Next Match: vs. Eastern Illinois University 9/1/2018 | 3:00 p.m. The Auburn volleyball team battled a tough Illinois State team to open final day of the Top Dawg Challenge, falling to the Redbirds, 3-1 (25-15, 25-17, 22-25, 25-22), in Hinkle Fieldhouse.Auburn (2-2) outside hitterand freshman settereach put together double-doubles on the day. McIlroy led the way with season bests in 13 kills and 11 digs. Allison added a career-high 40 assists and a career-best 11 digs.Freshmanadded 10 kills for the Tigers, while freshman liberochipped in 11 digs. Sophomoreled the squad with seven blocks.Illinois State (4-1) had a pair of Redbirds with double-digit digs. Courtney Pence led the match with 16, while Kendal Meier added 12. Setter Stef Jankiewicz finished with 36 assists and Ali Line had 10 kills.The Redbirds jumped out early in the first set and held on throughout the stanza. Locked at 3-all, ISU pushed a four-point rally to go up 7-3 and used another run to force an early Auburn timeout at 11-5. The Redbirds didn't let up and went on to take the set, 25-15.ISU held its momentum into the second set and pushed an early 4-1 lead. Auburn put together three-straight kills betweenandto cut the Redbird lead at 12-10, but ISU regrouped and pushed another long run for a 17-10 advantage and went on to win, 25-17.Auburn bounced back in the third behind tough serving fromand a big blocking presence from McClellan to take a 6-0 lead. Another quick run lifted the Tigers to an 11-2 advantage, forcing an ISU timeout. A Jones kill and a Stevenson/Jones block made it 18-9, but the Redbirds began to peck away at the Auburn lead with a pair of three-point runs. After a Tiger timeout at 22-17, the squads battled back and forth until AU finally sealed the set, 25-22.The squads went back and forth in the fourth before a block from Rowland/McClellan sent the Tigers on a six-point run for a 13-8 lead. ISU inched its way back into the contest and locked the score at 15-all. A 4-0 ISU run made it 21-19 and the Redbirds closed out the match with a 25-22 victory.Auburn caps the Top Dawg Challenge Saturday afternoon with a 3 p.m. CT contest vs. Eastern Illinois in Hinkle Fieldhouse. Should Beaufort County's commissioners be resolved to ask the federal government to defend our Southern Border by ending the Biden /Harris Open Border policy in regards to that one border that is intentionally made OPEN? Yes, Illegal Migrants are a huge expense to local governments. No, the cost of Undocumented Immigrants is insignificant in our providing a pathway for the "Browning of America". Nepal and India agree to survey cross-border rail In a first step towards materialising the Kathmandu-Raxaul Railway, Nepal and India on Friday exchanged a memorandum of understanding on preliminary survey of the cross-border connectivity project. President Trump is the world's worst client. He speaks when he should shut up; he doesn't listen to his lawyers; he takes action that exacerbates legal difficulties. The most irritating aspect of this unfortunate tendency is that Trump actually has a couple of robust legal defenses with regard to the accusation that he violated campaign finance law by paying off his paramours. Those defenses come in two forms.Under the law, criminal liability for campaign finance violations attaches only if you intended to violate the law. This requires a certain level of baseline knowledge of the law. But Trump could easily say that he relied on his attorney, Michael Cohen, to know the law - he's not a lawyer. Now, Trump was intimately involved, according to Cohen, with setting up the structure for the passage of the cash. But there's no evidence of that so far, other than Cohen's testimony. Jan Baran, a GOP finance lawyer, explained to Politico:Baran pointed out that even players in the field aren't sure whether Trump's payoffs were even governed by campaign finance law, given that they could be construed as personal expenditures.This is the case made by former FEC chairman Bradley Smith, who argues that Trump's payoffs to the ladies were actually personal expenditures. Writing in The Washington Post, he stated:However, regardless of what Cohen agreed to in a plea bargain, hush-money payments to mistresses are not really campaign expenditures. It is true that "contribution" and "expenditure" are defined in the Federal Election Campaign Act as anythingfrom buying a good watch to make sure he gets to places on time, to getting a massage so that he feels fit for the campaign trail, to buying a new suit so that he looks good on a debate stage. Yet having campaign donors pay for personal luxuries - such as expensive watches, massages and Brooks Brothers suits - seems more like bribery than funding campaign speech.In other words, Trump's attempts to "influence an election" isn't enough to label an action a campaign finance issue. The counterargument would be FEC language regarding the applicable test:In other words, it's only a personal expenditure if Trump would have paid for it regardless of the context. Trump may have a defense here: he pays off women all the time. Then he'd have to show evidence that's true.No matter what, Trump doesn't help himself by talking here. He has lawyers for this. He should use them. But Trump's biggest problem is his own ego. If he just admitted that he doesn't know the law and delegated it to Cohen, or states that he pays off women for sex on a routine basis - both of which are both credible and likely true - he'd be off the hook. But does he have the humility to recognize it? An Aug. 27 federal court ruling throwing out North Carolina's congressional maps has added new complications to an unsettled election schedule. The decision adds another wrinkle to the state's 2018 election.Over the course of 321 pages , a three-judge panel raised the prospect that state lawmakers might be forced to redraw congressional maps in the next few weeks. Judges also suggested that new congressional maps may force a primary on Nov. 6 - election day for every other state and local race - and a special election for the state's 13 congressional districts in January 2019.David McLennan, a professor of political science at Meredith College, offered several likely alternatives from the ruling: The legislature redraws the maps and submits them to the judges for approval; a court-appointed special master redraws the maps; or Republican leaders ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.Not long after McLennan spoke to Carolina Journal, GOP lawmakers formally asked the federal justices to step in.Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said in a joint statement with House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland.A stay by the Supreme Court would halt proceedings and allow the congressional election to proceed on schedule using the current districts and with the candidates who've already filed.The redrawn maps, sparking a legal spat between the General Assembly and advocacy groups, came about after a ruling in a separate lawsuit. In that case, a federal court ruled that two congressional districts were racially gerrymandered.Lawmakers then were ordered to redraw the congressional maps, but Common Cause and the League of Women Voters filed a new complaint arguing that the new maps gave Republicans an unfair advantage.In January, the three-judge federal panel ruled the maps an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander, but the defendants appealed. The U.S. Supreme Court in June declined to hear the case and returned it to the lower court. Justices asked the lower court to reconsider its earlier ruling in light of the Gill v. Whitford redistricting decision. In that Wisconsin case, the Supreme Court questioned election map critics' legal standing to mount a court challenge.The three-judge panel in North Carolina used the August ruling to affirm its earlier decision that the General Assembly unconstitutionally gerrymandered congressional districts to favor Republican candidates over Democrats.U.S. Appeals Court Judge James Wynn wrote.Wynn authored the majority opinion. Judge Earl Britt supported Wynn's opinion, while Judge William Osteen agreed with part of the reasoning.The panel even suggested the General Assembly adopt a map drawn by redistricting expert Jowei Chen of the University of Michigan.Bob Phillips, the executive director of Common Cause NC, said in a news release The Supreme Court could hear the case. But Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement left it with eight members. Also, the court isn't scheduled to hear any appeals until the October session, so it's possible new maps won't be used until the 2020 election.McLennan said.McLennan said postponing the congressional election is unlikely, given the Supreme Court's history.McLennan said.Election deadlines are fast approaching with options dwindling daily. Congress convenes Jan. 3, 2019, so ensuring new maps are constitutionally sound and absentee ballots are sent out in time would be tricky, if not impossible.Gerry Cohen, former special counsel to the General Assembly, said in a Twitter thread that holding a Nov. 6 congressional primary and a January general election for Congress probably wouldn't be feasible. Cohen tweeted there wouldn't be time for recounts of a congressional primary, a state canvass, or primary contests of the results. He also noted that, under this schedule, unaffiliated overseas voters may not be able to get primary ballots by mail from the party they choose in time to cast ballots.Cohen said he sees only two legal and workable solutions: Draw new maps for the 2020 election cycle or hold a special election in January with party executive committees - rather than primary voters - nominating candidates. Notorious gangster Dawa Lama nabbed from India Notorious gangster Dawa Lama has been arrested from India on Saturday. According to a source, Lama was arrested from the Terminal 3 of Indira Gandhi International Airport. "Today is kind of a sucky day," Village Voice owner Peter Barbey told newspaper staff in a phone call Friday. "Due to, basically, business realities, we're going to stop publishing Village Voice new material." "I bought the Village Voice to save it; this isn't exactly how I thought it was going to end up. I'm still trying to save the Village Voice," said owner Barbey, who bought the paper in 2015. Gothamist first reported the sad news that New York's once-great indie newspaper is shutting down. 63 years after it was co-founded by the late Norman Mailer. They'd stopped printing a paper version about a year ago. Barbey said half the staff (15 to 20 people) will "wind things down," and work on a project to archive the Voice's material online. Everyone else at the organization lost their job today. From Gothamist: The Voice, founded as an alternative weekly newspaper in 1955, has had a number of previous owners, including New York magazine, Rupert Murdoch, Leonard Stern, and New Times (later Village Voice) Media. Barbey also seemed to indicate that he may have been thinking about selling the Voice for some time. "I've been having conversations with other entities for months now," Barbey said in the Friday meeting. "This is something we have to dofor some of them this is something we'd have to do before they could talk to us any further." Barbey has issued a statement, and you can read it here. [Photo: Village Voice newspaper boxes on a sidewalk in 2013 (Mark Lennihan/Shutterstock) Friend just turned in his news piece, was told by his editor there was good news: He's the journalist with the last news story to appear in the Voice. That's also, the editor said, the bad news. Valerie Vande Panne (@asktheduchess) August 31, 2018 At the bottom of Gothamist's article about the Village Voice being shut down by the paper's most recent owner is a note reminding readers that Gothamist is now part of WNYC since Gothamist's last owner shut the site (and DNAinfo) down last year! https://t.co/X9secJcQT5 pic.twitter.com/3PSxZmekXs Peter Sterne (@petersterne) August 31, 2018 Peter Barbey should sell the Village Voice to its writers and editors so we can run it as a crowdfunded workers' collective stop buying news outlets and killing them (@chick_in_kiev) August 31, 2018 How the Village Voicewhich ceased editorial operations todaychanged journalism. https://t.co/t3ZTV7bkm8 The New Yorker (@NewYorker) August 31, 2018 This is a tragedy, and it hurts my heart. This is where I started my professional writing life and where I met brilliant writers and many friends too numerous to mention. The Village Voice ends editorial production, lays off half of staff https://t.co/dglQHotfKk via @cjr Manohla Dargis (@ManohlaDargis) August 31, 2018 The Rich Rube Who Came to New York, Lied to My Face, Bought a $26 Million Penthouse and Killed the Voice https://t.co/HQkhSTn8q6 Harry Siegel (@harrysiegel) August 31, 2018 The owner killing the @villagevoice lives in a $26M apartment above where St. Vincent's once stood. https://t.co/7OhUzxOmHe Harry Siegel (@harrysiegel) August 31, 2018 The Village Voice is the only place I've ever wanted to work, thanks to these names and so many more. It's been an honor every week, even the dark ones. And, hey, @szacharek was a goddamn Pulitzer finalist for her Voice work in 2015! https://t.co/p5nIDO2hiY Alan Scherstuhl (@studiesincrap) August 31, 2018 First apt Village Voice; first idea what investigative journalism was Village Voice; first sense of city corruption and why it mattered Village Voice; 1st media coverage addiction Village Voice; Desperately Seeking Susan Village Voice, how to live in NYC, Village Voice. https://t.co/8v7PrQeDTB jimrutenberg (@jimrutenberg) August 31, 2018 This is the news editor for the Village Voice, which is apparently shutting down for good. The end of several eras. https://t.co/G2tHJx2ITk Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) August 31, 2018 the village voice meant so much to so many people. and writing 20 columns there changed my life. @DavidSwansonNYC is one of the best editors in the entire world: thoughtful, talented, smart, empathetic. everyone at VV was kind to me when no one else was. this is crushing. stop buying news outlets and killing them (@chick_in_kiev) August 31, 2018 - Caster Semenya crushed her opponents in the 800m finals at the Zurich Diamond League event - Semenya took an early lead and never looked like being challenged, she won by more than 2.5 seconds - Luvo Manyonga won the long jump event beating out fellow South African Rushwahl Samaai PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see Briefly news on your News Feed! Caster Semenya and Luvo Manyonga have both taken victories in their respective events at the Zurich round of the Diamond League competition. Semenya cruised to victory in the 800m while Manyonga fended off a challenge from fellow South African Rushwahl Samaai in the long jump. Semenya was in imperious form and crushed her opponents with an emphatic victory in the womens 800m final. Semenya took an early lead which she never gave up and won by more than 2.5 seconds. READ ALSO: Orlando Pirates to complete investigation into Thamsanqa Gabuza incident before taking action Semenya was at her brilliant best during the event and her long easy strides saw her putting more and more distance between herself and the chasing pack with virtually every step. Briefly.co.za gathered that Semenya finished with a time of 1:55.27 her closest rival turned out to be Ajee Wilson who finished a distant second with a time of 1:57.86. Third was taken by Natoya Goule who clocked a time of 1:58.49. The win means Semenya has not been beaten in the 800m event in three years. It also gave Semenya her third straight Diamond League Trophy. Sport24.com reported that Semenya will bank around R700 000 in prize money. Meanwhile, South Africans Luvo Manyonga and Rushwahl Samaai battled it out for top honours in the long jump at the same event. Manyonga was pushed to the limit by Samaai. The pair battled for the lead until the final jump of the competition. Manyongas final jump of 8.36 meters was enough to secure the win. READ ALSO: Bafana Bafana striker Lebo Mothiba set for R135 million transfer deal For more amazing, funny and informative videos, please visit Briefly South Africa's YouTube Channel. Do you have a story to share with Briefly? Visit our Facebook page where you can send us a message or leave us a comment. Your story could be shared online. To stay up to date with the latest news, download our news app on iTunes or GooglePlay today. Source: Briefly.co.za News / National by Stephen Jakes Mthwakazi Liberation Front spokesperson Ndabezinhle Fuyane has said President Emmerson Mnangagwa's bias in dealing with the shooting of civilians on August 1 will compromise his power."The bias by Mnangagwa now that will compromise his power hungry ego that now is in power is the issue of the commission of inquiry on the said scenario . The shooting itself is not enough rather, but the whole process from rigging the elections through the very person who had authorised the troops to deploy. That will not work if we are to face reality. Mnangagwa has to first address the bias in the outcome of the 30July elections before even tackling the shooting scene, thus proving to the world on the democratic stance he purport to be," he said."The next issue he is to address is who sanctioned the deployment of the soldiers in the streets on mere civilians, unarmed, harmless and innocent civilians and the third part is to investigate who actually fired some shots, then on that we will say Zimbabwe can go ahead on the dealing with the progress of the economy. Let not Mnangagwa take Zimbabweans for granted at ransom, even May is biased, how dare is she interested in the mere inquiry yet it was a process."He said that wont cleanse his bloody hands through Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, his lieutenants need to face it at all costs and at a larges spectrum he has to justify himself. News / National by Staff reporter MDC leader Nelson Chamisa, is going ahead with his rally scheduled for Kwekwe on Sunday, his first since he lost the July 30 plebiscite to President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zanu-PF.PPolice blocked opposition Chamisa's "thank you" campaign rally scheduled for Kwekwe this weekend, with the latter's supporters threatening to defy the ban.Chamisa, who still insists he won the July 30 presidential poll against incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa, had intended to go back to his supporters to thank them for "overwhelmingly voting him as president".His supporters yesterday vowed to defy the police ban and proceed with the rally, arguing that they viewed the blockade as a clampdown on the country's democratic space.In a written response to the MDC-T Kwekwe district chairperson Charles Madhihwa, Kwekwe police said the planned rally could not proceed because of a typhoid outbreak which has hit the nearby Midlands capital, Gweru."There has been a typhoid outbreak in the province.Health officials are not allowing the public gathering," Kwekwe police boss Chief Superintendent Conrad Mubaiwa said.Chamisa has lined up countrywide "thank you" rallies, where he will also use as platforms to get feedback from his supporters on the way forward following the alleged theft of his victory by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and Zanu-PF, in favour of Mnangagwa.Mnangagwa has also lined up his own "thank you" rallies, expected to kick off when he returns from the Beijing summit on China-Africa Co-operation, which ends mid-next week. News / National by Simbarashe Sithole MDC senator David Coltart has sensationally claimed that President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government is exporting rhinos from Matopos to China. In a twitter post Coltart said"I've just been told that the Mnangagwa government has started exporting #Rhinos from the #Matopos to # China. If true this is a national outrage and must be stopped immediately. Aside from anything else this is a highly endangered group of Rhinos with pitifully small gene pool."If these allegations are true it remains to be seen if the purported export is in line with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora commonly referred to as the CITES regulations which control the international trade in various endangered species which requires licences, authorisations and permits.In this regard, the competent authority issues permits, certificates or licences for the import, export or re-export of the species in question. PM Oli lauds success of summit Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali lauded the success of the Fourth BIMSTEC Summit in Kathmandu that concluded on Friday. Liberal Leader Brian Gallant is acknowledging that a recent carbon-tax commitment by his main election opponent is forcing him to re-explain the complex details of his own policy on climate change. Gallant was playing defence on the issue at a Fredericton campaign stop Thursday, telling reporters that Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs's climate promises are more likely to lead to higher taxes than the Liberal plan. "We are the only party with a plan to avoid new costs for consumers," he said. He vowed to "fight" to ensure the Trudeau government gives that plan the green light. Gallant says Higgs's refusal to contemplate any kind of carbon tax if he becomes premier would lead Ottawa to impose its own more expensive carbon tax on the province. But he also acknowledged that if his own Liberal Party wins the election and its climate plan fails to meet federal requirements, the same outcome will occur. "If that's the case, what is the point of this whole circle?" Higgs said later on Thursday. "His stance all of a sudden seems to be 'I don't like the carbon tax either.'" Lois Corbett, executive director of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, said she was frustrated with the parties in the election "dancing around the edges about who's got a plan and who doesn't." "Fudging around and misleading people about tax increases, calling it a tax, is not an adult conversation," she said. "Mother Nature doesn't hold referendums. She wallops us with floods and ice storms and coastal erosion. So this election is not a referendum on climate change, because that is here and now." Higher tax on gas 'defies reason' Saturday is the deadline for provinces to submit their plans to Ottawa for approval. New Brunswick's submission, released publicly on Thursday, defends the Liberal decision to not add a new carbon tax to gasoline. Story continues The province is "already one of the highest taxed jurisdictions in Canada" and transportation eats up a higher share of household income in Atlantic Canada than anywhere else, it says. To add even more taxes to gasoline "defies reason," the document says, because New Brunswick's "rural nature" means many people can't switch to mass transit. Higgs promises rebates Earlier this week, Higgs promised to fight the federal climate plan in court. He said if he loses and Ottawa imposes its carbon tax "backstop" on New Brunswick, he'll ensure the money is rebated to consumers, or lower taxes by an equivalent amount. Higgs says that will make the tax revenue-neutral, what Gallant originally promised. But Gallant pointed out a provincial PC government could not provide a backstop rebate since it'll be up to the federal government how the money is distributed. Even so, Gallant admitted the PC commitment is compelling him to explain the tangled weeds of his policy and its alternatives. "We have to talk about the federal backstop because Blaine Higgs and the Conservatives are trying to pretend that their plan is to have the federal backstop imposed on them, and then rebate New Brunswickers," he said. He pointed out correctly that the backstop, and the rebate, is "the default case if a province doesn't do anything." Liberals shifting gas tax Gallant's plan shifts a portion of the existing 15.5-cent-per-litre gas tax into a climate fund and calls it a carbon tax. The amount is 2.3 cents this year and will rise to 11.6 cents by 2022-23. The shift has been in effect since April and with no net increase at gas pumps, it has been invisible to consumers. But federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has said her climate plan requires provinces to impose a new "price signal" on consumers that "makes pollution more expensive." Ottawa will impose its own higher carbon tax, the so-called "backstop," on provinces that don't do that themselves. Gallant argues New Brunswickers don't need to pay more because the province's total emissions are already 30 per cent below 2005 levels the reduction Canada committed to in the Paris climate treaty. Backstop 'not the right policy' Until Thursday, Gallant has refused to discuss the possible impact of the backstop, insisting he could persuade Ottawa to accept his plan. He now says he's still confident that will happen but is warning the backstop is "not the right policy for New Brunswick consumers." He also acknowledged the outcome for consumers would be the same a federal backstop and rebate whether his plan was rejected or whether Higgs refused to enact a plan. Gallant's plan also includes a phase-out of coal to generate electricity by 2030, and the adoption of the federal government's emissions cap and levy for large industry. Higgs has promised that a PC government will "ensure that we continue to meet or exceed our emissions targets," but he hasn't provided clear details yet on how he'd do that. Court docs show how 5 people were smuggled to Detroit through active rail in Windsor U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested five people after they allegedly used the CP Rail tunnel to illegally cross into Detroit from Windsor in March and July this year. A sixth person, a Canadian man, was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly helping those five use an active rail tunnel connecting the two cities. Windsor immigration lawyer Eddie Kadri said he's never heard of someone using that rail line to smuggle people into the United States. "This is the first I've heard of this particular passage used for passing," said Kadri. "Human smuggling is a big problem, we've seen it before this is peculiar in that it's not just illegal but the type of smuggling is incredible dangerous to the lives of the people." Court docs: poorly-drawn map CBC News obtained a copy of the criminal complaint filed against Juan Antonio Garcia-Jimenez that is shedding new light onto the crossings. The people who Garcia-Jimenez allegedly helped cross the tunnel were working at farms in Leamington when they left Windsor. Court documents say two people who crossed through the tunnel just after midnight on July 14 were handed a "poorly-drawn map of the tunnel entrance and a list of street names near the Greyhound bus station in Detroit." Another pair who crossed on July 30 waited for three hours near the entrance of the tunnel, waiting for a train to enter the U.S., according to the criminal complaint. Warnings of cameras, sensors Eventually, Garcia-Jimenez "stated that the train was probably not going to come and the subjects needed to begin their walk through the tunnel." All four of the people paid Garcia-Jimenez $1,500 US for his help, they told border patrol agents. The person who crossed alone in March was told "he need to wait for the train so that the cameras would not notice him and the sensors would not activate," according to the documents. CP Rail declined to comment on the level of security at the rail crossings. Story continues 'Report suspicious activity' "Human smuggling has been a problem in this area a long time," said Kadri, who was not able to provide numbers to quantify the problem. "It's a short boat ride right across, between our two countries so the public has to be vigilante and I urge every body to report suspicious activity." Garcia-Jimenez will appear in court on Friday for a bond hearing. Alberta's decision to pull out of the national climate-change plan to protest a federal court ruling that quashed the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion will only serve to further endanger the project's regulatory future, says the federal resources minister. Edmonton MP Amarjeet Sohi said the courts have made it clear an effective climate strategy is critical for the approval of major natural resources projects under federal jurisdiction. Alberta's withdrawal from the national climate change strategy may hurt the pipeline in the long run, he said. "In order to build a large project such as a pipeline, you need to have a very effective climate action plan and you need to be mindful of your obligations to consult Indigenous peoples," Sohi said in an interview Friday with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM. "Without those, you will not get a pipeline built." Premier Rachel Notley has called on Ottawa to immediately take Thursday's Federal Court of Appeal ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada, and for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to call an emergency session of Parliament to fix the process so the pipeline can be built. The province will remain outside the federal climate plan until that happens, Notley said. The Alberta premier made the stunning announcement in a Thursday evening news conference, hours after the Court of Appeal effectively suspended the contentious Trans Mountain expansion. The appellate court cited lack of consultation with Indigenous nations and that the regulator, the National Energy Board, failed to address the impact on marine traffic. Notley said she and Albertans are angry the province has been let down after doing everything right. She said her NDP government remains committed to environmental stewardship, but won't sign on to a national strategy if it isn't able to get the pipeline built and get a "fair value for our resources." She stood her ground while speaking Friday on Edmonton AM. Story continues "We have said very clearly that responsible action on climate change must be paired with the kind of economic growth that makes sure that working people are able to prosper ... you can't do one without the other," Notley said. "We're not prepared to go any further on this until the federal government figures out how to get this ridiculousness fixed." Notley said it's become "virtually impossible" for Alberta to build a pipeline to tidewater. "Our energy industry drives our national economy and it is utterly ridiculous that we can only sell it through the United States," she said. "It's just got to stop." The premier said the court decision Thursday has no impact on Alberta's own climate change plan, or on the provincial carbon tax, but her declaration takes proposed federal carbon tax increases off the table. 'Fixing the broken system' While Sohi said he empathizes with Notley's "frustration," her declaration ignores the increasing demands of the regulatory process. The Trans Mountain proposal is the second major pipeline expansion that has been quashed by the courts, and Sohi fears federal judges won't look kindly upon Alberta's withdrawal from the national climate plan. Sohi blamed the federal Conservatives, under Stephen Harper, for creating a flawed regulatory system that fails to fully account for the duty to consult and environmental risks. "The courts have been very clear," said Sohi. "This is the second ruling that we've had from the federal court where decisions have been overturned. "We can't go back to the old days of ignoring the environment or ignoring the consultations with Indigenous peoples. "That is not how pipelines will be built in the future, and we need to make sure that we're fixing the broken system that we inherited." Sohi said the federal government is reviewing the court decision and intends to push forward with the project. "We cannot have a situation where we continue to rely on a single customer to whom we sell 99 per cent of our oil," he said "As an Albertan, I feel frustrated that Alberta's oil is landlocked. "We are attempting to diversify our markets and yes, we need to do it the right way, but the courts have given us a path forward and we are going to follow that path forward." Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reaffirmed his support for the Trans Mountain expansion project Friday vowing to fight on after the Federal Court of Appeal handed his government a ruling that threatens to derail the pipeline entirely. Speaking to reporters in Oshawa, Ont., Trudeau said the government is committed to building the pipeline the "right way" to satisfy the court's demands. Citing inadequate consultations with Indigenous peoples, Justice Eleanor Dawson nullified licensing for the $7.4-billion expansion Thursday, halting construction only days after shovels hit the ground on the 1,150-km project. "We believe the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is in the best interest of all Canadian. We are committed to upholding the national interests," Trudeau said. "We are taking the time now to understand the court ruling which addresses two things that are very important to this government. Getting the science and the environmental protections right and making sure we're walking forward in a true path of reconciliation and partnership with Indigenous peoples. Yes, these are challenges but they have always been challenges," he said. Amid regulatory uncertainty, Kinder Morgan agreed to sell the existing pipeline and the expansion project to the federal government for $4.5 billion this spring. Only minutes after the court issued its decision Thursday, the company's shareholders in Calgary overwhelmingly approved the sale. The vote had been previously scheduled. That purchase was finalized Friday with a price point of $4.5 billion. Now, the Liberal government is the owner of a proposed pipeline project that could be subject to years of further review. Notley pulls out of climate plan In the wake of the court's bombshell decision, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said Thursday she is pulling her province out of the federal government's national climate change plan. Notley said, until construction restarts, Alberta will not be party to the pan-Canadian climate framework negotiated by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the other provinces. Story continues While she will keep the province's existing carbon tax implemented before Trudeau imposed a national price on carbon it will not increase each year as prescribed by the federal plan. Trudeau said Notley's withdrawal does not diminish his government's commitment to fighting climate change with a tax on carbon. "We've been very clear from the very beginning that we know that growing a strong economy and protecting the environment must go together. We have moved forward on a national plan to fight climate change," he said. Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said he understands Notley's "frustration" with additional delays but sought to assure her Friday that the government is committed to seeing the pipeline through to completion. "We understand the frustration of workers in Alberta and across the country who think and believe, as we do, that, done properly, this project is very much in the national interest," LeBlanc said in an interview with CBC's Power & Politics. LeBlanc said the government is analyzing the 300-page court ruling "very closely" to come up with the best way to move forward in the face of these new legal hurdles. The minister said that while an appeal of the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada is one option, the first step will be to see if the government can work within the ruling. Tanker traffic The court said the National Energy Board should reconsider its environmental assessment process. At issue for the court was the board's silence on the impact the pipeline could have on the marine environment around the Burnaby, B.C., shipping terminal situated at the end of the expanded line. The court said the NEB did not adequately address what impact a substantial increase in tanker traffic could have on the southern resident killer whale population in those waters the whales are endangered or the potential impact of a diluted bitumen spill from shipping vessels. The NEB must redo its environmental assessment to address these concerns before construction can resume. The appellate court also found that the federal government did not adequately, or meaningfully, consult with Indigenous people and hear out their concerns after the NEB issued its report recommending that cabinet approve the project. The court has ordered the federal government to redo its Phase 3 consultation the court said the constitutional obligation to consult was not "adequately discharged in this case" adding because Indigenous concerns with the project are "specific and focused" the process could be completed in relatively short order. The court did not specify a timeline. If built, the pipeline will carry an estimated 890,000 barrels a day triple the line's existing capacity and increase traffic off B.C.'s coast from approximately five tankers to 34 tankers a month. Most of the additional capacity would be destined for points abroad. By Nathan Layne and David Alexander (Reuters) - An American who is the business partner of a Russian national accused by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller of having ties to Russian intelligence pleaded guilty on Friday to unregistered lobbying for a pro-Kremlin political party in Ukraine and agreed to cooperate with Mueller's probe. Samuel Patten, 47, also admitted to arranging for a U.S. citizen to act as a straw purchaser to pay $50,000 for four tickets to the inauguration of President Donald Trump on behalf of a Ukrainian oligarch, who reimbursed Patten through a Cypriot account. The move circumvented U.S. law prohibiting foreigners from providing money to an organization running the inauguration. The tickets were given to the oligarch, another Ukrainian, Patten and the Russian national, according to the charging documents. While the documents did not name the Russian national, the description matches Konstantin Kilimnik, Patten's business partner, who was indicted along with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in June for witness tampering in an ongoing criminal case in Washington. Mueller has said Kilimnik, who once served in the Russian army as a translator, has links to Russian spy agencies. Kilimnik, who in the past has denied such ties, did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. Patten's plea agreement, which includes cooperating with Mueller, raises the prospect Patten will be called to testify against Manafort, who was found guilty by a Virginia jury last week on bank and tax fraud charges and faces a second trial in Washington next month. The charge Patten pleaded guilty to - violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) by not disclosing lobbying work for Ukrainian politicians - is similar to one of the core allegations against Manafort in his upcoming trial. Michael Zeldin, a former federal prosecutor, predicted Patten will be a witness in the trial. "I expect his value as a cooperating witness is he will know how those guys conducted their business relations and can probably shed light on efforts made to evade FARA reporting requirements," he said. Patten admitted to working with the Russian national to lobby members of Congress and the executive branch on behalf of the pro-Russian Opposition Bloc without disclosing the work to the U.S. government, as required by law. The charge, which carries a maximum of five years in prison, was brought by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and the Justice Department's National Security Division, which started investigating Patten after a referral from Mueller. Patten appeared before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who will oversee Manafort's upcoming trial. Patten did not speak to reporters at the court, but apologized to family and friends on Facebook after entering his plea. "I was wrong not to have filed under FARA for the representational aspects of my work on behalf of the Opposition Bloc in Ukraine," Patten wrote in a post seen by Reuters, adding that he had sought to promote democracy during a political consulting career that included work in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. "That is why I deeply regret any damage my failure to register has done to the transparency the FARA statute seeks to guarantee." Patten's work in Ukraine dovetailed somewhat with that of Manafort. Manafort made most of his money working for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych before he fled to Russia in 2014, but like Patten also sought to drum up business with the Opposition Bloc in the aftermath of Yanukovych's exit, it was revealed at Manafort's trial. Patten's ties to Kilimnik are more concrete. The two set up the political advisory firm Begemot Ventures Ltd LLC in February 2015. Since 2015, the company was paid more than $1 million for their work for Opposition Bloc members and for other work in Ukraine. The unidentified oligarch was one of their biggest benefactors, the charging documents said. Patten helped Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko get re-elected in 2015, according to an archived page from Patten's website. Patten also did work for the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, the now-defunct political data firm that was embroiled in a controversy over its use of Facebook Inc data, according to interview transcripts submitted by academic Emma Briant and published by British lawmakers earlier this year. (Reporting by David Alexander in Washington, and Nathan Layne and Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Cynthia Osterman and Dan Grebler) The University of Prince Edward Island continues to support its 49 Saudi students as they make plans to leave the university. Following a diplomatic disagreement with the Canadian government, the Saudi government earlier this month recalled 8,300 students on government-funded scholarships to Canadian schools, giving a deadline of Aug. 31. Students who have decided to leave UPEI have until Saturday. A handful of students have decided to stay and will be paying out of pocket, the university said. "You're an international student here and you have your apartment, your house or your car. You have your friends and your network and you have some of your roots here, so yes, it's quite some work," said Jerry Wang, director of recruitment and first-year advising at the UPEI international student office. While some Saudi students have already been accepted at other schools, the process has been a difficult one for many. Some students have children here "They are trying to figure out where to go next, to transfer to different places but there was for sure a little bit of anxiety," Wang said. "Students, you know, they were thinking about how many of my credits can be transferred some students, they had children here and then if they have to go, the kind of adjustment of leaving short notice," Wang said. Wang said the university is doing everything it can to make the transition easier for students, from both academically and logistically. UPEI has created template letters departing students can give to landlords to explain the situation that may help students move on short notice. Wang said the office is also assisting students who need to sell their belongings on the Island quickly before they leave. Transferring credits Wang said one of the biggest concerns student have surrounds how their credits will transfer once they leave and how it might affect their continued education. He said UPEI's international partners in Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S. are helping to help relocate students and create a user-friendly transfer system. Story continues "Some of our partner universities they have reached out to us to offer options to our students," Wang said. "But we also have other options for our students. Possibly they could take online courses, they can take some courses somewhere else and transfer their credits back if they want to get a UPEI degree." Wang said UPEI has also been working with its partner universities to ensure students can transfer their credits back to UPEI and return to the school should the situation be resolved before they graduate. "There are certain things we can do, and we do our best to try and support our students," Wang said. "Some things are kind of beyond our control and we will have to make the best of that." More P.E.I. news United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, Petitioner-Appellee v. Deborah BRABANT-SCRIBNER, Respondent-Appellant No. 17-2825 Decided: August 17, 2018 Before WOLLMAN, KELLY, and STRAS, Circuit Judges. Counsel who represented the appellant was Eric Johnson of Saint Paul, MN. Counsel who represented the appellee was Thomas J. Clark, of Washington, DC., and Rachel Ida Wollitzer of Washington, DC. Deborah Brabant-Scribner incurred half a million dollars in tax liabilities, waited until the IRS was on the brink of taking her home, and then offered to pay a tiny fraction of her debt. She now argues that the district court could not approve the seizure of her home until the IRS first responded to her offer. She is mistaken. When this case began, Brabant-Scribner owed $577,940.30 in federal taxes and penalties. The IRS had already taken her boat and recovered what it could from her bank accounts, leaving her home as the only asset of meaningful value. The government petitioned for permission to levy upon itthat is, to seize it, sell it, and apply the proceeds toward her debt. Brabant-Scribner responded by filing an Offer in Compromise with the IRS and an Objection to Petition with the district court. In the offer, citing principles of effective tax administration, she proposed paying $1,000 to settle all of her tax debt. In the objection, which she filed the same day, she claimed that the court could not approve the levy until after she received an answer from the IRS. The district court disagreed and granted the governments petition. Brabant-Scribners challenge to the district courts ruling is based on 26 C.F.R. 301.6334-1(d)(1). The regulation implements the statutory requirement that the IRS must obtain judicial approval before levying on a taxpayers principal residence. See 26 U.S.C. 6334(e)(1)(A) (allowing the IRS to levy on a taxpayers principal residence if a judge or magistrate of a district court of the United States approves (in writing)); see also id. 6334(a)(13)(B)(i) (providing that without judicial approval, a principal residence is exempt from levy). To proceed, the IRS must demonstrate that it has complied with all legal and procedural requirements, that the debt remains unpaid, and that no reasonable alternative for collection of the debt exists. 26 C.F.R. 301.6334-1(d)(1). According to Brabant-Scribner, her offer of compromise was a reasonable alternative to seizing her home. But she misreads the regulation: it is about collection, not compromise. The relevant language is a reasonable alternative for collection of the taxpayers debt. Id. The word for is key. An alternative for collection refers to a different source from which to collect the debt. For example, a taxpayer might have other assets the IRS can levy on instead of her home, or the IRS could allow the taxpayer to make installment payments to satisfy the debt over time. In either case, the IRS still collects the unpaid debt, just not through the forced sale of the taxpayers home. A taxpayers offer to compromise with the IRS is different. To start, 26 C.F.R. 301.6334-1(d)(1) does not mention compromise, or any similar term, but refers only to the collection of debts by the IRS. Accepting a proposal like Brabant-Scribners would require the IRS to agree not to collect the debt and, instead, to forgive all but a portion of it. See id. 301.7122-1(e)(5) (Acceptance of an offer to compromise will conclusively settle the liability of the taxpayer specified in the offer.). In short, Brabant-Scribners offer in compromise was not an alternative for collection but rather an alternative to collection. The remainder of the regulation confirms our reading. Once the government makes its initial showing, the taxpayer has an opportunity to object and will be granted a hearing to rebut the Governments prima facie case if the taxpayer rais[es] a genuine issue of material fact demonstrating other assets from which the liability can be satisfied. 26 C.F.R. 301.6334-1(d)(2). This is the flipside of the governments burden: the government must initially show that only the taxpayers home can pay down the debt; the taxpayer can then rebut this showing by proving she can in fact pay her debt some other way. A statement by the taxpayer that she is willing and able to pay something less than what she owesthe essence of an offer in compromisehas no place in this scheme, because it has no bearing on whether seizing the home is the only way for the IRS to collect the debt. Such an offer does not involve other assets from which the liability can be satisfied. Id. To the contrary, it involves assets that cannot satisfy the liability, but which the taxpayer hopes the IRS will accept in lieu of full satisfaction. To be sure, Brabant-Scribner is correct that the IRS does settle tax liabilities for less than face value, particularly when the taxpayer cannot afford the full amount (as she claims is the case here). See 26 U.S.C. 7122; 26 C.F.R. 301.7122-1(b)(2), (3)(i). But this does not, as Brabant-Scribner believes, entitle her to a decision from the agency before a court approves a levy on her home. Nothing requires the district court to ensure that the IRS has fully considered a taxpayers compromise offer before approving a levy on a taxpayers home. When the government has made its case for levying on a taxpayers home and the taxpayer cannot rebut it, the district court would be expected to enter an order approving the levy. 26 C.F.R. 301.6334-1(d)(2). The government and the district court did what was required. We affirm. FOOTNOTES . The Honorable Joan N. Ericksen, United States District Judge for the District of Minnesota. STRAS, Circuit Judge. United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit. GREEN GAS DELAWARE STATUTORY TRUST, Methane Bio, LLC, Tax Matters Partner, et al., Appellants v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, Appellee No. 17-1025 Decided: August 14, 2018 Before: Garland, Chief Judge, and Tatel and Millett, Circuit Judges. Robert J. Kovacev argued the cause for appellants. With him on the briefs was Caitlin R. Tharp. Jennifer M. Rubin, Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, argued the cause for federal appellee. With her on the brief was Bruce R. Ellisen, Attorney. Rumpelstiltskin could spin straw into gold. Rumpelstiltskin, Inc. thought it could do the same for garbage, spinning it into tax credits. The Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service disagreed. So did the Tax Court. So do we. I Every year, Americans generate 250 million tons of garbage. EPA, Municipal Waste Fact Sheet 1 (2012), perma.cc/DQD3-YK9C. Slightly over half of that garbage is deposited in landfills, where it is left to decompose. Id. at 2. The decomposition of organic matter in those landfills produces a gas -- appropriately termed landfill gas -- that contains roughly 50-55% methane, 45-50% carbon dioxide, small amounts of non-methane organic compounds, and trace amounts of inorganic compounds. See Stipulation of Facts 56 (App. 369). Landfill gas is both a potential environmental hazard and a potential energy source. During the time relevant to this case, Rumpelstiltskin, Inc. was the parent of a wholly-owned subsidiary, Resource Technology Corporation (RTC). See Green Gas Del. Statutory Tr. v. Commr, 147 T.C. 1, 4 (2016). RTC was founded in 1993 and, by 1997, had entered into agreements with 24 landfills throughout the United States. Each agreement transferred to RTC the rights to develop and construct a landfill gas-collection facility and to produce and sell electricity from landfill gas. In return, RTC agreed to pay the landfill owners royalties, measured as a percentage of electricity sales. See Green Gas, 147 T.C. at 9; Stipulation of Facts 52 (App. 368). RTC also entered into agreements with the appellants in this case -- two Delaware trusts named Green Gas and Pontiac -- both of which engaged tax-matters partners controlled, like RTC, by Rumpelstiltskin. Notwithstanding these connections, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) stipulated in the Tax Court that RTC and the trusts were unrelated for purposes of tax law. Stipulation of Facts 14-15 (App. 361). Under the agreements between RTC and the trusts, RTC sold the rights to produce landfill gas at each landfill to the trusts. It also agreed to maintain the landfill gas equipment at each landfill. The trusts, in turn, agreed to sell all landfill gas produced back to RTC. Id. 53-55 (App. 368-69). During the relevant time period, only five of the 24 landfills that RTC managed had operational equipment capable of turning landfill gas into electricity. Green Gas, 147 T.C. at 15-16. At the other 19, the gas was simply vented (released) or flared (burned) into the atmosphere. Id. at 11-12. For those 19, therefore, RTC paid the appellant trusts for landfill gas that it did not -- and could not -- use productively. What was the purpose of these byzantine arrangements? Largely, the appellants admit, to monetize tax credits provided under 26 U.S.C. 45K. See Green Gas Br. 8-9. That statutory tax credit, which Congress first enacted in 1980, creates an incentive for the production and sale of energy from nonconventional sources. 26 U.S.C. 45K(a). More specifically, it provides a credit of $3, multiplied by the barrel-of-oil equivalent of qualified fuels[,] sold by the taxpayer to an unrelated person during the taxable year, and the production of which is attributable to the taxpayer. Id. 45K(a)(2). We will have more to say about these and other statutory requirements later in this opinion. Between 2005 and 2007, when the Section 45K credit expired, the appellants claimed $11.7 million in Section 45K credits for selling landfill gas to RTC. The overwhelming majority of those claimed credits came from venting/flaring landfills, where RTC made no (and could make no) use of the gas. Green Gas, 147 T.C. at 30. Between 2006 and 2007, the appellants also sought to deduct $4.3 million in business expenses. U.S. Br. 17-19 (summarizing Stipulation of Facts). During this time period, the appellants reported $4.5 million in income. Stipulation of Facts 1007 (App. 494); Pontiac Form 1065 (Apr. 15, 2007) (App. 792); Pontiac Form 1065 (May 20, 2008) (App. 806). After an audit, the IRS Commissioner disallowed all but $586,000 of the trusts Section 45K credits. Green Gas, 147 T.C. at 30. That figure, the Commissioner explained, excluded all claimed credits from venting/flaring landfills, as well as all claimed credits for landfill gas vented or flared from gas-to-electricity landfills when the gas-to-electricity equipment was non-operational. See Final Adjustment (Mar. 26, 2010) (App. 855-58); U.S. Br. 20. In addition, the Commissioner disallowed the bulk of the appellants claimed business-expense deductions. Finally, the Commissioner determined that the appellants should be assessed a 20% accuracy penalty under 26 U.S.C. 6662 for the 2006 and 2007 tax years. See Final Adjustment (Mar. 26, 2010) (App. 855-56). The Tax Court affirmed the Commissioners determinations in all respects. Green Gas, 147 T.C. 1. The appellants appeal the Tax Courts decision, maintaining that they should have received all of their claimed Section 45K credits and business deductions, and that the Commissioner should not have assessed an accuracy penalty. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 26 U.S.C. 7482(a). II We first consider the Tax Courts decision to disallow Section 45K credits at the venting/flaring landfills and at the gas-to-electricity landfills during periods when gas-to-electricity equipment was non-operational and venting or flaring was used. The Tax Court gave two reasons in support of this holding: first, that venting and flaring do not satisfy the statutory requirements of Section 45K; and second, that the appellants failed to substantiate the amount of landfill gas they allegedly vented or flared. We review the Tax Courts legal conclusions de novo and its findings of fact for clear error. Barnes v. Commr, 712 F.3d 581, 582 (D.C. Cir. 2013). We owe the Commissioner no Chevron deference in his interpretation of Section 45K (nor does he request any), because he makes no claim to have reached that interpretation in a rulemaking or agency adjudication. Id. at 582-83 (citing Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Nat. Res. Def. Council, 467 U.S. 837, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984) ). Section 45K is hardly a model of drafting clarity. The statute has several interlocking requirements for claiming a credit, four of which are relevant here: First, there must be a qualified fuel[ ], 26 U.S.C. 45K(a)(2), which includes gas produced from biomass, id. 45K(c)(1)(B)(ii). Second, the fuel must be sold by the taxpayer to an unrelated person during the taxable year. Id. 45K(a)(2)(A). Third, the qualified fuel must have been produced in a facility for producing qualified fuels placed in service before July 1, 1998. Id. 45K(f)(1)(A), (e)(1)(B). Fourth, the production of the qualified fuel must be attributable to the taxpayer. Id. 45K(a)(2)(B). The Tax Court held, and the Commissioner does not dispute on appeal, that landfill gas is a qualified fuel. 147 T.C. at 40-44. And, as we have already mentioned, the Commissioner stipulated that the appellants and RTC are unrelated parties within the meaning of this statute. Id. at 67. In this Part we focus our analysis on the third requirement. In Part III, we address the Tax Courts analysis of the fourth requirement. See infra note 3. According to the Tax Court, in the context of landfill gas production, a facility for producing qualified fuels under section 45K(f)(1) must allow a taxpayer to capture, sell, or even transform [landfill gas] into energy. 147 T.C. at 49. That conclusion followed from the courts view that Congress enacted Section 45K to encourage production of energy from alternative sources to reduce the dependency on imported energy. Id. at 40. Hence, the kind of facility Congress had in mind when enacting the [Section 45K] credit would be one that could produce energy or is connected to an energy production facility or is capable of storing or delivering fuel to a customer. Id. at 47. Systems like the venting/flaring landfills at issue here do not qualify as a facility for producing qualified fuels, the court found, because they are not meant to produce energy and do not capture any fuels which could be used by someone else for that purpose. Id. at 49. We agree with the Tax Court that Congress appears to have intended Section 45K to reward the production of alternative energy, not the release of gas into the atmosphere. That intention is evident in the statutes text, which provides a credit for producing fuels and which prescribes that the credit will be proportional to the barrel-of-oil equivalent of qualified fuels. 26 U.S.C. 45K(a)(2). This language suggests that only fuels that are capable of substituting for oil -- that is, only fuels that can be used to generate energy -- are eligible to receive tax credits. Had Congress instead intended to reward the release of gas into the atmosphere, it would have used very different language. The appellants resist this conclusion by pointing to the floor statements of four legislators who voted to reauthorize Section 45K. Green Gas Br. 27. This effort is unpersuasive, and not only because floor statements are often weak evidence of congressional intent. See Natl Assn of Mfrs. v. Taylor, 582 F.3d 1, 12 (D.C. Cir. 2009). In this case, the floor statements the appellants cite actually cut against their reading of the statute. See, e.g., 138 Cong. Rec. 27,052 (1992) (statement of Sen. Dole) (Without [Section 45K], this gas will be simply vented into the atmosphere.). We need not run the statutory issue to ground, however, because the Tax Courts other holding -- that the appellants failed to substantiate the amount of landfill gas that was vented or flared -- more than suffices to resolve this case. Taxpayers are required to maintain records substantiating their claims for credits and deductions, 26 C.F.R. 16001-1(a), and bear the burden of demonstrating [their] clear entitlement, Telecom*USA, Inc. v. United States, 192 F.3d 1068, 1072 (D.C. Cir. 1999). We review substantiation determinations for clear error. Commr v. Simmons, 646 F.3d 6, 12 (D.C. Cir. 2011). The appellants offered three methods for measuring the amount of gas they vented or flared, each of which the Tax Court found unreliable. First, the appellants asserted that RTC employees maintained site logs measuring gas flow at many of the landfills. The Tax Court, however, found those logs unconvincing. Many of the sites had four logs or fewer, and the data reported [was] statistically improbable because gas flow and methane concentrations remain[ed] the same over long periods. 147 T.C. at 64. Second, although the appellants claimed that they used software called LandGEM to measure landfill gas output, the Tax Court found that this software is not designed to be a tool for monitoring or measuring gas production, and is not reliable for that purpose. Id. at 65. Third, the appellants alleged that they estimated landfill gas output based on air emissions factors. The Tax Court disbelieved the testimony of the appellants witness on this point, id. at 35, and described the method as basically eyeball[ing] how much [landfill gas] was emitted from a particular landfill, id. at 66. On this appeal, the appellants expend little energy arguing that the above findings were clearly erroneous. Instead, they assert that four legal errors infected the Tax Courts holding. We address each in turn. First, the appellants argue that the Tax Court implicitly -- and erroneously -- required them to provide a full, continuous record of [landfill gas] flow and concentration measurements accomplished through a meter. Green Gas Br. 33. The Tax Court did no such thing. Rather, it simply found that the appellants substantiating records were riddled with errors or otherwise not credible, a judgment with which we agree. Second, the appellants aver that two of the employees who allegedly prepared 85% of the site logs died prior to the Tax Courts proceedings. Accordingly, the appellants contend, the court erred in employing a presumption that the appellants chose not to introduce testimony that might have corroborated the logs because that testimony would instead have been unfavorable. See 147 T.C. at 65 (citing Wichita Terminal Elevator Co. v. Commr, 6 T.C. 1158 (1946) ). We need not dwell on this objection because the Tax Court provided ample reasons why the logs were unreliable on their face. See id. at 63-64. And in any event, the courts presumption was appropriate given that the appellants could have introduced evidence from still-living employees who prepared the remaining 15% of the site logs, and yet chose not to do so. See Huthnance v. District of Columbia, 722 F.3d 371, 378 (D.C. Cir. 2013). Third, the appellants object that, given the parties stipulation that landfill gas contains roughly 50-55% methane, the Tax Court should not have rejected the appellants use of 50% as a default value for assessing the percentage of methane in the gas flow reported in the logs. See Stipulation of Facts 56 (App. 369). This objection is unavailing because the Tax Court gave numerous other reasons why it did not find the appellants logs credible. See 147 T.C. at 63-64. Moreover, the parties did not stipulate that every landfill has the same or a constant methane content -- indeed, the appellants expert report stated that the methane content of landfill gas ranges from less than ten percent to over sixty percent, depending on the age of the landfill. Expert Report of Neil D. Williams 31 (Oct. 16, 2015) (App. 3374); see Green Gas, 147 T.C. at 10 (Methane content in [landfill gas] varies over time and depends on many factors, including the life cycle of a landfill.). Finally, the appellants argue that, even if they could not fully substantiate their landfill gas production, they should have been allowed to estimate that amount. This argument relies on Cohan v. Commissioner, in which Judge Learned Hand wrote that the predecessor of the Tax Court should make as close an approximation as it can, bearing heavily if it chooses upon the taxpayer whose inexactitude is of his own making. 39 F.2d 540, 544 (2d Cir. 1930). Our court has explained, however, that the Cohan rule is inapposite when there are no reliable figures from which to calculate or extrapolate a reasonable estimate of the taxpayers entitlements. Plisco v. United States, 306 F.2d 784, 787 (D.C. Cir. 1962). Given the severity of the defects the Tax Court identified in the appellants records, a Cohan estimate was not required. For these reasons, we affirm the Tax Courts judgment that the appellants were not eligible for the Section 45K credits they claimed for venting or flaring landfill gas. III We now turn to the Tax Courts determination that some of the landfill gas claimed at gas-to-electricity landfills was not attributable to the taxpayer, and thus not eligible for Section 45K credits on that ground. See 26 U.S.C. 45K(a)(2)(B). Because the appellants dispute with the Tax Court is ultimately a factual one, we review for clear error. Barnes, 712 F.3d at 582. First, the Tax Court disallowed credits at three landfills because the appellants introduced no credible evidence that they had the rights to sell landfill gas at those landfills. 147 T.C. at 55-56. The appellants acknowledge that the record did not contain a copy of the agreements concerning those landfills. Green Gas Br. 43. But this absence was excusable, they maintain, because RTCs former president may have stolen those documents before leaving the company, or, alternatively, because RTCs bankruptcy trustee may have misplaced the documents. The Tax Court did not clearly err in declining to accept those excuses. For one thing, any defects in RTCs record keeping do not explain why the appellants -- separate legal entities from RTC -- lack copies of the agreements they allegedly signed. For another, the Tax Court observed that the appellants managed to introduce evidence of the agreements at every venting/flaring landfill, making their failure to do so at these gas-to-electricity landfills all the more stark. 147 T.C. at 55. Second, the Tax Court disallowed credits at the Pontiac, Illinois landfill after June 13, 2006. Id. at 57-60. On that date, a bankruptcy court in Chicago held that RTCs lease of the Pontiac landfill had expired. See In re RTC, 528 F.3d 467, 468 (7th Cir. 2008). This holding, the Tax Court concluded, meant that RTC had no authority to assign rights at the Pontiac landfill after June 13, 2006 -- and, therefore, that the appellants could not claim credits for selling landfill gas after that date. The Tax Courts conclusion was not clear error. The appellants sole argument to the contrary is that the agreement between RTC and the relevant appellant is essentially a sublease, and the possessory rights of a sublessee are not impaired in bankruptcy unless they would be impaired under applicable state law. Green Gas Br. 46. We need not decide whether that proposition is correct as a matter of bankruptcy law because, even if it were, Illinois law (which governs the contract at issue) states that the termination of [a] top lease ipso facto works a termination of a sublease. Arendt v. Lake View Courts Assocs., 51 Ill.App.3d 564, 9 Ill.Dec. 585, 366 N.E.2d 1096, 1097-98 (1977) (internal quotation marks omitted). Accordingly, the Tax Court did not clearly err in holding that the appellants had no rights to the Pontiac landfill after RTCs lease terminated. IV We next address the Tax Courts decision to disallow the bulk of the appellants business-expense deductions. 147 T.C. at 68-73; see 26 U.S.C. 162(a). The burden of clearly showing the right to the claimed deduction is on the taxpayer, INDOPCO, Inc. v. Commr, 503 U.S. 79, 84, 112 S.Ct. 1039, 117 L.Ed.2d 226 (1992) (quoting Interstate Transit Lines v. Commr, 319 U.S. 590, 593, 63 S.Ct. 1279, 87 L.Ed. 1607 (1943) ), and the Tax Court found that the appellants failed to produce records that would allow them to carry that burden, see 26 C.F.R. 1.6001-1(a). 147 T.C. at 68-73. We review that determination for clear error. Barnes, 712 F.3d at 582. We find no clear error in the Tax Courts findings. The court determined that the appellants could not deduct operation-and-maintenance expenses at landfills where they could not produce any operation-and-maintenance agreements, and where they failed to introduce any evidence showing that any payments were actually made, such as bank records. 147 T.C. at 70. For a separate landfill, the court held that no operation-and-maintenance expenses were deductible after June 16, 2006, when the relevant appellant and RTC were barred from the landfill following a dispute with the landfill owner. Id. at 72-73. As to the appellants claimed deductions for consulting and legal fees, the Tax Court determined that the appellants failed to provide a credible explanation for why the consulting fees were paid by other entities but deductions were claimed by appellant Green Gas. Id. at 70. And it held that the appellants could not claim legal-fee deductions because there was no evidence that any legal work benefited the appellants. Id. at 70-71. Finally, it disallowed various miscellaneous expenses, except to the extent that the appellants could corroborate them with documentation. Id. at 71-72. All of these determinations were reasonable and supported by the record, and we have no cause to overturn them. Nor, for the reasons explained above, do we accept the appellants argument that the Tax Court should have applied a Cohan estimate rather than reject the expenses entirely. We therefore affirm the Tax Court on this issue. V Finally, we consider whether the Tax Court properly approved a 20% accuracy-related penalty under 26 U.S.C. 6662(a). 147 T.C. at 74-78. That section permits the Commissioner to impose a penalty of 20% of the portion of any underpayment which is attributable to, inter alia, [n]egligence or disregard of rules or regulations. 26 U.S.C. 6662(b); see id. 7491(c) (providing that the Commissioner bears the burden to support a penalty). Because the Tax Courts assessment of an accuracy-related penalty is a factual determination, it is reviewed for clear error. Rogers v. Commr, 783 F.3d 320, 327 (D.C. Cir. 2015) (internal quotation marks omitted). Under IRS regulations, negligence includes any failure by the taxpayer to keep adequate books and records or to substantiate items properly. 26 C.F.R. 1.6662-3(b)(1). As should be clear to the reader by this point, the Tax Court did not clearly err in holding that the appellants record-keeping practices satisfied this definition. The appellants multiple excuses -- their documents were stolen by RTCs disgruntled former president, their documents were seized during bankruptcy, the dog ate their homework, and the like -- cannot explain the fact that they submitted hardly any documentation of the key facts underlying their credit and deduction claims. Nor did the Tax Court clearly err in rejecting the appellants claim that they acted with reasonable cause and in good faith, such that no accuracy penalty should issue. 147 T.C. at 76; see 26 C.F.R. 1.6664-4. On appeal, the appellants do not attempt to defend the position they took below -- that they followed the advice of a tax professional -- likely because the Tax Court found that the record is devoid of evidence that [the appellants] received any written advice on tax issues from anyone. 147 T.C. at 77. Instead, they claim that they followed industry best practices in maintaining their records, and hence should not be penalized. Green Gas Br. 55. But the appellants have cited no authority for that claim, either on appeal or before the Tax Court, see Green Gas Tax Court Opening Br. 123-24 (Feb. 22, 2016) (App. 173-74), and we therefore decline to accept it. VI For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the Tax Court is Affirmed. FOOTNOTES . It is, perhaps, no coincidence that some of the intermediary entities were named Bye Bye Gas GP, C U Later Gas GP, Arrivederci Gas GP, Buon Giorno Gas GP, Ciao Gas GP, and Adios Gas GP. See Green Gas, 147 T.C. at 7 n.7. . The appellants also deducted business expenses for 2005, which the Commissioner did not disallow. See Final Adjustment (Aug. 20, 2009) (App. 826-27); U.S. Br. 16 n.8. . In light of our decision on this point, we need not address the Tax Courts alternative holding that vented/flared landfill gas was not sold within the meaning of Section 45K. 147 T.C. at 67-68; see 26 U.S.C. 45K(a)(2)(A) (requiring that the fuel be sold by the taxpayer to an unrelated person during the taxable year). Garland, Chief Judge: Opinion for the Court filed by Chief Judge Garland. Pride and no prejudice Thamel is a night owl. It stays up till late, privy to all that goes on in its narrow night-time corridors, and sleeps till late into the day. Blind Faith, the first project from Alec Bradley owner Alan Rubins sons Alec and Bradley Rubin, is set to hit the shelves. Its the first release under a brand called Alec & Bradley that will give the second generation cigar makers the opportunity to release additional projects. As a father and brand owner I couldnt be more proud of my two sons, said Alan Rubin in a press release. Their mother is very excited that both of the boys are joining the family business and sharing experiences with me, my father- at age 91- who still opens the office doors every morning and the rest of the Alec Bradley family! Alec, the older of the two brothers commented, my father and mother never pushed Brad or me into the business. From a young age, we watched our fathers passion and respect for the process, the tradition and heritage of Premium Cigars. Ive been working in the offices for over 4 years, as well as traveling down to Central America with my father and brother we decided that we wanted to create a brand. It was Alec who joined the company before his younger brother Bradley. While Bradley is now officially on-board in an official capacity, Blind Faith is a project that Bradley started working on with Alec prior to joining the company. We had the full support from our father and Ralph Montero (VP of Alec Bradley) when it came to the brand, the blend and the design, said Bradley. The reason Alec and I named our first project Blind Faith is because it is our first attempt at launching our own cigar line. From the company, to tobacconists, to cigar enthusiasts- people need to have blind faith that, having grown up around the cigar industry, we can make our own cigar line. Produced at Raices Cubanas in Honduras, Blind Faith uses a wrapper from the Trojes region of Honduras over a double binder from Trojes and the Jalapa region of Nicaragua over an all-Nicaraguan blend. The cigar is available in three sizes: Robusto (5 x 52, SRP $8.95/cigar), Toro (6 x 52, SRP $10.00/cigar), and Gordo (6 x 60, SRP $10.95/cigar). Each is packaged in 20-count boxes. While Blind Faith was announced prior to the 2018 IPCPR Trade Show, the packaging made its official debut at the trade show. In terms of the packaging Bradley commented, When it comes to the packaging, it may look like a guy with an old television on his head and the old school SMPTE colored bars, there is a deeper meaning to the artwork. Todays society is heavily influenced by technology, including cellphones, tablets, computers and TVs. The meaning of the TV man is to block out the noise created by technology. People are too focused on what they see on social media or what they are saying on the news and it can positively or negatively influence their days and lives. So to truly enjoy Blind Faith, you need to clear your head from any and all influence that technology has had on your day. If you saw something on the news that made you sad/angry, turn off your television or cellphone and pick up a Blind Faith! According to Alec Bradley, the brothers are already working on a subsequent release for 2019. For more details on Blind Fatih, see our pre-IPCPR coverage as well as our full coverage of Alec Bradley from the 201 IPCPR Trade Show. Photo Credits: Alec Bradley Woman found dead in hotel room A woman has been found dead inside a hotel room under suspicious circumstances in Dharan. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram New York, August 31, 2018Ghanaian authorities should thoroughly investigate and bring to justice all those responsible for an attack on Jerry Azanduna, a reporter with the government-funded Ghana News Agency (GNA), and ensure his belongings are returned, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Azanduna said that on August 27, a group of men tricked him into getting in a car by saying they would drive him to a press conference he had been told to attend. The men instead drove the journalist to the house of Hassan Ayariga, an opposition Ghanaian politician with the All Peoples Congress party, who questioned him about a recent report by GNA before ordering the men to teach him a lesson, Azanduna said. The men beat the journalist and seized his phone, USB flash drive, and wallet, Azanduna and Eric Amoh, of the Ghana Journalist Association, told CPJ. The GNA reported on the attack the following day. Ayariga denied to CPJ any involvement with any violence, but said that APC party members did bring Azanduna to his house on August 27. The attack on Jerry Azanduna is absolutely unacceptable and a stain on Ghanas press freedom record, said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal in Johannesburg. Ghanaian authorities must thoroughly investigate this attack and ensure all those responsible are held accountable. Azanduna told CPJ that at about 4 p.m. on the day of the attack, he received a phone call from someone who identified themselves as concerned youth in Bawku, asking him to attend a press conference where Ayariga would speak. When he arrived at the location of the supposed press conference in Bawku, in Ghanas Upper East region, Azanduna said that a group of men said the location had changed and instructed him to join them in their car to go to the new venue. Azanduna told CPJ he recognized one of the men in the group and so did not suspect any problem with leaving his car and joining them. Azanduna said that when he questioned why the vehicle was going in a different direction to where the men said they were heading, he was told to shut up. When Azanduna took out his phone to call for help, one of the men slapped him and confiscated his phone, the journalist said. Azanduna told CPJ he was driven to Ayarigas home in Bawku, where the politician chastised him for his reporting, and said, The story you did about me, do you know what it has cost me? The journalist said Ayariga told the men to teach me a lesson. Azanduna told CPJ the group beat him at the house until he fell unconscious. I sustained injuries on my left arm and [my] right shoulder was dislocated. My ribs were hurt. My neck and my eyes were all sore, he said. Amoh, from the Ghana Journalist Association, told CPJ that security services rescued Azanduna after receiving a tip about the attack. The journalist was taken to the Bawku police station, where he filed a report before being taken to a hospital. Azanduna said he arrived at the hospital around 6 p.m. and was discharged around 11 p.m. on the day of the attack. He said he returned to the police station the next day to make a full statement. Yao Tettegah, chief superintendent of the Bawku Divisional Police, told CPJ on August 31 that the investigation is ongoing and that police were trying to identify the attackers. When asked if police had identified a link between Ayariga and the attack, Tettegah said no. When contacted by CPJ on August 31, Ayariga denied any involvement and said, When I saw [Azanduna] in my house, I was very angry because I didnt invite him to my houseAt the time I saw him nobody beat himHe was sitting on the floorHe should not pretend [he was beaten]. Ayariga told CPJ he questioned Azanduna at the house about his stories, at least one of which he said was inaccurate and should be retracted, and the politician said he thought the party members and Azanduna may have fought before arriving at his home. Ayariga said it is possible Azanduna was beaten after being taken away by soldiers, whom he said were at his home when the journalist arrived. Ayariga told CPJ that he did not instruct the group of men to teach [Azanduna] a lesson or instigate any attack. He apologized on behalf of his party members for any altercation that may have taken place and said that he and the APC party do not believe in violence. Ayariga said the APC party would investigate any party members involvement in violence. India and Pakistan have agreed to undertake Indus Waters Treaty 1960 mandated tours by their water commissioners in Indus basin on both sides to resolve issues on various hydroelectric projects in Jammu and Kashmir. This was decided in recently concluded high-level bilateral talks on Indus Waters Treaty in Lahore, Pakistan. Highlights on high-level bilateral talks Deliberations were held on further strengthening the role of Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) for matters under 1960 Treaty. Technical discussions were also held on implementation of various hydroelectric projects under provisions of Indus Waters Treaty including Pakal Dul (1000 MW) and Lower Kalnai (48 MW) in Jammu and Kashmir. India has invited Pakistani experts to visit sites of Pakal Dul and Lower Kalnai hydropower projects on Chenab river in September 2018 to address its concerns over construction of the projects. During the talks India rejected Pakistans objections to the construction work and has hinted at continuation of the work on both the hydropower projects. It was agreed to hold the next meeting of the PIC in India on mutually convenient dates. Background Pakistan is demanding reduction of height of Pakal Duls reservoir up to five metres, maintenance of 40-metre height above sea level and making spillways gates of Pakal Dul project. Besides it is also asking for clarification of pattern and mechanism for water storage, releases and some technical concerns over design of Lower Kalnai hydropower project from India. Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) IWT is water-distribution treaty between India and Pakistan which was brokered by World Bank (then the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development). It deals with sharing of water of Indus water system having six rivers Beas, Ravi, Sutlej, Indus, Chenab and Jhelum between the two countries. It was signed by then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and President of Pakistan Ayub Khan in Karachi on September 19, 1960. It is most successful water treaty in world as it has survived India-Pakistan wars of 1965, 1971 and the 1999 Kargil standoff besides Kashmir insurgency since 1990. As per treaty, control over three eastern rivers Ravi, Beas and Sutlej are with India. While control over three western rivers Indus, Jhelum and Chenab was given to Pakistan. It allows India to use only 20% of the water of Indus river, which flows through it first, for irrigation, power generation and transport. The treaty also sets out mechanism for cooperation and information exchange between two countries regarding their use of the rivers. It sets up Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) as a bilateral commission to implement and manage the treaty. It also makes mandatory for both countries to appoint water commissioners, who are required to meet twice a year and arrange technical visits to projects sites. The commission solves disputes arising over water sharing. Besides, treaty also provides arbitration mechanism to solve disputes amicably. The World Banks role in relation to disputes and differences with respect of IWT is limited to the designation of people to fulfill certain roles when requested by either or both of the parties. Attorney General Steve Marshall announced that the indictment of former state trooper George Martin will be reinstated and that he will be retried for the 1995 capital murder of his wife in Mobile County. The Alabama Supreme Court today reversed lower court rulings that had dismissed the indictment. Martin was convicted in 2000 and served 15 years on death row for killing Hammoleketh Martin. In 2015 the conviction was overturned and a new trial was ordered. Rather than proceeding with a retrial, the lower court dismissed the indictment and Martin was freed. After exhausting his direct appeals, Martin and a team of pro-bono attorneys fought a nearly decade-long battle to introduce new evidence to the case in a process known as a Rule 32 appeal. When Circuit Court Judge Robert Smith ultimately dismissed the case during a retrial last year, he noted it was riddled with impropriety and missteps brought about during the prosecution, and said substantial prejudice has been demonstrated and is such that the simple use of prior transcribed testimony would not accommodate the confrontation required by the Constitution After his release, Martin sued the city of Mobile and several prosecutors in the case for damages. That case is still pending in U.S. District Court. The Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the lower courts decision in 2016. Today, the Alabama Supreme Court reversed both decisions. In todays order, the Court restates the facts of the case as follows: In 1995, the charred remains of Martins wife, Hammoleketh, were found inside a burned vehicle that had collided with a tree. Although it appeared to be an accident, evidence indicated that the vehicle fire was intentionally set and that the victim was alive when the fire started. Further evidence indicated that Martin made inconsistent statements to law enforcement concerning the time he discovered his wife missing, whether his wife carried a gasoline can in her vehicle and whether his wife had used a BIC brand lighter found at the scene as a flashlight because the dome light in her vehicle did not work. According to a press release from Marshalls office, although Martin acknowledged the existence of a $200,000 life insurance policy, he denied there was any other. In fact, there was another policy for $150,000 that was collectible only if his wife died in a passenger vehicle. A trooper report prepared by Martin the year before involved an accident with similar circumstances. The Attorney Generals Criminal Appeals Division argued that the indictment was improperly dismissed and that Martin should be required to stand trial again. The Alabama Supreme Court agreed and reversed the lower courts decisions and ordered that Martin must be retried for capital murder. The Attorney Generals Criminal Trials Division will prosecute the case. Attorney General Marshall commended Assistant Attorney General Audrey Jordan for her successful work in handling the matter on appeal. | 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 Taipei, Aug. 31 (CNA) Human rights groups on Friday condemned the execution of a death row inmate , alleging it was timed to boost the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) chances in the nine-in-one local government elections on Nov. 24. Lee Hung-chi (), who was sentenced to death in 2016 for stabbing to death his ex-wife and later killing his daughter as part of a murder-suicide by burning charcoal in his car in April 2014, was put to death at 3:37 p.m. Friday, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) confirmed. Lee was the first death row inmate to be executed since the DPP assumed office on May 20, 2016, following the execution on May 10, 2016 of Cheng Chieh () who killed four people and injured 24 in a knife attack on a Taipei Metro train in May 2014. Activists representing human rights groups scheduled a press conference at 6p.m. in front of the MOJ in protest, holding placards that read "killing for votes." "Why did the DPP government chose to enforce an execution now, two or three months away from the elections?" asked Chiu E-ling (), secretary-general of Taiwan Association for Human Rights. "They were aiming at getting more votes." The DPP flies in the face of covenants upheld by the United Nations and international human rights organizations that the issue of capital punishment should not be used for political purposes or electoral gain, Chiu said. "How is the DPP different from the Kuomintang (KMT)," Chiu said. "Does the DPP truly believe in the universal value of abolishing the death penalty?" During the previous KMT administration from 2008-2016, former President Ma Ying-jeou () broke the moratorium Taiwan observed from 2006-2009, carrying out 33 executions, several of which were criticized for being timed to gain political leverage. The DPP has recently supported the abolition of the death penalty. Point 26 of the DPP Action Plan adopted in 1999 said the party would "respect life, prevent miscarriages of justice and search for ways to end the use of capital punishment." However, in the previous DPP administration under former President Chen Shui-bian () from 2000-2008, 32 death row inmates were executed before he introduced the moratorium in 2006. President Tsai Ing-wen () has avoided taking a position on the issue since she assumed office, except her remarks in July that the death penalty remains on the books and that the MOJ would decide under what circumstances an execution could be carried out. During the presidential election campaign in 2015, Tsai said that abolition of the death penalty is contingent on whether the country has reached a consensus on the issue and alternative measures are in place. Head of Covenants Watch Huang Song-lih () told the press conference that the DPP administration "made an erroneous decision" to carry out the execution. "President Tsai has repeatedly declared that human rights are the principle on which her governance is based," Huang said. "But the execution demonstrates that her administration has reneged on its promise to gradually move the country toward abolition." In late July, soon after taking office, Justice Minister Tsai Ching-hsiang () said that the government's policy to gradually move toward abolition of the death penalty remains unchanged. First execution under President Tsai Ing-wen a crushing setback to abolition hopes Responding to the execution of a 39-year-old man in Taiwan today - the country's 1st execution since President Tsai Ing-wen came to office in 2016 - Amnesty International Taiwan's Acting Section Director, Annie Huang, said: "It is deeply disappointing that Taiwan has decided to resume the implementation of a cruel punishment, especially after President Tsai Ing-wen had stated clearly that her government aims to abolish the death penalty. "That pledge now rings hollow. Today's execution is a crushing setback to the abolitionist movement in Taiwan and an act that casts a shadow over Tsai's presidency. "The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights and can never deliver justice or accountability. We once again call on the Taiwanese authorities to establish an official moratorium on executions as a 1st step towards abolishing the death penalty once and for all." Lee Hung-chi, who was convicted of murder in 2014, was executed by firing squad on Friday afternoon. He was initially sentenced to life in prison by the Kaohsiung District Court, but the Taiwan High Court later changed the punishment to a death sentence - a move approved by the country's Supreme Court in 2016. The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. Amnesty opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception - regardless of who is accused, the nature or circumstances of the crime, guilt or innocence or method of execution. EU condemns Taiwan's use of death penalty after mans execution for double murder Bloc criticises island for 'cruel and inhumane punishment, which fails to act as a deterrent' The European Union called on Taiwan to stop use of the death penalty after the self-ruled island executed an inmate who killed his ex-wife and 5-year-old daughter in 2014. Lee Hung-chi was executed by firing squad on Friday despite calls from rights groups to abolish the death penalty. In a statement released after the execution, the EU said it was "unequivocally opposed to the use of capital punishment". "It is a cruel and inhumane punishment, which fails to act as a deterrent and represents an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity," the statement said. It added that the EU "looks to the Taiwanese authorities to immediately reintroduce a moratorium on the death penalty". Taiwan resumed capital punishment in 2010 after a five-year hiatus, with the death penalty reserved for the most serious crimes such as aggravated murder and kidnapping. Lee stabbed his former spouse to death outside the kindergarten their 2 daughters attended and then took 1 of the girls to his car, where he tried to kill both her and himself by carbon monoxide poisoning. He survived after they were rescued but the girl died 2 months later despite treatment. "His actions were brutal and ruthless ... and inflicted irreparable harm to the victims' family," deputy justice minister Chen Ming-tang said. Lee's execution is the 1st since a former college student was put to death in May 2016 for killing 4 people in a random stabbing spree on an underground train that shocked the generally peaceful island. In 2012 the murder of a young boy in a playground reignited debate about the death penalty, after the suspect reportedly said he was anticipating free lodging in jail and would get a life sentence at most even if he were to kill 2 or 3 people. Amnesty International Taiwan's acting section director Annie Huang said it was disappointing that Taiwan had decided to resume capital punishment. "The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights and can never deliver justice or accountability," she said. "We once again call on the Taiwanese authorities to establish an official moratorium on executions as a 1st step towards abolishing the death penalty once and for all." | 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 1. Yes. If a city of 150,000 cant provide safe drinking water for 10 days, a probe is needed. 2. Yes. Not only should there be a state investigation, but customers should get a rebate. 3. No. The city will be working with TCEQ to develop an after-action plan. That will suffice. 4. No. The whole episode was just an annoyance. An outside investigaton is unnecessary. 5. Unsure. Its hard to say without knowing more details about the issue. Vote View Results The bike in which the two 16-year-olds were riding from which the cops seized 250gms of ganja. (Image: DC) Chennai: Tension prevailed in Chromepet area, where one of the juveniles died after the bike, in which he was riding pillion, hit the retaining wall on Friday morning. The police also found ganja in the bike and enquired with the injured juvenile. According to police, the two male juveniles, aged 16, were riding a bike to an area on Friday morning and when they returned to their homes located near Gangaiyamman koil in Hasthinapuram in Chromepet, the accident happened. When the bike reached MIT bridge at 10.30 am, the juvenile, who rode the bike lost control and hit the bridge wall and in the impact, the pillion rider was thrown off bridge from a height of 40 feet and he died on the spot. The juvenile, who rode the bike was injured and rushed to the nearby private hospital. Police suspected that both victims could have been under influence of ganja and it could have led to the accident. A traffic investigating police said that both were heading from Tambaram towards Hastinapuram and they suspected that they could have purchased ganja in some secluded area. While the dead juvenile was studying in IIT and he was a first year student, another was working in an electronic shop. People were shocked to see the juvenile falling off the bridge. Police went a step further and examined the bike after reaching the spot. To our shock, we found 250 grams of ganja stuffed in the bag of bike. Since the injured juvenile is out of danger, we will investigate him about the place where they were getting ganja, added the police officer in Chrompert. The Chromepet traffic investigation registered a case and further investigation is on. 83-year-old Gujarat MP Liladhar Vaghela was out for a walk when a stray cow attacked him outside his residence in Sector 21, Gandhinagar. (Photo: YouTube | Screengrab) Mumbai: BJP's Lok Sabha MP Liladhar Vaghela was injured after a stray cow attacked him outside his residence on Thursday evening. He was admitted to the ICU with broken ribs after being attacked by the cow. According to reports, the 83-year-old MP from Patan, Gujarat, was out for a walk when a stray cow attacked him outside his residence in Sector 21, Gandhinagar. The octogenarian MP was rushed to the Apollo Hospital by passers-by and admitted to the ICU after initial examination. Doctors said that he has sustained injuries to his ribs and head. Prior to being elected to the Lok Sabha, Vaghela was a cabinet minister in Gujarat. According to local media, the senior politician has sustained two fractures and clotting in the head. After the accident, the doctors have kept him in the ICU as his condition is quite critical. Vietnam is among the top ten major makets that receive the most attention from Chinese belt and road property investors, according to a recent report. On August 31, 2018, Uoolu, the leading platform for cross-border real estate transactions in China, released the "Uoolu 2018 Ten Countries on Belt and Road Property Investment Data Report." The "Belt and Road Initiative" was proposed by the Chinese government in 2013 in order to strengthen the relationship with surrounding Asian countries. Since then, there has been frequent activity between China and other Asian countries in terms of property investment. In the report, Uoolu selected eight countries in Southeast Asia including Vietnam and two countries in the Middle East along the Belt and Road based on the Cooperative Development Index to assess the investment risk in the Belt and Road Initiative region. The ten countries were ranked by different criteria such as housing price growth rate and price-to-rent ratio. The data highlights the significant and accessible property markets of the region, as well as the demographics of Chinese investors. The primary investors in overseas property are aged between 30 to 49 years old and are mostly from new industries. Investors come from IT, and Internet business accounts for 31 percent of investors who are open to mobile technology and new services. The new affluent generation has exhibited a short decision-making cycle. 43.56 percent of Chinese investors only take a week to decide on a property investment, and 67 percent invest between $70,000 to $150,000. The gridlock stretched along the entire 3-km (1 mile) stretch from Binh Loi Bridge to the intersection of Pham Van Dong and Phan Van Tri streets. I waited for half an hour but couldnt escape the jam, then canceled a customers booking, said a GrabBike driver who carried his motorbike over the median strip to find another way. Over 500 companies in Ukraine allowed selling gas to industrial consumers According to Naftogaz, rules on the "gas for industry" market are transparent and understandable to all. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has noted achievements of the country over the year of validity of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, during this period the EU states became the largest trading partners of Ukraine. "Exactly one year ago, the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU fully came into effect ... Today we have the first results. The countries of the European Union have become the largest trade partners of Ukraine - the share of the EU in Ukraine's foreign trade has reached 42%. In the first half of the year, we exported goods and services worth $11.2 billion to the EU, which is almost $2 billion more than in the same period last year," Poroshenko wrote on his Facebook page. The head of state assured that Ukraine will further deepen not only trade and economic, but also sectoral and political integration of Ukraine into the EU. "Our task is to bring this case to the end, to ensure Ukraine's full membership in the European Union. As a president, I will make every effort to do this. As I promised, I will submit to the Verkhovna Rada a bill on stipulating our policy of joining the EU and NATO in the Constitution of Ukraine," he stressed. Poroshenko also thanked the pro-European parliamentary majority, the government and the civil society for active efforts to implement the agreement. Yatsenyuk and Volker in U.S. discuss protection of Ukraine from Russian aggression Leader of the People's Front party Arseniy Yatsenyuk in the United States has met with U.S. Department of State Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker and U.S. Department of State Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell. "A good conversation with State Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell and Kurt Volker. I appreciate the substantive nature of our dialogue," Yatsenyuk said on Facebook. According to the politician, the time of "great political trials" is coming. "We need to save Ukraine from the expected upheavals and from the constant threat of aggression on the part of Russia, from its evil proposals of peace, but in fact a hybrid seizure of our state. Ukraine will not compromise on our national and European future. We will defend our freedom from any attempt," Yatsenyuk said, noting that this was the essence of the conversation. Occupation forces had fired on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Donbas 11 times over the past day, heavy weapons were not used, there are no losses among Ukrainian servicemen, the press service of the of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) headquarters has reported. "Russian occupation forces opened fire on the positions of our troops 11 times. The enemy did not use the weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements. Militants fired on the positions from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms. There are no human losses among the Joint Forces Operation soldiers," a report on Facebook reads. Illegal armed groups continued to shell Ukrainian positions near the settlements Krymske, Pivdenne, Maryinka, Starohnativka, Pavlopil, Hnutove, Lebedynske, and Vodiane. Poroshenko, U.S. senators discuss further steps to strengthen intl efforts for de-occupation of Crimea, Donbas Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has met with a group of U.S. senators from two parties in Washington. According to the press service of the Ukrainian head of state, Poroshenko expressed gratitude for the important role of the U.S. Senate in protecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, including consistent support for the provision of Ukraine with lethal defensive weapons and an increased sanctions pressure on Russia. Further steps were coordinated to strengthen international efforts for de-occupation of Crimea and Donbas. Poroshenko drew attention to the illegal activities of the Russian Federation in the water areas of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait. The parties exchanged views regarding the threats to the energy security of Europe through the implementation of the Nord Stream 2 project. They discussed the progress of Ukraine in implementing the reform programs and developing cooperation with the IMF, the press service said. The president of Ukraine also expressed hope for the senators' support of Ukraine's efforts aimed at the official recognition by the United States of the Holodomor as a genocide of the Ukrainian people. Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Vasyl Hrytsak has met with a delegation of representatives of the U.S. Congress and the Atlantic Council led by the fifth U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ukraine, John Herbst, the SBU press service has said. "During the meeting, the parties discussed the main issues of cooperation in the direction of countering modern challenges and threats to the national security of both countries," the press service of the Security Service of Ukraine said on its official website. "We highly appreciate the state of bilateral cooperation in the sphere of security and express our gratitude to the American colleagues for their constant support and assistance in the fight against Russian aggression," Hrytsak noted. Participants in the meeting noted the importance of continuing cooperation in the field of protection from hybrid threats from the Russian Federation and sharing experience on timely and effective response to them. Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova has again offered Russian counterpart Tatyana Moskalkova to hold a meeting to discuss the implementation of agreements between the presidents of Ukraine and Russia on visiting prisoners in the two countries. "Once again I offered Human Rights Ombudswoman in the Russian Federation Tatyana Moskalkova to discuss the issues of exchange and simultaneously appeal to the presidents of Ukraine and the Russian Federation to pardon the prisoners of both countries. I suggest that the Russian Federation's authorized representative hold a joint meeting in any city or country and discuss the implementation of agreements of the presidents of Ukraine and the Russian Federation regarding visiting the citizens of both states held in prisons and their exchange," she wrote on Facebook. Denisova also stressed she supports the appeal of the EU Delegation to the OSCE to immediately release Ukrainian film maker Oleh Sentsov. "The release must take place without any conditions. Many of our guys are waiting for their release in the territory of the Russian Federation and the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea," she said, noting that 22 Russian citizens, held in prisons in the territory of Ukraine, personally appealed to the president of the Russian Federation with the request to exchange them for Ukrainian political prisoners. Washington is ready to expand arms supplies to Ukraine in order to build up the country's naval and air defense forces, U.S. Department of State Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker has said in the interview with the Guardian edition. "They are losing soldiers every week defending their own country. And so in that context it's natural for Ukraine to build up its military, engage in self-defense, and it's natural to seek assistance and is natural that other countries should help them. And of course they need lethal assistance because they're being shot at," he stated. "We can have a conversation with Ukraine like we would with any other country about what do they need. I think that there's going to be some discussion about naval capability because as you know their navy was basically taken by Russia. And so they need to rebuild a navy and they have very limited air capability as well. I think we'll have to look at air defense," the official added. Volker said there was still a substantial gap between the U.S. and Russia over how a United Nations peacekeeping force could be deployed to end the four-year war. In May, the Congress approved $250 million in military assistance to Ukraine in 2019, including lethal weaponry. By Ivan Ssenabulya. Police has finally cleared Kyadondo East Member of Parliament RobertKyagulanyiSsentamu, to travel abroad for further treatment. On Thursday police blocked two legislatorsKyagulanyiSsentamu and Mityana municipality MP Francis Zaake at Entebbe Airport from travelling abroad, on reports that they were fleeing the country. However in a statement issued last evening by the police spokesperson Emilian Kayima, Kyagulanyi was cleared following an examination on him by medical experts at Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kiruddu. Kayima says the examinations was crucial and needed as part of polices investigations on alleged torture of the MP. Related stories Bobi Wines Lawyers condemn government for blocking him from traveling abroad for medication Bobi Wine admitted at Rubaga hospital Bobi Wine, Kasiano and 10 others granted bail The Crimean Human Rights Group organization has stated that the Russian Federation violates the rights of Ukrainians who refused to obtain Russian passports in the occupied Crimea, in particular by expelling them as migrants who violated the terms of their stay on the peninsula. "The Russian Federation deprives of the rights those Ukrainian citizens who refused or could not obtain a Russian passport in the occupied territory. This is primarily because of the fact that they do not have the opportunity to get a job, they cannot get normal medical care, after all, they are simply expelled from the territory of Crimea, using the norms of the administrative code of the Russian Federation," analyst of Crimean Human Rights Group Oleksandr Sedov said. He noted that the occupation authorities of Crimea consider such citizens as external migrants, despite the fact that these people had being living on the peninsula for a long time before the occupation and have stable social ties there. According to the human rights activist, in the period from the beginning of occupation in 2014 to February 2018 some 6,970 decisions were passed on punishment in respect of persons who allegedly exceeded the term of their stay in Crimea. According to Sedov, the punishment may be a fine, deportation or a verbal warning. Kyiv city authorities are doing everything possible to sign an agreement on gas supply to Kyiv with Naftogaz as soon as possible, the press service of Kyiv City State Administration has said. "The government instructed the Ministry of Finance to find sources in the national budget to provide the capital with subventions to pay the difference in tariffs for housing and utilities services in the amount of UAH 730 million. Given the situation with gas supply shortage, this decision opens the possibility of signing an amicable agreement with Naftogaz in the field of legal proceedings for the legal succession of Kyivenergo debts. I communicate with Kyiv residents - they are not interested in this formula. They are interested in the availability of the service itself. And we are doing our best to sign an agreement on gas supply to the capital as soon as possible," Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. He noted that Naftogaz still requires the capital to pay off the debts that Kyivenergo accumulated. Only after this the company is ready to sign an agreement. In particular, the matter also concerns UAH 1.2 billion of fines and penalties. Klitschko noted the city is ready to talk about the debts of the population. But the authorities are not going to pay for the activities of the private company. Court sentences German, accused of organizing attempted assassination of Babchenko, to 4.5 years of imprisonment Kyiv's Holosiyivsky District Court after a plea bargain with the investigators has sentenced Boris German, accused of organizing the attempted murder of Russian opposition journalist Arkady Babchenko in Kyiv, to 4.5 years of imprisonment, Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Vasyl Hrytsak has said. "Yes, this information is correct. On August 30 of this year, Kyiv's Holosiyivsky District Court found Boris German guilty of what he was accused of. He was given a real sentence of 4 years and 6 months of imprisonment," Hrytsak told journalists in Kyiv, asked by Interfax-Ukraine. According to the SBU head, the verdict will come into force in a month. He said German cooperated with the investigators, copped the plea. "Cooperates with the investigators, gives very interesting testimonies, which we will be later verified and documented," Hrytsak said. Earlier Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko said that on August 21 German started preparations for cooperation with the investigators. Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Vasyl Hrytsak has denied a possible involvement of the Ukrainian side in the death of DPR Head Alexander Zakharchenko and tends to the fact that the main reason for his elimination could be conflicts on a commercial basis. "In my opinion, the situation is predicted. All those who in 2014 facilitated the introduction of Russian troops to Donbas, who contributed to the creation of pseudo-national republics are being eliminated ... We believe that a methodical elimination of those who know too much and who have blood on their hands, those who are no longer needed as witnesses is being carried out," he told reporters in Kyiv, commenting on the detention of allegedly Ukrainian saboteurs and blaming the Security Service for the murder of Zakharchenko. The second version voiced by the SBU head is "just conflicts on a commercial basis, since many objects of property, enterprises were, as they write, wrung out, separated and there were many offended in the leadership of both LPR and DPR." Asked whether the SBU cases against Zakharchenko will be closed in connection with his death, Hrytsak said the investigator would make the decision, however, as a rule, such cases are closed. The hearing session for 13 people charged with importing mobile phones at the official exchange rate but selling them at free market prices began in a Tehran Revolutionary Court on September 1. The hearing is presided by mid-ranking cleric Mohammad Movahed, head of Branch One of the Special Court for trying suspects recently charged with disturbing economic order. Based on the indictment, the suspects are managing directors of companies who used millions of dollars at the official rate to buy mobile phones and sell them at free market prices. Eight of the suspects profited up to 1.3 trillion rials (roughly $31 million) through the misuse of subsidized dollars, the prosecutor said. On August 25, three other suspects charged with similar crimes. Mohammad Ghaleb Alamdari, Alireza Sanjari, and Sanabad Safariha were tried in the same court and will soon defend themselves in the following sessions. The trials are underway, while Information and Communications Technology Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi has already published a list of companies that misused subsidized dollars to import mobile phones and sell them for much higher prices on the local market. On August 11, it was reported that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had approved a request by the judiciary to set up special courts to deal with economic and financial crimes. Iranian media quoted Khamenei as saying in a brief statement issued on August 11 that punishments for those accused of economic corruption should be "carried out swiftly and justly." New Islamic revolutionary courts will be directed to impose maximum sentences on those "disrupting and corrupting the economy," judiciary head Sadegh Amoli Larijani proposed in a letter to Khamenei. The request by the judiciary said the courts should be eligible to try all suspects, including "official and military" people. The sentences can include the death penalty. Fighting economic corruption has intensified during recent months in Iran and several economic saboteurs have recently been tried in Tehran, the official news agency, IRNA, reported on September 1. Iranian intelligence officers arrested two human rights lawyers Payam Dorfeshan and Farrokh Forouzan Friday August 31, reported lawyer Mohammad Najafi on his Facebook page. Dorfeshan and Keykhosravi are the defense lawyers of the family of Kavous Seyed Emami, an environmentalist who died in jail in February. The Iranian government claimed that Emami committed suicide, while his family and lawyers rule out the possibility of his suicide. Human rights activists have said that the cause of Emami's death could have been torture or psychological pressure while in custody. The two lawyers were arrested while visiting the family of Arash Kaykhosravi, a human rights lawyer who was detained last week with two other rights lawyers, Qasem Sholeh-Sadi and Massoud Javadieh in front of the Iranian Parliament while protesting the violations of civil rights by the Iranian government. No reason has been given for the arrest of the two lawyers. The new arrests bring the number of Iranian human rights lawyers in jail in Tehran to more than ten. Other human rights lawyers jailed in Iran for defending human rights include Abdolfattah Soltani, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, Mohammad Seyfzadeh, Sara Sabbaghian, and Maryam Kian Ersi. Iranian authorities also jailed Zeinab Taheri, the lawyer of the Gonabadi Sufis earlier in this year and released her on bail later. The Sufis' other lawyer, Mostafa Daneshjou has also been in jail since July. Meanwhile, Iranian authorities have taken actions targeting human rights defenders and activists such as human right activist Narges Mohammadi, and Farhad Meysami, a human rights defender who was arrested by Intelligence Ministry officials on August 1 for protesting compulsory hijab laws. International human rights watchdogs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have reported about the Iranian government's mounting pressures on human rights lawyers and defenders since President Hassan Rouhani first took office as President in Iran in 2013. Human Rights Watch Middle East Director Sarah Leah Whitson said in an August 17 statement that "Iranian authorities blatantly disregard due process rights of human rights defenders such as prominent lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh" who has been in jail since late May. The HRW has called on Iran's authorities to immediately release prominent lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, saying her arrest and the new charges against her reveal the "grave degree the Iranian judiciary is criminalizing human rights activism." According to the Human Rights Watch, Apparently what authorities fear greatly is advocating respect for human rights. The Ministry of Intelligence under President Hassan Rouhani has tried to present itself to Iranians as a more lenient security agency, but like the Revolutionary Guards Intelligence Organization it is an integral part of the states repressive crackdown against human rights defenders, Whitson said. Meanwhile, an AI report released in 2017 said, "The Iranian authorities have waged a 'vicious' crackdown on human rights defenders since Hassan Rouhani became president, demonizing and imprisoning activists who dare to stand up for peoples rights." "In a succession of cases, people have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms, sometimes exceeding a decade, for acts that should not even be considered crimes. These include contact with the EU and the UN, as well as with media outlets, international trade union associations and human rights groups based outside Iran - including Amnesty International. The activists are often labelled 'foreign agents' and 'traitors' by Iranian state media," Amnesty International added. DUBAI, Sept 1 (Reuters) Iran on Saturday rejected a Reuters report that Tehran has moved missiles to Iraq, saying it aimed to hurt Iran's ties with neighbours, the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Twitter he was "deeply concerned" by the reports that Iran was transferring ballistic missiles into Iraq. He urged Iraqi leaders to quickly form a new government after a May 12 parliamentary election. "Such false and ridiculous news have no purpose other than affecting Iran's foreign relations, especially with its neighbours," Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said, according to IRNA. Iranian, Iraqi and Western sources told Reuters that Iran has given ballistic missiles to Shi'ite proxies in Iraq and is developing the capacity to build more there. "This news is solely aimed at creating fears in the countries of the region," Qassemi added. Pompeo, in his tweet on the reports of the transfer of the missiles, said, "If true, this would be a gross violation of Iraqi sovereignty and of UNSCR 2231." He was referring to U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231, which underpinned the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iraq and six world powers. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the deal earlier this year and his administration is currently reimposing sanctions against Tehran. Earlier, Pompeo spoke by phone with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi "to reaffirm U.S. support for Iraq's efforts to form a modern, nationalist Iraqi government," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. Pompeo emphasized the importance of safeguarding Iraq's sovereignty during this critical time, she said. He also spoke to Iraqi Vice President Ayad Allawi to discuss political developments and relations between Baghdad and Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in north Iraq, Nauert added. Any sign that Iran is preparing a more aggressive missile policy in Iraq will exacerbate tensions between Tehran and Washington, already heightened by Trump's decision to pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal. It would also embarrass France, Germany and Britain, the three European signatories to the nuclear deal, as they have been trying to salvage the agreement despite the new U.S. sanctions against Tehran. According to three Iranian officials, two Iraqi intelligence sources and two Western intelligence sources, Iran has transferred short-range ballistic missiles to allies in Iraq over the last few months. Five of the officials said it was helping those groups to start making their own. (Reporting by Dubai newsroom Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton in Washington Editing by Andrew Roche and Leslie Adler) Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says Iran will continue to play an active, stable, responsible, and powerful" role in the region despite the U.S. demonization of Iran. Zarif took to his official Twitter account on August 31 to respond to earlier remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump, who said the government in Iran could collapse because of his administrations policies. "Bipolar demonization of Iran as either 'taking over MidEast' or 'fighting for survival' indicates U.S. cognitive disorder & demagoguery unleashed by collapse of America's moral compass," Zarif said. When I came into here, it was a question of when would they take over the Middle East, Trump said on August 30 in an Oval Office interview with Bloomberg News. Now its a question of will they survive. Its a big difference in one and a half years. The president didnt elaborate on the comment, Bloomberg noted. On August 6, Trump signed a decree on restoring sanctions against Iran that had been canceled in January 2016, after the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA) or Tehrans nuclear deal with world powers. JCPOA was signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China, Russia, Germany, and Iran in 2015. The agreement lifted international sanctions against Tehran in exchange for Iran ceasing its nuclear weapon programs. The restrictions are introduced in the context of the decision of the president from May 8, 2018, on termination of participation of the U.S. in JCPOA and restoring all sanctions canceled or suspended in connection with JCPOA, the White House said in a statement. The new sanctions are being restored in two stages. The first package of restrictions targeting the automotive market, precious metals, public debt, software, and financial transactions came into force on August 7. The second package of sanctions will concern oil and gas exports from Iran and will come into effect on November 4. While the re-imposed sanctions are expected to put Iran under considerable pressure, Tehrans economic tribulation started long before the implementation of the U.S. renewed sanctions. The downfall of the value of the Iranian national currency, the rial, began weeks before Trumps decision to withdraw from JCPOA. The rials freefall was so abrupt that it led to unprecedented widespread protest rallies against the Islamic establishment, including enraged demonstrations by businessmen at Tehrans Grand Bazaar who traditionally support the conservative clergy. On at least two occasions, Trump have proposed to meet with the Iranians without any precondition. Furthermore, his secretaries of state and defense have repeatedly insisted Washington is not seeking a regime change in Iran. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for his part, has explicitly stressed he will not allow any meeting between the two sides and that negotiations with the United States are forbidden. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sep. 1 By Rauf Guliyev - Trend: Azerbaijan and Russia are trying to further strengthen cooperation through joint efforts and measures, Hikmet Hajiyev, spokesman of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, said in an interview with "TRT World". Responding the question about Azerbaijan's relations with Russia and Germany, as well as heightened interest in the region, Hajiyev said that Azerbaijan stands for the establishment of equal and normal relations with all partners and friendly states. In this regard, Hajiyev noted that Azerbaijan and Russia are neighboring states, and traditionally friendly ties prevail between the two countries. Noting that Azerbaijan closely cooperates with partners from the European Union (EU), the Foreign Ministry spokesman said that cooperation with the EU, the member countries of the organization, including Germany, is on the agenda. Commenting on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as well as the mediation mission, Hikmet Hajiyev added that the South Caucasus suffers from Armenia's occupation of Azerbaijani territories, and the illegal presence of the Armenian Armed Forces in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan poses a serious threat to the maintenance of peace and security in the region. The spokesman recalled that the map for resolving the conflict is clear and based on the norms and principles of international law, corresponding to the resolutions of the UN Security Council. Hajiyev brought to the attention the importance of intensifying the efforts of the co-chair countries to fulfill the requirements of the UN Security Council resolutions. "The expectations of Azerbaijan are that along with the co-chairs, all countries participating in the Minsk Group should support the implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions," Hajiyev said. Touching upon the essence of the UN Security Council resolutions, Hajiyev recalled that they demand complete and unconditional withdrawal of the occupant forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. "The Azerbaijani people have been suffering from this conflict for more than 25 years, Azerbaijan supports the solution of the conflict through intensive and substantive negotiations," the representative of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said. Details added (first version posted on 13:40) Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 1 Trend: President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has started his visit to the Russian Federation. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin had a meeting at the Bocharov Ruchey state residence in the city of Sochi. The heads of state addressed the meeting. President of Russia Vladimir Putin said: - Dear Ilham Heydar oglu. Dear friends. It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to Sochi. I would like to stress that our meetings are held regularly, and this is only natural since we enjoy extensive interaction, which we call a strategic partnership. Our relations are also developing along both the political and the economic lines. Last year trade between our countries grew by 34 percent even over 34 percent whereas in the first six months of this year the sales volumes of civilian industry products grew by 20 percent. These are very good indicators. Naturally, we always have topics for discussion, and I am very glad that you accepted our invitation and came to Russia today. Welcome. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said: - Thank you very much, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich. First of all, I would like to thank you for your invitation to visit Russia. I am always glad to meet with you. As you said, we meet regularly, and our meetings give an impetus to our relations. We are satisfied with the level of interaction in all areas. Our relations are developing fully and very effectively. There is active political dialogue. You have noted the growth of trade, which speaks of the positive trends in our countries economies and also of a large potential for economic cooperation. I am confident that our trade will continue to grow in the coming years. We cooperate in the energy sector, and in the transport sector. Of course, we are also going to discuss issues related to the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and regional problems. So the agenda is broad enough. I am confident that our meeting today will give an additional impetus to our relations. Thank you again for the invitation. By Edson Kinene. Former minister Jim Muhwezi has warned Kyadondo East Member of Parliament Hon Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine over what he termed as violent politics aimed at destabilizing the country. Bobi Wine should go slow, the NRM government he is tarnishing over human rights violation designed the constitution and enshrined in it laws that protect the human rights during elections. Breaking these Laws is undermining the government, he said. He said that people like Bobi Wine are not politicians, but musicians who should not destroy politics with their comedy. Stay away from such people.the likes of Bobi Wine. Let Bobi Wine stay in his lane and stop scratching where it does not hurt, and later shout human rights. Thats not how they play with the government, he said. Mr Muhwezi said that violent politicians are breaking the laws that are enshrined in the constitution which was designed to protect human rights. The former Information and Technology minister was speaking at the swearing in ceremony of the new leaders of the newly created Rwerere Town council in Rujumbura County, Rukungiri District. Jim Muhwezi is the former Member of Parliament for Rujumbura County who was defeated by Forum for Democratic Changes Fred Turyamuhweza. At the same function the Deputy Resident District Commissioner Justine Muhindo warned against insecurity that starts from villages and the local council 1 chairpersons fail to report. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 1 Trend: Relations between Azerbaijan and Russia are developing fully and very effectively, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the Bocharov Ruchey state residence in Sochi. First of all, I would like to thank you for your invitation to visit Russia, Ilham Aliyev said. I am always glad to meet with you. As you said, we meet regularly, and our meetings give an impetus to our relations. We are satisfied with the level of interaction in all areas. Our relations are developing fully and very effectively. There is active political dialogue. You have noted the growth of trade, which speaks of the positive trends in our countries economies and also of a large potential for economic cooperation. I am confident that our trade will continue to grow in the coming years. We cooperate in the energy sector, and in the transport sector, he added. Of course, we are also going to discuss issues related to the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and regional problems, said the president. So the agenda is broad enough. I am confident that our meeting today will give an additional impetus to our relations. Thank you again for the invitation. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 3 Trend: Todays talks will give an additional impetus to further developing the entire complex of Russian-Azerbaijani relations, said President of Russia Vladimir Putin Sept. 1 at a press conference following his meeting with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in Sochi. Russia and Azerbaijan are bound by strong traditions of friendship and cooperation, Putin said. The relationship between our states is a partnership that is mutually beneficial and is based on the principles of neighbourly relations and respect for each others interests. I am convinced that todays talks, in which the heads of our key agencies and business leaders took part, will give an additional impetus to further developing the entire complex of Russian-Azerbaijani relations, he noted. This is the aim of the joint statement the President of Azerbaijan and I have signed along with a substantial set of intergovernmental and interdepartmental agreements. First of all, I would like to highlight the Action Plan on Developing Key Areas of Cooperation. This programme document includes roadmaps on such important issues as increasing trade and mutual investments, creating new transport routes and expanding humanitarian cooperation, including cultural and tourism exchanges, Vladimir Putin added. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 1 Trend: Preparation to the liberation of Azerbaijani territories from occupation is the main field of Azerbaijani Defense Ministrys activity, Defense Minister Colonel General Zakir Hasanov said at an official meeting held Sept. 1, the Defense Ministry said in a message. The meeting that was held with the participation of the deputies of defense minister, commanders of the branches of troops, chiefs of the main departments, departments and services of the ministry, as well as commanders of the army corpses, also involved the commanders of formations stationed in the frontline zone and other responsible officers via video communication. Once more bringing to the attention of meeting attendants the tasks set by the Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev before the Azerbaijani army, Hasanov stressed that the main goal of the held events, taken measures in the army construction, and in general all the ministrys activity is preparation to the liberation of the Azerbaijani territories from occupation. The defense minister analyzed the intensive combat training conducted in the troops, the daily activities and organization of combat operations, the comprehensive service and combat activities, the planning of operational training activities, as well as the current situation in the frontline zone and other places of deployment of the troops, and gave relevant instructions. At the same time, Hasanov defined tasks in connection with organizing and conducting exercises of various levels, as well as other important events envisaged in the plan, including the readiness of military personnel, logistic facilities, especially posts and positions located in the mountainous regions for the winter period. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sep. 1 By Ilkin Shafiyev Trend: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has allocated $3 million of technical assistance for the development of solar energy in Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan. The Floating Solar Energy Development project was approved by ADB Board of Directors on August 17, 2018. It involves technical assistance for the creation of floating solar plants in the three countries. ADB experts are sure that this will contribute to the diversification of energy sources, increase energy security and reduce harmful emissions. "The availability, suitability, and cost of land for solar energy are additional constraints to its development," the ADB said in a message. "Land with competing uses, such as agriculture and housing, is expensive, and hilly terrains are costly to develop and prepare for land-based solar projects. However, the countries have large lakes and reservoirs with perennially sunlit surfaces. The installation of floating solar plants on these water bodies optimizes the use of water and solar resources, diversifies the energy mix, enhances energy security, and avoids emissions." The power capacity of Azerbaijans energy system is more than 6,000 megawatts. At the same time, the potential of renewable energy sources in the country is over 25,300 megavolts-amperes, according to experts. Most of the countrys potential in this sphere accounts for solar energy. The State Agency on Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources of Azerbaijan plans to implement 23 projects worth about 13 million manats as part of the Strategic Roadmap for the Development of Public Utilities (Electric and Thermal Energy, Water and Gas) in 2018-2020. ADB was founded in 1966 and 67 states are its members. The banks headquarters is located in Manila, Philippines. Azerbaijan became an ADB member in 1999. The country's share in the bank's capital is 0.5 percent. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @IlkinShafiyev Apple Inc (AAPL.O) said on Thursday it will host an event on Sept. 12 at the Steve Jobs Theater in the companys Cupertino, California, campus, where it is widely expected to unveil new iPhone models, Reuters reports. Analysts believe Apple plans to release three new smartphones this year, including one with a larger display than previous models. Analysts also expect Apple to release an iPhone with a edge-to-edge display similar to the iPhone X but using less-costly LCD screen technology. Apples event invitation made heavy use of the color gold, fueling speculation on social media that the company plans to launch a gold-colored successor to the iPhone X, which was made available only in silver and gray last year. Documents filed at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission unsealed earlier this year showed Apple had sought approval for a gold version of its iPhone X, but it never released the color. Apple shares were up 2.2 percent at an all-time high of $227.97. Apple has for years released its new phone models in the second week of September, and often updates other product lines such as the Apple Watch at the event. The company has already given base-model iPads and some MacBook laptops an update this year. Apple typically starts selling new iPhones a few weeks after launching them, in time for the holiday shopping season. The iPhone X, priced at $999 and up, has helped Apple beat Wall Street sales expectations. Investor Warren Buffett, speaking on Thursday to CNBC, said the iPhone is enormously underpriced even when it costs $1,000, given how indispensable it has become for so many people. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 1 Trend: Tajikistan has signed 35 agreements on cooperation in tourism with travel agencies of Korea, Austria, Uzbekistan, China and Kuwait, RIA Novosti reported. The international tourism forum entitled as "Tajikistan a country of tourism" was held Aug. 31 in Nurek city, 100 kilometers east of Dushanbe. The purpose of the forum and the exhibition of craftsmen was to present the tourism potential of Tajikistan in the field of environmental, health, cultural and historical tourism, promotion of folk crafts and national traditions at the international level, as well as strengthening long-term cooperation and joint planning between local and foreign travel companies. "Tajikistan has a huge tourism potential, but it is not properly represented to the world community," Saad al Advani, Director of Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing of Kuwait company, said during the forum. He noted, if citizens of other countries, including Kuwait, had the necessary information about the tourist opportunities of Tajikistan, they would definitely visit this country. Therefore, Advani believes, "it is necessary to strengthen advertising and PR-campaign". The Head of the Committee on Tourism Development under the Government of Tajikistan Numon Abdugafforzoda informed the forum participants that the country had undertaken a number of reforms in the sphere of tourism, including the e-visa processing and the introduction of a visa-free regime with 12 countries, the extension of the period of stay of foreign citizens in Tajikistan from 3 to 10 days. Dushanbe and Tashkent have ratified the agreement on visa-free regime between the two countries following the visit of Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Tajikistan. So, starting from March 16, citizens of Tajikistan can stay in Uzbekistan for 30 days without a visa. In October 2017, tour operators of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan signed a Memorandum of cooperation. The parties are engaged in the formation of national tourist brands and joint promotion of the cross-border route along the Great Silk Road in the international tourist markets. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Sept. 1 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has received the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), President & Director of Hyundai Engineering Co.,Ltd. company (Republic of Korea) Sang-Rok Sung, Altyn Asyr TV channel reported Sept. 1. During the meeting, the sides discussed prospects of cooperation in the field of transport and logistics, implementation of joint infrastructure projects, long-term investment. The head of the South Korean company said he was ready to present new proposals to the Turkmen side. It was noted at the meeting that the implementation of investment projects in the field of industrial processing of natural resources and diversification of the industrial sector of the local economy is the priority area of cooperation. The focus of cooperation on the creation of new, high-tech industries, in particular in the gas chemical industry was emphasized. There are opportunities to intensify cooperation in this industry with Hyundai Engineering company, which acted as a partner in the implementation of a large-scale construction project in Kiyanly complex for the production of polyethylene and polypropylene, the TV report said. The enterprise in the Pre-Caspian settlement of Kiyanly of Balkan region of Turkmenistan is planned to be put into operation in September this year. It will process 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas and produce 381,000 tons of high-density polyethylene, 81,000 tons of polypropylene annually. At the same time, up to 4.5 billion cubic meters of commercial gas will be produced. The project worth more than $ 3.4 billion is implemented by the Turkmengaz State Concern together with LG Engineering and Construction Corporation, Hyundai Engineering Co.,Ltd. company (South Korea) and TOYO Engineering Corporation (Japan). Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Sept. 1 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: The OSCE organized a seminar on topical issues of migration in Ashgabat, the Ashgabat office of this international organization said in a statement Sept. 1. "The use of the potential of labor migration for the economic development of the country is the focus of the OSCE event in Turkmenistan," the message says. The seminar was attended by representatives of law enforcement agencies, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, the Parliament of Turkmenistan, the Office of the Ombudsman and the Ministry of Justice, public organizations. The event, organized with the participation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan and the Office of the Coordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA), was held to provide assistance in the implementation of national initiatives of Turkmenistan in the field of migration in accordance with OSCE commitments. Teresa Albano, Economic Affairs Officer at OSCE, Office of the Co-ordinator for Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA), presented the experience of the OSCE and regional and national program in the field of migration. Special attention was paid to measures, appropriate to facilitate the proper management of migration in accordance with international standards and OSCE commitments. "The OSCE participating states adopted a number of decisions that emphasize the economic and social aspects of migration, and on the basis of which the OSCE mandate in the field of migration was developed," the message quoted Natalya Drozd, Head of the OSCE center in Ashgabat as saying. The seminar acquainted the participants with the OSCE approach to work with the phenomenon of economically motivated migration. The seminar is expected to enhance the capacity of representatives of the competent authorities of Turkmenistan to develop measures thanks to which the proper management of labor migration will benefit the country. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Sept. 1 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: A round table was held in Ashgabat with the participation of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to review the progress made in the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) of Turkmenistan to combat human trafficking in 2016-2018, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sept. 1. The event was attended by representatives of the IOM, the U.S. Embassy in Turkmenistan, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan, the State Migration Service of Kyrgyzstan, international experts, employees of relevant institutions, law enforcement agencies, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and public organizations of Turkmenistan. The analysis of the work made in the area of implementation of the plan during 2016-2018 was conducted and the discussion of further joint activities in this area was conducted at the event. The participants discussed the development of regulatory and legal framework of inter-agency and inter-sector cooperation in providing assistance to victims of trafficking, the message says. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Sept. 1 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov plans to visit New York to participate in the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly Sept. 29-Oct. 2, the Turkmen government said in a message Sept. 1. As part of the visit, the Turkmen president is scheduled to meet with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. In line with the priority positions of Ashgabat, at the next session of the UN General Assembly, Turkmenistan will propose to declare 2019 the Year of Peace and Confidence and hold a conference on disarmament in Ashgabat. Turkmenistan also proposes to create a global partnership to protect the interests of young people. In this regard, Ashgabat is ready to host an international youth forum. Last time, Berdimuhamedov took part in the session of the UN General Assembly in September 2015. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Sept. 1 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: Turkmenistan is preparing for the chairmanship in the CIS in 2019, the Altyn Asyr TV channel reported Sept. 1. The chairmanship will be transferred from Tajikistan to Turkmenistan during a regular meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State in Dushanbe on September 28. Cooperation within the CIS is a priority in the country's foreign policy and, by assuming the chairmanship in the CIS in 2019, Turkmenistan intends to fully contribute to strengthening and development of traditionally friendly interstate relations, the Turkmen State News Agency wrote in its comments. In 2012, Turkmenistan chaired the CIS and held about 30 events in this regard. In 2005, Ashgabat, based on its status of neutrality, recognized and supported by the UN, made a decision on its associate membership in the CIS. Turkmenistan holds the second position in the CIS after Russia in terms of natural gas reserves. Currently, its gas deliveries go to China and Iran. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 1 Trend: Commander of Irans Khatam al-Anbia Construction Base says that Iran has built a large ship with the capacity of 113,000 tones and building 3 more other ships are underway, Mehr news agency reported. Brigadier General Ebadollah Abdullahi, Commander of Khatam al-Anbia Construction Base, told reporters in the southern port city of Bushehr on Sept. 1 that so far two berth at South Pars region have been built by Bushehr Sadra company (Iran Marine Industrial Copmany-Bushehr branch) and ships have been loaded there. Abdullahi said that South Pars berths have been built domestically by Iranian experts. He pointed out that a large Aframax ship has been delivered to Venezuela, adding that the construction of three other Aframax ships with capacity of 113,000 tones is underway. Abdullahi further noted that Bushehr Sadra Company has the capability to construct ships needed by the countrys oil and gas industry, adding an agreement has been signed with the Ministries of Oil and Industry to construct 100 vessels, 30 of which will be built by Bushehr Sadra Company. Commander of Khatam al-Anbia Construction Base further referred to French Total withdrawal from South Pars Phase 11 project, saying that the base has the capability to develop the Phase 11 of South Pars gas field and they have signed a contract with the ministry of oil. Tehran, Iran, Sept. 1 Trend: The Iranian Parliament speaker said the Islamic Republic decided to remain in the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers following Washingtons pullout after receiving calls from three European leaders, who vowed to support and compensate for Tehrans potential losses. After the US' JCPOA pullout, European leaders called and told us not to leave the deal, Ali Larijani said in a speech on September 1, Irans media outlets reported. "They asked us to cooperate and remain in the deal and vowed support and compensate in return," he added. In fact, the Islamic Republic decided to hold talks with the Europeans [to save the deal] following calls to negotiate with Tehran from leaders of the three parties to the deal, the top official stressed. The European Union has vowed to counter US President Donald Trumps renewed sanctions on Iran, including by means of a new law to shield European companies from punitive measures. Trump on August 6 signed an executive order re-imposing many sanctions on Iran, three months after pulling out of the nuclear deal. He said the US policy is to levy maximum economic pressure on the country. Trump also restated his opinion that the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was a horrible, one-sided deal. On May 8, the US president pulled his country out of the JCPOA, which was achieved in Vienna in 2015 after years of negotiations among Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany). Following the US exit, Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the accord. Tehran, Iran, Sept. 1 Trend: Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Seyed Abbas Araqchi and UKs Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt held a meeting in Tehran on Saturday and discussed various issues, including the Iran nuclear deal. During the meeting, Araqchi and Burt discussed the future of Iran nuclear deal, mutual economic ties between Tehran and London following Washingtons pullout from the agreement, and financial mechanism between the two countries, the official website of Irans Foreign Ministry said on September 1. The two sides also exchanged views about the latest developments in the region, the report added. Burt arrived in the Iranian capital on Friday in the first such visit in several months for talks on the imprisoned British-Iranian woman Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe - an issue not covered by Iranian media. He arrived two days after Zaghari-Ratcliffe was taken to a prison hospital after a panic attack, following her return to jail from three days of temporary release. Earlier in the week, Zaghari-Ratcliffes husband, Richard Ratcliffe, who has spent two years seeking her release from claims of spying, praised the new foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, for taking a closer interest in the matter than his predecessor, Boris Johnson. Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Ratcliffe said he had sensed a change in the way he has prioritized Nazanins case. Japan will allocate about $343 million to help Georgia develop its major transport artery East-West Highway, Agenda reports. The money will be spent on constructing the 14km long Shorapani-Argveti section of the East-West Highway. The agreement will be signed during the official visit of Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Taro Kono. Kono will visit Georgia on September 4-5 and this will be the first high level visit from Japan. Hanoi's actions come after repeated efforts to take US companies to the courts for their role in selling chemical weapons to the American military that were used against civilians in the Vietnam war, Sputnik reports. Vietnam's Foreign Ministry said this week that Monsanto and other US-based companies must pay damages to the victims of Agent Orange, a chemical substance which contains extremely high levels of toxic dioxin. Analysts have described the plea as a last resort' for helping Vietnamese citizens who are, to this very day, still suffering the consequences of Agent Orange's deployment. Genetic mutations and birth defects in particular still occur as a result of exposure amongst past generations to the chemical weapon's toxins, almost 50 years after the end of the war. According to reports, the residual dioxins are still highly present in Vietnam's ecological landscape. Toxins are found in soil and water, and are thought to be responsible even today for the ongoing poisoning of marine life. A campaign group that calls itself The Vietnamese Association of Victims of Agent Orange' (VAVA) claims that upward of 4.8 million people were exposed to the weapon's toxicity, causing disease amongst at least 3 million of them. Today, around 800,000 Vietnamese citizens receive assistance for illness and disabilities allegedly linked to exposure to the deadly chemical weapon. From approximately the years 1961 to 1971, Washington dropped over 75 million liters of Agent Orange and other herbicides on the territory of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The military tactic was, quite literally, a scorched-earth policy aimed at leveling all forestland to prevent the Northern Vietnamese Vietcong fighters from being able to hide during combat. Research into the subsequent destruction caused found that more than 2 million hectares of forestland and 200,000 hectares of crops were pulverized. Vietnam is yet to receive what it deems as satisfactory reparations for the massive destruction caused by Agent Orange. In recent years, Hanoi has even filed claims against Monsanto as an individual company, rather than a world court state-to-state filing against the US in what many saw, and still see, as an effort to preserve relations with Washington. Yet, such diplomatic overtures appear to have failed in helping along any court case. The last major effort made by Vietnam to extract compensation from Monsanto and related companies was in 2005. At that time, a federal judge in Brooklyn dismissed a damage suit filed on behalf of millions of Vietnamese who charged American companies with committing war crimes by supplying the military with Agent Orange. The American judge, however, dismissed the claims, saying that the plaintiffs were unable to prove two key points: firstly that Monsanto had violated a ban on the sale of toxic weapons, and secondly, a connection between any chemical weapon and the health problems being experienced. Vietnam's latest demand comes hot on the heels of the recent decision by a US jury to order Monsanto to pay damages to an American cancer patient who claims that his terminal illness was caused by prolonged exposure to a weed killer called Roundup,' produced by the same company. Some are now hoping that if it can be proven that Roundup and Agent Orange contain similar toxins then maybe this time, Vietnam might stand a chance in the courts. Three militants were killed Saturday in a fierce gunfight in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said, Xinhua reported. The gunfight broke out in Danna forests in Bandipora district about 75 km north of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir. "Three militants were killed today in a gunfight with contingents of Indian army and police in higher reaches of Danna forests in Bandipora," Col Rajesh Kalia, Indian army spokesman told Xinhua. "Weapons and war like stores have also been recovered from the spot." Reports said the contingents of police and army had cordoned off the area on specific intelligence inputs about the presence of militants in the area. The identity of the slain militants was not immediately known. A guerilla war is going on between militants and Indian troops stationed in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989. The gunfight between the two sides takes place intermittently across the region. Kashmir, the Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan, is claimed by both in full. Since their independence from Britain, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir. The United States on Friday halted all funding to a U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees in a decision further heightening tensions between the Palestinian leadership and the Trump administration, Reuters reported. A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the decision as a flagrant assault against the Palestinian people and a defiance of U.N. resolutions. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the business model and fiscal practices of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) were an irredeemably flawed operation. The administration has carefully reviewed the issue and determined that the United States will not make additional contributions to UNRWA, she said in a statement. Nauert said the agencys endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries is simply unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years. The latest announcement comes a week after the administration said it would redirect $200 million in Palestinian economic support funds for programs in the West Bank and Gaza. UNRWA did not immediately comment on the U.S. decision. The 68-year-old agency says it provides services to about 5 million Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza. Most are descendants of people who were driven out of their homes or fled the fighting in the 1948 war that led to Israels creation. U.S. President Donald Trump and his aides say they want to improve the Palestinians plight, as well as start negotiations on an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. But under Trump, Washington has taken a number of actions that have alienated the Palestinians, including the recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital. That move was a reversal of longtime U.S. policy and led Palestinian leadership to boycott the Washington peace efforts being led by Jared Kushner, Trumps senior adviser and son-in-law. The United States paid out $60 million to UNRWA in January, withholding another $65 million, from a promised $365 million for the year. US Syria Envoy James Jeffrey is leading a delegation to Turkey, Jordan, and Israel September 1-4 to discuss Russian allegations about terrorists staging a possible chemical weapons attack provocation, the State Department said in a press release, Sputnik reports. "Throughout their trip, Ambassador Jeffrey will also address Russias specious allegations of international plans to stage a chemical weapons attack in Syria," the release said on Friday. Russian officials have said they have evidence that terrorists in Idlib are currently preparing to conduct a false-flag chemical weapons attack in order to spark a military intervention by the United States and its allies. Jeffrey, who is making his first overseas trip as Special Representative, will be joined by Near Eastern Affairs Deputy Assistant Secretary and Special Envoy for Syria, Joel Rayburn, according to the release. The US diplomats will discuss with Israeli government officials their security concerns in Syria including Iran's destabilizing activity in the region. "They will also underscore that the United States will respond to any chemical weapons attack perpetrated by the Syrian regime," the State Department said. Jeffrey and Rayburn will also reiterate to their Jordanian and Turkish counterparts that the United States believes a military offensive in Idlib will escalate the crisis in Syria. Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday that he had met with President of the Syrian Negotiations Commission Nasr Hariri to discuss the situation in the Syrian province of Idlib. "At our meeting with Nasr Al-Hariri, president of Syrian Negotiations Commission, we exchanged views on recent developments in Syria, including Idlib and also the period ahead concerning the political process," Cavusoglu wrote on his Facebook page. Speculation about the possibility of a chemical weapons attack in Syria has grown in recent weeks. Earlier on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated the warning, saying that a provocation involving the use of chemical weapons is being planned in the province of Idlib. Lavrov said Russia has transferred the evidence of the ongoing preparations for chemical assault staging to both the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations. On April 14, the United States, the United Kingdom and France launched over 100 missiles on multiple targets in Syria in response to the alleged chemical weapons attack in the Syrian city of Douma. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the strikes were carried out in violation of the norms and principles of international law. The State Department said the new U.S. special representative for Syria, James Jeffrey, would travel to Israel, Jordan, and Turkey from Saturday to Tuesday on his first official trip abroad, The Jerusalem Post reports. Jeffrey and his delegation will "underscore that the United States will respond to any chemical weapons attack perpetrated by the Syrian regime," the State Department said in a statement. Also on Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday said the United States views the Syrian government military assault on rebel-held Idlib as an escalation of the Syrian conflict, as the State Department warned that Washington would respond to any chemical attack by Damascus. The Syrian province of Idlib and surrounding areas are the last major enclave held by rebels opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. A source has told Reuters Assad is preparing a phased offensive to regain the province. "The U.S sees this as an escalation of an already dangerous conflict," Pompeo said in a post on Twitter in which he also blasted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for "defending (the) Syrian and Russian assault." Lavrov said on Friday the Syrian government had every right to chase militants out of Idlib and that talks continued on establishing humanitarian corridors there. The United Nations on Thursday called on Russia, Iran and Turkey to forestall a battle in Idlib which would affect millions of civilians and could see both militants and the government potentially using chlorine as a chemical weapon. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem, speaking after talks with Lavrov in Moscow on Thursday, said government forces will "go all the way" in the rebel-held northern region of Idlib, but that they did not have and would not use chemical weapons. Saturday, September 1, 2018 Nebraska The pertinent portion of Nebraska's postconviction DNA testing statute, Nebraska Revised Statute 29-4120(5), states that Upon consideration of affidavits or after a hearing, the court shall order DNA testing pursuant to a motion filed under subsection (1) of this section upon a determination that (a)(i) the biological material was not previously subjected to DNA testing or (ii) the biological material was tested previously, but current technology could provide a reasonable likelihood of more accurate and probative results, (b) the biological material has been retained under circumstances likely to safeguard the integrity of its original physical composition, and (c) such testing may produce noncumulative, exculpatory evidence relevant to the claim that the person was wrongfully convicted or sentenced. So, where does that leave pleading defendants? In the 1980s, three men and three women (the Beatrice Six) were charged in connection with the rape and murder of 68-year-old Helen Wilson in Beatrice, Nebraska. Joseph White was convicted after a trial, and the other five defendants, including Thomas Winslow, entered guilty or no contest pleas. Decades later, Winslow moved for DNA testing on semen from the crime scene, and the district court denied his motion, concluding that Winslow had waived his right to DNA testing because of his plea of no contest. On appeal, the Supreme Court of Nebraska noted that its postconviction DNA testing statute allows for a court to authorize DNA testing after making a determination that such testing was effectively not available at the time of trial. The court noted the similarity between this language and the language in the New York statute but ultimately did not read this reference to limit the scope of the relief granted under the DNA Testing Act to persons convicted after a trial.As a result, in late 2007, Winslow got DNA testing on the semen. It came back as a match for Bruce Allen Smith, a leading suspect in the days after the murder who was not a member of the Beatrice Six. Whites conviction was subsequently vacated, and the governor pardoned Winslow and the other members of the Beatrice Six. -CM https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/evidenceprof/2018/09/nebraska-the-pertinent-portion-of-nebraskas-postconviction-dna-testing-statutenebraska-revised-statute-29-41205-states-t.html KYODO NEWS - Sep 1, 2018 - 14:39 | All, Japan, Feature Annual disaster drills were held across Japan on Saturday, with the central government-led exercise based on a scenario that a massive earthquake originating in the Nankai Trough in the Pacific had rocked wide areas in central and western Japan. Local governments also conducted their own drills assuming major quakes and tsunami in a bid to improve preparedness for the natural disasters that often strike the island nation. The nationwide exercises are held every Sept. 1, or Disaster Prevention Day, which marks the anniversary of a magnitude 7.9 temblor that devastated Tokyo and its vicinity in 1923. Prime Minster Shinzo Abe assembled his entire Cabinet and ordered full efforts to save lives based on the scenario of an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.1 occurring at 7:10 a.m. off the coast of the western prefecture of Wakayama. "I urge you to quickly assess the damage and address this critical situation through cooperation," Abe said. (Japanese PM Shinzo Abe (4th from L) inspects an annual disaster drill being conducted in Kawasaki near Tokyo) The government anticipates a probability of 70-80 percent for a Nankai Trough megaquake, with a magnitude of 8 or 9, to occur in Japan within the next 30 years and produce massive tsunami, estimating a death toll of up to 300,000 people. The prime minister later joined a drill in Kawasaki near Tokyo, organized by nine metropolitan municipalities including Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture. In collaboration with the Self-Defense Forces and the Japan Coast Guard, the drill assumed that a magnitude 7.3 quake hit the industrial district facing Tokyo Bay and triggered a fire at a petroleum tank. In the drill, Abe and a group of junior high school students improvised a stretcher with a blanket and laundry poles and carried a person assumed to be injured on it. Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department held a joint drill with police forces in neighboring prefectures, involving about 200 officers, to shut parts of a national road to secure routes for use by emergency vehicles. The town of Shichigahama in Miyagi Prefecture, an area devastated by a massive earthquake in March 2011, held a drill to respond to an assumed magnitude 9.0 temblor off Miyagi and ensuing tsunami and fires. In southwestern Japan, the town of Mashiki in Kumamoto Prefecture held a drill confirming steps in its initial response to a powerful earthquake. The town was ravaged by a series of major earthquakes in April 2016 and has revised its anti-disaster plan to stipulate the roles of local officials. The city of Kyoto chose an area including Arashiyama, a popular tourist district, to conduct training responding to a strong earthquake. About 90 people, including employees of hotels and souvenir shops, practiced guiding tourists to a temporary shelter set up on the premises of a temple. KYODO NEWS - Sep 1, 2018 - 17:06 | World, All Singapore on Saturday urged the United States to remain engaged with Southeast Asia, following the announcement U.S. President Donald Trump will skip a major regional conference and send Mike Pence instead. The White House announcement that Trump will not attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' summit in November was a particular disappointment to Singapore, which will host and chair the conference. Expectations were high that Trump would attend the ASEAN Summit -- in a gesture of goodwill if nothing else -- after Singapore provided the venue for Trump's historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June, at a cost to the Singapore government of S$16.3 million (US$12 million). However, concern has intensified around Southeast Asia that U.S. interest in the region is waning under Trump, who withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal soon after taking office. The United States is ASEAN's third-largest trading partner and fourth-largest source of foreign direct investment. "We look forward to the United States' continued...engagement in the region as we take meaningful strides towards the next step of our cooperation," Singapore Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said in a speech Saturday at the start of an annual meeting of ASEAN and U.S. trade ministers in Singapore. The United States sent Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish to Saturday's meeting. Last year's meeting in Pasay City in the Philippines was attended by Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Barbara Weisel. In his opening remarks, Gerrish reiterated the continued importance of ASEAN to the United States and its deep and lasting commitment to the region. "As the 10 countries of ASEAN continue to grow...and ASEAN integration continues to deepen, ASEAN is becoming a much more important trading partner of the U.S.," Gerrish said. Chan said that on the economic front, trade and investment relations between the United States and ASEAN "remain strong" and both sides have been exploring new areas of cooperation such as in the area of agricultural biotechnology. ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Citing official records, Govindan said that 2,62,409 houses were constructed under the LIFE Mission project during the term of the last Pinarayi Vijayan ministry. 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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The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.In accordance with industry accepted best practices we ask that users limit their copy / paste of copyrighted material to the relevant portions of the article you wish to discuss (no more than 50% of the source material) provide a link back to the original articleIf you are a legal copyright holder or a designated agent for such and you believe a post on this website falls outside the boundaries of "Fair Use" and legitimately infringes on yours or your clients copyright please contact [email protected] This website is owned by :Marco ZwaneveldDrijfriemstraat 522516 XR The HagueNetherlands.I will not rent, sell, share or otherwise disclose your personal information to any third party.We might contact you from time to time regarding your purchases or the services (like forums and announcement lists) you have subscribed to.Some of the 3rd party advertisers on lunaticoutpost.com may use cookiesto track peformance and/or to serve relevant ads.If you wish to read more and/or opt out of such cookies, please visit: http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/ Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 3 Vote(s) - 5 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Page: 1 2 Russia plans 4.5million Jurassic Park-style Cloning Facility Sarah Registered User User ID: 257528 09-01-2018 05:46 AM Posts: 3,992 Post: #1 Russia plans 4.5million Jurassic Park-style Cloning Facility Advertisement ...to bring extinct species like woolly mammoths back to life Vladimir Putin will next month unveil exact plans for the centre intended to be a "world class paleo-genetic scientific hub" in the world's coldest city, Yakutsk Extinct woolly mammoths, cave lions and other long-gone species may be brought back to lifee in a new 4.5million cloning facility in Russia, scientists claim. The new Jurassic Park-style centre will be a "world class paleo-genetic scientific hub" in the world's coldest city, Yakutsk, in the remote north-east of the country. Vladimir Putin's exact plans will be unveiled in September at an investment forum but experts say the centre will aim "to study extinct animals from living cells - and to restore such creatures as the woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, cave lion and breeds of long-gone horses". Mammoth trunks will be examined in the facility (Image: Semyon Grigoryev-The Siberian Ti) The cloning laboratories - some sunk deep in the permafrost soil - will extend research by Russian scientists who are already working closely with South Korean specialists. They've found DNA from the ancient animals preserved in remains encased in frozen soil - or permafrost - for tens of thousands of years. Dr Lena Grigorieva - who drafted plans for the centre - said: There is no such unique material anywhere else in the world. continued https://nexusnewsfeed.com/article/climat...g-facility Russia plans 4.5million Jurassic Park-style cloning facility...to bring extinct species like woolly mammoths back to lifeVladimir Putin will next month unveil exact plans for the centre intended to be a "world class paleo-genetic scientific hub" in the world's coldest city, YakutskExtinct woolly mammoths, cave lions and other long-gone species may be brought back to lifee in a new 4.5million cloning facility in Russia, scientists claim.The new Jurassic Park-style centre will be a "world class paleo-genetic scientific hub" in the world's coldest city, Yakutsk, in the remote north-east of the country.Vladimir Putin's exact plans will be unveiled in September at an investment forum but experts say the centre will aim "to study extinct animals from living cells - and to restore such creatures as the woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, cave lion and breeds of long-gone horses".Mammoth trunks will be examined in the facility (Image: Semyon Grigoryev-The Siberian Ti)The cloning laboratories - some sunk deep in the permafrost soil - will extend research by Russian scientists who are already working closely with South Korean specialists.They've found DNA from the ancient animals preserved in remains encased in frozen soil - or permafrost - for tens of thousands of years.Dr Lena Grigorieva - who drafted plans for the centre - said: There is no such unique material anywhere else in the world.continued Loud Sneeze lop guest User ID: 227039 09-01-2018 06:00 AM Post: #2 RE: Russia plans 4.5million Jurassic Park-style Cloning Facility I now live for the day when the meme that shows Putin riding a dinosaur becomes reality. PuddyCat I Want Tuna User ID: 348173 09-01-2018 06:04 AM Posts: 23,112 Post: #3 RE: Russia plans 4.5million Jurassic Park-style Cloning Facility Loud Sneeze Wrote: (09-01-2018 06:00 AM) I now live for the day when the meme that shows Putin riding a dinosaur becomes reality. Might happen Might happen Politics only interests me because it transforms people into dribbling nincompoops (The World Is Mad) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izsjRpcgfmk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oFzHx29PDo Sarah Registered User User ID: 257528 09-01-2018 06:09 AM Posts: 3,992 Post: #4 RE: Russia plans 4.5million Jurassic Park-style Cloning Facility PuddyCat I Want Tuna User ID: 348173 09-01-2018 07:07 AM Posts: 23,112 Post: #5 RE: Russia plans 4.5million Jurassic Park-style Cloning Facility Skipping rope the T-Rex looks like fun Skipping rope the T-Rex looks like fun Politics only interests me because it transforms people into dribbling nincompoops (The World Is Mad) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izsjRpcgfmk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oFzHx29PDo (This post was last modified: 09-01-2018 02:39 PM by PuddyCat .) LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 450969 09-01-2018 08:44 AM Post: #6 RE: Russia plans 4.5million Jurassic Park-style Cloning Facility the fact that they put so much money and resources into this is evidence that they are not worried about war but...the nazis did very similar things "hitler's hunting experiment" Bicnarok Resistance is futile User ID: 176594 09-01-2018 11:13 AM Posts: 3,744 Post: #7 RE: Russia plans 4.5million Jurassic Park-style Cloning Facility [email protected] Wrote: (09-01-2018 06:04 AM) Loud Sneeze Wrote: (09-01-2018 06:00 AM) I now live for the day when the meme that shows Putin riding a dinosaur becomes reality. Might happen LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 459867 09-01-2018 12:29 PM Post: #8 RE: Russia plans 4.5million Jurassic Park-style Cloning Facility LoP Guest Wrote: (09-01-2018 08:44 AM) the fact that they put so much money and resources into this is evidence that they are not worried about war but...the nazis did very similar things "hitler's hunting experiment" Nothing deluce can knot do ten times better Nothing deluce can knot do ten times better Coolhandluke74 Master of Woo User ID: 366916 09-01-2018 12:36 PM Posts: 1,462 Post: #9 RE: Russia plans 4.5million Jurassic Park-style Cloning Facility What could go wrong... Check out Lop's very own topic chats and radio shows. https://www.youtube.com/user/biasedpropaganda/videos Upcoming VC Shows TBA RIP Aussie Bloke, Celestialguardian, Galaxy, Omega. Corosive Resident Time Wizard User ID: 433154 09-01-2018 12:56 PM Posts: 3,785 Post: #10 RE: Russia plans 4.5million Jurassic Park-style Cloning Facility It'll fail because... Russia. \_( )_/ If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 434473 09-01-2018 02:11 PM Post: #11 RE: Russia plans 4.5million Jurassic Park-style Cloning Facility What could possibly go wrong? LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 459877 09-01-2018 02:27 PM Post: #12 RE: Russia plans 4.5million Jurassic Park-style Cloning Facility LoP Guest Wrote: (09-01-2018 02:11 PM) What could possibly go wrong? Vegetarians! Vegetarians! LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 459883 09-01-2018 03:09 PM Post: #13 RE: Russia plans 4.5million Jurassic Park-style Cloning Facility What if they live for 100s of years. That would be cool. Ahanata the spaces inbetween User ID: 366916 09-01-2018 04:50 PM Posts: 2,112 Post: #14 RE: Russia plans 4.5million Jurassic Park-style Cloning Facility ~reaching across spirals~ ~It's risky, said reason. It's pointless, said ego. Give it a try, said the heart.~ ~Have your last words be uplifting, forgiving...as eternal waves.~ "Do it automagically" Mr ifnoc ~"Do you like money? I like money. I like money a lot." The angriest chef https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5E6RTDA7oc LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 453934 09-01-2018 04:54 PM Post: #15 RE: Russia plans 4.5million Jurassic Park-style Cloning Facility He would make an interesting Zoo exhibit will they clone Trump?He would make an interesting Zoo exhibit Advertisement The engagement of Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas has happened quite a while but their engagement party and Roka ceremony were celebrated on 18th August with a bang. On this occasion, a lot of photos of both of them were viral in the media, which was very much discussed. Recently, both of them are spotted together and celebrating holidays. These photos are showing a lot of chemistry between the couples. After the engagement and the party of Roka, both are spending a lot of time together and are appearing in a romantic mood, photos of which are becoming viral. Actually, both of them are celebrating holidays in Mexico and are looking very happy. The pictures which spotted Nick and Priyanka in Mexico remains viral on the social media. In both of these photos, both look very good together. Both of them were dating each other for a long time and were finally reaching their relationship to marriage. Both of them are very happy with this relationship. Priyanka Chopra had left Salman Khan's film in Bharat and now she will be busy with Sky is Pink shooting along with Farhan Akhtar. Many photos were also spotted on the film and the preparations for this film are going on in full swing. Also Read: Boxoffice collection day 1: Stree & Yamla Pagla Deewana Phir Se Nepotism exists, It's a part of our industry: Varun Dhawan A movie or a laugh riot: Yamla Pagla Deewana Phir Se movie review Apple now has 66 autonomous vehicles approved for testing in California. There were no injuries in the crash. Apple AAPL said that its first autonomous vehicle crash in California occurred last week. The accident during an autonomous driving test took place at 2:58 p.m. Pacific time on Aug. 24, in Santa Clara, near Apple's headquarters in Cupertino. The vehicle was a Lexus RX450h (which Apple has used in its car research), according to the filing Apple employee Steve Kenner submitted to the California Department of Motor Vehicles. "An Apple test vehicle in autonomous mode was rear-ended while preparing to merge onto Lawrence Expressway South from Kifer Road," according to the report, which the DMV published on Friday. "The Apple test vehicle was traveling less than 1 mph waiting for a safe gap to complete the merge when a 2016 Nissan Leaf contacted the Apple test vehicle at approximately 15 mph. Both vehicles sustained damage and no injuries were reported by either party." Apple has been researching and testing self-driving cars, but its project has only come to light through occasional disclosures, not from the company itself. Alphabet GOOGL , meanwhile, has been more transparent about the autonomous car research going on at its Waymo arm. Apple has 66 autonomous vehicles approved for testing in California, according to the DMV. Waymo has 88 and Tesla TSLA has 39. Apple received permission to test autonomous vehicles on California public roads in 2017 . On an earnings call last year Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple had a "large project" related to autonomy and involving artificial intelligence. "From our point of view, autonomy is sort of the mother of all AI projects," Cook said . In the past, Alphabet subsidiaries Waymo and Google have told the California DMV about 33 collisions involving their self-driving cars. More From CNBC Bank of America is making an important change to trading on retirement accounts Bank of America is lifting a self-imposed ban on commission-based trading in customer retirement accounts. The move comes after the rollback of an Obama-era regulation on the brokerage industry that was designed to protect investors from conflicted investment advice. Customers with individual retirement accounts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch will be able to make commission-based trades in the accounts by Oct. 1. Bank of America BAC is lifting a self-imposed ban on commission-based trading in customer retirement accounts. The move comes after the rollback of an Obama-era regulation on the brokerage industry that was designed to protect investors from conflicted investment advice. Customers with individual retirement accounts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch will be able to make commission-based trades in the accounts by Oct. 1. The bank said the decision was the result of client requests. Bank of America Merrill Lynch had banned the practice in preparation for the Labor Department's so-called fiduciary rule that came out in 2016. As other brokerages fought the regulation, Merrill Lynch used it as an opportunity to tout its commitment to working in clients' best interests. The firm moved to charging fees as a percentage of client assets, versus charging commissions on individual trades. That meant customers who wanted to be able to trade in their retirement accounts at the brokerage had to move to a fee-based account or find another brokerage that still offered commission-based trading, as many Merrill rivals still did. For accounts that don't have a lot of trading activity, commission-based models can be less expensive. On Thursday, announcing the about-face, Andy Sieg, who heads of Bank of America's Merrill Lynch Wealth Management division, said, "In response to client feedback, we're announcing steps today that will provide our clients with greater choice and flexibility, while maintaining our support for a Best Interest standard for investment advice across all accounts." Story continues In a memo, the firm said the primary way customers will continue to get advice is through its Merrill Lynch Investment Advisory Program, the model that charges fees as a percentage of customer assets. WATCH: There's a lot to be done on retirement savings More From CNBC bitcoin price turns bullish Whats behind the recent bitcoin rally price to $7,100? Michael Moro, CEO of Genesis Trading and Genesis Capital, thinks the markets stable reaction to the SECs ETF rejections last week played a big role. Interviewed on CNBC, Moro noted that the selloff that has greeted SEC rejections in the past did not materialize. The important question now, he said, is how long the $7,100 price level holds. Bitcoin Price Analysis: Waiting For The Bulls bitcoin price If the $7,100 price holds for one or two weeks, the bulls will return, he said, and $10,000 is a likely possibility. The bulls are waiting to see if the $7,100 price holds. Asked what will move bitcoin to $10,000, Moro said slow and steady growth will be needed, along with volume. What you need to see is the less violent moves of 5% up, 10% up, and a slow and steady growth across the exchanges, Moro said.What I also think is important is I think the market now understands that the SECs ETF approval isnt any time soon. I think the bears have realized that theyve run out of steam, he added. In addition, on the spot trading side, there were very few sellers around the $6,000 level. Moro finds it interesting that every time the bitcoin price pops, some people start to sell. Its folks who have managed to scoop up the dip and are selling at the next pop, he said. The question is, are the bulls here to stay? He said a strong buy side demand has yet to materialize. One question is whether the market returns to the $6,000 level because the bulls are still waiting to see if $7,100 price holds. Also read: Bitcoin price climbs to $7,100, as crypto market hits $232 billion, EOS surges 15% CME Bitcoin Futures Volume Doubles Speaking to Moros point about the need for volume trading, CNBCs Bob Pisani pointed out that CME bitcoin futures volumes have doubled, which he attributed to the activity of institutions. Whats important here is that the increase in futures volume on CME has occurred while bitcoin went from $6,000 in June to over $8,000 in July and then all the way back down to about $6,000, Pisani said. It means that at least some traders are perfectly willing to trade bitcoin for futures on the way up, and also on the way down. It seems like a more active market out there. Story continues Trading volume has been flat for the much smaller CBOE and on spot markets such as Coinbase. Featured Image from Shutterstock The post Clear-Headed Response to Crypto ETF Rejections Drove Bitcoin Price to $7,100: Analyst appeared first on CCN. File-This combination of May 20, 2018, file photos shows Georgia gubernatorial candidates Stacey Abrams, left, and Brian Kemp in Atlanta. A predominantly black county in rural Georgia is facing a nationwide backlash over plans to close about 75 percent of its voting locations ahead of the November election. Officials have fired a consultant, Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2018, after widespread opposition erupted over a proposal to close most polling places in a predominantly black Georgia county, the countys lawyer said Thursday. Randolph County lawyer Tommy Coleman gave The Associated Press a letter he sent Wednesday to consultant Mike Malone ending the contract. (AP Photos/John Amis, File) ATLANTA (AP) -- Election officials in a majority black county in rural south Georgia took less than a minute Friday to scrap a proposal to eliminate most of the local polling places, after the plan drew criticism from all over the country. Concern about the proposal to close seven of the county's nine voting locations was "overwhelming," and is "an encouraging reminder that protecting the right to vote remains a fundamental American principle," the elections board in Randolph County said in a statement. Voting and civil rights groups applauded the decision but said the episode demonstrates the need to restore Voting Rights Act protections that were tossed out by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013. The elections board, made up of a black woman and a white man, took about 30 seconds to vote down the proposal, county attorney Tommy Coleman said. After the plan to close the polling places got national news coverage, county officials were inundated with angry emails from all over the country in what Coleman called "a tsunami of attention." Critics questioned the timing of the changes during the hotly contested governor's race. Georgia's top elections official, Republican Brian Kemp, is running against Democrat Stacey Abrams, who is trying to become Georgia's first black governor. Both had urged the county to reject the changes. An independent consultant recommended the consolidation, saying the seven polling places in question don't comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The county fired the consultant in a letter sent Wednesday. The seven polling places had all been used for the May primary and the primary runoff in July, and Coleman said officials were aware of ADA compliance issues. Story continues Randolph County and the Department of Justice entered a settlement agreement in 2012 promising to fix the ADA violations in three years. The settlement included a section on polling place compliance. A grant was used to fix issues in the courthouse, but the other updates didn't happen, Coleman said. He said he didn't know what would be done to address the ADA compliance problems, saying the county lacks the money to make the necessary fixes. In emails to supporters Friday, Kemp and Abrams applauded the board's decision. "Today, the Board of Elections, who are empowered to make these decisions, finally did the right thing and rejected this ill-advised, poorly timed proposal from an independent consultant who is not backed by the Secretary of State's office," Kemp's email says. County officials asked Kemp's office for guidance after the former county election supervisor abruptly quit earlier this year, Coleman said. Kemp's office and his campaign maintain that the office's elections director suggested several possible consultants. Coleman told The Associated Press repeatedly that Chris Harvey, the elections director for Kemp's office, only recommended Malone. Abrams' email urged supporters to challenge any voter suppression attempts. "Decisions to close polling locations are not a matter of cost, but a question of priorities," the email says. "Your right to vote is priceless, and all of us have to keep fighting to protect it." Civil rights groups and black lawmakers said black voters would be disenfranchised if the voting locations were shuttered. Census figures show the county, about 160 miles (260 kilometers) south of Atlanta, is more than 61 percent black, double the statewide percentage. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia sent a joint letter Wednesday to election officials in all 159 Georgia counties, urging them to avoid polling place changes that could disenfranchise voters. On Thursday, leaders of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus strongly urged the county to keep them open. In a letter to Randolph County officials, the congressional group called it "a deliberate effort to disenfranchise an emerging and engaged demographic." The ACLU of Georgia said in a news release after the vote that the situation "demonstrates clearly the need to reinstate the pre-clearance provision of the Voting Rights Act," which required "historically-discriminatory states such as Georgia to obtain preapproval from a U.S. court or the U.S. Department of Justice before enacting any election changes to ensure that proposed changes would not discriminate against protected minorities." ACLU of Georgia director Andrea Young said the organization plans to meet with Randolph County residents on Wednesday and will continue to monitor that and other counties. The county should fix any ADA compliance issues at the polling places, she said. "There are people in the community who can make these repairs, probably for less than they paid the consultant," she said. illinois retirement system Illinois state employees may be eligible to take part in the states retirement system. A retirement system is a pension plan that a state uses to help public employees save for retirement. Public employees become members in the system and then have to contribute a certain amount of their salary. Those contributions grow to cover employee retirement benefits. Each state has at least one retirement system, but they vary in both size and scope. Illinois has the State Retirement Systems (SRS) of Illinois. Continue reading to learn more about how the SRS works and who it covers. If you want more hands-on help in your own retirement planning, also check out SmartAssets free financial advisor matching tool, which can quickly pair you with a financial advisor near you. How the Illinois Retirement Systems Works The SRS is the retirement system of Illinois. However, it divides further into three smaller retirement systems. Each system covers employees in specific occupations, but they all work similarly. First of all, they are all defined contribution plans. This simply means that employees contribute a set amount of their salaries into the system. That money goes into a fund and is invested. The goal is for the contributions to grow enough so that when an employee retires, the fund has enough so that the employee can receive lifetime retirement benefits. (This works similarly to Social Security.) The group administering the whole retirement system is the SRS Board of Trustees. All employee contributions are pre-tax money. Employees do not pay income tax until they either withdraw the money from the system or until they receive the money as retirement benefits. Theres more below on how the state and federal government tax this money. As mentioned, SRS breaks down into multiple occupation-specific systems. The following table breaks down the three smaller systems. Illinois Retirement Systems System Name Details State Employees Retirement System (SERS) Covers the majority of state employees, including teachers, policemen and firefighters. Judges Retirement System (JRS) Includes judges and associate judges of any court General Assembly Retirement System (GARS) For General Assembly and state officials of the executive branch who are elected by the people of Illinois Overview of Illinois Retirement Systems Story continues illinois retirement system State Employees Retirement System When you are hired, you will serve a six-month qualifying period. After this period, you become a member of SERS and you must also begin contributing a percentage of your salary to the system. How much you contribute will depend on whether or not the state considers your occupation as high-risk and whether or not you also pay into Social Security. High-risk employees include state policemen, firefighters and security employees with the Department of Corrections or Juvenile Justice. Regular members who pay SS will contribute 4% of their salaries to SRS. Members without Social Security will pay 8% of their salaries. If youre a high-risk employee, your contribution levels are 8.5% or 12.5% if you do pay Social Security or not , respectively. When calculating your monthly retirement benefits, there are a few factors to consider. First of all, there are two tiers of membership. Tier 1 is for members who joined before 2011. Tier 2 is for members who joined in 2011 or later. Which tier you are in determines how old you need to be and how many years of service credit you need in order to retire. Service credit is simply a measure of how long you worked in a SERS position. Tier 1 members can retire with full pension benefits once they are 60 if they have at least eight years of service credit. They may retire between the ages of 55 and 60 with 25-30 years of service credit. The only caveat here is that the amount of yous benefit will decrease by 0.5% for every month you are under 60. Tier 2 members need to work slightly longer and complete more years of service credit. For a Tier 2 member to retire with full benefits, he or she will need to wait until age 62 and have at least 10 years of service credit. At the same time, the members pension will decrease by 0.5% for each month under age 67 that the member is when he or she files for retirement. If you wait until you are age 67 or older, your benefit will increase by 3%. The maximum regular retirement benefit for SERS members is 75% of final average compensation. Final average compensation is the average salary of the highest 48 consecutive months over the last 120 months of service. SERS members in high-risk positions can receive a retirement benefit worth up to 80% of final average compensation. Judges Retirement System (JRS) The JRS covers judges and associate judges of any court. It also covers the director of the Office of the Illinois Courts if the director previously was a member in the JRS as a judge. Members of the JRS can expect to pay 8.5% of their salaries into the system. The earliest age that a judge can retire with full benefits is 55. The amount of your retirement benefit will depend on how many years of service credit you have and your salary. The maximum benefit you can receive is 85% of your final salary. General Assembly Retirement System (GARS) This system includes elected officials who served in Illinois executive branch or General Assembly. Members of GARS can anticipate that 11.5% of each salary will go to the system. This is the highest contribution rate of all the retirement systems, but GARS members can potentially retire sooner than those in other systems. Retirement age is 55 with eight years of service credit or age 62 with four years of service credit. The amount of retirement benefits will depend on a members final salary and years of service. The benefits maxes out at 85% of your final salary. Retirement Taxes in Illinois Federal As mentioned above, contributions that you make to SERS are pre-tax. Taxes are deferred until you withdraw the money (whether thats in or before retirement). So even though you dont pay income taxes as you earn the money, you will still need to pay those taxes. The federal government collects income tax on all of your pension income. When you receive that money as benefits in retirement, you may have the option for the IRS to withhold income tax. This option is the easiest for you but may result in the IRS withholding more than is necessary. If that happens, you will receive a tax refund come tax season. If you want more control over how much you pay in taxes, you can make estimated tax payments. These are taxes that you pay quarterly based on your income throughout the year. Its also worth noting that you may need to remove money from the SRS before you retire. If this happens, consider making a rollover. This is simply when you move money from one retirement account into another In this case, you may want to rollover into a 401(k) or individual retirement account (IRA). These are both tax-deferred accounts and allow you to maintain the tax-deferred status of your money. If you rollover the money into other types of retirement accounts, you may have to pay taxes when you make the move. For example, a Roth IRA does not take pre-tax money. Roth IRA contributions already have income taxes removed. So if you move pre-tax money into this account, you will need to pay immediately. This could leave you with a hefty bill. State As youll see on our Illinois retirement friendliness page, the state is a very friendly place for retirees. Illinois does not require you to pay income tax on any retirement income. That includes Social Security benefits, SERS benefits and any IRA or 401(k) income you may have. Just keep in mind that other taxes in Illinois may get quite high. The state has one of the highest effective property tax rates in the country. Sales taxes are also high. Current Financial Health of the Illinois Retirement System illinois retirement system The SRS had about 85,300 participants in 2017. That number has been steadily decreasing over the past few years. SRS paid benefits of more than $3.2 billion in 2017 and that benefit amount is an increase from 2016. The benefits paid also increased from 2015 to 2016. While the system continues to pay more in benefits, it is struggling to cover that liability. In 2017, the system was 33.44% funded. That means it only has enough to cover about one third of the benefits that it is paying to members. It was short $32.9 billion. As per its own annual report, The System is significantly underfunded raising concerns about its future financial solvency, should there be a significant market downturn. Tips to Help Your Retirement Planning A pension is nice because you can expect to receive a certain payment each month. But with the SRS being so underfunded, its still vital for employees to take control of their own savings. If you want to put yourself in a position for a comfortable retirement, consider working with a financial advisor. An advisor is an expert who can look at your whole financial situation with you and then help you make the best decisions. SmartAssets financial advisor matching tool will pair you with as many as three advisors in your area. Not sure how youre tracking for retirement? Our free retirement calculator will help you by showing how your current savings may grow between now and your retirement. You can also see how long that money will last after you retire. Photo credit: iStock.com/DGLimages, iStock.com/IrisImages, iStock.com/xavierarnau The post Illinois Retirement System appeared first on SmartAsset Blog. Related Articles: Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Women cheer as Sweden's man-free music festival kicks off LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 348173 09-01-2018 04:13 PM Post: #1 Women cheer as Sweden's man-free music festival kicks off Advertisement "This festival was necessary because of everything that happened during festivals last year," says the 27-year-old student with long pink hair and purple lipstick as her friends nod in agreement. Held in Sweden's second-largest city of Gothenburg, the two-day Statement Festival, forbids men but not transgender people. It was announced last year after police received four rape and 23 sexual assault reports at Sweden's largest Bravalla Festival, which was cancelled this year as a result. "What do you think about us creating an awesome festival where only non-men are welcome until ALL men learn how to behave?" Swedish comedian Emma Knyckare, who founded the Statement Festival, tweeted at the time. https://www.thelocal.se/20180901/women-c...ival-opens The pics of them are priceless Matilda Hagerman laughs with her friends as she queues at a man-free music festival, which kicked off in Sweden on Friday in protest against a wave of sexual assaults at festivals in recent years."This festival was necessary because of everything that happened during festivals last year," says the 27-year-old student with long pink hair and purple lipstick as her friends nod in agreement.Held in Sweden's second-largest city of Gothenburg, the two-day Statement Festival, forbids men but not transgender people. It was announced last year after police received four rape and 23 sexual assault reports at Sweden's largest Bravalla Festival, which was cancelled this year as a result."What do you think about us creating an awesome festival where only non-men are welcome until ALL men learn how to behave?" Swedish comedian Emma Knyckare, who founded the Statement Festival, tweeted at the time.The pics of them are priceless LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 352770 09-01-2018 04:15 PM Post: #2 RE: Women cheer as Sweden's man-free music festival kicks off I would be caught dead as a man at that festival Men will be at the heavy metal festivals smashing KingBum Registered User User ID: 447107 09-01-2018 04:15 PM Posts: 4,200 Post: #3 RE: Women cheer as Sweden's man-free music festival kicks off So all the acts are female? Prolly a kind of crappy show. Idealism is the fools shepherd and the braggarts laurels. Its time to stop pointing fingers, finger pointing gets us nowhere...Steve. 504100 - My number when not logged in. PuddyCat I Want Tuna User ID: 348173 09-01-2018 04:38 PM Posts: 23,112 Post: #4 RE: Women cheer as Sweden's man-free music festival kicks off The one with green hair.. The one with green hair.. Politics only interests me because it transforms people into dribbling nincompoops (The World Is Mad) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izsjRpcgfmk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oFzHx29PDo LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 450243 09-01-2018 04:41 PM Post: #5 RE: Women cheer as Sweden's man-free music festival kicks off So let me guess, a muslim dressed up as a woman at that concert groping a woman would be considered progressive right? But a white man dressed up as a woman at that concert groping a woman would be considered repressive right? Europe is going looney tunes, they're gone. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 190007 09-01-2018 04:44 PM Post: #6 RE: Women cheer as Sweden's man-free music festival kicks off Typical. This time it is to be celebrated because its not about diversity, now its about dividing. Divide and conquer. loNe-RPT Registered User User ID: 450073 09-01-2018 04:46 PM Posts: 2,982 Post: #7 RE: Women cheer as Sweden's man-free music festival kicks off LoP Guest Wrote: (09-01-2018 04:13 PM) Matilda Hagerman laughs with her friends as she queues at a man-free music festival, which kicked off in Sweden on Friday in protest against a wave of sexual assaults at festivals in recent years. "This festival was necessary because of everything that happened during festivals last year," says the 27-year-old student with long pink hair and purple lipstick as her friends nod in agreement. Held in Sweden's second-largest city of Gothenburg, the two-day Statement Festival, forbids men but not transgender people. It was announced last year after police received four rape and 23 sexual assault reports at Sweden's largest Bravalla Festival, which was cancelled this year as a result. "What do you think about us creating an awesome festival where only non-men are welcome until ALL men learn how to behave?" Swedish comedian Emma Knyckare, who founded the Statement Festival, tweeted at the time. https://www.thelocal.se/20180901/women-c...ival-opens The pics of them are priceless the deception and social conditioning are too. the deception and social conditioning are too. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 459883 09-01-2018 04:47 PM Post: #8 RE: Women cheer as Sweden's man-free music festival kicks off :chuckle LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 459396 09-01-2018 05:49 PM Post: #9 RE: Women cheer as Sweden's man-free music festival kicks off Swedish men like to portray themselves as very modern, liberal and progressive but nothing could be further from the truth. At the end of the day they are just gropey, rapey pigs. When Swedish women don't respond to their crude advances these men spit at them, hit them and swear at them in Arabic. The fact that most Swedish women dress immodestly and don't wear the Niqab is no excuse for that sort of behaviour. Well, this is awkward. Facing a deadline of August 31 to produce a deal to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, President Donald Trump persuaded one of the two trading partners involved to sign on. Mexico agreed to new terms of a deal early in the week. But Canada, um, didnt. So Trump is moving forward anyway, notifying Congress, as required, that he plans to have the full text of a deal with both countries by the next deadline, which is 30 days from now. You read that right. Trump is assuming Canada will attend the party even though it hasnt accepted the invitation. And without Canada, its possible there can be no deal with Mexico, because of technicalities in U.S. law. So the NAFTA drama has actually intensified, with both Canada and the United States refusing to concede key points required to get to a deal. This is partial good news that could turn out to be bad news. The Trump-o-meter for this week reads MEDIOCRE, our third best grade. Source: Yahoo Finance The good news is that Trump seems to have buried the hatchet with Mexico, refusing to insist, for example, that Mexico pay for his border wall as a condition of remaining in a free-trade deal with the U.S. There are problems with the Mexico deal, which, among other things, would probably raise the cost of automobiles sold in the U.S. But it reopens pathways for tariff-free exports of U.S. agricultural products to Mexico, and is far better than no deal at all. So, OK. Story continues Canada is taking a harder line. Americas biggest trading partner reportedly insists on maintaining protections for its dairy industry, which is politically powerful within Canada. Trump wont back down. So theres no deal with Canada, even though both sides say theyll continue talking. As the clock ticks, Canadas leverage may strengthen, since Trump may need a deal more than Canada does. Congress must pass legislation approving any new version of NAFTA Trump negotiates, and federal law authorizes Congress to approve a three-way deal by simple majority. If its not a three-way deal, approval would require 60 votes in the Senate, which is 10 more than the Republcian majority at the moment. So if Democrats want to kill Trumps revised deal, they could. Thats if the current Congress votes on the deal. An actual vote wouldnt occur for at least 90 days from today, which means a lame-duck Congress would be voting on the bill. If Democrats gain control of either House of Congress in the November midterms, that could change the entire outlook for a NAFTA 2.0. And Trump wants to get the whole thing done before current Mexican president leaves office on Nov. 30. The incoming president wont necessarily agree to the same deal. So Trump now has to thread a needle to get his deal. And possibly make some concessions to get Canada on board. Hell never admit that, but it might be the wise and necessary thing to do. Confidential tip line: rickjnewman@yahoo.com. Click here to get Ricks stories by email. Read more: Rick Newman is the author of four books, including Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman Cheyenne Mountain Zoo staff is mourning the death of another giraffe, on the heels of giraffe calf Pennys death in June. Uzuri, 17, was euthanized Friday morning. Today was a hard day, said zoo President and CEO Bob Chastain. Uzuri had suspected musculoskeletal issues throughout her life, the zoo reported. After her back feet became unstable and she refused treats and medications, the animal care team decided to euthanize her. Uzuri was essentially our herds leader, giraffe keeper Diana Catier said on the zoos Facebook page. She also was the first giraffe to greet the caretakers each day. And she was known for her characteristic dangling tongue, the Facebook post said. Giraffes live 15 to 25 years in the wild but typically survive 32 to 40 years in captivity, reports giraffeworlds.com. With the euthanizations of Uzuri and 8-week-old Penny, the 200th giraffe born at the zoo, the zoo has 16 giraffes. A 17th is expected to be born any day, said zoo spokeswoman Jenny Koch. The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo long has been known for having the worlds biggest collection of reticulated giraffes, which in the wild are found only in north Kenya. But Koch couldnt confirm that the claim still holds true, saying the zoo hasnt researched that count recently. Koch wouldnt say how the zoo disposes of deceased animals bodies. Each state has its rules on disposal of deceased zoo animals, according to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. This combination photo shows Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart withdrawing from the presidential race on in Denver on May 8, 1987, left, and actor Hugh Jackman at the 7th annual AACTA International Awards in Los Angeles on Jan. 5, 2018. Jackman will portray Hart in aThe Front Runner,a about Hartas 1988 Presidential bid. Sony Pictures, who acquired the worldwide distribution rights, say they will release the film in the fall to coincide with both awards season and the election. (AP Photo) Jason Forrester served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense from 2013-2015 and has been an advocate for veterans, troops, and their families for almost a dozen years. Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Friday said she supports the eventual abolition of the National Food Authority. The Arroyo-led House earlier passed on final reading a tariffication bill that would end the NFAs monopoly on rice imports by removing quantitative restrictions such as import quotas or prohibitions imposed on agricultural products and replacing these with tariffs. They have to import and when we tariffy importation, maybe NFA can be abolished because then it will be liberalized so its something that can be debated on, she told reporters at the sidelines of a visit to an Aeta community in Pampanga. It can stay, it can go. To me, Im neither here nor there about the situation but right now the most important thing is we should be able to import rice and make it arrive before October, she said. She said she would check on the status of a counterpart bill in the Senate. Calls for the abolition of the NFA have mounted in after the sharp rise in the price of rice. Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos also supported the abolition of the NFA. At the Nanka media forum, Marcos hit the NFA for its failure to meet its mandate and to address the escalating prices of rice. Perhaps, it is [high] time to abolish the NFA. It was created by father, but I am telling you this, the NFA has defeated its purpose, she said. Senators Aquilino Pimentel III and Sherwin Gatcahalian batted for the NFAs abolition for its failure to address the rice crisis in Zamboanga City. But farmers groups said the NFA should be retained to ensure that buffer stocks of rice are available in times of need. The groups also emphasized the need for the NFA to continue licensing rice importers to prevent disorderly manipulation of stocks and pave the way for easy rice trade liberalization. We support calls for reforms within the NFA to obviate reported anomalies... However, the purported corruption within the agency should not be used as an excuse to dismantle the agency, which exercises a very vital role in the food security of the country, they said in a position paper on tariffication. The stakeholders include the Federation of Free Farmers, the Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka (Pakisama), and 24 other groups.The farmers said the agency could procure from farmers at competitive prices by periodically conducting auctions to replenish its buffer stocks. It can also develop services that will plug gaps in the value chain. Steps could also be taken to reduce the operating costs of the agency and generate revenues from services without necessarily engaging in costly market intervention, they said. Grain retailers and millers also reaffirmed their support for the NFA despite call for its abolition. In letters and resolutions of support addressed to President Rodrigo Duterte, the groups called for the strengthening of the food agency instead of abolishing it. Instead of dismantling the NFA, the groups are asking the President to help the food agency by increasing its procurement funds to be able to compete with private traders in buying palay produce from farmers. The rice millers said the NFA was an important partner, giving them the opportunity to gain additional income from their milling operations. Finance managers of the NFA, meanwhile, denied reports that agency funds had been diverted. Earlier, reports said the Commission on Audit has called out the NFA for diverting its 2017 procurement subsidy of P5.1 billion to payment of maturing loans, although in its yearend report, CoA did not mention this. The NFA said all of its funds and revenues, including the subsidy, accrue to a General Fund where all expenditures for operations, programs and projects for food security, as well as for debt servicing are sourced. But in its 2017 report, the CoA also called the NFAs attention to the improper storage of rice in its warehouses in the provinces. State auditors said the NFAs warehouses in Zamboanga City, Isabela, Pampanga, Tarlac, Bulacan and Nueva Ecija failed to adhere to the standard operating procedures in the proper storage of rice. The rice stocks in a warehouse in Malolos, Bulacan were exposed to pests and rains due to leaks on its ceilings, while CoA found out that some bags of rice in Auroras Casiguran warehouse had holes and animal waste, and that pieces of paper were hung to drive away birds. CoA found cracks on the walls and floor of the warehouse in Isabela, while the Zamboanga City warehouse had birds entering the warehouse. An NFA spokesman, Rex Estoperez, said they would exert efforts to improve the warehouses, but said they had no funds for repairs. English Lithuanian On 1 October 2018 the extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of Snaige AB, the address of head office Pramones str. 6, Alytus, the company code 249664610 (hereinafter, the Company) is convened the ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders (hereinafter, the Meeting). The place of the meeting at AB Snaige office, at the address Kareiviu str. 6, Vilnius, Lithuania. The Meeting commences at 10 a.m. (registration starts at 9.45 a.m.). The Meetings accounting day 24 September 2018 (the persons who are shareholders of the Company at the end of accounting day of the General Meeting of Shareholders or authorized persons by them, or the persons with whom shareholders concluded the agreements on the disposal of voting right, shall have the right to attend and vote at the General Meeting of Shareholders). The Board of directors of the Company initiates and convenes the meeting. Agenda of the Meeting: The correction of the Company situation and reduction of the authorized capital The Company shall not provide the possibility to participate and vote in the Meeting through electronic communication channels. Draft resolutions on agenda issues, documents be submitted to the General Meeting of Shareholders and other information related with the exercising of the shareholders rights are available on the website of the Company www.snaige.lt on menu item For investors. This information will be also available for the shareholders at the head office of the Company (Pramones street 6, Alytus) on business days from 9:00 am. till 16:00 pm. (on Fridays till 14:00), tel. +370 315 56206, +370 5 2361970. Shareholders holding shares that grant at least 1/20 of all votes shall have the right of proposing to supplement the agenda of the Meeting by providing the Meeting draft resolution on each additionally proposed issue or in case no resolution is required - the explanation. The proposals to supplement the agenda shall be submitted in writing or by e-mail. The proposals shall be presented in writing to the Company on business days or by sending it by registered mail at the address Snaige AB, Pramones street 6, LT-62175 Alytus, Lithuania. The proposals submitted via the e-mail shall be sent on snaige@snaige.lt. The proposals to supplement the agenda with the additional issues shall be submitted till the14 September 2018, 4:00 p.m. In case the agenda of the Meeting is supplemented the Company will report on it no later than 10 days before the Meeting in the same ways as on convening of the Meeting. Shareholders holding shares that grant at least 1/20 of all votes shall have the right of proposing new draft resolutions on the issues already included or to be included in the agenda of the Meeting, audit firms for auditing purposes of financial statements. The proposals shall be submitted in writing or by e-mail. The proposals shall be presented in writing to the Company on business days till 28 September2018, 2 p.m. or by sending it by registered mail at the address Snaige AB, Pramones street 6, LT-62175 Alytus, Lithuania. During the Meeting the proposals shall be submitted to the Chairman of the Meeting after he announces the Meeting agenda and no later than the Meeting starts working on the issues of agenda. The proposals submitted via the electronic mail shall be sent on snaige@snaige.lt. The proposals submitted on this e-mail till 28 September 2018, 2:00 p.m. will be discussed during the Meeting. The shareholders shall have the right to present questions related to the General Meeting of Shareholders' agenda issues to the Company in advance in writing. The shareholders shall present the questions not later than 3 business days before the Meeting via the electronic mail on snaige@snaige.lt. The Company undertakes to respond to the submitted questions via the electronic mail till the Meeting day, except the questions related to the Companys commercial secret and confidential information. During the registration to attend the Meeting the shareholders or the persons authorized by them shall submit a document which is a proof of his identity. The shareholders' authorized persons shall submit the power of attorney confirmed by the established order. The power of attorney issued by the natural person shall be notarized. A power of attorney issued in a foreign state must be translated into Lithuanian and legalized in the manner prescribed by law. Representative can be authorized by more than one shareholder and shall have a right to vote differently under the orders of each shareholder. The shareholder holding shares of the Bank, where the shares have been acquired on his own behalf, but for the benefit of other persons, must disclose before voting at the General Meeting of Shareholders to the Company the identity of the final customer, the number of shares that are put to the vote and the content of the voting instructions submitted to him or any other explanation regarding the participation agreed upon with the customer and voting at the General Meeting of Shareholders. Shareholder shall also have the right to authorize through electronic communication channels another person (natural or legal) to participate and vote in the Meeting on shareholder's behalf. Such authorization shall not be confirmed by the notary officer. The power of attorney issued through electronic communication channels must be confirmed by the shareholder with a safe electronic signature developed by safe signature equipment and approved by a qualified certificate effective in the Republic of Lithuania. The shareholder shall inform the Company on the power of attorney issued through electronic communication channels by e-mail snaige@snaige.lt no later than the last business day before the meeting at 2:00 p.m. The power of attorney and notification shall be issued in writing. The power of attorney and notification to the Company shall be signed with the Electronic Signature but not the letters sent via the e-mail. By submitting the notification to the Company the shareholder shall include the Internet address from which it would be possible to download free of charge software to verify an Electronic Signature of the shareholder. Each shareholder or representative thereof shall have the right to cast his/her vote in advance in writing by filling in a general ballot paper. The general ballot paper form is on the Company's website www.snaige.lt on menu item For Investors. Upon the written shareholders request, the Company no later than 10 days before the Meeting shall send a general ballot paper by registered mail or hand it in person against signature. The general ballot paper filled shall be signed by the shareholder or his/her representative. In case the ballot paper is signed by the shareholder's authorized representative, such person along with the filled ballot paper shall submit the document to confirm the voting right. The ballot paper filled and the document confirming the voting right (if required) shall be submitted in a written form to the Company by registered mail at the address Snaige AB, Pramones street 6, LT-62175, Alytus, Lithuania, or by submitting it to the Company. Validated will be dully filled-in ballot papers, received until the meeting. The following information and documents are available on the website of the Company www.snaige.lt on menu item For Investors: - report on the convening of the Meeting; - the total number of the Companys shares and the number of shares with voting rights on the convening day of the Meeting; - draft resolutions on each agenda issue and other documents to be submitted to the Meeting; - general ballot paper form. Additional information on the stock event is provided by telephone: +370 5 2361970. Draft resolutions of the General Meeting of Shareholders are attached. Managing Director Gediminas Ceika +370 315 56206 Attachments Re: On the whole, the American population has very little taste for income [ #permalink 1 Kudos The shift to a federal system of government must be carried out in five phases spanning 15 years so as not to disrupt the economys growth momentum, the National Economic and Development Authority said Friday. In a statement, Neda said the first year of the first phase of the transition should be devoted to a spatial analysis of federated regions and their socioeconomic profiles, an accounting of government workforce and functions, and the mapping of existing laws, regulations, and policies. This can be accompanied by an extensive review and amendment of provisions of the 1987 Constitution that have limited the countrys opportunities to achieve inclusive growth and development, the agency added. Meanwhile, the cost of shifting to a federal system of government will amount to only P13.29 billion, the members of the presidential Consultative Committee on the Constitution said Friday. Their estimate contrasts with the Nedas estimate of P131 billion to P253 billion. The Philippine Institute for Development Studies, meanwhile, said the shift would set the government back by P44 billion to P72 billion. Also, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said there is a need to instill a culture of planning in formulating and implementing the Philippines economic and development policies. Gatchalian, head of the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs, said the Neda had crafted good socio-economic development plans over the past years, and yet most of the plans were used only as reference instead of being implemented. We have good long-term plans, but they are just only being cited. How are we going to make planning a part of our culture? Gatchalian said. The whole point of planning is really to implement it down the road. Con-Com member Edmund Tayao presented the breakdown of the groups P13.29-billion figure on Friday. The committee assumed that there would be 12 additional senators, 108 new members of the House of Representatives, 450 new regional assemblymen, 18 federated regions (without the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region), and one intergovernmental commission. Tayao noted the amount does not factor in the cost of creating three new high courts and the additional 33 justices as provided in the Con-Coms draft charter. The large discrepancy between the Con-Com estimate and Neda and PIDS estimates is due to a difference in assumptions, the political science professor said. Wrong assumptions were made when the budget was made by DoF (Department of Finance) and Neda. They never came to Con-Com to ask about the details of the [draft] constitution, he said.The second phase of Nedas proposalfive years of laying the foundations of federalismshould prepare the regions and rationalize government structures and functions, including an extensive review and amendment, as necessary, of the Local Government Code and the Administrative Code. The agency said the second phase is a time for adopting a transitional charter and the establishment of a federal transition commission. The transitional government can be activated in the third phase which spans three years. During this time, the government will be prepared for genuine devolution, Neda said. The five pilot federated regions must be operationalized based on readiness and willingness in the fourth phase for five years, it added. In the last phase of the shift, the transition government must be deactivated and the amended Constitution ratified. The regional development councils may serve as interim regional governments, Neda said. The cost of running the proposed federal government would potentially add P156.6 billion to the whole government budget under the first scenario, and P243.5 billion under the second scenario, according to Neda, citing initial estimates. Neda, for its part, has thrown its support behind Gatchalians measure, which would recognize Nedas independence in implementing socioeconomic plans, programs, and policies. Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said he shared Gatchalians belief in promoting the participatory formulation of the countrys economic and development policies. Pernia said Nedas current weakness was its inability to exert its authority, and that its powers as an oversight body remained limited to coordinating plans and recommending policies. With Senate Bill 1938, Gatchalian said, the Neda would be able to prescribe the standards and guidelines for preparing Medium-Term Philippine Development Plans, Medium-Term Regional Development Plans, Medium-Term Public Investment Programs and Regional Medium-Term Development Investment Programs. The measure also establishes a Long-Term Development Plan that will ensure that plans and programs are continued seamlessly over the years despite changes in the administration. SB 1938 also enhances Nedas oversight powers in the formulation of provincial development plans through the agencys regional offices. Gatchalian said this will align local development thrusts with the national and regional plans and programs. What is important is to capture the synchronization of the national and local development plans, Gatchalian said. For me, it promotes the culture of planning, which in our culture is mere compliance. The implementation of plans, programs, and policies has many times been delayed and inefficient, the senator said. " " The alcohol industry in England relies heavily on big drinkers to make sales. Ekaterina Nosenko/Moment/Getty Images Here's an instance where a small group making a big difference might not be such a good thing: Four percent of England's drinkers account for 30 percent of the country's alcohol consumption, which equates to 23 percent of industry revenue. So, if these imbibers, and other big drinkers, curtailed their alcohol consumption to recommended levels, it would definitely be better for their short- and long-term health. But it would almost certainly spell disaster for the alcohol sales industry, which relies on heavy drinkers for prosperity. These findings come from a study published in the Aug. 22, 2018, issue of the journal Addiction. Confined only to England, the study looked at data gleaned from two national surveys conducted in 2013 and 2014 (the Health Survey for England, as well as the Living Costs and Food Survey). Between the two, nearly 17,000 people and almost 10,000 households responded. Participants were queried about alcohol consumption habits, among other things. Advertisement "We estimated the proportion of alcohol sales revenue accounted for by drinkers above guideline levels, and how this varies between different beverage and retailer types. We then estimated the impact on sales revenue if the entire population reduced their drinking to within guideline levels, as well as the average price increases necessary to compensate for such a loss of revenue," the researchers write in the study. They discovered that 68 percent of total alcohol sales revenue can be attributed to people who drink above guideline levels. "If all consumers reduced their drinking to within guideline levels, alcohol sales revenue could decline by 38 percent (13 billion)," they write in the study. "To mitigate this loss, average prices paid would have to rise substantially for example, by 2.64 [roughly $3.42] for a pint of ontrade beer or 12.25 [about $15.88] for a 70 cl [almost 1.5 pints] bottle of offtrade spirits." "In England, the alcohol industry appears to be highly financially dependent upon heavy drinking, and might face significant financial losses were consumers to drink within guideline levels," they further note in the study. These findings, while bleak for industry, aren't likely to come true anytime soon, however, as alcohol consumption continues to rise in prevalence. In fact, 56 percent of Americans surveyed reported that they drank in the last month, according to the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Though the alcohol industry might breathe a sigh of relief about this, the rest of the world shouldn't alcohol use continues to come at a cost of many lives and dollars, with alcohol misuse landing as the fifth leading risk factor for disability and premature death, and 5.9 percent of all deaths globally in 2012, says the World Health Organization. It also contributes to more than 200 major diseases and injury conditions, such as cancers, injuries, liver cirrhosis and alcohol dependence, which often spell billions in health care costs. Now That's Important U.K. health experts recommend no more than 14 units of alcohol per week, which equates to about six glasses of wine or six pints of lager/ale. The U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends no more than one drink per day for women and two per day for men, although they are quick to point out that even extremely low levels of alcohol per day (less than one drink) can cause increased cancer risk. 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 Via @Mahoneysthename At least two people in Tallahassee have received a racist robocall targeting the Democratic nominee for governor, Andrew Gillum, that references a comment made earlier this week by his Republican opponent. The day after Ron DeSantis won the GOP nomination for governor, he told a Fox News audience that Florida shouldn't "monkey this up" by electing Gillum in November. He also called Gillum an "articulate spokesman" for the far-left. Gillum is the first black nominee of a major party in state history. DeSantis' comments were slammed by Democrats, the NAACP and other groups as racist dog whistles. Gillum himself later said on Fox News it was more like a "bullhorn." On Friday, a Tallahassee realtor said she received a robocall on her cell phone. Edan Schultz, a reporter at WCTV, the CBS affiliate for north Florida and southern Georgia, also confirmed to the Times/Herald that the station had received the call on its landline. The realtor shared the recording with media. In it, a man pretending to be Gillum, speaking in a minstrel dialect, asks for voters to support him. Monkey sound effects can be heard in the background. The speaker specifically mentions DeSantis' "monkey" comment. Click here to read the rest. Les lunettes de marque ne sont pas ce qui manque dans les commerces. Il y en a de toutes les sortes dont les lunettes de [] - TV Host Gretchen Ho admitted that she is now open for suitors after breakup with Robi Domingo - Gretchen said there are some guys who try to knock on her heart - She revealed, however, that she has a busy schedule so she doesnt force being in a relationship again PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed Kapamilya celebrity Gretchen Ho responded frankly on question if she is ready to entertain suitors again more than a year after she broke up with Robi Domingo. KAMI learned that the Umagang Kay Ganda host is open to accept suitors but admitted that she still has a lot of things in mind. The pretty celebrity disclosed that she is prepared to be in a relationship again although she doesnt want to take things too easily. Hindi pa ako nag-e-entertain pero Im open naman to it. Marami lang din akong ibang iniisip right now, she explained. Prepared naman (for a relationship). I feel like its going to come when its going to come. I dont want to force things, she added. Gretchen also shared that there are guys who try to knock on her heart but not all of them is being entertained. The promising host claimed that she is too busy to accept people she doesnt like and even insisted that she has a crazy schedule to follow everyday. Meron kasi mga nag-ta-try pero hindi lahat ini-entertain natin. Pagka gusto eh, pagka hindi, hindi ko pinipilit kasi I dont like wasting time dahil Im really busy, Gretchen expressed. Regarding the recent rumor involving her and Kris Aquinos lawyer Gideon Pena, Gretchen said that the allegations linked to the two of them are false. She explained that they only had dinner with her friends once and that she just admire him because he is a smart guy. Crush ba niya ako? Sino may sabi? Talaga? Hindi ko alam yun ah. Were friends. Hes a good person. Hes very smart and I actually followed him on Twitter kasi I like his opinions eh, Gretchen revealed. When asked about her status with ex-boyfriend Robi, the 28-year-old Kapamilya star said that they have settled down and moved on already and that they are happy for each others life. Okay naman kami. Wala naman kaming samaan ng loob. Okay lang. Seeing him happy, gaya ng sabi ko, thats all we want for each other at the end of the day, she commented. In a previous article by , the former Ateneo volleybelle broke her silence on the issue of Robi dating a non-showbiz girl. Born on April 19, 1990, Gretchen is a Filipino television host and volleyball player who played for Ateneo De Manila Lady Eagles. She graduated with a double degree in BS Management Engineering and AB Communications. Using free basics app to access internet for free? Now you can read KAMI news there too. Use the search option to find us. Read KAMI news while saving your data! Imagine that youre walking down streets of the Philippines, thinking of your work, friends, and family. Suddenly a man walking in front of you drops his wallet. He continues walking, without realizing that he has just lost all his money. What would you do in this situation? Social Experiment: How Honest Are People Around You? on HumanMeter! Source: Kami.com.ph - Kapuso actor Alden Richards finally opened up about thoughts on leaving Eat Bulaga - Alden said he is still thinking about it since he already has 2 shows and a concert is also being prepared for him - He also expressed that he experiences physical exhaustions because of heavy work loads PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed Pambansang Bae Alden Richards finally had the guts to speak up about the issue of him leaving the longest-running noontime show, Eat Bulaga. KAMI learned that the Kapuso actor is thinking of reducing his work loads through leaving one of his shows like Eat Bulaga. Alden is now the lead actor of GMA-7s newest primetime teleserye, Victor Magtanggol. Aside from this, a concert entitled Adrenalin Rush is being brewed for him. "Iniisip ko po, actually," the Kapuso heartthrob admitted when asked about him leaving Eat Bulaga. "Pero babalik ako dun sa parang hindi ko malalagpasan yung challenges kung di ko sila mapagsasabay lahat, he further explained. The promising actor expressed that he wants to know how to balance his schedule and eventually find his motivation in handling future works. I'm really up for the challenge na ma-balance ko po lahat ng mga commitments ko, he shared in an interview with PEP.ph. "Kapag naiisip ko po yun (na mag-give up), babalik lang po ako dun to motivate me better," he added. As for now, Alden still finds it hard to manage his time accordingly. He said he is all-out in his work that he doesnt have enough time for personal things. The Kapuso actor also revealed that there are physical exhaustions on his part because of his shows but admitted that he is starting to learn how to take pleasures from them. "All work po ngayon, he remarked. Yung personal time ko rin talaga is very limited. Actually, limited to none. "Minsan nagkakaroon ng kaunting hints. Kasi, talagang physical exhaustion is always there, ang hirap i-cope. But lately, natututunan ko to take pleasures on simple things, Alden further said. In a previous article by , the actor planned to send a disabled youth to school and shoulder also his tuition fees. Born on born January 2, 1992, Alden is a Filipino actor, host, model, and a recording artist. He is well-known for being the love team of Maine Mendoza in the breakthrough and award-winning tandem, AlDub. He already starred in several films including Meant To Beh, Imagine You and Me, and My Bebe Love: #KiligPaMore. POPULAR: Read more news about Alden Richards! Using free basics app to access internet for free? Now you can read KAMI news there too. Use the search option to find us. Read KAMI news while saving your data! Imagine that youre walking down streets of the Philippines, thinking of your work, friends, and family. Suddenly a man walking in front of you drops his wallet. He continues walking, without realizing that he has just lost all his money. What would you do in this situation? Social Experiment: How Honest Are People Around You? on HumanMeter! Source: Kami.com.ph - Juliana Gomez announced that she will be celebrating her 18th birthday on September 8 - The only daughter of Richard Gomez and Lucy Torres said she wants a simple celebration - The occasion will be unusual since there will be limited debut traditions to be followed PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed Juliana Gomez, the daughter of actor-turned-politician Richard Gomez to Congresswoman Lucy Torres, announced that she will be celebrating her 18th birthday in an unusual and unique fashion. KAMI learned that the celebration is disco-themed and only her family members and closest friends are invited. Juliana revealed that unlike the usual debut, there will be no 18 roses, 18 candles, and the likes in the event. "I think there's gonna be a short video. But other than that, that's it. I'll blow my cake, but walang mga 18 roses, 18 wishes, 18 candles, nothing like that, the celebrity daughter explained. Juliana confirmed that there will also be no cotillion as she wants the celebration to be as simple as possible. Moreover, the theme of the event will allow her guests to dress according to their likes. "The theme was my idea, but I didn't think it would become like a really big party, she expressed. "It's not a huge party but a lot of people that I know and I'm close to will be there, she added. The celebrity kid, however, disclosed that her usual plan was just to have a dinner with 12 persons but she realized that there are more people who are close to her. She also shared that she is really excited about the thought that she will be with the people she loves during the special occasion. "Every one that I love in one room and having a really fun night with them," she said regarding the thing that she is most excited about. In a previous article by , Richard bravely and honestly reacted to his daughters suitors. Juliana, who will be celebrating her 18th birthday on September 8, is the only daughter of Richard to Lucy. Her parents got married in Ormoc City in 1998. Using free basics app to access internet for free? Now you can read KAMI news there too. Use the search option to find us. Read KAMI news while saving your data! Imagine that youre walking down streets of the Philippines, thinking of your work, friends, and family. Suddenly a man walking in front of you drops his wallet. He continues walking, without realizing that he has just lost all his money. What would you do in this situation? Social Experiment: How Honest Are People Around You? on HumanMeter! Source: Kami.com.ph - Actress Gwen Zamora answered allegations that she and Joey Marquez son Jeremy broke up - She falsified the rumors and said they are still lovers up to date - Gwen, however, remained silent on the other rumor that they already got married secretly PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed Kapuso actress Gwen Zamora broke her silence over the issue that she and Joey Marquez son Jeremy already ended their relationship. KAMI learned that the Bubble Gang star falsified the allegations that she broke up with T'yong Joey's son. The rumors started when netizens noticed that Gwen suddenly stopped posting photos of her and boyfriend in Instagram. However, the Kapuso star denied the rumors and expressed that she and Jeremy are still lovers up to date. Yes, were still on, she said in an interview with PEP.ph. "Im not super active on Instagram, to begin with. Sa (Instagram) Stories makikita, mas madalas akong nag-i-Stories" she explained. Gwen shared that she wishes for their relationship to last a lifetime because they have known each other for more than 4 years already. She also expressed what she thinks are the good things about her relationship with Jeremy and how they manage to stay in love with each other. I was 24 when we got together and Im now 28, so four years. Sana forever, she said. We have a good relationship, sometimes he knows me better than I know myself, which is nice We both learn how to accept each other, she added. The celebrity, however, became silent when asked about another allegation that she and Jeremy got married secretly in Australia. Accordingly, she was asked if they are planning their wedding already and if they have a specific date in mind for the special event. Ahmm well see, I dont know, she remarked. Gwen is a Filipina-Italian actress and model who worked in GMA-7 before she transferred to the Kapamilya network in 2016. However, after two years of stay in ABS-CBN, she came back to the Kapuso network to continue her showbiz career. As of now, she is part of the upcoming movie, Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral as Senorita Remedios Nable Jose or the last love of Goyo. Using free basics app to access internet for free? Now you can read KAMI news there too. Use the search option to find us. Read KAMI news while saving your data! Imagine that youre walking down streets of the Philippines, thinking of your work, friends, and family. Suddenly a man walking in front of you drops his wallet. He continues walking, without realizing that he has just lost all his money. What would you do in this situation? Social Experiment: How Honest Are People Around You? on HumanMeter! Source: Kami.com.ph 6th-grader might return to school after flap over hairstyle An attorney says the sixth-grader who tearfully left a New Orleans area Catholic school after she was told her hair extensions violated its policy might soon return to classes there. James Williams said Friday that he will discuss the matter Monday with officials of Christ the King school and the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Video of Faith Fennidy leaving the school in tears sparked anger online and charges that the schools hair policy discriminated against black students. Williams won a restraining order Thursday on behalf of Faith and another student. It temporarily blocks the school from enforcing the policy. ADVERTISEMENT Archdiocese officials issued a statement saying their goal is to welcome the girls back to school soon and that they are convening an advisory council to address related school policies. Kenyan Leader Signs U.S. Trade Deal to Finance Wind Power Plant Kenya has signed agreements with a US wind energy company, providing a major boost for wind power and food security. Mr. Kenyatta said the Big Four agenda projects boosting manufacturing industry, promoting food security, providing affordable housing and universal healthcare coverage present major opportunities for local and foreign investors. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (Opic) and Kipeto Wind Energy Company signed documents to close a $232 million deal in financing the construction and operation of a 100-megawatt grid-connected wind power plant south of Nairobi. ADVERTISEMENT The plant will provide a more reliable source of energy to the national grid and support the US Power Africa Initiative to double the number of people in Sub-Saharan Africa with access to electricity. The second agreement was a $5 million letter of commitment to expand the distribution network of Twiga Foods and improve food security and agricultural wages in Kenya. It was signed between Twiga Foods and Opic in the presence of President Kenyatta during his meeting with executives of leading US companies under the umbrella body Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU). The second agreement was a $5 million letter of commitment to expand the distribution network of Twiga Foods and improve food security and agricultural wages in Kenya. Kenya is open for business and all we want to do is package our partnership in a way that is mutually beneficial to you as a private sector and the people of Kenya, President Kenyatta said. Land Fever Sweeps Southern Africa, Pressing Govts to Act The day of reckoning is arriving in Southern Africa for the hundreds of thousands of Blacks whose lands were taken forcibly by White settlers a crime that goes unpunished despite promises for land reform year after year. Pressure is growing on governments to take action and return ancestral lands to their original owners. But government leaders have been cautiously backing away from some of their early militant calls for justice. Its true Whites stole the land, but they also have Namibian blood, said Namibian President Hage Geingob. ADVERTISEMENT Whites are also Namibian, he said diplomatically at a Heroes Day commemoration in northern Namibia. Geingob was the countrys first prime minister and was one of the drafters of the Namibian constitution which protected property rights of people who owned land prior to independence. At the time of independence, nearly all commercial land was owned by the White minority, which constituted less than 0.5 percent of the population, while 70 percent of the population lived on what is now classified as communal land. More than 17 million hectares of land are still in the hands of Whites in that country. This week, President Geingob admitted that national efforts to restore lands to Black farmers over the years had flopped. In response, he is planning a national land conference from Oct 1 to 5 to discuss ways to speed up peaceful and sustainable solutions to the challenges of inequality, landlessness and the pains of genocide whether voluntary or uncompensated. ADVERTISEMENT Meanwhile, in South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged to speed up land reform in order to undo a grave historical injustice against the Black majority during colonialism and the apartheid era. It was a reference to the 1913 Natives Land Act that reserved almost 93 percent of the land for the White minority and legalized the historical dispossession of the African population. At a gathering of more than 350 farmers this week on a game farm in Bela-Bela Limpopo to discuss land reform, they were caught by surprise by a tweet from President Donald Trump reading: South African Government is now seizing land from White farmers, It infuriated many of the attendees for its misinformation. Im worried about the politicians and the politics in our country if they dont get (land reform) right, said Andre Smith, 49, who grows pecans and other crops on 100 acres in the Northern Cape. We dont love Donald Trump and his outspokenness. Lawyer Leads Online Petition to Overturn Cosby Verdicts Bill Cosby isnt giving up his fight to clear his name and, while the comedian awaits his September 24 sentencing on aggravated indecent assault charges, supporters have launched an online petition seeking 1,000 signatures to help spur an investigation into Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele and Judge Steven ONeill. The petitioners cite the sixth amendment which states, in part, that an individuals has a right to be confronted with the witnesses against him and to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. We wanted to organize and galvanize people because many of us who followed the trial or actually attended the trial, like I did, were very troubled with how everything went down, said Nicole Lawrence, who started the petition. ADVERTISEMENT Lawrence seeks 1,000 signatures and, to date, shes already gathered more than one-third of that total. It seemed as though Mr. Cosby didnt have a chance in hell with this prosecution and judge along with mainstream media who purposely did not check the backgrounds of [Cosbys accusers], Lawrence said, echoing the sentiment previously expressed by Cosbys wife, Camille, who in 2015 cautioned the media to do just that. Lawrence has taken up the call and shes started a group called The Bill Cosby is Innocent campaign on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in an effort she hopes will expose what really happened at trial. In April, a jury found Cosby guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault for a 2004 or 2003 incident between he and former Temple University employee Andrea Constand. On the witness stand and in police statements, Constand flip-flopped repeatedly as to the type of relationship she had with the now 81-year-old comedian, who faces 10 years in prison for each of the three counts. At one point, Constand told an investigator that she had never been alone with Cosby at his home except for that faithful night in which no one seems to remember exactly when it occurred. ADVERTISEMENT During other testimony, she said she had been alone several times. While at first denying whether there had been any intimate contact, like kissing, Constand later admitted that there was. Cosbys team contends that if the star was going to drug her as had been charged, then why is it that he never attempted to have sexual intercourse. Hes going to jail because she put her hands on his penis and he put his hands in her pants, said Alice Durkin, a courtroom observer. Hes going to jail for foreplay. This is unreal and yet America has turned their backs on this man who had consensual foreplay and is going to prison because the prosecutor and the judge are caught up in this #MeToo stuff and, I believe, because Andrea Constand is white, Durkin said. Louisiana attorney Gavin Richard of the Law Office of Gavin M. Richard, LLC, which had no role in the case, has sent a letter to the state disciplinary board to protest Cosbys verdicts and what he believes is misconduct on the part of both Steele and ONeill. He also lashed out at mainstream media. I was greatly disturbed by the coverage by mainstream media which clearly pushed for a guilty verdict, Richard said. Media should be impartial, as should our judicial proceedings. I felt that the media had a prejudicial effect on the trial. The judge allowed several witnesses to testify whose accusations were beyond 30 years, he said of ONeills decision to allow five other women to testify against Cosby. Those women, whose stories had long been either discredited or had never been alleged before law enforcement or a courtroom, testified about incidents they claimed occurred as far back as 1981. During Cosbys first trial, which ended in a mistrial, ONeill only allowed one other accuser to testify. Inexplicably, he reversed himself for the second trial which resulted in guilty verdicts. Mr. Cosby was neither charged nor convicted in regards to those [other women claims], Richard said. The attorney also found problems with Steeles campaign for district attorney in which he vowed to get Cosby if elected. Richard also said ONeill permitted outbursts that tainted the jury. The judge allowed outbursts on the witness stand in front of the jury that was prejudicial, and on top of that, its my understanding that there were special interrogatories that were to be given during deliberations that the judge did not give, Richard said. ONeill also allowed a juror to remain in the box after he was overheard saying, We can all go home, Cosbys guilty, even before the trial began. The judge also failed to sanction two assistant district attorneys who publicly made racial remarks toward Cosby and his team. So, it was highly-prejudicial and our legal system, which says innocent until proven guilty, seems to be in jeopardy, Richard said. Cosby was guilty until proven guilty. There were too many sixth amendment violations. Natl Black Church Initiative Launches Wells Fargo Boycott Citing a list of infractions, the National Black Church Initiative (NBCI) announced a nationwide boycott of Wells Fargo Bank on Aug. 23. According to the Rev. Anthony Evans, NBCI president, the call to boycott stems from the institutions targeting of the African American community and suppressing economic growth in Black neighborhoods. Wells Fargo has made headlines over the past two years for questionable practices such as creating false banking accounts, charging unfair mortgages fees and assigning unneeded car insurance to customers. The banks activities led to $1 billion fine in April by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. ADVERTISEMENT What we hold Wells responsible for, in our community, is taking out about $50 billion of wealth in terms of equity in our housing. That [equity] would have a direct impact on African American wealth and whether or not Blacks could afford college, have health insurance and being able to save for retirement, explained Evans. By targeting the African American community and creating this economic false bottom with these empty mortgages, they actually took out about $100 billion of wealth in our community. We, as a community have not responded to that. We have seen what the regulators did by charging Wells Fargo only $1 billion, he said. We are not going to allow Wells of getting away with raping and ravishing our community and tell us, Were sorry and lets hit a restart button and offer us an apology. We say very clearly, in respect to our religious and cultural traditions, and we say this out of love, Hell, no! Thats not going to happen! Acknowledging that asking people to immediately withdraw their funds from the bank is not feasible, Evans instead recommended actions that people can do starting with being aware of what Wells Fargo has done to the African American community. Evans also suggested that Blacks avoid opening new checking or savings accounts at the bank. NBCI, a coalition of 34,000 African American and Latino churches, plan to continue the boycott until Wells Fargo develops a massive economic development program for the African American community, said Evans. He added that the organization hopes to initiate that action by presenting the bank with a manifesto of what we think that they should do. We are prepared to stay in this boycott over the next five years, insisted Evans. Thousands of Settlers Face Eviction in Kenya to Save Trees Some 40,000 settlers in the Maasai Mau forest in Kenya face imminent eviction by the Kenyan government which says it is protecting the forest in the name of conservation. Deputy President William Ruto said those who encroached on the forest should be flushed out but in a humane manner. We respect every Kenyans rights. No force should be used as they are Kenyans and not animals, Ruto said. ADVERTISEMENT Mr. Rutos calls for negotiations were dismissed by Environment Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko who declared that the evictions were non-negotiable and that there would be no compensation. I have heard some people talking of compensation. What compensation when these people have continually destroyed the forest? They will all be evicted, said Mr Tobiko. Forced evictions are nothing new in Kenya. The indigenous Sengwer people were evicted from the Embobut forest this year in what Amnesty International called grossly flawed, illegal and violent actions of the Kenyan government. The report, Families Torn Apart: Forced Evictions of Indigenous People in Embobut Forest was released in May 2018. The Sengwer people were never genuinely consulted nor was their free and informed consent ever obtained prior to their eviction. This is a flagrant violation of Kenyan and international law, said Amnesty Executive Director for Kenya, Irungu Houghton. A government task force on conserving forests by ejecting forest communities concluded that the Kenya Forest Service colluded in extensive illegal logging and destruction of the Embobut Forest, for which the Sengwer are being blamed and persecuted. Despite this, the task force recommended the continued indiscriminate eviction of communities living in endangered forests, including the Sengwer in Embobut. ADVERTISEMENT Patrick Gathara, opinions columnist for the Washington Post, concluded that the practice of evictions is not the result of some terrible natural disaster, but rather the deliberate action of President Uhuru Kenyattas administration. Another community of 30,000 in Kibra, the largest slum in Nairobi, saw their homes, hospitals, shops and schools flattened to make room for a road. Development and conservation have always been pretexts for displacing Kenyans, said Gathara. One-hundred twenty years ago, the railway link to Uganda was built, opening up Kenyas hinterland to colonial settlement and exploitation at the turn of the 20th century. The development of the railway resulted in the massive alienation of land and dispossession of the natives. A claim has just been submitted to the International Criminal Court. Since 1964, colleges and universities in the United States have used the Test of English as a Foreign Language, or TOEFL, to measure an international applicants level of English. Universities in English-speaking European countries began using the International English Language Testing System, or IELTS, in 1989. These two tests have been the main choices for English ability testing in higher education admissions for international students, until now. In recent years, several companies have developed new English language tests that are low-cost and easy to use. And they aim to do more than just offer greater choice in the admissions process. Duolingo Duolingo creates software that teaches users many different languages, including English. In 2014, the company launched its own test of English language ability. Jennifer Dewar works with Duolingo, helping to develop the test. She formerly worked as an admissions official at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The school is one of hundreds of colleges, universities and other organizations in and outside the U.S. that now accept the test results for international admissions into their study programs. Dewar says Duolingo created the test to lower the barriers to higher education for people worldwide, especially those in developing countries. The TOEFL and the IELTS cost between about $180 and $240 to take. They are given in a limited number of centers around the world. Some test-takers have to travel to take the tests, adding to the costs. Duolingo offers its test entirely over the internet for $49. All test-takers need is access to a computer with a microphone, listening device and self-facing camera. I dont think were in a position, at this point, to continue to support those barriers and not make education more accessible for people all over the world, Dewar told VOA. Differences among the tests The TOEFL, IELTS and Duolingo measure a persons English reading, listening, speaking and writing abilities. But it takes about 45 minutes to complete a Duolingo test, as compared to three or four hours for the TOEFL or IELTS. Dewar says it is possible because Duolingo uses artificial intelligence to adapt to test-takers abilities, using fewer questions to measure their skills. David Payne is a vice president for Educational Testing Service, the nonprofit organization that operates the TOEFL test. He agrees that improving access to higher education is important. But he says general English knowledge is not the only thing college and university study programs require. Schools need to know how successful a student will be using the level of academic English that their professors will expect of them. In 2015, researchers at Temple University in Philadelphia and Singapores Nanyang Technological University found the Duolingo test to be a weak measurement of that. Payne said: We would argue that delivering a high quality test to the academic market provides the value that is necessary to make a really important decision. And saving $100 to $150 on a test doesnt seem worth it, in terms of the relative expense of the test versus what youre going to pay for tuition and fees, and room and board." In addition, he notes that test security has become an especially important issue. In the last three years, there have been several cases in which people were caught lying about their identities in order to take English ability tests for others. Payne argues that there is still no technology that can better prove a test-takers identity than having them take the test in person. Having choices John Segota is with the TESOL International Association, the worlds largest professional organization for teachers of English as a second language. He says schools will have to do their own research to decide if any newer test options can perform as well as traditional ones. It really comes down to a question for the universities about whats available, whats the quality of the services and products that are available, and are they satisfied with whats in the marketplace, Segota noted. Segota added only time will tell if a given test is worse at measuring a students likelihood for success. But in general, having choices is important. Choice is exactly what made Duolingo and other non-traditional English tests appealing to Emerson College in Boston. The school accepts both TOEFL and IELTS results for its English language requirements. Emerson also accepts the Cambridge English Assessment, the Pearson Test of English Academic, and, as of 2017, Duolingo. Michael Lynch is Emersons director of undergraduate admissions. He said, We are interested in expanding our international presence We do see ourselves as a global institution. And it really comes down to access for students, and options. Other test measurement Many experienced language learners may see higher education as their ultimate goal. But there are millions of people who are in the early or middle stages of English proficiency who need to measure their progress, says Dana Alhadeedi. She is the academic director for the EF SET, an English language ability test created by the language instruction company EF Education First. Education First started the free internet-based EF SET test in 2014. The adaptive test takes 50 minutes and only measures a test-takers English reading and listening abilities. The purpose of this test is to give all learners a general idea of their current English ability level. Because our test can get English proficiencies for a large number of people at any given time, and because of the accessibility of the test, weve found that it actually caters to a lot of need out there, said Alhadeedi. Companies, organizations and even governments have used the EF SET for their own purposes, she notes. This includes VOA Learning English, which has a partnership with EF to use the test on its website. Im Pete Musto. And Im Caty Weaver. Pete Musto reported this story for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor. We want to hear from you. How well do you think these other tests will measure English learners abilities? Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Quiz - New English Tests Beyond TOEFL, IELTS Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story applicant n. someone who formally asks for something, such as a job or admission to a college access n. a way of being able to use or get something microphone n. a device into which people speak or sing in order to record their voices or to make them sound louder adapt v. to change your behavior so that it is easier to live in a particular place or situation academic adj. of or relating to schools and education expense n. the amount of money that is needed to pay for or buy something versus prep. used to show the two people or teams that are fighting or competing against each other or that are opposed to each other in a legal case tuition n. money that is paid to a school for the right to study there room and board n. a place to stay with meals provided and included in the price undergraduate adj. describing a student at a college or university who has not yet earned a degree global adj. involving the entire world institution n. an established organization option(s) n. the opportunity or ability to choose something or to choose between two or more things proficiency n. a high degree of competence or skill cater(s) to n. to provide what is wanted or needed by someone or something A few weeks ago, Russian Orthodox Church officials in Eastern Russia announced a project they called "Bells Over Kamchatka." The announcement appeared on the website of the churchs local administrative center in Kamchatka. It stated that Orthodox priests would "carry out meetings at all the children's summer camps in the area before the beginning of the school year. The websites story described one priest's visit to the Voskhod (Sunrise) camp. It told how the clergyman spoke about the history of bells in the church. He reportedly gave the children a chance to play another musical instrument -- a miniature carillon. The visit was set up under a joint program between the local church and the Kamchatka Krai Ministry of Youth and Education. Concerns about clergymen visiting the camps A week later, a man named Aleksei Nikolayev appealed to the local government for legal action. He was unhappy about what he saw as the churchs effort to influence his 10-year-old daughter at the same camp this summer. "I didn't care about this until it affected me personally," he said. "At summer camp, some priests spoke with my child and this made me mad. I read about it first on [local news website] Kam24 and then, naturally, spoke to the child." Kam24 reported on August 20 that children at another camp, Mettalist, had been baptized with the permission of the camp officials. In Christianity, the act of baptism shows that a person accepts Jesus Christ and has joined the church. As part of the ceremony, clergy usually place droplets of water on the persons head or the body is briefly covered with water. Nikolayev said, "I saw several publications on the Kam24 website about how priests carried out a mass baptism of children at the camp.There were reports that members of the National Guard were kissing some [religious] relics. He said the relics were some sort of bones. Reaction from church and camp officials A spokesperson for the local church admitted in the Kam24 report that there had been baptisms. The spokesperson said, "Fourteen children from children's correctional home No. 3 who were vacationing at the Metallist children's camp were baptized." The church also reported that religious workers were appointed as godmothers to the newly baptized children. Olga Petukhova is the director of the Voskhod camp. She told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) that she saw no problem with the church's presentation to the children. She said, "I was personally present during the entire lecture. Father Boris Murzin came and told the children about bells in Russia and gave the children the chance to ring a church bell. I don't understand why some parents are reacting in this way. After all, this is our history, part of our life." The church refused to comment on the RFE/RL story. Inna Zagrebina is a lawyer who specializes in church-state relations. She is taking part in Nikolayev's appeal. Zagrebina told RFE/RL that Russian law bars children under the age of 14 from being "drawn into the activity of religious organizations." Other laws protect children under the age of 18, she added, saying that the officials are required to react to concerns from parents of such children. Zagrebina said that prosecutors would likely be looking into the legal standing of the event and whether there was "an agreement on cooperation between the camp and the church. Nikolayev noted that last year, parents at his daughter's school were asked to choose an elective class for religious and moral education. He also said a few years ago parents were unhappy to learn that priests were teaching in public schools. "People got angry and wrote to the prosecutor and so on," he said. "The priests stopped going to the schools. Now they are going to the camps. They don't give up." I'm Jonathan Evans. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported this story. RFE/RL and VOA are both part of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), formerly called the Broadcasting Board of Governors. George Grow adapted the report for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story church n. an organized group of Christian believers mad adj. angry baptize v. to officially make someone a member of a Christian religious group relic n. an object that is considered holy godmother n. a woman who supports someone who is being baptized lecture n. a speech or talk given to a group of people We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section. The U.S. Air Force is getting close to completing a base in northern Niger for armed drones that will target militant groups operating in the area. Auburn Davis, a spokesman for U.S. Air Force Europe and Air Force Africa, told VOA that the base is the biggest U.S. Airforce-led construction project ever. The total proposed cost of building the base is $98.5 million. The base is in the northern city of Agadez in the Sahara Desert. There, militants and smugglers find ways to go to and from Libya, Algeria, Mali and Chad. About 650 military members will be deployed to the base once it is operational. The U.S. military said an undecided number of military drones, including MQ-9s, will also be sent to the base. They are currently being used at another drone base in the capital, Niamey. The U.S military says it decided to build the base in Agadez in partnership with the government of Niger. Nigerien Defense Minister Kalla Mountari confirmed that his government requested the Air Forces presence to help the country in its fight against terrorists and international criminal groups. Militarization of the Sahel Some experts believe the construction of the base is a sign that the Sahel area of Africa is becoming increasingly militarized. William Assanvo is a West African coordinator at the Institute for Security Studies Africa. He told VOA that the future base, raises some concerns about foreign powers taking roots in the Sahel to pursue national interests that are not always clear Nigerien officials consider the Agadez base important for dealing with the growing security threat of terrorism in Niger and nearby countries. Nigers defense minister, Kalla Mountari, said the area between Agadez and his countrys border with Libya is large and unpopulated. Militants are able, in his words, to move about freely there. He added that militants also use the area to move weapons. Assanvo said he believes the move to Agadez could also be part of the U.S. militarys effort to have a quiet presence in the area -- without leading to opposition from the local population. "This is important, Assanvo said, given the clear opposition a significant part of [the Nigerien population has] voiced about the increasing Western presence in the country." Im Phil Dierking This story was originally written by Ibrahim Ahmed for VOANews.com. Phil Dierking adapted the story for Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story drone - n. a type of small aircraft that flies without a pilot smuggler - n. to move (someone or something) from one country into another illegally and secretly significant - adj. very important While India and Pakistan continue to have a strained relationship along the borders, a video from Russia is spreading the message of peace and love in the best way possible. Cinema, the common cultural thread that binds the countries of the sub-continent was seen at play at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Peace Mission Exercise in Russia. The video shows troops from India and Pakistan dancing together to film songs on the sidelines of the military exercise. Away from the mutual distrust and hostile environment at the Line of Control (LoC), the two sides were seen sharing a lighter moment. Take a look This video show the true meaning of peace and love #IndianArmy #pakistanarmy doing dance together in Russia #SCO2018 #Chebarkul Jai Hind jai Bharat Bharat mata ki..... pic.twitter.com/h8ahcKyE69 Nand Lal (@imjatNandlal) August 29, 2018 The Russian Embassy in New Delhi also shared the report, showing the two sides dancing merrily at the event. Needless to say, social media was impressed by the dancing skills of the troops. Lovely to see them together. At the end of it, both armies are paid rivals. They cannot be constantly hating each other. Hope their bosses also engage themselves in such events together and carry the bonhomie back home! Mangifera Indica (@indic_mangifera) August 29, 2018 ..at the end of the day ..they are also Human.. Amit Jaiswal (@mit_jaiswal7) August 29, 2018 Did you enjoy this lighter side of the troops? Tell us in the comment section below US President Donald Trumps pick to head the American mission in Egypt could likely be David Satterfield who rides high as the suitable candidate for his experience in the region, two unidentified U.S. officials have told Reuters. Despite being a strategic partner in the U.S. foreign policy, the ambassadors position in Egypt has been vacant for over one year. The North African country is key for America over its peace treaty with Israel, control of Suez Canal and for being the most populated Arab country. Ties between the two countries are at their best as President Trump considers Fattah al-Sisi a strategic leader in the fight against terrorism. The two countries will hold Exercise Bright Star; a military drill designed to improve their ability to operate together, according to the US military. Washington this month unfroze $195 million in military aid after withholding the package over human right deficit. Al-Sisi came to power in 2013 after he overthrew Egypts first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi. He won presidential elections the following year and consolidated his grip on power March this year at elections where he was virtually unchallenged. His authority has been stained by gross human rights abuses denounced by rights groups and the Trump administration sounded the alarm over crackdown on critics and impediment on the work of NGOs. Two U.S. officials who asked not to be named told Reuters that Satterfield who is currently acting as U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, could be tossed in the position if the U.S. Senate confirms David Schenker as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. Satterfield rises as the fitting candidate for the top job in Egypt for his rich experience in the region, a former U.S. official said. The former U.S. envoy to Lebanon had particularly good contacts with the Egyptian military because of his 2009 to 2017 service heading the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) in the Sinai Peninsula, which oversees security provisions of the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, the former official said. Satterfield served as the deputy chief of mission in Iraq, director for Near Eastern affairs on the National Security Council, and was special advisor to the Secretary of State for Libya from May to September 2014. Morocco and the U.S. share the same commitment to eradicate terrorism, said Nathan Sales, U.S. Coordinator for Counterterrorism who is on a visit to Morocco. Terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda continue to pose a threat that requires further collaboration, he said after talks with Moroccos foreign minister Nasser Bourita. He said cooperation in counterterrorism has reinforced the already excellent bilateral relations between the two countries which are active members in the Global Counter-terrorism Forum (GCTF), co-chaired by Morocco and the Netherlands. At the regional level, he said the two countries cooperate to preserve the stability and security in the Maghreb and the Sahel. For picture posts from 2010 and earlier, see the Earlier Picture Posts Page NOTICE: TO BE CLEAR: WE HAVE OUTLINED UNDER OUR RECORD MAINTENANCE POLICY WHAT WE BELIEVE TO BE A FAIR PROCESS FOR ALL. SIMPLY PUT: IF THE COURT SAW FIT TO EXPUNGE YOUR RECORD,SO WILL WE, FREE OF CHARGE. ARRESTS DO NOT IMPLY GUILT AND CRIMINAL CHARGES ARE MERELY ACCUSATIONS,EVERYONE IS PRESUMED INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY IN A COURT OF LAW AND CONVICTED. FCRA DISCLAIMER: MUGSHOTS.COM DOES NOT PROVIDE CONSUMER REPORTS AND IS NOT A CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCY. 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WE BELIEVE IN THE CONSTITUTION AND OUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT TO PUBLISH UNPOPULAR SPEECH. OPEN RECORD LAWS WERE WRITTEN TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC; BY INFORMING THE PUBLIC OF ARRESTS AND TO HOLD LAW ENFORCEMENT ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE HUMANE TREATMENT OF ARRESTEES. MOST OF, IF NOT ALL MUGSHOT LAWS WERE CRAFTED TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC FROM FEES FOR REMOVAL OF ONLINE MUGSHOTS AND TO FURTHER PROTECT THE PRESS FROM THOSE VERY SAME "MUGSHOT LAWS".WE DO NOT ACCEPT PAYMENT FOR REMOVAL OF ARREST INFORMATION AND/OR BOOKING PHOTOGRAPHS. MORE... Sarasota, FL - A Florida man is facing felony animal cruelty charges after he cut off a portion of his dogs tail, deputies said. Pablo Vega-Padron, of Sarasota, was released Tuesday after posting $1,500 bond. An investigation was launched on Aug. 17 after animal welfare officers responded to his home for a welfare check, according to the Sarasota County Sheriffs Office. A concerned neighbor alerted officials to Vega-Padrons Chihuahua-terrier mix, Randy, which was found wrapped with bandages on his tail and front legs when animal welfare authorities arrived, deputies said. Vega-Padron, 77, claimed the dogs tail had become infected, and animal welfare officers told him to take Randy to a vet for emergency treatment. But hours later, officials from the Parkway Animal Hospital in Sarasota told deputies that a five-inch portion of the dogs tail had actually been removed. Vega-Padron later admitted to deputies that he sliced off the dogs tail with branch clippers because it appeared to be rotting. Both the dismembered tail and the clippers were retrieved from his home, deputies said. The dogs tail had been fractured and needed to be surgically removed, according to animal welfare officials. The dog, meanwhile, has since been adopted and is expected to make a full recovery, deputies said. Vega-Padron said he cut the dogs tail several days before he was treated at the animal hospital, saying he used branch clippers to remove the rotting portion that was bothering the dog, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by the Miami Herald. Vega-Padron said he didnt have money to take the animal to a vet but was remorseful about maiming his dog, the affidavit states. Miami-Dade County, FL - A South Florida rapper was arrested Tuesday for fleeing the scene of a crash that injured two people, authorities said. Rubin Carlton McFadden, known by the stage name Khaotic, faces charges of carrying a concealed firearm, leaving the scene of a crash resulting in serious bodily injury, leaving the scene of a crash involving property damage and reckless driving. According to an arrest report, a Miami-Dade police detective saw McFadden, 33, driving a white 2018 Chrysler 300 at a high rate of speed on Northwest 83rd Street and North Miami Avenue. The detective followed McFadden, witnessing the rapper swerving in and out of lanes and speeding through red lights, causing other drivers to slam on their brakes, authorities said. Police said McFadden ran another red light at West Dixie Highway and Griffin Boulevard and struck another vehicle. According to the arrest report, the rapper continued driving for about another block before his car became disabled. Police said McFadden then got out of his car and ran away, but the detective ran after him, giving loud verbal commands to stop. Authorities said the detective took McFadden into custody at gunpoint behind an apartment complex at 12209 W. Dixie Highway. Police said the detective asked the rapper whether he had any weapons on him, and McFadden admitted to having a gun in the car. Authorities confiscated a black semi-automatic gun near the front passenger seat, the report stated. According to the report, two people in the other vehicle involved in the crash suffered injuries to their right torso area. They were both taken to Jackson North Medical Center. The worlds biggest maker of civilian drones could see its products shut out of the U.S. market after a patent-infringement complaint was filed by smaller rival. SZ DJI Technology Co., a manufacturer of popular hobbyist and commercial drones including the Phantom and Mavic series, is being challenged by Autel Robotics Co. The dispute is over unmanned vehicles used for aerial photography and videotaping, as well as for agricultural purposes. The worlds best-selling drone is the family known as the DJI Phantom, which has a distinctive white plastic exterior and a mount for a camera on its belly. The Federal Aviation Administration predicted that 1.6 million civilian drones will be sold in the U.S. this year. The Teal Group of Fairfax, Virginia, estimated the 2018 worldwide civilian unmanned aircraft market will reach $4.4 billion. The China-based DJI is accused of using Autels patented features for following a flight path while avoiding obstacles, rotor assembly, and a way to switch out battery packs to minimize lag time between flights. Chinese-Made Phantom Autel wants the U.S. International Trade Commission to ban imports of models of DJIs Phantom, Mavic, Spark and Inspire drones made in China by DJI, according to a complaint filed in Washington on Thursday. If DJIs big market is the U.S., then this is a big deal for them, said Paul Brinkman of Kirkland & Ellis in Washington, who specializes in ITC cases and isnt involved in this one. Autel, which says it designs and makes its drones in the U.S., contends in the complaint that excluding DJI drones from the U.S. is likely to improve competitive conditions in the market by providing opportunities for others, including Autel, Yuneec International Co. and Parrot SA. Even if DJIs products are excluded, consumers would still have a variety of products from which to choose that would be manufactured by Autel and other companies, Autel said in the complaint. Adam Lisberg, a spokesman for DJI, said the company had no comment on the complaint. The trade complaint escalates a legal battle thats been simmering between the companies for the past two years, after Autel began selling its X-Star quadcopter in the U.S. and later its EVO models. Each has accused the other of incorporating their respective technology without paying for it. Its definitely ramped up the case, Brinkman said. Anything on a slow track at district court isnt going to matter so much. By filing a complaint with the U.S. trade agency, Autel raises the stakes. Its rare for a federal court to block sales, even when it involves competing products. The trade commission, by contrast, often issues import bans if it finds products infringe U.S. patents. The patents in this case all expire after 2030. The commission is a quasi-judicial agency tasked with investigating allegations of unfair trade practices, including patent-infringement. If it agrees to launch an investigation it typically issues a final decision in about 15 to 18 months. If it issues an import ban, then the agency could allow sales to continue for public interests like agricultural needs, but the desires of hobbyists are unlikely to sway the commission, Brinkman said. The case is In the Matter of Certain Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Complaint No. 3335, U.S. International Trade Commission (Washington). Now read: Major electronics manufacturers prepare for a trade war The long, local push to bring Napa River flood protection to 2,000 more properties in the city of Napa has yielded some tentative good news, enough to make local officials smile but not celebrate. A draft federal report agrees that some of the proposed flood walls meet cost-benefit requirements, county Deputy Public Works Director Phillip Miller said. If that view stands, it could open the door to more federal money. But first, the draft determination of federal interest reportwhich is unreleased, but has been seen by local flood control officialsmust move up the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers chain of command, ultimately to Washington, D.C. Were hoping the numbers stay the same and they continue to agree with our evaluation after all the reviews take place, Miller said. The city of Napa has seen such flood control features built as the downtown bypass, flood terraces and new bridges. But the federal government balked at paying for several proposed flood walls and pumps in the two-decade-old master plan to provide 100-year flood protection throughout the city. Rising costs since the projects conception outstripped the benefits for these remaining projects, Army Corps officials said in 2013. Ever since then, the Napa County Flood Control and Water Conservation District has tried to reverse this decision by creating and then lobbying for a less expensive proposal. Flood walls remain to be built along the river near Lincoln Avenue, along Riverside Drive, in the Oxbow area and near Soscol Avenues auto row. The districts cost-cutting steps brought the price tag to $94 million, down from $181 million. The recent draft federal report in particular favors building flood walls along the river near Lincoln Avenue, Miller said. This would keep water during a huge storm from spilling the river banks and flowing down Soscol Avenue. These Lincoln Avenue flood walls would cost about $35 million, Miller said. The hope is to receive about $30 million from the Corps. But even if the Corps agrees that the Lincoln flood wall project is worthy of federal interest, that doesnt guarantee money will be in the federal budget. The Napa County Flood Control District would then lobby for the appropriation. Proposed flood walls along Riverside Drive received a lower cost-benefit rating in the draft report, but still within the qualifying range. Miller said he hopes that project retains federal interest. The walls targeted for the Oxbow area still dont meet the federal cost-benefit standards in the draft report. Miller said money to build them could come from developers, grants and state water bonds that include flood control. For now, local officials are enjoying the tentative good news. We expect very shortly well know our fate, Miller told the Flood Control District Board of Directors on Aug. 14. But, he said, local officials havent been told when the Army Corps will make its final determination. Meanwhile, state lawmakers recently passed Senate Bill 1073 sponsored by state Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa. If signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, it would authorize state funding from general obligation bonds, subventions or Legislature appropriations to be used for the Napa River project, a Dodd press release said. Dodd has said this could put other options on the table in case the federal government walks away from the remaining flood control projects. The bill doesnt provide money in itself. 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. Tesla - manufacturer of elegant, high-performance electric vehicles - and its high-profile CEO, Elon Musk, have been in the news lately, but not always in the best light. One week, the company is going private; a few weeks later, no deal. The company isn't the biggest electric vehicle manufacturer, but it's the one with the highest market capitalization and the most buzz. And with that, come some big myths. Myth No. 1: Tesla is destined to fail. The company is burning mountains of cash, accumulating $9 billion in operating losses since it was founded. For the quarter ending in June, the net loss ballooned to $717 million. It's among the most shorted stocks on the market, with investors having sold about 25 percent of tradable shares in the belief that it's overpriced. Some Tesla bears, like credit analyst Vicki Bryan, think that "Tesla could be headed to bankruptcy unless it can quickly resolve serious near-term pressures, including ominous debt maturities that threaten to deplete its rapidly eroding cash." Musk's erratic behavior, including his recent going-private, "funding secured" tweet and the resulting Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, hasn't helped this outlook. But the company has many strengths, including a record of designing and producing attractive, exciting cars. Consumer Reports gives high marks to Tesla's vehicles, and perhaps most important, Tesla drivers love their cars. Even the much-debated stock price remains near its all-time high, providing the company with room to raise additional capital when needed. The Model 3 is successfully outselling (nonelectric) luxury offerings from BMW, Lexus, Porsche and Mercedes. Tesla does face significant production challenges: It has consistently missed its own targets, and there are many reports of difficulties in its Fremont, Calif., factory. But the success of its products suggests that the company will be worth salvaging, even if the current management team can't make it profitable. Even in the worst case - a liquidity crisis, bankruptcy or a massive legal judgment that wipes out shareholders - Tesla would probably still be viable as a luxury carmaker. It would just be one like Porsche, with an estimated value of $10 billion, rather than the $50 billion Ford or the $500 billion (and then some) that Musk foresees. Myth No. 2: The future of mass-market electric cars depends on Tesla. Many believe that a major setback for Tesla would be an ominous sign for electric vehicles. "If Tesla falls, who can we count on to carry the torch on EVs?" asked a recent Forbes article. "The electric vehicle revolution still needs Tesla," Axios asserted in early August. But the technology is charging ahead. Tesla is one of many manufacturers of EVs. Nissan, Ford, General Motors, BMW, Kia and others all sell electric cars. Jaguar's new EV, the I-PACE, is getting reviews that suggest it's equal to or better than Tesla's in terms of driving experience. A broader view of electric-vehicle technology tells an even more encouraging story: In 2017, Toyota sold 30,000 plug-in Prius Primes with an EV range of 25 miles, and more than 150,000 traditional hybrids that don't plug in to recharge. Toyota sells more hybrid cars in six months than Tesla expects to sell all year. EVs are close to 5 percent of sales in California, hybrids and electrics make up 52 percent of the Norwegian market and EVs are seen as a major tool for reducing air pollution in Chinese cities. That market share will increase with or without Tesla. Myth No. 3: Elon Musk knows what he's doing. Observers marvel at Musk's genius, offer advice about how to be creative like him and generally fawn over his accomplishments. One new book compares him to Albert Einstein. Since the passing of Steve Jobs, Musk has assumed the mantle of the most venerated entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. With that admiration comes a presumption that he always knows what he's doing or, as one investor said, "Whatever it is, he'll get it sorted out." While Musk has created a narrative focusing attention on exceptionally cool products or the generalities of production, Tesla's failure to recognize and respond to the profound challenges of scaling belies an inability to absorb expertise based on more than 100 years of automobile manufacturing. Perhaps Musk's supreme confidence has gotten in the way of transforming his vision into reality. Even he has admitted some big mistakes, such as "excessive automation," and it is clear that his "funding secured" tweet was an unforced error. More fundamentally, there is an inherent contradiction between being an innovator and knowing what you're doing. Innovative entrepreneurship is about building into the unknown and the unknowable. As Yogi Berra said, making predictions is hard, especially about the future. The more fantastical Musk's vision of the future is, the more likely it is he'll make a wrong turn trying to get there. Myth No. 4: Tesla can be profitable if it hits Musk's goals. Musk says the Model 3 will be profitable as average costs decline with scale. He set a goal of producing 5,000 Model 3s a week by the end of the second quarter. That led him to undertake a heroic effort in late June that included the unprecedented step of setting up a temporary production line in a tent in a parking lot. The 5,000-unit goal was achieved just hours after his self-imposed deadline. Corresponding to the production increase, with the introduction of the Model 3, Tesla's revenue growth has been dramatic: Revenue from April through June was $4 billion, 43 percent more than in the same period in 2017. However, the goal of 5,000 units per week exists because Musk set it. There is no reliable evidence that costs per unit are coming down or that 5,000 units is some magic inflection point. The only reason we believe that Tesla's costs will be low enough at 5,000 cars per week is because Musk said so. In fact, there is no proof that the company will be able to sell 5,000 Model 3s a week profitably. There are several hurdles it will need to overcome to do so. First, selling lots of product does not mean a business is profitable. Some of us remember eToys.com, which grew quickly in the late 1990s. Unfortunately, the costs of buying toys wholesale and shipping them were higher than the revenue from selling them. Popularity doesn't always equate to profitability. Musk refuses to supply a $35,000 version of the Model 3, stating that this cannot yet be done profitably. But that's where the bulk of demand is. Despite the hubbub about the 500,000 customers who made $1,000 deposits and the resulting delivery backlog, new customers are waiting only a few weeks for souped-up Model 3s, suggesting that many pre-orders were for the basic $35,000 model and that demand for the only type of car that Musk can produce profitably - the high-margin $50,000 or $60,000 one - is soft. The question is not whether the Model 3 is cool, it's whether that cool car can be built and sold profitably. Myth No. 5: Tesla is more than a car company. Tesla is based in Silicon Valley, not Detroit. Teslas have large displays and more highly integrated software than other cars on the market. A Tesla's operating system can be updated over the air, just like a phone's. "Tesla is a technology company first, and a car manufacturer second," as TheStreetput it recently. Tesla is vertically integrated and makes its own batteries, prompting some to see promise in its energy storage business. While many companies are talking about self-driving cars, Tesla's Autopilot feature is deployed today. One argument for the valuation of Tesla is that it is disrupting the auto industry, creating a new type of company. Nonetheless, it would be a mistake to conclude that Tesla is anything but a car company - and subject to the same realities as any other. Battery production notwithstanding, not only do most other major manufacturers have significant capabilities in these areas, they have something else: a proven ability to produce at scale. Since before Henry Ford, scaling has been the bane of new car companies, and it has emerged as the bane of Tesla. Musk himself has made clear that Tesla will live or die by this capability. (Tesla's residential and commercial solar business accounts for only a small portion of its overall revenue) How Tesla is framed has real consequences for the business. Since Tesla is a car company, it matters that it is very difficult to make money selling automobiles. It is even more difficult to make money selling electric ones. Large, diversified manufacturers like Ford, GM and Nissan have financed the development and production of electric automobiles from sales of internal combustion cars. Tesla has had to resort to selling stocks and bonds to investors,interest-free customer deposits, Energy Department loans and the sale of zero-emission vehicle credits in California. If Tesla can be framed as something else, then it can continue to raise money based on an abstract promise of a disrupted future. But if it's just a car company, then it needs to start making money by selling cars. Brent Goldfarb and David A. Kirsch are associate professors of management and entrepreneurship at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. They are co-authors of Bubbles and Crashes: The Boom and Bust of Technological Innovation. They wrote this for the Washington Post. In 1955, the United States and Iran entered into a treaty that, although rarely mentioned, has remained in force. And even today, both governments still make use of it when they deem it useful. The Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations, and Consular Rights continues to play a surprising role in the relationship between the two countries. Article I could not be clearer: There shall be firm and enduring peace and sincere friendship between the United States of America and Iran. In the wake of the Iranian Revolution and subsequent hostage-taking of American diplomats, the two sides severed almost all diplomatic and political tiesand yet, for reasons not entirely clear, they didnt nullify this agreement. Relations have never been normalized, even despite the period of engagement during the Obama years that led to the landmark nuclear deal in 2015. This peculiar history has a direct bearing on the fate of at least one U.S. citizenSiamak Namaziwho is serving time in Tehrans notorious Evin prison for supposedly collaborating with a hostile government, namely the United States. Thats a charge often leveled at dual nationals (including me) by the Iranian judiciary. Yet at the same time, bizarrely, Irans supreme court has previously ruledciting the treaty and other variablesthat the Islamic Republic of Iran has no enemies. (Except for Israel, which Tehran doesnt even consider to be a country.) Now, remarkably, Iran is using the same treaty as the basis for a legal case its currently pursuing against the United States at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Iran is taking the United States to court for violating the nuclear deal, from which the Trump administration withdrew this year. The U.S. is publicly propagating a policy intended to damage as severely as possible Irans economy and Iranian national companies, and therefore inevitably Iranian nationals, Mohsen Mohebi, who is representing Iran, said in his opening arguments. This policy is plainly in violation of the 1955 Treaty of Amity. The absurdity and hypocrisy of invoking the treaty when its beneficial and ignoring its existence when its notin this case in the same weekillustrates Irans have your cake and eat it, too attitude in international affairs, which is where the Namazi case comes into play. We expect that, given the Government of Irans confirmation of the validity of the Treaty of Amity, the Iranian Supreme Court will overturn the Namazis conviction, Jared Genser, a lawyer representing the Namazi family in the United States, said Tuesday. Hes referring to a similar verdict in a case brought against Namazis father, Baqer, who is also a U.S. citizen. Iran cannot, on the one hand, invoke the Treaty of Amity when filing complaints against the U.S. with the ICJ, and then, on the other, classify the U.S. as a hostile government in order to sustain these convictions. Iran has displayed extreme inconsistency in deciding when it honors the treaty. It would be well advised to start honestly implementing the treaty in its handling of the Namazi case and others. Doing so would certainly give it a much stronger negotiating position when it comes to the nuclear deal and renewed sanctions. And there is, in fact, a corresponding precedent. In 2014, an Iranian convicted of similar charges was acquitted by a branch of the countrys supreme court on the grounds that presently no government is in a state of hostility with Iran. The decision further concluded that political differences with another country were not sufficient justification to consider it hostile. Thats the crux of the appeal that the Namazis Iranian lawyers have filed with Irans judiciary, as well as the one Genser made with the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers. And yet the very same Iranian leaders who claim that the countrys judiciary is entirely independent have politicized the Namazi case from the start, putting him at the center of a high-profile propaganda campaign. Iran is desperately trying to be considered a responsible and law-abiding member of the international community. The United Nations is the only international club that Iran belongs to, and it fancies itself a member in good standing. Several weeks from now Iranian leadersespecially President Hassan Rouhani and his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarifwill descend on New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly. They will undoubtedly use the opportunity to privately (in meetings with world leaders) and publicly (through the media) make their case against U.S. sanctions. It will be interesting to see whether they once again invoke the Treaty of Amity. But the holier-than-thou proclamations they will undoubtedly make will ring hollow when juxtaposed with the reality that Iran is defying its own laws (and the decisions of its highest court) by continuing the unjust detention of Siamak Namazi. Jason Rezaian is a writer for Global Opinions. He served as The Washington Posts correspondent in Tehran from 2012 to 2016. He spent 544 days unjustly imprisoned by Iranian authorities until his release in January 2016. From a very proud grandma: You have seen and read of the accomplished efforts of Jared Kenney in throwing the discus at the recent track and field meet in Australia. I have watched him through all his meets and could tell he would do well. To be chosen to compete in the USA International track and field competition, to carry the U.S. flag, place second out of all the entrants, made me wish I was there. I understand for many years there has been a record of 164 to beat at Napa High School. At one of his meets, he scored 159.1. Now it will be another student to beat him. Ann Molinari Napa Landlocked Himalayan Kingdom Bhutan, which has been regularly using Assam roads for its surface communications, has now repaid the people of Assam with dividends by directly linking Guwahati with Singapore. The inaugural Guwahati-Singapore Drukair flight took-off at 8.35 am on Saturday from Lokapriya Gopinath Bardoloi International Airport in Guwahati. The flight set the beginning of a new era of international air connectivity for the people of northeast India. So far, the northeast states, because of its geographical isolation, remained landlocked, and there was hardly any international air connectivity. It was Drukair , which started a bi-weekly Guwahati-Bangkok flight in 2015. We are very happy that a friendly neighbour like Bhutan could understand the need of the people of Assam and introduced the two direct international flights to Bangkok and Singapore, Ranjita Das, a young entrepreneur told Northeast Now on Saturday. Without thinking about the viability of the Guwahati-Singapore sector, Drukair introduced the flight on Saturday, and is viewed as Thimphus goodwill gesture to mark 50 years of diplomatic relations between Bhutan and India. The Drukair introduced a 118-seater Airbus 319 in the Guwahati-Singapore route. We have a lot of good things to learn from Bhutan. It is the most beautiful and well managed country in entire South Asia, Amlan Dutta, a young technocrat, who recently availed the Guwahati-Bangkok flight, said, adding that the in-flight services in Drukair is of Western European standards. Common people in Assam are euphoric because now they can embark on a holiday to the Southeast Asia without any hassle. It is cumbersome to fly to Kolkata first, and then catch a flight to Bangkok or to Singapore. Thanks to Drukair. It has made our travel faster and cheaper, Arijit Das, a software engineer who is now based in Singapore, said. Moreover, Drukair has announced to offer huge discounts in Guwahati-Singapore sector till December 2018. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Thursday inaugurated the Guwahati-Singapore Drukair flight at a function in Guwahati, and said diplomatic relations between India and Bhutan would receive a major boost with the launch of new international flight. He termed the Drukair initiative as historic and thanked the Royal Government of Bhutan. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday presented the BIMSTEC leaders shawls made from golden muga and eri silk of Assam depicting the traditional motifs. Modi, while addressing the summit, said the northeastern states would play a key role in enhancing connectivity with the BIMSTEC countries. The BIMSTEC is a regional grouping of Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal. The grouping accounts for 22 per cent of the global population. Modi reached Kathmandu on Thursday morning to attend the 4th Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Summit. An elated Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal tweeted, First Gamosa, now Eri & Muga. PM @narendramodi ji uses every opportunity to promote Assam & NE at global level. These along with Bihu will become symbols of our strong economic & cultural engagement with #BIMSTEC and #ASEAN countries. Head of Markets at Symbiotics: I think its good moment to invest in Armenia How much funding will several Armenia state institutions get next year? Armenia premiers office expenses to be reduced by 34.5% in 2022 2,045 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Armenia justice minister, World Bank official discuss collaboration Russia peacekeepers ensure safe travel of about 1,000 transit vehicles in Karabakh in 1 month Armenia PM, Artsakh President discuss Karabakh conflict World oil prices falling Newspaper: On what grounds Armenia prosecutors are being rewarded? Newspaper: What Artsakh authorities are worried about? 2 high-ranking officers detained by NSS testified refuting charge against Armenia ex-defense minister, his lawyers say Biden says not worried about possibility of armed conflict with China ARF-D to run in local self-government elections in Armenia's communities Attorney: Result of Robert Kocharyan's PCR test is negative Russia Security Council Secretary meets with U.S. CIA Director At least 19 killed after attack on military hospital in Kabul Russia, Azerbaijan FMs discuss implementation of agreements on Karabakh Armenia FM, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State underscore need for Karabakh conflict settlement Body of teenager found under bridge in Yerevan Armenia Deputy PM receives US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State-led delegation Armenia Constitutional Court declares article dismissing ex-chief of army's General Staff constitutional Deputy head of Yerevan's Nork-Marash district is arrested Armenia State Revenue Committee envisages increase of ratio of tax and state duties to GDP in 2022 Dutch Ambassador presents embassy's programs and overriding directions in Armenia's Kotayk Province Armenia sets up governmental commission for funeral of writer, statesman Vano Siradeghyan Armenian official: Government plans to increase wine production by several times within 5 years Karabakh Defense Army: Azerbaijani army opens irregular fire in direction of Karmir Shuka NEWS.am daily digest: 02.11.21 Man run over by train and dies in Armenia's Armavir Province One of 16 Armenian children with COVID-19 is in critical condition at university hospital Armenia opposition faction MPs meet with Russia Ambassador Armenian, Georgian defense ministers discuss cooperation Deputy Mayor of Armenia's Goris: Azerbaijanis are building fortifications in Armenian territory Pashinyan: There is high dynamics in Armenia-Georgia relations Dollar continues losing value in Armenia About 300 new apartments expected to be put into operation in Stepanakert by years end Armenian official: According to 1920s map Al lakes are marked as Armenia territory Ardshinbank clients can win AMD 10,000 Armenia to attend CSTO PA plenary session Mishustin: Eurasian Intergovernmental Council to hold next session in mid-November in Yerevan Possible reopening of Turkey border not taken into account in projected economic growth, says Armenia official 4 more persons die of coronavirus in Karabakh Azerbaijan hands over 11 more remains to Armenian side Azerbaijan is interested in purchasing Pakistani JF-17 Thunder fighters Armenia minister: Construction of Yerevan-Gyumri highway will be almost fully ready by late 2022 Urgent court hearing on imprisoned Armenia opposition lawmakers health condition reconvenes Armenia opposition MP meets with Finland Ambassador More than 600 kg of cocaine seized in Guatemala Armenia Finance Ministry considering possibility of increasing turnover tax for small businesses Minister: Armenia government plans to change economy structure Armenia deputy attorney general, EU-funded program representatives discuss collaboration Turkish intellectual who fought for Armenian Genocide recognition, condemnation dies in Germany Number of delayed and canceled flights at Moscow airports exceed 200 'Armenia' faction MP Artur Ghazinyan not elected parliamentary standing committee deputy chairman again Armenia ex-President Kocharyan, former deputy PM and now MP Gevorgyan case court hearing rescheduled again Armenia President attending Glasgow conference, speaks with Biden, Macron, some other world leaders France envoy to Armenia: 2nd delivery of coronavirus vaccines being prepared Armenia former President Kocharyan, ex-deputy PM and now lawmaker Gevorgyan case court session resumes Refinancing rate left unchanged in Armenia How much funding will Armenia state agencies get from 2022 budget? Dates of Macron's visit to Yerevan not determined yet New France ambassador to Armenia provides details on expected Macron visit, donation of Covid vaccines 1,232 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Karabakh state minister is hosted at Los Angeles City Council, discusses prospects of collaboration Yerevan ambulance drivers staging protest Turkeys Erdogan says Azerbaijans Aliyev talked to Armenias Pashinyan Russia peacekeepers in Artsakh ensure 50 pilgrims safe visit to Amaras Monastery World oil prices fluctuate US Deputy Assistant Secretary Olson to visit Armenia Armenia deputy police chief to head for Istanbul Newspaper: Ruling power MPs engaged in countering opposition on every issue Brazil police kill 25 people suspected of robbing banks Newspaper: Diplomatic scandal on official website of Armenia embassy in US Elon Musk ready to sell Tesla shares if UN can prove $6B would solve hunger crisis Disciplinary proceedings against Armenia judge for not self-recusing under PM's daughter's case Iran says it is waiting for action from Washington Lebanon invites Saudi Arabia for talks Armenia, Russia FMs discuss broad range of issues related to Nagorno-Karabakh conflict Armenia recalls its Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe Smuggled gold jewels seized from 2 Armenia citizens at Tbilisi International Airport Karabakh to tighten current coronavirus restrictions Armenia Special Army Corps has new Deputy Commander Armenian, Russian FMs 'adjust hour hands' for eliminating tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Armenia National Security Service deputy director: Soldiers live in shacks in Syunik Province, serve in open spaces Armenia opposition MP meets with Russia Ambassador NEWS.am daily digest: 01.11.21 Armenia National Security Service: Not only dogs, but also horses will help border guards protect border Opposition 'Armenia' faction discusses upcoming rally to be held under Robert Kocharyan's leadership Armenia Police taking active steps to introduce biometric passports Erdogan says he has discussed '3+3' platform with Macron Iran Ambassador to Armenia: We are witnessing distortions of history, and we must not allow it Opposition MP: Spending on Armenia top officials protection increased by 70% from 2018 to 2022 Dollar goes down in Armenia Armenia National Security Service official: No changes at Mount Pela Urgent court session on imprisoned Armenia opposition MPs health condition is adjourned Armenia MOD: No servicemen will remain in tents Armenia National Security Service: Conditions not yet created for soldiers serving in Syunik Province Investigation of recent wars circumstances is in Armenia authorities interests, says legislature speaker Iran FM receives outgoing Ambassador of Armenia Armenia deputy police chief: Number of escorting on Goris-Kapan motorway section has increased Russia is considering Armenias petition for the extradition of Armenias former Defense Minister Mikayel Harutyunyan, who is also ex-chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Armenia. An informed source told Interfax news agency that Moscow has received a formal petition from Yerevan, and for the extradition of Harutyunyan, for whom an interstate search was declared within CIS countries, and along the lines of the criminal case into what had occurred in Armenias capital city of Yerevan in March 2008. The petition has been addressed to the law enforcement bodies of the Russian Federation, and now its at the phase of consideration, the source said, in particular. [But] a preliminary decision has been taken that the petition for extradition will be rejected, since it has been confirmed that Mikayel Harutyunyan has a Russian passport ever since 2002. Also, the source recalled that under the constitution of Russia, Russian citizens are not extradited to other countries, including to face criminal accountability. The source added that the petition was received through the Interpol bureau in Russia. Ex-Defense Minister Mikayel Harutyunyan has been charged in Armenia within the framework of the criminal case into the tragic events that transpired in capital city Yerevan on March 1 and 2, 2008and under Article 300.1 Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code; that is, breaching Armenias constitutional order, in conspiracy with others. But since Harutyunyan is not in Armenia, a search for him was declared. On March 1 and 2, 2008, the then authorities used force against the opposition members who were rallying in downtown Yerevan, and against the results of the recent presidential election. Eight demonstrators as well as two servicemen of the internal troops were killed in the clashes. But no one had been brought to account for these deaths, to this day. I just returned from a most wonderful trip to Armenia where I proudly witnessed my two sons, Dan and Adam, being sworn in as Armenian citizens. The Armenian government could not have been more gracious, American-Armenian millonaire, the King of Poker, Dan Bilzerian's father, Paul Bilzerian wrote on his Facebook page. "I recognize Armenia is going through many positive changes but, as a descendent of four great grandparents who were murdered in the Genocide of 1915, I would urge the new Armenian government, and all future governments, to follow the example of one of the greatest leaders in the history of the world, Nelson Mandela, and to look forward, uniting all Armenians everywhere in the common goal of making Armenian a better place for all Armenians. Mandela could have, and everyone would have understood if he had, gone back to seek revenge against his old enemies who locked him up for over two decades. But he chose forgiveness and won the respect and support of his former jailers, and the admiration of the rest of the world. As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didnt leave my bitterness and hatred behind, Id still be in prison. At this critical juncture in Armenias history, we need leaders with the heart and wisdom of Nelson Mandela, and I am hopeful that is what we have in Armenia. While in Armenia, Dan, Adam and I visited Nagorno-Karabakh, the location of several wars between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the most recent being 1992-1994. This morning I read that the Azerbaijan government issued an arrest warrant against my son Dan for visiting Karabakh. There are many leaders in this world, but there are so few good ones. How easy it must be to send good, loyal young men to their death for ill-conceived political purposes. I joined the United States Army in 1968, as a fiercely loyal 18-year-old American. As a young lieutenant I volunteered to go fight in Vietnam. I won my share of medals, but I was too young and ignorant to comprehend the ill-conceived reasons for that war I just followed my government blindly. When I returned home from Vietnam on my 21st birthday I vowed to never again fight for the wrong side. Ever since, I have had my regrets for not thinking for myself and reaching my own conclusions and judgments before taking up arms to kill some innocent people in some far away place. To the Azerbaijani and Turkish people, I suggest you think for yourself before listening to your governments when it comes to carrying on the policies of animosity and hatred toward the Armenian people (or anyone else for that matter). The United States used to be a symbol for peace and human rights, but it has lost that position and I see no country ready to take that place of leadership in the world today. So that means the people themselves are going to have to learn to change their governments when they advocate for war. Maybe the good people of Azerbaijan can show us the way. My son Dan changed his schedule and remained an extra day in Armenia to visit the Genocide Museum. (I cannot believe they close the Museum on Sunday and Monday and only keep it open from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm the other days what are they thinking???). It is hard to imagine any government deciding to murder nearly two million innocent men, women and children, but that is what the Turkish government did in 1915. As heinous as that act was, it is simply unforgiveable for the Turkish government to continue to deny that mass murder. My dead ancestors cry out for that apology. The only way to achieve forgiveness and eliminate the continued hatred that exists between the Armenian and Turkish people is for the Turkish government to acknowledge the Genocide and apologize. Only then can healing begin. With respect to the Turkish people, I doubt there is anyone alive today who participated in the Genocide. But for the Armenian people, there is no family in the world today that does not have stories of horror and murder like those of my family. These painful memories will continue to be felt and shared, fostering more hatred to be passed from one generation to the next, until the Turkish government acknowledges the conduct of its ancestors and apologizes for them. (And shame on Israel, of all countries, for not acknowledging and condemning the Armenian Genocide.) How is it possible in this incredible age of technology and knowledge that we could still have so much poverty and ignorance in the world? Never before in human history have the wealthy and the world leaders been in such a great position to bring about peace and prosperity. Instead we have the Azerbaijani government trying to get Interpol to issue an arrest warrant against my son for peacefully visiting Karabakh. The people of Azerbaijan deserve better. If a government cannot lead its people to the right destination, then the people need to change their leaders. That is not just true for Azerbaijan and Turkey but for all the governments of the world." Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov affirmed that the Syrian government has the sovereign right over its territory, pointing out that Russia supports all efforts to resolve the crisis in Syria in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution no.2254, SANA reported. In a press conference with his Eritrean counterpart Osman Saleh, Lavrov said that terrorists are preparing to use chemical weapons in Idleb to accuse the Syrian government of doing so. He pointed out that the Western countries prevented the arrival of representatives of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to Syria to investigate allegations of the use of chemical weapons. The Russian top diplomat said that Moscow has informed the United Nations and the OPCW with information on the use of chemical weapons, as it warned them to bear the responsibility of this provocation which had been used in a smilar way over the past two years. Lavrov said that terrorists are using civilians in Idleb as human shields, calling for the separation of armed opposition from terrorists of Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist organizations. Espionage by China exploited Hillary Clinton and Dianne Feinstein security lapses to identify and murder of 20 CIA operatives Earlier this month the far-Left Politico published a story about increased Chinese and Russian spying in Silicon Valley, where the lions share of Americas cutting-edge technology development takes place. Buried in the story was this little morsel: U.S. Sen Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., long a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee whose district encompasses San Francisco and the surrounding technology centers, had a Chinese spy working for her for years. Reporter Zach Dorfman noted from San Francisco: Political espionage happens here, too. China, for example, is certainly out to steal U.S. technology secrets, noted former intelligence officials, but it also is heavily invested in traditional political intelligence gathering, influence and perception-management operations in California. Former intelligence officials told me that Chinese intelligence once recruited a staff member at a California office of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, and the source reported back to China about local politics. The National Sentinel noted that further details followed Politicos report, though they werent widely reported at the time. The site noted that the spy was Feinsteins driver and that, according to investigative reporter Paul Sperry, the spy remained in Feinsteins circle until 2013. In short, she was an easy mark for Chinas spy, Sperry said because she was also lobbied heavily on behalf of Chinese interests. Then this week, a report from The Daily Caller claimed that U.S. intelligence became aware that one-time-Secretary of State Hillary Clintons homebrew, unsecured, private email server was not only hacked by China, but Beijings cyber spies placed malicious code within the server to give them real-time access to Clintons emails. When she saw them, the Chinese spies saw them; when she sent emails and email replies, the Chinese saw those, too. Chinas Clinton operation was managed out of a China-linked business near Washington, D.C., and all information was summarily sent back to Beijing. Without her knowledge and because she felt too entitled to follow standard rules of government record-keeping and transparency China essentially got a classified American intelligence briefing every single day. This is potentially the biggest scandal ever The DC reported: The Chinese wrote code that was embedded in the server, which was kept in Clintons residence in upstate New York. The code generated an instant courtesy copy for nearly all of her emails and forwarded them to the Chinese company, according to the sources. At this point, its entirely reasonable to believe the Chinese government thinks American leaders are too gullible, too self-serving, and too stupid to protect our country. But it gets even worse. In May 2017, The New York Times published a legitimate bombshell: The Chinese government somehow uncovered the CIAs network of spies and summarily killed most of them, while jailing a few others. In all, 18-20 CIA-linked spies were found, crippling the agencys China operations: Current and former American officials described the intelligence breach as one of the worst in decades. It set off a scramble in Washingtons intelligence and law enforcement agencies to contain the fallout, but investigators were bitterly divided over the cause. Some were convinced that a mole within the C.I.A. had betrayed the United States. Others believed that the Chinese had hacked the covert system the C.I.A. used to communicate with its foreign sources. Years later, that debate remains unresolved. How did the Chinese figure it out? Was there really a mole inside the agency, or were a couple of self-centered, irresponsible Democrats responsible for it Clinton or Feinstein? Given what we now know about Feinsteins spy and Hillarys home-brew unprotected server, it is not beyond reason that one could conclude either of these women are responsible for giving Chinas spies the opportunity to hurt America with such an egregious breach of national security. If it turns out that one of them is responsible, there should be immediate charges filed, no questions asked. Recently POTUS Trump was called a traitor by former CIA Director John Brennan. It seems the acts of treason may well have come from a party he supports. Read more about these acts of treason at Treason.news. Sources include: Politico.com TheNationalSentinel.com DailyCaller.com NYTimes.com Two people are dead and at least 126 others injured as the powerful typhoon rips through the country. Jebi is one of the strongest typhoons to make landfall in Japan in 25 years. One of Japan's key airports, Kansai International Airport, is completely shut down because of flooding. Transport Ministry officials say several planes were submerged up to their engines. They say it's not clear when airport operations will start up again. Strong winds in the same area rammed a fuel tanker into the bridge linking the airport to the city of Izumisano in Osaka. Rescue operations are underway for 11 crew members. No one was hurt in the crash. The crew cannot start the engine and officials are waiting for the weather to improve to tug the vessel. The bridge's closure has cut off road and rail links, leaving people stuck at the airport. An airport hotel is letting people use its ballroom as a temporary shelter. The wind in Osaka was so powerful that rooftops blew away and trucks toppled. The strong wind turned a Ferris wheel at a popular aquarium. Evacuation advisories remain in place in many parts of western and central Japan. Officials are warning that heavy rain could lead to landslides or flooding. There have also been major disruptions to transportation links. The Shinkansen bullet train service between Tokyo and Okayama is suspended. Airline companies have cancelled hundreds of domestic flights scheduled for Tuesday mainly in western Japan. - NHK Japan and China have agreed to step up their economic and financial cooperation. The 7th Japan-China Finance Dialogue was held in Beijing on Friday. Japan's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso, Chinese Finance Minister Liu Kun, and other senior officials of the 2 countries attended the meeting. A joint statement issued after the meeting says they agreed to contribute to the continuous, healthy and steady development of Japan-China relations. They agreed to speed up talks on reviving a currency-swap agreement to provide each other with funds in a financial crisis. They also agreed to promote the idea of a framework that will allow private firms in Japan and China to jointly build infrastructure in a third country. And the statement apparently refers to the protectionist stance taken by the administration of US President Donald Trump. It notes that protectionism cannot be beneficial for any country, and that both sides will maintain and promote the free, open and rules-based, multilateral trading system. Aso told reporters he feels they held talks with a good atmosphere, reflecting improving relations between the 2 countries. Dr Michael Odongo In a bid to boost periodical maintenance of roads, the ministry of Finance has released Shs 130.5bn for the first quarter of financial year 2018/19. Dr Michael Odongo, the executive director, Uganda Road Fund (URF), said the disbursement represents a 29 per cent increment over the same period last financial year. The agencies that are to benefit include Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA), Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), district local governments, and municipal councils. Odongo said URF has just concluded the signing of performance agreements with government agencies, 127 districts and 14 municipalities to ensure this money is put to good use. As usual, UNRA remains the biggest recipient of the road maintenance funds for at Shs 75.1bn, followed by KCCA at Shs 7.4bn. UNRA is expected to maintain 17,803km under routine manual maintenance; 479km under mechanical maintenance, 118km under periodic and 273km will be maintained using low cost sealing. Nathan Byanyima, a URFs board member, explained that 13 ferries will be maintained, 10 mobile bridges will be fixed, 12km street lights, road markings, among others. KCCAs 234km will be maintained under manual and mechanical maintenance. The 127 districts, 41 municipalities and 214 town councils shall maintain a combined scope of 39,846km using combined manual and mechanical technologies, Byanyima said. URF has also decried poor performance of district road committees, which are supposed to consider and approve district-wide annual road maintenance programmes. These committees are said not to be functioning well, affecting works at most of the districts. The failure of these committees to sit has led to failure of accountability, the breakdown of road networks, delays and failure to guide transparency and funding for road maintenance programmes, Odongo (below) said. justuslyatuu08@gmail.com OPECs oil production for the month of March was 220,000 barrels per day higher than July volumes, a Reuters survey showed on Friday. Oil prices bristled at the news, and started to slip off August highs. At 11:44am, WTI was trading down 0.46% ($-0.32) to $69.93, with Brent falling 0.26% ($-0.20) to $77.82. Both benchmarks are still up on the month. The prices fell despite the fact that OPEC announced it would lift production at its meeting in June 22, saying it would reduce compliance to the production cuts to 100% after months and months of overcompliance and under-production which tightened the market. Iraq is the largest overproducer, and Saudi Arabia increased production from 10.40 million bpd in July to 10.48 million bpd in August. OPEC is struggling to offset supply drops in Venezuela, which once again lowered production well below its quota, from 1.42 million bpd in July to 1.38 million bpd in August. Further losses are expected in Venezuela as it struggles under the weight of socialist leader Nicholas Maduro and a catastrophic economic situation causing thousands of Venezuelans to flee across the border. Venezuelas compliance to the production cut deal is now 723%. Irans underproduction, largely due to restricted exports courtesy of the upcoming US sanctions, is also weighing on OPECs overall figures, with its production falling from 3.70 million bpd in July to 3.55 million bpd in August. Further production cuts are expected in Iran as well as sanctions near. Angola is also underproducing, this month falling to 1.38 million bpd in August from 1.42 million bpd in July. OPECs biggest hopes in making up for lost production in Iran and Venezuela are the cartels biggest heavyweights, Saudi Arabia and Iraqthe latter of which is loudly chomping at the bit to increase production as OPEC has yet to determine exactly how the production increases will be divvied up between its members. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Six teenagers died and two other teenage girls were injured in an accident involving three motorcycles in Nara, western Japan, early on Friday, police said. Each of the bikes is believed to have been carrying two or three of the eight people, said sources familiar with the investigation by the Nara prefectural police department. The victims were five boys and one girl. At around 2:20 a.m. (5:20 p.m. Thursday GMT), the police received an emergency call from a truck driver who saw crashed bikes on a bridge on National Route 24 over the Saho River, about 2.3 kilometers southwest of Nara Station of West Japan Railway Co. <9021>, or JR West. The driver told the police that some bikes passed the truck when it was stopping for a red light, and that the driver found the crashed bikes as the truck moved forward after the light turned green. A day after a federal appeals court in Canada put the brakes on Kinder Morgans troubled pipeline project that would relieve serious pipeline constraints out of oil-rich Alberta, the province lowered its projected budget deficit for 2018-2019 as revenue streams increase on the back of higher oil prices, according to Reuters. The budget deficit for fiscal 2018-2019, previously estimated to come in at C$8.8 billion, has now been reduced to C$7.8 billion. While lower than anticipated, the budget deficit is still severe. In July, the province had reported its budget deficit for fiscal year 2017-2018 at C$6.04 billion. That figure was one of the highest deficits in Albertas history. The budget deficit for FY 2016-2017 was even more painful at $C10.8 billion. Todays rosier fiscal outlook is attributed to the higher oil prices in the last year or so, and comes as particularly welcomed news after yesterdays ruling that rescinded the approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline largely seen as a huge setback for the country that has the worlds third largest oil reserves. The prospects for the pipeline are now uncertain. The Canadian government can either go back and consult with its indigenous populationa process that would require a rather lengthy review, or it could appeal to the Supreme Courta process that is expected to be equally as slow. Canadas pipeline troubles are not limited to Kinder Morgans Trans Mountain project, with the Keystone XL currently stalled with no progress in sight. Canadas heavy oil benchmark, Western Canadian Select (WCS) continues to trade at steep discounts to the United States WTI, with the disparity hitting over $30 per barrelthe biggest discount since 2013. A severe shortage of pipeline capacity is mainly to blame for the sharp discount as Canadian production shows no sign of slowing despite its insufficient ability to get it out of the country to market. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: PDVSA is looking to shift its oil exports to an alternate port, Reuters sources said on Friday, after Venezuela was forced to close Port Jose last weekend after a minor accident. Shipments that were supposed to leave from Port Jose will now be sent from Puerto La Cruz, if all goes to the stated plan, with the maximum load per vessel equaling 500,000 barrels. Last weekend, a Greek-flagged tanker carrying heavy naphtha from the United States struck the South dock at the Venezuelan port of Jose, and the collision led to the shutting of the South dock. The closure has been limiting PDVSAs capacity to export crude oil and import diluents to blend with its heavy oil. The closure had reportedly delayed 5 million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil to Russias Rosneft, piling onto the multiple woes that Venezuelas oil industry is feeling as the country falls deeper into the economic abyss. There were also delays in crude oil loadings to Valero Energy and Chevron Corp. Venezuela has an agreement to ship crude oil in the amount of 4 million barrels monthly to Rosneft, according to Reuters. While oil exports may be rerouted to a usable port, the reduced load per vessel is bound to cause traffic jams, as Venezuela had previously asked its customers to bring larger vessels to Port Jose that could carry 1 million barrels to reduce its backlog. PDVSA claimed earlier in the week that it signed a US$430 million joint service agreement with seven companies to help it increase its failing crude oil production by 641,000 barrels per day, with Oil Minister Manual Quevedo saying that it was the beginning of a new era at PDVSA. After months of steady declines, a Reuters survey on Friday estimated that Venezuelas production had fallen again, to 1.38 million bpd in August from 1.42 million bpd in July. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Russia is disputing the jurisdiction of The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Russia-Ukraine dispute over rights to oil and natural gas resources off Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. Ukraine served the Russian Federation with a claim at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in September 2016, referring to a dispute between the two countries over the coastal state rights in the Black Sea, Sea of Azov, and Kerch Strait. Ukraine claims that it has the right to resources in those areas, which were violated by Russia with the annexation of Crimea. The Permanent Court of Arbitration acts as Registry in this arbitration. Russia is now contesting the jurisdiction of the court in the dispute, saying that the arbitrators in The Hague-based court shouldnt rule on a case that Russia says is about Ukraines claim to sovereignty over Crimea, Reuters quoted the court as saying on Friday. The court will hear Russias reasoning and will set deadlines for written answers on if it has jurisdiction to rule on this dispute, it said. Earlier this year, the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences said that Russia should explore the Crimean continental shelf for natural gas. NATO estimates the oil and gas resources of the Crimean shelf at between 4 trillion and 13 trillion cubic meters, which, the pact said, would have been instrumental in Ukraines drive towards energy independence from Russia. Related: Oil Posts Second Consecutive Week Of Gains Meanwhile, Heather Nauert, U.S. State Department Spokesperson, said on Thursday that The United States condemns Russias harassment of international shipping in the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait. Russia has delayed hundreds of commercial vessels since April and in recent weeks has stopped at least 16 commercial ships attempting to reach Ukrainian ports. To this, Russias Embassy in the USA responded on its Facebook page that the U.S. Department of State has raised concerns through its Spokesperson Heather Nauert over legitimate inspections of vessels at the Sea of Azov. US authorities keep generating new baseless accusations against Russia to misdirect attention from gross human rights violations in its satellite countries (e.g. harassment and prosecution of a human rights advocate Alexander Gaponenko in Latvia), not to mention in the U.S. itself, the Russian embassy said. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: American Christian Coleman used an injury and media snubbing as motivation to scorch to the seventh-fastest 100m time of all time as he snatched the Diamond League trophy for the blue riband event in scintillating style in Brussels on Friday. Coleman, the world record holder over 60m indoors and world 100m silver medallist in London last year, clocked a personal best of 9.79 seconds, the fastest 100m run since the now-retired Usain Bolt won the 2015 world title in Beijing. Only Bolt and fellow Jamaicans Yohan Blake, Asafa Powell and Nesta Carter, and the US duo of Tyson Gay and Justin Gatlin have gone quicker. Ronnie Baker had been tipped as the one to beat at the King Baudouin II stadium, but a dreadful start left him trailing the entire field before eventually finding his rhythm to push through behind Coleman in 9.93sec. "Winning the Diamond League with a personal record, it's like icing on the cake," said the 22-year-old Coleman. "It means a lot to notch my name in the sport and have my name among some of the greats." The American said his time overshadowed his showing in the 60m in the Birmingham world indoors in March, which was followed by a right hamstring injury that curtailed his training and competitive appearances. "I now feel pretty good, I came into the whole weekend with a huge chip on my shoulder because people stopped talking about me, about all that I'd done this year," the Kentucky-based athlete said. "I was just injured, and I used that as fuel to the fire. I felt like I could go out there and do a personal best." Coleman added: "With the world lead and Diamond trophy, I guess I'm at the top of the leaderboard at the moment... the 'new boss'." Touted as the strongest men's pole vault field ever, with five of the 12 finalists having cleared the mythical 6m-barrier, the competition petered out for French world record holder Renaud Lavillenie and Swedish teenager Armand Duplantis, who won European gold in Berlin last month with 6.05m. It came down instead to a battle between American Sam Hendricks and Russian Timur Morgunov, the latter eventually winning with 5.93m. - Ibarguen double - Colombia's Caterine Ibarguen, fresh from winning the overall triple jump title in Zurich on Thursday, also claimed the long jump trophy with a best of 6.80m. It meant she became the first non-sprinter in history to win two Diamond trophies in one year, four sprinters having already achieved the feat. Portugal's Pedro Pablo Pichardo notched up 17.49m to beat American Christian Taylor in the men's triple jump and Bahamas' Shaunae Miller-Uibo won the women's 200m in 22.12sec ahead of double defending world champion Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands. Nigerian-born Salwa Eid Naser, hot off the plane after winning two golds for Bahrain in the ongoing Asian Games in Indonesia, won the 400m in 49.33sec ahead of American Phyllis Francis. "I felt a little jetlagged," said Naser. "But my goal was to win the Diamond trophy and I did just that. It's been a good season and this victory makes it complete." Croatia's all-conquering discus thrower Sandra Perkovic -- two-time world and Olympic champion and five-time Eurpean gold medallist -- suffered a blip when she could only finish third, 69cm behind winner Yaime Perez of Cuba (65.00m). "Stupid things sometimes happen, but that is sports," said a 'flu-hit Perkovic, who could not resist a dig at organisers after seeing her streak of 15 victories come to a halt. "This is my eighth final and I won seven of them. This Diamond League should not be awarded in one final." Kenya enjoyed a good night as Beatrice Chepkoech took the spoils in the women's 3000m steeplechase and Emmanuel Kipkurui Korir the men's 800m. Selemon Barega led home a quintet of Ethiopians in the 5000m, while Australian Brandon Starc won the high jump with 2.33m and Britain's newly-crowned European champion Laura Muir took the 1500m. Sergey Shubenkov, the Russian competing under a neutral flag as his country remains banned over a state-sponsored doping programme, won the 110m hurdles in 12.97sec and American Brianna McNeal the 100m hurdles in 12.61. 2 hours ago Asian shares mostly lower despite Dow's push over 36,000 Shares were mostly lower in Asia on Wednesday, weighed down by concerns over disrupted supply chains and shipping, despite the Dow Jones Industrial Averages first close above 36,000 points. Benchmarks fell in most major markets apart from Sydney and Taipei. Read Article Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Education Reporter Mathew Burciaga is a Santa Maria Times reporter who covers education, agriculture and public safety. Prior to joining the Times, Mathew ran a 114-year-old community newspaper in Wyoming. He owns more than 40 pairs of crazy socks from across the globe. By Ricardo Brito and Anthony Boadle BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's top electoral court will open debate on Friday afternoon whether jailed former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva should be barred from running in this year's presidential election due to a corruption conviction. The seven-member court was expected to declare Lula ineligible, removing a cloud hanging over Brazil's most uncertain election in decades. It was not clear if a ruling would come Friday or next week. Lula, Brazil's most popular politician, is serving a 12-year sentence for a corruption conviction. His Workers Party registered him as its presidential candidate for the Oct. 7 vote anyway, saying he is innocent. Lula is likely ineligible for office under Brazil's "Clean Slate" law, which prohibits candidates from running if they have convictions that have been upheld on appeal. Despite his conviction and several graft cases pending against him, Lula leads the race by a long stretch, with 39 percent of voter support, according to pollster Datafolha. His nearest rival, far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, has 19 percent. Ads by the Workers Party calling on Brazilians to vote for Lula began to appear on social media on Friday, and will be shown on television as of Saturday when the race enters its final 35 days of campaigning. If Lula is barred, his running mate Fernando Haddad, a former mayor of Sao Paulo, will head the ticket hoping to inherit the bulk of Lula's votes. The party has until Sept. 17 to swap their names on the ballot. The court could also rule on Friday on a request by the conservative Partido Novo to exclude Lula from the television and radio ads campaign. The court on Thursday rejected another request by opponents of Lula to exclude his name from opinion polls until his eligibility has been decided. (Reporting by Ricardo Brito and Anthony Boadle; editing by David Gregorio and Brad Brooks) The jailed leader of a Moroccan protest movement began a hunger strike on Thursday to protest against prison conditions, weeks after he was sentenced to 20 years behind bars, his father said. Nasser Zefzafi led a protest movement in the marginalised north of Morocco in 2016 and 2017. In June he was handed a 20-year jail term along with three others for "plotting to undermine the security of the state". "He wants to be taken out of solitary confinement and placed in a dignified cell where he can see and talk to his (jailed) comrades," Zefzafi's father, Ahmed, told AFP on Thursday. "He has decided to stop eating and drinking water until his demands are met," he said, adding that his son was "determined" to stick by his decision. He said his son wants the "same rights" as other jailed members of the Al-Hirak al-Shaabi (Popular Movement), which spearheaded the protest in the Rif region. There was no immediate comment from the authorities at Oukacha prison in Casablanca where Zefzafi is incarcerated. The 2016 protests began when fisherman Mouhcine Fikri was crushed to death in a rubbish truck, while he was apparently trying to retrieve swordfish seized by authorities as it was caught out of season. Subsequent unrest in the Rif region, where the marginalised Berber ethnic group is the majority, focused on social issues as demonstrators demanded jobs and development. Hundreds of people were arrested in connection with the protests but King Mohamed VI has since pardoned nearly 190 of them. Zefzafi was arrested in May 2017. In June, he was among 53 Hirak members sentenced by a Casablanca court -- most of whom were given jail terms of one to five years. (Corrects "fleeing" to "who had fled" in paragraph 21. This story has since been updated) By Poppy McPherson YANGON (Reuters) - The grainy black-and-white photo, printed in a new book on the Rohingya crisis authored by Myanmar's army, shows a man standing over two bodies, wielding a farming tool. "Bengalis killed local ethnics brutally", reads the caption. The photo appears in a section of the book covering ethnic riots in Myanmar in the 1940s. The text says the image shows Buddhists murdered by Rohingya - members of a Muslim minority the book refers to as "Bengalis" to imply they are illegal immigrants. But a Reuters examination of the photograph shows it was actually taken during Bangladesh's 1971 independence war, when hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis were killed by Pakistani troops. It is one of three images that appear in the book, published in July by the army's department of public relations and psychological warfare, that have been misrepresented as archival pictures from the western state of Rakhine. In fact, Reuters found that two of the photos originally were taken in Bangladesh and Tanzania. A third was falsely labelled as depicting Rohingya entering Myanmar from Bangladesh, when in reality it showed migrants leaving the country. Government spokesman Zaw Htay and a military spokesman could not be reached for comment on the authenticity of the images. U Myo Myint Maung, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Information, declined to comment, saying he had not read the book. The 117-page "Myanmar Politics and the Tatmadaw: Part I" relates the army's narrative of August last year, when some 700,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine to Bangladesh, according to United Nations agencies, triggering reports of mass killings, rape, and arson. Tatmadaw is the official name of Myanmar's military. Much of the content is sourced to the military's "True News" information unit, which since the start of the crisis has distributed news giving the army's perspective, mostly via Facebook. Story continues The book is on sale at bookstores across the commercial capital of Yangon. A member of staff at Innwa, one of the biggest bookshops in the city, said the 50 copies the store ordered had sold out, but there was no plan to order more. "Not many people came looking for it," said the bookseller, who declined to be named. On Monday, Facebook banned the army chief and other military officials accused of using the platform to "inflame ethnic and religious tensions". The same day, U.N investigators accused Senior General Min Aung Hlaing of overseeing a campaign with "genocidal intent" and recommended he and other senior officials be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. In its new book, the military denies the allegations of abuses, blaming the violence on "Bengali terrorists" it says were intent on carving out a Rohingya state named "Arkistan". Attacks by Rohingya militants calling themselves the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army preceded the military's crackdown in August 2017 in Rakhine state, in which the U.N. investigators say 10,000 people may have been killed. The group denies it has separatist aims. The book also seeks to trace the history of the Rohingya - who regard themselves as native to western Myanmar - casting them as interlopers from Bangladesh. In the introduction to the book the writer, listed as Lieutenant Colonel Kyaw Kyaw Oo, says the text was compiled using "documentary photos" with the aim of "revealing the history of Bengalis". "It can be found that whenever a political change or an ethnic armed conflict occurred in Myanmar those Bengalis take it as an opportunity," the book reads, arguing that Muslims took advantage of the uncertainty of Myanmar's nascent democratic transition to ignite "religious clashes". Reuters was unable to contact Kyaw Kyaw Oo for comment. Reuters examined some of the photographs using Google Reverse Image Search and TinEye, tools commonly used by news organisations and others to identify images that have previously appeared online. Checks were then made with the previously credited publishers to establish the origins of those images. Of the 80 images in the book, most were recent pictures of army chief Min Aung Hlaing meeting foreign dignitaries or local officials visiting Rakhine. Several were screengrabs from videos posted by Rohingya militant group the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. Of eight photos presented as historical images, Reuters found the provenance of three to be faked and was unable to determine the provenance of the five others. One faded black-and-white image shows a crowd of men who appear to be on a long march with their backs bent over. "Bengalis intruded into the country after the British Colonialism occupied the lower part of Myanmar," the caption reads. The photo is apparently intended to depict Rohingya arriving in Myanmar during the colonial era, which ended in 1948. Reuters determined the picture is in fact a distorted version of a colour image taken in 1996 of refugees who had fled the genocide in Rwanda. The photographer, Martha Rial, working for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, won the Pulitzer Prize. The newspaper did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the use of its photo. Another picture, also printed in black-and-white, shows men aboard a rickety boat. "Bengalis entered Myanmar via the watercourse," the caption reads. Actually, the original photo depicts Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants leaving Myanmar in 2015, when tens of thousands fled for Thailand and Malaysia. The original has been rotated and blurred so the photo looks granular. It was sourced from Myanmar's own Ministry of Information. (Reporting by Poppy Elena McPherson; Additional reporting by Sam Aung Moon; Editing by Alex Richardson) South China Morning Post Su Huas surprising resignation from the CEO position of Kuaishou Technology reflects the struggle for Chinas No. 2 biggest short video operator amid an ever-changing regulatory and market landscape, analysts said. Su, a 39-year-old self-made Chinese billionaire who has been the CEO of Kuaishou from day one, stepped down from the frontline role on Friday, leaving the day-to-day operation of his short video business empire to his long-term partner Cheng Yixiao. By doing so, Su has joined a growi Hyundai Motor confirmed its plans to ship China-made cars to Southeast Asia as stagnant sales in the region left much of its massive local manufacturing capacity in idle mode. The South Korean car maker is banking on the popularity of its cars in the ASEAN region, as Hyundai and Kia posted a 26-percent on year growth from January to June in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Hyundai ranked third in China sales before the plunge, alongside affiliate Kia Motors Corp. However, soon after opening its fifth factory in the Middle Kingdom, a diplomatic dispute soured trade relations between China and South Korea, damaging the sales and brand image of many of the products associated with the smaller Asian country. Diplomatic ties has improved between the two countries since then, but Hyundais recovery has been unstable. With the surplus in produced vehicles, Hyundai is looking to export to Southeast Asia and other global markets. Yes, we plan to export cars to Southeast Asia, confirmed Beijing Automotive Group Co Ltd (BAIC) spokesman Zhao Jun. The earliest could be the end of this year. Zhao added that the automaker will decide on which models to export depending on the local demand. Some of the cars produced by Beijing Hyundai include the Elantra, Sonata, Tucson, and Santa Fe. The post Hyundai to Export China-Made Cars to Southeast Asia appeared first on Carmudi Philippines. TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyan authorities closed Tripoli airport on Friday after some rockets were fired in its direction, a spokesman for the state airline Libyan Airlines said. Flights will be diverted to Misrata airport, the spokesman said, without elaborating. Misrata lies about 190 km (120 miles) east of Tripoli. Rival groups have been fighting in Tripoli for several days but clashes had been focussed on the south of the city. Matiga airport lies in an eastern suburb. The spokesman said Matiga airport would be closed for 48 hours, citing a directive of the civil aviation authority. (Reporting by Ahmed Elumami, Omar Fahmy and Ulf Laessing Editing by Gareth Jones and Raissa Kasolowsky) Turkey on Friday officially designated the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadist group as a "terrorist" organisation, ahead of an anticipated operation by the Syrian regime in the province of Idlib, much of which is controlled by the group. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces have been massing for days around Idlib near the Turkish border and look poised to launch what could be a last major battle in the civil war that has torn Syria since 2011. Turkey, which has already listed Al-Nusra and Al-Qaeda as terror groups, updated its list of terror groups under a document published in the official gazette and included HTS on the new list. It bracketed HTS as a variant name for Al-Nusra Front. The HTS is dominated by the Fateh al-Sham faction, which was previously known as Al-Nusra Front before renouncing its ties to Al-Qaeda. HTS is currently the most powerful armed faction in Idlib. Intense negotiations have been under way for weeks between regime supporter Russia, and Turkey, which backs opposition fighting for Assad's ouster. It was not immediately clear whether Turkey's decision to update its list of terror groups to include HTS could indicate a green light from Ankara for a possible Russian-backed regime operation into Idlib. Turkey has been keeping a wary eye on the possibility of the Idlib offensive, as it seeks to bring peace to Syria along with Russia and Assad's other main ally Iran. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has warned Russia that seeking a military solution in Idlib would cause "catastrophe" and trigger an new influx of refugees across its borders. Turkey has 12 military observation posts inside Idlib aimed at monitoring a de-escalation zone and media reports have said it has sent concrete blocks over the border to reinforce them in case of an assault. But analysts say Ankara could be prepared to accept a limited Russian-backed regime offensive against extremist groups, even if it leaves the question of the long-term control of the province open for now. Accepting control by Assad over Idlib could be a step too far for Turkey but analysts say it is also determined to preserve its increasingly tight alliance with Russia. Spanish veteran Alejandro Valverde kept his composure on a tricky finish to claim an unexpected victory on the eighth stage of the Tour of Spain on Saturday. Frenchman Rudy Molard, of the Groupama team, held on to the race leader's red jersey after finishing safely among the peloton. Molard will start Sunday's hilly ninth stage, a 200-kilometre ride from Talavera de la Reina to the ski station of La Covatilla with a 37sec lead on Valverde and a 51sec lead on fourth-placed Briton Simon Yates. Organisers had added spice to the finale of the 195.5km race from Linares, the peloton forced to practically turn back on itself after negotiating a roundabout inside the final kilometre. But Valderde held his nerve to stay in sprint contention and proved strongest in a tight, uphill finish to pip three-time world champion Peter Sagan to the honours. Sagan, of the Bora team, finished third with Dutchman Danny von Poppel (LottoNL-Jumbo) in third place. The Slovakian had secured a record-equalling sixth green jersey for the points competition and won three stages at the Tour de France in July, but appears to be paying for those efforts. After a third-place finish on Monday, Sagan edged closer to a stage win on Friday where he finished second behind Frenchman Tony Gallopin. On a finish that should have been to Sagan's liking on Saturday, the Slovakian was left counting his losses again as Valverde came from out behind his wheel to claim his second stage win of this edition. "I was told how difficult the finish was and that I could even lose time there," said Valverde, who claimed it had not been his plan to win the stage. "As a result, I'd planned not to try and go for the stage win but just not to lose time. "But then I followed Sagan's wheel and in the end overtook him. I know I'm on form, but I even surprised myself." Although 38 years old, Valverde said: "My age doesn't reflect my physical form or my mentality." And on Sunday's stage in the high mountains, he will be hoping to show his younger rivals he can remain in overall victory contention. "It's a real mountain stage tomorrow (Sunday)," said Valverde. "We should really see who has what it takes to make the podium of this Tour of Spain." It could have been much worse. For a long time, it seemed as if Donald Trump might really be serious about scrapping the North American Free Trade Agreement. Investors certainly acted that way, selling off Mexican pesos and Canadian dollars when rumors about withdrawal would swirl. Who could blame them? Trump is the most erratic and protectionist president in recent historya man who once sat with his advisers in the Oval Office and demanded: I want tariffs! Maybe he would try to jettison the pact, even if it would cause havoc for entire sectors of the economy he claimed to be trying to save. Advertisement That possibility is now starting to seem pretty remote. Earlier this week, Trump announced a preliminary deal with Mexico. At the press conference, he hinted that Canada could be left out of a final pact unless it swallowed some concessions. But negotiators from both countries are working to hash out a compromise. In order to meet a loosely self-imposed deadline of Friday, the White House sent Congress a notice declaring that it planned to sign an agreement with Mexico in 90 days and Canada, if it is willing.* It also said it would pick up talks with Ottawa next week. Last minute drama aside, it looks as if a deal is (haphazardly) coming together. If that happens, Trump could go from being the president who threatened NAFTAs very existence to the president who finally got Americans to stop fighting about it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are a few reasons why, despite the presidents bluster, it seems likely Canada and the U.S. will be able to strike a deal. The big one: Theres pressure on both sides. Losing NAFTA would be a humiliating and economically damaging turn for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. And while Trump may be tempted to sign a bilateral deal with Mexico, its not clear he can push such a thing through Congress, which has to approve whatever the administration crafts. Trump notified Congress he was renegotiating NAFTA under fast-track authority, guaranteeing it a straight up or down vote.* But Republican senators like Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania are warning that an agreement that leaves out Canada wouldnt qualify for that treatment, and so would need 60 hard-to-get votes in the Senate. Advertisement Trump might have more leverage over Congress if it was entirely clear that he could abolish NAFTA on his own. But its not. While Trump technically has the power to formally withdraw from the trade pact, many of its actual rules are written into U.S. law by statute, which Congress would have to change. If it didnt alter themand theres no real reason to think it wouldwe could end up with a zombie NAFTA lingering on in practice, as Todd Tucker of the Roosevelt Institute has put it. Better for Trump to sign something he can call his own. Advertisement After the Mexico agreement was announced, it quickly became conventional wisdom that Trump was merely rebranding NAFTA, with a few changes around the edges. This, it turns out, was a bit unfair. The White House may not be totally altering the core of the agreement. But it has scored some substantive changes. Advertisement Take its rules for the auto industry. Under the new NAFTA, 75 percent of the value of any vehicle will have to be produced in North America for the car to quality for tariff free treatmentup from 62.5 percent currentlywhich likely means fewer parts imported from China. Meanwhile, 40 to 45 percent of a car or truck will need to built by workers making $16 an hour. In order to hit that requirement, automakers may need to bring back a bit of manufacturing from Mexico, where auto assembly workers make less than $8 an hour on average, while those in parts factories earn less than $3. Its possible that some auto companies operating in Mexico will decide its not worth trying to meet these requirements, and simply choose to pay the 2.5 percent tariff that cars from outside North America are subjected to. But it could also create a few more jobs in Detroit or Alabama. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mexican workers stand to gain new rights under the deal, as well. Today, the countrys labor unions tend to be controlled by employers, which helps keep pay low. The new NAFTA would require Mexico to pass legislation guaranteeing workers real collective bargaining rights. As of yet, there dont seem to be strong mechanisms in the pact to make Mexico enforce these rules on the books. But Trumps team has made progress on the issue that American progressives have long been seeking. Trumps NAFTA would also roll back the parallel legal system that currently lets foreign corporations sue governments outside of traditional courts, known as Investor-State Dispute Settlement, or ISDS. This would be another major win for left-leaning trade critics, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who made ISDS a centerpiece of her opposition to the Trans Pacific Partnership, and may be the most fundamental revision to the pact. ISDS, which has become a common feature of trade pacts globally, allows businesses to challenge governments before an arbitration panel if they believe their property has been illegally seized. But many have worried about companies using it to challenge basic health and environmental regulations. Philip Morris sought damages from Uruguay when the country sought to put graphic health warnings on cigarette packages, for instance (thankfully, it lost). According to Public Citizens Lori Wallach, who has been briefed on the specifics of the preliminary deal, the new NAFTA would eliminate the use of ISDS between the U.S. and Canada, and severely restrict its use in Mexico. The agreement does contain a carve-out for some energy companies, which would still get to use the old system. But ISDS as it has ever been known for all intents and purposes is gone, Wallach told me. Advertisement Advertisement These changes are not going to bring back all of the U.S. manufacturing jobs that have moved to Mexico over the years. It may not even significantly change our trade balance with our Southern neighbor, or our northern one, for that matter. It will almost certainly not do anything about Americas overall trade deficit, which is largely determined by currency values and global capital flows and has very little to do with the specifics of individual trade pacts. But unless something goes wildly wrong, Trump is on the verge of leaving his stamp on NAFTA. And while it might not be the totally new and improved trade deal he promised, simply renegotiating to the extent that he has (or, more specifically, bloviating and threatening while his trade staff do the hard work of negotiating) may be an important legacy in and of itself. Advertisement Advertisement In a lot of ways, NAFTAs political importance has largely outweighed its economic importance; as Noah Smith noted at Bloomberg, the deal may have caused some harm to manufacturing workers, but NAFTAs damage pales in comparison to the effects of China, which by managing its currency and massively subsidizing domestic industries has had a much more significant impact on global trade. But since it was signed, NAFTA has been a lightning rod for politicians. Back in 2008, you may recall, even Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama felt compelled to promise theyd renegotiate the deal or leave it (and they probably didnt mean it). Advertisement Advertisement These days, NAFTA is generally popular among Democrats, who seem to be embracing free trade in reaction to the president. If Trump does sign his revisions and rename it, his supporters may finally come around to the deal, if only because its his accomplishmentand hell have diffused criticisms from both the right and the left. At that point, maybe well finally be able to stop fighting over our trade relationship with Mexico. For Trump, it would be something of a Nixon-to-China moment. The lunatic president who threatened to destroy NAFTA may be the one who actually makes America learn to love it. On Tuesday, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh will begin his confirmation hearings. Senators will have a chance to ask the nominee whatever questions they think will help them understand what kind of judge he has been on the federal appeals court and what kind of justice he will become as he takes his lifetime appointment on the highest bench in our country. Most predict he is a lock to be confirmed. Several committee Democrats say they plan to ask Judge Kavanaugh what he knew about the juvenile and predatory behavior his former boss and longtime colleague, Alex Kozinski, directed toward women for at least three decades from the federal bench. Its a relevant question, considering that the nominee clerked for Judge Kozinski in 199091 and later served with him on a judicial selection committee to pick law clerks for Justice Anthony Kennedy. And its a particularly timely one, because Kozinski, who retired in December after the allegations surfaced, was never formally investigated and is routinely described in terms of alleged misconduct, since no formal findings have ever occurred, nor will they. As we watch men who have been credibly accused of serious sexual misconduct plot their returns to positions of power, it is of course relevant to consider how the legal worldthe one ostensibly responsible for adjudicating harassment and predation in our societyis handling the problem within its own ranks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What does it mean that the branch of government tasked with fact finding and rendering judgement has no conclusions to offer in this matter? The reality is that our judiciary has not really had to decide how to handle this problem. There have been task forces dedicated to preventing future occurrences, but there has been no formal investigation into Kozinskis past actions. In December, after the allegations became public, he released a statement saying: I treat all of my employees as family and work very closely with most of them. I would never intentionally do anything to offend anyone and it is regrettable that a handful have been offended by something I may have said or done. His retirement announcement reiterated the sentiment that making anyone uncomfortable was never his intent. To reiterate: There never will be an inquiry on the record, and Kozinski will continue to receive his government-funded pension. And because journalism will never provide a conclusive substitute for due process and fact finding, the women who suffered at the hands of Alex Kozinski, like my friends Emily Murphy, Leah Litman, Heidi Bond, and Kathy Ku, must continue to use the fuzzy language of allegations when they talk about the abuse they or their colleagues experienced on their path to joining the legal world. As I wrote in December describing my own experiences with the judge, he had a specifically disorienting way of making it feel like he wasnt crossing any lines, because he insisted that such lines didnt even exist. Advertisement Advertisement I, for one, am curious to hear what the nominee thinks of this state of affairs. Should there have been a hearing? What does it mean that the branch of government tasked with fact finding and rendering judgement has no conclusions to offer in this matter? Its particularly interesting because the White House is clearly of the opinion that Judge Kavanaugh is a champion of women. In July, it sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee signed by 18 of Kavanaughs female former clerks attesting to our uniformly positive experiences with the judge as a boss on issues of gender and equality in the workplace. Indeed, in his speech on the night he accepted Trumps nomination, Kavanaugh claimed that My law clerks come from diverse backgrounds and points of view. I am proud that a majority of my law clerks have been women. Advertisement Advertisement In July, the womens rights group UltraViolet issued a call for an inquiry into what Kavanaugh might have seen as a law clerk to Kozinski from 199091. This was an entirely reasonable request, given that for many of us, it was hard to sit on a panel or go to a dinner with Judge Kozinski and his law clerks without seeing or hearing some form of hypersexualized grotty dinner theater. In response to this request, the White House issued a statement. Rather than answer the question, it decided to take the approach of labeling this request an attack, attempting to smear the nominee, before noting: Advertisement As predictable as it is shameful, the left-wing partisan smear campaign against a distinguished, lifelong public servant has begun. Everyone who knows Judge Kavanaugh knows he believes all people deserve respect, including at the workplace. Advertisement In mid-July, perhaps to pre-empt any questions about what Judge Kavanaugh knew about the Kozinski claims, the White House came out with a remarkable blanket claim that stated flatly that Judge Kavanaugh had never heard any allegations of sexual misconduct or sexual harassment regarding Kozinski until recently. Perhaps this is true. In the months since Kozinski stepped down, its become fashionable in some circles to cast doubt on the credibility of his (many) accusers. But at a minimum, the hearings that will open Tuesday offer a perfectly reasonable venue for asking Kavanaugh to elaborate on whether he believes his former boss and mentor, or the women who stepped forward last year. It provides Kavanaugh the opportunity to expand on whether he thinks the lack of formal investigation is a cause for concern, given the volume of accounts and the credibility of the women who have brought the accusations. Advertisement Perhaps unsurprisingly, the White House took the needless step of trotting out former Kozinski clerks and interns to make statements that the disgraced former judge was not inappropriate with females in his chambers. Exhibit 1 was Leslie Fahrenkopf Foley, a summer extern in Kozinskis chambers while Kavanaugh served as a law clerk, who issued a statement, saying: It was a completely professional environment, and I never saw or experienced any harassment, nor did I ever feel uncomfortable. Former 2001 Kozinski clerk Susan Engel made the same point to the Daily Caller: At no time during my clerkship, or in the years since, did I see or hear Judge Kozinski sexually harass anyone. I was shocked by the allegations that surfaced last year. I would be astonished if Brett Kavanaugh had ever heard anything about this. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is depressing that it still has to be said, but: Testimonials from womenespecially powerful womendo not exculpate accused harassers. As Heidi Bond has noted elsewhere, the fact that Alex Kozinski didnt comment on Sandra Day OConnors breasts each time he saw her doesnt mean he didnt do the same to the staff around him who werent powerful. Lets be precise and call that latter move what it is: The White House used the absence of any formal findings of fact about the many allegations advanced to counter the complainants who came forward last year. Judge Kavanaugh most certainly does not want to be asked by the Senate Judiciary Committee whether he believes all of the Kozinski accusers are liars. Now that is what he will be asked. To be sure, a confirmation hearing is almost as clumsy a process for getting to the bottom of these questions as is journalism, which is why there should be a meaningful process. But it falls to Kavanaugh, the nominee, to pick his way through it. Advertisement If Judge Kavanaugh claims to be a mentor and booster of women, his supporters should be extremely careful about even implicitly tarnishing the women who came forward in good faith with truthful complaints. Shaming accusers into silence is not the method or practice of the American justice system. I believe Judge Kavanaugh has worked hard in service of fair courts. He should not be confirmed on the backs and reputations of the good women who have worked equally hard to the same end. I believe these women are telling the truth, and I imagine many of you do as well. That they were not afforded a process to test their claims does not make them liars. Let Kavanaugh defend what he knew or didnt know at his hearings. But insult and undermine the Kozinski accusers at the peril of the judiciary and due process itself. This has nothing to do with what Kavanaugh should have known or should have done decades ago. It has everything to do with what he knows and intends to do about it now. Former President George W. Bush honored late Sen. John McCain as a man of integrity who loved freedom and would not hesitate to speak his mind, even if it offended important people. He was honest, no matter who it offended, Bush said in his eulogy at the Washington National Cathedral. Presidents were not spared. He was honorable, always recognizing that his opponents were patriots and human beings. Bush also managed to get a few laughs from some of the thousands of people gathered at the Washington National Cathedral as he recalled his former bitter rival. Back in the day, he could frustrate me, Bush said to laughter. And I know hed say the same thing about me. The former president also recalled how moments before my last debateeverwith Senator John Kerry in Phoenix, I was trying to gather some thoughts in the holding room. I felt a presence opened my eyesand six inches from my face was McCain, who yelled, RELAX! RELAX! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ultimately though, Bush recalled how his rivalry with McCain eventually melted away and he was able to enjoy one of lifes great gifts: the friendship of John McCain. Advertisement Like several others who spoke on Saturday at the service, it was difficult not to read some of the praise of McCain as a rebuke of the current occupant in the White House. Perhaps above all, John detested the abuse of power, Bush said. He could not abide bigots and swaggering despots. There was something deep inside him that made him stand up for the little guy to speak for forgotten people in forgotten places. Bush also said McCain could always serve as a reminder of the basic ideals that all political leaders should be able to support. If we are ever tempted to forget who we are, to grow weary of our cause, Johns voice will always come as a whisper over our shoulder: We are better than this, Bush said. America is better than this. Advertisement Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale is contradicting President Trumps claims that Bloomberg journalists leaked off the record comments on NAFTA negotiations. Trump had told Bloomberg reporters in an interview that he wasnt going to compromise with Canada. The remarks werent part of the transcript of the interview that Bloomberg made public but the comments somehow got to Dale, who published them on Friday. In the interview, Trump said that Canada ultimately has no choice but to seal a trade deal with the United States. Off the record: totally on our terms. Totally, Trump said, making clear he had no intention of compromising with Canada. The commander in chief freaked out at the leak, and while he was at it confirmed the reporting was accurate. Wow, I made OFF THE RECORD COMMENTS to Bloomberg concerning Canada, and this powerful understanding was BLATANTLY VIOLATED. Oh well, just more dishonest reporting. I am used to it, he wrote. At least Canada knows where I stand! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wow, I made OFF THE RECORD COMMENTS to Bloomberg concerning Canada, and this powerful understanding was BLATANTLY VIOLATED. Oh well, just more dishonest reporting. I am used to it. At least Canada knows where I stand! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2018 Bloomberg put out a statement denying it had leaked the information: When we agree that something is off the record, we respect that. But apparently that didnt satisfy Trump, who on Friday night wrote another tweet saying he couldnt believe that Bloomberg violated a firm OFF THE RECORD statement. Advertisement Still cant believe that Bloomberg violated a firm OFF THE RECORD statement. Will they put out an apology? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2018 Advertisement On Saturday, Dale took to Twitter to assure that he didnt get the information about the off the record quote from the Bloomberg journalists in the room. Although Dale said he had decided not to say anything about his source for the Trump quote, he decided to speak up Saturday. I dont want to be party to the presidents smearing of excellent, ethical journalists. So I can say this: none of the Bloomberg interviewers was my source, Dale wrote. In a subsequent tweet he noted he didnt want to engage in any kind of source guessing game but the president is incorrect when he claims he was wronged by his interviewers. Advertisement Advertisement Id said I wasnt going to say anything about my source for the quotes Trump made off the record to Bloomberg. However, I dont want to be party to the presidents smearing of excellent, ethical journalists. So I can say this: none of the Bloomberg interviewers was my source. Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 1, 2018 Advertisement So: Im not going to engage in an OK if it isnt them than who was it game, but the president is incorrect when he claims he was wronged by his interviewers. Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 1, 2018 Advertisement Update on Sept. 2 at 8:05 a.m.: Bloombergs Washington Bureau Chief Craig Gordon sent out a tweet Sunday morning reiterating that the media outlet was not the source of the leak. Bloomberg has not published any off-the-record portions of our interview with Donald Trump, and we have not authorized the release of any off-the-record material, Gordon wrote. When we agree that something is off the record, we respect that agreement. This post is part of Reading Reddit, a Slate pop-up blog about Reddit. On the internet, no one knows that youre an agent of a foreign government posing as a red-blooded American. That, at least, is the logic that seems to lead foreign agents to infiltrate American social networks and comment sections and construct homepages for sham news organizations, sharing links and opinions that, at least on the surface, seem similar to those shared by your average workaday Mr. or Mrs Left- or Right-Wing American. But the masquerade does not always pass close scrutinyespecially when, as a foreign intelligence agent, you dont even bother to try to pass as an authentic American. Advertisement On Aug. 21, for instance, the security firm FireEye released a report alleging that that entities based in Iran had conducted an English-language online propaganda campaign. It centered around a website called Liberty Front Press that was ostensibly devoted to publishing news in support of the oppressed and downtrodden, and had disseminated its news via posts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, and other social networks. But as my Slate colleagues April Glaser and Aaron Mak wrote at the time, the Iranians behind Liberty Front Press never really got the hang of the social networks they were using. Glaser and Mak found that the Liberty Front Press Twitter account Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement was also apparently trying to artificially boost its visibility by using popular hashtags that had nothing to do with the subject matter of the tweets. For example, the hashtags #TheBachelor and #StarWarsRebels were affixed to the end of a tweet describing the Florida Senates gun control package in March. Advertisement To be fair, though, the guns on this years Bachelor were truly out of control. Did you see that guys guns? Great pair of guns on that bachelor, am I right? (I have never watched The Bachelor.) Anyway, on Friday, the management of Reddit announced that an internal investigation precipitated by the FireEye report had uncovered 143 accounts we believe to be connected to this influence group, and that the accounts in question had focused on steering the narrative around subjects important to Iran, including criticism of US policies in the Middle East and negative sentiment toward Saudi Arabia and Israel. They were also involved in discussions regarding Syria and ISIS. The investigation also found that the accounts targeted left- and right-wing subreddits whose critical views of US involvement in the Middle East formed an environment that was receptive to the articles. Advertisement In other words, the Iranians were preaching to the choir. But what did their engagement look like? Luckily, Reddit has decided to keep at least six of these accounts open for now so that we can all take a look and watch some foreign agents at work. (Their user pages even have a sticky post saying, This account is banned and is temporarily preserved for purposes of transparency.) User jeremybernard was apparently the resident lazybones of this particular propaganda mission. All in all he submitted two links total during the 11 months his account was active on the site. One, a post to r/MorbidReality titled People Around the World Show Solidarity With Little Girl Survived From a Saudi Air Strike, was tagged as not safe for work. User suarezanton was a little bit more productive than his colleague, submitting three posts and two comments and racked up a whopping one karma point since joining Reddit on April 1, 2016. Looks like the joke was on you, Iranian paymasters. Keep cashing them checks, suarezanton! Advertisement Advertisement According to her user history, emilyward2017 posted 15 news articles to Reddit in her relatively brief tenure on the site, the vast majority of which were barely engaged with at all by the users of r/conspiracy, r/politics, r/worldnews, r/news, and r/syriancivilwar. rans [sic] foreign minister urges Europe to defy US if Trump sinks nuclear deal, read the title of one of her most commented-upon submissions, an article from the Guardian. (It got seven comments.) This article also features emilyward2017s lone instance of comment-section engagement, as far as I can tell: Advertisement Advertisement So much for her! User alessia_80s was much more effective in her time on the site, racking up 45,289 karma points since joining Aug. 1, 2017. This user tended to spam multiple groups with the same #Resistance-related linkssome of which were more credible than others. Tramp to break forward, reads the headline of one of the Liberty Front Press links she submitted to the subreddit r/AntiTrumpAlliance. Given the fact that Muller has gained a lot of evidence about the relevance of the Tramp election campaign, Tramps lawyers are seeking to question the authority of the investigation with a false claim, read the lede of the story on the Liberty Front Press website. Ah, yes, President Trampor, I should say, President Drampf. Alessia_80s occasionally commented on threads that had nothing to do with Donald J. Tramp, like this thread about a GIF of a seal rolling down a hill. why nobody said said it? OK, Ill say: They see me rolling, they hatin, alessia_80s wrote. The comment received -1 points, which was honestly more than it deserved. Advertisement Advertisement User anzfp was a bit better at Reddit than his colleagues. He actually used the site, for one thing, and he didnt spam the same link to several subreddits at once. That doesnt mean that he was persuasive or convincing, though. Wow, even Harvard proves this, he commented on a thread in r/conspiracy titled Harvard Study Confirms Fluoride Reduces Childrens IQ. Interesting. LETS PRAY FOR A WORLD WITHOUT WAR, he commented on a post in r/worldnews about President Obamas 2016 visit to Cuba. His own posts were similarly unmemorable. From presidents to mad dogs, Israel is an apartheid state, read the title of a link from that he submitted to the subreddit r/inthenews. The other commenters there didnt buy it: With quotes like this from the article: Greasy, grovelling politicians like him who are in the sway of Tel Aviv One can be assured it is unbiased and factual. /s, wrote one. /s, indeed. Advertisement Advertisement User Homaeefar is my personal favorite of the bunch. He posted a lot about the Middle East, as you might expect, but he also engaged with Reddit outside the parameters of his mission in a way that his colleagues did not. When r/AskReddit asked What song makes you want to turn up the volume?, Homaeefar chimed right in with his selection: White Flag by Dido. During the 2016 presidential primaries, he joined all the rest of us in dunking on Jeb Bush by commenting on a thread titled Jeb Bush Says Hell Give Democrats A Warm Kiss. I wonder what else hell do for democrats maybe hell offer them a Blow-Jeb! Homaeefar wrote. (Take that, Jeb Bush!) You wouldnt necessarily call Homaeefar assimilated, per se, but you also wouldnt necessarily think that he was from Iran. Well, except for this one clue he left: Advertisement Advertisement You know something? Maybe our institutions are safer from the threat of foreign interference than we tend to believe. This post is part of Reading Reddit, a Slate pop-up blog about Reddit. Earlier this week, Donald Trump logged on to Twitter to announce that, despite what you might have heard, it was actually Chinaread: definitely not Russiathat had hacked Hillary Clintons emails during the 2016 presidential campaign. Hillary Clintons Emails, many of which are Classified Information, got hacked by China. Next move better be by the FBI & DOJ or, after all of their other missteps (Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr, FISA, Dirty Dossier etc.), their credibility will be forever gone! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 29, 2018 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Presidents can push out unsubstantiated claims whenever they want and watch the entire world react; anonymous internet commenters have to work a little harder if they want to have such an impact on the discourse. But one specific anonymous, if extremely popular, commenter seems to have done exactly that. In the hours after Trump posted his tweet, the regular posters on the r/politics subreddit sat back and waited for what they knew was coming: a response to Trumps claim from the groups resident citations guru, a detail-oriented user known only as PoppinKREAM. They didnt have to wait very long for the exceedingly thorough response: Two hours ago, just after midnight, President Trump tweeted an assertion that was first reported by the Daily Callerclaiming that a Chinese company was behind the hacking of Clintons emails.[1] President Trump is repeating a Daily Caller report, although his ambiguity can cause confusion as he is referencing an article from an unreliable source[2] that cites a Republican Congressman who has been pushing crazy conspiracy theories.[3] Advertisement The citations linked back to Trumps initial tweet, a fact-checking website, and the Washington Post. The comment went on to remind readers that we know for a fact that Russia did hack the DNC and the Clinton Campaign, and to reprint the indictment brought by Robert Mueller against 12 Russian intelligence officers accused of hacking the 2016 presidential election. Though the comment was soon brigaded by a passel of aggressive pro-Trump commenters who came over from The_Donald full of insults and yelling, the users work stood on its own: extensive, well-sourced, and convincing. Welcome to the world of PoppinKREAM, the most meticulous Redditor of them all. Advertisement It is generally safe to assume that everybody on the internet is, in one way or another, full of shit. This is especially true for internet comment sectionsand especially especially true on Redditboth of which combine discursivity and anonymity in ways that make it very difficult to easily tell if any given commenter actually knows what he or she is talking about. Millions of times per day, website commenters around the world make broad and vague claims about anything and everything, only to respond, when asked for links to articles that would support their arguments, by saying, Google it. I dont have time to do your research for you. Advertisement Advertisement PoppinKREAM is an exception to this very depressing rule. PoppinKREAM always has time to do your research for you. (Thats the PoppinKREAM difference!) A ubiquitous presence on r/politics and other newsy subreddits, PoppinKREAM eschews memes and banter in favor of extensive, endnoted comments that calmly and repeatedly establish a narrative of corruption in Trumpworld. In a sea of uninformed opinion and misinformation, PoppinKREAM stands out by sourcing their work. In the process, PoppinKREAM has become sort of a cult figure on Reddit over the past year or soa celebrity of sorts on a site where individual users rarely stand out meaningfully from the group. There is a subreddit called r/ShitPoppinKreamSays that celebrates the work of the credible hulk of redditors, as one poster there put it. Many people look up to you and take to heart your wisdom, one PoppinKREAM fan wrote on a thread titled Much respect to PoppinKREAM. Ive taken notes from more of your summaries over the past few months than I have any other literature I think for years, wrote another. Is PoppinKream secretly Bob Mueller? another fan asked. Because if so, I love you even more. You are the official Reddit rockstar, if there is such a thing. Advertisement Advertisement Whats all the fuss about? In a word, substantiation. A typical PoppinKREAM comment might contain more than a dozen citations from reputable news sources, all in the service of presenting what is verifiably true about people and organizations that habitually lie to the public. Heres PoppinKREAM on Fox News: Fox News is refusing to cover breaking news revelations with in depth analysis, instead they misrepresent events, obfuscate known information, and peddle debunked conspiracy theories endangering U.S. institutions.[1] On the day of President Trumps personal attorneys office raids, Sean Hannity went on Fox and disparaged Special Counsel Mueller claiming that investigators had *declared war on the President of the United States.*[2] Then we found out that Sean Hannity was a client of Michael Cohen, he never disclosed this fact until it was discovered at a recent court hearing.[3] Advertisement Advertisement Heres PoppinKREAM on some of the charges against Paul Manafort: Paul Manafort was present at the infamous Trump Tower meeting where adoptions were discussed with Russian operatives.[14] Adoptions is an established euphemism used in reference to the Magnitsky Act, sanctions that are meant to cripple the power of Putin.[15] President Trumps son, son-in-law, and Campaign Manager met with Russians with the expectation of receiving damaging information about Clinton.[16] One of the Russian operatives present at the infamous Trump Tower meeting, Rinat Akhmetshin, has ties to Russian intelligence and has a history of being embroiled in court cases related to hacking campaigns.[17] During Fusion GPS CEO Glenn Simpsons Congressional testimony he confirmed that the Trump campaign likely received foreign intelligence aid as Manafort had close ties to Russian Intelligence.[18] Advertisement Advertisement Separately, on the day that Manafort was convicted on eight federal charges, PoppinKREAM unleashed another monster post featuring 17 different citations from sources ranging from the New York Times to the BBC to the Department of Justice and ended, in boldfaced type, with the following assertions: Russian election interference is not a hoax. The investigations into Russian interference, the Trump campaign, and the individuals President Trump has surrounded himself with is not a witch hunt. (All of this is beautiful and you should be commended for the compilation of the facts, another user replied.) What sort of person puts this much time and effort into battling trolls on Reddit? The user claims to be a Canadian political junkie with an academic interest in anthropology and a job in sports. I have no idea whether any of this is true. (PoppinKREAM did not respond to my request for an interview.) PoppinKREAM does not seem to have posted very much about politics prior to Donald Trumps election: The pre-Trump comments that Ive found instead focused on topics such as music festivals, childhood experiences with bullying, Cookie Monster, and favorite meals. (For breakfast I have a few meals: 1) I make steel oates with water 2) I have some protein cereal 3) I make vegie shakes.) The username PoppinKREAM is apparently a reference to the Wu-Tang Clan song C.R.E.A.M., with its memorable chorus Cash rules everything around me/ C.R.E.A.M., get the money/ Dollar dollar bill, yall. Is PoppinKREAM actually Wu-Tang member Inspectah Deck? No one can say for sure, but I have my suspicions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement PoppinKREAM does not always get everything right. One recent post claimed that John Bolton had tapped up a Neo-Nazi as the Chief of Staff of the National Security Council and cited a Washington Monthly blog post as the source. I clicked through to find that the Monthly had since walked back that claim, writing in a subsequent correction that although there are links between the Center for Security Policy and neo-Nazi organizations in Europe, it was wrong to imply that there is evidence that Fred Fleitz is personally a neo-Nazi. (PoppinKREAM has not yet updated the Reddit post to reflect the Monthlys update.) Still, the effort the user puts into their comments is notableand laudable. The president of the United States is engaged in a long-term disinformation campaign meant to punish and destroy fact-based media by impugning their credibility. Fake News, he charges when met with coverage that is unflattering to him. Enemies of the people, his followers echo. Social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit are places where lies and malignancies can grow, thrive, and come to displace facts. They are bastions of informational relativism, in which real news can be deemed false, false news can be deemed real, and its up to you, the harried and hasty reader of the internet, to try and determine which is which. Advertisement Advertisement Deep in the heart of this world, one person has apparently decided that the antidote to fake news! is the real news, methodically cited and presented, over and over again, one comment at a time. I began sourcing every comment and claim in an attempt to counter Russian disinformation and misinformation from being spread on this site, PoppinKREAM wrote recently. While I believe there are systemic problems that must be addressed both globally and within our respective countries I realize we cant find solutions when we are fed disinformation or misinformation online. I simply condense, summarize, contextualize, and present known information. I try to source every claim I make as I want to raise the level of discourse online. It might not work, but its worth a try. It all makes sense once you realize they want to kill us, by Mike Whitney - The Unz Review : 'It is now apparent that these products in ... Migration Office helps those who have been granted international protection in Slovakia A few times a year, those granted international protection in Slovakia gather with employees of the Migration Office to discuss how they are doing in their integration efforts. Multinational food sizzles on one of the public grills in Zelezna Studnicka while old and new friends discuss simple things, such as the difficulty of learning Slovak and what they miss about home. On this brisk afternoon, most seem to be wishing for the warmer weather of their mother countries. Every three to four months, the Migration Office, a separate office within the Interior Ministry, organises a get together for refugees, specifically those who were granted asylum or subsidiary protection in Slovakia. These meetings are informal and a chance for people to share their experiences in Slovakia with one another. Multicultural meeting Today, the group is diverse. There is a family from Cameroon, others from Afghanistan, Syria and Somalia. Some have been here for more than five years, others for less. Although they all speak various levels of Slovak and English, communication does not seem to be a problem: they are bound by common experience as they adjust to their new lives in Slovakia. The Migration Office cooperates with NGOs to ensure suitable accommodation, employment counselling, Slovak language courses, psychological and legal counselling. It oversees the whole process of integration in Slovakia and communicates with many public institutions, such as schools and labour offices. Seeking employment opportunities for those with international protection is another focus of the Migration Office. Unfortunately, many are disadvantaged as their previous education and skills are not always recognized, and they struggle with the language barrier. Plus, some employers are not very keen to employ people of different cultures. This can be an extra challenge for single mothers with small children as many Slovak kindergartens are full. However, the office states that the goal of these meetings is simple: We just want to see how they are doing in their new life in Slovakia and at the same time show people that they have support and may turn to the Migration Office if a difficult situation arises. The migration paradox Interestingly enough, there is a migration paradox that the migration office points out on its website. In 2004, there were 11,395 asylum seekers. In 2017, there were only 166. Despite the large decline in asylum seekers in Slovakia, negative perceptions of migrants persist. In fact, some of the Muslim women who come to these meetings say they have even been physically attacked for wearing hijabs. The centre tries to dispel negative stereotypes associated with migrants, often perpetrated by the media and politicians, through education. During their educational seminars, some of the migrants that the centre has worked with share their personal stories with students of various age groups, reminding Slovaks that we are all in fact migrants and can learn from one another. 1. Sep 2018 at 8:25 | Anna Fay "While the United States administration had been given special "fast-track" authority by Congress to seek a new NAFTA deal, it is unclear whether that applies to a bilateral agreement like this one (ie a deal that does not include Canada)". Some people weren't sure if it was a good meeting, but I was. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland arrived in Washington, DC, for additional trade talks on Tuesday. The two sides also agreed that 40-45 percent of vehicles must be made at "high wage" factories where workers receive $16 an hour, something that could deter off-shoring United States auto manufacturing to Mexico. That percentage will be increased to 75% from 62.5%. (MRE.TO) following U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of a tentative bilateral agreement with Mexico on Monday. Freeland said officials will delve deeply into specific issues Wednesday. "I expressed the importance of them reentering the process with the goal of concluding an agreement this very week", Pena Nieto said on Twitter. And he vowed that Canada won't buckle on the issue at the NAFTA talks. The new pact will not be known as NAFTA, because that name "has a bad connotation", Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. Trudeau also said he would continue to defend supply management. "We believe this is a positive development for Canadian auto parts suppliers since the North American automotive industry will stay intact, and Mexican assembly plants will need to source parts from high-wage jurisdictions such as the USA and Canada", BMO Capital Markets analyst Peter Sklar wrote in a note to clients. Ottawa is also ready to make concessions on Canada's protected dairy market in a bid to save a dispute-settlement system, The Globe and Mail reported late on August 28. Republicans also face mid-term elections in November and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a national one expected by October 2019. "We're pushing hard to conclude an agreement that is win, win, win - a modern and progressive agreement that is in line with our values and our ambitions and that will benefit not only Canadian businesses but all Canadians", he said. ISDS protects USA investors, including oil and gas companies, from unfair treatment or asset seizures by host nations. He also warned he would terminate the 24-year-old NAFTA, a treaty between Canada, the us and Mexico that has been economically significant for the continent. From there, he thinks Lighthizer might hold separate bilateral talks with both Canada and Mexico before restarting trilateral discussions that have been on hold since the spring. "We're not going to stand for that". According to Green, Lighthizer believed the oil and gas industry was looking for "guarantees" that their investments, especially in Mexico, would be safe and protected by the US government. But Washington backed away from a strenuously-opposed provision to require the three nations to renegotiate the trade pact after five years. "We also know that the U.S. has backed down with respect to including a sunset clause". He then delivered his ultimatum to Canada. Ujczo predicts Congress will give Canada at least those 30 days in which to negotiate its way into the deal. Trump has attacked NAFTA since announcing his campaign in 2015, targeting the trade agreement and others which he has accused of being unfairly balanced against us workers and business interests. The new deal will keep tariffs on agricultural products traded between the United States and Mexico at zero and seeks to support biotech and other innovations in agriculture. During the same period, it has also been the major entry point into Brazil for Venezuelans fleeing political and economic turmoil at home. Brazil's president said armed forces would be sent to the area. "This is precisely what has led to this tragic situation, that now affects nearly all of South America". He added that the decision "will complement the humanitarian activities which the government of Brazil implements already a few months". The federal government had already chose to deploy members of an elite military-style police force after residents of a border town attacked Venezuelans and burned their belongings earlier this month. Meanwhile, Brazil said it was negotiating with Caracas to avoid Venezuela's state electricity provider Corpelec turning off the lights in Roraima over a $40 million unpaid debt. Along with providing border security, the military contingent will be there to protect migrants from violence initiated by Brazilians angry with the instability created by the influx. The state government reported that high levels of migration have resulted in a sharp increase in crime. The day before the August 19 announcement, a mob of Brazilians had attacked a group of Venezuelans after a local business owner reported a robbery by a group of migrants from the neighboring country, Agencia Brasil reported. The camps were burned down and the occupants temporarily fled back across the border. Migrants are also flooding across Venezuela's border with Colombia to the west. Many Venezuelans have been looking to start a new life in Peru - which has one of the region's fastest growing economies - travelling there via Colombia and Ecuador. There are more than a million Venezuelans in Colombia, more than half a million in Ecuador, more than 400,000 in Peru and some 60,000 in Brazil. For decades, Venezuela had been a stable destination for foreign arrivals, attracting Europeans with lucrative oil jobs after World War II. The development is the latest mandate to come out of the Maduro government related to the petro. Brazil's move to strengthen security in Roraima comes as its immigration officials met with counterparts from three other South American countries to coordinate on policies affecting outward migration from the beleaguered country. Top immigration officials from Peru, Colombia and Brazil have been meeting in Colombian capital Bogota for a two-day summit to discuss how to cope with the influx of migrants. The United Nations estimates 2.3 million Venezuelans have fled since 2014, the majority of them going to Colombia or Peru. More than 50,000 Venezuelans, many of whom are hungry or sick and have little or no money and belongings, have applied for refugee or resident status in Brazil in recent years. "You can not count on a PEP in Colombia and at the same time have a PTP in Peru", he added, referring to the Spanish acronyms for the country's residency permits. The UN's migration agency said last week Venezuela is heading for the same refugee "crisis moment" seen in the Mediterranean in 2015. "We want to regulate this phenomenon, give people an opportunity, but in an orderly way". North Korea has so far suspended its missile and nuclear tests, shut down its nuclear test site and dismantled parts of key facilities at its main rocket launch site. Trump at first lauded the results of the meeting and praised Kim, but last week he cancelled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to the North, citing insufficient progress with denuclearization - blaming China for hindering the process. Since the landmark summit between the US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, where they agreed to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, bilateral relations have swung back and forth. "The special envoys will have extensive discussions with their North Korean counterparts, covering a concrete schedule for the upcoming inter-Korean summit and the development of inter-Korean relations as well as denuclearization and the settlement of peace on the Korean Peninsula", the statement said. They note that the end of war declaration could allow the North to call for the signing of a peace treaty formally ending the Korean War and the pullout of 28,500 USA troops deployed in South Korea. Since then relations have cooled and a planned visit by the top USA diplomat to North Korea was scrapped last week because Trump said insufficient progress toward denuclearization had been made. "I've had a good relationship with Kim Jong Un and I'm not saying it won't change", Mr Trump said in the interview. "If he does, they will be bigger than before". "Their relationship and bond remain strong". Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said the remarks regarding China's role on the North Korea issue were "irresponsible". "We hope the U.S. can play a positive and constructive role in settling the issue just like the Chinese". Mr Trump caught many American military planners off guard when he announced after a summit with Mr Kim on June 12 that the United States was suspending this summer's joint military drills with South Korea. "Trump feels strongly that North Korea is under tremendous pressure from China because of our major trade disputes with the Chinese Government", the tweet read. An explosion and fire at an oil refinery in southern Germany has injured eight people, officials say. Firefighters spray water at a reinery after a fire broke out following an explosion in Vohburg near Ingolstadt, Germany, September 1, 2018. Locals situated several kilometers from the blast could see thick smoke clouds coming from the burning plant. As many as 400 firefighters and police officers were deployed to help extinguish the blaze and evacuate 1,800 people from nearby residences. Police would offer updates once the fire was put out and the site could be cleared, he said. Police said initial findings showed there is now no danger for local residents, but recommended people within 20 kilometers of the site keep their windows and doors closed. The Vohburg refinery is part of the larger Bayernoil refinery complex, which also runs operations at Neustadt and has an overall capacity of 2,10,000 barrels per day, Reuters reported. The cause of the explosion, which was reportedly felt within a radius of several kilometres, is not yet known. "We are very keen on having a relationship of equals, a good relationship but not a submissive relationship, and Canada is a natural partner, a brother or sister or ally, in this". Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said she is still confident an agreement can be reached, but would not comment on the remaining sticking points. It was Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland who, speaking in Washington earlier this week, said there's a rhythm to the NAFTA negotiations-a rhythm that she said had on Thursday turned "very intense", which sounded like progress. And that rhythm is brisk. China is one. They want to talk, and it's just not right time to talk right now, to be honest, with China. When such a reliable rhythm varies, even a little, it's noticeable. The Toronto Star reports that President Donald Trump has said privately that he won't make compromises with Canada in high-stakes talks to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement. Lighthizer, she said, had "brought good faith and good will to the negotiating table" over the past year that they'd been talking to each other. She never quite got around to answering the precise question. But then, according to The Star he reportedly said, "Off the record: totally on our terms". Similarly, Canadian officials told The Canadian Press early on Friday that expectations a NAFTA deal is imminent were exaggerated and premature. The Canadian side was insisting that the USA agree to preserve the "Chapter 19" dispute-resolution system that allows certain duties to be challenged at an independent tribunal rather than in the domestic courts of the country that has imposed the duties. "And every time we have a problem with a point, I just put up a picture of a Chevrolet Impala". "And we're working hard to find that win-win space". Trump has informed Congress that it plans to go ahead with its trade deal with Mexico. With just hours left on Washington's deadline of revamping Nafta by the end of the week, the USA and Canada met again on Friday morning. The initiative aims for China to become a major manufacturing power in direct competition with the United States and has been deemed threat to USA technological leadership by the Council on Foreign Relations think tank. "And we'll only agree to a deal that is a good deal for Canada", Freeland told reporters. Following four days of high-level talks in Washington DC, officials from both sides appeared on track to reach an agreement, before leaked inflammatory comments from Trump threatened to upend talks. USA and Canadian trade officials set plans to resume their talks on Wednesday with the aim of getting a deal all three nations could sign. He announced Monday that he has secured a tentative deal with Mexico and said "we'll see" if Canada can be part of the new agreement. President Trump's tough trade talk, threats of trade wars, and rounds of tariffs against friends and foes alike have created a great deal of uncertainty in stock markets. After all, he won the presidency calling the pact, which is widely credited by economists with underpinning prosperity across the continent, "as disaster" and "the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere". Lighthizer said the talks will resume Wednesday. Never has he seemed less capable of such a task. But Canada's dairy industry - backed by Quebec politicians of all stripes - is adamant that it won't stand for the government allowing the US any more market access, saying it has compromised enough on past trade deals with the European Union and Pacific Rim countries. He covers USA politics and current affairs. Here is a small task for you before we begin our virtual tour today. Google up Chiang Mai and check the images. 99% you will come across a collapsed pagoda. If any of your friends have sent you a gift from Chiang Mai, likely that keychain or T-shirt or fridge magnet has this same pagoda. Widely acknowledged as the landmark of the city, this pagoda of Chiang Mai is a part of a beautiful temple called Wat Chedi Luang. Collapsed Pagoda at Wat Chedi Luang, Chiang Mai If the Doi Suthep temple is the holiest of all the Thai temples, the Wat Chedi Luang is the next important Chiang Mai temple. My visit here made me realize that there were a lot more significant stops to be made than just the Pagoda. This 14th century Chiang Mai attraction was quite a destination in itself. My virtual journey through this post will showcase all these things to see in the Wat Chedi Luang. However, first a quick flashback to its origin. History of Wat Chedi Luang Somewhere in the 14th century, the Thai King Saen Muang Ma started the construction of a chedi to honor the ashes of his father. The Chedi remained unfinished even after 10 years of its construction. After the King died and his widow took forward the task. However, owing to construction and stability issues, it was only in the 15th century during the reign of King Tilokraj that the Temple of the Big Stupa came into existence. Northern face of the Pagoda at Wat Chedi Luang, Chiang Mai With a height of 82m and a diameter of 50m, the Wat Chedi Luang became the largest structure in the whole of Lanna. A famed Emerald Buddha was installed within the Chedi temple but was moved to Luang Prabang after the original chedi collapsed. It was the earthquake of 1545 that made the pagoda of the Wat Chedi Luang 30 m shorter. There is a lot more history to the Pagoda and the temple grounds of Wat Chedi Luang. However, for that, you need to continue your journey of discovering these temple grounds. It just makes it more fun that way. Sao Inthakin or the City Pillar of Chiang Mai Gates of Wat Chedi Luang The rain that drove us out of the Wat Phra Singh Temple miraculously stopped as we reached the Wat Chedi Luang Temple. Miraculous coz the two temples are just 5 minutes apart. Pleased nonetheless, I stepped in through the glorious doors of the Chedi Luang to feast my eyes on the shrine of the City Pillar. The City Pillar of Chiang Mai at Wat Chedi Luang The city of Chiang Mai is said to be protected by the sacred city pillar called Sao Inthakin. The Pillar was earlier located in a different place but it was in the 1800s that the King Chao Kawila brought it to the temple grounds of Wat Chedi Luang. The pillar is now enclosed in a shrine and I could only glimpse it from afar as women are not allowed inside this temple :-(. Glimpse of the City Pillar of Chiang Mai A large statue of the Thai king stands outside the Shrine. Around the City Pillar Temple, were three gigantic Dipterocarp trees. I mention these for a legend has it that it supports the city pillar and keeps it safe. The day these trees fall, it would spell catastrophe for Chiang Mai. There were plenty of smaller shrines around the temple and the trees containing creatures from the Thai Folklore. They too are said to add protection to the City Pillar of Chiang Mai. Sao Inthakin with the Dipterocarp Tree and the Kings Statue at Wat Chedi Luang Shrines around City Pillar Miffed about not being able to get into the sacred temple, I turned my attention to the eye-catching, stupendous, massive Pagoda behind an equally beautiful Sermon hall or Viharn. It was time to get to the Pagoda of Chiang Mai. The Pagoda of Chiang Mai Hampi in India has always enamored me with the stunning beauty of its ruins. It is as if every crumbling wall is trying to tell you something. For me, the collapsed pagoda of Wat Chedi Luang felt the same way. Eastern Side of the Pagoda of Wat Chedi Luang Though the earthquake was centuries back, there was little done to restore this grand structure. I guess it might have been difficult to build a beauty again. Some attempts were made on the Eastern side of the Pagoda in the last few years. It was here that I could see the incomplete jigsaw of what might have been on all sides. Protruding Elephants from the Wat Chedi Luang Pagoda Replacing the original Emerald Buddha was a Black Jade one in an arched shrine. Below this shrine, a tier of elephants protruded out of stone quite akin to the golden ones of the Wat Phra Singh Temple. My guide informed me that these were on all sides and only the ones that I was looking at had survived the natural destruction. Black Jade Buddha at Wat Chedi Luang Buddha kept at the base of the stairs to the Wat Chedi Luang I longed to climb the restored Naga staircase to have a closer look at the Jade Buddha. The same was out of bounds with its entry barred by a gorgeous Golden Buddha statue. The serene look on his face was like a polite but firm request to follow the rules. A little calming for my curious soul. The Southern Face of the Pagoda at Wat Chedi Luang Smaller Viharn of Wat Chedi Luang Smaller Viharn of Wat Chedi Luang There are actually two major Viharn (sermon halls) of the Wat Chedi Luang. One grand one that I saw in the front and circled back to at the end of the tour. The other one is a smaller one behind the Pagoda. Most people tend to miss them owing to them being hidden by the gigantic pagoda. However, they have their own beauty to share. Buddha in the smaller Viharn of Wat Chedi Luang I particularly loved the brown and gold pillars that flanked the tall Buddha in one. The white entrances in contrast to the brown and gold interiors made a perfect backdrop for this idol. Naga hooded Buddha in one of the smaller viharn of Wat Chedi Luang Another Viharn had the idol of a hooded Buddha. When I saw this from the entrance, it was quite a picturesque scene. Almost symmetrical as the golden brown panel above its door crowned the hooded cobra within. Dont you agree? Reclining Buddha at Wat Chedi Luang Reclining Buddha of Wat Chedi Luang, Chiang Mai Between the two minor Viharns that I just told you above, lay a beautiful reclining Buddha. Unlike the other Viharns that were in closed buildings, this one felt a little open. I particularly admired the Buddha for the way its gleaming gold body shone against the dark wooden walls. I tell you, these Lanna folks are masters of contrast and art. And white you are admiring it, notice the creative pillows on which the Buddha is resting. The Monk Chat Cafe at Wat Chedi Luang Monk Chat Cafe at Wat Chedi Luang One of the things that Nicky, my guide, told me about Wat Chedi Luang was the presence of a cafe where you could chat with the monks. The Monk Chat happens every day and you can ask them anything about Buddhism the Chedi or even Thailand. I believe they are a cheerful lot and the conversations are quite animated. The ubosot of Wat Chedi Luang, Chiang Mai While you attempt to engage these peaceful people, dont miss the beautiful White Buddhist Library or the Ubosot that is next to the cafe. Quite a work of art. Wat Chedi Luang Varavihara The back entrance of the Viharn facing the Southern part of the Pagoda In a way, it was quite thrilling to get back to where I started with the collapsed Pagoda. The secrets of the Grand Viharn of the Wat Chedi Luang awaited. I explored it back to front for the side facing the Pagoda had interesting statues of the various Kings of Thailand. Statues of Thai Kings behind the Viharn The official entrance with the Naga Staircase of Wat Chedi Luang Viharn The official entrance to the Viharn was quite a majestic one with its gilded red and gold roof and the jeweled Naga staircase. A short climb took me to an impressive hall held up by similar golden brown pillars seen in the smaller viharn except, in this case, the effect was magnanimous. Viharn Roof of Wat Chedi Luang Entrance to Viharn of Wat Chedi Luang The first thing that Nicky showed me was a ribbon counter. Here based on your Chinese birth year, you could purchase a ribbon, write your name on it and hang it in the Viharn. Belief is that with that you leave your bad luck behind. Did I try it ah well! Not really, after all it was good fortune that I got to see all this The Wishing ribbons at Wat Chedi Luang Leaving behind your bad luck at Wat Chedi Luang The Buddha image here is a 14th century Brass one called Phra Chao Attarot. Around this huge Buddha statue, were plenty of smaller ones that my guide told me were found at the site while digging. Phra Chao Attarot Inside Wat Chedi Luang Buddha Statues found at Wat Chedi Luang Monk Meditating at Wat Chedi Luang While I was busy admiring the sparkling temple and its artistic doors, a monk sat on the side focusing on his inner self. I could tell that he was at peace from the look on his face. And with that expression, he transferred some of his calm to me. I turned around and exited the temple not without that last glance of the collapsed Pagoda of the Wat Chedi Luang. Though you now know, there is plenty to see in the Wat Chedi Luang the pagoda will always be the centerpiece. Wat Chedi Luang Varavihara, Chiang Mai I am pretty sure that you have added this to your list of things to do in Chiang Mai. Message in and let me know what your favorite part of this temple was. I would love to know. How to reach Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai? Chiang Mai is well connected to Bangkok by road, rail, and air. There are plenty of low-cost flights from Bangkok to this destination. Once in Chiang Mai hire a bike or a cab to the old city. The Wat Chedi Luang Temple is quite central to this place. Click here to get it on your mobile. Irrespective of where you stay in Chiang Mai, you can get a Red Songthaew to this place. Travel Tips The Wat Chedi Luang opening hours are from 6 am. It closes at 6 pm every day. You need to pay 40 Thb as the Wat Chedi Luang entrance fees If you are here in May, remember to catch the annual week-long Intthakin festival here. You can see various Thai dances to celebrate the protector of the city (the city pillar) Please cover your shoulders and legs when visiting the temple You will only need to take off your footwear when you visit the Viharn The Monk Chat at the Wat Chedi temple takes place between 9 am to 6 pm every day. There are plenty of restaurants and public washrooms around the temple. Combine this trip with a visit to the Wat Phra Singh Temple. It is walkable from here. Disclaimer: This article includes affiliate links. This means that at no cost to you, I will receive a small commission if you purchase through my link. Thank you for supporting me with this. Popularly referred to as a Restless Ball of Energy. My Mom refuses to entertain my complaints about my equally restless daughter & assures my husband that I was born with a travel bug. I am a Post-Graduate in Marketing by qualification and a travel blogger by passion. Besides travel, I enjoy photography and if you dont find me at my desk, I would be out playing badminton or swimming or just running. I believe in planning for every long weekend through the year. And when I cannot travel physically, I travel virtually through this travel blog. My travel stories have also, got published on various websites and magazines including BBC Travel, Lonely Planet India and Jetwings. I have recently published my first book When Places Come Alive a collection of stories that are based on legends, landscapes, art and culture of a place which is available in both ebook and paperback format. Historians say German Gen Lothar von Trotha, who was sent to what was then South West Africa to put down an uprising by the Hereros against their German rulers in 1904, instructed his troops to wipe out the entire tribe. Germany, which lost all its colonial territories after World War One, was the third biggest colonial power after Britain and France, which lost theirs after World War Two. A ceremony was performed on Wednesday in Berlin at a church service to hand over the remains. JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images Demonstrators display a banner outside the venue where a handing-over ceremony takes place for human remains that were brought to Berlin during its colonial rule of the African nation on August 29, 2018 in the French Church in Berlin. "We want to help heal the wounds from the atrocities committed by Germans at the time", said Michelle Muentefering, a minister of state for global cultural policies in the German foreign ministry. It has argued instead that German development aid worth hundreds of millions of euros since Namibia's independence from South Africa in 1990 was "for the benefit of all Namibians". Namibian Education Minister Katrina Hanse-Himarwa said last week that the government would create a group to decide whether to bury or display the repatriated skulls that had been kept in German museums. Representatives of the Hero and Nama people filed a class action suit against Germany in 2017 demanding reparations, but the case has not yet been decided on. But it remains locked in talks with the Namibian government on a joint declaration on the massacres. They also want a seat at the table in the discussions between the German and Namibian governments. These descendants are unhappy they were not part of the negotiation process. He also blasted the decision to hold the ceremony at the French Church in Berlin. Soldiers of German Kaiser Wilhelm killed more than 65,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama tribesmen after an uprising by the locals resulted in the death of 100 German settlers. "We don't believe that it is bigger and more dignified than all the government buildings of the federal government in Berlin". The descendants of the present-day Namibian Nama and Herero peoples are still waiting for a formal apology from the German Government. Skulls and other remains of massacred tribespeople used in the colonial era for experiments to push claims of European racial superiority were handed over by Germany to Namibia at a church ceremony in Berlin. Germany has since 2011 formally handed back dozens of the skulls, many of which were stored at universities and clinics. Turkey has been keeping a wary eye on the possibility of the Idlib offensive, as it seeks to bring peace to Syria along with Iran and Assad's other main ally Russian Federation. Zarif also called on army chief, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa at the army headquarters in garrison city Rawalpindi. The U.S. slapped sanctions on Turkish government ministers earlier this month, and Turkey has retaliated with tariffs. Iran has undertaken a diplomatic offensive in recent months, following the decision in May by the United States to reimpose tough sanctions and withdraw from the JCPOA - the nuclear deal of 2015 which Zarif, along with his USA counterpart John Kerry, played a key role in crafting. "As regards JCPOA, while supporting Iran's principled stance, Mr Qureshi expressed the hope that remaining parties to the agreement would uphold their commitments in letter and spirit". He termed it important that International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had given repeated verification that Iran had strictly adhered to the terms of agreement, adding that Pakistan would stand with Iran in this hour of need. Speaking on the occasion, Iranian Foreign Minister said Iran is the partner of Pakistan for peace in the region. Imran Khan expressed the resolve to make all efforts to cement already existing historical relations in various areas to the benefit of both countries. He also supported the freedom of Palestine and Kashmir and urged to resolve these issues in peaceful manners. During his meeting with premier Khan, Zarif, conveyed to him the greetings and best wishes of the people and leadership of Iran on assuming office, said a statement from the Prime Minister House. The two agreed to explore ways for strengthening bilateral economic cooperation. He also acknowledged the role of economic assistance provided by Japan in social sector projects. Mr Nakane invited Mr Qureshi to visit Japan. Producer Ian Collie of Easy Tiger Productions has optioned crime novel Scrublands for a potential TV series. Set in a drought-sticken Riverina town, the book by author Chris Hammer tells the story of a young priest calmly turning a gun on five parishoners and a year later a journalist hopes to discover why. Collie, whose productions include Jack Irish, Rake, Sunshine and Doctor Doctor, says crime fiction has long been a staple of film and television but whats interesting is that the demand for such programming never seems to wane in contrast to other genres like rom-coms, soaps or maybe medical dramas. It generally has the key DNA for good drama a battle between good and evil, generally involves deceits, cover up and lies, has the investigative and mystery angles whodunit and even whydunit. And, of course, the search for justice for the victims or victims family and friends. And there is that fascination with criminal and aberrant behaviour and perhaps the but for the grace of God,' he told Fairfax Media. But also we are living in more uncertain and somewhat violent times, whether it still be the tragic cases we read all too frequently about domestic and drug-fuelled violence or the randomness of terrorism. Since Tom Clancys Jack Ryan first appeared on screen as Alec Baldwin in The Hunt for Red October hes been a big screen action hero in the form of Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Chris Pine. Now hes a small screen star via John Krasinksi, better known for The Office and A Quiet Place. In what stands as the most surprising casting of Ryan yet, Krasiski leads an 8 part series for Amazon under producers Carlton Cuse and Graham Roland. He remains a CIA analyst, working in the oddly-named Terror, Finance and Arms Division. In this universe we overlook that he became Deputy Director for Intelligence via Harrison Ford. Instead he is desk-bound, a former Marine and sole survivor of a helicopter crash. Both alert and alarmed, he detects the movement of $9m in Yemen which he believes traces back to a new terror insurgent, named Suleiman. But his newly-installed department boss James Greer (Wendell Pierce) thinks Ryan has a chip on his shoulder and hoses down his hot-shot theory. A brand new Bin Laden on my first day? he asks sceptically. But Ryan is confident of his suspicions and urges Greer to freeze the funds. It will take field operatives in Yemen chasing local terror suspects to prove his theory correct, whisking Jack Ryan away from a party where he first meets Dr. Cathy Mueller (Abbie Cornish) to an interrogation in Yemen itself. I cant go to Yemen. Im an analyst, Ryan insists. I guess he hasnt seen the movies, resistance is futile. Fuelled by the characters reluctance to turn matinee idol (hey, its what were here for), this Jack Ryan takes some time to get to its action scenes. But as a former Marine is that really viable? Yes there are explosions and fisticuffs, including in dusty Middle East-locations, and it largely adheres to the demands of putting money on the screen. Krasinski is likeable, if adorkable, as the latest incarnation of Clancys character but has his work cut out to improve on Harrison Ford who was simultaneously smart, sexy and physically adept. The biggest challenge for Jack Ryan is that weve seen so much of this before, not just as big screen versions, but in original TV tales with everything from 24 to Homeland and all manner of spy dramas in between. Jack Ryan will probably have to turn things up to 11 just to stay on target. Jack Ryan is now screening on Amazon Prime Video. Presently each European Union member country puts their clocks forward by an hour on the last Sunday in March. They then put clocks back an hour on the last Sunday of October. After The EU ran a public survey about whether to abolish daylight saving time (DST) and a resounding more than 80 percent of citizens in EU states said yes. CNN reports that if the change goes through, EU states will stay on the current summertime, thus finally putting an end to daylight saving time. DST is a waste of time Living as I do in Spain, I am affected by changing the clocks four times a year. This not only upsets a persons body clock, but it also affects our dogs internal clocks. When putting the time forward, pets start nagging for food or a walk an hour early and it takes time for their doggie brains to adjust. Even worse is the fact that Spain lives on Hitler time. When Francisco Franco was in power, he was fond of the Nazi dictator and changed Spains time in line with that of Berlin. There were talks some years ago of changing the time zone to what it should be, but nothing has happened yet. EU could scrap daylight saving time - and the majority of people back the changehttps://t.co/LYINzGa8ek pic.twitter.com/rYU4m12Wsy Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) August 31, 2018 80 percent of Europeans want to end daylight saving time As reported by the BBC, Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission President made the announcement on Friday. He said that the widely-spread public survey had revealed that 80 percent of European citizens want to stop daylight saving time. Speaking to ZDF, a German broadcaster, Juncker said the debate about winter time and summer time had been going on for several years. He said many people had added contributions to the debate, but the public survey showed real results. According to Juncker, millions of people responded to the poll, with the vast majority saying they want summertime all year around. Juncker went on to say that if people want to change DST, they will change it and that it will happen. The European Commission will recommend EU member states abolish daylight saving time https://t.co/N2bArALuLe pic.twitter.com/YVKM55wbrg CBS News (@CBSNews) August 31, 2018 Reportedly Finns are the strongest voice against DST. A petition was signed by more than 70,000 Finns last October, urging the Finnish government to stop it. What complicates things for Finland is the fact they share borders with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, who did away with changing the clocks back in 2011. Legislation to be drafted for member nations approval Many of those who are still in favour of the time change have said the extra hours light in standard time and the additional hour of evening light in summer reportedly prevents road accidents. Before the change can be made official, the legislation has to be drafted and presented to the 28 member states along with the European Parliament. Heres hoping Spain finally decides to not only scrap daylight savings but also to move to the correct time zone for the countrys location. SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria has confirmed its first outbreak of African swine fever, among backyard pigs in the northeastern village of Tutrakantsi, close to the border with Romania, the national food safety authority said on Friday. Seven infected animals were found in one household in the village and tests confirmed the virus, the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency said, adding that all 23 pigs in the village will be culled. African swine fever is a highly contagious disease that affects pigs and wild boar and has been spreading in Eastern Europe in recent years. It does not affect humans. (Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova; Editing by Susan Fenton) See Also: By Philip Blenkinsop BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union will end restrictions on the sale of solar panels from China early next week in a move that EU producers said would lead to a flood of cheap imports. The European Commission, which coordinates EU trade policy, said in a statement on Friday that the measures would expire at midnight on Monday Sept. 3, confirming a Reuters report on Aug. 24. The EU first imposed anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures for Chinese solar panels, wafers and cells in 2013 and extended them by 18 months in March last year, signalling that they should then end. Chinese manufacturers have been allowed to sell solar products in Europe free of duties if they do so at or above a progressively declining minimum price. If sold for less than that price, they are subject to duties of up to 64.9 percent. The Commission said it was in the best interests of the EU as a whole for the measures to lapse, given the bloc's aim of increasing its supply of renewable energy. The measures had also decreased over time, allowing import prices to align with world market prices, it said. China's commerce ministry welcomed the end of restrictions, describing the move as a "model for successfully resolving trade frictions through consultations." The move "will restore EU-China trade of photovoltaics to a normal market condition, will provide a more stable and predictable business environment for cooperation between the two sides' industries, and will truly realise mutual benefit for both sides," the ministry said in a statement on its website. SolarPower Europe, which represents importers and installers, described the move as a "watershed moment" for Europe's solar industry and that it removes the biggest barrier to growth of the sector. The European Union has faced a delicate balancing act between the interests of EU manufacturers and those such as importers and installers pressing for a reduction in the cost of solar power generation. Story continues It has also been concerned about the response from Beijing, given that the two sides were on the verge of a trade war over the issue in 2013. EU ProSun, the grouping of EU producers that launched the initial complaint in 2012 and wanted a further extension of measures, had said that European manufacturers would be devastated if the measures ended. Beijing's decision to limit installations in China meant producers there had some 30 gigawatts of excess capacity to shift but with few markets to sell into after tariffs imposed by the United States and planned by India, the second and third-largest markets behind China. The total EU market is about 7 gigawatts. Some companies were considering a legal challenge at the European Court of Justice. EU ProSun said, adding that years of falling prices had not resulted in growth of the European market. (Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Additional reporting by Andrew Galbraith in SHANGHAI; Editing by Kirsten Donovan, David Goodman and Kim Coghill) According to Juarez's attorney, the child contracted a respiratory infection at the facility that was not properly treated for almost a month. Border agents apprehended Yazmin Juarez and 19-month-old Mariee in March after they entered the USA seeking asylum. The complaint alleges that within a week of entering the detention center in Dilley, Mariee was running a 104-degree fever, coughing, suffering from congestion, diarrhea and vomiting. The baby's health improved, but then worsened until she and her mother were released. Juarez blames inadequate medical care for her baby's death six and half weeks later. Law firm Arnold & Porter representing the family of the baby, said that 10 days after their arrival in Dilley Mary lost two pounds (almost 1 kg) is nearly 8% of its weight. Legal papers filed Tuesday say Mariee was still sick when she and her mother were released to live with family in New Jersey. The baby was hospitalized over the next several weeks and eventually transferred to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. On May 10, Mariee suffered a hemorrhage that led to irreversible brain and organ damage. The child has been identified in the complaint as Mariee Juarez. She died shortly afterward. Citing hospital records, Vice News reported that Maria died from viral pneumonia - inflammation of lung tissue. Reports circulated online this month of a child dying after being released from the Dilley facility, which holds hundreds of immigrant mothers and children. "If you just please give us the name of the child, we have no way of knowing otherwise, we don't know if the child died the day after, we don't know", Whitman said at the time. The pair were apprehended at the border and temporarily detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas four days later. A 20-year-old woman from Guatemala is appealing to the U.S. government, complaining that her 19-month-old daughter died a few weeks after she became ill while in a Migration Service unit. Currently, the allegation of medical neglect related to Mariee Juarez is the department's only open investigation into the Dilley facility, a spokesperson confirmed. The story says all five doctors believed Mariee's "recommended course of treatment would have been the same had she not been in ICE custody". Her asylum case is pending. Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Hank Whitman had pleaded for information about the alleged incident during a Texas House of Representatives committee hearing on August 9. FILE PHOTO: A facility made by Climeworks AG to capture CO2 from the air is seen on the roof of a waste incinerating plant in Hinwil, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo By Alister Doyle OSLO (Reuters) - A small Swiss company won $31 million (24.31 million pounds)in new investment on Tuesday to suck carbon dioxide from thin air as part of a fledgling, costly technology that may gain wider acceptance from governments in 2018 as a way to slow climate change. Climeworks AG, which uses high-tech filters and fans to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at a cost of about $600 a tonne, raised the money from investors including Zurich Cantonal Bank [ZKB.UL]. "It's all about cost reductions," Jan Wurzbacher, a co-founder and co-CEO of Climeworks, told Reuters of how the company would use the funds. Extracting vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere could help to limit global warming, blamed for causing more heatwaves, wildfires, floods and rising sea levels. The company says it has a long-term "vision" of capturing one percent of man-made carbon dioxide emissions by 2025. But that is a far off. Its capacity is just 1,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year while global emissions totalled 32.5 billion tonnes in 2017, according to the International Energy Agency. And costs are now too high. In June, however, Climeworks' main rival, Canadian-based Carbon Engineering, outlined the design of a plant that it said could extract carbon dioxide from the air for perhaps as little as $94 a tonne. That could make the technology more feasible if governments jack up penalties for carbon emissions this century. In a European market, carbon emissions prices are now about 21 euros a tonne. Climework's industrial plant in Switzerland now sells carbon dioxide to nearby greenhouses as an airborne fertiliser for tomatoes or cucumbers. It also has a project in Iceland where the gas is buried deep underground. After the new round, investments in Climeworks's technology total about $50 million, it said. The company has expanded to 60 employees from 30 since the start of 2017. A draft U.N. scientific report, due for publication in October about ways to achieve the goals of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, is likely to boost such "carbon dioxide removal" (CDR) technologies. Story continues Until now, such CDR has often been bundled with other more exotic and risky "geoengineering" technologies such as spraying chemicals into the upper atmosphere to dim sunlight. But the draft by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, seen by Reuters, categorises CDR for the first time as "mitigation", the mainstream term used for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. ($1 = 0.9957 Swiss francs) (Reporting by Alister Doyle; editing by David Goodman and David Evans) By Jessica DiNapoli and Tom Hals NEW YORK/WILMINGTON, Del. (Reuters) - Verity Health System of California Inc, a non-profit operator of six California hospitals managed by billionaire former surgeon Patrick Soon-Shiong's NantWorks LLC, filed for bankruptcy on Friday to help resolve a cash crunch while it seeks a buyer. The health system's bankruptcy filing follows a series of deals that left it saddled with more than $1 billion in pension liabilities and bond debt. Verity, which serves low-income communities in Los Angeles and San Jose, secured a $185 million loan to help it stay operational through the bankruptcy. Verity Chief Executive Officer Richard Adcock told Reuters he expected the operator to remain in bankruptcy protection from creditors for a couple years as it restructures and works with potential buyers. "We've had over 100 parties formally reach out to us," he said of the sale process, which Verity started in July. He said potential suitors include large national operators, and could include deals for individual facilities. He emphasized the bankruptcy would allow the operator to maintain patient care while restructuring. The health system employed more than 6,000 people as of 2017. Soon-Shiong, who has founded and sold multiple biotech companies and earlier this year invested in the Los Angeles Times and other California newspapers, acquired Verity's management company in 2017 with the goal of helping to revitalize the hospital chain. Adcock said Verity will examine all of its contracts, including the management deal with Soon-Shiong. Verity filed for bankruptcy in the central district of California, Los Angeles division. Its hospitals are St. Francis Medical Center and St. Vincent Medical Center in southern California, and O'Connor Hospital, St. Louise Regional Hospital, Seton Medical Center and Seton Medical Center Coastside in northern California. The non-profit also runs a physician network and medical foundation that encompasses urgent care centers and doctors' offices. Story continues Any sale would need approval of a bankruptcy court judge, as well as from regulators. Verity has been losing close to $175 million per year on a cash flow basis, Adcock said. U.S. hospitals are suffering from costs that are rising faster than revenue and the industry is on an unsustainable path, credit rating agency Moodys said in a report this week. Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, Province of the West, a religious organization, originally owned Verity. In 2015, the Daughters selected hedge fund BlueMountain Capital Management LLC to recapitalize the system with an investment of about $250 million. (Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Jessica DiNapoli in New York; editing by Bill Berkrot) See Also: By Poppy McPherson YANGON (Reuters) - The grainy black-and-white photo, printed in a new book on the Rohingya crisis authored by Myanmar's army, shows a man standing over two bodies, wielding a farming tool. "Bengalis killed local ethnics brutally", reads the caption. The photo appears in a section of the book covering ethnic riots in Myanmar in the 1940s. The text says the image shows Buddhists murdered by Rohingya - members of a Muslim minority the book refers to as "Bengalis" to imply they are illegal immigrants. But a Reuters examination of the photograph shows it was actually taken during Bangladesh's 1971 independence war, when hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis were killed by Pakistani troops. It is one of three images that appear in the book, published in July by the army's department of public relations and psychological warfare, that have been misrepresented as archival pictures from the western state of Rakhine. In fact, Reuters found that two of the photos originally were taken in Bangladesh and Tanzania. A third was falsely labelled as depicting Rohingya entering Myanmar from Bangladesh, when in reality it showed migrants leaving the country. Government spokesman Zaw Htay and a military spokesman could not be reached for comment on the authenticity of the images. U Myo Myint Maung, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Information, declined to comment, saying he had not read the book. The 117-page "Myanmar Politics and the Tatmadaw: Part I" relates the army's narrative of August last year, when some 700,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine to Bangladesh, according to United Nations agencies, triggering reports of mass killings, rape, and arson. Tatmadaw is the official name of Myanmar's military. Much of the content is sourced to the military's "True News" information unit, which since the start of the crisis has distributed news giving the army's perspective, mostly via Facebook. Story continues The book is on sale at bookstores across the commercial capital of Yangon. A member of staff at Innwa, one of the biggest bookshops in the city, said the 50 copies the store ordered had sold out, but there was no plan to order more. "Not many people came looking for it," said the bookseller, who declined to be named. On Monday, Facebook banned the army chief and other military officials accused of using the platform to "inflame ethnic and religious tensions". The same day, U.N investigators accused Senior General Min Aung Hlaing of overseeing a campaign with "genocidal intent" and recommended he and other senior officials be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. In its new book, the military denies the allegations of abuses, blaming the violence on "Bengali terrorists" it says were intent on carving out a Rohingya state named "Arkistan". Attacks by Rohingya militants calling themselves the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army preceded the military's crackdown in August 2017 in Rakhine state, in which the U.N. investigators say 10,000 people may have been killed. The group denies it has separatist aims. The book also seeks to trace the history of the Rohingya - who regard themselves as native to western Myanmar - casting them as interlopers from Bangladesh. In the introduction to the book the writer, listed as Lieutenant Colonel Kyaw Kyaw Oo, says the text was compiled using "documentary photos" with the aim of "revealing the history of Bengalis". "It can be found that whenever a political change or an ethnic armed conflict occurred in Myanmar those Bengalis take it as an opportunity," the book reads, arguing that Muslims took advantage of the uncertainty of Myanmar's nascent democratic transition to ignite "religious clashes". Reuters was unable to contact Kyaw Kyaw Oo for comment. Reuters examined some of the photographs using Google Reverse Image Search and TinEye, tools commonly used by news organisations and others to identify images that have previously appeared online. Checks were then made with the previously credited publishers to establish the origins of those images. Of the 80 images in the book, most were recent pictures of army chief Min Aung Hlaing meeting foreign dignitaries or local officials visiting Rakhine. Several were screengrabs from videos posted by Rohingya militant group the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. Of eight photos presented as historical images, Reuters found the provenance of three to be faked and was unable to determine the provenance of the five others. One faded black-and-white image shows a crowd of men who appear to be on a long march with their backs bent over. "Bengalis intruded into the country after the British Colonialism occupied the lower part of Myanmar," the caption reads. The photo is apparently intended to depict Rohingya arriving in Myanmar during the colonial era, which ended in 1948. Reuters determined the picture is in fact a distorted version of a colour image taken in 1996 of refugees who had fled the genocide in Rwanda. The photographer, Martha Rial, working for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, won the Pulitzer Prize. "While it is always disappointing to see your work misrepresented, I am not surprised," said Rial in an email. "It has been used in propaganda before and, sadly, it will probably happen again." Sally Stapleton, the paper's managing editor, deferred questions about the use of its photo to Rial. Another picture, also printed in black-and-white, shows men aboard a rickety boat. "Bengalis entered Myanmar via the watercourse," the caption reads. Actually, the original photo depicts Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants leaving Myanmar in 2015, when tens of thousands fled for Thailand and Malaysia. The original has been rotated and blurred so the photo looks grainy. It was sourced from Myanmar's own Ministry of Information. (Reporting by Poppy Elena McPherson; Additional reporting by Sam Aung Moon; Editing by Alex Richardson) FILE PHOTO: Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales addresses the 72nd United Nations General Assembly at U.N. Headquarters in New York, U.S., September 19, 2017. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz Thomson Reuters GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales said on Friday his government had decided not to renew the mandate of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a U.N.-backed anti-corruption body that has targeted him and his predecessor. "We have officially notified the Secretary General of the United Nations that we will not renew the mandate of the CICIG," Morales told a news conference. Morales has had a tumultuous relationship with the CICIG, which attempted to have him impeached for alleged corruption. His predecessor as Guatemalan president, Otto Perez, was removed from office due to a graft probe led by the CICIG, and is still in prison while on trial. (Reporting by Sofia Menchu; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Dave Graham) See Also: Mauritanians are voting Saturday in general and local elections viewed as a key test of President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz's record with the international community calling for a credible and peaceful vote. The mobile phone market in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott never sleeps. Under faded umbrellas to protect them from the searing Saharan sun, traders nimbly switch SIM (subscriber identification module) cards and replace overheated phone batteries. In a country with a scarce telecom infrastructure and its approximately 4.5 million strong population spread across vast, often inhospitable terrain, mobile phones are a lifeline in this impoverished West African nation. With a poverty rate of 31 percent and an official growth rate of three percent, the informal economy in Mauritania enables a large number of otherwise unemployed young people to scrape by. Elections should be a time to address the problems afflicting citizens, but at the mobile market in Nouakchott, Saturdays elections do not hold out much grounds for hope. We have a lot of problems, especially the young people, explained Hamadi, an unemployed youth. They don't believe in the elections because of the huge unemployment issue, the problem of waste. There are a lot of problems here and not enough solidarity between ethnic groups." Human rights groups condemn campaign crackdowns Mauritania was the last nation in the world to outlaw slavery in 1981, but analysts agree it was merely a legal formality. An Arab-Berber elite continues to enslave black African ethnic groups, according to UN human rights experts, despite a 2007 law, passed under international pressure, that allows slaveholders to be prosecuted. Saturdays general elections are viewed as a test for the regime of President Aziz less than a year ahead of the critical 2019 presidential vote. Around 1.4 million registered voters are casting their ballots to elect their members of parliament, regional counselors and mayors Story continues But in the lead-up to the vote, human rights groups such as Amnesty International have condemned the crackdown on dissent, including arrests of opposition figures, anti-slavery activists and journalists. In his sky blue boubou, or flowing robe, and a small shop to his name, Bah, is not at the bottom of Mauritanias social scale. But the elections and the promises made by politicians are lost on him. I heard the promises of the different candidates but I didn't understand anything. I didn't hear anything that met my expectations," he explained. Guterres calls for credible elections A day before polls opened, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged "all parties" in Mauritania to contribute to "peaceful and credible elections". The UN chief "is closely following developments in Mauritania on the eve of the legislative, regional and municipal elections scheduled for 1 September", a statement from his office said. He "urges all parties to ensure the holding of elections that are peaceful and credible and allow for the participation of all interested stakeholders", the statement added. Aziz, 61, came to power in a coup in 2008. He was elected in 2009 and re-elected in 2014 for a second five-year term. Although the Mauritanian president has repeatedly stated he will not seek a third mandate, which is against the constitution, the opposition is not convinced by his promises and statements by his ministers and supporters have added to their suspicions. This year, a record 98 political parties are participating, unlike 2013 when most boycotted the general elections. Mauritania, which lies in the transition Sahel belt between the Sahara and the African savanna, is a frontline state in the fight against jihadism in the region. In July, a Mauritanian general took over the command of the G5 Sahel, a security and defence alliance of five Sahel countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. A damaged car is seen during clashes between rival factions in Tripoli, Libya A damaged car is seen during clashes between rival factions in Tripoli, Libya, August 30, 2018. REUTERS/Hani Amara PARIS (Reuters) - The United States, France, Italy and Britain on Saturday condemned what they called an escalation of violence in and around the Libyan capital Tripoli, warning that armed groups which undermined Libyan stability would be made accountable. "These attempts to weaken the legitimate Libyan authorities and hinder the ongoing political process are not acceptable," Washington, Paris, Rome and London said in a joint statement published by the French foreign ministry. "We are calling on the armed groups to immediately stop all military action and warn those who seek to undermine stability, in Tripoli or elsewhere in Libya, that they will be made accountable for it," the statement said. Libyan authorities closed Tripoli airport on Friday after some rockets were fired in its direction, a spokesman for the state airline Libyan Airlines said. (Reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by Toby Chopra) Zakharchenko, who led the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic since 2014, "received injuries incompatible with life as a result of an explosion in the centre of Donetsk", the separatist administration said in a statement. A shaky internationally-brokered ceasefire has been in force since 2015, halting large-scale fighting, though there are still frequent outbreaks of shooting incidents on the front line between the separatist and Ukrainian forces. The rebellion in Donetsk and Luhansk arose soon after pro-Russia Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was driven from power amid mass protests in February 2014. Moscow condemned 42-year-old Zakharchenko's murder, adding that it could be detrimental to the whole peace process in Ukraine. Zakharchenko headed the self-proclaimed republic since November 2014 when a crisis broke out in Ukraine following a military coup d'etat that ousted a lawfully-elected president. Putin issued a statement Friday praising Zakharchenko as a "courageous and decisive person, a patriot". Cossack supporters blamed Russian government-backed forces for several assassinations and attacks, lending credence to the idea that Russia has used targeted killings to retain control over local militias in eastern Ukraine. "They are making a unsafe bet on destabilizing the situation". He said at the time his ambition was to build "a new state". The separatists have been dogged by infighting that has, on occasion, turned violent. Ihor Huskov, chief of staff for Ukraine's Security Service, said Zakharchenko was killed as part of an internal criminal conflict among militants. Russian foreign minister said on Saturday talks on Ukraine with leaders from Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany, known as the Normandy format, were impossible after the killing of a rebel leader in eastern Ukraine, Interfax agency reported. The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, blamed the Ukrainian government, saying that "there is every reason to suggest that the Kyiv regime stands behind this murder". Among the prominent separatists who have been targeted are former Luhansk leader Igor Plotnitsky, who was severely injured in 2016 when a bomb exploded near his auto; Arsen Pavlov, a feared squadron leader known as "Motorola" who died when the elevator of his apartment building was bombed; and fighter Mikhail Tolstykh, whose office is believed to have been hit by a shoulder-fired rocket. On Ukrainian television, a senior Ukrainian intelligence official, Igor Guskov, confirmed Zakharchenko's death and said that either rival rebels or Russian spy services were behind the deadly blast. The conflict in Ukraine's easternmost regions, which has killed more than 10,000 people, began after the nation's Kremlin-backed leader was toppled in 2014. John David (JD) Madison, who has a recurring role on Bravos Southern Charm, is accused of drugging, raping, and sexually assaulting an unidentified female victim in South Carolina, according to FITSNews and Radar Online. The purported incident happened in August 2017. Thomas Ravenel also retracted his accusations that Ashley Jacobs cheated on him. Media outlets, including Page Six, obtained a copy of the incident report from the Mount Pleasant Police Department. The allegations of criminal sexual conduct were reported to law enforcement on August 25. Victim claims Madison distracted, drugged her Madison, who is a South Carolina businessman, is accused of drugging and assaulting the victim in August 2017. According to the narrative presented in the police report, the victim claims that Madison, along with his friend Jay M. Schwartz and a female friend, arrived at her home on August 21, when there was a solar eclipse. Fits reported that the victim invited friends over. While at the victims home, Madison allegedly broke a glass, which the victim believes was done on purpose. As she cleaned up from the glass breaking, the victim says Madison reportedly slipped a drug into her drink and the other womans drink as well. The victim purports that the glass was broken with the aim of distracting her so that Madison could drug her and the other woman and go unnoticed. What the holy hell is going on with these men?! #southerncharm https://t.co/DS8GxbHPFG Angela Landi (@Anghill16) August 31, 2018 Assault reportedly continued until wife called There is a stretch of time that she does not remember, according to the police report. The group went to Vickerys Bar & Grill in South Carolina to drink. Discuss this news on Eunomia She stated that she was not feeling right, according to Page Six. There is confusion between accounts cited by news outlets. While some agencies are reporting that the victim believes she was drugged at her home, others are stating that she contends it happened at Vickerys and that she called a friend to pick her up. Regardless, the victim is accusing Madison and Schwartz of slipping drugs into her drink, as well as into her friends drink. Following the duration of time that she does not recall, the victim told police that she does remember waking in Madisons guest bedroom, Page Six noted. At that point, she asserts Madison was raping her. Details extracted from the police report are sketchy, which may be attributed to the fact that the identities of the victim and her female friend have been redacted (by law enforcement). According to the victim, Madison continued to attack her sexually on August 22, until he received a phone call from Elizabeth Madison, his wife, FITSNews reported. Madisons friend, Schwartz, was arrested only hours later. He reportedly had drugs in his possession. A woman with Schwartz, who is a chiropractor, was taken to an area hospital. Charm cast member called Madison inappropriate The current accusations are not the first time that Madison has been accused of acting inappropriately toward women. Though Naomie Olinda, also a cast member on Southern Charm, did not allege that Madison committed sexual assault, she challenged him on-screen during the past season of the Bravo reality show, relaying her belief that he not only behaved inappropriately with women but also mistreated his wife, according to People. Law enforcement investigating accusations Mount Pleasant law enforcement verified that police are investigating, People reported. Madison has not been formally charged with any sexual offense. FITSNews noted that it has talked with the reported victim and has plans for a follow-up report. Neither Madison or his lawyer responded to requests for a comment from FITS or from People. Show's stars face allegations In addition to accusations leveled against Madison, Southern Charm fans know that Thomas Ravenel faces allegations of sexual misconduct, as well. Ravenel recently claimed on Twitter that he has quit the reality show, which Blasting News also reported. Be sure to follow Blasting News for updates about Southern Charm and for the latest information. Pagan Perspectives [Todays column is our first from our new international columnist, Alan D.D. Alans column will cover Paganism in Venezuela. In addition to writing for The Wild Hunt, Alan is a journalist, blogger, and novelist. Were thrilled to have him aboard, and we hope you will be too.] Thinking of the relationship between Venezuela and Witchcraft could be complication. Before I met L.J. Tang, I supposed there were no names I could consider when searching for a reference in the Venezeulan national context. Tang, however, who has a bachelors degree in international studies with a speciality in etiquette and protocol, dedicates most of his time to the Craft through the courses he teaches and the articles he writes about the occult. When asked what made him start studying Witchcraft, Tang first specifies that he sees a difference between being a magician and being a Witch: You can be a ceremonial magician without being a Witch, but my Witchcraft tradition contains a strong influence of ceremonial magic. From there, he says his studies began when he was a boy. The desire to contact that invisible world was undoubtedly my initial impulse, not just casting spells or mere curiosity. Tang says it helped that he grew in a superstitious family. His mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother were immersed in a world of contact with spirits and ghosts, he says. In spite of this, I dont claim to have any immortal lineage, especially because my inclinations were always towards European occultism, and the esoteric forms of my family were native to Venezuela. His parents at first though his interest in the occult was just a stage. They finally accepted it, Tang says, and they themselves had experiences that made them respect what I did. In comparison, he says that his friends had no problems with his interests at any point. [They] even shared with me their own spiritual inquietudes. Later on he would discover ceremonial magic, with which he identified because of the thorough nature of the traditions methods and their high level of complexity, before being called by the goddess Hekate. There the wizard became a Witch. Now, both walk hand in hand. Although the dominant religion in Venezuela is Catholicism, Tang says that has not affected him at all. Venezuela is a Catholic country by nomenclature, but most Catholics have no restraints against getting a card reading, or asking to bind a lover, or destroy an enemy. At the same time, Tang supports remaining somewhat discrete. Prudence is a virtue of the wise, he notes. I doubt that Witchcraft will ever be entirely accepted. Its own nature is asocial. Tang also explains that the high level of superstition in Venezuela once made for many esoteric stores, although the countrys current economic troubles have led to hard times for the occult community. Before this crisis [ ] Venezuela was a paradise for whoever wanted to be dedicated to magic, he says, for the prices were more accessible. He also notes that evangelical Christianity has added difficulties to the occult community, saying that some can be dangerous fanatics. But from his perspectives, due to the current political and economic disaster, its not just complicated to be a Witch in Venezuela, but also to be any common citizen. In Venezuela, Witchcraft is everywhere, Tang says. Despite the aforementioned challenges, Witchcraft is tolerated, at least much better than elsewhere, though to say it is a positive vision may be going too far. He finds the occult is always suspiciously perceived, from disbelief to real fear. He finishes by expressing that I do not care how they see Witchcraft, as long as they respect me and do not intend to attack me physically or verbally. Tang is a Torchbearer, the only one in Venezuela, from the Covenant of Hekate, a non-profit international organization formed by members of different religions and magical traditions to create a devotional community to the goddess Hekate. This organization studies her history, rites, and mysteries. Tang says that he joined said organization because of a compromise with Hekate herself, to help others in her path of discovery. Although it was an initially grudging decision, he says the goddess let him know that it was the appropriate path for him to take. Speaking of Hekate, Tang says, Those who really get to know her will understand how persuasive she can be. He says that at first he rejected the goddess. Her image was stained, in my eyes, by much of the vain New Age Pagan spirituality of the Wiccan circles of Venezuela. Now, having given in and accepted her, he says that Hekate became known [to me] in much more serious and profound ways. A love was born, that remains untouched until todays sun, and the one that is to come. On his role as Torchbearer, the devotee to Hekate explains that he and other Torchbearers have the responsibility to help other members of the [covenant] in their development, always having their doors open for every sincere seeker of the lady. They are also able to open a sanctuary, which has a public role. They are expected to not only provide guidance within the covenant, but also to give open talks. Tang clarifies that these talks are never as proselytism, but as a beacon for the right boat. Tang states that this terrible situation in the country is conducive to seeking the help of the goddess to cope with the hardships of everyday life, to be protected from the excesses of the powerful and criminal, now with virtually no difference between them. He recalls that Hekate, as Nyktipolos, the one who wanders in the night, is an ideal guardian at night, affirming that she has protected him from the current dangers in Venezuela, which increase horrifically at night. Hekate saved me from many dangerous circumstances; without her I would hardly stay alive. In addition to his work with Hekate, Tangs experience also includes the tradition called Marialioncero Spiritism, which focuses on the figure of Maria Lionza and her various courts. He says this is the most Venezuelan tradition that exists, with a mixture of Catholic (white-Spanish), African, and aboriginal elements. Although he is not a practitioner, he has a deep respect for this current. J. L. Tang is open to provide help and guidance to those who are interested in learning from his hand. In addition to making available his personal page to educate those who are interested, he has created a recommended book section. They have been selected by me personally as an adequate introduction to the old office. To learn more about J. L. Tang, or contact the Covenant, visit his blog, Facebook, or Instagram. The Covenant of Hekate maintains its own website as well. But two years later, the vital Kremlin informants have largely gone silent, leaving the C.I.A. and other spy agencies in the dark Really? So our (USA) spies, planted on purpose, in and around the Kremlin are hiding and quiet. So we admit that we have spies in and around the Kremlin! And we admit we intentionally want and need these spies to do the dirty work? I only ask which Kremlin are they hiding in? Russia has lots of Kremlins Twelve Russian Kremlins. The Moscow Kremlin is easily recognized around the world as a symbol of Russia and the seat of its president. But few people outside Russia have heard about the other Russian fortresses that are also known as kremlins Twelve Russian Kremlins Russia Beyond https://www.rbth.com/articles/2010/12/23/twelve_russian_kremlins.html Yes this is another tidbit of information and sock monkey lovers will not like this info! WtR Update: Another way to look at the same article. by Paul Craig Roberts When I first read this https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/24/us/politics/cia-russia-midterm-elections.html I thought it was a caricature of fake news. Then I realized it was a New York Times article, and being fairly certain that the arrogant presstitute organization was not taking the piss out of itself, as it is one of the main purveyors of fake news, I found the conclusion unavoidable that Julian E. Barnes and Matthew Rosenberg were so tightly bound inside The Matrix that they might Source: According to the New York Times Putin Rules America PaulCraigRoberts.org The death of the DNR leader could have a particularly negative impact on the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Russian Senate's International Affairs Committee, said. FILE PHOTO: Alexander Zakharchenko, separatist leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, speaks to the media during a visit to Makeevskiy coking plant in Makiivka, outside Donetsk, Ukraine October 29, 2014. Russian Federation in 2014 also seized and annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. It never was established if pro-Kiev attackers were responsible or if the violence resulted from factional disputes within the rebel ranks or Moscow's possible desire to eliminate individuals it found inconvenient. Businessman-turned-warlord Zakharchenko, who commanded rebels fighting Ukrainian government forces in the mining and industrial town of Donetsk, was elected first president of the unrecognised republic in 2014. Russian President Vladimir Putin lauded Zakharchenko, who was 42, as "a true people's leader" and promised Donetsk residents that "Russia always will be with you". There is "every reason to believe" that Zakharchenko's murder was orchestrated by Kiev, which "has repeatedly resorted to such methods to get rid of dissidents and undesirables", Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said. A reporter for the AFP news agency at the scene said police had cordoned off the block where the blast occurred. Putin issued a statement Friday praising Zakharchenko as a "courageous and decisive person, a patriot". Cossack supporters blamed Russian government-backed forces for several assassinations and attacks, lending credence to the idea that Russia has used targeted killings to retain control over local militias in eastern Ukraine. A statement from the rebel command said "it was conducted by special operations forces of Ukraine under control of US special services". Ukrainian security service (SBU) however blamed the killing on rival separatists or Moscow. The separatists have been dogged by infighting that has, on occasion, turned violent. In 2016 and 2017, two separatist field commanders, Arsen Pavlov, who went by the nom de guerre Motorola, and Mikhail Tolstykh, known as Givi, were killed in assassinations. They told Sputnik News: "According to preliminary data, one dead and three wounded". At least five other leading separatist commanders have been killed in unexplained circumstances not connected to front-line combat. "Zakharchenko's death could be the result of internal conflicts among the fighters", SBU official Igor Guskov told Ukraine's 112 channel. Another prominent casualty was Alexander Bednov, nicknamed "Batman". Dmitry Trapeznikov, who assumed Zakharchenko's duties on an interim basis after the attack, attends a news briefing in Donetsk on Friday. MOSCOW, August 29. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his televised address on Wednesday the retirement age for women should be 60 rather than 63.The retirement age for women should not increase more than for men. Thats why I believe it is necessary to reduce the increase in the retirement age for women proposed by the law from 8 to 5 years, Putin said.The president said the draft bill on the pension reform suggests increasing the retirement age for women by eight years and for men by five years. That wouldnt do, certainly. This is wrong, Putin said. Emily Ogden in Laphams Quarterly: In 1784, Americas soon-to-be second, third, and fourth presidents celebrated the publication of a report debunking the practices of Franz Anton Mesmer, a Vienna-educated physician whose name gives us the word mesmerizing. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madisonall rejoiced to know that Mesmer would no longer impose on credulous Parisians with his invisible fluid of animal magnetism, a living or vital counterpart of mineral magnetism. Mesmer said that animal magnetism crackled all around us, though it was especially concentrated in human nerves. He claimed he could cure illnesses by manipulating this invisible fluid in the ailing body. His theory did not seem as implausible in 1784 as it does now; it crossed ancient humoral medicine with the best accounts then available of how electricity and magnetism worked. Mesmer had made a few false starts in Austria, including the time he promoted a theory of animal gravitation, before taking Paris by storm in 1778. While he called his practice animal magnetism, his opponents would coin, and his successors would eventually adopt, the term mesmerism. Mesmers patientsmost of them female and well-to-dofound him through word-of-mouth and in pamphlets advertising his metaphysical talents. They met in his richly appointed treatment salon, where they gathered around a bucket filled with shards of glass and water that concentrated the life-giving animal-magnetic fluid. Mesmer said all illnesses had the same cause: a blockage in the flow of animal magnetism. More here. \Thank you for everything you've done for me in Aberdeen In the wake of the recent revelations of a Pennsylvania grand jury concerning clergy child abuse, Archbishop John Wester of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe on Friday issued a statement saying he was concerned that many people were using these tragedies to further an agenda. Wester cautioned people to be on guard and not give in to the temptation to blame. In his statement, Wester refers to the alleged sexual abuse of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, previously the archbishop of Washington, D.C., and among the highest-ranking Vatican officials in America forced to resign. Wester also mentions Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the former chief Vatican diplomat in the United States, who penned an 11-page letter in which he called for the resignation of Pope Francis for allegedly covering up abuse charges against McCarrick, and for giving comfort to what Vigano described as a homosexual current in the Vatican. Vigano needs to show greater care in helping us to discern Gods will in these tragic times, said Wester. I am disturbed by this, and other attempts to promote a certain agenda, for two principal reasons. First, he said, when the discussion turns to ecclesial politics and the typical flash points between conservatives and liberals, it distracts from where the focus ought to be, which is assisting the victims of clergy sexual abuse. The second reason is the attack on Pope Francis, who has shown himself to be a man of integrity, compassion and love, Wester said. In the short five years of his pontificate, he has demonstrated again and again his truthfulness and his love for the vulnerable, even in the midst of strong and painful criticism. The pope, Wester said, has led the Catholic Church with a clear vision that is formed by the Gospel and grounded in our sacred tradition, and has never wavered in his dedication to the poor and marginalized. Just this week, a local law firm that has represented more than 100 survivors of clerical sexual abuse requested that New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas follow the lead of the AGs Office in Pennsylvania and impanel a grand jury to investigate the institutional cover-up of child sexual abuse by clergy in New Mexico. The Journal has repeatedly and unsuccessfully sought comment from Wester to ask him if he would support the impaneling of a grand jury. The FBI arrested a man Thursday for firearm violations after they say he shot and killed a man with a stolen gun in Rio Rancho last week. FBI spokesman Frank Fisher said 42-year-old Francisco Gonzales is in federal custody, facing charges of felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition and being an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance and in possession of a firearm. Authorities say Gonzales is also responsible for shooting Marcos Herrera, 29, before dropping him off at the Sandoval Regional Medical Center, where he died. It is unclear whether the 13th Judicial District Attorneys Office plans to file charges against Gonzales for shooting Herrera, and DA Lemuel Martinez could not be reached for comment Friday. According to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court, Gonzales brother called 911 around 4 a.m. Aug. 20 and said Gonzales had shot Herrera at their home and taken him to a hospital. Authorities say Sandoval County sheriffs deputies pulled Gonzales over shortly afterward, finding both him and his vehicle covered in blood. Gonzales told Rio Rancho police detectives that Herrera had come to his house in a stolen car and claimed to have just killed someone. According to the affidavit, Herrera told Gonzales he was out of ammunition and wanted to borrow Gonzales gun. Authorities say Gonzales refused to lend Herrera the gun and the two men began to argue before getting into a physical fight. Gonzales told detectives his mother broke up the fight and Herrera left the house but came back a few minutes later. According to the affidavit, Gonzales answered the door and shot Herrera after Herrera pointed a gun at him. Authorities say Gonzales gave both guns to his girlfriend and dragged the wounded Herrera into his car before driving him to the hospital. Authorities found the gun Gonzales used on Herrera at the home and determined it had been stolen in March during an auto burglary in Albuquerque. According to the affidavit, authorities also found evidence at the home that Gonzales was a frequent heroin user and had been for several years. CHICAGO The past couple weeks have seen a slew of recriminations and gotcha moments regarding the hot-button issues of illegal immigration and the #MeToo movement. It started with the bombshell about the Italian film actress and director Asia Argento, who grabbed headlines in 2017 for helping to galvanize the #MeToo movement with her allegations of sexual coercion at the hands of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. Argento has been accused of sending cash payments to silence the actor Jimmy Bennett, her co-star when he was 7 years old, who claims Argento sexually assaulted him in 2013 when he was 17. The age of consent in California is 18. The revelations were seen as a blow to womens rights activists, who have been fighting an uphill battle to get men to take seriously the epidemic of mistreatment of women. In the past few months, high-profile men who lost their jobs for harassing women like Matt Lauer, Al Franken, Mario Batali and Charlie Rose have begun publicly plotting their comebacks. Its such a toxic situation that women are embroiled in movement-splintering arguments about whether the Argento case reveals that women are as abusive, manipulative and opportunistic as men. Or if it reveals nothing more than the ugly fact that society is only willing to believe women who come forward about their sexual assault if they are perfect victims whose personal, sexual and professional lives are pure, innocent and unimpeachable. Meanwhile, just a few days after the Argento controversy, a tragic death in California exploded into a heated national debate about immigration. After five weeks of searching for 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts, a college student home on summer vacation, news broke that her body had been found in an Iowa cornfield and that Cristhian Rivera, an unlawfully present immigrant from Mexico, was under arrest for her murder. The Trump administration wasted no time in pointing to the incident as evidence that mobs of illegal immigrants are prowling the United States voraciously looking for women and children to rape or kill, with the only solution being Trumps deportation policies and a costly wall on the southern border. Tibbetts family pleaded with the media to let them grieve in private and asked that their loved ones death not be politicized. Please remember, Evil comes in EVERY color, Billie Jo Calderwood, Tibbetts aunt, wrote on Facebook. Our family has been blessed to be surrounded by love, friendship and support throughout this entire ordeal by friends from all different nations and races. But two horrible, painful events are playing out for families who werent expecting to have their lowest moments paraded through the media. And large swaths of news consumers and social commentators are ignoring facts that are well-established, overwhelming and irrefutable. For starters, women definitely have flaws, but when it comes to sexual violence, its pretty clear who gets victimized most of the time. One in three women experience some form of sexual violence in their lifetime, compared with one in six men, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. And the truth about unauthorized immigrants is that records going back 100 years consistently show that undocumented immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans. These unemotional data points do not, in any way, diminish the real and excruciating pain that victims of violence and their families experience. They deserve more than a statistical dismissal of their anguish those losses, after all, are close and tangible, not just headlines on a smartphone. Still, neither of these terrible incidents should be considered emblematic or representative of any wider legal policies or social norms. We lapse into using high-profile cases to reaffirm our pre-set political beliefs because the human brain and psyche are hardwired to over-simplify and categorize the complex, messy and nuanced overload of information that pours over us daily. Sorting aggressors and victims into angels and devils is a human coping mechanism, but not one without its own victims. We should not be entranced by lurid details into seeing the perpetrators of coercive sexual abuse or cold-blooded murder as a symbol of some larger hypocrisy, conspiracy or societal failure. If they are found guilty, well all be right to feel angry and disgusted with Argento and Rivera. But wed be mistaken to allow them to become poster children the sexually predatory woman; the raping, murdering Mexican for trends when they are actually just horrible outliers. E-mail: estherjcepeda@washpost.com. Twitter: @estherjcepeda. Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group. Turn on prime time television any night of the week and its likely youll find a show about a cold case murder. The program will feature an intrepid detective or two who dig in and Voila! solve the most perplexing cases. The reality, however, is very different. Statistics reveal that more than 40 percent of the time murderers in the United States get away with it. A chilling thought because those who kill without detection can become emboldened and are, of course, free to kill again. Statisticians keep a running tally of whats called the murder clearance rate to determine how many cases are solved each year. Included in the count are those cases that end with an arrest or the identification of a suspect who cant be apprehended for whatever reason for example, they fled the jurisdiction, are deceased, etc. According to the latest figures, the U.S. murder clearance rate now stands at its lowest level since the FBI first began tracking such figures. Translated? Every year thousands of murders occur in America in which no one is held accountable. It takes time for murder investigations to evolve and statistics to be gathered, so the latest murder clearance rate numbers come from 2016. That year, according to the FBI, there were an estimated 17,250 murders and only 59.4 percent were solved. That is the lowest level of clearance ever reported by the FBI. And the Murder Accountability Project, a nonprofit that digs deep into these statistics with the help of the Freedom of Information Act, reports the national clearance rate for murders has been going down steadily since 1965. Not a good trend. Solving murder cases has been especially hard in big cities with serious gang activity. Detroit police were able to clear just 15 percent of their murder cases in 2016. Chicago posted a dismal clearance rate of 26 percent. New Orleans was only slightly better that year solving just 28 percent of its homicide cases. Law enforcement in Memphis found the guilty in just 38 percent of cases. By comparison, the average murder clearance rate in New Mexico was 54 percent; the Albuquerque Police Department scored higher by clearing 60 percent of murder cases that year. Think about how many families across the country will never know who took their loved ones life. Why are murder cases so frequently so difficult to solve? Leaders in police and sheriffs departments, and prosecutors and mayors offices cite several reasons. Tops on all their lists is the reluctance of eyewitnesses to come forward because of the snitches get stitches mantra so often heard in high-crime, low-income neighborhoods. Also standing in the way of solving homicides is the lack of police manpower. In many cities retiring detectives are not readily replaced either for budgetary reasons or because there are simply fewer recruits coming up the ranks to fill the positions. As public attacks on law enforcement have increased, police academies are finding a lot fewer recruits are signing up. Some report class sizes are down 80 and even 90 percent. Eyewitness fears were so serious in Indianapolis, for example, that half the victims who survived gunshots refused to tell police who shot them. Last September, 13-year-old Matthew McGee was shot and killed in a fast-food restaurant parking lot, and none of the 10 young people who witnessed the crime would speak to police. In response Indianapolis established a witness protection fund to help shield those who can provide important testimony. In Boston, a city that saw its clearance rate dip below 50 percent, it was decided to stagger detective shifts so that more were assigned to the weekends when the number of murders often rise. They also made a point of immediately interviewing more witnesses at the scene of the crime and gathering more evidence to send to the Boston crime lab. It is well-established that police investigations are most fruitful in the crucial 48 hours after the crime, so immediately pouring more manpower and attention on a crime scene just makes sense. So does proactive policing, focused on those neighborhoods where most of the violent crimes take place. Its a sad fact that too few people who live in the most violence-prone neighborhoods are willing to stand up and report gang members who commit so many of these unsolved murders. Citizens need to understand that yelling for justice is not enough. Police cannot pursue perpetrators unless they know who they are. And city leaders need to understand the absolute terror eyewitnesses face, do more to gain their trust and institute rock-solid programs to protect them. Criminologist Peter Scharf with Louisiana State University has worked with the New Orleans police department and warns of the terrible cycle thats been created. With every one of these weekends where you see multiple killed and even more wounded and few arrested, he said, The gangs become more emboldened and the witnesses weaker in their conviction to step up.Scharf calls our murder clearance rate a national disaster. Id have to agree. Now, what are we going to do about it? www.DianeDimond.com; e-mail to Diane@DianeDimond.com. For those in the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church who thought the fallout from clergy sex abuse scandals was over and dealt with, it is clear they were sadly mistaken. Public outrage has been renewed by stunning new developments, including accusations by a former high-ranking Vatican official who said Pope Francis himself looked the other way in violation of his zero tolerance policy on sex abuse. Meanwhile, a Pennsylvania grand jury under the state attorney general issued an exhaustive report on sexual misconduct by over 300 predator priests credibly linked to sex abuse of over 1,000 children since 1947. The report documents systematic attempts mostly successful to hide heinous conduct. 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, the report said, noting N.M.s Servants of the Paraclete in Jemez Springs was a laundry for some, who returned to ministry in Pennsylvania the faithful none the wiser. Here in Albuquerque, a law firm that has represented more than 100 survivors of clerical sexual abuse is urging Attorney General Hector Balderas to follow his Pennsylvania counterpart and impanel a grand jury to investigate the institutional cover-up of child abuse by clergy in New Mexico. Theres no way to know how many such cases have occurred here over the years, but attorney Levi A. Monagle of the law offices of Brad D. Hall said in a letter to Balderas close to 350 claims have been brought to the attention of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe beginning in the early 1990s. And for every one case reported, there are many, many victims who havent come forward and remained silent, and many others who have committed suicide along the way, he wrote. All this is against the backdrop of the explosive story of disgraced former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, former archbishop of Washington, D.C., whose resignation Pope Francis accepted in July. Allegations against McCarrick include abuse of minors and sexual relationships with seminarians, going back to 1994. Then last week, a former apostolic nuncio to the U.S. accused senior prelates of complicity in cover-up allegations of sexual abuse by McCarrick. In a published letter, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, 77, claimed Pope Francis knew about sanctions imposed by Pope Benedict XVI on McCarrick for sexual misconduct but chose to repeal them. Vigano, who served as apostolic nuncio in D.C. from 2011-2016, said he told Pope Francis about the sanctions but the pope continued to cover. Some would dismiss Viganos claim as coming from a conservative on the issue of homosexual activity still considered a sin in Roman Catholic doctrine. The sexuality issue is a touchy one in the Church, but one addressed recently in an open letter by Bishop Robert C. Morlino of Madison, Wis., who said the sex-abuse problem extends beyond young children. Read it at madisoncatholicherald.org/bishopsletters. The pope gave a bizarre response to Viganos allegations; instead of denials he urged people to read Viganos letter carefully. Read it at: m.ncregister.com/daily-news/ex-nuncio-accuses-pope-francis-of-failing-to-act-on-mccarricks-abuse. Without question, the church has taken steps to address the problems of sex abuse. Former Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan made it a priority when he was brought to New Mexico after the departure of Archbishop Robert Sanchez, caught up in his own sex scandal. The Archdiocese took a big step by releasing a list of all priests with credible allegations of abuse. It set up services for victims. But it also fought to keep confidential virtually everything in lawsuits filed here. Recent events show much work is needed for the truth to come out. Pennsylvania is closer, given the work by its AG. Balderas should do the same. As for Pope Francis, he has a policy of zero tolerance. The world not just Catholics will be waiting to see if he violated it, and if so, if he applies it to himself. This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers. PHOENIX An Amber Alert was issued Saturday for two young brothers and their biological father missing since the boys mother and a male housemate were found fatally shot in the Phoenix home where police said the victims and boys lived. The alert said 47-year-old Dimas Coronado may have fled to Mexico with the boys, but Sgt. Armando Carbajal, a police spokesman, said investigators had no firm indication of the whereabouts of Coronado or the boys. Police say they want to talk to Coronado about the case but he hasnt been charged. Police say Coronados 2009 white Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck was found unoccupied about six blocks from the home where the shooting occurred. There were no signs of him or the boys. On Saturday night, authorities said they are now looking for an older model light green Ford pickup truck with a white camper. The truck has a Mexican plate of ZUD-71-64. Its not known from which state in Mexico the license plate was issued. The mother and Coronado were married but had been estranged, and its not clear whether they remained married, Carbajal said. Police say a relative of one victim called police early Saturday after finding the two people shot and the boys gone. The relative said the boys were with their mother the previous evening. Police initially identified the boys as 8-year-old Victor Coronado Nunez and 5-year-old Jonathan Coronado Nunez but the alert later identified them as Victor Nunez-Coronado and Jonathan Nunez-Coronado. The revised names for the boys likely reflected information newly learned by detectives, Carbajal said. The investigation was in its early stages, he said. Former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman and actors Warren Beatty and Annette Bening also stopped. "He had America's fighting spirit, our noble idealism, our solemn patriotism, and our slightly irreverent streak - all rolled into one", said McConnell, a colleague of McCain's for 33 years in the Senate. So were members of the military and politicians from both sides of the aisle. It rained briefly as Senator McCain's casket arrived at the U.S. Capitol, along with his family, from grandchildren to his 106-year-old mother, Roberta. McCain suffered from a rare form of brain cancer and had announced through a statement two days prior that he wouldn't be continuing treatment for the disease. Trump infamously said he did not believe McCain was a "war hero" because he was caught during the Vietnam War. McCain's longtime chief of staff Grant Woods, a former Arizona attorney general, drew laughs with a eulogy in which he talked about McCain's "terribly bad driving" and his sense of humour. The church's senior pastor, Noe Garcia, pronounced McCain "a true American hero". The late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., returns to the U.S. Capitol one last time on Friday - where he will lie in state in the rotunda, an honor reserved for roughly only 30 other people since the practice began in 1852. McCain's flag-draped casket is carried up the steps to lie in state in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Friday. McCain helped plan the events around his funeral. On Thursday, Fitzgerald was among those who spoke at McCain's Phoenix-area memorial service, and he shared - with some jokes - how the two developed a mutual respect for each other despite obvious differences in their upbringing and appearance. Speaking to Mr McCain's wife Cindy, he said: "You were his ballast". At the end of the almost 90-minute ceremony, McCain's casket was wheeled out of the church to "My Way", in tribute to a politician known for following his own path based on his personal principles. McCain crossed party lines in July 2017 to vote against the White House-backed skinny repeal of Obamacare, and Trump has brought that "thumbs down" vote up in many speeches since, slamming the senator's actions. "At any moment, he might be preparing an eloquent reflection on human liberty - or a devastating joke, served up with his signature cackle and that John McCain glint in his eye". Trump, who has mocked McCain for being captured during the Vietnam War, was asked to stay away from the Capitol service, people close to the White House and the McCain family said. McCain's funeral will be held at the Washington National Cathedral on Saturday. President Donald Trump defended his response to the death of Sen. McCain ran against Bush for the Republican nomination in 2000 and lost the presidency to Obama in 2008. "I have a very strong opinion, all right". The memorial was laced with humor and featured a racially and ethnically diverse roster of speakers and other participants. On Saturday, a procession will lead McCain's casket to a ceremony in front of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where the senator said he frequently visited to pay tribute. Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) in association with Hot Stuffs, has launched a campaign of promoting eco-friendly use of stainless steel water bottles through a campaign 'Refuse Sinqle Use' that will encourage lesser use of plastics, especially with regard to packaged water plastic bottles and disposable cups and tumblers. This initiative will be carried out throughout the year through various outreach programmes in corporate, schools, colleges, malls, community spaces, societies and so on. To ensure the continuity of its contribution to the cause of conservation, BNHS invites support from all those who care to make a better world for all living beings, including mankind. Hotstuffs has powered the ecopledge on their site where one can take the Refuse Single Use eco-pledge, by visiting https://hotmuggs.com/pages/i-take-the-pledge , fill in the necessary details. This generates a pledge number and a certificate that entitles the person to discounts on lifelong discounts on Refuse Single Use products. There is a special range of products (Stainless steel bottles, mugs & tumblers) under the theme "Refuse Single Use" and' Hot Stuffs contributes Rs. 20/- - to BNHS for every product sold under this range for nature conservation. Earlier the two organizations had organized an Awareness drive titled 'Draw to Save Your Planet' in schools to spread the message that "Most plastic bottles take hundreds of years to decompose", and that in itself is posing to be one of the biggest threats to the future of our planet. The drive witnessed enthusiastic participation from across 50 schools, reaching out to about 35000 students. Rajat Jain, CEO - Hot Stuffs, said, "We take pride in supporting BNHS in this initiative, and help fight the hazards of plastic not only on the planet's health, but to begin with on human health itself. The latest range of products are. designed not only to appeal to the youth, and the health conscious customers, but also promote eco-awareness. Through the school initiatives, we would like to highlight and kindle new ideas in the young minds." Hotstuff, has widest selection of drinkware products like Mugs", travel Mugs, flasks, bottles, and related accessories available under the flagship 'Hot Muggs' brand. Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), one of the largest non-governmental organizations in lndia engaged in conservation and biodiversity research, in association with Hot Stuffs leading drinkware marketers, have undertaken this initiative to create awareness and encourage minimum plastic usage. From September 1, 2018, the Indian arm of Hubert Burda Media will have a brand new name. Exposure Media Marketing Pvt. Ltd., which was acquired by Burda in 2013 and additionally took over Media Transasia Indias consumer magazine business in 2014, will become Burda Media India Private Limited, and by doing so, underline the fact that it is part of the global technology and media company. About the move, Director of Burda Media India Private Limited, Bjorn Rettig, said: We are extremely proud to be part of Hubert Burda Media, one of the worlds most innovative companies in integrating media and technology. As part of this global media powerhouse, Burda Media India can leverage its international brands, digital expertise, and proven business models. This, together with our deep understanding of the Indian market, is the perfect setup to tell compelling stories across multiple platforms and offer our clients tailor-made content solutions. Our rebranding is just the first step, and I can promise you that we will be making some significant and exciting announcements, especially in the field of digital media, in the coming weeks and months. The change of name to Burda Media India Private Limited will roll out across all of the companys media platforms and channels from the beginning of September. FICCI in partnership with Government of Uttar Pradesh organized the fourth edition of Uttar Pradesh Travel Mart from August 26th to 28th, 2018 at Lucknow to promote all strategic discussions in the area of tourism in a substantial way for the state of Uttar Pradesh. The inaugural was held on August 27th, 2018 at Indira Gandhi Pratishthan, Lucknow and the Exhibition along with the B2B meetings was scheduled from August 27th-28th, 2018. MRSS India, 1st & Only Listed Market Research Company presented two Knowledge reports namely- UTTAR PRADESH, a conglomeration of culture, religious & Heritage tourism and Uttar Pradesh- a new growth driver of tourism investment in India at the inaugural. UP is at the cusp of a transformation in terms of its vision, mission and execution of its tourism strategy. Taking a peek at the various steps undertaken by the State Government, FICCI MRSS reports suggests various initiatives for promotion of tourism to the state. The inaugural session was attended by various reputed delegates such as Shri Yogi Adityanath, Honble Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh; Prof. Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Honble Tourism Minister of Uttar Pradesh; Shri Awanish Kumar Awasthi, Additional Chief Secretary & Director General, Department of Tourism, Government of UP. Raj Sharma, Chairman of MRSS India commented This is our 3rd UPTM and we are honored to have prepared 2 knowledge reports this time. In my interaction with the Foreign Tour Operators, I realized that SECURITY was the foremost concern and given my firsthand experience in the state one could see the highly improved law and order situation. This itself is a turnaround factor. Tourism in UP is bound to improve by emphasizing on its 3C factors - Craft, Culture and Cuisine. The year-end assembly elections in the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are being termed as the semi-final ahead of the General Elections in 2019. As the major national parties start their campaigns for the assembly elections, News18 Indias popular show, Bhaiyaji Kahin, will travel to the election bound states in order to capture the real issues from ground zero. It is an innovative show with anchor Prateek Trivedi taking to the streets of India to understand the pulse of the country on various issues. In line with channels commitment to raise relevant issues, Bhaiyaji Kahin will travel through key constituencies in the states providing a platform to people for voicing their concerns, hopes and expectations from the upcoming elections. Through its unique format, the show will also present an opportunity for people to interact with their local leaders at the constituency level. The show will travel to cities such as Alwar, Dausa, Jaipur, Ajmer in Rajasthan; Indore, Bhopal, Vidisha, Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh and Raipur, Durg, Rajnandgaon, Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh amongst many others. Travelling through these cities, the show will not only gauge Aam Aadmis mood but also discuss the work done by current governments through multiple on-ground discussions. The show will aim to bring forth an unparalleled and in-depth ground level view of the states prior to the elections. Watch Bhaiyaji Kahin, starting 3rd September, 2018, Monday to Friday at 5:45 PM Star Maa, Star Indias flagship Telugu GEC, is the third highest viewed channel in the country today [BARC, Wk 34 2018]. Star Maa has consistently been among the top 10 channels of the country in the last few weeks. Star Maa has garnered 936 GRPs, the highest ever for any Telugu brand in the BARC era [BARC, Wk 34 2018, Urban 15+ AP / TS]. The channel has an undisputed leadership, towering by 37 per cent over its competitor, Zee Telugu. Telugu channel rankings in Week 34: Star Maa - 657,052 Zee Telugu - 487,964 Gemini TV - 486,908 ETV Telugu - 465,314 Gemini Movies - 218,436 The channel has built up a host of big properties in fiction, non-fiction and the biggest Tollywood movies. Star Maa claims the No. 1 position in fiction during primetime, with slot leadership in >70 per cent slots. In Week 34, three of the top 5 Telugu shows are on Star Maa: No. 1 Karthika Deepam (10,105) No. 2 Koyilamma (8,174) No. 5 Kumkuma Puvvu (6,180) Bigg Boss Season 2 in Telugu is delivering strong with a whopping 4.4 crore viewers tuning in each week, that is, 1 out of 2 people in the AP/TS universe. Star Maa is gearing up further to entertain the viewers with some impact properties like Pelli Choopulu, where popular TV anchor Pradeep sets out to meet eligible girls and find a potential life partner; The Great Telugu Laughter Challenge, judged by popular Telugu comedy star Bhramanadam; and Mouna Ragam, a poignant story of an unwanted girl child, who survives an illegal abortion attempt and journeys to become the protector of her house. Moreover, Tehran refuses to negotiate with Washington about to sign a new agreement on the Iranian nuclear program. Iran's supreme leader warned Wednesday the country could abandon its nuclear deal with world powers if it no longer served its interests, even as economic and political pressure mounted on the government. Rouhani spoke out in parliament in defence of his economic record, blaming the country's woes on the U.S. sanctions rather than his team's management. It quoted him as saying: "(Economic) officials must ... work tirelessly day and night, in line with policies of the economy of resistance - which entail empowering domestic production". The lawmakers, who have already impeached his labor and economy ministers this month, were unimpressed. They had, weeks earlier, dismissed the labor minister. Iran has argued that US President Donald Trump breached a 1955 treaty with his decision to reimpose the sanctions after withdrawing from a multilateral nuclear accord. In a written statement about the case at the International Court of Justice, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Iran's claims "meritless" and defended the sanctions as a way of keeping Americans safe. A motion was also filed on Wednesday to vote on the impeachment of Education Minister Mohammad Bathaei, over a series of issues linked to school budgets, the curriculum and alleged mismanagement. In votes at the end of the session, they expressed dissatisfaction with Rouhani's responses to four of their five questions on the economy, which will now be referred to the judiciary for review. But when it came to the votes, lawmakers accepted only one of Rouhani's answers - related to global banking sanctions, which they agreed were beyond his government's control. French oil and gas firm Total and automotive outfits PSA and Renault have been among European investors pulling out of Iran the potential reach of USA sanctions. Iran's official unemployment rate is 12 percent, with youth unemployment as high as 25 percent in a country where 60 percent of the 80 million population is under 30. The rial has lost more than two-thirds of its value in a year. What is USA hoping to achieve by reimposing sanctions on Iran? Beside returning sanctions, Washington is also working to hamper Iran's trade with Europe and Asia and push Iran's oil costumers to cut down to zero their purchases. Reuters reported on Tuesday that France has told its diplomats and Foreign Ministry officials to postpone indefinitely all non-essential travel to Iran, citing a foiled bomb plot and a hardening of Tehran's attitude towards France. Aiken County Council Chairman Gary Bunker is pleased with the progress being made in the effort to renovate, retrofit and strengthen the dam at Langley Pond near Warrenville. He reported the work is proceeding at a steady pace after a recent visit to the site with fellow Council members Sandy Haskell and Willar Hightower. Accompanying them was County Engineering Director Teresa Crain, who replaced Joe Berry following his retirement at the end of June. I was impressed with the amount of activity that you could see out there, Bunker said. This is not a construction project where people are sitting around. When we were there, they had excavators going. They were pouring in the slurry, and there were trucks moving dirt. The contractor for the project is Crowder Construction Co. Late last year, County Council approved a resolution to accept the $13.5-million bid from the firm, which is headquartered in North Carolina. Schnabel Engineering created the design and is overseeing the construction. Theyve lowered (the water level) of the pond, and Im told that its about as far down as its going to go, Bunker said. In addition, the dams old ogee crest spillway has been ripped out, he continued. Its gone for the most part. Upstream from it, theyve built a cofferdam that allows them to work in an area that is dry. The construction of a batch plant also has been completed. The plants purpose is to produce the bentonite and concrete mix that they are using in building a new core for the dam, Bunker said. The concrete/bentonite slurry is being poured into a trench (along the length of the dam) that Im told is about 30 inches wide and up to 65 feet deep. Over time, that slurry will harden, and it will become very, very tough. Bentonite is a type of clay. Bunker said the people he and his group met on the site were talking about" putting in a trench drain. Theyre getting close to starting work on the new spillway, which will be more toward the center of the dam, he added. The replacement structure will be a labyrinth spillway, which has a zig-zag design. It will be made out of reinforced concrete. A spillway serves as a passage for surplus water that is being released downstream in a controlled way. +9 Groundbreaking ceremony held for Langley Dam Project BURNETTOWN For the Langley Pond Dam Project's groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday, there were special shovels. In the fall of 2014, leaks were found in Langley Ponds dam after a man, who was walking his dog, noticed the waters color in the creek below the barrier looked different from normal. When the dam was built in the 1850s, it primarily was an earthen structure. The embankment was 900 feet long and 20 feet high. In 1886, during South Carolinas worst earthquake, the dam suffered major damage when a 4-foot wall of water burst through it. Crowder Constructions crews have uncovered the old core of the dam. It is an wooden wall, and there is earth compacted up on both sides of it, Bunker said. They are cutting down some of that and removing it (to make room for the new core). I saw pieces of it, and the workmanship on it is beautiful. Its all tongue and groove, and each vertical piece fits into the next vertical piece. The groundbreaking ceremony for the project was held in March. At that time, the work was expected to take 18 to 21 months to finish. Theyre still looking at completing it in the latter part of next year, and so far, it looks like its coming in on budget, Bunker said. They have been very transparent in providing reports and letting our representatives come out there to watch the progress, so Im very encouraged that were are going to get our moneys worth out of this. Langley Pond and its dam are in Langley Pond Park, which is at 113 Langley Dam Road. Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier? Sign up to receive news and updates from this site directly to your desktop. Breaking News Columbia Breaking News Greenville Breaking News Myrtle Beach Breaking News Aiken Breaking News N Augusta Breaking News Click on the bell icon to manage your notifications at any time. Success! Please click the 'Allow' button in the 'Show Notifcations' alert in your browser if one is available. Thank you for signing up! Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page. Fred Ruggiero, vice-president cargo, Americas for Cathay Pacific, has reported on a very strong year in the Americas so far for the Hong Kong-headquartered carrier. Our monthly network performance has continued to grow from last years base and July was a particularly strong month for transhipment volumes from the US via Hong Kong, he observed. We have built good momentum and want it to continue. But the sky isnt completely blue, of course, Ruggiero warning of the potential problems to cargo volumes caused by the current threat to international free trade. To date, he said, the biggest impact has been on maritime shipping, but he noted that any diminution in consumer confidence in the Americas or elsewhere would soon impact cross-border airfreight traffic. Approximately 20% of the cargo carried by Cathay Pacific from the US is destined for mainland China, he informed, with the balance bound for Hong Kong or other destinations across Asia. But, while the danger of a more protectionist international trade environment is certainly a concern, Ruggiero said he remains cautiously optimistic that the parties involved will find a way to make global trade work. Moreover, he added: Having the ability to schedule aircraft according to demand is one of the benefits of having a large network. We are closely monitoring the situation and will remain agile, Ruggiero promised. And that concern about the global trade environment is not preventing Cathay Pacific from electing to increase its US services from 32 to 39 freighter frequencies a week for the peak fourth-quarter season. Moreover, We are optimistic about the year-end results, he enthused, pointing in particular to contribution of the cargo carriers expansion of operations through Oregons Portland International Airport. In summer, we increased our freighter services to Portland from three to six flights a week to cope with demand from the cherry harvest, Ruggiero recalled. Were approaching our second year of operations there and the Port of Portland is very pleased with how our service has grown. There is no doubt the service has boosted the trade links between the Pacific Northwest and Asia. When we launch our passenger service to Seattle in May next year, the trade links will the further strengthened. Theres plenty to look forward to in the America, he concluded. Port of Portland benefits from increased Cathay freighter uplift Keith Leavitt, the Port of Portlands chief commercial officer, also offered his thoughts on how Cathay Pacific Cargos increased freighter frequencies through the Oregon gateway is stimulating exports to Asia. Cargo is very much part of our mission, he pointed out. Oregon is reliant on trade, and six of our top eight trading partners are in Asia. Our top five export partners in Asia China, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam represent more than 50% of the international trade coming out of the state. For a port that on the US West Coast, Asia is thus a crucial market, and the state of Oregon exports more than it imports. These were, Leavitt remarked, some of the underlying attractions for Cathay Pacific to start a freighter service to Portland in 2016. That link has been expanded by Cathay Pacific since then, with additional services laid on in summer to deal with the export of soft fruits, particularly cherries. Now that the summer is coming to a close and the cherry harvest has finished, the focus will turn to seafood and Dungeness crab from the autumn, along with regular bookings from the citys clothing and high-tech sectors. Leavitt is also expecting significant airfreight growth in coming years from e-commerce. Our team is fascinated with e-commerce, he declared. It feels as if we are in a transformational phase. Its still evolving and I think that will add demand for air cargo. And Cathay Pacific freighter connections out of the airport will play a key role in Portland Airports airfreight growth, Leavitt outlined. Were mindful of the incremental growth that weve seen. [Cathay services to Portland] launched in November 2016 with two flights a week, and flexed up to five in the summer (for cherries), and this year it was three flights a week, flexing up to six. Thats robust growth from a volume perspective. Weve seen 52% growth between June this year and last. That tells you that the market is using the service and the volume. He went on: We hear from our shippers and forwarders that they value the more efficient truck trip to [Portland Airport] as opposed to Seattle, San Francisco or Vancouver BC [British Columbia]. Thats a significant efficiency gain on the front or back end of the trip. Leavitt concluded: We were very interested in having a long-term partner to work with and grow the service. We were mindful of the past 25 years, when weve had freighter services from [Portland] but weve not been able to sustain them. Cathay Pacific is more than meeting our expectations. Read more freighter operator news Click here for a free digital subscription Share this story Ethiopian Airlines inaugurated its first-ever scheduled freighter service to Miami International Airport (MIA) on 29 August. The African carrier is to operate a twice-weekly freighter connection between the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa and Miami, creating the first-ever cargo-only route between the African continent and the Florida gateway. The scheduled service operates on a route that includes stops in Spain, Colombia and Belgium on inbound and outbound services. All flights will be operated by Ethiopians Boeing 777-200LRF aircraft. Carlos Gimenez, the mayor of Miami-Dade County, within whose bailiwick MIA lies, was amongst the first to welcome the inaugural visit and said he looked forward to the additional revenue, jobs and business ties these new flights will bring to our community. Miami-Dade aviation director Lester Sola noted: We applaud Ethiopian Airlines for bringing us MIAs first cargo destination in Africa. Our unrivalled position as the international cargo capital of the US and the gateway of the Americas continues to attract new service from key markets in Europe, the Middle East, and now, one of the busiest air cargo hubs in Africa. The African carrier has also pointed to the value of the Spain-Bogota connection on the services routing. And Tewolde GebreMariam, group CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, added: We are very pleased to see Zaragoza, Miami, and Bogota joining our fast-expanding freighter network in the Americas. The service is expected to carry Inditex high-end textile products from Zaragoza to the Americas. Spain-headquartered Inditex is one of the worlds largest fashion retailers. He further predicted: In line with our strategic roadmap, Vision 2025, we will keep on expanding our cargo destinations worldwide, thereby facilitating trade and economic growth among different regions of the world." Miami growth The Ethiopian Airlines freighter service is the latest all-cargo addition to MIAs runways. During 2017, TACA Peru began a four times a week freighter service that connects Miami with five South American cities; Mexico-based Aeronaves TSM launched a 10 times a week freighter service from Cancun to MIA; and Qatar Airways launched twice-weekly cargo flights from Doha, the service having intermediate stops in Luxembourg, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Quito and Liege. Then, this year, Southern Air launched weekly all-cargo flights to MIA from Hong Kong, routing via Anchorage; Turkish Cargo launched a second weekly frequency from Istanbul; and Polar Air Cargo inaugurated a direct Tokyo freighter connection. In 2017, MIA enjoyed its best-ever year for freight traffic, handling over 2.2 million tons of cargo that passed through the airport. Ethiopian expansion Ethiopian Airlines now serves more than 92 international destinations across five continents. It is expanding its passenger and cargo network extraordinarily quickly. It is also looking for other forms of investment to grow its international presence. Thus, for example, only a few days ago (on August 24), it announced that it had finalised agreements with the government of Chad for the launch of a new national carrier for the country. Ethiopian will have a 49% stake in the joint venture, while the government of Chad will have 51%. GebreMariam remarked: The strategic equity partnership in the launching of the new Chad national carrier is part of our Vision 2025 multiple hub strategy in Africa. The new Chad national carrier will serve as a strong hub in Central Africa availing domestic, regional and eventually international air connectivity to the major destinations in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Chile-based freight carrier LATAM Cargo has launched a dedicated offline pharma hub in Copenhagen, the Danish capital. According to a statement released by the carrier, strong demand for pharma shipping on routes from Europe to Latin America induced it to open its 10th such hub, and its second offline. The Copenhagen hub will have regular GDP-compliant refrigerated truck services to ensure the best possible standards for sensitive pharma shipments such as medicines and vaccines. From the new hub, LATAM Cargo will feed the carriers following services: Amsterdam-Viracopos-Santiago; Brussels-Montevideo; Amsterdam-Brasilia; and Frankfurt-Guarulhos. The hub will, the carrier said, improve the service it can offer to pharma companies in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The airline informed: The new Copenhagen hub is proof of our commitment to continue leading the transportation of pharma products from, to and intra Latin America. In 2017 we were the first to receive the CEIV Pharma certification in the Americas; this being said, we continue to work and expand in order to provide offline markets in Europe with more connections to more destinations in Latin America, with the highest quality standards. About a week ago, LATAM Airlines announced its second-quarter 2018 cargo revenue. Revenue was up by 16.8% year-on-year, driven by a recovery in both imports and exports in the region. The Chilean-based carrier saw cargo revenues for the three months ended June reach $299.7m, helped by a 6.7% increase in cargo yields, mainly due to a better demand environment and the ending of a Brazilian truckers strike. LATAM Airlines has one of the largest route networks in the world, offering air services to around 140 destinations in 25 countries. As well as domestic services within six Latin American countries, its international network takes in destinations in Europe, the US, the Caribbean, Oceania and Africa. LATAM Airlines currently operates a total of 322 aircraft, including Boeing 787s and Airbus A350s. Share this story Vienna-headquartered freight forwarder cargo-partner held a groundbreaking ceremony yesterday (August 30) as it began construction of a new warehouse near Slovenias Ljubljana Airport. The iLogistics Center will provide 25,000 sq m of storage space, as well as 6,000 sq m of small parts and single-pick area, 5,000 sq m of cross dock and block storage space and 4,000 sq m of office space. To be furnished with over 20,000 pallet slots and 44 truck docks, the site is located right next to Ljubljana Airport. The iLogistics Center is scheduled to open its doors next year. The groundbreaking event for the facility was organised in co-operation with the Austrian Chamber of Commerce (WKO) and was attended by the director of ADVANTAGE AUSTRIA Ljubljana, Peter Hasslacher, the Slovenian minister of economic development and technology, Zdravko Pocivalsek, as well as representatives of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce. Stefan Krauter, chief executive of cargo-partner, and Viktor Kastelic, managing director of cargo-partner in Slovenia, acted as hosts. Speaking at the event, Hasslacher recalled: cargo-partner has proven again and again to be ambitious, highly successful, reliable and trustworthy. He applauded the companys significant investment in Slovenia. Krauter explained cargo-partners thinking behind its commitment in Ljubljana: We are investing here in Slovenia because we believe that this special location near the ports of Koper and Trieste will remain an important gateway to Asia and the Mediterranean Sea as well as to former Yugoslavia, Transylvania, Hungary, Austria, southern Germany and parts of northern Italy. We have a very diligent and professional planning phase behind us, which will now be followed by a very productive construction phase. We want to build something which we can all be proud of and which will be the best recommendation for any logistics requirements in the region, Krauter promised. Kastelic added: Slovenia is located right at the crossroads between Western and South Eastern Europe you cant get around it. In recent years, the state has recognised the opportunities offered by logistics as a strategic industry at the highest levels, and is beginning to make investments to fully utilise this potential. Our iLogistics Center is just one stone in this mosaic of opportunity. Finally, Pocivalsek also pointed to Slovenias favourable geostrategic location and its connection to regional market, adding that the country is gaining importance as a logistical vantage point. He further noted: This is thanks in a large part to investments like the cargo-partner iLogistics Center, which bring higher added value and follow sustainable principles. cargo-partner has chosen Brnik, one of the most important entry points, and we sincerely wish for this location to continue to flourish in the future. This development will be supported by investments made in the area, which will also significantly contribute to the global competitiveness of the Slovenian economy, Pocivalsek said. Share this story Muslims in China's far western region of Xinjiang were "being subjected to arbitrary detention, torture, egregious restrictions on religious practice and culture, and a digitized surveillance system so pervasive that every aspect of daily life is monitored", said the letter, signed by 15 US senators and representatives, besides Rubio and Smith. A letter spearheaded by Sen. This comes after a United Nations committee heard reports that up to one million Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang were held in re-education camps, Xinhua news agency reported. The north-western Xinjiang region is home to more than 10 million members of the Uyghur Muslim minority group. Media reports claim they are forced to wear Chinese Communist Party (CCP) military uniforms, sing patriotic songs, denounce their Islamic faith and criticize their peers as part of a systematic indoctrination process. On Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said United States lawmakers should "serve their Americans properly instead of poking their noses in other countries' affairs". "I would like to advise the individual US lawmakers to focus on and perform their duties well because they are spending taxpayer money", spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters. "They might be able to possess to with out a doubt relief the Americans properly in its save of poking their noses in other countries' affairs and pretending to be a put off of human rights". Outside of the camps, the activities of China's Uighur population continue to be monitored heavily, and their rights continue to be restricted, with entry to public spaces such as trains and Chinese-Han-owned establishments such as many hotels and restaurants, being denied. The UN panel said it was alarmed by "numerous reports of detention of large numbers of ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities held incommunicado and often for long periods, without being charged or tried, under the pretext of countering terrorism and religious extremism". The report, released on Thursday, follows a hearing in Geneva earlier this month where some 50 high-level Chinese officials took questions from the committee. Lethal ethnic riots in its capital in 2009 killed a full bunch and sporadic violence came about in subsequent years. China's Foreign Ministry rejected the allegations at the time, and said anti-China forces were behind the criticism of Beijing's policies in Xinjiang. The Magnitsky Act was originally created to target Russian human rights violators, but has been expanded to allow sanctions for abuses anywhere in the world. Beijing has never confirmed existence of the camps. Along with Chen, other Chinese officers named within the letter include Hu, the Chinese delegate to the U.N. human rights meeting, who's an legit with the Communist Party's United Front Work Department; Xinjiang Deputy Party Secretary Shohret Zakir; and the head of Xinjiang's Politics and Law Commission Zhu Hailun. The letter changed into signed by a bipartisan team of senators and congressmen, at the side of Ted Cruz and Sherrod Brown. Whether it is the lavish spending of well-connected elites or the nepotism evident in state institutions, there seems to be no shortage of reasons for Iranians to be outraged at rampant corruption at a time of economic crisis. The intensity of public anger has forced the Islamic Republic to respond. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called for swift and just action against economic corruption. The judiciary has taken its cue, with prosecutors poised to try dozens of businessmen for economic disruption. Government officials are not immune from these investigations. Earlier this month, top prosecutor Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said, Any official who needs to be summoned will be, from director generals to managers to deputies and [even] ministers. The deputy governor of Irans central bank was among the first to be detained. The crusade against corruption is clearly an attempt to convince the public that existing anti-corruption laws will finally be enforced. The legal framework to counter corruption is primarily defined in the Islamic Penal Code and the Aggravating the Punishment for Perpetrators of Bribery, Embezzlement and Fraud Act, which outlaw bribery, the trading of influence, embezzlement, money laundering and fraud, among other crimes. Iran also ratified the United Nations Convention Against Corruption in 2009. But most of these laws focus on deterring the crimes of individuals. The main challenge is the overall environment that enables corruption. In other words, to be successful, the fight against corruption cannot merely focus on punishing corrupt actors. Indeed, the propensity of individuals to engage in corruption has been shown to be influenced by cultural factors. Fostering a different approach to leadership that emphasizes transparency and accountability a process the state refers to as "farhangsaazi' ('"culture building") is a long-term project. To achieve tangible results in the short run, the government thus ought to focus on shutting down opportunities for rent-seeking. In the early 1990s, political economists Timothy Frye and Andrei Shleifer surveyed entrepreneurs to understand why businesses faced less corruption in Poland than in Russia, two countries where the state remained an interventionist force in the economy at the time. They discovered that in Poland, the state was above the law but used its authority in ways that were generally helpful to business. In this helping hand model, bureaucrats are intimately involved in promoting private economic activity: they support some firms and kill off others, pursue industrial policy, and often have close economic and family ties to entrepreneurs. In Russia, the situation was different. While the state was just as interventionist as in Poland and also above the law, the key difference was that state actors tended to actively prey on businesses. Russia exemplified the grabbing hand of corruption, where the state consists of a large number of substantially independent bureaucrats pursuing their own agendas, including taking bribes. Although these bureaucrats embraced "helping hand" rhetoric, in reality they are scarcely guided by a unified public-policy stance, and they remain largely independent of radical economic reforms. For decades, Iran has vacillated between the helping and grabbing hand models. But it appears that corruption has recently grown more disorganized and predatory, especially as the country slides into an economic crisis exacerbated by the reimposition of US sanctions. The clench of the grabbing hand has grown stronger. The behavior of state-owned petrochemical companies amid the ongoing currency crisis is a case in point. As the Rouhani administration struggled to meet rising demand for hard currency in connection with the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal earlier this year, the Central Bank and Oil Ministry jointly instructed petrochemical companies, some of the countrys largest exporters, to make their hard currency revenues available for sale through NIMA, the newly instituted centralized foreign exchange marketplace. But the companies largely refused, dragging their feet for months in order to profit from the accelerating devaluation. Rather than sell their foreign currency at the lower official exchange rate, reports suggest they may have sought to sell some of their hard currency revenues at the much higher rate on the open market, in a move inconsistent with the economic interests of the Islamic Republic. In a situation of organized corruption, the privileges maintained by petrochemical firms by virtue of their state-ownership would require that they act in line with the overall economic interests of the authorities and thus in accordance with defined public policy. That is clearly not what happened. The petrochemical companies "grabbed" rather than "helped." Earlier this week, prominent economist Hossein Raghfar described how these companies had been shown to be accountable to no one. In the end, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh reportedly threatened to dismiss the directors of petrochemical companies that did not comply. But the damage had already been done. To push Irans economy back toward the helping hand model, the countrys elected institutions the presidency and parliament must devise an anti-corruption campaign that prioritizes legislation over a judicial crusade. Given that the weak rule of law in Iran stems from issues including a lack of independent auditing of government accounts, poorly publicized laws and government data, a lack of complaint mechanisms and ineffective investigations, the importance of legislative reform becomes clear. Beyond laws criminalizing corrupt practices, legislative reforms ought to include a focus on strengthening financial transparency, capping the length of tenures in government, limiting the ability for public servants to enter the private sector, managing conflicts of interests, regulating government procurement channels and preventing use of insider information. If there is sufficient political will, Iran can make improvements in these areas. In one shift, parliament recently moved to strengthen a 2016 law that banned the rehiring of retired officials to government posts, amending it to include mandates for hiring younger Iranians into higher ranks in the bureaucracy. The move comes as there is a lively debate among experts around the world as to whether long tenures in government discourage corruption by creating job security, or whether careers amounting to life tenures stifle the meritocracy that can help prevent corruption. In any case, to whatever extent corruption is a current feature of Irans bureaucracy, empowering younger officials to move up the ranks should help improve institutional cultures and increase accountability. Hope is also offered by the still-advancing effort to pass the legal reforms required by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) action plan, which would see Iran bring its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing standards closer to international ones. In a recent interview, economist Mehdi Pazouki called the FATF reforms essential to any anti-corruption drive and noted that Iran will eventually meet the FATF requirements, recognizing it has paid a price for non-compliance. Ordinary Iranians pay the price for institutional corruption every day. It remains to be seen whether their government will recognize their frustrations as the impetus for long overdue change, including a return of a helping rather than grabbing hand. MOSCOW On Aug. 30, Syrias Foreign Minister Walid Muallem came to Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. In recent weeks, political clouds over Syria have been piling up. These include President Bashar al-Assad's apparent preparations for a phased offensive on Idlib; that Russia and Turkey have been actively engaging behind the scenes to work the crisis out; that the United States has warned Damascus of grave consequences over a possible use of chemical weapons; and that both Russian and American militaries are beefing up their military presence in the Mediterranean. The day before the Muallem visit to Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov had a phone discussion with Syrian opposition leader Nasra al-Hariri to discuss possible options for a peace settlement in Syria. The conversation is part of an effort by Moscow to establish a dialogue line between Damascus and what Russia sees as constructive opposition. Russias real single biggest concern amid the ongoing developments was expressed earlier at Lavrovs meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir. "I hope our Western partners will not give in to (rebel) provocations and will not obstruct an anti-terror operation" in Idlib, Lavrov said. Until now, Moscow had been coming to the belief that although the crisis involving Idlib is serious, Russias contacts with Turkey were capable of producing a diplomatic solution that would ultimately suit all parties, at least for the time being, and that could deal a blow both to the terrorists and to those from the opposition who continue to refuse to lay down arms. For a couple of months, Moscow has been steadily promoting what it saw as its next priority in the Syria campaign facilitation of the return of refugees. Russia's contacts with major countries hosting refugees in the region Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey yielded some good fruit: Governments in Amman, Beirut and Ankara, by and large, embraced Russias approach and were gradually coming on board on most of Russia's initiatives. It was more difficult with the Europeans, and Germany and France in particular, since Paris and Berlin continue to be of the opinion that any massive return of refugees should happen only after needed social, political and security conditions are created and people feel safe. Yet even this wasnt seen as too much of an issue, as the Kremlin expected growing popular European dissent over the presence of refugees, increased social and financial pressure on European budgets and European politicians' concerns about their own political futures to ultimately push European leaders to get on board with Russian proposals. The issue of the threat of force over the use of chemical weapons that popped up rather unexpectedly yet again makes Russia's leadership wary that the United States intends to derail what Moscow had been seeing as a clear-cut path to Russia's next Syria success. A senior Kremlin official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that American officials want to play spoiler big time. They are disgusted that weve gotten an upper hand in dealing with this crisis and now they want to put spokes in every wheel we are trying to make roll. Lavrov points to another challenge Moscow sees for itself with the United States in Syria. The American presence in Syria goes beyond a military aspect. By arguing against international engagement in creating conditions for the return of refugees to the Syrian territory that is under government control, our American partners are doing their best in developing the east of Euphrates, restoring infrastructure there, rebuilding socio-economic ties, even creating quasi-official governance bodies. This is fraught with attempts to split Syria and is a blunt violation of all UNSC resolutions that demand respect for Syrias sovereignty, Lavrov complained at the press conference with Muallem while referring to the UN Security Council.. For now, however, Russia is preoccupied with preventing a major military escalation around Syria similar to that in April when US-led strikes hit a few Syrian army targets. A few days ago, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov met with David Satterfield, the acting assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs, and James Jeffrey, the newly appointed American Syria envoy. The Russian Embassy in the United States said on its Facebook page, The meeting went well, in a professional manner. We expressed serious concerns over signs that the US prepares new strikes on Syria over a pretext of chemical weapons use. We noted to Americans that such rhetoric on their side may be interpreted by different terrorist and pseudo-humanitarian groups like 'White Helmets' as a signal for staged provocations. We briefed them in detail on how terrorists from Jabhat al-Nusra are getting prepared for a provocation with the use of chemicals in Idlib to pin the attacks on the Syrian government. We warned the US against yet another groundless and illegal aggression against Syria. Another exacerbation of the situation in Syria doesnt meet anyones national interests. Its our hope that the United States will take necessary steps to prevent terrorists from using toxic chemicals and will act responsibly. Last week, the secretary of Russias National Security Council, Nikolay Patrushev, met with US national security adviser John Bolton in Geneva to pass on a number of Russian proposals for cooperation on Syria. US officials, according to the Russians, promised to take time to review them. Russia appears to understand that its arguments haven't been very convincing as for as the United States is concerned. And while the diplomats are doing what they have to be doing in this situation, the military is also doing its part. Over the last few days, Russia has gathered its biggest naval military presence in the Mediterranean, pulling ships from its Northern, Black Sea, Baltic and Caspian fleets. By now it reportedly has 10 combat ships, two submarines and a supply tanker with more ships to arrive in the coming days. To further deter Western powers from a possible military action, Russia's Defense Ministry announced that it will begin major naval drills near the Syrian coast Sept. 1. The situation in Syria has a significant potential to become more complicated and the situation around Idlib leaves a lot to be desired, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in commenting on the news about the drills. The Kremlin source added, Conversations with Turks arent going easy but we are optimistic in that both parties are genuinely inclined to find a mutually acceptable solution. Another outside military escalation in Syria now will be seen as a clear intent to hamper this process. Frankly, its irritating and exhausting that every time theres a need for a needle to fix certain fine things there comes a guy with an ax saying hes going to fix it altogether. Russias frustration essentially reflects the underlying disagreements with the United States over Syria that have existed since the early days of the conflict. Moscow continues to see the United States as a force that is damaging for Syria, but also a force with enough power that Russia has continuously sought for Moscow and Washington to do something constructive together. The United States, having much less appetite for any cooperation, in turn appears to see Russia as a powerful force to reckon with in Syria and dangerous enough to be cautious with while at the same time seeking to avoid damaging American interests even though different administrations have had a blurry view of what those are in the case of Syria. A Russian proverb says fight off the difficulties with your mind and the dangers with your experience. Its yet another time when the parties have to resort to good thinking to avoid putting to the test the experience they both have accumulated throughout the conflict. Police in Los Angeles fatally shot a former actress from the show "ER" on Thursday after she grabbed a BB gun while they were responding to a welfare check at her apartment, authorities said. Vanessa Marquez, 49, who played a nurse on the hit 1990s television show, died at the hospital after being shot in the torso, officials said. The episode unfolded around 1:48 p.m. on Thursday after three police officers sought to do a welfare check on the woman along with a mental health clinician at her apartment in a three-apartment building in Pasadena. The officials found that Marquez was undergoing some medical problems, including seizures, Lt. Joe Mendoza of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department told reporters. According to Los Angeles Times, they had been summoned to her apartment by her landlord, who was concerned about her. "It appeared that the female was gravely disabled," Mendoza said. Police said that the officers believed that she could be suffering from mental-health issues and said that she appeared to be unable to care for herself. Celebrity deaths 2018 120 Gallery: Celebrity deaths 2018 They group began to try to communicate with the woman, Mendoza said, but she was very uncooperative. They spoke with her for more than an hour and half before she eventually "armed herself," with a BB gun that resembled a semiautomatic handgun, and pointed it at officers, Mendoza said. The shooting happened on the landing at the top of the stairs to her apartment. At least one of the officers fired, striking her in the chest, Mendoza said. He did not give details about how many shots were fired. The Times reported that there was evidence of several bullet holes at her apartment complex. The officers, who were not identified, were not injured but were undergoing routine medical examinations, Mendoza said. Police declined to provide photographs of the BB gun that they said Marquez wielded. At least 679 people have been fatally shot by police in 2018, according to a database maintained by The Washington Post. Marquez had a relatively prolific acting career in the 1990s, acting in some 27 episodes of ER, the film "Stand and Deliver," and other television series such as "Malcolm & Eddie," "Seinfeld," and "Melrose Place." Her acting career seemed to have slowed in recent decades, but she made waves in the fall when she accused George Clooney of blacklisting her after she had spoken up about alleged harassment on the set of ER. Clooney said that as an actor he had no role in the show's casting decisions. According to Variety, Marquez said she suffered from immune disorders, including celiac disease, and that she experienced chronic pain and was "homebound." "A person only has so much strength and I'm afraid I've used all mine up," she wrote in one of her social media posts. "Why couldn't my dream have lasted for more than just those few years?" A 16-year-old was shot and killed early Saturday inside his east Birmingham home. Birmingham police said the victim, William Edwards, was in his bedroom when he was shot and killed by gunfire from outside the home. An unknown person fired multiple rounds from outside the residence and into Edwards' room, police said. At this time, police investigators don't believe the shooting was random. Police have no suspect information. Edwards was a junior at Woodlawn High School. He was the captain of the football team. East Precinct police officers responded at 12:20 a.m. to the home at 331 80th Street North after notification from Shot Spotter, the city's gunfire detection system. Once on the scene, they found the Edwards inside the home unresponsive. Birmingham Fire and Rescue also responded to the home and pronounced the boy dead. Birmingham City Schools released this statement about the slaying: "William Edwards was an 11th grade student at Woodlawn High School, and a member of the football team. Beginning Tuesday, and throughout the week, grief counselors will be available at the school to provide grief counseling and support for any students or staff in need." Woodlawn High School football Coach Karl Powe said Edwards was the leader of the football team. "He will be deeply missed," he said. "William was a great kid," Powe said in a Saturday morning interview with AL.com. "He was a very fun kid. He played hard." He said Edwards was already being scouted and was considered a NCAA Division 1 football prospect. "He had that type of talent," Powe said. Powe said Edwards didn't play in a home game against American Christian Academy on Friday night. Edwards' mother wouldn't let him play in the game, he said, adding that he suspected it was because of a family emergency. The coach said Edwards handed him his jersey when the team was loading the bus for Lawson Field, where the team's home games are played. Edwards told him he loved him, like he always did, Powe said. Hours later, at around 2:30 a.m., Powe said Edwards' grandmother called to say the teenager was killed. "Of course, after that all of my kids (players) started calling me," he said. William is the 76th homicide in Birmingham in 2018. Of those, five have been ruled justifiable and therefore are not considered criminal by Birmingham police. In all of Jefferson County, there have been 108 homicides including the 76 in Birmingham. "We will do everything we can to solve this and all other crimes in the city," police Chief Patrick Smith said in a statement. "It is always heartbreaking when senseless violence take away young precious lives. It impacts our communities, schools and students. Our hearts are with his family and friends. We will work endlessly to bring his violent killer to justice." Friends and family will hold a balloon release in his memory at 4 p.m. Sunday at East Lake Park. Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205 -254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. AL.com reporter Erin Edgemon contributed to this report. An inmate who escaped from the Childersburg Work Release Center on Tuesday was recaptured early Saturday morning. Marcus Jermaine Smith, 35, surrendered to Tuscaloosa police and U.S. Marshals at around 1:19 a.m., according to the Alabama Department of Corrections. Smith is currently serving a 20-year sentence for a 2006 conviction of second-degree assault out of Tuscaloosa County. Smith was described as a black male, weighing 180 pounds and is 6 feet tall. He has black hair and brown eyes. He's one of only 19 in the country and the only electronic detection K9 in Alabama. "Banner" the dog is the newest -- and arguably the most popular -- member of the Madison County sheriff's office. He lives and works with Deputy Cathy Davis, an investigator for the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. "Banner" is trained to sniff out electronic media devices, including tiny memory cards and other storage devices. Those devices are often evidence in cases of child pornography, financial crimes and other illegal computer activity. Lt. Donny Shaw said in local cases where investigators find probable cause and get search warrants, "Banner" will head to the scene. Once investigators have searched the property, "Banner" will make a final sweep and sniff for any devices that investigators may have missed. A single piece evidence could be vital for successful prosecution, investigators say. In the case of Jared Fogle, the now-former Subway star, who pleaded guilty to child sex crimes, a similar pooch named "Bear" sniffed out a key piece of evidence. Investigators had missed the thumb drive -- which contained images pornographic images of minors--during a search of Fogle's Indiana home, NBC News reported. "The people that do this (computer crimes), try to conceal the illegal activity they're doing," Shaw said. "Banner" is a Labrador Retriever. He's about a year and a half old. He was trained and certified in Indiana. Shaw said the sheriff's office got about $11,000 in grant money to pay for "Banner" and his training. The ASEA Advance Life Foundation and Operation Underground Railroad partnered to fund the training. "Our dog will be available to assist other agencies in their investigations," Shaw said. "We'll be proud to assist and to take these predators off our streets." He said Banner is a "blessing to the sheriff's office and north Alabama." The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, known as ICAC, monitors online activity and conducts undercover operations. The goal is to identify predators before they reach children. Alabama's statewide ICAC team formed in 2000. If you were looking for Huntsville soldier Michael Brown on Friday, you needed to search 30 feet under water in the U.S. Space & Rocket Center's dive tank. Staff Sgt. Brown, a combat veteran and wounded warrior based at Redstone Arsenal, went to the bottom of the tank to take his oath of re-enlistment from fellow diver and Lt. Col Gary Blount. Brown chose the center's Underwater Astronaut Trainer "as a fitting location to marry his two passions, the Army and scuba diving," the Army said in a press release. It's where Brown loves to be, and that's something of a surprise to him and everyone else. "In 2007, two years after joining the army, my left leg was blown off below the knee," Brown explained after surfacing. It happened in Mosul, Iraq, 33 days after he deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom. An RKG-3 anti-tank grenade hit Brown, and he was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Hospital where military doctors have learned how to perform surgical miracles. Brown got specially designed prosthetic leg and also something to think about. "I was taught to scuba dive as part of adaptive rehabilitation - to think outside the box about what my 'new normal' could be," Brown said Friday. Sky diver, scuba diver, rock climber and mountain biker. You don't think of wounded soldiers in those terms, Brown said, but he is all them and more. Scuba diving is a special love, Brown said, because it "provides a pain-free environment for me to explore the wonders of the ocean, uninhibited by the burdens I feel on the surface from my disability." "I couldn't have done that without my family," Brown said of his recovery. He thanked his sister, his wife, Kim, and his daughter, Alyssa. "Words can't express how much I love you," he told his wife. Brown is currently an aide to the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command's command sergeant major. His re-enlistment adds seven more years to his Army career, and that will take him to 20 years service and retirement eligibility. That's the long-term goal. Short-term, Brown wants to lead soldiers. A Chambers County woman was indicted on six counts of attempted first-degree extortion of a local district judge, Attorney General Steve Marshall announced Friday. The 62-year-old Valley woman Dorothy Sledge was arrested on the indictment at the Chambers County Jail, where she has been held since her bond on a previous charge was revoked after the extortion charges, the AG's office said in a statement. The indictment charges Sledge with sending sex separate letters threatening former District Judge Joel Holley. An indictment is accusation, not a conviction. Sledge was initially arrested on the charges July 6 while she was out on bond on a previous charge of second-degree arson, officials said. She was charged with intentionally setting fire to her home in an effort to unlawfully obtain insurance proceeds. She was indicted on the arson charge in February. The case is still pending in Chambers County Circuit Court. Her husband, former district attorney Ronald Sledge, 65, was indicted on two counts of first-degree theft after he was charged with taking funds from the bank account of a minor for whom he was appointed as a conservator, officials said. Both Ronald and Dorothy Sledge will appear before Circuit Judge Tom Young for a status hearing on Sept. 13, officials said. If convicted, Dorothy Sledge faces up to 10 years in prison for each of the six counts of attempted first-degree extortion, which is a Class C felony in Alabama. She faces up to 20 years for the second-degree arson charge, which is a Class B felony. Roland Sledge faces up to 20 years in prison for each first-degree theft charge, which is a Class B felony. This is an opinion column. When Oliver Robinson resigned from the Alabama Legislature in late 2016, he said he was making way for his daughter Amanda to take a job in the governor's office. Governor Robert Bentley had offered her a job as his liaison to the Alabama Legislature, and Robinson said he didn't want her to have a conflict of interest. But now we know the rest of the story. Federal authorities were investigating Robinson for his part in a bribery scheme. Through the law firm Balch & Bingham, Drummond Co. vice president David Roberson paid Robinson to use his influence to oppose EPA cleanup efforts in north Birmingham and Tarrant. By resigning, Robinson hoped the feds would leave him alone. But they didn't. And less than a year later he pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges and agreed to testify against the other two. But this column isn't about Oliver Robinson, who's going to prison. This column is about Amanda Robinson who, court records and testimony show, did at least as much work in the north Birmingham as her father -- convincing people in those communities not to have their soil tested for lead, carcinogens and other toxins. And the same Amanda Robinson who the Alabama Senate hired earlier this year to serve as a legal advisor for $92,057 a year. Get Smart While being paid by Balch and Drummond through her father's nonprofit, Amanda headed a fake grassroots organization called Get Smart Tarrant. Billing records, emails and other evidence introduced in court show Amanda Robinson worked closely and constantly with Balch & Bingham lawyer Joel Gilbert. Get Smart Tarrant never incorporated as a business or registered as a nonprofit, but the work it did was real. This wasn't some kind of no-show job. At Get Smart, Amanda went into neighborhoods and into churches in north Birmingham and Tarrant, where she personally appealed to residents, ministers and neighborhood officers to resist the EPA. If residents let the EPA test their soil, she told them, their homes would be labeled toxic waste dumps and their property values would sink through the ground. Her father might have turned his back on the residents there, but Amanda looked them in the eye. While working for polluters, Amanda Robinson was paid $6,000 a month to convince those folks that the EPA was their enemy and to not let the federal agency test their soil. She didn't tell who was paying her. Get Smart's literature, which she helped distribute in those communities, didn't disclose it, either. And as part of her job, Amanda later testified, she signed her names on letters to state officials -- letters written for her by Gilbert. Amanda was never accused of a crime, and during the trial in June, she testified as a prosecution witness. Moving on Before taking the job in the Alabama Senate, Amanda had two jobs. The first was Get Smart. The second was with the governor's office. The governor had an excuse, at least. When Bentley hired her, the bribery scandal wasn't public. But when the state Senate hired Amanda Robinson earlier this year, much of that background was a Google search away. I called Alabama Senate Pro Tempore Del Marsh to ask why she was hired. Marsh told me Amanda's position was one of two appointed by the minority caucus, so I called the Alabama Senate minority leader, Billy Beasley, to ask him. According to Beasley, Robinson was one of two applicants for the job. Her experience is what set her apart from the other candidate, he said. "We felt she had the background that stood out," Beasley said. And the Get Smart stuff? "I have to plead that I was not aware of that," he said. Oliver Robinson face sentencing later this month. Even after his cooperation, he's going to prison. On the witness stand, he said he hoped to get out early enough to spend time with this family. But this column isn't about him. It's about his daughter, another one of the corruption-adjacent. And she's been taken care of. Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group. Want access to the best analysis and in-depth reporting about Alabama each week? Sign up for the weekly Reckon Report newsletter and follow Reckon on Facebook and Twitter. Following a committee recommendation delivered on Thursday, trustees on Friday approved a plan to change the name of Mobile's USA Medical Center to University Hospital. "The University Hospital name expresses our unique mission to provide medical education, innovative care and cutting edge treatments stemming from academic research, and it brings all of our components together under the USA Health umbrella," said Dr. John Marymont, the University of South Alabama's vice president for health affairs and dean of its college of medicine. A statement released by USA after the unanimous vote by its board of trustees said that USA Health will serve as the "umbrella brand" for USA's healthcare institutions, "Including USA Health Children's & Women's Hospital, USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute and USA Health Physicians Group." Owen Bailey, the CEO of USA Health, had said Thursday that the effort to rebrand USA's medical-care side followed a similar effort to refresh marketing of its academic side a couple of years ago. "We did some research, polled the community and learned a lot of things about the perception of USA Health in this community," Bailey said. USA health leaders came to feel they needed to do more to emphasize the academic foundation of their hospitals. Mike Haskins, USA's executive director of marketing and communications, had said that if trustees approved the change at Friday's meeting, an intensive marketing campaign would be launched to promote public awareness over the next six weeks or so. A 22-year-old Foley man was killed early Saturday morning in a single-vehicle crash in Baldwin County. Samuel E. Clayton was killed when the vehicle he was riding in left the roadway, struck a group of trees and flipped several times, according to Alabama state troopers. Clayton wasn't wearing a seat belt and was ejected from the vehicle. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The crash occurred at around 2 a.m. on Baldwin County Road 10 near the intersection of County Road 19 in Bon Secour. The driver of the 2011 Chrysler 300 and another passenger were transported by ambulance to South Baldwin Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Troopers continue to investigate. If you live anywhere south of Kentucky and east of New Mexico, you have probably done a dance I call the fire ant boogie. It doesn't need to be taught. Seconds after you blunder unknowingly through a fire ant mound, which if you live where fire ants live, you will do, your ankles suddenly feel like they have burst into flame. You will do the fire ant boogie, trying to shake off your ant tormenters. I'm sure we have all wondered whether that fire scorching our ankles was due to ant bites or ant stings. The answer is yes. They bite and they sting. However, the bite is trivial. You probably didn't even feel it. They bite only to anchor themselves to a bit of skin or a shaft of hair, so that they can then repeatedly stab you with their stinger, each time injecting another load of venom. Each ant will sting you about half a dozen times in quick succession if she gets a chance. Yes, all those stinging ants are females -- sterile female workers. The seldom-seen males are black rather than red and have wings. Stingers evolved from what was originally an egg-laying device, so you wouldn't really expect males to have them. By the way, be thankful that they sting you so few times. Fire ant workers have enough venom to sting as many as thirty times. If you stop dancing long enough to look at them closely, you will notice that fire ant females come in many sizes. The largest ones can weigh twenty times as much as the smallest ones. But beware of a small ant's fury. Small ones, it turns out, inject more venom than large ones. And Southerners quit your whining. According to the Schmidt sting pain scale, fire ant stings are not so bad. Yes, there really is such an sting pain scale, thanks to entomologist Justin Schmidt. Just as Consumer Reports rates cars or refrigerators or weed-whackers, Schmidt rates the painfulness of insect stings. Of course to do this, he must allow himself to be stung by every species he rates, which at last count was well over 150 of them. On his 0 to 4 scale, 0 is a sting that you don't even feel, 2 is the sting of a honeybee, and 4 is the sting of a tarantula hawk wasp or a one-inch tropical bullet ant, which Schmidt describes as "like walking over flaming charcoal with a three inch nail embedded in your heel." The man is a poet of pain. On the Schmidt scale, fire ant stings rate a relatively mild 1.2. However, that's the rating for only one ant. Fire ants make up for their puny venom with numbers. Most of us get stung by dozens of them at the same time. But I come to praise fire ants, not to bury them with derision about the potency of their stings. If you admire biological sophistication and success, then you have to admire what are now officially named Red Imported Fire Ants or RIFA's for short. RIFA's may be the most successful invaders since the Vikings. Originally from Argentina and southern Brazil, they have invaded Australia, New Zealand, China, and many islands in the Caribbean as well as north America. They first came ashore in the U.S. in the early 1930's around Mobile harbor, stowaways in the soil of imported plants. That's right, Alabama can lay claim to being the beachhead of fire ant invasion on this continent. Although workers are wingless, fire ants spread by flight. At certain times of the year, colonies produce winged males and females that take to the air in so-called nuptial flights. Having mated once, and only once, while in flight, the females will alight, break off their wings, dig into the soil, and start laying eggs to found a new colony. From Mobile, they rapidly spread east, north, and west until by the mid-1950's the US Department of Agriculture decided enough was enough. They were causing so much damage to people and property that they needed to be eradicated. In what was basically a carpet bombing campaign throughout the southeast, they employed potent insecticides to try to poison the RIFAs into oblivion. The carnage among pets, livestock, wildlife, and native insects was impressive. After one bout of aerial insecticide bombardment, Monroeville, Alabama hauled more than 700 domestic fowl and 60 dog and cat carcasses to the city dump. Nor was livestock spared. And people? No one knows. However, by the time this indiscriminate, poorly conceived, eradication program was halted, fire ants had increased their range by another 50%. This catastrophe caught the attention of marine biologist and nature writer, Rachel Carson, whose 1962 book Silent Spring documented the environmental impact of indiscriminate pesticide use. That book is credited with helping launch the modern environmentalism. Who would have guessed that fire ants were indirectly responsible for environmental activism? So what is the secret of fire ants' success? One big contributor to their success is people. Fire ants thrive in grassy open areas like parks, pastures, playgrounds, and lawns. Over time, of course, we have created more and more of this prime fire ant real estate. A second contributor is their willingness and ability to eat pretty much anything -- dead animals of almost any sort, small defenseless animals of almost any sort, insects, earthworms, seeds, plant sap, you name it. Because they eat almost anything, fire ants can reach stupefying numbers. Each mixing bowl-size mound represents a fire ant colony of roughly 200,000 ants. There can be as many as 400 mounds on the best of fire ant acres. Putting these two things together, it is possible to find as many as 80 million fire ants, which altogether weigh as much as about 80 people, on a single acre. Fire ant colonies are also particularly adept at surviving flooding as you may have seen from the television footage of flooding in Houston during Hurricane Harvey last year. As ground water rises, the workers will hoist their queen and all of the developing larvae aboard a living raft of hundreds of thousands of ants. These ant rafts can float for a couple of weeks if need be and afterwards continue on as a successful colony once the waters recede. By the way, if you happen upon such an ant raft, avoid it. The colony feels particularly vulnerable when afloat and they sting even more ferociously than usual. The northerly spread of fire ants appears to be limited by cold. Unusually bad winters in Tennessee, the current northerly limit of their range, kill off a substantial number of colonies. But we all know that unusually harsh winters are becoming more and more rare. Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, get ready for the fire ant boogie. London, England A new self-help book covers everything from microaggressions in the workplace and the intricacies of dating, to education and identity. But unlike other books in the genre, Slay In Your Lane The Black Girl Bible was written by two black British women as an attempt to not only empower, but also dissect structural racism in the UK. One chapter opens the sensitive subject of dating as a black woman. Preferences arent born in a vacuum, says Yomi Adegoke, author and journalist. Another section tackles the various hurdles black British women face at work in order to grow professionally. Nine publishers fought for the book, which was released in July. Al Jazeera spoke to Slay In Your Lane authors Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinene, who is a marketing manager. They are both 26 years old, have been friends for years, and are British Nigerian. Al Jazeera: You have mentioned reading several books that aim to empower women, such as Sheryl Sandbergs, Lean In. What was missing in them, that inspired Slay In Your Lane? Uviebinene: Those books were written by white women I wanted a comprehensive guide for black women in the workplace and our experiences, which are very different. There are different stereotypes and prejudices that are committed to us, just by virtue of being a black woman. Al Jazeera: Your book covers the issue of microaggressions. What are examples of these, and how do you recommend overcoming them? Uviebinene: It was empowering being able to define the different types of microaggressions, from micro-invalidations to micro-insults. Before a black woman gets to her desk, there are different ways that microaggressions come into play someone questioning authority, someone assuming you cant be a manager, someone assuming you are a lower grade. You walk in on Monday and your hair is different to how it looked on Friday. Your hair looks nice is fine [as a reaction], but then you hear comments such as, your hair is a political statement, your hair looks like Bob Marleys. Though these comments can be light-hearted, when our days are filled with them it becomes a weight on your shoulders. Before you do your job, you have to deal with essentially being the other. There isnt an exact way to overcome microaggressions, but the most important thing is to pick your battles. Al Jazeera: There is currently a debate in the world of publishing about diversity. A few authors, such as Lionel Shriver, have claimed that writers from minority backgrounds are more likely to get book deals as publishers attempt to fulfil diversity targets. What do you say to this idea? Uviebinene: I find it frustrating where this conversation is going and that this is what were talking about. I think were derailing and being distracted by what the actual challenges are. Publishing remains very, very white in terms of who is giving and getting deals. Al Jazeera: You are British Nigerian. How would you characterise Britains relationship with its immigrant citizens? And are there similarities with your experiences in Nigeria, as a Briton? Adegoke: As a Nigerian Brit with two Nigerian parents, I have been told several times at any point when I have something negative to say about [the UK], the country I [and my mother were] born in that I should be grateful to have been born here and live here. I think that is illustrative of how this country sees people who have immigrated here who are not white [compared to white immigrants]. Theres a big distinction. That gratefulness is expected because Im thought to be somebody who has come from somewhere else where the set-up isnt as prosperous, or because me being born here has saved me from some other [perceived] hell-hole, without them acknowledging that the majority of the problems in the country Im from stem from Britains colonial rule there. You can't slay your way out of systemic and institutional racism, that's why it's important that people who aren't black and aren't women, and aren't black women, are privy to the conversation as well. Yomi Adegoke, author and journalist The hostility comes from the idea that you are renting as opposed to living here you are essentially trespassing and will never truly be British. If anything showed that, it was the treatment of the Windrush generation Had that happened to white people who were en masse told they werent British after all, despite their passports saying so, there would be outrage. Its a strained relationship, its one where youre asked where youre really from. Saying youre from Croydon, which is where I live, isnt enough. There is always this, No, but where do you really come from?. That emphasises the fact that it certainly isnt Britain, it isnt England. In Nigeria, the first thing I am called there is white. I cant speak Yoruba. There is a lot emphasis on how different you are, but its not hostile. Nigerians may call me white, but they also still call me Nigerian and they claim me as Nigerian. Elizabeth and I are going to a literary festival in Nigeria, and weve been invited as Nigerians. I know Im Nigerian. There might be some teasing about my pronunciation there, but Im considered to be home. Its not hostile, its not comparable to how things are in Britain at all. Its very different. Al Jazeera: What do you think your book achieves? Adegoke: I hope it has achieved awareness. People in and outside the community werent aware of the levels of systemic, institutional racism, and sexism and then the combination of the two which specifically affects black women so, misogynoir. There is a myth that we are subject to the same hurdles as everyone else, as white women, black men, white men, even Asian women, Asian men. Its not better or worse, its different. You cant empower yourself if you dont know what youre subject to. When it comes to allies and white society, how do we move forward if people arent aware of what they are complicit in? Lets forget what people are actively doing, people arent even aware of what they are benignly allowing to happen. The book has allowed a conversation to take place. You cant slay your way out of systemic and institutional racism, thats why its important that people who arent black and arent women, and arent black women, are privy to the conversation as well. This interview was edited for clarity and brevity. The land swap between Kosovo and Serbia will inevitably lead to another disaster in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Rule number one of border changes in the Western Balkans is that they are always about Bosnia and Herzegovina. As the presidents of Kosovo and Serbia, Hashim Thaci and Aleksandar Vucic, are seeking the support of the EU for a land swap between their respective countries, one should keep in mind that talk of partition because this is what it really is of Kosovo is not about Kosovo, but about Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is somewhat ironic that Thaci and Vucic have openly broached the issue of border changes between Kosovo and Serbia on the anniversary of another attempt to carve out Bosnia and Herzegovina. In August 1939, the prime minister of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Dragisa Cvetkovic, and leading Croat politician Vladko Macek reached a deal whereby Bosnia and Herzegovina ceased to exist as a distinct political and administrative entity, with the autonomous region of Croatia annexing roughly one-third of it and the Serbian region keeping the rest. The deal is known as the Cvetkovic-Macek agreement. When asked after World War II about the status accorded to the Muslim population of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the deal, Macek who is lionised in present-day Croatia as a great statesman responded: We agreed, when it comes to Bosnia and Muslims, to regard Muslims as if they dont exist. And that is how we acted. Whereas border changes in the Western Balkans were deemed unthinkable just a few years back, what is colloquially known as the international community seems now to be falling in line behind the Thaci-Vucic experiment. US National Security Adviser John Bolton stated recently that Washington would not weigh in on an idea to swap territory between Serbia and Kosovo. {articleGUID} Statements by EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn also seem to reflect this attitude. They need to find a solution, we will look into it with an open mind. But above all, it must contribute to regional stability and the EU path of both, he recently said. This change in position on land swaps in the Western Balkans basically means that the EU has decided to throw 20 years of its engagement efforts in the region out the window. The problem is that it is doing so at a time when trouble is brewing. Whatever the details of the deal between Thaci and Vucic, part of it seems to be about Kosovo becoming a member-state of the United Nations. But only a few weeks ago, the president of the Bosnian Serb majority entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milorad Dodik, said that if Kosovo is recognised by the UN and other international institutions, Bosnian Serbs will also seek a chair at the UN; in other words, they will pursue independence. This is not just empty talk. Dodik has been a Russian client for a long time. Russia, for its part, is actively supporting indigenous political and paramilitary actors seeking to divide Bosnia and Herzegovina, aiming to prevent the entire region from deeper integration with the West. The Russian government has been arming its police for the past few years. Dodik openly flaunts his ideas of secession of half of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Republika Srpska plus the town of Brcko which amounts to half of the country) and regularly refers to the entity of Republika Srpska as the second Serb state in the Balkans. Over the years, he has spent millions of dollars on lobbying in Washington with the aim of breaking the consensus within the US political elite on the inviolability of Bosnian borders. A land swap between Kosovo and Serbia would give him the precedent he needs to pursue his secessionist goals. Bosnias other neighbour, Croatia, also has a stake in pushing for border changes in the Balkans. It has a history of pursuing the annexation of territories in Bosnia and Herzegovina with bloody policies. In the 1990s, Croatia established a proxy state on Bosnian territory which pursued the creation of Greater Croatia through a brutal policy of mass murder, concentration camps and the systematic use of Muslims as forced labourers. The political class in Croatia is completely unapologetic about it, as it is about the nations dark history of collaborating with the Nazis during World War II and aiding in the genocide of Jews, Roma and Serbian communists. In addition, over the past several years, the Croatian society at large abetted by senior figures in the Catholic Church has been re-discovering its identity as a cultural borderland, defending Europe from an imagined Islamic onslaught. Both Serbia and Croatia are intensively arming. Croatia purchased Israeli F-16s, whereas Serbia obtained Russian MiG-29s. Both the Croatian and Serbian media continuously slander Bosnian Muslims and misrepresent the country as the ISIL heartland of Europe. Most recently one of the leading Serbian media outlets aired a map of the region with half of Bosnia and Herzegovina depicted as part of Serbia. The single most important lesson of the 1990s is that there is nothing manageable about border changes in the Balkans. Attempts to change the borders have always been followed by bloodshed. By endorsing the Thaci-Vucic adventure, the EU and the US have signed off on another Balkan disaster. Once the Kosovo precedent is set, both Serb and Croat nationalists are going to turn their gaze on Bosnia and Herzegovina and its Muslim population. In other words, Bosnia and Herzegovina and its Muslims are quickly moving from Andalusia in the waiting to Andalusia in the making. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. Argentina: Pesos fall raises concerns of financial hardship Argentinas government says it will discuss a $50bn bailout loan with the IMF. Opposition MP flew out of Uganda for medical treatment for alleged torture amid fresh protests in Kampala. Robert Kyagulanyi, a Ugandan pop star-turned-opposition politician, has arrived in the United States for medical treatment following alleged torture in detention, a day after he was denied boarding. Kyagulanyi, whose stage name is Bobi Wine, said in a post on Twitter on Saturday that he will be receiving specialised treatment following the brutal torture at the hands of SFC soldiers. He added: We thank the world for standing with us. I will tell you what exactly happened to me since 13th August and what is next. Safely arrived in the US where I'll be receiving specialised treatment following the brutal torture at the hands of SFC soldiers. We thank the world for standing with us. I will soon tell you what exactly happened to me since 13th August and what is next. #peoplepower Power pic.twitter.com/0IcA3wUAQd BOBI WINE (@HEBobiwine) September 1, 2018 On Friday, the 36-year-olds lawyer in Uganda, Nicholas Opiyo, posted a video on Twitter which showed his client as he was taken to a departure gate at Entebbe International Airport on a wheelchair, saluting and thanking supporters along the way. Robert Amsterdam, Kyagulanyis international lawyer, told Reuters news agency that the politician was headed to the eastern US city of Boston and was also expected to travel to Washington, DC, during his stay. Kyagulanyi, who has emerged as a formidable political threat to President Yoweri Museveni, was arrested and charged with treason in August after protesters stoned the Ugandan leaders car during a by-election campaign. The legislators arrest sparked violent protests with his supporters saying he was badly beaten and tortured while in army custody, during and after his detention in the northwestern town of Arua on August 13, and required medical treatment abroad. Kyagulanyi was released on bail on Monday without any travel restrictions. But he was arrested again by police on Thursday evening at the airport, outside the capital, Kampala, his lawyers said. Amsterdam, his lawyer, told Al Jazeera on Friday that Kyagulanyi said he had been tortured again while being transported from the airport to a hospital in Kampala. Burn marks are showing up on his body, Amsterdam said. We want to get him to an independent clinic for assessment. Police spokesperson Emilian Kayima called the allegations fake news. In a statement late on Friday, Kayima said that the director of public prosecutions instructed the police to investigate allegations of torture on Kyagulanyi, a move that required that he be examined by government medical experts. Before this medical examination was done, the Uganda Police Force learned of his departure yesterday, August 30, said Kayima in the statement. As a result, Hon Kyagulanyi was halted from departure. The re-arrest of Kyagulanyi triggered fresh protests in Kampala on Friday. Soldiers were sent to Kampalas streets to put down protests by Bobi Wines supporters [File: AP] People demonstrated in different parts of the city, burning tyres and piling rocks and other barricades in the middle of the roads. Police said the protests were limited and contained. Kyagulanyi is a musician who entered politics after winning a parliamentary by-election last year. He has emerged as a formidable threat to Musevenis 32-year rule, winning popular support through his music and strong criticism of the government. In July, the Constitution was amended to remove the presidential age limit of 75 years, meaning Museveni, 74, can run again for president in 2021. Top electoral court rules jailed former president cannot run in Octobers election because of his graft conviction. Brazils top electoral court has barred jailed former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from running in Octobers presidential elections because of his corruption conviction. In a session that stretched into the early hours of Saturday, the justices voted 6-1 against the once hugely popular leader, who has been incarcerated since April for accepting a bribe. Supreme Court Justice Luis Roberto Barroso cast the first vote against Lula, saying the ruling was very simple because the law forbids candidates whose conviction has been upheld on appeal. There is no margin here for the electoral court to make any other evaluation but the one showing there is a conviction, and that conviction matters in the candidates eligibility, Barroso said. Justice Edson Fachin disagreed, citing a recent call by a UN human rights committee calling for Lula to be allowed to run while he further appeals his conviction. Moments later, his Workers Party vowed to fight with all means to secure his candidacy. We will present all appeals before the courts for the recognition of the rights of Lula provided by law and international treaties ratified by Brazil, said the party in a statement. We will defend Lula in the streets, with the people. Lula, 72, is serving a 12-year sentence for accepting a luxury seaside apartment as a bribe from a construction firm. He was found guilty in July 2017 and then lost his first appeal in January. The former trade union leader vehemently denies the accusations and has dismissed the charges as a political plot aimed at preventing him from standing in the elections. Lula is ineligible for office under Brazils Clean Slate law, which prohibits candidates from running if they have convictions that have been upheld on appeal. But his Workers Party registered him as its presidential candidate for the October 7 vote anyway, saying he is innocent. Despite his conviction and several graft cases pending against him, Lula leads the race by a long stretch, with 39 percent of voter support, according to pollster Datafolha. His nearest rival, far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, has 19 percent. Paulo Sotero, director of Woodrow Wilson Centers Brazil Institute, told Al Jazeera the Workers Party has until September 17 to replace their candidate, though the court gave it 10 days to make the change. There is a cutoff date in Brazilian law September 17 and the party will have that as a limit for the party to replace their candidate. It is a political calculation that Lula and his partners at the Workers Party will have to make. And they may delay this decision until the very last minute, [or] they may decide tomorrow or day after to replace Lula with Fernando Haddad, former mayor of Sao Paulo, he said. Polls show tepid support for the vice presidential running mate Haddads bid, but the party hopes Lulas popularity could boost the former mayors hopes. The electoral court also ruled that Lula should not appear in the Workers Partys television and radio ads campaign until the ticket has been officially altered to remove him. Disconnecting: Calls to reduce social media use in the UK As scientists warn that social media use can cause health concerns, campaigners ask Britons to put down their phones and reassess the impact all that checking, posting and updating has on their lives. Residents in last rebel-held stronghold brace for potential full-fledged assault by Syrian troops and allied forces. As the threat of an all-out Syrian government offensive looms large over Idlib, Qays, a 26-year-old father of two, says he and his young family are running out of options. Theres no place for us to go. If an offensive takes place, it will be a bloodbath, he told Al Jazeera on Saturday. Qays, a volunteer with the civil defence group known as the White Helmets, is one of the almost three million people crammed in the northwestern province of Idlib, the last remaining rebel-held province in war-ravaged Syria. For days now, President Bashar al-Assads forces have been encircling Idlib, seemingly ready to launch what has been described as the last major battle in a long-running civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, displaced millions and left the country in ruins. If the assault takes place, Idlib will be the perfect storm, UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura warned this week. A battle, he said, would affect millions of civilians and could see both sides use chemical weapons. Similarly, Filippo Grandi, the head of the UNs refugee crisis, cautioned that an all-out attack would cause renewed displacement while exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation. Nothing to do but wait After vowing to take back every inch of Syria, Assad, backed by his Russian and Iranian allies, has managed in recent years to roll back rebels from territories they had previously gained from Aleppo, through Eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of Damascus, to Deraa, the birthplace of the 2011 uprising. Like Qays who was displaced with his family from Deraa after Assads forces took over the city in July hundreds of thousands of civilians and rebels from across Syria are now in Idlib, dubbed a dumping ground for those evacuated from other battlefields. We know theres nothing for us to do but wait, says Qays, recalling the grueling journey from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, where he stayed for two weeks, before joining scores of families onto buses that transported them to Idlib. Today, more than half the of the families based in Idlib are from other parts of Syria, many of whom reside in overcrowded camps. Chemical attack fears Qays, whose wife is expecting twins next month, says the prospect of a chemical attack is what scares him the most. Were expecting the government to target Idlib with a chemical attack, just like it did in Khan Sheikhoun. Weve already been receiving threats, he says. In April 2017, a chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun, a town in Idlib, killed at least 83 people, a third of them children, and wounded nearly 300 others, according to a UN war crimes investigation. The UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Syria said in September 2017 that it had gathered an extensive body of information to show the Syrian air force was responsible for the sarin gas attack. But Russian officials have also warned that rebels might stage a chemical attack and then blamed it on Assads forces in order to be used as a pretext for an assault by Western countries. Speaking at a press conference on Thursday in Moscow alongside his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Muallem, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned against established provocateurs who call themselves the White Helmets. This kind of provocation is being staged as to complicate the whole issue of combating the terrorists in Idlib, said Lavrov. We have warned our Western partners clearly that they should not engage in this kind of activity. Families displaced Although Idlib has been designated a de-escalation zone as part of an agreement struck by Russia, Iran and Turkey in Kazakhstans capital, Astana, residents say the area has been targeted by Syrian and Russian air attacks in recent months. According to Mohammed, a 24-year-old pro-opposition activist in Idlib, the fierce bombardment has forced local families to leave their villages. A small number of families have already been displaced from the southeastern suburbs of Idlib, moving towards areas along the Turkish border. Such movement is likely to intensify if a full-blown government offensive is launched. More families will be moving further north and closer to the Turkish border thats the only direction we can potentially go, adds Mohamed. Syrian opposition groups are reportedly preparing for an assault by forces loyal to the Assad government [AA] Turkey, which is already hosting more than three million Syrian refugees, sealed off its border with Syria last year, allowing only for the passage of humanitarian goods. Its troops rolled into Idlib last year to implement the de-escalation zone as per the Astana diplomatic process, as well as in Afrin and Al Bab following military operations against Kurdish fighters in Syrias north. In recent weeks, Turkish-backed opposition groups in Idlib have attempted to form a new coalition, with some 70,000 fighters pledging to fight against forces loyal to Assad. But Hayet Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the most dominant rebel force in Idlib which controls about 60 percent of the province, has not joined the coalition. Like many other Idlib residents, Dhafer, a 31-year-old pharmacist from Maarat al-Numan, said Turkish control over the area is the only way to guarantee the safety of its civilians. Our last strand of hope lies in Turkey, says Dhafer. It is the only regional power that has stood with us. We hope it will continue to do so in the coming days and weeks. Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkeys foreign minister, told reporters on Friday that Ankara is trying to prevent an attack on Idlib, calling such a development a disaster. Turkey has been locked in intense negotiations with Russia over the past few weeks in hopes of preventing a large-scale assault that could prompt a new wave of displacement. On Friday, it officially designated HTS, which is dominated by a rebel faction previously known as al-Nusra Front before cutting its ties to al-Qaeda, a terrorist group. Thousands of us are calling on Turkey to take control of the region, just as it has done in Afrin and Jarablus, says Mohammed. But with the outcome of the Turkish-Russian negotiations remaining unclear, various rebel groups inside Idlib are already starting to prepare for an escalation, according to sources. Opposition groups are digging up tunnels and massing along possible front lines in preparation for an offensive, says Anas, a pro-opposition activist and resident of Idlib. These tunnels are being dug up towards the southern and eastern suburbs of Idlib and will be used to push back a military offensive, he adds. They [the opposition] wont be the ones to start, but they will be ready to retaliate. The elections will test President Mohamed Ould Abdel Azizs record before next years presidential vote. Voters in Mauritania are casting ballots in legislative, regional and local elections that will test President Mohamed Ould Abdel Azizs record before next years presidential vote. Polls opened at 07:00 GMT on Saturday in the capital, Nouakchott, but several voters were sent to different polling stations due to last minute changes. Voting ends at 19:00 GMT. The opposition boycotted the last polls in 2013 but a record 98 parties are taking part this time, with close to 5,000 people running for the National Assembly alone. The vote, which is monitored by African Union observers, is unfolding calmly and amid tight security. Military personnel cast their ballots Friday to free themselves up to provide security in the vast and arid West African state with a registered electorate of some 1.4 million. Aziz hailed the peaceful and democratic nature of the ballot after casting his vote but Mohamed Ould Moloud, a leading opposition figure, deplored logistical snags and hinted the outcome could be flawed. There are voters who have been misdirected and dont know where to vote, he said, adding that there were serious signs of possible fraud. Veteran opposition leader Ahmed Ould Daddah, who heads the Gathering for Democracy (RFD), has urged voters to make the necessary leap to get rid of dictatorship and generalised bankruptcy. The ruling Union for the Republic is campaigning largely on changes it made in the 2017 constitution, abolishing the Senate and bringing in a new national anthem and flag. Voters endorsed the controversial measures in a referendum, while the opposition warned they would give the president more power. Final results of Saturdays election could be released as early as Monday. Potential runoff elections would take place on September 15. I voted for people I support in different parties, including some from the ruling party and others in the opposition, a woman, who identified herself as Fatimatou, told AFP news agency. Challenges Aziz, 61, who came to power in a coup in 2008, won elections in 2009 and again in 2014 for a second five-year term. He has been frequently accused by opposition figures and NGOs of rights abuses, including the arrest of a former senator and the secretive detention of a blogger. Aziz says he will not seek a third mandate, which would be against the Constitution, but statements by ministers and supporters have allowed suspicions to flourish. The president has criticised opposition leaders as villains and troublemakers. He has described some as dangerous Islamists, racist extremists and the leftovers of former regimes which brought the country to its knees. Mauritania, like other nations in the region, faces a growing threat from armed groups as well as the day-to-day challenge of underdevelopment. Mexico politics: Left-wing majority to lead Congress Mexicos new Congress has opened its first session and there appear to be changes in the status quo. NAFTA: USCanada talks to resume next week President Donald Trump earlier said hell press ahead with a new bilateral trade agreement with Mexico with or without Canada. The armed group overran a base in the countrys Borno state, military sources tell AFP. At least 30 Nigerian soldiers have been killed in a gun battle with Boko Haram fighters who overran a military base in the countrys northeast, according to military sources. Scores of fighters in trucks stormed the base at Zari village in Borno state late on Thursday and briefly captured it after intense fighting, two sources told AFP news agency on Saturday. They came in large numbers in trucks and carrying heavy weapons and engaged soldiers in a battle that lasted for an hour, a military officer said. They overwhelmed the troops who were forced to temporarily withdraw before reinforcements arrived, said the officer who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak. Boko Haram took weapons and military equipment before they were pushed out of the base by troops with aerial support, said a second military source who gave a similar death toll. The terrorists also suffered heavy casualty from the bombardment, one of the military officers said. Boko Haram are thought to have attacked the base from the nearby Garunda village, where 17 troops were killed and 14 wounded in an attack on another military base last month, the sources said. Boko Haram has killed 20,000 people and displaced more than two million since 2009 [File: AP] Military response In a statement late on Friday, the Nigerian military confirmed soldiers fought Boko Haram insurgents on rampage to loot the community and extort money from villagers. Troops have successfully routed Boko Haram insurgents in an encounter that ensued yesterday evening at Zari village, the military said in the statement. It did not speak of military casualties and the raid on the base but maintained several Boko Haram fighters and weapons were destroyed in the fight. The Nigerian army has on several occasions disputed reports on losses to Boko Haram and has in some cases played them down. Boko Haram has waged an armed campaign in northeast Nigeria for years. The fighting has left more than 20,000 people dead and displaced over two million since 2009. In recent months, the armed group has intensified attacks on military targets in recent months. The assaults appear to undermine repeated claims by the Nigerian military that Boko Haram had been defeated. On July 14, Boko Haram fighters overran a military base in Jilli village, in neighbouring Yobe state when dozens of troops were said to be been killed, wounded or missing. Soldiers and civilians have also been targeted in separate attacks in neighbouring Chad and Niger. Alleged interference by the provincial governor and lack of security cited by Pakistan for consulates closure. Islamabad, Pakistan Pakistan has temporarily closed its consulate in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad over alleged interference by the provincial governor and a lack of security, its embassy in Kabul announced. In a letter sent to the Afghan foreign ministry, Pakistans embassy in Kabul complained that the provincial governor of Nangarhar was intervening in the affairs of the consulate. The Embassy has requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan to kindly refrain the Governor from interfering in the functioning of the Consulate General, said a statement released by the Pakistan embassy on Friday. Pakistan also reiterated an oft-repeated request for greater security to be provided to the consulate. {articleGUID} According to the letter, the consulate will remain closed until adequate security arrangements were made. In November, a Pakistani diplomat was shot dead outside his residence in Jalalabad. Last June, two Pakistani diplomats were kidnapped in Nangarhar while heading to Pakistan by road. The closure of the consulate is the latest episode in a period of increasingly strained relations between the neighbouring countries who accuse each other of providing safe haven to armed fighters along the 2,600km, largely porous, border. Pakistan has made efforts to fence the border, but has faced resistance from Afghanistan, who claims the border is disputed. In August, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani accused Pakistan of supporting Afghan Taliban fighters who launched a five-day assault on the Afghan city of Ghazni. Pakistani foreign office spokesperson Muhammad Faisal denied the charge, terming the complaint spurious and rejecting [the] baseless allegations. Efforts have been under way since the election of a new government in Pakistan, led by Prime Minister Imran Khan, to reset the relationship. In a congratulatory phone call to Khan after his election, Ghani said: We both agreed to overcome the past and to lay a new foundation for a prosperous political, social and economic future of both countries Afghanistan and Pakistan. At a weekly press briefing on Thursday, Pakistani foreign office spokesperson Faisal reiterated that resolve. There is a need to move forward for betterment of our relations, he said. Washington sees a potential attack on Idlib as an escalation of an already dangerous conflict, US secretary says. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has accused his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov of defending the assault by Syrian government forces on the last rebel stronghold in Idlib province. Forces loyal to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have been massing around Idlib, which borders Turkey, for days and seem ready to launch what could be the last major battle of the civil war that has torn the country apart since 2011. Sergey Lavrov is defending Syrian and Russian assault on #Idlib, Pompeo tweeted on Friday. The Russians and Assad agreed not to permit this. The US sees this as an escalation of an already dangerous conflict. The 3 million Syrians, who have already been forced out of their homes and are now in #Idlib, will suffer from this aggression. Not good. The world is watching. The 3 million Syrians, who have already been forced out of their homes and are now in #Idlib, will suffer from this aggression. Not good. The world is watching. Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) August 31, 2018 Turkey, Russia and Iran, which is backing Assad, all operate observation points in Idlib as part of a de-escalation deal agreed last year that was meant to reduce bloodshed in the province. The prospect of a massive Russian-backed offensive in a province that is home to millions of people has raised fears of a new humanitarian tragedy. Half of Idlibs residents are displaced Syrians from other parts of the country. During a press conference with his Saudi counterpart in Moscow on Wednesday, Lavrov hinted the assault may be imminent. UN warnings UN chief Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday he was deeply concerned about the growing risks of a humanitarian catastrophe in the event of a full-scale military operation in Idlib. Filippo Grandi, the UN high commissioner for refugees, also warned on Friday that a potential government offensive in the province risks causing renewed displacement and discourage others Syrians from returning home. Grandi, who made the comments in Lebanon after visiting Syria and Jordan, said an all-out attack threatens to cause many civilian deaths and fresh displacement, as well as discourage the return of other refugees. You risk also sending a message to refugees that the situation is not secured, said Grandi. Refugees will be watching very closely what is happening in Idlib in the next few months. On Friday, Turkey, which backs other rebel groups in the province, officially designated Tahrir al-Sham, which has presence in Idlib, as a terrorist organisation. Intense negotiations have been under way for weeks between Russia and Turkey, which hosts some three million Syrians and has already stated that it will not open its borders to accept further refugees in the event an assault takes place. Renewed hostilities come as Britain, France, Italy and US warn escalation in violence will hamper political process. Renewed fighting has erupted in Tripoli, leaving at least three people wounded after a barrage of rockets hit several parts of the capital, including a popular hotel. The violence came as Britain, France, Italy and the United States warned on Saturday that an escalation would hamper the political process in Libya and plans to hold elections by December. Witnesses told AFP news agency three people were wounded when a rocket hit the fourth floor of the Al-Waddan Hotel, which overlooks the bay of Tripoli and is located 100 metres away from the Italian embassy. Another rocket landed on the home of a civilian family in the area of Ben Ashour. The house is about 200m from the prime ministers office. Al Jazeeras Mahmoud Abdelwahed, reporting from Tripoli, described scenes of panic in the capitals southern suburbs, with rival militias targetting densely-populated areas. The latest bout of fighting came a day after at least 15 rockets landed on Tripoli and its surroundings, forcing the suspension of flights in the the capitals only operational airport. The fighting between the rival armed groups broke out earlier this week. Street battles on Monday and Tuesday pitted the Seventh Brigade, or Kaniyat, from Tarhouna, a town 65km southeast of Tripoli, against the Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigades (TRB) and the Nawasi, two of the capitals largest factions. The Kaniyat and other groups from outside Tripoli have noticed the success of rivals inside the city with growing unease. Reports about the wealth, power and extravagant lifestyles of some Tripoli rebel commanders have fuelled resentment. A fragile truce took effect on Thursday, but by late afternoon the hostilities had resumed. Libyan officials say the fighting has so far killed nearly 40 people, including 18 civilians. According to Human Rights Watch, the death toll includes at least four children. Attacks weaken Libyan stability In joint statement released by the French foreign ministry, Britain, France, Italy and the US condemned the violence, calling the attempts to weaken the legitimate Libyan authorities and obstruct the ongoing political process unacceptable. We are calling on the armed groups to immediately stop all military action and warn those who seek to undermine stability, in Tripoli or elsewhere in Libya, that they will be made accountable for it, the statement added. The interior Ministry of Libyas UN-backed administration, the Government of National Accord (GNA), has also denounced the renewed violence. The GNA has blamed unnamed factions for undermining the ceasefire by blindly launching rockets and shells on Tripoli and its suburbs. Bringing armed groups to heel is seen as crucial to resolving the conflict that has divided Libya since a NATO-backed uprising removed long-time ruler Muammar Ghaddafi in 2011. In recent years, the country has remained divided between the GNA in Tripoli and a rival administration in the east, backed by renegade General Khalifa Haftar. Probe by Saudi-UAE coalition launched after international condemnation over air raid that killed 40 children. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have admitted that the bombing of a school bus in Yemen last month which killed 51 people, including 40 children was unjustified. A probe by the coalition fighting Yemens Houthi rebels concluded on Saturday that mistakes had been made in the August 9 air raid in Saada province. At the day of the attack, coalition spokesperson Colonel Turki al-Malki had defended the air raid, saying his forces hit a legitimate military target, which included operators and planners. But in a rare concession, the military alliances investigative body, the Joint Incident Assessment Team (JIAT), said that those behind it should be held accountable. The Joint Team is of the opinion that the coalition forces should initiate legal action to try and penalise those responsible for the mistakes, which caused collateral damage in the area, Mansour Ahmed al-Mansour, a legal adviser to JIAT, told reporters in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. {articleGUID} Al Jazeeras Alan Fisher, reporting from neighbouring Djibouti, said the statement marked a remarkable about-turn after the coalitions initial assertions that this was a legitimate military operation. But if you look at the actual wording they are not saying that there was a problem with killing children. What they are saying is that this attack shouldnt have taken place when it did because they were targeting Houthi leaders, and they say their intelligence pointed in that direction but those Houthi leaders at that stage did not present a threat to Saudi-led coalition forces and therefore that operation shouldnt have happened, added Fisher. They say that intelligence was passed to the pilot who fired the fatal missile but it never got there in time. Universal condemnation The probe came after the air attack sparked widespread international condemnation and calls for an independent investigation from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. {articleGUID} Geert Cappelaere, UNICEFs regional director in the Middle East and North Africa, tweeted at the time: NO EXCUSES ANYMORE!! Does the world really need more innocent childrens lives to stop the cruel war on children in Yemen? he said. Following the attack, individual members of the Congress in the United States also called on their countrys army to clarify its role in the war and investigate whether support for the air raids could render US military personnel liable under the war crimes act. The US has been the biggest supplier of military equipment to Riyadh, with more than $90bn of sales recorded between 2010 and 2015. Speaking to Al Jazeera from Yemens capital, Sanaa on Saturday, Hussain al-Bukhaiti, a pro-Houthi activist, said the coalitions statement was not an apology. It is actually adding insult to injury, he said. Since the beginning of this war, they have committed many crimes and they only regret or release such a statement only if that crime has been covered widely on the media. Samaa al-Hamdani, a visiting fellow at Georgetown University, said the Saudis had to agree to hold themselves accountable to international standards of law due to major outside pressure. You could make two things from their statement, she told Al Jazeera from Washington, DC. One, they could potentially change their ways, which is the first step to issuing reparations to the families of those killed. It is also a way to hold them accountable for their actions. Critical reports The Saudi-UAE admission on Saturday came a week after Human Rights Watch accused the pair of reaching dubious conclusions in its post-air attack analysis and failing to properly investigate alleged war crimes. In a damning 90-page report, the rights group slammed JIAT for absolving coalition members of legal responsibility in the vast majority of attacks. Separately, the UN said this week that all sides in Yemens bloody conflict may have committed war crimes involving deadly air raids, rampant sexual violence, and the recruitment of child soldiers Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates, has been bombing Yemen since March 2015 after the Houthis swept across the country, including Sanaa. The coalitions stated aim is to restore the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power. Out of the 16,000-plus raids they have launched since the start of the conflict, only a handful have been investigated, despite nearly a third of all bombs hitting civilian targets. Last year, the UN blacklisted the Saudi-UAE alliance for causing the majority of reported child deaths and injuries in Yemen. The global body has described the situation in Yemen as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. It has also said that least 10,000 people have been killed since the start of the conflict. However, analysts say the death toll is likely to be higher. At least one person killed and several wounded in car bomb attack in the town of Azaz, opposition-linked media report. A car bomb attack in a rebel-held town near Syrias border with Turkey has killed at least one person and wounded several others, according to an opposition-affiliated TV station. Halab Today reported that the explosion occurred on Saturday in Azaz, a town located 32km north of the city of Aleppo. A video, posted on Twitter by Halab Today showed blood splattered streets and the wreckage of several vehicles with the sounds of sirens wailing in the background. : # # pic.twitter.com/pDeIaKY6W1 Halab Today TV (@HalabTodayTV) September 1, 2018 Al Jazeera could not immediately verify the report. Khaled Khatib, a spokesman for the White Helmet rescue service, told the Anadolou news agency that one person was killed and 17 others injured in the bombing. Photos and videos posted on Twitter of the explosion showed plumes of black smoke as people rushed to evacuate the wounded from the scene of the blast. No organisation has claimed responsibility for the attack. {articleGUID} The explosion comes amid fears of a large-scale government offensive retake the neighbouring province of Idlib, Syrias last rebel stronghold, in what could be the last major battle of the seven-year-old Syrian war. The UN has expressed concern that the offensive on Idlib would trigger a new wave of displacement that could uproot an estimated 800,000 people. The war in Syria has killed more than half a million people, wounded one million and forced about 12 million people half the countrys prewar population from their homes. Thailand government reconsiders pesticide use Thailands government is reconsidering the use of three toxic weed killers, one of which, paraquat, is already banned in more than 30 countries. Doomsday scenario could unfold unless Palestinian agency replaces US funding within 30 days, spokesperson says. The UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) has called the decision by the Trump administration to no longer commit funding deeply regrettable and shocking. Chris Gunness, spokesperson for the United Nations Relief Works and Agency, said on Saturday Fridays move would affect millions of people including some of the most disadvantaged and marginalised on this planet. For nearly 70 years, UNRWA has provided lifesaving assistance to more than five million Palestinian refugees in the occupied territories, as well as Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. But over the past year, the US government has made it increasingly clear it considers the work the organisation does, and who it considers as refugees, to be an obstacle in the protracted Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In January, a month after President Donald Trump sparked widespread international condemnation by recognising Jerusalem as Israels capital, the White House decided to cut $65m in aid to UNRWA. It was later reported that the Trump administration had withheld about $305m in funding, and only delivered $60m to UNRWA. UNRWA told Al Jazeera it spent the next eight months scrambling for financial assistance, and was only able to continue operating after large contributions were raised by Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which donated $150m between them. {articleGUID} The US decision to stop all funding to the UN agency, which it called an irredeemably flawed operation, was quickly criticised by the Palestinian leadership. A spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also pushed back against claims that the agency was inefficient. UNRWA has a strong record of providing high-quality education, health and other essential services, often in extremely difficult circumstances, a statement by Stephane Dujarric read. The secretary-general calls on other countries to help fill the remaining financial gap, so that UNRWA can continue to provide this vital assistance, as well as a sense of hope this vulnerable population. What is UNRWA? Originally established as a temporary solution, UNRWA was set up after the creation of Israel in 1948 to assist the more than 700,000 Palestinians who were forcibly expelled from their towns and villages. Since then, it has helped four generations of Palestinians with basic needs, including housing, healthcare, education and social services. {articleGUID} Employing more than 30,000 staff, it mostly works in education, and operates closely with local government bodies. It helps more than half of the Gaza Strips two million population, a region which has been devastated by more than 10 years of blockade. According to UNRWA, Gaza suffers from a 44 percent unemployment rate. Gunness, the agencys spokesman, told Al Jazeera that if UNRWA didnt receive emergency cash injection in the next 30 days, when its funds are expected to run dry, a doomsday scenario could unfold. Let there be no mistake; this decision is likely to have a devastating impact on the lives of 526,000 children who receive a daily education from UNRWA; 3.5 million sick people who come to our clinics for medical care; 1.7 million food insecure people who receive assistance from us, and tens of thousands of vulnerable women, children and disabled refugees who come to us. If we dont fill a funding gap of $217m very quickly, they are all likely to suffer. I was born in a tent in a refugee camp. I was raised in camp. Without the help of UNRWA, I would not have had clothes, food or schooling. Mohammad Oweis, Palestinian refugee What programmes does it offer? According to UNRWA, the US provided $364m to the agency last year. Other member states donated $650m. The funds helped provide for basic commodities such as flour, rice, sugar, powdered milk, canned meats, pharmaceuticals and drugs, as well as general supplies such as school textbooks and equipment. Mohammad Oweis, a Washington, DC-based political analyst and researcher, who specialises in the Middle East, said the agency helped people such as himself go on to live a better life. I was born in a tent in a refugee camp. I was raised in camp. Without the help of UNRWA, I would not have had clothes, food or schooling, he said. Why is funding being cut? Key to the Trump administration and Israels criticism of UNRWA is the way the agency counts the refugees its total includes the descendants of refugees who were originally displaced by the creation of Israel. Israel fears that the passing of refugee status from parents to children could threaten the countrys so-called Jewish character, as Palestinians claim the right of return to their ancestral homeland. Earlier this year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for UNRWA to be scrapped and accused the agency of helping fictitious refugees. UNRWA is an organisation that perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem and the narrative of the right-of-return, as it were, in order to eliminate the State of Israel, Netanyahu said. His comments were echoed earlier this week by Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, who accused the agency of exaggerating the number of Palestinian refugees it currently provides aid to, amid reports Washington is planning to cap the number it officially recognises as refugees at only 500,000. We will be a donor if it (UNRWA) reforms what it does if they actually change the number of refugees to an accurate account, we will look back at partnering them, Haley said. By undermining UNRWAs definition of refugees, the administration appears to be attacking the Palestinian belief in the right of return. Mustafa Barghouti, a former Palestinian information minister and secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, said the decision to end funding was not just an economic act, but also a political one. The US tried to liquidate the issue of Jerusalem by saying they were removing it from the negotiating table, now they want to kill UNRWA with the aim of killing the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland. These are actions aimed at liquidating the Palestinian issue completely while trying to normalise relations between Israel and Arab countries. This will fail and what the Americans have done will make us more determined to stick to the rights of Palestinian refugees, especially after their nationalistic law, which is nothing but a system of apartheid. Sam Bahour, a cofounder of the Right to Enter campaign, which highlights Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement, agreed, adding that the end of funding would awaken the Palestinian community. They are trying to force down Palestinians throats this idea that they will no longer return home, and this is something the Palestinians have historically refused to accept. In emails leaked to Foreign Policy magazine last month, Trumps son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner described the agency as not conducive to peace. And during his visit to Jordan last June, he reportedly pushed for the refugee status of the two million Palestinians registered in the country to be dissolved. By cutting aid, the US is violating international law. Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) What will the cut mean for ordinary Palestinians? With the UN struggling to grapple with a host of international crises, the shortfall could have disastrous consequences for the five million Palestinian refugees. According to Gunness, the $217m shortfall means that by the end of the month UNRWA will be running on empty and wont have enough money to pay for its 22,000 teaching staff. After September we wont have enough money to run our schools, health clinics and our relief and social services programmes, he said. We are working tirelessly to avoid that. Is anyone stepping in? UNRWAs planned budget for 2018 was over $1bn. So far, Gulf states, Norway, Turkey and Canada have stepped in with pledges of $238m to help meet the budget deficit. Gunness said it was remarkable the agency had managed to raise so much in the past eight months, adding it had a long way to go, as these pledges still needed to be paid out. {articleGUID} We have been very generously supported by over 20 major donors and were looking for money from all of them and also from new donors, he said. On Friday, Jordans Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi said Amman would host a fund-raising at the UN headquarters later in September with the aim to close the gap and put in place a plan that will ensure UNRWAs continued, ongoing funding for the coming years. Meanwhile, Heiko Maas, the German foreign minister, said Berlin had pledged to significantly increase its future contributions, from roughly $94 million this year to an unspecified larger amount. The Reuters news agency quoted him as saying that the loss of [UNRWA] could unleash an uncontrollable chain reaction. How have the Palestinian Authority and Hamas responded? Senior members of the Palestinian Authority denounced the US decision and said it violated international law. Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah tweeted: We reject the US administrations decision to stop its funding of UNRWA in its latest blatant aggression against the rights of the Palestinian people, international law and UN General Assembly resolution 302 of 1949, which specified that the UN agency was established to provide its services in all areas until the refugee issue is resolved. Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Ryad al-Maliki said: We will challenge the Trump decision & UNRWA is here to stay as long as there is one Palestinian refugee left. Saeb Erekat, the secretary-general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, said the pro-Israel bias of Trumps administration has disqualified it from any role in the peace process. By cutting aid, the US is violating international law. UNRWA is not a Palestinian agency but was established by the United Nations, and there is an international obligation to assist and support it until all the problems of the Palestinian refugees are solved. Meanwhile, Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior official of Hamas, which administers the Gaza Strip, tweeted: The US decision to cancel aid to UNRWA aims to remove the right of return and represents a serious American escalation against the Palestinian people. The decision reflects the Zionist background of the American leadership that has become an enemy of our people and our Muslim nation as a whole. We insist that we will not succumb to such unjust decisions. The Obama years may have allowed China to infringe on American global power, but under Trump, the tide is turning. As governments around the world watch Chinas expanding reach with a sense of resignation, the president has signed into law a bill promising to restrict foreign investment in the U.S. Under the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act, the U.S. government has added a powerful tool to block other countries -- namely China -- from buying up or funneling money into U.S. companies. This is directly protecting vital strategic assets and know-how. The new investment law is a big step toward shielding the U.S. from dangerous Chinese intrusions on our home soil. Following the White Houses tougher stance on American global competitors, Chinese acquisitions and investments in America have already plummeted 92 percent to $1.8 billion in the first half of this year. The drop comes off the back of an already tough year for Chinese entities seeking to extend their tentacles into the U.S. following pressure from the Trump administration. Such guardianship has been long awaited by those with an eye on national security: in 2015 and 2016, Beijings corporations went on an overseas acquisitions spree that concluded with multibillion dollar deals throughout the U.S. while the Obama administration stood idly by and let the buyout occur. U.S. intelligence has long classified Chinese firms as security risks, raising concerns that China is able to access technologies underpinning American military might and economic power. Now, with the investment law and the new National Defense Authorization Act prohibiting U.S. government agencies from using telecommunications and surveillance products from Chinese technology firms like ZTE and Huawei, their voices are finally codified into U.S. law. The White House moves are a significant blow to Beijings foreign policy objectives. America has been a major destination for Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in the last decade, and the largest target of Chinese capital flows since 2005. But even if Chinese President Xi tirelessly touts the supposed benign nature of investments, dont be fooled: such investments are a favorite, and more surreptitious, weapon in the Chinese arsenal than the military a weapon China is employing freely given the country cannot compete with U.S. military might in terms of capabilities and global force projection. But as it turns out, the Chinese strategy of encroaching on Americas geopolitical position and security interests in this way has already borne fruit. Massive FDI flows into allied countries and strategic regions have unambiguously exposed Beijings money as a pertinent threat. In a prime example of how easy it is to seize an entire countrys strategic infrastructure, China Three Gorges in May bid $11 billion to take over the entire capital of Portugals largest grid company, with subsidiaries in the U.S., Spain, and Brazil. Beijings bid to bind Europe to itself extends also to the political realm. Following a billion-dollar deal involving the Greek port of Piraeus, China has been able to count on Greek support to divert EU criticism of Beijings behavior in areas from human rights to maritime security. The implications of Beijings encroachment are a direct threat to our security, because these maneuvers affect the sovereignty -- and the reliability -- of Americas supposed allies. Similar scenes are also playing out across Africa, where China is the single largest investor by far. And the effects are already painfully felt. Chinese capital flows into strategic choke points like Djibouti are turning the country into a Chinese puppet whose intentions can no longer be trusted. The country is of vital importance to counterterrorism efforts, and is home to 4,000 American troops gathering key intelligence on al-Qaeda and Islamic State terror cells. Yet at the beginning of the year, the government of Djibouti lost a high-profile court case over the way it kicked out the operator of the countrys port -- whose business was promptly handed out to a Chinese state-owned cargo company at around the same time as the takeover. Thats a problem, since the Chinese have already built a military base a stones throw away from the Americans. With China looking for additional facilities to expand its presence, top U.S. military officials are warning of the significant consequences if China takes hold of the port facilities, since counterterrorism operations will suffer a massive blow. All this shows that China is trying to undermine Americas global power status through money rather than military might. Chinas reach is extending as wide as Beijings pockets appear deep, and Washington must act fast. Just as he has drawn red lines in the sand at home, Trump must draw red lines abroad when it comes to strategic Chinese investments. Otherwise, the consequences of the Obama eras years of neglect will only give China more of an advantage. Recently, [m]ore than 300 newspapers published editorials on the dangers of President Trump and his administrations verbal assault on the press. Many of these media outlets took exception to the fact that the president referred to them as fake news and the enemy of the people, and accused the president of engaging in a propaganda war against legitimate news sites. This dirty war on the free press must end, Marjorie Pritchard, the Boston Globe's editorial page deputy managing editor said in a statement obtained by ABC News. It calls for urgent action by those committed to free speech and the free press to stand against a White House and its allies who are bent on eroding a pillar of an informed democracy. In a sense, the various media outlets that participated in the editorial blitz against President Trump were well within their right to do so as long as they did not violate any laws. After all, the media serves a vital purpose in our free society and the work that journalists do should be respected on most occasions. However, when a media outlet makes a mistake, publishes a story that is based on questionable sources, or discovers that a story is not true, it should redact or correct the story so as to remain credible. Several weeks ago, CNN published an anonymously sourced report stating that President Trump allegedly knew about the Trump Tower meeting ahead of time. Subsequently, Michael Cohens lawyer, Lanny Davis, admitted that he was the source of this information and indicated that he was wrong to imply that he could prove such a thing. According to Davis: "I regret not being much clearer in saying I'm not sure about this story It's a major mistake for which I am 100 percent sorry. Period. I never should have done it unless I was certain and could prove it." Despite this obvious bombshell, CNN continues to stand by its reporting, leading some to question the networks credibility. For example, Tucker Carlson recently interviewed Glenn Greenwald, founder of The Intercept. According to Greenwald: "They cant retract the story and they cant admit they lied So they are continuing to stick to what everybody knows is a lie, but not many people care because people think -- a lot of people, anyway -- that it was done for the right political agenda." Carlson also asked Greenwald whether CNN had an obligation to its viewers to explain what is going on relative to this story. "Journalists rightly demand transparency from powerful institutions, thats our job," Greenwald replied. "But how can CNN have any credibility to do that when you call them and ask them what happened here, as I did, and everyone else did, and they say, Talk to our PR spokesperson, who then refuses to answer any questions. They have zero credibility if they dont provide transparency themselves." Despite Mr. Davis retractions, CNN continues to stand by its story and to assert that CNN does not lie. While the network published a new report acknowledging Mr. Davis change of heart, the new report did not explain why the original report asserted that Mr. Davis declined comment when he was actually used as a source. Donald Trump, Jr. took issue with this and issued a blistering statement: CNN you just lied again by saying you dont lie. You said Lanny Davis declined to comment when he was in fact a source. Are you kidding me with this BS. Do you have any journalistic credibility at all? I mean seriously??? Youre a joke!!! Credibility is a very interesting, yet delicate, phenomenon. It is very difficult to earn/establish, yet very easy to lose. In this case, CNN brought this firestorm on itself and cannot blame the president, Republicans, or forces of nature. Moreover, given this recent controversy, the network cannot question why President Trump uses terms like fake news when describing some in the media. What is even more unfortunate for CNN is that, once your credibility is questioned, much of what you say is also looked at with skepticism. For example, CNN recently suspended political analyst Paris Dennard after Mr. Dennard voiced his support of the presidents decision to revoke John Brennans security clearance. CNN attributed the suspension to allegations in a Washington Post article stating that Dennard was fired from a job at Arizona State University for making sexually explicit comments and gestures towards women. However, the timing of the suspension raised some eyebrows given that it occurred shortly after Mr. Dennard made his comments supporting the presidents decision. Said Denard, "This is sadly another politically motivated attempt to besmirch my character, and shame me into silence for my support of President Trump and the GOP." Is it possible that Dennard was suspended because of his political stance? The media serves a vital role. With this role comes responsibility. CNN printed a story allegedly based on a source who subsequently recanted his statements. At that time, the network should have simply recanted the story. By failing to do so, it put its credibility in serious jeopardy, and substantiated some of President Trumps comments and concerns Mr. Hakims articles have been published in The Daily Caller, The Federalist, The Western Journal, American Thinker, World Net Daily, and other online publications. Twitter: @Elad3599 https://thoughtfullyconservative.wordpress.com As an avid reader of Aviation Week, I became interested in the F-35, the newest Department of Defense fighter plane. The DOD had sold nine initial units to our ally Israel. I thought it was a wise decision for three reasons: 1. It provided actual testing for the new aircraft under realistic battle conditions. Aviation Week noted that Israel used several of its F-35s to attack more than 50 Iranian military installations in Syria. All these were presumably protected by the Russian-built Anti-Aircraft system S-300. Their latest design with more powerful radars, is being sold worldwide. Israel had a chance to study an earlier version, sold to Cyprus. The F-35 attack was completed in less than 90 minutes, a notable achievement in military intelligence, as well as in operational planning and coordination. Aviation Week didnt tell us how many F-35s took part in the operation, and whether they returned safely; presumably they all did. Aviation Week did not reveal the tricks Israeli pilots used to evade the S-300 AA system. 2. A [June 5, 2018] Report of the Government Accountability Office [GAO] is quite critical of the F-35 joint strike fighter-bomber. Many experts doubt the viability of the aircraft to meet the various requirements of all the DOD services. In particular, the Report criticizes the design of the helmet-mounted display that presents the necessary operational data to aid the pilot. In other words, while the aircraft itself provides propulsion and carries the required air-to-ground and air-to-air missiles, the electronics, associated with the helmet, represents the brain of the F-35. It so happens that Israeli engineers have much experience in this field, following the design of the IAF [Israel Air Force] Lavie fighter [that was never built.] Apparently, the DOD expects that some of the design experience for the display will be carried over to the F-35. 3. Finally, allowing the F-35 to be sold now lowers the huge procurement cost for the DOD, about 400 billion dollars. The buy-decision is due in October 2019. In the wake of the successful air strike, what will Russia do now? Obviously, there will be some redesign and improvement of the Russian S-300 system to make it saleable to non-captive customers. F-35 (photo credit USAF) But beyond this, Russia is likely to not become involved further in the mess in Syria. This seems to be the outcome also of the recent Helsinki summit between Trump and Putin. The Pan-Arab paper Al-Hayat, published in London, even suggests that Russia may not object to Israel "clipping the wings" of the Iranian Eagle. Writing in Haaretz, former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens, himself chief designer of the Lavie fighter, believes that Russia will not want to tangle with Israel, in view of its demonstrated technological superiority. After all, Israel could easily destroy the Russian-built plutonium reactor at Arak, Iran, after getting permission to overfly Saudi Arabia. (Plutonium is the second way to build a nuclear weapon; Iran apparently has decided to go the route of the enriched Uranium-235. The U.S. used both methods in WW II.) The Russian naval base at Latakia, Syria, is within easy range. The Russians have deployed a more advanced S-400 system to protect Latakia and other installations, which they claim can take down stealth fighters such as the F-35 at a range of over 150 miles. The S-400 failed to respond to the April 14, 2018 missile strikes by U.S., British, and French forces, leading some observers to conclude that the system was overrated. I might add that Latakia and the main Russian naval base on the Crimean peninsula outflank Turkey and thus would discourage it from bottling up the Russian Black-Sea fleet. If youve read The New York Times recently, you may have read that the tech industry is trying to write its own privacy law . This is rich, especially since among these companies are Facebook and Google -- two companies that are infamous for their treatment of user privacy. But why are they so concerned about Californias privacy law so much? Its even gotten to the point where theyre only willing to join talks for a federal privacy law if Californias law is first neutralized. The reason for their concern is simple: the California law protects user privacy above all, not these companies interests. These companies live on the personal data they collect from us. They use this data to make personalized ads that supply them the bulk of their yearly income. Just last year, Google made $95.4 billion , out of a total of $110.9 billion, on ad revenue alone. It is this hunger for our personal data that drives these companies to great lengths to collect them. Havent you ever wondered why Facebook and Google are free to use? You may not know it, but youre actually paying them something in return for their services. Youre paying them with something much more valuable than money -- your personal information. Your personal information is what makes you who you are and these companies know this. Your personal information can be used to target you with personalized ads. While these personalized ads dont necessarily succeed in luring us into buying their products, they do get annoying. Something more concerning, though, is profiling. With our personal data, companies like Google can easily make accurate profiles of anyone whos ever used their services. In 2009, their CEO, Eric Schmidt, has even been quoted as saying : "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines -- including Google -- do retain this information for some time and it's important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities." While I wholeheartedly support the notion that youve got nothing to fear if youve got nothing to hide and I do commend Google for its willingness to work with authorities to stop crimes, I am concerned about the fact that I dont know who else gets access to my personal profile. Who else will these companies sell my information to? This concern stems from the fact that hackers are also after our personal information for their own nefarious means. Just recently, BBC has reported that the health records of over 100 million users around the world were put in jeopardy when 30 bugs were found in the OpenEMR system by a cyber-security group called Project Insecurity. While data breaches target larger enterprises, they arent the only reason for concern. Individuals could just as easily find their lives ruined by the malicious whims of bad actors looking to make a quick buck or to simply ruin ones social standing. The Fappening, the name given to the iCloud breach of 2014, was caused when a hacker broke into Apples system and posted nude photographs of various celebrities, mostly women, on 4chan. While his event no doubt tarnished the reputations of the celebrities who were part of it, it also showed that not even Apple was safe from hackers. The most common way that hackers attack your privacy is by employing malware . This can be further classified into many types but their main purpose remains the same: obtain access to your data. Once a hacker gets hold of your data, he is then free to do whatever he wants with them. Have you ever entered your banking credentials or credit card details into an online form? Maybe youve saved these details in your computer for safekeeping. Are you keeping confidential corporate information in your laptop or cell phone? If youve answered yes to any of these questions, you should be concerned about how privately you keep your data. You never know when a hacker targets your for a spear-phishing attempt. Long story short: online privacy should be everyones concern. It is because of my own concern for online privacy that Ive listed these recommendations on how you can defend your online privacy from hackers, ad companies, and even your ISPs. 1. Get yourself the best VPN you can afford. A VPN not only hides your IP address but also keeps your personal data under wraps by encrypting them. Using a VPN, therefore, prevents hackers and ISPs from reading your online data and tracking your data back to you. It also blocks those annoying ads that keep popping up by not letting them target your real IP address in the first place. 2. The TOR (The Onion Router) works well with a VPN to protect your privacy. TOR does this by wrapping your data in three layers of encryption and sending them to three separate hops before they arrive at the intended server. Using TOR with a VPN means that your data get a fourth layer of encryption as well as any other security feature the VPN provides. 3. Lets learn from The Fappening and not put any of our private photos on the internet. Turn off your devices auto-backup if possible and make regular checks on your devices backed-up data. You can never be too sure when it comes to your personal data. 4. Think about what youre posting on social media. Maybe delete your phone or home number and address on your Facebook profile and make sure to never upload any private photos on these sites. Never share your banking or credit card information on social media sites, too. 5. Watch out for the security of each website you access. If it doesnt have a green padlock, the word Secure, and the letters https before the URL, that site isnt encrypted and you shouldnt risk entering any of your personal data in any of that sites forms. 6. Beware of free public Wi-Fi like the one at Starbucks. These public networks arent secure as you never know what data they may be logging. Theyre also prime targets for MitM attacks which let hackers access your data by intercepting the unsecured Wi-Fi connection. These recommendations havent failed me yet and Im positive that theyll help you defend your privacy as well. John Mason is the founder of TheBestVPN.com. He holds an MSc in cyber-security from Northumbria University and has experience working as a security analyst for IBM. The Left is out for blood. In recent years, they have come to see their ideological opponents not as fellow Americans with whom they happen to disagree on certain issues, but as fundamentally bad people who do not deserve a voice and who should be silenced. If they ever gain power in government again, they will not seek reconciliation with the other side or to bridge the partisan divide. Instead, revenge will be the order of the day. It is absurd to think that the same people who consider Donald Trump a fascist and his supporters deplorable want anything other than revenge. Someday, Democrats will regain control of the House, Senate and Presidency; if not in 2020, then in 2024 or later. And when that day comes, conservatives had better be prepared. Polls show that Republicans are much less enthusiastic than Democrats about voting in this years midterms. Conservatives must turn out to vote in November. The stakes are too high for them to stay home. Protests on Innauguration Day, 2016 (photo credit: Jack) Most Republicans dont realize just how dire the situation is. If Democrats regain the House in 2018, that will be the end of the Trump agenda, and conservatives may not get another chance to implement such an agenda. Democrats in Congress will probably attempt to impeach President Trump, which will likely fail in the Senate, but the attempted impeachment will divide the country like nothing else since the Civil War. The next Democratic president will likely appoint very liberal justices to the Supreme Court who have no respect whatsoever for the Constitution. A Leftist Supreme Court would tear the Constitution to shreds, and you can say good-bye to your 1st and 2nd Amendment rights. If the Supreme Court can find abortion and same-sex marriage in the 14th Amendment, meant to give citizenship to freed slaves, God knows what else they can find in the Constitution. Perhaps in the future the Supreme Court will rule that the 1st Amendment right of freedom of speech doesnt apply to hate speech, or that the 2nd Amendment actually mandates gun control. Undoubtedly any liberal who reads this will think I am being paranoid, and that I am guilty of the slippery slope fallacy. But the slippery slope is not a fallacy if we are currently sliding down it. If you told liberals 20 years ago or even 10 years ago that not only would same-sex marriage be legal in the whole country but that you could be fined refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex couple, they would call you crazy. And yet here we are. The slippery slope is the modus operandi of the Left. Leftists just call it evolving on issues. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton evolved on same-sex marriage a few years ago. Who knows what other issues the Left will evolve on? Republicans shouldnt focus on issues such as tax cuts or opposing same-sex marriage, universal healthcare and legalized marijuana. Many swing voters have liberal positions on these issues, and Republicans cant afford to alienate any of their voters. All hands on deck are needed for the midterms. Instead, Republicans should focus on reducing immigration, supporting gun rights, economic nationalism and building the wall, which are far more popular both with their base and swing voters. Many voters are not Leftist but vote for Democrats anyway because Republicans dont have anything to offer them, while Democrats at least give them a social safety net. The sad fact of the matter is, a welfare state once instituted is almost impossible to destroy. Since Franklin D. Roosevelt transformed this country into a welfare state, the Democratic Party has been dominant. Ever since polls on the subject have been taken, more Americans have identified as Democrats than Republicans. Democrats won five elections in a row from 1932 to 1948, and the only Republican elected between 1932 and 1964 was the moderate Dwight D. Eisenhower, who promised not to touch New Deal programs. Richard Nixon was also fairly moderate, as was Gerald Ford. Ronald Reagan, easily the most popular post-World War II Republican president, was a Democrat for the first few decades of his life. He insisted that he hadnt left the Democratic Party, but they had left him, and he hadnt changed his views. He was a lot more moderate than people on both sides of the aisle realize. After all, as Governor of California he signed liberal laws on no-fault divorce and abortion. George H. W. Bush in effect won election as Reagans third term. Since Reagan left office, a Republican had won the popular vote only once, in 2004, as a result of Americans not wanting to change horses in the middle of a stream during the Iraq War and after 9/11. Trump won Pennsylvania and Michigan for the first time since 1988 and Wisconsin for the first time since 1984 because like Reagan he was seen as favorable to the working class, as opposed to other Republicans who are seen as more favorable to corporations. Since inauguration, he has governed like a conventional Republican and unless that changes ,he is unlikely to win those states in 2020. The key to winning the Rust Belt is protectionism. One of the founding principles of the Republican party was protectionism. From 1861 to 1933, all but two presidents were Republicans, both of whom were elected in part because of divisions in the Republican Party. Such a winning streak probably wont happen again, but protectionism is popular with workers, since it protects their jobs from foreign competition. If the Republican party is to have any future, it will be as a pro-workers party. And to do that, the partys establishment will have to give up on free trade and corporations are people. Perhaps the most important issue at stake right now is tech censorship of ideological dissidents. Trump was able to win the 2016 election in large part because his supporters were able to bypass the mainstream media and disseminate their views through the alternative media, which is almost entirely online. Leftists in big tech want to make sure that such a victory can never happen again. They cant have the child telling everyone that the emperor has no clothes. On Twitter countless accounts both big and small have been suspended for inciting hate. The most prominent example of this was Alex Joness simultaneous ban from YouTube, Facebook and Apple. Why should a small number of individuals who have almost the same political views which are greatly out of touch with the American people get to decide who can and cant have a voice? Twitter, Facebook and other Internet platforms should be treated as public utilities, since that is essentially what they are. Just as the telephone and water companies cant ban you for your political views, tech companies shouldnt be able to either. Will the Trump presidency be seen as the beginning of a new era, or will this just be a blip on the radar? We have to make sure that the Trump revolution bears fruit, or else it will just be a speed bump on our road to oblivion. Thomas OMalley can be contacted at thomasomalley861@yahoo.com While all legacy media and liberal eyes have been focused on Trump "fixer" Michael Cohen and Clintonista lawyer Lanny Davis's lies about Trump payoffs to old girlfriends, few have focused on the activities of Andrew Weissmann, special counsel Robert Mueller's chief deputy and investigator, who has a well deserved reputation as Mueller's "pit bull." Weissmann, among his other jobs, was lead prosecutor in the trial of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Weissmann was also Mueller's attorney on the ground, who oversaw the pre-dawn raid on Manafort's home. He was a key player in Mueller's team of angry Democrat lawyers and donors bent on bringing down the Trump presidency based on false charges of Trump collusion with Russians meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The problem is, as former deputy assistant attorney general Bruce Ohr's closed-door testimony before Congress shows, Weissmann had full knowledge of the fake nature of the Steele dossier, which was a major predicate of the Russian witch-hunt that became the Mueller probe. Weissman knew there was collusion with the Russians and that it was among the DNC; the Clinton campaign; British agent Christopher Steele; Fusion GPS; the DOJ; the FBI; and, yes, Russian sources interested in upending the Trump presidency. In the parlance of the day, this would make Weissmann an unindicted co-conspirator in the Deep State plot to bring Trump down. He could have pulled the plug on the Mueller witch-hunt, but didn't. He could have pushed to go after Democrat collusion with Russia on the dossier, but didn't. Bruce Ohr, the number-four official at the Justice Department as U.S. deputy associate attorney general and the highest ranking non-appointee, with an office a couple of doors down from Deputy A.G. Rod Rosenstein, kept Weissmann "in the loop" about the fake dossier and its journeys through the Deep State swamp. Joining him were a myriad of other co-conspirators in a web of conspiracy and deceit so vast that Watergate trivia question Carl Bernstein may be right in a way he did not intend when he suggested that this whole matter may be bigger than Watergate. It seems that only the DOJ janitor was not involved. As Catherine Herridge of Fox News reports: Embattled Justice Department official Bruce Ohr had contact in 2016 with then-colleague Andrew Weissmann, who is now a top Robert Mueller deputy, as well as other senior FBI officials about the controversial anti-Trump dossier and the individuals behind it, two sources close to the matter told Fox News. The sources said Ohr's outreach about the dossier as well as its author, ex-British spy Christopher Steele; the opposition research firm behind it, Glenn Simpson's Fusion GPS; and his wife Nellie Ohr's work for Fusion occurred before and after the FBI fired Steele as a source over his media contacts. Ohr's network of contacts on the dossier included: former FBI agent Peter Strzok; former FBI lawyer Lisa Page; former deputy director Andrew McCabe; Weissmann and at least one other DOJ official; and a current FBI agent who worked with Strzok on the Russia case. Weissmann was kept "in the loop" on the dossier, a source said, while he was chief of the criminal fraud division. He is now assigned to Special Counsel Mueller's team. Weissmann had to know that the dossier was fake and that its use in obtaining FISA warrants to conduct surveillance on Team Trump and provide a predicate for the Mueller witch-hunt was a fraud committed upon the FISA court. If he knew, Robert Mueller should have known. Their proceeding with their "investigation" into Team Trump based on the fraudulently obtained FISA warrants is more than an abuse of power. It is a criminal act. Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett notes that Ohr's testimony is damning in a criminal sense: We learned today that James Comey's FBI was far more corrupt than we ever knew. We already knew that he used a false document from a wire they fire (ph). But today we learned that Bruce Ohr told Comey and his confederates that this is a guy, Christopher Steele, who had said he was desperate to stop Donald Trump. He was vagrantly (ph) anti- Trump. They should have stopped right there in their tracks and said goodbye to Steele, thrown his dossier in the garbage. But they didn't care. They moved ahead to launch this investigation of Trump to damage him and to spy on a Trump associate. These people should be prosecuted for obstruction of justice, for perjury, abuse of power, and about three other felonies I can think of. The law enforcers became the law breakers. And where is the FISA court? Why aren't these judges holding these in criminal contempt? Why didn't they prosecute these people with indictments[?] As Sean Hannity noted on his show Tuesday, Bruce Ohr was well aware of the fraudulent nature of the Steele dossier and the FISA applications based on them, a fact that he no doubt passed on when he was keeping everyone involved in this conspiracy "in the loop": "We did learn from Bruce Ohr today that he understood the Steele dossier would never have been accepted in a court of law, 65 pages of notes and text of meetings between him and Steele... so much to cover, it might take the whole hour," Hannity said. "There is no doubt that a conspiracy to commit fraud multiple times against FISA judges did take place." "Everyone who signed off on this FISA request signed off on fraudulent documents, and they knew they were fraudulent," he said. Christopher Steele himself could not confirm the dossier's claims. Even the corrupt James Comey said that they were "salacious and unverified." So if they could not be used in a court of law, why were they used in FISA applications to authorize surveillance of Team Trump? Because it was a means to their desired end the destruction of the Trump presidency, which also meant lying to the court about its sourcing and financing. Andrew Weissman knew this, and no doubt Robert Mueller knows this, too. When the FBI "fired" Steele for leaking to the press, a back channel through Ohr and his wife Nellie was created: "It was obvious early on that Bruce Ohr was the backchannel for Steele," said a congressional source with direct knowledge of the testimony. "The FBI was aware of potential bias of Nellie Ohr and they knew about Steele's bias early on but never included it in the FISA application. It's astonishing the FBI kept the information from the court: the fact that there was a back channel after they terminated Christopher Steele and also Fusion GPS, knowing Ohr's wife was working there." Not only was Bruce Ohr a conduit for the dossier information, but he and his wife also profited handsomely from their involvement in its production and dissemination: Fusion GPS and its co-founder have not responded to Fox News' questions for this story, or previous reports. While Fusion GPS financial records were the subject of a lawsuit, and are not public, sources told Fox News that Nellie Ohr received "multiple payments" in 2016 from Fusion GPS, and the amounts were "not small change." This is corruption of the highest order at the highest level. Nellie Ohr worked for Fusion GPS and was paid by Fusion GPS as her high-ranking DOJ husband was colluding with a British agent and Russian sources to bring down Trump. Also working with, if not for, Fusion GPS was one Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump, Jr. at Trump Tower. Manafort's home, hotel, and office were raided at the behest of Mueller, whose team admitted in a court filing that the Veselnitskaya meeting was a motive for the Manafort raid, managed by Andrew Weissmann. Never interviewed by Mueller's team, Veselnitskaya did meet with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson before and after the Trump Tower meeting, suggesting it was a setup to entrap Team Trump as part of the Deep State coup against Trump: [H]ours before the Trump Tower meeting on June 9, 2016, Fusion co-founder and ex-Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Simpson was with Veselnitskaya in a Manhattan federal courtroom, a confidential source told Fox News. Court records reviewed by Fox News, email correspondence and published reports corroborate the pair's presence together. The source told Fox News they also were together after the Trump Tower meeting. Weissmann is a partisan hack and Mueller thug who sent an email to acting attorney general Sally Yates, one of those who signed the fraudulent FISA applications, congratulating her on her for refusing to defend in court President Trump's travel ban: A senior member of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigative team said he was in "awe" of former acting Attorney General Sally Yates the day she was fired for refusing to defend President Trump's controversial travel ban, according to emails obtained by a conservative watchdog group. Andrew Weissmann, a veteran Justice Department prosecutor who is one of Mueller's top lieutenants on the special counsel probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, sent a Jan. 30 email to Yates that appeared to laud her for standing up to Trump. "I am so proud and in awe," Weissmann wrote, according to emails obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request. "Thank you so much." He also attended Hillary Clinton's 2016 almost victory party, probably shedding a tear over her loss and fueling his desire to overturn Trump's surprising victory. Weissmann knew all about the Deep State coup starting with but not stopping with the fake Fusion GPS dossier. As he sits with Robert Mueller, looking to see if Trump paid any Russian's unpaid parking tickets, it is obvious that the Mueller witch-hunt is just that. It is an enterprise interested not in true Russian collusion and meddling, but in a conspiracy to bring down the Trump presidency. Bruce Ohr's closed-door testimony is enough to justify shutting it down. Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor's Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications. Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed dismissed his energy minister Khalid Kaddour who is facing a corruption probe, the Premiers office said. Kaddour was dismissed less than a year after his appointment in September 2017 in a move that will trigger other sackings. Kaddour will stand before justice in November over allegations of administrative and financial corruption within the ministry. Hachem Hmidi, secretary of state at the ministry, was also sacked along with the director generals of judicial affairs and fuel. The shake-up is the latest move in the Prime Ministers anti-corruption drive, which has caught up numerous senior officials and businessmen since it was announced in May 2017. "It's better that 99 guilty men go free than one innocent man go to jail." That used to be liberal dogma and was used to justify granting ever more rights to the accused. But that standard was thrown out the window on many college campuses when it came to sexual assault cases. Obama-era rules tipped the scales of justice heavily in favor of victims whether they were truly victims or not. No one kept track the last few years of how many men were falsely accused of rape or sexual assault and had their lives ruined by being kicked out of school or even put on trial. Many have sued. The fact is, many colleges have policies that violate simple rules of due process, leaving the accused with little or no defense. Education secretary Betsy DeVos decided earlier this year to repeal the Obama-era guidelines that tilted the scales of justice heavily in favor of the accusers in sexual assault and rape cases. This has set off a chorus of complaints from victims and victims' rights groups with the usual exaggerations. USA Today: "Is ruining lives your version of a back-to-school welcome?" Morgan McCaul, a survivor of sexual abuse by former MSU doctor Larry Nassar, tweeted as reports of the potential changes broke this week. "When we define policy about criminal sexual misconduct, it is imperative that we consider victims first," she told the Detroit Free Press later. "Limiting the availability of justice for complainants is concerning and reckless, especially in today's climate." What changes is DeVos actually proposing? The proposed changes, from the federal Department of Education led by Betsy DeVos, would limit colleges to investigating only those sex assaults that happen on campus. Assaults that occur just off campus, in places like fraternity houses or off-campus housing, no longer would be investigated by the institutions. They will be investigated by police, who should have been investigating the charges all along. The changes, first reported by the New York Times, would narrow the definition of sexual harassment and let the accused and accuser cross-examine each other. The outrage! Oh, the humanity! Simple, basic rules of due process should not be tossed away simply because victims are traumatized. The changes would also have the department's Office for Civil Rights use a higher legal standard to determine whether a college violated Title IX, a federal law that prohibits discrimination at an educational institution based on sex, including sexual harassment, assault or rape. "The lack of clear regulatory standards has contributed to processes that have not been fair to all parties involved, that have lacked appropriate procedural protections, and that have undermined confidence in the reliability of the outcomes of investigations of sexual-harassment allegations," the draft from the Department of Education says, according to the New York Times. This is a clear improvement if you value equal protection under the law and upholding due process rights. I'm sorry for sexual assault victims who have to deal with the legal procedures and implications of their accusations. You wish they could be spared the pain. But the lives of two people are involved in these cases, not one. It has been an outrageous miscarriage of justice to allow accusations of sexual assault and even rape to end up railroading male students out of school when basic legal protections have been denied them. It's sad that whether these changes are implemented or not, they won't stop men from assaulting or raping women, or women making false accusations for any reason against men. The changes also won't affect that gray area in interpersonal relations between men and women where misunderstandings and poor communication can lead to "he said, she said" legal situations. All these changes do is try to level the legal playing field so the rights of both the accused and the accuser are protected. Yesterday, I promised readers that I would go to an In-N-Out Burger restaurant to check out the public reaction to the call to boycott the chain by the chair of the California Democratic Party. I chose to drive to Hayward, California, a racially and economically diverse Bay Area city that gave less than 15% of its presidential votes to Trump-Pence. So here's my report, in the spirit that President Trump proudly proclaims: "Promises made Promises kept." It was packed! This, in all honesty, is the normal situation at an In-N-Out Burger store any time within hours of a mealtime. There were eight people ahead of me in line to order: That line never went below six people and had as many as fifteen waiting during the time I was in the store. There was no down time at all. They had three people taking orders, and all of them were efficient and smiling, so the wait was short, and the interaction with the cash register jockey was pleasant and quick. I was given a number for my order, and it was 24 orders behind the order just announced on the P.A. system. Here is what the scene looks like, as cooks work the grill, fries, and car window, and the orders are announced and picked up. The 24 orders were quickly filled, and my "protein style" double-double (not on the formal menu, but the "secret" one that everyone knows) arrived within ten minutes. Here is what it looks like, with the real thing pictured behind it on the tray mat. I filled the cup I was given when I ordered with iced tea and took a plastic straw from the supply on offer: One of the pleasant things about a visit to In-N-Out is that the customers tend to be happy and pleasant to each other. There was a little wait at the condiment stand, but the African-American gentleman in front of me picking up a hot pepper to put on his burger was most pleasant as I excused myself and leaned around him to get some ketchup. People look forward to eating, and there is certain sense of being joined together as fans. If In-N-Out is humming in deep blue Hayward, you can bet that in the conservative-leaning areas, the turnout was spectacular. Devin Nunes tweeted: LOL! InNOut burger packed in Visalia...cars down the road! Democrats/Socialists winning! Devin Nunes (@DevinNunes) September 1, 2018 And Twitter support came from Rand Paul (there are no In-N-Out stores in D.C. or Kentucky, so was he visiting out West?) Im just gonna leave this right here #InNout # pic.twitter.com/7oiohyIMy6 Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) August 31, 2018 Other reports also indicate unusual crowds: The line at In-N-Out Burger today was three blocks out of the parking lot... it's usually only a half a block.#InAndOutBurger SHRED (@1SHRED) September 1, 2018 These days, there are not too many companies whose customers love them. But that is the case with In-N-Out. I have been fascinated by the company for years. It is privately owned by one person, the granddaughter of the couple who founded it. Like her parents and grandparents, she is a believing Christian. Being a billionaire heiress carries quite a few hazards, and Lynsi Snyder experienced her share of them "looking for attention and found it in men, drugs and alcohol [and] 3 failed marriages[.]" About a year ago, she recovered her faith and offered video testimony. I wonder how long it will be until In-N-Out Burger will be attacked for the religion its owner espouses. The mainstream media don't like John McCain. They don't respect John McCain, either. The recent torrent of articles gushing about John McCain's honor, patriotism, civility, and amenability have nothing whatsoever to do with the man and everything to do with his adversary in the White House. For the mainstream media, there is no such thing as simply reporting the news. Everything the press does, down to every measly word it chooses, is to advance its leftist agenda, whether ordinary people know it or not. For every fleeting second of the last two years, the lying press has been on a berserk crusade to sink Donald Trump. Donald Trump's very existence is an affront to the left's core Marxist values. He is therefore a threat not only to their rule, but to the legitimacy of their rule over the American people, indeed all Western peoples. Every single article, down to every single idea, every half-truth, every omission, every editorial decision made, every single thing the mainstream media publishes or has published, carries with it either an implicit or an explicit dig at the president, at his values, and at his policies. Why should we think the press's recent obsession with John McCain's demise is at all different? Granted, neocons are less disfavored by the cultural Marxist power structure, but less disfavored is still disfavored. What's more, McCain has been good for corporate America's bottom line, especially those highly parasitic, gigantic corporations connected to the military industrial complex, and there is no doubting that the corporate-owned press takes to that kind of thing. McCain's implacable moderacy is also something strongly appreciated by the left-wing U.S. power structure and press. The U.S. power structure doesn't much like real opponents of or real opposition to its cultural Marxist agenda. With that said, the press still does not really like or respect John McCain, despite its current protestations to the contrary. While McCain was running for president, the selfsame mainstream media, now burnishing busts of the man, accused him of racism and white supremacy and every other evil imaginable. If McCain were a mere American citizen rather than a Washington power player, labels such as these would render him quite deserving of and very much susceptible to being viciously assaulted in the streets by roving mobs of neo-Bolsheviks (Antifa). Today, on the other hand, McCain's character and legacy are both unimpeachable, according to those same mainstream media. Odd how quickly the media's tune changes when they have an agenda to advance. Now, I never agreed with much of what Donald Trump said about John McCain and wasn't inclined to pay too much attention to their long-running catfight. On numerous occasions, both men have shown themselves inclined to both vanity and pettiness. And while I never personally liked John McCain in the same way I like Donald Trump, I don't dispute for a second that he served in the U.S. military with honor and distinction. McCain was, without question, a brave and decent man. Nevertheless, anyone who believes that the U.S. power structure cares about John McCain, or his integrity, or his legacy, or his accomplishments, is beyond deluded. The flood of news articles worshiping the man, even a full week after his death, doesn't reflect a genuine veneration, even if we might want it to. Worshiping John McCain is not about worshiping John McCain; rather, it is an indirect way to undermine Donald Trump and his presidency. As far as the press is concerned, the better John McCain looks, the more impressive his record and his life, the worse his arch-nemesis, Donald Trump, looks in the eyes of the public. In other words, the bigger John McCain's death is made to be, the smaller Donald Trump's deeds become. There are plenty of good, morally unadulterated reasons to pay homage to John McCain and his life. However, the depressing reality is that the mainstream media rarely have good, morally unadulterated reasons for anything they do. For a few years now, the rumor mill has been wondering if Google was working on a Pixel smartwatch, and last year there were plenty of leaks regarding the Pixel smartwatch that was said to be released at its hardware event last year, but that never happened. And now, Toms Guide spoke with the head of WearOS at IFA in Berlin this week about the Pixel smartwatch, and its not happening. The head of WearOS, Miles Barr stated that Googles focus is on its partners for now. Stating that to think of a one-size-fits-all watch, I dont think were there yet. Barr also stated that the Pixel line of phones is the best experience and Googles take on it, so I imagine we would focus heavily on the Google Assistant to integrate AI and machine learning into the device, which is Googles forte. Barr is not ruling out the possibility of a Pixel smartwatch down the road, but as for now, they are looking to create multiple smartwatches that fit different niches, because there isnt a one-size-fits-all watch just yet. Some people might want a fitness-focused smartwatch, or a more fashionable one, or even one that is slim and minimal. All of which are available under the WearOS banner. Googles smartwatch platform has undergone some pretty big changes in the past year or so, with a big redesign that was announced this week. So Google is still working on the software side of things on WearOS, which makes sense for them to stay out of the hardware side for now. Get one thing down before moving onto another side. However, it would be nice to see a Pixel smartwatch, since the Pixel smartphone is not a one-size-fits-all either, it would make sense for Google to release its own smartwatch that would help propel the industry. Photo: Courtesy of the retailers If you follow our biweekly feature Your Shopping Cart, you know that we have some eerily good intel on what things you all are buying. It led us to think that, as Strategist editors, we could turn the tables and highlight all the things weve been buying ourselves. As youll notice, its both a blessing and a curse to be a Strat editor; were picky, but sometimes we just have to get on with it (its online-shopping expertise meets IRL needs). Below, what we all bought in August. Lauren Ro, writer Andie Amalfi Navy One-Piece Swimsuit $95 Up until this weekend, I hadnt submerged myself in a body of water natural or otherwise all summer because, I dont know, life got in the way. Still, for whatever reason, I felt the need to buy a new swimsuit. This time, I wanted a simple one-piece to hold it all in that also didnt cost over $100. So I turned to Andie, a direct-to-consumer brand that launched last year, for its reasonably priced options. Because I have a short torso and am insecure about my back, I went with the Amalfi (which the websites handy Fit Finder tool also recommended) for its cami-style straps, low neckline, high-cut back, and elegant silhouette. I was between sizes, so I ordered two (Andie offers free shipping and returns) and went with the larger one, which fit like a dream. The other day I took it for a swim at my local pool and felt sleek and secure, like a sexy water mammal. $95 at Andie Swim Buy I first learned about the Nashville-based made-to-order clothing company Elizabeth Suzann from my husband, of all people, who had heard an econ podcast about its sustainable and ethical business model. With a focus on natural fibers, Elizabeth Suzann offers timeless pieces for women, like swingy linen tees, tunics, jackets, wool sweaters, and breezy bottoms, each made to order in-house, which means lead times are currently at six to seven weeks. I ordered the staple Georgia Tee in navy, a boxy linen top, and the Josephine Vented Shell in ivory, which has cap sleeves and a box pleat in the back, in June and received my order this month. I love the structure of the Georgia tee and how I can pair it with a voluminous skirt without looking too precious. Although the pieces arent cheap, Im confident that theyll be with me for the long haul. Maxine Builder, writer The Five Minute Journal: A Happier You in 5 Minutes a Day $30 Theres something about the return of fall that really gets me going on a self-improvement kick, probably some vestige of back-to-school nostalgia. I usually buy a bunch of new pens or a new planner to scratch the itch, but this year, I went big and bought a guided gratitude journal called the Five-Minute Journal. Every morning, it directs you to write down three things youre grateful for, three goals for the day, and a daily affirmation, and yes, its absolutely as cheesy as it sounds. But Ive been liking the practice so far, as an easy way to collect my thoughts and be more mindful thats less boring to me than ten minutes of meditation. My boyfriend says I seem happier and less stressed-out since doing it, but its still unclear if Im a better person or not. $30 at Amazon Buy $30 at Amazon Buy L.L. Bean Stetson Spencer Hat $90 I am, however, officially a hat person! This $90 felt Stetson hat that I found in the hunting section of L.L. Bean in Freeport, Maine, is the fedora I never knew I needed. The brims wide enough to give me enough coverage, but not too big as to make me feel totally goofy, and the gorgeous, neutral tan matches almost any outfit. Ive been referring to it, lovingly, as my dumb starter hat because now that I know how good I feel (and maybe even look?) while wearing it, its only a matter of time before I amass a whole collection. $90 at L.L. Bean Buy Karen Iorio Adelson, writer The Incendiaries by R. O. Kwon $26 now 38% off $16 After reading rave reviews of R.O. Kwons debut novel, I bought The Incendiaries thinking it would last me through Labor Day weekend, but I ended up finishing it in two days. The novel centers around a charismatic cult leader who sets up shop on a college campus, luring in emotionally and spiritually vulnerable students. When two young lovers become enmeshed in his inner circle, Kwons writing takes on a mounting sense of dread that kept me, as a reader, similarly bewitched. $16 at Amazon Buy $16 at Amazon Buy Im trying to limit my running clothes purchases (since I already have a dresser full of technical gear), but when Tracksmith released this gorgeous new color in its soft and breathable merino-wool Harrier top, I couldnt resist. I also picked up another pair of its silky-smooth and stretchy Session shorts because I was placing an order anyway And Im already dreaming of wearing them together on a crisp fall run. Shiseido Facial Cotton $10 The first time you swipe toner or another liquid skin-care product across your face using one of these feather-soft, yet structurally sound, cotton pads, you will never be able to go back to regular old cotton balls. These dont shed and leave linty residue all over the place, nor do they get oversaturated and dissolve on you. I use these with my Biologique Recherche P50 twice a day, and when my first pack was running out, I didnt hesitate to order more. $10 at Sephora Buy Margaret Rhodes, senior editor Nike Air Max 98 $160 I wanted in on the chunky-ugly sneaker wave, but didnt want anything that even remotely resembled a Triple S knockoff. After many, many weeks of deliberating, I went for these 98s in a neutral but not plain Sail/Fossil/Reflect Silver/Igloo color scheme. I love them, especially with wide-leg pants. $160 at Nike Buy Alaska Bear Natural Silk Sleep Mask $10 I am both blessed and cursed with a home with several big windows, a few of which are next to my bed. This makes it nearly impossible to sleep in past 7 a.m. on the weekends, so a year ago, I had to buy a sleep mask. It had to be a silk one that didnt have any pink, any winky-eye decals, and was super slim (I sleep on my stomach, and therefore on my face). This one is perfect. And its $8. I left mine on a flight recently and reordered my replacement as soon as I logged back on to Amazon. $10 at Amazon Buy $10 at Amazon Buy Mohinders Womens City Slippers $145 Full disclosure: The press person for this new leather shoe line sent me a pair of slip-ons back in April. They have a nice huarache-meets-loafer vibe. Theyre made in India, and theyre buttery soft. I mention them now because somehow, to my total surprise, these became my go-to shoes for the summer. New York is a cruel place for sandals, especially leather ones. (Some leather espadrilles from a well-known brand practically disintegrated on me last summer; other leather sandals have gone from giving me blisters to stretching out so much that they didnt fit, in just one month.) But these have held up. I wore them almost every day, almost everywhere: to work, on long concrete walks around the city, at a lake house, on a boat. And theyre still good. A hint stretched out, but good. So Im buying another pair, as a thank-you gift to a recent hostess who said she liked mine. $145 at Mohinders Buy Alexis Swerdloff, Strategist editor But Not the Armadillo by Sandra Boynton $6 now 17% off $5 Ive been buying a ton of incredibly boring baby stuff thats not worthy of being included in this roundup (for instance: a diaper changer, water wipes, bottles), but of all the things Ive gotten in anticipation of this baby (who is ostensibly arriving next week), there is one thing I am actually quite excited about: Its the long-awaited follow-up to my favorite kids book, But Not the Hippopotamus by Sandra Boynton, and its called But Not the Armadillo. Not to give too much away, but the original is about a whole slew of animals who are hanging out and having fun together but not the hippopotamus. (e.g., a moose and a goose together have juice but not the hippopotamus.) After much buildup, at the end of the book, the hippopotamus finally decides to join in on the fun but not the armadillo. And thats where this sequel comes in. As the blurb reads: For more than thirty-five years, readers have wondered what happens to the mystery armadillo on the last page of Sandra Boyntons classic board book, But Not the Hippopotamus. Now, at last, comes the long-awaited sequel. Its actually out next week, and you bet I preordered it. $5 at Amazon Buy $5 at Amazon Buy Pottery Barn Morgan Organic Duvet Cover, Dark Emerald $169 $199 now 15% off $169 It was time for a new duvet cover, and after a lot of hemming and hawing, I settled on this guy from Pottery Barn. I am drawn to any kind of white duvet with a colorful border, but thought the usuals (navy, red, black) were a little too humdrum. The bright-green really pops and feels elegant and playful at the same time. $169 at Pottery Barn Buy with code: SAVEMORE BirdRock Home 2-Tier Bamboo Shoe Rack $33 In an attempt to clear out our house and make way for bebe, we asked our landlord if we could store our shoes in the hallway on a shoe rack and she (surprisingly) said yes. I liked the looks of this one from Urban Outfitters, but realized I could get basically the exact one from Amazon for a bit cheaper. Its totally unremarkable (it isnt going to win any design awards), but will get the job done in a nice, tasteful way. $33 at Amazon Buy $33 at Amazon Buy Baggu Weekend Bag $74 now 32% off $50 Photo: Kabir Fernandez/Kabir Fernandez Its no secret that Im obsessed with this stripy Baggu weekender its just so cheerful and practical. I finally bit the bullet when the price went down to $37 over at Shopbop. That deals since ended, but these bags are still available on sale for $50 at Baggu proper. $50 at Baggu Buy Jason Chen, deputy editor Takeya Airtight Pitcher $20 Would you believe that the glass pitcher I bought last month BROKE after three days? I may have (lightly) tapped it against the sink, and the crack in the glass left a pool in my fridge that I didnt notice till hours later. Luckily, I used my Amazon refund to get this plastic pitcher, and its so much better than the one I originally bought, with a grippy silicone handle, an airtight lid, and a cleaner profile. I shouldve just gotten it in the first place its four bucks cheaper, too. $20 at Amazon Buy $20 at Amazon Buy Nude Design Studio Finesse Whiskey Glasses $45 for 4 A few months ago, before seeing Lobby Hero, my friend and I grabbed dinner at Legacy Records and became obsessed with the thin-lipped, rounded-edge glasses they used for water. I emailed around and found out that the restaurant designer Ken Fulk used Finesse Nude whiskey glasses and finally bought them this month to gift my pal on his birthday. $45 for 4 at Design Within Reach Buy Katy Schneider, associate editor Since moving in with my boyfriend, hes become very attached to two products I introduced him to: Palo Santo incense sticks and snail-mucin under-eye patches. We ran out of both, which made him very morose (Where are the eye things? Where are the nice sticks?). So I restocked on both. He was pleased. I also purchased two new books on the opioid epidemic: Dopesick, which is nonfiction, and Cherry, which our very own Christian Lorentzen called the first great novel of the opioid epidemic. I read Cherry, my boyfriend read Dopesick, and now all we can do is trade distressing facts about heroin addiction. Simone Kitchens, senior editor Chaco Z/2 Classic Sandals $105 I resisted these for so long, years actually, not because I thought they were so deeply uncool, but rather because I didnt consider myself cool enough to pull them off. To me, the hideousness of a very exposed foot strapped onto a foamy platform base in a zigzaggy fashion was the definition of just not caring what other people thought. Theyre Teva-adjacent, but theyre still very specific in their own way. Anyway, on a recent trip home to Oklahoma, I went for it, but was still sort of sheepish about wearing them outside the house. Until I spent a week camping in Colorado. They are sort of the official shoe of Colorado; half the state is in a pair. They are also an ideal thing to be wearing when you want to pull the car over on the side of the road and jump into a creek. $105 at Zappos Buy Moon Juice Beauty Shroom Exfoliating Acid Potion $39 Say what you want about Moon Juice, but I have seen Amanda Chantal Bacons skin in person. Very glowy. This exfoliating acid toner is like the all-natural P50. Theres a slight burning feeling, which goes away in a couple of seconds. Then theres a slight sticky feeling, which goes away in about 20 minutes. Then everything gets super soft, super clear, tighter, and firmer. Ive used the real P50 and my skin could never adjust, it just made it awful-looking and inflamed. This stuff takes no time to acclimate to. Have been using for a couple of weeks now, and my normally very dehydrated skin feels balanced, and theres a new evenness. $39 at Sephora Buy Lori Keong, writer Mango Loops High Waist Trousers $60 My work wardrobe is full of varying shades of navy blue (it is the most flattering color on me, okay) and after a successful Facebook targeted ad campaign on my News Feed, I am now the owner of a very classy pair of paper-bag trousers from Mango that are a high-waist style. I am very taken with the way they cinch my waist. I cant exactly wear them right now since its blazing hot out, but fall is not too far away. $60 at Spring Buy get the strategist newsletter Actually good deals, smart shopping advice, and exclusive discounts. Email This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Terms & Privacy Notice By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. The Strategist is designed to surface the most useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Some of our latest conquests include the best acne treatments, rolling luggage, pillows for side sleepers, natural anxiety remedies, and bath towels. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. Every editorial product is independently selected. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission. Marysville, CA (95901) Today Some clouds in the morning will give way to mainly sunny skies for the afternoon. High 71F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Mostly clear skies early will give way to cloudy skies and rain later during the night. Low 58F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. The India heads of global internet and social media firms may soon have to face criminal proceedings if their platforms are used to spread fake news. According to a report in the Times of India, a high level committee, which was set up to look into the matter of mob violence and lynching, has recommended criminal proceedings against the top executives if they fail to deal with fake news. Earlier in July, the government had formed a high level committee chaired by the Union Home Secretary to deliberate the matter of mob violence and make recommendations. The move came after the Supreme Court had asked the central government to enact a law to deal with incidents of lynching. Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba-headed committee, which has submitted its report to Home Minister Rajnath Singh, feels that social media companies and instant messengers such as WhatsApp need to take responsibility for not tracing and thereafter blocking malicious content that has the potential to lead rumour-mongering and incidents of lynching, the report said. According to the report, the committee has also sought the appointment of superintendent police in each districts as the nodal officer to deal with cases of lynching. However, these are just recommendations and final view will be taken by a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Rajnath Singh. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot are members of the GoM. The GoM will submit its recommendations to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Recently, the government asked Facebook-owned WhatsApp to set up a local entity and find a tech solution to trace the origin of fake messages on its platform. After meeting WhatsApp Head Chris Daniels, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the messaging app needs to find solutions to deal with "sinister developments" like mob lynching and revenge porn. "I had a productive meeting with Chris Daniels, the CEO of WhatsApp. I complimented him for the awakening, which WhatsApp has led in the entire country... But there are also sinister developments like mob lynching and revenge porn, you must find solutions to these challenges, which are downright criminal and violation of Indian laws," he had said. In July, the government faced massive criticim over 35 deaths in the country owing to mob lynching, many of them triggered by fake news spread over social media. Taking the cognisance of the matter, the apex court asked the Parliament to consider enacting a new law to effectively deal with incidents of mob lynching. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said that it was the duty of state governments to ensue law and order in society, besides ensuring that the rule of law prevailed. Image: RuthAS CC BY 3.0 AVwebs weekly news roundup found reports on a new exhibit at the Tillamook Air Museum, a research team looking for ASRS report from GA pilots, installation of a new in-flight connectivity system on a Bombardier Challenger 300, an updated white paper for business aircraft operators and an agreement between Hawaiian Airlines and MINT Software Systems. In cooperation with Scroggins Aviation of Las Vegas, Nevada, the Tillamook Air Museum has added the forward fuselage of a 1960 Trans-World Airlines Convair 880 jetliner to its collection of historic aircraft and aviation exhibits. The 43-foot fuselage section will be taken to the museums location in Tillamook, Oregon, for use as an interactive walkthrough exhibit. A team researching wake turbulence is asking for GA pilots to report wake turbulence encounters using the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS). The researchers say that most of the wake turbulence reports received are from commercial airlines, leading to data that doesnt take into account the perspective of small aircraft operators. Banyan Air Service has announced that it has completed its first installation of a Gogo AVANCE L5 system on a Bombardier Challenger 300. The company says the installation of the 4G in-flight connectivity system was completed on budget in under three weeks. Also for business aircraft, the Advanced Aircrew Academy has published a white paper covering changes to training requirements and recommendations in the 2018 International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations. The white paper is available at no charge. Finally, Hawaiian Airlines has signed a service agreement with MINT Software Systems to implement MINTs Training and Resource Management System. The system provides training schedules, record management, electronic grading, reporting and analysis capabilities. Hundreds of American businesses have testified in hearings hosted by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, hoping to shed light on the damaging effect tariffs on Chinese goods will have on the average American consumer. The big picture: From "cradles to coffins," the 25% tariffs proposed by the Trump administration on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods will raise prices on a wide range of everyday items. And, many industry representatives argued, they will do little to curb China's unfair trade practices. The backdrop: The hearings were similar to those hosted by the USTR when it was considering tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, which Trump ultimately chose to implement. But this latest round would affect a far greater cross section of consumer goods. 23% of the U.S. imports that would be subject to this round of tariffs are consumer goods, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Among the hardest-hit would be furniture ($11 billion), chair seats ($10 billion), computers ($8 billion), lamps and lighting parts ($7 billion), and cooking appliances ($3.8 billion). What they're saying: The six days of hearings consisted mainly of representatives from a range of industries attempting to explain the logic-defying nature of the proposed tariffs, while committee members questioned them on their ability to source products from countries besides China, per World Trade Online. American Chemistry Council: "Supply chains are not plug-and-play they cannot easily be reconfigured to meet the whims of U.S. trade policy. Forcing companies to reconfigure their supply chains would threaten the viability of their businesses." "Supply chains are not plug-and-play they cannot easily be reconfigured to meet the whims of U.S. trade policy. Forcing companies to reconfigure their supply chains would threaten the viability of their businesses." American Bridal Prom Industry Association: China's dominance as an apparel maker means it will be virtually impossible to avoid importing Chinese made goods entirely...If a 25 percent or greater tariff were to be imposed in the future, the supplier, importer and direct consumer would likely share the higher cost, as retailers would try to pass along most or all the price increase. China's dominance as an apparel maker means it will be virtually impossible to avoid importing Chinese made goods entirely...If a 25 percent or greater tariff were to be imposed in the future, the supplier, importer and direct consumer would likely share the higher cost, as retailers would try to pass along most or all the price increase. Graco Children's Products Inc: "We're very concerned that imposing these tariffs will force many families to make very difficult trade-offs between over-extending their budget or ensuring the safety of their children." "We're very concerned that imposing these tariffs will force many families to make very difficult trade-offs between over-extending their budget or ensuring the safety of their children." Quality Bicycle Products Inc.: "If you want to see the latest in bicycle technology, you can go to the Smithsonian Museum, the Air and Space Museum, and see a 1903 Wright Brothers bicycle that is in essence what is being produced in China today. The same technology. There arent any semiconductor chips in a bicycle imported from China. The bottom line: Per the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Trump administration has attempted to assure Americans that it will resolve trade frictions with China without excessive collateral damage, but it lacks a coherent strategy for those assurances to be of any real comfort. Former Vice President Joe Biden gave an emotional tribute to Sen. John McCain at his service in North Phoenix Baptist Church on Thursday, referring to him as a "gentle giant" who fought for civility in politics, even when certain sides disagreed. Key quote: Biden emphasized that, for McCain, politics were not most important it was the underlying values that mattered. He "could not stand the abuse of power wherever he saw it, in whatever form, in whatever country, Biden said. An anecdote from Biden: "[McCain would] come over on the Democratic side and we'd sit It was in '96 and we were about to adjourn for what we call the [Senate lunch] caucuses...and we both went into our caucus and coincidentally we were approached by our caucus leaders..." Biden said. It was in '96 and we were about to adjourn for what we call the [Senate lunch] caucuses...and we both went into our caucus and coincidentally we were approached by our caucus leaders..." Biden said. "'Joe it doesnt look good you sitting next to John all the time," Biden recalled being told. "Same thing was said to John." all the time," Biden recalled being told. "Same thing was said to John." "Thats when things began to change for worse in America in the Senate...It was always appropriate to challenge another senators judgementnever appropriate to challenge their motive. When you challenge their motive...it's impossible to reach consensus. It began to go downhill from there..." The last day John [was] on the Senate floor, what was he fighting to do? He was fighting to restore what we call regular order. To start to treat one another again like we used to." Joe Biden Cindy McCain, with son, Jack, arriving for the memorial service. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images "I think its something more intangible...I think its because they knew John believed so deeply and impassionately in the soul of America that he made it easier for them to have confidence and faith in America." Meghan McCain and her husband walk to the funeral. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images "He didnt believe that America's fate rested on heroesHeroes didnt run this country, ordinary people given half a chance are capable of doing extraordinary things." Former Vice President Joe Biden. Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images "John was a hero. His character, courage, honor, and integrity. His optimism. Thats what made John special. It made John a giant among all of us." Former Vice President Joe Biden wipes tears away at Sen. John McCain's funeral service in Arizona. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images "His belief and it was deep that Americans can do anything, withstand anything, achieve anything, was both unflagging and utterly reassuring." Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte, in an apparent joke during a speech on Thursday, said that "[a]s long as there are many beautiful women, there will be more rape cases" in his hometown of Davao, the Washington Post reports. Why it matters: This isn't close to the first time Duterte has made comments like this, the Post points out. He continued his remarks saying, "Who agrees to do it on the first request anyway? Will the woman allow it? No. ... Nobody agrees to do it on the first try." His spokesman brushed off the comment, saying there shouldn't be "too much weight" put on a joke. Rappi, an on-demand delivery startup operating in Latin America, has raised more than $200 million in new funding at a valuation north of $1 billion, Axios has learned from multiple sources. DST Global was the lead investor, while existing shareholders include Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. Why it matters: Startup "unicorns" have become almost common in the U.S., but there are still only a small handful south of the border. Washington gathered to say goodbye to Senator John McCain on Saturday, with several notables attending his memorial service at the National Cathedral. The big picture: This is a rare moment in the nation's capital when people from all political ideologies join together, paying their respects to a giant of the Senate. The latest: Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama delivered eulogies. Bush: "Back in the day, he could frustrate me, and I know hed say the same thing about me. But he also made me better." "Back in the day, he could frustrate me, and I know hed say the same thing about me. But he also made me better." Obama: "For all our difference, for all the items we sparred, I never tried to hide and I think John came to understand the long standing admiration that I had for him. A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. McCain's daughter Meghan spoke at the service, saying: "I am here before you today saying the words I have never wanted to say, giving the speech I have never wanted to give, feeling loss I have never wanted to feel. My father is gone." Her full remarks. At the National Cathedral, McCain's casket arrived after the public spent the day paying their respects at the Capitol Rotunda on Friday. A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. Those invited to the service, according to CNN: Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner Former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Senate and House Minority Leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the House Paul Ryan Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell A number of foreign ministers, including those from Saudi Arabia, Estonia, Lithuania, and more. Several former prisoners of war. Nearby at the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial, McCain's wife Cindy laid a wreath in honor of those lost during the war, flanked by White House chief of staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. What they're saying: Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH): "I was glad to be with my fellow Senators at the National Cathedral to honor and celebrate John McCains life and legacy. John certainly made a deep impact on me like he did so many others across the world." "I was glad to be with my fellow Senators at the National Cathedral to honor and celebrate John McCains life and legacy. John certainly made a deep impact on me like he did so many others across the world." Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): "Beautiful rendition of Oh Danny Boy at @ SenJohnMcCain funeral. A powerful remembrance of an American hero, who fought & bled for our Nation. The remarks by @ MeghanMcCain were particularly powerful, showing a daughters love for her father. May he Rest In Peace." "Beautiful rendition of Oh Danny Boy at @ funeral. A powerful remembrance of an American hero, who fought & bled for our Nation. The remarks by @ were particularly powerful, showing a daughters love for her father. May he Rest In Peace." Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND): "It has been a privilege to call John my friend. His legacy looms large in the U.S. Senate, around the country, & across the world." "It has been a privilege to call John my friend. His legacy looms large in the U.S. Senate, around the country, & across the world." Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA): "Our country is full of heavy hearts today as we say goodbye to John McCain. We share a profound sense of gratitude for the life John lived, and the legacy of service and unwavering commitment hes left us to cherish." "Our country is full of heavy hearts today as we say goodbye to John McCain. We share a profound sense of gratitude for the life John lived, and the legacy of service and unwavering commitment hes left us to cherish." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY): A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. One sweet thing: A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. Go deeper: Photos inside the National Cathedral Teachers from seven school districts in southwestern Washington state went on strike Thursday, causing nearly 80,000 students across the state to miss the first day of school, reports Reuters. Why it matters: Teachers are going on strike in search of better pay. Though only seven districts have participated in strikes so far, more will likely join including teachers in Seattle if teachers and lawmakers are unable to reach an agreement by September 5. Correction: This article has been updated to note that the districts are in southwestern, not southeastern, Washington state. By Trend Spokesman of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hikmat Hajiyev issued a statement in connection with the 25th anniversary of the occupation of Azerbaijan's Gubadly district. "On August 31, 1993, as a continuation of the military aggression of the Republic of Armenia against the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Gubadly district, located outside the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region of Azerbaijan, was occupied by the armed forces of Armenia," Hajiyev said. "During the occupation of the Gubadly district with an area of 802 sq. km. and a population of about 30,000 inhabitants living in 1 town and 93 villages as for 1993, 192 people were killed, 238 were injured and 49 were tortured and taken hostage. The residents of Gubadly were subjected to total ethnic cleansing and the state and private property were plundered. Among them, there were 7278 individual houses and apartments, 64 administrative buildings, 148 social facilities, 161 cultural facilities, including 3 museums and more than 50 historical monuments. Currently, around 41,000 residents of the Gubadly district live in Sumgayit and other regions of Azerbaijan as IDPs. "As in other occupied territories, in the Gubadly district as well, Armenia carries out the policy to plunder, falsify, vandalize and change the characteristics of cultural-historic heritage of Azerbaijani people. In this regard, the archaeological site of the residential area in the ancient part of Gubadly town, two castles in the village of Aliguluushaghy and the castle in Muradkhanly village of the Late Bronze-Early Iron Ages, the medieval Caucasian Albanian temple in the village of Basharat, the 14th century cemetery and Javanshir tomb in Yazy field near the village of Gayaly, two tombs of 13-14th centuries in the village of Damirchilar, numerous mosques in different villages, Gubadly Museum of History with three thousand exhibits and other monuments have been subject to destruction and looting. "The Republic of Armenia, grossly violating the obligations under the Geneva Conventions, continues to commit such unlawful acts as the change of geographical names in the Gubadly district, the looting of property there and settling the persons of Armenian origin. To this end, the settlement of the Armenians from Syria in Khanlyg village of the Gubadly district carried out by the Tufenkian Foundation is a vivid example. "The United Nations Security Council resolution 884 city of Horadiz of the Republic of Azerbaijan and expressed serious concern over the humanitarian emergency on Azerbaijans southern frontier, including the city of Horadiz, and the expulsion of a large number of civilians from their places of permanent residence. The resolution demanded the withdrawal of the occupation forces unilaterally from the city of Horadiz and other occupied territories of Azerbaijan in accordance with the "Adjusted timetable of urgent steps to implement Security Council resolutions 822 (1993) and 853 (1993)". Although the UN Security Council resolutions contain an unequivocal demand for the withdrawal of the occupation forces, Armenia has not complied with these demands "In the resolutions 874 (1993) and 884 (1993) adopted by the United Nations Security Council after the occupation of Gubadly, strongly condemned the occupation of the territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan and expressed serious concern over the humanitarian emergency on Azerbaijans southern frontier, and the expulsion of a large number of civilians from their places of permanent residence. Both resolutions demanded the withdrawal of the occupation forces unilaterally from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan in accordance with the "Adjusted timetable of urgent steps to implement Security Council resolutions 822 (1993) and 853 (1993)". However, Armenia refrains from implementing the demands of UNSCR. "The occupation of Azerbaijani territories can never lead to political results pursued by Armenia. Only the withdrawal of the Armenian troops from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and the change the status quo of occupation can open the way for a political settlement of the conflict, comprehensive regional cooperation and contribute to ensuring sustainable peace. "The Azerbaijani side, supporting the intensification of international efforts for soonest resolution of the conflict, retains the right to restore its territorial integrity and sovereignty within the internationally recognized borders and the violated rights of its citizens." By Trend First Vice-President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva has met with a delegation led by President of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries Li Xiaolin. First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva expressed her confidence that Li Xiaolin's visit to Azerbaijan will be successful. The First Vice-President thanked Li Xiaolin for the contribution she has made as President of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries to the strengthening of relations between Azerbaijan and China. Mehriban Aliyeva noted that relations between the two countries have been built on friendship and partnership and based on mutual respect. Mehriban Aliyeva emphasized the successful cooperation between the two countries in various fields, including within international organizations, and hailed the high level of political ties. Noting that the Heydar Aliyev Foundation maintains successful cooperation with the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva said that the organizations signed the Memorandum of Friendship and Cooperation last year and that relevant work is already underway. "This year, Azerbaijani children visited the summer camp organized in China, Azerbaijani Days of Culture as well as exhibitions on Azerbaijan were held in China," said Mehriban Aliyeva, pointing out great potential for further cooperation. Stressing that China has one of the world's most powerful economies, the First Vice-President highlighted good opportunities for joint activities in this area. Pointing out the vast potential existing in the field of transport, Mehriban Aliyeva said Azerbaijan has already become a hub. She emphasized that the launch of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway opened the shortest route to Asia. The First Vice-President mentioned that both Azerbaijan and China have historically been located on the Great Silk Road, adding that it created good opportunities for cooperation. Recalling that Azerbaijan has recently submitted an application to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) for an observer status and successfully held Days of Azerbaijani Culture at the SCO headquarters, First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva thanked for the support and high attitude towards Azerbaijan. Mehriban Aliyeva said that bridges of friendship have been built between Azerbaijan and China, expressing her confidence that Li Xiaolin's visit will make a significant contribution to the establishment of new partner relations. President of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries Li Xiaolin said she is honored to meet with Mehriban Aliyeva. She underlined the importance of this meeting in terms of discussing the future cooperation. Stressing that this is her first visit to Azerbaijan, Li Xiaolin said that the capital of Azerbaijan deeply impressed her. She said she was glad to familiarize herself with the Heydar Aliyev Center and view exhibitions demonstrated there. Li Xiaolin thanked for cooperation with the Heydar Aliyev Foundation. At the end of the meeting, First Vice-President, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva presented a keepsake to the guests. By Trend Relations between Azerbaijan and Russia are developing fully and very effectively, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the Bocharov Ruchey state residence in Sochi. First of all, I would like to thank you for your invitation to visit Russia, Ilham Aliyev said. I am always glad to meet with you. As you said, we meet regularly, and our meetings give an impetus to our relations. We are satisfied with the level of interaction in all areas. Our relations are developing fully and very effectively. There is active political dialogue. You have noted the growth of trade, which speaks of the positive trends in our countries economies and also of a large potential for economic cooperation. I am confident that our trade will continue to grow in the coming years. We cooperate in the energy sector, and in the transport sector, he added. Of course, we are also going to discuss issues related to the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and regional problems, said the president. So the agenda is broad enough. I am confident that our meeting today will give an additional impetus to our relations. Thank you again for the invitation. A cancer researcher pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiring to steal biopharmaceutical trade secrets from GlaxoSmithKline in what prosecutors said was a scheme that involved plans to set up companies in China to market them.Yu Xue entered a guilty plea in federal court on Friday to a single conspiracy count. The government dropped more than two dozen other pending counts against the researcher as part of the plea. In court on Friday, Xue said she didn't understand that the material she was emailing to her private account then to others including portions of her own patent application for certain research was considered trade secrets. "A trade secret to me is not publicly available. The patents I sent to them is publicly available," she said, noting that she sent the preliminary application for a patent on her research. Judge Joel Slomsky noted that prosecutors did not have to prove that she understood it was a trade secret, but that she knew she was sharing confidential materials. Slomsky said he believed federal prosecutors had met that burden of proof. Prosecutors have described the 48-year-old US citizen as one of the top protein biochemists in the world. She had worked at GlaxoSmithKline's research facility in suburban Philadelphia for about a decade and had become a senior manager. She was fired shortly after charges were brought against her in early 2016. Prosecutors had accused her of downloading and emailing confidential information including research on specific cancer drugs and working with four others, including two people in China, charged in connection with the scheme. Another research scientist at GlaxoSmithKline, Tao Li, was also charged as part of the five. She has a change of plea hearing scheduled before the court in a few weeks, but it was unclear if she would be pleading to the same charge as Xue. Slomsky set a sentencing hearing for December 18, but agreed to hold an evidentiary hearing prior to that date that will largely focus on the difference between prosecutors' and defense attorneys' arguments about how serious the crime was and how much potential financial damage was caused. "There are vast differences between the parties as to the value and importance of the information stolen," Assistant US Attorney Robert Livermore said. Federal prosecutors have had to drop charges or withdraw cases in several other high-profile trade secret cases in recent years, including that of Temple University professor Xiaoxing Xi, who was accused of stealing sensitive technology involving superconductivity in 2015. Charges were dropped when investigators realized the information shared did not amount to trade secrets. By Trend A specialized job fair targeting people with disabilities was held in Ashgabat, the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan said. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) office in Turkmenistan was the organizer. The representatives of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection were invited for participation in the fair as partners. In her speech, UNDP Resident Representative in Turkmenistan Elena Panova drew attention to the implementation of the National Action Plan for the Creation of Conditions and Opportunities for the Implementation of Rights in Employment of People with Disabilities for 2017-2020 in Turkmenistan. During the fair, people with disabilities obtained the opportunity to meet with potential employers, learn about the situation in the labor market and high-demand jobs, measures of social support and employment programs. The Californians Robert Price answers your questions and takes your complaints about our news coverage in this weekly feedback forum. Questions may be edited for space and clarity. To offer your input by phone, call 661-395-7649 and leave your comments in a voicemail message or email us at soundoff@bakersfield.com. Include your name and phone number; they wont be published. Something to Dish? Do you have a tip, question or recommendation on Bakersfield restaurants, trends or food news in general? Email thedish@bakersfield.com, and your input might wind up in a future column. Police is prohibiting the use of personal watercraft, wet bikes, motorized surfboards, and similar devices on Lake Austin over Labor Day weekend. The Austin Police Department Parks and Lake Patrol Unit is instituting the ban starting Friday through Sept. 4 to ensure the safety of the large number of people that make use of the lake and parks over the holiday, the department said in a news release. The state Child Protective Services is investigating the death of a 3-month-old girl at a daycare in League City, an official said Friday. The child died Monday at the Kiddie Academy of League City, regional Department of Family and Protective Services spokeswoman Tiffani Butler confirmed. The facility reported the death on the same day. The cause of death was not immediately known. A woman who picked up the phone Friday at the Kiddie Academy declined to comment on the childs death and hung up. The facility cares for children ranging from infants to school-aged kids. "We are all grieving and working with childcare licensing and the authorities to make sure answers will be found for the family," according to Summer Bullock, who emailed a statement on behalf of the daycare late Friday. "We have cared for 1000s of children and been in business for 10 years. We love the children we care for." A spokesman for League City police could not be reached. Earlier this year, the child care facility inspectors found a string of deficiencies at the company's west location that included a lack of supervision and good judgement after a child suffered a fractured arm and needed medical help. A child was observed crying and in pain due to an arm injury, according to a state compliance report filed on April 6. Yet the parent was not notified until hours later. In the same month, state inspectors found improper supervision as children played outside. During an April 9 visit, inspectors found four babies sleeping in bouncers, rather than in cribs. Bouncers are considered restrictive equipment, an assessment read. The director and caregiver were informed that the children had to be moved to a crib, inspectors wrote. Last month, a 3-year-old boy died after being left in the back of a hot bus during a field trip from a different daycare in northwest Houston. In that case, the bus driver and a chaperone left the child on the bus for about three hours at the Discovering Me Academy after a trip to Doss Park. He died shortly after his father came to pick up the child and he was found on the bus. nicole.hensley@chron.com @nkhensley Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum's surprise victory in the race to become the Democratic nominee for governor of Florida was fueled in part by a compelling personal biography: The son of a school bus driver and construction worker, he was the first of his parents' seven children to graduate from high school and go to college. At age 23, he became the youngest city commissioner the Florida capital had ever seen. "Between my mother and father, they are the best examples of hard work that I know to this day," Gillum said Tuesday night, after support from progressives vaulted him over older and better funded primary opponents. A less savory narrative threatens to collide with that heartening origin tale. Over the past year, a federal grand jury has been conducting a public corruption investigation in Tallahassee. The probe drew little notice beyond the capital during the primary campaign but is attracting new attention with Gillum's bid to become the first African-American governor of the nation's largest swing state and Florida's first Democratic governor in 20 years. Steven Andrews, an attorney representing former city manager Rick Fernandez, said his client testified before the grand jury in July and was not asked about the mayor. Nonetheless, he said, "This has been a cloud hanging over the city, and unfortunately for Gillum and the state of Florida, now it's going to hurt him. It's all just too bad because Gillum has got such a great story." Over the past year, details have emerged in the local press about Gillum's relationship with lobbyists and the broader probe - in one report, a city commissioner was photographed frolicking in Las Vegas with undercover agents and a dwarf entertainer. Those reports are expected to infuse a multimillion-dollar spree of attack ads as the GOP battles to keep a decades-old grip on the governor's mansion. The precise contours of the probe are unknown, but investigators have subpoenaed information about lobbyist Adam Corey, a longtime friend of Gillum's who once served as his campaign treasurer. Three people who claimed to be out-of-town developers or business executives who cozied up to public officials for more than a year - before suddenly vanishing - are now widely presumed to have been undercover FBI agents. Last year, two of the purported developers met up with Gillum and Corey in New York. Gillum has acknowledged that the trip is the subject of an investigation by the state ethics commission, as is one Gillum took to Costa Rica with Corey and other lobbyists. No one has been charged in the federal investigation, and the FBI declined to comment. The scope of the probe is hinted at by several rounds of grand jury subpoenas that sought correspondence from the city and its Community Redevelopment Agency between several people and their lobbying and real estate firms. Three of the subpoenas sought documents about Corey and the Edison, a restaurant he and partners built with taxpayer dollars. A spokesperson for Gillum said FBI agents assured the mayor in June of 2017 that he was not a "focus" of the probe. "I acted in every way in compliance with the law," Gillum said. "I acted in every way consistent with the law." Chris Kise, Corey's attorney, said his client is not a target and has done nothing wrong. He declined to answer specific questions about the investigation. Gillum's opponent, Rep. Ron DeSantis for Florida's 6th congressional district, wasted no time after winning the Republican nomination Tuesday before drawing attention to the ethics complaint against the mayor and seeking to link him to the FBI probe. "He is embroiled in a lot of corruption scandals," DeSantis said on Fox News. "This guy can't even run the city of Tallahassee. There is no way Florida voters can entrust him with our entire state." Gillum has called the trips to New York and Costa Rica personal, saying he paid his own way and discussed no city business. But at times he has resisted answering questions about the trips, and has not yet made good on a pledge to release receipts of his payments. Gillum spent the past year refusing, for example, to say whether he saw the Broadway hit musical "Hamilton" with his lobbyist friend while he was in Manhattan. (He did, he told The Washington Post on Thursday.) "It's easy to see these things in the light of aftermath: 'Oh, lobbyist.' What about friend, somebody I've known before he was ever a lobbyist?" Gillum said. "In the aftermath you look back on these things and you go, now that you get to review them in the light that you do, if you're just a person that doesn't know the relationship, 'Well, why is the mayor hanging out with a lobbyist?' It isn't like that." Though it was not publicly known at the time, the federal probe began in 2015, when undercover agents swept into town posing as "real estate developers and medical marijuana entrepreneurs to gain access to various city officials," according to an FBI search warrant. Soon, they were pitching development proposals - and socializing. A "developer" who went by the name Mike Miller started exercising in the mornings at a gym with Corey and Gillum, Gillum said. In May 2016, Gillum and his wife vacationed with Corey and other lobbyists and their significant others at a villa in Costa Rica that has oceanfront views and rents for $1,400-per-night, according to a web listing. The mayor has said he paid his share of the villa in cash. While they were in Costa Rica, Corey sent Gillum an electronic invitation for tapas and drinks later that month at the Edison with "Miller" and a Miller associate who went by the name Brian Butler, according to an email released in response to a public records request. Corey and his business partners had used $2.1 million in tax dollars to build the Edison, converting a 1920s-era electric plant owned by the city into a swanky restaurant of exposed brick overlooking a park studded with palm trees. In 2013, as a city commissioner, Gillum voted in favor of funding the project. City legal officials determined he did not have a conflict of interest, records show. Geoff Burgan, a spokesperson for Gillum, said the mayor recalls the meeting at the Edison as "remarkably unremarkable," the kind an elected official often takes with people interested in doing business in the city. The men said they were interested in building on the south side of Tallahassee, but did not have concrete plans, Burgan said. Three months later came the gathering in New York. Gillum was headed there for his former job with the People for the American Way Foundation, the charitable arm of a liberal advocacy group. Corey wanted to meet up, Gillum said. According to a Google calendar invitation obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat, "Miller" arranged rooms at the Millennial Hilton and outings to a Mets game and a boat trip. In June of 2017, the subpoenas started to arrive at city hall. They did not name the mayor. Around the same time, the public got what many believed was an unusual window into the investigation. Josh Doyle, an FBI agent, had applied to work as executive director of the Florida Bar. In his job application, Doyle described building a team of 20 people that included "undercover employees, forensic accountants, intelligence analysts, auditors and support staff." "I recently concluded a sensitive two-year undercover investigation," Doyle wrote. The job application was publicized by the Tallahassee Democrat, along with a video of his job interview. His comments led many in the city to believe indictments were imminent. Doyle declined to comment. Gillum started fielding questions about the New York trip in August 2017, when local television station WCTV published a photo showing Corey, Gillum and "Miller" - his face blurred out at the request of the FBI - on a boat with the Statue of Liberty in the background. Gillum told the television station that the excursion was entirely personal, with no city money expended nor city business discussed. Then reporters began asking about his rumored attendance at a performance of "Hamilton." On Thursday, he told The Washington Post he didn't ask questions when his brother Marcus Gillum handed him a ticket. "I'm sketchy on the details, all I know is I got handed my ticket from Marcus. We're going to 'Hamilton,' " Gillum said. "I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had a great time." They sat in what Gillum described as one of the upper levels of the Richard Rodgers Theatre, where tickets can go for hundreds of dollars. Gillum said he didn't ask how much the ticket cost or who paid for it. He said he assumed his brother paid for it; the two of them often buy concert tickets for one another, he said. "I would never ask, 'How much did this cost?' " Gillum said. Florida law prohibits elected officials from accepting any gift worth more than $100 from a lobbyist or vendor doing business with the city. Those rules, however, do not bar gifts from family members and do not require that such gifts be reported. Gillum said he learned only later that the ticket he used had been given to his brother by Corey, in exchange for a ticket to a Jay-Z show. That detail surfaced, Gillum said, when a lawyer he hired for the state ethics inquiry interviewed his brother Marcus. Gillum has not reimbursed anyone for the ticket, Burgan said, and neither Burgan nor the mayor said they knew the price of the tickets to either show. In a brief interview Thursday evening, Marcus Gillum declined to answer questions about the New York trip. In February of 2018, in another unexpected window into the investigation, the Tallahassee Democrat reported the contents of a search warrant application that had been filed under seal but inadvertently made public. An FBI agent wrote in an affidavit that city commissioner Scott Maddox directed a ride-sharing company to hire his former lobbying firm, Governance Inc., and then voted to pass an ordinance that benefited the company. Maddox received tens of thousands of dollars from Governance during that time, the agent wrote, and hundreds of thousands since 2012. Maddox has served as Tallahassee mayor and Florida Democratic Party chairman and launched three unsuccessful campaigns for statewide public offices. Maddox's attorney, Stephen Dobson, said: "Misleading or incorrect information has been improperly leaked alleging misconduct that never occurred. Scott Maddox has served his community with distinction and honor and is known as an honest public servant." In a June interview with The Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart, Gillum discussed the investigation and the affidavit. "It is clear this investigation has zeroed in on a colleague of mine, which I deeply regret, and maybe some other individuals," he said. He also said he had parted ways with Corey, his friend of 20 years. "We're all entitled to be disappointed by our friends when they disappoint us," Gillum said. "No one should draw the conclusion, and I certainly don't believe there's any evidence to suggest this, that I've done anything inappropriate at all as it relates to my vote and how I conduct myself on the city council." Kise, Corey's lawyer, accused the mayor of "throwing Adam under the bus." "The best thing that has happened to Andrew Gillum is he's now the Democratic nominee for governor of a major state," Kise said. "But maybe the worst thing that has happened to him, in terms of the ongoing investigation, is that he is now the nominee. "When he was an also-ran, nobody really pressed on the hard questions," he added. "Now, as is ultimately true for all of us, there comes a day of reckoning, and he is going to come under far more scrutiny." - - - The Washington Post's Ellen Nakashima contributed to this report. Six Galveston Bay beaches have been listed as some of the most unsafe places to swim in Texas, a new report found. "While bacteria levels in Galveston Bay are safe for swimming most of the time, we do see spikes in bacteria levels after major storms," said Sarah Gossett, water quality manager at Galveston Bay Foundation. "Bacteria concentrations are highly variable just because it's safe to swim at one spot doesn't mean it's safe elsewhere, and just because levels are low today doesn't mean they'll be low tomorrow." ANOTHER HARVEY: Activists want governor to better protect Texans from pollution The report, released Thursday by Environment Texas, analyzed state water quality testing data at 120 statewide beach locations and 1,450 freshwater locations in 2017 for indications of fecal bacteria -- E. coli in freshwater and enterococcus in saltwater. They found that about 50 percent of sites were unsafe on at least one testing day. This kind of contamination can come from urban stormwater runoff and sewage overflows. Environment Texas researchers noted that Hurricane Harvey last year likely impacted the cleanliness of the waterways and the beaches, though smaller storms also cause problems. The Houston Chronicle has previously reported that more than 150 million gallons of raw sewage and industrial discharge spewed from wastewater treatment facilities both during and after Harvey. Officials with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality conducted the testing. Beaches on average were tested about 40 times throughout the year, the report stated, while freshwater areas were tested between four and 35 times. WORSE THAN THOUGHT: Harvey water and air pollution far higher than realized Researchers found that Corpus Christi Bay had the most unsafe beaches in the state, with Ropes Park unsafe 42 percent of the 57 times it was tested; Cole Park was unsafe 38 percent of the 53 times it was tested; and Emerald Beach unsafe 30 percent of the 47 times it was tested. The beaches along Galveston Bay didn't have quite as many unsafe days, but researchers still found them concerning. They are: Galveston Island State Park #6: unsafe eight days Rettilon Road: unsafe eight days Magnolia Lane: unsafe six days Sylvan Beach - South: unsafe six days Fort Crockett Seawall Park: unsafe five days Helen Blvd.: unsafe five days Houston area water also boasted some unsafe days. For example, Brays Bayou was unsafe 100 percent of the days it was tested, and Buffalo Bayou was unsafe 87 percent of the days it was tested. Swimming in contaminated water can lead to ear and eye infections, skin rashes and gastrointestinal disease, according to Environment Texas. The report urges the state to test water more frequently and to publicly post the information, as well as work harder to prevent urban runoff pollution. "At popular swimming areas, bacterial pollution can mean vacation days ruined by warning advisories, or the threat of illness for those who do go in the water," the report states. "At waterways that are generally avoided for recreation often precisely because they are known to be unsafe bacterial pollution can also threaten public health. Sometimes people swim where they are not supposed to, and sometimes they can't stop their kids or pets from jumping " Google honouring Fatima Surayya Bajia Google is honouring the late Pakistani Urdu novelist and playwright Fatima Surayya Bajia on her 88th birth anniversary with a colourful doodle depicting her with her lifelong companions: a pen and a notebook. The doodle shows Bajia as she was known to one and all writing in a notebook, clad in her customary sari and surrounded by books. The renowned playwright had breathed her last on February 10, 2016 at her Karachi residence after a prolonged illness. The Mountain View, California-based Google frequently changes the colorful logo on its famously Spartan homepage to mark anniversaries or significant events or pay tribute to artists, scientists, statesmen and others. Bajia wrote several popular serials for PTV, including Shama (based on A.R. Khatoon' novel), Afshan, Aroosa, Aagahi, Ana and Zeenat. Besides, she had done historical plays, children's programmes, women's programmes and literary programmes such as Auraq. In recognition of her services, besides local awards, she was given the highest civil award of Japan. Bajia also served as president of the Pakistan-Japan Cultural Association. Born into an educated in family of Hyderabad Deccan in 1930, Fatima Surayya was the eldest of the 9 siblings. The family sailed to Karachi on September 18, 1948, immediately after the fall of the Hyderabad state, which was invaded by the Indian army on September 11, the day the Quaid-i-Azam died here. She did not have a formal degree but had acquired extensive knowledge of Arabic, Persian, English and Urdu literature and history at home through private tuitions. Texas politics arent for the faint-hearted, so perhaps the latest round of dueling mugshots should have been expected. Voters might have a little fun with it, but they should put it in perspective, too. Supporters of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz circulated a mugshot of his Democratic rival for the office Beto ORourke taken after a DWI arrest in 1998. ORourke also was arrested for misdemeanor burglary charges in 1995, though those charges were dropped. The Republicans who were spreading all this on social media didnt mention that Cruz himself had been ticketed but not arrested when he was 17 for having unopened beer cans in his car. Youthful episodes really shouldnt matter in elections decades later. Most of us have done something dumb in our teen or 20s. Its almost inevitable. Unless a candidate is falsely claiming that he or she never was arrested, those events dont have much bearing on our adult lives. ORourke has made no secret of the fact that he once played guitar in a punk rock band and did some unconventional things. Again, Cruz probably did, too, but isnt sharing. Of course if were talking about a violent crime like rape or murder, thats different. And a DWI is hardly a ticket for littering, even if it occurred many years ago. But what should matter most is what the candidates are doing in the present for our future. If anything, Texas Republicans should be more concerned about the mugshot of Ken Paxton, the current attorney general. It wasnt taken decades ago for a minor offense. It was taken two years ago, when he was in office, and indicted for two felonies alleging securities fraud. He is seeking re-election anyway, and refusing so far to debate his Democratic opponent, Justin Nelson. Democrats also fired back with a mugshot of former Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who was indicted in 2014 for abuse of power when he vetoed an appropriation for the Travis County district attorneys office, allegedly out of political spite. Those charges that were later dismissed by the state Supreme Court. Speaking of debates, Cruz and ORourke need to get back on track with their plans for five debates instead of digging up old mugshots. The first debate was supposed be Friday in Dallas but the two sides couldnt finalize the details. They need to focus on something important like that. It matters to voters now, and could set a great example for other candidates in Texas who are usually reluctant to hold just one debate. They will have a lot to talk about it, and none of it will include the backstory to old mugshots. El Segundo, Calif.-based Verity Health, which operates six hospitals in Northern and Southern California and maintains ties to billionaire former surgeon Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, filed for bankruptcy Aug. 31, Reuters reports. Verity Health CEO Richard Adcock told Reuters he expects the system to remain in bankruptcy protection for at least a few years as it restructures and continues working with potential buyers. The bankruptcy announcement comes on the heels of several deals that left the system with more than $1 billion in pension liabilities and bond debt. Verity Health reportedly secured a $185 million loan to remain operational. Mr. Adcock added the system has been losing nearly $175 million per year on a cash flow basis. In July, Verity Health revealed it is examining all strategic options, including a sale, of some or all of its hospitals. Mr. Adcock told Reuters the system has received a number of offers, including from several large national hospital operators. Dr. Soon-Shiong, who has founded and sold several biotech companies and recently purchased the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers for $500 million, acquired Verity Health's management company in 2017. At the time, he said his goal was to revitalize the health system, which has come to employ 6,000-plus people as of 2017. Mr. Adcock said the health system is re-examining all of its contracts, including the management deal with Dr. Soon-Shiong, Reuters reports. Govt to launch inquiry into for election results: Azam Swati ISLAMABAD: The federal government has decided to launch an inquiry into alleged manipulation in election results as the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) believes that top officials of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) were involved in twisting the system. A press briefing held here on Friday by Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry and Senator Azam Swati, the chief researcher of the PTI, over complaints against the Results Transmission System (RTS) drew a strong reaction from Nadra. The PTI parliamentarians said there was no rigging in the July 25 elections, but the flow of the results was deliberately delayed by Nadra. Within an hour, Nadra came up with its reaction to the allegations, saying the notion presented at the press conference was incorrect and insisting that its RTS system had not failed. Nadra said there was no link between its RTS and the Result Management System of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), adding that the authority was ready for any forensic audit. At the presser, Senator Swati said: The only problem was cutting off the chain in the RTS by those at the helm of affairs in Nadra only to stop the flow of Form 45 electronically. We need to have an independent forensic audit of the matter, but before that certain key officials, including the Nadra chairman, have to be replaced temporarily. Mr Swati said the results were pouring in up to 2am and the system crashed suddenly after 2am and Nadra came up with the allegation that the Result Management System of the Election Commission had failed. But the break was at the end of Nadra in its RTS not RMS of the ECP.The system was operating smoothly up to 2am. Then how did Shabaz Sharif announce at 12am that the system of transferring Form 45 has crashed, he asked. Senator Swati said the appointment of the Nadra chairman had always been controversial and an inquiry should be conducted by the National Telecommunication and Information Technology Security Board (NTISB). The board is a wing under the cabinet division and one of its responsibilities is to Conduct of I and II layer IT Security audit of various ministries/divisions/affiliated federal bodies/attached departments. The NTISB has the capacity to conduct a forensic audit over the deliberate mismanagement by Nadra, but certain officers have to be removed so that auditors can have access to relevant data, Senator Swati said. Earlier in the day, Information Minister Chaudhry, while talking to the media outside the Parliament House, claimed that the cancellation of blasphemous caricatures competition was due to diplomatic success of the new government. After the prime ministers speech, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi contacted the government of Holland and told it that the global community would hold it responsible if the contest was held, Mr Chaudhry said. Asked about the lengthy visit of Imran Khan to the GHQ, the information minister, who had also accompanied the prime minister, said the government needed input of state institutions for devising state policies. He said: There is clarity in the PTI governments policy on foreign policy; (bilateral) relations have to be between the two states and should not based on personal friendships. We want peace and stability in Afghanistan. Pakistan also wants peace with India. Normalisation of relations with India is an important agenda of the PTI government, but again the relations have to be between the states. The following hospital and health system credit rating and outlook changes and affirmations occurred in the last week, beginning with the most recent. 1. Fitch upgrades Deaconess Health System to 'AA' Fitch Ratings upgraded Evansville, Ind.-based Deaconess Health System's bond ratings to "AA" from "AA-," affecting about $233 million of debt. 2. Fitch assigns 'AA-' issuer default rating to Billings Clinic Fitch Ratings assigned Billings (Mont.) Clinic an issuer default rating of "AA-." Concurrently, the credit agency assigned its "AA-" rating on Billings Clinic's series 2018 bonds. 3. Moody's affirms 'Baa2' on Memorial Hospital at Gulfport Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "Baa2" rating on Memorial Hospital at Gulfport (Miss.), affecting about $50 million of debt. 4. Moody's assigns 'A1' rating to Sarasota County Public Hospital District's bonds Moody's Investors Service assigned its "A1" rating to Sarasota (Fla.) County Public Hospital District's proposed $350 million series 2018 revenue bonds. The district does business as Sarasota Memorial Health Care System. 5. Moody's assigns 'A2' to University Hospitals Health System Moody's Investors Service assigned its "A2" rating to Cleveland-based University Hospitals Health System's proposed $350 million series 2018A-F revenue bonds. 6. Moody's affirms 'Baa2' on Holy Name Medical Center Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "Baa2" rating on Teaneck, N.J.-based Holy Name Medical Center's revenue bonds. The rating action affects $36 million of debt. 7. Fitch assigns 'A+' default rating, positive outlook to St. Tammany Parish Hospital Service District Fitch Ratings assigned its "A+" issuer default rating to Covington, La.-based St. Tammany Parish Hospital Service District No.1. When Robert Grossman, MD, became CEO of New York City-based NYU Langone Medical Center in 2007, the institution, which includes multiple hospitals as well as NYU Medical School, was not only facing an operating loss of $120 million, but was saddled with aging infrastructure and a culture of complacency, according to Strategy + Business. Through a three-pronged approach that included creating an inspiring stretch vision, promoting data transparency and highlighting the importance of top talent, Dr. Grossman has led NYU Langone, to an operating margin of 10 percent while also investing in new infrastructure, including a children's hospital, and improving quality of care. When he first assumed the role of CEO, Dr. Grossman and his senior leadership team drafted a "Statement of Strategic and Organizational Direction," and asked for organizational input. While many people agreed with the proposal's ideas, they were left wondering how the system would be able to accomplish their goals. Dr. Grossman responded with a one-page "50,000-foot" strategic roadmap that more clearly outlined the sequencing of the system's new initiatives, and enlisted his leadership team to undertake a 60-day drilldown to develop plans for each of the system's core missions: research, education and patient care. This strategic plan was followed by multiple group follow-up meetings with various stakeholders meant to not only get more input from across the organization but generate buy-in among key stakeholders. "Building belief in the vision was critical," Dr. Grossman told Strategy + Business. "I also wanted to show the institution that it was much better than what [critics] perceived, yet at the same time, [I wanted stakeholders to] embrace the brutal facts." In addition to developing his stretch vision, Dr. Grossman utilized data transparency tactics that compared the clinical performance of NYU Langone departments to other top departments across the country. Instead of casting performance goals from the top-down, Dr. Grossman allowed departments to set their own goals based on the performance of their competitors. This approach is part of what has led NYU Langone to receive top quality benchmarks across the board in recent years, including four consecutive years of top rankings for overall patient safety and quality of care from Vizient. Dr. Grossman knew that he would have to shake up a complacent faculty if he was going to be able to achieve his ambitious goals, and he established six-year terms for the center's 33 chairs, many of whom had ascended to their roles based on their clinical and research merits as opposed to leadership abilities. By 2015, 30 of the 33 chairs had been replaced. A benefits structure with no official retirement age left many of the center's research faculty in lifetime positions, even though 25 percent of them were not attracting any research funding. Using external benchmarking, the new leadership team instituted a three-year phase-in of productivity measures while also instituting a retirement incentive program. They began to hold the department chair accountable for the productivity of their researchers, and since Dr. Grossman became CEO, NYU Langone's NIH research funding has grown from $122 million in 2008 to $189 million in 2016. Through his commitment to an organizational vision, dedication to data transparency and emphasis on accountability and top talent, Dr. Grossman has led NYU Langone Medical Center to a turnaround that other hospitals and health systems can learn from. The family of Anita Downey leaving court after seeing David Lyness convicted of her murder A man who cut his partner's throat in a "clear, clinical, cynical act of murder" has been told that he will serve a minimum of 18 years in prison before being considered for release. David Lyness - who a court heard has a fascination with knives - killed Anita Downey in the early hours of January 20 last year. Read More The popular 51-year-old mother-of-three bled to death on the floor of Lyness' Toberhewny Hall home in Lurgan from a wound to the left side of her neck which extended back to her spine and severed her jugular vein. Speaking after yesterday's sentencing, Mrs Downey's ex-husband Stephen branded Lyness a "very very bad man", and said that while he was glad that Lyness was behind bars, the family would have preferred the death penalty. Lyness (52) showed no emotion as Judge Geoffrey Miller QC spoke of the impact the "chilling" murder has had on Mrs Downey's family. The court heard Mrs Downey described as the "lynchpin" of her family, with her father Thomas Doran speaking of "a huge void that will never be filled" by the death of his "wonderful" daughter. Lyness, who has an extensive criminal record for offences including wounding and possessing knives, denied murdering his partner. He instead claimed that during an argument after drink had been taken, Mrs Downey came at him with a knife she lifted from his kitchen. He told police that during a "frantic struggle" when he tried to disarm her, they both ended up on the floor where he noticed blood coming from her. It was also Lyness' case that when he realised Ms Downey was dead, he tried to take his own life by cutting his own throat, then lay beside her cuddling her and waiting for the emergency services to arrive. This version of events was rejected by the jury, who relied on other evidence they heard during the three-week trial - including an eye-witness account from Lyness' son, who was 21 at the time. After observing the couple arguing in the living room, Shane Lyness saw his father straddling Mrs Downey and "sawing" at her neck with a kitchen knife. He also told the jury that whilst Lyness was cutting her neck, Mrs Downey turned to him and asked for help, and he couldn't understand why she was so calm, and not crying out, whilst she was being stabbed. Lyness' version of the fatal wound being caused accidentally was also rejected by the assistant state pathologist for Northern Ireland, who concluded that "you couldn't get a wound like that simply as the result of an accident". Rather, Dr Christopher Johnson said the only way a wound such as Ms Downey's could have been caused was by "somebody taking a knife and cutting her throat with it". Lyness was called to give evidence during the trial, and while he answered a handful of questions put to him by his own legal representative, he accused his own barrister of asking him to perjure himself. Lyness then refused to answer any further questions put to him by his own barrister - and later withdrew the instructions of his legal team. This behaviour was criticised by Judge Miller, who noted Lyness' history of dismissing legal teams, which delayed court proceedings and which in turn affected the Downey family. Branding Mrs Downey's death as a "clear, clinical, cynical act of murder", Judge Miller said Lyness had beaten his parter in the living room and brought her to the ground. There, he straddled her and continued the assault, before going into the kitchen and arming himself with a knife that he had purchased for 6.99 in TK Maxx. On his way back to the now prone Mrs Downey, Lyness threatened Shane with the knife before once again straddling her then cutting her throat. Citing this as a "clear act of deliberate murder", Judge Miller said: "I cannot over-emphasis the brutality of this act." Saying Lyness made a "deliberate decision" to arm himself, Judge Miller told the court: "This was not the loss of temper rising out of a quarrel between two people who knew each other." The judge added that in the aftermath of the attack, Lyness failed to obtain any medical attention for Mrs Downey. Judge Miller also noted the murder was committed in front of his own son, who then had to give evidence against his father in court. This, Judge Miller said, displayed "the callous disregard" Lyness has "for the feelings of anyone other than himself". Regarding Mrs Downey, the judge said that after reading victim impact statements and being shown family photographs, "a sense of the real Anita Downey emerges" - which he said was a "stark contrast" to the picture painted by Lyness. In his statement, Mrs Downey's father Thomas Doran said: "I have been asked to explain how this has affected me, but I will never be able to articulate the pain and loss I feel every day. Anita was happy go lucky, she enjoyed life and had a great sense of fun. "She was a warm and generous person, and I couldn't have wished for a better daughter. "She was a wonderful mum to her three children and her loss has left a huge void that will never be filled." Judge Miller also spoke of an apparent fascination Lyness has with knives, revealing to the court that Lyness used to carry a meat cleaver in his jacket pocket and sleep with a machete in his bed. Also noted was Lyness' criminal record that includes previous attacks on women which the police and crown say were in a domestic setting - a claim also denied by Lyness. After taking less than two hours to deliberate at the end of the trial in June, the jury returned a unanimously guilty verdict on Lyness, who was then handed a life sentence. Addressing Lyness yesterday, Judge Miller told him there were no mitigating features in the case. Telling Lyness that he will serve a minimum of 18 years of the life sentence in prison before he is considered eligible for release by the Paroles Commission, the judge then told prison staff "the defendant may be taken down." As he was being led from the dock in handcuffs, and as he walked passed his victim's family in the public gallery, Lyness showed no emotion. The company at the centre of the Dunmurry Manor scandal has come under fire after it emerged another one of its facilities is failing to meet basic standards. An inspection of Clifton Nursing Home in north Belfast at the end of June uncovered a litany of shocking failures, leaving some of the most vulnerable people in society at risk of serious harm. Among the issues raised by the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) were: A shortage of cloths, mop heads, gloves, patient wipes, washing-up liquid and disinfectant Six fire doors wedged open Residents sharing net underwear and socks Staff reported difficulties raising concerns with management Residents enduring delays for assistance due to staff shortages Issues relating to the fluid intake of a resident No proper care plan for a resident with advanced dementia Settings on pressure relieving mattresses incorrectly set and risk assessments were not being carried out properly. The inspection report said: "Staff who met with the inspector discussed the challenges that they faced regarding being able to raise concerns within the home. "This was communicated to senior management for Runwood Homes for them to address." It continued: "A review of fluid management records in the case of one patient evidenced that on two consecutive days the prescribed fluid target for the patient had not been met. "There was no evidence of remedial action taken to address this deficit. "Observations in the laundry area and linen stores evidenced that 'net pants' and socks were being laundered and used communally in the home. "A review of communal areas were noted to have not been effectively maintained throughout the home. "Communal bathrooms, in one unit of the home, evidenced hygiene deficits. "Concerns were also raised with the inspector regarding the adequacy of provision of domestic cleaning products and equipment. "A review of stock on both days did validate these concerns. There was also an insufficient supply of consumable products including cloths, mop heads, gloves, patient wipes, washing up liquid and disinfectant." The inspector was so worried by what he saw at Clifton Nursing Home that he ordered management to attend an urgent meeting with the regulator within a matter of days. An RQIA spokesman said: "In early July, RQIA met with the management of this home, who acknowledged the failings identified, and provided RQIA with comprehensive detail of the actions taken to address our concerns. "The safety and well-being of every patient at Clifton Nursing Home is of paramount importance to RQIA, and we will continue to monitor the quality of care at this service on an ongoing basis." However, the findings are even more alarming given that they came almost 12 months after Runwood Homes put in place a new management team to drive up standards across the company's Northern Ireland homes. The measure was implemented after the RQIA took the unprecedented step of shutting another Runwood home, Ashbrooke Care Home in Enniskillen, over a serious risk to residents' lives. The failings at Clifton Care Home also came to light just weeks after the Commissioner for Older People in Northern Ireland revealed the findings of his investigation into conditions at Dunmurry Manor. In a devastating verdict, Eddie Lynch branded the care at the home degrading and inhuman, while the police this week launched a criminal investigation into conditions at the home. Aidan Hanna from NI Patient Voice said it was shocking that the RQIA did not impose conditions on Clifton Care Home given the findings of the latest inspection. "Staff from Dunmurry Manor have told how their concerns were ignored, so it isn't good enough that we're now hearing that staff at another Runwood home have been facing similar challenges," he said. "While the RQIA has obviously carried out a very thorough inspection, it is alarming and disappointing that yet again Runwood Homes are being given an opportunity to address issues that shouldn't be arising in the first place." The RQIA inspection in June is not the first time conditions at Clifton Care Home were called in to question. It was banned from taking new residents in 2015 after it failed to act on repeated warnings about practices, including inappropriate restraint of vulnerable residents. A Runwood Homes spokeswoman said concerns raised in June were dealt with at the time and a subsequent inspection, last week, gave the home a "completely clean bill of health". She added that an independent HR clinic has said that staff are happy with the new management team. The new cross was installed at Down Cathedral Catholic Bishop Noel Treanor (left) and Church of Ireland Bishop Harold Miller after the new cross was installed at Down Cathedral A replica St Patrick's Cross has finally been erected in Co Down - after a five-month delay caused by the discovery of medieval human remains. The event at Down Cathedral in Downpatrick had been postponed in March due to the discovery by contractors digging the foundations for the cross in the car park. Yesterday, however, dozens of people gathered to see the Mourne granite sculpture - standing nearly five metres high and weighing five tonnes - for the first time back on the Hill of Down where the original cross, which dates back to 800AD, once stood. A faithful reproduction, the cross's location is fittingly yards from where St Patrick is buried. And Dean of Down, the Very Reverend Henry Hull, who led the interdenominational service to mark the cross's installation, hailed it as a very special day for Christians of both traditions. "This is a day that has been in the planning for some time," he said. "The cross is at the centre of our faith. "It's a symbol of what we have in common, our unity as Christians." His words were reflected on by Church of Ireland Bishop of Down and Dromore Harold Miller, who said a prayer as part of the dedication service along with his Catholic counterpart, Bishop Noel Treanor of Down and Connor. The clerics then gathered at the base of the sculpture where they placed their palms over the imprint of a hand in the cross's base. "Here we have Christian hands together," said Bishop Miller, encouraging other people from all over the world to visit the cathedral to make the same gesture. Just hours earlier a specialist hydraulic lorry was on site to assist four workers as they carried out the final stage of the installation process. One of them was Stephen McConnell, whose family stone masonry business in Kilkeel sourced the raw material for the sculpture, as well as carving and engraving its intricate design. He said: "It's a real privilege to be part of this. "We started working on this over a year ago, then of course there was the delay earlier this year, so I'm very happy to see it finally erected." He added: "Look at the backdrop, the Mourne Mountains, you couldn't get a more fitting background." The dean also stressed that it was fitting that not only had the cross been crafted out of stone quarried from the Mournes, it had been extracted from the same location where the stone for the original had been found, at Bloody Bridge, on the outskirts of Newcastle. "The original, of course, is not forgotten," he said. 'We have four pieces of the cross on display in the cathedral's entrance." Meanwhile, a final resting place will also be found for the medieval remains once tests have been completed, the dean revealed. "We believe they were Benedictine monks living back when there was a monastery on the grounds," he explained. "The remains will be interred here." IMF loan will be taken only after consultation with parliament: Asad Umer ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Asad Umer Friday told the Upper House of parliament that an amount of $9 billion was urgently needed to run the government. As per budget for fiscal year 2018-19, $9 billion are required to run the country. We are trying to address the root causes that have necessitated borrowing of this money, he said, adding, Off course, we know any policy will take time to yield results. The minister said the decision to approach the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for loan will be taken after consultation and taking the parliament into confidence. He said a plan to this effect would be finalized in next one or two weeks and then would be presented before the parliament for discussion. The minister informed the Upper House that the government has formed a national action committee to address with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) concerns. The committee will be chaired by finance minister and comprise officials from NAB, FIA and SECP. It will work to address the 27 deficiencies identified by the international body. Asad said Prime Minister Imran Khan will chair a meeting on Monday to discuss issues related to currency smuggling and money service providers. He expressed the confidence that Pakistan would come out of the FATF grey list by meeting its obligations. Pakistan has 15 months to overcome its deficiencies relating to currency smuggling, hawala/hundi and terror financing with the deadline set to expire in September 2019, he said, adding that addressing these deficiencies was in the greater interest of the country. The minister said an FATF delegation travelled to Pakistan earlier this month for a routine evaluation and the visit did not pertain to the grey list. He said the next review of the FATF will take place in Jakarta on September 11-12. We have to take definite actions before the next meeting of FATF. We will have our own review on September 8 which will be completed before the next FATF review, he added. The finance minister told the House during the question hour that the new FBR chairman had been appointed and next week a meeting would be held with the board officials to discuss implementation of the reforms strategy. He said currently one million people were filling their tax returns and there was a room to enhance the figure to about three million. Asad said the government had in principle decided to launch Diaspora and Sukuk bonds. He said some other initiatives would also be taken to improve the flow of remittances to the country. He pointed out that exports saw a decline and imports surged over the last five years, and the government had to obtain loans to fill the gaps. Minister for Planning and Development Makhdoom Khusro Bukhtiar told the House that a comprehensive security blanket has been put in place for the security of CPEC projects. He said that special security division comprising nine battalions of Pakistan Army and six wings of civil armed force have been raised for the security of Chinese working on CPEC projects across the country. He pointed out that there were certain elements who do not want CPEC to become successful. He said the new government under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan was looking at all aspects of this mega project and is committed to take it forward. The boat sank despite efforts to tow it to shore. Credit: Donaghadee RNLI Four people have been rescued from a sinking boat after it hit rocks of the east Antrim coast. Two RNLI lifeboats were launched on Friday at the request of Belfast Coastguard to assist a pleasure fishing boat with four people onboard off Carrickfergus. Bangor RNLI lifeboat were requested to launch at 3.15pm after reports the boat had a fouled propeller and drifting ashore onto rocks. The boat was taking on water and required immediate assistance. Bangor Lifeboat established a towline and was able to pull the sinking boat off the rocks and transfer two of the boats crew to the safety of the inshore lifeboat where they were given casualty care. The remaining two crew members were recovered on the shoreline by Coastguard members. Due to the vessel taking on too much water the decision as taken to request the assistance of Donaghadee RNLI lifeboat and us the lifeboats salvage pump to try and save the vessel. The Bangor lifeboat cut their towline and proceeded to take the two casualties who were wet and cold to Carrickfergus into the care of the waiting Coastguard crew. The volunteer crew of Donaghadee lifeboat Saxon were paged at 4.12pm and proceeded to make full speed to the last reported location of the sinking vessel. Upon arrival the fishing boat was already semi submerged and in the shipping lane, posing a danger to shipping traffic and local boats. The crew were able to secure a towline and tow the boat to shallow waters just north east of Carrickfergus and prevent it becoming a danger to other boats. The boat was unable to be recovered. Dual operation Donaghadee RNLI Coxswain Philip McNamara said "Although unable to make it on time to save the fishing boat the main concern is the safety of the crew members onboard. "Thankfully the speedy response of our colleagues in Bangor ensured the people were brought to safety before the situation deteriorated any further. "The crew member that requested assistance as soon as they realised they were in trouble did the right thing, the two crew members that made it ashore were very lucky to do so. If in difficulties it can be best to stay with your vessel as long as possible and avoid entering the water if you can." A young prisoner from Co Down who died in custody earlier this week has been named in court A young prisoner from Co Down who died in custody earlier this week has been named in court. Daniel McConville (22), from Monbrief Walk in Lurgan, had been due to appear before Craigavon Magistrates Court by video-link yesterday morning. But when the defendant's case was called, a solicitor informed the judge that his client had died in Maghaberry Prison the day before. Mr McConville, who previously resided at an address on Albert Street, was facing charges of unlawful possession of cannabis resin. The Northern Ireland Prison Service announced the death of a male in custody on Thursday and said his next of kin had been informed. The PSNI, Coroner and Prisoner Ombudsman have also been informed, in line with standard procedure. Robbie Butler MLA with colleagues at Stormont on his last day on the job in 2016 Pictures from the Fire Service of the operation to tackle the Primark blaze Pictures from the Fire Service of the operation to tackle the Primark blaze Pictures from the Fire Service of the operation to tackle the Primark blaze Pictures from the Fire Service of the operation to tackle the Primark blaze Pictures from the Fire Service of the operation to tackle the Primark blaze The Fire Service has praised firefighters who tackled the blaze that ripped through Belfast's Bank Buildings, as it released shocking new images of the scene that confronted crews. The blaze was finally extinguished yesterday, three days after it engulfed the landmark city centre building that housed the Primark store. The scene has now been handed over to Primark, which is managing an outer cordon. An investigation into the cause of the blaze is continuing. In an update last night, the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) said: "This has been a complex operation and fire crews will maintain a watching brief over the coming days. "We commend fire crews for their tremendous efforts during this challenging incident and for saving the refurbished rear extension of the building and adjacent properties. "We are also grateful for the valuable assistance provided by our multi-agency partners and the support from the public during this time." The fire started near the top of the building at about 11am on Tuesday, causing the roof and floors to collapse. The charred sandstone facade is all that remains of the historic building at Castle Junction. Structural engineers have been assessing the building amid concerns that it could collapse, although a senior firefighter said on Thursday he was "optimistic" it could be saved. Meanwhile, Primark's engineers are designing a system that they hope will save the building's facade. NIFRS said yesterday it is still too early to speculate on what caused the fire, adding that fire officers have begun conducting their investigation to determine the cause. Earlier, NIFRS posted the images showing crews fighting the flames. It said on social media: "Well done to all the emergency services personnel involved in dealing with the Primark fire in Belfast." Firefighter turned Ulster Unionist MLA Robbie Butler also praised the efforts of the emergency services. Mr Butler (46) joined the Fire Service in 2000 at the age of 28, having previously worked as a butcher and later an auxiliary prison officer at Maghaberry. Speaking from experience having served 16 years, the father-of-two said those who tackled the blaze deserved much credit. Mr Butler recalled a similar inferno he tackled 14 years ago in Belfast city centre, when he was based in the Springfield Road station. That blaze broke out in October 2004 and caused serious damage to several buildings in Royal Avenue. Thousands of books, worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, were destroyed. Mr Butler said: "This week's event brought back vivid memories of what was the biggest fire I was ever called to. "It was close to Primark, about two streets away in what was Waterstones and Goldsmith's Jewellers. It was on a similar scale in terms of the building and personnel involved, but because of the time of night there wasn't the same life risk." Mr Butler described how firefighters confront a major blaze. He explained: "At the early part of the incident when the firefighters are trying to establish if an evacuation has been successful and there's no one inside, that's really tough. Those members who attended this week's Primark fire will be hugely relieved that no one was seriously injured or died, which is the most important thing. "Secondly, they will be pleased to have prevented the fire spreading to other buildings. "Thirdly, however, they will have been disappointed at how such an iconic building has been left, in terms of possibly needing to be demolished, but that was outside of their control. "You have to think about the ferocity of that fire and the temperatures that it would have reached. I have never seen a fire travel down a building and through the floors in such haste, as normally it would move up the building." Mr Butler also recalled one incident he attended as a firefighter, a well-developed blaze in a house in Belfast in 2001, where two people died. He added: "You have to remember that these firefighters who dealt with the Primark incident will go on to attend others where there will have been a personal tragedy and loss of life. "Those sort of moments never leave you, but you have to deal with it, and some people have a greater capacity than others." The Government has dismissed fears that plans by Brussels to change EU time zone rules could mean a 'time border' down the Irish Sea The Government has dismissed fears that plans by Brussels to change EU time zone rules could mean a 'time border' down the Irish Sea. The European Commission is proposing to end the practice of putting the clocks forward in spring and back in the winter. But under the current EU 'backstop' plans to keep Northern Ireland in the EU single market after Brexit, that could mean Belfast being stuck in a different time zone from the rest of the UK every seven months. Outlining the plans, Euro chief Jean-Claude Juncker told German broadcaster ZDF: "We carried out a survey, millions responded and believe that in future, summer time should be year-round, and that's what will happen." A spokesman for the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in London said: "The UK Government has no current plans to change Daylight Saving Time." Last night unionists also rubbished the Brussels plan. DUP MP Sammy Wilson said: "Brussels may wish to turn the clock back to the good old days when the UK was under their control, but they've no chance. "There will be no second referendum, they are not going to change our time zone, and they're not going to change our minds. "We're leaving. Full stop." UUP MLA Alan Chambers said that he'd had to check to see whether April Fool's day had come early. "There is quite simply no prospect of Northern Ireland ever having a different time zone to the rest of the United Kingdom, regardless of who or what is advancing such an idea," he said. "As far as the Ulster Unionist Party is concerned, Northern Ireland will be staying very firmly in the same time zone as the rest of the United Kingdom." The scene of the accident on the Portaferry Road. Credit: PSNI Police have paid tribute to a member of the public who pulled an unconscious driver out of a crashed car just as the vehicle burst into flames. The accident involving a car and a van occurred on the Portaferry Road near Newtownards on Saturday morning. A passerby sprang into action, risking their own safety to save the life of one of the drivers of the car. Positing on the PSNI Ards Facebook page, an officer wrote: "I shook the hand of a very brave man today. "I know we often say that people could have saved lives but the gentleman concerned today really stepped up to the mark. "Seconds after this collision the car burst into flames with the unconscious driver still inside. Risking his own safety the gentleman managed to pull him free of the car and to safety. "I know for sure that nobody involved here set out to be involved in a traffic collision nor expects to be witnesses to such a scene but its something that could happen to any of us at any time. What way we would all react I suppose we will never know until it actually happens to us. "Our thanks to all involved including a passing casualty doctor who on his day off with his daughter suddenly found himself back on frontline trauma duty. To our paramedics and Fire and Rescue Service who were there very quickly." The officer thank other members of the public who stopped and helped, as well as the Road Service for getting the road reopened quickly. The officer added: "Lastly to the drivers involved and their family we hope they make a speedy recovery." The Portaferry Road was reopened at around 11am. Two people were taken to hospital. The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service said they received a 999 call at 7:55am on following reports of a two vehicle road traffic collision on Portaferry Road, Co Down. NIAS despatched two A&E crews to the scene. A BASICS doctor was also tasked to the incident. Following assessment and initial treatment at the scene, one patient was taken by ambulance to the Royal Victoria Hospital. It is not known what the condition of this patient is. A second patient was taken to Ulster Hospital Dundonald where they are said to be in a stable condition. Children playing on the roof of a vacant Lidl store in Lurgan. Credit: PSNI Police have issued a warning to parents across Northern Ireland after this picture was taken. The picture, posted by the PSNI on its Craigavon Facebook page, shows children playing on the roof of a vacant Lidl store on Castle Lane in Lurgan. An officer, posting on Facebook, said: "If you don't see the issue here, do a quick Google search. In fact you can copy & paste this for ease: Child dies after falling from roof. "If you're happy with the idea of your child's skull hitting the concrete 10 meters below and haven't thought about the consequences thereafter, think about what an egg yoke does when you crack the shell. "No amount of quick response from ourselves or our NIAS colleagues will fix that. "If you recognise your kids in these pictures, it's time to talk to them, before it's only photos you have." Material seized during a probe into the suspected theft of confidential documents from the Police Ombudsman's Office will not be examined pending the outcome of a legal challenge to the validity of the search warrant. The undertaking was given at the High Court in Belfast yesterday on behalf of the PSNI and the senior investigator from Durham Constabulary. It followed emergency proceedings brought by the company behind a documentary into the Loughinisland massacre. Two journalists who produced the film No Stone Unturned, Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey, were arrested as part of the police investigation. Detectives from Durham Constabulary, supported by officers from the PSNI, searched three properties in Belfast. Documents and computer equipment seized during the raids were set to be examined by specialist officers. But lawyers representing the documentary-maker Fine Point Films went to court, seeking to challenge the legality of the search warrant and to have the process halted. They were set to argue that it did not cover all of the material seized. But following discussions, Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan was told police were prepared to give an undertaking not to study any of the material pending further order of the court. Sir Declan suggested that an inventory should be compiled of any equipment and documents seized. Outside court, solicitor Paul Pierce, of KRW Law, representing Fine Point Films, confirmed: "The material seized as part of this search will not be examined until such time as the court can make a fully-informed assessment of the evidence put before the judge when applying for this order." BY ALAN ERWIN Firefighters work to put out the blaze at the Primark store in Belfast on Tuesday Primark staff in Belfast say they have been overwhelmed by the support offered from other businesses. Michala Lafferty, area organiser for the Usdaw union, which represents many of the employees, said staff will receive this week's pay, contracted hours for next week, and she was hopeful a third week's pay can be secured. Longer term decisions on job security have yet to be taken, but Ms Lafferty said all options were being considered, including redeployment. More than 350 worked in the Bank Buildings store before Tuesday's devastating blaze. "Primark and Usdaw are really working hand in glove to look after the staff," she said. "There's been no decision on the future of the business. Our main priority now is job security and continuity of income going forward." All Primark workers in the union are being invited to a meeting on Tuesday night with Belfast Lord Mayor Deirdre Hargey to be briefed on the support that is available. Ms Lafferty said the show of support from neighbouring businesses and residents to Primark staff has been "absolutely out of this world". "We've had offers of Christmas work from retailers and hotels, as well as locksmiths offering to replace house and car keys for free. It's been incredible," she said. "We're hoping we won't need that, but our members have been so touched by it and can't believe it." She said the possibility of redeploying staff to other Primark stores had been raised, but the company "was still reeling" from what happened. She added: "I would say decisions will be made in the coming weeks, but all options are being explored." Iran-Pakistan key to growth and prosperity in the region: Imran Khan ISLAMABAD: As Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday vowed to further strengthen Pakistan-Iran ties, the government expressed unequivocal support for Irans position on its troubled nuclear deal with the West that has been abandoned by the United States and urged the other parties to the agreement to remain committed to it. Talking to Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who is the first foreign leader to visit Pakistan after the assumption of office by the PTI-led coalition government, PM Khan recalled the inseparable bonds connecting Pakistan and Iran together and said that during his government he would make all efforts to cement these relations in various areas to the benefit of both countries. Emphasising the importance of Pakistan and Iran in the region, PM Khan said the two countries remained the key to growth and prosperity in the region through enhancing connectivity and promoting people to people linkages. Iran made a special outreach to the new government in a bid to reset the ties that have suffered deep mistrust over the past decades. Irans President Hassan Rouhani soon after Mr Khans inauguration sent in a felicitations message. Mr Zarif delivered an invitation to PM Khan for the upcoming Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) summit in Iran, which is scheduled to be held in October 2018. Mr Khan thanked the Iranian supreme leaders support for Kashmiris struggle for their right to self-determination as well as for the manner in which Pakistans Independence Day was celebrated in Iran, the PMs Office said in a statement. Iran this year celebrated Pakistans Independence Day in an unprecedented manner displaying large greetings hoardings along major highways in Iranian cities and electronic screens in their public transport system. The stage for better ties was set last year when Pakistan and Iran started cooperating on border security. The improved border security situation was mentioned during Mr Zarifs meeting with his counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi. While expressing satisfaction over cooperation with regard to the Pakistan-Iran border, it was agreed to continue close consultations through various forums in this regard, the Foreign Office said. FM Qureshi in his meeting with his Iranian counterpart expressed strong support for Iranian position on Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known as Iranian nuclear deal from which the US has exited. As regards JCPOA, while supporting Irans principled stance, Mr Qureshi expressed the hope that remaining parties to the agreement would uphold their commitments in letter and spirit. This was important given IAEAs repeated verification that Iran has strictly adhered to the terms of agreement, the FO said. Pakistan has been a consistent supporter of Iranian position on its nuclear row with the West. Islamabad believes that all countries should have access to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. The statement was, therefore, in line with Pakistans longstanding position on the matter. Both foreign ministers agreed to hold the next rounds of Bilateral Political Consultations and the Joint Economic Commission at early dates. Useful exchange of views on strengthening cooperation in economic, trade and connectivity sectors, cultural and people to people links, took place, the FO said. Japanese minister The Japanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs Kazuyuki Nakane and Foreign Minister Qureshi in their meeting agreed to increasing bilateral contacts to revitalise the relationship between the two countries. The Foreign Minister acknowledged the position of Japan as an important development partner. While recognising the economic assistance provided by Japan, he invited Japanese investment in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and assured facilitation to Japanese investors in all the sectors. The Foreign Minister emphasised the need to correct the balance of trade, which is currently heavily tilted in favour of Japan, the FO said about their meeting. The two agreed to explore ways for strengthening bilateral economic cooperation. A group of academics have been taking part in summer schools in countries such as Sierra Leone (Mike Egerton/PA) As universities begin to contemplate a new year, a group of academics are returning to the lecture hall with tales of teaching students overseas during the summer break. They are part of Professors Without Borders, an organisation that hosts summer schools abroad, with courses led by academics from countries such as the UK. Charlie Dove-Edwin, who works at Richmond, the American International University in London, was among a team teaching in Sierra Leone this summer. It is the second year running that he has taken part. He said he originally signed up because he liked the idea of taking professors from the UK or the US to Sierra Leone, thereby teaching the same stuff there rather than students coming here. Sierra Leone Thailand Uganda India Mr Dove-Edwin, who taught a course on country risk analysis, also has a personal connection to Sierra Leone as his grandfather was educated in the country. There are differences between students in the UK and Sierra Leone such as in age ranges, which is massive in the latter, he said. Going to university is the be all and end all, so you can have people in their 50s, you can have people in their late 20s and Id say, probably way, way fewer just out of school than you would get in the UK. There are also differences in terms of facilities with courses more textbook driven in Sierra Leone, and less access to computers and the internet. Students opt to take part in the summer schools, which are not part of their regular courses, he said. Theres a desire in Africa for educationCharlie Dove-Edwin Theres a desire in Africa for education, theyre just curious to know more and the fact that someones come to Sierra Leone to teach them about other things, they get very interested in that, Mr Dove-Edwin said. This year, Professors Without Borders ran schools in Sierra Leone, Uganda, Thailand and India, with three to four people working in each school. The organisation grew out of a conversation between three colleagues all university lecturers in a London cafe, and is now in its third year of running summer schools. We really want to enable really skilled, quality education for everyone.Tessy de Nassau Co-founder Tessy de Nassau said they had discussed the opportunities open to their students through studying and living in the capital. We said, you know, its just unfair that a lot of students around the world dont have this opportunity. So rather than having these students coming to London, or Europe or America to study, we bring it to them. That was the first thought. We said we really want to enable really skilled, quality education for everyone. And thats how it started. The husband of imprisoned Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has revealed her anguish at being returned to an Iranian jail. Richard Ratcliffe was speaking as Middle East minister Alistair Burt held talks with Iranian deputy foreign affairs minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran about the situation. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to five years imprisonment for spying in 2016, but maintains her innocence, saying she was on holiday to introduce her daughter to her family in Iran. In an open letter to Irans foreign minister Javad Zarif, Mr Ratcliffe said his wife was deeply upset at being forced back to prison after a three-day release, which he branded a cruel game. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has promised to heighten efforts aimed at securing the British-Iranians release after she passed out during a panic attack and had to be taken to a prison clinic earlier this week. Expand Close Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her daughter Gabriella during her temporary release from prison in Iran (handout/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her daughter Gabriella during her temporary release from prison in Iran (handout/PA) Mr Ratcliffe said an Iranian official called his wifes father and warned him to ensure UK diplomats did not contact her while she was out of jail. The letter from Mr Ratcliffe stated: As Nazanin was being released, her interrogator called her father to privately warn him that the British Embassy should not visit her, if she wanted to stay safe. Each day he called to note they were monitoring her movements, and check her father was following her to make sure she did not suffer an accident on the street. Those calls cast a shadow over her release, as they were meant to. Nazanin called me on Tuesday one of our toughest conversations. She wished she had never been released. She said she felt like one of the radical Islamists captives as though she had been paraded on the balcony then hidden back away. After that call, Nazanin collapsed, the result of two panic attacks. She still has numbness in her legs. She was taken by ambulance to the Evin hospital. Mr Ratcliffe called on Mr Zarif to meet him next week at a UN summit in New York to discuss his wifes case. Mr Ratcliffe told the Press Association on Saturday: Nazanin phoned her family in Iran today and they said she was better, but she sounded quite low still. Im hoping to speak to her tomorrow. The family met with minister Burt. I think he was quite emotional, but didnt reveal what he said to the deputy foreign minister. All our thoughts and prayers with Nazanin and her family today. Unbearable suffering to be apart from daughter with her hopes raised then dashed. We must redouble efforts to find a way to get her home #FreeNazanin Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) August 29, 2018 Mr Burt is using his visit to discuss the cases of British dual-nationals detained in Iran as well as holding talks on the Iran nuclear deal and the conflicts in Syria and Yemen. Speaking ahead of the visit, Mr Burt said: I will also use the opportunity of my visit to push for the resolution we all want to see in the cases of the British dual-nationals detained in Iran. Mr Burt has stated the talks marked a crucial moment in Irans relationship with the UK around the nuclear deal. His visit is the first by a UK minister to Tehran since the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May. Investigators in gas masks examine an ambulance at the South Western Ambulance Service station near Salisbury (PA) Some emergency service vehicles used in the response to Novichok poisonings in Wiltshire have been buried in a landfill site. The secure burials would pose absolutely no risk to the public, a spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said. Defra did not disclose the number of vehicles nor the emergency services they were used by, but confirmed that some had been sealed in a hazardous waste landfill site near Bishops Cleeve in Gloucestershire. Expand Close A police car being taken away by military personnel (PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A police car being taken away by military personnel (PA) The UK Government has blamed Russia for the nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury in March. In July, Dawn Sturgess, 44, died after becoming an indirect casualty of the poisoning, with authorities believing she and boyfriend Charlie Rowley picked up a discarded vial containing the substance. A Defra spokesman said: The clean-up work in south Wiltshire has been under way for some time and any potentially contaminated items continue to be removed and stored securely before being disposed of safely. As part of this work, following review by specialist teams, some of the vehicles involved in the response to the incident in March have been moved to a hazardous waste landfill site. Expand Close Personnel in hazmat suits examine the scene where the Skripals were found (PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Personnel in hazmat suits examine the scene where the Skripals were found (PA) There is absolutely no risk to the public of using hazardous waste landfill sites. These locations are fully sealed and highly regulated to ensure waste is disposed of safely. This is controlled by regulation, overseen by the Environment Agency, which specifically ensures that sites are not prone to flooding or other hazards. Our number one priority is making sure that the identified sites are safe, so they can be returned to use and Wiltshire can get back to normal. The Novichok attacks caused an international diplomatic incident, with Home Secretary Sajid Javid accusing the Russian state of using Britain as a dumping ground for poison. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has previouly said that linking Russia to the poisoning would be absurd. Former US leaders watch as the coffin arrives at Washington National Cathedral (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP) Former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush headed an elite gathering of political heavyweights at the memorial service for Senator John McCain at Washingtons National Cathedral. The Vietnam War hero, who became one of Americas most high-profile politicians, died a week ago from brain cancer at the age of 81. His daughter Meghan spoke ahead of the former presidents, saying her fathers death was the passing of American greatness, as she directed a message squarely at President Donald Trump while encouraging others to live up to her fathers example. Expand Close Meghan McCain speaks at the memorial for her father (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Meghan McCain speaks at the memorial for her father (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP) In her tearful, impassioned tribute she said they gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who lived lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served. She said to applause: The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great. Mr Obama told the congregation: We come to celebrate an extraordinary man, a warrior, a statesman, a patriot who embodied so much that is best in America. He noted Mr McCain was a conservative politician, but said he did understand that some principles transcend politics, that some values transcend party. Mr Obama praised Mr McCain for opposing bending the truth to suit political expediency or party orthodoxy and as a proponent of a free and independent press. Mr Obama spoke after former president George W. Bush, another McCain opponent. Mr Obama said of Mr McCain: He made us better presidents. George W. Bush hailed Mr McCains combination of courage and decency in a eulogy that touched on the state of the nations politics under Donald Trump. Mr Bush, who defeated Mr McCain in the 2000 Republican primary, said Mr McCain detested the abuse of power. He added that: To the face of those in authority, John McCain would insist that we are better than this, America is better than this. Mr Bush said his absence was tangible, like the silence after a mighty roar. Noting Mr McCains time as a prisoner of war, Mr Bush said Mr McCain loved freedom with the passion of a man who knew its absence. Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner were among the highest-ranking White House officials attending after Mr McCains family made it clear that Mr Trump was not invited. He had been routinely criticised over his military record by the US president, who spent some time ahead of the service tweeting out a series of long-standing grievances about the news media, Canada and the Justice Department. Expand Close Former President Barack Obama hugs former vice president Al Gore (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Former President Barack Obama hugs former vice president Al Gore (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP) The Arizona senator had asked Mr Obama and Mr Bush to speak at the service to highlight the bridge-building that he espoused. Both men had defeated Mr McCains own bids for the nations highest office. Mr Kushner and Mrs Trump could be seen greeting other guests inside the cathedral, including McCains close friend, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. Graham had called Trumps handling of the events around the Arizona senators death disturbing. The administration had lowered the American flag at the White House to half-mast upon McCains death Saturday, but then raised it on Monday. After a public outcry it was lowered once more. During the procession to the cathedral, the hearse stopped at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where Mr McCains wife Cindy placed a wreath. She was accompanied by Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and Mr Trumps chief of staff John Kelly, who is a retired Marine Corps general. Mr McCain was a decorated veteran who was held for more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam where he refused early release. Mr McCain will be buried on Sunday at his alma mater, the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. President Donald Trump will not play any part in John McCains farewell to the United States. At his request, former presidents Barack Obama, a Democrat, and George W Bush, a Republican, are speaking about the six-term senator at his final Washington event at the majestic Washington National Cathedral. But Mr Trump was told to stay away from all events during Mr McCains five-day, cross-country funeral procession. Before the service, Mr McCains procession will pass the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where his wife, Cindy, is expected to lay a wreath. Mr McCain was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. The Arizona senator is to be buried on Sunday in a private ceremony at his alma mater, the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He died of brain cancer on August 25 at the age of 81. Mr McCains coffin arrived at the capital on Friday morning as his family watched from the steps of the White House. It then took centre stage as invited guests gathered in the vast Rotunda to remember him. It is only right that today, near the end of his long journey, John lies here, in this great hall, under the mighty dome, like other American heroes before him, said Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell. Expand Close Members of the public walk past the flag-draped coffin of John McCain (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Members of the public walk past the flag-draped coffin of John McCain (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) House speaker Paul Ryan called Mr McCain one of the bravest souls our nation has produced. Mr McCain, a former Navy aviator, really did talk like a sailor, Mr Ryan said, drawing smiles from the crowd. But you see, with John, it wasnt feigned disagreement. The man didnt feign anything. He just relished the fight. Vice-president Mike Pence said he did not always agree with Mr McCain, but the late senators support for limited government, tax reform and the military surely left our nation more prosperous and more secure. Mr McCain served his country honourably, Mr Pence said, adding that Mr Trump respected his service to the country. Pope Francis has come and gone, but the problems linger on. Whether or not you were one of the estimated 400,000 people who attended one or more of the his engagements in Ireland last weekend, or watched them on television, or couldn't be bothered either way, it was undoubtedly an historic event. It is one thing to watch from a distance, but quite something else to take part, as I did in Phoenix Park in Dublin, reporting on the closing mass. When I went outside the huge media centre to watch the 'Popemobile' being driven through the crowds, the weather was very bad. I admired the faith of the many thousands of ordinary people who had come to the park to pay their respects, and stood their ground on such an inclement day. They included a friend of mine from Blackrock, who left her home at 7.15am and did not get back to nearly 9.30pm that night. It was a physically gruelling day for her, but she found it all so moving and worthwhile. I am sure she was typical of most people who were there. It is important to underline that many thousands of Irish Catholics were delighted just to be able to see their Pope, including the people from north Belfast whom I interviewed in the wind and rain of Phoenix Park. This was also a worldwide event, and I was impressed by the range of reporters, photographers and television film crews from Slovenia, Poland, and God knows where else, working out of the busy media centre. The pastoral aspect of the Pope's visit, and his humanity, sensitivity and goodness should not be overlooked. Unfortunately for him, for the Vatican and for the Irish Church, the agenda was rapidly overtaken by the issue of clerical sex abuse. This was hardly a surprise, given the dreadful historical record in Ireland, and also the fact that the awful revelations about extensive clerical child sexual abuse in Pennsylvania had surfaced only a week or so before the Pope arrived in Dublin. The Pope sadly wasted a big opportunity to outline what, if anything, the Vatican was doing to deal with the issue, and instead issued apologies. By far the best speech was that of the Taioseach, Leo Varadkar, who outlined in a polite but masterful way that people want more than apologies, and that while the Church has a welcome role in Irish affairs, it is no longer centre stage - that applied to all churches. There were two particular developments which were pivotal. The private meeting between the Pope and the eight survivors of clerical abuse, according to our own Fr Paddy McCafferty, who was present, shocked the pontiff so deeply that he was visibly moved. He was angered to the point where he used a dirty word to describe the very dirty work carried out by so many abusing priests over so many years. This may be one reason why Pope Francis surprised all of us, including the hard-bitten media and other Vatican observers, by suddenly reading out with, at the beginning of the closing mass, a deeply felt and hand-written apology delivered in Spanish. Perhaps the awfulness of it all had hit him overnight after meeting the survivors. However, this begs the question, why had no one in the Irish Church or Rome told him this beforehand? The visit did not alter my view from the start that Pope Francis is a good man trying to bring light into the darkness of this world, and also to trying to combat the darkness of the cynical die-hards who are trying to block him in Rome. His Irish visit may still bear fruit in the long term, but he needs to do much more personally in the limited time at his disposal. They say it takes several miles to turn around a big oil tanker, but how much more time - and how many Popes - will it take to turn around the Vatican, which thinks not in years but in centuries? Despite that, people of faith and goodwill who witnessed at close-hand the good-natured, deeply spiritual and elderly Pope Francis doing his best on his Irish mission last weekend will never forget it. Anyone who has stood near the shell of the gutted Bank Buildings or has seen it in the media must feel sad Anyone who has stood near the shell of the gutted Bank Buildings or has seen it in the media must feel sad. The savagery of the blaze that destroyed the interior of the landmark was shocking, but there was also great admiration for the firefighters who stopped the inferno spreading and who did all they could to save the edifice. We owe them much thanks for their bravery and skill, as we do when any 999 call may put them at risk of injury or death. This was more than a fire that destroyed the inside of a famous stone structure. It was a conflagration like no other in its history. This building stood proudly through the centuries, including two World Wars, the Partition of Ireland, the Troubles and an IRA bomb in 1975, and latterly, the hopes for a better future in the Good Friday Agreement. For many people it is an individual loss, and an unwelcome intrusion into fond memories where the Bank Buildings was a landmark - a place to meet, to shop, or indeed to check the time. If there is anything to be salvaged from the events of this sad week, and hopefully as much of the physical structure as possible, it is a growing awareness of how much we cling on to what we have and what we know. The Bank Buildings is central to the history of Belfast, where so much has been lost. This is due to many factors, including the Troubles and redevelopment, and also through ignorance and carelessness concerning our built heritage. However, we must not stand in the way of progress, or ignore the need to change and evolve, but we must do this without losing sight - quite literally - of the value of our shared history all around us. If a place is defined by anything, it is by both its people and its buildings. The people here know how to survive in adversity, and we all hope that our beloved Bank Buildings may one day be restored to its former glory. A leading South African railway and ports company, Transnet International Holdings has indicated its preparedness to imbue life into Ghanas railway network. The multi-billion-dollar company which has an agreement with Ghanas Railway Compnay Limited noted that their core objective is to partner the Ghana Railway Company Limited to revitalize, operate and manage the rail network system in Ghana. Speaking to Peacefmonline.com, the Programmes Director of Transnet International Holdings, Mr Wilson Mogoba noted that, the agreement signed will see the Western Line and some part of the Eastern line ( Accra - Nsawam) being returned to service. He also assured that the deal will bring on board investments, rolling stock, operations, skills development to ensure that the rail network in Ghana begins to function and serve the economy of Ghana. Mogoba also expressed optimism that the partnership between South Africa and Ghana will create opportunities. I see a greater economic collaboration between South Africa and Ghana, I see the greater exchange of technology, I see as creating the platform for many businesses between South Africa and Ghana he said. Transnet is the backbone of South Africas world class railway and logistics industry. The company has a number of divisions such as Transnet Engineering, Transnet Port Authority, Transnet Pipelines etc. Transnet Engineering focused businesses in manufacture, upgrading conversion, repair and maintenance of railway rolling stock, as well as spares and associated transport equipment. Through its seven well equipped, ISO certified factories and workforce of 14 500 qualified personnel, Transnet Engineering extends its railway customer portfolio to Africa and the world. Their readiness to revamp Ghanas rail network, according to their local partners, Adasa Keteke Company Limited, will signify a new dawn of hope for the countrys ailing railway operations. Kojo Quainoo who is the Chief Executive Officer of Adasa Keteke said there would be a powerful railway ecosystem which will lead to unlocking greater opportunities for Ghanaians. Source: : King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5 / Instagram: ambrose_wash Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison (left) walks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo during a welcoming ceremony at the presidential palace in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Aug. 31, 2018. Indonesia and Australia hammered out a free-trade deal and agreed to bolster strategic ties on Friday as Canberras new leader, Scott Morrison, made his first overseas trip since taking power last week. President Joko Jokowi Widodo hailed Australia Indonesias next-door neighbor to the south as an important partner after wrapping up the trade agreement with Morrison at the presidential palace in Bogor, near the Indonesian capital Jakarta. We reaffirmed the importance of economic openness and efforts to strengthen economic ties that are mutually beneficial, Widodo told reporters. He made the statement after completing substantial negotiations with Morrison on the free-trade deal, which was years in the making and expected to be signed by the end of 2018, pending legal fine-tuning. Under the agreement, live cattle, meat and dairy products from Australia will enter Indonesia duty-free or at reduced tariffs, a prospect that has been cheered by farmers Down Under. Australian investors will also be allowed to own majority shares in universities and build hospitals in Indonesia, Southeast Asias largest economy and home to more than 260 million people. Jakarta currently limits foreign ownership of educational institutions to 40 percent. For its part, Indonesia is seeking the elimination of tariffs for 95 percent of its exports to Australia. Morrison, 50, became prime minister last week after inter-partisan warfare ended Malcolm Turnbulls short tenure as Australias leader. Relations between Indonesia and Australia, two of the worlds largest economies, are often testy, but bilateral ties improved under Turnbull, with the two nations agreeing to restore full military cooperation in 2017. History of spats The two nations in the past few years have been embroiled in spats over issues such as Australias perceived interference in East Timor, a former Portuguese colony occupied for more than a decade by Indonesia but which voted for independence in 1998. A diplomatic rift also took place in 2013 after reports surfaced that Australian intelligence services had spied on then-Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his inner circle. Jokowi said he agreed with his new Australian counterpart on the importance of respect for rule-based international order, an apparent reference to Chinas growing assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea. Indonesia is not a party in the dispute over the South China Sea, where more than $5 trillion of global trade flows through each year, but fellow members of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have overlapping claims in the mineral-rich sea region, as do China and rival Taiwan. The overlapping claims are considered a flashpoint in the region and while claimants have agreed to refrain from any actions that would complicate the matter, China has been expanding and militarizing territories it occupies. Jokowi said Indonesia and Australia had also agreed to continue cooperation in the area of security, including cyber-security. Morrison said the economic partnership called the Indonesia-Australian Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement was much more than a trade deal. Its not just a transaction, Morrison told reporters in Jakarta. Its a partnership. Nations need to work together in warding off the terrorist threat and ASEAN states should be united in facing security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu told BenarNews in a wide-ranging interview here. The Indonesian defense chief was on a three-day visit to Washington this week, where he met with his American counterpart, James Mattis, at the Pentagon to reaffirm bilateral military cooperation, U.S. officials said. The two men discussed how to work with regional partners in combating transnational security threats including piracy, trafficking, and illegal fishing, the U.S. Defense Department said. Terrorism isnt just a threat to one country, but a threat to humankind, so it is every countrys enemy. Where theres a concentration of terrorists, we have to face them together, Ryamizard told Benar on Wednesday at the residence of Indonesian Ambassador Budi Bowoleksono in Washington. We are dealing with third-generation terrorists, Ryamizard said. The first generation was al-Qaida, the second generation [was] Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Now that they are being destroyed there, they are returning to Asia, including Indonesia and the Philippines. During the 20-minute interview, he also responded to questions on how his country the largest and most populous one in Southeast Asia was dealing with regionwide tensions with China and territorial disputes in the South China Sea, as well as other issues. Ryamizard revealed that Jakarta would purchase five U.S.-made Hercules military cargo planes, and that Mattis had notified him about the recent killing of a top Indonesian Islamic State operative, Bahrun Naim. Here are excerpts from the interview: BenarNews: Did anything new in the bilateral relationship come out of your meeting with General Mattis? Ryamizard Ryacudu: I have met General Mattis five times since he took office, in Indonesia, in Hawaii and then in Singapore twice, and here. So we have become so close. There are no new things, apart from building on what we have discussed in previous meetings and concretizing the plans. BN: Will you be purchasing any new military hardware from the United States? RR: Yes. We just bought Apache helicopters. In the future, we will buy five more Hercules aircraft. We already have 28 Hercules aircraft, but most of them are too old and need to be updated. There are still many [aircraft] dating back to the Sukarno era in the 1960s, which are still in good condition and well maintained, but they are too old and need to be replaced. BN: What is Indonesias role in the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific region? RR: Indonesias role hasnt changed, I think. With the Indo-Pacific, the emphasis is on our surroundings. Me and my colleagues in ASEAN have often met and believe that we have to be ready for all possibilities. [We are] ready to maintain regional security, with or without help. ASEAN is home to 600 million people. Our armed forces have 2.6 million personnel combined. With this strength, I have told my colleagues, we have the capacity as long as we are united in facing [security issues]. As for assistance from other countries, the U.S. or any other, thank God we will accept it, even more so when dealing with common enemies, the terrorists. BN: Indonesia has so far been described as a non-party in the South China Sea dispute, but last year Indonesia renamed a part of the South China Sea as the North Natuna Sea. Does this mean Indonesia will take a more active role on the issue of the South China Sea? RR: When I was new to the job, four years ago, I saw there were tensions. Everyone was wary, worried about inflaming and provoking tensions. [The year] 2015 was the same. I said it doesnt have to be that way. I came to the Chinese delegates at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore and told them: You are always being seen as an enemy. I appealed for openness, including through joint patrols. They agreed. First with Indonesia, and later with everyone else. When that happens, theres openness. And with openness, tensions will subside. BN: Will trilateral patrols in the Sulu Sea continue? What is the outcome? RR: As for the Sulu Sea, I took the initiative for trilateral cooperation to eradicate piracy, which has dogged ships carrying commodities. Coal [shipments] to the Philippines have been affected. The trilateral patrols have been conducted for two years and today theres no more [piracy]. And I hope there will be no more in the future. It will continue. Air [patrols] also and in the future, patrols on land. BN: Where will land patrols be conducted, in Kalimantan or the southern Philippines? RR: Kalimantan is our training ground. To the southern Philippines later. We are ready to face them anywhere. BN: Is there a plan for new bilateral cooperation on fighting terrorism in Southeast Asia? Are there specific U.S. concerns about counter-terrorism efforts in the region? RR: Terrorism isnt just a threat to one country, but a threat to humankind, so it is every countrys enemy. Where theres a concentration of terrorists, we have to face them together. Yesterday, we dealt with Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. In Asia, they are concentrated in Indonesia and the Philippines. We have to deal with this otherwise well be in trouble later. If we take no action, more people will be recruited and they will become stronger and better armed. BN: What about intelligence cooperation on counter-terrorism? RR: Yes, intelligence is of the utmost importance. The U.S. and other big nations have strong intelligence. We have to know their [terrorist] strength. If we dont know their strength, there will be many victims. That must not happen. BN: With the introduction of a new anti-terrorism law that gives a bigger mandate to the military in fighting terrorism, has it been implemented? RR: Terrorists are enemies of all, so its impossible to rely on only the police to fight them. Everyone must get involved. Soldiers and police must work together. Since the new terrorism law was passed, the TNI [Indonesian armed forces] has been involved immediately. BN: What is your assessment on the threat of domestic terrorism after a series of suicide bombings in Surabaya in May? RR: We are dealing with third-generation terrorists. The first generation was al-Qaida, the second generation [was] Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Now that they are being destroyed there, they are returning to Asia, including Indonesia and the Philippines. There are 3,500 from foreign countries who are helping them, and now they are returning. They come back with battlefield experience. We have to deal with them professionally. Were facing terrorists who don't make sense. Why? Look, a mother killed herself with her two daughters, that doesn't make sense. A mother practically kills herself carrying her child, nursing them, nurturing them with love. Even a mosquito cant land on her child. Look at tigers. Does a tiger bite its child, kill its child? No. But these people? The human brain cant grasp it. Were facing a group of terrorists that make no sense. This is our common enemy. We work with psychologists. Everyone is involved. We discuss things. They [terrorists] have been too indoctrinated. Nowadays, an increasing number of children and girls are being recruited. BN: A transcript of your speech released by the Indonesian Defense Ministry says you thanked Mattis for a letter informing him that Bahrun Naim and Abu Ghaida had been killed by a U.S. military operation. RR: Secretary Mattis sent a letter to me two weeks ago, reporting about the two [IS] leaders. It is part of intelligence cooperation. Police and military personnel stand near the site where two bombs exploded and injured seven people at a gasoline station in Tacurong town, in southern Sultan Kudarat province, April 18, 2017. Philippine authorities were pursuing unidentified gunmen who snatched two people after a shootout that left six others dead in southern Zamboanga del Norte province, the military reported on Saturday. The coast guard as well as navy troops have dispatched troops to locate the suspects, who seized a pro-government militia leader and his wife during the Friday night incident in Sirawai town, according to a military intelligence report. An encounter took place in the vicinity of Sirawai between CAAs of said detachment against unidentified armed group, the report said, referring to the Cafgu Active Auxiliary, a government militia unit under the control of the military. The suspects escaped using two motorized boats, it said, adding that two militiamen and four civilians were killed in a brief gunfight that ensued. Navy and coast-guard forces were conducting blockade operations, but the suspects and their captives had not yet been located on Saturday, the military said. The military report identified the abductees as 62-year-old Rufo Roda, and his wife Helen. Roda was a former militia leader, and police have yet to determine the motive for his kidnapping. Blood feuds are common in the troubled Philippine south, particularly in far-flung areas where the police and military rely on militia units to augment their forces. The violence occurred as police and military were on heightened alert in the south, after pro-Islamic State (IS) militants bombed a town fiesta earlier this week, killing three people and wounding dozens in Isulan, the capital of Sultan Kudarat province. That attack came weeks after IS claimed a suicide bomb attack in the nearby island of Basilan that left 11 people dead. Last year, pro-IS fighters laid siege to Marawi, unleashing a five-month battle with Philippine military forces that devastated the southern city and resulted in some 1,200 deaths, mostly of militants. Philippine forces broke the siege in October 2017 and killed militant leaders including Isnilon Hapilon, the chief of the IS branch in the Philippines. But President Rodrigo Duterte's government, which last year imposed martial law in the south to deal with the militant takeover of Marawi, is now considering extending military rule across Mindanao beyond 2018. 24-28 February 2019, Paris, France Paris International Agribusiness Show, SIMA brings together: 1,770 companies from 42 countries 15 exhibition sectors 232,000 entries from 135 countries SIMA business sectors SIMA fulfils the requirements of all farmers, whatever the size of farm or poduction method. An exhaustive product range for Row crops Livestock farming Specialist crops And all the following sectors: Traction Components, parts and accessories, on-board electronics Tilling, sowing, planting Crop protection Irrigation Harvesting Post-harvesting Equipment for tropical crops Handling, transport, storage and buildings Livestock machinery and equipment Milking and dairy equipment Landscaping and forestry-specific equipment Sustainable development, renewable energy Management, IT, software Official bodies, services, consul SIMA worldwide Capitalizing on its expertise and reputation, SIMA has developed its network worldwide and has teamed up with two other acknowledged and popular international trade shows, to create two new shows: SIMA Asean and SIPSA-SIMA Algeria. SIMAGENA: the meeting place for breeding and genetics professionals This is the only tradeshow in France which brings together agricultural equipment and livestock in the same venue. Alongside SIMA in Halls 2 and 3, livestock and genetics innovations: a consistent collection, highlighting the sector. SIMAGENA benefits The attendance of a large and varied range of all dairy and beef cattle breeds Highly professional business focused presentations, using the show ring to illustrate the linkage between equipment and cattle The French tradition of livestock contests revisited in a modern way and staged like a true show, presented by internationally-acclaimed judges International auctions, with the presence of breeders from several European Union countries SIMAGENA International Business Club A place for meetings and business between all SIMAGENA exhibitors and foreign delegations. The presence, over five days, of operators who can organise specific presentations at the request of foreign delegations Animal husbandry students on hand to welcome visitors and conduct guided tours for international delegations When Doctors Discovered 10,000 Stones From Nutritionists Gallbladder Pulse oi-Syeda Farah It is often told that one should often practice what they preach as it is important. People often think that doctors are saints and they do not fall ill. But the fact is that doctors are also humans who need to take care of themselves, and they can get sick too. This case is an example of a doctor who is a nutritionist by profession and is believed to have been suffering from a rare condition. He had 10,000 gallbladder stones. Most Bizarre Things Doctors Have Removed From Humans; #3 Is Shocking! Check out the story below. He Had Severe Stomach Pain According to various reports, the doctor who is named Chowdhury had severe stomach pain for one and half month. He ignored the symptoms, but eventually ended up going to the hospital when the pain was severe. The USG showed that the doctor had gallbladder stones The Doctors Had No Idea About The Number Of Stones The doctors who operated this nutritionist had no clue on what they were about to discover as the number of gallbladder stones was really high. The doctors revealed that they counted 10,356 stones and eventually had to stop. Though the surgery that was performed on the nutritionist is said to have taken only 40 minutes, counting the stones is believed to have taken a much longer time than expected. This Is Not The First Case Doctors revealed that this is the second reported case that is happening in Kolkata in a short span. In the first one, when Dr Makhanlal Saha had operated upon a patient, the man is said to have had about 12,000 stones. Horrifying Things Found In Humans Factors That Cause Gallbladder Stones Individuals who have had high cholesterol and triglyceride levels are believed to suffer from gallbladder stones the most. They suspect that the deposition of cholesterol might have caused the formation of the stones. Apart from this, genetics and sedentary lifestyle can lead to stone formation in the gallbladder. GET THE BEST BOLDSKY STORIES! Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, September 1, 2018, 16:54 [IST] Canada NewsWire VANCOUVER, Aug. 31, 2018 VANCOUVER, Aug. 31, 2018 /CNW/ - TSX VENTURE COMPANIES EDISON COBALT CORP. ("EDDY") [formerly Power Americas Minerals Corp. ("PAM")] BULLETIN TYPE: Name Change BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Pursuant to a resolution passed a directors' resolution on August 15, 2018, the Company has changed its name as follows. There is no consolidation of capital. Effective at the opening Wednesday, September 5, 2018, the common shares of Edison Cobalt Corp. will commence trading on TSX Venture Exchange, and the common shares of Power Americas Minerals Corp. will be delisted. The Company is classified as a 'Mineral Exploration/Development' company. Capitalization: unlimited shares with no par value of which 70,803,998 shares are issued and outstanding Escrow: nil escrow shares Transfer Agent: Computershare Trust Company of Canada Trading Symbol: EDDY (new) CUSIP Number: 28088P 10 0 (new) ________________________________________ LUMINA GOLD CORP. ("LUM") BULLETIN TYPE: Plan of Arrangement BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has approved a plan of arrangement under Section 288 of the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) (the "Plan of Arrangement") between Lumina Gold Corp. ("Lumina") and Luminex Resources Corp. ("SpinCo"). The Plan of Arrangement was approved by a special resolution of shareholders of Lumina at a meeting held on August 21, 2018, and was approved by final order of the Supreme Court of British Columbia on August 23, 2018. Pursuant to the Plan of Arrangement, all of Lumina's concessions and properties, with the exception of the Cangrejos Gold-Copper Project, were spun out to Lumina shareholders through Spinco as described in Lumina's information circular (the "Circular") dated July 10, 2018. Under the terms of the Plan of Arrangement, Lumina's shareholders will receive common shares of SpinCo ("Luminex Shares") by way of a share exchange, pursuant to which each existing common share of Lumina (an "Old Lumina Share") will be exchanged for one "new" common share of Lumina and 0.15 of a Luminex Share. Optionholders of Lumina will receive replacement options of Lumina and options of Spinco which are proportionate to, and reflective of, their existing options of Lumina. Please refer to Lumina's Circular for further information. The Circular is available under Lumina's profile on SEDAR. ________________________________________ LUMINEX RESOURCES CORP. ("LR") BULLETIN TYPE: New Listing-Shares BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Effective at the opening Wednesday, September 5, 2018, the common shares of the Luminex Resources Corp. will commence trading on TSX Venture Exchange. The Company is classified as a 'Mining' company. Corporate Jurisdiction: British Columbia Capitalization: unlimited common shares with no par value of which 41,071,484 common shares are issued and outstanding Escrowed Shares: nil shares are subject to escrow Transfer Agent: Computershare Investor Services Inc. Trading Symbol: LR CUSIP Number: 55028V103 For further information, please refer to the Company's Listing Application dated August 31, 2018, which is filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR. Company Contact: Peon Cheng Company Address: 410 625 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 2T6 Company Phone Number: 604-646-1878 Company Fax Number: 604-687-7041 Company Email Address: [email protected] ________________________________________ PERUVIAN METALS CORP. ("PER") [formerly Duran Ventures Inc. ("DRV")] BULLETIN TYPE: Name Change BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Pursuant to a resolution passed by shareholders June 28, 2018, the Company has changed its name as follows. There is no consolidation of capital. Effective at the opening on Wednesday, September 5, 2018, the common shares of Peruvian Metals Corp. will commence trading on TSX Venture Exchange and the common shares of Duran Ventures Inc. will be delisted. The Company is classified as a 'Mining (Non-Oil & Gas) Exploration/Development' company. Capitalization: Unlimited shares with no par value of which 79,328,697 shares are issued and outstanding Escrow: Nil shares Transfer Agent: TSX Trust Company Trading Symbol: PER (NEW) CUSIP Number: 715697108 (NEW) ________________________________________ NEX COMPANIES REDHAWK RESOURCES INC. ("RDK.H") BULLETIN TYPE: Delist-Offer to Purchase BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 NEX Company Effective at the close of business Tuesday September 4, 2018, the common shares of Redhawk Resources, Inc. (the "Company") will be delisted from TSX Venture Exchange. The delisting of the Company's shares results from a plan of arrangement between the Company and CopperBank Resources Corp. ("CopperBank") whereby CopperBank will acquire all the issued and outstanding common shares ("Shares") of Redhawk in exchange for 0.928928 of a Share of CopperBank for each Redhawk Share held. For further information please refer to the information circular dated July 10, 2018 and the Company's news releases dated June 25, 2018 and August 20, 2018. ________________________________________ 18/08/31 - TSX Venture Exchange Bulletins TSX VENTURE COMPANIES ANTLER GOLD INC. ("ANTL") BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement Brokered BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing the documentation with respect to a Brokered Private Placement as announced on June 21 and August 14 2018: Number of Shares: 2,000,000 common shares Purchase Price: $0.15 per common share Number of Placees: 1 Placee Insider / Pro Group Participation: None Finder's Fee: $24,000 cash and 160,000 compensation warrants to purchase 160,000 common shares at an exercise price of $0.15 per share during a two year period from the closing date of the offering payable to Numus Capital Corp. The Company has confirmed the closing of the Private Placement in a news release dated August 24, 2018. ______________________________________ ATAC RESOURCES LTD. ("ATC") BULLETIN TYPE: Property-Asset or Share Purchase Agreement BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 1 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation in connection with a Mining Property Purchase Agreement dated August 27, 2018 between Independence Gold Corp., Archer Cathro & Associates (1981) Limited and the Company whereby the Company will acquire a 100% interest in the TN 1 210 mineral claims located in the Dawson Mining District, Yukon Territory. Consideration is 60,000 common shares. Independence will retain a 1% net smelter return royalty interest. ________________________________________ AURCREST GOLD INC. ("AGO") BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-Brokered BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced May 29, 2018: Number of Shares: 1,550,000 shares Purchase Price: $0.05 per share Warrants: 1,550,000 share purchase warrants to purchase 1,550,000 shares Warrant Initial Exercise Price: $0.075 Warrant Term to Expiry: 3 Years Number of Placees: 6 Placees Finder's Fee: Pollitt & Co. Inc. 56,000 shares; 56,000 warrants Finder Warrant Initial Exercise Price: $0.075 Finder Warrant Term to Expiry: Expiring on May 28, 2021. Note that in certain circumstances the Exchange may later extend the expiry date of the warrants, if they are less than the maximum permitted term. The above information is a summary only. Neither TMX Group Limited nor any of its affiliated companies guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this document. Readers should consult the issuer's continuous disclosure record for complete details of the transaction. ________________________________________ AUXLY CANNABIS GROUP INC. ("XLY") BULLETIN TYPE: Property-Asset or Share Purchase Agreement BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing a Share Purchase Agreement dated August 17, 2018 between the Company, CPS-KGK Limited Partnership, each of the preferred shareholders of KGK Science Inc. (KGK"), and Shan Zhen Lin whereby the Company has acquired the issued and outstanding shares of KGK. Consideration is approximately $12,300,000 of which $5,000,000 is by way of 4,132,231 common shares at a deemed price per share of $1.21. The share-based portion of the consideration is subject to a conditional combined lock up and make whole payment. ________________________________________ AZARGA METALS CORP. ("AZR") BULLETIN TYPE: Halt BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 1 Company Effective at 11.40 a.m. PST, August 30, 2018, trading in the shares of the Company was halted pending news; this regulatory halt is imposed by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Market Regulator of the Exchange pursuant to the provisions of Section 10.9(1) of the Universal Market Integrity Rules. ________________________________________ AZARGA METALS CORP. ("AZR") BULLETIN TYPE: Resume Trading BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 1 Company Effective at 8.45 a.m. PST, August 31, 2018, shares of the Company resumed trading, an announcement having been made. ________________________________________ CALIBRE MINING CORP. ("CXB") BULLETIN TYPE: Shares for Bonuses BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing the Company's proposal to issue 1,333,333 bonus shares at a deemed price of $0.06 in consideration of loans totaling $400,000 to the following insiders: Shares Blayne Johnson 500,000 Douglas Forster 516,666 Ed Farrauto 83,333 John Reynolds 66,667 Douglas Hurst 166,667 For further information, refer to the news release dated August 27, 2018. ________________________________________ DIAMCOR MINING INC. ("DMI") BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-Brokered BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced March 12, 2018 and June 20, 2018: Number of Shares: 3,510,315 shares Purchase Price: $0.35 per share Warrants: 1,755,157 share purchase warrants to purchase 1,775,157 shares Warrant Exercise Price: $0.60 for a three year period Number of Placees: 16 Placees Insider / Pro Group Participation: Insider=Y / Name ProGroup=P # of Shares Aggregate Pro Group Involvement P 180,000 [3 Placees] Finder's Fee: Leede Jones Gable Inc. - $5,250 cash and 15,000 Finder's Warrants Echelon Wealth Partners Inc. - $1,260 cash and 3,600 Finder's Warrants Non-transferable Finder's Warrants are exercisable into one common share of the Company at a price of $0.60 for a period of 3 years Pursuant to Corporate Finance Policy 4.1, Section 1.9(e), the Company issued a news release dated August 29, 2018 announcing the closing of the private placement and setting out the expiry date of the hold periods. Note that in certain circumstances the Exchange may later extend the expiry date of the warrants, if they are less than the maximum permitted term. ________________________________________ DIOS EXPLORATION INC. ("DOS") BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement Non-Brokered BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing the documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement: Number of Shares: 4,622,222 common shares Purchase Price: $0.09 per common share Warrants: 4,622,222 warrants to purchase 4,622,222 common shares Warrant Exercise Price: $0.11 until June 29, 2020 Number of Placees: 4 Placees Insider / Pro Group Participation: None Finder's Fee: None The Company has confirmed the closing of the Private Placement in a news release dated June 29, 2018. DIOS EXPLORATION INC. ( DOS ) TYPE DE BULLETIN : Placement prive sans l'entremise d'un courtier DATE DU BULLETIN : Le 31 aout 2018 Societe du groupe 2 de TSX Croissance Bourse de croissance TSX a accepte le depot de la documentation en vertu d'un placement prive sans l'entremise d'un courtier: Nombre d'actions : 4 622 222 actions ordinaires Prix : 0,09 $ par action ordinaire Bons de souscription : 4 622 222 bons de souscription permettant de souscrire a 4 622 222 actions ordinaires Prix d'exercice des bons : 0,11 $ jusqu'au 29 Juin 2020 Nombre de souscripteurs : 4 souscripteurs Participation des inities / Groupe Pro : Aucun Honoraire d'intermediation : Aucun La societe a confirme la cloture du placement prive dans un communique de presse date du 29 juin 2018. ____________________________________ FORTRESS BLOCKCHAIN CORP. ("FORT") BULLETIN TYPE: Halt BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 1 Company Effective at 6.28 a.m. PST, August 31, 2018, trading in the shares of the Company was halted at the request of the Company, pending news; this regulatory halt is imposed by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Market Regulator of the Exchange pursuant to the provisions of Section 10.9(1) of the Universal Market Integrity Rules. ________________________________________ FORTRESS BLOCKCHAIN CORP. ("FORT") BULLETIN TYPE: Resume Trading BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 1 Company Effective at 12.00 p.m. PST, August 31, 2018, shares of the Company resumed trading, an announcement having been made. ________________________________________ HUNTER OIL CORP. ("HOC") BULLETIN TYPE: Halt BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Effective at 7.10 a.m. PST, August 31, 2018, trading in the shares of the Company was halted at the request of the Company, pending news; this regulatory halt is imposed by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Market Regulator of the Exchange pursuant to the provisions of Section 10.9(1) of the Universal Market Integrity Rules. ________________________________________ HUNTER OIL CORP. ("HOC") BULLETIN TYPE: Property-Asset or Share Purchase Agreement BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange") has accepted for filing a purchase and sale agreement and a stock purchase agreement, both dated August 1, 2018 between the Company's holding and operating companies, Milnesand Minerals Inc., Chaveroo Minerals, Inc., Ridgeway Arizona Oil Corp. and EOR Operating Company and Pacific Energy Development Corp. (the "Buyer"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of PEDVCO Corp (NYSE American: PED) for the sale of its holding companies assets and for the sale of its operating company shares. The aggregate purchase price for the sale of those assets and shares of the operating companies is US$21,315,636 which was paid in cash. In addition, the Buyer assumed the Company's asset retirement obligations. The transaction is arm's length in nature and was approved by the Company's shareholders at a special meeting held on August 30th. For further details about the transaction, please refer to the Company's news releases dated August 1, 2018 and August 31, 2018. Insider / Pro Group Participation: Nil ________________________________________ LGC Capital Ltd. ("LG") BULLETIN TYPE: Resume Trading BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Effective at 12.15 p.m. PST, August 30, 2018, shares of the Company resumed trading, an announcement having been made. ________________________________________ PERISSON PETROLEUM CORPORATION ("POG") BULLETIN TYPE: Resume Trading BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 1 Company Effective at 10.15 a.m. PST, August 31, 2018, shares of the Company resumed trading, an announcement having been made. ________________________________________ POOL SAFE INC. ("POOL") BULLETIN TYPE: Shares for Debt BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing the Company's proposal to issue 3,400,000 shares to settle outstanding debt for $306,000 and 173,456 shares to settle outstanding debt of $19,080.16. Number of Creditors: 3 Creditors Insider / Pro Group Participation: None Warrants: None The Company shall issue a news release when the shares are issued and the debt extinguished. ________________________________________ RHC CAPITAL CORPORATION ("RHC") BULLETIN TYPE: Remain Halted BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Further to the TSX Venture Exchange ('TSXV') Bulletin dated August 24, 2018, trading in the shares of the Company will remain halted pending receipt and review of acceptable documentation regarding the change of business and/or Reverse Take-Over pursuant to Listings Policy 5.2. This regulatory halt is imposed by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Market Regulator of the Exchange, pursuant to the provisions of Section 10.9(1) of the Universal Market Integrity Rules. ________________________________________ ROCKHAVEN RESOURCES LTD. ("RK") BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-Brokered BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced August 28, 2018: Number of Shares: 4,000,000 shares Purchase Price: $0.15 per share Warrants: 2,000,000 share purchase warrants to purchase 2,000,000 shares Warrant Exercise Price: $0.20 for a two year period Number of Placees: 1 Placee Insider / Pro Group Participation: Insider=Y / Name ProGroup=P # of Shares Strategic Metals Ltd. Y 4,000,000 Pursuant to Corporate Finance Policy 4.1, Section 1.11(d), the Company issued a news release announcing the closing of the private placement and setting out the expiry dates of the hold period on August 31, 2018. [Note that in certain circumstances the Exchange may later extend the expiry date of the warrants, if they are less than the maximum permitted term.] ________________________________________ SEGO RESOURCES INC. ("SGZ") BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-Brokered BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to the third and final tranche of a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced April 23, 2018 and June 7, 2018: Number of Shares: 1,420,000 flow through shares 4,239,800 non flow through shares Purchase Price: $0.05 per flow through and non-flow through share Warrants: 710,000 share purchase warrants attached to flow through shares to purchase 710,000 shares at a price of $0.10 per share for a two year period.4,239,800 share purchase shares attached to non-flow through shares topurchase 4,239,800 shares at a price of $0.10 per share for a four year period . Number of Placees: 12 Placees Insider / Pro Group Participation: Insider=Y / Name ProGroup=P # of Shares Clinton Barr Y 400,000 f/t Aggregate Pro Group Involvement P 150,000 nft [1 placee] Finder's Fee: PI Financial Corp. receives $1,417.50 and 28,350 non-transferable warrants. Canaccord Genuity Corp. receives $1,050 and 21,000 non-transferable warrants. Haywood Securities Inc. receives $2,100 and 42,000 non-transferable warrants. Scotia Wealth Management receives $1,750 and 35,000 non-transferable warrants Each non-transferable warrant is exercisable for one unit with terms as above at a price of $0.05 for a two year period. Pursuant to Corporate Finance Policy 4.1, Section 1.11(d), the Company issued a news release announcing the closing of the private placement and setting out the expiry dates of the hold period(s) on June 15, 2018, July 30, 2018 and August 27, 2018. [Note that in certain circumstances the Exchange may later extend the expiry date of the warrants, if they are less than the maximum permitted term.] ________________________________________ SPHINX RESOURCES LTD. ("SFX") BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement Brokered BULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Brokered Private Placement: Number of Securities: 5,000,000 common shares and 3,551,538 flow-through common share Purchase Price: $0.05 per common share and $0.065 per flow-through common share Number of Placees: 22 Placees Insider / Pro Group Participation: Insider=Y / Name ProGroup=P # of shares Normand Champigny Y 150,000 Finder's Fee: $8,917 cash payable to Canaccord Genuity Corp. and $5,460 cash payable to Sherbrooke Street Capital The Company has confirmed the closing of the Private Placement in news releases dated June 15 and July 13, 2018. SPHINX RESOURCES LTD. ("SFX")TYPE DE BULLETIN : Placement prive avec l'entremise d'un courtierDATE DU BULLETIN : Le 31 aout 2018Societe du groupe 2 de TSX Croissance Bourse de croissance TSX a accepte le depot de la documentation en vertu d'un placement prive sans l'entremise d'un courtier: Nombre d'actions : 5 000 000 d'actions ordinaires et 3 551 538 d'actions accreditives Prix : 0,05$ par action ordinaire et 0,065$ par action accreditives Nombre de souscripteurs : 22 souscripteurs Participation des inities / Groupe Pro : Initie=Y / Nom Groupe Pro=P # d'actions Normand Champigny Y 150 000 Honoraire d'intermediation : 8 917$ payable a Canaccord Genuity Corp. et 5 460$ payable a Sherbrooke Street Capital La societe a confirme la cloture du placement prive dans des communiques de presse dates du 15 juin et 13 juillet 2018. ________________________________________ SUNORA FOODS INC. ("SNF")BULLETIN TYPE: Normal Course Issuer BidBULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has been advised by the Company that pursuant to a Notice of Intention to make a Normal Course Issuer Bid dated August 30, 2018, it may repurchase for cancellation, up to 2,112,716 shares in its own capital stock. The purchases are to be made through the facilities of TSX Venture Exchange or other recognized marketplaces during the period September 1, 2018 to August 31, 2018. Purchases pursuant to the bid will be made by PI Financial Corp. on behalf of the Company. ________________________________________ NEX COMPANIES REDHAWK RESOURCES INC. ("RDK.HTYPE: HaltBULLETIN DATE: August 31, 2018NEX Company Effective at 5.05 a.m. PST, August 31, 2018, trading in the shares of the Company was halted at the request of the Company, pending news; this regulatory halt is imposed by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Market Regulator of the Exchange pursuant to the provisions of Section 10.9(1) of the Universal Market Integrity Rules. ________________________________________ SOURCE TSX Venture Exchange Date: Mon, Jul 2, 2018, 11:55 PM Subject: From the desk of Mr William C. Dudley To: From: UNITED BANK < federalbank.@feel.ocn.ne.jp Date: Mon, Jul 2, 2018, 11:55 PMSubject: From the desk of Mr William C. DudleyTo: 33 Liberty St New York , NY 10045-0001Federal Reserve Bank Headquarters: New York, NY, United States of America Founded: 1914, New York City, New York, United States ADDRESS: 33 Liberty St New York , NY 10045-0001 From the desk of Mr William C. Dudley Attention Dear, Greetings From Federal Reserve Bank New York and United States Integration, am hereby to inform you that an alert come to us today from United Nation Official through the help of Federal Bureau of Investigation {FBI}. And according to the reporter, World bank organization together with United State Embassy Benin Republic, have approved to compensate You as a scam victim with the Sum of $15.5miilon, and your email address was found among the 10 lucky beneficiaries, M eanwhile the fund will be release this week as soon as the beneficiary meetup/comply with the instruction/requirements. We apologies for the delay of your payment and all the inconveniences we might put you through, while we were having some minor problems with our payment system which in all case not meeting up with fund beneficiary payments, we apologies once again. From the records of outstanding contractors due for payment with federal Government of U.S.A your name was discovered as next on the list out of the 10 outstanding contractors who have not yet received their payments during the 3 years tenure of the previous administration in office please bear with us for making this initial contact through email. Meanwhile, a woman came to this bank a few days ago with a letter claiming to be your true representative and is willing to pay For the wire/transfer charge of $250 to have the fund delivered to her. Here is her information's below. Name: Mrs.Annette stillman Bank name: Citibank , Arizona , USA . Account Number: 6503809008 Routing number: 322271627 Swift code#:WMSBUS66 Address: 1723 Palmdale Bulv Palmdale ca. 93550 Please do reconfirm to this bank as a matter of urgency if this woman is from you or not so that the federal government will not beheld responsible for paying into wrong account, if this woman is not your representative, you requested to fill and send this information's for verification purpose so that your fund valued ($15.5millon) will be remitted in to your nominated bank account. Kindly reconfirm to the bank the following 1. Bank Name: 2. Bank account number: 3. Route number: 4. Swift code: 5. Bank name: 6. Company name: 7. Position: 8. Address: 9. Working Id/ int'l Passport 10. Age: 11. Your telephone number Secondly,the law stated that every beneficiaries will take care of the expense base on your favorable means of receiving the only money you have to pay for the transfer to take place is just $250 being the approval payment certification from the American Embassy office in Benin Republic, and you are giving a limited time to send the payment. As soon as the Payment information is received, your funds will be wired to your bank account directly from Federal Reserve Bank New York USA,We shall proceed to issue all payments details to the said Mrs. Annette Stillman if we do not hear from you within the next three working days from today. We are sorry for any inconvenience the delay in transferring of your fund must have caused you. We await your urgent reply Sincerely. Mr. William C. Dudley Email address: ( Phone number: +1(929) 226-3193 Director Federal Reserve Bank 33 Liberty St New York , NY 10045-0001 33 Liberty St New York , NY 10045-0001Federal Reserve BankHeadquarters: New York, NY, United States of AmericaFounded: 1914, New York City, New York, United StatesADDRESS: 33 Liberty St New York , NY 10045-0001From the desk of Mr William C. DudleyAttention Dear, Greetings From Federal Reserve Bank New York and United States Integration, am hereby to inform you that an alert come to us today from United Nation Official through the help of Federal Bureau of Investigation {FBI}. And according to the reporter, World bank organization together with United State Embassy Benin Republic, have approved to compensate You as a scam victim with the Sum of $15.5miilon, and your email address was found among the 10 lucky beneficiaries, Meanwhile the fund will be release this week as soon as the beneficiary meetup/comply with the instruction/requirements.We apologies for the delay of your payment and all the inconveniences we might put you through, while we were having some minor problems with our payment system which in all case not meeting up with fund beneficiary payments, we apologies once again.From the records of outstanding contractors due for payment with federal Government of U.S.A your name was discovered as next on the list out of the 10 outstanding contractors who have not yet received their payments during the 3 years tenure of the previous administration in office please bear with us for making this initial contact through email. Meanwhile, a woman came to this bank a few days ago with a letter claiming to be your true representative and is willing to pay For the wire/transfer charge of $250 to have the fund delivered to her. Here is her information's below.Name: Mrs.Annette stillmanBank name: Citibank , Arizona , USA .Account Number: 6503809008Routing number: 322271627Swift code#:WMSBUS66Address: 1723 Palmdale BulvPalmdale ca. 93550Please do reconfirm to this bank as a matter of urgency if this woman is from you or not so that the federal government will not beheld responsible for paying into wrong account, if this woman is not your representative, you requested to fill and send this information's for verification purpose so that your fund valued ($15.5millon) will be remitted in to your nominated bank account.Kindly reconfirm to the bank the following1. Bank Name:2. Bank account number:3. Route number:4. Swift code:5. Bank name:6. Company name:7. Position:8. Address:9. Working Id/ int'l Passport10. Age:11. Your telephone numberSecondly,the law stated that every beneficiaries will take care of the expense base on your favorable means of receiving the only money you have to pay for the transfer to take place is just $250 being the approval payment certification from the American Embassy office in Benin Republic, and you are giving a limited time to send the payment.As soon as the Payment information is received, your funds will be wired to your bank account directly from Federal Reserve Bank New York USA,We shall proceed to issue all payments details to the said Mrs. Annette Stillman if we do not hear from you within the next three working days from today. We are sorry for any inconvenience the delay in transferring of your fund must have caused you.We await your urgent replySincerely.Mr. William C. DudleyEmail address: ( federalbanknewyorkcity@gmail.com Phone number: +1(929) 226-3193Director Federal Reserve Bank33 Liberty St New York , NY 10045-0001 Bank.@maple.ocn.ne.jp > From the Desk Of Mr.William C Dudley Federal Reserve Bank, Today at 2:20 AM Headquarter: New York, NY, United States of America Founded : 1914, New York City, New York, United States ADDRESS : 33 Liberty Sta New York , NY 10045-0001 Did you authorize Mrs. Annette Stillman of Kemuning Ray Street NO.8,Tomang. Jakarta,Indonesia to pay the pending wire transfer charges and claim your WORLD BANK/IMF assisted scam victim compensation funds of $9.5millon USD? She is here with us now,with the sum of $155 usd for the pending wire transfer charges, you are alerted to reply urgent so that if she is not from you we will have her by FBI but do reconfirm to this bank as a matter of urgency if this woman is from you or not so that the federal government will not beheld responsible for paying into wrong account thank you. You are to come back to us with your. PHONE::NUMBER YOU ARE ALERTED TO REPLY SO URGENT NOW ! NOW ! VIA OUR MOBILE NUMBER: +1(718) 765-5852 Sincerely. Mr.William C Dudley Director Federal Reserve Bank 2018-07-03 18:49 GMT-04:00 Federal Reserve Bank odogwu.okonkwo@yahoo.com > Headquarters: New York, NY, United States of America Founded: 1914, New York City, New York, United States ADDRESS: 33 Liberty St New York , NY 10045-0001 From the desk of Mr William C.Dudley We apologies for the delay of your payment and all the inconveniences we might put you through, while we were having some minor problems with our payment system which in all case not meeting up with fund beneficiary payments, we apologies once again. From the records of outstanding contractors due for payment with federal Government of U.S.A your name was discovered as next on the list out of the 11 outstanding contractors who have not yet received their payments during the 3 years tenure of the previous administration in office please bear with us for making this initial contact through email. Meanwhile, a woman came to this bank a few days ago with a letter claiming to be your true representative and is willing to pay the wire/transfer charge of ($198usd) to have the fund delivered to her. Here is her information's below. Name: Mrs.Annette stillman Bank name: Citibank , Arizona , USA . Account Number: 6503809008 Routing number: 322271627 Swift code#:WMSBUS66 Address: 1723 Palmdale Bulv Palmdale ca. 93550 Please do reconfirm to this bank as a matter of urgency if this woman is from you or not so that the federal government will not beheld responsible for paying into wrong account, if this woman is not your representative, you requested to fill and send this information's for verification purpose so that your fund valued ($4.700, 000.00 usd) will be remitted in to your nominated bank account. Kindly reconfirm to the bank the following Bank Name: Bank account number: Route number: Swift code: Bank name: Company name: Position: Address: Working Id/ int'l Passport Age: Your telephone number As soon as this information is received, your funds will be wired to your bank account directly from Federal Reserve Bank New York USA . We shall proceed to issue all payments details to the said Mrs. Annette Stillman if we do not hear from you within the next three working days from today. We are sorry for any inconvenience the delay in transferring of your fund must have caused you. You alerted reply urgent Sincerely. Mr. William C. Dudley Director Federal Reserve Bank 33 Liberty St New York , NY 10045-0001 2018-07-15 21:43 GMT-04:00 Mr. William C. Dudley Sent: Wed, Jul 18, 2018 6:36 am Subject: RE:NOTIFICATION OF CREDIT FROM BANK FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD NEW YORK. FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF NEW YORK (Serving The Second District And The Nation) 33 LIBERTY STREET NEW YORK, NY 10045. USA WEBSITE: WWW.NY.FRB.ORG//Our Ref: FRB/NY/TDT/US/XX15 EMAIL: mr.william_c@aol.com NOTIFICATION OF CREDIT FROM BANK FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD NEW YORK. This to Notify you that Series of meetings have been held over the past 6 months with the Secretary General of the United Nations Organization, which ended 2 days ago. It is obvious that you have not received your fund which is now in the amount of $11,000,000.00 USD (Eleven Million United States Dollars) as a compensation award to you, due to past corrupt Governmental Officials who almost held your fund to themselves for their selfish reasons and some individuals who have taken advantage of your fund all in an attempt to swindle your fund which has led to unnecessary delay in the receipt and so many losses from your end. The National Central Bureau of Interpol enhanced by the United Nations and Federal Bureau of Investigation have successfully passed a mandate to the current Chairman Director Federal Reserve Bank New York USA Mrs. Janet Yellen, to boost the exercise of clearing all foreign deberal owed to you and other individuals and organizations who have been found not to have received their Compensation Awards. Now, how would you like to receive your payment? Because we have two method of payment which is by Check or by ATM card? ATM Card: We will be issuing you a custom pin based ATM card which you will use to withdraw up to $10,000 USD (Ten Thousand Dollars) per day from any ATM machine that has the Master Card Logo on it and the card have to be renewed in 3 years time which is 2020. Also with the ATM card you will be able to transfer your funds to your local bank account. Even if you do not have a bank account, the ATM card comes with a handbook or manual to enlighten you about how to use it. Check: A cashier check will be issued in your name and you will deposit it in your bank for it to be cleared within two working days.Your payment would be sent to you via any of your preferred option above and would be mailed to you via UPS. Normally, you were supposed to pay for clearance fees and Delivery fee but every charges as been waved, the only fee you will pay to the Accounts Department is just the Notarization charges. Take note that you will have to stop communication with every other person if you have been in contact with any. Also remember that all you will ever have to spend is $350 USD only. nothing more! Nothing less! And we Guarantee the receipt of your Fund to be successfully Delivered to you within the next 48hrs after confirmation receipt fee of (UPS). Note: Everything has been taken care of, including taxes, custom paper and clearance duty. So, all you will ever need to pay is $350.00 Dollars only. Apply Your Claims Promptly: For immediate release of your Fund valued at $11,000,000.00 USD (Eleven Million United States Dollars) I want you to kindly submit the requested details following below to help us process your payment; Your Full Name:_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Your House Address:_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Home/Cell/Phone Number:_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Choose ONE Preferable Payment Method (Visa ATM Card OR Cashier Check):_ _ _ _ _ _ _ Age:_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Occupation_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Your package will be sent to you within two to three working days upon Confirmation receipt of UPS fee of $350.00 Dollars. We are so sure of everything and we are giving you a 100% Money back Guarantee if you do not receive payment / package within the next 48hrs after you have made the payment for shipping. We also Hereby Issued You Our Code Of Conduct, Which Is (FRBNYATM-2018) So You Have To Indicate This Code When replying back to us By Using It As Your Subject Because Of Impostors. Thanks while we looking forward to serving you better. NOTE : KINDLY GET BACK TO US TO GIVE YOU THE DELIVERY PAYMENT INFORMATION Thanks and God bless you Yours in Service, Mr.William C. Dudley Director Federal Reserve Bank New York, Leadership Bank Federal Reserve Board helps build strong communities by creating opportunities for people - including customers, shareholders and associates - to fulfill their dreams. Disclaimer: The Professional Provident Society Holdings Trust No IT 312/2011 (PPS) is a Registered South African Trust whose registered office is 6 Anerley Road, Parktown, Johannesburg, 2193. PPS Insurance Company Limited Reg. No. 2001/017730/06 (PPS Insurance) a is an Authorised Financial Services Provider - License No. 1044. PPS Short-Term Insurance Company Limited Reg. No. 2005/005531/06 a an Authorised Financial Services Provider a License No. 46274. We are not acting or purport to act in any way as an adviser or in a fiduciary capacity. This email is further subject to the following terms https://www.pps.co.za/portal/docs/PR/Email%20Disclaimer.pdf From: Mr.William C. Dudley < test@ppszafax.co.za >Sent: Wed, Jul 18, 2018 6:36 amSubject: RE:NOTIFICATION OF CREDIT FROM BANK FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD NEW YORK. Mr. William C. Dudley Dudley.@tea.ocn.ne.jp > Date: Mon, Jul 30, 2018, 7:34 PM Subject: Director Federal Reserve Bank To: From:Date: Mon, Jul 30, 2018, 7:34 PMSubject: Director Federal Reserve BankTo: From the Desk Of Mr. William C. Dudley Federal Reserve Bank Today at 2:39 AM Headquarter: New York, NY, United States of America Founded : 1914, New York City, New York, United States ADDRESS : 33 Liberty St New York , NY 10045-0001 Did you authorize Mrs. Annette Stillman of Kemuning Ray Street NO.8,Tomang. Jakarta,Indonesia to pay the pending wire transfer charges and claim your WORLD BANK/IMF assisted scam victim compensation funds of $9.5millon USD? She is here with us now,with the sum of $155 usd for the pending wire transfer charges, you are alerted to reply urgent so that if she is not form you we will have her by FBI but do reconfirm to this bank as a matter of urgency if this woman is from you or not so that the federal government will not beheld responsible for paying into wrong account thank you. You are to come back too us with your. NUMBER::: EMAIL::: YOU ARE ALERTED TO REPLY SO URGENT NOW ! NOW ! contact me via this mobile number:+1(347)566-1543 :+(347)590-4856 Sincerely. Mr. William C. Dudley Director Federal Reserve Bank From the Desk Of Mr. William C. DudleyFederal Reserve BankToday at 2:39 AMHeadquarter: New York, NY, United States of AmericaFounded : 1914, New York City, New York, United StatesADDRESS : 33 Liberty St New York , NY 10045-0001Did you authorize Mrs. Annette Stillman of Kemuning Ray Street NO.8,Tomang.Jakarta,Indonesia to pay the pending wire transfer charges and claimyour WORLD BANK/IMF assisted scam victim compensation funds of $9.5millonUSD?She is here with us now,with the sum of $155 usd for the pending wiretransfer charges, you are alerted to reply urgent so that if she is not form you wewill have her by FBI but do reconfirm to this bank as a matter ofurgency if this woman is from you or not so that the federal government willnot beheld responsible for paying into wrong account thank you.You are to come back too us with your.NUMBER:::EMAIL:::YOU ARE ALERTED TO REPLY SO URGENT NOW ! NOW !contact me via this mobile number:+1(347)566-1543:+(347)590-4856Sincerely.Mr. William C. DudleyDirector Federal Reserve Bank federalreserve bank federalreservebank809@gmail.com > Date: Fri, Aug 24, 2018, 10:33 PM Subject: Federal reserve bank From:Date: Fri, Aug 24, 2018, 10:33 PMSubject: Federal reserve bank Good day, a man came this morning claiming to be your brother and that you died in a motor accident being the reason for your delay to pay off the $155 IMF fee,his story is legit and we decided to contact you before we accept the $155 fee from him and release your fund to him. this is his account details:where he asked us to trasfer the funds Account Name: Diane Thil, A/C #USD114-1025567-8, Bank Name:The Sovereign Bank, Philadelphia, Swift Code: SCBL 11K111. Your urgent reply is needed to confirm the authenticity of his story.Please do reply us as fast as possible if your are still alive Sincerely. Mr. William C. Dudley Director Federal Reserve Bank If you received a similar letter, please ignore it. Do not answer it. If you do, you will end up on more of the mailing lists used by the criminals behind this fraud. Read more.... Douglas V. Gibbs is a proud member of the American Authors Association Douglas V. Gibbs is a proud member of the Military Writers Society of America. 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 After losing all of their material possessions in the Fort McMurray fires of 2016, Linda and Tony Strickland returned to their Newfoundland roots and their previous home community of Brandon to start anew. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/9/2018 (1159 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us After losing all of their material possessions in the Fort McMurray fires of 2016, Linda and Tony Strickland returned to their Newfoundland roots and their previous home community of Brandon to start anew. On Wednesday, they celebrated the soft opening of Brandons first Mary Browns Chicken & Taters, at 751 18th St. a franchise restaurant whose 49-year-old roots were planted in their native Newfoundland. Despite this week being a soft opening, the married couple said on Thursday that a steady stream of people have been flowing into the new restaurant to both try it out and wish them well. Their collection of flowers from well-wishers has been growing, with yet another bouquet delivered during their interview with The Sun. "Brandon has a very tight-knit and close business community, and the support is fantastic," Tony said. "Everybody seems to help everybody out, and theyre very supportive of each other." Its been a long time coming, with the couple securing the location almost a full year ago, around which time planning and building renovations commenced. They gained occupancy approximately two weeks ago, at which time training for their staff of 25 began. By Thursday afternoon, staff were seen powering through orders, with a nearly full restaurant of people chowing down on the restaurants quick-serve chicken menu items. Although this is the Strickland couples first time owning a business, they spent much of the past couple decades gaining experience in the field as managers at local Tim Hortons franchises. Despite a foray into Fort McMurray "to try something new," Tony said that they were ready to return to the quick-serve restaurant environment a sentiment Linda nodded her head in agreement with. "We missed it," he said, adding that it was "the people, mostly; more than anything." Finding a receptive business climate in their former longtime home of Brandon, the couple filled out the equation by linking up with Mary Browns a franchise which harkened back to their Newfoundland upbringing. A popular brand on the east coast, Mary Browns has since expanded to more than 140 locations throughout the country, with a restaurant in every province, including three in Winnipeg. Tony said that while Brandon appeared to have plenty of restaurants that specialize in pizza and burgers, he figured the Wheat City could use another fried chicken option. With Mary Browns chicken and potatoes hand-cut every day and sourced from Canadian farmers, he said that they strive to set themselves apart from others. Already headed by the married duo of Linda and Tony, Mary Browns is poised to become even more family-based in the coming years, with their nine-year-old son Riley already expressing interest in working at the restaurant once he comes of age. With the youngster playing on the cash register prior to Wednesdays opening, Tony said that Riley appeared eager to join his parents at the restaurant. Brandons Mary Browns Chicken & Taters is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. tclarke@brandonsun.com Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB The Green Party is calling for large-scale public demonstrations if Donald Trump visits Ireland. The White House announced last night that the US President would travel here in November to renew "deep and historic ties" between the two countries. Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan says the Government should un-invite him. "Well first message would be to try and avoid it and I don't think we should be extending a welcome and I don't think we should have extended the invitation in the first place "But if he does come, I think they should facilitate and allow the protests that will take place." In a statement last night, President Trump said that he would visit Ireland "to renew the deep and historic ties between our two nations". By turning up in large numbers, surely we can send a clear signal to the American people; we want a less divisive, peaceful and more sustainable world? Meet in College Green 10th November, to help hold that line. #TrumpInIreland #protest #PeoplePower https://t.co/pVIr23tGHN pic.twitter.com/rd956Y0vnl Eamon Ryan (@EamonRyan) September 1, 2018 He will come to our shores as part of a trip to Europe which includes his participation in the armistice commemorations in Paris on November 11. This will be his first visit to Ireland since his inauguration as President in January 2017. It is expected that President Trump will undertake a two-day visit with Dublin and Doonbeg likely to be included in his itinerary. Digital Desk Tanaiste Simon Coveney has issued a strong reaction to the US decision to end all funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. The US State Department confirmed yesterday they will cease all funding calling the agency an "irredeemably flawed operation". In a strongly worded statement issued by the department of foreign affairs Simon Coveney has described the move as both heartless and dangerous, and says it will impact negatively on the Middle East region. The Tanaiste says he has seen first-hand the excellent work that UNRWA does in providing services to millions of people, including those in Gaza who have nowhere else to turn. He says it provides food aid to over a million Gazans, who cannot feed themselves due to the economic impact of the blockade. This decision is shocking + will make peace even more difficult. How can u promote peace+target innocent children in this way. @UNRWA runs 700 schools, Heathcare + emergency relief for millions of Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon, West Bank and Gaza. https://t.co/2WbbKahCa2 Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) August 31, 2018 The move follows on from other heavy cuts to US support for the Palestinian people made in recent weeks. Minister Coveney says Ireland will continue to assist and support UNRWA and will discuss with the EU and other partners what more can be done to support its work. An investigation is underway after drugs worth 700,000 were seized in Dublin. A man in his 30s who was arrested and taken to Kilmainham Garda Station has since been released. Around 5 kilograms of heroin was found when gardai searched a flat at Tyrone Place in Inchicore on Monday evening. An examination of the scene was carried out by Garda Crime Scene Examiners and a follow-up operation was carried out. A file will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions. Digital Desk There has been a report of an aggravated burglary in the Magdala Street area of Belfast. A man woke to find a man had broken into his house at around 4am. The Brisbane mother-of-one, who requested anonymity, said as a practising Catholic who recently underwent a termination, the church had overstepped its bounds. Even though I was born and raised a Catholic, my parents taught me science, and they taught me to question things, she said. They taught me that our faith was about being good, but it wasnt about being close-minded. We had a really healthy balance and thats what Im trying to teach my daughter. I want her to grow up in the faith because its wonderful. It taught me a lot and it made me the person I am today and I dont regret a moment of it. But life is not black and white and different rules apply now. The email distributed by the archdiocese contains a link to a video by the Archbishop in which he says: The Catholic Church ... is often slammed by people who say how dare we speak about abortion when weve done so many things wrong with child sexual abuse. But if there is one thing the church has learned at great cost in recent years its the need to protect the vulnerable at every point of the journey and the journey begins in the womb. Ive come to see that theres a link between abortion and child abuse. If we choose to defend the unborn then we have to be no less committed to defending the young and the vulnerable in every way. Thats true not just of the church but of the state as well which is why I ask each individual member of parliament to see beyond worn out ideologies and tricky language as you consider a vote which matters more than most do. The woman, who had a termination in April, said she was hurt and outraged by the content of the church's newsletter. I think its unacceptable. [They] cant be sending things like this out, she said. Its so insensitive. Its on a par with heckling a woman outside a clinic. Thats the feeling I got. I felt like I was being reprimanded and judged, and that what I did was wrong. The woman opted for a medical abortion which she says went horribly wrong and lingered on for 12 weeks after initially taking the pills. I spent the Easter weekend haemorrhaging at my parents place, crying. It was quite horrible, she said. For the next 12 weeks, I had continuous bleeding, and then had an infection and required a D&C procedure. I was on IV treatment for four days in hospital. It was just a really horrendous time. I shouldnt be made to feel guilty for my life choices. When I saw this email it made me feel ill. I was at peace with my decision. But the email was just confronting, it brought everything back. For someone who might not be as strong emotionally, it could have caused them real problems. And for some people who have made that decision, or who are thinking of making that decision, they could end their life. No-one should feel that judged. In a statement, Archbishop Mark Coleridge said the email was sent to the Catholic community as a means to open discussion about the proposed abortion laws. Ive been heartened with the support weve received for our email, he said. Inevitably weve had criticism, but the very clear response from Queenslanders has been genuine concern at these proposed abortion laws. Our email included a link to the Queensland Law Reform Commission report and to the draft legislation. Its important that Queenslanders have access to this information. Some of the responses to our email have been from people grateful that they have received an easy link to read legislation that is hard to find for some. The State Government has set up a so-called Fact Checker website. However there is no link on this website to the Law Reform Commission report or even to the draft legislation. Instead, the Government has reduced the 324-page report to two pages. The Archbishop claimed the governments website does not clarify who is checking these facts and uses tricky language. Almost 90 per cent of people who have responded to our email say they dont support the proposed laws, he said. Many of those people believe that there is a lack of rigour around the proposed laws for termination of babies after 22 weeks' gestation. They are particularly concerned about the termination of babies close to full-term. There are fewer than 160 words in the legislation that cover the circumstances in which a baby can be terminated after 22 weeks. Yet there are almost 400 words that cover so-called 'Safe Access Zones'. Under the proposed law, doctors can approve a termination up until birth for several reasons including 'social circumstances'. Thats written in the proposed legislation. Doctors are also asked to consider 'future psychological circumstances'. I have the utmost respect for doctors but are they experts in areas like social and psychological assessment when were talking about the life of a woman and the life of a baby that may be full-term?" the Archbishop said. "In this debate, both lives matter. Queensland police are treating Saturday night's destructive blaze at the heritage-listed Broadway Hotel as "suspicious". The abandoned Woolloongabba property was gutted by fire eight years after another fire ripped through and forced the building's permanent closure. Deputy Premier Jackie Trad has called for Brisbane City Council to ensure the hotel is rebuilt to its original form. On Sunday, Deputy Premier Jackie Trad criticised Brisbane City Council for letting the property fall into disrepair, and called for it to ensure there was no development on the site until the hotel had been restored to its former glory. "The Premier and I were remarking on the fact that we remember enjoying a drink there in our youth, so it was really sad to wake up to the news that this historic pub had been burnt down," she said. Emirates is bringing back its A380 services between Dubai and Brisbane on the same weekend Qantas launches Dreamliner flights to New York and Los Angeles. The airline said the decision in January to end A380 Brisbane operations was part of a routine operational review and was only temporary, with services to resume from September 2. The A380 will add 945 seats per week on top of Emirates existing two daily Brisbane services operated by Boeing 777s. The hiatus from June to August saw the Airbus A380 replaced by Boeing 777s and Emirates Australasian divisional vice president Barry Brown blamed the industrys ever-changing landscape. "The change in aircraft type was always for a temporary three-month operational period as we advised earlier this year and was implemented to best serve customer demand across the Emirates global network," he said. Australian Instagram model Sinead McNamara, 20, who died on a boat in Greece this week, has been remembered as a "beautiful soul". "My camping buddy and twin! I'll always treasure growing up with you. Rest in peace beautiful girl," one person wrote on her Instagram page. "Beautiful kind happy soul, sending love and strength to her family," said another. "A beautiful life taken way too soon. Rest In Peace gorgeous." A 29-year-old Glen Waverley man has been charged with the murder of a man who was found dead in a Ringwood driveway in April after the victim was shot after midnight on a main road and left to stumble for up to 300 metres in a bloody and fruitless search for help. Albert Biba was arrested on Friday following a string of police raids of homes in Brighton, Brighton East, Bentleigh, Vermont and Balwyn North as part of an ongoing investigation into cannabis cultivation. Loading On Saturday evening Biba was charged with murder and also charged with one count of cultivating cannabis. The shooting allegedly occurred on Wantirna Road, Ringwood, about 1am on April 17, 2018. Los Angeles: US President Donald Trump will not be travelling to Australia later this year. There was speculation Trump would visit Australia in November as part of a tour that included stops in Singapore for the East Asia Summit and Papua New Guinea for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings. The White House announced on Friday Trump would be sending Vice-President Mike Pence. "The Vice-President will highlight the United States' vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific, based on respect for sovereignty, the rule of law, and the principles of free, fair, and reciprocal trade," the White House said in a statement. Sao Paulo: Brazils jailed former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the front-runner in the countrys election, will be struck from the ballot, an electoral court has ruled, reshaping Brazils election one month before voters cast their ballots. The much-anticipated decision brings some clarity to a chaotic campaign season in which the man who had been favoured to win Latin Americas largest election was sitting behind bars. Former Brazilian president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, centre, leaves the metal workers union headquarters before his arrest. Credit:AP Lula, who ruled Brazil between 2003 and 2011, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for money laundering and corruption in April. Yet, running a campaign largely from his jail cell, he has been able to capture nearly 40 per cent of prospective votes for Octobers presidential elections, according to the latest polls. Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor Lawyer-activist Sudha Bharadwaj and families of other activists arrested in the recent raids have dismissed the evidence produced by Maharashtra Police to link them with Maoists as fabricated. Bharadwaj, one of the five activists arrested by Maharashtra Police, said a purported letter implicating her was "totally concocted" to criminalise her and organisations. The police had claimed Friday that Faridabad-based Bharadwaj had written to one "Com Prakash". Reacting to this in a handwritten statement, Bharadwaj said the "fabricated letter" had not been brought before the Pune Court or the Faridabad Chief Judicial Magistrate while seeking to "whisk" her to Pune. In a media briefing in Mumbai, the police had released details of seized letters allegedly linking the to the violence in Koregaon-Bhima in January. On Tuesday, the police arrested Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Bharadwaj in Faridabad and Gautam Navalakha in Delhi. The family of Vernon Gonsalves also said the charges were "fabricated". I was present when searches and raids were conducted at our home and I know what the police have seized," his son Sagar Gonsalves said Saturday. "I could not stop laughing when the police were levelling false charges with the so called letters," he said, referring to the police press conference. The activist's lawyer wife Susan Abraham called the arrests a ploy to divert attention from the real culprits behind the Koregaon-Bhima violence. "The letters read out by the police during the media briefing are manufactured. None of these letters were filed or submitted to the court," she said. She accused the police of not following the set procedure for carrying out such probes. "The police have not followed the procedure established by the cyber laws for the seizure of electronic data, she said. In Hyderabad, Telugu poet Varavara Rao's nephew Venugopal said the evidence presented by Maharashtra Police to link the to Maoists was "cooked up". "All this was said in June. It is nothing new, he told PTI Saturday. He termed the police press conference contempt of court, saying the matter was sub judice and the Supreme Court had asked the evidence to be submitted on September 6. The Supreme Court has ordered that the five activists be kept under house arrest till then. "This police officer does not have a right to hold a press conference," Venugopal said, referring to Maharashtra's Additional Director General of Police (law and Order) Parambir Singh. The police have claimed they have "conclusive proof" to link Left-wing activists arrested in June and this week to Maoists, saying one of them spoke of a "Rajiv Gandhi-type event to end Modi-raj". This threat allegedly figured in an email exchanged between Rona Wilson, an activist arrested in June, and a leader. The Maharashtra Police raids were carried out as part of a probe into the Elgaar Parishad', an event organised in Pune on December 31, 2017, which allegedly triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima village in the district the next day. Also on Saturday, activist Anand Teltumbde refuted the Maharashtra police claim that he attended a convention in Paris allegedly funded by Maoists. Teltumbde, a Dalit writer who teaches at a management institute in Goa, was among the activists and lawyers whose homes were raided by the Pune police on August 28. "I keep going abroad for academic conferences. It is all on official invitations and everything is well documented," he told PTI. The Gujarat Government has partnered with a top India-centric American advocacy group for the in January 2019, which is expected to be attended by some of the top American corporate leaders. John Chambers, chairman of US-India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF), will lead a high-level CEO delegation to the summit next year, a media release said here on Friday. Ahead of the summit, the USISPF will take out roadshows in the five cities of San Francisco, Houston, Chicago, New York and Washington DC, it said. A senior-level delegation, led by Arvind Agarwal, Additional Chief Secretary, Finance, government of Gujarat, will visit the US in September to engage with a host of businesses, investors, start-ups and incubators, thought leaders and key members of the Indian diaspora, the release said. The USISPF will also host focused roundtables and investment roadshow programmes, among other events, the release said. "Vibrant Gujarat 2019 is focused on 'Ideas for a New India' and my endeavour is to attract the best technologies and innovation, educational partnerships, and to gain an understanding of how Gujarat can also create a knowledge-based economy like that of the US," Agarwal said. To officially kick-off the engagements leading up to the US visit of the delegation, the USISPF has scheduled cross-sectoral discussions for the delegation with US-based companies in Delhi and Mumbai. "In the spirit of competitive federalism, Gujarat has led the way through structural reform and forged partnerships with the industry to drive inclusive growth in the state," Mukesh Aghi, president of USISPF, said. Gujarat will host the ninth edition of the annual industry summit 'Vibrant Gujarat' from January 18 to 20, 2019, in Gandhinagar. The summit, conceptualized in 2003 by Prime Minister Narendra during his time as chief minister of the state, focuses on establishing Gujarat as a preferred investment destination in India. Over the years, the summit has evolved into a platform for brainstorming on agendas of global socio-economic development, in addition to becoming a platform for forging strategic public-private partnerships. China is all set to showcase its growing influence in Africa at next Monday's China-Africa summit to be attended by a number of African leaders where President is expected to announce new projects under the (BRI). China is investing billions of dollars in aid and projects, making Africa the most focussed destination under the BRI. This is the third time China is hosting its Africa summit. The inaugural 2006 summit was held in Beijing and followed by another one in 2015 at Johannesburg. Xi will introduce new concepts and proposals for ties between China and Africa, and announce new actions and measures on practical cooperation with Africa during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Beijing summit September 3-4, official media has reported. Themed 'China and Africa: Toward an Even Stronger Community with a Shared Future through Win-Win Cooperation', the summit is expected to be attended by leaders and officials from 53 African states except for Swaziland, the tiny African kingdom which still remained allied with Taiwan, spurning Beijing's overtures. UN Secretary-General is due to attend it. Xi and Premier Li Keqiang were busy receiving African leaders and holding talks with them. The summit aims to build closer China-Africa ties further dovetailing China's BRI with African development, and set a new path for a higher level of China-Africa cooperation, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. BRI includes the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) over which India has protested to China as it traverses through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Xi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will both chair a roundtable discussion at the summit where Chinese and African leaders will discuss China-Africa relations as well as and regional issues of common concern, the Xinhua report said. The interest in the forum is a result of China's growing influence on the African continent and proves the FOCAC has been pragmatic and efficient, it said. The summit will conclude with the signing of a declaration and an action plan, providing guidelines for China-Africa cooperation for the next three years. The documents are expected to build on the outcomes of the Johannesburg summit, during which Xi announced 10 major cooperation plans to promote industrialisation and agricultural modernisation in Africa. Most of the plans have been implemented, it said. China's growing clout in Africa is also drawing criticism that more African countries are getting caught in a Chinese debt trap. At the Johannesburg summit, Xi announced $60 billion in funding support for infrastructure development in Africa. The Chinese projects in Africa include the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway and Kenya's standard gauge railway from Mombasa to Nairobi. India too in recent years has stepped up its political, diplomatic and economic engagement with Africa in recent years. During his visit to Uganda in July Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India's partnership currently includes implementation of 180 Lines of Credit worth about $11 billion in over 40 African countries. At the last Africa-India Forum Summit, India had committed a concessional Line of Credit of $10 billion and $600 million in grant assistance, Modi said. Chinese officials have played down reports of India-China competition in Africa. "China and India are the two largest developing countries and also emerging markets. We both want to help and deepen cooperation with African nations. We are on the same page in this regard," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said here in July. California lawmakers on Friday passed a Bill that would guarantee full and equal access to the internet a principle known as net neutrality in the biggest pushback yet to the federal governments rollback of rules last year. The California Bill is viewed as even stronger and more consumer-friendly than the original measures carried out by the Obama administration and abolished in December by the Trump-era Federal Communications Commission. It is sure to set up a fight between broadband providers, which say strict rules would increase their costs, and consumer groups, ... As an old adage says: beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So it should not come as a surprise that prominent people are sometimes remembered selectively when they are dead. Perspectives have blind spots. We often appreciate or dislike others because of how we relate to them through our spectacles, coloured by the values we treasure. There is a wide zone between fact and fiction. The truth is that the interpretation of others legacies often reveals a great deal about us and our values. And is often less about the complexity of the lives of those with whom we ... Japan has agreed to extend over Rs 2.6 billion grant assistance to Pakistan for two projects, according to a media report on Saturday. The notes to this effect were signed and exchanged Friday during the visit of State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan Kazuyuki Nakane. The Express Tribune reported that the two schemes include the installation of a weather surveillance radar, worth around 2.1 billion Japanese yen (Rs 2.3 billion), in Multan City and a project for human resource development scholarship, worth around 330 million Japanese yen (Rs 360 million). Japan has been supporting Pakistan's stable and sustainable growth since the diplomatic relationship between the two countries was established in 1952, Nakane said at the signing ceremony. "Under the strong leadership of the new Prime Minister, Imran Khan, along with the leadership for economic development, particularly, the new Finance Minister, Asad Umar, we believe that 'Naya Pakistan' will be definitely realised," he said. Umar was also present at the signing ceremony for the projects. Nakane said the two projects will help further development of Pakistan and contribute to strengthening the friendly relationship and cooperation between both the nations. The total amount of assistance for weather forecasting of Pakistan has reached about 10 billion Japanese yen (Rs 10 billion) with the commitment to provide funds for the Installation of the weather surveillance radar in Multan City, he said. So far, Japan has supported the installation of four weather radars in the cities of Islamabad, Karachi, Dera Ismail Khan and Rahim Yar Khan. Japan has been providing its technical cooperation to Pakistan for human resource development since 1954 and so far, over 6,500 people have received fellowships in the island country. The young foreign policy advisor whose London meetings first set off the FBI's Russian collusion investigation has said was initially enthusiastic about his early 2016 proposal of a meeting with Vladimir Putin. George Papadopoulos said in a sentencing statement to a Washington federal court late Friday that he was just a naive and star-struck young advisor to Trump when he met supposedly Kremlin-connected Russians in London to discuss a meeting between his boss and the Russian president. At the first gathering of Trump's foreign policy team in Washington on March 31, 2016, Papadopoulos, "eager to show his value to the campaign," told the candidate and his advisors that he had connections that could facilitate such a meeting. "While some in the room rebuffed George's offer, Mr. Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr. Sessions, who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it," the statement said, referring to Jeff Sessions, now the attorney general. Papadopoulos filed the statement ahead of his sentencing for lying when he was first interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation over possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians ahead of the November 2016 election. His meetings with individuals with apparent Russian intelligence ties in 2016 were the initial reason for the launching the collusion investigation, which now has its focus on Trump, his family and top advisors. In the statement to the court, Papadopoulos admitted he lied to investigators, but asked for a very light sentence, saying he had not sought to obstruct the investigation but only wanted to protect his career path. He said he was a young, inexperienced fan of Trump when his application to join the campaign was accepted in March 2016. During his interview for the job with a senior campaign official, "George learned that the campaign's foreign policy focus would be improving relations with Russia," the statement said. "George landed the job despite having no experience with US and Russian diplomacy." Weeks later in Europe, Papadopoulos made contacts with a mysterious professor, Joseph Mifsud, who claimed Kremlin links and introduced him to other ostensibly well-connected Russians, including an alleged niece of Putin. "To say that George was out of his depth would be a gross understatement.... He had no experience in dealing with Russian policy or its officials," the statement said. Encouraged by the March 31 foreign policy team gathering, he continued to pursue a Trump-Putin meeting. At a breakfast on April 26, 2016, Mifsud told Papadopoulos that people in Moscow had "dirt" on Trump's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton -- information Papadopoulos later shared with the campaign. How the Trump campaign reacted to that and other Russian offers of damaging information on Clinton is now at the heart of the investigation led by Special Counsel The US Congress, together with family members and friends, bid farewell to Republican Sen. John McCain, whose mortal remains arrived early Friday morning at the Capitol. They will stay under the Capitol dome all day so that citizens can offer him a final tribute, a distinction reserved for very few throughout the nation's history, Efe reported. In the presence of his family including his mother Roberta, 106, the congressional leaders and Vice paid tribute to the service of the senator, both as a legislator and as a War veteran. Pence, who attended as a representative of the Oval Office, repeated before those present that had asked him to attend the funeral in his name, though several months ago McCain had said the billionaire would not be welcome at his last rites. McCain was one of the Republican senators most critical of the magnate during his over 2 1/2 years in office, being himself the target of the president's insults on "It is deeply humbling to stand before you today at the Capitol to commemorate the life and service of an American patriot, Senator John McCain," Pence said. "The asked me to be here on the behalf of a grateful nation to pay a debt of honour and respect to a man who served our country throughout his life in uniform and in public office, and it's my great honour to be here," the said. McCain, who died last Saturday at age 81 after fighting brain cancer, was one of the leading US political figures in the last few decades after being a prisoner of war in and serving as a senator from Arizona for more than 30 years. The memorial services in his honour in will conclude Saturday with a ceremony in the National Cathedral, where former presidents and George W. Bush will give eulogies at the request of McCain himself, and afterward will be interred Sunday at the US Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis, 50 km from the capital. Apple might want to keep it low till its self-driving program is successful, but it doesn't mean the crashes can stay hidden. In what marks the first achievement, or the failure, of Apple's secretive autonomous car program, the company has disclosed its first accident to the California Department of Motor Vehicles. In the low-speed accident on August 24, the self-driving test vehicle was attempting to merge onto an expressway near Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California when it was rear-ended by a Nissan Leaf, TechCrunch reported. The Apple test car, which was a 2016i Lexus RX450H, was driving at 1 mile per hour. While there were no injuries, both vehicles received moderate damage. Despite the accident, not much is actually known about Apple's self-driving program except that the company has a permit with the state department for autonomous vehicles. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Australian documentary filmmaker James Ricketson has been sentenced to six years of imprisonment in Cambodia after he was found guilty of espionage. He was held in prison for past 14 months, awaiting trial. During the seven-day trial he denied all the charges, but according to the prosecutor Ricketson was working for the political opposition against the country's Prime Minister Hun Sen, Variety reported. Ricketson, on his way back to jail after receiving the sentence, was heard shouting "Who am I spying for?" During the hearing, the filmmaker insisted that his work was not political. The filmmaker was arrested after flying a camera drone over a Cambodian National Rescue Party rally. Prosecutor Sieng Sok also claimed that the accused had been collecting political, economic and social information about Cambodia and sending it out to a foreign state for 22 years, until the day he was arrested. He said that while Ricketson was pretending to help poor Cambodians, he was actually filming the sites of the country's security forces. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) American actor Christy Carlson Romano is all set to welcome her second child with her husband Brendan Rooney. The 34-year-old, who welcomed first child, Isabella, in 2016, took to Instagram to make the announcement. "We are so excited, we just can't keep this a secret any longer! @thebrendanrooney and I are thrilled to announce that we're expecting again! This pregnancy has been great thanks to @avawomen helping track my health and providing updates along the way. One less thing to think about while trying to keep up with @isabellavrooney Shhh... Don't tell her she's gonna have to share her toys soon! For all of you TTC ladies out there, Ava is an amazing fertility tracker as well! it predicts your fertile days in real time, so you know exactly when to start trying! Learn more at avawomen.com and use code "CCR" for $20 off a bracelet #AvaPartner" In an interview to People magazine, an elated Romano said she was feeling blessed to experience pregnancy for a second time, adding that the couple "always wanted to have two kids." After giving birth to her first child, Christy had shared with E! News the greatest parts of becoming a mother and the experience of motherhood. "The most surprising thing about being a mom is how much your perspective shifts almost immediately. It's like you become a new person! What I am finding most is how much you feel the need to embrace your new self without forgetting the old you, too," she told E! Online. The actor added, "I am so blessed to have a supportive husband and family. Having this experience is very humbling in that you learn how to ask for help. I have never had more respect for single moms. They should be given awards!" Romano and Rooney started dating in February 2011 and tied the knot on New Year's Eve in 2013 in an intimate ceremony in Canada. On the work front, the actor is all set to make an appearance in the upcoming live-action version of Kim Possible, which is expected to premiere in 2019. It is reported that Romano (who voiced the titular character during all four seasons of the 2000s series) was cast in a cameo role. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress has left the nation's economy on a land mine said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during the launch of India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) in New Delhi on Saturday. Talking about Non-performing Assets (NPA) and bank loans sanctioned to big defaulters, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "Before 2014, every rich person requiring loan would get it easily by making some influential people call the banks. Millions and billions worth of loan has been given in this way. This phone banking facility of Congress and its influential people had harmed nation much. Bank officials were also appointed by these very people hence the banks never declined their approach. Despite knowing well that loaned money would not return, the banks still gave such loans. The people, who were involved in this scam, knew well that they will be caught. Hence the data of such loans was never recorded honestly and the nation was misled". Speaking further on the issue, he added, "When we came to power we asked banks to provide accurate data of the amount which has been loaned. The country will be astonished to know that the amount of money stuck with defaulters, which was being claimed to be around 2 Lakh crore was actually 9 lakh crore. Congress has left the nation's economy on a land mine. If this had been exposed during that period, the economy could have crashed because of the shock. Hence we worked day and night to bring the country out of this situation." Talking about the corrective steps being taken by his government in this regard, he said, "In last 4-4.5 years, we have reviewed all loans amounting more than 50 crores and are ensuring that terms of a loan are strictly enforced. Fugitive economic offender's bill is ensuring that properties of bank defaulters are auctioned and the process has already started. We have started the recovery of NPA. We have initiated action against the biggest 12 defaulters who were given loan before 2014." He also added that incumbent government has now neutralized the landmines on which the country's economy was placed by Congress. He also insinuated towards the bias of banking system for high and mighty, before 2014 and said, "We have brought banks to the doorstep of poor and needy. Four-five years back the situation was such that maximum money of Bank was reserved for a counted number of people who were close to a particular family. From 1947 to 2008, all banks of our country had only loaned a total amount of 18 Lakh crore. However, in the next 6 years, the amount reached 52 lakh crore" The Prime Minister also highlighted the changing dynamics of banking system under the present regime and said, "A new change has come in Country and the culture is changing, we have made such web of laws that defaulters' are running behind banks to make payments. We have changed the condition and direction of the Indian banking system. Now the poor will get a loan from banks through Postmen. Jan Dhan accounts for 32 crore poor people have been opened." Modi also underlined the recently released GDP growth figures and said, "On one hand Indian sportsperson have given the best ever performance at the Asian Games 2018, on the other hand, our country has got a medal because of the GDP figures that have come out yesterday. 8.2% GDP growth brings forward the image of new changing India. Such positive outcomes are the result of right intent and direction" He also reiterated government's commitment to bring back loan defaults and said that his government will bring back every penny that has been loaned out to defaulters. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also termed IPPB as one of the biggest reforms and said that it now joins the list of transformative initiatives such as GST, Aadhar, Digital India among others. He said that his government believes in reform, perform and transform. Elaborating about the salient features of IPPB he said, "Through India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) we will reach to every nook and corner of the country. Bank and banking services will be available at every person's doorstep. IPPB will bring a big change in social structure and Indian economy. Through this initiative, we are bringing bank to the doors of poor and villagers. IPPB branches are being launched in 650 districts of India. The postman who delivers our letter will now act as a moving bank. It is being launched today at more than 3000 places in India. This new facility of New India will get a boost from the telecom sector as well." Emphasizing on the credibility of the Postal system he said, "There might have been times when people could have lost trust in Government but they had never lost trust in Postman. The people who are familiar with the village lifestyle would know that decades ago when a Postman would travel between villages, even thieves and dacoits would not bother them. It is because everyone knows and realizes the significance of stuff that they carry such as a money order for some poor mother. Previously the watches weren't available readily in villages. Elders would sit outside the village and keep enquiring about the arrival of the postman. It is because the arrival of a postman in a particular village would make them know about the time of the day. This shows us how punctual a postman would be. Technology has changed a lot of things but the faith and belief that people have in letters remain unchanged." Explaining the role of a postman in society, the Prime minister said, "Post office and postman have been a significant part of our life, society, books, films, songs and folktales. The songs depicting the arrival of a postman with letters have been close to people's hearts for many years. From now onwards a postman will not only bring post but also bank with him. Post department work has increased since after I took charge. I receive hundreds of letters every day. People write the letter only when they have faith. For my 'Mann Ki Baat' address I receive thousands of letters every month. When I read those letters it feels like I am directly listening to the sender. The approach of our government is to keep moving with time. We believe in changing with time and we believe in accepting technology." Talking about the challenges posed by technology in front of the traditional postal system, he asserted, "Technology posed a challenge in form of postal department but we changed that challenge into an opportunity. Indian Postal Department has more than 1.5 Lakh post offices and more than 3 Lakh postmen. By connecting such extensive network with technology our government has started the biggest initiative to serve people. Now the postman has a Smartphone and a digital device. IPPB will enhance the digital payments and banking system." The Prime Minister further spoke about facilities that IPPB will provide, he said, "Through IPPB people can easily transfer money, pay water-electricity bills and it will also offer the opportunity of investment and loans. All these facilities will be provided now at your doorstep by the postman. It will not only act as a bank but would soon become a trusted partner of a large number of people. With such extensive network in villages, IPPB will prove to be extremely beneficial for farmers." The Prime Minister was speaking at the IPPB launch ceremony being held at New Delhi's Talkatora stadium. Before the speech, he went through a digital exhibition about the post payments bank and also got his account open with it. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will hold an informal meeting with the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Foreign Ministers on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi is also expected to attend the meeting. This is an informal meeting at the Foreign Ministers' level which takes place every year on the sidelines of UNGA. The External Affairs Minister attended the meeting last year and will attend this year as well. The 73rd session of the UNGA is scheduled to open on September 18. The first day of the high-level General Debate will be on September 25, and will last for nine working days. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Cheating in exams and submissions always seems like an easier option. This has become much more convenient with technological development where students now can even hire people to write their papers for them. According to a latest study, the use of contract cheating, where students pay someone else to write their assignments is rising rapidly around the world. The researchers analysed 71 survey samples from 65 studies dating back as far as 1978, covering 54,514 participants. This new study systematically reviewed findings from prior 'self-report' research papers, questionnaire-based studies wherein students were asked if they had ever paid someone else to undertake work for them. Because the products of essay-mills, a business that enables customers to buy an original piece of writing on a particular topic, hence commit academic fraud, are designed to be difficult to detect, it is hard to develop objective measures of contract cheating. This new study therefore systematically reviewed findings from prior 'self-report' research papers; questionnaire-based studies wherein students were asked if they had ever paid someone else to undertake work for them. The findings of the research show that as many as one in seven recent graduates may have paid someone to undertake their assignment for them, potentially representing 31 million students across the globe. Across the sample, contract cheating was self-reported by a historic average of 3.5 per cent of students, but this was shown to be increasing significantly over time. In studies from 2014 to the present, the percentage of students admitting to paying someone else to undertake their work was 15.7 per cent. Cheating, in general, also appeared to be on the rise according to the studies reviewed. Professor Newton, one of the researchers, suggested that the data he found is likely to underestimate levels of contract cheating, for the simple reason that students who engage in contract cheating are less likely to volunteer to participate in surveys about cheating. Essay-mills are currently legal in the UK, although they are banned in the USA and New Zealand, while other countries are actively developing legislation. Professor Newton, director of learning and teaching at Swansea University Medical School said, "These findings underscore the need for legislation to tackle essay-mills, alongside improvements in the way students are assessed and awareness-raising of the fundamentals of academic integrity. We need to utilise assessment methods that promote learning and at the same time reduce the likelihood that contract cheating can happen." Earlier research from Professor Newton showed that academic integrity is not a topic that is routinely covered in teacher training programmes for staff and that students have a poor understanding of the consequences of engaging in contract cheating. The full findings are present in the journal- Frontiers in (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is out from the presidential race in the next month's elections due to a corruption conviction. Six of seven justices from the Supreme Electoral Tribunal in Brasilia, Brazil's top electoral court on Friday ruled that Lula was barred from running for the presidency, despite serving a 12-year prison term for graft and money laundering, CNN reported. The 72-year-old leader has been in jail since April after he was convicted on corruption charges. Lula has rejected such allegations and his defence claimed that he was a victim of political persecution. Meanwhile, the Workers' Party, Brazil's only socialist party said in a statement: "We will present all the appeals to the courts so that the political rights of Lula, as provided by law and in international treaties ratified by Brazil, are recognised." Last month, the party had registered Lula's name as its presidential candidate. At that time, he said in a statement on his official website that he had "submitted his candidacy with the certainty that he could do much to take Brazil out of one of the worst crises in history." Lula was found guilty in 'Operation Car Wash' scam that also involved a score of top politicos across several political parties of Brazil. He was convicted of receiving a renovated beachfront apartment approximately worth USD 1.1 million as a bribe from an engineering firm. He was initially found guilty of the charges in July last year, the report said. Subsequently in January this year, Lula was handed over the prison sentence by an appeals court, which had unanimously upheld the corruption and money laundering charges against him. Lula, who was Brazil's 35th president from 2003 to 2011, was considered a frontrunner for the October elections before he was convicted and jailed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) This year seems to be reserved for Apple's smartwatch because rival Google is skipping the gadget this time around. In an interview with Tom's Guide, Google's director of engineering for Wear OS, Miles Barr said that the company has no plans to release a smartwatch this year. Instead, Google will be focusing on improving the Wear OS software and work with smartwatch makers such as Fossil and Casio. Google was long rumoured to be working on bringing its own Pixel Watch this year which would complement its line of Pixel smartphones. However, the company appears to have again put the rumours to rest with the new announcement. Currently, Google works with smartwatch makers who build Wear OS devices to approve their designs and functionalities, but building its own hardware is not on the company's mind at the moment. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh on Saturday said that the government would remain undeterred in its approach towards conducting peaceful municipal and panchayat elections in the Jammu and Kashmir, despite a fresh spate of violence in the valley. "The government is committed to providing grassroots democracy, which is incomplete without the elections of local bodies. Therefore, the resolve to conduct local body elections will remain undeterred," he told media here. Singh's message comes in the backdrop of a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district earlier in the week, where four policemen lost their lives after they came under indiscriminate firing by a group of terrorists. In another operation carried out by the armed forces, two Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists were gunned down in South Kashmir's Anantnag district on the same day. The State Administrative Council (SAC) under the chairmanship of Governor Satya Pal Malik announced on Friday that the municipal polls will be conducted from October 1 to 5, followed by the Panchayat elections in November. While the municipal elections will be conducted in four phases, the panchayat polls will be conducted in eight phases from 8 November to 4 December. In an attempt to mitigate further risks, the administrative council also decided to grant a month's salary in favour of the staff engaged in the conduct of elections, besides insurance cover. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Gujarat has connected close to 15 lakh households through a well-developed Piped Natural Gas Network (PNG) said Saurabh Patel, Minister (Energy), Gujarat, while adding that "those who are unable to digest the success of Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Limited (GSPC) have been thoughtlessly opposing various activities of GSPC." In a press conference, Patel also stated that Gujarat is the only state in India which has developed a Natural Gas Based Economy owing to long-term vision of the State Government. "GSPC is the second largest gas trading company in the country. Its subsidiary Gujarat State Petronet Ltd (GSPL) is the second largest gas transportation company in the country and another subsidiary Gujarat Gas Ltd. (GGL) is India's largest city gas distribution company," he added. He added that under the able leadership of the State Government, GSPC Group has been able to establish a robust natural gas infrastructure to ensure availability of piped natural gas and CNG to millions of households and industries in Gujarat. His statement comes after Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, citing a Reserve Bank of India notification, had said that the State Bank of India should declare GSPC bankrupt. Reacting to Ramesh's statement, Patel said that the Congress leader lacked the ability to understand the nuances of the business of hydrocarbons exploration "or perhaps they do not wish that India attains self-dependency in the hydrocarbon sphere. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hollywood actor Vanessa Marquez was shot and killed by police in Pasadena city. According to a TMZ report, police arrived after Marquez's concerned landlord called them up to check on her, as she was said to be suffering from seizures due to an eating disorder. Variety reported that after the paramedics were called in to take care of her health, the 'Fire and Ice' actor took out a gun and pointed at the police. It is after such an act that the police opened fire at her. Vanessa, who was rushed to the hospital, was declared brought dead. It later turned out that the weapon she was holding was a mere BB gun. She, who died on Thursday (local time) was only 49 years old. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prince Harry is popularly referred to as the Duke of Sussex, but Meghan Markle has come up with a cute nickname for her husband. While attending the Hamilton charity performance recently at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London, Markle accidentally called her husband by the nickname and seemed quite embarrassed when people noticed it, reported E! Online. As the royals posed for pictures with the show's cast, Meghan realized she was blocking her husband's view, and asked, "Can you see, my love?" The nickname immediately caught the attention of the show's stars, and some of the actors broke out into an audible "Aww!" over the sweet moment between the couple, followed by a soft giggle from the Duchess of Sussex. This wasn't the only special moment of the night. After the performance, Harry sang a few notes from the fan favourite "You'll Be Back", a tune performed by the actor playing his sixth great-grandfather King George III. The show's creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also joined Harry onstage and sat beside the royal couple during the musical, seemed especially excited about the musical surprise. Meghan looked stunning in a Judith and Charles tuxedo mini dress, with matching pumps to complement the look. The special event benefitted the organisation Sentebale, founded by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho to help children and young people affected by HIV. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India has submitted second extradition request to Antigua and Barbuda government for the extradition of Indian fugitive Mehul Choksi, who has acquired the citizenship of the Caribbean country. Indian High Commissioner in Guyana, Venkatachalam Mahalingam, visited St. John's, capital of Antigua and Barbuda on August 30, for the third time in recent weeks to meet senior Government officials on the Choksi's extradition matter, Antigua media reported. Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne received Mahalingam and both held extensive discussions on the extradition of fugitive Indian businessman. Gaston Browne, the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, was accompanied by the senior officials of his country, including Attorney-General, Hon. Steadroy 'Cutie' Benjamin, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Anthony Liverpool; and Ambassador Colin Murdoch who is a senior advisor to Browne, reported the news portal, Antigua News Room. The website claimed that High Commissioner Mahalingam submitted the second extradition request from the Indian authorities, with amended charges. The Attorney-General assured Mahalingam that the documents would be put in the hands of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Mahalingam, who also had extensive discussions with the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was assured of the full support of the Antigua and Barbuda government by the Prime Minister. The high profile meeting came after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), through the Ministry of External Affairs, wrote a letter to the authorities in Antigua, asking them to arrest the fugitive diamantaire. The multi-crore rupees scam was detected by the Punjab Bank officials earlier this year, after Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi, allegedly cheated the bank to the tune of two billion dollars. . India has been trying hard to bring back Choksi from Antigua and Barbuda under the provision of a law of the island nation, which provides for extradition of a fugitive to a designated Commonwealth country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Voice of Karachi (VOK) and South Asia Minorities Alliance Foundation (SAMAF) will jointly hold an event at the United States Capitol Hill on September 5 to highlight the issue of religious freedom and minority rights in Pakistan. During the event titled 'Day on The Hill' solidarity will also be shown with the Afghan people, United States troops and their families, as announced by VOK and SAMAF Chairman, Nadeem Nusrat in a statement. Members of the US Senate and House of Representatives, representatives of various ethnic and religious groups in Pakistan, members of think tanks and South Asia experts will attend and speak at this event. In the statement, Nusrat said, "Since the 1980s, the restive region between Pakistan and Afghanistan has become a safe-sanctuary for some of the world's most wanted men, including Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar. Not many people know that it was a plot hatched inside a cave in Afghanistan that resulted in the 9/11 attacks in the mainland USA which killed around 3,000 Americans." Despite United States' involvement in its longest running war in Afghanistan and the presence of US troops on Afghan soil, the Pak-Afghan border region remains extremely volatile, as thousands of armed Taliban fighters use it as a safe haven. Nusrat further noted that the 1947 partition of India saw one of the biggest mass migrations in human history. "The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was followed by another mass exodus from Afghanistan to neighboring countries. The growing religious and ethnic persecution coupled with lack of political stability in South Asia, Pakistan in particular, is a recipe for disaster. Failure to assess and prevent this might lead to another refugee crisis in the region. The needs to react before it is too late," he added. He also highlighted that religious and ethnic minorities are facing an imminent existential challenge in Pakistan, a country where the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom to have a fair trial, and freedom of assembly, is all under threat. In Pakistan, the lines between religious and ethnic persecution are often blurred, as the state machinery is using religious extremists to suppress ethnic minorities, such as Mohajirs, Balochs, Pashtuns and the people of Gilgit - Baltistan and Hazara. Pakistan's biggest city and its financial hub, Karachi, has seen a steady rise of religious extremists. While Pakistani military establishment continues to brutally crush secular Mohajir leadership and their political party, religious extremists have been allowed to carry out their campaign of terror and religious hatred in the city. Nusrat believes that the upcoming event at Capitol Hill will send out a strong message to the that oppressed minorities of South Asia, Pakistan in particular, are united for their rights and stand in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan and US troops. He concluded that the needs to realise the miseries and injustices that religious and ethnic minorities are facing in Pakistan. SAMAF and VOK are advocacy groups based in USA, striving to bring global attention to the injustices, persecution, and ethnic and religious cleansing that minorities are facing in South Asia, particularly in Pakistan. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister KJ Alphons has announced that Indian diaspora residing in China's Shanghai has contributed Rs. 32.13 lakh to the Chief Minister's distress relief fund for Kerala floods. Alphons, who is on a China visit for the promotion of tourism, thanked the Indian community and the Consulate General of India in China for the humanitarian gesture. He will hand over the cheques to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on his return from China. Kerala was recently hit by the worst floods of nearly a century, which claimed lives of more than 400 people and caused damage to the tune of Rs. 20,000 crores. Earlier on Friday, Chief Minister Vijayan said that his government will collect relief funds from Malayalis residing abroad to rebuild the flood-hit state. He further informed that Rs. 30,1026 crores have been received in chief minister's distress relief fund till August 30 for the rehabilitation of flood-affected people and reconstruction of damaged infrastructure. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Parents protested outside a private school in Mumbai's Charkop area after a class 6 student was allegedly molested by another student in the premises on Thursday. The 12-year-old girl was allegedly molested by an unknown boy at the school's canteen between 9 am and 10 am on Thursday. The girl later informed her parents that a boy came from behind and put his hand inside her skirt. The minor, however, is yet to identify the culprit. The parents have accused the school management of not responding quickly to the incident. However, the school's principal has assured them that the accused will be punished. Charlop Police has registered a case under POCSO Act and is further investigating the matter. Police informed that they will go through CCTV camera footage in the school to see if they can get any lead in the case. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Muslims in China, a majority of them based in Xinjiang- an autonomous territory in the northwest of the country, are losing their identity and are forced to renounce Islam. According to estimates cited by the United Nations and United States officials, one million Muslims are being held in Chinese internment camps at present, reported The Atlantic, an American magazine. The magazine claims, "Former inmates-most of whom are Uighurs, a largely Muslim ethnic minority-have told reporters that over the course of an indoctrination process lasting several months, they were forced to renounce Islam, criticize their own Islamic beliefs and those of fellow inmates, and recite Communist Party propaganda songs for hours each day. There are media reports of inmates being forced to eat pork and drink alcohol, which are forbidden to Muslims, as well as reports of torture and death." China has been selling a very different narrative to its own population. Although the authorities frequently describe the internment camps as schools, they also liken them to another type of institutions, namely hospitals. Mentioning about the excerpt from an official Communist Party audio recording, which was transmitted last year to Uighurs via a social-media platform WeChat, and transcribed and translated by Radio Free Asia, The Atlantic reported, "Members of the public who have been chosen for re-education have been infected by an ideological illness. They have been infected with religious extremism and violent terrorist ideology, and therefore they must seek treatment from a hospital as an inpatient. . The religious extremist ideology is a type of poisonous medicine, which confuses the mind of the people. . If we do not eradicate religious extremism at its roots, the violent terrorist incidents will grow and spread all over like an incurable malignant tumour". "Religious belief is seen as a pathology in China", explained James Millward, a professor of Chinese history at Georgetown University, adding that Beijing often claims religion fuels extremism and separatism. "So now they're calling re-education camps 'hospitals' meant to cure thinking. It's like an inoculation, a search-and-destroy medical procedure that they want to apply to the whole Uighur population, to kill the germs of extremism. But it's not just giving someone a shot-it's locking them up for months in bad conditions, " he added. China has long feared that Uighurs will attempt to establish their own national homeland in Xinjiang, which they refer to as East Turkestan. In 2009, ethnic riots that broke out here resulted in hundreds of deaths, and some radical Uighurs had carried out terrorist attacks in recent years. Chinese officials have claimed that in order to suppress the threat of Uighur separatism and extremism, the government needs to crack down not only on those Uighurs who show signs of having been radicalized but on a significant swath of the population. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Saturday challenged the Islamabad High Court's (IHC) order pertaining to the transfer of pending corruption cases - Al-Azizia and Flagship Investment references against former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family. The NAB, in its petition, said that after the judgment in the Avenfield reference was pronounced, the two remaining cases were under trial, and stated that the IHC's order for the transfer of graft cases cannot be maintained, Geo News reported. Calling itself an "affected party" of the court's decision, the NAB also said that Judge Muhammad Bashir should be allowed to continue the hearing of the Al-Azizia and Flagship Investment references against the Sharif family. On August 7, the IHC had ordered to transfer the pending graft references against the Sharif family to another court. Currently, Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and his son-in-law Captain (retired) Muhammad Safdar are lodged in the Adiala Jail in connection with the Avenfield case. While Maryam and Safdar were named and convicted in the Avenfield case, Sharif and his UK-based sons, Hussain Nawaz and Hasan Nawaz, were accused in all the three corruption cases - Avenfield reference, Flagship Investment, and Al-Azizia reference, and were declared as proclaimed offenders by the court since the proceedings against the family began in September last year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Netmeds, online pharmacy on Saturday announced securing funding worth USD 35 million from Daun Penh's investment holding and existing investors. Hailing the fresh funding, Pradeep Dadha, CEO and Founder Netmeds.com said the money would be used to ensure that the company "stayed the course" with regard to the extraordinary double-digit month-on-month growth it has enjoyed since inception. "Daun Penh was joined in the round by the existing investors Sistema Asia Fund, and Tanncam Investment. MAPE, the Indian investment bank which has been involved with Netmeds since inception teamed with co-arranger Cambodian Investment Management for this Series C funding round," added Dadha. "Netmeds team will use the new funds "to both increase awareness through marketing efforts as well as to enhance the customer experience, which means more stock, more FC's and expedited deliveries," he added. He iterated that the company fully expects, and are prepared to welcome millions of Indians as members of the Netmeds family. "These regulations are something that we and other stakeholders have worked hard on for more than 3 years. Their passage is a big win for many, but, the biggest winners are the people, who are now assured unrestricted access to affordable medicine, no matter where they are," added Dadha. "We were very impressed with Mr. Dadha's family legacy in healthcare and the idea of building a that would not only succeed as a venture but would also improve lives. That has been our goal in Cambodia and we are proud to play a part in this, and excited about our expansion into one the world's largest and fastest growing economies," said Oknha ING Bun Hoaw, a recognized visionary leader in Cambodia. "Netmeds continues to astonish on the upside with outstanding execution on plan and strategy and performance beyond expectations. I remain firmly confident and inspired by the management team and am pleased with the further financial commitment by Tanncam Investment," said Anthony Galliano, CEO Cambodian Investment Management. "We continue to believe in India as a huge and fast growing market, in the online pharmacy as one of the hottest sectors in Indian e-commerce, and in the strong founding team as an enabler for Netmeds' leadership in the space," said MD and Partner, Sistema Asia Fund Advisory, Kirill Kozhevnikov. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release a book on the first year of M. Venkaiah Naidu as the Vice President of India and Chairman of Rajya Sabha. The 245-page book with seven chapters titled 'Moving On.Moving Forward: A Year In Office' with 465 illustrations, brings out Naidu's mission of engagement on four key issues with various stakeholders across the country and is in alignment with the mission of a new India in the making. Setting the context of his journey in a new role as the Vice President, Naidu, in an article in the book, quoted from Rigveda: "May we unswervingly follow the path of the Sun and the Moon. Look at the bees move constantly to gather honey from the flowers. Look at the indefatigable Sun shining so bright and constantly on the move without having a wink of sleep. You must always keep moving, always keep moving". He elaborated on this in a chapter titled 'Retired from politics but not from public life'. The Vice President stated in the book that his mission of exploring and shaping public discourse over four key issues took him on extensive travels across the country, since he was sworn in on August 11 last year. He identified these core issues as - unrealised demographic dividend, need for an effective ecosystem for farmers to thrive and bridge the rural-urban divide, orienting scientific advancements to better the lives of the people and enhancing public awareness about the rich Indian heritage and inculcating pride in the country's pluralistic, inclusive, harmonious worldview. Naidu records in the book the excitement over his new role: "I have assumed the office of the Vice President at what seems like an interesting moment in the country's history. It is indeed a time of daunting challenges and a time of limitless opportunities. It is a time when the country is moving forward and I feel privileged to be in this position to serve the country and its people in a new role. It is a moment when the resolute political will to transform the country is finding resonance with the people. Clearly, there are many more miles to go. We must, as a nation, move on. We must move forward with persistence". Referring to his role as the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Naidu further said that his dream was to facilitate meaningful debates in which members express their learned and considered views. He noted his disappointment over the first two sessions of the House he presided but said with optimism the new tidings witnessed during the monsoon session that concluded earlier this month. The book also contains a detailed chapter on various initiatives taken by him as Chairman of Rajya Sabha and refers to the rapidly- expanding viewership of Rajya Sabha TV. Former prime ministers Deve Gowda and Dr Manmohan Singh, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Union Ministers Arun Jaitley and Ananth Kumar and leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad are expected to attend the launch event on Sunday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rise in crude oil price in the international market and devaluation of the Indian rupee against the US Dollar, are two factors responsible for hike in fuel prices in the country, claimed Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday. Pradhan told ANI that the Centre is concerned about the escalating prices of petrol and diesel across the nation. "Such situation has arisen due to the rise in crude oil price in the international market and devaluation of the Indian rupee against US Dollar. The Indian government is concerned about it," he said. Fuel prices continued to rise on Saturday, with petrol and diesel prices touching a new record high in several metropolitan cities, including Delhi and Mumbai. The price of petrol has been increased to Rs 78.68 per litre in Delhi, against Rs. 78.52 on Friday, while diesel is being retailed at Rs. 70.42 per litre. In Mumbai, petrol is being sold at Rs 86.09 per litre (increased by Rs 0.16 per litre), while diesel spurted to a new high of Rs. 74.76 per litre (increased by Rs 0.22 per litre). There has been a surge in fuel prices since August 16 after the rupee hit a record low of 71 against the US dollar. (ANI) Pradhan today flagged off 10 Mobile LED Ujjwala Vans from IOCL Office at Chandrasekharpur in Bhubaneswar. These Mobile LED Vans will move into interiors of Odisha state to disseminate awareness about Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) and safe practices of usage of LPG in a unique way. These specially designed vehicles will work as mobile theater. These Mobile LED Vans will spread awareness about the safe practices of using domestic LPG as well act as moving center for collection of KYCs from prospective eligible consumers of LPG. In last 28 months more than five corer Below Poverty Line (BPL) houses across India have benefited from PMYU by getting LPG connection. In Odisha, 33 lakh PMUY connections have been released since its launch in the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) South Korea on Friday announced that it would send a special envoy to North Korea next week to set the stage for a planned meeting between South Korean president Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un scheduled to be held by the end of this month. South Korean presidential office Cheong Wa Dae (Blue House) said that the envoy would visit Pyongyang on September 5 and added that President Moon has not yet named the special envoy. Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Kim Eui-kyeom was quoted by Yonhap News Agency as saying that the envoy would also discuss steps to accelerate the process of denuclearisation of the reclusive nation. "The special envoy will discuss a wide range of issues, including the date for the upcoming summit and ways to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula," he added. Later, North Korea announced that they had received the news of the South Korean envoy's visit to the country. Last month, the two Koreas had agreed to hold the third meeting between President Moon and Kim during the high-level talks. The South Korean president's scheduled visit to the communist nation comes at a time when Pyongyang and Washington are sparring with the former's "slow" progress of denuclearisation. It also comes after US President Donald Trump had cancelled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to North Korea. President Moon and Kim had first met at the inter-Korean summit in the southern side of Panmunjom in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) on April 27. Both the Korean leaders had agreed to cease hostilities against each other and work together for achieving denuclearisation and peace on the Korean Peninsula. They met again in the northern side of DMZ on May 26. If the third summit goes ahead, then this would be the first time President Moon would visit North Korea as a head of the state, although during the April meeting, he had briefly crossed over the northern side of the inter-Korean border with Kim. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a bid to help disabled people cast vote, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday announced appointment of 'Sugam Election Accessibility Observers' who will help the differently-abled inside the polling booths. Ahead of Chhattisgarh polls, Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat further said that such persons are being identified so that facilities like wheelchair could be provided to them to reach the polling station. "For the first time in the country, Sugam Election Accessibility Observers will be appointed by Election Commission following the theme of accessible elections. Persons with disabilities to be enrolled and their contribution in elections will be ensured," Rawat said. The CEC further underscored that arrangements will be made for webcasting of polling in the Maoist affected areas of Chhattisgarh in the coming assembly elections. He said the webcasting facility will be provided at all those places where internet connectivity is available. This would help monitoring at all levels for the smooth conduct of elections. To ensure safety and security of polling parties Rawat said arrangements would be made to deploy sufficient helicopters so that the entire polling parties can return with EVM machines after polling is over. Meanwhile, reacting on the idea of 'One Nation One Election', the CEC said, "The Law Commission has submitted its report recently. It is being discussed since 2015 and discussions on such topics should be carried out. It is a good thing." Recently, the Law Commission of India has supported the idea of holding simultaneous polls for all states along with the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. It has said that the required move will need an amendment to Article 172 of the Constitution. On August 29, Rawat said 'One nation, one poll' is not possible until changes are made in the Constitution and law. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The United States (US) has decided to end all the funding for the United Nations (UN) for the Palestinian refugees and called for a reduction in the number of Palestinians considered to be refugees. According to CNN, Trump administration will criticise the operational tactics of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in a formal announcement about the funding which is expected to happen in a few weeks. The decision was made at a meeting between Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a White House senior adviser, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said a senior administration official. US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley had also been pushing for the move. The US had donated more than 350 million dollars to the agency in 2017. UNRWA offers educational, health and social services across the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon to registered Palestinian refugees. It also educates about 500,000 children in nearly 700 schools and its doctors see more than 9 million patients in nearly 150 primary health clinics every year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least four al-Qaeda operatives were killed in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province as an unmanned plane targeted the extremist outfit's hideout, said a statement from the Afghan national army corps stationed in the eastern region on Saturday. The unmanned plane, according to the statement, targeted the al-Qaeda hideout in Wata Pur district very recently, killing four operatives on the spot, Xinhua reported. The statement did not say if there were any civilian or security personnel casualties. --IANS anp/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rome, Sep 1 (IANS/AKI) A Ghanaian asylum-seeker who tried to burgle a police chief's home in the Sicilian port city of Catania and attacked him will be deported "immediately", Italy's hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has said. "This supposed refugee will receive no favours and will be immediately expelled," Salvini wrote on Facebook on Friday, making reference to a government decree that orders the deportation of any asylum-seeker accused of a crime. "Sheer madness. In Catania, Police Commissioner Nuccio Garozzo was beaten in a bloody attack in his own home by a gang of immigrants, one of whom is a Gambian being sheltered by Italy for 'humanitarian reasons'," Salvini went on -- apparently mistaking Garazzo's alleged assailant's nationality. Salvini expressed solidarity with Garazzo, whom he said he had spoken to by phone and who required 80 stitches for his wounds. "Whoever brings war to the homestead is not welcome," Salvini wrote, adding that one of the government's priorities was to legalise "legitimate self-defence". --IANS/AKI in/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) held protests in all 117 assembly constituencies across Punjab on Saturday to protest the Congress government's "deep rooted conspiracy to weaken Sikh institutions as well as the Sikh Panth in league with radical elements and AAP leaders." An SAD spokesman said party workers along with senior leaders took to the streets in each constituency raising slogans against the Congress government. Effigies of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar as well as radical leaders such as Baljit Singh Daduwal were burnt, he said. SAD workers condemned Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar for "threatening" them that they would not be allowed to enter villages. They warned the Congress that they stood for maintaining peace and communal harmony and that Congress should desist from instigating violence. Akali Dal leaders said the Congress government was in league with radical groups and was hatching a conspiracy to defame the SAD in order to take control over the Sikh religious institutions, including the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). They said that the Amrinder Singh-led Congress government was trying to implement its "anti-Sikh agenda" for its petty political goals as it did in 1980s to take control over the Sikh religious institutions as well as push the state back in to the dark era of terrorism. --IANS js/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In perhaps the sharpest personal attack on his political opponent, Shiromani Akali Dal patron Parkash Singh Badal said on Saturday that the state Chief Minister Amarinder Singh was "devoid of moral character and given to pursuits of unethical leisure and pleasure". In a hard-hitting statement here on Saturday in response to recent statements by Amarinder Singh regarding Badal ordering firing by the police on people protesting against sacrilege incidents of Guru Granth Sahib in October 2015, Badal said that the chief minister "had lowered the dignity of the august office he happens to hold by using foul and cheap language on the floor of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha". Referring to the use of expressions such as "Badmash, Buzdil, liar and unreliable", Badal said that "every sensitive and civilized Punjabi has been deeply hurt to see their Chief Minister stooping to such lowly depth". "But I expected nothing better than this from a leader whose mind is debased and who is not only a rank opportunist but is also devoid of moral character and given to pursuits of unethical leisure and pleasure." Amarinder is often on the firing line of his political opponents due to his close friendship with Pakistani journalist Aroosa Alam who lives with him in Chandigarh. Badal, however, said that he is saddened (by the events) and that he has to hit back at those who hit below the belt. "If according to you a person who has spent long years languishing in the country's worst and the darkest prison cells fighting for the cause of the nation, the state and of the Khalsa Panth is a coward, then what would you call someone who has never fought for any cause nor been to a prison for even a moment nor made any other sacrifice for any principle he believes in, if he does believe in any?" Badal, a five time Chief Minister, asked. Badal said that Amarinder represented a party which is responsible for the worst and the most painful sacrilege against Guru Granth Sahib committed when (then Prime Minister) Indira Gandhi rolled tanks and mortars to destroy Akal Takhat during the Operation Blue Star on the Golden Temple complex in 1984. "My mind and my conscience are absolutely clean in this regard. I have devoted my life and time for the peace and communal harmony of Punjab.A I am not scared of the threats being thrown by a hollow braggart who wastes his life in the pursuit of unethical pleasures. "I have discharged with utmost honesty, transparency, dedication and commitment whatever sacred duty had been assigned to me by the people of Punjab," Badal, 90, said, adding that he will continue to serve the Punjabis till his last breath. Regarding the firing on protestors opposing the sacrilege incidents, Badal made it clear that there were clear and firm instructions from him that the entire issue should be resolved through discussion and dialogue. "At no stage was the issue of police firing even considered and nor were any orders passed by me in this regard," he pointed out. --IANS js/ahm/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Following the principle of seniority, Chief Justice of India (CJI) has recommended the name of Justice Ranjan Gogoi as his successor. is the senior-most judge of the top court after Chief Justice Misra. As per convention, the outgoing Chief Justice sends the recommendation about his successor 30 days before he is to demit office so that the Chief Justice-designate is named well in time. If the recommendation is cleared by the Central government, will be administered the oath of office by President Ram Nath Kovind on October 3. Misra is retiring on October 2, but the day being a holiday on account of birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, October 1 will be his last working day. The Union Law Ministry had in August last week written to the Chief Justice requesting him to recommend the name of his successor. is one of the four judges who had held the unprecedented press conference in January this year, raising concerns about the administration in the apex court, saying it was "not in order". The other three judges were -- Justice J. Chelameswar (now retired), Justice M. B. Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph. Justice Gogoi is from Assam, and he headed the special bench that is monitoring the updation of Register of Citizens to identify citizens in the northeastern state. Born in 1954, Justice Gogoi joined the Bar in 1978. He was subsequently appointed as Permanent Judge of Gauhati High Court on February 28, 2001. Later transferred to the Punjab & Haryana High Court in September 2010, he went on to become the Chief Justice of Punjab & Haryana High Court in February 2011. He was elevated as a judge of the in April 2012. Attempt made to influence me: Justice Indira Banerjee (PTI) judge Justice Indira Banerjee has revealed in an open court that an effort was made to influence her in a case related to Hotel Royal Plaza. A bench comprising justices Arun Mishra and Banerjee was hearing the matter on August 30 when the revelation was made. Justice Mishra said the attempt to influence the judge amounted to contempt of court. Senior lawyer Shyam Divan requested Justice Banerjee not to recuse herself from the hearing as it might be used by others as well to ensure recusal of judges from hearing cases. Justice Banerjee also said during the hearing that sometimes even senior members of the bar start talking about pending cases after customary meetings. She said that any attempt to influence the court will be viewed seriously, while hinting that somebody had telephoned her for the same. However, there was no clarity on whether there was a telephone call or who made it. The bench then heard the matter and reserved its verdict. Justice Banerjee, who was the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, has recently been elevated to the apex court. Besides her, Justices Vineet Saran and K M Joseph have been elevated to the apex court as judges. Following the principle of seniority, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra has recommended the name of Justice Ranjan Gogoi as his successor, said informed sources on Saturday. Justice Gogoi is the senior-most judge of the top court after Chief Justice Misra. As per convention, the outgoing Chief Justice sends the recommendation for his successor 30 days before he is to demit office, so that the Chief Justice-designate is named well in time. If the recommendation is cleared by the Central government, Justice Gogoi will be administered the oath of office by President Ram Nath Kovind on October 3. CJI Misra is retiring on October 2, but the day being a national holiday on account of birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, October 1 will be his last working day. The Union Law Ministry had in August last week written to the Chief Justice requesting him to recommend the name of his successor. Conventionally, the Law Ministry asks the outgoing Chief Justice to recommend the name of the judge who would replace him. Justice Gogoi is one of the four Supreme Court judges who had held the unprecedented press conference in January this year, raising concerns about the administration in the apex court, saying it was "not in order". The other three judges were -- Justice J. Chelameswar (now retired), Justice M.B. Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph. Justice Gogoi is from Assam, and he headed the special bench that is monitoring the updation of National Register of Citizens to identify citizens in the northeastern state. Born in 1954, Justice Gogoi joined the Bar in 1978. He was subsequently appointed as Permanent Judge of Gauhati High Court on February 28, 2001. Later transferred to the Punjab & Haryana High Court in September 2010, he went on to become the Chief Justice of same high court in February 2011. He was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court in April 2012. --IANS gt/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chinese patients are expected to be able to buy 14 kinds of cancer drugs at a lower price from September, according to China's state medical insurance administration. The drugs are all crucial in dealing with haematological neoplasms and solid tumours, and have great clinical value and huge benefits for patients, the National Healthcare Security Administration said. It asked pharmaceutical companies to adhere to the price cut in line with the lowered procurement prices of these drugs, Xinhua news agency reported. A range of several more drugs have been selected to be included in the medical insurance reimbursement list later. --IANS in/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ahead of the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections, in a joint manifesto released on Saturday, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)'s student wing CYSS and leftist student outfit AISA promised to open "Chhatra Clinics" and increasing the number of seats in the univerity. The manifesto says that they will "open 'Chhatra Clinics' just like 'Mohalla Clinics' (in Delhi) in colleges to provide free health facilities to students". The Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS) and the All India Students' Association (AISA) have joined hands for contesting the DUSU elections scheduled for September 12. The manifesto was released by AAP's potential candidate for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections Atishi and National President of AISA Suchita Dey in the presence of CYSS and AISA-Delhi leaders. Among the other agendas outlined in the manifesto are a zero-tolerance policy against hooliganism on the campus, student pass in AC buses, strengthening the movement to formulate lower fares for students in Metro trains, and ensuring installation of CCTVs and police booth to control violence within the university premises. It also talks of setting up a world-class library having the best collection of books which shall be available to the students 24*7. The manifesto also promises to ensure better accommodation facilities for students by implementing the Rent Control Act and to raise demands for necessary action to stop discrimination against students from the North-East. --IANS nks/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Himachal Pradesh Health Minister Vipin Parmar believes that the dengue spreading mosquito is finding its way to the towns from the jungles. The minister's diagnosis of the dengue problem in the state came during his reply in the legislative Assembly. Replying to a debate under Rule 62 on Friday, Parmar was categorical in saying that the jungle fever is stalking the state. The disease spreads most commonly from the jungles to the towns, he said while replying to a question raised by member Rakesh Jamwal, who expressed concern over the spike in dengue patients in Mandi district. "I have studied that there was a time when the dengue mosquito inhabited the forests. Why these circumstances have changed that made a forest-inhabiting mosquito to start living in towns and why it is feeling happy while living in a room," he said in his detailed reply in Hindi. "Earlier we used to read and learn that this dengue mosquito is a native of Africa, Uganda and middle east Asia. This dengue came to India around 30 years ago and in Himachal Pradesh sometime in 1995." Without mincing words, the minister said "the platelet count in dengue patients falls drastically and there is no injection to increase it." The minister said a total of 4,946 dengue samples were collected in the state, out of which 1,558 tested positive. Bilaspur district took the lead in dengue positive cases at 783, followed by Solan district (680) and Mandi district (206). Chamba, Hamirpur and Kullu districts have no positive cases of dengue till date. He said the first case of dengue was reported in Bilaspur town on May 28. "We are taking precautions to check a rise in the number of dengue cases which include making people aware of the steps they need to take to minimise its spread," he added. According to the state Directorate of Health Services, a total of 1,886 dengue patients were reported in the state till August 31, out of which Bilaspur district had the maximum of 865 patients. Two patients also died due to dengue in the state. Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral disease, causing great public health concern in India. Dengue virus is transmitted by Aedes aegypti, the species of mosquito that causes acute illness. --IANS vg/anp/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Firm global cues lifted the Indian equity market for the sixth consecutive week as both the key indices -- S&P BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty50 -- rose by over one per cent during the August 27-31 period. Accordingly, the BSE Sensex hit an all time high of 38,989.65 points and the NSE Nifty50 touched a record level of 11,760.20 points. Both, Sensex and Nifty also set new respective closing highs of 38,896.63 points and 11,738.50 points during the week. Global investor sentiments firmed up earlier in the week as US and Mexico reached an agreement on revising the North American Free Trade Agreement enforced since 1994. The global development strengthened sentiments as trade-war concerns have off-late heightened investment risk across the globe, analysts told IANS. The indices, however were subdued in the later part of the week as the Indian rupee slumped to unprecedented low levels against the US dollar and the fears over US-China trade war flared. On a weekly basis, the S&P BSE Sensex closed at 38,645.07 points, higher 393.27 points or 1.03 per cent from its previous close. Similarly, the wider Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange on Friday ended at 11,680.50 points, higher 123.40 points or 1.07 per cent from the previous week's close. "Benchmark indices gained for the sixth week in a row on favourable global cues," said Rahul Sharma, Senior Research Analyst at Equity99. Sharma, however added renewed US-China trade war concern capped gains. According to Hem Securities' Director Prateek Jain, US-China tariff war hurt the emerging markets and also pushed the rupee to an all-time low. The Indian rupee touched a new low of 71 per dollar on Friday. It settled at 70.99-71 per greenback, around Rs 1.09 weaker than the previous week's close of 69.91 per dollar. In terms of investments, provisional figures from the stock exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors sold scrips worth Rs 579.20 crore and the domestic institutional investors bought stocks worth Rs 605.27 crore in the past week. Figures from the National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) showed that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) invested Rs 46.36 crore, or $6.47 million in the equities segment during August 27-31. Sector-wise, metal, IT and pharma stocks were the top gainers while the major losers were media and energy stocks, according to Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities. The top weekly Sensex gainers were Power Grid (up 5.11 per cent at Rs 200.60), Tata Steel (up 4.55 per cent at Rs 601.65), Tata Motors (up 4.50 per cent at Rs 267.10), Infosys (up 4.35 per cent at Rs 1,440) and Bharti Airtel (up 4.03 per cent at Rs 383.35 per share). The major losers were Yes Bank (down 8.34 per cent at Rs 343.40), Reliance Industries (down 2.90 per cent at Rs 1,240.95), Asian Paints (down 1.54 per cent at Rs 1,240.95), Coal India (down 1.48 per cent at Rs 286.10) and IndusInd Bank (down 1.21 per cent at Rs 1,903.85 per share). (Rituraj Baruah can be contacted at rituraj.b@ians.in) --IANS rrb/rv/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Anti-Narmada dam activist Medha Patkar was in for a surprise on Saturday when supporters of fasting Patidar leader Hardik Patel heckled her and prevented her from meeting him. The 25-year-old Patel quota stir warrior has been on an indefinite fast for over eight days. Medha Patkar, who is an unwelcome face for many in Gujarat due to her stand on the Narmada project, which is hailed as the lifeline of Gujarat, was heckled and slogans were raised against her when she reached Patel's residence on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Hardik Patel's supporters prevented Patkar from entering the premises. When the situation worsened, one of the close associates of Patel, Manoj Panara, requested her to return. Although she maintained that she had reached the quota leader's place on an invite from him, she had to drop the idea of meeting him. However, two of her close associates and veterans, Jyotibhai Desai and Danielbhai, later went in to meet Patel. Meanwhhile, Hardik who is on the eighth day of his fast, has stopped taking water for the last two days. Medha Patkar said, "If Hardikbhai's health deteriorates, then the fight won't reach its logical end. He should start drinking water. I am here to support Hardik for his demands for farmers. We have an alliance of 200 farmer unions demanding total debt waiver and right price for their produce." Manoj Panara, however, claimed that no invite had been sent to Medha Patkar. "She had called Hardik, but that was just to ask his well-being. There was no talk about her meeting him," Panara said. Gujarat Congress chief Amit Chavda too called on Hardik and extended his support. Meanwhile, Patel on Saturday began consuming water at the instance of a religious leader who had come to visit him. This was after medical check-up showed that sodium and potassium levels in his body had been disturbed and there was a rise in acetone in his blood, which could harm his kidneys. --IANS desai/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A short film on Jammu and Kashmir tourism, launched by the state government, has won "gold" at an award ceremony organised by the India chapter of International Advertising Association (IAA) here. The ad film titled "Warmest Place on Earth" launched by the state's Tourism Department in September 2017 has been declared the winner in the 'Travel and Tourism Category' at IndiAA awards held here on Friday, according to an official statement. IndIAA Awards is the intellectual property of the IAA India chapter, and was instituted in 2015. The award recognises mainstream creative advertising campaigns. The film highlights the hospitality of Kashmir. The 5-minute film was the first such big campaign launched by the Kashmir government. Conceptualised by J. Walter Thompson, it was directed by filmmaker Amit Sharma In 2014, the Union Ministry of Tourism had launched a campaign and won the 'Blue Elephant' at 'Kyoorius Creative Awards'. --IANS sar-mg/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) is preparing for the introduction of the new mobile communications standard. "If we want to continue to play in the premier league of technology countries, we must now set the course for this," said Dirk Woessner, management board member of Deutsche Telekom at a press conference at the consumer electronics fair IFA in on Friday. The frequencies for are expected to be auctioned at the beginning of 2019. The Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) had already presented first conditions for the auction on Thursday. "We always wanted to be in front when it comes to the allocation of frequencies," agency president Jochen Homann told the German newspaper Handelsblatt, Xinhua reported. The targets set by the network agency stipulate that by 2022 at least 98 percent of households in should have access to an internet connection with a minimum of 100 megabits per second. Motorways and federal highways are too be supplied with at least 100 megabits per second by 2022. With at least 50 Mbit/s, the speed target for mobile broadband on short and long-distance passenger railways is half as high. Unlike the current mobile standard, will not have national roaming, as 5G providers will not be required to give competitors access to their networks. "It is legally not possible to oblige network operators to make their networks available to other providers," emphasized Homann. A quarter of the 5G frequencies will be reserved for local and regional applications and are not intended to be auctioned off. This should enable "as many business models as possible in the industrial and agricultural sectors", as the Bundesnetzagentur resolution states. The German Federal Network Agency is not expecting a bidding war like in 2000. Back then, almost 50 billion euros ($58.2 billion) were generated at the UMTS license auction. "The Bundesnetzagentur does not aim for maximizing revenues," Homann said. Six villagers were killed by unidentified gunmen, who also abducted a Filipino couple in a Philippine town, police said on Saturday. The gunmen broke into the couple's house in the coastal Sirawai town and took them hostage around 5 p.m. on Friday, Xinhua quoted police officer Edwin de Ocampo as saying. A neighbour of the couple, who is attached to the military, tried to rescue the hostages but was killed. Five more villagers were also gunned down by the attackers as they escaped, De Ocampo added. He said a child was also wounded in the crossfire. A rescue operation is on. This is the second abduction incident in Sirawai town this year. --IANS in/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Unfavourable base effect, along with high fuel and interest costs, subdued the monthly sales of select Indian automobile companies in August. Analysts said that natural calamities in some parts of the country due to heavy monsoon rains also dampened buyers' sentiments. On Saturday, automobile major Maruti Suzuki India reported a 3.4 per cent dip in its overall sales in August to 158,189 units compared to 163,701 units sold in the year-ago month. "Sales during the month were adversely affected due to severe floods in Kerala and heavy rains in other parts of the country," the company said. In the domestic market, it sold 147,700 units during August, down 2.8 per cent from 152,000 units sold in the corresponding month in 2017. Similarly, the Hyundai Motor India's domestic sales were also hit. The company reported a decline of 2.8 per cent in its domestic sales to 45,801 units from 47,103 units sold in August 2017. However, the company's overall sales including exports rose by 3.4 per cent to 61,912 units from 59,905 units off-take during the corresponding month of last year. Commenting on the August sales, Vikas Jain, National Sales Head - Hyundai Motor India, said the company registered a strong growth of 25.8 per cent in export markets. On the other hand, commercial and passenger vehicles maker Tata Motors' domestic sales grew by 27 per cent last month over corresponding period of 2017. The company sold a total of 58,262 units in the domestic market last month, up from 45,906 units sold in August 2017. Its sales from exports (commercial and passenger vehicles) in August 2018 increased to 5,478 units from 3,082 units shipped abroad last year. Another automobile major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) reported a 14 per cent rise in its overall sales, including exports, in August 2018. As per the company data, the overall sales during the month under review grew to 48,324 vehicles from 42,207 vehicles sold in August 2017. Other companies such as commercial vehicles maker Ashok Leyland and car maker Ford India logged sales growth last month. Company-wise, Ashok Leyland sold 17,386 units last month as against 13,637 units logged in August 2017. Ford India's total sales last month stood at 20,648 units as compared to 15,470 units sold in August 2017. Honda Cars India sold 17,621 units last month, up from 17,361 units sold in August 2017. Additionally, two- and three-wheeler major TVS Motor Company sold a total of 343,217 units last month up from 317,563 units sold in August 2017. Two-wheeler manufacturer Suzuki Motorcycle India's domestic sales rose by 31 per cent to 62,446 units over August 2017. "The auto sales data released by select OEMs for August 2018 paints a mixed picture," said Shamsher Dewan, Vice President and Sector Head - Corporate Ratings, ICRA. "While commercial vehicle segment has continued to maintain its growth momentum, the sales data in the Passenger Vehicle segment indicates some softness, possibly emanating from adverse impact of heavy rains in many parts of the country and floods in Kerala." According to Sridhar V., Partner, Grant Thornton India: "Industry is keenly waiting for a positive uptick post monsoon and during the festive season which is not too far away." "Two-wheelers are back in action in August 2018 and commercial vehicles sales continue to be on a roll." --IANS vj-rv/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Himachal Pradesh Drugs Manufacturing Association has sent medicines worth Rs 1.7 crore to the flood-hit Kerala, state Health Minister Vipin Singh Parmar said on Saturday. He said the medicines have been provided as per the demand from the Kerala government. These include antibiotics, painkillers, medicines for diarrhea, injections, needles, syringes and glucose. The minister said the association would send more medicines in a few days so that the flood-affected people could get medical facility in time. The state government has sent relief material worth Rs 5 crore to the flood-ravaged state. --IANS vg/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Iraq's Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Saturday confirmed that his Sairoon Coalition will not return to square one. On his Twitter account, Sadr said "no return to square one, as no return to quota system, sectarianism, ethnicity and corruption," Xinhua reported. Sadr said that he will resort to political opposition in the parliament if the next government would be formed on bases of former principles of quota system that harmed Iraq in the previous stages of the political process. "The government must be formed on condition of serving Iraqis," Sadr said. "It must be a government with Iraqi decision that serves the people through ministries led by independent technocrats." Sadr's comment came as the Iraqi political blocs are in negotiations to form the largest alliance before the first session of the new parliament. The negotiations have intensified since the Federal Supreme Court ratified the final results of May 12 parliamentary elections on Aug. 19, marking the first step toward forming the new Iraqi government. The court approval confirmed the preliminary results of the parliamentary elections which showed the Sairoon Coalition, backed by Sadr, won 54 seats in the 329-seat parliament as the front runner. The ratification widely opened the door for Iraqi politicians to form the next government and would give a push for the tough negotiations by the political blocs to form the largest alliance before the first session of the new parliament. According to the Iraqi constitution, the ratification of the results entails the outgoing President Masoum to call on the new parliament to hold its first session under the chairmanship of the eldest parliament member within 15 days from the court's ratification, to elect a president of parliament and then the president of the country, who will ask the largest alliance to form a government within 30 days. On May 12, millions of Iraqis went to 8,959 polling centres across the country to vote for their parliamentary representatives in the first general election since Iraq's historic victory over the Islamic State militant group in December 2017. --IANS ahm/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) sacw.net - 1 September 2018 ABVA organizes the first ever gay rights protest in India at Police Head Quarters, New Delhi; 11 August, 1992 Photo credits: Shobha Aggarwal /ABVA As the Supreme Court of India is on the verge of decriminalizing adult consensual homosexual sex in India an attempt to capture ABVAas struggle for gay rights in India in the twentieth century is in order. The struggle was unique as history was being made and there were many firsts; simultaneously foundation was being laid for the gay rights movement in India for all times to come. It was also unique as the group comprised mainly of heterosexuals at that time but who would not publicly say so because of the policy decision taken by the group not to make any memberas sexuality public as it would not have been politically correct and gay(s) in the group would have got targeted. Formation of ABVA a In the late eighties AIDS scare had gripped the country. ABVA (AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan/ AIDS Anti-Discrimination Movement) came into existence in 1988-1989 though it was formally christened later as more members joined the group. a A Word about its Members It was an eclectic group which included a leprosy patient, a nun, a closeted gay person, social workers, doctors, lawyers, non-formal education workers, representative of womenas groups etc. They came from diverse socio-economic backgrounds and from different communities and varied age group. In 1988-89 the youngest member of the group was about 24 years and oldest was about 55 years. Some lived in slums and resettlement colonies; at least one of them was a pavement dweller, and some in posh South Delhi colonies. But what held them together was their conviction and courage to wipe out all forms of discrimination around AIDS. All had struggled and fought injustice at various levels in their personal lives (as a leprosy patient, minority community member, women) and participated in the various larger political struggles e.g. of slum dwellers. Many had worked with the victims of Sikh massacre in 1984 in Delhi and other parts of northern India. The Revolution has to be Non-Funded ABVA strove for equality amongst its members to begin with. It met at a public place Indian Coffee House, Mohan Singh Place, Connaught Place, New Delhi every Wednesday from 6.30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Those who could afford it would not only pay for their cup of coffee but also for those who were unemployed or could not afford a cup of coffee. ABVA functioned through a Post Box No. 5308, New Delhi-110053, India; this costed the group Rs. 150 per year. Every week mail would be collected from the post box and presented at the Wednesday meeting. ABVA was a non-funded; non-party organization. ABVA had no money to rent an office; so by rotation ABVAas files, correspondence etc were kept in each of its memberas house/office. Anyone from anywhere in India or abroad was free to attend the meeting. In fact this meeting place had become a political pilgrimage site for activists/academicians of all hues; activists from at least 30 countries had attended ABVA meetings. Reports were brought out by collecting money through sale of advance copies!!! But above all the group was fearless and had the courage to go against the stream at a time when even the most vocal advocates of gay rights today were unwilling to take a stand. Academicians a both homosexuals as well as heterosexuals a maintained a deathly silence on the issue, excepting a few. Resisting the Draconian Law ABVA was instrumental in stalling the Draconian AIDS (Prevention) Bill, 1989 through petitions in Parliament, public meetings, protest actions and networking both in India and abroad. As a result, the Bill was placed before a Joint Parliamentary Committee. The Bill was withdrawn in October-November 1991 following a decision made by the Union Cabinet. Had the Bill been passed the high risk groups would have been forcibly tested for HIV and those found positive would have been quarantined. Their civil liberties and democratic rights would have been flagrantly violated. ABVA protests at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi following refusal by doctors to conduct a delivery on an HIV+ pregnant woman; 7 August, 1991 Photo Credits: Shobha Aggarwal / ABVA] At that time the medical establishment including the WHO targeted four groups of people for the spread of HIV virus viz women sex workers, professional blood donors, drug users and homosexual persons. Right since its inception ABVA had realized that these four targeted groups/ allegedly high risk groups need support and understanding. ABVA decided to bring out status reports on the four communities targeted and discriminated against due to HIV/AIDS. The third report in the series was on the status of homosexuality in India. Report on the Status of Homosexuality in India The report titled aLess Than Gaya was released in Nov-Dec 1991 at a press conference held at the Press Club of India. The response of the 25 journalists who attended the conference is telling of the times. The journalists were embarrassed and one of them actually blushed. Not a single question was asked by any one; however the coverage was very fair, front-paged in some papers. After the press conference the journalists wanted to know who amongst ABVA members were gay men or lesbian women. However ABVA members refused to reply in view of its stated policy. The political environment for gays in India in the early nineties is comprehensively documented by ABVA in aLess Than Gaya . Gay persons were easy prey for blackmail, extortion, verbal and physical violence, and police extortion; police drives against gay gatherings; entrapment of gay men by plain clothes policemen; gays going in railway loos were caught by railway police to extort money. The Gay Manifesto ABVA had a broad futuristic vision and in aLess Than Gaya it asked for repeal of all discriminatory legislation singling out homosexual acts by consenting adults in private - section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and the relevant sections of the Army, Navy and Air Force Acts, 1950. Itas Charter of Demands in 1991 included demand to recognize right to privacy as a fundamental right. The third demand in its sixteen point Charter of Demands read: aRecognize the right to privacy as a fundamental part of the citizens right to life and liberty, including the right to his or her sexual orientation.a This demand was accepted and recognized by the Supreme Court of India in 2017 only a twenty six years after the group had formulated and raised the issue of privacy. At that time the mainstream media was itself not immune to homophobia and in fact aSundaya magazine then edited by Vir Sanghvi dubbed aLess Than Gaya as pornographic. ABVA filed a complaint at the Press Council of India where hearing took place after 18 months. The chairperson was Justice R.S. Sarkaria. The decision was rendered in ABVAas favour on 24 January, 1994. aSundaya magazine was directed to publish prominently a full page rejoinder sent by ABVA and this was complied with. Indiaas First Mass Protest at Police Headquarters on Gay Issues Police repression of gay people was rampant. In 1992, 18 people were arrested from the Central Park, Connaught Place, New Delhi on the ground that they were about to indulge in homosexual acts; when a delegation of ABVA members went to the local police station an official informed them that they had received written complaints from residents of the adjoining area about the amenace of homosexualsa in the park during evening hours. This park historically was the cruising point for gays since 1940s. ABVA decided to protest the next day at that very park with all of the 18 members participating in it and leafleting. The idea was to show resistance exactly where harassment and arrests were made by the police. This was followed by a mass protest demonstration on 11 August, 1992 at Police Headquarters, New Delhi. It was attended by over 500 people from different organizations. Civil liberties and democratic rights group also participated. A memo was handed over to the Police Commissioner of Delhi. The Politics of Sexuality In 1992, ABVA organized a day-long seminar (bilingual a Hindi & English) on the aPolitics of Sexualitya at Indian Social Institute, New Delhi. Around 125 people participated with everyone contributing equally towards the expenses incurred. The auditorium was provided free of cost. There was a unanimous opinion that no media persons were to be invited for coverage; however one journalist from mainstream media was invited to speak about the harassment he had faced just for sensitively writing on the issue of homosexuality in the newspaper where he worked. Other speakers included a one-time married lesbian from Himachal Pradesh; a representative from ABVA; a lesbian researcher, Giti Thadani; a representative from Bombay Dost. A womenas group questioned the very title of the report on homosexuality a Less Than Gay aas being male oriented! Internationalising the Issue The second Asia Pacific AIDS conference was organized in Delhi from 8-12 November, 1992. ABVA had to put pressure on the organizers and threaten them with protests outside the venue if it did not get entry. The Conference was an aexpensive jamboreea in a five star hotel. But ABVA members refused all facilities and carried their own lunch packets which they ate in a public park opposite the hotel and conducted its protests inside the hotel! ABVA members wore black T-shirts with slogans painted on the back especially for the conference. Phyllida Brown covering the conference wrote in New Scientist in its 21 November, 1992 issue: aThe unexpected stars of the conference were a group from Delhi called AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA) a the AIDS Anti-Discrimination Movement a The group staged several loud protests during the conference, drowning out doctors who tried to justify mandatory testing of arisk groupsa. They also launched a acharter of demandsa calling for the release of all HIV-positive people from jail, the establishment of a commission to document all violations of human rights for infected people, and the decriminalisation of homosexuality and prostitution. The charter also called for Indiaas government to prosecute doctors who refuse to treat HIV-positive people. Although such refusals are against the Indian code of medical ethics, they are regularly reported. ABVAas charter says police policy should be reformed to stop them harassing gay people, prostitutes and professional blood donors. Instead, they have argued, the police should concentrate on the drug barons and on the blood-bank managers.a ABVA members wearing black T-shirts addressing the press at the Ashoka hotel, New Delhi during the Second Asia Pacific AIDS conference, November 1992 Photo Credits: Shobha Aggarwal / ABVA At the same conference during one of the sessions co-chaired by Anand Grover, ABVA members made a sustained demand to the members as also the chair to let a resolution be passed for repeal of Section 377, IPC; those in the house included foreign members/doctors as well as the Indian counterparts. ABVAas strategy was to get the issue to be internationalized since foreign media personnel were covering the conference. One of ABVA members stood up and asked the house to pass the resolution; the house by raising of hands passed the resolution but the will of the house was subverted by the resolution not being included in the minutes of the session/resolutions passed presented at the plenary meeting in the evening!!! We also met Ashok Row Kavi of Bombay Dost during the conference; he had earlier attended our ABVA meeting and had written about ABVAas work in his magazine. Yet it was only in 2018 that he jumped into the legal battle in Supreme Court!!! Ironically Navtej Singh Johar, too, had met members of ABVA at our weekly meetings in mid-nineties. It was in 2016 only that he filed a petition in the Supreme Court!! ABVAas Legal Struggle for Striking Down Section 377, IPC as Unconstitutional The writ petition of 1994 for striking down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was filed by ABVA through its member Ms. Shobha Aggarwal, advocate in the Delhi High Court. No LGBTQ person volunteered to be part of the case in spite of the best efforts put by ABVA and by me personally over the next seven years. The petition arose out of a public controversy over the refusal of authorities to make condoms available to inmates of Tihar jail, Delhi. ABVA in its petition had made the following prayers: a) to declare that section 377 of the Indian Penal Code is unconstitutional and void as being hit by the provisions of Articles 13,14 and 21 and 25 of the Constitution of India. b) to direct the implementation of the Governments National AIDS Program. c) to declare that all action and proceedings purporting to have been done or taken by the respondents and each of them under the said unconstitutional and void law are wholly un-authorised by law, illegal and void and not binding on the jail inmates; d) to restrain the respondents from segregating or isolating prisoners with a certain sexual orientation or those suffering from AIDS or from commencing prosecution against those prisoners who are suspected to have participated in consensual anal intercourse. e) to direct the respondents to immediately make condoms available at the dispensary within Tihar Jail, where prisoners can freely obtain them without fear that they will be persecuted on account of their sexual orientation. f) to direct that only disposable syringes be used in the dispensary within Tihar Jail. g) to direct the jail authorities to regularly consult with the National AIDS Control Organisation, namely the Respondent No. 6. h) may pass any other writ, direction or order as this Honble Court deems fit and proper in the circumstances of this case. ABVA: aA Bunch of Sodomisersa On a day to day basis, the barometer of public response to our work on gay rights issue was the reaction of the regular coffee house visitors. It may be recalled that the coffee house where ABVA had its weekly meetings boasts of visitors like members of Parliament; journalists; trade unionists; revolutionaries; theatre activists; social workers; activists of all hues. Not one amongst them congratulated us on our efforts; not one came forward to support us; we were subjected to a vilification campaign by being dubbed as a bunch of sodomizers. Since most of the ABVA members were single the smear campaign stuck as unmarried single persons were assumed to be either gays or lesbians. ABVA became a four letter word in more sense than one. We were oath bound not to contradict this as it would send a message that being gay or lesbian is something to be despised. After we filed the petition some newspapers like the Hindustan Times front paged the court proceedings in 1994-95. Others like Economic Times and Pioneer even editorially supported our prayer of striking down of Section 377, IPC. However there was no social media or 24X7 t.v. channels then. Homophobic Attitude of Judges During the court proceedings it was obvious that the judges had a homophobic attitude. Their queries on a typical hearing would include a Is ABVA for free sex? What is its Constitution? Is it a registered body? Are you mandated to fight for gay rights? The court was informed that ABVA stood for safe sex. ABVA Campaigns Amongst Senior Advocates After filing the writ petition ABVA members had split into small groups to gather support from the handful of Senior Advocates/ constitutional lawyers on the issue. We met in all about eight of them. Some of them suggested that we donat affix the ABVAas report aLess Than Gaya with the petition; few suggested that we should limit our prayer to supply of condoms to jail inmates and not ask for striking down of Section 377, IPC. One of them just heard us out; another appreciated our work without volunteering his services. ABVA also wrote to 100 odd activists groups in India to flood high courts all over India with similar petitions. However, none came forward. A lawyer, Mr. S. Muralidhar and his wife Ms. Usha Ramanathan attended our meetings; Muralidhar later appeared in Delhi High Court in ABVAas 377 petition! Muralidhar was briefed at the office of Himalaya Sewa Sangh, New Delhi by Dr. P.S. Sahni and Manoj Pande about the case before one of the hearings. While S. Muralidhar was sitting on a charpoy, Manoj and Dr. Sahni were squatting on the floor. ABVA sees this as its contribution to sensitizing S. Muralidhar who in later years became a judge of the Delhi High Court. Ironically he was the judge who along with Justice A.P. Shah passed the judgement in 2009 decriminalizing adult consensual homosexual sex!! Our petition was dismissed in 2001. Protests Post aFirea The protest demonstration held at Regal theatre, New Delhi against the ban on the film aFirea (which depicted a lesbian relationship) led to the formation of CALERI (Campaign for Lesbian Rights) in 1998. ABVA had been a very active member of CALERI which functioned for a year and campaigned on lesbian issues and brought out a report called aLesbian Emergencea. The CALERI meetings were also held at the same Indian Coffee House where the weekly ABVA meetings were regularly held. Leaf-letting in different parts of the city and protesting in public were the mainstay of this campaign. The irony was that no member of CALERI a which had a handful of lesbian women as members including one who had authored a book on lesbian writing from India in 1999, Ashwini Sukthankar a was willing to release the report through a press conference! A senior ABVA member, Dr. P.S. Sahni was repeatedly urged to release this report. He declined since the policy in ABVA was to encourage people from the sexual minorities to take leadership roles. During the CALERI campaign a request was received by ABVA from an activist based in Cuttack, Orissa asking for intervention to rescue a lesbian whose life was in danger. In spite of repeated requests to CALERI members to volunteer to do the fact finding, none agreed. It was left to two ABVA members, Arun Bhandari & Jagdish Bhardwaje (now since deceased) to undertake a fact-finding mission to Orissa. The fact finding report brought out in 1999 by ABVA titled aFor People Like Usa detailed the tragic tale of two lesbians, Mamta and Monalisa who wanted to marry and stay together. Mamtaas father Mr. Dhruba Charan Mohanty wrote a letter to ABVA: aThank you for your sincere cooperation and understanding. My daughter Mamta and her friend Monalisa were fast friends and thereby unable to withstand each otheras separation. Moreover four days before (i.e. 6.10.1998) the incident of suicidal attempt, they sought the help of Court for a Notarial Certificate of Partnership Deed. On 10.10.1998 both of them left behind a suicide note. The final result was death of Monalisa and rescue of Mamtaaa Personal Efforts by me I was involved in womenas movement since 1981, more particularly against sexual harassment of women in Delhi University colleges; and also what had then come to be known as bride burning on the issue of dowry. It was easy for me to mingle with LGBTQ members as since mid-eighties I have had the occasion to be in touch with closeted gays; one of them was an LLB student in Delhi University while I was pursuing my legal studies. From 1983 to 1986 I had worked with Barry John on remedial drama; at that time Barry John was the only known gay person in Delhi. My interactions with gay friends/persons encouraged me to volunteer my name for the ABVA petition filed in the Delhi High Court in 1994. I spent a lot of time for the next seven years with closeted gays/groups. My house had become an adda (meeting point) for gays and lesbians to assemble and socialize. A well-known architect, a Delhi University history teacher, Saleem Kidwai and a Punjabi writer; the co-editor of Manushi magazine (now since defunct), Ms. Ruth Vanita (who in June 2000 had entered into a lesbian marriage in USA), a woman advocate in Delhi would frequently visit my house. Since none had gone public about their sexuality till 2000, there was no question of any one of them joining the legal battle through ABVAas petition. An attempt was made to start a group by the name of DARE (Document, Archive, Research, Education center for gays and lesbians). The group did not survive for long as I had a principled stand against working on funded projects. From 1994 to 2001, I attended social gatherings of mixed groups or where only gays and lesbians participated. The social space which got cultivated was conducive for people of diverse sexualities to interact. However, such gatherings were mainly social-cultural groupings; political formations were to come much later. Police Raid at Red-Light District in New Delhi After its formation ABVA started running a free dispensary in a Kotha (brothel house) at Delhias G.B. Road. Members contributed Rs. 50/- per month for purchase of common medicines. Condoms a obtained free from government hospital a were made available at this dispensary. In 1990, the Delhi Police under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner of Police, Amod Kant arrested 112 women in prostitution and their children on the charge of being neglected juveniles, under Juvenile Justice Act, 1986. Even after the Juvenile Welfare Board pronounced that none of them were neglected juveniles, the State went in appeal. The appeal was dismissed in March 1995. For five years I was attending the court regularly as lawyer for these victims. At times I had to wait in the court room for the whole day. In the first two years more than two hours on every hearing were spent on taking attendance of the women & their children; and warrants of arrests were issued against anyone who was not present. Children had to miss school for attending the court. They were made to stand outside the court room in a line like prisoners while the attendance was taken. The attitude of the judges and the court staff towards the accused was that of a priest towards a sinner. They were granted exemption from appearance only after I had an argument with one of the presiding judges. The case passed through several judges. Not a single one was willing to apply his/her mind to my application for summary dismissal of appeal filed by the police as no appeal was legally allowed under the Act against the order of acquittal by the Juvenile Justice Board. One of the judges who sat on the case a without passing any order for years - was later elevated to Delhi High Court! It took full five years for a judge to dismiss the Stateas appeal against the order of acquittal of the women and children. The net result has been that the police has refrained from indulging in a repeat performance of such brutal raids in later years. The spontaneous public protests by the women concerned after their arrest, and the debate that ensued in the media followed by the protracted legal battle has had a salutary effect on the powers that be. Finally the LGBTQ Persons Moved the Supreme Court in 2016 to 2018 As an offshoot of the Aadhar case a nine judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India on 24 August, 2017 ruled that athe right to privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal libertya and is a fundamental right. This paves the way for a favourable judgement on Section 377, IPC. It needs to be reiterated that right since 1991 ABVA had been demanding right to privacy as a fundamental right. As some LGBTQ persons finally filed writ petitions from 2016 to 2018 in the Supreme Court of India, the latter is more inclined to listen to these people whose fundamental rights are being violated; after all fundamental rights of organizations approaching the court through writ petitions can never be violated. The LGBTQ petitioners amongst gays include a Sikh, a Muslim and a Hindu as also a lesbian a the right antidote to a fascist communal regime at the Centre. Mighty Indian State Decides Not to Contest! The central government finally put the onus of deciding the fate of Section 377, IPC the Supreme Court and informed the apex court that it would not contest the batch of petitions seeking to decriminalize homosexuality. aSo far as the constitutional validity of Section 377 to the extent it applies to aconsensual acts of adults in privatea is concerned, the Union of India would leave the said question to the wisdom of this Honable Court,a read a three-page affidavit filed on behalf of the centre. A complete somersault by the mighty Indian State from its original strong denunciation and non-acceptance of homosexuality to a total surrender to the forces of change. Supreme Court Judges Turn Gay Rights Activists Overnight During the course of the hearings the judges of the Constitution Bench made the following statements as reported in the media: -* that the court only intended to get out of the amessa created by the 2013 judgement which had recriminalized gay sex this community feels inhibited to go for medical aid due to prejudices against them - because of family pressures, societal pressures etc. they are forced to marry it is not human beings alone who indulge in homosexual acts, many animals also show homosexual behavior it is not an aberration but a variation our focus is not only on the sexual act, but the relationship between two consenting adults and the manifestation of their rights under Articles 14 and 21 a we are dwelling on the nature of relationship and not marriage a we want the relationship to be protected under fundamental rights and to not suffer moral policing the cause of sexually transmitted diseases is not sexual intercourse, but unprotected sexual intercourse. A village woman may get the disease from her husband, who is a migrant worker. This way would you now want to make sexual intercourse itself a crime? if the aorder of naturea should mean only act that results in procreation, will sex that does not lead to reproduction be against the aorder of naturea if you licence prostitution, you control it. If you kick it under the carpet owing to some Victorian-era morality, it will only lead to health concerns. All prohibition is wrong; the whole object of fundamental rights is to give court power to strike down laws which a majoritarian government, swung by votes, will not repeal. we donat wait for majoritarian governments to repeal laws. If a law is unconstitutional, it is the duty of the court to strike it down. I had been present in the Delhi High Court hearings in our case during 1994-95. I made a conscious effort to attend the Supreme Court hearings of the present cases in July 2018. During the course of the hearing spread over four days it appeared that the judges had made up their mind on the issue and were actually educating the lawyers on what same-sex love was all about. Not that any substantive arguments were really needed as the judges seemed already convinced. It appeared that the judges of the Supreme Court had overnight turned activist supporting the cause of repeal of Section 377, IPC. Truly the idea whose time has come. As the wag would say athe judges have come out of the closet!a [Authoras note: This article has major inputs from Dr. P.S. Sahni, a founder member of ABVA and now also the senior-most. As ABVA completes 30 years of its existence, six of its members have passed away. This article is dedicated to them.] References: 1. Less Than Gay: A Citizens Report on the Status of Homosexuality in India; ABVA, Nov-Dec 1991. 2. Doctors and activists clash over AIDS in Asia, by Phyllida Brown; New Scientist, 21.11.1992 3. To be a mother (or a Child) on G.B. Road, A report by ABVA; The Lawyers Collective, Vol. 10 - No. 6, 1995. 4. For People Like Us, ABVA March 1999 (Copies available on request) 5. SC ruling on Sec 377, A wonderful opportunity for a fresh beginning, by Ashley Tellis; Hindustan Times, 12.12.2013 6. Gay Manifesto & International Human Rights Day; Co-Written by Shobha Aggarwal & Dr. P.S. Sahni; Countercurrents.org, December 10, 2016 7. Was 1992 a Turning Point for Homosexuals in Contemporary India? Tan, N. Sexuality & Culture (2018). 8. Rainbow at the end of the road: Queer resistance to Section 377, by Dipanita Nath; The Indian Express, 05.08.2018 9. These activists helped bring India to the brink of a landmark ruling on gay rights, By Shashank Bengali and Parth M.N.; Los Angeles Times, 10.08.2018 10. ABVAas Blog:http://aidsbhedbhavvirodhiandolan.blogspot.com Shobha Aggarwal is a member of ABVA and can be contacted at: aidsbhedbhavvirodhiandolan[at]gmail.com Jain monk Tarun Sagar passed away at a temple here early on Saturday after a prolonged illness, an official said. He was 51. Sagar, who was suffering from jaundice and other ailments, breathed his last at around 3 a.m. at the Radhapuri temple here, a temple official told IANS. President Ram Nath Kovid and Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief over his demise. "Sad to hear of the passing of Jain Muni Shri Tarun Sagar Ji Maharaj. Known for his 'Kadve Parvachan'. He spread the message of peace and non-violence in the society. "Our country has lost a well-respected spiritual leader. My condolences to his countless followers," Kovind tweeted. "Deeply pained by the untimely demise... We will always remember him for his rich ideals, compassion and contribution to society. "His noble teachings will continue inspiring people. My thoughts are with the Jain community and his countless disciples," Modi tweeted. Sagar was earlier admitted to a private medical centre in Delhi. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh also offered his condolences, saying Sagar was the sources of inspiration. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said he was "pained to hear of the sad demise". "His teachings and ideals will always inspire humanity." Born in Madhya Pradesh's Damoh district on June 26, 1967, Sagar has a huge following in the Jain community. --IANS gt-nks/in (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The ruling Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and the Congress in Karnataka would extend their coalition alliance to the urban local bodies (ULBs) across the state to keep the opposition BJP out of power, said a JD-S official on Saturday. "In the event of either party not getting majority on its own in the ULB elections, we will have post-poll alliance to rule the local bodies as we did to form the coalition government in the state after the May 12 assembly election threw a hung House with a split verdict," the official told IANS here. Elections to 105 ULBs, including three city corporations, were held on Friday across the southern state, with a record 68 per cent voter turnout. Counting is on Monday from 8 a.m and results are expected to be declared by night as electronic voting machines (EVMs) were used for polling. According to the State Election Commission (SEC), polling was held in 2,662 civic wards spanning 29 city municipalities, 53 town municipalities, 23 town panchayats and 135 wards at Mysuru, Shivamogga and Tumakuru city corporations. "Though we are hoping to secure majority in city, town and panchayat wards in our strongholds, especially in the old Mysuru region, we are ready to take the support of the Congress to run the local bodies with majority," said the official. The JD-S is also ready to support the Congress in the local bodies where it will fall short of majority so as to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from ruling them. "We are expecting to secure majority in many city and town municipalities across the state though we contested against the JD-S and the BJP. We hope the JD-S will reciprocate our gesture to support it in forming the coalition government in the state," a Congress spokesman told IANS here. In all, 8,340 candidates, including 2,306 from the Congress, 2,203 from the BJP and 1,397 from the JD-S contested in the ULBs, while 814 did in three city corporations, including 135 from Congress, 130 from BJP and 129 from JD-S, with the remaining as Independents. In the 2013 ULB elections held in 4,976 seats, the Congress had won 1,960 seats, while the BJP and the JD-S had won 905 seats each, and Independents had bagged the remaining 1,206 seats. "Though the coordination committee of the alliance partners discussed the prospects of post-poll tie-up in ULBs, a decision to that effect will be taken after all the results of the wards are declared by Monday night," added the Congress official. --IANS bha/fb/pgh/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday said the date for construction of a grand Ram temple will be set by Lord Ram himself. Speaking at a conclave in the state capital, organised by a Hindi newspaper, the monk-turned-politician said what has to happen at a given time will happen at that time only. "No body can stop if once it is ordained by the gods." He also pointed out how previous state governments were afraid of visiting the temple town of Ayodhya and added that he has visited the holy town, so that it can be developed to the level it should be. To a question on education, the Chief Minister said for years a section of the society was being deprived of modern and technical education and his government is committed to changing it. "Children of a specific section are being deprived of modern education and restricted to 'mazhabi shiksha' (religious education). We have decided to change it and hence we have initiated modernization of Madarsas," Adityanath said. He also trashed the efforts of the opposition to gang up against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and said this "mahagathbandhan" (grand alliance) would never work as there is confusion over who would be its leader. He also refuted charges that the BJP pursues of caste and community and pointed out that the mantra of BJP governments was only and only development. "Welfare of the people and comprehensive development drives the BJP government," he added. Adityanath also rubbished charges of government laxity in the Deoria incident where girls and women were sexually abused in a government-run shelter home. "We acted immediately and the guilty have been brought to book." Claiming that the BJP government had rolled out several thousand jobs for the unemployed youth, Adityanath went on to say that the state government would be recruiting 1.37 lakh teachers and 1.62 lakh police personnel. Strict action against criminals has yielded good results after which investment worth crores of rupees has come to Uttar Pradesh, he added. --IANS md/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Popular actress Sheela on Saturday said the Malayalam film industry should organise a fund raising programme to help the flood-affected people of Kerala. The veteran actress also slammed the attitude of the leading lights in the Malayalam film industry for not rising to the occasion by contributing generously. She said this while talking to the media after handing over her contribution of Rs 5 lakh to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who has given a call to all to contribute generously to the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund to help rebuild Kerala. "Do you know that there are actors here who own vehicles that cost Rs 4 crore. How much have such stars here given to this fund. The need of the hour is they should at least contribute their remuneration what they charge in a film to this fund," said Sheela. She said the Malayalam film industry should organise a fund raising programme (a star night). "I am pretty sure that such a programme will certainly bring huge money to the fund," added Sheela. In a career spanning more than five decades, Sheela, 73, has acted in close to 500 films in south Indian languages besides turning a director as well. --IANS sg/pgh/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nawazuddin Siddiqui's "Manto", which is helmed by actress-filmmaker Nandita Das, will open the second edition of the Singapore South Asian International Film Festival (Sg.SAIFF). "We are delighted to screen 'Manto' as the opening film at Sg.SAIFF. 'Manto' was very much a South Asian writer," Nandita said in a statement. "But unlike the Europeans, we South Asians do not own this identity, despite many cultural and social similarities amongst the countries in the region. Therefore, it is important to support such festivals that celebrate cinema from the sub-continent. "Last year, Sg.SAIFF screened a film I acted in, 'Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai' as the opening film, which is yet to be released. I was unfortunately unable to make it. So, I very much look forward to attending it this year," she added. The fest will be held in Singapore from October 5-14. "Manto", co-produced by HP Studios, Filmstoc and Viacom18 Motion Pictures, traces the life of writer Saadat Hasan Manto. Nawazuddin will be seen bringing the character to life. The film follows the most tumultuous years in the life of the iconoclastic writer Manto and those of the countries -- India and Pakistan -- which Manto inhabited and chronicled. The film stars Rasika Dugal as Manto's wife and Tahir Raj Bhasin, Rishi Kapoor and Divya Dutta in key roles. Abhayanand Singh, Chairperson of Sg.SAIFF, also said: "We are happy that Nandita Das accepted our invitation to come and present the film at the festival." The fest line-up represents a diverse mix of feature films, short films and documentaries, which include films from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal and Afghanistan. --IANS sug/nv/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday spoke to Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and took stock of the flood situation, assuring him of all support. "Spoke to Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and took stock of the situation in the wake of floods in parts of the state. Assured all possible support to the state in the rescue and relief operations. We stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Nagaland and pray for everyone's wellbeing," Modi tweeted. Incessant rains since July have caused floods and landslides in several areas of the state claiming at least 12 lives and rendering hundreads homeless. --IANS bns/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actress-turned-director Nandita Das has been invited to participate in a movement called 'Share her journey' by Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2018 where she will speak about gender inequality in the film industry. Nandita took to Twitter and wrote: "At TIFF, in addition to 'Manto' North American premiere, I will participate in 'Share her journey' and will share my perspective along with six incredible women at a public rally hosted by the festival. Can't wait." The filmmaker, who earlier attended the film's screening at the Cannes Film festival where she was seen protesting against gender gap, feels proud at getting the opportunity to speak on gender parity in films at an international platform once again. On the same, she penned a long post on Facebook which reads: "This year was doubly rewarding when 'Manto' began its journey with a world premiere at Cannes, and I participated in the march with a select group of 82 women protesting gender inequality in the film industry. "Soon, I will be going to the Toronto International Film Festival for Manto's North American premiere. There, I have been invited to participate in the movement called 'Share Her Journey' to champion female storytellers and push gender parity in films." She also mentioned that issues like sexism and sexual misconduct exist in the industry and almost every single actress has dealt with it. "We all know that sexism, gender disparity and sexual misconduct are widespread in the film industry. Almost all of us have been privy to it and most have experienced it firsthand. In the past year, the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements have shed a much-needed spotlight on the harsh reality faced by women in the industry. "While not enough criminal prosecutions have happened yet, it has given hope to women in the industry that silence does not have to be an option." She is also glad that finally important festivals are beginning to address this "inexcusable, longstanding wrong". "The fact that these movements have garnered such attention and support is a clear indication that we cannot and will not accept this culture of inequality and abuse. I look forward to standing, side-by-side, and sharing stories with my fellow speakers and audiences," she said. Starring actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the lead role, "Manto" is slated to release on September 21. --IANS sim/nv/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Regional National Conference (NC) emerged as the single-largest party in the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Kargil elections, results for which were declared on Saturday. Out of the 26 seats polling for which was held, the NC bagged 10, Congress 8, Independents 5, PDP 2 and the BJP 1 seat. No single party has got a simple majority on its own as 16 seats are required for claiming simple majority. Four members to the hill development council are nominated by the state government and the nominated members also have the voting right for claiming power in the 30-member council. NC President Dr. Farooq Abdullah and party's Vice President Omar Abdullah have thanked the people of Kargil for voting NC as the single-largest party in the powerful hill development council. --IANS sq/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President said on Saturday that there is "no political necessity" to keep Canada in the new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) deal. "If we don't make a fair deal for the US after decades of abuse, Canada will be out," Trump said via Twitter, threatening to terminate the 24-year-old trilateral trade deal. "We were far better off before NAFTA -- should never have been signed ... we make new deal or go back to pre-NAFTA!", he wrote. Trump's comments came after the United States and Canada failed to meet a Friday deadline imposed by the Trump administration to revamp the NAFTA trade agreement as major differences remain in bilateral talks, Xinhua reported. "Our officials are continuing to work toward agreement," US Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer said Friday in a statement, adding the USTR team will resume trade talks with its Canadian counterparts next Wednesday. The White House has pressured Canada to accept the preliminary agreement it struck with Mexico on Monday to update the trilateral trade deal. But Canada insisted that it would only sign a new agreement that is good for the country. It is still unclear whether the United States and Canada will work out their differences in the next few weeks. Trump has threatened to slap additional tariffs on imported autos from Canada if the two sides are unable to reach a new trade deal. While US officials have indicated that they are prepared to go ahead and sign a only with Mexico, the US business community and many lawmakers have insisted that the should remain a trilateral pact. ALSO READ: Trump says he will end NAFTA after reaching new trade deal with Mexico "Anything other than a trilateral agreement won't win congressional approval and would lose business support," President and CEO of the US Chamber of Commerce, Thomas Donohue, said Friday in a statement. Talks on renegotiating the NAFTA began in August 2017 as Trump threatened to withdraw from the trilateral trade deal, which he claimed harmed US industries and jobs. Rome, Sep 1 (IANS/AKI) A total 1,549 people have lost their lives in the Mediterranean since the beginning of 2018, compared to 2,434 during the same time in 2017, the UN migration agency has said. More than 68,000 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea through 29 August, 28,579 of whom landed in Spain, the leading destination this year, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Friday. This year's arrivals are less than half the 124,015 boat migrants who entered the region during the same period of 2017, the IOM said. Spain, with 42 per cent of all arrivals to date, continues to receive seaborne migrants in August at a volume that is over six times that of Italy and more than double that of Greece, the agency said. Italy's arrivals through late August are the lowest recorded at this point of a normally busy summer sailing season in almost five years. Italian Interior Ministry figures show 19,874 migrants arrived in Italy by sea in 2018 -- 79.95 per cent less than 2017 in the same period, IOM said. Conflict-wracked Libya remains the main departure point for boat migrants who cross the Mediterranean to Italy, it added. --IANS/AKI in/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan's Finance Minister Asad Umar has said that the government will address all 27 deficiencies pointed out by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in the country's anti-money laundering system earlier this year. Addressing the Senate on Friday, Umar said that the National Executive Committee (NEC) headed by him, will review the action plan so as to handle the deficiencies related to currency smuggling and alleged terror financing by proscribed organisations in Pakistan, reports Xinhua news agency. On June 30, the FATF formally put Pakistan in a grey list and identified it as a country with "strategic deficiencies" in its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regime, notifying the steps the country must take to address the shortcomings. Pakistan made a commitment to the action plan, which it would implement over the next 13 months. Failure to negotiate the action plan could lead Pakistan to the blacklist. The deficiencies identified in Pakistani anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regime include inadequate monitoring and regulatory mechanisms, low conviction rate on unlawful transactions, poor implementation of UN Security Council resolutions and cross-border illicit movement of currency by terrorist groups. Umar told the Senate that a FATF delegation visited Pakistan from August 13 to 16, but the visit was not linked with the review of implementation status. He said the first review meeting would be held in Jakarta on September 11 and 12. "The government is taking steps to overcome the deficiencies identified by the FATF," said the Minister, adding that Pakistan had reservations about the procedure used for putting the country on the grey list and that there is no chance of any kind of immediate sanctions on Islamabad. --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) One policeman was killed and three others were injured in an IED blast triggered by Maoists in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district on Saturday, police said. Inspector General of Bastar range Vivekanand Sinha said a search party of Sukma district's reserve police force, which had gone to the forests for an anti-Maoist operation two days ago, was trageted by the Maoists while returning. The slain policeman has been identified as Gyandhar Pradhani. The injured policemen -- Kamal Mandawi, Virendra Nag and Phoolchand Baghel -- have been admitted to the hospital for treatment. --IANS hindi-pgh/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The death of a pro-Russian separatist leader in the conflict-ridden eastern Ukraine could serve to escalate tensions in the region and impede the so-called Minsk peace process, a Kremlin spokesperson said on Saturday. Alexander Zakharchenko, the 42-year-old leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), a region of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian insurgents since 2014, was killed when a car bomb struck a cafe in downtown Donetsk city on Friday. "Zakharchenko's death will no doubt lead to increased tensions in the region, which will of course not help create the conditions to fulfill the Minsk Accord," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media in Sochi. "We are without a doubt looking at a provocation that will have serious negative consequences in the region," he added. The Minsk Accord, named after the Belorussian capital in which it was signed, brought Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany together in an effort to draw up a viable peace solution in the warring Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian troops and pro-Moscow separatists were engaged in an ongoing conflict that, according to the UN, has claimed over 10,000 lives. Authorities in the DPR were quick to lay the blame for the attack at the feet of Ukraine's security forces, an accusation denied by Kiev. Dmitry Trapeznikov, 37, was named as Zakharchenko's replacement. Pro-Russian insurgents took control of two major regions of eastern Ukraine in the wake of a revolution in 2014 that ousted Russophile former President Viktor Yanukovych. The conflict erupted simultaneously with the Russian annexation of Crimea. --IANS in/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Russian Defence Ministry on Saturday accused the United States of training militants near its base in Syria and instructed them to launch terrorist attacks. According to the ministry's statement, the information was obtained after the Syrian government troops killed two militants and caught another two near the historic city of Palmyra earlier in the day. The captured said they belong to "the Lions of the East Army" numbering about 500 people near the US-led international coalition's al-Tanf military base. One of the captive said they were trained by US instructors and received weapons and ammunition from the US base. The task of the militants was to conduct a series of terrorist attacks in the area of Palmyra and enable the passage of about 300 militants to capture the city within the next week, said the ministry. Tens of thousands of displaced people from Raqqa and Deir al-Zour are living in the Rukban refugee camp near the US base, but the US troops do nothing to prevent them from being hostages or a "living shield" of militants, the ministry said. UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said in early August that an estimated 45,000 to 50,000 internally displaced people, with some 80 percent believed to be women and children, live under difficult conditions in Rukban camp between Jordan and Syria, reportedly in need of water, hygiene, health, education aid and civil documentation. --IANS ahm/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A special court on Saturday rejected the plea of the shelter home rape key accused to shift him from the high-security cell of the Muzaffarpur Central Jail to the general prisoner ward on the ground of security threat to him. Brajesh Thakur on Saturday appeared before the special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) court in Muzaffarpur via videoconference. The accused informed the court that neither anyone can approach him nor can he talk to anyone in his high-security cell. The court citing security threat to him rejected his plea. Last month Thakur had told the authorities about a threat to his life as he was currently lodged with Maoist rebels. Thakur has been lodged in the Muzaffarpur Central Jail since June 2. He was shifted to the prisoners ward from the hospital ward barely two weeks ago. The Patna High Court is monitoring the CBI probe into the case. The Muzaffarpur rape case 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/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actress Ihana Dhillon says that an individual shouldn't be choosy when it comes to doing charity for the betterment of society. Ihana was interacting with media at Charity Trunk Show organized by Smile Foundation along with Debina Bonnerjee and Shama Sikander on Friday in Mumbai. When asked Ihana which kind of charity she personally like to do, she said: "I don't think you should choose, when it comes choosing platform for charity." "It doesn't matter how much and in which cause you are contributing. If you take a small step then it's also a big thing for the society. I am from Punjab and I have my own charity foundation so, whenever I have time, I make an effort to contribute towards girl's education. "In my village, people still treat boys and girls differently so, I personally approach them and try to convince them that it is necessary that we educate our girls which will benefit the family itself in the long term." Ihana further added that she has opened a sewing centre in Punjab to support girl child's education. "Now, we having opened up sewing centre which supports poor girls from village in their education and other than that, we also open bank accounts of girl child so that, their parents can deposit certain amount of money towards their education or marriage which can be used when they complete 18 years of age. "So, I don't think you should be choosy when it comes to charity. You should contribute to the society in your own capacity which will help in the overall development of the country," she said. Talking about Charity Trunk Show organized by Smile Foundation, Ihana said that she was there to support the smile foundation as it was a charity event. On film front, Ihana Dhillon next will be seen onscreen in Arjun Rampal starrer "Nastik' in which she plays role of a narrator. --IANS iv/nv/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Among the dozen or so guests US Ambassador Frank Wisner was escorting to Bhutan for a holiday was Richard Holbrooke, former US Ambassador to the UN. Wisner had invited a few Indian friends to the long hall of Roosevelt House to meet the group. The year was 1996. The ebb and flow of conversation was interrupted when Holbrooke raised his hand like a Japanese tour leader. "Silent," he whispered audibly. He walked to the far end of the hall to talk on the telephone. He returned with his mouth full of news. "US-Taliban romance is over," he announced with authority. Until the previous day, the US was operating on the assumption that the Taliban was the most organised and muscular group in Afghanistan who could be relied upon to stabilise the country. TAPI, or the Turkmenistan, Afghan, Pakistan, India gas pipeline, would then begin to look feasible to the US oil company, UNOCAL -- the principal reason for the Afghan conflict. What the US had not bargained for was the brutality with which the Taliban applied Shariah law on Afghan women. A series of prime time features on Taliban cruelty against women, telecast by the CNN's Christiane Amanpour, created a sensation in Washington. Without any waste of time, the US decided to distance itself from the Taliban. US officials supportive of the UNOCAL project did not conceal their disappointment. "US gender politics has scuttled a strategic initiative." Fast forward to the great Tajik leader, Ahmad Shah Massoud (the lion of Panjshir valley) addressing the European Union in Brussels, in early spring 2001. He alerted the EU leaders, of the information his anti-Taliban Northern Alliance had collected: Al Qaeda, helped by the Taliban, were planning a major attack on the US mainland. For this audacity Massoud was to pay with his life. On September 9, two days before the attack on the Twin towers in New York, Massoud was assassinated at his hideout on the Tajik border. It is interesting that the two Tunisian suicide bombers who had approached Massoud disguised as journalists travelled on passports forged in Brussels, the city where Massoud exposed the plot which turned out to be 9/11. At whose behest was Massoud killed? Had the financial crisis of 2008 not weakened the West, there may have been different scripts for many regions, including Afghanistan. But given the ground realities, President Barack Obama settled on July 2011 as the date on which US troops would begin to withdraw. In August 2011, precisely a month after the Afghan withdrawal date was announced, the Syrian theatre was opened up. Coordination or chaos? In a paper for the Observer Research Foundation in September 2010, I had argued that Obama's exit plans were a pipedream. Do Americans have an endgame planned? Can a superpower, in a theatre of strategic importance, have a linear exit plan when multiple strategic options present themselves? The US has been extremely watchful of a nuclear Pakistan. Is it now willing to walk away leaving the world's only "Islamic" bomb unmonitored? Let's not forget, Afghanistan has been the US watch tower on this count. Moreover, a US being bled by an endless war suits all powers in the region. Demanding American departure but doing everything to keep it tied down in Afghanistan is an elementary game everyone is playing. Would interests in Pakistan wish the logistical supply line from the Karachi harbour to Afghanistan past Baluchistan to dry up? It is a regular source of incalculable earnings. Would not a possible US departure cause Iran, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Russia and China to contemplate the Afghan real estate as a huge vacuum which each power must rush to fill up before the next one does? Here is a recipe for the mother of all civil wars. Are the Americans likely to walk away simply because they are exasperated? After having spent a trillion dollars, losing thousands of lives, losing face -- so soon after their reversal in Syria -- are they really contemplating withdrawal? Will the bosses of UNOCAL suck their thumbs now? Will the priceless poppy fields of Helmand, the oil in the North, the unexplored mineral wealth now become a Russian asset? Of course not. Absence of consistency has been one of the constants in US policy on Afghanistan. To cloak this inconsistency, amplified in the time of Trump, we have strange reports coming out of the White House. Before Steve Bannon, the President's Chief strategist, was shown the door in August 2017, he had drawn the President's attention to an outlandish proposition put forward by Eric Prince, the founder of Blackwater, the world's biggest provider of private armies. At a strategy session in Camp David, Trump's Best and Brightest considered the plan: Afghanistan should be administered exactly as the British controlled India -- under a viceroy. Is former US ambassador to Kabul, Zalmay Khalilzad, to be that Viceroy? He is an ethnic Afghan and is being tipped as special Envoy which is what the Viceroys were. Of course, the senior military brass around Trump shot down the first Prince proposal. But with Trump beginning to look vulnerable, all manner of risky adventures are being contemplated. The other day, National Security Adviser John Bolton leaked the alarming news that Syria was about to launch a chemical attack in Idlib. How did he know? From Hezbullah leader Hasan Nasrallah's speech last Sunday? Nasrallah said, "Data indicates that preparations are underway to stage a new chemical incident in Idlib." This is the Western "ruse to launch an aggression on Syria". Meanwhile, there are statements by Iranian Supreme leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, Russian Foreign Ministry and reports by independent journalists like Robert Fisk that militant groups like Jabhat al Nusra, trounced in Syria, are being secretly airlifted to Northern Afghanistan. There are unconfirmed reports of a Chinese retaliation: A battalion being raised in the Wakhan Corridor to block terrorism being transported from Afghanistan. An air strike on the Afghan-Tajik border killed eight militants. According to the Afghan spokesman Khalil Asir, the origin of the aircraft remains unclear. Strange things are happening. US Presidents have been known to dramatically divert attention when faced with internal crises. Is some catastrophe being manufactured to protect Trump? (Saeed Naqvi is a commentator on political and diplomatic affairs. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached on saeednaqvi@hotmail.com) --IANS naqvi/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday said that technology can be a great enabler of a speedy justice delivery system as he exhorted lawyers not to seek adjournments except in unavoidable circumstances. Stating that there is a "culture of seeking adjournments as a norm rather than an exception", the President called for curbing the practice and expressed confidence that the "entire legal fraternity will resolve not to seek adjournments except in absolutely unavoidable circumstances". The President said this while inaugurating a day-long national conference on "Technology, Training and Infrastructure: Keys to Speedy Justice" and "The Changing Face of Legal Education in India", organised by the Supreme Court Advocate-on-Record Association. Pointing out that the "judges are over burdened with sheer volume of cases" and as a "consequence, the Indian legal system is marked by long delays", Kovind referred to the steps taken by the government to reduce the backlog of cases including the merger of tribunals. Infrastructure gaps and considerable vacancies, particularly in subordinate courts, were amongst the reasons for delays in the justice delivery system, he said. Dwelling upon the issue of judicial infrastructure for an efficient justice delivery system, Chief Justice Dipak Misra said: "Investment in infrastructure remains a primary concern, for without adequate infrastructure development we cannot realize our commitment of justice for all." "The infrastructural gaps shall not be allowed to multiply for long. We must plug these gaps at the earliest opportunity before they leave a deep scar on the administration of justice and it becomes too late to act wisely," Chief Justice Misra said. Emphasising on the urgency of providing judicial infrastructure, the Chief Justice said: "Fiscal constraint is no excuse. The need is to strengthen the judiciary as a result of which the justice delivery system becomes fast, qualitatively responsive and serve the cause of justice." Calling for "widening the network of courts to bring it within the geographical reach of a common man", the Chief Justice said the widespread use of technology has made citizens socially aware and informed and are "more vigilant and cautious of their rights against any form of exploitation by the organs of the states". Speaking on the occasion, Attorney General K.K. Venugopal said that legal education has taken a great leap from his students days of book-based learning to the present-day exposure to all-around learning which extends to other countries as well. In a note of caution, Attorney General said that lawyers should guard against the general lack of trust in them as people do not readily accommodate them. He singled out strikes by the lawyers as one of the reasons contributing to the delays in the disposal of cases. --IANS pk/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Terming the ongoing violent political clashes in Bengal over the formation of Panchayat boards as "unfortunate", Union Minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday said right to dissent and oppose is part of democracy. "There should be free and fair polls in the democracy. Continued violence and killing of activists of opposition parties is unfortunate. Many candidates of opposition parties in Bengal were not allowed to file nominations in the panchayat elections," Prasad said here. A three-year-old child sustained a bullet injury in his head in Malda district on Thursday and three persons were killed and at least 15 injured in armed clashes between groups allegedly belonging to the Trinamool Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist in North 24 Parganas district's Amdanga block late on Tuesday night. "There is right to dissent, right to oppose in the democracy. People who oppose the ruling party have the right to file nomination. It was also unfortunate when supporters of an elected panchayat member were killed," he added. --IANS bdc/pgh/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi Police on Saturday said it has arrested three wanted criminals, who had been hiding in Delhi and adjoining districts after committing heinous crimes since long. The police said the dreaded criminals, who were declared proclaimed offenders, have been identified as Khursheed, 35, Jai Prakash, 32, and Akaram, 36. They were arrested on Thursday and Friday in separate raids conducted at various locations in east and west Delhi. "A team of Special Investigation Unit (SIU) Crime Branch headed by ACP Sandeep Lamba and Inspector Upendra Kumar first arrested Kursheed near Nand Nagri Bus Depot on Thursday night and Akaram from Pilli Kothi in Kotwali area," Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP) Rajiv Ranjan said. They were involved in a series of crimes including attempt to murder, robbery, possession of illegal arms, cheating and others, the officer said. The police team later on Friday night arrested Jaiprakash near Nawada Metro Station. They had gone missing between 2011 and 2012 and were later declared proclaimed offenders, Ranjan added. --IANS sp/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three militants were killed in a gunfight on Saturday in an anti-militancy operation by the Army in north Kashmir's Bandipora district. Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said the three terrorists were killed in Chandajan forest area of Bandipora. "Arms and ammunition have been recovered from the slain terrorists whose identity is being ascertained. The operation has ended," Col Kalia said. Two soldiers were injured in the operation that began on Friday. --IANS sq/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three militants and an army soldier were killed in a gunfight on Saturday in an anti-militancy operation by the army in Jammu and Kashmir's Bandipora district. "Three terrorists have been killed in an operation by the army in Chandajan forest area," Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said here. "Arms and ammunition have been recovered from the slain terrorists whose exact identity is being ascertained," he said. "One soldier was also killed in this operation which has now ended," he added. Two soldiers were injured in this operation that began on Friday. --IANS sq/pgh/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Tripura State Election Commission on Saturday announced by-elections to the 3,386 vacant seats of three-tier gram panchayats on September 30. "The by-elections to the 3,386 vacant seats of gram panchayats, panchayat samities and zilla parishads would be held on September 30. Counting of votes would be done on October 3," Tripura State Election Commissioner G. Kameswara Rao told the media. "The by-elections were necessitated mostly due to the resignations and death of the elected representatives. The notification of the by-polls would be issued on September 4," he said. Of the 3,386 vacant seats in the three-tier local rural bodies, where by-elections would be held, 3,207 seats in gram panchayats followed by 161 seats in panchayat samities and 18 seats in zilla parishads. Reacting to the announcements of the by-elections to the local rural bodies, opposition Communist Party of India-Marxists (CPI-M) and Congress criticised the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party for "forcible resignations of the elected representatives belonging to opposition parties." "Around 96 per cent of the total elected representatives of CPI-M and other non-BJP parties were forced to resign following BJP leaders' and workers' threat after the saffron party-led coalition government assumed office in March," CPI-M central committee member Bijan Dhar told the media. BJP leaders denied the allegations, saying that most of the elected representatives either resigned on their own or CPI-M itself asked their them to resign. "In most cases, the CPI-M asked their elected representatives in the three-tier gram panchayats to resign to create a deadlock in the development works in rural areas to put the BJP government in an awkward position," BJP spokesman Mrinal Kanti Deb told IANS. The last panchayat elections were held in June 2014 and polling is due in June 2019. --IANS sc/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid strong indications of early elections in Telangana, the ruling TRS is all set to hold a massive show of strength here on Sunday. Billed as the mother of all rallies, it will be preceded by a meeting of the state cabinet, which is likely to take a decision on the early polls. Leaders of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) said Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao will take "key decisions" at the cabinet meeting and announce them at the public meeting. The cabinet may pass a resolution to dissolve the Assembly and recommend this to Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan. If the Election Commission agrees, the polls may be held in December along with the elections in three other states. For last few weeks, RAO had been dropping hints of assembly elections being advanced. He has already declared that the party will announce the candidates in September. KCR, as Rao is popularly known, is keen to advance the assembly polls by six months to avoid simultaneous elections to the Assembly and the Parliament. His two meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August further added to the speculation. KCR's son and cabinet minister K.T. Rama Rao said the Chief Minister would take a final decision on early polls. Rama Rao, who is number two in the party and the government, is confident of TRS retaining power whenever the elections are held as the party enjoys full support of the people. Titled "Pragati Nivedana", the meeting to be held at Kongara Kalan at Ibrahimpatnam on the city outskirts is expected to attract 25 lakh people. Rama Rao claims that this will be the biggest political rally in the country. According to him, TRS has 47 lakh members and if half of them turn up, the meet would be a huge success. TRS leaders are mobilising people for the meet from across the state. Arrangements were in full swing for the meeting amid allegations by the Congress and other opposition parties that TRS was misusing official machinery. They asked TRS to explain the source of funds for the event. The massive mobilisation of people is expected to hit the traffic on Outer Ring Road (ORR) as thousands of vehicles will be heading towards the venue from different entry points along ORR. Rama Rao has suggested to people not attending the meeting to stay indoors. Hyderabad High Court, while rejecting a petition to bar the meet, directed the organisers to ensure that inconvenience to public is minimised. TRS has turned the city and outskirts pink by putting up billboards, flags and posters. --IANS ms/in/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump and the ruling emir of Kuwait will meet at the White House on September 5, an official statement said. Emir Sabah al Ahmed will meet Trump as the head of a delegation to discuss trade, investment and cooperation in security, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a press release, Efe news reported. She did not provide further details of the meeting's agenda, but the Kuwaiti emir and President Trump are expected to discuss the diplomatic crisis and trade blockade against Qatar, which has been going on for more than an year. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain severed their ties with Qatar in June 2017, accusing the small emirate of supporting terrorism. The US, which has one of its main regional military bases in Qatar, has unsuccessfully tried to resolve the conflict with the mediation of Kuwait. --IANS anp/ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The White House said on Friday that US President Donald Trump will travel to France, Ireland, Argentina and Columbia in November for bilateral and multilateral issues. According to a statement issued by the White House press secretary, Trump will travel to Paris, France, to participate in a November 11 commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended the fighting in World War I, Xinhua reported. Trump's "participation in this event will highlight the sacrifices that Americans have made, not only during World War I but also in the century since," the White House said. While in Europe, Trump also will visit Ireland to "renew the deep and historic ties" with the country, read the statement. Later in November, Trump will attend the Group of 20 (G20) Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. "The G20 Summit will be an opportunity for the President to highlight his pro-growth economic policies on an international stage and meet bilaterally with other key world leaders," the White House said. The US leader will also travel to Colombia, where he "looks forward to discussing with the Duque administration opportunities for even greater collaboration on security, counter narcotics, and regional affairs." In addition, Trump has asked Vice President Mike Pence to travel to Singapore in November to attend the United States-Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit and the East Asia Summit and then to Papua New Guinea for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings. Pence will highlight the US regional vision, and meet with leaders of US regional allies and partners to advance security and prosperity, among others, the White House said. --IANS ahm/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A staggering Rs 40 lakh in salaries is paid every month to the 86 staffers of the Uttar Pradesh Raj Bhawan, the Governor's official residence, a response to an RTI query has revealed. As per the RTI data provided by Hemant Kumar Chaudhary, Public Information Officer (PIO) of Raj Bhawan, Uttar Pradesh to activist Nutan Thakur, the staffers include a principal secretary, a special secretary and a legal advisor. There are four officers on special duty (OSD), four personal secretaries and other secretariat staff. In addition, there is one chef, one steward, six drivers, three senior attendants and 19 attendants. There are also sixteen bearers, five assistant bearers, three mates, two cooks, one tailor, one washerman and five 'safai karmis'. The RTI response also mentioned that the salary of principal and special secretary is given by the government, while the cumulative monthly salary of other 84 personnel is Rs 39,70,530. The Raj Bhawan, however, refused to provide the number of police personnel posted there and the monthly salary given to them, citing provisions of RTI Act. The activist told IANS that "the reasons of denial do not seem proper". --IANS md/pgh/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The US has decided to end all funding for the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, the UN Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa), tasked with supporting Palestinian refugees and called for a large reduction in the number of these refugees. The Donald Trump administration would come up with a formal announcement in the next few weeks, a senior administration official told CNN late on Friday. The State Department on Friday described the agency as "irredeemably flawed" and that the US administration has "carefully reviewed" the issue and "will not make additional contributions to Unrwa", spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas later said the move was a "flagrant assault" against his people. "Such a punishment will not succeed to change the fact that the US no longer has a role in the region and that it is not a part of the solution," Nabil Abu Rudeina was quoted as saying by the Times of Israel. He added that the decision was in "defiance of UN resolutions". "We reject in the strongest possible terms the criticism that Unrwa's schools, health centres, and emergency assistance programs are 'irredeemably flawed'," Unrwa spokesman Chris Gunness tweeted. The latest move comes after the US announced back in January that it would withhold more than half of a tranche of funding for the agency, the BBC reported. The decision was made at a meeting between Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and a White House senior adviser and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley had also been pushing for the move. Unrwa was originally set up to take care of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It supports more than five million people across the Middle East. Unrwa offers educational, health and social services across the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon to registered Palestinian refugees. The agency educates about 500,000 children in nearly 700 schools and its doctors see more than nine million patients in nearly 150 primary health clinics every year. The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Saturday condemned the US' decision which will affect services provided to Palestinian refugees located in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem. Hamas' spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement that the decision makes the US administration the "enemy" of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims. Secretary-General of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization Saeb Erekat said: "Unrwa is not an institution of the Palestinian National Authority. "It was created by a resolution of the UN and therefore the entire international community must reject and condemn the American decision." The Unrwa was established under Resolution 302 of 1949 to aid people in the camps until the refugee issue is settled. The US has been the largest single donor to Unrwa, providing $368 million in 2016 and funding almost 30 per cent of its operations in the region. The Donald Trump administration had pledged $60 million to Unrwa in January, but withheld another $65 million pending a review. That remaining payment is now expected to be cancelled. --IANS in/ (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.) If Rahul Gandhi participates in the meeting called by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to discuss the country's future, he can take the opportunity to seek clarifications on the organisation's worldview. The replies by the RSS chief, Mohan Bhagwat, to the Congress president's questions cannot but have an impact on the outfit's future in case a clear picture emerges about its attitude towards the various communities. For instance, did K.B. Hedgewar, who founded the RSS in 1925, call the Muslims "yavan-snakes"? If so, is this still the view of the organisation or has there been a change? A related question can be on Hedgewar's successor, M.S. Golwalkar's categorisation of the Muslims as "Internal Enemies No.1". It is possible to link these uncharitable assessments of India's largest minority community to V.D. Savarkar's thesis that the only true sons of the soil are the Hindus since India is both their "pitribhu" (fatherland) and "punyabhu" (holy land). In contrast, such organic and emotive connections cannot be ascribed to the minorities whose pitribhu may be India, but their punyabhu is in Makkah or Rome. It is presumably because of this reason that Golwalkar described Christians as "Internal Enemies No.2". At one stroke, the two Maharashtrian Brahmins had relegated the Muslims and Christians to the status of being "aliens" because of their religious affiliations to foreign lands. It goes without saying that this perception persists among the rank and file of the saffron brotherhood to whom the patriotism of these two communities are forever in doubt. Hence, the observation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP, Vinay Katiyar, that Muslims have no place in India because their natural "homes" are Pakistan and Bangladesh, while another BJP MP, Roopa Ganguly, has said that West Bengal's partition in 1947 meant that only Hindus would live in the state and that the Muslims should go to East Pakistan, which is now Bangladesh. If both these statements deny legitimacy to the Muslim citizens of India, the reason can be traced to Savarkar's views. It is obvious that the RSS cannot claim to be abiding by the Indian Constitution if it subscribes to such opinions. Yet, disowning the two Hindutva luminaries will cut the ground from under its feet because these beliefs constitute the core of its philosophy. At a time, however, when the RSS is reaching out to eminent people outside its fold, it cannot be long before some among the invited guests question the basis of the organisation's belief system. Otherwise, it will seem that they have all been taken for a ride. Up until now, the RSS has been cautious in its outreach. The most prominent among those (apart from A.P.J. Abdul Kalam who was the BJP's choice for the President) who have been called to deliver a lecture to the RSS cadres is former President Pranab Mukherjee. Ratan Tata was next, but he chose not to speak. Reports that the RSS is now thinking of inviting Rahul Gandhi and the communist leader, Sitaram Yechury, suggest that it is gaining in confidence about the exposure to diverse and contrary views. It is also considering holding "vaicharik kumbh" sessions with intellectuals in various cities with non-RSS individuals. Perhaps the interaction with Pranab Mukherjee has told the RSS that it can successfully conduct its programme of interactions. There is little doubt that the former President hedged his bets while speaking in Nagpur lest his hosts be offended. For instance, while ranging over Indian history, he made no mention of the Indus Valley Civilisation, presumably because it would have raised questions about whether it was Aryan, as the Hindutva group claims, or pre-Aryan which is the generally accepted view. Similarly, he skipped over the entire Muslim period after referring to the Muslims as "invaders", which would have gladdened saffron hearts, and made no mention of Akbar, whose title of "the Great" given by "secular" historians is contested by the present dispensation. It will not serve any purpose, either for the RSS or its opponents, if everyone plays safe to keep the hosts in good humour. Instead, a reference will be perfectly in order by a guest to Hedgewar, who warned "others" not to "infringe on the rights of Hindus" since they must remember that "they are living in Hindusthan of Hindus", and to Golwalkar and Savarkar. The latest initiatives of the RSS are obviously intended to secure acceptance among a wider section of hoi polloi by demonstrating that it is not quite the ogre that its critics allege. But as in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's case, the flaunting of a gentler, kinder face may be construed as a mask unless the RSS formally dissociates itself from the anti-minority observations of its guiding lights like Hedgewar, Golwalkar and Savarkar. There have been several occasions in history where a party has initiated major changes in its outlook. One of these was the British Labour Party's decision to drop Clause IV of its constitution calling for the "common ownership" of the means of production. The communists, too, have done away with the concept of a dictatorship of the proletariat. Will the RSS follow suit by amending its basic ideology ? (Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com) --IANS amulya/vm/tb (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A woman was arrested in the murder case of her boyfriend, who had allegedly blackmailed her after discovering that she was involved with another man, police said on Saturday. Deputy Commissioner of Police, Central, Mandeep Singh Randhawa said accused Dolly Choudhary had been in a relationship with Sushil Kumar, 23, for some years. Sometime back, she started living with a friend Mohit Mavi, who had reportedly helped her in getting a job in Greater Noida. The case came to light after Kumar's father lodged a police complaint on August 16 about his missing son. A case of abduction was registered and the police questioned Dolly about Kumar's whereabouts. "On sustained interrogation, she revealed that when Kumar learnt about her involvement with another man, he was annoyed and started blackmailing her through her nude photographs," Randhawa said. "That's when she decided to kill him," the police officer said. "Mohit Mavi's wife committed suicide on August 7 after she learnt about her husband's relationship with Dolly Choudhary," Randhawa said. "After receiving threats from his wife's family, Mohit had fled to Bengaluru, but remained in touch with Chaudhary," police said. Kumar, who suspected that his girlfriend might marry Mohit, insisted her to meet him in Mathura on August 11. She contacted Manish Choudhary with whom her father wanted to marry her and managed to get sleeping pills in bulk. "On August 11, Dolly received Kumar from the Mathura railway station and visited several places with him. In a hotel, where they were staying, she mixed sleeping pills in his drink," police said. "After he got unconscious, she called Manish and the two threw Sushil Kumar's body into the Yamuna in Mathura," Randhawa said, adding Dolly and Manish were arrested on Friday. --IANS mg/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a chilling scene halfway through the first episode of Netflix's recent original series, Ghoul, Colonel Sunil Dacunha (Manav Kaul), a senior government interrogator, shows recruit Nida Rahim (Radhika Apte) a glass cupboard in his office. The cupboard contains confessions tapes of, as Dacunha explains, "intellectuals, Opposition leaders, religious fanatics". The colonel, who takes pride in being a descendant of the Dacunhas who worked for the Goanese Inquisition, tells Nida that this collection is a result of the army's "interrogation technique and hard work". Soon enough, we get to see an example of what these techniques comprise -- barbaric rituals of torture befitting the Inquisition. Dacunha also explains to Nida: "Showing kindness to these people... it's a sign of weakness. We are not just doing our duty. We are delivering justice too." Written and directed by Patrick Graham, Ghoul is set in a futuristic totalitarian India, torn apart by sectarian violence. The opening text of the film makes the audience aware of it: "A military clampdown is in effect." Writing for The Wire, Tanul Thakur describes the miniseries, divided into three episodes of 45 minutes each, as "a terrifying picture of a Hindu rashtra". Thakur also writes that the narrative dismantles the character of a "good Muslim", as built by popular cinema, through Nida, a patriotic member of an anti-terror squad who shows no sympathy for Muslims arrested by the government, not even for her father, a professor of philosophy who hides "seditious" literature. While Thakur's analysis is spot on, the film is a little more intricate in its critique of a totalitarian state, which would obviously target religious minorities but not really care about one's religion if one is considered seditious. I watched Ghoul last Saturday; on Tuesday, five social activists and writers were arrested on charges of being "Urban Naxals" and plotting to murder Prime Minister While it is for the courts to decide whether the accused have at all committed any crime, the way the Maharashtra police has fumbled in framing the charges makes one sceptical about them. Shekhar Gupta, in an piece for Business Standard ("Narendra Modi's 'Useful Idiots'", September 1, 2018), writes, "The BJP needs a new enemy. By adding Maoists to Muslims, the tukde-tukde thread will tie in nicely for 2019." With elections around the corner and the government facing criticism from many quarters for its decisions such as demonetisation, such a stunt might serve its election purposes. But, what after that? Torture as an instrument of state power is a central theme of this film -- as it is also of J M Coetzee's remarkable short novel, Waiting for the Barbarians. In the novel, the unnamed magistrate of a frontier town, on discovering how Colonel Joll of the Third Bureau has tortured two prisoners, explores the room in which the interrogation has taken place, and reflects on how the ritual of state power has rendered the place "holy". Much of the action in Ghoul is set in Meghdoot 31, a detention centre. While being given a guided tour of the facility, Nida is told that it was set up as an anti-nuclear bunker after "the first Emergency". (The 1975 one? I suppose so.) It is a secret facility, a self-sustaining city, not mentioned even in government records. Terrorists -- real and suspected -- are brought here for interrogation, and very often never leave. The similarities with Nazi concentration camps are obvious, with an execution chamber, an incinerator (like the one I saw at Dachau earlier this year), and classical music playing on loudspeakers. The music is supposed to have a soothing effect on the personnel posted there but can also be used as an instrument of torture, to prevent the inmates from sleeping. It is also soon to become an unholy place, thanks to a ritual performed by an inmate, summoning a monster, or the of the title. Space is important to the narrative of the film. It succeeds as horror not because of the monster but because of the space. Meghdoot 31, we learn quite early, has blackened windows -- to prevent anyone from looking in and to stop the prisoners from knowing what time it is. But, this also messes with the body clock of the soldiers. It is a claustrophobic space and the sense of claustrophobia, of being trapped, imprisoned, increases as the narrative progresses. In one scene, Nida is shown scratching the black paint on the windows to see what the weather outside is like, and in the climax, a black window is shattered to let in the blinding light (of realisation?). Describing the set design of his horror masterpiece, The Shining, Stanley Kubrick, in an interview with Michel Ciment, spoke of the importance of claustrophobia to the genre, how the inescapability of the characters on the screen reflects the inescapability of those stuck in the seats of a cinema. The ability of the makers of Ghoul to evoke a sense of claustrophobia is their sharpest political commentary. Yes, there are references to silencing of intellectuals that might seem very poignant at this moment. There are repeated mentions of wapsi -- a reference to gharwapsi -- of dissidents, especially those from minority communities. There is book burning, random search and arrests, people driving in the night being stopped by security forces and asked if there are carrying the carcass of a cow. All this is obvious. What is subtler, and thus more interesting, is a sense of being stuck in this hostile environment. Meghdoot 31 is a microcosm of the totalitarian society outside its concrete walls and barbed wires. In such a society, one can only be a torturer or the tortured, the interrogator or the subject of interrogation. The ghoul, a reflection of our guilt, makes no distinction between the two; it is hungry and omnivorous. There is no way to exorcise it. The film is a cautionary tale for our undeniably divisive times. If you evoke the monster of an anti-national too many times, if you cry wolf too frequently, one might just turn up. With the arrest of six more people police have nabbed 11 people in connection with the burglary at the office of the district election officer in Mamit district, a senior police officer said Saturday. Superintendent of Police H L Thangzuala told PTI over phone that six people were detained Friday while earlier five persons, including two women, all of them working at the district election office, were arrested by the officials of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) of Mamit. The burglary apparently occurred on August 23 night in which filled in forms of Brus in the relief camps in Tripura for inclusion of their names in the voters list were stolen. The Mamit district administration had filed an FIR on August 24 night, the SP said. Election officials who conducted revision of voters' lists in the relief camps in North Tripura district returned on August 19 and began working on the genuineness of the claims by Brus lodged in the relief camps. The unfinished electoral roll papers were left in the district election office on the night of August 23 and were found missing the next day. Meanwhile, Election Commission of India secretary S B Joshi and under secretary Santosh Kumar Dubey visited Mamit town today to enquire into the incidence of burglary of claims and objection forms from the office of the district election officer. The EC team met the district deputy commissioner, SP and members of the SIT on the actions taken by the district administration and the police. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Saturday recovered 2.7 kg of cocaine from a Venezuelan national who arrived in Kochi, a senior official here said. "Based on specific information, a team of Narcotics Control Bureau, Chennai Zone, intercepted Victor David Romero Infante, a Venezuelan national, at Cochin lnternational Airport and seized 2.7 kilograms of cocaine from his possession," a release from NCB Zonal Director A Bruno said. The man was travelling from Sao Paulo in Brazil to Kochi via Doha by a private carrier. Infante had arrived India on a tourist visa and was planning to leave the country after delivering the consignment, it said. The seized drug was concealed in the false bottom of Infante's briefcase, carried as check-in luggage and it "is of very pure form and was sourced direcly from the cocaine production belt in south America," it added. Infante was 'believed' to be working under the behest of the south American cocaine cartel, the release said, adding an investigation was on to find out Infante's links in Kochi. According to the release, coca leaf is the raw material for the manufacture of the drug cocaine, "a powerful stimulant and anaesthetic extracted chemically and abused for its psychoactive effects. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two chartered accountants were arrested for allegedly floating fake companies and fraudulently claiming input tax credit on transactions worth over Rs 100 crore, following which seven tax officials were suspended, an official said. The arrested persons were identified as Rakesh Arora and Gourav Behl, working as assistants in the Excise and Taxation Department, he said. The state government Thursday suspended seven ETOs for allegedly aiding these frauds by issuing C forms to the bogus firms, the official said. The C forms are issued by a registered dealer to another dealer for an inter-state purchase to obtain a reduction on sales tax. In the absence of C forms, the companies would not be able to show sales on paper, making them ineligible for input tax credit. The state government has been investigating fraudulent GST returns for past many months, Excise and Taxation Additional Chief Secretary Sanjeev Kaushal said. In March, a Special Investigating Team (SIT) was constituted to probe bogus transactions by two Gurgaon-based private companies for their involvement in the exercise of tax evasion during transition from VAT to GST. The firms included M/s Vipin Enterprises and M/s Uma Traders. Kaushal said initially, the Gurgaon police was investigating the scam in which more than 15 firms from Gurgaon were involved in bogus refund claims. Later, 15 firms from Panipat and two from Kaithal and some in Delhi were found involved in the bogus refunds claim, he said, adding that the state government had Thursday handed over the probe to the State Vigilance Bureau. "We are estimating that funds worth about Rs 100 crore were siphoned off, but we will try to recover the amount," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BSF has apprehended three people for trying to smuggle drugs from across the border with Pakistan here, officials said Saturday. The three people were apprehended On Friday Three mobile phones, one Pakistani SIM and an Indian SIM, and a vehicle has been seized from them. Besides this, Indian currency worth Rs 6,954, Nepali currency worth Rs 25, US currency worth $1 have also been seized from them. According to an official, an information regarding some suspicious movement in Sri Ganganagar sector was obtained. "On this information, a special operation was launched by 91 Battalion of BSF in Sri Karanpur area and one person identified as Gurmeet Singh from Jalandhar was apprehended near 350 metres from the International Border," the official said. On his interrogation, two more persons, identified as Attar Singh and Surendra Singh, both from Sri Ganganagar, were apprehended with a Bolero vehicle. During detailed interrogation of the trio, they confessed to have been planning to smuggle a drug consignment and had been carrying out a recce of the area. All the three smugglers were later handed over to the police for further investigation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three accused in journalist case were conspirators in the Narendra Dabholkar murder too, and one of them imparted weapon-training to Dabholkar's shooters, the CBI told a court here Saturday. The Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Sachin Andure, one of the alleged shooters of Dabholkar, last month. The agency on Saturday produced Rajesh Bangera and Amit Digvekar, both accused in the Lankesh murder case, along with Andure in the Pune court. Andure's CBI remand ended on Saturday. The court sent Digvekar and Bangera in CBI custody till September 10, while Andure was sent in judicial custody. Claiming that there was a link between the accused in the two cases, the CBI on Friday took the custody of Bangera and Digvekar from the Karnataka Special Investigation Team which is probing the Lankesh murder. "Bangera, a government employee and PA to a Congress MLC in Karnataka, gave weapon-training to both the shooters, Andure and (Sharad) Kalaskar, who killed Dr Dabholkar," CBI lawyer Vijaykumar Dhakane told the court here. Bangera was also involved in the conspiracy of Dr Dabholkar's murder, and CBI needs to interrogate him to find out where he imparted training, the source of fire arms, and "present whereabouts of the fire arms", the prosecutor said. As to Digvekar, the CBI lawyer said he had helped Andure to do a reconnaissance of Dabholkar's house and the routes that the anti-superstition activist usually took. "Digvekar lived in a Goa-based Ashram for over 15 years and was associated with Dr Virendra Tawde, one of the key conspirators in Dabholkar case. Digvekar is one of the co-conspirators in Dabholkar murder case as entire conspiracy was hatched by Dr Tawde along with Digvekar and this conspiracy needs to be unearthed," said the CBI lawyer. Defence lawyer Samir Patwardhan pointed out from the CBI's charge sheet against Tawde that the agency had earlier claimed that Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar had shot Dabholkar, and now it has come out with a different version. After hearing both the sides, Judicial Magistrate (First Class) R R Bhalgat remanded Bangera and Digvekar in CBI custody till September 10 and sent Andure in judicial remand. The CBI could not take the custody of Amol Kale, a third accused in Lankesh case who it says is one of the main conspirators in Dabholkar case too, due to some technicalities, its lawyer said. Sharad Kalaskar, the second alleged shooter who fired on Dabholkar, is in the custody of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad in an explosives seizure case. Dabholkar was shot dead in Pune on August 20, 2013, while Gauri Lankesh was murdered in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017. Human rights activist Anand Teltumbde refuted Saturday the Maharashtra police claim that he had attended a convention in Paris which was allegedly funded by Maoists and dismissed as outrageous charges of Naxal link. Teltumbde, who teaches at a management institute in Goa, was among the activists and lawyers whose homes were raided by the Pune police on August 28 on suspicion they had links with Maoists. "These are all false allegations to malign and defame my image. I dont know any Maoist leader and I am not having any relation with this," Teltumbde told PTI over the phone. "I keep going abroad for academic conferences. It is all on official invitations and everything is well documented," he said. The raid on the home of Teltumbde, a Goa Institute of Management professor and Dalit writer, was part of multi-city searches carried out by the Pune police in connection with an event held in Pune in December last year. Five Left-wing activists were arrested during the searches and they are under house arrest till September 6 as per a Supreme Court direction. Teltumbde is not among them. In a press briefing here Friday, the Maharashtra Police had cited a letter, allegedly written by "Comrade Prakash", that mentions about arranging funds for a human rights convention attended by "Comrade Anand" in Paris. However, the police did not say when the convention was held. The letter also mentioned about allocating Rs 10 lakh annually to organise international seminars on Dalit issues, they had said. The press meet was addressed by Additional Director General (Law and Order) Param Bir Singh. Dismissing these charges, Teltumbde said, "I dont know any Maoist leaders and I have not received any letters. "Police should think before levelling allegation, they should see my background, the work I which I did, I don't have time to do all these things," he said, adding "this is all outrageous". "My profession and whatever I do is all in public domain. This is a deliberate attempt by the police to trouble common people. I keep writing on various issue and I will be always critical," he said. Teltumbde alleged harassment of activists by the police. "Only because the police have rights and they will do anything they want, this is not done," he said, alleging "they are harassing us by doing such things". The August 28 raids were carried out as part of a police probe into the Elgaar Parishad, an event held in Pune on December 31, 2017. Police say "provocative speeches" delivered at the event was one of the reasons for violence at Koregaon-Bhima village in Pune district the next day. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil Saturday objected to Additional Director General of Police Param Bir Singh's press briefing on the arrests of Left-wing activists and asked if the ADG was a "spokesperson" of the Maharashtra government. In a press conference in Mumbai Friday, Singh had claimed that police had "conclusive proof" to link the Left-wing activists arrested in June and this week to Maoists, saying one of them spoke of a "Rajiv Gandhi-type event to end Modi-raj". Speaking on the police briefing, Vikhe-Patil said, "The matter is pending before the Supreme Court. The government should in fact have waited for the court's order. Despite that Pune Police Commissioner took a press conference. After that, the ADG did not have any reason to address a press conference." The Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Congress' 'Jan Sangharsh Yatra'. "The Chief Minister (Devendra Fadnavis) who is also the state home minister could have addressed the media. But instead, Singh spoke to the press. Is he a spokesperson of the government?" Vikhe-Patil questioned. He sought to know what the police wanted to achieve by conducting a press conference when there is a court hearing scheduled next Thursday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Some retired judges and senior lawyers criticised the Maharashtra police Saturday for revealing before the media the evidence collected as part of its investigation into alleged Maoist links of some Left-wing activists arrested earlier this week. However, a few others from the legal fraternity noted that there are no rules on whether or not the police should reveal documents in a case. Additional Director General (Law and Order) Parambir Singh in a press conference held here Friday, while giving details of its case, read out letters purportedly exchanged between the activists. He said they had "conclusive proof" to link Left-wing activists arrested in June and this week to Maoists, saying one of them spoke of a "Rajiv Gandhi-type event to end Modi-raj". Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991. Retired Bombay High Court judge P D Kode said revealing evidence collected as part of investigation was wrong. "Police's job at the preliminary stage of a case is restricted to collecting evidence and presenting it before the court by way of charge sheet. Police should not form an opinion at such a nascent stage," Kode said. He said that even arrest of an accused should be made only when there is a fear that those persons would flee and not face the charges levelled against them. "Arresting an accused just for the sake of it is not advisable. Even the Supreme Court has strictly advised against this," he added. Kode had conducted the trial in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case against 123 accused and was later elevated to the high court. Senior counsel Mihir Desai expressed shock over the manner in which the state police machinery undertook the press conference. "Reading out documents which is supposed to be part of evidence against the accused persons is wrong. The police has not given the said documents to the court or the defence lawyers," Desai said. "The police is just maligning the accused persons. The state machinery is not supposed to do this," he said. Desai added that since the Supreme Court is now seized of the matter, the state police should have presented its case there instead of doing so before the media. A public prosecutor said on condition of anonymity that the police's move of revealing evidence was "foolish". "By revealing the evidence at this stage of the probe, the police have put the accused at benefit. This will hamper further investigation," the prosecutor said. Senior lawyer Amit Desai, while deprecating the police's decision to reveal documents, said ordinarily it should not have been done. "Documents which are evidence in a case have to be submitted only to the court. Only in exceptional cases where the state machinery has to justify its conduct, limited information is passed out to the public through the media," Desai said. Another senior lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani, however, opined that the police has the discretion to show their case to the media. "In this particular case, the entire nation raised questions on the police's conduct and it was made to look like the police cooked up the case. Hence, when the police faced brickbats in the public domain then they (police) can justify their case in the same public domain," Jethmalani said. Retired Bombay High Court judge Abhay Thipsay, who recently joined the Congress, said there are no rules on whether police should or should not reveal documents in a case. "Maybe, since the police faced criticism in this case it decided to justify its case. Police probably wanted to show that it took action of arrest only after collecting enough evidence," Thipsay said. Pune police had on August 28 raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested five of them -- Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Sudha Bharadwaj in Faridabad and Gautam Navalakha in Delhi. The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the Elgaar Parishad conclave in Pune on December 31 last year, which allegedly triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima in the district the next day. The Supreme Court has ordered that the five should be kept under house arrest till September 6. In June, Pune police had arrested Sudhir Dhawale from Mumbai, activist Rona Wilson from Delhi and lawyer Surendra Gadling, professor Shoma Sen and Adivasi rights activist Mahesh Raut from Nagpur. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ridiculed Saturday the opposition unity efforts ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, saying non- parties were ganging up to create political instability in the country, a charge refuted by the "The opposition is worried that the is gaining from strength to strength. They are opposed to development and have been ganging up to join hands with the only aim to take on the saffron party," the firebrand Hindutva leader said at an event by a media house. The chief minister said the people were hopeful that a grand Ram temple will be built in Ayodhya in the state and "Lord Ram will decide its date". Slamming the opposition parties, the chief minister said, "Their only aim is to create political instability in the country so that they can fish in troubled waters." His comments at the 'Hindustan Shikhar Samagam' came against the backdrop of efforts to stich an alliance among the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the in Uttar Pradesh with an eye on the upcoming "The opposition is against development and its only target is to dislodge the BJP from power," he said. Adityanath sought to poke fun at the opposition parties, saying they were not clear as to who will lead the alliance. "They cannot project any leader who can head the alliance," he said. "A grand Ram temple will be built in Ayodhya. The people are very hopeful. Ramji will decide its date. But, it will be built definitely," the saffron-clad chief minister said. The BJP will fight the in 2019 on the plank of development, he said and exuded confidence the party will retain power under the leadership of Prime Minister "The BJP will again come to power at the Centre and under the able leadership of the prime minister, we will put up a grand show in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections," Aditynath said. He was responding to a specific question about whether his party would repeat its performance in 2014 when it bagged 73 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state along with its alliance partners. The 46-year-old monk-turned-politician said the party does not believe in playing the caste card for the sake of votes and it will go to the polls on the development plank. "The BJP does not play caste card," he said. "We believe in development and welfare of the people without any discrimination," he said. On the police encounters in the state, he said the authorities are trying their best to instil confidence in the minds of the people that law breakers would not be allowed to go scotfree. "At the same time, we have warned the police that there should not be any fake encounters. If they misuse power, action will be taken against them," he said. The chief minister, who assumed power last year after his party scored a landslide victory in the 2017 Assembly polls, slammed the previous Samajwadi Party dispensation saying, "People voted against the SP as they came to realise the misdeeds of the Akhilesh Yadav government." However, UPCC chief Raj Babbar, who was the next guest at the meet, refuted Adityanath's remarks over his remarks on the opposition unity. "The unity among the opposition parties is to save the country from the BJP's misrule," he said. Babbar said that the unity efforts were in the context of Uttar Pradesh, which sends the highest number of 80 members to the Lok Sabha. "This is Lok Sabha election and leaders will take a call," he said. The actor-turned-politician said the efforts to strike unity among non-BJP parties were not directed against any individual. "The sole purpose is to save the country from the BJP's misrule," he said. To a specific question as to who will head the alliance, Babbar said the issue will crop up at a later stage. "The issue will be decided at a later stage. It is for the people to decide, the country will decide...," he said. "But, one thing is for certain that if the heads the alliance, it will be our party chief Rahul Gandhi who will head it," he added. A South African national was arrested and cocaine was seized from his possession here on Saturday, police said. Following a tip off, a team of Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) apprehended Tony Harrison from a hotel near Jawahar circle Friday night, Additional Director General (ATS and SOG) Umesh Mishra said. Around 10 grams of cocaine was seized from his possession, he added. Harrison, 32, hails from Johannesburg and had arrived here from Mumbai in a flight on Friday. He is in India on a tourist visa since March 18 and was staying in Mumbai, Mishra said. He was placed under arrest on Saturday, the ADG said. Mishra said during the preliminary interrogation, Harrison confessed his involvement in smuggling of drugs. He revealed his connections with several drug smugglers in Delhi and Mumbai, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister S S Ahluwalia Saturday visited the home of Asiad Heptathalon gold winner Swapna Burman at Ghoshpara, in the outskirts of this north Bengal town and announced cash award of Rs 30 lakh for her. Ahluwalia, the union minister of state for IT and electronics, said Asiad winners will be feliciated in Delhi on September 4 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will personally meet them the next day. Union Minister of State for Sports, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore also congratulated Swapna's parents when Ahluwalia called him up from their home and helped them speak to him. Ahluwalia, who represents Darjeeling in the Lok Sabha, said his visit was not prompted by politics but because the whole country was rejoicing over the Swapna's win in the Jakarta Asiad. He also proposed a Railways job for the first Indian heptathelete to win the Asain Games gold. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had spoken to Swapna's parents soon after her win and announced a cash award of Rs 10 lakh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US-based G6 Hospitality LLC and domestic company Auromatrix holdings have announced opening the former's first property under international brand 'Hotel 6' in India at Zirakpur, Punjab on the outskirts of Chandigarh. 'Hotel 6' Chandigarh, Zirakpur, is a 175 room hotel spread over 6 floors. 'Hotel 6' was ranked as one of the ten top hotel companies in the USA in 2015. The details of the formal launch of 'Hotel 6' were shared with media by the top management from both the companies Friday evening. These included Kumar Sitaraman, Chairman, Auromatrix Holdings, Rob Palleschi, CEO, G6 Hospitality LLC, USA , Mike McGeehan, CDO, G6 Hospitality LLC, USA. The hotel is located along the NH-22 (Chandigarh -Ambala) in Zirakpur. "In January2017, Auromatrix entered into a development partnership with G6 for India. As an outcome of the partnership, Auromatrix has unveiled the first Hotel property in India, the 'Hotel 6' Chandigarh, Zirakpur," Sitaraman said. Plans are on to open forward-looking 'Hotel 6' properties at Tier I, II and emerging cities across India, he said. The India partnership aims to add 30-40 G6 hotels in a period of 5 years, he said. Hotel 6 is a brand of the US based G6 Hospitality LLC. G6 Hospitality LLC owns 3 iconic American brands Motel 6, Studio 6 and Hotel 6. The first Motel 6 was opened to public in 1962 in Santa Barbara, California, McGeehan said. Since then, the company has grown in the regions of USA and Canada and today, their portfolio comprises around 1,600 hotels across USA, Canada and Mexico, he said. The Hotel 6 brand was launched by G6 for International markets and is undergoing development in Latin America, and now in India,said Palleschi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami Saturday assured his government's support to farmers of the state, saying he himself was one. "I was born in a village. I was a farmer. I am still involved in farming. Therefore, I know how tough the problems of farmers are, and at the same time how difficult it is to practise agriculture," he said. The Chief Minister's remarks at a government event at Anuppur in this district comes in the backdrop of stiff resistance from a section of landowners, especially farmers and agriculturists, for the proposed eight-lane Expressway connecting this city with state capital Chennai. Earlier, The Madras High Court had restrained the Centre and Tamil Nadu government from dispossessing people of their lands to be acquired for the Rs 10,000 crore highway till further orders. At Salem today, Palaniswami said farmers worked hard in different climatic conditions and that the "Amma government will stand by them forever for their welfare." "The government will formulate necessary schemes for them. Farmers in all parts should progress. Only if the farmers flourish can a country flourish," he said and assured the farming sector all assistance in this regard. Palaniswami recalled that the late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was keen on rural development and therefore she formulated many welfare schemes to benefit them in the rural roads and education sectors. He also said Tamil Nadu was doing well in the farming sector. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Police investigators in Amsterdam included an extremist attack as a possible motive for the stabbings of two people at a busy railway station as authorities in the Dutch capital reported that a suspect shot by police is an Afghan citizen. The 19-year-old man was questioned about his intent late Friday at the hospital where he was being treated for gunshot wounds while under guard, Amsterdam City Hall said in a statement. The people stabbed at Central Station around noon also were being treated in a hospital. Their injuries were serious, but not life threatening, according to the city's statement. Neither they nor the suspect were identified. "The victims were not chosen deliberately or with a clear reason," Amsterdam authorities said. "The investigation is still underway, and all scenarios remain open for the investigation team." The suspect has a German residence permit, and Amsterdam police were in contact with authorities in Germany to find out about his background, according to the city government. The stabbings occurred shortly after noon (1000 GMT; 6 a.m. EDT) at Central Station in downtown Amsterdam when a man walked into a group of people. "Something happened, we don't know yet what, but during that two people were stabbed and one person with a knife in his hand walked away and he was shot by police," police spokesman Rob van der Veen said during the afternoon. Forensics experts spent hours combing the scene, disrupting rail services into the evening rush hour. Two platforms were temporarily closed to train traffic, but the station wasn't evacuated. Trams to and from the square in front of the station were stopped as police and emergency services converged on the area. Red and white police tape kept members of the public away from the scene. Central Station is a busy entry and exit point for visitors to Amsterdam, with regular trains linking it to the city's Schiphol Airport. Friday is one of the busiest days of the week for train travel as tourists arrive for the weekend. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress leader Saturday slammed the Maharashtra government over the arrest of five Left-wing activists for alleged Maoist links, saying it was an attempt to crush dissent. Addressing a press conference here, the former Union Home Minister said holding extreme Right or Left wing views is acceptable in a free country and the problem arises only when there is an incitement to violence. "They (those arrested) are civil rights activists, human rights activists, lawyers, writers and poets. They have extreme Left views. "In a free country you can have extreme Left view, you can have extreme Right view...that is the essence of freedom. It is only when somebody indulges in violence or invites violence or aids or abets violence that he is committing a crime," he stated. The Congress leader alleged the police crackdown on Left-wing activists is aimed at silencing the critics of the BJP- led government. "We think this is the attempt to divert the attention of the people from pressing issues. This is an attempt to crush dissent and attempt to instill fear in critics of the government. "We condemn this and we are very happy that the court has intervened and given them some degree of liberty," he said. On August 28, the Pune police had raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested five of them - Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Sudha Bharadwaj in Faridabad and Gautam Navalakha in Delhi - for their alleged links with Maoists. The Supreme Court has ordered that the five be kept under house arrest till September 6. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The family of Vernon Gonsalves, one of the five activists arrested for alleged Maoist links, rejected Saturday the police charges against him and termed them "fabricated" and diversionary. His son Sagar Gonsalves said charges against the Mumbai resident arrested by Pune Police on August 28 were false. The police claimed to have "conclusive proof", including letters seized during the raids, to link the arrested Left-wing activists to Maoists. "I was present when searches and raids were conducted at our home and I know what the police have seized," said Sagar Gonsalves. He said the police were talking in the air when they made the allegations at their press conference on Friday. "I could not stop laughing when the police were levelling false charges with the so called letters," he said. The activist's wife Susan Abraham, who is a lawyer, called the police action a ploy to divert attention from the real culprits behind the Koregaon-Bhima violence that took place on January 1. "The letters read out by the police during the media briefing are manufactured. None of these letters were filed or submitted to the court," she said on Saturday. She accused the police of not following the set procedure for carrying out such probes. "The police have not followed the procedure established by the cyber laws for seizure of electronic data, she said. The police have planted these fabricated letters because none (of them have been) filed in court and this is against GRs (government resolutions) and the Bombay High Court judgment prohibiting leaking information to media during investigation," she said. Revealing evidence in a case is against the basic principles of criminal investigation and violates the rights of an accused, she said. "This all is being done to divert attention from the real culprits behind the Koregaon-Bhima violence which is the Bhide-Ekbote gang," Abraham added. Milind Ekbote of Samast Hindu Aghadi and Sambhaji Bhide, the founder of Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan, are accused of orchestrating the violence. But both have denied these allegations. Abraham said that "imaginary assassination plots" were being "invented" to divert attention from the killings of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, MM Kalburgi and journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh. She claimed it was being done to deflect from demands being made to ban the right-wing Sanatan Sanstha, which has been accused of having links with people arrested in connection with these killings as well as the seizure of explosives by the Maharashtra anti-terror squad. Besides Vernon Gonsalves, the other arrested are Varavara Rao (Hyderabad), Arun Ferreira (Mumbai), Sudha Bharadwaj (Faridabad) and Gautam Navalakha (New Delhi). The Supreme Court has ordered that the five be kept under house arrest till September 6. The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the "Elgaar Parishad", an event organised in Pune on December 31, 2017, which allegedly triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima village in Pune district the next day. Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Additional Director General (Law and Order) Param Bir Singh said an email exchanged between activist Rona Wilson and a Maoist leader, spoke of ending "Modi-raj" with a 'Rajiv Gandhi-type incident'. Wilson was arrested in Delhi in June in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence in Maharashtra in January. Besides Wilson, other activists-lawyers were arrested in June by the Pune Police are Sudhir Dhawale (from Mumbai), Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut (all from Nagpur). All the activists arrested in June and early this week had links with Maoists, Singh had said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The son of Vernon Gonsalves, one of the five activists arrested for alleged Maoist links, Saturday rejected the police charges against his father and termed them as "laughable". Vernon Gonsalves, a Mumbai resident, is one of the prominent activists and lawyers whose homes were raided by the Pune Police on August 28 on suspicion they had links with Maoists. He and four others were later arrested. His son Sagar Gonsalves said charges against him were false. The police claimed to have "conclusive proof", including letters seized during the raids, to link the arrested Left-wing activists to Maoists. "I was present when searches and raids were conducted at our home and I know what police have seized," said Sagar Gonsalves. He said allegations against his father, made by a top police officer while addressing a press conference Friday, with regards to alleged letters was like "talking in the air". "I could not stop laughing, when the police were levelling false charges with so called letters," he said. Besides Vernon Gonsalves, the other arrested are Varavara Rao (Hyderabad), Arun Ferreira (Mumbai), Sudha Bharadwaj (Faridabad) and Gautam Navalakha (New Delhi). The Supreme Court has ordered that the five be kept under house arrest till September 6. The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the "Elgaar Parishad", an event organised in Pune on December 31, 2017, which allegedly triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima village in Pune district the next day. Addressing a press conference here, Additional Director General (Law and Order) Param Bir Singh said an email exchanged between Rona Wilson, an activist, and a Maoist leader, speaks of ending "Modi-raj" with a 'Rajiv Gandhi-type incident'. Wilson was arrested in Delhi in June in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence in Maharashtra in January. Besides Wilson, other activists-lawyers arrested in June by the Pune Police. They were Sudhir Dhawale (from Mumbai), Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut (all from Nagpur). All the activists arrested in June and early this week had links with Maoists, Singh had said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A civil society group here appealed to all political parties in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday to boycott the upcoming local bodies and panchayat polls till the Supreme Court dismisses a petition challenging Article 35A of the Constitution. Article 35A, incorporated in the Constitution by a 1954 Presidential Order, confers special status to the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir, and bars people from outside the state from acquiring any immovable property in the state. "The JKCSCC appeals to all political parties, civil society members across Jammu and Kashmir to continue putting up a united face to the whole world and ensure boycott of the upcoming panchayat and civic body elections," a JKCSCC member Muzaffar Shah told reporters. Shah is one of the interveners in the Supreme Court. "No one will participate in these elections till the petition against Article 35A is dismissed by the apex court. These elections are a futile exercise and civil society will ensure a complete boycott, he added. Shah said the time has come for all stakeholders, including separatists, mainstream leaders and civil society members of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh to come up with specific recommendations for a "peaceful solution" to the Kashmir issue which is acceptable to India, Pakistan and people of the state on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC). He said the JKCSCC also plans to file a petition before the apex court for restoration of internal autonomy according to the Delhi Agreement of 1952. "Our action plan will be to file a petition before the Supreme Court for restoration of internal autonomy as per the Delhi Agreement of 1952. We will have meetings across the state with all stakeholders and also across India and Pakistan to meet with the ruling party, opposition, regional political parties and civil society," Shah said. According to the agreement, the domiciles of Jammu and Kashmir shall be regarded as citizens of India, but the State Legislature was empowered to make laws for conferring special rights and privileges on state subjects. "We also plan to hold meetings with stakeholders across the LoC in Muzaffarabad and Gilgit-Baltistan," he added. Shah said these exercises would be taken up in a time-bound action programme of 18 months. "It is a herculean task and we expect people from all walks of life to come forward to realize this goal," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Australia batsman Dean Jones said Saturday that upcoming Asia Cup is an "unbelievable" opportunity for players like Ambati Rayudu and Manish Pandey. The Indian selectors met here to choose the Cup squad and rested captain Virat Kohli while naming Rohit Sharma to lead the team in the 50-over tournament to be held in the UAE later this month. "No one is going to replace Kohli...but it is an unbelievable opportunity for Pandey, Ambati Rayudu and these boys, and don't forget M S Dhoni. I am looking forward to him having a huge series," Jones, an expert with Star Sports, was quoted as saying in a media release. Jones, who played 52 Test matches and 164 One Day Internationals, also believes that India have a well-balanced bowling attack. "It's a great team led by Rohit Sharma. They got their bowlers right who can reverse swing at the death, 25-30 overs will be bowled by the spinners. They got (Yuzvendra) Chahal, Kuldeep (Yadav) and Axar Patel bowling beautifully. Bhuvi (Bhuvaneshwar) and (Jasprit) Bumrah to bowl the death (overs)," he added. India begin their campaign against a qualifying side on September 18 and the very next day clash with arch-rivals Pakistan in a league clash. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An organisation of displaced Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) on Saturday blamed the Centre and state government for delisting of over one lakh KPs from the voter list for forthcoming civil polls in Jammu. All State Kashmiri Pandit Conference (ASKPC) criticised the central and state governments for "hardly doing anything"for Kashmiri Migrants, ASKPC said that during previous Congress-PDP rule in 2005, they were given voting rights for Municipal polls in Jammu but now denied by the BJP government. "The government of India (GoI) and Governor rule in J&K has done biggest dis-service and right violation with displaced Kashmiri migrants. They have denied voting rights under a conspiracy by J&K election department to over one lakh KPs in forthcoming Municipal polls in Jammu in October this year", General Secretary of ASKPC, Dr T K Bhat told reporters here. Kashmiri pandits, who are settled in migrants camps in Jammu and also in non camps areas for past 28 years, have been delisted from voter lists and denied voting rights in the name of being "migrants" by Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) J&K, Bhat said. "During previous Congress-PDP rule in 2005, we voted inMunicipal polls in Jammu and one Kashmiri migrant lady was elected as corporate," he added. Kashmiri displaced people living across the country in different state and towns including in Delhi, Pune, Mumbi, Banglore etc., are exercising their right of franchise in civil polls, but in Jammu, their kith and kin are denied right to vote on the plea of being migrant. What type of rule is this by Election Commission of India (ECI), he asked. "ECI is deliberately denying us right to vote in Jammu in civil polls in October this year under a conspiracy, he alleged, calling it biggest human right violation. All State Kashmiri Pandit conference (ASKPC) convened meeting of all heads of socio-political organization and social activists of the community here which was chaired by its president Advocate Ravinder Raina to chalk out strategy to deal with the issue. The representative of major organizations who participated in the meeting were Dr Agni Shekhar, Kuldeep Raina, Daya Krishan (Convenor of Panun Kashmir), H N Jattu (President AIKPC) P L Budgami (President KHF), Vijay Bakaya (Ex MLC), Ashok Kangan (Head JKVM), Rakesh Koul (Head Sampuran Kashmir), M K Yogi (Head of National Conference Minority Cell), Chand Ji Bhat (Head of BJP Mandal President), P K Tikoo (PDP Migrant Cell), D N Kissu, Prof Girdhari Lal, P L Swadeshi (All from AKBUF), Sharda Nanadan (Sharda committee), T K Ganjoo (DAV Institution). Most of them were critical and expressed their concern and were apprehensive that their fundamental rights of voting are being snatched from them. The municipal elections were last conducted in January-February 2005 and the elected bodies had completed their five-year term in March 2010. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Assam Police Saturday filed a 844-page charge sheet against 48 people in the sensational mob lynching case of two youths in Karbi Anglong district in June this year. "It is a major achievement by the Assam Police that we could file the charge sheet within 90 days. It is filed against 48 persons accused of lynching two youths at Dokmoka in Karbi Anglong on June 8," Assam Director General of Police Kuladhar Saikia said at a press conference here. On June 8, two friends -- Nilotpal Das (29) and Abhijeet Nath (30)-- had gone to a picnic spot at Kangthilangso waterfalls under Dokmoka police station in Karbi Anglong. While returning, their car was stopped at Panjuri Kachari by a group of irate villagers, on rumours of being child-lifters. While Das, a local, was a sound engineer settled in Mumbai, Nath was a businessman from Guwahati. The villagers attacked their vehicle, pulled the two youths out and bludgeoned them to death even as the duo pleaded to let them go, according to videos circulated through social media. The charge sheet, which contained 844 pages of charges against the accused along with 104-page case diary, was submitted in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate at Diphu, the district headquarter of Karbi Anglong. "When a movement against mob lynching is going on everywhere, it is an important development for the entire country. We could attach the details of everyone's crime and all the accused were arrested. The charge sheet also has as many as 71 witnesses," Saikia said. This could well be one of the rare mob lynching cases in recent times where a charge sheet has been filed against such a large number of persons. "The charges have been framed under Sections 302, 341, 427, 143, 144, 147, 148, 149, 109, 332 and 186 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)," the police official added. The investigating officer of the case is Inspector Kamal Chandra Rajbongshi, who was assisted by a three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by Karbi Anglong Additional Superintendent of Police Indraneel Barua. "The entire investigation was carried out under the direct supervision of Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Mukesh Agrawal," Saikia said. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had announced to conduct the trial of the barbaric act in a fast track court "as per people's wish". The main accused, Alfajoz Timung, who was out on bail in a murder case, had asked the villagers over telephone to stop the duo's vehicle, and spread the rumours of them being child-lifters, police said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Supreme Court judge Justice Indira Banerjee has revealed in an open court that an effort was made to influence her in a case related to Hotel Royal Plaza. A bench comprising justices Arun Mishra and Banerjee was hearing the matter on August 30 in court number 8 when the revelation was made. Justice Mishra said that the attempt to influence the judge amounted to contempt of court. Senior lawyer Shyam Divan requested Justice Banerjee not to recuse herself from the hearing as it might be used by others as well to ensure recusal of judges from hearing cases. Justice Banerjee also said during the hearing that sometimes even senior members of the bar start talking about pending cases after customary meetings. She said that any attempt to influence the court will be viewed seriously, while hinting that somebody had telephoned her for the same. However, there was no clarity on whether there was a telephone call or who made it. The bench then heard the matter and reserved its verdict. Justice Banerjee, who was the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court has recently been elevated to the apex court. Besides her, Justices Vineet Saran and K M Joseph have been elevated to the apex court as judges. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP slammed Congress president Rahul Gandhi Saturday for leading a "disinformation campaign" on Rafale fighter jet deal. BJP national secretary Tarun Chugh alleged that Gandhi was "confusing" the people of country "on this highly sensitive issue" of national security. "Gandhi has been coming up with contradictory statements regarding the financial aspects of the deal, and had been quoting different prices, which the previous Congress government failed to materialize," he said here. Ridiculing Gandhi, the BJP leader said the Congress chief had been indulging in "primary school level discussion on an issue that was much complicated for his level of understanding". Chugh sought to know as to why the Congress-led UPA government kept the deal "pending for an indefinite period". "In fact, the then Defence Minister AK Antony should come forward to tell why the UPA government sat on the files for as long as 10 years," he said. Claiming that the deal was executed on better terms as compared to the 2007 proposal during the UPA regime, Chugh said Gandhi was "trying to compare apples with oranges". He said the Congress president was "comparing the price of a chasis of an aircraft with a fully loaded plane" required for the aerial defence of the country. "The (Narendra) Modi government gave go ahead to the deal after meetings of Price Negotiation Committee and Contract Committee which continued for over a year," he said. "The Congress has no issues as it stares towards an all-time low tally during the 2019 parliamentary elections and Gandhi, fearing the inevitable, is trying to unsuccessfully scuttle the deal which is paramount for the defence of the country," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bodies of three women have been found from different places of Bihar's Bhagalpur district, police said Saturday. Police suspect two of them might have been killed while the third could be a case of suicide. Kahalgaon Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Dilnawaz Ahmad said that a woman, identified as Dulari Devi (65), was stoned to death in her sleep at her house yesterday. She was killed at Azampur village under Sanhaula police station area. Another body was recovered by the police from a well located in Yogavir hills under Isipur police station of the district, the SDPO said adding that the body was identified as that of Gita Devi's (45), a resident of Barahat village of the district. Police are investigating if it was a case of murder or suicide. Another body was recovered near Isipur canal under Isipur police station this morning, the police officer said adding that the deceased has been identified as Kalpana Devi (35), a resident of Chapri village of Godda district in Jharkhand. Kalpana Devi may have been strangulated to death, he said adding that exact reason behind the death could be known only after getting post mortem report. All the bodies have been sent for post mortem to Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, Bhagalpur, the SDPO added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A priest of a church was allegedly attacked by two men who pelted stones at him after they were stopped from eating at a gathering in north Delhi's Gulabi Bagh area, police said Saturday. The incident took place on August 28, they said. The priest had organised a gathering near his residence in Gulabi Bagh as it was his daughter's birthday, police said. The accused who were passing by the street asked the priest to pave way for them as the function was being organised inside a tent. The two men later asked for food, police said. The priest, however, told the men that they would be served food once the guests left, Nupur Prasad, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North), said. Enraged over being denied food, one among the duo allegedly pelted stones at the priest and fled from the spot, she said. Based on a complaint, a case was registered. The two accused were arrested on August 30 from Gulabi Bagh, the official said. The accused have been identified as Manish (22) and Vishal (18), police added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra is understood to have taken a call to go by convention and recommend the name of Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who is the next in seniority to him, to succeed him as the next CJI, highly placed sources said on Saturday. The sources, however, said there is no clarity on whether the CJI has responded to the letter sent to him by the Centre to recommend the name of his successor. They said in all likelihood the government will be informed about the recommendation to appoint the next CJI soon. Justice Misra's tenure as the CJI is coming to an end on October 2. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had recently asked Justice Misra to recommend the name of his successor, setting in motion the process of change of guard in the Supreme Court. Sources in the Law Ministry had said the letter was delivered to the CJI recently. Speculation over Justice Gogoi's appointment as the next CJI emerged following an unprecedented press conference by four senior-most judges, including Justice Gogoi, in January this year when they had criticised Justice Misra over various issues, especially the manner of allocation of cases to certain benches. Justices J Chelameswar (since retired), Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph were among those who addressed the press conference, perhaps a first in the history of Indian judiciary. As per the Memorandum of Procedure which governs the appointment of members of the higher judiciary, "appointment to the office of the Chief Justice of India should be of the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court considered fit to hold the office". It stipulates that the Law Minister would, at an appropriate time, seek the recommendation of the outgoing Chief Justice of India for the appointment of the next CJI. Under this process, after receipt of the recommendation of the CJI, the Law Minister puts it before the Prime Minister who advises the President in the matter of appointment. "Whenever there is any doubt about the fitness of the senior-most Judge to hold the office of the Chief Justice of India, consultation with other Judges...would be made for appointment of the next Chief Justice of India," the document states. Law Minister Prasad had recently said that the government's intention on the appointment of the next Chief Justice of India should not be questioned. He had also said that when the incumbent names the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court as his successor as per convention, the executive will take a call. He was responding to a question at the Law Ministry's annual press conference on whether the government would follow the laid-down conventions and procedures to appoint Justice Ranjan Gogoi as the next Chief Justice when incumbent Justice Misra demits office. "The question is imaginary...as far as the appointment of the Chief Justice of India is concerned, the convention is clear...the sitting chief justice names the senior-most judge (of the top court) as his successor. When the name comes to us, we will discuss it," he had said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actors Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy have welcomed their second child, a baby boy. The baby was born on Monday, August 27 in New York, reported People magazine. Danes, 39, and Dancy, 43, who wed in 2009, are already parents to five-year-old son Cyrus Michael Christopher. The "Homeland" star announced her pregnancy in April during an appearance on "The Howard Stern Show". The Golden Globe winner had said in June that she was looking forward to taking a break from work after she gave birth to her latest bundle of joy. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on Saturday accused the Congress of ignoring the state's interests during its tenure and said the party never pushed development. Raje was speaking at a public meeting in Barmer district during her pre-poll tour 'Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra'. She said Rajasthan lagged behind in development because the Congress never focussed on development during its 50-year rule. The chief minister alleged that when the Congress was in power in Rajasthan, the party always highlighted the paucity of funds. But, she added, "if the intention is good then work can be done". Raje said her government renegotiated Barmer oil refinery project with HPCL because the conditions set by the former Congress government were not in the state's interest. The work on the refinery started only after the BJP government came to power and brought down the state's financial burden, she said. In another public meeting, Raje was shown black flags by some people who managed to reach the venue with the flags hidden in their pockets. The accused were whisked away by the police. Meanwhile, the Congress posed a question to Raje asking her whether she was proud of the devastation caused by floods in the Jodhpur division last year. Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot said several areas in the division were flooded last year. He alleged that properties damaged in the floods have not yet been renovated and asked Raje if she was proud of this. The Congress poses a new question to Raje every day as she proceeds on her yatra. She is currently in the Jodhpur division. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress Saturday criticised the Maharashtra government for its plan to levy cess on extraction of water from deep wells calling the move as anti-farmers. The opposition party also taunted the BJP-led government saying that tax should be imposed on the speeches of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as well for giving "false promises" to people. "The BJP governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra are anti-farmer. After levying Goods and Services Tax (GST) on spare parts of tractors, this government has imposed tax on water in deep wells," Congress leader Ashok Chavan said. He was speaking at a public meeting at Chokak in Kolhapur district of Maharashtra as part of the first phase of the party's 'Jan Sangharsh Yatra', a mass outreach programme undertaken in view of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. "Now, tax has to be levied on the speeches of Modi and Fadnavis, who have cheated people by making false promises," he added. Chavan claimed that the state had achieved development during the Congress rule, but is now lagging behind under the BJP-Shiv Sena regime. Alleging that the agrarian crisis had worsened during the BJP rule, he contended that farmers were not getting enough price for their produce and their debts were still not being written off. He also attacked the Centre over demonetisation and introduction of GST. Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, former minister Harshvardhan Patil and other leaders of the party attended the public meeting, which followed a bike rally in Sangali Phata. The first phase was launched yesterday and will culminate on September 8 in Pune. The party would launch the next phase of the campaign on October 2, marking birth anniversary of Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, in North Maharashtra. It plans to cover Marathwada and Vidarbha regions before winding up the three-and-half month campaign in Mumbai. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Installation of CCTV cameras, setting up police booths in campus, ending the culture of hooliganism and opposing commercialisation of were some of the key points highlighted in the joint manifesto of AISA and CYSS which was launched Saturday. Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) student wing Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS) and Left-wing student outfit All India Students Association (AISA) are jointly contesting the Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) polls slated for September 12. The manifesto also promised that the alliance would work towards setting up 'Chhatra Clinics' on the lines of the AAP-led Delhi government's mohalla clinics. Senior AAP leader Atishi said the AISA and CYSS alliance opposes the privatisation and commercialisation of higher "We also oppose the reduction in public funding to institutes. The Delhi government has been working towards installation of CCTV cameras in the national capital and we will get the cameras installed inside the campus too," she said at a press conference here. Delhi University AISA president Kawalpreet Kaur said they hoped to end the "SUV culture" of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the National Students' Union of India (NSUI), and the "money power and muscle power" wielded by them during elections. She said they would also fight for academic freedom in the varsity. "ABVP has become like the Censor Board on the campus. It is getting increasingly difficult to organise events which are not in tune with ABVP's thinking. We will fight for academic freedom on campus," Kaur said. The manifesto also promised to establish an autonomous Gender Sensitisation Committee as per the Supreme Court's Vishakha judgement, restarting the U-special and women's special bus facilities, concessional metro fares for students, establishing college canteens with good facilities and better accommodation. "There have been no new hostels for students under the ABVP or NSUI. If we come to power, we will ensure that there are new hostels and no arbitrary curfew timings for girls," the Delhi University AISA president said. Other claims mentioned in the manifesto include facilitating driving license facility in colleges under 'Door Service', struggle for the rights of SC/ST/OBC students, holding DU entrance examinations in English and Hindi, and ending discrimination against northeastern students. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi's draft electoral roll published Saturday shows a dip of over 1.4 lakh in the total number of electors in the city compared to the draft list of last year, with authorities attributing death and migration of voters as the main reasons behind the fall in number. The total number of electors in Delhi stands at 1,36,15,776 in the draft roll and there is decrease in the number of both male and female voters vis-a-vis the one published on October 23, 2017. With the release of draft electoral roll, the Election Commission has also begun the process to induct new voters in the electoral list who have either turned 18 or will complete that age by January 1 next year, officials said. Special Summary Revision of Electoral Roll with respect to January 1, 2019 as the qualifying date, has been commenced in all 70 Assembly constituencies of Delhi, with draft publication of electoral roll on Saturday (September 1), according to the Delhi CEO Office. The total number of electors in Delhi is 1,41,766 less than the corresponding figure published in October last year, as per the data shared by the office of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) here. The number of male, female and third gender electors are 75,20,824; 60,94,115 and 837 respectively, according to the latest draft roll. The corresponding numbers for the October 23 roll were 76,14,539; 61,42,143 and 860. The fall in number has been due to reasons like death and migration of voters. Family members are supposed to fill Form 7 to update the status after a voter's death, but many do not do that. So, we have cleared that from the list, a senior official of the Delhi CEO Office told PTI. And, then there are many people who have migrated out of Delhi. So, we have updated the list from that aspect too. And, our list would be updated in January, he said. Asked, if any bogus voter cards were among those discarded, he claimed, They could not have been bogus, as we follow our due diligence in issuing those cards. Death and migration, especially migration is the main factor, he said. Besides, including new voters, another objective for the summary revision exercise is to give opportunities for correction in electors' particulars and also to invite objections against any wrong inclusion in the electoral roll. People can file claims and objections from September 1 to October 31. Special camps in senior secondary schools, colleges, polytechnics and ITIs would be held on September 27 and 28, a senior official said. Final electoral rolls would be published on January 4. Delhi has 70 Asembly constituencies (ACs) and seven Lok Sabha seats. North West parliamentary constituency has maximum (22,87,777) electors while Chandi Chowk has minimum (1,498,257) in that category. Among Assemble seats, Tilak Nagar (AC-29) has the highest gender ratio at 942 while Okhla (AC-54) has the lowest at 644. Fourteen ACs have gender ratio more than the state's gender ratio 868. The Commission has also launched new jingles on radio and other electronic medium to encourage new eligible voters to get enrolled. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan during a trip to the country that it risks instability if it fails to root out followers of his US-based nemesis Fethullah Gulen. Speaking during an appearance with Kyrgyz counterpart Sooronbai Jeenbekov on Saturday, Erdogan referred to the status of Gulen's network in Kyrgyzstan as an "outstanding question" in otherwise warm ties between Ankara and the Central Asian country. Supporters of Gulen -- a cleric and educator Erdogan once regarded as an ally -- "infiltrate the army, police and other state structures and carry out coups" Erdogan said during the appearance in quotes that were translated into Russian. "We would not want (Kyrgyzstan) to have the same problems we faced," Erdogan said, referring to the 2016 attempted coup that Ankara has blamed on Gulen allies. Gulen, based in the US state of Pennyslvania, has always denied the accusations. After the coup bid, Turkish authorities launched an unprecedented purge against coup-plotters and individuals linked to Gulen, but also against pro-Kurdish officials and critical journalists. Since July 2016, over 55,000 people have been arrested over coup links while more than 140,000 public sector employees have been sacked or suspended. The government has led in parallel a diplomatic offensive to shut down educational institutions affiliated to Gulen in countries around the world. Jeenbekov indicated when appearing with Erdogan in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek that the Central Asian country had already taken steps to bring schools once affiliated to Gulen under government control. To date, Turkey has given no indication that it has been satisfied by Kyrgyzstan's attempts to restructure a chain of schools that are regarded as among the best in the country. The United States' refusal to meet Turkey's demand to extradite Gulen is one of many sore points in a once-strong relationship. Ties between the two NATO members hit a new low last month as US President Donald Trump announced steep new tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminium in response to the detention of an American pastor in Turkey. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With his tongue firmly in his cheek, Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath invited Saturday chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to join the opposition party. Senior BJP leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Babulal Gaur had yesterday praised Nath for development of Chhindwara, the Congress leader's Lok Sabha constituency. Asked at a press conference today whether he would invite Gaur to switch allegiance to Congress, Nath said, "Why only Gaur, I also invite Shivraj Singh Chouhan to join the Congress. "What Gaur has said is a reality. I have data that shows that as a union urban development minister, I had released the highest-ever amount of money for Madhya Pradesh. I had released over Rs 4,500 crore for MP," he said. Asked whether he would contest the coming Assembly election, Nath said, "I have not yet decided, because I am still a Member of Parliament. "It is also being said that both elections (Assembly and Lok Sabha) will be held together because (BJP president) Amit Shah had written a letter in this regard to the Law Commission. The letter was not written by some minor leader. This shows the seriousness of the issue," he said. He termed demonetisation as a complete failure, saying that "more currency than the amount demonetised has returned to the banks. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Industry chamber on Saturday underlined the importance of growing trade, investment and connectivity with the Asean countries. Market access and air connectivity with the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) were some of the issues that need to be addressed, he said. Except for and Singapore, India's air connectivity with Asean members and the was on the low side, Shah said on the sidelines of India-Asean meetings being held in this week. "Asean is a very important market for Indian companies because 650 million people - almost half of the size of and economic growth of 4-5 per cent a year - makes a very strong base," said Shah. A lot of issues are on the table including air connectivity and market access. Once these issues are resolved, Shah sees more ease of doing businesses, promoting trade and investments across Asean and Indian economies. As of now, bilateral trade between and Asean has grown to $80 billion. But this is till small and should be raised to $200 billion, he said. India, he sees, increasing exports of IT services, pharma products, textile to the Asean markets. He also sees Indian companies working on infrastructure projects in and Laos. Shah sees and Asean working on digital technologies, mobile payments and fin-tech sector. "Trade and investment go hand in hand," he pointed out, calling for help for Indian companies to set up investments in and use it to leap frog into the region for exports. He said there were good opportunities for Indian companies to work in the Asean region, but "we have to convert these opportunities" into businesses. Shah's comments came as India and launched a third review of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), a trade pact that offers India opportunities to venture into the Asean region. Commerce and Industry Minister and Singapore's Minister for Communication and Information S Iswaran launched the 3rd review of India-Singapore CECA on Saturday. The second review was concluded two months ago. "Shaping CECA in our strengths and preparing our ties for the future economy," India's High Commissioner to Singapore Jawed Ashraf retweeted a post on the twitter "IndiainSingapore" on Saturday. A case has been registered against two companies for allegedly taking loans to the tune of Rs 120 crore from HDFC Bank by furnishing forged documents, police said on Saturday. According to an FIR lodged with the Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing in the case, the companies owned by Rash Pal Singh Todd and Mandhir Singh Todd got loans to the tune of around Rs 120 crore using fake and forged documents. "The Todds are people of Indian origin. The fact that they furnished fake forged documents came to light during the physical comprehensive stock audit and verification of the various documents which were submitted to the bank by the accused," the FIR said. "The accused submitted balance sheets that showed profits even though the companies had been running in losses for the last four years," it added. The FIR also said the companies claimed to have stocks in hand when actually they did not have any. It said the accused companies were enjoying credit facilities from other banks as well and that this had been going on since March this year. The FIRwas lodged following a complaint by the bank's Assistant Vice President Sanjay Sharma on Thursday, the police said. According to the complaint, the two companies deal in high-end luxury cars from their showroom and office in Guragon's Sector 53. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A case has been registered against two companies for allegedly taking loans to the tune of Rs 120 crore from HDFC Bank by furnishing forged documents, police said Saturday. According to an FIR lodged in the case, the companies owned by Rash Pal Singh Todd and Mandhir Singh Todd got loans to the tune of around Rs 120 crore using fake and forged documents. The FIRwas lodged following a complaint by the bank's Assistant Vice President Sanjay Sharma on Thursday, they said. The two companies dealing in high-end luxury cars from their showroom and office in Sector 53, Gurugram used fake documents to avail loan from the bank, stated the FIR. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) More than 100 first year students of a new private medical college in Kancheepuram district, which was subsequently debarred by the Health ministry from making admissions, have moved the Madras High court seeking a direction to transfer them to any other medical college. Justice SS Sundar, before whom the petition from SU Archana and 102 others came up last week, has issued notice to the authorities concerned returnable in two weeks. The plea sought a direction from the court to transfer them from Ponnaiyah Ramajayam Institute of Medical Sciences (PRIMS), which has become defunct, to other medical colleges. According to counsel for the students, the medical college was started from the 2016-17 academic year after obtaining approval from the state and central governments and the Medical Council of India (MCI). The students were admitted in the first year MBBS course during 2016-17 under the government and management quota after passing the NEET. However, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare debarred the college from making admissions for 2017-18 and 2018-19 as it had failed to rectify the 'deficiencies' pointed out by the MCI. The Indian Bank in Thanjavur, to which the college management reportedly owed Rs 392 crore, was taking steps to auction its properties, both movable and immovable. Since the college management was under severe financial constraint, it could not pay salary to the teaching and non-teaching staff for the past six months and they had left the college. The hospital attached to the college was also closed down. Petitioner students were left in the lurch and their future was bleak. Hence, the present plea for a direction to the state government to admit the students in other medical colleges as per an undertaking given by it (government) while obtaining permission from the centre, the counsel contended. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Five girls, students of a South Mumbai school, who had gone missing were traced by Saturday evening and all of them were safe, police said. The girls, studying in class 8th, did not return to their homes from the school in Colaba in South Mumbai yesterday afternoon, following which their parents approached police. Mid-term exam results were declared yesterday and each of these girls had failed in two or three subjects, according to their teachers. As a search operation began, four of the girls were spotted at the Kurla railway station this afternoon by a constable of Cuffe Parade police station, said a police official. The fifth girl returned home on her own in the evening, he said. The official did not reveal why the girls decided not to go home after the school hours yesterday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sonu Sood is not a part of Kangana Ranaut-starrer "Manikarnika - The Queen of Jhansi" anymore and the actor said he decided to leave the project because of scheduling conflicts and not due to the "gender of the director". On Friday, after the 45-year-old actor announced his exit from the historical drama, Kangana had said that he decided to quit the project because she was directing the reshoots and patchwork. "He vehemently denied to work under a woman director, which is kind of amusing because Sonu is a dear friend..." Kangana had said. In his response on Saturday, Sonu said even though Kangana is a good friend, making the entire issue about male chauvinism is "ridiculous". "Kangana is a dear friend and she will always remain one but this constant playing the woman card , the victim card and making this entire issue about male chauvinism is ridiculous. "The gender of the director is not the issue, competence is. Let's not confuse the two. I've worked with Farah Khan who's a competent woman director and Farah and I had a great professional equation and we are still best of friends . That's all I would like to say," Sonu said in a statement. Spokesperson of the Sonu had earlier said that the actor, who is filming Rohit Shetty's "Simmba" right now, was recently asked to reshoot portions for "Manikarnika" by Kangana. Sonu is sporting a beard for the Ranveer Singh-starrer, but for "Manikarnika" he was supposed to be clean shaven. The actor had asked the makers of the biopic to finish the reshoots after he completes his schedule for "Simmba" but things did not work out and he decided to quit the project. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Terming the Bhagwad Gita a "non-religious" text and "a way of life", Maharashtra Minister Vinod Tawde said on Saturday there is nothing communal in distributing the text in educational institutes. Tawde also said the copies of holy books of other religions can also be given to colleges, provided they are made available for free. Nowadays, even if anyone thinks of distributing the Gita in educational institutions, the move is seen as BJP's attempts of saffronising the system, he alleged, blaming the media for "projecting it that way". "Today, distribution of the Bhagwad Gita means one is communal. When will we come out of this mentality? Even a Class 1 child can be taught several aspects of life through the Gita," Tawde said at the launch of Bhaktivedanta Vidyapitha Research Centre at Girgaum in south Mumbai. "The Gita, Vedas and Upanishads are not religious texts, but philosophical and scientific in nature and these texts should not just be confined to temples, but be made available to common man as they are a way of life," he said. "If copies of the Quran and the Bible are provided free of cost, they will also be distributed in colleges," the minister said. In July this year, the office of the Joint Director, Higher for Mumbai region had issued a letter asking NAAC 'A' and 'A+' ranked colleges in the city to collect the copies of the Gita from its office. The letter, however, did not mention which group or organisation gave the copies for distribution. The move had kicked up a row with the opposition Congress calling it an effort to "saffronise" the education system. "If anyone thinks of distributing Bhagwad Gita (in educational institutions), it is termed as BJP's attempts of saffronising the education system by newspapers and television channels," Tawde said. He said when Bhaktivedanta Trust of Bhiwandi in adjoining Thane district wanted to distribute the copies of the Gita in colleges, he informed them that the government itself cannot do so, but it could give a list of colleges to which the copies of the Gita could be provided. "I asked the officials to help them (the Trust). But, the Gita bhakts (people of the Trust) themselves went to the colleges and distributed the copies," he said. Tawde said the key question concerning the education system today is whether students were being imparted knowledge or just information was being passed on to them. The minister said that between 2020 and 2045, India will be the youngest country in the world and the aim should not just be to supply human resource to the world, but also to give the country's immense knowledge on Vedas to transform the world. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two persons have been arrested and five kilograms of charas (cannabis) worth around Rs 50 lakh in the international market has been seized, police said Saturday. In a joint operation conducted Friday by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and Jamnagar police's Crime Branch, a man identified as Arun Manjare was nabbed near Subhash vegetable market here, police said in a press release. The Ahmedabad zonal unit of NCB, in a press statement, informed that a receiver, identified as Mamad Ali Mandalia, had also been arrested along with Manjare. "Acting on a tip-off, the city LCB (Local Crime Branch) and NCB officials held Arun Manjare, who hails from Pune in Maharashtra. He was in possession of five kilograms of charas worth around Rs 50 lakh in the international markets," the Jamnagar police release said. The NCB said that Manjare had boarded a bus in Jaipur with the contraband and was planning to deliver it to the receiver in Jamnagar. "He delivered charas in Jamnagar to a 15-year-old boy who had been sent by the receiver. The minor was unaware of the content of the package," an official said. The NCB informed that the receiver's house was searched Saturday with the help of the local Crime Branch following which he too was arrested. The accused have been charged under various sections of the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Act, officials said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Police will use an Israel-built mechanism at the famous Saurashtra Lokmela here on an experimental basis to track absconding criminals, a senior official said Saturday. Rajkot Police Commissioner Manoj Agrawal said that the intelligent patrolling technology can identify such fugitives even in a crowded area. Earlier Saturday, Gujarat Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama inaugurated Saurashtra's popular Lokmela which is expected to attract around 15 lakh people over the next five days. It is organised every year by the Rajkot district administration to mark Janmashtami. "We have decided to use it at the Lokmela (Rajkot Fair) on an experimental basis. In this system, a policeman carries a device equipped with a camera and having details such as appearance and voice samples of absconding criminals," Agrawal explained. He said that if it spots any such fugitive, the device would alert the police control room, adding that it would help police nab those hiding from the law. He said that Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani was told about the technology when he visited Israel recently. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior BJP leader and parliamentarian Shanta Kumar demanded Saturday that the assembly complex here be handed over to Central University of Himachal Pradesh (CUHP), which does not have a permanent campus even eight years after its establishment. Kumar, a former Union minister and chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, said the assembly complex remains unutilised for most part of the year, hence it can be used by the university. The assembly complex in Dharamshala, outside state capital Shimla, was inaugurated on 25 December 2006 by then chief minister Virbhadra Singh. The winter session of the Himachal Pradesh assembly is held here every year. Addressing the media, Kumar said, "The complex was built at a cost of Rs 7-8 crore and such a huge structure lies unused for most part of the year. And Rs 1.5-2 crore is being spent for a period of just four days (during winter session) annually. This is criminal waste of public money." "This is the right time to rectify our mistake and the complex should be haded over to the university," he said, adding that the complex was a "white elephant". The 83-year-old BJP leader rued that Indian democracy has not matured even after 70 years of Independence and there is opposition just for sake of opposing everything. "It is happening everywhere, leaders are involved in politics of confrontation instead of cooperating with the government and there is opposition for the sake of opposition only. Our leaders need to introspect and change their attitude," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Haryana government on Saturday settled the first claim of Rs 9,000 under the public health insurance scheme Ayushman Bharat for a baby girl born in a state-run hospital in Karnal district. Mousami, a resident of Karnal's village Ghisarpuri, has become the first beneficiary under the scheme, an official spokesperson said. She underwent caesarian section and delivered a healthy baby girl on August 17, he added. Mousami gave birth at Karnal's Kalpana Chawala Government Medical College. She is the first person to be treated under the Ayushman Bharat scheme in the state and the claim amount was paid to the treating hospital on August 31, the spokesperson said. Dubbed Modicare, Ayushman Bharat is the world's largest government healthcare programme. The state government launched the Ayushman Bharat-Haryana Health Protection Mission on August 15 to provide cashless and paperless healthcare facilities to beneficiaries at empanelled government hospitals. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Singapore Saturday launched the next round of review for their existing free trade agreement with a view to further boost bilateral trade and investments between the countries, the commerce ministry said. The free trade agreement, officially dubbed as the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), came into force in 2005. In a FTA review, two trading partners normally discuss ways to further relax norms and rules to promote trade and investments. The review round was launched by Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu and Minister of Trade Relations of Singapore S Iswaran. "The launch of the review signals further deepening of business, economic and trade collaboration between the two countries," the ministry said in a statement. Singapore is the second largest trading partner of India within ASEAN and India is the largest trading partner of Singapore in South Asia, with a bilateral trade of USD 17.7 billion in 2017-18. Prabhu, who was in Singapore, also participated in the 15th ASEAN Economic Ministers-India Consultations. In the meeting, India reaffirmed the need for review of ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement. During his bilateral meeting with Hiroshige Seko, Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Prabhu sought greater Japanese investments in automobiles, cargo aircrafts and manufacturing sectors. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Infrastructure gaps in judicial system must be addressed at the earliest before it leaves a scar on justice administration, and fiscal constraints must not be used as an excuse, Chief Justice said on Saturday. While delivering his lecture on the topic 'Technology, Training and Infrastructure: Key to Speedy Justice' and 'The changing face of legal education in India', organised by by the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association (SCAORA), Justice Misra said strengthening of judiciary will result in qualitative and speedy justice. "The infrastructure gaps shall not be allowed to multiply and should be addressed at the earliest opportunity before it leaves a deep scar on the administration of justice and it becomes too late to act wisely. Fiscal constraints is no excuse. The need is to strengthen the judiciary as a consequence of which the justice delivery system becomes fast, qualitatively responsive and serve the purpose of justice," he said. The first half of Saturday was quite busy for the Chief Justice who in the morning had inaugurated the symposium on 'Role of legal education on nation building' in the event organised by Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) and Menon Institute of Legal Advocacy Training (MILAT) as part of the 10th Law Teachers' Day award function. Later, he attended the SCAORA conference which was inaugurated by President of India Ram Nath Kovind. The CJI, in the SCAORA function, emphasised that adequate infrastructure remains a primary concern as without it the commitment to justice for all cannot be realised. He said there was a need to widen the network of courts to increase the geographical reach of common man, to provide basic facilities to litigants and required facilities for the lawyers. "Judicial infrastructure includes infrastructure for the bar and the litigants which are the backbone of justice delivery system," he said, adding that justice delivery system is not an alien concept. Justice Misra, while delivering his inaugural speech at the 10th Law Teachers' Day award function, said law schools are the hatcheries supplying legal professionals who act as sentinels for the implementation of rule of law. "The implementation of rule of law in a nation depends on the quality of legal education in a country," he said. The also said legal education is a science which inculcates in law students a sense of maturity and understanding of the society and moulds them to emerge as protectors of citizenry liberties. "The implementation of rule of law in a nation depends on the quality of legal education in a country. Law schools are the hatcheries which supply quintessential legal professionals who act as sentinels for the implementation of rule of law and contribute tremendously towards the development of the nation. "Legal education is a science which imparts to law students not only the knowledge of certain legal provisions but it also inculcates a sense of maturity and understanding of the society which shapes and moulds them to emerge as protectors of citizenry liberties," Justice Misra said. In both the functions, the Chief Justice appreciated the functioning of Law Universities and said the institution has turned out to be the most successful exercise for enhancing the quality of legal education in the country. "The introduction of five year law course has made legal education quite coveted in India. It has become imperative for law schools to take in account the changes taking place across the world as well as the contemporary issues in the society. "Law schools must focus on developing amongst its students critical reflectiveness of the social, moral and political outlooks embedded in law," he said. He released the e-journal of SCAORA and said it was the time that young lawyers, who are technically sound, should be allowed to argue in courts and old ones should leave the room for them. He said technology has generated increased social awareness and made citizens more informed than earlier to claim their rightful entitlements and added that it can enhance quality of work by acting as an aid in expediting the routine cases. He added that technological resources can aid in strengthening judicial data base. A 27-year-old inmate of a shelter home for mentally challenged women died at a hospital here Friday, a day after two other women went missing. Anamika, an inmate of the Aasra shelter home here, was admitted to the hospital in a critical condition Thursday, Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) Superintendent Rajeev Ranjan Prasad told PTI. "She had been complaining of breathlessness and was severely anaemic. She died at 8 pm on Friday," he said. Two other inmates, both in their early 30s, went missing Thursday and an FIR was lodged at the Rajeev Nagar police station in this connection, SHO Rohan Kumar said. The Aasra shelter home had hit the headlines earlier this month when two of its inmates had fallen ill and were declared brought dead at the PMCH. Following the deaths, which took place in the intervening night of August 10-11 and evoked an outcry, Manisha Dayal and Chirantan Kumar, who ran the NGO entrusted with running the shelter home, were arrested and remanded to jail custody. Following the arrests, the Bihar Social Welfare Department deputed its own personnel at the shelter home for its upkeep as an interim measure. A decision was also taken by the Nitish Kumar government to phase out awarding of contracts to NGOs for running such care units. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Integration of ayurveda, yoga and other Ayush systems in the delivery of health services is one of the thrust areas of the Indian government, Union Minister Sripad Yesso Naik said as the International Ayurveda Congress (IAvC) began on Saturday. Insurance coverage has been extended to Ayush treatments and 27 companies are offering 140 health policies to beneficiaries in India, Naik said after inaugurating the fourth IAvC at Leiden in the Netherlands. Ayush refers to traditional and non-allopathic medical systems in India. It includes ayurveda, yoga, unani and siddha, and also homeopathy. "Today, more than 27 insurance companies are offering 140 health insurance policies for Ayush beneficiaries, Naik said. Speaking at the event, the Ayush minister said, "Integration of ayurveda, yoga and other Ayush systems in the delivery of health services is one of the thrust areas of the government of India." It is also pursuing functional involvement of Ayush practitioners and interventions in public healthcare, Naik said. The intention of the government of India is to bring convergence and synergy between traditional medicine, modern medicine and modern sciences for scientific validation of ayurveda concepts and development of research and development based drugs, he said. Many of the ayurveda drug manufacturing companies have also acquired WHO-GMP certification and certificate of pharmaceutical products for exporting their products to various countries, the minister said. Naik said he and his delegation are looking forward to interacting with policy makers, researchers and entrepreneurs for developing bilateral ties and institutional linkages to advance the holistic healthcare potential of ayurveda and its beneficial role in integrative medicine. The minister invited all delegates to attend the International Yoga Conference in Goa and the World Ayurveda Congress in Ahmedabad being organised later this year in India. Naik and Ambassador of India Venu Rajamony presented the Maharishi Dhanvantari award to Padmabhushan Vaidya Devendra Triguna, president of the All India Ayurveda Congress and Tony Nader, head of the Maharishi International Transcendental Meditation movement. Rajamony addressed the delegates and stated that united action to address challenges of mainstreaming ayurveda needed to be made by all stakeholders in the field of ayurveda and alternative medicine, according to a statement issued by the Indian Embassy here. The inaugural meeting was also addressed by Nader, Triguna and Rainer Paicha from Australia. The congress is being organised by the International Maharishi AyurVeda Foundation, Netherlands; All India Ayurvedic Congress, New Delhi and the International Academy of Ayurveda, Pune in association with the Indian Embassy in the Netherlands. Naik is on a visit to the Netherlands from September 1-4 and leads a delegation comprising senior officials from the Ministry of Ayush including the Pharmacopoeia Commission of Indian Medicine and Homeopathy. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan Saturday launched India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) branch here as part of the country-wide move to take banking to all through vast network of post offices. Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram graced a function to kick-start IPPB branch in Sundargarh. The launch in Odisha followed the national roll out of IPBB by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a function in New Delhi. Speaking at the function at the circle branch here, Pradhan said the IPPB would revolutionise the banking system and boost financial inclusion of the poor, dalits, women and backward sections of the society. Altogether 33 branches and 165 Access Points were launched across Odisha Postal Circle. A total of 8,050 access points would be rolled out in Odisha by December 31, 2018. The IPPB would offer a range of products such as savings and current accounts, remittances and money transfer, direct benefit transfers, bill and utility payments, enterprise and merchant payments. As per payments bank guidelines, the IPPB would partner with financial organisations to provide loans, investment and insurance products. In Puri, the IPPB branch was launched NALCO CMD, T K Chand alongside MPs Pinaki Mishra and Raghunath Mohapatra, Chand said launch the IPBB is a powerful measure that will greatly benefit the masses, specially people from the rural pockets. This will provide an accessible, affordable and trusted Bank for the common man, to speedily achieve the objective of financial inclusion of the government. The huge network of the Postal department can be leveraged effectively to achieve this objective, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The IUML Saturday welcomed the Law Commission's view that a uniform civil code was not necessary and batted for the repeal of Article 44 of the Constitution, which tasks the government to strive for such a common code. Appreciating the law panel's view as "timely and most necessary," Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) national president K M Kader Mohideen said in a statement here that the commission should recommend repeal of Article 44. Referring to Article 44 which says "the states shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India", Mohideen said, "It is a dagger and against genuine secularism". A uniform civil code is "neither necessary nor desirable" at this stage, the 21st Law Commission led by Justice B S Chauhan (retd) said Friday, the last day of its three year term, in a consultation paper. The panel suggested changes in laws relating to marriage, divorce, alimony, and marriageable age for men and women. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Jain monk Tarun Maharaj died in the early hours Saturday at east Delhi's Radhapuri Jain Temple. He was 51. "He was not keeping well and was earlier admitted to a private hospital in Vaishali. A few days ago, he had decided to come to the Radhapuri Temple in Krishna Nagar, where he died at around 3.18 am Saturday morning," said a senior official of the Bhartiya Jain Milan, a pan-India Jain organisation. He said the last rites will be carried out at the Tarun Sagar Dham in Modinagar in Uttar Pradesh. "I live in Shahdara. We got to know about his death at around 6 am and then many people rushed to have his 'antim darshan'. The temple where he died was filled with devotees. We have lost a leader of our community," the official said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh condoled the death of the Jain monk. "Deeply pained by the untimely demise of Muni Tarun Sagar Ji Maharaj. We will always remember him for his rich ideals, compassion and contribution to society. His noble teachings will continue inspiring people. My thoughts are with the Jain community and his countless disciples," Modi tweeted. The home minister tweeted, saying the departure of the monk has left him "shocked". "I offer my tributes to his feet," he said. Delhi Chief Minster Arvind Kejriwal expressed grief over his death. "Pained to hear the sad demise of Muni Tarun Sagar Ji Maharaj. His teachings and ideals will always inspire humanity," he tweeted. The Congress party also expressed the condolence in a tweet. "Deeply saddened to hear about the demise of Jain Muni Tarun Sagar ji Maharaj earlier today. His teachings and principles will continue to guide us on the right path. In this moment of loss, our prayers go out to his followers and devotees," it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) : Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday called on Governor Justice (ret) P Sathasivam and briefed him about his September 3 visit to the U.S.A for medical treatment. The Chief Minister also updated the Governor about the steps initiated by the government for rebuilding Kerala and for rehabilitation of the flood affected people, a release from the Raj Bhavan said. Vijayan will leave for the USA for treatment at Mayo Clinic on September 3, sources at the chief minister's office said. 73-year-old Vijayan was originally scheduled to go for treatment on August 19 and return by the middle of this month. He postponed the trip due to the unexpected massive floods that ravaged the state and claimed more than 400 lives. The Chief Minister had undergone a routine annual medical check up at Apollo Hospitals at Chennai on March 3. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As the Kerala government embarked on a fund mobilisation drive for reconstructing the flood-ravaged state, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said Saturday he was hopeful of getting the offer of aid made by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). His statement assumes significance in the wake of a row over the Centre's refusal to accept UAE's reported offer of Rs 700 crore to the flood-hit state. At a function organised here to honour IAS officers who coordinated in operations to rescue stranded people from flood affected areas, Vijayan said several foreign countries have come forward to help the state. Referring to the reported offer of Rs 700 crore made by the UAE to carry out relief operations and Centre's decision not to accept it, Vijayan said he does not believe that the stand (of the Centre) would continue. Noting that the state was receiving good support for fund mobilisation from the country and abroad, Vijayan said the effort should be to make use of it properly. The chief minister said the state government had asked for a special package to tide over the situation besides the compensation for the loss and damage caused in the devastating deluge. However, he said there were limitations on part of the Centre to fully compensate the loss and damage suffered by the state. "So the state has to find resources to overcome the shortage of funds for taking up the rehabilitation and rebuilding exercise," Vijayan added. Alluding to the cabinet decision to appoint KPMG as project consultant partner for rebuilding the state, Vijayan said, "We will not restrict the consultancy to one agency. We will ensure that we get the assistance of all." As part of the fund mobilisation initiative, the cabinet has decided to seek financial aid from abroad through non-resident Keralites, from major cities in the country and also from educational institutions in the state. As many as 483 people have lost lives in the state since the onset of the monsoon on May 28 and 14 were still missing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) Society, the apex body of travel and tourism industry, has set up a task force to carry out the relief and rehabilitation work and support the huge task of rebuilding the lives of the flood-hit people of the state. As many as 28 organisations in the tourism sector have been brought under the ambit of this task force, which besides concentrating on the relief and rehabilitation works, will focus on creating awareness on the need to contribute generously to the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF) for, a KTM release said here Saturday. The Task Force has already sent teams for the clean-up operations in various places and successfully roped in around 1500 people to carry out the relief and rehabilitation work in Munnar and nearby tourism spots, which are prime destinations of Kerala, it said. It has been decided that every organisation under the task force and its workers would give away their one day's earnings to the CMDRF, Convener of the Task Force, Abraham George said. To start with, seven teams have been deployed for clean-up works in places like Paravur, Aluva, Chengannurand Munnar, the release said. As the next step, the Task Force would mount a campaign to create awareness among the business community on the need to contribute generously to the CMDRF, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Kargil polls have thrown up a hung house with the National Conference (NC) emerging as the single largest party, officials said Saturday. No party was able to get a clear majority in the polls, they said. Farooq Abdullah-led NC emerged as the single largest party with 10 seats in the polls which took place on August 27. The Congress was positioned at the second place with eight seats. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) managed to win two seats, while its former alliance partner Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) - bagged just one seat, officials said, adding the saffron party has thus opened its account in the LAHDC Kargil elections. Independent candidates won five seats in the elections, they said. The Council has 30 seats out of which, the elections are held on 26 seats. Four councilors are nominated by the state government. The counting of votes was completed around midnight, the officials said. Meanwhile, NC vice-president Omar Abdullah congratulated the party's Kargil and provincial units for an encouraging performance. Congratulations to @HajiHanifa @JkncKargil and all my colleagues in Kargil for a very encouraging performance. Well done to @nasirsogami & his Province team for their support & guidance, he said on Twitter. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sri Lanka's Tamil minority may be satisfied with a further expansion of power to provincial councils instead of their demand for a federal solution, to ensure political autonomy in the northern and eastern regions, a senior Tamil lawmaker has said. The idea was expressed by Tamil legislator M A Sumanthiran who is involved in formulating a new Constitution which addresses the political aspirations of the Tamils. On Friday, Sumanthiran was addressing a public seminar in Sinhala-dominated Galle in the south. The Sinhala majority are sceptical of a possible federal solution, fearing that federalism would pave the way for separation of the north and east regions. "The question is about political power, the problem can be solved through a new Constitution. This will be the foundation to live in one country, this is where we will consent to live as one country, one people," Sumanthiran said. "I was asked if a federal system is the answer, I won't say it is needed, we can expand the existing provincial council system, our people are ready to accept that as a solution," he said. Sumanthiran's comments represent a softer Tamil line on the current government's reconciliation effort with the minority. The government since 2017 appointed an all-party steering committee to draft a new Constitution to replace the existing 1978 charter. The opposition has criticised the process as a concession to the Tamil allies of the government, particularly the main Tamil party - the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). The provincial council system was enshrined in the Sri Lankan Constitution in 1987 as part of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord to resolve the ethnic conflict. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) one of the five activists arrested in multi-city raids by the Maharashtra Police, has outrightly rejected the claims made by the investigating agency and said a purported letter implicating her was "totally concocted" to criminalise her and human rights organisations. The police had Friday claimed that Bharadwaj had written to one "Com Prakash". Reacting to this in a handwritten statement, Bharadwaj, who is under house arrest, Friday said the purported letter shown by the Pune Police is a "mixture of innocuous". She claimed a number of human rights lawyers, activists and organisations were deliberately named to cast a stigma over them, obstruct their work and incite hatred against them. "It is a totally concocted letter fabricated to criminalise me and other human rights lawyers, activists and organisations," the statement said. The activist-lawyer said the "fabricated letter" had not been brought before either before the Pune Court or the Faridabad Chief Judicial Magistrate while seeking to "whisk" her to Pune. In a media briefing Friday, the police had released details of seized letters related to five activists arrested in June in connection with the Bhima Koregoan violence that took place in January. Early this week, the police raided the homes of activists and lawyers from five states---Varavara Roa in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Bharadwaj in Fariadabad and Gautam Navalakha in Delhi. Sudha Bharadwaj, one of the five activists arrested in multi-city raids by the Maharashtra Police, has outrightly rejected the claims made by the investigating agency and said a purported letter implicating her was "totally concocted" to criminalise her and human rights organisations. The police had Friday claimed that Bharadwaj had written to one "Com. Prakash". Reacting to this in a handwritten statement, Bharadwaj, who is under house arrest, said Friday the purported letter shown by the Pune Police is a "mixture of innocuous and publicly available facts and baseless fabrication". Various legal and democratic activities such as meetings, seminars, protests have been sought to be de-legitimised by alleging that they are funded by Maoists, she said. Bharadwaj claimed a number of human rights lawyers, activists and organisations were deliberately named to cast a stigma over them, obstruct their work and incite hatred against them. "It is a totally concocted letter fabricated to criminalise me and other human rights lawyers, activists and organisations," she claimed. The activist-lawyer said the "fabricated letter" had not been brought before either before the Pune Court or the Faridabad Chief Judicial Magistrate while seeking to "whisk" her to Pune. In a media briefing Friday, the police had released details of seized letters related to five activists arrested in June in connection with the Bhima Koregoan violence that took place in January. The police also claimed they have "conclusive proof" to link Left-wing activists arrested in June and this week to Maoists, saying one of them spoke of a "Rajiv Gandhi-type event to end Modi-raj". Early this week, the police raided the homes of activists and lawyers from five states---Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Bharadwaj in Fariadabad and Gautam Navalakha in Delhi. Bharadwaj said she knew Navalakha as a "senior and respected" human rights activist whose name has been mentioned "in a manner to criminalise and incite hatred" against him. The activist-lawyer also said she knew the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group well and had never solicited any funds from them, least of all from any banned organisation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed happiness on Saturday on the state emerging as number one in the country for Convergence and Livelihood Augmentation under the 100-days work scheme. In a Facebook post she said, "I am very happy to share with all of you that Bengal has again emerged No 1 in the country for Convergence and Livelihood Augmentation under 100-days work scheme, as announced by the Govt of India." "This is three times in a row that we have bagged this prestigious distinction," an elated Banerjee said. East Burdwan and Coochbehar districts in the state are among the top ones in the country for effective implementation of the scheme. Upper Bagdogra gram panchayat (GP) of Naxalbari Block near Siliguri has been ranked among the best performing GPs in the country for 100 days work, she said. Bengal has emerged second in the country in water conservation, the award for which was announced for the first time, the chief minister added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A man was awarded life imprisonment by a court in Odisha's Balasore district for raping his minor niece about four months ago. Additional district judge Ajanta Sadangi while awarding the life sentence yesterday also slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on Banthu Marandi (30) of Srikona Adivasi colony in Chandipur area for raping his niece on May 8 and May 9 this year. In case of default in payment of penalty, the convict would have to undergo an additional jail term for four months, the court ruled. The incident took place in the tribal village under the jurisdiction of Chandipur police station. According to prosecution, Marandi had adopted his six-year-old niece after the death of her mother and sexually abused the minor when there was nobody in the house. The neighbours informed the police after they came to know about the incident. Taken up as a red flag case, it was disposed of in 111 days, said public prosecutor Pranab Kumar Panda. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As the indefinite hunger strike of quota agitation leader Hardik Patel entered eighth day on Saturday, his supporters forced activist Medha Patkar to return without meeting him, dubbing her anti-farmer. Patel has sat on fast at his house on the outskirts of the city since August 25 to press the demand of quota for the Patidar (Patel) community and a loan waiver for Gujarat farmers. Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Patkar today arrived at his house to meet him. However, workers of the Patidar Ananmat Andolan Samiti (or PAAS, which Hardik leads) did not allow her to meet him. "Patkar has consistently been anti-Gujarat, especially as she protested against Narmada Dam which stopped farmers from accessing water for irrigation for several years. This is the reason the PAAS youth opposed her visit," said PAAS convener and Hardik Patel's close aide Geeta Patel. Patkar later told media that she was not anti-farmer. "Even today people do not have proper understanding of the Narmada dam issue...we are raising voice in favour of farmers. But those who do not know this...(are opposing me). Thousands of Patidar farmers are fighting alongwith us because they have not got the full rehabilitation package," the environmental activist said. "I do not think Hardik will oppose my visit, because I had talked to him yesterday over phone and he had no problem meeting me," she said. The 25-year-old quota agitation leader had declared yesterday that he was not going to drink even water from now on. However, a religious leader today offered him a glass of water today, and Patel sipped some water. Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda also visited him. "Gujarat is the land of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel. Even the British could not suppress people's voice, so the BJP has no capability to do that," Chavda told reporters. Leaders of various Patidar organisations including Sardar Patel Group's Lalji Patel also called on Hardik Patel today. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Himachal Pradesh Drugs Manufacturing Association with support of the state drug control administration has sent two trucks of medicines worth Rs 1.7 crore to help Keral flood victims, Health Minister Vipin Singh Parmar said here on Saturday. The state government has already sent Rs 5 crore aid for the flood-ravaged southern state. As many as 483 people have lost lives in Kerala since the onset of the monsoon on May 28 and 14 were still missing. Parmar said the medicines have been provided according to the requirement of the Kerala government, and includes antibiotics, painkillers, drugs to cure diarrhea, ORS, injections, needles, syringes and glucose and others. He said the association would send more medicines within a few days. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A nine-year-old girl was allegedly raped by her neighbour at Adityapur, about 2 km from here, in Seraikela-Kharswan district of Jharkhand, police said Saturday. The incident occurred when the girl had gone to the house of her friend whose father Laden Hembram sent out his daughter and raped the victim on Thursday. The 40-year-old accused dropped the victim at her home when her condition turned bad, they said. The parents of the victim lodged a complaint at Adityapur police station on Friday. The accused, a truck driver, and his family fled the area. The victim was sent for medical check-up in a government hospital at Seraikela. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Several coastal areas of Maharashtra and Gujarat have been chosen for a mock drill to be held on September 4 to check the preparedness of people and response agencies in the event of a tsunami. The mock drill is being conducted by the New Delhi-based National Disaster Management Authority and the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, official releases from the two state governments said. While the districts chosen in Maharashtra are Palghar, Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Thane and Raigad, the sites of the drill in Gujarat would be Mandvi taluka of Kutch and Jodiya taluka of Jamnagar, the releases informed. In Maharashtra, the drill will be conducted in Yedwan village of Palghar, Borli in Raigad, Pajpandri in Ratnagiri, Jamdul in Sindhudurg and Pali in Thane. As per a Gujarat government release, during the exercise, the Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC) at INCOIS will provide simulated tsunami threat information to all coastal states of India and to other countries in the Indian Ocean region. Various departments would have to act according to the tsunami warning bulletins issued by INCOIS during this exercise in order to increase their effectiveness in decision making for the specific set of emergencies, it added. "Two villages, each from Mandvi taluka of Kutch and Jodiya taluka of Jamnagar, have been identified as the targeted area. Around 1,700 people from these villages will be evacuated to safer places as part of mock exercise," said the Gujarat government release. Officials said the drill would test the preparedness of state agencies in readiness and coordination in the event of such a natural disaster. Gujarat has the longest coastline among Indian states stretching over 1,200 kilometres. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) "State Legislatures and Solving the Eighth Amendment Ratchet Puzzle" | Main | "Prosecuting in the Shadow of the Jury" September 1, 2018 Could Gov Jerry Brown really be tempted to commute all of California's death row on his way out of office? The question in the title of this post is prompted by this recent Fox News article headlined with a similar question, "Will Jerry Brown commute sentences of every death row inmate in one of his last acts as California governor?". Here are excerpts: [A]s Jerry Browns tenure as governor of California draws to a close in January, capital punishment supporters have raised the specter that he could commute many, if not all, of the sentences. On March 28, Californias Supreme Court issued an administrative order making it possible for Brown to commute the sentences or grant clemency. Michele Hanisee, president of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys in Los Angeles County, told the Orange County Register earlier this week that this removes any impediment Brown may have faced. Before that, a governor had to get the approval of the majority of the state Supreme Court in the case of an inmate with two or more felony convictions. They basically have green-lighted the governor to grant clemency to anyoneand said they wont interfere, she said. California has the largest death row population in the country, but only 13 have been executed since capital punishment was reintroduced to the state in 1978, with the last one occurring in 2006. Appeals that drag out for many years are common. Last year, there were 400 death penalty appeals pending. Despite its liberal reputation, more than half of Californias residents have expressed support for the death penalty, striking down referenda calling for it to end. Brown, a former Jesuit seminarian who as a young man demonstrated against capital punishment, made his opposition to it clear during his political campaigns, but also said hed respect the law regarding it while serving as attorney general and governor. Asked if the governor was considering commuting death sentences, a spokesperson for Brown told Fox News: A request for commutation is a serious matter, and every applicant is carefully and diligently vetted. The Governor issued commutations earlier this month California inmates can petition to have their sentence reduced or eliminated by applying for a commutation of sentence. To be clear, no individuals on death row have received commutations.... Kent Scheidegger, an attorney who argued for Proposition 66 a measure to speed up executions said that anything is possible as far as Brown and California politics, but he believed the governor would not commute death sentences. Despite his personal opinion, he said hed enforce the death penalty, said Scheidegger, who is legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in California. Scheidegger expressed concern about the state high courts order appearing to give Brown more sway over commuting death sentences, telling Fox News: Thats worrisome. Since executions rarely have been carried out in California and elsewhere, some have called the death penalty symbolic, and pointless. Scheidegger said he disagrees. Its important because there are some crimes for which anything less is simply not justice. September 1, 2018 at 04:41 PM | Permalink Comments No he wont commute all if death row inmates. But he could commute a few deserving ones and severly ill. Posted by: MidWestGuy | Sep 2, 2018 7:40:39 AM All commutations and pardons of twice convicted felony offenders, which I suspect is most death row prisoners, require the approval of 4 or more California Supreme Court justices. The CA Supreme Court recently modified their rule on this topic clarifying that they will not independently weigh the merits of the commutation, but rather assure its conformity with the rules, of which there are few. If Brown does commute all death sentences, or even a whole bunch, and the California Supreme Court lets it happen, the justices better look over their shoulder. The damage to the institution that would follow with another attempt to remove anti-death penalty justices (thats how it will be framed) happened once already. It would take decades for respect for the court to recover and some of them may not have a job anymore. The Legislature has swung the criminal justice pendulum back hard. Those choices may very work their way out in a negative way right around the time some judges come up for retention election. It could even fuel a recall. All that being said, I am not so sure that Brown wont do it. Posted by: David | Sep 2, 2018 12:06:48 PM He will do it. Posted by: federalist | Sep 3, 2018 8:50:31 AM Post a comment Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday launched a blistering attack on the Congress for leaving the economy on a 'landmine' by its indiscriminate lending, saying loans were handed out to select businessmen after phone calls were made by 'namdars' (dynasts). He blamed 'phone-a-loan' scam of the previous UPA regime where money was lent by banks to select rich businessmen close to a particular family for mounting non-performing assets (NPA) or bad loans but vowed to recover every penny from defaulters. None of the twelve biggest defaulters, who between them account for over Rs 1.75 lakh crore of NPAs, were given loan by the present government, Modi said at the launch of payments bank of the Indian postal department. He said while the previous UPA government hid the bad loans, his government has properly recognised them and brought tough laws to deal with defaults and recovery money. The Prime Minister said the country was cheated when the last government put such loan amount at Rs 2-2.5 lakh crore when it actually was Rs 9 lakh crore. This comes days after Congress President Rahul Gandhi's attack on the government for NPAs jumping to Rs 12.5 lakh crore under the BJP rule from Rs 2.5 lakh crore under the previous UPA regime. Modi said when his government came to power in 2014 it noticed that public-sector banks had been plundered. Loans of banks jumped to Rs 52 lakh crore from 2008 to 2014 from just Rs 18 lakh crore in the previous six decades. Loans were given without any due diligence and keeping aside all rules and norms, he said, adding defaulters were given further funds in the name of loan restructuring. "How were these loans given? One phone call from the namdars would get the rich loans," he said alleging a 'phone-a-loan' scam under the UPA government. "This phone banking of Congress and its namdars caused a lot of damage to the country," he said, adding banks obliged namdars because top executives were appointed by the same namdars. "Despite knowing that the loans would not be returned, banks lent money." And when these borrowers started defaulting, pressure was mounted on banks to give more time and then restructure these loans by giving more funds. "In 2014, after our government was formed we realised that the Congress and namdaars had put India's economy on a landmine," he said. The economy would have been damaged by the explosion of that landmine but the government worked not just to detect the ailment but also took steps to uproot the disease, he said. Modi said his government has "defused" the landmine placed by the government of namdars and its results have been witnessed in the 8.2 per cent GDP growth clocked in the first quarter of the current fiscal. "This growth is proof of growing strength of the Indian economy and that the country is moving in the right direction," he said. "Today the country is not just the fastest growing economy in the world but also the one that is eradicating poverty at the fastest rate." "I again want to assure that all the bank money which was stuck because of namdars, each and every rupee of that, we will recover. It will be used for the poor," he said. Listing out the steps taken, he said every loan of over Rs 50 crore has been reviewed and it is being ensured that the rules are followed and recoveries made. The merger of banks has been proposed, professionalism was brought in banks, insolvency and bankruptcy code came and a law to deal with fugitive defaults introduced. Modi said swift action to recover loans from the top 12 defaulters as well as another 27 who owe Rs 1 lakh crore is being taken. "We will ensure that every penny is recovered," he said. "I want to again assure the country that of all these big loans, not even a single loan has been given by this government," he said. Modi said Jan Dhan gave bank accounts to the unbanked and now the India Post Payments Bank is taking the bank to their doorstep. The postman, besides carrying mail, will also carry the bank to the doorsteps of poor and rural people, he said. With its unmatched network of 1.5 lakh post offices and over three lakh postmen and gramin dak sevaks, IPPB will initially in 650 districts allow savings as well as current accounts to be opened at doorstep, allow fund transfer and payment of utility bills. Also, loan and insurance will be provided in association with other banks and financial institutions. The Prime Minister said in last four years, 13 crore loans have been given under Mudra Yojana, 32 crore Jan Dhan accounts opened and 21 crore poor given insurance and pension cover. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said he did not have an operational bank account before he became an MLA as he never had enough money. Reminiscing his school days, Modi recounted how Dena Bank used to offer a scheme under which students were given a piggy bank and an account was opened for them. "They gave one to me, but mine was always empty. Later, I left the village. The bank account continued and bank officials had to carry forward that account every year. The bank officials were looking for me to close the account," Modi said. He recounted how the officials located him after 32 years and approached him for closing the account. "After 32 years, they got to know I was at a particular place so the bank officials came there and said please sign, we need to close your account," he said adding that after he became MLA in Gujarat and started drawing a salary, he had to open an account. "...before that, there was no (operational) account," he said during his speech at the launch of India Post Payments Bank. The Prime Minister on Saturday launched the payments bank of Indian postal department that will take banking to doorstep of every citizen through an unmatched network of post offices and almost 3 lakh postmen and 'Grameen Dak Sewaks'. Taking note of the emotional connect of 'daakiyas' with the local communities, Modi said the faith of people on government may wobble, but certainly not in case of the postman. "Decades ago, when a postman went from one village to another...dacoits and robbers would never attack the postman because they knew that he was probably carrying money sent via money order by a son (who worked in the city) for his mother in the village," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Myanmar's military has released 75 child soldiers, a UN agency said, its first discharge this year as part of a gradual process to end decades of forced recruitment of underage fighters. There are no concrete figures on how many children are still among the estimated 500,000 troops that serve in Myanmar's military, or the ethnic rebel armies that it battles in the country's border regions. The state's army -- also referred to as the "Tatmadaw" -- has released 924 children and young people from its ranks since signing a deal with the United Nations in 2012, according to Friday's statement released by UN child protection agency UNICEF. The child soldiers released will have to attend reintegration programmes to return them to civilian life, a process that will contribute to "bringing lasting peace in Myanmar as productive citizens", the statement added. Friday's ceremony was attended by the discharged children and young people, with the youngest ex-soldier being 14 years old. UN Myanmar resident coordinator Knut Ostby said in a speech during the ceremony that it is much more difficult to recruit a child today than before the 2012 pact was signed. But more could be done to ensure the safety of children and young people in Myanmar, he said, calling out the Tatmadaw for "not having put in place measures for protection of children with regards to killing and maiming, and rape and other forms of sexual violence." Ostby on Saturday recounted to AFP scenes of joy from the children and their families during the ceremony. "The children and youth and their families were clapping, they were so happy that this was happening. These are (children) who are going back to their normal lives," he said. "The context is challenging but there has been considerable progress in stopping underage recruitment and discharge of child soldiers." Experts say that as long as the army and ethnic armed groups continue warring within Myanmar, children remain at risk of recruitment. They are usually kidnapped or taken by force from public spaces like parks and train stations before being threatened with jail time if they refuse to be conscripted. Myanmar UNICEF representative June Kunugi told AFP that there are also many who are pushed to join the Tatmadaw because of extreme poverty, lack of access to education and livelihood opportunities. "It is important to note that the recruitment and use of children by armed forces or armed groups is considered a grave violation of children's rights regardless of the child's perceived willingness," she said. UNICEF said in addition to the army there are seven other "persistent perpetrators" that recruit child soldiers, including the Kachin Independence Army and the Shan State Army South -- both ethnic groups that continue to engage in skirmishes with the Myanmar military. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Nagaland government has launched a campaign to create awareness and better understanding of laws related to child adoption. Advisor to the Department of Social Welfare, MLA Noke Wangnao launched video and radio jingles on legal adoption on Friday, as part of the state government's child protection services. The jingles aim to create awareness and knowledge among the multi-stakeholders and the general public about the concept of legal adoption and issues related to it, said Sarah Ritse, Secretary, Social Welfare Department and Chairman, Child Protection Services. "Adoption done as per the juvenile justice system can ensure a secure and safe future for the child as well as for the adoptive parents," Ritse said. Nagaland has reported around 120 adoptions during the last eight years, officials said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra NCP chief Jayant Patil Saturday questioned the state government on the reduction in security cover provided to its MLA Jitendra Awhad and sought to know if it was done for the "convenience of Sanatani terrorists." The NCP's attack came after the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) Friday told a sessions court here that suspected right-wing activist Avinash Pawar had carried out reconnaissance of several persons, including Awhad, who were on their target list, for speaking against Hindu religion. The ATS had told court that Pawar had carried out reconnaissance of Awhad as well as people like Mukta Dabholkar, daughter of slain rationalist Narendra Dabholkar and social activist Shyam Manav among others. "The Maharashtra government had reduced the security personnel given to Jitendra Awhad. The ATS has now said that Awhad was on the target list of Sanatan terrorists. Is the state government negligent about his security or looking after the convenience of Sanatani terrorists?" he asked. NCP Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule attacked the state intelligence department and said extremists had complete information on Awhad and had done reconnaissance of his home and office. "What was the state intelligence doing then? And since his security was reduced based on the information provided by it, who will take responsibility for the wrong information provided by the intelligence?" she questioned. She also sought to know if it was a conspiracy to help extremists or inefficiency on the part of the Maharashtra government. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde Saturday questioned the state government on the money that had been spent over the past four years to fill potholes. Taking a swipe at the Devendra Fadnavis government, Munde said that the former would take note of the pothole problem plaguing the roads of the state only after it finds a mention in the Guinness World Records. "The condition of roads in the state has become so bad that soon the Guinness Book Of World Records will take note of it. We have been continuously seeking Public Works Department minister Chandrakant Patil's intervention in this issue but there is no response from him," he said. "Into whose pockets has the thousands of crores of rupees spent on repairing potholes gone?" the NCP leader questioned. Party colleague and Lok Sabha MP from Baramati, Supriya Sule, meanwhile, took to social media to target the Fadnavis government over what she claimed was the abysmal condition of the state's roads. Calling potholes a major issue, Sule said that Fadnavis should take moral responsibility for failing to mitigate problems caused to people due to them. "Where has the crores of rupees that have been spent to repair potholes gone? This government has only fooled people. Be it demonetisation, repair of potholes, Mumbai-Pune Hyperloop or the bullet train project," she said. Munde also posted a "selfie with potholes" on the Gangakhed-Parbhani road and sought an explanation from the PWD minister. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) American Christian Coleman used an injury and media snubbing as motivation to scorch to the seventh-fastest 100m time of all time as he snatched the Diamond League trophy for the blue riband event in scintillating style in Brussels. Coleman, the world record holder over 60m indoors and world 100m silver medallist in London last year, clocked a personal best of 9.79 seconds, the fastest 100m run since the now-retired Usain Bolt won the 2015 world title in Beijing. Only Bolt and fellow Jamaicans Yohan Blake, Asafa Powell and Nesta Carter, and the US duo of Tyson Gay and Justin Gatlin have gone quicker. Ronnie Baker had been tipped as the one to beat at the King Baudouin II stadium, but a dreadful start left him trailing the entire field before eventually finding his rhythm to push through behind Coleman in 9.93sec. "Winning the Diamond League with a personal record, it's like icing on the cake," said the 22-year-old Coleman on Friday. "It means a lot to notch my name in the sport and have my name among some of the greats." The American said his time overshadowed his showing in the 60m in the Birmingham world indoors in March, which was followed by a right hamstring injury that curtailed his training and competitive appearances. "I now feel pretty good, I came into the whole weekend with a huge chip on my shoulder because people stopped talking about me, about all that I'd done this year," the Kentucky-based athlete said. "I was just injured, and I used that as fuel to the fire. I felt like I could go out there and do a personal best." Coleman added: "With the world lead and Diamond trophy, I guess I'm at the top of the leaderboard at the moment... the 'new boss'." Touted as the strongest men's pole vault field ever, with five of the 12 finalists having cleared the mythical 6m-barrier, the competition petered out for French world record holder Renaud Lavillenie and Swedish teenager Armand Duplantis, who won European gold in Berlin last month with 6.05m. It came down instead to a battle between American Sam Hendricks and Russian Timur Morgunov, the latter eventually winning with 5.93m. - Ibarguen double - =================== Colombia's Caterine Ibarguen, fresh from winning the overall triple jump title in Zurich on Thursday, also claimed the long jump trophy with a best of 6.80m. It meant she became the first non-sprinter in history to win two Diamond trophies in one year, four sprinters having already achieved the feat. Portugal's Pedro Pablo Pichardo notched up 17.49m to beat American Christian Taylor in the men's triple jump and Bahamas' Shaunae Miller-Uibo won the women's 200m in 22.12sec ahead of double defending world champion Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands. Nigerian-born Salwa Eid Naser, hot off the plane after winning two golds for Bahrain in the ongoing Asian Games in Indonesia, won the 400m in 49.33sec ahead of American Phyllis Francis. "I felt a little jetlagged," said Naser. "But my goal was to win the Diamond trophy and I did just that. It's been a good season and this victory makes it complete." Croatia's all-conquering discus thrower Sandra Perkovic -- two-time world and Olympic champion and five-time Eurpean gold medallist -- suffered a blip when she could only finish third, 69cm behind winner Yaime Perez of Cuba (65.00m). "Stupid things sometimes happen, but that is sports," said a 'flu-hit Perkovic, who could not resist a dig at organisers after seeing her streak of 15 victories come to a halt. "This is my eighth final and I won seven of them. This Diamond League should not be awarded in one final." Kenya enjoyed a good night as Beatrice Chepkoech took the spoils in the women's 3000m steeplechase and Emmanuel Kipkurui Korir the men's 800m. Selemon Barega led home a quintet of Ethiopians in the 5000m, while Australian Brandon Starc won the high jump with 2.33m and Britain's newly-crowned European champion Laura Muir took the 1500m. Sergey Shubenkov, the Russian competing under a neutral flag as his country remains banned over a state-sponsored doping programme, won the 110m hurdles in 12.97sec and American Brianna McNeal the 100m hurdles in 12.61. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Alleging that New Delhi has made "many mistakes" on Kashmir, National Conference (NC) president and MP Farooq Abdullah on Saturday said steps should be taken to win the hearts of the people. He said it hurts people of the state whenever issues like "revocation" of Article 35-A are raised. "It is not that Delhi has not made any mistakes. It has made many mistakes. What is the need to revoke (Article) 35-A? Why? People are hurt because of such things. If you want to connect hearts, then you have to do things which can win the hearts of the people. You cannot win without that," Abdullah said here. The former Union minister was speaking at a function at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) here. Abdullah, without naming anyone, said there were certain powers who do not want peace in the valley as their "livelihood flourishes on violence". "One day, a decision (on Kashmir) will be taken, but we should also try to stand on our own feet (till then). It is not easy, some people will not let it happen. Those powers who live on our blood, will not want to have peace here. They want to keep peace very far from us," he said. The NC president said the upcoming local bodies and panchayat polls were for the betterment of the people of the state. "The government has announced panchayat and town area committee elections. This is not a decision for India or Pakistan. This is a decision for making your own life better - whether you want to make your village better, address peoples' problems or not. "Many outfits will try to not have these elections because their livelihood comes from our miseries. You see, hotels and houseboats are empty. Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Sonamarg are crying and traders are crying. There is nothing. For how long we will have to suffer," he said. The Member of Parliament from Srinagar appealed to the people to join hands and take the state out of morass. "If you do not want that (to make future better) and want to go towards destruction, then there is no one to stop you. But, if you want to make the future of your children and compete with the those from India, then bring them to the level where they can compete. "They cannot do it if our schools remain closed. If you really want to change the future of this state, then first try to make the future of your children better," he said. Abdullah hoped that a day will come when peace will return to the valley. "I am sure that a day will come when we will live in peace and also with the country which is called Pakistan as we have a deep relation with them, all of our water goes towards them. "A day will come when the relations between India and Pakistan will become stronger and we will come out of this misery. But for that, you will have to be prepared. You have to prepare for the municipal and panchayat polls. Elect good people and not those who will take your money and fill their pockets," he said. When asked whether it was the right time for the polls keeping in view the prevailing situation in the valley, the NC president said, "I don't know if it is a right time or not, but the dates have been announced". Elections to municipal bodies in the state will be conducted in four phases between October 1 and October 5, while elections to panchayats in eight phases between November 8 and December 4. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Scientists have developed a self-powered sensor that could allow doctors to remotely monitor the recovery of surgical patients. The small, tube-like device is designed to be fitted to braces after joint surgery to wirelessly send information to computers, smartphones or smartwatches to track range of motion and other indicators of improvement. "That data would be continuously collected, so it would be as though the physician or physiotherapist was always there, always observing the patient," said Hassan Askari, a doctoral candidate at University of Waterloo in Canada. The same sensor could also be used in a variety of other ways, including in the tires of autonomous vehicles to detect and respond to icy roads. A prototype built and tested by the researchers combines electromagnetism and triboelectricity, a relatively new energy harvesting technique that involves bringing different materials together to produce current. When bent or twisted, the device generates enough electricity for sensing and powering electronic circuits for processing and wireless signal transmission. "The aim was to develop a sensor that works without having a battery attached to it. It is its own power source," said Askari. That makes the device well-suited for applications that put a premium on reliability and where it would be difficult or expensive to replace worn-out batteries. Askari estimated the sensors -- about six centimetres long and one centimetre wide -- could be commercially manufactured for USD 5 to 10 each. Research is now focused on making them smaller and more sensitive using triboelectricity alone. Software is also being developed to process signals for the tire application. When attached to the inside of tires, they could sense changing road conditions and instantly send information to control systems to enable self-driving vehicles to make adjustments. "Based on the forces, the interaction between the road and the tires, we could actually detect ice or rain. That is extremely important information for autonomous driving," said Askari. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Maharashtra Police's "conclusive proof" to link the arrested activists to Maoists and all the evidence is "cooked up", a nephew of Telegu poet Varavara Rao claimed Saturday. He said the there was nothing new in the claims of the police. "All this was said in June. It is nothing new. It is illegal to hold a press conference when the Supreme Court asked the evidence to be submitted on September 6," Venugopal, a nephew of Varavara Rao told PTI. He said the matter was sub-judice and termed it contempt of court. "This police officer does not have a right to hold a press conference," he said. The police officer knew that the "evidence" was cooked up and he had gone to the press only to defame those arrested, he claimed. The apex court asked him to give details to it and not to the press. "It set one week duration. Within the one week, he comes out to press, just to defame these people. This is trial by media, conducted by the police," he said. "I'm not going into merits and demerits of this evidence. That is not evidence... That is concocted, fabricated," he said. The Congress, the NCP and even the Shiv Sena had issued statements in June, saying the evidence being cited by the police were all cooked up and politically-motivated, Venugopal claimed. The police Friday claimed they have "conclusive proof" to link Left-wing activists arrested in June and this week to Maoists, saying one of them spoke of a "Rajiv Gandhi-type event to end Modi-raj". An email between Rona Wilson, one of the arrested activists, and a Maoist leader, speaks of ending "Modi-raj" with a 'Rajiv Gandhi-type incident', Additional Director General (Law and Order) Parambir Singh had said in Mumbai. On August 28, the Maharashtra Police had conducted searches in various cities and arrested five people, including Rao, for their alleged links with Maoists. The houses of Varavara Rao, his two daughters and a journalist were searched in Hyderabad. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) According to Circular No 19/2018/TT-NHNN issued by the State Bank of Vietnam on August 28, which will take effect from October 12 this year, the Chinese yuan will be allowed for payment in the border areas between Vietnam and China.Besides the yuan, traders and residents in the border areas of Vietnam and China, can also use Vietnamese dong or fully convertible currencies, such as the US dollar, Euro or Yen, for payment of goods and services.In addition to individuals, some other organisations will be subject to the new regulation. They include commercial banks and branches of foreign banks licensed to conduct foreign exchange transactions in Vietnam; branches of banks located in border areas and border-gate economic zones of Viet Nam and China; organisations trading in duty-free goods; organisations providing services in isolated areas at international border gates; organisations engaged in bonded warehouses in border regions; the Vietnam-China Border Gate Economic Zone; and other organisations and individuals conducting payment activities in Vietnam-China border trade.Payment can be made through banks or in cash in dong or yuan, according to the circular.Vietnam has seven provinces sharing the border with China, including Lang Son, Quang Ninh, Ha Giang, Lai Chau, Lao Cai, Cao Bang and Dien Bien. The Chinese yuan and Vietnamese dong are only used for payment in border areas of these provinces.Economic and trade cooperation between China and Vietnam has become increasingly close in recent years, and there is huge demand and an increasing trend toward yuan settlement in Vietnam.Vietnam has overtaken Malaysia to become the largest trade partner of China in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Their two-way trade was estimated at 66 billion USD in the first half of 2018, with the average monthly trade turnover between the two countries having exceeded 10 billion USD for the first time in history. Vietnamplus Mumbai-based Omkar Realtors on Saturday said the company sold nearly Rs 400 crore worth properties last fiscal year to NRIs and it has opened own office in Dubai and Singapore to cater to demand rise. The company plans to open offices in the US and London property markets as well to achieve the targeted sales booking of Rs 450 crore this fiscal year. "Sales to NRIs (non-resident Indians) contribute about 20 per cent of our overall sales bookings," Omkar Realtors Senior Vice President Rahul Maroo told PTI. He said the NRIs from UAE and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) contributed to almost 60 per cent of overseas sales bookings while the balance 40 per cent were booked by NRIs from Singapore, the US, Hongkong and the UK. "We have opened our own offices in Dubai to cater to UAE and GCC NRIs and Singapore for NRIs in Hongkong and Jakarta," Maroo said. He said the company expects sales bookings of Rs 450 crore this fiscal from NRI community. "We will soon open our own offices in the US and London," he said. Maroo said the company invests about 2 per cent of its revenue from NRIs sales on administration and marketing expenses in international regions. Maximum sales are happening in three projects -- Alta Monte Malad East, Omkar Lawns & Beyond, Andheri and Omkar Sereno, Andheri. Omkar Realtors has so far delivered 15 projects in Mumbai and is currently developing another six. It is targeting to complete 20 million sq ft area by 2018 in Mumbai and has additional 40 million sq area in pipeline. The company has rehabilitated more than 60,000 slum dwellers in Mumbai under the Maharashtra government's Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) housing scheme. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A District Reserve Guard (DRG) jawan was killed and three others were injured in an IED blast triggered allegedly by Naxals in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh on Saturday, police said. The incident took place around 12.30 pm in Rabdipara village when a team of DRG personnel was out on a routine search operation, Sukma Additional Superintendent of Police Shalabh Kumar Sinha told PTI. When the patrolling team reached Rabdipara, around 500 km from state capital Raipur, the ultras triggered the improvised explosive device (IED) blast that left four jawans injured, he said. On being alerted about the incident, reinforcement was rushed to the site to evacuate the injured to Sukma town, he said. "Constable Gyandhar Pradhani succumbed to his injuries during the evacuation," Sinha said, adding the three others were admitted to Sukma hospital and will be airlifted to Raipur for further treatment. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan has temporarily shut its consulate in Afghanistan's Jalalabad city due to alleged interference by a local governor. The Pakistan Embassy in Kabul has informed Afghan authorities that the consulate will remain closed until Nangarhar Province Governor Hayatullah Hayat stops his interventions. Diplomatic sources said the embassy has also informed the Afghanistan government that the undue interventions by Hayat was a complete violation of the Vienna Convention of the Consular Relations, 1963. Pakistan demanded authorities improve security around the consulate and stop interference in the consulate general's functioning, otherwise it will not be opened. Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan are under stress and despite efforts, the two sides have not completely eliminated the mistrust towards each other. The two sides also accuse each other of harbouring militants who carry out attacks across the border. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Palestinians reacted angrily Saturday to a US decision to end all funding for the UN agency that assists millions of refugees, seeing it as a new policy shift aimed at undermining their cause. Washington, which until last year was by far the biggest contributor to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), announced on Friday that it would no longer make any contributions to the "irredeemably flawed operation". The move by President Donald Trump's administration was described as "cruel and irresponsible" by senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi. "The Palestinian refugees are already the victims who have lost their homes, livelihoods and security as a result of the creation of the state of Israel," she said. The US has backed Israel in accusing the agency of perpetuating the Middle East conflict by maintaining the idea that many Palestinians are refugees with a right to return to homes in what is now Israel. But to Palestinians, the right of return for the hundreds of thousands who fled or were expelled during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel's creation is central to their cause. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the American administration was invalidating future peace talks by "preempting, prejudging issues reserved for permanent status" negotiations. Palestinian and Israeli "elements that want to achieve peace peacefully, based on a two states solution, are being destroyed," he told AFP. Trump had already angered Palestinians by his December recognition of the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and axing more than USD 200 million in bilateral aid for Gaza and the West Bank. The new policy on Jerusalem overturned decades of precedent and prompted the Palestinian leadership to break off relations with the White House. Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said Washington's decision "promotes terrorism" and was a violation of UN resolutions. UNRWA, which was established in 1949, was already facing a financial crisis after Trump announced a USD 300 million funding freeze in January. The agency, which assists more than five million registered Palestinian refugees, says it now faces the threat of major closures to its network of schools and health centres. Mahmoud Mubarak, director of the community-run committees that run the 19 refugee camps in the West Bank which accommodate some 500,000 Palestinians, warned of the "very serious repercussions" of the US move. Mubarak said representatives of the committees would be meeting on Tuesday to discuss their options. In the impoverished Gaza Strip, where most children attend UNRWA schools, 55-year-old Hisham Saqallah said the US move was "political blackmail" that would merely increase unrest. "If they stop aid to schools, this means destroying the futures of a large number of students and throwing them into the street," he said. "I do not think that it can eliminate our Palestinian cause. It is a just cause. If the aid is stopped, the Palestinian struggle will continue." - UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said the agency would try to make up a $217 million shortfall. "If not, some of the most marginalised and vulnerable people on the planet may well suffer," he told AFP. "People are going to become more desperate and marginalised," he said, warning of "dramatic, widespread, profound and unpredictable" consequences. Jordan, which is one of just two Arab countries to have signed a peace treaty with Israel, already announced plans to organise a fundraising conference on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York next month. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the US would "intensify dialogue with the United Nations, host governments and international stakeholders about new models and new approaches" for assisting needy Palestinians. But Hugh Lovatt, an Israeli and Palestinian affairs analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Washington would find scant support for its push for an alternative aid conduit. He said it was an attempt to "unilaterally take the Palestinian right of return off the table". "But US actions are misguided, dangerous, and won't work... neither Lebanon or Jordan can be expected to play along," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A spokesman for the Palestinian president says the American decision to cut funding for the UN agency aiding Palestinian refugees is "an attack on the rights of the Palestinian people." Mahmoud Abbas' spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeneh, says Saturday the move does "not serve peace but rather strengthens terrorism in the region." The US supplies nearly 30 per cent of the total budget of the UN Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, and had been demanding it carry out significant reforms. The decision cuts nearly USD 300 million of planned support. UNRWA was established after Israel's 1948 War of Independence to singularly aid some 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes and later their millions of descendants too. Israel has long argued the agency merely perpetuates the refugee crisis. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The notion of nationalism and patriotism became a focal point of discussion among panelists at a programme in the city, with many pointing out that the two ideas are subjective and should not be confused with other issues. "The whole business of trying to prove one's nationalism or patriotism is highly subjective... it is not ethical to confuse nationalism and patriotism with other issues," said Anjum Katyal, noted writer-translator and director of the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival. She was speaking at a function on Friday to mark the 10th anniversary of the literary festival. Presidency University faculty member Debaroti Chokroborty, who was also a part of the discussion, said how a person will be nationalistic with his/her act should be best left to that person. "How a person should show his/her nationalism must be left to his/her personal domain and should not be linked with other issues," Chokroborty said. The session also deliberated on India's diversity and inclusive nature. Recent developments like publishing of the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam have brought to fore the question what constitutes being called a citizen, said the panelists, which also comprised journalists, short filmmakers and students. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said Saturday that Parliament, and not court, was the right forum to take up the Rafale fighter jet deal in which his party has alleged a major "scam". Addressing a press conference here, the former Union home minister said the Rafale deal should not be compared with the Bofors case as there was no corruption in the purchase of Bofors guns from Sweden in 1980s. Replying to a query on approaching the court on the Rafale deal issue, he said, "The solution to this problem is not court...this has become a fashion in India --for everything you go to court. "The place to debate is Parliament...that is where the elected representatives are. All debates take place in Parliament, debates do not take place in court. It is only in India that courts have become a debating place and Parliament has become stagnant," Chidambaram said. He said if the government did not want to debate the issue in Parliament, the other option was to set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) - a demand made by the Congress - and discuss the deal there. The JPC represents Parliament. It is miniature Parliament, he said. The Congress leader also asked how could the government term the acquisition of 36 Rafale jets an "emergency" purchase when the first of the fighter planes was meant to arrive four years after the deal. "Not one aircraft has arrived in India since its announcement in 2015. The first aircraft is expected to arrive in September 2019 and remaining in 2022. Now where is the question of emergency purchasing when the first aircraft comes after four years and the remaining after seven years?" he questioned. The former Union minister also sought to know why the government did not persuade France's Dassault Aviation, the makers of the fighter aircraft, to give off-set contract related to the multi-crore deal to state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). "Assuming Dassault can choose its offset partners, why did not the government encourage, persuade and advise Dassault to choose HAL which has an impeccable record in manufacturing aircraft among public sector companies?" he said. Asked whether the Rafale deal "scam" was on the lines of the Bofors scandal, Chidambaram said, "Bofors was not a scam. There is a judgement of Justice J D Kapoor of the Delhi High Court which conclusively finds that there was no corruption or scam in the Bofors deal. "So please do not compare Rafale with the Bofors deal. Bofors (scam) was a figment of imagination of late prime minister V P Singh," he said. Asked if the Rafale deal was a "scam" as claimed by Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Chidambaram said, "This (the deal) raises serious questions, which leads to heavy suspicion and if the answers are not forthcoming, we have to conclude that it is a scam. Let them give the answers first". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Saturday and took stock of the situation in the wake of floods in parts of the state. "Assured all possible support to the state in the rescue & relief operations. We stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Nagaland...," the PM tweeted. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release on Sunday a book on experiences of M Venkaiah Naidu during his first year as Vice President of India and Chairman of Rajya Sabha. The 245-page book titled Moving onMoving forward: A year in office brings out Naidu's "mission of engagement" on four key issues with various stakeholders across the country and its alignment with the mission of a new India in the making. Naidu says in the book that his mission of exploring and shaping public discourse over four key issues took him on extensive travels across the country since he was sworn in as Vice President on August 11 last year. He identifies these core issues as; unrealised demographic dividend, need for an effective ecosystem for farmers to thrive and bridge the rural urban divide, orienting scientific advancements to better the life of the people, and enhancing public awareness about the rich Indian heritage and inculcating national pride in the country's pluralistic, inclusive, harmonious world view. Naidu records in the book his excitement over the new role; I have assumed the office of the Vice President at what seems like an interesting moment in the country's history. It is indeed a time of daunting challenges and a time of limitless opportunities. It is a time when the country is moving forward and I feel privileged to be in this position to serve the country and its people in a new role. It is a moment when the resolute political will to transform the country is finding resonance with the people. Clearly, there are many more miles to go. We must, as a nation, move on. We must move forward with persistence, he says in the book. Referring to his role as the Chairman of Rajya Sabha, Naidu said his dream was to facilitate meaningful debates in which members express their learned and considered views. The Chairman records his disappointment over the first two sessions of the House he presided but notes with optimism the new tidings witnessed during the monsoon session that concluded earlier this month. The book has 465 illustrations and seven chapters, including a detailed one on various initiatives taken by him as Chairman of Rajya Sabha and refers to the rapidly expanding viewership of RSTV. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A parliamentary commission in Poland has reported that the country lost more than 5 million citizens and over USD 54 billion dollars (46.6 billion euros) worth of assets under its Nazi German occupation during World War II. The commission announced the numbers yesterday as part of the current Polish government's declared intent to seek damages from Germany. It said the figures were preliminary estimates. The leader of the ruling Law and Justice party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, argues that as the first country the Nazis attacked in 1939, Poland also was the first to put up resistance and suffered the greatest losses. Observers say the talk of pursuing damages from Germany is addressed largely to elderly Polish voters. Poland has not made an official appeal, and Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz said earlier this year that the issue was not weighing on Warsaw's good neighbourly relations with Berlin. Poland spent decades under Soviet domination after the war and wasn't able to seek damages independently. However, Germany has made payments to Polish survivors of Nazi atrocities. The preliminary calculations done for the commission by university experts put the number of Polish citizens killed from 1939 to 1945 at 5.1 million, including 90 per cent of the Jewish population that numbered about 3.5 million before the war. Losses in cities were estimated to be worth 53 billion zlotys (USD 14 billion; 12 billion euros,) with Warsaw alone accounting for more than two-thirds of the total cost. Additional losses in agriculture and transportation infrastructure also were factored in. The full report is expected to be published next year, commission head Arkadiusz Mularczyk said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Southeast Asia region has been an important growth driver for us, and we are pleased and optimistic about our opportunity to be part of such an exciting economy and retail market, said Tadashi Yanai, Chairman, President and CEO of Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., the parent company of UNIQLO.We look forward to introducing Uniqlo and our high-quality, affordable LifeWear apparel in Vietnam, as well as making a positive contribution to the economy and communities where we operate, Yanai added.The first UNIQLO store will be opened in Ho Chi Minh City and operate under a joint venture between Mitsubishi Corporation and Fast Retailing, who will own 25 percent and 75 percent of the company, respectively.More stores will be available in the city before they expand to other parts of Vietnam.UNIQLO will also soon begin recruiting key employees for its operation in Vietnam through the launch of its UNIQLO Manager Candidate programme.The Japanese retailer plans to double its number of stores in Southeast Asia and Oceania to about 400 by 2022. The brands global network currently covers 20 markets in Asia, Europe, North America, and Australia, with a total of about 2,000 stores.The firm also aims to triple its revenue in Southeast Asia to 300 billion JPY (2.71 billion USD) in the year ending in August 2022.Last fiscal year, ending in August 2017, its parent company, Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., earned 16.87 billion USD in revenue.The upcoming appearance of UNIQLO in Vietnam will place it in competition with some of the well-known foreign brands like Zara and H&M already present in the country. Currently, Vietnamese people can only purchase Uniqlo products from individual sellers or order them from other countries. Vietnamplus Congress president Rahul Gandhi, on a pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet, on Saturday flew to Lhasa from here. Gandhi left on a flight from Tribhuvan International Airport at around 1:00 pm, Nepalese media reported. He had arrived here on Friday. Details of his visit have been kept under wraps due to security reasons. The Congress chief, 48, is undertaking the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in accordance with a wish he expressed in April when his plane plunged hundreds of feet during the campaign for the Karnataka polls. On April 26, the plane carrying Gandhi and some others from Delhi to Hubballi airport in Karnataka developed a technical problem and tilted heavily on the left side. The plane dipped steeply with violent shuddering, but soon recovered and landed safely. Three days later, on April 29, Gandhi announced during a rally that he wanted to undertake the pilgrimage. The arduous pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, which is considered the abode of Lord Shiva in Hindu mythology and is in the Tibetan Himalayas, is organised every year between June and September. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Rajasthan agriculture marketing department has invited the agitating traders in the state to hold a meeting with officials on September 4, in a bid to end the strike which they began this Saturday. On the direction of the state agriculture minister, the department called the representatives of the traders to discuss their issues so that the strike could be called off, a government statement said. The traders went on a five-day strike on Saturday in all the 247 wholesale agriculture produce markets (mandis) in the state demanding commission on the purchase of commodities on minimum support price (MSP). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Tamil Nadu government would consider celebrating the 'Tamirabharani River Pushkaram Festival' as a government function, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam said today. Speaking to reporters here, the Deputy Chief Minister said the Pushkaram Festival, dedicated to worshipping the rivers, is to be held for Tamirabharani from October 12 to 23. The pushkaram in Tamirabharani is celebrated once in 144 years. Earlier, he took part in the 303rd birth anniversary celebrations of freedom fighter Pulithevan and paid homage to him at his memorial near here. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The opposition SAD in Punjab held protests on Saturday in all 117 assembly constituencies of the state against the Congress government's alleged conspiracy to weaken Sikh institutions. Led by senior party leader, Shiromani Akali Dal workers took to the streets in every constituency and raised slogans against the Congress government. They also burnt the effigies of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, the party's Punjab unit chief Sunil Jhakar and chief minister Amarinder Singh. However, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal did not participate in the protests. The senior party leaders who led the protests in different constituencies included Maheshinder Singh Grewal, Sikandar Singh Maluka, Jathedar Tota Singh, Daljit Singh Cheema, Prem Singh Chandumajra and Hira Singh Gabria. SAD workers condemned Jhakar for threatening them that they will not be allowed to enter villages. They warned the Congress that they stood for maintaining peace and communal harmony and that it should desist from instigating violence in the state. SAD leaders accused the Congress government of working with radical groups to hatch a conspiracy to "defame" the Akalis in order to gain control of the Sikh religious institutions including the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), a party release said. They said Amarinder Singh-led Congress government was trying to implement its age old "anti-Sikh" agenda to "divide" the Sikhs for its "petty political" goals as it did in the 1980s. In a statement, former SGPC president and minister Jagir Kaur attacked the Congress leadership for allegedly vitiating the communal amity in the state with its hostile posturing. Meanwhile, Sukhpal Singh Khaira-led rebel faction of the Aam Aadmi Party also held a protest against the Akalis over the incidents of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and other religious texts during the SAD-BJP regime and the police firing at Faridkot. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt has offered to lead an anti-drug campaign to be launched by six northern states affected by the menace. The noted actor expressed his desire to become the brand ambassador for the campaign when Rawat was in Mumbai recently to invite entrepreneurs to invest in the state. "I had a telephonic talk with Sanjay Dutt who was shooting somewhere. He said he had himself suffered much due to drug addiction early in his career and would like to contribute to the campaign against it as its brand ambassador," Rawat said. Six northern states, including Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan, and also the Union Territory of Chandigarh have worked out a joint strategy to fight the drug menace. A massive campaign to create awareness among youngsters about the ill-effects of drug abuse is a part of the strategy. The chief ministers of four states, including Rawat and the representatives of two others, met in Chandigarh last month to discuss the strategy, where it was decided that they would meet every six months to monitor the progress of the campaign. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With improvement in weather conditions on Saturday, the water level in Siang river in Arunachal Pradesh has started receding, officials said. East Siang district deputy commissioner Tamiyo Tatak said that the water level of the Siang river at Pasighat, the district headquarters, is normal although there were high tides. "The water level of the river receded since last evening with improvement in weather," he said over phone. Official sources from Tuting in Upper Siang district said that the water level of the river is gradually receding. According to National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the water level of the Siang river at Tuting recorded in the morning was 415.17 meter and that in Pasighat was 153.30 meter. Siang river, which originates in Tibet, is known as Tsangpo in China. It joins Lohit and Dibang rivers downstream to form the Brahmaputra in Assam. Nineteen persons were rescued by the Indian Air Force (IAF) on Friday who were stranded in an island at Siang river in East Siang district. On Thursday, the East Siang district administration had requisitioned IAF for helicopter to evacuate people stranded at Jampani under Sille-Oyan circle of the district. The rescued, all cattle herders from Assam, were stranded after the water level rose with high current making it impossible for boats to ferry. The district administration has advised people to stay away from venturing into the Siang River as it was in high spate with unusual high tides. Many low-lying areas are staring at flood and erosion, especially in Mebo circle under the district. Over 1,000 families living along the river bank have been affected at Mebo, local legislator Lombo Tayeng had said on Thursday. According to a Chinese government report, Tsangpo was in spate because of heavy rains. The various gauge and discharge stations on the Tsangpo had observed a discharge of 9,020 cumec (cubic metre per second) water on Wednesday, official sources said. "There is nothing to panic as the Central Water Commission (CWC) has reported that the Grand Canyon of Tsangpo on August 14 was 8,070 cumec but its increase should not inflict severe damages," an official quoting the Chinese report said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A nephrologist at the city-based Sir Ganga Ram Hospital has been chosen for the prestigious B C Roy National Award, hospital authorities said Saturday. "Dr A K Bhalla, Co-chairperson, Department of Nephrology, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH), has been selected in the category -- to recognise the best talents in encouraging the development of specialities in different branches of medicine (Nephrology)," a spokesperson of the hospital said. Bhalla has been working at the SGRH for the last30 years as a consultant nephrologist and has trained more than 50 students in nephrology, he said. "He is pioneer in starting peritoneal dialysis in India and also ABO incompatible kidney transplants," the spokesperson said. The Bidhan Chandra Roy Award was instituted in 1976 in the memory of renowned physician and freedom fighter B C Roy by Medical Council of India. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Six Indian nationals are among over 300 people arrested by American authorities for criminal activities and violating the country's immigration laws during a month-long crackdown across six states. Federal officers with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) arrested 364 criminal aliens and immigration violators during a 30-day enforcement action across Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin. Those arrested during this operation came from 25 countries, including six from India. Other nationalities included Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and and Ukraine. Of the 364 arrested, 187 had criminal convictions, 16 were women and 346 men and 236 were from Mexico. From the Chicago area, ICE arrested a 25-year-old man from India in Champaign, Illinois. He was convicted of criminal sexual abuse on July 30 and remains in ICE custody pending his removal. More than half of the aliens arrested by ERO deportation officers during this operation had prior criminal histories that included convictions for crimes such as assault, attempted murder, burglary, child neglect, child sexual exploitation, domestic violence, drug trafficking and illegal re-entry after deportation. "This operation targeted criminal aliens, public safety threats, and individuals who have violated our nation's immigration laws," said Ricardo Wong, field office director for ICE ERO Chicago. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A fire erupted Saturday at a refinery in southern Germany following an explosion, injuring at least 10 people and forcing authorities to temporarily evacuate almost 2,000 local residents, police said. The explosion took place at around 5:30 am in a site owned by the Bayernoil group near the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt, on the banks of the Danube river. Nearly 600 firefighters, police and rescue workers were mobilised and were able to extinguish large parts of the fire by mid-afternoon, police said. Public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk had reported that the shockwaves from the blast were felt several kilometres away. Pictures from the scene showed flames and smoke rising above the refinery as dawn broke. All of the injured were employees at the refinery. Four were hospitalised, with one in a serious condition, police said in a statement. Some 1,800 residents of the nearby towns of Vohburg and Irsching had been evacuated as a precaution. But around four hours after the explosion, the density of the smoke above the site had diminished to an extent where rescue services allowed residents to return to their homes. "The situation has eased a little. And the evacuation of the nearby residents is no longer necessary," said a police spokesman. Emergency services had appealed to residents within a 20-kilometre (12-mile) radius to "keep their doors and windows closed because of the smoke". Bayernoil employs 790 people at two sites in Bavaria and produces petrol, diesel and heating oil, as well as bitumen, with a crude oil processing capacity of 10.3 million tonnes a year, according to its website. The most recent refinery fire in Germany occurred at a Shell plant in July, and caused no injuries. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The event themed Promoting the achievements of the 1945 August Revolution in missions of building and defending the country is organized by the Ho Chi Minh city Organizing Board of Great Festival. The exhibition gives visitors review of the history and revolutionary movements of the Vietnamese people and armed forces from the establishment of the Vietnamese Communist Party in 1930 to the 1945 Revolutionary August and the launch of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam; the two resistance wars against the French colonialists and US imperialists led by President Ho Chi Minh; together with significant socio-economic-cultural accomplishments. On the same day, other displays titled Beloved Vietnam and The city named for Uncle Ho-Rising aspiration were held in Dong Khoi Street and Chi Lang Park respectively. Exhibits include photos of World Heritage Sites in Vietnam recognized by UNESCO, beautiful landscapes and people, along with outstanding socio-economic-cultural achievements of HCM City. The displays will last until September 10. By MINH AN, LE MINH - Translated by Kim Khanh Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam Saturday said the AIADMK would contest the byelections to Thiruparankundram and Thiruvarur constituencies and those dreaming of dislodging the state government would go into oblivion after the bypolls. The byelections were necessitated in Thiruparankundram following the death of MLA A K Bose on August 2 and in Thiruvarur with the demise of former DMK chief M Karunanidhi on August 7. The Deputy Chief Minister was here to take part in the 303rd birth anniversary celebrations of freedom fighter Puli Thevar. Panneerselvam said former Chief Minister, late J Jayalalithaa, had announced that Puli Thevar's birth anniversary should be celebrated as a government function. The AIADMK government has always taken note of the Independence struggle and its heroes, he said, garlanding a statue of Puli Thevar. Some ministers including O S Manian, Dindigul C Sreenivasan and V M Rajalakshmi also garlanded the statue. Meanwhile, Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam leader T T V Dhinakaran said freedom fighters suffered a lot to get independence for the country. But the present AIADMK government and those in power have sacrificed the people's interests for self-aggrandisement and amassing wealth, he alleged. He also alleged that the present state government was subservient to the BJP-led government at the Centre. "Therefore, we should overthrow this AIADMK government," he said after garlanding a statue of Puli Thevar. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three District Reserve Guard (DRG) jawans were injured in an IED blast triggered allegedly by Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district on Saturday, police said. The incident took place at around 12:30 pm in Rabdipara village under Phulbagdi police station area when a team of the DRG staff was out on an anti-Naxal operation, a senior police official told PTI over phone. When the patrolling team reached Rabdipara, around 500km from the state capital Raipur, ultras triggered an improvised explosive device (IED) that left three jawans injured, he said. On being alerted about the incident, reinforcement was rushed to the blast spot and efforts were on evacuate the injured to Sukma town, the official said. The DRG is a special anti-Naxal police force deployed in the insurgency-hit districts of the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Trading in all the 247 wholesale agriculture produce markets (mandis) in Rajasthan was affected on Saturday as traders went on a five-day strike demanding commission on the purchase of commodities on minimum support price (MSP). On the first day of the strike, the traders body claimed that an estimated turnover of around Rs 8000 crore was affected and the government suffered a revenue loss of Rs 300 crore while the traders too suffered a loss of Rs 160 crore. Our trade margin is getting reduced and we are demanding a reasonable commission on the purchase of commodities on MSP. The government is ignoring our demands therefore we were bound to go on strike from September 1-5, Babu Lal Gupta, the chairman of Rajasthan Khadya Padarth Vyapar Sangh said. He said that traders in all the mandis participated in the strike and held demonstrations. In Jaipur, Gupta addressed a dharna in Kukarkheda mandi saying the government's policies were against the traders and therefore they were facing hardships. He said the strike will continue till September 5. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid speculation about possibility of early polls to the Telangana Legislative Assembly, the ruling TRS is organising a public meeting here Sunday. There has been no official word on early polls and all eyes are on the meeting to see what TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao would say. A meeting of the state cabinet has been convened Sunday afternoon ahead of the public meeting, official sources said. The 'Pragati Nivedana Sabha' (meeting to report progress) at Kongara Kalan on the outskirts of the city would see Rao speaking on the progress made in various sectors during the last four years, TRS sources said. Arrangements are being made for the meeting with food and shelter also provided to those who reach the venue by Saturday night, they said. About 25 lakh people are expected to take part,they said. State IT and Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao said Friday that discussions had been held in the party on advancement of the assembly polls, but no decision has yet been taken. Legislative Assembly elections in Telangana are scheduled to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls next year. However, it is being speculated that the TRS government may opt for early polls on the presumption that there is a positive mood among people on the government. The speculation has also gained ground with transfers of officials, including IAS officers, during the last several days. Rao, who addressed mediapersons more than a fortnight ago, did not give a direct reply on reports of early assembly election, but said the Election Commission has the discretion to conduct it within six months of the original schedule. He said various surveys by the party indicated that TRS would win about 100 seats (out of 119) in the assembly polls. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) United States President Donald Trump will visit France and Argentina this November, while giving the ASEAN Summit in Singapore a miss, the White House has announced. Trump will participate in a November 11 event in Paris commemorating the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I, and would then travel to Buenos Aires to attend the G-20 Summit, the White House said on Friday. The US president will, however, skip the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and the East Asia Summit in Singapore, and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Papua New Guinea. He has asked Vice President Mike Pence to attend these, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said. The vice president will, in these meetings, highlight the United States' vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific, based on respect for sovereignty, the rule of law, and the principles of free, fair and reciprocal trade. "The vice president looks forward to meeting with our allies and partners from across the region to advance security, prosperity and freedom for all," Sanders said. The president will also visit Ireland after attending the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the conclusion of World War I in Paris, she said. "The president's participation in this event will highlight the sacrifices that Americans have made, not only during World War I, but also in the century since, in the name of liberty. While in Europe, he will visit Ireland to renew the deep and historic ties between our two nations," Sanders said. Later in November, Trump will attend the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. "The G20 Summit will be an opportunity for the president to highlight his pro-growth economic policies on an international stage and meet bilaterally with other key world leaders," Sanders said. Trump will also travel to Colombia to discuss opportunities for greater collaboration in security, counter narcotics, and regional affairs with the Duque administration, the White House press secretary said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two and three-wheeler manufacturer TVS Motor reported Saturday 8 per cent rise in sales to 3,43,217 units in August. The Chennai-based company, had recorded total sales of 3,17,563 units during the corresponding month last year. Total two-wheeler sales rose to 3,30,076 units in August from 3,09,146 units sold in same month previous fiscal. In the domestic market, sales of two-wheelers surged by 2 per cent to 2,75,688 units from 2,70,544 units sold in the same period last year. On exports, the company said it grew by 45 per cent to 66,028 units in August compared to 45,604 units sold the same period last fiscal. Sales of two-wheeler in the overseas market rose by 41 per cent to 54,388 units from 38,602 units in August last year. The company said its three-wheelers sales jumped 56 per cent to 13,141 units in August this year from 8,417 units sold during same month previous fiscal. Two alleged drug peddlers have been arrested with cannabis in separate parts of Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, police said Saturday. During a routine patrolling, one Mohammad Rashid was found roaming under suspicious circumstances in Kandli bridge area Friday night, they said, adding he was arrested after seizure of 70 grams of cannabis from him, they said. In another case, a car was intercepted Friday in Chingus area of the district and 350 grams of cannabis seized from one Ajit Bali (driver of the car), they said, adding he was arrested and case registered against him. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two brothers were killed and as many seriously injured when their pick-up van, they were travelling in, overturned at a place under Bhagan Bigaha police station in Nalanda district Saturday, the police said. The van, carrying glasses, overturned near Mora talab area after its driver lost control following tyre burst. The van was on its way to Bihar Sharif from Patna, they said. The deceased have been identified as Sanjay Kumar (35) and Vinod Kumar (40). Both were brothers and residents of Patna. The critically injured persons - the driver and the cleaner - were rushed to the Bihar Sharif Sadar hospital where doctors referred them to Patna for better treatment. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dutch officials Saturday said a knife-wielding attacker who wounded two US citizens at Amsterdam Central Station a day before "had a terrorist motive". "Following an initial statement by the suspect it has emerged that the man had a terrorist motive," Amsterdam City Hall said in a statement after police had questioned the suspect. US ambassador Pete Hoekstra earlier confirmed both the victims, who were rushed to hospital after Friday's attack, were American citizens. The pair are in a satisfactory condition, officials said. Panic broke out at the Dutch capital's main station shortly after midday Friday when the suspect stabbed two bystanders before he was shot and wounded by officers. Police later identified the man as a 19-year-old Afghan with a German residency permit. His name was released by Dutch authorities as "Jawed S.". Amsterdam City Hall said the suspect was being held in hospital under police guard and would briefly appear in court Monday behind closed doors. Dutch authorities said they were in close contact with their German counterparts who raided the suspect's home Saturday at an unknown location in Germany. "Among other things, several data carriers have been confiscated and are being investigated," they said. Initial investigations also indicated the man had not specifically targeted the Americans -- suggesting a random attack. Amsterdam police spokesman Frans Zuiderhoek had already told AFP late Friday that authorities were "seriously taking into account that there was a terrorist motive". Further details of the two Americans injured were not immediately known, although one was reported to be a young man. Hoekstra said the US is ready to "assist as appropriate, with our main priority as always being the safety and well-being of US citizens in the country". The attack comes a day after an announcement by Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders that he was cancelling moves to stage a cartoon competition to caricature the Prophet Mohammad, a plan that had angered many Muslims. Witnesses described scenes of panic on Friday as gunshots rang out and thousands of commuters and tourists were evacuated from the rail terminus shortly after midday. One witness said he saw a young man "stumble" into his flower shop at the station with a bleeding wound to his hand. "Shortly afterwards I heard some shots and I know something has gone badly wrong," Richard Snelders told the ANP agency. A while later, he saw another man lying on the ground nearby, he said. "The first thing that comes up in your mind is that it's a terror attack. After all, you are at Amsterdam Central Station. There was a lot of panic," Snelders said. Police declined to comment when asked whether there was a possible link between Friday's attack and the cartoon competition. Wilders' controversial announcement has seen angry protests, particularly in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued a statement, calling on Muslims to attack Dutch troops and calling Wilders' plan "a hostile act by this country (the Netherlands) against all Muslims". Earlier this week, police arrested another man -- believed to be Pakistani -- at The Hague's Central Station after he posted a film on Facebook saying he was planning to assassinate the blond-haired Wilders, well known for his virulent anti-Islamic views. Wilders on Thursday said he was nixing plans to stage the competition to "avoid the risk of making people victims of Islamist violence". The Netherlands has so far been spared from the slew of terror attacks which have rocked its closest European neighbours in the past few years. But amid a number of scares and reports that people linked to some of those attacks may have crossed briefly into the country, top Dutch security and intelligence officials have stressed that the threat level is substantial. In the most serious incident involving a terror attack, outspoken Dutch anti-Islam film director Theo van Gogh was shot and stabbed to death in 2004 in Amsterdam by a man with ties to a Dutch Islamist terror network. Around 250,000 people travel through Central Station every day, according to statistics provided by the Amsterdam.info online travel guide. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) is expected to attract investments worth around Rs 200 billion after the forthcoming investors summit to be held here next month, Chief Minister said on Saturday. Talking to reporters here after holding a slew of roadshows in Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Delhi to stimulate interest among business and industry leaders for the summit, Rawat said there was a "huge interest" to invest in the hill-state. "Everyone wants to come to the Himalayas. It was evident in the enthusiasm with which the trade and business leaders and people from the film industry responded to our invitation to participate in the summit," Rawat said. Asked to specify an amount, he said investments worth around Rs 200 billion in different sectors were expected to come to the state after the summit. Apart from Reliance Industries Chairman who has given an assurance to expand his operations in the state and evinced interest to invest in telecommunications, hospitality and tourism sectors, people from the film industry including Mukesh Bhatt and Vishal Bhardwaj have also expressed their desire to shoot here, Rawat said. The chief minister said he was aware of the state's limitations when it comes to availability of land but assured that there would be no problem in accommodating the investments coming to the state. "I believe in understatement. I don't exaggerate things," he said in his reply to a query on whether a small state like will be able to accommodate investments worth over Rs 200 billion. The chief minister promised all support to those willing to invest in and asked them to make the most of the state's high ranking in the ease of doing business index, cheap availability of power, better law and order scenario, single window clearance system and proximity to Delhi. Promising entrepreneurs an investment-friendly atmosphere at every level so they can carry out their businesses without a hitch, the chief minister at a meeting in Delhi had on Thursday said, "A 15-day deadline has been set for the approval of any enterprise." The chief minister said he was asking investors to come to the state not only to do business and earn profits but also to generate employment opportunities for locals at their home which will help curb migration from the hills. To be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on October 7-8, the summit is being held for the first time in the state on such a large scale. The visit of the President of Vietnam to Egypt resulted in a trade cooperation agreement involving the supply of 1 million tonnes of white rice, with the agreement coming into force next week, the newspaper cited head of rice division of the Egyptian Federation of Industries Rajab Shehata as saying to Reuters on August 30. The amount, which will be transported to Egypt in various batches over the course of three to four months, will strengthen Indias strategic reserve of rice for the next year. The newspaper said in an attempt to rationalise the use of water resources, Egypt has reduced the area allowed for rice cultivation, and imposed tough new penalties on farmers who illegally grow rice. Traders said that the policies pushed Egypt to import up to 1 million tonnes of rice next year. Shehata said that import is the responsibility of the government, not the private sector. He did not mention the import price of Vietnamese rice but said that it would be cheaper than that from China. Egypt consumes some 3.3 million tonnes of rice per year.-VNA The murder of east Ukraine's main separatist leader is a provocation that will undermine a Western-brokered peace agreement, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said Saturday. "This is no doubt a provocation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, Russian agencies reported. "(Alexander) Zakharchenko's death will certainly lead to increased tensions in the region" and undermine the so-called Minsk agreements brokered by France and Germany in 2015. The 42-year-old head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic was killed in a bombing at a cafe in the rebel-controlled city of Donetsk on Friday, becoming the four-year conflict's most prominent victim from the Moscow-backed side. Other Russian officials were also quick to stress that Zakharchenko's assassination was a huge blow to efforts to settle the Ukraine crisis. "What happened today puts a big question mark over the entire process," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in televised remarks late Friday. Putin swiftly sent condolences on Friday, saying he expected to see the killers brought to justice. In a letter published on the Kremlin website, Putin has praised Zakharchenko as "a true people's leader, a brave and resolute man". Peskov said on Saturday that Putin had no current plans to meet the acting head of the self-proclaimed republic. Zakharchenko -- who briefly worked as a mine electrician before going into business connected to the industry -- had led Russian-backed insurgents in the rebel region for the last four years. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) UN chief Antonio Guterres has expressed regret over the US' decision to provide no further funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, urging other countries to help fill the financial gap. His remarks came after the US decided to stop funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The Trump Administration said that beyond the budget gap itself and failure to mobilise adequate and appropriate burden sharing, the fundamental business model and fiscal practices that have marked UNRWA for years, tied to UNRWA's endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries, is simply unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years. The US has traditionally been the largest single contributor to UNRWA. We appreciate its support over the years, a statement issued by the Secretary-General's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Friday. The UN Secretary-General called on other countries to help fill the remaining financial gap, so that UNRWA can continue to provide this vital assistance, as well as a sense of hope for this vulnerable population. UNRWA has a strong record of providing high-quality education, health and other essential services, often in extremely difficult circumstances, to Palestine refugees who are in great need, the UN statement said, adding that the UN agency enjoys the full confidence of the Secretary-General and its Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl has led a rapid, innovative and tireless effort to overcome the unexpected financial crisis UNRWA has faced this year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A US airman has been guilty of aggravated assault with a hate-crime enhancement for beating a Sikh man two years ago, a media report said on Saturday. The victim, Mehtab Singh Bakhshi, according to court records, was standing, talking with friends near Dupont Circle on August 21, 2016, when Dylan Millhausen from Texas came up behind him, pulled off his turban and punched him in the face until he was unconscious, Washington Post reported. A jury found Millhausen guilty and added a hate-crime enhancement as the victim was targeted for race, religion or national origin, according to a media release. The victim, an adherent to the Sikh religion, was wearing a turban. The crimes carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for November 30. Millhausen was apprehended by police and told them he likened the victim to Islamic extremists responsible for terrorist attacks, according to court records. Millhausen, at the time an Airman First Class stationed at Fort Meade, told officers he was acting in self-defense, and the victim had "swung at him". His account was in direct contrast to statements by the victim and witnesses, the court records show. Millhausen was also tried in military court on unrelated charges, federal prosecutors said. He was sentenced for incarceration on those charges, as well. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Trump administration is under increasing pressure to speed up the reunification of immigrant families it separated at the Mexican border, following allegations three youngsters were sexually abused while in US custody. The government of El Salvador said the three, ages 12 to 17, were victimized at shelters in Arizona, and it asked the US to make their return a priority. "May they leave the shelters as soon as possible, because it is there that they are the most vulnerable," Deputy Foreign Relations Minister Liduvina Magarin said in San Salvador on Thursday. The US government already is facing heavy criticism over its slow pace in reuniting more than 2,600 children who were separated from their parents last spring before the Trump administration agreed to stop the practice. Most have since been reunited, but hundreds remain apart more than a month after the deadline set by a judge. Before the Trump administration reversed course, many of the parents had been deported to their home countries while their children remained in shelters in the US. Attorneys for the US government and the immigrant families discussed how to accelerate the process at a hearing Friday in San Diego in front of US District Judge Dana Sabraw, who set the deadline. Magarin gave few details on the three cases other than to say they involved "sexual violations, sexual abuses." She said her government is ready with lawyers and psychologists to help the families, adding: "The psychological and emotional impact is forever." "It's unbelievable that children who were fleeing violence here were met in the United States with the worst violence a child could encounter," said Cesar Rios, director of the Salvadoran Migrant Institute. More information is needed to investigate, the US Department Health and Human Services said in a statement Friday, that adding that "without additional details, we are unable to confirm or deny these allegations took place" at a facility overseen by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. It contracts with nonprofits and other third parties to run shelters for unaccompanied minors arriving at the border. In trying to reunite families, the Trump administration has put the onus on the American Civil Liberties Union, asking that the organization use its "considerable resources" to find parents in their home countries, mostly Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. The governments of those countries and nonprofit organizations have been trying to locate the families. Those efforts have included posting public notices and putting hotline numbers on billboards in the hope a parent missing a child might see the signs and call. "Every day that these children are separated and left in government facilities does more damage," said Lee Gelernt, an ACLU attorney representing separated families. "Even if the facilities were palaces, the separation of young children from their parents causes potentially permanent trauma." The government and ACLU indicated in the hearing Friday that the process should start to speed up. Gelernt told the judge as many as 200 cases could be resolved in the next week or two. Those include families who want to be reunited in their home countries and those who want to waive their right to reunification and keep their child in the United States to pursue asylum. The judge also said the administration can expedite cases where families have expressed the desire for the child to be sent back and not worry about it violating a temporary halt on deportations of families seeking asylum. Justice Department attorney Scott Stewart said the government wants to remove any roadblocks. "There are a lot of folks that want to move forward with reunification," he told the judge. More than 300 parents who have been deported are waiting for their sons and daughters to be returned to them in their homelands. Many are growing increasingly anxious. Among them is Evelin Roxana Meyer, whose 11-year-old son, Eduardo Almendarez Meyer, was told this week that he won't be leaving the US until November 27. He has been held at a government-contracted shelter in Brownsville, Texas, since he was separated from his father in early June. The boy's mother said her husband was told when he signed his deportation papers that his son would be waiting for him in Honduras. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The on Saturday slapped sanctions on two Pakistani by placing them on the export entities list for activities related to nuclear and missile trade. The two - Technology Links Pvt Ltd and Techcare Services FZ have been placed under the Entity List by the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). In a federal notification, the Department of Commerce said that the entities added to the EAR list have been determined by the government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the US. The move comes days ahead of the visit of Secretary of State to The EAR determined that Technology Links Pvt. Ltd., located in Pakistan, be added to the Entity List based on the company's involvement in the supply of items subject to the EAR to nuclear and missile-related Entity List parties in without the required license, the federal notification said. In addition, the EAR determined that Techcare Services FZ LLC, located in the UAE, and UEC (Pvt) Ltd, located in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, made multiple attempts to acquire US-origin commodities ultimately destined for Pakistan's unsafeguarded nuclear programme and have provided false and misleading information during an end-use check, the federal notification said. The Trump Administration has announced an end to all funding to the United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA), alleging it to be "irredeemably flawed". "The administration has carefully reviewed the issue and determined that the United States will not make additional contributions to UNRWA," State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said on Friday. "The fundamental business model and fiscal practices that have marked UNRWA for years tied to UNRWA's endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries is simply unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years," she said. "The United States will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation, Nauert said. In January, it had made a USD 60 million contribution to the UNRWA. At the same time, she said the US was very mindful of and deeply concerned regarding the impact upon innocent Palestinians, especially school children, of the failure of the UNRWA and key members of the regional and international donor community to reform and reset the body. These children are part of the future of the Middle East. Palestinians, wherever they live, deserve better than an endlessly crisis-driven service provision model. They deserve to be able to plan for the future, she said. As such, the United States will intensify dialogue with the United Nations, host governments, and international stakeholders about new models and new approaches, which may include direct bilateral assistance from the United States and other partners, that can provide today's Palestinian children a more durable and dependable path towards a brighter tomorrow, Nauert said. The United Nations regretted the US decision in this regard. "We regret the United States' decision to provide no further funding to UNRWA, which provides essential services to Palestine refugees and contributes to stability in the region. The US has traditionally been the largest single contributor to UNRWA. We appreciate its support over the years," a statement attributable to Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, said. The UNRWA enjoys the full confidence of the Secretary-General. Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl has led a rapid, innovative and tireless effort to overcome the unexpected financial crisis UNRWA has faced this year, Dujarric said. It has expanded the donor base, raised considerable new funding, and explored new avenues of support. In addition, the UNRWA took extraordinary internal management measures to increase efficiencies and reduce costs, he said. The UNRWA, he asserted, has a strong record of providing high-quality education, health and other essential services, often in extremely difficult circumstances, to Palestine refugees who are in great need. "The Secretary-General calls on other countries to help fill the remaining financial gap, so that UNRWA can continue to provide this vital assistance, as well as a sense of hope this vulnerable population," the UN statement said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Vigilance Investigation Bureau Saturday caught an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) while accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 in Bihar's Kaimur district, a release said. Vigilance sleuths arrested Mohammad Rashid Khan, ASI with Mohania police station in Kaimur district, while accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 for helping the complainant in a criminal case, the release said. A resident of Tekari village had lodged a complaint with the vigilance bureau that Khan was demanding bribe of Rs 10,000 for helping him in a criminal case lodged with Mohania police station. The complaint was verified by the bureau which found the allegations to be true after which a team was constituted under Deputy Superintendent of Police Gopal Paswan who raided and arrested the ASI while accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 from his rented accommodation located in Shivpur area in Kaimur district. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil Saturday attacked the Shiv Sena over the appointment of its leaders on various corporations and boards. Vikhe Patil, who is the Leader of the Opposition in Maharashtra Assembly, accused the Uddhav Thackeray-led party of deceiving people of the state by accepting the posts despite threatening to pull out of the government time and again. The Maharashtra government Friday announced appointments to 21 vacant posts in various state-run corporations, boards and authorities. Almost half of these posts have gone to the leaders of the Shiv Sena, the ruling BJP's bickering ally. "The Shiv Sena has repeatedly talked about its ministers walking out of the government. Despite that, it accepted the posts of chairpersons of corporations. These are double standards and the party has deceived the people of Maharashtra by doing so," Vikhe-Patil told reporters here. The Shiv Sena has been sharing power with the BJP despite their strained relationship. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi came to a virtual standstill after heavy rains lashed several parts of the national capital Saturday, leading to excessive waterlogging and traffic snarls. Streets were waterlogged near the Civic Centre at Minto Road and also in Civil Lines area where various cars were seen half-submerged in water. "Waterlogging was reported at Iron Bridge Loni Road, Khajuri Chowk Wazirabad Road, Bhajan Pura Main Market Wazirabad Road, R/A Loni, Apsara Border, Yamuna Marg, IP College MGM Road Ring Road, Under IP Flyover Vikas Marg, Chatta Rail Lothian Road," a Delhi Traffic Police official said. "Roads submerged following the rainfall included those under Modi Mill Flyover, Rao Tula Ram T-Point on the way to the Indira Gandhi International Airport, Rajghat, Janpath, the Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, to Lajpat Nagar market on Ring Road, Inderprastha Marg near the Delhi Police headquarters, Rajendra Prasad Road, GT Karnal Road, Minto Road and others," he added. The traffic police has also asked people to avoid Delhi-Noida road towards Ashram where traffic was blocked after a bus broke down. The Rashtrapati Bhavan also had to cancel the Change of Guard ceremony due to heavy rains. "The Change of Guard Ceremony on the Forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan will not be held today (September 1, 2018) due to heavy rain in New Delhi," the President House tweeted. The traffic was affected at Mathura road, Shershah road, Mathura road to Bhairon road, Purana quila road, Bihari colony, Maharashi Raman marg, Teen Murti lane, 11 Murti and Girdhari Lal Goswami Marg near post office due to excessive waterlogging. "Waterlogging was reported at Lajpat Nagar market, Pant Nagar bus stand and IP Marg near police headquarters. The traffic movement was closed on Bhairon road both ways due to waterlogging," the official said. Delhi has received 61 mm of rainfall since morning and the weatherman has predicted the downpour to continue throughout the day. The Delhi Traffic Police is posting alerts on its Twitter handle to inform the residents about which routes to avoid. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP ally Goa Forward Party (GFP) said Saturday that it is "committed" to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, and it does not see any reason to reconsider this "commitment". Parrikar flew to the United States for medical treatment two day ago. "We are committed to Manohar Parrikar for this tenure. This is our commitment, anything beyond that or anything minus that will be based on circumstances," GFP chief and state agriculture minister Vijai Sardesai told PTI. "At the moment there is no such development which is forcing us to reconsider our commitment to Parrikar and the BJP," he said. "I am reiterating that the letter of support (given by his party) has been a very unique one. First time perhaps in the history of India, some political party gives a letter of support saying I support the individual but not the party," he said, speaking about the party's support for Parrikar. "We mean what that letter says," Sardesai said. Asked if GFP could have an alliance with the Congress in future, Sardesai said, " is dynamic....let us not think about the future." After the 2017 Assembly polls threw up a fractured verdict, the GFP, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and independent MLAs supported the BJP on the condition that Parrikar, then Defence Minister, should return as chief minister of the coastal state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless. The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well. By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism. The White House has notified the Congress that it plans to sign a new North American trade deal with Mexico and Canada, if the latter is willing, in a timely manner, to meet the high standards for free, fair, and reciprocal trade contained therein. In his notice to the Congress on Friday, US President Donald Trump said such a deal would replace the NAFTA and help American farmers by ensuring fairer market conditions and improved market access for United States agricultural products, and would create a more level playing field for American workers -- due in part to improved rules of origin for automobiles, trucks and other products. The notification sets off a 90-day clock for the nations to sign the deal. Trump said it would create a more level playing field for American service industries, including the critical sector of financial services. It would provide the most robust protection against currency manipulation, he told the Congress. "I intend to enter into a trade agreement with Mexico, and with Canada, if it is willing, in a timely manner, to meet the high standards for free, fair, and reciprocal trade contained therein," Trump said in his notification to the House of Representatives and the Senate. Describing the agreement as a great deal for the American people, he said it set a new tone for all trade agreements, proof of the high standard that his administration would require of any country entering a new trade agreement with the United States. "I intend to enter into the agreement by the end of November 2018," Trump said. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the agreement was the most advanced and of the highest standard. "Over the next few weeks, Congress and advisers from the civil society and the private sector will be able to examine the agreement. They will find it has huge benefits for our workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses," he added. "We have also been negotiating with Canada throughout this year-long process. This week, those meetings continued at all levels. The talks were constructive, and we made progress. Our officials are continuing to work towards the agreement. The USTR team will meet with Minister Freeland and her colleagues Wednesday of next week," Lighthizer said. The Trump Administration will provide a text of the agreement in 30 days from now. "We believe we'll be on pace to do that. And then, 60 days after that, we'll have a signing. And then, I think -- you know, at that point, obviously we have an agreement that's been signed. And then they can start the rest of their process," a senior administration official told reporters during a conference call. According to The New York Times, talks between the United States and Canada remained deadlocked over several contentious issues, including Canada's dairy sector, its rules governing movies, books and other media, and a mechanism for settling trade disputes between the two countries. The opposition Democratic party criticised the White House of Trump notifying Congress of his intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico without having completed negotiations with Canada. "Actually fixing NAFTA requires reaching a trade agreement with both Mexico and Canada that improves the wages, the working conditions and the well-being of America's workers and farmers," Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said. "We still don't know the specifics of this trade agreement, or whether it will measure up to the claims of an administration with a terrible record of delivering," she said. While NAFTA has been largely successful for our workers and companies, the president is correct that US needs new rules to face the challenges of today's modern economy, argued House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady. "The President's notification today marks an important step toward that goal," he said. Brady strongly urged Canada to "step up and demonstrate" that it could take on the ambitious obligations of the agreement with the aim of concluding a modern, seamless three-way agreement. The administration's notification of its intent to sign an agreement with Mexico is encouraging, as well as its acknowledgement that Canada will be included if it is able to meet the high standards, Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee chairman Dave Reichert said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 70-year-old woman was killed while two labourers were injured when a dilapidated building in Loni town of this district collapsed on Saturday due to incessant rains, police said. The two-and-a-half-storeyed building located in Vijay Vihar colony of Tronica city of Loni town housed a screen printing press on the ground floor, they said. Senior Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Krishna told that the house was rented out to Bihar resident Suresh, who was running the printing press. The front portion of the house started sagging Saturday morning and soon after the entire building collapsed, he said. There were eight persons in the house and three of them were rescued immediately by police with the help of locals, he added. The injured were rushed to GTB hospital in Delhi's Shahdara where doctors declared Kaushalya, mother of the printing press owner, brought dead, the SSP said. The building, allegedly constructed "illegally" in 100 square yards, was in ramshackle condition and the rain water poured into its foundation, due to which it collapsed. When the ceiling plaster fell down, the workers -- Jitendra (19) and Karan (18)-- and Suresh's wife Sanjoo (36) and their son Sonu (17) rushed out of the building. Two other labourers, Papoo (18) and Manoo (22), and Kaushalya who were on the first floor were trapped under the debris, the SSP said, adding that the woman died while the two workers suffered injuries. Meanwhile, Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) Vice-Chairperson (VC) and district magistrate Ritu Maheshwari said the GDA is identifying illegal buildings and bulldozing them. The authority had identified around 650 buildings and in 104 cases, around 300 houses and structures have been demolished, she said. "A special drive will be launched in the illegal colonies of Loni to identify the dilapidated buildings. Warning boards will be erected in old area to aware the public about ramshackle buildings and houses," Maheshwari said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A woman has moved the Madras High Court seeking a directive to doctors of a government hospital to pay Rs 10 lakh compensation for alleged medical negligence since she conceived despite undergoing a tubectomy surgery. Justice R Mahadevan, before whom the petition came up Friday, issued notice returnable by two weeks to the Resident Medical Officer of Kanyakumari Government Medical College Hospital in Nagercoil, the Health Secretary, Director of Medical Education, Deputy Director, Medical Rural Development, Kanyakumari. The petitioner submitted taht after she delivered her second girl child on April 5, 2014, she underwent tubectomy at the Kanyakumari Government Medical College Hospital and was issued a sterlisation certificate. The Tahsildar concerned also issued a certificate for getting benefits under the Girl Child Welfare Scheme, whose benefits can be obtained only at the time the two girls get married. On April 5, 2017, she went to the hospital for a check up as she had been having a thyroid problem and had been regularly taking treatment there. The medical officer examined her and told her that she was pregnant and that the tubectomy had been a failure. Since she wanted to know about her health condition, she took an ultrasound scan at a private clinic, which confirmed her pregnancy She gave representation to authorities concerned, seeking Rs 10 lakh compensation, following which the RMO asked her to appear in person for enquiry. Though she did so on August 30 2017, the official did not pass any order or recommended her case to the government to grant compensation, the woman said On September 29, 2017, she delivered the third child, also a girl, in a private hospital. She submitted that the government benefits already provided to her two girl children would be lost as the scheme does not entitle one to get the incentives in case of women having three girl children. Stating that hers was an admitted case of the family planning operation being a failure and that its consequence was mental agony and had put her in a financial crisis, she moved the High Court for the compensation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 32-year-old woman was allegedly strangled to death by her live-in partner in northeast Delhi's Welcome area, the police said Saturday. A senior official said the police were informed about the incident Friday afternoon following which they rushed the victim to a hospital where she was declared brought dead. He said the couple shared a strained relationship and a personal dispute is believed to be the reason behind the killing. The accused, 35, has been absconding since the incident, the police said, adding that investigation is underway. The woman had three daughters from her previous marriage. They were not present at the house when the incident took place. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Singapore's trade minister said on Saturday that broad agreement on the world's biggest trade deal should be reached at a summit of leaders from participating nations in the city-state in November, six years since talks began. Called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the trade accord includes the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and the world's No.2 economy, China. The deal does not include the United States, which is locked in a trade spat with China and pulled ... By Yilei Sun and Norihiko ShirouzuTIANJIN, China (Reuters) - China will strictly prevent 'haphazard investment and redundant development' in the automobile industry, an official from the state planning agency said on Saturday, apparently referring to proposed rules on automakers' investments in new capacity. Nian Yong, head of the National Development and Reform Commission's (NDRC) Department of Industrial Coordination, said the agency will soon publish and implement a new set of investment rules.Among other things, the new rules "will restrict industrial investment project management ... By Maggie Fick and Christian ShepherdADDIS ABABA/BEIJING (Reuters) - Ethiopia has been lauded by experts from China's ruling Communist Party as a "model country" in Beijing's $126 billion Belt and Road initiative to build rail, road and sea links tying China to Eurasia and Africa. But as the Horn of Africa nation of 100 million people faces debt distress, there are signs that China, a major creditor, is slowing financing to Ethiopia as doubts grow over the profitability of some infrastructure projects there."The intensifying repayment risks from the Ethiopian government's debt reaching 59 ... WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday there was no need to keep Canada in the North American Free Trade Agreement and warned Congress not to meddle with the trade negotiations or he would terminate the trilateral trade pact altogether."There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. If we don't make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out," Trump said on Twitter."Congress should not interfere w/ these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off," he added.Trump on Friday ... Ford Motor Co. is canceling plans to export its Focus compact crossover model from China to the U.S. next year because of the 25% tariffs the Trump administration slapped on Chinese auto imports in July. The increased import tax would make it too expensive to ship the Focus Active from China to the U.S., Ford North America President Kumar Galhotra said Friday on a conference call with reporters. The company decided it wasnt worth it for a vehicle that would sell fewer than 50,000 units a year, Galhotra said. The move signals that President Donald Trumps trade policies have started to affect major production decisions in the auto industry. Ford became the first big American carmaker hit by the tariffs, but more impact is expected to come. With no signs of a resolution to the trade dispute, many auto executives will have to make decisions on where they will assemble cars and obtain parts. According the U.S. Commerce Department, nearly half of the vehicles sold in the U.S. were imported from some country last year. A large proportion of those vehicles could be subject to Trumps tariffs. General Motors Co.s Chinese-built Buick Envision SUV is also subject to the tariffs. The largest U.S. automaker is seeking an exemption for the model. But GM has warned that it might discontinue selling the product in American if the request isnt approved. Ford had originally planned to move Focus production to Mexico as the company shifts its U.S. production to pickups and SUVs. But Trump publicly criticized the plan during his 2016 presidential campaign. Ford eventually moved Focus production to the companys Changan joint venture in China and said the decision would save $1 billion in investment costs compared with assembling the vehicle in Mexico. Focus Active was scheduled to go on sale in the U.S. next summer. Ford said it would continue to make the model for Chinese and European markets. Contact reporter Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com) The worlds third-largest container shipping company said it expects trans-Pacific cargo volumes to fall by 10% if the U.S. imposes a 25% levy on a further $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, as could happen as early as this week. COSCO Shipping Holdings Co. Ltd. said the trade war will have a bigger dampening effect on lower-value cargoes than on higher-value goods if the bilateral trade tensions escalate, but so far it sees little evidence that the industry is taking a major hit from the spat. Total cargo shipments on Trans-Pacific routes between China and the U.S. had shown an uptick in the first half of the year, and booked a further expansion of as much as 10% in July, company General Manager Wang Haimin told reporters Friday during the companys earnings conference. Overall demand for Chinese goods will not be slashed immediately after the tariffs are imposed, as the U.S. is expected to maintain stable economic growth, he said. Even in the unlikely event that the U.S. halts all imports from China, it would still have to import goods from other markets in Southeast Asia, a route over which COSCO has recently seen an uptick in volumes. The shipping giant saw its cargo volume to and from emerging markets, including Southeast Asia, rise by 27% in the first six months of the year, surpassing the growth rate of its U.S. traffic. Wang said COSCO would continue its efforts to diversify its operational risks by expanding non-trans-Pacific routes. On Thursday, the company announced that its first-half profit fell 97.8% to 40.8 million yuan ($6 million) as it grappled with higher costs and a slide in freight rates. Revenues rose almost 4% to 45 billion yuan. Container shipping volumes amounted to 11.2 million TEUs, an increase of over 12% year-on-year. In July, COSCO cleared a major hurdle in its planned $6.3 billion takeover of Hong Kong-based peer, Orient Overseas (International) Ltd., by gaining approval from U.S. authorities. The deal will increase COSCOs shipping fleet to around 400 vessels, making it the worlds third-largest, behind Danish conglomerate Maersk Line and Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping Co. Orient Overseas is controlled by the family of Tung Chee-Hwa, Hong Kongs first post-handover chief executive. Contact reporter Jason Tan (jasontan@caixin.com) Ce sont les donnees les plus importantes (mais il y en a d'autres qui ne sont pas loin derriere) Les... CAMEROUN :: Cameroonian Escapes Jail Term in Congo : Who benefits from non-dissuasive court decisions? Nodissuasion is the decision rendered by theOuesso High Court in Congo in a wildlife trafficking case against Abdou Mahamad, a Cameroonian suspect and a big time trafficker who was arrested with nine ivory tusks. On August 23, he received a suspended sentence of twoyears meaning no jail term for him and shattering efforts to hit the illicit international trade in ivory. Ivory trafficking inthe Central African sub region hasgone international through a strengthening of international criminal networks, especially by the Chinese, according to a study recently published by WWF. Three factors seriously jeopardize the fight against ivory trafficking in Central Africa: weak governance, corruption and changing trade patterns. The report reveals that in Central Africa, open domestic ivory markets are disappearing mainly because of law enforcement efforts and competition with underground criminal networks. In their place, a sophisticated international trade is taking overand this is facilitated by high level of corruption. The study reveals that organized criminal networks operate, particularly by Chinese citizens, in the sub-region and become key players in the international ivory trade. Criminal networks and criminal associations are developing, often with impunity across the sub-region. Other countries and the Republic of Congo show their willingness to fight the trade but the reality on the ground is sometimes different because some traffickers manage to use their influence to circumvent the law. Six traffickers were recently arrested in Douala with over 700kg of pangolin scales. Three did not show up in court for the first hearing of the case, following an unusual release on bail of the traffickers and fears are that they may have escaped. Two of them were from the Central African Republic. Strong actions must therefore need to be taken throughout the commercial chain, in the source countries of Central Africa (fight against poaching, black markets and corruption, strengthening of governance), at regional and international levels to be able to fight criminal organizations. It should be noted that several opportunities had been in the past offered to the court in Ouesso where it was expected to execute exemplary justice and deterrence to stop these traffickers but the results have not been up to expectations. Prior investigations show that Abdou Mahamad placed orders for ivory tusks with poachers positioned in the forests and would use the cover of his Pokola-based shop to sell to clients who came in from cities in Congo but as also from Cameroon and Gabon. Pokola that is located in Northern Congo maintains the sad and infamous reputation of being a strategic center for the supply, storage and resale of ivory. Observers say the no jail term decision,which is very much a reprieve for the trafficker,not only goes against all legal norms and probity but also against efforts made by ecogardes and judicial police officers in the area. The decrease, or even the probable disappearance of wildlife species on the planet prompted the Republic of Congo to take someconservation resolutions and pledge to effectively fight against all the perpetrators of such crimes by strictly and ethically applying the laws., The country is one of the few African countries that has high penalties and sanctions for wildlife crime for almost 30 years. The elephant is fully protected by the Congolese wildlife law. news, latest-news ACT Labor has preselected Alicia Payne for the seat of Canberra and David Smith is set to move to the lower house after being preselected in the seat of Bean. Shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh had already been preselected unopposed for his seat of Fenner, while former senator Katy Gallagher is set to return to the role after also being preselected unopposed. Ms Payne, who is factionally unaligned, was victorious in running in the new inner-city electorate against former charity boss John Falzon, staffer Jacob Ingram, lobbyist Simon Banks and greyhound lobbyist Kel Watt. It's believed that while Mr Falzon, who was supported by the party's powerful left faction, received the most votes out of the five candidates, Ms Payne received preferences from the three other candidates, who were either unaligned or from the party's right faction. After the shock resignation of Gai Brodtmann three weeks ago, Senator David Smith announced he would attempt to move to the lower house in the seat of Bean. Senator Smith, like Ms Brodtmann, is from the right faction of the party. He was up against the left's Louise Crossman and unaligned Taimus Werner-Gibbings, after Gail Morgan was found to be ineligible to put her hand up for the seat. The results come after months of controversy and bitterness surrounding the process, with female members of the party receiving flyers that made damaging personal allegations about Mr Watt, of which he has strenuously denied. The flyers, and documents sent out a week later, were investigated but their origin believed to be within the party was never found. The national executive of the party has stepped in twice already during the process. First to investigate the flyers and to overturn a decision blocking Senator David Smith from accessing a list of the party's members across the territory. After a fiery ACT Labor conference, where a previously ineligible candidate for preselection was again given the chance to run for Bean, the national executive intervened again, ruling the candidate out of contention. On the first day of voting last week a hoax text message was sent to some members, telling them the location of voting had changed and that it was possible to vote by text message. Party secretary Matt Byrne was quick to tell members the message was fake, but it's yet to be seen if it could be the cause for a challenge to the results. Members of the party were concerned on Friday to see a sponsored post on Mr Leigh's instagram story, where he promoted a petition to give the territory the right to legislate on euthanasia, with candidate for Canberra Alicia Payne as the first signatory. A spokeswoman for Mr Leigh didn't say who paid for the post to show up in people's feeds, but maintained no public money had been spent. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/654ed6de-287b-4125-a620-e48988ca7963/r0_230_4500_2772_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, latest-news Sniping at the Liberal Prime Minister will no doubt continue. The difference now will be that the sniping will come from the left or progressive side of the Liberal Party. The other difference is that Scott Morrison won't take any notice of it, unlike his predecessor, who made endless concessions to the far right. The main policy discord will be over refugees and climate change. You would have thought it would be a good time to end the indefinite imprisonment of these Australia's refugees, both practically and morally. On the practical side, Peter Dutton is no longer immigration minister. On the moral side, the new Prime Minister is a committed Pentecostal Christian. Dutton said that a single act of compassion to anyone on Nauru or Manus Island would be a clarion call to people smugglers to resume their trade. He thought that using them as an example of what might happen to you if you tried to use a people smuggler to get to Australia was an effective deterrent. But we know this isn't the case. Fairfax Media reported a week ago that the effective turn-off is in fact the boat turn-back policy. Many refugees in Indonesia say Australia's advertising in that country has made it clear that dealing with people smugglers is a complete and certain waste of money. Refugees are not going to pay thousands of dollars for a place on a dangerous passage if they are going to be turned back. Manus and Nauru do not rate as a deterrent, refugees say. So on a practical level, Australia should continue with its tough turn-back policy and quietly settle those on Manus and Nauru in Australia or whatever other country will take them. But we should combine this with much greater help to Indonesia for looking after refugees. The critical thing is physical safety. People's lives are not threatened in Indonesia. The onward journey to Australia is unnecessary to ensure safety. We should also concentrate on taking more refugees from Indonesia and few from other parts of the world. The turn-back policy should still be seen as successful despite the first boat arrival for four years in far north Queensland last Sunday. A trip to Christmas Island or Ashmore reef is merely dangerous. A trip down the north-east coast verges on the suicidal. Strong south-easterly winds blow much of the year. Treacherous reefs dot the area. Many people-smuggling boats have hopelessly unreliable engines and little or no navigational instruments. In the west, a boat could drift for days without hitting anything while awaiting rescue. In the north-east, the wind and reef combination make survival without a working engine unlikely. The fact that the excellent mariner James Cook hit a reef was not just a small piece of bad luck. He was always going to hit a reef. The only question was which one. The 17 Vietnamese who came ashore near Port Douglas are lucky to be alive. Even with a good motor and successfully dodging the reefs, once ashore, they need to contend with crocodiles and mangroves. Several people have been killed by crocodiles in the past few years within 50 kilometres of where they landed. The fact they were Vietnamese suggests they had not see the advertisements about the turn-back policy. On the moral side, the turn-back policy has probably saved a lot of lives. But there is no practical or moral inconsistency between a strong turn-back policy and ending the plight of the refugees on Manus and Nauru. Now that Morrison is Prime Minister and chief jailer, he stands open to accusations of hypocrisy if he allows the situation to continue. This is what he says about his faith: "From my faith, I derive the values of loving-kindness, justice and righteousness, to act with compassion and kindness, acknowledging our common humanity and to consider the welfare of others; to fight for a fair go for everyone to fulfil their human potential and to remove whatever unjust obstacles stand in their way, including diminishing their personal responsibility for their own wellbeing; and to do what is right, to respect the rule of law, the sanctity of human life and the moral integrity of marriage and the family. We must recognise an unchanging and absolute standard of what is good and what is evil." This is simply incompatible with indefinite detention of people whose original country of residence will not take them or is too dangerous to go to, especially as nine of the 189 refugees on Nauru are children. The evil here is that they are being punished supposedly to set an example to others. Fascist and communist governments do that kind of thing, not liberal democracies. It is made worse by the fact that their misery is not the key deterrent. The vast majority of people in immigration detention (971 of 1347, according to the latest figures) are people who overstayed visas and who go back voluntarily. The nationality with the highest number is New Zealand. In short, there is no practical or moral reason for the people on Manus and Nauru to remain there in indefinite detention. The fact they still are is a moral stain on our nation. The other cause of Liberal discord is climate change. It seems the best we can expect of this government is to do nothing. The worst is to renege on the Paris agreement. That would trash our reputation as a nation that keeps it word and cause trade repercussions. Every nation must pull its weight on this. The Liberals collectively are incapable of doing what a majority in either the parliamentary party or the electorate at large want. Again, it is unlikely Morrison will give the progressive side of the party any ground, but it is also unlikely that those on the progressive side will make it easy for the conservatives. For example, there is every reason for Julie Bishop to recontest her very safe seat of Curtin at the next election rather than hand it over to neighbouring Liberal and Dutton supporter Michael Keenan. Let him face the electoral backlash of his party's divisions and policies. crispinhull.com.au /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/e2aa603d-b030-4c9a-92dc-95e7991c9a9a/r0_78_1024_657_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, latest-news One of the glories of the Australian system of government is the relative ease with which dud leaders can be disposed of, whether by colleagues or the electorate. The fact that this has happened so often over the past decade is not a sign of a bad system but of bad leaders, and bad judgment by those whose put them there. I have no problem with the modern international trend to have greater public, or party member, participation in the selection of party leaders. But I suggest that the bad experiences of the past decade should not be used to change legal or party rules to make sacking a bad leader or for that matter a bad government any more difficult. Nor is there the slightest evidence that longer terms in office allow governments to lift their view from today's headline and tomorrow's opinion poll. Imagine, if you can, the people of the United States making a terrible misjudgment and putting into office a person morally or temperamentally unfit to be chief executive and virtual monarch. It's a mistake that cannot usually be undone for four years. During that time, constitutional checks and balances are hardly sufficient to restrain or prevent abuse of power. Impeachment is a possibility, but only two presidents neither by any means the worst president of his generation have been impeached, and neither lost office. Attempts to impeach a president are initiated by opposition parties, often in majority in congress. When Australian representatives lose their leader, they have been thrown out by their own (erstwhile) supporters. Britain's opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, would never have won his party's leadership in 2015 had it depended on majority support from MPs in his own party. But the party changed its rules to let members of the party, members of unions affiliated with the party, and even a group of people registered as supporters of the party, to choose the leader. Corbyn was elected with 59 per cent of the turnout, including 49 per cent of full members and 58 per cent of affiliated members. In parliament, the new leader exasperated the great and good on his own side. About two years ago, 23 of 31 members of Britain's shadow cabinet resigned, arguing Corbyn was mad, impossible and unelectable. Soon after, he lost a vote of confidence from his MPs by a vote of 172-40. The matter went back to the membership. Everyone expected he would lose, badly. The Guardian quoted from a voting expert just before the poll: "There is evidently a section of the British public, to be found particularly among younger voters, for whom the Labour leader does have an appeal; it just does not look like a section that is big enough, on its own at least, to enable Labour to win a general election." A poll for another paper suggested working-class voters were more likely to consider Corbyn "incompetent" than those from the middle class, and a higher proportion thought he was "out of touch". Martin Kettle, in the Guardian, said "many Labour MPs, even some who face defeat, want an early election" to prove decisively that Corbyn's Labour is unelectable as a government. "If there is hope for Labour it lies with the voters. Only they can change the party." The received wisdom was badly out of touch, whether as to Corbyn's popularity within the wider party, and, as events turned out, with the electorate at large. With about 700,000 people eligible to vote on the party leadership, Corbyn was re-elected with 61 per cent of the turnout. He secured majorities of party members and affiliated members. For him a triumph, for the party elders (and the commentators) a complete humiliation. The Tory prime minister, whose view of Corbyn's political abilities and judgment matched that of his Labour enemies, was emboldened to call an election, one at which the early polls suggested that Labour, under Corbyn's leadership, would be lucky to get 20 per cent. Labour won about 40 per cent, the biggest percentage at a general election since 1945. It took three months to confirm Corbyn's leadership after the parliamentary party dumped him. Three months during which Labour opposition in parliament was in almost complete paralysis. The party rules would have been much the same had Corbyn been prime minister instead of opposition leader. The British Labour Party may have found a way to elect a leader who stands above factions and obligations to sectional interests. But it is yet to find a workable way of sacking one. In Australia in 2010, Kevin Rudd had lost the caucus's support when he was deposed as prime minister. He felt, however, that he had somehow been cheated, because he had, in effect, been elected by the Australian people at the 2007 election. That is never strictly true of course. A party leader stands for a seat, like any other would-be member. It is not a presidential campaign. The party of government is the one that wins majority support in relation to supply. Rudd was often accused of disloyalty and treachery before he became leader, but was not much undermined by his own, either in opposition or government, until his failings were apparent to all, at least in Canberra. He had won leadership of the party by vote in caucus, not public acclamation, and lost it to Julia Gillard, because he lost the confidence of caucus. Perhaps she was ambitious for his office, but she had not undermined him. In due course, Rudd's campaign of leaking, undermining and sniping, along with Tony Abbott's very effective demolition campaign, and some woefully inept political management by some of the Labor geniuses, led many caucus members to panic about their chances under Gillard's leadership. Some polling suggested only 30 or 40 (of a house of 150) Labor MPs would still be in parliament after the next election. None of these polls suggested Labor could win if they returned to Rudd. But it appeared that Rudd could do a better job of "saving the furniture which is to say, lose by less. He delivered. One of Rudd's legacies was to insist on a new method of electing leaders, somewhat on the British model, if still (in Rudd's model) allowing the caucus 50 per cent of the say. This should, he argued, produce greater stability. Voters despised both sides for the non-stop leadership musical chairs. Leaders, it was said, were making short-term decisions focused on next week's opinion polls. Rudd was arguing this again this week, when the man elected to be prime minister by the Australian people, Malcolm Turnbull, was sacked by the Liberal survivors of the last election. On the first test of the Rudd model with Labor, the man chosen by the party membership, Anthony Albanese, was far more popular than Bill Shorten. But Shorten (like Albanese, a factional chief) had countervailing numbers in the caucus, even the charm to seduce some members of the left to his side. His ambiguous position in his own party has helped undermine his legitimacy and authority. But Shorten has not faced a challenge, and the party has been unusually united behind him, even as any number of members fret, privately, that he is hardly inspirational. The ubiquitous polls support this lack of enthusiasm; all things being equal, Labor looks set for a comfortable victory within eight months. But that is not because voters have embraced Shorten's Labor. Rather they have decided to throw the Coalition out, and are prepared to do so despite reservations about Shorten's character, visions and leadership. Those polls, incidentally, confirm that some of the non-stop attacks on Shorten by Coalition ministers, particularly new Prime Minister Scott Morrison, may have inflicted some scars, but not so much as to slow down his support. Amplification of the current line of attacks on Shorten will probably not reduce his support. Morrison needs to persuade voters to vote for the Coalition; he cannot win merely by scare stories about Labor. For one thing, his credibility is insufficient. The tumults in Liberal leadership over the last decade may have been more about personality than ideology or policy, but the demise of successive leaders has always followed the emergence of evidence that the current leader was failing to lead, inspire or offer a sporting hope of winning at the next election. Brendan Nelson might have been a nice person, as some claimed, but he was a hopeless leader, even in cleaning up after John Howard had led the party to defeat. Nelson was torn down by Turnbull, a man some (not least himself) had thought destined to be a new Menzies. But Turnbull himself was failing in policy responses to the global financial crisis and over the Godwin Grech affair even before he collided with powerful conservative feeling against his climate change policy. This was, in part, because the party had, under Howard in the 1980s, purged much of the moderate and liberal ballast balancing conservative views under a once-broad Liberal umbrella. The Liberal caucus was pragmatic enough to vote for the person most likely to lead it to victory, but only a minority could stand him, personally or ideologically. In his first coming, Turnbull responded with arrogance and aloofness, and failed to listen to advice. It's a paradox that his efforts to correct these problems handicapped him during his second coming. A new spirit of consultation and inclusiveness, and a willingness to give his conservative detractors an effective veto over policy, paralysed any chance to put his signature on events. As his party detractors insisted his big problem was that he was not conservative enough, the public decided he was not moderate enough, too wishy-washy and indecisive, and his most fatal of sins inauthentic. What was the point of having a leader who would not, or could not, lead, or be the person that an electorate, which had wanted him to succeed, had wanted and expected? Over the past 50 years, only Billy McMahon and Abbott could be said to have achieved so little in office. Turnbull's real legacy is not same-sex marriage but a very substandard national broadband network and a terrible failure to lead on climate change and water policy. Turnbull himself had been savagely taken down by Abbott, and, once it was clear in due course that Abbott himself was a hopeless failure as leader of a government, if not an opposition, Turnbull acted brutally to depose Abbott. Abbott, like Rudd, complained that his mandate had come from the Australian people, not his caucus. Turnbull, like Gillard, was a usurper who deserved the sniping and undermining that he got. They encouraged the idea that each was snuffed out at just the moment when their projects were about to triumph, and at just the time when the sacrifices asked of voters, which had caused temporary unpopularity, were about to be rewarded. In both cases, that is nonsense. Abbott indeed was in full retreat from his initially brash (and ill-thought-out) ideas many a repudiation of the "mandate he had received. Leave aside the question of whether the problem he (or his predecessor, or his successor) represented could be resolved by a mere change of leadership, he has no reason to bemoan his fate, or his rejection by his own colleagues. I am no mere nostalgic for suggesting that men such as Gough Whitlam, Malcom Fraser, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and Howard were of higher calibre and had greater wisdom and political nous than any of the leaders of the present age. Each, in his own way, had a followership none of the present crop has managed. Yet the women and men in the present parliament are generally better educated, with more experience in policy formation and program management. They have far greater access to public resources in doing their job, in being able to find out what voters need, want or think. It's much easier to communicate with voters. So what is wrong? Some blame the way in which the numbers, democracy and influence of party members has dissolved and been replaced by top-end and unaccountable management by faceless apparatchiks, advertising men and lobbyists. Many blame the 24-hour news cycle, social media or the fact that an overwhelming proportion of parliamentarians are careerists and professional party operators, many never having worked elsewhere. And many blame the tyranny of opinion polls, and the preponderance of advocacy and agenda journalism, particularly from within News Corp. All these may help explain why so many of the public are losing faith in politicians and are drawn to minority parties and anti-politicians, including Donald Trump-style populists with an edge of fascism, racism and nationalism. But around the world are politicians with long-term vision, patient ones willing to confide in and secure the support of voters, even in hard times. It's not the times that are diluting the qualities, or the potential, of people who want to effect democratic change. Never indeed has there been such opportunity, and so many tools, to gather and mobilise support the first business of the politician. We won't get better government by entrenching the positions of second-rate leaders. Real leaders do not shy from challenges because they feel insecure about polls or support from their caucuses. Parties should not waste time making leaders immune from the consequences of their achievements, or lack of them. They should focus on the calibre, the character and the curriculums vitae of the leadership talent pools. Jack Waterford is a former editor of The Canberra Times. jwaterfordcanberra@gmail.com /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/1b7697ba-bb90-4337-a3c6-cfb1f5255dee/r0_284_5472_3376_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. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited has released an employment notification calling out aspirants to apply for the post of Deputy General Manager. 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 54500. The last date to apply for the government job is Sep 28, 2018. Engineers Invited To Manage Gujarat Metro Rail DMRC Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Deputy General Manager (Hindi) Organisation Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited Educational Qualification Master's degree in any field with Hindi as the main or elective subject Experience 10 years Job Responsibilities All Hindi work pertaining to Delhi Metro and its allied projects Skills Required Communication and managerial skills Job Location Delhi Salary Scale INR 29100 to INR 54500 Industry Railways Application Start Date August 30, 2018 Application End Date September 28, 2018 Maximum Age Limit 45 years Probation Period One year Also Read: Serve The Indian Railways As A Specialist Doctor And Earn Up To INR 78000 How To Apply For DMRC Recruitment 2018 In order to apply for DMRC Recruitment 2018, follow these steps: Step 1: Log on to the DMRC official website. Step 2: Click on the CAREERS tab on the home page. Step 3: The list of notifications will be displayed on the screen. Click on the link that reads, REQUIREMENT OF DY. GENERAL MANAGER (HINDI) IN DMRC ON DEPUTATION /DIRECT RECRUITMENT BASIS. Step 4: The detailed advertisement will be displayed on the screen. Read the details carefully. Step 5: Scroll down to the bottom of the file to find the application form. Step 6: Save it to your computer and take a printout of it. Step 7: Enter your details in the fields provided. Step 8: Send the applications to DMRC. DMRC Recruitment 2018 Application Format And Mailing Address Superscribe on the envelope, "Application for the post of Deputy General Manager (Hindi)" and send it to: Chief General Manager (HR) Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd Metro Bhawan, Fire Brigade Lane, Barakhamba Road New Delhi. Follow the link - http://www.delhimetrorail.com/CareerDocuments/Advtt 130_30818.pdf to read the detailed official notification. Photo: The Canadian Press President Donald Trump gestures while speaking at a Republican fundraiser at the Carmel Country Club in in Charlotte, N.C., on August 31. Under almost any normal circumstance, the negotiation of a trade pact between countries should result in benefits for consumers, say experts who are closely watching the North American free trade talks unfold in Washington. After all, the mutual lifting of trade barriers should result in more competition, which should translate into more consumer choice and, therefore, lower prices. But with Donald Trump driving the agenda for the American side of the bargaining process, some experts warn that the uncertainty generated by the negotiation of a new North American Free Trade Agreement will ultimately hurt consumers. "Nothing that's going down right now in Washington should be presented as being a win from a consumer point of view, or an economic point of view," says economic consultant and researcher Dan Ciuriak, senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. "This is protectionism, cost-raising and uncertainty-raising," he added. "Compared to the status quo, (consumers) are going to be worse off." The most striking example involves one of the biggest investments Canadians make buying a vehicle. The preliminary agreement between Mexico and the United States announced last Monday would, if enacted, require that 75 per cent of the parts in any vehicle sold in North America be produced in the U.S. or Mexico. The current requirement is that about 62 per cent of parts be produced in the U.S., Mexico or Canada. The deal also included stronger labour standards, requiring that 40 to 45 per cent of auto parts in cars sold in the U.S. be made by workers earning at least US$16 per hour. If the goal of the NAFTA talks was to simplify rules of origin and allow for more integration and cost efficiencies in the North American auto sector, consumers might expect to reap a cost-saving benefit, said Patrick Leblond, an international relations professor at the University of Ottawa. "Clearly that's not what the Mexicans and the Americans agreed to," said Leblond. While final details of the agreement have yet to be laid out, what has been seen so far indicates that automakers could soon be dealing with more complex trading rules that will add costs to manufacturing and ultimately hurt consumers, he added. "It doesn't look like prices will come down, and it seems they are likely to increase as a result." Meredith Lilly, Carleton University's Simon Reisman chair in international affairs, has her doubts about theories that a revised NAFTA will mean higher consumer costs. Provisions to increase auto worker wages, for instance, will have no effect on consumers, said Lilly. "Raising wages for auto workers in Mexico is directly a way for the United States to push more manufacturing back into the United States because it reduces the attractiveness of Mexico as a jurisdiction for manufacturing," she said. "I don't think we will see big shifts at all on the price of cars. However, you may see less movement of plants from either of the other two NAFTA countries into Mexico." Where consumers could see some benefit, though, is through changes to rules governing trade in dairy products, she said. If a new NAFTA were to eliminate Canada's protectionist supply management system something Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has vigorously opposed prices of dairy products would fall under the pressure of increased competition from south of the border, Lilly explained. But even then, it could take years to feel the full effects, she predicted. "If the Canadian market is opened up, I would anticipate a very long transition period, so whatever benefits might accrue would be quite far down the line," she said, pointing to slow uptake by business of provisions included in the Canada-EU trade agreement known as CETA. "It also would require cost savings to be passed on (by producers) to the consumer, which is something that isn't a given." But simply granting more American access to Canada's dairy market "is something where I think that you wouldn't necessarily see big movements in terms of benefits to consumers." And then there are pharmaceuticals. A fact sheet on the U.S.-Mexico deal included a provision that would give big drug makers 10 years of protection for biologic drugs, and expand the list of drugs covered by those protections. Industry watchers have warned that providing longer patents to drug makers would ultimately result in higher prescription costs.\ October can be considered one of the best months in the history of Bitcoin (BTC) Since several positive news made... Pueblo City Council races still too close to call As of 9 p.m. Nov. 2, the Pueblo City Council races were too close to call with 24.4% of precincts reporting. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment I believe that every youth leader worth his/her salt wants to make the biggest impact possible in the lives of their teenagers and in the communities in which those teenagers live. But how can that be done effectively? The 7 strategies I'm about to share with you have been validated by a major research project we commissioned a few years back. But, more than anything, they have their roots in the book of Acts. There's really no magic formula or shocking surprise here. What's shocking is that somehow we have missed so many of these strategies in how we view and do youth ministry. So, without further adieu, here they are... 1. Make intercessory prayer your numero uno priority. It should be no surprise that the most effective youth leaders are the ones who prioritize prayer in their personal lives, in their leadership meetings and with their teenagers. They pray for their Christian teenagers and get them to pray for their lost friends. This is exactly what Paul told Timothy to prioritize in his church planting/strengthening efforts in 1 Timothy 2:1-8. If we can make intercessory prayer a true priority, our youth ministry efforts will add divine traction to our human actions. And it's only then that we will begin to see true and lasting results. 2. Train your teenagers to engage in relational evangelism. In Matthew 11:19, Jesus is labeled "a friend of tax collectors and sinners." He purposely hung out with the lost so that he could reach them. And he set a pattern for his disciples to do the same. Jesus built relational bridges and then crossed them with the cargo of the gospel. We must exemplify this to our teenagers and equip our teenagers to follow suit. As Chris Selby, my friend and fellow Gospel Advancing leader, often says, "We must look at our teenagers who go to public school as federally funded missionaries." The question is are we equipping these young missionaries to make and multiply disciples. By the way, bringing your teenagers to Dare 2 Share Live could be a really good. start to that process. Here teenagers from coast to coast will be simultaneously inspired, equipped and unleashed to share the good news of Jesus with their friends. It's coming to a city near you on October 13th so be sure to sign your teenagers up now! 3. Make sure your leaders are modeling these values. As Jesus said, "No student is above his teacher but every student, when they are fully trained, will be like their teacher." (Luke 6:40) Look at your adult leaders and your student leaders and ask yourself, "Is this what I want the rest of my teenagers to look like spiritually?" If your leaders are not reflecting a heart for God, a lifestyle of prayer, a passion for evangelism and a drive for discipleship, then how can we expect the teenagers they are leading to exemplify these traits? Of course this doesn't mean they have to be perfectly doing all these things (who is?), but they need to be, at the minimum, willing to go for it. If they are willing to become the leader that Jesus calls them to be, then, by his power, we can make them ready and able! 4. Develop a disciple-multiplication pathway for your teenagers. Don't just be about making converts, teaching lessons or doing programs. Be about making and multiplying disciples. This means that we must have a growth pathway that we are nudging our teenagers down. For help on doing this effectively I strongly recommend 4 Chair Discipling by Dr. Dann Spader. It gives you a simple and very Biblical way (following the example of Jesus' discipleship "methodology") to move your teenagers from unbeliever to believer to worker to disicple multiplier. 5. Identify your bold vision and keep it in front of your youth group. Jesus gave his disciples a bold vision in Acts 1:8 when he told them, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Here he gives them a vision to reach out across the street (Jerusalem), across the tracks (Samaria) and across the world (ends of the earth.) We must do the same with our teenagers. A bigger, bolder vision drives bigger, bolder results and increases our dependency on God in prayer! 6. Start measuring the right things. As someone once said, "Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts." This is especially true in youth ministry. Instead of mere attendance, how about measuring things like... ...the percentage of new believers attending your youth group year over year? ...how many teenagers in your youth ministry are actively sharing their faith? ...the number of teenagers spiritually qualified to disciple other teenagers or be on your leadership team? In Luke 15:16, Jesus calls us to, not only bear much fruit, but to bear fruit that will last. These kinds of outcomes matter to God. To do this effectively we must start measuring the right outcomes and not just how many showed up to our events. 7. Program your true priorities. The proof of the pudding is in the programs. In Acts 6:4, the early disciples made a bold determination not to get distracted by other ministry duties so they could focus "on prayer and the ministry of the Word." The ministry of the Word was both external (evangelizing the lost) and internal (teaching and equipping the believers.) In one verse, we see the Apostles programming three major priorities (intercessory prayer, relational evangelism, disciple multiplication.) The disciples programmed their priorities. Are you? Your youth ministry priorities are either empty platitudes or true priorities depending on whether or not they get programmed. For instance, if you spend more time in annoucements than actual prayer during youth group, is prayer a true priority? If you push all of your outreach efforts into a monthly or quarterly outreach meeting, is it a real priority? If I told my wife that she was a priority and only talked to her once a month, then would she be a real priority? We must relentlessly program our priorities. We must put intercessory prayer, leadership development, evangelism training and disciple multiplication strategies into our programs and onto our calendars. If we don't, we are only fooling ourselves. These 7 sure fire ways of VASTLY improving your youth ministry impact are easy to understand, but not necessarily simple to apply. Sadly, youth ministry today is not built for a movement, but built for a meeting. But if you take these 7 strategies and begin to implement them (starting with prayer), you will begin to experience diving momentum and deeper impact. It will take time and effort, but it will be more than worth it. To dive deeper into these 7 keys, take the diagnostic on Gospeladvancing.com, download the Gospel Advancing Ministry app and pick up my book Gospelize Your Youth Ministry. It's time to transform the way we do and view youth ministry! These 7 keys will help you do just that in the power of Christ! Originally posted at Greg Stier's blog. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment God created man in His image. Are we on the verge of man making man in his own image? The latest issue of Vanity Fair has an article on what may be the ultimate form of conspicuous consumption: cloning your dead pets, specifically dogs. Most Americans were unaware such a thing was possible, never mind commonplace, until Barbra Streisand mentioned it in passing during an interview with Variety magazine that her two current dogs were clones of her dog Samantha, who died last year. As Streisand later explained in the New York Times, "every time I look at [the faces of Samantha's clones], I think of my Samantha . . . and smile." Streisand isn't the only person who has cloned her dead pet. When the Vanity Fair article calls dog cloning "very big" and "very controversial," it's correct on both counts. Take, for instance, the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in Seoul, South Korea. In the last ten years, Sooam has produced more than 1,000 clones of deceased dogs. As you may have guessed, dog cloning is very expensive. The cost runs from about $50,000 to $100,000 per birth and the clientele mostly reflects it: superstar divas, "Middle Eastern royalty," and the "billionaire founder of Phoenix University," to name but a few. Sooam's founder is Hwang Woo-Suk. In 2004, he claimed to have successfully cloned a human embryo. His claim was later shown to be a "spectacular hoax," and he was sentenced to two years prison. He escaped actually serving time because the judge ruled that he "has truly repented for his crime." Perhaps he had. What's clear is that Hwang hasn't lost any enthusiasm for cloning. While he insists that "Here in Sooam we are steadfastly against human cloning," he insists that "Animal-cloning ethics and human-cloning ethics have completely different values." He adds that "animal cloning can bring us benefits and help us contribute socially." Many ethicists disagree. They cite the "pain and suffering" involved in producing a single canine clone, such as potentially dangerous hormone treatments and genetic abnormalities. This exceeds the suffering in natural reproduction. Then there's the elephant in the room: human cloning. Earlier this year, scientists in China announced that they had "created two cloned monkeys," using the same technique used to create "Dolly the sheep," two decades ago. The head researcher at Sooam told Vanity Fair that "These monkeys are very close to us genetically . . . which means you should be able to clone a human." The head of the Stem Cell Program at Boston Children's Hospital told the Times, "We are closer to humans than we've ever been before . . . That raises questions of where we would want to go." Assuming the technical obstacles can be overcome, the answer should be obvious: If people are willing to pay $50-100 thousand dollars to assuage their pain over losing a pet, imagine what they would be willing to pay when we're talking about family members and loved ones. As Vanity Fair put it, "If distraught parents think a clone would resemble 85 percent of their child's appearance and personality . . . it's only a matter of time until pressure will inexorably mount to give it a shot. If there's enough demand, the market will do its best to respond." And that's the "best-case scenario." The worst-case scenario is something akin to Kazuo Ishiguro's novel "Never Let Me Go," where clones are created to provide their "owners" with spare body parts. If this sounds like science fiction to you, so did cloning your pets until recently. Originally posted at Breakpoint. Brown University accused of 'cowardice' after pulling article on new transgender research An Ivy League university in the US has removed an article from its website on a study by one of its own researchers into transgenderism, reportedly after coming under pressure from transgender activists. According to Science Daily, the study by Lisa Littman looked at 'rapid onset gender dysphoria' in teens and young adults. Littman, assistant professor of the practice of behavioral and social sciences at Brown's School of Public Health, spoke to 250 parents of children suffering from the condition and concluded that peer pressure could be a factor in its development. In her survey, 21 per cent of parents said their child had one or more friends who became transgender-identified at around the same time, while a fifth observed an increase in the use of social media by their child at the time they started to identify as transgender. Forty-five per cent of the parents surveyed reported both. According to Science Daily, Littman concluded that there was a possible correlation between gender dysphoria and friendship groups with transgender members, as well as the types of advice on transgender issues that the teens were being exposed to online, although she said more research was needed. 'The onset of gender dysphoria seemed to occur in the context of belonging to a peer group where one, multiple, or even all of the friends have become gender dysphoric and transgender-identified during the same timeframe,' said Littman, according to Fox News. Littman also suggested that teens developing 'rapid onset gender dysphoria' may be doing so as a coping mechanism for negative emotions. A statement from Brown's School of Public Health Dean Bess Marcus explained the university's decision to withdraw the article about Littman's study from its website. In it, she said that the School of Public Health had 'heard from Brown community members expressing concerns that the conclusions of the study could be used to discredit efforts to support transgender youth and invalidate the perspectives of members of the transgender community.' Despite the removal of the article, she said that the school 'affirmed the importance of academic freedom and the value of rigorous debate informed by research.' Radio host Ben Shapiro, writing in the Daily Wire, is among those criticizing the decision. He accused Brown of turning against the study because it 'offended politically correct sensibilities about transgenderism.' He added, 'Raising questions about study methodology is normal. Pulling down articles about scientific studies thanks to public pressure isn't. It's simply an attempt to shut down discussion about a critical issue of public importance.' Steven Hayward, senior resident scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley, accused Brown of 'cowardice.' 'The ideological identity politics camp doesn't want further research: it wants research like Prof. Littman's suppressed and repudiated ... very few academics will want to look into this issue going forward,' he said. A petition has been launched in defence of Littman's research here. Why God doesn't want you to quit so easily I have seen it all lately. Marriages falling apart. People spitting the dummy and walking away from their responsibilities. Friends considering whether they really have what it takes. Colleagues who have low self-esteem. Parents trying to hold their families together. Relationships on the brink of disaster. Maybe you have seen it too? Co-workers who give up too easy. People who have 'had it' with their partners. Youth who are on a tight lease, because they are making poor decisions. Some of us are under so much pressure, we feel we're about to crumble. I'm no counsellor but I'm sure that God never intended us to quit so easily. You know you shouldn't quit If we are honest, we know we shouldn't quit. We know deep down that we must soldier on, but that doesn't change the reality around us. The mud gets flung and it sticks to our heart and soul. We become resentful, prideful, angry and despondent and we just prefer to quit. Partners get restraining orders out. Christians are crying out in prayer for breakthrough. Dreams are not always becoming reality. You look in the mirror and you don't see the person you hope to become. We get disappointed when reality doesn't meet our expectations. We think God should have produced a particular outcome, different to what we're seeing or experiencing. Whatever your story, I feel like God is wanting you to hear one particular word. And I credit a mate of mine, Andrew Ross, who spoke this to me recently: Just keep fishing. Yes, that's the word on the street. You don't cast your rod into the sea and give up as soon as it comes back void. You cast the rod back out. You just keep fishing. When you wind up the rod and find seaweed, you rip it off and try again. Thirty minutes later when you find an old shoe attached, you do the same thing again. Clear the hook of all the debris and cast the rod back into the ocean! This is a critical metaphor to wrap your head around. We try to fix a problem in our life, and when we reel it back in to have a look, at times we still see the issue staring us in the face. Guess what? Start again. Try again. Give it another shot. Cast the rod back out! Just keep fishing. We owe it to the people around us to not quit. We owe it to the God who called us to make a difference in the world. We owe it to ourselves. A culture of immediacy Our propensity to quit is no doubt spurred on by a culture of immediacy. As I write this today, the Federal Coalition are voting on whether they should keep Malcolm Turnbull as their Prime Minister. 'Let's grab a different fishing rod!' 'Let's quit on him!' Look around and you'll see this 'get, get, get' culture, that sparks a 'quit, quit, quit' culture. Don't like a new restaurant, you go find another one (don't care to think about the livelihood of the new owners). Don't like the church, you go find another one (don't care that the people might need you around to help them). Don't like the new boss, you go find another one (don't care to consider where God may want you to be). Don't like a person's opinion of you, you run away from the relationship (don't care of the consequences of broken connections). The culture of immediacy means that as soon as you don't get what you want, when you want it, you move on. You make changes and you make choices to suit your own selfish desires. I think the Kingdom of God is different to that. I think we are called to stick it out in hard places. I think we are meant to persevere with difficult relationships. I think we are called to pray for our leaders, rather than quit on them. I think leaders need to take wake up, take a deep breath and keep ploughing the dry ground. I think we need to embrace the challenges ahead of us, and keep fishing, irrespective of the perceived success or not of our circumstances. As the Bible says in Galatians chapter six, verse nine, 'Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.' So, here's what I want you to do. If you're reading this and you feel like you could quit, then take a hold of the fishing rod, muster up all the perseverance and tenacity you can find, and cast that rod back into the sea. Our world is better off if you don't quit. This article is courtesy of Press Service International GREENWICH Working with mosquitoes gave Rahul Subramaniam itchy wrists in icy weather. But his final result, a trap that detects mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus, was worth every bite: It recently won him $50,000 in scholarship money. Finding live mosquitoes in the middle of winter in Connecticut was not easy at all, the Greenwich High School senior said of his sophomore-year research project, which he largely developed in teacher Andrew Bramantes honors science research classroom. I seriously considered buying them online and releasing them in my garage. Detecting Zika in the wild is difficult, and current methods require special equipment that at-risk communities do not have. By contrast, Subramaniams trap is inexpensive to build and requires neither human intervention nor advanced equipment, making it ideal for remote locations and disadvantaged regions. The early warning system is an important first step in combatting the virus, according to Michael Thomas, a research technician with whom Subramaniam worked. Within 15 minutes, a field worker can determine whether Zika is in an area, warn people nearby, and quarantine the area for additional testing, he said. A lot of people have been asking him to patent it, Rahuls father, Prem Subramaniam, said. I didnt expect all this to follow from something so simple. Rahul Subramaniam was one of three students in the nation this year to earn the title Davidson Fellow Laureate, an honor for which he received $50,000. The scholarship was out of the blue, said the elder Subramaniam, a research scientist at Columbia University. The father said he could not believe the project which uses supplies he and his son bought at Walmart worked. While Rahul could not buy mosquitoes at a department store, he could experiment on them in a state laboratory he found in New Haven that had a colony of the species known to carry Zika. The lab, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, provided him with the tiny insects and a mentor, Thomas, who guided him through working with the bugs. Thomas pointed out his role was minor but he was thoroughly impressed with the high school student. During my 15 years, in my opinion, Rahul is one of the brightest and most talented students Ive ever had the opportunity to work with, and that includes college students, he said. Rahul impressed me with his dedication and hard work. Subramaniam has two other microbiology projects under his belt, including a patch that can detect the presence of prostate cancer. He conducted most of his research in Bramantes class at Greenwich High. In Room 932, students devote the entire year to researching and testing one project, which they can then take to science fairs across the state and nation. I felt like this was the best, most-fleshed out of the other projects Ive done, Subramaniam said. Id done all the experiments from start to end to make it convincing, it had the biggest possible impact of all the other projects Ive done. His experience submitting to the Davidson Fellow contest was unlike presenting his project at science fairs, which competitors call the circuit. On the circuit, experienced scientists bombard students with questions that introduce topics they had not previously considered. You often get questions out of left field and you have to figure out how to answer them on the fly, Subramaniam said. For the Davidson, he wrote an essay and explained his project in front of a camera. That was something tricky I hadnt experienced before, he said. The scholarship money will go toward tuition and related expenses in college. Subramaniams top choices are Harvard, Columbia and Yale, and he is leaning toward studying pre-med. Rahul has a bright future and I expect hes going to accomplish great things under the right mentorship, Thomas said. Hopefully he will be given that opp to solve some of the worlds health problems. jo.kroeker@hearstmediact.com 3 1 of 3 Melanie Feuk Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Kaila Contreras Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Zoes Kitchen is planning its first Lake Houston area location this fall. The eatery will be located within the Main Street Kingwood development at the intersection of Kingwood Drive and West Lake Houston Parkway. The Mediterranean restaurant offers a variety of soups and salads, sandwiches, kabobs, pitas and piadinas. About three years ago, the city of Montgomery discussed whether or not to serve the proposed Montgomery Ridge development with water and sewer facilities. On Tuesday night, the council brought that conversation to a halt. I make a motion to discontinue discussions with the Montgomery Ridge developer, City Councilman John Champagne said regarding the discussion-only item that was not up for a vote. In 2015, the Signorelli Co. approached the city of Montgomery with the proposed 126-acre, 488-home, single development on the property located south of the existing KOA campground which is partially located inside the extraterritorial jurisdiction of Montgomery and Conroe at the intersection of FM 2854 and Texas 105. A feasibility study was completed that year, but development did not move forward. However, Jones and Carter Engineer Chris Roznovsky, City Administrator Jack Yates, and City Attorney Larry Foerster informed the council the development has recently been picked back up and the city has once again been asked to consider providing the service to the development. According to information from the city, the developer is in the process of creating Municipality District No. 150 or MUD 150, does not wish to be annexed into the city of Montgomery, and instead wishes to receive wholesale water and sanitary sewer service from the city. If Montgomery does not provide service to the development it is likely that MUD 150 would construct their own water and sanitary sewer facilities, according to the city officials. The Texas Water Code provides that when a MUD district is partially in one citys ETJ and partially in another citys ETJ, the MUD board may by that statute opt to be entirely into one citys ETJ or the other, Foerster said. They have already, from some correspondence that I have had from the city of Conroes city attorney, advised us and committed to the city of Conroe that they will at some point as a MUD request or vote to have the entire district in the city of Conroes ETJ. Thus, we will lose that portion of the ETJ. Foerster did not know the reason why the developer would choose Conroe over Montgomery but informed the council that he speculated that special promises may have been made in consideration from the city of Conroe. Several years ago we werent in a position to make a commitment to them to provide water and sewer to the entire district, Foerster said. With that not happening, they did turn to Conroe and say what can you do for us if Montgomery cant provide Recently the staff, Foerster, Yates, and Roznovsky questioned whether or not the council would be interested in revisiting the idea of providing water and sewer as a wholesale customer knowing the developer would never be in the city. Foerster reached out to the attorney with the MUD, David Oliver of a law firm in Houston, who said they were open to anything and to see what the councils feedback was, which led to the meeting discussion Tuesday. Among the listed advantages to the city providing the wholesale service included that the city would receive water and sanitary sewer revenue at an increase rate, 1.25 times the normal amount per the citys ordinances, a slight potential to bring the development into Montgomerys ETJ and to promote development along FM 2854 if the development was required to extend public utilities along FM 2854 as originally proposed. The disadvantages mentioned included that the number of homes would provide a significant strain, 120,000-150,000 gallons per day, on the citys water and sanitary sewer systems and would expedite the need for future expansions, the development would not be subject to impact fees and therefore would not have a means to contributing to the expensive expansions that would be required unless a separate agreement was reached, and the development would not pay city property taxes. I have serious reservations, Huss said at the end of the discussion. It basically comes down to the nuts and bolts, its doubling the size of our water system. I dont see the upside, Champagne added. I really dont. mellsworth@hcnonline.com A Native American dance group with Montgomery County roots will soon have the chance to bridge cultures while performing on a trip to New Zealand. The Ceyvha Band Dance Troop which consists of the matriarch, Brinder Cummings, her son, Bryan Jacobs, and five grandchildren Rain, Sage, Hannah, Judah and Sparrow are registered members of the Seminole/Creek Nation in Wewoka, Oklahoma. Her daughter-in-law, Melody Jacobs, is also a part of the dance troop and is part of the Mescalero Apache nation. While they have performed several times in Montgomery County as former residents in the Willis area, the Ceyvha Band Dance Troop has performed at various other places such as schools, daycare centers, churches and prisons, they have also traveled across Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana to perform. We feel it is our obligation to educate the next generation about our culture, Cummings said. During our performances, we discuss the history of our people and what is important to us as Native Americans. We also display different artifacts and Native-made arts and crafts for the everyone to view. The Ceyvha Band Dance Troop members also wear Native American regalia during their performances including buckskin and cloth dresses. We love to perform because we have the chance to meet a lot of different people, Cummings said. Its important for us to spread awareness on who we are, our traditions and share stories of our Native American culture. To further spread that message, the Ceyvha Band Dance Troop was recently invited to visit New Zealand. Cummings along with the Ceyvha Band Dance Troop recently met a Maori tribe while they were in Galveston who were performing a Huaca in a field. We became friends with them, they came to our house and we learned more about the Maori people, Cummings said. They invited us to a graduation/celebration as guests at the Puhoro STEM Academy, College of Sciences, Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand. While we are there, we will participate in a once-in-a-lifetime cultural and educational exchange. This academy gives high school-aged Maori children a greater opportunity to get an education in the realm of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM.) They will also be joined by fellow Hawaiian native brothers and they will all travel to various Maori villages sharing their own cultures while learning about their culture. Through the time we spent together we connected in very deep ways. We fell in love with these people and the beautiful culture of the Maori, they stated on their GoFundMe.com page. According to Cummings, all expenses while traveling with the STEM Academy students are taken care of by the hosts, but they are responsible for the airfare and will also need to cover other expenses that will be incurred during this trip. They launched a GoFundMe.com page to help raise funds to make this trip become a reality and encourage the community to help support them on this multi-cultural trip. This opportunity to experience the sharing and hospitality of the Maori nation as their guests in a cultural and educational exchange is a true honor, Cummings said. To donate, visit https://www.gofundme.com/ceyvha-band-native-dance-troop. jennifer.summer@hcnonline.com A man died Saturday in a motorcycle crash in south Houston, according to police. The 36-year-old was riding his Suzuki north in the 6500 block of Martin Luther King around 12:30 p.m. when he was hit by a blue Ford F-150 pick-up headed west on Rapido, according to police. The motorcycle rider and his passenger were both thrown from the bike, and first responders rushed the pair to local hospitals. RELATED: Why Houston's roads and drivers are country's most deadly The man died, and his female passenger is in unknown condition, police said. The pick-up driver - who failed to yield after a stop sign - was not seriously injured. As of Tuesday morning, no one had been charged in connection with the case, but police said the investigation is ongoing. 4:30 p.m. UPDATE: The home was moved off the freeway around 4:30 p.m., according to Houston TranStar. All lanes are back open. ORIGINAL STORY: A manufactured home being transported along the North Freeway appears to have fallen off the big rig hauling it Friday afternoon. The home fell off the truck in the northbound main lanes at North Street around 2:30 p.m. It was blocking at least three lanes as of 3:15 p.m., according to Houston TranStar. The incident will likely affect rush hour traffic as commuters head home for the three-day weekend. The hitch attaching the trailer to the truck broke, according to a tweet Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez. Houston police officers are on scene. Gonzalez said it could take at least two hours to clear the roadway. 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 A woman was fatally shot outside a Channelview bar Saturday morning, the Harris County Sheriff's Office said. Edna McWorter, 29, died after being shot one time in the chest during a 2:15 a.m. argument at V Lounge, 17130 Market Street, police said. The suspect, identified by authorities as Jerry Wayne Greer, 38, fled. He is still at large, and prosecutors were preparing to file murder charges against him Saturday afternoon, the sheriff's office said in a press release. He is also wanted on felony domestic assault charges, police said. Harris County health officials are warning Pasadena residents that have recently been near a north Pasadena shopping center to be cautious after a live bat seen in the area tested positive for rabies. According to Harris County Public Health Department officials, on Aug. 24 at 11:30 a.m., customers reported seeing the bat outside near the Ross store at Southmore Avenue and Pasadena Boulevard. According to Martha Marquez, spokesperson with HCPHC, City of Pasadena health department authorities responded and were able to capture the bat, which later tested positive for rabies. HCPH authorities are now urging the public to be aware of the dangers of rabid animals in proximity to human contact or to pets. VERY SAD PHOTOS: Rescue group treats abandoned dog with life-threatening injury Bats, along with skunks, are considered high-risk animals in the area, said Marquez, and seeing a bat in daylight is a red flag. Nocturnal by nature, a rabid bat can get disoriented and will behave erratically. "Bats get sick just like we do and when they get sick and confused they start acting out of their normal behavior," Marquez said. "That is an indication that something is not right." Because bats carry the virus in their saliva and mucous membranes (eyes, nose and mouth), any skin contact can be dangerous. What qualifies as physical contact? "What happens is that bats have very small teeth, but they are very sharp and can be like needles," Marquez explains. "If you brush against them, you may think it didn't scratch you, but maybe it did." This is why HCPH is asking anyone who believes there is a chance, even a slight chance, they had contact with a rabid bat or animal to contact authorities. While bats are generally not predatory to humans, a rabid bat will behave out of nature and unpredictable, so the threat is always present, Marquez said. Harris County officials are also reminding the public of the importance of vaccinating pets because of their susceptibility to rabid animals, and pets can also transmit humans with rabies. "This is why it's important for us as pet owners to make sure our animals are up to date on vaccines," Marquez said. Rabies if left untreated can be fatal for both pets and humans, said Marquez said. "Rabies is a very serious disease, and there is a chance (of fatality), and that is what we are trying to prevent for anyone who might have come in contact," she said. For anyone who may have had contact with this bat or any rabid animal, contact HCPH Veterinary Public Health at 281-999-3191 as soon as possible. HARTFORD Five members of Connecticuts fire crew who have battling blazes in Montana are expected to return Connecticut at about 8:15 p.m., the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said in a release. The five trained and certified crew members consist of one Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management employee and four other local residents and firefighters, DEEP spokesman Chris Colibee said in the release. These firefighters were part of a 20 person regional interagency firefighting crew that left (Aug. 15) and have been working in Montana on the Wigwam Fire and the Gold Hill Fire The two fires total approximately 7,600 acres, Colibee said in the release. Members of Connecticut Fire Crew are: Allan Waterman, of Moosup, (State of RI DEM employee); Jacob Light Enfield; Robert Yost, of Milford; Deven Yudelson, of Burlington; and Patrick Marcoux, of Sturbridge, Mass., the release said. Learn more about conditions on Montana here. Colobee also said that earlier this week DEEP sent a wildland fire engine and a three person engine crew to California to assist with firefighting efforts there. The engine is assigned to the Ferguson Fire, in Oakhurst, California. The Ferguson Fire is 96,901 acres, and has been in the news recently due to the fire location in Yosemite National Park, and the two firefighter fatalities associated with the fire. This is the fourth time Connecticut is sending resources west this summer. DEEP maintains a roster of agency staff members and personnel from local fire departments who have been certified to fight forest or wildfires. Crew members must complete a rigorous training program and participate in an annual renewal course. Hearsts SFgate reported Thursday that: Yosemite reopened Glacier Point Road to all vehicles Thursday morning after being closed since July 19 due to a wildfire burning outside the park's western edge. Six days after the Ferguson Fire broke out, the road was closed to accommodate firefighting efforts staged at two sites along the route. The Ferguson Fire was fully contained a week and a half ago and torched 151 square miles of forestland, killed two firefighters, injured 19 people, and destroyed 10 structures. Colibee said Connecticut maintains its rigorous firefighting capability to participate in a reciprocal aid program operated by the U.S. Forest Service. Under this program, trained personnel from other parts of the nation are available to assist Connecticut in the event of a fire emergency or other natural disaster in return for the support of Connecticut personnel when needed. More than 6.8 million acres has been burned so far this year across the United States due to wildland fires, Colibee said. Houston ISD announced changes to its bus services Friday, including new pick-up and drop-off times for an unspecified number of students, after families across the district complained about delays and disorganization during the first week of school. District officials said some families will receive notifications by Saturday regarding pick-up and drop-off time changes, which will take effect when classes resume Tuesday. HISD leaders were unable to provide information Friday on how many of the districts estimated 30,000 bus riders will be affected. HISD leaders also said they will add two more pick-up and drop-off spots for students taking buses to magnet schools on the citys southwest side, bringing the total to 48 hubs. The district instituted the hub system this week in an attempt to create more direct routes to and from campuses, though some families must travel farther this year to reach bus stops. The two new hubs are at Kate Bell and Parker elementary schools. The changes follow a chaotic week in which many families voiced frustration with the districts transportation department. In dozens of social media posts, parents and guardians said their children were not picked up at magnet hubs on time, drivers were not adequately familiar with routes and bus schedules were not properly mapped out, among other issues. As a result, children were late arriving to and returning from school. HISD officials have acknowledged many of the issues, largely blaming them on first-week kinks and electronic errors, while pledging tweaks in the coming days and weeks. Its imperative that we provide safe, reliable and timely service to our students, HISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan said in a statement. We will continue making changes until we can ensure we are meeting that goal. Families of about 13,000 HISD students received notifications Thursday evening about bus route changes, but district officials said the messages were sent in error and should be ignored. HISD moved to a new electronic transportation mapping system this year and changed many bus paths, part of an initiative to untangle the districts complex web of routes. The changes were not made for cost-saving purposes, though HISD officials said the district could spend less on transportation in the coming years under the revamped system. District officials are encouraging families to call (713) 556-9400 for questions or concerns about transportation issues. Updates on pick-up and drop-off times and locations also are available at www.houstonisd.org/transportation by clicking on the Find my route link. jacob.carpenter@chron.com A woman was found guilty Friday of shooting her yapping husband to death two days before Christmas at their Spring home. It took two hours for a jury to convict 47-year-old Genevia Ann Davis. She was sentenced to two decades in prison on a voluntary manslaughter charge in the death of her husband, Morgan Davis, according to a Harris County District Attorneys Office news release. Steve Gonzales, Houston Chronicle / Houston Chronicle AUSTIN The Texas Education Agency is asking lawmakers for $54 million to fund school safety initiatives in the next two years. The agency said it needs the money for the Safe and Healthy Schools Initiative, which will support mental health services, positive school culture, facilities safety and emergency response coordination. TEA proposes using the money to add school counselors and mental professionals. The funds could also be used to expand the school marshal program, which gives firearms training to teachers and allows them to have a weapon on campus. The summer of 1969 was big for Merle Haggard, who was starting to enjoy the first successes of his career in country music. He was playing honky-tonk bars up and down Central California, and had recorded nine studio albums in five yearsfour of which had hit No. 1 on the country music charts. That year, he made the first major purchase of his career, buying a new five-bedroom, ranch-style home just a few doors down from the Bakersfield Country Club in Bakersfield, CA. It was a big move up for the 32-year-old, who grew up in a converted boxcar in the impoverished neighborhood of Oildale, committing a string of increasingly serious crimes as a young man. Talk about culture shock, Haggards daughter Kelli Haggard Patterson recently told the Bakersfield Californian. From Oildale to Bakersfield Country Club. We literally moved to the other side of the tracks. Now on the market for $359,000, the 3,600-square-foot house was a welcome respite for the Haggard family, who were able to live under the same roof for the first time. Merle moved into the house with his second wife, country musician Bonnie Owens, and brought along his four children from his first marriage, Dana, Marty, Kelli, and Noel, and his mother, Flossie. We were very impressed with it, Haggard Patterson recalled. She was 7 when the family moved in. It had a [second-floor] laundry chute and I remember trying to put our [youngest] brother Noel into it. It had a huge driveway, and we almost killed ourselves on our bikes riding down it. Of course everything is bigger when you're a kid. It was in this house that Haggard penned his first true hit, Okie From Muskogee, an anthem for politically conservative people like him who couldnt understand the hippies protesting the Vietnam War across the country. As for the home, it embodies California, cookie-cutter luxury from the 1960s, with a stone facade and long, low design that attempted to pack as much living area as possible on the first floor. Much of the interior remains largely originalwood paneling, popcorn ceilings, and all. In 1973, Haggard and his family posed in front of the homes stone fireplace for the cover of his 18th studio album, Merle Haggards Christmas Present. The homes formal dining room is enveloped in warm wood paneling, with a pass-through to the kitchen. Outside, theres a covered patio running the length of the house, and a free-form, in-ground pool as well as a pool house. Haggard continued to crank out albums at a furious pace, releasing one, two, and sometimes more albums per year until the late 1980s. He was an active musician until his death in 2016 at the age of 79. His attitude toward the counterculture considerably softened with age. In 2010 he told American Songwriter magazine that he sang Okie From Muskogee seriously in 1969, but ironically later in his life. It was the photograph that I took of the way things looked through the eyes of a fool, he told the magazine. I was just as dumb as a rock at about that time, and most of America was under the same assumptions I was. ... Ive learned the truth since I wrote that song. I play it now with a different projection. Its a different song now. Im different now. I still believed in America then. I dont know that I do [believe] now. The post Merle Haggard's 'Okie From Muskogee' Home in Bakersfield Is Listed for $359K appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland police are asking for the public's help in locating a missing and endangered 12-year-old girl who was last seen Friday night in the city's Forest Hills neighborhood. Keniesha Harrison arrived at her Thornhill Drive home after school Friday afternoon, her mother told police. She left at about 5:45 p.m. to go to a party in Pattison Park and did not return. Keniesha, who was last seen wearing blue jeans and a white t-shirt, is 5 foot 3 inches tall and weighs 120 pounds. She was last seen on the east side of Cleveland in the area of Thornhill Drive, Forest Hills Park and Pattison Park. Anyone with information is asked to call 216-621-1234. To comment on this story, visit Saturday's crime and courts comment section. VERMILION, Ohio - The U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies are searching for a missing boater on Lake Erie near Vermilion. The Erie County Sheriff's Office discovered an unmanned boat washed up on the shore of Lake Erie near Cranberry Creek at about 9 p.m. Friday. The 23-foot Sea Ray showed signs of recent occupancy, authorities said. Crews from the Coast Guard, Ohio Department of Natural Resources and Huron police and fire boarded the boat and saw a cellphone, wallet and handheld GPS, which was still operating. The man used his cellphone at about 1 p.m. Friday to call his wife. He told her that the fish weren't biting, but he was going to stay out a while longer. Paperwork on the boat showed that it was co-owned by the missing man and a friend, who said the man liked to fish about one or two miles offshore, and then drift about one mile east or west of Vermilion. He said they would normally fish off the stern of the boat. Lake Erie waves on Friday afternoon were reported to be about 4 or 5 feet and the water temperature was about 75 degrees - warm water, relatively speaking, according to Coast Guard Ensign Justin Bommer. The missing boater is a 66-year-old white man, 5 foot 7 inches tall and weighing about 220 pounds. He was last known to be wearing a t-shirt and shorts. In addition to the U.S. Coast Guard, ODNR, the Erie County Sheriff's Office and Huron police and fire, the Canadian Coast Guard also has joined the search with a fixed-wing C-130 aircraft. "We searched all through the night, and the search is still continuing," Bommer said. To comment on this story, visit Saturday's crime and courts comment section. CLEVELAND, Ohio - Willoughby Brewing Co. has bought the brewing assets of the former Buckeye Brewing Co. in Cleveland, it was announced Saturday, Sept 1. The motivation behind the deal is increased production in draft and retail distribution, said Rick Seibt, brewmaster and a partner in the deal. Terms were not released. "It's about a great opportunity for us," he said. "It will allow us to build on the brand." In fact, one of the beers the brewery had submitted as part of the annual Cleveland Oktoberfest brewing competition on Friday began as a test batch at the new facility, he said. The Cleveland outpost will be for brewing only - no taproom, no restaurant, Seibt said. Rick Seibt of Willoughby Brewing Co. is a partner in the deal to expand the brewery to Cleveland. Willoughby, founded in 1998, has tried to expand over the years but physical limitations of its current space halted that idea. Taking over the Buckeye Brewing location will boost capacity three-fold, he said. Willoughby brews about 1,000 barrels - 65 to 70 batches - a year. The dining room at Willoughby Brewing, at Erie Street and Mentor Avenue, has very good accessibility and space. But the brewhouse - where the initial brewing process begins - and room for fermenters is a bit tighter. The brewery has one of the most sought-after beers in the area and beyond: The award-winning Peanut Butter Cup Coffee Porter. Willoughby is the farthest eastern brewery in the Cleveland Brewery Passport program, started this year by Destination Cleveland. It also marked its 20th anniversary this year, bringing back former brewers for a celebration. And while Great Lakes Brewing Co. - the state's first craft brewery - is known for creating a brewing tree, with former brewers moving on to other places, Willoughby has done the same thing. Its former brewers have gone on to The Brew Kettle in Strongsville, Brim Kitchen + Brewery in Willoughby, Royal Docks in Canton and Fat Head's in Middleburg Heights. The expansion means Seibt, a lifelong Lake County resident who has been brewing since 1990, will be making the 50-mile round-trip commute to the acquired space at 9941 Walford Ave., Cleveland. Buckeye Brewing is north of Interstate 71 and south of I-90, located just northwest of Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Buckeye Brewing started a year before Willoughby, in 1997, but closed its doors last year after marking its 20th anniversary. In 2007 owner Garin Wright opened Buckeye Beer Engine, a nearby brewpub at 15315 Madison Ave., Lakewood. In addition to a full menu, it rotates a well-culled beer list, with about 30 drafts. Currently it has a handful of German Oktoberfests, La Chouffe Belgian Blond Ale, Costa Dei Villa, an American Wild Ale from Jolly Pumpkin in Michigan; several Ohio brews and others. Nothing grabs a voter's attention faster than the word "scandal." That is why Ohio Republicans, riding high for so long in the General Assembly, may be getting antsy as Nov. 6's election looms: The Ohio House's 99 seats and half the state Senate's 33 seats are on the ballot. Republicans have run Ohio's House for all but two of the last 24 years. Ex-Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, a Republican from Clinton County's Clarksville, has not - repeat, not - been charged with any wrongdoing. But a federal grand jury is evidently reviewing Rosenberger's dealings with Statehouse payday loan lobbyists. For 15 months, Rosenberger's House failed to act on a long-sought payday loan reform. On April 12, Rosenberger resigned. On June 6, Republicans, who rule the House 66-33, finally elected a new speaker (Republican Rep. Ryan Smith, of Gallia County's Bidwell). The next day, June 7 - 65 weeks after Reps. Kyle Koehler, a Springfield Republican, and Michael Ashford, a Toledo Democrat, had introduced the payday loan bill (House Bill 123) - the House finally passed it 71-17, and Gov. John Kasich has signed it into law. Whether grand jurors charge anyone with wrongdoing (and a charge is not a conviction), the General Assembly is way overdue for a kind of political colonoscopy. Too many people have been pushing the ethics law's limits. Term limits are part of the reason. They apply to legislators, not lobbyists. Term limits mean many legislators have information deficits. But lobbyists don't. And knowledge really is power. Meanwhile, special interests spend immense sums of money in Columbus on lobbying and on donations to General Assembly campaigns. Two factors hide the scale of that spending from hometown voters. First, why do state Sen. John Doe or state Rep. Mary Doe hold fundraisers in Columbus rather than (or besides) fundraisers in his or her district? Because Statehouse lobbyists are in Columbus. Yes, the donations are reported, eventually, but the home folks don't see the wretched excess of, say, $5,000 (or larger) donations to "chair," "host" or "sponsor" a legislator's or caucus fundraiser. Second, while Ohio requires Statehouse lobbyists to report what or whom they're lobbying for or against, they aren't required to report real-world spending and compensation. Contrast that with California, where laws passed by its legislature or ballot issues initiated by voters require lobbyists to report what Ohioans can't know about Columbus lobbying. True, thanks to Statehouse reporters, Ohioans do know that Rosenberger's globetrotting as speaker is something federal investigators are looking at. Example: a 2017 London junket sponsored by a Republican political outfit named GOPAC ("Educating and Electing a New Generation of Republican Leaders"). Also on the trip to London were two lobbyists for an auto-title lender (LoanMax, or Select Management Resources, of Alpharetta, Georgia) and an executive of payday lender Advance America, of Spartanburg, South Carolina. As noted, Ohio doesn't require lobbyists to report how much they're paid or what they really spend. But so far, during the California Legislature session that began in January 2017, Advance America reported it has spent $191,447 in "payments made ... to its own in-house lobbyists or to lobbying firms." (By way of comparison, that's about $15,000 more than the $175,957 that Cardinal Heath, the Fortune 500's largest Ohio company, has reported spending on California lobbying during the same period.) It's way past time for Ohioans to get full disclosure of who's spending how much to influence the men and women of the General Assembly. They're supposed to represent the public interest, not private interests. Lately, there seems to be some confusion about that - at the Statehouse. 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. Richard M. Perloff is a professor of communications and psychology at Cleveland State University. CLEVELAND -- There are many reasons I miss John McCain. I miss his bedrock courage, his willingness to place public service ahead of naked self-interest, his determination to accomplish the mission, whether military, legislative, or political, as his former Senate colleague Russ Feingold observed in The New York Times, or his willingness to admit a mistake, even in the case of the Iraq War he fervently supported, as cleveland.com's Elizabeth Sullivan recently noted. But, as a student of politics and communication, in an age of truculent partisanship, I miss another of his distinctive traits - his tolerance, exemplified by his appreciation that political differences are not antithetical to, but core components of, the American democratic project he esteemed. I miss his willingness to reach across the partisan divide to break bread with his colleagues, recognizing, as Otto von Bismarck famously said, but is rarely acknowledged today, that "politics is the art of the possible, the attainable, the art of the next best." We gain insight into his appreciation of political differences from the recollections of Feingold, the former Democratic senator from Wisconsin with whom he collaborated in the landmark Campaign Reform Act of 2002. McCain, a classic Republican (when that label still meant something substantive, unlike today), agreed with some of Feingold's liberal ideas about campaign finance reform. Humorously, though - McCain had a great sense of humor -- he noted that if he became president, as Feingold predicted some 16 years ago during the apex of McCain's political career, that he would let Feingold be in the Cabinet, "but just not as secretary of defense." It is McCain's second attribute - his ability to compromise across the aisle that I sorely miss. Democratic and Republican leaders disagree more sharply about policy issues than they have during any political juncture since the 1890s, political scientists Benjamin I. Page and Martin Gilens observe in a penetrating book, "Democracy in America?" published last year. "Hostility has mostly replaced cross-party friendship. Compromise and bipartisanship have become dirty words," Page and Gilens note. In 2016, Republican leaders like Sen. Mitch McConnell famously blocked a supremely qualified judge, Merrick Garland, from consideration on the Supreme Court. Democrats, understandably angry, vow to reflexively, slavishly vote against Brett Kavanaugh for Supreme Court justice, even if there are preciously few reasons to deem him legally unqualified for the job. Congress is deeply dysfunctional. It accomplishes relatively little. There are many reasons for this, but one - which harks back to one of McCain's hallmark strengths -- is the paucity of senators who have the motivation and ability to broker agreements that can pass political muster. The number of swing districts that are electorally competitive has declined drastically over the years. Research shows that the number of moderates in the House of Representatives -- House members who help achieve compromises between the two parties -- has dramatically declined from 344 of 435 (79 percent) in 1982 to 137 of 435 (31 percent) in 2002 to - drumroll - 4 (.009 percent) in 2013. It is undoubtedly less than that today. On Aug. 25, we lost a senator who had the political moxie to broker toxic disagreements, so necessary if Congress is to do anything productive. Political scientists argue that American politics is showing corrosive democratic deficits. Because many people choose not to vote - and others are discouraged by burdensome voting laws - the electoral impact of "my way or the highway" partisan activists has rarely been stronger. But these activists don't represent the more nuanced, less ideologically driven majority of the public which supports common-sense polices on issues from gun control to immigration reform. For example, Fox and Gallup polls both show that an overwhelming majority of Americans support a pathway for citizenship for illegal immigrants, precisely the bill that McCain embraced as a member of bipartisan group of U.S. senators who pushed for immigration reform in 2013. His efforts weren't successful, but were clearly in sync with the opinions of the American public that Congress is tasked to serve. His modulated voice is now silent. McCain spoke -- endlessly it sometimes seemed -- of his identity as an American. Such sentiments can be saccharine, calling up vague, inchoate reactions in an age when America is so multiculturally, politically, and ideologically multifaceted. But McCain spoke not as a nationalist, like so many who blindly support their country right or wrong, but as a patriot, who affirmed his country's ideals and was demonstrably willing to give of himself to achieve its ennobling, quintessential values. That may be naive and old-fashioned, but it gives me goosebumps, and it's another reason I miss John McCain. Richard M. Perloff is a professor of communication, political science, and psychology at Cleveland State University and author of "The Dynamics of Political Communication," 2nd edition. ****************** 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. ROCKY RIVER, Ohio -- The $2.4 million needed to demolish and replace Bradstreet's Landing Pier in Rocky River just got a lot smaller. On Aug. 27, Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Nan Baker presented a $1.1 million check to the city. The money is a county Community Development Fund grant that comes from the $7.3 million in casino tax revenue collected by the county. The 590-foot-long Lake Road pier, originally built in the 1960s and expanded in the 1980s, was closed last November due to severe deterioration, including missing supports and other safety issues. Baker is responsible for sponsoring the legislation for the grant, along with Council President Dan Brady, Vice President Pernel Jones and Councilman Dale Miller. Baker called the pier a "jewel" as part of Lake Erie, "a treasure for us." Rocky River Mayor Pamela Bobst noted that the pier draws visitors from around the region for both quiet and vigorous activities, both on land and on the water with direct lakefront access. The overall project is large and requires deliberative planning for a lasting effect. It includes stabilization of erosion and a glass pavilion, as well as the creation of recreational opportunities for all ages. The remaining funds to complete the project include $350,000 from the State of Ohio. According to Bobst, an additional $860,000 in funding is still needed. The work on the old pier's demolition now begins and is projected to conclude sometime in October. The new construction of the pier will begin in the spring. Steve Biegun looks as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announces him as special representative to North Korea at the State Department in Washington, DC, on August 23, 2018. Ten years ago, Stephen Biegun was tapped to tutor first-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, then the Republican candidate for vice president, on foreign policy. Now, Biegun is once again serving an unconventional politician who ascended to office lacking experience in foreign policy. This time, he's the Trump administration's special representative for North Korea, and the stakes couldn't be higher. Biegun was named to the position last week. A somewhat unusual selection for the role he has focused for much of his career on Europe experts say he may have the precise quality that is needed during the fraught negotiations: an ability to talk with President Donald Trump. "It's been the case where no one in the State Department has the ability to convey the complexity of this process to the president in a way that he understands and will go along with," said Brett Bruen, who served as the White House's director of global engagement under President Barack Obama. Bruen said that Biegun, a former Ford Motor Co. executive who served as executive secretary of the National Security Council under President George W. Bush, may have the ability to do just that. It's a shift from Biegun's predecessor, Joseph Yun, a career diplomat who had served the State Department with postings around Asia. But Biegun's career straddling business and diplomacy could make him exactly the right fit for the president he's serving. "Is it ideal? Is he the person in a perfect world who I would have chosen? No. But in this administration he is better than a lot of alternatives," Bruen said. As he prepares to guide the Trump administration's chief foreign policy project in Asia, Biegun will have to carefully manage his relationship with a president whose goals experts say are unrealistic, while negotiating with a foreign adversary that has dogged American negotiators for decades. The State Department has said that Biegun will leverage the negotiating know-how he applied as a vice president at Ford. Biegun himself has hinted at his negotiating style. In a trade discussion hosted by the Aspen Institute last year, Biegun said he viewed the issue "more from the viewpoint of a practitioner than an ideologue or a philosopher." It's that businesslike approach, coupled with a wealth of experience in foreign policy, that experts expect he could bring to his dealings with North Korea. The skills Biegun developed at Ford will come in handy, according to Bill Richardson, the former New Mexico governor and U.N. ambassador who has negotiated with North Korea on a number of occasions. But Biegun will also have to learn the particular negotiating style of his North Korean counterparts. "North Koreans have their own style and wily ways so he should watch his wallet every second of the day," Richardson said. "He should remember two words timelines and verification." As foreign policy advisor to then-GOP presidential candidate John McCain's running mate, Biegun learned a lesson about skepticism the hard way. In November 2008, Biegun vetted a call between Palin and whom he thought to be then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The call turned out to be a prank orchestrated by a comedy duo in Canada. "No one's going to beat me up more than I beat myself up for setting up the governor like that," Biegun said at the time. The casket is pictured leaving the memorial service of U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) at National Cathedral in Washington, U.S., September 1, 2018. Speakers at the memorial service honoring Arizona Sen. John McCain on Saturday exhorted the Republican's fighting spirit against his adversaries, with featured guests taking veiled swipes at the current commander in chief, President Donald Trump. With hundreds of attendees, friends, family and lawmakers from the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate joined with Trump administration officials and three former presidents. McCain was honored at the Washington National Cathedral, before his final resting place at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Some of the tributes, however, had hints of a parting shot at the president and current leader of the GOP. At times, Trump and his supporters have failed to show the Vietnam combat veteran the respect he was given by many of his colleagues and even former adversaries. It started with his daughter Meghan McCain who in an emotional and tearful speech, appeared to describe her father as a counterbalance to Trump. She argued that efforts by the president and others didn't equal the amount of sacrifice her father gave to his country. "American greatness, the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly," the younger McCain said in describing her father. She contrasted that with "the opportunistic appropriation of those who lived lives of comfort and privilege, while he suffered and served." She never mentioned the president's name during her tribute. Trump and McCain had a stormy relationship dating back to the 2016 election cycle. As a candidate, Trump infamously questioned the veteran Republican Senator's military credentials during the 2016 election cycle, stoking outrage by suggesting McCain was not a hero because he was captured by the Vietnamese. McCain survived more than 5 years of torture and imprisonment during the Vietnam War before going on to serve more than three decades in Congress, both as a member of the House and as a senator. He was known for his ferocious opposition to policies that didn't match his principles and for taking on presidents, no matter their party. The casket is pictured leaving the memorial service of U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) at National Cathedral in Washington, U.S., September 1, 2018. A grief-stricken Meghan McCain appeared to take a swipe at President Donald Trump during a moving tribute honoring her father, Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain, blasting the president for "cheap rhetoric" on American greatness. At the Washington National Cathedral on Saturday, the senior McCain got a heroes salute from both of the men he sought to defeat politically, former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush. While holding back tears, the senator's daughter voiced a stinging rebuke that was directed at some of her father's detractors, including Trump. She articulated her father's vision of how he saw the nation during his service, appropriating the president's "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan. "The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great," she later said. In describing her father, Meghan McCain said he was "American greatness, the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who lived lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served." During her tribute, she never mentioned the president by name. Trump infamously questioned the veteran Republican Senator's military credentials during the 2016 election cycle, stoking outrage by suggesting McCain was not a hero because he was captured by the Vietnamese. McCain survived more than 5 years of torture and imprisonment during the Vietnam War before going on to serve more than three decades in Congress, both as a member of the House and as a senator. He was known for his ferocious opposition to policies that didn't match his principles and for taking on presidents, no matter their party. Members of the Trump administration, including son in law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka, were present at the service. A sign warning swimmers of great white sharks in Cape Cod waters, at Nauset Beach in Orleans, Massachusetts, July 31, 2018. Robert Nickelsberg | Getty Images Thousands of tourists are rushing to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, this Labor Day Weekend to soak up the last few days of summer along its 70-mile-long stretch of idyllic dune-lined beaches. While many hope to bask in the waters of the Atlantic, take in breathtaking sea captains' homes and soak up some peaceful tranquillity, others hope to spot something even more exhilarating: a great white shark. Businesses are embracing the frenzy as well, as shoppers buy up all things shark related, from T-shirts and souvenirs to shark-themed ice cream. At the Chatham Orpheum Theater, "Jaws" plays nearly all summer long. "People are falling in love with the excitement of these big animals, and it's fueling every aspect of Orleans and Chatham, said Joe Baglio, who has been summering on Cape Cod for the past 25 years. "The attention that it's brought, this new aspect of interest, wasn't really here three, four years ago. The conversation is all about the sharks." Soaring shark sightings linked to seal population Over the past year, great white shark sightings along the Cape have soared, primarily due to the exploding seal population. According to David W. Johnson, a professor of marine conservation ecology at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment, there are currently between 30,000 and 50,000 gray seals off the southeastern Massachusetts coast. The exponential growth is largely due to the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. Before then, gray seals were hunted for their furs and to keep them from depleting the fish stock. Massachusetts even paid a bounty of $5 per nose. While some refer to this as a "conservation success," others are growing increasingly concerned, especially Cape Cod fishermen. "The seals are causing a lot of problems," said Doug Brown, captain of the sportfishing charter boat Jennifer Ann, which fishes the waters of Cape Cod Bay for striped bass, bluefish and bluefin tuna from Rock Harbor in Orleans. "They eat several pounds of fish each day. They eat small bait, lobsters, striped bass, fluke, flounder. They eat anything. It's going to get to the point where they are going to have to make a decision." Brown said the seals are drawing the sharks, and while tourists are fascinated by them, they can be a challenge. "The sharks come right up out of the water to grab the bait. They are not bashful. I have been out in the bay all my life, but I've never seen great whites to this amount. They are sometimes right under my boat." Justin Daly, an avid fisherman and summer resident of Orleans, agrees that something needs to be done to cull the seal population. In the past he often only saw seals while deep-sea fishing, but they are a common sight along the shoreline now, making it a challenge for those directly fishing off the beach, he said. Nevertheless, it has become a boon for scientists and educators, who are benefiting as Cape Cod has evolved into a mecca for great whites. Until now, they had to go to California and other areas of the world to learn more about these legendary predators. For the very first time, scientists have predictable access to white sharks in the Atlantic Ocean, said leading shark expert and biologist Dr. Greg Skomal of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. "We know about white sharks in other parts of the world but in the Atlantic, we know virtually nothing about white sharks when it comes to their basic biology and how this animal lives. We think of the white shark as a species that is out to get us. But that is not the case. White sharks need our help. We need to collect the data that is necessary to conserve this species," said Skomal, a regular contributor to PBS, National Geographic and SharkWeek. Shifting the perception of great white sharks Scientists like Skomal, along with organizations such as the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, a nonprofit group in Chatham, Massachusetts, are working together to shift the perception of the great white from mindless, blood-thirsty killers to a species that is a key facet of the ocean's ecosystem. Great white sharks have led to a rise in ecotourism on Cape Cod. Atlantic White Shark Conservancy The AWSC works with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries to document and tag white sharks in the region, identifying each shark by its distinctive markings and coloration patterns. In 2014 Skomal and the conservancy identified 80 individual great whites swimming off the Cape. By 2016 it increased to 150. He has successfully tagged 140 white sharks since 2009. Though many, he said, are too deep to tag. "The tags tell us some of the sharks are fairly resident and stay in Cape Cod for the summer because it provides a rich food resource. Others appear to be more transient in nature, where they move through and continue north into the gulf of Maine and off the coastline of Canada. Almost all of them will migrate to the southeastern U.S. during the winter months," he said. Skomal said it will be another six months to a year before he will finish analyzing the data and be able to estimate what portion of the population of white sharks on the Outer Cape the 140 tagged sharks represent. Biologist Greg Skomal tags a shark Atlantic White Shark Conservancy To raise awareness of their efforts and provide information on white shark sightings and research, the AWSC, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, the Cape Cod National Seashore, and officials from Cape Cod and south shore towns, developed the Sharktivity app. Users use the app to view sightings and to submit their own. They can also check out live streams of research in action. "It's much easier to fear the unknown, so we feel that it's critical to provide the public with as much information as we can," said Cynthia Wigren, president of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy. They appear to be making an impact: The conservancy's shark center, which offers an in-depth look at the great white through displays, interactive exhibits and virtual reality experiences, opened only two years ago and just surpassed 15,000 visitors this season. The Sharktivity app alerts users to shark sightings. Atlantic White Shark Conservancy "I've been doing this for 35 years," said Skomal. "I've watched the attitude toward sharks really shift and change. When I first started this, there was a lot of negativity toward sharks. There's still fear of these animals we're never going to eradicate that. But I think there's quite a bit of intrigue and fascination that people have for sharks, and the more they learn about them, that fascination will increase." Still, jitters remain While many are intrigued by the iconic great white, jitters still remain. "When I go in the water, I keep my eyes open and I get out of there. Five years agoeven three, four years agoI'd be swimming without even thinking about it. You really have to think about it now," said Baglio. Skomal said that the white sharks have been swimming close to the shoreline for years, but the public's heightened awareness has led people to now capture the action using drones, cellphones and cameras. They then post it on social media and news outlets pick it up. "There is heightened awareness, and that's not a bad thing; that's a good thing. And there are people with drones and they have cameras and cellphones, so everybody is paying attention. So it looks like there is more activity now, but the sharks are doing what they have been doing for a number of years, and that's hunting seals close to shore," said Skomal. He advises that beachgoers mostly on the Outer Cape, from Chatham to Provincetown use good common sense. "Swim close to the shore, don't'swim alone, and avoid swimming near seals," he said. "If you look at deaths related to water, there's been several drownings but no fatalities related to sharks. So people need to use good sense, anyway." Still, there have been incidents. On Aug. 15 William Lytton was bitten on the leg by a white shark while swimming in 8 to 10 feet of water in Truro. The 61-year-old Scarsdale, New York, neurologist instinctively punched the shark in the gills to fend him off. In 2017 a paddleboarder was about 30 yards offshore of Marconi Beach in Wellfleet when a shark took a bite out of his paddle board. The encounter took place in about 3 feet of water. This photo of a paddle boarder, unaware that a great white shark was swimming beside him, was taken by a spotter plane just north of Nauset Beach on July 29, 2018. Cody DeGroff Motorcycles for the take-out delivery service of Meituan.com, stop outside a Beijing residential district. China's Meituan Dianping, an online food delivery-to-ticketing services platform, has set an indicative price range of HK$60 to HK$72 ($7.64-$9.17) per share for its initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong, valuing itself at up to $55 billion, four people with direct knowledge of the matter said. Meituan, already one of China's most valuable internet firms, could raise as much as $4 billion before the exercise of a "greenshoe" or over-allotment option, whereby additional shares are sold depending on demand. The company is discussing a valuation of $46 billion to $55 billion and planning to secure a total of $1.5 billion from five cornerstone investors, including its main backer gaming and social media company Tencent Holdings, and global asset manager OppenheimerFunds, the people said. Oppenheimer will commit $500 million and Tencent $400 million, they said. Other cornerstone investors include U.K.-based hedge fund Lansdowne Partners ($300 million), U.S. hedge fund Darsana Master Fund ($200 million) and Chinese state-owned conglomerate China Chengtong Holdings ($100 million). The five cornerstone investors did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Calls to Darsana went unanswered. Meituan declined to comment when reached by Reuters. The Beijing-based firm filed plans for the city's second multibillion-dollar tech float this year after smartphone maker Xiaomi's blockbuster IPO of nearly $5 billion. It plans to use the process to upgrade its technology, develop new services and products and pursue acquisitions among other things, according to its IPO filing. Meituan is also - after Xiaomi - the latest company with a dual-class share structure to file for a Hong Kong listing, under the city's new rules designed to attract tech companies. However, in late July Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), the operator of Hong Kong exchange, said it would delay changes that would allow companies to hold shares with more voting rights, as more time was needed for investors to become accustomed to recent rule changes. Meituan was valued at around $30 billion in a fundraising round late last year. Xiaomi started trading in July after a closely watched but disappointing initial public offering that valued it at almost half the $100 billion that industry analysts had initially estimated. Meituan has been likened to U.S. discounting platform Groupon. Founded in 2010 by serial entrepreneur Wang Xing, it completed a $15 billion merger with Dianping in 2015, akin to U.S. online review firm Yelp Inc. It offers a broad range of services including movie ticketing, food delivery, hotel and travel booking as well as ride-hailing. Competitors include food-delivery platform Ele.me, backed by e-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding, and leading ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing, backed by Japan's SoftBank Group. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley are sponsors of Meituan's IPO. China Renaissance is the financial advisor. Richwood, TX (77531) Today Cloudy skies during the morning hours followed by thunderstorms in the afternoon. High 79F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Showers and thundershowers during the evening will give way to steady rain overnight. Low 54F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Google Assistant, the digital bot powering Google's Home smart speakers and available as an app for Android and iOS phones, is supposed to feel like a "cool librarian." That's according to Ryan Germick, who leads the team responsible for shaping the product's personality. In the past few years, all the major tech companies have released their own version of an AI assistant, and experts predict the smart speaker market will continue to grow. Adoption is particularly important for Google, which needs to defend its retail ad sales turf against Amazon (though very few people are actually using smart speakers to shop, yet). Given the array of options on the market, Germick and his team of filmmakers, comedians, and "empathy experts" want to make sure that its Assistant stands out by being playful, not just capable. It will never be exactly hip, but it will goof around if users prod it. "If we're doing our jobs properly, there should hopefully be some sort of emotional attachment to the Assistant you should be sad if it falls into the sink and goes haywire!" he says. "I think we're just scratching the surface in terms of creating a character that you really want to spend time with that you feel provides value in your life." A US cargo ship seen at the Yangshan Deep-Water Port, an automated cargo wharf, in Shanghai on Apr. 9, 2018. The U.S. is locked in a multifront battle with virtually every major trading partner, in an effort to extract concessions that it expects to help cure the "twin deficits" that have bedeviled the world's largest economy for decades. On Friday, negotiations on a new North American Free Trade Agreement hit an inflection point. Talks between the U.S. and Canada reached an impasse, with talks set to continue next week. Yet President Donald Trump has made clear he plans to strike a new deal within 90 days with or without the U.S.'s Canadian partner. Percolating in the background is the growing likelihood that the U.S. will impose an additional $200 billion worth of tariffs on China as early as next week, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. It all raises the question of what Trump's endgame could look like, if the mere threat of a global trade war becomes an actuality. Economists and investors have been sweating over the consequences for the world economy if the U.S. can't reach a consensus with major economies like Europe, Canada and particularly China. According to some economists, at the heart of Trump's thinking about the trade war lie two key assumptions: That the world's largest economy can narrow both its burgeoning deficit by renegotiating commercial ties with its major trading partners, and that tariffs can help accomplish these goals by at least forcing countries to the bargaining table. In early August the president hinted as much himself ,when he declared that his menu of tariffs were working "big time." He raised a few eyebrows when he claimed that tariffs could somehow pay down the federal debt, which currently stands at more than $21 trillion. Trump tweet According to some economists, Trump's declaration harked back to an era when the federal government's main source of tax revenue was derived from tariffs. According to economic historian Brian Domitrovic, that status quo prevailed until the early 20th century, but declined as the U.S. economy developed into the world's most advanced. The president's argument got a modest boost from Congressional Research Service data, which showed that the U.S. reaped more than a billion in new revenue from steel and aluminum tariffs. However, economists like David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at Brookings Institution, think it's "not plausible" that the U.S. will collect enough money to pay down the debt especially with the federal government spending with no end in sight. "The president seems to be in love with the budget we had 100 years ago," Wessel told CNBC in a recent interview. "Once upon a time the federal government got most of its revenue through tariffs, but at the time, the federal government was much smaller [and] there wasn't Social Security, Medicare, Homeland Security" and other big-ticket spending items that cost trillions, he added. "It's hard to believe we're going to get a lot of revenue out of this, and there's no way we get enough to start paying down the debt," Wessel said. President Donald Trump on Saturday issued a new threat to terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement altogether, warning Congress not to intervene in tough negotiations that may or may not include Canada in a new accord. Trade talks between the United States and its 2nd largest bilateral trading partner will kick off again Wednesday, after the two sides ended Friday's tense negotiations without a deal. The talks were thrown into doubt after the president reportedly made an off-the-record comment that was published, suggesting he wouldn't give Canada any leeway. In a series of posts on Twitter, Trump took an uncompromising stance with the U.S.'s neighbor to the north. He said there was "no political necessity" to keep Canada in a new deal that Mexico appears to have agreed with in principle. Both Democrats and Republicans have voiced skepticism about Trump's negotiating stance, and whether it was viable in the context of keeping Canada in a new accord. "If we don't make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out. Congress should not interfere with these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off," the president added, blasting the trade pact as one of "the worst deals ever made." Trump Still, the United States enjoys a goods and services surplus with Canada, which data from the U.S. Trade Representative showed totaled over $8 billion last year. That figure comes with a caveat, according to the USTR. "However, the international shipment of non-U.S. goods through the United States can make standard measures of bilateral trade balances potentially misleading," a USTR fact sheet said. "For example, it is common for goods to be shipped through regional trade hubs without further processing before final shipment to their ultimate destination. This can be seen in data reported by the United States' two largest trading partners, Canada and Mexico," it added. On Friday, Trump notified Congress that he wants to sign a trade agreement with Mexico, and potentially Canada in 90 days, the period legally required to review a deal, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement. The neighbors emerged from talks Friday, the White House's deadline for Canada to join in on a deal the U.S. struck with Mexico earlier in the week, without resolving sticking points. Trump has sought to revise the three-nation trade agreement, which he says has punished American workers since it went into effect more than 20 years ago. The president has used tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods to bring the countries to the negotiating table and wants them to drop their own barriers on certain products. The White House is on track to provide text of a deal to revise NAFTA to Congress within 30 days, and Trump would aim to sign it 60 days after that, senior administration officials said Friday. They believe the administration would comply with the conditions for so-called fast-track trade authority, which would allow a deal to get through Congress more easily, even if Canada does not join in the deal. However, some lawmakers are worried that a bilateral deal would not pass legal muster, according to Reuters. The U.S. has focused in particular on Canada's agricultural policy, which Trump contends has unfairly curbed sales of U.S. dairy products there. He also aims to boost American farmers in Midwestern states who helped to propel him to the White House. Many of those farmers have taken a hit from the effects of the White House's mounting trade conflicts with China, Canada, Mexico and the European Union. "We wanted to be sure that it wasn't some long-term trend," Chief Ken Burton said of the shootings. "We all feel reassured that downtown is safe. I don't think we need this extra enforcement downtown permanently." Types of obituaries The Missourian publishes two types of obituaries family obituaries and life stories. A family obituary is the version submitted by a funeral home or family. Please see the submission form for details on cost and deadlines. Family obituaries A life story is a closer look at a person's life and involves a reporter contacting family and friends. Life stories are based on newsworthiness and consent of the family. Life stories. This column is not about politics. It makes no political judgments and takes no political positions. No, really! Stay with me here. President Trump this week slammed Google, claiming that the company rigged Google News Search results to favor stories and news organizations critical of the president. To drive home his claim about bias, Trump posted a video on Twitter this week with the hashtag #StopTheBias (which, at the time I wrote this, had 4.36 million views), claiming that Google promoted President Barack Obamas State of the Union addresses, but stopped the practice when Trump took office. In a statement issued to the press, a Google spokesperson said that the company did not promote on its homepage either Obamas or Trumps first State of the Union addresses because technically they are considered mere addresses to a joint session of Congress, the idea being that brand-new presidents are not in a position to reveal the state of the nation. Google also claimed that it did promote Trumps second and most recent State of the Union, a claim that screenshots found on social media and pages captured by the site Wayback Machine appear to confirm. The facts around this incident are being funneled into ongoing, rancorous online political debates, which, in my opinion, isnt particularly interesting. What is interesting is the Big Question this conflict brings to the surface. What is a search engine? A search engine can be four things. An index to the internet When Google first launched its search engine in 1996, it was clear what a search engine was: an index of the internet. Googles killer innovation was its ability to rank pages in a way that was supposed to reflect the relative relevance or importance of each result. Both the results and the ranking were supposed to be a reflection or a snapshot of the internet itself, not an index to the information out there in the real world. An arbiter of whats true In this view, Google Search would favor information thats objectively true and de-emphasize links to content thats objectively untrue. An objective source of information The objective source idea is that Google makes an attempt to present all sides of contentious issues and all sources of information, without favoring any ideas or sources. A customized, personalized source of information The personalized source concept says that a search engine gives each user a different set of results based on what that user wants regardless of whats true, whats happening on the internet or any other factor. This is all pretty abstract, so heres a clarifying thought experiment. When someone searches Google to find out the shape of the Earth, how should Google approach that query? It depends on what Google believes a search engine is. (Note that its likely that flat-Earth proponents generate, link to and chatter about the idea that the Earth is flat more than people who believe its spherical. Lets assume for the sake of argument that, objectively, the content and activity on the actual internet favors the flat-Earth idea.) If a search engine is supposed to be an index to the internet, then search results for the shape of the Earth should favor the flat-Earth idea. If a search engine is supposed to be an arbiter of whats true, then search results should favor the spherical-Earth idea. If a search engine is supposed to be an objective source of information, then search results should provide a balanced result that equally represents both flat- and spherical-Earth theories. And if a search engine is supposed to be a customized, personalized source of information, then the results should favor either the flat-Earth idea or the spherical-Earth idea, depending on who is doing the searching. I use the shape of the Earth as a proxy or stand-in for the real search results people are conducting. For example, searches about your company, product, brand or even yourself are still subject to the same confusion over what a search engine is supposed to be. When your customers, prospective business partners, employees or future prospective employees and others search for information about your organization, what results should they get? Should those results reflect whats true, whats false but popular, or whats neutral between the two? Or should it depend on whos doing the searching? The truth is that Google tries to make Google Search all four of these things at the same time. Adding to the complexity of the problem is the fact that search engine results are governed by algorithms, which are trade secrets that are constantly changing. If you were to ask people, I suspect that most would say that Google Search should be Model No. 1 an index to the internet and not get involved in deciding whats true, whats false or whats the answer the user wants to hear. And yet the world increasingly demands that Google embrace Model No. 2 to be an arbiter of whats true. Governments wont tolerate an accurate index Trump has claimed repeatedly that, in general, news media coverage is biased against him. If thats true, and if Google News Search was a passive index of what the media is actually reporting, wouldnt it be reasonable for Trump to expect anti-Trump coverage on Google News Search? By slamming Google News Search as rigged, Trump appears to reveal an expectation that Google News should reflect whats happening in the real world as he sees it, rather than whats happening on news media websites. Or it reveals that, regardless of the weight of activity in favor of news sources Trump believes are biased against him, Google News Search should provide a balanced and neutral representation of all opinions and sources equally. The rejection of the search-engine-as-internet-index model is common among governments and political leaders worldwide. One famous example is the right to be forgotten idea, which has been put into practice as law in both the European Union and Argentina. The idea is that information on the internet can unfairly stigmatize a person, and citizens have the right for that information to be forgotten, which is to say made non-existent in search engine results. Lets say, for example, that a prominent person files for bankruptcy, and that 100 news sites and blogs on the internet record the fact. Twenty years later, well after the person has restored financial solvency, the old information is still available and findable via search engines, causing unfounded stigmatization. A successful right-to-be-forgotten petition can remove reference to those pages from search results. The pages still exist, but the search engines dont link to them when anyone searches for the persons name. The advocates of right-to-be-forgotten laws clearly believe that a search engine exists to reflect the real world as it is, or as it should be, and does not exist to reflect the internet as it is. Google was recently caught in a controversy over an assumed return to the Chinese market with a custom China-only search engine that censors internet content in the same way that domestic sites are required to by the Chinese government. Hundreds of Google employees signed a letter in protest. Google wants to return to the Chinese market. The Chinese government would not allow Google to operate a search engine accessible to Chinese citizens that accurately reflected whats actually on the internet. The examples go on and on. What governments tend to have in common is that in political circles, its very difficult to find people advocating for the index-to-the-internet conception of what a search engine should be. Why the search-engine-as-index idea is dead Googles self-stated mission is to organize the worlds information and make it universally accessible and useful. Nebulous, yes. But for the purposes of this column, its telling that Google says that its mission is to organize, not the internets information, but the worlds. The reality is that people search Google Search and other search engines because they want information about the world, not because they want information about what the internet collectively thinks. And, in any event, the point is growing moot. What the internet thinks is increasingly being gamed and manipulated by propagandists, bots, fake news, trolls, conspiracy theorists and hackers. Accurately reflecting all this manipulated information in search engines is valuable only to the manipulators. Also: With each passing day, more information searching is happening via virtual assistants such as Google Assistant, Siri, Cortana and Alexa. In other words, virtual assistants are becoming the new search engines. With augmented reality glasses and other highly mobile sources of information, search engines such as Google will have to increasingly become arbiters of whats true, or supposed to be true, because the public will increasingly demand a single answer for its questions. Thats why the old initiatives for your companys presence on the internet SEO, marketing, social media strategy and all the rest have new urgency. With each passing day, search engines exist less to index the internet and more to decide for us all whats true and whats not true. Its time to redouble your efforts to make sure that what Google thinks is true about your company really is true. Intel really screwed up the notebook market by launching the 2-in-1 concept of products none of which were truly 2-in-1s. You see, we knew going in that laptop users struggled with screens under 13 and tablet users wouldnt carry tablets much over a single poundor that had screens much larger than 10. The Intel 2-in-1s were both too heavy and too large to be used as tablets and yet their marketing had people asking for them (and OEMs building them). The vast majority of users, however, never used the tablet. This would be like car companies convincing everyone they needed a convertible in Alaska where no one would ever dream of putting the damn top down. It was fascinating to watch the entire market shift to what was an interesting idea very badly executed. Given users were struggling with replacing their laptops anyway, this likely didnt help overall market growth much. Three products stand out as aggressively trying to create a true 2-in-1: The Apple iPad Pro, the Microsoft Surface Go and the recently announced Lenovo Yoga Book c930. [Disclosure: both Microsoft and Lenovo are clients of the author.] Ive written about the Surface Go before, posing the idea that the perfect blend might just be a Surface Go and an Amazon Fire HD 10. The Lenovo Yoga Book x930 may actually provide a better alternative without the Amazon tablet. Let me explain. The Lenovo Yoga Book c930 This is Lenovos second run at what is a very unique product class: A small 10 class notebook that is truly small and light enough to be a tablet. The first attempt had an innovative flat keyboard that could also function as a digitizer. It was interesting, and I did carry it for a while, but like the Surface Go I found its tablet capability lacking (mostly due to apps). And the keyboard, while interesting, wasnt useful enough to give up a regular laptop. The new Yoga Book c930 replaces that keyboard with a second ePaper screen that can also function as a keyboard. ePaper as Amazon has demonstrated with their Kindle line is a preferred medium for reading and uses a fraction of the power that an LCD, or particularly OLED panel will use. The result is you get a laptop/tablet/reader product that has functionality, that on paper, replaces all three products. Now there remains the issue with apps with the biggest problem for me being the implementation of the Kindle app on Windows. However, I believe that the recent partnership between Amazon and Microsoft to allow Alexa and Cortana on both firms products should result in Amazon improving their app support on Windows shortly which would allow me to leave both my Kindle and my Fire HD 10 tablets at home. One other interesting feature is a smart metal latch on the product that you knock to open. This is very reminiscent of the old Dell (disclosure Dell is a client of the author) XPS Adamo laptop which also used smart metal for a latch. You knock twice on the laptop cover and it pops open which is a ton better than some laptops which seem to be far more of a challenge to open then they need to be. The only discord with both the Surface Go and this Yoga Book is that instead of using the better suited (for something this thin and light) ARM solution that Microsoft places in the Always Connected PC category both use Intel processors which arent ideal for this form factor. Battery life and connectivity are likely more important than performance with something in the tablet class these credibly occupy. Lenovo did also launch the Yoga C630 which uses this always connected platform, but it is more of a traditional Intel 2-in-1 configuration. I expect both the Microsoft and Lenovo solutions will eventually migrate to ARM likely with the next release of Snapdragon that targets this class of product. Wrapping up: Making progress on a true 2-in-1 When something isnt working you dont just keep pounding on the same designs and ideas, you try something new and both Lenovo and Microsoft are doing that with their respective offerings. The Lenovo Yoga c930 comes the closest so far for a product that could truly cause users to leave their tablet behind and use this in both tablet and laptop mode successfully. This is largely thanks to the implementation of ePaper which creates an advantage that an iPad or Fire HD 10 tablet dont have, a better book reader on top of the improved tablet functionality. Like the Surface Go, a home run still waits for better tablet app support (and likely a Snapdragon rather than Intel processor) but, I expect, that at least an improved Amazon Prime and Kindle reader experience is coming so, for now, this is arguably the best true 2-in-1 in the market. Now the question for you is do you really want a 2-in-1? 08/31/2018 Photo (c) bgwalker - Getty Images People from foreign countries who have lived in the United States for years say that they used to keep their money in Bank of America accounts without any problem. As long as they continued to show the bank proof of their legal residency, their stories go, the money was safe. Without warning, that policy appears to have changed, leaving people with no way to access their own money. The Miami-Herald is reporting that an Iranian who has been studying for his PhD at the University of Miami has suddenly been locked out of his account. The student is also married to an American citizen, but marriage does not automatically grant citizenship -- couples still have to undergo an intensive screening and interview process before citizenship to the foreigner spouse is granted. For his first seven years in the United States, Saeed Moshfegh said that all he had to do was show his proof of residency to keep his Bank of America account functioning. Last Thursday, however, a bank agent told him that the documentation was not acceptable. This bank doesnt know how the immigration system works, so they didnt accept my document, he told the Herald. The change has left him unable to take out cash, pay his rent, or make payments on his credit card. The news follows reports last month from the Kansas-City Star describing similar complaints from people who maintained Bank of America accounts. The apparent policy change comes at a time when the US Department of the Treasury is asking banks to collect more information about their customers. In a statement to the Herald, Bank of America denied that it had changed its policies in any way, but it declined to talk about specific cases. 100% Website embassypages.com uses latest and advanced technologies like: JQuery and WebFonts. It is very popular on the web, it's within the 1 million most visited websites of the world at position 33112 by Alexa. It supports HTTPS and GZIP compression. The main html page has a size of 21240 bytes (20.74 kb uncompressed) and 1266 bytes (1.24 kb compressed). This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-10-14, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. We are analyzing the site. Please wait a few seconds.. Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has approved funding for a new Liverpool Cruise Line Terminal. According to the Liverpool Express, the 20m of funding is being used to replace the current temporary terminal on Princes Dock with a new one, which will even include an adjoining hotel and a multi-story car park. Liverpool City Council will head the construction project, according to the paper. The current terminal generates more than 7m a year to the Liverpools economy; however, the new facility will enable the worlds largest cruise ships to dock at the city. The visitor economy is increasingly important to the whole of the Liverpool City Region and a new cruise liner terminal will help this vital sector continue to flourish, said Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Anderson said during the announcement that theyre also working in partnership with the Combined Authority and some of the very best in the engineering industry to bring this new facility to life, which will help Liverpools economy flourish. The first phase of construction started in May of this year. A NSW government push to build a new cruise ship terminal in Port Botany has been met with resistance by a local council, according to a local report. The NSW government recently released its Cruise Development Plan, which highlights the future of the cruise industry in the state, noting congestion in Sydney and promising to explore alternative sites. On Tuesday, Randwick City Council opposed the coalition's proposal to investigate Yarra Bay and Molineaux Point as locations for a new terminal. They fear that any development would destroy nearby beaches and parklands. The council hopes its bid to list the sites will kill off the Port Botany proposal. "We need to stand firm to protect this area and its significant local heritage," Mayor Lindsay Shurey stated on Wednesday. She urged the state government to find alternative locations, claiming that Yarra Bay and Molineaux Point were not "appropriate or fit for purpose". The state government said that, despite the investigations continuing on these two sites, it will also consider using Hayes Dock in Port Botany as a temporary cruise terminal. Contributed photo Guests can experience the Netherlands as the Connecticut River Museum hosts a night to support The Onrust Project on Friday, Sept. 14, 5:30-8 p.m. Enjoy Dutch culture with samples of traditional food and drinks, play classic Dutch tavern games, hear music, and witness a cannon demonstration all from the museums north deck overlooking the Connecticut River. The Onrust is a reproduction of the famed Captain Adriaen Blocks 1614 era vessel that was the first European vessel to chart and explore Long Island Sound, parts of Rhode Island, and the Connecticut River. Catering by Selene, enjoyed by the Museum for their excellence and creativity in recreating historic recipes, will provide several traditional Dutch foods for people to sample. The cannon demonstration will be with one of the Onrusts reproduction cannons. A standard ticket includes the food and drink tasting, music, games and cannon demonstration with a cost of $30 for members/$40 for non-members. For tickets and information, go to www.ctrivermuseum.org or call 860-767-8269. OLD SAYBROOK Two people were taken to the hospital with minor injuries after a boating accident Saturday morning. State Environmental Conservation Police responded to the mouth of the Connecticut River with Old Saybrook fire units for a report of a boating crash. When the emergency personnel got to the area, they saw a boat that ran aground on a sandbar. Hearst Connecticut Media / Christian Abraham MONROE There are still eight more Fridays left to check out the towns Farmers Market this season. Every Friday from June 22 to Oct. 26, from 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., the Farmers Market offers locally produced food on the Monroe Town Green. Correction officers use of force against inmates increased over the last 10 years even as Connecticuts prison population declined, state statistics show. But the two sides that run the states prisons corrections officers and officials at the Department of Correction disagree over the scope of the problem, whether use of force is rising or falling and what, if anything, should be done. Corrections officers say the need to use force has risen because of prison reforms initiated by Gov. Dannel P. Malloys administration, such as an often celebrated early release program and less use of isolation cells to punish misbehavior. We are dealing with maximum security prisons and a lot of the crimes are violent, said Rudy Demiraj, president of ASFCME Local 387, which represents prison guards. The idea of turning prison into some kind of summer camp is not proving to be positive. DOC officials say the prison reforms are working and use of force is actually decreasing. The 10-year comparison numbers are not accurate, said Semple, who pointed to what he said were more reliable numbers using a sample from the last five years showing a decrease in use of force. But DOCs numbers show an overall 15 percent rise in use of force over the 10-year period, with a 12 percent decrease coming during the recent five-year period. The only constant is a steady drop in the inmate population since 2007, amounting to a nearly 30 percent decrease and 5,500 fewer prisoners. State Rep. Steven Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, and a vice chairman of the legislatures judiciary committee, said prison reforms and operations need to be constantly assessed. Criminal justice is an imperfect science, requiring the ongoing analysis of how well the policy decisions we make are working, Stafstrom said. The differing assessments of how the prisons are operating is playing out against the backdrop of a recent death at Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown. Jallen Jones, a 31-year-old inmate from Georgia suffering from mental health issues, died in March while being restrained by officers at the prison. The state medical examiner ruled Jones death a homicide, and prison officials have said the use of force was not excessive. State police are investigating the incident and the officers involved, who have not been identified, remain on the job, Semple said. Ive viewed the video, Semple said. If I felt the use of force was inappropriate, (the officers involved) would not be working now. By the numbers The numbers all produced by DOC paint a confusing picture. For example, the data shows that the number of times officers used force against inmates rose 15 percent between 2007 and 2017 from 1,040 incidents to 1,224. That rise occurred while the number of inmates dramatically decreased. But when a five-year look-back is applied from 2013 to 2017 use of force by officers decreased by nearly 12 percent, from 1,384 incidents to 1,224. The statistics also show use of chemical agents namely pepper spray against inmates rose from 265 incidents in 2007 to 496 in 2017 a 46 percent increase. When the five year period favored by Semple is analyzed between 2013 and 2017 use of pepper spray rose by 18 percent. Between 2007 and 2017, assaults on officers dropped from 266 incidents in 2007 to 153 incidents in 2017, a 42 percent decrease. Faulty reporting Semple said there is a problem with the use-of-force numbers collected by the DOC in the early years of the last decade, which he said skews the overall trend. And he noted that those errors make if difficult to assess how the department is performing. He said reports from some prisons, such as Bridgeport Correctional Institution, a 730-inmate facility where many prisoners are fresh off the street, show little use of force in certain years an outcome Semple said is not realistic. Later reports, from between 2013 and 2017, more accurately reflect the use of force at each prison, he said. The five-year trend is accurate, Semple said. Im questioning these (other) numbers. Use of force is generally defined by DOC as any physical contact with an inmate to compel compliance with instructions or orders, including restraint techniques. Chemical weapons are generally defined as deployment of aerosol dispensers, such as pepper spray. We are in the process of restructuring our data related to incidents to enhance our abilities to assess trends and patterns, said Karen Martucci, a DOC spokesperson. Staffing reduction A Hearst Connecticut Media review of staffing data obtained through a Freedom of Information request shows the number of officers assigned to prisons has steadily dropped since 2010 as the inmate population decreased. For example, the numbers show 21 fewer guards at Garner this year compared to 2010; 20 fewer at Bridgeport Correctional; 36 fewer at the New Haven Correctional Center and down 39 at Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers. The inmate population at those prisons also decreased: 88 fewer inmates at Garner; 193 fewer at Bridgeport; 39 fewer at New Haven; and 664 fewer inmates at Osborn. Between 2010 and 2018, the number of officers working at the states prisons dropped by 16 percent or by 619 less officers while the inmate population decreased by nearly 27 percent. Demiraj, the union official, said staff reductions are a concern, along with an overall change in DOCs inmate management methods. We are seeing a much softer approach, a more lenient approach, Demiraj said. At Manson (Youth Institution) last week an officer was assaulted before he could take his radio out. Reforms cited as contributing factors include the states early release program, reduced use of administrative segregation or solitary confinement, allowing prisoners more out-of-cell time and eliminating security posts within some prisons. Stafstrom said he believes the reforms have been successful, but added lawmakers should be willing to look at adjustments. While the data is pretty clear that the reforms we have made have reduced recidivism, improved public safety and saved taxpayer dollars, we must be attentive to statistics such as these and make appropriate policy tweaks as necessary, Stafstrom said. Broken system Demiraj said that while some of DOCs numbers may be inaccurate, the overall trend of an increasing need to use force is accurate. He pointed to prison reforms as a main reason. There is a big push to allow inmates to be reintegrated into the community, Demiraj said. That has left a population that is more problematic. State Sen. Len Suzio, R-Meriden and an opponent of the states early release program, said hes not surprised that the need to use fore is rising. Ive had a lot of conversations about (DOC) and the system is broken; its not working, Suzio said. Ive talked to officers in and out of the system and they all say the criminals are gaming the system. Its ironic, Suzio added. The early release program was to control inmates so you can take away the incentive if they misbehave. Its to protect the safety of guards. Steve Carbone, a service representative for AFSCME Council 4, said much has changed under the Malloy administration. We have more inmates with mental health issues, Carbone said, adding that often translates into a need to use force. Inmates used to do a job, but many jobs have been eliminated due to automation, Carbone added, noting productive jobs keep inmates busy and offer an important incentive to behave. Now its leaning on a broom or a mop rather than proactive jobs, Carbone said. Less isolation Jamelia Morgan, a University of Connecticut law school professor who has sued states over excessive force, said prison reform can lead to increased use of force by officers. Typically, (inmates) have behavior problems, so use of force could be being used to stop self-harm, suicide and for other reasons, Morgan said. It does tend to be a population with psychiatric disabilities. Morgan said leaner staff and limiting restricted housing can also impact the amount of force used by officers. This (trend) suggests a failure to manage this special population; that the way they deal with mental illness is through force, Morgan said. Demiraj said the ability to isolate and manage inmates has been dramatically reduced. When you take away a deterrent, you take away the incentive to behave, Demiraj said. The agency raised the bar on what would cause placement into segregation. They raised the bar and lowered the standards. It takes more to get in the system. The early release program, Demiraj added, has left the worse inmates behind bars and new requirements for more time out of cells allows for additional mingling that can lead to misbehavior. Semple said the reforms have not changed the departments need to use force. Research has shown that use of isolation can make people prone to mental illness, Semple said. There is no predictor that the new way to manage has increased assaults on staff. Demirag disagreed with the commissioners assessment. A lot of their initiatives have unintended consequences, Demiraj said. bcummings@ctpost.com Those whose gun permits are denied or revoked in Connecticut often have to wait more than six months for a chance to appeal, despite a state law that requires such hearings within 10 days. A state auditors report released last week found that the Board of Firearm Permit Examiners had a backlog of 649 appeal cases in June 2014 for gun permits that were denied or revoked, according to a report released Tuesday. While the audit stopped measuring at 2014, the backlog continues to this day, Nancy Lotas, office manager for the board said. She is now scheduling hearings for April 2019, she said. When she explains the backlog via email to those who are appealing, some are surprised. I get a couple calls: Is this a typo? The answer is no. The number of appeals more than doubled, from 230 in the first half of the 2011-2012 fiscal year to 465 in the second half of the 2011-2012 fiscal year, resulting in an increased waiting period for a hearing, auditors wrote. The delay got longer after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012. In 2013, in response to the school shootings, Connecticut changed its gun laws and required permits to legally purchase any kind of gun or ammunition. Previously, permits were only needed to buy some kinds of guns. As a result, the number of people seeking permits and the number of those having their permits denied, or later, revoked skyrocketed, the auditors report said. Scott Wilson, president of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, the states largest gun group, lays the blame on towns. This has been a serious bone of contention for years, Wilson said. There are about a dozen factors such as having a felony conviction or certain misdemeanors that can automatically disqualify one from getting a gun permit. But local police departments, which issue the permits, can also disqualify someone on the basis of suitability, state statute says. Suitability is not clearly defined in the statute, however, and Wilson said some towns use it more than others as a basis to deny permits. Kyle Overturf, one of the Boards longest serving members, said in an interview Wednesday he remembers a large backlog existing when he joined the board in 2009. Since that time, the Board starts its meetings earlier so it can finish more hearings in a day and doubled the number of hearings it holds. The Board used to schedule a dozen cases per session; now they schedule 22. This month alone we cleared about 80 cases off the docket, said Overturf, a former colonel with the state environmental conservation police who now manages a Wallingford gun range. But the Board is limited in how much more it can do to reduce the backlog, Overturf said. The nine-member board was established in the 1970s decades before all Connecticut residents had to seek permits to buy a gun. The board is comprised of unpaid volunteers: a few attorneys, representatives from gun groups like Ye Connecticut Gun Guild and the Connecticut State Rifles and Revolvers Association, and officials from various state Departments. They have a small budget and one full-time staff member. And they conduct their hearings in an informal discussion fashion, unlike regimented court-style hearings. No other state agency uses the same appeal hearing format, said Michael Lawlor, under secretary for criminal justice policy and planning at the State Office of Policy and Management. The Department of Motor Vehicles, for instance, has full-time hearing officers who individually conduct hearings if a driver appeals their license suspension after a drunk driving incident. The officer renders their appeal decision; the driver the can appeal it further to court. Everybody would be a winner if they could make this a more efficient process, Lawlor said Thursday. You could eliminate the backlog overnight if you treated it like other situations. That change would have to be made by the next legislature or governor, though, Lawlor said. The legislature could also choose to define what factors make one unsuitable for gun ownership and that might simplify the process, Lawlor said. emunson@hearstmediact.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson WESTPORT Town police charged two men with identity theft after they were accused to taking checks from a Toyota of Westport customer. Daishaun Murphy, 23, of Bridgeport, was charged with third-degree forgery and third-degree identity theft. Deshawn Sawyer, 20, of Stratford, was charged with third-degree identity theft. Police said he turned himself in on an active arrest warrant. Police said that on June 6, employees of Toyota of Westport reached out to the department about a possible identity theft. The vendor that cleans employee uniforms for Toyota of Westport turned over a wallet found in the pocket of a pair of pants the business took in to clean. The wallet belonged to Deshawn Sawyer, a former employee. Police said the business found two checks belonging to a Toyota customer in the wallet. The investigator learned Sawyer had stolen the checks while he was working as a valet at Toyota, Police Lt. Jillian Cabana said. After allegedly taking the checks, he would give them to a friend - later identified by police as Daishaun Murphy - who would deposit them into his account. Investigators reached out to the victim, who reported another check was stolen from her and deposited at a TD Bank branch. Police said the third check was written out to Murphy with landscaping noted in the memo. That check was for more than $750. The victims signature was forged on the check, Cabana said. Murphy was observed on bank surveillance making the bank transaction. Police obtained arrest warrants for Murphy and Sawyer. On Wednesday (Aug. 28), police arrested Murphy at the Bridgeport Office of Probation. He was transported to police headquarters in Westport and charged. Murphy was unable to post his $15,000 bond. He was arraigned the next day in Norwalk court. Police said Sawyer was released after posting a $25,000 bond. He is expected in court on Tuesday. Parents only want the best for their children Arconic Corporation manufactures and sells aluminum sheets, plates, extrusions, and architectural products in the United States, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hungary, Russia, and the United Kingdom. It operates through three segments: Rolled Products, Extrusions, and Building and Construction Systems. The Rolled Products segment provides a range of aluminum sheet and plate products for ground transportation, aerospace, industrial, and packaging markets; and roofing, architectural composite panels, ventilated facades and ceiling panels, spacers, culvert pipes, and gutters for building and construction markets. The Extrusions segment offers extruded products, including aerospace shapes, automotive shapes, seamless tubes, hollows, mortar fins, and high strength rods and bars for ground transportation, aerospace, and industrial markets. The Building and Construction Systems segment provides various products and building envelope solutions, such as entrances, curtain walls, windows, composite panels, and coil coated sheets for fabricators and glazing subcontractors under the Kawneer, Reynobond, and Reynolux brands. The company offers its products directly to customers, as well as through distributors. The company was formerly known as Arconic Rolled Products Corporation and changed its name to Arconic Corporation in Arpil 2020. Arconic Corporation was founded in 1888 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 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] | (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. Bank of Montreal provides diversified financial services primarily in North America. The company's personal banking products and services include checking and savings accounts, credit cards, mortgages, and financial and investment advice services; and commercial banking products and services comprise business deposit accounts, commercial credit cards, business loans and commercial mortgages, cash management solutions, foreign exchange, specialized banking programs, treasury and payment solutions, and risk management products for small business and commercial banking customers. It also offers investment and wealth advisory services; digital investing services; financial services and solutions; and investment management, and trust and custody services to institutional, retail, and high net worth investors. In addition, the company provides life insurance, accident and sickness insurance, and annuity products; creditor and travel insurance to bank customers; and reinsurance solutions. Further, it offers client's debt and equity capital-raising services, as well as loan origination and syndication, balance sheet management, and treasury management; strategic advice on mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and recapitalizations, as well as valuation and fairness opinions; and trade finance, risk mitigation, and other operating services. Additionally, the company provides research and access to markets for institutional, corporate, and retail clients; trading solutions that include debt, foreign exchange, interest rate, credit, equity, securitization and commodities; new product development and origination services, as well as risk management advice and services to hedge against fluctuations; and funding and liquidity management services to its clients. It operates through approximately 1,400 bank branches and 4,800 automated banking machines in Canada and the United States. The company was founded in 1817 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada. Read More 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 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.. Vivint Solar, Inc. provides distributed solar energy primarily to residential customers in the United States. It owns and installs solar energy systems through long-term customer contracts. The company also sells photovoltaic installation products, as well as solar renewable energy certificates. As of December 31, 2019, it had an aggregate capacity of 1,294.0 megawatts covering approximately 188,300 homes. The company was formerly known as V Solar Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Vivint Solar, Inc. in April 2014. Vivint Solar, Inc. was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Lehi, Utah. Read More Wall Street analysts have given NavSight a "Buy" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but NavSight wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. FTD Companies, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a floral and gifting company primarily in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland. It operates through three segments: U.S. Consumer, Florist, and International. The company offers floral, specialty foods, gift, and related products and services to consumers, retail florists, and other retail locations and companies. It also markets and sells gift items, including gourmet-dipped berries and other specialty foods, personalized gifts, gift baskets, wine and champagne, jewelry, and spa products, as well as gourmet food products; and provides point-of-sale systems and related technology services to its floral network members, including traditional retail florists, and other retail locations offering floral and related products. In addition, the company offers products and services to its floral network members, such as services that enable its floral network members to send, receive, and deliver floral orders, as well as other companies; and fresh-cut flower arrangements, occasion-specific gifts and plants, stuffed bears, and chocolates. It offers its products under the FTD, Interflora, ProFlowers, Shari's Berries, Personal Creations, Flying Flowers, Gifts.com, ProPlants, and Mercury Man logo names. The company provides its products through its Websites, related mobile sites and applications, and various telephone numbers. The company was formerly known as UNOL Intermediate, Inc. FTD Companies, Inc. was founded in 1910 and is headquartered in Downers Grove, Illinois. Read More Convergys Corporation provides customer management services to communications and media, technology, financial services, retail, healthcare, government, travel and hospitality, and other vertical markets worldwide. The company offers solutions across the customer lifecycle, including sales, customer service, technical support, customer retention, and collection, as well as security, compliance, and fraud solutions; and solutions in contact center technology comprising omni-channel interaction, cross-channel integration framework, real-time decisioning engine, robotic process automation, intelligent notification, campaign management, personalized care, personalized selling, agent productivity, and retention solutions. It also provides analytics and consulting, and software solutions, such as enterprise feedback management, integrated customer experience analytics, post-contact surveys, relational loyalty research, customer segmentation and profiling, call elimination analysis, analysis of customer effort, digital channel optimization, and integrated contact center analytics solutions, as well as voice of customer software. The company operates through 140 contact centers. Convergys Corporation was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Read More Wall Street analysts have given iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. KB Financial Group, Inc. engages in providing financial services through its subsidiaries. It operates through the following segments: Corporate Banking, Retail Banking, Other Banking Services, Credit Card, Life Insurance, Investment and Securities business. The Corporate Banking business segment provides services such as loans, overdrafts, deposits, credit facilities and other foreign currency activities. The Retail Banking business segment offers services such as private customer current accounts, savings, deposits, consumer loans and mortgage loans. The Other Banking business segment provides services relating to banking business besides corporate banking and retail banking services. The Credit Card business segment offers services such as domestic as well as overseas credit and debit card operations. The Investment and Securities business segment provides services such as investment banking and brokerage. The Life Insurance business segment provides products such as life insurance and wealth management. The company was founded on September 29, 2008 and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. Read More TelefAnica Brasil S.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides mobile and fixed telecommunications services to residential and corporate customers in Brazil. Its fixed line services portfolio includes local, domestic long-distance, and international long-distance calls; and mobile portfolio comprises voice and broadband internet access through 3G, 4G, and 4.5G, as well as mobile value-added services and wireless roaming services. The company also offers data services, including broadband and mobile data services. In addition, it provides pay TV services through direct to home satellite technology, IPTV, and cable, as well as pay-per-view and video on demand services; network services, such as rental of facilities; other services comprising internet access, private network connectivity, computer equipment leasing, extended service, caller identification, voice mail, cellular blocker, and others; wholesale services, including interconnection services to users of other network providers; and digital services, such as entertainment, cloud, and security and financial services, as well as sells wireless devices and accessories. Further, the company offers multimedia communication services, which include audio, data, voice and other sounds, images, texts, and other information, as well as sells devices, such as smartphones, broadband USB modems, and other devices. Additionally, it provides telecommunications solutions and IT support to various industries, such as retail, manufacturing, services, financial institutions, government, etc. It markets and sells its solutions through own stores, dealers, retail and distribution channels, door-to-door sales, and telesales. The company was formerly known as TelecomunicaAAes de SAo Paulo S.A. - TELESP and changed its name to TelefAnica Brasil S.A. in October 2011. The company was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in SAo Paulo, Brazil. Read More UniCredit S.p.A. operates as a commercial bank. The company operates through Commercial Banking Italy, Commercial Banking Germany, Commercial Banking Austria, Corporate & Investment Banking, and Central Eastern Europe segments. It offers retail, corporate, and private banking services; investment services; leasing and factoring services; transactional, investment, and credit products and services; insurance solutions; and structured financing, hedging, and treasury solutions. The company also provides equity and debt capital market, corporate finance and advisory, syndication, and leverage buy-out services; and project and commodity, real estate, structured trade and export, and acquisition finance services, as well as wealth management services. In addition, it is involved in the structuring of products, such as FX, rates, equities, and credit products; and provision of cash management, e-banking, supply chain finance, global securities, and mobile banking services, as well as trade finance products. The company operates in Italy, Other European countries, America, Asia, and internationally. The company was formerly known as Unicredito Italiano S.p.A and changed its name to UniCredit S.p.A. UniCredit S.p.A. was founded in 1870 and is headquartered in Milan, Italy. Read More Ormat Technologies, Inc. operates as a holding company. The firm engages in the provision of geothermal and recovered energy power business. It operates through the following segments: Electricity, Product and Energy Storage. The Electricity segment focuses in the sale of electricity from the company's power plants pursuant to PPAs. The Product segment involves in the manufacture, including design and development, of turbines and power units for the supply of electrical energy and in the associated construction of power plants utilizing the power units manufactured by the company to supply energy from geothermal fields and other alternative energy sources. The Energy Storage segment consists of battery energy storage systems as a service and management of curtailable customer loads under contracts with U.S. retail energy providers and directly with large commercial and industrial customers. The company was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Reno, NV. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Hyatt Hotels: CHANCELLOR STREET CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION INC., GLENDALE HOTEL PROPERTIES L.L.C., HT-SEATTLE HOLDINGS LLC, 1379919 ALBERTA INC., 319168 ONTARIO LIMITED, 3385434 CANADA INC., ADMINISTRACION DE PERSONAL ANDARES S. DE R.L. DE C.V., AIC HOLDING CO., AIRPORT PLAZA ASSOCIATES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, AIRPORT PLAZA HOTEL LLC, AIRPORT PLAZA OFFICE BUILDING LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, AMERISUITES FRANCHISING L.L.C., ARANCIA LIMITED, ARUBA BEACHFRONT RESORTS LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, ARUBA BEACHFRONT RESORTS N.V., ASIA HOSPITALITY INC., ASIA HOSPITALITY INVESTORS B.V., ASIAN HOTEL N.V., ATRIUM HOTEL L.L.C., AUSTIN RESORT BEVERAGE LLC, AmeriSuites Hotel, BAKU HOTEL COMPANY - AZERI, BAKU HOTEL COMPANY - CAYMAN, BASTROP MARKETING L.L.C., BAY II INVESTOR INC., BELLEVUE ASSOCIATES, BH PLAZA LLC, BRE/AMERISUITES PROPERTIES L.L.C., BRE/AMERISUITES TXNC GP L.L.C., BRE/AMERISUITES TXNC PROPERTIES L.P., BURVAN HOTEL ASSOCIATES, CAL-HARBOR SO. PIER URBAN RENEWAL ASSOCIATES L.P., CELAYA RESORTS S. DE R.L. DE C.V., CHESAPEAKE COMMUNITIES LLC, CHESAPEAKE RESORT LLC, CIUDAD DEL CARMEN DIAMANTE RESORT S. DE R.L. DE C.V, COAST BEACH L.L.C., COMPAGNIE HOTELIERE DE LAGON BLEU, CPM SEATTLE HOTELS L.L.C., CRW INVESTMENT LLC, CTR INTEREST HOLDCO INC., DALLAS REGENCY LLC, DENVER DOWNTOWN HOTEL PARTNERS LLC, DESARROLLADORA HOTELERA ACUEDUCTO S. DE R.L. DE C.V., DH BEVERAGE LLC, DIAMANTE RESORT LA PAZ S. DE R.L. DE C.V., DISTRICT HOTEL PARTNERS LLC, EXHALE ENTERPRISES GIFT SERVICES COMPANY, EXHALE ENTERPRISES II L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES III INC., EXHALE ENTERPRISES IV L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES V L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES VIII INC., EXHALE ENTERPRISES X INC., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XII L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XIV L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XIX L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XV L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XV TCI LTD., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XVI L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XVII L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XVIII L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XX L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXI INC., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXIV L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXV L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXVI L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXVII L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXVIII L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXXI L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXXII L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXXIII INC., FAN PIER L.L.C., FAR EAST HOTELS INC., G.E.H. PROPERTIES LIMITED, GAINEY DRIVE ASSOCIATES, GALAXY AEROSPACE COMPANY LLC, GHE HOLDINGS LIMITED, GRAND HYATT BERLIN GMBH, GRAND HYATT DFW BEVERAGE LLC, GRAND HYATT SAN ANTONIO L.L.C., GRAND HYATT SF L.L.C., GRAND RIVERWALK BEVERAGE LLC, GRAND TORONTO CORP., GRAND TORONTO VENTURE L.P., GREENWICH HOTEL LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, H.E. ATLANTA CENTENNIAL PARK HOLDINGS L.L.C., H.E. AUSTIN L.L.C., H.E. BERMUDA L.L.C., H.E. CAP CANA L.L.C., H.E. DRISKILL LLC, H.E. GRAND CYPRESS L.L.C., H.E. IRVINE L.L.C., H.E. KANSAS CITY L.L.C., H.E. LENOX L.L.C., H.E. NASHVILLE L.L.C., H.E. NEWPORT L.L.C., H.E. ORLANDO L.L.C., H.E. PHILADELPHIA HC HOLDINGS L.L.C., H.E. PHILADELPHIA HC HOTEL L.L.C., H.E. PHILADELPHIA HC PARKING L.L.C., H.E. PHILADELPHIA HC RETAIL L.L.C., H.E. PHILADELPHIA SANSOM L.L.C., H.E. PORTLAND HC L.L.C., H.E. PORTLAND L.L.C., H.E. PROPERTIES HOLDING L.L.C., H.E. PROPERTIES L.L.C., H.E. SAN ANTONIO I L.L.C., H.E. SAN ANTONIO L.L.C., H.E. TUCSON HOLDINGS L.L.C., H.E. TUCSON JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., H.E. TUCSON JV L.L.C., H.E. TUCSON OWNER L.L.C., HAPP INVESTOR LTD., HARBORSIDE HOTEL LLC, HARBORSIDE LAND LLC, HC PORTLAND JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., HC ROYAL PALMS L.L.C., HCV CINCINNATI HOTEL L.L.C., HE ORLANDO HOTEL LLC, HGP (TRAVEL) LIMITED, HH NASHVILLE HOLDINGS L.L.C., HH NASHVILLE JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., HH PORTLAND L.L.C., HHMA BURLINGTON BEVERAGE L.L.C., HI HOLDINGS (SWITZERLAND) GMBH, HI HOLDINGS BAJA B.V., HI HOLDINGS BRAZIL S.A.R.L., HI HOLDINGS CELAYA B.V., HI HOLDINGS CIUDAD DEL CARMEN B.V., HI HOLDINGS CYPRUS LIMITED, HI HOLDINGS CYPRUS-INDIA LIMITED, HI HOLDINGS GUADALAJARA B.V., HI HOLDINGS HP CABO B.V., HI HOLDINGS HP TIJUANA HOTEL B.V., HI HOLDINGS KYOTO CO., HI HOLDINGS LA PAZ B.V., HI HOLDINGS LATIN AMERICA B.V., HI HOLDINGS NETHERLANDS B.V., HI HOLDINGS PLAYA B.V., HI HOLDINGS RIO S.A.R.L., HI HOLDINGS RIVIERA MAYA B.V., HI HOLDINGS VIENNA S.A.R.L., HI HOLDINGS ZURICH S.A.R.L., HI HOTEL ADVISORY SERVICES GMBH, HI HOTEL INVESTORS CYPRUS LIMITED, HIHCL AMSTERDAM B.V., HIHCL HP AMSTERDAM AIRPORT B.V., HIHCL HR AMSTERDAM B.V., HILP HOTEL SERVICE PROVIDER LLC, HOTEL AM BELVEDERE HOLDING GMBH, HOTEL AM BELVEDERE HOLDING GMBH & CO KG, HOTEL INVESTMENTS HOLDING CO LLC, HOTEL INVESTMENTS L.L.C., HOTEL INVESTORS I INC., HOTEL INVESTORS II INC., HOTEL PROJECT SYSTEMS PTE LTD, HOTEL SERVICES CIUDAD DEL CARMEN S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HOTELS CS CELAYA S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HP ATLANTA CENTENNIAL PARK JV LLC, HP AUSTIN L.L.C., HP BEVERAGE DALLAS DFW AIRPORT LLC, HP BEVERAGE SUGAR LAND LLC, HP BOSTON HOLDINGS L.L.C., HP GLENDALE JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., HP GLENDALE L.L.C., HP INDIA HOLDINGS LIMITED, HP LAS VEGAS BEVERAGE L.L.C., HP M STREET L.L.C., HP ROUTE 46 TEXAS LLC, HP SAN FRANCISCO L.L.C., HP SAN JUAN L.L.C., HP TEN TEXAS LLC, HPHH ATLANTA L.L.C., HPHH DENVER L.L.C., HPHH SAN JOSE JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., HPHH SAN JOSE L.L.C., HQ CHESAPEAKE LLC, HR LOST PINES RESORT LLC, HR MC HOTEL COMPANY S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HR MC SERVICES II S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HR MC SERVICES S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HRHC LLC, HT- WAILEA LLC, HT-AVENDRA GROUP HOLDINGS L.L.C., HT-AVENDRA L.L.C., HT-CHESAPEAKE COMMUNITIES INC., HT-CHESAPEAKE RESORT INC., HT-HOTEL EQUITIES INC., HT-HUNTINGTON BEACH INC., HT-JERSEY PIER INC., HT-JERSEY PIER L.P., HT-JERSEY PIER LLC, HT-LONG BEACH L.L.C., HT-MIAMI BEACH L.L.C., HT-PARK 57 INC., HT-SEATTLE LLC, HT-SIERRA L.L.C., HT-VANCOUVER INC., HTLB L.L.C., HTS - NS L.L.C., HTS - NY L.L.C., HTS-ASPEN L.L.C., HTS-BC INC., HTS-INVESTMENT L L.C., HTSF L.L.C., HTW BEVERAGE LLC, HY LONG BEACH HOTEL LLC, HYATT (BARBADOS) CORPORATION, HYATT (JAPAN) CO. LTD., HYATT (THAILAND) LIMITED, HYATT ARUBA N.V., HYATT ASIA PACIFIC HOLDINGS LIMITED, HYATT AUSTRALIA HOTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LIMITED, HYATT AUSTRIA GMBH, HYATT BEACH FRONT N.V., HYATT BORNEO MANAGEMENT SERVICES LIMITED, HYATT BRITANNIA CORPORATION LTD., HYATT CC OFFICE CORP., HYATT CHAIN SERVICES LIMITED, HYATT CRYSTAL CITY LLC., HYATT CURACAO N.V., HYATT DISASTER RELIEF FUND, HYATT DO BRASIL PARTICIPACOES LTDA, HYATT EQUITIES L.L.C., HYATT FOREIGN EMPLOYMENT SERVICES INC., HYATT FRANCHISING CANADA CORP., HYATT FRANCHISING L.L.C., HYATT FRANCHISING LATIN AMERICA L.L.C., HYATT FULFILLMENT OF MARYLAND INC., HYATT GLOBAL SERVICES INC., HYATT GTLD L.L.C., HYATT HOC INC., HYATT HOLDINGS (UK) LIMITED, HYATT HOSPITALITY SERVICES L.L.C., HYATT HOTEL MANAGEMENT LIMITED, HYATT HOTELS CONSULTANCY SERVICES ASIA PACIFIC LIMITED, HYATT HOTELS CORPORATION OF KANSAS, HYATT HOTELS CORPORATION OF MARYLAND, HYATT HOTELS FOUNDATION, HYATT HOTELS MANAGEMENT CORPORATION, HYATT HOTELS OF CANADA INC., HYATT HOTELS OF FLORIDA INC., HYATT HOTELS OF PUERTO RICO INC., HYATT HOUSE CANADA INC., HYATT HOUSE FRANCHISING L.L.C., HYATT HOUSE HOTEL HOLDING COMPANY L.L.C., HYATT INDIA CONSULTANCY PRIVATE LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL (ASIA) LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL (EUROPE AFRICA MIDDLE EAST) LLC, HYATT INTERNATIONAL - JAPAN LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL - SOUTHWEST ASIA LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL -ASIA PACIFIC LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL -SEA (PTE) LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION, HYATT INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS CO., HYATT INTERNATIONAL HOTEL MANAGEMENT (BEIJING) CO. LTD., HYATT INTERNATIONAL MILAN L.L.C., HYATT INTERNATIONAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (BEIJING) CO. LTD., HYATT INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL SERVICES INC., HYATT JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., HYATT LACSA SERVICES INC., HYATT LOUISIANA L.L.C., HYATT MAINZ GMBH, HYATT MARKETING SERVICES INC., HYATT MARKETING SERVICES NIGERIA COMPANY LIMITED, HYATT MINNEAPOLIS LLC, HYATT MINORITY INVESTMENTS INC., HYATT MSS L.L.C., HYATT NORTH AMERICA MANAGEMENT SERVICES INC., HYATT OF AUSTRALIA LIMITED, HYATT OF BAJA S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HYATT OF CHINA LIMITED, HYATT OF FRANCE S.A.R.L., HYATT OF GUAM LIMITED, HYATT OF ITALY S.R.L., HYATT OF LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN L.L.C., HYATT OF LATIN AMERICA S.A. DE C.V., HYATT OF MACAU LIMITED, HYATT OF MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., HYATT OF PHILIPPINES LIMITED, HYATT PARTNERSHIP INTERESTS L.L.C., HYATT PLACE ANNE ARUNDEL BEVERAGE INC., HYATT PLACE CANADA CORPORATION, HYATT PLACE FRANCHISING L.L.C., HYATT PLACE OF MARYLAND INC., HYATT REGENCY COLOGNE GMBH, HYATT REGENCY CORPORATION PTY. LIMITED, HYATT SERVICES AUSTRALIA PTY LIMITED, HYATT SERVICES CANADA INC., HYATT SERVICES CARIBBEAN L.L.C., HYATT SERVICES GMBH, HYATT SERVICES INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED, HYATT SHARED SERVICE CENTER L.L.C., HYATT TRINIDAD LIMITED, HYCANADA INC., HYCARD INC., HYSTAR L.L.C., Hyatt Corporation, INFORMATION SERVICES LIMITED, INTERNATIONAL RESERVATIONS LIMITED, JOINT VENTURE ITALKYR CLOSED JOINT STOCK COMPANY, JUNIPER HOTELS PRIVATE LIMITED, KSA MANAGEMENT INC., KYOTO HOLDING CO., LHR-PARTNERS LTD., LORING PARK ASSOCIATES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, LOST PINES BEVERAGE LLC, MACAE PARTNERS S.A.R.L., MAHIMA HOLDINGS PRIVATE LIMITED, MARION RESERVATION CENTER L.L.C., MEXICO CITY HOTEL INVESTMENTS B.V., MILAN HOTEL INVESTMENTS B.V., MIRAVAL ARIZONA GUARANTOR LLC, MIRAVAL GROUP LLC, MIRAVAL RESORT ARIZONA HOLDINGS LLC, MIRAVAL RESORT ARIZONA LLC, MIRAVAL RESORT ARIZONA OPERATING CO. INC., MIRAVAL RESORT TUCSON LLC, MONROE MR HOLDINGS I LLC, MONROE MR HOLDINGS II LLC, MONROE MR HOLDINGS III LLC, MONROE MR HOLDINGS LLC, MONROE MR HOLDINGS TRUST, MRG ATX BEVERAGE HOLDINGS LLC, MRG ATX HOLDINGS II LLC, MRG ATX HOLDINGS LLC, MRG ATX INVESTMENT LLC, MRG ATX MANAGEMENT I LLC, MRG ATX MANAGEMENT II LLC, MRG ATX OPERATIONS LLC, MRG CRW HOLDINGS LLC, MRG CRW MANAGEMENT I LLC, MRG CRW MANAGEMENT II LLC, MRG CRW OPERATIONS LLC, MUNICH OPCO GMBH, Miraval Resort, OASIS LUXURY RENTALS INCORPORATED, PARIS HOTEL COMPANY B.V., PARK HYATT HAMBURG GMBH, PARK HYATT HOTEL GMBH, PARK HYATT WATER TOWER ASSOCIATES L.L.C., PH NEW YORK L.L.C., PHMC RESIDENCIAS S. DE R.L. DE C.V., POLK SMITH REGENCY LLC, PT HYATT INDONESIA, PVD INVESTMENT COMPANY S.A.R.L., Peabody Hotels & Resort, RCG PROPERTIES LLC, REGENCY BEVERAGE COMPANY LLC, REGENCY RIVERWALK BEVERAGE LLC, RESERVATIONS CENTER L.L.C., RIO JV PARTNERS PARTICIPACOES LTDA., RIO PRETO PARTNERS HOTEIS LTDA., RIO PRETO PARTNERS S.A.R.L., ROSEMONT PROJECT MANAGEMENT L.L.C., ROUTE 46 MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATES CORP., RUNWAY HOLDING L.L.C., RUNWAY L.L.C., SAO PAULO INVESTMENT COMPANY INC., SAO PAULO INVESTORS LIMITED, SASIH, SDI EQUITIES INVESTOR L.L.C., SDI INC., SDI SECURITIES 11 LLC, SDI SECURITIES 6 LLC, SELECT HOTELS GROUP L.L.C., SELECT JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., SEOUL MIRAMAR CORPORATION, SERVICIOS DE HOTELERIA SAN JOSE S. DE R.L. DE C.V., SERVICIOS HOTELEROS LA PAZ S. DE R.L. DE C.V., SETTLEMENT INVESTORS INC., SHG PUERTO RICO INC., SIERRA HEALTHSTYLES LLC, SJC DESARROLLOS S. DE R.L. DE C.V., SKS CORP. N.V., SMC HOTELS B.V., SOROCABA PARTNERS HOTEIS LTDA, SOROCABA PARTNERS S.A.R.L., STANHOPE L.L.C., STARHILL LORING PARK L.L.C., SUGAR LAND/HP LLC, THE GREAT EASTERN HOTEL COMPANY LIMITED, THE GREAT EASTERN HOTEL HOLDING COMPANY LIMITED, TIJUANA PARTNERS S. DE R.L. DE C.V., TR MANAGEMENT INVESTMENT LLC, TUCSON VILLAS HOLDINGS LLC, TUCSON VILLAS LLC, TWO SEAS HOLDINGS LIMITED, Two Roads Hospitality, WAILEA HOTEL & BEACH RESORT L.L.C., WAILEA HOTEL HOLDINGS L.L.C., WAILEA MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION L.L.C., WAILEA RESORT VILLAS HOLDINGS L.L.C., WAILEA RESORT VILLAS L.L.C., WEST END RESIDENCES L.L.C., XENIA ASSURANCE COMPANY INC., XENIA ASSURANCE COMPANY OF ILLINOIS, ZURICH ESCHERWIESE HOTEL GMBH, and ZURICH HOTEL INVESTMENTS B.V.. Bank of America Corp. is a bank and financial holding company, which engages in the provision of banking and nonbank financial services. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Banking, Global Wealth and Investment Management, Global Banking, Global Markets, and All Other. The Consumer Banking segment offers credit, banking, and investment products and services to consumers and small businesses. The Global Wealth and Investment Management provides client experience through a network of financial advisors focused on to meet their needs through a full set of investment management, brokerage, banking, and retirement products. The Global Banking segment deals with lending-related products and services, integrated working capital management and treasury solutions to clients, and underwriting and advisory services. The Global Markets segment includes sales and trading services, as well as research, to institutional clients across fixed-income, credit, currency, commodity, and equity businesses. The All Other segment consists of asset and liability management activities, equity investments, non-core mortgage loans and servicing activities, the net impact of periodic revisions Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Crane: "CPI-Kiev" LLC, ARDAC Inc., AeroHose, Alfa Laval - The Industrial Flow Group, Armature d.o.o., Automatic Products (UK) Ltd., Automatic Products international - Assets, B. Rhodes & Son Ltd., Barksdale GmbH, Barksdale Inc., CA-MC Acquisition UK Ltd., CR Holdings C.V., CashCode Co - Assets, Coin Controls International Ltd., Coin Holdings Ltd., Coin Industries Ltd., Coin Overseas Holdings Ltd., Coin Pension Trustees Ltd., Conlux Matsumoto Co. Ltd., Consolidated Lumber Co, Corva Corp, Crane (Asia Pacific) Pte. Ltd., Crane Aerospace Inc., Crane Australia Pty. Ltd., Crane Canada Co., Crane Composites Inc., Crane Composites Ltd., Crane Controls Inc., Crane Currency, Crane Electronics Corporation, Crane Electronics Inc., Crane Environmental Inc., Crane European Financing LLC, Crane Fengqiu Zhejiang Pump Co. Ltd., Crane Fluid & Gas Systems (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Crane Global Holdings S.L., Crane GmbH, Crane Holdings (Germany) GmbH, Crane International Capital S.a.r.l., Crane International Holdings Inc., Crane International Trading (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Crane Ireland Ventures Designated Activity Company, Crane Ltd., Crane Merchandising Systems Inc., Crane Merchandising Systems Ltd., Crane Merger Co. LLC, Crane Middle East & Africa FZE, Crane Ningjin Valve Co. Ltd., Crane North America Funding LLC, Crane Nuclear Inc., Crane Overseas LLC, Crane Payment Innovations GmbH, Crane Payment Innovations Inc., Crane Payment Innovations International Ltd., Crane Payment Innovations Ltd., Crane Payment Innovations Pty Ltd., Crane Payment Innovations Sarl, Crane Payment Innovations Srl, Crane Pension Trustee Company (UK) Limited, Crane Process Flow Technologies (India) Pvt. Ltd., Crane Process Flow Technologies GmbH, Crane Process Flow Technologies Ltd., Crane Process Flow Technologies S.P.R.L., Crane Process Flow Technologies S.r.l., Crane Pumps and Systems Inc., Crane Resistoflex GmbH, Crane SC Holdings Ltd., Crane Stockham Valve. Ltd., Crane Yongxiang (Ningbo) Valve Company Ltd., Croning Livarna d.o.o., Cummis-Allison Corp, Delta Fluid Products, Delta Fluid Products Ltd., Dixie Narco, Donald Brown (Brownall) Ltd., ELDEC Corporation, ELDEC Electronics Ltd., ELDEC France S.A.R.L, Edlon - PSI division, Environmental Products USA, Etex Group - Business, Flow Technology Inc., Friedrich Krombach GmbH Armaturenwerke, General Technology Corp., Hattersley Newman Hender - Assets, Hattersly Newman Hender Ltd., Hydro-Aire Inc., Inta-Lok Ltd., Interpoint S.A.R.L., Interpoint U.K. Limited, Kessel (Thailand) Pte. Ltd., Kontron America - Mobile Rugged Business, Laminated Profiles - Assets, Lasco Composites, Liberty Technologies, MCC Holdings Inc., MEI Australia LLC, MEI Auto Payment System (Shanghai) Ltd., MEI Conlux, MEI Conlux Holdings (Japan) Inc., MEI Conlux Holdings (US) Inc., MEI Payment Systems Hong Kong Ltd., MEI Queretaro S. de R.L. de CV, MEI de Mexico LLC, MOVATS - Nuclear Valve Division, Merrimac Industries, Merrimac Industries Inc., Mondais Holdings B.V., Money Controls, Money Controls Argentina SA, Money Controls Holdings Ltd., Multi-Mix Microtechnology SRL, NABIC Valve Safety Products Ltd., Nippon Conlux Co. Ltd., Noble Composites, Noble Composites Inc., Number One Supply, Owens Corning - FRP Panel Business, P.L. Porter, P.T. Crane Indonesia, Pegler Hattersly Ltd., Resistoflex, Sequentia Holdings, Signal Technology, Sperryn & Company Ltd., Stentorfield, Streamware, Telequip, Terminal Manufacturing Co., The Dow Chemical - Plastic-Lined Piping Products division, The Krombach Group, Triangle Valve Co. Ltd., Unidynamics / Phoenix Inc., Ventech Controls, Viking Johnson Ltd., W.T. Armatur GmbH, Wade Couplings Ltd., Wask Ltd., Westlock Controls, Xomox, Xomox Chihuahua S.A. de C.V., Xomox Corporation, Xomox Corporation de Venezuela C.A., Xomox France S.A.S., Xomox Hungary Kft., Xomox International GmbH & Co. OHG, Xomox Japan Ltd., Xomox Korea Ltd., Xomox Sanmar Ltd., and Yilme Holdings B.V.. The following companies are subsidiares of Quaker Chemical: AC Products Inc., Applied Surface Concepts Holdings Ltd. , Binol AB, Binol Biosafe OY, Commonwealth Oil Corporation, DA Stuart India Private Limited, DA Stuart Shanghai Co, ECLI Products LLC, EFHCO LLC, Engineered Custom Lubricants, Engineered Custom Lubricants GmbH, Epmar Corporation, G.W. Smith and Sons, GH Holdings Inc., GHG Lubricants Holdings Limited, GHGL London Ltd., GHI Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Global Houghton Ltd., Houghton (Shanghai) Specialty Industrial Fluids Co. Ltd, Houghton Argentina S.A., Houghton Asia Pacific Co. Limited, Houghton Australia Pty. Ltd., Houghton Benelux BV, Houghton CZ s.r.o, Houghton Canada Inc., Houghton Denmark AS, Houghton Deutschland GmbH, Houghton Europe BV, Houghton Holdings Limited, Houghton Iberica S.A. , Houghton International, Houghton International Inc., Houghton Italia S.p.A., Houghton Japan Co. Ltd., Houghton Kimya Sanayi AS, Houghton Magyarorszag Kft, Houghton Mexico S.A. de C.V., Houghton Oil (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd., Houghton Polska Sp. Zo.o., Houghton Romania S.R.L., Houghton S.A.S., Houghton Sverige AB, Houghton Taiwan Co. Limited, Houghton Technical Corp., Houghton Ukraine ToV, Houghton do Brazil Ltda., Houghton plc, Internationale Metall Impragnier GmbH, Lubricor Inc, Lubricor Inc., Lubricor Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Lubricor USA Inc., MIH Acquisition Company LLC, MX Systems International Ltd, Maldaner GmbH, NP Coil Dexter Industries, New Houghton Brazil Inc., Norman Hay Engineering Ltd., QH Chemical Limited, QH Europe BV, QH Holdings Limited, QH International Limited, Quaker (Thailand) Ltd., Quaker Australia Holdings Pty. Limited, Quaker Chemical (Australasia) Pty. Limited, Quaker Chemical (China) Co. Ltd., Quaker Chemical B.V., Quaker Chemical CV, Quaker Chemical Canada Holdings Inc., Quaker Chemical Canada Limited, Quaker Chemical Europe B.V., Quaker Chemical Holdings South Africa (Pty) Limited, Quaker Chemical India Private Limited, Quaker Chemical Industria e Comercio Ltda., Quaker Chemical Investment Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Quaker Chemical Limited, Quaker Chemical MEA FZE, Quaker Chemical Operacoes Ltda., Quaker Chemical Participacoes Ltda., Quaker Chemical S.A., Quaker Chemical S.r.l., Quaker Chemical Services EURL, Quaker Chemical South Africa (Pty.) Limited, Quaker China Holdings B.V., Quaker Denmark ApS, Quaker Houghton (Finco) Ltd., Quaker Houghton Holdings Limited, Quaker Houghton Holdings Ltd., Quaker Houghton International LP, Quaker Houghton Ltd., Quaker International Holdings LLC, Quaker Italia S.r.l., Quaker Russia B.V., Quaker Sales Europe BV, Quaker Shanghai Trading Company Limited, Quaker Spain Holding SLU, Quaker Specialty Chemicals (UK) Limited, SB Decking Inc., SIFCO Applied Surface Concepts (UK) Ltd, SIFCO Applied Surface Concepts LLC, SIFCO Concepts Sarl, SIFCO Concepts Sweden, Sterr & Eder Industrieservice GmbH, Summit Lubricants Inc, Summit Lubricants Inc., Surface Technology (Coventry) Ltd, Surface Technology (Dalian) Co Ltd, Surface Technology (East Kilbride) Ltd., Surface Technology (Leeds) Ltd, Surface Technology Aberdeen Ltd, Surface Technology Australia, Surface Technology Holdings Ltd., TecniQuimia Mexicana, Tecniquimia Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Thai Houghton 1993 Co. Ltd., Ultraseal Asia Limited, Ultraseal Chongqing Limited, Ultraseal Germany GmbH, Ultraseal International Group Ltd, Ultraseal Machinery Dongguan Ltd, Ultraseal Shanghai Limited, Ultraseal USA Inc., Unitek Servicios De Asesoria Especializad S.A de C.V., Verkol S.A.U., Verkol SAU, Wallover Enterprises Inc., Wallover Oil Company Incorporated, Wallover Oil Hamilton Inc., and Wuhan Quaker Technology Co. Ltd. Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. provides technical, professional, and construction services. The company's Aerospace, Technology, Environmental and Nuclear segment offers scientific, engineering, construction, nuclear, environmental, and technical support services to the aerospace, defense, technical, and automotive industries. Its Buildings, Infrastructure and Advanced Facilities segment develops/rehabilitates plans for highways, bridges, transit, tunnels, airports, railroads, intermodal facilities, and maritime or port projects; develops or rehabilitates critical water resource systems, water/wastewater conveyance systems, and flood defense projects; and provides engineering design, construction management, design build, and operations and maintenance. This segment also designs and constructs buildings; offers consulting, engineering, procurement, construction management, and delivery services for life sciences clients; and provides services relating to modular construction and other consulting and strategic planning services, as well as offers services in containment, barrier technology, locally controlled environments, building systems automation, off-the-site design, and fabrication of facility modules. The company's Energy, Chemicals and Resources segment offers services relating to onshore and offshore oil and gas production facilities, processing facilities, gathering systems, and transmission pipelines and terminals; feasibility/economic studies, technology evaluation, conceptual engineering, front end loading, detailed engineering, procurement, construction, maintenance, and commissioning services; and engineering, procurement, and construction solutions. This segment also provides services, such as manufacturing complex, expansions, modifications, and management of plant relocations; construction management and field construction services; and services to operate and maintain facilities. The company was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of ITT: AIMCO Industries LLC, AcousticFab LLC, Allen Osborne Associates, Axtone, Axtone Bahntechink GmbH, Axtone GmbH, Axtone HSW sp. z.o.o., Axtone S.A., Axtone s.r.o., Blakers Pump Engineers, Bolton Insurance Co., Bolton International RE S.C.A., Bolton International S.C.A., Bombas Goulds S.A., Bombas Goulds de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bombas Goulds de Venezuela C.A., Bornemann Inc. (Canada), Bornemann S.A. DE C.V., C&I QSF LLC, C&K Components, Canberra Pumps do Brasil, Carbon Industries Inc., Computer & Equipment Leasing Corporation, DITTHA GmbH, Distribuidora Arbos C.A., Dolphin Technology, EP Industries Europe B.V., Edo, Electrofilm Manufacturing Company LLC, Ellis K. Phelps & Co., Energy Machine Services, Enidine Kabashiki Gaisha (Enidine Company Limited (Japan)), EnviroTech LLC, Equipos Hidraulicos S.A., European Pump Services B.V., F.B. Leopold, FLOJET Corp., Flowtronex PSI, Godwin Pumps, Goulds Mexico Holdings LLC, Goulds Pumps (IPG) LLC, Goulds Pumps (N.Y.) Inc., Goulds Pumps (NY) Inc. (PERU BRANCH), Goulds Pumps (NY) Inc. (TAIWAN BRANCH), Goulds Pumps (PA) LLC, Goulds Pumps Administration Inc., Goulds Pumps Canada Inc., Goulds Pumps Co. Ltd., Goulds Pumps LLC, Goulds QSF LLC, Hartzell Aerospace, Hydro Air Industries, ITT (China) Investment Co. Ltd., ITT (China) Investment Co. Ltd. (SHANGHAI BRANCH), ITT (Shanghai) Fluid Technology Co. Ltd., ITT Aerospace Controls LLC, ITT Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, ITT Automotive Enterprises Inc., ITT Blakers PTY Ltd, ITT Blakers Unit Trust, ITT Bombas Goulds do Brasil Ltda., ITT Bornemann GmbH, ITT Bornemann-Goulds Pumps S.R.L., ITT C'treat LLC, ITT Cannon (Hong Kong) LTD, ITT Cannon (Hong Kong) LTD (TAIWAN BRANCH), ITT Cannon Electronics (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd, ITT Cannon GmbH, ITT Cannon GmbH (DENMARK BRANCH), ITT Cannon Korea Ltd., ITT Cannon LLC, ITT Cannon LLC (DUBAI BRANCH), ITT Cannon Ltd., ITT Cannon Mexico Inc., ITT Cannon Veam Italia s.r.l., ITT Cannon de Mexico S.A. de C.V., ITT Community Development Corporation, ITT Corporation India PVT. Ltd., ITT Egypt LLC, ITT Engineered Valves LLC, ITT Enidine GmbH, ITT Enidine Inc., ITT Finance Hong Kong Ltd., ITT Fluid Technology Asia Pte Ltd., ITT Fluid Technology International (Thailand) LTD., ITT Fluid Technology International Inc., ITT Fluid Technology International Inc. (DUBAI BRANCH), ITT Fluid Technology International Inc. (RUSSIAN BRANCH), ITT Fluid Technology S.A., ITT Germany Holdings GmbH, ITT Goulds Pumps Colombia S.A.S., ITT Goulds Pumps Inc., ITT Goulds Pumps Inc. (GREECE BRANCH), ITT High Precision Manufactured Products (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., ITT Holding LLC, ITT Holdings Czech Republic s.r.o., ITT Industries France S.A.S., ITT Industries Global S.a.r.l., ITT Industries Holdings Inc., ITT Industries Holdings Limited, ITT Industries Limited, ITT Industries Luxembourg S.a r.l., ITT Industries Rus LLC, ITT Industries Spain SL, ITT International Holdings Inc., ITT International Luxembourg S.a r.l., ITT Investments Luxembourg S.a.r.l., ITT Iran S.K., ITT Italia s.r.l., ITT Italy Holding Srl, ITT Japan B.V., ITT Korea Holding B.V., ITT LLC, ITT Luxembourg Europe Sarl, ITT Luxembourg Worldwide Sarl, ITT Manufacturing Enterprises LLC, ITT Motion Technologies America LLC, ITT Motion Technologies GmbH, ITT Motion Technologies LLC, ITT Motion Technologies Luxembourg S.a.r.l., ITT Motion Technologies Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V, ITT Netherlands B.V., ITT Netherlands Europe B.V., ITT Netherlands Worldwide B.V., ITT Rheinhuette Pumps LLC, ITT Rheinhutte Benelux B.V., ITT Rheinhutte Pumpen Austria GmbH, ITT Rheinhutte Pumpen Co. Ltd., ITT Rheinhutte Pumpen GmbH, ITT Rheinhutte Pumpen do Brasil Industria de Bombas Ltda., ITT Saudi Co., ITT Technical Services S.K., ITT Torque Systems Inc., ITT Water & Wastewater U.S.A. Inc., ITT Water Technology (TX) LLC, InTelCo Management LLC, InTelCo Properties LLC, Industrial Tube Company LLC, Industries QSF LLC, International Motion Control, International Motion Control Inc., International Standard Electric Corporation, International Telephone & Telegraph Corp., K and M Electronics, Kentucky Carbon Corporation, Koni BV, Koni France SAS, Koni NA LLC, LLMZ Kamax, Leland Properties Inc., Matrix Composites, Matrix Composites Inc., Nova Analytics, O.I. Corporation, PT ITT Fluid Technology Indonesia, Pci Membranes, Precision Stainless, Qingdao Kamax Buffer Equipment Company Ltd., Qume, Rheinhutte Pumps Nordic Filial, Rheinhutte Pumpen Group, Rule Industries, Rule Industries LLC, SRA International's Airport Operations Solutions (AOS) group, STX Pte. Ltd, Shanghai Goulds Pumps Co. Ltd., Shanghai Hengtong Purified Water Development, Shanghai Hengtong Water Treatment Engineering, Sinton Engineering Group, Standard Electric, Standard Tecknik Services, Stanford Telecommunications Inc, Svedala Robot BV, TDS Corporate Services LLC, Uniservice Wellpoint, Venus Holdco LLC, WAM China Ltd., WC Wolverine Holdings Inc., Water Pollution Control Corp., Wolverine Advanced Materials (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Wolverine Advanced Materials Asia Limited, Wolverine Advanced Materials GmbH, Wolverine Advanced Materials LLC, Wolverine Advanced Materials LLC (INDIA BRANCH), Wolverine Automotive Holdings Inc., Wolverine Brasil Representacao Ltda., Wolverine Japan KK, Wolverine Press (Changshu) Co. Ltd., Wolverine/Tekno Laminates and Composites Ltda., and YSI Inc. Bausch Health Companies Inc. develops, manufactures, and markets a range of pharmaceutical, medical device, and over-the-counter (OTC) products primarily in the therapeutic areas of eye health, gastroenterology, and dermatology. The company operates through four segments: Bausch + Lomb/International, Salix, Ortho Dermatologics, and Diversified Products. The Bausch + Lomb/International segment offers products with a focus on the vision care, surgical, and consumer and ophthalmology Rx products in the United States; and Solta products, branded and generic pharmaceutical products, OTC products, and medical device products, and Bausch + Lomb products in Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. The Salix segment provides gastroenterology products in the United States. The Ortho Dermatologics segment offers dermatological products in the United States; and Solta medical aesthetic devices internationally. The Diversified Products segment provides pharmaceutical products in the areas of neurology and other therapeutic classes, as well as generic and dentistry products in the United States. The company was formerly known as Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. and changed its name to Bausch Health Companies Inc. in July 2018. Bausch Health Companies Inc. is headquartered in Laval, Canada. Read More Mettler-Toledo International, Inc. is a supplier of precision instruments and services. The firm manufactures weighing instruments for use in laboratory, industrial, packaging, logistics, and food retailing applications. It also manufactures several related analytical instruments and provides automated chemistry solutions used in drug and chemical compound discovery and development; and also, metal detection and other end-of-line inspection systems used in production and packaging and provides solutions for use in certain process analytics applications. Its operations are conducted by the following segments: U. S. Operations, Swiss Operations, Western European Operations, Chinese Operations and Other. The U.S. Operations segment represents certain of the company's marketing and producing organizations located in the United States. The Swiss Operations segment includes marketing and producing organizations located in Switzerland, as well as extensive R&D operations that are responsible for the development, production, and marketing of precision instruments, including weighing, analytical, and measurement technologies for use in a variety of industrial and laboratory applications. Th Read More Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. engages in the operation of senior living communities. The firm manages independent living, assisted living and dementia-care communities and continuing care retirement centers. It operates through the following segments: Independent Living Assisted Living & Memory Care, CCRCs, Health Care Services and Management Services. The Independent Living segment is primarily designed for middle to upper income seniors who desire an upscale residential environment providing the highest quality of service. The Assisted Living & Memory Care segment offer housing and 24-hour assistance with ADLs to mid-acuity frail and elderly residents. The CCRCs segment offers a variety of living arrangements and services to accommodate all levels of physical ability and health. The Healthcare Services segment provides home health, hospice and outpatient therapy services, as well as education and wellness programs, to residents of many communities and to seniors living outside communities. The Management Services segment composes of communities operated by the company pursuant to management agreements. The company was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Brentwood, TN. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of MetLife: 1001 PROPERTIES LLC, 10700 WILSHIRE LLC, 1201 TAB MANAGER LLC, 150 NORTH RIVERSIDE PE MEMBER LLC, 1925 WJC OWNER LLC, 23RD STREET INVESTMENTS INC., 500 GRANT STREET ASSOCIATES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, 500 GRANT STREET GP LLC, 60 11TH STREET LLC, 6104 HOLLYWOOD LLC, AFP GENESIS ADMINISTRADORA DE FONDOS Y FIDECOMISOS S.A., AFP PROVIDA S.A., AGENVITA S.R.L., ALICO EUROPEAN HOLDINGS LIMITED, ALICO HELLAS SINGLE MEMBER LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY, ALICO OPERATIONS LLC, ALICO PROPERTIES INC., AMMETLIFE INSURANCE BERHAD, AMMETLIFE TAKAFUL BERHAD, American Life Insurance Company, BEST MARKET S.A., BIDV METLIFE LIFE INSURANCE LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY, BLOCK VISION HOLDINGS CORPORATION, BLOCK VISION OF TEXAS INC., BORDERLAND INVESTMENTS LIMITED, BOULEVARD RESIDENTIAL LLC, BUFORD LOGISTICS CENTER LLC, CC HOLDCO MANAGER LLC, CHESTNUT FLATS WIND LLC, CLOSED JOINT-STOCK COMPANY MASTER D, COMPANIA INVERSORA METLIFE S.A., CORPORATE REAL ESTATE HOLDINGS LLC, COVA LIFE MANAGEMENT COMPANY, DAVIS VISION INC., DAVISVISION IPA INC., DELAWARE AMERICAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, DES MOINES CREEK BUSINESS PARK PHASE II LLC, ECONOMY FIRE & CASUALTY COMPANY, ECONOMY PREFERRED INSURANCE COMPANY, ECONOMY PREMIER ASSURANCE COMPANY, EURO CL INVESTMENTS LLC, EXCELENCIA OPERATIVA Y TECNOLOGICA S.A de C.V., FEDERAL FLOOD CERTIFICATION LLC, FORTISSIMO CO. LTD, FUNDACION METLIFE MEXICO A.C., GLOBAL PROPERTIES INC., General American Life Insurance Company, Grand Bank N.A., HASKELL EAST VILLAGE LLC, HIGH STREET SEVENTH AND OSBORN APARTMENTS LLC, HOUSING FUND MANAGER LLC, INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL AND ADVISORY SERVICES LIMITED, INVERSIONES METLIFE HOLDCO DOS LIMITADA, INVERSIONES METLIFE HOLDCO TRES LIMITADA, JOINT-STOCK COMPANY METLIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, LHC HOLDINGS, LHCW HOLDINGS, LHCW HOTEL HOLDING, LHCW HOTEL HOLDING LLC, LHCW HOTEL OPERATING COMPANY, LONG ISLAND SOLAR FARM LLC, LUMENLAB MALAYSIA SDN. BHD., Logan Circle Partners, MARKETPLACE RESIDENCES LLC, MAXIS GBN S.A.S., MC PORTFOLIO JV MEMBER LLC, MCJV LLC, MCMIF HOLDCO I LLC, MCMIF HOLDCO II LLC, MCP - WELLINGTON LLC, MCP 100 CONGRESS MEMBER LLC, MCP 1500 MICHAEL LLC, MCP 1900 MCKINNEY LLC, MCP 2 AMES LLC, MCP 2 AMES ONE LLC, MCP 2 AMES OWNER LLC, MCP 2 AMES TWO LLC, MCP 220 YORK LLC, MCP 22745 & 22755 RELOCATION DRIVE LLC, MCP 249 INDUSTRIAL BUSINESS PARK MEMBER LLC, MCP 3040 POST OAK LLC, MCP 350 ROHLWING LLC, MCP 4600 SOUTH SYRACUSE LLC, MCP 550 WEST WASHINGTON LLC, MCP 60 11TH STREET MEMBER LLC, MCP 7 RIVERWAY LLC, MCP 9020 MURPHY ROAD LLC, MCP 93 RED RIVER MEMBER LLC, MCP ALLEY 24 EAST LLC, MCP ASHTON SOUTH END LLC, MCP BLOCK 23 MEMBER LLC, MCP BRADFORD LLC, MCP BUFORD LOGISTICS CENTER 2 MEMBER LLC, MCP BUFORD LOGISTICS CENTER BLDG B LLC, MCP BURNSIDE MEMBER LLC, MCP CENTER AVENUE INDUSTRIAL MEMBER LLC, MCP CLAWITER INNOVATION MEMBER LLC, MCP COMMON DESK TRS LLC, MCP DENVER PAVILIONS MEMBER LLC, MCP DILLON LLC, MCP DILLON RESIDENTIAL LLC, MCP ENV CHICAGO LLC, MCP FIFE ENTERPRISE CENTER LLC, MCP FRISCO OFFICE LLC, MCP GRAPEVINE LLC, MCP HIGHLAND PARK LENDER LLC, MCP HUB I LLC, MCP HUB I PROPERTY LLC, MCP LODGE AT LAKECREST LLC, MCP MA PROPERTY REIT LLC, MCP MAGNOLIA PARK MEMBER LLC, MCP MAIN STREET VILLAGE LLC, MCP MOUNTAIN TECHNOLOGY CENTER MEMBER TRS LLC, MCP NORTHYARDS HOLDCO LLC, MCP NORTHYARDS MASTER LESSEE LLC, MCP NORTHYARDS OWNER LLC, MCP ONE WESTSIDE LLC, MCP ONYX LLC, MCP PARAGON POINT LLC, MCP PLAZA AT LEGACY LLC, MCP PROPERTY MANAGEMENT LLC, MCP SEATTLE GATEWAY INDUSTRIAL I LLC, MCP SEATTLE GATEWAY INDUSTRIAL II LLC, MCP SEVENTH AND OSBORNE MF MEMBER LLC, MCP SEVENTH AND OSBORNE RETAIL MEMBER LLC, MCP SHAKOPEE LLC, MCP SLEEPY HOLLOW MEMBER LLC, MCP SOCAL INDUSTRIAL ANAHEIM LLC, MCP SOCAL INDUSTRIAL BERNARDO LLC, MCP SOCAL INDUSTRIAL CANYON LLC, MCP SOCAL INDUSTRIAL CONCOURSE LLC, MCP SOCAL INDUSTRIAL FULLERTON LLC, MCP SOCAL INDUSTRIAL KELLWO00OD LLC, MCP SOCAL INDUSTRIAL LAX LLC, MCP SOCAL INDUSTRIAL LOKER LLC, MCP SOCAL INDUSTRIAL REDONDO LLC, MCP SOCAL INDUSTRIAL SPRINGDALE LLC, MCP STATELINE LLC, MCP THE PALMS AT DORAL LLC, MCP TRIMBLE CAMPUS LLC, MCP UNION ROW LLC, MCP VALLEY FORGE LLC, MCP VALLEY FORGE ONE LLC, MCP VALLEY FORGE OWNER LLC, MCP VALLEY FORGE TWO LLC, MCP VANCE JACKSON LLC, MCP VINEYARD AVENUE MEMBER LLC, MCP VOA HOLDINGS LLC, MCP VOA I & III LLC, MCP VOA II LLC, MCP WATERFORD ATRIUM LLC, MCP WEST BROAD MARKETPLACE LLC, MCP ENGLISH VILLAGE LLC, MCPF ACQUISITION LLC, MCPF FOXBOROUGH LLC, MCPF NEEDHAM LLC, MCPP OWNERS LLC, MCRE BLOCK 40 LP, MEC HEALTH CARE INC., MET 1065 HOTEL LLC, MET CANADA SOLAR ULC, METLIFE 1007 STEWART LLC, METLIFE 1201 TAB MEMBER LLC, METLIFE 425 MKT MANAGER LLC, METLIFE 425 MKT MEMBER LLC, METLIFE 555 12TH MEMBER LLC, METLIFE 8280 MEMBER LLC, METLIFE ACOMA OWNER LLC, METLIFE ADMINISTRADORA DE FUNDOS MULTIPATROCINADOS LTDA., METLIFE ALTERNATIVES GP LLC, METLIFE ASHTON AUSTIN OWNER LLC, METLIFE ASIA HOLDING COMPANY PTE. LTD., METLIFE ASIA LIMITED, METLIFE ASIA SERVICES SDN. BHD, METLIFE ASSET MANAGEMENT CORP., METLIFE ASSIGNMENT COMPANY INC., METLIFE AUTO & HOME INSURANCE AGENCY INC., METLIFE BL FEEDER, METLIFE BL FEEDER LP, METLIFE BORO STATION MEMBER LLC, METLIFE CABO HILTON MEMBER LLC, METLIFE CAMINO RAMON MEMBER LLC, METLIFE CAPITAL CREDIT L.P., METLIFE CAPITAL LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, METLIFE CAPITAL TRUST IV, METLIFE CB W/A LLC, METLIFE CC MEMBER LLC, METLIFE CHILE ADMINISTRADORA DE MUTUOS HIPOTECARIOS S.A., METLIFE CHILE INVERSIONES LIMITADA, METLIFE CHILE SEGUROS DE VIDA S.A., METLIFE CHILE SEGUROS GENERALES S.A., METLIFE CHINO MEMBER LLC, METLIFE COLOMBIA SEGUROS de VIDA S.A., METLIFE COMMERCIAL MORTGAGE INCOME FUND GP LLC, METLIFE COMMERCIAL MORTGAGE INCOME FUND LP, METLIFE COMMERCIAL MORTGAGE ORIGINATOR LLC, METLIFE COMMERCIAL MORTGAGE REIT LLC, METLIFE CONSQUARE MEMBER LLC, METLIFE CONSUMER SERVICES INC., METLIFE CORE PROPERTY FUND GP LLC, METLIFE CORE PROPERTY FUND LP, METLIFE CORE PROPERTY HOLDINGS LLC, METLIFE CORE PROPERTY REIT LLC, METLIFE CORE PROPERTY TRS. LLC, METLIFE CREDIT CORP., METLIFE DIGITAL VENTURES INC., METLIFE EMEKLILIK VE HAYAT A.S., METLIFE EMERGING MARKET DEBT BLEND FUND, METLIFE EU HOLDING COMPANY LIMITED, METLIFE EUROPE INSURANCE d.a.c., METLIFE EUROPE SERVICES LIMITED, METLIFE EUROPE d.a.c., METLIFE EUROPEAN HOLDINGS LLC., METLIFE FINANCIAL SERVICES CO. LTD, METLIFE FM HOTEL MEMBER LLC, METLIFE FUNDING INC., METLIFE GENERAL INSURANCE LIMITED, METLIFE GLOBAL BENEFITS LTD., METLIFE GLOBAL HOLDING COMPANY I GMBH, METLIFE GLOBAL HOLDING COMPANY II GMBH, METLIFE GLOBAL HOLDINGS CORPORATION S.A. De C.V., METLIFE GLOBAL INC., METLIFE GLOBAL OPERATIONS SUPPORT CENTER PRIVATE LIMITED, METLIFE GROUP INC., METLIFE HCMJV 1 GP LLC, METLIFE HCMJV 1 LP LLC, METLIFE HEALTH PLANS INC., METLIFE HOLDINGS INC., METLIFE HOME LOANS LLC, METLIFE INNOVATION CENTRE LIMITED, METLIFE INNOVATION CENTRE PTE. LTD., METLIFE INSURANCE AND INVESTMENT TRUST, METLIFE INSURANCE BROKERAGE INC., METLIFE INSURANCE K.K., METLIFE INSURANCE LIMITED, METLIFE INTERNATIONAL HF PARTNERS LP, METLIFE INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS LLC, METLIFE INTERNATIONAL LIMITED LLC, METLIFE INTERNATIONAL PE FUND I LP, METLIFE INTERNATIONAL PE FUND II LP, METLIFE INTERNATIONAL PE FUND III LP, METLIFE INTERNATIONAL PE FUND IV LP, METLIFE INTERNATIONAL PE FUND V LP, METLIFE INTERNATIONAL PE FUND VI LP, METLIFE INTERNATIONAL PE FUND VII LP, METLIFE INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT HOLDINGS, METLIFE INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT HOLDINGS LLC, METLIFE INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LIMITED, METLIFE INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LLC, METLIFE INVESTMENTS ASIA LIMITED, METLIFE INVESTMENTS LIMITED, METLIFE INVESTMENTS PTY LIMITED, METLIFE INVESTMENTS SECURITIES LLC, METLIFE INVESTORS DISTRIBUTION COMPANY, METLIFE INVESTORS GROUP LLC, METLIFE IRELAND TREASURY D.A.C., METLIFE JAPAN US EQUITY FUND GP LLC, METLIFE JAPAN US EQUITY FUND LP, METLIFE JAPAN US EQUITY OWNERS, METLIFE JAPAN US EQUITY OWNERS LLC, METLIFE LATIN AMERICA ASESORIAS E INVERSIONES LIMITADA, METLIFE LEGAL PLANS INC., METLIFE LEGAL PLANS OF FLORIDA INC., METLIFE LHH MEMBER LLC, METLIFE LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, METLIFE LIFE INSURANCE S.A., METLIFE LOAN ASSET MANAGEMENT LLC, METLIFE MAS S.A. DE C.V., METLIFE MEMBER SOLAIRE LLC, METLIFE MEXICO HOLDINGS S. DE R.L. DE C.V., METLIFE MEXICO S.A., METLIFE MEXICO SERVICIOS S.A. DE C.V., METLIFE MIDDLE MARKET PRIVATE DEBT FUND LP, METLIFE MIDDLE MARKET PRIVATE DEBT GP LLC, METLIFE MIDDLE MARKET PRIVATE DEBT PARALLEL FUND LP, METLIFE MIDDLE MARKET PRIVATE DEBT PARALLEL GP LLC, METLIFE MULTI-FAMILY PARTNERS III LLC, METLIFE MUTUAL FUND COMPANY, METLIFE OBS MEMBER LLC, METLIFE OFC MEMBER LLC, METLIFE ONTARIO STREET MEMBR LLC, METLIFE PARK TOWER MEMBER LLC, METLIFE PENSION TRUSTEES LIMITED, METLIFE PENSIONES MEXICO S.A., METLIFE PET INSURANCE SOLUTIONS LLC, METLIFE PLANOS ODONTOLOGICOS LTDA., METLIFE POWSZECHNE TOWARTZYSTWO EMERYTALNE S.A., METLIFE PRIVATE EQUITY HOLDINGS LLC, METLIFE PROPERTIES VENTURES LLC, METLIFE RC SF MEMBER LLC, METLIFE REAL ESTATE LENDING LLC, METLIFE REINSURANCE COMPANY OF BERMUDA LTD., METLIFE REINSURANCE COMPANY OF CHARLESTON, METLIFE REINSURANCE COMPANY OF VERMONT, METLIFE RETIREMENT SERVICES LLC, METLIFE SAENGMYOUNG INSURANCE COMPANY LTD., METLIFE SECURITIZATION DEPOSITOR LLC, METLIFE SEGUROS S.A., METLIFE SENIOR DIRECT LENDING FINCO LLC, METLIFE SENIOR DIRECT LENDING FUND LP, METLIFE SENIOR DIRECT LENDING GP LLC, METLIFE SENIOR DIRECT LENDING HOLDINGS LP, METLIFE SERVICES AND SOLUTIONS LLC, METLIFE SERVICES CYPRUS LIMITED, METLIFE SERVICES EAST PRIVATE LIMITED, METLIFE SERVICES EEIG, METLIFE SERVICES EOOD, METLIFE SERVICES SOCIEDAD LIMITADA, METLIFE SERVICES SP Z.O.O, METLIFE SERVICIOS S.A., METLIFE SLOVAKIA S.R.O. V LIKVIDACII, METLIFE SOLUTIONS PTE. LTD., METLIFE SOLUTIONS S.A.S., METLIFE SP HOLDINGS LLC, METLIFE SYNDICATED BANK LOAN FUND SCSP, METLIFE SYNDICATED BANK LOAN LUX GP S.A.R.L., METLIFE THR INVESTOR LLC, METLIFE TOWARZYSTWO FUNDUSZY INWESTYCYJNYCH S.A., METLIFE TOWARZYSTWO UBEZPIECZEN NA ZYCIE I REASEKURACJI S.A., METLIFE TOWER RESOURCES GROUP INC., METLIFE TREAT TOWERS MEMBER LLC, METLIFE WORLDWIDE HOLDINGS LLC, METROPOLITAN CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY, METROPOLITAN DIRECT PROPERTY AND CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY, METROPOLITAN GENERAL INSURANCE COMPANY, METROPOLITAN GLOBAL MANAGEMENT LLC., METROPOLITAN GROUP PROPERTY AND CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY, METROPOLITAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, METROPOLITAN LIFE SEGUROS E PREVIDENCIA PRIVADA S.A., METROPOLITAN LIFE SOCIETATE de ADMINISTRARE a UNUI FOND de PENSII ADMINISTRAT PRIVAT S.A., METROPOLITAN LLOYDS INC., METROPOLITAN LLOYDS INSURANCE COMPANY OF TEXAS, METROPOLITAN PROPERTY AND CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY, METROPOLITAN TOWER LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, METROPOLITAN TOWER REALTY COMPANY INC., MEX DF PROPERTIES LLC, MFA FINANCING VEHICLE CTR1 LLC, MIDTOWN HEIGHTS LLC, MIM CLAL GENERAL PARTNER LLC, MIM EMD GP LLC, MIM I LLC, MIM METWEST INTERNATIONAL MANAGER LLC, MIM ML-AI VENTURE 5 MANAGER LLC, MIM PROPERTY MANAGEMENT LLC, MIM PROPERTY MANAGEMENT OF GEORGIA 1 LLC, MIM THIRD ARMY INDUSTRIAL MANAGER LLC, MISSOURI REINSURANCE INC., ML - URS PORT CHESTER SC MANAGER LLC, ML 300 THIRD MEMBER LLC, ML ARMATURE MEMBER LLC, ML BELLEVUE MANAGER LLC, ML BELLEVUE MEMBER LLC, ML BRIDGESIDE APARTMENTS LLC, ML CAPACITACION COMERCIAL S.A. DE C.V., ML CERRITOS TC MEMBER LLC, ML CLAL MEMBER LLC, ML DOLPHIN GP LLC, ML DOLPHIN MEZZ LLC, ML MATSON MILLS MEMBER LLC, ML MILILANI MEMBER LLC, ML ONE BEDMINSTER LLC, ML PORT CHESTER SC MEMBER LLC, ML SENTINEL SQUARE MEMBER LLC, ML SLOANS LAKE MEMEBR LLC, ML SOUTHLANDS MEMBER LLC, ML SOUTHMORE LLC, ML SWAN GP LLC, ML SWAN MEZZ LLC, ML TERRACES LLC, ML THIRD ARMY INDUSTRIAL MEMBER LLC, ML VENTURE 1 MANAGER S. DE R. L. DE C.V., ML VENTURE 1 SERVICER LLC, ML-AI METLIFE MEMBER 1 LLC, ML-AI METLIFE MEMBER 2 LLC, ML-AI METLIFE MEMBER 3 LLC, ML-AI METLIFE MEMBER 4 LLC, ML-AI METLIFE MEMBER 5 LLC, MLIA MANAGER I LLC, MLIA PARK TOWER MANAGER LLC, MLIA SBAF COLONY MANAGER LLC, MLIA SBAF MANAGER LLC, MLIC ASSET HOLDINGS II LLC, MLIC ASSET HOLDINGS LLC, MLIC CB HOLDINGS LLC, MLJ US FEEDER LLC, MM GLOBAL OPERATIONS SUPPORT CENTER S.A. DE C.V., MMP CEDAR STREET OWNER LLC, MMP CEDAR STREET REIT LLC, MMP HOLDINGS III LLC, MMP OLIVIAN OWNER LLC, MMP OLIVIAN REIT LLC, MMP OWNERS III LLC, MMP OWNERS LLC, MMP SOUTH PARK OWNER LLC, MMP SOUTH PARK REIT LLC, MREF 425 MKT LLC, MSV IRVINE PROPERTY LLC, MTC FUND I LLC, MTC FUND II LLC, MTC FUND III LLC, MTL LEASING LLC, MTU HOTEL OWNER LLC, NATILOPORTEM HOLDINGS LLC, NEWBURY INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED, OCONEE GOLF COMPANY LLC, OCONEE HOTEL COMPANY LLC, OCONEE LAND COMPANY LLC, OCONEE LAND DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LLC, OCONEE MARINA COMPANY LLC, OMI MLIC INVESTMENTS LIMITED, PACIFIC LOGISTICS INDUSTRIAL SOUTH LLC, PARK TOWER JV MEMBER LLC, PARK TOWER REIT INC., PJSC METLIFE, PLAZA DRIVE PROPERTIES LLC, PNB METLIFE INDIA INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED, PREFCO FOURTEEN LLC, PREFCO XIV HOLDINGS LLC, PROVIDA INTERNACIONAL S.A., SAFEGUARD HEALTH ENTERPRISES INC., SAFEGUARD HEALTH PLANS INC., SAFEHEALTH LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, SEVENTH AND OSBORN MF VENTURE LLC, SINO-US UNITED METLIFE INSURANCE CO. LTD., SOUTHCREEK INDUSTRIAL HOLDINGS LLC, ST. JAMES FLEET INVESTMENTS TWO LIMITED, SUPERIOR PROCUREMENT INC, SUPERIOR VISION BENEFIT MANAGEMENT INC., SUPERIOR VISION HOLDINGS INC., SUPERIOR VISION INSURANCE INC., SUPERIOR VISION INSURANCE PLAN OF WISCONSIN INC., SUPERIOR VISION OF NEW JERSEY INC., SUPERIOR VISION SERVICES INC., Safeguard Health Enterprises, Security First Group Inc., THE BUILDING AT 575 FIFTH AVENUE MEZZANINE LLC, THE BUILDING AT 575 FIFTH RETAIL HOLDING LLC, THE BUILDING AT 575 FIFTH RETAIL OWNER, THE DIRECT CALL CENTRE PTY LIMITED, TRANSMOUNTAIN LAND & LIVESTOCK COMPANY, UVC INDEPENDENT PRACTICE ASSOCIATION INC., VERSANT HEALTH CONSOLIDATIONS CORP., VERSANT HEALTH HOLDCO INC., VERSANT HEALTH LAB LLC, VIRIDIAN MIRACLE MILE LLC, VISION 21 MANAGED EYE CARE OF TAMPA BAY, VISION 21 PHYSICIAN PRACTICE MANAGEMENT COMPANY, VISION TWENTY-ONE MANAGED EYE CARE IPA INC., Versant Health, WDV ACQUISITION CORP., WFP 1000 HOLDING COMPANY GP LLC, WHITE OAK ROYALTY COMPANY, and WHITE TRACT II LLC. Genesee & Wyoming Inc. owns and leases freight railroads. It operates through three segments: North American Operations, Australian Operations, and U.K./European Operations. The company transports various commodities, including agricultural products, autos and auto parts, chemicals and plastics, coal and coke, food and kindred products, lumber and forest products, metallic ores, metals, minerals and stone, petroleum products, pulp and paper, waste, and other commodities. It owns or leases 122 freight railroads, including 105 short line railroads and 2 regional freight railroads located in the United States, 8 short line railroads located in Canada, 3 railroads located in Australia, 1 railroad located in the United Kingdom, 1 railroad in Poland and Germany, and 2 railroads in the Netherlands with a total of approximately 16,200 miles of track. The company also operates 6,200 additional miles of track that is owned or leased by others. In addition, it operates deep sea maritime containers and provides bulk haulage, including coal, aggregates, cement, and infrastructure services. Further, the company provides rail service at approximately 40 ports; rail-ferry service in North America, Australia, and Europe; and contract coal loading and railcar switching for industrial customers. Genesee & Wyoming Inc. was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Darien, Connecticut. Read More Wall Street analysts have given iShares China Large-Cap 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 China Large-Cap 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 Eli Lilly and: 1096401 B.C. Unlimited Liability Company, ARMO BioSciences Inc, ARMO Bioscience, Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Alnara Pharmaceuticals, Alnara Pharmaceuticals Inc., Andean Technical Operations Center, Applied Molecular Evolution Inc., AurKa Pharma, Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, Avid Radiopharmaceuticals Inc., ChemGen, CoLucid Pharmaceuticals, CoLucid Pharmaceuticals Inc., Dermira, Devices for Vascular Intervention(DVI), Disarm Therapeutics, Dista Ilac Ticaret Ltd. Sti., Dista S.A., Dista-Produtos Quimicos & Farmaceuticos LDA, ELCO Dominicana SRL, ELCO Insurance Company Limited, ELCO Management Inc., ELCO for Trade and Marketing S.A.E., ELGO Insurance Company Limited, Elanco Animal Health Ireland Limited, Elanco Switzerland Holding Sarl, Eli Lilly (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Eli Lilly (Philippines) Incorporated, Eli Lilly (S.A.) (Proprietary) Limited, Eli Lilly (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Eli Lilly (Suisse) S.A., Eli Lilly Asia Inc., Eli Lilly Asia Pacific SSC Sdn Bhd, Eli Lilly Australia Pty. Limited, Eli Lilly B-H d.o.o., Eli Lilly Benelux S.A., Eli Lilly Bienes y Servicios S de RL de CV, Eli Lilly CR s.r.o., Eli Lilly Canada Inc., Eli Lilly Cork Limited, Eli Lilly Danmark A/S, Eli Lilly Egypt for Trading, Eli Lilly European Clinical Trial Services SA, Eli Lilly Export S.A., Eli Lilly Finance S.A., Eli Lilly Ges.m.b.H., Eli Lilly Group Limited, Eli Lilly Holdings Ltd., Eli Lilly Hrvatska d.o.o., Eli Lilly Interamerica Inc., Eli Lilly Interamerica Inc. y Compania Limitada, Eli Lilly International Corporation, Eli Lilly Ireland Holdings Limited, Eli Lilly Israel Ltd., Eli Lilly Italia S.p.A., Eli Lilly Japan K.K., Eli Lilly Kinsale Limited, Eli Lilly Nederland B.V., Eli Lilly Nigeria Ltd., Eli Lilly Norge A.S., Eli Lilly Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd., Eli Lilly Polska Sp.z.o.o. (Ltd.), Eli Lilly Regional Operations GmbH, Eli Lilly Romania SRL, Eli Lilly S.A., Eli Lilly Saudi Arabia Limited, Eli Lilly Services Inc, Eli Lilly Services India Private Limited, Eli Lilly Slovakia s.r.o., Eli Lilly Sweden AB, Eli Lilly Vostok S.A. Geneva, Eli Lilly and Company, Eli Lilly and Company (India) Pvt. Ltd., Eli Lilly and Company (Ireland) Limited, Eli Lilly and Company (N.Z.) Limited, Eli Lilly and Company (Taiwan) Inc., Eli Lilly and Company Limited, Eli Lilly de Centro America S.A., Eli Lilly do Brasil Limitada, Eli Lilly farmacevtska druzba d.o.o., Eli Lilly y Compania de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Eli Lilly y Compania de Venezuela S.A., Glycostasis Inc, Greenfield-Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Heart Rhythm Technologies Inc, Hybritech, Hypnion, ICOS Corporation, ImClone GmbH, ImClone LLC, ImClone Systems Holdings Inc., ImClone Systems LLC, Imclone Systems, Irisfarma S.A., Ivy Animal Health, Kinsale Financial Services Unlimited Company, Lilly (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd, Lilly Asia Ventures Fund I L.P., Lilly Asia Ventures Fund II L.P., Lilly Asian Ventures Fund III L.P., Lilly Cayman Holdings, Lilly China Research and Development Co. Ltd., Lilly Deutschland GmbH, Lilly France S.A.S., Lilly Global Nederland Holdings B.V., Lilly Global Services Inc., Lilly Holding GmbH, Lilly Holdings B.V., Lilly Hungaria KFT, Lilly Japan Financing G.K., Lilly Korea Ltd., Lilly Nederland Finance B.V., Lilly Nederland Finance B.V. - GCC, Lilly Nederland Holding B.V., Lilly Pharma Ltd., Lilly Portugal - Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Lilly S.A., Lilly Suzhou Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Lilly Trading Co. LTD, Lilly USA LLC, Lilly Ventures Fund I LLC, Lilly del Caribe Inc., Lilly ilac ticaret limited sirketi, Lohmann Animal Health, Loxo Oncology, Lylly Centre for Clinical Pharmacology PTE. LTD., Novartis Animal Health, OY Eli Lilly Finland AB, Origin Medsystems, PT. Eli Lilly Indonesia, Pacific Biotech, Pharmaserve-Lilly S.A.C.I., Physio-Control, SGX Pharmaceuticals, SGX Pharmaceuticals Inc, Spaly Bioquimica S.A., UAB Eli Lilly Lietuva, Valquifarma S.A., and Vital Pharma Productos Farmaceuticos. The following companies are subsidiares of EnerSys: ABSL Power Solutions Inc., ABSL Power Solutions Ltd., Acumuladores Industriales EnerSys SA, Alpha Alternative Energy Inc., Alpha Broadband Services Inc., Alpha Innovations Industria e Comercio de Produtos Eletronicos Ltda., Alpha Innovations Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Alpha Mexico Network Power S.A. de C.V., Alpha Tech Energy Solutions India Private Limited, Alpha Technical Services Ltd., Alpha Technologies Ltd., Alpha Technologies Pty. Ltd., Alpha Technologies Services Inc., Alphatec Technologies (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Argus Research Ltd., Batterias Hawker de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Battery Power International Pte Ltd., Coppervale Enterprises Inc., DCPM Engineering Sdn Bhd, EH Batterien AG, EH Europe GmbH, EH Global Holdings GmbH, EH Swiss Holdings GmbH, ENAS Industrial Batteries Morocco Sarl, EnerSys (Chaozhou) Huada Batteries Company Limited, EnerSys (China) Huada Batteries Company Limited, EnerSys (Chongqing) Huada Batteries Company Limited, EnerSys (Jiangsu) Huada Batteries Company Limited (94.7%) *, EnerSys (Luxembourg) Finance Sarl, EnerSys (Yangzhou) Huada Batteries Co. Ltd., EnerSys A/S, EnerSys AB, EnerSys AD, EnerSys AE, EnerSys AS, EnerSys Advanced Systems Inc., EnerSys Argentina S.A., EnerSys Asia Limited, EnerSys Australia Pty Ltd., EnerSys BV, EnerSys BVBA, EnerSys Battery Private Limited, EnerSys Brasil Ltda., EnerSys Bulgaria EOOD, EnerSys Canada Inc., EnerSys Capital Inc., EnerSys Cayman Euro L.P., EnerSys Cayman Holdings L.P., EnerSys Cayman Inc., EnerSys Delaware Inc., EnerSys Delaware LLC I, EnerSys Delaware LLC II, EnerSys Delaware LLC III, EnerSys Delaware LLC IV, EnerSys Delaware LLC V, EnerSys Energy Products Inc., EnerSys Europe Oy, EnerSys European Holding Co., EnerSys GmbH, EnerSys Holdings (Luxembourg) Sarl, EnerSys Holdings UK Ltd., EnerSys Hungaria Kft., EnerSys India Batteries Private Ltd., EnerSys JSC, EnerSys LLC, EnerSys Ltd., EnerSys Malaysia Sdn Bhd, EnerSys Mexico Holdings LLC, EnerSys Mexico Management LLC, EnerSys Participacoes Ltda., EnerSys Reserve Power Pte. Ltd., EnerSys S.r.l., EnerSys SARL, EnerSys SNC, EnerSys South East Asia Pte. Ltd., EnerSys de Mexico II S de R.L. de CV, EnerSys de Mexico S de R.L. de CV, EnerSys s.r.o., EnerSys sp. z o.o., EnerSystem Chile Ltda., Enersys Aku Sanaya Dis Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Esfinco LLC, Hawker GmbH, Hawker Power Systems Inc., Hawker Powersource Inc., Hawker Systems GmbH & Co. KG., ICS Industries Pty Ltd, ICS Industries Pty Ltd., ICS Sheet Metal Pty Ltd., Industrial Battery Holding Ltda., International Communication Shelters Australasia Pty Ltd., Lancord Pty Ltd., Lenmic Pty Ltd., MIB Energy Sdn Bhd, N Holding AB, National Infrastructure Pty Ltd., National Infrastructure Services Pty Ltd., NaviSemi Energy Pte Ltd., NaviSemi Inc., New Pacifico Realty Inc., NorthStar Battery Company LLC, NorthStar Battery Company LLC, NorthStar Battery DMCC, Outback Power Technologies Inc., Powercom (NSW) Pty Ltd., Powersonic S de R.L. de CV, Purcell Systems, Purcell Systems Inc., Purcell Systems International AB, Quallion LLC, Riverfront Holding S. de R.L. de C.V., Shenzhen Huada Power Supply Mechanical & Electrical Co. Ltd. , SiteTel Shanghai Co Ltd., SiteTel Sweden AB, Telecomponents & Supply (Hong Kong) Ltd., The Enser Corporation, UTS Holdings Sdn Bhd, UTS Technology (JB) Sdn Bhd, UTS Technology (PG) Sdn Bhd, YCI Inc., and Yecoltd S. de R.L. de CV. Fielmann Aktiengesellschaft engages in the investment in and operation of optical and hearing aid businesses. The company manufactures and sells visual aids and other optical products, including glasses, frames, lenses, sunglasses, contact lenses and accessories, and various merchandise, as well as hearing aids and accessories. As of December 31, 2020, it operated 870 stores, including 605 in Germany, 43 in Switzerland, 38 Austria, 3 in Luxembourg, 33 in Italy, 25 in Poland, 80 in Spain, 28 in Slovenia, and 15 in the rest of Europe. The company also 79 smaller locations in Eastern Europe. Fielmann Aktiengesellschaft also offers its products through online stores. The company was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. Fielmann Aktiengesellschaft is a subsidiary of Korva SE. Read More Wall Street analysts have given iShares Global Infrastructure 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 Global Infrastructure ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. First Data Corporation provides commerce enabled technology and solutions for merchants, financial institutions, and card issuers in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through three segments: Global Business Solutions, Global Financial Solutions, and Network & Security Solutions. The Global Business Solutions segment provides solutions to merchants, such as retail point of sale merchant acquiring, e-commerce, and mobile payment services, as well as cloud based point of sale operating system that include a marketplace for proprietary and third party applications. The Global Finance Solutions segment provides technology solutions for bank and non-bank issuers, such as credit, retail private label, commercial card, and loan processing, as well as licensed financial software systems; suite of account services that include card personalization and embossing, customer communications, and professional services; and call center solutions and back office processing. The Network & Security Solutions segment offers EFT network, stored value network, and security and fraud solutions, as well as other value added solutions to its clients in GBS and GFS segments, smaller financial institutions, and other enterprise clients. First Data Corporation was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Read More 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. National Grid plc transmits and distributes electricity and natural gas. It operates through UK Electricity Transmission, UK Gas Transmission, US Regulated, and National Grid Ventures (NGV) and Other segments. The UK Electricity Transmission segment owns and operates electricity transmission networks, which comprise approximately 7,236 kilometers of overhead lines. The UK Gas Transmission segment owns and operates gas transmission systems, as well as third-party independent systems and liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage facilities. The US Regulated segments owns and operates transmission facilities across upstate New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont; and electricity distribution networks in upstate New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Its assets comprise 14,439 kilometers of overhead lines; an electricity distribution network of approximately 117,498 circuit miles; and a network of approximately 57,551 kilometers of gas pipeline. The NGV and Other segment engages in the energy metering business; transporting renewable energy long distances through its electricity interconnectors; and storing LNG, as well as commercial property and insurance activities in the United Kingdom. The company was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Read More KBR, Inc. engages in the provision of differentiated professional services and technologies across the asset and program life-cycle within the government services and hydrocarbons industries. It operates through the following segments: Government Solutions, Technology Solutions, Energy Solutions, Non-strategic Business, and Other. The Government Solutions segment provides full life-cycle support solutions to defense, space, aviation, and other programs and missions for military and other government agencies. The Technology Solutions segment combines KBR's proprietary technologies, equipment, and catalyst supply and associated knowledge-based services into a global business for refining, petrochemicals, inorganic, and specialty chemicals as well as gasification, syngas, ammonia, nitric acid, and fertilizers. The Energy Solutions segment provides full life-cycle support solutions across the upstream, midstream and downstream hydrocarbons markets. The Non-strategic Business segment represents the operations or activities which the company intends to exit upon completion of existing contracts. The Other segment includes corporate expenses and general and administrative expenses not all Read More L3 Technologies, Inc. provides aircraft sustainment, simulation and training, night vision and image intensification equipment, and security and detection systems used on military, homeland security, and commercial platforms in the United States and internationally. It operates in three segments: Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Systems; Communications and Networked Systems (C&NS); and Electronic Systems. The company offers engineering, modernization and sustainment, space avionics and imaging payload, counter unmanned aircraft systems (CUAS) mission, cyber and electronic warfare, special mission command and control, modeling and simulation, and life cycle support services for ISR, airborne sensor, warrior sensor, space and sensor, aircraft, and intelligence and mission systems, as well as for military aviation services and advanced programs. It also provides network and communication systems, secure communications products, radio frequency components, satellite communication terminals and space, microwave and telemetry products, and secure data links in various business areas, such as broadband communication, naval power, space and power, and maritime sensor systems, as well as in advanced communications. In addition, the company offers components, products, subsystems, and systems, as well as related services to military and commercial customers in various business areas, including commercial aviation solutions, precision engagement systems, link training and simulation, and security and detection systems. It serves the United States (U.S.) Department of Defense and its prime contractors, the U.S. Government intelligence agencies, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, foreign governments, and commercial customers. The company was formerly known as L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to L3 Technologies, Inc. in December 2016. L3 Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in New York, New York. Read More Medtronic Plc is a medical technology company, which engages in the development, manufacture, distribution, and sale of device-based medical therapies and services. It operates through the following segments: Cardiac and Vascular Group; Minimally Invasive Technologies Group; Restorative Therapies Group; and Diabetes Group. The Cardiac and Vascular Group segment consists of products for the diagnosis, treatment, and management of cardiac rhythm disorders and cardiovascular disease. The Minimally Invasive Technologies Group segment focuses on respiratory system, gastrointestinal tract, renal system, lungs, pelvic region, kidneys, and obesity diseases. The Restorative Therapies Group segment comprises of neurostimulation therapies and drug delivery systems for the treatment of chronic pain, as well as areas of the spine and brain, along with pelvic health and conditions of the ear, nose, and throat. The Diabetes Group segment offers insulin pumps, coninuous glucose monitoring systems, and insulin pump consumables. The company was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Read More Nabors Industries Ltd. engages in the provision of platform work over and drilling rigs. It operates through the following segments: U.S. Drilling, Canada Drilling, International Drilling, Drilling Solutions, and Rig Technologies. The U.S. Drilling segment includes land drilling activities in the lower 48 states and Alaska, as well as offshore operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The Canada segment consists of land-based drilling rigs in Canada. The International segment focuses in maintaining a footprint in the oil and gas market, most notably in Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Argentina, Colombia, Kazakhstan, and Venezuela. The Drilling Solutions segment offers drilling technologies, such as patented steering systems and rig instrumentation software systems that enhance drilling performance and wellbore placement. The Rig Technologies segment comprises Canrig, which manufactures and sells top drives, catwalks, wrenches, drawworks, and drilling related equipment, such as robotic systems and downhole tools. The company was founded by Clair Nabors in 1952 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda. Read More North American Construction Group Ltd. provides mining and heavy construction services to the resource development and industrial construction sectors in Canada and the United States The company's Heavy Construction & Mining division offers constructability reviews, budgetary cost estimates, design-build construction, project management, contract mining, pre-stripping/pit pioneering, overburden removal and stockpile, muskeg removal and stockpile, site preparation, air strip construction, site dewatering/perimeter ditching, tailings and process pipelines, haulage and access road construction, tailings dam construction and densification, mechanically stabilized earth walls, dyke construction, and reclamation services. Its Equipment Maintenance Services division provides fuel and lube servicing, portable steaming, equipment inspections, parts and component supply, major overhauls and equipment refurbishment, onsite haul truck brake testing, onsite maintenance support, under carriage rebuild, machining, hose manufacturing, and technical support services, as well as welding, fabrication/repairs, weld certification, and inspection services. As of December 31, 2020, the company had a heavy equipment fleet of 626 units. The company was formerly known as North American Energy Partners Inc. and changed its name to North American Construction Group Ltd. in April 2018. The company was founded in 1953 and is headquartered in Acheson, Canada. Read More Hilltop Cybersecurity, a cryptocurrency security specialist, has entered into a one-year renewable contract with Twin-Soft Corporation to exclusively sell its CYBX products in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region including CyberEPM, Vauban and CryptoKeep. Headquartered in Virginia, US, Twin-Soft said its principles have worked in the Middle East for over 12 years and have several noteworthy clients, sovereign funds and international regulatory bodies. The deal entails a minimum $1 million commitment of CYBX products to Twin-Soft's Value Added Re-Sellers (VAR) and distributors but is uncapped and has tremendous potential. CEO Corby Marshall said Hilltop Cybersecurity was thrilled to execute its plan of indirect sales channels in specific, targeted markets and felt that the potential in the Mena region was outstanding given the current environment in cybersecurity and cryptocurrency security. "We are excited to work with an experienced seasoned partner like Twin-Soft that has the connections and the experience in this market to execute strongly and quickly," stated Marshall. Julie Holdren of US-based Twin-Soft Corp pointed out that the demand in international markets for next generation cyber and cryptocurrency software products developed in North America was growing rapidly. "We are excited to have Hilltop Cybersecurity Software in our international security portfolio. The technology leadership they have shown fills a gap that is not currently available in this market and we are excited to help those customers protect themselves and their enterprises," she added.-TradeArabia News Service The following companies are subsidiares of Xylem: Aanderaa Data Instruments AS, Beijing United Gas Meters Co. Ltd., Bellingham & Stanley Ltd., Bombas Flygt de Venezuela S.A., CMS Research Corporation, EmNet LLC, FARADYNE Motors LLC, Faradyne Motors (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Flow Control LLC, Flowtronex PSI LLC, Fluid Handling LLC, Godwin Holdings Ltd., Goulds Water Technology Philippines Inc, Grindex AB, Grindex Pumps LLC, HYPACK Inc, Heartland Pump Rental & Sales Inc., IMT b.v., Jabsco Marine Italia s.r.l., Jabsco S. de R.L. De C.V., Lowara UK Ltd, Lowara Vogel Polska SP ZOO, Lowara s.r.l., MJK Automation ApS, MultiTrode Inc., Multitrode Pty Ltd, Nova Analytics Europe LLC, O.I. Corporation, PCI Membrane Systems Inc., Pension Trustee Management Ltd, Pims Pumps, Portacel Inc., Pure Technologies, SELC Electronics Ltd, SELC Group Ltd., SELC Ireland Ltd, Safe Sea Services FZC, Sensus, Sensus (UK Holdings) Ltd., Sensus Australia Pty Ltd, Sensus Canada Inc., Sensus Chile SA, Sensus Espana SA, Sensus France Holdings SAS, Sensus France SAS, Sensus GmbH Hannover, Sensus GmbH Ludwigshafen, Sensus Italia SRL, Sensus Japan Kabushiki Kaisha, Sensus Manufacturing (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Sensus Maroc S.A.., Sensus Metering Systems (Fuzhou) Co. Ltd., Sensus Metering Systems (LuxCo 1) S.A R.L., Sensus Metering Systems (LuxCo 2) S.A R.L., Sensus Metering Systems (LuxCo 3) S.A R.L., Sensus Metering Systems (LuxCo 4) S.A R.L., Sensus Metering Systems (LuxCo 5) S.A R.L, Sensus Metering Systems IP Holdings Inc., Sensus Polska sp. zoo, Sensus Precision Die Casting (Yangzhou) Co. Ltd., Sensus SPA, Sensus Services Deutschland GmbH, Sensus Slovensko a.s., Sensus South Africa (Proprietary) Ltd., Sensus Spectrum LLC, Sensus UK Systems Limited, Sensus USA Inc., Sensus de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Sensus metrologicke sluzby s.r.o._Slovakia, Sensus Ceska republika spol. s r.o., Sentec Limited, Smith-Blair Inc., Texas Turbine LLC, Tideland Signal Corporation, Tideland Signal EMEA B.V., Tideland Signal LLC, Tideland Signal Limited, Tirinstal Investments Ltd, UGI Global Limited, Valor Water Analytics, Visenti Pte. Ltd, Water Asset Management Inc., Water Process Limited, Watercompany, Xylem (China) Company Limited, Xylem (Hong Kong) Limited, Xylem (Nanjing) Co. Ltd, Xylem Analytics (Beijing) Co. 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Ltd, Xylem Water Systems (California) Inc., Xylem Water Systems Hungary KFT, Xylem Water Systems International Inc., Xylem Water Systems Japan Corporation, Xylem Water Systems Philippines Holding Inc., Xylem Water Systems Texas Holdings LLC, Xylem Water Systems U.S.A. LLC, YSI (China) Ltd., YSI (Hong Kong) Ltd., YSI (UK) Ltd., YSI Incorporated, YSI Instrumentos E Servicos Ambientais Ltda., YSI International Inc., YSI Nanotech Limited, and ylem Analytics Germany Sales GmbH& Co. KG. Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. pays an annual dividend of $4.00 per share and currently has a dividend yield of 5.07%. RGR has a dividend yield higher than 75% of all dividend-paying stocks, making it a leading dividend payer. Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. has been increasing its dividend for 2 consecutive year(s), indicating that it does not yet have a strong track record of dividend growth. The dividend payout ratio of Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. is 78.59%. Payout ratios above 75% are not desirable because they may not be sustainable. Based on earnings estimates, Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. will have a dividend payout ratio of 73.94% next year. This indicates that Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. will be able to sustain or increase its dividend. View Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc.'s dividend history. Vermilion Energy Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of petroleum and natural gas in North America, Europe, and Australia. It owns 81% working interest in 642,300 net acres of developed land and 87% working interest in 376,700 net acres of undeveloped land, and 613 net producing natural gas wells and 3,034 net producing oil wells in Canada; and 96% working interest in 248,900 net acres of developed land and 91% working interest in 222,100 net acres of undeveloped land in the Aquitaine and Paris Basins, and 325 net producing oil wells and 3.0 net producing gas wells in France. The company also owns 49% working interest in 930,000 net acres of land and 51 net producing natural gas wells in the Netherlands; and 36,900 net developed acres and 965,900 net undeveloped acres of land, and 61 net producing oil wells and 8 net producing natural gas wells in Germany. In addition, it owns offshore Corrib natural gas field located to the northwest coast of Ireland; and 100% working interest in the Wandoo offshore oil field and related production assets that covers 59,600 acres located on Western Australia's northwest shelf. Further, the company holds 138,000 net acres of land in the Powder River basin, and 136.6 net producing oil wells in the United States; and 951,200 net acres of land in Hungary, 244,900 net acres of land in Slovakia, and 2.4 million net acres of land in Croatia. Vermilion Energy Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada. Read More Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) said it has recorded its highest ever daily Indian Rupee (INR) volume, trading 126,055 contracts on August 13. On the same day, the DGCXs overall volume touched 185,630 contracts worth $4.17 billion, its second highest daily notional value since inception. Amidst continued market volatility, the DGCX traded over 2.08 million contracts in August, a year-on-year (Y-O-Y) increase of 60 per cent. The Exchange has so far recorded 45 per cent year-to-date volume growth from 2017. On the performance, CEO Les Male said: "DGCX performed exceptionally well in August, registering a record daily INR volume and continuing to achieve outstanding growth over 2017. Last month was also marked by a significant milestone, as we took an important step forward to promote Islamic financial products by partnering with the Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC)." "We are confident that the relationship will provide us with a platform to launch further Islamic financial instruments as we work diligently towards positioning Dubai as the hub of Islamic markets activity," he noted. The DGCX had last month signed a deal with DIEDC, agreeing to share knowledge, promote Shariah compliant finance, and help foster Dubai as the global capital of Islamic economy. Under the MoU, DIEDC will work with Exchange to promote the Shariah Compliant Spot Gold contract, as well as any other Shariah Compliant commodity products subsequently developed by the Exchange. DGCXs robust month of trading in August was also underpinned by the Indian Rupee quanto and Gold quanto, which registered Year-on-Year (Y-O-Y) volume growth of 232 per cent and 89 per cent respectively.-TradeArabia News Service Oasis Petroleum Inc., an independent exploration and production company, focuses on the acquisition and development of onshore unconventional oil and natural gas resources in the United States. It operates through Exploration and Production(E&P), and Midstream segments. The E&P segment engages in the acquisition and development of oil and gas properties. The Midstream segment offers midstream services, such as natural gas gathering, compression, processing and, gas lift supply; crude oil gathering, terminaling, and transportation; produced and flowback water gathering, and disposal; and water distribution. As of December 31, 2020, the company had 401,766 net leasehold acres in the Williston Basin; and 24,396 net leasehold acres in the Permian Basin, as well as approximately 152.2 million barrels of oil equivalent of estimated net proved reserves. The company sells its crude oil and natural gas to refiners, marketers, and other purchasers that have access to pipeline and rail facilities. Oasis Petroleum Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Read More 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. Wright Brothers National Museum established at Carillon Historical Park Dayton History , the owner and operator of Carillon Historical Park and eight other Southwest Ohio historic properties and museums, announced today that federal legislation has designated the re-imagined aviation center at Carillon Historical Park as the John W Berry, Sr. Wright Brothers National Museum. Congressman Michael Turner (OH-10), who spearheaded the bi-partisan designation effort alongside Ohio Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman, unveiled the Wright Brothers National Museum to a large crowd of aviation enthusiasts. It is fitting this be a National Museum, said Congressman Turner. The building itself was partially designed by Orville Wright himself, and it displays the first plane that was able to sustain flight. Turner was referring to the 1905 Wright Flyer III, located inside Wright Hall at Carillon Historical Park. Gifted to the Park by Orville Wright, the 1905 Wright Flyer III is the only airplane designated a National Historic Landmark. The 1903 Wright Flyer I had proven powered flight possibleon a distant stretch of land where the wind could help, said the Wright brothers great grandnephew Stephen Wright. But it took another two years and two more flying machines and powered flight was practical. Theres no question that Wilbur and Orville Wright had achieved synergy as a team long before 1905. But it wasnt until the 1905 Flyer III that the Wright brothers were able to achieve a synergy with their invention. Carillon Historical Park, a privately owned 65-acre museum complex featuring 30 exhibit buildings, has more three-dimensional Wright family artifacts on display than any place in the world. The museum is also the owner of and gateway to Orville Wrights success mansion, Hawthorn Hill, another National Historic Landmark. Over recent years, through gifts and acquisitions, Dayton History has brought together Wright Brothers artifacts previously owned by numerous historical societies and private collectors. These large groupings of Wright belongings are now reunited with artifacts gifted by Orville Wright in the 1940s to Carillon Park Founder Edward Deeds, former Board Chairman of National Cash Register Company. These acquisitions have enabled us to create a most complete understanding of how the Wright family lived, experimented, and changed the world, said Dayton History President & CEO Brady Kress. We are thrilled and honored that both Congress and the President have recognized the importance of this story and these exhibits with this designation. The new exhibits bring to life the dedication, struggles, and cast of personalities in the lives of Wilbur and Orville WrightDayton's most famous sons. In step-by-step fashion, the museum highlights the development of the worlds first heavier-than-air, self-propelled, controllable, piloted flying machine, offering detailed explanation as to why the Wright brothers are justifiably hailed as inventors of the airplane. Carillon Historical Park is a popular destination for travelers and history researchers from around the world. Among its thousands of visitors, the Park recently welcomed Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson; Congressman Tom Cole; Author David McCullough; and Director, Producer, and Actor Tom Hanks. The Wright Brothers National Museum was privately funded through generous gifts from the family of John W Berry, Sr., founder of The Yellow Pages, and the Harry A. Toulmin, Jr., and Virginia B. Toulmin Fund of The Dayton Foundation, descendants of the Wright brothers patent attorney. New Delhi: The larger purpose of demonetisation was to move India from a tax non-compliant society to a compliant one, and invalidation of non-deposited currency was not its only objective, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday. His comments come a day after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that almost all the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes made illegal in November 2016 have returned to the banking system. Reeling out data on increase in taxpayer base to justify the unprecedented demonetisation, which overnight sucked out 86 per cent of the currency in circulation, Jaitley wrote in a Facebook blog this necessarily involved the formalisation of the economy and a blow to the black money. The finance minister further said: Was the invalidation of the non-deposited currency the only object of demonetisation? Certainly not. Banks received Rs 15.31 lakh crore or 99.3 per cent of the Rs 15.41 lakh crore worth of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes that were in circulation on November 8, 2016 the day when the note ban was announced, according to the RBI. This means that just Rs 10,720 crore of the junked currency notes did not return to the banking system. Initial estimates had pegged that around Rs 3 lakh crore worth of demonetised notes would not return to the system as they might have been stashed away illegally to avoid taxes. Jaitley said that when cash is deposited in the banks, it loses anonymity and can be identified with its owner. Accordingly, post-demonetisation about 1.8 million depositors have been identified for this enquiry. Many of them are being fastened with tax and penalties. Mere deposit of cash in a bank does not lead to a presumption that it is tax paid money, he said. He reeled out numbers to support his claim number of income tax returns filed growing from 3.8 crore in March 2014 to 6.86 crore in 2017-18; number of new returns filed post demonetisation increased by 85.51 lakh and 1.07 crore in past two years; advance tax in first quarter of 2018-19 witnessing a rise of 44.1 per cent in personal income tax and 17.4 per cent in corporate tax category; and income tax collection increasing from Rs 6.38 lakh crore in 2013-14 to Rs 10.02 lakh crore in 2017-18. When the impact of demonetisation and other steps is analysed, the income tax returns have increased by 19 per cent and 25 per cent. This is a phenomenal increase, he said. The growth of income tax collections in the pre-demonetisation two years was 6.6 per cent and 9 per cent. Post-demonetisation, the collections increased by 15 per cent and 18 per cent in the next two years. The same trend is visible in the third year. This, he said, is the positive impact of demonetisation. More formalisation of the economy, more money in the system, higher tax revenue, higher expenditure, higher growth after first two quarters, he added. Meanwhile, financial savings of the household sector in form of cash soared to 7-year high of 2.8 per cent of gross national disposable income (GNDI) in 2017-18, the year following demonetisation, showed a RBI data. Following cash crunch in the aftermath of the November 2016 demonetisation, household savings in form of currency had declined by 2 per cent during 2016-17. Household financial saving the most important source of funds for investment in the economy too declined to 6.7 per cent of GNDI in 2016-17, down from 8.1 per cent in 2015-16. However, it rose to 7.1 per cent in 2017-18. Meanwhile, Niti Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar on Thursday said that demonetisation helped reduce cash transaction and encouraged digital payments. Who said the aim of demonetisation was to get back less money? Demonetisation has impacted the markets and market psychology. How much transaction used to take place in cash (before the note ban), and what is the position now?, Kumar said replying to media queries on the sidelines of an event. Aayush Sharma was supposed to do 'Raat Baaki' with Katrina Kaif before SKF took him under their banner for 'Loveratri'. Home has always been where the heart is for actor Aayush Sharma. And as he arrived at the ancestral home of his father-in-law Salim Khan in Indore recently it was the lush open fields and the sight of cattle and horses grazing by that made him feel at home in an instant. Aayush is originally from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh and visiting Indore took him back to that place. Aayush visited the ancestral home of the Khan pariwar to spend time with the extended family and pay his respects to the family elders. He was in Indore to promote his film Loveratri and launch the romantic chartbuster song 'Tera Hua'. Indore is the hometown of family patriarch Salim Khan and holds a very special place for the family. The ancestral home and the farm is where a young Salman Khan and the rest of the family spent much of their childhood holidays and have some of their fondest memories of those days. But for Aayush it was a visit garnished with some delicious home-made biryani and sweets that the khandaan is now almost synonymous with in the industry. The origins of the hospitality and flavour of the delicacies evident as Salim Khan's extended family pampered the youngest son-in-law of the family. For Aayush it was important to meet the family and pay his respects to the elders. It was a home from where many journeys began. Later as Aayush visited the biggest flagship store of Salman Khan's 'Being Human' in Indore city he received a grand welcome from his fans who were ecstatic to catch a glimpse of their Loveratri actor. Not the one to disappoint his fans, the charming Aayush ensured that he had gifts for them there. Salman Khan shared a video of Aayush's Indore visit saying, Bachpan ke ghar ki memories puri tarah se refresh ho gaye is Indore wale video ko dekh kar - Dekho. Samantha Akkineni is convinced heroines are expected to leave their brains at home before they come to the shoot. But she is not that kind of an actress prepared to kowtow to the stereotypical role in order to count success and money from films. Playing characters closer to real life than being just the doll in the scene is what excites her most and brings out her ability to face the challenge with her histrionic skills. "A girl in any field is fighting in a man's world in terms of workplace, the problems she faces and having to prove herself has not changed yet, she says. The role of an investigative journalist in her latest film seemed to bring out the best in her although the role is only a reprisal of the Kannada original starring Shraddha Srinath. Samantha believes she has proved herself in the film centred around traffic violation incidents in a flyover and the supernatural twists and turns in murders made to look like suicides. She says, Usually, heroines have to leave their brains at home and do some roles. One has simply to dumb-down and act. In such a scenario, I felt that U-Turn is a movie that I should not miss out on as the character is closer to reality and I was able to relate to it. The key to understanding the film is the content is the hero rather than the protagonist. But she dismisses talk about the film being woman-centric. The phrase, she says, has almost become a bad word in the trade. Just because a girl is in the poster it does not mean it is a film that talks about women empowerment or feminism. Its mystery thriller and I play the central character. A professional secret she reveals is she does not use glycerine to whip up tearful emotions on screen. Having worked with filmmakers like Gautham Menon, Sam says she has learnt to emote without glycerine in emotional scenes. I dont use glycerine. I would be laughing and talking before a shot begins. Once the director says action, tears would automatically start rolling. But imagine my plight in U Turn, I was asked to perform twice, once in Tamil and then in Telugu. However, I managed. Also, I dubbed my own voice for the film. Samantha had sought out Pawan Kumar to evince her interest in doing the language remakes. I loved Pawan Kumars earlier Kannada film Luciaand evinced an interest to work with him. But, he silently started his next and I came to know about it when he released its trailer and I was very impressed. I called up and said I would do the Tamil and Telugu remakes even before U Turn is to hit the cinema halls. She believes it would be nice just to get the film across to audiences in different states. An unusual feature of her visit to Chennai to celebrate 100 days of Irumbu Thirai and for the promos of two of her upcoming films was Samantha was spotted selling vegetables at the Koyambedu wholesale market amid huge crowds. And we even heard she sold one kilo of tomatoes for `1,000! Oh! That was for a reality show and since the proceeds are going to charity, I agreed to be part of it!. Even so, Sam says she wants to be part of fantasy films rather than biopics. When it was pointed out that she is still a preferred actress despite her marital status, she comments,. It is not enough and an easy thing! Because I got this tag, I have to constantly keep succeeding for the myth to be completely broken, she says and laughs. Interestingly, husband and wife are to compete at the BO as both Chai's Sailaja Reddy Alludu and Sam's U Turn are releasing on the same day. Conflicts of interest are happening! Its all because of Pawan Kumar. I told him to postpone U Turnrelease, but he and the producer didnt budge an inch. I know they have decided to create a controversy and hoping the film would run on this. Jokes apart, at the end of the day, its in the family and each ones film will be successful on its own merits, she signs off with a smile. Midhun Manuel Thomas, who shot to fame with Aadu movie, is back. The director who is riding high on the success of the recently released Aadu 2, sequel of Aadu, will wear the directors hat again for Argentina Fans Kattoorkadavu. Kalidas Jayaram and Aishwarya Lekshmi have been roped in to play the lead roles. The movie will be produced by Ashiq Usman and distributed by Central Pictures. The movie is based on a short story written by Asokan Charuvil. It will be scripted by the director along with John Manthrickal. An audition was conducted recently to select artistes for other characters. Renadive will crank the camera while Gopi Sundar will score music. Lijo Paul will handle editing. The other details of the movie will be revealed soon, said the director on his facebook page. The show will pay tribute to late ex-prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and certain amount of the proceeds from the sales will be generously donated for flood-victims in Kerala. Mumbai: Aakriti Art Foundation is all geared up to host a group art exhibition Colours of Spring 10, showcasing works by 22 artists from all across India. The gallery will feature artists from different parts of India including Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Surat Ahmedabad and Mysore among other places. The various works in different styles, techniques, mediums will be displayed on a common platform in this show. A Shankar Devrukhe creation To be curated by Manmohan Jaiswal, the show will pay a special tribute to late ex-prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and certain amount of the proceeds from the sales will be generously donated for flood-victims in Kerala. Swapan Ray and Tania Fatnani creations respectively There will be about 100 artworks presented in this show and will include work in Oil colours, Acrylic colours, Watercolors, Pen & Ink, Pastels, Mix Media, Charcoal etc. A Nivas Kanhere creation Speaking about the event, the curator and Director of Aakriti Art Foundation, said, These works will be in different styles mediums and techniques and cover almost all aspects like seascapes, landscapes, beauty of nature monumental work, spiritual work, figurative work, contemporary work, classical traditional work, surrealistic work, fantasy work etc. Biswaranjan Bhunia creation He further adds, It is a rare chance for all art lovers patrons and connoisseurs to enjoy vivid facets of art on a common platform and get duly enlightened by their hues and specialities. The exhibition, to be held at the Cymroza Art Gallery will be open to the public from September 4 to September 7. The Rajaji Nagar police, who rushed to the spot, searched hospitals nearby and caught Karthik, who was getting treated at a private hospital.(Representional Image) Bengaluru: A parking row turned bloody when a 63-year-old goods vehicle driver was murdered by three drunk men on Dr Rajkumar Road in Rajaji Nagar on Thursday night. The accused have been identified as Karthik, Rajshekhar and Janardhan, who are friends and labourers working at a factory. The police said that the deceased, Sriram, a resident of Prakash Nagar, was returning home from work. He was trying to park his vehicle on Dr Rajkumar Road when the accused came out of a bar and stood at the parking space. Sriram asked Karthik to give way, but he refused to move. When Sriram honked and shouted, Karhtik went up to him and slapped him. Sriram took out a screwdriver from the toolbox and hit Karthik in the head, which led to bleeding. Karthik started shouting for help and Rajshekhar and Janardhan attacked Sriram. Sriram started running scared, but the duo caught up with him and slammed his head against the wall. The impact was so high that Sriram collapsed and died on the spot. The three accused escaped, while passersby alerted the police. The Rajaji Nagar police, who rushed to the spot, searched hospitals nearby and caught Karthik, who was getting treated at a private hospital. The accused were booked for murder and taken into custody. Patna: One more girl from the Aasra Shelter Home passed away during treatment at Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) on Friday. The 27-year-old girl reportedly died following a complaint of weakness. This comes after the Patna police on Thursday confirmed that two women from the shelter home in Bihar's Rajeev Nagar managed to run away despite tight security. The two women, named Mira Kumari (30) and Anita Kumar (35) reportedly ran away from the shelter home on Wednesday night. Also Read: Patna shelter home: 2 more girls hospitalised days after two inmates die The shelter home came into news earlier last month, when two girls staying there were brought dead to PMCH. The Bihar police had detained the shelter home's secretary and treasurer in connection with the two deaths and sent them to three-day police custody. Many have invested crores of rupees for the plant and machinery and the question is who will bear the loss of their investment? Bengaluru: Though environmentalists have hailed the ban on plastic, polythene manufacturers and garment sector is now up in arms against it, as they claim it would cripple the industry and lead to large scale job losses, and called for proper disposal of plastic waste. P. H. Raj Purohit, past president, Karnataka Hosiery and Garment Association told Deccan Chronicle that the state government and BBMP should ensure that the plastic waste is treated properly or find an alternative. About 97% of plastic can be processed, while 3% can be utilised for asphalting or concrete brick making. BBMP must think of either an alternative to plastic or process the plastic waste in an eco-friendly manner. In addition, plastic below 50 microns can be used to extract oil and this would be an asset to government, trade and industries. Banning the plastic is not a solution and it will affect many industries and jobs, Purohit added. FKCCI President Sudhakar S. Shetty pointed out plastic ban will lead to a GST loss of Rs 500 crore. "The plastic industry has been left in the lurch and it is difficult for them to survive. Many have invested crores of rupees for the plant and machinery and the question is who will bear the loss of their investment?" According to estimates the state produces plastic worth Rs 50,000 crore, of which 60% can be recycled. The ban has hit the plastic industry very hard and it has led to an annual loss of Rs 20,000 crore, leaving over a lakh employees jobless overnight. Garment units hit Garment exports are also suffering because they cannot use transparent plastic bags anymore for packaging. There is a drop in business of grocery stores due to lack of alternative to grocery bags. Shetty said the real issue is how to handle plastic waste. Our municipalities do not follow a good solid waste regime and the plastic industry is bearing the brunt. He called for a relook on plastic ban policy. FKCCI strongly appeals to the government to take sympathetic steps to save the plastic industry till a suitable alternative is initiated by the government. Bengaluru: The meeting of the all powerful co-ordination committee of the JD(S)-Congress coalition on Friday saw a resurgent former CM Siddaramaiah ensuring that the demand for inducting his bete noire and JD(S) state president A.H. Vishwanath was scuttled. He also reportedly wrested an assurance from Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy that arbitrary transfers of government officials would not happen and his pet scheme, Anna Bhagya, would not be tampered with by cutting grain allocation. Sources said the subject of inducting Mr Vishwanath and KPCC president Dinesh Gundurao into the co-ordination committee was broached by JD(S) general secretary Danish Ali. A visibly irked Siddaramiah reportedly snubbed Ali stating that all leaders who were part of the co-ordination committee, were representatives of their respective parties and therefore, there was no need to induct fresh faces. It is a fact that Vishwanath, who is considered politically shrewd, knows how to counter each argument in such crucial meetings. With Siddaramaiah involved in a running feud with Mr Vishwanath, it will be difficult for him to dominate meetings with the former Mysuru MP around. Hence Siddaramaiah did his best to block his entry into the committee and has succeeded for now," a Congress party source disclosed. Speaking to DC, a close associate of Siddaramaiah jubilantly remarked that the former CM had shown Mr Kumaraswamy who the boss is. Congress leaders were peeved over the high handedness of minister Revanna in carrying out both intra and inter department transfers. This had become a bone of contention between Congress and JD(S) leaders. Mr Kumaraswamy tried to justify the transfers saying they were the sole prerogative of the CM but it did not cut much ice with Siddaramaiah who argued that such a right prevails if one is the CM of a single party government, not in a coalition. Siddaramaiah argued that the coalition dharma has to be followed and department heads (ministers) must be kept informed about any such changes in the bureaucracy to which Mr Kumaraswamy has agreed, the source added. Bengaluru: The HAL police on Friday arrested three Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) officials after street dogs mauled an 11-year-old boy, leaving him grievously injured. The incident occurred near Vibhuti Nagar Lake at K.R. Puram on Wednesday where about 10 street dogs attacked Praveen, a class six student when he was playing with his friends. He was rushed to Manipal Hospital, where he is said to be out of danger. A day after the incident, the police, based on a complaint filed by victims mother Murugamma, arrested three BBMP officials, Dr Shriram, assistant director, Arun Muthalik Desai, senior veterinary doctor, both from Animal Husbandry division of the Mahadevapura zone, and Ravishankar, the contractor. Arun Muthalik Desai The police booked the trio under Sections 289 (negligent conduct with respect to animal) and 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others). The police said that Praveen was playing with his elder brother and other friends around noon when street dogs started barking at him. He ran to save himself but the dogs chased him and mauled him. The dogs ran away when Praveens friends threw stones at the dogs. Praveen who collapsed on the ground bleeding was rushed to Manipal Hospital. On Thursday, Praveens mother approached the HAL police and filed a complaint against BBMP officials. Soon after the incident, BBMP officials visited the area and rounded up nearly a dozen stray dogs. CCTV footage showed that all five were at Marine Drive till 2.40 pm, but after that they seemed to have disappeared. (Representational Image) Mumbai: Five girls, students of a South Mumbai school have gone missing, the police said on Saturday. The girls who are studying in Class 8, at a private school did not return to their homes after classes on Friday afternoon, after which their parents approached the police, said an official. Mid-term exam results were declared on Friday and these girls had failed in two or three subjects each, according to their teachers. After the parents lodged complaints, the police used a drone camera to look for them in the surrounding area, but it did not yield any results. CCTV footage showed that all five were at Marine Drive till 2.40 pm, but after that they seemed to have disappeared, said the officer and an investigation has been launched. 'While the PM is like the sky, Rahul Gandhi is like naali ka keeda (sewer worm),' Union minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey said while addressing a programme in Bihar's Sasaram. (Photo: File) New Delhi: In a remark that may spark a controversy, Union minister and BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Choubey called Congress president Rahul Gandhi, "schizophrenic" and a "sewer worm". Calling Rahul Gandhi mentally unfit, Choubey said that the Congress president should be admitted to a mental hospital for treatment. The junior minister in the health ministry, who is a Lok Sabha lawmaker from Bihar's Buxar, made the remarks while comparing Rahul Gandhi with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday. Choubey also accused Rahul Gandhi of spreading lies. "While the PM is like the sky, Rahul Gandhi is like naali ka keeda (sewer worm)," Choubey said while addressing a programme in Bihar's Sasaram. Choubey said he was very disappointed with Rahul Gandhi for accusing PM Modi of lying on the Rafale fighter jet deal with France, and that he should be admitted to a mental hospital. Rahul Gandhi is calling himself great, intelligent, perfect. He said Modi is a liar on Rafale deal... This can be said by that person who is suffering from Schizophrenia disease. I think he should be admitted to mental hospital," the union minister said. The 65-year-old Union minister alleged it was the Congress which was the "mother of corruption" and hit out at the opposition by calling mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance), maha-thag-bandhan (alliance of the corrupt). Choubey said India needs a progressive prime minister and the entire country will unite to make Narendra Modi the prime minister again. Ashwini Kumar Choubeys statement comes amidst the Congress partys demand for a JPC probe into the purchase of 36 Rafale jets from France. The party has been alleging a scam by the Modi-government in signing the deal whereas the government has been maintaining that the deal was signed in accordance with all the set procedures. The latest remark made by Choubey against Rahul Gandhi is not the first. In 2015, he had referred to Rahul Gandhi as a parrot who had been speaking against the BJP on the basis of script written by others after remaining silent during 10 years of UPA rule. He had also called Rahul Gandhi's mother and the then Congress chief Sonia Gandhi as the demonic mythical character "Putna" from Mahabharata. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched a blistering attack on the Congress for leaving the economy on a 'landmine' by its indiscriminate lending, saying loans were handed out to select businessmen after phone calls were made by 'namdars' (dynasts). He blamed 'phone-a-loan' scam of the previous UPA regime where money was lent by banks to select rich businessmen close to a particular family for mounting non-performing assets (NPA) or bad loans but vowed to recover every penny from defaulters. None of the twelve biggest defaulters, who between them account for over Rs 1.75 lakh crore of NPAs, were given loan by the present government, Modi said at the launch of payments bank of the Indian postal department. He said while the previous UPA government hid the bad loans, his government has properly recognised them and brought tough laws to deal with defaults and recovery money. The Prime Minister said the country was cheated when the last government put such loan amount at Rs 2-2.5 lakh crore when it actually was Rs 9 lakh crore. This comes days after Congress President Rahul Gandhi's attack on the government for NPAs jumping to Rs 12.5 lakh crore under the BJP rule from Rs 2.5 lakh crore under the previous UPA regime. PM Modi said when his government came to power in 2014 it noticed that public-sector banks had been plundered. Loans of banks jumped to Rs 52 lakh crore from 2008 to 2014 from just Rs 18 lakh crore in the previous six decades. Loans were given without any due diligence and keeping aside all rules and norms, he said, adding defaulters were given further funds in the name of loan restructuring. "How were these loans given? One phone call from the namdars would get the rich loans," he said alleging a 'phone-a-loan' scam under the UPA government. "This phone banking of Congress and its namdars caused a lot of damage to the country," he said, adding banks obliged namdars because top executives were appointed by the same namdars. "Despite knowing that the loans would not be returned, banks lent money." And when these borrowers started defaulting, pressure was mounted on banks to give more time and then restructure these loans by giving more funds. "In 2014, after our government was formed we realised that the Congress and namdaars had put India's economy on a landmine," he said. The economy would have been damaged by the explosion of that landmine but the government worked not just to detect the ailment but also took steps to uproot the disease, he said. PM Modi said his government has "defused" the landmine placed by the government of namdars and its results have been witnessed in the 8.2 per cent GDP growth clocked in the first quarter of the current fiscal. "This growth is proof of growing strength of the Indian economy and that the country is moving in the right direction," he said. "Today the country is not just the fastest growing economy in the world but also the one that is eradicating poverty at the fastest rate. I again want to assure that all the bank money which was stuck because of namdars, each and every rupee of that, we will recover. It will be used for the poor," he said. Listing out the steps taken, he said every loan of over Rs 50 crore has been reviewed and it is being ensured that the rules are followed and recoveries made. The merger of banks has been proposed, professionalism was brought in banks, insolvency and bankruptcy code came and a law to deal with fugitive defaults introduced. PM Modi said swift action to recover loans from the top 12 defaulters as well as another 27 who owe Rs 1 lakh crore is being taken. "We will ensure that every penny is recovered," he said. "I want to again assure the country that of all these big loans, not even a single loan has been given by this government," he said. PM Modi said Jan Dhan gave bank accounts to the unbanked and now the India Post Payments Bank is taking the bank to their doorstep. The postman, besides carrying mail, will also carry the bank to the doorsteps of poor and rural people, he said. With its unmatched network of 1.5 lakh post offices and over three lakh postmen and gramin dak sevaks, IPPB will initially in 650 districts allow savings as well as current accounts to be opened at doorstep, allow fund transfer and payment of utility bills. Also, loan and insurance will be provided in association with other banks and financial institutions. The Prime Minister said in last four years, 13 crore loans have been given under Mudra Yojana, 32 crore Jan Dhan accounts opened and 21 crore poor given insurance and pension cover. According to reports, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has recommended Justice Gogoi's name to the government as his successor. (Photo: File | PTI) New Delhi: Seniormost Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjan Gogoi is set to become the next Chief Justice of India (CJI). The present Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has recommended his name for the post to the government. Highly placed sources told Deccan Chronicle that the letter of recommendation will be delivered to the Union Law Ministry on Sunday. The recommendation is likely to be approved by the Government and Justice Ranjan Gogoi is expected to take oath on October 3. Earlier, the Union Law Ministry has sent a communication to CJI Dipak Misra to recommend the name of his successor so that it could commence the process of appointment at least three weeks before Justice Misra demits office. Normally the recommendation is sent a month before the CJI demits office. Justice Ranjan Gogoi who hails from Assam was appointed a judge in the Gauhati High Court on February 28, 2001. He later became the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on February 12, 2011. Justice Gogoi was elevated to the top court in April 2012. Justice Gogoi will be the Chief Justice till November 17, 2019 till his retirement. There was speculation over Justice Gogoi's appointment as the next CJI following an unprecedented press conference by four senior-most judges, including Justice Gogoi, in January this year when they had criticised Justice Dipak Misra over various issues, especially the manner of allocation of cases to certain benches. It was feared that Justice Gogoi might be superseded. Under the Memorandum of Procedure evolved under the collegium system, it is customary and a convention for the outgoing CJI to name the senior most judge as his successor. There have been two attempts earlier to bypass the convention or supersede judges, after Independence. The first supersession was in 1973 involving three judges. The then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi appointed Justice A N Ray as the CJI overlooking the three senior most judges of the Supreme Court, Justices J M Shelat, A N Grover and K S Hegde. The second and possibly most infamous supersession, happened during the height of the Emergency, when Indira Gandhi disapproved the dissenting judgment of Justice H R Khanna and Justice M H Beg was appointed as the CJI. Justice Ranjan Gogoi is now heading the special bench that is monitoring the updation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam to identify citizens and weed out illegally settled foreigners. He is also part of the bench monitoring the appointment of Lokpal and Lokayuktas in various States. To curtail government expenditure on advertisements Justice Ranjan Gogoi had put curbs on glorifying the achievements of politicians and laid down new norms. On Thursday he delivered a landmark verdict holding that a scheduled caste in one State is not entitled to claim the benefit of quota in another State on his migration. On being asked if the Congress wanted an NIA probe, Singhvi said one can imagine if the charge was credible and serious. (Photo: File) New Delhi: The Congress on Friday asked why the government's top investigative agency, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), was not involved in probing the alleged plot to assassinate the prime minister in a "Rajiv Gandhi-type event to end Modi-raj". Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, "Does common sense tell that there is a possible assassination plot against the prime minister, which he condemned, but asked why the country's top probe agencies were not involved and it was left to the Pune Police to carry out investigations." Also Read: Activist's letter spoke of 'Rajiv Gandhi-type ending for Modi-Raj': Pune cops "I am gravely concerned about the security of the prime minister if you are leaving the matter like this to the Pune Police," he said. "Nobody in the right mind should be supported who is trying to attack the Prime Minister of India. Do you think that an illusion of grandeur that the Pune Police is in-charge of investigation and the NIA is nowhere to be seen, CBI is nowhere to be seen? "The biggest investigative agency of our country are not to be seen in the PM's part of assassination attempt and the Pune Police is in-charge? I find it absurd," he told reporters. On being asked if the Congress wanted an NIA probe, Singhvi said one can imagine if the charge was credible and serious. "The NIA, the Home Minister, the CBI, the RAW and the IB should be involved," he said. He said the head of the government is involved as a possible target and "you are talking through the person who is having the press conference of the Pune Police". Singhvi said he may not agree with poet-activist Varavara Rao on the way he writes or with rights activists Gautam Navlakha's views, but the true test of democracy is as Voltaire rightly said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it". Police on Friday claimed they have "conclusive proof" to link Left-wing activists arrested in June and this week to Maoists, saying one of them spoke of a "Rajiv Gandhi-type event to end Modi-raj". An email between Rona Wilson, one of the arrested activists, and a Maoist leader, speaks of ending "Modi-raj" with a 'Rajiv Gandhi-type incident', Additional Director General (law and order) Parambir Singh told reporters in Mumbai. The Pune Police had on August 28 raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested five of them - Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Sudha Bharadwaj in Faridabad and Gautam Navalakha in Delhi. From the hundreds of letters seized, the Pune police on Friday read the 'prominent' ones, which included a letter by Sudha Bharadwaj. (Photo: File) Mumbai: The Pune police on Friday emphatically stated that the evidence collected so far clearly establishes links of the arrested activists with Maoist organisations. Activist Sudha Bharadwaj, who was one of the five activists held, replied to the claims made by the Pune police calling the letter 'totally concocted'. In a handwritten statement, shared through her lawyer Vrinda Grover, Bhardwaj said, "It is a totally concocted letter fabricated to criminalise me and other human rights lawyers, activists and organisations." Bharadwaj added that the letter is, "a mixture of innocuous and publicly available facts and baseless fabrication." From the hundreds of letters seized, the police on Friday read the "prominent" ones, which included a letter by Bharadwaj. It also shared an email letter between Rona Wilson and a CPI-Maoist leader. The letter spoke of ending "Modi-raj" with a 'Rajiv Gandhi-type incident'. The letter also sought money for procuring grenade launchers. The Maharashtra Police had arrested five activists -- Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonzalves, Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bhardwaj and Gautam Navalakha -- in connection with an event on December 31, 2017, that triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima village. New Delhi: Delhi came to a virtual standstill after heavy rains lashed several parts of the national capital on Saturday, leading to excessive waterlogging and traffic snarls. Streets were waterlogged near the Civic Centre at Minto Road and also in Civil Lines area where various cars were seen half-submerged in water. The deluge has led to waterlogging and traffic jams on many routes throughout the city. The Delhi Traffic Police is posting alerts and updates on its Twitter handle to inform the residents about which routes to avoid. "Waterlogging was reported at Iron Bridge Loni Road, Khajuri Chowk Wazirabad Road, Bhajan Pura Main Market Wazirabad Road, R/A Loni, Apsara Border, Yamuna Marg, IP College MGM Road Ring Road, Under IP Flyover Vikas Marg, Chatta Rail Lothian Road," a Delhi Traffic Police official said. (Photo: ANI/Twitter) "Roads submerged following the rainfall included those under Modi Mill Flyover, Rao Tula Ram T-Point on the way to the Indira Gandhi International Airport, Rajghat, Janpath, the Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, to Lajpat Nagar market on Ring Road, Inderprastha Marg near the Delhi Police headquarters, Rajendra Prasad Road, GT Karnal Road, Minto Road and others," he added. Delhi: Streets waterlogged near Civic Centre at Minto road following heavy rainfall in the city. pic.twitter.com/fpvM95cDRP ANI (@ANI) September 1, 2018 The traffic police has also asked people to avoid Delhi-Noida road towards Ashram where traffic was blocked after a bus broke down. The Rashtrapati Bhavan also had to cancel the Change of Guard ceremony due to heavy rains. "The Change of Guard Ceremony on the Forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan will not be held today (September 1, 2018) due to heavy rain in New Delhi," the President House tweeted. The traffic was affected at Mathura road, Shershah road, Mathura road to Bhairon road, Purana quila road, Bihari colony, Maharashi Raman marg, Teen Murti lane, 11 Murti and Girdhari Lal Goswami Marg near post office due to excessive waterlogging. "Waterlogging was reported at Lajpat Nagar market, Pant Nagar bus stand and IP Marg near police headquarters. The traffic movement was closed on Bhairon road both ways due to waterlogging," the official said. (Photo: ANI/Twitter) Narrating their ordeal, people stranded around the MCD Civic Centre, one of the worst affected areas, chastised Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for the chaos. Speaking to ANI, a commuter said that the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government failed to fulfill their promise of developing infrastructure and drainage in the capital. "Whatever they have promised so far is all based on lies. I am stuck in this traffic for the past two hours. They only make tall claims but do not make any efforts on the ground level," he said. Another commuter claimed that his car was about to get submerged because of heavily waterlogged roads. "Luckily, I managed to escape the accident but it is very unfortunate that the government has not done anything for clearing up the monsoon mess," he added. Delhi has received 61 mm of rainfall since morning and the weatherman has predicted the downpour to continue throughout the day. The Indian Meteorological Department forecast that rain and thunderstorms will continue in Delhi for the next two days. The only reason thats stopping the corporation from changing the name is red tape, they say. In fact, the minister for school education even encouraged people to adopt schools in the city. In such a time, A philanthropist who gave his land and building to the corporation is being discouraged. Further, Venkataswamy also pointed out that these actions would demotivate donors from doing good to society. Chennai: The great-grandsons of a former councillor of Madras corporation have been fighting for nearly a decade to restore their great-grandfathers name to a Chennai corporation school that he had constructed and donated in West Mambalam. In a place where real estate is skyrocketing the least that the corporation can do is honour the people who donated the school, says the family. The first time this happened was in 1995 when the corporation changed the names of all schools. The headmistress then understood the need and changed the name back to Damodaran Aarambapalli, says ML Venkataswamy, one of the great-grandsons. In 2010, however, a resolution was passed to remove corporation from the school name. Since then, they have removed name his too, says Venkataswamy. The only reason thats stopping the corporation from changing the name is red tape, they say. In fact, the minister for school education even encouraged people to adopt schools in the city. In such a time, A philanthropist who gave his land and building to the corporation is being discouraged. Further, Venkataswamy also pointed out that these actions would demotivate donors from doing good to society. I have written several letters to the deputy commissioner (Education) but no action has been taken , he says, adding that when someone donated an RO water plant to the school, they got a big stone engraved near the entrance with the names of all the donors but they have removed the name of the person who donated the whole school. The family, however, continues to supply books to all students and also distribute prizes by the end of the year. We have been doing this for 25 years, and we do these for the children, so we won't stop. But we want the name back, he says. Now, Venkataswamy says he will go to court if no action is taken soon. The corporation officials unaware of the situation refused to comment. Chennai: In a gruesome case of passion killing, a young mother poisoned her two children to death at suburban Kundrathur and eloped with a biriyani shop worker while her husband was at work at a private bank on Friday, police said. They said search teams have some definite clues and would soon nab the two killers. According to police, Abiramani, 25, and Vijayakumar, 30, lived with their son Ajay, 7 and daughter Karumila, 5, at Agastheeswarar Koil Street in Kundrathur. They had moved here only five months back. Theirs was a love marriage about eight years ago. Abiramani. The family had been to dine at a biriyani hotel close to their house sometime back, when Abiramani reportedly met Sundaram working there. The two soon developed intimacy. The duo decided to eliminate the entire family and flee to some remote place to start life afresh and accordingly, Abiramani late Friday fed her two kids with poison and waited for her husband to return from work so that she could finish him too. But as fate turned out, Vijay had to stay back at his bank due to pressing work and returned home only at about five early Saturday morning. He was surprised at finding that the house was not bolted from inside but a bigger shock awaited him. On pushing open the door, he found his two kids dead with froth at the mouth. Police who arrived at the scene removed the two bodies to the Chromepet Government Hospital for postmortem. A hunt has been launched for Abirami and Sundaram. New Delhi: Senior-most Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjan Gogoi is set to become the next Chief Justice of India (CJI). The present Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has recommended his name to the government for the post. Highly-placed sources in the Supreme Court told this newspaper that the letter of recommendation will be delivered to the Union law ministry on Sunday. The recommendation is likely to be approved by the government and Justice Gogoi is expected to take oath on October 3. Earlier, the Union Law ministry had sent a communication to CJI Misra to recommend the name of his successor so that it could commence the process of appointment at least three weeks before Misra demits office. Normally, the recommendation is sent a month before the CJI demits office. Justice Ranjan Gogoi who hails from Assam was appointed a judge in the Gawahati High Court on February 28, 2001. He later became the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on February 12, 2011. Justice Gogoi is slated to retire on November 17, 2019. Justice Gogoi was elevated to the top court in April 2012. There was speculation over Justice Gogoi's appointment as the next CJI following an unprecedented press conference by four senior-most judges, including Justice Gogoi, in January this year when they had criticised Justice Misra over various issues, especially the manner of allocation of cases to certain benches. It was feared that Justice Gogoi might be superseded. Under the Memorandum of Procedure evolved under the collegium system, it is customary and a convention for the outgoing CJI to name the senior most judge as his successor. There have been two attempts earlier to bypass the convention or supersede judges, after Independence. The first supersession was in 1973 involving three judges. The then Prime Minister of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi appointed Justice A.N. Ray as the CJI overlooking the three senior most judges of the Supreme Court, Justices J.M. Shelat, A.N Grover and K. S Hegde. The second and possibly most infamous supersession, happened during the height of the Emergency, when Mrs. Gandhi disapproved the dissenting judgment of Justice H.R. Khanna and Justice M.H. Beg was appointed as the CJI. Justice Gogoi is now heading the special bench that is monitoring the updation of National Register of Citizens in Assam to identify citizens and weed out illegally settled foreigners. He is also part of the bench monitoring the appointment of Lokpal and Lokayuktas in various States. To curtail government expenditure on advertisements Justice Gogoi had put curbs on glorifying the achievements of politicians and laid down new norms. On Thursday he delivered a landmark verdict holding that a scheduled caste in one State is not entitled to claim the benefit of quota in another State on his migration. Sub-inspector Venkanna, Sanath-nagar said, On Friday evening also there was a heated argument between the couple and in a fit of rage he hanged himself from the ceiling with a rope. (Representational Images) Hyderabad: A 30-year-old alcoholic killed himself by hanging at his residence in Sanathn-agar in a fit of rage after an argument with his wife on Friday. The police identified the victim as Silver Teju, 30, a labourer. According to police, Teju was an alcoholic and used to quarrel with his wife under the influence of alcohol. Sub-inspector Venkanna, Sanath-nagar said, On Friday evening also there was a heated argument between the couple and in a fit of rage he hanged himself from the ceiling with a rope. The Santhanagar police has registered a case under section 174 CrPC and started investigation. The police handed over the body to the family members after a post mortem examination. Twenty one people were jailed for two days and five persons for two days for driving without a licence. (Representational Images) Hyderabad: The Nampally court in Hyderabad cancelled the driving licences of 92 citizens and imposed a fine of Rs 5.4 crore on traffic violators. A total of 2,542 cases were booked for drunken driving in the month of August. Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Anil Kumar said, A total of 402 people were sent to prison and 92 driving licences were cancelled by the 3rd and 4th Metropolitan Magistrate Courts. The honourable courts imposed a fine of Rs 5.4 crores on the remaining 2,122 traffic violators. One person got the highest imprisonment of three months and 198 others were sent to jail for two days. The driving licences of 17 people were cancelled permanently and that of six people were cancelled for seven years, 13 people for five 5 years, five people for four years, 12 people for three years, nine people for two years, and that of 16 people were cancelled for one year. In addition to that, 23 citizens held for cell phone driving and nine held for driving without licence were sentenced to jail. Twenty one people were jailed for two days and five persons for two days for driving without a licence. The traffic violators who were caught and convicted for drunk driving may face difficulties in getting government jobs and visa clearance. The violators who committed the offence were also counselled at TTI, Goshamahal and Begumpet. Those sentenced were sent to Chanchalguda Jail, the official said. Eventually, it was after intervention by the media, activists and minister's office that the Ernakulam district administration acted, according to activists. Thiruvananthapuram: It usually takes five to ten days for a dead body to be transported from Kerala to West Bengal, which is the case with most migrant workers who die here. However, it was in record time that the body of Mahabul Mondal, found dead on Thursday, was being flown out of Kerala on Saturday night. It took Ernakulam district administration one day and several calls from the offices of labour minister, chief minister and Moorshidabad district administration to send an email connected with the transfer of Mondals body. On Friday, the district administration of Moorshidabad and Ernakulam district labour office promised to pay Rs 16,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively for embalming and transportation charges. However, according to a government official in Moorshidabad, they had no clue to which bank account they needed to send the money. For, neither the Ernakulam district administration nor the district labour office had sent a formal letter with the details to Moorshidabad. Eventually, it was after intervention by the media, activists and minister's office that the Ernakulam district administration acted, according to activists. Every year, at least 500 migrant workers die in Kerala and in most cases, their cremation happens here as it is not easy to take their bodies to their home states, according to George Mathew, coordinator of an NGO called Peoples Union for Justice which works for those in unorganised sectors. He says, there is a problem because there is no government policy regarding transportation of bodies of workers who die outside their home state. We usually run around trying to meet the embalming and transportation charges, as well as getting various papers like police NOC, death certificate, doctors certificate and embalming certificate ready. This clerical work should be handled by a government agency, he says. The money allocated for transportation might be increased further to make the procedures smoother, says Labour Commissioner A. Alexander. In Mahabul Mondals case, the Ernakulam district administration is sending out the body to Moorshidabad in two days. Activists hope that a precedence has been set. Lucknow: The Allahabad high court has admitted a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking a ban on the so-called Hindu Courts being set up by the Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha. The PIL has been filed by one Ankit Singh through his counsel Rohan Gupta who has asked for the courts directives on the Hindu courts. The division bench of Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhonsale and Justice Yashwant Varma has sent notices to Meerut district magistrate where the first Hindu court has been set up. The district magistrate has bene asked to file his reply by September 11. Notices have also been sent to the president of Mahasabha Abhishek Agarwal and national secretary of the Mahasabha Dr Pooja Shakun Pandey who is also the self proclaimed judge of the Hindu court. The petitioner has sought effective steps to disband and diffuse all existing and proposed courts to be set by the Mahasabha and a ban on rendering judicial services of any kind. According to the petition the Hindu Courts are wholly illegal, an outrage to the Constitution and an affront to the judiciary and must be stamped out ruthlessly. It must be noted that such courts created without any statutory sanction are wholly illegal and are squarely covered under the definition of kangaroo courts. Mumbai: Dalit leader and Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh president Prakash Ambedkar on Saturday stoked a fresh controversy with a comment on the alleged plot to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Rubbishing the polices claims about a Maoist conspiracy to end Modi Raj with Rajiv Gandhi-type plot, Mr Ambedkar said, Tick 20 (a pesticide) is enough to kill a rat; a gun is not needed. On Friday, the Maharashtra police claimed that it had conclusive proof to link five left-wing activists, who were arrested recently, to Maoist activities. The police also referred to an email between Rona Wilson, one of the arrested activists, and a Maoist leader, speaking of ending the Modi Raj with a Rajiv Gandhi-type assassination incident. Commenting on the issue in a television interview, Mr Ambedkar said letters shown by the police in the press conference on Friday were not alluding to killing the Prime Minister. He said the letter only mentioned about Rajiv Gandhi type plot. He further stated that the police had needlessly linked letters with the assassination conspiracy. Taking a jibe at Mr Modi, Mr Ambedkar said, Tick 20 is enough to kill a rat; a gun is not needed. Lucknow: The chairman of the UP Shia Waqf Board, Waseem Rizvi, has been excommunicated from Islam for not accepting the fatwa issued by Iraqs top Shia cleric Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani against handing over Waqf properties for the construction of a temple of shrine. Senior Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawwad announced Waseem Rizvis ouster from the Shia community, following the controversy over his offer of disputed land at Babri Masjid site for Ram Temple construction. Later, talking to reporters, Maulana Kalbe Jawwad said Shias all around the world were embarrassed by Rizvis pro-temple stand. People like Waseem Rizvi are working against Islam, either under pressure or just to please their masters. On my recent visit to Iran, people were asking me questions and I am answerable to them on the kind of things he is doing here, he said. Maulana Jawwad also said that since Waseem Rizvi was not a Shia anymore, he must be removed from the post of Shia Waqf Board Chairman. A fatwa from Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani cannot be rejected. Anyone who opposes his fatwa has no right to be called a Shia anymore. Hence, I have asked the government to remove him from the post. We have already said that whatever the court decides will be acceptable to us, but Waseem Rizvi seems to be in a hurry. How can he donate land of which he is not even the owner? He is just the caretaker. He is fooling the entire nation by saying that he is donating the land. He can donate his own house if he wants, but he cannot donate land which does not belong to him, the Maulana said. Meanwhile, Mr Rizvi rejected excommunication and said, Maulana Kalbe Jawwad is a witness in the Babri Masjid demolition case, which is why he is trying to put pressure on the Shia Waqf Board. Nobody has the right to throw anyone out of Islam, no matter how big the cleric is.The controversy began some months ago when Mr Rizvi announced that he would offer the disputed land at Babri Masjid site for the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya. A Kanpur-based educationist, Dr Mazhar Naqvi, had posted a query on the legality of the announcement and Ayatollah Ali Al Sistanis fatwa was in response to this query. This is the first of its kind initiative in Tamil Nadu, providing a single-window search facility to act as a one-stop point for all digital resources available in 13 universities and its affiliated colleges in Tamil Nadu. Chennai: Gone are the days where one would visit the government library or British Council division or American Centre library, pour over the catalogue or seek the librarians help to pick out the much needed book or magazine. Now, if only one knows where to tap the source, knowledge gushes in abundance.The recently launched Tamil Nadu Digital Library (TNDL) -http://www.tndigitallibrary.org/ , the new age avatar, is turning out to be a preferred choice to many as it contains information about different types of digital contents, including books, articles, videos, audio, thesis and other educational material relevant for users ranging from students to researchers and library users to professionals. According to an official the portal has been designed to benefit all users including the differently-abled besides all other lifelong learners. This is the first of its kind initiative in Tamil Nadu, providing a single-window search facility to act as a one-stop point for all digital resources available in 13 universities and its affiliated colleges in Tamil Nadu, he said. The National Digital Library initiative, says Tamil & Tamil culture minister K. Pandiarajan, was aimed at integrating all Indian digital libraries and provide a portal for it, thus facilitating learning process. Initially there was some confusion leading to opposition DMK alleging that Tamil has been sidelined in the national mission. When the issue even dominated the Assembly proceedings, recently, the minister asserted that the confusion was because of viewing the features only in English, Hindi and Sanskrit in the portal. Later, after he took up the issue with the Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar, the ministry featured the user-interface in eight Indian languages - Tamil, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam and Sanskrit besides foreign languages that includes English, Swedish, Italian and German. Arrangements were also made to feature 10,000 titles available in the Connemara library here. This is something like a customised service provided round the clock to match the needs of the users. However, access to full text in many cases might require institutional membership. Otherwise, access to the digital library is absolutely free. Over 5,000 e-resources in addition to nearly 10,00,000 bibliographic information with the option of download content / view online feature have been provided, the official added. Love e-world reading novels, books In a fast-paced world where one is oppressed by paucity of time and hamstrung with financial resources, the e-resource of the TNDL is an excellent fountainhead for knowledge resource that can be accessed at the click of a mouse. It will be useful to students and research scholars. In those days I used to frequently visit Connemara Library to gather study material and to cull out points from the books that were out of reach. Now this new system has dispensed with such a physical travel, saving valuable time, ofcourse. You get the feel of learning if you pick a book and read - something like hotel food and homely meals, I would say. Nevertheless, it is pretty handy in getting information about temple architecture and other hobby horse, says N. Baskaran, a sthapathi and temple modeller. Not just languages, even the books on history is amazing. For instance, the book on Early history at the Madras region up to 1680 A.D provides profound information on the old Madras that cannot be accessed, says Prof. Narayanan. Even if one is not in the academics, one can relax in the luxury of e-world reading novels and books on Chennai city in the olden days. Books or journals that are out of print can also been accessed, he adds. Books such as Devonian Floras and Handbook of the British Flora give insight into the flora of Chennai, claims Prof. Sekhar. There are books on geography, literature, science and even arts. One needs patience to browse for the subject, adds Prof. Saikumar. Chennai: A fresh bolt has hit the AIADMK government with the Leader of Opposition M K Stalin on Saturday demanding that Governor Banwarilal Purohit immediately dismiss health minister C Vijayabaskar following the media expose of Income-Tax seeking action against him for alleged corruption. In a statement, DMK president Stalin said Vijayabaskar should own moral responsibility and step down voluntarily, failing which Chief Minister K Palaniswami should remove him from his Cabinet. If the CM failed to do so, the Government should intervene and dismiss the minister for upholding the Constitution, Stalin said in a statement. The day began on a sour note for the minister and the government after the popular Tamil TV channel, News18, put out excerpts from the I-T department communication to the TN government seeking action against minister Vijayabaskar as a follow-up of its raids on his various premises, besides the place of his PA, J. Srinivasan at Chennai during the RK Nagar Assembly by-election in April 2017. It appeared that the I-T department had sent its reports to the state government and also to the Election Commission detailing the catch during its raids that allegedly revealed large-scale corruption by the health minister, as well as bribing of the RK Nagar electorate. The I-T department had said unaccounted cash amounting to about Rs 20 lakh was seized. The EC consequently cancelled the by-poll. A portion of the I-T report to the government was put out by News18, causing ripples in the political circles and a fresh bout of shrill corruption charges from the Opposition. It included a statement purportedly made by the minister's father Chinnathambi admitting to the raiding sleuths that "an amount of Rs 12,96,000 was received from various persons to get jobs for each of them". It was part of the Rs 20 lakh seized from the minister's Pudukottai house, and was in brown envelopes indicating they were set apart for jobs in the nutritious meals programme. In yet another piece of evidence flaunted by the TV channel, the I-T communication to the government had reportedly spoken of the seizure of "two incriminating documents containing date-wise notings of fund collection and its application" from an e-mail operated by the minister's PA. With these media reports going viral, Chinnathambi came out with a statement denying he made any confession to the I-T department. "It is painful for me and my family that such false reports are being published", he said, alleging that the 'twisted' media reports were inspired by political rivals. He claimed that the I-T raids did not lead to any cash seizures. "Following the raids, my family and I have been fully cooperating with the I-T department", he said, adding that he has been paying his taxes regularly. Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday launched the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) at the Chennai branch of IPPB at the circle headquarters. The launch function was organised for Tamil Nadu in 37 branches and 185 access points. In Nagercoil, Union minister of state for finance and shipping Pon Radhakrishnan launched the IPPB coinciding with the launch by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the entire country. There are totally 11,745 access points in Tamil Nadu circle and the entire launch will be completed by December end this year. Fisheries minister D. Jayakumar also seen. (Photo:DC) Chennai: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Saturday appealed to people to make use of the India Post Payments' Bank to reap the benefits offered by the Centre and state governments. India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) aims to take banking to the doorstep of every citizen by arming three lakh postmen and 'Grameen Dak Sewaks' with digital aids to deliver financial services. After formally launching the scheme in Tamil Nadu, she said the opposition parties were saying the Prime Minister was going on launching various schemes like Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and Mudhra Loans. All these (schemes) are linked together. He wants the benefits also to reach the poor instead of being only reaped by the rich, she said. Handing over the QR Code card of the bank to a few beneficiaries as part of kick-starting the scheme here, she said one can avoid middlemen and directly receive the benefits offered by the Centre and state governments. I appeal to all to utilise the service, she said, speaking in Tamil. ...The bank is coming to your home. With this scheme, a postman is not only delivering letters, he is also delivering banking services to you, the minister said. Despite the advent of technology, a human interface is required, she said. State fisheries minister D Jayakumar said he discussed offering the service to fisherfolk with the Chief Post Master General (Tamil Nadu circle) M Sampath as the relief given by the state government can directly reach their bank accounts. For the fisheries department, it will be of great use as the government provides funds totalling Rs 170 crore to fishermen under the fishermen savings scheme, the minister said. CPMG Sampath said around 50,000 accounts have been opened as part of pre-launch activities of the scheme. In Tamil Nadu circle, there are totally 11,745 access points (of India Post) offering this service and the entire launch will be covered by December, he said, adding that a street-play, rally and road shows would be conducted to create awareness about the scheme among the public. The government ended the three-month-long suspense by appointing G. Satheesh Reddy, scientific adviser to the defence minister, as the secretary, Department of Defence Research and Development and chairman of DRDO. Mr Reddy replaces Selvin Christopher who retired in the last week of May. His appointment is for a period of two years. Though defence secretary Sanjay Mitra, a 1982-batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre, held additional charge of the post, the delay in naming Mr Christophers successor set off intense lobbying by various claimants of the post. Reportedly, the government was very close to appointing a new chief when Mr Christophers term was about to end, but at the very last moment, there was a negative intelligence report on the one who had been shortlisted and the whole process was abandoned. Then there were other controversies, including changes of poisoning and more allegations! For a while, it was rumoured that the DG of electronics and communication systems vertical at DRDO, J. Manjula, was the frontrunner for the post of DRDO chief. She was believed to have the backing of defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, though considered junior to several other scientists at DRDO. Mr Reddy is a noted missile scientist. His appointment continues the tradition of the missile scientist community occupying the top positions at DRDO. IAS losing turf The heaven-born are slowly but surely losing their haloes. If theres one discernible trend in the Narendra Modi sarkar, it is the entry of other all-India cadre services into what was considered unbreachable IAS turf. Over the past few years, positions at the joint secretary or equivalent positions have been given to officers from the Indian Forest Service (IFS), Indian Revenue Service (IRS), and now, increasingly, the Indian Police Service (IPS). In fact, if the newly-empanelled IPS officers actually get posted in various Union ministries and departments, many sarkari departments will now be headed by police officers. In the last couple of days, as many as 31 IPS officers, mainly from the 1995 and 1996 batches, were empanelled as Union joint secretary or JS-equivalent. Earlier, the Modi sarkar announced the empanelment of seven officers of the Indian Forest Service cadre to hold joint secretary or joint secretary-rank posts in the Government of India. Of seven officers, three belong to 1992 batch whereas four belong to the 1996 batch. If there are protests from the IAS cadre about losing their turf, we certainly havent heard of it. Yogis diktat irks babus About 16 lakh government employees in Uttar Pradesh are agitated over a new diktat of the Yogi Adityanath government to hold a screening of employees aged 50 years and above to force non-performing staff to take VRS. Chief minister Yogi has issued directives to chief secretary Anoop Chandra Pandey and concerned departments to complete the screening test process by July 31 and submit the list of those who failed to clear by August first week. Those who fail to clear the screening test will be asked to take an early retirement or the VRS. The screening test is mandatory for all government employees who have crossed the age of 50 years. Earlier, the CM had ordered for a similar exercise last year in May-June to screen IAS/IPS officers having crossed 50 years of age. The exercise was aimed at giving VRS to those who were found to be corrupt or non-performing. However, none of them was forced to retire despite a list being submitted to the government. The UP IAS Association had also raised a strong objection on government adopting such practice against their cadre in contravention of the DoPT rules. Avoiding mundane tasks from employees daily list helps human workforce concentrate on creative tasks and responsibilities. In their pursuit of acquiring customers, raising funds, displacing industry leaders, companies would often not be left with a care to spare for their employees. However, as the business environment grows more competitive, companies are no longer taking the loyalty of their workforce for granted. Being aware that the top talent would always hold the reigns of a companys growth and longevity, present-day enterprises are curating an excellent working environment for perhaps their most valuable assets. Happy: A green office with robot sweeper & fitness bands for Emp_ID Swearing by the age-old adage, health is wealth, Mumbai-based Happy Loans has walked the extra mile in ensuring green, modish and healthy environment for their employees. The workplace houses lush greenery, with over 200 plants accentuating the beauty of its premises. Furthermore, ensuring that the employees health will never take a backseat again, Happy is using robot sweepers to help employees with heavy cleaning tasks and branded fitness bands for identification. Right from clocking in at work to becoming aware of their fitness levels and getting in more oxygen Happy is covering the extra mile in extending the most conducive work environment to its employees. Haptik: Getting ChatBots to rescue employees from the mundane tasks Putting all the chatter of ChatBots and AI taking over human jobs behind, Haptik has actually been successful in forging alliances between the tech and the living. The Mumbai-based Indias largest Conversational AI platform utilizes the skill set of human resources in customer service to help train their bots. Thus, while bots get really close to learning directly from the horses mouth, human resources that were previously engaged in the mundane and repetitive tasks now have the opportunity to graduate to levels of bot builders, trainers, QA and more. Cybage: Utilizing AI to help business leaders make better decisions Decision making is perhaps the most crucial tasks for employees. In this age of digitization, we are constantly dwelling amidst information overload and the hard working business leaders could use a little help with the decision. This is where Pune-based Cybage steps in. With its data-driven framework Decision Mines, Cybage aids managers with machine learning and predictive analytics to make informed decisions, helping them leverage the art of judgment and science of data. However, during the genesis of this product, Cybage first extended the powerful platform to its very own employees. Empowering employees with cutting-edge technology and noticing wonderful results allowed Cybage to go ahead and make Decision Mines accessible to all. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Russias manned space program director, Sergei Krikalev, told state news agency Tass on Friday that the leak was patched.(Photo: AP) Russias space agency says air pressure on the International Space Station has been restored to proper levels after a leak was repaired. Roscosmos said in a statement Friday that the safety and health of the crew are not threatened. The leak, which was discovered Thursday, was traced to a small hole in one of the Russian Soyuz capsules docked at the station. All members of the space station crew arrive and depart on Soyuz capsules. Russias manned space program director, Sergei Krikalev, told state news agency Tass on Friday that the leak was patched with a sealant that is already proving to be airtight. He said that the fracture could be due to materials flaw or a micrometeorite strike. Three Americans, two Russians and a German are aboard the station. 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. Among the items on the defence ministrys shopping list are two sets of US-made Aegis Ashore missile defence systems to defend the country against North Koreas nuclear and missile threats, with a combined price tag of 234.3 billion yen. (Photo: AFP) Tokyo: Japans defence ministry on Friday made its biggest ever budget request, seeking better missile defence and bolstered air power amid ongoing threats from North Korea and China. The ministry wants 5.298 trillion yen ($47 billion) for the next fiscal year from April, the seventh straight annual increase and 2.1 per cent more than last year. Among the items on the defence ministrys shopping list are two sets of US-made Aegis Ashore missile defence systems to defend the country against North Koreas nuclear and missile threats, with a combined price tag of 234.3 billion yen. It also wants six more F-35 fighter jets and two E-2D Hawkeye radar and maritime aircraft, with plans to expand the air force patrol team by adding 30 servicemen to a current team of 830. The budget request came hot on the heels of the ministrys annual defence review, which said North Korea still poses a serious and imminent threat despite a diplomatic detente earlier this year. After the historic June 12 summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore, there has been little tangible progress in denuclearising the Korean peninsula. In recent weeks, Washington Pyongyang relations appear to have taken a turn for the worse, with Trump abruptly scrapping a planned visit to the North by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The defence review also took aim at China's rise as a military power, saying Beijing was sparking strong security concerns in the region and international community, including Japan. Tokyo is wary of Beijing, which is seen by several countries in the region as becoming increasingly aggressive over various sovereignty claims, including a long festering row with Japan over small islands in the East China Sea. For its part, China announced in March an 8.1 percent defence budget increase to 1.11 trillion yuan ($175 billion) for 2018, as it bids to modernise the world's largest military. New South Wales police Detective Superintendent Mick Sheehy told reporters the man was believed to be acting on his own and there was no ongoing threat to the community Sydney: A Sri Lankan suspected to be linked to the Islamic State group was on Friday charged with terrorism offences for possessing a document police allege contained plans to target symbolic locations in Sydney. Mohamed Nizamdeen, 25, was arrested at the University of New South Wales where he worked after a tip-off by someone who found a notebook allegedly detailing his plans. He appeared at the Waverley Local Court Friday and was denied bail. Australian Federal Police Detective Superintendent Michael McTiernan said the charges were serious and significant. It is quite a significant document which requires further analysis, he said. At this stage there are a number of locations and individuals named in that document who are potential targets. New South Wales police Detective Superintendent Mick Sheehy told reporters the man was believed to be acting on his own and there was no ongoing threat to the community. They are symbolic locations within Sydney, but that's about as far as we would say at this stage, he added. Police said Nizamdeen was believed to be affiliated with Islamic State, but he has not yer been charged with being a member of a terrorist group. Authorities say more than a dozen terrorist attacks have been prevented in the past few years, but several have taken place, including a cafe siege in Sydney in 2014 where two hostages were killed. The BBMP has identified 4,178 hoardings in the city and received 1,817 applications with required documents as a response to its public notice to submission of documents by hoarding and flex owners. The counsel for the civic body made the submissions on Friday at the high court, where a bench headed by Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari was hearing a PIL asking the court's orders to remove flex banners and hoardings. The counsel also said the BBMP had adjudicated 1,631 out of the 1,817 applications. The remaining applications were received after the August 20 deadline and would be adjudicated now. The counsel also said the civic body did not receive any response from owners of 2,000 illegal hoardings. The court asked the BBMP to issue individual notices to the owners to remove the hoardings and also issue another public notice by September 4. When the court wanted to know about developments in the criminal cases on the installation of illegal flex banners and hoardings, the Advocate General said 228 out of the 234 accused had pleaded guilty to the charge sheets filed for offences under the Karnataka Open Places (Prevention of Disfigurement) Act, 1981. Directing the Advocate General to submit the details of all the accused persons, including their names and contact details, the court expressed satisfaction at the way the removal of flex banners and hoardings is progressing. It also observed that if the spirit of cooperation between the BBMP, the state government, the police and other participants continued, Bengaluru would become a flex-free city. The court also asked the BBMP to file an affidavit on the action taken and asked the state government to file an affidavit on the actions it intends to take in the issue. The court adjourned the case until September 11. DH News Service Mauled by a pack of eight to 10 stray dogs two days ago, the condition of 11-year-old Praveen remains critical. He is currently being treated at the Manipal Hospital where doctors have been performing complex surgeries to save the boy. Dr Anoop Amarnath, chief of clinical services at the hospital, said, "The child has sustained severe injuries on his face, neck, scalp and arms, and is being treated by an expert team of doctors. "He remains very critical. He is on life support system with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)." The ECMO assists cardiac and respiratory functions in patients. Sources in the hospital also revealed that paediatric surgeons had to perform some complex surgeries on the boy. Meanwhile, three officials from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) have been arrested by HAL police in connection with the case. Dr Shriram, assistant director, Arun Muthalik Desai, senior veterinary doctor, both from the Animal Husbandry division of Mahadevapura zone, and Dr Ravishankar, the contractor, have been arrested on charges of negligence. The three have been booked under sections 289 (negligent conduct with respect to animal) and 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the IPC. Praveen was attacked by stray dogs near Vibhutipura at KR Puram while he was playing with his elder brother at a lake bank near his house. He is a Class VI student of a government school near Ramesh Nagar in HAL. The recent arrests of five activists, in addition to the earlier five, accusing them of inciting violence and having links with Maoists have triggered an avalanche of protests. Questions have been raised over the way police and the State are acting against activists. Activists claim that those who fight for the oppressed Dalits and Adivasis are being targeted. Delhi University Professor SAR Geelani, who was acquitted by the Supreme Court in the Parliament Attack case and now associated with Committee for Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP), finds a pattern in the arrests and the branding of activists as Naxals. CRPP was earlier described as a Naxal-front organisation, a description which Geelani and others find a ploy to target them. Geelani spoke to DH's Shemin Joy. Excerpts: How do you see these arrests? Why are these arrests happening now? There is a pattern. It has not happened overnight. It is not happening haphazardly. The first arrest was that of Delhi Universit, Professor GN Saibaba. He was convicted but it was on flimsy ground. You will realise it when you review the judgement. The team, including lawyer Surendra Gadling and activist Rona Wilson, which was actually working for the release of Saibaba were arrested in the second round in June. In the third round now, the arrests have happened when the first five are completing 90 days in custody. It is now time for filing chargesheet and all. So before that, they have done another round of arrests. These people, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Fernandes and others, were providing legal help to these people were arrested in June. This time there was a hue and cry over these arrests. But earlier when the arrests happened, there was no protest in the manner and scope of what we are seeing now. I don't know why there was not much protest then. I don't know whether there was fear among people that they will be labelled Naxals. If you don't rise, this will happen. Second thing is that those named in the Bhima Koregaon violence, they are roaming around. Sambhaji Bhide is not arrested at all while one of them who were arrested is already on bail. The activists are accused of inciting people, hate speech and all. Now we have the case of Sanatan Sanstha. Some of them were arrested with arms. They held a press conference in Mumbai demanding abolition of Indian Constitution, making changes in it. The kind of threats they are giving to minorities. None of them are arrested. Lynching is going on. None of them are arrested. One has to call a spade a spade. There is a fascist government at the Centre. They are doing these things to those people whom they think oppose them, or those who have a different ideology. These people can be a hurdle in the present government's way. Those people are being pounced upon and put behind the bars. Protests three months ago were not this vocal. What changed in these three months from the first set of arrests? I think one should understand the design of the government. What is happening is that the civil society is falling into the right-wing trap. When you say something, they (right wing) bring the bogey of national vs anti-national. We should not fall into that trap. A similar thing happened in Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2016. The whole issue then was that of freedom of speech. But we ended up making it a national-anti national debate. That should not happen now. One has to be very clear. You cannot be sectarian. This government is fascist. One should stand with the oppressed despite whether they believe in your ideology. What I am saying is that if this kind of outrage was there when Saibaba was arrested, if there was this kind of outrage in June when five other activists were arrested, this (latest arrests) could not have happened. You being mute, your silence has encouraged them (government) to move forward further. The arrests of the activists have raised a lot of hue and cry. Interestingly, the Supreme Court has ordered house arrest and not given police an immediate remand. Is it a positive sign? Police case is nothing. They have not even put the translation of the warrant before Magistrate. How did the magistrate grant transit remand without understanding the nature of it? How do you protect the rights of people? We all know how the police function. Second thing is that the Supreme Court has given seven days house arrest of activists. Seven days is enough for police to fabricate documents and evidence. They are masters in fabrication. Now, they might fabricate a lot of things. Unfortunately, we tend to believe these fabrications and there is no public scrutiny. I hope for the best, something good should come up. But actually, I keep my fingers crossed. There is an increasing tendency to brand people a Naxal. We have the new coinage 'Urban Naxal'. How do you see this trend? It is not that this (BJP-led NDA) government started. It is the continuation of what the previous (Congress-led UPA) government did. The agencies did it and they are doing it now also. If you work for the minorities, if you talk about their oppression, you are a terrorist. If you work for Dalits, Adivasis, oppressed sections of the society, you are a Naxal. This is how they picturise you. Unfortunate thing is that people will start distancing themselves from organisations branded as Naxal-linked. If PUDR or PUCL is branded Naxal front organisation, will people start distancing themselves from the organisation? If you are doing so, that is an encouragement to the agencies. That is what is encouraging them. They are branding any organisation as a Naxal front outfit. CRPP is working for prisoners. They brand us a Naxal-front. People start distancing from the organisation and if they are doing this, they are actually helping the State and establishment to further their designs. You will have to stand firm. The CRPP was branded. How such actions affect the activists? We are getting entrapped in this branding thing. They can brand anybody. Tomorrow if they say CPI(M) is Maoist, are we going to accept it. Should people stop getting involved with it. This is the issue here. Nobody is ready to say that this government's nationalism is based on hatred. And, hell with this kind of nationalism. Has the civil society fallen into that trap? They are falling into the trap. When the branding happened earlier, there was no outrage. If this kind of outrage was there three months ago, this would not have happened. Do you see any link between the recent actions and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls? Definitely. All these actions are to polarise the society. This is to hide their incompetency, hide their failure in fulfilling the promises they have made. They could not fulfil even 1% of the promises they made. They have done the exact opposite of what they have promised. There is more oppression, there are lynchings. This has got some sort of sanctity now. The society has become a barbarian society. There is no civilisation left. To hide all this, the government is doing all these kind of things. These are all done keeping in mind 2019 polls. It seems you believe we are living in scary times? Yes, indeed scary times. International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), Arya Samaja Road, is organising Sri Krishna Janmashtami programme on September 1 and 2 at Koragappa Kalyana Mantapa, Gokarnanatheshwara temple, Mangaluru. Speaking to reporters, President Karunya Sagar Dasa said that cultural programmes will be held from 4 pm. This will be followed by the prize distribution of the Heritage festival which was held at the Canara High school auditorium, Urva, in August. About 1,000 students from 35 schools in and around Mangaluru had participated in this festival. Competitions were held for the students of LKG to Class 10, in Bhagavad Gita recitation, colouring, folk dance, essay writing, painting, mime show, vocal music, vedic quiz among others. About 300 students will receive prizes for different events. MLA Vedavyas Kamath will be the chief guest. The prize distribution will be followed by a video on Lord Krishnas birth followed by grand Mahamangalarathi at 9 pm along with Sankirtana chants by all devotees. On September 2, a magic show themed Yogeshwara Krishna will be performed by magician Kudroli Ganesh from 3.45 to 4.45 pm. This will be an educational and innovative show, unique from the other shows performed by the artiste as an offering to Lord Krishna. Saxophone artiste Kadri Gopalnath will perform on Hari Chitta Satya from 5 pm to 6.45 pm. A grand Mahaabhisheka of Lord Krishna followed by an important and interesting video on Lord Krishna Maha Mangalarathi at 9.30 pm accompanied by ecstatic Kirtans. Japa Mantapam, an exclusive 108 step mantap, will be created to facilitate the chanting of the Lords holy name. The devotees will chant 50 lakh names of Lord Krishna on the occasion. There will be a special swing for the baby Krishna and people can offer Jhulan Seva to the Lord on September 1 from 4.30 - 8.30 pm and on September 2 from 12 noon to 6.45 pm, he said. Devotees can also offer Pushpanjali Seva to Lord Krishna during the same time on both the days. Mubarak, who is said to be responsible for the arrest of Shankar Poojary, from Basrur in Kundapur, in Kuwait by sending packets of medicines along with him to the West Asian country, said he is trying his best to get Poojary out of jail. Speaking to reporters, Mubarak said that he had sent the medical prescription, bills and all necessary documents issued by KMC, Manipal, for the treatment of his mother-in-law Tasleem Fathima who is currently residing in Kuwait. She was treated in KMC before she left for Kuwait. When he came to know about Poojary leaving for Kuwait after the completion of his scheduled leave, he decided to seek his help in dispatching the packets of tablets to his mother-in-law. The tablets were purchased at Radha Medicals and the prescriptions were given to Poojary along with the tablets. Some home-made sweets were also sent along with the tablets, he added. He said, that Poojary left the prescription and the bills of the tablets at home. He was arrested on June 13, 2018, as he was found with banned drugs without proper documents, and the tablets were banned in Kuwait. Mubarak said that he came to know about the incident after 20 days. He added that he was called to Kundapur police station and the police instructed both the families to follow the suggestions given by one Gopal to solve the problem. Following which the medical certificates, prescriptions and the bills authenticating the purchase of the tablets were sent to the Indian embassy at Kuwait with the help of parliamentarians Shobha Karandlaje and Nalin Kateel. Meanwhile, MADAD, the official website of Ministry of External Affairs, states Shankar Poojary is lodged in public jail of Kuwait on the charge of possessing Narcotic Substances. His family has been informed by the mission of further course of action. Human Rights Protection Foundation, Udupi, president, Dr Ravindranath Shanbhag, has urged the Union government and the MEA to provide legal help tpo Poojary who has been languishing in Kuwait jail for no crime of his In a press release, Shanbagh said, Following the pressure by Jyothi, wife of Poojary, and several voluntary organisations, Mubarak approached the doctor at Kasturba Hospital, Manipal, where his mother-in-law Tasleem Fathima was treated in 2015. The doctor at KMC refused to give any prescription without personally examining the patient. Later, Mubarak approached a doctor of a local nursing home at Udupi. who after much persuasion, wrote a prescription dated June 9 2018. All hell broke loose after an over enthusiastic social activist sent a copy of this prescription to Kuwait government. This act of an activist has only created more problem. How can the Kuwait police consider the authenticity of a prescription given by a doctor from India without physically examining the patient, who was very much in Kuwait on the day of prescription?, the human rights activist stated in the release. A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team on Friday took Sachin Andure, the alleged main shooter in rationalist Narendra Dabholkar's killing case, to the crime spot here in Maharashtra. According to a police officer, Andure, who had his face covered was taken to the Omkareshwar Bridge, where Dabholkar was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne assailants on August 20, 2013, while he was on a morning walk. Based on information provided by Andure, who is in his late 20s, the CBI team recreated the entire crime scene as part of its investigation into the case, he said. According to the CBI, Sharad Kalaskar was the "second shooter" in the case. Currently, Kalaskar is in the Maharashtra Anti- Terrorism Squad's custody till September 3 in another case. Kalaskar was arrested by the ATS earlier this month in connection with the seizure of explosives from different parts of Maharashtra. Five people were arrested in the arms haul case and one of them gave the input about Andure's involvement in Dabholkar's killing, which the ATS shared with the CBI, a spokesperson of the central agency had said earlier. Acting on the input from the ATS following the arrest of Kalaskar and other accused, the CBI arrested Andure, a resident of Maharashtra's Aurangabad district, on August 18. The Dabholkar killing case was initially handled by the state police, but in May 2014, it was handed over to the CBI by the Bombay High Court. The police in Antigua and Barbuda are keeping watch on diamantaire Mehul Choksi and the government of the island nation will next week start vetting New Delhi's request for his extradition to India. The Government of Antigua and Barbuda conveyed to New Delhi that the fugitive billionaire was still in the West Indies nation and the local law-enforcing agencies were aware of his whereabouts. It was conveyed to V Mahalingam, India's envoy to Antigua and Barbuda, when he was in St Johns', the capital of the tiny archipelago, earlier this week, sources in New Delhi told the DH. Mahalingam is India's High Commissioner to Guyana. He is also accredited as India's envoy to Antigua and Barbuda (A&B). He visited St John's on August 30 and met Prime Minister Gaston Browne and senior officials of the A&B government and handed over to them a fresh set of documents to buttress New Delhi's request for extradition of Choksi, who allegedly colluded with his nephew and billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi to defraud Punjab National Bank of Rs 14,000 crore. He was assured in St John's that the A&B government's Attorney General Steadroy Benjamin and Director of Public Prosecution Anthony Armstrong would meet early next week and start working on New Delhi's request for Choksi's extradition to India. The process got delayed as the Director of Public Prosecution was on leave and would return to work on Monday, sources said. Mahalingam first conveyed New Delhi's request to the A&B government in late July that the fugitive business tycoon should be detained and should not be allowed to leave the archipelago by land, air or sea. He and Manpreet Vohra, Additional Secretary at the Ministry of External Affairs, visited St John's early last month and handed over to the senior officials of the A&B government the formal request from the Government of India for Choksi's extradition. Though Choksi has not yet been detained, the A&B government assured New Delhi that its law-enforcing agencies were keeping watch on him. The owner of Gitanjali Gems on July 30 moved the A&B High Court to bar the government of the country from detaining him for extradition on the request of India. India and A&B have no bilateral extradition treaty. But both New Delhi and St John's are of the view that since India, like A&B, is also a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Section 7 of the country's Extradition Act 1993 does provide a scope for acting on the request for sending back the jeweller even in the absence of a bilateral treaty. Sources in New Delhi, however, added that even if the A&B government was keen to cooperate with the Government of India, the extradition would be possible only if the courts in the island nation cleared it. Three militants and a soldier were killed in an encounter between army and ultras in a week-long operation at Danna forest area of north Kashmir's Bandipora district. Sources said a joint team of army's 27 and 31 Rashtriya Rifles battalions had launched a cordon-and-search operation (CASO) in the woods of Chaan Daji and Dani Behak area of Bandipora since last one week. Yesterday in the afternoon, a gunfight ensued after a joint team of forces had a standoff with the militants at Danna forests. In the operation which continued till today in the afternoon three Lashkar-e-Toiba militants, were killed, they said. An army soldier identified as Rifleman Shiv Kumar of 31 RR was also injured today in the morning and was evacuated to 92 base military hospital, where he succumbed to injuries," they added. Army's Srinagar based defence spokesperson Col Rajesh Kalia confirmed the killing of three militants in the operation. He said the bodies of the slain militants along with as many weapons and other like stores were recovered. Earlier, on Thursday, two Lasker-e-Toiba militants of Pakistani origin were killed in an encounter with security forces in Hajin area of the same district. The Western Ghats is one of 14 biodiversity hotspots in the world, stretching from the Tapti River to Kanyakumari through Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. 63 rivers originate from different locations of the stretch and the lives of the people of the entire Indian peninsula are dependent on them. The area comprises of gentle to steep slopes and supports a huge biodiversity of flora and fauna. Population growth has resulted in expansion of human areas and consequently diversion of forest lands for development projects such as roads, railway lines, transmission lines, reservoirs for irrigation and power projects, etc. Forests are also denuded and degraded due to heavy anthropogenic pressure of encroachments, grazing, forest fires, illicit cutting of trees for timber, poles and firewood, and illegal collection of non-timber forest products (NTFP) and medicinal plants. The Forest Rights Act 2006, to safeguard the rights of scheduled tribes and other forest dwellers, was enacted with good intent, but the implementation was tardy as officers came under pressure to accept all claims. In forested districts like North Kanara, Haveri, Kodagu and Shimoga, there was aggressive clearing of forest growth. The communities had the patronage of political masters. Politicians conducted public meetings and encouraged villagers to clear more and more forests and claim title. When the cases were rejected by Deputy Commissioners, they were pressured. Forest officers were silent spectators as tree-growth clearing continued unabated. Areas, where encroachments were evicted, were reoccupied and titles were claimed. It may be time to take a relook at the Forest Rights Act. The Karnataka (Preservation) of Trees Act was meant to regulate permissions for tree-felling on private lands in the Western Ghats. Not all wooded areas were reserved. Vast stretches, especially in Chikkamagaluru, Hassan and Kodagu districts, were under the control of the Revenue Department. Kodagu district had a number of confusing land tenures; officers, politicians and timber merchants have enjoyed this confusion. Some areas were encroached and much more were allotted for coffee cultivation. Wooded areas lost their character as varieties of timber species were extracted by merchants. Coffee plantations have now a monoculture of silver oak trees. A series of reports by the French Institute of Pondicherry suggest that Kodagu district lost 30% of tree cover between 1967 and 2007. The granting of tree-felling permission on steep slopes in hilly districts is the reason for the flood and landslides that Kodagu faced recently. The parent soil in the region is banded hematite quartzite (BHQ), barring patches where it is of unstable clay origin. Accordingly, soil is lateritic on the top, which is stable, as indicated by the presence of Xylia xylocarpa trees. Kodagu and vast stretches of Kerala belong to this exceptional group of clayey parent material. The absence of Xylia xylocarpa tree in Kodagu indicates that soil is relatively unstable. It is necessary in such tracts that miscellaneous tree species are not extracted, as a precaution against landslides. Unstable soil structure is the reason for failure in fixing Shiradi Ghat road. In such a fragile ecosystem, large-scale development projects have made matters worse. When we attempt to change the landscape, we clear the tree growth, use JCBs to demolish the hillock, take up construction of tourist resorts, disturb the natural drainage pattern, make layouts in paddy fields, construct ever more roads in the ghat section, etc. The recent flood and landslide were the consequences of our actions. In Sakleshpur taluk, forest is diverted for a number of mini-hydel projects, which hardly contribute to power generation. We have sacrificed an elephant corridor in an ecologically fragile area. The widening of roads, taking railway line to Kerala through the forests of Kodagu, reviving the Hubbali-Ankola railway line are disasters in the making. The elephant population in the Dandeli Elephant Reserve is steadily increasing. A railway project in North Kanara will fragment the forests, resulting in increased conflict with wild animals. The destruction of forests for such big projects cannot be compensated in economic terms, it has wide-ranging environmental consequences that we cannot mitigate. If we disturb the natural drainage pattern for water and clear the tree growth, what will follow are landslides, flood and droughts, which will have enormous social cost. The decision of the Government of Karnataka to not accept the Gadgil Report must be revisited. The report proposed three types of Eco-Sensitive Zones to denote where activities are permitted, regulated or prohibited. Activities like quarrying, mining, industries, etc., were prohibited in the Ghats. Ecological issues were to be managed by Grama Sabha. Agriculture was to be practiced only in A and B class of lands. Presently, agriculture is being practiced in class C and D lands, which are to be continued. If the state accepts the report with some modification, it will save the Western Ghats by prohibiting mining, industries, etc., which are the root causes of tree-felling and alteration of landscape. Felling of naturally growing trees in the Western Ghats should be prohibited, especially in Kodagu and Sakleshpur areas. Clearing these trees for big projects is a sure way to a future disaster. Any plans for layouts, tourism infrastructure, etc., should undergo rigorous scrutiny. Industries and mining, including removal of sand from the river beds, can have disastrous consequences on the environment and should be prohibited. (The writer is a former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Karnataka) PHILADELPHIA Talks will continue over the weekend as the both sides seek to avert a possible strike and delay in the opening of the school year for archdiocesan high schools. Both the teachers union and representatives from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia have been at the bargaining table for days and vow to talk through the weekend as they seek agreement on a new deal. The union represents more than 600 lay Catholic high school teachers, who saw their latest one-year year contract expire at midnight. School is scheduled to begin for nearly 12,000 students at the 17 archdiocesan high schools Wednesday if teachers agree to a new deal. The union has indicated they do not want another one-year deal, as has been the case with the last several contracts. Rank-and-file are insisting on a multi-year deal. The most recent one-year contract between the archdiocese and the Association of Catholic Teachers 1776 (ACT) expires at midnight Aug. 31. Representatives of ACT 1776 and the Archdiocese of Philadelphias Office of Catholic Education (OCE) met Friday to discuss the latest labor-management agreement to no avail. Talks are slated between the parties on Sunday and Monday with ACT preparing to have its members vote on a contract on Tuesday. Neither the archdiocese nor ACT 1776 President Ritz Schwartz on Friday would provide specifics on what the bargaining points are, but medical benefits and salary are both on the table. Schwartz said ACT has been working with one-year contracts for each of the last four years and that teachers are very strong on wanting more than a one-year contract. I hope we will be able to get this done, said Schwartz in a Friday email. According to the archdiocese, the office of Catholic education and ACT began talks in April with 15 joint negotiation sessions since then. A letter sent to ACT members on Aug. 27 said proposals were discussed with the OCE for a second time on Aug. 17 and 20. It had taken time, time we really do not have, to get through the language, read the letter signed by Schwartz. This is due, mainly, to the fact that the system placed everything back on the table that was in its original proposal. Nothing had been agreed to. A statement released by Archdiocese Associate Director of Communications Stephanie Brophy on Friday shed some light on those proposals. The proposals offered to ACT by OCE ensure no teacher will experience a rise in cost for health benefits, read the statement. Salaries for high school teachers in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia are consistently ranked among the top in the nation, according to the annual survey completed by the National Association of Catholic School Teachers. For the 2017-18 contract that expired Friday, it was reported that salary and benefit contributions were not areas of contention for those negotiations, with health plan co-pays not increasing and all teachers receiving a $1,200 raise. That contract also bumped the starting salary for teachers from $38,000 to $39,000. Top of scale teachers make $80,505. A teacher with 20 years experience makes $54,480 a year. Teachers were given more professional development days as part of that contract and the teacher work day will be extended by 15 minutes for the 2018-19 school year. ACT and the OCE are scheduled to meet for another 14 hours before teachers will gather on Tuesday morning for a vote. The last strike by archdiocesan teachers took place in 2011, when teachers hit the bricks and disrupted the first two weeks of school. Contract negotiations affect full-time teachers in the 17 archdiocesan high schools including Cardinal OHara, Monsignor Bonner & Archbishop Prendergast, Bishop Shanahan, Father Judge and Lansdale Catholic. Elementary and regional school teachers are not unionized. CONCORD-A Delaware County corrections officer is facing felony contraband charges for allegedly smuggling a synthetic cannabinoid known as K2 into the county prison in Concord. Bramiir Shareif Cannon, 25, of the 3000 block of Kent Road in Folcroft, was arrested at the prison after being confronted by his shift commander and producing three bundles of a green leafy substance along with 40 cigarettes, according to a release from Delaware County District Attorney Katayoun M. Copeland. Just recently, 25 state prisons across the state were placed on lockdown due to visitors smuggling drugs into our state prisons a very dangerous felony crime that puts the safety of corrections officers, staff, inmates and community members at risk, said Copeland in the release. In the case of the defendant, he is held to a higher standard of conduct, and instead of doing his job of ensuring the safety of the prison, Mr. Cannon breached the trust of his colleagues, and put their safety at risk by bringing this substance into his workplace. Cannon was three hours late for his shift Thursday and was ordered to report to the shift commander upon arriving, according to the release. Cannon was allegedly walking with a limp and had a large bulge in the groin area of his pants, the release says. When asked about the bulge, Cannon allegedly said he was tired of being harassed and left the room. The shift commander immediately had the sally port secured and called backup correctional officers to the scene. When confronted by additional officers, Cannon admitted he was in possession of contraband and removed the items from his pants, according to the release. County Detective Edward Kazlo and Sergeant Kenneth Bellis were called to the prison and interviewed Cannon, who allegedly admitted that he intended to deliver the contraband to an inmate. Detective Ed Pisani also assisted in the investigation. Cannon told the detectives he needed money to repair an unreliable vehicle that often broke down. After confiding with an inmate about his money problems, Cannon said he was offered between $200 and $250 to sneak the contraband into the prison, the release says. Cannon told the investigators the green leafy substance was K-2, the same synthetic cannabinoid suspected of causing sickness among guards and inmates at state prisons in recent weeks, causing a system-wide lockdown. A field test confirmed that the substance recovered from Cannon was synthetic marijuana, according to the release. This is the third report of contraband drugs being smuggled into the prison this month. Heather Stamm, 35, of Upper Darby, allegedly brought Suboxone into the prison to deliver to her boyfriend during an Aug. 6 visit and Rebecca Anne MacBryghde, 40, of Cumberland, Maryland, was arrested earlier this week for allegedly attempting to pass the same prescription drug to her fiance during an Aug. 16 visit. Cannon was arraigned Thursday by Magisterial District Judge Walter A. Strohl, who set bail at $100,000 cash. Cannon was unable to post bail and he was remanded to the county prison. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 13 before Magisterial District Judge Wendy B. Roberts. RADNOR Several residents who came to a Disaster Assessment and Recording Center at the township building Friday complained that the township studied its stormwater problems for years but has not solved the flooding problem. After a torrential downpour on Aug. 13, Radnor and other portions of Delaware County were hit by floods. Delaware County also opened disaster assessment centers in Upper Darby and Darby Borough, said Inder Bains, a county 911 official, who was on hand with volunteers to help Radnor residents and business owners fill out paper work. Radnor Police Sgt. George Smith, the township emergency coordinator, said residents affected by flooding should fill out forms for the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and the federal Small Business Administration. The process of finding out whether the state suffered enough damage from the Aug. 13 flooding to receive federal help is yet to be determined, Smith said. The center in Radnor was open Friday afternoon and evening and will be again on Saturday (Sept. 1) from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. so residents need to act quickly, he said. A couple whove lived on St. Davids Road for 43 years who declined to give their names said that theyve been flooded 12 times. This is the worst by far, the wife said. She said they were getting too old to repeatedly clean up after flood water damages their home. The husband said each time his house is flooded hes told its the 100-year storm when their property floods. Their neighbor, Susan Ayres on Midland Avenue, said, I wish the township would fix the stormwater problem. On Aug. 13, her basement flooded with muddy, dirty water and her air conditioning system was ruined. The neighbors agreed that the township has been permitting too much paving and permitting over-building, allowing single-family homes to be razed and four townhouses to be built. Theyve been studying stormwater issues for decades, said Ayres, who called for action and no more studies. Another West Wayne woman who also did not want her name used, said that her house flooded for the first time in the 18 years shes lived there. It cost $7,000 to clean out her finished basement that was destroyed. Water damage is not covered by their homeowners policies, the residents said. And because their lots are not in the official floodplain they cant buy flood insurance, they said. Smith said the data about the flooding damages needs to be submitted to the state by Tuesday. If residents cant come into the center they should contact Smith at flood@radnor.org to set up an appointment for an on-site assessment. Timeliness is extremely important in this data collection event. Any questions or concerns please contact Smith at flood@radnor.org / gsmith@radnor.org or 610-688-5605 ext. 103. Email is the best option if possible. SALT LAKE CITY Its not what was inside his room that Jeff Stant was most grateful for not the bug-free bed, the clean sink, the personal minifridge or the second-story window view of the street outside. It was the door locked behind him. Living at a shelter in downtown Salt Lake City for the previous 11 months, Stant had known thieves to knife open bags in the night. He slept with his shoes under his mattress, so they'd be there in the morning. At the nearby Rio Grande Hotel for $330 per month, Stant had bought back his sense of security. I knew what I left in my room was going to be there when I got back, he said. Its a good feeling. Four years later, the 57-year-old cook at the local food hall has an enviable setup. A flat-screen TV. Wall-mounted speakers. Space enough for a comfy chair and his bicycle. His cookware is organized on a long shelf above the sink, and he keeps a full spice rack, a case of energy drinks and a few lightly touched bottles of top-shelf liquor. The Rio Grande Hotel was built in 1911 for railroad workers at the adjacent depot, and it still offers low-cost rooms with shared kitchens and bathrooms. Nobody has to sign a lease or divulge their criminal record. It's clean and quiet, and through an innovative private management approach, it's able to turn a profit. And yet the 50 rooms here constitute the city's only housing in the category known as single-room occupancy (SRO), down from 800 in 1978. The same trend played out nationally throughout the 20th century, when residential hotels were decimated by zoning and redevelopment as critics of hotel living said it bred crime, disease and culturally deviant lifestyles. Today's widespread shortages of affordable urban rentals have led modern planners in places like New York and Chicago to try to preserve what's left of single-room occupancy. In Salt Lake City, where the 1,100-bed shelter is slated to be replaced next summer by three smaller shelters with a lesser overall capacity, leaders have begun to see SRO housing might as a missing piece in a revamped homeless services model: a stepping stone for the homeless and a safety net for those who might otherwise become homeless. Stant, who went to the shelter after being laid off, estimated 50 to 75 percent of people there could benefit from similar rooms. He's still looking for an apartment, but in the absence of more conventional housing, a locked a door counts for a lot. The death of SROs Paul Groth was baffled when, in August 1977, thousands of protesters surrounded San Franciscos International Hotel to stop police from evicting elderly residents ahead of the buildings demolition. I asked, Why such a fuss? Why would anyone want to live in a hotel? the University of California, Berkeley professor emeritus of architecture and geography wrote in the introduction to his 1994 book on the subject, Living Downtown. But Groth needed a dissertation topic, and he eventually undertook what would become an authoritative study of San Franciscos rich history of hotel living. (All while the site of the razed International sat empty, save for the homeless who gathered in its basement archways to escape the wind. It was only rebuilt as senior housing in 2005.) Groth eventually concludes in Living Downtown that this wholesale closing and destruction of residential hotels is a major tragedy and a root cause of homelessness in the United States. A good hotel room of 150 square feet dry space, perhaps with a bath or a room sink, cold and sometimes hot water, enough electric service to run a 60-watt bulb and a television, central heat, and access to telephones and other services constitutes a living unit mechanically more luxuriant than those lived in by a third to a half of the population of the earth. It was common throughout the first half of the 20th century for American city dwellers to live in hotel rooms, which ranged from palatial suites to nickel-a-night spaces on a flophouse floor. Frugal Calvin Coolidge and his wife shared a $1-per-night room in Boston (about $20 in today's dollars) until he became Massachusetts governor and his friends persuaded them to upgrade to a $2 room. As a young congressman, Lyndon Johnson spent three years at Washington, D.C.s Dodge Hotel. Rooming houses that operated similarly to the Rio Grande Hotel contained an eclectic mix of teachers, machinists, policemen and nurses, day laborers and newlyweds. But the tide of public opinion turned against hotel life. Some were sources of crime, fires, disease. Hotel living became viewed as aberrantly individual, delaying the formation of families living the American Dream in single-family homes. City officials and planners began to say things like Nobody should have to live in a hotel. Concentrations of single-room occupancy became known as skid rows. After World War II, many cities rewrote their codes to exclude rooming houses from multifamily zones. In the ensuing decades, those SRO rooms that remained were often filled long-term with elderly patients referred by welfare departments or mental health patients released by shuttered institutions. That meant the job of managing residency hotels became as much casework as hospitality. Between 1974 and 1983 alone, the nation lost nearly 900,000 SRO rooms costing $200 per month, either because they were demolished or converted to more profitable uses like office towers or condominiums. A decade ago, Salt Lake City tore down three SRO hotels on State Street between 200 and 300 South at the heart of the downtown business district to make way for a mixed-use development that promised affordable housing, retail and eateries, the Plaza at State Street. After a series of financial and structural problems led the developer to back out, all that remains are steel beams and graffitied concrete. A local solution The house rules are affixed to the wall in the Rio Grande Hotel lobby. No borrowing or lending. No smoking. No public intoxication. Visitors have to sign in and out. Etc. Under innkeeper laws, tenants of the Rio Grande Hotel are guests, not residents, and when they violate the rules, managers have broad authority to eject them at a moments notice. Still, management say they only eject about a dozen people each year, and ejectees are welcome back on the waiting list for another room. Theres no black book. Brent Willis of HomeInn Transitional Housing, which manages the Rio Grande Hotel for the citys Redevelopment Agency, said he doesnt ask guests about their criminal histories, even as he welcomes many from halfway houses and the prison system. They often make the best guests, he said, because their parole officers and counselors give them a support structure (though they can also be prone to discouragement when they first realize how often they will be discriminated against in housing and job searches). Im not saying I have compassion for what theyve done, but I have compassion for their situation, he said. At some point, people pay their dues. The hotels hallways are bright and airy, with a central atrium that feeds fresh air and sunlight into interior-facing rooms. Theres a bathroom per every five residents, and each bathroom includes a shower and a lock. Guests share three large fridges, a free laundry room, and a central community space where they can check out hundreds of DVDs and books. Out back, a gated lot secures guests cars and bikes and includes a covered smoking area. Security cameras are everywhere you look, feeding two large displays in the managers office. All for as little as $225 per month, for one of a few bunk rooms, or $330 for a single room. There's one unique catch, however: Guests can only stay for a year unless they participate in a give-back program. Those who volunteer between an hour and four hours a week can earn up to two additional six-month extensions, and those with a high degree of utility at the hotel itself become essential, meaning they can stay indefinitely. The give-back concept came to Willis after he and his wife, Naomi, bought their first SRO property about 15 years ago a rooming house in Kearns that had become a hive of drug activity and sold for cheap. The previous owner had run the place using apartment laws, which meant it could take up to three months to evict somebody even if they refused to pay their rent. Willis, a retired air traffic controller, thought there must be a more sensible way. His solution: innkeeper laws. By treating the property as though it was a hotel, and not an apartment, he could immediately hold guests accountable for their actions. Whats more, he could incentivize good behavior. Its more than what the old-fashioned SROs used to be: Come rent a room, stay for just a few months and then leave, Willis said. Thats why its spotless why theres no dirt, even, on the pipes that run along the tops of the walls. Its a guests job to dust those pipes. The aim is to help every guest obtain the skills and habits necessary to graduate to better housing, said Willis. By his in-house tally, nine out of 10 are able to do so. Stant, who cooks an annual four-bird Thanksgiving dinner for the whole building in addition to his food-hall and volunteer duties, is essential. He can stay as long as he wants. Same for Tracey Miller, who lives at the Rio Grande Hotel and makes $13 an hour as HomeInns maintenance man, driving his old Ford Ranger between its three area properties. In fact, the Rio Grande Hotel has just one full-time employee HomeInns financial controller who isnt also a guest. Miller is a deferential 56-year-old whose sinewy golden forearms evince a life spent working on cars and houses. He divorced twice and, faced with two child support payments, went to live for cheap at the original HomeInn property in Kearns about five and a half years ago. Its just like being married and having kids, he said with a soft laugh. Some guests have to be told to clean up after themselves, or what they shouldnt put down the drain. But Miller displays an abiding pride for the condition of the place, where he works his way through odd jobs jotted on clipboard in the lobby. He collects things that might be useful, like a sink he recently found in a dumpster across the street, ripped from the wall of a $150-a-night hotel. Hell repurpose that with the high-end hotels blessing as he and Willis make their way through one-by-one remodels of the Rio Grande Hotels 10 bathrooms. If I had the space for it, we would have gotten a lot more stuff, Miller said. And local momentum, too? Outgoing Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes bought his first building in 1996: The Woodruff apartments at 235 S. 200 East in 1996. The Woodruff was built in 1908, providing working men with Murphy beds, hot water, a gas range, a buffet and their choice of color paint on the wall. When Hughes took over, the basement still had dorm-style units, a shared bathroom and a towel service, and most of the tenants were elderly and had lived there for years. It met their needs, Hughes said. They didnt need a whole lot, but they wanted their own place. They wanted to be self-sufficient. But he had trouble filling vacant rooms, and he tired of washing towels. When Hughes rehabilitated the building, he turned the basement into studios, reducing the buildings total occupancy from 60 to 48. If he had to do it again, Hughes said, he would have kept the single rooms. Its only in hindsight where Im seeing the challenges now, and Im seeing the barriers for housing and how high they are to people. Along the Wasatch Front, rental vacancy rates are 3 percent. Utahs housing price increases are the nations fourth-highest since 1991, according to a March report from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. If housing prices and incomes increase at the same rate as they have since then, the report says, Utahs 2044 housing market would look like San Franciscos. Hughes frequently spoke about the need for affordable, dorm-style housing this time last year, after making new shelter funding a priority at the legislative session and then marshaling a crackdown on shelter-area crime from an improvised office at the south end of The Gateway mall. The subject faded into the background as Hughes and other officials freed up funding for drug treatment and arranged new employment opportunities for the area's homeless. But a small group of state officials and homeless advocates breathed new life into the conversation earlier this month after it surveyed 165 service-resistant homeless people about where they would like to sleep, if not on the streets or in the new shelters. A quarter of those surveyed liked living on the streets. Most preferred to live alone. But nearly half had some source of income, whether from wages, disability or social security. The groups recommendation: Build three 50-unit buildings with rents limited to $200. They didnt say when or where they should be built, however, and if the process of siting three new homeless shelters was any indication, the builders are likely to encounter some not-in-my-backyard opposition. Willis has experienced it already. There's very little turnover in the 140 rooms that HomeInn manages, which as of this year include a few dozen low-income State Street motel rooms purchased by the Housing Authority of Salt Lake (which filled in less than three weeks). He is constantly on the lookout for more locations, but two proposals have died in the face of resistance at the public comment stage. More than two dozen sex offenders had most recently listed the Rio Grande Hotels address, according to the Utah Department of Corrections online registry though its worth noting that HomeInn offers the use of camera-monitored mailboxes to people who are on the waiting list. A log of recent police calls didnt show inordinate criminal activity there, given that its at the center of the citys downtown homeless service district and an area that until recently was known for its open-air drug market. In fact, the Rio Grande has had fewer calls, since 2016, than the hotel across the street. So many stories about people being moved off the street, but sleeping on a floor, or sleeping in a tent. Tara Rollins, executive director of the Utah Housing Corporation Hughes said its key that SRO developments are allowed to have a much stronger management side than he could offer when he bought the Woodruff. Willis said it would also hamstring an owner to receive government subsidies that call for yearlong leases or other stipulations that can drive rent into less affordable territory. Tara Rollins, executive director of the Utah Housing Corporation, said SROs arent a panacea, but shes heard so many stories about people being moved off the street, but sleeping on a floor, or sleeping in a tent. Why are we building to tax credit standards where they want you to have a pool and all these amenities? she said. Lets figure out what we need in terms of space. As part of Salt Lake Citys five-year housing plan, city staff have recommended expanding the zones that SRO housing is allowed (currently, just transit corridors and one type of form-based neighborhoods). Planning Commissioner Brenda Scheer, a University of Utah professor of city and metropolitan planning and architecture, said she supports contemporary SROs as a low cost, low-rent option that we have not used as much as we could. We do have this image of an SRO being kind of smoky, kind of a downtrodden place, and I think we have to change our image, she said. I think that fear of the other person is strong, and its even stronger, I think, in Utah, because theres been a kind of homogeneity in Utah for decades, and thats changing a lot. A few stories consistently dominated headlines throughout the week. Arizona Sen. John McCain died on Saturday. The week was full of remembering and honoring the politician and war hero. McCain's death came just one day after the family announced he had decided to stop receiving treatments for brain cancer. Primaries were held in Oklahoma, Arizona and Florida on Tuesday, Aug. 29. Eyes were on Florida as the Bernie Sanders-backed candidate Andrew Gillum won the Democratic nomination. Gillum will face the Trump-backed candidate Ron DeSantis in November. Earlier this week, a U.S. district court ruled that North Carolina's districts were partisan, gerrymandered and unconstitutional. This means that the district lines may need to be redrawn just weeks before the election. On Wednesday, President Trump accused Google of burying conservative search results and of social media only showing leftist content. On Monday, Trump announced new NAFTA negotiations with Mexico. Canada has yet to enter the deal. The current bull market became the longest ever last Wednesday. Critics say the strong, rising prices can't last forever. Other stories illustrated the ongoing Mueller investigation and Elon Musk's flip-flopping tweets. Those of us who understand the existential threat posed by climate change have been waiting for the Pearl Harbor moment that galvanizes people and politicians alike into taking action to minimize that threat. 2018 is turning out to be a Pearl Harbor year, where a majority of Americans support taking action, and we're ready for Congress to press forward. We thought the wake-up call on climate change occurred in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina slammed and devastated New Orleans, a disaster that left 1,836 people dead and displaced tens of thousands more. Four years later, when legislation to price carbon made a run in Congress, any sense of urgency to deal with climate change was lost amid partisan squabbling and pushback from special interests. The next opportunity for action came in 2012 when Superstorm Sandy roared up the East Coast with a storm surge that put much of New York City under water. The cover of Bloomberg Businessweek proclaimed, Its Global Warming, Stupid. But again, nothing happened. Likewise, last years back-to-back-to-back storms Harvey, Irma and Maria left a swath of destruction from Houston to Puerto Rico totaling some $300 billion in damage. This, too, was not enough to spur action. Fortunately, more and more Americans are connecting the dots between extreme weather disasters and climate change, as the latest polling from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication indicates. The Yale study found that 77 percent of U.S. adults support regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant and that 68 percent support taxing fossil fuel companies while equally reducing other taxes. The Yale poll should come as no surprise, given that 2018 is turning out to be a Pearl Harbor year, not just a moment: Triple-digit temperatures in California have created conditions for the worst wildfires the state has ever experienced. In Redding, California, those conditions produced a fire tornado with wind speeds up to 165 mph and temperatures exceeding 2,700 degrees. Smoke from Western wildfires is creating hazardous breathing conditions across the country. A combination of warmer water and nitrogen runoff from farms has produced the worst red tide ever seen in Florida. Manatees, sea turtles and millions of pounds of dead fish have washed up on beaches. Hundreds of deaths around the world have been attributed to record-setting heat waves. But encouragement can be found in the growing movement to depoliticize the issue and get Republicans and Democrats talking to each other about solving the problem. There are now 86 members in the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus in the House, half Republicans and half Democrats. In late July, caucus co-leader Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Florida) introduced the first Republican-sponsored bill to price carbon in nearly a decade. Curbelos bill is a major crack in the dam holding back effective climate legislation, and that dam is likely to burst in the months to come. As Congress returns from August recess and members make their final re-election push, my hope is that climate change becomes a bridge issue rather than the wedge issue its been. Throughout our history, Americans have set aside our differences and come together in times of crisis to turn back a common foe. We can and must do that now with climate change. The terrifying vortex of fire that swept through Redding, California, is the latest Pearl Harbor moment for climate change in a year filled with such moments. Let us hope this year of infamy, together with the growing desire for action, will finally set the wheels in motion for Congress to enact meaningful solutions. SALT LAKE CITY While many Utahns are book clubs enthusiasts (take a look at the Deseret News' series"On the same page" for evidence), KUED is prepared to give local clubs a little extra boost by sending them a box of book club goodies for free. "I thought if I tapped into existing book groups in Utah who were already interested in great storytelling, they might be interested in utilizing our prepared boxes," wrote Laura Durham, KUED's community engagement coordinator, in an email to the Deseret News. The process for KUED's Book Club in a Box is simple: KUED will send interested book clubs a box containing what a news release calls a "packaged toolkit," with a copy of one of the three featured books, its accompanying PBS documentary, background materials and discussion questions written up by a local scholars. The boxes are free for book club hosts thanks to a grant from Utah Humanities. Durham said that the idea for Book Club in a Box grew out of a previous KUED program called "Read and Watch" that paired a book with a film. This year, with PBS highlighting America's love of reading through their series "The Great American Read," Durham saw an ideal opportunity to get Utah readers involved in the PBS series and get them looking at some of the great documentaries featured on KUED. "My hope is that book groups will be able to make unique and meaningful connections between PBS films and the themes in the selected books," Durham wrote. "The Great American Read" is an eight-part series that celebrates reading through an examination of the 100 most-loved novels in the United States, which were chosen through a nation-wide survey. PBS released the list of 100 books in May and will air a two-hour launch episode, on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 7 p.m. Viewers can vote for their favorite book now through Oct. 18. Of the three books included in KUED's Book Club in a Box "Sula" by Toni Morrison, "Never Cry Wolf: Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves" by Farley Mowat and Ralph Ellison's Harlem Renaissance classic "Invisible Man" only one, "Invisible Man," is on the "Great American Read" list. But Natasha Saje, the professor of English at Westminster College who chose Morrison's "Sula" and wrote it's Book Club in a Box discussion questions, said for her, the choice was an easy one. "In my mind it (the book) had to be one that not only brought up issues of gender, class and race, but it also had to be beautifully written," Saje said in an interview with the Deseret News. "Sula," published in 1973, tells the story of two close female friends who grow up to lead drastically different lives. The title character becomes something of a social pariah as she refuses to conform to her community's rules. For Saje, the book addresses issues that are ongoing and relevent. "Historically, women, especially black and poor women, have been denied the time and support necessary to make art," Saje said in a news release. "Toni Morrison's novel 'Sula' examines the life of one such woman and the community that reviles her." KUED paired Saje's book choice with "Iris," a documentary from the "POV" series about fashion icon Iris Apfel. The pairing of a documentary about a real-life nonconformist with a book about a fictional social rebel "encourages discussion of class, race and gender's impact on the making of art; it also asks what it means to live a productive and fulfilling life," Saje said in a news release. Saje aimed to frame her book club discussions about "Sula" in a way that should get readers thinking about their own lives. "A lot of my questions are designed to make people talk about their own journeys and their own pursuit of art," Saje said. This ideas of journeys is present in all the three Book Club in a Box choices. Canadian writer Mowat's "Never Cry Wolf" tells his personal tale of studying wolves in the frozen Arctic tundra. KUED paired the book with "NOVA: Inside Animal Minds," with questions by Rob Carney, a professor of English literature at Utah Valley University. "Few of us will ever travel to Caledonia or the Canadian arctic, except in our imagination," Carney said in a news release. "The naturalist and writer Farley Mowat and the PBS 'NOVA' program are the best kinds of guides: smart, interesting, good storytellers and curious themselves." Weber State University professor of teacher education Forrest Crawford chose Ellison's "Invisible Man" as the third book for Book Club in Box, which KUED paired with documentary "Ralph Ellison: An American Journey." "Ralph Ellison's 'Invisible Man' tells one man's arduous journey from innocence to self-knowledge," Crawford said in a news release. " The 'American Experience' documentary on Ralph Ellison only deepens our awareness of what it means to be both black and American as we learn of his personal journey." With three very different books and their related PBS documentaries to choose from, Durham hopes that Book Club in a Box recipients will find something in the mix that gets them talking with each other and with the wider community. "Most KUED events I plan are for groups of 100 or more and so this allows smaller groups to have in-depth conversations," she wrote. "I also hope the groups will share their insights on our Facebook group to keep the conversation going and see what kind of conversations other book groups in Utah are having on the same topics." To register to receive a box, visit kued.org/bookclub. 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. PARK CITY Park City bus passengers may have noticed a shift from older diesel buses to newer electric ones in the past year, and they will see even more in the future. Park City Transit has been awarded a $2.29 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration's Low-or-No Emission Bus Program, city and county officials said in a news release Thursday. The system, which covers Park City and other parts of Summit County, also received the grant in 2016 and 2017. Each year, the grant has been awarded to support replacing older diesel buses with buses that are 100 percent electric. Six new electric buses from 2016 were used to create the Electric Xpress, a 6.9-mile all-electric express route connecting the Kimball Junction Transit Center, just off the I-80 exit, to Park City's Old Town Transit Center. "The idea for an express service on (state Route) 224 has been around a long time," said Caroline Rodriguez, the Summit County regional transportation planning director. "It's one of the two corridors that everybody travels on, so the need for an express service is apparent." During the seven months it was in operation in 2017, 183,104 passengers used the Electric Xpress, Rodriguez said. In 2018, 315,877 passengers rode the Electric Xpress from the start of the year through July. That contributed to Park City Transit's ridership of 1,645,896 from January through July 2018. The total does not include rides on Utah Transit Authority's route between Park City and Salt Lake City. So far there are 37 diesel and six electric buses in the transit system's fleet. The seven buses from the 2017 grant are in production, Rodriguez said, and are expected to be in operation in December. They will be used to replace various older diesel buses throughout the system. The most recent grant will be used replace vehicles on the routes between Park City and Salt Lake City, and Park City and Kamas. These intercity bus routes run in partnership with the Utah Transit Authority. These all-electric buses should be available in about a year, Rodriguez said. She added that each grant requires a local match, and this year Rocky Mountain Power is expected to donate $500,000 to the fund. The remainder is to be determined between UTA, Park City and Summit County. Rodriguez said 2019 may be the last year the grant is offered. "We will continue to apply as long as the program is in effect," she said, "but next year may be the last opportunity for this program." Blake Fonnesbeck, Park City's public works director and transit manager, worked closely with Rodriguez on the grant proposals and planning for all three years. The new electric buses will connect three transit systems: Park City and UTA, which also has an electric bus partnership with the University of Utah. It will be the only three-agency all-electric transit connection in the country, Fonnesbeck said. "We're excited that the FTA has faith in us to get these projects going," he said. SALT LAKE CITY One of two biodiesel executives with ties to a northern Utah polygamous group will stay in jail on charges he had a role in carrying out a $500 million tax credit scheme. Federal Magistrate Judge Brooke Wells on Friday agreed with prosecutors that Isaiah Kingston, the chief financial officer of Washakie Renewable Energy, is a flight risk and a danger to the public. She ordered him to remain behind bars as the fraud and money laundering case against him plays out. Kingston's attorneys earlier in the detention hearing said his client cannot access the millions the company holds overseas and was acting on orders when he transferred $52 million in Washakie money to Turkey, which does not currently allow the United States to extradite those accused of crimes. "I don't see your client as a pawn," Wells replied. "Are you suggesting, really, that he didn't know what he was doing in transferring those huge amounts of money to a place where he can't get it back?" Defense attorney Scott Williams argued that Kingston shares a modest 2,400 square-foot home in West Valley City with his wife, eight children and niece. He questioned the thoroughness of the government's investigation, saying no agents ever knocked on his client's door. In addition, Kingston has not fled to date even though federal agents served a search warrant on his business in 2016, Williams said. A court-ordered ankle monitor and seizure of his client's passport would be enough to prevent Kingston from blowing off future court dates, he argued. Williams said after the hearing that his client will appeal the judge's order. Prosecutors painted a different picture, saying the $134 million the company holds in Turkish bank accounts is a "parachute" allowing Isaiah Kingston to flee a possible prison sentence on a conviction. Since 2010, he has traveled to Hong Kong, Brussels, Ghana, Calgary, Dublin, Panama, Fiji, France and Cancun, they said. He also met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, demonstrating he is seeking to develop political relationships there, they allege. "Quite simply, we will not see him again if he is released," said prosecutor Leslie Goemaat. Text messages that his brother, Washakie CEO Jacob Kingston, allegedly sent to arrange bribes for judges and hire a go-between to intimidate witnesses make reference to Isaiah Kingston delivering the cash, she said, showing he is a danger. Goematt said someone threw a brick at the house of a government witness in the case Friday morning. The attorneys made similar arguments in the same courtroom Wednesday. Wells at the earlier hearing determined the men would stay in jail at least until attorneys could argue at length about whether they should be released ahead of trial. A federal grand jury indictment unsealed on Aug 24 accuses the executives of creating fake records from 2010 to 2016 in order to obtain the federal tax credits, then laundering the money. The leaders of the company that billed itself as a top producer of biodiesel and chemicals have pleaded not guilty to the charges of fraud and money laundering. The brothers are members of the Davis County Cooperative Society, or the Kingston Order, which practices polygamy. The government in court documents said the group has hundreds of homes and businesses that it could use to hide the men if they are released, but Williams said there's no evidence the group has helped defendants in criminal cases to disappear in the past. Isaiah Kingston sat quietly at the Friday hearing, wearing a blue jail uniform. He once stole a glance at his wife, who Williams said is due to have a baby any time. His jury trial is set to begin Oct 29. SALT LAKE CITY Nineteen-year-old Alyssa Hendricks "loved everybody" and "welcomed everybody," according to her mother, Nicole Hendricks. A "spunky cheerleader" attending cosmetology school, she was among the last people anyone would expect to deal with a drug addiction, her mother said. "It was super shocking to most everyone that knew her," she said. But she'd become addicted to pain pills after a car accident her senior year of high school, Nicole Hendricks said. The mother believes her daughter's depression and anxiety may have also played a role. She then turned to heroin last year, Nicole Hendricks said. The day before she was to enter rehab, Alyssa Hendricks' parents got a call from their daughter's fiance telling them she'd overdosed. Nicole Hendricks said her daughter had only started using heroin about a month before. But after her daughter's death, the mother says she found support and understanding through an organization of other parents who had also lost children to overdose. Nicole Hendricks, along with hundreds of others whose lives have somehow been impacted by opioid addiction, gathered in front of the state Capitol building in Salt Lake City Friday evening to "raise awareness of overdose and reduce the stigma of a drug-related death," according to event organizers. The event, hosted by Overdose Awareness Utah, was one of many happening around the world on International Overdose Awareness Day, held every year on the lst day of August. Friday's gathering was the third year the event took place in Salt Lake. As hundreds of people united around the Capitol steps, friends chatted and bunches of purple and white balloons floated overhead. Event organizer Amber Baum lost her daughter, 22-year-old Kenzie Baum, in 2013 to a heroin overdose. She said she "laid in bed" for a couple of years after her daughter's death. But then, she said, she realized since no one was going to save her, she should help others. So she became involved in different organizations for family members of those who have struggled with addiction. Now, "I have more mom friends than I could ever want," Baum said. "It's an awful club to be in," she explained, but it's a "support system." As she spoke to the Deseret News, several of those "mom friends" volunteering at the event buzzed around her, asking for direction as they prepared for the event, some stopping to give her a hug. "We've all lost a child to this epidemic." Baum said she wants people to understand that there's now "support out there" and "love out there" for those in similar situations. She says when she and others lost their children years ago, there was less awareness about the issue and they were "ashamed." Having someone to talk to who understands doesn't take the pain away, she said, but it makes it "tolerable." Beau Carter, another attendee, lost 24 friends to overdose two of them in the same week. He says he himself suffered with an addiction for 12 years, but he recovered from it and has an "amazing job" and a daughter. "When one of my best friends died, I just felt like, people need a place where they can get resources," he said. He started a group called Addicted We Stand to help addicts "get back on their feet," he said. "I would basically want people to know that there's help out there not to give up." After an hour of mingling, a ceremony kicked off with a moment of silence, music from the One Voice Children's Choir and a balloon release. Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper, spoke briefly and described his efforts to help fight the opioid epidemic. "There's a lot of meetings that go on here nothing is more impacting to a policy maker, to a public servant, than you," he told the crowd. He said when people share their stories with lawmakers, it makes an impact. "This is such a heartfelt group, and it's so personal to everyone," he said, adding that he was wearing sunglasses so no one would see him cry. He said state lawmakers have been trying to enact change by making naloxone more widely available and putting more money towards "behavioral health." "There is no party to this issue," he said. Following angelic music by One Voice Children's Choir, 176 people lined up and made their way to the grass in front of the Capitol. They stood together, the group forming the shape of a Boeing 737 airplane to represent the 176 people who are lost every day in the United States to overdose. The idea behind it, according to event organizers, is that when a plane crash occurs, it is investigated until officials discover its cause. Organizers said they want the same to be done for the opioid epidemic. SALT LAKE CITY Sen. Orrin Hatch and the man who hopes to replace him, Mitt Romney, were among the hundreds who attended the funeral service for Sen. John McCain Saturday at the National Cathedral in Washington. In a statement released following the service, Hatch celebrated his fellow Republican senator as a man, he noted, who always stood for his principles. It was an honor to sit with Supreme Court justices, senators, and world leaders today to celebrate not just a man, but American virtue embodied," Hatch said. "The tragedy of his passing is that we need men like John McCain now more than ever before. I will miss him dearly. In response to a Deseret News request for comment Saturday, a Romney spokeswoman referred to an excerpt from an essay written by the Republican U.S. Senate candidate in remembrance of his friend and one-time political opponent. "Rather, it is a matter of his character: In a sea of politicians blown about by polls and passions, he is as immovable as an anchor held fast by rock," Romney wrote of the late Arizona senator. "He is a hero. He is a friend." While Rep. John Curtis did not attend Saturday's service, the 3rd District Republican posted a video to his Facebook page following his attendance Friday of a viewing of the late senator. Curtis called it a "profound experience" and said it led him to reflect on McCain's life of service and what he most admired about the Vietnam War veteran and long-time federal legislator. "One of the many takeaways for me is he was an individual who loved to tell the truth no matter how difficult it was, and thats something I aspire to and appreciate about him," Curtis said. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert offered a remembrance of McCain on Thursday following his monthly news conference taping at the studios of Salt Lake City PBS-affiliate, KUED. Herbert said he had the opportunity to meet with McCain on multiple occasions and particularly appreciated the slogan from the senator's 2000 presidential bid. The governor said for McCain, "straight talk" was more than just a campaign motto. "In the Senate, he was that guy who said you better know Im not an automatic vote for your issue, on either side of the aisle," Herbert said. "I like that aspect of it and wish we had more politicians and elected officials that were a little more 'let me give you some straight talk' and where the chips fall, the chips fall." Herbert also noted McCain's long service both as a legislator and Navy pilot and his hope that each American would find their own path to give back to their country. "John McCain said wherever you're going to be, whether you're in the military, helping your community or serving in Congress, be a proud American," Herbert said. "Understand the big picture. I think that would serve us all well." SALT LAKE CITY A former data registry director and assistant psychiatry professor at the University of Utah has been awarded damages in a whistleblower protection case she brought against the school, her attorney says. Judith Zimmerman first filed a federal lawsuit against the U. in December 2013, claiming her contract of employment there was not renewed as retaliation for concerns she had raised about the possibility that researchers at the university had improperly accessed data from the Utah Registry of Autism and Developmental Disabilities. At the time she raised her concerns, Zimmerman was the director of that registry, consisting of data on children throughout the state who have autism. On Wednesday, jurors in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City ruled in favor of Zimmerman's claim that the U. had violated her legal whistleblower protections, and awarded $119,640 in lost wages plus lawyer's fees, according to her attorney, April Hollingsworth. Hollingsworth said jurors ruled against a separate claim by Zimmerman in the lawsuit that she had made against Dr. William McMahon, who formerly chaired the U.'s Department of Psychiatry. Zimmerman's lawsuit alleges McMahon infringed on her "liberty interest in her good name and reputation" and did so "by terminating her employment based on false allegations of unsatisfactory job performance and failure to meet the university's criteria," but at least part of the jury seemed to disagree. The verdict form filled out by the jury had not been included in online federal court records as of Friday afternoon. Hollingsworth said in a statement that the awarded damages represent a significant victory for her client. "Whistleblower claims are notoriously difficult to win so I am pleased the jury saw that the university retaliated against Dr. Zimmerman for making valid complaints of possible research misconduct, Hollingsworth said. Zimmerman said in a prepared statement that "after such a lengthy legal battle, I am just relieved to be done and to have my claim validated by a jury." University of Utah Health spokeswoman Suzanne Winchester said in an email to the Deseret News that the university "is disappointed in this verdict and is considering a variety of options in the matter, including appeal." Winchester added that "we have robust policies in place to protect whistleblowers, and will continue to stand by these policies." In 2012, Zimmerman became "concerned that researchers at the university had accessed the data contained within (the autism registry) without the proper authorizations," Hollingsworth said in a release. After Zimmerman shared those complaints with "multiple different offices" at the U., she was told "her yearly contract would not be renewed," Hollingsworth said. Zimmerman's lawsuit contends she had good reason to be "concerned that university employees were obtaining unauthorized access to highly sensitive health and education data." She has said she became worried that such access could violate ethical and potentially legal boundaries regarding the privacy of thousands of Utah children's medical and educational records. But "enormous efforts" to resolve those concerns were met with resistance and retaliation, and Zimmerman's ability to actively protect the data from improper usage slipped away, the lawsuit claims. "By August 2012, Dr. Zimmerman had no idea about the chain of custody of the research data she had collected for her grants, yet her name was on the contractual agreements promising confidentiality," the lawsuit says. Zimmerman's lawsuit also says she was stopped from correcting "major data errors" that presented themselves in the autism statistical registry. Zimmerman would go on to tell the Deseret News in 2016 that "to the best of my knowledge the errors have never been fully corrected." Winchester defended the U.'s handling of autism research in her statement Friday. "We believe in our research, including methods to diagnose autism, and are committed to the continued study and treatment of autism in our community, Winchester said. Zimmerman also filed a related lawsuit against the U. in state court in November 2017, alleging a breach of contract. That case is ongoing. SALT LAKE CITY While Utah's dry summer has created one of the most devastating fire seasons in recent memory, the dryness may have brought one unexpected benefit. This year, the Beehive State has seen drastically fewer human cases of West Nile virus than last year. "There are a number of reasons why West Nile virus activity is lower this year than last. We do not know all of the factors, but this year has certainly been drier than last, which could play a role," said Jeffrey Eason, of the Utah Department of Health's Bureau of Epidemiology. So far in 2018, the virus has killed one person in Utah and affected three others. By comparison, in 2017, 62 people throughout the state contracted the virus and it ultimately took six lives. But the state health department is still cautioning people ahead of the holiday that infected mosquitoes remain at large. And with potential rain, the risk increases. "Rain does have an impact on the mosquito population because it increases the amount of standing water," Eason said. "Mosquitoes depend on standing water to lay their eggs, which provides us with a really simple way to control mosquito populations." He said mosquito populations can be controlled by getting rid of or emptying items in the yard that store water and some of the items that can serve as mosquito reproduction pools may be surprising. "Items such as tires, buckets, planters, toys, pools, birdbaths, flowerpots, trash containers and even bottle caps can be used by mosquitoes to lay their eggs," Eason said, encouraging people to check those items in their yards at least once a week. According to the department, mosquito samples in six health districts statewide have tested positive for the virus, "but since not all counties actively test for (West Nile virus) in local mosquitoes and animals, it's always a good idea to take precautions." "While we arent seeing the numbers we did at this time last year, mosquitoes are still active. Taking simple precautions to avoid mosquito bites is the best way to reduce your risk for infection since there is no vaccine for humans," said Utah Department of Health epidemiologist Dallin Peterson. Not all mosquitoes carry the virus, officials said, but those that do tend to buzz between the hours of dusk and dawn. "Most cases of West Nile virus occur June through September and typically peak in the late summer months. The best way to prevent disease is to prevent mosquito bites," Eason said. Peterson says people should use repellents that contain DEET, picaridin or oil of lemon eucalyptus when they go outdoors. But remember that repellents containing DEET are unsafe for children under 2 months old, he said. Officials also encourage people to wear long sleeves and pants outdoors. Eason recommends treating clothing and gear with permethrin, a type of insecticide. The health department also encourages people to report bodies of stagnant water to their local mosquito abatement district, which can be found at umaa.org. According to the department, most people who pick up the virus do not show symptoms. But for some, especially elderly people and those with poor immune systems, the disease can be deadly. There are no vaccines or treatments for the virus. About 1 in 150 people who contract it develop a serious sometimes fatal illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms include fever, severe headache, disorientation and stiff neck. If you experience those symptoms, the state health department urges you to contact a health provider immediately. Nationwide, 231 human cases of the virus have been reported this year, eight of which resulted in deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 11 minutes ago Rockwell Automation Is Automating Profits Rockwell Automation Surges On Record Orders Rockwell Automation (NYSE: ROK) is a favorite of ours because we believe in the power of automation the companys ability to generate growth. The company provides industrial automation and digital transformation assistance in a world that is 1) accelerating the use of digital, IoT, and smart operations and 2) very short on able-bodied hands and looking to automate. Read Article Yes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain. Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred. For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here. Uber Elevate to launch aerial taxi service in India Taxi hailing platform Uber is looking to introduce flying taxis in India. The Uber team conveyed this to union minister of state for aviation Jayant Sinha during a meeting on Tuesday. In may this year, the companys aerial arm Uber Elevate unveiled the battery-powered flying taxis, which it hopes to launch commercial service come 2023 in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, and Los Angeles in the US. Recalling his meeting with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in February this year, Sinha said, When I met him, I had stressed on the need to do so. Now, Uber has informed me that India is one of the five countries they are evaluating for launching air taxis. The development was confirmed after Sinha met Ubers business officer (India and emerging markets) Madhu Kannan on 28 August. When Uber first revealed a common reference model for its flying taxis, the concept was reported to be all-electric, which accommodates four people, including a pilot, in a cylindrical body with large windows. Ubers flying taxi is said to cruise at between 150 and 200 miles per hour, and soar up to 2,000 feet above. A single charge will be good enough for 60 miles of range, and Uber expects the thing to need just five minutes to top up the batteries between flights. Initially, theyll have a human pilot, but eventually, they should be autonomous. The US-headquartered Uber had signed an agreement with NASA to explore concepts and technologies related to urban air mobility (UAM) for future air transportation in populated areas. Similar flying taxi project, named after a Sanskrit word vahana meaning vehicle has been initiated by European manufacturer Airbus. The project completed its first full-scale test flight in Oregon, US, on 31 January this year. Vahana, a fully electric vehicle, is designed to carry a single passenger or cargo, and scale a height of five metres for a duration of 53 seconds. Even IIT-Kanpur researchers and VTOL Aviation India Pvt Ltd has entered into an MoU for investing up to $2.2 million (Rs15 crore) for developing a flying taxi prototype a self-piloted vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) craft. The IIT-Kanpur aerospace department is equipped with a state-of-the-art facility to conduct research activities in aerospace, and is fitted with wind tunnels and flight labs capable of testing aircraft. The union ministry of civil aviation has recently released Drone Regulations 1.0 the standard regulations for operating drones in the country, aimed at enabling safe, commercial usage of such taxis. The DRONE Regulations will enable safe, commercial usage of drones starting 1 December 2018. It is intended to enable visual line-of-sight, daytime-only operations to a maximum altitude of 400 feet. Going forward, the Drone Task Force formed under the chairmanship of aviation minister Sinha has been tasked to provide draft recommendations for Drone Regulations 2.0. These regulations will examine issues such as certification of safe and controlled operation of drone hardware and software. Uber Elevate has shortlisted India, Japan, Australia, Brazil and France, that could be home to the first international Uber Air City within the next five years. It said that the company is looking for a large polycentric market with a metropolitan population over one million people to establish the proposed Air City. In pursuit of our first international launch market, we are announcing a shortlist of five countries where Uber Air can immediately transform transportation and take our technology to new heights, Uber Aviation programs head Eric Allison said. IWAI releases first standardised ship designs for navigation on Ganga The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) on Friday made public 13 standardised state-of-the-art ship designs suitable for large barge haulage on river Ganga (National Waterway-1). The specially designed vessels will navigate on low drafts with high carrying capacity and at the same time are environment friendly. For the shipbuilding industry, the new designs will translate into a savings of Rs30-50 lakh in the building of a vessel, an official release stated. These vessels will sail even in depths of about two metres carrying about 350 cars on a five deck car carrier. Some of the designs would enable movement of bulk cargo carriers with capacity of 2,500 tonnes at three metres depth, thereby, removing almost 150 truckloads of pressure from the road or one full rail rake with the plying of just one such vessel. The new designs for various categories of dry and liquid bulk carrier, Ro-Ro vessels, car carrier, container carrier, LNG carrier, Tug Barge flotilla have been developed by DST, Germany, which specialises in low draft and high carrying capacity vessels. The model testings of the designs were done at Duisburg, Germany. IWAI had awarded the contract to DST in September 2016 through global bidding after a rigorous screening. The new designs are a result of rigorous river studies conducted by a high-level technical team comprising of experts from IWAI, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and Indian Register of Shipping with periodical technical consultations with domain experts of the World Bank. The new designs will obviate the dependence of Indian Ship builders on foreign ship designs for IWT and prove to be a boost to Make in India initiative of the Government. The standardised low-draft IWT vessel designs include: Dry bulk carriers of capacity 1,570 tons, 2,120 tons and 2.480 tons; Liquid bulk carriers of capacity 1,460 tons and 2,400 tons; Ro-Ro vessels of capacity 770 DWT or 18 trucks; Container carrier vessel 1,540 tons/96 TEU and 2,480 tons/208 TEU; LNG carrier vessel - 630 tons and 1,070 tons; Tug Barge Flotilla - to push 4 dumb barges; LNG powered dry bulk carrier of capacities 2,420 tons; Car carrier vessel of capacity 350 cars Available free on the IWAI website, the designs will remove ambiguity on the class and type of vessels that can sail on river Ganga with efficient manoeuvrability. The IWA ship designs are intended to overcome the unique navigation challenges posed by river Ganga due to its complex river morphology, hydraulics, acute bends, shifting channels, meanders and current This marks a critical milestone in the growth of the countrys Inland Water Transport (IWT) sector as it will serve as an enabler for domestic shipbuilding industry working on inland vessels and open huge possibilities for cargo and passenger movement on National Waterway-1, the release stated. The government is implementing Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP) for capacity augmentation of navigation on NW-1 (Varanasi-Haldia stretch) at a cost of Rs5,369.18 crore, with the technical assistance and investment support of the World Bank. The designs released by IWA will help shipyards build vessels of standardised dimensions and capacity and make them available off the shelf, besides developing the sale and purchase market for inland vessels. The designs will lead to reduced fuel costs and in turn lesser logistics costs, it added. Scientists predict superelastic properties in a group of iron-based superconductors A collaboration between scientists at the US Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory and the Institute for Theoretical Physics at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main has computationally predicted a number of unique properties in a group of iron-based superconductors, including room-temperature super-elasticity. Ames Laboratory produced samples of one of these iron arsenide materials with calcium and potassium, CaKFe4As4, and experimentally discovered that when placed under pressure, the structure of the material collapsed noticeably. "It's a large change in dimension for a non-rubber-like material, and we wanted to know how exactly that collapsed state was occurring," said Paul Canfield, a senior scientist at Ames Laboratory and a Distinguished Professor and the Robert Allen Wright Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Iowa State University. Through computational pressure simulations, the researchers learned that the material collapsed in stages termed "half-collapsed tetragonal phases" with the atomic structure near the calcium layers in the materials collapsing first, followed by the potassium layer collapsing at higher pressures. The simulations also predicted these behaviors could be found in similar materials that are as-yet untested experimentally. "Not only does this study have implications for properties of magnetism and superconductivity, it may have much wider application in room-temperature elasticity," said Canfield. Canfield collaborated with Roser Valenti at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, who served as the host faculty member for Canfield's Humboldt Award in 2014. It has been a delight as an experimentalist to be able to access this theoretical group's ever-increasing computational skills to model and predict properties," said Canfield. Its a little piece of Ballyshannons history that sat on a coffee table in a Swansea home for the best part of 40 years. But last weekend, the stone, taken from the ruins of Kilbarron Castle back in the early 1970s, was returned to its rightful place. How the stone ended up in Swansea is a story in itself. The ruins of the castle remain in a precarious condition, although the Kilbarron Castle Conservation Group are doing their bit to help preserve and protect the medieval site. A view of the Hourglass wall and other remains of Kilbarron Castle The groups efforts caught the attention of Philip Cleary who was brought up in London where he and his cousins knew little of Kilbarron Castle, despite his familys close connection to the area. Their Cleary cousins fathers were born and raised in the townland of Cashel, situated close to Rossnowlagh above Coolbeg. Back in the 1970s, my cousin Michael was at a trade exhibition in England when someone spotted his name badge of Cleary and passed him a pamphlet called At the Sign of the Three Nettles, Philip explained. It was only then that we became aware of our connection with the castle. So my cousin asked my dad to pick up a stone as a souvenir from the castle whilst on his holiday here. It was a different time then! The stone travelled in a suitcase back to London and then on to Swansea where it stayed on a coffee table these past 40 plus years. With the story of the efforts of the castles conservation committee reaching the Cleary family, it prompted the return of the stone from Wales, via Essex, and finally to Creevy. The Kilbarron Castle Conservation Group recently held a special walk and information talk as part of National Heritage Week and Philip was there to present the stone back to the group. The stone will be placed in the soon to be conserved Hourglass Wall of the castle. Philip said it was a proud moment for the Cleary family and he was only too delighted to present the stone back to Molly Reynolds (committee treasurer). If you dont have a stone to return to the castle committee then watch out on Facebook for an appeal to sponsor a stone for their conservation work, Philip said. READ ALSO: Heritage week showcases a rich and varied history in Donegal Oil reserves in western Europe, Africa and Mediterranean region are rapidly falling since major buyers are scared by the US sanctions imposed on Iran, reports say. According to Reuters, oil prices slipped on Friday as concerns over the impact of a global trade war depressed sentiment, although impending U.S. sanctions on Iran and falling Venezuelan output limited losses. As Radio Farda writes in an article "Oil Buyers Rush to Replace Iran", benchmark Brent crude oil (LCOc1) was down 40 cents a barrel at $77.37 by 1100 GMT. U.S. light crude (CLc1) was 50 cents lower at $69.75. The oil market is once again tightening, analyst at Swiss bank UBS in Zurich, Giovanni Staunovo, told Reuters, adding, Iranian oil export declines are already visible well in advance of U.S. oil-related sanctions, which enter into force in November. Iranian crude exports are likely to drop to a little more than 2 million barrels per day (bpd) in August, against a peak of 3.1 million bpd in April, as importers bow to American pressure to cut orders. Meanwhile, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), in which Iran is the third-biggest producer, will discuss in December whether it can compensate for a sudden drop in Iranian supply after sanctions start in November, the head of Iraqs state oil marketer SOMO, Alaa al-Yasiri, said on Wednesday. Crude exports from crisis-struck OPEC member Venezuela have also fallen sharply, halving in recent years to about 1 million bpd. Official U.S. oil inventory data on Wednesday also helped the bullish trend. U.S. commercial crude inventories fell by a larger than expected 2.6 million barrels in the week to Aug. 24, to 405.79 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said. Furthermore, Reuters had earlier reported that Iranian oil and condensate exports in August had dropped to 2 million and 50,000 barrels which is 500,000 less than its average in August 2017. Wall Street Journal also quoted industrial sources as saying that Iranian oil export is expected to drop to 1.5 million barrel per day next month. During last year, Iran used to export 2.5 million barrels of oil and natural gas condensate in average per day. Iranian oil exports are rapidly dropping, Reuters had reported on Thursday, noting that major buyers of Iranian crude are looking for new reserves to replace them with Iran. Iranian oil exports drop to 1.5 million barrels per day means that Tehran has lost one third of its crude exports which is much higher than what international institutes had predicted. Earlier, International Energy Agency (IEA) had predicted that Iranian oil export, under US sanctions, will lose 900,000 barrels per day before the end of the next year. Nevertheless, recent reports show that Iran is going to lose its oil export much more than expected. The same reports say that Iran will lose 1m barrel per day of its oil and condensate exports in less before the end of next month. Iran's crude oil and condensate exports in August are set to fall below 70 million barrels for the first time since April 2017, preliminary trade flows data has shown. China's imports of Iranian crude rose 27 percent in July from a year ago to 722,000 bpd, according to Reuters oil flow data on Eikon. China, India, Japan and South Korea last month imported 1.87 million barrels per day (bpd) from Iran, according to the data. That was up 23.3 percent from a year ago and the highest since last September. But overall purchases of crude from Iran by the four countries are expected to drop significantly in coming months, with U.S. sanctions on the nation's oil exports due to start on Nov. 4. Washington has asked buyers of Iranian oil to cut imports to zero in the run up to that time to force Tehran to negotiate a new nuclear agreement and to curb its influence in the Middle East. The new motorcycle will be part of the second innings for Hyosung in India. The Mirage 250 is set to replace the previous sold Aquila 250 cruiser. The Hyosung Mirage 250 comes with a modern yet minimalistic design language. The cruiser gets a large 15-litre teardrop-shaped fuel tank, multi-spoke alloy wheels, along with a stubby front and rear mudguards. The Mirage 250 also features a single-pod instrument cluster, round headlamps with LED position lamps, as well as LED tail lights. The motorcycle is also said to offer cow horn' handlebars, offering a more sporty riding position. The Hyosung Mirage 250 is powered by a 250cc, V-Twin engine, updated to comply with the Euro-IV emission norms. It produces 25.8bhp and 21.7Nm of torque. The engine is torquier than the previous one seen on the Aquila 250, while it is also expected to offer better refinement. The Hyosung Mirage 250 cruiser, sits on large 19 and 16-inch wheels at the front and rear, respectively. The motorcycle comes with telescopic front forks and twin shocks at the rear. Braking is handled by discs at both the front and rear, with dual-channel ABS as standard. Thoughts On The Hyosung Mirage 250 Cruiser Hyosung will assemble the Mirage 250 locally and is expected to price it around Rs 3 lakh, ex-showroom. The Hyosung Mirage 250 will be a premium entry-level motorcycle in the cruiser segment, once launched in India later this month. North Korean media blamed the United States for taking hostile measures against Pyongyang under the guise of establishing a diplomatic relationship between the two countries. As The International Business Times writes in the article North Korea Warns US Against Hostile Measures That Threaten Worst War Crisis, on Thursday, Uriminjokkiri, the North's external propaganda website, claimed the U.S. continued to further its military strategies against their country by dispatching units to Japan, the Philippines and South Korea as a sign of threat. "The U.S. is taking grave and hostile actions behind the curtain of the dialogue taking place," the website said, Yonhap News reported. If the relations between the North and the U.S. worsen again like last year and the Korean Peninsula is facing the worst war crisis, it would be those conspiring for such military plots who should take full responsibility. The accusation from the website came days after two separate contradicting statements from President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense James Mattis regarding the joint military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea, which had been stalled indefinitely following the U.S.-North Korea summit in June. On Tuesday, Mattis announced that the administration was considering the resumption of the war games. We took the step to suspend several of the largest exercises as a good-faith measure coming out of the Singapore summit. We have no plans at this time to suspend any more exercises," he said. Mattis statement startled South Korea, which said it had not held any discussions with the U.S. regarding the drills. As of now, the issue has not been discussed between South Korea and the United States, Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said during a daily press briefing. It is an issue that should be discussed and decided by South Korea and the U.S. while reviewing the progress in the denuclearization of North Korea. A day after the defense secretarys announcement, Trump cited his warm relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, stating there was no reason at this time to be spending large amounts of money on joint U.S.-South Korea war games. Earlier in August, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo canceled what would have been his fourth visit to North Korea to try and make progress on talks of denuclearization initiated between Washington and Pyongyang in the summit. I have asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to go to North Korea, at this time, because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Trump tweeted Aug. 24. In the meantime I would like to send my warmest regards and respect to Chairman Kim. I look forward to seeing him soon! Although no official reason was provided for the cancellation of the trip, two reports from the Washington Post and CNN suggested that an angry letter from North Korean Secretary of State Kim Yong Chol to Pompeo might have had something to do with it. In the letter, the official had allegedly talked about how Kim was unhappy that the U.S. was holding off from signing a peace treaty to officially end the Korean War till Pyongyang agrees to complete denuclearization. Uriminjokkiri took a threatening tone Thursday, as it added, "We are playing closer attention than ever to covert operations the U.S. is pushing to target us behind the curtain of dialogue and ready to take all necessary countermeasures against them. The U.S. should see how much the time has changed and know who it is dealing with wide-opened eyes. Rather than engaging in a useless military gamble, it should do its part to implement the historic North Korea-U.S. joint statement. Privacy Settings This site uses functional cookies and external scripts to improve your experience. Which cookies and scripts are used and how they impact your visit is specified on the left. You may change your settings at any time. Your choices will not impact your visit. NOTE: These settings will only apply to the browser and device you are currently using. The spokeswoman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that a stronger Turkey is in the interest of Germany. "The Federal Government is following developments in Turkey very closely. Germany has an interest in a stable, prosperous and democratic country on the Bosporus," deputy government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer said. As Daily Sabah writes in an article "Stronger Turkey in our interest: German government", responding to questions by journalists during a regular news conference in Berlin, Demmer did not confirm or deny recent media reports that claimed Germany could provide assistance to Turkey to prevent a financial crisis. "The federal government is closely following developments in Turkey. A stable, prosperous and democratic Turkey is in our interest," Demmer said. Several European media outlets reported on Tuesday that Germany was examining ways to assist Turkey, and claimed that the options included coordinated European assistance, bilateral aid or project-specific loans by state-controlled development banks. Last week, the German government spokesman said Berlin was not planning a bilateral financial assistance for the time being. The deputy government spokeswoman refrained from making a detailed comment on whether the government had changed its position, but said she did not have an update about the matter. Demmer also said that one should wait for the upcoming high-level talks between the German and Turkish governments. "As you know preparations are continuing. Ahead of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit, the finance minister will meet with his counterpart here," Demmer said and added that she could not anticipate the discussions. Turkey-EU relations have recently improved after some European countries voiced their support for Turkey in the face of U.S. sanctions. In recent weeks, EU leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, highlighted the importance of maintaining strong ties with Turkey. On Aug. 16, Macron in a phone call with Erdogan discussed bilateral economic relations. He highlighted the importance of stability in the Turkish economy. Earlier on Aug. 15, German Chancellor Merkel also spoke with Erdogan over the phone. She said the strength of the Turkish economy is important for Germany, according to presidential sources. Both leaders reportedly asserted their commitment to strengthening Turkish-German cooperation with more high-level talks and visits. President Erdogan will pay an important visit to Germany on Sept. 28-29. Ahead of the visit, Turkish Finance Minister Berat Albayrak is expected to meet his German counterpart Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Sept. 21. Germany is Turkey's main economic and trade partner and more than 7,500 German companies are active in Turkey. In 2017, the bilateral trade volume reached 37.6 billion ($43.6 billion). Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron said the European Union needs to develop its strategic relationships with neighbors like Russia and Turkey to enhance stability. "We need to update our vision for Russia. We have been caught up in mistakes and misunderstandings over the last few decades," Macron told a news conference yesterday during an official visit to Finland. Sales of Texas homes to international buyers have fallen dramatically in the past year, according to information released by the National Association of Realtors. Foreign buyers spent 42 percent less on homes in Texas between April 2017 and March 2018 compared to the previous year a $7.8 billion drop. The decrease outstrips a 21 percent dip in international home sales nationwide. Some say changes in policy are partially blame. Ivan Arjona, a Houston real estate agent with RE/MAX said that many Mexicans are holding off on buying a second home in the United States. Right now, theyre in a limbo kind of thing with the new president, he said. They dont know whats going to happen or whats not going to happen. A lot of the activity in Texas is driven by foreign homebuyers in Mexico, explained Paul Bishop, vice president of research at the National Association of Realtors. In fact, of all of the foreign investment in Mexico, Texas accounts for about 38 percent. So in a large part, Mexico drives the changes in Texas for year over year. Mexicans spent 29 percent less on homes in the United States compared to the previous year, which could explain a large part of the dip. Its much easier to say, Lets wait and see what happens, Bishop said. What may happen in this country in terms of policy and how welcoming policy may be to foreign buyers? Only 5 percent of respondents to a survey by the National Association of Realtors believed international home buyer activity will increase in the next year. The associations chief economist, Lawrence Yun, attributes that to confusion and ambiguity surrounding recent policy changes. Economic instability in Venezuela and Brazil has made it more difficult for people from those countries to get loans in the United States. So the Venezuelans are out, Arjona said. The Brazilians are out. The dip could also be related to the broader market Houstons real estate market recently hit an all-time high in home sales, meaning foreign buyers face more competition. Its just harder to find a home, Bishop said. Michele Marano, a real estate agent with Realty Associates who specializes in representing homebuyers and sellers who work for the energy industry, believes the energy market is also playing a part. Things are kind of flat, she said. When oil dropped, you saw a lot of people leaving, and there was a transition of companies That fluctuation and movement has tapered off. rebecca.schuetz@chron.com; @raschuetz SUTHERLAND SPRINGS Evelyn Hills hand traced the 26 names engraved on the side of a giant block of stone in honor of the people who died in the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs shooting on Nov. 5. One of them was the 8-year-olds mother. Three others were her siblings. One was an unborn baby a sibling-to-be. At the Wilson County District Court Justice Center, where the gray granite memorial was unveiled Friday, the Texas and U.S. flags were lowered to half-staff. And thats how they will stay, indefinitely. One day I came to work and I saw this stone sitting here, and they hadnt covered it yet, and I just thought it was beautiful, said John Holcombe, Evelyns father. I cried a little bit, and then they covered up the stone. About a week after that, district clerk Deborah Bryan told him about the memorial and unveiling ceremony. The Holcombe family lost nine family members in the tragedy. In addition to his three children, unborn baby and wife, John Holcombe lost his parents, his brother and his nephew. About 50 people gathered for the unveiling, many of whom were intimately affected by the massacre. Holcombe is an IT worker for the county, and after the shooting, state District Judge Donna Rayes said county staff wanted to do something for him. A number of people were searching their hearts as to what could we do for John. We wanted it to be something permanent, she said. After the ceremony, Rayes urged people to take a quiet moment at the memorial, to honor the community members they lost as well as those who were closest to them and are still grieving. Id like for you to not only look at it, but Id like for you to touch it, she said. Touch the names, just as they have touched our hearts. Silvia Foster-Frau 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. | sfosterfrau@express-news.net | Twitter: @SilviaElenaFF An alliance with labor would seem to be a no-brainer for some local Democrats backing the fire unions proposed charter amendments. As precinct chair Laura Sosa put it at a recent meeting of the Bexar County Democratic Party: Labor has always supported us and we support our labor people. Im a retired union organizer, and I will tell you I will never do anything against my people. At its heart, though, the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Associations scorched-earth campaign to upend the balance of power at City Hall is a deeply conservative endeavor more in sync with the tea party than any other political movement. The latest evidence of this is the emergence of a news website founded by the Joshua Initiative, a local religious organization that advocates against abortion and LGBTQ rights. Its new project, The Bureau News, features articles advocating on behalf of the union. One of them, just two paragraphs long, reads: Special Interest and Mayor align to attempt stopping the incredibly popular Charter Amendments put forth by the Firefighters. Each proposed amendment carries the weight of either reducing or stopping the citys wasteful spending splurge. Beholden to the AP Stylebook, it is not. Judging by its website, the Joshua Initiative is guided by other concerns; visitors to the home page are greeted by the declaration: Jesus Christ is Lord. One day every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess. But what does Jesus have to do with the fire unions power-grabbing charter war? The most disruptive amendment would shift power away from elected officials by making it easier to put city ordinances to a public referendum. On Friday, I called Joe Caddell, president of the group, to ask. Were just for what seems right and conservative for the city, he said. What makes sense. And from a religious standpoint, we like peace in the city. He added, I think the people have a right to engage when they feel like their government is out of control. I asked Caddell for an example of City Hall acting out of control. He cited last years $850 million bond program, approved overwhelmingly by voters. The citys largest ever municipal bond addressed streets, bridges and sidewalks; drainage and flood control; parks, recreation and open space; library and cultural facilities; public safety facilities; and neighborhood improvements, including the development of affordable and mixed-income housing. We didnt care for the bond election last year, Caddell said. We think thats a waste of money. I asked Caddell whether he opposed every project in the bond. He responded that he couldnt remember the projects. The real issue in San Antonio is the attention to infrastructure, he said, citing grossly understaffed police and fire departments. This complaint is incoherent, considering last years bond addressed infrastructure and public safety. More than anything, Caddells support for the San Antonio First campaign sounds more like a knee-jerk distrust of government the principal stance of the tea party. The current council is also the most progressive in recent memory: more reason for groups such as Caddells to back the charter amendments. The fire union, of course, has never tried to hide its alliance with the far right; indeed, it regularly touts these ties. The website of San Antonio First features a supportive quote by George Rodriguez, former President of the San Antonio Tea Party. Standing in solidarity with the union at a press conference in April to announce that enough signatures had been collected to place the amendments on the November ballot was a rogues gallery of City Hall haters and far-right Republicans, including council gadfly Jack Finger and Cynthia Brehm, the embattled chair of the Bexar County Republican Party. Among the fire unions political endorsements this year: Republican leaders Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, both darlings of the far right. Nonetheless, two weeks ago, local Democrats passed a resolution in support of the fire unions campaign. They were spurred on by Manuel Medina, the ousted chair of the BCDP who raised eyebrows last year by tapping his share of far-right allies in his failed bid for mayor. Regardless of labors traditional alliance with Democrats, the ideology of limited government embodied in the fire unions campaign runs counter to the ideals that should animate the citys progressives. bchasnoff@express-news.net Re: Leftists want to abolish ICE, then its successor, then ..., Other Views, Rich Lowry, July 15: Attempting to justify President Donald Trumps views on immigration, conservative columnist Lowry states that the one thing we Americans know about the president is that he wants a secure southern border. Yet in his explanation of Trumps actions, he uses words like incompetently (three times), reversed himself, crudest, and flipped. In short, Lowry makes clear to a discerning reader that, really, the one thing we know about Trump is the near total lack of consistency in his thought process. Sadly, the Democrats dont seem to have any leadership that can offer Americans a clearly superior choice, and most congressional Republicans have become appeasers, so we are stuck with a despotic and mercurial leader at least until the Mueller report comes out. Laird Loomis Poor planning Re: Constables fear county job cuts, Metro, Sunday: Being a former county employee (reserve deputy and 911 communications operator) from a large population county around Austin, I had to chuckle at this article. Now, if I know that my only source of income is a job that might be on the chopping block each year at budget time, being the responsible person that I am, I would probably have a back up plan. To hear that some constables say this is their only source of income to support their family, well thats on them. Sorry, poor planning. There are too many of these constables not doing their duty. I know this for a fact as I was the victim of one of their little games of lets see who can write the most tickets. This was over on Rigsby by City Base. I believe I counted three of them that day. (It now appears that constables will be spared in the county budget) But, if not, give them head-of-line privileges for one of the new positions at the sheriffs office. Then they can have a real taste of what a law enforcement officer does. Providing they qualify for the job. If I hit a nerve, which Im sure I did just being honest. Marshall Holt, Schertz Selective outrage Trump is not bothered by former EPA director Scott Pruitts misuse of millions and millions of taxpayer dollars for personal use and personal gain, but is extremely upset and wants laws passed to make sure the recipients of food stamps work and dont cheat the government. Vicki Seifert, Fredericksburg City may ask towns for beach privileges Stamford Board of Finance member Dannel Malloy is wondering if Greenwich and Darien might be willing to make a neighborly gesture. Since Stamford beaches have been closed since Aug. 3 because of sewage spills that did not occur in the city, Malloy thinks Mayor Thom Serrani should ask if Stamford residents could use the beaches in their two neighboring towns. In as much as Stamford currently processes Dariens sewage...(and) Greenwich itself suffered sewage leaks and overflows this past August, I believe that these two neighbors may see their way to assisting our residents in this small manner, Malloy said in a letter to Serrani. 20 years ago Hart Magnet adds patrol after gun discovery A police officer patrolled Hart Magnet School on the first day of classes yesterday after a construction worker found a shotgun Monday on the Stamford elementary schools grounds. School officials hired the officer to provide security during the first week of classes, Hart principal Nadine Schulz said. The discovery of the weapon, stashed in a guitar case at the edge of school property, concerned police enough to issue a memorandum to all officers. The gun, found in an area where residents complain of drug activity, pit bull fights, loitering and littering, has not been mentioned to parents of students at the school, Schulz said. 10 years ago Volunteer to vacation on Gulf Coast About four months ago, Red Cross volunteer Angela Malizia told her employer she would take her two weeks of vacation at a moment's notice. Her vacation started Tuesday, the day after Hurricane Gustav hit the Gulf Coast. Malizia called Columbus IT Partner USA Inc., where she works as a finance manager, to let her boss know she would be using her time off for something quite different from a vacation. "We care about people, and we just want to be there for them," she said. Malizia is among seven Red Cross volunteers from the Darien-Stamford chapter who have been or could be deployed to the Gulf region affected by Hurricane Gustav. erin.kayata@stamfordadvocate.com; (203) 964-2265; @erin_kayata Saturday marks 14 years since the Beslan school siege, in which Islamic extremists captured more than 1,100 people, most of them children, in the southern Russian Republic of North Ossetia, leading to more than 330 deaths, UrduPoint writes. North Ossetia's authorities announced on Saturday the three-day mourning, commemorating the victims of the deadly attack. Over 30 armed terrorists, including several women, led by Rasul Khachbarov (also known as Colonel) drove a canvas-covered truck into the courtyard of secondary school No.1 in the city of Beslan, in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania during celebrations dedicated to the start of the school year on September 1, 2004. Armed men jumped out of the vehicle and immediately started firing automatic weapons over the heads of people in the courtyard, forcing the crowd into the school building. Only a lucky few managed to take advantage of the ensuing confusing and escape. According to preliminary estimates, 354 hostages were taken. It turned out later that there were many more - 1,116. The vast majority of them were children, including pre-schoolers. Casualties included 335 people, of whom 318 were hostages, including 186 children. In total, as many as 810 hostages and residents of Beslan, as well as troops from the FSB, the Emergencies Ministry staff, and police and military officers were wounded. In addition to wounds and injuries received during the assault, the hostages suffered from a severe psychological trauma. Over the more than 50 hours that the hostages spent in the school, the terrorists did not allow them any water, food or medicine. A total of 1,315 people were recognized as affected by the attack in Beslan. STAMFORD Six weeks to the day after Allen Claxton hanged himself in the attic of his Westover home, a murder charge lodged against him for killing his wife was dismissed by a Stamford judge. Freed on $1.5 million bond, Claxton, 75, killed himself on July 20, a day after he pleaded not guilty to murdering Eden Claxton, 74. Five weeks earlier he had slit her throat in the bedroom of the Hycliff Terrace home the two shared for nearly 20 years. Standing before Judge Richard Comerford in a first-floor courtroom of the Stamford courthouse on Friday, Stamford States Attorney Richard Colangelo asked that the murder charge against Claxton be nolled. A half-second passed and Claxtons attorney Edward Gavin asked that the charge be dismissed. No objection, Colangelo immediately told Comerford, who then acceded to the request. Im personally heart broken that something like this would happen to two honest, good people that you would be happy to have as neighbors, Gavin said after the hearing. Gavin said that it is customary to dismiss such charges against a person who dies while accused, much like former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who had his murder conviction cleared last year after he hanged himself in prison. Despite the fact that he and his wife amassed about $4 million in cash and assets, police say, Claxton ruminated about depression, anxiety and murder-suicide in emails to himself. Every day is the same skipping toward the event which will shatter our lives. I spend every day paying bills and watching our money disappear, Claxton wrote on April 2, according his 16-page arrest affidavit. The only way out of this is to crate(sic) an horrific event where we both die at the same time. Gavin said there was no doubt that Claxton felt that he was about to lose everything. He had the perception that he and his wife were running out of assets and would soon be unable to live the lifestyle that they were accustomed to, said Gavin, who suspects that the couple may have had twice the assets that police talked about. And I belive this misconception by Allen drove his psychosis, and I believe he acted on this misbelief. Gavin said he went home with Claxton from the courthouse after Claxton pleaded not guilty and talked to him about what was going in his life. I stressed as did others to him that he was not thinking clearly about his financial situation, Gavin said. Gavin called him the next morning and got no answer. He said that was unusual because Claxton would be staring at the phone waiting for it to ring because he was so isolated. That afternoon Gavin said he called the home phone and cell with the same results and called police, asking that they perform a welfare check. At the same time, a Westport friend of Claxtons called police requesting the same thing. Gavin said about 45 minutes later Colangelo was on the phone telling him that Claxton was dead. jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com 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, XTO Energy Canada, and XTO Holdings LLC. 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.. 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. Early on Saturday, a jet of a Siberian airline Utair skidded off the runway during rough landing in the Russian city of Sochi, slid into a river and eventually caught fire, Sputnik reports. "At the moment, there are 18 injured, including three children. There are no fatalities," the ministry said in a statement. All 160 people on board were evacuated. The blaze has been put out, local emergency services said. An emergency official told Sputnik earlier that six people were injured, four were hospitalized with burns. There were 164 passengers and six crew on board. "The Boeing737 from Moscow rolled off the runway during landing at the Sochi airport and caught fire. According to the preliminary data, six people were injured," an emergency official said. Place Your Advert Thousands of Active jobseekers are looking for new agricultural positions in 2020. Call us now to discuss the options for advertising your vacancy in our job section. Drought planning continues after the UK's driest summer since 1921 puts pressure on farming and the environment. The National Drought Group has urged people to use water wisely following a meeting to discuss pressure on water resources and the environment following this summers heat wave. The Environment Agency has responded to a 330% increase in significant drought-related incidents as teams acted to safeguard food production, protect wildlife and rescue fish struggling due to low river flows. Hydrologists have recorded exceptionally low river flows for 5 weeks in a row, reservoir stocks for England as a whole were at historic lows for the end of July and soils were the driest on record in the North West. The EAs Chief Executive, Sir James Bevan chaired the National Drought Group meeting and received updates from water companies, and discussed ways to sustain support for farmers and protect the environment. Water companies were asked to outline progress against agreed action plans to maintain water supplies while protecting food production and the environment. They reported that there are no current plans to bring in hosepipe bans, although water restrictions remain a possibility if rainfall in September is low. A range of actions to respond to the impacts of dry weather were spoken of, including more support for farmers by allowing flexibility with water abstraction in order to safeguard food production and animal welfare. Increased monitoring of businesses abstracting water has also commenced to ensure they are not taking more water than they need. Four drought permits have been issued to United Utilities at locations in Cumbria, should they be needed later in the year. Although August has seen dry periods interrupted by bouts of wet weather, the Met Office 3 month outlook for September to November forecasts that above average temperatures and slightly lower than average rainfall are likely. UK exports 19m of red meat to US following ban lift Azerbaijans defense minister, Colonel-General Zakir Hasanov has met with the military attache of the Turkish Armed Forces, Brigadier General Zafer Ocak, who is completing his activities in Azerbaijan, the countrys Defense Ministry said in a message Sept. 1, Trend reports. During the meeting, the sides expressed satisfaction with the high level of cooperation between the two countries in the military, military-technical and military-educational spheres, emphasized the importance of the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for the region, and exchanged views on the prospects for the development of bilateral relations. The minister of defense thanked the military attache for the efforts he made in the sphere of expanding military ties between the two countries during the period of his activity in Azerbaijan and wished him further success. 2020 was a year marked by hardships and challenges, but the Fauquier community has proven resilient. The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you for your continued support, wed like to offer all our subscribers -- new or returning -- 4 WEEKS FREE DIGITAL AND PRINT ACCESS. We understand the importance of working to keep our community strong and connected. As we move forward together into 2021, it will take commitment, communication, creativity, and a strong connection with those who are most affected by the stories we cover. We are dedicated to providing the reliable, local journalism you have come to expect. We are committed to serving you with renewed energy and growing resources. Let the Fauquier Times be your community companion throughout 2021, and for many years to come. Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category Hollywood Actress Vanessa Marquez shot by Police after pointing a toy gun | FilmiBeat Hollywood actress Vanessa Marquez known for playing the role of a nurse on the television series 'ER' was shot dead by the cops on Friday, August 31, 2018. The unfortunate event occurred when Venessa pointed a toy gun at the cops, but the cops shot her in response, assuming it to be a real handgun. The actress had made headlines when she accused George Clooney for blacklisting her following sexual harassment and racial discrimination. Sergeant Joe Mendoza from the LA sheriff's department said that the officers had been to her home in Los Angeles to conduct a welfare check. The 49-year-old actress Venessa grabbed what looked like a handgun and pointed it at the officers. He added, "Officers checked the weapon and they discovered it was a BB-type gun that resembled a semi-automatic handgun." Reportedly, the actress' landlord had called the police to check on her. When the cops arrived, she appeared to be having a seizure. "For over an hour and a half in an attempt to offer her medical care. She then armed herself with a handgun and pointed it at the officers, at which time an officer-involved shooting occurred," the officer said. Television actor Nishant Singh Malkani has set an example by celebrating his birthday in a unique yet beautiful way! He rose to fame through the television shows such as Miley Jab Hum Tum and Ram Milaayi Jodi. Recently, the actor, who was in Lucknow to promote his latest television show Guddan - Tumse Na Ho Payega, decided to celebrate his birthday two days in advance with the acid-attack survivors at a cafe that's run by them. Nishant turns 30 today (September 1, 2018). Image Courtesy : TOI Talking to Times of India about his visit to Lucknow and celebrating his birthday with a special bunch of people Nishant said, "I have never got a chance to explore this city in depth and Lucknow has turned out to be a place where I am celebrating my birthday. I can't express how happy I am to share my joy with these ladies. This is indeed my best birthday ever. These are really the superwoman of our society." The women working at the cafe surprised him with a heart-shaped cake. Overwhelmed by their sweet gesture, Nishant said, "You know the real essence of your birthday is not just celebrating with your loved ones, but also with the ones who need more love, and what better place than this to do that. Even though my birthday will be two-days from now, I have actually celebrated it today. Celebrating it with the good wishes of these courageous ladies and their blessings for my bright future and career, has really made my day. They even arranged a cake for me which was really heart-touching." Nishant, while expressing his desire to explore Lucknow, said, "This is my second visit to Lucknow. The first one was for an acting assignment when I was here only for three days to shoot a song and the second one being this for the promotions. Time hasn't allowed me much to explore this city. But what I've liked best about Lucknow is the mouth-watering food. I really want to visit the Imambara, especially the Bhool Bhulaiya." Also Read -Hina Khan Says The Hotter You Dress, The Better You Feel! By Julie Gordon, Sharay Angulo and Allison Martell WASHINGTON/TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada and the United States ended talks on Friday to update the North American Free Trade Agreement in a mood soured by President Donald Trump's comments that a pact would be on U.S. terms while Ottawa stood firm against signing 'just any deal.' Canada's lead negotiator and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland is scheduled to hold a press conference at 4:30 P.M. By Julie Gordon, Sharay Angulo and Allison Martell WASHINGTON/TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada and the United States ended talks on Friday to update the North American Free Trade Agreement in a mood soured by President Donald Trump's comments that a pact would be on U.S. terms while Ottawa stood firm against signing "just any deal." Canada's lead negotiator and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland is scheduled to hold a press conference at 4:30 P.M. Eastern Time Friday (2030 GMT). It was unclear whether the two countries had agreed a deal. The Wall Street Journal said the talks had concluded with no agreement and that Trump was expected to notify Congress of plans to proceed with a Mexico-only trade pact. The Canadian dollar weakened to C$1.3081 to the U.S. dollar after the Wall Street Journal report. Canadian stocks remained 0.5 percent. Trump confirmed off-the-record remarks he made to Bloomberg News this week that any trade deal with Canada would be "totally on our terms". The Toronto Star first reported on the remarks citing remarks it had obtained. "At least Canada knows where I stand," he later said on Twitter. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Freeland resumed talks for a fourth day on Friday. Mexico was on standby to return to discussions aimed at ending a year of hard-fought negotiations on the three-way North American Free Trade Agreement. Global equities were also down following the hawkish turn in Trump's comments on trade. Lighthizer has refused to budge despite repeated efforts by Freeland to offer some dairy concessions to maintain the Chapter 19 independent trade dispute resolution mechanism in NAFTA, The Globe and Mail reported on Friday. However, a spokeswoman for USTR said Canada had made no concessions on agriculture, which includes dairy, but added that negotiations continued. The United States wants to eliminate Chapter 19, the mechanism that has hindered it from pursuing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases. Lighthizer said on Monday Mexico had agreed to cut the mechanism. For Ottawa, Chapter 19 is a red line. But Freeland said earlier on Friday her team is "not there yet" in resolving still big differences. "We're looking for a good deal, not just any deal. And we'll only agree to a deal that is a good deal for Canada," Freeland told reporters. At a speech in North Carolina on Friday Trump took another swipe at Canada. "I love Canada, but they've taken advantage of our country for many years," he said. (Reporting by Julie Gordon and Sharay Angulo in Washington, Allison Martell in Toronto,; Additional reporting by David Lawder in Washington, Veronica Gomez in Mexico City and Allison Lampert in Montreal; Writing by Denny Thomas; Editing by Paul Tait and Susan Thomas) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Allison Martell and Julie Gordon TORONTO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Canada and the United States ended talks to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on Friday without reaching a deal. One longstanding issue is Chapter 19 of NAFTA, a dispute resolution mechanism that the United States significantly scaled back in a bilateral deal it reached with Mexico. WHAT IS CHAPTER 19? By Allison Martell and Julie Gordon TORONTO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Canada and the United States ended talks to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on Friday without reaching a deal. One longstanding issue is Chapter 19 of NAFTA, a dispute resolution mechanism that the United States significantly scaled back in a bilateral deal it reached with Mexico. WHAT IS CHAPTER 19? Chapter 19 gives the United States, Canada and Mexico the right to challenge each others' anti-dumping and countervailing duty decisions in front of an expert panel with members from both countries involved in a dispute. Anti-dumping cases are used to block imports on the basis that the exporting country is not trading fairly, for example by subsidizing a domestic industry so it can set low prices. WHY HAVE A DISPUTE MECHANISM IN NAFTA? When NAFTA and the earlier Canadian-U.S. Free Trade Agreement were negotiated, Canada pushed the United States to give up the right to bring anti-dumping cases against its neighbours completely, but the United States refused. Chapter 19 was a compromise. During a speech in Ottawa last year, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland reminded her audience that Canada had walked out of trade talks with the United States in 1987 over the issue. WHO HAS BENEFITED FROM CHAPTER 19? The system has not been used heavily in the last 10 years. The best known cases, and all of the currently active cases that involve Canada, are about softwood lumber. Active cases between Mexico and the United States cover U.S. fertilizer, and steel pipe and washing machines made in Mexico. In the mid-2000s, in the midst of the last round of softwood lumber disputes, Chapter 19 panels repeatedly ruled against the United States, before the Canadian government cut a deal that temporarily ended the dispute. "Canada's negotiating position at the very least was significantly strengthened by the determinations it was getting under the Chapter 19 process," said Matthew Kronby, a trade lawyer with Borden Ladner Gervais in Toronto. ARE THERE ALTERNATIVES TO CHAPTER 19? Anti-dumping or countervailing duties can be challenged in the courts of the country imposing the duties. Another option is the World Trade Organization, whose 164 members have the right to challenge each other over unwarranted trade restrictions, illegal subsidies and other unfair practices. But Kronby said Chapter 19 panels have the effective power of a domestic court, while the WTO does not, which makes its decisions easier to ignore. The United States has criticized the WTO dispute settlement process and is currently blocking appointments and reappointments of judges. Because three judges are needed on each appeal, the system looks set to break down when two judges' terms expire in December 2019. ARE THERE REASONS FOR CANADA TO COMPROMISE? While Canada has stood firm on Chapter 19 so far, giving up the dispute mechanism would not hurt as much as compromising on the dairy industry, which is the other contentious issue in the talks. Canada's 11,280 dairy farmers form one of the country's most influential political lobbies. "We don't use it as much as people think, it's not as effective as people think," said Toronto-based trade lawyer Mark Warner, who argues that Chapter 19 may not be worth fighting for. "The question is, Do we have 25 percent tariffs on our cars and no NAFTA in order to make a point about Chapter 19?" Others say it is more important than ever. "Look at the amount of protectionist measures introduced by the U.S. in the last couple years," said Brian Kingston, a vice president at the Business Council of Canada. "If this is a trend that is only going to get worse, then Canada needs a mechanism to respond." (Reporting by Julie Gordon in Washington, D.C., and Allison Martell in Toronto; Additional reporting by Tom Miles in Geneva; Editing by Denny Thomas and Leslie Adler) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Ayenat Mersie NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices slipped on Friday, pressured by renewed concerns that a global trade war could dent energy demand, although impending U.S. sanctions on Iran and falling Venezuelan output limited the decline. Benchmark Brent crude oil fell 42 cents to $77.35 a barrel by 1:35 p.m By Ayenat Mersie NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices slipped on Friday, pressured by renewed concerns that a global trade war could dent energy demand, although impending U.S. sanctions on Iran and falling Venezuelan output limited the decline. Benchmark Brent crude oil fell 42 cents to $77.35 a barrel by 1:35 p.m. EDT (1735 GMT). U.S. crude slipped 36 cents to $69.89. For the month, global benchmark Brent was set to jump 4.3 percent and U.S. crude 1.6 percent. Oil has been buoyed by tumbling Venezuelan output and declining shipments from Iran ahead of the imposition of U.S. sanctions on Tehran in November. On Friday, however, oil "appears to be following equities lower amidst renewed U.S./Chinese tariff concerns that could easily escalate in slowing global economic growth and, hence, world oil demand," Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates, said in a note. The MSCI Emerging Markets index fell for a second day as a report that U.S. President Donald Trump was preparing to step up a trade war with Beijing dampened risk appetite and erased some gains from a rally this week. In the previous session, concerns about Argentina's currency weakening had weighed on the outlook for emerging markets. Trump threatened on Thursday to withdraw from the World Trade Organization and impose tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports. The U.S. rig count, an indicator of future production, rose for the first time in 3 weeks, energy services firm Baker Hughes reported. U.S. crude production in June hit 10.674 million barrels per day, the highest monthly total on record, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a monthly report on Friday. Crude exports rose nearly 200,000 bpd in the month, hitting a new record of 2.2 million bpd, more than twice the level seen last June, the EIA said in a separate monthly report on Friday. U.S. crude's discount to Brent, which has widened by nearly a third in the past month, has encouraged an increase in U.S. exports, Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho. Production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries increased by 220,000 bpd in August, according to a Reuters survey. Oil analysts polled by Reuters cut their price forecasts for 2018 in August, for the first time in almost a year, on growing concerns about global trade. A Reuters survey of 45 economists and analysts forecast Brent would average $72.71 in 2018, 16 cents below the $72.87 projected in July but above the $71.96 average so far this year. The 2019 price was forecast to average $72.58. (Additional reporting by Christopher Johnson in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; editing by David Gregorio and Phil Berlowitz) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Bhilwara Mahila Urban Co-operative Bank' s licence has been cut from 31 August 2018 Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cancelled the licence of Rajasthan-based Bhilwara Mahila Urban Co-operative Bank as it does not have adequate capital and earning prospects. The RBI said it has cancelled the licence of the bank with effect from the close of business on 31 August 2018. "The bank does not have adequate capital and earning prospects. The bank is not in a position to pay its present and future depositors in full as and when their claims accrue," the apex bank said. The affairs of the bank are being conducted in a manner detrimental to the interest of its present and future depositors and no useful purpose would be served by allowing the bank to continue as envisaged in the Banking Regulation Act, it said further. "Consequent to the cancellation of its licence, Bhilwara Mahila Urban Co-operative Bank Ltd, Bhilwara, Rajasthan is prohibited from conducting the business of banking which includes acceptance of deposits and repayment of deposits...with immediate effect," the RBI said. With the cancellation of licence and commencement of liquidation proceedings, the process of paying the depositors of the bank will be set in motion, it said. Baku-Essentuki-Kislovodsk bus routes will start operating from 13 September, abc.az reported. The Baku International Bus Station informs that buses will leave the bus station at 5 pm on Thursdays. "Buses will arrive in Kislovodsk at 9 am of next morning and leave back at 12 am from Kislovodsk and at 1 pm from Yessentuki," the BIBS said. Cost of tickets in one direction is 70 manats. The ticket for children under 5 years (without a seat) is free of charge and for children aged 5-10 years are paid by half. By Julie Gordon, Sharay Angulo and Allison Martell WASHINGTON/TORONTO (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump notified Congress on Friday of his intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico after talks with Canada broke up on Friday with no immediate deal to revamp the tri-nation North American Free Trade Agreement. U.S By Julie Gordon, Sharay Angulo and Allison Martell WASHINGTON/TORONTO (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump notified Congress on Friday of his intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico after talks with Canada broke up on Friday with no immediate deal to revamp the tri-nation North American Free Trade Agreement. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said U.S. officials would resume talks with their Canadian counterparts next Wednesday with the aim of getting a deal all three nations could sign. All three countries have stressed the importance of NAFTA, which governs billions of dollars in regional trade and a bilateral deal announced by the United States and Mexico on Monday paved the way for Canada to rejoin the talks this week. But by Friday the mood had soured, partly on Trump's off-the-record remarks made to Bloomberg News that any trade deal with Canada would be "totally on our terms". He later confirmed the comments, which the Toronto Star first reported. "At least Canada knows where I stand," he later said on Twitter. Ottawa has stood firm against signing "just any deal." Canada's lead negotiator and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland is scheduled to hold a press conference at 4:30 P.M. Eastern Time on Friday (2030 GMT). The Canadian dollar weakened to C$1.3081 to the U.S. dollar after the Wall Street Journal first reported that the talks had ended on Friday with no agreement. Canadian stocks remained 0.5 percent lower. Global equities were also down following the hawkish turn in Trump's comments on trade. Lighthizer has refused to budge despite repeated efforts by Freeland to offer some dairy concessions to maintain the Chapter 19 independent trade dispute resolution mechanism in NAFTA, The Globe and Mail reported on Friday. However, a spokeswoman for USTR said Canada had made no concessions on agriculture, which includes dairy, but added that negotiations continued. The United States wants to eliminate Chapter 19, the mechanism that has hindered it from pursuing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases. Lighthizer said on Monday Mexico had agreed to cut the mechanism. For Ottawa, Chapter 19 is a red line. But Freeland said earlier on Friday her team is "not there yet" in resolving still big differences. "We're looking for a good deal, not just any deal. And we'll only agree to a deal that is a good deal for Canada," Freeland told reporters. Trump argues Canada's hefty dairy tariffs are hurting U.S. farmers, an important political base for his Republican party. But dairy farmers have great political clout in Canada too, and concessions could hurt the ruling Liberals ahead of a 2019 federal election. At a speech in North Carolina on Friday Trump took another swipe at Canada. "I love Canada, but they've taken advantage of our country for many years," he said. (Reporting by Julie Gordon and Sharay Angulo in Washington, Allison Martell in Toronto,; Additional reporting by David Lawder in Washington, Veronica Gomez in Mexico City and Allison Lampert in Montreal; Writing by Denny Thomas; Editing by Paul Tait and Susan Thomas) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Human rights activist Anand Teltumbde refuted the Maharashtra Police's claim that he had attended a convention in Paris which was allegedly funded by Maoists. Mumbai: Human rights activist Anand Teltumbde refuted on Saturday the Maharashtra Police's claim that he had attended a convention in Paris which was allegedly funded by Maoists and dismissed as outrageous charges of Naxal link. Teltumbde, who teaches at a management institute in Goa, was among the activists and lawyers whose homes were raided by the Pune Police on 28 August on suspicion they had links with Maoists. "These are all false allegations to malign and defame my image. I don't know any Maoist leader and I am not having any relation with this," Teltumbde told PTI over the phone. "I keep going abroad for academic conferences. It is all on official invitations and everything is well documented," he said. The raid on the home of Teltumbde, a Goa Institute of Management professor and Dalit writer, was part of multi-city searches carried out by the Pune Police in connection with an event held in Pune in December last year. Five Left-wing activists were arrested during the searches and they are under house arrest till 6 September as per a Supreme Court direction. Teltumbde is not among them. In a press briefing here Friday, the Maharashtra Police had cited a letter, allegedly written by "Comrade Prakash", that mentions about arranging funds for a human rights convention attended by "Comrade Anand" in Paris. However, the police did not say when the convention was held. The letter also mentioned about allocating Rs 10 lakh annually to organise international seminars on Dalit issues, they had said. The press meet was addressed by Additional Director General (ADG) Param Bir Singh. Dismissing these charges, Teltumbde said, "I dont know any Maoist leaders and I have not received any letters. Police should think before leveling allegations, they should see my background, the work which I did, I don't have time to do all these things," he said, adding "this is all outrageous". "My profession and whatever I do is all in public domain. This is a deliberate attempt by the police to trouble common people. I keep writing on various issue and I will be always critical," he said. Teltumbde alleged harassment of activists by the police. "Only because the police have rights and they will do anything they want, this is not done," he said, alleging "they are harassing us by doing such things". The 28 August raids were carried out as part of a police probe into the Elgaar Parishad, an event held in Pune on 31 December, 2017. Police say "provocative speeches" delivered at the event was one of the reasons for violence at Koregaon-Bhima village in Pune district the next day. K Palaniswami said farmers worked hard in different climatic conditions and that the 'Amma government will stand by them forever for their welfare.' Salem: Tamil Nadu chief minister K Palaniswami on Saturday assured his government's support to farmers of the state, saying he himself was one. "I was born in a village. I was a farmer. I am still involved in farming. Therefore, I know how tough the problems of farmers are, and at the same time how difficult it is to practice agriculture," he said. The chief minister's remarks at a government event at Anuppur district comes in the backdrop of stiff resistance from a section of landowners, especially farmers and agriculturists, for the proposed eight-lane Expressway connecting this city with state capital Chennai. Earlier, The Madras High Court had restrained the Centre and Tamil Nadu government from dispossessing people of their lands to be acquired for the Rs 10,000 crore highway till further orders. At Salem on Saturday, Palaniswami said farmers worked hard in different climatic conditions and that the "Amma government will stand by them forever for their welfare." "The government will formulate necessary schemes for them. Farmers in all parts should progress. Only if the farmers flourish can a country flourish," he said and assured the farming sector all assistance in this regard. Palaniswami recalled that the late chief minister J Jayalalithaa was keen on rural development and therefore she formulated many welfare schemes to benefit them in the rural roads and education sectors. He also said Tamil Nadu was doing well in the farming sector. The UPA affidavit also noted the 'effectiveness' of the Maoists' propaganda machinery and stated that taking any legal action against these people has a counter effect as it fetches a lot of 'negative publicity' to the government As the Congress party condemned the BJP over the arrest of several human rights activists for their suspected links with Maoists, a counter-affidavit filed by the then-UPA government has surfaced which shows that the Congress-led government also highlighted the menace of Maoist 'front organisations', or what is being referred to as 'urban Naxals' in the present discourse. The affidavit said that the CPI (Maoist) has a very effective strategy of using overground workers and armed guerilla fighters to keep the insurgency going, while it "mobilises targeted section of urban population" which are otherwise known as mass organisations. The mass organisations mostly operate under the garb of human rights organisations, are organically linked to the CPI (Maoist) party structure but maintain separate identities to avoid legal liability, the UPA-II government had told the court in response to a civil writ petition filed by Kishore Samrite (738/2013). Congress leaders, including party president Rahul Gandhi and former finance minister P Chidambaram, have berated the BJP for the near-simultaneous raids on, and subsequent arrest of five activists saying that BJP was intolerant of dissenting views. However, ironically, Chidambaram was the Union home minister when the government first went for a major offensive against Maoists in Naxal-hit states following a series of attacks on police, civilians and industries. The counter-affidavit filed by the UPA-II in 2013 in the Kishore Samrite vs Union of India and Others case also blamed activists, academicians, lawyers and rights' activists for spreading malicious propaganda to defame the State. In fact, in its affidavit, the Congress-led government not only acknowledged the "threat" from the so-called "frontal organisations", it also called them "more dangerous" than the armed Naxals on ground. "The ideologues and supporters of the CPI (Maoist) party in cities and towns have undertaken a concerted effort and systematic propaganda against the State to project the state in a poor light and also malign it through disinformation. In fact, it is these ideologues who have kept the Maoist movement alive and are in many ways more dangerous than the cadres of the People's Liberation Guerilla Army." The UPA affidavit also noted the 'effectiveness' of the Maoists' propaganda machinery and stated that taking any legal action against these people has a counter effect as it fetches a lot of 'negative publicity' to the government. The Supreme Court had dismissed the writ petition while accepting the UPA's submissions, also noting that the government was taking "appropriate action" keeping the sensitivity of the situation in mind. Meanwhile, as the BJP received flak for the arrest of the rights' activists in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence of 1 January, and for launching a purported assassination plot to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi, officials came out with a list, prepared by the then UPA dispensation in 2012, of organisations "having connections with the Maoists". As many as 128 organisations suspected to be having links with Maoists were identified by the UPA government in 2012 and some of those arrested by the Maharashtra Police in recent crackdown were part of these front groups of the red ultras, officials said. "The UPA government had, in December 2012, identified 128 organisations with linkages to the CPI (Maoists) and written to all state governments asking them to take action against people involved with these organisations. Seven of those Varavara Rao, Sudha Bhardwaj, Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Mahesh Raut arrested so far belong to the organisations appearing in this list," a government official told PTI on the condition of anonymity. While Rao, Bhardwaj, Ferreira and Gonsalves were arrested on 28 August, Gadling, Wilson and Raut were arrested on 6 June. Ferreira and Gonsalves, two of the five arrested on 28 August, were held in 2007 too and they had spent several years in prison. Similarly, Rao has been arrested several times by the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Police in the past. The official said what is under investigation in the current case are the linkages of these individuals with the CPI (Maoist), a banned organisation operating with the devious objective of overthrowing the democratic order, and the support provided by them to the CPI (Maoist). "Such individuals cannot escape responsibility for aiding and abetting the violent acts committed by CPI (Maoist)'s underground cadres," the official said. "The CPI (Maoist), towards achievement of its ultimate objective of seizure of political power through protracted peoples war, attaches immense importance to the urban movement which works towards creation of a United Front in support of their movement," another official said. The urban movement is the main source for providing leadership and resources to the CPI (Maoist), the official said, addign that the responsibility for provision of supplies, technologies, expertise, information and other logistic support is also shouldered by the overground activists in urban centres. Since 2001, altogether 6,956 civilians and 2,517 security personnel have been killed by the CPI (Maoist), according to a government figure. Naxal violence has also caused massive damage to infrastructure and virtually stalled development activities in some parts of the country. The Maharashtra Police has named the organisations to which the arrested people belong: Surendra Gadling (general secretary, Indian Association of People's Lawyers), Rona Wilson (public relation secretary, Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners), Sudhir Dhawale (Republican Panthers), Shoma Sen (executive member, Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights) and Mahesh Raut (state convener, Maharashtra, Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan). All were arrested on 6 June. Those who were arrested on Tuesday are: Varavara Rao (president, Revolutionary Democratic Front), Sudha Bharadwaj (vice-president, Indian Association of People's Lawyers), Gautam Navlakha (leader, People's Union for Democratic Rights), Vernon Gonsalves (ex-secretary, Maharashtra State Committee of CPI/Maoist) and Arun Ferreira (ex-member, Maharashtra State Committee of CPI-Maoist). With inputs from PTI Sudha Bharadwaj, one of the five activists arrested in multi-city raids by the Maharashtra Police, has outrightly rejected the claims made by the investigating agency. Sudha Bharadwaj, one of the five activists arrested in multi-city raids by the Maharashtra Police, has outrightly rejected the claims made by the investigating agency and said a purported letter implicating her was "totally concocted" to criminalise her and human rights organisations. The police had Friday claimed that Bharadwaj had written to one "Com Prakash". Reacting to this in a handwritten statement, Bharadwaj, who is under house arrest, Friday said the purported letter shown by the Pune Police is a "mixture of innocuous and publicly available facts." She claimed a number of human rights lawyers, activists and organisations were deliberately named to cast a stigma over them, obstruct their work and incite hatred against them. "It is a totally concocted letter fabricated to criminalise me and other human rights lawyers, activists and organisations," the letter said. The activist-lawyer said the "fabricated letter" had not been brought either before the Pune court or the Faridabad chief judicial magistrate while seeking to "whisk" her to Pune. In her statement, Bharadwaj also said that she does not know any "Ankit from Maharashtra," who is in touch with Kashmiri separatists. One of her letters presented by the police said, "Comrade Gautam (Navalakha) and Comrade Ankit are in touch with separatists in Jammu and Kashmir." She, however, said that she does know Navlakha, "a senior and respected human rights activist whose name has been mentioned in a manner to criminalise and incite hatred against him." In a media briefing Friday, the police had released details of seized letters related to five activists arrested in June, and in a second crackdown on Tuesday in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence that took place in January. Early this week, the police raided the homes of activists and lawyers from five states Varavara Roa in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Bharadwaj in Faridabad and Gautam Navalakha in Delhi. With inputs from PTI The son of Vernon Gonsalves, one of the five activists arrested for alleged Maoist links, Saturday rejected the police charges against his father and termed them as 'laughable'. Mumbai: The son of Vernon Gonsalves, one of the five activists arrested for alleged Maoist links, Saturday rejected the police charges against his father and termed them as "laughable". Vernon Gonsalves, a Mumbai resident, is one of the prominent activists and lawyers whose homes were raided by the Pune Police on 28 August on suspicion they had links with Maoists. He and four others were later arrested. His son Sagar Gonsalves said charges against him were false. The police claimed to have "conclusive proof", including letters seized during the raids, to link the arrested Left-wing activists to Maoists. "I was present when searches and raids were conducted at our home and I know what the police has seized," said Sagar Gonsalves. He said allegations against his father, made by a top police officer while addressing a press conference Friday, with regards to alleged letters was like "talking in the air". "I could not stop laughing, when the police were levelling false charges with so called letters," he said. Besides Vernon Gonsalves, the other arrested are Varavara Rao (Hyderabad), Arun Ferreira (Mumbai), Sudha Bharadwaj (Faridabad) and Gautam Navalakha (New Delhi). The Supreme Court has ordered that the five be kept under house arrest till September 6. The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the "Elgaar Parishad", an event organised in Pune on 31 December, 2017, which allegedly triggered violence at Bhima-Koregaon village in Pune district the next day. Addressing a press conference, Additional Director General (Law and Order) Param Bir Singh said an email exchanged between Rona Wilson, an activist, and a Maoist leader, speaks of ending "Modi-raj" with a 'Rajiv Gandhi-type incident'. Wilson was arrested in Delhi in June in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence in Maharashtra in January. Besides Wilson, other activists-lawyers arrested in June by the Pune Police. They were Sudhir Dhawale (from Mumbai), Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut (all from Nagpur). All the activists arrested in June and early this week had links with Maoists, Singh had said. Even before Tushar Damgude filed an FIR in January in relation to the Bhima Koregaon violence, two former office bearers of ABVP had filed a complaint regarding the same Elgar Parishad meet. One of them knows Damgude very well Pune: Even before Tushar Damgude filed an FIR in January in relation to the Bhima Koregaon violence, leading to recent arrests of five human rights activists across the country, two former office bearers of ABVP, a right-wing students' party, had filed a complaint regarding the same Elgar Parishad meet. They claimed that provocative speeches were made at Elgar Parishad ceremony, which led to the violence on 1 January, 2018. Furthermore, one of the complainants, Akshay Bikkad, 23, knows Damgude very well. While the investigation was underway in connection with the first FIR, filed on 4 January, the police arrested Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Farreira on 28 August acting on Damgude's complaint, which was filed on 8 January. The Pune Police has been criticised severely for these arrests from across the country. In the 4 January FIR, Bikkad and Anand Dhond had accused Jignesh Mewani and Umar Khalid of giving provocative speeches, causing the Bhima Koregaon violence. Though Dhond accepted his past affiliation with the ABVP, Bikkad denied it, even though news reports are available online which quoted him in the capacity of the vice-president of the Fergusson College unit of ABVP. Not just that, in one of his posts on Twitter, Bikkad claims to be a proud ABVPian. When asked about Damgude, Bikkad said, We know each other for over a year as we both write well. Both of them have written posts praising each other for for showing 'courage' by lodgin FIRs in the case. Bikkad also calls Damgude an Ambedkarite. The Elgar Parishad meeting and the Bhima Koregaon violence On 31 December, 2017, over 250 organisations including Dalit rights groups held Elgar Parishad in Pune in which Mewani, Khalid, Radhika Vemula (mother of Rohith Vemula), Sudhir Dhawale and many others gave speeches. Next day, as every year, thousands of Dalits gathered at Bhima Koregaon, 40 kilometres away from Pune, to commemorate the 1818 Battle of Koregaon in which British troupes comprising Dalits defeated the Peshwa army. Riots broke out on 1 January in Bhima Koregaon, killing one person, and injuring many others. Properties worth crores were also damaged in the violence. The FIR against Mewani and Khalid Dhond, who was an office bearer of ABVP while completing his post graduation in commerce from Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce from 2013-2014, said, "Akshay was writing an article for a website, and I was covering the event by taking videos. We thought the speeches were provocative and had the potential to instigate one caste against the other. But we didn't file any complaint on the same day. Next day, newspapers, news channels and opinions by experts expressed views similar to what we had on our minds. Hence we filed a complaint at the Deccan Police Station by submitting videos (from the ceremony). After verifying the facts, the police converted it into FIR on 4 January." Dhond, 26, who is trying to set up a catering business. Bikkad who claims to be a Leftist, said, I was a fan of Mewani before I heard his speech at Elgar Parishad. Mewani said in the speech that we would not get justice through the Constitution and that we have to fight battle on the roads to get it. I thought that it was anti-constitutional. Hence, I decided to lodge a complaint against Mewani and Khalid whose speeches I heard. I made the two as the accused in the case as I didn't attend the latter part of the programme. When Bikkad was asked if he was active in students movement, he said, I would work for students to take their problems to the principal, and so on. But I was never associated with any wing." Bikkad also calls himself a Leftist and says that he wants to "do PhD on (Karl) Marx, but his posts on Twitter are either sharply critical or making fun of the Left ideology. He also criticises Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of Babasaheb Ambedkar, in poor words. I oppose everything ultra," he says. Dhond, a resident of Latur district has been associated with the ABVP since 2009. When he was in college, he claims to have fought against fee hikes and lack of facilities like gym in local colleges. During his post graduation from the Symbiosis College of Arts, Commerce and Science, Dhond became an office bearer of the ABVP and participated in several issues raised by the students' party such as fee hikes in engineering colleges, etc. His uncle has been a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Beed district. Dhond maintains that his past association with the ABVP and the fact that he filed an FIR against Mewani and Khalid are not connected. He said, "They also distributed booklets titled, Shivajiche Udattikaran (Glorification of Shivaji), to people who attended the programme. The book basically explains that Shivaji wouldn't respect lower castes and would use them." As for the FIR, Bikkad says that he has stopped following up the investigation because of the "lethargic attitude" of the police. I followed up with the police about the investigation, but they would tell me that they don't have only one case to probe. Due to the lethargic attitude of Police, I didn't follow up. Shivaji Bodakhe, Joint Commissioner of Police, Pune City, however, said that the police are "still investigating the FIR". P Chidambaram alleged that the police crackdown on Left- wing activists is aimed at silencing the critics of the BJP- led government. Nagpur: Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday slammed the Maharashtra government over the arrest of five Left-wing activists for alleged Maoist links, saying it was an attempt to crush dissent. Addressing a press conference in Nagpur, the former Union home minister said holding extreme Right or Left wing views is acceptable in a free country and the problem arises only when there is incitement to violence. "They (those arrested) are civil rights activists, human rights activists, lawyers, writers and poets. They have extreme Left-views. In a free country you can have extreme Left-view, you can have extreme Right-view...that is the essence of freedom. It is only when somebody indulges in violence or invites violence or aids or abets violence that he is committing a crime," he stated. The Congress leader alleged the police crackdown on Left- wing activists is aimed at silencing the critics of the BJP- led government. "We think this is the attempt to divert the attention of the people from pressing issues. This is an attempt to crush dissent and attempt to instill fear in critics of the government. We condemn this and we are very happy that the court has intervened and given them some degree of liberty," he said. On 28 August, the Pune Police had raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested five of them Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Sudha Bharadwaj in Faridabad and Gautam Navalakha in Delhi for their alleged links with Maoists. The Supreme Court has ordered that the five be kept under house arrest till 6 September. A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team on Friday took Sachin Andure, the alleged main shooter in rationalist Narendra Dabholkar's killing case, to the crime spot in Pune, in Maharashtra. Pune: A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team on Friday took Sachin Andure, the alleged main shooter in rationalist Narendra Dabholkar's killing case, to the crime spot in Pune, in Maharashtra. According to a police officer, Andure, who had his face covered when he was taken to the Omkareshwar Bridge, where Dabholkar was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne assailants on 20 August 2013 while he was on a morning walk. Based on information provided by Andure, who is in his late 20s, the CBI team recreated the entire crime scene as part of its investigation into the case, he said. According to the CBI, Sharad Kalaskar was the "second shooter" in the case. Currently, Kalaskar is in the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad's custody till 3 September in another case. Kalaskar was arrested by the ATS earlier this month in connection with the seizure of explosives from different parts of Maharashtra. Five people were arrested in the arms haul case and one of them gave the input about Andure's involvement in Dabholkar's killing, which the ATS shared with the CBI, a spokesperson of the central agency had said earlier. Acting on the input from the ATS following the arrest of Kalaskar and other accused, the CBI arrested Andure, a resident of Maharashtra's Aurangabad district, on 18 August. The Dabholkar killing case was initially handled by the state police, but in May 2014, it was handed over to the CBI by the Bombay High Court. Infrastructure gaps in judicial system must be addressed at the earliest before it leaves scar on justice administration, Chief Justice Dipak Misra said. New Delhi: Infrastructure gaps in judicial system must be addressed at the earliest before it leaves scar on justice administration, and fiscal constraints must not be used as an excuse, Chief Justice Dipak Misra said on Saturday. While delivering his lecture on the topic 'Technology, Training and Infrastructure: Key to Speedy Justice' and 'The changing face of legal education in India', organised by by the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association (SCAORA), Justice Misra said strengthening of judiciary will result in qualitative and speedy justice. "The infrastructure gaps shall not be allowed to multiply and should be addressed at the earliest opportunity before it leaves a deep scar on the administration of justice and it becomes too late to act wisely. Fiscal constraints is no excuse. The need is to strengthen the judiciary as a consequence of which the justice delivery system becomes fast, qualitatively responsive and serve the purpose of justice," he said. The first half of Saturday was quite busy for the Chief Justice, who in the morning had inaugurated the symposium on 'Role of legal education on nation building' in the event organised by Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) and Menon Institute of Legal Advocacy Training (MILAT) as part of the 10th Law Teachers' Day award function. Later, he attended the SCAORA conference which was inaugurated by President of India Ram Nath Kovind. The CJI, in the SCAORA function, emphasised that adequate infrastructure remains a primary concern as without it the commitment to justice for all cannot be realised. He said there was a need to widen the network of courts to increase the geographical reach of common man, to provide basic facilities to litigants and required facilities for the lawyers. "Judicial infrastructure includes infrastructure for the bar and the litigants which are the backbone of justice delivery system," he said, adding that justice delivery system is not an alien concept. Justice Misra, while delivering his inaugural speech at the 10th Law Teachers' Day award function, said law schools are the hatcheries supplying legal professionals who act as sentinels for the implementation of rule of law. "The implementation of rule of law in a nation depends on the quality of legal education in a country," he said. The CJI also said legal education is a science which inculcates in law students a sense of maturity and understanding of the society and moulds them to emerge as protectors of citizenry liberties. "The implementation of rule of law in a nation depends on the quality of legal education in a country. Law schools are the hatcheries which supply quintessential legal professionals who act as sentinels for the implementation of rule of law and contribute tremendously towards the development of the nation. "Legal education is a science which imparts to law students not only the knowledge of certain legal provisions but it also inculcates a sense of maturity and understanding of the society which shapes and moulds them to emerge as protectors of citizenry liberties," Justice Misra said. In both the functions, the Chief Justice appreciated the functioning of National Law Universities and said the institution have turned out to be the most successful exercise for enhancing the quality of legal education in the country. "The introduction of five year law course has made legal education quite coveted in India. It has become imperative for law schools to take in account the changes taking place across the world as well as the contemporary issues in the society. "Law schools must focus on developing amongst its students critical reflectiveness of the social, moral and political outlooks embedded in law," he said. He released the e-journal of SCAORA and said it was the time that young lawyers, who are technically sound, should be allowed to argue in courts and old ones should leave the room for them. He said technology has generated increased social awareness and made citizens more informed than earlier to claim their rightful entitlements and added that it can enhance quality of work by acting as an aid in expediting the routine cases. He added that technological resources can aid in strengthening judicial data base. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov vowed support and assistance to eastern Ukraines region of Donbass following the death of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic leader Alexander Zakharchenko, TASS reported. "On this difficult day for Donbass, I assure that we are ready to render all necessary assistance and support, we will not leave you face-to-face with your tragedy," Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram page. The Chechen leader said that although he never met Zakharchenko in person, he talked to him by phone on many occasions. "He was a sincere and courageous person, devoted to his people," Kadyrov said. He added that Western nations "absolutely dont care that the Ukrainian government has harbored terrorists, bandits, gangsters, criminals, provided them with weapons, money and documents and gave them green light to carry out terror attacks and murders" in the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk." Some of those nations, Kadyrov said, have become "home for hundreds of dangerous criminals, wanted in Russia on charges of grave crimes." The Congress criticised the Maharashtra government for its plan to levy cess on extraction of water from deep wells calling the move as anti-farmers. Kolhapur: The Congress on Saturday criticised the Maharashtra government for its plan to levy cess on extraction of water from deep wells calling the move as anti-farmers. The Opposition party also taunted the BJP-led government saying that tax should be imposed on the speeches of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as well for giving "false promises" to people. "The BJP governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra are anti-farmer. After levying Goods and Services Tax (GST) on spare parts of tractors, this government has imposed tax on water in deep wells," Congress leader Ashok Chavan said. He was speaking at a public meeting at Chokak in Kolhapur district of Maharashtra as part of the first phase of the party's 'Jan Sangharsh Yatra', a mass outreach programme undertaken in view of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. "Now, tax has to be levied on the speeches of Modi and Fadnavis, who have cheated people by making false promises," he added. Chavan claimed that the state had achieved development during the Congress rule, but is now lagging behind under the BJP-Shiv Sena regime. Alleging that the agrarian crisis had worsened during the BJP rule, he contended that farmers were not getting enough price for their produce and their debts were still not being written off. He also attacked the Centre over demonetisation and introduction of GST. Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, former minister Harshvardhan Patil and other leaders of the party attended the public meeting, which followed a bike rally in Sangali Phata. The first phase was launched on Friday and will culminate on 8 September in Pune. The party would launch the next phase of the campaign on 2 October, marking birth anniversary of Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, in north Maharashtra. It plans to cover Marathwada and Vidarbha regions before winding up the three-and-half month campaign in Mumbai. A flood alert has also been sounded in Nagaland and three Meghalaya districts as well. India's two Northeastern states, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, have been put on a flood high alert after upper riparian state China alerted India on Thursday about the rising water levels in Tsangpo river. Tsangpo, which enters India through Arunachal Pradesh is known as the Siang river in the state. Further downstream, Siang river joins Lohit and Dibang rivers to form the Brahmaputra in Assam. Thus, a spate in the Chinese river puts both states on a threat of flooding. According to a Chinese government report, Tsangpo was in spate because of heavy rains in the river basin. The various gauge and discharge stations on the Tsangpo had observed a discharge of 9,020 cumec water on Wednesday, official sources said. According to the Central Water Commission (CWC) data, water level is currently rising in Beki river (Barpeta district in Assam) and Jiabharali river (Sonitpur district in Assam) in the Brahmaputra basin. The administrations of East and Upper Siang districts of Arunachal Pradesh and Dhemaji, Lakhimpur and Dibrugarh districts in Assam had sounded alerts on Thursday following the rise in water level in the river. A senior official of the Union water resources ministry, on Thursday, said it was an unprecedented situation on the Chinese side where Tsangpo broke a 150-year record with swollen waters, prompting China to share the information with India. This was the first time this year that India's neighbour shared the river data with India, the official said. China began sharing data from 15 May, while it started sharing data for the Sutlej river from 1 June. The sharing of data came after the two sides held talks over the issue in March this year. The data is shared twice daily until October this year. Meanwhile, a flood alert has been sounded in Nagaland and three Meghalaya districts as well. Here is a brief look at the situation in the affected states in the Northeastern region: Arunachal Pradesh On Friday, the Indian Air Force airlifted as many as 19 people from a flooded island in Arunachal Pradesh. The 19 rescued people cattle-herders from Assam were stranded for over 24 hours in East Siang district of Arunachal as the Siang river continued to swell due to heavy rain. Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu personally monitored the evacuation operations from Itanagar, he said, adding that Lok Sabha MP Ninong Ering and Pasighat West MLA Tatung Jamoh along with police and locals helped in rescuing the cattle. The rest, who were rescued by personnel of National Disaster Response Force and Assam State Disaster Response Force, had gone to Dhemaji adjacent to East Siang for farming. State Water Resources Department (WRD) chief engineer (West Zone) Likar Angu also directed officials, who have been monitoring the situation round-the-clock, to alert the inhabitants of low lying Jarku, Paglek, SS Mission, Jarkong, Banskota, Berung, Sigar, Borguli, Seram, Kongkul, Namsing and Mer. Over 1,000 families living along the Siang river have been affected at Mebo area in East Siang, Arunachal MLA Lombo Tayeng said. Tayeng, who is also an advisor to Chief Minister Pema Khandu, said that the Siang river water at present is "totally muddy which indicates that there might be some activities in the Chinese side". The MLA also urged upon the Centre to take up the matter with Beijing and sought flood control measures. Informing that 15 families of Seram-Ramku village have lost their homes as the flood waters came gushing in, he said most of the inhabitants on the left bank had been rescued to safe places. Tayeng also assured that Rs 1 lakh each will be provided for their rehabilitation. He also sent a report to Union Minister Kiren Rijiju for action and requested him to facilitate visit of an inter-ministerial central team to assess the situation. In a circular, the East Siang district commissioner cautioned people against venturing into Siang River for fishing and swimming. A red alert has been hoisted for residents of Borguli, Seram, Namsing, Mer and Sigar villages on the left bank of Siang as water volume in the river is rising, he said adding it was due to large-scale siltation on the river bed. Assam According to official records of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority, at least 50 people have died in flood and landslide in Assam this year. According to All India Radio, at least 15,000 people have been affected by flash floods in Assams Golaghat and Dhemaji districts. More than 600 hectares of crop area was severely damaged and over 1,488 people continue to stay in relief camps as low-lying areas remain inundated. On Friday, over 200 people were rescued from Assam's Dhemaji district. In Lakhimpur and Dibrugarh districts, precautionary measures were taken to prevent loss of life and property in view of a CWC warning, which predicted an "unprecedented" rise in the water level of Brahmaputra, official sources said. The administration also instructed its officials to keep the army, paramilitary forces ready to reach out to the marooned people and stock food and medicine supplies for emergency situations. The Inland Waterways department has been asked to keep boats ready for rescuing people from riverine and other vulnerable areas, they said. Meghalaya In Meghalaya, the deputy commissioners of West Garo Hills, North Garo Hills and South West Garo Hills have been alerted and asked to keep the disaster management teams ready for any emergency situation in the next 24 hours, official said. "As a result of the release of excess water by the Chinese government, there may be unprecedented rise in the water level of the Brahmaputra River," a revenue and disaster management official said in an urgent communication to the DCs of the three districts. West Garo Hills district deputy commissioner Ram Singh said the district authorities are monitoring the situation closely. "We are monitoring the flood level with districts in upper Assam and CWC bulletins. People living in flood prone areas will be evacuated to upland areas identified by the District Disaster Management Authorities based on information on the water level," he said. The excess water will, however, take a few days to reach the West Garo Hills district, he added. Nagaland Incessant rain in Nagaland since July have caused floods and landslides in several areas claiming at least 12 lives and rendering thousands homeless. The Chief Minister of Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio, tweeted seeking help with a video showing the damage that is caused in Nagaland due to this rain. Major roads, including NH-29 was severely damaged, while landslides isolated several villages from the mainland. At least 4,000 families have been evacuated so far by the state disaster response authorities, with the state government seeking more help from Centre to carry out relief operations. The worst-affected areas included state capital Kohima, Tuensang, Wokha, and Dimapur. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday spoke to Rio and took stock of the flood and landslides situation and assured him that the NDRF will be sent for rescue and relief operations. Spoke to Nagaland Chief Minister Shri @Neiphiu_Rio regarding the situation arising due to floods and landslides in several places of the State. NDRF teams are being rushed to the state by the MHA to carry out rescue and relief operations. Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) August 30, 2018 A home ministry official also said that over half a dozen teams of the NDRF, comprising 45 personnel each, were being sent to the affected areas in Nagaland. With inputs from agencies Born on 18 November, 1954, Justice Gogoi joined the Bar in 1978. He became judge of the Supreme Court on 23 April, 2012. Editor's note: This article is being republished in light of President Ram Nath Kovind appointing Justice Ranjan Gogoi as the next Chief Justice of India on Thursday. Justice Gogoi will assume office on 3 October. Justice Ranjan Gogoi, currently the senior-most judge in the Supreme Court after Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, has been appointed the next Chief Justice of India. Born on 18 November, 1954, Justice Gogoi joined the Bar in 1978, as the Supreme Court website states. He practised mainly in the Gauhati High Court and was appointed as a Permanent Judge of the Gauhati High Court on 28 February, 2001. He was transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court on 9 September, 2010 and was then appointed the Chief Justice of the same high court on 12 February, 2011. Justice Gogoi became a judge of the Supreme Court on 23 April, 2012. On 12 January, 2018, Justice Gogoi along with Justices J Chelameswar (since retired), MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph had called a press conference and said the situation in the top court was "not in order" and many "less than desirable" things had taken place. Unless this institution is preserved, "democracy will not survive in this country," the four judges had said. A day later, Gogoi had said that "there is no crisis" in the Supreme Court. On 13 July this year, Justice Gogoi had said that a "revolution, not reform" is needed to keep the institution of judiciary serviceable for the people, asserting that the judiciary would have to be more "pro-active" and on the "front foot". He had said that "independent judges and noisy journalists are democracy's first line of defence...Reports of the death of democracy are greatly exaggerated. But the least bad system of government ever devised, is in trouble. It needs defenders." He had expressed concern over "inefficiency" and "slow processes" in the administration of justice which, he had said, have been historical challenges. "The judiciary today is not a poor workman who blames his tools, but it is a workman with no tools. I am not going to saddle you with the figures that we keep consuming every day on pendency, arrears and judges' strength but in the light of what a French author had once said 'Everything has been said already, but as no one listens, we must begin again'," he had said. In January this year, a Supreme Court bench led by Justice Gogoi had dismissed a petition seeking a Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigation into the attacks on the then Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student union leader Kanhaiya Kumar on 15 and 17 February, 2016. "We dont want to flog a dead horse back to life. We dont like to proceed further and we are not inclined to continue with the petition," LiveLaw had quoted Justice Gogoi as saying. In the infamous Sowmya rape and murder case, a Supreme Court bench led by Justice Gogoi had in September 2016 dropped the murder charge against Govindachami, who had earlier been awarded the death sentence by a trial court for the crime. In the case, 23-year-old Sowmya had been assaulted and raped by Govindachami. She later succumbed to her injuries. Even though the Justice Gogoi-led bench had upheld the life imprisonment given to Govindachami, the murder charge was dropped. "To hold that the accused is liable under Section 302 IPC what is required is an intention to cause death or knowledge that the act of the accused is likely to cause death. The intention of the accused in keeping the deceased in a supine position, according to P.W. 64, was for the purpose of the sexual assault. The requisite knowledge that in the circumstances such an act may cause death, also, cannot be attributed to the accused," the bench had held. This verdict by the Supreme Court had been heavily criticised by various people, who wanted death penalty for the convict. With inputs from agencies The current Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, as a matter of convention, recommended Justice Gogoi to be his successor. Justice Ranjan Gogoi, one of the four Supreme Court judges who had held a press conference in January this year against the present chief justice, is set to be appointed the next Chief Justice of India, reports said. The current Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, as a matter of convention, recommended Justice Gogoi to be his successor. Justice Gogoi's tenure will last till 17 November, 2019. He is set to take oath as the next Chief Justice of India on 3 October. In July, Justice Gogoi had said that a "revolution, not reform" is needed to keep the institution of judiciary serviceable for common people, asserting that the judiciary would have to be more "pro-active" and on the "front foot". Delivering the third Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture on "Vision of Justice", the judge had told a packed Teen Murti Bhavan auditorium in Delhi that the judiciary was the "last bastion of hope" and has been "a proud guardian of the great constitutional vision". In the January press conference, Justice Gogoi along with Justices J Chelameswar (since retired), MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph had said that the situation in the top court was "not in order" and many "less than desirable" things have taken place. Unless this institution is preserved, "democracy will not survive in this country," the four judges had said. The four judges, in their seven-page letter to the chief justice, had said, "It is too well settled in the jurisprudence of this country that the chief justice is only first amongst the equals nothing more or nothing less." "It is with great anguish and concern that we have thought it proper to address this letter to you so as to highlight certain judicial orders passed by this court which have adversely affected the overall functioning of the justice delivering system and the independence of the high courts besides impacting the administrative functioning of the office of the Chief Justice of India," the letter had further said. "There have been instances where cases having far reaching consequences for the nation and the institution have been assigned by the chief justices of this court selectively to the benches 'of their preference' without any rationale basis for such assignment. This must be guarded against at all costs," it had said. With inputs from PTI The officials East Delhi Municipal Corporation have together donated a sum of Rs 1 crore to the relief fund for the victims of flood-hit Kerala. New Delhi: The officials and staff of the cash-strapped East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) have together donated a sum of Rs 1 crore to the relief fund for the victims of flood-hit Kerala, its mayor on Friday said. Bipin Bihari Singh told reporters that the EDMC is with the Kerala flood victims in this difficult situation. "The EDMC is providing a relief fund of Rs 1 crore to the Kerala flood victims, even though it is reeling under a financial crisis. Despite that, it has decided to help the flood victims in its limited capacity," he said. Singh said the amount collected for the victims has been "willingly donated" by the officials and staff of the EDMC. "In addition, municipal councillors of the EDMC can also contribute towards the fund," he said. Singh also appealed to the residents of east Delhi to donate and help the Kerala flood victims. The Madras high court had transferred the case to CB-CID from the local police on 24 July, 2015, observing that it was a textbook case demonstrating the 'evil effects' of an unholy nexus between a serving senior police officer, lawyers, businessmen and goondas. Chennai: The Madras High Court on Friday transferred to the CBI the investigation into an intimidation case in which IPS officer P Sivanandi is allegedly involved, setting aside a closure report filed by the CB-CID police. Justice PN Prakash transferred the case allowing a plea by D Pandiraj, who has accused Sivanandi, an inspector general of police (IGP), of intimidating him to withdraw a cheating complaint he had filed against some persons in 2015. The CB-CID had filed the closure report stating that the complaint was a mistake of fact. The court had transferred the case to CB-CID from the local police on 24 July, 2015, observing that it was a textbook case demonstrating the 'evil effects' of an unholy nexus between a serving senior police officer, lawyers, businessmen and goondas. In his order, Justice Prakash referred to a siege protest by a group of laywers at the then high court chief justice's residence here in 2015 as a fallout of the intimidation case and said mobile phone records of Sivanandi showed that he was in touch with two of the advocates. "Dictates of common sense state that the attack (protest) would not have been made possible without the backstage support of a senior police officer like Sivanandi," Justice Prakash said. "The question that this court poses is what business an inspector general of police has to keep speaking to the lead actors in this play. Unless he was interested in the affairs, there was no reason whatsoever for him to have got himself involved in a private dispute between two businessmen," he said. On perusal of the case diary and the statement of witnesses, the court came to know that Sivanandi had engaged some people to oversee the withdrawal of the complaints by Pandiraj, the judge added. Pursuant to this, they went and met the advocates of Pandriaj and also went to the magistrate court to ensure that he gave a petition withdrawing the complaint and thereafter, collected the documents and returned the same to Sivanandi, Justice Prakash noted. A case was registered on 2 April, 2015, on the basis of the complaint by Pandiraj, against Sujai Anand, Shylaja Reddy, S V Subramanian and others for allegedly cheating him of Rs 50 lakh. The complainant had invested the amount in a company floated by the accused. Later, a gang attempted to kidnap Pandiraj, prompting him to lodge another police complaint implicating Sivanandi and others. An FIR was filed based on this complaint for alleged intimidation. A third case was registered in connection with the ruckus created by the lawyers at the chief justice's residence. The advocates had allegedly barged into his the chief justice's house asking him to take up bail petitions of the accused in the intimidation case. The judge said the CB-CID in its final report had made damning disclosures, demonstrating how money was distributed to the lawyers for staging the protest. The report, while referring to conduct of certain groups of lawyers in lower courts, also speaks about the existence of two teams -- Gate Team and Bike Team -- in the Saidapet court campus, he said. This court "reliably understands" that ordinary litigants and advocates from other bars are required to pay protection money to the Gate Team for defending an accused, he said. The services of the Bike Team are available for illegal dispossession of persons from disputed properties and for related attacks, he said. Perhaps, the fear of these gangs could also be one of the reasons for the magistrates not even taking the charge sheets on file, each one hoping that he can pass on the baton to his successor, the judge noted in his order. Justice Prakash said it was time for the high court to "seriously explore the suggestions given in the Justice K Chandru Committee report, wherein the ills plaguing the magistracy in the Chennai city have been set out and the remedies, therefore, have been prescribed." He then directed the registry to place the case of the attack on the then chief justice's residence before the chief justice to consider all these aspects and if warranted, pass orders constituting a special bench for monitoring the trial. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has seized 17,084 kg plastic and collected Rs 97,75,000 as fine since the plastic ban was implemented in Maharashtra. Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has seized 17,084 kg plastic and collected Rs 97,75,000 as fine since the plastic ban was implemented in Maharashtra. The fine has been collected from 2,09,589 persons and places while 17,084 kg of plastic has been seized between 23 June and 31 August. On 23 March, the Maharashtra government had issued a notification, imposing a ban on the manufacture, use, sale and distribution of all plastic materials like plastic bags, spoons, plates, bottles and thermocol items. On 13 April, the Bombay High Court had called the ban 'reasonable'. Later on 23 June, the BMC had launched a drive against the plastic and formed various teams to conduct raids at various places. Anyone who was found using plastic was imposed with a fine. A complaint authority has been formed at every ward for those who refused to pay the fine. And, a case will be registered against those who refused to pay the fine. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has seized Rs 48 lakh in cash from a woman during an investigation into the activities of proscribed terrorist organisation Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP). Imphal: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has seized Rs 48 lakh in cash from a woman during an investigation into the activities of proscribed terrorist organisation Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP). The agency is investigating the March 2017 case under Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 20 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act relating to the activities of the organisation. The money was seized from K Pramodini, an employee of RIMS Imphal Manipur. It was produced by Pramodini in the presence of independent witnesses. The amount belongs to N Sobita Devi, wife of accused Dr Mutum Shyamo Singh (Ex Director JNIMS Hospital, Imphal). The NIA found out that the amount was handed over to Pramodini by Sobita Devi for the purpose of concealing the terror funds which were collected by Mutum Shyamo Singh as part of his activities in support of proscribed organisation KCP. NIA had arrested Mutum Shyamo Singh on 6 July, for his active involvement in KCP. Search was conducted at that time in his house and Rs 40.03 lakh in new currency and Rs 1 lakh in old currency were also seized as proceeds of terrorism. During the investigation of this case, accused persons Khoirom Ranjit Singh, commander in chief of KCP, and his associates Irungbam Sanatombi Devi and P Prem Kumar Meitei had been arrested and chargesheet was filed on 10 July last year before the NIA Special Court in Delhi. A supplementary charge sheet against Sanabam Inaobi Singh has also been filed in the instant case on 24 May. Further investigation in the case under Section 173(8) of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) is continuing. Militants had abducted most relatives of policemen in three districts in south Kashmir, and in the span of one hour on Thursday evening. Frisal, Kulgam: Aisha Begum was in her kitchen on Thursday evening when masked gunmen entered her single-storied house situated on the edge of the Kharpora locality in Frisal village of south Kashmir's Kulgam district. They caught hold of her son, Faizan-ul-Bashir Makroo, a BCA student, who was working on a laptop in another room. They ordered him to lead them to the house of his uncle, a Jammu and Kashmir Police constable. The mother-son duo had no choice but to comply. Faizan was abducted by militants and only let go 48 hours later. Subsequently, Faizan's father Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat, said, I am leaving this house along with my son and wife. I am thankful to the militants for having let my son go. I cant stop my brother from doing his duty, but I dont want them to knock on my door and abduct my son again. Around the same time that Faizan was abducted, another group of militants barged into the house of Mohammad Maqbool Bhat, whose two sons work with the police, and took away his other son Zubair Bhat, a Phd student who also teaches in a local government school. When the militants arrived in the courtyard of the Bhat family, they had their faces covered with handkerchiefs. Zubair's younger brother Muhammad Tufail said, "One of the militants said that Zubair had been abducted...They asked us to make a video saying that our brothers are in the police, and upload it on social media. But we won't do it." In a video shot by militants, Zubair is seen making an appeal to the Director General of Police, and saying that the police should deal with militants, but not ransack their houses, or harass their families. He says in the video, Today, they have let us go and pardoned us, but they might not do so tomorrow. We appeal to you (police) to stop harassing the families of militants. A militant is seen asking him if he was beaten, in response to which he replies in the negative. In another incident, when armed militants appeared at the house of a policemen, his daughter informed them that he was away on duty. The cop hid behind the door of his bedroom, thinking that the militants came to abduct him. However, they took away his brother instead. At the house of Bashir Ahmad Bhat, an assistant sub-inspector in Wathoo village of Shopian district, dozens of relatives gathered to lend emotional support to his family. His son, Yasir, was among the people abducted by militants. When a relative came visiting, his mother suddenly got up on hearing the sound of the door opening, and screamed, "Have they let him go?" There was no answer to her question at that time. However, late on Friday evening, Yasir appeared at the front door of the house. His mother hugged him as if she were doing so for the first time. On Friday afternoon, security forces carried out searches in several villages in south Kashmir to trace the abducted persons. Army officials stopped vehicles and checked them minutely. But till the evening, there was no sign of the abducted people. It is not difficult to keep a dozen people in hiding when a large proportion of the population seems to be on the side of the militants, a senior police official said on Friday. In the 29 years of insurgency in Kashmir, never before have militants carried out such large-scale abductions in a single day. According to the police, the plan was meticulously executed. The security agencies did not even get time to react. Militants had abducted most relatives of policemen in three districts in south Kashmir, and in the span of one hour on Thursday evening. Families of people who had been abducted received several visitors who expressed solidarity. Although the family members were released on Friday evening, the incident has exposed the vulnerability of thousands of families of police personnel in Kashmir. Further, as authorities could not prevent the abductions from taking place, militants have been emboldened to repeat such actions. The manner in which militants carried out the abductions has terrified local people. Militants had never abducted family members of policemen earlier. Our relatives are being abducted as if they were sheep or goats, a police officer remarked. The Jammu and Kashmir Police operate in the most high-risk environment in India, yet the government expenditure on the police force has not only reduced, its among the lowest in the country in terms of providing secure housing and training; the government spent just Rs 22 lakhs (0.1 percent) of Rs 2,748 crores training in 2016-17 New Delhi: One Friday afternoon last summer, Feroze Ahmad Dars body was torn apart by gunfire unleashed by a Lashkar-e-Taiba unit waiting by the roadside as he drove to work with five other police officers. Local residents came in hundreds to mourn the fallen officer, a soft-spoken man whod studied zoology in Maharashtra before joining the police during the large-scale street violence in 2010. There were some, however, who chose to stay silent: few Kashmiri politicians had words of condemnation against the Lashkar; former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti chose not to show up for his last rites. "Those who enjoy #JKpolice protection/help and fail to side with them at the time of grief are hypocrites with dead conscience (sic)," tweeted Superintendent of Police Tahir Ashraf a gesture that spoke of the rage in the force. The script has been playing out this week again, in the wake of the kidnapping of 11 police personnels immediate relatives by the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. In controversial comments, Mufti blamed the police for harassing the relatives of terrorists, in an apparent justification of the incident. Her opponents were quick to condemn the kidnappings, but didnt say what they meant to do to help the police protect its kin. Blaming terrorists is simply stating the blindingly obvious, and, worse, a rhetorical tool that politicians from all parties have been using to obscure their own role in leaving the Jammu and Kashmir Police officers open to attack. In reality, the governments own data shows that policy decisions have left the Jammu and Kashmir Police exceptionally vulnerable and also that nothing is being done about it. The vehicle that Dar was using didnt have bullet-proofing; he had never been trained, either, in anti-ambush tactics that could have saved his life; he didnt have a home from which he could operate safely and thats the story of pretty much every other officer risking his life in Kashmir. Housing has been the Jammu and Kashmir Polices top concern for years. Thirty-two police officers have been killed in the state this year, of whom only eight died during combat. The rest were picked off at home, or on their way to work, when they were most vulnerable. The reason this has been happening is simple: the Jammu and Kashmir Police lack housing in secure complexes. Unlike the army or central paramilitaries, Jammu and Kashmir Police officers must live in their communities. In 2017, the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) figures show, the Jammu and Kashmir Police had 78,346 personnel, or 626 for every 100,000 residents one of the highest ratios in the country. But it spent just 140 crore on housing them, compared with 1,070 crore Uttar Pradesh put up, or the 379 crore Gujarat spent. In 2016-2017, the state didnt build a single new house for the police; only 7,567 families have received accommodation. The bottom line is: just 9 percent of the Jammu and Kashmir Polices upper-subordinate ranks, and 9 percent of lower-subordinate, have state-provided housing. In Maharashtra, where police are not being shot at on an everyday basis, the figures are 61 percent and 54 percent, respectively; even Chhattisgarh provides housing for 34 percent of upper-subordinate officers, and 24 percent of lower-subordinate staff. "The sad fact," a senior Jammu and Kashmir Police officer said, "is that many police personnel in the most high-risk jobs, like the Special Operations Group, are renting secure accommodation for their families out-of-pocket." Pretty much every other index reflects similar official apathy. There's also the issue of poor focus on training something thats necessary for police officers who are putting their lives in harms way fighting terrorists. In 2016-2017, BPRD figures show, Jammu and Kashmir spent 2,748 crore on its police force. Exactly 22 lakhs of that 0.01 percent was spent on training. The national figure was 1.03 percent, up from one percent in 2015-2016. In 2016, only 1,636 Jammu and Kashmir Police constables, and 421 non-gazetted officers, received any form of training, it was half of the personnel trained in Jharkhand, and a quarter of the numbers in Chhattisgarh and Bihar. Funding for the police, incredibly, showed a drastic fall, even as the force occupied an ever-larger role in combating both street violence and terrorism. In 2015-2016, the Jammu and Kashmir Police spent a little over 4,004 crore; in 2016-2017, that figure fell dramatically to 2,748 crore. This was the largest fall in police expenditure in any state. The state also proved extraordinarily poor at managing funds that were indeed available. In 2016, the Central Government made available 626 lakhs for police modernisation, while the state allocated 269 lakhs. But the Jammu and Kashmir government spent only 400 lakhs, because of delays in bureaucratic decision-making. Following Dars death, the Jammu and Kashmir Police announced that its personnel would donate a day's salary, across ranks, to help the families of officers who fall fighting terrorists. The government hasnt acted on demands to raise compensation for the loss of life to 10 lakhs; theres no institutional mechanism, unlike in the army, to support families long-term. The reasons for the assault on police is obvious: the force is doing a stellar job. Last year, 76 terrorists were killed in southern Kashmir the heartland of the Islamist insurgency thats torn the state apart. This year, 68 have already been killed, almost all in police-led operations based on intelligence generated by the forces superb on-ground networks. Riyaz Naikoo and Zeenat-ul-Islam are the only two leaders the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen has left; local recruitment has begun to drop. For an organisation that believed that the rural uprisings of 2016 had prepared the ground for a full-scale jihadist reprisal, this is bad news and that its striking back at the police with any means available is no surprise. Little doubt exists that the police have, on more than one occasions, harassed innocent relatives of terrorists the reason the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen has given for kidnapping the police officers kin. The tone of innocent being hurt that has characterised the Hizb-ul-Mujhaideens propaganda, however, needs to be read against the terrorist organisation's own killing of anti-jihadist civilians: dozens have been executed just this year. For years, terrorists were able to secure local protection deals, or extend their influence, by targeting village-level political workers linked to the ruling party. Now, with Governors rule in place, the police are being targeted in an effort to get the state to ease back its counter-terrorism campaign. The assault on police was clearly predictable: after all, dozens have been killed in recent months. The question is: why havent the governments done something about it? President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and first lady Mehriban Aliyeva have attended the opening the Baku Book Center established on the initiative of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Trend reported. The head of state and the first lady cut the ribbon symbolizing the inauguration of the center. Director of the Baku Book Center Gunel Rzayeva informed President Ilham Aliyev and first lady Mehriban Aliyeva about the conditions created at the center. Located at the intersection of Uzeyir Hajibeyli and Gogol streets in Baku, the center covers a total area of 2500 square meters. Bestsellers from the world literature series, unique art albums, guidebooks for tourists, books on music in Azerbaijani and other languages, notes will be on sale at the center. The center will also feature more than 10,000 books in different genres and languages, including in Azerbaijani, Russian, English, German, French, Spanish and Arabic. Guests of the Baku Book Center will also be able to get Azerbaijan-related souvenirs of the national brand "I love Baku" and products of "Azermarka". The center will regularly hold presentations of books, meetings and master classes with celebrated writers, poets as well as figures of culture and art. The center will also host reading days, language courses and other events involving famous people in order to boost childrens and young persons` interest in reading and writing. The Baku Book Center will have its website in three languages where readers will be able to order books online. At least eight people, whose relatives were working in the Jammu and Kashmir Police, were abducted on Thursday night by terrorists. Unconfirmed reports said the total number of kidnapped kin of policemen was 11. Srinagar: Terrorists have released the relatives of policemen whom they had abducted from various places in south Kashmir, official sources said on Friday. At least eight people, whose relatives were working in the Jammu and Kashmir Police, were abducted on Thursday night by terrorists. The sources said all those abducted had been released. However, a senior police official said they had to check whether those abducted had returned home. Unconfirmed reports said the total number of kidnapped kin of policemen was 11. Former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah had condemned the abductions. Officials said at least eight people were picked up by militants from Shopian, Kulgam, Anantnag and Awantipora. "Some incidents of abduction have come to the notice of police in South Kashmir. We are ascertaining details and circumstances. In due course it shall be placed in public domain," a police spokesman had earlier said. The militants' action came on a day when the NIA arrested the second son of globally wanted terrorist Syed Salahuddin. Terrorists kidnapped the nephew of a deputy superintendent of police from Trenz area in Shopian district, a police official said. Adnan Ahmad Shah (26) was abducted by terrorists from his home late Thursday night, the official said. In another incident, the son of a police officer was kidnapped by the ultras from his home in Wathoo village of Shopian, he said. Yasir Bhat, whose father is presently in Hajj pilgrimage, was also abducted late Thursday night. The official did not divulge the details of other abductions. Militants threatened to set afire the family home of a constable at Berthipora in Shopian, the official added. Abdullah on Friday said the abductions were a worrying reflection of the situation in the valley. The National Conference vice president also lashed out at those who were vocal in condemning the alleged excesses by security forces but were silent about the abductions. "What's worse is the selective outrage - people/leaders who are so vocal about alleged security force excesses are silent about these abductions," he said. PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said families of either militants or forces should not be made to suffer for something they have little control over. Allegations were made that security forces went on the rampage on Wednesday after killing of four policemen in Shopian in south Kashmir and damaged some houses belonging to terrorists. "Militants and forces victimising each other's families is highly condemnable and marks a new low in our situation. Families shouldn't become casualties and made to suffer for something they have little control over," Mufti tweeted. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Friday revealed that Mukta Dabholkar, daughter of slain rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, social activist Shyam Manav, National Congress Party leader Jitendra Awhad, among others were allegedly on the hit list of right-wing extremists. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Friday revealed that Mukta Dabholkar, daughter of slain rationalist Narendra Dabholkar is on the hit list of right-wing extremists. The report also named social activist Shyam Manav and NCP leader Jitendra Awhad, and others as targets. Dabholkar, an anti-superstition activist, was killed by two assailants in Pune in 2013. The ATS on Friday told a sessions court that suspected right-wing activist Avinash Pawar had carried out a reconnaissance of several persons (including those named above) who were on the target list of the group to which he belonged, for "speaking against the Hindu religion". The ATS had arrested Pawar and four others in connection with the seizure of explosives and arms from several parts of Maharashtra earlier this month. He was the fifth person to be arrested in the case. They were allegedly plotting to carry out blasts in the state, it has said. According to the ATS, Pawar had carried out reconnaissance of Mukta, Manav, Awhad and a few others. Meanwhile, according to Free Press Journal reported the protection of Mukta and Hamid Dabholkar and also of Megha Pansare (daughter-in-law of Govind Pansare, who was also killed by right-wing activists) has been increased by the Maharashtra government. Commenting on the revelation by the Maharashtra Police a sessions court in Mumbai Awhad said, "They can eliminate a person, not his thoughts. My thoughts will continue to live on. I have been following a secular and progressive ideology for the last 35 years since I left school. If somebody is angry because of my ideology, it is not my fault," Awhad told PTI. "If somebody does not agree with me, it is not my fault. I have been against those spreading communal hatred all my life," he added. Reacting to the development, Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said a similar pattern was observed in Karnataka, where people with intellectual and progressive mindset were on the hit-list of a particular right-wing Hindu group. "Why are the masterminds of this plot still at large, and not been interrogated yet?" he asked. With inputs from PTI The training institute, being made in Vadodara's Lal Bagh area as part of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, has completed 15-20 percent and is ensuring that India doesn't have to compromise on 'quality and parameters' in the project. Vadodara: The training institute, being made in Vadodara's Lal Bagh area as part of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (MAHSR) project, has completed 15-20 percent and is ensuring that India doesn't have to compromise on "quality and parameters" in the project. During a visit to the location site of the training institute, Tarun Kathhpadia, Executive Team Leader, Japan International Consultants for Transportation Co Ltd (JIC), told ANI, "This is the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed project's training centre the heart of the bullet train project. The Japanese government is funding us and will give their technology to us. Later, the Japanese trainers will come here and will train us on how to run the bullet trains besides highlighting other technical aspects." "Bullet train will run at a speed of 350 kilometres/hour. We have to ensure that in India also the bullet train runs with the same quality and parameters at which it runs in Japan. JIC is the supervising consultant. They are here to ensure that the work is done at the best quality, on time and under proper security measures. This institute project has been divided into three parts TI 1, TI 2 and TI 3. We will give training to around 4,000 people here," he added. On behalf of Japan, Kikuo Watanabe is looking after the training institute project. He said, "We have faced a lot of problem due to the monsoon and other situation recently. But, thankfully now we have good weather here and the progress is going on in full swing." Meanwhile, the terminal hub for the project in Vadodara will be designed on the theme of 'banyan tree,' said Pradeep Ahirkar, Chief Project Manager, Vadodara. "The bullet train's track will be higher by 23 metres (70 feet) compared to the existing conventional railway tracks," Ahirkar said. The bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai will run a total length of 508 kilometres, of which 21 kilometres will be covered in the tunnel under sea. The cost of the tunnel is estimated at Rs 3,500 crores. The cost of the total train project is Rs 1.10 trillion, and Japan is giving a loan of Rs. 88,000 crores for the same at a minimal interest of 0.1 per cent, which has to be repaid over 50 years. The Supreme Court on Friday castigated some states and union territories for a 'pathetic' attitude in not framing proper policy on solid waste management and stayed further constructions in those places till they brought it out. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday castigated some states and union territories for a "pathetic" attitude in not framing proper policy on solid waste management and stayed further constructions in those places till they brought it out. Slapping varied fines on some state governments and union territory (UT) administrations, a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and S Abdul Nazeer said "if they want the people to live in dirt, filth and garbage, what can be done then." The court said it was "unfortunate" that states and UTs, including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Chandigarh, had not yet framed any policy under the 2016 Solid Waste Management Rules, even after the passage of two years. "In case the states have the interest of the people in mind and cleanliness and sanitation, they should frame a policy in terms of the Solid Waste Management Rules so that the states remain clean," the bench said. "The attitude of the states/union territories in not yet framing a policy even after two years is pathetic, to say the least," the court said, adding, "Further constructions in the states/union territories are stayed until the policy is framed." The issue of waste management had cropped up when the court was dealing with a tragic incident of 2015 in which it had taken cognisance of the death of a seven-year-old boy due to dengue in Delhi. The victim was allegedly denied treatment by five private hospitals and his distraught parents had subsequently committed suicide. At Fridays hearing, the court imposed a cost of Rs five lakh on Andhra Pradesh for not filing an affidavit as per the court's 10 July direction and observed that even the Centre was not aware whether the state had framed the policy. The bench also slapped a cost of Rs three lakh each on Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and union territory of Chandigarh for not framing the state policy and not complying with its orders. The court said the costs imposed on these states and union territory should be deposited with the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee in two weeks for its utilisation for juvenile justice issues. It also noted that states including Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Arunachal Pradesh have deposited the costs imposed on them by the court on 10 July. The court had imposed the costs as some of the states had not filed affidavits while some of them were not represented through lawyers during the hearing on 10 July. At the hearing on Friday, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) ANS Nadkarni, appearing for the Centre, placed before the court the details received by the Centre from the states and UTs on solid waste management. After perusing the details, it expressed anguish as to why some of the states have not done anything in this regard. The counsel for Madhya Pradesh told the court that they had provided an action plan to the Centre on the issue along with their affidavit. "State policy is something different. Action plan can have anything. You have to frame a state policy under the Rules," the bench observed. Similarly, the Uttarakhand counsel also told the court that their action plan contained all the steps that they have taken in the matter. The court listed the matter for further hearing on 9 October. The apex court had earlier taken strong note of non-implementation of solid waste management rules in the country and observed that "India will one day go down under the garbage". Three militants were killed on Saturday in an encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Bandipora district. Three militants were killed on Saturday in an encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Bandipora district. A rifleman, Shiv Kumar, also lost his life in the encounter. ANI reported that weapons were also recovered in the encounter, and the operation had concluded. Two days ago, on Thursday, two suspected Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in Bandipora. Acting on credible inputs about the presence of terrorists at Par Mohalla in Hajin area of Bandipora, security forces had launched a cordon and search operation. During the searches, the terrorists had fired upon the forces' personnel. "In the ensuing encounter two terrorists were eliminated. From the incriminating material seized from the site of encounter, it is learnt that both the killed terrorists were from Pakistan and identified as Rizwan alias Jindaal and Ali alias Maaz," a police spokesman had said. He had said that the slain men were affiliated with the LeT and involved in several attacks on security establishments and atrocities on civilians in the area. "A huge quantity of arms and ammunition including rifles, magazines, pouches etc and incriminating material was recovered from the site of encounter," he had added. With inputs from PTI A uniform civil code is 'neither necessary nor desirable' at this stage, the Law Commission said in a consultation paper on the last day of its term on Friday. New Delhi: A uniform civil code is "neither necessary nor desirable" at this stage, the Law Commission said in a consultation paper on the last day of its term on Friday and suggested changes in laws relating to marriage, divorce, alimony, and marriageable age for men and women. Issuing a consultation paper instead of a full-fledged report on the contentious topic, the panel held that freedom of religion and the right to propagate it must be strongly protected in a secular democracy, but it is important to bear in mind that a number of "social evils" such as the practice of triple talaq and child marriage should not be allowed to take refuge under 'religious customs'. "To seek their protection under law as religion would be a grave folly," it said in the paper titled 'Reform of Family Law'. A bill to ban the practice of instant triple talaq or 'talaq-e-biddat' is pending in Rajya Sabha despite having been passed in Lok Sabha. The panel, whose three-year term ended on Friday, said diversity of Indian culture should be celebrated, but specific groups, or weaker sections of the society must not be "disprivileged in the process". "Resolution of this conflict does not mean abolition of difference. This Commission has therefore dealt with laws that are discriminatory rather than providing a uniform civil code which is neither necessary nor desirable at this stage," the document said. The issue of uniform civil code is vast, "and its potential repercussions, untested in India," it felt. "Therefore, after detailed research and a number of consultations held over the course of two years, the Commission is presenting its consultation paper on reform of family laws in India," it said. Panel chairman Justice BS Chauhan (retd) had earlier said instead of recommending a uniform code, the commission might suggest "piecemeal" changes in personal laws. Now, it will be up to the 22nd Law Commission to bring out a final report on the controversial issue which has generated a heated debate in the recent past. There has been no decision so far on constitution of the next commission. The law ministry had on 17 June, 2016 asked the panel to "examine matters in relation to uniform civil code". On the issue of equal rights for women, it said, there is a need to recognise the role of woman in a household and regardless of her financial contribution, she should get an equal part of the property gained after marriage upon divorce. However, it cautioned that at the same time, this principle does not automatically translate to an 'absolute' equal split of property at the end of the relationship, as in a number of cases such a yardstick may bring an "unfair burden" to one of the parties. It said all personal and secular laws the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, Special Marriage Act, 1954, the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936 (for Christians), the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939 can be amended to reflect this change. The Special Marriage Act is described as a 'secular law' as inter-faith marriages are solemnised under it. The panel also suggested that 18 years should be the minimum legal age for men and women alike to get married, saying the insistence on recognising different ages of marriage between consenting adults must be abolished. Currently, the minimum age for men is 21 years and 18 years for women to get married. The panel also said, "If a universal age for majority is recognised, and that grants all citizens the right to choose their governments, surely, they must then be also considered capable of choosing their spouses". Under the Hindu law, the paper discusses problems with provisions such as restitution of conjugal rights, and suggests the inclusion of concepts such as 'community of property' of a married couple, abolition of coparcenary and rights of illegitimate children. Under the Muslim law, it discusses reform in inheritance law through codification of Muslim law on inheritance, while ensuring that the codified law is gender just. The paper also discusses rights of a widow, and changes to general laws on self acquired property after marriage, inclusion of irretrievable breakdown of marriage as a ground for divorce. For Parsi law, there are suggestions relating to protecting married women's right to inherit property even if they marry outside their community. The paper also suggests expansion of the juvenile law to make it into a robust secular law that can be accessed by individuals of all communities for adoption. There are suggestions for amending guidelines for adoption and also a suggestion to alter language of the act to accommodate all gender identities. The paper also discusses lacunae within custody and guardianship laws, statutory or customary, and suggests the 'best interest of the child' has to remain paramount in deciding matters of custody regardless of any personal law in place. Although the sixth schedule provides for exemptions to North East states and tribal areas, the panel suggests efforts of women's organisations in these areas be acknowledged to suggest ways in which family law reform could be aided even when direct intervention may not be possible. Since a number of issues such as polygamy, nikah halala, settlement of a Parsi wife's property for benefit of children, as well as the adultery law among others are under the consideration of the Supreme Court, they have been discussed in the paper but comprehensive changes on some of these issues have not been suggested. The merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular was completed on Friday after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) gave its approval, creating India's largest telecom operator with over 400 million subscribers the newly formed 'Vodafone Idea Limited'. The merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular was formally completed on Friday after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) gave its approval, creating India's largest telecom operator with over 400 million subscribers the newly formed 'Vodafone Idea Limited'. And the merger of the telecom giants created quite a flurry on Twitter as both companies took to the microblogging site to 'make the announcement official'. It is official! Merger of @Idea & @VodafoneIN is now complete. Vodafone Idea Limited now No.1 telecom service provider in India & No.2 globally. We're thrilled and excited about our new 408 million strong family and welcome all the new members! Read more: https://t.co/LbWhTq2vZ3 pic.twitter.com/OmKeFRha5r Aditya Birla Group (@AdityaBirlaGrp) August 31, 2018 Idea started the show by retweeting the Aditya Birla Group's statement and followed it up with a shout out to Vodafone. Hey, @VodafoneIN you know they're all talking about us. Idea (@Idea) August 31, 2018 Vodafone didn't take long to say "Yes" to the suggestion. Their market competition, and another fast-growing network, Reliance Jio also made a tongue-in-cheek comment at the merger as it tweeted an insinuation that the companies had been compelled to merge to push back against its growing presence in the Indian market. Referring to its entry in 2016, it 'blessed' the union saying, "Bringing people together since 2016". According to reports, the Vodafone-Idea merger has a better ability to offer competition to the reigning leader, Bharti Airtel. Airtel responded to the public display of affection by adding its own perspective. "Welcome to the top. We know what it feels like," the company said, in a tweet. Congratulations you guys! Welcome to the top. We know what it feels like https://t.co/y0EZm0y0ON airtel India (@airtelindia) August 31, 2018 Eventually, Vodafone signed off by thanking wellwishers, "latecomers", and "gatecrashers". Thanks for the love, everyone. We gracefully accept all your wishes. Latecomers and gatecrashers included. Vodafone (@VodafoneIN) September 1, 2018 With inputs from agencies A few others from the legal fraternity noted that there are no rules on whether or not the police should reveal documents in a case. Mumbai: Some retired judges and senior lawyers criticised the Maharashtra Police on Saturday for revealing before the media the evidence collected as part of its investigation into alleged Maoist links of some Left-wing activists arrested earlier this week. However, a few others from the legal fraternity noted that there are no rules on whether or not the police should reveal documents in a case. Additional Director General (Law and Order) Param Bir Singh in a press conference held on Friday, while giving details of its case, read out letters purportedly exchanged between the activists. He said they had "conclusive proof" to link left-wing activists arrested in June and this week to Maoists, saying one of them spoke of a "Rajiv Gandhi-type event to end Modi-raj". Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991. Retired Bombay High Court judge PD Kode said revealing evidence collected as part of investigation was wrong. "The police's job at the preliminary stage of a case is restricted to collecting evidence and presenting it before the court by way of a chargesheet. The police should not form an opinion at such a nascent stage," Kode said. He said that even the arrest of an accused should be made only when there is a fear that those persons would flee and not face the charges levelled against them. "Arresting an accused just for the sake of it is not advisable. Even the Supreme Court has strictly advised against this," he added. Kode had conducted the trial in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case against 123 accused and was later elevated to the high court. Senior counsel Mihir Desai expressed shock over the manner in which the state police machinery undertook the press conference. "Reading out documents which is supposed to be part of evidence against the accused persons is wrong. The police has not given the said documents to the court or the defence lawyers," Desai said. "The police is just maligning the accused persons. The state machinery is not supposed to do this," he said. Desai added that since the Supreme Court is now seized of the matter, the state police should have presented its case there instead of doing so before the media. A public prosecutor said on condition of anonymity that the police's move of revealing evidence was "foolish". "By revealing the evidence at this stage of the probe, the police have put the accused at benefit. This will hamper further investigation," the prosecutor said. Senior lawyer Amit Desai, while deprecating the police's decision to reveal documents, said ordinarily it should not have been done. "Documents which are evidence in a case have to be submitted only to the court. Only in exceptional cases where the state machinery has to justify its conduct, limited information is passed out to the public through the media," Desai said. Another senior lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani, however, opined that the police has the discretion to show their case to the media. "In this particular case, the entire nation raised questions on the police's conduct and it was made to look like the police cooked up the case. Hence, when the police faced brickbats in the public domain then they (police) can justify their case in the same public domain," Jethmalani said. Retired Bombay High Court judge Abhay Thipsay, who recently joined the Congress, said there are no rules on whether police should or should not reveal documents in a case. "Maybe, since the police faced criticism in this case it decided to justify its case. Police probably wanted to show that it took action of arrest only after collecting enough evidence," Thipsay said. Pune police had on 28 August raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested five of them Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Sudha Bharadwaj in Faridabad and Gautam Navalakha in Delhi. The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the Elgar Parishad conclave in Pune on 31 December last year, which allegedly triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima in the district the next day. The Supreme Court has ordered that the five should be kept under house arrest till 6 September. In June, Pune Police had arrested Sudhir Dhawale from Mumbai, activist Rona Wilson from Delhi and lawyer Surendra Gadling, professor Shoma Sen and Adivasi rights activist Mahesh Raut from Nagpur. Athawale warned that if the Patidar stir is not resolved in time it could cost the BJP two to three Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat in next year's elections. Ahmedabad: Union minister Ramdas Athawale on Friday said the BJP's number of seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls may go down by "30-40" seats but the NDA will still return to power. He also said he was ready to act as a mediator between Patidar leader Hardik Patel and the BJP in Gujarat to resolve the issue of reservation. Patel is on an indefinite fast to press the demand for reservation for the Patidar community in education and government jobs. "The BJP's tally may go down by 30-40 seats but the NDA will return to power," the Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment said. Athawale warned that if the Patidar stir is not resolved in time it could cost the BJP two to three Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat in next year's elections. "Since Patidars turned against the ruling party, the BJP lost around 15-20 seats in the last Gujarat elections. If the situation persists, the BJP may lose two-three Lok Sabha seats in 2019," he told reporters. "I will try to talk to Hardik over phone to convince him. Only talks can resolve this issue. I am also ready to become a mediator between him and the BJP at the Centre. If he agrees, I will take him to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss this issue," Athawale said. "I once told Hardik that he can get the desired results if he remains by the BJP's side. I told him that he will not get anything by joining hands with the Congress. I think he needs to talk to BJP leaders to resolve this issue," he added. Speaking about quotas, Athawale said all communities falling in the general category, like Patidars in Gujarat, Marathas in Maharashtra and Jats in Haryana, should be granted reservation. "Since there is a cap of 50 percent (on reservations), Parliament needs to first amend the Constitution to allow an additional quota of 25 percent. We can exclude those who earn over Rs 8 lakh. I even suggested this to the prime minister in a meeting of NDA allies," he said. Replying to a question on the Ayodhya Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid dispute, the Union minister claimed that the site once housed a Buddhist temple. "You will find Buddhist-era statues if you excavate. There was a Buddhist temple there. Then Hindus built a temple which was destroyed by Mughals to build a mosque," he said. Telangana Congress president N Uttam Kumar Reddy said the TRS and KCR had failed to fulfil a single major election promise in the past four years. Hyderabad: Amid speculation over the possibility of early polls to the Telangana Legislative Assembly, the state Congress on Saturday claimed Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is going for early elections as a "last ditch" attempt to protect his party from the "rising Congress wave". State Congress president N Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has failed to fulfil a single major election promise. The TRS is organising a massive public meeting on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Sunday to present its report on the progress made in various sectors during the last four years of its rule. "Tremendous public response to the recent visit of Congress president Rahul Gandhi to Hyderabad had sent shockwaves among TRS leaders. With the Congress party gaining strength organisationally across the state, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has already sensed a humiliating defeat in the next polls," the state Congress president said. "As a last attempt to protect his party from the rising Congress wave, the chief Minister is going for early polls." But Rao must realise that he cannot stop a "Congress tsunami by any means", Reddy said on tele-conferences held with over 30,000 booth-level and mandal presidents of the party across the state. The Legislative Assembly elections in Telangana are scheduled to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls next year. The message read - "Mr Kramer, its the police commissioner, can you answer your phone." I was in the middle of speaking to villagers when commissioner Baki called. I also received a text message from him. I was on the Island to carry out an assessment of the extent of damage and plight of the Manam people following a massive volcanic eruption on Saturday morning but I was also aware that Bailiau was the same village where journalists were attacked on Sunday. MADANG - Yesterday afternoon at 6pm I was at Biliau village on Manam Island when I noticed my phone registered five missed calls from of police commissioner Gary Baki. Police Commissioner Gary Baki & Madang MP Bryan Kramer - Baki has a reputation for being hot-tempered; not the best attribute for making good decisions I replied sorry I'm on Manam Island in a meeting with the villagers, will call you back in 30 min. Baki replied - "You better". At this point it became clear Baki was calling me in relation to my recent article about filing a complaint and proceedings against him over his decision to close the file against prime minister Peter O'Neill relating to the Paraka scandal. So I responded - "With due respect I plan to return your call, I don't see any reason why I wouldn't, or would have to if I choose not to." At exactly 6:37pm I returned Baki's call. What followed was a heated conversation that lasted four minutes and 54 seconds. The commissioner started the conversation with - "Who do you think you are? and , while many other things were said, the more notable statements by the commissioner included the following: You are nobody.... You are not even a lawyer.... You are mix race bastard.... Nau tasol papa karim you bilong bol bilong em." I am coming to parliament to face you. You hurry up and file the court case against me and make sure you personally come to my office and serve it on me. You filed a case against electoral commissioner and I will make sure you bring the evidence to my office. My response was It appears the good commissioner is confused between the powers he has over the force versus that over any other citizen let alone a member of parliament. If he is taking issue with the fact I'm mix race, last time I checked so is the prime minister Peter O'Neill, who appointed him, deputy prime minister Charles Abel, Member for Lae Open John Rosso, Member for Ijiviatri Richard Masere, Member for Bogia Robert Naguri, Member for Huon Gulf Ross Semor, Member for Kavieng Open, Member for Namatanai Open, Oro Governor Gary Juffa, East Sepik Governor Allan Bird Add to that his own assistant commissioner David Manning and several thousand Papua New Guineans around the country and abroad. I would be lying if I said I was shocked by Baki's outburst, he does have a reputation for losing his cool. On the issue of my complaint against the electoral commissioner, it is interesting he has taken a direct interest in it but I wasn't aware it was criminal investigation procedure for the commissioner to summon witnesses to testify to the evidence. Last time I checked that jurisdiction belonged to the courts. Mr Baki needs to come to terms with the fact that his threats or intimidation are of little concern to me. What I am concerned about is high-level corruption that is the cause behind why the majority of Papua New Guineans live in poverty. The only means to stopping me will be a bullet to my head and nothing less. While some may say that can be arranged, what they need to understand is that its exactly what I'm banking on as the shortest pathway to unite a country and bring down those behind PNG's corrupt system of government. Some free advice to the commissioner. Perhaps next time put in some thought before calling a member of parliament who has a reputation for being prolific on social media and followed by 100,000 people. In anticipation that Mr Baki may claim I'm lying and threaten to have me arrested or take the matter to court, he needs to remember I was in the company of an entire village when he called so I don't expect to have a problem calling witnesses, and he can add to that the records on my phone. Iran will build up its own missile potential, Deputy Minister of Defense Mohammad Ahadi said, adding that the number of fighters and submarines will also be increased. According to him, the IRI's missile potential is purely "defensive" and is not a subject of discussion with the Western countries. "The increase in the number of ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as the receipt of new-generation fighters, heavy and long-range ships and submarines with various weapons are part of the new plan of the ministry," Gazeta.ru quotes the Deputy Minister of Defence as saying. In 2013, Congress was able to win 10 seats in the council whereas the NC and independent candidates also won eight seats each. Jammu: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its former alliance partner in Jammu and Kashmir, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) barely managed to win one and two seats respectively in the Muslim-dominated Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Kargil elections. The counting of manually cast votes started on Friday and concluded Saturday morning, after nearly 75 percent voters turned out on polling day, 27 August. The Council comprises 30 seats, four of which are nominated. Of the 26 seats that went to polls, the National Conference (NC) managed to win 10 and Congress bagged eight. The two parties are expected to go into an alliance to take control of the LAHDC. A total of 99 candidates were in the fray for 26 seats. While the BJP opened its account at the LAHDC by claiming the Buddhist-dominated Cha with a thin margin of 30 votes, the PDP got only two seats Shargole and Chiktan in the council. At Cha, BJP candidate Stanzin Lakpa got 552 votes defeating Congress Tenzin Sonam. Content with first-ever seat in Kargil The BJP had lost to Congress the LAHDC Leh bypoll held on Thiksay seat in June. The party, however, seems content with the fact that it could open its account in the Kargil council polls. BJP state spokesperson, Brig (retd) Anil Gupta, said that the NC and Congress had portrayed the BJP as an anti-Muslim party, but we have been able to make our presence felt in the Muslim-dominated region of Kargil. People have accepted our agenda based on development. Several seats witnessed a close contest in the Kargil council polls. The Shargole seat bagged by the PDP by a margin of 68 votes was a Congress stronghold in 2013 polls. Similarly, Altaf Hussain of NC won the Chuliskambo seat by a paper-thin margin of 10 votes defeating independent candidate Reyaz Ahmad Khan. At the Poyen seat, M Amin of NC won by a margin of 16 votes defeating Congress Asgar Ali. Election results give boost to NC, Congress workers The polls turned out to be an exercise in reclamation for the NC and Congress workers who were waiting for electoral success for a long time. NC president and member of Parliament Farooq Abdullah said that the divide and rule policy of the saffron party has again failed. Abdullah said that the people of Jammu and Kashmir were now agitated over lack of development and the failure of the BJP-PDP alliance. We will ensure full-fledged development of Kargil, he said. The Congress was, however, expecting a better show in the LAHDC elections, which were being considered an acid test ahead of both the panchayat and municipal polls scheduled later this year, and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Congress MLA from Kargil, Asgar Ali Karbalai, expressed his dissatisfaction over the results, saying that the Congress lost six seats by a thin margin. We could have been in a position to form the council on our own had we not lost these six seats he said. When asked whether Congress will form an alliance with NC, Karbalai said, anything is possible in politics and this (alliance with NC) seems to be the best option so far. Political commentator and historian Hari Om believes the Muslims of Kargil have rejected the BJP completely, and even Buddhists have abandoned the saffron party due to its false promises in Jammu and Kashmir. The BJP will meet the same fate in Jammu region in 2019, if it continues to ignore the demands of the people, despite having won all of its 25 seats in Jammu region alone in the last Assembly polls, says Om. In 2013, Congress was able to win 10 seats in the council whereas the NC and independent candidates also won eight seats each. Congress had formed the council with the help of independents. (The author is a Jammu-based freelance writer and a member of 101reporters.com) At this TRS rally in Hyderabad, Chief Minister KCR is expected to announce the dissolution of the Telangana Assembly to hold the state elections in November-December. "The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has as many as 46 lakh members. If even half of them turn up at party president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's rally in Hyderabad today, it will be the largest crowd at a public meeting organised by a political party." KT Rama Rao the chief minister's son and Telangana cabinet minister has been furnishing numbers to rubbish the Opposition's charge that nearly Rs 300 crore has been spent on organising what the TRS has been billing as "the mother of all political rallies in India". The state IT minister has also held that it was not right to cheapen the sentiment of the TRS cadre by alleging that they were being paid attend the "Pragathi Nivedana Sabha", which has been organised at a venue 25 kilometres from Hyderabad. The self-righteousness apart, the logistics give away the scale of the big, fat political event. For Sunday's event, the ruling party in Telangana has hired 7,300 of the state's 12,000 public buses to ferry its cadre from districts. For two days now, party workers have been travelling from villages on 10,000 tractors to reach the venue by Saturday night. Four cell towers have been erected and 16 new roads have been laid out to facilitate cadre movement. Although the TRS claims that the gathering will primarily see party workers in attendance, members of women's self-help groups in different towns of Telangana have been asked to participate in the rally to be eligible for sops in the future. "We are like this only," the TRS says when asked whether it was necessary to indulge in such an over-the-top show of strength. The amount being spent to organise the mega event remains a secret. TRS has been referring to its public meetings during the Telangana movement, which saw attendance in several lakhs, but the scale of the Pragathi Nivedana Sabha does not fit with the party's confidence of winning the Telangana Assembly elections for sure. On numerous occasions, KCR as the chief minister is better known has pointed to surveys he commissioned that predict a tally of 100 of the 119 seats in the Telangana Assembly for the TRS. If the Opposition really is in such bad shape in the state, then is there a need to organise such a show of political muscle? From KCR's point of view, the answer is yes. And this is because KCR is looking as much at Hyderabad as he is at New Delhi. With this massive rally, the TRS intends to make the Opposition Congress feel dwarfed in comparison to the "Baahubalisque" KCR. The party also aims to make people 1,500 kilometres away in North India sit up and take note of the optics of the mass mobilisation. When KCR had attempted to float a non-BJP, non-Congress "Federal Front", other parties did not quite warm up to the idea of the TRS chief pitching himself as the leader of such a group. This rally is KCR's way of showing his support base in his backyard. Moreover, the grand meeting could also coincide with an announcement of the dissolution of the Telangana Assembly, paving the way for early polls in the state. KCR's intention with the splurge and glitzy television productions is to show that he is already off the blocks. The TRS believes that if it tackles the Assembly and parliamentary elections separately, the party will be in a better position politically. This is because KCR will be able to convert the Assembly elections into a presidential contest where the attention is focused entirely on him. Also, if he wins the Assembly polls, the Telangana chief minister can use that momentum to position himself as one of the leaders in the reckoning for the top job at the head of a "Third Front", if both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress are not in a position to form the government at the Centre. KCR's plan then could be to pull a Jayalalithaa. In 2014, the AIADMK supremo had cast herself as a prime ministerial candidate, with her party posters then showing her against the backdrop of the parliament. The tactic worked for her, with the AIADMK winning 37 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats from Tamil Nadu. Politicians friendly with the TRS have already advised him to stitch together a "KCR for prime minister" narrative, underline his "agitator to administrator" journey and position himself as a regional satrap with a good command over Hindi and English, aiming for New Delhi. This is important also because it will fit with the succession plan he has to implement in Hyderabad. Moving to New Delhi will allow KCR to make his son "KTR" succeed him as chief minister. And if he does so amid political euphoria, it will also ensure that other claimants don't resist the move. For all this to happen, the Election Commission of India has to be on the same page as KCR. Elections to three North Indian states are due in November-December, and the issue with Telangana is that the revision of the electoral rolls in the state will be completed only by January. Would it make sense for the Assembly elections to then be held in January, followed by the Lok Sabha polls three months later, resulting in wasteful expenditure of public money? Interestingly, the Telangana BJP is against advancing of the Assembly polls. But if Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah see the possibility of post-poll business with KCR, they may be willing to play ball, given that their state unit in Telangana is nothing to crow about. The BJP will fight the Lok Sabha polls on the plank of development, yogi Adityanath said and exuded confidence the party will retain power under the leadership of Narendra Modi. Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath ridiculed Saturday the Opposition unity efforts ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, saying non-BJP parties were ganging up to create political instability in the country, a charge refuted by the Congress. "The Opposition is worried that the BJP is gaining from strength to strength. They are opposed to development and have been ganging up to join hands with the only aim to take on the saffron party," the BJP leader said at an event by a media house. The chief minister said the people were hopeful that a grand Ram temple will be built in Ayodhya in the state and "Lord Ram will decide its date". Slamming the Opposition parties, the chief minister said, "Their only aim is to create political instability in the country so that they can fish in troubled waters." His comments at the Hindustan Shikhar Samagam came against the backdrop of efforts to stitch an alliance among the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress in Uttar Pradesh with an eye on the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. "The Opposition is against development and its only target is to dislodge the BJP from power," he said. Adityanath sought to poke fun at the Opposition parties, saying they were not clear as to who will lead the alliance. "They cannot project any leader who can head the alliance," he said. "A grand Ram temple will be built in Ayodhya. The people are very hopeful. Ramji will decide its date. But, it will be built definitely," the saffron-clad chief minister said. The BJP will fight the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 on the plank of development, he said and exuded confidence the party will retain power under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "The BJP will again come to power at the Centre and under the able leadership of the prime minister, we will put up a grand show in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections," Adityanath said. He was responding to a specific question about whether his party would repeat its performance in 2014 when it bagged 73 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state along with its alliance partners. The 46-year-old monk-turned-politician said the party does not believe in playing the caste card for the sake of votes and it will go to the polls on the development plank. "The BJP does not play the caste card," he said. "We believe in development and welfare of the people without any discrimination," he said. On the police encounters in the state, he said that the authorities are trying their best to instil confidence in the minds of the people that lawbreakers would not be allowed to go scot-free. "At the same time, we have warned the police that there should not be any fake encounters. If they misuse power, action will be taken against them," he said. The chief minister, who assumed power last year after his party scored a landslide victory in the 2017 Assembly polls, slammed the previous Samajwadi Party dispensation saying, "People voted against the SP as they came to realise the misdeeds of the Akhilesh Yadav government." However, UPCC chief Raj Babbar, who was the next guest at the meet, refuted Adityanath's remarks over his remarks on the Opposition unity. "The unity among the Opposition parties is to save the country from the BJP's misrule," he said. Babbar said that the unity efforts were in the context of Uttar Pradesh, which sends the highest number of 80 members to the Lok Sabha. "This is Lok Sabha election and national leaders will take a call," he said. The actor-turned-politician said the efforts to strike unity among non-BJP parties were not directed against any individual. "The sole purpose is to save the country from the BJP's misrule," he said. To a specific question as to who will head the alliance, Babbar said the issue will crop up at a later stage. "The issue will be decided at a later stage. It is for the people to decide, the country will decide...," he said. "But, one thing is for certain that if the Congress heads the alliance, it will be our party chief Rahul Gandhi who will head it," he added. tech2 News Staff Fortnite on PS4 will not get the cross-play support for other consoles, because PlayStation 4 provides the most superior experience, says Sony chief. According to a report by The Independent, Sony chief executive Kenichiro Yoshida said at IFA 2018, that because the best experience is to play on PlayStation, so they will not allow Fortnite users on PS4 to play against their friends with other consoles. "On cross-platform, our way of thinking is always that PlayStation is the best place to play. Fortnite, I believe, partnered with PlayStation 4 is the best experience for users, that's our belief," Yoshida said to the publication. Though, Yoshida said, that they may allow people to take part in cross-platform play on other titles, however, he was firmly against it for Fortnite. Earlier this year, Sony caused a huge controversy Fortnite was launched on the Nintendo Switch, but existing PlayStation players discovered they could not move change platforms on the same account - despite Xbox and PC players being able to do so. Despite a lot of players coming forward against this decision, Sony is continuing the policy. tech2 News Staff Come October, Google is scheduled to debut the third generation of its Pixel smartphones. And along with the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL smartphones, the company was also speculated to launch its long-awaited Pixel Watch. However, clearing all the rumours, the company has now confirmed that the smartwatch will not be releasing this year. According to a report by Toms Guide, at the IFA Berlin 2018, a Google spokesperson confirmed that it wont be releasing its own smartwatch this year. Instead, Google said that it is focusing on improving the Wear OS and working with smartwatch makers, including Fossil, Casio and others showing off new Wear OS watches this week at IFA. To think of a one-size-fits-all watch, I dont think were there yet. Our focus is on our partners for now, Miles Barr, Google's director of engineering for Wear OS. Contrary to rampant rumours about the smartwatch, Google says that it does not plan to work on its own watch as of now, and would only focus on improving the operating system for smartwatch that it provides. Currently, Google works with companies who make Wear OS devices to approve designs and suggest new features. For instance, Google said, that it saw that a lot of smartwatch consumers now look for heart rate sensors on their device, and so it advised Wear OS device makers to add the features. However, Google did hint on what we could expect from the new Watch OS update. Reportedly, Google Assistant will be the forefront of the Wear OS software update that will be rolling out to watches in the next month. The OS update will bring a proactive screen that displays the information you need for the upcoming day, week or even month, depending on how you use Google Assistant and what information Google learns from your usage of its other services. Additionally, the Wear OS update will also solve some performance issues with a new feature called quick-glance screens. Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan on Friday asserted that his government would not give in to any one-sided demand from the Trump administration, a media report said ahead of a scheduled visit of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Islamabad: Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan on Friday asserted that his government would not give in to any one-sided demand from the Trump administration, a media report said ahead of a scheduled visit of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Speaking to a select group of journalists at the Prime Minister House on Friday, Khan reiterated his administration's policy of promoting bilateral relationship with the United States based on mutual respect, the Express Tribune reported. We will hold talks with the US administration with dignity and respect, he was quoted as saying. Pompeo is scheduled to visit Islamabad on 5 September. The US has long been frustrated with Pakistan's overt and covert support to the Afghan Taliban and other terror groups, forcing the Trump administration to warn Islamabad and slash military aid to the country. Khan also said that his government would cancel all agreements which were against the national interests of the country. He, however, did not specify any agreement which the government was thinking to cancel, the Radio Pakistan reported. The prime minister said Pakistan also seeks peaceful relations with India, Afghanistan and Iran. No formal statement of the meeting was issued but reports in local media showed that Khan took questions from the anchor-persons. Khan's media interaction came a day after he visited army headquarters and was briefed about the prevailing security situation. He said media has every right to criticise the government, but it should give the PTI government at least three months before criticising its performance. Khan promised that three months down the road, there will be a marked difference in the way the country is run. The prime minister said none of his Cabinet members was appointed permanently and could be shuffled on the basis of performance. Boko Haram has intensified attacks on military targets in Nigeria of late, in an attempt to undermine repeated claims that the militants had been defeated. Kano: At least 30 Nigerian soldiers died in combat with Boko Haram jihadists who overran a military base in the northeast near the border with Niger, two military sources told AFP on Saturday. Scores of jihadists in trucks stormed the base at Zari village in northern Borno state late Thursday and briefly seized it after a fierce battle, they said. "They came in large numbers in trucks and carrying heavy weapons and engaged soldiers in a battle that lasted for an hour. We lost at least 30 men," a military officer said, adding that the attack took place at around 4 pm. "They overwhelmed the troops who were forced to temporarily withdraw before reinforcements arrived," said the officer who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak. Boko Haram has intensified attacks on military targets in recent months. The attacks appear to undermine repeated claims by the military that Boko Haram had been defeated. The militants took weapons and military equipment before they were pushed out of the base by troops with aerial support, said a second military source who gave a similar toll. The militants were pursued and bombarded by a fighter jet, said the military sources. "The terrorists also suffered heavy casualty from the bombardment", one of the military officers said. Zari is located 30 kilometres from the town of Damasak on the border with Niger. The jihadists are thought to have attacked the base from the nearby Garunda village, where 17 troops were killed and 14 injured in an attack on another military base last month, the sources said. In a statement late Friday the Nigerian military confirmed troops fought Boko Haram "insurgents...on rampage to loot the community and extort money from villagers". "Troops...have successfully routed Boko Haram insurgents in an encounter that ensued yesterday evening at Zari village," the military said in the statement. It did not speak of military casualties and the raid on the base but maintained "several Boko Haram fighters and weapons" were destroyed in the fight. The Nigerian army has on several occasions disputed reports on losses to Boko Haram and has in some cases played them down. On 14 July, Boko Haram militants overran a military base in Jilli village, in neighbouring Yobe state when dozens of troops were said to be been killed, wounded or missing. The army at the time conceded the base was attacked but said troops remobilised and succeeded in repelling the attackers. In a short statement on Wednesday, Islamic State-affiliated Boko Haram jihadists claimed to have killed "several" Nigerian troops in mortar strikes on a military base in the town of Arge in the Lake Chad area. AFP could not independently verify the claim. The Boko Haram insurgency, which is in its ninth in Nigeria, year has left 20,000 people dead and displaced 2.6 million. Soldiers and civilians have also been targeted in separate attacks in neighbouring Chad and Niger. By Anton Zverev and Olena Vasina MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) - The leader of Russian-backed separatists in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine was killed in an explosion at a cafe on Friday, prompting Russia to accuse Ukraine of assassinating him while Kiev blamed separatist infighting. Russia's foreign ministry accused Ukraine of killing the separatist leader, Alexander Zakharchenko, to try to unleash a renewed war in eastern Ukraine, but Kiev said it had nothing to do with the blast. By Anton Zverev and Olena Vasina MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) - The leader of Russian-backed separatists in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine was killed in an explosion at a cafe on Friday, prompting Russia to accuse Ukraine of assassinating him while Kiev blamed separatist infighting. Russia's foreign ministry accused Ukraine of killing the separatist leader, Alexander Zakharchenko, to try to unleash a renewed war in eastern Ukraine, but Kiev said it had nothing to do with the blast. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the killing a "dastardly" crime aimed at destabilising a fragile regional peace, but he did not accuse Kiev of being behind it. Zakharchenko, who led the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic since 2014, "received injuries incompatible with life as a result of an explosion in the centre of Donetsk," the separatist administration said in a statement. Russian-backed rebels threw off Ukrainian central rule in an armed uprising after pro-Western leaders opposed by Moscow came to power in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, in 2014. A shaky internationally-brokered ceasefire has been in force since 2015, halting large-scale fighting, though there are still frequent outbreaks of shooting on the front line between the separatist and Ukrainian forces. In a telegram of condolences released by the Kremlin, Putin praised Zakharchenko as a true popular leader and a patriot. "The dastardly killing of Alexander Zakharchenko is further evidence: those who have chosen the path of terror, violence and spreading fear do not want to seek a peaceful political solution to the conflict," the telegram said. "They are placing a dangerous bet on destabilising the situation," Putin said, without specifying who those people were. He added: "It won't work." Russia's Foreign Ministry had every reason to believe Kiev was responsible for Zakharchenko's death, ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on the Rossiya-24 state television station. Russia's Investigative Committee, the state body that handles major crimes, said it was treating the killing as an act of international terrorism. In Kiev, a spokeswoman for the state Security Service, Yelena Gitlyanskaya, dismissed Moscow's accusations, saying the killing was a result of years-long "internal fighting... between the terrorists and their Russian sponsors". INFIGHTING Zakharchenko, a 42-year-old former coalmine electrician, became leader of the Donetsk Republic in November 2014. Other rebel leaders say he was handpicked for the role by Moscow. A vote held by separatists confirmed him in office. The separatists have been dogged by infighting that has, on occasion, turned violent. Several past leaders of the separatists have fled the region, saying they feared for their lives after their comrades turned on them. Earlier this year, three sources who led the original uprising in 2014 told Reuters they expected Zakharchenko to be pushed aside, with Moscow's assistance, and that a new rebel leadership would take over. At least five other leading separatist commanders have been killed in unexplained circumstances not connected to front-line combat. Separatist officials blamed Ukraine for those deaths, while Kiev -- and some separatists speaking on condition of anonymity -- said in some cases the commanders were killed in internal purges. Among those killed was Arseny Pavlov, who went by the nom de guerre "Motorola" and was blown up in the lift of his apartment building in Donetsk in October 2016. Another prominent casualty was Alexander Bednov, nicknamed "Batman," a senior commander in the Luhansk People's Republic, another eastern Ukrainian breakaway region that neighbours Donetsk. He was killed in January 2015 when his convoy came under fire in a location where, at the time, there was no fighting with Ukrainian forces. The region's official media outlet said on Friday that Dmitry Trapeznikov, 37, deputy head of the region's council of ministers, had been appointed temporary leader, following an emergency meeting. The separatist administration, in its statement, said the blast that killed Zakharchenko also injured the deputy prime minister of the self-proclaimed republic, Alexander Timofeyev. The leadership of Ukraine's Joint Forces wrote on social media that the situation along the border with the breakaway region was under control. (Additional reporting by Polina Ivanova and Tom Balmforth; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Gareth Jones) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. YANGON (Reuters) - Dozens of people marched through Myanmar's largest city Yangon on Saturday, calling on the government to release Reuters journalists on trial for allegedly collecting state secrets, and to demand press freedom. Black-clad protesters marched with banners, flags and balloons with the faces of the two jailed Reuters journalists - Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo - printed on them. They chanted: 'The right to know the news! The people's right! The people's right!' Some carried banners that read 'Immediately release imprisoned journalists YANGON (Reuters) - Dozens of people marched through Myanmar's largest city Yangon on Saturday, calling on the government to release Reuters journalists on trial for allegedly collecting state secrets, and to demand press freedom. Black-clad protesters marched with banners, flags and balloons with the faces of the two jailed Reuters journalists - Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo - printed on them. They chanted: "The right to know the news! The people's right! The people's right!" Some carried banners that read "Immediately release imprisoned journalists. Immediately release them." A Yangon court is on Monday expected to hand down the verdict in the case against Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, who have been charged under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act. Press freedom advocates, the United Nations, the European Union and countries including the United States, Canada and Australia have called for the Reuters journalists' acquittal. Myo Myint Maung, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Information told Reuters by phone: "No matter what side you are on, freedom of the press is important." "In the current situation, you can say that we have it (freedom of the press), but there may also be things that we can improve on." Government spokesman Zaw Htay has in the past said of the case against Wa Lone and Kyaw So Oo that Myanmar's courts are independent and the case will be conducted according to the law. At the time of their arrest, the reporters had been working on an investigation into the killings 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 over 700,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh. (Reporting by Aye Min Thant; editing by Andrew Roche) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Trump will participate in a 11 November event in Paris commemorating the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I, and would then travel to Buenos Aires to attend the G20 Summit Washington: United States president Donald Trump will visit France and Argentina this November, while giving the ASEAN Summit in Singapore a miss, the White House has announced. Trump will participate in a 11 November event in Paris commemorating the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I, and would then travel to Buenos Aires to attend the G20 Summit, the White House said on Friday. The US president will, however, skip the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and the East Asia Summit in Singapore, and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Papua New Guinea. He has asked Vice-President Mike Pence to attend these, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said. The vice-president will, in these meetings, highlight the United States' vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific, based on respect for sovereignty, the rule of law, and the principles of free, fair and reciprocal trade. "The vice-president looks forward to meeting with our allies and partners from across the region to advance security, prosperity and freedom for all," Sanders said. The president will also visit Ireland after attending the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the conclusion of World War I in Paris, she said. "The president's participation in this event will highlight the sacrifices that Americans have made, not only during World War I, but also in the century since, in the name of liberty. While in Europe, he will visit Ireland to renew the deep and historic ties between our two nations," Sanders said. Later in November, Trump will attend the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. "The G20 Summit will be an opportunity for the president to highlight his pro-growth economic policies on an international stage and meet bilaterally with other key world leaders," Sanders said. Trump will also travel to Colombia to discuss opportunities for greater collaboration in security, counter narcotics, and regional affairs with the Duque administration, the White House press secretary said. Iran is preparing to supply the Syrian Armed Forces with their new domestically-made warplane and S-300 missile system, a military source in Damascus said, Al-Masdar News reported.. According to the source, the Iranians are planning to supply the Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF) with their newest warplane, which is dubbed the Kowsar. Furthermore, the Iranian military is planned to supply Syria with their own version of the S-300 missile defense system. No date was given regarding this transfer. The government of El Salvador said the three, ages 12 to 17, were victimized at shelters in Arizona, and it asked the US to make their return a priority. San Diego: The Trump administration is under increasing pressure to speed up the reunification of immigrant families it separated at the Mexican border, following allegations three youngsters were sexually abused while in US custody. The government of El Salvador said the three, ages 12 to 17, were victimized at shelters in Arizona, and it asked the US to make their return a priority. May they leave the shelters as soon as possible, because it is there that they are the most vulnerable, Deputy Foreign Relations Minister Liduvina Magarin said in San Salvador on Thursday. The US government is already facing heavy criticism over its slow pace in reuniting more than 2,600 children who were separated from their parents last spring before the Trump administration agreed to stop the practice. Most have since been reunited, but hundreds remain apart more than a month after the deadline set by a judge. Before the Trump administration reversed course, many of the parents had been deported to their home countries while their children remained in shelters in the US. Attorneys for the US government and the immigrant families discussed how to accelerate the process at a hearing on Friday in San Diego in front of US District Judge Dana Sabraw, who set the deadline. Magarin gave few details on the three cases other than to say they involved sexual violations, sexual abuses. She said her government is ready with lawyers and psychologists to help the families, adding: The psychological and emotional impact is forever. Its unbelievable that children who were fleeing violence here were met in the United States with the worst violence a child could encounter, said Cesar Rios, director of the Salvadoran Migrant Institute. More information is needed to investigate, the US Department Health and Human Services said in a statement on Friday, that adding that without additional details, we are unable to confirm or deny these allegations took place at a facility overseen by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. It contracts with non-profits and other third parties to run shelters for unaccompanied minors arriving at the border. In trying to reunite families, the Trump administration has put the onus on the American Civil Liberties Union, asking that the organization use its considerable resources to find parents in their home countries, mostly Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. The governments of those countries and non-profit organizations have been trying to locate the families. Those efforts have included posting public notices and putting hotline numbers on billboards in the hope a parent missing a child might see the signs and call. Every day that these children are separated and left in government facilities does more damage, said Lee Gelernt, an ACLU attorney representing separated families. Even if the facilities were palaces, the separation of young children from their parents causes potentially permanent trauma. The government and ACLU indicated in the hearing on Friday that the process should start to speed up. Gelernt told the judge as many as 200 cases could be resolved in the next week or two. Those include families who want to be reunited in their home countries and those who want to waive their right to reunification and keep their child in the United States to pursue asylum. The judge also said the administration can expedite cases where families have expressed the desire for the child to be sent back and not worry about it violating a temporary halt on deportations of families seeking asylum. Justice Department attorney Scott Stewart said the government wants to remove any roadblocks. There are a lot of folks that want to move forward with reunification, he told the judge. More than 300 parents who have been deported are waiting for their sons and daughters to be returned to them in their homelands. Many are growing increasingly anxious. Among them is Evelin Roxana Meyer, whose 11-year-old son, Eduardo Almendarez Meyer, was told this week that he wont be leaving the US until 27 November. He has been held at a government-contracted shelter in Brownsville, Texas, since he was separated from his father in early June. The boys mother said her husband was told when he signed his deportation papers that his son would be waiting for him in Honduras. Now itll be six months before we see him? Oh my God, Meyer said Friday, crying during a telephone interview from her hometown of La Union. I dont know why its taking so long. My son is worried. He tells me, More time here, Mommy? Oh, no. Why? I dont know what to tell him. Child psychologist Barbara Van Dahlen, founder of Give an Hour, a network of mental health professions that is offering to counsel the separated families, said the reports of abuse are likely to worsen the immigrant parents anxieties. I cant imagine the stress, the anxiety, the terror, if I was separated from my child, and then the thought that possibly some of these kids are being abused, Van Dahlen said. It would be so debilitating and destructive that it would be hard for some parents to function. BISHKEK (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan urged Kyrgyzstan on Saturday to crack down on groups linked to the Fethullah Gulen movement which Ankara blames for a failed 2016 coup, something Bishkek has so far refused to do. A network of schools and colleges sponsored by the U.S.-based cleric and his supporters has existed for decades across ex-Soviet Central Asia. After the 2016 coup attempt, Ankara asked governments in the region to shut down the network but some were reluctant BISHKEK (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan urged Kyrgyzstan on Saturday to crack down on groups linked to the Fethullah Gulen movement which Ankara blames for a failed 2016 coup, something Bishkek has so far refused to do. A network of schools and colleges sponsored by the U.S.-based cleric and his supporters has existed for decades across ex-Soviet Central Asia. After the 2016 coup attempt, Ankara asked governments in the region to shut down the network but some were reluctant. Almazbek Atambayev, Kyrgyz president at the time, flatly refused to close the schools and simply had the educational network renamed. Erdogan, on a visit to the mostly Muslim nation of six million, raised the matter again at a meeting with the new president, Sooranbai Zheenbekov, saying the Gulen network presented a security threat. "We don't want our brotherly people to encounter such problems," Erdogan said at a joint briefing with Zheenbekov. "They (Gulen supporters) may infiltrate the interior ministry, military structures, such a coup may happen in Kyrgyzstan as well." Zheenbekov, who came to power last year, stopped short of promising to comply, saying the school network was now under the government's control. Kyrgyzstan's neighbour, Kazakhstan, has also refused to shut down Gulen-sponsored schools, and has also had them renamed. (Reporting by Olga Dzyubenko; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Andrew Roche) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. BERLIN/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union said on Friday it would propose a legal change that would end the ritual of switching between summer and winter time, leaving it up to governments across the bloc to agree on whether to permanently use summer time or winter time. The proposal comes after a survey found 84 percent of 4.6 million citizens across the EU's 28 member states opposed changing the clocks ahead in the summer or back in the winter or just opposed switching either way. In response, the EU's chief executive, Jean-Claude Juncker, said Brussels would propose scrapping an EU law requiring member states to change their clocks. BERLIN/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union said on Friday it would propose a legal change that would end the ritual of switching between summer and winter time, leaving it up to governments across the bloc to agree on whether to permanently use summer time or winter time. The proposal comes after a survey found 84 percent of 4.6 million citizens across the EU's 28 member states opposed changing the clocks ahead in the summer or back in the winter or just opposed switching either way. In response, the EU's chief executive, Jean-Claude Juncker, said Brussels would propose scrapping an EU law requiring member states to change their clocks. "Millions ... believe that summertime should be all the time," Juncker said on German television. Since 1996, EU law has been moving clocks forward an hour on the last Sunday in March and back an hour on the final Sunday in October. The proposal would drop that requirement, a Commission spokesman said. He rebuffed suggestions that would lead to confusing variations in keeping time from one country to the next. "It would be surprising if the outcome of the directive was one that doesn't make sense for European citizens and for business," spokesman Alexander Winterstein told a news briefing. Spain backs the proposal to stick with just one time, government spokeswoman Isabel Celaa said on Friday. But it may have to use another time zone more in line with its western geographical position following the Commissions proposal, Foreign Minister Josep Borrell told reporters in Vienna. Critics of the clock change say it can cause long-term health problems, especially among young children and elderly people. Supporters say making the switch to give extra morning daylight in winter and evening light in summer can help reduce traffic accidents and save energy. Any change would need approval from national governments and European Parliament to become law - a process that can take up to two years. Participation in the EU's survey varied country by country. Germans, Austrians and Luxembourgers were the most active - 3.79 percent of people in Germany took part. Elsewhere, less than 1 percent of citizens took part. Italy, Britain, Spain and the Netherlands had some of the lowest participation. Outside the EU, a handful of European countries have stopped switching between summer and winter time, including Russia, Turkey, Belarus and Iceland. (Reporting by Gernot Heller and Andrea Shalal; Additional reporting by Alissa de Carbonel in Brussels, Jesus Aguado in Madrid and Robin Emmott in Vienna; Editing by Larry King) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran on Saturday rejected a Reuters report that Tehran has moved missiles to Iraq, saying it aimed to hurt Iran's ties with neighbours, the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported. U.S DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran on Saturday rejected a Reuters report that Tehran has moved missiles to Iraq, saying it aimed to hurt Iran's ties with neighbours, the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Twitter he was "deeply concerned" by the reports that Iran was transferring ballistic missiles into Iraq. He urged Iraqi leaders to quickly form a new government after a May 12 parliamentary election. "Such false and ridiculous news have no purpose other than affecting Iran's foreign relations, especially with its neighbours," Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said, according to IRNA. Iranian, Iraqi and Western sources told Reuters that Iran has given ballistic missiles to Shi'ite proxies in Iraq and is developing the capacity to build more there. "This news is solely aimed at creating fears in the countries of the region," Qassemi added. Pompeo, in his tweet on the reports of the transfer of the missiles, said, "If true, this would be a gross violation of Iraqi sovereignty and of UNSCR 2231." He was referring to U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231, which underpinned the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iraq and six world powers. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the deal earlier this year and his administration is currently reimposing sanctions against Tehran. Earlier, Pompeo spoke by phone with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi "to reaffirm U.S. support for Iraq's efforts to form a modern, nationalist Iraqi government," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. Pompeo emphasized the importance of safeguarding Iraq's sovereignty during this critical time, she said. He also spoke to Iraqi Vice President Ayad Allawi to discuss political developments and relations between Baghdad and Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in north Iraq, Nauert added. Any sign that Iran is preparing a more aggressive missile policy in Iraq will exacerbate tensions between Tehran and Washington, already heightened by Trump's decision to pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal. It would also embarrass France, Germany and Britain, the three European signatories to the nuclear deal, as they have been trying to salvage the agreement despite the new U.S. sanctions against Tehran. According to three Iranian officials, two Iraqi intelligence sources and two Western intelligence sources, Iran has transferred short-range ballistic missiles to allies in Iraq over the last few months. Five of the officials said it was helping those groups to start making their own. (Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Editing by Andrew Roche and Leslie Adler) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Meghan McCain said her father was a 'great man' and she encouraged others to live up to his example, setting a tone that echoed the senator's own fighting spirit as services began Saturday at the Washington National Cathedral. Washington: John McCain's daughter opened his memorial service with a tearful and impassioned tribute, posing her father's legacy as a direct challenge to President Donald Trump. Meghan McCain said her father was a "great man" and she encouraged others to live up to his example, setting a tone that echoed the senator's own fighting spirit as services began Saturday at the Washington National Cathedral. "We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who lived lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served," she said, her voice raising from tearful to anger. She said to applause, "The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great." Trump is not on hand for the ceremony, after McCain's family made clear he was not invited. Three former presidents, scores of members of Congress, current and former world leaders and family and friends have gathered Saturday morning to eulogize McCain as an American hero. His flag-draped casket was escorted by military body bearers up the cathedral steps under gray skies. Among those in the front row at the cathedral are Barack and Michelle Obama, George and Laura Bush, Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as Dick Cheney and Al Gore. McCain's motorcade arrived from the Capitol, where he laid in state overnight, and the procession made a stop at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where McCain's wife, Cindy, placed a wreath. At McCain's request, Obama, a Democrat, and Bush, a Republican, are among those speaking about the six-term senator during Saturday's service. It is the last public event in Washington, where McCain lived and worked over four decades, and part of McCain's five-day, cross-country funeral procession. He died Aug. 25 at age 81. "His death seems to have reminded the American people that these values are what makes us a great nation, not the tribal partisanship and personal attack politics that have recently characterized our life, " said former Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, a longtime friend and fellow global traveler who McCain once considered as his vice presidential running mate. "This week's celebration of the life and values and patriotism of this hero, I think have taken our country above all that," he said. "In a way, it's the last great gift that John McCain gave America." Trump, meanwhile, left the White House in the presidential motorcade shortly after 10:30 a.m., as the service was underway. The White House did not immediately answer questions about his destination. Two of his top aides, White House chief of staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary James Mattis, flanked Cindy McCain as she approached the memorial and joined the service. Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner are also in attendance. McCain was a decorated veteran who was held for more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. He refused early release. Trump obtained deferments for his college education and a foot ailment. The memorial stop provided another contrast with Trump in McCain's carefully designed funeral procession, but the speeches by the former presidents are expected to carry special weight. McCain had long urged the Senate and the polarized nation to recognize the humanity even in bitter political opponents. McCain's request for speeches by the former presidents, to some, represents that ideal. "We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe," McCain wrote in his farewell letter to the nation, read posthumously by a longtime aide. "We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been." By all accounts, McCain ended up liking both Bush and Obama but was not especially close to either man. "John McCain and I were members of different generations, came from completely different backgrounds, and competed at the highest level of politics," Obama said in a statement after McCain's death. "But we shared, for all our differences, a fidelity to something higher the ideals for which generations of Americans and immigrants alike have fought, marched, and sacrificed." Bush delivered McCain a decisive defeat in the race for the GOP presidential nomination in 2000. Obama defeated McCain eight years later in the general election. After his death, Bush called McCain "a man of deep conviction and a patriot of the highest order. He was a public servant in the finest traditions of our country. And to me, he was a friend whom I'll deeply miss." McCain's service and dedication to working across the aisle even as he sometimes infuriated his opponents was a major theme of Friday's ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda. Of those who spoke at Friday's ceremony, fellow Republican Mitch McConnell had perhaps the fullest sense of the McCain experience. The two had served in the Senate together since McCain's 1986 election. "Depending on the issue, you knew John would either be your staunchest ally or your most stubborn opponent," McConnell recalled. "At any moment, he might be preparing an eloquent reflection on human liberty or a devastating joke, served up with his signature cackle and that John McCain glint in his eye." But just about anyone who worked in the Capitol over the past 35 years could attest to McCain's iron will and what House Speaker Paul Ryan called his "distinct brand of candor." "With John, it was never feigned disagreement. The man didn't feign anything," Ryan said. "He just relished the fight." "This," Ryan added of McCain, "is one of the bravest souls our nation has ever produced." McCain is to be buried Sunday at his alma mater, the U.S. Naval Academy, next to his best friend from the Class of 1958, Adm. Chuck Larson. "Back," McCain wrote on the last page of his recent memoir, "where it began." Myanmar army has released 924 children and young people from its ranks since signing a deal with the UN in 2012. Yangon: Myanmar's military has released 75 child soldiers, a United Nations (UN) agency said, its first discharge this year as part of a gradual process to end decades of forced recruitment of underage fighters. There are no concrete figures on how many children are still among the estimated 500,000 troops that serve in Myanmar's military, or the ethnic rebel armies that it battles in the country's border regions. The state's army has released 924 children and young people from its ranks since signing a deal with the UN in 2012, according to Friday's statement released by UN child protection agency UNICEF. The child soldiers released will have to attend re-integration programmes to return them to civilian life, a process that will contribute to "bringing lasting peace in Myanmar as productive citizens", the statement added. Experts say that as long as the army and ethnic armed groups continue warring within Myanmar, children remain at risk of recruitment. They are usually kidnapped or taken by force from public spaces like parks and train stations in their towns, before being threatened with jail time if they refuse to be conscripted. UNICEF added in addition to the army there are seven other "persistent perpetrators" that recruit child soldiers including the Kachin Independence Army and the Shan State Army South both ethnic groups that continue to engage in skirmishes with the Myanmar military. Sushma Swaraj will hold an informal meeting with the SAARC foreign ministers on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. New Delhi: External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj will hold an informal meeting with the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) foreign ministers on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi is also expected to attend the meeting. This is an informal meeting at the foreign ministers' level which takes place every year on the sidelines of UNGA. The external affairs minister attended the meeting last year and will attend this year as well. The 73rd session of the UNGA is scheduled to open on 18 September. The first day of the high-level general debate will be on 25 September, and will last for nine working days. RAMALLAH (Reuters) - A U.S. decision to halt funding to a U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees was a 'flagrant assault' against Palestinian people, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday. RAMALLAH (Reuters) - A U.S. decision to halt funding to a U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees was a "flagrant assault" against Palestinian people, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday. "The consecutive American decisions represent a flagrant assault against the Palestinian people and a defiance of U.N. resolutions," spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah told Reuters. "Such a punishment will not succeed to change the fact that the United States no longer has a role in the region and that it is not a part of the solution." (Reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Writing by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Bill Trott) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Elias Biryabarema KAMPALA (Reuters) - Protests erupted in the Ugandan capital on Friday after police detained two lawmakers at the international airport as they prepared to travel abroad for medical care, witnesses said. People demonstrated in different parts of Kampala, burning tyres and piling rocks and other barricades in the middle of the roads. By Elias Biryabarema KAMPALA (Reuters) - Protests erupted in the Ugandan capital on Friday after police detained two lawmakers at the international airport as they prepared to travel abroad for medical care, witnesses said. People demonstrated in different parts of Kampala, burning tyres and piling rocks and other barricades in the middle of the roads. Police said the protests were limited and had been contained. The lawmakers, Robert Kyagulanyi and Francis Zaake, say they were tortured by security forces while in detention in August. The case led to protests against President Yoweri Museveni. Museveni has won praise in the West for his support against militant Islam in the region, but many Ugandans regard the 73-year-old as out of touch with his people, nearly 80 percent of whom are under the age of 30. Kyagulanyi has been charged with treason over his alleged role in the stoning of Musevenis convoy this month, but a court had granted him access to private doctors, citing his health. Kyagulanyi's lawyer Robert Amsterdam told Reuters last week that his client had been left unable to stand after being beaten while in detention. When he appeared in court a day after his lawyer spoke, he was unable to walk without help. Government spokesman Ofwono Opondo dismissed the lawyer's comments last week as rubbish. Kyagulanyi, 35, is a musician who entered politics after winning a parliamentary by-election last year. He goes by the stage name "Bobi Wine" and has emerged as a formidable threat to Museveni's 32-year rule, winning popular support through his music and strong criticism of the government. Amsterdam told Reuters on Friday that Kyagulanyi had said he had been tortured again while being transported from the airport to a hospital in Kampala. "He was beaten...he was groaning in pain, they kept telling him to shut up," Amsterdam said, quoting what his client had told him. Police spokesman Emilian Kayima called the allegations "fake news". In a statement late on Friday, Kayima said that the Director of Public Prosecutions instructed the police to investigate allegations of torture of Kyagulanyi, a move that required that he be examined by government medical experts. "Before this medical examination was done, the Uganda Police Force learnt of his departure yesterday August 30th," Kayima said. "As a result, Hon. Kyagulanyi was halted from departure." Now that Kyagulanyi has been examined by government doctors, the police have allowed him to leave the hospital, Kayima said, paving the way for him to potentially travel abroad. Calls to his Ugandan lawyer for a comment on whether he would depart the country immediately were not answered. Friday's demonstrations were most intense in Kamwokya, a suburb of Kampala where Kyagulanyi has a recording studio, according to Dick Nvule, a local radio reporter. "Protesters blocked the roads using garbage cans and burning tyres. Motorists have to get alternative routes to the city centre. Soldiers and riot police are still clearing the roads," Nvule told Reuters. The two parliamentarians were among a group of five lawmakers who were detained on Aug. 13 in the northwestern town of Arua and accused of throwing stones at the presidential convoy during campaigning for a parliamentary seat. Zaake, the other lawmaker, has not been charged but has been in hospital in Kampala. Images posted on social media show him lying on a bed, eyes closed, with multiple bruises on his hand and other body areas. In July, the constitution was amended to remove the presidential age limit of 75 years, meaning Museveni can run again for president in 2021 -- the year the country hopes to begin oil production. (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Writing by by George Obulutsa; Editing by Angus MacSwan, David Stamp and Omar Mohammed) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Huawei at the IFA 2018 announced that it has sold 10 million units of P20 Pro and P20 smartphones globally in the first five months. It also introduced new variants in the P20 series. It also said that it has shipped over 10 million units in the Mate 10 series. This includes Morpho Aurora and Pearl White variants of the P20 and the P20 Pro that are nature-inspired hues. The company also introduced leather variants of the P20 Pro. This includes Golden Brown and Elegant Black Leather back versions that uses Italian calf leather in the top layer, Pamelatto handmade tanning process offering exquisite, natural texture. Commenting on the latest milestone, Kevin Ho, President of Handset Business, Huawei Consumer Business Group, said: We are humbled by the reception of our latest flagships among global consumers. By going above the 10-million mark, we have again set ourselves a high bar to clear, but we will treat it as a symbol of encouragement that will fuel us as we continue doing what we do bestputting cutting-edge innovations into the hands of consumers around the world. A resident of the Yeisk District appealed to the law enforcement agency with a statement about arson. According to him, someone threw a self-made torch into the open window of his house, the Main Office of the Russian Federation Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Krasnodar Territory reported. The arsonist was a relative of the landlord, who was thus going to oust the tenants. The criminal proceedings were brought in this matter, the culprit is threatened with maximum punishment in the form of imprisonment for up to five years, Zhivaya Kuban reports. Last year, the United States became a net exporter of natural gas for the first time since 1957. Although 77% of exports traveled through pipelines, that's down from 98% in 2012. The rest came from liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipped on specialized ocean tankers. The nation exited 2017 with three LNG export terminals boasting a combined capacity of 3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). That's a pretty big number, but it will seem laughably small in a decade or so. If investors add up all LNG export facilities that have been approved by (12, including three that are operating) and proposed to (14) American energy regulators, then they arrive at a combined LNG export capacity of 44.2 Bcf/d. Some may never get built. Those that do may not enter service for another decade or more. Either way, it shows the incredible potential of the fledgling American LNG industry. I understand that 44.2 Bcf/d is almost so large it doesn't make sense, but investors looking to gain a foothold in the up-and-coming industry shouldn't feel overwhelmed. Here are five LNG export projects energy investors should know about. Kicking off the export bonanza Cheniere Energy (NYSEMKT:LNG) was the first company to make a bold bet on the potential for the United States to export large volumes of excess natural gas. It was risky, but it's paid off in spades. The business posted $3.8 billion in revenue and over $1 billion in operating income in the first half of 2018 -- and that's all from a single -- albeit massive -- facility. In 2016, Sabine Pass became the first new major LNG export terminal in the country. It wields a capacity of 2.8 Bcf/d, although approved expansion projects will add 1.4 Bcf/d. No other approved or proposed facility matches that combined volume, but the list of projects expected to come on line by the end of 2019 includes a few other monsters dotting the Gulf Coast. That includes Corpus Christi, the second facility of Cheniere Energy. LNG Export Terminal Majority Owner Start-Up Date Approved Annual Capacity Sabine Pass Cheniere Energy 2016 2.8 Bcf/d (operating) 1.4 Bcf/d (under construction) Cameron Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) 2019 2.1 Bcf/d 1.4 Bcf/d (approved, not under construction) Corpus Christi Cheniere Energy 2019 2.14 Bcf/d Freeport Freeport LNG September 2019 2.14 Bcf/d Golden Pass ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) Finalizing investment decision 2.1 Bcf/d While there are also LNG export terminals currently or soon-to-be operating at Elba Island (Kinder Morgan, Southern Company), Cove Point (Dominion Energy), and Kenai (ConocoPhillips), they have a combined export capacity of 1.3 Bcf/d. They're just not going to be big needle-movers for their owners, individual investors included. That's not the case for the five projects in the table above. For instance, Sempra Energy owns a 50.2% stake in the Cameron LNG project, which is expected to bring three production units (called "trains" in industry lingo) on line in 2019. The first two were originally expected to come on line by now, but were delayed. It won't matter much once they're all ramped up: Cameron LNG is expected to export $8.6 billion of LNG each year, plus another $2.2 billion in natural gas liquids and crude oil. And that doesn't include two more production units already approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Not wanting to get complacent with its early lead, Cheniere Energy is expanding the existing Sabine Pass from the four production units already in service. A fifth train is expected to start commerical operations in the second quarter of 2019. Construction has yet to begin for the sixth train, although it has received regulatory approval. Meanwhile, the first two trains at Corpus Christi are expected to start up in the first half of 2019, with a third about to begin construction. Those will be quickly followed by Freeport LNG with the export terminal of the same name. While the company is privately held right now, the customer base for the project shows electric utilities, industrial companies, and Asian countries, in general, are all eager to get their hands on the cheap energy source. For instance, the project will ship supercooled gas to electric utility Tokyo Electric Power Company (desperate to replace its nuclear generation fleet), oil major BP, conglomerate Toshiba Corp, and an electric and gas utility in South Korea. Last but not least is the Golden Pass export terminal proposed by ExxonMobil (majority owner), ConocoPhillips, and Qatar Petroleum. While no final investment decision has been made, the project may be able to come on line a little quicker than most. That's because it's converting an existing import terminal to send gas in the other direction (similar to Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass facility), which means it has a good chunk of existing pipeline and port infrastructure already in place. Another potential catalyst: it's located in Sabine Pass, Texas, which is home to a lot of LNG process know-how and infrastructure -- something that can't be discounted in the early goings of the industry. These five LNG projects are just a start While the five LNG export terminals discussed above will get the party started for America's soon-to-be dominance in global energy markets, there are a handful more projects coming down the pipeline. Some of those will test out newer technology, such as smaller or faster liquefaction trains, that project sponsors say will provide industry-leading economics. Some will sport new business models, partly in response to shifting market dynamics that the pioneers avoided by locking in long-term contracts. The main takeaway is simple: Energy investors should get familiar with the LNG industry because it's here to stay. The auto industry had huge years in 2016 and 2017, but good times don't last forever, and cyclical declines in sales volumes for 2018 and beyond now look increasingly likely. Both Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM) and Ford Motor (NYSE:F) have had to adapt to these changing conditions, but it hasn't always been easy. Despite Toyota's having located substantial production capacity within U.S. factories, potential trade disputes between the U.S. and its major trading partners are always a threat. Even U.S.-based Ford has had to navigate rough waters in making decisions about where to locate manufacturing facilities to avoid trade policy backlash. Because of concerns about future earnings, auto stocks look like they're in bargain territory. Yet some fear the value traps that often accompany downturns in cyclical industries. To help you pick whether Toyota or Ford is a smarter investment right now, let's take a look at how the two auto giants compare on some key measures that can indicate whether they're likely to be successful in the long run. Valuation and stock performance Toyota and Ford haven't had the same experience with their stock performance lately. The Japanese automaker's stock has risen 12% since August 2017, compared to an 8% decline for Ford. More recently, Toyota has been able to overcome challenges to keep its share price roughly flat, while Ford suffered a drop of almost 14% since late May. Valuation measures based on earnings reflect this disparity. When you look at trailing earnings, Toyota has a multiple of about 8.2, which is well above Ford's 5.9. For both companies, investors already expect earnings to take a mild hit, sending Ford's forward multiple to about 7.2 and Toyota's to 9.1. That's enough to make Ford look more attractively valued than Toyota, which is consistent with the way the two stocks have moved lately. Dividends Both Ford and Toyota pay dividends but there's a pretty wide disparity between the two automakers. Toyota's current dividend yield comes in at around 3.6%, but Ford's stock pays a more than 6% dividend yield right now. Like many foreign companies, Toyota has a variable dividend policy, so payouts vary from year to year. However, the Japanese automaker targets a 30% payout ratio, based on its net income, with adjustments as necessary to reflect business conditions. That has given Toyota enough flexibility to afford the massive investments necessary for research and development into cutting-edge technologies like driverless vehicles and artificial intelligence. With dividends having risen gradually in recent years, Toyota looks like a stable, predictable stock that income investors can appreciate. Ford has had a good track record of dividend growth over the past several years, bouncing back from the financial crisis that sent its two American counterparts into bankruptcy. Yet now, financial pressures have some investors nervous about whether Ford's current dividend levels are sustainable. Ford faces several challenges in generating the cash necessary to pay such a high dividend, and if a cyclical downturn adds to those challenges at exactly the wrong time, Ford might be better served using available cash in restructuring efforts rather than for dividend payments. A cut could bring the yield much closer to Toyota's levels. Toyota's more sustainable dividend arguably cancels out Ford's higher yield, making the two stocks roughly comparable for dividend investors. Growth and potential risk Toyota and Ford have seen their prospects change as the environment for auto sales begins to look less favorable than it's been in recent years. But Toyota has responded aggressively, and the measures it took have already started to bear fruit. In the second quarter of 2018, Toyota's revenue rose almost 5% on an 18% jump in vehicle sales volumes, and net income was higher by 7% from year-earlier levels. Toyota saw considerable success in Europe, and even though sales were down in Japan, cost-cutting initiatives led to a huge 24% rise in operating income in its home market. Large incentive payments in North America weighed on results there, but sluggishness in China wasn't enough to offset good performance in the rest of the Asia-Pacific region. Despite a slight downgrade to full-year guidance, many of Toyota's predictions stayed unchanged from previous forecasts, and that reassured those who'd expected more extensive deterioration. Ford seems to be facing a more difficult struggle. In its most recent quarter, Ford reported a bottom-line drop of more than 40%, and challenges outside the North American market were more extensive than most had expected. Chinese sales dropped 30%, and that sent Ford to a $400 million loss for its overall Asia-Pacific segment. Sales figures were better in Europe, but the company still suffered a pre-tax loss despite higher revenue. Investors aren't sure exactly how Ford will respond to these adverse trends. CEO Jim Hackett and his management team are still apparently working on the details of an anticipated restructuring initiative. What investors do know is that it could cost more than $10 billion for Ford to execute its plans, and without any specifics, they seem skeptical about whether Ford's really on the right path. Turning Japanese Toyota's prospects look a lot more solid than Ford's at this point, and that makes the stock a better buy even with its lower dividend yield and slightly higher valuation. Ford could easily bounce back, but there are too many questions for those looking at the stock for the first time to feel entirely comfortable about its future direction. It has been a very bad year for Arconic Inc. (NYSE:HWM), with the stock around 28% off of its early January highs and down nearly 20% for the year. It is understandable that investors would be wondering what's gone wrong. The answer requires a little bit of history and shows that every business decision doesn't work out as planned. While there are problems, nothing appears to be beyond repair. Here's what investors need to know about Arconic's terrible stock performance so far this year. A simple separation In 2016, aluminum giant Alcoa Corporation (NYSE:AA) broke itself into two companies, one to own the company's legacy aluminum assets and the other to own a growing specialty parts business. The largely commodity aluminum operations kept the Alcoa name while the specialty parts business was dubbed Arconic. The idea was that Arconic's parts business had higher margins and greater growth prospects and would be rewarded for these traits if it were a stand-alone company. It hasn't exactly turned out as expected. In fact, Alcoa's stock is up around 90% since the breakup while Arconic's is up just 16% or so. What's gone wrong? The divergent performance of these two companies speaks to the first big issue facing Arconic. Since it no longer makes aluminum, it has to buy this key raw material for use in its business. Aluminum prices haven't exactly cooperated, and have risen over 20% since the breakup. There was a particularly sharp price spike earlier this year. That helps explain why aluminum was highlighted as a $37 million headwind to operating income in the first quarter and led the company to lower its earnings guidance. The metal remained a drag in the second quarter, as well, depressing operating income by $20 million. Alcoa, on the other hand, benefits from higher aluminum prices. Although the aluminum price has retreated from its first-quarter peak, it remains an important issue for investors to watch. Commodity prices can be volatile and have a large impact on Arconic's business results. However, shifting commodity prices is not a sign that Arconic's business is in any kind of trouble. In fact, the company's revenue grew 8% in the first quarter and 10% in the second. Organic revenue was up 4% and 5%, respectively, as well. It appears that there is ample demand for the specialty parts that Arconic makes, with ongoing strength in the aerospace and automotive end markets, among others. The bigger issue for the company today is operational. There are two pieces here. The first is a drag on results, but it's not necessarily bad -- Arconic has had trouble keeping up with demand in select business segments. That puts a damper on sales and will require additional investment to solve, which will increase costs over the near term. The company increased its capital spending plans by around 7% over its initial guidance for the year, but the larger issue is that solving these problems is likely to be a multi-year effort. That means capital spending could be elevated for several years. Although not ideal, having to invest to keep up with strong demand isn't the worst thing in the world. The second issue, however, is around quality control. As The Motley Fool's Lou Whiteman recently noted, Arconic was created via a series of mergers. Integrating those companies hasn't gone as smoothly as expected, and variations in the quality of the specialty products the company produces have shown up across its production footprint. That will also require additional spending to fix, but speaks to a more fundamental problem. If Arconic's parts aren't consistently of the highest quality, it could lose business. This is one for investors to watch very closely because it has to be solved if Arconic is to thrive. Interestingly, it was recently reported by Reuters that Arconic is holding material discussions about going private, a step up from the rumors that have been swirling for some months. The company has activist investors on its board and solving the production issues it is facing might be easier if it didn't have to answer publicly to investors. The stock rose on the news, as you would expect, but still remains well off its early year highs. This, however, suggests that going private now would be better for the buyers than for Arconic's long-term shareholders who are suffering with notable stock losses. Probably best to avoid for now If you own Arconic shares, there's no particular reason to sell at this point. The company can't control aluminum prices, and it realizes there are operational issues and is taking steps to address them. With strong demand being one of the "issues" here, the operational problems aren't all bad, either. Moreover, if it is taken private, there's likely to be a premium paid to current prices. So continuing to hold appears to be the best option if you own the shares and are underwater. That said, investors who are not currently shareholders should probably avoid the stock until it gets the quality issues under better control. Add in the uncertainty surrounding the going-private rumors and it's just not worth the risk for most investors, since any price bump would quickly disappear if the rumors prove false. Renaults test and development driver Artem Markelov will make his first official F1 weekend appearance with the team at the Russian Grand Prix later this month, taking the place of Carlos Sainz for FP1 at the Sochi Autodrom. Currently fifth in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, the Russian will combine practice duties at his home race with this seasons penultimate F2 round, also taking place in Sochi that weekend, when hell be aiming to add to his three 2018 wins to date, in Bahrain, Monaco and Austria. "This is the best early birthday present I could get and I am determined to make the most of this opportunity, said Markelov, who will turn 24 on September 10th. Azerbaijan and Russia are trying to further strengthen cooperation through joint efforts and measures, Hikmet Hajiyev, spokesman of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, said in an interview with "TRT World", Trend reports. Responding the question about Azerbaijan's relations with Russia and Germany, as well as heightened interest in the region, Hajiyev said that Azerbaijan stands for the establishment of equal and normal relations with all partners and friendly states. In this regard, Hajiyev noted that Azerbaijan and Russia are neighboring states, and traditionally friendly ties prevail between the two countries. Noting that Azerbaijan closely cooperates with partners from the European Union (EU), the Foreign Ministry spokesman said that cooperation with the EU, the member countries of the organization, including Germany, is on the agenda. Commenting on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as well as the mediation mission, Hikmet Hajiyev added that the South Caucasus suffers from Armenia's occupation of Azerbaijani territories, and the illegal presence of the Armenian Armed Forces in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan poses a serious threat to the maintenance of peace and security in the region. The spokesman recalled that the map for resolving the conflict is clear and based on the norms and principles of international law, corresponding to the resolutions of the UN Security Council. Hajiyev brought to the attention the importance of intensifying the efforts of the co-chair countries to fulfill the requirements of the UN Security Council resolutions. "The expectations of Azerbaijan are that along with the co-chairs, all countries participating in the Minsk Group should support the implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions," Hajiyev said. Touching upon the essence of the UN Security Council resolutions, Hajiyev recalled that they demand a complete and unconditional withdrawal of the occupant forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. "The Azerbaijani people have been suffering from this conflict for more than 25 years, Azerbaijan supports the solution of the conflict through intensive and substantive negotiations," the representative of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said. Tbilisi sign may appear on the Funicular hill - GeorgianJournal As twilight approached on a sultry, summers eve four days ago the Aircraft Restoration Companys John Romain started up the Bristol Mercury engine in Westland Lysander Mk.IIITT V9312 in preparation for her first flight since December 30th, 1944. The crackle from the Mercurys exhaust startled a murder of crows, which scattered from the grass as the Lysander approached the taxiway at Duxford Airfield in Cambridgeshire, England. Following a full-power engine run-up, the Lysander began her takeoff, and with Romains characteristic silky-smooth skills, the legendary WWII clandestine liaison aircraft took to the skies again, marking the culmination of fourteen years of dedicated attention from the highly experienced restoration team at ARCo. Lysander V9312 originally rolled off the Westland production line in Yeovil, Somerset in late 1940, initially as a Mk.IIIa variant. The Royal Air Force took her on strength shortly afterwards, assigning her to 33 Maintenance Unit at RAF Lyneham on January 4th, 1941. According to ARCo. the Lysander then served with No.612, 225 and 4 Squadrons. While serving with 4 Squadron at RAF Clifton, near the City of York, the Lysander was involved in an accident on April 26th, 1942, suffering Category B damage. During the repairs, the RAF had the Lysander converted into a target tug, hence the TT designation, and assigned the aircraft to the Royal Canadian Air Force to take part in the Commonwealth Air Training Plan. The disassembled aircraft was loaded aboard a ship at the Liverpool docks and sailed for Canadian shores on October 18th, 1942. The Lysander served at Mossbank in Saskatchewan. After the war, the Canadian government disposed of the aircraft. A farmer bought V9312 and she sat on his land, slowly deteriorating until 1972 when the legendary Harry Whereatt acquired her remains, storing them at his place in Assiniboa, Saskatchewan, alongside a good number of additional surplus RCAF Lysanders, Hawker Hurricanes and other retired military aircraft. Whereatt eventually sold the airframe to Kermit Weeks in 1991. Weeks did little other than store the aircraft at his facility in Polk City, Florida during his ownership. In 1998 Weeks bought an airworthy Canadian-built Lysander (a composite Mk.IIIa made up of RCAF serials 2341, 2349 and 2391). With no real need to hang on to V9312, he sold her on to the Aircraft Restoration Company in 2003. Much like their magnificent Bristol Blenheim Mk.I L6739, ARCo put time into the Lysanders restoration when time and resources were available between schedules for their clients projects. Fourteen years later, the Lysander has emerged as a major new addition to the warbird circuit, one of just a handful of the type still flying. This is just the latest success in the companys peerless history of restoring, overhauling and maintaining WWII aircraft, which counts almost forty different aircraft types, and almost a third of all Spitfires currently flying since their shop first opened its doors in the early 1990s. Once the Lysander has finished her flight test regime, and had a few small additional finishing details added (like the wheel spat covers and propeller spinner), she is expected to make her public debut at the Goodwood Revival between September 7th and 9th. Many thanks indeed to ARCos George Romain and to Peter Green for the marvelous images accompanying this article! Extremely portable and offers on-the-go heavy computing Microsoft Surface Pro line-up is designed for new age mobile workforce. It is build to offer high-end PC performance without restricting you to one place. You can use it as a tablet and as a full-fledged PC at office and home or while traveling during a short weekend trip. Subtle changes in design as compared to 4th gen. Surface Pro As far as the fifth generation Surface Pro is concerned, the machine resembles the previous generation Surface Pro devices but there are few noticeable changes to improve the aesthetics and overall look and feel. For instance, the magnesium-aluminum alloy frame that runs around the edges is now more rounded to give the main unit slightly more ergonomic and comfortable feel. This helps in handling the Surface Pro in a tablet mode. The new hinge is more flexible and adjusts to 165 degrees to let you use Surface Pro into Studio Mode. This makes the new Surface Pro a great device for sketching, drawing or simply for note making jobs. The cameras on the new Surface Pro are better streamlined with the surface. Top-notch build quality At just 8.5mm thin with a starting weight of 767 grams, the new Surface Pro feels extremely portable. You can carry it around in a small sling bag, use it in a tablet mode to watch movies or keep it on a desk in tent mode (Studio mode) for sketching or note making. As for the accessories, the Surface Pen can be snapped on the side magnetic surface. A magnetic connector is also provided at the bottom for the Type Cover. The build quality is top-notch and the whole device feels rock solid and premium. Overall, the Surface Pro 2018 comes out as the most polished 2-in-1 from the house of Microsoft. It is just perfect for users who seek extreme portability without comprising on performance. Display: 12.3-inch PixelSense touch display Microsoft Surface Pro (2018) features a high-resolution 12.3-inch PixelSense touch display. The screen supports the new Surface Pen, which is touted as the fastest pen ever. Notably, the display comes in a 3:2 form factor, a trend started by Microsoft with the third generation Surface Pro machines. The unconventional aspect ratio can be useful and disappointing at the same time. For instance, the 3:2 aspect ratio is excellent for browsing web pages, reading and writing stories on MS Word and to create PPTs and Excel sheets. Moreover, the form factor also works very well while using the stylus for sketching in both landscape and portrait mode. When it comes to movie-watching, the 16:9 aspect ratio offers a better viewing experience due to content availability. Personally, I believe that the 3:2 aspect ratio is more useful. It offers better overall viewing experience and usable space on portable machines like the Surface Pro (2018). As for the display, performance is concerned, the screen has impressive viewing angles and color reproduction is also good. Videos look impressive but you have to deal with some black bars at the top and bottom. Performance Microsoft Surface Pro (2018) is a powerful machine that will hardly disappoint you in everyday work routines, despite the fact that it uses last year's Intel's 7th gen. chipsets. I mostly used it for typing documents, creating PPTs, video playback and browsing web pages on Google Chrome. I did not want to keep a tag on how many tabs were opened at a particular time, and unsurprisingly, the 2-in-1 worked without any performance issues. The Surface Pro (2018) is not a hard-core gaming machine for sure, but you can still play a variety of games to refresh your mind from heavy work tasks, which are addressed wonderfully by this portable machine. My unit ran on Intel Corei5-7300U processor. There's 8GB of RAM and a 256GB PCIe SSD. You will also get a one-year subscription to Office 365. The review unit also came installed with Intel HD Graphics 620 and ran on the latest version of Windows 10 Pro. This particular variant is priced at Rs. 1,06,990 which is a big amount and can offer you even some more powerful machines with the latest hardware. However; it is the use case and form factor that works in favor of this machine. Last but not the least; the new Surface Pro comes in a new fanless, whisper-quiet design. The thermal performance is also improved and the 2-in-1 ran silently even during the most strenuous tasks. Keypad and other accessories The biggest letdown with the Surface Pro (2018) is the high-price of associated accessories. The Signature Type Cover - Platinum which is a basic necessity sells at Rs. 12,999 on Amazon.in. The entire keyboard is wrapped in soft Alcantara material and is available in Platinum and Black color options. The new Surface Pro Signature type cover offers 1.3 mm of key travel for faster and more accurate typing. Typing is smooth and comfortable and the learning curve is very short. It also packs in a full-size glass trackpad with five-finger multi-touch capabilities that allows for smooth and precised input; however, it feels very stiff. The type cover sticks firmly with the help of magnetic connectors placed at the bottom. It helps you use the tablet as a full-fledged Windows-based PC. All of his sounds good, but still not entirely justifiable for the price-point. Improved Surface Pen Next in the list is Surface Pen which is also a must buy accessory if your purpose of buying the new Surface Pro is to sketch and scribble on digital apps. The Pen is very precise and works efficiently on the crisp 12.3-inch PixelSense touch display. The Pen comes with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity for increased accuracy and responsiveness. It also works as an eraser. The Surface Pen is a great tool to work on apps like Microsoft Whiteboard app. Sadly, you have to spend an extra Rs. 7,999 to buy the Surface Pen, which once again seems like a tough decision. The Surface Pen will be available in Silver and Charcoal colors. Surface Arc Mouse The list ends with the Surface Arc Mouse, which is an example of thoughtful engineering that can only be accomplished by a brand like Microsoft which has decades of hardware expertise. The new peripheral looks and feels futuristic and is a great navigating device for the new Surface Pro. When not in use, the arc mouse lays completely flat in shape and that means the Bluetooth chip is disabled. Fold the device in an arc shape to enable the Bluetooth to navigate throughout the Surface Pro. The mouse offers an ergonomic grip and feels amazing in the palm. While I truly loved the new mouse; the pricing is a big issue. It costs a bomb and is priced at Rs. 6,399. The new Surface Pro and accessories are available for retail purchase in India in online Microsoft stores (Amazon and Flipkart) as well as Croma, Reliance, Vijay Sales, and other authorized retailers in India. Port and Connectivity As far as connectivity is concerned, the new Surface Pro is pretty restricted. It offers just one USB 3.0 port and a Mini DisplayPort video output. There's no USB Type-C port on this pricey machine, which is a big letdown. Thankfully, Microsoft has included a microSD card slot underneath the kickstand. Besides the hardware ports, you get Bluetooth 4.1 and Wi-Fi 802.11ac Battery Backup Microsoft has managed to pack in a bigger battery (20 % larger) unit in the same form factor, which is remarkable. As per the tech giant, the new Surface Pro offers a battery life of up to 13.5 hours on one single charge. I was not able to use it on a stretch; however depending upon my usage, I can say that the battery lasted for approximate 10 hours and even more, which is quite satisfactory and will please consumers who are always using machines on-the-go. Pricing and Availability Surface Pro Configurations Intel Core TM m3, 128 GB SSD, 4GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics 615 : 64,999 m3, 128 GB SSD, 4GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics 615 : 64,999 Intel Core TM i5, 128 GB SSD, 4GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics 620 : 79,999 i5, 128 GB SSD, 4GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics 620 : 79,999 Intel Core TM i5, 256 GB SSD, 8GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics 620 : 106,999 i5, 256 GB SSD, 8GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics 620 : 106,999 Intel Core TM i7, 256 GB SSD, 8GB RAM, Intel IrisTM Plus Graphics 640 : 133,999 i7, 256 GB SSD, 8GB RAM, Intel IrisTM Plus Graphics 640 : 133,999 Intel CoreTM i7, 512 GB SSD, 16GB RAM, Intel IrisTM Plus Graphics 640 : 182,999 Verdict Designed to deliver the versatility of a laptop in the form-factor of a tablet, the 5th gen. Microsoft Surface Pro is a wonderful 2-in-1 Windows machine. It is powerful and extremely portable, a combination which is rare and is very much desired by the today's mobile workforce. The only problem is the hefty price tag of the tablet and the accessories that are required to achieve the unmatched Surface ecosystem. At a comparable price point (depending upon the variant you choose), you can get equally and even more powerful Windows-based machines from Dell, Lenovo, and Asus. It is a tough decision that only you have to make. However, rest assured that you will experience the best-in-class detachable experience from the new Surface pro due to its world-class engineering and power-packed performance in the 2-in-1 segment. China Using Fake LinkedIn Accounts to Recruit Americans as Spies - Reports Sputnik News 16:48 31.08.2018(updated 16:51 31.08.2018) WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Chinese spy agencies are using fake Linkedin accounts to recruit Americans with access to government and commercial secrets, a senior US intelligence official said in an interview. Intelligence and law enforcement officials in the United States have warned LinkedIn about the "super aggressive" campaign, which involves contacting thousands of Americans at a time, Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center William Evanina told Reuters in an exclusive interview. The official would not comment on how successful China's efforts were, and would not reveal how many Americans may have been contacted since the start of the campaign. But Evanina did identify one person who he said was recruited through the effort, Kevin Mallory, a retired CIA officer who in June was convicted of conspiring to commit espionage for China. Evanina told Reuters that Mallory was contacted by Chinese spies via LinkedIn in 2017 before he agreed to sell China-US defense secrets to Beijing. Evanina suggested that LinkedIn should pursue steps similar to those taken by Twitter and Facebook, which have both recently purged scores of accounts that they claim are linked to Russian and Iranian intelligence agencies. He accused other countries including Russia, Iran and North Korea of using LinkedIn for espionage recruitment, but said China's efforts in this regard are the most prolific and pose the greatest threat. LinkedIn's Head of Trust and Safety Paul Rockwell confirmed that US law enforcement agencies have contacted the company about the spying campaign. Rockwell said LinkedIn was doing everything it could to identify individuals involved in the campaign and remove those accounts. When contacted by Reuters, China's Foreign Ministry disputed Evanina's accusations, calling them "complete nonsense" and based on "ulterior motives," according to the report. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browser Maritime Pre-positioning Ships Squadron Conducts Group Sail with Guam Units Aug. 31, 2018 By Military Sealift Command Far East, Maritime Prepositioning Ships Squadron Three PACIFIC OCEAN -- Maritime Pre-positioning Ships Squadron Three successfully conducted its third multiship training exercise, Group Sail, Aug. 19-24, off the coast of Saipan, the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam. Although this was the third Group Sail exercise, this was the first time many of the ship's captains and their crew participated in an event of this scale. Group Sail spanned five days and included seven pre-positioning ships -- USNS 1st Lt. Jack Lummus, USNS Dahl, USNS 2nd Lt. John P. Bobo, USNS John Glenn, USNS Sacagawea, USNS Pililaau and MV Capt. David I. Lyon. The schedule focused on the skill sets necessary to ensure the safety and security of the Military Sealift Command's assets. To improve crew proficiency, the squadron rehearsed formation steaming, emissions control drills, flashing light communications, torpedo evasion and maneuvering tactics, mine avoidance and anti-submarine tactics. The staff had an added bonus of conducting storm-avoidance procedures as the initial schedule had to be amended due to bad weather and Typhoon Cimaron. The training event offered the opportunity to exercise with several units in Guam. These joint exercises included the participation of Helicopter Squadron 25, Special Boat Team 12 from Naval Special Warfare Unit 1 and rigid-hulled inflatable boats from Pacific Missile Range Facility. Medevac exercises and boat operations with these units provided scale and value, rarely seen in typical training evolutions. 'Rare, Invaluable' Training Opportunity "Training with an actual formation and target representative opposition forces in a restricted water environment is a rare and invaluable opportunity for our pilots and aircrew," said Navy Lt. Adam Shields, assistant training officer, Helicopter Squadron 25. "MPSRON 3's willingness to build this high fidelity, realistic training makes HSC-25 better prepared to meet the demanding requirements in our area of responsibility." Throughout day and night simulated strait transits off the coast of Guam, Helicopter Squadron 25 provided overwatch to the MPSRON squadron while small craft from Special Boat Team 12 and Pacific Missile Range Facility engaged in harassment tactics. The Group Sail exercise culminated in a ship group photo assisted by HSC-25. "As the newest member of the staff I really didn't know what to expect," said Navy Lt. j.g. Brian Lasley, supply officer in MPSRON 3. "This was my first Group Sail event, and I was excited to see what our ships could do. I was truly impressed by the ship handling and communications between the staff and the mariners on watch on USNS Bobo. Having the captain on the bridge during the evolutions was a great chance to witness a glimpse of the inner workings of what it takes to command a vessel as large as the John P. Bobo." Transporting Vital Equipment, Supplies MPSRON 3 operates in the Western Pacific under the command of Navy Capt. Eric Lindfors and maintains tactical control of 16 ships carrying afloat pre-positioned U.S. military cargo for the Marine Corps, the Army, and the Air Force. The squadron's mission is to provide swift and effective transportation of vital equipment and supplies for designated operations. "I am very proud of the teamwork and professionalism exhibited by all participants during challenging conditions brought on by Typhoon Cimaron. The training that was completed focused on our core capabilities that must be continually maintained up to high-end tactics for coordinated defense of these global and strategic assets," said Lindfors, who also carries the distinction of commodore for MPSRON 3. "We could have not completed our requirements without the phenomenal support from HSC-25, SBT 12 and PMRF," he added. "I look forward to our next event and building on what we have learned and how we can include several other local Guam commands so we can further improve the training." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Network modernization: Innovation in a time of unprecedented opportunity By Lt. Gen. Bruce T. Crawford August 31, 2018 WASHINGTON -- It has been well-documented that advances in technology will heavily influence the character of future warfare. Artificial intelligence, information technology, advanced robotics, more efficient and automated uses of available spectrum, and the ability to leverage investments by commercial industry in low-earth-orbit meshed satellite constellations have the ability to be game-changers in the way we fight. A TIME FOR INTROSPECTION During the past year, the Army has been on an introspective, intellectual journey to modernize its networks. This effort is clearly the largest of its kind in over 30 years. To put this in perspective, the last time the Army took on a task of this magnitude, the internet was just beginning to take shape, there was no cybersecurity, software-defined capabilities existed only in laboratories, and the intent and capability of peer adversaries as threats to our networks were virtually unknown. After a year of assessment, the Army concluded that its current network does not meet the requirements of operational commanders in a highly contested and congested environment against a near-peer adversary. After 16 years in a static, uncontested environment, given the evolution of the threat and advancements in technologies, it is clear that the time for redirection is now. The Army also concluded that its existing network is too complex, too fragile, and insufficiently mobile. It lacks scalability and is not expeditionary or interoperable with joint and interagency partners. Further, in its current state, the Army is not postured to acquire and rapidly integrate new technologies in a reasonable time frame or at a reasonable cost. And last but certainly not least, the Army concluded that it is likely entering a state of "perpetual innovation," a cascading series of future states that will be defined by consistent, disciplined innovation instead of an institutional mindset of modernizing toward a defined end state. HOW IS THIS EFFORT DIFFERENT? The ongoing modernization effort is not limited to the tactical network. The Army is also developing plans to modernize its enterprise and intelligence networks and continue to build on the great work that is already in progress with its business mission area systems to further enhance warfighting capability. The enterprise mission area includes capabilities that support hybrid cloud hosting capacity, post, camp, and station infrastructure, and core enterprise services and reduce the cyberattack surface by regionalizing cybersecurity support concepts. The business mission area supports network capabilities aligning human resources, logistics, acquisition, and financial services. The intelligence mission area supports specific network capabilities to enable the collection, analysis, production and distribution of intelligence. What makes this effort different from past attempts to modernize Army networks is this effort takes on an institutional reform approach (from requirements to resourcing) instead of focusing solely on technology. It also represents a fundamental change in the approach toward modernization because it is threat-informed and it institutes experimentation and demonstrations by actual units that take into account feedback from Soldiers, operational commanders, and the Army's combat training centers, which are the closest thing to actual combat. This network modernization effort is intently informed by a congressionally mandated Institute for Defense Analyses study of Army networks and an assessment of strategy from the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation. ENABLING THE ARMY'S NEW VISION The new Army Vision laid out by the Secretary of the Army challenges us all to "build the Army of 2028 that is ready to deploy, fight and win decisively against any adversary, anytime, anywhere, in a joint, multi-domain, high intensity conflict, while simultaneously deterring others and maintaining our ability to conduct irregular warfare." Given the current and future reliance on technology, we must posture ourselves now to deliver the network required to make this vision a reality. PRIORITY NETWORK MODERNIZATION EFFORTS Over the past 12 months, the Army has invested quite a bit of intellectual energy outlining the characteristics, requirements, and attributes of its future state networks. In the near term, it is taking several tangible actions to make this vision a reality. Those actions include halting programs that do not meet the objective state and the needs of operational commanders and reinvesting those resources to fix capability gaps that enhance readiness, increase lethality, and enable the Army to fight and win against peer adversaries. Additionally, the Army is pivoting to a more agile acquisition process of "find-try-adapt and buy" to leverage technology investments of commercial and defense industries quickly. These three pillars are all designed to keep pace with technological developments, stay ahead of current and emerging threats, and enable readiness in our formations as a part of the joint team. These are the Army's priority focus areas: Developing a common operational environment. Consolidating 19 disparate battle command systems into a handheld, mobile, command post computing platform. Unifying all transport capabilities into a seamless standards-based architecture. Enhancing the mobility and survivability of our command posts from the enterprise level to the tactical level. Increasing joint and coalition interoperability. The result of this modernization will be a network that successfully enables the Army to continue to "fight tonight" while simultaneously projecting the network it needs for the future. PEOPLE AND PROCESSES Delivering the network the Army needs to fight and win demands institutional reform. This effort is also about identifying and overcoming challenges that hinder innovation and, ultimately, the ability to make Soldiers more lethal in preparing for and conducting war. The Army has taken an introspective look, acknowledged potential risks, and set forth a course correction to ensure continual strides to help foster a culture of innovation. RETAIN, GROW, AND RECRUIT THE WORKFORCE The Army's greatest asset is its people. The workforce continues to be critical to maintaining our advantage, and the Army will continue to focus on grooming its current IT workforce while simultaneously looking at ways to recruit the right talent to renew the force. As the Army's IT network transforms to defend against emerging threats, the skill sets of the IT workforce must transform and adapt to new technology. While emerging technologies have great potential to enhance the Army's posture and readiness, they also bring changes to IT roles and the skill sets required for the workforce. Efforts are currently underway to infuse the anticipated skill sets of the future into training and development opportunities for the workforce. ENCOURAGE AND INCENTIVIZE CREATIVITY Innovation will come from our Soldiers. Their ingenuity and creativity in engineering solutions should not be suppressed. Soldiers should always feel empowered and have a say in applying creative approaches from the field. No problem is insurmountable when an environment of experimentation and exploration of new ideas is encouraged. This bottom-up (versus top-down) approach to creativity will continue to be cultivated to yield exponentially more innovative and viable solutions. IDENTIFY AND RAPIDLY ADDRESS PROHIBITIVE POLICY Although several policy reform efforts are underway, the priority IT-related reform effort is optimizing the risk management framework. RMF a process that requires some major adaptation to best support current and future technological integration. RMF describes the process that communications systems (from all services) must undergo to identify cybersecurity vulnerabilities, assess risk, and achieve authorities to connect new technologies to networks. In its current state, this process impedes the rapid integration of new technologies. The Army must pivot to a more agile implementation of RMF that moves from a focus on compliance to a more "risk-based," rapid integration mindset in order to maintain competitive advantage against peer adversaries. Modernizing the Army's networks is critical to maintaining overmatch against increasingly evolving peer adversaries around the globe. The implementation of the network modernization strategy is tangible evidence of the Army's commitment to be ready to deploy, fight, and win decisively against any adversary, anytime and anywhere. -------------------- Lt. Gen. Bruce T. Crawford is the Army chief information officer/G-6. He has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from South Carolina State University, a master's degree in administration from Central Michigan University, and a master's degree in National Resource Strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. -------------------- This article was published in the September-October 2018 issue of Army Sustainment. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Safer, smarter, faster: An interview with Gen. James McConville By Arpi Dilanian and Matthew Howard August 31, 2018 WASHINGTON -- Since assuming duties as the 36th Vice Chief of Staff of the Army in 2017, Gen. James C. McConville has focused on meeting the Secretary of the Army's and Chief of Staff of the Army's readiness and modernization priorities. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, McConville is a master aviator and most recently served as the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1. In this interview, McConville shares his impressions on the impact the Army's new era of modernization will have on the logistics community. Q: How are you working to change culture and embrace modernization and the establishment of the new Army Futures Command? A: I don't think it's hard to change the culture when we show we're going to get the results we need. There's no one in the Army who disagrees with our desire to develop new equipment at a reasonable price in a timely manner. I think we all share the same goals; it's just a matter of how we get there. We have had to change the system because most of our processes in the Army -- and the military in general -- are from the industrial age. They tend to be very linear. With how quickly technology is moving in the civilian sector, we have to change our processes and the way we do business so we can field these systems in the time frame we need to be ready for combat. That's why we're going down this road. I'm blessed to work very closely with Under Secretary [of the Army] Ryan McCarthy on this. He comes to the Army with broad experience and a unique skill set to help us develop these systems. Together, we synchronize the Secretary [of the Army] and the uniformed members of the Army Staff so we're all collaborating and all sharing the same vision as we go forward. Q: How important is innovation and modernization for building readiness? A: It's extremely important, especially when it comes to logistics. When we look at modernization, some things are going to change and some things are not. When we talk about logistics, we're still going to need to feed Soldiers; we're still going to need to fuel and arm vehicles and helicopters; and we're still going to need to get critical parts to units on the battlefield. What is going to change is how we do that. We talk about modernization and innovation, and we can take some cues right now from the civilian sector. We're starting to see autonomous vehicles moving around the country conducting logistics, both in the air and on the ground. We're seeing additive manufacturing where we can actually make parts at the point of need, saving a lot of time that would have been required to get them delivered. We're going to see artificial intelligence involved in helping us with condition-based maintenance, so we know ahead of time when parts will need to be replaced, rather than waiting until they fail or changing them based solely on hours in use. Technology is going to save us a lot of time. While innovation and modernization are certainly going to change the way we do logistics on the battlefield, it's not going to change the criticality of sustaining our units while they're in combat -- I want to make sure our logisticians understand just how important they are on the battlefield. One of my first jobs in the Army was the support platoon leader for the 2nd Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, and I learned very quickly how important logisticians are for any unit type. Without my support platoon delivering food, Soldiers would not eat. Without my support platoon delivering fuel, vehicles would not move. Without ammunition, none of those weapon systems would shoot. Without repair parts, there'd be a whole bunch of helicopters that were just expensive paperweights. Logisticians play a critical role on the battlefield, and they will continue to do so in the future. Q: How will the Futures Command use technology and industry partnerships to modernize faster? A: We have major corporations, like Amazon, that do logistics in ways we can learn from. How are they using robots to help complete tasks much quicker and more efficiently? How are they using autonomous vehicles to deliver products or supplies? By studying their operations, we can see, for example, the potential for taking Soldiers out of dangerous areas on the battlefield by using autonomous ground and air vehicles as we go forward. So we're looking at what industry is doing, compared to what we want to do. Then we're evaluating their technology to see where we can apply it as a military solution. Q: You have three children serving in the military. They are using some of the same equipment you used as a young officer. Can you discuss how the Futures Command will affect Soldiers at the tactical level? A: We have six Army modernization priorities: long-range precision fires, next generation combat vehicles, future vertical lift, the Army network, air and missile defense, and Soldier lethality. Within each of these priorities, we have two or three major programs that are going to fundamentally change the Army. When my generation came into the Army, we had what we called the big five: the Abrams, Bradley, Apache, Black Hawk, and the Patriot. They've been around for quite a while, and we haven't fielded a new major combat system in decades. With the Futures Command, our kids and their kids are going to see brand new systems coming into the inventory over the next three to eight years. Development and acquisition timelines will be shorter and faster. Within each of the modernization priorities, one of the things we've done is set up cross-functional teams. We're bringing together the operators, the sustainers, and the Acquisition Corps. We're having them work very closely in developing requirements. Because they're coordinating so closely, it will cut years from the time it actually takes to produce requirements. It's also paying dividends with some of the systems that have recently gone into the acquisition phase. The fact that we're keeping the operators and acquisition professionals together throughout the process is allowing us to get a product that the operators want and that acquisition professionals can acquire in a timely manner. Q: As the senior mentor for the Future Vertical Lift Cross-Functional Team, what have you done to ensure sustainment is incorporated? A: Sustainment is extremely important, especially when it comes to helicopters and rotary-wing aircraft. Again, if we can't maintain them, they just be-come expensive paperweights. We want to make sure future systems are reliable and we've put processes in place to make them easy to maintain by crew chiefs and mechanics. Whether it's the engine or the transmission, we're thinking about how it's going to be maintained as we're actually developing the system. What type of tools does it take? How can the crew chiefs get in there and actually fix the helicopter if it becomes broken? Moreover, a lot of weapon systems are almost massive computers when you really look at them. With our aircraft, they may have a rotor system on them, but what really gives us the edge is the information technology systems that are inside. Crew chiefs and mechanics are also going to need the training that allows them to maintain these very sophisticated pieces of equipment. We're also looking at how we can innovate the sustainment plan through capabilities like additive manufacturing. How can we reduce the time we would normally wait for a repair part? Are there parts we can 3-D print so we don't have to go back to a logistics hub and then bring those parts forward? All of these aspects are critical to the development of the system, and that's why we have sustainment professionals on the cross-functional teams providing input as we go forward. Q: What is the most important thing young Soldiers need to know as the Army modernizes? A: Soldiers need to know that we're going to modernize and we're going to get new equipment. But at the end of the day, it's about the Army's Soldiers. They are the most important weapon system. There will always be a Soldier in the loop in anything we do. The technology is there to help them do their jobs, not to replace them. Soldiers are our most important asset. -------------------- Arpi Dilanian is a strategic analyst in the Army G-4's Logistics Initiatives Group. She holds a bachelor's degree from American University and a master's degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Matthew Howard is a strategic analyst in the Army G-4's Logistics Initiatives Group. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Georgetown University. -------------------- This article was published in the September-October 2018 issue of Army Sustainment Magazine. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Modernizing at the speed of relevance: An interview with Under Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy By Arpi Dilanian and Matthew Howard August 31, 2018 WASHINGTON -- As the 33rd Under Secretary of the Army, Ryan D. McCarthy is leading the way in building readiness for the future. Between his experiences as a proven industry leader and his proud service as an Army Ranger, McCarthy is now transforming the way the Army does business. Army Sustainment Magazine sat down with him to discuss the new Army Futures Command and the role sustainment will play in the Army's modernization efforts. Q: Why is it time for the Army Futures Command? A: If you look at the past 17 years of conflict, in large measure the Army invested against irregular warfare and counterinsurgency-type combat operations. We've focused on this significant national security challenge that our country faces, and these asymmetric threats will probably be ongoing for the rest of my life. But during that same time period, near-peer competitors have made significant strides in the growth of their economies and their military modernization. When you look at it from that standpoint, there's a balance we need to achieve to deal with different threats. Considering the speed at which technology is moving in the world today, we have an industrial age model of how we do business. We're slow, and we have a lot of people weighing in on decisions. Our authorities and responsibilities are spread out across all of our major commands, and we don't have formalized relationships. This leads to incremental growth, and it's hard to get business done. With the speed of innovation in the world, we can't keep pace with vendors and then scale a concept to an institution the size of a country. We have to get faster. How do you get business done? You know people. You know what their equities are, what's important to them, and how to get things moving. If you look at the way we've organized the Futures Command, a lot of it is fusing people together so they have formal relationships and greater collaboration and can move information faster to get an outcome quicker. It's all about better rigor, better relationships, better ideas, and getting them faster. From this macro standpoint of where the world is shifting, we recognize that a change in the Army's business model is essential to continuing to evolve with threats the same way we have for 243 years. Q: What is the end goal for the Army Futures Command? A: If you look at the way we do materiel development design, bringing all of those capabilities under one roof is the ultimate end state. We want signature systems to be designed according to the Chief's [Chief of Staff of the Army's] priorities in a relevant time frame. So bringing these capabilities together to have the maximum utility of every investment and simplification in the interpretation of requirements is the outcome we're looking for. How are we doing from that standpoint? The foundational elements of the command will be the Army Capabilities Integration Center and the Research, Development and Engineering Command. We're in the process of developing the policy guidance and execution order to start moving those organizations together. We've also announced the key subcommand elements of the Futures Command: Futures and Concepts, Combat Development, and Combat Systems. The cross-functional teams (CFTs) that we stood up last fall fold in underneath these three command elements, and the combat systems and program managers are already assigned to those CFTs. We picked Austin as the location for the command group of the Futures Command headquarters. All these pieces will be coming to a head as we reach initial operational capability. Q: How are the secretariat and the Department of the Army staff working together on this effort? A: I've been blessed to have a wonderful partner in Gen. James McConville. It's kind of like the heavens parted that I get him as my wingman given the unique characteristics of the operational roles he's had. He's had six years on the Army staff, and he's the longest serving division commander in the history of the Army. He did more than three years with the 101st [Airborne Division]. Because he and I talk so many times every day -- he's one of the last people I talk to before I go to bed at night -- we are linked shoulder to shoulder in bringing the strength of the secretariat and Army staff together. Whether we are at investment meetings with CFTs or working on procurement decisions, having both of us there brings the strength of this Headquarters, Department of the Army, together. It moves decisions faster and provides succinct guidance that is heard at one place and time, as well as moves the delegations of authorities and resources more quickly. Q: Can you discuss the importance of partnering with industry to leverage private-sector innovation? A: That's one of the foundational elements of what Futures Command will do for us. We look to industry to solve problems and bring us solutions. I try to meet with industry leaders as much as possible so I understand where technologies are going. The Secretary of the Army Dr. Mark Esper, in particular, has a program where we bring in senior industry officials every week to meet with the Army's senior leaders, and we're starting to see the dividends of those investments. For companies that are vendors for us, managing those relationships helps them understand what we want out of a product or a service. Henry Stimson, Secretary of War during World War II, once said, "If you are going to try to go to war, in a capitalist country, you have to let business make money out of the process or business won't work." Clearly we want them to be successful, but we have to communicate to them what exactly we want. And we have to be consistent so they can invest in their products and services, allow them to evolve, and bring the cost down. As my old boss, [former] Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, used to say, relationships are the grease that runs our government. It is a relationship of push and pull with industry. When you have a problem with a system, you work through that issue together. If you don't have those relationships, you can't get through the hard times together. Q: How important is sustainment to the Army's modernization efforts? A: Sustainment is a key performance parameter with every investment we make. You go into a death spiral with a weapon system if you can't sustain its performance and absorb the cost in the out-years. For every decision we make, I make sure the sustainment is addressed. It's a variable you have to solve or you won't get an investment dollar out of me. One of the things that has been unique in standing up the Futures Command is the major commands (the Training and Doctrine Command, the Forces Command, and the Army Materiel Command) have played instrumental roles in mentoring CFTs. Gen. Gus Perna's leadership, for example, is ensuring the sustainment community is integrated into every CFT. For every weapon system we're designing, one of the main things we're looking at in our key performance parameters is the life-cycle management. Getting a life-cycle plan in place that's not only cost-efficient for managing and upgrading these systems over time, but also keeps operational rates up, is absolutely critical. Gen. Perna has helped each of the CFT leaders really think through the long-term investment of these weapons systems. So often in the Department of Defense we don't get it right. And it's not just the Army; it's everybody because we're all focused on performance. But if you can't move it and you can't sustain it, it's not going to help you very much. Gen. Perna has gotten those CFT leaders to think very differently about the problem set. These qualified, post-brigade command officers are now coming in and talking about how they're going to lay in their sustainment plans over time, and it really shows the culture is changing. Q: As new technologies are fielded, how do you foresee logistics evolving? A: As the Army modernizes, we can't become so overly sophisticated that we can't move. It's that simple. Speed is a key variable and characteristic of being successful in combat, and we will lose that if we become too heavy and too complex. Three initiatives come to mind. The first initiative is Army pre-positioned stocks. We have made demonstrable gains in laying these equipment sets worldwide and configuring them for combat. Having those pre-positioned capabilities will increase the flow of moving assets and personnel for contingency operations. The second is additive manufacturing. I recently toured facilities at Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, where the Army Materiel Command is championing this initiative. Additive manufacturing will fundamentally change how we do business by reducing the cost of the parts, improving equipment on-hand, and potentially bringing down the weight of both the repair parts we're shipping worldwide and our weapon systems as a whole. It is a game-changing capability that can get our systems back up and running within hours as opposed to weeks or months. I'm very excited about this and want to help as much as I can. The third, and really the foremost, are the fundamentals. It's all about blocking and tackling -- looking at equipment on hand and really focusing in on the parts. It's not glamorous, but it's got teeth. And that's really the difference in keeping Abrams and Bradleys up and running so units can have high operational rates with their key weapons systems. Q: You've served at both the tactical and strategic levels. What advice do you have for Soldiers coming into the Army today? A: Study your profession. This was the same advice I was given when I was about to go on Active Duty. Really make every hour count to prepare yourself for getting that awesome responsibility of becoming a platoon leader when you're 22 or 23 years old. Use every opportunity you have to prepare yourself and to learn about your profession. And listen to your noncommissioned officers. My father, who was an enlist-ed Soldier during the Vietnam War, gave me that advice. Your noncommissioned officers are the ones who will get you through the longest days of your life. -------------------- Arpi Dilanian is a strategic analyst in the Army G-4's Logistics Initiatives Group. She holds a bachelor's degree from American University and a master's degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Matthew Howard is a strategic analyst in the Army G-4's Logistics Initiatives Group. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Georgetown University. -------------------- This article was published in the September-October 2018 issue of Army Sustainment. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address U.S. Department of Defense Press Operations News Release No. NR-253-18 August 31, 2018 Readout of Secretary of Defense Middle East Security Roundtable Discussion Pentagon Chief Spokesperson Dana W. White provided the following readout: Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis and State Department officials hosted a Regional Security Roundtable at the Pentagon August 29 with representatives from the Gulf Cooperation Council states (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman), Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco. The Secretary discussed a broad range of security issues with the diplomatic and defense officials, and the Secretary thanked the group for their regional leadership and years of close cooperation with the United States. The representatives discussed working together against common security challenges, and agreed to reconvene in the coming months to continue discussions on shared strategic objectives and regional challenges. http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/1617889/ NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Belgium, Canada and Germany take up NATO air policing duties NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation 31 Aug. 2018 Starting in September, Belgian and German fighter aircraft will take responsibility for patrolling the skies as part of NATO's Baltic air-policing mission. Operating out of Siauliai airbase in Lithuania, four Belgian F-16s will lead the mission, with four German Eurofighter aircraft supporting them out of Amari airbase in Estonia. The detachments replace French, Portuguese and Spanish air force units which have patrolled the Baltic region since May 2018. NATO's air policing mission in the Baltics was launched in 2004 after Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia joined the alliance. Since then, Allies have taken turns to guard the skies over Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as the three Baltic countries do not have their own fighter aircraft. "This is a clear example of Alliance solidarity in action", NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said. "In recent years, we have seen a considerable increase in Russian military air activity along the borders of NATO Allies in the region. NATO aircraft take to the skies when aircraft do not follow a flight plan or do not speak to air traffic control. We are always vigilant". Also from September, the Canadian air force will conduct air patrols alongside the Romanian Air Force over the Black Sea. The Canadian contingent replaces the a detachment of UK Royal Air Force jets which have been conducting the mission since April. During the deployment, the Royal Air Force conducted eight scrambles in response to a total of 20 Russian aircraft flying near Romanian airspace. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ronald Reagan Strike Group, JMSDF Participate in Bilateral Training Navy News Service Story Number: NNS180831-01 Release Date: 8/31/2018 12:51:00 PM By Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Codie L. Soule, Commander, Task Force 70 Public Affairs SOUTH CHINA SEA (NNS) -- The Ronald Reagan Strike Group and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, Escort Flotilla 4 Battle Group, participated in bilateral training Aug. 31 while underway in the South China Sea. During the training, units from the two maritime forces sailed in formation, participated in replenishment-at-sea training, exchanged Naval Liaison Officers and practiced maneuvering procedures. Additionally, Rear Adm. Karl O. Thomas, Commander, Task Force 70, and CTF 70 personnel visited JS Kaga to speak with JMSDF Rear Adm. Tatsuya Fukuda, Commander, Escort Flotilla 4, about JMSDF and U.S. Navy interoperability and maritime unit cohesion. "The teamwork and professionalism I have experienced by both CTF 70 and JMSDF sailors during this training operation has truly demonstrated how seamlessly we can integrate with our Japanese allies," said Thomas. "Training with Escort Flotilla 4 was a fantastic opportunity to bring together our strike group with the JMSDF battle group and further the interoperability we have been building for years between our forces." Ronald Reagan Strike Group units included in the bilateral training were the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG 54) and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Milius (DDG 69). Escort Flotilla 4 Battle Group units included the helicopter destroyer JS Kaga (DDH 184), the Murasame-class destroyer JS Inazuma (DD 105) and the Akizuki-class destroyer JS Suzutsuki (DD 117). The Ronald Reagan Strike Group is forward-deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations in support of security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Indian court delays ruling on Kashmir autonomous rights Iran Press TV Fri Aug 31, 2018 05:31PM India's Supreme Court has delayed a ruling on Kashmir's autonomous rights until at least January. On Friday, the Supreme Court was supposed to hold a hearing on the possible removal of an article in the constitution which bans Indians from outside Kashmir from buying land in the territory. The tribunal delayed the ruling after attorneys for the Indian government and Kashmir urged a postponement until after local elections set to be held in October and November. The postponement also coincides with a time of tensions in the Himalayan region. Local residents went on general strike called by independence leaders for a second day on Friday to show anger at the attempt to annul the 1954 constitutional provision. The general strike and partial curfew which was imposed in the main city of Srinagar brought the region to a standstill. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants to end Jammu and Kashmir's special status, arguing that it is an obstacle to outside investment. Syed Ali Geelani, a top pro-independence leader, said the legal challenge against the special privileges was a bid by India's Hindu nationalist government to alter Kashmir's religious make-up. Reports said pro-independence fighters had kidnapped 11 relatives of police in the restive region. Police said the 11 family members were kidnapped from villages across southern Kashmir late Thursday in an apparent retaliatory attack. The kidnapping came after two families of pro-independence leaders said government forces had set their homes ablaze during night raids. They said relatives of known pro-independence leaders had been arrested. Tensions are high in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where the Muslim-majority population stages regular protests against the Indian rule, demanding autonomy from New Delhi or a merger with Pakistan. Armed battles between Indian forces and militants over the years have killed nearly 70,000 people, mostly civilians. Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan but claimed in full by both since the two partitioned and gained independence from Britain in 1947. The two countries have fought three wars over the disputed territory. Despite a ceasefire agreement that was reached in November 2003, sporadic skirmishes continue in Kashmir. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Saudi Arabia to turn Qatar into island by digging new canal Iran Press TV Fri Aug 31, 2018 03:24PM A high-ranking Saudi official says his country is seriously considering constructing a canal that would turn tiny neighbor Qatar into an island, amid the ongoing Saudi-led diplomatic and trade boycott against the energy-rich Persian Gulf kingdom. "As a citizen, I am impatiently waiting for the details of the implementation of the East Salwa island project. This great and historic project will change the region's geography," Saud al-Qahtani, a senior adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, wrote on his Twitter page on Friday. The project had been first floated in Saudi media in April, when the Arabic-language online newspaper Sabq reported that the 60 kilometers (37 mile) by 200 meters canal would be 20 meters deep, and that the waterway would be built at least 0.6 miles from the border with Qatar The canal would include a tourist resort and a nuclear waste dump in addition to a military base. The cost of the project was estimated at 2.8 billion Saudi riyals (roughly $745 million). The Makkah newspaper published a report in June that Riyadh was moving ahead with the plans, and five international companies had been invited to bid for the project, with a winner to be announced in September. This is while several analysts have cast doubts on the ambitious idea. Ali Shihabi, founder of the Washington-based Arabia Foundation, said the Salwa Channel reports were probably psychological warfare. "If you create a canal, you do Qatar a favor because you create a 'moat' to protect them when now their land borders are fully exposed to Saudi Arabia," Shihabi said. Andreas Krieg, an assistant professor in defense studies at King's College in London, also said Qatar itself had earlier proposed the idea of building a canal, but decided to abandon it because of the high costs entailed. Krieg noted that it would be unlikely for Saudi Arabia which is "financially struggling" to "spend that money on a PR stunt." Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt all cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar on June 5 last year, after officially accusing it of "sponsoring terrorism." The administration of the Saudi-backed and former Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, Libya, the Maldives, Djibouti, Senegal and the Comoros later joined the camp in ending diplomatic ties with Doha. Jordan downgraded its diplomatic relations as well. Qatar's Foreign Ministry later announced that the decision to cut diplomatic ties was unjustified and based on false claims and assumptions. On June 9, 2017, Qatar strongly dismissed allegations of supporting terrorism after the Saudi regime and its allies blacklisted dozens of individuals and entities purportedly associated with Doha. Later that month, Saudi Arabia and its allies released a 13-point list of demands, including the closure of Al Jazeera television network and downgrade of relations with Iran, in return for the normalization of diplomatic relations with Doha. The document containing the demands by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain also asked Qatar to sever all ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement. Qatar rejected the demands as "unreasonable." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Trump administration to end US funding to UN agency that aids Palestinian refugees Iran Press TV Fri Aug 31, 2018 09:53AM The administration of US President Donald Trump has decided to cancel all US funding to the United Nations aid program for Palestinian refugees, part of a policy to impose maximum pressure on the Palestinians to satisfy Israeli interests and Zonist constituencies in the US. In an announcement to be made within the next several weeks, the Trump administration plans to express its disapproval of the way the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) spends the funds on Palestinian refugees, The Washington Post reported Thursday, citing officials familiar with the decision. The administration also plans to call for a sharp reduction in the number of Palestinians recognized as refugees, dropping it from about 5 million, including descendants, to fewer than a tenth of that number, or those still alive from when the agency was created seven decades ago, the newspaper reported. Many foreign policy and security experts, including in Israel, say that slashing UNRWA's budget, amid a call to "de-register" refugees, would worsen an already disastrous humanitarian situation, especially in Gaza. The Trump administration has already announced a steady stream of cuts in aid for Palestinians. The US State Department announced in January that would withhold $65 million of a $125 million aid installment to UNRWA. The State Department also announced last week that Washington has canceled over $200 million in funds for the Palestinian Authority, leading Palestinian officials to denounce the move as "blackmail." Earlier this month, the American magazine Foreign Policy obtained emails written by Jared Kushner, Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law, to senior US officials in which he pressured Jordan to remove the refugee status of millions of Palestinians in a bid to disrupt UNRWA's work. The US-Palestine ties deteriorated last December, when Trump declared Jerusalem al-Quds as the "capital" of Israel and announced plans to transfer the embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied city. The contentious move led Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to formally declare that the Palestinians would no longer accept the US as a mediator to resolve the conflict because Washington was "completely biased" towards Tel Aviv. Experts in the US have warned over the Trump administration's single-minded focus on satisfying the short-term goals of Israel and its supporters in the US, even at the cost of American interests. "Past US administrations were also slanted toward the Israelis, but what's different today is that the usual mitigating factors in decision-making, such as American national security interests and the desire to at least appear even-handed, no longer seem to be present," said Khaled Elgindy, a fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute n Washington. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address EU Foreign Ministers Voice Concern Over Possible Kosovo-Serbia Land Swap RFE/RL August 31, 2018 European Union foreign ministers joined Germany in expressing concerns about a possible territorial exchange between Kosovo and Serbia, warning it could reignite age-old ethnic tensions. "I don't want to lecture, but border changes have always brought new problems with them," Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl said on August 31 ahead of a ministers' meeting in Vienna. Luxembourg's top diplomat, Jean Asselborn, echoed her comments, saying, "I'm warning against cutting things into pieces." "That can have very...negative effects on other countries in this regionYou have to be very careful here," he added. Upon arrival in Vienna, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned that territorial changes "can tear open too many old wounds in the population, and so we are very skeptical at this point." The remarks came after German Chancellor Angela Merkel on August 14 warned against any border changes, saying the territorial integrity of the Western Balkan states was "sacrosanct." The EU is brokering talks between Pristina and Belgrade to settle their dispute over Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008 after a bloody war fought in the aftermath of the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Mainly ethnic Albanian Kosovo's independence left pockets of ethnic Albanians in Serbia, while ethnic Serbs are clustered in parts of Kosovo. The controversial idea of a land swap and border changes that would more closely reflect ethnic populations was suggested in August by senior government officials in Kosovo and Serbia. Kosovar President Hashim Thaci suggested a "correction of borders" that would involve unifying Serbia's southernmost Presevo Valley region with Kosovo. Ethnic Albanians form an overwhelming majority in the Presevo Valley, as well as in southern Serbia's nearby regions of Bujanovac and Medvedja. In return, some proponents have suggested Serbia would receive part of Kosovo's northern Mitrovica region with an ethnic Serb majority. Reflecting the sensitivity of the issue, the idea of a land swap is not unanimous even among leaders in the countries involved. Kosovar Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj on August 31 rejected Thaci's suggestion, saying any border changes would bring "new tragedies in the Balkans." Some in the West, however, appear to leave the door open to a potential land swap. On August 24, White House national security adviser John Bolton said that the United States would not oppose a territorial exchange -- provided Pristina and Belgrade work out a "mutually satisfactory settlement" between themselves. And Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said on August 31 in Vienna that it was up to the two countries to decide on any changes. "I believe it's up to them to establish what might be the elements of an agreement," he said. "It's not up to the European Union to provide guidelines on what should be in it. We are trying above all to support their discussions," he said. Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said only that his country is committed to finding a compromise on issues dividing the Balkan neighbors, "but we're not sure yet when it is going to happen." The countries' presidents are scheduled to meet again in Brussels on September 7 in further efforts to settle their differences, something the EU has set as a requisite to possible membership. With reporting by AP, Reuters, dpa, and AFP Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/eu-foreign-ministers- voice-concern-over-possible-kosovo -serbia-land-swap/29464112.html Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ashdown: Kosovo-Serbia Border Changes Would Please Bosnian Serbs, Putin Biljana Jovicevic, Pete Baumgartner August 31, 2018 Former EU envoy to Bosnia-Herzegovina Paddy Ashdown says a proposed land swap between Serbia and Kosovo is dangerous and could lead to other border revisions that would inflame ethnic tensions and be used by the Kremlin to justify Russian aggression against Ukraine. The warning comes amid indications that leaders in Belgrade and Pristina are willing to consider a territory swap to resolve mutual grievances over swaths with local ethnic Serb and Kosovar majorities, and with U.S. officials signaling that they won't stand in the way if Serbia and Kosovo reach a "mutually satisfactory settlement." Ashdown, who was the EU's high representative in Sarajevo from 2002-06, told RFE/RL on August 30 he was warning Western leaders and Balkan politicians that redrawing borders along ethnic lines is taking a path "fraught with danger" and could unravel fragile Balkan agreements. One day earlier, Ashdown and fellow former EU high representatives Carl Bildt and Christian Schwarz-Schilling issued an open letter urging EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini not to support a land swap. The August 29 letter says that "moving borders like this will not solve divisions, it will deepen them...and be misused by nationalist politicians to further challenge borders and destabilize other countries in the region." Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic floated a plan in early August whereby Serbia would take control of predominantly ethnic Serb areas in northern Kosovo in exchange for the majority ethnic Albanian Presevo Valley in southern Serbia. Kosovar President Hashim Thaci pledged on August 14 that he would unveil a plan "to correct the border" when he meets with Vucic in Brussels in September. Belgrade has officially refused to acknowledge Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia, which has been recognized by at least 115 countries. Both Serbia and Kosovo are bidding to join the European Union, but Brussels has made a "normalization of relations" a precondition for membership. Ashdown told RFE/RL that any agreement between Vucic and Thaci to redraw their common border would lead to "a series of events that will lead to other adjustments or claims for other adjustments of borders." He added that he thought it would also prompt a "migration of minorities" from territories "that have been passed on to the [new] government that they don't necessarily agree with" and "damage and destabilize some states, including Bosnia." Ashdown was alluding to the situation in Republika Srpska -- one of the entities that composes Bosnia -- whose president, Milorad Dodik, has hinted at his region breaking away from Bosnia. A Kosovo-Serbia land swap could also encourage others in the Balkans to seek revised borders. "I have no doubt that if Presevo, let's say, is going to be handed back to Kosovo.... then the Albanians in [the Macedonian cities of] Tetovo and Gostivar would say, 'We should be handed over to [Kosovo] as well,'" he said. "Are you going to redraw the Macedonian borders to combine the Albanian population in western Macedonia with Kosovo as well? Are you going to redraw the Hungarian-Serbian borders to cope with the area with the [ethnic Hungarian] Vojvodina? Are you going to let [the ethnically Muslim] Sandzjak [region split between Serbia and Montenegro to move] into Bosnia as well? If you want to go around creating mono-ethnic pockets in the Balkans, then you really have to redraw a lot of borders, and eventually [you] end up with ethnically pure states." Ashdown said such a move would also affect territorial and ethnic disputes far beyond the Balkans. "The one person who would be rubbing his hands with approval if this were to happen is [Russian] President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, because this is exactly what he would like to see happen in the Ukraine: solve the Ukrainian problem by handing over a chunk of the Ukraine to Russia," he said. "And here's a precedent established that [would help] him do that." Ashdown noted that Russia had so far been silent on the possibility of the Kosovo-Serbia land swap. "[The Russians] know perfectly well if they intervened to say they are in favor, it would not help it happen," he said. "But they'd be delighted if it did happen." Written by Pete Baumgartner based on an interview by RFE/RL Balkan Service correspondent Biljana Jovicevic Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ashdown- kosovo-serbia-border-changes-would-please- bosnian-serbs-putin/29464227.html Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Washington Operative Who Lobbied For Ukrainian Party Charged Mike Eckel August 31, 2018 WASHINGTON Samuel Patten, a longtime Washington operative and associate of a Russian-Ukrainian man indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, has admitted to lobbying for a Ukrainian political party and failing to register as a foreign agent. Patten's guilty plea, entered August 31 in a Washington, D.C., federal court, also included the admission that he helped the Russian-Ukrainian man, and another foreigner, illegally obtain four tickets to President Donald Trump's inauguration in January 2017 at a cost of $50,000. Patten entered the plea just hours after the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia unveiled a multicount criminal complaint against him. Earlier this week, Patten, who faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, declined an interview request from RFE/RL. The plea was the latest development to emerge from Mueller's sprawling criminal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and interactions between Russian officials and Trump's campaign chairman. The charges brought against Patten were not filed by Mueller's prosecutors but rather by the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, though they overlap with several of the issues -- and individuals -- that Mueller has been probing. According to the complaint filed in federal court, Patten worked on behalf of the Ukrainian political party Opposition Bloc between 2014 and 2018, without disclosing the work to the U.S. government as required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The complaint says that Patten worked with a person identified only as Foreigner A as part of the lobbying and political consulting business. Patten, and Foreigner A, set up a company in the United States that was paid more than $1 million to work on behalf of Opposition Bloc. The details of Foreigner A's activities match up with those of Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian-Ukrainian dual citizen whom Mueller has alleged has ties to Russian intelligence agencies. According to prosecutors, in early 2017, Foreigner A asked Patten for help in obtaining tickets for Trump's inauguration on behalf of another person, identified only as Foreigner B. Patten then worked to find an American citizen to purchase the tickets for $50,000 in total, as a way to circumvent U.S. law, which widely prohibits foreigners from contributing to political activities. Kilimnik's name first appeared in court papers publicly when he was charged by Mueller with witness tampering, along with another longtime lobbyist, Paul Manafort. Manafort, who was fired as Trump's campaign chairman in August 2016, was convicted by a federal jury in Virginia on tax and bank fraud stemming from his work between 2010 and 2014 for the pro-Russia Ukrainian political party Party of Regions and then-President Viktor Yanukovych. Manafort later did consulting work for Opposition Bloc, which was set up by former members of the Party of Regions and their financial backers after Yanukovych fled the country in February 2014 amid mass street protests. Manafort faces a second trial in September in Washington, where the charges filed by Mueller include conspiracy to defraud the United States, witness tampering, and failing to register as a foreign agent. That charge stems from Manafort's work both for the Party of the Regions but also the Opposition Bloc, now a minority party in Ukraine's parliament. At the time Mueller filed the witness-tampering charges against Manafort, he also filed similar charges against Konstantin Kilimnik, who served as Manafort's point man in Ukraine. Mueller alleged that Kilimnik has ties to Russian intelligence agencies. Kilimnik is not referred to by name in the court papers filed on August 31, which state only that Patten worked with a Russian national on political consulting, identified as Foreigner A. But the details match up with much of what is known about Kilimnik's work in Ukraine and elsewhere. The court papers charged that Patten, and Foreigner A, set up a company in the United States that was paid more than $1 million to work on behalf of Opposition Bloc. The court filing also detailed Patten's alleged work with another person, identified only as Foreigner B. Patten helped the person draft op-ed articles and get them published in U.S. media in February 2017. On February 6, 2017, the magazine U.S. News & World Report published an op-ed by Serhiy Lyovochkin, a Ukrainian parliamentary deputy with the Opposition Bloc whose payments to Manafort were detailed during Manafort's trial in Virginia. He also worked in Georgia, where he said he advised the Free Democrats, a political party headed by former Defense Minister Irakli Alasania. And he worked in Kazakhstan, where he consulted for multinational companies like Coca-Cola and Texaco and reopened the country office for the International Republican Institute, a nongovernmental civil society group that promotes democracy and elections. From 2001-04, he headed the Moscow office for the IRI, where Kilimnik worked until he was fired in 2005, when officials found he had been also working for a Kremlin-connected oligarch, Oleg Deripaska. Mueller's investigation has resulted in charges against 32 people, including Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. The investigation also led to guilty plea by Trump's longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, in a case brought by the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/washington-operative -who-lobbied-for-ukrainian-party-charged-with -foreign-agent-violation/29464212.html Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US to End UN's Palestinian Refugee Funding - State Department Sputnik News 23:11 31.08.2018(updated 23:57 31.08.2018) WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The United States will suspend its future contributions to the United Nations agency providing humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees, the Department of State said in a press release on Friday. "The Administration has carefully reviewed the issue and determined that the United States will not make additional contributions to UNRWA," the release said. Washington will instead intensify dialogue with the United Nations and several stakeholders about "new approaches" for aiding Palestinian refugees that could include direct bilateral assistance from the United States along with other partners, the release added. UNWRA is funded by voluntary contributions from UN member states, and Washington is its largest single donor of financial aid. According to UNWRA data, Washington pledged almost $365 million in 2017, with the second largest pledge of $142 million coming from the European Union. US media reported on Tuesday that Trump administration has decided to terminate financial support for the UNRWA. The US provides more than $350 million each year to UNRWA. In January, the US State Department announced that it had frozen $65 million out of the planned $125 million for the UNRWA this year. The decision came after Trump said that Palestinians lacked the willingness to hold peace talks with Israel and had no respect for the United States, despite the financial aid it provided. A Palestinian official responded to the funding cut, calling it a "flagrant assault" against the Palestinian people. He said the move only confirms that the US will not be a part of a solution to conflict in the region, Reuters reports. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address EU to Support Any Mutually Agreed Deal in Serbia-Kosovo Dispute - Mogherini Sputnik News 17:54 31.08.2018(updated 17:56 31.08.2018) VIENNA (Sputnik) - EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini refused to comment on the idea of exchanging territories between Serbia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo, noting that the main outcome of Friday's talks in Vienna was the European Union's readiness to support any mutually agreed solution based on international law. "I have seen around the table today in these days very strong support for the dialogue, for the commitment and the engagement of Vucic and Thaci in this delicate phase Next week we will continue the dialogue with Thaci and Vucic. Whatever outcome that is mutually agreed would get our support provided it is as it is being discussed currently, in line with international law and with the European Union acquis," Mogherini said at a press conference. Earlier in the day, EU foreign ministers held informal talks in the Austrian capital, focusing on the Balkans, including the border conflict between Serbia and Kosovo. In early August, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that he favored partitioning Kosovo along ethnic lines as a means of avoiding further conflicts. According to this plan, Serbia would give up its southern areas, mostly inhabited by Albanians, for Kosovo's territories where the Serbian population prevails. However, President of Kosovo Hashim Thaci rejected the idea. proclaimed its independence from Serbia in 2008, which over 100 UN member states officially recognized, while Serbia still considers Kosovo as its Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija. In 2013, the Brussels Agreement on normalizing relations between Serbia and Kosovo was signed, which marked the beginning of cooperation. The next round of negotiations between Thaci and Vucic, mediated by Mogherini, is scheduled for September 7 in Brussels. The European Union expects that an agreement between Serbia and Kosovo would be concluded by spring 2019. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address For African Countries, China Forum Provides Shot at Better Deals By Salem Solomon August 31, 2018 When African leaders meet next week in Beijing for the 2018 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, they'll strike million- and billion-dollar deals for infrastructure, business and development projects. To date, China has made more than $142 billion in loans to African countries, and this year's forum will deepen those financial ties. But U.S. politicians are ringing alarms about overreliance on Chinese financing, while analysts who study Sino-Africa relations see fresh opportunities for African leaders to negotiate deals that better serve their countries' interests. 'Power play' Earlier this month, 16 U.S. Senators sent a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo raising concerns about Chinese lending tied to global infrastructure development. Lina Benabdallah, an assistant professor of politics and international affairs at Wake Forest University, told VOA the letter captures the growing concern about China's infrastructure strategy, called the Belt and Road Initiative. "I don't think it's much about these recipient countries as it is about this power play between the U.S. and China over this global dominance kind of narrative," Benabdallah said. That's not to say concerns about Africa's deals with China aren't warranted. Many countries may face difficulties repaying loans, Benabdallah said, or have unfavorable trade deficits with the world's second-largest economy. But on the whole, China accounts for a small portion of Africa's overall debt burden, according to research published this month by the China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University. In just three cases Djibouti, The Republic of Congo and Zambia the researchers found Chinese loans are the leading contributor to debt risk. "China is part-and-parcel of the larger problem, [which is] that some of these countries are taking on too much debt," Luke Patey, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies who focuses on China's global business dealings, told VOA. Debt fear In December 2017, Sri Lanka provided a glimpse into how China might handle other debtors, including those in Africa, who can't pay China back. After Sri Lanka ran into trouble with its loans, China renegotiated the terms and forgave debt, in exchange for ownership of Hambantota Port and 15,000 acres of surrounding land in the form of a 99-year lease on the property, The New York Times reported in June. "And that's brought on some sovereignty concerns," Patey said. "There's a fear that Chinese debt is not simply an economic issue but can quickly evolve into political intervention, commercial intervention and even an increasing military presence," he added. Filling a void Chinese loans often come with preferential terms, including zero-interest financing in some cases. And the projects they're financing serve a purpose. "A lot of these infrastructure projects are much needed," Benabdallah said, and African nations haven't had other ways to take on massive projects since their economies, while growing quickly, remain relatively small. Djibouti, a country that faces a particularly worrying debt load, crystallizes the situation in Africa. "For a long time, Djibouti has been looking for this development and trying to find ways to have infrastructure projects," Benabdallah said. In China, they've found a willing partner, and Djiboutians anticipate the deals their government has struck will produce jobs and future development opportunities, she added. But there's still a need for caution across the continent, Patey said. "Many of these infrastructure projects haven't, to date, produced tremendous amounts of revenue for African governments," he said. The deals also often have stringent "economic conditions," he added. Projects must be built with Chinese labor and supplies, and often must be managed by China for several years. African agency Questions about China's lending practices at times gloss over African agency. "All of these loans have not been forced upon African governments and African leaders. They've willfully brought them in," Patey said. But the deals are often opaque, and that can feed corruption. "This is one of the key problems that Africa faces," Patey said, and it's not unique to China. Increasing transparency is one way to make financing work better for African countries. But bilateral deals also put recipient countries at a disadvantage, according to Benabdallah. Without a collective vision or formal policy for dealing with financing from China or anyone else for that matter African nations lose bargaining power and end up with less appealing terms, Benabdallah said. Along with tighter coordination, African countries also need to invest in and develop domestic firms to keep profits local, Patey said. With some of the world's fastest-growing markets, Africa is well-positioned to leverage its resources to prevent wealth from leaving. "African governments can push for better technology transfer [and] better training that builds domestic firms to be more competitive in the global economy," Patey said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Can China's Big Loans to Africa Continue? By Mohammed Yusuf August 31, 2018 Over the past decade, China has extended billions of dollars in loans to African countries, mostly for infrastructure. However, some experts say the global trade war may factor into how China uses its money. Chinese and African leaders meet every three years to discuss ways China can fund Africa's development aspirations. The next session, to begin Monday, will address the Belt and Road initiative, which aims to better connect China with the African continent. But with China engaged in a trade disagreement with the U.S., the Chinese government may be less willing to expand its financial commitment to Africa, according to Cobus van Staden, senior researcher on Africa-China relations at the South African Institute of International Affairs. At the 2015 gathering in South Africa, China pledged to loan Africa $60 billion. Chinese companies are currently building railway lines in Kenya, Nigeria and Angola, as well as roads and housing projects in South Africa. However, some Africans worry that their governments have over-borrowed, leaving their countries with huge debt. The head of the Africa Policy Institute, Peter Kagwanja, says the loans need to be directed at projects that have high economic returns. "But of course, the question is how do African countries deal with that particular debt, and China's answer, which Africa seems to be agreeing with, is that we need investments in activities that are going to produce maximally to get the investment to pay for themselves," Kagwanja said. China is accused by Western powers of supporting and funding undemocratic states and countries that do not have respect for human rights. As China's interests expand, Kagwanja says, it cannot ignore the security and political threats in Africa. "That question is critical, and it was brought on the forefront the kind of uncertainty that surrounded Kenya's political elections last year at a time when China was celebrating one year of SGR [standard gauge railway] in the country, and that uncertainty raises questions: What can China do to secure the political stability of African countries? What kind of governance systems does Africa need to adopt in order to secure a long-term basis not only investment, but long-term planning for socio-economic transformation?" Kagwanja said. The two-day forum in Beijing ends Tuesday. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China to Use Africa Forum to Defend Belt and Road Initiative By Bill Ide August 31, 2018 Beijing's hosting of a massive forum for African leaders and business representatives next week will give Chinese President Xi Jinping a big opportunity to champion his Belt and Road Initiative, even as it faces pushback and criticism. China launched its trillion-dollar global infrastructure and trade project five years ago, and the policy is now enshrined in the country's constitution. The collision of both that anniversary and the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation is providing Beijing with a choice opportunity to link to the two and bring the African continent more squarely under the belt and road umbrella, analysts said. "At the forum there is certainly going to be lots of talk about the Belt and Road Initiative, and as it turns out one of the major places where China is trying to reinforce the Belt and Road Initiative is in Africa," said Barry Sautman, a political science professor at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. So far, about nine countries on the continent have signed belt and road agreements with China and some 20 others are engaged in talks. New loans, projects During the forum, analysts expect a number of new loans and investment projects will be announced and that Beijing will address recent criticisms about debt traps, albeit indirectly. The question of who is going to foot the bill is key when talking about China's ambitious projects in Africa, and Beijing is likely to use the meeting to repackage its engagement with the continent, said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a political scientist at Hong Kong Baptist University. "I think that China is aware of the criticisms that have come up in the past few months and it is going to reassure its African partners that it doesn't want to put them into delicate financial situations," he said. Focus on Africa Cabestan expects China will make Africa and the forum a key focus of a more adjusted Belt and Road Initiative going forward. "Not only promising a lot of new projects and funding but also making the Belt and Road Initiative as well as the China-Africa cooperation more sustainable and more viable in the long run," he said. During the last forum, which was held in Johannesburg in 2015, China pledged about $60 billion in preferential loans and investment. "I think this year actually China won't put emphasis on quantity but rather on the quality of new projects," said Tang Xiaoyang, deputy director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy. Tang argues, however, that the adjustments China is making now are part of a more long-term concern about finances on the continent and not because of recent criticisms. Malaysia backs out A little more than a week ago, Malaysia announced it was canceling $20 billion worth in projects related to the global trade and infrastructure project. The country's prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, voiced concern about belt and road projects strapping his country with too much debt and warned about the risks of a new version of colonialism. Malaysia is not the first hurdle that the initiative has faced and is unlikely to be the last point of controversy. For now, criticisms the belt and road have attracted elsewhere, be it Malaysia, Sri Lanka or Pakistan, have not risen to that same level of concern in Africa, said Dawn Murphy, an assistant professor of international security studies at the U.S. Air War College. "There are concerns in various countries in Africa regarding the impact of Chinese contracts for infrastructure or Chinese investment, the impact that could have on local labor and various conditions within the country," she said. That is something that has been around for a while, she adds, but for a number of African countries, the initiative is seen as an opportunity. "We're at this point (now), where you put the label of belt and road on something, and it's more likely to get financed, it's more likely to have government attention, it's more likely, you know, to be seen as an important initiative," Murphy said. For its part, China has been moving quickly to give assurances in the wake of Malaysia's decision and ahead of the meeting. President Xi has defended the initiative at a recent seminar to mark the five-year anniversary of the launch of the policy, arguing that its aim is not to create an exclusive China Club. He said the initiative was about economic cooperation and not a geopolitical or military alliance. In a briefing this week ahead of the China Africa forum, Vice Minister Qian Keming said economic and trade cooperation with Africa is built on the principles of win-win and equality. Qian dismissed concerns about debt trap diplomacy, adding that there were no political strings attached to China's economic cooperation with the continent. According to Chinese officials, more than 30 heads of state and 700 African entrepreneurs are expected to attend the forum. VOA's Brian Kopczynski and Joyce Huang contributed to this report. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Deputy Secretary Discusses Future of Space Force at Space and Missile Systems Center Aug. 31, 2018 By Terri Moon Cronk DoD News, Defense Media Activity WASHINGTON -- Space is a contested environment, and the United States must deploy new tools, new capabilities and the right leadership to ensure dominance in that environment , Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan said recently. The deputy secretary spoke Aug. 27 to airmen, civilians and contractors at Los Angeles Air Force Base's Space and Missile Systems Center in El Segundo, California. The SMC, a subordinate unit of Air Force Space Command, is the center of technical excellence for developing, acquiring, fielding and sustaining military space systems. "We've got a president who says space is no longer a sanctuary," he added. "We need to defend our economy. We need to put in place the authorities and the capabilities [in space] to protect our way of life -- period." Shanahan said in his corporate experience, he's been through a transformation similar to what SMC is undertaking. "The first law of transformation is, do no harm. Our missions are too important. That doesn't mean we don't take calculated risks or we don't move quickly," he said. "But, from the Pentagon's standpoint we're not going to do harm, and that's why I wanted to come out here and spend some time with you," the deputy secretary added. During the course of the next year, a lot of changes will take place in terms of technology, roles and responsibilities, he said. The Right Product "If we don't choose the right technical solution, we lose. This is about physics. It's about capability. And when you pick the wrong product, no matter how talented the team or how many resources there are, you lose," Shanahan said. "This is about development and programmatics. Acquisition is a huge enabler, but getting the product right is, in my mind, the most important thing we can do," he added. It's also vital to put a plan in place that achieves performance, the deputy secretary said. "We have to have clear goals. Without clear goals, the team can't practice what I call 'selectful neglect.' We have -- in large organizations like this -- competing priorities, and if the goals aren't clear, then it just creates too much confusion." Having the right leaders in place also is critical, he said. "There are so many great people that work in the Department of Defense, so we have the talent. We just need to put them into the right roles." And, Shanahan said, "the hidden secret sauce is engagement of the team. When the team is engaged, they reward you with discretionary effort. And when you have that kind of environment, it is really fun and energizing to come to work." As for innovation, he noted, "you find the really great leaders, because they'll put the project or the program ahead of their own careers, and that's the kind of culture we want at the end of the day -- [the] people who are mission-oriented, first and foremost." Organizing Around Capability Organizations should be centered around the capability DoD wants to deploy and the resources it needs to deploy them, the deputy secretary noted. "If you want to know what I think about the Space Force [it's this]: How do we deliver warfighting capability more quickly?" Shanahan said. Other key priorities, he said, are how to give the Missile Defense Agency more capability to do "birth-to-death tracking" of ballistic missiles and other cold objects in space, and how to operate in a GPS-denied environment. "If we're really serious about being combat credible, forward-deployed, you're going to have to operate in GPS-denied environments. We have to get after that capability," Shanahan added. The deputy secretary said DoD also can go a lot faster with dynamic space situational awareness. "We're standing on the air hose with technology that can be readily deployed. We can go faster." DoD Command, Control Command and control at the DoD level will set the foundation to do what's important, Shanahan said. "And whether we say it is the legacy of the SMC or the department, but you know the capability emerging to do persistent surveillance of the globe, the amount of data that we'll be able to collect and parse that in the decision tools to aid the war fighter, that'll create a time constant that is going to be you know, unbeatable," he added. DoD will create the environment and infrastructure to provide data to the warfighter, Shanahan said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia Says Contract To Ferry U.S. Astronauts To ISS Ends In April August 31, 2018 Russia's contract with the United States to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) is due to expire in April, Russia's deputy prime minister for defense and space agency said on August 31. Russia has been transporting U.S. astronauts to the orbiting station since the United States halted its space shuttle program seven years ago. When a Russian Soyuz spacecraft returns to Earth in April, "our obligations under the contract with NASA, in respect to sending and returning American astronauts to and from the ISS, will end," Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov was quoted as saying by the state-run TASS news agency. The space station orbits at an altitude of about 400 kilometers and carries out scientific research. The station has been mostly a collaboration between U.S. and Russian crews during its decade and a half of continuous operation. Based on reporting by TASS, Interfax, and dpa Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-says-contract-to-ferry-u-s -astronauts-to-iss-ends-in-april/29463883.html Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Advertisement By The Associated Press Aug. 30, 2018 | FRANKFORT By The Associated Press Aug. 30, 2018 | 12:10 PM | FRANKFORT Warning of a nearly $300 million potential shortfall in its Medicaid program, Kentucky officials say they could eliminate health coverage for more than 480,000 people to balance the state's budget. Kentucky's Medicaid program spends about $11.5 billion every year, but most of that money comes from the federal government. Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Adam Meier told state lawmakers Thursday that Kentucky's share of that budget will be $296 million short by 2020 money that must come from the cash-strapped state. More than 1.4 million people receive Medicaid benefits in Kentucky, or about one-third of the state's population. Federal law requires the state to cover most of those people. But 480,000 people were added to the Medicaid rolls when former Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear chose to expand the program to cover able-bodied adults. The state is not required to cover those people. "The expansion population is an optional population," Meier told a panel of state lawmakers when they asked what could be done to avoid the shortfall. Republican Gov. Matt Bevin has threatened to eliminate the Medicaid expansion before. He campaigned against it during his run for governor in 2015, arguing it was too expensive and did not make people healthier. Instead of eliminating the expansion, Bevin changed who would be eligible for it. People would have to pay monthly premiums and either get a job, volunteer or go back to school to keep their benefits. He estimated the changes would reduce the state's Medicaid rolls by 95,000 people and save state taxpayers $300 million over five years. But a federal judge blocked those changes before they could take effect in July. Meier told lawmakers the state had been counting on those savings to help avoid the shortfall. Other options include cutting benefits, such as vision, dental and pharmacy. "That's certainly not anything we would want to do," Meier said. "We also have a constitutional obligation to come in under budget. Unlike the federal government, we can't just print more money. We can't run a deficit." Meier said the agency would not make those big decisions without first consulting with the GOP-controlled state legislature. That gives lawmakers a chance to find an alternative when they return to work in January. One idea, pitched by a group of hospitals, would be to tax health care providers. A version of that plan would generate an estimated $372 million in 2020. The proposal has interested Republican Sen. Ralph Alvarado, an emergency room doctor running for re-election in November who says he supports the Medicaid expansion. He said he wants lawmakers to have a hearing on the proposal, but added he's already getting pushback from independent providers who say they could not afford to pay the tax and would likely stop seeing Medicaid patients. "There's worry that it is really going to limit access," he said. "But it's time to have that conversation. It's time to say, do we want this? If so, how do we pay for it?" Democratic state Sen. Morgan McGarvey likes the proposal, calling it a "wonderful tool that the General Assembly should look at so that we don't unplug the Medicaid expansion" because he said it makes people healthier and improves the state's workforce. "Medicaid expansion is an investment in Kentucky we should continue to make, not a cost we should cut," he said. "People's lives are not a cost for state government." Sino-Russian drill set to guard regional peace People's Daily Online (China Daily) 09:05, August 31, 2018 The upcoming joint military exercise between China and Russia, dubbed Vostok-2018 or East-2018, will strengthen their abilities to jointly deal with different types of security threats and safeguard regional peace and security, China's Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday. Experts said the joint exercise reflects the deep strategic mutual trust and practical cooperation between the two militaries, but it does not mean the two sides have formed a defense alliance that excludes or targets other countries. Senior Colonel Wu Qian, a spokesman for the ministry, said at a regular monthly news briefing that most of the 3,200 Chinese troops, along with more than 900 pieces of weaponry and 30 fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, have entered Russia to take part in the exercise. The two militaries will hold joint operation exercises at the Tsugol training range in the Russia's far eastern Trans-Baikal region from Sept 11 to 15. They will primarily practice mechanized defense, fire strikes, counterattacks and other training, Wu said. "The drill does not target any third party, nor is it related to any regional situation," he said. It will be Russia's largest military exercise since 1981, involving around 300,000 Russian troops, 900 tanks, and 1,000 aircraft, as well as troops from China and Mongolia, according to Russian military authorities. It is China's first time participating in an exercise of this kind. It is also the largest Chinese military delegation to join a military exercise in a foreign country. "The drills are aimed at consolidating and developing the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination," Wu said. The exercise will "further strengthen both sides' ability to jointly deal with varied security threats, which is conducive to safeguarding regional peace and security", he said. When asked whether China will be invited to similar future exercises by Russia, Wu said it will depend on the consultation and agreement by both countries, and relevant information will be released in due course. Wu said Chinese and Russian militaries are also in close communication regarding the "Joint Sea-2018" naval exercises, which are scheduled to take place later this year. The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed in late August that it will deliver 10 Russian Su-35 multirole fighters to China by year's end, and "relevant work regarding Sino-Russian cooperation in military technology is going according to plan," Wu said. Feng Shaolei, the director of Russian studies at East China Normal University, said joint military exercises are a good way of enhancing mutual understanding and trust between China and Russia, and not a means to create a military alliance. "China and the Soviet Union had a defense pact during the Cold War, and it brought a lot of unnecessary pressure to China," he said. "China is now upholding a new form of security relations based on mutual benefits, respect and cooperation," Feng said. "It is not based on ideologies, excluding or targeting adversaries, or placing a country's own security interests above others like the United States." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Xi greets African leaders on state visits People's Daily Online (China Daily) 08:29, August 31, 2018 President pledges to step up bilateral cooperation, ties with continent and teamwork in building Belt, Road Greater development synergy sought alongside Cote d'Ivoire China and Cote d'Ivoire should take the building of Belt and Road as an opportunity to seek greater synergy between development strategies and promote high-quality and sustainable development of the two countries, President Xi Jinping said on Thursday. Xi made the remark in a meeting with Cote d'Ivoire President Alassane Ouattara, who is in Beijing for a state visit and the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Xi said the summit will stay committed to the building of an even stronger community with a shared future for China and Africa. The summit will be of major significance in advancing the further development of the China-Africa comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership and enhancing the solidarity and cooperation among developing countries, he added. Xi said that during the 35 years since the establishment of bilateral ties, the two countries have seen increasingly expanding cooperation that yielded remarkable outcomes. China appreciates Cote d'Ivoire's firm adherence to the one-China policy, and firmly supports its efforts to safeguard its rights and interests in sovereignty, security and development. China supports Cote d'Ivoire in taking a path of development that suits its national conditions, and the two nations should offer firmer support to each other on issues related to their core interests and major concerns, Xi said. They also should cope with security challenges effectively, and play a constructive role in promoting peace and stability in the West African region and the African continent, he said. He added that they should step up coordination at the United Nations Security Council and work together to safeguard the legitimate interests of developing countries, including African nations. Ouattara said China is Cote d'Ivoire's great friend and its people value the traditional friendship with the Chinese people. He said Cote d'Ivoire fully supports the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by Xi, and is willing to actively take part in it. The country will also encourage member states of the West African Economic and Monetary Union to take part in building the Belt and Road. Cote d'Ivoire speaks highly of China's efforts to safeguard the rights and interests of developing countries in multilateral affairs, and appreciates China's active participation in UN peacekeeping missions in Africa, he said. Joint efforts with Sierra Leone to fight Ebola praised by world China's principle of developing friendship with Africa will be unchanged despite the country's development and the rise of its international status, President Xi Jinping said on Thursday. Xi made the remark while meeting with Julius Maada Bio, president of Sierra Leone, in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The two leaders witnessed the signing of documents by China and Sierra Leone covering such areas as economic and technological cooperation and jointly building the Belt and Road. China has always deemed its cooperation with African countries an important basis for its diplomatic policies, and such principles will not be changed, Xi said. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations 47 years ago, China and Sierra Leone have always been good friends, Xi said. The joint efforts made by the people of China and Sierra Leone to fight Ebola have drawn compliments from the international community, Xi said. China respects independent choices made by the Sierra Leonean people, Xi said, adding that China would like to boost high-level exchanges with the African country and enhance cooperation in such areas as infrastructure, agriculture, fisheries, health and education. Xi spoke highly of the efforts made by the Sierra Leonean president to develop bilateral relations and promote cooperation. China cherishes the traditional friendship with Sierra Leone and would like to make joint efforts with the country to strengthen mutual trust, expand cooperation in all are-as and promote the comprehensive strategic partnership to benefit the people of both countries, Xi said. Saying that the friendship between the two countries has stood the test of time in the past 47 years, the Sierra Leonean president expressed gratitude to China "for the many times you stood by us in very difficult times". "I want to commit or reaffirm my administration's commitment to you and to the people of China that we will stand together at all times," he said. Sierra Leone would like to learn from China's experience of development, strengthen bilateral relations, participate in building the Belt and Road, and enhance cooperation in education, fisheries, health and infrastructure, he added. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China Denies Reports It Plans To Set Up Base, Troops In Afghanistan RFE/RL August 31, 2018 China is denying reports that it plans to deploy troops or establish a military base in Afghanistan, saying it is merely engaged in "normal military and security cooperation" with its neighbor. Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian said on August 30 that reports in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper and elsewhere that Beijing has plans to station hundreds of People's Liberation Army soldiers at a base in eastern Afghanistan are "simply not true." China shares a narrow border with Afghanistan in the remote Wakhan Corridor region, and is wary that the war-torn country's violence could spill into its restless Xinjiang region. In recent years, hundreds of people have been killed in that far western region of China in unrest that Beijing has blamed on Islamist militants. Unconfirmed reports recently have shown what appear to be Chinese military vehicles operating in the Wakhan Corridor, which lies in the shadow of the Hindu Kush mountains, with Tajikistan to the north and Pakistan to the south. However, Wu said China is only in the region to help Afghanistan bolster counterterrorism efforts and protect its common border with China. "China and Afghanistan have normal military and security cooperation," he told reporters at a monthly briefing in Beijing. "China and the international community are all supporting Afghanistan to strengthen its defense and counterterrorism building efforts," he said. Afghanistan's ambassador to China, Janan Mosazai, on August 30 also denied reports that have repeatedly said China is seeking a military presence in Afghanistan. He said that Beijing is helping Afghanistan set up a mountain brigade to bolster counterterrorism operations, but that no Chinese troops would be stationed in the country. "While the Afghan government appreciates this Chinese assistance, and our two militaries are working in close coordination on utilizing this assistance, there will be no Chinese military personnel of any kind involved in this process on Afghan soil," Mosazai said. Co-Sponsoring Peace Efforts Last year, China opened its first overseas military base, in the Horn of Africa country of Djibouti. It has previously denied having plans for other overseas bases, but the United States expects it to build more, with Pakistan a possible location. While denying any military expansion plans in Afghanistan, China has openly sought to increase its presence in other ways there, including by co-sponsoring peace efforts with the Taliban, after 17 years of Western involvement that has left the country still at war. Along with Pakistan, Iran, and Russia, China through military and economic assistance has seen its influence growing in Afghanistan. But the United States still pays most of NATO's $6.5 billion in annual support for Afghan National Security Forces, which are struggling to contain a reenergized Taliban this year. China, which imports massive amounts of copper, iron, and other raw materials from around the world to fuel its factories, has taken an interest in Afghanistan's sizable Mes Aynak copper deposit, which is believed to contain about 450 million tons of the metal worth tens of billions of dollars. But poor security and economic chaos in Afghanistan have prevented much progress in developing the mine, which also sits on an ancient Buddhist pilgrimage site. With reporting by AP and Reuters Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/china-denies-reports- china-morning-post-plans-set-up-base-troops-in- afghanistan-wakhan-corridor/29462908.html Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China to Replace Black Hawk Choppers With Harbin Z-20 Sputnik News 02:59 31.08.2018 China's People's Liberation Army is preparing to retire its aging UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter fleet in favor of a new, indigenously produced medium-lift chopper: the Harbin Z-20, which will be capable of operating both in high altitudes and off of the country's rapidly expanding naval force. Superficially similar enough to the Black Hawk for early observers to dub it the "Copyhawk," the Z-20 is actually a very different aircraft. The 10-ton helicopter has a more powerful 1,600 kW engine, the domestically produced WZ-10 engine, necessary to lift it high into the Tibetan Plateau and the mountains of Qinghai, in the country's west, where it will have to operate up to 4,000 meters above ground, Asia Times reported. "It would be ludicrous to suggest that Lockheed Martin, parent of the manufacturer of the Black Hawk helicopters, would share any core technologies with AVIC to aid the development [of the Z-20]," the Global Times wrote. AVIC refers to the Aviation Industry Corporation of China. However, it's speculated that Chinese engineers might have been given access by Pakistan to a crashed US Black Hawk helicopter abandoned by US special forces following the infamous raid that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011. Aside from the engines, the rotary-wing aircraft has different avionics, a fly-by-wire design and a fifth blade rotor, as compared to the Black Hawk's four rotors. "The addition of a blade will enable the Z-20 to outperform the UH-60 when it comes to lift force, ferry range and payload capacity," Chen Hong, a researcher at the PLA Air Force Command Institute in Beijing, told Beijing News. However, as a medium-lift helicopter, the Z-20 is also small enough to fit onto Chinese aircraft carriers and even destroyers, offering a level of anti-submarine and cargo lifting capabilities not presently available with the much smaller Ka-28 and Z-8/Z-18 helicopters presently used by the People's Liberation Army-Navy. The Z-20 made its first flight in 2013, but it's expected to make its debut with the armed forces at the Zhuhai air show in Guangdong Province in November, the Global Times said, after which it will enter general production in several forms, depending on which missions it is destined to perform. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russian envoy blocks publication of UN report critical of North Korea Iran Press TV Fri Aug 31, 2018 01:30PM Russia has delayed the publication of a report on North Korea by a United Nations Security Council panel, disputing some elements in the official paper. Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said on Thursday that Moscow had objected to "certain elements of the report." "We put on hold the report of 1718 Committee because we disagree with certain elements of the report, with the conduit of the business itself," Nebenzia said at a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York. Karen Pierce, the British envoy to the UN, who holds the rotating presidency of the Council, said the independent panel behind the report would convene on Friday and try to resolve the disputed elements in the report. Pierce, who emphasized the importance of publishing the North Korea report, said the panel would try to "elicit" the segments of the report that have raised the Russians' concern. "The overriding point is that we must have that report published. It must go to the UN membership. The Council has been very strong on enforcing DPRK sanctions and getting this report out and implemented is the next step in enforcing the sanctions." North Korea is already grappling with several rounds of UN sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Harsh UN sanctions target the country's exports and imports, leaving a negative impact on the people's livelihood. Moscow has been in favor of removing sanctions against North Korea in light of a recent agreement reached between Pyongyang and Washington. On June 12, US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed a comprehensive document following a historic summit between the two in Singapore. According to the document, North Korea reaffirmed its commitment to working "towards complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." However, both sides have complained that the road to peace has been bumpy and progress is slow. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia Blocking UN Report Finding North Korea Is Violating Sanctions RFE/RL August 31, 2018 Russia is blocking publication of a United Nations report finding North Korea in violation of UN sanctions limiting its imports of fuel, including through some illegal transfers of oil at sea involving Russian ships, UN diplomats said. "The report is on hold because we disagree on certain elements of the report and on the conduct of the business itself," Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya told reporters late on August 30 after a closed UN Security Council meeting on the matter. Nebenzya didn't disclose Russia's concerns, but UN diplomats said a key objection that Russia raised at the meeting was the report's mention of Russian ships being involved in illegal ship-to-ship transfers of fuel, which have helped push North Korea over a UN-imposed cap on its oil imports for the year. Nebenzya said Russia also asked for an investigation into leaks of the council's reports on North Korea to the media. AP, AFP, and other news organizations obtained information about the latest report and publicized its findings earlier this month. In light of the finding that North Korea already is over its legal cap on fuel imports, the United States last month called on the council to end all further fuel exports to the country this year in a move that was blocked by China and Russia. Pressure On Pyongyang The United States is in the midst of efforts to negotiate an agreement with North Korea to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons, and has been calling on all nations to keep applying pressure on Pyongyang by adhering to the stiff UN sanctions imposed last year, to ensure the success of the negotiations. British UN Ambassador Karen Pierce, the current Security Council president, said there would be informal consultations on August 31 to determine what Russia's objections are in hopes of finalizing and releasing the report. "I need to stress that this panel of experts report is independent," she said. "It's an interesting question as to whether you should be objecting to an independent report. But, as I say, the council hopes we can resolve this." Pierce said the council has been "very strong" on enforcing sanctions against North Korea, "and getting this report out and implemented is the next stage in enforcing the sanctions." Besides finding violations of fuel import limits imposed by the council, the 62-page report also found violations of bans on North Korean exports of coal, iron, seafood, and other products that generate millions of dollars in revenue for Kim Jong Un's government, media reports said. 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," AFP quoted the report as saying. With reporting by AP and AFP Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia- blocking-un-report-finding-north-korea- violating-un-sanctions-oil-imports-ship- transfer-at-sea-russian-vessels/29462850.html Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address South and North Koreas Prepare for Summit By VOA News August 31, 2018 South Korea is sending a special envoy to North Korea next week to discuss the arrangements for a third summit between the two countries' leaders. A South Korean presidential spokesman said Friday the as-yet-unnamed envoy will travel to Pyongyang Wednesday. "The special envoy will discuss a wide range of issues, including the specific date for the South-North Korea summit, development of the South-North Korean relationship, denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the establishment of peace on the Korean Peninsula," the South Korean presidential spokesman said. South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had agreed at their landmark summit in Panmunjom in April that Moon would visit Pyongyang later in the year. Yonhap news agency reports South Korea proposed sending the special envoy early Friday with North Korea accepting the offer by telegram Friday afternoon. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US Rallies India to Tackle Pressing Security Issues, Curb Iran Oil Imports By Nike Ching August 31, 2018 The United States is rallying India to tackle pressing security issues, with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo soon to embark on his first trip to New Delhi as the top U.S. diplomat. Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will hold high-level talks with India's foreign minister, Sushma Swaraj, and defense minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, September 6, also known as the U.S.-India 2+2 dialogue. "The 2+2 is a major opportunity to enhance our engagement with India on critical diplomatic and security priorities," said a senior State Department official, adding the dialogue is "a strong indication of the deepening strategic partnership" between the world's largest democracies. Curbing oil imports from Iran Halting Indian oil imports from Iran and reducing the South Asian country's reliance on Russian arms are said to be high on the agenda. The U.S. is pushing all countries to end Iranian oil purchases as Washington seeks to thwart Teheran's financial revenue. India is a major buyer of Iran's crude oil. "Our goal remains to get to zero oil imports from Iran as quickly as possible, ideally by November 4th," a senior State Department official told VOA during a briefing Thursday. He added Washington is prepared to work with countries that are reducing their imports regarding a sanctions waiver "on a case-by-case basis." U.S. officials said India shares the U.S. concerns about the urgency to address "Iranian malign behavior." President Donald Trump announced earlier in August that Washington would resume sanctions against Iran's energy-related transactions, as well as business conducted by foreign financial institutions with the Central Bank of Iran, on November 5. Boosting US-India defense ties During the September talks, Secretary of State Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mattis are expected to focus on strengthening defense ties with India. The U.S. declared India a major defense partner in 2016. And Washington recently granted New Delhi the so-called "Strategy Trade Authority Tier 1" designation, which enables American companies to export dual-use military items under a more streamlined license process. Such license exceptions also allow India to receive more U.S. high technology and military equipment. Defense-related trade between the two countries is estimated to reach $18 billion by 2019 from essentially zero in 2008, according to U.S officials, who also note that Washington is in regular discussions with New Delhi to "avoid engaging in potential sanctionable activities" with Russia, including the purchase of military equipment. The U.S. is imposing wide-ranging sanctions on Russia, under which any country engaged with its defense and intelligence sectors could face secondary U.S. sanctions. And India's planned purchase of Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile systems has raised concerns among U.S. officials. Ahead of the high-level 2+2 dialogue, a top Pentagon official said the U.S. cannot guarantee a waiver from sanctions would be provided if India purchases major defense systems from Russia. "We would still have very significant concerns if India pursued major new platforms and systems [from Russia]," said Randy Schriver, assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, during a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace forum on Wednesday. Schriver said media reports from India suggesting the South Asian country would get a waiver are "a bit misleading." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Mogherini says EU will continue backing JCPOA' IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Aug 31, IRNA -- High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini on Friday reiterated EU's support for Iran nuclear deal known as JCPOA. She further noted that Vienna meeting involving EU foreign and defense ministers discussed major international issues including Iran, Syria and Gaza. Currently, Iran and its nuclear program have turned into the most significant concerns of the EU, she said, noting, "We discussed the issue during Vienna meeting and shared views on its details." Despite US sanctions, EU will continue cooperation with Iran to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal, she stressed. Recalling the IAEA's 12th report on Iran's compliance with the JCPOA, Mogherini said that the report indicates well that the county has adhered to its commitments under the deal. This is a significant news for the EU and international community, she said. EU will continue collaboration with all its members and other countries so that Iranians and Iranian expatriates can continue their trade and economic activities, the official said. Vienna meeting also dealt with Syrian refugees and Idleb, as humanitarian situation in Idleb is catastrophic and worrisome, Mogherini said. 8072**1396 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran self-sufficient in missile technology: Commander IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Aug 31, IRNA -- Iran has reached self-sufficiency in surface-to-air missile technology with various ranges, a senior Iranian commander said on Friday. commander of Air base Khatam ul-Anbiya Brigadier General Ali-Reza Sabahfard expressed hope that 'good news' on Iran's indigenous missile defense system with long ranges will be announced by the end of this Persian year (March 20, 2019). 'Iran's air defense industry has become fully self-sufficient, transiting from reverse engineering and item manufacturing to designing and manufacturing the fully advanced air defense systems in accordance with global standards,' he said before Friday Prayer Leader sermons in Tehran. 'The enemies know that Iran is not after waging wars,' he said, issuing the warning of harsh response in case of any kind of aggression on the country. Iran's defense and security policies are based on striking a balance between peace and security in the region, he said. 9156**1420 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address past daily news Sep 13 (1) Sep 09 (15) Sep 06 (12) Sep 04 (10) Sep 03 (10) Aug 31 (17) Aug 29 (14) Aug 26 (13) Aug 22 (11) Aug 21 (12) Aug 19 (21) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (10) Aug 10 (10) Aug 08 (9) Aug 07 (10) Aug 06 (10) Aug 05 (8) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (14) Jul 29 (1) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (5) Jul 24 (10) Jul 22 (11) Jul 19 (16) Jul 17 (6) Jul 16 (10) Jul 15 (13) Jul 12 (7) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (8) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (5) Jul 05 (8) Jul 04 (11) Jul 03 (8) Jul 02 (7) Jul 01 (5) Jun 30 (8) Jun 28 (7) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (7) Jun 25 (8) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (6) Jun 22 (9) Jun 20 (5) Jun 19 (9) Jun 18 (8) Jun 15 (9) Jun 13 (13) Jun 11 (11) Jun 09 (19) Jun 06 (10) Jun 04 (10) Jun 03 (8) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (5) May 30 (5) May 29 (6) May 28 (7) May 27 (7) May 26 (6) May 25 (4) 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Nov 09 (9) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (12) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (4) Oct 29 (1) Oct 01 (1) Jul 29 (1) May 11 (1) Jul 11 (1) EU will continue efforts to keep Iran nuclear deal alive: Mogherini Iran Press TV Fri Aug 31, 2018 04:41PM European Union's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini says the 28-nation bloc would continue its work to preserve a 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement Iran signed with the P5+1 group of countries after the US unilateral move to pull out from the deal. Mogherini made the remarks while speaking at a press conference in Vienna on Friday following an informal meeting of foreign affairs ministers of the EU states (Gymnich). President of the United States Donald Trump withdrew Washington in May from the landmark Iran nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries in 2015, and decided to re-impose unilateral sanctions against Tehran. Under the deal, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions. In defiance of warnings from the European Union, the JCPOA signatories and many international players, Trump signed an executive order on August 6 re-imposing a first round of sanctions on Iran, which were lifted under the nuclear deal, to levy "maximum economic pressure" on the Islamic Republic. Mogherini further pointed to the 12th report released by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) certifying that Iran is still complying with all its nuclear related commitments in accordance with the JCPOA and said, "This is good news." "Our work continues with all the member states and with other partners in the world, to make sure that Iranians and Iranian citizens can benefit from the economic relations not only the European Union's member states, but also others in the world," the senior EU official pointed out. On Thursday, the IAEA once again reaffirmed Iran's full compliance with its commitments under the Iran nuclear deal in the second such report after the US stopped fulfilling its side of the bargain and left the multilateral agreement in violation of international law. "Timely and proactive cooperation by Iran in providing such access facilitates implementation of the Additional Protocol and enhances confidence," the UN nuclear agency said. Following Washington's withdrawal, Iran said it would not immediately leave the landmark deal, giving time to the other signatories -- France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China -- to find ways to compensate for the absence of Washington. In a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and members of his cabinet in Tehran on Wednesday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei warned that Iran will leave the Iran nuclear deal if it fails to serve its interests. "The JCPOA is a means, not the goal, and if we come to this conclusion that it cannot serve [our] national interests, we will leave it," the Leader said. Ayatollah Khamenei noted that Tehran should not pin its hope on Europe over different issues, be it the JCPOA or the economy. Iran says the Europeans should provide "practical guarantees" that its economic dividends of the deal would stay intact amid US attempts to pile more economic pressure on the Islamic Republic. Iran's other partners have slammed Washington's decision to abandon the agreement, which has been endorsed by a UN Security Council resolution, saying they will work to keep the accord alive. In a phone call to his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Monday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged the remaining signatories to the nuclear agreement to act faster and in a more transparent way to preserve it after the US pullout. "Iran has fulfilled all its promises in the JCPOA and, taking into account the unilateral exit of America from this agreement, it [Iran] expects the other sides to speed up their plans to safeguard this agreement and make them more transparent," Rouhani said. The European Union is currently working to finalize an economic package aimed at keeping Iran in the deal. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Tehran: France's Call for Further Talks on Nuke Deal 'Bullying & Excessive' Sputnik News 11:00 31.08.2018(updated 14:31 31.08.2018) Speaking at a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Vienna earlier this week, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that Iran "cannot avoid negotiations" on a number of issues related to the nuclear deal. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi has branded French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian's call for further talks with Iran as "bullying and excessive," the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported. "There is no reason, need, reliability or trust for negotiations on issues that are non-negotiable. [] On Iran's missile program, we once again affirm that the program is totally defensive, local and legitimate. It is highly critical for protecting Iran and the Iranian nation against others. So, it is not negotiable at all," Qassemi was cited as saying. On Thursday, Le Drian told a gathering of EU Foreign Ministers in Vienna that "Iran must respect the fundamentals of the JCPOA [the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action]," and should be prepared to negotiate on its future nuclear plans, ballistic missile arsenal and alleged meddling in conflicts across the Middle East. "I think that is the case, but Iran cannot avoid discussions, negotiations on three other major subjects that worry us the future of Iran's nuclear commitments after 2025, the ballistic question and the fact there is a sort of ballistic proliferation on the part of Iran and the role Iran plays to stabilize the whole region. We must talk about these three subjects, Iran must be aware of this and that's the message I send to them from Vienna." EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, also speaking at the meeting of EU foreign and defense ministers in Vienna on August 30, said that notwithstanding disagreements with Tehran over some issues, "we believe that addressing regional disagreements with Iran can be done in a more effective manner if we maintain the nuclear deal already in place." READ MORE: Iranian FM: Staying in Nuke Deal 'Not Iran's Only Option' Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has tweeted that "Being the party to still honor the deal in deeds & not just words is not Iran's only option." Zarif's tweet followed a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency confirming that Tehran was still complying with the key provisions of the JCPOA despite the unilateral withdrawal from the international treaty by the US. The JCPOA, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, has been jeopardized since US President Donald Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the multilateral agreement and reinstate anti-Tehran sanctions, lifted as part of the international accord. The deal was sealed in 2015 by the EU and the P5+1 group of states Russia, the US, China, France, the UK and Germany and Iran. Under the agreement, Tehran agreed to maintain the peaceful nature of its nuclear program in exchange for a gradual lifting of sanctions. The 2015 deal limited Iran to 3.67 percent uranium enrichment, which has no military applications and is far below the 90 percent needed to produce a weapon. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iraqi Prime Minister Sacks National Security Aide - Reports Sputnik News 03:14 31.08.2018 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi fired his national security adviser and head of the Shiite militia for lack of impartiality, Falih Alfayyadh, local media said Friday. A statement, published by the Rudaw news agency, said Alfayyadh was removed for "getting involved in practicing political and partisan work, and his wish to address political affairs, which goes against the critical national tasks he is holding." Abadi reportedly pointed to the national constitution, which stipulates neutrality of intelligence and security officials and bans them from "exploiting" their position in political activities. The decision is effective immediately. In July, Iraqi authorities have arrested Mahdi Gharrawi, the former commander of operations in the country's northern Nineveh province, in connection to the allegations of surrendering Iraq's second largest city of Mosul to the Daesh terror group four years ago. In 2015, a probe launched by the Iraqi parliament found Gharrawi, as well as 35 other officials, including former Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Maliki, a former Mosul governor, and a former acting defense minister, responsible for the June 2014 defeat. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Japan's military seeks record spending amid US push Iran Press TV Fri Aug 31, 2018 07:48AM Japan is seeking a record-high spending next year to help pay for US missile systems and warplanes amid calls from Washington to increase purchase of American weapons. Japan's defense ministry released budget proposal for fiscal 2019 on Friday, calling for defense spending to rise 2.1 percent to $48 billion for the year starting April 1. The proposed defense budget has already faces scrutiny by the finance ministry. If approved by cabinet later this year, the budget will be the biggest proposed outlay in the military budget on ballistic missile defense. It requests funds for the purchase of two new powerful ground-based Aegis Ashore radar missiles tracking stations, built by American's Lockheed Martin Corp, and six Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighters. The military also seeks funds to buy longer-range Raytheon Co SM-3 interceptor missiles designed to strike missiles. It also requests money to improve the range and accuracy of its PAC-3 missiles batteries. The US has been pushing Japan to buy more American-made equipment military equipment to counter what it calls threats from North Korea. Washington has threatened to impose tariffs on Japanese auto imports to cut a trade imbalance with Tokyo. The administration of US President Donald Trump has dropped some restrictions on sales of US weapons to bolster the American arms industry. The White House announced in April an update to its policy on the transfer of military equipment to promote US exports. The claim of ballistic missile threat from North Korea comes despite Pyongyang's promise to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Following their meeting in Singapore in June, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un told Donald Trump that denuclearization depends on ceasing antagonism between the two nations, while the United States said tough sanctions would remain in place against Pyongyang until its complete denuclearization. This week, a North Korean newspaper hit out at the Trump administration for its "double-dealing" and "hatching a criminal plot." The Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in an editorial issued on Sunday that American special units based in Japan were staging an air drill aimed at "infiltration into Pyongyang." The editorial urged Washington to give up the "pointless military gamble" and implement the Singapore agreement. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Armed Clashes in Tripoli Take Heavy Toll on Migrants, Refugees By Lisa Schlein August 31, 2018 U.N. and international aid agencies are working to move refugees and migrants out of harm's way in Libya as local militia and tribal leaders, vying for control of the capital, clash for a fifth day. Libyan authorities report 30 people, many of them civilians, have been killed and 96 wounded during the fighting. The charity Doctors Without Borders warns that the lives of local residents, as well as 8,000 refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants, are at risk. More than 5,800 people reportedly have been displaced, according to a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, Paul Dillon. Earlier this week, the IOM, with help from Libyan and Malian authorities, returned 164 migrants to their homes of origin in Mali, he said, adding that there is a waiting list of migrants from Somalia and other African countries who want to go home. "We are also looking to try and speed up the voluntary humanitarian return part of this. Many of the people of the Somalia caseload were already sort of in the pipeline and we are looking to find ways to accelerate that process. Obviously, we are working closely with the UNHCR on these matters," Dillion said. A joint effort by several U.N. and international agencies on Tuesday succeeded in evacuating some 300 refugees and migrants held in Ain Zara detention center in Tripoli. The U.N. refugee agency says the detainees were in danger of becoming caught in the hostilities. The UNHCR says those released from detention come mainly from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia, and have been moved to a safer location. Many Libyan families also have been displaced by the fighting, with some taking shelter in the detention centers emptied of their refugee and migrant inmates, Dillon said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address South Korea to dispatch special envoys to North to prepare for summit Iran Press TV Fri Aug 31, 2018 03:31PM South Korea will send special envoys to North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, on Wednesday to discuss the details of next month's summit between the leaders of the two countries, a presidential spokesman says. South Korea's Presidential Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said North Korea on Friday accepted a proposal made by Seoul earlier in the day to send the special envoys. The special envoys will discuss the timing of the meeting as well as "establishing peace," "advancing inter-Korean ties," and the "denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," Kim said. It was not clear who the envoys would be. South Korean President Moon Jae-in will be the first South Korean leader to visit the North Korean capital in more than a decade. The two leaders first met at a historic summit at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone back in April. A diplomatic thaw began between the two Koreas in January. Diplomacy with the US also ensued. While North Korea's ties with South Korea have improved considerably since then, diplomatic engagement with the US has hit a snag. US President Donald Trump last week cancelled a planned trip by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to North Korea, citing unsatisfactory progress on the denuclearization of Pyongyang. Trump's statement on Twitter Friday came just a day after Pompeo said he would again travel to North Korea along with his new US special representative, Stephen Biegun, in an attempt to break the deadlock. PressTV-Trump calls off Pompeo's planned visit to N Korea US President Donald Trump has canceled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's planned trip to North Korea. Later, Trump hailed his personal relationship with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un and said there is no reason to resume war games with South Korea. The North Korean leader has already told Trump that denuclearization depends on ceasing antagonism between the two nations, while the United States says tough sanctions will remain in place against Pyongyang until its complete denuclearization. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address South Korea Proposes Reclassifying North Korean Abductees as Missing By Brian Padden August 31, 2018 A proposed South Korean law to reclassify abductees held in the North as "missing persons," is drawing strong criticism from human rights advocates. "Abduction is a crime. Missing person is not classified under international law as a crime. So the question is why would you do that?" asked Joanna Hosaniak with the Seoul based advocacy group Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR.) NKHR was one of 11 human rights organizations that sent a joint letter of complaint to the United Nations Human Rights Office in Seoul about the proposed South Korean National Assembly bill that would remove the term "abductee" in referring to cases of South Korean citizens that are believed to have been captured and held indefinitely by the communist North. The bill cites the need to replace the accusatory and criminal classification of abductee because it "draws resistance from North Korea," and to replace it with the term "missing person" instead. Forgotten families After the 1950-53 Korean War, North Korea returned most prisoners of war, but reportedly forced thousands of South Korean citizens to remain to help rebuild national industries, schools and other basic state functions. In the decades after, thousands more were reportedly abducted by North Korea. Most of them were fishermen, who were purportedly taken to gain intelligence or serve some propaganda purpose in the ongoing inter-Korean cold war. NKHR, working closely on this issue with victims' families and the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, has documented more than 500 cases of Korean abductees still being held in the North, and of that number 300 are more than 70 years old. Families of the abductees say the government in Seoul has long ignored this contentious issue because it would complicate efforts to confront the North when tensions are high over its nuclear provocations, or to engage Pyongyang when diplomatic efforts are underway to improve relations. Hwang In-cheol has been speaking out for the release of his father and 11 other passengers and crew members aboard a Korea Air (KAL) airliner who were never returned, after the plane was hijacked into North Korea in 1969. He said that the South Korean government has refused to help. "My father and the rest of the 11 unreturned abductees remain forcefully detained in North Korea and they have been forgotten," said Hwang, who heads an advocacy group called the KAL Abductees' Repatriation Committee. International standards The U.N. human rights commission has denounced North Korea for abducting an estimated 200,000 foreign nationals from at least 12 countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand over the last 50 years. North Korea admitted in 2002 to kidnapping 13 Japanese citizens, and only five of the abductees and their families have returned to Japan. A 2014 United Nations Commission of Inquiry report cited the abductions of individuals in South Korea and Japan among other widespread human rights violations committed by North Korea, including the establishment of a network of prison camps, forced labor, state sanctioned murder, torture and rape. The U.N. General Assembly subsequently voted to refer the Kim Jong Un government to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. However, the measure stalled in the U.N. Security Council where the North's allies, China and Russia, are believed to be preventing it from coming to a vote. Pyongyang has called the human rights allegations "fictitious," criticized the U.N.'s investigation into North Korea as politically motivated, and criticized Japan for "internationalizing" the abduction issue. Forgotten families After the 1950-53 Korean War, North Korea returned most prisoners of war, but reportedly forced thousands of South Korean citizens to remain to help rebuild national industries, schools and other basic state functions. In the decades after, thousands more were reportedly abducted by North Korea. Most of them were fishermen, who were purportedly taken to gain intelligence or serve some propaganda purpose in the ongoing inter-Korean cold war. NKHR, working closely on this issue with victims' families and the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, has documented more than 500 cases of Korean abductees still being held in the North, and of that number 300 are more than 70 years old. Families of the abductees say the government in Seoul has long ignored this contentious issue because it would complicate efforts to confront the North when tensions are high over its nuclear provocations, or to engage Pyongyang when diplomatic efforts are underway to improve relations. Hwang In-cheol has been speaking out for the release of his father and 11 other passengers and crew members aboard a Korea Air (KAL) airliner who were never returned, after the plane was hijacked into North Korea in 1969. He said that the South Korean government has refused to help. "My father and the rest of the 11 unreturned abductees remain forcefully detained in North Korea and they have been forgotten," said Hwang, who heads an advocacy group called the KAL Abductees' Repatriation Committee. International standards The U.N. human rights commission has denounced North Korea for abducting an estimated 200,000 foreign nationals from at least 12 countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand over the last 50 years. North Korea admitted in 2002 to kidnapping 13 Japanese citizens, and only five of the abductees and their families have returned to Japan. A 2014 United Nations Commission of Inquiry report cited the abductions of individuals in South Korea and Japan among other widespread human rights violations committed by North Korea, including the establishment of a network of prison camps, forced labor, state sanctioned murder, torture and rape. The U.N. General Assembly subsequently voted to refer the Kim Jong Un government to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. However, the measure stalled in the U.N. Security Council where the North's allies, China and Russia, are believed to be preventing it from coming to a vote. Pyongyang has called the human rights allegations "fictitious," criticized the U.N.'s investigation into North Korea as politically motivated, and criticized Japan for "internationalizing" the abduction issue. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia Drills Area in Mediterranean Dangerous for Navigation, Air Traffic - Navy Sputnik News 05:50 31.08.2018(updated 08:19 31.08.2018) MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian military drills in the Mediterranean will involve 26 warships and submarines, as well as 34 combat aircraft, Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Adm. Vladimir Korolev said. The country's Navy and Aerospace Forces will hold joint large-scale naval exercises in the Mediterranean Sea from September 1 to 8. "A total of 26 combat vessels, including two submarines, as well as 34 aircraft will take part in the training exercises. The Northern Fleet's [Slava-class] Marshal Ustinov missile cruiser will lead the naval task force participating in the drills," Korolev said at a briefing. According to the admiral, the naval drills will also involve Tu-160 strategic bombers, Tu-142 and Il-38 anti-submarine warfare planes, as well as Su-33 and Su-30SM fighter jets. Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Adm. Vladimir Korolev also warned that the area of the naval drills in the Mediterranean has been declared temporarily dangerous for regular navigation and air traffic. "In order to strictly observe the norms of international law, as well as to ensure the safety of navigation and aircraft flights, the training areas have in advance been declared temporarily dangerous for navigation and air traffic," Korolev said at a briefing. The Russian naval chief stressed that after the completion of the exercises the participating forces will return to their home bases. The US Defense Department told Sputnik earlier on Thursday that it was aware of reports of a huge military exercise planned by Russia in the Mediterranean Sea this week, and hoped it would follow the rules of safe conduct. "We are aware of the media report about a Russian exercise," spokesman Eric Pahon said. "As such, we expect that Russian ships operating in the Mediterranean Sea would conduct themselves safely and professionally, in accordance with international laws and customs." Pahon emphasized that the US Navy had a routine presence in the area and elsewhere in the world, "and just like any other country, we operate freely in international waters," he said. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Lavrov: Syrian gov't has sovereign right over its territory IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Aug 31, IRNA -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov affirmed that the Syrian government has the sovereign right over its territory, pointing out that Russia supports all efforts to resolve the crisis in Syria in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution 2254. In a press conference with his Eritrean counterpart Osman Saleh, Lavrov said that terrorists are preparing to use chemical weapons in Idleb to accuse the Syrian government of doing so, SANA reported from Moscow. He pointed out that the Western countries prevented the arrival of representatives of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to Syria to investigate allegations of the use of chemical weapons. The Russian top diplomat said that Moscow has informed the United Nations and the OPCW with information on the use of chemical weapons, as it warned them to bear the responsibility of this provocation which had been used in a similar way over the past two years. Lavrov said that terrorists are using civilians in Idleb as human shields, calling for the separation of "armed opposition" from terrorists of Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist organizations. 1396**1396 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Terrorists destroy two bridges in Hama countryside IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Aug 31, IRNA -- Terrorist organizations in Hama destroyed during the past few hours two bridges in the northwestern countryside of the province. SANA's reporter in said that terrorists of Jabhat al-Nusra and the "Turkistan Party" destroyed two bridges in the towns of al-Sharia and Beit al-Ras in al-Ghab plain. Terrorists used large amounts of explosive materials in detonating the bridges, said the reporter. The reporter pointed out that the targeted bridges are two of the most important and large ones in the northwestern countryside of Hama linking between the towns of al-Sharia and Beit al-Ras and neighboring villages and towns. 1396**1396 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syrian FM: Syria to combat terrorists in Idleb IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Aug 31, IRNA -- Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid al-Moallem said on Thursday that Syria's decision is to combat Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organization in Idleb, whatever the sacrifices were, but the priority is for of local reconciliations. "Moscow has recently been the center of regional contacts on Syria and we exchanged views on the outcome of these contacts and our views were identical, so I can say that these talks are constructive and positive." Al-Moallem added at a joint press conference with Russian counterpart Serge Lavrov, SANA reported. "We and the Russian Federation have been partners in countering terrorism and have fulfilled great field achievements and we are now close to end this terrorism. Naturally, we should think about Syria's reconstruction program and our friends in the Russian Federation have the priority in contributing to this program," al-Moallem added. "We are on the way to achieve security and stability for our people in Syria. We cannot forget the practices of the countries that have been plotting against us from seven years and till now in obstructing us from eliminating terrorism," al-Moallem said. He pointed out that when the Syrian Arab Army liberated the city of Douma and the Eastern Ghouta from terrorism, Washington and its allies invoked the use of chemicals and launched aggression against Syria last April. Now they are repeating the same scenario to prepare for a new aggression with the aim of saving al-Nusra and prolonging the crisis. Al-Moallem affirmed that Syria will perform its legitimate right to defend itself, warning against the stupidity of committing a new Western aggression on the Syrian people because its repercussions will affect the political process inevitably. "The decision of the Syrian leadership is to combat Jabhat al-Nusra in Idleb, whatever the sacrifices were. We say that the priority is for the local reconciliations which we have carried out in several areas across Syria. We are ready to make every effort to avoid civilian casualties. We opened Abu al-Dahour corridor for a week and interacted with the local reconciliation committees. Unfortunately al-Nusra arrested most of the members of these committees and prevented civilians from exiting via that corridor," al-Moallem noted. "We discussed the issue of our joint efforts to bring the displaced Syrians back to their country. We say to the West, who is crying for human rights in Syria, if you really want to help the return of the displaced, you should make efforts to secure the reconstruction of their homes and infrastructure and lift the unilateral sanctions imposed on Syria," al-Moallem added. "We welcome and call on the Syrian citizens to return home and contribute to programs of reconstruction and be part of building future and we will try to provide all economic and social conditions for that purpose," al-Moallem said. Tehran, Aug 31, IRNA - Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid al-Moallem said on Thursday that Syria's decision is to combat Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organization in Idleb, whatever the sacrifices were, but the priority is for of local reconciliations. "Moscow has recently been the center of regional contacts on Syria and we exchanged views on the outcome of these contacts and our views were identical, so I can say that these talks are constructive and positive." Al-Moallem added at a joint press conference with Russian counterpart Serge Lavrov, SANA reported. "We and the Russian Federation have been partners in countering terrorism and have fulfilled great field achievements and we are now close to end this terrorism. Naturally, we should think about Syria's reconstruction program and our friends in the Russian Federation have the priority in contributing to this program," al-Moallem added. "We are on the way to achieve security and stability for our people in Syria. We cannot forget the practices of the countries that have been plotting against us from seven years and till now in obstructing us from eliminating terrorism," al-Moallem said. He pointed out that when the Syrian Arab Army liberated the city of Douma and the Eastern Ghouta from terrorism, Washington and its allies invoked the use of chemicals and launched aggression against Syria last April. Now they are repeating the same scenario to prepare for a new aggression with the aim of saving al-Nusra and prolonging the crisis. Al-Moallem affirmed that Syria will perform its legitimate right to defend itself, warning against the stupidity of committing a new Western aggression on the Syrian people because its repercussions will affect the political process inevitably. "The decision of the Syrian leadership is to combat Jabhat al-Nusra in Idleb, whatever the sacrifices were. We say that the priority is for the local reconciliations which we have carried out in several areas across Syria. We are ready to make every effort to avoid civilian casualties. We opened Abu al-Dahour corridor for a week and interacted with the local reconciliation committees. Unfortunately al-Nusra arrested most of the members of these committees and prevented civilians from exiting via that corridor," al-Moallem noted. "We discussed the issue of our joint efforts to bring the displaced Syrians back to their country. We say to the West, who is crying for human rights in Syria, if you really want to help the return of the displaced, you should make efforts to secure the reconstruction of their homes and infrastructure and lift the unilateral sanctions imposed on Syria," al-Moallem added. "We welcome and call on the Syrian citizens to return home and contribute to programs of reconstruction and be part of building future and we will try to provide all economic and social conditions for that purpose," al-Moallem said. In turn, Lavrov said that both sides exchanged views about separating between the armed groups and the terrorists in Idleb in addition to the attempts to carry out local reconciliations there guaranteeing security for the civilians. He called on the international community and the UN to help secure the return of the displaced Syrians to their home, providing them with the humanitarian aid, re-building the infrastructure and creating new job opportunities for them. Lavrov said that White Helmets are trying to prepare fabricated plays on the use of the chemical weapons in order to find a pretext to the western countries to carry out attacks on Syria. He called on the international community to intensify their efforts in order to restore stability to Syria, paving the way for restoring the safety and stability to the whole region. As for the presence of US forces in Syria, Lavrov affirmed that the US and western existence in Syria is illegitimate, adding that the Americans have repeatedly promised to leave the country, but they always create different pretexts for staying there. "The Americans have repeatedly promised to withdraw from al-Tanf area and allow UN representatives to enter al-Rukban camp, but they didn't meet their pledge," Lavrov said. Earlier, al-Moallem affirmed that Syria is in the last step to resolve the crisis and liberate all its territories from terrorism and that's why the US, Britain and France want to attack it with the aim of obstructing the political settlement process and helping Jabhat al-Nusra. Al-Moallem remarks came at the beginning of a meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow. Al-Moallem affirmed that this visit came at a convenient time to discuss the latest political developments on Syria and also to discuss the economic, cultural and social cooperation between Syria and Russia. "As we were partners in the fight against terrorism, we want to be partners in the reconstruction process," al-Moallem said. "Our people highly appreciate the role of the Russian Federation and President Vladimir Putin in combating terrorism in Syria," he said. The minister affirmed Damascus's appreciation for the role of the Russian Federation, both in the Astana and Sochi meetings and that Syria is committed to the progress of the political process, especially in view of the field situation in Syria. "We are in the last step to put an end the crisis in our country and liberate our entire territory from terrorism," he noted. "The US, UK and France are not happy with the failure of their plot in Syria, so they want to attack it from outside the UN Security Council in order to foil the political process, offer assistance to Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organization and prolong the crisis. Therefore, we have the legitimate right to defend ourselves and the aggressor States will bear the disastrous consequences due to their aggression," said al-Moallem. "I confirm that we do not have chemical weapons. It is not possible for us to use them because we are victorious in the battles against terrorism and there is no need to use them. Therefore, all the pretexts of the aggressors are exposed," al-Moallem said. For his part, Lavrov said that the tasks related to eradicating terrorism from the Syrian territory are coming to an end and it's time for working to rebuild the Syrian economy and restore stability to all its areas. He pointed out that the projects discussed in the framework of the Syrian-Russian Joint Governmental Committee for Economic, Commercial, Scientific and Technical Cooperation will undoubtedly help to achieve this goal. He added that the two sides will also discuss the external aspects of the situation in Syria with emphasis on the need to attract international assistance. Lavrov said that it is necessary to implement the outcomes of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi to resolve the crisis in Syria. Lavrov asserted that the Russian and Syrian positions are clear and based on international resolutions, especially the UNSC resolution no.2254, which states that the Syrians decide their own future. Earlier, al-Moallem, who chairs the Syrian side at the Syrian-Russian Joint Governmental Committee for Economic, Commercial, Scientific and Technical Cooperation, arrived in an official visit to Moscow upon an invitation by Lavrov. 1396**1396 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia says Syrian army has every right to chase militants out of Idlib Iran Press TV Fri Aug 31, 2018 03:37PM As the Syrian armed forces are preparing to launch a full-scale offensive to retake the northern province of Idlib, Russia says the Syrian troops have the full right to go after and hunt the terrorists out of the last stronghold of militants. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday the Syrian army has every right "to protect its sovereignty and to drive out, liquidate the terrorist threat on its territory." He also noted that talks were underway to set up humanitarian corridors in the militant-held province. "In this area, in this de-escalation zone, there must be a separation of the armed opposition, ready for dialogue with the government, from terrorists of Jabhat al-Nusra [now known as Tahrir al-Sham] and other organizations recognized as terrorist by the UN Security Council. Terrorists oppose such separation," Lavrov noted. On Wednesday, Lavrov had described the Idlib-based militants as a "festering abscess" which must be liquidated, RIA news agency reported. The Syrian army's large-scale operation will be aimed at retaking a province of three million population. UN's Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura said Thursday the UN estimates put the number of terrorists remaining in Idlib province at 10,000, stressing that they must be defeated. De Mistura admitted that the terrorists in Idlib may use chemical weapons during the Syrian army's operation, echoing a concern earlier raised by Russia, which warned the terrorists may launch the chemical attack to frame the Syrian government, giving Western powers a pretext to launch a new raid on Syria. While the Syrian army is getting prepared for the operation, Idlib-based militants reportedly blew up two key bridges in an attempt to slow down the government's attack, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday. The bridges over the Orontes River linked Idlib to areas of neighboring Hama province, which is controlled by the government of President Bashar al-Assad. "They were the two main bridges in the area, but there are others," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. The bridges, which were located in the Al-Ghab plain, could be one of the first targets of any offensive by the Syrian army. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Turkey says working with Iran, Russia to avoid Idlib 'disaster' Iran Press TV Fri Aug 31, 2018 04:40AM President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey is working with Iran and Russia as the Syrian army is preparing for a decisive battle to drive terrorists out of the northern Idlib province. Idlib shares borders with Turkey and is currently controlled by foreign-backed terrorists. With the Syrian army preparing to retake the last terrorist stronghold, there had been reports that Turkey tried to stave off the offensive. Erdogan's affirmation of working with Russia and Iran on Thursday, however, signals an apparent U-turn in the face of Syria's insistence that the operation will go ahead despite US threats of a possible attack. Erdogan and his Iranian counterparts Hassan Rouhani and Vladimir Putin are expected to hold a trilateral meeting on Syria in Iran on September 7. Speaking in Ankara, the Turkish president said his country "should be present on the field, be strong in the field, and succeed at the field." "This is how we destroyed the terror corridor along our borders with Syria," he said. Ankara, he said, was working with Iran and Russia to prevent what he called a "catastrophe" from happening in Idlib. Last Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said fighting terrorists on Turkey's southern borders was a top priority. "It's important to deactivate all the terrorist groups since they are posing a threat to Turkey on our border," Cavusoglu said in a joint news conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Staffan de Mistura, the UN's Special envoy to Syria, said on Thursday the United Nations estimates that around 10,000 terrorists remain in northern Idlib province and need to be defeated. The UN envoy admitted that the terrorists may use chemical weapons during the Syrian army's upcoming operation in Idlib, endangering the lives of three million people living there. His remarks came after Russia recently warned that Western powers led by the US were preparing to launch a new attack on Syria under the pretext of a "false flag" chemical attack. According to Lavrov, the US seeks to use the provocation as a pretext to justify a new strike against Syrian forces, urging the West "not to play with fire in Syria." "A new provocation is being prepared by the West to hamper the anti-terrorist operation in Idlib," Lavrov said Thursday during a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem in Moscow. "We have facts on the table and have issued a strong warning to our Western partners through our Defense Ministry and our Foreign Ministry not to play with fire," he added. Muallem said government forces will "go all the way" in Idlib and that Damascus's main targets are Nusra Front militants. "A tripartite aggression or not, it will not influence our determination to liberate the entire Syrian territory," he said, referring to Washington, Paris and London. Anatoly Antonov, Russia's ambassador to the United States, warned Washington against "groundless and illegal aggression against Syria." Turkey reportedly held last-ditch talks with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorists, formerly known as Nusra Front. "The negotiations between Turkey and HTS are still under way," the head of the so-called Syria Observatory for Human Rights Rami Abdel Rahman said Thursday. Turkey actively sponsors militant forces in Idlib in the "de-escalation" area of the city and recently spearheaded the formation of the so-called National Front for Liberation, a coalition of over a dozen armed factions. Lavrov said, "It is unacceptable that those terrorists particularly al-Nusra Front are using the de-escalation area of Idlib to attack the Syrian army and to also attack through drones the Russian military bases in the area." "What we need to do now is to wipe out those terrorist groups which persist, particularly within the de-escalation area of Idlib," he said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US Military Makes Preliminary List of Possible Targets in Syria - Reports Sputnik News 22:45 31.08.2018(updated 23:52 31.08.2018) Among the main targets that could be struck if US President Donald Trump were to order a new round of airstrikes in the country are Syrian facilities alleged to be connected with chemical weapons production, CNN reported. However, decisions on any specific strikes have not yet been made, a US administration official familiar with the matter told CNN, stressing that the US military could be engaged very quickly if the believed Damascus had launched a chemical weapons attack. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement earlier on Friday that the US sees Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's defense of a possible operation in the province of Idlib as an escalation of the conflict. Lavrov has said Syrian President Bashar Assad's government has the legitimate right to expel terrorists from Idlib, where militant groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra have taken refuge. Speculation about the possibility of a chemical weapons attack in Syria has grown in recent weeks after Russian officials warned of a plot to launch such an assault in order to provoke Western retaliation against the Syrian government. Lavrov said Russia has evidence that such an attack is being prepared and has already transferred this proof to both the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations. Meanwhile, the Russian Navy and Aerospace Forces will hold joint large-scale training exercises in the Mediterranean Sea from September 1 to 8. Lavrov said Friday that the naval exercises in the Mediterranean area are a normal event and every country has the right to hold such drills. Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Adm. Vladimir Korolevhas said that the zone of the upcoming maneuvers in the Mediterranean has been declared temporarily dangerous for regular navigation and air traffic. The US Defense Department told Sputnik Thursday that it was aware of reports of a huge military exercise Russia planned to stage in the Mediterranean Sea this week, and hoped Moscow would follow the rules of safe conduct. Last week, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said that terrorists of the Tahrir al-Sham group (affiliated with the Jabhat Nusra) were preparing a provocation in Idlib province in order to accuse Syrian government forces of using chemical weapons against civilians. On Tuesday, The Russian Center for Syrian Reconciliation reported that representatives of the White Helmets group had delivered a large shipment of toxic substances to a warehouse used by Ahrar al-Sham militants in Idlib province in order to stage a false-flag chemical attack and subsequently accuse the government forces of the use of toxic agents against civilians. Moreover, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said Thursday that the White Helmets had also kidnapped 44 children to stage an incident with chemical weapons in Syria's Idlib. On April 7, Western media outlets reported that a chemical attack had been conducted in the Syrian city of Douma in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta. Western countries immediately blamed Damascus for the attack. The Syrian government denied the accusations and said that the Jaish al-Islam terror group staged the attack to encourage foreign intervention in Syria. On April 14, the United States, the United Kingdom and France launched over 100 missiles on multiple targets in Syria in response to the alleged chemical weapons attack. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the strikes were carried out in violation of the norms and principles of international law. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Navy proposes NT$31.6 billion for fast attack missile boats ROC Central News Agency 2018/08/31 17:35:51 Taipei, Aug. 31 (CNA) The Navy has submitted a request for NT$31.6 billion (US$1.02 billion) to build 50-ton fast attack missile boats, as part of the national annual defense budget which was submitted for legislative review on Friday. According to a high-ranking defense official who asked not to be identified, the missile boats are part of an effort to strengthen Taiwan's asymmetric warfare capabilities in the face of a growing military imbalance in the Taiwan Strait. The nation cannot rely on conventional warfare as a solution, and must adjust its defense approach and resources, the official said. As such, it is important to focus on quality, efficiency and precision over quantity, with the acquisition and construction of fast attack missile boats, mobile air defense systems, and anti-armor weaponry a priority. For example, assault boats are small, fast, agile and offensive warships that can be armed with anti-ship missiles, guns or torpedoes, they are stealthy and can be rapidly deployed, the official said. The planned attack boats will be equipped with two Hsiung Feng II anti-ship missiles, according to the official. As part of the Navy's defense proposal, it is also seeking NT$917.77 million for the construction of four naval minelayers to deter enemy ships, the official said. (By Matt Yu and Ko Lin) Enditem/AW NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Turkey to acquire Russia's S-400s 'in shortest time' despite US warnings Iran Press TV Fri Aug 31, 2018 01:39PM Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country will procure Russia's S-400 air defense missile system "in the shortest time," paying no heed to warnings issued by the US, a NATO partner. "Turkey needs S-400s and its deal has been done," Erdogan said at a graduation ceremony for military officers in the western city of Balikesir on Friday. "God willing, we will buy them in the shortest time," he stressed. On April 3, Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin said in the Turkish capital Ankara that they had agreed to expedite the delivery of S-400 missile systems. The delivery had previously been scheduled for late 2019 and early 2020. The S-400 system, whose full name is the Triumf Mobile Multiple Anti-Aircraft Missile System (AAMS), is an advanced Russian missile system designed to detect, track, and destroy planes, drones, or missiles as far as 402 kilometers away. It has previously been sold only to China and India. Washington and NATO officials strive to prevent the sophisticated Russian-built anti-aircraft weapon system from collecting information about the US-made all-weather stealth multirole warplanes, technically known as the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighters, just as they are gaining a foothold in Europe. US Secretary of Defense James Mattis on August 28 said his country is concerned about Turkey's intent to purchase the S-400s, adding that Washington does "not recommend" it. Washington warned that any such acquisition would inevitably affect the prospects for Turkish military-industrial cooperation with the US. However, Erdogan on Friday said that Ankara "needed cooperation with other countries as much as that with Europe and America." The purchase of the Russian missile system comes amid rising tensions between Ankara and the US over the detention of Andrew Brunson, an American pastor, in Turkey over terror-related charges. Brunson was indicted by a Turkish court on charges of having links with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant group and the movement of the US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen. Ankara accuses Gulen of having masterminded the July 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The spat has hit trade ties between the US and Turkey hard and affected the Turkish economy. The lira has already lost about 30 percent of its value against the US dollar since the beginning of August. Turkey and the US also disagree over their military interventions in the Syria war and the US conviction of a Turkish state bank executive on sanctions-busting charges in January. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pro-Russia leader killed in eastern Ukraine Iran Press TV Fri Aug 31, 2018 05:09PM The leader of pro-Russia forces in eastern Ukraine has been killed in an explosion blamed on the government in Kiev. Alexander Zakharchenko, 42, the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), was killed on Friday in a bomb blast, a local security source and senior pro-Russia authorities told the media. The source added that three people were wounded in the blast. The region's Finance Minister Alexander Timofeyev was said to be among those wounded. Earlier on Friday, a blast was heard in a restaurant in downtown Donetsk near Zakharchenko's residence. Hours later, Vladislav Berdichevky, a lawmaker of the People's Council of the DPR, confirmed reports that the DPR leader had been killed in the blast. "Unfortunately, DPR's leader was mortally wounded in the explosion at the Separ (Separatist) cafe." The pro-Russia forces said several "Ukrainian operatives" were detained after the deadly blast. They said the blast was "an obvious act of aggression by Ukraine." Pro-Russia forces pledged to respond in kind to the aggression. Russia was quick to make similar remarks. Moscow blamed the bombing on the Kiev government. Russia's Foreign Ministry said it had every reason to believe Kiev was behind the bombing. Kiev has decided to engage in a "bloody fight," the ministry said. 'Dastardly crime' Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the killing of Zakharchenko as a "dastardly" act that aimed to destabilize the region. In a statement issued by the Kremlin, the Russian president also expressed his condolences to Zakharchenko's family. Meanwhile, Russia's state investigative committee issued a statement, saying it was treating the killing of the pro-Russia leader in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine as an act of international terrorism. It added that it had opened a criminal investigation into the killing. Conflict started in eastern Ukraine in April 2014 following Crimea's separation from Ukraine and reunion with Russia, which took place after a referendum. Since then, international efforts to restore peace and stability to the Russian-speaking region have failed and more than 10,000 people have died. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ukrainian Separatist Leader Zakharchenko Killed In Cafe Bombing RFE/RL August 31, 2018 The leadership of the pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine has been thrown into disarray after the head of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic was killed in an explosion at a cafe designed to honor the separatists. The death on August 31 of Aleksandr Zakharchenko at the Separ cafe -- a separatist-themed establishment featuring camouflage netting hanging from its eaves -- drove the rebel council to an emergency meeting and angered the separatists' backers in Moscow. Zakharchenko's killing was the latest in a series of violent deaths of separatist officials and commanders in eastern Ukraine, where the Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting the central government in Kyiv since 2014 in a war that has killed more than 10,300. Many of the assassinations have been blamed on fellow rebels. The Donetsk News Agency said in a statement on its website that the 42-year-old Zakharchenko had been killed in an explosion in central Donetsk and that another separatist figure, Aleksandr Timofeyev, was injured in the blast and was in serious condition. A reporter for the AFP news agency at the scene said police had cordoned off the block where the blast occurred. Local officials said traffic to and from Donetsk had been suspended and that the start of the school year would be delayed across the separatist-controlled region because of the attack. Russian state-run TASS news agency reported that the Donetsk rebels' ruling council had gone into an emergency meeting. Russia's Interfax reported that Dmitry Trapeznikov, the first deputy prime minister, had been named as acting leader. Reuters earlier quoted a source as saying that Denis Pushilin, head of the rebel legislature, would be named temporary leader. Russia's Foreign Ministry was quick to blame Ukrainian authorities for the attack, saying Kyiv had decided to engage in a "bloody fight." The Kremlin later said that Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences for the "vile murder" and that Russia's state Investigative Committee was treating the killing as an act of "international terrorism." However, Ukraine's security service said it believes the attack was a result of a conflict between "terrorists and their Russian sponsors." "We do not exclude an attempt by the Russian special services to eliminate a rather odious figure who, according to the information we have, was meddlesome for the Russians," the security service was quoted by state media as saying. The separatist movement has been plagued by infighting, with several leaders fleeing the region after saying they had been subject to threats from former comrades. In February 2017, separatist commander Mikhail Tolstykh, 36, whose nom de guerre was Givi, died in an explosion in his office in Donetsk. Another separatist commander -- Arseny Pavlov, known as Motorola -- was killed when a bomb exploded in an elevator in his apartment block in Donetsk in October 2016. On January 1, 2015, Aleksandr Bednov, a separatist commander in Luhansk, was killed resisting arrest by fellow separatist authorities on charges he ran a torture chamber in the basement of a rebel-held building. Since April 2014, more than 10,300 people have been killed in fighting between Kyiv's forces and the pro-Russia separatists who control parts of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Moscow has denied providing the separatist forces with weapons despite what Kyiv and NATO say is evidence proving that it has done so. Cease-fire deals announced as part of the Minsk accords -- September 2014 and February 2015 pacts aimed at resolving the conflict -- have regularly failed to hold. Russia in 2014 also seized and annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. The United States and European Union condemned Russia's actions in Ukraine and have slapped a series of sanctions against Moscow in reaction. Zakharchenko, a former coal-mine electrician who was born in Donetsk in 1976, was sworn into office as the head of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic on November 4, 2014. At one point, Zakharchenko announced plans to create a country called Malorossia -- Little Russia -- encompassing all of Ukraine with its capital in Donetsk. However, in August 2017, Zakharchenko called off the plan, saying it "was rejected by many" after it was met with derision and criticism Kyiv and the West and did not receive the Kremlin's support. With reporting by Reuters, Interfax, and TASS Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukrainian-separatist-leader-zakharchenko -reported-killed-in-donetsk-cafe-blast/29464119.html Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Eleven Casualties in Zakharchenko Assassination Explosion Sputnik News 23:08 31.08.2018(updated 23:48 31.08.2018) Nearly a dozen individuals died or sustained injuries in the explosion at a cafe in downtown Donetsk that killed Donetsk People's Republic leader Alexander Zakharchenko on Friday, a local source tells Sputnik News, among them the republic's finance minister, who is in grave condition. "In total, 11 people became victims of the explosion," the source said, without detailing the precise number of casualties. "That includes both the dead and the wounded." The explosion occurred in central Donetsk. According to an aid to the DPR president, the attack was deliberately planted at an eatery Zakharchenko was known to frequent. DPR Finance Minister Alexander Timofeev was also wounded during the incident. He has been taken to hospital and "his health condition is grave," acting DPR leader Dmitry Trapeznikov told reporters later Friday. An unconfirmed number of suspects have been detained, said Alexander Kazakov, a DPR presidential adviser, during an interview with TV channel Russia-1. "At this point, a state of emergency has been introduced in the republic, the borders have been closed, suspects have already been detained," Kazakov said. The acting leader of DPR said Friday that the suspects acknowledged they are linked to an unspecified "Ukrainian sabotage group." Zakharchenko's murder calls into question the process of peaceful settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday. "What happened today puts a big question mark on the whole process [of implementation of the Minsk accords on Ukraine]," Zakharova said in an interview with Rossiya-24 television. She added that it was necessary to conduct "a most impartial and prompt investigation" into Zakharchenko's assassination. Sputnik's initial headline stated a death count of eleven before being updated with accurate information. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Donetsk People's Republic Head Zakharchenko Killed in Bomb Blast Sputnik News 18:16 31.08.2018(updated 23:09 31.08.2018) The Donetsk People's Republic Operational Command said Friday that exits and entrances to Donetsk have been closed following a blast that left the republic's head Alexander Zakharchenko dead and three more injured. A lawmaker of the People's Council of the DPR confirmed reports about the death of DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko in a bomb explosion in downtown Donetsk on Friday. "The DPR leader died in the explosion at Separ cafe," Vladislav Berdichevsky told reporters. Later reports revealed that 11 people had been killed or wounded in the blast. Later, the adviser to the DPR head said that the bomb that killed Zakharchenko was deliberately placed in the restaurant he was visiting. According to the government source, Zakharchenko died due to a severe head wound. The security source with the self-proclaimed People's Republic told Sputnik that DPR Finance Minister Alexander Timofeev was also wounded in the incident. Russia's Reaction to Zakharchenko's Assassination Addressing the death of the DPR head, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Moscow considers the blast to be a terrorist attack carried out by Kiev. "Instead of implementing the Minsk agreements and looking for means to settle the internal conflict, Kiev's party of war is implementing a terrorist scenario and is aggravating the already difficult situation in the region. Without fulfilling its peace promises, they decided to launch a bloody slaughter," Zakharova told reporters, also calling for an impartial investigation, monitored by the international community. According to the diplomat, since the West had assumed control over the situation in Ukraine, it was now the duty of the Western governments to "guarantee an impartial investigation" of the incident. These words were followed by another statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry, which stressed that the assassination threatened to seriously destabilize situation in Eastern Ukraine. Moscow also called urged Kiev to refrain from terrorist methods in resolving Ukraine's internal problems and "We call on the Ukrainian authorities to abandon their reliance on terrorist means in resolving Ukrainian internal problems. We hope that the responsible Ukrainian politicians will find the strength to stop the the 'party of war' and prevent the escalation of conflict in Donbas," the statement said. Kiev's Response to Incident The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), in turn, rejected the accusations of involvement in the assassination. "We confirm this information [about Zakharchenko's death], but Ukrainian security services have nothing to do with this. In our opinion, this was the result of wars between local leaders dividing something," SBU spokeswoman Elena Gitlyanskaya told the UNN agency. Zakharchenko joined the Donetsk militia following a coup in Kiev in 2014 and was elected leader of the Donetsk People's Republic in November 2014. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pro-Russian Rebel Leader Assassinated in East Ukraine By Charles Maynes August 31, 2018 Alexander Zakharchenko, the leader of Russian-backed separatists of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic was killed on Friday in a blast at a cafe in downtown Donetsk. The official media arm of the unrecognized republic confirmed Zakharchenko's death along with injuries to at least one other rebel government official in an explosion it labeled a "terrorist attack." The assassination, the latest in a series against prominent pro-Russian rebels fighting in east Ukraine, risked reigniting already simmering tensions between Russia and Ukraine over the fate of a region that has emerged as a key flashpoint in the war in the Donbass. Russian President Vladimir Putin quickly issued a statement to the Kremlin website expressing condolences over the loss and denouncing the assassination saying it was an attempt to further derail stalled international peace talks aimed at ending a conflict that has killed over 10,000 since it began in 2014. "It is the latest proof: those who have chosen the path of terror, violence, (and) fear do not want to seek a peaceful, political solution to the conflict," said the Russian leader. "Instead, they put a dangerous bet on the destabilization of the situation, in order to put the people of Donbass on their knees. And that will never happen," added Putin. A statement by Russia's Foreign Ministry went further placing blame for the assassination directly on the Ukrainian government in Kyiv. Ukrainian officials, in turn, said rebel infighting was to blame for the attack, while not ruling out a possible Kremlin motive. "We don't exclude attempts by Russian special services to rid themselves of a rather odious figure," said Igor Guskov, the head of the Ukrainian Security Forces, suggesting Zakharchenko may have crossed Russian interests in the region. Zakharchenko was a key figure from the beginning of pro-Russian rebels' push for independence in the Donbass a movement launched in the wake of Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. He assumed the leadership post in April of 2014 taking over the prime minister's post from Alexander Borodai, a political operator from Moscow whose role in the Donetsk uprising seemed only underscore suspicions of Kremlin involvement, if not direct sponsorship. "Crimea and the Donbass were part of Ukraine and now they're both de facto no longer part of the Ukrainian state," said Borodai, in an interview in Moscow earlier this year. "The Donbass ... ultimately, it will become part of Russia," warned Borodai. Moscow, however, insists it has no role in the Ukrainian conflict describing Russian fighters involved in the war as merely passionate "volunteers" eager to defend the rights of Russian speakers following a street revolution that saw the overthrow of a pro-Russian government in Kyiv in February 2014. While the Kremlin has repeatedly called the Kyiv revolution a "fascist junta," it has slowly distanced itself from rebels' calls to formally recognize the republic amid a raft of western sanctions issued over Russia's actions in the region. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address GREENWICH Allegations in a federal lawsuit against the town contend police allowed Brunswick School to manipulate and control an investigation into an alleged sexual assault by one of its students. The family of a teenage girl from Greenwich has filed suit in U.S. District Court in Hartford against members of the Police Departments Special Victims Section over its handling of their claim that she was sexually assaulted by a Brunswick student at a pool party they hosted. The family contends police allowed the Brunswick headmaster to interview witnesses before officers did, enabling the school to shape a narrative that there was no probable cause for criminal charges. The lawsuit claims police investigators did a substandard job in other areas as well, and that a detective sergeant tried to talk the girls father into dropping the matter. I think it was an effort to come to a predetermined result, said Meredith Braxton, a lawyer for the family. They figured out a way so that prosecutors would not act on it. Greenwich police filed an application for an arrest warrant for the Brunswick student, who was 16 at the time, in late 2016. The matter never made it to a judge. States Attorney Richard Colangelo declined to sign off on the application. Braxton and the family contend the warrant application contained misleading and erroneous information that wrongly cast doubt on the alleged victims claims. This included witness testimony from another girl who wasnt at the party, and who had been disciplined at school for bullying the alleged victim, according to the lawsuit. Another lawsuit, filed against Brunswick School in state Superior Court, contends that the school and its headmaster, Thomas Philip, began its own investigation before the police investigation and coordinated witness accounts. That lawsuit seeks monetary damages from Brunswick for the emotional distress incurred by the girl, now 18, according to court papers filed in Bridgeport. The federal lawsuit names the town of Greenwich, and two police officers, Detective Sgt. Brent Reeves and Detective Krystie Rondini, as defendants. The father of the girl says he received a call from Reeves about the case in which the detective said it wasnt a case worth pursuing because there was no witness to the actual assault, according to the lawsuit. The sergeant also said the complaint would ruin the boys college chances, and expose Plaintiff and her family to liability for doing so, according to the lawsuit. The father claims he was told his adult son could face criminal liability over a physical altercation that took place between him and the Brunswick student before the incident in the pool house, the lawsuit says. The suit says the Brunswick student attacked the brother, who then defended himself. According to the court papers, the father also was told it was futile to pursue the complaint. The girls parents say the Brunswick student forced himself on her, pulled off part of her clothing and digitally penetrated her against her will as she struggled to get away from him in a pool house at the party in June 2016. The alleged assailant and most other Brunswick students at the party were interviewed by Philip before police investigators, according to the lawsuit. The girl attended Greenwich Academy, which has shared programs with Brunswick. There was a policy of standing down, and letting Brunswick do the investigation, Braxton said. Thats inappropriate. She claims the Brunswick administration coordinated stories among the witnesses that held it was impossible to determine whether a sexual assault had taken place. She also asserts an inappropriate back channel, between Greenwich police and former department officers now employed in private security at Brunswick, worked to prevent negative publicity from tarnishing the reputation of Brunswick. The lawyer had no specific information proving collusion, beyond what she said were indications of a mutual strategy to ensure charges werent filed. The alleged perpetrator was allowed to remain a student at Brunswick, according to court papers, so he interacted frequently with the girl at joint school functions. She suffered anxiety and panic attacks, according to the lawsuit, and has been receiving psychological counseling. The girls family said she was also criticized and ostracized after the incident by other students in the schools shared community, while the alleged perpetrator faced few consequences. Lawyers for the town and the officers involved are denying any wrongdoing. Our position is, its sad what happened to the family, said Bob Mitchell, representing the town and the two officers. The police did a thorough and proper investigation. We find the complaint without merit. Town Attorney Wayne Fox said Town Hall, as a matter of practice, does not comment on pending litigation. I have sympathy for the family and what they went through with their daughter, Fox said. At the same time, we have a great deal of confidence in the leadership of the Police Department, and the officers of the Police Department. We think they do their job particularly well. Brunswick released the following statement this week: At the time of the incident, Brunswick responded as it unfolded in a manner consistent with well-established policies and procedures, as well as with compassion for and consideration of the rights of both the students involved. The administration of Brunswick School acted appropriately throughout this matter and we will vigorously defend against these false claims. The girls family and their lawyer contend there was more than enough probable cause for a misdemeanor arrest, at least. They say the boy was visibly drunk and had engaged in hostile behavior with other people at the gathering before the alleged assault. The state lawsuit states Brunswick students sneaked alcohol into the party, and that the hosts did not serve any alcohol to their adult or minor guests. They family cites the boys later text messages asking their daughter for forgiveness as inculpatory, or indicative of guilt. They say their daughter has consistently maintained the same story, restating it on repeated occasions to authority figures. Braxton said the police investigation was ineffectual, and she contends the alleged perpetrator was never officially interviewed by police at all, based on the documents she received from the Police Department through a Freedom of Information request. She said other witnesses, including a boy who went into the pool house immediately after the events in question, and later went home with alleged perpetrator, were never formally interviewed by police, and were allowed to submit written statements. Braxton said Philip was never questioned by police, either, after he had conducted interviews with students. Braxton said it was a negligent approach to a serious crime. Theres a certain amount of deference to people of power and wealth in Greenwich, and heres an example of that, Braxton said. The girls father said the family was never looking for jail time, and for a juvenile suspect, he said that was unlikely anyway. But he said he wanted consequences for an injustice committed against his daughter, to set a deterrent. He and his lawyers want to reinforce the principle that violence toward women is a punishable offense under any circumstances. The father said he would like an independent review of the case, and others that may come to light involving similar circumstances. Richard Colangelo, the states attorney, did not return a phone call and email seeking comment. The father, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect his daughters identity, said the case highlights the way well-connected institutions create special exemptions from the law. We want to change the rules, he said. As soon as a private institution comes in, they put reputation over truth. The federal lawsuit claims the girls civil rights were violated by the Police Department. Braxton said she also lodged a complaint with the Police Department, regarding the purported exchange between the detective sergeant and the girls father. The lawyer said she had a similar conversation with the detective sergeant. When we complained about that interaction, Chief (James) Heavey said it would be referred to the special standards section, the departments internal review unit for handling complaints, Braxton said. None of that happened. She asked for documentation from the department on her complaint. She later received a letter from the department stating: Heavey inquired about the conduct of the investigation and was satisfied with the response. There was no written communication between the chief and anyone else in the department, therefore there are no documents to provide. Heavey did not respond to a request for comment. rmarchant@greenwichtime.com For founders, there's nothing like the adrenaline rush of explosive growth. When you're at the helm of a fast-growing startup, and your company is in growth mode, you feel like nothing can slow you down. You're bringing on new talent, inking new deals across the globe and moving forward rapid-fire with a slew of new ideas. Related: Don't Get Slowed Down by Growing Too Fast While growth is good, a "too fast, too furious" approach can create cracks in the foundation that can slow down your business later. In a landmark study, Startup Genome found 74 percent of high-growth startups fail due to premature scaling. Evidence has backed up those numbers ever since. For every success story, there is a cautionary tale (or two, or three, or four). Scale is what separates small businesses from startups and getting there can be a bumpy road. At MessageBird, we know the journey well. Within the span of a few short years, we've grown 300 percent -- from a handful of employees in a garage in Amsterdam to a global team that now stretches across seven offices worldwide. How? By prioritizing customers above all else. In other words: Your customers are the canary in the coal mine. When you start a business, it's all about the customer. But, there's something about scaling that forces founders to look inwardly. That type of tunnel vision is good, in that it allows founders to focus on internal processes. But, it also allows founders to shrug off or eye roll away rumblings from customers as one-offs, instead of recognizing them as the wake-up calls they are. Customer service should drive your ability to scale, rather than take a backseat to it. Don't excuse away growing pains as something customers will understand as you expand. They won't. And they shouldn't. Keep a close eye on your Net Promoter Score score and build a customer feedback loop to understand what your customers value and what you can do better -- then deliver. Related: How I Grew My Startup From My Kitchen to a Multimillion-Dollar Business Don't "try" to scale. It seems counter-intuitive at first glance, but this subtle shift in mindset will save you a lot of headaches down the road. Instead of a looking at scale as an outcome, look at is as a natural extension of the work you're already doing for your customers. Don't force it. If you're scaling as it's needed, you'll set your company up for success; if you're scaling before you're ready, you're putting your company at risk. After all, scale isn't the end game. The end game is building something your customers want and, in turn, creating a strong, sustainable business. Scale is just a means to that end. Stay as lean as possible for as long as possible. In today's Silicon Valley startup ecosystem, venture capitalists are on a unicorn hunt -- buoying the tech sector with cash, hoping to find the next billion-dollar disruptor. For bootstrapped companies suddenly confronted by an influx of funds, the temptation can be to over-staff and over-spend. The trick is to spend and staff based on business need, instead of available funds. That way, you're watching your cash flow, while allowing enough runway for growth. Related: As Your Company Scales, You'll Need to Listen More Than Speak Learn to respond instead of react. When you're leading a high-growth startup, venture capital money is an incredible accelerator. It's also an incredible source of pressure. The bigger the round, the bigger the expectations. Founders feel like they have to move quickly to show results. Usually, that means dialing up marketing and sales to drive user acquisition and building out an infrastructure to support new business when those leads are converted to sales. All of which is great -- as long as you're taking the time to really understand the customer pain, and then solve it. My advice? Stay close to your customers and respond to their needs, instead of reacting to the need to fill your funnel. Your decisions will be strategic and calibrated, instead of scattershot. Call it what you want to call it -- just a bunch of workaholics. While no path to growth is completely smooth, when your workplace is well taken care of it will feel like it's humming. Employees are working effectively and efficiently because they're energized by their work and able to keep pace with demand. If you're scaling too quickly, the vibe will change. People will feel like they're chained to their desks. And then, those desks will become empty because employees won't want to stick around. Take note of turnover and retention. Implement feedback sessions and create opportunities internally to gauge employee experience. Every startup experience feels a bit like an action movie. But, by shifting your mindset, it could turn out more like a fairy tale. After all, when it comes to scaling, it's better to channel Goldilocks instead of Vin Diesel, to make sure everything is "just right" instead of "too fast, too furious." Related: Most CEOs Miss These 3 Things When Scaling Their Businesses Avoid the 'Too Fast, Too Furious' Approach to Scaling a Startup Is Your Brand Really Ready to Expand? Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Everyone is looking at HMD Global to release a truly flagship-grade Nokia smartphone after the Nokia 8 Sirocco didn't exactly live up to some expectations. Now, a new Nokia-branded handset, with model number TA-1131, has popped up on the Chinese 3C certification website giving us hope of a Nokia 9 release. We know it's too early to tell since the listing doesn't give away anything specific about the smartphone but we can still hope, right? It just mentions 5V/3A, 9V/2A and 12V/1.5A charging speeds capping at 18W, which confirms fast charging capabilities. However, this isn't new to Nokia smartphones as most of them support Quick Charge 3.0, at least. We will be monitoring the rumor mill for more interesting scoops and in hopes of something more solid to work with. Source Haiti - Security : The Residence of the President of the Senate attacked Tuesday, August 28 around midnight, the private residence of Senator Joseph Lambert, President of the Senate and of the National Assembly, located at Delmas 40 B, was targeted by unidentified individuals, who threw an explosive device into the court and fired several shots on the facade of the property, causing no casualties. After the attack, a judge of peace, accompanied by agents of the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police and the Scientific Police went to the scene. Bullet strikes were noted on the facade, as well as a bullet impact on a front side window of Senator Lambert's vehicle. Since that event, Senator Joseph Lambert has refrained from commenting, leaving police authorities to conduct their investigation. The police security apparatus around Lambert's residence has been reinforced. TB/ HaitiLibre A man has appeared in court accused of burgling a top Dublin stockbroking firm's offices. Oscar Chmielowski (26) was granted bail subject to conditions after he was charged over an alleged break-in at Davy Stockbrokers in the city centre. Judge Bernadette Owens remanded him on bail at Dublin District Court for the directions of the DPP to be made available. Chmielowski, of The Gab-les, Grangeview, Clondalkin, is charged with one count of burglary. It is alleged he entered the stockbrokers' offices on Dawson Street as a trespasser on Aug- ust 25 and committed a theft. A garda sergeant gave evidence of the accused's arrest, charge and caution by means of a certificate handed into court. The accused was in custody, but there was no garda objection to bail subject to conditions, the sergeant said. Lodgement These include the accused signing on at Store Street Garda Station on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He must also stay out of the Dublin 2 area. Defence solicitor Michael French confirmed these conditions were agreeable to the accused. The sergeant said directions were not available yet and a file was being prepared for the DPP. Judge Owens granted bail in the defendant's own bond of 200, with no cash lodgement required. She assigned free legal aid after Mr French submitted a statement of the accused's financial means and said he was not working. There was no garda objection. The judge asked Mr Chmielowski if he had signed the bail bond after it was handed to him and he replied: "Yes." She remanded him on bail to appear in court again on a date next month. The accused has not yet indicated how he intends to plead to the charge. Education Minister Richard Bruton has admitted that the growing number of homeless children is a "real challenge" for the Government. It comes as the latest figures reveal the number of homeless children has more than doubled in some parts of the country. Overall, the numbers continues to rise, with Government figures from July showing there are 9,891 homeless people living in Ireland. Concerns have been raised over the number of homeless children returning to school and about the support mechanisms in place for pupils. Mr Bruton described it as a "difficult issue". "We do have a lot of support in place for children who come to school with whatever special needs. There is travel support for children who are homeless," he said. "Clearly our teachers, special needs assistants and our principals go to great lengths to ensure that every child who comes to school is accommodated as best as possible. "We do try to support those initiatives in schools, whether it be breakfast clubs or any others that support children so they can participate. "This is a real challenge for us - no other issue gets more attention than the challenge of homelessness. "From the outset, the Government has said it is a five-year challenge and we are not halfway through that programme. "We continue to have diffic- ulties, but many of the targets we have set have been reached. "This is a really difficult issue we are seeking to meet and challenge." Mr Bruton said he also recognises the budget pressures that primary schools are under. The minister made the comments as he was launching the School Of The Future to highlight education reforms and increased investment. Potential He said his party's target was to have the "best education system" in Europe by 2026. "As young people go back to school, they will benefit from increased investment in educ-ation and curricular reforms designed to help them progress in life and achieve their full potential," Mr Bruton said. "Fine Gael has increased investment in education by over 1bn in the last two years, bringing the education budget to its highest ever at over 10bn. "Five thousand extra teachers were recruited in the last two years and 1,200 more teachers are being recruited in September. "We also want to ensure that children with special educational needs can fulfil their potential." News Story not available This story has been published on: 2021-11-03. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. This story is no longer available on our site. The plea deal was handled by the DC US Attorney's Office and the Justice Department's National Security Division, not Mueller's team, which is about to take former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to trial on a similar charge. The criminal charging document does not name Manafort or any of his colleagues in the US and Ukraine, though Patten's efforts from 2014 on may be connected to those efforts. Kilimnik, a Russian national with ties to the Russian military intelligence group accused of interfering in the presidential election, has close professional ties to both Patten and Manafort as they worked for the same Ukrainian political interests. Kilimnik was among the alleged co-conspirators that helped Manafort hide his Ukrainian consulting income in foreign bank accounts, according to documents revealed at Manafort's trial for financial crimes earlier this month. Mueller's prosecutors charged Kilimnik and Manafort in June in a separate federal court with witness tampering, after Kilimnik reached out to potential witnesses in Manafort foreign lobbying case. Kilimnik has not entered a plea in his case, because he is living in Moscow, prosecutors say. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to the foreign lobbying charges, and those criminal allegations do not reach past 2015. Kilimnik co-ran a company with Patten, called Begemot Ventures International, according to business records. According to the court filing in the Patten case Friday, Patten and Foreigner A "formed a company in the United States and were 50-50 partners. Beginning in or around 2015, Company A, among other things, advised the Opposition Bloc and members of that part." As part of his plea, Patten agreed to cooperate with both Mueller's office and prosecutors from the DC US Attorney's Office going forward, including turning over documents and testifying at future grand jury hearings or criminal trials. Lying to Congress Patten admitted to lying to the US Senate Intelligence Committee in January this year about the inauguration tickets. While testifying, he attempted to hide his connections to the Ukrainian oligarch and the Russian national with whom he worked, prosecutors said. Patten "intentionally did not provide" the committee documents related to the Ukrainian oligarch's purchase of four Trump inaugural tickets and lied to the Senate Committee about his foreign lobbying work. He also deleted documents "pertinent to his relationships" with the foreign political interests, according to the Justice Department prosecutors. Senate intelligence Chairman Richard Burr and Vice Chairman Mark Warner said they referred Patten to the Justice Department. "We can confirm that Mr. Patten produced documents to the Committee and was interviewed by Committee staff," the senators said in a statement. "Due to concerns about certain statements made by Mr. Patten, the Committee made a criminal referral to the Department of Justice. While the charge, and resultant plea, do not appear to directly involve our referral, we appreciate their review of this matter." Court appearance Patten appeared in court Friday morning before Judge Amy Berman Jackson, the same judge who is handling Manafort's trial that is scheduled to begin next month. In court, Patten conveyed the air of a solemn man aware of what he had done. As Berman Jackson asked him several questions about his willfulness to plead guilty and the rights he will waive, Patten answered her slowly and clearly each time: "Yes, your honor," "I understand, your honor," "I do, your honor." In a blue shirt and navy suit and tie, the lifelong Washingtonian stood before the judge, nodding often as she spoke to him. Patten only appeared to stumble in his speech when asked for his plea. "I would -- I plead guilty to the charge," Patten said to the judge. Berman Jackson confirmed that he had signed every page of his plea agreement and charging documents with "a squiggle." A prosecutor from the DC US Attorney's Office read the charging document made public Friday before the hearing, almost word for word. He added no new details when describing Patten's criminal offense, though he added the words more than once that Patten "was working as a foreign agent of the Opposition Bloc." The Ukrainian political party, called the Opposition Bloc, had deep ties to Russia in the period in which Patten represented them, including many allies of the former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The political party formed from the remnants of Yanukovych's base after he was driven out of Ukraine in 2014 and fled to Russia. Patten's defense attorney declined to comment following the hearing. The 35-minute court proceeding was sparsely attended by members of the press and court employees, yet members of Mueller's special counsel's office filled a front row of seats. They were lead Manafort prosecutor Andrew Weissmann and FBI agents Omer Meisel and Brock Domin. After the hearing ended, Weissmann spent several minutes greeting Patten's defense attorney, Stuart Sears, and two prosecutors from other Justice Department offices on the case. Patten stood waiting with his hands crossed in front of him without a smile, and he shook Meisel's hand. Spokesmen from the special counsel's office and DC US Attorney's Office declined to comment further about the case. Patten will not be detained until his sentencing. But he will need to give up his passport and must ask the judge for permission to travel outside the Washington metro area. He also must continue to see a psychiatrist or therapist, which he said he currently does regularly for depression and anxiety treatment, and he must avoid alcohol, the judge ordered. Berman Jackson also spoke on the rarity of a foreign lobbying prosecution. There is no sentencing guideline for this type of case and no analogous guidelines the court can use to determine Patten's sentence. "That's a little complicated," Berman Jackson said when discussing his potential sentence. "I don't usually have to go into all that." The prosecutors and defense will give the court a status update in 60 days on Patten's case. RIVERSIDE, Calif. - A Riverside County couple, accused of starving and torturing 12 of their 13 children, pleaded not guilty in a court room today. David and Louise Turpin are facing three-dozen felony charges. Both are being held on a 12 million bail and if convicted, could face up to 100 years behind bars. The couple's 17-year-old daughter escaped the family's home in Muir Woods on Jan. 14 and told a 911 dispatcher that her sisters were chained to their beds, shackled so tightly that their bodies were bruised. The parents are scheduled to return to court on Oct. 5. How many COVID tests do you think Meritus has done? Here's the answer NOTE: Last week a local Facebook group Mom posted a photo of her son's peeling, red feet, asking a large group of local Moms "What is this?" They all chimed in - "COXSACKIE!" And then they offered her sympathy, recommended quarantine ideas, and generally supported her, saying they too had dealt with this common childhood disease. It was a nice display of Moms supporting Moms. Had she said, "What is this?" and there were spots all over his face, the response would have been different. "Measles!" And panic, blame and shame may well have been the follow up, instead of the same advice about quarantine and managing discomfort. Measles means BAD MOM. Coxsackie does not. Why? Because there is a vaccine for Measles, formerly a common childhood illness that bonded Moms in coffee klatches and Tupperware parties. Need proof? Look at this article - there's NO mention that measles is deadly. It's generally not to a healthy child. In fact it was sitcom fodder for decades, from the Flintstones to the Brady Bunch. "Measles is such a concern, because one, it's preventable. We have a vaccination that can prevent it," Dr. Umair Shah, executive director of the Harris County, Texas, Health System, told KTRK. "And two, it's so easily transmittable to someone else. ... Vaccines save lives. Texas nurse fired after posting about patient's measles on anti-vaccination page From ABC News: A nurse at a hospital in Texas where a toddler tested positive for measles has been fired after she posted about the diagnosis on an anti-vaccination website, according to hospital officials. The employee's firing comes just one day after Texas Children's Hospital said it was investigating the incident. "We were made aware that one of our nurses posted protected health information regarding a patient on social media," the hospital said in a statement Tuesday night. "We take these matters very seriously as the privacy and well-being of our patients is always a top priority. After an internal investigation, this individual is no longer with the organization." Texas Children's Hospital in Houston said Monday it stopped a nurse from seeing patients after she reportedly posted about a young boys condition on an anti-vaccination group on , according to a statement. She allegedly wrote about the case on the "Proud Parents of Unvaccinated Children - Texas" Facebook page, which has since been deleted. A concerned parent posted screenshots of the unidentified nurses comments on the hospital's Facebook page late Friday. Read more here. A day after Kangana Ranaut said that her former Manikarnika co-star Sonu Sood refused to make himself available for reshoots because he vehemently denied working under a woman director Sonu has shot back with a response. Kangana had taken over as director of Manikarnika, a historical epic based on the life of Rani Laxmi Bai, after original director Krish reportedly became occupied with his new film, a biopic on NTR. A new report suggests that Kangana had already started insinuating herself as the director before Krish had removed himself, and that Sonu had a difference in opinion with her when she started shortening his role. In a statement to Pinkvilla earlier this week, Kangana had said, Sonu and I havent even met since the last shot with Krish (director) last year. He is busy filming Simmba. He couldnt even give us tentative dates to match combinations with other actors. The producers showed him the film and writers narrated the patchwork to him...he refused to meet me. He vehemently denied to work under a woman director, which is kind of amusing because Sonu is a dear friend and I have even launched the music of a film that he produced on his request, even though the team suggested that they have full faith in me, it seems, Sonu had neither dates nor faith. Actor Sonu Sood pays obeisance at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. (IANS) While Sonu had initially said that he would take the high road and wished the Manikarnika team all the best, he has now lashed out at his dear friend Kangana for playing the woman card. Kangana is a dear friend and she will always remain one but this constant playing the woman card, the victim card and making this entire issue about male chauvinism is ridiculous, he told India Today. Addressing Kanganas accusation that he isnt comfortable working under a woman director, Sonu said, The gender of the director is not the issue. Competence is. Lets not confuse the two. Ive worked with Farah Khan who is a competent woman director and Farah and I had a great professional equation and we are still best of friends, he said. In an earlier statement to Pinkvilla, Sonus spokesperson had said, Sonu has always been a thorough professional and honoured all his commitments. He had informed the makers of Manikarnika about his dates and schedule, well in advance. Inconveniencing the team of his current film, to accommodate the demands of another are against his professional principles. Sonu has taken the higher road ahead and wishes the team of Manikarnika all the best. Manikarnika has been scheduled for a January 25, 2019 release. Follow @htshowbiz for more Why would I, a 16-year-old in Mumbai, wake up one morning and phone the indomitable Ma Anand Sheela in Maisprach, Switzerland? Well. I watched the enthralling documentary Wild Wild Country (WWC) about Rajneeshpuram, the Osho commune in Oregon, USA, which is currently creating a huge buzz for its five Emmy nominations. And I had a feeling Ma Anand Sheela, once secretary to Rajneesh and head of Rajneeshpuram in Oregon, was also once just a 16-year-old in (then) Bombay, when she first met Rajneesh. This encounter led her to the opera where, in her words, I was the soprano, Bhagwan the tenor, Rajneeshpuram the setting, and the ending, like most operas, tragic. I had to call the Boss Lady who virtually controlled a city, while shooting the sassiest comebacks to the powerful white men in suits who accused her of all sorts of crimes, including biowarfare, attempted murder and engineering the largest immigration scandal in the USA. I needed to know more. Who is Ma Anand Sheela? If you havent watched the Neflix documentary Wild Wild Country, read this! Sheela was secretary to cult leader Rajneesh (later called Osho) in the 80s, and helped set up the town of Rajneeshpuram in Oregon, USA. The unorthodox ways of the community rattled not just local residents of the state, but put the freedom of religion the US constitution guarantees its citizens under the scanner. As the face of controversy, Ma Anand Sheela overshadowed Rajneesh himself in the documentary. Her controversial statements questioning the American establishment made her a television darling and she was once called the most hated woman in the USA. Sheela was accused of bio- warfare, attempt to murder and convicted for her role in a giant immigration scam, and she served her sentence in an American prison. She now lives in Switzerland and works with aged people. After watching the documentary for the fourth time, listening to Alexandre Desplats Argo soundtrack and feeling very espionagey, I finally scheduled a Skype interview with Ma Anand Sheela, who is currently at work in Vietnam. The visual of Ma Anand Sheela walking in the dark, desolate woods of Maisprach, Switzerland, to the almost other-wordly score of Wild Wild Country played in my head continuously as I waited for the Skype ring tone. When it rang, I saw the name Sheela Birnstiel flash on my laptop screen, I heard someone who is no stranger to me, call out my name excitedly: Sophie!!! And then I got to know the person behind the secretary to Osho, the human behind the character in the documentary, and realised that Sheela and I have something in common. In Sheelas words: See! Just like you, I fall, I continue, you fall, you continue. We have something very much in common. Ma Anand Sheela was just a 16-year-old when she first met Rajneesh (Gabriel Hill) Excerpts from our interview. Sheela Birnstiel (SB): Sophie!!! Me: Hello, good afternoon! Thank you for giving me the time for this interview. SB: What happened to your face? Me: I had a little accident on my school trip. SB: You got hurt on a scooter or what? Me: No, I just fell down. Its not a big problem. SB: Not a big problem? You have to take care of yourself, hmm? Me: Yes, yes. Thank you. Um, so would you like to start right now? SB: Okay, lets begin! Me: You said that when you first met Osho at the age of 16 (and Im 16 now!) tears rolled down your cheeks and life felt complete. Can you describe that feeling? In the early 1980s Sheela was embroiled in international controversy as the chief spokesperson for Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Gabriel Hill ) SB: I dont know! I was not analytic that time, Im not analytic today. It was a very profound feeling, and theres nothing that I can say more than that. Me: You were like the queen of the commune in Rajneeshpuram. Now you live in a community in Matrusaden, the home for the elderly that you have established. Is living alone something that you just dont know? SB: That I cant live alone, you mean? Well, Bhagwan always said that the communal lifestyle will be the future of mankind. I see with my experience very directly how rich the communal lifestyle is. It makes you feel open. Many are available to you and the feeling of being there for others is even more rewarding. Human warmth is important even when you like to be alone. Me: Do you enjoy the attention you have received because of the documentary? SB: I didnt ask for the attention, so it is a gift of existence. I enjoy it sometimes. But I feel the pinch of time because I always keep myself active, and right now I have many, many appointments from journalists and visitors. Plus, Im writing replies to emails. Also, on top of it, I fell two months ago, and injured my back. I was the soprano, Bhagwan (Rajneesh) the tenor, Rajneeshpuram the setting, and the ending, like most operas, tragic Me: Oh no! Are you better now? SB: Well, I have two fractures in my back and theyre very painful, but you have to continue your life. You cannot stop because you have fractures (smiles). You see, just like you! You fall and you continue, I fall and I continue. Me: In your interviews in the 1980s, you refer to the Rajneeshis as the followers of a religion. Many people still call it a cult or sex cult. What would you call it today? SB: We tried to create a religion to obtain a US visa for Bhagwan. They had a category for head of religion, but to declare him as that, we had to create a religion first. So that was how it was a religion, but for me, it doesnt matter what you want to call it. If people call it a cult or a sex cult, I dont take it personally. It just shows me their small vocabulary and mentality (smiles). Me: Did you find it fun giving the American media sharp comebacks in your interactions with them? Everyone has their favourite Sheela comeback. Which is your favourite line? SB: I dont know what is my favourite line because I dont review my interviews and I dont try to remember or quote. But I have been told by different journalists that people are cherishing tough titties (laughs)! Me: Hahahaha! I was waiting for you to say that! SB: It was a very appropriate statement at that time. We tried to create a religion to obtain a US visa for Bhagwan. They had a category for head of religion, but to declare him as that, we had to create a religion first. So that was how it was a religion... Me: Tell me about your time in prison. SB: It was a trying time. I was extremely tired because of no rest in life with Bhagwan, and so much negativity was diverted to me from all over the world. My character had been assassinated, and I knew inside myself that I had done no wrong, so why was I in prison? So I had to find myself. I slept about 15-16 hours a day. I tried to get in touch with myself. You could become bitter, but that I will never allow because I had never seen my parents bitter in my life. That was against my pride. Once I had enough sleep, I restored my energy. I started reading whatever I could get my hands on. I would write a letter every day to my parents. It was a time of waiting. Learning the value of patience and time. Me: How did you adjust to life after prison? SB: I went to Switzerland where I was a citizen, and started from the basics. I became a household worker for eight months for an old couple. Once I saved up a bit of money, I started my own business of creating a home for the elderly. Living with this old couple gave me a sense of pleasure because I was missing my parents. And slowly, slowly, existence starting taking care of me. Existence has always taken care of me. Me: You used to have great faith in the American constitution... SB: I do not anymore (laughs). Anybody who has faith in American constitution is making a big mistake! With Donald Trump as president and the Republican Party in power, it has become very, very unconstitutional. Me: You mentioned that Rajneeshpuram was like a beautiful Fellini movie. What do you do to unwind? Do you like watching films? SB: No. What I do watch is the Indian show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. I love adults singing, but I love watching young children singing very much! I watch it with my sister. I also loved the Indian show Devon Ke Dev...Mahadev. The music was beautiful. When people call it a sex cult, I do not take it personally. It just shows their small vocabulary and mentality! Me: I have to say that you were quite fashionable! Coordinated sets, pantsuits that fit the bill of power dressing, and feathered hats reminiscent of Lady Diana. SB: Oh (laughs)! I have to tell you why I started wearing hats. I was always invited on television shows. I would have my mala with Bhagwans locket, and after a while they started cutting my frame up to the breast but not the mala. In Germany, I saw these pillbox hats. I always liked wearing funky hats, and I put a pillbox hat on my head and said, Ah! I have a wonderful solution! I took my pearl mala and hung it on my pillbox and Bhagwan moved from below my chest to my head. Me: What does fashion mean to you? SB: What is comfortable and what looks decent and enhances natural beauty. Ill tell you a secret? Me: Yes, please! SB: I have a few jeans, a pile of T-shirts in a few colours, and for winter a pile of sweatshirts, and a few shawls. That is my fashion. Often I buy unisex T-shirts on sale for 5 francs! I dont even go to fashion shops to buy clothes (laughs). The Emmy-nominated docuseries, Wild Wild Country, is the story of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his fierce lieutenant Ma Anand Sheela (Gabriel Hill ) Me: But your fashion sense is still wonderful. There was a recent photo shoot for a magazine I think, where they styled you with hoops and these shirts SB: Right! They came from London. A second fashion shoot is going to appear next month in India (smiles). Me: Did you enjoy the fashion shoots? SB: It was the first time in my life. Everything thats new I try to enjoy. When things like this happen, it gives pleasure to my patients. They have something to talk about. My life enhances their life. Me: Im very curious to know: did you ever have a confrontation with Ma Prem Hasya or Deva Raja (the doctor, Hollywood Hills)? SB: We didnt even cross each others path except Bhagwan told me to organise a marriage for Hasya and his doctor Deva Raja. So I performed their marriage, and that was how much my contact was with them (smiles). When I perform marriages they dont last longer than five minutes. Me: Do you think that the makers of WWC did a good job? Is there anything you would like to change in the documentary? SB: No, I would not change anything out of respect for these two young men. It was their creation and you have to respect other peoples creations. For example, you go to a museum and you see a painting. You do not change the painting. Me: Theyre nominated for the Emmys as well SB: Yes. And I am nominated as an actress (laughs)! These people are crazy! Me: After I saw WWC, I really wanted to speak with you. Why do you think I called you up? SB: (Smiles) I have no idea! But you had a feeling and Im happy you followed it. Always follow your feelings in life. Me: What would you like to say to people like me the future leaders? SB: Be courageous, dont judge and remain open (smiles). Now tell me, where are you located? Me: I live in Bombay in Mumbai. SB: And you study there I assume? I hope youre studying well? Getting in trouble with mama and papa sometimes? Me: No, no (laughs). SB: Its good to get in trouble once in a while (laughs). Dont make life too easy for mama and papa, but dont make stupid mistakes! Me: They were happy and excited that I followed this up. SB: They have seen the film? And they still allow you to talk to me? Now I have to talk to them! What kind of parents are they (laughs)! Me: Theyve seen it once and Ive seen it four times... SB: Oh my! Oh my God! Me: Thank you so much and get well soon! Join the conversation using #BossLady From HT Brunch, September 2 , 2018 Follow us on twitter.com/HTBrunch Connect with us on facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch The Delhi high court on Friday asked the AAP government to work out the number of trained physiotherapists in the three jails of the national Capital. Justice Mukta Gupta issued the direction to the secretary of the health department, Delhi government, after it was informed that there was not even a single physiotherapist in the three prisonsTihar, Mandoli and Rohini. The health department secretary will inform within four weeks what further action he proposes to take, the court said. The court was hearing a plea by Jagtar Singh Hawara, who is undergoing life sentence for conspiring to assassinate former Punjab CM Beant Singh. Hawara, who is lodged in Tihar Jail, has sought special facilities for the treatment of his back pain and other spinal problems. Appearing for the Delhi government, standing counsel (criminal) Rahul Mehra submitted an affidavit, stating there was no physiotherapist in the three jails and 2-3 trained persons will be soon made available by an NGO. To this, Hawaras counsel advocate Maninder Singh contended that it was a serious issue that in the three prisons, where thousands of inmates are lodged, there was not even a single physiotherapist and the prisoners have to be taken out to other hospitals in case of any such medical issue despite various orders of the HC. The affidavit, submitted on behalf of the DG (prisons), stated that the process of recruiting physiotherapists on a contract basis had been completed and the file had been sent to the health department for necessary approval of the competent authority. It said the Delhi government had invited online applications for 17 vacancies of physiotherapists and the last date was August 13. The court has now fixed October 23 as the next date of hearing. Three accused in journalist Gauri Lankesh murder case were conspirators in the Narendra Dabholkar murder too, and one of them imparted weapon-training to Dabholkars shooters, the CBI told a Pune court on Saturday. The Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Sachin Andure, one of the alleged shooters of Dabholkar, last month. The agency on Saturday produced Rajesh Bangera and Amit Digvekar, both accused in the Lankesh murder case, along with Andure in the Pune court. Andures CBI remand ended on Saturday. The court sent Digvekar and Bangera in CBI custody till September 10, while Andure was sent in judicial custody. Claiming that there was a link between the accused in the two cases, the CBI on Friday took the custody of Bangera and Digvekar from the Karnataka Special Investigation Team which is probing the Lankesh murder. Bangera, a government employee and PA to a Congress MLC in Karnataka, gave weapon-training to both the shooters, Andure and (Sharad) Kalaskar, who killed Dr Dabholkar, CBI lawyer Vijaykumar Dhakane told the court here. Bangera was also involved in the conspiracy of Dr Dabholkars murder, and CBI needs to interrogate him to find out where he imparted training, the source of fire arms, and present whereabouts of the fire arms, the prosecutor said. As to Digvekar, the CBI lawyer said he had helped Andure to do a reconnaissance of Dabholkars house and the routes that the anti-superstition activist usually took. Digvekar lived in a Goa-based Ashram for over 15 years and was associated with Dr Virendra Tawde, one of the key conspirators in Dabholkar case. Digvekar is one of the co-conspirators in Dabholkar murder case as entire conspiracy was hatched by Dr Tawde along with Digvekar and this conspiracy needs to be unearthed, said the CBI lawyer. Defence lawyer Samir Patwardhan pointed out from the CBIs charge sheet against Tawde that the agency had earlier claimed that Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar had shot Dabholkar, and now it has come out with a different version. After hearing both the sides, Judicial Magistrate (First Class) R R Bhalgat remanded Bangera and Digvekar in CBI custody till September 10 and sent Andure in judicial remand. The CBI could not take the custody of Amol Kale, a third accused in Lankesh case who it says is one of the main conspirators in Dabholkar case too, due to some technicalities, its lawyer said. Sharad Kalaskar, the second alleged shooter who fired on Dabholkar, is in the custody of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad in an explosives seizure case. Dabholkar was shot dead in Pune on August 20, 2013, while Gauri Lankesh was murdered in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017. Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday dared the Narendra Modi government to do demonetisation again and win the upcoming elections, as he claimed that India will have a new prime minister in 2019. Speaking at the Hindustan Shikhar Samagam in Lucknow, Akhilesh said it was time for a fresh debate on demonetisation. When he executed it, there was no debate. It was all unilateral, but now the consequences are out. If BJP had won the 2017 UP polls calling demonetisation a success, they should do demonetisation once again and win the forthcoming state elections and the Lok Sabha elections, he said. Dropping hints of forming a broad alliance (Mahagathbandan) in Uttar Pradesh, the states former CM said BJP should name its new PM candidate, then they would also announce their choice. On Samajwadi Partys proposed alliance with Mayawatis Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Akhilesh said, These days, the entire country is asking about her well being. Anyone with whom the SP stands ought to be fine. He gave more hints in this regard when he was asked about his prime ministerial ambitions. My dreams are small; I am a realist. I dream to make more expressways, connect parts of UP with better roads, build more infrastructure in the state and develop UP after 2022, he said, suggesting that his interests remained in being the UP CM. But the SP chief did not make it clear if the Congress was going to be part of the alliance. In 2019, it is the SPs task to reduce BJP to five seats in UP, the BSPs task to reduce the ruling party to zero, the Congress should aim to cut the BJP down to two seats, and we have a new friend in RLD (Rashtriya Lok Dal), he said. Asked about UP chief minister Yogi Adityanaths statement earlier in the day at the Samagam that BJP had embarked on Mission 74, aiming to win one seat more than its UP tally in 2014, Akhilesh clarified: They have got their arithmetic all wrong. They had won 73 in 2014, but we have reduced them by three seats, winning Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Kairana (in by-polls). We will not tell our strategy. Why should we? But this is what we and the voters will do to the BJP in 2019. The BJPs countdown has begun, he said. The BJP had bagged 71 Lok Sabha seats in UP in 2014 and its ally the Apna Dal had won two. Akhilesh tried to evade questions on the family feud and about his uncle Shivpal Yadav announcing that his Samajwadi Secular Morcha (SSM) will contest all 80 seats in UP in 2019, but finally said: Isnt that nice that in our home, we have open democracy? There will be many such political missiles fired at us as the polls approach, but I am not going to let my focus waver. SP never built separate lanes for Yadavs on Expressways When asked about caste equations in the alliance, Akhilesh said: We are using BJPs formula. They are an alliance of 47 parties. We are only a few at the moment, but there will be many more. They have made me realise my power. They made me realise that I am a backward. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath got the CMs house washed with Gangajal after I vacated it. It is the BJP that began casteist politics, The SP never did it. I cannot make out if there is a separate lane for Yadavs on the expressway that we built or only Yadavs were given laptops. Our government worked for all and I hope that now the people will vote looking at the works done by the governments. He also said: But I am a progressive backward, a forward-looking backward, and a liberal backward. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has barred further reduction in eco-sensitive area (ESA) of Western Ghats in view of devastating floods in Kerala, which experts had blamed it on the ecological damage done to the Ghats. The NGT asked the environment ministry not to reduce eco-sensitive area (ESA) of Western Ghats further from the proposed 56,825 sq kms and to notify the same within six months. Hearing a petition filed by Goa Foundation, the principal bench of the tribunal in Delhi said that there should not be any further reduction in the ESA as demarcated in a draft notification issued by the ministry of environment forests and climate change in February. The bench headed by NGT chairperson justice (retd) Adarsh Kumar Goel said any reduction, if sought, would have to be vetted by the tribunal first. Any alteration in the draft notification dated 27.02.2017 may seriously affect the environment and especially, in view of recent incidents in Kerala, we direct that no changes be made to reduce the area of Eco-Sensitive Zone in terms of notification dated 27.02.2017, without the same being considered by this tribunal, the bench ruled. The draft notification had identified area of 56,825 square kilometres spread across six states Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as the Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Area. This is slightly less than the 59,940 sq kms recommended by a committee headed by former ISRO chief K Kasturirangan in 2013. Madhav Gadgil, who had blamed damage to Western Ghat ecology for the floods, had in 2010 recommended that 75% of the ghats be declared as ESA which Kasturirangan brought down to 37% after consulting the six state governments. The draft ESA had banned mining, setting up of thermal power plants and other red category industries as classified by the Central Pollution Control Boards in the ESAs. It also had recommended state level and national level monitoring bodies to ensure the eco-sensitive zone remained inviolate from ecologically damaging activities. As most states had not responded to the draft, the Goa Foundation had petitioned the tribunal for the various reports on Western Ghats. Karnataka had objected to the regulatory mechanism proposed in the draft. The ESA for Western Ghats was first notified in 2010. The Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana, which is trying to follow in the footsteps of its BJP counterpart in Maharashtra by contemplating an extension in the service of incumbent director general of police (DGP) BS Sandhu, is treading on a tricky terrain. The move, legal experts say, is fraught with risks as it runs contrary to the directions of the Supreme Court. The apex court had on July 3 directed the state governments to send their proposals, with regard to the appointment of the next DGP, to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) at least three months prior to the date of retirement of the incumbent DGP. The SC directions were reiteration of the 2006 Prakash Singh judgment on police reforms. However, the BJP government in Haryana is contemplating to move case for extension in service of DGP BS Sandhu, who is set to retire on September 30. The government is also planning to cite Maharashtras example, where the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) of the Central government, on August 28, granted three-month extension to Maharashtra DGP DD Padsalgikar after relaxing Section 16 (1) of the All India Service (death-cum-retirement benefit) Rules. The extension order said that Padsalgikar who retired on August 31 was given an extension in public interest. However, the ACC decision on granting extension to Maharashtra DGP is contrary to the Supreme Courts directions, legal experts said. The apex court had said that any legislation or rule framed by any of the states or central government running counter to its directions shall remain in abeyance to the aforesaid extent. Prashant Bhushan, counsel for Prakash Singh, the petitioner in the Supreme Court, said that what the Central government and Maharashtra did by granting extension to the DGP is contrary to the Supreme Court orders. This is clearly an attempt to circumvent the apex courts orders. The directions issued by the Supreme court with regards to selection and appointment of the DGP were intended to insulate the police and the DGP from the control of the political executive, Bhushan said. Even state government officials echoed Bhushans views. First, there is no provision in the rules to grant extension in service to a state DGP. The Central government granted extension to Maharashtra DGP in relaxation of the All India Service rules. If Haryana government wants to follow in Maharashtras footsteps then they should realise that relaxations cannot be made a routine affair. Also, the rules which are being put into play to grant extension in service are in abeyance since they run counter to the SC directions, said an official. The SC had also said that if a state government has a grievance with regard to its July 3 order, it may approach the court for its modification. However, the Haryana government has not filed any application for modification of the orders before the apex court. The state government has also not sent a proposal to the UPSC for the appointment of the next DGP. The apex court in the Prakash Singh judgment had said the DGP shall be selected by the state government from among the three senior-most officers who have been empanelled for promotion to that rank by the UPSC on the basis of their length of service, track record and range of experience for heading the police force. And, once he has been selected for the job, he should have a minimum tenure of at least two years irrespective of his date of superannuation. Days after a Pentagon official warned there were no guarantees of a special waiver if India concludes new arms deals with Russia, another senior US official has said the US might consider case-by-case exemptions for countries that significantly reduce their reliance on Russian weapons. Waivers for Russia-related sanctions in a recently amended US law are not country-specific or blanket, the senior US official said while previewing the inaugural 2+2 dialogue in New Delhi on September 6 during a conference call. There is obviously no country-specific waiver in the new legislation, said the US official. There are no blanket waiversand any waiver that we might contemplatewould be assessed on a case-by-case basis and would require, among other things, countries to significantly reduce their reliance on Russian arms. US officials also said on the conference call with reporters that the US hopes to sign a defence pact, Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA), during the dialogue to allow the sharing with India of sensitive communications technology. The focus of the call was on sanctions that the US has aimed at Russia and Iran which threaten to impact relations with India. The US stand on these complicated issues has been hobbled by a certain lack of clarity. A Pentagon official, Randall Schriver, created alarm on Wednesday by saying at a think tank event that waivers for Russia-related sanctions under Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions (CAATSA) could not be guaranteed. Discussions between the US and India are ongoing on the implication of these sanctions for New Delhis planned purchase of Russian S-400 air defence systems worth an estimated $6 billion. A recent amendment to the law allows the US president to grant exemptions to countries if they fulfill certain conditions, such as reducing reliance on Russian weapons. India fulfills this and it felt reassured a waiver was in the bag, until Schriver said there were no guarantees. New Delhi now plans to ask the US for clarity. Case-by-case conditional waivers are the sense and spirit of the law as amended by US Congress and signed by President Donald Trump earlier this month at the urging of secretary of defence Jim Mattis and secretary of state Mike Pompeo. The law names no country as a beneficiary but Mattis specifically mentioned India and Vietnam in his public appeal for a wider waiver authority for the president during an open congressional hearing. Pompeo extended his support to the appeal at a separate hearing. There are nations in the world who are trying to turn away from formerly Russian-sourced weapons and systems like this, Mattis had said. We only look at India, Vietnam and some others to recognise that eventually were going to...paralyse ourselves. Waivers under CAATSA and snapped-back Iran sanctions that come into effect on November 5 are among the top topics of discussion between India and the US, which could continue at the 2+2 dialogue. However, the officials previewing the event repeatedly refused to commit themselves to both topics and details of the conversations that will take place when Mattis and Pompeo meet their Indian counterparts Nirmala Sitharaman and Sushma Swaraj. Calling the relationship with India a key US priority and integral to our national security, one of the two administration officials on the conference call said, We have a very full and ambitious agenda for the 2+2, including advancing our shared vision for the Indo-Pacific. Two days after the Bengal CID said that Momo invites circulating in the state may be locally generated, police arrested an engineering student from East Burdwan district for allegedly sending an invite for the deadly game to another youngster on Friday. Arindam Patra, a 19-year-old electrical engineering student at a private college in Durgapur, was arrested from his house in the Ketugram police limits and charged under sections 419 (cheating) and 505 (1) (b) (causing fear in public) of the IPC and sections 66D and 70 of the IT Act. Police said this was the first arrest to be carried out in the state for sending Momo invites. The Momo Challenge represented by the image of a girl with a distorted face and bulging eyes involves sending Whatsapp messages inviting people to participate in a series of tasks that ultimately demands suicide. People who refuse to play along are threatened with disclosure of personal information and defamation on the social media. This game bears a number of similarities with the Blue Whale Challenge, which claimed a number of lives last year. Although the Momo Challenge has given rise to concern in many countries such as India, US, France, Germany, Mexico and Argentina, police are yet to establish any actual harm caused to any individual. Bhaskar Mukherjee, superintendent of East Burdwan police, said the student had anonymously sent a message stating Hi I am Momo to a number acquired from a Google Playstore app on Tuesday. The recipient, a student who resides at a boarding school in Katwa, lodged a police complaint. A probe revealed Patras involvement, he added. The complainant was identified as 21-year-old Joykrishna Pal, a third-year student of Katwa College. Patra was produced in a district court on Friday, following which he was granted bail. The court ordered him to register his presence at the local police station once a week, and forbade him from operating any social media account, said Mahasin Khan, his lawyer. While the student pleaded that he was just playing a harmless prank, his father Dipankar Patra promised to take away his phone to ensure that he does not repeat his act. District police officers said they have received 12 complaints related to the Momo challenge so far. The intervention of the chief justices court in the recent case of the arrests of prominent social activists and lawyers should mark a turning point in the way in which the judiciary has looked at terrorist cases. For too long the apex court has been deferential to the State, and it only needed the use of the word terrorism for the former to uphold the constitutional validity of security legislation. While dealing with the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) the Supreme Court upheld its constitutional validity despite glaring provisions allowing the killing of persons on the basis of suspicion. Subsequently, 300 persons every year for decades were killed in fake encounters in Manipur alone until the Supreme Court intervened in the Extra Judicial Execution Victim Family Association (EEVFAM) case holding that the security forces had no immunity in cases of fake encounters. That intervention had a miraculous result and brought down the killings to three a year. The Terrorists and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA) and The Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) were similarly upheld as constitutionally valid despite an alarming provision allowing for confessions to a police officer to be treated as legally valid evidence. It took widespread protests for Parliament to repeal the statute but not before hundreds were jailed in false cases akin to the emergency arrests. The equally repressive Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) is today the main instrument of state terror. What is remarkable about state repression from the Punjab massacres of young Sikh boys onwards is the pronounced story telling aspect of state prosecutions. Fanciful tales of despotic acts performed by terrorists rapidly replaced truthful investigations and carefully crafted charge sheets. In the Punjab cases the Central Bureau of Investigation found that many charge sheets were utterly false with made up stories and fabricated evidence. In the Manipur cases the Commission appointed by the Supreme Court and headed by Justice Hegde found all the six sample cases of terrorist attacks, fake encounters in reality. Not a single one of the accused persons were terrorists. In fact, they had no criminal background at all. Subsequently, CBI charge sheeted security personnel for cold blooded murder leading to a protest by 300 army personnel in the media and a case in the Supreme Court where the officers tried to intimidate the Court by reference to patriotism and national security. All this to hide serious criminal activity of murder by men in uniform. Gautam Navlakhas case in the High Court was a fairy tale at its highest. One of the leading human rights activists of the Peoples Union for Democratic Rights, he was sought to be arrested on an FIR relating to the Bhima Koregaon protests by Dalit organisations. His name does not appear in the FIR. It is undisputed that he was not even present at the site. The case diaries were not produced by the police before the magistrate. Translated copies were not produced before the High Court. Therefore, there was no material to indicate the charges levelled against Navlakha on the basis of which his arrest was sought. Protesting his arrest he wrote The entire case is a political ploy against political dissent to divert attention from the government scams and failures from Kashmir to Kerala. For the cause of democratic rights I have covered many trials. Now I will be witness to a political trial with a ring side seat. Similarly, in the case of Sudha Bhardwaj, now under house arrest and protected by the order of the Supreme Court, her name does not appear in the FIR. She wrote a statement on her arrest saying when I asked whether they had moved any application before the concerned Court they said no. They showed me a copy of the FIR dated 8.1.18 regarding the Bhima Koregaon incident with which I have no connection whatsoever. When I asked what was my specific offence, they did not tell me. when I asked specifically if the letter shown on Republic TV regarding which I have already issued a public statement and legal notice, was the issue being investigated, Shinde said he did not know. In the Akshardham Temple terrorist attack case, the Supreme Court acquitted the accused persons with the observation Before parting with the judgment, we intend to express our anguish about the incompetence with which the investigating agencies conducted the investigation of the case of such a grievous nature, involving the integrity and security of the nation. Instead of booking the real culprits responsible for taking so many precious lives, the police caught innocent people and got imposed the grievous charges against them which resulted in their conviction and subsequent sentencing. I wish I had been there at Bhima Koregaon protesting with others in what could well turn out to be the beginning of a second national movement for genuine independence and democracy. (Colin Gonsalves is a senior Supreme Court advocate and founder, Human Rights Law Network. Views expressed are personal.) Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is likely to announce the dissolution of the state assembly in mid-September and go for elections along with the four states scheduled to do so in November-December this year, said a Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader familiar with the developments. Assembly elections were due in Telangana in April-May next year along with the Lok Sabha polls. However, the assessment within the TRS is that the party has tremendous goodwill among the people that needs to be tapped by advancing the polls, the leader added asking not to be identified. Also, a survey conducted by the TRS suggested that the party would win almost 100 out of the total 117 seats if the elections are held in the next few months, this person said. Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram are going to polls in November-December this year. Rao or KCR, as he is popularly known, has been a strong votary of simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, a proposal pushed by PM Narendra Modi. The Prime Minister has argued that the country remains in perpetual election mode and even the exercise of preparing the electoral rolls for the three-tier polls municipal, state and country consumes considerable time and money. On Sunday, the TRS will hold a rally at Ibrahimpatnam to highlight the governments programmes and achievements since it came to power in the newly created state in 2014. TRS leader Palla Rajeshwar Reddy said about 2.5 million people are expected to attend the public meeting with party workers from all 31 districts of the state in full attendance. He added that KCR would present a roadmap for TRS for the assembly polls. Perhaps with the elections in mind, the TRS government has in the past few months announced a slew of measures for the welfare of farmers. In the first week of August, it launched life insurance schemes for nearly 2.8 million farmers in the state. The state government has paid more than Rs 600 crore to Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) as a premium for the scheme, which costs about Rs 2,271 per farmer. In May, it launched a crop investment support initiative named Rythu Bandhu, that aims to provide Rs4,000 per acre each to land-owning farmers for rabi and kharif seasons. KCR also does not want simultaneous elections with Andhra Pradesh in view of reports suggesting that the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) might join hands with the Congress for the assembly elections, upsetting TRS calculations in Telangana. By advancing the assembly elections, the TRS leader said KCR will get enough room to maneuver during the Lok Sabha elections and enable him to take a call on having an alliance at the national level. In recent weeks, the TRS has been warming up to the BJP. While the Prime Minister has been praising KCR, the TRS abstained from a no-confidence motion against the government and later supported NDA candidate Harivnash in the elections to the Rajya Sabha deputy chairpersons post. KCR has also twice met the Prime Minister in the past two months,most recently on August 4. Union minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey was rebuked by opposition parties and his Bharatiya Janta Partys partner in Bihars ruling coalition, the Janata Dal (United), after he made offensive remarks against Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday. Congress spokesperson Gourov Vallabh said the BJP had exposed its fake respect for Hindu traditions by insulting Gandhi when he is on a pilgrimage to the Kailash Mansarovar shrine. We pray God grants wisdom and better sense to BJP leaders so that they dont make such remarks. BJPs politics is depreciating like the rupee, he said. Reacting sharply to Choubeys remarks,the officiating president of Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) Kaukab Quadri said: BJP high command must take note of the irresponsible comments of Choubey. He should be asked to exercise restraint. Choubey and BJP chief Amit Shah should also tender an apology to Rahul Gandhi. In remarks on the sidelines of a public programme in Sasaram on Saturday, Choubey questioned Gandhis mental health and said he himself was engaged in an effort to make the country Congress-mukt, or Congress-free. Since he is unable to face the might of Modi alone, he is relying on the grand alliance (mahagathbandhan) to challenge him, which will not work, said Choubey in the less offensive of the remarks he made. Former Bihar deputy CM and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav wrote in a Twitter post that he prayed to God to bless Choubey with some good sense, saying the BJP politician had lowered political discourse to a new level. BJP state president and MP Nityanand Rai avoided a direct reply when asked about Choubeys remarks, saying that he was not aware in what context the Union minister had made the comments. JDU spokesman KC Tyagi said his was a dignified party and its president and chief minister Nitish Kumar always stood for adhering to dignity in public life. There may be political differences, but that does now allow any space for disgraceful comments, he added. Lawyer-activist Sudha Bharadwaj and families of other activists arrested in the recent raids have dismissed the evidence produced by Maharashtra Police to link them with Maoists as fabricated. Bharadwaj, one of the five activists arrested by Maharashtra Police, said a purported letter implicating her was totally concocted to criminalise her and human rights organisations. The police had claimed Friday that Faridabad-based Bharadwaj had written to one Com Prakash. Reacting to this in a handwritten statement, Bharadwaj said the fabricated letter had not been brought before the Pune Court or the Faridabad Chief Judicial Magistrate while seeking to whisk her to Pune. In a media briefing in Mumbai, the police had released details of seized letters allegedly linking the arrested activists to the violence in Koregaon-Bhima in January. On Tuesday, the police arrested Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Bharadwaj in Faridabad and Gautam Navalakha in Delhi. The family of Vernon Gonsalves also said the charges were fabricated. I was present when searches and raids were conducted at our home and I know what the police have seized, his son Sagar Gonsalves said Saturday. I could not stop laughing when the police were levelling false charges with the so called letters, he said, referring to the police press conference. The activists lawyer wife Susan Abraham called the arrests a ploy to divert attention from the real culprits behind the Koregaon-Bhima violence. The letters read out by the police during the media briefing are manufactured. None of these letters were filed or submitted to the court, she said. She accused the police of not following the set procedure for carrying out such probes. The police have not followed the procedure established by the cyber laws for the seizure of electronic data, she said. In Hyderabad, Telugu poet Varavara Raos nephew Venugopal said the evidence presented by Maharashtra Police to link the arrested activists to Maoists was cooked up. All this was said in June. It is nothing new, he told PTI Saturday. He termed the police press conference contempt of court, saying the matter was sub judice and the Supreme Court had asked the evidence to be submitted on September 6. The Supreme Court has ordered that the five activists be kept under house arrest till then. This police officer does not have a right to hold a press conference, Venugopal said, referring to Maharashtras Additional Director General of Police (law and Order) Parambir Singh. The police have claimed they have conclusive proof to link Left-wing activists arrested in June and this week to Maoists, saying one of them spoke of a Rajiv Gandhi-type event to end Modi-raj. This threat allegedly figured in an email exchanged between Rona Wilson, an activist arrested in June, and a Maoist leader. The Maharashtra Police raids were carried out as part of a probe into the Elgaar Parishad, an event organised in Pune on December 31, 2017, which allegedly triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima village in the district the next day. Also on Saturday, human rights activist Anand Teltumbde refuted the Maharashtra police claim that he attended a convention in Paris allegedly funded by Maoists. Teltumbde, a Dalit writer who teaches at a management institute in Goa, was among the activists and lawyers whose homes were raided by the Pune police on August 28. I keep going abroad for academic conferences. It is all on official invitations and everything is well documented, he told PTI. Alarm and despair spread among the Jammu and Kashmir policemen and their families after a series of abductions of relatives of policemen in south Kashmir by suspected militants on Thursday night. The abductions were triggered apparently in response to the police detaining for questioning the family members of some Hizbul Mujahideen militants including those of operational commander Riyaz Naikoo on Wednesday night. A couple of families of militants in Shopian alleged that their houses were ransacked and set ablaze allegedly by security forces on Wednesday night hours after four policemen were killed by militants in the district. While the state police, army and the Central Reserve Police Force collectively fight militancy in Kashmir but the former come from the same social milieu as local militants and hence are isolated in the society. Policemen and their families are also more vulnerable than the army and paramilitary men who stay in well-guarded camps. While police officers are putting up a brave front, they concede that the lower ranks are jittery following the abductions. Some 12 persons mostly relatives of policemen have been abducted in the four south Kashmir districts of Pulwama, Shopian, Ananatnag and Kulgam. My men are extremely disturbed. There is a fear perception about our families. This should happen neither from our side nor from theirs, said an SHO rank officer in central Kashmir who has many policemen from south Kashmir under his command. If families get involved, there will be chaos. Overall both sides will get affected. Many of my friends and colleagues are contemplating to migrate from south Kashmir. Some are even thinking of leaving their jobs, he said. A mid-ranking level police officer of south Kashmir choose not to speak to HT, even off the record, saying he is doing it for his life. Another deputy superintendent of police-level officer said that the situation was grim as it was an open war against local policemen. Many of our special police officers (SPOs) were threatened and attacked despite their announcements that they are leaving the jobs. It is an open war against police but many of our colleagues does not understand this. That is why many of us are dying, he said. The brother of a police constable working in armed police said that both sides have erred by targeted families of each other. What will happen now? My mother is so worried, he said. This is madness on part of militants but policemen have been equally foolish to round up the families of militants during the night and ransacking their households, he said. My brother is depressed. He cant leave the job. He has a wife and a child to take care of, he said, demanding separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik should intervene to prevent situation from going out of hand. Family of a constable living Srinagar who is posted in south Kashmirs Pulwama have asked him to come home following the killings of four policemen in Shopian on Wednesday. We will get him home on leave. He is ill and if he does not return, we will all get into depression, said a family member. The mother of a 34-year-old police constable has left it to fate. What can be done? Life and death is in the hands of God. Our poverty has forced him to do the job. He is still ready to leave the job but we dont have a bank balance to sustain ourselves, she said as tears welled up in her eyes. The Gurugram police on Saturday registered a criminal case against real estate developers DLF Limited and Onkareshwar Properties Private Limited, former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Robert Vadra, the brother-in-law of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, in connection with suspected irregularities in a land deal. The transaction involved Vadras Sky Light Hospitality, DLF, and Onkareshwar Properties in Gurugrams Shikohpur. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had made alleged corruption and nepotism in the land deal a poll issue in 2014. A police complaint relating to the deal was made in the morning by a resident of Rathiwas in Taouru, Surender Sharma, and by the evening an FIR had been registered at Kherki Daula police station in Gurugram. Sharma said he was a social worker and was upset over the sequence of events in the matter. Asked whether the police inquired into the complex land and financial matter before registering the FIR, deputy commissioner of police (DCP), Manesar, Rajesh Kumar, said that although no separate inquiry had been conducted, the complaint was examined as is done in every case. Since a cognizable offence was made out in the complaint, the FIR was registered, the DCP said. DLF chief executive officer (CEO) Rajeev Talwar said the company had nothing to say at the moment. Our legal team would study the FIR and we will get back to you, he said. Former chief minister Hooda said it was a baseless case being made out of political vendetta by the BJP government. The ruling BJP government has been an utter failure and was desperate to divert the attention of the people. They have nothing new to tell, he said. Election season, increase in oil prices...so lets divert real peoples issues with my decade-old issue. Whats new? news agency ANI quoted Vadra as saying. . . The proposed bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad may start running between Surat and Bilimora in Gujarat in 2022, before it begins to ply the entire 508-km stretch. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants the project to be launch on August 15, 2022, the completion of the rest of the project may take up to another year. The 50-kilometre stretch between Surat and Bilimora has a straight allignment and no major issues of land acquisition, said a senior official from the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL). Currently, we are in the process of land acquisition for this section, said the official. Land acquisition has been an issue at some areas along the stretch, owing to opposition from farmers in Maharashtra and Gujarat. The proposed bullet train that will run at a speed of 320kmph and will cover the Surat-Bilimora stretch in less than 20 minutes. The Mumbai to Ahmedabad journey is expected to be covered in 3 hours. The cost of the project has been estimated at Rs 1.10 lakh crores. Meanwhile, NHSRCL has also begun construction of a training centre in Vadodara, where 3,500 staffers will be trained from 2020 to 2023. The train pilots and other working staff will be trained on simulators, set to be imported from Japan in July 2019. A 50m slab track, which is a ready-made structure assembled with rails, is expected to arrive by December 2018. Moreover, NHSRCL officials said they would be constructing a 220-m single span girder bridge at Vadodara station to help passengers cross over to the Indian Railways tracks. This is set to the longest such single span bridge on the entire corridor. Pradeeep Ahirkar, chief project manager, NHSRCL, Vadodara, said, Construction of the single span girder bridge is the most challenging work in the section, as it will be constructed without stopping rail traffic significantly. The station handles about 200 trains everyday. Flood-battered Kerala has sounded a high alert for leptospirosis (rat fever) after the water-borne disease claimed 28 lives in a month, with at least nine coming in the last one week. The state health department has sounded an alert and sought more medicines from the Union health ministry. The possibility of contracting rat fever, a zoonotic disease (that transmits from animals to humans), is high during flooding as urine from infected rat or other rodents can contaminate water and pass on to human beings easily, according to experts, who added that the aged and those suffering from kidney or liver ailments were the easy targets. Its symptoms include high fever, headache, chills, abdominal pain and rashes. Three relief workers were among the dead. At least 300 suspected cases were reported from the state in the last three days, said a senior health official. The state health directorate has issued a leptospirosis alert for five districts, including Kozhikode and advised affected people to avoid self-treatment. Many suspected cases are being reported from Kozhikode, Palakkad, Thrissur, Malappuram and Ernakulam districts, said a senior health official, adding that 28 deaths were reported since August 1. Kozhikode district, which is yet to recover from nipah shock, reported at least 60 people with symptoms of leptospirosis, of which 28 were later confirmed. At least 17 persons were killed in the nipah outbreak in June but later it was localized to two districts including Kozhikode. During monsoon, some cases usually crop up, but this time, there is a spurt in leptospirosis cases. Out of 60 people who complained of symptoms, 28 were confirmed, said Kozhikode district medical officer Dr V Jayasree. Worried health officials have asked people in flood-hit areas and those engaged in cleaning work to take two 100 mg doxycyline tablets after food twice a week. In Kozhikode, excise minister T P Ramakrishnan popped a doxycyline tablet on Saturday after a press conference, urging people to take enough precautions. We are keeping utmost vigil. All flood-hit people and relief workers have been advised to take enough precautions. The Union health ministry has promised us all help, said state health minister K K Shailaja. As an indefinite fast by Hardik Patel, leader of the campaign for government job and college seat quotas for Gujarats Patidar community, entered its fifth day on Wednesday, support from political parties continued to pour in at his Ahmedabad residence. The hunger strike, however, is yet to strike a chord with the masses particularly with his own Patidar community and farmers. The missing support from these communities assumes significance because Patel is espousing their causes: reservation benefits for the Patidars and a loan waiver for farmers. A huge turnout of around 200,000 on August 25, 2015 at a rally called by Patel in Ahmedabad had shaken the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state government and catapulted the then 22-year-old to the political centerstage. Exactly three years later, when he sat on his indefinite fast, he had the company of just around 100 supporters. That hasnt prevented a host of Congress legislators and leaders from its allies like Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) from visiting the firebrand leader in the past four days. Pictures emerging from his house, lcated on the highway connecting Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar which he has turned into the venue for the hunger strike after he failed to get permission to hold it in the twin cities are only helping the BJP to project Patel as a Congress agent. Hardik cannot repeat what happened in August 2015. His decision of an indefinite fast in unlikely to yield any results. It is no longer seen as an agitation. What is happening now is a show where all the three involved parties- Hardik, the Congress and the BJP- are just trying to play around an emotive issue of reservation, said political analyst Hari Desai. Purvin Patel, a businessman from Gandhinagar, moblised funds and workers to make food and parking arrangement for the massive 2015 rally. He is a member of the Sardar Patel Group (SPG), which in 2011 began an agitation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) status for the Patidars. Hardik Patel was SPGs Viramgam president before forming his own outfit, the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti(PAAS). This time around, the SPG and its members have not come out in support of his hunger strike. In 2015, it was a voluntary response for a social movement by Patidars, who had been struggling to get OBC status for some years. We still very much want OBC status but, at the same time, we want to keep the agitation non-political. It is clear that we need to fight a legal battle to get the status, said Purvin Patel, when asked why he and other Patidars did not back Hardik Patel this time. In two crucial elections that took place in Gujarat after the 2015 rally-- polls to local bodies in November the same year and the assembly in December 2017 -- PAAS declared its support for the Congress. The BJP, which for over two decades has enjoyed the unflinching support of Patidars, suffered losses in both the elections although it kept power at the state level. A community of farmers and industrialists, Patidars, who make up over 12% of Gujarats 60 million population, have been a crucial vote base for the BJP. A week before the hunger strike, Hardik Patel announced that several thousand Patidars and farmers would join him. When the administration denied him permission to hold the hunger strike in open grounds, Hardik Patel said supporters will observe a fast in their respective cities and villages. For the first time on Wednesday, his social media team released photos to show that in places like Mehsana , Surat and Surashtra, his supporters had been observing a symbolic hunger strike. ``Due to police clampdown, my supporters could not reach here. Besides, I have been put under a sort of house arrest by deploying policemen in large number outside my home, Hardik Patel said. He blamed the administration for the lukewarm response. Over 60,000 persons tried to reach. But only 1,124 could reach here. Is any new section being added to the constitution under which the police can decide who can visit me at home and who cannot?, Hardik said, claiming that 16,000 people were detained on the first day of the fast. The police denied his charges and said only 258 persons had been detained. Additional director general of police R B Brahmbhatt said, Policemen have been deployed to maintain law and order considering the fact that the 2015 rally had turned into violent protests, killing 14 youths. And, contrary to the claim that thousands of supporters were detained, only 258 persons have been detained. The Congresss top leaders on Tuesday made a representation to the state Human Right Commission. Hardik has not been allowed to fast in any public place. His supporters are not allowed to reach him. This is violation of right to protest, said Congress MLA Lalit Vasoya. Hardik Patels campaign is no longer an agitation for quotas,said deputy chief minister Nitin Patel.Efforts are being made to divide the community ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Hardik is just a Congress agent, he said. On Friday evening, in a two-storey cemented house in Tral in south Kashmir, family members of Ghulam Hassan Mir were anxiously waiting for any news about their younger son, Nasir Ahmad, 22, who was abducted by unidentified gunmen on Thursday night soon after he stepped out to offer prayers. Ahmad, along with 10 relatives of other policemen, were abducted by militants from Pulwama, Shopian and Anantnag districts of south Kashmir. All of those abducted were released on Friday evening. Ghulam Hassan Mir, who works as a cook in the police training college Manigam in Ganderbal, learned about the abduction of his son from senior police officials on Thursday evening. I was on duty at the police training school in Manigam when I got news about the abduction of my younger son. I dont know why my son was kidnapped. I am a cook and have never harmed anyone in my life, he said, tears flowing. Mir, who is in mid-50s, says he returned home in the morning. Had I done something wrong, you would have never found me here. I want my son to return unharmed, he said, while his two older sons, Shabir Ahmad and Mushtaq Ahmad, tried to console him. Nasir has a masters degree in Commerce and had set up a school in his village of Al Furkhan in Tral. The village, surrounded by orchards, is located on the foothills of a mountain range. My brother left his home around 8:30 pm for evening prayers to the neighbouring mosque and didnt return. We thought he must have stayed over somewhere. But after an hour we came to know through social media that he had been abducted, said Shabir, who works at the Public Health Engineering department. The same night, unidentified gunmen also ransacked the house of a Special Police Officer (SPO), barely 50 yards from the Mir residence. The SPO was not at home. However, army and special operation group of police were in the village till morning. Even on Friday, the armys bulletproof vehicle was making rounds of the village. About seven kilometres away, Asif Ahmad Rather was abducted by unknown gunmen from the village of Pinglish on Wednesday night. His father is an officer in the police. My son is innocent and has not committed any sin. He should be released, his anguished mother said. Rather is pursuing a bachelors course at the Sher-e -Kashmir University of Agriculture. The university faculty also appealed for his release. Both Nasir and Rather were among those released. The kidnapping of family members started after the police detained the fathers of three top militant commanders, Riyaz Niakoo, Lateef Tiger and Adil Dar, all from Pulwama district. The relatives of the militants were picked up hours after the killing of four policemen in neighbouring Shopian district in an attack on Wednesday afternoon. In an act of apparent revenge, the militants started abducting the relatives of the policemen. Naikoo had earlier asked cops and officials to leave their jobs or face action. Police said they only picked up Naikoo Sr for questioning and said they released him and the relatives of the other militants. The relatives of the policemen were released only after this. An inmate of a city-based shelter home, meant for mentally challenged women, died today while undergoing treatment at a hospital, just a day after two other women staying there went missing. Anamika (27), an inmate of the Aasra shelter home, was brought to hospital in a critical condition yesterday. She had been complaining of breathlessness and was severely anaemic. She died today at 8 pm, Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) superintendent Rajeev Ranjan Prasad told PTI. Two other inmates of the shelter home, both in their early 30s, are missing since yesterday and an FIR has been lodged at the Rajeev Nagar police station in this connection, SHO Rohan Kumar said. The Aasra shelter home had hit the headlines earlier this month when two of its inmates had fallen ill and were declared brought dead at PMCH. Following the deaths, which had taken place in the intervening night of August 10-11 and evoked an outcry, Manisha Dayal and Chirantan Kumar - who ran the NGO entrusted with running the shelter home - were arrested and sent to jail. Following the arrests of Dayal and Kumar, the Bihar Social Welfare department had deputed its own personnel at the shelter home for its upkeep as an interim measure. Moreover, a decision has also been taken by the Nitish Kumar government to phase out awarding of contracts to NGOs for running such care units. The former union home minister P Chidambaram on Saturday asserted that there no such thing as urban Naxalism and condemned the recent arrests of five activists for involvement in Januarys Bheema-Koregaon related violence in Maharashtra. The senior Congress leader, who was in Nagpur on Saturday, said that he did not agree with that term (Urban Naxalite) and would answer the question only when it was replaced. The Pune police arrested several activists, including P Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves for their suspected Maoist links on Tuesday. They are Left-wing intellectuals. They are working with tribals and the downtrodden. They are being intimidated by the government because they are perceived as strong opponents of the Right-wing. The Supreme Court has come down heavily on the arrests and disallowed police custody. In the three days since they were arrested, not a shred of evidence has been put forth, he said. He added that these are strong arm tactics to muzzle freedom of expression and kill any ideological opposition. The arrests were made to instil fear in those speaking against the BJP government. He hailed the SC order that said civil rights activism was safety valve of democracy. All those arrested are intellectuals, poet and rights activists, he said. When reminded that some of the same people, were earlier arrested by the then UPA governments too, Chidambaram replied that he was not aware of what charges the then Maharashtra government had made the arrests. I was not home minister then, he pointed out but said if they were arrested for their Leftist views and activities it was wrong then, and it is wrong now. Citing examples from the past, chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday predicted that the proposed grand alliance of opposition parties, which are yet to reach an understanding on the leadership issue, will come a cropper in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. I dont think the constituents of the alliance, including the Congress, are ready to accept Congress president Rahul Gandhi as their leader, Adityanath said in Lucknow at the inaugural session of the Shikhar Samagam, the annual summit of Hindi daily, Hindustan, a sister publication of the Hindustan Times He referred to short-lived alliances formed in the past the Janata Party in the 1970s and the National Front in the late 1980s at the initiative of Jayaprakash Narayan and Vishwanath Pratap Singh, respectively. The Samajwadi Party is already talking about forming the grand alliance without the Congress. Even the Congress leaders are not ready to accept Rahul Gandhi as their leader. They dont take him [Rahul Gandhi] seriously, said the chief minister, wondering whether veterans like Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee would accept the Congress president as the leader. And what would be the agenda of the grand alliance? he asked, predicting that people would keep the countrys interest in mind and re-elect the Bharatiya Janata Party for the work it has done for the poor and the farmers. Slamming opposition parties, the chief minister said, Their only aim is to create political instability in the country so that they can fish in troubled waters. When asked about the proposed construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, Adityanath said he was optimistic. It is the work of Lord Rama and he will decide the dates for construction of the Ram temple. Whatever is destined will happen, said the chief minister, who also spoke about the development projects undertaken by his government in Ayodhya and other religious cities. He claimed his government had changed the perception of Uttar Pradesh by working for its development. Watch: Ram temple will be built, Ram will decide the date: Yogi Adityanath at Hindustan Shikhar Samagam On mob lynchings, Adityanath claimed such incidents were not taking place in Uttar Pradesh as the state government had banned illegal slaughter houses the day it took charge last year. Most victims of mob lynchings, which have left more than 30 people dead across the country since May, have been suspected cattle thieves and cattle smugglers, apart from alleged child lifters. When such incidents in UPs Dadri and Hapur were specifically pointed out to him, Adityanath said the Hapur incident was still being probed. Asked about an increase in the number of police encounters in UP, Adityanath said goondaraj (rule of thugs) prevailed and the morale of the police was low when his BJP government assumed power last year. Our government had then directed the police to act effectively, keeping in view the law and directives of judiciary and human rights commission etc, he said. On the alleged sexual exploitation of the inmates of a shelter home run by a non-government organisation (NGO) in UPs Deoria , the chief minister said it cannot be compared with a scandal that surfaced in Bihars Muzaffarpur where the inmates had been subjected to sexual abuse. The NGO may be held guilty of financial bungling. For other charges (sexual exploitation) one should wait for the final report. We will take strict action once the final report is submitted to us, said the chief minister. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched a blistering attack on the Congress for leaving the economy on a landmine by its indiscriminate lending, saying loans were handed out to select businessmen after phone calls were made by namdars (dynasts). He blamed phone-a-loan scam of the previous UPA regime where money was lent by banks to select rich businessmen close to a particular family for mounting non-performing assets (NPA) but vowed to recover every penny from defaulters. How were these loans given? One phone call from the namdars would get the rich loans. This phone banking caused a lot of damage to the country, Modi said, adding banks obliged namdars because top executives were appointed by the same namdars. Despite knowing that the loans would not be returned, banks lent money. Speaking at the launch of payments bank of the Indian postal department, he said, none of the 12 biggest defaulters, who between them account for over Rs 1.75 lakh crore in NPAs, were given loan by the present regime. The Prime Minister said the country was cheated when the last government put such loan amount at Rs 2-2.5 lakh crore when it actually was Rs 9 lakh crore. The Congress, however, rejected the charge, saying the NPAs have increased from 2.5 lakh crore in 2013-14 to 11.5 lakh crore as of now. Soaring NPAs and rising bank frauds will be Modi governments economic legacy, said Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh. Those who had borrowed loan during UPA rule were repaying it on time. They turned NPAs in the NDA tenure because there is no industrial growth, many business people have shut their industrial units, Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises sector has been destroyed and exports are at an all-time low, he added. Modi, meanwhile said when his government came to power in 2014, we realised that the Congress had put Indias economy on a landmine. He said his government has defused the landmine and its results have been witnessed in the 8.2 per cent GDP growth clocked in the first quarter of the current fiscal. I again want to assure that all the bank money which was stuck because of namdars, each and every rupee of that, we will recover. It will be used for the poor, he said. Listing out the steps taken, he said every loan of over 50 crore has been reviewed and it is being ensured that the rules are followed and recoveries made. The merger of banks has been proposed, professionalism was brought in banks, insolvency and bankruptcy code came and a law to deal with fugitive defaults introduced. Modi said swift action to recover loans from the top 12 defaulters as well as another 27 who owe 1 lakh crore is being taken. We will ensure that every penny is recovered, he said. Modi said Jan Dhan gave bank accounts to the unbanked and now the India Post Payments Bank is taking the bank to their doorstep. The postman, besides carrying mail, will also carry the bank to the doorsteps of poor and rural people, he said. Congress president Rahul Gandhi left from Kathmandu on Saturday for Lhasa to begin the week-long Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage. Accompanied by two plain-clothed security personnel, he took a regular Air China flight to Lhasa, the capital of Chinas Tibet Autonomous Region. Indian embassy officials in Kathmandu and authorities at Kathmandus Tribhuvan International Airport confirmed his departure. Gandhi had landed in Kathmandu on Friday, hours before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached to participate in Fourth BIMSTEC Summit. Terming his visit purely private, Indian Embassy and Nepali officials said that they were not informed much about his movements and meetings. Gandhi stayed in a five star hotel in Kathmandu but did not have meetings or other engagements. Read | Congress-BJP spar over Rahul Gandhis Kailash-Mansarovar yatra According to a Nepali official, on Gandhis arrival, they came to know that he is going for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, so they had decided to beef up security in Nepalganj, expecting he would begin the pilgrimage from there but he did not take that route. Nepalganj is a popular start for pilgrims to begin the yatra via Nepal with thousands of Indian nationals opting this route via Simikot and Hilsa to Burang in Tibet, the staging point to reach Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar. But due to foul weather forecast, he cancelled the Nepali route or already decided to take flight from Kathmandu to Lhasa before leaving India. Sources said that Gandhi will make an overnight stop over in Lhasa, before leaving for Mount Kailash on Sunday, but it is not known whether he will travel by road or take a flight. Mt Kailash is an about 2000 kilometres drive from Lhasa. Gandhi had announced that he would go on the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra after a technical snag led to his plane plunging hundreds of feet on April 26 when he was on his way to campaign in the Karnataka assembly polls. Recalling the incident in rally in Delhi three days later, the Congress chief said as the plane suddenly came down by 8000 feet, he believed it was his end. He said that after the narrow escape, he had decided to thank Lord Shiva by undertaking the pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, considered the deitys abode. Uttar Pradesh Congress president Raj Babbar on Saturday said Rahul Gandhi was the partys natural prime ministerial candidate though the people of the country would decide on who would be their next prime minister after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Participating in a question and answer session at Hindi daily Hindustans annual summit Shikhar Samagam in Lucknow, Babbar said the 2019 polls would not be against any individual but the people would cast their vote to save the country. All political parties, institutions and individuals that love the country will come together to save it, he said. When pointed out that the grand alliance, which was being planned against the BJP, had no common leader to lead it, Babbar retorted by saying that during the Quit India Movement all the leaders were in jail but the Britishers had to quit the country. Watch: This became possible because people of the country wanted them to quit, he said. When reminded that despite being the countrys oldest party, the Congress had ended up being the junior-most grand alliance partner in UP, Babbar said the Congress in UP would act as cement to strengthen the wall (alliance). The Congress is not a heap of bricks but the cement without which bricks cannot make a wall, he said. Talking about the Rafale deal, he alleged it was the countrys biggest-ever defence scandal committed by a nationalist government (BJP government at the Centre). He, however, did not give a direct response to the question if there was any parallel between the Rafale and the Bofors deal. On the question of a better GDP, as being projected now, Babbar said the ground realities did not support the claims on the higher GDP. The weakening of the Indian rupee, vis-a-vis the US dollar, and soaring prices of petrol are just two examples of the bad shape of Indian economy, he added. Responding to a question as to how he continued to lead the UP Congress despite the party winning just three of 403 assembly seats in 2017, he said personally he felt he should have resigned then owing the responsibility. But my party chose to give me one more chance and I will not belie my partys expectations, he said. At least 28 school children were injured when their school bus turned turtle in Rajasthans Dausa district on Saturday, police said. The children belonged to the Krishna Public School and the incident took place around 7 am in Saray village, when the bus took a sharp turn to avoid hitting a biker. Aged between five and 15, the frightened children started screaming as their school bus tilted and then turned turtle. A police team rescued the children after much difficulty, sub-inspector Ram Singh from Bandikui police station said. The injured were rushed to the Dausa hospital. While one student has sustained serious injuries, at least eight others have grave wounds but are reported to be out of danger. The rest have been discharged from hospital, he added. The driver Sushil Gurjar is absconding, Singh said. The parents have filed a complaint against him. Terming the ongoing violent political clashes in Bengal over the formation of Panchayat boards as unfortunate, Union minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday said right to dissent and oppose is part of democracy. There should be free and fair polls in the democracy. Continued violence and killing of activists of opposition parties is unfortunate. Many candidates of opposition parties in Bengal were not allowed to file nominations in the panchayat elections, Prasad said in Kolkata. A three-year-old child sustained a bullet injury in his head in Malda district on Thursday and three persons were killed and at least 15 injured in armed clashes between groups allegedly belonging to the Trinamool Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist in North 24 Parganas districts Amdanga block late on Tuesday night. There is right to dissent, right to oppose in the democracy. People who oppose the ruling party have the right to file nomination. It was also unfortunate when supporters of an elected panchayat member were killed, he added. Three militants and an army soldier were killed in an encounter in the forests of Bandipore in north Kashmir. The Army had launched an operation in the forests of Chandji around seven kilometres from Bandipore town on Thursday. On Friday, two soldiers were injured in the operation and one of the soldier succumbed to his injuries. Army spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia confirmed the killing of three militants in the operation and added that the operation was still on. The area where the operation is underway is located between Bandipore and Gurez and is covered by dense forests. The militants have been using these as a transit point. This is the third operation launched by the forces in the forests of Chandaji in the past two months. Two labourers were killed and another two injured after a speeding SUV allegedly driven by the son of a local BJP leader ran over them near the Gandhi Nagar railway station on Thursday night, police said. Police said 35-year-old Bharat Bhushan Meena, the son of Karaudi BJP farmer cell head Badri Meena, was found to be in an inebriated condition. The four labourers were sleeping on a pavement when the incident occurred around 11 pm. Although they were rushed to the trauma centre of the Sawai Man Singh Hospital soon afterwards, two of them Sajid Khan (25) and Jagmohan Jatav (40) succumbed to their injuries around 3 am on Friday. Both hailed from Bharatpur district. The injured people were identified as Nanuram Bairwa (35) from Bundi district and Sitaram Yadav (42) from Madhya Pradesh. Police personnel from a PCR van in the area nabbed the accused soon after the incident occurred. A case has been registered against him under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code as well as the Motor Vehicles Act, said Narendra Kumar, circle in-charge of the Jaipur East police station. According to police, Bharat was driving the car in a drunk state. Breathalyser tests showed that the alcohol content in his blood was 264 mg per 100 ml, which is way more than the permissible limit of 30 mg, said Kumar, the investigating officer in the case. However, Bharat identified himself as a freelance journalist and stated that the accident had occurred due to brake failure. The brakes failed while I was taking a right turn towards Gandhi Nagar railway station. This caused my vehicle to lose control and run onto the pavement, he said. His father said he did not have adequate information on the incident. As I have been busy with the Gaurav Yatra, I came to know what happened only on Friday morning. The news has completely spoiled my mood, he said over the phone. When asked further questions, Badri disconnected the call. The Rajasthan education department revised two of its orders related to the teachers day function in Jaipur on September 5. In the first, teachers were threatened with a pay cut for the day if they skipped the event; in the second, they were told to avoid the colour black in their clothes and accessories, both drawing sharp criticism from the Congress. The state education department is organising a state-level function near state Assembly in Jaipur to felicitate one teacher from all 33 districts. Schoolteachers appointed post December 13, 2013 the day the Vasundhara Raje government was sworn in have been invited to the function. On August 29, district education officers of secondary and elementary education in Bharatpur issued an order to block elementary education officers and nodal officers to deduct salary of teachers who dont attend the Jaipur function. The order drew flak from teachers organisations, leading to a revision of the order on August 30. In another diktat, the district education officer of Hanumangarh district told teachers to not wear black clothes, shoes, socks and belt, and not even carry a black handkerchief. The government is worried the colour black could lead to protests. Both these orders copies of which are with HT were later revised to remove these controversial clauses after Congress and teachers organisations cried foul. All India Congress Committee general secretary and former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot hit out at the Raje government for these diktats. The government is worried about public resentment and has issued orders to teachers not to wear black clothes or carry any black objects, he said in a statement on Friday. Gehlot added that the government was discriminating against teachers by calling only those appointed post 2013 when it was spending Rs 11.51 crore on the function for political gain. Naresh Pal Gangwar, principal secretary of education department, told a local Hindi daily that no orders on pay cut and black clothes were issued by the government. The DEOs have been told to not issue such orders, he was quoted as saying. Gangwar said the newly-appointed teachers were invited to the function so that they feel a sense of pride. Governments paranoia over the colour black was evident in Barmer, too, where chief minister Vasundhara Rajes Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra will reach on September 1. Bengal Police have arrested Sheikh Shamsuddin, 25, a tailor, on charges of murdering Partha Chakraborty, 26, an employee of Bandhan Bank. The victim visited Sheikhs residence in Howrah district to recover part of the loan the tailor had taken from the bank. Chakrabortys body was chopped into pieces and dumped at different locations. The crime took place on the afternoon of August 29 at Shamsuddins house from where he runs his business. The police arrested the prime suspect within 48 hours of the grisly murder. Shamsuddins father was also arrested on Saturday evening for allegedly helping his son hide evidence. The police recovered from Shamsuddin a sum of Rs 3.5 lakh that he allegedly took from the victim. Chakraborty had collect the cash from other creditors. In fact, more than 25 creditors who live in the area had assembled at Shamsuddins residence when the murder took place. Although the meeting was scheduled, all of them claimed to have heard or seen nothing. Shamsuddins father, Sheikh Mansur Ali, was first detained for questioning and later arrested. An officer said police have doubts whether the entire operation could be done by Shamsuddin alone. Shamsuddin used to stich clothes and supply to a businessman. According to the police, he took a loan of Rs 1.5 lakh to fund the tiny venture. It is suspected that first he hit Chakraborty on the head with a bamboo. When the youth passed out, his head and limbs were severed. The torso was packed in a bag and dumped at one location. The limbs and head were carried on a motorcycle and dumped near NH6 at Ankurhati, said Gaurav Sharma, superintendent of Howrah Police. To conceal the identity of the victim, Shamsuddin had even ripped out a mole which was Chakrabortys birth mark. We have come to know that Shamsuddin took a loan of Rs 1.5 lakh. He was defaulting on repayment, and Chakraborty insisted that he pays up, said Sharma. On August 29, Chakraborty called up Shamsuddin before visiting his house. Chakrabortys torso, with head and limbs severed, was found in a bag at Domjur in Howrah district, about 20 km to the west of Kolkata. Incidentally, a manufacturers label that is stitched to clothes was instrumental in leading the cops to Shamsuddin. At the spot where the torso was found, police spotted the label and small pieces of clothes that are typically the waste produced by tailors. We tracked down those who are into similar business in the area. One of the people we contacted identified the label and said he gave these to Shamsuddin, said Sharma. Chakraborty was a resident of Chakdaha in Nadia district, about 66 km to the north of Kolkata. However he used to live in Domjur in Howrah. His main job was to collect money from creditors of the bank. He was the only child of his parents and the sole earning member of the family. We want exemplary punishment for the culprit, said the victims uncle. The brutality he was subjected to was incredible. We cremated parts of his body two days ago. Today, we may have to cremate some parts, he remarked. A Class 6 student of a private school in Kandivli (West) was allegedly molested by her senior at the schools canteen on Thursday. The Charkop police are trying to identify the minor boy who committed the crime, as 12-year-old girl was unable to describe him clearly. The Charkop police said the incident took place in the afternoon. The girl told police a boy came from behind her and slid his hand inside her skirt. The police are currently taking circumstantial and descriptive details of the boy from her in order to identify him. The police said they will also go through CCTV cameras to see if they can get any leads. They are questioning a group of boys who were also in the canteen when the incident took place. By Friday, several parents started protesting outside the school, accusing the management of not responding quickly to the incident. The girls relatives demanded to see the principal and school officials, but said they were not allowed to enter the school premises. School officials did not meet HT despite requests for a comment. The school principal did not respond to calls and messages from HT. The Charkop police have registered a first information report (FIR) under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual offences (POCSO) Act. . Launching a fresh attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government, the Congress party on Friday initiated its Jan Sangharsh Yatra to be held in phases over the next three months. The Yatra will aimed at questioning the BJP about various issues such as agrarian crisis, unrest among various communities over reservation, and rising debt. The first leg began on Friday in Kolhapur. They will now march to villages and tehsils across districts in Western Maharashtra, before the Yatra culminates in Pune on September 7. All India Congress Committee and Maharashta in-charge general secretary Mallikarjun Kharge, state Congress chief Ashok Chavan and key state leaders participated in the rally held at an auditorium in Kolhapur. Nobody in the state is happy as Fadnavis has been making promises over last four years, but none have been kept. Our rallies will deal with areas where the government has failed, such as farmer loan waivers and reservation demands by various communities, said Chavan. The recent arrest of human rights activist by the Maharashtra police and unrest among the dalits over the Bhima Koregaon violence will also be addressed. Kharge attacked the BJP government for allegedly supporting radical Hindu groups such as Sanatan Sanstha. The Congress is also expected to woo the Maratha community, its traditional voter base in western Maharashtra. The party leadership believes the political atmosphere is changing rapidly. Rahul Gandhi is expected to join the Yatra in its second phase in Faijpur, Ahmednagar. Other national leaders including Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Gulab Nabi Azad may join too, the party leader said. The Congress march will be supported by its traditional ally Nationalist Congress Party, said Congress leaders. After receiving excess rain in the two monsoon months of June and July, Mumbai received only 40% of its average rain for August the second lowest for the month in 10 years. All through August, the weather bureau recorded just at 235.2mm of rainfall in the city. The lowest recorded monthly total for the decade was in 2015, at 153.9mm; the highest was in 1958 at 1,254mm. The average August rainfall in Mumbai is 585.2mm. The meteorological office said the poor rainfall could be attributed to the absence of conducive weather systems along the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. While the central parts of the state, and even the south Konkan region, recorded good rain, Mumbai and its surrounding areas saw lower rainfall activity owing to weak monsoon conditions, said Ajay Kumar, scientist, India Meteorological Department (IMD), Mumbai. Kumar said the weather bureau foresees a similar pattern through September too. The low rain in August is in contrast to July, when the city got 1,137mm of rain the second highest monthly rainfall since 2012. The average rainfall for July is 840.7mm. Over the past seven years, the highest July rainfall was recorded in 2014 at 1,468.5mm. From the beginning of the monsoon season till August 31, Maharashtra recorded 861mm rain against the normal for the period, which is 827.3mm a 4% excess. Meanwhile, with negligible rain on Friday, day temperatures at south Mumbai and the suburbs was a degree Celsius above the normal mark. While Colaba recorded 31 degrees Celsius, 1.3 degrees above normal, maximum temperatures at Santacruz was 30.6 degrees Celsius, 0.9 degrees above normal. The night temperature was close to the normal mark. The weather bureau has predicted one or two spells of light rain over the weekend, but an increase in day temperature to 32 degrees Celsius. Fed up with the pathetic condition of the Sion-Panvel highway, 15 commuters staged a silent protest on Friday morning at Kopra Bridge, Kharghar. The protest was led by social activist Deepak Singh who had filed criminal public interest litigation (PIL) on battered Sion- Panvel Highway. The protest was planned to draw the attention of Chandrakant Patil, Public Works Department (PWD) minister, who was scheduled to pass through the highway on Friday morning. Commuters held placards with messages such as no road, no vote, pothole free roads are our right. Politicians, big shots and ministers regularly pass through this stretch but they never pay heed to problems of regular commuters. We wanted the PWD minister to notice our concern and give directions to PWD officials to redo the rough patches to ensure a smooth commute. My criminal PIL regarding Sion-Panvel Highway is up for hearing on September 3 and I am hopeful about a positive judgement towards the same, said Singh. Meanwhile, in the wake of a dry spell for the past two to three days, the PWD officials have undertaken patch work on the Sion-Panvel Highway. Most potholes have been filled by a quick-fix method and the process to fill others is going on. Kishore Patil, executive engineer, PWD, said, During the dry spell, we have fixed major potholes and others would be covered in days to come. Road will be fixed and a smooth commute would be ensured on the stretch. My car broke down more than twice this monsoon and I am even paying more for petrol every month daily commute is very stressful. The travel time has increased and the problems have prevailed throughout this monsoon, said Pradeep Mane, 30, who travels every day from Kalamboli to Ghansoli. The protesters then moved to the Kharghar toll and protested about traffic jams at night that leaves no room for ambulances to pass. Most heavy vehicles are given entry at night, which leads to heavy traffic on highway. The traffic is so bad that jam extends to almost 4-5 km towards Kharghar. While returning late night, I have not only deal with potholes but also pass through this heavy traffic. I had asked the traffic cops to at least keep two lanes free for ambulances but they disagreed, said Singh. As they did not listen, I approached Kharghar police station and have handed over a complaint letter regarding same. The cops have ensured that they would take action and intervene in solving the problem, said Singh. Those demanding for good roads are even slated to meet PWD minister in a weeks time and put forward their demands. A team of 10, consisting mostly of daily commuter, would meet the minister and explain the current situation of the highway and what steps could be taken to solve the issue. The investigation into the roles the six alleged sympathisers of the right-wing group Sanatan Sanstha played in a series of killings and attacks over the past five years widened on Friday, with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and three other state anti-terror units joining the probe. While agencies in Karnataka and Maharashtra are primarily investigating the shootings of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar, writers Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi, and journalist Gauri Lankesh, anti-terrorism agencies from Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are now in Mumbai to question Vaibhav Raut, Sharad Kalaskar, Sudhanva Ghondalekar, Shrikant Pangarkar and Avinash Pawar, the five men arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) over the past few weeks in connection with the attacks. The sixth arrest was that of Sachin Andhure, who allegedly shot Dabholkar dead. Andhure is the custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). So far, the ATS has found out how the accused had travelled across the country, for both reconnaissance, and to identify their targets. They had made lists of such targets. On Saturday, the Maharashtra ATS gave a special Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act court a fresh list of names these men had been targeting, when they produced Avinash Pawar before the court. The agency said it had unearthed these lists during custodial interrogation of the accused. For the safety of those on the list, the court requested that their names be withheld. Pawars questioning also revealed the name of another one of the accused men, currently on the run, chief public prosecutor Jaisingh Desai said. The ATS also said it had recovered a diary from a locker belonging to Pawar. The book has notes in code words, which the agency is yet to decipher. The court has remanded Pawar in ATS custody till September 4. Meanwhile, ATS officials told the same court they would take custody of Amol Kale the main accused in the Gauri Lankesh murder case from the CBI, as he too was part of this group and would have information on the other attacks that had been planned. The dealers of two-wheelers and cars in Pune are gearing up for the first day of implementation of the Supreme Courts direction that makes third party insurance mandatory for a minimum period of three years. Two-wheelers should get the third party insurance for five years and cars should have the third party insurance for 3 years. This comes after the Supreme Court order dated July 20, 2018 that directed third party insurance cover for cars and two-wheelers for a period of three and five years respectively. A letter from the ministry of road transport and highways of India in this regard states This may be taken and treated as a separate product. The letter is signed by Abhay Damble, joint secretary and has been issued on August 29, three days before the order comes into effect. When asked about the ramification of non-compliance to do so, Vinod Sagre, assistant regional transport officer, said, If customers do not get it done, we will not issue registration. BI Ajri, regional transport officer of Pune, had directed Sagre to call for a meeting on Friday evening with the RTO officials and vehicle dealers of the city. However, the dealers did not respond well due to the short notice. We have to inform customers who approached us in the past few days about the new rule. When we tell them that insurance has to be taken for a minimum period of five years post September 1, some customers want us to register the vehicles before September 1. But given the number of vehicles for which we get passing done per month (and given the protocol involved) it is not possible for a dealership to manage it all in such a short notice, said Bharat Thakkar, general manager at Century TVS showroom chain in Pune. We have been telling all our customers about the changed rules and the price of the vehicle. If the vehicle payment is done and the registration is done before August 31, the cost will not change. But if the order is placed and is scheduled for delivery later, the expenditure will increase for the customer, said Eijaz Shaikh, assistant sales manager at Hyundai showroom in Camp. However, he also pointed out that the basic cost of vehicles is not changing and that the difference is purely due to third party insurance. The Supreme Court has further observed that it is on insurance companies to deal with comprehensive insurance policies on a separate footing and it would be at the option of the owner of the vehicle to decide which policy should be taken except that the third party insurance is mandatory, the letter from joint secretary Damle further reads. The registering as well as enforcement authorities were directed to ensure compliance of the apex court order. Authorities at the Amritsar Central Jail recovered a mobile phone after a clash broke out between prisoners on Friday. With this, in August alone, 24 mobile phones have been seized from the jail premises. After the clash, a case under Sections 42, 52 and 52 A of the Prisons Act was registered against five jail inmates Ravi Kumar of Harike in Tarn Taran; Bhupinder Singh of Pandori Warrainch village in Amritsar; Jaswinder Singh of Ganga Nagar in Rajasthan; Chiman Lal of Gurdaspur and Bau Barinder Singh of Patti in Tarn Taran on Saturday. The case was registered on the complaint of assistant superintendent of jail Joginder Singh, who said, The accused had an old enmity with one Ranjit Singh of Gurdaspur, a jail inmate, due to which, the accused thrashed him. On Ranjits complaint, a physical search of the accused was launched on Friday evening and a mobile phone recovered from Ravi Kumar. Besides mobile phones, the authorities have recovered a headphone, 690 intoxicated tablets, five-gram heroin and 18-gram intoxicated powder from jail inmates in August. Out of the total mobile phones recovered, five were recovered from the visitors while 19 were seized from the inmates. As per the cases registered in Islamabad police station of Amritsar, three mobile phones from three different jail inmates were seized in the first week of August during a routine search. Similarly, two mobile phones were recovered from two inmates in the second week of August. In the third week, nine mobile phones, 690 intoxicated tablets and 18 gm intoxicated powder was recovered from 10 prisoners and a visitor in all. In the rest of the month, eight more mobile phones were recovered from two visitors and four jail inmates. Amritsar jail superintendent Arshdeep Singh Gill said the jail staff was committed to wipe out this menace and all inputs were being taken seriously, resulting in the seizures. In mid July, the Amritsar police busted a heroin smuggling racket that was allegedly operating from the Amritsar Central Jail, with the arrest of two brothers from Sultanwind road. The duo had told the police then that their brother Raja, lodged in the Amritsar jail, used to give them directions for heroin smuggling. They also told the police that Raja had been operating his network from the jail with the help of another prisoner, Pardeep Kumar aka Pindu, of Gujjarpura. Under fire over the Ranjit Singh panel report, the embattled Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday decided to hit the streets by holding statewide protests on Saturday against the ruling Congress and its collaborators, radical leaders and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in the alleged conspiracy to defame the party. It has also planned a rally in Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhars hometown Abohar on September 9. Responding to the Congress challenge that Akali leaders would not be allowed to enter the villages, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, while addressing a meeting of party legislators, constituency in-charges and district observers in Chandigarh, said the party would give a befitting reply to the conspiracy to weaken Sikh institutions. Protests will be organised in all 117 assembly constituencies where effigies of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh and Jakhar will be burnt, he said. The party has rejected the state governments move to take back probe into sacrilege incidents of Guru Granth Sahib and police firing at protesters from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and set up a special investigation team (SIT) instead to conduct the inquiry. The CBI should probe the matter, Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia told a TV channel. The state assembly had on Tuesday passed a resolution to take back the probe from CBI and hand it over to SIT. Former minister Daljit Singh Cheema said the party would expose Jakhar who was trying his best to instigate violence against Akali leaders and take the state back to the dark era of terrorism. At least 30 Nigerian soldiers died in combat with Boko Haram jihadists who overran a military base in the northeast near the border with Niger, two military sources told AFP on Saturday. Scores of jihadists in trucks stormed the base at Zari village in northern Borno state late Thursday and briefly seized it after a fierce battle, they said. They came in large numbers in trucks and carrying heavy weapons and engaged soldiers in a battle that lasted for an hour, a military officer said. We lost at least 30 men, the officer said, adding that the attack took place at around 4:00 pm. They overwhelmed the troops who were forced to temporarily withdraw before reinforcements arrived, said the officer who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak. Boko Haram has intensified attacks on military targets in recent months. The attacks appear to undermine repeated claims by the military that Boko Haram had been defeated. The militants took weapons and military equipment before they were pushed out of the base by troops with aerial support, said a second military source who gave a similar death toll. The militants were pursued and bombarded by a fighter jet, said the military sources. The terrorists also suffered heavy casualty from the bombardment, one of the military officers said. Zari is located 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the town of Damasak on the border with Niger. The jihadists are thought to have attacked the base from the nearby Garunda village, where 17 troops were killed and 14 injured in an attack on another military base last month, the sources said. In a statement late Friday the Nigerian military confirmed troops fought Boko Haram insurgents...on rampage to loot the community and extort money from villagers. Army silent on casualties Troops...have successfully routed Boko Haram insurgents in an encounter that ensued yesterday evening at Zari village, the military said in the statement. It did not speak of military casualties and the raid on the base but maintained several Boko Haram fighters and weapons were destroyed in the fight. The Nigerian army has on several occasions disputed reports on losses to Boko Haram and has in some cases played them down. On July 14 Boko Haram militants overran a military base in Jilli village, in neighbouring Yobe state when dozens of troops were said to be been killed, wounded or missing. The army at the time conceded the base was attacked but said troops remobilised and succeeded in repelling the attackers. In a short statement on Wednesday, IS-affiliated Boko Haram jihadists claimed to have killed several Nigerian troops in mortar strikes on a military base in the town of Arge in the Lake Chad area. AFP could not independently verify the claim. The Boko Haram insurgency which is in its ninth year has left 20,000 people dead and displaced 2.6 million. Soldiers and civilians have also been targeted in separate attacks in neighbouring Chad and Niger. An actress who appeared on the TV medical drama ER and starred in the film Stand and Deliver was identified by authorities Friday as the woman fatally shot by police officers in Southern California after they say she pointed a replica handgun at them. The woman gained attention last year when she said George Clooney helped blacklist her from Hollywood. Vanessa Marquez, 49, died at a hospital following Thursdays shooting at her apartment in South Pasadena, just outside Los Angeles, police said. South Pasadena police officers were responding to a call from Marquezs landlord that she needed medical help when they found her having a seizure, said Lt. Joe Mendoza with the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. Paramedics treated Marquez, who improved and began talking with three officers and a mental health clinician who spent an hour and a half trying to talk her into getting additional medical help, both physical and mental, Mendoza said. Marquez became uncooperative, appeared unable to care for herself and seemed to have mental health issues, he said. At some point, Mendoza said Marquez got what turned out to be a BB gun and pointed it at the officers, prompting two of them to shoot. It looked like a real gun, he said, adding that its unclear where the gun was during her lengthy interaction with police. The officers were wearing body cameras but footage wont be released for at least six months pending the investigation, Mendoza said. Terence Towles Canote, a close friend of Marquezs, said the actress was having health and financial problems but that she showed no signs of depression or other mental troubles. She talked about her dream of winning an Oscar one day and was hopeful for a career comeback despite her medical struggles, he said. She was looking forward to life, Canote said. This is not a woman who wanted to die. Marquez posted extensively on Facebook and in other outlets about her health problems, saying she was terminally ill and had seizures and celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that can damage the small intestine with the ingestion of gluten. In 2014, she said in an online post that she had spent her entire life savings on doctors and hospitals who didnt properly treat her and that she couldnt work or do most basic everyday functions. Marquez gained attention last year after tweeting that George Clooney helped blacklist her from Hollywood when she complained about sexual harassment and racist comments among their ER co-stars. Clooney said in a statement to US Weekly at the time that he was just an actor on the show and was unaware of any blacklist. If she was told I was involved in any decision about her career then she was lied to, he said. The fact that I couldnt affect her career is only surpassed by the fact that I wouldnt. Marquez also appeared on episodes of Seinfeld, Melrose Place and Malcolm & Eddie but her career largely fizzled after ER. One of her posts talked about being grateful to be a part of Stand and Deliver, a 1988 film about a math teacher who motivated struggling students at a tough East Los Angeles high school. If youre truly fortunate, you get to live your dream and do the work you were put on this Earth to do, she wrote. If youre really, really fortunate you do a film that makes history and affects the lives of millions of people ... It will live on long after were gone. ___ Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed to this report from New York City. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh may be the person sitting in front of senators at next weeks confirmation hearings, but many of the questions he gets are likely to be focused on another man: President Donald Trump. Ongoing investigations swirling around Trump mean that lawmakers will want to know how Kavanaugh might vote on questions such as whether a president can be charged with a crime or be forced to testify as part of an investigation. Democrats also are expected to ask Kavanaugh whether he can be truly independent from the president who picked him. Supreme Court nominees avoid giving legal opinions during their confirmation hearings, saying that would be improper. But Kavanaugh has said or written a number of things that suggest he favors giving the president a good deal of legal breathing room, and he will be asked about those statements. Expect senators to explore Kavanaughs views on whether: A sitting President can be indicted Legal experts are divided on the question of whether a sitting president can be charged with a crime. At one point in 1998, Kavanaughs answer seemed to be no. Kavanaugh, who worked on the Whitewater investigation that resulted in President Bill Clintons impeachment, was a panelist at a Georgetown law school event where the moderator asked : How many of you believe as a matter of law that a sitting president cannot be indicted during the term of office? Kavanaugh raised his hand. Two Justice Department reports, one in 1973 and one in 2000 , came to the same conclusion. And Trumps lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has said that special counsel Robert Muellers team has indicated they would not attempt to indict Trump. Expect lawmakers to press the issue using two law review articles Kavanaugh wrote. In the first , published months after the hand-raising episode, he wrote that whether the Constitution allows a sitting president to be indicted is debatable. But he said the Constitutions framers seemed to anticipate that the response to presidential wrongdoing would be impeachment. The Constitution itself seems to dictate, in addition, that congressional investigation must take place in lieu of criminal investigation when the President is the subject of investigation, and that criminal prosecution can occur only after the President has left office, Kavanaugh wrote. A decade later, Kavanaugh noted in a 2009 Minnesota Law Review article that a serious constitutional question exists over whether a president can be indicted and tried while in office. He wrote that would cripple the federal government. In both articles he called on Congress to pass a law exempting the president from criminal prosecution and investigation while in office. It never happened. The Supreme Court could still conclude that the Constitution provides the same protection. The President can be subpoenaed Whether a sitting president must respond to a subpoena and answer questions from investigators is another open question, and one perhaps more likely than the issue of indictment to come before the Supreme Court. Mueller hasnt said that he intends to subpoena Trump, but his team raised the prospect with Trumps lawyers in March . If that happens, Trumps lawyer has said hes ready to fight all the way to the Supreme Court. Lawmakers will want to probe how sympathetic Kavanaugh would be to the presidents arguments in that case. In his 2009 article, Kavanaugh wrote that his time working in President George W. Bushs White House led him to believe that the President should be excused from some of the burdens of ordinary citizenship while serving in office. He said Congress should pass a law exempting the president from answering investigators questions. Even the lesser burdens of a criminal investigation including preparing for questioning by criminal investigators are time-consuming and distracting, he wrote, without expressly saying whether he believes presidents testimony can be subpoenaed. Kavanaugh can also expect a grilling on two Supreme Court cases one involving Clinton and one involving President Richard Nixon indicating that a sitting president isnt immune from certain legal obligations. In 1974, the court ruled unanimously that Nixon had to produce subpoenaed recordings and documents. A 1999 magazine article about a roundtable discussion Kavanaugh participated in quotes him as saying : maybe Nixon was wrongly decided heresy though it is to say so. More recently, however, he listed it among several landmark Supreme Court cases, saying some of the greatest moments in American judicial history have been when judges stood up to the other branches. In 1997, meanwhile, the court ruled unanimously that Clinton wasnt immune while president from a civil lawsuit brought by Paula Jones alleging sexual harassment. Kavanaugh has written that decision may well have been entirely correct. He has also said: I am not sure whether or not Clinton v. Jones is right as a constitutional matter. Recusals Democrats have said they will press Kavanaugh to promise that, if confirmed, he wont participate in cases involving any investigation of Trump. Kavanaugh has an easy out here. He can say that if confirmed hell follow the recusal practices of his colleagues. That generally means only sitting out a case if a justice participated in it at an earlier stage or has a financial or personal conflict. But each justice makes his or her own recusal decisions. Kavanaugh can also cite other justices in arguing that he could remain impartial in cases involving Trump. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, both Clinton nominees, participated in the Jones case and ruled against Clinton. Chief Justice Warren Burger, Justice Harry Blackmun and Justice Lewis Powell, all Nixon nominees, helped decide the Watergate tapes case and ruled against Nixon. Nixons final Supreme Court appointee, William Rehnquist, had worked in Nixons administration and recused himself. A British man suspected in the murder of a school girl has been sent to jail for refusing to share his Facebook password with police investigating her death, the media reported. Stephen Nicholson was jailed for refusing to share his Facebook password with police, which they claimed obstructed their investigation into the stabbing of 13-year-old Lucy McHugh on July 26 this year, the Independent reported, late on Friday. The police hoped to read through his private messages to see if he had sent any messages to the girl before her murder. Nicholson, who pleaded guilty to the charge under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), argued that giving police access to his private Facebook messages could expose information relating to cannabis. However, the judge described this excuse as wholly inadequate, considering the severity of the case and ordered a 14 month jail term. Under the RIPA, police investigating a crime has the power to compel people to disclose a password used to access a phone, computer or any service accessed through an electronic device. Refusing to comply with RIPA, intended as an anti-terror measure, can result in a maximum sentence of two years imprisonment, or five years in cases involving national security or child indecency. The police are able to request disclosure if the reason is to prevent or detect crime, if its in the interests of national security or the economic well-being of the UK, Saunders Law, a London-based law firm, stated on its website. However, the criminals may be wiser to not disclose a password and plead guilty to the RIPA offence, rather than face significantly more severe charges brought on by whatever the password-protected data reveals, the firm pointed out. Thus, there could be a completely disproportionate result if someone is imprisoned for not providing a password but not the crime they are originally under investigation for, of which they might be innocent, the firm stated. A decision on whether to charge Nicholson with further offences is expected on October 27, the report stated. The US on Saturday slapped sanctions on two Pakistani companies by placing them on the export entities list for activities related to nuclear and missile trade. The two companies - Technology Links Pvt Ltd and Techcare Services FZ have been placed under the Entity List by the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). In a federal notification, the US Department of Commerce said that the entities added to the EAR list have been determined by the US government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the US. The move comes days ahead of the visit of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Pakistan. The EAR determined that Technology Links Pvt. Ltd., located in Pakistan, be added to the Entity List based on the companys involvement in the supply of items subject to the EAR to nuclear and missile-related Entity List parties in Pakistan without the required license, the federal notification said. In addition, the EAR determined that Techcare Services FZ LLC, located in the UAE, and UEC (Pvt) Ltd, located in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, made multiple attempts to acquire US-origin commodities ultimately destined for Pakistans unsafeguarded nuclear programme and have provided false and misleading information during an end-use check, the federal notification said. Meghan McCain's Eulogy for Her Father John McCain The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for, and I hate very much to leave it." When Ernest Hemingway's Robert Jordan, at the close For Whom the Bell Tolls lies wounded, waiting for his last fight, these are among his final thoughts. My father had every reason to think the world was an awful place. my father had every reason to think the world was not worth fighting for. My father had every reason to think the world was worth leaving. He did not think any of those things. Like the hero of his favorite book, John McCain took the opposite view: You had to have a lot of luck to have had such a good life. I am here before you today saying the words I have never wanted to say giving the speech I have never wanted to give. Feeling the loss I have never wanted to feel. My father is gone, John Sidney McCain III was many things. He was a sailor, he was an aviator, he was a husband, he was a warrior, he was a prisoner, he was a hero, he was a congressman, he was a senator, he was nominee for President of the United States. These are all of the titles and roles of a life that's been well lived. They're not the greatest of his titles nor the most important of his roles. He was a great man. We gather to mourn the passing of American greatness, the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice, those that live lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served. He was a great fire who burned bright. In the past few days, my family and I have heard from so many of those Americans who stood in the warmth and light of his fire and found it illuminated what's best about them. We are grateful to them because they're grateful to him. A few have resented that fire for the light it cast upon them for the truth it revealed about their character, but my father never cared what they thought and even that small number still have the opportunity as long as they draw breath to live up to the example of John McCain. My father was a great man. He was a great warrior. He was a great American. I admired him for all of these things. but I love him because he was a great father. My father knew what it was like to grow up in the shadow of greatness, he did just as his father had done before him. He was the son of a great admiral who was also the son of a great admiral. When it came time for the third John Sidney McCain to be a man, he had no choice but to walk in the same path. He had to become a sailor. He had to go to war. He had to have his shot at becoming a great admiral as they also had done. The past of his father and grandfather led my father to the Hanoi Hilton. This is where all of the biography, campaign literature say he showed his character, his patriotism, his faith, his endurance in the worst of possible circumstances. This is where we learned who John McCain truly was. And all is very true except for the last part. Today I want to share with you where I found out who John McCain truly was and wasn't in the Hilton. It wasn't in the cockpit of a fast and lethal fighter jet or on the campaign trail. John McCain was in all those places, but the best of him was somewhere else, the best of John McCain, the greatest of his titles and the most important of his roles was as a father. Imagine the warrior the night of the skies gently carrying his little girl to bed. Imagine the dashing aviator who took his aircraft, hurdling off pitching decks in the South China Seas, kissing the hurt when I fell and skinned my knee. Imagine the distinguished states man who counseled presidents singing with his girl in oak creek during a rainstorm to singing in the rain. Imagine the senator fierce conscience of the nation's best self taking his 14-year-old daughter out of school because he believed I would learn more about America at the town halls he held across the country. Imagine the loyal veteran with his eyes shining with happiness as he gave blessing for his grown daughter's marriage. You all have to imagine that. I don't have to because I lived it all. I know who he was. I know what defined him. I got to see it every single day of my blessed life. John McCain was not defined by prison, by the navy, by the senate, by the republican party or by any single one of the deeds in his absolutely extraordinary life. John McCain was defined by love. Several of you in the pews that crossed swords with him or found yourselves on the receiving end of his famous temper or were at a cross purpose to him on anything, are doing your best to stay stone faced. Don't. You know full well if John McCain were in your shoes today, he would be using some salty word while my mother jabbed him in the arm in embarrassment. He would look back at her and grumble, maybe stop talking, but he would keep grinning. She was the only one who could do that. On their first date when he still did not know what sort of woman he was, he recited a poem called The Cremation of Sam McGee about an Alaskan prospector who welcomed his cremation as the only way to get warm in the icy north. "Strange things done in the midnight sun. The arctic trails have secret tales that would make your blood run cold." He learned it in Hanoi. A prisoner rapped it out in code over and over during years of captivity. My father knew if she would sit through that, appreciate the dark humor that had seen him through so many years of imprisonment, she might sit through a lifetime with him as well, and she did. John McCain was defined by love. This love of my father for my mother was the most fierce and lasting of them all, mom. Let me tell you what love meant to John McCain and to me. As much as he comforts, he was endlessly present for us, and though we did not always understand it, he was always teaching. he didn't expect us to be like him. His worldly achievement was to be better than him. Armed with his wisdom, informed by his experiences, long before we were old enough to assemble our own. As a girl I didn't appreciate what I most fully appreciate now; how he suffered and how he bore it with a stoic silence that was once the mark of an American man. I came to appreciate it first when he demanded it of me. I was a small girl, thrown from a horse and crying from a busted collarbone. My dad picked me up. He took me to the doctor, he got me all fixed up. Then he immediately took me back home and made me get back on the same horse. I was furious at him as a child, but how I love him for it now. My father knew pain and suffering with an intimacy and immediacy most of us are blessed never to have endured. He was shot down, he was crippled, he was beaten, starved, tortured and humiliated. That pain never left him. The cruelty of his communist captors ensured he would never raise his arms above his head for the rest of his life, yet he survived, yet he endured. Yet he triumphed. And there was this man who had been through all that with a little girl that didn't want to get back on her horse. He could have sat me down and told me that and made me feel small because my complaint and fear was nothing next to his pain and memory. Instead, he made me feel loved, said in his quiet voice that spoke with authority and meant you had best obey. "Get back on the horse." I did. And because I was a little girl, I resented it. Now that I am a woman, I look back across that time and see the expression on his face when I climbed back up and rode again, and see the pride and love in his eyes as he said "Nothing is going to break you." For the rest of my life, whenever I fall down, I get back up. Whenever I am hurt, I drive on. Whenever I am brought low, I rise. That is not because I am virtuous, strong, resilient, it is simply because my father, John McCain, was. When my father got sick, when I asked him what he wanted me to do with this eulogy, he said "Show them how tough you are." that is what love meant to John McCain. Love for my father also meant caring for the nation entrusted to him. My father, the true son of his father and grandfather was born into the character of American greatness, was convinced of the need to defend it with ferocity and faith. John McCain was born in a distant now vanquished outpost of American power, and he understood America as a sacred trust. He understood our republic demands responsibilities, even before it defends its rights. He knew navigating the line between good and evil was often difficult but always simple. He grasped that our purpose and meaning was rooted in a missionary responsibility, stretching back centuries. Just as the first Americans looked upon a new world full of potential for a grand experiment in freedom and self confidence, so their descendants have a responsibility to defend the old world from its worst self. The America of John McCain is the America of the revolution. fighters with no stomach for the summer soldier and sunshine patriot, making the world anew with bells of America of John McCain is the America of Abraham Lincoln. Fulfilling the promise of the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal, and suffering greatly to see it through. The America of John McCain is the America of the boys who rushed the colors in every war across three centuries, knowing in them is the life of the republic, and particularly those by their daring as Ronald Reagan said, gave up their chance as being husbands and fathers and grandfathers and gave up their chance to be revered old men. The America of John McCain is, yes, the America of Vietnam, fighting the fight, even in the most grim circumstances, even in the most distant, hostile corner of the world, standing for the life and liberty of other peoples in other lands. The America of John McCain is generous and welcoming and bold. she's resourceful, confident, secure. She meets her responsibilities. she speaks quietly because she's strong. America does not boast because she has no need to. The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great. That fervent faith, that proven devotion, that abiding love, that is what drove my father from the fiery skies above the Red River delta to the brink of the presidency itself. Love defined my father. As a young man he wondered if he would measure up to his distinguished lineage. I miss him so badly. I want to tell him that take small comfort in this. somewhere in the great beyond where the warriors go, there are two admirals of the United States meeting their much loved son, telling him he is the greatest among them. Dad, I love you, I always have. All that I am, all that I hope, all that I dream is grounded in what you taught me. You loved me and you showed me what love must be. An ancient Greek historian wrote "The image of great men is woven into the stuff of other men's lives." Dad, your greatness is woven into my life, it is woven into my mother's life, into my sister's life, and it is woven into my brothers' lives. It is woven into the life and liberty of the country you sacrificed so much to defend. Dad, I know you were not perfect. We live in an era where we knock down old American heroes for all their imperfections when no leader wants to admit to fault or failure. You were an exception and gave us an ideal to strive for. Look, I know you can see this gathering in this cathedral. The nation is here to remember you. Like so many other heroes, you leave us draped in the flag you loved. You defended it, you sacrificed it, you always honored it. It is good to remember we are Americans. We don't put our heroes on pedestals just to remember them, we raise them up because we want to emulate their virtues, this is how we honor them, this is how we will honor you. My father gone. My father is gone and my sorrow is immense, but I know his life, and I know it was great because it was good. And as much as I hate to see him go, I do know how it ended. I know that on the afternoon of August 25th in front of Oak Creek in Arizona, surrounded by the family he loved so much, an old man shook off the scars of battle one last time and arose a new man to pilot one last flight up and up and up, busting clouds left and right, straight on through to the kingdom of heaven. And he slipped the earthly bonds, put out his hand, and touched the face of god. I love you, dad. JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. You should upgrade or use an You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.You should upgrade or use an alternative browser There's a new generation of west coast artists that have been making some serious noise in recent times. SOB x RBE and Shoreline Mafia are two groups that have been putting in a lot of work over the past year and gaining a lot of traction to their names. Earlier this month, the two groups connected on their banger, "Da Move." Today, SOB X RBE's Yhung T.O. links up with the rest of Shoreline Mafia for their new collaboration, "Harden." Shoreline Mafia and Yhung T.O. join forces on their new collab, "Harden." Their new collaboration comes only a few weeks after SOB x RBE connected with Shoreline for "Da Move." In comparison, it's more downtempo than we've heard before but the melodies they've added on the hook make it an infectious heater. Peep the new track below and check out our recent interview with Yhung T.O. here. Quotable Lyrics 20 in my pants, baby watch me do my dance 40 in my hands, leave a n***a where he stands I be countin' bands, sorry I can't be your man All up in my pants, you ain't hearin' what I'm sayin WASHINGTON After a year of threatening to end the North American Free Trade Agreement, President Donald Trump notified Congress on Friday that he plans to sign a new trade deal with both Canada and Mexico after days of talks with Canadian officials that a White House official called constructive. The United States and Canada have yet to complete negotiations, but the move marked a significant step forward in what has been an uneven and at times volatile process to revamp the 25-year-old pact. We are on pace to complete an agreement with Mexico and hopefully with Canada, a senior White House official said Friday. The talks (with Canada) were constructive, and weve made progress. Trump had set a Friday deadline for the United States and Canada to reach a deal on NAFTA following a preliminary agreement with Mexico on Monday. U.S. and Canadian officials are scheduled to resume talks Wednesday, the official said. The timing of this weeks trade talks with Canada were seen as critical, because the White House is trying to sign a new trade pact before Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto leaves office Dec. 1, and Congress is required to take 90 days for review. But the White House could have some flexibility under federal trade law. More Information Tensions rose Friday when the Toronto Star reported that in an off-the-record conversation Trump had told reporters from Bloomberg News he had no intention of compromising with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. "Here's the problem. If I say no - the answer's no. If I say no, then you're going to put that, and it's going to be so insulting they're not going to be able to make a deal ... I can't kill these people," Trump reportedly said. See More Collapse The White House must notify Congress of a trade deal 90 days ahead of time, but it is only required to submit the language of that trade deal 60 days ahead of time, said Josh Zive, a Washington trade attorney with the law firm Bracewell. Congress could be notified of an agreement in principle today, either with both parties or only with Mexico, and Canada could be added in during next 30 days, Zive said. subhead The talks with Canada and Mexico are particularly critical for Texas, where trade with Mexico and Canada accounts for more than 1 million jobs. From warehouses and logistics operations along the Mexican border to Gulf Coast refineries that rely on crude from Canada and Mexico, the states economy has become increasingly reliant on trade since NAFTA was signed in 1993. Trump has told Canada it needs to end tariffs on U.S. dairy products or else face U.S. tariffs on Canadian-made automobiles. Canada has so far refused to meet Trumps demands on the dairy tariffs, which it argues serve to support its domestic dairy industry in much the same manner the United States maintains a federal crop insurance program to aid its farmers. Tensions rose Friday when the Toronto Star reported that, in an off-the-record conversation, Trump had told reporters from Bloomberg News he had no intention of compromising with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Heres the problem. If I say no the answers no, Trump reportedly said. If I say no, then youre going to put that, and its going to be so insulting theyre not going to be able to make a deal. subhead Without Canada in the trade deal, Trump could face a tough road winning approval from Congress. Republicans and Democrats have raised their objection to a bilateral deal with Mexico. Speaking with reporters Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader John Cornyn, R-Texas, said without Canada it would, reduce the likelihood that it would actually be approved. But when pressed as to whether he himself would support a bilateral deal with Mexico, Cornyn said, I continue to believe it would be preferable to have a deal with Canada as well, but I think a deal with Mexico is better than no deal, and I would support that. At the same time Trumps volatile negotiating style is starting to grate on some in Congress, who are used to the quieter, behind the scenes approach of previous administrations. In typical Trump fashion, amidst ever more insults, the administration spins a non-agreement into an agreement, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-San Antonio, said in a statement. He provides us no specific language, only boasts about what a great deal he has achieved. Though Trump may be satisfied to claim victory by changing NAFTAs name, many of us are committed to genuine reform. subhead Trump has long called NAFTA the worst trade deal in history. And under the recent agreement with Mexico, White House officials said the United States would increase its share of car manufacturing and the trade agreement would operate on 16-year terms, with a review at least every six years, to allow countries to address trade imbalances. For now most political observers believe Canada, which sends close to 75 percent of its exports to the United States, will ultimately have to make a deal with Trump. But some are questioning at what cost to the relationship between the two countries. The U.S. has all the leverage in the world. but just because you can doesnt mean you should, Bruce Heyman, the former U.S. ambassador to Canada, said on CNBC Friday. The relationship will be damaged much longer than it takes the ink to dry on this agreement if we keep squeezing Canada. james.osborne@chron.com twitter.com/osborneja Jonathan Berry Police is prohibiting the use of personal watercraft, wet bikes, motorized surfboards, and similar devices on Lake Austin over Labor Day weekend. The Austin Police Department Parks and Lake Patrol Unit is instituting the ban starting Friday through Sept. 4 to ensure the safety of the large number of people that make use of the lake and parks over the holiday, the department said in a news release. Doctors Without Borders, the award-winning international aid group, is bringing its traveling exhibit about the global refugee crisis to Houston. The exhibit, which opens Thursday and goes through Tuesday, provides a doctor's view of the true-life stories behind what the United Nations calls the worst migration crisis since World War II. More than 65 million people have now fled conflict in their home countries. "Doctors Without Borders is bringing this interactive exhibit to Houston to show people the challenges facing these displaced people.," said Giless de Gilles, a Doctors Without Borders aid worker and manager of the exhibit. "It aims to give the community Houston is home to many refugees from around the world -- a unique perspective what it's like to be forced from home." RELATED: 10 things to know about how the U.S. takes in refugees The exhibit, called Forced From Home, offers virtual reality documentaries set in Mexico, South Sudan, Iraq, Lebanon and Tanzania that immerse viewers in refugees' personal stories. Housed in a self-contained mobile trailer that expands to cover an outdoor space measuring 40 feet x 30 feet, it also showcases photographs and items from refugee camps. Forced From Home is staffed by local Doctors Without Borders aid workers, who will provide first-hand accounts of life in such refugee camps. Doctors Without Borders won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999 and the Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award in 2015. RELATED: Syrian refugees only trickling into U.S. The exhibit arrives amid tighter U.S. refugee limits. The Trump administration has slashed the number of refugees allowed to come to the United States to 45,000, less than half the previous number and the lowest number in decades. What's more, only 10,520 have been resettled in the first six months of the current fiscal year, suggesting far fewer will arrive. The 65 million refugees, the largest figure ever recorded, are the equivalent of one in every 113 people on the planet, according to the United Nations. There are hot spots around the globe, but more than half come from Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia. The exhibit will be at Rice University on Thursday and Friday, March 29-30 (open from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.) and at the University of Houston on Monday and Tuesday, April 2-3 (open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.). Officials said visitors can expect to spend 30 minutes at the exhibit. It began with a bullet inside a sinister note that forced them to flee their home. Like many Iraqis, they shrunk into lives behind locked doors punctuated with terror. Gunmen on the roof, too-close explosions. After Sarah Ismaeils sister began working for the U.S. Army as an engineer, the attacks escalated. Armed men trailed them and tried to kidnap her sisters infant on the street. The family applied for refugee status and, in 2016, were approved but their elderly parents application inexplicably stalled. Ismaeil and her siblings resettled in Houston, thinking their parents would soon join. Then President Donald Trump took office, issuing an executive order that halted refugee arrivals and temporarily barred those from several Muslim-majority countries, including Iraq, from entering the United States. Today Ismaeils family is still waiting for her parents and the number of refugees coming to the United States has plummeted to the lowest since the passage of the Refugee Act in 1980. Just several hundred from the eleven countries impacted by the so-called Muslim and travel bans have arrived, and Iraqi and Afghan translators that worked with the U.S. government are stuck in dangerous limbo. As the administration considers an even lower refugee ceiling for the new fiscal year in October, experts said the system has been reshaped to slow decades of resettlement to a trickle. In Houston, which has led the nation in sheltering refugees, about 360 have arrived so far this year compared to more than 1,300 in 2017. There has never been an intent to limit access to this life-saving program like we are seeing now, said Erol Kekic, executive director of the refugee program at Church World Service, one of the nations nine resettlement agencies. Like much of the administrations most consequential actions on immigration, the changes are playing out not through congressional moves or public announcement, but in policy tweaks or guidelines that together, are a significant overhaul. Along with the White Houses changes making it tougher to obtain asylum, fewer are able to now seek safety here and the numbers are expected to fall even further. It is just another set of steps to reduce, reduce, reduce the number of people fleeing here for safety, said Anne Richard, assistant secretary of state for Population, Refugees and Migration under President Barack Obama. Theyre dismantling a program that has worked to bring more than 3 million people to the United States since the Vietnam-era and given people a great start. Trump, who campaigned on limiting immigration and refugees, compared the program to a Trojan horse amid hysteria over a wave of migrants streaming into Europe. He has since slashed the ceiling of refugees allowed from 110,000 during Obamas final year in office to 50,000 in 2017. Last September, Trumps White House lowered that cap further to 45,000 for this fiscal year, but only about 19,890 refugees have arrived, about 1,500 coming to Texas, according to the State Department. Only about 540 were from the 11 countries impacted by the various iterations of the Muslim ban and the number of Muslim refugees coming here overall declined by about 90 percent to 2,722 through the first ten months of the fiscal year, according to an analysis of government data by Human Rights First, a national advocacy group. Only about 60 refugees from Syria were admitted, compared to nearly 6,500 in 2017, even as Trump ordered a targeted strike on Syrian military installations this spring, citing the regimes despicable attack of chemical weapons that left mothers and fathers, infants and children, thrashing in pain and gasping for air. Similarly, slightly more than 120 Iraqi refugees arrived, compared with more than 6,600 who did so in 2017, and only about four dozen were admitted through a program Congress created for Iraqis employed with the U.S. government or American contractors. More than 3,000 came last year. About another 9,700 Iraqis and Afghans and their family members who qualified for special immigrant visas because they worked with the U.S. military arrived in 2018, half of those that came through that program in 2017. Its a pretty cataclysmic drop-off, said Betsy Fisher, policy director for the International Refugee Assistance Project, an advocacy group in New York that has represented Iraqis. Its purely administrative changes that are being used to stifle the success of the program, even within the authorized numbers. The administration has wide latitude in speeding up refugee admissions as Obama did in 2015 when Syria exploded into a humanitarian crisis or slow them to almost nothing. It can also cut funding for related programs abroad. The administration on Friday said it would end support for a United Nations agency focused on helping Palestinian refugees and reportedly call for a reduction in the number considered to be refugees. Theres myriad ways, in small and large decisions, to result in what we have now, said Kay Bellor, vice president with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, a resettlement agency. Whatever ceiling the administration sets is irrelevant if there is no attempt to reach it. No matter what the number is, it almost doesnt matter, because right now theres no real push to meet it, she said. Two developments in particular have contributed to the slowdown of refugees coming to the United States. Barbara Strack, a career official and chief of the Refugee Affairs Division at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services who retired in January, said the agency ramped up hiring officers to interview refugees and meet Obamas higher ceiling. When Trump halted resettlement, many were reassigned to interview asylum seekers who had crossed the southern border, where there is a record backlog of more than 300,000 cases. But even with those reassignments and various forms of refugee restrictions that remained in litigation for much of the year, Strack said her office projected last September that they would be able to accommodate about 43,000 refugees in 2018. What they didnt anticipate, she said, was the additional 90-day review period for certain mostly Muslim refugees from October through January and the stalling of FBI security checks for refugees. All applicants undergo extensive multiagency screening, but several countries have additional checks known as a Security Advisory Opinion. That process has just slowed down very, very dramatically, and that seems to be a very significant factor in the decline of admissions, Strack said. It is a policy decision of this administration, and it is not a failure of the operational capacity of U.S.C.I.S. and the State Department. Michael Bars, a spokesman for U.S.C.I.S., said in a statement that the agency adjudicates all petitions fairly, efficiently, and effectively. But he said diverting refugee officers to interview asylum seekers from the border compromises the ability for officers to conduct interviews abroad for refugee applicants. He later retracted that portion of the statement, though other media had already published it. The State Department said in a statement that it would continue resettling refugees while prioritizing the safety and security of the American people. It acknowledged temporary challenges in issuing special immigrant visas for Iraqi and Afghan translators and their families, but declined to provide additional details and said it was working to resolve the matter. The FBI would not release the number of applications it has reviewed or explain the stall in security checks. Katie Waldman, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said the additional screenings undoubtedly makes Americans safer, noting that under those, the agency believes Omar Ameen, a suspected Islamic State fighter who entered as an Iraqi refugee and was arrested last month for killing a police officer in Iraq, would not have been admitted. A multitude of studies show that the danger posed by refugees who enter the United States has been vastly exaggerated. A 2018 study by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington D.C., also found that the vetting system in place since Sept. 11 flagged most potential terrorists. Since 2001, 13 immigrants who entered the United States went on to commit a terrorism offense, including in attacks abroad. Just one resulted in a deadly attack, the 2015 San Bernardino shooting that left 14 dead. The U.S. vetting system is already extreme enough to handle the challenge of foreign terrorist infiltration, the analysis found. The president last year argued more vetting was necessary and since his Muslim ban in January 2017, the number of Americans who believe the U.S. has a responsibility to accept refugees has dropped five percentage points to 51 percent, according to the Pew Research Center, a think tank in Washington D.C. The sharp swing from decades of bipartisan support is led by Republicans, of whom just 26 percent believe in the nations duty to refugees compared to 35 percent in February 2017. Elizabeth Holtzman, a former Democratic congresswoman in New York who co-authored the 1980 refugee act, said the shift in the tide of public opinion against refugees is startling. What astonishes me most is how uncontroversial it was taking hundreds and hundreds of Vietnamese refugees in then, and how controversial it is today, said Holtzman, who resigned from the presidents Homeland Security Advisory Council this summer saying the agency had transformed into making war on immigrants and refugees. Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington D.C. group that supports reducing immigration, said Vietnam was a different geopolitical situation because the U.S. had lost its war, endangering its allies. By contrast, Iraq and Afghanistan are headed by U.S. allies. He supports greater funding for resettling refugees closer to their countries of origin. We could quintuple the number of refugees we resettle without making a dent in the number of refugees abroad, he said. Our refugee policy has changed over the years and it needs to change again, given the enormous number of displaced people abroad. Trump has nominated Ronald Mortensen, a fellow at the center, immigration hard-liner, and retired foreign service officer, to serve as assistant secretary of state over refugees, though the choice has been slammed by Democrats. Richard, who previously held that position, said most refugees are already in neighboring countries. Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, for example, host about 5 million refugees alone. The administration is not looking broadly at what can we do to help refugees, when in the past many Americans would have asked that, Richard said. This current White House is really very different from Republican administrations in the past. The highest refugee ceiling was 140,000 under President Ronald Reagan and President George W. Bush maintained an annual cap of 70,000 even after 9/11. Last year, the number of refugees resettled in the United States decreased more than in any other country for the first time since 1980, according to the Pew Research Center. Though the country still leads the world in resettlement, Canada is a close second. We are the lucky ones, said Assim Aldhahi, an Iraqi translator who resettled in Houston in 2016. We got out of there in time. For Ismaeils family, the wait continues. Her parents were approved in December, but have yet to receive their travel authorization. She calls their YMCA case worker every few weeks, but still no update. We are worried, Ismaeil said. Even people who didnt know my sister worked with the military before, now that weve left, they know. Ismaeil, a doctor, is studying for her U.S. medical license. Her sister, Dhuha Ameri, has passed most of her pharmaceutical exams to practice here. Of course there are bad people in Iraq, that is why we are here, Ameri said. But not all the people are the same. lomi.kriel@chron.com @lomikriel Local criminal defense lawyers say they are preparing a court filing to ask the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals to order Harris County to stop jailing pretrial inmates at a private prison in Louisiana, which they say is too far away to provide adequate counsel to their clients. The attorneys said at a time when Harris County has spent more than $6 million defending a lawsuit over its cash bail system, housing inmates nearly 300 miles away may violate their constitutional right to effective counsel, potentially exposing the county to another suit. Its creating a huge problem, said Doug Murphy, president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association. It is interfering with defense attorneys ability to represent their clients and aid in their clients defense. Harris County houses more than 500 male and female prisoners at Jackson Parish Correctional Center in Jonesboro, La. As of Wednesday, 88 percent were pretrial detainees. The prison is operated by LaSalle Southwest Corrections, a Louisiana-based private prison firm. Their predicament is the product of a county criminal justice system that remains swamped a year after Hurricane Harvey drenched the region, causing widespread flooding, including the Harris County Criminal Justice Center. The district attorneys office is struggling to clear a backlog of felony cases as judges juggle swollen dockets in makeshift courtrooms. The delays toss hundreds of extra inmates into the lap of Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, who has no room in his jail to put them. The sheriff prides himself on ending the outsourcing of about 400 inmates within three months of taking office in 2017. That August, however, Harvey flooded the downtown criminal courts building and halted proceedings for weeks. Even with waivers from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards to increase the capacity of the Harris County Jail by 580 prisoners, Gonzalez said the jail could not handle the resulting surge in inmates. The sheriff said his best option was to send some prisoners to Louisiana, beginning in March. Since 2011, Harris County has had a contract with LaSalle to house overflow inmates when the county jail population exceeds capacity. To the county, LaSalle houses inmates at a bargain price $29.33 per male inmate per day, as low as half the cost of local outsourcing options and the company provides all inmate transport. The sheriffs department said it costs Harris County $87 to house an inmate for a day, though that figure also includes court costs. Going to Louisiana is never the ideal situation for us, Gonzalez said. We, obviously, have to balance several interests, including being good stewards of taxpayer money. Parish jail cheaper He said the county is attempting to negotiate an agreement with Fort Bend County to house some inmates in its jail but that Harris County has yet to find a local facility as cheap as the one in Jackson Parish. After four months of talks, Gonzalez said Fort Bend and Harris counties have been unable to agree on costs and who should be responsible for transporting inmates. As of Aug. 1, the Fort Bend County Jail had 732 beds available, according to monthly reports published by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. If Gonzalez cannot close a deal with his Fort Bend counterpart, he could turn to other nearby counties. Brazoria County has 217 available beds in its jail; Montgomery, 182; Galveston, 45; and Chambers, 34. Harris County on Friday transferred 39 inmates from Louisiana to the Jefferson County Jail in Beaumont, which also is run by LaSalle. The sheriff said he hoped the opening of several additional courtrooms would expedite cases and lower the jail population, but he has yet to see progress. As of Wednesday, Gonzalez was responsible for more than 9,600 inmates. The Harris County Jails official capacity is 8,900. A desire to keep costs down does not relieve Harris County of its responsibility to ensure inmates have access to effective legal representation, said Michele Deitch, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin. She said the county has put itself at risk of a lawsuit over the constitutional rights of pretrial inmates. During that pretrial phase they need to have a lot of conversations with their attorney, Deitch said. Its hard enough at the county jail. Its virtually impossible when theyre 300 miles away. Deitch also questioned how inmates could receive a comparable level of supervision and care in Louisiana at half the cost of Texas facilities. Gonzalez said a team of sheriffs deputies inspected the Jackson Parish Correctional Center in July and concluded the conditions were adequate. Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said he looks forward to ending outsourcing when the sheriff finds an acceptable solution. This a longstanding issue for the sheriffs office, and I have every confidence that Sheriff Gonzalez is dealing with it and will deal with it appropriately, Emmett said in a statement. Seeking a remedy Defense lawyers say they are frustrated Harris County has, for a year now, failed to find a better remedy for jail overcrowding than shipping inmates to Louisiana. At some point, blaming Harvey has to stop, said lawyer Mary Conn. Its a problem, but its not an insurmountable problem. Conn said inmates in Louisiana are at a disadvantage because they are cut off from their attorneys, families and support system. To ensure confidentiality, lawyers said they only discuss cases with clients in person. Jackson Parish is 280 miles by car from downtown Houston, a 10-hour round trip on county roads through the forests of northern Louisiana. Conn said it is impractical for lawyers to spend an entire day driving for a half-hour jailhouse meeting with a client. Attorneys can easily travel from their downtown offices to the Harris County Jail. They are left to hope Jackson Parish inmates are transferred back to Harris County several weeks before trial, so they can confer with clients and devise a defense strategy. If Im preparing for trial and the client is not here, thats a huge burden, Conn said. Theyre being denied the right to participate in their own defense. State regulators also are wary of outsourcing Harris County inmates in Louisiana. Texas Commission on Jail Standards spokesman Brandon Wood said the commission, which enforces minimum standards for county jails, would prefer Harris County to house all inmates in the state. It has no authority over jails in Louisiana. State Sen. John Whitmire, who chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, said he was disappointed inmate outsourcing has been an infrequent topic of discussion at Harris County Commissioners Court. Jail outsourcing has not appeared as an item on any of the courts 23 regular meeting agendas since Harvey struck this past August. Im sounding the alarm to everyone in Harris County to hold the elected officials responsible, Whitmire said. I want it fixed, yesterday. In the five months since she was abruptly thrust into Houston ISDs top job, Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan hardly has acted like a temporary leader. Lathan has reshuffled the districts administrative team following several departures, shaping it to focus more on innovation, equity and community outreach. She has boldly some would say mistakenly embraced the idea of surrendering control of long-struggling campuses to outside organizations as a method to avoid major state sanctions and improve academic outcomes. She has moved forward, albeit more slowly than her predecessor, with efforts to potentially alter how HISD distributes coveted resources across the district. As students in HISD returned to school last week, the indefinite chief of Texas largest school district has pledged to continue full steam ahead with significant academic, financial and leadership reforms for as long as she remains in her position. Lathans prospects for retaining the job permanently remain uncertain, as HISD trustees and community leaders offer split opinions on whether to immediately install her as the districts long-term leader. We cant wait on a childs education, said Lathan, who was elevated from chief academic officer last March after former superintendent Richard Carranza abruptly left to become chancellor of New York City public schools. Its not like corporations that might have someone in an interim position. Were talking about the lives of 214,000 students. HISD trustees unanimously selected Lathan, a 49-year-old lifelong educator who joined HISD in 2015, to take the reins following Carranzas unexpected departure. She was not given a definite term of employment as interim superintendent. Payroll records show she now earns an annual salary of $345,060 the same amount Carranza received under his three-year contract. From the moment she replaced Carranza, Lathan has been tasked with juggling several challenges. They include tackling a $100-million budget shortfall, staving off state sanctions tied to chronically low-performing schools and replacing several administrators who retired or left for other jobs amid uncertainty about HISDs future. To date, Lathan has drawn praise and criticism for her performance. She has been heralded by many educators and a few HISD board members for guiding the district through Carranzas departure and helping produce positive results under Texas academic accountability system. HISD received a B grade for its academic performance in 2017-18 a relatively strong mark given the lingering impact of Hurricane Harvey and reported its lowest number of campuses failing to meet state standard since 2012. The district also avoided state-mandated punishment either forced campus closures or replacement of the districts locally elected school board after four long-struggling campuses all met state academic standards. Scott McClelland, board vice chairman of the Greater Houston Partnership, the citys largest economic development nonprofit, said Lathan is the best fit right now to run HISD permanently. I think shes intelligent, I think shes transparent and I dont think shes defensive about where the district has been, McClelland said. Grenita has shown shes capable of leading us. Lets give her a contract. We have, albeit small, some momentum. Lathan took heat from many community members in April for recommending HISD give up control over 10 campuses to a charter school network with a questionable academic and financial track record, part of her effort to avoid state sanctions. HISD trustees never voted on the recommendation following a contentious school board meeting in which two people were arrested and dozens of citizens were ordered to temporarily leave the districts administration building. More recently, some HISD teachers complained Lathans administration did not more clearly communicate that teacher pay would be frozen in 2018-19. Board members, who initially passed a budget without any money allocated for increased teacher pay, later voted to give modest raises. In recent weeks, three trustees have suggested Lathan should be named the districts permanent leader, but other board members and some community leaders have been reluctant to follow suit. Laura Murillo, president and CEO of the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said HISD trustees must look high and low for the districts next superintendent. Its best to move in a thoughtful, methodical way rather than to rush and select someone who will not fit the needs of our community, Murillo said. We know there are many qualified people who can come here and take HISD to the next level. HISD trustees have not scheduled any discussions about Lathans job status, though Board President Rhonda Skillern-Jones who sets the board agenda and has all but endorsed retaining Lathan permanently said those are worthy conversations to have. Lathan, for her part, has shrugged off questions about her future, saying she is focused on the start of the 2018-19 school year. To that end, she has announced staffing changes, elevating highly touted and long-tenured administrators to new positions. She shifted Rick Cruz, founder of the sought-after EMERGE-HISD college readiness program, to chief of strategy and innovation. Kenneth Davis, principal of Yates High School in the citys Greater Third Ward, became the districts first assistant superintendent of equity and outreach. James McSwain, who led 3,300-student Lamar High School for 15 years, rose to an area superintendent position. Lathans administration also has started executing new initiatives for 2018-19. In late September, for example, the district will open all 280-plus campuses after hours for its first Parent University, where district staff will promote programs and resources available to families. In the coming months, however, Lathan will face politically fraught decisions about the districts future if she remains HISDs leader. HISD faces the threat of sanctions again this year if four campuses Henry Middle School, Highland Heights Elementary School and Kashmere and Wheatley high schools fail to meet state academic standards in 2019. To get a two-year reprieve from potential punishment, HISD could surrender control over those campuses to outside organizations. Despite some community backlash when she recommended partnerships this year, Lathan said she remains open to the idea for the four schools next year. Lathans administration also could make recommendations this winter to change HISDs decentralized campus funding method, which gives principals significant autonomy over spending. Supporters of the current model argue principals are best-suited to decide how money should be spent on students, while critics say it discriminates against smaller schools and campuses in lower-income neighborhoods. Lathan said she preferred a more centralized funding model as a principal, but she wants more feedback before proposing changes. A resource allocation advisory committee started meeting in early August, with plans to make recommendations to Lathan in December. There are some things that we need to change and improve on, and we will do that, Lathan said. But theres a way that you do it in order to get buy-in and in order to communicate with the broader community. jacob.carpenter@chron.com twitter.com/chronjacob Local civic leaders are considering whether to form a nonprofit that could take control of several long-struggling Houston ISD schools in 2019-20, a potential bid to improve academic outcomes at those campuses and stave off a state takeover of the districts locally elected governing board. Members of Houston Mayor Sylvester Turners administration, education leaders and prominent philanthropic and business organizations have convened periodically over the past few months to research and sketch out frameworks for a nonprofit capable of governing some HISD campuses. The discussions remain preliminary no plans or proposals have been formulated but local leaders say they their efforts will become more urgent and public in the coming months. The nonprofit would partner with HISD through a recently passed state law commonly known as SB 1882. Under the law, school districts temporarily can surrender control over campuses to an outside organization including a nonprofit in exchange for a two-year reprieve from state sanctions tied to low academic performance, an extra $1,200 in per-student funding and some regulatory breaks. If HISD does not engage in an outside partnership this academic year at four chronically low-performing schools this year, the district risks state sanctions in 2019 if any of the campuses fail to meet state academic standards. Juliet Stipeche, the director of education in Turners administration, said a nonprofit seems like the wisest catalyst for a potential private partnership with HISD. Stipeche, an HISD trustee from 2010 to 2015, is among the lead organizers of early talks about a nonprofit. Our office is trying to bring together a very diverse group of people to find a new way of partnering with the school district, Stipeche said. Theres a clear, obvious sense of urgency given the situation that we have, but theres also an understanding that this needs to be a long-term project. District and civic leaders are exploring partnerships in light of another state law, known as HB 1842, that requires the state to close campuses or take over the governing board in any district with a school that receives five straight improvement required ratings for poor academic performance. HISD narrowly avoided those sanctions this year after four long-struggling campuses all met state academic standards. Those results were announced Aug. 15. However, four other campuses still could trigger penalties if one gets an improvement required rating in 2019. They are Kashmere High School (eight consecutive improvement required ratings), Wheatley High School (six), Highland Heights Elementary School (five) and Henry Middle School (four). Many local leaders, including Turner and HISD Board President Rhonda Skillern-Jones, have been adamant about keeping local control over the districts school board. Some HISD officials, including Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan, have said they are open to potential private partnerships in 2019-20. Houston-area leaders involved in talks about forming a nonprofit for an HISD partnership said many questions remain answered: Who would serve on the nonprofits governing board? How would board members be chosen? How would community members engage in the nonprofits formation? Who would manage day-to-day campus operations? Which schools would fall under the nonprofits purview? To gain support for a private partnership, local leaders will have to clear several hurdles. They likely will have three to six months to craft governance plans and an academic framework for campuses, a relatively short time frame. They will have to get buy-in from several constituencies that often clash politically, including HISD trustees, school district administrators, teachers union leaders and residents in neighborhoods with schools facing takeover. The TEA also would have to approve any proposals. We need to be taking advantage of the next year, said Bob Harvey, president and CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership, the regions largest business advocacy nonprofit. We need to work very aggressively. It will take time to put something like this together. Already, one previous partnership recommendation handing over control of 10 schools to the local charter network Energized For STEM Academy Inc. precipitated community backlash that culminated with a raucous school board meeting in April. Trustees never voted on the proposal, which many described as hastily and haphazardly crafted. Leaders involved in the potential nonprofit proposal hope to create a more thorough plan that could win broad community and trustee support. As a guide, they have investigated the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, a nonprofit that operates 18 campuses in the nations second-largest school district. The organization has significant governance power over the campuses selecting principals and teachers, setting curricula, dictating professional development plans through a memorandum of understanding with the Los Angeles Unified School District. The two sides collaborate and negotiate on key decisions, though the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools largely maintains final authority. Several Houston-area leaders, including Stipeche, Houston Vice Mayor Pro-Tem Jerry Davis and HISD Trustees Holly Maria Flynn Vilaseca and Sergio Lira, traveled in June to Los Angeles for a crash course about the partnership and its ties to other area education institutions. Leaders from the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools also visited Houston in early August. Theyre ahead of the curve there in terms of partnering with the universities and the business community when it comes to addressing the needs of their struggling schools, Lira said. Sometimes we have to make the tough call in forming some collaborative alliances as long as its helping to improve student outcomes. A Los Angeles-style partnership would offer several benefits to HISD. A regional nonprofit could attract more donor investment than HISD, which often is perceived as overly bureaucratic and poorly governed. The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools received an initial 10-year, $50-million investment from philanthropists Melanie and Richard Lundquist, and the couple this year pledged an additional $35 million. By contrast, the HISD Foundation, one of the districts main fundraising arms, receives slightly more than $1 million per year in donations, on average. We understand there are a number of conversations happening, and we are interested to see what plans may emerge to better support Houston-area schools, Ann Stern, president and CEO of the Houston Endowment, said in a statement. The nonprofit approved nearly $80 million in grants and charitable donations in 2017. A private partnership also allows for greater opportunities for innovation, particularly in delivering social services to students. Local leaders often lament a disconnect between the district and service providers who could aid the citys most disadvantaged youth. Its amazing that so many (community organizations) exist in this space, yet there isnt strong coordination among the various institutions, Stipeche said. The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools took several years to find its footing and show strong academic results and some of its schools still struggle. HISD has a relatively short runway for turning around schools: the TEA must close campuses or replace HISDs school board if any of the districts four longest-struggling campuses do not meet standard at least once in the next three years. HISD administrators, including Lathan, are apprised of the nonprofit discussions but not intimately involved in talks to date, Stipeche said. District administrators did not respond to interview requests about the ongoing nonprofit discussions. In early August, Lathan said district leaders were waiting for the 2018 accountability results and more direction from HISD trustees before beginning more consideration of partnerships. An ideal partner, Lathan said, works with us to close the gap on not only the resources that schools need, but also as it relates to connecting parents to their childrens education. jacob.carpenter@chron.com twitter.com/chronjacob twitter.com/realdonaldtrump Donald Trump bulldozed through 16 other major candidates during the last Republican Party presidential primary. Along the way, he dragged rivals through the mud, called them names and framed them as Washington crooks. Sen. Ted Cruz took the brunt of the attacks as the last remaining GOP candidate to face the would-be president. A Dallas area community lost a valuable member Wednesday and its police department paid homage on Facebook with an obituary that has gone viral. The obituary, written by public information officer Brad Uptmore of the Southlake Police Department, was actually for a brand new traffic cone that had been run over at Johnson Elementary. "Cone's final breath, he exhaled, 'remember that cones are considered traffic control devices and you could be cited for disregarding them.' Even at the end, he wanted to protect us. Please drive safely and where you are supposed to, ESPECIALLY at schools," Uptmore wrote on Facebook. The cone's obituary has been shared nearly 9,000 times and collected more than 1,300 comments from community members and other law enforcement agencies praising Southlake Police Department for its whimsy and social media prowess. WATCH: Man on bicycle robs Minute Maid parking lot attendant Since taking over Southlake's social media channels in February, Uptmore has grown its Facebook page from 7,000 followers to more than 29,000. This exponential increase has been powered by Uptmore's creativity, like using doctored "Wheel of Fortune" images and screengrabs from "The Bachelor" to alert people to traffic enforcement. One of Uptmore's first viral Facebook posts was from April 24. The post was penned as a love letter to Crystal Ladawn Finley, who was wanted for identity theft. "What's been up?! We've obvi been looking all over for you!" Uptmore wrote. "OMG, we heard you were in an accident in Dallas and hope you're ok (even though you provided a fake ID to the other involved party)." The Facebook post was shared more than 27,000 times and collected more than 5,400 comments. These type of viral posts have helped Southlake extend its Facebook reach, allowing the department to connect with more people who may have information about ongoing investigations, Uptmore said. "It's amazing what takes off and what doesn't," Uptmore said. "We like to be original. I like using original content. Our bottom line, every post, every video, will always center around public safety." Since the traffic cone went viral, Southlake has received donations to buy a new one and local business Buyers Barricades donated six others to the department, Uptmore said. Fernando Alfonso III covers everything from crime to weird internet trends. Read him on the breaking news site chron.com and the subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com. | fernando.alfonso@chron.com Lets get this out of the way first: There is no basis for the charge that President Donald Trump leveled against Google this week that the search engine, for political reasons, favored anti-Trump news outlets in its results. None. Trump also claimed that Google advertised President Barack Obamas State of the Union addresses on its home page but did not highlight his own. That, too, was false, as screenshots show that Google did link to Trumps address this year. But that concludes the defense of Google portion of this column. Because whether he knew it or not, Trumps false charges crashed into a long-standing set of worries about Google, its biases and its power. When you get beyond the presidents claims, you come upon a set of uncomfortable facts uncomfortable for Google and for society, because they highlight how in thrall we are to this single company, and how few checks we have against the many unseen ways it is influencing global discourse. NOPE: Google denies Trump charge it rigs searches In particular, a raft of research suggests there is another kind of bias to worry about at Google. The naked partisan bias that Trump alleges is unlikely to occur, but there is a potential problem for hidden, pervasive and often unintended bias the sort that led Google to once return links to many pornographic pages for searches for black girls, that offered angry and loud as autocomplete suggestions for the phrase why are black women so, or that returned pictures of black people for searches of gorilla. I culled these examples which Google has apologized for and fixed, but variants of which keep popping up from Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, a book by Safiya U. Noble, a professor at the University of Southern Californias Annenberg School of Communication. Noble argues that many people have the wrong idea about Google. We think of the search engine as a neutral oracle, as if the company somehow marshals computers and math to objectively sift truth from trash. But Google is made by humans who have preferences, opinions and blind spots and who work within a corporate structure that has clear financial and political goals. Whats more, because Googles systems are increasingly created by artificial intelligence tools that learn from real-world data, theres a growing possibility that it will amplify the many biases found in society, even unbeknown to its creators. Google says it is aware of the potential for certain kinds of bias in its search results, and that it has instituted efforts to prevent them. What you have from us is an absolute commitment that we want to continually improve results and continually address these problems in an effective, scalable way, said Pandu Nayak, who heads Googles search ranking team. We have not sat around ignoring these problems. For years, Noble and others who have researched hidden biases as well as the many corporate critics of Googles power, like frequent antagonist Yelp have tried to start a public discussion about how the search company influences speech and commerce online. RELATED: Google under fire again on search as Hatch calls for FTC probe Theres a worry now that Trumps incorrect charges could undermine such work. I think Trumps complaint undid a lot of good and sophisticated thought that was starting to work its way into public consciousness about these issues, said Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia who has studied Google and Facebooks influence on society. Noble suggested a more constructive conversation was the one about one monopolistic platform controlling the information landscape. So, lets have it. A highly secretive operation In the United States, about 8 of 10 web searches are conducted through Google. Google also owns other major communications platforms, among them YouTube and Gmail, and it makes the Android operating system and its app store. It is the worlds dominant internet advertising company, and through that business, it also shapes the market for digital news. Googles power alone is not damning. The important question is how it manages that power, and what checks we have on it. Thats where critics say it falls down. Googles influence on public discourse happens primarily through algorithms, chief among them the system that determines which results you see in its search engine. These algorithms are secret, which Google says is necessary because search is its golden goose (it does not want Microsofts Bing to know what makes Google so great) and because explaining the precise ways the algorithms work would leave them open to being manipulated. But this initial secrecy creates a troubling opacity. Because search engines take into account the time, place and some personalized factors when you search, the results you get today will not necessarily match the results I get tomorrow. This makes it difficult for outsiders to investigate bias across Googles results. HEARINGS: Facebook, Twitter execs to appear before Congress A lot of people made fun this week of the paucity of evidence that Trump put forward to support his claim. But researchers point out that if Google somehow went rogue and decided to throw an election to a favored candidate, it would only have to alter a small fraction of search results to do so. If the public did spot evidence of such an event, it would look thin and inconclusive, too. We really have to have a much more sophisticated sense of how to investigate and identify these claims, said Frank Pasquale, a professor at the University of Marylands law school who has studied the role that algorithms play in society. In a law review article published in 2010, Pasquale outlined a way for regulatory agencies like the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission to gain access to search data to monitor and investigate claims of bias. No one has taken up that idea. Facebook, which also shapes global discourse through secret algorithms, recently sketched out a plan to give academic researchers access to its data to investigate bias, among other issues. Google has no similar program, but Nayak said the company often shares data with outside researchers. He also argued that Googles results are less personalized than people think, suggesting that search biases, when they come up, will be easy to spot. All our work is out there in the open anyone can evaluate it, including our critics, he said. Biases that mirror real-world ones The kind of blanket, intentional bias Trump is claiming would necessarily involve many workers at Google. And Google is leaky; on hot-button issues debates over diversity or whether to work with the military politically minded employees have provided important information to the media. If there was even a rumor that Googles search team was skewing search for political ends, we would likely see some evidence of such a conspiracy in the media. GREAT FIREWALL: Rights groups to Google: No censored search in China Thats why, in the view of researchers who study the issue of algorithmic bias, the more pressing concern is not about Googles deliberate bias against one or another major political party, but about the potential for bias against those who do not hold power in society. These people women, minorities and others who lack economic, social and political clout fall into the blind spots of companies run by wealthy men in California. Its in these blind spots that we find the most problematic biases with Google, like in the way it once suggested a spelling correction for the search English major who taught herself calculus the correct spelling, Google offered, was English major who taught himself calculus. Why did it do that? Googles explanation was not at all comforting: The phrase taught himself calculus is a lot more popular online than taught herself calculus, so Googles computers assumed that it was correct. In other words, a long-standing structural bias in society was replicated on the web, which was reflected in Googles algorithm, which then hung out live online for who knows how long, unknown to anyone at Google, subtly undermining every female English major who wanted to teach herself calculus. Eventually, this error was fixed. But how many other such errors are hidden in Google? We have no idea. Google says it understands these worries, and often addresses them. In 2016, some people noticed that it listed a Holocaust-denial site as a top result for the search Did the Holocaust happen? That started a large effort at the company to address hate speech and misinformation online. The effort, Nayak said, shows that when we see real-world biases making results worse than they should be, we try to get to the heart of the problem. Escaping recent scrutiny Yet it is not just these unintended biases that we should be worried about. Researchers point to other issues: Googles algorithms favor recency and activity, which is why they are so often vulnerable to being manipulated in favor of misinformation and rumor in the aftermath of major news events. (Google says it is working on addressing misinformation.) Some of Googles rivals charge that the company favors its own properties in its search results over those of third-party sites for instance, how it highlights Googles local reviews instead of Yelps in response to local search queries. Regulators in Europe have fined Google for this sort of search bias. In 2012, the FTCs antitrust investigators found credible evidence of unfair search practices at Google. The FTCs commissioners, however, voted unanimously against bringing charges. Google denies any wrongdoing. The danger for Google is that Trumps charges, however misinformed, create an opening to discuss these legitimate issues. On Thursday, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, called for the FTC to reopen its Google investigation. There is likely more to come. For the last few years, Facebook has weathered much of societys skepticism regarding big tech. Now, it may be Googles time in the spotlight. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Get more tasty tech news at TechBurger. And follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Subscribe to the Chronicle for regular access to TechBurger stories and to be able to comment. The incident occurred at approximately 6:20 a.m., when agents assigned to Calexico Border Patrol station observed an individual make an illegal entry by climbing over the international boundary fence close to Andrade Avenue, near the Calexico Port of Entry. Agents approached the individual and placed him under arrest. The man was transported to the Calexico station where records checks revealed he has an extensive criminal history that dates back to 2010 when he was arrested at the Calexico port of entry with more than a pound of methamphetamine strapped to his leg. In July 2012, the man was convicted of smuggling contraband into a prison and was consequently sentenced to 5-years probation. He was arrested again in June of 2017 for alien smuggling in Calexico, resulting in a probation violation. The record checks also showed that the man is a registered sex offender with an active warrant out of Phoenix, Arizona for a violation of probation. This individual likely knew he had a warrant for his arrest and feared hed be arrested at the Port of Entry in Calexico, so he chose to make an illegal entry, said Chief Patrol Agent Gloria I. Chavez. Border Patrol agents protect our country at places in between the ports of entry. The man, a 27-year-old United States citizen will be held awaiting extradition by the U.S. Marshal Service. The El Centro Sector Border Patrol would like to remind the public that U.S. citizens entering the country must present themselves at a designated port of entry. An unlawful entry by a U.S. citizen will result in arrest. Penalties for unlawful entry can include up to a $5,000 fine and/or up to one year in prison. Operation Blazing Sands Yields Arrest of Three More Smugglers El Centro, California - Border Patrol Agents arrested three suspected alien smugglers in El Centro last week. The apprehension was part of the ongoing Operation Blazing Sands, a joint operation between El Centro and Yuma Border Patrol sectors. On August 21, agents arrested one more smuggler under this operation. The incident occurred at approximately 7:46 p.m., when agents observed a group of five individuals illegally enter the United States before loading into a blue PT Cruiser on Interstate-8, west of Yuma. Agents observed the PT Cruiser drive west on Interstate 8. Additionally, agents identified a black VW Beetle acting as a lookout for the PT Cruiser containing the suspected illegal aliens. With the assistance of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine Operations assets, agents were able to follow both vehicles to a gas station in El Centro. Agents approached both vehicles at the gas station, identified themselves, and determined that the PT Cruiser contained four passengers determined to be illegally present in the United States. The driver was a United States citizen. The black VW Beetle contained two United States citizens that were accomplices in the smuggling case. The coordinated efforts between El Centro and Yuma sectors combined with CBP Air and Marine Operations will continue to put a stranglehold on transnational criminal organizations who falsely believe that their activity will have no consequences, said Chief Patrol Agent Gloria I. Chavez. All three United States citizens will be held pending criminal prosecution. The four individuals will remain in custody as material witnesses. Border Patrol Seizes Meth near the Border Calexico, California - El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents assigned to the Calexico Station recovered drugs that were smuggled into the country near downtown Calexico on Friday. On August 24, at approximately 5 p.m., Calexico Stations Remote Video Surveillance System (RVSS) operators observed a man illegally cross into the U.S. and run north near the Border View Apartments in Calexico. Agents then witnessed the same individual immediately return south towards the fence and climb back into Mexico. Border Patrol agents responded to the area where the individual was last seen and encountered a brown Volvo station wagon with the back windows lowered halfway. There were no occupants in the vehicle, but agents could see two brown packages in the rear passenger compartment area. A Border Patrol canine detection team responded and alerted to the vehicle. Agents subsequently secured both packages and transported them to the Calexico station for further evaluation. At the station the substance was tested and it was determined that it was positive for characteristics of methamphetamine. The two bags of methamphetamine had a combined weight of 2.09 lbs. with an estimated value of $5,538. The methamphetamine was turned over to Drug Enforcement Agency. No arrests were made, and no suspects at this time. This fiscal year, El Centro Sector agents have seized more than 1,037.44 pounds of methamphetamine, amounting to over $2.4 million. Border Patrol Agents Apprehend 18 Illegal Aliens Inside Sleeper Cabin of Tractor Trailer Laredo, Texas - Laredo Sector U.S. Border Patrol agents recently apprehended 18 illegal aliens inside the sleeper cabin of a tractor-trailer during an immigration inspection at the Interstate Highway 35 Border Patrol checkpoint. The incident occurred on August 21st after a tractor-trailer approached the primary inspection lane of the Border Patrol Checkpoint on Interstate Highway 35. Agents referred the driver to secondary after a canine alert. At secondary inspection, agents found 18 illegal immigrants confined inside the sleeper cabin of the tractor-trailer. The 18 illegal aliens were found in good health and identified as being from the countries of Mexico and Guatemala. The driver, a United States citizen, was arrested and the tractor-trailer was seized by Border Patrol. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is the lead investigative agency in this case. Trinidad and Tobago Independence Day Washington, DC - Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo: "On behalf of the people of the United States of America, my warmest congratulations to the people of Trinidad and Tobago as you celebrate 56 years of independence on August 31. "The people of the United States and Trinidad and Tobago have always enjoyed rich cross-cultural exchange, friendship, and the shared goal of building a more safe and secure region as underscored in the Caribbean 2020 strategy. We thank Trinidad and Tobago for hosting the joint Fused Response exercise this year, which demonstrated the importance of our cooperation in security and emergency preparedness. "We are grateful for the continued strong partnership as our countries work to deepen cooperation on trade, energy, and opportunity for all. "Today, we wish Trinbagonians from both beautiful islands a happy Independence Day with peace and prosperity throughout the year to come." Molly Fienning didn't have any kids, but she did gather frequently with the other military families on the tarmac at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, the military base where her husband was stationed outside of Charleston, South Carolina. See, it was tradition for children and spouses to greet soldiers when they returned from even short training missions. While the adults, in their military-issue aviator glasses, loved watching the planes approach in formation, the eyewear-less kids squinted and groaned when looking into the sun--and complained they couldn't even see the planes. "We should make military-style glasses, but really tiny--and call them Babiators," Fienning joked one day in 2010. Her friends told her that it was a legitimately good idea, but Fienning still thought it was more joke than company. "I knew it was a brand--but was it a business?" She and her husband, Ted, along with Carolyn and Matthew Guard--another couple who were their longtime friends and shared an interest in entrepreneurship--decided to study the market. In a survey, they learned that parents' biggest complaints about kids' sunglasses were that they broke and were lost frequently. And they learned there was nothing comfortable and flexible on the market for babies' little faces. "It definitely seemed like it would serve a need--but we also decided we wanted something that was a little cooler and edgier than what was on the market, and not be so twee or precious," Fienning says. These glasses would not have pastel pink hearts with bows. They'd be hip, styled like adult aviator or wayfarer frames. They'd bend, rather than break--which also meant they would be more comfortable for tiny heads that are often resting in strollers, carriers, or car seats. They'd have exceptional UV protection, and a full-year replacement guarantee. Each couple sunk in $12,000, and a lot of sweat equity--and within six months they had four baby- and toddler-size products, in BPA-free rubber. By May 2011, they were ready to start selling Babiators on their own website. Carolyn Guard also started cold-calling retail stores from her dining-room table in Atlanta. Fienning, who had moved to New York City and was now pregnant and abiding by orders to rest, made calls from her bed. The founders sold enough pairs online at $19.99 each to turn a profit in the second month the website was live. Newsweek was their first big break into retail: It put Babiators on a list of summer essentials for 2011, and soon stores were calling. Within a couple of months, Nordstrom approached the company about being its first major account. By the following summer season, Babiators were in 75 retail stores. In the interim, Fienning gave birth to her first son. There, in New York Presbyterian Hospital in November 2011, she opened up a tabloid magazine. She saw a photograph of Mariah Carey with her son--who was wearing Babiators. She screamed. From that point on, celebrity press photos, kid sightings, and social media posts fueled sales of Babiators, especially during the summer. (The company gets more than 60 percent of its sales during the four hottest months of the year.) Early on, there was Selma Blair's son. There was Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck's daughter. In 2013, Jay Leno bought a pair to gift to Simon Cowell as part of a "mini-me" outfit of his signature white T-shirt, jeans, and shades. He tried them on, right there on The Tonight Show. "Half of the celebrity moments were totally organic," Fienning says. Realizing the potential for marketing through celebrities and influencers, Babiators began a twice-yearly celebrity-gifting campaign, in which the company sends out about 50 pairs of kid and baby sunglasses to notable parents. Over the years, the campaign has become more nuanced, going after microinfluencers--individuals with smaller, more targeted parent followings--rather than celebrities. "We're seeing this movement where people are more trusting of their immediate network," Fienning says. The company has sold more than two million pairs online and in more than 3,000 retail stores across 45 countries. It is on track to bring in $5 million in revenue this year. Fienning says the trend of co-ed baby showers has helped growth; men want to gift something funny or hip. "It's not a nose sucker," she says. No matter what you've heard from grumpy old people and angry politicians, Americans haven't gotten any lazier in the past 20 years. But while we might be just as willing to work hard, the same level of effort seems to buy less and less for many of us. Why is that? That's the complex question at the heart of Squeezed , a new book digging into why middle-class life has become such a struggle for so many hard-working Americans. The book's author, journalist Alissa Quart, spoke with Knowledge@Wharton recently about what she discovered researching her book. It's a fascinating read (or podcast listen) for anyone who has ever wondered exactly why their paycheck stretches less and less far each year. 1. You can't afford to live where you can get a job. "The main problem is the cost of housing -- at least that's what I found from my research and interviews -- especially in places like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City," explains Quart to Wharton. That's probably no shock to anyone who has ever tried to make ends meet in the Bay Area or Manhattan, but Quart breaks down some of the underlying causes of the spike in house prices. "In some of these desirable places, real estate is no longer a place to live but it's an investment vehicle. That has driven up the cost of housing for ordinary people or the precarious middle class, as I call them," she notes, for example. 2. Family unfriendly policies For a great many of us, having kids is an integral part of our dreams for our lives, but as soon as babies come along, the math of getting by in America gets much more difficult. The cost of day care is just astronomical, and our child-unfriendly policies make the calculus so much harder for families. Quart calls on people to consider "mobilizing for these so-called pie-in-the-sky things like better maternity leave." She highlights, "There are laws against pregnancy discrimination; they're just not enforced." She points to the cultural shifts caused by #MeToo as a model: "This is something that people can do in the corporate sector. They can start saying, 'We'd better make sure these norms are enforced.'" 3. "Second act" student debt The fact that young people today are incredibly burdened by student debt also won't surprise anyone, but Quart makes the point that, with globalization and tech changing the job market rapidly, more people are heading back to school for retraining later in life. Too often the benefits are paltry but the financial cost is enormous. "I talked to a guy who is $60,000 in debt for getting retrained with a degree in IT from one of those for-profit colleges," Quart relates. "I think it has since been shut down. It was so corrupt, but he didn't know." She calls for more regulation of bad actors in the sector. The solution: less shame and better laws While not everyone will agree with Quart's mostly liberal-leaning policy prescriptions (though how anyone who believes in the perpetuation of the human species can be against decent paid family leave is beyond me), just about anyone who has struggled with the increasingly difficult math of being middle class in America should cheer her other prescription: less shame. Many middle-class people feel ashamed of their difficulties, Quart found in the course of her research. "People are blaming themselves, saying, 'What did I do wrong? I did everything right. I got these degrees. I worked hard. Why is this not coming together?,'" she reports. This shame isn't just a recipe for unhappiness; it's also a recipe for isolation. When we're embarrassed about our perceived flaws, we don't discuss our problems and the collective solutions we need. The math shows that struggling to get by is probably not your fault. Your family's financial squeeze is driven by cultural shifts and political decisions. Making life more livable again will require middle-class people getting past shame and starting a frank conversation about how to undo the worst of these harmful trends and policies. On yesterday's Hawaiian Airlines Flight 23 from Oakland to Kahului, Maui, passengers got far more than they bargained for. First, the flight was delayed 90 minutes when flight attendants were notified that passengers were receiving a photo of a graphic crime scene on their mobile phones. As it turned out, a 15-year-old girl was trying to send the photo (which was actually of a fake crime scene, with a mannequin lying face down on the ground) to her mother using AirDrop -- a file-sharing feature built into Apple iPhones. Unbeknownst to the girl, she was also broadcasting the photo to other passengers on the flight. When the captain was notified by flight attendants of the situation on board, the decision was made to return to the gate and the girl and her mother were removed from the aircraft for questioning by authorities. They were subsequently released. But that was just the beginning. About midway through the flight, passengers at the front of the Boeing 767 -- in first class and the premiere section -- suddenly smelled "something unpleasant." Soon, many of the passengers were overcome by coughing fits and difficulty breathing. A can of pepper spray in someone's carry-on bag had accidentally discharged, filling the front cabin with noxious fumes. Hawaiian Airlines says a can of pepper spray went off inside a plane, requiring emergency help for several people aboard, @CalebAP reports. https://t.co/BnMbUHF6lv -- The Associated Press (@AP) September 1, 2018 An emergency was declared by the captain and flight attendants moved 12 passengers to the back of the aircraft until the pepper spray dissipated more than half an hour later. According to one passenger, Nicholas Andrade, "Everyone was afraid." People were covering their mouths and noses with clothing and wet paper towels to try to mitigate the effects of the chemical irritant. According to another passenger, Kevin Olson, "The flight attendants could barely see or talk." Fortunately, the plane landed safely in Hawaii, though far behind schedule. In all, 12 passengers and 3 flight attendants were treated on the ground for respiratory problems resulting from exposure to the pepper spray. In addition, each of the 256 passengers on the flight were issued travel credits in the amount of $500 for their inconvenience. The California House and Senate passed a bill that requires all publicly held corporations that are headquartered in California to have at least one woman on their board by the end of 2019 and two by July of 2021. It's waiting for the governor's signature. "We are not going to ask anymore. We are tired of being nice. We're tired of being polite. We are going to require this because it's going to benefit the economy. It's going to benefit each of these companies. It's time that we burst that man-cave and put women in the boardrooms." First of all, requiring something on a governmental level doesn't generally help the economy. Second, Senator Jackson clearly doesn't understand how business works. You see, businesses want to succeed. They want to make money. They want to be profitable. And if they thought they could make more money with different people on their boards, they would put different people on their boards. They don't keep women off the boards because they like to keep the boardrooms as "man-caves." Yes, there is discrimination. Yes, it was worse in the past. But the reality is, you don't put 25-year-olds on most boards of director. You want people with experience in leadership roles. And because women are less likely to obtain those high positions, there are fewer available. While you can blame some of that on discrimination, most of it comes down to choice. Men are more likely to choose intensive careers that lead to senior leadership roles. By mandating a certain number of women on each board, California is simply saying they don't believe women are capable of earning a seat at the table themselves. The only way to do it is to force boards to accept them. I find that appalling. Senate leader Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), the other co-author of the bill, displayed her misunderstanding of how life works as follows: "I am sick and tired of being in a position of influence and power and yet seeing so many people like me who are still pleading to be given that opportunity." No one gives you anything. You work for it. Does she really think that the male members of Boards were just sitting around the pool drinking cool beverages (this is California, after all) when a fairy godmother (also a woman with immense power) swooped down and placed them on a board of directors? Because that's what it sounds like. Women don't need this pandering. Companies don't want to do things that won't help them to be profitable. If Atkins and Jackson just sit back and wait a few years, they'll likely see an increase in women on boards anyway. Why? Because the longer women are climbing the corporate ladder, the more you'll see at the top. Dir: Mike Leigh; Starring: Rory Kinnear, Maxine Peake, Pearce Quigley, David Moorst, Rachel Finnegan, Tom Meredith. Cert 12A, 154 mins Mike Leighs epic new film Peterloo is bound to foster awareness about an event which no one in Britain now pays much attention to. In August 1819, mounted yeomen militia charged into a huge crowd that had gathered in St Peters Fields, Manchester, to listen to a speech from campaigning political reformer, Henry Hunt. Fifteen people were killed and several hundred injured in the ensuing mayhem. The carnage was reported in national and local newspapers. It marked a transformational moment in British history. As the historian EP Thompson noted, the moral consensus of the nation outlawed the riding down of an unarmed crowd. To put it another way, the authorities realised they couldnt get away with violent attacks on crowds, even if they didnt approve of those crowds politics or their reasons for assembling. Leighs achievement is to have made a period film with the same immediacy and sense of anger that runs through contemporary dramas like Hillsborough or Bloody Sunday. He has a huge ensemble cast but that exhaustive attention to detail and fascination with the eccentricities of human behaviour which has always characterised his work is still there. The film starts four years before Peterloo, with the battle of Waterloo. Leigh doesnt bother with Wellington or Napoleon. Instead, he homes in on a lone bugler in the middle of the carnage. This is Joseph, a traumatised young man who, after the battle, makes his way home to the north of England, still wearing his red coat. Here, he finds poverty and hardship. Mill owners are cutting wages. Bread itself is being taxed. Might you be familiar with the north of England? a character in the well-to-do south is asked early in the film. In the eyes of the government, it is the savage hinterland of the country. While people in northern mill towns are starving, the politicians back in London are voting to give 750,000 (a vast sum) to Wellington as tribute for his heroics at Waterloo. Their attitude towards any rabble that protests about not having the vote or lacking representation in parliament is that they should be awed into submission. The countrys rulers do not want their citizens to try to emulate the odious French revolution. Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up Leigh exposes the gaping fissures in British society of the period. He also fills the film with the type of characters you might expect to encounter in a Charles Dickens novel or a Hogarth painting pompous local dignitaries, Bill Sikes-like blackmailers and conceited army officers. The prince regent (Tim McInnerny) is a decadent buffoon. The home secretary Lord Sidmouth (Karl Johnson) is like a more cunning, better spoken, upper-class version of Albert Steptoe. Even orator Hunt (Rory Kinnear), who speaks so eloquently on behalf of the common man, is shown in a very ambivalent light. Hes the Wiltshire peacock, a narcissistic minor celebrity who basks in the adoration of the crowds. The directors frame of reference is astonishing. One moment he will be showing us a meeting of the Manchester Female Reform Society and the next we will see the dashing officer General Sir John Byng (Alastair Mackenzie) bunking off at the races when he should be commanding the cavalry in St Peters Square. Thanks to backing from Amazon Studios, Leigh has a far bigger budget than on any of his previous features. This shows itself not just in the huge cast but in the massacre itself, in which we see the cavalry charge into the vast crowds. With so much going on and so many different characters, the film occasionally loses its dramatic impetus. Arguably, it wasnt necessary to throw in shots of fiddlers playing their music or of attendees at the rally sharing their picnics or comparing notes on when they got up or how far theyve come. Then again, one of the points about Peterloo is that the film doesnt have a hero. It is about the collective experience of the massacre. The most prominent actors, whether Maxine Peake as a matriarch trying to hold her family together in the face of extreme deprivation or Kinnear as the orator, share screen time with dozens of others. As a story of a massacre, Peterloo is bound to end on a grim note. However, it has plenty of humour and pathos along the way. The journalists (not a breed Leigh generally likes) emerge with credit for reporting promptly and truthfully on what happened at the Manchester rally. Leigh himself shows he is just as comfortable helming historical epics as he is making tightly focused contemporary dramas like Happy-Go-Lucky or Another Year. At 75, the British director is still clearly at the peak of his powers. Whatever else, his latest film will ensure that the bloody events in St Peters Fields nearly 200 years ago are put back on the radar of politicians, historians and cultural commentators alike. A cis man-free festival has been held in Sweden, in response to a string of alleged sexual assaults at the countrys biggest music festival. The Statement music festival in Gothenburg claims to be the worlds first major music gathering for women, transgender and non-binary people only. It took place on Friday 31 August and Saturday 1 September at Bananpiren in Gothenburg. Swedish comedian Emma Knyckare came up with the idea after reports of multiple sexual offences at Bravalla festival last year and in 2016. The event was crowd-funded with more than 300,000 donations. The whole area is free of cis-men, Ms Knyckare told Euronews. We work exclusively with women, non-binary and transgender persons. This ranges from artists to catering to security personnel. Cisgender is the term applied to an individual whose gender matches their assigned sex at birth. A trans or non-binary person is someone whose gender or gender identity is different to their birth-assigned sex. No one will be questioned at the entrance, Ms Knyckare said, when asked how organisers were going to stop men getting in. She said that the festival was working with a specialised security company to develop a specialised access system. However, she called the festival a reaction to the problem of sexual assault at music events, not the solution. Women attend the Statement Festival at Bananpiren in Gothenburg, Sweden, on August 31, 2018 (AFP/Getty) Bravalla festival 2018 was cancelled after widespread sexual assault cases at the event in 2017 and 2016. Certain men... apparently cannot behave. Its a shame. We have therefore decided to cancel Bravalla 2018 organisers said. Enjoy unlimited access to 70 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up British band Mumford & Sons, who were on the bill in 2016, said they would not play the festival again until they had assurances that fans would be protected. Festivals are a celebration of music and people, a place to let go and feel safe doing so, they wrote. We wont play at this festival again until weve had assurances from the police and organisers that theyre doing something to combat what appears to be a disgustingly high rate of reported sexual violence. Ms Knyckare said the #MeToo movement had unveiled serious problems in Sweden, which is one of the most gender equal nations in the world, at festivals and also several institutions. It seems like men have woken up to how huge the problem with sexual violence is, Ms Knyckare told AFP. Held in Sweden's second-largest city of Gothenburg, the two-day Statement Festival, forbids men but not transgender people. (AFP/Getty) Guests at The Statement festival seemed positive about the event and the message it was sending about a zero tolerance of sexual misconduct. This place feels like a safe-zone where women can just get together and have fun and celebrate ... especially in light of the assaults that have happened at other festivals, Julia Skonneby, a 34-year-old performer, told The Local. It feels like a certain tension is gone... were here to make a statement together, Hanna Gustavsson, a 31-year-old designer, added. The cry of dismay that pubs are disappearing has become a firm fixture in the beer and business press over the past decade or so. As the Great British Pubs steep decline in health continues ironically catalysed by a smoking ban, and compounded by a recession the pressures of rising business rates, rent and taxation on publicans (and disproportionately proprietors of LGBT+ and independent music venues) have seen communities weakened as locals shut their doors, with loneliness increasing all the while. The picture has become sadly familiar. Alongside all this hardship, of course, an awful lot of great stuff has happened to beer craft beer revolution if you like and the places we get it from. Recommended Why collaboration brews epitomise the craft beer spirit Could this have been at the expense of our beloved old boozers, and the traditional beer styles found there? Are we putting too much emphasis on whats in the glass and not enough on everything around it? Are there types of beer and types of pub which are more worthy of our stagnating wages than others? The short answers, I believe, are no, no and no. But how to save the pub remains a vexed question. I dont have to argue the importance of the pub as an institution. Its been at the heart of our society since time immemorial. My eyes were first opened to the magic of beer in situ when I was about 13 not, indeed, over a pint, but while playing the trumpet in one of my high-school brass teachers masterful arrangements. Red Cuillin was his tribute to a brew from the Isle of Skye which, according to his notes, could temporarily dispel the vicissitudes of life, particularly when consumed in The Phoenix Ale House in Inverness. The tutor was fond of a libation and didnt take himself too seriously. But that ode, with its sonorous opening chords that gathered pace into a jolly refrain; the band diverging into harmonies and countermelodies, clamouring for space like a bunch of mates round a table, enlivened by the drinks in front of them, showcased his love for the pub and piqued my interest to a world of thats more than the sum of its parts. It was beautiful. Time, please: will future generations enjoy pubs as community hubs like past ones have done? (Creative Commons) Camra (campaign for real ale) has long been at the forefront of efforts to get behind and save our disappearing public houses, and as another Budget approaches its renewed its calls on the government to axe any upcoming tax increases on beer and extend business rates relief on pubs where its been afforded. But heres the rub: earlier this year as part of the largest consultation in the organisations history and alongside a raft of changes that did get the green light members voted against a motion that would have extended the organisations remit to act as the voice and represent the interests of all pubgoers and beer, cider and perry drinkers. Well, 72 per cent voted for, but it needed 75 per cent to pass. Pete Brown, a standout voice in beer writing, didnt mince his words then Bye bye Camra What a shame you couldn't change to reflect the very revolution you hoped to bring about, and did fleshing out his indignation in a lengthy blog post: what those who turned down the motion were against was the broadening of Camras scope to embrace keg-dispensed beers as well as real ales served from the cask. This made sense in the 1970s when kegs were synonymous with mass-produced, tasteless lager, but not now. Best craft beers in London Show all 5 1 /5 Best craft beers in London Best craft beers in London The Kernel Brewery: Pale Ale Citra Chinook Amarillo - 5.6% This pale ale from Bermondseys finest has a wonderfully vibrant maltiness and a distinct citrus note, coming from the use of Citra, Chinook and Amarillo hops. Best craft beers in London Late Knights Worm Catcher 5% Getting the balance of bitterness and fragrance is all down to how heavy handed the brewer is with their hops and this IPA from Late Knights in Penge, South London nails it perfectly, giving a flavoursome pale ale with enough bite to excite the palate. Best craft beers in London Redchurch Brewery: Hoxton Stout 6% Dark, velvety and very complex indeed. This perfect after dinner beer, made by the Redchurch Brewery near Bethnal Green, offers an incredible palate of rich coffee and dark chocolate notes. Best craft beers in London Meantime Brewery: Chocolate Porter 6.5% Amazing flavours of espresso coffee, dark chocolate and rich molasses, all driven by a highly complex maltiness. Best craft beers in London Camden Hells Brewery Lager: 4.6% A distinctly German inspired larger with a very clean, crisp palate, with a light vibrant maltiness. Easy drinking and perfect for the summer months. That at the same time the decision was made to include the craft keg at the organisations festivals suggests many members no longer see the distinction is a pressing issue, and recognise the quality and talent in the current generation of brewers. Camras Tom Stainer says presenting a range of beers allows the organisation to educate visitors on beer types. They can then make their own judgement about the benefits of different kinds of dispense. Much of Camras campaigning continues to benefit all pubgoers, even if the focus is explicitly on supporting real ale, cider and perry, and the pubs which serve it, he adds. So what does Camra think of where were drinking now? Microbreweries are knocking together tap rooms in a railway arches, basements and industrial estates. With their often industrial aesthetic theyve been compared to the ale houses of yesteryear and seem to have more singular purpose than the community pub, serving fresh draughts straight from the source, as well as a range of guests. Sounds real to me. Camras issue, says Stainer, is more with tied houses (think Wetherspoons, All Bar One et al). Its rallied long and hard against the monopolising effects they can have in certain areas and was instrumental in convincing the government to adopt the Pubs Code protecting against just that. Of modern tap rooms, micropubs and breweries, there's room for everyone, says Stainer, and smaller, DIY-style venues are great for bringing beer to areas which may never have had a traditional pub, providing the positive benefit of spreading enthusiasm for beer. Old Street Brewery Taproom: four months old and tucked under an east London railway arch a typical crafty watering hole where the beer is made on site He says the pubs future depends on it diversifying to secure its place in a local community. Some houses in rural areas for example, are branching out to include other at-risk services shops, libraries, post offices and the number of breweries around these days means pubs can include hyper local products in their selections. As with the beer, the majority of beer drinkers are not so one-dimensional to only use and enjoy a certain type of pub, he adds. The lines have increasingly become blurred, with drinkers seeking out beers that really excite them, rather than getting too hung up on how fashionable a brewery is or how craft its marketing is. Obviously those lines arent blurred enough for some, and I agree with Brown: its a shame, because craft beer and real ale are drops in the bucket of the wider market, but those who imbibe them care deeply about good beer in the right surrounds. Whether they represent communities has been the subject of debate and sometimes ridicule, but whats in the interest of local communities is as many beer drinkers as possible being behind a united front. As drinks writer Richard Croasdale (author of The Craft Beer Dictionary), puts it: For all their complaints about moustachioed, tattoo-festooned, bicycle riding poseurs invading their pubs and disturbing their pints, traditional beer lovers have gained an army of comrades who (mostly) genuinely share their enthusiasm for quality and tradition. Weve been reading... Craft as a term has had its problems, and proves difficult to boil down into a neat, if not pint-sized then at least self-contained definition. Where our beer-drinking cousins in the States have enshrined craft breweries as those that are small, independent and traditional each of the above with its own qualifications weve yet to write our own craft beer constitution in the UK. Literary inspiration: brush up on your A-B-Cs with Croasdales new release (Jonny Hannah) The American triad isnt a bad starting point, but it comprises broad brush strokes. Innovation, localism, community initiatives, collaboration, sustainability and more come into it, and from detractors of the movement theres accusations of snobbery and overpriced products to be taken on the chin. (Octopus Books) In a quite lovely new book, The Craft Beer Dictionary, Richard Croasdale suggests that we know craft when we see it (well and good before accounting for the way some world-dominant breweries now market their crafty offerings). This beautifully illustrated A-Z doesnt take itself too seriously, tackles terminology that spans the whole beer spectrum and would make a great addition to any beer lovers collection. Zippy, easy to digest explanations make this an ideal reference point for concepts old and new, whether you think beer just got interesting again or never lost its sparkle. The Craft Beer Dictionary by Richard Croasdale is published by Mitchell Beazley, 15, octopusbooks.co.uk It hasnt been a good year for high street chain restaurants. Since January, 12 out of 37 branches of Jamies Italian closed and its been declared that 20 Byron restaurants are at risk, 30 Carluccios will close, and Prezzo is to close 94 branches. It sounds like the death of the middle market restaurants. But its not that weve gone off our food; its the way that we like to eat out thats changing. Now its about independent restaurants, plenty of choice, high quality, worldly influences and street food-style eating. All of this is injecting new life into our high streets in the form of food halls. But not as you might know them: theyre grownup spaces, with hand-picked vendors serving up a variety of different foods and cuisines that are the best in their game. Reflecting this, there are 16 market food halls scheduled to open in London alone, according to property agents Cushman & Wakefield. Recommended Food prices to rise in UK because of extreme weather conditions We spend more on food and leisure than we do on any other vice, including drinking or smoking. On average, we eat out twice a week and spend 45 weekly on restaurants and hotels, according to ONS stats. Our disposable income is the highest its been in five years. But what we want is changing as we value experiences over material goods. And food comes in high on that experience list. In west London, the Edwardian Walham Green ticket hall in Fulham Broadway is the first of three buildings to be given the Market Hall treatment. Headed by property investors and restaurateurs, Market Halls reclaims historic architecture. Its brought the Grade II listed building in Fulham back to life, retaining the former ticket office and many of its original features. Altrincham Market House opened five years ago and now has two sister sites run by the same company Following the Fulham site, two more will follow in Victoria, where the infamous Pacha club once was before closing in 2014, and Oxford Street, in the former BHS building. Inside the first site is 10 kitchens, including Butchies barbecue, Yard Sale pizza and a bar with central seating that caters for up to 180, and thats the smallest of the three. The duo behind Market Halls is Andy Lewis-Pratt, a retail investor, and Simon Anderson who brought us Pitt Cue Co, which began life as a food truck along Londons Southbank and turned into a bricks and mortar site in Soho. Altrinchams La Cucina kitchen serves this panzanella with burrata dish Although theyre aware food halls are nothing new, theyre bringing together regeneration and a variety of places to eat under one roof. We made a shortlist of restaurants we wanted, with a pizza place, a meat focused restaurant and an Indian etc, and then whittled them down and got in touch. Most people were really receptive, as it gave them a chance to open in west London, says Anderson. The setup is essentially a gravitational move for the street food eateries in east London which might not be able to afford the pricier rents in the west. People are fighting for space in east London, but here theres nothing else like it, he adds. The street food areas in the east of the capital, such as Dinerama, Street Feast and Kerb, have a more takeaway feel with their single-use plates and cutlery. But at Market Halls, theres a much stronger sense of feeling like youre at a restaurant albeit one where you order food at each counter and receive a buzzer to collect it. Theyre sustainability-conscious and use proper plates and metal cutlery, and theres a dedicated team to clear up. There are 10 kitchens in the Fulham site, including pizza, Thai and Indian (Market Halls) Down the road in Hammersmith is Eat17s fifth outpost, set up by stepbrothers James and Chris, who started out in 2006 with a restaurant in east London. But each of their shops are different; here theyve created a convenience store and a mini food hall, selling everything from their own-brand produce (from coffee beans to bacon jam) to everyday products like cornflakes and basic brands as well as their refillable stations you take your own Tupperware to fill up. Theres three street food pop-ups: Pizza Project, Knowing Meat Knowing You, and Empress Market Pakistan Kitchen, which all sell food under 10 that you can eat on inside or outside tables, along with a bar and cafe. But the best is yet to come. In 2020, London is expecting the debut arrival of its biggest food hall so far: Eataly, set up by Oscar Farinetti, which has been branded a foodie theme park. At the moment, sites are in 12 countries including Japan, Seoul, Moscow, Istanbul and of course Italy (Torino was the first in 2007). The NYC outpost has become a go-to destination for tourists. For them, its all about high quality produce, where you can eat, shop and learn all things Italian (there's even masterclasses available). Time Outs Lisbon food hall, opened in 2014 (Time Out) On the continent, Time Out turned another neglected market hall, in Lisbon, into the worlds first food and cultural market back in 2014. Its essentially the living form of the world-renowned magazine and city guide. Last year, 3.6 million people visited it, and enjoyed its 32 restaurants and eight bars and cafes, and attended workshops at the Chefs Academy and Time Out Studio. Back in the UK (and outside of the capital) is Altrincham Market, in Greater Manchester. Behind it are Nick Johnson, local and former deputy chief executive of regeneration company Urban Splash, and business partner Jenny Thompson. Together theyre credited with regenerating the area, and in doing so became pioneers of the food hall concept in Britain. The communal dining space (seating 250) is home to five kitchens, a coffee shop, a chocolatier, a wine shop and craft beer bar (even the washing up is communal and shared, which also keeps costs down). Out of the five Yard Sale Pizza shops, this is the only one in the west of London (Market Halls) (Fulham Market Hall) Johnson says his idea was born after he spent years regenerating other communities but hadnt done anything to his hometown. As an original market town since 1290, Altrincham had some of the highest vacancy rates in the country, so the pair decided it needed to be turned into a modern market town. Their alternative approach to regeneration, which says food and drink should never be the afterthought when sprucing up an area, meant they changed places cost effectively and by hand picking talented independent businesses and not investing in vanity real estate. Now its one of the best places to live and a big reason is the Market House which brings good quality food to a variety of people, in an informal environment which has a wide appeal says Johnson. Its second site is Manchesters Mackie Mayor food hall that seats twice as many; opened in 2016 in a former meat market, with a 180-seater hall, six kitchens from Korean steamed buns to sourdough pizza coffee shops, bakery, wine shop and craft beer bar. Between the two sites 25,000 people are fed per week. And the success seems to be growing as a third site from the same team is due to open in Macclesfield in 2019. Well still be eating on the high street, technically, but at least no one will be arguing about whether to have pizza, Thai or sushi when we do so. The choice is ours as we welcome in a new wave of independent businesses that will benefit from our cash. Were moving on to better things. Anyone who has ever been to the Basque Country area will recognise these snacks and will have had them, accompanied by a crisp bottle of red, or a aperitivo. Here, Marti Buckley documents the history of the snack, from its early beginnings almost 100 years ago, and how, as they become more popular, food companies cashed in with frozen versions to today, where creativity makes them more exciting than ever. And we also share a recipe from Buckley's new book, Basque Country, the Spanish ham, goats cheese and sun-dried tomato pintxo. 1920 to 1940: Drinking outside of the home was an established social custom well before the Spanish Civil War. People would head to the cider houses and bodegas in the old part of San Sebastian to buy their alcohol (for their home or business) and would make the most of the trip by downing a few drinks. 1940 to 1960: PostSpanish Civil War, txikiteo, the practice of travelling from bar to bar with a kuadrilla (a group of close friends), becomes routine. Kuadrillak meet at the same bar to begin the same route every night, ultimately consuming up to thirty small glasses (about a bottle) of wine a head in the process. Luckily, the wine is very cheap, around 7 pesetas (about 4 cents in todays currency). There is also widespread scarcity. A few bars, many of them under the same ownership today, innovate by putting out a bit of food on the bartop. Bar Martinez, on Calle 31 de Agosto in San Sebastian, is one of them. Much of the food and some of the alcohol available in the bars are contraband, smuggled from France. The police never take action, and luxuries like txaka (canned crab), unseen before it appeared on the bar of Borda Berri, dot the bars of the city. The movie Gilda arrives in Spain, and is later the inspiration for the name of what is often purported to be the first pintxo. A banderilla-style bite costs around 3 pesetas (a current value of 2 euro cents). Summer visitors from the interior of Spain are the ones who begin to refer to these toothpick-held pickles as pinchos. 1960 to 1980: Life begins to get a little easier. Supply chains open up, and bars begin to develop their food offerings. Each bar has a specialty. The name pincho begins to catch on and circulate, but with a Basque spelling: pintxo. Bogota's burgeoning food scene Show all 10 1 /10 Bogota's burgeoning food scene Bogota's burgeoning food scene The food markets are the place to try exotic ingredients and local dishes ProColombia Bogota's burgeoning food scene Leonor Espinosa is one of Bogota's best loved chefs Leo Bogota's burgeoning food scene Leonor Espinosa focuses on Colombian ingredients at Leo Leo Bogota's burgeoning food scene Bogota's burgeoning food scene Bogota's burgeoning food scene Scallop ceviche at El Cielo El Cielo Bogota's burgeoning food scene El Cielo is a full-on sensory immersion El Cielo Bogota's burgeoning food scene Criterion's 10-course taster menu is a work of art Bogota's burgeoning food scene Chef brothers Jorge and Mark Rasch Mario Inti Garcia Bogota's burgeoning food scene Criterion's Jorge Rausch cut his teeth at Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir Mario Inti Garcia Though the name pintxo has not yet reached Bilbao, familiar-looking bites begin to appear in the citys bars, among them the bilbainito, hard-boiled egg with mayonnaise and shrimp; el grillo, a piece of potato with lettuce and onion; and chunks of olive oilpreserved albacore to be grabbed with a toothpick. On Sundays, there are bars that serve fried calamari, or even kroketak (croquettes). The food is served off in a corner, however, not atop the bar. In San Sebastian, the pintxo is in its full splendor, and the local municipal law enforcement doesnt know how to handle it. In the 1960s, hefty fines for setting out plates of uncovered pintxos are established25,000 pesetas (about 150 euros today). Glass cases appear in the bars to cover the pintxos. Bars begin to become known for their specialties: anchovies, eggs, tripe, salt cod, and more. As the pintxo business becomes more lucrative, frozen food companies begin to hock premade croquettes to bars willing to accept them. 1980 to 2000: Creativity replaces necessity as the inspiration for pintxos as the country becomes more prosperous. Innovations such as puff pastry and egg yolks on top of mushrooms begin to spread. Cocina en miniatura takes hold in the late 1980s. A few of San Sebastians bars, Alona Berri in the Gros neighbourhood in particular, begin to offer miniature works of art, cooked to order. This concept attracts crowds. Meanwhile, in Bilbao, the pintxo with bread appears, along with mushrooms and peppers. One of the first bars to bring the pintxo to Bilbao was Oriotarra. The book Pintxos Donostiarras by Pedro Martin Villa is released in 1992. The longest-running pintxo competition, El Concurso de Pintxos (Pintxo Txapelketa Bilbao Bizkaia), holds its first event in Bilbao in 1999. A bar on Portu Kalea in San Sebastian begins putting out pintxos made with unorthodox combinations of ingredients, derided as senseless mixtures by traditionalists, but the format is quickly copied when it proves successful. 2000 to present: Txikiteo becomes less common, a change attributed to a trend towards cleaner living, as well as older generations passing away and wine prices rising. It is normal to see groups of couples and friends drinking and eating pintxos for dinner, rather than groups of men drinking glass after glass of wine. Bar owners retire and pass on their bars sometimes to outsiders. These newcomers have a more global outlook; the chefs are trained in Michelin-starred kitchens. The global explosion in popularity of pintxos and rising number of visitors to Basque Country keeps the bars full, especially in summer. Spanish ham, goats cheese and sun-dried tomato pintxo Often, when a new pintxo meets with success, it begins to pop up in other bars across town. Then it travels to a neighboring capital, trickles down to village bars, and so on, until it becomes a ubiquitous classic. That is the case with this pintxo, an easy-to-love combination of sweet sun-dried tomato, caramelized goat cheese, and soft, nutty ham, which is much greater than the sum of its parts. The original version of this pintxo was made with a seeded baguette from one of San Sebastians best bakeries, Galparsoro. A regular baguette will also do. Splurge, if you can, on the best jamon. Makes 9 60 ml white wine vinegar Kosher salt 28 g dehydrated sun-dried tomatoes (see Note) 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 250 to 315g goats cheese, preferably with rind, chilled 1 tablespoon sugar 9 slices Iberico ham baguette, preferably covered in poppy, flax, or other seeds, cut into nine -inch-thick (1.5 cm) slices In a small saucepan, combine the vinegar, 120 ml water, and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Place the sun-dried tomatoes in a bowl, pour the hot vinegar mixture over, and cover with plastic wrap. Soak for at least 15 minutes and up to 2 hours, until very soft. Drain, transfer to a plate, and drizzle with the olive oil. Set aside. Preheat the broiler. Line a baking sheet with foil. Slice the goat cheese crosswise into 9 pieces, each about 2 cm thick. Arrange on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle the tops with the sugar. Place the baking sheet under the broiler and allow the sugar to brown, watching closely so the cheese doesnt burn. Once lightly browned and sizzling, remove from the oven. (Alternatively, you can use a kitchen torch to brown the cheese: Hold the flame over each slice until the sugar is bubbling and beginning to brown.) To compose the pintxos, arrange the baguette slices on a platter and place a sun-dried tomato on each slice. Using a spatula, place one slice of the goat cheese on top of each tomato, sugared-side up. Thread a piece of the ham on a skewer, forming an S shape. Spear the cheese, tomato, and bread with the skewer, adjusting the ham if necessary. Repeat with the remaining ham and skewers and serve. Note: you can also use oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, in which case you can skip the soaking step. Extracted from 'Basque Country' by Marti Buckley (Artisan Books) 26.99 Patients are being turned away from sexual health clinics amid record demand as councils warn services could struggle to cope unless the government reverses 600m worth of public health cuts due by 2020. The Local Government Association has said that attendance at clinics has increased 13 per cent since 2013, with more than 3.3 million people seen in 2017. This pressure has led to patients being turned away from fully booked clinics at a time when chlamydia cases are increasing faster than they have for half a century. Charities said that barriers to accessing sexual health services are increasing as clinics close and opening times are reduced to fit in budgets squeezed between 2015 and 2020. This is particularly worrying after figures from Public Health England in June showed that syphilis is rising at its fastest rate since 1949, with 20 per cent more diagnoses in 2017 than the previous year. Gonorrhoea cases also increased 22 per cent in a year, and this year saw a British man contract a superbug strain that was resistant to all conventional antibiotic treatments. Cuts to sexual health funding have come at the worst possible time, said Dr Olwen Williams, president of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH). NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Show all 25 1 /25 NHS in Crisis march: in pictures NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Protesters call on the government to reverse cuts to the NHS. Rex NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Demonstrators dressed as an undertaker and carrying a fake coffin. Getty Images NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Demonstrators gather on Gover Street in central London ahead of a march towards Downing Street to protest against underfunding and privatisation of the NHS and demand an end to the winter crisis in the health service. Rex NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Health workers and NHS campaigners march through London to a rally outside Downing Street. Rex NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Thousands of protesters marched during the demonstration organised by 'The People's Assembly Against Austerity' campaign group that called for better funding for the National Health Service (NHS) to end the 'winter crisis' in the national health care system. EPA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures A Boris Johnson impersonator lies in a makeshift hospital bed next to an effigy of Theresa May during a People's Assembly demonstration against the Conservative government's health policy. Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures A demonstrator in a mobility scooter carries a placard. Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Demonstrators take part in a emergency NHS 'Fix It Now' protest demanding an end to the funding crisis in the Health Service. Rex NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Demonstrators take part in pro-NHS march and protest towards Downing Street in Central London. EPA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures A protestor carries a placard featuring Britain's Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt. AFP/Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures The demonstration is focused on the current crisis in the National Health Service. Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Demonstrators hold placards and set off flares . Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures A demonstrator carries a cardboard skeleton wearing an ambulance uniform . Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Demonstrators hold placards during a People's Assembly demonstration against the Conservative government's health policy Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures The Government will be urged to provide more beds, staff and funds to ease the problems facing the service. PA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Protestors gather calling for an end to the "crisis" in the NHS. AFP/Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth M joins people taking part in the march. PA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures A placard reading 'Nurses with fight for the NHS'. AFP/Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Protestors carry placards and shout slogans. AFP/Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures People march through central London. PA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures People take part in a march in London in support of the National Health Service. PA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures People hold up a sign in support of the National Health Service to demand an end to the "crisis" in the NHS. PA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Protestors carry placards featuring Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May and Britain's Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt. AFP/Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures People take part in a march in London in support of the National Health Service. PA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Demonstrators carry placards . Getty Record demand for services, dramatic increases in syphilis and gonorrhoea diagnoses and the spread of treatment-resistant infection in recent years mean that many services are struggling to cope, despite valiant efforts from staff. She said further cuts would almost certainly tip them over the edge and called on the government to reverse its damaging approach to funding public health. The LGAs analysis shows there were 3,323,275 attendances in England in 2017, compared with 2,940,779 in 2013 this amounts to an extra 210 cases a day. With home testing kits on the rise the number of sexual health tests has grown even faster in the same five-year period rising 18 per cent between 2013 and 2017, from 1.5 million to nearly 1.8 million. The Department of Health and Social Care said there had been a drop in overall STI diagnoses between 2016 and 2017. However the 0.3 per cent decrease from 423,352 to 422,147 might be down to a fall in chlamydia testing, which experts warned was not good news. While its great to see a huge increase in people taking their sexual health seriously, this rising demand is pushing some councils sexual health services to peak capacity levels which are not sustainable in the long term, said councillor Ian Hudspeth, chair of the LGAs Community Wellbeing Board. With capacity and resources already being stretched to the limit, clinics are reporting an increase in the number of lengthy delays and people having to be turned away as appointments are fully booked. Budgets are due to shrink until 2020 and Cllr Hudspeth warned this could affect councils ability to meet further spikes in demand and respond to unforeseen outbreaks. Bekki Burbidge, deputy chief executive at sexual health charity FPA said: There are still many barriers to access services including closures, reduced opening times and fragmented services. If people struggle to book appointments or are turned away from services, then they may not get the testing and treatment they need which could lead to them passing an infection on to someone else. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: We have a strong track record on sexual health with teenage pregnancies at an all-time low and sexually transmitted infections continuing to fall. Sexual health services and tests are now more widely available online which means people can get tested at a time that suits them more than 11,000 diagnoses from online tests were reported last year. We are giving 16bn to local authorities for public health services over the current spending period, as they are best placed to understand and meet the public health needs of their local communities. As massive dust storms on Mars finally come to an end, Nasa hopes to reconnect with its Opportunity rover for the first time in nearly three months. The solar-powered machine went into sleep mode as dust blocked out the Sun in early June, and since then engineers back on Earth have been concerned about its fate. Now they are optimistic that contact can be made with the 15-year-old rover, which was last recorded in the red planets aptly named Perseverance Valley. However, they have set a deadline of 45 days beyond which they say it is unlikely Opportunity will recover. The Sun is breaking through the haze over Perseverance Valley, and soon there will be enough sunlight present that Opportunity should be able to recharge its batteries, said John Callas, Opportunity project manager at Nasas Jet Propulsion Laboratory. If we do not hear back after 45 days, the team will be forced to conclude that the Sun-blocking dust and the Martian cold have conspired to cause some type of fault from which the rover will more than likely not recover. At that point our active phase of reaching out to Opportunity will be at an end. 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 Once dust levels in the Martian sky fall below a threshold level, the Nasa team will begin sending the rover commands. If they then hear back from Opportunity, they will begin assessing its status and attempting to bring it back online. The current health of the robot is unknown, and the dust could have resulted in reduced energy production, diminished battery performance and a range of other technical difficulties. However, the team is cautiously optimistic that the hardy robot will make a recovery considering the numerous challenges it has already overcome over the course of its mission. Recommended Nasa concerned about future of Opportunity rover After massively exceeding engineers expectations for its lifespan, which was only meant to stretch around 90 days, the rover recovered from serious breakdowns in 2005 and 2017. In a situation like this you hope for the best but plan for all eventualities, said Mr Callas. We are pulling for our tenacious rover to pull her feet from the fire one more time. And if she does, we will be there to hear her. Nasa working to fix small leak on International Space Station Even after the 45 days of actively trying to contact Opportunity have passed, Mr Callas and his team will continue passive listening efforts for several months in case a large amount of dust remains deposited on the machines solar panels. This will allow for the chance that a blast from a Martian dust devil small whirlwinds known to pass across the red planets surface will come along and clean the remaining dust off the apparatus. Despite the plans laid out to save Opportunity, former rover driver for Opportunity Mike Siebert described the 45 day limit as woefully insufficient considering the 15 months that had been set aside to hunt for the lost Martian Spirit rover in 2010. Whomever made this decision is a coward, he tweeted on Thursday. Parking at all NHS hospitals across Wales is now free, a decade after the policy was first announced by the Welsh government. Glangwili and Prince Philip hospitals were the last to have the charges and will now be free to park at after a contract with a parking firm expired at the end of August. The free hospital parking policy was first announced by former health minister Edwina Hart in March 2008 and was intended to start the following month, but health boards were already bound by long contracts with commercial companies. Recommended Dozens more cases identified at hospital investigated for baby deaths The Welsh government said it was pleased to see free parking is now in place at all hospitals in Wales. In June, parking charges at Wales largest hospital, the University Hospital of Wales were dropped, after a long standing contract with private parking firm Indigo ended. The charges had been a controversial issue for staff. In July 2017, 75 members of staff at the hospital lost a court case against the firm, after a judge ruled it could collect charges from those with outstanding tickets. It left Glangwili and Prince Philip hospitals, managed by Hywel Dda University Health Board, as the only ones to still charge for parking as the board was locked into a contract. NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary Show all 18 1 /18 NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, addresses demonstrators following the march AFP/Getty NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary EPA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary Reuters NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary EPA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary PA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary PA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images From 1 September the health board will be putting in a new car park management system. Those visiting the hospitals will now have their tickets validated on site to ensure car parking facilities are not abused by those who do not have a genuine reason to park at the hospitals. Joe Teape, the director of operations at Hywel Dda University Health Board said: Parking has long been an issue at our hospital sites. We will soon be coming to the end of our existing arrangements and we want to take this opportunity to put a new and improved system in place to make it easier for people to park. Were engaging with staff and the public to ensure a fairer deal for everyone, by protecting designated patient and visitor car parks and improving access for emergency vehicles. The health board said it will be trialling the use of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology to monitor the use of hospital car parks and will retain parking attendants to manage car park capacity. In the year before the parking policy announcement, Welsh hospitals collected over 5m in parking charges. The news makes Wales the first area of the UK to drop the charges. Hospitals in Northern Ireland, Scotland and England still charge for car parking, with the latter making 174m from the charges last year. A Welsh government spokesperson said: We are pleased to see free parking is now in place at all hospitals in Wales. Car parking charges are often an unfair expense on people frequently attending NHS hospitals, whether they are patients, staff or visitors. Free parking provides a fairer and more consistent approach to parking policy. Theresa May has insisted she will not be pushed around by Brussels as Brexit negotiations heat up, as it emerged that Sir Lynton Crosby, who advised her in last years general election, is reportedly manoeuvring to derail the PMs European Union (EU) withdrawal agenda. As the deadline nears for Britain to leave the bloc, the prime minister stood by the governments controversial Chequers exit plan despite continued sniping against it from her own partys benches. Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Ms May said: I will not be pushed into accepting compromises on the Chequers proposals that are not in our national interest. Neither will I give in to those who want to reopen the whole question with a second referendum ... To ask the question all over again would be a gross betrayal of our democracy and a betrayal of that trust. She added: We want to leave with a good deal and we are confident we can reach one. But, of course, there is still a lot more negotiating to be done. The comments came as it was reported that the election strategist who helped Boris Johnson win the London mayoralty was involved in a bid to scupper the Cabinets Chequers compromise. Sir Lynton Crosby, who also advised Ms May in last years general election when the Tories lost their majority in a shock poll result, is manoeuvring to derail the PMs EU withdrawal agenda with a coordinated national campaign, The Sunday Times reported. David Canxini, a senior member of staff at his firm CTF Partners, is said to be working with the pro-Brexit group, Change Britain, to campaign against the Chequers deal. The claims emerged as former minister and high-profile Tory MP Nick Boles, who backed Remain at the referendum, also came out against the deal. He told The Sunday Telegraph that under current Government plans, the UK faces the humiliation of a deal dictated by Brussels, which is treating the Chequers proposals as an opening bid. Brexit casualties Show all 10 1 /10 Brexit casualties Brexit casualties Andrea Jenkyns - Resigned from Parliamentary Private Secretary at the ministry for housing, communities and local government role May 2018 - The Morley and Outwood MP said: We want to see a new relationship with Europe, with a new model not enjoyed by other countries nothing that leaves us half-in, half-out. And in order to achieve this, we need to leave the customs union. Ms Jenkyns also said she wished to dedicate more of her time to Parliaments influential Exiting the European Union select committee, after a series of unbalanced reports produced by MPs PA Brexit casualties David Davis - Resigned from Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union role July 2018 - quit following a major row with May over her plans for post-Brexit relations with the EU. Davis resignation letter said: As you know there have been a significant number of occasions in the last year or so on which I have disagreed with the Number 10 policy line, ranging from accepting the [European] Commissions sequencing of negotiations, through to the language on Northern Ireland in the December Joint Report. At each stage I have accepted collective responsibility because it is part of my task to find workable compromises, and because I considered it was still possible to deliver on the mandate of the referendum, and on our manifesto commitment to leave the Customs Union and the Single Market. I am afraid that I think the current trend of policy and tactics is making that look less and less likely. He went on to argue that the general direction of Ms Mays policies would leave the UK in at best a weak negotiating position, and possibly an inescapable one. AFP/Getty Brexit casualties Steve Baker - Resigned from Minister at the Department for Exiting the European Union role July 2018 - Mr Baker, a key Tory figure in the Leave campaign, was David Daviss main lieutenant at Dexeu, and was hailed as courageous and principled by other Brexiteer Tories as he also left. Reuters Brexit casualties Boris Johnson - Resigned from Foreign Secretary role July 2018 - resigned over May's Chequers plan. In his resignation letter to the prime minister, Mr Johnson said: "On Friday, I acknowledged that my side of the argument were too few to prevail and congratulated you on at least reaching a Cabinet decision on the way forward. "As I said then, the government now has a song to sing. "The trouble is that I have practised the words over the weekend and find that they stick in the throat." Reuters Brexit casualties Conor Burns - Resigned from Parliamentary Private Secretary to Foreign Secretary role July 2018 - A Brexit supporter who worked alongside Boris Johnson stated in his resignation letter: I've decided it's time to have greater freedom. I want to see the referendum result respected. And there are other areas of policy I want to speak more openly on. Rex Brexit casualties Chris Green - Resigned from Department for Transport role July 2018 - The Bolton West MP said: "Parliament overwhelmingly decided to give the decision of whether to leave or remain in the European Union to the British people and they made an unambiguous decision that we ought to leave. "I have always understood the idea in 'Brexit means Brexit' is that the final deal should be clear to me and my constituents - that we have, in no uncertain terms, left the European Union. Twitter Ads info and privacy "The direction the negotiations had been taking have suggested that we would not really leave the EU and the conclusion and statements following the Chequers summit confirmed my fears. "I recognise that delivering Brexit is challenging, however I had hoped at tonight's meeting that there would be some certainty that my fears were unfounded but, instead, they have been confirmed. "I have been grateful for the opportunity to serve as Parliamentary Private Secretary and it is with regret that I offer my resignation with immediate effect." PA Brexit casualties Maria Caulfield - Resigned from Conservative Party vice-chair for women role July 2018 - resigned over May's Chequers plan. Lewes MP warned that the direction of travel did not fully embrace the opportunities that Brexit can provide. Ms Caulfield said in her letter to the PM: The policy may assuage vested interests, but the voters will find out and their representatives will be found out. This policy will be bad for our country and bad for the party. The direct consequences of that will be prime minister Corbyn. PA Brexit casualties Ben Bradley - Resigned from Conservative Party vice-chair for young people role July 2018 - resigned over May's Chequers plan. The Mansfield MP said: I admit that I voted to Remain in that ballot. What has swayed me over the last two years to fully back the Brexit vision is the immense opportunities that are available from global trade, and for the ability for Britain to be an outward looking nation in control of our own destiny once again. I fear that this agreement at Chequers damages those opportunities; that being tied to EU regulations, and the EU tying our hands when seeking to make new trade agreements, will be the worst of all worlds if we do not deliver Brexit in spirit as well as in name, then we are handing Jeremy Corbyn the keys to No10. PA Brexit casualties Robert Courts - Resigned from Parliamentary Private Secretary role July 2018 - resigned over May's Chequers plan. MP Mr Courts said: I have taken a very difficult decision to resign my position as [parliamentary private secretary] to express discontent with the Chequers [plans] in votes tomorrow. I had to think who I wanted to see in the mirror for the rest of my life. I cannot tell the people of Woxon that I support the proposals in their current form. Getty Brexit casualties Scott Mann - Resigned from Parliamentary Private Secretary role July 2018 - resigned over May's Chequers plan. "I fear elements of the Brexit white paper will inevitably put me in direct conflict with the views expressed by a large section of my constituents. I am not prepared to compromise their wishes to deliver a watered-down Brexit. "The residents of North Cornwall made it very clear that they wish to have control over our fishery, our agricultural policy, our money, our laws and our borders. I will evaluate those principles against the Brexit white paper and ensure that I vote in line with their wishes." Rex The PM also dismissed calls for a peoples vote on the terms of withdrawal. She said: To ask the question all over again would be a gross betrayal of our democracy. Ms May also said Britain would get through a no-deal outcome and thrive. The PMs aides have held talks with senior civil servants about whether to call a general election if a Brexit deal is rejected by MPs, according to The Sunday Times. Press Association contributed to this report A senior Labour MP who resigned the whip and accused Jeremy Corbyn of being a force for antisemitism in British politics has said he will not be triggering a by-election in his constituency. Frank Field, who has served as the MP for Birkenhead for almost 40 years, resigned the whip on Thursday over what he described as the current perception of Labour as a racist party. Mr Field said on Friday he had been told by Labours chief whip that he could not remain as a party member, but the veteran MP vowed to fight his expulsion in the courts if necessary. Recommended Field says he wants to stand as a Labour MP under Corbyn at election He said: I will dispute it until the end. Im not being kicked out the Labour Party like that. Mr Field told The Independent he had always sought to abide by Labour values and added: The idea the door is going to be shut on this continuing effort is pretty grotesque. He added: I feel a huge hold on me made by Labour members who sought no fame, no favours, who built up the Labour Party so we could win the 1945 general election, and changed the nature of British society by electing a Labour government. The idea that one cant remain in that tradition is a huge affront. Mr Field said the looming legal battle meant he would not be triggering a by-election in his Birkenhead constituency. He said: If this is the ruling of the Labour Party then its something Im going to test to the limit. 'Immensely sad': Frank Fields on why he has resigned as Labour whip If Ive got a huge legal battle on my hands I cant be fighting a by-election. Im determined not to give up membership of the Labour Party and it could be a major battle. I hope it wont be. Its going to go through the full legal process and God knows how long its going to take. It will be a judicial review to stop them carrying out what they say is the Labour constitution and it will mean court hearings and will be for a court to make a decision. He added: Im now going to be involved in a legal tussle with the Labour Party and it really does mean the idea I should do a by-election is certainly pushed into the future because Im going to have a mega fight on my hands. The former minister for welfare reform, who was charged by Tony Blair to reform the welfare state by thinking the impossible, sensationally resigned the whip because of the culture of intolerance, nastiness and intimidation in the party. In an interview with the Press Association, he said he did not regret the move and hoped it would effect change. 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 Earlier on Friday, he stressed his resignation of the whip over the antisemitism crisis was not part of a plot to bring down the Labour leader. I hope and I believe Jeremy will lead us into the next election and it is not true Im a constant critic of Jeremy, said Mr Field. That isnt true. I believe he has the right to take us into the next election because he has won two leadership contests. The idea this is part of a plot or anything else is simply crazy. It is because I think he will lead us into the next election that I think these issues are urgent. He also denied claims he was jumping before being pushed, having lost a no-confidence vote within his constituency Labour Party after backing Brexit. Mr Field said: I wish to be the Labour Party candidate at the next election and, if I am not, I shall stand as an independent Labour candidate. The United States is ending its decades of funding for the UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees, a week after slashing bilateral US aid for projects in the West Bank and Gaza. The US supplies nearly 30 per cent of the total budget of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and had been demanding reforms in the way it is run. The US State Department said in a written statement the United States will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation. The decision cuts nearly $300m (231m) of planned support. It comes as Donald Trump and his Middle East advisers, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, prepare for the rollout of a much-vaunted plan for Israel and the Palestinians, and it could intensify Palestinian suspicions that Washington is using the humanitarian funding as leverage. The Palestinian leadership has been openly hostile to any proposal from the administration, citing what it says is a pro-Israel bias, notably after the US president recognised Jerusalem as Israels capital in December and moved the US embassy there from Tel Aviv in May. The Palestinian Authority broke off contact with the US after the Jerusalem announcement. Nikki Haley says U.S. will withhold funding for Palestinian refugees In 2016, the US donated $355m to the UNRWA, which provides health care, education and social services to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, and it was set to make a similar contribution this year. In January, the Trump administration released $60m in funds but withheld a further $65m it had been due to provide. The remaining amount around $290m had yet to be allocated. When we made a US contribution of $60m in January, we made it clear that the United States was no longer willing to shoulder the very disproportionate share of the burden of UNRWAs costs that we had assumed for many years, the statement said. Several countries, including Jordan, Egypt, Sweden, Qatar, and the UAE [United Arab Emirates] have shown leadership in addressing this problem, but the overall international response has not been sufficient. 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 The statement criticised the fundamental business model and fiscal practices of UNRWA, and what the department characterised as the endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes during the war that led to Israels establishment in 1948. Today, there are an estimated five million refugees and their descendants, mostly scattered across the region a figure that has become a point of contention. Palestinian leaders assert the right of those refugees to return to land now under Israeli control. Associated Press A giant balloon depicting Donald Trump as an angry baby is set to head over to Ireland to join protests planned for the US presidents in November. The White House confirmed Mr Trumps visit on Friday, triggering preparations by Irish activists for large scale public demonstrations against the divisive figure. British campaigners behind the baby balloon protest said the Irish trip was an excellent opportunity to troll Mr Trump again. The six-metre high blimp which shows the US president wearing a nappy and holding a smartphone was first seen at anti-Trump protests in London while the president was in the UK for talks with Prime Minister Theresa May. Wed love to take the Trump baby over to Ireland for the presidents visit, Kevin Smith, one of the organisers, told The Independent. When we passed our original crowd-funding target, we said wed use the excess money to take the Trump baby wherever we could to globally troll Donald, and so this would be an excellent opportunity. Mr Smith added: Weve been so inspired by all the people in the streets in Ireland that have been fighting for things like gay marriage and abortion rights, so were presuming theres going to be a massive show of resistance to Trumps politics of hate and division and it would be an honour for the Trump baby to be part of that. 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 Earlier on Satruday, the Green Party in Ireland revealed details of a Not Welcome in Ireland! protest in Dublin on 10 November. Green Party leader Eamon Ryan urged people to show their disgust and rejection of the Trump administrations policies in large-scale mass protest around the country. The Irish Labour leader Brendan Howlin said his own party would join with likeminded people to oppose this visit. Mr Trump is expected to make the trip to Ireland either just before or just after his visit to Paris to take part in Armistice Day commemorations, marking the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. Irelands prime minister Leo Varadkar made the invitation on his visit to the White House in March. Non-stop flights between Heathrow and Sydney have moved a step closer, with Qantas vowing to operate direct flights from the east coast of Australia to London and New York by 2022. The revelation came as the Australian airline announced record full-year profits. Previously Qantas had said only that it had asked Airbus and Boeing to put forward proposals for aircraft to serve what would be the worlds longest routes. In March, the Australian airline launched the first scheduled nonstop flights between Heathrow and Perth. It says the new route is the highest rating service on our network. The link is served by Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, but Qantas believes that it needs a specially configured version of either the Boeing 777X or Airbus A350 to make such long routes profitable London-Sydney was first served nonstop in 1989 by a special proving flight with a Qantas Boeing 747, but no paying passengers were on board. The 10,573-mile journey is expected to take 20 hours, 20 minutes at an average speed of 520 mph. The most direct route would take the plane over Denmark, Latvia, western Russia, northeast Kazakhstan, China and the Philippines before making landfall in Australia close to Darwin. Melbourne is another possibility. The distance is 70 miles shorter, but the most direct routing is substantially different, taking in Nepal, Bangladesh, southern Thailand and Borneo. At present the worlds longest route is Qatar Airways daily service between Doha and Auckland, at 9,032 miles. The Qantas London-Perth flight, at 9,009 miles, is second, with Emirates link between Dubai and Auckland third at 8,824 miles. From October, though, they will all move down one place when Singapore Airlines reintroduces flights from its home base to New York - a flight of 9,534 miles, whose most direct course passes very close to the North Pole. Qantas planned route from Sydney to New York is 9,950 miles, and will be about 80 minutes quicker than the link to London. British Airways has gradually retrenched its services from Heathrow to Australia and New Zealand, and currently has only a single flight via Singapore to Sydney. BA has shown no interest in flying nonstop to Australia. Dear Foreign Minister Zarif, This week has been a tough one for Nazanin and our family with her release and reimprisonment. At the end, we felt held together by sellotape. It was a week of two pictures, but also two scenes kept offstage. A week ago, Nazanin was suddenly released from Evin Prison on furlough for Eid. She had been given 10 minutes notice before she was out on the street, and had used a passerbys phone to call for family help. I was awoken to see her smiling face on Skype the first time I had seen her in over two years. Three hours later, Gabriella was in her arms, an image shared on front pages around the world, a picture that even your Iranian Ambassador to the UK tweeted, his celebration of her release cheering our hopes. I am thankful to you for your part in making that possible. Last weekend, Gabriella was finally able to give her mummy the flowers other families give Evin prisoners on release. She was able to show her life and toys, and to show her nursery friends that her mum was real. The pictures of those days were lovely to see. Three days later came the second picture when Nazanins release suddenly came to an end. It was a day of cruel disbelief different Iranian officials gave different messages but it was back to black all the same. Nazanin vowed to walk into Evin with her head held high, reassuring her daughters tears. Once past the door, it took her an hour to reach the ward, where she was received by prison guards who also cried. Back in prison, we had the offstage effects. Nazanin called me on Tuesday one of our toughest conversations. She wished she had never been released. She said she felt like one of the radical Islamists captives as though she had been paraded on the balcony then hidden back away. After that call, Nazanin collapsed, the result of two panic attacks. She still has numbness in her legs. She was taken by ambulance to the Evin hospital. There is no picture of that hospitalisation. Consequently, your Foreign Ministry told the UK she was absolutely fine. It happened also because of the second scene, which was not captured on camera. As Nazanin was being released, her interrogator called her father in to privately warn him that the British Embassy should not visit her, if she wanted to stay safe. Each day he called to note they were monitoring her movements, and check her father was following her to make sure she did not suffer an accident on the street. Those calls cast a shadow over her release, as they were meant to. Nazanin observed all the conditions she was given for her furlough. It went beyond the Revolutionary Guards legal mandate to insist on extra terms. Still, it was not enough to prevent the cruel game. Though none of this is a game. The judiciary told Nazanins family that the Revolutionary Guard have overstepped their boundaries in Nazanins case. They are doing it still. This is something your government needs to control. I have been accused of megaphone diplomacy but against these whispers in the shadows, a clear voice is a familys only protection. We crossed a threshold this week. I have told the Foreign Office we will not be pushing for furlough again. Today, Alistair Burt is in Tehran I have asked him to find out from your ministry what is going on. We will again be asking the UK to grant Nazanin diplomatic protection. In three weeks, Nazanin will be eligible for unconditional release, when she reaches the halfway point of 900 days. This is when we will also both be in New York due to the UNGA meetings. I would like to meet with you to discuss what is next for Nazanin. Some things in our story are very public, some things are often hidden away. Nazanin is one of a number of Iranian dual nationals held on invented political charges, a wave of ordinary people taken in the political battles following the nuclear deal. We will be meeting with other families in this situation. For all of us, this has gone on for too long. This past two years we have been asking: What good is a government if it cannot protect its citizens from abuse? This week, the new UK foreign secretary was increasingly clear about the unfairness of Nazanins situation. It is time for the Iranian government to protect its own citizens from the excesses of other parts of the regime. That is the lesson from our week of two pictures we need your help to close the protection gap. Yours, Richard Ratcliffe Senator John McCains death is being marked with a series of public events. This Saturday his coffin will travel in a public procession to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, and then on to the final funeral in Washington Cathedral, which will be streamed live, but attendance is strictly invitation only. Not surprisingly, Donald Trump the oaf who couldnt decide whether to raise or lower flags out of respect to a war hero and senior statesman is not on the guest list. Neither is Sarah Palin, McCains former running mate. I am sure he enjoyed making these decisions, and who can blame him? Funerals always bring out a motley crowd, some of whom the deceased couldnt stand but never plucked up the courage to edit from their lives. Gawkers and distant relatives who you havent seen in 30 years who slide up and proudly announce: Youll be next! I always leave a funeral thinking it could have benefitted from better music, glitzier decor and a more interesting guest list. My solution is simple: after Ive drawn my last breath, the body will go straight to a crematorium and be incinerated. I will leave money and plans for a big celebration, and the guest list will be placed in the hands of a trusted friend known for their excessive life style. I promise to supply great food, wine and music. Guests can smoke, snort, trample on or drink my ashes as long as they have a blast. Almost 40 years ago, US-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle was overthrown by Cuban-funded Sandinista rebels in the Nicaraguan revolution. After a devastating earthquake and the resulting humanitarian crisis, Jimmy Carter withdrew his support and denied the fleeing Somoza refuge. In the 1980s, the Sandinistas eventually prevailed over US-sponsored Contras counter-revolutionaries. Daniel Ortega became president of Nicaragua, taking his place in the annals of history alongside Cubas Fidel Castro and Venezuelas Hugo Chavez as a Latino revolutionary: a hero of the poor and oppressed. And now? Castro and Chavez dead; Cuba (a vital historical ally) much diminished, and Venezuela (the regions success story) all but destroyed. And Ortega? Murdering his own people in the streets. Nicaragua has quietly become the next Latin American crisis zone and, once again, a battleground for US foreign policy. Recommended Nicaraguan president refuses to bring election forward amid protests Just this week, the UNs human rights office published a damning report into the human rights abuses that have taken place since the Nicaraguan protests began in April earlier this year. At least 300 dead and 2,000 injured, hundreds facing trumped-up charges, enforced disappearances, illegal detentions, torture and sexual violence, as well as a violent crackdown on the independent press. In response, Nicaragua has ordered the expulsion of the UN team, and demanded that Costa Rica give up the names of some 26,000 citizens who have fled there seeking political asylum. Theres no love lost between the two countries - at odds over border disputes, amongst other issues but President Carlos Alvarado has made clear that Costa Rica will not change its position with regards to the safety of immigrants. Indeed, if any country turned over the names of political asylum candidates to the government they were fleeing, it would be an astonishing violation of privacy and the right to security, not to mention a reckless endangerment of the families they left behind. Wouldnt it? For Trumps America, perhaps not. Last November, the Trump administration decreed that the temporary protected status (TPS) of almost half a million immigrants would be coming to an end, forcing them to either leave or remain in the US illegally. This decision affects hundreds of thousands from Central America, particularly El Salvador and Honduras, but also includes roughly 2,500 Nicaraguans with the shortest deadline. They have until January to leave. Every country fought to get their TPS extended, except Nicaragua. Ortega didnt issue an explanation, but we can assume he didnt much care for the Nicaraguans in the US, many of whom fled during the Contra war and remain politically anti-Sandinista. The US embassy and state department officials recommended that the TPS be extended, but Trump ignored them. This summer, the White House condemned the Ortega regime for human rights abuses and violence against its own people, even designating three Nicaraguan officials under the Global Magnitsky Act. Seven members of Congress wrote to Trump to ask for either an extension of TPS, or a new status for Nicaraguans. Recommended US pulls embassy staff from Nicaragua following deadly riots So, on the one hand, there is condemnation, sanctions and promises of aid; on the other, a commitment to send thousands of dissenters back to almost certain reprisal; to a place from which the US rescued its own embassy staff. On the one hand, pressure from the Democrats (some historically sympathetic to the Sandinista regime); on the other, pressure from Trumps own Conservative base in Florida, close to the exiled anti-Sandinista community, and some of his supporters in Congress - like Senator Rubio, who vocally warned of a potential civil war. Like almost all foreign policy issues, Trumps administration is inconsistent at best on Nicaragua; inhumane at worst. But the Nicaraguan crisis does not begin and end in Nicaragua. Just hours after Ortega ejected the commissioners, Guatemalan president Jimmy Morales announced that he would not renew the mandate of the UN-sponsored International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), one of Latin Americas most successful anti-corruption bodies possibly because it is trying to indict him. There are now army vehicles stationed around the CICIG HQ in Guatemala City, and protestors have begun to gather. Neighbouring Honduras set up a similar organisation in 2016, in response to protests following the discovery that huge sums of money in social security-funded healthcare had been embezzled, ending up in the coffers of the campaign. President Juan Orlando Hernandez was sworn in for a second term this January, after a violent crackdown on those who protested the vote resulted in at least 31 deaths and hundreds of arrests. Hes been trying to limit the mandate of the anti-corruption organisation ever since. Its leader resigned in February, citing lack of support. Moraless move, emboldened by Ortega, is not only a huge blow to the fight against corruption in the country, but to democracy in the region as a whole and will undoubtedly embolden Hernandez. The geographical proximity, as well as the potential influx of refugees, will eventually force Trumps hand in Central America. But he might well meet his match there. Before Morales was president, he was Guatemalas most famous slapstick comedian whom few took seriously. He achieved a surprise victory on the back of crudeness, subversion and a notable lack of policy. The CICIG is also investigating whether Moraless presidential campaign received illegal funding, while Morales claims bias and tries to expel the UN commissions chief. Sound familiar? Recently, Ortega gave a confrontational interview to Fox News, denying well-documented facts and claiming political conspiracy, accusing detractors of "lies, terrible lies". Familiar? 40 years ago, US policy dictated the future of Nicaragua. Now, as it stands on the brink of another civil war, Nicaragua could dictate the future of US policy. Add in a growing Russian presence in this former Cold War proxy battlefield, and international scrutiny increases. The question, as always, remains: which way will Trump jump? Marie-Pier G. Vincent, a dairy farmer feeds her cows at in Saint-Valerien-de-Milton, southeast of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 30, 2018. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi Marie-Pier Vincent, a fourth-generation Quebec dairy farmer, worries it will be even harder to make ends meet if Canada allows more tariff-free imports of milk products from the United States under a reworked North American Free Trade Agreement. Vincent, 28, is already looking for a second job to pay back the money she borrowed to strike out on her own two years ago and start up a 35-cow farm 100 km (60 miles) southeast of Montreal. She and Canada's 11,000 dairy farmers made these investments trusting in the country's price controls and protection from imports that have been in place since the 1970s. Now she fears Canada could relax its controls and agree to admit more U.S. dairy. Expand Close A dairy cow cleans her newly born calf on a dairy farm in Saint-Valerien-de-Milton, southeast of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 30, 2018. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A dairy cow cleans her newly born calf on a dairy farm in Saint-Valerien-de-Milton, southeast of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 30, 2018. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi "It's a huge deal as I have a lot of debts," she said. "We really hope there will be no concessions." U.S. President Donald Trump wants a reworked NAFTA deal that eliminates dairy tariffs of up to 300 percent that he argues are hurting U.S. farmers, an important political base for Republicans. Canada is under pressure to reach a new NAFTA deal with Mexico and the United States by Friday after the bilateral deal announced by the United States and Mexico on Monday. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose federal Liberal government relies on support from Ontario and Quebec where most dairy farmers live, repeated on Wednesday that he will defend Canada's dairy industry. If he makes concessions, he could harm his 2019 re-election chances. But Ottawa is ready to make concessions on Canada's sheltered C$21 billion ($16.3 billion) dairy market to save a dispute-settlement system, a provision that was dropped from an agreement that the United States and Mexico reached earlier this week, the Globe and Mail reported on Tuesday. A Canadian government spokesman declined to comment on the report. Expand Close Dairy cows are seen on a farm in Saint-Valerien-de-Milton, southeast of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 30, 2018. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Dairy cows are seen on a farm in Saint-Valerien-de-Milton, southeast of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 30, 2018. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard warned Ottawa on Wednesday that any weakening of Canada's supply management policies would have "serious political consequences." Ralph Dietrich tripled capacity at his Ontario farm over the past three years to 170 cows producing milk. Dietrich bought an additional farm and more production quota after Canadian farmers struck a deal to sell skim milk to the country's processors at a lower price. That deal, called Class 7, allowed them to compete with cheap U.S. supplies, and the move angered American farmers. Ending the Class 7 deal, as U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has demanded, would force farmers such as Dietrich's son and son-in-law to reduce production. Expand Close Dairy farmer Marie-Pier G. Vincent poses with one of her dairy cows at her farm in Saint-Valerien-de-Milton, southeast of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 30, 2018. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Dairy farmer Marie-Pier G. Vincent poses with one of her dairy cows at her farm in Saint-Valerien-de-Milton, southeast of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 30, 2018. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi "The two young people in the next generation would have a lifetime ahead of them of doom and gloom," said Dietrich, who is chairman of Dairy Farmers of Ontario. "It would be the beginning of the end of supply management." Class 7 allows farmers to sell at a competitive price the protein-rich part of milk, called the skim, to Canadian dairies for use in making cheese and yogurt. Prior to Class 7 taking effect last year, Canadian dairies imported from northeastern U.S. processors greater quantities of a similar product that is not subject to Canadian tariffs. Francois Dumontier, spokesman for les Producteurs de lait du Quebec, a dairy producers' group, questioned how Canadian farmers could be stopped from setting their own prices. "We sell the milk to processors at the price we want." Separately, surrendering greater tariff-free access for U.S. dairy, as Canada has done in past trade deals, would add to a steady erosion of supply management, said Manitoba dairy farmer David Wiens. Expand Close Dairy farmer Marie-Pier G. Vincent poses with one of her dairy cows at her farm in Saint-Valerien-de-Milton, southeast of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 30, 2018. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Dairy farmer Marie-Pier G. Vincent poses with one of her dairy cows at her farm in Saint-Valerien-de-Milton, southeast of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 30, 2018. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi "Each time you do that you're taking something away from the Canadian dairy industry and over time weaken the industry," he said. Ned Duffy, who was injured in a farm accident in July, did some light stewarding at the Virginia Show Photo: Lorraine Teevan Ned Duffy was up to his eyes in neck straps as he helped with the stewarding at last week's Virginia Show, but he was counting his blessings that he was in a position to do the job at all following his first serious accident in 54 years of farming. "It was July 21 last at 12.15pm and I was sweeping out a low-loader after taking square bales from it," Ned explained. "I had more or less finished the job and handed the brush over to a lad who was helping me and then I tripped and fell out of the trailer straight on to my back. I just fell about two feet. "I knew from the pain in my shoulders when I got up and hung on to the trailer that something serious was wrong and I was immediately brought to Navan Hospital." Ned, a 70-year-old Cavan dairy farmer, was shocked that such a simple fall could do so much damage. "I have spent over 50 years farming without an accident and here I was in Navan Hospital with two broken vertebrae in my back and unable to move," he recalled. That trip to Navan was followed a week later by a transfer for X-rays to what Ned describes as "the bone unit" in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. Collar Once the results came back he was immediately transferred to the Mater Hospital's spinal unit in Dublin, where he was operated on a fortnight ago. "They put some pins into the vertebrae and then put on the surgical collar and what have you," Ned said. "Luckily I am OK but I can't believe that the accident happened in the first place. It was a routine job and I ended up on my back in a split second. It was freak accident and happened so quickly. That's often the way with farm accidents." His next encounter with the Mater doctors is scheduled for September 12 next when they will review his case and decide when he can abandon the surgical collar and other medical paraphernalia. Ned is confident of a good report but he is not expecting to be back on the family farm at Maghera outside Virginia for some time. "I can't lift anything that weighs more than one litre so I won't be back in the milking parlour for some time," he said. The milking of the Duffys' 90-cow herd is being left to his son Tom and a lad who finished his Green Cert on the farm and helps out every now and then. When Ned eventually gets the all clear on his injured vertebrae he faces into an extended physio regime to get his back and neck right again. That will take some time, he accepts. Ned was at the Virginia Show last week, like he has been each August for the best part of half a century. He did some light stewarding, in between explaining to all who asked how the farm accident happened - like most other accidents, he said, "routine jobs and split-second mistakes". INM will find out on Tuesday whether the High Court will appoint inspectors to examine the affairs of the group Independent News & Media (INM) will find out on Tuesday whether the High Court will appoint inspectors to examine the affairs of the group. The company confirmed yesterday it has been notified that the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Peter Kelly, will deliver judgment on Tuesday, September 4, at 2pm on the application brought by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE), the State's corporate watchdog. The ODCE's application was heard by at the High Court in July, with judgment then reserved. Earlier yesterday, INM published financial results for the first half of 2018. The publisher of the Irish Independent, 'Sunday Independent' and other leading titles reported a reduced profit before tax of 11.5m for the first half of the year, in line with expectations. Revenue for the period was 95m, down 4.1pc compared to the first half of last year. The company's cash pile stood at 89.4m at the end of the period. The 22.8pc reduction in pre-tax profits compared to the first half of 2017 reflects declining sales and exceptional costs of 2.1m incurred in the first half of 2018. That included 1.9m of exceptional legal costs primarily linked to the ODCE case. Speaking after the results, INM chief executive officer Michael Doorly said the market had taken as positives that trading was in line with expectations for the first half and the company's full year forecasts were unchanged. Mr Doorly said it remained impossible to predict the costs of the ODCE process. "We don't know what Judge Kelly will decide. We don't know that there will be an investigation. If there is, we don't know the cost because we don't know the scale," he said. The decline of 4.1pc in revenue was primarily due to a 10.5pc drop in advertising revenues and a circulation revenues decline of 6.2pc. It was offset in part by an increase in distribution revenues of 18.4pc. Publishing advertising revenues fell 12.4pc. The group's regional titles bucked the trend, with publishing advertising revenue up 1.1pc and circulation revenue increasing by 1.7pc. In digital publishing, Mr Doorly said that the independent.ie digital platform will see a significant overhaul, likely including changes to the access model, though not necessarily a paywall. Digital revenues were 2.9pc lower in the period than the same period of 2017, although pressure from Google and Facebook was partially offset by INM's diversified offerings such as CarsIreland.ie which delivered double-digit revenue growth. Forecasts for the full year remain unchanged, INM chairman Murdoch MacLennan said. "The group's new strategy is also making progress and a new senior executive team has been put in place to support our group CEO, Michael Doorly, as he leads its implementation. Our balance sheet remains strong and we continue to explore new avenues to develop profitable revenue streams to support our core business," he added. Q: I currently have a 300,000 mortgage and have 25 years left on it. Two years ago, I moved to a five-year fixed rate which I thought was a good move because it would give me the peace of mind knowing my repayments won't change for five years. But I now find myself paying a rate of 4.2pc, while my brother, who has a similar mortgage, has just secured a five-year fixed rate of 2.8pc. It galls me to think I'm locked into this rate for another three years. Is there anything I can do? My house is definitely worth more than the mortgage on it. A: The rate you are paying is too high. You should contact your lender and ask what breakage fee applies, if any, to exit your current fixed rate. When you entered the fixed rate contract, you agreed to a formula to calculate any fixed rate breakage fee. This calculation varies from lender to lender and, currently, some lenders don't have any breakage fee. This is mainly down to the current low cost of funds in the money markets, according to Joey Sheahan, head of credit at Mymortgages.ie Also ask your lender what rates and/or options are currently available to you. Your existing bank may offer you a better rate. And ask how much is outstanding on your mortgage. Ask if you were to switch to another lender, what the breakout fee would be. Then estimate the current value of your home - check the property price register or perhaps Daft.ie for this. Contact an authorised mortgage broker who will be able to compare and contrast the options between your existing lender and those of new lenders. As a general rule, the more equity you have in your home the more attractive you are to a lender, according to Mr Sheahan. It is important to note that sometimes your existing bank will only use the valuation of your property from the time you bought it, and won't let you benefit from any increase in value, Mr Sheahan says. Other lenders will allow you change into a better LTV (loan-to-value) bracket if the value of your home has increased. Need to know As a general rule the more equity you have in your home the more attractive you are to a lender. Q: My mother has been with the same health insurance provider for the last 15 years. She says likes the "familiarity" and "safety" of this insurer, but I've seen how much she pays in premiums and it seems extraordinarily expensive. She is paying about 2,500 more than I am a year. She is in good health and has never had any major claims. I think she feels like her insurer rewards her loyalty - or will reward it in the event of a claim - but I very much doubt that's the case. A: This is a common query from health insurance members, especially for those aged 55 and over. Many believe they will be penalised if they change, which is not the case as the legislation guarantees that you will have continuity of cover if you have already served your waiting periods and you're switching to an equivalent plan. While many members are happy with their existing provider, the cost has now become prohibitive, as their plan has been hit by multiple price hikes over the past five to 10 years or 15 years, as is the case here, according to Dermot Goode of TotalHealthCover.ie. On the question of loyalty to a health insurer, this really should be disregarded, as there are no bonuses in the Irish healthcare market for not claiming. When it comes to health insurance, people should be reviewing their plan annually. If you don't do this, you run the risk of being on dated plans which have been on the market for 10 years or more, and you are missing out on potentially massive savings. There are a few things to note: Corporate plans are available to everyone irrespective of their age or occupation, and these are invariably cheaper with excellent cover. Always check to see if there's a corporate equivalent of your existing plan before you renew each year. Take on a small excess on your plan. It's a great way of reducing your costs and, in the majority of cases, the excess will apply per claim in private hospitals only - it's never per night. As mentioned, the legislation protects people fully in terms of not having to re-serve waiting periods and maintaining continuity of cover for equivalent benefits. A review of the cover should first determine if this is the correct level of cover for your mother and, once this is clear, the objective will be to source the best value plan at this level across the market (covering 335 plans). Given that the plan hasn't been reviewed for such a long time, it is clear significant savings can be made while still maintaining an excellent standard of cover. Need to know When it comes to health insurance, it is essential people review their plan every year. Five men have been charged with drug smuggling after a "significant quantity of cocaine" was recovered from a yacht. The Defence Forces, Naval and Air Corps took part in a joint operation with the UK Border Force on Wednesday night which led to a 40-foot catamaran being stopped and searched off the south east coast of Ireland. Yesterday, Nigel Clark (63), Dean Waters (60), catamaran skipper Richard Must (48) and crew members Voldemars Gailis (20) and Raymond Dijkstra (27) all appeared at Bristol Magistrates' Court accused of conspiracy to supply cocaine. Britons Mr Clark and Mr Waters, both of no fixed address, Estonia national Mr Must, Latvian Mr Gailis, and Dutch national Mr Dijkstra were remanded in custody. They were arrested on August 29 when the Border Force cutter HMC Vigilant intercepted the Nomad and escorted the vessel into Newlyn harbour. The operation came six weeks after hundreds of parcels stuffed with drugs were discovered on a yacht taken to the same port. Graham Gardner, deputy director of the National Crime Agency, said: "This intelligence-led investigation has resulted in the seizure of a significant quantity of cocaine and the arrest and charge of five men with conspiracy to import cocaine." The stores are set to close between the end of this year and early 2019. Photo: Steve Parsons/PA An estimated 300 workers at Homebase could lose their jobs following the DIY chain's decision to close three of its Irish stores as part of a rescue plan to save the company from collapse. Homebase won approval yesterday from creditors who overwhelmingly voted in favour of closing 42 stores in the UK and Ireland. Two stores in Dublin - at Fonthill and at Naas Road - will close, as will an outlet in Co Limerick. The chief executive of Homebase said the company voluntary arrangement (CVA) would help turn the business around and return it to profitability. The stores are set to close between the end of this year and early 2019. Chief executive Damian McGloughlin said: "We are pleased that an overwhelming majority of our creditors, including such a proportion of landlords, have supported the plans laid out in the CVA. "This has been a difficult time for many of our team members and I am very grateful for their continued support and hard work." Mandate assistant general secretary Gerry Light told the Irish Independent that it is hoping to achieve the best deal possible for its members, but warned there may be job losses. "It will be a minimum of 300 people who will lose their jobs in the affected Irish stores," he said. "These stores aren't insignificant in terms of their size and often have well over 100 people employed on a part-time, temporary and full-time basis. "We're now engaging with those responsible for the workers' welfare in an attempt to get the best possible deal for those affected." However, Mr Light admitted that reaching a favourable outcome for the workers may be difficult to achieve. "We'd be looking at redeployment where possible, but sometimes this isn't feasible if it will mean our members will have to travel very long distances to work. After that we'd be looking for the best possible exit package, but due to the company's current state this can be extremely difficult." The Mandate representative added that the store closures are testament to the strains of the retail sector. "The retail sector in general is under more pressure than it's ever been in," he said. "We're now seeing a worrying trend beginning to develop." Labour TD Alan Kelly's attempted coup against his party leader Brendan Howlin has isolated him from his colleagues. Almost all of the party's Oireachtas members have expressed disapproval at Mr Kelly's persistent pursuit of the party's leadership. The Tipperary TD yesterday called for a "radical shake-up" within the party and said he agreed with councillors calling for change at the top. "We need a radical shake-up. We need to change the direction of the party. We need a different vision. We need far more energy," he told the Irish Independent. He also reiterated his ambition to put his name forward for a leadership contest should the vacancy arise. However, his power play has not gone down well with other members of the party. Labour TD for Limerick Jan O'Sullivan branded Mr Kelly's outburst a "distraction". She added: "We have a lot of work to do in terms of homelessness and health and education, and we're supposed to be thinking about the election, and this is a real distraction. "I wish Alan would just stop. I'm with Brendan because he was elected leader, so let's just get on with it." In the party's constitution, the leadership isn't up for renewal until after the next election. Dublin Fingal TD Brendan Ryan was another party member who threw his support behind Mr Howlin when contacted by the Irish Independent yesterday. He said: "I absolutely support Brendan Howlin. I'm totally p***ed off with him [Mr Kelly] and I told him that". Mr Ryan said "solid Labour Party members" were working hard in his constituency and talking to people to add to the number of seats in the next local elections. "And then we come in off that work on the ground and we listen to his kind of stuff coming through the media. "It's so frustrating. It's killing people." Meanwhile, Mr Howlin has insisted he will not be stepping down as leader and accused Mr Kelly of "undermining" the party's work. "I'm surprised he said what he said. It is very unhelpful. Right now the focus of the entire parliamentary party is to rebuild the party and get our candidates elected," he said. It is understood Mr Kelly and Mr Howlin spoke on the phone yesterday and no decision regarding the sacking of Mr Kelly has been made. The former environment minister launched an unsuccessful bid to become leader after Joan Burton resigned following a poor result in the 2016 General Election. However, he has made no secret of his active ambition to take over, and last year gave Mr Howlin six months to alter the party's fortunes during an interview on live television. Labour has struggled to make any traction on fundamental matters facing the State and the electorate, and its low, stagnant polling reflects this. Party sources say they are having trouble finding suitable candidates to run in the general and local elections. The problem is most acute in areas that were once Labour strongholds in parts of Kerry and Cork. Just weeks ago, 14 Labour councillors sought a meeting with Mr Howlin to discuss his future and "the need for change". Despite the rumblings, the clear consensus among Oireachtas members is that there is no vacancy for the party leadership. Senator Kevin Humphreys told the Irish Independent: "This is not helping the Labour Party - we're talking about an internal battle when we should be talking about important issues facing the country and how Labour can come up with policies to deal with them." Former communications minister Alex White described Mr Kelly's efforts as "commendable". However, he added: "The problem is that Alan seems to conflate ambition for himself with ambition for the party. It's as if for Alan, it's all about Alan." Party support Joan Burton: As former leader I am staying out of this. Willie Penrose: Disappointed in Alan Kelly. Aodhan O Riordain: No reponse. Sean Sherlock: No answer but understood to be unsupportive of the attempted coup. Jan OSullivan: Annoyed by Alan Kellys actions; supports Brendan Howlin. Brendan Ryan: Angered by Alan Kellys actions and behind Brendan Howlin. Kevin Humphries: I support Brendan Howlin. Ged Nash: I support Brendan Howlin. The closure of 159 post offices is to go ahead, despite a threat from an Independent TD to withdraw support from the Government over the issue. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has signalled that the closures will proceed as planned and insisted that the changes are needed to maintain a viable network. Independent TD Michael Harty has warned that he will not support the Budget if the post offices are closed. Mr Harty wants a Public Service Obligation (PSO) scheme to help fund rural post offices. The Government is also under pressure from Fianna Fail, which is to raise the issue in Budget talks. The post offices are to close as part of a deal between the Irish Postmasters Union and An Post that was supported by 80pc of IPU members. Mr Donohoe said that the closures were a "voluntary decision" made by local postmasters and insisted the government has invested funding to support An Post. He said An Post has had "significant financial difficulties" but the Government is "fully committed" to maintaining a "viable post office network across our entire country". Mr Donohoe refused to be drawn on whether he would be open to discussing a PSO for post offices in upcoming Budget talks. Last night, the IPU thanked postmasters who voluntarily opted to close. General secretary Ned O'Hara said there was "regret" that any post offices were closing, but the IPU respect the decision of those who opted for an exit package. Mr O'Hara said the IPU, which has highlighted the challenges faced by the network for years, backed a reform and development plan which "aims to secure as strong a future as possible". Heart of the matter: Loretto McDermott, Pam Kiernan and Chris Kirk chat in Killeshandra post office. Photo: Steve Humphreys A woman greets us cheerily as we push open the door. "Welcome to the Ceili house," she says. That this is more than a post office is clear from the bucket of toys provided for young children and the party-like atmosphere within, with five pensioners leaning against the windowsills, having a proper chat. Everyone is dressed up. Pension day is very much a social occasion. But this is a sad day for Killeshandra, Co Cavan. The town has changed almost beyond recognition from the days when it was a thriving market centre, with tractors and brimming milk churns lining the streets every morning. The post office is one of the last social hubs left. Expand Close Butcher Nudie McGovern fears for his business. Photo: Steve Humphreys / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Butcher Nudie McGovern fears for his business. Photo: Steve Humphreys In 2013 the bank shut its doors, amid promises that people could do their financial transactions at the post office instead. Then the credit union shut down. But now the famous Cavan lakes town is on 'the list' of the 159 rural post offices destined to be ruthlessly given the chop. After that, elderly customers will suffer the ordeal of journeying to another county to conduct their business, with Carrigallen, Co Leitrim - some 9.5km away - suggested as the alternative by An Post. For pensioner George Drury, the loss of the post office in Killeshandra will be catastrophic. He lives within walking distance and it means a lot to him to be able to collect his pension on his own steam. Asked how he will manage from now on, George says: "I will have to get a lift off a man." "I'm very disappointed," he says, explaining it will mean the loss of his independence. After taking her uncle, John Tully (88), to collect his pension, Stephanie McLoughlan will usher him next door to do his shopping. "It's upset him," she says of the closure. For Eileen Mannion, who came home after 34 years living in England, it presents a conundrum. She collects her own pension as well as her brother's - who is just out of hospital - and because she does not drive, plans on taking the new bus which will link Killeshandra with Cavan. Butcher Nudie McGovern has his own grim concerns about the bus link. "I'd prefer them to be bussing people into the town than bussing them out," he says, as he chops up cuts of beef. About 60pc of his business comes directly from the post office next door, he says, explaining that when Killeshandra used to sort its own post, he would have "15 customers guaranteed" every morning with people waiting for the branch to open. Now, he fears that he may be "sitting around waiting for customers". In business here 35 years, he chats with customer Marie O'Reilly as they recall the days when the town was packed with workers from the creamery, the saw mills and the convent. "You wouldn't get up the town at lunchtime some days," they agree. Last week, B&B owner Geraldine O'Reilly had a nun staying who used to live here before spending 39 years in Cameroon. "She said it was a sad-looking little town now," says Geraldine. Concern Chris Kirk - an Englishman who retired here because of the quieter pace of life - chats in the post office with Loretta McDermott and Pam Kiernan about how they will manage with this great change looming. All drive but, Pam points out, "only for now". "My concern is what will happen when I can't," she adds. Chris recalls how they lost their library some years ago on promise of a mobile service that was never delivered. However, Killeshandra does not intend to take this latest threat to its vitality lying down. Eamon Sexton of the town committee says they are battling to get politicians to fight for the life of rural post offices. "Killeshandra is a town on the lift and we are working hard on that," he says. They want to sell this quiet lakeside town for tourism and used development grants last year to devise a new town logo and website and to tidy up vacant shop facades. "But what's the point in a nice-looking town if there's nobody in it?" wonders Marie O'Reilly. Ollie Gleeson still remembers the day he was asked to give the answer to a maths question in class and although he knew the solution, he couldnt say the word, due to a crippling speech impediment. The letter h was often impossible for him to say and he could not utter the word hundred. After what seemed like an eternity, under the critical gaze of his classmates, he came up with a way round the problem. One, zero, zero, he said, before sitting down. It was one of the toughest moments of his young life. As far as I know, Ive had a stutter for my whole life, says the 22-year-old Clare man. It isnt something that runs in the family, so I dont know where I got it from, but it started getting really bad when I was a young child and I developed a coping mechanism of making really long sentences in order to avoid words that I couldnt say. Over the years, my parents tried so many different treatments for me, including speech therapy, acupuncture, craniosacral therapy and even hypnosis but none of it worked. It was very difficult at school and, of course, I got a fair bit of stick for it. That day in my maths class stands out as one of the worst days of my life. Also, I got a job in my local McDonalds when I was 15 and was put on the drive-thru, so there were times when the customer would be sitting for up to a minute waiting for me to say something as I couldnt get the words out it was tough, but there wasnt anything I could do about it. Ollie, who is the middle child of three, admits to changing his name when he was on holiday or with strangers as his own name was often too difficult to pronounce but on one occasion, having to be David for an entire vacation saw him own up to his new friends about his condition, and this was the first step towards gaining some control over his problem. I realised that it was probably good to let people know that I had a stutter rather than trying to hide it, as the stress of that made the whole thing worse, he says. Then, when I was 16, my parents signed me up to a course on costal breathing in Galway, and this was when everything started to change. It was a four-day programme we had to get up at 6am and go to bed at 10pm and the entire day was spent learning how to breathe and speak as if it was the first time. We had to wear a belt on our chests which would determine whether or not we were breathing properly and had to endure some of the toughest situations I have ever been through which included speaking in a really slow, drawn-out fashion to 100 people on the street, telling 10 strangers each day that I had a stutter, and standing on a soap box in the middle of Shop Street and shouting out that fact to everyone passing by. It was absolutely mortifying and I was so grateful that I didnt know anyone. But it was a means of overcoming a huge fear, so it would be like taking someone who is afraid of heights on to the top of the Empire State Building. Since this four-day course seven years ago, Ollie says he has learnt how to confront the issue and take control of the fear. The experience in Galway was pretty embarrassing, but it was worth it as it taught me so much, he says. I learned how to laugh at myself and that some people have it a lot worse than I do. I also realised that the best way forward was to tell people that I have a stutter rather than desperately trying to hide it. In fact, when I gave my first presentation in college, I began by putting up a photo of myself in mid-stutter. People were perplexed at first until I told them that they were likely to see me in that pose at some point as I had a stutter this immediately changed the situation people started to laugh and most were really supportive. Getting used to doing that was the biggest thing as by putting it out in the open, I reduced the massive fear of it happening. As his speech issue became less pronounced, his confidence began to grow and in connection with his college course, when he was 19, Ollie applied to work in Germany as a tour guide. This was a huge step for me as not only did I have a stutter, but my German wasnt brilliant and I didnt know too much about the place either, he admits. I fired off some emails in perfect German (thanks to a little help) and was delighted to be offered a job in Munich. So in order to get on top of things, in advance of the job, I spent days following other peoples tours to see where they were taking people and what they were saying. I told the other tour guides that I was going to be working and some of them used to let me add a few words just for practice. But one day, one of the guides asked me if I had a stutter and I was so embarrassed as I thought I had managed to hide it. But he told me to do what I had been doing at home and tell people about it right from the start. This, he said, would give me an opportunity to connect with the tourists and might even help me get a few tips. Buoyed up by his experience in Germany, when Ollie returned to Ireland, he set up a walking tour in his home town of Ennis, Co Clare. When I was young I wanted to be a radio DJ, but the stutter put paid to that, so after my stint in Munich, I decided that I wanted to be a full-time tour guide, he says. I started olliestours.com last year when I was still in college. My tours consist of a guide on foot through the main sights and then for those who are interested, I offer an extra cultural workshop where I teach visitors some Irish basics a few words, a demonstration of how to hit a sliotar and play Gaelic, some well-known songs and also a bucket list of my top Irish foods that they can sample on their trip around the country. Its been going really well so far I usually have about five or six people [about 90pc are retired Americans] but I have had groups of 40 and once took 100 people around the town, split into groups over the course of three hours. Now I am straight-up with everyone from the word go and tell them that I have a stutter and to bear with me if I cant get a word out and they are always really supportive. So while it hasnt disappeared completely and I dont know when I might be stuck on a word, it has got so much better because I know how to breathe through it and most importantly, I havent tried to hide it. Dr Jonathon Linklater, speech and language therapist, says certain situations can exacerbate speech problems such as stammering and while there is no cure, people like Ollie can learn how to deal with it. There is no cure for stuttering, or stammering, as it is also called, but there are ways to manage to lessen the impact, he says. In the early years, speech and language therapists [SLTs] typically work with children and families to promote a positive communicative environment and to enhance fluency. Once children or teenagers are more aware of their stuttering, more direct work on techniques may take place to lessen the struggle which can be associated with talking. Therapy may be more focussed on practical ways to reduce the impact of stuttering in everyday situations. But its important for people to know that stuttering need not hold them back as it can be very challenging for people who have experienced negative reactions to their stuttering over a lifetime. There is evidence to suggest a genetic disposition towards stammering but there is no single cause. Around 5pc of children are affected between the ages of two and six years, but four out of five of these will resolve naturally. For the 1pc who dont grow out of it, the expert says help is available. The Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists would recommend getting in touch with local speech and language therapy services for both children and adults, he says. Developing a supportive and understanding environment for communication can have a positive effect on a childs speech and language skills so dont correct anyone who shows signs of stuttering and dont put pressure on them to talk quickly. Its never too late to make positive changes with your speech and with your attitudes to it; dont let stuttering stop you from communicating. * The Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists (IASLT) is the recognised professional association of speech and language therapists in Ireland. For more informatio, see iaslt.ie Want to walk in the footsteps of WB Yeats? Slish Wood famously inspired some of his poems, and the Lake Isle of Innisfree can clearly be seen along this walk. Slish Wood itself makes its way into another Yeats poem, The Stolen Child ('Where dips the rocky highland of Sleuth Wood in the lake...'). This short video, produced by OMedia for Sligo Walks (sligowalks.ie), gives a keen taste of the trail. To get there from Sligo, head towards Carraroe Roundabout on the Dublin side of Sligo Town. Take the first exit for Ballisodare, then immediately turn left onto the R287 for Ballintogher. Slish Wood is located approximately 5km from this turn. At the wood, you have a choice of either looped or linear walks, all clearly marked. The linear walk includes both forestry and lakeside views along a boardwalk which was constructed just a few years ago and which brings you along the final section of The Sligo Way, and which ends in Dromohair, Co Leitrim. There are spectacular views all the way! Visit sligowalks.ie for more details. Watch more: Dr Adele Commins, Head of Department of Creative Arts, Media and Music at Dundalk Institute of Technology, was presented with a special token of appreciation from Ard Stiurthoir Labhras O Murchu at the launch of Seachtain na Gaeilge ag Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann in Drogheda. Adele and DkIT student Ciara Brannigan led a team of volunteers who have been working throughout the summer to prepare a range of events that were attractive to all age groups and people with all levels of Irish. Sponsored by Foras na Gaeilge, these events included Irish language classes, family fun, storytelling and dancing. Presiding over the launch in the Highlanes Gallery, Adele noted the strong Irish language heritage in the region including the poets Peadar O Doirnin and Seamus Dall MacCurta and the important role of scholar Peadar O Dubhha. She performed a song in Irish with her husband Daithi Kearney, also a lecturer in music at DkIT. The presentation to Adele held further significance as she was a piano accordion student of the late Rory Kennedy. Best known in music circles as the leader of the Siamsa Ceili Band who won three All-Ireland titles in a row between 1967 and 1969, Rory was also prominent in Conradh na Gaeilge in Dundalk and was himself recognised for his role in promoting the Irish language by Cumann na Sagart. Adele presented a paper on Rory at the O Ghluin go Gluin symposium in association with the Creative Arts Research Centre at the Fleadh on Friday and also performed for both the President, Michael D. Higgins, and the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, when they visited the Fleadh. Seachtain na Gaeilge was an integral part of Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann and all of the Irish language activities were very well attended. It is hoped that people will continue to incorporate the language into their everyday lives and planning will begin again soon for next year's Fleadh in Drogheda. Blas, a four-piece group from the west of Ireland who will play the Oriel Centre If the Fleadh whetted your appetite for traditional music, make sure you don't miss, Blas, a four-piece group from the west of Ireland, who play at the Oriel Centre, Dundalk Gaol, on Saturday night. David Doocey (fiddle) Stephen Doherty (flute, accordion, bodhran) Anne Brennan (vocals) Shane McGowan (guitar) made a big impression during their appearance on Fleadh TV, viewed by over 1.2 million people in Ireland. Blas have become one of the most exciting new bands to emerge on the trad/folk scene in recent times. After the release of their critically acclaimed self-titled debut album, Blas have been captivating audiences everywhere they go. Blas recently completed a 35-date tour of Germany, a sell-out concert at Matt Molloys Westport and a stellar performance at Birmingham Tradfest. Ongoing uncertainty about the Brexit negotiations have led to just six per cent of Irish businesses putting a plan in place for the post Brexit era. The figures emerged in the latest 'Brexit Sentiment Index' from AIB, which indicated that just six percent of businesses here have a Brexit plan in place. The low level of preparation, particularly for a 'no deal' scenario between Britain and the EU, was highlighted as a particular concern for businesses in the border area who are likely to be most affected by post Brexit arrangements The survey did indicate that businesses in the food and drink sectors are most likely to have a plan in place (11%), followed by tourism (9%) and transport (7%). The research also found the manufacturing, retail and tourism sectors are the most negative about the impact of Brexit on Ireland. According to the index, chief among all concerns is the impact of potential new trade tariffs, while larger businesses more likely to have Brexit plan in place. Fianna Fail Spokesperson on Brexit Lisa Chambers says the government needs to do more to ensure that businesses are as protected from the fallout from Brexit as they can be.' Deputy Chambers explained, 'Earlier this year the government announced a number of supports for businesses and farmers but the take up for many of them is worryingly low. If these low uptake rates continue, the majority of businesses will not be Brexit ready. ''We also need to tailor specific supports for cross-border companies. The majority of these businesses are already feeling the impact of Brexit, particularly firms in the agri-sector. Aurore Aubery and Maicon Santana who were demonstrating Forro Dance from Northeast Brazil Brazil met Bray last weekend at the Harbour Bar and Mermaid Arts Centre. This was the third event of its kind in the seaside town, with Brazilians now the largest immigrant group in Bray. The two-day festival was held to celebrate their culture, and support integration. There was a great attendance by Irish people, Brazilian people, and others. At the Harbour Bar on Saturday afternoon, visitors enjoyed the best of Brazilian and Irish culture. There were authentic Brazilian dishes, Irish and Brazilian dancing, photography, and a language exchange featuring Portuguese, English and Irish. There was music from bands Celtic Grace and Morro 16,. In the Mermaid on Saturday, photographer Paulo Pimentel was 'In Conversation' about the exhibition, Canavieiros, a sideshow of powerful black and white images of people who worked in the 1980s at the sugarcane plantation in Brazil. The Brazilian news cameraman and photographer has covered many conflicts and wars, including the fall of the Berlin wall. There was a film-making element also, with a series of short films, made by Brazilians living in Ireland, entitled 'I Love Bray'. The films focused on multicultural aspects of the connections between Brazilians and the town of Bray. On Monday evening, the festival came to a close with a showing of the film, Trast, a look at two boys living amongst the daily detritus in Rio's slums. 'A Single Nest', a joint exhibition by Shabnam Vasisht and Cathy Dillon will take place at Signal Arts Centre from Monday, September 3, until Sunday, September 16. This exhibition is the result of an artistic collaboration between Indian-born visual artist Shabnam Vasisht and Irish writer Cathy Dillon. Shabnam is a dress-designer, visual artist and writer, who sees colour as her cultural inheritance and expresses emotion through it. She has exhibited her art widely - including in several solo exhibitions - both in Ireland and abroad. Cathy has been a journalist, writer and editor, specialising in the arts, for many years, working mainly for the Irish Times and the Sunday Business Post. Her poems and photographs have appeared in several publications and exhibitions. With textile art, paper collages and prose poems, Vasisht and Dillon respond to one another's work, opening up a conversation between their two cultures. This call-and-response method allows them to explore both the similarities and the differences between the two countries and cultures and offer a commentary on the times. The title of the exhibition, 'A Single Nest' is part of the motto of the famous university started by Indian poet and Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore. The exhibition will be opened by the Indian Ambassador, Her Excellency Mrs Vijay Thakur Singh on Thursday, September 6 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Leslie Dowdall and Luan Parle will perform a double bill at the Hot Spot music club on Friday, October 5. Doors open at 8pm with tickets 10 to 12. Two of Ireland's finest females are coming to the Hot Spot to showcase their song writing and performing talents in an intimate setting. Front-woman of legendary Irish band In Tua Nua, Leslie Dowdall's solo career began in earnest with the release of her first album in 1997, the artfully entitled 'No Guilt, No Guile'. The album won high praise for the creativity, vision and the soulful vocals and included hit single 'Wonderful Thing', among other highlights. Meteor and Tatler Award winner Luan Parle's top 10 hit single 'Ghost' spent 3 months in the Irish Cha sorts. The song was one of the most played songs on radio that year. Having signed her first record deal at just 12 years of age, Parle has written and recorded with some of the world's most successful Grammy winning songwriters and producers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYY8DsCjuBY? inspired by the courage of Pinchus Rosenbaum, true story. Jean Paul: wrote that the opening of the film fails to reflect the reality of Hungary during the war. As an ally to Germany (and a signatory of the Tripartite treaty, Hungary developed anti-Jewish law early in the war. Whilst it's true that as the war turned against the Nazi's Hungary attempted to make separate peace with Britain and the USA, it is also true that when `the Germans occupied Hungary and began deportations to the death camps, their way was paved both by fascist elements in government and an antipathy toward Jews on the part of some Hungarians Hungry wasn't the only country who wouldn't give up their Jewish Citizen, Italy protected their Jewish Citizen in both the Germany had occupy those before they were sent to concentration camps Some even move their Jewish population out in the countryside among their farmers Germany could tell a Jewish person from a farmer. One even move it Jewish population with boats cross into Switzerland to keep them out of the hand of Nazis.? Still to this day, (believe it or not), sad as it might seem, there is still genuine hatred and bittered sadness from a few of the so called, "Aryan Race". Last year, whilst being on a 32 day European holiday, (this particular instance/incident was sadly during part of our visit whilst in Southern Germany), and whilst patiently waiting to be booked into our beautiful hotel located in the Black forest area. The Jewish family of 6, directly in front of us, (Noticing their passports), were, when it was their turn to show their passports and booking in paperwork, which we all had, as was initially issued by the tour company themselves, who were of Austrian/Swiss nationality. The Jewish family were suddenly told rather rudely and somewhat very dry and abruptly, to instantly stand back well away from the other guests, who were patiently trying to book in also, (about 50 or so all told about 12-15 having been processed thus far and kindly been shown/escorted to their rooms). My family, (consisting of my good lady wife, 2 girls, both early to mid 20's, 2 boys, 16 and 19 respectively), and of course myself newly retired, hence the reason for the rather costly but never the less luxurious holiday. I was at this moment kindly instructed, having just handed over our passports, to please sign the hotel register and on doing so I very clearly overheard the manager tell the desk clerk to instruct the Jewish family that they had to book into another hotel some distance further up the road, (the other hotel was in fact, no less than three miles away and were originally being forced to walk there with obviously all their luggage as well, as no transport was made available to them, the reason being, was that there was not enough rooms for the whole tour party. I am not a rocket science expert but if there was room for my family and myself and we were actually behind the Jewish family, then surely they should have stayed and we should have been sent to the other hotel instead of them. I had just for a split moment wondered why they were picked out, sad as it was, feeling somewhat guilty and rather than ourselves, it was when one of my daughters a very smart and beautiful university graduate and trainee Doctor just like myself), 23 years old, who kindly pointed out the completely obvious reiterating their nationality and stating very quietly the country we were presently in at that time. I could not believe this still happened after all this time surely not? However, on hearing this it instantly made my blood boil, I can tell you I was absolutely fuming. Over 40 years as an Army Doctor and working in some of the most deprived places on earth, truly witnessing many aspects of differences through either nationality, religion, tribe, faith, gender or place of residency, some of the reasons for such hatred and open violence would clearly make your toes curl, I can tell you. I believe that what happened a long time ago and that it should clearly never have actually happened at all because of one stupid little individual who could then clearly get his own way for whatever reasons, I became rather bitter towards the hotel manager and his attitude towards those people having done nothing to him at all also having never ever actually met either, I having asked him in English first, for the reason he did speak English a moment just before however, at that precise moment, he did not and stated such in German, not wishing to supply an answer so I asked him in text book German, (having been at one point an employee of the British Consulate in Berlin, during my younger days whilst being still attached to the British & Commonwealth Office, Overseas Branch, ( as former Chief Medical Adviser). The manager clearly did not know where to look presently and I immediately without hesitation plainly offered the Jewish family our designated Hotel rooms, whilst at the same time seeing my family all nodding their heads in total agreement), for that very evening, which they too, I think knew exactly what was at foot here and thanked us kindly but never the less refused our offer. Rather they opted to remove themselves stating the fact rather than staying where they are not clearly welcome. The hotel manager, who now spoke perfect English, had strongly stipulated that the Jewish family were not welcome at his hotel. I asked for our passports to be returned to us immediately. I then refused the offer of the rooms and instantly departed from the hotel as did about half the tour party when they realised what was happening and we all got into the bus that had just dropped us off some 20-30 minutes previously before the driver kindly again instantly offering to drive us all there with our baggage. The others on the tour because they had been booked in already just stayed for the night and we all met up on the same bus the very next morning to travel on wards to Austria. None of us wishing to stay for that particular day because of what had happened the prior evening at the designated hotel the tour company were utterly appalled with how the hotel manager and staff had instantly reacted and they rescheduled the remaining tour with alternate hotels for the return journey, as we were supposed to use the same hotels on the return leg in two - two and a half weeks time. I was shocked as were many of the tour families, there was certainly no requirement or need for such actions aimed at the Jewish family, none of which were old enough to have been around during the Second World War either. It clearly left a tainted taste in ones mouth to know that there is still so much unrelenting hatred still in this world today aimed at the Jewish people and especially in that country still to this very day . I could not honestly believe what I was listening to in this day and age, nor was hearing that the Jewish family were being unnecessarily victimised just because of their nationality. I had the chance to talk to this very nice and polite Jewish family, whilst on and during the tour and they were just like you and I yet the tales the mother and father was telling me would turn you to instant anger if only you correctly knew he had major reservations about Germany and Austria, whilst his family were booking this holiday and had more than once made his points clearly known but he was assured by his family and the tour operator that the trip would go ahead without any further instances, which I too know of was not entirely true either, as he had previously stated some days before, that there was in fact a supposed mix up with certain rooms that had for some reason been double booked and you can surely guess who's rooms those were, I am sure you can. We both notified the tour company once again and had our hotels once again rearranged and never returned to either Germany nor Austria on the return leg, clearly boycotting both, so both our families, as well as a good many others on the tour and directly out of support, all clearly settled for a further three nights in Amsterdam instead, before departing for the cruise ship side of the holiday to Italy from the Hook of Holland in three days time. Hopefully all this trouble was now behind us and the holiday could for once be then enjoyed, which no further instances evolved to my knowledge thankfully and a very good time was had by all. Sad that it should still exist though. Such stupidity and although there knowingly remains still within a few a thoughtless spiteful hatred that should still needlessly exist but for what valid reason is clearly beyond me today. My apologies for the long story but you see it still goes on regardless of what others say or think there are those who do not wish to forget nor live in harmony sad as it seems. I do however, completely understand though. Having witnessed much in my worldly travels over the last 50 odd years. World peace to the few, is clearly a figment of one's imagination clearly...? Overnight, the tide washed in the 3.5m-long remains of a recently-dead Risso's Dolphin, its tongue indecently protruding from the side of its gaping, lifeless mouth set in an expressionless face. The stranded remains bore poor testimony to the magnificence of these large marine mammals that are resident off our shores. Records of sightings of these animals at sea collected by the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group suggest that Risso's Dolphins occur as far out as the edge of the continental shelf. There is evidence of an inshore movement during the summer months and the establishment of localised tight-knit family groups. When dolphins are mentioned many people think of an animal with a beak; however, Risso's Dolphin is an example of a dolphin without a noticeable beak and a large blunt forehead. In 1812, this species was named in honour of Antoine Risso, a distinguished French naturalist. From analysis of the stomach contents of dead animals, Risso's Dolphins are known to feed exclusively on squid, octopus and cuttlefish. They have peg-like teeth confined to the front of their lower jaws. There are no teeth in the upper jaw. Since the teeth are certainly not used for chewing, it has been suggested that their main function may be in social interaction, and/or courtship and mating. The heads and backs of young Risso's Dolphins are uniformly dark grey in colour. As they age, white scratches appear on their skin. It has been suggested that these scratches may be rake marks made by other dolphins' teeth. Mature adults have so many of these scratches and so much scarring that their originally dark grey skin is often pale grey or even pure white especially around the head area. It has also been suggested that the teeth may also be used for visual displays of aggression between rival males. Some of the markings on the heads of older adults are more difficult to explain; more than likely, some have been caused by a lifetime of conflict with squid, a major prey item. The life expectancy of Risso's Dolphins is unknown, but it is reckoned to be about 20 years. Length of gestation is also unknown, but these animals do breed in Irish waters: records show that a young calf showing colouration typical of a young Risso's Dolphin stranded at Rosbrin Cove, Co Cork, in 1990 and one was born in Blacksod Bay in Co Mayo in the 1930s. Adam Driver and John David Washington as detectives Flip Zimmerman and Ron Stallworth in BlacKkKlansman Released almost exactly one year after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, BlacKkKlansman handcuffs racial divisions in present-day America to the outlandish true story of a black police detective, who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. Director Spike Lee's impassioned, conscience-pricking satire on corruption and bigotry is based on a memoir by retired Colorado Springs officer Ron Stallworth and walks a tightrope between fact and stranger-than-fiction, seising every opportunity to echo battle cries of the 2016 US presidential election. Thus, David Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, who is portrayed on screen by Topher Grace, proudly addresses a room of his ardent supporters and sincerely thanks them for putting America first. 'America will never elect somebody like David Duke president of the United States,' scoffs detective Ron (John David Washington) to colleagues on the force. Lee, who co-wrote the script, makes abundantly clear his thoughts on history repeating and he bookends his call-to-arms with sickening footage from Charlottesville of a car being driven at speed into counter-protesters, which left one woman dead and many other people injured. A disorienting opening salvo featuring Alec Baldwin as a tub-thumping white supremacist segues to Colorado Springs. Ron (Washington) is persuaded to join the local police force as part of a diversity drive. This doesn't include visibility because Ron is consigned to the records room, where he suffers abuse from fellow officers like Andy Landers (Frederick Weller). Eventually, Ron compels Chief Bridges (Robert John Burke) and Sergeant Trapp (Ken Garito) to utilise him in the field and he goes undercover at a local rally organised by Patrice Dumas (Laura Harrier), president of the black student union, who has invited civil rights leader Kwame Ture (Corey Hawkins) to speak to the membership. Back at headquarters, Ron responds to a newspaper advertisement for new members for the Ku Klux Klan and he impresses local chapter president Walter Breachway (Ryan Eggold). Ron foolishly gives his own name over the telephone so when the time comes to meet Walter in person, Detective Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) poses as Ron and spits out racist bile on cue to perpetrate the deception. Walter's second-in-command Felix Kendrickson (Jasper Paakkonen) isn't convinced but his concerns are overruled when the real Ron develops a telephone friendship with David Duke (Grace), who is due to visit Colorado Springs in a few weeks. BlacKkKlansman nestles uncomfortable truths in an outlandish narrative, which pays tribute to 'the Jackie Robinson of the Colorado Springs police force' as he outwits the KKK from the inside. Washington and Driver are a groovy double-act and the script strikes a pleasing balance between suspense and humour. Lee occasionally over-eggs his deliciously tart pudding like his choice to juxtapose climactic scenes of characters chanting 'Black Power' and 'White Power'. Sometimes, restraint lands the heaviest blows. Quest making use of its spinnaker at the Taste of Greystones Regatta. Photos: Barbara Flynn The Greystones Sailing Club 'Taste of Greystones' cruiser regatta was held at the marina last Sunday afternoon. Two races were held during the event, which attracted yachts from many different club There were 80 boats taking part, with Howth Yacht Club's 'Storm', captained by Pat Kelly, emerging as the class one winner. In second place Tim Goodbody's White Mischief from the Royal Irish Yacht Club. Club commodore Darragh Cafferkey's 'Another Adventure' was in third place. Participants came from as far as Malahide and Arklow, as well as Dublin Bay and Dun Laoghaire. The racing was postponed for one hour due to poor conditions. Conditions were fair for the first race, with winds picking up a bit for the second. It's a special year for Greystones Sailing Club, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. The club was founded in 1968 and has produced sailors who have competed successfully in many open events over the years, both nationally and internationally. With over 300 members sailing a variety of dinghy classes, Greystones Sailing Club offers racing for all ages and abilities. An Avoca archaeologist enjoyed a career-high in recent weeks as he uncovered a virtually intact jug dating back to Medieval times. Ivor Kenny, who is known locally for his involvement with the Avoca Tidy Towns and Community Courthouse, works with Archaeology and Built Heritage and made the discovery while excavating a site close to Dublin Castle and the Medieval City wall. 'This excavation was carried out in advance of a commercial development of a city centre site. This is a normal requirement of the planning process in the city where there are many layers of remains from the past, most of which contain evidence for how our ancestors lived and died,' Ivor explained. Ivor's role requires him to locate these layers and collect and identify the remains and evidence, and record them before they covered up by new developments. The recently unearthed vessel, which dates back to the 13th or 14th century has caused quite a stir within the world of archaeology, as it is almost unheard of that a pottery item of this size would remain in such good condition and not have been broken. 'It is a very rare event. Most pottery vessels were thrown away because they were broken, or they break over the passage of time,' said Ivor. 'Archaeologists working in the city centre regularly find broken pieces of pottery, but it is exceptional for a vessel of this size not to break under the weight of soil above. Pottery vessels of this size are often very fragile, and the excavation of the jug had to be done with a great deal of care, patience, and expertise. It is also possible that there could be some residue still contained within the jug that might give archaeologists clues to what Medieval Dublin folk were drinking. Experts believe that the jug was made to hold beer or wine - both of which were preferred and probably safer to consume than the water available in Medieval Dublin,' Ivor said. Ivor explains that the jug itself belongs to a class known as Medieval Dublin Ware. 'Before this type, much of the pottery in Dublin was imported from France or England. This pottery type represents the development of an indigenous style made with materials sourced from Leinster. It also represents the establishment of a native industry in Hiberno-Norman Dublin. It was probably made sometime between the creation of the first Parliament of Ireland in 1297 and the arrival of the plague known as the 'Black Death' that decimated the Anglo-Norman population of Dublin in 1348,' he said. The jug is now on its way to a specialist for expert conservation. After that, it will very likely be displayed in the National Museum of Ireland as one of the finest known examples of Medieval Dublin ware. This latest find comes just weeks after Coolgreany-native Dr Cliodhna Ni Lionain discovered a megalithic passage tomb dating back some 5,500 years at the 18th century Dowth Hall in county Meath. Dr Ni Lionain, who hails from Plattenstown was the lead archaeologist on an excavation within the Bru na Boinne World Heritage Site. Bray Area Partnership is offering small, one-off grants of 100 to low income students who may be experiencing difficulties in meeting the costs of college registration, course or exam fees. To qualify, applicants must be living in specific areas of Bray, Delgany, Enniskerry, Greystones, Kilcoole, Kilmacanogue or Newcastle Lower. Applicants must have a secure place on a Post Leaving Certificate or Higher Education undergraduate course, and also meet other Partnership target group criteria, such as being unemployed, low income or living in a low income household. If the applicant does not have to pay college fees because for example, they are on VTOS, they do not qualify. As there are only a limited number of grants available, students are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Find out more on www.brayareapartnership.ie or call Lorna Lafferty on 01 2868266 to book an appointment to register. This grants scheme is funded under the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) 2018-2022, which is funded by the Irish Government through the Department of Rural and Community Development and co-funded by the European Social Fund under the Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning (PEIL) 2014-2020. The voice-activated 'virtual assistant' that lives in your computer and takes your word as its command could be a great help at times - if only it could understand you. And if you're from rural Cork, there's a pretty good chance your virtual assistant could be thrown into a fluster at the sound of your voice. In June, Pure Telecom carried out a survey which found that virtual assistants such as Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant are struggling with rural Cork accents. They even find country people more difficult to understand than the natives of Cork city, whose distinctive accent is one of their defining characteristics, boy! The survey found that 37 per cen of people from rural Cork are "rarely understood" by their computer programmes, compared to just over 12 per cent in Cork city. But the country people of Cork aren't alone; the survey found that one-third of Irish computer users list language difficulties as a significant problem with virtual assistants. The online research carried out by Censuswide for Pure Telecom surveyed 1,005 adults nationwide and found that the top irritations in using virtual assistants is getting the software to understand the Irish brogue. Some 37 per cent of computer users from County Cork said they are only occasionally or never understood by their digital companions - compared to just 12 per cent in Cork city. However, it seems that Donegal people have the biggest problems of all in being understood by their artificially intelligent computers - with 39 per cent of users saying they are never or only occasionally understood by virtual assistant software. That is followed by Clare (36 per cent) and Kerry (33 per cent). Paul Connell, CEO Pure Telecom said the survey shows digital assistants are becoming more and more commonplace in people's daily lives. "While Irish people may have issues being understood by their assistants, their always-on availability has driven widespread use for tasks like streaming music and organising calendars," he said. When Pope Francis was returning to the Vatican after his historic trip to Ireland, on the menu was Toons Bridge Dairy mozzarella which is made just outside Macroom. Pope Francis was travelling back to the Vatican on Sunday along with his 126 Vatican officials, security staff and journalists, with Aer Lingus pilots Capt Steve Kelly and Capt Shane Kearney at the helm. On board he was served a meal, which included Toons Bridge mozzarella with fresh leek salad and sun-dried tomato tartar with basil pesto as a starter. Toons Bridge Dairy has a head cheese maker, Italian Fraco Picciuola, who hails from the heartland of mozzarella production and who has been making pasta filata cheese since he was 11 years old. Toons Bridge was set up in 2009 and since then Toby Simmonds and Jenny Rose Clarke have diversified into working with local unpasteurised cow and sheep milk. Fresh milk is supplied to the dairy from several local cow herds and Vincenzo La Manna's flock of sheep that he milks on a mountain farm in Inchigeelagh. A no-deal Brexit, which is "becoming more likely", threatens to knock Ireland back into recession in 2019. That is the view of Dr Declan Jordan, Director of the Spatial and Regional Economics Research Centre at UCC. "We are just seven months from Brexit, and there is little evidence that the UK government has the political will or ability to agree on a deal with the EU. This leaves the Irish economy in a precarious position," Dr Jordan said. "The focus in Ireland on Brexit has been on the backstop agreement to prevent a hard border. There is far more at stake, however. "The latest research shows that, among EU partners, only Irish regions are as exposed as UK regions to a no-deal Brexit. "If the UK government continues with the nonsensical approach - that the EU needs the UK as much as the UK needs the EU - and seriously considers walking away with no deal, the Irish economy will be the major innocent casualty," said Dr Jordan. From Tuesday until Friday this week, UCC will host the Congress of the European Regional Science Association (ERSA), which is set to attract more than 800 delegates and generate 1.4 million for the city. Previously hosted in cities including Vienna, Lisbon and St Petersburg, the 58th edition of the annual Congress in Cork will feature cutting-edge research on regional and urban development from across the globe and will generate more than 3000 bed-nights for the city. Professor Patrick O'Shea, President of UCC, will welcome delegates - 95 per cent of whom will be international visitors - including participants from the OECD, the European Commission and the European Investment Bank, at the opening ceremony at UCC's Devere Hall. Speakers on Brexit will include Professors Raquel Ortega-Argiles (University of Birmingham), Philip McCann (University of Sheffield), Bart Los (University of Groningen) and Professor Frank van Oort (Erasmus University Rotterdam), a group which is leading a large UK-funded project analysing the regional and sectoral implications of Brexit, the most substantial work of its kind currently underway on Britain's exit from the EU. Having estimated the exposure of European regions to Brexit, their analysis found that "only regions in Ireland face exposure levels similar to some UK regions", and the Republic of Ireland's level of Brexit trade-related risk exposure is over 10 per cent of GDP. The analysis of this project also shows that the regional impacts in the UK and the rest of the EU are substantial. Their research for the UK finds that "Brexit will aggravate, not reduce, interregional imbalances. Local government officials in London and the south-east are less pessimistic about Brexit than those in other regions, and our research suggests that this is justified. "Second, the fact that many of the leave-voting regions are also likely to face the most severe post-Brexit challenges also means that, in the long run, there is expected to be a profound mismatch between public expectations and economic outcomes", the analysis added. (ANSA) - Rome, August 31 - Rome prosecutors opened a probe into culpable disaster Friday after Thursday's collapse of the roof of a church in the Roman forum. The area under the collapse was cordoned off after the art works and other objects were taken to safety, sources said. Among other things, prosecutors want to establish whether there were failures in the maintenance of the 16th century building. Rome's archaeological superintendency, meanwhile, started assessing reports of work carried out on the church over the last few decades. The experts are looking at all maintenance and other work performed on the San Giuseppe dei Falegnami (St Joseph of the Carpenters) church above the famed and infamous ancient Roman Mamertine Prison. Some work on the roof was carried out in 2014, sources said. At the same time, sources said, superintendency technicians are working to recover moveable works inside the building with the help of fire services. It was still unclear whether the Mamertine Prison had suffered some slight damage or not. The head of Rome's fire service, Marco Ghimenti, said "we can't say the structure is 100% safe. "It needs attention" Ghimenti said the prison "does not present significant damage" "It is the structure that is immediately below this collapse," he said. "There was a major dynamic impact on a structure that was not meant to suffer one". Ghimenti said "there is a heavy weight at the moment and we have to make sure the it doesn't become even heavier with the addition of rainwater". Culture ministry architect and restorer Francesco Scoppola said "the collapse was probably caused by woodworm or termites in one of the trusses". "It is almost certain that a wooden structure on the church roof was eaten away," he said. Culture Minister Alberto Bonisoli said Friday such episodes must not happen again. "Thank God there weren't any victims in Rome..but what happened must not happen again," he said. "The problem is more general," he said. "In the next few weeks we'll put together the information we have with an assessment of danger with regard to determined parameters, no matter who the owner is". The church roof collapse Thursday spurred reports that the ancient gaol had been damaged too - reports that proved to be incorrect. The roof collapse has not caused any damage to the prison, Rome Special Superintendent Francesco Prosperetti said. Between the Church of San Giuseppe dei Falegnami and the former jail, he explained, there is the intervening Chapel of the Crucifix. It was the latter that had been damaged, he said. But he said the damage was "negligible". There were weddings slated in the church this weekend, church sources said. They would have been the first since the August break, they said. "We have already alerted the couples," said Rome auxiliary bishop Mons. Daniele Libanori, who lives right next to the church. He said the weddings of the mostly Roman couples would now take place in St Mark's Church near Piazza Venezia. Earlier reports said the most famed and infamous prison of ancient Rome had been hit by falling roof fragments. No one was hurt because the church was, as usual, closed at the time of the accident. The vault of San Giuseppe dei Falegnami (St Joseph of the Carpenters), at the Roman forum, caved in. The church is usually closed and only opened for weddings. It was built between the end of the 16th century and the start of the 17th. A fire-service crane has got rid of some remaining hanging parts of the caved-in roof. The wooden beams, which are still standing, are visible through the wreckage. The inside of the church is full of broken beams and rubble, fire services said. Sniffer dogs are going through the wreckage as a precaution, sources said. The church's priest, who was in the building but not the church, is OK. The collapse did not damage the once-infamous Mamertine Prison, Prosperetti said. This contradicted an earlier report from a fire-service official. "Some fragments of the roof," fire service engineer Luigi Liolli said, "hit a part of the altar. "A beam then damaged the Mamertine Prison too", where the pavement gave way, he said. Colosseum Archeological Park Superintendent Alfonsina Russo told ANSA the church was the property of the Vatican's Vicariate of Rome. The Mamertine Prison was used to house Rome's defeated enemies, many of whom were executed there. Among those held there were Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls during the Gallic War, who was executed at Caesar's Triumph in 46 BC; Jugurtha, King of Numidia, who died of starvation there in 104 BC; St Paul; and St. Peter, who was imprisoned there before being crucified, after performing baptisms in a spring at the bottom of the pit. The Boyne Folk Group staged a quite stunning concert in the Dominican Church during the Fleadh. Their song about the 'Walled Town of Drogheda' attracted great interest and there was more than one shout for encores! The group will also perform in the Dominican in September for a special celebration mass. It will be a big occasion for the church as Archbishop Eamon Martin will celebrate it. The church was also superbly lit for the Fleadh. The Annual Knockbridge Vintage Day and Working Rally will take place on Sunday, 9 September in Knockbridge just outside Dundalk. Gates will open to the public at 1pm. There'll be lots to keep everyone entertained, be they young or old, and a very enjoyable family day out is guaranteed. The list of highlights on the day is endless. Declan Nerney, one of Ireland's top country music entertainers will be on stage at 3pm to entertain everyone with his numerous chart hits. One of the many new attractions this year is a World War 1 Irish Historian who will have an extensive collection of military memorabilia on display. There will also be a spectacular exhibition dedicated to Michael Collins. There will be a large collection of vintage tractors, cars and bicycles in the field as well as vintage threshing and a working area which will include binders, reapers and vintage combines to name but a few for all the machinery enthusiasts. 100 years ago, John Deere & Company entered the tractor business and the Knockbridge Vintage Club invite all John Deere tractor owners to polish up their green machines spanning the past century and join us in commemorating this milestone. There will be a special keepsake for all participants. Children will be catered for in the fun corner with amusements including bouncing castles, puppet shows, slides, face painting, nail art, puppet show, an animal farm and many more novelty events. Crafty Rock are returning again this year with Craft Classes for children aged 5 -12 given by their very talented crafters and also lots of Art and Craft market stalls. Other attractions include renowned magician, David Murray, Flowering Arranging by Veronica McMahon, Cookery Demonstrations, Vintage Fashion Show, Sheep Racing, Tug of War competition, novelty games and a Dog Show which always attracts a large number of entrants. Whether you are a die hard vintage enthusiast or not, this is a day that you do not want to miss. All proceeds raised on the day will be donated to local charities. For more information and details contact 00353 (0)87 2204261 or check out Knockbridge Vintage Club Facebook page. The 370th anniversary of Cromwell's sack of Drogheda occurs in 2019 and to mark this infamous date, Mayor Frank Godfrey is putting forward the idea of a Drogheda Day! 'This is a unique day in the town's history and we should mark it - especially for the 370th anniversary. The town was surrounded by Cromwell's army for a week before they broke through the walls, soldiers and civilians were massacred - it is still remembered all over Ireland - we should remember this event and those who were killed here during this time. They were defenders and martyrs,' said Mayor Godfrey, who suggested that a memorial should be erected in their memory. 'Cromwell is the most infamous name in Irish history - and he ransacked our town back in 1649. He camped outside it, broke through the town walls up in Mary Street, then killed all the Royalist soldiers in Millmount, led by Lord Aston, and there's much debate as to how many of the town's civilians were killed during that week-long battle. Estimates say up to 3,000 were slaughtered,' said Mayor Godfrey. 'However, as a town we should mark this event that happened back in September 1649 - let's start with an event this year leading into bigger commemorations for the 370th anniversary next year,' he continued. 'We should have a day special for our town, like the 4 July for Americans, or 17 March for all the Irish, but when Cromwell left our town should be marked in some way, especially for the 370th. This is not about glorifying Cromwell's time in Drogheda but about celebrating his departure, and commemorating the martyrs and civilians who died then. He is planning to have Sepember 15th 2018 as the first Drogheda Day and plans events in Millmount and around town. 'I want it to be a day for the people and I'd welcome any suggestions,' he stated. Contact Mayor Godfrey on 086-6060261 / email : frank.godfrey@louthcoco.ie. Louth is getting the biggest allocation of funding for flood prevention in the country, Kevin 'Boxer' Moran T.D., Minister of State for the Office of Public Works (OPW) and Flood Relief, stated last Wednesday when he met with elected members and officials from Louth County Council to put in place arrangements for the advancement of flood relief schemes in County Louth. The Minister said he was delighted to be here in Louth and to meet with the elected members and officials of Louth County Council. 'County Louth has five schemes, which have been prioritised in the first tranche of schemes to be progressed. We are meeting today to examine how to deliver on the flood risk management plans for the county and have agreed mechanisms for the progression of flood relief schemes for Dundalk/Blackrock South; Carlingford/Greenore; Drogheda; Baltray and Ardee. These schemes involve an investment of over 83 million and once completed will provide flood protection to over 2,300 properties in Louth.' He recalled how the CFRAM studies identified the areas at high risk of flooding and said the allocation to projects in the county showed the Government's committment to the area. He explained that Louth County Council will be leading on the implementation of these five projects in collaboration with his Office. Minister Moran stressed that; 'The measures set out in the flood risk management plans are not definitive and final; more detailed assessments are required at a local level and further public and stakeholder consultation will be undertaken. As such, there is further scope for the community's views to influence the measures that are progressed to implementation.' He added that he had approved money for minor works schemes for areas not included in the CFRAM recommendations and appealed to the council to set aside money for this at budget time so that they won't be found wanting. 'The Government is committed to ensuring that the planning and delivery of flood relief solutions is achieved in the shortest possible time frame,' he said, adding that 'significant progress has been made in the advancement of flood relief schemes for Louth.' He would support this by allowing the council to take on extra staff to make the schemes happen. He also praised the input of the Office of Public Work into the schemes, noting that there had been concerns that areas in Louth would have been affected by flooding during last winter's storms but fortunately that hadn't happened. Deputy Fergus O'Dowd wanted to know what the timeframe was for the work while Deputy Peter Fitzpatrick was concerned that too much of the 83million wouldn't be swallowed by administration. Minister Moran pointed out that the schemes would have to go through a planning process, public procurement procedure and get the public to buy into it. A steering group had been set up and updates would be provided every four months. He added that the flood prevention works would also allow for community enhancement schemes such as walkways along embankments. Cllr Conor Keelan welcomed the overall funding but wanted assurances that hard defences would be built along the Castletown River. He noted that local residents were concerned that locks which had been maintained by the old Dundalk Port Company were no longer being looked after. Cllr Ruairi O Murchu highlighted areas at risk in Carlingford and Dundalk where there was a lot of reclaimed land, while Cllr Pearse McGeough said areas in Dromiskin and Annagassan were affected by flooding problems. Cllr Maria Doyle stressed that while Dundalk hadn't experienced the sort of flooding that the Shannon region had, people's houses had been flooded. County Manager Ms Joan Martin said she was delighted that the scheme would protect 2,500 homes in the count and allow for the development of towns like Dundalk and Drogheda, which are pinpointed for quite significant population increases. She expressed confidence in the team who would be spearheading the work. The steering committee would be looking at the sequencing of work and the appointment of contractors, adding that it will take a number of years to complete all the schemes. Minister Moran promised that he will return to Louth with the next few weeks to visit a number of areas which had been brought to his attention by local representatives. Hannah The Warrior Princess is certainly living up to her sobriquet by battling her debilitating condition, and defying doctors who said she may never breathe unaided again. Indeed, such is her determination that a minor miracle means she can now be moved from Temple Street hospital, where she has been since March 2017, back to the Lourdes hospital in her hometown of Drogheda. She has a long road ahead, but this is great news for Hannah and all her family and friends, says her dad Mike Donnelly. Hannah is in the process of being discharged from Temple Street and all going well, within the next month or so, will be going to the Lourdes while the homecare package is been sorted. The vivacious 17-year-old suffered a major setback in March of last year, when she went in to hospital for spinal surgery walking and talking but complications arose, and she ended up with an emergency tracheotomy and became paralysed from critical illness myophady and critical illness polyneuropathy. Hannah was effectively affected by locked-in syndrome for seven months, and she is still unable to move or talk, which is very frustrating for such a bright young woman but being off the ventilator means she can breathe by herself and can be moved closer to home, says her father. Being in Dublin for so long has been very isolating for her at times and being back in Drogheda will make a huge difference to her, as her family and friends can visit even more often, especially her little sister Keelin (9) who misses her terribly. Hannah was born on Valentines Day in 2001 with a rare genetic condition called Apert Syndrome which causes fusion of bones prenatally and prevents normal growth of the skull and face. Over the last 17 years, Hannahs health has been extremely inconsistent, and she has had more than 40 operations and skin grafts. But this never stopped - in her dads words - the little battler, and training since the age of three, Hannah earned the nickname Warrior Princess after becoming the first person in Europe to receive a black belt in Superfoot Karate at 12. We are all so grateful to the community in Drogheda which has raised so much money for Hannah to return to her home, adds Mike, a martial arts expert who runs an academy in town. The good news there too is the house in Newfield is now full adapted for when she can leave hospital for good and come home, and even though she will need rehab and then constant care, the future looks great for Hannah. Battle lines were firmly drawn on the dancefloor at The Riverside Park Hotel recently as a total of ten couples squared off in a bid to be crowned winners of Strictly Come Dancing The Pub Edition. Each of the ten couples represented a local pub with The Riverside, Treacy's Hotel, Dawson's, Donohoe's, Toss Kavanagh's, Holohan's, The Bailey, Bellefield GAA Complex and Rackard's all hoping for glory. The event took place over two weeks with the full ten doing battle at the first heat, before this was narrowed down for the grand final, which saw the participants being thrown a curve ball by having to learn a new dance in just one week. A huge amount of work went into the fundraiser for Slaney Search and Rescue, with each of the couples undertaking their own fundraising drives and hosting their own events in the build-up. As well as this, they were dedicating three nights a week to rehearsals and boy did it pay off as they captured the imaginations of the judges - Paddy Reville, Velma Baikiene and Bridie O'Connor - and the public with some twinkle-toed displays. 'It went really, really well,' said organiser Alan O'Brien. 'We had crowds of around 300 people in on both nights. The standard of dancing was very good and everyone really enjoyed it. We'll now be presenting the Harry O'Connor perpetual trophy to the winners and we'll look to do it all again next October. We decided that October will be better, because this year we had a lot of people who would've loved to take part, but they were on holidays or one thing or another.' After some impressive dance routines, the judges eventually decided on Patrick Leacy and Mary Murphy from Treacy's Hotel as the winners and there were great celebrations from all their supporters there on the night. While money is still coming in, Alan says that the event has already raised in excess of 8,000 which will come as a massive boost to Slaney Search & Rescue. 'I think it costs them around 10,000 to run the organisation for the year,' said Alan. 'Thankfully we'll be able to make a big dent in that with the money that was raised.' Installation of five poles for the new LED street lighting in Camolin Preparations are under way this week to accommodate five new LED energy saving street lights in Camolin village, an ambitious programme from Wexford County Council who received 5.5 million in funding to replace the old street lights. Pat Collins, from Wexford County Council, said ducting has begun for five LED lights but over the next two months all of the public lighting in Camolin change to LED. The Council received the funding from Transport Infrastructure Ireland to switch lighting on National Primary routes in county Wexford in 2018, including Camolin, Ferns, N25 to New Ross and two approach roads to Enniscorthy from the N11. Though the programme is costing the council in the region of 5 million, the energy bill savings will clock in at around 800,000 per year. Gorey's Main Street public lights have already had their makeover. The council said it will replace around 1,300 lights this year. The old 200W 'son' lights are being replaced with 120W and 80W LED lights, while the 135W 'sox lanterns' and 150W 'lantern son' bulbs are being replaced with 80W and 120W LED. The Council are changing the entire lanterns, not just the bulb. The existing lifespan of a sox and son bulb is in the region of two years. The expected lifespan of an LED fitting is 15 years. Sox lanterns are now obsolete and only one company manufactures the sox bulb which costs around 65. The project is primarily funded from the Council's own resources, supplemented with some grant aid. The energy savings will be in the region 69 per cent of the energy expended at present. This will result in an annual energy saving of almost 4.5 million KW a year. Junior Finance Minister Michael D'Arcy has faced a barrage of criticism in the wake of comments made in relation to vulture funds. In an interview given in the wake of the announcement that Ulster Bank have sold 5,200 mortgages to US firm Cerberus, Minister D'Arcy stated that 'vulture funds are easier to deal with than the banks'. Among those aiming criticism were Sinn Fein general election candidate Cllr Johnny Mythen and IFA National President Joe Healy. Cllr Mythen said that the latest sale of Ulster Bank's loan book shows that 'in reality the government is complicit in the strategy' and called for action from the Junior Minister. 'We must remember that these are not just financial packages that are being sold on but they are the biggest financial commitment of most people's lives,' Cllr Mythen said. 'Homeowners who have had their mortgages sold on have rights which must be protected and it is the Government who should ensure that this happens.' Speaking on D'Arcy's comments on vulture funds, Cllr Mythen asked 'How can he do this? They are called "Vulture" Funds for a reason, and have become a cancer in Irish society. If he's still in doubt he should ask farmers representatives in this county what they think of vulture funds. We've even seen stand-offs here on Co.Wexford farms because of them. They're a cancer on our society. This is a political issue- it is about the type of economy we are building, one for the people or one for the vultures.' Similarly critical was the IFA President who described it as 'extremely disappointing' and said that 'it's a cause for concern that somebody in elected office would have such a view as people would be relying on him to sort this out.' The tranche of non-performing loans being offloaded by Ulster Bank have a face value of 1.4bn and include 2,300 residential mortgages. The sell-off comes hot on the heels of a similar move by Permanent TSB, who have done a deal with another American fund, Lone Star. The Government is facing criticism that it is allowing banks to outsource their dirty work to companies that are not subject to the same regulatory standards. 'It's a cop out to say vulture funds don't need to be regulated,' Mr Healy said. 'They do, and the Government needs to make it happen. While it can be difficult to deal with banks too, they are regulated because they are interested in new business. They have to at least be mindful of how they treat their existing customers.' The IFA also re-stated its opposition to any attempt made by vulture funds to force families to sell their farms to settle debts. Mr Healy said that 'faceless funds which have no understanding of farming are hell-bent on destroying families while feeding on the carcass of the family farm.' Cllr Mythen has called on Minister D'Arcy to seek the establishment of an emergency meeting of the Finance Committee to discuss the sale of loans. Minister D'Arcy was unavailable for comment at the time of going to print. There was a large Garda presence at Lodgewood, Ferns, last week as three men were found operating combine harvesters on lands that are at the centre of High Court proceedings. The three men involved are all related to John Kinsella, the former owner of the lands who had previously been jailed for failing to comply with High Court Orders to stay away from the 150 acres, which was purchased by vegetable growers John B Dockrell Ltd of Screen last year. Michael and Patrick Kinsella of Tomadilly, Marshalstown, and Fergus Kinsella of Tombrack, Ferns, all walked free from the Four Courts after agreeing to stay away from the land. On Tuesday of last week, there was a large garda presence at the entrance to the land as they put a stop to the illegal harvesting of the crop there. Some locals, angry at the treatment of the Kinsella brothers by so-called 'vulture funds' also arrived at the scene to help with the harvesting of the crops, but were told by gardai that they would be arrested for trespassing if they insisted on staying on the land. At Thursday's sitting of the High Court, Mr Justice Michael Twomey was told by Morgan Shelley Bl for the landowner John B.Dockrell Ltd that the three men, their combine harvesters, tractors and trailers were found harvesting corn on the lands by gardai. The three, who counsel said had no right to be on the land, are related to John Kinsella, a former owner of the land, who is the subject of High Court injunctions not to trespass on or interfere with the lands in question. Michael Kinsella is a brother of John Kinsella, while Fergus and Patrick are cousins of John Kinsella, the court heard. Counsel said the three men's actions on the lands were 'in flagrant breach' of the terms of the injunctions resulting in the bringing of a motion seeking to have them brought before the court by the gardai and jailed for their alleged contempt. When the matter came before the Judge on Thursday morning the court heard the men denied being in contempt or having knowledge of the injunctions obtained against their relative John Kinsella. However, the three men walked free on Thursday afternoon after their counsel Mr John McCoy Bl said they were prepared to give undertakings not to trespass on the lands and would comply with orders previously made by the High Court. Earlier this month John Kinsella, after spending a few hours in Mountjoy Prison, was released from custody after he gave undertakings to comply with the orders granted last April. He was committed to prison after he found to be in contempt of the orders preventing Mr Kinsella of Ballywilliamroe, Marshalstown, Enniscorthy, from coming within 100 metres of lands, from interfering with the property, and from blocking and impeding any entrances to the lands. John B. Dockrell Ltd sought the orders because it claimed it was unable to access the 150 acres of land the firm from so-called 'vulture fund' Emberton Finance. It claimed gates on the property were chained and large concrete blocks, various vehicles were used to block access to and from the lands. The land at Lodgewood had been bought by John and Michael Kinsella back in 2008 and following the economic collapse, they found themselves with significant debts as assets diminished. The Kinsellas always claimed that they had engaged with their financial institution, Friends First, at every step of the way, however, their loan was sold as part of a portfolio to Emberton Finance in 2016. At the time, the brothers claimed that their loan had been sold for a fraction of what they had offered as a settlement to Friends First. In 2017, the land at Lodgewood was sold by Emberton to John B Dockrell Ltd and it is believed that the Marshalstown brothers are now trying to work out a deal to save their family land at Marshalstown. It is reported that after the arrests on Tuesday of last week, a deal was worked out with John B Dockrell Ltd for the crop to be harvested, with the IFA taking part in negotiations. With negotiations and legal proceedings ongoing, neither John B Dockrell, the Kinsellas or Wexford IFA wished to make any comment on the current situation, however, sources close to the talks have said that the situation is not black and white and is quite a bit more complicated than it would appear. The case is due before the court again in October. While the rain has made somewhat of a return in the past couple of weeks, farmers across County Wexford are still facing massive pressure following the drought conditions endured over the course of one of the hottest summers in recent memory. A total of nearly 150 farmers gathered at the Mart in Enniscorthy recently to discuss the fodder crisis and what was being done to help get farmers through what will prove to be a difficult winter this year. 'We have had a bit of rainfall, but it's completely too late for the tillage guys,' said IFA County Chairman James Kehoe. 'For livestock farmers, the rainfall is welcomed, but I think we've already missed the serious growth. There is plenty of growth still, but I think we've missed the boat.' A range of speakers took the floor on the night, discussing options available to farmers struggling to recover. Nutritionist Gerry Giggins went through a variety of options available for a difficult year while local representatives of each section also spoke. Vet Martin Breen also discussed the stress and different factors which needed to be monitored with animals following the warm weather while IFA South Leinster Regional Chairman Tom Short and Chairman of the National Livestock Committee Angus Woods outlined some of the supports that were being made available. 'There is a great concern among farmers across the county ahead of this winter,' Mr Kehoe said. 'The IFA is working hard with the government to make sure that cattle will be fed throughout the winter.' It is all set to be a huge year for Fingal band, Delorentos who are touring their new album, True Surrender around Ireland and the world. The next red letter day on the local band's 2018 calendar of events is Electric Picnic, this coming weekend where they are set to play not just once. but twice. the band will appear on two stages at the festival, during the course of events on Friday, August 31 and are looking forward to playing what has become the country's top outdoor music festival. After the release of True Surrender, the band's fifth studio album, back in April, the band played some gigs in Spain where they have always had a huge following. The came back home then to play Sea Sessions and the legendary Whelan's before finishing up with a huge gig at the Marquee in Cork and at then at the Indiependence festival in Mitchelstown. Together with TV, Radio, a live Facebook gig and some Podcasts - not to forget Kieran's meeting with Harry and Meghan on their visit to Dublin, it has been all go for the Fingal band. The boys will tour again in October and November taking in a number of Irish venues plus gigs in Germany and London. They finish up with a prestigious headline gig at The Olympia in Dublin on November 10. The Delorentos star keeps on rising and there are plenty of chances this year for the band's legion of fans in Fingal to catch them live and see them bring their fifth album to life on the stage. Keep an eye out for a Delorentos gig near you, this year or get yourself along to Electric Picnic if you just can't wait that long. The Irish Cancer Society has launched the latest round of We Can Quit, its free smoking cessation programme, which supports local women to join forces and quit smoking together and women from the Fingal area are invited to sign up for the course which will commence in five different locations in September. We Can Quit participants will attend weekly group sessions and receive one-to-one support during the 12 week programme. They will also be offered free Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT). Research has shown that smokers who use a combination of group support and two NRT products for a 12 week period are four times more likely to quit and stay smoke-free for good. Recent analysis shows that over half of all the We Can Quit participants had quit smoking at the end of the course. Joanne Vance, Community Programmes Manager at the Irish Cancer Society said: 'We Can Quit has gone from strength to strength since it began in 2013. 'Over the last six years, 300 women from Dublin have completed the 12 week course. More importantly, many of them have managed to successfully quit smoking for good as a result of the initiative so we know that the programme works. 'Giving up smoking is extremely difficult and a huge challenge for people, but We Can Quit offers women the support and encouragement to get through it. Women today often lead very busy lives with many commitments. 'Through the programme, they can access a friendly network of like-minded women and know that they have the full support of their community and the Irish Cancer Society behind them. 'We look forward to welcoming more women to our latest We Can Quit courses, and seeing them graduate at the end of it!' We Can Quit is run in partnership with the HSE and local community partners. The programme is open to all female smokers living in the Fingal area who are over the age of 18 years and are interested in quitting smoking. The 'We Can Quit' courses will commence in Corduff, Blakestown and Donabate on September 18 and in Balbriggan and Swords on September 19. For more information on We Can Quit or to sign up for your free place on the programme, contact Caitriona Reynolds on 01 2316 669/ creynolds@irishcancer.ie or register online at www.cancer.ie/we-can-quit Fingal Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) has been serving the community of North Dublin for 20 years and is opening up a new premises in Swords. The service recently moved into new premises located at the Plaza Village in Swords and are having an official opening on Monday, September 10. MABS is there with all kinds of useful advice and help on money matters. The new office in Swords Plaza is up and running and ready to help you. MABS is free, confidential and independent and has a proven track record in helping people get back on their feet. All kinds of people, with all kinds of debt, come to MABS. They said you absolutely could not ask the Pontiff for a selfie but a 12-year-old from Swords had other ideas and when she cheekily asked Pope Francis for a selfie, she was bowled over when he said yes. Alison Nevin, 12, is from Swords and made it to the stage in Croke Park at the World Meeting of Families on Saturday night where she got up close and personal with Pope Francis. Alison was there as a representative of the travelling community and she was never going to let this opportunity go to waste. She charmed the gathered crowd in Croke Park, the watching television audience and apparently, Pope Francis himself, by seizing the moment and asking the Pontiff for a selfie. He duly obliged and delivered a broad, warm smile for the Swords girl's camera. It's a selfie that will never be deleted from her phone and the moment has gone viral, right around the world. Alison's mum, Brigid, told reporters on the night that it was important that young traveller people have confidence in themselves, and Alison, who has met Pope Francis before, is a good example for others. She said: 'It was a lovely experience for us all, we were given two tickets for myself and Alison to attend, but we weren't expecting to get up that close to him.' One of the speakers at the Croke Park brought Alison up along with her, as a representative of the young Traveller community, and according to her mother, the young girl was 'a bit nervous' as she waited in line to meet the Pope. But the nerves seem to leave her as the Pope approached and that is when she asked for, and got her prized selfie. Alison's mum said: 'She had been thinking of asking him for a selfie in her head, and didn't tell anyone about it, just decided to go for it. 'She's absolutely over the moon, her Facebook and Instagram were hopping off all over the place.' By all accounts, Alison's social media accounts have been red hot ever since her Papal selfie and no doubt, as she starts secondary school this week, she will be something of a celebrity in the school yard. Alison may have got closer than most but the pilgrims from all over Fingal attended World Meeting of Families events in Croke Park and the Phoenix Park over the weekend. Parishes from across the county were represented at both of the centrepiece events of the Pope's visit to Ireland where of course, his first contact with Irish soil was on Fingal soil, as he touched down at Dublin Airport. One of the first people to greet him there was Fingal Mayor, Anthony Lavin. Protocol dictates that it is the Mayor of Fingal and not the Mayor of Dublin that now greets dignitaries arriving at Dublin Airport. Mayor Anthony Lavin therefore, had the singular honour of welcoming the Pontiff to Ireland, to Dublin and of course, to Fingal. The Mayor of Fingal, Anthony Lavin and the Chamber President Jock Jordan were on hand to launch the 2018 Fingal Business Excellence & CSR Awards last week. Entry to the 2018 Awards is free of charge and open to all businesses/organisations including non-members of the Chamber. The People Awards features the prestigious Business Person of the Year Award, won by Luke Moriarty of Supervalu in 2017. This year sees the addition of two new awards in this category: The Young Business Person of the Year and the Employee of the Year. The other Award categories are: The Business Excellence Awards which includes the Export, Large/Corporate, Small/Medium Business, Start Up/New Business, Public Service, Not for Profit Organisation, Innovation and Marketing Awards. The Corporate Social Responsibility Awards include the Development in People, Large/Corporate Workplace, Small/Medium Business Workplace and Local Community Involvement Awards. The Customer Experience Excellence Awards include the Best Pub, Best Tea/Coffee Shop, Best Place to Eat, Best in Tourism & Hospitality Sector, Best in Services Sector, Best Retail (Single-Site), Best Retail (Multi-Site) and Best Presented Business Premises Awards. Entrants for all awards must complete the online application form on the Fingal Dublin Chamber website by 5pm on Friday, September 21, 2018. To enter the Awards or for more details visit www.fingaldublinchamber.ie/awards The winners will be announced at the prestigious black-tie Gala Awards Presentation Evening that will take place in the Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport in Santry on Friday, November 9, 2018. The event is sponsored by Fingal County Council and hosted by RTE's Marty Whelan and starts with a Drinks Reception at 6:30pm followed by Dinner and the Presentation of Awards at 7:30pm. Tickets for this prestigious event can be booked in advance and cost 140 (incl. VAT) per person. Tables of ten can also be booked. The chamber is encouraging people to nominate themselves, their businesses, their boss, employees, or another business/organisation for one of the 23 awards. There's a certain irony that the success and longevity of Skerries' Failte Isteach English language classes owes much to word-of-mouth. From just a handful of students at the beginning, annual intake has grown in its eight years - with the aim of teaching participants how to get their message across verbally, using the world's most common tongue. Starting again in mid-September, the classes in Skerries are open to all migrants in the area who want to learn conversational English to communicate with neighbours, gain employment and help soothe their integration into a new country. Running in Skerries since 2010, the classes are run by volunteer Simon Murphy with a group of loyal and hard-working volunteer teachers. As Skerries and Fingal continues to diversify and welcome people from all across the world to visit, learn and work, it is interesting to note the demographics of those attending the Failte Isteach classes. With a large Au Pair population in the area, these can make up a large number of participants on the course - part of why women tend to make up the majority of those who sign up for classes. 'As a whole, I would say we attract more women from across the age groups - even aside from the Au Pairs,' Simon told the Fingal Independent. He added: 'It is something we've always wondered about. Are women more open to learning languages? We have always attracted more women right through the age groups, from the youngest right up to the oldest. In the last year or two, we have started to get men into the classroom which is something we are trying to encourage - a good age balance and a good gender balance.' For local man, Simon, who has a teaching qualification but has long since left the profession behind, the weekly classes offer an opportunity to keep his toes in the education waters and experience the rewards of watching a group of learners flourish learning a new language. The Failte Isteach teacher said: 'It's nice to still be able to do that. Its completely different from what I do here in the bank. To be able to go and do that in my free time - and still have that level of involvement in teaching - is great.' Simon explained: 'The rewards of giving up time free of charge, to help people from the world over learn English as a first language are vast.' He added: 'Just to see people coming and saying thank you to you at the end of classes and at the end of the year that you know you've been able to help and do that little bit for them and their future. 'The ability to communicate is so fundamental for their life.' Failte Isteach Skerries classes are free and begin on Wednesday, September 12. The classes run weekly, from 7pm to 9pm, in Mourne View Community Centre. For more information,contact Simon on 086 366 8867 or e-mail simon1murphy@hotmail.com. Alternatively, you can message the 'Failte Isteach Skerries' Facebook page. Failte Isteach, which runs classes in all 26 counties, is free to all, something Simon believes is vital for its continued success and popularity. A new 'Digital School of Food' has been launched, aimed at enabling food start-ups to grow and succeed. An initiative of the Dublin Food Chain and the Local Enterprise Offices in the Dublin region, including in Fingal, the online programme for food entrepreneurs is the first of its kind in Europe. The new Digital School of Food is an e-learning initiative that targets food producers from idea through start-up and growth stages. It consists of an online platform that will help new and innovative food businesses to start-up and succeed. Supported by Enterprise Ireland, Bord Bia and the Dublin Institute of Technology, the project was born as a result of the strong interest among food entrepreneurs to learn about succeeding in business from key industry experts. Announcing the launch of the new platform, the Chair of the Network of Local Enterprise Offices, Oisin Geoghegan, highlighted the importance of cultivating the food sector. The head of Fingal Local Enterprise Office said: 'We have seen a lot of innovative and excellent food start-ups emerging in Ireland over the last number of years across the country. Local Enterprise Offices are very keen to ensure that start-ups in the food sector are given every opportunity to not just survive, but to grow and scale. Setting up a new food business, of itself, can be relatively straightforward. 'Growing that business to make it successful and sustainable in the long terms presents a far greater and more complex series of challenges. That is why we need to ensure that our food entrepreneurs are provided with the right mix of supports so that they can identify opportunities and avoid pitfalls. This is a clever and very practical way to help small food businesses to learn the ropes.' The Mayor of Fingal was one of the first people to shake hands and with Pope Francis when he touched down at Dublin Airport at the weekend, The Pope's first steps in Ireland were on Fingal soil and there to greet him was the Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Anthony Lavin. After being greeted by some children at the foot of the stairs descending from the Pope's aircraft, Cllr Lavin was first of the gathered diginataries to meet him. They shook hands and Mayor Lavin welcomed the Pope to Fingal and to Dublin. It was a proud moment for the Malahide-based Mayor who said: 'For me, it was a privilege to meet him and I was delighted to be able to do it. It is one of those moments, that as I say, only lasted 10 or 20 seconds but it is something that I will have as a memory forever.' Mayor Lavin went on to the gathering in Dublin Castle where he said he was 'impressed' with the Taoiseach's speech. Residents of Kiltealy won't have to be told just how picturesque some of the walking trails nestled in the Blackstairs Mountains are, but they are delighted to officially open them up to walkers from all over the country going forward after the Cullentra Route of the Kiltealy Walking Trail recently received official recognition from Sports Trails Ireland. A crowd of nearly 250 people gathered in Kiltealy village recently to take part in the inaugural walk of the route, which was officially launched by former Green Party TD, environmental activist and owner of Blackstairs Eco Trails, Mary White. Before cutting the ribbon, Ms White spoke of having walked trails in Argentina and Chile and how she was delighted that the same hiking boots would be used to take part in the first official Kiltealy Walking Trail. Also present on the day were Anne Brookes and Mary Byrne who are currently in the process of training to be official tour guides for the trail. Following the ribbon-cutting, the group set off on the picturesque walk which is a loop stretching through 7.5km of picturesque countryside, culminating in some spectacular views out over County Wexford. 'We had a great crowd and there was a brilliant atmosphere,' said Michelle O'Brien of the Kiltealy Development Fund. 'The weather was perfect and once you come up the big hill, there's some fabulous views over Wexford. We had water at the top of the hill and everyone was able to stop and take in the view.' The trail is now open for anyone to try and there are signposts in Kiltealy village which show the route, as well as signs dotted along the way. Afterwards, it was back to Kiltealy Hall for a barbecue, the money from which will be used to fund several major projects being undertaken by the Kiltealy Development Fund. Michelle also wished to thank everyone who took part in the 'golden goal' competition for the All-Ireland Final and the eventual winner of the 500 was Paul Coleman. For those wishing to contribute to the Kiltealy Development Fund, a Go Fund Me page has been set up at www.gofundme.com/kiltealy-development. This year has been nothing short of exciting for one of north Wexford's leading drummers Conor Moore. Conor, who is a member of CCE Tuaisceart Loch Garman, has received first place in the Over 18s Category of Ceili Drums at the 2018 Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann, which was held in Drogheda last weekend. The 26-year old musician also officially opened his studio Sound Out Rhythm Drumming School in Tara Hill last February. It has been nothing short of a success with student numbers doubled since it opened. 'The business started in 2016, but I decided it was time for a premises,' said Conor. 'When we first opened, I had 25 students. It has now grown to 85 and I hope for the coming school year I will have 120 pupils per week.' Conor was born and raised in the thriving town of Gorey. Throughout his musical career he has been involved in an incredible array of performances and appearances on stage, including musicals, plays and pantomimes. He has had the privilege of appearing on globally renowned platforms such as Dublin's Olympia Theatre, X-Factor live shows, 3Arena in Dublin, Wembley arena in London, Croke Park, Aviva Stadium, Bord Gais Energy Theatre and numerous venues in Boston and New York. Conor has also performed with and supported world-famous acts such Celtic Woman, Kelly Clarkson and many others. He travelled around for three-years with Seo Linn, the group who took the internet by storm with their rendition in Colaiste Lurgan's music videos. The school has been closed for the month of August to allow for some well-deserved time off, but Conor ensured they will be back in full swing for September. 'We have drumming classes and workshops opened to everyone,' said Conor. 'Parents can enrol their kids today for classes that will start next month.' The head of the Kerry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre has said that blanket coverage of the Pope's visit - the vast majority of it she claims was unbalanced and overly positive - has added to the trauma of sexual abuse survivors. Vera O'Leary said that the general tone of the media coverage had been unbalanced, overly deferential and failed to fully acknowledge the experiences of the countless men, women and children who suffered terribly at the hands of the Catholic church. "We've been inundated in the last week with calls from new and existing clients who have found themselves triggered or re-traumatised by the extent of the media coverage over the last week," said Ms O'Leary. 'We sit with victims every day and see their pain. We see what stories and what events resonate with them. I understand that it was effectively a visit by a head of state but in terms of coverage I don't think the right balance was reached by the media," she said. "The media didn't take on board the feelings of victims," said Ms O'Leary. Media coverage of Pope Francis' visit has been widely criticised for being overly positive; unreflective of modern Irish society and for largely ignoring the Church's crimes. RTE - which broadcast 17 hours of Papal visit coverage over the weekend - has come in for particular criticism with its coverage slated as being 'fawning' and 'reverential' by veteran broadcaster Vincent Browne. Ms O'Leary - who praised Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's impressive and statesmanlike speech - also took issue with the Pope's statement on Church abuses and his highly publicised appeal for forgiveness. "I think it fell way short," she said. "It seemed - from what the survivors that met him said - that he was very strong on the issue while in conversation with them. "I believe he went as far as to call abusers 'filth'. It would have been great if he had followed through on that in his public comments," Ms O'Leary said. "He missed a wonderful opportunity" Concerns over the agreement between Shannon LNG and the owners of the landbank, on which the new gas terminal is to be built, have been raised this week. The queries come following an announcement last week that Shannon LNG has entered into an agreement with New Fortress Energy, a global energy infrastructure company, to develop the proposed LNG terminal project on the Shannon Estuary. Supporters of the Shannon LNG project are hopeful that this deal will finally move the project forward but there is one final hurdle to be overcome which is the agreement for the landbank on which the project is to be developed. The landbank belongs to Shannon Properties who are willing to sell the land but no sale agreement has been reached, The Kerryman understands. "While I welcome the progress that has been made on this project, the details of the agreement between the land owners and Shannon LNG have not been released. This in itself raises a number of questions. How much of the landbank is being utilised? What's the timeline for the development of the project? What happens to the land in the event of the project not proceeding?," he said. The 1b project has been beset by delays for a variety of reasons. John Fox of Tarbert Development Association said it is 'positive news' for the project which will bring 400 construction jobs to the region and will ensure a gas supply for the country. Cllr Jim Finucane, who has also been involved in the project, said it is " a significant development". An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Denis Naughten both welcomed the announcement for the region. I had my eyes opened at the weekend talking to a friend who is a parent paying over one thousand euros a month on childcare. A simple, positive decision to return to work has meant she and her husband are now faced with a new mortgage effectively in the form of a monthly childcare bill. For parents of two or more children the choice is taken out of their hands, very often, and they have to give up their career, at least temporarily. Another parent I know, who chose to be a stay-at-home mother, was lamenting the fact that she has been held back by not going out into the workforce. She had taken on other children to mind part-time during the school year and saved on childcare, but at a severe cost to her CV in the career she wanted to pursue. I know another friend who can only work a handful of hours per week, otherwise she is in danger of losing out on Social Welfare payments which make it possible for her to mind her daughter, part of which involves paying a fortune a month in childcare. The non policy approach of the Government has left a generation of parents on the brink of poverty and financial ruin. We've already spoken about the Granny Grant, which was a joke that should never have made it into print. A survey released earlier this month by Newstalk highlighted how the monthly cost of childcare per child hovers around the 1,000 in the Dublin commuter belt, falling to around 650 in parts of rural Ireland. Wicklow parents are paying 1,000 a month on average, compared with 756 in County Wexford. While Children's Minister Katherine Zappone has admitted that parents pay too much for childcare, there have been no steps whatsoever to ease the burden on working parents in this country. The lucky few thousand have a parent who will help, but this approach can be problematic as reimbursement can be a Mrs Doyle like Herculean effort. 'G'wan! G'wan! G'wan!', only to be rebuffed. Like wedding gift lists, child-minding Granny gift lists often have to be dreamed up. Minister Zappone acknowledges that there has been under-investment in the childcare sector, which has seen costs of childcare rise steadily over recent years nationally. This past week my daughter (Aka The Whirlwind Princess) and son (the former Little Fella who is now a little giant), finished up at their creche. They were looked after brilliantly since they were ten months old and now are moving on to after-school. Like thousands of children they deserve excellent childcare, but the sector is so problematic it is hard to see where the Government stands. Hinting at subsidisation of the costs for childcare, Ms Zappone said she is meeting Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe this week, adding the Newstalk report 'really supports my call'. She said there will be increases to providers from next month, which were announced in Budget 2018. 'My preferred model is a model that is really based on international evidence, and that is the one that we're pursuing. If you have a mixture of private and non-profit providers, the best way is for us as a Government to provide subsidisation to the costs that the providers offer to the parents.' In Denmark working parents pay 25 per cent of the cost of childcare and unemployed parents pay between zero and 25 per cent depending on their circumstances. Ms Zappone, support parents and make that call to Pascal! It reminded me of 1985 - Live Aid. I sat for 24 hours straight or thereabouts, in front of the telly watching the greatest musical experience of my life up to that point. Last Saturday was a similar experience for my Father in Law - glued to the telly from 10 am watching The Pope's visit, delighted with himself. He rang me to come over and join the celebrations. I agreed on the presumption that there would be wine. There wasn't. The Father in law is usually fairly flathulach with the wine but perhaps he thought it would be disrespectful in the presence of His Holiness. Leaving all serious commentary aside for a moment, I have to say I love a bit of pomp and ceremony and no one does pomp and ceremony better than Catholics. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the eclectic mix of performers showing the Pope what modern Ireland has to offer. Apart from Daniel O'Donnell, that is, who was totally out of tune. The Father in Law wasn't too enamoured with some of the dancers either who he thought were dressed a bit scantily for a papal performance. Anyway the whole thing had the air of a Eurovision of days gone by. It was jolly, it was pleasant and we were all delighted to be Irish. Furthermore, even if it was for just one day, we were all delighted to be Catholic. That hasn't happened in quite some time. The Father in Law was getting very annoyed with everybody dissing The Pope. 'In fairness I think he's a great fella. He's 82. Fair play to him. And sure they can't blame him personally for everything that's happened. He wasn't even pope for most of it.' The simplicity of his argument resonated with me. At the same time I wanted to say, yes but he is the head of the Catholic Church who have committed some awful atrocities. Apologies aren't enough. There needs to be change, there needs to be acceptance. And I looked across at an old man who has become a widower in recent years, and he looked happier than I'd seen him in a long time. The Pope's visit reignited his unquestioning faith, has given him something to believe in and has given him solace at a time when he needed it. I watched a number of people on telly all of whom had serious problems - sick children, no homes, no money and yet they all seemed genuinely touched to have met this man that many felt had no right to be here. He can't be all bad if that's the effect he has. Surely it means there's some hope that we can turn this situation around, restore our faith in humanity, if not religion. 'He has a kind face,' the Father in Law remarked. He does. Speaking at the local launch of the launch of the week-long World Meeting of Families at the cathedral ahead of the Pope's visit last week, Bishop Denis Brennan conceded that the church had been 'complacent' in the wake of revelations regarding child sexual abuse and that this complacency has resulted in a church that's 'unsure of its future'. In his sermon at the service, which was attended by representatives of religious orders, community groups and parishes across the diocese, Bishop Brennan compared Ireland and the Catholic Church of today with that which existed at the time of Pope John Paul's visit in 1979. 'Pope John Paul was welcomed by a self-confident church, sure of its place in society and at ease with itself and, perhaps in light of subsequent developments, complacent,' he said. 'This time Pope Francis will be welcomed by a wounded church; many of these wounds are self-inflicted. The church now is anxious and unsure of its future.' 'These are testing and difficult times for believers,' he continued. 'People are troubled and hurt, and understandably so. Some think it's not a good time for a Papal visit; that the background music isn't right. Maybe it's the ideal time. 'The Pope's role in the church is to confirm his brothers and sisters in faith - something which is badly needed at the moment.' With the whole focus of the week's celebrations being centred on family, Bishop Brennan also spoke on this, saying that 'there will be a frank acknowledgement that there is no such thing as the perfect family'. 'We can only recognise the reality,' he said. 'We don't have a perfect Church; we don't live in a perfect country; we don't live in a perfect world. So why should we expect every family to be perfect?' The bishop then spoke of the importance of the family to a packed St Aidan's Cathedral. Fr Odhran Furlong said that it was a great start to what was to be a busy week for the church. 'We were packed to capacity here,' he said. 'We had people travel to the cathedral from right across the diocese. To begin with we had a procession into the church with community groups such as the RNLI, the Girl Guides, the Irish Red Cross and organisations like that. We also had religious orders from across the diocese with different relics.' Fostering the inclusive atmosphere, prayers were offered in English, Irish, Polish and Spanish on the day and it really got the ball rolling for the hundreds of people who intended to travel to Mass in the Phoenix Park on Sunday. A Great War centenary memorial concert is taking place in St Michael's Theatre on Saturday, November 10. Featuring music, songs, poems and letters, the concert is the brainchild of Seamus Kiely and historian Jack Stacey. The concert will pay homage to over 250,000 Irishmen who went to fight in the war between 1914 and 1918, including the youngest Irish soldier to die, 14-year-old Waterford youth John Condon. Among the songs which will be performed are: It's a Long Way To Tipperary, Remember Me, The Green Fields of France, Danny Boy, Pack Up Your Troubles, Grace, And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, Christmas 1915 and You'll Never Walk Alone. Seamus said the project began in early 2018. 'We felt it would be significant with November 11 being the anniversary of the end of the Great War. The whole idea is that we wanted to not only remember what we thought at that point in time were the 55 people on the list of names of New Ross people of who were killed in the World War but also to remember the men who were ostracised when they came back.' Through their research the death toll has grown to over 88 at least. 'If we take in the postal district of New Ross and Rosbercon it comes to 130. There are plenty of people from south Kilkenny, Graiguenamanagh, Inistioge, Mullinavat, Glenmore, Slieverue, and then you have the Duncannon, Ramsgrange area. With the New Ross men, the information so far is basic, but we are going to flesh them out and do a definitive count and include their parents names and where they lived in New Ross.' Jack said: 'We want to put a more human face on it so it's not just a number, but it's not going to be a morbid show. It's going to be a commemoration, mostly through songs.' The two hour show is expected to draw audience members from across the region. 'We will have a list of names of the dead on the wall. We will have a nice orchestra and a set representing trenches. The lyrics will be projected on a screen.' Jack said the event is totally non-political. 'At this remove it's time to forget the politics of the whole thing. We think it's going to be extensive with a history of the men and the women involved in the war.' Seamus said there will be a great variety of songs about the men and women who went and didn't come back. 'We will have 14 items each side of a half an hour break. Within the 30 items we are going to have four minutes of poems and four minutes of stories from the trenches from New Ross men. 'Martin Doyle was probably the most decorated fighter in Ireland in World War I because not only did he win the Victoria Cross, but he was also awarded the Military Cross. He was from Mary Street in New Ross. Keith Flanagan will sing the Moment in recognition of his achievements. We have a photograph of him and of his medals. There are very few photos of New Ross soldiers.' A segment will be devoted to John Condon, who hailed from Wheelbarrow Lane in Ballybricken and who died in May 1915. 'He lied to get into the army and the first pair of boots he had was when joining the army so we'll have a song The King's Shilling. We think we have assembled some great local talent, including the St Michael's Theatre Orchestra and Paul Comiskey who will be organising the choir. We have an uileann pipe player and there is an international flavour about it.' We would like to know from people who have connections we may not know anything about. Also anyone with any memorabilia. You can contact jackstaceyirl@gmail.com or phone 087 2256881. St Michael's Theatre will be transformed into a World War I era setting. Tickets are available from St Michael's Theatre on 051 421255. An investigation into the origin of the name of one of Europe's most famous tourist destinations - Killarney (Cill Airne - translating as Church of the Sloe) - has uncovered a strong link with Adamstown. Killarney historian Thomas O'Sullivan is calling for a twinning between the two areas based on their strong links with St Abbain. Thomas told this newspaper that his connection to Adamstown goes back to the 60s. 'All this begins with being bundled into a Vauxhall Wyvern ZX 3639 in the early 60s where seven of us made the long trek to Wexford to visit my mother's family home, Kelly's farm at Doonooney, Adamstown. There were no bypasses in those days, but still one savoured the flavour of the many towns on the way - a trip which took a full day and unknown to ourselves learning the geography of South Munster. As dusk approached out of New Ross the signpost for Adamstown (whoever Adam was, could it be Abbanstown?) loomed ahead to the bleary-eyed, with the cryptic Irish underneath reading Magh Airni'. Having spent many years earning pocket money picking strawberries and drawing honey on the farm at Doonooney, Thomas discovered that Magh Airni translated as Plain of the Sloes and the patron saint of the area was St Abban. There is a monolithic stone cross, up to 20 feet in height dedicated to him in the Adamstown graveyard and also a local nearby townland (Moyarney) again an anglicisation of Magh Airni. The community hall, school and church in the village are named after St. Abban. St Abban was a native of Adamstown. He was a pre-Patrician saint who travelled all over the south of Ireland in the 5th century founding many ecclesiastical settlements on his way. While doing some research on a Killarney mythology - Tale of the Blackthorn Woods recently, Thomas stumbled across a reference in 'Barrington's Discovering Kerry' to none other than St Abban who seemingly founded Aghadoe (Ceall Achaidh Conchinn - of the two yew trees) in the 5th century. 'Incidentally, the name Conchinn refers to the first of the ancient divisions/kingdoms of what we now know as Kerry and has a connection to Killagha Priory, Kilcolman near Milltown, County Cork. He then prophesied that Aghadoe church would be dedicated to St Fionan in later times. Another theory is that Abban's church was situated at Moyeighteragh - the lower plain now Lewis Road in Killarney.' The Wexford native Abban was buried in Ballyvourney. Thomas said: 'So it seems Abban continued the theme of his dedication to the Sloe - Fruit of the Blackthorn Tree and so named his church in Killarney. This may prove to be a plausible explanation of the history and the name Cill Airneand that the man from Wexford, 'the Model County' gave Killarney its name - Church of the Sloe.' Thomas welcomes further discussion and opinions on the matter and can be contacted at kerryonwalking@gmail.com. 'Having checked via Logainm.ie re placenames with Airne in them yielding but two: Adamstown and Killarney as it turns out I have worked with Conradh na Gaeilge, Tralee branch with a company formed at the time called Ciarrai Beo and my work entailed a project of collecting place and fieldnames in the greater Mid-Kerry region. This project ran in conjunction with Logainmneacha Chiarrai agus Corcaigh.' The Sligo Italian Society, Amicizia, had their annual trip to Italy and Modena was the city chosen this year. Modena, which is situated on the south side of the Po Valley, is a city known as the birthplace of Pavarotti but it is also famous for its Balsamic vinegar and for the manufacture of Ferrari, Maserati and Lamborghini cars. The group described it as a beautiful city, easy to explore with friendly people. The Language school Romanica was situated in the Centro Storico as was their hotel. Members were divided into groups based on a test done before the trip so each person felt they were in the right group. After the classes members were free to go sight-seeing or soak up the atmosphere. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra gave a concert at the Teatro Pavarotti during that week. Maureen Taylor said they were lucky to get tickets to this prestigious event. She also mentioned a charming and evocative recital given by young sopranos and classical guitarists in the municipal building housing historical archives. The group enjoyed a walking tour of the city, another afternoon was spent at the Malpighi farm where, over the years its recipe for Balsamic vinegar was perfected to make the condiment known the world over. John Coleman said: "The visit was an eye-opener - to taste the numerous vintages of this unique artisan product was amazing." The Car Museum was of interest to many of the group, others visited the mountains near Sestola, Bologna, Parma, Ferrara & Ravenna, all easily reached by public transport. During the year Amicizia also had a Film night, an Italian Food night at Laura's of Carney, a New Year's party at The Court House in Kinlough and, in a joint venture with the Spanish Society, a Wine tasting at the Yeats Building with help from Joe Drury of the Wine Buff. Classes resume on September 12th at 7.30pm at the Sligo Education Centre. Registration on the first night will be at 7pm. Classes will continue over 10 weeks. For more email amicizia.sligo@gmail.com or visit their Facebook Amicizia Sligo. The view from the bench in Grange old Courthouse looks a lot different these days. After ten years of silence following its closure by the Courts Service, the doors have been thrown open once again, this time to less reluctant visitors. It is now a Spanish Armada Interpretive and Visitor Centre, open every Saturday and Sunday 12-4pm throughout the Summer and run by volunteers. "We're putting the Streedagh wrecks into the context of the whole Spanish Armada story," said Chairman of the Grange and Armada Development Association, (GADA, shortly rebranding as Spanish Armada Ireland) Eddie O'Gorman. "It is extraordinary that a world event in 1588 had a connection with this little neck of the woods. The fact is we have a national treasure of three shipwrecks very close to the shore at Streedagh," he told The Sligo Champion. Visitors from all over the world have signed the guest book in the seven weeks it's been open. Replicas of 16th Century Spanish military swords, daggers and armour are on display thanks to generous Spanish benefactor Joachim Estades Seco. He came to Sligo last year in full Armada regalia and has donated many artefacts. High quality visual displays tell the story of the Armada protagonists, Philip II and Queen Elizabeth I with just enough information to give visitors the bones of the story. There are descriptions of the three ships which sank off Streedagh, the Lavia, Juliana and Santa Maria de Vison and presentations on the 2015 discoveries and recoveries of the bronze cannons and cauldron. "It's an incredible coincidence that the archaeological diver to find the first cannon from the La Juliana was a woman called Juliana," said Cllr Marie Casserly, who is also a member of GADA. The artefacts are still being restored by the Underwater Archeological Unit of the National Museum of Ireland up in Dublin. "They're in tanks which are washed out regularly. We're hoping to get the chief conservator to give us an update on their condition at the Armada Festival in September. They're stabilised. They're all suffering from bronze disease and that's why they have to be treated," he said. Will they ever be returned to Grange? "If we're going to get the cannon back we have to have a dedicated display space," said Eddie. "They are a unique collection. There is no collection of bronze cannon like it in the world, because shortly after this period iron replaced bronze for cannons. "Any bronze cannon that survived was melted down and used for other purposes so the fact that these were down under the water and the sand for 430 years means it's a unique collections. Their overall vision includes developing with IT Sligo a citizen's science project to get people involved in archaeology and heritage, a Conservation Unit on site and a 3D interactive simulation system a la Titantic. Their mission is to establish Grange as the Armada Centre for Ireland. "Eventually we'd hope to have a Wild Atlantic Way Spanish Armada Trail," added Cllr Casserly. Sligo County Council has leased the building to the Association and provided grants to make the building safe. Entry is free but people can donate at the door. The Armada Festival runs from September 21-23rd and will see the annual visit of a Spanish naval ship. www.spanisharmadaireland.com Sligo/Leitrim Fianna Fail Deputy Marc MacSharry has expressed concern for the future of local services for the deaf and hard of hearing. The Sligo-based Deaf Hear team is under threat according to Deputy MacSharry. Deaf Hear, based at the Abbeyville Centre in Sligo, provides services from hearing Care, hearing aids to assistive technology, family support and mental health. He said: "It has come to my attention that as part of a costly rebranding of the organisation known as Deaf Hear soon to be called 'Chime', national bosses of Deaf Hear are seeking to close the Sligo service and run it from Letterkenny. This is totally unacceptable. These services are critical to those people who have suffered total hearing loss or are hard of hearing. "Sadly we are used to Governments seeking to strip our communities of vital services but I didn't expect it from the charity sector. This organisation is in receipt of public funds and employ a small but fantastic team servicing vulnerable members of our community," he added. "I have learned that nationally this organisation is seeking the same level of funding from the HSE but wish to close the Sligo Centre. I have spoken with the HSE who in fairness are adamant that the centre and services remain in Sligo if funding is being continued. "I am calling on the CEO of Deaf Hear to clarify the position and reiterate his organisation's commitment to Sligo and the future of the local services and staff," Deputy MacSharry added. The west is very much awake and "ready to fight" to keep their much needed post office services. That's the determined message from the 'Save Gurteen Post Office' Action Group this week. They are mobilising a major campaign to persuade An Post to consider giving the contract to operate Gurteen Post Office to a Third Party after the current postmistress Mary Murphy retires in mid-October. Locals are being urged to write to An Post and anyone interested in taking on the contract is encouraged to inform An Post. The decision to close the Post Office in Gurteen has sparked outrage. The community hall was filled to capacity a fortnight ago as almost 500 local people came out in force to oppose the decision which came "as a complete shock" to everyone. They are painting a van and printing posters to put up around the town. The action group says Gurteen is "a thriving rural town with many services and well established businesses. "The Post Office is at the centre of the community and the services it provides are used by many; young and older, socially isolated, businesses," said Fiona Tansey of the Action Group. They refuse to accept that it is not viable to keep the office open and are determined to retain the post office. They have mobilised on social media, in the community and on the radio to have their voices heard and to express the concerns and dissatisfaction of the whole town and surrounding areas. Many local businesses have expressed deep concern and said that losing the Post Office would be devastating for the town and would result in further job losses. Further north, in Ballinfull, Postmistress Chrissy Feeney closed her doors for good last Wednesday as she retired. Sligo Leitrim Fianna Fail Deputy Marc MacSharry said the Government must intervene in the issue: 'Fine Gael expect us to facilitate the passage of a Budget in October, if this is to happen we need to see a full reversal of the latest plan to shut down Rural Ireland' - MacSharry Deputy MacSharry has called on Government to immediately intervene in the crisis. "The silence from Government is deafening. It is a month now since I first raised this matter and Governments silence and lack of action is appalling. "This plan was negotiated in private by An Post and the Irish Post Masters Union who successfully negotiated a welcome and worthy retirement package for long serving members however they have no mandate or entitlement to negotiate for communities. "These closures were never considered in Dail Eireann and it is my intention with party colleagues to up the ante on Fine Gael and the Government in the weeks ahead to seek the full reversal of this retrograde step." "The timing of these closures is no accident with the Dail in recess. 16 are closed already and by the time the Dail returns most will have closed their doors following the retirement of the postmasters. It is essential that all these post offices are re-advertised so that someone else in all 160 communities can apply to carry the baton on and ensure that communities have access to services" "Everyone understands that An Post have a commercial mandate and that they must balance the books. "For this reason some 8m subvention is required to ensure that post masters are provided with a viable income and that service provision in rural and vulnerable communities is provided. In the UK 8300 post offices receive such support at an annual cost of 130m sterling - here we are talking about just 8m" "In addition, instead of more rhetoric about the expansion of services offered by the local post offices we need to see action. Motor Tax, a role in the application process for a range of social and farming supports together with the development of a 'Kiwi Post bank' style third bank independent of the pillar banks must be initiated. "Equally important is the need for all of us to use and support our local post office," said MacSharry. A Gurteen native who died while fighting for the US army during World War One has finally been awarded with a purple heart for giving his life to fight for the US. Private First Class James P. Tymon, was born in Gurteen on February 25th 1895. He emigrated to the US later in his life and lived in Patchogue. He signed up to fight in the US army during WW1 and got shot in the last major German offensive in August 1918, just before the war ended in November 1918. He died a few days later in the 307th field hospital. His niece decided to go visit his grave in France in 1999. Visitors to the graveyard must register upon entry and because there is a record kept, workers there were able to tell her that she was the first person to visit his grave in 81 years. That sparked off a campaign by his grandnephew, Dermot Golden. The Purple Heart is awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after April 5, 1917 with the US Military. "There were two things that prompted me to do it," Dermot Golden told The Sligo Champion. "Firstly, I was moved that my Mum wanted to visit his grave and that she turned out to be the first person to do so since he had been buried there 81 years earlier. "James Tymon died aged 23 in 1918 and my Mum wasn't born until 1935 but she remembers her Mum (Maggie) talking about her brother James and my Mum was obviously moved by the grief and reverence that the family carried for James, so much so that years later she decided to find his grave. Dermot's brother sent him a link to a profile on PFC James P. Tymon on the website www.honorstates.org. "When I saw at the bottom of the screen that it said 'may be entitled to other medals' - that really got to me. This man gave his life so that the rest of the world could live in peace and that was his epitaph." Dermot contacted a friend who resides in Buffalo NY wh is well connected. "I told him what I was trying to do. He knew Congressman Brian Higgins personally and the next thing I knew there was a case worker from the Congressman's office emailing me. "That process started in May of this year and culminated in August with the Congressman's letter," he added. The letter sent to Dr. Dermot Golden from Congressman Higgins read as follows: "I am sorry to hear that your great-uncle, PFC James P. Tymon, was killed in action on August 30th, 1918 while serving in the 307th Infantry Regiment which was assigned to the 77th Infantry Dibision of the U.S. Army during World War I. "I have received a response from the National Personnel Records Center regarding the inquiry my office made on your behalf. The attached document is official verification that PFC James P. Tymon was entitled to the Purple Heart for the ultimate sacrifice that he made. "I hope that this information is helpful to you and your mother, Maureen McDermott. "At the end of this month, on August 30th, we will recognize the 100th anniversary of then PFC James P. Tymon was killed on the battlefield on August 30th, 1918. "We will never forget the ultimate sacrifice that he made while fighting in the U.S. Army during World War I." It was only upon receiving the letter from Congressman Higgins that James P. Tymon's nephew, Dermot Golden, realised it was exactly 100 years to the month when he died that he received the award. "In addition to the Purple Heart award the Congressman's office flew a US flag over the Capitol building to honour James Tymon and sent it to my Mum," he added. The family were blown away by the response from the Congressman and indeed his office. "It grew from me wondering if I could get him a Purple Heart to a Congressman's office embracing this Gurteen man's story and seeing him duly honoured. My Mum told me that the family were always upset over the fact that he got shot in the last major German offensive and had almost survived the war. "There are thousands of men and women who gave their lives during both wars that would be eligible for medals. The armed forces are very protective of the process and will only make an award when they are 100% satisfied that all the criteria have been met as otherwise it would devalue the meaning. I knew this before I started the process and I knew it would be a challenge especially going back so far. Also a lot of army records got damaged in a fire in the US including James Tymon's file but they managed to find a partial file of his records," he added. Hundreds of pilgrims from Sligo rose in from their warm beds in the dead of night, pulled on their wet gear and braved the lashing rain to travel to Knock to see Pope Francis on Sunday. "I was glad I went, it wouldn't be the same watching it on telly. We got a glimpse of him," said Eileen Gaughan. "It's a different kind of a day and it's unlikely to be repeated in my lifetime," added her husband Eamon. They were among the pilgrims on board the 5.30am bus from St Patrick's Church in Strandhill, one of several from the Elphin diocese which visited either Knock or Dublin to see Pope Francis first visit to Ireland. Our Furey's bus driver Declan was diverted off the N17 at Charlestown via Bohola, Balla and emerged at Claremorris faced with an 8km tailback south of Knock Shrine. The bus parked up around 9.15am on the N17 and we joined the crowds marching through a field and down a boreen into Knock village just in time to hear hosts Una Nolan and Summerhill College Principal Paul Keogh lead the congregation in rehearsal of Dana's song, 'Lady of Knock'. All at once he was among us. Cheers of excitement rippled through the crowd. We saw the famous popemobile moving through the crowds on the big screen and ran to the barriers to catch a glimpse. "Here he comes!" someone cried and then there he was. The white car drove past and Pope Francis beamed down at us, a hand raised in blessing. And in a flash he was gone. Once he had satisfied everyone with his tour of the grounds, the pope was greeted at the newly refurbished (by Sligo firm Kilcawley Construction) Apparition Chapel by the Rector of Knock Shrine Fr Richard Gibbons. Bells rang out three times calling everyone to silent prayer along with the pope as he lit a candle and sat down before the statue of Our Lady. The silence was extraordinary given the 45,000 strong congregation. It was only broken by babies crying or the odd ping of a phone. Blue flags fluttered, the rain drizzled down and everybody stood and watched. After five short minutes, the pope rose to his feet and presented the Shrine with a Golden Rosary in recognition of the devotion of the Irish to the rosary. He blessed the sick and moved to the main stage where he addressed the crowd in Italian. "None of us can fail to be moved by the stories of young people who suffered abuse, who were robbed of their innocence and left scarred by painful memories. "This open wound challenges us to be firm and decisive in the pursuit of truth and justice,"he said, to applause. "I beg the Lord's forgiveness for these sins and for the scandal and betrayal felt by so many others in God's family. "I ask our Blessed Mother to intercede for the healing of the survivors and to confirm every member of our Christian family in the resolve never gain to permit these situations to occur," he said. Pope Francis then shared with us what he was praying for inside the chapel moments earlier: "In my prayer before her statue, I presented to her in particular all the victims of abuse of whatever kind committed by members of the Church in Ireland," he said. Archbishop of Tuam Dr Michael Neary presented Pope Francis with a beautiful mosaic of Our Lady as a parting gift. The crowds joined the Knock Parish Choir in singing 'Lady of Knock' as God's representative on earth left for Knock airport. As soon as the pope was gone, roughly half the congregation didn't wait for mass and filed out of the Shrine. "I really enjoyed it," said Evelyn Cunnane, who was up since 4am. "The big screens were great. We got a view of him in the distance and it was as good as if we were near him," said "He's just very likeable. The atmosphere was great," she said. Retired priest Fr Farrell Cawley from Ballinacarrow was one of the lucky ones invited to sit in the Blue zone in front of the main stage. "It was great to see the pope up so close and personal," he told The Sligo Champion. " I was delighted and the weather was very kind to us and it eased off through the Angelus," he said. "I think he touched on the issues that are important, protection of children and so on and justice for those who have been hurt so badly. He got a clap for that," he said. "I was curate in Charlestown in 1979. There was a great spirit there that time even though the weather was bad and he didn't get around to the corals like he did today. Everybody got a chance to see him," he said. Retired teacher Gabrielle Finan from Strandhill thought the most extraordinary moment was when Pope Francis prayed in the chapel. "Just the silence. For the crowd that was there, you could hear a pin drop. We heard then what he prayed for, which was wonderful. It was just an incredible silence. I liked that. The orderliness of it all. The whole event was full of gentleness and faith," she said. Sligo Tidy Towns Chairman Peter Tiernan and his wife Terri were thrilled they went. "My favourite moment was the feeling of peace that went throughout the Shrine when he was contemplating in the Apparition Chapel. That peace and power went around the whole site. "I like him generally. He has great charisma. Seems to be a lovely man. His speech was good and he went a little bit farther on the abuse issue," he said. They too were in Knock for Pope John Paul II in 1979, almost in the same spot. "We were about the same distance from the Basilica and there were no big screens then,"said Terri. "The weather was also identical. I don't know what She has about rain!" she laughed. Retired Strandhill NS Principal Manus Shields caught a glimpse of him as he drove past "at speed." "I enjoyed it now, happy I came," he said. Co-ordinating the trip to Knock for PP Fr Niall Ahern was Kathleen Brennan. "When the Pope arrived, the tears started to come because I was thinking of 39 years ago. I was in Knock as well. When he went away, there was a sense of loneliness like you were saying goodbye to an old friend. He's like anybody's Granddad. He radiates love and simplicity," she said. The Pope in his popemobile at Knock. Pic: MaxPix.ie Principal of Summerhill College, Paul Keogh took centre stage as one of two co-hosts in Knock Shrine on Sunday. The father-of-two appeared alongside Una Nolan to introduce the event to the 45,000 audience and commentated on the live TV feed of Pope Francis departing Dublin airport and his arrival at Knock airport. Paul and his co-host led the congregation in the rehearsal of 'Lady of Knock', Dana's song. They also led the congregation in preparing for Sunday mass after Pope Francis had departed at 10.45am. Paul was the co-founder of Elation Ministries and is lead vocalist with the Christian music group. For over a decade he has worked closely with the Knock Youth Ministry Team and is a frequent music and event leader at Knock Shrine. Paul was not the only locally based person to play a key role in the visit of His Holiness Pope Francis to Ireland. Elphin Diocesan Secretary and St Angela's College lecturer, the Very Reverend Fr Michael Duignan was singled out for special thanks by the Rector of Knock Shrine Fr Richard Gibbons for his sterling work organising the Knock event. "I want to thank Fr Michael Duignan for making it happen. He was kidnapped from Sligo to Knock!" said Fr Gibbons. Fr Gibbons delivered his words of thanks once Pope Francis had left Knock Shrine to return to Dublin. The Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran met Pope Francis twice - first off the plane at Ireland West International Airport at Knock and later at the meeting of Bishops at the Papal Nuncio's home before he departed for Rome. Bishop Doran also joined Pope Francis for mass in the Phoenix Park. "We felt that we should be there to greet him in Knock so we drove back on the Saturday night," Bishop Doran told The Sligo Champion. Like many others, the Bishop of Elphin was struck by the quietness of the crowd during the Pope's few moments of prayer in the Apparition Chapel. "I had a very strong sense he was entrusting the fruitfulness of his visit and the protection of children and healing of abuse survivors to Our Lady," he said. "It was a very spiritual moment for him. The crowd was as far as the eye could see. They had been through the worst of the weather and then he just got up and said 'Good morning'," he said. Elphin Catechist Colette Furlong was continuity announcer at the Phoenix Park event on Sunday while overall Choir Director was Derek Mahady from Roosky. Pictured at the launch of AbbVies Back to School for STEM science education initiative were Dr Norah Patten and Columba McGarvey, Site Director, AbbVie Ballytivnan Mairead McGuinness MEP was one of a number of speakers at the launch of a new science education initiative which took place earlier today at the biopharmaceutical company AbbVie's site in Ballytivnan, Sligo. The MEP was joined by representatives from Science Foundation Ireland, trainee astronaut Dr Norah Patten and others to showcase Back to School for STEM, a new schools outreach focused on promoting science role models currently active in the Irish workplace. The initiative, which will be delivered by AbbVie employees, aims to encourage greater student awareness of the rewarding career opportunities that can be unlocked by studying STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths). Among the key recommendations of the STEM Paths report was a need to highlight the positive personal experiences of young Irish people currently working across Irish industry within the STEM disciplines. The Back to School for STEM initiative will see employees from AbbVie's five different Irish sites visit schools, including those they themselves studied at, to talk about their jobs and the difference their work makes to wider society. "It's about how you can spark a life long interest in STEM subjects," explained Dr. Norah Patten. Dr. Patten, from Ballina, is a trainee astronaut and is keen to see STEM subjects promoted and encouraged among children. Dr. Patten regularly speaks to groups about the subject and uses her own experience to try and inspire others. "I speak about what sparked my interest in space, science and engineering and how I get that up throughout my teenage years. Role models too are important so people like parents, teachers, people in certain jobs who might have an interest in space. "It's to get people thinking about what we can do to get more children involved. There are so many opportunities out there for anyone with an interest." Since she became interested in space, Dr. Patten has always kept an eye out for courses or workshops that involve space, or aeronautics. "I've been interested since I was 11. We went on a family trip to NASA when we were in Ohio and that was it. I got to back when I was a teenager and when I was 15 I went to the Kennedy Space Center and I was walking under the rocket that went to the moon," she explained. "I did aeronautical engineering in college and would always be looking out for space courses and that kind of thing." Dr. Patten is on course to be the first Irish person in space, as she is on a list of candidates to go to space following her participation in a scientist-astronaut training programme in Florida last year. She is hopeful that an increase in commercial space flights over the next number of years will mean that she can finally travel to space in the next five to ten years. "I want to keep going and just do whatever courses I can," she added. There was music in abundance recently at the P.J. Hernon CD launch at the Carmel Gunning Summer School. There were musicians young and old taking part in the Summer School in the Riverside Hotel. Students from the Channel Isles, Ireland and England attended what was a very successful Summer School. The decision by An Post to close the post office in Ballinfull has been condemned by Sinn Fein Cllr Thomas Healy as "shameful and hypocritical". "I want to welcome the awarding of a new contract for the Cliffoney Post Office," he said. "However the closure of the Ballinfull branch points out the future closure of multiple post offices throughout Ireland. The Cliffoney case was simply an issue of a new contract however in Ballinfull the postmistress was retiring and the policy by An Post is to allow the service to retire along with the person. "Obviously if they do not replace any retirees then, over time, the post office network will continue to dwindle. "This is a semi state company, not a private one, the government is obliged to speak up for the people it represents but it seems nobody is thinking of the people who rely on their local Post Office," he said. "This was a disgraceful episode, not enough notice was given to the community and then they closed the service before the An Post review was even complete! "Minister Naughton is hypocritical and disingenuous in stating that they are looking for new business plans and locations for threatened post offices. In fact the protocols are only for retailers seeking alternative services such as post point and not a real post office. The government could at least be honest with people. "We will be continuing to defend rural Ireland," continued Cllr Healy, "because we have no other choice, we live here and we want our children to be able to live here as well. "We need to bring all these communities together and state loud and clear that we demand the government look beyond the cities and governs for all of its people," he added. Meanwhile Cllr Declan Bree has welcomed the decision by An Post to retain the post office in Cliffoney. "I very much welcome the decision as in my opinion there was no justification for attempting to close down the post office. "What is extremely worrying is the fact that the Independent Review Committee having considered the case actually supported the original decision of the An Post management to close down the service in Cliffoney. This does not augur well for the other rural post offices under threat of closure. "The people of Cliffoney are to be congratulated on the stance they took. They refused to be browbeaten and they made it clear that they would not accept the closure decision. The postmistress Susan Finan certainly outlined all the positive reasons for the post office to remain open and we have every reason to be pleased with the outcome," said Cllr Bree. Leslie Dowdall and Luan Parle will perform a double bill at the Hot Spot music club on Friday, October 5. Doors open at 8 p.m. with tickets 10 to 12. Two of Ireland's finest females are coming to the Hot Spot to showcase their song writing and performing talents in an intimate setting. Front-woman of legendary Irish band In Tua Nua, Leslie Dowdall's solo career began in earnest with the release of her first album in 1997, the artfully entitled 'No Guilt, No Guile'. The album won high praise for the creativity, vision and the soulful vocals and included hit single 'Wonderful Thing', among other highlights. Meteor and Tatler Award winner Luan Parle's top 10 hit single 'Ghost' spent 3 months in the Irish Cha sorts. The song was one of the most played songs on radio that year. Having signed her first record deal at just 12 years of age, Parle has written and recorded with some of the world's most successful Grammy winning songwriters and producers. Many careers have a steady tempo, steering a predictable, stable, steady path through the days of work and through life. It's very different in the veterinary world: the working lives of vet clinics tend to be peppered with gloomy lows and exhilarating highs. This past week has been a typical example. I'll tell the low story first. I arrived at work to find that our nurses had discovered a cardboard box had been left at the clinic gate., containing a cluster of four young kittens, no more than two weeks of age. They were weak and hungry; a few more hours on their own, and they would have died. Our nurses had leapt into action. The kittens were soon warmed up, bottle fed with formula milk, and settled into a snug bed with cosy heated pads. However, the challenge had just begun: the kittens had suffered a major ordeal: separated abruptly from their mother, deprived of their continual supply of milk and taken away from the warm comfort of their mother's nest. It was too much for the two smaller female kittens; by the end of that first day, they had succumbed, dying quietly in their sleep. The two male kittens were stronger, suckling greedily at the feeding bottle, and vocalising loudly. I brought the kittens home that first night, setting my alarm clock to wake to feed them at three hourly intervals. Thereafter, a different member of our team took them home each night. The kittens did well at first, but on day four, they stopped suckling so strongly, they seemed to weaken, and their miaows quietened. We hoped that they were just having a minor setback, but that night, the vet on kitten duty had trouble getting them to suckle. The following day, the fading continued. By lunchtime, one of the boys had stopped breathing. By that evening, the final kitten had died. All of our efforts had been in vain. There were many possible causes for the kitten deaths, with a viral infection highest on the list. But the real underlying reason was simple: they had been neglected. First, their mother should have been spayed; there is no need to bring unwanted kittens into this world. Second, their mother should have been vaccinated, so that her kittens would have been protected by the antibodies that she'd have given them in her milk. And third, they should have been cherished by the household that had allowed them to come into this world. The kitten deaths were preventable, and that was what was particularly upsetting for our clinic team. At the same time as the kitten saga, our clinic was busy with the usual stream of cases that make up our days and nights. And the good news is that we had a story with a happy ending that helped to counter the tragedy of those unfortunate kittens. Ben was a twelve year old German Shepherd who epitomised the best of his breed: he was huge, at over 50kg, but he was gentle, affectionate and loyal. He had been taken on as the family dog when the three children were under ten years of age. They were now all at college, but living at home. Ben's illness came upon him rapidly. He had enjoyed a normal evening, going for a run in the local park, and scoffing his supper hungrily. But the following morning he didn't want to get out of bed, and he refused to eat anything. He just gazed at his owners, with pleading brown eyes. They had to lift him to get him outside to do his business, and even after this encouragement, he refused to get up and walk. They called our clinic, and I headed out to their house to try to help. My examination of Ben told a distinctive story: his heart was racing, his gums were pale, and his abdomen was pot-bellied. He had all the signs of an abdominal tumour that had started to bleed. I needed to confirm this with blood tests, x-rays and ultrasound, so we lifted him into my car, and I brought him back to the clinic. Half an hour later, I phoned the family: our work up had confirmed that he had a tumour on his spleen that had been growing for some time, but which had presumably started to bleed overnight. The only way his life could be saved was by radical surgery, and he'd need a blood transfusion before we started, to make sure he was strong enough to cope. Even then, there was a risk he might not survive, and there was a chance the tumour could be malignant, so that the surgery could be in vain. The family gave us permission to go ahead. Four hours later, I called them back: the operation had been successful. We had removed his spleen, including a tumour the size of a man's fist. This had burst like a ripe tomato, leaking blood into his abdomen, which is why he had collapsed. Ben stayed in intensive care for 24 hours, but by then he was fit and strong enough to go for a walk. The laboratory tests of the tumour told us that it had been a benign tumour, so Ben had been fully cured by the surgery. He's still an older dog, but he could have another three or four years of good life. The witnessing of his reunion with his family was the lift that our clinic needed last week: smiles and laughter from the humans, wagging tail and body from the dog, and happy emotions all around. The lows and highs of a vet clinic: that's the life of a vet. Shane Jackson and Shellys Creek on their way to victory at Gowran Park in 2012 (Photo: Patrick McCann) Newtownmountkennedy jockey Adam Short flew out to Australia on Sunday to join up with his Irish colleagues for the 2018 Australia versus Ireland Jockey Challenge. Also donning the green Irish jersey will be Shane Jackson of Baltinglass who currently lives down under. This is the 32nd consecutive year that an Irish team has been invited to Australia to participate in the jockey challenge. There have already been 42 contests staged in the two countries, with Ireland taking the honours on 26 occasions, Australia winning 15 times and one draw. Adam secured the prize of a trip to Australia for the annual jockeys' challenge when winning the Adare Manor Opportunity Series for the 2016/2017 Irish National Hunt season. He rounded off the term with success in the final of the race of the series on the Matthew Smith-trained Prince Garyantle at the Punchestown festival, his first success at the biggest festival of the year. President Michael D. Higgins sent his well wishes to the team prior to their departure. 'I send my best wishes to Adam Short, Donal McInerney, Shane Jackson and Martin Kelly as they prepare to compete in the Australia v Ireland Challenge Series in Adelaide,' said President Higgins. 'The Series symbolises the long and enduring friendship between Ireland and Australia, one that rests not only the long history of Irish migration to Australia, but upon our shared love of sport, from rugby to horse racing'. The series is based on a points system depending on the finishing positions and was won by Team Ireland last year by a score of 55 points to 35. Adam began his career as a jockey aged 17 with Phillip Rothwell and soon moved to Northern Ireland to link up with Stuart Crawford who provided him with his first career winner on his first ride for the stable. He is associated with several racing yards and rode a Galway festival winner for former champion trainer Noel Meade this year. He rode his first winner on the Stuart Crawford-trained Comragh at Ayr in November 2015. He rode his 20th winner and had his claim reduced to 5lbs when landing the 100,000 Chanelle Pharma Handicap Chase on Liz Doyle's Last Goodbye at the inaugural Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown in February 2018. The second Wicklow man on Team Ireland, Shane Jackson of Baltinglass, is the son of Colin and Geraldine Jackson. Shane was Champion Conditional Jockey in Ireland in the 2007/08 season. He started riding in Australia in 2012, mostly for Warrnambool trainer Symon Wilde. Having ridden 46 winners, his feature victories have included the Lafferty Hurdle and Australian Steeplechase aboard Wilde's successful jumper Gold Medals and also won this year's Grand National Hurdle aboard Cougar Express. Five people were taken to hospital following a serious traffic collision on the N81 on Saturday night. The incident, which involved two cars, occurred at Ballysize, Hollywood at approximately 9 p.m. A garda spokesperson confirmed that the driver of one car, a man in his 40s, was taken to Tallaght Hospital with serious injuries. The driver of the other car, who is aged in their late teens, and three passengers, all aged in their twenties, were taken to Naas Hospital with minor injuries. The scene was attended by ambulance services from Tallaght, Baltinglass and Athy, as well Blessington Fire Brigade. According to a report by Tallaght Ambulance, the driver of one of the cars was the subject of a dramatic rescue as he was removed from the vehicle unconscious just moments before it burst into flames. 'The driver of this car owes his life to the passing motorists that pulled him unconscious from the wreckage as it burst into flames,' the Twitter post stated. A Garda spokesperson did not comment on this, but confirmed that one of the cars went on fire after the crash. Saturday's crash happened in the same week that the N81 Action Group began erecting white crosses along the road to highlight how dangerous it is. The group, which was formed after a planned upgrade to the N81 from Hollywood Cross to Tallaght was suspended indefinitely, has erected 30 of 80 planned crosses along the roadside. The action comes following a recent meeting with Minister Shane Ross, which the group feels did not succeed in setting out a firm timeline or commitment for the long-awaited N81 upgrade. Committee chairperson Cllr Gerry O'Neill said that the action group is 'upping its campaign' by erecting the crosses. 'There are approximately 82 people who have died along the N81 over the past 35 years or so. In reality, the figure is higher as some people died in hospitals as a result of crashes and their location is not recorded as the N81,' he said. Cllr O'Neill said that the Minister and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) appear to 'have taken a step backwards'. 'Minister Shane Ross showed little interest and gave no indication of a new N81 in the near future. In fact, both the Minister and the TII have taken a step backwards and are now saying the review in 2027 might mean a new 'agreed route'. 'What this means is the 8 million they have spent on the study on the present agreed route might be scrapped, that the 31 km from Tallaght to Hollywood and the landowners on the 300 metre wide strip of land which was frozen in 2016 will remain in limbo,' he said. The 'Homeland' star is expecting her first child with her actor husband, Hugh Dancy. The couple, who met on the set of the film 'Evening', married in France in 2009. Actress Claire Danes and husband, Hugh Dancy, arrive for the American Theatre Wing's 70th annual Tony Awards in New York, U.S., June 12, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly Actress Claire Danes (L) and actor Hugh Dancy attend the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Benefit Gala "Poiret: King Of Fashion" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 7, 2007 in New York City. (Photo by Peter Kramer/Getty Images) US actress Claire Danes and British actor Hugh Dancy arrive at the 2018 CFDA Fashion awards June 4, 2018 at The Brooklyn Museum in New York. / AFP PHOTO / ANGELA WEISSANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images Actress Claire Danes from the Showtime series "Homeland" and husband Hugh Dancy arrive at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards Actress Claire Danes has welcomed her second child into the world. The 'Homeland' star's publicist has confirmed that Claire gave birth to a baby on Monday, making her five-year-old son Cyrus a big brother. It has not been revealed what the gender or name of the newest arrival is. The 39-year-old actress - who has Cyrus and the new baby with her husband Hugh Dancy - previously confessed her son had mixed emotions about being an older brother to the new baby. She said: "He's mostly enthusiastic about it. There was a little wobble a couple months ago, where he was saying, 'You're gonna love the baby more than you love me,' and then I was gonna love everybody more than I love him! Anybody who walked through the door, he'd say, 'You love that person more than you love me!' But he's come around." "We've moved through that and he keeps kissing my stomach ... It's very sweet, but I'm sure it'll go back and forth ... feelings of excitement, and dread, and resentment." Expand Close Actor Hugh Dancy and his wife, actress Claire Danes, arrive at the People's Choice Awards 2016 in Los Angeles, California January 6, 2016. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Actor Hugh Dancy and his wife, actress Claire Danes, arrive at the People's Choice Awards 2016 in Los Angeles, California January 6, 2016. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok And Claire is no doubt pleased to have given birth as she recently revealed she finds flying whilst pregnant "complicated". She shared: "Everything's just a little more complicated when you're knocked up. I have to wear compression stockings. I should be wearing them all the time, but I definitely have to wear them when I fly. And theyre dreadful. So there's a lot of pressure on the lower extremities right? So it interferes with circulation, so it's harder for the blood to get back up to the heart. Anyway, so I hate these things and so I refuse to wear them until it's entirely essential." TV presenter Declan Donnelly and his wife Ali Astall have become parents to a baby girl, the delighted couple revealed this afternoon. Smitten Dec shared their happy news on Twitter and disclosed that they have decided to name the newborn Isla Elizabeth Anne. He wrote: "Ali and I are thrilled to announce the arrival of our baby girl, Isla Elizabeth Anne, who was born just after 9 oclock this morning. "Mother and daughter both doing well, Dad is head over heels! D x" The I'm A Celebrity... host also shared a touching photo of his daughter's hand wrapped around his finger on the Twitter account he shares with his presenting partner, Ant McPartlin. Ali and I are thrilled to announce the arrival of our baby girl, Isla Elizabeth Anne, who was born just after 9 oclock this morning. Mother and daughter both doing well, Dad is head over heels! D x pic.twitter.com/LZ409o6kYK antanddec (@antanddec) September 1, 2018 Ant was one of the first to congratulate his long-term friend. He gushed: "Welcome to the world baby Isla Elizabeth Anne. Cant wait for cuddles. I love you already!! Uncle Ant xxxxx" Other celebrities also sent their well-wishes to Dec and Ali on their new arrival. Ruth Langsford said: "Congratulations Dec & Ali....wonderful news. I expect little Isla will be wrapping you around her little finger from now on....!" Video of the Day Britain's Got Talent judge Amanda Holden wrote: "Our family so thrilled for you both. And a lovely name xxx" The Britains Got Talent host married Astall, his former manager, in 2015, and they announced they were to become first-time parents earlier this year. The new arrival comes days after it was confirmed that Donnelly will head to the Australian jungle to present Im A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! later this year alongside Holly Willoughby. This Morning star Willoughby is filling in for Donnellys long-time presenting partner Ant McPartlin, who is taking a step back from TV commitments until next year. McPartlin admitted to drink-driving after an incident in March which saw him banned from the road for 20 months and fined 86,000. Ant and Dec have presented the reality programme together since it began in 2002. If theres a space on the wall in your front room begging to be filled, this might be just the thing a painting by a panda. Yang Yang, a female panda at Viennas Tiergarten Schonbrunn zoo, is creating 100 mini-masterpieces which will be sold as part of an effort to raise funds for a book about the zoos pandas, appropriately enough. Yang Yang paints with a specially made bamboo brush and, to reflect the colours of the panda, uses black paint on a white background. Eveline Dungl, the zoologist in charge of the painting sessions, said: Yang Yang really enjoys painting. She often cant wait to get hold of the brush as soon as its within reach and off she goes. Expand Close This Yang Yang original could be yours for 490 euro (Daniel Zupanc) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp This Yang Yang original could be yours for 490 euro (Daniel Zupanc) Dungl added: Shell even paint several pictures at once when she feels like it. And then shell take a break to get her reward of carrots and sweet potatoes. Her style always varies: from lively to subtle. Yang Yang will paint 100 pictures, each of which will be sold for 490 euro (439) on crowdfunding platform Startnext. As of Saturday evening, 37 of the 100 had already been sold. Funds will go towards the release of an illustrated book about Tiergarten Schonbrunns pandas, being put together by the zoos photographer, Daniel Zupanc, and Johanna Bukovsky, the zoos press officer. Expand Close Yang Yang gave birth to twins Fu Feng and Fu Ban two years ago (Daniel Zupanc) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Yang Yang gave birth to twins Fu Feng and Fu Ban two years ago (Daniel Zupanc) And there will be more than a few memorable images in there, as Yang Yang hit the headlines two years ago when she gave birth to twins. Zupanc said: I want to share her whole story: from the first negotiations with China about sending Yang Yang and Long Hui to Vienna in 2003 right up to the raising of the twins Fu Feng and Fu Ban now. Other rewards available as part of the fundraising effort include framed sticks of bamboo nibbled by the zoos pandas. This is the moment a gorilla is seen tenderly playing with a wild bushbaby which had ended up inside its enclosure at a sanctuary for rescued animals. Bobo, a Western Lowland gorilla who weighs about 200kg, is seen holding the tiny bushbaby which weighs around 200g and letting it move around its body at the Ape Action Africa sanctuary in Cameroon. The remarkable chance encounter was spotted only because Bobos caregiver happened upon the scene during his morning checks. Bobo & the bushbaby Gentle giant! Our silverback gorilla Bobo made a surprising new friend this week a wild bushbaby! Caregivers discovered him cradling the tiny primate during their morning checks, and were amazed to see him handling it with the utmost care proving that gorillas really are the gentle giants of the forest. Bobos group-mates were desperately curious, particularly his favourite female Avishag, but he kept them all at a distance, making sure that no one disturbed his new friend. Bushbabies are usually nocturnal so it is very rare to see one, and even rarer to witness this kind of interaction. The little bushbaby was happy to play in Bobo's arms, hopping off to explore the grass nearby, before returning to Bobos hand. When the game was over, Bobo walked purposefully off on two legs to deliver his friend safely back into the trees Posted by Ape Action Africa on Tuesday, August 21, 2018 Sharing the video on Facebook, the charity wrote: Caregivers discovered him cradling the tiny primate during their morning checks, and were amazed to see him handling it with the utmost care proving that gorillas really are the gentle giants of the forest. Bobos group-mates were desperately curious, particularly his favourite female Avishag, but he kept them all at a distance, making sure that no one disturbed his new friend. Bobo, who was rescued by the charity in 1996 at the age of two and is now 24, is the dominant male in the group based in Cameroons Mefou Forest. Expand Close (Ape Action Africa/Alex Benitez) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (Ape Action Africa/Alex Benitez) He fathered Etoo in 2007 with Avishag and father and son continue to have a strong and playful relationship. Bushbabies are also primates but are usually nocturnal. The bushbaby had probably been living inside the gorillas enclosure, which is covered in trees or just outside the fenceline, as the area surrounding it is forest, a spokesperson for Ape Action Africa told Press Association. The bushbaby showed no fear of Bobo moving around his body and spending time hopping around in an open grassy area, before choosing to return to Bobo. Expand Close (Ape Action Africa/Alex Benitez) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (Ape Action Africa/Alex Benitez) Bobos group-mates were curious about the bushbaby and hoped that he might share it with them, but Bobo kept the bushbaby to himself. Bushbabies are usually nocturnal so it is very rare to see one during the day. We have never witnessed a wild primate interacting with a rescued one at Mefou Sanctuary. Bobo spent nearly two hours with the bushbaby, then returned it to a set of trees within his enclosure, and the bushbaby disappeared from view. To find out more about Ape Action Africa and to support its work, visit the website. This week a country whose de facto leader is a once-celebrated Nobel Peace Prize laureate found its army chief and five other generals accused of genocide by the UN. The country is Myanmar (Burma), the army chief is a man named Min Aung Hlaing, and the Nobel laureate is Aung San Suu Kyi, whose fall from grace over her handling of army massacres of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority has been nothing short of extraordinary. It is almost a year since the wave of violence the UN says was driven by genocidal intent by the Myanmar military began following attacks on several police outposts by Rohingya fighters. The army - whose grip on Myanmar has not loosened much despite the country's transition from junta to fledgling democracy - responded ferociously with a scorched earth campaign against Rohingya communities. On Monday, the UN's Human Rights Council catalogued the horrors of that military operation in chilling detail, noting commonly cited figures of some 10,000 Rohingya lives lost were most likely greatly underestimated. "People were killed or injured by gunshot, targeted or indiscriminate, often while fleeing," the report reads. "Others were killed in arson attacks, burned to death in their own housesRape and other forms of sexual violence were perpetrated on a massive scale Children were killed in front of their parents." During the onslaught, the report notes, at least 392 villages were partially or totally destroyed. This was not the first time the Myanmar army had targeted the Rohingya, Muslims in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar. As a minority, they have long suffered discrimination by a government that refuses even to recognise them as citizens, subjecting them to restrictions on employment, healthcare, education and marriage. In recent years, persecution has taken many forms including mob violence - often incited by prominent Buddhist monks - has been abetted by the military. The UN report notes that shortly before last year's eruption in Rakhine, the southern region where tensions between Rohingya and Buddhists often flare into violence, the army sent considerable numbers of extra security forces to the area. Military chief Min Aung Hlaing declared they were solving the "Bengali problem" once and for all. All this, according to the UN report, means he and other senior generals should be tried for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. And where does Suu Kyi stand in all this? Hopes that she, a former political dissident who famously suffered years of house arrest, would bring an end to the long-running repression of the Rohingya when she was elected in 2015 soon evaporated. When the military crackdown was launched last year, Suu Kyi remained silent. Later she offered only mealy mouthed words that many interpreted as simply excusing what was happening. She appeared to have little sympathy - publicly expressed at least - for the 700,000 Rohingya (around two-thirds of the entire population) that were driven into refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh as the military campaign escalated this year. Her stance has sparked not just deep disappointment among those who lauded her sacrifice for the cause of democracy in Myanmar but also calls, including from other Nobel laureates, for her Nobel prize to be withdrawn. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has said she will not be stripped of the honour. "It's important to remember that a Nobel prize, whether in physics, literature or peace, is awarded for some prize-worthy effort or achievement of the past," said Olav Njoelstad, the committee's secretary. "Aung San Suu Kyi won the prize for her fight for democracy and freedom up until 1991, the year she was awarded the prize." As for the prospect of Myanmar's military top brass actually facing justice for their crimes, there are no guarantees they will ever make it to trial. The army has denied most of the charges laid against it, claiming the number of Rohingya deaths has been exaggerated. Only seven soldiers who participated in one well documented massacre have been sanctioned. Suu Kyi's civilian government is largely beholden to the army and has shown its true colours on the issue anyway. Myanmar could be referred to the International Criminal Court but this would require UN Security Council agreement - unlikely due to vetoes of China and Russia, both close to the Burmese army. And even if a referral to The Hague was made, getting the generals there to face trial would not be easy. Visiting Ireland last weekend, Pope Francis begged forgiveness for the multitude of abuses suffered by victims here, and he has promised no more cover-ups The Catholic Church in Australia said yesterday it would oppose laws forcing priests to report child abuse when they learn about it in the confessional, setting the stage for a showdown between the country's biggest religion and the government. Pope Francis, leader of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics, is facing sexual abuse crises in several countries and the stance taken by the Australian bishops reflected the abiding, powerful influence of conservatives in the Church. Visiting Ireland last weekend, Pope Francis begged forgiveness for the multitude of abuses suffered by victims here, and he has promised no more cover-ups. The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) said it did not accept a recommendation from an official inquiry that would force priests by law to report abuse to the police when they hear about it in confession. Two of Australia's eight territories have since introduced laws making it a crime for priests to withhold information about abuse heard in the confessional, while the others have said they are considering their response. "This proposed law is ill-conceived, and impracticable, it won't make children safer, and it will most likely undermine religious freedom," ACBC president Mark Coleridge told reporters, referring to the sanctity of the confessional. The seal of confession was "a non-negotiable element of our religious life and embodies an understanding of the believer and God", Mr Coleridge added. The move sets up a rare schism between the Church and the government, in a country that adheres to a secular constitution and where 22pc of people are Catholic. Andrew Singleton, professor of philosophy at Deakin University in the state of Victoria, said the bishops' response reflected a disconnect in Australia between religious and secular sensibilities. "Their stance is the classic tension between canon law - a sense that there is some sort of higher, transcendent entity - and common law," he said. Last year, Australia ended a five-year government inquiry into child sex abuse in churches and other institutions, amid allegations worldwide churches had protected paedophile priests by moving them from parish to parish. The inquiry heard 7pc of Catholic priests in Australia between 1950 and 2010 had been accused of child sex crimes and nearly 1,100 people had filed child sexual assault claims against the Anglican Church over 35 years. Accusations of cover-ups in the Church have reverberated all the way to Pope Francis, who has been accused by a US archbishop of knowing for years about sexual misconduct by an American cardinal and doing nothing about it. Australia's ex-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull had been scheduled to deliver a rare public apology to victims of sexual abuse on October 22 but he was ousted by his party earlier this month. Flowers, pictures and messages left outside Everton's Goodison Park as the cortege of Alfie Evans goes past Photo: Andrew Price/PA Wire Now at peace: Family handout photo of Alfie Evans cuddling his mother Kate James. Photo: PA The parents of Alfie Evans have reportedly welcomed a baby boy, four months after the death of their first son from a rare degenerative condition. Kate James, 20, is believed to have given birth in recent weeks to a boy they have named Thomas, after his father Tom Evans, 21. Alfie was at the centre of a extended legal battle over his treatment that made headlines around the world. But the 23-month-old died on April 28 after a court directed doctors to turn off his life support. A neighbour told the Liverpool Echo she held baby Thomas during a visit from his mother. He looks a bit like Alfie, hes a lovely cute thing, she said. "I used to look after Alfie, and it was awful what happened, but Im so pleased for his mum and dad. Ms James knew she was pregnant in the final weeks of Alfies life but wanted to keep it quiet so she could give her all to Alfie," another friend told The Sun. Mr Evans and Ms James wanted to take their son to Italy, hoping doctors there could diagnose Alfies condition, or prolong his life, although the familys legal team said they were not expecting a cure. Despite being granted Italian citizenship on the intervention of the Pope, the UK Court of Appeal blocked the familys attempt to take Alfie out of the UK. Robin Wright and Kevin Spacey as Claire and Frank Underwood in House of Cards, before Spacey was axed. 'House Of Cards' star Robin Wright has said she fought to save the series - and 2,500 jobs - in the wake of the allegations against Kevin Spacey. Spacey, who played fictional US president Francis Underwood, was axed over the accusations, which came after the Harvey Weinstein scandal kicked off. Wright, who plays his wife Claire Underwood, said the show came "very, very close" to being cancelled after its fifth season, "because of the climate at that time". "The air was thick, you know. Harvey Weinstein... People were [saying], 'We have to shut everything down or otherwise it will look like we are glorifying and honouring this thing that's dirty'," she said. Wright said the political thriller itself "is not dirty" and that she believed it should be finished for the "people that loved the show". She added: "If you include security, cops, shooting on location in Baltimore, everything, 2,500 people would have been out of a job." She said there was an atmosphere of "shock and fear" on the set as the show's future looked uncertain following the allegations, that were kicked off by actor Anthony Rapp in October 2017. Rapp alleged he was 14 when a 26-year-old Spacey made a sexual advance to him in 1986. Spacey, now 59, said he did not remember the encounter but apologised for any "inappropriate drunken behaviour". The actor is currently being investigated in the UK for six sexual assault or assault claims over 22 years, and prosecutors in California are now reviewing two other cases. Former US leaders watch as the coffin arrives at Washington National Cathedral (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP) Former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush headed an elite gathering of political heavyweights at the memorial service for Senator John McCain at Washingtons National Cathedral. The Vietnam War hero, who became one of Americas most high-profile politicians, died a week ago from brain cancer at the age of 81. His daughter Meghan spoke ahead of the former presidents, saying her fathers death was the passing of American greatness, as she directed a message squarely at President Donald Trump while encouraging others to live up to her fathers example. Expand Close Meghan McCain speaks at the memorial for her father (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Meghan McCain speaks at the memorial for her father (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP) In her tearful, impassioned tribute she said they gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who lived lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served. She said to applause: The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great. Mr Obama told the congregation: We come to celebrate an extraordinary man, a warrior, a statesman, a patriot who embodied so much that is best in America. He noted Mr McCain was a conservative politician, but said he did understand that some principles transcend politics, that some values transcend party. Mr Obama praised Mr McCain for opposing bending the truth to suit political expediency or party orthodoxy and as a proponent of a free and independent press. Mr Obama spoke after former president George W. Bush, another McCain opponent. Mr Obama said of Mr McCain: He made us better presidents. George W. Bush hailed Mr McCains combination of courage and decency in a eulogy that touched on the state of the nations politics under Donald Trump. Mr Bush, who defeated Mr McCain in the 2000 Republican primary, said Mr McCain detested the abuse of power. He added that: To the face of those in authority, John McCain would insist that we are better than this, America is better than this. Mr Bush said his absence was tangible, like the silence after a mighty roar. Noting Mr McCains time as a prisoner of war, Mr Bush said Mr McCain loved freedom with the passion of a man who knew its absence. Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner were among the highest-ranking White House officials attending after Mr McCains family made it clear that Mr Trump was not invited. He had been routinely criticised over his military record by the US president, who spent some time ahead of the service tweeting out a series of long-standing grievances about the news media, Canada and the Justice Department. Expand Close Former President Barack Obama hugs former vice president Al Gore (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Former President Barack Obama hugs former vice president Al Gore (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP) The Arizona senator had asked Mr Obama and Mr Bush to speak at the service to highlight the bridge-building that he espoused. Both men had defeated Mr McCains own bids for the nations highest office. Mr Kushner and Mrs Trump could be seen greeting other guests inside the cathedral, including McCains close friend, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. Graham had called Trumps handling of the events around the Arizona senators death disturbing. The administration had lowered the American flag at the White House to half-mast upon McCains death Saturday, but then raised it on Monday. After a public outcry it was lowered once more. During the procession to the cathedral, the hearse stopped at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where Mr McCains wife Cindy placed a wreath. She was accompanied by Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and Mr Trumps chief of staff John Kelly, who is a retired Marine Corps general. Mr McCain was a decorated veteran who was held for more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam where he refused early release. Mr McCain will be buried on Sunday at his alma mater, the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Lana Del Rey has cancelled her planned performance at the Meteor Festival (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File) Singer Lana Del Rey has cancelled her planned performance at an Israeli music festival after pressure from Palestinian boycott activists. In a Twitter message Del Rey said she is delaying until a time when I can schedule visits for both my Israeli and Palestinian fans. It was not clear whether it was a direct response to the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movements boycott call. But it marked a setback for Israel, which aims to prevent politics from infiltrating the arts. Del Rey was to headline the inaugural Meteor Festival in northern Israel next week. BDS urges businesses, artists and universities to sever ties with Israel. It says it is a non-violent way to promote the Palestinian cause. But Israel says it masks a more far-reaching aim to delegitimise or destroy the Jewish state. After seven years of brutal war, all signs are pointing to a final showdown in Syria. The regime of President Bashar al-Assad, buoyed by support from Russia and Iran, has systematically reclaimed the territories once in the hands of insurgents. Now it is preparing an offensive against the last rebel enclave: Idlib, a rural province on the north-western border with Turkey. Observers fear a humanitarian catastrophe. "There is a perfect storm coming up," said UN envoy Staffan de Mistura. Roughly three million people live in Idlib, more than half of whom are Syrians displaced from other parts of the country. The province became a hotbed of the Syrian opposition, including a number of Islamist militant factions. The most powerful is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group formerly affiliated with al-Qa'ida. Idlib is also home to vast camps of displaced people and endemic poverty. With Turkey leery of welcoming a new wave of refugees - the country already hosts more than three million Syrians - there are growing fears that civilians in Idlib may be cornered. On Thursday, de Mistura urged the creation of a humanitarian corridor and suggested that civilians consider fleeing back to regime-controlled territory. But such pleas echo the desperate appeals by the UN in the past, which went largely unheeded as the regime quashed resistance in Homs, Aleppo, Damascus and elsewhere. Assad and his allies seem in no mood for compromise this time, either. The regime is talking up the "liberation" of Idlib from "terrorists". Russia is equally unyielding. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the militants as "festering abscesses" that should be "liquidated". The Russian navy will begin a major exercise in the Mediterranean today, probably in preparation for an offensive by Syrian government forces. In Washington, the Trump administration seems more immediately preoccupied with the prospect of Islamist fighters scattering farther afield. On Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was in talks with Russian and Iranian counterparts to head off the crisis and maintain a ceasefire. Erdogan's position has shifted markedly since earlier stages of the war, when Ankara loudly clamoured for Assad's overthrow. Analysts say he made a losing bet in backing Assad's downfall and now is coming around to the scenario he sought to prevent. "Moscow wants Ankara to reconcile with the Assad regime," wrote Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group. "Turkey's reliance on Russia to protect itself from the [Kurdish separatists] and prevent a new surge of refugees may therefore force it into an accommodation with Damascus that it has successfully resisted until now." The man said that he was desperate to ensure that his mother-in-law was given a proper send-off. File picture A man broke into a funeral parlour and stole his mother-in-law's body after the undertaker went out of business, it has emerged. He kept his desperate actions secret from his wife, not wanting to upset her further as she grieved for her mother. But he told local police what he was intending to do after failing to get in contact with the management of Butterfly Funeral Services in Rochester, Kent. The "bodysnatch" happened a year ago but the details of the man's actions were only revealed this week as bailiffs moved in to repossess the premises. The man said that he was desperate to ensure that his mother-in-law was given a proper send-off. After gaining access to the premises, he removed the body, taking it to another undertaker in the back of a hire van. But he did not tell his wife as he did not want to upset her. The man, who asked not to be identified, said he told the local police what he was intending to do and carried out the operation in daylight. He also returned later to collect the clothing the woman had wanted to be buried in. He explained: "I had no option. I had to get the body out. I had taken on all of the organising and I didn't want to bother my wife at this time. "She still to this day doesn't know what happened and I won't be telling her." Robert Lawrence, manager of Medway Funeral Directors, the company which carried out the burial on behalf of the family, said the son-in-law had made every effort to contact Butterfly Funeral Services to sort out the arrangements. He said: "He spent a long while in contact with the police and in the end said, 'I've just got to go and get her.'" Mr Lawrence added: "When he did arrive with the body, we did all we could to help. He was very distressed and his wife still doesn't know. "These horror stories shouldn't happen. That parlour was never regulated by anybody, and it's a terrible thing to have gone through." When the bailiffs inspected the premises this week, they found 16 urns of cremated remains on a shelf. Karen Calder, who ran the business, has been banned from using crematoriums in the area due to unpaid bills. A handwritten note at the funeral parlour apologised for any distress which had been caused to the families of those affected by the problems. The bailiff who repossessed the funeral parlour confirmed yesterday that some families have still not been reunited with their loved ones' cremated remains. Robert Hamshare, an enforcement officer for Mid- Kent Bailiffs Services, said: "When a premises is repossessed, the property inside is returned to the client. But in this instance there was a quantity of human remains inside. "The client had actually warned me there might be one or two urns inside because he had received calls from relatives who hadn't had them returned. "But we actually found 16." Mr Hamshare added that the urns have since been moved to another funeral parlour as efforts are made to contact the relatives. Reham is careful to describe her own unquestionable piety, unwavering faith in the tenets of the Quran and her devotion to her marriage. No ones going to be buying Reham Khan to read about Reham Khan, nevermind the books unabashed title. The parts that most people are going to want to read begin only around the middle of the book, which is over 300 pages long. Some 200 pages are not about IK as she often refers to Imran Khan and his dissolute life. Theres a 40-year run up to the moment when Reham finally meets Imran a prolonged prelude that is really better reading than the main act which follows. She recounts a privileged expat childhood with her parents and siblings in Libya, a late 70s paradise which was echoed over many West Asian countries at the time: a halcyon period before superpower meddling and Islamist revolutions. The family returns to Pakistan when shes a young girl, and she has an early stint as a child artiste on television. This is followed by her marriage, when she is 18, to a man she barely knows Ijaz Rehman, a first cousin in the UK. The marriage is claustrophobic and abusive, and her husband uses every petty tyranny to make her miserable for almost every day of the many years she was married to him. She walks out on him, with whatever she can carry in a suitcase, when her eldest child has almost finished school. Ijaz Rehman is one of the many people threatening to sue Reham Khan for libel. He has given statements to the press alleging that it was all the other way round, that she was greedy and manipulative, that he gave her lots of money and paid for childcare, that he has court documents to prove this, that she does black magic no, hang on, maybe she is black magic. And maybe there is another telling of this, and indeed of all other parts of her story. Still, her descriptions of the marital abuse she suffered are convincing, in the detailing of the minute events which made up the behaviour of an insecure, controlling, insensitive spouse. Its a familiar story the man who insists on accounting for every minute of your day, who withholds money and affection, who targets the children, who criticises everything you do. Many years go by before Reham has had enough. She grows up, and is willing to do anything to get away. In an impressive transition, she starts doing door-to-door sales and moves on to television jobs eventually working not one, but two jobs, and keeping it all going somehow. The transformation is liberally spiked with feminist homilies. I found myself underlining a number of them, my favourite being If you think you cant do something, or cant have something, remember that perhaps its just because you havent given it a go yet. This Reham is a likeable person. One moment in particular stands out she used to leave her home at five every morning, because of a very long drive to work. But she enjoyed those drives, especially the quiet moments when she had to stop for sheep crossing the road. Shes at her most human in this moment a hardworking mother-of-three enjoying a solitary moment of reprieve in the half-light of an early English morning, behind the wheel of her car, sheep crossing in front of her in a quiet country lane. Eventually she moves back to Pakistan, and we sit up, ready for the revelations. But here, in a confusing switch of genres, the feminist survival-memoir is chucked aside in favour of pulp romance. And why not? Imran Khan might well have sprung from the pages of a Mills and Boon anyone who was a teenager in the 1980s would remember him taking the long sprint up for a fast bowl, his dark hair streaking behind him, an incredibly beautiful man. Reham casts herself as Bennett to his Darcy and the two glower at each other across crowded rooms, snap childishly at each other about nothing, and are irresistibly drawn to each other until finally He leant forward to kiss me, then groaned and got to his feet He started to say something, and as I looked up expectantly, he instead closed the distance between us and leant down to kiss me. It was a light brush initially. I froze in fright Im afraid I burst out laughing when I read this at the absurdity of life being cast in the tone of the cheap-thrill romances that our aunts and grandmothers assured us had nothing to do with real life. But Reham assures us that Imran immediately proposed marriage, right after that first kiss (just like in the books). Unfortunately, we all know how this one ended. They dont marry immediately. Theres some understandable dithering from Rehams side, but then he meets her children and is charming to them, besides doing his best to be nice to her as well. Finally, theres a ceremony and though they try to keep it quiet, news gets out. Then they dress up and do the photo-op that weve all seen. Reham miserably recounts how he changed out of his gold sherwani into tracksuit bottoms immediately after, ignored her and was generally cross and surly. It sounds like the kind of thing that might happen weddings and photo-ops are never fun for the bride and groom, and it must be harder to feel enthusiastic about them when youre both middle-aged and on your second marriages. I felt quite bad for Reham here. But then, I also felt bad for Imran Khan. Its one thing to look like a prince, its quite another to be one in a tell-all by your ex-wife, in which youre shown up for the frog that you are. Reham is unsparing and nothing escapes her notice: His awful table manners, his disgusting bathroom habits, his badly-kept house, his horrible father and sisters, his long-suffering mother, his vicious dog, his terrible, terrible ex-wife (Jemima, who has also threatened Reham Khan with libel), his cynical politics, his sycophantic hangers-on, his ignorance of just about everything, his jealousy and suspicion... And then, bigger things: his drug habit, his bisexuality, his political compromises, his very strange friends. Reham spends a long time discovering things in drawers joints, packets of white powder and tubes of KY jelly. While we face-palm, she innocently asks her husband what it is that jar sitting in the bedside drawer. He laughs at her naivety, or explodes in rage. Im sure a lot of this might well be true. But the question is, what does it add up to? Not very much. The first half of the book, about her first marriage, makes for far better reading because theres much more psychological depth in her analysis of it. She spent over 15 years with Ijaz Rehman after all. But the 10 months or so that she was married to Imran Khan sound like the marriage of two people who rushed into it without knowing each other at all. Its little more than a list of Imran Khans failings and sins, often with incredibly minor events recounted to illustrate major character flaws. Reham, on the other hand, is careful to describe her own unquestionable piety, unwavering faith in the tenets of the Quran and her devotion to her marriage. If all thats true, I feel bad for her too married to a depraved narcissist, when she wanted a saint. But there are some undeniably bitchy bits she lets slip in, for which, I believe, she must indeed be sued. While taking considerable pains to cast herself as a feminist battler, she thinks nothing of maligning a number of women. I wont repeat what she says here, but she certainly names and gratuitously details their private, sexual history with Imran Khan as well as other people. And, unforgivably, a miscarriage that Jemima had and was very upset about. The only reason I mention this here is that I was appalled by Reham Khans insensitivity in disclosing it to the world. It is really no business of hers at all. Though, in my opinion, she sinks to her lowest when she criticises his children with Jemima, comparing them unfavourably to her own. A number of reviews have called Reham Khans book brave. And, in the hands of a better editor, it might have been. The book needed analysis and reflection, a toning down of the urge to disclose everything in order to lay before the world, as shes claimed her motive to have been, what kind of man the current Prime Minister of Pakistan is. Maybe he is awful. But then, despite herself, Reham does paint in a few rosier shades. Unexpected things, like wanting to dance with her all night to Dr Hook singing the classic, When youre in love with a beautiful woman. Leaving out flowers for her. Hugging her all night. His tenderness for his children. His friendship with Jemima, in spite of it all. And something I truly empathised with his terror of lizards. There are other things in the book about how surprised and disgusted Reham is by the political corruption she finds all around her, but youd have to be an avid follower of every minor episode in Pakistani politics to find it interesting. I tried to follow, but lost interest soon, coming away with the usual subcontinental tale of favours for gifts and gifts for favours. Imran Khan has been getting very good press since he became Prime Minister, and interest in Reham Khans book seems to have waned for now. But her memoir will haunt him for a while. Behind it, theres an angry and upset woman and if she only knew it an even angrier and upset man. Anupama Chandra is a film editor and bibliophile Have you ever watched a movie when you were stoned and wondered what a great piece of art that was? Things seem better when you are a little stoned, right? So does movies. One such movie is Saif Ali Khan, Kunal Kemmu and Vir Das starrer Go Goa Gone. This was a sort of horror comedy that also had zombies. Interesting concept, right? If you liked the original, the good news is that a sequel of Go Goa Gone is in the works, and this time it is said there will be aliens instead of zombies. youtube.com Its a really crazy fun script. Last time, we had zombies. This time, Saif and the gang will fight aliens. Its set in Manali and has been titled Go Goa Gone 2: Babaji Ki Booty. We plan to begin shoot sometime in the second quarter of 2019 because otherwise, Manali will be too cold for us to shoot in, producer Dinesh Vijan was quoted as saying by DNA. thinkingdoggy.files.wordpress.com The original star cast will return in their roles. With that, the team is planning to add two more characters. The script of the movie is being written and is in the final draft. Also Read: Baba Ji Ki Booti Returns! Go Goa Gone 2 Is In The Works & We Can't Wait To See The Madness Have you ever gotten scared by a toy gun? Well, Los Angeles authorities shot at an actress who pointed an air gun at them. Hollywood actress Vanessa Marquez, known for her role as nurse Wendy Goldman in the first three seasons of 1994 medical drama series ER and 1988s Stand and Deliver, was shot and killed by police officers in Southern California at her home Thursday afternoon. latimes.com South Pasadena police officers came to check on her after Vanessa Marquezs landlord called them saying that she needed medical help. When the police reached, the actress was having seizures. It said that she became uncooperative and appeared to be suffering from mental disease. show.nl Thereafter, a clinician was called who talked to Vanessa Marquez for about 90 minutes after which she retrieved a gun and pointed at the police officers. Following this, the police shot and killed her. Later, it turned out, that gun she was pointing with was a BB gun. It looked like a real gun," the police officer said, adding that it was unclear where the gun was during her lengthy interaction with police. She was looking forward to life. This is not a woman who wanted to die, Vanessa Marquezs close friend told Terence Towles Canote. Also Read: Girl Shoots Her Own Mother Thinking She Was Playing With A Toy Gun For many families, their children getting a chance to study was a big thing, because as parents they could not afford to do it. So, when a Buddhist monk offered to provide them free education and accommodation, it was too good for the poor families in Assam's Karbi Anglong to resist. That is how 15 families who belong to the Chakma community send their children to a Buddhist monastery in Bihar's Bodhgaya. ANI But what was awaiting their children in the hostel was beyond what the families could imagine. The 15 inmates, all of them boys aged between 8-16 were sexually abused by a monk named Bhante Sanghpriye Sujoy for months, while the parents were not even allowed to contact their children. The sexual abuse which has been happening for some 18 months came to light after the victims complained to Bhante Sadanand, another Mumbai-based Buddhist monk who had brought the children to the facility, when he met them last week. The shocked monk then contacted the village headman of Karbi Anglong, who also had two of his children living in the hostel and asked him to take them away. PTI Sujoy who initially refused to send the children with their parent eventually did. The parent, who was not from well to do background wanted to take their children back to their village. But after local media got wind of the scandal, they filed an FIR against the monk, based on which Sujoy has been arrested under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. ANI According to the victims, Sujoy made them strip and masturbate in front of him. He also used to beat them if they refused to obey him. NSO Group is a collective that builds spyware tools, ones that let people hack into popular smartphones and siphon data. Based in Israel, the group has always had shady dealings, but now its taken to hacking journalists in order to attract and impress clients. NSO Group says its product allows government agencies to identify and disrupt terrorist and criminal plots. However, what really happens is that governments tend to use this companys tools to spy on dissidents and activists. Its come under fire in the past for providing Middle Eastern governments with the technology to hack 174 journalists, activists, lawyers, and more, including some of whom were with Amnesty International. Now, the New York Times says NSO Group is hacking journalists once more to show off their capabilities to potential clients. Specifically, they hacked the phone of the editor of an Arabic newspaper in London, to attract top officials in the UAE, and provided two phone call recordings to them as well. Supposedly, the demonstration was to sell the UAE officials on an expensive new update, one they wanted to make sure worked before spending the cash. In addition, NSO Group also hacked the phones of the emir of Qatar and a powerful Saudi prince. The company is now facing two lawsuits, one by a Qatari citizen filed in Israel and another by Mexican journalists and activists filed in Cyprus. All of them claim theyve been victims of NSO Groups illegal surveillance software. With all the recent ridiculousness surrounding Elon Musk, like trying to impulsively privatize Tesla and doubling down on the pedo comment, stories are now leaking out from old employees and the likes. And some of them are strange to say the least. The latest peek into Elon Musks psyche comes from the Wall Street Journal, with an anecdote about the one time Musk headbutted a car to prove the assembly line neednt be stopped for safety. The incident supposedly occurred when Musk was touring Teslas factory in Fremont, California, and asked why his assembly line had come to a halt. According to the retelling, managers told him the automatic safety sensors stopped the line whenever people got in the way. Mr. Musk became angry, according to people familiar with what happened, the story states. His high-profile gamble on mass-producing electric cars had lagged behind since production began, and here was one more frustration. The billionaire entrepreneur began head-butting the front end of a car on the assembly line. I dont see how this could hurt me, he reportedly said, knocking his noggin on a vehicle on the slow-speed line. I want the cars to just keep moving. Supposedly a senior manager insisted it was a safety measure and a furious Musk told him to Get out! Tesla however has denied thats how the incident went, claiming things went down in a much milder fashion. They insisted to the Journal that Musk had, in a safety hat, tapped the car on the assembly line and not head-butted it and that the system was adjusted without compromising worker safety. In addition, Tesla is quick to note that workers on the line were consulted before the equipment was changed. They claim safety specialists and engineers supported the change, and it was therefore compliant with workplace safety regulations. Its just another in a long list of close encounters of a Musk kind. Its impossible to clarify which version of the story is true. However, it certainly is troubling that the former seems equally true when talking about a powerful billionaire with the safety of his workers in his hands. Those who own cars know full well that trips to the car service place will become regular. But not all car owners are well versed with the kind of costs they could incur. And there some shady car service places that take advantage of this kind of customers to quote a ridiculous amount. In one such incident, a Skoda dealer in Mumbai tried to dupe a customer by quoting a ridiculously huge amount for servicing. Picture for representation According to reports, one of the members of Team-BHP, Navin posted a story of his friend being overcharged by Autobahn dealership of popular automobile brand Skoda based in Mumbai. Navins friends Skoda Laura broke down on August 16, and she was not able to start it. After inspection by a mechanic, the dealer quoted an amount of Rs 1.68 lakh: Rs 1.43 lakh for parts and Rs 25,000 for labour. Quite obviously she was left stumped. www.rushlane.com The owner of the car had some knowledge about cars and immediately realised that the Skoda dealer was playing a trick. She then got in touch with a friend at Bharat Auto Associates and got her car towed from Skoda dealer to a non-Skoda authorised car service center. But she still ended up paying Rs 3,000 for releasing her car. Once the car was taken to another local service centre, the bill came to no more than Rs 1000. Beware of such fraudsters. We all know of that one friend who has a weird ability to twist wrists, arms, legs and fingers and more often than not they are mighty proud of it. Here's another Indian woman who can literally twist her arm 180 degrees and she has refused to get this medically rectified. According to a case study published in the British Medical Journal Case Reports, the woman from Pondicherry went to hospital complaining of shoulder pain. http://casereports.bmj.com When doctors at Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences felt her shoulder, they noticed it was 'soft'. To their surprise, the woman could turn her entire arm 180 degrees. http://casereports.bmj.com X-rays revealed her humeral head - the round part of the bone that connects the arm to the shoulder - was no longer there, states the journal. The woman refused surgery to correct her condition as it wasn't hampering her daily activity. The company had sold 1,63,701 units in August last year, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) said in a statement. Exports in August were down 10.4 per cent at 10,489 units over 11,701 units in the corresponding month last year. New Delhi: The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India on Saturday reported 3.4 per cent decline in total sales at 1,58,189 units in August. The company had sold 1,63,701 units in August last year, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) said in a statement. Domestic sales were also down 2.8 per cent at 1,47,700 units last month as against 1,52,000 units in the year ago month, it added. Sales of mini cars comprising Alto and WagonR were at 35,895 units as compared to 35,428 units in August last year, up 1.3 per cent. Sales of compact segment, including models such as Swift, Celerio, Ignis, Baleno and Dzire, were down 3.6 per cent at 71,364 units as against 74,012 units in August last year, the company said. Mid sized sedan Ciaz sold 7,002 units as compared to 6,457 units in the same month a year ago, a growth of 8.4 per cent. Sales of utility vehicles, including Vitara Brezza, S-Cross and Ertiga, were down 16.2 per cent at 17,971 units in August as compared to 21,442 units in the year-ago month, MSI said. Exports in August were down 10.4 per cent at 10,489 units over 11,701 units in the corresponding month last year, the company said. The production release of Java Development Kit 12, based on Java SE (Standard Edition) 12, is now available. JDK 12 builds are available from Oracle for Linux, Windows, and MacOS. Where to download JDK 12 You can download the JDK 12 from the Java.net website. Open source builds are provided under the GNU General Public License v2, with Classpath Exception. Commercial builds of JDK 12 from Oracle can be found on the Oracle Technology network under a non-open source license. New features in Java 12 Shenandoah garbage collector The goal of most companies is to create value for the shareholder. But how is value measured? Wouldn't it be nice if there were a simple formula to figure out whether a company is creating wealth? Like many economic formulas, economic value added (EVA) is intriguingly clever and maddeningly deceptive. Does EVA simplify the task of finding value-generating companies, or does it muddy the waters? 1:38 Economic Value Added - EVA What Is EVA? EVA is a performance metric that calculates the creation of shareholder value; however, it distinguishes itself from traditional financial performance metrics, such as net profit and earnings per share (EPS). EVA is the calculation of what profits remain after the costs of a company's capitaldebt and equityare deducted from operating profit. The idea is simple but rigorous: true profit should account for the cost of capital. To understand the difference between EVA and its infamous cousin, net income, let's use an example based on fictitious company Ray's House of Crockery. Ray's earned $100,000 on a capital base of $1 million thanks to its sales of stew pots. Traditional accounting metrics suggest that Ray is doing a good job. His company offers a return on capital of 10%. However, Ray's has only been operating for a year, and the market for stew pots still carries significant uncertainty and risk. Debt obligations plus the required return that investors demand add up to an investment cost of capital of 13%. That means that, although Ray's is enjoying accounting profits, the company was unable to grant 3% to its shareholders. Conversely, if Ray's capital is $100 millionincluding debt and shareholder equityand the cost of using that capital (interest on debt and the cost of underwriting the equity) is $13 million per year, Ray will add economic value for his shareholders only when profits are more than $13 million per year. If Ray's earns $20 million, the company's EVA will be $7 million. In other words, EVA charges the company rent for tying up investors' cash to support operations. There is a hidden opportunity cost that goes to investors to compensate them for forfeiting the use of their own cash. EVA captures this hidden cost of capital that conventional measures ignore. Developed by the management consulting firm Stern Stewart, EVA became wildly popular in the 1990s. Big corporations, including Coca-Cola, GE, and AT&T, employ EVA internally to measure wealth creation performance. In turn, investors and analysts are now scrutinizing companies' EVA just as they previously observed EPS and P/E ratios. Stern Stewart has gone so far as to trademark the concept. EVA Calculation There are four steps in the calculation of EVA: Calculate Net Operating Profit After Tax (NOPAT) Calculate Total Invested Capital (TC) Determine the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) Calculate EVA E V A = N O P A T W A C C T C where: N O P A T = Net Operating Profit After Tax W A C C = Weighted Average Cost of Capital T C = Total Invested Capital \begin{aligned} &\mathit{EVA} = \mathit{NOPAT} - \mathit{WACC}*\mathit{TC}\\ &\textbf{where:}\\ &\mathit{NOPAT} = \text{Net Operating Profit After Tax}\\ &\mathit{WACC} = \text{Weighted Average Cost of Capital}\\ &\mathit{TC} = \text{Total Invested Capital}\\ \end{aligned} EVA=NOPATWACCTCwhere:NOPAT=Net Operating Profit After TaxWACC=Weighted Average Cost of CapitalTC=Total Invested Capital The steps appear straightforward and simple, but looks can be deceiving. For starters, NOPAT hardly represents a reliable indicator of shareholder wealth. NOPAT might show profitability according to the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), but standard accounting profits rarely reflect the amount of cash left at year-end for shareholders. According to Stern Stewart, dozens of adjustments to earnings and balance sheetsin areas like R&D, inventory, costing, depreciation and amortization of goodwillmust be made before the calculation of standard accounting profit can be used to calculate EVA. Figuring out the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is even more difficult. WACC is a complex function of the capital structure (proportion of debt and equity on the balance sheet), the stock's volatility measured by its beta, and the market risk premium. Small changes in these inputs can result in big changes in the final WACC calculation. That said, if carried out consistently, EVA should help us identify the best investmentsthe companies that generate more wealth than their rivals. All other things being equal, firms with high EVAs should, over time, outperform others with lower or negative EVAs. But the actual EVA level matters less than the change in the level. According to research conducted by Stern Stewart, EVA is a critical driver of a company's stock performance. If EVA is positive but is expected to become less positive, it is not giving a very good signal. Conversely, if a company suffers negative EVA but is expected to rise into positive territory, a buy signal is given. Of course, Stern Stewart is hardly unbiased in the assessment of EVA. Some research challenges the close relationship between rising EVA and stock price performance. Still, the growing popularity of the concept reflects the importance of EVA's basic principle: the cost of capital should not be ignored but kept at the forefront of investors' minds. Best of all, EVA gives analysts and anyone else the chance to look skeptically at EPS reports and forecasts. Labour TD Alan Kelly has been criticised after calling on leader Brendan Howlin to consider his position. A defiant Mr Howlin said he is extremely disappointed with Mr Kellys call for change, especially as he had not mentioned anything when the two met at a funeral on Wednesday. Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Mr Howlin said Mr Kelly has absolutely no support in the parliamentary Labour Party and the support of only a small minority of councillors. There is not a single other parliamentary party member who supports the challenge, said Mr Howlin. He has the support of a minority of councillors. We have had no formal proposition to the Central Council. On Tipp FM, Mr Kelly said the party under Mr Howlin was not relevant and not connecting with the people and he said he agreed with the call of party councillors for a change of leader. Asked if he feels the time has come for Mr Howlin to go, Mr Kelly said: I certainly think we are in a very difficult situation. We need to change the direction of the party, we need a new vision, we need far more energy and ensure with that change we bring people with us. And at this moment that is not happening and I am not seeing anything to make it happen. So it does need that significant change, yes. I agree with the councillors who have come out that we need to talk about how we are going to change the party and as part of that we need to talk about the leadership. Mr Howlin, who is a TD for Wexford, said it is entirely premature to talk of leadership change. Most people in the party want us to get on with the job and certainly do not want us to go down the rabbit hole of some contest. Bluntly, my call is simple, we dont need this distraction now and we have to unite for the good of the party. Party chairman Willie Penrose also expressed his deep disappointment in Mr Kellys actions. The Labour Party has had three leaders in the space of five years, he said. Having a fourth leader is not going to magically improve our poll ratings. By Olivia Kelleher A priest who has served for more than 40 years in the Diocese of Cloyne plans to commemorate victims of mother and baby homes and of clerical sex abuse at a Mass in Youghal tomorrow. He said he has never been able to comprehend individuals who hurt children. Canon David Herlihy said he was moved to hold the remembrance after a protest group hung childrens shoes on the church railings as part of a national statement during the Popes visit. He decided it would be appropriate to bring the shoes up during the offertory procession and to have a little place at the altar and some prayers for the victims and the survivors of abuse. All those who are hurting so grievously and who need some gesture and some beginning of healing thats what it was all about, said Canon Herlihy. He said that, in his years as a priest, he was not aware of the moving around of paedophile priests who were preying on children. In a follow-up to yesterdays story in the Irish Examiner, he told Corks 96FM that he was 15 to 20 years into the priesthood before he even knew what being a paedophile involved. I remember innocently asking another priest: What is it? When it came to light I was appalled, he said. I know I can say, hand on heart, that I love children and I had 28 nieces and nephews, loving them all. I feel like half a human being at the minute because you are so careful about your behaviour and when you are around children. He said he later realised he knew some of the priests in the Cloyne Report. I actually shared a house with one of them for four years, he said. I did not have any suspicions whatsoever. Canon Herlihy said he was saddened by what had occurred and had lost a degree of hope. What really had a huge impact on me is the never-ending stream of bad publicity, which is disheartening, can make you lose hope and focus, he said. You can be badly affected by it, the relentless nature of revelations and so on. But thats tiny in relation to the hurt, suffering, and pain of those who have been abused. Canon Herlihy said what he had decided to do was a tiny, tiny gesture. Its only a small thing on Sunday but hopefully it will lead to better things, he said. If we went over yesterday [Thursday] and took down the shoes again, what would it lead to? Making the situation 10 times worse and leading to the pain and upset in people. That will achieve nothing and we must try and move forward. Small steps at a time, just like the little baby shoes. Please God, some time into the future that it will lead to something greater. The Mass will take place at noon tomorrow in St Marys Church in Youghal. The group Standing4-women organised the shoe protest. Communications Minister Denis Naughten is set to be grilled over the planned closure of rural post offices as TDs threaten to pull support for the Government. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe insisted he would stand by his colleagues plans to shut 160 offices, part of cost-saving proposals to save the postal system. Mr Naughten will appear before the Oireachtas communications committee next week, to answer questions about the deal done and the fear businesses will close and jobs will be lost. Committee chairwoman Hildegarde Naughton TD said: While we [the committee] understand the need for An Post to develop a strategic plan for the future viability of the network, we are also keenly aware that post offices are part of the social fabric of many rural communities, providing important services, particularly for many older and marginalised people. The finance minister was forced to defend the plan yesterday after suggestions that rural TDs who have stood by the Government could remove their support. Independent Clare TD Michael Harty said he would not support the budget unless the closures were stopped. The communities that are going to lose their post offices feel that there is going to be a cascade hitting their economic viability, he said. Once the post office goes, the last financial pillar in a community, the footfall in the town begins to decline. Shops are going to lose business as will pharmacies, because people will move to the next town where a post office is available. Fianna Fail TDs have also said closures will be negotiated with the Government as part of budget talks. Almost 8,000 patients were stuck on trolleys waiting for a hospital bed in the worst August on record for overcrowding. The traditionally quiet August is now as bad as the worst month in 2014, when the problem was called a crisis and then health minister Leo Varadkar set up the emergency department taskforce in response. Numbers have risen each year since. On average there were 1,000 more patients on trolleys each month to date this year than in the same period last year. Thirty of the patients on trolleys in August were children. Health Minister Simon Harris is convening an unscheduled care forum next Tuesday, when he will meet frontline health and community care workers to hear their views. The HSE said it is looking for new ideas and suggestions for improvement in the area of unscheduled care. These ideas and suggestions will then be brought to the emergency department taskforce implementation group meeting as scheduled for September. However, health chiefs are running out of time before the usual winter escalation. Phil Ni Sheaghdha, general secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, said there was no mystery around one of the key contributors to the problem, that of chronic understaffing. Without sufficient nurses, emergency departments can not work through patient backlogs quickly enough and can not make available a full complement of beds in wards even if there is capacity. The message from the frontline is clear, she said. This all comes down to pay. The HSE simply can not find enough nurses and midwives to work on these wages. Its no coincidence that University Hospital Limerick has had such a bad month [969 on trolleys] as they have over 70 unfilled nursing vacancies. Emergency departments are short 220 nurses but there are 2,500 fewer nurses in the health service than 10 years ago. Some of the shortage is due to recruitment caps but even where posts have been sanctioned, vacancies are hard to fill, leaving doubts over whether the ministers promise to provide 2,600 extra hospital beds by 2030 is realistic. Stephen McMahon of the Irish Patients Association also questioned the need for next weeks forum. He called instead for the taskforce meeting due for September 27 to be brought forward to deal with the crisis. Theyre calling a meeting about a meeting when there were 98,981 patients left waiting on trolleys last year and this years heading to be worse again. Were four years into the taskforce and yet we still seem to be sitting down to discuss reform. We shouldnt be looking for ideas. Weve had ideas. Theres supposed to be an escalation policy with a suite of measures for hospitals to take when the emergency departments start reaching over capacity but theyre not applied across the board and we dont get feedback when they are applied, he said. Mr Harris says he hopes to frontload 2,600 extra beds by bringing the bulk into use in the next few years, and is planning the provision of 4,500 extra social care beds by 2030 to provide step-down care that would enable patients who are recovering but need some care to vacate acute hospital beds sooner. The actress is the brand ambassador of Jio MAMI Festivals Word-to-Screen Initiative. Sonam Kapoor, whos just started shooting for The Zoya Factor, a film based on a novel bearing the same name, believes that a film inspired by literature never fails to impress. The talented actress has been named the brand ambassador of the Jio MAMI Festivals Word-to-Screen Initiative. Its sad that a lot of young people dont read books. We want to promote the idea that its from books that we get amazing films. Some of the best films in Bollywood and Hollywood have been based on books, Sonam says. She and her sister, producer Rhea Kapoor, have bought the filming rights of two books Battle for Bittora and Govinda. I read a lot of books. We started filming Zoya Factor yesterday, and Ive bought the rights to Battle for Bittora. Hopefully, we will start filming that as well. I truly believe some of the best content comes from books. Authors are the true heroes of our times, Sonam adds. The actress will soon be seen in Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga. Laptops with two screens, smart cooking, and Polaroids comeback star at show, writes Noel Campion WHILE the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas at the start of the year is the biggest tech show in the world, the IFA 2018 in Berlin is giving its US counterpart a run for its money. Featuring everything from wifi fridges to smartphones, well-known companies like Huawei, Sony, and Samsung to brand new start-ups are all present. Apple will have its own reveal event in Cupertino, California, on September 12, launching what is expected to be three iPhones and an iPad Pro model. Chinas Huawei, now ahead of Apple in smartphone sales, unveiled the Mate 20 lite the first device to be launched from the much-anticipated Mate 20 series. Equipped with four cameras for professional photography, the Mate 20 lite uses AI technology with high-performance hardware, smart battery management, and a stylish design. The Huawei Mate 20 lite will be available for 429 sim free in October. Huawei also unveiled the Kirin 980 CPU, which features the worlds first 7nm processor, allowing it to manufacture phones with more features and options for increasing things like battery capacity. It will launch flagship devices, along with the Kirin 980, on October 16. Another interesting Huawei device coming soon is its AI Cube with Alexa built-in. This has a high-speed, 4G internet router built in for anytime and anywhere revolutionary for those who find it difficult to get broadband in their area. Sonys FES Watch U uses active matrix flexible e-Paper in both the face and strap to allow the wearer to fully customise the design of the watch to complement their fashion, mood, and attitude. Designs can differ on both the face and the strap and a range of more than 100 preloaded designs are available in the dedicated FES Closet app. Sony FES Watch U: Allows wearer to fully customise the design of the watch to complement their fashion, mood, and attitude. The FES watch U is Android and iOS compatible and has an IPX5/7 waterproof rating and is priced at approximately stg529 and 699 (591 and 781) respectively. Sony unveiled the Xperia XZ3 smartphone, its first phone to offer a Sony 6in 18:9 QHD+ HDR OLED display, powered by Sonys Bravia OLED TV technologies. A 19MP motion eye main camera and 13MP front camera feature 4K HDR movie recording, full HD 960FPS super-slow motion, and advanced 3D creator now with facial expressions. Samsung announced the first 8K TV with the unveiling of the Q900R QLED 8K complete with 8K AI upscaling that makes even non-4K content look better. Available in four screen sizes (65in, 75in, 82in, and 85in), the 8K TV will feature Real 8K Resolution, Q HDR 8K, and Quantum Processor 8K, all created to bring 8K-quality images to life. The TV will be available in Ireland from the middle of next month. Lots of new kitchen appliances were unveiled at the show, including SenseFry, the Electrolux smart hob. Accurate timing and intelligent temperature control help prepare dishes perfectly using a touchscreen to choose cooking programs. Do you want to prepare two dishes in the oven with different temperatures? Samsung Dual Cook Flex has a flexible door and dual-cook function and with the Cooking Guide, you can also receive recommendations on which oven to use based on the food ingredients and the type of cooking. Siemens had an impressive Free Induction Plus hob, on which up to six pots and pans of any size and shape can be placed and moved freely. There are 56 oval micro-inductors, which automatically detect where the cookware is and what shape it has. It registers immediately when a pot is moved to a new location and automatically takes all heat settings with it. Lenovo, meanwhile, launched the worlds first laptop featuring two large screens. The Yogo Book C930 features two screens, one of which doubles up as a digital keyboard or e-reader. It also comes with a bluetooth pen to write on the screen. It will be available at the end of this month with a starting price of 1,000. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme combines the dreams of the business world with the wishes of the home user. High-quality aluminium housing, low weight, and up to 15 hours of battery life make this a dream for architects, graphic designers, and other professionals who also like to game in their off-time. Prices start at 1,695. Polaroid is slowly making a comeback with new products like the Polaroid Mint Instant Print Camera, which features a vertical, smartphone-style design. This modern take on instant print features high-quality photos that are vibrant and colourful. An automatic flash, integrated selfie mirror, and three distinct picture modes make it easy to share photos instantly online. Cancer patients are facing the additional stress and financial worry of up to 800 in inpatient charges per year, according to the Irish Cancer Society. With some patients ending up in receipt of correspondence from debt-collection agencies, Irish Cancer Society chief executive Averil Power has said the Government should axe the charges in the upcoming budget. The organisation has launched a petition calling for the charges to be abolished. Under the current system, patients pay 80 for an inpatient visit, including day cases for cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, which typically takes a few hours. The charges are capped at 10 visits, or 800 per calendar year, for people without a medical card or private health insurance, but where treatment runs into a second calendar year, a patient may end up paying an additional 800, depending on the number of treatment sessions required. The charge increased by 5 to 80 in January 2017. Ms Power said they can become onerous on a family already dealing with cancer. Inpatient charges of up to 800 a year can be crippling for families struggling to make ends meet while also trying to cope with the physical and emotional impact of cancer, she said. If patient charges arent paid within seven weeks, they can be referred to a debt-collection agency by the hospital. This practice causes needless stress and fear for patients and must be stopped. It is the last thing any patient needs while having treatment for cancer. In some cases of excessive hardship, hospitals may either waive the charge or agree instalment plans with patients. However, these arrangements are at the discretion of the hospital, and it is unclear what constitutes hardship. This also places an unfair administrative burden on patients on top of an already unfair charge. Marie Moran, a breast cancer survivor from Mayo, was diagnosed when 32 weeks pregnant. She recalled: The first I knew of inpatient charges was when the bills arrived. I was in the process of applying for a medical card so, in the hope that it would come through, I didnt pay the charges. When the bills turned into final notices, it caused me so much stress and worry at an already difficult time. Eventually the hospital agreed to waive the charges. However, I still received a couple of chase-up letters demanding payment which was really upsetting and stressful. I was already fighting cancer with a new baby, I didnt need the additional fear of debt collectors knocking at my door. The estimated cost of abolishing the charge is between 21m and 27.5m. Irish Water has said it is now halfway to creating a sewage-free Cork Lower Harbour, removing 20,000 wheelie bins of raw sewage which had been entering the area every day. The utility said that when the Cork Lower Harbour Main Drainage Project started in 2015, the equivalent of 40,000 bins of sewage was being discharged into it daily. We have now reduced this figure to 20,000 by building a new wastewater treatment plant in Shanbally, and repairing and extending the sewer network to connect more harbour areas to the plant, Irish Water said. We are now halfway towards our goal which is a sewage-free harbour by 2021. This will bring major benefits for all by enhancing the harbours amenity value and providing the infrastructure to enable the future growth and development of communities in the Lower Harbour area. It will also ensure that we are compliant with all European and national legislation in relation to the treatment of wastewater. Irish Water said that, while it had been endeavouring to create a conversation around the project in the Lower Harbour area there was always going to be an impact on the community as a result of the project. This is an incredibly important project with massive benefits for everyone living in the lower harbour area for many years to come, said project manager Deaglan Healy. As with any development of this scale however, some disruption is unavoidable. We are very conscious of this and it is our top priority to do everything we can to minimise it, while also delivering this project on time and to the highest standard, he said. There has been ongoing controversy over the impact the works have had on homes and businesses in parts of the Lower Harbour including areas such as Passage West, not least due to traffic disruption through road closures. We are engaged in an ongoing conversation with people in Ringaskiddy, Carrigaline, Rafeen, Shanbally, Passage West, Glenbrook, Monkstown people living in the Lower Harbour area to allow us understand their needs and concerns and to communicate the long-term benefits that a sewage free harbour will have for all of us who live and work here, said Mr Healy. We are using all the means at our disposal to help us carry on this conversation, from radio, newspapers and social media to ongoing direct engagement with all the local communities affected, he said. By Conor Kane Would-be presidential candidate Kevin Sharkey has said he was called the N-word just six weeks ago and made a plea to be nominated as Irelands first black president to send out a message to racists. Mr Sharkey, an artist and activist, was one of five people to address Kilkenny County Council yesterday in search of a place on the ballot paper for the presidential election. Dragons Den judge Gavin Duffy, senator and Pieta House founder Joan Freeman, and musician Jimmy Smyth also addressed the councillors. There was also a pitch from Seamus Nolan, representing the William Delaney 1957-1970 campaign, to highlight the case of a young boy who died in state care, three years after his incarceration at the age of nine for stealing a loaf of bread. Kilkenny County Council will hold another meeting on Monday, September 10, to hear from other candidates, including Sarah Louise Mulligan, Gemma ODoherty, and another Dragon, Peter Casey. A third Dragon, Sean Gallagher, was not one of the names put before councillors as seeking their nomination. During his pitch, Mr Sharkey referred to his work highlighting institutional abuse, following his sexual abuse ordeal as a child, and said he was the first man in Ireland to call for the legalisation of civil partnerships for gay people, 12 years ago. I still believe that, to this day, I played a large part in opening up this conversation, he said. He gets asked a lot about racism, he said, describing it as one of the most awful things you could experience and said: I got called a n****r six weeks ago, where I live. To nominate a black president in Ireland, by the people, I can think of no better message to send, not only to the racists, but the people coming here looking for a better life. Ms Freeman said she has been campaigning on mental health from the age of 17. Im standing here because I want to lead this country into a better way of life, she said, adding that mental health and issues surrounding growing old are among her key concerns. Our country can lead among the global partners and be the experts in health and wellbeing, she said. Ms Freeman wants to hold a presidential forum on the issue and champion all organisations who deal with elderly people and mental health. Mr Duffy said he wants to harness the type of soft power enjoyed by Irish presidents, exemplified by Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese in their work with the disenfranchised and in the North but which is not specifically written into the Constitution. All my life I have helped people to develop and express their talents, he said, referring to his work with businesspeople, politicians, young people, and the new Irish who have come here from other countries. Like me, they have all had one thing in common: The dream to make a difference. With that experience, I believe I am ideally suited to harness the presidencys soft power for the benefit of our people, but within the Constitutional framework. Referring to his association with the Ward Union Hunt in north Co Dublin, Mr Duffy said he was never a member, but defended the group because of his concern for the native Irish red deer herd. On his fellow Dragons in the nominations race, Mr Duffy said: I can understand the public being bemused, but Im the one who turned up here today. Im serious about this. Update: Derek Cooper has been found safe and well. Gardai have thanked the public for their assistance. Earlier - August 31: Gardai are seeking the public's help in locating 17-year-old Derek Cooper who is missing from the Croom area of Limerick. Derek, who has been missing since August 25, is described as being 5 foot in height, with greyish/brown hair, of slim build and with brown eyes. Anyone with information on his whereabouts are asked to contact gardai in Roxboro Road on 061 214340. Digital Desk In excess of 500m worth of drugs have been seized by European law enforcement agencies since the start of the year, reflecting a substantial increase in trafficking across the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The tally includes Wednesdays haul in England of more than one tonne of cocaine, which was intercepted with the assistance of the Irish navy and air corps and the seizure over a fortnight ago of 133kg of cocaine on a ship in Costa Rica that was bound for Cork. Police officers in Europe are concerned at what has been described as a tsunami of cocaine being supplied into Western Europe from South and Central America. Production of cocaine has increased in South America and despite the rise in interceptions by European agencies, police believe that huge quantities of the drug are still making it into ports. The operation that culminated in Wednesdays haul stemmed from intelligence gathered by the British National Crime Agency and was co-ordinated by the EUs Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre-Narcotics (MAOC-N). The Irish naval service and air corps conducted a surveillance operation on a catamaran, the Nomad, across 300km of Irish-monitored waters before British border units took charge and brought it into Cornwall. The Irish Examiner understands that British authorities uncovered in excess of a tonne of cocaine inside the yacht. That would have an estimated street value of around 75m. However, given the purity is likely to be 70%-80%, it would have been diluted, boosting the value. Sources said that in excess of half a billion euro worth of cocaine and cannabis has been seized by European agencies in the Atlantic and Mediterranean so far this year. It is expected to hit the billion euro mark before the end of the year. Sources said there has been an increase in trafficking and seizures. There has been an increase in the production of cocaine in South America and there is a tsunami of cocaine coming in, said one source. We are taking a lot out, but a lot is getting through. Last month, 133kg of cocaine was found inside a container of a ship in Costa Rica that was bound for Cork. The lions share of the cocaine was believed to be for Kinahan cartel personnel. MAOC-N is an EU taskforce comprising seven member states: France, Ireland, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the UK. Speaking on Morning Ireland, Captain Brian Fitzgerald from the Irish Naval Service said it was a complex operation. He said the navy ship had to find the yacht and identify it and, between it and the air corps, stay with it without blowing their cover. Whats extraordinary is that this yacht went from one extremity of Irish waters, more than 200 miles west of Ireland, went directly through, it was like route one through Irish maritime area, all the way across, got to UK waters, and UK border force took the baton, he said. It tells us the transportation of illegal drugs through waters, into the western approach into Europe, remains a real and present danger. Recently, while channel surfing one evening, I happened upon one of the movies from the Sex and the City franchise. Specifically, Sex and the City 2. I really wish I had surfed on by but it reeled me in with gentle whispers of Dior and Manolo. This year, the series marked its twentieth anniversary. Watching Carrie et al as a teenager is very different to watching the same group as a mid-thirtysomething. Whereas once I had looked upon the character of Carrie with nauseating levels of reverence, it was now apparent that she was, in fact, not very likeable at all. She was self-involved, whiny and had led me to believe that a career in writing would see me sitting on a plush chair, in front of a picture-perfect New York window, wrapped in a cashmere confection, swigging Pellegrino like it was tap water and tapping out my thoughts to an audience who would hang on my every word. So, I did what I usually do. I took to Instagram and put it to the people. I asked them if they had watched the show, what did it mean to them and why? The messages, and even emails, began to pour in. The general consensus and underlying theme as to why we all loved the show so much was essentially the same. It gave us all of the Fs Firsts, Friendships and Fashion. It also gave us New York. Here, was a show, unapologetically, well unapologetic! It was messy, it was brazen, it was loud and it was fun. It was impossible to quell the anticipation each week as the HBO logo flashed onto the screen. If Dawsons Creek marked my teenage years, Sex and the City did the same as I transitioned into adulthood. As a show, it was not without problems; it was considerably lacking in diversity and purported a lifestyle that was wildly unattainable at best. What it did however, was offer us a dialogue surrounding relationships and single life which was addressed candidly and presented without the oh woe is me rhetoric which had so dominated previous TV offerings. It embraced women who were ambitious in their careers. It embraced the women who wanted to raise a family. It embraced married life, singledom, do whatever the hell you want dom equally. The message was clear: be whoever you want to be but do it for you It did not shy away from issues which no other primetime show had previously tackled so honestly; abortion, cancer, miscarriage, loneliness, financial instability, break-ups, make-ups, dependency, infertility, divorce We wept, we laughed we coveted Manolos like a child covets an impulse purchase of a lusted after bag of Skittles. We hurled abuse at the screen, we called our friends as the closing credit rolled: too impatient to wait for a full debrief the following day. It was sharp, it was funny and it was damn good. It made me feel that adulthood could still be messy and I could make it through. Albeit, not allowing for the guzzling of copious amounts of Pellegrino due to the budgetary constraints of student life. It was a love letter to women everywhere. One which told us, It will be ok. You, will be ok. The year I got married coincided with the release of the first instalment of the movie franchise. A group of us raced to the cinema, all dressed as one of the characters, on the opening day. We had waited so long to see those four women reprise their roles and reassure us once more that we could indeed conquer whatever path in life we chose to. I also felt that here, was the opportunity to make amends for a flagging last series; this was to be our proper goodbye. Alas, it was not to be. It limped pathetically onto the screen looking sadder than a bootleg Manolo. To say I wish the movies never happened is an understatement. To say I wish the final series had not become so focused on the idea that all of the women should be in a relationship is another. Instead of the movies, I wish they had invested more in the final series, paying homage to the early greatness of the show and the reasons for why we all fell so in love with it. Shoulda, woulda, coulda! I will, however, be forever be grateful to that show, not for allowing me to dream but for making me believe. Believe that I could do anything, be anything and wear anything without giving a fig as to how I was perceived. It allowed us to write our own story however the hell we wanted to, in our own time and on our own terms. As the opening line of the pilot goes, Once upon a time @thegirlinthepaper Should you be blessed with the confidence and competence to consider yourself a suitable fit for the role, here are some of the previous office holders credentials, writes Joyce Fegan. If youre ever looking to get a bit of publicity in Ireland, deciding to run for president isnt a bad way to go about it. Seriously, you could go viral on Twitter if you annoy the right people. You may even spawn a hashtag. Stranger things have happened. Youll be guaranteed plenty of time on the airwaves, no matter your gender, and your face and name will be splashed across all of the papers. This is especially a good idea if youre, say, I dont know, a business person, maybe even a businessman, with lots of different interests and who understands the importance of networking and profile-building in order to balance the books, increase brand awareness, and even attract investors. Now, it doesnt technically matter if you dont really see yourself parked up in the Park, its all publicity, as they say publicity that can be stoked up in the run-up to an election and then stored away like surplus grain for future endeavours, for life after your unsuccessful Aras bid. Now men of business aside, these presidential bids (lets call them publicity bids for the time being), are also useful for those who have no earthly intention of actually acting as the Head of State, but who have an agenda, they want airing. Say you happen to be of a certain orthodoxy or of a particular political leaning, and the leaning is such that quotes about it usually ends up on the cutting-room floor, only because the lawyers or experts were in a publicity bid might just be an excellent vehicle to get your message out there. Why are you running for President of Ireland? Marian Finucane will ask you, and you can reply: Im running for President to make Ireland carbon-neutral and plastic-free, or I want to be the President that gets Ireland out from under the oppressive rule of the European Union. Whatever your agenda, it doesnt matter too much, because youll still get it plenty of airtime through your publicity bid and if you ever did make it to Phoenix Park, worry not because, thanks to Articles 12, 13, and 14 of Bunreacht na hEireann, you wont ever have to act on any of your promises. A run for the Aras might also suit those looking to flog tickets to a show, shift a few books, or re-energise their personal brand if theyve spent a considerable amount of time abroad, like enough not to have paid any taxes here for a while. One last little tip: A really useful way to drum up publicity is to go with the drip-feed reveal effect think Steve Jobs and the old iPhone launches. You leak snippets of information here and there to hungry journalists. Suddenly youre on everyones lips. Will he? Wont he? I saw his face on posters when I was collecting the Mass booklets for my wedding in the local printers, the anonymous source in the newspaper article will say. You can come out then and neither confirm, nor deny it. Curiosity is the nature of our beast, the speculation will drive the electorate, the editors, the shopkeepers and the water-cooler colleagues mad. But say you really are considering running for President of Ireland, and not for the publicity the race might afford you but, you know, to actually be Uachtarain na hEireann, what traits should you possess? Since the creation of the office in 1938, we, the people of Ireland, have directly elected nine different candidates to the highest office in our land; seven have been men and two have been women. The people of Ireland have a particular taste when it comes to presidents. Should you be blessed with the confidence and competence to consider yourself a suitable fit for the role, here are some of the previous office holders credentials, which include time spent as ministers, prime ministers, attorney generals, and university professors. Douglas Hyde (1938-1945): A senator, speaker of several languages and university professor; Sean T OKelly (1945-1959): A TD, a government minister several times over and a tanaiste; Eamon de Valera (1959-1973): A revolutionary, founder of Fianna Fail and taoiseach; Erksine Chidlers (1973-1974): A TD, a government minister multiple times, and another tanaiste; Cearbhall O Dalaigh (1974-1976): A barrister, the youngest ever attorney general at 35 and the youngest appointee to the Supreme Court in 1953 at 50; Patrick Hillery (1976-1990): A medical doctor, a TD, a minister for eduction among other portfolios and EU Commissioner for Social Affairs; Mary Robinson (1990-1997): A barrister, senator, and human rights activist, instrumental in decriminalising homosexuality; Mary McAleese (1997-2011): A barrister and a professor of law; Michael D Higgins (2011-present): An academic, a poet, a speaker of several languages, a TD, a senator, and another human rights activist. Credentials aside, because the Irish dont vote on CV alone, here are a handful of quotes used to describe some of our previous presidents. Mr Hillery was described as being modest, unassuming, being independent of thought, and possessing both dignity and integrity. Mr O Dalaigh was considered intellectually brilliant and as having a brilliant legal mind. Ms McAleese was dubbed a champion of equality. Ms Robinson was named Irelands most inspirational woman. And lastly here are just some of the ways their presidencies were described: Mr Hyde was known for his religious tolerance and inclusivity; Mr Childers intention for the office was to not create division but to encourage enlightened examination, and Ms McAleese was known for building bridges. If you still feel up to task and possess any of the above characteristics or credentials, all youll need to officially enter the publicity sorry presidential race is either the backing of four local authorities or 20 members of the Oireachtas. We will be going to the polls on October 26, to vote for our next president, the tenth President of Ireland, and who knows, in this climate of unpredictability, it could be you. Wow,My God!What are terrible!Really?I can't believe it! According to a report by Reuters, the United States' top spy watchdog claimed that Chinese espionage agencies are using fake LinkedIn accounts in an attempt to recruit Americans with access to government and commercial secrets. William Evanina, the United States' counter-intelligence chief, reportedly said that intelligence and law enforcement officials have told LinkedIn, owned by Microsoft, about China's 'super aggressive' efforts and told the company to shut them down. Reuters reports that Evanina declined to say how many fake accounts U.S. intelligence had discovered, how many Americans were contacted and how successful the Chinese operation has been. https://lnkd.in/gVXBWSj... http://www.wochit.com Makroo, Zubair Ahmad Bhat, Ghulam Mohammad Dar, Arif Hussain Shanker, Asif Rafiq, Nasir Ahmad and Yasir Arfat Bhat. The end to the crisis came in reciprocation to the police releasing militants arrested relatives. (Representational Image/ Photo: PTI) Srinagar: After a three-day-long hostage drama, militants have released the relatives of Jammu and Kashmir policemen whom they had abducted from various places in south Kashmir. The police confirmed on Friday night that militants have released three of its men and eight relatives of other policemen abducted from different parts of south Kashmir earlier this week. The end to the crisis came in reciprocation to the police releasing militants arrested relatives. Late in the evening, Hizbul Mujahideens operational commander Riyaz Ahmad Naikoo, in a new audio released through social media, said that all the relatives of policemen abducted by its cadres have been released. We have let off all your relatives. They were picked up so that you realise the trauma of those families whose kith and kin are taken away from their mothers and families, Naikoo said, while setting a three-day deadline for police to release relatives of militants and innocent youth. Those who have been set free unharmed include sub-inspector Irfan Gulzar, special police officer (SPO) Javeed Ahmad Dar and constable Shabir Ahmad Zargar and other policemens relatives identified as Adnan Ashraf Shah, Faizan Bashir Makroo, Zubair Ahmad Bhat, Ghulam Mohammad Dar, Arif Hussain Shanker, Asif Rafiq, Nasir Ahmad and Yasir Arfat Bhat Meanwhile, unknown gunmen on Friday evening kidnapped the son of a CRPF official in Gadseer village in Bijbehara in Anantnag district. The reports said that the masked gunmen barged inside the house of a CRPF man Farooq Ahmad Bhat at Gadseer and abducted his son Shariq Ahmad Bhat. Over the past three days, suspected militants abducted as many as 11 family members of six policemen from different parts of south Kashmir. The police, however, confirmed only seven such kidnappings. Reports from the area said that the masked men barged into the houses of these policemen in the district of Pulwama, Shopian, Anantnag and Kulgam and took their kin with them at gun point. The authorities had sounded high alert across the Kashmir Valley, the hotbed of militancy, after the abduction of civilians connected directly or indirectly with the local policemen. The police had last week in the wake of a series of attacks on policemen by militants said that it had devised a new strategy for the men in uniform wanting to visit their families during special occasions and emergencies. The abduction of policemens kin took place amid reports of the police taking the father of top Hizb commander Naikoo into custody from his residence at Beigh Pora in Awantipore area of Pulwama district late Wednesday night. The officials said that Assadullah Naikoo, 70, had been detained for questioning and was allowed to go home on Friday. The father and two brothers of another militant commander Lateef Ahmed alias Tiger were also detained during a nocturnal raid in their house in Pulwamas Dogri Pora village. The family told reporters that Ahmeds father Ghulam Hassan and his two brothers Zubair and Nadeem Ahmad were taken to an unknown place by the police. As he prepares to swear allegiance to the Irish State and take over as Garda commissioner, are there conflicts of interest surrounding former PSNI deputy chief Drew Harris, asks Security Correspondent, Cormac OKeeffe Many people will want Drew Harris to fail. That was what one seasoned Garda source told the Irish Examiner. Conspiratorial talk often circulates when a new commissioner is about to take over. But it is fair to say that it has reached a different level with the appointment of Harris. Numerous Garda sources have raised serious concerns at the former PSNI deputy constable being given the job. He will be the first person from a foreign police force to head An Garda Siochana. The 53-year-old comes from a family with a tradition of service in the RUC and then the PSNI. He joined the RUC in 1983. In 1989, his father, Alwyn, a senior RUC officer, was killed by the Provisional IRA in an under-car bomb, which also injured his mother. He received an OBE from Queen Elizabeth in 2010. When he was assistant chief constable, between 2006 and 2014, Harris was in charge of intelligence gathering and covert and overt operations against crime gangs and dissident republicans. He told the Smithwick Tribunal (investigating allegations of collusion by gardai in the murders of two senior RUC officers) he was responsible for the interface with the Security Service, also known as MI5. In his 11th-hour appearance at the tribunal in September 2012 (which started in 2005) he dramatically revealed he had intelligence relating to collusion involving a garda and the Provisional IRA in the killing of Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan in March 1989 in south Armagh, after they left a meeting at Dundalk Garda Station. He said the intelligence from MI5 and PSNI was accurate and reliable. The garda was unnamed, but it left a question mark over all gardai, serving and retired, at the station, which was on the frontline in the fight against the Provisional IRA and its successors. While Judge Peter Smithwick did not find direct evidence of collusion, he did conclude on balance that someone in Dundalk Garda Station did collude. Gardai were furious at the evidence, describing it in the tribunal as nonsense on stilts. One garda, heavily critical of Harriss appointment, said: He was parachuted in in the 11th hour with top-secret information and blows the Garda case [of no collusion] wide open and inflicts huge reputational damage to the gardai around Dundalk. He pits himself against the Garda, and now he has taken over the Garda. What is he now going to say to gardai in Dundalk? A second Garda source, also critical of his appointment, said that evidence at Smithwick aggravated and annoyed the Garda Security Service. On Thursday, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan issued a robust defence of the choice of Harris as commissioner, pointing out that it was the result of an independent appointments process operating under the Policing Authority. Flanagan rejected any suggested slur that Harris was an outsider, adding forcefully that hes an Irishman and that he was satisfied he would make an excellent commissioner. A retired senior garda said: No one is doubting he is Irish, but he is a member of what they call the Crown Forces. He served all his life for the British police service and MI5. His security and that of his family is owed to the PSNI and MI5. He was trained by them and answered to them. Its as simple as that. Other sources point out that no other security service would appoint either a foreigner or someone who worked in a foreign security service as head of their security service. Sources said there are reasons why you want to keep information, and the sources of your information, secret from foreign security services. One source pointed out that Garda Security & Intelligence may have sources across the border, possibly in government and civil service areas. They now see the former deputy head of the PSNI as head of the gardai, he said. What will they make of that? Another source said that, as Garda commissioner, Harris will have full access to security information. He is commissioner and head of security, unless that changes [referring to the Policing Commission report which is examining separating security from the gardai]. He will be briefed fully. I cant see any other way. He is head of state security and, in turn, has to brief the Government. He cant be half-briefed or quarter-briefed. A source also expressed concern at our international reputation, with foreign security services confused that a senior UK officer is now head of our security service. A case was recently taken in the High Court by Belfast man Ciaran MacAirt seeking a judicial review of the appointment, citing his lack of independence due to his former roles. The court rejected the application. Sources critical of the appointment, who spoke to the Irish Examiner, stress they are not critical of the man, rather the job he comes from. Hes a very honourable man, a hard-working person who has seen a lot, said one. One detective pointed out that Harris was very supportive to the gardai in their investigation into the murder of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe in January 2013. Another garda, who has worked with Harris, said: He was well regarded, though there were mixed views, which is normal. This individual added: He worked very closely with MI5. There may be questions but you have to trust and depend on his integrity. Sources said intelligence Harris has from his previous job must now be passed on to gardai. He claims to be in possession of information into the murder of two RUC men and a garda, current or retired, who could be prosecuted for conspiracy to murder or even murder, said one source. Hes now in charge of the gardai and his first duty on September 3 is to tell investigators that Joe Bloggs was involved. He said the same was true in relation to the murder of Tom Oliver, a Louth farmer tortured and murdered in July 1991 by the Provisional IRA, which claimed he was passing information to the gardai. His family denied this. During the Smithwick Tribunal, Harris wrote the name of the suspected killer on a note and handed it to the judge. If he has information about a murder, it is his sworn duty to pass it on, said a source. He cant have it both ways. On top of these issues, there are campaigns by a variety of groups, including the cross-border Relatives for Justice Group. They called for Harriss resignation after a High Court judgment in 2017. Harris was in charge of the PSNI Historic Inquiries Team and the Belfast court ruled against him for refusing to consider an overview investigation into State collusion with the notorious Glenanne gang in the 1970s. This same gang has been linked to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and groups such as Justice for the Forgotten are seeking access to official files. One garda said: If he has information on this, he cant hold on to it. The Omagh Support and Self Help Group told the Irish Examiner earlier this month that Harris was part of the PSNI which had frustrated their efforts to get access to documents. The group said Harris could now, as commissioner, decide to help them to get to the truth. Harris is still obliged to adhere to the British Official Secrets Act, yet will be swearing his oath of allegiance to the Irish State after midnight on Sunday, when he will also sign the Irish Official Secrets Act. It is likely that when he takes media questions on Tuesday, he will be pressed for clarity on his position on all these matters. However, many Garda sources are supportive of Harris and do not see any major conflict. I dont see why he wont be anything other than good for the organisation, said one senior officer not attached to Garda HQ. You take the man at face value and as a professional policeman. He would not have taken this job unless he thought it through. At least give him a chance. A week out from the Aras election in 2011, Sean Gallagher was miles ahead in the polls. Why is he back for another shot, asks Michael Clifford. Is Sean Gallagher pursuing restitution? Is he running for President because he feels he was shafted last time out and believes he is entitled to another show? The announcement on Wednesday that the businessman was entering the race for the Aras came as no surprise. But why? Does he really believe he can recreate the conditions that brought him within touching distance of a massive political upset? Maybe so, and maybe he can finish the job this time around. On the morning of Sunday, October 23, 2011, Gallagher was a short-order bet to be elected President of Ireland the following Thursday. As history records, that didnt happen. What history cannot record is whether what was to transpire over the coming days rendered Gallaghers candidacy a case of one in which he could have been president, or a case of he should have been President. On that Sunday morning, two opinion polls had him taking a nearly unassailable lead in the race for the Aras. A Sunday Times Behaviour & Attitudes poll had Gallagher on 38%, with Michael D Higgins a poor second on 26%. The Sunday Business Post Red C poll regarded as the most accurate due to its frequency and tracking had Gallagher leading Higgins by 41% to 26%. In third place in the field of seven candidates was Sinn Feins Martin McGuinness on 13%. On those figures, Gallagher looked home and hosed. That evening, Michael D was filmed canvassing on Grafton St for RTEs Six One News. He appeared spooked. He spoke to the camera in a voice with the heightened pitch of one trying to keep panic at bay: I am saying that I am more substantial and I am clearly the better candidate. He described himself as somebody who never had a share, never had a company. Over the previous few days questions had arisen about some of Gallaghers business dealings. When I had the opportunity of being minister I founded a television station, I refunded the film industry, I built these canals, the Chester Beatty Library, Collins Barracks, 17 theatres, said Higgins. Thats real, you dont have to go searching in the Companies Office to find that. Gallagher wasnt taking the bait. That evening he was canvassing in Roscommon. When his spokesman was asked for a comment on what Higgins had said, he simply replied: His [Gallaghers] campaign has always had a positive approach. Thats at the core of what hes about. If candidates want to make comments about him thats something the public will have to make a judgment on. Higgins and his campaign team were not the only ones panicking. Within the media/politics bubble, there was a certain consternation over that weekend. Insiders who thought they knew how the country operated couldnt get their heads around the fact that this guy, best known for his role in Dragons Den, was going to be President. Some journalists and political operators were peeved that their predictions Gallagher would crash and burn had turned out to be completely wrong. Sean Gallagher during 2011 Ara campaign. Others were baffled that somebody who, despite the campaign, remained a man of mystery would actually become President. There were those who felt that a candidate with zero experience in politics should not be trusted with such a high office. In reality, Gallagher had managed to capture a large slice of the zeitgeist. In 2011, the country was in rag order following the economic collapse three years earlier. Disillusionment with mainstream politics was rampant. There was widespread hostility towards anybody who could be identified with the establishment. After all, those in the establishment hadnt just been on the bridge when the ship of state was holed but had now reached safe harbour, while most people were trying desperately to stay afloat. Into this milieu marched Gallagher a man with a plan, a man with a vision. He had a background in business, yet was not implicated in the great collapse. His record included a stint working with young people and in the voluntary sector. He had a disability, a visual impairment. All of these factors established him as an outsider at a time when insiders were despised. Crucially, he was off the telly one of the more likeable Dragons in the Den. In this respect, Gallagher had a huge advantage over any other non-political figure. People felt they knew him. They liked how he conducted himself in the den. They liked, as Pat Kenny would later put it, the cut of his jib. When he first raised the prospect of entering the race the preceding summer, polls had him on around 6%. As the campaign heated up, two other independent candidates, former Special Olympics Ireland chief executive Mary Davis and campaigning senator David Norris, each enjoyed a brief spell breaking free from the pack to take a lead in opinion polls. Both of those candidates came under intense media scrutiny. Davis was drawn into a number of controversies over her role on State boards and links with Denis OBrien. Norris had to repeatedly answer questions about his attitudes to and previous statements on the age of consent for sexual relations. Meanwhile, Gallagher met the people. On October 6, two reputable polls had him on 20% and 21%, respectively, to put him in front of the chasing pack. A week later, his standing among voters had risen to 38%. Then on the last week of the campaign, another leap, apparently putting him beyond reach. The omens were obvious. This was not, as had been speculated, a case of voters flirting with this guy on the dancefloor before going home with the old reliable. By then, the media had begun looking closely at Gallaghers business dealings and his links to Fianna Fail, a party that was very much still in the doghouse three years after the crash. On the Saturday, a reporter in the Mail On Sunday had a story that Gallagher had once collected a cheque for 5,000 for a Fianna Fail fundraiser. Of itself, this was no big deal, but in the prevailing climate it was a toxic charge. Gallagher said he couldnt remember it and the story wasnt published. That was that, but in retrospect perhaps the candidate would have been better off facing the issue head-on. Sean Gallagher congratulates Michale D Higgins. The last campaign debate was an RTE Frontline programme on the Monday evening, hosted by Pat Kenny. What unfolded was a car crash for Gallagher. MARTIN McGuinness brought up the issue in the debate, saying hed been contacted by the man in question. Thats an absolute disgrace and clearly shows the rottenness of the system, McGuinness said. The matter was brought up again later in the programme when Kenny said a tweet had been picked up from an account that appeared to be linked to McGuinnesss campaign. It said: That man that Gallagher took the cheque from will be at a press conference tomorrow. Now Gallagher stumbled, saying hed no recollection and if that man gave me an envelope... and similar phrases that could have been plucked from one of the tribunals which had investigated political corruption. Again, Gallaghers inexperience of being under pressure was exposed. It turned out that the Twitter account was fake. It also turned out there was no press conference. Gallagher had a chance to hit back the following day in interviews with Kenny on radio and Brian Dobson on RTEs Six One news. He didnt manage to do so. Three days later the people voted by 56% to 35% to elected Michael D Higgins. (the first-preference vote flipped opinion polls from days earlier, With OHiggins beating him 40% to 29%). Gallagher felt, with some justification, that he had been shafted. He took legal action against RTE, which resulted in the payment of substantial damages and an apology last year. What if? What if the Shinners hadnt gone after him? The tweet and the apparent priming of McGuinness to stick the boot in had all the hallmarks of a dirty tricks campaign. Sinn Fein was looking to secure at least 20% of the vote to bank for future elections. Yet Gallagher, a native of Cavan, appeared to be hoovering up the vote in the border counties. So the Shinners managed to puncture a candidacy that theretofore appeared iron-clad. What if Gallagher had handled the attack better? What if he turned to McGuinness and told him that nothing hed ever done was as rotten as overseeing murder, as McGuinness had done in his admitted role as an IRA commander? What if hed avoided talk of recollections and passing envelopes? What if he handled matters better the following day with the benefit of preparation? Can the final result of the election be attributable to those 24 hours in which Gallagher stumbled and fell? Professor Gary Murphy of DCUs School of Law and Government isnt convinced. There is a good chance he would have won if that didnt happen, but I hold him as culpable as RTE for his defeat, says Murphy. The way he handled it when it arose and again the following day, he had two chances to do a better job and he didnt. Murphy also believes the lead four days out from the election may not have been as secure as the opinion polls suggest. A reasonable case could be made that his lead was soft, he says. Mary Davis and David Norris had both being doing well until they came under scrutiny. Gallagher just came under scrutiny later in the campaign. But you still have to say that if Frontline hadnt happened, theres a good chance he would have won. That was then. Seven years down the line, the candidate that was is a candidate once more. He should have no problem securing the nomination from four local authorities. He is reported to have done private polling that puts him in a good position. But seven years is a long time in politics, not to mind television. Gallaghers public profile over that time has been muted at the very least. He has hardly been seen on TV. That may well be down to the protracted legal action against RTE. But still, his television persona was his unique selling point last time around. His only ongoing media engagement since 2011 has been a column in the business section of the Sunday Independent. In that guise, he had a little cut at the incumbent last Sunday before he had even declared. His column centred on the homelessness crisis unlikely fodder for a business column. He decried the lack of leadership in tackling the issue. Then he cited a law enacted in 2013, the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform act, which he claimed was crucial to allowing lenders repossess properties on foot of defaulted mortgages. There were certainly significant legal grounds on the subject of property rights and citizens rights for the legislation, or part of it, to be referred to the Supreme Court by the President, to test its constitutionality, Gallagher wrote. A referral such as this by the President to the Supreme Court is provided for in Article 26 of the Constitution. However, President Higgins signed it into law on July 24, 2013, without such a referral. Ouch! Are we to believe that a President Gallagher would have acted differently, or that there would have been a different outcome, or that the law, in reality, makes a blind bit of difference to the prevailing crisis? Or was the yet-to-declare candidate taking a cheap shot at the incumbent? The column, along with Gallaghers refusal to face any questions since he declared on Wednesday, indicates that his campaign will not be benign this time around. He is certainly up against it. He will be streets ahead of all but Michael D in terms of name recognition. His own skeletons were all suitably aired last time out, so he is largely insulated from scrutiny of his record, alliances or personal circumstances. He can, to a large extent, rely on some who are well disposed to Fianna Fail a party with which he had links in the past. On the other side of the ledger, he has not been relevant for the guts of seven years. The Ireland of today differs much from the Ireland of 2011. Problems persist, and in the case of the housing crisis, have got much worse. Is there still a thirst for the kind of outsider who nearly stormed the ramparts seven years ago? More than anything though, he is up against a popular incumbent, and in a race like this, incumbency matters. There are other candidates vying for a nomination, the most likely to succeed being Gallaghers former fellow Dragon, Gavin Duffy. However, Gallagher is the man who must be regarded as possessing the best chance to unseat Michael D. Whether or not it will be a case of back to the future by the time we get to the week before the vote remains to be seen. Saturday, September 1st, 2018 (7:50 am) - Score 6,260 Customers of the Rochdale-based ISP Zen Internet may like to know that a small but useful change will soon make the providers Caller ID feature, which is currently a chargeable add-on service that shows the incoming number on a digital handset, completely free to use. But all phone providers will have to do the same. Apparently anybody with a telephone line from Zen will now be able to get Caller ID for free from 1st October 2018. Regardless of whether or not you had the service before, everyone will get the service for free from 1 October by default. You dont have to do anything your phone will automatically start showing incoming caller ID from that date, said Zen. The change is by no means unique to Zen and stems from last years ruling by the UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, which banned providers from charging for caller display facilities (full details). Various other changes were also included in this to help tackle billing accuracy, debt collection, nuisance calls, complaints handling and support for those with disabilities. Rule Provision of Calling Line Identification Facilities C6.2 Regulated Providers must provide Calling Line Identification Facilities, and enable them by default, unless they can demonstrate that it is not technically feasible or economically viable to do so. C6.3 Regulated Providers must inform Subscribers if Calling Line Identification Facilities are not available on the service they are providing to those Subscribers. C6.4 When providing Calling Line Identification Facilities, Regulated Providers must: (a) ensure, so far as technically feasible, that any CLI Data provided with and/or associated with a call includes a valid, diallable Telephone Number which uniquely identifies the caller; and (b) respect the privacy choices of End-Users. C6.5 Regulated Providers must not charge Subscribers any additional or separate fee for access to or use of standard Calling Line Identification Facilities. We cant see many reasons why somebody would want to disable Called ID if its provided to them, but many digital handsets do usually offer a way to disable it if absolutely necessary. As usual its also worth considering that if providers suffer a loss of revenue in one area then its not uncommon for them to then find a way of recouping that from elsewhere (e.g. price rises), which is particularly true since Openreach still charge them for it. P Chidambaram alleged the police crackdown on Left- wing activists is aimed at silencing the critics of the BJP- led government. Nagpur: Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday slammed the Maharashtra government over the arrest of five Left-wing activists for alleged Maoist links, saying it was an attempt to crush dissent. Addressing a press conference in Nagpur, the former Union minister said holding extreme Right or Left wing views is acceptable in a free country and the problem arises only when there is incitement to violence. "They (those arrested) are civil rights activists, human rights activists, lawyers, writers and poets. They have extreme Left views. In a free country you can have extreme Left view, you can have extreme Right view...that is the essence of freedom. It is only when somebody indulges in violence or invites violence or aids or abets violence that he is committing a crime," he stated. The Congress leader alleged the police crackdown on Left- wing activists is aimed at silencing the critics of the BJP- led government. "We think this is the attempt to divert the attention of the people from pressing issues. This is an attempt to crush dissent and attempt to instill fear in critics of the government. We condemn this and we are very happy that the court has intervened and given them some degree of liberty," he said. On August 28, the Pune police had raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested five of them - Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Sudha Bharadwaj in Faridabad and Gautam Navalakha in Delhi - for their alleged links with Maoists. The Supreme Court has ordered that the five be kept under house arrest till September 6. Nimble, innovative and highly successful organisations will share their secrets with transformation leaders and mid to senior level managers at an interactive two-day conference in Sydney this September. Building on the success of the Business Agility Conference in New York City, the Business Agility Institute (BAI) has named YOW! as the official partner for the first-ever Business Agility Conference in Australia. Business Agility Australia will equip forward-thinking organisations with the tools, structure and mindset to face hurdles without losing momentum. Held at the Sydney Hilton on September 24 and 24, Business Agility Australia has already attracted a panel of the biggest names in the global business agility community. Business agility endorses entrepreneurial thinking among large corporations. It recognises that traditional management and corporate governance models have been failing to keep up with the modern economy. Proponents of business agility know that in an age of rapid change, only companies that can respond quickly to challenges without losing momentum or vision will survive. The movement embraces change through all levels of an organisation from software developers to CEOs and teaches how to think, work and interact through change. CEO of the Business Agility Institute, Evan Leybourn, says Business Agility Australia will showcase that Australia is poised to lead the world in new ways of working. The concept of Business Agility was originally adopted by the IT sector but is now gaining rapid momentum among the leaders of medium and large organisations in every industry. Attending this conference is a great way for companies to install the structure, thinking and processes that will ensure they can navigate any market challenge without losing momentum. We say a business is only as agile as its least agile part, so we have created an event that will benefit everyone. Business Agility Australia has attracted the support of high calibre sponsors such as EPiC, Cognizant, PWC, Deloitte, ICAgile and radically. The speaker lineup of 20+ thought leaders includes Paul Cobban (Chief Data and Transformation Officer at DBS Bank Singapore), Trisca Scott-Branagan (Head of Marketing, Institutional at ANZ), Nigel Dalton (Chief Inventor, REA Group), Jason Hair (Digital GM, Woolworths), and Paul Lewis (Executive Manager, Bankwest). Each day, 10 diverse business agility leaders will share their stories through a series of 20-minute talks followed by an interactive deep dive session. Speakers will cover the full spectrum of lean and agile transformation, from embracing change to developing leadership strategies, structuring a company for agility, compliance, budgeting and accounting strategies, HR policies and innovation. YOW!, a global events organisation, is partnering with the Business Agility Institute to launch the conference in Australia, in what is intended to be an annual event. Dave Thomas, Chairman of YOW! says, We believe that the unpredictable nature of the Australian economy requires new ways of thinking and working. This is business agility. And this is why we are excited to partner with the Business Agility Institute to bring their global conference to Australia. Delegate registrations are currently open, and passes can be purchased at https://businessagility.yowconference.com.au/ About the Business Agility Institute: At the Business Agility Institute, we believe the next generation of companies have arrived. They are agile, innovative and dynamic perfectly designed to thrive in todays unpredictable markets. Our mission is to advocate for, connect, educate, and inspire people within these organisations, encouraging them to create an environment of shared knowledge and trust that will usher organisations around the world into the future of business. The Business Agility Institute connects leaders across industries and regions to share their experiences and insights with each other in order to navigate the complex and emerging domain that is business agility. About YOW! Conferences: Independently run YOW! Conferences brings together inspiring speakers, cutting-edge content and strategic networking opportunities. Look out for updates on the latest YOW! Nights and other events during the year. Our signature Conferences held in December in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane feature 40+ world class experts that have been hand-picked to share their insights. Find out more here: https://yowconference.com.au/ Media enquiries: Evan Leybourn eleybourn@businessagility.institute + 61 412 920 171 All conference speakers and the conference organisers, Evan Leybourn and Dave Thomas, are available for interviews. Police said there are 'serious allegations' against Bhante Shanghpriya Sujoy who took boys aged between 6-12 from impoverished families. Bhante Shanghpriya Sujoy was first arrested on Wednesday and police are also investigating the trust which runs the school. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: Police have arrested a senior Buddhist monk accused of sexually abusing 15 boys at a meditation centre he ran in the holy town of Bodh Gaya in Bihar, officials said Saturday. Bhante Shanghpriya Sujoy was detained in the UNESCO heritage town of Bodh Gaya, which attracts tens of thousands of pilgrims every year, after boys complained that they had been beaten, abused and forced to dance naked, police said. The scandal is the latest to hit the Buddhist establishment after the former head of China's government-run Buddhist association was removed this week as abbot of a Beijing temple following a sexual assault investigation. A senior police officer at Bodh Gaya told AFP there are "serious allegations" against Bhante Shanghpriya Sujoy who took boys aged between six and 12 from impoverished families in the northeast. "The children complained to their guardians about physical and sexual abuse by their head monk. Also Read: Buddhist monk held for sexually abusing 15 children at school in Bihar "The children say they were thrashed and sexually abused at the school. They were locked up without food and water if they resisted," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Bhante Shanghpriya Sujoy was first arrested on Wednesday and police are also investigating the trust which runs the school. Thirteen former directors of the big US-Swiss banana producer Chiquita Brands will face trial in Colombia on charges of financing right-wing paramilitary groups during the countrys armed conflict, prosecutors announced Friday. Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez said the accused included both Colombians and foreigners implicated in financing irregular armed groups in the northwestern region of Uraba, Antioquia. A statement from prosecutors said the 13 eight Colombians, three US citizens, a Costa Rican and a Honduran would face charges of aggravated criminal association. In 2007, lawyers for Chiquita Brands entered a guilty plea in a US court to having financed the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, once the largest paramilitary organization in the country. The firm was fined $25 million after acknowledging that it had paid the paramilitaries some $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 in exchange for protection of its workers. The groups long and bloody struggle against leftist guerrillas was marked by multiple human-rights violations. Some 20,000 militia members demobilized between 2003 and 2006, under the Alvaro Uribe government. In 2017, Colombias Office of the public prosecutor declared that the financing of paramilitaries by banana executives amounted to a crime against humanity eliminating any statute of limitations. lv-vel/mls/bbk/mdl Chiquita Brands International 'I was present when searches and raids were conducted at our home, and I know what police have seized,' claimed Sagar Gonsalves. Vernon Gonsalves, a Mumbai resident, is one of the prominent activists and lawyers whose homes were raided by the Pune Police on August 28 on suspicion that they had links with Maoists. (Photo: PTI) Mumbai: The son of Vernon Gonsalves, one of the five activists arrested for alleged Maoist links, has rejected the police charges against his father and termed them as "laughable". Vernon Gonsalves, a Mumbai resident, is one of the prominent activists and lawyers whose homes were raided by the Pune Police on August 28 on suspicion that they had links with Maoists. Gonsalves and four others were later arrested. His son Sagar Gonsalves said charges against him were false. The police claimed to have "conclusive proof", including letters seized during the raids, to link the arrested activists to Maoists. "I was present when searches and raids were conducted at our home, and I know what police have seized," claimed Sagar Gonsalves. He said allegations against his father, made by a top police officer while addressing a press conference on Friday, with regards to alleged letters was like "talking in the air". Accusing the police of lying, Sagar Gonsalves said, "I could not stop laughing, when the police were levelling false charges with so-called letters." Besides Vernon Gonsalves, other activists who were arrested for alleged Maoist links were Varavara Rao (Hyderabad), Arun Ferreira (Mumbai), Sudha Bharadwaj (Faridabad) and Gautam Navalakha (New Delhi). The Supreme Court has ordered that the five be kept under house arrest till September 6. Read: Supreme Court orders house arrest of five activists, seeks Maha govt reply The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the "Elgaar Parishad", an event organised in Pune on December 31, 2017, which allegedly triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima village in Pune district the next day. Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, Additional Director General (Law and Order) Param Bir Singh mentioned an email exchanged between Rona Wilson, an activist, and a Maoist leader, speaks of ending "Modi-raj" with a 'Rajiv Gandhi-type incident'. Also Read: Activist's letter spoke of 'Rajiv Gandhi-type ending for Modi-Raj': Pune cops Rona Wilson was arrested in Delhi in June in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence in Maharashtra in January. Besides Rona Wilson, other activists-lawyers arrested in June by the Pune Police. They were Sudhir Dhawale (from Mumbai), Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut (all from Nagpur). All the activists arrested in June and early this week had links with Maoists, Singh had said. Yadav, according to sources, also has an eye on candidates who do not get tickets in BSP and the Congress. Lucknow: Two days after announcing the formation of Samajwadi Secular Morcha (SSM), Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav, on Friday, said that his outfit would contest all 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. Mr Yadav was in Baghpat on Friday where he said that neglected leaders of the Samajwadi Party and other like-minded smaller parties would contest the Lok Sabha elections in alliance. Mr Yadavs statement clearly indicated that he could get some of the 80 candidates from within the Samajwadi Party, particularly those who get left out in case of a grand alliance between SP and BSP. Mr Yadav, according to sources, also has an eye on candidates who do not get tickets in BSP and the Congress. With the SSM making its debut in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, it is undoubtedly the Samajwadi Party that will face the pinch. Both, Mr Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav, draw their strength from the same vote bank of Yadav and Muslims. While the SSM leader enjoys the support of the elders in both the communities, Akhilesh Yadav banks on his image as a young leader and is backed by the youth in the two communities. Mr Yadav, according to sources, also wields greater clout in the Samajwadi party organisation that he has built up from scratch along with elder brother Mulayam Singh Yadav. SSM leaders announcement makes it almost clear that there is no room for rapprochement with the parent party. Meanwhile, Samajwadi patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav visited the party office for the second consecutive day on Friday. Earlier, he had visited the party office on Thursday to attend a prayer meeting for former MP Darshan Singh Yadav who died on Wednesday. Mulayam Singh Yadav refused to comment on Mr Yadavs decision to float another outfit. Interes-tingly, on both the days when Mulayam Singh Yadav visited the party office, SP president Akhilesh Yadav was not present. Akhilesh Yadav was on a tour in Uttarakhand. Shivpal Yadav, on the other hand, said that the SSM would work towards providing a political alternative and strengthen national unity. Further, he said that there was no personal enmity with his nephew Akhilesh Yadav. I am only concerned about those who have been sidelined and humiliated in the party. These are people who have given their years for building up the party and deserve a better deal, he said. Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Browne iterated his government's full cooperation with the Indian authorities on extradition. Jeweller Mehul Choksi is one of the accused in the Rs 13,500 crore PNB scam. (Photo: File) Mumbai/ St John's (Antigua and Barbuda): Top legal officers in Antigua and Barbuda will discuss whether jeweller Mehul Choksi, accused in the Punjab National Bank scam case, can be extradited to India, sources said. Antigua and Barbuda's attorney general Steadroy Benjamin said he is planning to discuss the possible extradition of Choksi with the island nation's head of public prosecution, Anthony Armstrong. "We expect the DPP back shortly, if not by tomorrow, then certainly by Monday and as soon as he returns I intend to meet with him so we can discuss this extradition matter," Benjamin was quoted by as saying by the Antigua Observer newspaper. India is trying hard to bring back Choksi from Antigua under the provision of a law of the island nation, which provides for extradition of a fugitive to a designated Commonwealth country. Indian High Commissioner in Guyana, Venkatachalam Mahalingam, visited St. John's for the third time in recent weeks to meet with officials to discuss Choksi's extradition, a statement by the Antigua and Barbuda's prime minister's office said. The diplomat met with Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Browne and gave another extradition application with modified charges to the prime minister, sources said. He was assured the matter would be taken up and the documents would be given to the DPP, who is currently abroad, sources said. Browne iterated his government's full cooperation with the Indian authorities on the matter but added that a certain procedure was to be followed. Earlier this week, the Antigua government said it would fully cooperate on Choksi's arrest, but stated that it would not succumb to pressure from India in the matter. The Central Bureau of Investigation, through the foreign ministry, had written a letter to Antigua, asking them to arrest the businessman. The Rs 13,000 crore scam was detected by Punjab National Bank officials earlier this year. Choksi, his nephew Nirav Modi and some PNB officials are accused of misusing credit instruments of the bank. The Army officer and the girl were being accompanied by a local man Sameer Ahmed Malla who later turned out to be soldier. Srinagar: There appears to be more trouble in store for human-shield Major Leetul Gogoi who being court-marshalled after an Army Court of Inquiry (CoI) recently indicted him for fraternising with a local woman in a Srinagar hotel and being away from his place of duty in May this year. A court in Srinagar on Saturday asked the Jammu & Kashmir government to conduct a thorough probe against Major Gogoi in connection with the May 23 incident when he had picked up a fight with the staff of a city hotel Grand Mamta on being refused to check in with a teenage girl from Chak-e-Kawoosa village of the Valleys central district of Budgam. The Army officer and the girl were being accompanied by a local man Sameer Ahmed Malla who later turned out to be soldier. The trio was detained at Srinagars Khanyar police station briefly. The Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Srinagar Aijaz Ahmed Khan in an order stated that the investigations into the case have been conducted in a very casual manner without ascertaining the facts. He said that the case needs further investigations. CJM also said the Major Gogoi had by creating a fake Facebook account where he introduced himself as Ubaid Arman violated law and, therefore, this aspect of the matter also needs to be investigated in terms of IT act. The judge while responding to an application filed by Muhammad Ahsan Untoo, a local human rights activist and chairman of International Forum for Justice and Human Rights (IFJHR), said that the role of Malla has not been probed by the investigating agency as to why he accompanied the girl to the hotel. The staff at the Srinagar hotel had told the police that the person by the name of Leetul Gogoi who had introduced himself as a businessman from Assam while booking a room online for two persons for one night had arrived at the reception around 11 am on May 23 along another person and a girl. The second person (Malla), it said, was driving the Maruti Alto car in which they had come to the hotel. While mentioning the purpose of his visit and mode of payment, Major Gogoi had said I am travelling for business and I may be using a business credit card. The staff at the hotel front desk had asked him to show his identity card which he failed to do and instead gave it his driving license. When the front desk staff asked him about the girl he wanted to check in with, neither he nor she could give it a satisfactory answer. This made the hotel staff suspicious and when it refused them to check in, the driver became violent and started abusing and threatening us. The argument turned into a physical brawl. The hotel staff called the police which took the trio to Citys Khanyar police station. The police, however, did not register any case against Major Gogoi as the 18-year-old student had said in a statement before a magistrate that she had gone with her friend and there was no force involved. The girl had in her statement also said that she had planned the trip with Major Gogoi and Malla on the phone and had asked them to pick her from the Magam area of Budgam on the morning of May 23. There was no force. I came to Srinagar with them out of my own will. I had asked them to pick me up at Magam area at 10 am and we made the trip as per our plan, she had been quoted by the police as saying. She had in her testimony also said that she had got in touch with the Army officer on Facebook where Major Gogoi had introduced himself Ubaid Arman. 29K Shares Share Physicians are overwhelmed by patient loads, 10-minute visits, the wealth of documentation dictated by health insurance requirements and the overwhelming overtaking of medicine by non-physician personnel. Wellness programs abound, which addresses the symptoms of a problem. As medicine changed from patient to profit-centered, it marked the beginning of the end. We see articles on physicians fired or coerced into resignation for speaking up about non-physicians overstepping boundaries putting patients at risk. Physicians are disruptors. We see non-physicians calling themselves doctors when they are not doctors of medicine managing the most complex cases in the hospital setting. Appointments are reduced to staring at a computer rather than looking at the patient to construct their stories. This is health care. Medicine evolves into big business The bond between physician and patient is sacred. When its broken, the system collapses. Private practices once flourished. Hospitalists assumed the care disrupting continuity which evolved into a team approach. Pressured by time-consuming requirements of insurances, practices are sold to corporations. Patients are computerized files followed by personnel without a medical degree called doctors, practitioners and misleading terms. A campaign champions this, advocating it allows greater access to care rural places have no physicians. The main thrust line is profit, employing the most economic labor for the most valuable skill set. Health insurances dominate. Coding requires documented answers to a multitude of questions or physicians are not reimbursed. Physicians fight insurance companies in order to obtain studies, undergoing a peer-to-peer review. Patients who need specialists need a referral, delaying crucial care in oncology cases. Appointments are reduced to 15-minute slots. Physicians pay overhead, malpractice insurance, staff wages and school debt. Patients feel unheard, unnoticed. Physicians are at risk of making errors as they function at high levels overseeing up to 60 patients, including those of personnel. Organizations for expensive re-credentialing abound. You cannot work in hospitals or be compensated unless you are recertified. Health insurances are misnomers. Premiums run into the hundreds and thousands a month and are not utilized until the deductible is paid. Supply and demand dictate that the higher the necessity, the more someone is willing to pay, its sheer unadulterated business genius. It is 2018, medicine is the consummate business of corruption and profit. Where did it go wrong? The pivotal moment occurred as physician assistants and nurse practitioners assumed large swathes of responsibilities, at times beyond their training. They are paid a little less than physicians and trained substantially less than physicians yet work under the same conditions, giving medical advice. This is a boon for hospital administrators. One doctor assumes legal liabilities supervising five nurse practitioners, there is less financial burden. When a physician advocates for quality of care they are dismissed quietly and either terminated or forced to resign. Many do not come forward due to fear of retaliation or retribution. They are gaslighted into thinking they somehow did wrong by whistleblowing on the corruption of medicine. One doctor takes a stand for patient care Diana Blum, a neurologist, worked in a medical practice in Palo Alto in 2009. She became a shareholder attending meetings and became cognizant of the business aspects. Reported examples include not referring out of network, not using drug samples and other practices increasing profit. When she commented on negative impact on care, she was reported a non-team-player, disruptor and using inappropriate comments. She was reported to have three options: 1) Resign to avoid negative recommendation letters; 2) Face termination; or, 3) Bring a claim or expose to the media knowing she might never work in that area. She was described as placed on a performance improvement plan despite some of the highest satisfaction ratings. She resigned under coercion. She consulted on one patient with the negative impact from these practices and took a stand. Many relevant facts were not brought to light as the judge reportedly thought it might bias the jury. She won some claims, however, the judge was reported as siding with the other camp with respect to who owes whose legal fees. The claims she won were the least monetary as many details were suppressed due to reported possible jury bias. There are details Dr. Blum is not at the liberty of declaring since an appeal is ongoing. She reports physicians in the same company with similar pressures but cannot speak due to fear of retaliation and repercussions. This information was shared with her permission. This marks the crossroads of medicine, signifying a very important turning point in the standard of care. It sets the precedence of things to come. It is a corporate statement that physicians advocating for patient care invite termination or if one brings claims against administration, the corporate office has an unending supply of legal arsenal to retaliate against that physician. This incident is of utmost importance because it essentially signals the suppression of physicians. If physicians do not take a stand on behalf of patient care, who will? Physicians must be both physician and patient advocates. Nobody cares about physician burnout except physicians. Nobody will care if patients see less of their doctors except physicians and patients. How can we change health care? Physicians and patients need to advocate. Patients have a right to see their physician with whom they have the patient-doctor relationship. Physicians have options including direct primary care, opening your own practice, and cutting insurance companies. Raising awareness should not be discounted. There are physician activists who are fighting through legislation. Physician advocates raise awareness of the exorbitant pricing of medications and kickbacks, officials took note. Physician writers can enlighten. It is because of complacency and burgeoning work causing these current issues. Nobody else will extricate physicians and patients from this predicament. In summary Medicine is an industry, profiting from physicians and patients, employing the least trained personnel depriving patients of the quality care they deserve. If a physician cannot fight for patient care and is devastated for speaking up, then the rest of us are doomed. Primum non nocere, first, do no harm. This is our calling. Virginia Thornley is a neurologist who blogs at Neurology Buzz. Image credit: Shutterstock.com 2K Shares Share Will physicians go extinct? Artificial intelligence, legislation, profit motives in the health care industry, and clever lobbying by non-physician providers may all contribute to our demise. However, I believe the existential threat to our profession stems from the ranks of physicians themselves. 1. Unwillingness to embrace activism Pathologist and writer Rudolph Virchow once said: The physician is the natural attorney of the poor. Like most physicians, my goal is to provide evidence-based and compassionate care to my patients and be their chief advocate. As a hospitalist, I consider it my duty to fight to ensure that whatever is medically necessary gets done for my patients while they are hospitalized. Sometimes I argue against insurance companies, and sometimes with my own hospital administration. Once the patient is discharged, however, it, unfortunately, has been a different story. I must admit (and Im a bit ashamed) that I havent written to Congress expressing outrage at the dismantling of patient protections. I havent organized protests about exorbitant medication prices. I havent joined my local medical society to combat the coordinated assault on physician-led care and havent walked out on strike protesting the profit-above-patient ethos pervasive in health care today. I have many excuses why I dont do more: Im overworked, I have student debt to repay (so I work more), and I have young children. I suspect that the majority of my colleagues may be in the same position focusing on the patient in front of them but not actively engaged in shaping the health care landscape that will impact all patients. If we continue to stand silently on the sidelines, our patients may not trust that we truly wish to remain their health care champions. The continued well-being of our patients depends on physicians rising up and continuing to be leaders in health care. It seems that right now patients are being deceived by restricted health care insurance plans, the industry-wide promotion of non-physician providers, misinformation campaigns aimed at physician reputations, and the forced metamorphosis of health care from vital professional services to retail industry. In my view, none of these efforts seem to be truly focused on patient well-being, but instead, they are an attempt to minimize the standing of physicians and maximize industry profits. 2. Indifference to our reputation Physicians may be well versed in the science of medicine and undergo incomparable clinical training, but we seem to lack the skills to defend our reputations effectively. Profit-fueled insurance companies, health care systems and sometimes even our own government all act to weaken the sacred patient-physician relationship. As if wasnt bad enough that we have quackery and internet marketing to contend with there also seems to be a focused effort by some health care professionals fundamentally calling into question the compassion of physicians. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Heart of a [blank], brain of a doctor. You may have seen it on a poster, a cup or on your Facebook feed. Or how about the nationwide efforts by some professions to equate an academic professional degree (doctorate) to a residency trained physician with three to seven years of closely supervised and intensive clinical on-the-job training. How can it be that professionals with degrees with 500 clinical hours (sometimes only observational) are considered equally qualified to diagnose, prescribe and treat patients as physicians with 12000-20000 clinical hours (intensely scrutinized 80-hour work weeks)? We have sat on our hands too long and allowed anyone with a white coat to proudly declare they are equal in training and skill to physicians. By ignoring such attacks, being indifferent to the incursions on our autonomy and not fervently speaking the truth about differences between the training between physicians and other providers we are allowing our society to be left with eroded patient care. We or our loved ones will one day face the consequences of this when the majority of physicians have been replaced. 3. Lack of unity Throughout health care, it seems that every group except physicians are effectively organizing to achieve their aims: Nurses work together to protest unsafe patient-to-staff ratios and ensure quality, PAs push for greater autonomy and NPs stick together to advocate for independent practice rights across the United States. What do physicians do? After completing our arduous residency training, we seemingly jockey for our interests. Super-specialists seemingly care little for the plight of primary care physicians because their challenges seem alien to them. Is ours a single profession in name only? Our professional organizations are mostly centered around specialty and the few that arent charge exorbitant yearly dues for what seems to be some very expensive hand-wringing. We need to devise strategies to bridge the gap between specialties and to create an effective collaborative organization for the entire profession. 4. Neglecting our trainees Does it make any sense that our patients desperately need more physicians, and yet the number of U.S. residency positions has remained virtually unchanged in decades? We arent doing anything to address the physician shortage because we believe the bureaucratic lie that there is no physician shortage, or we choose to ignore the fact that non-physician providers with significantly less training are willing (no, absolutely delighted) to fill the gaps. Perhaps we need to reimagine the way we train physicians completely. Undoubtedly, we can modify the format of education so that individuals with children or other real-life responsibilities can attend. The premedical college years seem ripe for disruption. Additionally, if were brutally honest, medical school could also be shortened without sacrificing the intensely supervised apprenticeship that follows (residency training). Finally, we need to nurture the health of our trainees better. Clearly, there is something wrong when hundreds of physicians each year just leave the field entirely (or worse yet, they end their own lives). Archaic work hour regulations, a dog-eat-dog culture and a shortage of mental health and support programs are areas that need immediate attention. Being a physician has been the greatest honor of my life; to be able to take care of patients as a member of a profession that values science, service, compassion and lifelong learning. To ensure the safety of our patients, all physicians need to do more to ensure that our profession takes immediate and coordinated steps to rectify the havoc in our health care system. Varun Verma is an internal medicine physician and CEO, Medofi. He blogs at his self-titled site, Varun Verma, M.D., and can be reached on Twitter @VarunVermaMD. Image credit: Shutterstock.com The staff and customers of one Kilkenny store have pulled out all the stops to raise more than 4,000 for four of Ireland's deserving charities. The fourth annual Woodies Heroes campaign took place this summer and the staff of Woodies in Kilkenny put in a lot of hard work and organised fun activities in order to raise money for the deserving charities. Last week manager of the Kilkenny Woodie's store, Suzanne Bryan, was able to present a cheques for 4,536 to The Jack and Jill Foundation, Down Syndrome Ireland, Temple Street Foundation and Make-A-Wish Ireland. Suzanne presented the funds raised to the 'Woodies Heroes' - a group of cyclist who took on a 1,600km cycle around the country, collecting cheques from Woodies stores across the country along the way. In conjunction with the funds raised in store and from the cycle, this years Grammy Award winning band Foo Fighters granted their permission to record My Hero as part of this years activities. Irish band Wild Youth have joined forces with the Woodies choir to record the track. From last years fundraising, Woodies Heroes funded 18 wishes for children and their families to go to Disneyland Paris with Make-A-Wish Ireland. Last years fundraising allowed the Jack & Jill Foundation to increase the age restriction from 4 to 5. In 2016 Woodies Heroes contributed to the opening of a new neurology and renal unit in Temple Street. Down Syndrome Ireland is a new charity recipient this year and the funds raised will go towards Down Syndrome Irelands educational support for children with Down syndrome. The Woodies Heroes campaign has been an outstanding success and we are very excited at the prospect of raising one million euro since we started three years ago, said Woodies CEO Declan Ronayne. A group of 132 Kilkenny teenagers, many facing the Leaving Cert next year, recently returned from a trip to Medjugorje, a place of pilgrimage for Catholics since 1981 following the 'alleged appearance of the Virgin Mary there. Many went skeptical but returned, much to their own surprise, with a renewed faith after a week of prayer, Masses, testimonies sand generally meeting up and taking a look at life outside of their home surroundings. In an era where it is the norm to make fun of people and their beliefs, there is something comforting about the trip organised by the Kilkenny Medjugorje Youth Group and its leader, Joe Malone, the local public representative. Just to set the background, Medjugorje is a town in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its been an unofficial place of Catholic pilgrimage since the Virgin Mary allegedly appeared on Apparition Hill in 1981. There is a Queen of Peace statue marking the site of the 1st apparition and one in front of the St. James Church. It is claimed that; Liquid has dripped from the Risen Christ statue near the church. A concrete cross tops Cross Mountain, to the south. This wasn't a holiday for the young people and they were up early every morning for Mass and visits to the hill and there was lots of praying. However, most of all it was fun and they had a great time together and 25 parishes of Ossory were represented. Joe Malone was delighted with the manner in which the youngsters behaved themselves on what was the 12th annual pilgrimage. It was great to see them explore their faith and to open their minds to a new place and things. From my feedback, the young people enjoyed it and the week had a wonderful, positive impact on them in a world where there are so many competing interests like social media and peer pressure and if this helped in some way to clear their minds, it was worth while, he said. The trip coincided with the 29th Medjugorje International Youth Festival and all the pageantry that involved with young people there from all over the world. Spiritual leaders were Fr Ray Dempsey and Fr Willie Hennessy. A guest post by Mitchell Palmer, a student at Auckland Grammar School: New Zealands education system is fundamentally broken. We are failing our kids, especially those from the poorest families. Whle our NCEA pass rates increase year-on-year, every year, our international performance has worsened. The Tertiary Education Commission found 40% of students who passed Year 12 failed international reading tests. No English-speaking country has a system which underserves poor children worse than ours. And as our system becomes more unequal, the Australian, Canadian, British, and American systems improve. As we head into a modern economy where manual labour is less and less a marketable skill, we need better education, not worse. One of our greatest Prime Ministers, Peter Fraser said all New Zealanders whatever their ability, rich or poor, whether they live in town or country have a birthright to a free education of the kind for which they are best fitted and to the fullest extent of their powers. Most New Zealanders would agree with that. Unfortunately, we have failed to achieve it. The problem lies particularly in the lottery of birth which determines where a child can go to school. In American politics it is a common plattitude that a childs future should not be determined by his zip [post] code. In New Zealand, it is rather the size of the childs parents paycheque which determines that future. Wealthy parents can afford to move into any school zone in the country, to access the best public schools, or to send their children to private schools. For instance, the average premium charged for a property in the zones of Auckland Grammar School and Epsom Girls Grammar School is in excess of $500,000. Fees at Kings College are around $25,000 per student, per year. This is clearly out of reach of the average New Zealand family whose average household income just breached $100,000 last year let alone the poorest, who probably would benefit most from the upward mobility advantages of high-quality schooling. The variety of choice avaliable to wealthy parents means there is significant compeitition for their education dollars. Schools compete with each other to outperform academically, culturally, and in sports. For instance, Auckland Grammar knows it must maintain high standards, otherwise many of its current and future students will jump ship to Westlake Boys, Macleans, Auckland International College or Kings, in search of a quality academic education. By contrast, look at the choices avaliable to middle- and working- class New Zealand families. Locked out of the best public schools by exclusionary zoning policies which reach around the country; for instance, both Hamilton and Christchurch Boys High Schools have tight zoning requirements and out of the private schools by the high costs, they must accept whatever their local school gives them. As much as local schools may profess to be interested in the futures of their students, they have no significant incentive to actually do so, because they have a captive audience. Instead their incentive is to meet Ministry-set targets, which they do by inflating NCEA grades and channeling their students through vocational courses, locking them out of many career paths. This dichotomy suggests the solution to many of our woes: Give all parents no matter their household incomes the choice of where to send their children to school to introduce real competition. We should begin by dezoning every public school and allowing them to choose their own enrollment scheme. We should also link the private school subsidy to parental income and increase it significantly, allowing children across the entire income spectrum to access that part of the system. Next, we must allow more flexibility for public schools to structure themselves: Underperforming schools should be able to be purchased by high performers who cant fulfill demand. New Zealand has already seen this flexible model in action. In the early 20th century, Auckland Grammar, already overcapacity, set up schools around Auckland following its system and sharing its traditions and, for a period, Board of Governors. These schools places like Mount Albert Grammar, Takapuna Grammar, and Epsom Girls Grammar are some of Aucklands premier schools even today. We should also end the government subsidy of NCEA. NCEA is a system which, with its unlimited flexibility, allows schools in low-competition areas to take soft options and lock their students out of opportunity. If it is to continue, it should be on an equal playing field with credible alternatives, like the internationally-renowned Cambridge and IB systems. And lastly and possibly most controversially we should end the teachers unions monopoly on teaching. We should allow public schools to negotiate pay and conditions with teachers on an individual basis, rather than setting payrates nationally by negotiation between the Ministry of Education and the NZPPTA and NZEI (the unions). Schools are far more aware of their specific needs and situation than Ministry bureaucrats attempting to create a one-size-fits-all contracts. Such flexiblity would allow schools to attract top talent and pay their best teachers more, without having to take them out of the classroom and into management. Michael Gove called it the soft bigotry of low expectations; I call it paternalism: New Zealand has systematically removed the power of less-well-off parents over their childrens educations and given it to Wellington. What have we got for it? Record truancy rates and a generation of children who have no opportunity to move up in society. That certainly doesnt sound like the egalitarian paradise New Zealand aims to be. We need to change it. President Moon Jae-in delivers a speech about the importance of data privacy at an event held in Pangyo near Seoul, Friday. Yonhap By Kim Yoo-chul Data is the new lifeblood of today's open economy and the reason is simple. Data has become the world's most important resource. South Korea aims to build a "data-driven economy" as President Moon Jae-in observed what's needed for the country towards that path. On Friday, President Moon said the government will invest up to 1 trillion won to deregulate the local data market. At an event held on the Pangyo Startup Campus in Seongnam near Seoul, President Moon stressed that data access and transfer, on the basis that wide use of non-personal machine-generated data could lead to huge innovations, startups and new business models coming to life in South Korea. "Data deregulation will be beneficial to businesses, small business owners and consumers and will clearly drive innovative growth. South Korea should develop advanced skills in many people to handle data not the internet," Moon said on the sidelines of his participation in the event. Pangyo is a home to many gaming and IT companies, and is also known as the Korean version of Silicon Valley in the United States. "By expanding an openness of data use and sharing, the country needs to create new services and products," President Moon said, noting the country ranked 56th out of 63 countries reviewed in digital competitiveness in a recent study by a Swiss college. Some 120 officials and ranking executives from the data industry attended the event. As a follow-up measure, President Moon said the government plans to invest up to 1 trillion won in data technology next year. Needless to say, the government has long been asked to prohibit people and companies from acquiring certain kinds of data such as sensitive personal information and other relevant details. Also, the local internet industry is asking the government to ban from treating as platforms companies such as Google and Facebook as publishers and holding them responsible for the content that appears on their sites. "Management of personal information is currently being controlled by government agencies or divisions. As there is demand that the government needs to take a central role for the management of such sensitive personal information, it's time to start discussing the possible establishment of an independent management unit," said President Moon. The "data-deregulation" initiative is in accordance with Moon's new policy initiatives to boost its potential growth rate by encouraging innovation through wider deregulation for better corporate activity. At the event, the President Moon also reaffirmed his stance towards deregulation in various industries because he said private-sector innovation is vital to improve the country's potential growth rate. The Bank of Korea recently lowered its target of the country's growth rate below 3 percent. President Moon said the government will apply advanced tech for data mining based on unstructured-based big data platforms, which will later be used for studies in artificial intelligence (AI). "The government will provide financial and administrative assistance to local tech companies to help them build up systems to better handle and manage data. Measures will be applied to better protect the data privacy," said President Moon. Seema Gurnani's 'Panda Reviewz' offers travellers and foodies a wonderful platform to share their experiences. One of the things that Gurnani does on her travel escapades is chronicle them in her blog for others to read and help plan ahead. Love travelling? Are you one of those who can't wait for Friday so that you can pick up your rucksack and go on off exploring different places over the weekend, or plan a trip that you can take at the end of the year, months in advance? Seema Gurnani's 'Panda Reviewz' offers travellers and foodies a wonderful platform to share their experiences and entice others, like them, to share their travel and food stories with the world. Gurnani, a young entrepreneur started a memorable journey with Panda Reviews which soon became India's top Food and Travel Blog exploring the best fo both worlds. And to add to it, Gurnani herself is a voracious traveller who loves to backpack alone all over the place. In conversation, Gurnani shares her love for solo travelling, writing a blog and making money out of it. "When you travel alone, you get more time to appreciate the diversity of different places," she says, adding, "We get out of our comfort zones and interact with new people and learn a lot." The young entrepreneur adds that her passion for travelling has taken her to several places that include Hyderabad, Varanasi, Kochi, Ooty, Auroville, Delhi, Coimbatore, goa, etc. "But, Goa makes my favourite destination as I have immense love for beaches. Auroville is a place where I find peace," she quips. One of the things that Gurnani does on her travel escapades is chronicle them in her blog for others to read and help plan ahead. Speaking about her blog, the young entrepreneur says that with the blog, she is focused on turning it into a brand. Helping people with my travel stories is something that I aim towards doing. And yes, blogging can be taken as a full time profession if you are enjoying it and doing it with all your heart and soul and also if you are getting enough money to support your travel expenses and others, she adds. But how does one make money from blogging? Gurnani explains, Do not go straight into thinking of making money from your blog. Invest your time and efforts into your blog. Make it worthy for readers, she says, adding, Always think of presenting things in a detailed manner to help your readers. Note down even the slightest of your travelling details because nothing is trivial when it comes to travelling. Gurnani feels once these little things are done with finesse there will always be opportunities to earn money from the blog. For the girl from Vijayawada, life has been an adventure. Having completed her education in Delhi, she got a position in a reputed MNC, but the travelling bug had always been a part of her, and nine months in, she quit, to travel, to blog and create something big out of the two. The quest to explore new horizons did not allow me to continue in the job. I came out to do something I enjoy doing rather than working for money. And I realized the need to do something of my own. Then I decided to create Panda Reviewz, Vijayawadas answer to Zomato, she explains. Panda Reviewz, says Gurnani is an open platform for everyone where they can get all information related to food and travel, and its away from filmy gossips and controversies. The voracious reader, foodie and traveller who says she is still learning something new everyday has taught herself the importance of SEO and now consults various projects on them as well As for all those who are wondering what are the do's and dont's of solo travelling, Gurnani explains, Well, solo travelling indeed comes with its own share of do's and dont's. I can list the ones I myself follow: Do's I always inform your parents of friends about the place you are travelling to Whenever you are hiring a cab or auto, always use google map to check if you are on the right path I always keep important numbers on my speeddial. As a blogger, I always write down the details of the places I am visiting and I click lots of pictures. Don't's A large sinkhole was detected early Friday in Geumcheon-gu, southern Seoul, forcing 200 nearby residents to evacuate. Yonhap By Kim Hyun-bin A large sinkhole was detected early Friday at a parking lot of a Seoul apartment complex, forcing 200 residents to evacuate. According to fire authorities, land is collapsing in a section 30 meters wide, 10 meters long with a depth of six meters in Geumcheon-gu, southwestern Seoul. Next to the apartment complex is a construction site. Two hundred residents at the two apartment buildings near the site have been evacuated, while two people were escorted to the hospital citing psychological trauma. "There was a large collapse sound last night," said Kim, a 58-year-old apartment resident. "I couldn't sleep and came outside and found the ground has collapsed." The sinkhole occurred next to a construction site for a 30-story studio apartment. However, no workers were on site at the time. Fire officials said there is a high possibility the recent heavy downpour was a major factor in the sinkhole's appearance. Geumcheon-gu was bombarded Monday with 148.5 millimeters of rain between midnight and 6 a.m. Out of the 18 buildings of the apartment complex, one was tilted five degrees, but there are no present critical issues, said fire officials and the Geumcheon-gu Office. "The wall set up for the construction has collapsed, which seems to have resulted in the sink hole. The apartment has its own pillars so it is less affected by soil runoff," said Lee Soo-kwon, architecture professor at Dongyang Mirae Univeristy. "There seems to be no present danger, but we need to conduct an analysis and a thorough investigation, which can take up to two months." ?? Fire officials will temporarily fill in the sink hole to prevent further collapse, and after a safety diagnosis it will decide whether the residents can return to their homes. Two people died and three were injured due to torrential rains that hit Seoul and surroundings for two consecutive days from Tuesday to Wednesday. Goyang in Gyeonggi Province recorded 524 millimeters of rainfall from Tuesday to Wednesday, while Uijeongbu in the same province recorded 449 mm. Dobong-gu, a northeastern district of Seoul, had nearly 250 mm of rain on Wednesday alone. Over 700 cases of flooding were reported in the capital, forcing 180 people across the country to seek temporary shelter; another 370 had to evacuate their homes. Nearly 2,000 homes and businesses were damaged in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, and over 630 hectares of crops were destroyed. Land for the new nuclear power plant in Temelin, the Czech Republic. / Courtesy of Daewoo Engineering & Construction By Park Jae-hyuk A consortium of Daewoo Engineering & Construction (E&C) and Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction has been selected as the partner of Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power for exporting nuclear power plants to the Czech Republic and Poland, Daewoo E&C said Wednesday. The government has gone all out to win orders from the two European countries for the construction of nuclear power plants, in line with the administration's "energy transformation policy." Korea plans to shift gradually from nuclear power to renewable energy, while supporting local industries' efforts to export their indigenously designed nuclear reactors to maintain their knowhow and competitive edge in the global market. According to the builder, the consortium was finally selected as the government's partner for this project, after being reviewed by 10 evaluators on Aug. 23. The government started recruiting builders July 31 and held a business presentation Aug. 2 for seven companies. On July 20, it asked them to submit their proposals. In addition to appraising their proposals, the government reviewed their previous nuclear plant constructions in Korea and other countries, as well as evaluating their abilities to supply workers. It also checked whether they have footholds in Europe. "Although our foothold in Europe was weaker than those of our rivals, we got higher scores in the appraisal of our proposal. The government recognized our technical skill and expertise in nuclear power plant construction, so we took the advantageous position first in the market," a Daewoo E&C official said. "We are equipped with various portfolios in the comprehensive field of nuclear power. With the recent achievement, we will consolidate our nuclear business basis and try our best to be the government's partner for exports of nuclear power plants to Saudi Arabia and Egypt." Both the Czech Republic and Poland will issue requests for proposals early next year and select preferred bidders later in the year. The selected bidder will begin building nuclear power plants after 2021. Customers buy products in a supermarket in Caracas, Venezuela, Agu. 28. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro promotes since a couple of weeks ago the 'Economic Recovery', which has meant a 95,8 percent devaluation of the national currency in the forex market, increasing of the minimum wage by 35 times and the control in prices of some products of the consumer basket. EPA Brazilian President Michel Temer announced Tuesday that he'll deploy the military to restore order in a state at the heart of the Venezuelan migrant crisis, as new data showed a surge in killings that meant the state now has the highest homicide rate in the country. Between January and June, there were 27.7 homicides for every 100,000 people in Roraima, a poor state in northern Brazil on the border with Venezuela, data from the Violence Monitor showed. Rio Grande do Norte, with 27.1 killings per 100,000, had the second-highest rate, followed by Ceara and Acre, both with 26. In the past three years, Roraima, like many Brazilian states, has been the scene of an intense battle between criminal organizations for territory and influence. During the same period, it has also been the major entry point into Brazil for Venezuelans fleeing political and economic turmoil in their homeland. Both have put pressure on the state's institutions and contributed to a feeling of instability. ''What we see is that there is a clear feeling of the fragility of local institutions to deal with the fear of people, who are starting to think the state has no rule of law,'' said Bruno Paes Manso, a researcher with the Center for Violence Studies at the University of Sao Paulo. The center participated in putting together the Violence Monitor. ''This leads people to defend themselves ... you have this perception: people are arriving from every corner, crime dominates, and homicides multiply in these contexts,'' he said. Despite the well-known pressure on Roraima, Manso said the spike was surprising. The rate for all of last year was 25.1 per 100,000 _ and Roraima wasn't in the top 10. In 2016, it had the third-lowest homicide rate in the country. In a brief televised address Tuesday night, Temer announced that he signed a decree to send in the armed forces to restore order and security in the state. The federal government had already decided to deploy members of an elite military-style police force after residents of a border town attacked Venezuelans and burned their belongings earlier this month. The decree authorizes the deployment starting Wednesday and lasting until Sept. 12. It could be extended. Temer did not say how many troops he would send. The monitor registered more than 26,100 killings in Brazil in the first six months _ an indication that the number of homicides could fall this year after a particularly bloody 2017. But this year's data does not include complete figures from three states. The data was compiled and analyzed by the G1 news portal, the Brazilian Forum on Public Security and the Center for Violence Studies, and includes murders, deaths during robberies, and assaults that resulted in deaths. Poor and isolated, Roraima has struggled to deal with the influx from Venezuela, where the collapse of institutions and an economic crisis worse than the Great Depression has driven 2.3 million people to flee, according to U.N. estimates. Tens of thousands have come to Brazil, largely to Roraima. Many are living on the streets of the state's cities and towns, and the influx has been linked to a measles outbreak in Brazil, with 300 cases in Roraima. ''Brazil is not confronting a migratory crisis. Roraima is confronting a migratory crisis,'' the state's governor, Suely Campos, wrote in an op-ed in the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper this past weekend. The federal government in ''Brasilia's disregard for the largest humanitarian crisis in the Americas, in coordination with its allies in the state, is criminal,'' she wrote. Contacted by The Associated Press, the office the chief of staff of the president didn't not respond directly to Campos' criticisms, but said that the federal government has provided Roraima with nearly $100 million since the beginning of the crisis. Campos, in her op-ed, accused the government of announcing resources in the press that the state never received. The federal government has also relocated about 1,000 migrants. (AP) Fascinated with volcanoes, this adventure junkie travels the world to see them. Every journey is a lesson and each travellers taste differs. For Joseph, a businessman from Kochi, it is volcanoes that have stolen his heart. One could realise his passion from the way he talks about different volcanoes and his expeditions. He is quite aware of almost all volcanoes in Indonesia, his favourite destination! There are many volcanoes in Indonesia. I often joke with my friends that in Indonesia, people have volcanoes in their backyards, he says laughing. An adventure junkie, Joseph, who is known as Terry among friends, started exploring volcanoes just like any other adventure trip. His affair with volcanoes grew intense in 2011 with a trip to Mount Merapi, an active stratovolcano located on the border between Central Java and Jogjakarta. It erupted a few months before my visit, he says. In Indonesia, very rarely do people die of a volcanic eruption. The research institutes are well-aware about the characteristics of each volcano and take the necessary measures to evacuate people before the eruption. Though lava burns everything during the eruption, people still return to that area because the land is so fertile and volcanoes are their sacred places, adds Joseph, showing images of the destructed land post eruption. One could find temples near volcanoes and people make offerings there. The ancient temples are made of lava rock. Their temples are empty and God is imaginary. They believe in praying to the departed souls. They are highly ritualistic, he says about Hinduism in Bali. Mount Bromo So far, Joseph has explored Kawah Putih (Mount Patuha), Tangkuban Perahu, Mount Bromo, Mount Merapi, The Ijen volcano complex, Mount Agung and Mount Batur. Volcanoes are like people. Each one is different. If Ijen is scenic, Mount Merapi is a little scary. Trekking modes and times also depend upon the characteristics of a volcano. However, we mostly trek during the night. After a hike, watching the sunrise from Mount Batur is an amazing visual treat, says Joseph, who hiked to Ijen at night to watch the famous blue fire. We can see that only during the night. It happens when temperature shoots up and fumes come along. To watch this, one has to go down on the rough terrain. Land in destruction after a volcanic eruption Kawah Putih There, the safest mode is to go for guided tours, because the terrain is so rough and they know the route well. During the walk, you could watch people doing sulphur mining, a profit-making business in that area. As we hiked during the night, we were not so conscious about the terrain. It was in the morning we saw it in its real self. We were taken aback to see the texture of the terrain we trod on, he smiles and shows some photographs of Ijens acidic crater lake in aquamarine shade rimmed with yellow-tinted sulphur. You could see that these places have a bleached effect, he says. Josephs dream of witnessing a volcano erupting came true during his visit to Mount Bromo. The name Bromo means Brahma, says Joseph. I organise tours. Bromo had already been erupting before our arrival. By the time we reached, eruption subsided comparatively. Still, it was a risk to explore it. However, we decided to go ahead. We had to literally wade through a sea of sand to reach there. The steps were covered with ashes from the eruption, says Joseph. While they were climbing down, Bromo started erupting. I could watch and capture that live. It was a throw up filled with ashes and solid metal parts, Joseph recalls. Of course, they take precautions, like wearing masks to avoid suffocation. Mount Agung Joseph has a lot of such stories to share about his travels and volcano tourism in Indonesia. In his words, he has a long way to go. He keeps studying about volcanoes sitting at this farther end of the world. He also organises cultural and adventurous tours not only to Indonesia, but also to Cambodia and Vietnam, all his favourite places. When I posted photos on Facebook, people started asking me to organise a tour, he says. He has done a few and there are some on the anvil. He has only one condition: one should be genuinely interested to explore it. Because he is not that conventional tourist who travels just for selfies and shopping. Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), Sep 2 (AFP) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan during a trip to the country that it risks instability if it fails to root out followers of his US-based nemesis Fethullah Gulen. Speaking during an appearance with Kyrgyz counterpart Sooronbai Jeenbekov on Saturday, Erdogan referred to the status of Gulen's network in Kyrgyzstan as an "outstanding question" in otherwise warm ties between Ankara and the Central Asian country. Supporters of Gulen -- a cleric and educator Erdogan once regarded as an ally -- "infiltrate the army, police and other state structures and carry out coups" Erdogan said during the appearance in quotes that were translated into Russian. "We would not want (Kyrgyzstan) to have the same problems we faced," Erdogan said, referring to the 2016 attempted coup that Ankara has blamed on Gulen allies. Gulen, based in the US state of Pennyslvania, has always denied the accusations. After the coup bid, Turkish authorities launched an unprecedented purge against coup-plotters and individuals linked to Gulen, but also against pro-Kurdish officials and critical journalists. Since July 2016, over 55,000 people have been arrested over coup links while more than 140,000 public sector employees have been sacked or suspended. The government has led in parallel a diplomatic offensive to shut down educational institutions affiliated to Gulen in countries around the world. Jeenbekov indicated when appearing with Erdogan in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek that the Central Asian country had already taken steps to bring schools once affiliated to Gulen under government control. To date, Turkey has given no indication that it has been satisfied by Kyrgyzstan's attempts to restructure a chain of schools that are regarded as among the best in the country. The United States' refusal to meet Turkey's demand to extradite Gulen is one of many sore points in a once-strong relationship. Ties between the two NATO members hit a new low last month as US President Donald Trump announced steep new tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminium in response to the detention of an American pastor in Turkey. (AFP) IJT (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) The deluge led to waterlogging and traffic jams on many routes in the city. Many locals chastised Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal for the chaos. New Delhi: Delhi came to a virtual standstill after heavy rains lashed several parts of the national capital on Saturday, leading to excessive waterlogging and traffic snarls. Streets were waterlogged near the Civic Centre at Minto Road and also in Civil Lines area where various cars were seen half-submerged in water. Visual of waterlogging in the Civil Lines area. (Photo: Twitter | @ANI) The deluge has led to waterlogging and traffic jams on many routes throughout the city. The Delhi Traffic Police is posting alerts and updates on its Twitter handle to inform the residents about which routes to avoid. "Waterlogging was reported at Iron Bridge Loni Road, Khajuri Chowk Wazirabad Road, Bhajan Pura Main Market Wazirabad Road, R/A Loni, Apsara Border, Yamuna Marg, IP College MGM Road Ring Road, Under IP Flyover Vikas Marg, Chatta Rail Lothian Road," a Delhi Traffic Police official said. Visual from the Laxmi Nagar area. (Photo: Twitter | @ANI) "Roads submerged following the rainfall included those under Modi Mill Flyover, Rao Tula Ram T-Point on the way to the Indira Gandhi International Airport, Rajghat, Janpath, the Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, to Lajpat Nagar market on Ring Road, Inderprastha Marg near the Delhi Police headquarters, Rajendra Prasad Road, GT Karnal Road, Minto Road and others," he added. Delhi: Streets waterlogged near Civic Centre at Minto road following heavy rainfall in the city. pic.twitter.com/fpvM95cDRP ANI (@ANI) September 1, 2018 The traffic police has also asked people to avoid Delhi-Noida road towards Ashram where traffic was blocked after a bus broke down. #Visuals of passengers being rescued from a bus that got stuck in waterlogged Ring road near Hanuman Mandir in Yamuna Bazar area, following heavy rainfall in parts of Delhi. All 30 passengers have been rescued safely. pic.twitter.com/ZnLPXc0wp1 ANI (@ANI) September 1, 2018 The Rashtrapati Bhavan also had to cancel the Change of Guard ceremony due to heavy rains. "The Change of Guard Ceremony on the Forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan will not be held today (September 1, 2018) due to heavy rain in New Delhi," the President House tweeted. The Change of Guard Ceremony on the Forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan will not be held today (September 1, 2018) due to heavy rain in New Delhi President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) September 1, 2018 The traffic was affected at Mathura road, Shershah road, Mathura road to Bhairon road, Purana quila road, Bihari colony, Maharashi Raman marg, Teen Murti lane, 11 Murti and Girdhari Lal Goswami Marg near post office due to excessive waterlogging. "Waterlogging was reported at Lajpat Nagar market, Pant Nagar bus stand and IP Marg near police headquarters. The traffic movement was closed on Bhairon road both ways due to waterlogging," the official said. Narrating their ordeal, people stranded around the MCD Civic Centre, one of the worst affected areas, chastised Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for the chaos. Speaking to ANI, a commuter said that the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government failed to fulfill their promise of developing infrastructure and drainage in the capital. "Whatever they have promised so far is all based on lies. I am stuck in this traffic for the past two hours. They only make tall claims but do not make any efforts on the ground level," he said. Another commuter claimed that his car was about to get submerged because of heavily waterlogged roads. "Luckily, I managed to escape the accident but it is very unfortunate that the government has not done anything for clearing up the monsoon mess," he added. Delhi: Traffic jam near ITO in Delhi due to waterlogging caused by heavy rainfall in parts of the city pic.twitter.com/GUwSc0XcIt ANI (@ANI) September 1, 2018 Delhi has received 61 mm of rainfall since morning and the weatherman has predicted the downpour to continue throughout the day. The Indian Meteorological Department forecast that rain and thunderstorms will continue in Delhi for the next two days. Riyadh, Sep 1 (AFP) A Saudi official has hinted that the kingdom was moving forward with a plan to dig a canal that would turn the neighbouring Qatari peninsula into an island, amid a diplomatic feud between the Gulf nations. "I am impatiently waiting for details on the implementation of the Salwa island project, a great, historic project that will change the geography of the region," Saud al-Qahtani, a senior adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said on Friday. The plan, which would physically separate the Qatari peninsula from the Saudi mainland, is the latest stress point in a highly fractious 14-month long dispute between the two states. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar in June 2017, accusing it of supporting terrorism and being too close to Riyadh's archrival, Iran -- charges Doha denies. In April, the pro-government Sabq news website reported government plans to build a channel -- 60 kilometres (38 miles) long and 200 metres wide -- stretching across the kingdom's border with Qatar. Part of the canal, which would cost up to 2.8 billion riyals ($750 million), would be reserved for a planned nuclear waste facility, it said. Five unnamed companies that specialise in digging canals had been invited to bid for the project and the winner will be announced in September, Makkah newspaper reported in June. Saudi authorities did not respond to requests for comment and there was no immediate reaction on the plan from Qatar. (AFP) IJT (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Srinagar, Sept 1: The Army on Saturday gunned down three terrorists in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Bandipora district. The gunfight began on Friday after the Army launched an anti-militancy operation Chandajan forest area. A soldier also lost his life in the operation. Three terrorists were killed in an operation in Danna in Bandipora district of north Kashmir, Srinagar-based defence spokesman, Col Rajesh Kalia told news agency PTI. "Arms and ammunition have been recovered from the slain terrorists whose identity is being ascertained. The operation has ended," he added. The operation is over, and further details were awaited. Two militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in Hajin area of Bandipora district on Friday. Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Hajin area following information about presence of militants there. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 01, 2018 08:12 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Kabul, August 27: Fighter jets, either from Russia or Tajikistan, carried out airstrikes in Darqad district of Takhar province in north-eastern Afghanistan. Provincial governor's spokesperson, Mohammad Jawid Hejri, confirmed the news and said that a clash broke out between drug smugglers and Tajik border guards in Takhar province. He added that rockets were fired by the border guards in the province, following which "fighter jets" carried out an airstrike early on Monday. However, Hejri said that the jets were "foreign", belonging to either Russia or Tajikistan. He stated that the affected area is under the control of the Taliban and not under the Afghan government. He also informed that two Tajik border guards lost their lives during the clash. The Takhar province, which borders neighbouring Tajikistan, has seen a number of clashes in recent months, notably between Afghan security forces and armed groups, including Taliban. The terrorist group has attacked dozens of check posts in the province in recent weeks. Earlier this month, 12 border police officers were killed in an attack by the Taliban in the Dasht-e-Qala district of Takhar province. Washington, Sep 1: The White House said on Friday that US President Donald Trump will travel to France, Ireland, Argentina and Columbia in November for bilateral and multilateral issues. According to a statement issued by the White House press secretary, Trump will travel to Paris, France, to participate in a November 11 commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended the fighting in World War I, Xinhua reported. Trump's "participation in this event will highlight the sacrifices that Americans have made, not only during World War I but also in the century since," the White House said. While in Europe, Trump also will visit Ireland to "renew the deep and historic ties" with the country, read the statement. Later in November, Trump will attend the Group of 20 (G20) Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. "The G20 Summit will be an opportunity for the President to highlight his pro-growth economic policies on an international stage and meet bilaterally with other key world leaders," the White House said. The US leader will also travel to Colombia, where he "looks forward to discussing with the Duque administration opportunities for even greater collaboration on security, counternarcotics, and regional affairs." In addition, Trump has asked Vice President Mike Pence to travel to Singapore in November to attend the United States-Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit and the East Asia Summit and then to Papua New Guinea for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings. Pence will highlight the US regional vision, and meet with leaders of US regional allies and partners to advance security and prosperity, among others, the White House said. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 01, 2018 08:09 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Manila, Sep 1: Six villagers were killed by unidentified gunmen, who also abducted a Filipino couple in a Philippine town, police said on Saturday. The gunmen broke into the couple's house in the coastal Sirawai town and took them hostage around 5 p.m. on Friday, Xinhua quoted police officer Edwin de Ocampo as saying. A neighbour of the couple, who is attached to the military, tried to rescue the hostages but was killed. Five more villagers were also gunned down by the attackers as they escaped, De Ocampo added. He said a child was also wounded in the crossfire. A rescue operation is on. This is the second abduction incident in Sirawai town this year. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 01, 2018 08:40 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Riyadh, Sep 1: A Saudi official has hinted that the kingdom is moving forward with a plan to dig a canal that may turn neighbouring Qatari peninsula into an island, amid a diplomatic feud between the Gulf nations. "I am impatiently waiting for details on the implementation of the Salwa island project, a great, historic project that will change the geography of the region," Saud al-Qahtani, a senior adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, tweeted on Friday. The plan, which would physically separate the Qatari peninsula from the Saudi mainland, is the latest stress point in a highly fractious 14-month long dispute between the two states, The News International reported. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar in June 2017, accusing it of supporting terrorism and being too close to Riyadhs archrival, Iran. Doha denied the charges. In April, the pro-government Sabq news website reported government plans to build a channel -- 60km long and 200m wide -- stretching across the kingdom's border with Qatar. Part of the canal, which would cost up to $750 million, would be reserved for a planned nuclear waste facility, it said. Both Saudi and Qatar authorities did not respond to requests for comment and there was no immediate reaction on the plan from Qatar, The News International reported. After the dispute erupted last year, Qatar -- a small peninsula nation -- found its only land border closed, its state-owned airline barred from using its neighbours' airspace, and Qatari residents expelled from the boycotting nations. Mediation efforts led by Kuwait and the US, which has its largest Middle East air base in Qatar, have so far failed to resolve the dispute. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 01, 2018 11:11 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Kabul, Sep 1: Two Taliban senior commanders were killed when military aircraft targeted the militants' hideout outside Qalat city, the capital of the southern Zabul province, provincial police chief Mohammad Mustafa Mayar said. According to the official, the aircraft of the US-led coalition forces conducted the sorties against Taliban hideouts in Amki area, on Friday afternoon, killing Mullah Asad and Mullah Sangari, the commanders on the spot and injuring a few others. Mayar, however, didn't provide more details, Xinhua news agency reported. Taliban militants have not made any comments so far. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 01, 2018 03:12 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). The FIR also said the companies claimed to have stocks in hand when actually they did not have any. New Delhi: A case has been registered against two companies for allegedly taking loans to the tune of Rs 120 crore from HDFC Bank by furnishing forged documents, police said on Saturday. According to an FIR lodged in the case, the companies owned by Rash Pal Singh Todd and Mandhir Singh Todd got loans to the tune of around Rs 120 crore using fake and forg-ed documents. The FIR was lodged following a complaint by the banks assistant vice president Sanjay Sharma on Thursday, they said. The two companies dealing in high-end luxury cars from their showroom and office in sector-53, Gurgaon used fake documents to avail loan from the bank, stated the FIR. The FIR also said the companies claimed to have stocks in hand when actually they did not have any. Gov. Phil Murphy on Friday said he's frustrated New Jerseyans will have to pay higher gas taxes this fall, but that it's needed to fund the state's road and rail projects. The message comes a day after his administration announced drivers will pay 4.3 cents more per gallon to gas up beginning Oct. 1. That's because collections have lagged behind what's needed under a formula set in a law signed by former Gov. Chris Christie. "Yeah, I'm frustrated," Murphy said. "You never like raising any tax but this is the formula," he said. "(But) if we're going to keep the funding at the level we need to keep it at to fund the projects ... we have no choice." The governor also suggested any attempts by the Legislature to curb future hikes could fall short. Christie in 2016 approved a 23-cent-per gallon increase to fund the nearly depleted Transportation Trust Fund, which pays for road and rail projects. The tax rate previously was unchanged since 1988. Now, the upcoming 4.3-cent increase brings the total state taxes to 41.4 cents on each gallon of motor fuels pumped in New Jersey, and 48.4 cents on each gallon of diesel. The law that requires the treasurer increase the tax rate if collections fall behind to ensure it brings in enough cash for the Transportation Trust Fund. "It is what it is and we're gonna make the best of it," Murphy said after a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new school in Vineland. However, at least one lawmaker wants to strip the state's ability to raise the tax without the Legislature's approval. "I'm going to introduce some legislation which brings the Legislature back into the loop," state Sen. Christopher "Kip" Bateman, D-Somerset, told NJ Advance Media. "We're elected to represent our constituents, and I know our constituents aren't happy about this." But Murphy gave no indication Friday he'd go along with a proposal if it were to ever hit his desk. Instead, he stressed the need to keep the Transportation Trust Fund solvent. "I didn't see what Sen. Bateman said. We have to keep the Transportation Trust Fund funded," Murphy said. NJ Advance Media Staff Writer Samantha Marcus contributed to this report. Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook. A pedal cycle bus, capable of transporting about ten children at a time, would ease traffic congestion in Naas as well as helping the environment. Pedal cycles, which cost about 13,000 each, are used in Holland taking children to an from destinations by using cycle lanes. Effectively they are pedal powered open air buses and are used for children aged between 4 and 12. They come with a rain cover to protect against inclement weather, an electrical battery which provides energy for hills and a music player. Independent Naas councillor Sorcha ONeill said that she has been working in the idea of providing a cycle us in Naas which could be used on the cycle lanes. It would take a number of cars off the road at busy driving times, said Cllr ONeill. However she has one problem with the scheme. For the life of me I cannot find a company in Ireland that will make one, which is similar to those used in France, Holland and Spain, she said. Cllr ONeill has contacted a number of manufacturers of so-called beer bikes but not has expressed an interest in making one. If there is a company in the Kildare area that would be interested, Id like to hear from them. A Sinn Fein councillor has called on Irish Water to urgently progress its plans to relieve the pressure on Newbridges sewerage system. He said he had contacted the company and raised the ongoing issues in Dara Park and other problems people are having around Newbridge with sewage. We need these projects moving ASAP to help alleviate already under pressure sewage issues around the town of Newbridge and Athgarvan, he said. Irish Water responded by saying it is working in partnership with Kildare County Council to deliver the Upper Liffey Valley Regional Sewerage Scheme Contract No 2B. The tender process is underway and tender applications are currently being assessed. Irish Water published a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) on 24 July to acquire the necessary lands to facilitate the progression of the project, said a spokesperson. Contract 2B, when completed, is designed to address the wastewater issues in the sewer network in Newbridge, including at Dara Park. It said it is also progressing a project in partnership with Kildare County Council called the Upper Liffey Valley Regional Sewerage Scheme Contract 2A which will consist of a new interceptor sewer connecting Newbridge to the wastewater treatment plant at Osberstown. This new interceptor sewer must be progressed to enable works in the Contract 2B project to be constructed. These works include a new wastewater pumping station in Southeast Newbridge, added Irish Water. These works will be undertaken pending the outcome of a judicial review which is due before the courts later this year. On that basis, and until such time as the legal proceedings are concluded, it is inappropriate for Irish Water to comment upon proposed timelines for the delivery and completion of contract 2A. The company said it understands this is a long standing issue in Newbridge and understands the disruption that can be caused to residents and local business in the town during heavy or persistent rainfall events. It said there is no other localised short term solution to this problem. Irish Water with Kildare County Council have committed to keeping the public network managed and maintained to ensure the least amount of disruption in the interim, it added. Last week, the government finally published its proposal for an auto-enrolment pension plan with a 2022 target date. It it goes ahead it will mean that the c65% of private sector workers who have no pension savings other than the State Pension will be on their way to building their own, work-based nest eggs. Four years is a tight deadline, so good luck on that front. Yet everyone acknowledges that pension coverage is still falling and how, as the population ages, future generations cannot count on the 12,650 State Pension to meet their retirement needs. This new auto-enrolment pension is therefore aimed at the c410,000 workers between the ages of 23-60 who earn between 20,000 and 75,000, but do not belong to a company scheme or have a private pension like a PRSA. The new scheme is compulsory for employers, but not for workers who will be able opt-out within seven months of their auto-enrolment. So how will it work? From 2022, the worker and their employer will contribute 1% of the workers gross salary in that first year to their new pension fund. This contribution will go up 1% each year until year six, when worker and employers will each be paying 6% of gross salary, or a total of 12%, into the fund. Meanwhile, for every 3 the worker contributes, the government will pay in 1. This works out as an additional 2% of their salary. (Currently, private pension contributions result in 20% or 40% income tax relief depending on whether they you pay tax at the lower or higher rate. For every 100 saved into their pension, the 20% taxpayer will pay 80 and the 40% taxpayer, 60. Employers can also claim tax relief. Under this new system, the governments 1:3 contribution will the equivalent of a flat 25% income tax credit, regardless of their earnings.) By the end of the six year roll-out period, by 2027-28, the target of 14% of the employees gross salary as a total pension contribution will have been met. This is the annual percentage that pension experts suggest is the level needed to provide an income that is about 50% of the workers final salary when added to the State Pension. So how much will each of the parties end up contributing each year for those first six years of the scheme? Lets use two examples: a worker who earns 25,000 a year and one who earns 50,000, and lets assume for simplicitys sake that their income stays at that level. In year 1, the worker and employer will each contribute 1% of gross salary, or 250. The state will contribute 62.50. The total contribution is 562.50. In year 2, the annual contributions rise to 2% or 500, 500 and 125 respectively. In year 3, the contributions rise to 3% or 750, 750 and 187.50. In year 4 they rise to 4% of gross salary or 1,000, 1,000 and 250, and in year 5 to 5% or 1,250, 1,250 and 312.50 respectively. By year 6 (and subsequent years) the worker and employee will each be contributing 6% of gross salary 12% in total or 1,500 + 1,500 and the state 375, or 2%. This amounts to a total annual contribution of 3,375, or 14% of salary. At the end of those first six years, a total of 11,812.50 worth of salary contributions will have been put into the workers fund. This figure doesnt include any potential growth in the fund. For someone earning 50,000 a year, you just have to double all these figures: in the first year the worker and employer will each pay in 1% of salary or 500 and the state just 125 (ie 1 for every 3 the worker contributes). But by year six, the worker and employer will be each contributing 3,000 each and the state, 750 for a total of 6,750. This too amounts to 14% of gross salary. At the end of year six, a grand total of 23,625 worth of pension contributions will have been invested in their auto-enrolment fund. There are going to be lots of political and financial stumbling blocks before the final plan is launched. Unions, employers and the Department of Finance will all have to reach agreement. A new agency, the Central Processing Authority, will have to be set up, funded and the proposed four plan providers mentioned will have to agree to keep their costs to just 0.5% per annum. And the tax relief anomaly will have to be sorted out. This pension scheme will only provide a flat 25% government subsidy, yet existing personal pension schemes like the PRSA, awards 40% tax relief on contributions on earnings of more than 34,500. Theres still much detail to be thrashed out. Or watered down. BNest, the countrys first dedicated social enterprise incubator, is to host the launch of its 2018/9 programme next week. Now in its third year, the initiative will run at the Nexus Innovation Centre in the University of Limerick. Next Wednesday, September 5, at 4pm, Nexus will play host to the event. All are welcome to attend the event, as it is a great opportunity to meet those that have been selected to do this years BNest incubator programme and also to connect with like-minded passionate individuals who want to make a positive social impact in our local communities. BNest will also announce their line up of events that will be open to the public for their upcoming autumn/winter season. Among the guest speakers are Tracey Lynch, the chief executive of Tait House and John McEvoy, the social enterprise development Manager of the Social Innovation Fund and Founder of the Irish Mens Sheds Association. Eamon Ryan who founded BNest said, We are the first fully-fledged social incubator in Ireland, and the idea was to create a peer group which shares experiences and helps one another. BNest has been given a home by the University of Limerick, where participants have access to the full facilities of the Nexus Innovation Centre. The venture is being philanthropically funded and participation for the enterprises selected is at no cost to them. In the last two years, 17 organisations have graduated from this BNest programme. We are so excited to welcome this year's participants and eager to advance the beginning of their journey together. All are welcome to attend the launch of BNest for 2018. For more information on the launch, contact 061-518376. Alternatively, visit the BNest web site at www.bnest.ie or you can email Kasia Zabinska, BNest manager at kasia@bnest.ie. A LIMERICK author and playwright, who protested in Tuam during Pope Francis visit, expressed dissatisfaction with the pontiffs final address at Phoenix Park at the weekend. Mary Coll, former director of the Belltable Arts Centre, attended a solidarity demonstration at the graves of the 796 babies at the mother and baby home in Tuam, on Sunday. This occurred on the day the pope delivered his penitential speech, seeking forgiveness for the members of the Church who had committed abuse. Forgiveness is a very emotional word. The pope asks for forgiveness, but what the pope didnt say is, I make you a promise here that I will deliver justice for every priest, or member of the religious orders, who is guilty of harm. That wasnt said. It wasnt said because its all about the money, she told the Limerick Leader this week. Mary Coll was born in a mother and baby home in Westmeath in 1962. Ms Coll, who attended the demonstration with her daughter and two friends, said she was not protesting the visit of Pope Francis. I wanted to take part in something that marked a solidarity with people who have experienced the darker side of the Church. And in that, I would include all victims of clerical sex abuse, industrial schools, Magdalene Laundries, mother and baby homes, all of that, she explained. She said there was a different feeling at this years visit, in comparison to the famous 1979 visit of Pope John Paul II. Theres a totally different emotion; its an emotion of anger and betrayal in its repeated failure to deal in a responsible way with the abuse issues. The Church has destroyed itself from the inside out, she said. The demonstration was led by Catherine Corless, who was responsible with exposing the Tuam mother and baby home scandal. THE BISHOP of Limerick has called on members of the Catholic Church who are "hiding some dark secret" to report abuse to State and Church authorities. Speaking at the annual retreat of the Syro-Malabar community from India at the Limerick Racecourse this Saturday, Bishop Brendan Leahy also called on members of public and victims to report abuse. This is the fourth time in a number of weeks the Limerick bishop has acknowledged the abuse caused by the Catholic Church. He delivered two speeches in the lead up to Pope Francis' visit, and this is now the second statement he has released this week, reflecting on the pontiff's historic visit. In his speech this Saturday morning, Bishop Leahy said that the Church has an obligation "to those who feel alienated, hurt and disavowed by the grave crimes committed by clergy and religious". "We must do more to encourage those who have been abused in any way but have not already come forward, to report their abuse. We must do this to support them, help with healing if possible, identify those responsible and bring justice." He said that the Church can "never accept that we are doing enough". "As for those who have abused in the Church, we need to continue our pursuit of truth, justice and healing. Most episodes of abuse stretch back into decades but if anyone has any information regarding anything relating to any member of clergy or religious, we need to know and, moreover, the authorities need to know. "If there remains any member of the clergy or religious who is hiding some dark secret or intention in the area of abuse of minors I plead with them to come forward immediately and own up to this, again to state and church authorities. Do not put yourself in a situation where the poison within can infect others," he stated this weekend. The Bishop discussed the Catholic Church of today versus the Catholic Church of 1979, when Pope John Paul II visited Ireland and Limerick. He said Pope Francis' visit was "36 hours that reflected all about the Church in Ireland today". "It was not, of course, 1979 in terms of the numbers that celebrated. But this is not Ireland of 1979, nor is it the Church of 1979. Today its a Church that has gone through humiliation and purification. There was a blindness in the Church then as to what was lurking within but today our eyes are open." However, he said the Church is now celebrating a new beginning. "I take all expressions, positive and negative, from this special time as an invitation; a collective voice that we must listen and respond to. The Pope has given us, as bishops in Ireland, a clear mandate to do this listening. "We have begun the process here in Limerick through our Synod of two years ago but we must now, renewed by the energy and honesty of last weekend, go forward with great hope. The words spoken over the past week and more have brought us closer. We now commit to action." Bishop Leahy said, one week on from the Pope's visit, he makes a "humble plea to all who want to begin with us again in a new way, what the Taoiseach called a new covenant; lets rebuild a Church at the service of Irish society." FULL SPEECH BY BISHOP OF LIMERICK, BRENDAN LEAHY Its just a week since we had Pope Francis among us. I know many of you were present in Dublin or Knock. I am pleased to be here today because, in a way, you are a sign of the new beginning the Catholic Church is experiencing in Ireland. Until relatively recently, we were a homogenous group of Irish-born people who, practically speaking, took our being catholic for granted as almost part of a social package of being Irish. Today, however, we have vibrant communities such as yours, the Syro-Malabar community, or the Polish community or the Filipino communities. Each group brings with it a new expression of being catholic. And that helps us imagine that the traditional way we thought of the Catholic Church is not set in stone. One week on from the Popes visit, it is important to take steps not to let the significance of the visit begin to disappear from our minds and hearts. We are inspired by that visit more than ever to make a new beginning, just as you have in coming to this country of welcomes. .. I was hugely heartened by the hundreds of thousands who turned out for Pope Francis visit. Those who lined the streets in Dublin, attended Croke Park, the Phoenix Park and, of course, that special morning in Knock. It was an affirmation of the deep faith of people, their love of God, their deep spirituality and their mercifulness towards a Church that has, while enriching them in many ways, failed them badly in a most shocking way. There were many powerful moments along that all too brief 36-hour journey that touched us all; a mix of darkness and light and rightly so. There were the apologies and acknowledgements throughout of abuse in the Church; Pope Francis own words, deep and heartfelt, at public engagements. His words at his meeting with victims confirming his horror over what happened. Never has a Pope spoken with such passion using such strong words; never has a Pope connected on this level. This was essential and there was more. Like his reaching out to all on the margins, not least his meeting with the Capuchin brothers and the homeless his words there very striking when he described their work as they help you without taking away your dignity. That's the face of Jesus Christ. His joy at the depth of faith and celebration as people sang and danced through unforgettable hours at Croke Park. The beautiful mix of joy and solemnity of Knock and the Phoenix Park. His silent prayer at Knock and the Pro-Cathedral. There was also the Taoiseachs striking address. And the statements of protest at Tuam and in Dublin, which must also be acknowledged. 36 hours that reflected all about the Church in Ireland today. It was not, of course, 1979 in terms of the numbers that celebrated. But this is not Ireland of 1979, nor is it the Church of 1979. Today its a Church that has gone through humiliation and purification. There was a blindness in the Church then as to what was lurking within but today our eyes are open. Yet one undeniable constant between now and 1979 was the sense of celebration of our faith. It was everywhere I turned. At a time when many have - for one reason or another, not least the scandals that have hit the church shied away from public expressions of faith, people felt released from shackles for the weekend. The freedom and joy as they celebrated being part of Gods kingdom was remarkable and not seen since 1979 in this country. I can only imagine how much God saw it and thought it was good. . Clearly those who attended the ceremonies in Dublin and Knock have a deep love of their faith and we must continue to nourish that. It is our mission. The sins of the past cannot be allowed to cloud over that mission. However, we also have an obligation to those who feel alienated, hurt and disavowed by the grave crimes committed by clergy and religious. We must continue to meet and reach out to them. We must repair the damage and pursue justice. We must do more to encourage those who have been abused in any way but have not already come forward, to report their abuse. We must do this to support them, help with healing if possible, identify those responsible and bring justice. As a community rooted in Gods love, fidelity and mercy, we can and are called to walk this road with them. We can never accept that we are doing enough. Huge strides have been made in safeguarding; the Church increasingly closer to being the sanctuary that God would want. Recently, lingering doubts about Church transparency have been expressed. In the recent past, however, dioceses and religious orders have opened their doors both to the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church and to the HSE, who have issued audits. The Church must always co-operate fully with state authorities in this area. As for those who have abused in the Church, we need to continue our pursuit of truth, justice and healing. Most episodes of abuse stretch back into decades but if anyone has any information regarding anything relating to any member of clergy or religious, we need to know and, moreover, the authorities need to know. If there remains any member of the clergy or religious who is hiding some dark secret or intention in the area of abuse of minors I plead with them to come forward immediately and own up to this, again to state and church authorities. Do not put yourself in a situation where the poison within can infect others. There is no place for this in Gods house. Nonetheless, without ever eclipsing the acknowledgement of the negative, we need to be careful that we dont pull ourselves down as a society, reading our past only in its negativity. That would be untrue to the past and not fair to the present and hamper future possibilities I would make an appeal that, as a society, we do not quench or suffocate the possibilities of new beginnings that were enkindled last weekend. . And we do have a new beginning. It began last weekend, a real turning point on this every-lasting journey of following God. Everything good and bad set out before us. And as it should be. We move away from this most special time renewed and enriched by the joyful expression of faith by hundreds of thousands. Also, by the knowledge that it is a Church that has taken enormous strides that would have been unimaginable four decades ago and beyond. A Church that has faced the evil within, has worked tirelessly to cast it out and put stringent measures in place to protect against its return. But above all, a Church that is still out there, reaching those on the margins, people fighting homelessness, ill-health, bereavement, poverty and so much more. A Church that is accompanying millions day by day in all kinds of ways from baptisms to weddings to funerals, building local communities and offering horizons of consolation, meaning and hope. I take all expressions, positive and negative, from this special time as an invitation; a collective voice that we must listen and respond to. The Pope has given us, as bishops in Ireland, a clear mandate to do this listening. We have begun the process here in Limerick through our Synod of two years ago but we must now, renewed by the energy and honesty of last weekend, go forward with great hope. The words spoken over the past week and more have brought us closer. We now commit to action. The future is an opportunity for doing things we have never done before. But we can only achieve this together. One week on from the Popes visit, I make a humble plea to all who want to begin with us again in a new way, what the Taoiseach called a new covenant; lets rebuild a Church at the service of Irish society. I particularly speak to those who were walking away in the distance but had their heads turned at the weekend to see a shard of light from a familiar place. That is the light of God and it is a light for all. We want to bring that light that breaks through the darkness with us and meet people where they are. Let us then, in rebuilding this together, rekindle the flame from baptism, so it burns bright in all of us. It's a flame that will unite us, lift our hearts and souls and give peace, bringing us closer to Gods idea for us all and making of us all one family united in love for one another. I pray that the Spirit who heals will inspire us to repair and re-build our Church together. Your enthusiastic presence here today is a sign of hope for us. Let us begin again! 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. FORTY households in Limerick city have been urged not to drink water in their homes due to an excessive level of aluminium, authorities have warned. Leaflets were sent to a households in the Rosbrien area on Friday night, urging them to avoid consuming tap water due to the aluminium supply. Accordingly, in the interest of public health, it is recommended that all users on this section of main do not consume the drinking water. The notice has been imposed due to an exceedance in the standard level of Aluminum in the supply, said the document, jointly sent by Limerick City and County Council and Irish Water. Fine Gael senator Maria Byrne has made contact with Irish Water and the council over the matter. She said residents have expressed concern over the matter. She was informed by Irish Water that all information regarding the notice will be updated "regularly" online. Sen Byrne told the Leader that she has requested Irish Water to keep in contact with residents via leaflet. "As to find the information on the website you would need to be it literate. Currently this problem is not listed as a news item on the Irish water website. Water is currently been distributed to the households and I have been assured by senior management in Limerick City and County council that water will be available to all householders while this notice remains in place," she said. Irish Water told the senator that "they carry out regular checks on mains they maintain its not that long since the last test. This time when they found large levels of aluminium they brought in the HSE for advice, who decided it was better for the residents not to drink the water or use it for food preparation. "Residents are to be kept informed of progress but it is important that every step is taken to sort this matter and make sure that the water is safe, This is a helth risk and action needs to be taken immediately," she stated. This is a map file uploaded by Irish Water on their website. Irish Water said water should not be used for the following: If parents want to use water for bottle-fed infants, an alternative use would be bottled water. However, it should be boiled first for sterilisation. Irish Water has also urged people to avoid waters labeled as "natural mineral water", as it can contain high levels of sodium and other minerals. Irish Water have also warned people that boiling the tap water will not make it sufficient or safe for consumption. Irish Water will be keeping people informed via leaflet drops, its website, and there is a customer service at 1850 278278. The Limerick Leader will be bringing you updates on this restriction throughout the weekend until the restriction is lifted. However, the DCP (IGI) Sanjay Bhatia denied any such detention. New Delhi: A notorious Nepalese gangster was reportedly detained by the Delhi police at Indira Gandhi International Airport on Saturday morning. The gangster was identified as 35-year-old Jitendra Tamang, who is popularly known as Dawa Lama in Nepal, sources said. Lama was detained from the Terminal-3 of IGI airport. Though Lama was with three persons, Delhi police detained only Lama. Lama was arrested based on a tip-off. He is the acting president of Tarun Dal, youth wing of main Opposition Nepali Congress, Kavre. When contacted, secretary of Nepali Congress Keshav Rijal said, We have heard the news about this incident through the media reports, however, we are not sure. The police detained Lama after a look out circular was issued against him. Delhi police is waiting for Kolkata police for further action. However, the DCP (IGI) Sanjay Bhatia denied any such detention. We have not detained anyone, he said. Dawa Lama, who hails from Salle-2 Kavre, had been encouraging illegal dealings in the area by associating with gangsters Balram Sapkota alias Bale and Ganesh Lama. He would lend them money at exorbitant rates to run casinos and carry out extortions. He would even go ahead and kidnap his targets if they failed to pay him as per his demand, stated media reports. The Nepal police had been searching for Lama after Federation of Contractors Associat-ions of Nepal (FCAN) Chairman Sharad Kumar Gauchan was shot and killed in Shantinagar in the capital on October 9, 2017. Earlier on April 11, 2017, a group of unidentified assailants had opened fire at Lama, a gangster who is on the most wanted list of police, at Bouddha in Kathmandu. I DIDNT go to see the Pope and now Im sorry that I didnt make the effort. There was a bus from my village but I was afraid it might dump us in Naas and wed have to walk all the way from there to the Phoenix Park and as sure as God somewhere around the mid-way point Id fall by the wayside and theyd have to call the emergency services to lift me off the road. I hate being the centre of attention. Then during the week, when the weather forecast looked ominous, and we were warned to leave our umbrellas at home and not to even think of hauling a kitchen stool along to sit on, my pilgrim soul faltered, Im sad to say, and stayed put. Nevertheless, it was for me, glued, as I was, to the TV, an uplifting weekend. I was wishing I was there, but thats the story of my life. Im always somewhere else when something momentous is happening, and where Ill be when the saints go marching in, is anyones guess, because Id never be so presumptuous as to number myself among the saints. All I can say is that I am a practising Roman Catholic and try to keep the rules of membership as best I can. Its much easier now, because many of the rules have either disappeared or been ridiculously relaxed. Nobody wants to be bound by rules any more, but you know something, I think I was a better Christian when there was personal sacrifice demanded, when we had stricter rules to obey and couldnt even eat meat on a Friday. That said, the visit of Pope Francis, was immensely reassuring in the face of the daily spate of Catholic bashing that has been raining on us of late. Dont get me wrong. I absolutely deplore the vile actions of some Catholic clergy over the years, just as I deplore the pseudo-respectable Ireland we once were and maybe still are. I was cheered by the Popes almost tangible humanity. He displayed the common touch without so much as a hint of the patronising clap on the back we received from visiting dignitaries in the past, especially those who claimed kinship with an eye to the voting power of our widespread diaspora. For me, the most heart-warming moment of the whole weekend was when the young girl, Alison Nevin, from the Travelling Community, asked him if she could have a selfie with him after smuggling in her mobile phone under her jumper. The Pope readily agreed, with a beaming smile and a conspiratorial air that would warm the cockles of your heart. The liberals of the New Ireland were too busy congratulating themselves and wallowing in their own righteousness to make much of it, but a few of them did notice and pronounced it unseemly. His Holiness reminded me of a parish priest I once knew, named Fr Johnny Minihan the spittin image of him in appearance. Fr Johnny was a man of the people, loved and respected by everyone. He put on a stern face at times, but couldnt maintain it, almost involuntarily bursting into the most beatific of smiles. He had a glint in his eye that bespoke a certain bemusement at the foibles as well as the heroics of humanity, but which also exuded a rare compassion for the human lot. I thought of Fr Johnny when I watched the Mass in the Phoenix Pak on Sunday and also of all the other good priests I had known who had been there for us in times of sorrow and triumph, including my own uncle. When I say I was glued to the TV, it wasnt to the RTE channel, many of whose commentators tried too hard to present the New Ireland and disengage from the old one. The result, for me anyway, was a grudging and ungracious welcome to one of the most famous men in the world, with more than a slight hint of arrogance in the tone. Look at how grown up weve become since the last Pope visited us. Were no longer on our knees RTE crowed to the world. I switched over to Sky News, not because I didnt want to face uncomfortable truths, but because I wanted to get the real picture of what this particular occasion represented, which I thought was getting lost in RTEs objectivity anxiety and desire to look sophisticated. Im glad I did, because in doing so I learned a bit of history about how we came to be colonised in the first place. It wasnt the Brits who instigated the 1169 invasion which resulted in 800 years of slavery. According to Sky, it was the Pope, who wanted to bring our independent church under the jurisdiction of Rome and who, in cahoots with Henry II, sent Strongbow across to take us over. Now the Vatican has enough on its plate without having to apologise for that as well, but apologies anyway to, Diarmaid MacMurragh! It seems that he too was a victim of fake news. Born in Kenya, I came to Ireland two decades ago after marrying an Irishman. Over the years I have lived variously, in Dublin, Wicklow and now in Ogonnelloe, in Co Clare. I completed my primary and secondary education and attended secretarial college in Kenya. However, I enjoy learning and meeting people so I also completed FETAC Childcare and Care for the Elderly courses in Ireland when my children were younger. My great love of art subsequently led me to study at Limerick School of Art and Design (LSAD) from where I have just graduated with an Honours Degree in Fine Art (Painting). I love nature, with many of my artistic ideas coming directly from memories of hikes and walks through the African and Irish countryside. My recent show at LSADs graduate exhibition reflected a genuine concern for our environment and my dismay at the damage it is suffering both here and in Africa. For example, my home place in Western Kenya, has forests, which once teemed with wildlife when I was a child, now almost disappeared, due to population increase and commercial exploitation. In Ireland, also, I have become aware of the catastrophic decline in the populations of birds, fish, and insects, whilst seeing in real time the growing pollution of land and sea by plastics and emissions. For me, nature offers abundant life, and hope for the future, but must be cared for, or we will destroy that hope and with it our childrens future. Nature gives us life, beauty, and sustenance, but when we use our power to exploit her, we also destroy something in ourselves. In my art I try to combine traditional African skills with the techniques that I have learned at LSAD. In Africa, we normally dont call ourselves artists, but producing sculptures, ceramics, batiks, basket-weaving, and embroidery, is instead part of everyday life. The aim is to make everyday objects more beautiful, to brighten peoples lives, and to express a deeper meaning in life. Though it is never exhibited, some of this work is of very high quality. I personally seek to combine these traditional African skills, (like embroidery and batik,) with Western painting styles. In Africa we tend to look at the natural world in a very close-up way. We have to, because every step potentially carries the danger of a bite from a snake, a poisonous spider, or an attack from an animal hidden in the undergrowth. Africans discover many good things by simply observing the natural world close to them. Nature in Africa is very bountiful and we can usually find a variety of foods and medicines simply by keeping our eyes open. Focus on the patch of ground before you and notice the fine details. In the West, people are more inclined to look at the wider landscape and to admire the view. In my work, I have tried to combine a distinctively African focus, with a Western concern for the big picture, (via composition and assembly for example). Muted batik landscapes convey the density and mystery of the natural landscape. They also draw on the African mask tradition to suggest the presence of spirits in the natural world who are wounded by the destructiveness of humans towards our environment. In my combined material piece, for example, the circle represents unity, completeness, and harmony of nature, as well as beauty, while the chestnut and tamarind bring us back to more small-scale and concrete things. Today, in many ways we have moved beyond the concept of African Art. Artists from Africa, like those in Europe, America, or other parts of the world, combine global influences with perspectives from their culture of origin. I have been fortunate enough to have been given an opportunity to live with African and Western culture, and my resulting art embraces them both. In fact, today, I feel that I can live fully in two different cultures and be open to what is good in each. Combining the two happens through the process of daily living, interaction, communication, and reflection. Overexposure to different viewpoints can leave some people adrift and unsure about where they belong. That said, with genuine dialogue and reflection, we can develop a deeper understanding of what is valuable in our own culture as well as an appreciation of what different views have to offer. Every exhibition, in my opinion, is ideally a dialogue between the artist and the viewer. The artist expresses something deep and important, but cannot control the meaning that the viewer will give to the work. The viewers, on the other hand, must be open, and make an effort to understand, before being rewarded by an enriched understanding of the world (and of themselves!). For more information please see: marimbokha on Instagram After the incident, the girl informed her mother about it and the two went to Charkop police station to lodge a FIR. The girl told the police that some boy came from behind and put his hand inside her skirt. Mumbai: A minor girl was allegedly molested by an unknown boy from the same school in the school canteen in Kandivali (west) on Thursday. The police is trying to identify the minor boy who committed the crime. According to the Charkop police, the incident took place in the afternoon when the girl went to the canteen to eat. The girl told the police that some boy came from behind and put his hand inside her skirt. The girl however did not pinpoint who the accused was, and the police is taking circumstantial and descriptive details of the person from her to zero in on the minor. The police said that it will also go through CCTV footage of the school to check for leads in the case. The police is questioning a group of boys who were present in the canteen and witnessed the incident. After the incident, the girl informed her mother about it and the two went to Charkop police station to lodge a FIR. A Charkop police official confirmed that they had lodged a FIR under Section 8 (sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual offences (POCSO) Act. Beware of that cool sea breeze over Labor Day weekend; it could be carrying unwanted lung-ravaging soot particles from the north. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued a smoke advisory Friday warning that clouds of ash from fires in Oregon and British Columbia that are now floating over the ocean could blow ashore. The advisory, which continues through Monday, urges Bay Area residents to limit outdoor activity, close windows and doors, and set air conditioning units and car vent systems to re-circulate if they smell smoke. Lisa Fasano, spokeswoman for the air quality district, said smoke from the fires in our neighbor state and the province of Canada has been blowing out to sea and could waft into town this weekend. The National Weather Service is forecasting light northerly winds through Labor Day, the same kind of breeze that blanketed the Bay Area in a brown haze during the past couple of weeks. We may experience smoke. Its all very weather dependent, Fasano said. Because we are still experiencing smoke offshore, we could be impacted again. The massive fires that plagued California in July and August are mostly contained and are no longer sending smoke over the Bay Area, Fasano said. The problem smoke is coming from Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, which is in the midst of its worst fire season on record, with 534 active fires. Flames have blackened more than 5,000 square miles in British Columbia since Jan. 1, breaking the previous record set in 2017. The Klondike Fire, in southwest Oregon, topped 100,000 acres this week. That blaze, which originated in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness, was 40 percent contained Friday. Its really the fires up north that have the potential to impact us, Fasano said about the smoke, which can irritate the eyes and airways, causing coughing, a dry scratchy throat and irritated sinuses. Were just trying to alert the public to stay vigilant, especially children, the elderly and people with asthma and other respiratory conditions. Peter Fimrite is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: pfimrite@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @pfimrite PAUL BUCKOWSKI The League of Women Voters of Saratoga County will register voters at the following locations on Sept. 25, as part of National Voter Registration Day: Town of Ballston Community Library: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Laredo police said a man was critically injured late Friday after a vehicle struck him while he was riding a bike. LPD said at about 8:45 p.m. that a vehicle struck an elderly man in the 3100 block of Santa Maria Avenue, between Sherman and Blair streets. Police initially reported it as an auto-pedestrian incident but later said the man was riding a bike. From the stage of the Phil Donahue show in front of a live audience, Dr. Elizabeth Connell, a tiny middle-aged mother of six, opened her purse and began pitching condoms in wrappers with smiley faces into the audience. It wasn't just a gimmick. Connell had a longtime commitment to raising awareness about family planning and contraception. "She wanted to call attention in whatever way she could both academically through scholarship, but certainly through humor to support women's rights," said Dr. Jean Emans, chief of adolescent medicine at Boston Children's Hospital. Connell, a proponent of improving women's reproductive health for more than 50 years, died on Aug. 20 at Brookdale Cushing Park, an assisted living facility in Framingham, Massachusetts. She was 92. The cause was congestive heart failure, her daughter, Patricia Connell, said. As a scientist, Connell conducted research on methods of contraception, including early testing of birth control pills; served on the editorial board of a prestigious journal in her field; and wrote three books on contraception, including "The Contraception Sourcebook" (2001), a comprehensive overview of available methods and the science behind them. Later in life, she was a researcher with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As a social activist, she helped open a women's health clinic in New York's East Harlem neighborhood in the 1960s that is still active as part of the city's public hospital system, and she argued in favor of legalizing abortion well before the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. She also raised concerns about the risks of breast implants when she led a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee. "She helped legitimize the importance of family planning, of women's health, the equality of women in the workplace," Dr. Richard Derman, associate provost for global affairs at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and a former colleague, said in an interview. Connell's views on abortion and birth control were shaped by her time in rural Maine, where she saw patients who suffered from unwanted pregnancies and botched abortions. As we now know, the Supreme Court is to hear this again on September 6. Many of us will be watching what it does with great interest. We often hear in India the phrase I have full faith in the judiciary and that the law will take its own course. I do not use these phrases and I have little faith in the judicial system. The law almost never takes its own course in India. The state is always up to mischief against the citizen and the judiciary usually does not resist it. Let me illustrate this by looking at the case about which we are hearing so much these days, the arrest of five individuals whom this government, and its media, are calling urban Naxals. I will urge readers to withhold their opinion about these individuals, particularly based on what they are hearing and reading in the media. It is nonsense. The individuals should not have been arrested and in any civilised democracy (which India is not) this would not have happened because civilised democracies have functioning judiciaries that protect the rights of citizens. They are not enthusiastic about rubber-stamping whatever the state produces before them that violates our rights. I accept that in the current instance it is also the judiciary itself that has revealed the problems within it. I do not mean the Supreme Court, but Delhi high court. A two-judge bench was looking at the arrest and transit remand of one of the five individuals, Gautam Navlakha. This courts order on the matter, dictated by Justice S. Muralidhar, is a remarkable document and must be read by all citizens. It is 10 pages of clarity, precision and elegance. It tells the following story: On August 28, Gautam Navlakha was arrested from Delhi. The police did not have a search warrant and were not allowed to enter his house. They went back and returned with a warrant. The basis of the case was an FIR filed about an event held on December 31, 2017. Gautam was not named in that FIR. He says he was not even present at the meeting. The charge of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (which is the law the government uses against terrorism) was not originally mentioned in the original FIR. It only had sections related to promoting disharmony. After his arrest, Gautam had to be taken to Pune. The chief metropolitan magistrate (CMM) of Saket in Delhi, Manish Khurana, allowed transit remand to take him to Pune. The transit remand application was made in Hindi. However, the documents that were produced before the magistrate were mostly in Marathi. The Delhi high court said: It is not possible to make out from these documents what precisely the case against the petitioner is. The question we as citizens should ask is: then why was permission for the transit remand given by the magistrate? The high court ordered that the case would be heard the following day, and that the documents that were shown to the magistrate should be translated from Marathi. Meanwhile, Gautam was to be taken back to the place where the police had picked him up from. In the morning, the advocate for the police said that the translation was taking more time and the court gave till afternoon. At 2.15 pm, the court was shown a few pages, including the FIR translated into English but with much of the material still in Marathi. The police lawyer asked for still more time, which the court did not give. The court then said that it was concerned with the legality of the arrest and legality of transit remand passed by the learned CMM. It said the FIR did not mention Gautam, so what evidence was produced before the CMM? It asked the Maharashtra police officers present this question: whether at any time during the proceedings before the learned CMM, the learned CMM asked to see the case diary in which purportedly the relevant material concerning the involvement of the petitioner is contained. The policemen said no. It was revealed that the case diary is also in Marathi. The police lawyer then said that Gautam could apply for regular bail so there was real problem. To this high court pointed out that under UAPA it would be extremely difficult to get regular bail till at least the time of filing of the chargesheet. It was at this stage, on the 29th, that the police lawyer said that the Supreme Court had intervened. The high court then said it would no longer be appropriate for it to continue hearing about the validity of the transit remand. As we now know, the Supreme Court is to hear this again on September 6. Many of us will be watching what it does with great interest. The U.S. Postal Service's extraordinary release of sensitive personal information about an ex-CIA officer running for Congress resulted from an employee mishandling a public-information request, according to two congressional aides briefed on the matter. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat trying to unseat Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., touts her experience as a former intelligence officer and postal inspector. So on July 9, GOP opposition researchers with the organization America Rising filed a public records request with the federal government, seeking basic employment information. The Postal Service told congressional aides in a briefing Thursday that an employee in a new position, who had not been properly trained, mistakenly treated the request as if Spanberger were asking for her own records. In the space of 21 days - lighting speed by the snail-paced standards of Freedom of Information Request processing - the Postal Service handed over her Social Security number and medical history, along with employment history, part of a questionnaire known as a SF86 that Spanberger filled out years earlier as she sought security clearance. "Please find enclosed the entire Official Personnel Folder (OPF) for Abigail Spanberger," said a letter granting the FOIA request on July 30. A total of four public-information requests were mishandled, the Postal Service said in a briefing of staff for Rep. Elijah Cummings, Md., the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Gerald Connolly, Va., the top Democrat on the OGR government operations subcommittee, and the Senate Homeland Security Committee. The Postal Service declined to provide any identifying information about the other three individuals whose information was mistakenly released, or say if they are candidates for public office, according to two aides who were on the call. The aides spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter. Postal spokesman David Partenheimer said he could not answer questionsfrom The Washington Post about the errant employee or the other people whose information was released, citing an ongoing investigation into the matter. The FS86 normally would not be released under FOIA, the aides said they were told on the call. In most cases, the Postal Service would share only past and present positions, salaries and locations of employment. Postal officials said there are two categories of requests for employment history. One is when someone requests his or her own records or provides a waiver allowing a third party, such as a potential employer, to see them. Those are handled by the Postal Service's human resources office. The other category is a third-party request with no waivers, and that is handled by the Postal Service's FOIA office. The new employee was mistakenly treating all requests as if they belonged in the first category, the aides said they were told. Partenheimer declined to comment on that account. After receiving the FS86, America Rising turned the material over to the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., whose spokeswoman said the request was by no means out of the ordinary. "It is standard operating procedure in American politics by both Democrats and Republicans to vet a candidate's employment history, particularly when they have made it an issue on the campaign trail, as Abigail Spanberger has," spokeswoman Courtney Alexander said. Indeed, Spanberger's team submitted a similar FOIA for her federal employment records, to see what information her political foes could turn up. A firm her campaign hired put in the request in December. She is still waiting for the documents. Spanberger and Brat are running in Virginia's 7th District, a longtime GOP stronghold in suburban Richmond where President Donald Trump is unpopular. Cook Political Report classifies the race as "toss-up." Brat won the seat four years ago after beating then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the GOP primary, a stunning upset fueled by an ascendant tea party. But this year, Brat must contend with a strong challenge from Spanberger, anti-Trump sentiment and lingering resentment from Cantor supporters. Brat had declined to comment on the release of his rival's records. Amid the uproar over the incident from Democrats and more than 200 national security officials who served under presidents of both parties, some political candidates with past or present security clearances say they are now wondering: Does my opponent have my SF86? "I don't know if they have it," said Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA analyst and Pentagon official who is running for Congress in Michigan's 8th District as a Democrat. She expressed concern that Spanberger's clearance form was released publicly. "These are kind of techniques that we're used to seeing from our adversaries," she said. "Not from American political organizations." - - - The Washington Post's Greg Jaffe contributed to this report. The week of Aug. 27-31 as seen through the lens of Telegraph photojournalist John Badman. CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Less than two weeks after a group of protesters brought a century-old statue of a Confederate soldier crashing down here, the sloping lawns of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reveal some signs of what happened and a lot of uncertainty about what comes next. While many argue that the statue, which they see as a relic of racism, should disappear forever, school officials indicated Friday that the statue could be restored - perhaps in a less-prominent location on campus. UNC Chancellor Carol Folt said in a news conference Friday that the divisive "Silent Sam" statue doesn't belong at the public university's "front door," but she said she also believes that the statue means different things to different people, and that the icon that many see as a memorial to fallen Confederate soldiers, some of them family members, "has a place in our history and on our campus where its history can be taught." "I hope we can agree that there is a difference between those who commemorate their fallen and people who want a restoration of white rule," Folt said, noting that the disputes around the monument are about profound struggles of race, inclusion, history and honor that the nation needs to resolve. The towering pedestal from which "Silent Sam" gazed out, gun in hand, is now empty, surrounded by metal crowd-control barricades, with an ankle-turning dent marking where he plunged headfirst into the ground. The grass has been trampled by protesters who have skirmished and celebrated here, some cheering the downfall of what they deem a racist icon, others mourning the loss of what they view as an important historic marker. For a while, a bouquet sat inside the barriers with a card inscribed to "James J. Cherry," one of the Confederate Roanoke Minute Men and a member of the Class of 1862 who "died on the field of honor." Some visitors continue to lament the sacrifices made by young men who abandoned their studies here to fight - and die - for a cause they believed in. "Their bodies are who knows where. What do they have?" said Sandra Aldridge, who spat in disgust as she circled the railings after coming to campus for an appointment. "If you don't like something, you don't just tear it down." Decades of internal debate about the statue and its prominence on this Southern campus have escalated into a politicized public drama, one heightened by the similarities to the controversy in Charlottesville a year ago, which erupted into a rally that turned fatal after white nationalists and others objected to the proposed removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Silent Sam long has been a flash point, facing defiantly to the north, overseeing a main entryway to UNC's historic campus. But the symbolism of this particular bronze effigy of an adolescent soldier became all the more polarizing after documents in the university's archives revealed the white-supremacist language used at its 1913 dedication, including a gleeful account of whipping a young black woman. In the wake of the Charlottesville, Virginia, violence, tensions heightened further in April after Maya Little, a history graduate student, was arrested for daubing the monument with red ink and her own blood. The statue was brought down the day before classes started for the fall semester by protesters who gathered in solidarity with Little. Some members of this liberal North Carolina community now envision another, potentially more painful, battle if the UNC system's governing body, whose members were chosen by the state's Republican-held General Assembly, decrees the statue should be reinstalled. "It's not over yet," said Justis Malker, a 17-year-old freshman who was among the crowd when protesters felled the statue the day after he moved onto campus from his home in Indian Land, South Carolina. "If it goes up, it is bigger than the statue, bigger than the university," he said, recasting a battle over history as one about contemporary morality. "You allow the ideals of white supremacy to win." The administration blamed the statue's toppling on outside agitators, said Fitzhugh "Fitz" Brundage, a history professor whose research helped surface the statue's inflammatory backstory. "It could get far worse." ACTBAC - a group from nearby Alamance County that formed to protect local Confederate markers following protests in 2015 - gathered for a twilight service at the site Thursday. They carried red signs with the message "Save our monuments. Preserve our history" up to the statue's plinth, where they unfurled a giant Confederate flag. They were outnumbered by a gathering of about 200 counterprotesters who distributed glowsticks and danced, before following ACTBAC off campus with chants of "Nazis, go home!" Police twice used pepper spray on the restive crowd and made three arrests for resisting, delaying or obstructing an officer. None of the three was affiliated with the university. Pressed to act this week, the university system's statewide Board of Governors met behind closed doors Tuesday, then punted, setting a Nov. 15 deadline for UNC at Chapel Hill's chancellor and Board of Trustees to present a "lawful and lasting" plan to preserve the sculpture, which was hauled away to a secret location. Folt, who decried the way the statue was pulled down, left options open earlier this week, including "a location on campus to display the monument in a place of prominence, honor, visibility, availability and access, where we can ensure public safety, ensure the monument's preservation and place in the history of UNC and the nation." She said on Friday that she wanted to provide a "safe and welcoming front door" for the university, anticipating a long, democratic process to decide the statue's placement on campus. The most prominent advocate for reinstating the soldier is Thom Goolsby, a former Republican state senator and member of the governing board who posted a video on YouTube and sent a letter to fellow board members. "We have no option other than remounting the monument without delay," he told them. Goolsby based his argument on state legislation that passed in 2015, shortly after white supremacist Dylann Roof slaughtered nine black members of a Charleston, South Carolina, church, an attack that prompted widespread efforts to eradicate Confederate markers. The North Carolina law restricts the removal and relocation of monuments on public property and gives a 90-day deadline for a statue that has been temporarily removed to be put back. "We have to obey the law," Goolsby said in an interview. "It's that simple, that simple for me." Lindsay Ayling, 30, a history graduate student and activist, challenged Goolsby's interpretation, citing Gov. Roy Cooper, D, who sent a letter to UNC system president Margaret Spellings a year ago saying the law allows officials "to take steps in the interest of avoiding "threats to public safety" and called recently for legislators to change the law. And lawyer Hampton Dellinger has threatened legal action on the grounds that the statue creates a hostile environment at the public school - in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The statue "should have been taken down to comply with federal law," Dellinger said. Universities have tackled the more painful aspects of their history in different ways. Some have dug deeply into the impact of slavery. Others have removed monuments - as Duke University did a year ago when protesters vandalized a Lee statue - or built new ones. In 2005, UNC installed an Unsung Founders Memorial not far from Silent Sam, dedicated to "the people of color bound and free who helped build the Carolina that we cherish today." Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Va., where Lee is buried, just concluded a year-long examination of its history. William Dudley, the president, announced Tuesday the creation of a museum to explore the school's past, including the contributions of enslaved people. "It feels like the country is kind of on a knife's edge about this," said Don Taylor, chair of the academic council at Duke, where the history department has asked the university to rename the building in which they work so that it no longer honors the donor Julian Shakespeare Carr, who also made the explosive 1913 dedication speech at UNC. They instead would like to pay tribute to Raymond Gavins, Duke's first black professor of history. "Universities need to provide an example of how to do this deliberately and thoughtfully, using our scholarship," Taylor said. In a debate often cast as history vs. hate, UNC historians have used scholarship to reveal the racist intent behind Silent Sam, a work commissioned half a century after the Civil War to honor "the sons of the university who entered the war of 1861-65 in answer to the call of their country." Brundage was working with colleagues on a project to digitize information about monuments of all kinds across the state when one of his graduate students began combing university archives for information about Silent Sam. Adam Domby, now on the faculty of South Carolina's College of Charleston, found the speech that Carr, a successful industrialist, gave at the statue's dedication. The speech praised Confederate soldiers whose "courage and steadfastness saved the very life of the Anglo Saxon race in the South." Domby read on. "One hundred yards from where we stand," the document said, "I horsewhipped a Negro wench until her skirts hung in shreds, because upon the streets of this quiet village she had publicly insulted and maligned a Southern lady." The discovery, which Domby recounted in a 2011 letter in the student newspaper, helped focus attention on the need for greater examination of UNC's past. Some students pressed for more context. One 2012 proposal said, "Our intent is not to remove monuments or revise history; rather, we seek to challenge the university to provide a more complete historical narrative." In 2015, Saunders Hall, which once housed the history department, was renamed Carolina Hall to remove the reference to purported 19th-century Ku Klux Klan leader William Saunders. In September of the same year, the school created a task force to examine how it told its own history. More recently, a group from UNC has been working with the Universities Studying Slavery consortium started at U-Va. But Silent Sam survived. "I think the administration has essentially neglected its fundamental duty," said William Sturkey, an assistant professor of history. "It has basically taken a position of silence." Some, including Brundage, view the tensions as a reflection of a growing ideological divide between the left-leaning campus and its Board of Governors, appointed by a General Assembly that turned Republican in 2010 for the first time in more than a century. Sturkey said the board, the majority of whose members are white men, is inherently political. The result has been polarized - and polarizing - debate. "In reality, there are a range of views, a wide middle of people in the community who engage in thoughtful discussion," said Cecelia Moore, who serves on UNC's history task force. The prevailing anti-Sam sentiment on campus has silenced some dissenters who fear being branded as racist, said Psalms White, 21, a senior who said she has tried to keep discussions open even as she protests the statue, just as her mother did 30 years ago. One senior, who has been creating a photographic history of the spot where Silent Sam stood, said the ongoing controversy causes some African-American students to reevaluate their relationship to the school. "I've been taken aback by the response of the administration," said Courtney Staton, 20, who said she was saddened that anyone would consider putting the statue up again. For Bryce Bentinck, who was on a college visit with his mother from Connecticut, the empty pedestal offered some hope. "I would have been here to support the movement" to remove the statue, said Bentinck, who is biracial. He viewed the void, for now, as a sign that UNC is "a place that can change and adapt." - - - Svrluga reported from Washington. The Washington Post's Kirk Ross in Chapel Hill contributed to this report. Vilasini Ganesh and her husband Gregory Belcher of California were convicted of the charges in December last year after an eight-week trial. In addition to the prison term, Judge Koh sentenced Vilasini Ganesh to a 3-year term of supervised release and ordered her to pay restitution in the amount of over USD 344,000. (Representational image) New York: An Indian-origin woman has been sentenced to over five years in prison for health care fraud and making false statements related to a health care benefits programme. Vilasini Ganesh was sentenced on August 28 to 63 months in prison, US Attorney Alex Tse said. Vilasini Ganesh, 47 and her husband Gregory Belcher, 56, both of California were convicted of the charges in December last year after an eight-week trial. The evidence at trial demonstrated Vilasini Ganesh submitted a series of false medical claims related to the family medical practice she owned in California's Saratoga town. She submitted claims for days when a patient had not been seen by the provider and claims for patients who had been seen by a physician provider who no longer was affiliated with her practice. Additionally, she billed insurers with claims that certain patients were seen 12-15 times in a single month. In July 2017, a federal grand jury indicted Vilasini Ganesh and Gregory Belcher, charging them with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering as well as on multiple other counts of health care fraud. During Vilasini Ganesh's sentencing hearing, Judge Lucy Koh said that Vilasini Ganesh obstructed justice by misrepresenting her understanding of the legal system, the amount of money she was paid by insurers, and whether she understood that it was improper to "upcharge" when submitting claims to insurers. In addition to the prison term, Judge Koh sentenced Vilasini Ganesh to a 3-year term of supervised release and ordered her to pay restitution in the amount of over USD 344,000. Vilasini Ganesh will begin serving the prison sentence on November 1, 2018. In April this year, Gregory Belcher was sentenced to a year and a day in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. Forecasters on Saturday upgraded the chance of tropical weather hitting southeast Texas in the next five days. The National Weather Service said there is a 40 percent chance that a weather system near the Turks and Caicos islands will develop into a tropical depression. The Houston region, meanwhile, is likely to get rain for the next few days. The NWS in Houston forecasts at least a 40 percent chance of precipitation for the area every day until Friday, with most rain coming in the morning. Here's the seven-day forecast: Saturday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 92. Heat index values as high as 102. East wind around 5 mph. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Saturday night: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 2 a.m. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 76. Southeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm after midnight. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Sunday: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 8 a.m. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 89. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 70 percent. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Sunday Night: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before 8 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 77. Southeast wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70 percent. Monday: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 8 a.m. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 89. Southeast wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60 percent. Monday Night: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before 8 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 77. Chance of precipitation is 60 percent. Tuesday: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 8 a.m. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 89. Chance of precipitation is 60 percent. Tuesday Night: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before 8 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 77. Chance of precipitation is 60 percent. Wednesday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 92. Wednesday Night: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 77. Thursday: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 91. Thursday Night: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 77. Friday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 91. A state agency has awarded low-income housing tax credits to help finance construction of four proposed apartment developments in San Antonio, which will require those properties to keep most rents below market rates for at least 35 years. The local projects selected were the Museum Reach Lofts, a Midtown housing development by the nonprofit Alamo Community Group; Artisan at Ruiz, which Franklin Development Properties and the San Antonio Housing Authority plan to build west of downtown; Village at Roosevelt, an apartment development planned for the Mission Concepcion area by Prospera Housing Community Services; and San Juan Mission Villas, a senior housing complex to be built on the South Side by Mears Development. The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs Board approved those tax credits through a highly competitive program that requires applicants to outline the merits of their proposed housing developments. The tax credits are sold to investors to raise equity for the projects before construction begins. That lowers the development costs and enables developers to charge lower rents for qualified residents earning limited incomes. The tax credits cover about 70 percent of your development costs, so you can see why theyre very attractive, said Jennifer Gonzalez, executive director of Alamo Community Group. Such financing also helps developers meet the need for affordable housing. While the rents remain below market rate, qualified tenants still get a high-quality, modern and safe place to live, said Ryan Wilson, Franklin Developments senior vice president. The city awarded resolutions of support for all four housing developments. This backing is critical because its a very competitive process to secure the tax credits awarded earlier this summer, said Veronica Soto, director of the citys Neighborhood and Housing Services Department. The top-ranked applicant in the San Antonio urban area this year was Museum Reach Lofts, which Alamo Community Group is seeking to build in Midtown at the corner of North St. Marys and West Jones. That project was awarded nearly $1.2 million in housing tax credits. The nonprofit group will demolish a vacant warehouse and an office now standing on the sites it purchased to build Museum Reach, a five-story affordable housing complex containing 94 units a mixture of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments. The vast majority of those apartments will be income- and rent-restricted and will be reserved for working renters earning 30, 50 or 60 percent of the area median income. Eight apartments will be offered at market rates. The area median income in the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro area this year is $66,800, TDHCA documents show. To qualify for an apartment reserved for someone earning 30 percent of that amount, a tenant living alone couldnt earn more than $14,040 annually, while a family of four could earn no more than $20,040 a year. Alamo Community Group hopes the $17.5 million Museum Reach development will appeal to renters who work entry-level jobs in the professional and service industries in Midtown and downtown. This is an opportunity to live in an area that is currently out of reach for a lot of working individuals in San Antonio, Gonzalez said, noting the site is close to the River Walk and the Pearl. Construction is expected to begin early next year and will last about 18 months. The first apartments could be ready by next summer, Gonzalez said. Artisan at Ruiz also was awarded $1.5 million in housing tax credits. Franklin Development and SAHA are seeking to build that project west of downtown on more than 4 acres of vacant land at 1507 Ruiz, where a Wolfe Nursery used to stand. The $20 million development, which Wilson describes as workforce housing, will contain 102 units a mixture of flats and townhomes ranging from two to three bedrooms. All of those will be rented to tenants earning limited incomes. Plans call for 11 units to be rented to tenants earning 30 percent of the area median income, while another 41 units will be rented to people earning 50 percent of that median. The remaining 50 apartments will be reserved for tenants earning 60 percent of the area median income. We are targeting people who are working and have jobs, but simply cant afford to go live in a unit that costs $1,500 a month or $1,800 or $2,000 in the downtown area, Wilson said. This is specifically for those who are struggling to find quality housing. Monthly rents for a two-bedroom will range from $358 to $787, while three bedrooms will range from $412 to $908, depending on tenants income level, Wilson said. The neighborhood where Artisan at Ruiz will be built hasnt seen any new, affordable multifamily housing for many years, Wilson noted. Village at Roosevelt, a $12.2 million development by the nonprofit Prospera Housing Community Services, was awarded $975,000 in housing tax credits. Plans call for that housing to be built at 1507 Roosevelt in the Mission Concepcion area on the South Side. It will contain 49 affordable apartments, while eight others will be offered at market rates. The five-story development will feature a mixture of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. Among the affordable apartments, five will be rented to tenants earning 30 percent of the median income, while 20 will be rented to those earning 50 percent of that median and 24 will be reserved for renters earning 60 percent. Construction is expected to take 12 to 14 months, with an anticipated completion date in early 2020. San Juan Mission Villas, a senior housing complex that Mears Development has proposed for the South Side, secured a $1.14 million allocation of tax credits through the TDHCA. That $14.3 million development will offer independent senior living for tenants who are at least 55 years old. Plans call for the three-story building to be constructed on 4 acres at 9159 S. Presa. Plans call for that development to contain 102 apartments a mixture of one- and two-bedroom units. Nine units will be rented to tenants earning 30 percent of the area median income, while 34 will be reserved for those earning 50 percent of that median. Forty apartments will be rented to those earning 60 percent of the area median income. The remaining 19 apartments will be offered at market rates. A house and a former flea market structure standing at the 4-acre site will be demolished to make way for the new construction, said Russ Michaels, a consultant assisting with the project. 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 by Vladimir Rozanskij The ecumenical patriarch and the patriarch of Moscow met in Constantinople. No final declaration, but appreciation for the climate of "dialogue" and "satisfaction" for the meeting. For the Ukrainian media, Bartholomew placed Kirill in front of the fait accompli: the autonomy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, but headed by Onufrij and not Filaret (of Kiev). Moscow (AsiaNews) - The expected meeting between Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and Moscow Patriarch Kirill ended yesterday at 1:00 pm in Istanbul, without any tangible result. A final decision was expected on the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which would create so many problems for the patriarchate of Moscow. Leaving the airport of the Turkish metropolis, Kirill declared that the discussion did not lead to anything that could "provoke earthquakes in consciences", that the exchange of opinions was very calm and correct. "We have discussed the issues that concern us, but I want to reiterate that it was a fraternal conversation, and I do not want to go into details without the agreement with his holiness [Bartholomew], even if there is no secret to be defended", added the Russian patriarch. At the entrance to the Turkish patriarchal residence, greeting Bartholomew who welcomed him on the threshold, Kirill recalled the responsibility "for the whole Church of Christ" and for the custody of the Orthodox unity in the hands of the two patriarchs. "I am bound to this place - he recalled - by very happy memories, here nothing has ever been done that could harm universal orthodoxy because we have the responsibility of the whole Church". In turn, Bartholomew wanted to express his satisfaction for the arrival of his Muscovite confrere: "Every time you come to us, it is a great joy for us, and it is a joy to be able to discuss issues that represent common interests together. We believe in the strength of dialogue: this is the path that God himself has shown us ". Kirill and Bartholomew were flanked by a large group of metropolitans and archbishops, gathered from the day before for the meeting of the Synod of the Bishops of Constantinople. The Patriarch of Moscow reminded them of the difference "between simple dialogue and the meeting of the heads of the Churches; politicians defend their own interests, but in the dialogue between the Churches the most important thing is the fundamental unity among Orthodox Christians, who turn to the one, holy, apostolic Church. This gives us great responsibility, but also great strength and inspiration for our service ". Kirill recalled that he had not seen his "ecumenical" confrere for two years, from the meeting in Geneva in 2016 on the eve of the Council of Crete, which then failed precisely because of the withdrawal of the Moscow delegation. He concluded with a brief "summary of the meeting: it was a very nice moment, with a wonderful atmosphere, we evaluated the issues that are on the agenda". It was a meeting "between two heads of Churches who realize responsibility for the conditions of universal orthodoxy and the problems of contemporary humanity", specified the head of the Russian Orthodox, thus putting himself on the same level of the universal patriarch of Orthodoxy. A brief account of the visit, which took place at the Phanar, Bartholomews residence, was published on the official Telegram channel of the press service of the Patriarchate of Moscow. The negotiations lasted about two and a half hours, after which Kirill left the residence announcing: "There was a meeting, and everything went well". In the following hours, the Ukrainian media speculated on the thesis that Patriarch Bartholomew presented Kirill in front of a fait accompli, communicating to him the intention of Constantinople to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The relative brevity of the meeting could corroborate the thesis that there was not much to discuss, but the positive expressions of the patriarch of Moscow also indicate a possible satisfaction with the modalities of the decision. If the new autonomous jurisdiction was entrusted to metropolitan Onufrij (Berezovsky), whose loyalty to the Muscovite "sister church" has never been questioned, without necessarily elevating him to a patriarchal dignity, Kirill could still claim a paternity over the new local Church. This could mean the definitive exclusion of the irreducible adversary, the non-canonical patriarch Filaret (Denisenko), who for a quarter of a century has contended control over the Ukrainian herd in Moscow. According to the Ukrainian media, the final decision will be taken in October, by the Synod of Bishops of the Church of Constantinople. Brockhampton has announced a fall tour with a Boston date. The group will play Agganis Arena on the campus of Boston University on Oct. 20. The show is part of the group's "Ill Be There" tour which will support the upcoming album "Iridescence" which is due out this month. Tickets are on sale beginning Sept. 8 at 10 a.m. through all Ticketmaster outlets and locations including ticketmaster.com and by phone at (800) 745-3000. Brocckhampton is a California based boy band that formed in 2015. A 30-year-old New Bedford woman faces felony charges after her 21-month-old son overdosed on a mixture of heroin and fentanyl he found in the family's apartment living room, the New Bedford Standard-Times reported Police said the boy required multiple doses of Narcan and a Narcan drip as he was rushed to a Boston hospital for treatment following the Tuesday incident. According to court documents filed Wednesday, the boy's mother, Saranah M. Raposa of Grinnell Street in New Bedford, told officers that the boy came to her in distress and she screamed for help. Raposa said the boy had a plastic bag in his mouth and had trouble breathing. Other tenants in the building called police. First responders said they found the child unresponsive and not breathing. The boy was transported to St. Luke's Hospital in New Bedford, then airlifted to Boston Children's Hospital. The state Department of Children and Families took custody of Raposa?s four-year-old son and will assist in the custody of the younger boy records indicate. Raposa was charged with reckless endangerment of a child under 18, possession of heroin and assault and battery on a child with substantial bodily injury and was due in court Wednesday for arraignment. She, however, did not appear and is the subject of an active arrest warrant. 'Sentry' was developed by two Americans and a Syrian. The system tries to track the bombers and warns users with an alarm. The founder: "Reduces civilian deaths in raids by 27%". The app has been downloaded by almost 2 million people, many of them from the Idlib area. Idlib (AsiaNews / Agencies) - An telephone app that alerts when bombs are about to arrive. The system is called Sentry and was launched two years ago by two Americans and a Syrian. Sentry is able to calculate the potential target and attack time. The application analyzes flight trajectories with sensors and a network of field observatories who share information with the app or via Telegram. Since it was launched in 2016, the app has been downloaded by 2 million users. Most of the downloads come from Idlib, the last rebel stronghold in recent days targeted by the Russian army and Assad. The developer of Sentry John Jaeger explains: "In this last military campaign we saw a strong increase in system accesses". Even a Syrian programmer, whose identity is kept secret, worked on the project. Jaeger explains that the use of Sentry reduces the number of deaths in air raids by 27%. The network of field workers who launch the warning and install the sensors is fundamental for the development of the system. On average, since the alarm is raised, residents have eight minutes to find a safe haven. The coordinator of the alert system in northern Syria Ibrahim Abu Laith says: "Civil protection technicians are trying to make the service accessible to civilians without internet". In the north of the country about 200 awareness sessions were organized to teach people how to use the system. A 29-year-old Florence man was killed when his pickup truck apparently went out of control, crashed through a guardrail on Route 112 in Worthington and landed in the Little River. The Massachusetts State Police said in a written release that the driver of the truck was ejected from the vehicle and landed in the river. He was pronounced dead at the scene. State Police investigators said the truck was traveling northbound on Route 112 at about 8:45 p.m. when it crashed near the intersection with Goss Hill Road. The incident remains under investigation by the State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section and Crime Scene Services. Fire units from Worthington, Cummington and Huntington responded to the scene. Massachusetts State Police arrested four suspects on Friday after they allegedly broke into Saint Mary's Church in Milford and inflicted more than $5,000 in damages. The group of four allegedly broke into the Catholic Church in Milford overnight on Friday and destroyed parts of the church. State Police detectives arrested 21-year-old Michael Clifford and three juveniles in the vandalism case, according to Milford Police. Milford Police reported the damage extensively, saying the suspects allegedly: "destroyed doors, broke stain glass, ransacked office and storage areas, committed desecrating acts against constitutional religious freedoms and protections, and stole or removed several religious artifacts, left sacramental items broken or strewn throughout the floor and area of the church." Detectives processed the evidence on the scene before identifying and arresting the four suspects. Clifford and the three juvenile suspects have been charged with trespassing, breaking and entering, two counts of malicious destruction of property, larceny from a building, conspiracy, a civil rights violation, and causing over $5,000 injury to a church. Authorities have identified the elderly pedestrian struck and killed by a car in Weymouth on Friday as 78-year-old Lionel "Lee" Godbout. The Norfolk District Attorney's office identified Godbout, of Weymouth, as the victim in a crash that occurred on Front Street Friday afternoon. Godbout was struck while campaigning for Josh Zakim, a Boston city councilor running for Secretary of State against William Galvin. Zakim's office confirmed Godbout was a volunteer and friend to the campaign team, and said they canceled all campaign activities Friday night following the news. "The Zakim campaign family is absolutely devastated by the sudden loss of our friend and campaign volunteer, Lee Godbout," Zakim said in a statement. "I spoke with his wife, Kathy, and offered my condolences and the prayers and assistance of our entire team. Those who were there have offered statements to police and we will be offering them any needed support." The driver who struck Godbout remained on the scene and no charges or citations have been filed as police continue to investigate the incident. 31 Gallery: Hospital arraignment of Aaron Thorne for car crash deaths of 4 Springfield youths Updates a story posted Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, at 2:46 p.m. CHICOPEE -- Police said a report of a suspicious person walking around Chicopee Comprehensive High School on Friday was a hoax. Police said they have secured the building after an afternoon lockdown and search prompted by the report. Police spokesman Officer Michael Wilk said detectives are investigating the apparently false report and the person who allegedly made it. Criminal charges may be filed in the incident. The building was declared cleared shortly after police searched all the rooms and hallways. Small groups of students and staff are being escorted into the building to retrieve belongings and that will continue until about 10 p.m. Wilk said officers will be available at 8 a.m. to bring others into the building. Wilk said authorities declared the lockdown after the report of the suspicious person was received at the school office. Officials decided to "err on the side of caution," Wilk said. Police cordoned off the building and prevented anyone from approaching. During a lockdown, school staff is prohibited from using telephones. Students were released to a relocation point at Lambert Lavoie School where they were then released to parents. Elderly siblings who live together in Lowell were attacked by two men who broke into their home early Friday morning, police say. The suspects broke into the home at 70 Fifth Ave. around 3:40 a.m., Lowell police said in a statement. The brother and sister called the police and said they were woken up by two masked men who demanded money. They said they were both attacked by the men, who left the home without taking any money. Both victims had minor visible injuries and were taken to the hospital for treatment. Police said the men were able to get into the home by breaking a front porch screen window and entering a window that was left open for air overnight. A car belonging to one of the victims was stolen, police said. It has since been recovered. No description of the suspects was available, as the men were dressed completely in black. Anyone with information is asked to call the Lowell Police Department at 978-937-3200 or the Criminal Investigation Division at 978-674-4501. State Attorney General Maura Healey's office is convening a grand jury as part of the investigation into alleged theft of overtime money by members of the Massachusetts State Police, sources told MassLive. Healey's office declined to comment about the grand jury. A spokeswoman for Healey said the investigation remains active and ongoing. The investigation by Healey's office is separate from the continuing federal investigation that has led to six troopers facing charges in U.S. District Court. No trooper has been charged on a state level in connection with the overtime investigation as of Aug. 31. A total of 46 Massachusetts State Police troopers are under investigation for allegedly stealing overtime pay while claiming to conduct specialized traffic enforcement on the Massachusetts Turnpike and Metropolitan tunnels system. The specialized patrols, known as Accident Injury Reduction Effort patrols, and X-Team patrols, are at the center of the investigation. State police audited the patrols for 2016 and discovered discrepancies between overtime pay and hours worked. The audits expanded into 2015 AIRE and X-Team patrols and other patrols conducted by Troop E. The six troopers facing federal charges are all accused of embezzling money from an agency receiving federal funds. Sources did not know what possible charges Healey is pursuing in the state's investigation into the alleged overtime theft. Two of the six troopers have pleaded guilty in the federal case. Federal investigators accuse the troopers charged in U.S. District Court of skipping the overtime shifts or working partial shifts. FBI agents reviewed data from the troopers' cruisers to follow their locations. Investigators also say they discovered troopers wrote phony citations or changed dates on previously written citations, so the troopers could appear to be working the specialized shifts, federal court records say. One of the two troopers who pleaded guilty in federal court, Trooper Gregory Raftery, skipped or partially worked 116 AIRE shifts, MassLive learned. MassLive Reporter Gintautas Dumcius contributed to this report NORTHAMPTON - Around two dozen people amassed on the steps of Northampton City Hall Friday afternoon to protest a recent incident at Smith College that many have interpreted as racist. The Rally Against Anti-Blackness and Xenophobia was put together by a coalition of activists local to the region, said one of its lead organizers, Mareatha Wallace. Wallace, who works for a local school and spoke at length at Friday's rally, decried racism in Northampton and the wider Pioneer Valley. The event was inspired by a recent incident at Smith College in which 19-year-old student Oumou Kanoute alleged that she had been the victim of a racial bias incident. "We are here to support Oumou," Wallace said. "We are here to show that there is a community behind her." Wallace also clarified, however, that she had not been in contact with Kanoute and that Kanoute had not responded to requests for contact by organizers. "I am a revolutionary," Wallace said. "And I am calling for you to join me in that revolution." Wallace also claimed that there had been "silence from Smith College" in regards to the incident. She said that Kanoute's list of "demands"--which the student posted over social media several weeks ago--were reasonable and should be met. In response to the incident, Smith has hired two civil rights attorneys to investigate the alleged incident and has also promised increased anti-bias training of its staff and faculty. The President of the school, Kathleen McCartney, also released a statement in regards to the incident. One of the other speakers at Friday's event was Emily Waid-Jones, a colleague of Wallace's, who said that she felt that "white privilege, in a nutshell, is the constant feeling of safety that we, as white people, take for granted." Wallace claimed that black people do not "have that privilege" and that the knowledge of that reality is "crippling." She went on to claim that America's origin was "White men exterminating millions of indigenous people and exploiting those who were permitted to remain alive for profit," and further argued that the country had a history of racism and white supremacy that needed to be dealt with. Rally attendees sang songs and clapped as several of the event's organizers gave speeches. The event also saw prayers read by Rev. Sarah Buteux, co-pastor of the First Churches of Northampton. The event was also a blunt attempt to grab the attention of local officials, including Mayor David Narkewicz, who protesters said had not adequately addressed the incident at Smith. "The goal for this March is to have a sit down with the Mayor of Northampton as he is the leader of the City of Northampton," reads a social media page associated with the event. "Leadership needs to come from the top down. If Smith College is not helping this student, the Mayor must not be silent." Narkewicz was out of town on a family vacation at the time of the rally. SPRINGFIELD - A Northampton man was arrested by State Police Friday after he alleged stole a car while armed in Springfield. Ricky Aviles, 38, was taken into custody and is now facing a long list of charges, including receiving a stolen vehicle. Aviles is alleged to have stolen a red Toyota Corolla with Virginia plates Friday morning. Police did not provide further details on how the robbery occurred. State Police in Springfield received a BOLO (Be on the Look Out) alert for the car and the suspect, who was described as being armed with a gun. A trooper spotted the car around noon on the northbound side of Main Street in West Springfield and attempted to pull the operator over. When the trooper approached the car, however, Aviles fled, driving "erratically" and weaving in and out of cars before heading into Holyoke, police said. Holyoke police later found the car abandoned in a parking lot on Appleton Street. Aviles was subsequently apprehended after police discovered him hiding in a nearby apartment on Elm Street. He was arraigned in Springfield District Court and charged with: Former presidents speak at the National Cathedral ceremony honoring the late Sen. John McCain. Watch the ceremony live Posted by NPR on Saturday, September 1, 2018 (Live broadcast by NPR/Facebook) Politicians from across aisles will honor the late Sen. John McCain in a ceremony at the Washington National Cathedral on Saturday. McCain, an Arizona senator and Vietnam War veteran, died Aug. 25 at the age of 81 after a battle with brain cancer. He has been honored in public memorials in the Capitol in the week since his death. The Saturday ceremony is scheduled to include speeches from former presidents representing both major political parties, President Barack Obama and President George W. Bush. Prior to the ceremony, the late senator's wife Cindy McCain laid a ceremonial wreath at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. McCain will reportedly be buried at the U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery in a private service with family on Sunday. The number of complaints rose 9.1%. For the authorities, the increase is caused by greater awareness of psychological abuse. No official figures of how many children died in 2017 due to ill-treatment. In 2016, 77 had died, 33 of them less than a year old. Tokyo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - More than 130,000 cases of abuse of minors in a year. This is the data that emerges from the official report of abuse allegations for the fiscal year 2017 (March 2017 - March 2018), made public by the Ministry of Health on August 30. The official number, 133,778, represents an increase of 9.1% compared to the previous year. For the ministry, the growing number of complaints is due to the new awareness in society that psychological maltreatment - such as witnessing domestic violence - is considered an abuse. Among the reported cases there are episodes of serious maltreatment, which sometimes lead to the death of children. In the fiscal year 2016, 77 children died due to abuse, including 28 forced into a murder-sucidio. Of the 77, 33 infants were less than a year old. In recent months, the case of little Yua Funato, who was neglected by her parents and died of pneumonia when she was only five, had upset Japanese society. For Msgr. Tarcisio Kikuchi, archbishop of Tokyo, similar tragedies occur because of the destruction and loneliness of young people and Japanese families. According to experts, isolation from society and poverty are among the leading causes of child abuse. During the fiscal year 2017, the majority of cases reported - that is 72,197 cases, 54% of the total - concern psychological violence (being witnesses of domestic violence, neglect and verbal violence). There are also 33,223 cases of physical violence, 26,818 cases of negligence and 1,540 of sexual abuse. For 2017 there are still no official figures of cases of child death due to abuse. Finally, there is the problem of "missing" children. There is no trace of 28 under 18s. According to the ministry, children could be held by their parents, who prevent them from going to school. It is feared that four of them are subjected to violence, while nine could have gone abroad. "We will continue to demand municipal governments - says a ministerial official - find out where they are and ask for support if children are in danger". A federal judge on Friday sentenced Stephen Mantha, a former employee of the US Postal Service, to more than 16 years in prison for sexually abusing a child and using work computers to access child pornography at a USPS facility in Shrewsbury. Judge Timothy Hillman sentenced Mantha, a 64-year-old Spencer man, to 196 months in prison, with five years of supervised release. Mantha pleaded guilty in February 2018 to one count of producing child pornography, one count of accessing child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography, federal prosecutors said. Mantha worked as a technician at a postal facility in Shrewsbury. Prosecutors said investigators, after they were tipped to "suspicious" internet searches at a computer inside the facility, installed a tracker for computer activity record and a hidden video camera so they could see who was on the computer. Investigators later searched Mantha's home and found "numerous" thumb drives with child pornography, US Attorney Andrew Lelling's office said. Investigators also found a video, dated sometime between 2000 and 2001, that showed Mantha sexually abusing a seven-year-old boy. Investigators were able to interview the boy as an adult, and he told authorities the assault took place inside a Spencer farmhouse owned by Mantha's parents. Two Sterling Police officers and one Massachusetts State Police trooper were treated for opioid exposure after responding to a fatal overdose in Sterling that required a HazMat and multi-agency response. Shortly after 9:30 p.m. on Friday -- which was considered international overdose awareness day -- authorities from Sterling's fire and police departments were dispatched to 55 Lucas Road for a report of an unresponsive male. The overdose victim was found dead when Emergency Medical Services arrived, according to a media release by the Sterling Fire Department. He has not been identified. When authorities first responded to the scene, they encountered several "small bags of an unidentified power-like substance" near the body, "along with some of the same substance poured onto a table." Sterling Police contacted Massachusetts State Police and the State Medical Examiner's Office who later responded to the scene as well. While investigating, two Sterling Police officers and one state trooper began showing signs of possible fentanyl exposure. "The officers and trooper all described feeling dizzy and nauseous with a tingling sensation," Sterling Fire said in a statement. EMS crews and fire officials, including Sterling Fire Chief David Hurlbut, were brought back to the scene to examine the police officers and trooper. Five HazMat technicians were later called to the scene, as well as a Tactical Support Unit. Medical crews confirmed the three were experiencing symptoms of opioid exposure and they were all transported to local hospitals where they were treated and released. SPRINGFIELD -- City officials said Friday that six political signs belonging to the campaign of congressional candidate Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, seen on Main Street outside Union Station's parking garage, are not permitted at that location by law and must go. The signs were seen on Friday on the grass island on Main Street in between the parking garage and the former Peter Pan Bus Station. Amatul-Wadud, who is on Tuesday's Democratic primary ballot vying to unseat U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, said the placement of the signs at that site was not authorized by her campaign and will be addressed. "I'm going to look into it and get into compliance with the rules on placement," Amatul-Wadud said. "It was not authorized by our campaign." Signs cannot be placed on city property, including traffic islands. Neal has been credited by city officials with playing a major role in securing federal funds to help finance the $103 million restoration of Union Station that includes the parking garage. City officials said that if the signs are still at that location and found there by a city worker, they will be removed and stored at the Richard E. Neal Municipal Building on Tapley Street. Michael Cass, who is among city officials who remove political signs from improper locations, said there are signs from various campaigns being seen in the city including signs from the campaigns of both congressional candidates. The candidates can pick up the seized signs, he said. "Lawn signs are supposed to be on lawns," said Cass, who is the city's graffiti remediation director. "They can't be on tree belts, light poles, telephone poles or fences. This is the time of year when there are illegal signs all over the place." Traffic islands are also off limits, he said. It is not the candidates who place the signs, but supporters of the candidates, Cass said. Candidates are informed by the election office about the sign regulations, he said. Code Enforcement Commissioner Steven Desilets said that any signs found at improper locations will be removed if not already removed by the campaigns. It was not stated when either the campaign or the city would remove the Main Street signs. When many Franklin County voters head to the polls Tuesday, they will choose a likely successor to longtime Rep. Stephen Kulik, the Worthington Democrat who is retiring after 25 years on Beacon Hill. Seven Democrats remain on the ballot: Kate Albright-Hanna, Natalie Blais, Christine Doktor, Jonathan Edwards, Casey Pease, Nathaniel Waring, and Francia Wisnewski. Andrew Baker dropped out. There is no declared Republican in the race. The district comprises 19 towns: Ashfield, Buckland, Chester, Chesterfield, Conway, Cummington, Deerfield, Goshen, Huntington, Leverett, Middlefield, Montague, Plainfield, Shelburne, Shutesbury, Sunderland, Whately, Williamsburg, and Worthington. Albright-Hanna is a TV producer, documentary filmmaker, and videographer who describes herself as a "muckraking journalist" and "democratic socialist." The Huntington resident arrived in the hilltowns via New York, where in 2014, she was media strategist for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Zephyr Teachout. Albright-Hanna was director of video for Barack Obama's presidential campaign, and won Emmy awards for CNN documentaries about the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. In 2016, she co-founded RuralOrganizing.org, a group dedicated to empowering progressives "to rebuild small towns across America" through policy change. "It's time to launch a new progressive era," she said on the campaign trail. "Wealthy interests have captured our state legislature, but we can take it back." Albright-Hanna is a member of the Huntington Planning Board. Blais moved to Western Massachusetts from Vermont a decade ago after working with Ben and Jerry's and "learning the ropes" from then-Congressman Bernie Sanders. She worked as an aide to former U.S. Rep. John Olver (D-Amherst) and U.S. Rep. James McGovern (D-Worcester), was chief of staff to UMass Amherst chancellor Kumble Subaswammy, and is now executive director of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce. Blais has touted her experience advancing projects such as broadband expansion, bike paths, renewable energy, and the $72 million Knowledge Corridor rail expansion project. She worked closely with McGovern in fighting the now-defunct Kinder Morgan Northeast Energy Direct pipeline. She has been endorsed by Kulik, Olver, and other top regional Democrats. Doktor is an attorney with a Columbia Law School education who helps run her family's farm in Cummington. She has said she could help draft legislation that will withstand judicial scrutiny. While in New York, Doktor was involved in litigation around the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Holocaust reparations, and immigration and asylum law. She was active in public defense with The Legal Aid Society in the Bronx. She has spoken up for the rural economy, fighting climate change, preserving local elementary schools, and securing payments for towns that host a large percentage of non-taxable forest and conservation land. "We need a Doktor in the House, and we need a lawyer in the House," she has said. Doktor is a board member of the Old Creamery Co-op and active in Cummington town affairs. She is involved with groups including Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and the League of Women Voters. Edwards is a 14-year member of the Whately Selectboard, and describes himself as a "coalition builder" who works to find common ground and "move the ball forward." He helped found the South County Emergency Management Service, an ambulance service for Deerfield, Sunderland and Whately. He has promoted regional renewable energy programs, and serves on an oversight board for a regional senior center in the hilltowns. Edwards is employed by Tech Foundry, a workforce development non-profit that trains people in information technology to help fill the region's skills gap. Priorities such as education, food security, climate, transportation, and health care are dependent upon "strong, sustainable economic development and job growth," Edwards has said. The Skidmore College graduate has a degree in public administration. Pease, at 21, is the youngest in the field. He is a former staffer on the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, a volunteer firefighter, and chairs the Worthington Democratic Town Committee. "It's time to elect the next generation of public servants, not politicians," Pease has said. "Being progressive means being bold, not being reactionary." He managed Andrea Harrington's 2016 Senate campaign in Berkshire County, worked on the Save Our Public Schools campaign to defeat the expansion of charter schools, and has been active in a number of progressive causes and organizations. Pease is a graduate of Gateway Regional High School and has attended the University of Massachusetts. He is encouraging voters to "Give Pease a Chance." Waring describes himself as a "different kind of candidate" who will step up for the working poor. The Greenfield Community College student, who studies computer science, is a former cable company technician. The "democratic socialist" lives in Sunderland, and has said disenfranchised people need better representation in the Massachusetts Legislature. On the campaign trail, Waring has promised to shake things up if elected. He said it's a myth that experience equals clout, and took a swipe at veteran politicians "who have been doing the same thing for the last 30 years." "It's time for the have-nots to have a say," said Waring. Wisnewski chairs the Hampshire Franklin Commission on the Status of Women and is a former member of the Greenfield School Committee. She is a Montague Town Meeting member and on the Montague Democratic Committee. On the campaign trail, Wisnewski has encouraged voters to elect a woman of color to fill Kulik's shoes, and said health care, education, and other supports for working families would be priorities. "My strength is as an educator," she has said. "I support universal quality pre-school for all, so parents can go to work in peace. It's a social justice issue." She is a graduate of the Emerge Massachusetts program, which trains women to run for public office. She holds a master's in education from UMass Amherst, and is a program manager at Raising a Reader Massachusetts. The primary is set for Sept. 4. CHICAGO -- Red Sox ace Chris Sale (shoulder inflammation) has a return date from the disabled list in mind. He threw for the fifth straight day here Friday at Guaranteed Rate Field. He long tossed approximately 100-120 feet. "We're just strengthening now and building up to make a start," Sale said. Sale should be able to make multiple starts in the regular season before the postseason begins, Red Sox manager Alex Cora confirmed. "Probably he'll be an opener sometimes," Cora joked. That's not totally a joke though. The minor league season ends in early September. So Sale likely will pitch just a couple innings in his first start like an opener (a role the Rays began using this season). "The way it's going right now, whenever he gets on the mound he's going to move fairly quick," Cora said. "Obviously we have to build him up. But as you guys know there's not too (many) innings in the minor leagues. And we're going to have to do it at the big league level." Sale won't throw Saturday. The Red Sox still must discuss his next step. It potentially will be a bullpen session. Sale said he will pitch off a mound "soon." "He actually has a (return) day (in mind), but obviously we've gotta go through the medical department," Cora said. "His plan is very close to the one the medical department has. So we're on the same page. One thing for sure, we still need to be very disciplined. And he knows it. But he's getting very itchy. He's feels good. He's throwing. So he can see the light. There's one day he's shooting for that probably makes sense for everybody." Cora said Sale feels great. "It looks like we're trending in the right direction," Cora said. Sale said he feels he won't have any setbacks like the last time he returned from the DL. "I feel better now just because I think we took more time," Sale said. "There was just more time off from throwing. More time throwing in between days in the bullpen." Acumen Research and Consulting has announced the addition of the report to their offering. The Hysteroscopy Instruments Market Analysis Global Industry Size, Share, Trends and Forecast, 2018 2026 Industry Report 2018 is an in depth study analyzing the current state of the Hysteroscopy Instruments Market Analysis Global Industry Size, Share, Trends and Forecast, 2018 2026. It provides brief overview of the market focusing on definitions, market segmentation, end-use applications and industry chain analysis. 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Download Table of Content@ https://www.acumenresearchandconsulting.com/tentative-table-of-content/707 The report provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market. Report Coverage: Market Hysteroscopy Instruments Market Analysis Period 2015 2026 Historic Data 2015 2016 Base Year 2017 Forecast Data 2018 2026 Market Stratification Product, Usability, Application, End User, Geography Regional Scope North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa (MEA) Report Coverage Market Trends, Drivers, Restraints, Porters Five Forces Analysis, Competitive Analysis, Player Profiling, Value Chain Analysis Market Players Some of the major players involved in hysteroscopy instruments market include KARL STORZ GmbH Olympus Corp. Richard Wolf GmbH Stryker Corp Hologic Inc. Medtronic plc Ethicon Inc B. Braun AG Boston Scientific Corp MedGyn Products Inc. CooperSurgical Inc Cook Medical Medicon eG Maxer Medizintechnik GmbH Hospiline Equipment Others Our expert team will assist and customize the report so that it best fit your exact requirement, Click Here@ https://www.acumenresearchandconsulting.com/request-customization/707 The major market segments of global Hysteroscopy Instruments Market Analysis Global Industry Size, Share, Trends and Forecast, 2018 2026 market are as below: Reasons to Buy this Report The research report will enrich your decision-making capability by helping you to Design and improve your product development and sales strategies and enhancing your marketing activities Develop business strategies by understanding the market dynamics and developments driving the Hysteroscopy Instruments Market Analysis Global Industry Size, Share, Trends and Forecast, 2018 2026 Develop market-entry strategies and effective ways to sustain competition Create merger and acquisition opportunities by identifying the market players with the most innovative pipelines Identify the regional market potential which would further help in designing regional market strategies Understand the competitive scenario in the Hysteroscopy Instruments Market Analysis Global Industry Size, Share, Trends and Forecast, 2018 2026 Take more informed business decisions by relying on the insightful opinions from industry experts Why Acumen Research and Consulting? Technically acclaimed Analysts with complete industry knowhow Robust research methodology followed by our publishers to arrive at market estimates Focus on technology trends Extensive repository of market research reports to meet our clients needs Based on extensive research, we provide clear view of real market scenario and help clients with making informed business decisions Ask Query Here: frank@acumenresearchandconsulting.com or sales@acumenresearchandconsulting.com Inquiry Before Buying@ https://www.acumenresearchandconsulting.com/inquiry-before-buying/707 To Purchase this Premium Report@ https://www.acumenresearchandconsulting.com/buy-now/0/707 Everyone has felt, at one point or another, that time does indeed fly when were having fun. Why does it feel different depending on what we do with it? New research examines the neurological mechanisms that form the subjective experience of time. Share on Pinterest The flow of experience is processed by our brains, creating a subjective sense of time. Space and time are closely related not just in physics, but also in the brain. This intimate connection becomes clearer when we take a look at how our brains form episodic memories. Episodic memories are autobiographical memories that is, memories about specific events that happened to someone at a specific point in time (and space). The memory of that first kiss, or of the glass of wine you shared with your friend last week, are both examples of episodic memories. By contrast, semantic memories refer to general information and facts that our brains are capable of storing. Episodic memories have a pronounced where and when component, and neuroscientific research shows that the brain area that processes spatial information is close to the one responsible for the experience of time. Specifically, a new study reveals the network of brain cells that encode the subjective experience of time, and these neurons are located in a brain area adjacent to the one in which other neurons encode space. The new study was conducted by researchers at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience in Trondheim, Norway. Albert Tsao is the lead author of the paper , which is now published in the journal Nature. Neurons that change with time Over a decade ago, two of the researchers who worked on the recent study May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser discovered a network of neurons called grid cells that were responsible for encoding space. This area is called the medial entorhinal cortex. In the new study, Tsao and colleagues hoped that they would find a similar network of brain cells that encodes time. So, they set out to investigate the neurons in a brain area that is adjacent to the medial entorhinal cortex (in which grid cells were discovered). This area is called the lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC). Initially, the researchers were looking for a pattern but struggled to find one. The signal changed all the time, says study co-author Edvard Moser, a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, also in Trondheim, Norway. So, the researchers hypothesized that perhaps the signal did not just change over time, but that it changed with time. Time [] is always unique and changing, says Prof. Moser. If this network was indeed coding for time, the signal would have to change with time in order to record experiences as unique memories. So, the researchers set out to examine the activity of hundreds of LEC neurons in the brains of rodents. Experience affects LEC time-coding signals To do so, Tsao and colleagues recorded the neural activity of rats for hours, during which time the rodents were subjected to a range of experiments. In one experiment, the rats ran around in a box whose walls changed color. This was repeated 12 times so that the animals could define multiple temporal contexts throughout the experiment. The team examined the neuronal activity in the LEC, distinguishing between the brain activity that recorded changes in wall color from that which recorded the progression of time. [Neuronal] activity in the LEC clearly defined a unique temporal context for every epoch of experience on the timescale of minutes, write the authors. The experiments results point to the LEC as a possible source of temporal context information necessary for episodic memory formation in the hippocampus, add the researchers. In another experiment, the rats were free to roam through open spaces, choosing which actions to take and which spaces to explore in the pursuit of bits of chocolate. This scenario was repeated four times. Study co-author Jrgen Sugar summarizes the findings, saying, The uniqueness of the [neuronal] time signal during this experiment suggests that the rat had a very good record of time and temporal sequence of events throughout the 2 hours the experiment lasted. We were able to use the signal from the time-coding network to track exactly when in the experiment various events had occurred. Jrgen Sugar Finally, a third experiment obligated the rodents to follow a more structured path, with more limited options and fewer experiences. In this scenario, the rats had to turn either left or right in a maze, all the while searching for chocolate. With this activity, we saw the time-coding signal change character from unique sequences in time to a repetitive and partly overlapping pattern, Tsao explains. On the other hand, he continues, the time signal became more precise and predictable during the repetitive task. The data suggest that the rat had a refined understanding of temporality during each lap, but a poor understanding of time from lap to lap and from the start to end throughout the experiment. A Foley bulb induction is when a doctor inserts a small balloon into the cervix to help it dilate faster. This procedure is one of several ways to induce labor. An estimated 23.3 percent of women in the United States had an induced labor in 2012. In this article, we discuss how a Foley bulb induction works, what to expect, and the possible risks of the procedure. What is a Foley bulb induction? Share on Pinterest A Foley bulb induction is simple to use and low-risk in most people. A Foley bulb induction is a method for inducing labor. It involves inserting a Foley catheter into the cervix to help it dilate so that the baby can pass through the birth canal. A Foley catheter is a long, rubber tube with an inflatable balloon on one end that a doctor can fill with air or sterile water. When the balloon inflates inside the cervix, it puts pressure on the cervical cells, helping it dilate and increasing the tissues response to oxytocin and prostaglandins. Oxytocin and prostaglandins are hormones that help to promote labor. A Foley bulb induction is a safe procedure. There is no evidence of increased risks for infection. Serious complications for the woman and baby are also rare. There are advantages and disadvantages to this approach, so people should thoroughly discuss the decision to have a Foley bulb induction with their doctor. The benefits of using a Foley bulb induction include that it is: low-cost low-risk in most people simple to use widely available Procedure The typical Foley bulb induction procedure includes the following steps: A doctor will monitor the babys heart rate for at least 20 minutes. They will confirm that the baby is in a head-down (vertex) position. The medical team will help the woman move into the lithotomy position, which involves her lying on her back with her legs in special stirrups. The doctor will clean the perineal area using a medical solution. Using forceps, they will move the tip of the Foley catheter through the opening in the cervix. The balloon will be just beyond the cervix, but outside the amniotic sac. They will fill the Foley balloon with about 30 milliliters of sterile water. Doctors may tape the Foley catheter to the womans thigh to create additional tension. The doctor may put more sterile water into the Foley balloon to help the cervix dilate further as time goes on. The Foley balloon will usually fall out when the cervix has dilated 3 centimeters (cm). Delivery is usually possible once the cervix is 10 cm dilated and the woman is experiencing frequent uterine contractions. Risks of a Foley bulb induction Doctors should consider a womans medical history, the course of pregnancy, and the current health status of the fetus when recommending a Foley bulb induction. According to a 2018 systematic review , the risks of using a Foley bulb to dilate the cervix are low. Looking at 26 studies and 8292 women, the researchers found that the most common adverse effect was pain or discomfort. The Foley bulb placement may also stimulate contractions, which can be uncomfortable or painful. When is a Foley bulb induction recommended? Share on Pinterest A Foley bulb is recommended for women pregnant with one baby. Doctors may recommend a Foley bulb induction when a woman has signs of excess amniotic fluid, high blood pressure, or gestational diabetes. Sometimes, a doctor may recommend a Foley bulb induction if a pregnant woman meets the following criteria: over 37 weeks gestation older than 18 years of age pregnant with one baby intact amniotic membranes, meaning the membranes have not ruptured Women can choose to have an induction this is called an elective induction. Common reasons to have an elective induction include labor not starting naturally when the baby is due and living far away from the hospital. Other induction methods Doctors may recommend other methods to induce labor, such as using a double balloon catheter, or Cook cervical ripening balloon. This device is similar to a Foley catheter but has two balloons instead of one. They may also insert special medications into the cervix to help induce labor. These medications include: misoprostol (Cyotec) dinoprostone (Prepidil or Cervidil) A doctor may also give a woman oxytocin intravenously to promote uterine contractions. He is sassy, witty and holds the uncanny power to make a celeb cough up intimate details about themselves. Karan Johar is one of those few filmmakers who has been more than just a director. He has been an actor, producer, costume designer and he is the host of a popular show as well. The filmmaker, just like any other star in the industry, has earned his fair share of criticism and praise, but it goes without saying that he is one of a kind. On set! #Brahmastra!!! A post shared by Karan Johar (@karanjohar) on Jul 31, 2018 at 1:23pm PDT Recently, Karan appeared on Anaita Shroff Adajania's chat show 'Feet Up With The Stars' and got candid. From spilling details about his sex life to revealing who he would marry in a heartbeat, KJo went all out talking about things like never before. When asked about his love life, the actor went on to say something that certainly did shock us. #studentseries @s1dofficial #familylove A post shared by Karan Johar (@karanjohar) on Jul 13, 2018 at 1:32pm PDT I am undersexed and underpaid. I don't date like serious dating. There are some situations that allow you to venture into an intimate zone, now and then. Well, him being 'underpaid' and 'undersexed' does remind us of Salman Khan confessing to KJo on 'Koffee with Karan' that he is still a virgin. Yeah, you know what we are talking about! Casual sex is not something that works for me at all. I need to be able to interact with the person. Have some level of conversation, therefore a level of comfort, he added. When asked whom would he marry if he were to pick from Bollywood's bevy of beauties, he went on to reveal who he loves the most this time and no, it's not Twinkle Khanna. Kareena. She is fun fabulous, entertaining and this is like everything that I would look for in a life partner. Shaadi squad continues!!!! A post shared by Karan Johar (@karanjohar) on May 8, 2018 at 2:02am PDT When asked who would he like to play him if a biopic is made on his life, he said, Ranbir Kapoor. He is obsessed with my life. He has the passcode to my phone with which he checks my messages, WhatsApp everything. He knows much more about my life than even I do. And what is Kjo without spilling some beans about B-town's actors? He went on to say Arjun Kapoor (rumoured to be involved with Malaika Arora Khan) and Kriti Sanon are seeing someone. He further revealed that he is on a mission to find someone good for Katrina Kaif. The ARPANET (predecessor of the Internet) was launched almost half a decade back, and the American, as well as the European research community, is widely credited for the Internet we use today. Modern computers have improved remarkably; just a decade back a 2GB microSD card was an amazing thing for the end consumer, today we're launching 1TB microSD cards. Until the 90s, India was relatively new to computers. Even after the boom, India emerged as an outsourcing country. While the developed world is committed to researching and developing, India has its own set of problems that prevent it from heavily investing in R&D. The country is at a nascent stage and lacks the all-around community support a researcher requires. This does not mean the country has failed to contribute at the international level. We've compiled a list of Indian born inventors who have marked their name in history thanks to their widely adopted technology invention. 1. Ajay Bhatt BCCL He is credited for inventing the most widely used data transfer standard, the Universal Serial Bus (USB). He is a graduate from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda and completed his post graduation from The City University of New York. Bhatt joined Intel in 1990 as a senior staff architect on the chipset architecture team in Folsom. He is the chief architect and co-inventor of technologies such as USB, Accelerated Graphics Port, PCI Express, platform power management architecture and various personal computer enhancements. The USB port has been defined and developed by several other companies such as Apple and Microsoft. It continues to reign as the unchallenged choice of connection for all gadgets out there today. 2. Vinod Dham BCCL Vinod Dham is popularly known as the Father of the Pentium chip, for his contribution to the development of highly successful Pentium processors from Intel. Dham did B.E. degree in Electrical Engineering from the prestigious Delhi College of Engineering and then pursued an MS degree in Electrical Engineering, where he specialised in Solid State Electronics. He is called the Father of Pentium for his role in the development of the Pentium processor. He is also one of the co-inventors of Intel's first Flash memory technology (ETOX). The tag Intel Inside had almost become a trademark for all the computers. Currently, he is the founding Managing Director of Indo US Venture Partners. 3. Pranav Mistry Pranav Mistry Pranav Mistry is a computer scientist and inventor, he heads the Think Tank Team and is best known for his work on SixthSense, Samsung Galaxy Gear and Project Beyond. He has previously worked at Microsoft, Google, CMU, NASA, UNESCO, Japan Science & Technology before joining Samsung. SixthSense is an innovative augmented reality (AR) technology which allows users to pop up a screen on the wall by moving their fingers and control it with their fingertips in the air. He has also worked on various other projects like SPARSH, QUiCKiES, BlinkBot and more. 4. Anadish Pal Gulf News He is credited with inventing the fuel-efficient internal combustion engine along with his contribution and patents on Rail Gun technology, gravitational waves, portable power sources. Today, he is the country's sole independent inventor with the maximum number of US patent grants. The patents include research on induction motor as a sensor, a Personal Mobility Vehicle (PMV), a contact-less non-optical computer mouse suitable for 3D applications, a robotic platform, an electromagnetically controlled valve-less internal combustion engine, and more. 5. Krishna Bharat Stanford University Krishna Bharat is a Principal Scientist at Google Inc, working in the area of user interface and algorithmic support for Web search and content analysis. He is an IIT Madras pass out and has a Ph.D. from Georgia Tech University, USA, Krishna is the person behind immensely popular Google News. Google News was one of Google's first endeavors beyond offering just plain text searches on its page. Also, he received the 2003 World Technology Award for Media & Journalism. Krishna is the acting head of Google's new R&D Center in Bangalore India. BAD AXE "Here's your morning cup of coffee. Enjoy the rest of your day." That's Casey Ney. On any typical morning, she finds herself saying those two sentences several times. And always with a cheerful smile. "We have our regulars," she said. "I love knowing what they want. You start learning their names and what they like." Ney, 28, is a coffee artisan more commonly known as a barista at Emma's Coffee House. While the 2008 Bad Axe graduate isn't considered a manager, she carries many responsibilities on her shoulders. I'm more of a leader and making sure everyone is working and doing their jobs, she said. Brad and Jessi Severance, owners of Emmas, and Ney have a four-year working relationship that evolved into a friendship. He (Brad) always knew he wanted me to work for him there, she said. Before we opened up, I was practicing a lot. I would make 10 honey bears a day. A honey bear is a drink served at the coffee house consisting of honey, butter pecan and French vanilla flavors accompanied by two shots of espresso and steamed milk on top. Emmas features more than 20 different, and unique, drinks. And, Ney knows how to make every single one. Her favorite drink to make: A cinnamon roll latte. I love the smell of it, she said with a laugh. Ney has created a dew drinks herself including the strawberry cheesecake frappe. Its not on the menu, but people can order it, Ney said. We have a lot of flavors and you get really creative. Its a lot of fun. I made a frosted gingerbread latte before, she added. Being a barista isnt as easy as it looks. There is a science behind Neys work. Youre practicing when to come up and start foaming so you dont over foam, or dont foam enough, she explained, adding shes received training from the Severances. You have to get it (specific drinks) to a certain temperature. One of her biggest enjoyments of the job is the customers. We have our regulars, she said. I love knowing what they want. You start learning their names and what they like. I love the people I work with. We have a great group here, she said of her nine coworkers. Once a shift concludes at Emmas, you can typically find Ney next door at Bad Axe Club Fitness, where she is the assistant manager and a certified personal trainer. I love it, Ney said. Im about to add my fifth client, which is crazy. I want like eight or nine at a time. Its challenging, she added. Every single client you have has a different body and a different want. Prior to figuring out the right workout plan, Ney evaluates her clients based on their needs and wants, strengths, weaknesses and body type. There's always something different to do, she said. You have to sit down with them, talk to them and know what they want. Then you base what they want and base the program around them. Throughout most of her life, Ney said shes always taken an interest in working out, but she really got into it more after the birth of her son, Caleb. I would just do stuff at home like Insanity or P90X, she explained. Once I was doing that and I found out (Bad Axe Club Fitness) was hiring, I got the job and started getting into lifting. I love it. Im obsessed. Shes also in the process of earning her bachelors degree in nutrition science. Much like her job at Emmas, Ney finds enjoyment out of the locals who stop in the gym every day. I love my regulars that come in, Ney said. I also love watching people change. Ive seen people lose hundreds of pounds. Now that Im helping people succeed and watching my clients change its a great feeling, she added. Youre helping them succeed and live a healthier lifestyle. Ney is currently working on hitting triple digits on the bench press and encourages those who are interested in getting into shape to not be afraid. It takes time. Rome wasnt built in a day, she said. I would encourage them to start off doing a little bit at a time. Most of the time people fall in love with it, but it takes time. When shes not working on a tasty, creative new beverage at Emmas, or getting toned at the gym, Ney said she enjoys hanging out at home with her boyfriend, Ryan Stevens, and her now 6-year-old son, Caleb. It has been quite the summer one of the cleanest summers for our areas beaches in recent memory. All beaches are open this weekend, following the conclusion of this weeks beach testing program, which monitors E. coli levels at our 13 area beaches. This weeks safe levels were a constant theme throughout the summer, with just three beach closures due to unsafe E. coli levels. Last summer, there were 12 closures. Environmental Health Director Tip MacGuire told Tribune reporter Seth Stapleton he doesnt recall a summer with as few retests as this year. (A beach that is found to have unsafe levels of E. coli is immediately retested until new test results show the beach is within safe limits for swimming). It was a good summer for beaches, thats for sure, MacGuire added. One thing thats been a big contributor to less closures was the lack of rain the area received throughout the bulk of the summer season. Heavier rain events will cause runoff, which then contributes to higher E. coli levels. Because of this, its imperative the county continue the weekly beach testing program for future years. Because in an agricultural community such as ours, as well as a shoreline littered with septic tanks, its important health officials continue to monitor E. coli levels every summer. We are blessed in Huron County to boast the most shoreline than any other county in Michigan. With that blessing comes many responsibilities, including testing to ensure that our waters are safe for swimming. We hope officials do not come to a conclusion following this summers testing program that future testing is not needed. CASS CITY -- Thumb Area MEA Retired will meet Sept. 11 at the Charmont Restaurant in Cass City. There is a social hour at noon, where members may purchase their lunch. At 1 p.m. Debbie Palmer, a Tuscola County Health Department nurse, will provide information and answer questions about immunizations and services provided to senior citizens. Invention commercialization course MILFORD Michael A. Blake, a registered patent attorney, will teach a one-evening course from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Oct. 4 on how to commercialize an invention. Topics will include can I make money with my invention, when to monetize, investors, do I need a prototype, should I worry about infringing other patents, how to license my invention and more, according to a news release. The course will be held at Law High School, Room 101, 20 Lansdale Ave. Cost is $30. To register, contact Milford Adult Education at www.milforded.org/academics/adult-education or 203-783-3461. Business Networking Breakfast Sept. 6 HARTFORD The Connecticut Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce will hold a Business Networking Breakfast from 8-9:30 a.m. Sept. 6 at AARP, 21 Oak St., Suite 104. (Park in garage and AARP will validate parking.) Register online at http://members.ctglc.org/events. Housatonic River Job Network to meet ORANGE The Housatonic River Job Network will hold a meeting at 7 p.m. Sept. 6 at Case Memorial Library, 176 Tyler City Road. Guest speaker will be Andy Ancel, development associate at Bridgeport Neighborhood Trust. Topic will be Networking 2 Referrals, including the fundamentals of networking and its importance in a job search. For information, email alexy56@hotmail.com. Networking in Milford MILFORD The Milford Regional Chamber of Commerce will hold a Business After Hours networking event from 5-7 p.m. Sept. 13 at Colonial Toyota, 470 Boston Post Road. Cost is $15 pre-registration, $20 for members at the door and $25 for prospective members. To register or for information, call 203-878-0681 or visit www.milfordct.com. Women Redefining Retirement sets pot luck picnic MILFORD Women Redefining Retirement will hold a pot luck picnic at 5 p.m. Sept. 10 at the Walnut Beach Pavilion, 85 Viscount Drive. Members are asked to bring a serving for 3-4 people of your favorite picnic fare, along with a chair, something to drink, and a sweater or insect repellant. Business meeting will be brief, and then we will eat, socialize and sing along to the ukulele. There will be no collections this month. New members are always welcome. Find us on Facebook, or on the Web at wrrofmilford@google.com. I have been getting a primer on tariffs. The impact of the various tariff tactics on global commerce is important for all of us to understand. There is the looming potential impact on the price we pay for items in the crossfire, and some economists are calling for caution. The news about tariffs has prompted me to pay additional attention to other global economic challenges. We cannot expect the news sources to cover all of the important global business issues with the same airtime. However, let me bring to your attention two stories that caught my attention for similar reasons involving current tariff tiff economic advancement for the United States. Last week it was reported that a commercial ship was sailing through the Arctic Circle without the assistance of an ice breaker. This news is significant for a number of reasons. From a commercial shipping standpoint the thawing of the Arctic Circle opens new shipping lanes to greatly reduce the time to market for those countries with Arctic boundaries. Faster time to market means lower transportation costs and could mean new economic development. The reduction in the ice shelf in the Arctic Circle means that the ice cap is melting. We can disagree as to the causes of the melting, but the actuality of diminished levels of ice allowing previously impassible areas to now be passed establishes a fact. As for the economic advancement of the United States, this in my opinion is a cautionary tale. A quick look at the planned shipping routes indicates it is clear that a significant natural advantage is available to Russia and Canada. Our footprint into the Arctic Circle, offered by Alaska, pales when compared with that of our friends to the north and Russia. The second global commerce concept had escaped my attention, Im sorry to say, for the past few years. It is the major initiative by China, proposed by Xi Jinping in a speech in October 2013. In his speech to the Indonesian Parliament, he described a new, 21st century version of the ancient silk trade route. The two major initiatives the Maritime Silk Road initiative and the Silk Road Economic Belt are a combination of ports, maritime routes, railways and roadways from China to markets in Russia, India, Africa and Europe. Australia, Indonesia and other nations in the South Pacific have agreed in principle to participate in the initiative. If this global initiative is not on your radar, you might want to conduct a brief search to familiarize yourself with the concept and the opportunity. Some of the quick takeaways are that the infrastructure projects, in total, could exceed a trillion dollars. The number of workers from all countries involved and companies that participate could be an economic driver for decades. Part of the strategy is an agreement between Russia and China to offer China access to the previously mentioned North Pole shipping routes. The United States and South America are not, to my understanding, a part of the initiatives. Natural competitive advantage has always been a factor of economics. Global economics, trade, tariffs and strategy impact the future of all parties. From a strategy standpoint, on its face, Chinas Silk Road Initiatives are a master stroke. Cornell Wright is an author, trainer, consultant and an Executive Coach at The Parker Wright Group Inc. in Stratford. The firm assists clients to increase their market share by improved customer service. He can be reached at 203-377-4226 or cornell@parkerwrightgroup.com. The commanding officer of the second submarine to integrate women into its previously all-male crews has been removed from his job, Navy leaders announced Friday. Capt. Gregory Kercher, who led the guided-missile submarine Florida's Gold crew, was relieved of his duties due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command, said Cmdr. Sarah Self-Kyler, a spokeswoman for Commander, Submarine Forces. Kercher was not under investigation, she added. Vice Adm. Chas Richard, commander of Submarine Forces, relieved Kercher of his duties. Kercher, who'd taken command of the Florida Gold crew in September 2017, was temporarily reassigned to Submarine Group 10 out of Kings Bay, Georgia, where the Florida is based. Kercher is the second submarine commanding officer to be relieved of his duties this week. On Monday, Cmdr. Travis Zettel with the fast-attack submarine Bremerton was removed from his job amid an ongoing investigation. The Florida's two crews -- blue and gold -- were the first East Coast submarine crews to integrate women after the Navy lifted its ban on female sailors serving on subs in 2010. Kercher told the Florida-Times Union in February that he'd spent time on an Australian submarine in 2006 with a coed crew. Navy submarine crews, he added, benefited from the service's careful approach to gender integration. "If we tried to do this 15 to 20 years ago in a sudden manner, I think it would have been difficult," Kercher told the paper. "We wouldn't have been prepared for it, and it probably wouldn't have went off as seamless as it has." When Kercher assumed command, he told the Florida Gold crew he had just one role as their commanding officer. "To lead you as we prepare our great warship to return to the fight and conduct vital operations," he said, according to a Navy news release. "We will do this wherever and whenever called upon in support of our nation's interests, and we will do so to the very best of our capabilities." Capt. Michael Badorf has assumed command of Florida (Gold) until a permanent relief is identified, according to Navy officials. Badorf previously commanded the guided-missile submarine Georgia and fast-attack submarine Albuquerque and was serving as the deputy for training at Submarine Squadron 16. --Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ginaaharkins. Still undetermined is whether the impact caused the October leak, or if the line was hit by something else at a later date. Key Select Mineral List Type Standard Detailed Gallery 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: Canavan, F. (1988) Deep Lead Gold Deposits of Victoria, Geological Survey of Victoria Bulletin No. 62, Department of Industry Technology and Resources. Gallery: 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 References Sort by Year (asc) Year (desc) Author (A-Z) Author (Z-A) Geelong Advertiser newspaper (1859), Underground Disturbance, 04 April 1859. The Age newspaper (Melbourne) (1859) The Malakoff and Milkmaid Disturbance, 05 April 1859. Geelong Advertiser newspaper (1859) Ballarat, 07 April 1859. The Star newspaper (1861) Frightful Explosion and Loss of Three Lives, 23 July 1861. Geelong Advertiser newspaper (1863) Ballarat, 12 August 1883. The Ballarat Star newspaper (1880) The New Burra Burra Company (to the Ed.), 20 April 1880. The Ballarat Courier newspaper (1880) New Burra Burra Company, 26 March 1880. The Ballarat Star newspaper (1880) New Burra Burra Company, 23 December 1880. The Ballarat Courier newspaper (1881) The New Burra Burra Company (to the Ed.), 19 May 1881. The Ballarat Star newspaper (1881) New Burra Burra Company, 01 July 1881. The Ballarat Courier newspaper (1881) New Burra Burra Company, 16 December 1881. The Ballarat Star newspaper (1882) New Burra Burra Company, 23 March 1882. Canavan, F. (1988) Deep Lead Gold Deposits of Victoria, Geological Survey of Victoria Bulletin No. 62, Department of Industry Technology and Resources. Localities in this Region Historic gold mine.The Burra Burra Gold Mining Company was formed in 1857, with a shaft sunk to a depth of 91 metres on the Milkmaid Lead. The gutter was 81 metres from the surface, 6-18 metres wide, and 2 metres thick. The alluvial gold was worked out by 1860, and in 1863 the mine was on tribute after an unsuccessful attempt to work reef gold in the lease in 1861. The company was a co-operative enterprise where the shareholders were also the working miners.In 1859, the company was in disputed over encroachment with the Great Eastern Company. An injunction was in place to stop further mining in a particular drive by the Great Eastern Company. Miners from the Burra Burra Company broke into the drive to see if the Great Eastern Company was breaking the injunction. They were met with Great Eastern Company miners bearing spears, and throwing fuse lighted bottles containing explosives acting as hand grenades. The Burra Burra men were also carrying spears and pistols. Foul language and threats to kill are also noted. Charles Henry Thomas, Joseph Reynolds, Jason Hankin, Thomas B. Trezise, and W. Williams were arrested for assault from the Great Eastern. Their lawyer tried to argue as no-one was injured (only by good luck), there was no case to answer. They were committed to trial. The two companies went through an arbitration process after this to settle the dispute.In 1861 one of the two boilers exploded. Then four weeks later the second boiler exploded, this time killing brothers Richard and George Maddern, and Thomas Bolitho.The company produced 20 317 ounces of gold. The shaft was at the northern end of Yarrowee Parade.Information on the New Burra Burra Gold Mining Company was found from 1880 to 1882, from a new shaft a few hundred metres south of the original, also bordering Yarrowee Parade. Richard Rees and J.B. Bullen were mine managers.In 1880, the northern portion of the lease was loped off to form the No. 2 New Burra Burra Company. Existing shareholders were unimpressed, seeing it as a way to raise more money, at the expense of shares in the existing company which fell in value as a result. Operations remained unprofitable. The NL Central-leading Cubs are getting healthier as they charge toward a third straight division title. The club announced that it has activated superstar third baseman Kris Bryant and shortstop Addison Russell from the 10-day disabled list. Of the two, only Bryants in the Cubs starting lineup for Saturdays game in Philadelphia. The Cubs roster looks stronger than it did when Bryant landed on the shelf July 26 with left shoulder inflammation, as the team has since swung deals for several players, including left-hander Cole Hamels and second baseman Daniel Murphy. Those additions have helped Chicago stay atop its division, which it leads by 3 1/2 games, in Bryants absence. At the time of his DL placement, the 26-year-old Bryant was slashing .276/.380/.474 in 358 plate appearances. While those numbers are 29 percent better than league average, according to FanGraphs wRC+ metric, theyre a good deal worse than Bryants career line of .286/.387/.519 (141 wRC+). Perhaps because of his shoulder troubles, Bryants power output has fallen this season, as he has managed 11 home runs and a career-worst .197 ISO. Nevertheless, the 2016 NL MVP remains an eminently valuable player one whom the Cubs are no doubt overjoyed to welcome back. Chicago primarily deployed David Bote at third with Bryant out, and while the former has had his moments during a quality rookie campaign, his production has cratered of late. Bote racked up 82 PAs in August and hit a meager .187/.244/.387 with 25 strikeouts against four walks. As for Russell, he appears to be in line for diminished playing time, thanks in part to the acquisition of Murphy. Russell went on the DL with a sprained left index finger Aug. 22, which made room for the Cubs to add Murphy to their roster. Murphy has been hot since then, and carries a better offensive track record than Russell, making it likely hell continue as Chicagos top option at the keystone. And Murphys presence has left shortstop for Javier Baez, who had been the Cubs starting second baseman and has been one of the majors most valuable players in 2018. GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY, MI -- Grand Traverse County leaders recently agreed to a $250,000 insurance payout to settle a 2007 standoff that ended with a police shooting death. The settlement ends a lawsuit filed by the family of 49-year-old Craig Carlson following his Nov. 10, 2007 shooting death by sheriff's department sniper. The case largely surrounded the sheriff's department's failure to get a warrant against Carlson before firing tear gas canisters through windows and tossing a throw phone inside Carlson's residence that contained microphones and a hidden camera. A federal Court of Appeals judicial panel in 2015 said the failure to get a warrant could constitute a violation of Carlson's Fourth Amendment rights. The judges reversed an earlier ruling to dismiss the county from a lawsuit. Police were called to Carlson's home in Karlin for a welfare check. Relatives told dispatchers he was suicidal and armed, and they feared he would provoke a shootout. A standoff began that last 12 hours before a sharpshooter killed Carlson as he was pointing a rifle in the general direction of three deputies. He had been talking to the deputies in those moments. The attorney for the county, Christopher Cooke, confirmed the settlement amount on Friday, Aug. 31. WYOMING, MI -- Fire damaged several apartments in a building at Timber Ridge Apartments in Wyoming early Saturday, Sept. 1. The fire was reported about 12:50 a.m. in the 4300 block of Timber Ridge Trail, off 44th Street near Burlingame Avenue SW. There were no reports of injuries. When Wyoming firefighters initially responded, they were told a person with disabilities could be trapped on the second floor. Wyoming Fire Chief Brian Bennett said firefighters assisted at least one person out of the building. The cause of the fire was not immediately known, but Bennett said investigators believe it started on an outside balcony or deck. Bennett said three units were damaged in the fire and the American Red Cross was called to help residents with immediate needs. Bennett wasn't certain if smoke damage caused other units -- outside of the three damaged by fire -- to be temporarily uninhabitable. He said arriving firefighters knocked down the flames quickly. GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A typical weekend morning for Jeff and Jane Hunn begins with checking the direction of the wind. Whichever way it blows, the married couple sets off on their tandem bicycle and rides to a breakfast spot. However, on the Saturday morning of Labor Day weekend, the couple traveled from North Manchester, Indiana, to "The Midwest Tandem Rally" in Grand Rapids. They joined other cyclists making up what is billed as the largest tandem bicycle event in North America. Each year, the rally takes place in a different Midwestern state. This year, it came to Grand Rapids. "It's a lot of fun riding with other tandem riders, and you get to see some beautiful countryside," Jane Hunn said. "Most of the time when we ride our tandem, we're the only ones," her husband added. Paul Hugo, co-hair with his wife, Diana, of "Michigan United Tandem," says the last time Grand Rapids hosted rally was in 2005 and, before that, 1987. Hugo said over 300 teams registered for the rally this year. Teams began gathering outside of the DeVos Place convention center in downtown Grand Rapids at 8 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 1. Pairs and trios from different states bonded over stories, and pored over maps of Grand Rapids to pick the best loop. Paul Hugo welcomed the riders, and police blocked the intersection at Monroe Avenue and Michigan Street for the cyclists. Once the stoplight turned green, the tandem riders pedaled away on their tour of Grand Rapids. LANSING, MI -- The Promote the Vote ballot proposal narrowly has enough valid signatures to come before voters in November, the Secretary of State announced Friday. The Bureau of Elections recommended that the Board of Canvassers now certify the petition. A vote of the board would put the proposal on the ballot along with a marijuana legalization initiative and a drive to form a independent redistricting commission, amongst others. "This is great news for Michigan citizens who deserve an election system that guarantees greater access to the ballot box," said Kary Moss, executive director of the ACLU of Michigan, one of several organizations involved with Promote the Vote. "Voters deserve these common sense reforms that will allow working families and our men and women serving overseas to have their voices heard on Election Day." The proposal would implement no-reason absentee voting, give military members additional time to vote, let citizens register to vote anytime with proof of residency, allow straight party voting, protect secret ballots and require audits for election results -- all via a Constitutional amendment. The Bureau of Elections estimates the Promote the Vote petition has 321,755 valid signatures based on a random sample of 3,799 signatures. A petition needs 315,654 signatures to get on the ballot. Promote the Vote turned in 430,000 signatures. Unlike some of the other ballot proposals, it did not clear the first round of random sampling, when election officials worked to verify a sample of 500 signatures. As election officials worked on verifying a second, larger batch of signatures, Promote the Vote filed a federal lawsuit claiming the Secretary of State and Elections Director used a "standard-less" process. It's unclear whether the lawsuit will still be necessary. Moss said Promote the Vote plans to keep a Sept. 6 court date until the Bureau of Elections finishes its process. A challenge was filed during the second verification stage by a group called Protect My Vote, which was registered on Aug. 23, according to the Secretary of State's website. Mary Doster is listed as the group's treasurer. According to Bridge magazine, Doster is a "GOP insider" who is also the treasurer of the Michigan Redistricting Resource Institute which paid nearly $1 million to draw political districts that favor Republicans. The Board of Canvassers will meet Sept. 6 to consider the proposal's language. Sept. 7 is the deadline to get it on the ballot. OSCODA, MI -- Did veterans and the families who lived and worked at Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda drink water polluted with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, when the base was active and sourcing water from on-site wells? The state of Michigan says yes. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality released a report Thursday, Aug. 30, concluding that Wurtsmith wells were "likely impacted" by PFAS contamination between 1978 and 1997, when municipal water from Lake Huron was brought to the base. The study doesn't estimate past concentrations or exposure dosage -- and was released with a bad mark from an expert peer reviewer -- but DEQ is standing behind the consultant analysis, calling the conclusions "reasonable and within the scope of study." "We wanted to try and answer the question of whether the veterans and people who worked on the base in the past had potentially drank PFAS contaminated water," DEQ site manager Robert Delaney said during the base Restoration Advisory Board meeting Thursday. The DEQ's consultant DLZ Engineering studied the aquifer "capture zones" from which past base supply wells would have drawn water and concluded those "extend across" areas in which PFAS contamination has been detected on the base. The analysis also studied water capture from groundwater pump-and-treat, or purge wells, which were installed starting in 1978 to remove groundwater contaminated by volatile organic compounds like benzene and trichloroethene. "The answer is yes," said Delaney. "Every well that pumped in the past after the introduction of PFAS at the site could have been taking in PFAS." Delaney said the analysis is meant to answer that single question, and "if you lived on the base, we cannot tell you what the concentrations were you drank or how much you drank." "This is not a dose determination," he said. "We don't know that." The new capture zone report builds upon data gathered by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality in 2016, which found PFAS in water samples collected from old fire hydrants that were never flushed after the switch to municipal water in 1997. A veterans group has been pushing for the capture zone report, which they hope builds the case for an epidemiological health study of former base personnel that could provide a basis for expansion of health benefits by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. James M. Bussey, who leads the Veterans & Civilians Clean Water Alliance group of Wurtsmith veterans, said he hopes the report prods the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) to study PFAS exposure among base veterans and local civilians. The capture zone report follows a July conclusion by the ATSDR, reached in an update to a 17-year-old base assessment, that Wurtsmith veterans and families also drank high levels of benzene and trichloroethylene, and thus "may be at an increased risk for cancer." The ATSDR did not look at past exposure to PFAS in that assessment because the data from DEQ's hydrant analysis wasn't considered robust enough to calculate past dosage levels, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The ATSDR said Friday that it is reviewing the report. Bussey was stationed at Wurtsmith between 1989 and 1992 and said he was exposed to the AFFF firefighting foam that caused the PFAS contamination. His blood was tested by the War Related Illness & Injury Study Center this year and showed "abnormally high" levels of PFHxS, a PFAS compound closely associated with AFFF plumes. "People need to be tested," Bussey said. The veterans group conducted informal symptom polling among members and found numerous instances of chronic diseases. "There were a lot of cancers and autoimmune disorders," Bussey said. "Lots of people who had the same issues I do with neuropathy, liver, heart, lung and skin issues." In a memo accompanying the report, the DEQ expressed support for such a health study and pledged to "provide additional assistance as appropriate." "The conclusions provides a starting point for health professionals to begin an evaluation of potential health impacts to WAFB personnel and residents who lived and worked at the base during that time period," wrote DEQ remediation division director Sue Leeming. "With sufficient funding and resources, additional models could be employed to provide a detailed assessment of the full nature and extent of PFAS impacts on the aquifer and the resulting water supply, as needed to build on and corroborate the conclusions of this study." The DEQ released the report with a critical peer review by David Hyndman, a hydrogeology professor at Michigan State University who has been advising the state on PFAS investigation and response since April. Hyndman criticized the groundwater model used in the report and, in a June 19 memo, called the results "not scientifically valid." The DEQ's issued the report with Aug. 22 responses from its consultant, DLZ, and Leeming wrote that the report was revised based on Hyndman's feedback. "The direction to the consultant was limited to ascertain if the water supply system on the base was drawing PFAS-contaminated groundwater, and not to provide a comprehensive analysis of the volume or concentration of contamination in the aquifer or drinking water supplied by the wells," she wrote. Arnie Leriche, a veteran and former environmental engineer at the Environmental Protection Agency who co-chairs the Wurtsmith restoration board, called the DEQ report "critical." "The veterans need this formation so they can go to the ATSDR and say, 'Hey, what about us? What about PFAS? What was our exposure?' We can't determine the exposure with a number, but they know they were exposed," Leriche said. "They have more information now than that had yesterday and it's important information." KALAMAZOO, MI -- Behind closed doors Friday, homeless people who have been living in tents at Bronson Park met with Kalamazoo city officials and came to an agreement to vacate the park. After a negotiation between members of the group and the city, both sides signed a document on official city letterhead that states members of the encampment are allowed to camp overnight for 30 days at the city-owned vacant fire station, at 116 West Cedar Street. Members of the encampment exited city hall about 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 31, to let others know about the agreement, that states they would vacate Bronson Park by 9 p.m. Friday. People who choose to continue camping overnight at Bronson Park will be subject to enforcement action, Kalamazoo City Manager Jim Ritsema said, and are considered trespassers. If they resist vacating the park and continue to camp overnight, they could be arrested, he said. Ritsema walked with homeless encampment member Stuart Hamilton through the park after they and others met and came to the agreement. Some of the campers worked to start breaking down the tents and other shelters at the park as the sun started to disappear behind downtown Kalamazoo Friday. About 25 tents or other shelters have been set up at the parks for nearly two weeks. People of all ages including families with young children were among those living at the encampment. The agreement, signed by Ritsema as well as six members of the encampment, indicates that Kalamazoo will work on short-term and long-term solutions to reduce homelessness and increase options to help homeless people. Ritsema did not allow a reporter from the Kalamazoo Gazette to attend the meeting with city officials and members of the encampment, and spoke to the media after the agreement had been signed. "We began a dialogue that was very productive on both sides," Ritsema said. "We came together and agreed to work on solutions to end homelessness in Kalamazoo together." Hamilton said he has heard the city has been uncooperative, but now he believes they are there to help. "I want everybody to know that the city is working with us," Hamilton said, and he believes people in Kalamazoo can work together to make an impact and set an example for the rest of the country. "You don't have to be homeless. There's a solution to the problem. You've just gotta be smart enough to come up with a solution to the problem," he said. A copy of a letter that members of a homeless encampment and city officials signed on Aug. 31. Commissioner Shannon Sykes and other city officials also attended the meeting. Sykes called it a "beautiful gathering" and said she was happy to see city staff work with the activists to come up with a solution. People will be allowed to camp at the vacant fire station for 30 days, the city said in a news release, to provide an immediate option for homeless residents and time for the workgroup to explore alternatives. Hamilton said he did not know if everyone camping at Bronson Park would vacate the location, but he believed a large group of people would leave. KALAMAZOO, MI -- Two Southwest Michigan organizations are receiving grant funding to support their fight against drug abuse. The Allegan County Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition was awarded a grant totaling $125,000 that will go to the Allegan County Community Mental Health Services and the Kalamazoo County Substance Abuse Task Force was awarded a grant totaling $125,000 that will go to Prevention Works, Inc. The White House Drug Policy Office awarded the two Fiscal Year 2018 Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Support Program grants, U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, said in a news release. "These two grants will make a direct impact to help prevent substance abuse among Southwest Michigan kids and teens, particularly when it comes to addictive opioids," Upton said. "Our work to combat the opioid crisis has many facets including going after those who overprescribe, working with our local law enforcement, treatment, and prevention. "Prevention is a particularly powerful tool in our toolbox as we work together to help kids in our communities make better decisions. The grants are great news but more work remains," Upton said. Prevention Works Director of Health Network Strategies Amy Slancik said the grant issued represents the ninth year of a 10-year grant that will support the group's efforts to establish programs to reduce drug abuse, using local data as a guide. Prevention Works analyzes information including student survey data about drug use and partners with other organizations to come up with strategies to reduce drug abuse, she said. For example, Prevention Works recently partnered with a funeral home to distribute brochures to educate people about securing medication after someone dies to prevent others from taking it, she said. In March, Upton hosted an Opioid Listening Session in Kalamazoo at the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine that included representatives from Prevention Works, along with Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller and other stakeholders. The DFC Support Program, created by the Drug-Free Communities Act of 1997, is the Nation's leading effort to mobilize communities to prevent youth substance use, Upton said. DFC-funded coalitions engage multiple sectors of the community and employ a variety of environmental strategies to address local drug problems. FRANKENMUTH, MI - Wildlife officials hope the release of some young lake sturgeon on Friday into the Cass River in Frankenmuth will help to reintroduce the species in the region. About 200 people showed up Friday, Aug. 31 to help the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Michigan Sea Grant to release 125 hatchery-raised lake sturgeon into the river. Michigan Sea Grant said the event is part of the Saginaw Bay Watershed Lake Sturgeon Reintroduction Program, led by the DNR and others to help bring the fish back to the Cass, Shiawassee, Tittabawassee and Flint rivers. The fish released Friday were just four to six inches long, but sturgeon can grow to over 300 pounds and live more than 100 years. Earlier in January, a sturgeon nearly six feet long was caught by a local fisherman. The fish also doesn't mature until its 20 or 25 years old, making the process to reestablish them in the region a slow one. "They only spawn infrequently, so it's a kind of a strange reproduction strategy but it works for them," said Jim Baker, fisheries unit manager for the DNR in Bay City. He doesn't expect the fish released into the river to come back to spawn until at least 2038. Bohling said she had no idea around 200 people would show up on Friday, or that some would drive two or three hours to get there. Four-year-old Evelyn Wilkinson and her mother Melissa Wilkinson helped release some of the fish into the stream. "It was pretty cool. (It was) slimy," Evelyn said. Looking back in Michigan's history, Baker said the Cass River at one point "teemed" with sturgeon. He said a friend's relative told him commercial fishermen considered lake sturgeon to be a "trash" fish. "It was not a fish that was selling well for them. Then around 1850, they started to gain a market," Baker said. "They found out sturgeon oil could be used in making paint for instance." Baker added that female sturgeon eggs were later found out to be a good replacement for Russian caviar. A number of kids and adults helped to release the sturgeon into the river and Bohling said there will be more release events in the future. Last year in Saginaw, 193 sturgeon were stocked in the Tittabawassee River. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Sixty two years ago on this day Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) was set up by an act of Parliament after 245 Indian, foreign insurers and provident societies were taken over by the central government and nationalised. Starting off with an asset base of Rs 5 crore and an asset base of Rs 352.2 crore in 1956, LIC now has assets of over Rs 28.45 lakh crore and more than 290 million insurance policies in-force. Being the first standalone life insurance company in the country, LIC did have the first mover advantage. That is how even after 62 years, the insurer holds 69.4 percent market share (FY18) in the life insurance sector on the basis of new premium collection. Early beginnings The first life insurance company to be set up on Indian soil was Oriental Life Insurance that became operational 200 years ago in 1818. However, Bombay Mutual Life Assurance Society set up in 1870 was the first Indian life insurance company. LIC came in 86 years later on September 1, 1956. It was a virgin market that time and individual agents were the sole mode of distribution of products. Agents were told to treat customers as family members. So it came as no surprise when one would often see an LIC agent being present in the homes of customers, be it for birthdays, weddings or funerals. Starting off with 168 offices in 1956 and today with over 4826 offices, LIC today has 1,11,000 employees and 1.15 million agents. While the private sector players are also giving tough competition, LIC is way ahead of peers when it comes to agency-led distribution. Being the first life insurer in independent India, the insurer also had its fair share of challenges. Technology was seeping in at a fast pace and they struggled to keep up. Former Chairman SB Mathur has said in an earlier interview that LIC took its first step towards computerisation in the 1960s. When Mathur was heading the Gwalior branch, if a computer developed some problem, they had to call engineers from Delhi. These engineers would take the Shatabdi Express the next morning and were most likely to dismiss the glitch as a software problem. Then they had to call for a software engineer, who was equally less likely to accept it as a software issue. Overall, it would take three to four days to solve one computer problem. A few years later advanced computing systems entered the Indian market and LIC was able to enter the digitisation phase. However, private sector insurers are ahead of LIC when it comes to technology adoption. Private insurers enter the market After having a free run for almost 43 years, LIC saw the entry of new players in the life insurance segment after the sector was privatised. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance and HDFC Life Insurance were among the first players to enter the market. There was speculation in the market that private sector players would soon dominate the sector. But LIC continued to be the largest player. Insurance, being a long-term product had trust as a deciding factor for policy sales. Being an older player, LIC gained especially since its agents had a continuing relationship with the customers. However, with the passage of time and rapid urbanisation, private sector insurers slowly started eating into their pie. Similar to the banking sector where entry of private banks led to retail business slowly moving away from PSU banks, private insurers started grabbing the retail insurance market. In FY18, private life insurers had a larger share of premiums from the individual non-single segment than LIC. Private insurance company chiefs also agree that while the market has expanded, it has been a challenge for LIC to retain customers. Group life insurance, however, remains LICs forte as also agency distribution. Insurer or investor? LIC has been often regarded as the white knight of the disinvestment programmes of the government since it has helped several such offers sail through, be it the NTPC stake sale or the State Bank of India mega QIP in 2014. Even the initial public offerings of companies like Hindustan Aeronautics, General Insurance Corporation of India and New India Assurance have seen heavy investments from LIC. With the recent deal with IDBI Bank where LIC will hold 51 percent in the banking entity, questions were raised on the investment rationale. The bailout agency image which the life insurer has tried to break time and again is once again being highlighted by the market. The insurer invests about Rs 48,000-50,000 crore every year in the stock market and is undoubtedly one of the largest institutional investors in the country. Every move by LIC, be it buy or sell is keenly watched by market participants. At this juncture, a question arises whether LIC is too big to just be an insurance company. But considering insurance is its core activity and investment a mere part of their business, calling it a mere equity investor would be inappropriate. However, more transparent disclosures on the investment decisions and a rationale behind them would be a welcome change. The pull factor In a country, where insurance penetration (insurance premium as proportion of gross domestic product) is 3.69 percent, large players like LIC with a vast distribution network and a 98.04 percent death claims settlement record (FY18) can pull customers into the insurance net. With a 1.2 billion population and no large scale social security scheme to match up to the financial needs of the people, insurance could be the much needed change and legacy players like LIC have a long task ahead. Despite a rise in the financial assets of households, Indian families are more indebted than they were at any point in the past seven years. The financial liabilities of households peaked in FY18, at 4 percent of their disposable income, according to the Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) Annual Report for 2017-18. The sudden spike in gross national disposable income (GNDI) comes after five consecutive years of households tightening their belts and scaling down on debt. Between FY12 and FY17, the gross debt was shaved off in an incremental manner, from 3.2 percent of disposable income to 2.4 percent. Households chipped away at their liabilities as the economy expanded. However, the fall in 40 basis points between FY16 and FY17 should be viewed in consonance with demonetization, a force majeure event that shook the financial world. On November 8, 2016, the government decided to invalidate high value currency notes as legal tender, a move that added to the stress on the banking sector, whereby it desisted from issuing fresh loans due to the cash crunch. Source: RBI Annual Report However, lending picked up in FY18, with a correction in real estate prices spurring demand in the real estate sector. Banks have also been relatively generous in loosening their purse strings for unsecured personal loans, adding to the liabilities of households. The RBIs Annual Report also provides documentary evidence that personal loans are a la mode. More Indian families are taking up personal loans to finance marriage expenses, high-end mobile phones, electronic appliances, and foreign vacations. The share of personal loans to the total liabilities of households has increased by 5.4 percentage points, from 19.4 percent at the end of FY15 to 24.8 percent in March 2018. For the same time frame, outstanding non-food credit expanded by 63 percent, from 11.7 lakh crore to 19 lakh crore. Housing loans accounted for Rs 9.8 lakh crore, nearly half the Rs 19 lakh crore debt under the personal-loans umbrella in March 2018. Lenders have disbursed 55 percent more housing loans in FY18 when compared to the same period three years ago. Source: RBI Annual Report Industrial credit has flagged lending to other sectors, with banks growing wary of big corporate loans. The total credit to industry fell from 44.3 percent of non-food credit in March 2015 to 35.1 percent in March 2018. Personal and housing loans have been the biggest gainers in banks push to reduce exposure to industry. Lenders are issuing more housing loans despite a slowdown in the real estate sector, which is still reeling under the twin impact of demonetization and the implementation of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act. With more money being pumped into the sector through lending to home-owners, developers will get a fillip in delivering pledged projects. Housing prices have rebounded in some cities such as Hyderabad and Kolkata, while prices remain subdued in others. Source: RBI Annual Report Easy access to credit cards is inducing more Indians to splurge. Outstanding credit card payments doubled, from around Rs 30,000 crore in FY15 to Rs 69,000 crore in FY18. The share of credit card debt to the total liabilities of households amounts to almost 1 percent. Automobile loans have also seen robust growth. The trend in the other personal loans category indicates that people are increasingly unwilling to put off aspirational goals such as a foreign holiday for lack of funds. Banks on their part, are not shirking from lending to people looking to live life on the installment plan. Other personal loans accounted for 6.6 percent of total household debt, up 2.7 percent from 3.9 percent in FY15. The central bank is looking to generate quarterly estimates of household financial savings to better gauge the economy. The RBIs annual report found that household income increased to 7.1 percent of GNDI in FY18, highlighting the fact that asset growth at the household level is more than keeping pace with debt. Shishir Asthana Financial freedom is a mental, emotional and educational process, says Robert Kiyosaki, author of the bestseller Rich Dad Poor Dad. Everyone thrives for financial freedom but few are willing to put in the effort, the hours or the learning to achieve it. Breaking the chains of financial commitments and the requirement to set oneself free is everyone's dream. Those who have achieved it, are the heroes in todays world. One such hero is Amit Gadre, a 35-year engineering graduate who knew by when he would like to achieve his financial freedom and how to do so even before he worked for a single day. The fact that he managed to do so by quitting his job five years ahead of the initial target is a tribute to his effort. At a time when others were thinking of job promotions and pay hikes, Gadre was focused on achieving financial freedom. Gadre a self-confessed voracious reader followed the value investing route to liberate himself. Enjoying his freedom in both financial and time front, Gadre lives off the dividend from his investments. A SEBI registered financial advisor Gadre who lives in Nashik helps others achieve their dream. He holds free training sessions for anyone who is willing to listen and put in the effort. In an interview with Moneycontrol Amit Gadre talks about his approach to investing and his journey to financial freedom. I come from Kolhapur in Maharashtra and have a Mechanical Engineering degree from VJTI, Mumbai and an MBA from Symbiosis, Pune. My first job was with Siemens in their Nashik unit where I was looking after supply chain management. As part of my job, I was expected to meet my vendors and check their businesses. This process gave me a good insight into various businesses and understand the mindset of entrepreneurs which came in handy during my investing period. But my journey into investing started much earlier. I was exposed to equities since my childhood. My father, who had a Masters degree in law and my grandmother used to discuss stocks and companies. I was used to seeing dividend cheques and discount coupons coming by mail. Having said that I had little idea of what was happening back then, however, the events were getting registered in my mind. What really changed for me was when I first read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad during my first year in engineering. I learned what are assets and liabilities in day-to-day life. How small set of right decisions make a huge difference in the future. It was important to keep investing in assets that create passive income streams. Here the dividend cheques and discount coupons that my father and grandmother were getting made sense. My father used to invest in stocks with a good dividend yield. Heading a panel of lawyers for Bank of Maharashtra gave my father the relevant exposure to understand business and investing. But for me, I had to re-invent the wheel. Through voracious reading I educated myself in investing that laid the foundation for me. I was convinced that equities are the route to financial freedom. The first share I bought was in 2003, during my third year of engineering. The share was bought from the scholarship money I used to receive and save. However, this was also the year when I lost my father. I had cleared all my exams for future studies in the US but my fathers demise changed the course of my life, for good. Though I completed my engineering and then my management I was clear that the aim for all that I was doing was to attain financial freedom. For me, a job was just a means of saving enough money to invest and I used to save aggressively. I had set a target of achieving financial freedom by 40. But thankfully I was able to cut short the journey by five years and quit my job at Siemens when I was 35. In those days it was purely on hearsay. A friend would tell me or a newspaper recommendation made me buy some stocks. It was mainly investment without investigation. Since the markets were good till 2008 there was not much need for it. But everything changed after the 2008 crash. I went back to the drawing board and re-learned everything. This time I decided to follow the investing guru and read up on the styles adopted by them. The books changed my orientation towards equities. I learned to communicate with financial numbers. Now, whenever I was buying a share I knew I was becoming a part owner in the business. This perception changed my investing style. Rather than picking up less known companies and expecting to double my investment in a short time, I looked to put my money in companies which were well established where I could hold them for a long period of time. My investing style has evolved over the years. The first filter that I run is to look for companies with a market capitalization (Mcap) of over Rs 10,000 crore. I avoid smaller companies since it is possible to get multi-bagger companies in bigger companies. Here you have a proven management that has gone through various business cycles and has the expertise to survive business downturns. They are a much better version of themselves when they were a Rs 100 crore company. So basically I am skipping the early learning phase a company goes through and invest only when the graduate at the top of their class. These companies have the ability to grow faster and gain from the economies of scales as compared to smaller ones. Many people, especially the smaller investors bet on companies with a Mcap of Rs 100 crore with an aim of the company reaching a Mcap of Rs 10,000 crore or a 100 times move. While there may be some, they are few and far between, probably 1 or 2 out of 100. I wait for these 1 or 2 companies. I wait for proven winners. I am willing to ride a winner in its journey ahead from say Rs 20,000 crore to Rs 10 lakh crore over the next 10-20-30 years. After the first filter, I look for sectors which have a huge growth potential. Say like the housing finance companies. In India, the mortgage to GDP ratio is still only 9-10 percent, while in developed countries it is 60-70 percent. With a growing young population and aspiration, housing finance sector is bound to grow. Within the sector, I then get down to identifying good businesses, ideally leaders with positive cash flows, high return on equity (RoE) of above 20 percent and return on capital employed (RoCE). Not to mention decent management quality, growth visibility, and a DNA to share profit with shareholders. The icing on the cake would be a company that funds its expansion through internal accruals. I generally look for companies with a profit growth of 25-26 percent CAGR. As Mohnish Pabrai, author of Dhandho Investor says if have a company growing at 26 percent CAGR it will double in value in three years and will be four times in six years. Above all these companies that I look out for should be available at reasonable valuations and decent dividend yield. There is normally a buying opportunity in all phases of the market. Take, for example, the pharmaceutical sector currently. The sector has gone through torrid times over the last few years. Some of the companies are giving global companies a run for their money. These companies are now trading at 15-17 times price to earnings valuation. They may have trouble going forward too, but the troubles of the last few years have shown that they can navigate the storm. IT sector also more or less has a similar tale to tell. They have gone through some tough times and have come out learning from their experience. Housing finance companies are also available at compelling valuations in some cases. Same with some private corporate banks. The other sector that has caught my eye is the two-wheelers. Here the stocks have taken a beating on account of a price war started by the number two player in the space. But both the top companies are now available at 16-17 price-earnings multiple with no debt on their books. If India has to grow then rural consumption theme will have to come into play. When the rural consumption is playing out the two-wheeler sector will see traction. I am willing to hold them and wait it out now that these globally relevant companies are available at reasonable valuation. What is important is to stick to the process and to look out for compounding machines and stay invested in good and bad times. My experience with Siemens, a German company, has taught me that outcome is a by-product of the process. You need to stick to the process of picking stocks and the companies will deliver, some sooner others later. If the process is right and we have picked a good company all that is needed is to sit tight and be patient. While valuations are important, I generally look to invest in either one or all the top three companies. So in the pharmaceutical sector, I am holding the top three companies. Here I have used a basket approach of investing as the sector is not yet out of the woods and in the clear. It is not yet known which companies may or may not be affected by the US administration rules and the competitive environment globally. However, in IT space we have already seen a re-rating in many stocks especially the top two. But here the third largest player, which has just completed it buy-back is available at a reasonable valuation. So here I have looked at peer valuation disparity to pick up a stock. Without naming the company, I will talk about a housing finance company which I invested in 2011 while still being employed. In fact, in 2011 the mortgage to GDP ratio which we had talked about earlier was at 6-7 percent as compared to 9-10 percent now. After identifying the sector I was looking for a company in the space with which was available at a reasonable valuation and had a good financial matrix. The company I bought was available at a price to book value of 1.5 times. This has now increased to 2.25 times, but the point to note here is the loan book of the company has grown at a rapid pace. The dividend yield at that point in time was at 7 percent and price to earnings was at 10 times. ROE of the company was at 20 percent in 2011 which is now at 30 percent. More importantly, the company was already working on its cost to income ratio which was showing a declining trend. It further improved since then. In 2011 the cost to income ratio was at 20, it is now at 12.5. The management had always delivered whatever it said in media or in analyst meets. Its business model was robust and the company was well managed with its process and risk management in place. Rating agency CRISIL had an AAA rating on the company. The kind of companies I am interested in generally are very well tracked by media as well as analysts. Their disclosure quality and management capability are above par. That is the benefit of investing in bigger companies, the checks and balances have been done and dusted. Analysts drill these companies rigorously and the ease with which the management reply to their queries is reassuring. The smaller companies need to be screened with a fine comb. A company which has crossed the threshold of Rs 10,000 crore has generally done so after clearing many hurdles. I generally use the discounted cash flow but that is only to get the bull and bear case valuation. This is because even a small change in the assumption of terminal value will change the numbers dramatically. I rather look at overall sector growth and then come down to relative valuations. If a sector is growing at say 15 percent, the leaders generally will grow at a much faster pace. It is the relative valuation parameters like earning yields or dividend yields that play a much important role in my stock pickings. I generally avoid cyclical as timing is important in these businesses. Entry and exit timings play a very important role in this kind of stocks. I am a passive investor I rarely sell my stocks. As Philip Fisher says, if the buying is right selling happens in only three conditions. First when the management is diversifying into non-core businesses. Second is when the valuations have run much ahead of its fundamentals. Like say, if the FMCG sector is available at 80 PEs but its growth expectation is only 10 percent. Finally, selling happens when there is a new investing idea. In such case, the least conventional idea goes out and makes room for the new one. Though I buy with an assumption to hold it for a long time I monitor my stocks very closely on a quarterly basis. Any variation from my assumption for a quarter or two is tolerable but if the basic assumption has gone awry then I do not hesitate in selling. Say if my assumption for growth was 22 percent and the company is managing only 5 percent for few quarters, there is definitely something that has gone out of control I do not hesitate in selling such companies. Secondly, if there is a problem with the management where they are not walking the talk or there are reports of miss-appropriation of funds or other red flags then to I get out of such investments. Though my success rate in picking companies to invest in is 75-80 percent in my style of investing value buys can turn out to value traps occasionally. As I invest against the crowd such occurrences do take place, I acknowledge the mistake that my assumptions of the sector or growth were wrong and I sell the stock. It is surgical if the premise is not right there is no point in waiting for the price to come up. I am helping others achieve their dream. I conduct lectures for free where I talk about the nuances of investing. I am also a Sebi registered financial advisor and help people restructure their portfolio based on their risk profile for a fee. Indian markets made history in the month of August with the Sensex hitting a fresh record high of 38,989 while the Nifty50 rose above 11,700 levels to hit a lifetime high of 11,760.20. The S&P BSE Sensex rallied as much as 1,039 points while the Nifty50 rose 324 points or 2.8 percent in August but the action was more in individual stocks. There were as many 32 stocks in the S&P BSE 500 index which hit fresh all-time highs along with benchmark indices in the same period. Stocks which hit a fresh all-time high and rallied up to 50 percent in the S&P BSE 500 index include names like Vinati Organics (up 47 percent), followed by Pfizer (up 35 percent), Zensar Technologies (up 35 percent), and V-Mart (up 30 percent). India market climbed all wall of worries to touch fresh highs in August but the journey from here on offers limited upside, feel experts. Falling rupee, rising crude oil prices, high valuations, as well as looming trade war fears are some of the factors which could cap the upside. However, better than expected GDP numbers for the June quarter will act as a tailwind for markets in the first week of September when trading resumes on Monday. Global events such as trade tensions, US Fed meeting on rate hikes, Brexit discussions, Italian budget etc. are likely to keep markets volatile, Teena Virmani, Vice President Research at Kotak Securities Ltd, told Moneycontrol. With market valuations trading near 18x FY20 estimates thereby leaving little room for upside, it is advisable to have a bottom-up approach, she said. She further added that the bias continues to remain for companies likely to benefit from improved consumption, currency depreciation such as IT and Pharma as well as sectors likely to benefit from higher government spending such as infrastructure. Midcap stocks did show some signs of bottoming out in August but it will be difficult to say that the pain is over and stock selection will be the key. There is tremendous value in select mid-cap stocks, especially after the recent correction. Nearly 30 stocks in the S&P BSE Midcap index gave double-digit returns to the tune of 10-40 percent in the month of August which includes names like Aditya Birla Fashion, United Breweries, Reliance Communications, Apollo Hospitals, JST Steel, and Piramal Enterprises etc. among others. "The value is in the mid-caps today is tremendous after the recent selloff in this space. A large part of the large-cap universe, especially retail banks and consumer stocks are somewhat overvalued despite strong growth fundamentals," Sandip Sabharwal, asksandipsabharwal.com, told Moneycontrol. "Capital goods and infrastructure stocks, select pharmaceutical Stocks and individual stocks in mid-caps offer value," he added. Tata Motors | Company sold 49,650 vehicles in November 2020 against 41,124 units in November 2020. (Image: Reuters) live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Tata Motors on Saturday reported 27 percent rise in its total sales for August at 58,262 units against 45,906 units during same period of last year. The commercial vehicle sales grew 26 percent at 39,859 units against 31,566 units on a YoY basis. Meanwhile, medium and heavy commercial vehicles (HCVs) sold 12,715 units, a rise of 16 percent year on year, while the number of passenger vehicles sold were reported at 18,420 units. This implies a rise of 28 percent. The company saw a huge jump of 78 percent in its exports for the month, rising to 5,478 units against 3,082 units in the previous year. The stock gained over a percent in the past one month, while in the past three days, the scrip rose over 2 percent. At the close of market hours on Friday, Tata Motors was quoting at Rs 267.10, up Rs 7.45, or 2.87 percent, on the BSE. Delhi-based co-working space startup myHQ, run by JustWork Technologies Pvt Ltd, after raising Rs 3.5 crore in a fresh round of funding recently, plans to expand operations to over 200 spaces across Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru. It plans to include innovative areas such as art and comedy studios besides the cafes and lounges. Besides taking up more seats in cafes, lounges, offices and even hotels, the company has plans to set up co-working spaces in an art studio, comedy studio and is looking at the feasibility of curating such spaces in malls, say Utkarsh Kawatra and Vinayak Agrawal, two IITians who founded the company two years ago. We have over 60 plus locations in Delhi NCR and we are planning to expand to 200 locations with the funding we have received. We are exploring different geographies and are closely evaluating Mumbai or Bengaluru, the founders said. In Delhi-NCR we have 64 locations currently and we have plans to scale up to 150 locations by the end of this year and then look at another city, they say, adding the plan is to increase the total number of seats from 800 to 2500 by the end of the year. The company currently has 20 spaces in cafes with 250 seats; 10 spaces in lounges with 200 seats; 30 spaces in offices with 350 seats and two spaces with 30 seats in art studios. The company has opened a facility in hotels and in art studios and is planning to enter into a tie-up with a comedy studio soon. The company has an asset-light model and a technology-driven approach to run centres in neighbourhoods. A large part of the funding that we have received will be utilised to strengthen our technology and information systems that exist. These help us manage operations and customer experience at these locations, the founders said. We are not necessarily restricted to cafes and lounges, these are spaces we started out with but the larger underlining thesis is that we do not necessary set up our own office spaces or co-working spaces but make optimum use of real estate infrastructure which is lying vacant or is inefficiently used and which can be easily converted to co-working spaces. "As for offices, the company has tied up with offices that have about 10 to 20 percent of seats lying vacant. Weve helped them generate additional revenue. In one case, we helped turn a massive office cafeteria, lying vacant for most of the day except during lunch hours, into a co-working space, they said. So, who operates out of these facilities, who is the target audience? Freelancers and medium sized firms. All that users have to do is log on to the mobile app to reserve spaces and manage subscription. One segment that we are currently targeting is the corporate sales and business development teams, professionals who are on the go and who make client visits in multiple parts of the city and need the space between these meetings or a space to conduct these meetings. These are a relevant target group for us," they said. As for the payment structure, there are three plans - 1 visit, 5 visits and 22 visits. The 1 visit plan is for Rs 299 wherein the user gets back 200 redeemable credits. The 22 visit plan is for Rs 4999 where the user gets back 4500 redeemable credits. These redeemable credits can be used to pay for the users food consumption at a work cafe. When the user visits a co-working/office space, 200 credits get deducted per visit. According to Knight Frank Indias latest report, the co-working sector took up 2.8 million sq ft which translates to a significant 32 percent of the space transacted by the other services sector or 13 percent of the total space transacted during the first half of 2018. Many startups and an increasing number of companies prefer co-working spaces to conventional office spaces due to lower rentals, savings on operational costs and a more flexible work environment. A company can save as much as 30 percent on the operational cost alone, according to some estimates. Awfis Space Solutions, a home-grown co-working space provider, recently raised $20 million in series C funding from its existing investors global venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. The company today has 25,000 seats across 55 centres spread in 9 cities. For us 45 per cent business comes from the SME sector, 30 per cent from the corporates and 15 percent is a combination of start-ups and freelancers. Currently, we are operational in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Noida, Gurgaon Chandigarh and we will soon expand to Chennai, Kochi, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar, and Ahmedabad. We will go live in the next 60 to 90 days, says Amit Ramani, CEO of the company. The additional capital raised last week will help the company explore the markets it is currently operational in and also expand into Tier 2 cities. By March-April 2019 we should be at about 40,000 seats across 85 centres in 15 cities, he said. GoWork, a global co-working company, this week announced the launch of a premium floor within the premises of its campus located in Udyog Vihar Gurugram. Spread across an area of 32,000 sq ft, the floor can accommodate about 500 individuals. The co-working giant owns co-working space spread across 8 lakh square feet with a capacity of 12,000 seats across its two offices in Gurugram. Rs 800 crore have gone into the two campuses and the company is currently in talks with PE investors to raise 200 million dollars. This past week was one where it became clear that local languages in India have become a compelling enough business case for the technology giants to put their weight behind making vernacular-based products. At its flagship Indian event on Tuesday, Google for India unveiled a host of new features geared specifically for the country, and many of them in Indias local languages. Google for India: Tech giant makes aggressive push for voice, regional languages There was also a clear focus on voice, considering it eliminates the barrier of literacy for most in India as well. Google has, for some time now, been talking about the rise in its voice-related searches in India. On Wednesday, Amazon, which is often seen as the most aggressive tech titan, said it will make its text-to-speech assistant Polly available in Hindi, the first time it has provided local language support in the system. AWS announces addition of Hindi language support for Amazon Polly With Amazons voice assistant Alexa already becoming popular, it will be interesting to see if and when the company announces Hindi and other local language support for Alexa. The assistant already understands Hindi words commonly used in grocery and so on. Meanwhile, there is an ongoing court battle to fix alleged irregularities in the contract award for maintaining Indias top level domain name- .in .IN domain tussle: Afilias files writ petition in Delhi High Court challenging tender award Afilias India Ltd, the company that has been the technical service provider (TSP) of the .in domain name since 2007, has taken the government to court alleging irregularities and misrepresentations in the bid submitted by US-based Neustar about its qualifications and language capabilities for the project that will be worth Rs 80 crore over five years. The US on Wednesday extended the suspension of premium processing of H-1B visas, the most popular work visas used by Indian techies. While the industry has not made a statement yet, the extended suspension of H-1Bs tatkaal scheme could have some impact on the Indian IT services sector. Fresh woes for Indian IT companies as Trump administration extends H-1B premium visa processing suspension Amidst all this chaos, business processing management firm Hinduja Global Solutions Work at Home policy is bringing people with limited opportunities into the workforce in US and Canada. This firm's work-at-home policy brings people with limited opportunities into workforce It currently has about 500 home agents in Canada, and 150 in the US. It expects to grow its Work at Home offering by a further 25% by year-end. Inquiry against Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K Palaniswami has started ...Inquiry against Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K Palaniswami has started, Madras HC informed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami Saturday assured his government's support to farmers of the state, saying he himself was one. "I was born in a village. I was a farmer. I am still involved in farming. Therefore, I know how tough the problems of farmers are, and at the same time how difficult it is to practise agriculture," he said. The Chief Minister's remarks at a government event at Anuppur in this district comes in the backdrop of stiff resistance from a section of landowners, especially farmers and agriculturists, for the proposed eight-lane Expressway connecting this city with state capital Chennai. Earlier, The Madras High Court had restrained the Centre and Tamil Nadu government from dispossessing people of their lands to be acquired for the Rs 10,000 crore highway till further orders. At Salem today, Palaniswami said farmers worked hard in different climatic conditions and that the "Amma government will stand by them forever for their welfare." "The government will formulate necessary schemes for them. Farmers in all parts should progress. Only if the farmers flourish can a country flourish," he said and assured the farming sector all assistance in this regard. Palaniswami recalled that the late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was keen on rural development and therefore she formulated many welfare schemes to benefit them in the rural roads and education sectors. He also said Tamil Nadu was doing well in the farming sector. An aerial view shows partially submerged houses and church at a flooded area in Kerala. (Image: Reuters) Flood Union minister K J Alphons said Saturday that he has collected Rs 32.13 lakh form the Indian diaspora in China towards Kerala flood relief. In a tweet, he said that he will handover the money to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. "Collected Rs 32.13 lakhs from Indians in Shanghai, China, for flood victims in Kerala. Cheques will be delivered to CM on return from China," he tweeted. The minister thanked the Indian diaspora in China and the Consulate General of India in that country for the humanitarian gesture. Uttarakhand is expected to attract investments worth around Rs 20000 crore after the forthcoming investors summit to be held here next month, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said today. Talking to reporters after holding a slew of roadshows in Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Delhi to stimulate interest among business and industry leaders for the summit, Rawat said there was a "huge interest" to invest in the hill-state. "Everyone wants to come to the Himalayas. It was evident in the enthusiasm with which the trade and business leaders and people from the film industry responded to our invitation to participate in the summit," Rawat said. Asked to specify an amount, he said investments worth around Rs 20000 crore in different sectors were expected to come to the state after the summit. Apart from Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani who has given an assurance to expand his operations in the state and evinced interest to invest in telecommunications, hospitality and tourism sectors, people from the film industry including Mukesh Bhatt and Vishal Bhardwaj have also expressed their desire to shoot here, Rawat said. The chief minister said he was aware of the state's limitations when it comes to availability of land but assured that there would be no problem in accommodating the investments coming to the state. "I believe in understatement. I don't exaggerate things," he said in his reply to a query on whether a small state like Uttarakhand will be able to accommodate investments worth over Rs 20000 crore. The chief minister promised all support to those willing to invest in Uttarakhand and asked them to make the most of the state's high ranking in the ease of doing business index, cheap availability of power, better law and order scenario, single window clearance system and proximity to Delhi. Promising entrepreneurs an investment friendly atmosphere at every level so they can carry out their businesses without a hitch, the chief minister at a meeting in Delhi had on Thursday said, "A 15-day deadline has been set for the approval of any enterprise." The chief minister said he was asking investors to come to the state not only to do business and earn profits but also to generate employment opportunities for locals at their home which will help curb migration from the hills. On November 6 2018, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced that Faizabad district would henceforth be known as Ayodhya. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ridiculed Saturday the opposition unity efforts ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, saying non-BJP parties were ganging up to create political instability in the country, a charge refuted by the Congress. "The opposition is worried that the BJP is gaining from strength to strength. They are opposed to development and have been ganging up to join hands with the only aim to take on the saffron party," the firebrand BJP Hindutva leader said at an event by a media house. The chief minister said the people were hopeful that a grand Ram temple will be built in Ayodhya in the state and "Lord Ram will decide its date". Slamming the opposition parties, the chief minister said, "Their only aim is to create political instability in the country so that they can fish in troubled waters." His comments at the 'Hindustan Shikhar Samagam' came against the backdrop of efforts to stich an alliance among the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress in Uttar Pradesh with an eye on the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. "The opposition is against development and its only target is to dislodge the BJP from power," he said. Adityanath sought to poke fun at the opposition parties, saying they were not clear as to who will lead the alliance. "They cannot project any leader who can head the alliance," he said. "A grand Ram temple will be built in Ayodhya. The people are very hopeful. Ramji will decide its date. But, it will be built definitely," the saffron-clad chief minister said. The BJP will fight the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 on the plank of development, he said and exuded confidence the party will retain power under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "The BJP will again come to power at the Centre and under the able leadership of the prime minister, we will put up a grand show in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections," Aditynath said. He was responding to a specific question about whether his party would repeat its performance in 2014 when it bagged 73 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state along with its alliance partners. The 46-year-old monk-turned-politician said the party does not believe in playing the caste card for the sake of votes and it will go to the polls on the development plank. "The BJP does not play caste card," he said. "We believe in development and welfare of the people without any discrimination," he said. On the police encounters in the state, he said the authorities are trying their best to instil confidence in the minds of the people that law breakers would not be allowed to go scotfree. "At the same time, we have warned the police that there should not be any fake encounters. If they misuse power, action will be taken against them," he said. The chief minister, who assumed power last year after his party scored a landslide victory in the 2017 Assembly polls, slammed the previous Samajwadi Party dispensation saying, "People voted against the SP as they came to realise the misdeeds of the Akhilesh Yadav government." However, UPCC chief Raj Babbar, who was the next guest at the meet, refuted Adityanath's remarks over his remarks on the opposition unity. "The unity among the opposition parties is to save the country from the BJP's misrule," he said. Babbar said that the unity efforts were in the context of Uttar Pradesh, which sends the highest number of 80 members to the Lok Sabha. "This is Lok Sabha election and national leaders will take a call," he said. The actor-turned-politician said the efforts to strike unity among non-BJP parties were not directed against any individual. "The sole purpose is to save the country from the BJP's misrule," he said. To a specific question as to who will head the alliance, Babbar said the issue will crop up at a later stage. "The issue will be decided at a later stage. It is for the people to decide, the country will decide," he said. "But, one thing is for certain that if the Congress heads the alliance, it will be our party chief Rahul Gandhi . Japan has agreed to extend over Rs 2.6 billion grant assistance to Pakistan for two projects, according to a media report on Saturday. The notes to this effect were signed and exchanged Friday during the visit of State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan Kazuyuki Nakane. The Express Tribune reported that the two schemes include the installation of a weather surveillance radar, worth around 2.1 billion Japanese Yen (Rs 2.3 billion), in Multan City and a project for human resource development scholarship, worth around 330 million Japanese Yen (Rs 360 million). Japan has been supporting Pakistan's stable and sustainable growth since the diplomatic relationship between the two countries was established in 1952, Nakane said at the signing ceremony. "Under the strong leadership of the new Prime Minister, Imran Khan, along with the leadership for economic development, particularly, the new Finance Minister, Asad Umar, we believe that Naya Pakistan' will be definitely realised, he said. Umar was also present at the signing ceremony for the projects. Nakane said the two projects will help further development of Pakistan and contribute to strengthening the friendly relationship and cooperation between both the nations. The total amount of assistance for weather forecasting of Pakistan has reached about 10 billion Japanese Yen (Rs 10 billion) with the commitment to provide funds for the Installation of the weather surveillance radar in Multan City, he said. So far, Japan has supported the installation of four weather radars in the cities of Islamabad, Karachi, Dera Ismail Khan and Rahim Yar Khan. Japan has been providing its technical cooperation to Pakistan for human resource development since 1954 and so far, over 6,500 people have received fellowships in the island country. US intelligence official warns that Chinese government is running ... TheBlaze US intelligence official warns that Chinese government is running covert operation through LinkedIn The United States' top spy catcher said Chinese espionage agencies are using fake LinkedIn accounts to try to recruit Americans with access to government and commercial secrets, and the company should shut them down. William Evanina, the US counter-intelligence chief, said in an interview that intelligence and law enforcement officials have told LinkedIn, owned by Microsoft Corp., about China's "super aggressive" efforts on the site. He said the Chinese campaign includes contacting thousands of LinkedIn members at a time, but he declined to say how many fake accounts US intelligence had discovered, how many Americans may have been contacted and how much success China has had in the recruitment drive. German and British authorities have previously warned their citizens that Beijing is using LinkedIn to try to recruit them as spies. But this is the first time a US official has publicly discussed the challenge in the United States and indicated it is a bigger problem than previously known. Evanina said LinkedIn should look at copying the response of Twitter, Google and Facebook, which have all purged fake accounts allegedly linked to Iranian and Russian intelligence agencies. "I recently saw that Twitter is cancelling, I don't know, millions of fake accounts, and our request would be maybe LinkedIn could go ahead and be part of that," said Evanina, who heads the US National Counter-Intelligence and Security Center. It is highly unusual for a senior US intelligence official to single out an American-owned company by name and publicly recommend it take action. LinkedIn says it has 575 million users in more than 200 counties and territories, including more than 150 million US members. Evanina did not, however, say whether he was frustrated by LinkedIn's response or whether he believes it has done enough. LinkedIn's head of trust and safety, Paul Rockwell, confirmed the company had been talking to US law enforcement agencies about Chinese espionage efforts. Earlier this month, LinkedIn said it had taken down less than 40 fake accounts whose users were attempting to contact LinkedIn members associated with unidentified political organizations. Rockwell did not say whether those were Chinese accounts. We are doing everything we can to identify and stop this activity, Rockwell told Reuters. "We've never waited for requests to act and actively identify bad actors and remove bad accounts using information we uncover and intelligence from a variety of sources including government agencies." Rockwell declined to provide numbers of fake accounts associated with Chinese intelligence agencies. He said the company takes every prompt action to restrict accounts and mitigate and stop any essential damage that can happen but gave no details. LinkedIn "is a victim here," Evanina said. "I think the cautionary tale is, 'You are going to be like Facebook. Do you want to be where Facebook was this past spring with congressional testimony, right?'" he said, referring to lawmakers' questioning of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Russia's use of Facebook to meddle in the 2016 US elections. China's foreign ministry disputed Evanina's allegations. "We do not know what evidence the relevant U.S. officials you cite have to reach this conclusion. What they say is complete nonsense and has ulterior motives," the ministry said in a statement. But Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Beijing's exploitation of LinkedIn "demonstrates the length to which Chinese intelligence will go, and the 21st Century counter-intelligence challenges facing us in a world where everybody's got an online footprint." EX-CIA OFFICER ENSNARED Evanina said he was speaking out in part because of the case of Kevin Mallory, a retired CIA officer convicted in June ofA conspiring to commit espionage for China. A fluent Mandarin speaker, Mallory was struggling financially when he was contacted via a LinkedIn message in February 2017 by a Chinese national posing as a headhunter, according to court records and trial evidence. The individual, using the name Richard Yang, arranged a telephone call between Mallory and a man claiming to work at a Shanghai think tank. During two subsequent trips to Shanghai, Mallory agreed to sell US defence secrets sent over a special cellular device he was given even though he assessed his Chinese contacts to be intelligence officers, according to the US government's case against him. He is due to be sentenced in September and could face life in prison. While Russia, Iran, North Korea and other nations also use LinkedIn and other platforms to identify recruitment targets, the U.S. intelligence officials said China is the most prolific and poses the biggest threat. US officials said China's Ministry of State Security has co-optees individuals who are not employed by intelligence agencies but work with them - set up fake accounts to approach potential recruits. They said the targets include experts in fields such as supercomputing, nuclear energy, nanotechnology, semi-conductors, stealth technology, health care, hybrid grains, seeds and green energy. Chinese intelligence uses bribery or phoney business propositions in its recruitment efforts. Academics and scientists, for example, are offered payment for scholarly or professional papers and, in some cases, are later asked or pressured to pass on US government or commercial secrets. Some of those who set up fake accounts have been linked to IP addresses associated with Chinese intelligence agencies, while others have been set up by bogus companies, including some that purport to be in the executive recruiting business, said a senior US intelligence official, who requested anonymity in order to discuss the matter. The official said some correlation has been found between Americans targeted through LinkedIn and data hacked from the Office of Personnel Management, a US government agency, in attacks in 2014 and 2015. The hackers stole sensitive private information, such as addresses, financial and medical records, employment history and fingerprints, of more than 22 million Americans who had undergone background checks for security clearances. The United States identified China as the leading suspect in the massive hacking, an assertion China's foreign ministry at the time dismissed as absurd logic. UNPARALLELED SPYING EFFORT About 70 percent of China's overall espionage is aimed at the US private sector, rather than the government, said Joshua Skule, the head of the FBI's intelligence branch, whose responsibilities include ensuring the flow of intelligence to the bureau's counter-espionage operations. "They are conducting economic espionage at a rate that is unparalleled in our history," he said. Evanina said five current and former US officials - including Mallory - have been charged with or convicted of spying for China in the past two and a half years. He indicated that additional cases of suspected espionage for China by U.S. citizens are being investigated, but declined to provide details. US intelligence services are alerting current and former officials to the threat and telling them what security measures they can take to protect themselves. Some current and former officials post significant details about their government work history online - even sometimes naming classified intelligence units that the government does not publicly acknowledge. LinkedIn "is a very good site," Evanina said. "But it makes for a great venue for foreign adversaries to target not only individuals in the government, formers, former CIA folks, but academics, scientists, engineers, anything they want. It's the ultimate playground for collection." The Delhi University earned over Rs3 crore in fees paid by students for either revaluation or rechecking their answer-sheets and for providing photocopies of answer-sheets to them between 2015-16 and 2017-18, an RTI has revealed. According to the information provided by the university, it earned Rs2,89,12,310 for revaluation alone between 2015-16 and 2017-18. During the same period, it earned Rs23,29,500 for rechecking and Rs6,49,500 for providing students copies of answer-scripts evaluated. As per university rules, students have to shell out Rs1,000 for revaluation of a single copy and Rs750 for rechecking of the answer-script -- which means only re-totalling of the marks -- and same amount has to be paid for obtaining photocopy of answer-script also. The information regarding the income generated was given by the varsity in response to an RTI application filed by a former Delhi University student, who had demanded that he be allowed the inspection of his answer-script free of cost as per a certain RTI section which allows inspection of public records. "I had filed an RTI seeking inspection of my answer-script in 2016. My plea dragged on for two years and I had to take recourse to the CIC (Central Information Commission), which ordered the university to let me inspect the answer-script as per RTI's Section 2(j). "The university is yet to allow me the inspection of my answer-script. It has said it will pursue the matter further at the high court," the former law student told IANS. The RTI Section 2(j) lays down that a person can access records kept under any public authority for, among other purposes, "inspection... taking notes, extracts". The applicant said had he been allowed the inspection of his answer-script, and in case any discrepancy found, he would have asked for the re-totalling/ revaluation to be done by the university free of charge, since he is not bound to pay for the mistakes made by the university. "This is a grave issue of public interest. Not every one is rich enough to spend Rs1,000 or Rs750 for revaluation. Also logically, if discrepancy is found, the university should be duty-bound to correct it without cost... They (university administration) are making students pay for the mistakes they made," he said. The Central Information Commission (CIC) in its August 18 decision had ordered the Delhi University to allow the applicant inspection of his answer copy in "larger public interest". "... The Commission felt that issue under consideration involved larger public interest affecting the fate of all students who wish to obtain information regarding their answer-sheet/ marks. "Hence allowing inspection of their own answer sheets to the students ought to be allowed as per the provision of the RTI Act, 2005," the Commission said, adding that the applicant be allowed the inspection of his answer-sheets within 15 days of this letter. When he was not allowed the inspection of his answer-sheet even after the CIC decision, the former DU student approached the Public Information Officer of the university later in the month through another RTI, who told him that the university's Examination Branch (which keeps the answer-sheets) has decided to challenge the verdict. Earlier, before the CIC, the university officials had contended against allowing of inspection of answer-sheets as per the RTI Act provisions, saying that doing so "would render their existing mechanism of providing hard copies...redundant". "The Respondent...apprehended that allowing inspection of files would render their own mechanism of providing certified copy of answer-scripts as per the fee prescribed in their regulations as meaningless, since the candidates would would certainly opt for inspection as per...RTI Act, 2005," the CIC noted in its verdict. Easun Reyrolle Ltd, which provides electrical infrastructure solutions, has apparently declared a lockout about 50 days ago and production has been stalled. Sources tell us that the company has not paid the dues of its workers/employees for more than eight months and that there are several creditors to whom they owe huge sums, apart from statutory dues of several crores of rupees. Sources further allege that the company promoters are using their influence at various levels. One of its creditors had filed to bankruptcy proceedings against Easun Reyrolle under the Indian Bankruptcy Code (IBC). But because of its alleged influence, Easun had managed to get out of those proceedings also in just two months, the sources say. The auditors report on the FY17-18 financials has several observations. Some of the remarks made by the auditors are: 1. Various balances due by and to the company towards borrowings, balances with banks, debtors including dues from various electricity boards and creditors for supplies and execution of projects are pending verification as no confirmations for the same have been received. 2. Financial results relating to various turkey projects undertaken by the company are pending confirmations from the customers and, thus, auditors have relied on the managements assertion in respect of completions, revenue receivables and revenues expected from the projects. 3. In respect of certain projects which were terminated by the customer, the resulting encashment of bank guarantees given by the company amounting to Rs76 crore has been shown as recoverable; but pending the outcome of legal proceedings, the eventual impact is not quantifiable. Talking about the comments from the auditors, our sources say, The contracts with the electricity boards are inflated as these were terminated. The company has been blacklisted by all the state governments. The bank guarantees were invoked and the contracts were awarded to someone and there is no chance that Easun will receive anything from any state electricity board. And that they do not have any orders on hand. The company has accumulated losses of more than Rs200 crore and these have increased year-on-year. The company owes banks more than Rs300 crore and has become a non-performing asset (NPA) account. On the NPA issue, our sources say, The ongoing NPA crisis in power company, is partly related to such companies, which did not honour their commitments; all the sub-station projects were stalled and none of them was completed. Several sub-contractors are still unpaid. And Easun Reyrolle has major issues with all power distribution companies across India. We asked the company about each of these allegations. Easun Reyrolles chief financial officer (CFO) A Kamatchinathan accepted that dues of its employees are, in fact, pending. He, however, said the company is making arrangements to settle employees dues at the earliest. On the matter of lock-out, he admitted that the company has declared partial layoff, only for a section of workers in one plant. He, however, declined to comment on other issues. Meanwhile, another source provided a softer version of the same developments. This source said, The lockout had happened for few days and it has been resolved now. He further added that the non-payment of dues of workers or employees was not intentional as the company had some issues with its cash flow and now, it is trying to arrange interim funds through its subsidiary company in Canada. The companys name popped up on the list of stocks that the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) are going to suspend from active trading due to non-compliance with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015. The company had till 4th September (in case of the BSE) and 5 September (in case of the NSE) to comply with the regulations. The regulations require listed companies to publish their Q3FY17-18 and Q4FY17-18 results and also pay the fines or penalties attracted for non-compliance. The company has published its Q3FY17-18 and Q4FY17-18 and FY17-18 (full year) results on 28th August; within 10 days of notice from the exchanges. And the CFO of the company told us that Easun Reyrolle has made arrangements to pay fines or penalties to the exchanges within the stipulated time. This would save the company from being suspended from active trading. However, it is important to note that Easun Reyrolle has not made any disclosure on the above-mentioned matters to the stock exchanges. The stock price of Easun Reyrolle has fallen more than 70% since the beginning of this year. The Supreme Court has stayed all construction activities in five states and union territory of Chandigarh for failing to frame a policy on solid waste management. In an order issued on 31 August 2018, a division Bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice S Abdul Nazeer, said, "The attitude of the States and Union Territories in not yet framing a Policy even after two years is pathetic, to say the least. Further constructions in the States and Union Territories are stayed until the Policy is framed." "It is unfortunate that some States and Union Territories have not yet framed any Policy under the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. In case the States have the interest of the people in mind and cleanliness and sanitation, they should frame a Policy in terms of the Solid Waste Management Rules so that the States remain clean," the Bench said. The apex court also levied fine of Rs3 lakh each on Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Uttarakhand for failing to frame the policy and thus not complying with its orders. Union territory Chandigarh also failed to frame policy on solid waste management and was fined Rs3 lakh. "Even there is no appearance on behalf of the Union Territory of Chandigarh. However, an appearance slip has been given on behalf of the advocate who is not present," the Bench noted. Similar was the case with Andhra Pradesh. Its counsel gave the appearance slip was not present during the hearing. The Bench stated that the Union of India was not aware whether the State had framed policy on solid waste management and had not filed any affidavit. It said, "In any event, no one is present on behalf of the State of Andhra Pradesh to assist us. However, an appearance slip has been given on behalf of the advocate who is not present." Accepting submission from Kerala, the apex court granted it two weeks time to file an affidavit. BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee has promoted Jill Langston to a new role as director of corporate governance and corporate secretary. Ms. Langston will manage and coordinate the business of the board of directors, who help ensure the company maintains responsible and trustworthy performance as it delivers peace of mind through better health to customers and communities. Ms. Langston has been with BlueCross for more than 20 years, and has served for the last 13 years as corporate governance analyst and assistant corporate secretary. In this role, she worked directly with the board of directors and supported the director of corporate governance and corporate secretary. Jills career path has given her extensive experience and preparation for her new position, said Anne Hance, senior vice president, general counsel and chief privacy officer for BlueCross. We are delighted that she has accepted this important role within our organization. Ms. Langston began her BlueCross career in 1996 as a claims supervisor. Before joining the company, she worked with families and youths in the Juvenile Community Intervention Services Program with the Southeast Tennessee Human Resources Agency. In addition to a bachelors degree in criminal justice, Ms. Langston earned a masters degree in public administration from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Louis C.K.'s return to stand-up came and went, in the form of a 15-minute surprise set that only about a hundred people witnessed. The comic had been publicly silent since he admitted in November that five women's allegations of sexual misconduct against him - including his masturbating in front of them - "are true." "I have spent my long and lucky career talking and saying anything I want," C.K. said in response to a New York Times investigation. "I will now step back and take a long time to listen." On Sunday, he performed an unscheduled set at the Comedy Cellar, a New York comedy institution that C.K. used to frequent and that's known for attracting big-name drop-ins. Cellar owner Noam Dworman said he found out about the set the next morning via text messages that employees sent after he had put his kids to bed. But he did watch a tape of the set and said that when the host announced C.K., the audience broke out into "sustained applause," with some folks "giving a little bit extra," as if to show they "wanted to hear what he had to say." C.K. did new material but didn't address his past misdeeds and subsequent apology. News of the set, first reported Tuesday by the Times, sparked a larger conversation on social media and elsewhere about men who have quietly returned to their professions after stepping out of the limelight following sexual misconduct allegations. (C.K.'s is the rare instance in which he eventually admitted wrongdoing, after years of denying rumors.) Comedy bookers and club owners are grappling with how to react. Are they the gatekeepers? What responsibility do they have, as the public reckons with a wave of sexual misconduct revelations? "I think too many people are interpreting it as a reflection of how we feel or don't feel about what Louis was accused of, or admitted to doing. It's not really about that," Dworman said of his club allowing C.K. to drop in. "It's more of an ACLU approach, which I've always had, which is to say that we're a platform for comedy, that handing out punishments is something that institutions of courts of law do." And while "every club owner, it's their business and they can draw their own lines," Dworman said, "the public needs to be careful about expecting that the club owner is obligated to draw that line for them, as opposed to saying, 'I don't want to see Louis C.K., I won't go see him.' " Unlike in other professional settings, stand-ups can operate like independent contractors. The very famous ones can produce their own live shows and have massive email lists they can use to contact their fans. And, as with C.K's drop-in set, sometimes comics perform simply to work out material, rather than to get paid. In recent weeks, Aziz Ansari has also been performing at abruptly announced shows around the country in sizable venues as part of his "Working Out New Material" tour. The comic had retreated after being accused anonymously in January of sexual impropriety. (He said that his encounter with a woman "by all indications was completely consensual.") For Marshall Chiles, owner of Atlanta's Laughing Skull Lounge and Laughing Skull Comedy Festival, the questions when it comes to comics like C.K. are: "Is he going to be doing hate speech? Is he going to be encouraging that behavior, or is he discouraging that behavior, even with his transgressions? . . . [What] if he had this amazing 15-minute bit of the errors of his ways?" While Chiles says he'll never tell a comic what to say onstage, "there is a responsibility of some sense. If you got a platform, a comedy club pulling 1,000 people a week, you have a responsibility that what's onstage is not hurting society." "If he hadn't apologized, and he was trying to fight it or justify it, I would not be tolerant of him onstage," Chile said. "The fact that he handled it the way he did, I believe in giving people second chances. I've made mistakes." Dworman was surprised that C.K. returned so soon, and in such a setting, and that he didn't address the controversy at all. He suspects audiences want C.K. to, "like Richard Pryor, talk about his past." "In comedy there is a long history of comedians with pasts that people disapproved of, talking about that stuff onstage and being lauded for that," Dworman said. "Richard Pryor famously talked about all these terrible things he had done and nobody had ever thought that somebody shouldn't put Richard Pryor on. That didn't mean they approved of" his actions. On Tuesday, many comics took to Twitter to post their shock, and disappointment, with C.K.'s return. "The fact that Louis, a comedian whose whole thing is plumbing the depths of his own psyche, apparently didn't mention his most recent, famous news in his surprise set tells you all you need to know about his desire for 'redemption,' right?" tweeted comedian Paul Tompkins. Comedian Jackie Kashian tweeted that she didn't think C.K. would perform stand-up until he wrote a bit about his actions. "Make THAT funny is what I thought would be his comeback," she wrote. It's unclear whether C.K. will hit the stage again anytime soon. But he's now broken his silence, almost 10 months after he decided to "take a long time to listen." As New York comic Sarah Lazarus wrote in a viral tweet, "I'm still on the same shampoo bottle as when louis ck's time out started." Could this be the why Police ... Shannon Scott Missing Person View Photos San Andreas, CA A Silver Alert has been issued by the Calaveras County Sheriffs Office with the hope of it helping find a veteran with medical disabilities who went missing two days ago. Sheriffs officials say that 65-year-old Shannon David Scott of Wilseyville, who was last seen at his home near the 4000 block of Blagen Boulevard, left for a VA appointment in Rancho Cordova on Wednesday at 11 a.m. but never arrived. His vehicle is a white 2014 Fiat with California Purple Heart license plate #9038PH. It bears a large Marine Corps sticker on the rear window. Scott is described as a white male, six feet tall and 170 pounds with short blonde hair and blue eyes. He is dependent on a wheelchair and was last seen wearing a black shirt, white shorts and brown shoes. To view an enlarged image of him and a photo of a similar vehicle, click into the image box slideshow. Anybody with information on his whereabouts should immediately contact the Calaveras County Sheriffs Office at 209 754-6500. Washington An American lobbyist who worked with Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs pleaded guilty Friday to failing to register as an agent of a foreign power and disclosed to prosecutors that he helped a Russian political operative and a Ukrainian businessman illegally purchase four tickets to President Donald Trump's inauguration. Prosecutors disclosed that the inauguration tickets were worth $50,000 and were purchased with funds that flowed through a Cypriot bank account. Prosecutors did not name the foreigners involved. However, the tickets were purchased for Konstantin V. Kilimnik, a Russian political operative believed to have ties to a Russian intelligence agency, and a Ukranian oligarch. The lobbyist, Sam Patten, also agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as part of his plea agreement. He could provide prosecutors insight into a range of activity and individuals relevant to the special counsel investigation, as well as connections between Trump, his associates and Russia. Prosecutors said they would not bring additional charges against Patten for giving false statements to and obstructing the Senate Intelligence Committee. The committee, which questioned Patten on Jan. 18, is among the congressional panels that are conducting investigations into Russia's election interference. Foreigners are not allowed to contribute any money to the organization that runs presidential inaugurations. According to federal documents, Patten misled the Intelligence Committee several times and intentionally withheld documents that could have revealed the foreign purchase of the tickets. As recently as this year, Patten worked as a foreign agent for the Opposition Bloc, a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party, according to a court document filed Friday. In the world of mobile commerce, every second counts. Even the slightest delay can cost your site conversions and your business money. With Google now seriously homing in on site speed as a ranking factor, the adoption of progressive web apps (PWAs) is looking more attractive to any website operator/business owner, and especially to those running ecommerce sites. For those unaccustomed to the advantages of PWAs -- or even what they look like -- the easiest way to define them is a website modeling the features, user interface and user experience an app. This includes mimicking the layout, home screen icon, push buttons and notifications you would usually associate with an app, but all operating from your browser, and offering the same usability on mobile as on desktop. They are also significantly easier to build compared to native apps, as they don't rely on complex coding: They can be built using the same code as your site and work the same way across iOS and Android phones. Here are some more of the advantages of using a PWA over a native app for your business. Related: A Step-by-Step Guide To Building Your First Mobile App Push notifications One of the biggest advantages of PWAs is they can offer your customers push notifications, alerting them to new products, sales and updates. The benefits of getting your message and products/services immediately into the hands of your consumer can't be overstated. The savings on marketing spend alone makes obvious business sense, along with the boost to your branding, keeping your business at the forefront of your market's minds. Caching Through the use of a service worker and cache API, PWAs can function offline, meaning your customers don't need a mobile connection to access your site or store. The caching function stores your layout elements and loads them into the browser, significantly increasing load times and decreasing bounce rates, which is -- let's face it -- the death of any conversion opportunity. The faster your visitors and potential customers traverse their way through the purchasing journey, the more likely they are to not just make the purchase but return in the future (more on conversions below). Related: 15 Useful Tech Tools for Your Business App market saturation PWAs serve as an excellent means of rising above the saturated app market. There are approximately 2 million apps available on iPhones and nearing 4 million on Android phones. Among the retail giants stands Amazon, the only retail app among millions within the top 100 downloaded apps. Cutting through those numbers to get on the radar of your customers is a tricky feat, and there is never a guarantee they will download an app for your store. A progressive web app offers the benefit of working across all devices, requiring less upfront cost. Related: 8 Online Careers You Can Start Today From Home Increased conversions There's a lot that can be said for making your customers' purchasing journey as easy as possible, and those businesses that have implemented PWAs have seen the benefits. For example, Best Western River North (in Chicago) saw a 300 percent increase in revenue and 500 percent in bookings compared to the conversion rates of its old website. In summation, PWAs are simpler and typically cheaper to build, effortlessly work across the majority of smartphones and browsers, are more likely to be adopted and used by consumers, are faster to load, and lead to increased conversions. It's clear to see these are game-changing benefits with lower risk and investment required. And it's a safe bet that we'll see a substantial rise in businesses adopting them throughout the year and years to come. Related: How Progressive Web Apps Could Change the Mobile Landscape Does Your Website Have This Important Lead-Generation Feature? Improve Your Conversion Rate and Increase Revenue With These User Experience Design Essentials Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved The Texas Department of Public Safety on Friday released dramatic helicopter footage of the fatal confrontation between police and the Austin bombing suspect, Mark Anthony Conditt, on Interstate 35 in Round Rock. The footage, first obtained by the Austin American-Statesman, provides a bird's eye view of the conclusion of the weeks-long hunt in March for the 23-year-old serial bomber, now believed to be responsible for the deaths of two people and injuries of five others. RELATED: Austin bombing victim was an aspiring musician Recorded from a DPS helicopter unit, the video begins by honing in on Conditt fleeing the parking lot of a Round Rock hotel in his SUV after being surrounded by SWAT officers in unmarked vans. "Air to ground, he's on the move, backing out now," says a DPS trooper monitoring Conditt from the helicopter. Conditt leads police to an Interstate 35 access road, where one law enforcement van rams him from behind while another boxes him in from the front in a coordinated stop. An officer rushes out of a van and begins furiously smashing Conditt's passenger-side window. He gets three hits in before Conditt detonates a home-made bomb inside the vehicle, killing himself. "Got an explosion. Got an explosion on the vehicle," the spotter announces. The SWAT team swarms the SUV, all with guns drawn, and begin securing the scene. Authorities said Conditt taped a 25-minute confession prior to his death, in which he discussed the personal problems he blamed for his decision to leave exploding package for innocent victims, though officials say a true motive was never discovered. RELATED: Lawmaker: Clues at FedEx store cracked Austin bombing case In total, five exploding packages were attributed to Conditt. The first was left on March 2 at the home of 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House, who was killed when the bomb detonated. Ten days later, on March 12, the second killed 17-year-old musician Draylen Mason and injured his mother. Hours later, a third package bomb injured 75-year-old Esperanza Herrera. The package detonated when she picked it up. The fourth was a trip-wire bomb that injured two men who were walking with their bikes in a residential neighborhood on March 18. After that, law enforcement authorities described the attacks as the work of a serial bomber. The fifth and final bomb detonated March 20 in a FedEx facility in Schertz, Texas, injuring one employee. It was mailed from Austin to another address in Austin. Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com Caleb Downs is a crime reporter for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here.| cdowns@mysa.com | Twitter: @calebjdowns A man shot outside a Northeast strip club early Saturday was taken to a San Antonio hospital according to police on scene. Officers responded about 2:50 a.m. to XTC Cabaret, in the 2000 block of Sable Lane, where a man was shot outside the club, according to the San Antonio Police Department. EDITORS 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 James Edward Haskins, 26, second-offense domestic violence on Oct. 18, 120 days in jail with credit for 51 days, $125 fines and costs (MC). Bay City Charles Edward Barringer, 47, driving without license on person on July 16, $200 fines and costs (MC). Nikolas Andrew Moreno, 28, DWLS on June 25, $650 fines and costs (MC). Debbie Lee Smith, 53, no registration on June 23, $100 fine (MC). Beaverton Christopher Joseph Dehring, 29, domestic violence on June 24, 30 days in jail suspended with credit for two days, $125 fines and costs (MC). Breckenridge Jamie Lee Barker, 31, second-offense DWLS on July 31, two weekends in jail, $250 fines and costs, vehicle immobilized (MC). Coleman Nicole Irene Ember, 36, DWLS on July 24, two weekends in jail, $250 fines and costs (MC). Nicholas Michael Sweebe, 32, allowing DWLS on May 11, two weekends in jail, $600 fines and costs (MC). Farwell Patrick David Dunlap, 23, allowing DWLS on June 7, $250 fines and costs (MC). Christopher Joseph Ptak, 33, impaired driving on April 30, two days in jail with credit for time served, $500 fines and costs (MC). Gladwin Bradley Robert Hude II, 19, malicious destruction of a building and malicious destruction of property on March 14, 44 days in jail with credit for time served, restitution left open (MC). Kevin Douglas Trevillian, 49, DWLS on Aug. 20, 15 days in jail with credit for two days, $125 fines and costs (MC). Harrison David Randall Love, 57, no license on person on Oct. 25, $125 fines and costs (MC). Kawkawlin Shannon Lee Eckinger, 32, second-degree retail fraud on April 28, 20 days in jail with credit for one day, $400 fines and costs (MC). Midland Tracey Jean Birdsall, 51, East Gordonville Road, operating with a high blood alcohol content on Sept. 12, 180 days in jail with all but four weekends suspended and credit for one day, $775 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, to be monitored by an alcohol tether for 180 days (MC). Eldon Leroy Bovee Jr., 43, North McCann Drive, allowing DWLS on July 26, $225 fines and costs (MC). Henry Lee Burlingame, 47, East Curtis Road, drove while unlicensed or license not valid on Aug. 5, one weekend in jail, $125 fines and costs (MC). Michael Lee Crandell, 27, South Sandow Road, attempted indecent exposure on July 30, 28 days in jail, $125 fines and costs (MC). Stacey Renee Elmore, 40, East Bombay Road, second-degree retail fraud on Feb. 25, 30 days in jail with credit for one day, $125 fines and costs, $116.22 restitution (MC). Cody James Faddis, 28, South Seven Mile Road, OWI on April 29, 93 days in jail with all but 30 days suspended and credit for one day, $350 fines and costs, 18 months probation, 50 hours community service, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, attend counseling as directed, may not use marijuana even with a medical marijuana card, submit 15 job applications per week until employed (MC). Jeremy Robert Goldsworthy, 37, Campau Drive, impaired driving on April 4, $775 fines and costs, attend counseling as directed (MC). Elizabeth Elain Govtiz, 28, North Merritt Drive, drove while unlicensed or license not valid on July 24, $250 fines and costs (MC). Donald Stephen Grinwis, 25, Leonard Lane, disorderly person-jostling on Jan. 26, 30 days in jail, $200 fines and costs, $4,574 restitution (MC). Jaylian Tyrell Henderson, 22, West Buttles Street, domestic violence on May 23, 32 days in jail with credit for time served, $125 fines and costs (MC). Andrew Sung Hohmeyer, 37, Dartmouth Drive, impaired driving on May 5, 93 days in jail suspended with credit for one day, $775 fines and costs, 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). Jennifer Kay Holder, 30, Fournie Street, DWLS on July 16, $400 fines and costs, vehicle immobilized (MC). Kyrstyn Lynn Johns, 24, Highbrook, disorderly person-jostling on April 24, 90 days in jail suspended with credit for two days, $550 fines and costs, nine 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). Jill Darlene Johnson, 56, West Brooks Road, assault and battery, aggravated assault and two counts of attempted resisting and obstructing on May 13, 93 days in jail for the first count and one year in jail for each of the remaining counts suspended with credit for 34 days, $350 fines and costs, one year probation, not to be involved in any assaultive, threatening, violent, aggressive, disorderly or abusive behavior toward an 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). Christopher Andrew Longoria, 25, Seminole Court, drunk and disorderly on Jan. 26, seven days in jail, $200 fines and costs, $4,574 restitution (MC). Matthew James MacDonald, 33, Swede Avenue, domestic violence on June 17, 93 days in jail with all but 10 days suspended and credit for two days, $600 fines and costs, one year probation, not to be involved in any assaultive, threatening, violent, aggressive, disorderly or abusive behavior toward an 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). Trenton James MacDonald, 33, South Shamrock Street, second-offense domestic violence on Jan. 20, 45 days in jail with credit for one day, $125 fines and costs (MC). Renson Moses, 27, Quincy Drive, drunk and disorderly, and two counts of breaking and entering without owner permission on July 19, 21 days in jail with credit for nine days, $1,475 fines and costs (MC). Amy Elizabeth Mott, 44, East Stewart Road, two counts resisting and obstructing on May 9, 15 days in jail with credit for time served, $400 fines and costs (MC). Christopher Dale Scherzer, 48, Baker Road, operating without proper vehicle group designation on July 24, $200 fines and costs (MC). David Crowley Schwartz, 49, West St. Andrews Road, impaired driving on March 23, 93 days in jail suspended with credit for two days, $775 fines and costs, eight months probation, monitored by an alcohol tether for 180 days, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, attend counseling as directed (MC). Daniel Jospeh Simonds, 25, Swede Avenue, impaired driving on April 19, two days in jail with credit for time served, $450 fines and costs (MC). Jamie Frasier Walker, 38, Longview Drive, third-degree retail fraud on April 11, 93 days in jail with all but four days suspended and credit for one day, $400 fines and costs, six months probation, 25 hours community service, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, attend counseling as directed (MC). Kelly Maria Sipin, 51, North Homer Road, OWI on June 30, 93 days in jail suspended with credit for two days, $550 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). Christopher Charles Wright, 34, North Merritt Drive, allowing DWLS on July 26, $225 fines and costs (MC). Debra Ann Wright, 59, Walter Court, impaired driving on March 31, 93 days in jail suspended with credit for one day, $500 fines and costs, $670.45 restitution, 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). Mount Pleasant Ronald Kelly Paul, 20, DWLS on Oct. 26, $600 fines and costs (MC). Saginaw Justin Paul Bixler, 30, DWLS on July 14, four weekends in jail, $250 fines and costs (MC). Antranette Danielle Davis, 27, allowing DWLS and no proof of insurance on May 13, $585 fines and costs (MC). Chanquiece Santana Moten, 26, allowing DWLS on Feb. 27, $250 fines and costs (MC). Nyambi Kajisha Whitley, 40, no insurance on July 7, $400 fines and costs (MC). Sanford Donovan Mathew Bovear, 20, unlawful use of license plate on July 12, $200 fines and costs (MC). Michael Thomas Gould, 34, allowing DWLS on July 2, $250 fines and costs (MC). Shad Jeremy Laflure, 42, second-offense DWLS on July 30, two weekends in jail, $425 fines and costs (MC). Amanda Rae LaLone, 28, impaired driving and two counts of failure to stop and identify after accident on April 3, 93 days in jail suspended with credit for two days, $650 fines and costs, $388.36 restitution, 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). Allen D. Parsons, 47, operating without proper vehicle group designation on July 25, $225 fines and costs (MC). Matthew Henry Sheets, 54, careless driving on April 17, $225 fine, $825.54 restitution (MC). Shepherd Ashley Nichole Zdunic, 26, no proof of insurance on June 27, $210 fine (MC). Weidman Edward Joseph McDaniel, 53, allowing DWLS on July 6, $400 fines and costs (MC). Elsewhere Alexander Abdul-Aziz Ahmed, 33, St. Clair Shores, DWLS on July 2, five days in jail suspended with credit for one day, $600 fines and costs, vehicle immobilized (MC). Ann Marie Giordano-Tunney, 59, St. Clair Shores, impaired driving on July 7, 93 days in jail suspended with credit for two days, $450 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). Sarah Ann Luark, 27, Mount Morris, attempted resisting and obstructing on Dec. 25, 2007, five days in jail with credit for time served, $200 fines and costs, six months probation, not to be involved in any assaultive, threatening, violent, aggressive, disorderly or abusive behavior toward an person, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, attend counseling as directed (SC). Amanda Carly Thompson, 25, Milford, second-offense OWI on May 29, one year in jail with all but five days suspended and credit for one day, $975 fines and costs, enter sobriety court program in 52-1 District Court (MC). Aleicia Lee Walker, 64, Au Gres, third-degree retail fraud on April 11, 14 days in jail with credit for one day, $125 fines and costs (MC). Like many Arizonans, John McCain adopted his home state. He came from elsewhere. Military bases. Boarding school. The son and grandson of revered naval commanders who followed in their footsteps at the U.S. Naval Academy, famously finishing near the bottom of his class only to fly to incredible heights. He moved to Arizona in 1981 and quickly ran for an open seat in Congress to represent the Phoenix area. He was accused of being a carpetbagger. An accusation that might have had more salience if he hadnt been a war hero, or if he had moved to another state where the roots and identity of locals run deeper. But Arizona is a place for newcomers, sun worshipers, dreamers and outsiders. A place where you can suddenly appear and be someone. His response to the carpetbagger comment is the stuff of political lore in Arizona. I wish I could have had the luxury, like you, of growing up and spending my entire life in a nice place like the 1st District of Arizona, but I was doing other things, he said. As a matter of fact, when I think about it now, the place I lived longest in my life was Hanoi. From that moment on, he was ours. Like other Arizonans and Americans over, I respected McCain for his bravery and immense personal sacrifice. He was a war hero who endured pain and anguish few of us could contemplate or understand. And he was a captivating figure on the national stage. The maverick who would on occasion buck his own party. The crusader for campaign finance reform. The showman who poked fun at himself on Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show. The magnetic center of David Foster Wallaces 25,000-word article in Rolling Stone from 2000. In a state where so many modern politicians have acted shamefully the pronounced bigotry of former Gov. Evan Mecham, who was impeached; the tent city of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a convicted felon; the political calculation of former Gov. Jan Brewer, who signed SB 1070 into law and rode it for all it was politically worth even as it ripped the state apart McCain was often a point of pride. Even those who disagreed with him could see he stood firmly on principles. By 2006, I was lucky enough to be a reporter in my home state, and my appreciation for McCain grew with my understanding of Arizonas biggest political figure. Campaign-finance reform. Efforts at comprehensive immigration reform. The expansion of the majestic Saguaro National Park. But in particular, how he responded to failure. An ethical crusader, he was also one of the so-called Keating Five in 1989. McCain and four other senators, including Dennis DeConcini, Arizonas last Democratic senator, were accused of trying to undermine a federal investigation into Arizona businessman Charles Keating, who would cost taxpayers billions in a savings and loans collapse. Keating was also a big backer of McCain. Of the five senators, McCain emerged relatively unscathed. A Senate Ethics Committee found he had shown poor judgment. Still. He owned the failure. It will be on my tombstone, something that will always be with me, something that will always be in my biography, he said. As a presidential candidate in 2000, he equivocated in South Carolina on the Confederate flag. He believed it should come down, but he muddled the message with a both sides statement. It was the kind of politics we expected him to disdain. All my heroes, fictional and real, would have been ashamed of me, he later reflected. And, of course, as the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, he should have opted for his friend former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman as his running mate. Having Sarah Palin by his side was maverick in the worst of ways. Palin served as a precursor to this era of Donald Trump and all of his celebrated boorishness. McCain rejected such lack of character. It was a fitting final chapter for the maverick. When others set aside their principles, McCain made his prominent. Even in times of political turmoil, such as these, we share that awesome heritage and the responsibility to embrace it, he wrote in The restless Wave, his memoir. It is an awesome heritage we share. One he embraced and honored until the last breath. It will be on his tombstone. Always with him. Godspeed to the senior senator from Arizona. jbrodesky@express-news.net The recent report by a grand jury in Pennsylvania gave me an unexpected shock. It revealed that Father David Connell, respected principal and theology teacher at Antonian College Preparatory in San Antonio, preyed on teenage boys at his prior teaching assignment in Pennsylvania. Social media tends to accelerate the stages of grief, and the revelations about Father Connell were no exception. On an alumni Facebook page and in the span of a few short hours, those who knew him went from denial (He fought for us. Its time for us to stand for him) to anger (Hope hes burning in hell) to depression (I dont know about you guys, but its got me in a dark place) to finally acceptance (Connell was a serial child rapist who was protected by similar minded people). The report indicates that while he lived and taught in Pennsylvania, Father Connell made a rebuffed sexual pass at a student on a high school camping trip in 1976. In 2007, another victim came forward to report that he and his brother were raped by Father Connell in a Carmelite priory in the 1970s. Someone in Pennsylvania shuffled Father Connell off to San Antonio to teach at and later lead Antonian. The school claims it has no recollection of a Father Connell teaching there and referred questions to the archdiocese. This is a rather curious denial, as on my last visit to the school a few years ago I saw a plaque dedicating the science room to him. The Archdiocese of San Antonio stated that Father Connell denied this (1976) incident happened, but no such words appear in the grand jury report. More Information / See More Collapse To me, these obfuscations show that our church still refuses to come to grips with reality. To the best of current public knowledge, and hopefully by the grace of God, Father Connell did not abuse anyone while assigned to San Antonio. Nevertheless, how could bishops in either Pennsylvania or San Antonio think it was acceptable to allow Father Connell near boys again? My parents relied on and trusted in those leaders when they decided to send me to Antonian. Father Connell was a mild-mannered, rotund, bald and bespectacled man. He smoked menthol cigarettes in class, and in between puffs he offered witticisms and lessons about God. As principal of Antonian, he saved the school from destruction, and served as a mentor and leader to hundreds of impressionable boys. I have racked my brain for clues as to his nature. Things that are clear to me now as a 46-year-old father were opaque to my teenage self. I remember him requiring students to frequently write confidential essays in which we were encouraged to express our deepest personal thoughts. I also remember several class conversations about sex. At the time I interpreted these events as his way of subtly providing us an outlet to express our feelings and provide us with lessons regarding the inherent morality of the churchs teaching. I did not suspect any prurient motive. I only remembered those incidents after I scrutinized my recollection in light of the grand jury report. The vast majority of my memories of Father Connell are overwhelmingly positive. There was the time he gave a rousing speech against anti-Semitism; the time he put his foot down regarding the teasing of a disabled student; the time he celebrated Mass with us after a classmate died in a motorcycle accident. I was an altar server of his. I was alone with him many times, both during high school and after I graduated college. Father Connell led overnight student retreats in the Hill Country by himself. My senior retreat served as the demarcation point for me between boy and man. No one who attended those retreats during his Antonian years has yet to report any impropriety, and I observed none. During our final retreat, Father Connell revealed to us, in confidence, that he had been molested as a child. I know now it is not uncommon for victims of molestation to become victimizers later in life. In the past few years, I occasionally reflected on Father Connells revelation to us. I wondered if he, like so many other clergy, was an ephebophile, an adult who is sexually attracted to adolescents. Each time, I immediately thought, No, not him. Hes the one guy who didnt fall into the pattern. As far as I was concerned, he was an educated, jocular and holy man who was interested in the spiritual and moral development of each student. I always thought he was trying to open my heart to entering the priesthood. I was saddened to learn of his death, and I regretted that he was unable to perform my marriage ceremony in 1999. I believe the victims. I do not believe anyone would come forward after 30 years only to lie about a priest who died in 1995. I am stranded in a kind of purgatory in which I know something is true and still find myself struggling to accept it. The years I spent at Antonian prepared me for life. Despite this, no number of good acts performed by Father Connell can atone for his evil. A monster can still show acts of kindness. The church should not have let Father Connell continue to serve her. The church, the school or someone in authority should have fully disclosed his past to the parents of Antonian students. I am grateful for the time I spent with him, but there is no way the church should have allowed me to do so. Based on currently available information, it does not appear that he abused anyone in San Antonio. If that is true, it is a blessing. If there are other victims, however, they should come forward and will be fully supported. The churchs failings require new leadership and an acknowledgment that the laity must help lead the way forward if she is to survive this scourge. The victims of clergy abuse deserve our prayers, our unreserved thanks for their bravery in coming forward, and whatever relief they can receive from the church and our legal system. Father Connell deserves to be judged appropriately by God. Now, more than ever, I will continue to pray for his soul, and I will also add his victims and all the victims of sexual abuse to my prayers. Ed Sullivan graduated Antonian College Preparatory in 1989. He is a labor and employment attorney in Houston. If it wasnt obvious before, it should be now: President Donald Trump is in an impeachment fight. It hasnt fully ripened yet. That wont happen unless Democrats take the House and do so with a healthy margin in the fall. But Michael Cohens statement that he committed campaign finance violations at the behest of Trump makes it that much more likely Democrats will impeach him once they have the power and the votes to do it. This means Trump is in a political fight more than a legal one. His concern shouldnt be the Southern District of New York current Justice Department guidance says a sitting president cant be indicted but the House Judiciary Committee. His strategy shouldnt be aimed at convincing prosecutors that he stayed on the right side of the law but the broader public that he deserves to stay in office. The most powerful tool that he has in that effort is telling the truth, exactly the approach most uncongenial to him. The American public has a nearly boundless ability to forgive. Wayward politicians have fallen back on it throughout our history, from Alexander Hamilton to John F. Kennedy to Bill Clinton. It is in this spirit that Donald Trump should confess his affairs with Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, admit he wanted to keep them quiet for a variety of reasons (sheer embarrassment, the potential political fallout, and the emotional effect on his wife and youngest son), and apologize to the public for his deception. Then he should say that hes directing his lawyers to approach the Federal Election Commission to negotiate a large payment for any violation of its rules. There are several advantages to this approach. First, Trump doesnt lose anything in terms of his reputation because literally no one believes his denials of the alleged affairs. Second, it gets his story on a much more believable footing. The idea that Cohen paid off women who were making up stories and Trump knew nothing about it in real time despite a tape suggesting otherwise and then happily ponied up from his own funds as soon as he learned about it is otherworldly. Third, it would be a shock to the system like few other things he could do in office. Such is his reflexive aggression that a little contrition would play as big as the firing of James Comey. Fourth, theres a good chance that Democrats will seem petty and vindictive for impeaching him over the payments if hes really tried to put the underlying conduct behind him (this certainly didnt work out well for Republicans in the Clinton impeachment). His lawyers might not like his coming clean, but Trump has to decide whether hes going to worry chiefly about fighting off an impeachment push and winning again in 2020, or forestalling the threat of getting indicted sometime in 2021 should he lose re-election. Theres no guarantee, but if he is seen as dealing with the issue forthrightly now, it makes it harder for prosecutors to go after him in another three years because theres a norm against further pursuing defeated politicians (one that he would be wise to stop eroding, by the way). Of course, all this is fantasy, given Trumps natural instincts. A pugilist who never wants to admit error, he surely believes that he can bluff and improvise his way out of the mess, and wait to abandon elements of his current version of events until strictly necessary. He thinks that he can continue to make his investigators the issue, and that so long as he has the vast majority of his party with him, he has a brake against a removal vote in the Senate. He might be right. This is what hes done his entire adult life. But the stakes are larger than ever before, and even a moments reflection on how he got in this fix would suggest perhaps giving forthrightness a try. comments.lowry@nationalreview.com ZANU PF National Youths Commissar, Godfrey Tsenengamu has urged the opposition Movement for Democratic Change to embrace President Emmerson Mnangagwa and help rebuild Zimbabwe. In an interview with this publication in Harare yesterday, Tsenengamu called on the Nelson Chamisa led movement to play a part towards rebuilding Zimbabwe saying political affiliations should not be a barrier to national development. My massage to the MDC, I am now challenging them that if you really want the country to move forward, here is an opportunity availed, come forward so that we work together. We want to see if you are builders or destroyers, said Tsenengamu. He heaped praise on Mnangagwa describing him as a listening President whose victory will open doors for youths to rise and positively change the country. Now President Mnangagwa is in office, and as a listening president we know he will give attention to our pleas as youths. To the youths this our time to rise, let us unite and work together to rise, said Tsenengamu urging young people to seize the opportunity to support the elected government and avoid bitterness. Meanwhile, the MDC Alliance is insisting that elections were rigged in favor of Mnangagwa and have threatened to take their fight to the African Commission for Human Rights. 263Chat Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News United States Congresswoman Karen Bass of the 37th Congressional District in California, travelled to Zimbabwe recently to observe the nations July 30th harmonized elections. Congresswoman Bass was part of the observer mission organized by the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute, which also comprised former Liberian President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former Interim President of the Central African Republic Catherine Samba-Panza, former U.S. Assistant Secretaries of State for African Affairs, Connie Berry Newman and Ambassador Johnnie Carson. Congresswoman Bass said she was impressed by the 85% turnout for the crucial elections, but disappointed by the post-election violence, that she said marred an otherwise well-organized and peaceful election. Commenting on the follow up to the inauguration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Congresswoman Bass said opposition leader Nelson Chamisa of the MDC Alliance has to accept the outcome of the election, and push to win the next elections in 2023. In an interview with Gibbs Dube of VOAs Zimbabwe Service, Congresswoman Bass said she wants to see a Zimbabwe where the rights of all citizens are protected, and the opposition given room to hold peaceful protests, as guaranteed by the constitution. Gibbs Dube (GD): You were part of a joint observation mission to Zimbabwe organized by the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute. What were your key findings? Congresswoman Bass (Cong. Bass): My key findings was that the process appeared to be very well organized, it was peaceful. I will tell you that I was envious of an 85% turnout in an election which I certainly have not seen in the United States. And everything went really well. The problem was the days after the election and I left two days after, and you know of course that the opposition rejected the results, and felt that the counting was not accurate, especially the transmission of the results from the polling place, and you know that the (Constitutional) Court ruled in favor of the election results. So I think that that was a very sad outcome to what looked like a very well organized and peaceful process. But obviously if you have a large percentage of the population that is not happy with the results, then I am concerned for what will take place in Zimbabwe in the near future. GD: Now the opposition says it is not recognizing Mr. Mnangagwa as president. What is your view on that? Cong. Bass: Well I think thats a very difficult thing. The courts have ruled, that is the process, and so to not recognize him as president, I dont know what that means. He is the president, and so I am hoping that they will respond in a peaceful manner and that they will be the peaceful opposition. They did win seats in parliament, they are in parliament, they are part of the government. GD: So looking at the way things are going, you know, Mr. Nelson Chamisa of the MDC Alliance is saying no, you know, hes the legitimately-elected president of Zimbabwe and he is digging into his trenches. So whats the way forward for Zimbabwe? Cong. Bass: Well again, I hope the way forward is peaceful opposition. I mean look, look at our situation here. I dont like our current president and we had a very messy process here in the United States and many people questioned the legitimacy. But he is the president and as long as he is the president, you know I can say I dont want him to be the president all day long, but I am a member of Congress and I function as part of government and hes the president. And I am hoping that well be able to change that in 2020 if not before. GD: Now with the argument that is being brought forward by Mr. Chamisa, hes saying he actually got 2.6 million votes against Mr. Mnangagwas 2 million somewhere there. So now as far as he is concerned, he says he won the election and therefore he is the president of Zimbabwe. So now, what advise can you give him? Cong. Bass: My advice would be for him to continue to participate as a member of parliament, to expand and organize his base and to run for the presidency again in the next election. GD: Now looking at another issue, we know that the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Amendment Act (ZIDERA) was actually updated. It lays out this framework of improving bi-lateral relations between the U.S. and Zimbabwe. Whats your take right now since Zimbabwes election? Cong. Bass: Well, whether or not we remove sanctions and we move forward in our relations, is going to be how the government responds. So I do want Chamisa to be a loyal opposition but what I dont want to see, is I dont want to see the government commit human rights abuses. And I dont want to see them arrest, incarcerate and attack the opposition. So both sides have to maintain peace. And if peace is maintained and the opposition is allowed to function as a legitimate opposition, then the United States should examine our relation with Zimbabwe, and see how we move forward. GD: As the Ranking Member of the (Foreign Affairs) Subcommittee on Africa, what would you recommend to the U.S. government in terms of relations with Zimbabwe? Cong. Bass: What I would recommend is that we monitor the situation, we continue to stay engaged, and we encourage the government to respond to the opposition in a peaceful manner and we encourage the opposition to protest, to be vocal, but to do it in a peaceful manner. VOA Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News Since Meghan Markle tied the knot to Prince Harry, her style evolved from red carpet to something fit for royalty. In front of the entire world's eyes, Meghan Markle evolved from hot actress to sophisticated duchess. Her look changed completely as she complied with the Queen's standards, but we have got to admit we absolutely love her chic style. However, staying true to herself, Meghan managed to incorporate a bit of her pre-wedding style into a recent outfit, while still adhering to all the royal standards. Legit.ng decided to take a look at that outfit and four others she wore since marrying the Duke of Sussex. 1. Tuxedo mini-dress As stated above, Meghan managed to pull off a sophisticated look while incorporating a bit of her red-carpet style. She looked stunning in a black tuxedo style mini-dress by Judith & Charles, a Canadian tailoring label, 2Oceansvibe.com reported. READ ALSO: Royal wedding: 8 wedding traditions Prince Harry and Meghan Markle must follow Meghan's tuxedo inspired mini-dress. Photo credit: 2Oceansvibe.com 2. Cream trench dress On 17 July, 2018, Meghan rocked a Nonie trench dress while attending the Nelson Mandela Centenary Exhibition at Southbank Centre in London. Although the dress looked stunning on the duchess, many praised her for how subtle it was, which allowed the South African guests to stand out in their colourful traditional attire. PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News on Legit.ng News 3. Sleek Givenchy pantsuit On 11 July, 2018, Meghan wore a Givenchy designer pantsuit while exploring Dublin on the second day of her royal tour, Elle reported. Although she looks stunning, the pantsuit was a daring move since it has been reported the Queen does not like women to wear pants. Meghan wearing a Givenchy pantsuit. Photo credit: Gettyimages 4. Emerald outfit by Givenchy Another stunning outfit from Givenchy, which Meghan wore after touching down in Dublin on 10 July, 2018. It has been reported she wore designer outfits that weekend which cost an estimated $40k, which totals more than N14,4m. Meghan in an emerald outfit by Givenchy. Photo credit: Elle Magazine PAY ATTENTION: Get your daily relationship tips and advice on Africa Love Aid group 5. Boatneck Dior gown During the Royal Air Force's 100th Anniversary celebration, Meghan looked like a modern day Audrey Hepburn with the stunning black boatneck Dior gown she wore. Black boatneck Dior gown. Photo credit: People Magazine Meanwhile, the royal couple attended a special gala performance of the hit musical Hamilton on Wednesday, August 29. And it seems like Meghan and Harry have pet names for each other like every other couple. Since it has become a habit, the Duchess of Sussex mistakenly let slip her pet name for Prince Harry and she was immediately embarrassed by it. Her adorable reaction was caught on camera. Watch below: Should a 'homeless' man move into a house built by his wife? (Nigerian Street Interview)| - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - Former vice president Atiku Abubakar has picked PDP presidential nomination form - He said he would make Nigeria great if he is elected in 2019 - Atiku's former boss, Olusegun Obasanjo, had on Friday, August 3, declared that God would not forgive him if he supports Atiku to become Nigeria's president Former vice president Atiku Abubakar Friday, August 31, picked the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential nomination and expression of interest forms ahead of the party's primaries slated to hold in September. This Day reports that Abubakar, a presidential aspirant on the platform of PDP, promised to make Nigeria work again if elected. READ ALSO: Osun 2018: IGP Idris explains massive police deployment during elections Legit.ng gathered that while speaking through one of the members of Atiku support group, Adai Edwin Adai, Ababakar noted that he had what it takes to rescue the country from its present state and set it on the path of greatness again. Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that former president Olusegun Obasanjo, on Friday, August 3, reiterated his stand not to support the presidential ambition of Abubakar Atiku who was the vice president during Obasanjo's 8-year-rule as president. Obasanjo, who spoke in an exclusive interview with Premium Times after his arrival from Rwanda is yet to reveal his preferred candidate for 2019 presidency but insist his choice would not be Abubakar. He said: 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." The former president, however, claimed that his stand on Atiku's presidential ambition was not personal but out of love and duty to watch out for Nigeria's best interest. 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. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app 2019 Presidency - 'Why Nigerians Must Vote For Atiku' | - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - Several Boko Haram insurgents have been killed by the Nigerian Army - The insurgents were killed by the troops of 2 Division Task Force Battalion deployed in the area - They died in an encounter that ensued between them and the Army at Zari village in Guzamala local government Area of Borno The Nigerian Army said it had killed several Boko Haram insurgents and recovered weapons in an encounter that ensued at Zari village in Guzamala local government Area of Borno on Friday, August 30. Col. Onyeama Nwachukwu, deputy director, public relations, Theatre Command Operation Lafiya Dole, disclosed this in a statement in Maiduguri. READ ALSO: MKO Abiolas daughter Rinsola leaves APC Nwachukwu said the insurgents were repelled by the troops of 2 Division Task Force Battalion deployed in the area. He said that the insurgents were on rampage, looting the community and extorting money from the people but met with a fierce resistance by the land troops of Operation Lafiya Dole who were closely supported from the air by troops of the Air Task Force. He said that during the fire fight, overwhelming volume of fire was unleashed on the insurgents from both the air and ground troops, neutralising several of them and their weapons. The spokesman said that the village and the surrounding communities had been stabilised and normalcy restored. He also said that the land troops had been reinforced to conduct more robust fighting patrol in the general area. The people of Guzamala and Mobar communities and indeed the entire good people of Borno are urged to remain calm, resilient and supportive of Operation Lafiya Dole troops as they relentlessly fight terrorism and insurgency in the north-east, Nwachukwu said. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the chief of army staff, Yusuf Buratai, on Thursday, August 30, declared that soldiers who protested violently at Maiduguri airport, Borno state over their deployment to new locations in the northeast, will face military justice. Buratai who made this known in Abuja maintained that the issue has been thoroughly investigated and the indicted soldiers will not go scot-free. Nigerian Air Force Operations Against Boko Haram | Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit - Five kidnappers/child traffickers have been arrested in Anambra state - Names of the suspected kidnappers/child traffickers are Emeka Nnoruo, Ekene Obodoako, Maduabuchi Ekwema, Chika Obi, and Eberechi Onyeghara - Arrest of the suspects was said to have followed intelligence report and efforts of Joint Police/vigilante Patrol teams The police command in Anambra says it has arrested five kidnappers/child traffickers and rescued five victims in the last seven days. Mr Haruna Mohammed, the public relations officer of the command, disclosed this in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Awka. Mohammed gave the names of the suspected kidnappers/child traffickers arrested on August 27, at about 8.30 am. as Emeka Nnoruo m (44 years), Ekene Obodoako m (27 years), Maduabuchi Ekwema m'( 25 years) , Chika Obi m (28 years), and Eberechi Onyeghara m aged 14 years. READ ALSO: MKO Abiolas daughter Rinsola leaves APC He said the arrest of the suspects followed intelligence report and efforts of Joint Police/vigilante Patrol teams attached to Umunze in Orumba South local government area of the state. He stated that the suspects conspired and kidnapped five children namely: Ifeanyinchukwu Obiukwu m (3years from Umunze), and Chigozie Emeka, 8 years from Okigwe. Others equally kidnapped are: Chimaobi Emeka f aged 6 years from Okigwe, Chisom Emeka aged 4 years from Okigwe and Onyiyechi Emeka f aged 3 years of Okigwe. The PPRO noted that the victims were rescued from the suspects, adding that investigation into the matter had begun after which the suspects would be charged to court. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the command had in July arrested a three-man syndicate behind the series of child stealing in the state and charged them to court. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the establishment of police college and police academy in Anambra state was approved by the federal government of Nigeria. Architect Johnson Imah, consultant to the police service commission in Abuja disclosed this after inspecting the site for the proposed academy at Umuchukwu, Orumba south council area of the state. Nigeria Latest News: Osinbajo Orders Overhaul Of The Dreaded SARS | Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit - Wife of late Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, Bianca has solicited support of prospective delegates at the upcoming primaries of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) - Bianca, a senatorial aspirant for Anambra South Senatorial District, appealed to the stakeholders to give her the partys ticket - The senatorial aspirant assured the delegates that she would provide effective representation to the area Bianca Ojukwu, wife of late Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, has solicited support of prospective delegates at the upcoming primaries of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Anambra. Ojukwu, a senatorial aspirant for Anambra South Senatorial District, made the appeal on Friday, August 31, during a tour of Orumba north and south local government areas. She appealed to the stakeholders to give her the partys ticket, assuring them that she would provide effective representation to the area. READ ALSO: Atiku breaks down in tears after receiving presidential nomination forms (photos) The former Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria said that her desire was to empower the people of the constituency if elected. She promised to assist them to harness the abundant economic resources in the area in order to reduce their suffering. Ojukwu also assured them of her poise to make a difference in politics, saying that she would pursue robust legislation that would propel development in the area. In his remark, a former majority leader of the state House of Assembly, Chief Humphrey Nsofor, urged the party chieftains to rally support for Ojukwu to help her realise her ambition. Also, Chief Emma Enemuo, an APGA stakeholder from the area, further appealed to the delegates to take wise decision and allow Ojukwu to pick the partys senatorial ticket. Enemuo urged the delegates to give the ticket to an aspirant who will not dump APGA, come rain, come shine. Obinna Ikwueto, the Chairman of APGA in Orumba North LGA, promised that the delegates would support Ojukwu, saying that she had what it took to change the tide of political representation in the area. Speaking in a similar vein, Oliver Thambo, the Chairman of the party in Orumba South LGA, described Ojukwu as a thoroughbred personality, who will make positive impact in politics. In his contribution, U.S.-based surgeon, Dr. Godwin Maduka, who hails from the area, also appealed to APGA chieftains to pool support for Ojukwu during and after the party primaries. Maduka said that giving Ojukwu the needed support during the election would be an appropriate reward for her late husbands sacrifice for Ndigbo. He urged the partys delegates not to throw away good name for materialism, saying that good name is better than riches. He described Ojukwu as cerebral, saying that his support for her was designed to pay tribute to the great son of Africa, Ikemba Nnewi. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app In a previous report by Legit.ng, former ambassador Bianca Ojukwu, the widow of the late Igbo leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, is said to commence her senatorial campaign for the 2019 Anambra south senatorial district Tuesday, August 28. The Punch reports that campaign would take place at the Ekwulobia Township Stadium in the Aguata local government area of the state. Bianca would be contesting the senatorial poll on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) that was founded by her late husband. Anambra election: Awka residents speak on who they will vote for and why on Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit - The APC national chairman has reacted to Sarakis declaration to contest the 2019 presidency - He said he has been vindicated about his comment that Saraki left the APC because of his personal ambition - Oshiomhole also charged the APC leaders in Kwara state to work together to end Sarakis reign in the states politics The national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has said that he has been vindicated about his comments that Senate president Bukola Saraki left the ruling party because of his personal ambition and not because he had the interest of the nation at heart. According to The Nation, Oshiomhole said that Sarakis personal ambition almost destroyed the APC, pointing out that it was a good thing that the Senate President has moved on. Legit.ng gathered that the Oshiomhole who met with APC leaders from Kwara state said the declaration of the Senate president to contest the presidential ticket on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has vindicated him and charged APC members in Kwara state to jettison their personal ambitions and work towards ending the reign of Saraki in Kwara politics. READ ALSO: Police arrest 14-year-old kidnapper, 4 others in Anambra Chief press secretary to Oshiomhole, Simon Ebegbulem quote the APC Chairman as saying: When I was saying that all these defections are not about APC but the personal ambition of these people, they took hired writers to say I was being too hard. But Sarakis declaration has vindicated me. Thank God he has moved on because his inordinate ambition was almost destroying our party but he has failed. These are not principled politicians but bread and butter politicians who can go extra miles to pursue their selfish ambition and never think about the well-being of Nigerians. As things stand today, APC remains the darling of the Nigeria people. Because PDP was the vomit of yesterday, our people will not chew it back today, not under three and half years. People have not forgotten and people will never forget. In fact, what a senior palace chief in Nigeria said, he said this generation of Nigerians will not forgive the PDP in a hurry. Even to say you want to forgive you must do reparation. The damage they did to our economy, the damage they did to our electoral process, even the culture of rigging was institutionalized by them. They introduced do or die politics. They are the ones buying weapons for young people to go into thuggery while their own children are schooling abroad. They introduced all these vices. He said that reclaiming Kwara state from the grip of Saraki is a task that must be done, and asked APC leaders to ensure they conclude the election of executives from the wards to the state this weekend. His words: The last time I spoke with the minister he told me we have accomplished 80 or 85%, that for me is not good enough because we dont have more time. So this week we must achieve hundred percent by whatever means. If you cant do it, we have to help you get it done. The two deputy national chairmen working with the National Organizing Secretary and the northcentral vice chairman constitute a committee to complete whatever is left. It will not exceed Sunday this week. I also want to appeal very strongly, that at this hour, we dont want a situation where because of what is happening in Kwara, people who ordinarily will be quite happy to be a strong pillar of support, everybody want to be a governor, everybody wants to be a senator or in the House of Reps. Our party is a party of change and we want to discourage people from putting their personal interest over and above the interest of the people of Kwara state. I am able to say under the leadership of the minister, he has repeatedly said it that his interest is not for him to contest for the governorship of Kwara state or any elective office. I dont think it can be more selfless than that. I am very impressed with the enthusiasm of the people of Kwara state. They are experiencing a new dawn, a new sense of freedom and a sense of ownership of the APC where we are trying to do bottom up rather than top down. Where we have politics of inclusion, no godfather, everybody matters. Now I superintend over the liquidation of godfathers in Edo state, now I will not be here and allow and support the emergence of a new godfather. When we vanquished the godfathers we created a level playing field for equal opportunity to participate and that is what I think we have achieved so far and we need to take full advantage of that to do what need to be done for us to get on with the job of organizing, mobilizing. I believe all of us, the APC leadership, we are anxious to come to Kwara state, to interface with the great people of Kwara state, beyond llorin to other major cities in Kwara. Let them know and carry the message of change and use the broom to sweep away the past, including the thorn umbrella. The task of sweeping away the past and rebuilding a new Kwara is a task that must be done. That should give you the energy, the incentive and the appropriate spirit to work together so that victory will be ours, not for our own good but for the good of the great people of Kwara state who have been oppressed for such a long long time. Like they say there can be many days for the thief but one day for the owner. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that Rinsola Abiola, the daughter of Chief Moshood Kashimwo Olawale Abiola had left the APC. In a series of tweets on Friday, August 31, Rinsola said she had duly written to her ward chairman. She noted that although she has not joined a new party yet, she emphasized that commitment to youth and women development will determine her next move. Election 2019: Can Saraki be the Next President of Nigeria? | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - An 18-year-old lady has been arrested after she attempted to steal a man's motorcycle - The young lady arrested allegedly drugged the man to steal from him - She allegedly tricked him into eating a chocolate bar that had drugs in it Zinatu Abubakar, an 18-year-old lady, has been arrested after she allegedly attempted to steal a motorcycle in Katsina. The young lady had reportedly drugged the man in other to steal his motorcycle. According to The Punch, the young lady had tricked the man into chewing a chocolate bar which made the man unconscious. It was gathered that the police had revealed that the suspect who resided at Hayin Danmani Quarters in Kaduna state, is a member of a syndicate that tricked people. Lady drugs man to steal his motorcycle Photo source: The Punch Source: Depositphotos READ ALSO: Young man finds 'love potion' with list of names in 19-year-old girlfriends bag Gambo Isah, the Katsina State Police Command spokesman, revealed to newsmen that Zinatu was arrested on Wednesday, August 29. Isah also noted that the suspect was undergoing and interrogation. PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News on Legit.ng News Read his statement below: On August 29, at about 10:00hrs, based on a tip-off, the command succeeded in arresting a female member of a notorious syndicate of motorcycle thieves that specialised in deceiving unsuspecting motorcycle riders by offering them poisoned chocolates. Nemesis caught up with one Zinatu Abubakar, aged 18 years of Hayin Danmani Quarters, Kaduna State when she chattered a commercial motorcycle, ridden by one Gide Wada, aged 25 years, of Yarhaka village, Batagarawa LGA of Katsina State from Kofar Kaura to Sokoto Rima Quarters, Katsina township. PAY ATTENTION: Get your daily relationship tips and advice on Africa Love Aid group With the good efforts of nearby Good Samaritans who witnessed the incident, the said suspect, Zinatu Abubakar, was arrested while her cohorts, one Abubakar and Chairman took to their heels and escaped. The suspect confessed to have used the same modus operandi in Kaduna and Kano and robbed innocent cyclists of their motorcycles. Effort is in top gear to arrest other members of the syndicate." Street GIST: Biggest Cause of Misunderstanding in Relationship | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - The APC has issued another statement on the mode of elections to be adopted in its primaries - It was earlier reported that the party had adopted direct primaries for the presidency and indirect primaries at the state level - An updated statement has, however, clarified that the adopted mode of election is direct primaries, adding that the use of indirect primaries is conditional and dependent on logistic impediments The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has reportedly reversed its earlier position on the mode of elections during its forthcoming primaries, saying that direct elections would be adopted for all its primaries. Briefing journalists at the end of the NEC meeting Thursday, August 30, in Abuja, Plateau state governor, Simon Lalong had said when the matter came up for discussion, most of the states opted to use indirect primaries. Consequently, it was agreed that any state wishing to adopt the direct method would have to write the national leadership of the party for approval. READ ALSO: What I will do if I do not get PDP presidential ticket - Kwankwaso The constitution of the party provides for either direct, indirect or consensus but for the presidential election, we all agreed that we will adopt direct primaries for the presidential election. Also, a recommendation was made by the NWC that the other states should adopt the indirect mode but there may be situations that this might be difficult in the state looking at their peculiarities. So if there are such difficulties, they can apply, following the process, Lalong had said. On Friday morning, August 31, the party further reaffirmed the reports from Thursdays meeting of its National Executive Committee which said the direct election would only be adopted for the presidential primaries while states were at liberty to use either of direct or indirect primaries with approval from its national leadership, Vanguard reports. However, in an updated statement on the evening of the same day, the party spokesman, Yekini Nabena reportedly said: The 30th August 2018 resolution of the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Executive Committee (NEC) on the mode of Primary Election has been subject to inferences and misleading interpretations. As an update to the earlier released statement, we wish to make the following clarifications on NECs resolutions on Mode of Primary Election: Primary elections into all elective offices shall be by Direct Primaries; NEC resolved to adopt Direct Primaries for the nomination of the Presidential candidate and all other Primaries; The Partys constitution though provides for Indirect Election and Consensus, however, the use of Indirect Primaries is conditional and dependent on logistic impediments; peculiarities and need of a given state that makes it unable to use Direct Primaries. The State Executive Committee (SEC) shall in consultation with aspirants and other critical stakeholders of the party in a given state forward for the consideration and approval by the National Working Committee (NWC), if Indirect Primaries is to be adopted. The adopted mode shall now be applied to all categories of the partys primary elections i.e. State Assembly, Senate, House of Representatives and for the governorship elections. The request for Indirect Primaries must be signed by a majority of the State Executive Committee and critical stakeholders in attendance at the meeting where such resolution is reached. Direct Primaries will among others ensure fairness; create a level playing ground for contestants; eliminate corrupt tendencies usually associated with the delegates system and ultimately ensure full participation of party members at all levels. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that the national chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, said that he had been vindicated about his comments that Senate president Bukola Saraki left the ruling party because of his personal ambition and not because he had the interest of the nation at heart. Oshiomhole said that Sarakis personal ambition almost destroyed the APC, pointing out that it was a good thing that the Senate President has moved on. Nigeria Election 2019: Kenneth Okonkwo Interview - Buhari will win | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - PDP said presidential aspirants in the party would have to sign an undertaking - The undertaking will tell the aspirants what the party expects from them before, during and after primaries - The undertaking will insist that all the signatories must abide by PDP's decision concerning the primary The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has explained why it asked presidential aspirants in the party to sign an undertaking before the primary election. The undertaking will ensure that the aspirants act in a certain way before, during and after the primaries. The party leadership said the undertaking will also ensure that the aspirants follow the rules and regulations laid down by the party. The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, in an interview with Punch on Friday, August 31, said that all the aspirants had been informed about the need to have what he called code of conduct ahead of the primary. READ ALSO: Sarakis ambition almost destroyed APC - Oshiomhole He said: It is an undertaking and it will be signed by all our presidential aspirants. The undertaking will tell the aspirants what the party expects from them before, during and after the primary. The undertaking will make it clear that all the signatories must abide by the decision of the party concerning the primary. The party is already preparing it and I want to say again that it will be binding on all those that are taking part in the presidential primary and are signatories to the MOU. However, I want to make it clear that the party is not into any illegal act. We are going to organise a transparent, free and fair presidential primary, whose outcome will be acceptable to our party, the contestants and the electorate. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant and governor of Gombe state, said that he is not desperate to become the candidate of the party in the 2019 presidential election. Dankwambo, while soliciting the support of party members and delegates on his aspiration of becoming the partys candidate for the election, on Wednesday, August 29, in Benin, Edo state said he would support whoever becomes the candidate if there is equity, fairness and justice in the selection. PDP's magnificent 7 for 2019 - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng The Apostolic Nuncio to Nigeria, Archbishop Antonio Guido Filipazzi has applauded Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu state for his closeness to God and exemplary leadership style, which has brought peace and good governance to the state. The Apostolic Nuncio spoke in Enugu, when he led a delegation comprising a Cardinal, Archbishops, Bishops and Priests of the Catholic Church to pay a courtesy visit to Ugwuanyi at the government house. The clerics were in the state for the Episcopal Ordination of Most Rev. Ernest Obodo as the Auxiliary Bishop of Enugu Diocese, which took place on Friday at St. Pauls Parish, Ozalla, Nkanu West Local Government Area. Most Rev Filipazzi, who was warmly received by Ugwuanyi, informed the governor of the purpose of his visit and also commended him for his faithful service to the church and to the residents of Enugu state, irrespective of religion, state of origin and ethnicity. He described Ugwuanyi as a good governor and a father of the family, adding that he is inspired by the governors good works in the state and his commitment to the development of the church. His words: You (Ugwuanyi) have faithfully served the church; you are a good governor; you are a governor for everyone living in this state, Catholic and non-Catholic; from every group you are the father of the family for everybody and of course things are not separated. I think you have found inspiration in your work as a governor; I also feel you belong to the Catholic Church. Archbishop Filipazzi, equally appreciated the collaboration between the governor and the Bishop of Enugu Diocese, Most Rev Callistus Onaga, stressing that the emergence of the first Auxiliary Bishop of the diocese would enhance the evangelical duties of the church in the state. In his goodwill message, Ugwuanyi thanked God for the success of the event and equally expressed gratitude to Pope Francis for finding Most Rev Obodo worthy of elevation to this important position. The governor, who welcomed the Apostolic Nuncio to Nigeria and other revered clerics of the Catholic Church to the state, expressed joy that the Episcopal consecration was one of the most glorious and significant of all the many outstanding events that have happened in the state, saying that the reason was because "it is all about God. As a Catholic and a member of the laity, I feel personally honoured and inspired that this event is taking place under my watch as the chief servant of the people of this state and it actually goes to strengthen our conviction that Enugu State is truly in the hands of God, he said. Congratulating Bishop Onaga and the entire Catholic Diocese of Enugu on this milestone achievement, Ugwuanyi stated that it is another testament to the remarkable growth and progress that the diocese has made since its creation in 1962. He therefore, thanked the Catholic Church in the state for the spiritual support, wise counsel, encouragement and leadership that it has offered his administration since inception, pledging to continue to rely on the prayers, solidarity and goodwill of the church as we work to fulfill the mandate graciously given to us by our people. #amokelouis [Sponsored] Source: Legit - The governor of Akwa Ibom state, Udom Emmanuel, said he is not surprised at the exit of his predecessor, Senator Godswill Akpabio from the PDP - Akpabio recently defected from the opposition party to the ruling All Progressive Congress - Emmanuel said everywhere in the world, not only in Akwa Ibom or in Nigeria, people defect from one party to another The governor of Akwa Ibom state, Udom Emmanuel, has declared that he was not surprised when his predecessor, Senator Godswill Akpabio defected from the opposition People Progressive Party to the ruling All Progressive Congress. The Punch reports that Emmanuel said everywhere in the world, not only in Akwa Ibom or in Nigeria, people defect from one party to another. He maintained that the cause for concern is about some people who say all short thing about those that have nothing to do with the main cause of the defection. READ ALSO: I won't leave PDP if I lose presidential bid - Kwankwaso ''None of the above, I mean in the options you provided. I didnt see it coming and it wasnt a great surprise. You see, we are well-trained people and trained minds dont reason like untrained minds. ''If you are a trained mind, the unexpected are expected to happen at an unexpected time. However, what you do as a trained mind at that point in time is what matters most. And you could see at this period that we are calm and we are not bothered about it. No cause for alarm. ''Everywhere in the world, not only in Akwa Ibom or in Nigeria, people defect from one party to another, but the cause for concern is the volume of what people say about individuals that have nothing to do with the main cause of the defection. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app ''We all know what is happening in this country today; why some people are defecting, which I might not be able to say in the public, but people can deduce. And you know people will always look for their own reasons to add and they would look for another person to be painted black.'' Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the defection of senator Godswill Akpabio from the PDP to the APC was welcomed by a chieftain of the ruling party, John Udoedehe. Udoedehe, a former senator, expressed happiness that he had remained faithful to the APC despite being mocked for building the party in Akwa Ibom state. He also stated that he had accepted the speculated defection, as it had been accepted by the national leadership of the party. Senators, lawmakers defect from APC - on Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit.ng - A Nigerian man has been caught stealing from an offering box - The man was caught using a wire to unlock the box - It was gathered that the man was caught at a church in Port-Harcourt Legit.ng has come across the story of a man who was caught stealing at a church in Port-Harcourt. The man was caught stealing money from the offering box at St Marks Anglican Church. The story was shared on social media by Facebook user identified as Ezekiel West Tamunominabo. The Facebook user revealed that the thief was caught trying to unlock the offering box with a wire and a gum. According to Ezekiel, the man was only able to steal five hundred naira from the tithe box. He noted that the pastor of the church prayed for the thief after he was interrogated by the members of the church who caught him. Man reportedly caught using wire to steal from tithe box in Port-Harcourt Photo source: Facebook user Ezekiel West TamunominaBo Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Angry youths set SARS office ablaze after the demise of their friend It was also gathered from the Facebook post that the thief had been doing the same for a while. He was reported to have committed the same crime around churches in the area. Read post below: PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News on Legit.ng News "A man caught stealing from St marks Anglican Church port Harcourt Earlier this morning in St marks Anglican Church a man was caught stealing from the tithe box in the church alter.... Which at the end it was 500 Naira he ended getting from the box, from investigation the young man has been doing this in several churches in town he used a long constructed wire and inserted a gum to dip into the tithe box as it was locked with padlock. The vicar of the church prayed for this young man who claimed to have been stealing in the church several times... They say one day for the thief and one day for the owner. Reported By Ezekiel tamunominabo west Port Harcourt." PAY ATTENTION: Get your daily relationship tips and advice on Africa Love Aid group Nigeria Latest News: Osinbajo Orders Overhaul Of The Dreaded SARS | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng A memorial service for Senator John McCain is taking place in Washington on Saturday, September 1. Former President George W. Bush and former President Barack Obama are giving eulogies at the service at the Washington National Cathedral. Legit.ng notes that both men defeated McCain in his two campaigns to become president, in 2000 and 2008. The emotional funeral service also has the deceased senator's mother in attendance. Among the early arrivals at the cathedral was McCains mother, 106-year-old wheelchair bound Roberta McCain. Roberta McCain, 106, takes a moment at the casket of her son, Sen.McCain, after a memorial service in the Rotunda of the US Capitol, where he lay in state on Friday, August 31. Photo credit: EPA-EFE Source: UGC READ ALSO: What I will do if I do not get PDP presidential ticket - Kwankwaso CBS News reports that President Donald Trump is not attending the event. However, USA Today reports that Ivanka Trump, PresidentTrump's daughter, and her husband, presidential adviser Jared Kushner, are attending the event. Another report by CNN also indicates that former Alaska governor, Sarah Palin, who was also McCains former presidential running mate was not invited to any of the memorial services. Palin was rocketed onto the national stage in the summer of 2008 after McCain picked her to be his running mate in the presidential race he would eventually lose to Barack Obama. Palin mourned McCain in a tweet Saturday night after his death, calling him her "friend." McCain will be reportedly buried with military honours following a private service at the US Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis, Maryland, on Sunday, September 2. PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet! Earlier, Legit.ng reported that McCain, in his last days, organised his funeral and barred President Trump from attending. People close to Senator McCain have told the White House that the ailing Arizona Republican did not want President Trump to attend his funeral and would like Vice President Mike Pence to come instead. The US senator died on Saturday, August 25 at the age of 81. How Trump's strange covfefe tweet, Biafra @50 celebrations lit up the social media - On Legit.ng TV Source: Legit The remains of the retired Assistant Controller-General (ACG) of prisons, Nanvyat Gwali, have been buried in his home town, Simchor, in Plateau state, the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) said on Saturday, September 1, 2018. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Francis Enobore, the public relations officer of the service, said in a statement issued in Abuja that said that the remains were buried amid tears on Friday, August 31. The Controller-General (CG) of prisons, Jaafaru Ahmed, in his condolence message to the deceased family noted that the late Gwali was a gentleman officer. READ ALSO: Sarakis ambition almost destroyed APC - Oshiomhole Gwali was courageous and astute with a remarkable sense of commitment to the service of his father land throughout his career. It is sad that his life was cut short by evildoers and would be certainly missed by all, he said. He urged the family members to take solace in the fact that the late officer lived a life worthy of emulation. Gunmen killed Gwali in his farm, Laminga, near Keffi, Nassarawa, on August 10. The killers have not been found. Gwali was born on April 5, 1956, and was enlisted into the Nigerian Prisons Service in November 1989. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app He rose to Assistant Controller-General (ACG) of prisons before his retirement in April 2016. Legit.ng earlier reported that seven policemen were killed and many civilians injured when unknown gunmen opened fire on them in Abuja on Monday night, July 2. The policemen were said be on a stop-and-search duty operation at Galadimawa roundabout, a suburb in Abuja. Jonathan replies to Buhari's allegations | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - President Muhammadu Buhari approved the appointments after a recommendation by Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the CBN - While Abbas Masanawa is named the managing director, the other three would be executive directors of the company - Emefiele also explained how the company moved from one that ran at losses to becoming a profitable organisation President Muhammadu Buhari has made new appointments into the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC), with a new managing director named as Abbas Masanawa. Also approved for appointment are Abubakar Sule Minjibir, Chris Orewa and Tunji Kazeem who would be executive directors in the company. Leadership reports that the appointment followed the recommendation made by the governor of the Central Bank Of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emeifiele, in a memo dated: August 28, 2018, to the president. READ ALSO: Sarakis ambition almost destroyed APC - Oshiomhole The report quoted Emefiele as saying in the letter that the tenure of the current managing director of the company, Joseph Ugboh, and the executive director of finance, Abbas Masanawa, ended on August 31, 2018. Emefiele noted that these directors took over as executive management members of the company in 2014. Emefiele noted that before the company was taken over, it ran at a loss. It had since returned to profitability with N611 million, N4.6 billion and N12.1 billion during the financial years of 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively. The CBN governor said with these results, the management has displayed strong dexterity to turn around moribund institutions. By the existing organisational structure and to attain its full potentials, the NSPMC should be managed by a team comprising of managing director and four executive directors. To ensure that the company continues the track record of strong profitability, I wish to respectfully present to you for your thoughtful consideration and kind approval candidates for the position of Managing director and executive directors. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app Your excellency we have been discreetly, uprightly, meticulously conducting the search for a suitable replacement for Joseph Ugboh under the guide post of three principles - intrinsic quality, geopolitical balance, working experience. Please permit me to note that given the resume of the candidates and having considered other personality, characteristic and capability related facts, I am convinced that the best persons for the position of managing director and executive directors are Messrs Abbas Masanawa ( MD), Tunji Kazeem, Chris Orewa and Abubakar Suleiman Minjibir respectively as EDs, he stated #NotTooYoungToRun: Nigerian Youths React to President Buharis Gesture | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos, Ambassador Abayomi Mumuni, is set to contest for a senatorial seat in the state - Mumuni is a former chieftain of the Congress for Progressives Change (CPC), and an ally of the president - He might contest the APC ticket with Senator Oluremi Tinubu, who is a two-term member of the upper chamber A chieftain of the ruling APC in Lagos, Ambassador Abayomi Mumuni is set to declare his intention to contest the Lagos Central Senatorial District against Senator Oluremi Tinubu. Mumuni, a former chieftain of the Congress for Progressives Change (CPC), is an ally of President Muhammadu Buhari, as both politicians were in the CPC before the 2015 merger with other parties that gave birth to the APC. Though Senator Tinubu has not formally declared her intention to return to the upper chamber, many of her supporters, including some party leaders, have endorsed her re-election bid for the third term. READ ALSO: Borno-based man releases his predictions of 2019 presidential election, state by state The decision notwithstanding, Mumuni has vowed to contest against Tinubu during the state primary election of the APC later this year. Mumuni had earlier bemoaned the unilateral decision of some of the APC party leaders to endorse Tinubu's 3rd term bid at the expense of other interested party members. Mumuni, while speaking on the purported endorsement, accused the leadership of the defunct ACN in the current ruling party of not respecting the merger which they signed before the 2015 general elections. He also alleged that members of the defunct CPC in Lagos have been marginalised and abandoned at the state and national levels. Mumuni said he believes he could have defeated Senator Tinubu in 2011 if he had not jettisoned the senatorial ticket for the gubernatorial slot in the interest of President Buhari. I changed my intention because there was no governorship candidate for the defunct CPC in the South-west, except Barrister Shittu in Oyo state. With me, we were the only two CPC gubernatorial candidates that supported President Buharis bid to become Nigerias president. My withdrawal from the senatorial election gave Asiwajus wife an edge in the election. My mandate has always been the Lagos Central Senatorial District, which is my constituency. I am a son of the soil. I contested against Obanikoro and Ade Dosumu in 2003 and 2007. Come 2019, there are no two ways to it, I am going to contest against her and I will defeat her in the primaries. Even if I dont get the ticket, we will go back to CPC and I will still defeat her, he said. It was gathered that since Mumuni expressed his readiness to challenge Senator Tinubu, he has been under pressure by his supporters to declare his ambition and start campaigning in earnest for the 2019 general elections. Mumuni was the 2011 gubernatorial candidate of the defunct CPC in Lagos. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, a governorship aspirant in Cross River state, Barrister Eyo.O. Ekpo, has called on Nigerians to police their votes in the 2019 general elections. He made the statement at the party's national headquarters in Abuja on Thursday, August 29, when he picked up his expression of interest and nomination form to contest for governorship in Cross River state. Ekpo, a former commissioner in the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), said the 2019 election is more than selling out our votes or going to thumbprint and go home. Nigeria Latest News: Not Too Young to Run Pay a Visit to APC and PDP on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng [the] tool and die makers, maintenance technicians, operators capable of working with highly sophisticated computer-controlled equipment, skilled welders, and even production engineers [all of whom] are in short supply. The reasons for such shortages are easy to understand. As manufacturing plants closed or scaled back, many people in those occupations moved on to other things or retired. Seeing fewer job prospects down the road, young people opted for other careers. And many community and vocational schools, starved of students, scaled back their technical programs. The one ready source of demand for U.S.-manufactured goods is the military. High-tech enthusiasts like to claim that the U.S. Defense Department had a crucial role in creating Silicon Valley. The truth is far more nuanced. Silicon Valley grew like a weed with essentially no Department of Defense investment; in fact, until quite recently, most successful Silicon Valley enterprises avoided DoD contracts like the plague. A bit of history: the transistor was invented by entirely private-funded research at Bell Labs in 1947. Next, the first integrated circuit patent was filed by Werner Jacobi, a Siemens commercial engineer in 1949 for application to hearing aids. The next advance, the idea of a silicon substrate, was patented in 1952 as a cheaper way of using transistors by Geoffrey Dummer, a reliability engineer working at a British government radar lab; for all of the talk of the defense establishments role in developing high tech, ironically the British military showed no interest and Dummer couldnt secure the funding support to produce a working prototype. In 1958, Jack Kilby, a newbie at Texas Instruments (which had developed the first transistor radio as a commercial product in 1954) came up with the idea of multiple transistors on a germanium substrate. Almost simultaneously, in 1960, Robert Noyce at Fairchild Electronics patented a cheaper solution, a new approach to the silicon substrate, and implemented working prototypes. Both men envisioned mainly civilian applications (Kilby soon designed the first integrated circuit pocket calculator, a commercial success). It is true that the first customers for both the Noyce and Kilby chips were the U.S. Air Forces B-70 and Minuteman I projects, which gave rise to the idea that the Pentagon played the key role in developing U.S. high-tech manufacturing, although it is worth noting that the electronics on both projects proved to be failures. Both companies soon developed major commercial applications for their integrated circuit innovations, Texas Instruments with considerably more success than Fairchild. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (aka DARPA) is generally credited with inventing the internet. Thats overblown. In fact, civilian computer science labs in the U.S., UK and France developed the idea of wide area networks in the 1950s. In the early 60s, DARPA started funding ARPANET design concepts to connect DoD laboratories and research facilities, initially without the idea of packet switching. Donald Davies at the UKs National Physics Lab first demonstrated practical packet switching in 1967 and had a full inter-lab network going by 1969. The first two nodes of the ARPANET were demonstrated in 1969 using a primitive centralized architecture and the Davies packet switching approach. In 1973, DARPAs Cerf and Kahn borrowed the idea of decentralized nodes from the French CYCLADES networking system, but this wasnt fully implemented as the TCP/IP protocol on the ARPANET until 1983. In 1985, the civilian National Science Foundation started funding the NSFNET, based on the ARPANETs TCP/IP protocol, for a much larger network of universities, supercomputer labs and research facilities. NSFNET started operations with a much larger backbone than ARPANET in 1986 (ARPANET itself was decommissioned in 1990) and started accepting limited commercial service providers in 1988, and, with further expansion and much-needed protocol upgrades, NSFNET morphed into the internet in 1995, at which time the NSFNET backbone was decommissioned. Today, of course, the DoD is showering the largest Silicon Valley companies with multi-billions and begging them to help U.S. military out of the hopeless mess it has made of its metastasizing computer, communications and software systems. Needless to say, if this DoD money becomes a significant portion of the income stream of Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc., it is safe to predict their decay and destruction at the hands of new innovators unencumbered by DoD funding, much as occurred with aviation companies such as Lockheed. NAFTAs reforms wont change that reality. As a result of the militarization of whats left of U.S. manufacturing, along with the enlargement of the trans-Pacific supply chains with China (brought about through decades of offshoring), a mere tweak of the new NAFTA is unlikely to achieve Trumps objective of revitalizing Americas industrial commons. With Chinas entry into the WTO, it is possible that the U.S. manufacturing has hit a point of no return, which mitigates the utility of regional trade deals, as a means of reorienting the multinational production networks in a way that produces high-quality, high-paying jobs for American workers. Offshoring and the increasing militarization of the American economy, then, have rendered reforms of the kind introduced by NAFTA almost moot. When it becomes more profitable to move factories overseas, or when it becomes more profitable, more quickly, to focus on finance instead of manufacturing, then your average red-blooded capitalist is going to happily engage in the deconstruction of the manufacturing sector (most, if not all, outsourced factories are profitable, just not as profitable as they might be in China or, for that matter, Mexico). The spoils in a market go to the fastest and strongest, and profits from finance, measured in nanoseconds, are gained more quickly than profits from factories, whose time frame is measured in years. Add to that the desire to weaken unions and the championing of an overvalued dollar by the financial industry, and you have a perfect storm of national decline and growing economic inequality. Seen in this broader context, the new NAFTA-thats-not-called-NAFTA is a nothing-burger. The much-trumpeted reforms give crumbs to U.S. labor, in contrast to the clear-cut bonanza granted to corporate America under the GOPs new tax reform legislation. Hardly a great source of celebration as we approach the Labor Day weekend. In fact, by the time the big bucks corporate lawyer-lobbyists for other mega corporations have slipped in their little wording refinements exempting hundreds of billions of special interest dollars, the new NAFTA-thats-not-called-NAFTA will most likely include an equal screwing for textile, steel, energy sector, chemical, and other U.S. industry workers, and anything else that is left of the civilian economy. This article was produced by the Independent Media Institute. Above - Alan McCormack of The Pearly Whites, Richie Gleeson, Michelle Everard, Eamon Lacey, Rory Doyle and Joe Hickey are preparing for another big band experience at Gleesons of Clonmel on Sunday September 9th, in aid of The Emma Lacey Trust. Gleesons in Clonmel will rock to the beat of some of the best bands in the country to support a 23 year-old local woman battling brain and spinal conditions. Clonmel Band Aid will be held in Gleesons on Sunday September 9th to support Emma Lacey, who has just undergone brain surgery and is waiting to have her sixth spinal surgery in as many years. The first event of its kind was held last year to support Clonmel man Evan Hickey, who needed life-saving brain surgery, and Gleesons proprietor Richie Gleeson wanted to do it again. Evan's dad Joe inspired me last year, and it was very moving how the people of Clonmel came out to support the Hickey family. "Joe made me aware of the difficult challenges facing Emma and we all wanted to do it again, said Richie. https://www.nationalist.ie/news/home/327656/fund-set-up-to-aid-brave-clonmel-woman-emma-lacey-battling-rare-brain-and-spinal-conditions.html An incredible line-up of bands is already secured including The Pearly Whites, Thank Funk, Super Soul Machine, The Waheys and The Papa Zitas and huge crowds are expected for the day, with music on two stages, starting at 1pm. It was Alan McCormack of The Pearly Whites who was instrumental in getting such an event off the ground last year. He went to school with Evan Hickey and when he rang around all of his friends in the bands were more than willing to help. There was absolutely no hesitation last year from all of the bands and the same again this year, because the cause is such a worthy one. It is one of the best line-ups you would see, said Alan. Joe Hickey said the event last year in Gleesons for Evan showed the incredible goodwill of the people of Clonmel and beyond and he was delighted to support a similar event to help out Emma. Very attractive prizes on the day include a smart TV, and Rory at Gleesons has secured weekends away in Birmingham, Dublin and Sligo for the event. Paudie Everard, Chairman of The Emma Lacey Trust, said they greatly appreciated the support shown by Gleesons, the Hickey family, all of the musicians and everybody involved that are preparing for the day. (Natural News) Previously unpublished information about one of the most commonly prescribed medicine for nausea in pregnancy implies that the drug is actually ineffective. Thousands of pages of documents retrieved from Health Canada about a randomized clinical trial reported in 2010 suggests that pyridoxine-doxylamine was effective in reducing nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. The documents were acquired by researchers from St. Michaels Hospital. In the trial, pregnant women who received the drug called Diclectin (Canada) or Diclegis (U.S.) disclosed that their symptoms were reduced by 0.7 greater than women who took a placebo based on a 13-point scale. However, according to Dr. Nav Persaud, a researcher and family physician at St. Michaels, the manufacturers comprehensive 9,000-page clinical study report noted that the findings are only clinically relevant after a three-point reduction in symptoms is applied. The doctor adds that this information remained unknown until recently. Dr. Persaud comments that while the findings reported in 2010 could be statistically meaningful, they were not significant enough to be noticed by the women who took the medication. At the end of the two-week trial, the women who received a placebo only had little or no symptoms. (Related: Morning Sickness: 10 Natural and Simple Tips to Avoid the Nausea.) Dr. Persaud is concerned that there could have been selective reporting about the secondary outcomes in the 2010 publication to make Diclectin seem effective. Based on the 2010 paper, the drugs had apparent benefits like a decrease in time off from work caused by nausea and vomiting. However, the 2010 publication did not mention outcomes that showed no remarkable difference between the two groups like time lost from household tasks or the number of visits to health-care providers. Duchesnay Inc., the manufacturer of the drug, sponsored the 2010 clinical trial. It was conducted at six university medical centers in the U.S. Based on the documents, 101 female participants took pyridoxine-doxylamine while a control group was made up of 86 women. Even though the original enrollment was higher, it appears that many women dropped out during the trial. Dr. Persaud shares that Duchesnay contacted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) early in the 2000s for the approval of pyridoxine-doxylamine. The FDA then told the manufacturer that this required evidence from a clinical trial. In 2013, the FDA approved the drug following the conclusion of the trial. The drug was soon prescribed to 33 million women around the world, per Duchesnay. At least one prescription was filled for every two births in Canada. Back in the 1980s, the drug was voluntarily withdrawn from the American market in the midst of legal claims about birth defects that were eventually rejected by courts. In recent news, celebrity Kim Kardashian was admonished by the FDA when she inappropriately endorsed the drug on social media. Dr. Persaud concludes that the FDA, Health Canada, and regions offering the drug must revisit their decision to do so via publicly funded prescription drug plans. He advised that pregnant women can also try more efficient treatments instead of taking the drug. Dr. Persaud also urged clinicians to stop prescribing pyridoxine-doxylamine. Natural remedies for morning sickness Instead of taking drugs that arent always effective, try some of these natural remedies for morning sickness: Acupressure or acupuncture These techniques, which use gentle pressure or tiny needles to target specific nerve centers in the body, can help ease nausea. These techniques, which use gentle pressure or tiny needles to target specific nerve centers in the body, can help ease nausea. Change your eating patterns Make sure that your stomach is never empty by eating small and frequent meals the whole day. Make sure that your stomach is never empty by eating small and frequent meals the whole day. Exercise If you have a queasy stomach, going for a gentle walk might help. Take a 20-minute walk every day to release endorphins that will counteract nausea. If you have a queasy stomach, going for a gentle walk might help. Take a 20-minute walk every day to release endorphins that will counteract nausea. Ginger Ginger can help settle an upset stomach. You can drink it as a soda or tea if youre having stomach problems. Ginger can help settle an upset stomach. You can drink it as a soda or tea if youre having stomach problems. Mint Eat or smell anything minty to combat nausea. You can read more articles about natural cures for pregnancy-related health concerns at WomensHealth.news. Sources include: ScienceDaily.com Parents.com (Natural News) Parents of children with asthma can breathe a sigh of relief once they hear about a potential alternative to conventional bronchodilator and anti-inflammatory drugs. According to a 2017 study, pediatric asthma patients experience improved control after taking traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatment. Children are particularly vulnerable to asthma. The last few years have witnessed increasing numbers of pediatric asthma cases on a global scale. TCM experts like Professor Shi Yumin have studied the causes and manners of development of this common chronic respiratory disease. They devised a series of empirical prescriptions to alleviate asthma using herbal remedies. The therapeutic principles established for acute attacks include relief from asthma and coughing, phlegm expulsion, and the suppression of coughing. For asthma cases in clinical remission, TCM experts recommended toning the kidneys and stimulating the spleen. Armed with these empirical prescriptions, a group of Chinese researchers undertook a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to compare the clinical effects of TCM on pediatric asthma with that of conventional salbutamol and montelukast. (Related: Reduce the severity of these common medical emergencies with 8 acupressure treatments while help arrives.) TCM uses herbal medicines In the experiment, one group of pediatric asthma patients were treated with empirical prescriptions derived from TCM. The first treatment used Shegan (rhizomes from blackberry lilies) in response to an acute exacerbation, and it was adjusted as needed during follow-up visits. In addition to the Shegan mixture, the prescription for patients who had chronic persistent asthma added a kidney tonic mixture made from Huangqi, the dried root of Mongolian milkvetch. Meanwhile, patients in clinical remission were treated with just the Huangqi tonic. Additional symptoms such as nasal congestion, sneezing, hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating), and dry feces were treated with complementary herbs. The other group of patients received conventional treatments. Salbutamol sulfate (a bronchial relaxant) was administered over the course of seven days for acute asthma attacks. Patients in clinical remission received montelukast sodium (allergy receptor blockers that prevented swelling) every night for three months. Patients with chronic persistent asthma were treated with both drugs. If acute bacterial infection and severe wheezing ensued, patients were given oral antibiotics or anti-allergic agents via nebulizers. TCM treatment for pediatric asthma According to the study, TCM treatment can control asthma attacks, improve the health of child patients, and reduce the risk of respiratory infections. Noting the use of montelukast to stop asthma attacks, researchers cited the findings of an Israeli study that reported anti-inflammatory drugs didnt protect healthy children from upper respiratory tract infections (URI). This led them to believe that TCM treatment was a step above leukast agents because it successfully reduced URI incidences. The study produced four findings. The first is that TCM can control asthma attacks, given how a larger number of patients in the TCM group reported successful control than those in the SM group. Next, asthma symptom control (SC) scores did not greatly differ between the two groups. Therefore, it can be concluded that TCM treatment can control asthma symptoms as effectively as salbutamol sulfate and montelukast sodium. Furthermore, more patients in the TCM group reported improved physiques such as reduced sweating and better-looking tongues. This is traced to the TCM-based empirical prescriptions adding complementary herbs for additional symptoms. Last but not least, patients in the TCM group required fewer antibiotic and nebulizer treatments than the SM group since they experienced fewer asthma attacks. Study limitations included the lack of patients with severe asthma and potential biases from the family environment and the parents educational level. Overall, the researchers concluded that empirical TCM prescriptions are an effective means of pediatric asthma treatment that can outperform standard salbutamol and montelukast treatment. Sources include: Science.news NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov SemanticScholar.org People suffering from epileptic seizures may be able to get some relief in the future by getting electronic implants directly on their brain. By placing an implant in the brain, the drug treatments could be transported directly to the cells causing seizures. Such a device has just been tested by researchers, showing the great potential in using these brain implants to detect, stop, and even prevent epileptic seizures. Tiny Brain Implant For Epileptic Patients In the study published in the journal Science Advances, scientists demonstrated the effectivity of the electronic implant in a rodent model of epilepsy. As soon as the device detected the first signs of a seizure, neurotransmitters native to the brain were sent to stop the cells from passing the seizure message any further to other cells. Then the scientists tested to see if the seizures can be prevented even before beginning and found that their attempts are successful as well. Dr. Christopher Proctor, lead author and a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Cambridge's Department of Engineering, explains in a report penned in The Conversation that the implant works by using an electric field that pushes these neurotransmitters out from an internal reserve. The process is called electrophoresis, and it allows the patients to control the dose and timing of the drugs more precisely. "In addition to being able to control exactly when and how much drug is delivered, what is special about this approach is that the drugs come out of the device without any solvent," Proctor adds in a statement from the university. "This prevents damage to the surrounding tissue and allows the drugs to interact with the cells immediately outside the device." Furthermore, seizures were found to be stopped just with 1 percent of the total amount of drug that can fit inside the reserve. This means that the implant could function for a lengthy period without needing refills. Future Of New Technique It's an innovative potential solution to epileptic seizures, but it might take a while before it hits the market. The researchers will be busy honing the device for public use, planning to observe long-term effects on the mice next. If successful, this technique could revolutionize the medication for epilepsy, which is usually treated with anti-epileptic drugs that tend to come with side effects. These drugs are also known be ineffective in preventing seizures in 30 percent of patients. The findings reveal that this method could also be used in other neurological conditions such as brain tumors and Parkinson's disease. San Francisco-based attorney Drexel Bradshaw has been ordered to stop practicing law while the California Supreme Court weighs in on whether he should officially lose his law license. A California State Bar judge on Thursday recommended Bradshaw be disbarred following accusations he defrauded one of his elderly clients, Ora Gosey, out of thousands of dollars. Gosey has since passed away. She was 90 years old. The court order comes after a months-long trial brought on by the California State Bar, the state agency tasked with investigating consumer complaints concerning attorneys. For months, the State Bar issued a consumer alert on its website for Bradshaw, warning that he is accused of major misappropriation of client funds. In the latest ruling, the judge found Bradshaw guilty of three counts of misconduct: Engaging in the scheme to defraud his client, breaching his fiduciary duties while managing that same clients trust, and making misrepresentations before a court. While the judge ruled Bradshaw did engage in self-dealing, the court ultimately dismissed the State Bars charge that Bradshaw misappropriated $157,246.76 from Goseys trust. NBC Bay Area Previous reporting by the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit, revealed Bradshaw helped create a construction company, that he later hired to work on Goseys home while she was suffering from dementia. Bradshaws signature appears on documents filed with the Secretary of States Office to form Bay Construction, but he says hes never had any financial interest nor does he own any part of the company. According to Bradshaw, he was acting in the capacity as an attorney for the person who actually owns the company, a handyman named Juan Gonzalez. Gonzalez had previously done repair work on Bradshaws own home. In State Bar Court, Gonzalez testified he was under the impression he owned 49 percent of the company, while Bradshaw owned the other 51 percent. Bradshaws son, Colin Bradshaw, also worked for the business. Court documents show Bradshaw, his wife, his son, and his receptionist all had company credit cards in their names for Bay Construction. Bradshaw said the arrangement helped the construction company get a 5 percent discount at Lowes. In court documents, Bradshaw said it was a favor to help his former handyman succeed in his business. In the latest ruling, the judge noted there was not enough clear and convincing evidence to show that work performed by the company, Bay Construction, was incomplete. The judge also dismissed charges that Bay Construction engaged in business without a license, again, citing a lack of clear and convincing evidence. Gosey hired Bradshaw more than a decade ago to help her create a trust account. She never married and did not have any children. In an unusual move, Gosey listed Bradshaw as one of the possible people to manage her money and home should anything happen to her. When she fell and injured herself four years ago, a court appointed Bradshaw in charge of her estate. San Francisco attorney Drexel Bradshaw built his career in the courtroom, but he now finds himself at the center of his own trial that threatens to leave him barred from practicing law in California. The State Bar, which investigates complaints concerning attorneys, charged Bradshaw with five counts of misconduct, alleging he engaged in a scheme to defraud an elderly client, Ora Gosey, out of more than $157,000. Investigative reporter Bigad Shaban reports on a story that first aired Feb. 7, 2018. The California Supreme Court will get the final say on whether to disbar Bradshaw, however, beginning next week, the State Bar has ordered that he stop practicing law until a final decision is made. Bradshaw declined to comment on the State Bars ruling. A spokesperson for the attorney said Bradshaw plans to appeal the decision. Bradshaw has previously denied any wrongdoing. In February, he sat down with the Investigative Unit for an exclusive interview just before his trial began and said he has never pocketed any money from Goseys trust. Theyve made an allegation -- its false, he said. My clients money was used by and large for 24-hour home care. When asked whether he worried about potentially facing criminal charges, Bradshaw said, No. Not at all. I havent done anything wrong. He went on to say he has done his very best to take care of Ora. A law enforcement source familiar with the case confirmed Bradshaw, his former handyman, and Bay Construction are all the subject of a criminal investigation, led by the Contractors State License Board. Most people dont see it, but I have a heart of gold and done my best to take care of Ora, Bradshaw said during that February interview. She was special to us. A popular spot for nature lovers in the East Bay is about to vanish. A major part of the so-called "Secret Sidewalk" in the Niles Canyon has been demolished. The Secret Sidewalk is about two miles and starts near Old Canyon Road in Fremont. "It's unfortunate because I think it would have been nice if they would have considered turning it into a park and opening up access," said Fremont resident Michael Murphy, who lives nearby. The Secret Sidewalk is a hot spot for hikers that is the top of the Old Springs Valley aqueduct. The property is owned by a company called Mission Clay Products that manufacturers sewer pipes. The company told NBC Bay Area the Secret Sidewalk was a liability and needed to be removed. "I feel bad for it. It's an artifact," said Lance King, a Niles resident. "It would be nice if they would have left or can leave just a representative section of it so people can see." Members of the Sierra Club said old oil bunkers are also on site and previously posed a possible environmental risk for interested developers. A spokesperson with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission said the property owners have not contacted them about any development project, which they are required to do. However, they do know of a restoration project going on. A proposed law that would require the state Department of Public Health to provide the public with specific data about lead poisoning in children is awaiting Governor Jerry Browns final approval. Senator Ben Hueso (D-San Diego) authored the childhood lead poisoning prevention legislation, Senate Bill No. 1097, which cleared both houses unanimously. If signed into law, it will impose greater reporting requirements about childhood lead exposure. Hueso said it is a critical step in ensuring appropriate case management data related to children who have been exposed to lead. Currently, less than seven percent of all total children in San Diego County are screened for lead exposure, according to county health officials. Public health officials have said for years that there is no safe level of lead in a child's blood. Lead is a dangerous neurotoxin. Exposure can seriously affect the IQ and cause major cognitive and behavioral problems in children, according to public health officials. It is imperative that children who have been exposed to lead are afforded the proper case management, said Senator Hueso. This bill will help California better understand childhood lead levels, lead hazards, and the effectiveness of lead abatement. Huesos bill mandates the state collect, analyze and report specified information for each county, including the number of children tested for lead poisoning and the sources of lead. The bill would additionally require that the Department post the report on its website. The State Department of Public Health is the state entity responsible for overseeing the Lead Poisoning and Prevention Program, which was established in 1991 and tasked with reducing lead exposure, increasing the number of children assessed and tested for lead poisoning, and identifying and abating exposure to lead. Despite this mandate, in 2000 the bills sponsor, the Environmental Working Group, found that between 1992 and 1998, the State failed to identify, test, or provide care to an estimated 200,000 lead-poisoned children aged 1-5. The organizations current analysis of 2013 data, which covers just one year and a smaller range, suggests little or no improvement. These findings are shocking and illustrate how vitally important it is that we receive more detailed and transparent reporting from the State in order to prevent and properly handle future cases of lead poisoning, said Senator Hueso. Last year, while covering the discovery of high levels of lead in the water in the San Diego Unified and other school districts, NBC 7 requested data on blood lead levels in children tested for lead exposure in San Diego County. We found the state of California will not provide the data for a specific zip code if less than 250 children are tested in that zip code. The state reasons the percentage for those zip codes would appear unfairly skewed high because such a proportionally small number of children are tested, so releasing those numbers would reflect an unfair percentage. Nationwide, millions of children are falling through the cracks of early childhood lead testing mandates. In one San Diego neighborhood the state did release data for, Grant Hill, more than 4 percent of children tested had high blood-lead levels. By comparison, at the height of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, where corrosive, brown river water leached lead into drinking water, 5 percent of children screened there had high blood lead levels and some were poisoned. Huesos bill requires the state Department of Public Health provide information on lead testing and offers an easy way to access it to make sure localities are providing continuous and adequate levels of case management in relation to the number of children tested for lead exposure and follow-up for those found to have high levels of lead in their blood, according to Huesos office. Once high-flying tech mogul, Gurbaksh Chahal, was led away in handcuffs on a domestic violence related probation violation Friday - despite tearful pleas for leniency. Im begging you to have mercy on me, your honor, please, the 35-year-old San Francisco social media marketer and multi-millionaire said. Chahal even teared up at times while addressing Superior Court Judge Tracie Brown in San Francisco. The truth is, Im not a bad person. Chahals lawyer, famed O.J. Simpson defense attorney Robert Shapiro, wanted the judge to consider Chahals charitable efforts and community work on behalf of domestic violence victims since the case started. Shapiro also continued to insist his client is innocent of the probation violation allegation. The judge noted that the evidence showed otherwise, and she was not swayed to reduce her one-year term, saying she had already given Chahal credit for his community service. When she originally sentencing him back in 2016. That triggered appeals to the state Supreme Court, which declined to hear his case. The moment the handcuffs went on for Gurbaksh Chahal. Despite a tearful plea and several request from his lawyer Robert Shapiro the disgraced Tech Mogul has been sentenced to 6 months. pic.twitter.com/V6HI31OxsQ Christopher Jewett (@sfnewsman) August 31, 2018 He is expected to serve six months in jail, with credit for good behavior. Referring to Chahals tearful statement, the judge said: I dont think it demonstrates a great deal of regard for the victims in this case. Despite last ditch legal motions seeking more delay, Chahal was led away in handcuffs. The case began after video evidence against Chahal who was already serving probation for misdemeanor domestic violence was tossed out because it was illegally seized. He was free on probation in that case when prosecutors lodged new domestic violations that they said merited revoking the original probation. Chahal appealed all the way up to the state Supreme Court, which upheld his sentence in mid-August. Beverly Upton, executive director of the Domestic Violence Consortium, said after court that the sentencing showed that can be justice even for domestic violence defendants who have the money to fight cases for years. Hes been given every opportunity for a wake-up call, Upton said. He still hasnt gotten it. So I think were a safer city today. Praising Senator John McCain for his patriotism and his willingness to hear the concerns of all Americans regardless of party affiliation, former President Barack Obama delivered an emotional eulogy at McCains funeral service in Washington on Saturday. The former president, who beat McCain in the 2008 election to ascend to the Oval Office, spoke of the senators humor, his ferocious temper, and above all else, his undying devotion to the ideals of the nation. President Barack Obama delivers a touching eulogy at the funeral of Senator John McCain. For someone like John to ask you while he was still alive to stand and speak of him when he is gone is a precious and singular honor, Obama said. Ill admit sadness and also a certain surprise, but after our conversation ended I realized how well it captured some of Johns essential qualities. Obama extolled those qualities in the wide-ranging speech, touching on McCains famous wit and humor. President Barack Obama speaks of Senator John McCain at the politicians funeral Saturday. What better way to get a last laugh than to make (former president) George Bush and I say nice things about him to a national audience? Obama joked. The former president also spoke of the famous moment where McCain objected to an audience members characterization of Obama as an Arab, saying that he believed the moment encapsulated McCains belief in the equality of all viewpoints. I was grateful, but I wasnt surprised, he said. As Joe Lieberman said, it was Johns instinct. I never saw him treat someone differently because of their race, religion, or gender. Im certain that in those moments, he saw himself as defending Americas character, not just mine. He considered it the imperative of every citizen to treat people fairly. Obama said that he and McCain would often sit together in the Oval Office to discuss family and politics, and although they didnt always agree on everything, they would never leave the meetings with animosity toward one another personally. Illinois, Indiana Politicians Mourn Loss of Sen. John McCain We never doubted the other mans sincerity, or the other mans patriotism, or that when all was said and done, we were on the same team, he said. That theme, which Obama sounded to end the speech, appeared to be a condemnation of the divisive politics that has developed in America during the Obama and Trump administrations, and serve as the biggest lesson the former president believes Americans should draw from McCains legacy. What better way to honor his life of service to, as best we can, to follow his example, to prove that the willingness to get in the arena and fight in this country is open to all of us, he said, with a tear forming at the corner of his eye. Its demanded of all of us as citizens of this great republic. Thats perhaps how we honor him best, by recognizing there are some things that are bigger than party or ambition or money or power. Drunk driving the wrong way on Illinois roadways is now a felony. The governor has signed a bill in to law that makes wrong way driving an aggravated factor in driving under the influence of alcohol arrests. It allows for judges to allot additional penalties and longer prison terms at the sentencing phase of a trial. Previously, a judge could not take wrong-way driving into consideration during sentencing. This is the first such law in the nation. This is really good news. This is huge. Hopefully, itll set a precedent for the rest of the country to follow suit, said Lisa Smith, who lost her son to a wrong-way driver in 2015. Steven Smith was a U.S. Marine reservist and had been a Chicago Ridge police officer for seven months when he was killed in the crash near Oak Brook. According to his mother, the wrong way drivers punishment did not fit the crime. The whole reason why Ive been so vocal is to be able to help someone going through this to know theres going to be justice for their loved ones. With this new law, if they hit someone, its going to be automatic jail time, Smith said. A 2015 NBC 5 Investigates analysis of state records revealed more than 50 people have been killed and nearly 300 have been injured by wrong-way drivers in Illinois since 2005. Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel cited the NBC 5 investigation while helping lawmakers draft new legislation. State Rep. Mike Zalewski (D) of the 23rd District sponsored the bill. Id like to thank Lisa Smith for her patience as we worked to pass this important law as a testament to her son, Chief Weitzel for bringing the bill to my attention, Senator Mike Hastings for being the bills champion in the Senate, and Governor Rauner for his signature, Zalewski said. The law has safety provisions for non-intoxicated people who enter the roadway the wrong way. China welcomes the European Commission's end of restrictions on the sales of solar panels from China and believes it will result in win-win and mutual benefits, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said on Saturday. Solar panels in Shangluo, Shannxi Province, August, 30th, 2018. [File photo: VCG] The ministry described the move as a successful model of resolving trade frictions through consultations, adding it will restore China-EU trade of solar panels to normal market conditions and provide a more stable and predictable business environment for both industries to realize win-win results, a spokesperson with the ministry said in a statement. As an important clean energy product, solar panels are widely used to cope with climate change and are significant for achieving emission cut targets for countries around the world. These days, it is more important than ever to take steps towards dealing with climate change. China is willing to continue cooperating with the European Union to advance emission cuts, climate adaptation and sustainable development, and push for global free trade and a rule-based multilateral trading system, according to the statement. The European Commission announced on Friday its decision not to extend trade defense measures on solar panels from China after rejecting the European Union (EU) industry's request for an expiry review investigation. "After having been in place for almost five years, the EU anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures on solar panels from China will expire at midnight on Monday 3rd September," the European Commission said in a statement. At least three people have been killed and seven more have been wounded in shootings across the city of Chicago this weekend. The citys first fatal shooting occurred just before 3 p.m. Friday afternoon, when three people were shot in the 800 block of East 65th Street. According to police, the individuals were standing on a sidewalk when a man walked up and opened fire, striking all three victims. An 18-year-old man was shot in the chest and head, and was later pronounced dead. A 27-year-old man was also shot in the lower back, and was taken to University of Chicago Hospital in critical condition, according to authorities. A third victim, a 24-year-old woman, was taken to the University of Chicago in stable condition. No suspects are in custody. Another fatal shooting occurred just before 4 a.m. in the 5100 block of West Maypole, according to police. Two men were standing outside when a person wearing a mask walked up to them and opened fire, striking both victims. A 32-year-old man was shot in the neck, and was later pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital, while a 23-year-old man was shot in the wrist. He was taken to Loretto Hospital in good condition. No one is in custody in connection with the shooting. Just 20 minutes later, another fatal shooting occurred in the 700 block of North Central, according to police. A 30-year-old woman was standing with a group of people in an alley when someone fired shots at the group, and she was struck in the back of the head. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Police are unsure if she was the intended target, and are still investigating. Here are the rest of the weekends shootings: Friday: A 31-year-old man was shot in the lower right thigh, according to police. The man, who was shot in the 4300 block of West Gladys, was taken to a local hospital in good condition. In the 800 block of West 59th Street at approximately 11:27 p.m., a 41-year-old man was driving when two men walked up to his vehicle and fired shots, striking him multiple times. The man then drove himself to St. Bernard Hospital, where he was listed in serious condition. Saturday: As travelers and authorities brace for another Chicago protest aiming to impact a major roadway during what's expected to be a busy holiday commute, police remained adamant that "traffic will be uninterrupted." In an unrelated press conference Friday, Major David Byrd, the regional commander for the Illinois State Police, said the department has given organizer Rev. Gregory Livingston several options outside of walking onto the Kennedy Expressway near O'Hare International Airport. "There are several options that weve given him," Byrd said. "I dont want to get into what they are but at the end of the day one option is not walking on the expressway." Byrd said that police "are prepare for any and all contingencies," including for arrests to be made. Authorities stressed Friday that entering an expressway is illegal, but organizers have so far not backed down from their calls to shut down the major roadway near the airport. Chicago police said they met with organizers, alongside Illinois State Police, and "relayed to them that entry onto the expressway is unlawful." "Lets not forget that shutting down expressways is illegal thats number one," Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said. "You start talking about shutting down operations at OHare Airport, now were going to federal issues." In nearby Park Ridge, Chief Frank Kaminski said the city is planning to have extra officers on hand, though they're "hoping this is going to be a peaceful event." "Our goal is to make sure all the major roads and thoroughfares are pretty clear," Kaminski said. "Were going to work with the protesters to make sure they have a place to protest." It remains unclear how many people are expected to attend the event, set to begin at noon Monday. Kaminski said residents were being notified to avoid the area Monday. "Were sending out notices to our residents just to stay away from the area for that time period just as precaution," Kaminski said. "Our goal is to make sure everybody is safe and secure and the event goes off peacefully." The Chicago Tribune reports marchers will gather at the Cumberland Avenue entrance ramp beginning at 11:30 a.m. and continue onto the expressway starting at noon. Livingston, who previously helped organized a march that shut down Lake Shore Drive, said the protest is part of a continuing effort to secure more resources for neighborhoods where the bulk of the city's shootings take place. He has also called for Mayor Rahm Emanuel's resignation. Experts expect about 8 million people will be traveling on Chicago-area tollways over the holiday weekend. "We all share the goal of continuing to build more jobs in our neighborhoods, but rhetoric that ignores reality won't create a single job," Emanuel spokesman Adam Collins said in a statement issued last week. "It is beyond ironic that Mr. Livingston would announce his desire to shut off access to the airports to demand more jobs for people living in Chicago's neighborhoods less than 24 hours after the Mayor announced 700 new airport concession jobs are being created and filled by residents in Englewood, Humboldt Park and beyond," Collins' statement continued. "In fact, Mr. Livingston's plans would only harm thousands of people living in neighborhoods across Chicago who earn a good paycheck working at our airports on ground crews, at restaurants, as airline employees and beyond," Collins added. Another march in July organized by Rev. Michael Pfleger shut down traffic along the Dan Ryan Expressway on the city's South Side. Some wore surgical masks others gas masks Friday to protest the toxic emissions emanating from the Willowbrook Sterigenics plant. The company - which has been operating here since 1984 uses ethylene oxide - a carcinogenic chemical to provide sterilization for the pharmaceutical, medical and food industries. Ten days ago the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services notified the village that the toxic gas being emitted was a health hazard that posed an elevated risk to at least 19,000 residents living near. "This is not a 'not in my backyard' situation," protester Adam Sahloul said. "We want this to not happen to any other community in this country." In 2013, Rose Marths daughter Kaylee--who was just 3 years old at the time--was diagnosed with leukemia. She says within a two-year period three people got sick with cancer on her block. She now wonders whether the air quality played a part in the illnesses. "It was the most devastating thing we ever went through and it was hard watching her go through everything she did," she told NBC 5. Two years ago the Environmental Protection Agency increased the cancer risk from ethylene oxide by thirty times based on new research. Residents at a town hall meeting Wednesday were enraged to hear that the company could not immediately be shut down because it was operating under EPA mandated regulations. Sterigenics has questioned the data set used by the federal agency that authored the report and that same agency said a in recent statement that the emissions of ethylene oxide from the Sterigenics are not an immediate threat to public health and are not considered to be an emergency situation. Protesters here say theyre not satisfied with government compliance or EPA standards. They want Sterigenics shut down and moved away from residential neighborhoods and they say they wont give up until its gone. In a corner of northwestern Syria packed with nearly 3 million people, the government and its opponents are preparing for a final, bloody showdown. The campaign for Idlib, the opposition's only remaining stronghold in the country and now a refuge for over a million displaced Syrians, is likely to be the last major theater of battle after seven years of brutal civil war. It is also potentially the most dangerous. The U.N. and aid workers are bracing for disaster, warning that up to 800,000 people are in danger of renewed displacement if a government offensive gets underway. A massive military buildup in nearby areas suggests an assault at least to regain parts of the province may be imminent. Turkey, which backs the rebels in Idlib, has warned against a military solution and is reportedly negotiating with Russia in an effort to avoid a full-scale offensive. Concern is mounting meanwhile over the potential use of chemical weapons, and the Russian navy is building up its presence in the Mediterranean Sea. Here's a look at what lies ahead for Idlib: THE OPPOSITION'S LAST REFUGE After seven years of war, President Bashar Assad has largely quashed the popular revolt that erupted against his family's decades-long rule in 2011, which was inspired by the Arab Spring protests that swept the region that year. Idlib now amounts to the last refuge for the opposition, as well as the al-Qaida-linked insurgents that have fought alongside it. President Bashar Assad is determined to retake Idlib, and has vowed to eventually bring all of Syria back under his government's control. At one point, the opposition controlled parts of Syria's largest cities and most of the territory around Damascus, the capital. But Russia launched an air campaign in support of Assad in 2015, and Iran has sent thousands of military advisers and allied militiamen to aid his forces. In the last year alone, the government has forced its opponents out of Damascus, Homs, Daraa, and Quneitra, four provinces and cities that were longtime opposition strongholds. As government forces advanced, they offered residents and one-time opponents the choice either to reconcile with Assad's rule or board buses for Idlib, where al-Qaida-linked groups have eclipsed the moderate opposition. Tens of thousands of people chose to leave to Idlib, fearing they could be face imprisonment, forced conscription, or worse at the hands of government forces. Now they have nowhere left to turn, after other opposition pockets have collapsed, and Turkey has largely sealed its borders to new refugees. THE CHEMICAL WEAPONS FACTOR The U.S. State Department has said it will hold Moscow, an ally of Damascus, responsible if government forces use chemical weapons in the battle for Idlib. U.N. investigators have already attributed several chemical attacks in Syria to government forces, including one attack using the nerve agent Sarin gas against the Idlib town of Khan Sheikhoun in April 2017. That attack prompted the U.S. to carry out a rare strike against a Syrian military installation. In April, the U.S., France and Britain launched punitive strikes after a chlorine gas attack on a suburb of Damascus then held by the opposition. The U.S. also holds the government responsible for a Sarin gas attack that may have killed over 1,000 people in August 2013 in the Ghouta suburbs of Damascus. Syria's government denies ever using chemical weapons and says it disposed of its stockpiles under an agreement brokered by the U.S. and Russia after the 2013 Ghouta attack. Chemical attacks have only accounted for a small fraction of the estimated 400,000 people killed in the civil war. Now, Moscow and Damascus say the U.S. is planning to fabricate a chemical attack or encourage rebels to execute one, as a pretext to launch renewed strikes against Assad's forces. But there is scant evidence that rebels have used chemical weapons in the past, and the U.S. has shown little appetite for taking forceful military action against the government. On Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said Washington was in "active" communication with Russia about preventing another chemical attack. A CATASTROPHE IN THE MAKING The U.N. says a battle for Idlib would cause a humanitarian catastrophe. With Turkey closing its borders to new refugees, it is unclear where civilians might go. Many are already living in camps in Idlib amid dire conditions, with 2 million in need of humanitarian aid. The leaders of Russia, Iran, and Turkey are slated to meet next week in the northern Iranian city of Tabriz, where many are hoping for a deal to avert a calamitous battle over Idlib. In the meantime, the government is amassing its forces around the province, and Russia has positioned at least 10 warships and two submarines off the coast, according to Russian media reports. If a campaign does proceed against Idlib, it is likely to follow the formula set in previous battles. Russian and Syrian warplanes would launch wave after wave of devastating airstrikes, before government forces besiege towns and cities, forcing residents to surrender or starve. Carmela Puppi hoped a lift and massage chair would ease some of her burdens. "I needed a chair that was comfortable and comparable to my needs," the Wallingford resident said. I have a lot of health issues. In February 2017, Puppi paid $1,199 for a Hampton Serta brand lift chair and recliner from online retailer, RLB Furnishings, LLC. The chair was manufactured by Novo Home. "I ended up stuck in this chair with my legs up and my back down," Puppi said. It was really frightening. Puppi said she complained to Novo Home, and the manufacturer sent out a service tech to look at the problem. The service report described the problem as a manufacturer defect. Novo Home decided to replace the chair with the same model under warranty. But Puppi said she also experienced problems with the replacement chair and called Novo Home a few more times to service it. A spokesperson for the retailer, RLB Furnishings, told NBC Connecticut Responds Novo Home went out of business in the fall of 2017. The spokesperson said although RLB Furnishings is not a manufacturer or wholesale distributor, the company continued to work with Puppi, along with Lifestyle Solutions, which acquired a license to sell similar Serta chairs. RLB told noted that it is not a manufacturer or wholesale distributor, that they offer a 30 day return policy, but that warranties are the sole responsibility of the manufacturer. NBC Connecticut Responds attempted to contact Novo Home by phone and email, but did not receive a reply. In response to our inquiry, Lifestyle Solutions provided Responds with the following statement: RLB (the retailer) approached Lifestyle Solutions with regard to supplying parts that RLB thought may be helpful to resolve the NOVO Home chair issue with Ms. Puppi. Lifestyle Solutions did, in fact, supply some new parts at the request of RLB to try and help RLB resolve the dispute with Ms. Puppi (at no cost to Ms. Puppi). Lifestyle Solutions was under no obligations to provide those free parts to Ms. Puppi, but did so as a goodwill gesture to both RLB and RLBs customer, Ms. Puppi. Notwithstanding Lifestyle Solutions goodwill gesture, Ms. Puppi then demanded that Lifestyle Solutions provide her with additional free parts (for a chair that Lifestyle Solutions had neither manufactured nor sold). Lifestyle notified Ms. Puppi that while it was happy to sell her additional parts, it could not provide her with additional free parts for a chair that Lifestyle Solutions had not manufactured or sold in the first place. Nor can Lifestyle Solutions offer Ms. Puppi a refund for a chair that Lifestyle Solutions had no connection in manufacturing or selling. Nevertheless, it is our understanding that Ms. Puppi is still in need of a comfortable chair to help her with her condition. As a further goodwill gesture to Ms. Puppi, Lifestyle Solutions would be pleased to offer Ms. Puppi (free of charge) one of the Lyft-type chairs manufactured and sold by Lifestyle Solutions under the Serta license. Puppi said she can live with that resolution. The Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection says whenever you purchase a product with a warranty, find out if the warranty is with the retailer or the manufacturer. You should also check the length of the warranty. The time range may vary depending on the product. And verify whether the warranty only covers a certain cost or certain components of the product. If you have questions about the warranty terms, talk directly with the warranty provider before making the purchase. The Yale School of Public Health is hosting a pair of events in response to the drug overdoses that affected dozens of people last month in a city park just outside the Ivy League university's gates. More than 100 people across the city of New Haven fell ill from overdoses on synthetic marijuana over the span of a couple days in mid-August. One discussion Wednesday at the school of health involves city and community leaders on the topic of the public health response to drug overdoses. The school is also hosting an event later in the day to teach people how to correctly administer naloxone, a medication designed to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. The 137th edition of the Crocodile Club of Connecticut brought together a handful of candidates running for statewide office and with it, a number of jokes in the heat of the political season. Jennifer Nye, the Republican running against John Larson in the First Congressional District poked fun at herself, saying, youve probably never heard of me. She also took some playful digs at Larson, one of Connecticuts longest-serving politicians. "I've heard great stories about John's very funny speech at the first Crocodile Club meeting in 1875. Boy, time flies when you have Democratic incumbents in Connecticut." Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski made his first Crocodile Club appearance, and it turned into the unofficial start of his general election campaign. It was his first public event since clinching the GOP nomination on Aug. 14. He joked how his daughters are tired of seeing their dad on television. "My youngest daughter said, you know you actually remind me of a turtle, he said to laughs. And his oldest daughter, "She started fast forwarding through it. I said, 'Lauren, that's me.' and she said I am so tired of hearing about you dad I don't want to hear about you ever again. Democratic candidate for governor, Ned Lamont, did not attend the annual dinner. US Senator Chris Murphy was also not in attendance. John Larson and Sen. Richard Blumenthal were each in Washington to pay their respects to the late Sen. John McCain at the US Capitol. The dinner is an annual and, especially, an election year tradition. Its home has been the ballroom at Lake Compounce Amusement Park. It was held there this year, and NBC Connecticut Political Reporter Max Reiss served as the President of the Crocodile Club, emceeing the event. Lieutenant Governor Nancy Wyman heaped praise on the group running for statewide office, saying thats what both Connecticut and the United States are all about, participating in the process. However, she also warned them of the difficulty of living in the public eye. "I just wanted to congratulate or give my condolences to all of you that are running." Bob Stefanowski did not hold a single official campaign event for 17 days after he won the GOP nomination for governor in a five-way primary. His official campaign general election schedule had what amounted to its inaugural event during an appearance at the Crocodile Clubs 137th Annual Dinner at Lake Compounce in Bristol. Its simple, if you want to cut taxes, vote for me and if you want the same as the last eight years and Dan Malloy, vote for Ned, Stefanowski said during an availability with members of the media. When asked where has he been for the past two weeks, he said he was focused on securing a second ballot line. I put a lot of focus on the Independent bid. We were spending a lot of time phone calling independents, meeting the head of the party, he said. That was a big win for us." Stefanowski is a former executive of General Electric, UBS, and a payday loan company based in the United Kingdom. He emerged from a crowded Republican primary field to win the partys nomination for governor, an office targeted by the Republican Governors Association as perhaps its best chance to flip a governorship. On fundraising, Stefanowski wont say whether he intends to use his own wealth to bankroll his campaign, like his opponent, Democrat Ned Lamont. "I don't like to reveal my secrets but we're going to put in enough to win. This is the number one target state for the Republican Governors Association. I've been talking to national donors." Multiple GOP legislative and party sources have told NBC Connecticut that Stefanowksi has informed major players in the party that he has no intention of using his own resources to fund his campaign. There is already a planned fundraiser for Stefanowski in Greenwich in mid-September. Lamont has been out in the public eye since he won the Democratic nomination, holding multiple events on a variety of topics and in varying settings. Stefanowski has released his first public schedule, planning to visit a series of fairs and community events all over the state over the Labor Day weekend. He said he campaign needed a break, but says he will be visible between the weekend and election day. "After the primary we had to retool and you know, Lamont has been running with Susan for a while. I was in a five person primary. We hired some people. We got the Independent vote. I'm very happy with the last couple of weeks and you're going to see more of us coming out after Labor Day." A grand jury in Texas has indicted a 30-year-old man on a felony theft charge after he was accused of throwing a drink at a supporter of President Donald Trump before walking off with the teenager's "Make America Great Again" hat at a Whataburger. The attack earlier this summer in San Antonio was partially captured on video. San Antonio TV station KSAT reported that a grand jury on Wednesday indicted Kino Jimenez on a charge of theft of person, which is punishable by up to two years in state jail. Court records show Jimenez has an arraignment scheduled for Friday and a trial date set for Oct. 19. WOAI-TV reported in July that the teen whose hat was stolen received a new cap signed by President Trump. Thousands of people lined up for blocks outside the U.S. Capitol to say goodbye to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) as officials, relatives and friends paid tribute to the Vietnam hero and longtime senator lying in state under the majestic dome. At one point on Friday, U.S. Rep Sam Johnson (R-TX 3rd District) entered the rotunda for one final goodbye to McCain. Johnson, who usually uses a scooter or wheelchair to get around, decided to walk up to McCain's casket. Senate Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi helped Johnson walk up to the casket, where the two laid their hands on top, gesturing a final goodbye. House Speaker Paul Ryan called McCain "one of the bravest souls our nation has produced." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, "We thank God for giving this country John McCain." President Donald Trump was absent from the event, at the McCain family's request after an extended feud between the two. McCain died Saturday at age 81. DO YOU PYO? Then you are the sort of cook and/or eater who delights in plucking blueberries off bushes and apples from trees. There's a lot of PYO-ing, or pick-your-own-ing, if you prefer, around Southern California, thanks to the bountiful seasonal produce offerings at our area farms. And one of the goodie-laden go-tos, throughout a sizable portion of the calendar, is Underwood Family Farms of Moorpark and Somis. You may have left with a basket full of leeks or lemons or cucumbers or strawberries in months or years gone by, but if you know the later part of summer, and what's looking ripe around Labor Day Weekend, then you know that it is time for Underwood's popular... PICK-YOUR-OWN ROMA TOMATOES EVENT: This isn't to say that the many other fruits and vegetables that pop up on the Underwood schedule aren't also loved, but there's something about Roma tomatoes weekend that speaks to marinara mavens, salad pros, and anyone who adores eating these delightful orbs of fruit-tastic deliciousness straight, no olive oil or salt required. It's a popular event, and it'll last over two days, so make your way to Moorpark on Saturday, Sept. 1 or Sunday, Sept. 2. You can get a box there, for two bucks, to hold your heap o' tomatoes, but you are welcome to show with your own containers (just read what Underwood advises before leaving home). MORE TO KNOW? Yep, like the per-pound price (thirty cents) and the hours each day (think "early start," for sure). Read the details here, dear Roma buffs, and start planning all of the amazing eats you'll be topping with tomatoes. And will you can a few, too, for wintertime enjoyment? Start dreaming up all of the flavorful ways you can use this highly red, highly juicy, perfect-on-everything fruit. What to Know DeSantis, who won Tuesdays primary by nearly 20 percentage points, made the comment during an interview with Fox News on Wednesday. A spokesman for the Jacksonville based DeSantis told NBC News that the comment had nothing to do with race or anything like that A day after clinching the Republican nomination in the race for governor in Florida, Rep. Ron DeSantis was under fire for saying during a Fox News interview that voters shouldn't "monkey this up" by electing his Democratic opponent, Andrew Gillum, the first African-American to win a major party nomination for the states top office. DeSantis, who won Tuesdays primary by nearly 20 percentage points, made the comment after first describing Gillum, the Tallahassee mayor, as an "articulate spokesman for those far left views" and a "charismatic candidate." "We've got to work hard to make sure that we continue Florida going in a good direction. Let's build off the success we've had on Governor Scott," DeSantis said. "The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state. As the comment ricocheted across social media- with members of Congress along with the organization CAIR and even FOX News denouncing them - the chairwoman of Florida's Democratic Party, Terrie Rizzo, was among those decrying it as racist. "It's disgusting that Ron DeSantis is launching his general election campaign with racist dog whistles," Rizzo said on Twitter. DeSantis' campaign rejected that characterization. "Ron DeSantis was obviously talking about Florida not making the wrong decision to embrace the socialist policies that Andrew Gillum espouses," spokesman Stephen Lawson said. "To characterize it as anything else is absurd. Floridas economy has been on the move for the last eight years and the last thing we need is a far-left Democrat trying to stop our success." "As we say in Tallahassee, bless his heart," a Gillum representative told NBC News in a response. In an appearance on MSNBC's Meet the Press, Gillum told host Chuck Todd that the voters of Florida are "better than this." "I believe Congressman can be better than this," Gillum said. "I regret that his mentor in politics is Donald Trump. But I do believe the voters of the state of Florida are going to reject the politics of division." Gillum, who shocked many by winning the partys nomination in a field of five candidates that included former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham despite spending the least out of the group, has embraced many of the same policies and ideology as U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who ran for president in 2016. Sanders had endorsed the 39-year-old and campaigned with Gillum in Florida during the primary season. Gillum and DeSantis are competing for the office held by Rick Scott, who can't run for re-election because of term limits and is instead challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson. After an easy win in Tuesday's GOP primary, Scott now joins a bitter and expensive showdown with Nelson that could play a decisive role in determining whether Republicans maintain control of the Senate. The governor's race, in a state sure to be a battleground in the 2020 presidential election, will essentially be a referendum on Trump. DeSantis based nearly his entire campaign around the president, and acknowledged after the victory that Trump's endorsement was the key. "With one tweet, that kind of put me on the map," DeSantis said. Trump praised DeSantis Wednesday and said he had not heard the candidate's "monkey" comment. DeSantis entered the race a month after Trump's December tweet that he would make "a GREAT governor." Later Trump held a rally for him in Tampa. Suddenly, he was considered the favorite over Putnam, who seemingly spent his entire adult life building toward the run for governor. Gillum was a 23-year-old Florida A&M student when he became the youngest person elected to the Tallahassee City Commission in 2003. He was elected mayor in 2014. Gillum is a gifted public speaker and did well in debates, often receiving the most applause, but the FBI is investigating Tallahassee city hall for corruption. Gillum has said he's not a target. The differences between the candidates are pronounced. DeSantis is pro-gun, and anti-tax; Gillum boasts about beating the National Rifle Association in a lawsuit and is calling for an increase in corporate taxes. While he didn't make race an issue, Gillum said during a recent interview that it would be "big" to be Florida's first black governor. "I have been really slow to try to think on it because it's too big," he said. "There will absolutely be a part of this that I can't even put words to around what it might mean for my children and other people's kids. Especially growing up for them in the age of Donald Trump." What to Know Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson are headlining Friday's rally at a union hall in Orlando. Gillum's matchup against the Republican nominee, U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, and Nelson's against Gov. Rick Scott are two of the most watched. Led by a young progressive and an establishment moderate running in two of the nation's marquee races, Florida Democrats on Friday promised to offer a message of unity, inclusiveness, hope and diversity during the next two months of campaigning toward November's general election. Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum, the 39-year-old mayor of Tallahassee who is aiming to be Florida's first African-American governor, and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, who has spent four decades in public office, headlined the Democratic kick-off rally for the general election with promises to turn the nation's biggest swing state blue during the midterm elections. "Not one of us can sleep on this election," Gillum told several hundred supporters crammed into a steamy union hall in Orlando. "We are going to organize like we've never organized before ... because there may be some areas of this state that we may not win but we can lose them less." Also attending the rally in their first joint appearance since Gillum's surprise victory on Tuesday were three of Gillum's opponents for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham, former Miami Beach Mayor Phil Levine and businessman Chris King as well as the Democratic nominees for attorney general, agricultural commissioner and chief financial officer. "This race is going to be about inclusion as opposed to exclusion," Levine said. Traveling the state during the primary race, Gillum said Floridians of all political stripes wanted the same things: a living wage, and access to affordable health care. He promised to expand Medicaid, improve Florida's environmental protection and increase public school teachers' salaries. Gillum's matchup against the Republican nominee, U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, and Nelson's race against Republican Gov. Rick Scott are two of the most-watched races in the midterm elections. "On Nov. 6, you know what we are going to be singing? 'Happy Days Are Here Again!'" Nelson said. DeSantis won the Republican gubernatorial nomination with help from President Trump's endorsement. DeSantis was criticized on Wednesday for saying in a television interview about Gillum, "the last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting this state." Democrats decried DeSantis' comment as racist. In a statement, Florida GOP chairman Blaise Ingoglia continued the Republican strategy of labelling Gillum a socialist. "Andrew Gillum is the darling of the liberal media right now having not been exposed during his primary." Ingoglia said. "He is the flavor of the day and that flavor is going to sour very soon." Gillum promised Democrats would turn out one of the most diverse and inclusive group of voters that Florida has ever seen. "Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis want to run us in the other direction," Gillum said. "They have made very clear their politics of division and derision and separation ... Florida is going to show not only the rest of this state but the rest of this world that there are more of us than there are of them." A Florida man fleeing from police drowned after jumping into a retaining pond, according to authorities. The Orange County Sheriff's Office said 49-year-old Corey Anderson ran when officers found felony narcotics on him. During the chase, Anderson jumped into a retention pond. The sheriff's office says deputies tried to save him, but Anderson drowned. Florida authorities say they've arrested two people who were running a drug business out of a mobile home with its own walk-up and drive-thru window. An Ocala police news release says 20-year-old McKenzee Dobbs and 32-year-old William Parrish Jr. were arrested last week following several overdoses connected to the house. Both face multiple charges related to the possession and sale of fentanyl, a powerful opioid painkiller. Police say officers collected drugs, paraphernalia and cash while executing a search warrant at the home Aug. 24. Investigators determined that Dobbs and Parrish had been selling drugs through a kitchen window. Police say they've recorded 98 drug overdoses this year within Ocala city limits, and 13 were fatal. Police were working to determine if any fatal overdoses were connected to the mobile home. A 19-year-old Afghan citizen had a "terrorist motive" for allegedly stabbing two Americans at the main train station in Amsterdam, city authorities in the Dutch capital said Saturday. Amsterdam police shot and wounded the suspect after the stabbings Friday at Central Station. The local government said hours later it appeared the people injured weren't targeted for a specific reason, but added that investigators had not ruled out terror as an aim or any other possibilities. After the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands identified the victims as American tourists Saturday, Amsterdam City Hall gave an update. "Based on the suspect's first statements, he had a terrorist motive," the city administration said in a statement that did not elaborate on what the statements were or how they showed intent. The wounded Americans were recovering in a hospital from what police termed serious but not life-threatening injuries. Their identities have not been released. The suspect, who was identified only as Jawed S. in line with privacy rules in the Netherlands, also remained hospitalized. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte confirmed on Twitter that the investigation focused Saturday on exploring the extremist ideas that allegedly inspired the train station attack. The Netherlands' counter-terror chief, Dick Schoof, tweeted that the country's threat level would remain at number four on a scale that tops out at five. "Sadly, this reprehensible act fits into the current threat assessment," he said. W. had a residency permit from Germany. German authorities searched his home and seized data storage devices that would be analyzed as part of the investigation, the city government statement said. He was scheduled to be arraigned during a closed-door hearing with an investigating judge on Monday. Dutch officials did not disclose the charges he could face. A statement issued late Friday by Amsterdam's city council said the Americans did not appear to have been victims of a targeted attack. Amsterdam authorities also said Friday that it appeared from initial inquiries that the victims weren't chosen for a clear reason. The local government said Saturday it had no immediate plans to beef up security in the city, saying the swift action by police "shows that Amsterdam is prepared for this kind of incident." A passerby's dramatic photo showed two police officers pointing guns at a man in blue jeans and sneakers lying on the ground inside a train station tunnel. Earlier Saturday, the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands confirmed that the two people injured Friday were Americans visiting the Netherlands when they were stabbed at the station. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra issued a written statement saying U.S. Embassy officials had been in touch with the victims or their families. "We wish them a speedy recovery and are working closely with the City of Amsterdam to provide assistance to them and their families," Hoekstra said. Central Station is a busy entry and exit point for visitors to Amsterdam, with regular trains linking it to the city's Schiphol Airport. Friday is one of the busiest days of the week for train travel as tourists arrive for the weekend. The station is patrolled by armed police and other security staff. What to Know More than 1,000 assault rifles that were being smuggled in the Gulf of Aden amid an ongoing war in Yemen were seized by the US military The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain, said sailors boarded the boats Tuesday, uncovering the arms cache The 5th Fleet has accused Iran of smuggling arms via the sea to Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels, who have held Yemen's capital since 2014 The U.S. military said early Friday it seized over 1,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles being smuggled by small ships in the Gulf of Aden amid the ongoing war in nearby Yemen. The seizure by the guided-missile destroyer USS Jason Dunham may mark the first such interdiction of weapons at sea bound for Yemen in years for American forces patrolling the region. However, the military did not say whom they suspected of smuggling the weapons. A short video released by the U.S. Navy it said was taken Monday appeared to show a skiff and a dhow, a traditional ship that commonly sails the waters of the Persian Gulf region. As the vessels bob in the high waves, people on the dhow toss large boxes into the skiff. The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain, said sailors boarded the boats Tuesday, uncovering the arms cache. Photos released by the Navy showed what appeared to be new Kalashnikov rifles wrapped in plastic. It said those aboard the vessels were handed over to Yemeni forces loyal to its exiled government in Saudi Arabia. The U.S. military did not offer a location for the seizure in the Gulf of Aden, which has Yemen to its north and Somalia to its south. Smuggling of drugs, weapons and charcoal into and out of Somalia by criminal gangs and militant groups remains common. The 5th Fleet repeatedly has accused Iran of smuggling arms via the sea to Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels, who have held Yemen's capital, Sanaa, since September 2014. It points to seizures over a four-week period in early 2016, when coalition warships stopped three dhows in the Arabian Sea. The dhows carried thousands of Kalashnikov assault rifles as well as sniper rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, anti-tank missiles and other weapons. Iran denies arming the Houthis. One dhow carried 2,000 new assault rifles with serial numbers in sequential order, suggesting they came from a national stockpile, a report by the group Conflict Armament Research said. The rocket-propelled grenade launchers also bore hallmarks of being manufactured in Iran, the group said. The U.S. has supported a Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis since March 2015. What to Know A billboard calling President Trump "Our Leader the Idiot" has been taken down from Union Township, New Jersey The billboard was removed by the company that owns the space, the town says A town spokeswoman says most of the feedback they recieved disapproved of the billboard A billboard referring to President Trump as "Our Leader The Idiot" has been removed after causing controversy in a New Jersey town. A spokeswoman for Union Township, right outside New York City, said Friday the billboard has been removed by the company that owns the space. A New York-based activist told news outlets he'd paid for the billboard to promote an upcoming documentary film. OutFront Media, the company that owns the billboard, didn't return a message seeking comment Friday. Township spokeswoman Natalie Pineiro said this week that since the billboard is privately owned, the township had no role in the billboard's removal. Pineiro said dozens of voicemails and Facebook comments received by the town were overwhelmingly negative about the billboard. A band of unusually heavy rain Friday afternoon over a swath of southcentral Pennsylvania closed roads and stranded vehicles on one of the busiest travel days of the year. Parts of York, Lebanon and Lancaster counties were drenched with about 5 inches of rain over several hours, and some rain gauges recorded more than 9 inches, said Eric Horst, meteorology instructor and director of Millersville University's Weather Information Center. The thunderstorms closed a portion of Interstate 283 near Mount Joy. Several miles of Route 462 and Route 30, which connect eastern York and western Lancaster counties, also were shut down near Wrightsville. York and Lancaster officials said there were multiple water rescues. The roof of an old warehouse collapsed near Hallam. The National Weather Service put large parts of the region under flash flood warnings. A portion of Main Street in Mount Joy was transformed into a raging river. The region is still drying out from a week of heavy rains in late July and from what overall has been a wet summer. Horst said about 41 inches of rain fall in a typical year, and about 30 inches of rain have fallen since the start of June. "The ground being saturated isn't helping at all," said Lancaster County Commissioner Dennis Stuckey. "We had a few days of sunshine but not enough to dry everything out." Horst said the heaviest rains on Friday came down in the area of Mount Joy, Manheim and Sporting Hill, a farmland region of gently rolling hills. He said the stationary storm has been fueled by a tropical plume of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. A Houston nurse who posted protected health information about a young patient with measles to a Facebook page related to the anti-vaccine movement is no longer employed at Texas Childrens Hospital, the facility said in a statement Thursday. The nurse, who has not been identified, posted to the page that despite the fact that the young patient was super sick, was admitted to the ICU and "looked miserable," the nurse was still opposed to vaccines, NBC News reported. The nurse was investigated and ultimately dismissed for privacy violations, but her anti-vaccine stance concerns others in the medical field. Dr. David Persse, director of the Houston Health Department, was dismayed that a medical professional would be opposed to childhood vaccinations. "She is one of the few people who has seen firsthand how devastating these diseases can be, and she has still taken this position against vaccines," Persse said in an interview. Measles has been eliminated in the United States through vaccination, but every year, cases are imported from other countries. People who are not vaccinated or who are incompletely vaccinated can become infected and carry the virus with them. It will spread if there are pockets of other unvaccinated people. A former football head coach for Grossmont College was found dead inside his El Cajon home, alongside his wife's body, homicide investigators said. The deaths have been ruled a murder-suicide by the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office. David Wesley Jordan, 82, was found Friday with a gunshot wound to the head in the living room of his home on Toya Lane. Jordan had a long career as a college football coach and is the father of the current head coach at Grossmont College. Nearby, Jordan's wife, Jean Adelle Jordan, 82, was found dead with a revolver in her hands. The couple was discovered by an in-home caregiver at the home in the Blossom Valley community after 8 a.m., the San Diego County Sheriff's Department (SDSO) said. Neighbors told NBC 7 David Jordan's health had been failing. A neighbor told NBC 7 that he heard several "pops" coming from the home Friday morning between 1 and 2 a.m. "We heard a pop that we thought might have been a firework and then we heard another two pops," the neighbor said. The SDSO Homicide Unit was handling the investigation. Dave Jordan worked as a coach at Grossmont College for 36 years. He was the head coach from 1971 to 1978 and again from 1990 to 2006. Grossmont College President Nabil Abu-Ghazaleh said, "We mourn the loss of Dave Jordan, who had a deep passion for helping students, both on the football field and in life. He helped build Grossmont Colleges football program into a nationally ranked team and transformed the lives of many young men. In 2012, Jordan was inducted into the California Community College Football Coaches Hall of Fame with a record of 135-89-9 while coaching the Grossmont Griffins. Jordan's son, Mike, has been the head coach of the team since his father's retirement in 2006. Former player George Jackson says Coach David Jordan not only coached him when he was a player on the Grossmont Griffins, he also took him under his wing to become his assistant running back coach for the team. "He was one of those persons who showed he cared for you on and off the field," Jackson told NBC 7. "To hear that situation happened, I was just slammed." Former player Anuyell Goodwin said Jordan was always there for people."There's just things that are bigger than football. Your dad meant the world to me," Anuyell said, speaking of Jordan's son who is the current football coach at Grossmont. "I just want him and the family to know that I'm here for him whatever he needs." Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the Homicide Unit at (858) 285-6330. Investigators can be reached after hours at (858) 565-5200. Crime Stoppers is offering up to a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. Anonymous tips can be made online or by calling (888) 580-8477. What to Know The Patten case was referred by special counsel Robert Mueller's team to the U.S. attorney's office in Washington. Patten was a business associate of Konstantin Kilimnik, a man U.S. authorities have said has ties to Russian intelligence. Patten's plea agreement requires him to cooperate with the government. A business associate of a key figure in the investigation into former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort pleaded guilty Friday to failing to register as a foreign agent for a Ukrainian political party. W. Samuel Patten entered his plea in federal court in Washington, shortly after prosecutors released a charging document that accused him of performing lobbying and consulting work in the United States but failing to register as a foreign agent as required by the Justice Department. As part of his plea, Patten also admitted to lying to the Senate intelligence committee during its investigation into Russian election interference and of participating in a scheme to circumvent the ban on foreign donations to President Donald Trump's inaugural committee by lining up a straw purchaser to pay $50,000 for four tickets to the inauguration. The Patten case was referred by special counsel Robert Mueller's team to the United States attorney's office in Washington, said Bill Miller, a spokesman for the office. Andrew Weissmann, one of the lead Mueller team attorneys in the Manafort prosecution, was also in the courtroom Friday during Patten's appearance. And Patten's plea agreement specifically requires him to cooperate with the special counsel's probe. Patten's attorney Stuart Sears declined comment after the Friday court appearance. Patten was a business associate of Konstantin Kilimnik, a man U.S. authorities have said has ties to Russian intelligence. Kilimnik worked closely with Manafort, who was found guilty this month of eight financial counts. Kilimnik also is a co-defendant in a pending case against Manafort in Washington, brought by Mueller's team, that accuses them both of witness tampering. Court papers don't refer to Kilimnik by name, but say Patten worked with a Russian national on lobbying and political consulting services. The Russian national, who formed a consulting company with Patten, is identified only as "Foreigner A" in court papers. The documents filed along with Patten's plea lay out years of work he performed for a wealthy Ukrainian businessman and a Ukrainian political party known as the Opposition Bloc beginning in 2014. They also detail more recent activity including his interactions with the Senate intelligence committee and the presidential inauguration committee. The goal all along, according to prosecutors, was to influence U.S. policy. But they say Patten never filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act or disclosed that he was representing the foreign businessman or the Opposition Bloc. Prosecutors say in 2015 Patten worked to set up meetings between the Ukrainian businessman and several U.S. officials including members of Congress and leaders in the State Department. Later, Patten wrote talking points and letters used to lobby U.S. officials on the behalf of the businessman, who is referred to as "Foreigner B." Patten also drafted an op-ed for Foreigner B that sought to address concerns about Ukraine's ability to work with the Trump administration. Court papers say the op-ed was published in February 2017 in a "national United States media outlet," but they do not name the media outlet or Foreigner B. However, on February 6, 2017, an op-ed published under Serhiy Lyovochkin's name appeared in U.S. News and World Report. The op-ed identifies Lyovochkin as a "leader of the Opposition Bloc" and addresses the same topic as described in Patten's case. Lyovochkin's name also came up during Manafort's trial earlier this month. Prosecutors detailed how he was among the wealthy Ukrainian businessmen who paid Manafort for his own political consulting work. Prosecutors also revealed Friday that in January 2017, Patten lined up an American as a straw purchaser of four tickets to the inauguration for Foreigner B to circumvent the ban on foreign contributions to the inaugural committee. Patten was informed in writing of the ban, court papers say. Yet, to conceal that Foreigner B was paying for the tickets, court papers say Patten had the American front the $50,000 for the tickets. The straw purchaser, who is not named, then was reimbursed by Patten's company, which in turn received the same amount from Foreigner B via an offshore bank account in Cyprus. Patten then attended the inauguration with Foreigner B. The topic came up a year later in January 2018 when Patten testified before the Senate intelligence committee as part of its investigation into Russian election interference and possible coordination with Trump associates. According to court papers, Patten misled the committee during his testimony and withheld certain documents to conceal that Foreigner B had been behind the purchase of inauguration tickets. He also gave "misleading testimony" about his representation of foreigners in the U.S. to hide that he had failed to register as a foreign agent with the Justice Department. After the congressional testimony, Patten then destroyed documents relating to his foreign work. In a joint statement Friday, committee chairman Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and the panel's top ranking Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, confirmed that the committee had made a criminal referral to the Justice Department requesting an investigation into Patten. "Due to concerns about certain statements made by Mr. Patten, the Committee made a criminal referral to the Department of Justice. While the charge, and resultant plea, do not appear to directly involve our referral, we appreciate their review of this matter," the senators said. Patten was released on his own recognizance Friday without a sentencing date. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison. During the court hearing Friday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson told Patten that she couldn't provide any estimate of his potential sentence because U.S. sentencing guidelines don't have a section for violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Prosecutions of the offense have been rare, but in recent years, the Justice Department's national security division has taken a tougher stance on enforcement of the law. The co-owner of a popular nightclub in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has resigned amidst accusations of sexual misconduct on the job. In a Facebook post this week, the Middle East announced that Joseph Sater, who has run the business with his family for decades, would be stepping down. "After 44 years, Joseph Sater has decided to retire from managing the Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub," the post stated. The decision came after several posts on social media accused Sater of inappropriate behavior, prompting bands and entertainers to cancel their shows at the venue. "We had been booking with them up until November of last year," said Heather McCormack of the Boston League of Wicked Wrestlers. While no complaint has been filed with Cambridge Police, McCormack said she trusted the numerous accounts that were posted online, as well as reiterated within the community's music circle. "I'd like to see the venue be able to recover," McCormack said. "But it has to be totally and completely changed, unfortunately." In response, the club defended Sater. While he has left, they argue there is no proof to substantiate the claims against him. "It's been challenging to find an appropriate way to respond to unsubstantiated third-party claims on social media," the club wrote. "We can say, unequivocally, that the allegations being spread online are absolutely not true and that just being publicly accused is absolutely devastating." Sater's family will continue to operate the club. However, McCormack has no plans to bring back her business yet. "Systemically, it has not been a safe place for a long time," Mccormack said. "I'm not putting him on trial. I'm choosing to take my business elsewhere, and that's what I think other people are doing, too." What to Know A 29-year-old Florence man was killed Friday night when his pickup truck left Route 112 in Worthington and he was ejected. Driver was pronounced dead at the scene and police are withholding his identity pending family notification. Crash remains under investigation by Massachusetts State Police. A 29-year-old Florence was killed Friday night when his vehicle crashed on Route 112 in the Western Massachusetts town of Worthington, according to state police. Troopers from the Russell Barracks responded to the single-vehicle crash at Goss Hill Road at 8:45 p.m. Police believe the driver, identified by police Saturday morning as Matthew Banner, was traveling northbound in a 2018 Ford F-350. Banner lost control of the vehicle, which crashed through a guardrail off to the left side of the roadway near the intersection with Goss Hill Road. Police said Banner was ejected. His body was found near a body of water known as the Little River. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause of the crash remains under investigation with assistance from the State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section and Crime Scene Services Section. State Police were assisted on scene by Worthington, Huntington, and Cummington Fire, and Hilltown Community Ambulance. A Montreal woman and her daughter who were reported missing while camping along the California coast were found safe on Thursday. Audrey Rodrigue, 29, and her 10-year-old daughter, Emily, were last seen at Six Rivers National Forest near the town of Orleans in Humboldt County on Tuesday, according to detectives from the San Mateo County Sheriffs Office. Deputies announced via Twitter Thursday evening the pair were in good health and simply enjoying their California camping trip. We are so grateful for this news & wish them safe travels back home, read the tweet. Thank you to everyone who assisted with spreading the word. Rodrigue and her daughter flew into San Francisco International Airport on Aug. 23 and rented a car. odrigues boyfriend, in Canada, reported the pair missing Monday after he hadnt heard from her in a day. Detectives did not suspect foul play, but realized some elements of camping can be dangerous and cellular service can be spotty. Driving down the California coastline can be treacherous, especially to someone unfamiliar with it, said Rosemerry Blankswade, a spokeswoman for the Sheriffs Office. After leaving the airport, Rodrigue and her daughter checked into the Vagabond Inn in Burlingame. Last Friday, Rodrigue sent her boyfriend a text and checked out of the hotel with her daughter. Authorities said the pair were expected at the hostel at the Pigeon Point lighthouse in Pescadero, the next day, Saturday, but they never arrived. Rodrigue had reservations for the Fish Lake Campground in Six Rivers National Forest for Tuesday. Campers at the site saw Rodrigue and her daughter and said they heard Rodrigue mention staying at free campsites along the coast, Blankswade said. Park rangers werent able to reach the pair before they left the park. Ashley McBride and Lauren Hernandez are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: ashley.mcbride@sfchronicle.com; lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com NORWALK The significance of an artifact-rich, 500-year-old Native American fort and settlement on the east bank of the Norwalk River was kept secret for a year by the state Department of Transportation, which feared looters would scour and violate it, Hearst Connecticut Media has learned. Now, the archaeological dig has fencing and video monitoring. But a year ago, when remnants of the fort were first found indicating trading with the Dutch in the early 17th century the potential of the wide-open site in the heart of the city, was so important that the DOT and its contracted archaeologists kept a lid on what they were uncovering. In December of 2016, archaeologists involved in the billion-dollar rebuilding of the Metro-North Railroad bridge began unearthing clues to a location they knew was first used by natives 5,000 years ago. In November 2017, they hinted there could be some farther-reaching historical importance uncovered. Finally, last month, the DOT announced the vast extent of the find. Both the archaeologists and the DOT said the secrecy was warranted by the fragility of the site, and not out of deference to the bridge project. The awesome thing about this project team is they have involved me since the very beginning, said Mandy Ranslow, the DOTs archaeologist in its Office of Environmental Planning, who noted that the planning phase of the railroad bridge reconstruction is now only 60 percent complete. And nothing were doing now is delaying the project. Find of the century First, the archaeologists found a storage pit, yielding pottery with decorative etchings indicating that the site was more than just a point in the marsh where natives had hunted and fished for millennia. Then they found the signs of the walled encampment: the acidic soils where high wooden walls called palisades had been raised. Inside the perimeter are the remnants of posts from wigwams where indigenous families lived. Theres widespread evidence of trade with the European explorers, including Dutch-made glass beads and an iron knife, as well as beads called wampum. Made by the natives from clam and oyster shells, the new arrivals to North America used wampum to barter for furs with upland tribes. Its being called the most-important discovery of indigenous life in New England in the 21st century and likely the last such find between the Connecticut River and New York City that in the early 1600s was part of the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam, during the early decades of contact with Native Americans. Given the urban location its pretty amazing that there was anything else at all, said Sara P. Sportman, senior archaeologist at the Storrs-based Archaeological and Historical Services Inc., which has been involved in the bridge project since 2015. After locating the fort through historic maps published as early as 1847, but based on generations of local word-of-mouth, the archaeologists took core samples. Later, about six inches of modern soil and fill, likely from the construction of the rail line, was scraped back. The fort site, occupied by a since-disappeared tribe called the Norwalk Indians, was active from 1610 to 1641, when the land was sold to English settlers. Questions abound There is no evidence of burials or human remains, although Lucianne Lavin, director of Research and Collections at the Institute for American Indian Studies in Washington, Connecticut, believes that dog and bear bones found at the fort could indicate a ceremonial feast of some kind. The site also poses some important cultural-historical questions, said Lavin, who recently visted the dig. Why was the settlement palisaded and located in the middle of a protective swamp? From whom were the Norwalk Indians protecting themselves? Another important question that might be answered by the Native American pottery recovered from the site: What was the cultural affiliation of the Norwalk fort inhabitants? Were they a village-band of the Wiechquaesgeck tribe whose homelands included Westchester County, Greenwich and Stamford, or were they a village/band of the Poquonnocks to their east? Or were they a separate community altogether? The site reflects a period of transition, said Mary Guillette Harper, president and owner of Archaeological and Historical Services Inc. All native groups on the Connecticut coast were caught in the global crunch to explore the New World, Harper said The Dutch and the English were vying for it and the natives literally got caught in the crosshairs. The dirt from the site above the marsh on which the high-walled fort was perched, has actually helped preserve the fragile artifacts. When removed from the soil in which it was found, the early Dutch glass changes color, on its way toward returning to the sand from which it was made. So the artifacts are stabilized and sent in small containers to a laboratory, where they are washed, cleaned and given identification numbers. The archaeologists expect to remain at the dig until December or later, to complete the recovery. Its unlikely that the size of the settlement can be determined, because so much of it was obliterated by centuries of building. The site extends under the rail tracks. The site wont be preserved after the archaeological dig. State law requires that the artifacts become the property of the University of Connecticut, but Ranslow said the DOT hopes to work with local organizations such as the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion museum, the nearby Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk and the Norwalk Historical Society to eventually bring the material back for public display. The archaeologists said they have experienced no pressure or prodding from the DOT to accelerate their excavations. The DOT deserves credit here, Harper said. This is a remarkable, one-of-a-kind find. Not every state DOT would pursue its due diligence as ConnDOT has. Theyre much more savvy, much more amenable about using advanced technology, and it completely paid off. kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT STRATFORD The fire that nearly destroyed a condo complex earlier this week was ruled accidental, and officials said the building will likely have to be torn down. Wednesday afternoon, a fire tore through a condo complex at 658 Success Avenue, destroying most of the building and leaving about 24 residents without a home. Following an investigation, the town Fire Marshal said the fire was accidental. There were no life-threatening injuries caused by the fire, but those residents still cannot return to the home. Officials said it is highly likely what remains of the building will need to be demolished. The town is making resources available to help the estimated two dozen condo residents displaced by the intense blaze. Our hearts go out to all of those who have been impacted by this terrible event, said Stratford Mayor Laura R. Hoydick. Our primary concern is that anyone who is displaced by this fire receives shelter, clothing and food ... until they have made proper arrangements for themselves. A fund was put together by the town and Sterling House Community Center to provide relief to those who lost their homes and belongings in Wednesdays fire. Donations can be made through PayPal at sterlinghousecc.org. Checks can also be mailed to the organization. Residents can even stop by Sterling House, 2283 Main St., and give their donation in person. All proceeds will go into the fund. More for you Fire displaces residents of 30-unit condo building in Stratford All donations should be noted for Success Ave. Fire Relief Fund to ensure the contributions are going to the right place. Stratford Community Services is available to help those left homeless by the fire to get on track to moving forward. They can be reached during normal business hours at 203-385-4095 or at communityservices@townofstratford.com. After hours or on weekends, residents can reach out to the American Red Cross at 1-877-287-3327, or the towns public safety director at 203-260-2700. The Red Cross has been actively helping families displaced by the fire since Wednesday. They provided comfort kits with toothbrushes, deodorant, shaving supplies and other items residents might not have grabbed in their escape. We want to make sure everyone who needs help gets it, Hoydick said. Gunn Historical Museum in Washington is seeking experienced and non-experienced actors for its 11th annual Cemetery Tour. Auditions will be held Sept. 9 at 3 p.m. and Sept. 11 at 6 p.m., with rehearsals to be held Sept. 23 from 2 to 4 p.m. and Oct. 21 from 3 to 4 p.m. Doug Winkel of the Washington Dramalites will serve as director. Martha Winkel of Dramalites will be costume director. Seven male and five female principal actors are sought to represent the 18th and 19th centuries. The tour, set for Oct. 26 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., will consist of a candlelit tour through the Washington Green Cemetery to meet residents from Washingtons past. The tour will begin at the museum at 5 Wykeham Road. A rain date of Oct. 28 is planned. Students in grades eight through 12 can earn community service hours. For information, email Lisa Breese at info@gunnhistoricalmuseum.org. The Greater New Milford Chamber of Commerce will play host to Oh Boy! The Best of the Boy Bands Sept. 8 at New Milford High School. The event is presented by the Connecticut Gay Mens Chorus. ...Japanese history is divided into four periods: Tokugawa (16031868), when the country was governed by Tokugawa shoguns; Meiji (18681905), when power was returned to the Emperor Meiji and economic modernization began; Imperial (190540), when heavy industries were founded; and, finally, the Era of High Speed Growth (195090), when Japan caught up with the rich countries of the West. The roots of Japans success lie in the Tokugawa period, although the country had many institutions that were inimical to economic growth. Society was divided into castessamurai, peasants, artisans, and merchantsand the polity into several hundred domains ruled by lords called daimyo. Domains could be confiscated, and this created insecurity of property at the highest social levelrather like Elizabethan England. Draconian restrictions were imposed on international trade and contacts. Inbound ships were only allowed from China, Korea, and the Netherlands, and the Dutch were restricted to a tiny settlement in Nagasaki. Technology advanced in the Tokugawa period, but the character of the improvements was the reverse of Britains. Since wages were low in East Asia, the Japanese invented technology that increased the employment of labour in order to raise the productivity of land, capital, and materials. Labour, for instance, was deployed constructing irrigation systems to raise crop yields. New varieties of rice such as akamai were planted, and water control allowed a second crop such as wheat, cotton, sugar cane, mulberry, or rapeseed to be grown. Farmers worked more hours per hectare and used less capital, as hoes were substituted for ploughs and draft animals. Productivity in manufacturing processes was also improved. Domains tried to attract industries and supported research to raise their productivity since more production led to more tax revenue. In the case of silk, early experiments to use machinery along English lines (for example, employing gear and belt systems inspired by clocks and automatons) were abandoned since they were not economic. Instead, experiments were directed at improving the productivity of silk worms. Selective breeding and temperature control cut maturation time and boosted silk per cocoon by one-quarter. In mining, mechanical systems of drainage were known but not used; instead, armies of workers did the work. Likewise, much labour was expended to extract the maximum amount of metal from ores. The exception that proves the rule was sake. Capital-intensive, water-powered factories were installed but only because the government restricted production by limiting the time during which breweries could operate. That restriction led to high-volume plant design. Tokugawa development produced uneven prosperity. The population and rice crop both grew in the 17th century, but the wages of labourers stayed at bare-bones subsistence. The average person consumed about 1,800 calories per day in the late Tokugawa and early Meiji periods. Most calories and protein came from rice, potatoes, and beans rather than meat or fish. The correlate was that people were short: men averaged 157 cm and women 146 cm. Many people, nonetheless, enjoyed a more affluent lifestyle. About 15% of the population lived in cities; Edo (modern-day Tokyo), with a population of one million, Osaka, and Kyoto (each 400,000) were amongst the largest cities in the world. Life expectancy was increasing. Leisure grew as peasants took recreation days and travelled around the country. School attendance was very high for an agrarian society. In 1868, 43% of boys and 10% of girls attended school, where they learned reading and arithmetic. More than half of adult men were literate. Reading for instruction and pleasure was widespread. Books were too expensive for most people to buy, but they could be rented from shops. In 1808, there were 656 rental bookshops in Edo, supplying about 100,000 households (roughly half the population) with books. The high level of education was probably due to the commercialization of the Japanese economy, and it underlay later growth. Tokugawa Japan achieved an impressive level of engineering and administrative competence that was apparent in the establishment of the first iron foundry in Nagasaki. Military necessity was the impetus. In 1808, HMS Phaeton entered the citys port to attack Dutch shipping. Phaeton threatened to bombard the harbour unless provisions were provided. The Japanese had no iron cannon to defend themselves since they had no furnaces to cast them. Nabeshima Naomasa, who became the lord ruling Nagasaki and who was an enthusiast for Western science, established a team to create a cannon foundry. The group included savants and craftsmen skilled in iron. They translated a Dutch book describing a foundry in Leyden and replicated it. In 1850, they succeeded in building a reverberatory furnace, and three years later were casting cannon. In 1854, the Nagasaki group imported state-of-the-art, breech-loading Armstrong guns from Britain and manufactured copies. By 1868, Japan had eleven furnaces casting iron. The Meiji Restoration: In 1839, the British attacked China to force the country to allow the importation of opium, which was one of the East India Companys most lucrative products. Narco-imperialism triumphed with Chinas defeat in 1842. Would Japan be next? The answer seemed to be yes when the US Commodore Perry arrived with four warships in 1853 and demanded that Japan end its restrictions on foreign trade. Without a modern navy, Japan felt it had to agree and signed treaties with the USA, Britain, France, and Russia. An adequate military was urgent. The Tokugawa shogun took some steps to improve Japanese security, but many regarded this as too little, too late. In 1867, the Emperor Meiji ascended the thrown. Modernizers effected a virtual coup detat, and the last Tokugawa shogun relinquished his powers. The slogan of the modernizers was rich country, strong army. The new regime undertook sweeping reforms. All of the feudal domains were surrendered to the Emperor, and the 1.9 million samurai were paid off with government bonds. The four orders of society were abolished, so anyone could take any job. The peasants were confirmed in the ownership of their land and modern property rights were created. Feudal payments were replaced by a land tax to the national government. This provided most state income in the 1870s. In 1873, universal conscription was introduced and a Western-style army created. This further eroded the privileges of the samurai, who had previously been the only people allowed to bear arms. In 1890, a written constitution that created a constitutional monarch on the Prussian model was adopted. The radical spirit of Meiji Japan is shown by a simple problem-the measurement of time. The traditional Japanese clock divided the interval from sunrise to sunset into six hours and from sunset to sunrise into another six hours. The day hour and the night hour, therefore, differed in duration, and, moreover, the length of each varied over the course of the year. Tokugawa clockmakers experimented with ingenious modifications of Western mechanical clocks to reproduce these hours. In 1873, the first Japanese railway was completed, and the Meiji government faced the problem of publishing a timetable. Rather than a complicated schedule with departure and arrival times varying over the year, the state instead abolished traditional Japanese time and replaced it with the Western 24-hour clock. Modern transportation required modern time. Meiji economic development: The Meiji government would have liked to develop the country with the standard model that had been successful in Western Europe and North America, but they could easily introduce only two of its four components. The first was the creation of a national market by abolishing the tariffs between domains and building a railway network. The second was universal education. In 1872, elementary schooling was made compulsory, and, by 1900, 90% of the school-age children were enrolled. Secondary schools and universities were founded but were limited and highly competitive. Thousands of Japanese were sent abroad to study. As a result, education progressed much earlier in Japan than in other poor countries. Table 6 contrasts Japan with Indonesia, a country whose experience is representative of most of Asia and Africa. In Japan, a high proportion of the population (10.8%) was in school by the late 19th century, and modern levels of participation (19.7%) were reached by the Second World War. Indonesia, by contrast, lagged several generations behind Japan. Mass education was an important reason for Japans success in adopting modern technology. The other components of the development modelinvestment banks and a protective tariffwere harder to implement. Tokugawa Japan had nothing like modern banks. The Meiji state chartered banks from the outset, but the system was chaotic. It took 50 years for Japan to develop a banking system along German lines. Early in the Meiji period, the state filled the gap by acting as the venture capitalist. It was impossible for Japan to use tariffs to promote industrial development because the maximum tariff rate was capped at 5% by a treaty forced on Japan by the Western powers in 1866. Instead, the state intervened directly in the economy through targeted industrial policy. The most important actors were the Ministries of the Interior and Industry, which were charged with importing modern technology. The Ministry of Industry established Japans railway and telegraph systems in the 1870s and 1880s. Foreign technicians initially guided the project, but a school to train Japanese engineers was established in Osaka, and the foreigners were dispensed with as quickly as possible. One reason the Japanese managed the projects was to ensure that procurement policy promoted Japanese industry. Japanese potters, for instance, received contracts to make insulators for telegraph lines, and, in that way, an industrial ceramics industry was created. In the 1870s and 1880s, both ministries operated on the assumption that Japanese business would not introduce modern technology at the required pace, so that the state had to be the entrepreneur. State-owned mines and factories were established using advanced imported machinery, but most were commercial failures. The Tomioka silk-reeling factory, for instance, was built in 1872 with French machinery and steam power but always lost money. In the 1880s, the Japanese government sold most of its industrial establishments and relied on business to make management decisions within the framework established by the state. Japanese business solved the problem of importing technology by re-engineering it to make it appropriate for Japanese conditions. Japan faced a problem that has only become worse with time: modern technology was embodied in machinery and plant specifications that were designed for Western firms facing Western conditions. By the late 19th century, wages were much higher in the West than they were in Japan, so Western designs used much capital and raw materials to economize on labour. This configuration was inappropriate for Japan and resulted in high costs. Some countries limped along with inappropriate technology, but the Japanese response was far more creative: they redesigned Western technology to make it cost-effective in their low-wage economy. Silk-reeling was an early example. At the same time that the Tomioka mill was losing money, the Ono merchant family in Tsukiji established a mill that also used European-inspired machinery. In this case, however, the machines were made of wood rather than metal and the power came from men turning cranks rather than a steam engine. The modification of Western technology along these lines became common in Japan as the Suwa method. This was an appropriate technology for Japan in that it used less expensive capital and more cheap labour. It was the same story with cotton. The early attempts to spin with mules were not successful. Much more successful was the garabo (rattling spindle) invented by Gaun Tokimune. The garabo could be produced cheaply by local carpenters (so it saved capital) and produced yarn similar to that produced hand wheels with which it was competing. The garabo was not a high-level Meiji project, but it was supported by the Association for Developing Production run by Gauns local prefecture. The contrast with India is telling. The cotton-spinning industry that grew rapidly in Bombay in the 1870s used English mules, and the mills were operated in the same manner as in Britain. No systematic attempts were made to reduce capital in the Indian industry. Such efforts were made in Japan, however. An elementary step was to operate the mills with two eleven-hour shifts per day rather than one, which was normal in Britain and India. This cut capital per hour worked in half. From the 1890s onwards, high-speed ring spindles were installed instead of mules. These changes in technique all increased employment relative to capital and cut costs. By the 20th century, Japan was the worlds low-cost spinner of cotton and was out-competing the Indians and Chinese as well as the British. Development of appropriate technology extended to agriculture. The Japanese experimented with US farm machinery in the 1870s, but it was unsuccessful because it used too much capital. More successful were efforts to increase the productivity of land, even if that required the use of more labour. In 1877, shinriki rice was developed near Osaka. It gave high yields if it was fertilized and if the paddy was thoroughly tilled. Veteran farmers organizations were enlisted by the Ministry of Agriculture to spread this culture to the rest of the country. Agricultural output grew steadily in Meiji Japan and made an important contribution to the growth of the economy once invention focused on increasing the productivity of land, the scarce and expensive factor of production. The Imperial period, 190540: While Japanese society was overhauled in the Meiji period, change in the economic structure was slow. The leading industries were traditionaltea, silk, and cotton. Exports of these products paid for imported machinery and raw materials. Industrial growth accelerated between 1905 and 1940, and its character changed. The share of manufacturing leapt from 20% of GDP in 1910 to 35% in 1938. The metallurgical, engineering, and chemical industries that dominated post-war Japanese growth were founded in this period, as were the famous firms that produce these products. These advances coincided with the full implementation of the standard development model. Japan recovered control over its tariffs in 1894 and 1911, and they were immediately raised to protect industry. By the 1920s, the banking system had matured to the point that it could finance industrial development. In addition, Japan retained its system of targeted industrial policy. The combination of policy instruments proved particularly potent for promoting heavy industry. The first step was taken in 1905 when the Yawata Steel Works were established for strategic reasons. The plant was state-owned and required subsidies for years before becoming profitable. The First World War gave a boost to Japanese business since European imports were cut off. After the war, the military undertook research in conjunction with private companies, and promoted key industries like automobiles, trucks, and aircraft with procurement contracts. Large-scale firms, along with banks that financed them, were owned by holding companies. These zaibatsu coordinated production and channelled investment to industry. While the zaibatsu aimed to deal with the shortage of capital in Japan by increasing the rates of savings and investment, management also responded to the factor prices it faced by inventing appropriate technology. American firms operating in a high-wage environment invented highly mechanized, assembly-line production systems that economized on labour. Japanese firms, in contrast, economized on raw materials and capital. One of Japans most famous products was the Mitsubishi Zero fighter. Its maximum speed of 500 kilometres per hour at 4,000 metres was not achieved by increasing the power of its engine but instead by reducing its weight. One expedient developed in the 1930s was just in time production. Rather than producing components for inventories that required capital to finance, Japanese businesses produced components only as they were needed. Just in time production is a technique that has proved to be so productive that it is now used in settings where capital is cheap as well as where it is dear. Unlike Tsarist Russia or Mexico, foreign investment was a comparatively unimportant channel for importing Western technology. Instead, Japanese firms established their own R&D departments to copy it and re-engineer it to suit Japanese conditions. Business was supported by the state. When it proved impossible to import electrical turbines from Germany in 1914, Hitachi was awarded a contract for a 10,000-horsepower turbine for a hydro-electric project. Since the largest turbine Hitachi had previously built was 100-horsepower, there was much to learn, and the experience strengthened the firms engineering capabilities. Japans application of the standard development model was a mixed success. On the one hand, an urban society with advanced industries was created. Per capita GDP increased from $737 in 1870 to $2,874 in 1940. Given the stagnation that gripped most of the Third World, these achievements were impressive. On the other hand, the rate of growth in per capita income (2.0% per year) was modest and not much above the US rate of 1.5%. If these rates had continued after 1950, it would have taken Japan 327 years to catch up to the USA. That was not fast enough. The slow growth of the economy was reflected in weaknesses in the labour market, as in Russia and Mexico. The large-scale firms paid high wages... It turns out that California and the Trump administration do agree on at least one thing: Don't mess with coffee. Trump's hand-picked food and drug czar, Scott Gottlieb, said Wednesday that he "strongly supports" a proposal by officials in Sacramento to exempt the morning elixir from the state's list of known cancer-causing compounds despite a court order to the contrary. I think coffee is fantastic. I think it's good for me, good for my heart, makes me happy. Sid Silverthorn, who drinks about three cups of coffee a day. As a cancer survivor, he says, of all the things alleged to cause cancer, coffee is the least of his worries. Java fans received the news nonchalantly, making it clear they would not be put off their cup of Joe no matter what Gottlieb or state officials had to say about it. Sid Silverthorn, sipping his favorite hot beverage outside a Sacramento Starbucks, said he'd been treated for prostate cancer a couple of decades back and since his recovery has been vigilant about products that could harm his health. Coffee, he said, is not one of them. "I think coffee is fantastic," the 88-year-old said with relish. "I think it's good for me, good for my heart, makes me happy." Despite the passion of hard-core consumers like Silverthorn, vendors worry that cancer warnings posted on their doors wouldn't exactly be seen as welcome signs. "I think it would evoke a visceral reaction," said Lauren Taber, spokeswoman for Pachamama Coffee Cooperative in Sacramento. "People go into their local coffee shop and think 'Wait, I can get cancer from this?'" In this state, coffee drinks can be an art form with devotees routinely laying out $5 or more for triple non-fat spiced lattes, extra hot or upside down. But that has clashed in this case with another state obsession: triple-checking the purity of food and drink. The whole brewhaha started with an eight-year-old lawsuit that culminated earlier this year with a Los Angeles Superior Court judges ruling that coffee must be labeled a carcinogen under California's Proposition 65, a law that requires public disclosure of chemicals determined by the state to pose a risk of cancer. I think it would evoke a visceral reaction ... People go into their local coffee shop and think, 'Wait, I can get cancer from this?' Lauren Taber, spokeswoman for Pachamama Coffee Cooperative in Sacramento At issue is a chemical called acrylamide, a byproduct of coffee roasting also present in many other foods that are roasted, fried or baked. It is already on California's list of potential cancer-causing agents, but had not been widely associated with coffee until the lawsuit. Industry officials argue that a cancer warning is off base, because coffee contains only trace amounts of acrylamide. The state agency that oversees Proposition 65, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, responded in June to the judge's ruling with a proposal to exempt coffee from the cancer disclosure law. The agency pointed to a report by the World Health Organization's international Agency for Research on Cancer that concluded there was "inadequate evidence" to link coffee drinking to malignancies. In fact, the report found that coffee was associated with a reduced risk of liver and uterine cancer and was not a cause of breast, pancreatic or prostate cancer. The agency aims to finalize its proposed regulation by the end of this year. Gottlieb, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said a cancer warning on coffee "would be more likely to mislead consumers than to inform them." And, he said, it could violate a federal law that prohibits misleading labels on food. But at this point I don't think it makes a difference to people. ... We're all addicted. Kirsten Richardson The coffee industry's main trade group, which counts Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts among its members, warmly welcomed Gottlieb's support. "Now that science has so comprehensively established the facts on coffee, we believe it is incumbent on regulators to give citizens confidence in what they are consuming," Bill Murray, CEO and president of the National Coffee Association, said in an email. Kirsten Richardson, 30, a North Carolina resident who was visiting Sacramento this week and stopped in for a vanilla latte at The Mill, a local coffee shop, said she was glad to hear the FDA had vindicated her favorite drink. "But at this point I don't think it makes a difference to people," she added. "We're all addicted." This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, which publishes California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation. Chiggers, redbugs, harvest mites - whatever you call them, they are pesky little bugs whose bites cause really itchy rashes, usually around the ankles and waistline. In addition to being uncomfortable and annoying, these bites may also cause a relatively rare allergic reaction to red meat known as alpha-gal, according to doctors at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Although the medical community has known for the past five to 10 years that ticks can cause this allergy, case studies from Wake Forest Baptist and the University of Virginia (U.Va.) suggest that chigger bites also may be responsible. The paper is published in the current issue of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice. "If a patient comes in telling me they ate red meat for dinner and then hours later woke up with anaphylaxis, I suspect an alpha-gal allergy," said lead author Russell Scott Traister, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pulmonary, critical care, allergy and immunologic diseases at Wake Forest Baptist. "With those symptoms, doctors usually ask if the person has had a tick bite recently. But we started seeing patients with the same symptoms who said they hadn't had a tick bite, only chigger bites." This allergy is a reaction to a carbohydrate molecule on mammalian meat - beef, pork, venison, etc. - called alpha-gal. However, unlike most allergic reactions that happen within minutes, a reaction to alpha-gal occurs after three to six hours. The only cure is to avoid all mammalian meat, Traister said. In addition to case studies seen at Wake Forest Baptist, Traister cited results reported by U.Va. from 311 patients who had answered a questionnaire about exposure to tick or chigger bites before developing an alpha-gal allergy. Of the 301 who reported either tick or chigger bites in the past 10 years, 5.5 percent reported a history of chigger bites, but no tick exposure. Further studies are needed to determine if the alpha-gal molecule is in the gastrointestinal tracts of chiggers to confirm that they, as well as ticks, can cause mammalian meat allergy. "In the meantime, we want allergists to be aware that patients may report chigger bites, and based on that fact alone should not dismiss alpha-gal sensitization as a possible diagnosis," Traister said. Source: https://newsroom.wakehealth.edu/News-Releases/2018/08/Allergists-Warn-that-Chigger-Bites-May-Cause-Allergic-Reaction-to-Red-Meat Medicaid expansion may fill a significant gap in reproductive health care access, especially among young and low-income women, a new Michigan Medicine study finds. Among 1,166 reproductive-aged women who enrolled in the Healthy Michigan Plan -; Michigan's expansion of the Medicaid program for low-income adults -; 1 in 3 said that the expanded coverage improved access to birth control and family planning services. Groups most likely to report benefits of this access were younger women and those who did not previously have health insurance, according to the findings published in JAMA Network Open. "Our findings suggest that the expansion provided an important service for populations with a high unmet need for family planning care," says lead author Michelle Moniz, M.D., M.Sc., an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Michigan Medicine. "Unmet reproductive health needs can lead to unintended pregnancy, which has a higher risk of adverse health outcomes and is expensive to the health care system." Ideally, health providers will address a woman's health issues ahead of pregnancy, Moniz says. Pre-existing chronic conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, hypertension and heart disease put pregnant women at a higher risk of negative health outcomes. Newborns of women with these pre-existing conditions also face increased health risks, including poor fetal growth, preterm delivery and stillbirth. "When a woman has an unintended pregnancy, we miss an opportunity to potentially optimize her health and her baby's health," says Moniz, also a member of U-M's Institute of Healthcare Policy and Innovation. "Medicaid expansion means that more women may have an opportunity to work with a provider to manage those conditions before a pregnancy begins, in order to ensure the healthiest outcomes for moms and babies. "Insurance coverage also means that women have access to more options if they do not want to become pregnant at the current time." There are financial payoffs to improved family planning access under Medicaid expansion as well, Moniz says. Each U.S. dollar spent on contraception is estimated to save the health care system more than $7 in return, according to a recent study from the Guttmacher Institute. Nearly 40 to 50 percent of the 4 million live births in the U.S. every year are paid for by Medicaid. Unintended pregnancies also come with other hidden costs, such as a woman's reduced ability to meet educational goals and professional attainment after giving birth, as well as a higher likelihood of financial difficulties. In the current study of Medicaid expansion in Michigan, the youngest group of women surveyed, ages 19 to 24, were nearly three times more likely to report improved family planning access than other age groups. Women who didn't have insurance up to a year before the expansion were also twice as likely to report improved access than those who were insured. "Women with the highest rates of unintended pregnancy and unmet contraceptive needs were most likely to benefit from the expanded coverage," Moniz says. Still, she adds, "We saw no differences in improved access among demographic groups. This was reassuring because it suggests that the benefits of Medicaid expansion are shared equitably across diverse populations." A more surprising finding was that women who had recently visited a primary clinician also reported improved access to family planning services. Moniz says this may be due to clinicians informing women of family planning service benefits covered under their plan and "playing an important role in turning the coverage into actual access to care." Currently, 32 states and the District of Columbia have expanded Medicaid programs under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The new study was conducted as part of IHPI's evaluation of the impact of Michigan's expansion on many types of care. Moniz says additional research is needed to understand whether improved access translates into enhanced contraceptive use and improved reproductive health outcomes. "Our findings suggest that Medicaid expansion is associated with improved access to family planning services, which may enable low-oncome women to maintain optimal reproductive health," Moniz says. "This is a big win for our state." Sitting for too many hours per day, or sitting for long periods without a break, is now known to increase a wide range of health risks, even if one engages in recommended amounts of physical activity. The health risks of prolonged sedentary time and nurses' role in reducing those risks are discussed in an integrative literature review and update in the September issue of the American Journal of Nursing. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer. But while the evidence on the adverse effects of prolonged sedentary time continues to grow, further studies are needed to determine "the most effective and practical interventions for reducing habitual sitting," according to the article by Linda Eanes, EdD, MSN, of the School of Nursing at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg. She writes, "Nurses have a pivotal role to play in increasing public awareness about the potential adverse effects of high-volume and prolonged uninterrupted sitting." Health Risks of Too Much Sitting What's the Evidence? In recent years, studies have shown a direct relationship between prolonged sitting and the risk of several chronic health conditions. Increased health risks have been reported both for high-volume sitting, such as sitting for seven or more hours per day, and for prolonged uninterrupted sitting, such as sitting for 30 minutes or longer without a break. The health risks of prolonged sitting are independent of whether the person participates in recommended physical activity. In her review, Dr. Eanes summarizes pivotal studies showing the association between high-volume and prolonged uninterrupted sitting and health risks including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and all-cause mortality. In conjunction with obesity, sedentary time is also linked to an increased risk of certain cancers, including ovarian, endometrial, and colon cancer. How does too much sitting increase health risks? Immobility decreases stimulation of weight-bearing muscles, leading to decreased activity of an enzyme (lipoprotein lipase) that plays an essential role in lipid metabolism, including production of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (the so-called "good" cholesterol) as well as uptake of glucose from the blood. In contrast, breaking up sedentary times with frequent bouts of standing or slow walking may reduce these metabolic risks-;although the optimal levels of standing or walking remain unclear. Nurses and other healthcare professionals now have a new priority: educating patients about the health risks of prolonged sedentary time and making suggestions to reduce and interrupt sitting times. Proposed interventions include using a standing desk or taking frequent walking or standing breaks, as well as the use of computer or smartphone reminders to take brief physical activity breaks during the day. But questions remain about the most effective ways to address high-volume or uninterrupted sitting, including the "dose-response relationships" between sedentary behavior, taking breaks, and various health outcomes. In contrast to efforts to increase physical activity, merely providing people with information and education might be effective in promoting reduction of sedentary behavior. "Much more research is needed in the field of inactivity physiology," according to the author. While it's still important to promote regular physical activity, nurses should pay more attention to evaluating total daily sitting time, and to understanding the individual, social, occupational, and community/environmental factors that contribute to it. "Nurses can also actively encourage all patients, regardless of demographics, to balance sedentary behavior and physical activity simply by taking more frequent standing or walking breaks," Dr. Eanes writes. She believes that nurses are well positioned to contribute to research on the health risks associated with prolonged sitting and the most effective interventions for reducing those risks. Asthma patients, with a specific genetic profile, exhibit more intense symptoms following exposure to traffic pollution, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health and collaborators. The study appeared online in Scientific Reports. The research team, made up of scientists from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of NIH, and Rice University, Houston, also found that asthma patients that lack this genetic profile do not have the same sensitivity to traffic pollution and do not experience worse asthma symptoms. The work brings scientists closer to being able to use precision medicine, an emerging field that intends to prevent and treat disease based on factors specific to an individual. Co-lead author Shepherd Schurman, M.D., associate medical director of the NIEHS Clinical Research Unit, stated the results are based on genetic variation, the subtle differences in DNA that make each person unique. He further added that to understand the concept, one should think of human genes, which are made up of DNA base pairs A, C, G, and T, as written instructions for making proteins. "All humans have the same genes, in other words the same basic instructions, but in some people one DNA base pair has been changed," Schurman said. "This common type of genetic variation is called a single nucleotide polymorphism or SNP, and it can alter the way proteins are made and make individuals more or less prone to illness." Schurman is also head of the Environmental Polymorphisms Registry (EPR), the DNA bank in North Carolina that provided volunteers for the study. The EPR studies how SNPs impact disease risk in combination with environmental exposures. Together with NIEHS colleague and lung disease expert Stavros Garantziotis, M.D., medical director of the NIEHS Clinical Research Unit, the two scientists examined four SNPs that are involved in a biochemical pathway that leads to inflammatory responses in the body. They explained that SNPs are usually studied one at a time, but they wanted to learn if different combinations of these SNPs, along with pollution exposure, could worsen symptoms in a person with an inflammatory disease like asthma. Schurman and Garantziotis gathered information about the SNPs, severity of asthma symptoms, and residential addresses of 2,704 EPR participants with asthma. Using the SNPs data, they divided the participants into three groups: hyper-responders, or those very sensitive to air pollution and likely to develop inflammation; hypo-responders, or those insensitive to air pollution and less likely to develop inflammation; and those in between. With the help of collaborators at Rice University, the team used the participants' addresses to calculate their distance from a major road. Participants were categorized depending on whether they lived more or less than 275 yards from a major roadway. Data suggest that air pollution levels are elevated closer to major roads. The researchers found that asthma sufferers who were hyper-responders and lived closer to heavily travelled roads had the worst asthma symptoms, such as difficulty breathing, chest pain, cough, and wheezing, compared to the other groups. In contrast, asthma patients who were hypo-responders and lived further away from busy roads had milder symptoms. Garantziotis concluded the work could greatly enhance the quality of life for people with asthma. "Based on this research, we could propose that hyper-responders, who are exposed to traffic pollution, receive air purification intervention, such as HEPA filters, for their home," Garantziotis said. NIEHS Clinical Director Janet Hall, M.D., said the results emphasize the importance of gene-environment interactions in the progression of disease. "This research is a great example of how we can approach disease prevention on a personal level, and tailor our treatments to suit individual patients," she said. "That way we can be more efficient with our treatments and preventative measures, while at the same time cutting health care costs." Islamabad : Pakistan on Friday expressed its support to Iran on the international nuclear deal related to the Iranian nuclear issue during talks between foreign ministers of the two countries, the Foreign Ministry said. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who arrived in Pakistan on Thursday on a two-day visit, held detailed talks with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi at the Foreign Ministry. Detailed discussions were held on regional and global issues including the situation in Afghanistan and the U.S. decision to unilaterally withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed in 2015, said ministry said in a statement. "As regards JCPOA, while supporting Iran's principled stance, Qureshi expressed the hope that remaining parties to the Agreement would uphold their commitments in letter and spirit," it said. "This was important given International Atomic Energy Agency repeated verification that Iran has strictly adhered to the terms of agreement," the statement added, saying Qureshi told his Iranian counterpart that "Pakistan stands with Iran in this hour of need." The multilateral deal on the Iranian nuclear issue was struck between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany and the European Union, and was adopted by the UN Security Council Resolution 2,231. US President Donald Trump announced in May his country's withdrawal from the nuclear deal that triggered criticism by the United Nations and several countries. During their talks, the two ministers also underlined the need to promote bilateral relations in all areas of cooperation and agreed to host next rounds of Bilateral Political Consultations and the Joint Economic Commission at early dates, according to the Foreign Ministry. On Friday, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan also met with Zarif, who delivered a message of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, inviting Imran Khan for the upcoming Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) Summit in Iran in October. Both Pakistan and Iran are members of the organization. Iran currently holds the chair of the organization, which was inaugurated in June 2002 in Thailand. "As land bridges between economically resource-rich regions, together with other regional partners, Pakistan and Iran remained the key to growth and prosperity in the region through enhancing connectivity and promoting people-to-people linkages," Imran Khan told Zarif. Imran Khan also said that during his tenure, Pakistan would make all efforts to cement these relations in various areas to the benefit of both countries. Riyadh : A Saudi official has hinted that the kingdom is moving forward with a plan to dig a canal that may turn neighbouring Qatari peninsula into an island, amid a diplomatic feud between the Gulf nations. "I am impatiently waiting for details on the implementation of the Salwa island project, a great, historic project that will change the geography of the region," Saud al-Qahtani, a senior adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, tweeted on Friday. The plan, which would physically separate the Qatari peninsula from the Saudi mainland, is the latest stress point in a highly fractious 14-month long dispute between the two states, The News International reported. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar in June 2017, accusing it of supporting terrorism and being too close to Riyadhs archrival, Iran. Doha denied the charges. In April, the pro-government Sabq news website reported government plans to build a channel -- 60km long and 200m wide -- stretching across the kingdom's border with Qatar. Part of the canal, which would cost up to $750 million, would be reserved for a planned nuclear waste facility, it said. Both Saudi and Qatar authorities did not respond to requests for comment and there was no immediate reaction on the plan from Qatar, The News International reported. After the dispute erupted last year, Qatar -- a small peninsula nation -- found its only land border closed, its state-owned airline barred from using its neighbours' airspace, and Qatari residents expelled from the boycotting nations. Mediation efforts led by Kuwait and the US, which has its largest Middle East air base in Qatar, have so far failed to resolve the dispute. Colombo : The United Nation's Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, will pay an official visit to Sri Lanka in September at the invitation of the Sri Lankan government, the media reported on Friday. Bohoslavsky said his visit is aimed at collecting first-hand information and examining questions related to debt and other financial obligations from a human rights standpoint, Xinhua news agency reported. "The purpose of the mission is to identify good practices, challenges and potential gaps to be addressed," he said. "An important objective of my visit is to study the effects of public debt and related polices on the full enjoyment of human rights," he added. During Bohoslavsky's visit from September 3-11, he will pay specific attention to the incorporation of human rights standards in international development financing, microfinance, and efforts deployed to prevent and combat illicit financial flows in the country. "I look forward to engaging with the authorities of Sri Lanka, civil society, academics, the international community and other relevant stakeholders," Bohoslavsky said. The Independent Expert will submit a comprehensive report about his visit to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2019. Washington : The fate of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) became uncertain when the US and Canada failed to come to a consensus on rewriting the three-nation trade pact. "We know a win-win-win agreement is within reach and that's what we're working towards," said Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland at a press conference on Friday.The US Trade Representative's office said talks with Canada would continue on Wednesday and that President Donald Trump has formally notified Congress of the trade deal he struck with Mexico earlier this week, reports CNN."Today the President notified the Congress of his intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico -- and Canada, if it is willing -- 90 days from now. The agreement is the most advanced and high-standard trade agreement in the world," the statement said.Talks came to a head on Friday as officials rushed to beat a US-imposed deadline that would allow them to sign the deal before Mexico's president-elect, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, takes office on December 1.The US and Mexico announced a preliminary bilateral deal earlier this week after resolving an issue over auto manufacturing. Canadian officials rejoined the talks this week.Officials from both the US and Canadian negotiating teams confirmed on Friday that they will continue working towards a trilateral deal, and that good progress has been made over the past year at revamping the 24-year-old trade deal."The government of Canada will not sign an agreement unless it's good for Canada and good for Canadians," Freeland said Friday.At issue is Canadian concessions on agriculture.Trump has said he wants Canada to end its steep tariffs on US dairy products, claiming they hurt US farmers. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pledged to protect his country's dairy industry.The White House must give Congress an official 90-day notice before entering into a new trade deal. Since administration notified Congress on Friday, Trump will be allowed to sign the deal by November 30, reports CNN.Even then, Congress could still block the deal. It's unlikely any rewrite of NAFTA would come up for a vote until 2019.The text of the agreement does not have to be submitted to Congress until September 30.The governments of Canada and Mexico must also ratify the agreement and if they don't, then there's no deal. Representational Image New Delhi : Global warming is big threats today and concerning the issue, researchers keep on studying its impact on the human, plants and animals. Lately, a study claims that global warming will create more hungry bugs indicating a risk to crop cultivation on the Earth. As per the findings, rising temperatures will stimulate insects' appetites and ability to reproduce more insects rapidly. The hungry insects will eat up the valuable wheat, corn and rice production which otherwise feed billions of people. As a result, there might be scarcity of food, leading to conflict and starvation in poorer groups of the globe. "When it gets warmer, pest metabolism increases," said Scott Merrill, a researcher at the University of Vermont and co-author of the study in the journal Science. "And when pest metabolism increases, insect pests eat more food, which is not good for crops." Earlier, global warming studies have warned of climate change's harmful effects on food staples, either by creating scarcity of water for irrigation or sapping nutritious content from cereal grains. Now, the study adds to the increased appetites of pests like aphids and borers. During the study, researchers ran simulations to track temperature-driven changes in metabolism and growth rates for 38 insect species from different latitudes. "In France or the northern United States, most of those insects will have a faster population growth if the temperature warms up a bit," lead author Curtis Deutsch told AFP. "In Brazil or Vietnam or a very warm place, then it might be the opposite," said Deutsch, a researcher at the University of Washington. In Europe, currently the most productive wheat producing region in the world, annual pest-induced yield losses could reach 16 million tons. Eleven European countries are predicted to see 75 percent or higher losses in wheat from pests, compared to current pest damage. In the United States, the world's largest maize producer, insect-induced maize losses could rise 40 percent under current climate warming trajectories, meaning 20 fewer tons of maize per year. The study, however, do not support increased use of pesticide nor researchers suggest methods of stemming the crop loss. Conversely, they believe that the findings will spark a hunt for more local solutions, like selecting heat and pest resistant crops and rotating plantings rather than simply dumping more pesticides into the environment. Washington : The White House said on Friday that US President Donald Trump will travel to France, Ireland, Argentina and Columbia in November for bilateral and multilateral issues. According to a statement issued by the White House press secretary, Trump will travel to Paris, France, to participate in a November 11 commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended the fighting in World War I, Xinhua reported. Trump's "participation in this event will highlight the sacrifices that Americans have made, not only during World War I but also in the century since," the White House said. While in Europe, Trump also will visit Ireland to "renew the deep and historic ties" with the country, read the statement. Later in November, Trump will attend the Group of 20 (G20) Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. "The G20 Summit will be an opportunity for the President to highlight his pro-growth economic policies on an international stage and meet bilaterally with other key world leaders," the White House said. The US leader will also travel to Colombia, where he "looks forward to discussing with the Duque administration opportunities for even greater collaboration on security, counter narcotics, and regional affairs." In addition, Trump has asked Vice President Mike Pence to travel to Singapore in November to attend the United States-Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit and the East Asia Summit and then to Papua New Guinea for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings. Pence will highlight the US regional vision, and meet with leaders of US regional allies and partners to advance security and prosperity, among others, the White House said. Sorry! This content is not available in your region NEWTOWN - Fourth-grade teacher Abbey Clements had enough to do preparing for the first day of school without embroiling herself in the national debate about arming educators. But Clements also knew that as a teacher who survived the worst crime in Connecticut history, her story could make a difference. So Clements recounted the hell she lived through in 2012, when a gunman shot his way into Sandy Hook School, killing 20 first-graders and six educators, writing in Elle magazine last week that arming teachers is a dangerous idea. I would like to make something perfectly clear, Clements writes. [H]ad school employees been carrying guns at Sandy Hook School, it would not have made us or our students any safer. Clements Aug. 27 essay in Elle came four days after news reports that U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was considering allowing school districts to use federal grants to arm teachers. It was not the first time that the idea had been floated in the wake of the Valentines Day massacre of 17 students and staff at a Florida high school, nor was it the first time that Sandy Hook activists objected. In late February, during a White House listening session about school shootings, President Donald Trump suggested to students, parents and teachers that guns in schools would make everyone safer. Nicole Hockley, a founder of Sandy Hook Promise who lost a son in the Sandy Hook massacre, told the president her organization would rather arm teachers with knowledge about how to prevent school violence. Last week, Clements agreed. Instead of taking funds away from students who need it the most, lets look at this problem we have with gun violence and figure out how to prevent it instead of just reacting to it, Clements told The News-Times. Clements said she was so incensed to learn that DeVos was considering using federal money to arm teachers that Clements overcame her apprehension about sharing her experience publicly and wrote the Elle piece. It is something that continues to be difficult for me because I am not a very vocal person, Clements told The News-Times. For me personally this is the way that I can take this horrible, heinous tragedy that happened to my beautiful school and my beautiful town, and try to make a change. In the Elle piece, Clements shares enough of her story from that day to put the reader in the building when the shooting started. Clements had just come from a meeting with the school principal Dawn Hochsrpung, who was slain trying to stop the shooter. Clements writes shell never forget how fast shootings happen and how chaotic and confusing they are. Its incredibly difficult to determine who is shooting or where the gunfire is coming from, Clements writes, adding she was so consumed with calming and corralling the terrified children that it would be ludicrous to imagine doing anything else. I could not fathom that it was all coming from one person. Her hope in writing the piece, she said, is to give policy makers a true picture of what a classroom is like during a school shooting. The people discussing this insane concept of arming teachers arent in the schools and dont understand what it is really like, she told Hearst Connecticut Media. rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342 In 1955, the United States and Iran entered into a treaty that, although rarely mentioned, has remained in force. And even today, both governments still make use of it when they deem it useful. The Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations, and Consular Rights continues to play a surprising role in the relationship between the two countries. Article I could not be clearer: "There shall be firm and enduring peace and sincere friendship between the United States of America and Iran." In the wake of the Iranian Revolution and subsequent hostage-taking of American diplomats, the two sides severed almost all diplomatic and political ties - and yet, for reasons not entirely clear, they didn't nullify this agreement. Relations have never been normalized, even despite the period of engagement during the Obama years that led to the landmark nuclear deal in 2015. This peculiar history has a direct bearing on the fate of at least one U.S. citizen - Siamak Namazi - who is serving time in Tehran's notorious Evin prison for supposedly collaborating with a "hostile government," namely the United States. That's a charge often leveled at dual nationals (including me) by the Iranian judiciary. Yet at the same time, bizarrely, Iran's supreme court has previously ruled - citing the treaty and other variables - that the Islamic Republic of Iran has no enemies. (Except for Israel, which Tehran doesn't even consider to be a country.) Now, remarkably, Iran is using the same treaty as the basis for a legal case it's currently pursuing against the United States at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Iran is taking the United States to court for violating the nuclear deal, from which the Trump administration withdrew this year. "The U.S. is publicly propagating a policy intended to damage as severely as possible Iran's economy and Iranian national companies, and therefore inevitably Iranian nationals," Mohsen Mohebi, who is representing Iran, said in his opening arguments. "This policy is plainly in violation of the 1955 Treaty of Amity." The absurdity and hypocrisy of invoking the treaty when it's beneficial and ignoring its existence when it's not - in this case in the same week - illustrates Iran's "have your cake and eat it, too" attitude in international affairs, which is where the Namazi case comes into play. "We expect that, given the Government of Iran's confirmation of the validity of the Treaty of Amity, the Iranian Supreme Court will overturn the Namazis' conviction," Jared Genser, a lawyer representing the Namazi family in the United States, said Tuesday. He's referring to a similar verdict in a case brought against Namazi's father, Baqer, who is also a U.S. citizen. "Iran cannot, on the one hand, invoke the Treaty of Amity when filing complaints against the U.S. with the ICJ, and then, on the other, classify the U.S. as a 'hostile' government in order to sustain these convictions." Iran has displayed extreme inconsistency in deciding when it honors the treaty. It would be well advised to start honestly implementing the treaty in its handling of the Namazi case and others. Doing so would certainly give it a much stronger negotiating position when it comes to the nuclear deal and renewed sanctions. And there is, in fact, a corresponding precedent. In 2014, an Iranian convicted of similar charges was acquitted by a branch of the country's supreme court on the grounds that "presently no government is in a state of hostility with Iran." The decision further concluded that political differences with another country were not sufficient justification to consider it "hostile." That's the crux of the appeal that the Namazis' Iranian lawyers have filed with Iran's judiciary, as well as the one Genser made with the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers. And yet the very same Iranian leaders who claim that the country's judiciary is entirely independent have politicized the Namazi case from the start, putting him at the center of a high-profile propaganda campaign. Iran is desperately trying to be considered a responsible and law-abiding member of the international community. The United Nations is the only international club that Iran belongs to, and it fancies itself a member in good standing. Several weeks from now Iranian leaders - especially President Hassan Rouhani and his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif - will descend on New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly. They will undoubtedly use the opportunity to privately (in meetings with world leaders) and publicly (through the media) make their case against U.S. sanctions. It will be interesting to see whether they once again invoke the Treaty of Amity. But the holier-than-thou proclamations they will undoubtedly make will ring hollow when juxtaposed with the reality that Iran is defying its own laws (and the decisions of its highest court) by continuing the unjust detention of Siamak Namazi. - - - Rezaian served as The Washington Post's correspondent in Tehran from 2012 to 2016. He spent 544 days unjustly imprisoned by Iranian authorities until his release in January 2016. Ian Bremmer, President of the Eurasian Group presents his theory that there has been a global backlash against the establishment, immigration and globalization as a global trend. He also indicates four drivers of the movement. Bremmer does not mention the muslim aspect and does not compare each of the drivers to historical levels and does not look at the statistical amounts of each driver by country. Examples of the global trend against the establishment * The Brexit referendum was before the U.S. presidential election. * Germany has the rise of the Alternatives for Deutschland, an actively Euro-skeptic party for the first time since World War II * Italian elections threw out all of the establishment parties and instead its the Five Star Movement and the League, again Euro-skeptic, anti-immigration, populist political forces. Bremmer claims this is unusual. Bremmers theory is that the middle and working class are not advancing economically and resent the newcomers. Anti-immigration There is a lot of anti-immigration. Bremmer claims demographics have changed in the United States, in Canada and in Europe over the past decades and a lot of people do not like the change. Canada and Australia are leaders in immigration but the anti-immigration movements are not that strong in those countries. Italy only has about 8% of the population as foreign-born. Singapore is a developed city-country with high levels of immigration but there appears to be very little anti-immigration activity. Singapore started with large numbers of Southeast Asian muslims. Muslims are 60% of Malaysia. Singapore was part of Malaysia. Singapore has been stable with about 15% malaysian population from 1965 to today. There have historically been higher levels of immigration and higher percentages of foreign-born people in the US than current levels. Military A third piece has been the military. The US has sent a lot of the lower classes to fight in wars. There has been monetary cost but also injuries and lives losts by many families. Many veterans and their families were angry and votes for Bernie Sanders or for Donald Trump. However, Bremmer making the case that is true for the allies is a stretch. Canada and European allies did not send troops to all of the US conflicts and did not have nearly the level of troops involved or the injuries. There is a list of the casualties suffered by Canada as an example. Canada has had about 160 dead and 600 or so wounded in the conflicts in the last 20 years and it has nearly all been in Afghanistan. Technology and Social Media Technology today is increasingly driving people apart. Bremmer claims that people are getting belief reinforcing news from social media and the internet. History and other theories Britain has had as many people with military involvement as the US as has had. Between 2007 and 2015, the U.K. was the only advanced country to see wages shrink while the overall economy grew. Nextbigfuture thinks Bremmer tip-toed around the muslim religion and race aspects. The number of refugees admitted to the USA fell in 2018, especially muslim refugees The Lowy Institute looks at economic, cultural, military and other factors of power in Asia. They also projected the GDP in purchasing power parity and military spending and workforce levels. Those are all measures which favor emerging large population economies like China and India. Thus they project that China will surpass the US in terms of Asia region power and that India will nearly match the US in terms of Asia region power by 2030. The view of comparing military power is also a distortion. US equipment is still superior to Chinese equipment. The US has more planes and the equipment is better. US bombers are vastly superior in terms of range and bombloads. The US has 11 defined aircraft carriers but the US also has 10 mini-carriers which are called amphibious assault ships. Those mini-carriers are about 40,000 tons and can carry about 40 planes. One of the US mini-carriers can match Chinas refurbished Ukrainian aircraft carrier in terms of size and number of planes. China new domestically built aircraft carrier is also small. On paper, China could have two carriers but combined they are less than one of the US super-carriers which can deploy 80-100 planes. Chinas fourth or fifth aircraft carrier will start getting to the size and number of planes as one of the US carriers. After the various caveats and details, it is clear that China and India are emerging and will be far more powerful in Asia. Japan, South Korea and ASEAN (Indonesia in particular) will continue to have substantial and growing power. It is a question of timing and maintaining high levels of economic growth and development. MILFORD >> Kelsey Dunnder Monahons mother never gave up. Twelve years and four months after her daughters death, the killer was sentenced to prison for 20 years. I had to do it for Kelsey, Joan Dunnder said Wednesday outside Superior Court. I had to hope that she knows that Id keep pushing until it came to an end. Every summer for 12 years, she came up from Florida to meet with Detective Sgt. Douglas S. Youd and the prosecutor to keep the pressure on. Luis Antonio Rodriguez, 53, will be well into his 70s when hes released from prison, if at all, Superior Court Judge Frank Iannotti said during the sentencing. I think thats extremely appropriate, Iannotti said. Monahon was 28 and almost 1 month pregnant when her husband, Matthew Monahon, found her clinging to life at 7:45 p.m. May 25, 2001, in their Wildemere Beach apartment. Her wrists and feet were tied with a rope that also went around her neck. Fighting for release, she strangled. Monahon died at Bridgeport Hospital three days later without ever regaining consciousness. Inside the courtroom during the 40-minute proceeding Wednesday, Rodriguez kept his head bowed or stared straight ahead. A wedding photograph of the Monahons rested on an easel to Rodriguezs left. Rodriguez pleaded guilty Aug. 7 to first-degree manslaughter. His arrest warrant affidavit is sealed until November. Rodriguez declined to make a statement before he was sentenced. His attorney recalled that in interviews with his client, Rodriguez always said he wanted to be held accountable for the crime. He has said he had done it. Theres nothing else he can offer, Christopher Duby of North Haven said. Duby said he did not want to minimize what was done, but in some minor way, he is to be credited for that. Hopefully, Kelseys family and friends can remember not how she died, but how she lived, Duby said. Senior Assistant States Attorney Charles M. Stango recounted evidence against Rodriguez and told the judge that state and local investigators were never going to let this case go unsolved and thats where we are today. Rodriguez had confessed to someone in prison that he was responsible for the crime, but hadnt intended for Monahon to die, Stango said. Stango introduced Monahons family and friends, who told Iannotti about their sister, daughter, friend, wife. First was Dunnder. I am Joan Dunnder and I am Kelsey Monahons mother, she told Iannotti. Douglas Youd is my hero, Dunnder said. She turned to Rodriguez and read: Twelve years ago you took my daughters life and the life of my future grandchild. It is a grief that never heals, she said. I can never forgive you. ... Never, she said. Matthew Monahon, now of Florida, told Iannotti of going out for 45 minutes and coming back to find his wife. They had celebrated their second anniversary, they were going to be parents, they were building their first house. A dark cloud has been hanging over my head for 12 years, he said. Matthew Monahon, who walks with a cane, had a relapse of multiple sclerosis a month after the slaying because of the stress. He went into a deep depression, he couldnt focus and had an 11-year battle with alcohol, he said. His health and finances suffered tremendously, Monahon said. His wife was a sweet, kind, loving human being who was looking forward to being a mother. I was looking forward to becoming a father, Monahon said. Murder is forever. Kelsey is gone forever, and I will miss her forever, Monahon said. Matthew Monahons sister, Janet McClellan, read a letter from their mother, who said about Kelsey: It is unbearable to know that the last face that she saw was the face of a stranger who would end her life. Kelsey had so many friends, they filled a stadium at her funeral, McClellan said. To Rodriguez, she said: If you had the love and support of so many, you would not be here today. I wish you well. Good luck. Iannotti, before passing sentence, described the crime as heinous. Theres very little that this court can say, Iannotti said. He noted the incredible sadness that friends and family have been going through for 12 years. Monahon must have been an extraordinary human being, he said. In some ways, it was nice to hear all those things about her, the judge said. To Rodriguez, Iannotti said: I dont understand how a human being does that. I really dont understand. The only saving grace, Iannotti said, was that Rodriguez and the prosecutor agreed on a sentence. At least you didnt put these good people through a trial, Iannotti said. Rodriguez will be held in the in Federal Correctional Institution in El Reno, Okla., until 2025, where he will continue serving time on weapons charges, then will be brought back to Connecticut to serve his sentence. Matthew Monahon had wanted Rodriguez to serve life in prison, he said outside of court. I found her, he said. A knife was needed to free her from the rope. That was not manslaughter, he said. That was He tried to kill her. Dunnder, also outside court, reflected on the event. This is probably the hardest thing I had to do, just seeing that man sitting over there, she said. Theres always a hole in your heart, always, always. Itll never go away, Dunnder said. Stango, after the sentencing, said the loss and hurt of Kelsey Monahons death will never leave her friends and family . The people that spoke today were able to bring Kelsey back to life, but only by their memories, Stango. I hope that today gives them some closure and I applaud them for their faith in the system. Stango praised the exemplary work of the Police Department from the outset Stango in August had laid out the prosecutions case: A romantic friend of Rodriguezs tells him Matthew Monahon owes her money. Rodriguez enters the Monahon house. Unfortunately, he encountered Mrs. Monahon, not Mr. Monahon, Stango said. He strikes Kelsey Monahon around the head and binds her with rope. Rodriguez goes into a safe, which contains $100 bills, Stango said. At least seven are taken. Rodriguez later goes to a city package store and pays for vodka and cigarettes with a $100 bill, Stango said. Later that evening, at dinner, Rodriguez tells his sister to hold six $100 bills, Stango said. At 6:30 a.m. the next day, Rodriguez tells his sister, I hope she doesnt die, Stango said. Rodriguez then drives to Missouri, where he tells someone that he never intended for Monahon to die, Stango said. The case was cracked by years of work by city police, the Cold Case Unit from the chief states attorneys office and the Ansonia-Milford Judicial District prosecutors office. Police Chief Keith Mello, in 2011, said city detectives, with assistance from the Milford states attorneys office, worked continuously and diligently for nearly 10 years on the case, interviewing more than 100 witnesses in multiple states. He said Deputy Chief States Attorney Len Boyle and Stango presented the case to a grand jury. Call Phyllis Swebilius at 203-789-5681. NEW HAVEN The moving truck pulled up Friday and the neighborhood-based East Rock Pharmacy, which had set up shop seven years ago in the historic Hall Benedict Drug Co. building, was gone. Closed as of 5 p.m. Thursday, customers, who had picked up a letter that was tucked inside a flier from CVS on the counter at the pharmacy, knew about the move, but most people didnt. The letter, dated Aug. 29, welcomed them to CVS at 123 Church St., where their prescription information was being transferred. Apparently, however, that is not the correct address. Ann Tramontana-Veno, a longtime customer, called in a prescription Thursday and when she went to pick it up Friday, she was directed to 215 Whalley Ave., which is the address on a poster attached to the front door at the closed drugstore at 767 Orange St. Im shocked. There was no notice, Tramontana-Veno said. She said she waited 45 minutes for her prescription and was told by personnel there that they only got notice on Tuesday that they were now serving the customers from the East Rock Pharmacy. Kawa Chan, a pharmacist who worked at the Orange Street store, Friday said they could no longer support the retail operation. He said they consolidated with another part of their business that supports long-term care facilities and a hospice operation. Tramontano-Veno said she has been a customer at East Rock and before that, the Hall Benedict Drug Co., the original business, for more than 30 years. She said when she arrived, personnel at East Rock were moving medications in bins by car to the CVS on Whalley Avenue. It is an icon in our neighborhood, Tramontana-Veno said of the building and business. She said she was sad that they have now also lost the Post Office services that were offered there. A friendly place, she said they would always give her dog a treat when she stopped by. Elaine Ravich, a relatively new resident to East Rock, had stopped by early Friday afternoon to buy something, when she saw the brown paper covering the windows. Thats terrible, Ravich said when informed that the pharmacy had closed. Im really sorry, she told Chan. It has been such an important part of the neighborhood. We just cant stay open, Chan said. Im so glad that we were able to be here for seven years. Ravich said she had not heard of the closing even though she had been there two days before. Chan said the employees would be moving to the long-term care site that the pharmacy would be servicing. Chan also said customers can go to any CVS to get future prescriptions. Paul Wessel, a longtime resident and the onetime head of the citys Department of Transportation, Traffic and Parking, was upset that the business had to shut down. Its a sad commentary that the increasing corporatization of medicine is relegating independent pharmacies and doctor practices to our history. Hopefully the 219-year legacy of the building can be carried on by a business that can prosper in this climate, he wrote in an email. His suggestion for a replacement: Maybe a pot dispensary or herbalist can made a go of it there. It would be wonderful if someone could bring back a soda fountain, too! Wessel wrote. Alder Anna Festa, D-10, said she was sorry to hear of the move. They didnt give any forewarning, which was the bad part, she said. The alder said she was going to miss both the pharmacy and the Post Office services. She said she felt badly for the elderly customers who dont drive and could walk to the pharmacy for their medications. East Rock Pharmacy will become East Rock Pharmacy LTC, supporting long-term care communities and hospice, the letter to customers read. It said the change necessitated the relocation to a larger production facility effective Thursday. We leave East Rock with only the fondest memories of the neighborhood and of our customers. Unfortunately, due to the rising cost of medications and the nature of reimbursement, the financial hardship we incur to remain competitive as a retail pharmacy has forced us to make the very difficult business decision to cater to a more underserved market, the owners wrote. The letter said it could not make any exceptions for individuals who do not reside in an assisted living or hospice facility. Customers were advised that they did not have to do anything. The phone number 203-691-5405 is the same. A representative of CVS was due to call customers during the transition, they were advised. mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577 NEW HAVEN School education officials say an abundance of data on absences could help move the needle on getting more students to attend school. In a new report called Data Matters: Using Chronic Absence to Accelerate Action for Student Success, by Attendance Works and researchers with Johns Hopkins University, researchers provide a nationwide portrait of chronic absence or students missing more than 10 percent of instructional days during a school year. According to Hedy Chang, executive director of Attendance Works and a report author, after Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act, 36 states and Washington, D.C., adopted chronic absenteeism as a success indicator in their accountability reports. Chang said about a decade ago, attendance information was ordinarily reported by paper and pencil. We have more data now than before, she said. In a conference call with reporters, Chang said Connecticut has been a success, if not compared to other states, then for its steady efforts to reduce its percentage of chronically absent students: according to Chang, it has been a difference of about 10,000 more students attending school for more than 90 percent of days each year over the last six years. Connecticut has built-in support and professional development around reducing chronic absences, she said. According to the reports data, 73,446 of Connecticuts 537,516 students in 2015-16 or 13.7 percent were chronically absent. New Haven school officials repeatedly have spoken about the importance of reducing chronic absenteeism in recent years, holding events such as an annual back-to-school door-knocking campaign to reach students the day before school begins. Gemma Joseph Lumpkin, chief of Youth, Family and Community Engagement, said rising kindergarteners, first-graders and ninth-graders tend to be especially vulnerable to missing school. According to state data, in 2015-16 the year of data analyzed by Attendance Works 19.9 percent of students were chronically absent. In 2016-17, the number fell to 18.3 percent of students, a four-year low. Dania Torres, a dropout prevention specialist, said she worked with one student at Fair Haven School every day to discuss his tardies and absences and completely turned his grades around. Many school districts such as Shelton Public Schools also have seen a gradual reduction in chronic absenteeism. In 2012-13, 13.2 percent of Shelton students were chronically absent, a number that shrank to 10.3 percent in 2016-17. Lorraine Rossner, assistant superintendent of schools in Shelton, said she credits much of the reduction in absences to leveraging functions within its student management system. We let parents know that we know their child is not in school on this particular date and what it normally does is prompt a response, she said. It opened up a portal of information. She said the district of nearly 5,000 students has one outreach worker in charge of attendance who speaks with parents directly. That direct connection has done a world of good for us, she said. Nearer to New Haven, school districts have mixed results. In 2014-15, North Havens rate of chronic absenteeism shot up to 17.5 percent from 8.9 percent, which then fell to 4.1 percent the following year and to 4.2 percent in 2016-17. West Haven, which reported chronic absence rates of 16.6 in 2012-13, brought its rate down to 11.4 percent in 2015-16, which remained constant the following year. Meanwhile, Cheshire Public Schools did not report a rate of chronic absenteeism higher than 6 percent from 2013 to 2017, reporting a rate of only 3.8 percent in 2016-17. ANSONIA Downtown Ansonia continues to experience a rebirth, with the grand opening this week of an Asian specialty food market and the states largest cosmetology school slated to open next week. City and state officials Wednesday welcomed Mabuhay Asian Food Store to 360 Main St. The store, owned by Katrina Corcino of Oxford and Shelton residents Julpha Fernandez and Rachel Deperalta, offers a variety of imported Asian noodles, dips, chips, spices, cooking oils, juices, rice, breads, picked items, desserts and other fresh ingredients typically used in Philippine dishes. The citys director of constituent services, Greg Martin, said theres been a lot of positive feedback already from customers about the new market, with many saying the 800-square-foot store carries lots of difficult-to-find ingredients used in this style of cooking compared to other supermarkets. Mayor David Cassetti, joined by state Sen. George Logan, R-17, Valley Chamber of Commerce President Bill Purcell, Economic Development Director Sheila OMalley and several customers, cut the ribbon to officially welcome the store to the city. The continued growth in advance of more residential units means that business owners are looking to capture a market and be a part of the buzz that is currently happening in our downtown, said OMalley. The mayor and aldermen and staff are putting their effort and time into making downtown pop with activity and it is paying off. The Asian grocery store offers even more diversity than currently exists. This is a sign of healthy growth. And the good news for downtown keeps coming, as the city is poised to welcome Ace Cosmetology/Barber Training Center to 370 East Main St., when it celebrates its grand opening at 11 a.m. Tuesday Cassetti said Ansonia will serve as the third location for the cosmetology school. The 10,000-square-foot Ansonia facility will be Connecticuts largest in the industry, according to owner/operator Gary Olmstead. Olmstead owns two other Ace facilities, in Hartford and Waterbury. The Ansonia location is the former site of several restaurants and nightclubs, including Mustang Sallys and Lanzas, but has been largely vacant for the last two years. The new school will have six to 10 new employees and is targeting 150 students for enrollment, Olmstead said. The school will also provide services at a 50 percent reduction to the public and all walk-ins will be welcome. There is already a steady flow of traffic through East Main Street and in our downtown area, and with new residential apartments coming online and an improved parking plan in the works, this will be an ideal location for the school, said Cassetti. Ace is one of several businesses that have renovated existing buildings or opened new businesses on East Main Street in the past two years including Bankos House of Music, Rosa Mina Restaurant and the longtime car dealership Fitzpatricks, which underwent a $1 million renovation, along with Yale Podiatry which completed a full interior/exterior makeover, according to Cassetti. This new business will play a prominent role in recharging our downtown, said Corporation Counsel John Marini. It will attract students wanting to learn a trade and residents and visitors looking to give new hairstylists and barbers a chance. We are seeing concurrent development on both our Main and East Main Street corridors. It can only add to the enthusiasm and energy already present in our downtown. OMalley said it had been difficult to find a tenant to occupy such a large space, but Olmstead came along and found it was exactly what he needed. We are very excited about this opportunity in Ansonia and look forward to a long and positive partnership with Mayor Cassetti and the residents of Ansonia and the Lower Naugatuck Valley, said Olmstead. jean.sos@snet.net Dimitrios Patlias and Tonya Smith have no plans to visit West Virginia ever again. The Egg Harbor City couple say a traffic stop there in June turned into a summer-long ordeal. Police suspected the couple of nefarious activities and confiscated more than $10,000 in cash from them, as well as gift cards and casino rewards cards during the highway stop, but didn't charge them with a crime. Patlias and Smith say they had to fight to get their possessions back and feared they could have lost all of it through the way police took it - civil forfeiture. Under West Virginia's civil forfeiture statute, items may be confiscated and subject to forfeiture for a variety of reasons, including if they were "incident to a lawful arrest or pursuant to a search under a search warrant or an inspection warrant" or if an officer has "probable cause to believe that the property was used or intended for use in violation" of state law. After police found no criminal wrongdoing by the couple, they finally told them to come back to West Virginia to retrieve their belongings last week. (And that happened after a West Virginia councilman drove to their New Jersey home to hear about it, and a West Virginia newspaper started looking into it.) A state police spokesman has not responded to requests for comment about the case. Vacation plans cut short The saga began on the evening of June 9 as Patlias and Smith were traveling to Charles Town on their way to Hollywood Casino after making recent successful visits to other casinos along the way. Smith, a registered nurse at Princeton Medical Center, was on maternity leave and eight months pregnant. As her husband drove, she had a book open studying for an upcoming advanced cardiac life support test. Just outside of Charles Town city limits, a state trooper pulled over their vehicle, telling Patlias that he had drifted out of his lane. He took Patlias' license and registration and walked back to his patrol car. Soon he returned and told Patlias to exit his vehicle. Smith figured it was a sobriety check. "Maybe he wants to test him to make sure he's not drinking," she said. Patlias complied, but didn't like his next request. The trooper asked him how much money he had in his possession and Patlias said he refused to answer the question. "How much money do you have on you? That's a question a thief is going to ask you, not a cop," Patlias said this week as he recalled the traffic stop. The trooper handcuffed Patlias and radioed for a K-9 to sniff the car for drugs. The cop searched Patlias and removed money from his pockets, as well gift cards he had in his possession, Patlias said. As another trooper prepared to search the 2003 GMC Envoy, Patlias insisted they needed a warrant. The officers disagreed and scoured the vehicle. Casino cash confiscated In all, the couple was carrying $10,478 in cash between them, which were proceeds from several casino jackpot winnings in the previous few days, they said. The couple carried documentation to show these were legitimate, taxable winnings, they said. Concerned that police were counting his cash in the patrol car, where he could not see what was happening, Patlias told his wife to call 911. A trooper told her she would be arrested for making a false report if she made that call. She was also removed from the vehicle and the couple say they were forced to stand along the side of the highway for nearly two hours as officers searched the vehicle and their possessions. "I was 34 weeks pregnant and standing on the side of the road for almost two hours and my husband is in handcuffs and not even arrested," she said, still in disbelief over their experience. The officers explained they had issues with drug and cigarette smuggling in the area, but they found no contraband during the search, Smith said. Then, the issue turned to the subject of gift cards. The couple had 27 gift cards they had received from other casinos they had recently visited. As frequent casino guests, they rack up comps, the couple explained. The search also turned up scores of casino rewards cards. The cards were in the couple's names and, since they were traveling in a vehicle owned by Patlias' father, officers found old cards in his parents' and siblings' names, Patlias said. All of these cards, 78 total, were described as "gift cards" in a property disposition report the police gave the couple. The officers suggested the cards may be the products of a gift card scam or -- in the case of the ones with other names on them -- may indicate an identify theft scheme, the couple said. Patlias said he had documentation with him to support the legitimacy of the cards and his casino winnings, but that didn't seem to impress the troopers, he said. They were eventually told they weren't in trouble, that police were investigating gift card fraud in the area, but that police would keep the cash, cards and Patlias' cellphone for the time being. Police would be in touch by phone regarding their possessions. After giving Patlias the warning for failure to maintain lane, they sent the couple on their way. They drove off with only $2 in cash. "They violated my Fourth Amendment rights. They took me and my pregnant wife out of the car on a dangerous highway and left us with $2 to get home," Patlias declared. 'It's not West Virginian' Back in New Jersey, they waited to hear from police. Smith gave birth to a boy in July. They kept up the pressure on West Virginia authorities because they feared, after reading horror stories from others, that they might lose their possessions forever through civil forfeiture. Their plight got the attention of Charles Town Councilman Michael Tolbert. Tolbert found out about the situation through an email the couple sent to local officials and actually drove to New Jersey to speak with them. "It was probably one of the strongest, most powerful letters I had ever gotten," he said. "I had this need to go up there and apologize. This was a traumatic thing. This isn't what we West Virginians do." Tolbert met the couple and their family in Egg Harbor City and got the whole story. While the incident happened just outside of his city, he was angry about the circumstances of the traffic stop and urged them to keep writing letters and demanding a response. "This should not have happened," he said. "Their possessions were taken from them along the side of the road. That's not right. It's not West Virginian." What's shocking to Tolbert is that everything that happened was apparently legal. "People need to know that these things are going on in their name," he said, "... this is not the way we want to represent ourselves." The couple reached out to the state police, the Jefferson County prosecutor and local media for help. Days after contacting a reporter with the Charleston Gazette-Mail, they were contacted by police and told they could come get their belongings. A prosecuting attorney can file a forfeiture petition to begin the civil court process of seizing confiscated property in West Virginia, but there was no reason to do so in this case, explained Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Matt Harvey. "After that traffic stop, my office was contacted about it," Harvey said this week. "We declined to file a petition for forfeiture based on the facts as they were presented to us." West Virginia's law only allows agencies to file forfeiture petitions in cases involving proceeds from drug crimes or the smuggling of tobacco products. While Harvey stressed that there was no indication the couple was involved in illicit activity and that nothing illegal was found, he imagined the officers probably saw a few red flags between the large amount of cash and the gift cards. "Just generally speaking, this is an area that's been hard hit with heroin," he said. "We have a lot of out-of-state people that come in and deal. Gift cards are a currency that's used in the drug world." 'Nervous when I see police' While they have their possessions back, they remain upset about the experience and say they have no plans to return to West Virginia. "I will never set foot in that state again," Smith said. "I'm nervous when I see police now. What kind of country do we live in anymore?" Tolbert hopes they will reconsider his state in the future. He offered to meet the couple should they ever return. "It's an incredibly nice state," he said. "West Virginia has a lot of very decent people and you have to be decent to be West Virginian." Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us: nj.com/tips. Officials on Friday released surveillance video showing a man possibly linked to the killing of a father of two, who was gunned down near the Camden eatery he ran. Police found Miguel Rodriguez-Zavala shot in the 2300 block of Federal Street shortly before 2 a.m. Tuesday, according to Camden County authorities. The married 38-year-old died about 20 minutes at Cooper University Hospital. An unidentified figure in the footage released by police appeared to be pointing a handgun. "Members of the public should not approach the individual shown in the video below," a statement from the Camden County Prosecutor's Office said. Rodriguez-Zavala was discovered wounded on the street with another man, who was beaten, according to authorities. The surviving man was identified only as a 60-year-old friend of the slain restaurant operator. They were both found near El Taco Loco, which was run by Rodriguez-Zavala. By Tuesday night, a memorial was set up in front of the shop with candles and flowers. "Very sad and most heartfelt sympathies to the entire Rodriguez-Zavala family," said a message left on a social media post about the slaying. Updated story: Camden homicide victim was found shot early Tuesday near his Federal Street restauranthttps://t.co/IIuvzAjYAj pic.twitter.com/toPdxoLQT5 jim walsh (@jimwalsh_cp) August 29, 2018 Anyone with information or who can identify the man in the video was asked to call Camden County Prosecutor's Office Detective Lee Hopkins at 856-225-8623 or Camden County Police Detective Colin O'Sullivan at 856-757-7420. Tips can also be sent to ccpotips@ccprosecutor.org Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Gov. Phil Murphy has had a friend in the state's largest teachers union since his days on the campaign trail. Now, top lawmakers in his own party are accusing him repaying the union with a wet kiss of a political favor. The state Department of Education on Friday announced it's slashing the weight of standardized test results in teacher evaluations from 30 percent to 5 percent. The move was celebrated as "a big win" by the New Jersey Education Association, the union that backed Murphy and lobbied for softening the impact of standardized test results on teachers. At the same time, Murphy's maneuver was panned by top Democratic lawmakers who had pushed for using student performance on standardized tests as a factor in evaluating teachers. "These tests are about education, not politics," Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and Sen. Teresa Ruiz, D-Essex, said in a statement. "This is a victory for special interests and a huge step backward towards a better public education in New Jersey." In the classroom, the decision affects about 20 percent of the state's teachers. Standardized test results are used only in the evaluations of those who prepare students for the state math and English exams. Teachers of different grades or subjects are not affected. Those teachers, who work in elementary and middle schools, will now have their evaluations based more heavily on administrators' observations and other goals established by their principals. In the Statehouse, Murphy's move added to existing criticism that his education policy is being dictated by the NJEA. It also generated another dispute with Sweeney, who has clashed with the governor and feuded with the powerful union. Realistically, the change might have little effect on teachers' overall ratings. Almost all teachers received positive reviews both before and after the state began considering test results as a determining factor. Grading teachers Instead of simply using students' overall test scores, the state measures how much students are improving from year to year when compared to other students across the state with similar academic backgrounds. So, a teacher with students who score highly overall could be hurt if the students don't improve enough, and a teacher whose students perform poorly could be helped if they make notable gains despite their low scores. The state started using student performance on standardized tests as a weight in some teachers' evaluations beginning in the 2013-14 school year, part of New Jersey's landmark tenure reform law. It initially counted for 30 percent of teachers' evaluations, but Gov. Chris Christie cut it to 10 percent during the first year of PARCC exams in 2014-2015. Christie later raised the weight back to 30 percent prior to the 2016-17 school year. The NJEA has argued that the state exams are flawed tests that students don't take seriously and should not be used to evaluate teachers. "By dramatically lowering the stakes for the test, Murphy is making it possible for educators and students alike to focus more time and attention on real teaching and learning," NJEA President Marie Blistan said. Democrats disagree Murphy, a Democrat himself, was able to make the move without legislative approval because the weight of test results in teacher evaluations is up to the state education commissioner. The new governor previously announced plans to reduce the weight of test results in teacher evaluations but did not say how low he would go. The administration officially made the changes in a memo sent to districts Friday. Sweeney and Ruiz, chair of the Senate Education Committee, said they want answers for why Murphy is seemingly lowering standards. "We look forward to the department providing data as to why these decisions are being made and how they will benefit our children," they said in a statement. Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter at @realAdamClark. Find NJ.com on Facebook. A picture may be worth 1,000 words. But a portrait of Whoopi Goldberg? That's apparently worth $250,000. The African American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey is unveiling a 10-foot-by-10-foot portrait of the actress, comedian and TV host at an event in September. And, yes, the museum says the painting is valued at a quarter of a million dollars. Yigal Ozeri, an Israeli artist based in New York and known for large-scale oil portraits, painted the work and is gifting it to the museum. The painting will be unveiled at an event hosted at Harrah's Waterfront Center on September 20, with both Goldberg and Ozeri expected to attend. Tickets for the unveiling are $100, with proceeds helping to maintain the museum's archives. So what is Goldberg's connection to Atlantic City and the museum? The New York native gave New Jersey's version of Las Vegas a shout-out on an episode of her television show, "The View," back in April, heaping praise on the city and comparing the museum to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C. "Most people don't realize that Atlantic City is up and running," Goldberg said. "There's a lot going on down there." Goldberg urged the audience to visit the museum, which has led to an increase in attendance, according to museum officials. The museum's founder and president, Ralph Hunter, said in a release that he is "thankful for the attention the museum has received as a result of Ms. Goldberg's endorsement." As for that $250K price tag, it is the museum's estimate, based on the large size of the work and the reputation of the artist, Hunter said. Whether it would fetch that much on the open market is another matter entirely, of course. A smaller 2005 painting of Ozeri's sold at auction at Christie's for the more reasonable -- if still too rich for our blood -- price of $21,500. Jeremy Schneider may be reached at jschneider@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @J_Schneider. Find NJ.com on Facebook. The Gaslight Anthem is Katie Hewko's favorite band. She's been with the New Brunswick alt-rockers since their 2006 inception, having seen them more than 20 times in concert over the past decade. She even has a Gaslight tattoo. But her fandom was sullied last month when, during one of the band's performances, Hewko says, she was sexually assaulted by another fan and then, as she attempted to report the assault, she "wasn't being taken seriously" by the New Jersey venue or local police. Hewko, a 30-year-old Philadelphia resident, was thrilled to visit The Stone Pony in Asbury Park on Aug. 18 to watch the band play a sold-out anniversary performance at the legendary venue's outdoor Summer Stage, alongside 4,000 other fans. Hewko, her partner John Kitzmiller, and a friend had worked their way to the near-front of the Jersey Shore stage, and as the band came on to play, all seemed well. But a few songs into the set, amid the bopping crowd, Hewko says a man she didn't know reached into her shirt, grabbed her bare breast, and was gone back into the audience before she could see him. "I was just stunned that it had happened," Hewko told NJ Advance Media in an interview Friday. "I wish I could say I know what he looked like." The Gaslight Anthem, New Jersey's most popular rock band of the last 10 years, posted a series of messages on Twitter Wednesday night, nearly two weeks after the incident, condemning "this kind of abhorrent behavior" and saying sexual assault and harassment will not be tolerated at their concerts. To our Gaslight family: We've been angered and saddened to hear reports of sexual assault and harassment in the audience at our shows. From the very beginning of this band, we have strived to create a positive and safe environment for our fans-- The Gaslight Anthem (@gaslightanthem) August 29, 2018 "It's clear that this disturbing trend is on the rise in our industry, and that ignoring or dismissing the problem sends a very clear message to perpetrators that they can get away with their behavior," the band wrote as part of its statement. But according to Hewko, she was, in fact, somewhat dismissed as she and her partner tried to report her assault that August night. Following the incident in the crowd, Hewko says she was shaken, and Kitzmiller left to find security and make them aware of what just happened. But as Kitzmiller quickly made his way through the packed crowd, he collided with a female concert-goer, and security swarmed him before he could ever report the attack on Hewko. After Kitzmiller sent a text message to Hewko to alert her that he'd been kicked out, she moved away from the crowd. "I was trying to explain to security what had just happened to me, and they said 'All we can do is take you to the cops,' and treating me like I was a nuisance," Hewko says. "They said 'You're sure want to go all the way downtown to file a report?' And I said 'Yeah, a report needs to be filed because I was sexually assaulted at your show at this venue and it needs to be on paper.'" Hewko left the venue to speak to Asbury Park police officers, who she says "rolled their eyes" at her request to file a report. "The officer I was speaking to goes on his radio and says 'There's a retaliatory report being filed,' acting as if I was filing a report to be retaliatory for (Kitzmiller) being kicked out," Hewko says. "My sexual assault wasn't being taken seriously. I felt so invalidated." Hewko eventually provided a brief statement to a second officer -- no charges were filed as she could not identify her attacker -- and, as she puts it: "I'm walking away, listening to my favorite band play my favorite song and I'm in tears." Asbury Park police did not respond to comment on this story. Hewko immediately took to social media to recount the details of her nightmarish evening. "A lot of women have reached out to me and said, 'This has happened to me at shows,'" she says. "Unfortunately, I'm not alone in these actions. This is not the music community I got into." The next day, after her Facebook post had been shared with a Stone Pony staff member, she was contacted by the venue, who invited her to the band's concert that night, again at the venue, to discuss what had happened with venue General Manager Caroline O'Toole and the space's head of security. "Sexual assault is not tolerated here," O'Toole said in a statement Friday. "We vigorously work to maintain a safe environment for all concert-goers. If a guest feels unsafe in the crowd for any reason, we strongly encourage them to report it to management or to one of our many security specialists. We urge anyone who may have any information regarding this incident to please speak up and report it to the Asbury Park Police Department." The Gaslight Anthem then addressed Hewko's experience on social media Aug. 29. "I'm glad (the band) finally posted something, and I really hope that they and The Stone Pony do live up to keep their venues safer, and do understand that this is a problem on the rise," Hewko says. "At this point I consider them allies. I just wish that this was a more pressing matter and they hadn't waited 12 days to say something." Hewko says that while this was the most serious offense she's experienced at a concert -- she had never had any problems at a Gaslight Anthem show before -- such behavior is nothing new in the music scene. "I wish I could say this was the first time I was groped or propositioned or approached sexually at a show, but it's not. It's happened many times," Hewko says. "It needs to not be normalized. "Take women seriously," Hewko says. "This needs to change, I need to feel safe going to shows. Everyone does." Bobby Olivier may be reached at bolivier@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BobbyOlivier and Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) meets Comoros President Azali Assoumani in Beijing on Sep. 1 2018. [Photo: Xinhua] Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday met with Comoros President Azali Assoumani ahead of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). Noting that China was the first country to establish diplomatic relations with Comoros, Xi said bilateral ties have since developed smoothly, which can be a model of equal treatment, solidarity and cooperation among big and small countries. China is willing to strengthen cooperation with Comoros in all areas within the framework of the FOCAC and the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum, and raise bilateral ties to higher level, Xi said. The two sides should continue to understand and support each other. China is willing to align the Belt and Road Initiative with the 2030 Development Plan for Emerging Economies of Comoros and continue to provide assistance to the best of its ability for Comoros to achieve self-reliant and sustainable development, Xi said. Noting that China was the first country to recognize the independence of Comoros and establish diplomatic relations with it, Azali said that China has brought substantial help to economic development and people's livelihood in Comoros. Comoros firmly upholds the one-China policy and supports China in realizing national reunification, Azali said, stressing the two countries' mutual support in international affairs. Comoros appreciates and supports the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by President Xi, and believes that the initiative will be helpful for Africa and China to achieve win-win cooperation, Azali said. After the meeting, the two leaders witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents. A 60-year-old Newark man who burst into a Bloomfield home on Christmas night in 2015 and bound a woman a two girls during a robbery was sentenced to life in prison Friday. Roberson Burney Roberson Burney had worked as a contractor at the victim's home in the fall of 2015. He returned on Dec. 25 and brandished what appeared to be a shotgun, tied up the victims and left with two Amazon Kindles, credit cards and jewelry, the Essex County Prosecutor's Office said in announcing the sentence. Burney is a longtime robber with several convictions who records show was released from federal prison in October 2014, as Robert Burney, after serving over a decade for a 1997 carjacking and crime spree - a case in which he was charged as an armed career criminal. When Bloomfield police arrested him for the 2015 home invasion, four days after the crime, he was still on federal supervision. An Essex County jury convicted Burney in March of first-degree robbery, burglary, three counts of aggravated assault, three counts of criminal restraint and a firearms charge, Deputy Chief Assistant Prosecutor Roger Imhof said in a ststement. "Life in prison was appropriate given this defendant's extensive criminal record. He was previously convicted of first degree armed robberies on three other occasions," Imhof said in the statement. When Burney was arrested in 1997 for the crimes that went federal, he was pulled over in Fairfield with another man while driving a Jeep that was carjacked in Newark and used in an armed robbery in New York. They had cocaine, and Burney had a loaded handgun reported stolen in Detroit in 1975, the Star-Ledger reported. Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook. The setting is Snyder High School's auditorium. The Jersey City school board, down one member because of a vacancy, has convened for its regular meeting and is considering who should fill the empty seat. One of the contenders is Gerry Lyons, 59, a Hudson County Prep principal and former board member who was defeated in his bid for re-election in November. Jersey City teachers, Lyons' friends and some of his former students heap praise upon him to the board, urging them to appoint him to the vacancy. Even one of the other candidates, Gina Verdibello, gives her endorsement. It seems certain Lyons will re-join the board, filling the empty seat of Angel Valentin, who stepped down in July. The public's turn to speak is over. Board member Mussab Ali makes a motion to appoint Lyons to the seat. Marilyn Roman seconds. Voting begins. Then Matt Schapiro -- who won his seat in November during the same election Lyons lost -- opens his mouth. Lyons once insulted a rival during a candidate debate, Schapiro says. Lyons used "horribly vulgar language" about district officials, Schapiro says. Voters had the chance to re-elect Lyons in November and rejected him, Schapiro says. "When watching the board I saw Mr. Lyons disrespecting district staff over and over," Schapiro says. "It was shocking and offensive. Worse, I saw Mr. Lyons often making decisions not in the best interest of our students, but operating as a rubber stamp for the richest, most powerful political interest group in the state." He means the statewide teachers union. Schapiro ran in November without the local teachers union's nod. Lyons had it. Schapiro is also a strong supporter of Schools Superintendent Marcia V. Lyles, while Lyons has been a sharp critic. As Schapiro speaks, Lyons, sitting in the second row of the Snyder auditorium, at first has no expression on his face, then starts to nod his head slightly. Some in the audience listen with their eyes widened. Lorenzo Richardson, the school board vice president and a Lyons ally, eats from a plate of fruit. Schapiro wraps up. "It's not pleasant to raise these issues about a former board member and potential colleague but it is critical that there is a record that there was at least one voice who spoke out against the abuses of Mr. Lyons and the rich and powerful interests which he represents," he says. Richardson seems stunned. "I can't believe what I just heard," he says, to applause from the crowd. Roman, another Lyons ally, says, "There is absolutely no response I want to make to that. It's not worthy." Then comes the vote. Five to one in favor of Lyons. Schapiro is the only no vote. The crowd applauds. Lyons prepares to take the oath of office. A reporter asks him to respond to Schapiro's comment. "I look forward to working with him for the sake of the children," Lyons says. Lyons' term ends in December 2019. Police believe that the intruder who broke into a Lakewood couple's home and beat them entered through a garage window. The intruder broke into the home in the Fairways at Lake Ridge development around midnight Aug. 29, Lakewood police spokesman Capt. Gregory Staffordsmith said. A short time later, the intruder confronted the couple and demanded money. During the robbery, he assaulted both, possibly with a flashlight, Staffordsmith said. Ocean County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Al Della Fave previously said the victims were Frederick "Rob" Robison, 66, and his wife, Patty, 64. Rob Robson is the leader of a residents group vehemently opposing a controversial proposed large-scale development. Earlier sources told NJ Advance Media that when Rob Robison went to investigate after the lights went out in their home, he was hit in the head with a blunt object. His wife was then attacked, and both were bound with duct tape. Both suffered significant head injuries, Staffordsmith said. The intruder fled from the home in the victims' car, which was later found in the Highpoint Condominium Complex. The Lakewood Police Department briefly searched the victim's home to investigate the break-in. They were finished by 3 p.m. Friday, Staffordsmith said. Police are continuing to investigate, police have not yet identified a suspect in the the break-in and assault. 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 By Amber Phillips Much has been made, rightly so, of the fact that Sen. John McCain's family did not invite President Donald Trump to his memorial service. McCain made no secret that he thought Trump was taking the country in the wrong direction, while Trump made no secret he resented McCain. But perhaps a more telling non-invite is Sarah Palin. Politico, CNN and NBC News report that she won't be at Saturday's big service at the National Cathedral, the one where two former presidents who defeated McCain's bids for the White House, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, will deliver eulogies. Palin declined to comment "out of respect for Sen. John McCain and his family." Joe Biden remembers John McCain: It was always about basic values with John. Fairness, honesty, dignity, respect. Giving hate no safe harbor, leaving no one behind. And understanding that as Americans we are a part of something much bigger than ourselves https://t.co/i6KqCPbjVM pic.twitter.com/TVNXPyrRLs CNN (@CNN) August 30, 2018 McCain ostensibly had plenty of time to orchestrate his memorial services as he battled brain cancer for a year before his death Saturday. That he would choose not to have his own vice presidential pick at his memorial service can be interpreted as a neon flashing signal to the world not just about his own personal regrets in life but how concerned he was about the rise of Trumpism -- and perhaps his role in it. The link from McCain to Trump goes something like this: The Republican senator from Arizona elevated Palin, then the GOP governor of Alaska, by picking her as his vice presidential nominee in 2008. Palin in turn helped stir up and elevate certain factions on the right -- notably the kind of people who called Barack Obama an "Arab." Eight years later, America elected a man to the White House who had questioned Obama's birth certificate and whose base of voters fit neatly into the same categories as those who supported Palin. Nothing is ever that simple in politics, of course. Analysts have attributed the rise of hyperpartisanship and Trumpism to a confluence of events. There was the 2008 recession that aggravated polarization on both sides of the aisle. The weakening of campaign finance laws allowed outside groups to spend millions to steer politics in their preferred directions and made politicians dive for safety in the ideological corners of their party. Gerrymandering. Voters self-sorting into liberals in cities, conservatives in rural areas. Mistakes Democrats made in the 2016 presidential race. We may never fully understand this unique political moment we're in until we're out of it. But interpreted one way -- the most obvious way -- McCain seemed to have come to a conclusion about how Trump is president: He helped lead the way. McCain's been sending us this signal for awhile now. Months before his death, he wrote in his last memoir that he regretted not picking Joseph Lieberman, an independent senator, for his vice president. Palin called that revelation a "gut punch." These memorial services aren't just about looking back on McCain's life through a certain frame; McCain used his impending death to try to steer a country he thought was going in the wrong direction back to his vision of a hawkish America championing democracy abroad. He was diagnosed with brain cancer, then voted against Republicans' efforts to repeal Obamacare. He gave speeches and wrote op-eds urging Americans to "fight" Trumpism. His very last statement, prepared to be read after his death, was an indictment of Trump. And now his final memorial service, particularly his apparent decision not to invite Palin, can be read as an indictment of his role in it. Amber Phillips writes about politics for The Washington Posts's The Fix. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. The Passaic County Prosecutor's Office is investigating three separate overnight shootings in the city of Paterson. The first was reported around 10:40 p.m. Friday when a 23-year old Patterson man arrived at Saint Joseph's Regional Medical Center with gunshot wounds. At this time no crime scene has been located. A few hours later, officers responded to a call of a shooting on Market Street. When police arrived on scene around 1:17 a.m., they found a 33-year old woman who had been shot. She was taken to Saint Joesph's Regional Medical Center for treatment. Police believe that the woman was a passenger in a car when she was robbed by multiple unidentified people. At 3:05 a.m., police responded to East 24th Street and 12th Avenue after reports of shots being fired. When they arrived in the area, police located a possible crime scene but were unable to locate a victim. A short time later, the police were notified that a 17-year-old male had arrived at the Saint Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson for treatment of a gunshot wound. Police believe the man was shot in the area of East 24th Street and 12th Avenue. All investigations are active and ongoing, according to the county agency. All of the victims' injuries were believed to be non-fatal. Anyone with any information about any of these incidents can call the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office tips line at 1-877-370-PCPO or tips@passaiccountynj.org or contact the Paterson Police Ceasefire Unit at 973-321-1342 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 A federal judge on Friday declined to throw out a program started under President Barack Obama that allows some 17,000 immigrants brought to New Jersey illegally as children to remain in the United States. The temporary ruling was hailed as a victory by officials in Gov. Phil Murphy's administration, but the Texas judge's decision hinted that the program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, would ultimately be found illegal. "Today is a win for thousands of New Jerseyans who proudly call our state home - and hundreds of thousands of DREAMers nationwide who have known no other nation than ours," Murphy said in a statement Friday, referring to the term used for young undocumented immigrants. Texas and six other states had filed a lawsuit challenging DACA earlier this year, and the federal Department of Justice under President Donald Trump had backed away from defending the program. Murphy's attorney general, Gurbir Grewal, took the unusual step of volunteering New Jersey as a defendant in the suit, arguing that overturning DACA would hurt New Jersey's workforce and its immigrant residents. State officials say there are an estimated 53,000 DACA-eligible people in New Jersey, including 17,400 people who currently have DACA status. They argued deporting those people could cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen ruled on Friday that the program could stay in place while the lawsuit works its way through the court system, but wrote in an order that DACA "likely violates" laws concerning federal agencies and their regulations. S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Gov. Phil Murphy said Friday he's "sickened" by everything he's read regarding sexual abuse inside the Catholic Church. But he won't say whether the New Jersey should impanel a grand jury to investigate the decades of crimes and cover-ups in the state. "That's the attorney general's call," Murphy said at an event in Vineland. "I will say less as governor than as a Roman Catholic and as a dad, I'm sickened by what I have seen." The statement came a day after a state lawmaker called on state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal to embark on a similar investigation that led a Pennsylvania grand jury to reveal the names of 300 priests credibly accused of sexual abuse over a 70-year period, according to the 1,356-page grand jury's report released on Aug 14. "It's not just Pennsylvania," Murphy said. "It seems like it's been with us for decades here." Murphy added: "I'm sickened by everything I've read. I don't know how you couldn't be." State Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, is leading the charge to urge Grewal to impanel a grand jury. He said he felt compelled to act in the wake of the resignation of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick amid allegations he sexually abused young boys, seminarians and priests, and the $180,000 in settlements paid to two priests. McCarrick was bishop for the Diocese of Metuchen from 1981 to 1986, leaving to become archbishop for the Newark diocese, where he served until 2000. Pope John Paul II chose him to be Washington's archbishop, elevating him to cardinal in 2001. "Given the wide scope of abuse found in Pennsylvania and the Vatican's action against McCarrick, we must investigate now. Victims should not have to wait any longer for accountability and for justice," Vitale said on Thursday. In a statement released Thursday, Grewal agreed to establish a hotline, but a spokeswoman said it was too soon to say how his office will respond to Vitale's broader request for a grand jury investigation. NJ Advance Media Staff Writer Susan K. Livio contributed to this report. Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook. Updated 9:30 p.m. The Indians have acquired third baseman Josh Donaldson from the Blue Jays, according to Yahoo's Jeff Passan. * Yankees general manager Brian Cashman isn't done. A day after adding outfielder and 2013 National League MVP Andrew McCutchen from the Giants, the Yankees were talking to the Blue Jays about a deal that could land 2015 American League MVP Josh Donaldson in the Bronx, according to a report from Fancred's Jon Heyman. The report added that Toronto would have to pay about half the $4 million Donaldson is owed through September. Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner has said h doesn't want the team to exceed the $197-million luxury tax threshold. Sources: Yankees are among teams talking to jays about josh Donaldson. Toronto would have to pay down the 4M to go by at least half. Yanks will absolutely not go over threshold. (They are thought about 2.8M under) Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) August 31, 2018 Does this make sense? Sure. Cashman is going to utilize every penny he has, since Steinbrenner has him on what's essentially a salary cap. If there's a way to fit the 32-year-old in, why not check it out. Where would Donaldson play? Probably first base, where the Yankees are relying on the unestablished Luke Voit rather than sticking out Greg Bird's struggles. Voit has hit well of late but he didn't have much big-league experience before coming over from the Cardinals in a trade before the non-waiver deadline. The Yankees may be ready to give up on Bird, who has been terrible since returning from right ankle surgery. Another worry: Donaldson hasn't played since late May, thanks to a calf injury. He's definitely rusty. Also, moving Donaldson to first base wouldn't necessarily be a smooth transition. He's played just five games there in his career and only once this season. It's doubtful the Yankees would move Miguel Andujar, their third baseman and AL Rookie of the Year candidate, to first base. Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook. 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 Currently in New Orleans 60F Clear 73F / 60F 07:15:32 AM Feels Like: Today Sun and clouds mixed. High 72F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Tonight Overcast. Low 57F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Tomorrow Mainly cloudy. High 67F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Send your workplace conundrums to workologist@nytimes.com, including your name and contact information (even if you want it withheld). The Workologist is a guy with well-intentioned opinions, not a professional career adviser. Letters may be edited. I graduated from college two years ago and have been at the same company ever since. When I started, I was told that the salary was nonnegotiable; all entry-level employees start at the same hourly rate. I had a strong first year at work. Also, I regularly worked overtime, so I was making about 15 percent extra over my base pay. I was promoted early (it usually takes two years), and got a raise, but lost my eligibility for overtime pay. So I make less now than when I started. When I tried to discuss this with my boss, management, and human resources, they all told me nothing could be done and that my salary would get back to where it started next year if I got a raise after my next performance review. Ive now had my review, and received the highest rating. But my boss said that she has no information about salary and isnt the right person to discuss it with. It seems to me like the company really does not expect us to negotiate or even discuss our salary. Is that the strangest thing youve ever heard, or am I missing something here? H.M. Thats really frustrating. And certainly your boss claiming to be unsure about whom you should talk to is rather strange. Its not as if youre asking about some esoteric issue; salary is kind of a big deal. For some help, I talked to Daniel Shapiro, founder and director of the Harvard International Negotiation Program. Your first move is to get more information. Set up a meeting with H.R., Mr. Shapiro suggested. Treat it as purely informational: Dont complain about your boss or demand a raise. Just focus on getting someone to explain the compensation system, how employees are valued, and what opportunities for advancement or increased pay are available now or will be in the future. You could learn a lot, he said. Maybe your boss isnt giving you the whole story. Or perhaps there are more innocent factors: Your companys entry-level salary may be high for your field. It gave a home to the investigative reporters Jack Newfield and James Ridgeway, and the music critics Lester Bangs, Robert Christgau, Ellen Willis and Greg Tate. Nat Hentoff focused on jazz and First Amendment issues from 1958 to 2009, and the nightcrawling columnist Michael Musto wrote on celebrities, drag queens and club kids, with wisecracks thrown in, for more than 30 years. Steven Wishnia, who has freelanced for The Voice on and off since 1994, said he stayed up until midnight on Thursday, putting the final touches on an article about the return of residents to their building on the Bowery after they were ordered to vacate it because of safety hazards. On Friday, Mr. Wishnia received a link to his article along with a note from his editor, Neil DeMause. So the good news is that you have the honor of having written the last news article ever for The Village Voice, Mr. DeMause wrote. The bad news is also the good news. Mr. Barbey is an heir to a Pennsylvania retail fortune. With a net worth estimated at more than $6 billion by Forbes, the Barbey family has a stake in brands like North Face, Wrangler and Timberland. For generations the family has also owned The Reading Eagle, a Pennsylvania daily newspaper. Mr. Barbey has been its chief executive since 2011. He first read The Voice as a boarding school student in Massachusetts and was drawn to its coverage of the mid-1970s New York rock scene and the film criticism of Andrew Sarris. On Friday he became the media mogul who was shutting it down. I began my involvement with The Voice intending to ensure its future, Mr. Barbey said in the statement. While this is not the outcome Id hoped for and worked towards, a fully digitized Voice archive will offer coming generations a chance to experience for themselves what is clearly one of this citys and this countrys social and cultural treasures. The death of The Voice occurred in a bleak economic climate for local journalism. Print circulation has plummeted for two surviving New York tabloids, The New York Post and The Daily News. In July, Tronc, the owner of The News, laid off half the papers editorial staff, which had already been severely reduced. A sleepy night shift Mr. Sweat and Mr. Matt took advantage of lax security at Clinton to hatch their escape, using power tools to drill out of their adjoining cells, before clambering through the prisons innards and out of the prison via a maze of pipes and tunnels. They exited through a manhole a block from the maximum security facility. Such a complicated plan relied on less-than-diligent guards, something the report says is still a problem. Correction officers working overnight shifts in some blocks were continuing to neglect their primary duty ensuring that inmates are in their cells, alive and well, the report said. In addition, the report found at least six cases of contraband television sets with cable connections in officers areas, as well comfy chairs, mattresses, pillows and in one case a portable hammock. Another inspection found sheets and bedrolls in a basement area, where two guards were seen on surveillance video spending up to five hours during their eight-hour shifts. Another guard also confessed to reading in the basement location during his idle time and sometimes falling asleep. His reading material? Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, the Stephen King novella about you guessed it a prison escape. Not the only prison with problems The inspector general also did unannounced inspections of two prisons Taconic Correctional Facility, a medium-security womens prison in Bedford Hills and Wende Correctional Facility in Alden. Neither did great: at Taconic, in Westchester County, inspectors found a work force that is largely lackadaisical about its professional appearance, as well as employee lockers containing alcohol; confidential inmate financial records maintained in an unsecured area; and evidence of a possible romantic relationship between a former inmate and a correction officer. Wende a maximum security mens prison near Buffalo did better, with inspectors judging locker rooms to be clean and orderly. But contraband was found, including pocketknives, a corkscrew and a cigar cutter. In both cases, employees were disciplined. New York Citys housing authority promised in June as part of a landmark legal settlement to correct years of maintenance failures, mismanagement and cover-ups that federal authorities said had exposed 400,000 public housing residents to lead paint and other health hazards. But on Friday, the United States attorneys office severely criticized the authority for failing to live up to a key part of that agreement, or consent decree: a promise to immediately take precautions in thousands of apartments to protect residents including children from toxic dust and other hazardous particles that are dispersed when workers strip or seal lead paint. The government took the New York City Housing Authority, or Nycha, to task in a court filing for failing to follow safe work practices and for not letting the United States attorneys office know the authority had been violating its promise until officials asked. Then, the government said, the authority had argued incorrectly the agreement did not impose a deadline for adopting the safety guidelines. This effort to excuse Nychas clear-cut violation of the consent decree is consistent with the culture of apathy and deception, and demonstrates the need for independent oversight, the office of Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in the filing. The cause was congestive heart failure, her daughter, Patricia Connell, said. As a scientist, Dr. Connell conducted research on methods of contraception, including early testing of birth control pills; served on the editorial board of a prestigious journal in her field; and wrote three books on contraception, including The Contraception Sourcebook (2001), a comprehensive overview of available methods and the science behind them. Later in life, she was a researcher with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As a social activist, she helped open a womens health clinic in East Harlem in the 1960s that is still active today as part of New York Citys public hospital system, and she argued in favor of legalizing abortion well before the Supreme Courts Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. She also raised concerns about the risks of breast implants when she led a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee. She helped legitimize the importance of family planning, of womens health, the equality of women in the workplace, Dr. Richard Derman, the associate provost for global affairs at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and a former colleague, said in an interview. In 1970, when she was an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr. Connell chided a congressional subcommittee for questioning the safety of birth control pills. The questioning had caused panic among women and led to dozens of unwanted pregnancies, she said. She was wise to point out in the 1970s and 1980s that although many women thought the battle had been won in terms of access to contraception, et cetera, there were still people undermining access, Dr. Emans said. Ellie Mannette, a Trinidadian musician known in the United States as the father of the modern steel drum, died on Wednesday at a hospital in Morgantown, W.Va. He was 90. The cause was kidney failure, his daughter Juliette Mannette said. As a child in Port of Spain, Trinidads capital, Mr. Mannette became fascinated with the bands he saw using trash cans and buckets as drums, hitting them in different ways to create different sounds. For the rest of his life, he sought to elevate and expand the craft of steel-pan music, and to share it with the world. He became a master tuner, builder and teacher. His shop, Mannette Instruments in Morgantown, is a major supplier of the instruments in the United States, and he trained students in tuning at West Virginia University for nearly 20 years. Numerous American universities now have steel-pan ensembles of their own, some led by Mr. Mannettes former apprentices. Mr. Mannette was among the first to fashion a steel drum that had all the notes of the chromatic scale, so it could play any melody in any key. The school, Visva-Bharati University, was designed as an alternative to the colonial British model of education. Rather than focusing on rote classroom learning, Mr. Tagore advocated free-form study conducted in outdoor settings. Art and science were in balance; in addition to painting and sculpture, Mr. Reddy studied botany and biology, pursuits that would do much to produce the organic imagery of his later art. He was mentored at the university by the artists Nandalal Bose and Ramkinkar Baij, and he quickly graduated to the role of instructor himself. In 1949, with recommendations from Krishnamurti, who would remain a lifelong influence and adviser, Mr. Reddy traveled to London to study at the Slade School of Fine Art, where he apprenticed with the sculptor Henry Moore. In 1957 he enrolled at the Brera Academy in Milan to work with the Italian sculptor Marino Marini. But it was a move to Paris in the early 1950s that brought a major shift in the focus of his art. In Paris he joined Atelier 17, a printmaking workshop founded by the British Surrealist Stanley William Hayter. Intaglio printing, in which a plate is incised with an image, covered in ink and pressed onto paper, soon consumed Mr. Reddys energies and became the art form for which he is now best known. Sculpture is my love, Mr. Reddy once said. And in Paris he began to apply sculptural techniques to printing, transforming metal plates into the equivalent of relief sculptures. Collaborating with Mr. Hayter and a fellow Indian artist, Kaiko Moti, Mr. Reddy developed a printing method based on the use of colored inks of varying viscosities to produce complex images from a single plate. Many of the images produced from this technique were abstract, suggesting cellular forms, radiant flowers and whirlpools, often infused with a tone of Surrealist menace. In years past, I would watch McCain at the Munich Security Conference. The experience was never less than bracing. Beside him, others seemed mealy-mouthed. He had known the extremes of human experience, lived in full. His voice contained that fullness. He was a man of conviction. He preferred to be wrong than to bend. Torture over more than five years of captivity had imbued him with a humanity that transcended politics, even if did not dim his cantankerous bellicosity. He had bombed Vietnam in a losing war of confused aims and official obfuscation. He emerged unbowed in his belief in the worlds greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil, as he put it in his farewell letter. McCain was obstinate, sometimes to the point of obtuseness. Americas many failures were as nothing beside American achievement. Stubbornness defined him in an age of finger-to-the-wind opportunism. As a spineless Republican Party folded into the Trump Party, McCain came to stand almost alone as a politician of principle. His party moved. He did not. Nowhere was McCain greater than on the subject of torture, a practice for which Trumps sympathies are evident, and not only in his appointment of Gina Haspel a woman deeply involved in the Bush administrations enhanced interrogation regime to head the C.I.A. Here is McCain in 2014, responding to the Senate Intelligence Committee Report on C.I.A. methods deployed in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks: I know from personal experience that the abuse of prisoners will produce more bad than good intelligence. I know that victims of torture will offer intentionally misleading information if they think their captors will believe it. I know they will say whatever they think their torturers want them to say if they believe it will stop their suffering. Most of all, I know the use of torture compromises that which most distinguishes us from our enemies, our belief that all people, even captured enemies, possess basic human rights, which are protected by international conventions the U.S. not only joined, but for the most part authored. An important voice for basic human rights is gone. Trump does not know what human rights are. That McCain voice could be erratic or impetuous, but it was never petty. Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, floated a plan last week that stood out in its absurdity even among her many other foolish proposals: She is considering using an obscure federal grant program to let schools buy guns and pay for firearms training for faculty and staff members. That news stoked the ire of educators and gun-control advocates . They argue that guns will contribute to a climate of fear in schools and note that study after study equates more guns with more injuries and deaths. Still, Ms. DeVos is not alone in her thinking. Since the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., this past February, lawmakers in at least 14 states have proposed laws that would use taxpayers dollars to arm educators. Only one of those state laws has passed. And Congress, for its part, has barred new school safety funds from being used to buy firearms. (Ms. DeVoss plans would circumvent this restriction by drawing from a different fund.) But its clear that plenty of policymakers still see this as an option worth pursuing. The Trump administration has offered various explanations for cutting aid to the Palestinians and stopping all contributions to the United Nations agency that supports five million Palestinian refugees: They need to learn to help themselves. Other Arabs should pay. Most of them are not really refugees and should stop claiming a right to return to what is now Israel. This will push them to the negotiating table. Theyre not grateful enough. These excuses range from petty to downright dangerous. Does Jared Kushner, President Trumps son-in-law, who is supposed to be preparing an Israeli-Palestinian deal of the century, really believe that slashing assistance to the Palestinians and stripping them of their status as refugees will compel them to accept whatever one-sided plan he cooks up or teach them to show proper respect for Mr. Trump? Most important, does Mr. Trump understand or care that his administration has effectively abandoned the critical role his predecessors have tried to fulfill as peace brokers in the Middle East, while remaining Israels major friend and ally? Does he recognize that depriving Palestinians of any hope of outside mediation or support, and making their lives more miserable, could well lead to another round of violence? The decision to stop all funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, formally announced on Friday, goes far beyond questions of respect or negotiating tactics. It affects an agency that provides critical schooling, health, food and other services for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The United States finances about a third of the budget, or about $350 million a year. The planned cut to the agency, moreover, follows an announcement last week that the State Department is cutting $200 million in other aid to Palestinians in the West Bank, primarily intended for development and infrastructure projects. WASHINGTON California lawmakers on Friday passed a bill that would guarantee full and equal access to the internet a principle known as net neutrality in the biggest pushback yet to the federal governments rollback of rules last year. The California bill is viewed as even stronger and more consumer-friendly than the original measures carried out by the Obama administration and abolished in December by the Trump-era Federal Communications Commission. It is sure to set up a fight between broadband providers, which say strict rules would increase their costs, and consumer groups, which seek to ensure that all traffic on the internet is treated equally. It is the latest effort in a growing fight against deregulation by the Trump administration. Federal agencies that have slashed regulations on telecommunications are being challenged in court by more than 20 states. Thirty states have introduced bills to ensure net neutrality. If Gov. Jerry Brown signs the bill, California would become the fourth state to create a net neutrality law since the federal rollback, but it is considered the most significant. This bill would set a tremendous precedent, with the power to shape the internet market not just in California but across the country for the betterment of consumers, Jonathan Schwantes, senior policy counsel for Consumers Union, said in a statement. For a long time, being online was where Aaron Philip felt most confident. She began documenting her daily life on Tumblr when she was 11, writing about her love of anime and the experience of growing up in New York City with cerebral palsy. In those days, Aaron got online with a MacBook and a personal Wi-Fi hot spot at a homeless shelter in Manhattan, where she lived with her father after her medical bills became too expensive. I took to the internet to find community and build a space for myself where I could be loved and appreciated, she said. Despite her circumstances, Aaron projected a positive attitude online, once telling her followers: Sometimes, its you who has to trigger your own happiness. Aaron, 17, now lives in an apartment in the Bronx. She doesnt go anywhere without her iPad, which usually sits on a tray attached to her motorized wheelchair. Shes graduated from Tumblr to Twitter and Instagram, where she has become a champion of issues affecting gay, transgender and disabled youth. After a spate of heated demonstrations over the Silent Sam statue at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the schools chancellor suggested on Friday that she wanted to move the Confederate monument to another part of campus. In a statement, the chancellor, Carol L. Folt, said the statues previous location made it a cause for division and a threat to public safety. The university systems Board of Governors gave approval earlier this week to seek a safe, legal and alternative location for the monument, Dr. Folt said, adding that she is seeking input from students, staff and alumni as well as state legislators and the governor to decide where it should go. Silent Sam has a place in our history and on our campus where its history can be taught, Dr. Folt said in the statement. But not at the front door of a safe, welcoming, proudly public research university. On Aug. 20, protesters gathered around the 105-year-old statue and brought it to the ground, prompting debate over whether the monument should be restored to its pedestal in a large park at the entrance to the campus. CHARLOTTE, N.C. As President Trump hardened his stance on trade with Canada, one of the nations closest allies, the White House said Friday that Mr. Trump would not be traveling to Asia for a round of economic and security meetings with allies this fall. Mr. Trump will not attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting, the East Asia Summit and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation session later this year, and will send Vice President Mike Pence instead, according to a statement issued by Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary. The vice president looks forward to meeting with our allies and partners from across the region to advance security, prosperity and freedom for all, Ms. Sanders said. Mr. Trumps decision not to attend the Asia meetings in November he will travel to the Group of 20 summit meeting in Buenos Aires and visit both France and Ireland earlier that month underscored the degree to which the president is comfortable creating a political distance between the United States and some of its major allies. And it is all but certain to reinforce concerns among allies in that part of the world about the Trump administrations ability to be a reliable and stabilizing force against China. SAO PAULO, Brazil Brazils top electoral court ruled on Friday that former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is serving a 12-year sentence for corruption, cannot run for a third term, eliminating the front-runner in a race many see as a struggle between democracy and due process. Mr. da Silva, a two-time president who left office in 2011 with a record-high approval rating, has become a polarizing figure. Many supporters remain loyal to the metalworker who rose from the factory floor to the presidency and improved the lives of millions of the countrys poorest, giving him a wide lead in polls ahead of the Oct. 7 vote. But he also has one of the highest rejection rates thanks to the Lava Jato, or Carwash, investigation that landed Mr. da Silva in jail and documented the political corruption that flourished during the 13 years that his party was in power. In a poll published in August by the Datafolha research institution, Mr. da Silva easily led his rivals, with 39 percent of Brazilians saying they would vote for him, followed by a far-right former army captain, Jair Bolsonaro, who had the support of 19 percent of expected voters. His ouster blows open an already splintered race, just five weeks before the vote. Nafta wasnt the only source of turmoil and potential political trouble for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this week. The already overheated debate over expanding the Trans Mountain pipeline from Alberta to an oil tanker port in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby became even hotter on Thursday when the Federal Court of Appeal slapped down the government for not conducting sincere and meaningful consultations with Indigenous people. The court also ordered the National Energy Board to look at the environmental effects of more tankers in the waters off British Columbias coast. [Read: Canadian Court Halts Expansion of Trans Mountain Oil Pipeline] Though the project is unpopular with many Liberal supporters, the government had solidly backed the expansion of the pipeline it is soon to purchase, in part as a way to get Alberta onside with its carbon tax program. So it wasnt surprising to see an angry Rachel Notley, Albertas premier, appearing on television a few hours after the news broke to announce that her provinces government was pulling out of the carbon reduction program until construction workers actually start building the pipeline expansion. But Ms. Notley, whose political fortunes also rest on the project, wasnt the only person with tart words for Mr. Trudeau. Many Indigenous groups, who were the main applicants in the lawsuit, called on the prime minister to kill the expansion, as did environmentalists and politicians on the left. Some are opposed because the pipeline mainly carries oil from Albertas oil sands, which they regard as a particularly polluting energy source. Others, including John Horgan, the premier of British Columbia, fear catastrophe if a tanker sinks or splits open off the provinces coast. The United Nations agency that assists Palestinians who are classified as refugees has received more than $6 billion in American funding since its creation nearly seven decades ago, making the United States the agencys single most important donor. But over the past year, the Trump administration has made it increasingly clear that it regards the agency as part of the problem in resolving the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Beginning in January, the administration reduced funding for the agency, which in some ways functions as a quasi government. The cuts threw the agency into its worst financial crisis. On Friday, the administration said it would stop all funding for the agency, calling it an irredeemably flawed operation. The disruption could further upend the lives of roughly 5.4 million Palestinians who rely on the agencys services in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Here are questions and answers about the agency, officially known as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or Unrwa for short: What does Unrwa do? Originally intended as a temporary relief provider, Unrwa was established in 1949 to assist more than 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes during the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. Its operations are almost entirely funded by voluntary contributions from United Nations member states. Welcome to the weekend. Its the one where we bid an unofficial farewell to summer. So soak up the rays and the smell of cocoa butter while you still can. And make time for some great journalism. It was a busy news week and we have lots. Staying home for Labor Day weekend? Stream a couple of short-lived series or revisit a Wes Anderson classic. Whats Streaming RUSHMORE (1998) on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Hulu, Vudu and YouTube. Before Wes Anderson gave us The Royal Tenenbaums and The Grand Budapest Hotel, he wrote and directed this lighthearted comedy. Jason Schwartzman stars as Max Fischer, an entrepreneurial sophomore at Rushmore Academy with lots of charisma and many talents. He loves his school more than anything, but his devotion to countless extracurricular activities has put him on academic probation. While scrambling to avoid expulsion, hes dealt another blow when he learns that his mentor, Mr. Blume (Bill Murray), is after the same teacher (Olivia Williams) Max has fallen in love with. Looking back at the films influence, A. O. Scott said, The charms of this movie are abundant: It has whimsical production design, clever and sharp writing, tender comical performances, a brilliant use of pop music to underscore and slightly ironize the emotions being expressed on the screen. Owen Wilson, a frequent star of Mr. Andersons films, wrote the screenplay with him. MONKEY TWINS on Netflix. A troubled fighter teams up with a police officer to bring down an organized crime ring in this Thai action-comedy series. Watch for dizzying fight scenes inspired by a traditional dance drama and Thai martial arts. Adrienne Ruth Campbell-Holt and Brian Nicholas Lewis are to be married Sept. 2 at St. Ignatius Loyola Church in New York. The Rev. Vincent Biagi, a Roman Catholic priest, is to perform the ceremony. The bride 38, is a freelance theater director. She is currently the artistic director of Colt Coeur, a Brooklyn-based theater company, and the associate director of the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen. She graduated summa cum laude from Barnard. She is a daughter of Meg Campbell and Stephen Holt, both of Boston. The brides father is the founder and owner of several websites for readers and authors, including BookGorilla and Kindle Nation Daily. Her mother is the founder and chief of strategy and innovation for the Codman Academy Public School in Dorchester, Mass. Mr. Lewis, 32, is an actor whose professional stage name is Brian Wiles. He recently portrayed John Aksoy on Billions, which airs on Showtime, and Marquis de Lafayette on Turn, which airs on the AMC Network. He graduated cum laude from Amherst College and received a masters in acting from Yale. Clare Sullivan Bernard and Mohammad Hossein Hamidian were married Sept. 1 at the home of the brides parents in Sherborn, Mass. Cynthia A. Poorbaugh, an aunt of the bride who received permission from the state to solemnize the marriage, officiated, with Amir Majlesi, an uncle of the groom, leading the couple in Persian wedding traditions. The bride, 31, will take her husbands name. She is a product director at the Broad Institute, a joint genomics research unit of M.I.T. and Harvard. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University and received a doctoral degree in particle physics from Boston University. She is the daughter of Susan Poorbaugh Bernard and Peter J. Bernard. The brides father retired as the chief operating officer of Root Capital, a microlending organization in Cambridge, Mass., that makes social-impact loans to agricultural enterprises in the developing world. Her mother ran Greenwood Farm, a horse-boarding business, in Sherborn. The groom, 38, is a senior data scientist in Boston for Swayable, a media analytics company. He graduated from the University of Toronto and received a doctoral degree in physics from Cornell. Rabbi Rachel Cowan, a Mayflower descendant who converted to Judaism and became a prominent innovator in three nontraditional movements in that faith, died on Friday at her home in Manhattan. She was 77. The cause was brain cancer, her family said. Rabbi Cowan was a leader in helping couples navigate the shoals of mixed marriage, injecting contemplative practices like meditation and mindfulness into religious life, and designing healing services to comfort the sick and dying. After she learned of her cancer more than two years ago, her friends held twice-weekly services of songs, psalms and readings for her, and a flavor of that so-called healing movement was evident in one service. In the middle of a meditation, according to Rabbi Lisa Goldstein, executive director of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, a frail Rabbi Cowan piped up, You know, at my funeral I want you to sing If I Had a Hammer. Her friends asked if she wanted to hear the tune at that moment; when she nodded yes, they broke out in song. This past week the Trump Justice Department threw its weight behind a high-profile lawsuit against Harvard University, in which a group of Asian-American plaintiffs claim with a great deal of evidence that the famous Ivy school discriminates against them as it once discriminated against Jews. This happened in the same moment that the No. 1 movie in America is Crazy Rich Asians, a guilty-pleasure romantic comedy about a young female Chinese-American economist in love with a Singaporean heir. The convergence illustrates an underrated reality about Trump-era America. Our polarizing immigration debate revolves around the Wall and the border because weve just experienced a long wave of immigration from our southern neighbors. But that surge is diminishing, and for almost a decade the United States has taken more Asian than Hispanic immigration. So after the Trumpian moment passes, our ethno-political fights will be gradually reshaped by how Asians relate to American culture, how American politics relates to them, and how they (because "Asian" contains multitudes) relate to one another. In my lifetime there have been two stories about where Asian-Americans fit in our domestic coalitions. In the Reagan 80s they were seen as the most Republican-friendly immigrant group more educated and prosperous than other immigrants, often anti-Communist (in the case of the Vietnamese and Taiwanese especially), bearing Confucian or Christian values that aligned with a traditional-values G.O.P. But then from the Clinton era on Asian voters swung toward the Democratic Party a shift that probably reflected changes in immigrant composition (more South Asians relative to East Asians, more non-Christians relative to Christians), the declining salience of anti-Communism, and a reaction to the G.O.P.s continued rightward shift and white-Southern-Christian brand. More than a dozen years ago I was a finalist for a reporting job at a small newspaper. All I needed to do was survive an interview with the top editor. The other editors warned me, saying their boss took perverse pleasure from smashing the hopes of naive reporters. I braced myself as he studied my resume. His lips curled into a sneer. To be fair, my job history was a tad unusual. I had spent five years in full-time ministry, including three as an evangelical Christian missionary in Kenya. Then there was my masters degree in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. There didnt seem to be a lot of churchgoing, Bible-believing, born-again Christians like me working at daily papers. The editor scowled and said, So what makes you think that a Christian can be a good journalist? He emphasized Christian as if it was some kind of slur. I liked that he spoke his mind, but I was taken aback. I explained what I saw as a natural progression from the ministry to muckraking, pointing out that both are valid ways of serving a higher cause. The Bible endorses telling the truth, without bias. So does journalism. The Bible commands honesty and integrity. In journalism, your reputation is your main calling card with sources and readers. To the Editor: Re The New Socialists, by Corey Robin (Sunday Review, Aug. 26): In Mr. Robins account of socialism, only when the workers of this country liberate themselves from the miseries and anxieties of capitalism like having to work for a boss to provide for themselves and their families will they finally be able to live free and happy lives. The latest data from Northern Europes democratic-socialist countries suggest otherwise (Gloom in the Worlds Happiest Nations, news article, Aug. 27). Despite having the worlds most generous economic and social welfare systems for workers and nonworkers alike, depression, loneliness and stress are all on the rise. Young people are reportedly suffering the most. The American capitalist system does not guarantee happiness just its pursuit. As generations of Americans, including tens of millions of immigrants, have discovered, it is this freedom to pursue a better life that brings meaning to the lives of individuals, and collective benefits to all of society. Stuart Gottlieb New York The writer teaches public policy at Columbia University. To the Editor: The New Socialists notes that there is growing support for socialism, and that there are successful people in politics who are self-described socialists, like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Theres a problem, however. Look up socialism in almost any decent dictionary, and you will find something similar to this definition, from Merriam-Webster: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods . SYDNEY, Australia Scheming white men, once allies in the conservative cause, knifing one another in the back. Complaints about pervasive and sexist bullying at the top. Galloping paranoia on the right. Wrenching battles over whether refugee policies are racist and cruel, and whether climate change fears are overwrought. A juicy government scandal involving illicit favors for a pair of comely young women. Welcome to chaos, Australian-style. Down under, theres no demonic, mesmerizing Macys parade balloon of a leader like Donald Trump. But there are still plenty of echoes with Americas mad, ugly Thunderdome. In the dizzying quadrille of leaders known here as Canberras churn, Australia has a brand new prime minister. That makes six prime ministers in 10 years, with Kevin Rudd serving twice. While everyone in America knew who Trump was when he was elected, only half the people here were familiar with Scott Morrison when he suddenly catapulted to the top job a week ago. As in America, a woman in the running who had been the top diplomat was shockingly shoved aside at the last minute. And the man who has taken over is not as popular as his more personable predecessor. In both countries, there is widespread exasperation with a flawed political system that coughs up heads of government who capture a branch of their party without capturing the hearts of most of the country. When she refused to name the person who had performed the abortion, police officers arrested her. Ms. Wheeler was convicted of manslaughter a crime with a possible 20-year sentence. The court, however, sentenced her to two years of probation and forbade her to stay out overnight, go to a bar or associate with people of harmful character or bad reputation. The court also gave her this ultimatum: Marry the man she was living with in Florida or leave the state in no more than a week and return to North Carolina to live with a different man, her brother. Ms. Wheeler, whose conviction was later overturned, was not alone in being arrested for having an abortion before Roe, but it is true that such arrests were not common. Its unlikely, however, that would be the case today because our current legal system radically expanded through the war on drugs is profoundly different from the one we lived with when Roe was decided. In the 1970s, the United States imprisoned approximately 300,000 people, almost all of them men. Today, American prisons and jails hold more than 2.2 million people, and 4.5 million more people are under some form of criminal justice supervision, such as probation and parole. This is not the result of population growth. Between 1970 and 2000, the American population rose by less than 40 percent, yet the number of inmates rose by more than 500 percent. Today, more than 200,000 women are behind bars, in both jails and prisons, and more than one million women are on probation or parole. Looking just at prisons, there has been more than a 1,700 percent increase in incarceration of women since 1973. The majority of them are black and brown. But we dont have to just imagine future arrests. Such arrests are happening already. Some states still have pre-Roe laws on their books that specifically authorize prosecution of women who have abortions. In 2011, Jennie Linn McCormack, a pregnant mother of three who lived in southeastern Idaho, used medications she obtained online to carry out an abortion at home. She was charged with violating an Idaho law that makes it a felony for a woman to perform her own abortion. Nearly four months after Ms. McCormack was charged, a state court dismissed the criminal complaint, but in a way that left open the possibility that she could be charged again. Ms. McCormack brought suit in federal court challenging Idaho laws that could be used to punish her for having an abortion. She prevailed. (My organization filed an amicus brief on her behalf.) LOME, Togo Most of the brick-and-mortar shops in the Grand Marche de Hedzranawoe are shuttered, but plywood boutiques overflow the hallways and plazas that run through its geometric tiled corridors. Velvet dresses, boxer briefs, ties, overalls, wedding dresses and ear muffs hang from exposed beams like curtains on display. One morning in March, Amah Ayivi, a designer and clothing dealer, dug through mounds of utility jumpsuits, his hands bedecked with heavy silver rings. His soft eyes squinted and darted as he systematically sorted through the piles. You can go through all of this and only find one, or zero, or 20, he said over the rhythmic squeaking horns and the nasal cries of food and drink vendors. Mr. Ayivi said he was looking for old-school and vintage and good colors and materials that he would later ship to Paris and upsell as vintage under his label Marche Noir. The debate on Wednesday between Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and his primary challenger Cynthia Nixon contained several moments of drama. Ms. Nixon called Mr. Cuomo corrupt and hammered him over his handling of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which she said he used like an A.T.M. Mr. Cuomo implored her to stop interrupting him. I let you speak, he said. Ms. Nixon also repeatedly painted Mr. Cuomo as the tool of big-money donors. Mr. Cuomo responded by mentioning a series of requests Ms. Nixon made to friends at City Hall. Just look, he said, at the teahouse for Sarah Jessica Parker. This wound up being one of the evenings more confounding moments. [Read more about Wednesdays debate.] When the Peruvian chef Cecilia Zapata opened Kampai in 2017 in Les Paquis, the red light district of Geneva, she was already known as a pioneer and advocate for her native countrys cuisine. An evolution toward what she calls new Peruvian cuisine began at Pachacamac, her first restaurant (a second branch opened recently near the Jet dEau, the citys monumental fountain), and continues at Kampai, where she incorporates Nikkei cuisine (a fusion of Peruvian and Japanese influences) and creative pisco-based cocktails. Its also a family affair: Ms. Zapata comes from a line of restaurateurs and works with a few of her nine siblings. We never thought that we would be working in restaurants, she said. Our parents owned eateries in Peru, and we all hated that. We never saw them. But when she arrived in Switzerland in 2005, she craved the tangy taste of her mothers ceviche, the perfumed heat of aji amarillo, and sweet lucuma ice cream. One brother, Cesar, opened a bar, and the family was soon back in the restaurant business. From the beginning, Mr. Gillum has insisted that a corruption inquiry in which he said he played no direct role should not be an impediment to his campaign for governor. But he acknowledged that the investigation has rocked city government in Tallahassee since federal authorities delivered their first subpoenas in the case last summer. What kept me going even through that difficult time was my knowledge that I would never do anything to compromise my morals, my values, my family, my children, my vote, Mr. Gillum said in an interview this week. I was very clear in that, which is why I was not afraid to keep going on the trail, keep answering questions, continue to take it on the chin. At issue is a vote in June 2016 to expand a city redevelopment district to include properties the undercover agents posing as developers said they wanted to invest in if the properties became eligible for public dollars. It would have been unlawful for public officials to accept money or other consideration from the purported developers in exchange for favorable votes. Mr. Gillum was not present for the vote that approved the boundary change. But the investigation revealed that he had spent time socializing with Mr. Corey, the lobbyist, and the undercover agents in New York, including taking a boat ride to the Statue of Liberty and seeing a Broadway performance of the hit musical Hamilton. [Tallahassee residents received racist robocalls targeting Andrew Gillum.] Mr. Gillum and Mr. Corey met in college, when they were involved in student government at Florida A&M University and at Florida Gulf Coast University, respectively. They remained friends Mr. Corey served as Mr. Gillums volunteer campaign treasurer in his 2014 run for mayor until the investigation; Mr. Gillum told The Tallahassee Democrat that he has severed ties with Mr. Corey. The trip to New York in August 2016 raised questions of why the mayor was spending personal time with developers who had potential business before the city. Similar questions resulted from another trip that Mr. Gillum took with his wife and several lobbyist friends including Mr. Corey to Costa Rica in May 2016. Mr. Gillums campaign said in response to written questions on Friday that the Hamilton tickets and the mayors hotel stay at the Millennium Hilton hotel in Downtown Manhattan were paid for by his younger brother, Marcus Gillum, who was on the New York trip. The brothers attended the musical along with Mr. Corey and one of the undercover agents. The ticket Marcus Gillum gave his brother was in exchange for a Jay-Z concert ticket Marcus Gillum gave Mr. Corey, Andrew Gillum later learned. Marcus Gillum could not be reached for comment. I dont compare myself to the councilwoman, Mr. Capuano said in an interview. In my mind Im running on the basis of my record both back in Washington and back here. Were in the fight of our lives with Donald Trump in the White House, and this district like all districts, but particularly this one needs the best fighter we can get in Washington, someone whos experienced. In Somerville, his hometown, Mr. Capuano has held nearly every political office of import alderman, mayor and now congressman and he uses his campaign stops to gently remind voters that his history of leftist activism could stand next to anyones. Mr. Capuano has stressed to voters that, if Democrats retake the House, his seniority and relationships with other lawmakers would make him a prime candidate to sponsor bills and serve on valuable committees that are critical for achieving results. Ms. Pressley would be a freshman. Ms. Pressley has long been an advocate for girls and women. She volunteered at little-known nonprofits, served as a mentor and Big Sister and has been a regular presence at events like the Boston Area Rape Crisis Centers annual Walk for Change. It was this background that led some of Bostons kingmakers, Ms. Pressley said, to suggest in 2009 that she not run for City Council and instead pursue a career with nonprofits. Ms. Pressley ignored their advice. From her years of working for Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II and former Senator John Kerry, including as Mr. Kerrys Massachusetts political director during his 2004 presidential campaign, she had built an extensive political network of her own. Senator Kerry even knocked on doors for her. Ms. Pressley won that first race. And in 2011, in her first bid for re-election, she pulled in more votes than anyone else. John believed in honest argument and hearing other views. He understood that if we get in the habit of bending the truth to suit political expediency or party orthodoxy, our democracy will not work. Thats why he was willing to buck his own party at times, occasionally work across the aisle on campaign finance reform and immigration reform. Thats why he championed a free and independent press as vital to our democratic debate. And the fact that it earned him some good coverage didnt hurt, either. John understood, as JFK understood, as Ronald Reagan understood, that part of what makes our country great is that our membership is based not on our bloodline; not on what we look like, what our last names are. Its not based on where our parents or grandparents came from, or how recently they arrived, but on adherence to a common creed: That all of us are created equal. Endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights. Its been mentioned today, and weve seen footage this week of John pushing back against supporters who challenged my patriotism during the 2008 campaign. I was grateful, but I wasnt surprised. As Joe Lieberman said, it was Johns instinct. I never saw John treat anyone differently because of their race, or religion, or gender. And Im certain that in those moments that have been referred to during the campaign, he saw himself as defending Americas character, not just mine, for he considered it the imperative of every citizen who loves this country to treat all people fairly. And finally, while John and I disagreed on all kinds of foreign policy issues, we stood together on Americas role as the one indispensable nation, believing that with great power and great blessings comes great responsibility. That burden is borne most heavily by our men and women in uniform service members like Doug, Jimmy, and Jack, who followed in their fathers footsteps as well as the families who serve alongside our troops. But John understood that our security and our influence was won not just by our military might, not just by our wealth, not just by our ability to bend others to our will, but from our capacity to inspire others, with our adherence to a set of universal values like rule of law and human rights, and an insistence on the God-given dignity of every human being. Of course, John was the first to tell us that he was not perfect. Like all of us who go into public service, he did have an ego. Like all of us, there were no doubt some votes he cast, some compromises he struck, some decisions he made that he wished he could have back. Its no secret, its been mentioned that he had a temper, and when it flared up, it was a force of nature, a wonder to behold his jaw grinding, his face reddening, his eyes boring a hole right through you. Not that I ever experienced it firsthand, mind you. But to know John was to know that as quick as his passions might flare, he was just as quick to forgive and ask for forgiveness. He knew more than most his own flaws and his blind spots, and he knew how to laugh at himself. And that self-awareness made him all the more compelling. We didnt advertise it, but every so often over the course of my presidency, John would come over to the White House, and wed just sit and talk in the Oval Office, just the two of us wed talk about policy and wed talk about family and wed talk about the state of our politics. And our disagreements didnt go away during these private conversations. Those were real, and they were often deep. But we enjoyed the time we shared away from the bright lights. And we laughed with each other, and we learned from each other. We never doubted the other mans sincerity or the other mans patriotism, or that when all was said and done, we were on the same team. We never doubted we were on the same team. WASHINGTON In the estimation of American officials, Oleg V. Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin, has faced credible accusations of extortion, bribery and even murder. They also thought he might make a good source. Between 2014 and 2016, the F.B.I. and the Justice Department unsuccessfully tried to turn Mr. Deripaska into an informant. They signaled that they might provide help with his trouble in getting visas for the United States or even explore other steps to address his legal problems. In exchange, they were hoping for information on Russian organized crime and, later, on possible Russian aid to President Trumps 2016 campaign, according to current and former officials and associates of Mr. Deripaska. In one dramatic encounter, F.B.I. agents appeared unannounced and uninvited at a home Mr. Deripaska maintains in New York and pressed him on whether Paul Manafort, a former business partner of his who went on to become chairman of Mr. Trumps campaign, had served as a link between the campaign and the Kremlin. The attempt to flip Mr. Deripaska was part of a broader, clandestine American effort to gauge the possibility of gaining cooperation from roughly a half-dozen of Russias richest men, nearly all of whom, like Mr. Deripaska, depend on President Vladimir V. Putin to maintain their wealth, the officials said. Among the uninvited: members of the Westboro Baptist Church, who gathered a few blocks away from the cathedral. MOST PEOPLE GO TO HELL was among the few printable signs. Gathering outside the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Dozens of people gathered around the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, forming a quiet ring on the outskirts of the wall before Ms. McCain arrived to honor her husband and other veterans of the Vietnam War. It was almost silent, except for the clipping of Park Police horse hooves on gravel, the rustling of the leaves and the faint strains of the national anthem played in the distance. The people who gathered veterans, parents in uniform with their children, runners who paused midstride were there not just to pay respects to Mr. McCain. They were there for Ms. McCain and their own loved ones who had served. Makes us feel special at a very hard time for all of us, said Bruce Whiteaker, 69, who served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War. Were grateful that shes decided to stop and honor the fallen in this way. Mr. Whiteaker made the 10-hour drive from Knoxville, Tenn., with his wife, Shirley, who also served in the Air Force. They brought handmade signs, decorated with American flag stickers, and condolences for the McCain family. With Cindy McCain coming today, Ms. Whiteaker said, tears beginning to run down her face, we wanted her to know what we felt for her and her family. Onlookers ponder what it means to be great. A stubborn grayness rested over Washington, the vast sheet of dark clouds threatening rain as clusters of mourners walked into the cathedral, dressed in black. An American flag hung at half-staff on the front lawn. Please raise your right hand. These are the Supreme Court confirmation hearings This is day two. youre probably all familiar with. Bigly. You just said bigly. Bigly. Big partisan productions A charade and a mockery. Anything else you want to say, Judge Bork? that dominate the headlines and the airwaves. This is how they used to be. [crickets] Yeah, there actually werent any. So how did we get from here [crickets] to here? Well start in 1937 with former Senator Hugo Black, whos being congratulated. Thats because hes just been confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice. Hes also been outed as a former member of the Ku Klux Klan. So to explain himself, he gets on the radio. I did join the Klan. I later resigned. I never rejoined. People are not happy. Theyre basically asking: How could the Senate Judiciary Committee let this guy through? Answer: Since the first hearing back in 1873, for this guy, there were no standard ways of holding hearings for Supreme Court nominees. They didnt have to go and testify, and the hearings didnt need to be made public. The senators reviewed the nominees among themselves. But then came a couple of amendments to the Constitution. The upshot is they gave more voting power to the people. So the senators needed to start paying more attention to public opinion. And theyre paying attention when Blacks controversial confirmation drives Americans to ask: Why are these hearings private? Its a big reason why the next nominee to come along gets a public hearing. And its not just a public hearing, its the first that includes no-holds-barred questioning by the committee. Things are beginning to change. Then World War II comes, and goes. America is suddenly a superpower. Business booms, suburbs grow. The protest took the form of a boycott. And we see the beginning of the modern civil-rights era. In 1954, the court rules to end racial segregation in schools. And this marks a point where we really start to see the court using its power to shape parts of American society. That means Americans take a greater interest in who is on the court. That means even more pressure on senators to vet these candidates. Starting with the first nominee after the Brown decision, almost every nominee will have a public hearing. Now change is in full swing. I Have a Dream, the march from Selma, The Feminine Mystique. The court keeps making controversial rulings on race discrimination, gender discrimination, personal privacy. That means more public interest, more pressure on senators, more issues to parse in the hearings. So the hearings get longer. But just wait. 1981 game changer. Good evening. Sandra OConnor First woman nominated to the Supreme Court, first nomination hearing to be televised. The longer senators talk, the more TV time they get. The more TV time they get, the more they can posture for voters watching at home. [senators talking] So the more they talk. With the cameras rolling, well see 10 out of the 12 longest hearings ever. One of those is for Robert Bork With a negative recommendation of 9 to 5. who famously doesnt make the cut. Now onto the aughts. Theres an 11-year gap between nominees. Meanwhile, America has become more politically divided, so has the Senate. Over and over again Wait just a second How many times do we do this before Heres Chief Justice Roberts to explain what happened next. I mean, you look at two of my colleagues, Justice Scalia and Justice Ginsburg, for example. Maybe there were two or three dissenting votes between the two of them. Yep, three votes against Ginsburg in 1993. No votes against Scalia in 1986. Now you look at my more recent colleagues and the votes were, I think, strictly on party lines. Thats pretty much right. And that doesnt make any sense. And thats how we got here. Im not looking to take us back to quill pens. Very long Nah, I just asked you where you were at on Christmas. [laughter] Always very political So your failure to answer questions is confounding me. very public Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Also, something else to notice: Sometimes these nominees give pretty similar answers. The right to privacy is protected under the Constitution in various ways. And it protects the right to privacy in a number of ways. In various places in the Constitution. In a variety of places in the Constitution. Its protected by the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment certainly speaks to the right of privacy. Its founded in the Fourth Amendment. The first and most obvious place is the Fourth Amendment. But it took several more years for the federal government to make it a national holiday when it served a greater political purpose. In the summer of 1894, the Pullman strike severely disrupted rail traffic in the Midwest, and the federal government used an injunction and federal troops to break the strike. It had started when the Pullman Palace Car Company lowered wages without lowering rents in the company town, also called Pullman. (Its now part of Chicago.) When angry workers complained, the owner, George Pullman, had them fired. They decided to strike, and other workers for the American Railway Union, led by the firebrand activist Eugene V. Debs, joined the action. They refused to handle Pullman cars, bringing freight and passenger traffic to a halt around Chicago. Tens of thousands of workers walked off the job, wildcat strikes broke out, and angry crowds were met with live fire from the authorities. During the crisis, President Grover Cleveland signed a bill into law on June 28, 1894, declaring Labor Day a national holiday. Some historians say he was afraid of losing the support of working-class voters. There were many political advantages at that moment to provide recognition for Labor Day, said Joshua B. Freeman, a distinguished professor of history at Queens College and the City University of New York Graduate Center. But it wasnt the only workingmans holiday on the table. Starting in 1884, the labor movement had called for strikes and protests on May 1 to push for an eight-hour workday. That would-be holiday was called May Day, and its now celebrated around the world, though its not officially recognized in the United States. You might blame the Haymarket affair. On May 4, 1886, a bomb went off at a demonstration in Chicagos Haymarket Square in support of an eight-hour workday and against police killings of protesters. The authorities opened fire in response, and seven officers and four protesters were killed. But many parents who were deported without their children, like Mr. Domingo, have found that instead of speeding things up, leaving the United States has only delayed reunification. They often dont understand the cumbersome legal process in which their children are trapped, or know when they might be with them again uncertainty that leaves them anguished. Its been enough pain, Mr. Domingo said. How much more does the government want us to suffer? Its too much. The American authorities decline to comment on individual cases involving minors. Last month, under orders from Judge Dana M. Sabraw of Federal District Court in Southern California, the government submitted a strategy to reunify children with parents who had been deported. Its details were ironed out in conference with the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a suit against the government over the separation policy. Under the plan, the government has designated officials in various departments to steer its efforts and is coordinating with Central American consular officials in the United States to prepare the childrens travel documents. The government has also assumed financial responsibility for repatriating the children. But locating the parents in their countries of origin and identifying their children within the immigration bureaucracy is difficult. That burden has fallen to a coalition of American advocacy groups that have taken on the task in the hope of speeding up the process. The A.C.L.U., private firms and N.G.O.s are largely doing what the government should be doing, said Lee Gelernt, the lead A.C.L.U. lawyer in the case. Is that ideal for all of us? No. Is it necessary? Yes. Most police chiefs inherit large forces riddled with significant problems, many of them already working for local drug gangs, Mr. Guerrero said. Morelia is not Mexico. Mr. Leon will step down this coming week when a new mayor takes office. It is unclear whether his program will be kept in place. This kind of turnover is common and remains one of Mexicos biggest problems in establishing a consistent security policy. There are no shortcuts to transforming police corporations or dealing with crime, said Mr. Canales, the management professor. You have to give time for these efforts to mature and blossom. But at least some of the changes that took hold over the past three years will remain. On a recent morning, Officer Jessica Gutierrez addressed a primary school classroom packed with children and their parents: We are here to protect you and help you, not to hurt you, she said. A 26-year-old psychologist, she had dreamed of becoming a real life super hero, a police officer who would keep citizens out of harms way. But when she told her family she wanted to attend the police academy a year and a half ago, they rejected and ridiculed the idea, she said. Now they call me all the time to help them sort out all kinds of problems, she said. I realized if I can change my own familys perspective, I can change that of the rest of society. But as he tries to shape a new identity, his past looms large. He not only came of age under the wings of some of the most controversial warlords associated with the past decades of the Afghan war, but he is also accused of having acted much like them when he became a young governor. Human rights organizations say that when Mr. Khalid ran the provinces of Ghazni and then Kandahar, he maintained private prisons where forces under his command tortured detainees. Mr. Khalid has long denied those accusations. In the provinces, the governor is the overall in charge, Mr. Khalid said. If you have the police prison, and the police forces are your guards, what is the need for private prisons? In Afghanistans deteriorating security environment, where a resurgent Taliban is engineering deadly bombing attacks seemingly daily, politics is often a deadly business. Mr. Khalids opening rally, and its preparations, had the secrecy of an intelligence operation and the color and chaos of a summer camp. He kept his program so under wraps that even the thousands of young people who arrived from more than a dozen provinces did not know where the Aug. 2 rally would be held until the last minute. He was preoccupied with security trying to keep the rally as short as possible, and learning from recent attacks by making sure the crowd was dismissed gradually so suicide bombers wouldnt target them on their way out the secured location. Preparations on the eve of the rally ran late into the night at his home in Kabul, where Mr. Khalid finalized the details of the program with four other speakers. The master of ceremonies, a young man from the north, read the opening of his prepared remarks. Ministers, members of Parliament, excellencies, he started. Mr. Khalid cut him off. There will be no excellencies, no ministers or M.P.s, he said. The Dutch authorities said on Saturday that the suspect in a double stabbing at a busy railway station in Amsterdam had a terrorist motive, while the United States ambassador to the Netherlands identified the two people injured as American citizens. In a statement, Ambassador Pete Hoekstra said that the Americans had been visiting the country when the attack happened on Friday and that the embassy had been in touch with their families. He did not identify the two people. We wish them a speedy recovery and are working closely with the City of Amsterdam to provide assistance to them and their families, the statement said. The police in Amsterdam said that officers had shot and detained a 19-year-old Afghan man in the stabbing. He was identified on Saturday only as Jawad S., in line with Dutch privacy laws, The Associated Press reported. His initial statements to the police pointed to an extremist motive, officials said in a statement, according to local media reports. Archbishop Vigano has aligned himself with a conservative group of powerful prelates, in both the Vatican and the United States, who have seized on the clerical sex abuse scandal to try to damage Francis and his agenda. They believe the pope is abandoning the churchs rules and traditions through his shift away from culture-war issues like abortion in favor of an emphasis on inclusion, including toward gays, whom Archbishop Vigano and his allies blame for pedophilia in the church. The archbishop writes that he was spurred to weigh in again by a New York Times article this past week quoting a Chilean abuse survivor, Juan Carlos Cruz. Mr. Cruz said Francis had told him that Archbishop Vigano sneaked Ms. Davis into the Vatican Embassy in Washington for a private meeting in 2015 and that the pope did not know who she was or why she was controversial. Mr. Cruz recalled the pope saying to him, I was horrified and I fired that nuncio, or papal ambassador a reference to Archbishop Vigano, who was the Vaticans ambassador to the United States. Archbishop Vigano writes in the new letter: One of them is lying: either Cruz or the pope? What is certain is that the pope knew very well who Davis was, and he and his close collaborators had approved the private audience. At a gala dinner in the luxury Pierre Hotel in Manhattan in 2012, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, Pope Benedicts top diplomat in the United States, bestowed an award for missionary service on Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and praised him as very much loved from us all. But if Archbishop Vigano is to be believed, he was keeping a troubling secret a claim that is at the heart of a new scandal that has thrown the church into upheaval and led some conservatives to call for Pope Francis to resign. The archbishop now says he was aware at the time of the gala that Cardinal McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, was under orders from Pope Benedict XVI to stop appearing in public on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church because he had sexually abused adult seminary students. Archbishop Vigano did not explain why he agreed to publicly laud a cardinal under sanctions. But LifeSiteNews a website run by conservative Catholics quoted the archbishop on Friday as saying that he could not back out of the event. U.S. President Donald Trump has notified Congress of his intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico, with Canada welcome to join the deal "if it is willing," the White House said on Friday. President Donald Trump gestures while speaking at a Republican fundraiser at the Carmel Country Club in in Charlotte, N.C., Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. [Photo: AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais] The announcement came after the United States and Canada failed to reach a deal on Friday to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) following days of intense talks. "The talks were constructive, and we made progress. Our officials are continuing to work toward agreement," U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer said in a statement, adding the USTR team will resume trade talks with its Canadian counterparts next Wednesday. The White House has pressured Canada to accept the preliminary agreement it struck with Mexico on Monday to update the 24-year old trilateral trade deal. But Canada insisted that it would only sign a new agreement that is good for the country. "Canada will only sign a deal that's a good deal for Canada, we are very very clear about that," Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters on Friday after wrapping up talks with U.S. officials in Washington. One of the major sticking points in the talks is Canada's dairy market, according to media reports. Canada wants to keep its dairy system, known as supply management, while the U.S. complained that these agricultural policies unfairly limit sales of U.S. dairy products into Canadian market. "There have been no concessions by Canada on agriculture," the USTR's Office said in a statement earlier Friday. It's not clear whether Canada and the U.S. will work out their differences next week. Trump has threatened to slap additional tariffs on imported autos from Canada if the two sides are unable to reach a new trade deal. "If a deal doesn't happen, we'll put tariffs on the cars coming in from Canada, and that'll be even better," Trump said on Thursday. While U.S. officials have indicated that they are prepared to go ahead with a NAFTA deal with Mexico alone, many U.S. lawmakers have insisted that Canada must be included in the final pact. Talks on renegotiating the NAFTA began in August 2017 as Trump threatened to withdraw from the trilateral trade deal, which he claimed harmed U.S. industries and jobs. Saturday, September 1, 2018 at 1:35PM Google revamps Wear OS and adds features like Proactive Assistant, which shows information at a glance as you can see on Skagen's new smartwatch. (Photo courtesy of Tom's Guide) Back in May, reliable leaker Evan Blass tweeted that Google was prepping its own smartwatch for the fall hardware eventwhich is happening on October 9thbut now the company has confirmed that it has no plans for this Pixel Watch this year. Miles Barr, Googles director of engineering for Wear OS, told Toms Guide that the company is focusing on its partners at the moment. He said, To think of a one-size-fits-all watch, I dont think were there yet. Our focus is on our partners for now. After the interview, Google confirmed Barrs statement. Before this interview, Googles moves in the smartwatch spaceeverything from revamping Wear OS and Google Fitsuggested that the company was working on its own smartwatch. But now it seems we have to wait a bit. At least with Qualcomm set to unveil a new processor for wearables on September 10th, we could at least expect a better Pixel Watch, if and when it arrives. Professor calls girl student to his house to come and cook when wife is out Sanjay Dutt volunteered to be the face of anti- drug campaign: Uttarkhand CM Dehradun pti-PTI Dehradun, Sept 1: Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt has offered to lead an anti-drug campaign that is to be launched in the six northern states affected by the menace, said Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat . The noted actor expressed his desire to become the brand ambassador for the campaign when Rawat was in Mumbai recently to invite entrepreneurs to invest in the state. "I had a telephonic talk with Sanjay Dutt who was shooting somewhere. He said he had himself suffered much due to drug addiction early in his career and would like to contribute to the campaign against it as its brand ambassador," Rawat said. Six northern states, including Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan, and also the Union Territory of Chandigarh have worked out a joint strategy to fight the drug menace. A massive campaign to create awareness among youngsters about the ill-effects of drug abuse is a part of the strategy. The chief ministers of four states, including Rawat and the representatives of two others, met in Chandigarh last month to discuss the strategy, where it was decided that they would meet every six months to monitor the progress of the campaign. For more Dehradun news Click Here. PTI Lady constable who slapped back Congress MLA says it was in self defence ABVP members slapped me says DU AISA president India oi-Madhuri New Delhi, Sep 1: The police said they have registered a case after Delhi University All India Students' Association president Kawalpreet Kaur alleged she was slapped and attacked by ABVP members at the Kirori Mal College. The ABVP has said that those involved in the incident were not its members. Government faces opposition from within on education and economic policies Kaur said she had gone to meet a professor at the college along with two of her friends when the alleged incident happened. "When I and my friends were walking in the college, we saw our friends campaigning in the college and we joined them. Then we saw that we were followed by four people from ABVP who were constantly passing comments on us and were threatening us to move out of the college," she said in a statement. She alleged that they abused her and her friends and she slapped one of them out of this provocation. ABVP to take on urban naxals across the country in a big way "Immediately, without losing a second, the guy slapped me so tightly that I lost my balance for seconds and I had tears in my eyes," she added. She claimed that the man who slapped her ran away and her friends followed him, but he was surrounded by 12-15 ABVP members who assaulted him too. Police said they have registered a case and are probing the matter. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, September 1, 2018, 9:48 [IST] J-K cops detain 6 over derogatory video after Pakistan's victory against India in T20 match 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 For more effective probes against terror State Investigation Agency formed in J&K After two days of strike normalcy restored in Kashmir Valley India oi-PTI Srinagar, Sep 1: Life returned to normal in Kashmir Valley Saturday after two days of strike called by separatists against the legal challenge to Article 35-A of the Constitution. Business establishments, shops, schools and colleges opened in the Valley after two days of strike, a police official said. [Also Read: J&K: Tit for tat abductions, all 11 relatives of J&K police released] Separatist forum -- Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) -- had called for a two-day strike against the legal challenge in the Supreme Court on the validity of Article 35-A, which bars people from outside Jammu and Kashmir from acquiring any immovable property in the state. To maintain law and order, authorities had imposed restrictions in seven police station areas of the city here. Amidst heavy security, dates of J&K municipal, panchayat polls announced Various organisations, including Bar Association, transporters and traders' bodies, extended support to the shutdown call given by the JRL, comprising Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik. Yesterday, the Supreme Court adjourned the hearing in the case till January next year. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, September 1, 2018, 15:26 [IST] BJP to present 1.5 lakh booth representatives before the PM in Tamil Nadu India oi-Vinod By Vinod New Delhi, Sep 1: Around 1.5 lakh booth workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Tamil Nadu are waiting for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Chennai so they can show their strength of the party. The alliance call o the BJP with the TN parties will be taken only after this rally, however, the party is looking for potent allies. It is in touch with DMK leader Alagiri and many other political parties besides All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). The BJP is not only looking for pan India presence but also wants to recover some lost ground of the north India from south, so it is planning to focus more on the Tamil Nadu. The BJP is not only looking for allies in the state but have the chances to improve its number from the state. BJP may lose 30-40 seats in LS polls but NDA will return to power: Ramdas Athawale Not only the Prime Minister Narendra Modi but party president Amit Shah have already visited the state many a times, right from the organizational tour to one rally in Chennai. The BJP wants to focus on Tamil Nadu equally as it is focusing on Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, said a BJP leader. Activities in Tamil Nadu will start simultaneously. A BJP leader in the state said that last time when the party president was in Chennai, he had met 15,000 party workers and immediately it was decided that 1.5 lakh booth workers will be organized as there are 60000 booths in the state. The party president will take a call on alliance after the PM's rally in the state which is expected anytime before October 15, 2018. The BJP is not only making its party cadre at the booth level but organizational structure is also getting strengthened. Sources said that If the BJP has to improve its tally, it will definitely go for an alliance in the state. The next move of elder son of M Karunanidhi will also matter a lot however for the time being he has accepted his younger brother MK Stalin as his leader. Sources in the BJP said that there was very strong possibility of Alagiri joining the BJP alliance in Tamil Nadu. A BJP leader from Chennai said that the issue of alliance should be finalized by October 15. Why is BJP perturbed by Rahul Gandhi's trip to Kailash Mansarovar, asks Congress The BJP had won maximum six Lok Sabha seats in alliance with AIADMK in 2004 Lok Sabha elections. It fielded nine candidates in 2014 when it contested elections in alliance with the six smaller parties of the state and won just one seat. The state might go into a multi-cornered contest with two main rivals - AIADMK and the DMK - and over half a dozen other smaller regional political parties vying for the total 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Both the important political parties -- the AIADMK and the DMK --are struggling with the leadership tussle. The tussle between TTV Dhinakaran and chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami in AIADMK is the moment to watch for. Dhinakaran is the nephew of VK Sasikala who was the loyalist of late chief minister J Jyalalithaa. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, September 1, 2018, 15:58 [IST] Why UP was lagging behind and thrown into fire of riots: Yogi explains 'But who will lead it?' Yogi mocks opposition unity ahead of 2019 polls India oi-Deepika By Deepika Lucknow, Sep 1: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday claimed that non-BJP parties were ganging up to create political instability in the country, a charge refuted by the Congress. "The opposition is worried that the BJP is gaining from strength to strength. They are opposed to development and have been ganging up to join hands with the only aim to take on the saffron party," the firebrand BJP Hindutva leader said at an event by a media house. 'Chipko' movement remark: Opposition demands expunction of Yogi's statement in Assembly His comments at the 'Hindustan Shikhar Samagam' came against the backdrop of efforts to stich an alliance among the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress in Uttar Pradesh with an eye on the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. "The opposition is against development and its only target is to dislodge the BJP from power," he said. Adityanath sought to poke fun at the opposition parties, saying they were not clear as to who will lead the alliance. "They cannot project any leader who can head the alliance," he said. "A grand Ram temple will be built in Ayodhya. The people are very hopeful. Ramji will decide its date. But, it will be built definitely," the saffron-clad chief minister said. The BJP will fight the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 on the plank of development, he said and exuded confidence the party will retain power under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "The BJP will again come to power at the Centre and under the able leadership of the prime minister, we will put up a grand show in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections," Aditynath said. He was responding to a specific question about whether his party would repeat its performance in 2014 when it bagged 73 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state along with its alliance partners. The 46-year-old monk-turned-politician said the party does not believe in playing the caste card for the sake of votes and it will go to the polls on the development plank. "The BJP does not play caste card," he said. "We believe in development and welfare of the people without any discrimination," he said. On the police encounters in the state, he said the authorities are trying their best to instil confidence in the minds of the people that law breakers would not be allowed to go scotfree. "At the same time, we have warned the police that there should not be any fake encounters. If they misuse power, action will be taken against them," he said. The chief minister, who assumed power last year after his party scored a landslide victory in the 2017 Assembly polls, slammed the previous Samajwadi Party dispensation saying, "People voted against the SP as they came to realise the misdeeds of the Akhilesh Yadav government." However, UPCC chief Raj Babbar, who was the next guest at the meet, refuted Adityanath's remarks over his remarks on the opposition unity. "The unity among the opposition parties is to save the country from the BJP's misrule," he said. Babbar said that the unity efforts were in the context of Uttar Pradesh, which sends the highest number of 80 members to the Lok Sabha. "This is Lok Sabha election and national leaders will take a call," he said. The chief minister said the people were hopeful that a grand Ram temple will be built in Ayodhya in the state and "Lord Ram will decide its date". Slamming the opposition parties, the chief minister said, "Their only aim is to create political instability in the country so that they can fish in troubled waters." OneIndia News (with PTI inputs) For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, September 1, 2018, 17:48 [IST] Prashant Kishor in viral video: With or without Modi, BJP will be centre of Indian polity for decades Demanding allies a cause of concern for the BJP in Bihar; hard bargain continues India oi-Vinod By Vinod New Delhi, Sep 1: Seat sharing formula among the National Democratic Alliance partners for the 2019 Lok Sabha election is one thing but targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi is different. Discussion on the issue still continues and some vibes are also getting exchanged but the way Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Lok Samta Party chief Upendra Kushwaha are talking, bringing them on board will be an arduous task for the BJP. Reportedly the JD (U) leadership said that it was Prime Minister Narendra Mod who is in the race to become the PM once again not Nitish Kumar so he will have to take a call on alliance to continue or not. LJP to demand Lok Sabha seats from NDA in many southern states However, some other leaders are saying that the alliance is here to stay and everything is alright. Sources said that Bihar chief minister was upset with the seat sharing formula. As per this formula, the BJP will contest two seats less than what it has at present in the Lok Sabha, JD (U) will get 10 more than what is has in Lok Sabha, Lok Jan Shakti Party to get 5-6 seats to contest on, RLSP will be given two seats and one seat will be given to Jahanabad MP Arun Kumar who parted ways with Upendra Kushwaha but has been supporting the BJP. Bihar seat sharing finalised: BJP may fight on 20 seats, JD (U) to get 12 Sources said that the BJP leadership has also promised to give JD (U) one Lok Sabha seat in Jharkhand as a compensation of the Bihar arrangement and LJP has been promised to be given MoS for its leader Chirag Paswan. Sources said that there was no issue on part of the LJP but JD (U) and RLSP are still troubling the NDA. JD (U) is demanding three seats in Jharkhand and RLSP is still indecisive and weighing his chances to go either with NDA or with Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress. Sources said that both the leader Upendra Kushwaha and Nitish Kumar don't get along so for them to remain in the same alliance will not last long when Upendra Kushwaha said that people in the NDA did not want Narendra Modi to be the prime minister once again in 2019. He did not name anyone but his indication was quite apparent. He further said that they intentionally spread rumours to trigger conflict in the alliance. Five states crucial for BJP in next Lok Sabha elections; party to devise new strategy Sources said that Kushwaha has been looking for options ever since Nitish Kumar joined the NDA once again. But Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development's recent comment that a delicious 'kheer' (pudding) can be prepared with milk from the Yadavs and rice from the Kushwahas fueled speculation about a political realignments in Bihar. Sources in the BJP said that the party will not compromise after a certain extent and may device a new strategy if these partner are not ready to come on board with option to either go ahead without JD (U) or without RLSP. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, September 1, 2018, 21:16 [IST] Dilli Gupshup: Rafale deal, an old acrimony at work India oi-Vinod By Vinod New Delhi, Sep 1: It was a pretty hectic week in Delhi. From allegations about the Rafale deal flying around and the BJP turning south to better its tally in 2019. You may have heard a lot about these in the news. But what about those events which the news channels have not reported. Do read on to find out more. An old acrimony at work! The Rafale deal seems have become a Bofors moment for the Congress and the BJP both but with a change in the role. The Congress leadership is targeting a particular industrialist which might not provide any political benefit to the party but the acrimony between the first family of the Congress and the industrialist goes back to the time when despite the then finance minister wanting to give development contract of Indira Gandhi International Airport to the Rafale fame industrialist but the contract was given to some other on the interference of the first family. So the bitterness still continuing and the matter of crony capitalism take the centre stage. The son has been put on service to hit two birds with one stone and the industrialist files Rs 5,000 crore defamation case. Rafale issue will drop 'big bunker buster bombs' shortly, warns Rahul The right answer from a RSS worker to minister One of the Union ministers of the Bharatiya Janata Party was patting his back for formulating laws like Solvency and Bankruptcy Code and some other laws passed by the National Democratic Alliance government. So while talking to his favourable audience, he had suddenly said that why the United Progressive Alliance government was sitting over many laws. They too could have also done it but one of the RSS worker immediately responded by saying that had they done it how would you be the minister and Narendra Modi the Prime Minister making him speechless. One of most powerful ministers not being heard! Grapevine is abuzz that one of the most powerful ministers in the Modi government is not getting heard by the people those who matter in the corridors of power. So she has started shouting on people whosoever comes before the minister. The minister and minister's people bullied officials and workers in the ministry. Appointment to the minister was denied so the concern minister shouted in front everybody and asked for the mistake committed. The minister shouted that what was the mistake, "I was just following the dictate from the leadership and I am punished and the leadership is not ready to hear me out." But the concerned minister might have forgotten that every rise has a fall to so people have sympathy and some suggestions as well. But who will cat the bell? Decoding Rafale deal: From allegations to counter-allegations BJP to turn to south for its media manager Speculation is rife that the Bharatiya Janata Party is planning to appoint its media in-charge from the southern India as it has to spread its base in the region. The party is in saturation in north and west and wants to expand its base in south and east, so to deal with the media in south with better communication, the party is contemplating such move but the only apprehension for the party seems to be to communicating with media organizations of Hindi heartland. So if grapevine is to be believed, the party is looking for a suitable boy for the central BJP media. As per the BJP plans it is running out of time and has to do it as soon as possible, so get ready for southern express! For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, September 1, 2018, 6:27 [IST] J&K: Tit for tat abductions, all 11 relatives of J&K police released India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Srinagar, Sep 1: There was heavy drama that unfolded late into the night before all the 11 relatives of the Jammu and Kashmir police who were abducted were released by terrorists. 11 family members of the police personnel were abducted from villages in Anantnag, Shopian and Pulwama. Late into the night all the 11 family members were released and then taken back home. Militants, forces victimising each other's families highly condemnable: Mufti Meanwhile the police had detained Asadullah Naikoo, the father of Riyaz Naikoo, the operational commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen. The police said that they had called him in for questioning, following which he was released. Naikoo in an audio clip posted on Friday said that the fight was against India, but the Kashmir police become a victim of Indian conspiracy. We have tolerated a lot and tried to make the police understand, but they did not listen. We will not allow this from now onwards, he also said. Army releases new terror list for Kashmir The abductions of the 11 persons is being seen as a revenge for the arrest of Syed Salahuddin's son. He was arrested on Thursday in connection with the terror funding case. "Militants and forces victimising each other's families is highly condemnable and marks a new low in our situation. Families shouldn't become casualties and made to suffer for something they have little control over," said former chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti. "11 abductions! This is a very worrying reflection of the situation in the valley," tweeted former chief minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, September 1, 2018, 6:12 [IST] Manipur: NIA seizes Rs 48 lakh in terror funding case India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Sep 1: The National Investigation Agency has seized Rs 48 lakh in connection with a terror funding case being probed in Manipur. The amount was seized from one Promodhini, an employee of RIMS, Imphal. NIA officials say that the money belonged to N Sobita Devi, the wide of accused Dr. Mutum Shyamo SIngh, former director of JNIMS Hospital, Imphal. Syed Salahuddin's son had facilitated funds from Saudi for terror funding in Kashmir During Investigation, it had come to light that the said amount was handed over to K Pramodini by N Sobita Devi for the purpose of concealing the terror funds which were collected by Dr Mutum Shyamo Singh as part of his activities in support of proscribed organisation KCP. NIA had arrested Dr Mutum Shyamo Singh on July 6 2018 for his involvement with the KCP, a banner outfit. Search was conducted at that time in the house of Dr Mutum Shyamo Singh and Rs 40,03,000/- in new currency and Rs 1,00,000/- in old currency were also seized as proceeds of terrorism. Waging war against state: Deputy superintendent of police arrested in Kashmir During investigation of this case, accused persons Khoirom Ranjit Singh, Commander in Chief of KCP, a banned terrorist organisation and his associates (i) Irungbam SanatombiDeviand (ii) P. Prem Kumar Meitei @ PK @ Ibomcha had been arrested and charge sheet was filed on July 10 2018. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, September 1, 2018, 6:03 [IST] Ahead of Diwali, NGT bans sale or use of firecrackers in Delhi from midnight today till Nov 30 NGT rap for Kerala over waste disposal India oi-Madhuri New Delhi, Sep 1: The National Green Tribunal has slammed the Kerala government for its "indifference and insensitivity" to the serious issue of disposal of waste in the state and directed it to prepare an action plan for dealing with garbage within a month. The tribunal made it clear that if the stakeholders fail to submit the action plan within the period stipulated, appropriate stringent and punitive action would be taken against the Heads of the Departments of the State Government, Municipal Corporation, Municipal Council and Gram Panchayats. Sterlite plant in Tamil Nadu to remain shut: NGT A bench of Justice S P Wangdi and expert member Nagin Nanda said the records reveal the reluctance and the lackadaisical manner in which the state government and municipal corporations have been responding to the various directions issued in the matter. "The corporation appears still to be groping with the task of collecting data of generation of sewage within the municipal limits. We have not yet been informed on the progress made with regard to the sewage treatment plant (STP) proposed to be set up by the corporation. "All the above reflect the indifference and insensitivity on the part of Kerala and the municipal bodies to deal undeniably with the serious question of disposal of wastes, be it the solid waste and other conglomeration of waste, which cumulatively cause serious threat to the environment and prove deleterious to the health of the people," the bench said. NGT orders sealing of illegal borewells in Delhi The tribunal directed the state government to prepare a comprehensive action plan in consultation with all local bodies with special focus on the major waste generating areas within one month. "The action plan shall take into consideration the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, Bio-Medical Rules, 2016 and Schedule-I to IV to the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986 with specific focus on connecting all domestic and industrial liquid waste to common STPs," the bench said. The tribunal's direction came while hearing a case seeking direction to take effective steps for infrastructure development for collection, storage, segregation and disposal of municipal solid waste in the state. The matter had come to the NGT from the Kerala High Court in 2013. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, September 1, 2018, 12:47 [IST] NIOS DEIED 2018 results finally declared, steps to check India oi-Vikas By Vikas New Delhi, Sep 1: The NIOS DEIED 2018 results have finally been released. The results are available on the official website. The results were announced on Friday after a long gap. NIOS was established in 1989 as an autonomous organisation in pursuance of National Policy on Education 1986 by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India. NIOS is providing a number of Vocational, Life Enrichment and community oriented courses besides General and Academic Courses at Secondary and Senior Secondary level. It also offers Elementary level Courses through its Open Basic Education Programmes (OBE).Government of India through a gazette notification vested NIOS with the authority to examine and certify learners registered with it upto pre degree level courses whether Academic, Technical or Vocational. The results are available on http://www.nios.ac.in/dled.aspx. How to check NIOS DEIED 2018 results: Go to http://www.nios.ac.in/dled.aspx There you click on the programs tab and choose the DElEd programme On the left hand side, click on the tab that says results Enter your roll number and you will be taken to your results page Take a printout PM Modi assassination plot: Urban naxal-NE terror groups under radar India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Sep 1: With the Pune police furthering its probe following the arrest of five persons allegedly sympathetic towards naxalites, the focus is now on insurgent groups from the north east. Sources tell Oneindia that a huge procurement of arms was being smuggled into India from Nepal. Some persons were in touch with a group from the north east to facilitate this transfer of arms. Assassination bid on Modi: Sena scoffs, calls it laughable Intelligence Bureau officials say that there was constant communication between Delhi and Manipur to facilitate this transfer of arms. The naxals had earmarked an amount of Rs 8 crore for the purchase of sophisticated arms. The arms were meant to carry out a big assassination in India. While a deal was struck with an arms dealer in Nepal, the problem of transporting it into India arose. As part of the the deal, it was decided to get in touch with an insurgent group in north east, which would in turn help facilitate the arms transport into India. Conclusive proof: Meanwhile, the Maharashtra police said there was "conclusive proof" to link the arrested activists to Maoists, adding a letter exchanged by an arrested activist spoke of planning a "Rajiv Gandhi-like" incident. An email letter, between Rona Wilson and a CPI-Maoist leader speaks of ending "Modi-raj" with a 'Rajiv Gandhi-type incident', Maharashtra police additional director general (law and order) Parambir Singh told reporters. Modi assassination plot: IB keeps a close eye on PLGA The letter also sought money for procuring grenade launchers, he said. Police has seized "thousands of letters" exchanged between the overground and the underground of Maoists, the police officer said. Some of the letters exchanged between the arrested activists spoke of planning "some big action" which would attract attention, Singh said. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, September 1, 2018, 10:25 [IST] Rahul Gandhi meets party leaders from Gujarat, asks them to be prepared for assembly polls Cong's poll assurances not just commitment, but guarantee: Rahul Gandhi in Goa Rahul has lunch at roadside eatery in Goa, rides pillion on two-wheeler taxi for few kms WATCH: Grandma told me not to cry, Rahul Gandhi's video tribute for Indira Gandhi Union minister Ashwini Choubey calls Rahul Gandhi 'sewer worm, schizophrenic' India oi-Deepika By Deepika New Delhi, Sep 1: Union Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey sparked controversy on Saturday when he called Congress president Rahul Gandhi, "schizophrenic" and a "sewer worm". Calling Rahul Gandhi "mentally unfit", Choubey said that the Congress president should be admitted to a mental hospital for treatment. Decoding Rafale deal: From allegations to counter-allegations According to the reports, Choubey made this remark while referring to Congress leader's continuous attack on the BJP government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France. The junior minister in the health ministry, who is a Lok Sabha lawmaker from Bihar's Buxar, made the remarks while comparing Rahul Gandhi with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday. Choubey also accused Rahul Gandhi of spreading lies. "While the PM is like the sky, Rahul Gandhi is like naali ka keeda (sewer worm)," Choubey said while addressing a programme in Bihar's Sasaram. Choubey, the Union Minister of State for Health, is a Lok Sabha MP from Bihar's Buxar. Rafale deal biggest example of crony capitalism by Modi govt: Congress MoS Choubey last month had called the Congress president an "impersonator" adorning several faces and claimed that he would "finish" the party. "Rahul Gandhi is an impersonator (bahrupiya) and wants to adorn several faces but he is a child (bauwa). He will finish the party. It will be Congress president who will put his party into the graves," Choubey had said. On Wednesday, BJP president Amit Shah had mocked Rahul Gandhi, saying the nation's IQ was higher than his. Taking to microblogging site Twitter, Amit Shah said, "Why wait 24 hours when you already have your JPC-Jhoothi Party Congress. Your lies to fool the nation are self-evident when Rafale price you quote vary in Delhi, Karnataka, Raipur, Hyderabad, Jaipur & Parliament. But the nation's IQ is higher than yours!" For safekeeping: Congress alliance candidates flown to Jaipur ahead of May 2 counting Curfew announced in Jaipur from 6 pm to 5 am 4 calves, three cows rescued from jeep in Rajasthan Jaipur court sentences rapist 20 years in prison within 9 days of committing crime 50.78 per cent voting in Rajasthan Students Union poll Jaipur oi-Madhuri Jaipur, Sep 1: Nearly 51 per cent voters cast their ballots in the student union elections in government universities and colleges in Rajasthan, a university official said. Polling percentage was 50.78 per cent, the Dean of Students' Welfare Department, Rajasthan University, Dr Sarina Kalia said. Rajasthan: Two eunuchs arrested in murder case Barring a few incidents, the polling remained peaceful. Due to Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's ongoing Gaurav Yatra, polling in Jodhpur division has been scheduled for September 10. Polling commenced at 8 am for Rajasthan University here and its seven affiliated government colleges and for the various posts in 42 departments. She said that of the total 22,677 registered voters, 11,516 voters exercised their franchise. For the president's post at Rajasthan University, six candidates are in fray, while seven are in for vice president's post and eight each for general secretary and joint secretary posts. 3 bike borne men killed in road accident She said that ballot boxes have been kept under police surveillance at the Dean, Students' Welfare Department. The counting of votes will take place at 11 am on September 11. For more Jaipur news, Click here Woman dies as 'kachcha' house rumbles down in Noida Lucknow pti-PTI Noida, Sep 1: A woman was killed and her husband sustained injuries after their house collapsed in Greater Noida, police said Saturday. The incident occurred Friday night when Shakeela Begum (45) and her husband Qadeer (48) were asleep inside their 'kachcha' house in Bilaspur area which comes under the jurisdiction of Dankaur police station. The house collapsed at around 10.30 pm and both of them got trapped under the rubble, the police said. "Soon neighbours and other locals reached the spot, pulled the couple out and rushed them to a nearby private hospital. The woman was declared dead by the doctors at the hospital, while the man was referred to an urban hospital for further treatment," according to the police. At the time of the incident, four of their daughters had gone to a relative's place for a wedding function, while a son and a daughter were also out for some work, according to the police. "One daughter, 7, was with them at home last night. Moments before the house collapsed, she had got up to drink water and was waiting in an open space in the house," Station House Officer of Dankaur police station Farmood Ali Pundir told PTI. "The girl is safe," the SHO said, adding that the house appears to have collapsed because of its 'kachcha' structure. For more Lucknow news Click Here. PTI 4 nabbed in connection Mangolpuri stabbing New Delhi oi-Madhuri New Delhi, Sep 1: Three men were arrested and a juvenile was apprehended for allegedly stabbing two people to death and injuring three others in random attacks in outer Delhi's Mangolpuri, the police said today. They said the killings were committed without motive. On August 29, two separate incidents of stabbing were reported in Mangolpuri in which five people sustained serious injuries and were admitted to Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital. 3 nabbed for gang-raping minor Later on, two of them succumbed to their injuries, they added. During investigation, the police verified the background of deceased but found they did not have enmity with anyone. On the basis of CCTV footage collected from the area, four suspects were identified, they said. Multiple raids were conducted in the area to search for the suspects. On August 30, a juvenile was apprehended and Vishal alias Beil was arrested. During investigation, they revealed about their involvement and also informed the police about two of their other accomplices -- Ashu and Suraj alias Babu, the police said. They wanted to avenge the killing of their friend Abhishek alias Chuha who was injured in another incident of stabbing on August 20 in Mangolpuri and succumbed to injuries in LNJP Hospital on August 29, police said. Ashu and Suraj were nabbed on Friday from Bhagat Singh Stadium, Mangolpuri. On August 29, when Vishal received information about his friend's death he planned to take a revenge and went to Mangolpuri along with the juvenile. They went to Rancho's place, who is the brother of one Prince alias Kake. Prince had allegedly stabbed Abhishek following a scuffle. He is currently in jail and the accused had gone to his brother to teach him a lesson, the police said. Man stabbed for a mobile phone, 3 killer juveniles arrested Vishal and the juvenile knocked on the door, shouted Rancho's name and inquired about him but when his family members did not open the door, they threatened and left from there, the police said. A few metres away, they were stopped by one Karanveer and asked not to create a nuisance on the street. Enraged, they stabbed Karanveer, Vinay, Dinesh and Irshad and fled from the spot, said Rajendra Singh Sagar, additional deputy commissioner of police (Outer). While Vishal and the juvenile were running from there, they met two of their other friends Ashu and Suraj near Hussain Chowk, he added. After reaching near M-block, they were again stopped by one resident Suresh and asked not to create a nuisance. They ended up stabbing him and fled from the spot as soon as locals started gathering, said the officer. Karanveer and Dinesh succumbed to injuries, they said. For more New delhi news, Click here For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, September 1, 2018, 12:09 [IST] Man stabbed for a mobile phone, 3 killer juveniles arrested New Delhi pti-PTI New Delhi, Sep 1: Three juveniles have been apprehended for allegedly stabbing a man to death after robbing his mobile phone at north Delhi's Sarai Rohilla flyover, the police said. On August 27, the police received information that a man had been stabbed. The deceased was rushed to a hospital where he was declared brought dead, the police said. A tattoo was found on the deceased's right hand which read "Shambhu Kumar", Nupur Prasad, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North), said. To identify him, his photo was circulated on WhatsApp in the nearby labour quarters and factories. He was later identified as Shambhu (29), she said. The juveniles were apprehended after Shambhu's mobile phone was traced, Prasad added. They admitted to their crime and told the police that they had killed Shambhu with an intention to steal his mobile phone, she said. Shambhu's mobile phone, the knife used in the crime, blood-stained clothes of the juveniles, which they wore wearing during commission of crime, have been recovered, Prasad said. For more New Delhi news Click Here. PTI PVVNL protests enters third day New Delhi oi-Madhuri Ghaziabad, Sep 1: A sit-in demonstration here by scores of contractual workers of the Uttar Pradesh electricity distribution department, protesting against an alleged move to sack them, entered the third day today. The workers have been holding the sit-in protests in front of the Pashchimanchal Vidhyut Vitran Nigam Limited's chief engineer office at Ghaziabad since August 29 under the banner of Nivida/Samvida Karamchari Samiti. The protesting workers include linesmen and sub station operators of the state PSU PVVNL. District president of the workers association Mahesh Samania said around 700 contractual workers, who have been posted in far away areas from their homes as a move to force them out of the department, are on the protest. He said there are over 6,400 linesmen 7,900, who work tirelessly on meagre wages to ensure round-the-clock power supply in the city, yet the government is out to sack them on the pretext of transferring them. He said if the department wishes to sack the old staffers, it must give them provident fund since 2009. For more New delhi news, Click here NetEnt Pulling Down Five Slots for Good on September 5 Published September 1, 2018 by Ivan P Five NetEnt slots will be removed from online casinos come September 5. Games in question are Big Bang, Glow, Fantasini, Tornado: Farm Escape, and NRVNA: The Next Experience. When it comes to NetEnt and slots, news stories usually revolve around latest releases from this very productive Swedish game developer. However, every now and then, some slots need to be removed from online casinos for various reasons as well. On September 5, the company will be pulling down five of their releases for good. At this point in time, it remains unclear whether the reasons for this decision have something to do with expiring licensing agreements or something completely different. What we do know that five well-known games will no longer be available for play come Wednesday, September 5. Slots Being Removed in September Five slots that will be pulled down in a few days aren't in any particular group of games, which makes it somewhat harder to figure out the reasons behind the decision. From the players' perspective, however, it is more important to know which slots will be removed than why. Fantasini: Master of Mystery is one of the slots being pulled. Featuring 243 ways to win and linked reels feature, this game has been around for a while. Although it's never been in the group of the most popular NetEnt releases, there are probably quite a few players sad to see this one go. Released late in 2015, NetEnt's Glow slot features nice graphics and and an interesting theme focused on the beautiful Northern Lights. After being around for almost three full years, Glow is the second game that will hit the muck on September 5. Tornado: Farm Escape is definitely among the quirkiest games developed by NetEnt, with entertaining features and funny animations. It will be removed in September, alongside Big Bang, a space-themed game featuring colorful cosmic symbols and an increasing win multiplier. The final game being pulled on September 5 is NRVNA: The Next Experience. a 30-payline slot with a soothing soundtrack and reels set under water for a calming gaming experience. Making Room for New Titles? Although there will always be some players sad to see a particular slot go, it is more than likely the Swedish developer will make up for these departures with new releases in the near future. In the meantime, players still have time to try their luck with these five titles for a few more days before they are gone for good. Photo: Contributed A can of pepper spray went off inside a plane headed from Oakland, Calif., to Maui on Friday, requiring emergency help for several people aboard, Hawaiian Airlines says. Twelve passengers and three flight attendants were treated for respiratory issues and released by emergency responders at the airport in Kahului, Hawaii, airline spokesman Alex Da Silva said. A passenger illegally brought the pepper spray on the plane carrying 256 passengers and 10 crew members, but it appears it discharged accidentally, Da Silva said in a statement. The airline could not provide any details about the passenger or why they believe the release was accidental. The flight crew of the Boeing 767 declared an emergency to get priority at the airport in Hawaii. About 30 people complained of being affected by the irritant, but no one was taken to the hospital, Hawaii Department of Transportation spokesman Tim Sakahara said. The airline said the flight was delayed earlier Friday after a teenager in Oakland sent a photo depicting a fake crime scene "featuring a child-sized mannequin" to other passengers' cellphones. The teen and his family were booked for a later flight while officials investigated. Hawaiian Airlines said the two incidents were not related and the family's baggage had to be located and removed from the plane, causing the delay. The Federal Aviation Administration said in an emailed statement that it could not confirm what the substance was but that pepper spray is prohibited on planes. The agency can take legal action against anyone who violates federal aviation regulations. Photo: Colton Davies The Green Lake wildfire north of Okanagan Falls is believed to be human caused. UPDATE: 3:10 p.m. At least one of the two fires sparked in the Southern Interior Friday is believed to be human caused. Nicole Bonnett with the BC Wildfire Service confirmed Saturday the larger of the two fires, burning south of Penticton on the edge of the community of Okanagan Falls, remained within the local fire department's jurisdiction. Fire crews from Okanagan Falls and the BC Wildfire Service battled the blaze through Friday evening, and a skeleton crew of local firefighters stayed on scene overnight, Okanagan Falls fire chief Rob Oliver said Saturday. Bonnett said the service's fire origin and cause team returned to the scene early Saturday to look into what ignited the wildfire. "The fire is believed to be a result of some sort of human activity, so they'll be completing an investigation out there," said Bonnett. The wildfire on the outskirts of Okanagan Falls is less than a square kilometre in size and roughly half a kilometre away from the area's regional library. Oliver said it appeared the fire started near the Skaha Lake outlet dam before burning through grass and sagebrush and up a bluff. "A bomber and a helicopter came out right away, our crew was on the initial attack, and we got it stopped and a guard around the whole thing," he said. "It's basically just mop-up and we'll be finished by dinner." The fire chief did not know the exact cause of the wildfire but said the RCMP were on scene to examine the suspected starting point. Bonnett said the service does not expect the fire to grow outside of its current perimeter and the few structures in the area were in no danger from the blaze. "The size is subject to change a little bit, but it won't be the result of fire growth, but more accurate mapping at that point," said Bonnett. A smaller wildfire burning near the western edge of Penticton was still being monitored for hotspots, but it was expected to be extinguished Saturday, said Bonnett. Bonnett said even as the temperature cooled off slightly in the Kamloops Fire Centre this past week, a campsite fire ban remains in effect for the area, which was still classified as high-risk. with files from The Canadian Press ORIGINAL: 12:10 p.m. The Green Lake wildfire north of Okanagan Falls is being held at seven hectares. That, according to Nicole Bonnett, BC Wildfire Service Fire Information Officer. Bonnett said BCWF fire crews responded Friday at the request of the Okanagan Falls Volunteer Fire Department with ground crews, air tankers and helicopters. Before our crews left last night, the fire was change to being held which means we don't expect it to grow outside of that seven hectares, said Bonnett. We do have fire cause and origin personnel onsite today as well as four wildfire personnel. Bonnett said the fire is believed to have been human caused. Castanet has reached out to the Okanagan Falls Fire Department for comment. In the wake of Oregon's only heart transplant center shutting down indefinitely, hospitals in Oregon, Washington and California are preparing to absorb an influx of patients. Oregon Health & Science University announced Friday afternoon that all 20 patients on its heart transplant wait list have started the process to transfer to other hospitals or have chosen not to. OHSU has indefinitely suspended its program, with the last of the cardiologists on its heart transplant team leaving Sept. 30. The program will remained shuttered until OHSU can find new cardiologists to ensure patients receive adequate care. Providence Heart Institute sent an internal memo to staff this week to prepare them for an increased workload. Providence already has an active heart failure program with five heart failure specialists, offering everything but transplants. Dr. Jill Gelow, who recently quit OHSU's heart transplant team, now works at Providence. Providence ran a heart transplant program that shut down about 10 to 15 years ago after deciding that the area only needed one facility. Dan Oseran, executive medical director of the Providence Heart Institute, said he and other hospital executives had preliminary conversations about possibly restarting their program. However, that would take months, if not longer. "Both institutions are committed and feel that having an outstanding, sustainable heart transplant program in Oregon is a priority and how that shakes out in the future, we'll have to see," Oseran said. In the meantime, he said, the focus is to make sure Providence can handle the influx of patients at its current size. He said that patients who need implants as a precursor to a transplant are also welcome. "I think we can handle it," Oseran said. "We have to handle it. One way or another we will take care of these people." Those people who need transplants soon have already started to transfer to out-of-state hospitals. The University of Washington in Seattle has already taken eight patients from Oregon. Dan Fishbein, medical director for heart transplantation and a professor of cardiology at the University of Washington School of Medicine, said his department could take more. Patients who transfer to out-of-state hospitals will retain the time they have already been on a waitlist. Fishbein said his staff uses the time on the list, plus how sick someone is, to determine who gets called next. He also emphasized that not everyone who transfers to Seattle or San Francisco will have to move. The heart transplant team works with each patient to create a plan for how quickly they can get to the hospital when they get called. While someone in southern Oregon might have a harder time, someone in Portland could have enough advance notice that a three-hour drive is no problem. "The old days of need to be there in three hours or one hour is not really true anymore," Fishbein said. The UW Medicine's heart transplant program is the third largest in the country, replacing about 75 hearts last year. It has about 40 people on its waiting list at any given time, said spokesman Brian Donohue. "Our primary commitment is to patients," Fishbein said. "A state line doesn't mean we're any less committed to people who live in Oregon than who live in Washington." San Francisco hospitals also will likely be taking on Oregon patients. A spokesman with the University of California San Francisco did not immediately have an estimate of how many. -- Molly Harbarger mharbarger@oregonian.com 503-294-5923 @MollyHarbarger By E.D. Mondaine The Great Global Heatwave of 2018 gives us an urgent reminder to meaningfully act on climate change. Surveying this problem through the lens of social justice, this burden should not bear down on individual climate action to reduce our collective carbon footprint. Do not mistake me for dismissing those who hold a conviction to reduce their personal carbon footprint. Nevertheless, I implore Portlanders to prioritize community-wide systems change first and foremost. Corporate accountability is a necessary ingredient in this process. I grew up in St. Louis, Mo., in the shadow of chemical factories that rained ash down on me. I was frequently out of school as a child due to asthmatic attacks and visits to the hospital. Childhood friends died premature deaths due to pulmonary disease and other harsh fates. Like these manufacturers, billionaire retail corporations also forsake the health of our people and planet through long supply chains, cheap production quality and exploitation of workers. It's high time big business does its part to support communities of color and low-income people by paying for these climate injustices that occur locally and worldwide. We, the people of Portland, have the power to hold these mega corporations accountable this November through the Portland Clean Energy Fund ballot measure. Through a 1 percent surcharge on all Portland-based revenue, national billionaire corporations will take the first steps toward paying their fair share in order to mitigate the damaging consequences of business practices that elevate profit over people and planet. Funds will go toward community-based projects that reduce Portland's greenhouse gas emissions and concurrently promote social justice for those who bear the greatest burdens on the frontlines of climate change. The mega corporations targeted through the Portland Clean Energy Fund can and should pay. We're not talking about mom and pop shops. These nationwide retail businesses just benefited from the largest one-time reduction of the corporate tax rate in history -- down from 35 percent to 21 percent -- through the Republican-driven Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Some of these corporations take advantage of shady methods, such as offshore tax havens to hide their true profits. More than ever, corporate executives and shareholders are flush with cash. One might expect that workers would get get raises, but not surprisingly, this hasn't proven to be the case. Now is the time for our society to do some serious soul-searching on the foundations of our capitalist society. We must change our definition of success to ecological and social well-being, not the concentration of wealth and power. Billionaire corporations have gained their wealth through unsustainable extraction of natural resources and exploitation of workers worldwide. We have an unprecedented opportunity now to help them regain their civic soul. Please join me this November with a resounding affirmative vote for the Portland Clean Energy Fund. -- Rev. E.D. Mondaine is a chief petitioner of the Portland Clean Energy Fund ballot measure. He is the pastor of Celebration Tabernacle Church in North Portland and president of the NAACP Portland Branch. Share your opinion Submit your essay of 800 words or less on a highly topical issue or a theme of particular relevance to the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and the Portland area to commentary@oregonian.com. Please include your email and phone number for verification. As a Portland Public School high school junior, I've seen how a lack of investment in Oregon's children can really hurt our schools. Rep. Knute Buehler is the only candidate for governor with a serious plan to make sure the money being spent on education in Salem is actually reaching students. Insufficient resources for students has led to a lower graduation rate for high schoolers like me, ranking Oregon an embarrassing 48th nationwide. If we elect Buehler as governor, he will help raise our graduation rates by focusing on neglected areas, such as Career Technical Education. Gov. Kate Brown has let the Public Employees Retirement System problem spiral into a crisis, draining extreme amounts from Oregon's budget. It has left our state $22 billion in the hole. Buehler will direct more money to classrooms and reform PERS, which could lead to $1.2 billion more dollars going to students annually. For Oregon students, the choice couldn't be more clear. Buehler has made a real commitment to fighting for us, and it's time we elect a governor who really cares. -- Ben Snead, Northeast Portland Share your opinion Fired up? ! Submit 250 words or less and please include your first and last name, hometown and a phone number for verification. SWEET HOME The City Council of a small Oregon town could break a state open meetings law when they attend the tree-lighting ceremony this Christmas in Washington, D.C. The Democrat Herald reports that this year's Capitol Christmas Tree was selected from the Sweet Home Ranger District and a City Council delegation will attend the ceremony. But the town's city manager and city attorney warn that plans by a fourth council member to attend the event on her own could violate the state's open meetings law. With four members in attendance, a majority of the seven-member council would be present and could feasibly conduct official business. Council member Lisa Gourley says the law provides for public officials to attend social events together. Other council members agree, but say the plans could look bad. --The Associated Press An independent investigation into the state's economic development agency found poor morale throughout much of Business Oregon but did not substantiate the claims of age and gender discrimination, toxic working conditions and misspending that prompted the probe. The investigation was launched in April after a Portland attorney representing an anonymous group of employees forwarded a letter to Gov. Kate Brown that raised a number of allegations, including the misuse of public funds, cronyism, a "bro culture" and a widespread perception of discriminatory practices that favored male and younger employees at the agency. Two lawyers from Perkins Coie interviewed 45 current and former employees for They also reviewed the agency's policies, employee files, human resources complaints and documents describing staff restructurings that took place in 2014 and 2016. Though the investigation found no conduct that rose to the level of illegality, it called out several individuals' management styles and found the perception of low morale was nearly universal among employees interviewed. It attributed that problem to "change exhaustion" due to the turnover of three directors and two successive reorganizations in four years; budget cuts that required staff reductions; and the "lingering, snowballing effects of two generally distrusted female senior managers" whose management styles were damaging to employee morale and cohesion. "Our investigation did not find allegations of the sort and degree of toxic masculinity that have been widely publicized in other organizations," said the report from Perkins Coie lawyers Thomas Johnson and Edward Choi. "We further found substantial evidence that one does not have to be a younger male to be successful at Business Oregon." When the allegations first surfaced in April, the agency's director, Chris Harder, he was "surprised and disheartened" and had "immediately began working with the Governor's Office to look into the issues raised." Current and former employees, however, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that they had raised the issues with Harder directly and repeatedly, starting when he first joined the agency. They claimed Harder was part of the agency's "bro-culture" problems. More than 40 employees have departed the agency since he became director in March 2016, though the report said those numbers were "not of sufficient statistical significance ... to prove intentional discrimination against women." The agency currently employs about 140. Indeed, the report cleared Harder and his management team of any form of discrimination, though it detailed complaints about one manager, Robert Ault, for a reportedly aggressive management style and allegedly making offensive remarks, which he denied. The report said the strongest evidence of possible discrimination were comments attributed to former director Sean Robbins and two member of his management team, Samantha Julian and Maria Ellis, about "phasing out" older employees, and the need to modernize and get fresh blood into the agency. The report also said it failed to substantiate misuse of program funds, unnecessary and wasteful spending or violations of procurement rules, though it said a comprehensive financial audit was outside the scope of the investigation. The report made eight recommendations to address the agency's issues. They included management and communication training for Harder and his executive team, as well as their taking a greater leadership role in improving employee morale and providing direction for the agency. In an email to employees Friday morning, Harder said he took the findings seriously and the executive team was committed to implementing its recommendations. He scheduled an all-staff meeting Tuesday to discuss and seek feedback on next steps and welcomed employees to use an anonymous email to forward suggestions. "The report identifies long-standing issues related to morale, trust and agency culture," Harder wrote. "While existing efforts within the agency, such as our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusive Council and the agency's Strategic Plan, will play an important role going forward, more is needed." He said managers and staff at all levels will work together to outline a path forward. Nikki Fisher, a spokeswoman for Brown, said the governor had directed Harder to accept all recommendations made by the independent investigators and deliver a plan to implement them in 30 days. - Ted Sickinger 503-221-8505; @tedsickinger A Portland city employee who says he was subjected to boorish, fraternity-style hazing -- including being struck on the bare chest with hard candy shot from an air compressor -- is suing the city for $250,000. In a lawsuit filed Friday, Adam Rawlins claims he endured two months of horrendous pranks by fellow Portland Bureau of Transportation co-workers from August 2016 to December 2016. The lawsuit claims that the transportation department's maintenance division long had a history of allowing employees to haze new hires who were still in their probationary periods of employment. City Attorney Tracy Reeve declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. Among the extreme hazing alleged in Rawlins suit, he claims: Co-workers held Rawlins against his will in a locked cage that was kept in a dark city shed with his legs, torso and arms duct-taped and zip-tied. His captors gave him no indication of when hed be released. (See photo at the top of this story). Co-workers frequently made Rawlins pull off his shirt so he could feel it, then used the air compressor to shoot him with metal screws, wooden strips, popcorn kernels and candy such as Good & Plenty and Hot Tamales. Rawlins suffered bruises, blood blisters and welts. Colleagues threw him in the back of a locked city trailer and left him there while the trailer was in transit. Colleagues required him to sit in the back of one of the citys trucks while one of them punched and contorted the nipples on his chest. He was repeatedly pushed, body-slammed and called profanity-laden names. His safety vest also was ripped off his body. The lawsuit states that the hazing left Rawlins humiliated, depressed, sore and sleep-deprived from the stress. But he didnt complain to higher-ups because he was worried about losing his job as a utility worker, said Rawlins Portland attorney Benjamin Rosenthal, who was contacted by The Oregonian/OregonLive. Hes a young kid, hes in his 20s, he just wanted to keep working there, Rosenthal said. So he was afraid to complain. The suit claims that various employees knew of the hazing and participated in it. A supervisor also knew of the ongoing hazing but failed to take any form of immediate appropriate and corrective action to stop it, the suit states. At some point, higher-level managers learned of the allegations, and an investigation ensued. In May 2017, Willamette Week wrote about a nine-page personnel report -- finding that some hazing had occurred and painting a picture of a workplace culture that rewarded loyalty and discouraged reporting inappropriate behavior, according to the newspaper. A consultant later hired by the city wrote a 38-page report that found the transportation bureau's maintenance division was home to a "don't snitch" culture. Rosenthal, Rawlins attorney, said he has yet to receive the report despite asking the city for a copy. The Oregonian/OregonLive asked a Transportation spokesman Dylan Rivera to provide a copy, but he couldn't immediately provide one. Russell Wilkinson -- who was another probationary employee who took part in an initial city investigation into the hazing -- complained to the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries that he was fired as retaliation. The city ultimately gave him his job back, plus $5,000 as compensation. Meanwhile, Rawlins still works for the city. In addition to the city, Rawlins suit lists lead worker Jerry Munson and co-worker James Pope as defendants. Its unclear if they still employed by the city. The citys human resources department wouldnt immediately confirm their employment status Friday. The lawsuit was filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court. Read the lawsuit here. -- Aimee Green This week marked one year since the death of Portland entrepreneur Sam Blackman, an occasion marked by his former company, hundreds of friends and former colleagues, and by his hometown. As co-founder and chief executive of Elemental Technologies, Blackman helped spark Portland's tech renaissance with technology for streaming video online. Blackman became an outspoken advocate for education, housing and the environment and sought to encourage civic engagement among his employees and with his colleagues in Portland tech. Amazon bought Elemental for $296 million in 2015 and renamed it AWS Elemental. But Blackman continued running the business until his sudden death a year ago at age 41. Amazon renamed its Portland site "Sam," in Blackman's memory Wednesday. The company said it is Amazon's first office outside Seattle to have a name rather than a geographic designation. Also Wednesday, Elemental raised more than $113,000 through its annual 4K 4Charity run on the Portland waterfront. The event, which benefits educational organizations Rosemary Anderson High School and KairosPDX, registered 923 runners this year. And finally, May Ted Wheeler issued a proclamation declaring Wednesday be "Sam Blackman Day." Here's the full proclamation: Whereas, Portland native Sam Blackman was a humble and visionary leader until his death on August 27, 2017; and Whereas, Sam advocated for the City of Portland and the residents of our state to collectively strive to preserve the environment, end hunger, and expand access to quality education for underserved students; and Whereas, Sam practiced concrete action, experiential learning, hands-on volunteering, and sustainable practices, inspiring fellow Portlanders and technology industry colleagues to make progress on these and other issues; and Whereas, the community has embraced the 4K 4Charity Fun Run PDX held annually at Tom McCall Waterfront Park, co-founded by Sam in 2014 to support non-profit organizations focused on STEM and increased diversity and inclusion, including Rosemary Anderson High School and KairosPDX; and Whereas, the Sam Blackman Girls in Tech Scholarship Fund, managed by The Oregon Community Foundation, supports young women inspired to enter the field of technology; Whereas, the Blackman Family Scholarship Fund, managed by The Oregon Community Foundation, supports immigrants who are the first in their family to go to college; Now, therefore, I, Ted Wheeler, Mayor of the City of Portland, Oregon, the "City of Roses," do hereby proclaim August 29, 2018 to be Sam Blackman Day In Portland and encourage all residents to observe this day in the spirit of its honoree. -- Mike Rogoway | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699 William Thomas Cain/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Sen. John McCain was recalled as a loving father, joke-telling friend and great statesman in tributes by family, former members of Congress and other prominent American officials at a memorial service at Washington's National Cathedral. The late senator's longtime friend, former Sen. Joe Lieberman, elicited laughs from the audience of dignitaries and family at the service Saturday with anecdotes about McCain's sense of humor. "He loved to laugh, and he loved to make other people laugh," Lieberman said. "If he heard a good joke, he'd tell it over and over and over again." McCain's daughter, Meghan, said her father had been more than a war hero, senator and presidential nominee. He was also a devoted father who would carry her to bed as a little girl, kiss her skinned knee, and sometimes take her out of school to attend public town hall events. "I know who he was, I know what defined him, I got to see it every single day of my blessed life. John McCain was not defined by prison, by the Navy, by the Senate, by the Republican Party or any one of the deeds in his absolutely extraordinary life. He was defined by love," Meghan McCain said. She said her father taught her to be strong and resilient, and that he told her to "show them how tough you are" in her eulogy. Former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush will also be among the speakers honoring the late senator at the service. McCain's remains were moved to the National Cathedral for the service on Saturday morning after he lay in state at the Capitol Rotunda. McCain's wife, mother, children and grandchildren attended the Saturday ceremony. Other notable attendees included President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, and former Secretary of State Madeline Albright. While a military honor guard carried McCain's casket into the cathedral for the service, it was escorted by honorary pallbearers, friends of McCain such as former Vice President Joe Biden and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The procession carrying his casket made a stop at the Vietnam War Memorial, where wife Cindy McCain laid a wreath honoring servicemen and women who died during the war. Defense Secretary James Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, accompanied the McCain family to the war memorial. Funeral services for former presidents have been held at the National Cathedral since 1901, according to its website. Most recently, a service for former President Gerald Ford was held there in 2007. The cathedral has also hosted funeral and memorial services for dignitaries such as astronaut Neil Armstrong and former South African President Nelson Mandela. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. After a trove of funding cuts, the U.S. State Department said on Friday that the United States will not provide assistance funding any more for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Girls sit inside a classroom at an UNRWA school during the first day of a new school year in Gaza City, Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children are starting their school year in the Gaza Strip amid a major budget crunch for the United Nations agency that funds many schools. [Photo: Ap/Felipe Dana] According to a statement issued by Heather Nauert, the spokesperson of the State Department, the Trump administration "has carefully reviewed the issue and determined that the United States will not make additional contributions to UNRWA." Saying that "the United States was no longer willing to shoulder the very disproportionate share of the burden of UNRWA's costs," she said that the overall international response to address the problem "has not been sufficient." She also attacked the UNRWA for its alleged "budget gap" and "failure to mobilize adequate and appropriate burden sharing." "The fundamental business model and fiscal practices that have marked UNRWA for years ... is simply unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years," she said. The United States will no longer commit further funding to this "irredeemably flawed" operation, said Nauert. "Palestinians, wherever they live, deserve better than an endlessly crisis-driven service provision model. They deserve to be able to plan for the future." She added that the United States will intensify dialogue with the United Nations, host governments, and international stakeholders about new models and new approaches to reform the agency, which may "include direct bilateral assistance from the United States and other partners, that can provide today's Palestinian children with a more durable and dependable path towards a brighter tomorrow." The U.S. State Department said last week that President Donald Trump has ordered it to "redirect" economic aid to the Palestinians that are worthy of more than 200 million U.S. dollars. The U.S. aid cut came after it threatened to reduce financial support to the Palestinians unless they agree to return to the negotiation table with Israel, which has been stalled for four years. Palestinian officials said the U.S. move comes in line with President Donald Trump's attempt to ignore the final issues of the Palestinian-Israel peace process, removing the issues of Jerusalem and the refugees "off the table," which he also wrote on his Twitter account after he recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital on Dec. 6, 2017. The UNRWA said recently it has succeeded in reducing deficit from 446 million dollars to 217 million dollars, but warned that it would have to cut its services because of the deficit. The UN agency runs over 700 schools serving almost 525,000 children and offers healthcare for some 3.5 million refugees through a network of 150 clinics. In addition, UNRWA's food and cash assistance program offers some 1.7 million dollars to extremely vulnerable refugees. Throughout the region, the agency serves 5.3 million Palestinian refugees. China has formerly urged the international community to help the UNRWA overcome its financial crisis in order to uphold its obligations towards millions of refugees who rely on the UNRWA services, particularly in the Gaza Strip, where the humanitarian crisis deepens. Earlier in August, China signed an agreement with UNRWA to provide 2.35 million dollars support to the Gaza food program for 2018. Photo: Contributed Staff are recommending City Council not follow through on a bylaw that would ban shopping carts in public places. The shopping cart ban was one of 42 recommendations made by the Activate Safety Task Force and council voted to look into a bylaw that would outlaw shopping carts in public places. In a report that will be presented to council at its next meeting Tuesday, civic leaders are advised not to follow through on the proposed bylaw because of "the legal challenges and potential infringement on person's rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms." Earlier this week Mayor Akbal Mund questioned the legality of the bylaw. Whether we could do it or not we don't know, said Mund. I knew personally this would encounter some roadblocks and some legal roadblocks. So the city has to look at them and go 'What are those roadblocks? It will go to our lawyers and they will come back and tell us what could happen and what could not happen. The proposed ban generated swift backlash from the BC Civil Liberties Association, with some seeing it as a direct attack on the street entrenched members of the city. The proposed bylaw also raised the ire of regular citizens like Sarah Anderson who started a GoFundMe page to raise money to purchase carts for the homeless. Her goal was $1,000, but she recently passed the $2,000 mark and plans on buying even more wagons for those in need. Alignment 8 Yoga and Cycle won this years Readers' Choice gold award for Best Yoga Studio. Keri Kenney of Midland owns the studio, which she describes as trauma informed. Understanding the human experience contributes to the warm atmosphere in the studio. I mostly enjoy the energy within the studio. It is a very welcoming space, Kenney said. Our community is an awesome culture of compassion and empowerment. With Yoga, Spin and PiYo classes available, among others, patrons are welcome to choose which route will best benefit their fitness goals. Resilience, power and healing are terms that might be heard along the way, as certified instructors help students to tap into their own strength. As Alignment 8 helped Kenney through healing, Kenney and her staff aim to help others heal as well. You will feel better leaving than when you came in, Kenney said. RELATED: Midland Daily News Readers' Choice Awards Upcoming events at the studio include Circle of Hope Trauma Informed Yoga, which takes place every third Sunday at 12:30 p.m. Nutritional events are also offered regularly. Alignment 8 Yoga and Cycle is located at 105 W. Wackerly St. in Midland. For more information visit www.alignment8.com or call 989-860-5235. In just three years of business, Modern Realty has expanded from a two-agent brokerage to a staff of 42 agents and 10 support staff. Broker/Manager Logan Richetti attributes that rapid growth to a focus placed on training new agents. As a result, Modern Realty has won the Midland Board of Realtors Rookie of the Year Award for the past three years. it also earned the 2018 Daily News Readers' Choice Gold Award in the Real Estate Office category. The company concentrates on residential and commercial real estate, as well as vacant land, in Midland County and the surrounding areas. Richetti believes that Modern Realty stands out from competing brokerages in three areas customer service, team-based systems and technology. Excelling in those three areas allows agents with Modern to create informed and confident homebuyers. Our support staff work tirelessly to deliver a first class experience for our clients on every transaction. Our agents embrace the responsibility of navigating clients through their real estate dealings, and we do so with humility and gratitude, Richetti said. RELATED: Midland Daily News Readers' Choice Awards The firms website features a complete list of Realtors on staff, including a brief introduction video for many of the team members. At the very bottom of the page, one team member stands out. A black dog named Clara, decked out in a bright yellow bandana, is listed as the Office Cuddle Monster. Richetti says Clara embodies everything Modern Realty stands for. We are a professional brokerage with an inclusive and inviting atmosphere. Our clients become friends and we genuinely care for them, he said. Modern Realty is located at 6024 Eastman Ave. and is open from 8 a.m. to 5p.m. Monday through Friday. This year, Nails by Cooper and Co. captured the Midland Daily News Readers' Choice award for Best Nail Salon. Owner Natasha Zienert said there is something for everybody there. We have transfers, foils, stamps, anything sparkly and glittery, Zienert said. For the health of the nails, the salon prefers to use CND Shellac and natural enhancements. The salon carries numerous colors of Shellac as well as traditional nail polish. In addition to offering all of the latest in nail technique and design, care is taken to ensure the best manicures and pedicures. I think were very particular about how everything is finished, Zienert said. RELATED: Midland Daily News Readers' Choice Awards The attention to detail helps customers to walk out feeling like they have just been at the nail salon, with nails that look great. The pedicure room at Nails by Cooper and Co. also offers a space to get away for a few moments. We have really nice massage chairs in a quiet pedicure room, Zienert said. Nails by Cooper and Co., which celebrated its first anniversary in June, is located at 104 Cambridge St. Hours of operation are from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Saturday. For more information, call the salon at 989-486-9797. Gratzi, a fine dining restaurant located at 120 E Main St., won Midland Daily News Readers' Choice gold awards in three categories this year. Gratzi won for Best Happy Hour, Most Romantic Dinner and Best Waitress as the winners are announced today in a Daily News special section. Dining room manager Samantha Zavala credits the ambiance of the bar area for the Best Happy Hour rating. She mentioned pizza from a wood-fired oven that was imported from Italy. Endless beverage choices, including Gratzi's own unique Manhattan, contribute to a great happy hour as well. Dining over Italian cuisine at Gratzi, in any location of the restaurant, can provide the atmosphere for a romantic dinner. "There are different sections," Zavala said. "Casual dining in the bar area, formal dining at tables with table cloths, and U-shaped private booths - which help you feel like you are in your own little world." The menu offers antipasti, including a ravioli fritti; zuppe and ensalata choices, including the roasted beet salad; pizza including a margherita option and several pasta, meat and seafood selections for the main course. Desserts include creme brulee, tiramisu and canoli in addition to other choices. Zavala says the Gratzi staff enjoy pleasing the guests who come to dine. "The staff exceeds expectations and work to make the next experience as amazing -- if not better -- than the last one," she said. Amanda Owens won the Reader's Choice award as best waitress, and her passion for her work is apparent. "She was an absolutely amazing team player with knowledge of the culinary arts," Zavala said. "She understood the process of making food and knew how to bridge the kitchen with the guest." Owens recently left to begin her own culinary adventure called Owens Custom Catering. Zavala remains happy that Gratzi has made such an impact locally. "I am extremely pleased; I love hearing that everyone loves Gratzi," she said. For more information about this Readers' Choice favorite, visit gratzimidland.com. Are you a history buff? Wish you knew more about the lives of the presidents? Then you've come to the right place. Leave the textbooks behind and sit back and experience history as the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library presents our fall lecture series, "Meet the Presidents." Through a mixture of first-person portrayals and lectures, we will be exploring the lives and legacies of four of our most notable presidents: Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, Abraham Lincoln and Richard Nixon. We will be learning about how each faced the leadership challenges of their time in what is arguably the hardest job in the world. On Saturday, Sept. 22, we will be treated to a particularly special first-person presentation on Theodore and Edith Roosevelt. Noted historic interpreters, Larry and Julia Marple from the Springfield, Ohio, area, will be portraying the President and Mrs. Roosevelt during their White House years. Complete with period costuming, a big dose of Teddy's larger than life personality, and the subtle influence of Mrs. Roosevelt, this program should provide for a just "dee-lightful" evening. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is one of the groundbreaking legacies of the Lyndon B. Johnson administration. Forged from years of grassroots organizing and political maneuvering, the road to civil rights legislation was a long and arduous one for Johnson. Join us on at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 18, as we explore the personal and political struggles Johnson faced on civil rights issues with Kenneth Jolly of Saginaw Valley State University, in this lecture-styled presentation. On Thursday, Nov. 15, hear from President Abraham Lincoln himself as he describes "The Road to the Civil War" and the role his leadership played in securing our country. Fred Priebe, a Lincoln impersonator from Belleville who has visited Grace A. Dow Memorial Library on two previous occasions, will provide a historically accurate and entertaining first-person presentation highlighting Lincoln's evolving beliefs and leadership qualities. A lifetime of research and passion for history has made Priebe's portrayal of Abraham Lincoln an event not to be missed. What did Richard Nixon say when he watched the first man land on the moon? When he became the first president to visit China? Not surprising that you can't recall, but you might remember when he proclaimed "I am not a crook" as the Watergate scandal enveloped him. Whether he was a crook or a victim of the times, he most certainly was a complicated figure who was both brilliant and tragically flawed. On Thursday, Dec. 6, Mitchell Hall of Central Michigan University will help us understand Richard Nixon and his doomed presidency. We hope that you will join us as we experience history up close and personal in these unique presentations. All presentations are free and open to all ages. They will be held at 7 p.m. in the Library Auditorium. For more information on the "Meet the Presidents" lecture series, please contact the Reference Desk at 837-3449 or visit our webpage at http://www.cityofmidlandmi.gov/library. Jan Martz is a reference librarian at Grace A. Dow Memorial Library. When you go to buy a cantaloupe, you can choose a good-looking one, pick it up, and sniff it for ripeness. But theres no similar sniff test for antivirus software, so how do you choose? The independent antivirus testing labs, which evaluate and rate dozens of antivirus solutions, can help, and they declare Kaspersky Anti-Virus a winner. It earned top or near-top scores in every test by every lab that we follow and did well in our own tests as well. The core antivirus is the same excellent protection as what you get with Kaspersky Security Cloud Free, without the clutter that comes from all the unavailable premium-only features. More important, this antivirus gives you full access to tech support via phone and live chat. You pay $59.99 per year for a three-license Kaspersky subscription, or $79.99 for five licenses. Thats pretty standard, though F-Secure gives you three licenses for just $39.99. Norton AntiVirus Plus costs $59.99 too, but that gets you just one license. With McAfee, that same $59.99 price lets you install protection on every Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS device in your household. Kaspersky's main window hasnt changed much in my last few reviews, with the same slightly textured white background and plenty of whitespace. There's a status panel at the top, a More Tools button at the bottom, and button-panels for Scan, Database Update, Reports, and On-Screen Keyboard. The purpose of the On-Screen Keyboard is to protect your entry of sensitive information against keyloggers, even hardware keyloggers. By default, it includes a number pad and arrow keys, but you can shrink those away if you don't need them. I found that the first time I invoked the on-screen keyboard, Kaspersky required a reboot. Interestingly, the interface for Kaspersky's free antivirus is not based on that of the premium edition, reviewed here. Rather, the free product is a stripped-down version of Kaspersky Security Cloud, with a shield icon marking premium features as requiring upgrade. I ran my hands-on tests simultaneously with this product and the free edition and got the same results. Most of the enhancements in this latest edition are under the hood. In testing, I did have occasions to see the new stalkerware protection in action. Kaspersky popped up a warning that it had found user activity monitoring software with the capacity for unauthorized access to personal data. According to a Kaspersky post, this type of malware grew by 35 percent in 2019. Shared With Free Edition Kaspersky Security Cloud Free includes all the antivirus protection you get in the premium antivirus. Even the behavior-based System Watcher, which was once reserved for paid products, is included. I'll summarize those shared features here, and you can get more information by reading my review of the free product. The four independent testing labs I follow all include Kaspersky in their regular test reports. Kaspersky earned the highest possible score in almost every test by all four labs, earning 9.7 as its aggregate score (out of a possible 10). Bitdefender, tested by three of the labs, managed 9.9 points. Both consistently earn perfect or near-perfect scores from the labs. Kaspersky didn't fare quite as well in my hands-on malware protection test, but when results don't jibe, I defer to the labs and their dozens of researchers. At 9.3 of 10 available points, Kaspersky's score is good, certainly better than Bitdefenders 8.6. The best score against my current malware collection is a perfect 10 points, scored by Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus. Recognizing and defending against malware attacks is good, but ensuring that the malicious software never even reaches your computer is better. To check that capability I use a collection of malware-hosting URLs recently discovered by the testing lab MRG-Effitas. Products get equal credit for blocking all access to a dangerous URL and for eliminating the malware download. Kaspersky scored 89 percent last time I ran this test, but didnt do quite as well this time around. It blocked access to 58 percent of the dangerous URLs and eliminated 23 percent more at the download stage. With a total score of 81 percent, Kasperskys score is in the lower half for current products. McAfee, Sophos Home Premium, and Vipre all earned 100 percent in their latest tests. Phishing websites don't go to the trouble of hosting malware; they just trick users into giving away their login credentials. Kaspersky proved quite effective but didnt quite reach the 100 percent protection it accomplished when last reviewed. At 96 percent, it remains a winner, its just not at the top this time. That honor goes to Trend Micro Antivirus+ Security, which achieved 100 percent detection in its latest test. McAfee, Bitdefender, and Norton all came close, with 99 percent. The System Watcher component aims to detect malicious activity, including ransomware activity. Even if the regular real-time antivirus doesnt recognize a threat, System Watcher can home in on its malicious actions. To test this feature, I disabled real-time protection and launched a dozen real-world ransomware samples. A couple samples took no action, perhaps because they detected Kaspersky on the system. System Watcher caught all the other file-encrypting ransomware samples. It also nabbed the uncommon disk-encrypting Petya ransomware, a feat not accomplished by the behavior-based detection of Bitdefender and several other competitors. One screen-locker sample did manage to lock up my test system, but pressing Kaspersky's lock-breaker key combination defeated it. You can type this configurable key combination to spur Kaspersky to act even when your PC's interface is locked, as it was here. From the More Tools menu you can select Rescue Disk, a full blown ISO image that you burn to a CD or DVD. When you boot from the rescue disk's alternate operating system, Windows-based malware has no power to resist. It's worth noting that Bitdefender Antivirus Plus makes the process even easier. You just select Rescue Environment and reboot. There's no disk to burn or USB to prepare. See How We Test Security Software Other Shared Features All programs in the current Kaspersky product line come with a bandwidth-capped copy of Kaspersky Secure Connection VPN. You can lift the bandwidth cap and gain access to more features by paying $4.99 per month for the premium edition. Bitdefenders similar VPN component isnt available as a standalone, only as part of another Bitdefender product. Enabling its premium mode costs $6.99 per month or $39.99 per year. Both Kaspersky and Bitdefender rely on Hotspot Shield for VPN technology. If you allow it, this products installer also installs Kaspersky Password Manager. However, after an initial trial this product reverts to its limited free mode. In free mode you can only store a total of 15 entries, which could be passwords, personal data items, or notes. As a standalone product, this basic password manager costs $14.99 per year. Both products include several scans that arent entirely security related. The Browser Configuration Check strictly looks for configuration problems with the declining Internet Explorer browser. Privacy Cleaner wipes traces of your browsing and computer use that could be revealing to a snoop, dividing its advice into strongly recommended actions, recommended actions, and additional actions. And the Microsoft Windows Troubleshooter seeks out system configuration changes that might have been caused by malware. The free edition includes a scan for unused data thats wasting disk space, something not found in the paid antivirus. All four of these scans seem dated, especially the Browser Configuration Check. Id like to see them updated and combined into a single component. Changed Vulnerability Scan The vulnerability scan has changed since my last round of review updates. At that time, the free product didnt make vulnerability scanning available. That earlier vulnerability scan found two applications needing security patches and eight vulnerabilities in Windows. The latter group didnt involve missing Windows updates. Rather, it listed configuration settings that could affect security, much like the Microsoft Windows Troubleshooter. At present, both products include a vulnerability scan. Its appearance differs between the free and paid products, but the scan result came out just the same, disappointingly. All I got was a list of vulnerable programs, and the list just had one item. Clicking for details got me nowhereit simply displayed a web page stating that no description is available. Most products use a vulnerability scan to identify apps that can be updated to improve security. The software updater that comes with Avira Prime not only finds available updates, it installs them automatically. The same is true of Avast Premium Security. Note, though, that these two are the top tier suites in their respective product lines. Lesser products find the needed patches but dont automate installation. Impressive Scores Kaspersky Anti-Virus gets excellent scores in all the tests from all the labs that we follow, and it comes with feature-limited version of Kaspersky's VPN and password manager products. The core antivirus technology is the same as what's in Kaspersky Security Cloud Free, without the distraction of all those premium-only features. And the availability of direct tech support by phone or live chat in the paid edition can be a lifesaver. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus routinely scores as high as Kaspersky with the labs, and it packs enough useful bonus security features to almost qualify as a suite. Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus uses behavioral detection along with a journal-and-rollback system that can reverse damage by malware, including ransomware. And while McAfee AntiVirus Plus doesn't score quite as high, it lets you protect every device in your household. From the dozens of available antivirus products, we've picked these three, along with Kaspersky Anti-Virus, as Editors' Choice antivirus tools. Editors' Note: We are aware of the allegations of Kaspersky Labs' inappropriate ties to the Russian government. Until we see some actual proof of these allegations, we will treat them as unproven, and continue to recommend Kaspersky's security products as long as their performance continues to merit our endorsement. Kaspersky Anti-Virus 4.5 Editors' Choice Check Price Pros Perfect and near-perfect scores from four independent testing labs Effective ransomware protection Good scores in our hands-on tests Full-scale phone and live chat support Bonus scans for privacy and performance View More Cons Bonus scans significantly overlap each other Vulnerability scan offers little information The Bottom Line Kaspersky Anti-Virus takes perfect or near-perfect scores from all the independent testing labs, and it aced our hands-on ransomware protection test. It remains an antivirus Editors' Choice. Mayor Eric Papenfuse said on Thursday that a Commonwealth Court judge could give Harrisburg until the end of October to adopt an Act 47 exit plan. According to a report on the website of The Burg, Commonwealth Court Judge Bonnie Leadbetter indicated at an Aug. 14 conference that she would exempt the city from a statute in Pennsylvania's Municipalities Financial Recovery Act that says a city has 45 days to adopt an Act 47 exit plan drafted by a state-appointed coordinator. The change would give city officials more time to negotiate with state lawmakers, who return to Harrisburg in September. READ MORE: Looks as if Act 47 status will continue for Harrisburg Harrisburg is asking the Legislature to pass a bill that would let the city keep its current taxing authority and make a sustainable exit from the Act 47 state oversight program, the story said. "This clears the stage for the legislature to act," Papenfuse told The Burg. "Hopefully, we'll get the legislative change we want." Water rushed onto the rail bed as Ken Myers and a train full of riders sat still on railroad tracks in Mount Joy. The train offered service from Pittsburgh to New York, but Myers, who lives in Ephrata, got on in Harrisburg as a part of his regular commute home. For the first time in 10 years of his commute, Myer's 30 minute ride was severely delayed due to heavy flooding that hit Lancaster County on Friday. Amtrak's train status service shows there was a five hour and 49 minute delay for Myer's train, Amtrak #42. Officials confirm there were 274 customers on board. READ MORE: Some roads starting to reopen as flooding shuts down traffic across Central Pa Myers said his train left around 1:05 p.m., but by 1:30 p.m. they had stopped just beyond the Mt. Joy station because of the flooding. "We could see the water levels rising on both sides of the train," Myers said. It rushed down the sides of the rail bed and the tracks submerged below them. Current view out my @Amtrak window near Mt. Joy. The engine is dead in the water. Waiting on a rescue engine but severe flooding prevents travel either way. This train might float to Lancaster sooner. pic.twitter.com/nW5dm9aaZQ kenmyers (@phreak96) August 31, 2018 Myers added, they were told the engine took on some water which shorted out some traction electricity. Amtrak communicated constantly with the passengers, Myers said, so he knew they sent out a "rescue engine" from Philadelphia because mudslides in Middletown prevented them from going back to Harrisburg. However, even their rescue had to wait until the flooding receded and "substantial" debris was cleared from the tracks, Myers said. People grew concerned once the flooding got closer to the track, Myer said, but Amtrak's efforts to give updates over the public announcement system and in person as staff walked through the cabins, helped. "The presence of Amtrak Police officers was a helpful sight, too, for those who were worried," Myers said. READ MORE: 'Every road that's near a creek is closed': Downpours leave area a mess To his knowledge, there were no fights, arguments or other non-weather related chaos during the delay. "They were on top of things as much as they could be and they made a solid effort to keep everyone informed and calm through all the unknowns of the situation," Myers said. Amtrak offered a complimentary snack package and water during the delay, Myers said. He was also in the car with a cafe, which always had a long line while they waited. Myers said at first, he knew the water was high on the train but didn't realize how bad it was until he saw photos on social media taken from the bridge above them. Myers called the experience "unique" and definitely his most interesting communte in 10 years. "I've been in flight delays, but not in the middle of rising flood waters on either side of me," Myers said. Reporters in Mount Joy saw significant water around the train at 6:30 p.m. Amtrak officials confirmed Train 42 was able to continue on to New York due to conditions. Riders on Train 43 however, were not and everyone got off at the Lancaster station when it arrived. Customers were offered substitute transportation on charter buses from Lancaster, Pa. to Harrisburg, Pa., Amtrak said in a service alert. Customers will be permitted to return to New York at Lancaster if they choose to do so. WILLIAMSPORT - A Williamsport man is accused of threatening to shoot up a drug treatment facility and a hospital emergency room. Ronald Lee Wayne, 34, showed up Thursday morning at the Williamsport Family Medical Center with a concealed weapon, police say. The center, in Old Lycoming Twp. just north of Williamsport, provides methadone treatment for drug addicts. Wayne left the center about 9:30 a.m. after denying to staff he had a gun, township police said. But, video showed Wayne lifting the back of his shirt exposing a semiautomatic handgun tucked in the small of his back, they said. When staff called him about 10:30 a.m. to tell him was being terminated as a patient due to possessing the gun, he is alleged to have said: "I'm going on a killing spree and you guys are going to be my first target." As a convicted felon in Pennsylvania and Virginia, he may not possess a firearm. About 4:50 p.m. Thursday, Williamsport police were dispatched to the emergency room of UPMC Williamsport Regional Medical Center for a combative patient. That turned out to be Wayne. While being treated for an alleged drug overdose, Wayne became combative, smashed a computer and breaking a hospital bed, the arrest affidavit states. While staff was attempting to move him to a more secure location he kneed a male nurse, kicked and spit at a physician assistant and spit in the face of a security guard, the charges allege. Wayne is accused of yelling: "I'm going to come in with my gun and shoot you all." The disturbance continued until he was sedated and placed in four-point restraints, police said. He is charged with terroristic threats, convicted felon not to possess a firearm and carrying a firearm without a license in connection with the incident at the treatment facility. Charges of aggravated assault, terroristic threats, criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and harassment were filed from the incident at the hospital. Wayne is jailed in lieu of $200,000 bail on all the charges. Court records show he pleaded no contest to an aggravated assault charge in Northampton County and was sentenced on Jan. 7, 2008, to 15 to 48 months in prison. He was granted parole on March 4, 2010. Route 283 in Mount Joy at Route 772 were some of the first roads to reopen after massive flooding hit several central Pa counties Friday. Around 8:00 p.m., U.S. 30 in York both directions at Frysville Road and Creutz Creed Road was also cleared, but was only one of the sections of U.S. 30 that was flooded. PennDOT said the following roads were closed as of around 5 p.m. Friday: Hellam Township, York County All lanes are closed on Route 30 westbound between Exit: Route 441 - Columbia/Marietta and Exit: Route 24 - Mt Zion Road. Springettsbury Township, York County All eastbound lanes are closed between Edgewood Road/Mount Zion Road and Ninth Street/Cool Creek Road. Manheim, Lancaster County All lanes are closed on Route 772 in both directions at Main Street. Penn Township, Lancaster County Flooding on Pa. 72 both directions between Sun Hill Road and Newport Road, East High Street, High Street. Springettsbury Township, York County All lanes are closed on Route 30 eastbound between Exit: Route 24 - Mount Zion Road and the exit for Route 462 - Wrightsville. Heidelberg Township, Lebanon County All lanes are closed in Prescott Road in both directions between Main Street and Reistville Road. Bethel Township, Lebanon County All lanes are closed in both directions on Market Street/Greble Road between Mount Zion Road and Long Road. West Cornwall Township, Lebanon County (As of 5:26 p.m.) All lanes are closed in both directions on Route 322 between the exit for Route 117 - Mount Gretna, and Mountain Road. For more traffic information, follow live traffic updates, accident reports and road closures below from PennDOT, Total Traffic Network and other Twitter sources. Get a look at conditions on local roads -- via PennDOT traffic cameras -- anytime here on PennLive. For Pennsylvania Turnpike updates and possible travel delays visit the Turnpike website here. Tweet us at @pennlive with any incidents you see on your commute or send a submission to submissions@pennlive.com. A woman is facing charges for robbing a Turkey Hill with a knife in August. Chelsey Camp, 27, of Harrisburg, entered the store in the 700 block of North Mountain Road in Lower Paxton Township at 11 p.m. on Aug. 16. She then brandished a knife and demanded cash and cigarettes from the clerk, police said. Camp was also identified as the suspect in multiple robberies throughout Dauphin County following the joint investigation involving police from Swatara Township, Harrisburg, and Lower Paxton Township. The police report did not give further information. Camp was arraigned Wednesday, and remanded to Dauphin County Prison in lieu of $75,000. By Lewis E. Thayne Pennsylvanians are all-too-familiar with the devastating effects of addiction on individuals, on families, and in communities. Lewis E. Thayne (Lebanon Valley College photo) In 2016, Pennsylvania ranked fourth among states for the number of overdose deaths, which totaled 63,600 across the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control. So many of us have family members, neighbors, coworkers, and friends who have in some way been affected by the opioid crisis or other substance-related struggles and tragedies. A few of my own colleagues at Lebanon Valley College have experienced addiction-related crises in their families--and so have many of our students. The college-aged recovery population has some distinct vulnerabilities: Returning to the home environment early in recovery is often not a healthy option, and many have given up or postponed their college plans, thus sacrificing, at least temporarily, their academic and professional growth. Given the existing resources we have in place, colleges and universities have a chance, if not a duty, to be part of the healing. With so much media attention focused on the risks and hazards of substance abuse among college students, a college campus may seem an unlikely home for those in recovery. But there is a growing, nationwide movement to provide students in recovery access to safe and supportive campus communities. There are now more than 50 programs at colleges and universities across the nation designed to assist students in recovery with their educational goals. Small, private colleges are especially well positioned to support students in recovery. By our very nature and mission, we have a student-first approach--which means we have the resources and carefully designed and time-tested programs that give our graduates a high probability of success not only in their education, but also in their careers and lives. This is evidenced at Lebanon Valley College, for example, by strong four-year graduation, student retention rates, and graduate outcomes. Why not offer young people in recovery the opportunity to benefit from the same highly personalized and challenging academic environment that all of our students receive? Through a new partnership, we are making this opportunity happen. A leading provider of addiction treatment and behavioral health services, Caron Treatment Centers, is located less than an hours' drive from our campus. This fall semester, up to six Caron alumni who are in recovery will enroll at Lebanon Valley College as full- or part-time undergraduates. They'll live on campus in a Collegiate Recovery House, a dedicated space that is open 52 weeks a year to provide the structure and accountability that is crucial in early recovery. Caron provides a full-time staff member who lives in the house. The students have a curfew, are required to attend 12-step meetings and counseling, complete chore assignments, maintain a GPA of at least 2.0, and complete weekly alcohol and drug tests. There is a relapse protocol in place should a participant need it. The program is based on the principles of inclusion. Broad acceptance of human difference is part of our ethos, and it is part of Caron's. Students in the recovery house will participate in the same academic and co-curricular experiences as any of our students. We expect them to perform well in the classroom, and also contribute to clubs and activities outside of class. They will have full access to resources for learning differences and physical needs, peer mentors, faculty advisers, and career guidance. We have set the bar high for the students in recovery because we want them to get a great education and use it as a conduit to a better life--just like every student on our campus. They are enthusiastic about the opportunities ahead--just as we are to have them as part of our college community. Addiction and recovery do not have to lead to lowered aspirations or downgraded dreams. We owe it to the more than 63,000 we've lost, to help maximize the potential of those we can still cultivate who have the motivation to work hard to better themselves individually, and the country broadly. My hope is for this partnership and others like it to inspire more colleges and universities to think creatively and collaboratively to help those with addiction transform their lives. Transforming lives for the better is, after all, what we do best. Lewis E. Thayne is president of Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa. 'A Life Without Lemons': One musician's call to help others through music A passion for hip-hop, music and helping those around him have culminated in Wesley Luxton's latest project "A Life Without Lemons." Ryan Nyquist Emil Johansson Diego Caverzasi Torquato Testa Reece Wallace Johny Salido David Lieb Juliana Free Agent Team Milan Cizinsky Matt MacDuff Joe Haley Daryl Brown Tom Van Steenbergen Joe Haley chasing head wheel builder Phil Chudoba around Rupert's (Left) i9 VP, Jacob McGahey, dropping in. (Right)Thunder Joe Haley dodging shadows. Armand, owner of Republic Bikes in Squamish, showing us the views of the Eagle Preserve on our way down Good to get everyone together in one place First up - Daryl Brown Head to head flipping through the round of 8 Absolutely ripping corners in finals. Ryan Nyquist The legend himself. Nyquist always keeping it fun, no matter what. A mid-run crash kept Ryan from putting down the run he wanted. 12th on the day. Diego Caverzasi Diego had been throwing down big all week during practice when a crash, the morning of finals, ended his weekend prematurely. Despite a broken hand, Diego somehow threw down on his second run landing him in 13th. Props. Emil Johansson Emil wasting no time getting back into the swing of things with a 4th in Joyride. Great to see you back at it, Emil. Reece Wallace Reece hitting the boost button on the new hip on Dirt Merchant Keeping freeride alive. Milan Cizinsky Milan put in a solid day during the Canadian Enduro landing himself in 8th place. Torquato Testa Torquato has been on a roll this year and solidified his season with a 7th at Joyride David Lieb David 3'ing during the round of 16 in Dual Speed & Style. (Left)David is one to watch out for with a big mixed bag of tricks. (Right) Round of 32 in pumptrack. Fresh off a best trick win at The Backwoods Jam, I wouldn't be surprised to see more of this guy come next season. Juliana Free Agent Team Clare Hamilton railing corners in the round of 8 during Dual Slalom Finals Juan Diego "Johny" Salido Mexico's finest Flipping the final jump during the A-Line race. With a solid 10th in the Garbanzo DH, 54th in the Air DH, making it to finals in Whip Off's, and absolutely shredding all week, Johny is the wildcard - never to be discounted Matt MacDuff No introduction needed... A legend amongst men, Ethan Anderson, and Matt ready to drop into Top Of The World Matt may be known for his park riding but he is not slow on the DH rig... Tom Van Steenbergen Tom flipping during the round of 8 in Speed & Style Sittin' sideways during Whip Off's Joe Haley Joe is now a full time dad but that doesn't stop him from getting in the mix with the best of 'em. Joe is also in charge of all things international & sponsored athletes at i9... What's Whistler without some party laps? The crew getting after it during the week. Cane Creek's Product Manager, Sam Anderson, sessioning the new hip on Dirt Merchant. (Left) Phil Chudoba whipping it out on a morning ride. (Right) West Coast Sales Manager and multitasking extraordinaire, Charlie Taylor, making time to play on the hill. Until next year! It's no secret Crankworx Whistler is the premier North American mountain bike gathering. Hosting the final stop of the FMB World Tour, in addition to a full schedule of gravity events, the world's top athletes convene in this corner of western Canada setting the bar to stratospheric heights. Industry Nine is known for high-end wheelsets, not only for the eye-catching aesthetics and customization, but for the exceptional performance and durability that complements the bling factor. Crankworx Whistler serves as the perfect venue for athletes to highlight the mix of style and performance but also serves as a proving ground for many. Needless to say, i9 was thrilled to have a number of team athletes together in one place, competing in their respective disciplines and hanging out enjoying the goods that Whistler has to offer.Before heading up to Whistler to get settled in for the ten day event, the i9 crew couldn't not ride Squamish.At the beginning of the week, before things got busy, i9 hosted an eveningin the parking lot near the River Jumps. Robert Jasper photographed from his drone while on the summit of Molar Spire, Fox Jaw Cirque, Greenland after the first ascent of Stonecircle Photo by Robert Jasper Robert Jasper on the summit of Molar Spire, Fox Jaw Cirque, Greenland after the first ascent of Stonecircle during his solo climbing expedition. Photo by Robert Jasper Robert Jasper making the first ascent Stonecircle during his solo climbing expedition to Greenland Photo by Robert Jasper Robert Jasper completes Stonecircle on Greenland solo trip 31.08.2018 by by Planetmountain German rock climber Robert Jasper has returned from his solo expedition to Greenland after having made the first ascent of Stonecircle (7c, 450m) up Molar Spire above the Angmassalik-Tasilaq Fjord. As previously reported, in mid-July Robert Jasper embarked on a solo climbing trip in East Greenland. The German left civilisation from Kungmit, the last Inuit settlement, and paddled to remote fjords in his sea kayak transporting 90kg of gear and provisions completely on his own. After 12 days of hard paddling and heavy hauling he established base camp at the foot of the Fox Jaw Cirque and soon set his sights on the second granite tooth called Molar Spire. He reached the wall via a snow colouir, then climbed seven pitches in two days. He kept returning to base camp since the weather was unstable, and on the third day he pushed for the summit despite poor weather. It started to rain shortly before the summit but then the weather improved. "The clouds cleared and you could see the surrounding mountains and fjords. I was all alone, no person in sight as far as the eye could see. It was like in heaven. Indescribably beautiful!" Jasper abseiled down the route and reached his tent 18 hours after having set off, then made his way back to civilisation. After 30 days in the wild, having covered 100km on foot, climbed 1000m of steep rock and paddled over 100km by sea kayak, Jasper returned to Kungmit, closing his personal "stone circle. Summing up his adventure, Jasper stated "The most impressive things in life are often rocky and hard. That's how they stay in the back of your mind. This expedition pushed me to my limits. It was a huge adventure in a magnificent natural setting! An absolute highlight. I made many valuable experiences during the trip. An absolute jewel in my life!" East Greenland - Angmassalik-Tasilaq Fjord Stonecircle - Molar Spire - Fox Jaw Cirque Difficulty: 7c Wall height: 450 meters First ascent in "rope-solo-redpoint style" in 3 days in July 2018 by Robert Jasper Description: Demanding high-alpine free climbing route. Gear left for possible repeat: 4 pitons, 4 fixed nuts, 2 Cooperheads and 1 Pecker as well as 30 stainless steel M8 Petzl bolts. Notes: 2 sets of Camalots size 000-3, 1x 4 and 2 sets nuts are needed as additional protection. Take a hammer, 2-3 knife blades and 1 Pecker and 2 Copperheads. 50m ropes are recommended for emergencies Robert Jasper thanks Petzl, Lowa, Marmot, Gore-Tex, Muhle Glashutte, Naturenergie Links: www.robert-jasper.de, FB Robert Jasper *** Include a contact email address if you want a response *** Please tell us about the problem you are having... See your usage details You will also be sending us basic usage details to help us fix this problem. Details about your session Javascript: not enabled. Submit my Problem Please tell us about your problem before you click submit. Thank you for flagging this problem, we very much appreciate your time and helping us improve the site. 954 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard The Trump campaign sent a clear message that they were open for business by approving a George Papadopoulos interview with state-run Russian media. The Washington Post reported: When a Russian news agency reached out to George Papadopoulos to request an interview shortly before the 2016 election, the young adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump made sure to seek approval from campaign headquarters. You should do it, deputy communications director Bryan Lanza urged Papadopoulos in a September 2016 email, emphasizing the benefits of a U.S. partnership with Russia. The exchange was a sign that Papadopoulos who pushed the Trump operation to meet with Russian officials had the campaigns blessing for some of his foreign outreach. The Trump campaign has gone out of their way to downplay the role of George Papadopoulos, but what this report reveals is that while the young staffer was not a Trump campaign insider, the campaign was knowledgeable about what he was doing they blessed his activities. Papadopoulos alone doesnt answer the big questions, but it is another indicator that for some reason, the Trump campaign was open for business when it came to Putin and Russia. The odds are that this attitude toward Putin came from the top down. Trump was the tone setter of his tiny campaign. The interview took place long after Paul Manafort had departed, so the Russia connection was deeper than Manaforts time in charge of the campaign. The investigation is moving beyond smoke and closer to fire. There was a pro-Russia culture in the Trump campaign, and the reason why is where the likely crimes are. Like a black cloud that always follows him, Donald Trump cant hide from the truth about his connections to Russia. 2k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Republicans are in such a panic over Rep. Beto ORourkes Senate run that they are sending Trump to Texas to campaign against him. Trump announced via tweet: I will be doing a major rally for Senator Ted Cruz in October. Im picking the biggest stadium in Texas we can find. As you know, Ted has my complete and total Endorsement. His opponent is a disaster for Texas weak on Second Amendment, Crime, Borders, Military, and Vets! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2018 CNBC reported that Trump is going to Texas because Republican panic is growing over ORourkes surge, The announcement of a presidential campaign trip more than a month in advance reflects the growing sense of panic among Republicans, who fear that a Senate seat once considered among the most solidly Republican in all of American politics could be up for grabs. The reason for the GOPs panic is not so much that Cruz is doing poorly, per se, but that his opponent, Rep. Beto ORourke, D-Texas, is doing so well. Sending Trump to Texas may only help Beto ORourke Texas may not be the best place to send Donald Trump to campaign. His approval ratings have been consistently underwater in the state. Trump has never been very popular in the Lone Star State. More people in Texas currently disapprove than approve of Trump (43%-46%). A Trump visit in the last few weeks before the election could play into ORourkes hands and boost support for the Democrat ahead of election day. Trump could cost Ted Cruz the GOP presidential nomination, and his Senate seat It also points to Cruzs desperation that he would embrace Trump, as the incumbent is banking on winning reelection by motivating the statewide Republican advantage to the show up at the polls. However, the downside of embracing Trump is that it could cost Cruz his seat. Ted Cruz has never been over popular in Texas. He is the poster boy for being able to win because he has an (R) beside his name. It would be one of the great moments in recent campaign history if Trump first cost Ted Cruz the presidential nomination in 2016, and then came to Texas and cost Cruz his Senate seat. Beto ORourke is surging. Republicans are freaking, and Ted Cruz could soon be out of a job. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook. 342 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard By Jonathan Landay WASHINGTON (Reuters) Democrats on Friday accused Republicans of cherry-picking and leaking portions of text messages and emails between a U.S. law enforcement official and a former British spy who investigated then-businessman Donald Trumps ties to the Russian government. Two lawmakers made the charge in a letter to the Republican chairmen of the U.S. House of Representatives judiciary and government oversight panels, which on Tuesday questioned Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr about his ties with former MI6 officer Christopher Steele. The letter was the latest salvo in a fight between the political parties as Republicans have criticized the propriety of the FBIs probe of ties between Moscow and Trump aides and whether they coordinated during the 2016 U.S. election campaign. The Democratic lawmakers said Republicans appeared to have violated House rules because they failed to share the communications between Ohr and Steele in 2016 and 2017 with the minority party. The materials were not among 800,000 pages of documents provided by the Justice Department to their panels, they said. Steele assembled a dossier on Trump for research firm Fusion GPS, which was hired by Democratic Party lawyers and presidential candidate Hillary Clintons campaign. Trump supporters accuse Ohr of cooperating with Steele on the dossier that outlined Russian financial ties and salacious personal details. By the time the FBI received the dossier the agency had already started its probe of Russian interference in the campaign, which the Kremlin denies. Two sources familiar with the dossier told Reuters on condition of anonymity that Ohr had no role in its compilation. Ohrs lawyer did not immediately return a request for comment on Friday. The communications between Ohr and Steele were marked law enforcement sensitive because they related to a confidential human source, the Democratic lawmakers said. In questioning Ohr, lawmakers Elijah Cummings and Jerrold Nadler said, Republicans were selective about his communications with Steele to create a highly misleading narrative with factually inaccurate interpretations and conjecture that they were discussing Trump. As an example, they said, Republicans read a portion of an email in which Steele wrote that he wanted to speak with Ohr about our favorite business tycoon. Republicans assumed they were discussing Trump, but Ohr answered that the business tycoon was Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, the two Democrats said. Deripaska is a former business associate of Paul Manafort, who was convicted this month of financial wrongdoing charges related to his work for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine that predated a stint as Trumps campaign manager. A spokesman for Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte did not respond to requests for comment. Trump calls investigations of Russia ties a rigged witch hunt. He has also singled out Bruce Ohr, saying he was a disgrace and that he would revoke his security clearance. Another Republican point of protest is that Ohrs wife, Nellie Ohr, had worked as a subcontractor for Fusion. The Ohrs are experts on Russian organized crime, which is how they came in contact with Fusion and Steele. Cummings and Nadler said it appeared the texts and emails were given to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). Amanda Gonzalez, spokeswoman for Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, responded in an email that as a member of the HPSCI, Gowdy has never once shared these documents with a single individual outside of HPSCI. (Reporting by Jonathan Landay, additional reporting by Mark Hosenball; editing by John Walcott and Grant McCool) 337 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard (Reuters) A federal judge on Friday denied a request by Texas and other states governed by Republicans to immediately end a program launched by Democratic former president Barack Obama that protects immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children. U.S. Judge Andrew Hanen of the Southern District of Texas said the states had shown they were harmed by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, or DACA, but, he said, they could not prevail legally because of their delay in pursuing the claims they now bring concerning DACA, which was first established in 2012. The program protects around 700,000 young adults from deportation and gives them work permits for two-year periods, after which they must re-apply. Texas and other states that brought the lawsuit earlier this year had argued that DACA allows illegal aliens to remain in the country, which drives up the costs of healthcare and policing and makes it harder for lawful residents to find work. The states also argued that the DACA program flouts the will of Congress because it was created without congressional action. Civil rights organizations, businesses and universities had filed friend of the court briefs in the Texas case to protect DACA. They argued that the states had failed to provide convincing evidence that DACA hurts their coffers and that by authorizing DACA recipients to work their states would get more tax revenue. Hanen, who was appointed by Republican U.S. President George W. Bush, issued a second order on Friday giving Texas permission to appeal his ruling. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement after the ruling that the plaintiffs were now very confident that DACA will soon meet the same fate as a parallel Obama program, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, which was previously struck down by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Paxton led a coalition of dozens of states in taking legal action against that program. Our lawsuit is vital to restoring the rule of law to our nations immigration system, Paxton said. Republican President Donald Trump said last year that he would terminate DACA and end its protection for the immigrants who are sometimes called Dreamers. He gave the Republican-controlled Congress six months to replace it, but policy differences between Trump and lawmakers in both parties led to Congress failing to act. Courts have ruled that the program can stay in place for now, although new applications will not be accepted. (This story corrects paragraph 6 to show that civil rights groups, universities and businesses filed friend of court briefs instead of they had intervened in the case) (Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Yeganeh Torbati in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Toni Reinhold) 2.2k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll is in line with other recent polling that shows Trumps attacks on Mueller are backfiring. The Washington Post reported: 63 percent of Americans support Muellers investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, with 52 percent saying they support it strongly; 29 percent oppose the probe. Opinions on Muellers work also break down on partisan lines, with 61 percent of Republicans opposing the probe but an even larger 85 percent of Democrats expressing support. Among independents, however, a two-thirds majority of 67 percent back the investigation. Trump has complained that Manafort was treated unfairly by Muellers prosecutors, and after a jury convicted Manafort earlier this month the president tweeted that he felt very badly for him. But 67 percent of Americans think Muellers case against Manafort was justified, while 17 percent say it was unjustified, according to the poll. The American people also oppose pardoning Manafort by a more than 3-1 margin. Trumps Shrinking Republican Party Is All That Hes Got Left Trumps disapproval rating has risen to 60%. Not only are Democrats and Independents strongly against him, but the number of Republicans appears to be shrinking. Trump may be hitting the Republican Party with a double whammy. He is shrinking the size and potential appeal of the Republican Party while strengthening the political opposition to the GOP. To Impeach or Not To Impeach There appears to be a 3-6 point range on the impeachment question. The recent Suffolk University/USA Today poll found that 44% of Americans said that the House should consider impeaching Trump, and 47% said that they shouldnt consider impeachment. In the ABC News/Washington Post poll, 49% favor impeachment and 46% do not. It is not a clear question yet for the American people, but one report from Robert Mueller could change the polling. Trump has thrown every attack possible at Robert Mueller, but Mueller is still standing strong in the eyes of most Americans because Trump is reaching a very small, in terms of the size of the country, group of supporters. Trumps message is being rejected by most of America, which is great news for democracy, and a nightmare for Donald Trump. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook. 2.2k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Trump didnt try to deny that he lied to and insulted Canada. Instead, he attacked the press and said that now Canada knows where he stands. Trump tweeted: Wow, I made OFF THE RECORD COMMENTS to Bloomberg concerning Canada, and this powerful understanding was BLATANTLY VIOLATED. Oh well, just more dishonest reporting. I am used to it. At least Canada knows where I stand! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2018 Trump is blaming the press, but the leak could have come from his own staff Trump confirmed the report that he said to Bloomberg: Heres the problem. If I say no the answers no. If I say no, then youre going to put that, and its going to be so insulting theyre not going to be able to make a deal I cant kill these people. . Off the record, Canadas working their ass off. And every time we have a problem with a point, I just put up a picture of a Chevrolet Impala. The leak of his comments either came from Bloomberg, who denied that they leaked, and journalists would have zero motivation for betraying an off the record agreement, or it came from the White House itself. Those are the only possibilities, and since Trump is a pathological liar, one could logically suspect that an administration that leaks about everything also leaked Trumps quote. Canada and Mexico dont have to make a deal with Trump Canada and Mexico could negotiate their own agreement and force Trump to accept their terms. Trump falsely believes that he has magic negotiating powers, but he doesnt. American jobs could be killed due to Trumps lies and arrogance. Canada now has confirmation that Trump is looking to compromise and make a deal. The deadline to get this agreement done so it can be given the Republican-controlled Congress is today. If these talks fail, the failure will belong to Donald Trump. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook. 1.2k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Heres a list of the Trump aides under indictment, guilty, facing scrutiny. By Nathan Layne and David Alexander (Reuters) An American who is the business partner of a Russian national accused by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller of having ties to Russian intelligence pleaded guilty on Friday to unregistered lobbying for a pro-Kremlin political party in Ukraine and agreed to cooperate with Muellers probe. Samuel Patten, 47, also admitted to arranging for a U.S. citizen to act as a straw purchaser to pay $50,000 for four tickets to the inauguration of President Donald Trump on behalf of a Ukrainian oligarch, who reimbursed Patten through a Cypriot account. The move circumvented U.S. law prohibiting foreigners from providing money to an organization running the inauguration. The tickets were given to the oligarch, another Ukrainian, Patten and the Russian national, according to the charging documents. While the documents did not name the Russian national, the description matches Konstantin Kilimnik, Pattens business partner, who was indicted along with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in June for witness tampering in an ongoing criminal case in Washington. Mueller has said Kilimnik, who once served in the Russian army as a translator, has links to Russian spy agencies. Kilimnik, who in the past has denied such ties, did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. Pattens plea agreement, which includes cooperating with Mueller, raises the prospect Patten will be called to testify against Manafort, who was found guilty by a Virginia jury last week on bank and tax fraud charges and faces a second trial in Washington next month. The charge Patten pleaded guilty to violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) by not disclosing lobbying work for Ukrainian politicians is similar to one of the core allegations against Manafort in his upcoming trial. Michael Zeldin, a former federal prosecutor, predicted Patten will be a witness in the trial. I expect his value as a cooperating witness is he will know how those guys conducted their business relations and can probably shed light on efforts made to evade FARA reporting requirements, he said. Patten admitted to working with the Russian national to lobby members of Congress and the executive branch on behalf of the pro-Russian Opposition Bloc without disclosing the work to the U.S. government, as required by law. The charge, which carries a maximum of five years in prison, was brought by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and the Justice Departments National Security Division, which started investigating Patten after a referral from Mueller. Patten appeared before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who will oversee Manaforts upcoming trial. Patten did not speak to reporters at the court, but apologized to family and friends on Facebook after entering his plea. I was wrong not to have filed under FARA for the representational aspects of my work on behalf of the Opposition Bloc in Ukraine, Patten wrote in a post seen by Reuters, adding that he had sought to promote democracy during a political consulting career that included work in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. That is why I deeply regret any damage my failure to register has done to the transparency the FARA statute seeks to guarantee. Pattens work in Ukraine dovetailed somewhat with that of Manafort. Manafort made most of his money working for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych before he fled to Russia in 2014, but like Patten also sought to drum up business with the Opposition Bloc in the aftermath of Yanukovychs exit, it was revealed at Manaforts trial. Pattens ties to Kilimnik are more concrete. The two set up the political advisory firm Begemot Ventures Ltd LLC in February 2015. Since 2015, the company was paid more than $1 million for their work for Opposition Bloc members and for other work in Ukraine. The unidentified oligarch was one of their biggest benefactors, the charging documents said. Patten helped Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko get re-elected in 2015, according to an archived page from Pattens website. Patten also did work for the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, the now-defunct political data firm that was embroiled in a controversy over its use of Facebook Inc data, according to interview transcripts submitted by academic Emma Briant and published by British lawmakers earlier this year. (Reporting by David Alexander in Washington, and Nathan Layne and Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Cynthia Osterman and Dan Grebler) By Julie Gordon, Sharay Angulo and Allison Martell WASHINGTON/TORONTO (Reuters) U.S. President Donald Trump notified Congress on Friday of his intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico after talks with Canada broke up on Friday with no immediate deal to revamp the tri-nation North American Free Trade Agreement. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said U.S. officials would resume talks with their Canadian counterparts next Wednesday with the aim of getting a deal all three nations could sign. All three countries have stressed the importance of NAFTA, which governs billions of dollars in regional trade and a bilateral deal announced by the United States and Mexico on Monday paved the way for Canada to rejoin the talks this week. But by Friday the mood had soured, partly on Trumps off-the-record remarks made to Bloomberg News that any trade deal with Canada would be totally on our terms. He later confirmed the comments, which the Toronto Star first reported. At least Canada knows where I stand, he later said on Twitter. Ottawa has stood firm against signing just any deal. Canadas lead negotiator and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland is scheduled to hold a press conference at 4:30 P.M. Eastern Time on Friday (2030 GMT). The Canadian dollar weakened to C$1.3081 to the U.S. dollar after the Wall Street Journal first reported that the talks had ended on Friday with no agreement. Canadian stocks <.GSPTSE> remained 0.5 percent lower. Global equities were also down following the hawkish turn in Trumps comments on trade. Lighthizer has refused to budge despite repeated efforts by Freeland to offer some dairy concessions to maintain the Chapter 19 independent trade dispute resolution mechanism in NAFTA, The Globe and Mail reported on Friday. However, a spokeswoman for USTR said Canada had made no concessions on agriculture, which includes dairy, but added that negotiations continued. The United States wants to eliminate Chapter 19, the mechanism that has hindered it from pursuing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases. Lighthizer said on Monday Mexico had agreed to cut the mechanism. For Ottawa, Chapter 19 is a red line. But Freeland said earlier on Friday her team is not there yet in resolving still big differences. Were looking for a good deal, not just any deal. And well only agree to a deal that is a good deal for Canada, Freeland told reporters. Trump argues Canadas hefty dairy tariffs are hurting U.S. farmers, an important political base for his Republican party. But dairy farmers have great political clout in Canada too, and concessions could hurt the ruling Liberals ahead of a 2019 federal election. At a speech in North Carolina on Friday Trump took another swipe at Canada. I love Canada, but theyve taken advantage of our country for many years, he said. (Reporting by Julie Gordon and Sharay Angulo in Washington, Allison Martell in Toronto,; Additional reporting by David Lawder in Washington, Veronica Gomez in Mexico City and Allison Lampert in Montreal; Writing by Denny Thomas; Editing by Paul Tait and Susan Thomas) 1.5k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Donald Trump Jr. wrote an opinion piece expressing his racist views about immigrants. And even though they published it, The Des Moines Register also pointed out immediately that what Don Jr. had written was not true. On Friday the Register ran an editorial from the presidents oldest son, entitled: Democrats reaction to Mollie Tibbetts death is heartless, despicable. Obviously Junior was trying to help the Republican candidates who latched on to the tragic murder of Tibbetts as a way to promote their own racist, anti-immigrant agenda. In the editorial Trump Jr. made the false claim that Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts apparently believes that illegal alien parents being separated from their children is a bigger problem than American parents having to bury theirs. Here is an excerpt of what Trump Jr. wrote in his opinion piece: The mask is off and the true radical face of the Democrats has been exposed. They are seemingly more concerned with protecting their radical open-borders agenda than the lives of innocent Americans. When asked about Mollies murder, Sen. Elizabeth Warren who is for some reason considered a leading contender for the Democrats 2020 ticket played down the killing and said the focus should be on the real problems of our immigration system, such as the separation of families at our border. Think about that for a minute. She apparently believes that illegal alien parents being separated from their children is a bigger problem than American parents having to bury theirs. What was unusual was that editors of the newspaper did not allow Trump Jr.s claims to simply go unchallenged. Instead they put an editors note in the middle of Juniors column that read: Editors note: Heres what Warren said on CNN: Im so sorry for the family here, and I know this is hard not only for her family, but for people in her community, the people throughout Iowa. But one of the things we have to remember is we need an immigration system that is effective, that focuses on where real problems are. In the same interview, speaking about the separation of children from their parents, she said, I think we need immigration laws that focus on people who pose a real threat and I dont think mamas and babies are the place we should be spending our resources. The Registers editors also fact-checked other claims made by Junior and wrote at one point, Fact check: Here are the facts on immigrants committing crimes in US. Like many in the GOP, Trump Jr. is promoting the false belief that immigrants commit more violent crimes than other Americans, and that is simply not true. The Tibbetts family has asked for her death not to be politicized, a request that appears to have gone unheeded by many Republicans, including both Trump Jr. and President Trump. When challenged, the Register defended the publishing of Don Jr.s editorial even though they knew it was full of errors, and even though the Tibbetts family does not want Mollies death to be politicized. We deeply respect the Tibbetts family and we used our own editorial voice to support the position that undocumented immigrants in general are not responsible for this tragedy, the editorial team wrote. But we continue to do our job and our pages reflect the conversations in our community, even when it means publishing opinions with which we strongly disagree. 7.1k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard As late Sen. John McCains memorial service began in Washington D.C. on Saturday morning, Donald Trump who was not invited tweeted conspiracy theories about the Russia investigation, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. In a series of tweets, the president quoted his favorite right-wing protectors to substantiate his ridiculous claims that FBI and Justice Department are corrupt and that Obama and Clinton spied on his campaign. One of Trumps tweets cited frequent Fox News guest and right-wing blowhard Dan Bongino, who claimed the increasingly validated dossier is fake and that it was only used as a tool by Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton to spy on Trump. Meanwhile, at this hour, Obama and Clinton are among those seated in the front row at the McCain memorial service that Trump was barred from attending. Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton were spotted on the same row singing hymns at the late John McCains funeral service in the Washington National Cathedral. pic.twitter.com/5CfiNOBeNc POLITICO (@politico) September 1, 2018 Trump, unable to keep his mouth shut and let the nation mourn, went off on Twitter as the memorial service began: Report: There were no FISA hearings held over Spy documents.It is astonishing that the FISA courts couldnt hold hearings on Spy Warrants targeting Donald Trump. It isnt about Carter Page, its about the Trump Campaign. Youve got corruption at the DOJ & FBI. The leadership. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2018 .of the DOJ & FBI are completely out to lunch in terms of exposing and holding those accountable who are responsible for that corruption. @TomFitton @JudicialWatch Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2018 You have a Fake Dossier, gathered by Steele, paid by the Clinton team to get information on Trump. The Dossier is Fake, nothing in it has been verified. It then filters into our American court system in order to spy on Barrack Obama and Hillary Clintons political opponent Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2018 .Donald Trump, and now we find out that there wasnt even a hearing that Donald Trumps 4th Amendment right to privacy was signed awayand someone in there is swearing that this stuff is true, when it wasnt? This is the scandal here a police state. Dan Bongino Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2018 The president cant just keep his mouth shut Forget the factual discrepancies for a moment. We have heard this nonsense before, and its likely we will hear it again. But no matter how many times he spews it, it wont suddenly become true. The president knows his presidency is on the verge of collapse and he also understands that focusing on a hero like John McCain will only further reflect poorly on him so he cant help but try to seize the attention. As the nation mourns the loss of an American hero in his own backyard on Saturday, Donald Trump just couldnt keep his mouth shut. Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook. 4.9k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard New testimony from former Trump aide George Papadopoulos seems to implicate Attorney General Jeff Sessions in activities of collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government. In addition, if Papadopoulos is to be believed, Sessions may have committed perjury when he lied in his sworn testimony to Congress about his involvement in approving meetings between Russia and Trump campaign officials. According to documents filed by attorneys for Papadopoulos, he was in a meeting when the president nodded approval when he suggested that he meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin prior to the 2016 presidential election. The Associated Press reports that the lawyers for Papadopoulos submitted a document where they say that Papadopoulos was hired by the Trump campaign as a foreign policy adviser in March 2016. This occurred even though he had no experience with Russian or U.S. diplomacy. Subsequently Papadopoulos went to Italy where he met with an English professor who introduced him to a woman who claimed to be a relative of Russian President Vladimir Putin. She also claimed to have access to confidential information that would provide controversial dirt on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that could be used to hurt her campaign. Eager to show his value to the campaign, defense lawyers wrote about Papadopoulos, who met with Trump and his foreign policy advisers to tell them that he could set up a meeting between Trump and Putin. While some in the room rebuffed Georges offer, Mr. Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr. Sessions who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it, defense lawyers continued. The reference to Mr. Sessions is of course about current Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He later told Senate investigators under oath that he had no knowledge of Russian involvement in Trumps 2016 presidential campaign for which he was a very senior adviser. Based on the testimony of Papadopoulos, it appears that the Attorney General lied to Senate investigators about his personal involvement in colluding with the Russian government while he was a Trump campaign official. This would make him guilty of both collusion and perjury. Sessions, when asked by Senate investigators about the meeting with Papadopoulos, said that he pushed back on the idea of the Putin summit instead of agreeing it should be done. Based on past experience, it is likely that U.S. Senators who previously met with Sessions will now want to meet with him again to find out if he lied to them. It is possible that the Attorney General could find himself in some very hot water as Robert Muellers Russia probe continues to pick up steam. 649 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard By Jeff Mason and Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) Senator John McCains daughter paid tribute to her father on Saturday with a broadside at President Donald Trump, lambasting the U.S. leader without naming him for using cheap rhetoric against a man celebrated as a war hero and statesman. [ngg_images source=galleries container_ids=27 display_type=photocrati-nextgen_basic_slideshow gallery_width=600 gallery_height=400 cycle_effect=fade cycle_interval=10 show_thumbnail_link=1 thumbnail_link_text=[Show thumbnails] order_by=sortorder order_direction=ASC returns=included maximum_entity_count=500] Meghan McCain, who has made no secret of her unhappiness with Trumps criticism of her father, kicked off a memorial service that was attended by a whos who crowd of Democratic and Republican leaders who gathered to celebrate the former war prisoners life. He was a great man, Meghan McCain said at the Washington Naational Cathedral. We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness, the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who live lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served. Trump, who has feuded publicly with McCain and mocked his military service, received five deferments that got him out of serving in the military. The president did not attend Saturdays service and spent the morning sending tweets on other subjects. McCains daughter delivered a tearful but forceful tribute to her father, who she said told her to show them how tough you are with her eulogy. Taking aim at Trumps campaign slogan, Make America Great Again, she said McCains America was always great. Trumps absence was notable. Former U.S. presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush attended and also were scheduled to deliver eulogies to the longtime senator from Arizona. Both men bested McCain in separate presidential bids. McCains body, which had lain in state at the U.S. Capitol, arrived at the Washington National Cathedral after his motorcade first stopped at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where his wife, Cindy McCain, laid a wreath to honor those who died in the war. Members of the military slowly carried the coffin into the cathedral, past friends and loved ones who have counted among the top power players in U.S. politics for decades. McCains design of his service was seen as a final message to the country about his wish for bipartisanship. The statesman and former prisoner of war died Aug. 25 of brain cancer, days shy of his 82nd birthday.. McCains family had made clear that Trump was not welcome at memorial services in Arizona and Washington or at Sundays private burial service in Annapolis, Maryland, at the U.S. Naval Academy. McCain was a member of the Academys Class of 1958. Top members of Trumps administration including his daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner, chief of staff John Kelly and national security adviser John Bolton were present at the solemn cathedral service. Other guests included former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, comedian Jay Leno, and former Senator Bob Dole. McCain was a leading voice for revamping the countrys immigration, campaign finance and environmental laws. But it was his military service, punctuated by years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, that molded McCains political life. McCain, who rose to the rank of captain in the U.S. Navy, was shot down over Hanoi while on a bombing mission in 1967. Held as a prisoner until 1973, McCain was tortured by his North Vietnamese captors in a jail that Americans dubbed the Hanoi Hilton. (Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton and Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Chizu Nomiyama) 459 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard The government of El Salvador said that three Salvadoran children, ages 12 to 17, were victims of sex abuse at shelters run by the United States government in Arizona. They have asked U.S. officials to step up their efforts to return the children to their home country as quickly as possible. As news of the sex abuse became public the Trump administration has been facing more pressure to speed up the reunification of immigrant families it separated at the Mexican border last spring. Deputy Foreign Relations Minister Liduvina Magarin said in San Salvador on Thursday said, May they leave the shelters as soon as possible, because it is there that they are the most vulnerable. The U.S. government has been heavily criticized for its horrible practice of taking children away from their families who come into the U.S. without proper documentation. In addition, government officials have been in and out of court all summer involved in lawsuits with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and facing the wrath of a federal judge. Both the judge and the ACLU believe that government agencies should have reunited the children with their families by now. But many children could not be located and on top of that many parents have been deported to their home countries without their children, who are still in detention in the United States. More than 2,600 children were separated from their parents last spring before the Trump administration agreed to stop the practice. Over 2,000 children have since been reunited, but approximately 500 remain apart from their families more than a month after the deadline set by the judge, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw, U.S Attorneys working for the government and ACLU attorneys working for the immigrant families have met several times with Sabraw and discussed how to accelerate the reunification process. Magarin said that the three children were subject to sexual violations and sexual abuses although she refused to provide details. She added that the government of El Salvador is ready with lawyers and psychologists to help the children and their families, adding: The psychological and emotional impact is forever. Cesar Rios, director of the Salvadoran Migrant Institute, said, Its unbelievable that children who were fleeing violence here were met in the United States with the worst violence a child could encounter. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement Friday that they need more information in order to investigate the sex abuse claims. They said that without additional details, we are unable to confirm or deny these allegations took place at a facility overseen by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The federal government enters into contracts with nonprofit groups who then operate the shelters for the separated children and for unaccompanied minors arriving at the U.S./Mexico border. 272 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard (Reuters) President Donald Trump and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions both supported a proposal during the 2016 campaign that Trump meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, lawyers for a former campaign adviser said in a court filing late on Friday. The account of the former adviser, George Papadopoulos, appeared to contradict the prior testimony of Sessions to Congress in November 2017 that he had pushed back against the proposal by Papadopoulos at a March 31, 2016, campaign meeting. Trump has said he does not remember much of what happened at the very unimportant campaign meeting memorialized in a photo that Trump posted on Instagram of roughly a dozen men sitting around a table, including Trump, Sessions and Papadopoulos. While some in the room rebuffed Georges offer, Mr. Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr. Sessions who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it, Papadopoulos lawyers wrote in the court filing, which argued for leniency ahead of a sentencing hearing next week. Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty in October to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts, has been cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Muellers probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign. Fridays court filing confirmed reporting by Reuters in March about the apparent difference between Sessions testimony and how others recounted his reaction to the proposal at the March 2016 meeting. (Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; Editing by Leslie Adler) 5.8k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard The Trump administration is planning to withhold over 100,000 pages of Brett Kavanaughs records from the George W. Bush White House, according to new information released Friday night. The claimed legal basis for the withholding of documents will be presidential privilege. The notification of the White House refusal to release documents was sent to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. The lawyer for former President George W. Bush, Bill Burck, told the Committee that he believes they have essentially completed their work compiling documents. The letter from Burck to the Committee was obtained by The Associated Press. According to Burck, former President Bush had given them instructions to err on the side of transparency and disclosure, and we believe we have done so. The Trump administration, however, is also able to review the records before turning them over to the Senate Committee, and the Trump White House has directed that we not provide these documents, the letter says. In all, 267,000 pages of Kavanaugh documents from his Bush years are being made public, but it is thought that the 100,000 pages of documents that will NOT be released could contain crucial information needed to assess the nominees views on many sensitive and potentially explosive legal issues. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called it a Friday night document massacre. He said that the decision to withhold the documents has all the makings of a cover-up. What are they trying so desperately to hide? He also threatened to sue. In other Kavanaugh news, the Supreme Court nominee said in a White House email that limits on campaign contributions to candidates have some constitutional problems. The Supreme Court upheld contribution limits more than 40 years ago, so if Kavanaugh wants to prohibit such limits it would mean overturning Supreme Court decisions that have much legal weight. Documents that were released Friday night in advance of next weeks confirmation hearing show Kavanaughs skepticism about campaign finance regulations. This puts him clearly in agreement with the courts conservative justices, who have struck down a variety of limits since 2006. Charleston, SC (29403) Today A mix of clouds and sun. High 66F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight A few clouds. Low 49F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. The Friends of the Houston County Nature Center want you to know rattlesnakes are less dangerous than lightning. To that end, theyre hosting a Rattlesnake Jubilee on Sept. 15, where youll have the opportunity to learn what these snakes look like, where they live and how to coexist with this threatened species in safety and without fear. Kelly Bloem, event organizer and treasurer of the Friends of Houston County Nature Center, says the event particularly is relevant to those living in the bluff country of Winona, Houston, Goodhue, Fillmore and Wabasha counties where timber rattlesnakes, the only rattlesnake living in Minnesota, are most likely to be found. "If you live in a big city, you dont walk across the street without looking both ways. If you live in the blufflands, its important to know basic rattlesnake safety," Bloem said. "The event is about encouraging people to learn more for safety reasons and to dispel fear." Bloem says the fear people have of rattlesnakes is misplaced, noting that only one person every five to six years dies from a rattlesnake bite in the United States, while lightning kills an average of 49 people per year. "The level of fear that people have is way out of proportion with the risk," Bloem said. "We just want people to learn and be aware so they dont have to be so scared." The Jubilee has invited guest speakers to educate people about best practices for responding to rattlesnake sightings and bites. Stephen Winter, a volunteer with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, is part of a program that relocates rattlesnakes from residential property. Hell be speaking about the program at 11:30 a.m. and providing additional information about how to respond to encountering a rattlesnake. At 1 p.m., featured speaker Dr. Dan Keyley will give a presentation on rattlesnake envenomation, or snakebites. Dr. Keyler is retired from the Hennepin County Medical Center, but he continues to be an internationally consulted expert on venomous bites of all sorts. In his talk, hell discuss statistics related to rattlesnake bites, treatment methods and how to appropriately respond to being bitten. The Jubilee isnt all talk and snakebites, however. There also will be multiple opportunities to see live snakes and learn to identify timber rattlesnakes as well as other snakes living in the area. Minnesota snake expert Jim Gerholdt will demonstrate snake identification in presentations at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. There also will be a special field trip to private land in rural Houston County where people may have the chance to see some wild timber rattlesnakes. The tour is open to ages 13 and older, although minors must be accompanied by an adult. Registration for the tour is required. If received by Sept. 7, tickets are $15 per person or $20 after that date. The tour is limited to 20 participants. Even if you dont go on a snake-spotting tour, Bloem says there will be plenty of fun and family-friendly activities to do at the community center all day. Between the scheduled sessions and speakers, there will be vendors providing snake-themed crafts, books, shirts and snacks. "Its very much about education, awareness, safety, but also fun stuff too," Bloem said of the Jubilee festivities. The goal of the Jubilee, Bloem says, is to teach people about the presence of snakes in the area and help them lose any irrational fear of snakes they may have. "Anybody who is scared, I would highly recommend coming because the more you know, the less scared youre going to be," she said. After four great days on Norways Lofoten Islands, we headed south to Oslo, then west to the Telemark region, where water was not quite as dominant, but mountains still stunning. I was once again glad to not be staying around Oslo, as it was way too crowded and "modernized." We were seeking out relatives of my wife, Linda, a trip we had hoped to take her on in 2016 before her cancer struck. But, with the many Norwegian contacts my daughter, Jenna, made during the past four years, we decided to go this year, and were treated to three days of "walking back in time." Our late afternoon arrival at an historic guest house in the Telemark mountains was soon followed by a visit from Solveig. She was one of the descendants of Gunhild, one of the sisters to Helga, who had immigrated to the Lyle, Minn., area in the 1800s, and ultimately led to my wifes mother, another Helga. Ancestral adventure Solveig, who spoke excellent English, had been my daughters main contact. We learned from Solveig that the Helga who came to Lyle was my wifes great-grandmother. She had two sisters who remained in Norway, thus the connections to many of the people we would meet the next day when Solveig pretty much turned the days plans over to Gunnar, a local historian. So, the next morning we began the days adventures by meeting Gunnar and another dozen relatives, with names I rarely attempted. That included Bjorg Oseid Kleivi, Gunnars wife, who spoke excellent English and had been to the States many times as a traveling Rosemal artist of worldwide fame. I enjoyed talking with her about her many travels, including trips to San Diego and Decorah to teach Rosmaling. Our first adventure began at a farmhouse in the mountains, where we headed up a rough trail to the site of the Svein Nuten farm. It was an area now covered with timber and rocks, but Gunnar was able to find and show us the stone remnants of the approximately 8-by-10-foot house Svein, one of Helgas ancestors, lived in. Rocky paths I marveled at how someone could live there, with the walk to anywhere being many difficult miles. I also realized my wifes descendants were not the rich farmers living and farming on the valley floors. I figured those who decided to escape this difficult life by going to America were the risk-takers. Although a challenging hike on my new knees, I was motivated to keep up, as I followed a petite 89-year-old woman who moved over the terrain as if she were a mountain goat. My grandchildren were especially excited to find some relics of the past at the Nuten homesite, including a metal and wood fork Gunnar said was more than one hundred years old. Our next stop was at an historic church, where one of the group sang Norwegian tunes for us. From there, it was up another hill, again to a place I couldnt envision anyone squeezing a living out of. I especially liked our third stop at another homesite, featuring the discovery of a "thatch ant" colony, a dome of pine needles 4 feet high and 6 feet in diameter. Based upon the numbers we saw on the surface, I suspected perhaps millions of ants could be found in the mound and sub-surface tunnels. Although pretty much "ancestored out" for the day, we had two more stops, plus a trip to Gunnar and Bjorgs home where we were all treated to a Norwegian porridge called Risengrynsgrt, another name I couldnt pronounce. It was very good, and filling, with sugar and cinnamon on top. They couldnt believe we hadnt eaten it at any of the family or church Norwegian dinners back home. Our final stops that day were two cemeteries, with many graves dating back hundreds of years. I was most impressed at the second cemetery where Gunnar showed me his parents gravestone, which he had gone into the mountains to find. It was an unpolished stone, about 4 feet by 2 feet, that was flat on both sides. He found it on a hike and then retrieved it that winter on his snowmobile. The next day we finished our Norway adventures with a trip to the farm where Gunnar grew up and his daughters family now lived. While my grandchildren enjoyed the sheep, I found a 600-year-old grainery and farm relics most interesting, including an all-steel axe used by the Vikings, along with a stone phallus. It was one of about 50 unearthed throughout Norway, supposedly to symbolize fertility by pre-Viking inhabitants. I left Norway, glad to get home, but also glad to have finally seen the country from where many Minnesotans originated. Its hard to keep up with the news related to the Mueller madness that dogs President Trump. I want to note the following items of the past day or two. The usual gaggle of New York Times reporters delivers Lobbyist Sam Patten Pleads Guilty to Steering Foreign Funds to Trump Inaugural. Who is Sam Patten, you may ask. Whoever he is, his sin was that he failed to register as a lobbyist under the heretofore lightly enforced Foreign Agents Registration Act as a foreign agent for a Russia-aligned Ukrainian political party and that he helped the Ukrainian oligarch purchase four tickets to Mr. Trumps inauguration. From Pattens guilty plea the five Times reporters on the story generate enormous excitement of the wishin and hopin variety to which we have grown accustomed. All by his lonesome Ken Dilanian reports for NBC News Ex-Trump adviser Roger Stone says he expects Mueller to charge him with a crime. The APs Eric Tucker reports Papadopoulos: Trump nodded at suggestion of Putin meeting. You may have heard that Homer nods. Now we have the news that, according to George Papadopoulos, Trump too nods. We are familiar with Trumps monologues and outbursts and streams of consciousness. Nodding takes us into the previously unexplored realm of Trumpian silent communication. Eric Tucker is joined by Chad Day for the AP story Sources: Lawyer was told Russia had Trump over a barrel. Lawyer=Bruce Ohr. Was told=Christopher Steele. Whos zoomin who? Sundance at Conservative Tree House comments on the Tucker/Day story and advises Skip the Headline, Look at Detail Hidden Mid-Way Detail hidden mid-way=Glenn Simpson. The editors of the Wall Street Journal decry the wrong done to our friend Cleta Mitchell in Anatomy of a Fusion smear (truncated but accessible here on Outline). Fusion smear=Glenn Simpson. In a sort of Rathergate revisited moment of media madness, Jonathan Turley reviews CNNs descent ever deeper into the quicksand in CNN Sticks With Story That Cohen Alleges Trump Knew Of Trump Tower Meeting Despite Cohen and His Lawyer Denying The Story. Anyone remember that John F. Kennedy, in proposing income tax rate cuts, remarked that a rising tide lifts all boats? Back in those halcyon days of liberal confidence, one of the complaints liberals had about stodgy old President Eisenhower was that the economy was not growing anywhere near its potential. Lets get America moving again was another of Kennedys slogans, and there was a whole doctrine associated with it that went under the banner growth liberalism. But then somewhere in the 1970s, coincident with the rise of environmentalism, liberalism embraced the limits to growth and turned away from embracing economic growth. Lets get the country moving again is now fully owned by Trump. Fast forward to the current times. Economic growth for the last quarter has been revised upward to 4.2 percent, and the Atlanta Federal Reserve is projecting current quarter growth will come in around 4.5 percent or higher. We can debate the drivers of this some other time. Keep in mind that during the Obama years liberals said 4 percent growth was impossible, that 2 percent or less was the new normal. Larry Summers told us so! Economist Rob Gordon wrote a doorstop of a book saying that the steady growth of the last 200 yearssince the dawn of the industrial revolutionwas over, kaput. So now what are liberals saying? Lets hand the mic over to Chuck Schumer: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D.-N.Y.) held a press briefing on Tuesdayone day before the Bureau of Economic Analysis released its second estimate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in the second quarter (stating it was 4.2 percent)at which he stated that Americans for too long have been relying on GDP alone as a bellwether of how Americans are doing economically. In other words, change the subject. Schumer and Democrats want to focus on the fact that wages for the working class are not rising as fast as the economy, though wage growth is almost always a lagging indicator in economic cycles. What are they going to say when wages start to catch up, which some signs suggest is starting to happen? It will be fun to watch Democrats say that wage growth numbers are also unimportant, because rich people, or something. JOHN adds: It strikes me that the principal purpose of the news these days is to distract voters from the economy and from the successes the Trump administration has scored in foreign policy, e.g., the serious and potentially crippling blow it has struck to Irans mullahs and their patron, Russia. According to Goldstein Research, Australia forklift truck market is expected to reach USD 2.86 billion by the end of 2024, growing at a CAGR of 7.48% over the forecast period, 2016-2024. Development in e-commerce business and logistics model are major driving factors in the growth of the Australia forklift truck market. Australia Forklift truck Market PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-01 11:09:50 Press Information Goldstein Research 99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527 Steve blade Global Sales Manager 6465687747 email https://www.goldsteinresearch.com/ # 506 Words 99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527Global Sales Manager6465687747 According to Goldstein Research, Australia forklift truck market is expected to reach USD 2.86 billion by the end of 2024, growing at a CAGR of 7.48% over the forecast period, 2016-2024. Development in e-commerce business and logistics model are major driving factors in the growth of the Australia forklift truck market. Australia Forklift truck market segmentation has been done on the basis of product type, fuel type, end users, and geography. Class I (Electric Motor Rider Truck) accounted for the largest market share in 2016 and is expected to grow at the fastest rate over the forecast period due to its high productivity and cost efficiency. Australia Forklift truck market is dominated by Toyota Motors, having nearly 34% market share. IC engine accounted for 40% market share but battery-electric forklift truck is expected to take over the market share on the back of a sustainable environment.Browse Full Report:Market SegmentationOn the basis of our in-depth analysis, Australia Forklift truck Market can be segmented as follows:By Product Type Class I (Electric Motor Rider Trucks) Class II (Electric Motor Narrow Aisle Trucks) Class III (Hand Rider Trucks) Class IV (IC Engine Trucks, solid/Cushion Tires) Class V (IC Engine Trucks, Pneumatic Tires) Class VI (Electric and IC Engine Tractors) Class VII (Rough Terrain Forklift Trucks)By Fuel Type Diesel Gasoline ElectricBy End Users Paper Industry Ports and Logistics Radio Active Waste Automobile Industry Iron and Steel Industry Food and Beverages Wood Industry OthersOn the basis of region Northern Australia Forklift Truck Market Analysis, 2016-2024 Eastern Australia Forklift Truck Market Analysis, 2016-2024 Western Australia Forklift Truck Market Analysis, 2016-2024 Southern Australia Forklift Truck Market Analysis, 2016-2024Download Exclusive Sample Report:AustraliaForklift Truck Market Outlook 2024 contains a detailed overview of the Australia forklift truck market. On the basis of our in-depth analysis, the market can be segmented in terms of market segmentation by product type, fuel type, end users, and countries.The AustraliaForklift Truck Market Report encompasses the competitive outlook of major players that summarises the business strategies, revenue distribution, product portfolio, financial analysis, R&D activities and investments. The comprehensive analysis of forklift truck market report helps the clients to assess their business strategies as per the competitive environment in the market space.Get More Information About Australia Forklift Truck MarketMajor players of the Australia forklift truck market discussed in the report are: Toyota Industries Corporation, Crown, MANITOU, Clark, Linde, Hyster-Yale, Mitsubishi, Jungheinrich AG, Hyundai and Heli Co. Ltd., etc.Further, Australia Forklift Truck Market Report encompasses the major trends & growth opportunities, market dynamics, and other growth factors. The Forklift Truck Market outlook also comprises of key challenges for the market players, risk analysis, SWOT Analysis, BPS analysis and Market Attractiveness. The report also includes the expert analysis which provides a complete overview of the market post analysis of the economic, political, environmental & social factors of each region and country.Browse Similar Report: According to Goldstein Research, China mobile gaming market is expected to reach USD 12.4 million by the end of 2024, growing at a CAGR of 9.2% over the forecast period, 2016-2024. The growing number of gamers, game developers and game compatibility across multiple mobile devices are driving the growth of the market. China Mobile Gaming Marke PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-01 12:23:19 Press Information Goldstein Research 99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527 Steve blade Global Sales Manager 6465687747 email https://www.goldsteinresearch.com/ # 496 Words 99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527Global Sales Manager6465687747 According to Goldstein Research, China mobile gaming market is expected to reach USD 12.4 million by the end of 2024, growing at a CAGR of 9.2% over the forecast period, 2016-2024. The growing number of gamers, game developers and game compatibility across multiple mobile devices are driving the growth of the market. China Mobile gaming market segmentation has been done on the basis of the operating system, devices, game genre and geography. China has the majority of android operating system mobile devices used for gaming, accounted for 73% market share in 2016. iOS penetration has been growing over the past 5 years and had 39% market share in 2016. China Mobile gaming market is dominated by the tier-1 cities, where the majority of revenue is earned by paid games. For foreign gaming companies, China pose the challenge of mandatory collaboration with local players to enter the market.Browse Full Report:Market SegmentationOn the basis of our in-depth analysis, China Mobile gaming Market can be segmented as follows:By Operating System iOS Android WindowsBased on Devices Tablets SmartphonesBy Game Genre Strategy Action/Adventure Puzzles RPG (Role Playing Game) Quizzes Educational Card Games Harvest Build SimulationOn the basis of region Tier-1 Cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen) {Market Size, Growth Analysis and Opportunity Analysis} Tier-2 Cities (Wuhan, Foshan, Chongqing, Chengdu) {Market Size, Growth Analysis and Opportunity Analysis} Tier-3 Cities (Yulin, Leshan, Ziyang, Yongzhou) {Market Size, Growth Analysis and Opportunity Analysis} Tier-4 Cities (Gongzhuling, Linfen, Liuan, Meishan, Zhaotong) {Market Size, Growth Analysis and Opportunity Analysis} Rest of China {Market Size, Growth Analysis and Opportunity Analysis}China Mobile Gaming Market Outlook 2024 contains a detailed overview of the China mobile gaming market. On the basis of our in-depth analysis, the market can be segmented in terms of market segmentation by the operating system, devices, game genre and countries.Download Exclusive Sample Report:The China Mobile Gaming Market Report encompasses the competitive outlook of major players that summarises the business strategies, revenue distribution, product portfolio, financial analysis, R&D activities and investments. The comprehensive analysis of mobile gaming market report helps the clients to assess their business strategies as per the competitive environment in the market space.Get More Information About China Mobile Gaming MarketMajor players of the China mobile gaming market discussed in the report are Tencent, Netease, Duoyl, KingNet, Perfect World, Snail Games, Longtu Game, Youzu, Gameloft, Nintendo, supercell, Chong li, Happy Elements, Ourpalm, Momo Technology, etc.Further, China Mobile Gaming Market Report encompasses the major trends & growth opportunities, market dynamics, and other growth factors. The Mobile Gaming Market outlook also comprises of key challenges for the market players, risk analysis, SWOT Analysis, BPS analysis and Market Attractiveness. The report also includes the expert analysis which provides a complete overview of the market post analysis of the economic, political, environmental & social factors of each region and country.Browse Similar Report: As per Goldstein Research market analysis, Global artificial intelligence robotics market is anticipated to witness a market size of USD 18.6 billion by the end of 2024, growing at a CAGR of 53.6% over the forecast period, 2016-2024 Global Artificial Intelligence Robotics Market PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-01 13:08:56 Press Information Goldstein Research 99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527 Steve blade Global Sales Manager 6465687747 email https://www.goldsteinresearch.com/ # 528 Words 99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527Global Sales Manager6465687747 As per Goldstein Research market analysis, Global artificial intelligence robotics market is anticipated to witness a market size of USD 18.6 billion by the end of 2024, growing at a CAGR of 53.6% over the forecast period, 2016-2024. The penetration of automation in multiple industries in order to increase the productivity and reduce wastage are majorly driving the growth of AI robotics market. Global Artificial intelligence robotics market segmentation has been done on the basis of technology, offering, end-user, and geography. Machine learning technology dominated the market with a 45% share in 2016, which learn from its environment to raise its efficiency. Thus it is expected to continue its dominance in the future. Global Artificial intelligence robotics market is dominated by North America with 38% revenue share in 2016. Asia-Pacific artificial intelligence robotics market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 56.2% over the forecast period, being the most opportunistic region for the growth of global AI robotics market.Browse Full Report:Market SegmentationGlobalArtificial Intelligence Robotics Market can be segmented as follows:By Technology Natural Language Processing Machine/Deep Learning Virtual Personal Assistant Querying Method Context Aware ProcessingBy Offering Products Hardware Software Services Installation Training Support and MaintenanceBy End Users Agriculture Manufacturing Sector Healthcare Sector Oil and Gas Sector Transportation and Automotive Retail Industry Others (Education)By Region North America Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Robotics Market Analysis, 2016-2024 Europe Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Robotics Market Analysis, 2016-2024 The Middle East And Africa Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Robotics Market Analysis, 2016-2024 Latin America Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Robotics Market Analysis, 2016-2024 Asia Pacific Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Robotics Market Analysis, 2016-2024 Rest Of The World Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Robotics Market Analysis, 2016-2024Global Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Robotics Market Outlook 2024 contains the detailed overview of the global autonomous artificial intelligence robotics market. On the basis of our in-depth analysis, the market can be segmented in terms of market segmentation by technology, offering, end-user and geography.Download Exclusive Sample Report:The Global Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Robotics Market Report highlights the competitive outlook of major global players that includes the business strategies, product portfolio, revenue distribution, financial analysis, R&D activities and investments. The in-depth analysis of autonomous artificial intelligence robotics market report will help the clients to assess their business strategies as per the competitive environment in the market space.Get More Information About Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Robotics MarketMajor players of the global autonomous artificial intelligence robotics market discussed in the report are Google Inc., IBM Corp., Microsoft Corporation, General Vision Inc., Intel Corporation, Numenta, Inc., Baidu, Inc., Inbenta Technologies, Inc., Xilinx, Cisco and NVIDIA Corporation,etc.Further, Global Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Robotics Market Report encompasses the major trends & growth opportunities, market dynamics, and other growth factors. The Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Robotics Market outlook also comprises of key challenges for the market players, risk analysis, SWOT Analysis, BPS analysis and Market Attractiveness. The report also includes the expert analysis which provides complete overview of the market post analysis of the economic, political, environmental & social factors of each region and country.Browse Similar Report: According to Goldstein Research, global non-pneumatic tires market is growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 11.0% during the forecast period 2016-2024. With the increase in the application of non-pneumatic tires in electric vehicles, military grade vehicles & off-road vehicles, the global non-pneumatic tires market is anticipated to acquire 3%-4% market share of global tires market. Non-Pneumatic Tires Market PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-01 08:19:51 Press Information Goldstein Research 99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527 Steve blade Global Sales Manager 6465687747 email https://www.goldsteinresearch.com/ # 643 Words 99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527Global Sales Manager6465687747 According to Goldstein Research, global non-pneumatic tires market is growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 11.0% during the forecast period 2016-2024. With the increase in the application of non-pneumatic tires in electric vehicles, military grade vehicles & off-road vehicles, the global non-pneumatic tires market is anticipated to acquire 3%-4% market share of global tires market. Non-pneumatic tires market is at a nascent stage, but its feature which eliminates the problem of air leaks/flat tires is expected to increase the demand in off-the-road vehicles. The global off-the-road (OTR) tires market is growing at a CAGR of 4.2% during the forecast period and thus provides the highest growth opportunities for global airless tires market in terms of penetration. Global non-pneumatic tires market segmentation has been carried out on the basis of vehicle type, usage-type, and geography. On the basis of geography, global non-pneumatic tires industry is dominated by North America market share owing to high demand from U.S. army coupled with high R&D & innovation activities carried out in the region by the manufacturers. On the other hand, huge Asia Pacific Automobile industry, the automotive manufacturers are expected to adopt non-pneumatic tires in near future.Browse Full Report:Market SegmentationOn the basis of our in-depth analysis, Global Non-Pneumatic TiresMarketcan be segmented as follows:By Vehicle Type Passenger Vehicles Commercial VehiclesBy Usage Type Multi Utility Vehicles All Terrain Vehicles Material Handling Equipment Motorbikes and Bicycles Low-Speed Electric Vehicles (LSEV) Passenger Cars Military Vehicles Other (Lawnmowers, Trailers etc.)By Region North America Non-Pneumatic Tires Market {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion, Adoption Rate (%)} Europe Non-Pneumatic Tires Market (UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Sweden, Russia, Poland and Rest of Europe) {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion), Adoption Rate (%)} The Middle East and Africa Non-Pneumatic Tires Market {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion), Adoption Rate (%)} Latin America Non-Pneumatic Tires Market {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion), Adoption Rate (%)} Asia Pacific Non-Pneumatic Tires Market {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion), Adoption Rate (%)}Download Exclusive Sample Report:Global Non-Pneumatic Tires Market Outlook 2024 contains a detailed overview of the global non-pneumatic tires market. On the basis of our in-depth analysis, the market can be segmented in terms of market segmentation by vehicle type and usage type.Further, for the in-depth analysis, Global Non-Pneumatic Tires Market Report encompasses the market growth drivers, market challenges, risk analysis, market attractiveness, BPS (Base Point Scale) analysis, Porters five force model and SWOT analysis. This market report also includes competitive outlook of some of the major players profiling of companies such as Bridgestone Corporation, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Michelin Inc., Hankook Tire Group, Yokohama Tire Corp., Resilient Technologies, Crocodile Tyres, Big Tyre, Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. LTD., Pioneer Corporation, etc.Get More Information About Non-Pneumatic Tires MarketThe 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. Overall, the report represents the global non-pneumatic tires market trends along with the market forecast that will help market consultants, technology providers, existing players searching for expansion opportunities, new players searching possibilities and other stakeholders to align their market-centric strategies according to the ongoing and expected trends in the future.Key questions answered in this Global Non-Pneumatic TiresReport The Global Non-Pneumatic Tires Market Size by 2024. The total revenue per segment and region in 2015-16. The non-pneumatic tires market trends. The factors which are driving the Non-pneumatic tire market. The major barriers to non-pneumatic tires market growth. The key vendors in this market space. The markets opportunities for the existing and entry-level players. The recent developments and business strategy of the key players.Browse Similar Report: The Board of Directors of the United Bank for Africa is pleased to announce the appointment of four new members to its board, subject to the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The new board members are Angela Adebayo, Angela Aneke, Abdulqadir Bello and Isaac Fasola. These appointments follow the retirement of Rose Okwechime, Adekunle Olumide, Jaafaru Paki and Yahaya Zekeri, with effect from August 30, 2018. I am pleased to welcome Erelu Adebayo, Angela Aneke, Abdulqadir Bello and Kayode Fasola to the Group Board said Tony Elumelu, the Group Chairman of the Bank. These men and women bring a wealth of experience in their fields and will be tremendous assets, as we deliver on our mission to become the leading Pan-African financial institution in all our countries of operation. I am particularly pleased that two of the newly appointed Non-Executive Directors are women, bringing the total number of women to four, a further demonstration of our commitment to ensuring equality for both men and women. Mr. Elumelu thanked the retiring directors for their contribution, hard work and commitment to UBA. I would like to express my appreciation to our retiring Directors for their leadership and dedication to UBA and for their contribution to an already impressive 2018. I wish them the very best in their future endeavours, he added. This announcement comes on the heels of the Banks strong H1 2018 performance with profit before tax of N58.1billion. With the successful expansion of its retail operations, UBA now operates in 20 countries in Africa, following its recent acquisition of a licence in Mali and the United Kingdom. The bank also has offices in New York City and in Paris. About the new Directors Erelu Angela Adebayo who graduated with an M.Phil in Land Economy from Cambridge University, is the former First Lady of Ekiti State in Nigeria. Mrs Adebayo previously served on the boards of several organisations, including the Dangote Foundation, DN Meyer Plc, Wemabod Estates. Mrs. Adebayo is a council member of the Nigerian Stock Exchange and has worked extensively on real estate development and She is the Chairman of the Erelu Adebayo Foundation for the underpriviledged. Erelu Adebayo, [PHOTO CREDIT: UBAs official website] Ms. Angela Aneke is a board advisor, banker and a strategic thinker with over 30 years experience in financial services, in the areas of financial control, strategy, transaction banking, corporate banking, retail banking and governance. Ms. Aneke has held executive management and board positions in several international and regional institutions, including Ecobank Transnational Incorporated and the United Bank for Africa. Angela Aneke. [PHOTO CREDIT: UBAs official website] Mr. Isaac Olukayode Fasola is a consummate professional with over 30 years cognate experience obtained from Management and Board positions covering banking operations, risk management, credit analysis, insurance, asset management, business strategy/development, performance management and corporate governance. Mr. Fasola previously served as an Executive Director of a commercial Bank in Nigeria. Mr. Fasola holds 2 MBAs and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Business Administration. Mr Kayode Fashola Mr. Abdulqadir J. Bello, a Chartered Accountant, has over 30 years corporate experience in the banking sector, during which period he held several senior Management positions in various Banks. He also previously served as the Group Chief Credit Officer of UBA and thereafter as the Executive Director in charge of Risk Management for UBA Group. Alhaji Abdulquadir Jeli Bello About United Bank for Africa (UBA): United Bank for Africa Plc is a leading pan-African financial services group, with presence in 20 African countries, as well as the United Kingdom, the United States of America and France. UBA was incorporated in Nigeria as a limited liability company after taking over the assets of the British and French Bank Limited who had been operating in Nigeria since 1949. The United Bank for Africa merged with Standard Trust Bank in 2005 and from a single country operation founded in 1949 in Nigeria Africas largest economy UBA has become one of the leading providers of banking and other financial services on the African continent. The Bank provides services to over15 million customers globally, through one of the most diverse service channels in sub-Saharan Africa, with over 1,000 branches and customer touch points and robust online and mobile banking platforms. Ghanaian authorities should thoroughly investigate and bring to justice all those responsible for an attack on Jerry Azanduna, a reporter with the government-funded Ghana News Agency (GNA), and ensure his belongings are returned, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Mr Azanduna said that on August 27, a group of men tricked him into getting in a car by saying they would drive him to a press conference he had been told to attend. The men instead drove the journalist to the house of Hassan Ayariga, an opposition Ghanaian politician with the All Peoples Congress party, who questioned him about a recent report by GNA before ordering the men to teach him a lesson, Mr Azanduna said. The men beat the journalist and seized his phone, USB flash drive, and wallet, Mr Azanduna and Eric Amoh, of the Ghana Journalist Association, told CPJ. The GNA reported on the attack the following day. Mr Ayariga denied to CPJ any involvement with any violence, but said that APC party members did bring Mr Azanduna to his house on August 27. The attack on Jerry Azanduna is absolutely unacceptable and a stain on Ghanas press freedom record, said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal in Johannesburg. Ghanaian authorities must thoroughly investigate this attack and ensure all those responsible are held accountable. Mr Azanduna told CPJ that at about 4 p.m. on the day of the attack, he received a phone call from someone who identified themselves as concerned youth in Bawku, asking him to attend a press conference where Ayariga would speak. When he arrived at the location of the supposed press conference in Bawku, in Ghanas Upper East region, Mr Azanduna said that a group of men said the location had changed and instructed him to join them in their car to go to the new venue. Mr Azanduna told CPJ he recognised one of the men in the group and so did not suspect any problem with leaving his car and joining them. Me Azanduna said that when he questioned why the vehicle was going in a different direction to where the men said they were heading, he was told to shut up. When Mr Azanduna took out his phone to call for help, one of the men slapped him and confiscated his phone, the journalist said. Mr Azanduna told CPJ he was driven to Mr Ayarigas home in Bawku, where the politician chastised him for his reporting, and said, The story you did about me, do you know what it has cost me? The journalist said Mr Ayariga told the men to teach me a lesson. Mr Azanduna told CPJ the group beat him at the house until he fell unconscious. I sustained injuries on my left arm and [my] right shoulder was dislocated. My ribs were hurt. My neck and my eyes were all sore, he said. Mr Amoh, from the Ghana Journalist Association, told CPJ that security services rescued Mr Azanduna after receiving a tip about the attack. The journalist was taken to the Bawku police station, where he filed a report before being taken to a hospital. Mr Azanduna said he arrived at the hospital around 6 p.m. and was discharged around 11 p.m. on the day of the attack. He said he returned to the police station the next day to make a full statement. Yao Tettegah, chief superintendent of the Bawku Divisional Police, told CPJ on August 31 that the investigation is ongoing and that police were trying to identify the attackers. When asked if police had identified a link between Ayariga and the attack, Tettegah said no. When contacted by CPJ on August 31, Mr Ayariga denied any involvement and said, When I saw [Azanduna] in my house, I was very angry because I didnt invite him to my houseAt the time I saw him nobody beat himHe was sitting on the floorHe should not pretend [he was beaten]. Mr Ayariga told CPJ he questioned Mr Azanduna at the house about his stories, at least one of which he said was inaccurate and should be retracted, and the politician said he thought the party members and Mr Azanduna may have fought before arriving at his home. Mr Ayariga said it is possible Mr Azanduna was beaten after being taken away by soldiers, whom he said were at his home when the journalist arrived. Mr Ayariga told CPJ that he did not instruct the group of men to teach [Azanduna] a lesson or instigate any attack. He apologised on behalf of his party members for any altercation that may have taken place and said that he and the APC party do not believe in violence. Mr Ayariga said the APC party would investigate any party members involvement in violence. After years of health and immigration officials routinely conniving to breach the procedure, it appears the rules for the issuance of yellow card is now being strictly enforced in Nigeria. Inoculation against yellow fever is compulsory for international travellers from risk countries like Nigeria to some countries, and the yellow card is evidence the carrier is vaccinated against the deadly disease. But over the years, complicit Nigerian officials help travellers obtain the card without the vaccination it officially confirms. In the first week of August when this reporter visited the issuing office at the Federal Ministry of Health in Abuja, she observed the rules being bent. Intending travellers were routinely being issued the card after payment of N2500. Most of the individuals got the card without receiving the vaccines. Rahanat (not real name), a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago who lives in Nigeria, has a duly stamped yellow card. I never received the yellow fever vaccine before I got the yellow card, she told PREMIUM TIMES in Abuja. The young woman explained all she did to get the card was pay N2, 500 at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, Nigerias federal capital. I had no knowledge that I needed a yellow card to travel out of Nigeria. It was my first time of travelling out of the country to the United States, she narrated. At the airport I was asked for the card and I said I did not have it. It was at that point I was directed to the Port Health Office to get one before I could proceed on my trip. I pleaded with the lady at the office to just issue the yellow card to me because I hate injection. She requested for N2, 500 instead of the official fee of N1, 000 and that was how I got my card, she said. Many other travellers, Nigerians and non-Nigerians alike, daily leave the country with the card but without vaccination against the disease. A man in his mid-40s who identified himself simply as Tony said he got the yellow card at the Ministry of Health vaccination centre at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja. Pictures of the newly introduced yellow card obtained for N2,000 I told the lady at the desk that I just needed the card, not the vaccine and she requested I pay N3, 000 as against the N1,000 boldly written on the wall. I gave her the money and my international passport. In less than five minutes, I got a stamped original yellow card, he recalled. In the first week of August PREMIUM TIMES visited the Federal Ministry of Health to apply for the yellow card. It turned out as easy as Mr Tony described. The reporter got the card almost immediately without receiving the required yellow fever vaccine. The desk officials directed applicants to a notice posted on the wall close to the entrance to their offices. The notice stipulates the procedure of application. It begins with visiting the website, www.yellowcardnigeria.com, to register application for the card. Upon a click, the site displays the official fee, which is paid online and afterwards documented on the printout to be presented at the point of vaccination. The reporter noticed that the ministry from August 1 introduced a new yellow card with enhanced security feature that costs N2,000. This is different from the former card which costs just N1,000. An official told the reporter that yellow cards issued before the introduction of the new one are still valid, if the issuance was after 2015. There is a procedure you are supposed to follow to obtain the yellow card, which includes paying N1,000 to the bank, the woman at the vaccination stand told the reporter. But you can just pay N1,500 to me so you dont have to go through all those stress, she said. Procedures to follow to obtain a new yellow card from the federal Ministry of health. The reporter requested to skip the vaccine part, citing fear of injection. Eventually, she got her yellow card without taking the vaccine. I can give you the card without giving you the vaccine but you will pay N2, 500 because that is a big favour. Though, the vaccine is for your own good, so I will advise you to take it. But if you insist on not taking it, I can still give you the card, she said. But not anymore, at least in Abuja, it now seems. Later checks at the ministry by PREMIUM TIMES in the last week of August showed that staff now compel applicants to follow due process before being issued the card, including vaccination against yellow fever. Reporters who conducted the checks realised the officials had become strict in enforcing compliance with the formal process. Yellow Fever and Yellow Card Yellow fever is a viral hemorrhagic fever transmitted to humans through the bite of infected mosquitoes. This can become a deadly disease especially for people who have not been vaccinated. A single dose of the yellow fever vaccine, however, provides lifelong protection against the disease. The vaccine gives immunity within 30 days and is effective for 99 percent of persons vaccinated. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that to travel to countries where there is evidence of persistent or periodic yellow fever virus transmission, people need to be vaccinated and obtain the yellow card. Also known as the International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis (ICVP), the yellow card is usually requested at immigration points. Without it, travellers are not allowed into or out of countries prone to yellow fever. Africa falls within the yellow fever endemic zone. Countries like South Africa and Ethiopia strictly look out for the yellow fever vaccination cards of travellers coming from high-risk countries before allowing them into their countries. Pictures of the newly introduced yellow card obtained for N2,000 To show the importance of the vaccination and yellow card, about 125 Nigerians were denied entry into South Africa in 2012 because the South African Port Health Authority had concerns about the validity of the yellow fever vaccination cards the Nigerian were carrying. State of yellow fever in Nigeria Yellow fever is still a major disease in Nigeria. In spite of the governments introduction of yellow fever vaccine as part of routine immunisation since 2014, Nigeria last year recorded an outbreak of the disease. Before the confirmed case in 2017, the last reported case was in 1996, so the country was not ready for the outbreak. The first case was confirmed in September 2017 in a seven-year old female in Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State. Between that time and March this year, 1,640 suspected cases were recorded and 115 confirmed. In January, WHO raised alarm over the deadly epidemic of the disease in Nigeria. The international health organisation warned that yellow fever cases throughout Nigeria were escalating concerns about the risk of large, costly, and difficult-to-control outbreaks in urban areas, requiring huge supplies of life-saving vaccines and increasing the potential for large-scale national and even worldwide spread. Procedures to follow to obtain a new yellow card from the federal Ministry of health. With yellow fever emerging again as an international threat, the answer lies in vaccination. It is also essential to guarantee a sustainable response, developing in-country capacity to respond to this epidemic and avoid future ones, the agency said. Federal Ministry of Health reacts When confronted that people were collecting yellow cards without getting vaccinated, the Assistant Director, Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Health, Olajide Oshundun, denied knowledge of such practice going on at the ministry. He said anyone visiting the ministrys vaccination centre to obtain a yellow card must go through the normal procedure and receive the vaccine before been issued the yellow card. According to him, the federal government introduced the new yellow card as a security document for those leaving the country. Prof. Isaac Adewole. Minister of Health To avoid racketeering, government changed the former yellow card to a new one entirely. The card is a security document and the method of paying and obtaining the card is through a designated bank, he said. He explained that that steps in getting the vaccine and card include filling the form online and generating a code. It is this code that would be requested at the point of payment. After this, you can go to the vaccination centre and show them your evidence of payment, he said. Speaking on the implication of getting the yellow card without getting vaccinated, the Deputy Director, Risk Communication, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Ayoola Olufemi, said taking the yellow fever vaccine will help prevent international spread of the virus. The yellow fever vaccine is very potent against yellow fever disease. So it is advisable for everyone to take the vaccine, especially those leaving the country. This will help prevent the spread of yellow fever virus to the international community, he said. Mr Olufemi said those leaving the country without taking the vaccine, especially those visiting yellow fever prone areas, can bring the virus back to Nigeria, thereby putting others at risk. Namadi Lawal, Senior Medical Officer, Surveillance, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), said taking yellow fever vaccine is not only for Nigerias benefit but also that of the individual. An outbreak of yellow fever in any country is a global emergency and is always treated as such. The yellow fever disease is endemic in tropical areas of Africa and South America. It is important for people traveling into and out of the endemic areas to be vaccinated before traveling. People should know that it is for their protection too in addition to protecting others, he said. In this interview with PREMIUM TIMES Ben Ezeamalu, the immediate past chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in Lagos State, Moshood Salvador, speaks about his decision to leave the party, his frustration with the leadership, and his plans for the future. Excerpts. PREMIUM TIMES: Your decision to dump the PDP came as a shock to many political observers because in the past you had condemnged the decision of some your members who were elected in the party and dumped the party for APC. You even threatened to recall some of them. Now that you yourself decided to dump the party for APC, what really informed your decision? Moshood Salvador: Thank you very much. If you heard the introductory part of my statement day before yesterday while I was making statement of leaving the party, I said I am not happy to leave the job I started with a determination of putting an end to APC government in Lagos State. But when it now comes to issues of life, it is only a living person that can do politics. It is only a living person that can help his people. If you are dead you are dead. Look at Funsho Williams, as much as he loves his people in Lagos State, can he be able to show the love? That is why I have to leave the environment that is too hostile to my attitude of progress, to my preparation for victory, to my hard work, to put PDP on top. It means I am not appreciated. I have to go to where my services, my gestures, my abilities will be appreciated and that is why have to leave. You are not unaware of the travail I went through when they cooked me up for murder case before the judicial system asked me to go that I dont have any case to answer, it is of no significant reasonable thing for them to bring me there. From that day, till the day I exit from PDP, national chairman never called to say sorry Salvador, we heard what happened, we are with you, we feel for you. National chairman never did. PT: (Cuts in) But did the other party leaders call? Salvador: The other party leaders, Lagos leaders were there, members were crying, doing all these and that. I appreciate them and that is why I cannot abandon them and say I am no more doing politics; if this the type of love they show for somebody that is putting his life and everything in it. I pump in minimum of N4 million to this party every month, the money my children suppose to enjoy but once I put it there, I believe the children of the poor people will benefit if we are able to win. I have the programme of free food for Lagos which anybody that want to become my governor I have to sell that idea to the person because it is my life to be giving out to the public. And thats why I usually do it during Ramadan, which some of you have witnessed. The last Ramadan, Zakkat I did was for over 5,000 people, that carried cloth, everything, that is my life. I even have it in my plan to introduce it to anybody that wants to be my governor. PT: These members that associated with you in your time of struggle, did you carry them along? Did they endorse your decision to dump the party? Will it be right to say you only have a grudge with the national chairman of the party? Salvador: No, its not that I have grudge with the national chairman of the party, I was just disappointed with what he did. The main reason is that I cannot dwell in an environment where anybody that can cook up a story for you to go to prison, when they meet you in the dark they can kill you, so why are you waiting there? That is just it. And why I mentioned that of the chairman is that they are supposed to show some sympathy if they appreciate you. Just to call and say Salvador, sorry o. We heard everything and we thank God court has exonerated you and this and that. Thats all. Its not for them to come, but just to show some element of love, as I am showing to my members. And about my supporters, I am not even the one that is insisting, they are the ones insisting that we dont have to wait. Even members of exco of PDP, more than 40 per cent of them are going with me, they even signed. They collected about 15,000 people in the party that are ready but the crowd you will see there, my supporters you will see there, they will be more than 50,000, come there, I am notit has not happened now. Let the day come, if you dont see such crowd, then you come back to me and say Salvador, this is Let me tell you, I give my time and life to the people. I love my people so much and that is why the people outside there, the OPC of Lagos State, they want to associate with me, they said they have to leave to go and join APC along with me. Their coordinator is outside there. I said if that should be the case, go and get yourselves organised and come for the material. You can see the tailors we are organising there, they are to sew clothes for people that dont even have money to sew, people that have money to sew will be given, those that dont have money we will sew it for them and give them, that is my life for the people. PT: You said people are against you moving PDP forward in Lagos State and that the allegation against you was cooked up by some people. Do you have evidence against these people you allege? Salvador: There is no doubt we have two groups in PDP, Bode George and people that are in support of Salvador. As long as you can see people that were not I was in Epe in the morning, in Ibeju-Lekki in the afternoon, these set of people form Bode George group came to Ibeju Lekki to disorganise that one but they were unable to because we have OP MESA there, we have military there organised by the local government. I am not the one organising security. That programme put me as a visitor to visit the local government to see how far you have gone. The level of your mobilisation, this and that. Immediately we finish that, they will then start that of the ward so that that mobilisation will not be exposed to APC, it will just meet them unaware. That was the work I was doing. But as long as you can see that some of his people were the one that were not even there, they did not even come for the ceremony, they were the ones shouting Yes, we saw somebody, we heard somebodys voice. How can that happen when immediately the chairman of the party at that local government threw the table up, the Civil Defence whisked me away. I was even at home when I was hearing that somebody died, not even there. So that is why the police have done their investigation, there are videos that show everything, I dont know where they got all these stories and for them to put up such story, one needs to be very careful, they can kill you because of that. A PDP chieftain, Bode George. PT: What really led to the face-off between you and Bode George because I know that you and Bode George were very good political allies. What went wrong? Salvador: Yes, we accepted him as a leader but he will not allow anybody to grow. One, he insisted that I should not inaugurate the exco given to me by the national and I told him No, Oga, I have to inaugurate this exco because they are the ones to do the mobilisation for me. We need mobilisation drive seriously. He said No, Obasanjo has discussed with him that there cant be both PDP and APC. I said No, leave Obasanjo alone. He just believe in what Baba said and I asked him to let me do my administration. He insisted that they should be doing exco meeting, CWC meeting in his house in Lugard and I said No, I have my secretariat, all these things should be done at the secretariat. He has his own set of people that he calls caucus, but the constitution has defined who should be members of the caucus and 75 per cent of these people cannot enter his house because he is at loggerheads with most of them. For example, all our House of Reps, he doesnt want to see them, they dont greet him, they dont near him and they are members of the caucus. Former senators, former House of Reps, they dont see him, eye to eye. So it is not possible to do it and he will not agree with me. Everyone has no idea except Chief Olabode George. If you keep saying Oga, this thing is not right. He will not agree with you. I cannot allow anybody to put my name on the line for doing what is not right. That is just what started the disagreement. He has his own elders committee, I have my own elders committee as constituted by the constitution. They brought a list from Abuja, he asked me to manipulate it, change it, Shebi you belong to my group. If I change it they will not say its Bode George that changed it they will say its Salvador that changed it. Once you say no to wrong thing, he believes you are not loyal and that was the beginning of the crisis. And I tried as much as possible to manage it, with media, without complaining, without talking about it to anybody but Chief Bode George is so the power means so much to him. Period. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo [Photo credit: Ventures Africa] PT: It is interesting that you raised these issues between you and Chief Bode George, because he also accused you of failing to honour an agreement reached on executive offices after the Supreme Court affirmed Makarfi as national chairman, that is the 65 per cent to Makarfi and 35 per cent to Ali Modu Sheriff Salvador: (Cuts in) To God who made me, I swear in the name of Almighty Allah, I was not part of the congress, its the list congress gave to me, Im not the one that organise congress, it is national that organise congresses. The result of congresses was what was given to me, I am also a product of congress. So it is not that will honour 65/35 or 35/65, not me at all, it is that same list the south-west chairman brought, it is that same list I pasted at the secretariat and he persistently refused to agree with what national asked us to do. That he is the one that can say No no no, throw it away, let us do our own, they cannot come and dictate what we want. No. The constitution of the party has given power to the congress to organise the exco for us and whatever they do, they submit to national and national give to me to work with. The exact thing I was working with. It is not me at all, I repeat, it is not me, I never took part in the congresses or organise any congress, do anything. It is national that organise congress not me. And if there is anything that is different from what national brought for me, they can come and show it to the public, they can publish it or go to national and confirm from them. I didnt touch anything, I didnt manipulate anything, they asked me to manipulate but I said no. So it is not possible for me, it is national and till today national refused him to change anything. PT: Have you inaugurated these people? Salvador: I inaugurated my exco long ago, since January 2018. It was the LGA chairmen that went to their local government to inaugurate the exco at the local government level. All information Bode George was giving were lies, not true, I repeat, not true. What we were doing local government by local government was local government visitation and mobilisation to see what you have done, I was not inaugurating exco, it is not my responsibility to inaugurate local government exco. Its not true. PDP Headquarters (Photo Credit: TVC News) PT: How comfortable are you now working with APC or being in APC because this is a party you have criticised in the past, and these are people you never saw anything good in them? Salvador: Anything I complained about, it is an opportunity for me to put it right there. Anything I complained about, this is an opportunity for me to go and say, You know I complained about this, put it right, do it this way. Because the overall interest is all about the people. PT: And do you think the party has the environment to allow you to do these things? Salvador: My friend, at the earlier stage my decision was to quit politics. When you are in an environment where there is no love, the decision is for you to quit that environment. But if I quit on my own and say Moshood, go and sit down with your business. That is the advice given to me by my family, by my friends, by my children. But what about these my followers? Abandoning them for sufferness. So its even better I hand them over to where they can get jobs, appointments, and have living. If that is taken care of, I think thats better for them. They can then continue with their political career at any level. Boko Haram insurgents in camouflage military uniform attacked a Nigerian Army camp in Borno State on Thursday, killing at least one officer and 30 soldiers while two officers and 17 soldiers were seriously wounded. Scores of Boko Haram fighters carried out the attack on the military unit in Zari, a small community north of Maiduguri and near the border with Niger. They stormed the unit in 12 gun trucks, accompanied by other fighters who came on foot, at about 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. The details were disclosed to PREMIUM TIMES by reliable sources who sought strict anonymity for fears they might be sanctioned by authorities. The sources said the gallant Nigerian troops initially fought to repel the terrorists but that their effort failed at a point and the insurgents broke into the camp after about an hour of exchange of gunfire. An unknown number of troops could still not be accounted for as at Saturday morning, our sources said. A search and rescue operation is currently underway in conjunction with troops from the 145 Battalion, this website learnt. The wounded officers and men were evacuated to the Nigerian Army 7 Division Medical Services and Hospital in Maiduguri. Two of our sources said the terrorists made away with armoured personnel carriers, anti-aircraft guns, water tanker, utility trucks, ambulances and other equipment. They also burnt satellite communication equipment and destroyed makeshift tents inside the camp, the sources said. Military authorities were still trying to ascertain Boko Haram casualties as at Saturday morning, it was learnt. It is not immediately clear whichof the two Boko Haram factions carried out the attack. The Abu-Musab Al-Barnawi faction of the dreaded sect is known to target military formations. Texas Chukwu, a brigadier-general and Nigerian Army chief spokesperson did not return PREMIUM TIMES requests for comments after several hours on Saturday. The Army confirmed the attack occurred in a statement late Friday, but Onyema Nwakchukwu a spokesperson for the theatre command in Maiduguri only said soldiers killed many Boko Haram insurgents when they repelled the attack. Mr Nwachukwu, a colonel, told PREMIUM TIMES he did not immediately have details of military casualties. I am only aware of aerial bombardment and the response of the ground troops that left many Boko Haram fighters killed, Mr Nwachukwu said by telephone Saturday afternoon. But I am not aware of soldiers casualties and I would not have such information until it gets to my desk. John Agim, a brigadier-general and spokesperson for the Defence Headquarters, directed all enquiries about the attack to Mr Chukwu. The Nigerian Air Force said it launched aerial bombardment of Boko Haram positions during its response to the attack, and uploaded a short video clip of fleeing terrorists who it said were neutralised. The Zari invasion is the deadliest against a military unit since Boko Haram resumed its attacks against military formations in July. Scores of Nigerian troops were killed in successive attacks between mid and late July, raising fresh concerns about a resurgent sect amongst top military chiefs. The Chief of Army Staff Tukur Buratai initially responded to the killings by visiting the front lines and ordering a reshuffling of commanders. A few days later, the Army chief followed up with a threat to senior military officers overseeing the counter-insurgency operations, warning them of grave consequences should there be another case of soldiers yielding positions to terrorists during attacks. Meanwhile, the latest tragedy has sparked concerns across military units where news of the attacks has reached. Nigerian soldiers joined the military to defend their fatherland and not to be murdered because of corruption, incompetence and deceit of Nigerian people by military chiefs, said an Army general who is not on active deployment in the northeast but has heard of the development. The officer feared the Buhari administration is not making enough progress against Boko Haram. Rather, what is being done is to suppress information getting out and intimidating personnel with threat of court martial and mutiny, the senior officer said under strict anonymity. WHO says Africas life expectancy improving A new report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Africa has shown a high improvement in health in the region. The report said life expectancy across Africa had improved significantly, but national health systems must be improved to ensure that services get to the people who need them most. The life expectancy jumped from 50.9 years in 2012, to 53.8 years in 2015, according to the report. Deaths resulting from the 10 biggest health risks in Africa such as lower respiratory infections, HIV and diarrhoeal diseases dropped by half between 2000 and 2015, partly as a result of specialised health programmes. Outbreak of diarrhoea hits Borno Borno State government has raised the alarm over the outbreak of diarrhoea, reporting 1,068 cases. The Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD) hit 10 local government areas of the state, but no death has been recorded so far. Haruna Mshelia, the Commissioner for Health, said 25 patients were hospitalised at the Benisheikh Hospital, Dala and El-Miskin treatment centres. Soyinka tasks FG on funding HIV/AIDS Wole Soyinka has charged the Federal Government to take seriously its obligation to eliminate HIV and AIDS in Nigeria by taking full ownership of funding and treatment rather than relying on foreign donor support. Mr Soyinka gave the charge in a Keep the Promise to AIDS Video Campaign unveiled by the AIDS Health Care Foundation (AHF) in Abuja. The Noble Laureate said the government was not unaware of the level of affliction the spread of the virus has caused as well as the human devastation in the country. These campaigns need official backing and resources let this be a commitment and moral duty to implement plans that would wipe out AIDS within this generation, he added. Fish oil supplements dont prevent heart attack- Scientists Fish oil supplements do not help prevent heart attacks or strokes in people with diabetes, said a study that adds to a growing body of research on the ineffectiveness of pills containing omega-3 fatty acids. More than 15,000 people with diabetes but no signs of heart disease enrolled in the study in Britain, the results of which were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Half the participants were given a daily capsule of omega-3, while the other half received a placebo pill containing olive oil. Among those taking fish oil pills, 8.9 percent suffered a heart attack or stroke, compared to 9.2 per cent in the placebo group, which was not a significant difference. Our large, long-term randomised trial shows that fish oil supplements do not reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with diabetes, said principal investigator Louise Bowman of the University of Oxford. SON alerts on cancer-causing school uniform The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has alerted the nation about some cancer-causing substances found in some school uniform materials made by two China-based companies. The Special Assistant and Head of Public Relations to the Director General of SON, Bola Fashina, alleged that the cancer-causing uniforms are made by two China based companies, Sing Shun Fat School-Clothier Company and Zenith Uniform Company. Mrs Fashina said the azo dyes in the uniforms contained 4-amino azo dye above the maximum allowed in the standard. The dyes have been banned in Europe, Japan and other parts of the World because the dye when mix with sweat release carcinogenic substances known as aromatic amines. USAID gives $26.5m to support Nigeria Nigeria has won a new funding of $26.5 million to support health care and good governance, courtesy of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The agency said at the weekend that the additional support to Nigeria was made because of the countrys achievement in the development goals outlined in the bilateral Development Objectives Assistance Agreement signed in 2015, The Acting Mission Director, Erin Holleran, confirmed the new financial support and said that USAID would partner with federal and state health ministries to build stronger health systems. The is aimed at guaranteeing equitable access to quality healthcare services nationwide. PHC: Osun qualifies for $500,000 saving one million lives fund Osun State has attained the nine pillars of primary healthcare under one roof and qualified for the $500,000 of the Federal Ministry of Health under the Saving One Million Lives Fund. Kayode Ogunniyi, Executive Secretary of the Osun State Primary Health Care Development Board (OSPHCDB) said at the validation of the Minimum Service Package and the Operation Guidelines Documents for the OSPHCDB in the state. The validation was supported by the United States Agency for International Development through its Health Finance and Governance (HFG) project. He said the state was already qualified for basic healthcare provision fund which is about $2.4 million US dollars for delivery of basic healthcare for the people at the grassroots in the state, particularly children under age five, pregnant women, the elderly people and others that are vulnerable. Journalists urged to improve reporting of HIV in Nigeria Media practitioners have been tasked to make government accountable on expenditure of funds in the fight against HIV in Nigeria. Premium Times Publisher, Dapo Olorunyomi, gave this advice at a media parley organised by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in Abuja, against the backdrop of limited contribution by government to funding the fight in Nigeria. Foreign donors, especially the United States Government, provide about 95 per cent of the funds for the treatment of people living with HIV in Nigeria. Uncomfortable with the situation, Mr Olorunyomi called on journalists, as society watchdogs, to make the government accountable to citizens on health, especially those living with HIV/AIDS. Psychosis: Cannabis normalises brain function A new study published in a journal, JAMA psychiatry shows that a dose of cannabis extract cannabidiol improve brain function in people living with psychosis. The new study was conducted by scientists at the Kings College London at the United Kingdom. The lead researcher, Sagnik Bhattacharya from the KCLs institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience said what motivated the study was because the mainstay for current treatment of people with psychosis are drugs that was first discovered in1950s and unfortunately does not work for everyone. Weeks after the late Moshood Abiola was honoured by President Muhammadu Buhari, one of his daughters, Rinsola Abiola has left the All Progressives Congress (APC). The daughter of the presumed winner of the annulled 1993 presidential elections is the Special Assistant on New Media to the Speaker of House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara. Ms Abiola in a series of tweets on Friday, said she had duly written to relinquish her membership to her ward chairman. She also presented allegations that APC is dictatorial and not youth-friendly. Last year, while we youth advocates and those of us in political parties who fall within the youth demography were advocating for passage of the Not Too Young To Run Bill, I approached a handful of our leaders and expressed my intention to run for office if the Bill scales through. Thankfully, this year, Not Too Young To Run became law and young people (from 25) can now seek to occupy elective positions. Ms Abiola said apart from the usual issues like funding and violence, undemocratic dictates which are now viewed as the norm also pose a serious challenge (in the APC). She claimed she had been told in no unclear terms that I must not run, that I should not even consider it and that there are consequences for disobedience. She however did not name those who made these threats. Tweets of Aderinsola Abiola, daughter to MKO Abiola Tweets of Aderinsola Abiola, daughter to MKO Abiola The decision of who gets to represent us is one that should be made by the people and it is not up to any individual, no matter how highly placed, to tell me that I must not even try, she said. The UN has said that it would provide assistance to no fewer than 6.1 million people affected by the Boko Haram crisis in North-east Nigeria by the end of 2018. UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Edward Kallon, stated this at a conference in New York tagged Strengthening the Humanitarian and Development Partnership in the Lake Chad Region. Mr Kallon said: In Nigeria, we are still facing a crisis of global magnitude. The figures are alarming 10.2 million people affected in three states in Northeast Nigeria, 7.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. Our 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan was developed to provide assistance for 6.1 million people requiring slightly above a billion dollars in 2018. Before October 2016, the Nigerian Government and the international community were barely reaching 395,000 people of an estimated population of eight million people that were affected by the crisis. With your generous support and support of the Government of Nigeria, we were able to scale up assistance in 2017 and reached over 5.6 million people. Its not only reaching these numbers that was important but that we were able to avert famine; we were able to contain serious cholera outbreak and we were able to address recurrent outflows and inflows of displaced people in the country. The UN official expressed regret that about 1.7 million people were displaced in the area but was optimistic that there was also an opportunity and light at the end of the tunnel. According to him, as some areas become safe, people are also returning, adding that from 2015 to date, no fewer than 1.4 million people have returned to safe areas. Mr Kallon, however, expressed concerns that some of the returnees were being displaced the second or third time because they needed basic services to reach their final destination, calling for donors support. The UN head said: The call, which we echoed through Oslo-1 and through the United Nations Security Council Mission, is that we need a holistic approach to this crisis. We cannot address this crisis with humanitarian response alone. The root causes of this crisis are developmental in Northeast Nigeria. We are talking about serious concerns of poverty, poverty that is multi-dimension in nature as we speak these days. Were talking about climate vulnerabilities that is compounding the impacts of the crisis. Hunger and conflict are feeding on each and all that in a vicious cycle in the Lake Chad Basin. According to him, there is no peace without development, no development without peace and no peace and development without strong institutions. Mr Kallon told donors and partners that they could save lives in the short-term but must invest in building capacities so that governments could respond and take over their responsibilities. Nigeria is a guinea-pig in the new way of working and also the whole nexus debate. Its not one of the easiest debate but if it has to happen, it has to happen in Nigeria. Nigerias representative talked about The Buhari Plan, which was developed at the backdrop of a recovery and peace building assessment that was done by all key stakeholders UN, the World Bank, donors and the government, It is costed and requiring about 6.7 billion dollars to actually bring peace, security in northeast Nigeria, and most of the international financial institutions have started investing. We are pushing the agenda hard but the durable solution to the crisis in Northeast Nigeria is peace and for peace to happen, there is need for a political process, Kallon said. Participants at the conference included humanitarian coordinators from Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon, and donor countries including Governments of Norway, UK, Canada, the EU, the Netherlands and the U.S., the largest donor. They underscored stressed the importance of the Berlin conference holding from Sept. 3 to Sept. 4, and Oslo 2 Conference, to address not only the causes but the consequences of the situation in the Lake Chad region. (NAN) An inspector of the Nigerian Police Force attached to the Federal Special Anti-Robery Squad (FSARS), Charles Omotosho, has been dismissed for extorting road users in Ikorodu area of Lagos State. Mr. Omotoshos dismissal came three months after tweets by a resident in Ikorodu, Princess Ife, who on May 16 claimed that the officer threatened to shoot at her and others, except they paid a ransom of N5,000. With my encounter today, it is safe to say SARS are armed robbers. Was going for a shoot in Ikorodu today and armed member of SARS pulled us over and made us pay for no reason. Threatening they were going to waste our lives. I made a transfer so that they can be traced, her tweet read. Meanwhile, three months after the Public Complaint Rapid Response Unit (PCRRU) of the Police Force promised to investigate the issue and make findings of the investigation public, the SARS officer has been handed his sack letter. The PCRRU tweeted on Friday that the Assistant Inspector General of Police Zone 2, Lagos, Ibrahim Adamu, has approved the dismissal of Mr Omotosho. UPDATE #PCRRU316356. The Assistant-Inspector General of Police Zone 2, Lagos, AIG Ibrahim Adamu has reviewed the Orderly Room proceedings and approved the punishment of dismissal of AP. No. 136207 Inspr. Charles Olusola Omotosho from @PoliceNG wef 16.07.2018. Omotosho attached to SARS Ikorodu, Lagos at the time was found guilty of Corrupt Practices and Discreditable Conduct contrary to Para. C (ii) and E (iii) of Police Act and Regulations CAP. P19 LFN 2004. Three other accomplices of the dismissed inspector were awarded punishment of reduction in rank from sergeant to corporal by the police. All @PoliceNG items (uniforms & ID card) have since been retrieved from the dismissed Inspector, the tweet read. The police are, however, yet to act on two police officers caught on video collecting bribe from motorists on May 13 as reported by PREMIUM TIMES. President Muhammadu Buhari arrived Beijing Saturday to attend the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) holding September 3 4, 2018. During the 6-day official visit of the Nigerian President, he is expected to join his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping to witness the signing of an agreement on the National Information and Communication Technology Infrastructure Backbone Phase 11 (NICTIB 11) between Galaxy Backbone Limited and Huawei Technologies Limited (HUAWEI) at the cost of US $328 million facility provided by the Chinese EXIM Bank. The bank facility is for the development of NICTIB 11 project which is consistent with the current administrations commitment to incorporating the development of ICT into national strategic planning under the National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP). President Buhari and his Chinese host will also witness the signing of the MOU on One Belt One Road Initiative (OBOR). In 2013, the Chinese leader proposed the initiative of building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, with a view to integrating the development strategies of partnering countries. During the High-Level Dialogue between Chinese and African Leaders and Business representatives on the margins of FOCAC, the Nigerian delegation is also expected to sign no fewer than 25 MOUs, including those proposed by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA). Earlier, the president on arrival at Capital International Airport, Beijing at about 9:04 am (Nigerian time), was received by top Chinese government officials including the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Zhou Pingjian. Nigerias Ambassador to China, Baba Ahmed Jidda and his wife Zahra; the Deputy Chief of Mission, Ambassador Bakori Aliyu Usman; Consular-General of Nigeria, Guangzhou, Shairudeen Oloko; Consular-General of Nigeria, Shanghai, Anderson Madubuike; and Defence Attache, Temitope Ademola, were also among those who received the president. President Buhari will tomorrow meet Nigerians living in China before the kick-off of FOCAC on Monday when he will join President Jinping and other African leaders for roundtable sessions which will essentially discuss the report of FOCAC since the 2015 Johannesburg Summit, including the implementation of the ten cooperation plans adopted at the last meeting. The Summit is also expected to adopt the Beijing Declaration and the Action Plan for the development of China-Africa cooperation and fashion out new opportunities to grow Nigeria-China comprehensive strategic partnership from 2019 to 2021. Garba Shehu Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity) September 1, 2018 Former President Goodluck Jonathan was yesterday honoured as the Icon of Democracy by Rivers State-owned Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt, following his worthy contributions towards deepening democracy in Nigeria. The Pro- Chancellor of the University, King A.M Ikuru, who conducted the investiture at the institutions 35th/36th Convocation ceremony on Saturday in Port Harcourt, said the award was the first of its kind in the history of the university. He further described Mr. Jonathan as a true democrat and man of peace who was deeply committed to the growth and development of the country. His position was corroborated by the University orator, Boma Obi, a professor, commended Mr. Jonathan for handing over power to the opposition, stressing that by that action, the former President set a new benchmark for politicians. In his response, Mr. Jonathan described the visit as home-coming, being a former lecturer in the institution then known as Rivers State College of Education, before it was upgraded to a full-fledged university. The former President, who recalled with nostalgia his days in the institution, noted that he enjoyed his days as a lecturer, adding that he has not given up on going back to teaching. Mr. Jonathan said: I commend the members of staff of this university for your commitment and great roles in developing our youth. Sometimes I feel like coming to join you again, but I dont know if the Vice Chancellor will consider me still qualified for the job. I sincerely would have loved to teach for some years before the onset of the natural decline usually associated with the infirmity of old age. Let me also say that I had good job satisfaction here, compared to all the other places I have worked. I know that the only major challenge academic staff face is with the reward system, considering the fact that as a nation, we are yet to get to the point where we pay our teachers the wages they deserve. However, for all the hindrances teachers face, they derive a fulfilling experience and satisfaction from the special relationship they cultivate with their students. This is because bringing up the young ones is very rewarding in a very distinct manner. The bond, friendship and sense of loyalty is eternal. Even today, the way my former students regard and relate with me is different from the way my fellow politicians relate with me, even those I mentored. The former President further commended the University for honouring him and his wife, Patience, saying: I want to specially thank the Senate of the University for considering my family worthy of double honours, to wit: the conferment of the honour of Icon of Democracy on me and the naming of the new Automated University Library after my wife, Dame Patience Jonathan. Ex-President Jonathan honoured as Icon of Democracy I always attach so much importance to any recognition coming from home because I strongly believe that no Prize commands higher value than the one given by the beneficiarys direct constituency. Below is the full text of former President Jonathans speech: GOODWILL MESSAGE BY FORMER PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA, HIS EXCELLENCY, DR. GOODLUCK EBELE b JONATHAN, AT THE 35TH/ 36TH CONVOCATION CEREMONY OF IGNATIUS AJURU UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, RUMUOLUMENI CAMPUS, PORT HARCOURT, SATURDAY 1ST SEPTEMBER, 2018 I sincerely thank the Governing Council, Senate, Vice Chancellor, Registrar and Management of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education for the invitation to be part of this Universitys 35th/36th Convocation ceremony. 2. I am in deed very delighted to be here today. I believe that some of the lecturers and workers may understand why I feel this way. When I got the invitation to be part of this convocation ceremony, and later received the University Management led by the Vice Chancellor Professor Ozo-Mekuri Ndimele, I was seized by an irresistible flush of nostalgia. 3. The reason is not far-fetched. From my employment history, beginning from my first job after I completed secondary school to my last office as the President of our dear country, this institution occupies a special place in my heart. This is because it is where I served the longest, having worked here for ten years, from 1984 to 1994. 4. That is why this visit is like home coming for me. I always recount with joy and pride that I was once a teacher. I am proud to say that it is this University (known then as the Rivers State College of Education, Rumuolumeni), where I served as a Lecturer in the Department of Biology, that gave me that identity. 5. Let me also say that I had good job satisfaction here, compared to all the other places I have worked. I know that the only major challenge academic staff face is with the reward system, considering the fact that as a nation, we are yet to get to the point where we pay our teachers the wages they deserve. 6. However, for all the hindrances teachers face, they derive a fulfilling experience and satisfaction from the special relationship they cultivate with their students. This is because bringing up the young ones is very rewarding in a very distinct manner. The bond, friendship and sense of loyalty is eternal. Even today, the way my former students regard and relate with me is different from the way my fellow politicians relate with me, even those I mentored. 7. I am very pleased and indeed happy that this institution has been upgraded to a full university status. This is however not surprising because the institution worked hard to earn that elevation. I lectured here and knew that the standards were very high for the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) and Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) programmes, then ran under the tutelage of the University of Ibadan. 8. I knew my provost then, Professor S. F. Amakiri, started the advocacy for the college to be upgraded. That was before I left the institution in 1994. 9. I have to thank the Government of Rivers State for upgrading the college to a full university in 2009 when Pastor Rosemond Dienye Green-Osahogulu who was the provost became the Acting Vice Chancellor. She was later confirmed as the substantive pioneer Vice Chancellor. 10. I must confess that although I am returning to a place I once called home, this abode is no longer looking particularly familiar. This is because so much development has taken place since I left here, over two decades ago. 11. I look around today, and I see magnificent office and hostel complexes as well as many amazing structures and imposing edifices. This is remarkably different from the time I was here when we had only very few structures, with only about three of them as storey buildings. I am told that many of these buildings are holding modern learning equipment, including laboratory amenities as well as state of the art health facilities. 12. I was glad to hear from members of the University management who visited me in Bayelsa, that some of the structures were established as a result of my administrations strategic programmes, support and funding for educational institutions. I believe that if we did not do that for this University and others across the country, as part of our programmes to improve education and learning, our development agenda for the nation would have been in vain. You will remember that Governor Wike was a part of my team in this endeavour when he was my minister of education. 13. You will recall that as President, I upgraded four federal colleges of education to full universities which I believe were qualified and deserving of the elevation. 14. I have a strong conviction in creating opportunities and expanding the space for the education of our children. That was why I established 12 new conventional universities and two specialized ones; the Marine University in Delta State and the Police Academy in Kano State. 15. My administrations support for education at all levels is consistent with my belief that we cannot record real progress and development as a nation if we do not robustly invest in education as a way of developing the capacities of our human resources. We tailored our reforms in education to focus on improving quality of learning and expanding access. 16. Whenever leaders make substantial investments in education in any nation, it is to ensure that the country produces the right kind of human resources to drive its economy to the desired end. However, I believe that learning can only be complete if it factors in the place of morals, character and ethical values as essential qualities to be imbibed by our graduates. 17. In a nutshell, when we prescribe quality education for our vibrant teeming youth, as a precondition for making our nation great, it is to be understood that it cannot be attained in isolation of other essential values like honesty, kindness, patriotism, humility and selflessness. 18. I always advise that while school authorities have their sights trained on academic excellence, they should not forget to also focus on character, this nuanced and softer side of learning that is necessary to make university education complete and worthwhile. 19. I commend the members of staff of this university for your commitment and great roles in developing our youth. Sometimes I feel like coming to join you again, but I dont know if the Vice Chancellor will consider me still qualified for the job. I sincerely would have loved to teach for some years before the onset of the natural decline usually associated with the infirmity of old age. 20. For my great students especially those graduating today, I congratulate you for your successes and express my appreciation to your parents and guardians. 21. Whenever I have the opportunity to address our youth on convocation ground, I always remind the graduands to remember the words of the Vice Chancellor that they have been found worthy in character and learning. This clearly shows that character is as important as learning, if not more vital in the scheme of things. That is why no serious university will award First Class Honours degree to any student notorious for street fights or usually associated with anti-social behaviour like snatching of ballot boxes during elections, no matter how brilliant such student might have been. 22. You all should know that your image is inextricably linked with this institution. By your conduct, you can either promote the image and reputation of this institution or mar it. I charge you today to be the Best Ambassadors of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education. 23. I will not end this remarks without commending the Visitor, Governor Nyesom Wike for his good works and commitment to the growth of this institution and learning generally in Rivers state. 24. His unusual development stride which is being talked about everywhere in the country is no fluke. It is evident in the numerous projects that are either completed or ongoing across the length and breadth of Rivers State. Many people, including those of us who are Port Harcourt Boys, are happy with Governor Wike for what he has been able to achieve within a short time. I have personally commissioned two of the projects; one in the main Port Harcourt City and the other outside the State Capital. 25. I also congratulate the Vice Chancellor Professor Ndimele and his management staff for their vision and the tact with which they have steered the University in the right direction, turning it into an institution to beat in its class. It is one thing for a committed government to provide the needed resources, it is another thing for those running an institution to commit the funds to good use. Let me also thank you for donating one of yours, Dr. Precious Gbeneol to serve in my government as the Head of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). She did wonderfully well. 26. In closing, I want to specially thank the Senate of the University for considering my family worthy of double honours, to wit: the conferment of the honour of Icon of Democracy on me and the naming of the new Automated University Library after my wife, Dame Patience Jonathan. 27. I always attach so much importance to any recognition coming from home because I strongly believe that no Prize commands higher value than the one given by the beneficiarys direct constituency. I also congratulate my fellow awardee Pastor David Ibiyeomie who was honoured as Education Crusader. 28. Again, thank you for inviting me to this special event. 29. I Thank you all Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has criticised Vice President Yemi Osinbajo for arguing that Nigerias problem is not restructuring. In an article he authored, sent to PREMIUM TIMES by his media office, Mr Abubakar, who is running for president in 2019, said Mr Osinbajo demonstrated a lack of appreciation of the core tenets of the concept. It is a surprise that the Vice President would take such a position and, in particular, fail to appreciate the connection between Nigerias defective structure and its underperformance, he wrote. It is unhelpful to reduce the construct of Restructuring to a geographical concept as VP Osinbajo does, which in itself demonstrates a lack of appreciation of the core tenets of the concept. Read the full article, titled Why Nigeria needs to be restructured, below: In a recent interaction in the United States, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo asserted that the problem with our country is not a matter of restructuringand we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into the argument that our problems stem from some geographic re-structuring. It is a surprise that the Vice President would take such a position and, in particular, fail to appreciate the connection between Nigerias defective structure and its underperformance. It is unhelpful to reduce the construct of Restructuring to a geographical concept as VP Osinbajo does, which in itself demonstrates a lack of appreciation of the core tenets of the concept. For the avoidance of doubt, re-structuring is not about the re-drawing of state or regional boundaries. The restructured Nigeria that a large number of Nigerians talk about, is a Nigeria that not only provides opportunities for everyone to work but even more specifically challenges every layer of governance to demonstrate capacity to create wealth and jobs for the citizens. Restructuring is not just about the devolution of powers to the states, it is about transforming the respective roles of the federal, state and local governments to perform more efficiently in matters of territorial as well as economic governance. Above all, when we talk about restructuring, we are not talking about just constitutional tweaks, we are talking about a cultural revolution. It is not about re-shuffling a few responsibilities or resources, but about disrupting the authoritarian politics our democracy has inherited from its military and colonial rulers of past. Viewed this way, Nigeria needs to be restructured. Nigeria has operated a faulty system of federalism especially under military governments. Both economic and political structures are defective, resulting in weak economic management systems which, in turn, prevent all levels of the Nigerian government federal, states and local governments, from operating at optimal levels. Faced with the reality of non-performance, Nigerians have clamoured for the restructuring of the economy towards a more diversified structure. To make this happen would require that we establish and sustain a model of governance which would nurture a spirit of participation and consensus on key national issues and accommodate all the diverse segments of the society. In other words, if we accept the wisdom behind calls for a restructuring of the economy, we must be ready to build a foundation for its success: we must, in other words re-structure the polity. The federal structure is so complex with a very strong centre that it has succeeded in accumulating many responsibilities, and along with these, huge resources, which belong to the other levels of government. It is all too obvious that the current arrangement does not respond to the needs of the people at the local level. We have all too often lied to ourselves that the politicians sitting in Abuja can effectively respond to the needs of a population in far remote locations as Kaura Namoda, Iseyin, Arochukwu or Bama. Only the autonomy of the local governments and the states both of which are closer to their people than the Central Government in Abuja can guarantee this and result in more effective decisions. Only when local administrations are on the saddle, will there be greater accountability for decision making as well as improved flexibility, adaptability and ability to change as a result of a reduction in bureaucracy. I strongly believe that the restructuring of Nigeria will foster the spirit of co-operation and consensus in a nation of diverse ethnic groups, cultures and religions. It is desirable, in fact you may even say it is required to establish, nurture and sustain a strong and effective democratic government. In this continuous dialogue, we should remind ourselves that restructuring is not a new or strange phenomenon. A number of developing economies have had cause to restructure their economies, for greater efficiency or to correct imbalances or to reorient them towards, for example, more open and market-oriented systems with greater reliance on the private sector as engine of growth. Even the United Kingdom is restructuring its political and economic systems to enable a better union among its component parts. Businesses restructure for better performance. Even families do! Working with the National Assembly and all other stakeholders, we will lead the process of genuine and transparent constitutional amendments, in order to provide the necessary stimulus and focus on how to restructure Nigeria that would work for all. President Muhammadu Buhari has named a new management for the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company. Those appointed include Abbas Masanawa as managing director and Abubakar Minjibir, Chris Orewa and Tunji Kazeem as executive directors. The appointment followed a memo sent to the president by the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, dated August 28, in which he informed Mr Buhari that the tenures of the current managing director, Joseph Ugboh, and executive director, Finance, Abbas Masanawa, were ending on August 31. According to a source familiar with the development, Mr Emefiele had in the memo told Mr Buhari that the two directors took office as members of the executive management of the company in August 2014. In the document, seen by PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday, Mr Emefiele said prior to the takeover of the company in August 2014, the company unfortunately was a loss making entity and upon takeover, the company returned to profitability with profit before taxes of N611m, N4.6bn and N12.1bn during the financial years ended 2016, 2016 and 2017. The CBN governor said with these results the current management has displayed great dexterity to turn around moribund institutions. The document also stated that by the existing organisational structure of the company and the need for the NSPMC to attain its full potential, Mr Emefiele suggested that a team comprising of a Managing Director and four executive directors should be appointed. To ensure the company continues the track record of strong profitability, I wish to respectfully present for your thoughtful consideration and kind approval candidates for the position of Managing Director and Executive Directors, the CBN governor said. He then went ahead to recommend that while Mr Masanawa should be appointed the managing director, Messrs Kazeem, Orewa and Minjibir should be appointed as executive directors. Mr Emefiele provided the detailed explanation of the nominees qualifications, experience and suitability for the office for which they were being nominated. He requested Mr Buhari that in the light of the rich credentials of the candidates, I humbly request your excellency sir, that you consider and approve the appointment of Mr Abbas Umar Masanawa as the Managing Director of the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company; Mr Abubakar Sule Minjibir, Chris Orewa and Mr Tunji Kazeem as Executive Directors in Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company. Mr Buhari granted the approval. The new MD, Masanawa, obtained a degree in Agricultural Economics from the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria in 1992, and a post graduate degree in Business Administration from the University of Maiduguri in 2000. He worked at Zenith Bank for 17 years rising to the position of deputy general manager in 2014 before he left to serve as a special assistant and chief liaison to the CBN governor in September 2014. He was subsequently appointed as the executive director finance, strategy and marketing at NSPMC. On his part, Mr Minjibir studied and obtained a degree in Chemistry from Bayero University Kano in 1989 and a postgraduate degree in Business Administration with emphasis on financial management from Chennai, Kinsgter Education and a doctor Of Business Administration, Honoris Causa, Commonwealth University UK. He has 28 years working experience spanning through the public and private sector. Mr Kazeem holds a B. A Economics and Accounting from Rutgers University, New Jersey U. S. A. and a Masters in Business Administration with specialization in Investment Management from Columbia Business School, New York. He is a seasoned business executive with experience in developing strategic risk management framework to support overall business strategies. Chris Osawe obtained a Degree in Engineering in 1985 and a Masters in Business Administration in 1995. The Director Relief, Niger State Emergency Management Agency, Garba Salisu, says 14 persons have so far died due to flooding in different part of the state. In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Saturday in Minna, Mr Salisu said the agency had engaged the services of no fewer than 200 local divers in affected communities for rescue operations. He said the local divers would complement the efforts of agency rescue unit whenever the need arose. Mr Salisu also appealed to residents of the state to desist from building on waterways and to stop indiscriminate dumping of refuse to reduce the effect of flooding in the state. He also urged communities experiencing gully erosion to relocate whenever the threat of flood became high. My major fear is that, most rains are usually at night when the people are sleeping, but the only way is to create environment for smooth flow of water, he said. The director also called on communities that are prone to flooding to, as a matter of urgency, vacate the area temporarily to avoid disaster. (NAN) A former National Emergency Management Agency boss, Sani Sidi, has picked the PDP nomination form to contest for the highest seat in Kaduna State. The form was presented to the representative of Mr Sidi, Ahmed Maiyaki, a former spokesperson to governor Ramalan Yero and a host of others by Hassan Yakubu, Deputy National Organising Secretary at the PDP headquarters, Abuja. Mr Sidi in August declared his intent to his supporters in Kaduna. In his remarks, Mr Sidi reportedly charged party members to remain committed to the ideals of the party anchored on sustainable developments at all levels. According to him as members of our great party, we must resolve to ensure that we uphold the ideals of the party. My vision is to rescue the state from the current state of insecurity, kidnapping and other myriads of problems facing our dear state and unite our people towards sustainable development, he said. Mr Sidi will slug it out at the primaries with a senator, Suleiman Hunkuyi, who recently decamped from the ruling APC; a former gubernatorial aspirant of the APC, who also decamped to the PDP, Isah Ashiru and ex-governor, Mr Yero, among others. Kids and teenagers aged 5-16 showcased some of their inventions at the Young Inventors Tech Expo 2018. The event was organised by the Young Inventors summer camp 2018 Centre for Tech in Lagos on Friday. The Tech Expo which was organised to exhibit inventions from students that attended the Tech Summer Camp was attended by dignitaries including a representative of the Minister for Science and Technology and a representative of the Deputy Governor of Lagos State. It witnessed a number of exhibitions ranging from electrical machines, 2D and 3D games animations, among others. One of the outstanding inventions from the young inventors is a smart walkway light built by a team of nine; two girls and seven boys namely Adekanola Opolola 14, Thato Olayinka 11, Imade Micheal 13, Abaronye Chidera 13, Nwiwu Emmanuel 14, Agbeluyi Opeyemi 14, Omo Imisioluwa 13, Kola Olaoluwa 13, Ifedolapo Elegunde 13, and Osunde Joseph 10. The smart walkway, through inbuilt sensors, senses obstruction around the Led area and causes the light to come on and go off when the obstruction is removed. According to team members, it enables the lights last longer. Another innovation is the automatic irrigation system built by a team of seven; two girls and five boys namely Agbara Jewel 13, Adeoye Bezalel 13, Adebodunrin Thomas 9, Kenechukwu Iluanusi 9, Abdullah Subair 13, Agoro Abdulraman 12, and Afolabi Ayodeji 13. The water sensor is placed in the soil and once it detects inadequate water in the soil, it automatically pumps water into the soil and once the water level is adequate, the pump automatically stops working. More innovations A much smaller team, comprising Newton Enebha, 15, and Itohan Enebha. 9, invented a Smart Cloth line which senses when clothes are dry and pushes it down the line. It also detects downpour and automatically folds the line into a shelter and unfolds the line once it detects that the shelter roof is dry. According to the inventors, they hope it solves the issue of worrying about clothes on the spread during the rainy season. A smart cooking gas built was by a team of eight: Garuba Timilehin, 13, Mosopeoluwa Shina, 14, Osinuga Ayomide, 15, Aniekan John 16, Nkechi Chukwuma, 14 and Anoko Dafe, 14. The smart cooking gas not only converts gas from kilogramme to percentage, it also sends a notification through Bluetooth to the converter app on a mobile phone as the gas per cent level drops below a particular point. A tag-based vending machine by a team of six; five boys and a girl, Temitope Johnson 12, Marvelous Samuel 14, Olojede Moyosore 14, Nwosu Jathniel 12, Abaronye Akachi 14, and Mmesomachi Ufuomadu 11 was also showcased. The machine reads registered cards like school I. D card and staff I. D cards to vend products from the vending machine. An innovation of security locks is the I-MARS system developed by a team of nine from the Abuja summer camp. The Intruder Motion Activated Remote System (I-MARS) is designed to detect movements within the house after lockdown which triggers an alarm and alerts the owner of the house through SMS. It also enables the user to control lighting in the house and the features that can be modified. The system was developed by Daniel Emmanuel, 14, Abolade Mahdi, 11, Yimika, 10, Sudais, 9, Tobi, 10, Tolu, 10, Mobolaji, 13, Chukwuemeka, 10 and Abdul, 10. Kids, teenagers showcase inventions at Lagos Tech Expo. [PHOTO CREDIT: Olamide Fadipe] Another team of two Nurudeen Hussein, 11, and Mayomikun Soneye. 12 developed a solar tracker built to rotate solar panels towards the direction of the sun in other to maximize trapping of solar energy. It rotates and follows the direction of the sun from sunrise to sunset. A number of solo projects were also exhibited and assessed by panellists to determine who is awarded a prize for their invention. Some of the projects included a smart walking stick developed by Abubakar Ahmed 13, which vibrates when it detects obstruction; a fire safety system by Archer Judah 13, which detects smoke and gas and sends off an alarm immediately as well as turning on a red light once it detects gas saturation and keeps the alarm on until the saturation stops and also sprays water and sends off an alarm when it detects a fire. Judah said his fire alarm system is unique because it also detects gas saturation and not only sends off an alarm but has a light signal for the deaf to see and be alerted of the danger. The awards 11-year-old Oluwademilade Adelakun won the award for best animation. He made a 3D presentation titled Project Nigeria with a message to keep hope alive. Kids, teenagers showcase inventions at Lagos Tech Expo. [PHOTO CREDIT: Olamide Fadipe] The award for developing the Best Game went to 10-year-old Orakwe El-Nathan with a game titled Flappy Adventure, built around getting a bird to eat insects. The overall best solo project was awarded to 13-year-old Archer Judah for his fire safety system. Kids, teenagers showcase inventions at Lagos Tech Expo. [PHOTO CREDIT: Olamide Fadipe] Speaking on what inspired the project, Judah said he thought of the rates at which fire outbreaks occur in Nigeria and thought he should build a fire system of his own. The house I once lived in, there was a gas shop in front of the house and one day, gas started leaking and before the fire service got to know, everything had burnt down so I thought of adding a gas sensor to detect gas leaks so that fires can not only be put out but also prevented, the teenager said. Kids, teenagers showcase inventions at Lagos Tech Expo. [PHOTO CREDIT: Olamide Fadipe] The LED lights is to ensure that a deaf person is also alerted on time of the danger. Im looking to improve the aesthetics, add more features and ready it for installation in houses. It also uses solar panel so you dont need to have light in your house for it to work. Mike Mbon, the co-founder of Center 4 Tech, said the company is convinced beyond doubt that in the nearest future, Nigeria will become a country where big ideas have come out from, that one day technology will be born out of Africa and Nigeria and our youths will become not just consumers of technology but also producers of technology. Major Technology companies in the work like Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and others have one thing in common, they were all started when their founders were young and this is a major reason for the young inventors tech expo. Ahead of the fast approaching September 22 governorship election in Osun State, the state chapter of Action Democratic Party (ADP) has raised alarm over alleged plan by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to arrest its members on trumped-up charges days to the election. This was contained in a statement signed by its director of publicity, Ayobami Fakeye, on Saturday. Reliable intelligence report have revealed the grand plan by the ruling-APC in Osun State to arrest some of our prominent members and their supporters on trumped-up charges with a view to keeping them out of circulation ahead of the governorship election. To this end we wish to appeal to all the leadership of the all the security agencies in the state to work within the dictates of the law and not allow themselves to be used by any politician matter how highly-placed, Mr Fakeye stated. He also charged members of the ADP in the state to be security-conscious and be wary of the antics of the ruling-party and its members. However, responding to the allegations, the APC asked ADP to call its supporters to order. The party director of publicity, Kunle Oyatomi, in a counter statement, alleged that ADP supporters from Iwo and Ile Ife have been vandalising APC gubernatorial candidates billboard. We want to appeal to them to rein in their overzealous supporters from their criminal activities before the vandals implicate them in crime. Candidates who remain silent when their supporters are committing crime, would be called upon to account because they are the beneficiaries of the vandalism of these rascals. Political leaders owe the Osun communities a duty to compel their supporters to be civilised and responsible. Mr Oyatomi also appealed to security institutions to intervene before the reckless actions turn into violence. 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. According to Steve Katz, who became the world's first CISO in 1994, when banking giant Citigroup (then Citi Corp. Inc.) suffered a series of cyber-attacks from a Russian hacker: "While working with me at Citi Corp, Ian, who is one of the brightest minds I know, and a consummate information security professional, was the first to create a Threat Intelligence Unit using Government intelligence procedures, thereby hugely enhancing the organisation's security." Ian is also the founder and CEO of Corbels Security Services and is currently focused on monitoring and mentoring Company Information Security Officers (CISOs) in large organizations and providing small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with Virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO) services. He draws on almost three decades of experience in advising major global corporations on strategic security and has held senior technical and management positions at Saudi American Bank, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, and Barclays. Most recently at Team Cymru, he was awarded the honoured title of 'Team Cymru Emeritus' as a mark of distinguished service. According to former FBI special agent and diplomat Edward P Gibson: "I have known Ian for nearly two decades, both in my capacity as an FBI Supervisory Special Agent and Assistant Legal Attache at the American Embassy in London and then as the Chief Cyber Security Advisor for Microsoft Ltd U.K. I have been extremely impressed by Ian's knowledge of technology, forensics, and investigations; and, his compassion for victims. He is not done until the job is done." Ian is also a long-standing active member of the "Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams" (FIRST), having spent six years on the FIRST Steering Committee. He was the main driver behind the FIRST Best Practice Guide initiative and was Program Chair for the FIRST 2007 Conference. Ian has also played the role of mentor at Cyber London (CyLon), Europe's first cyber security accelerator. Always keen to educate and develop new talent in the industry, he is now a mentor at HutZero, the UK's first cybersecurity bootcamp. Resecurity President, Charles Yoo, says: "Ian's experience and strategic advice will be invaluable in helping Resecurity focus on providing next-generation endpoint protection platform (EPP) and intelligence-driven solutions to leading Fortune 500 corporations as well as to national governments worldwide. Resecurity is bringing on board industry veterans to accelerate global business development and to strengthen R&D in multiple directions including data science, intelligence and comprehensive enterprise ecosystem protection as key priorities." About Resecurity Resecurity Inc., a California-based cybersecurity company, is focused on next-generation endpoint protection and intelligence-driven cybersecurity solutions. Resecurity combines a robust protection stack identifying security anomalies with investigation and remediation capabilities. The company also provides security research services to leading Fortune 500 corporations and governments. Resecurity protects the enterprise ecosystem against cyber threats using a robust technology stack and built-in contextual awareness. Powered by Resecurity Context, our solution provides in-depth analysis of identified cyber threats and associated threat actors in real time. Our key mission is to help enterprises of different sizes to mitigate possible risks in a timely and effective way using cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions. Resecurity: Revolutionizing Cybersecurity. You can gain full access to Resecurity products by starting your free trial. Learn more: https://www.resecurity.com 2018 Resecurity, Inc. All rights reserved. Resecurity, Resecurity Context, Resecurity Risk and Resecurity Hunter are the trademarks of Resecurity. Contacts For further information, please contact: [email protected] Resecurity International, Inc. Anthony Glover, (800) 781-5698 [email protected] SOURCE Resecurity Related Links https://resecurity.com Washington, Sep 1 : The US Congress, together with family members and friends, bid farewell to Republican Sen. John McCain, whose mortal remains arrived early Friday morning at the Capitol. They will stay under the Capitol dome all day so that citizens can offer him a final tribute, a distinction reserved for very few throughout the nation's history, Efe reported. In the presence of his family including his mother Roberta, 106, the congressional leaders and Vice President Mike Pence paid tribute to the service of the senator, both as a legislator and as a Vietnam War veteran. Pence, who attended as a representative of the Oval Office, repeated before those present that President Donald Trump had asked him to attend the funeral in his name, though several months ago McCain had said the billionaire would not be welcome at his last rites. McCain was one of the Republican senators most critical of the magnate during his over 2 1/2 years in office, being himself the target of the president's insults on social media. "It is deeply humbling to stand before you today at the United States Capitol to commemorate the life and service of an American patriot, Senator John McCain," Pence said. "The President asked me to be here on the behalf of a grateful nation to pay a debt of honour and respect to a man who served our country throughout his life in uniform and in public office, and it's my great honour to be here," the vice president said. McCain, who died last Saturday at age 81 after fighting brain cancer, was one of the leading US political figures in the last few decades after being a prisoner of war in Vietnam and serving as a senator from Arizona for more than 30 years. The memorial services in his honour in Washington will conclude Saturday with a ceremony in the National Cathedral, where former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush will give eulogies at the request of McCain himself, and afterward will be interred Sunday at the US Naval Academy cemetery in Annapolis, 50 km from the capital. Manila, Sep 1 : Six villagers were killed by unidentified gunmen, who also abducted a Filipino couple in a Philippine town, police said on Saturday. The gunmen broke into the couple's house in the coastal Sirawai town and took them hostage around 5 p.m. on Friday, Xinhua quoted police officer Edwin de Ocampo as saying. A neighbour of the couple, who is attached to the military, tried to rescue the hostages but was killed. Five more villagers were also gunned down by the attackers as they escaped, De Ocampo added. He said a child was also wounded in the crossfire. A rescue operation is on. This is the second abduction incident in Sirawai town this year. WASHINGTON, Aug. 16, 2018 - U.S. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert addresses a press briefing in Washington D.C., the United States, Aug. 15, 2018. The U.S. State Department on Wednesday ... Image Source: IANS Washington, Sep 1 : The US has decided to end all funding for the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, the UN Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa), tasked with supporting Palestinian refugees and called for a large reduction in the number of these refugees. The Donald Trump administration would come up with a formal announcement in the next few weeks, a senior administration official told CNN late on Friday. The State Department on Friday described the agency as "irredeemably flawed" and that the US administration has "carefully reviewed" the issue and "will not make additional contributions to Unrwa", spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas later said the move was a "flagrant assault" against his people. "Such a punishment will not succeed to change the fact that the US no longer has a role in the region and that it is not a part of the solution," Nabil Abu Rudeina was quoted as saying by the Times of Israel. He added that the decision was in "defiance of UN resolutions". "We reject in the strongest possible terms the criticism that Unrwa's schools, health centres, and emergency assistance programs are 'irredeemably flawed'," Unrwa spokesman Chris Gunness tweeted. The latest move comes after the US announced back in January that it would withhold more than half of a tranche of funding for the agency, the BBC reported. The decision was made at a meeting between Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and a White House senior adviser and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley had also been pushing for the move. Unrwa was originally set up to take care of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It supports more than five million people across the Middle East. Unrwa offers educational, health and social services across the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon to registered Palestinian refugees. The agency educates about 500,000 children in nearly 700 schools and its doctors see more than nine million patients in nearly 150 primary health clinics every year. The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Saturday condemned the US' decision which will affect services provided to Palestinian refugees located in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem. Hamas' spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement that the decision makes the US administration the "enemy" of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims. Secretary-General of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization Saeb Erekat said: "Unrwa is not an institution of the Palestinian National Authority. "It was created by a resolution of the UN and therefore the entire international community must reject and condemn the American decision." The Unrwa was established under Resolution 302 of 1949 to aid people in the camps until the refugee issue is settled. The US has been the largest single donor to Unrwa, providing $368 million in 2016 and funding almost 30 per cent of its operations in the region. The Donald Trump administration had pledged $60 million to Unrwa in January, but withheld another $65 million pending a review. That remaining payment is now expected to be cancelled. Kuala Lumpur, Sep 1 : Malaysian police are seeking two Indonesian women to appear as witnesses in an ongoing trial over the murder of Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Kim Jong-nam died at the Kuala Lumpur's International Airport in February 2017 after a toxic VX nerve agent was rubbed on his face. The police identified the two women as 24-year-old Raisa Rinda Salma and 33-year-old Dessy Meyrisinta, reports CNN. Their last known address was given as the Flamingo Hotel in Ampang, Malaysia, a town on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. As the two women could not be contacted, the authorities are appealing to the public for information on their whereabouts. Speaking to CNN, Selangor State Criminal Investigations Department chief Fadzil Ahmat wouldn't say whether the women were associates of two women who have been charged with killing the murder, only that they are being sought as witnesses. Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong, nationals of Indonesia and Vietnam respectively, are currently on trial for allegedly murdering Kim Jong-nam by wiping his face with the highly lethal nerve agent VX at an airport in the Malaysian capital. Lawyers for both women maintain they were duped by a group of North Koreans, four of whom have been charged in relation to Kim's murder but have since left the country. In August, Aisyah's father Asria maintained that his daughter was tricked and called upon the government of Indonesia to do more to secure her release. "She was framed. I asked her and she doesn't know what really happened," he told CNN. The lawyers for both Aisyah and Doan said their clients will take the stand to defend themselves once the trial resumes later this year. It will be the first time either of them has spoken publicly about the killing. Siti's hearing will begin in November and Doan's next year. In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome! New York, Sep 1 : Ukrainian world No. 7 Elina Svitolina has advanced to the US Open round of 16 for the second straight year with a routine 6-4, 6-4 victory over China's Wang Qiang. The 23-year-old Svitolina won the match in an hour and eight minutes on Friday, thanks to her more consistent baseline game and a perfect five-for-five conversion rate on break points, reports Efe news. Wang struck 19 winners to Svitolina's 14, but her 27 unforced errors (15 more than the Ukrainian) proved to be her undoing. Next up for the No. 7 seed in the round of 16 of this hard-court Grand Slam event will be 28-year-old Latvian Anastasija Sevastova, a US Open quarter-finalist in 2016 and 2017. Svitolina won the players' only meeting 6-3, 7-6 (9-7) in Cali, Colombia, although that match was played on clay five years ago. Mumbai, Sep 1 : Being a stage actor taught actor Pankaj Tripathi the art of improvisation, something that he has continued to apply in his film career too. To improvise, you must be spontaneous, aware, have a sense of humour and a social satirical sense, says the actor, acclaimed for films like "Masaan", 'Gurgaon" and "Newton". "There are lot of factors that come into play when improvising. Most of all one must fully be there in the scene. You cannot wait for a cue. It is after many years of experience, working in good theatre plays, with great teachers and working on one's craft will an actor be able to improvise. "I try and do it with every film. I have lines that audiences love and that have clicked with them, all of which have been improvised," he said in a statement. A National School of Drama alumnus, Pankaj's latest movie to release is "Stree", which stars Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor in the lead. Was to good to be true: Rasika on bagging 'Manto' For actress Rasika Dugal, the way Nandita Das's upcoming film "Manto" landed in her lap, was too good to be true. Rasika was cast as Safia Manto in the film, which is on the life of late writer Saadat Hasan Manto, for various reasons. The most important was the similarity in looks, which is why the actress didn't need any kind of prosthetic for the film. On being cast in the Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer and how it felt when she received a call from Nandita, Rasika said in a statement: "I met Nandita for the first time when I had performed in a Cineplay (an initiative) and then when she had come to watch my film 'Qissa'. "She was very appreciative of my performance in both and said she was writing a film on Manto and had me in mind for a part. I didn't know which part then but was very excited about getting an opportunity to work with her and excited about a film on Manto since I was an avid reader of his work. "She said she was putting the film together and would get in touch when she was ready to cast." For some months thereafter, Rasika didn't hear from Nandita. "I was tempted to write to her in the months that went by to check about that but didn't want to disturb her. Finally I got a mail from her almost a year later (by which time I had thought that she had probably cast someone else) saying she wanted to meet. "I thought there would be a long process of auditions and readings that would follow before she decides on the cast. But at the meeting, Nandita said she wanted me to play Safia Manto and gave me a script to read. It was too good to be true. I think I did a little dance on my way out from her house that day." "Manto" will release on September 21. We will all be proud of 'Uri': Yami Gautam Actress Yami Gautam is confident her film "Uri", based on the Uri attack of September 2016, is a project people will be proud of. For her role as an intelligence officer in the film, in which she features with Vicky Kaushal, Yami has undergone training to pull off the action scenes. Asked about the experience of working on it so far, Yami told IANS: "More than tough, I would use the word challenging for it. But it's a happy challenge... It's not something I am stressing about." Yami credits the stress-free environment to a great team. "'Kaabil' is a big example... You know how intense that film was, but we had an amazing time shooting it. And by amazing time, you don't have to be partying... I mean the vibe and energy that goes on, where everyone works selflessly. "That's the kind of environment our 'Uri' director Aditya Dhar has on the set... It's his first film but it's wonderful how he has done the research and has clarity and passion about what he is doing. It should be a film we all will be proud of," added Yami, who will next be seen in "Batti Gul Meter Chalu". New Delhi, Sep 1 : Twenty-four-year-old Abhishek Mukherjee was offered a job by a reputed private firm during a campus recruitment drive. The young professional was eager to join his new workplace and showcase some of the skills that he mastered in college and put them to good use. However, certain tasks that Abhishek was asked to perform at his workplace were beyond his academic knowledge. Although he had the willingness to learn, the lack of training made him a poor performer. Often, the skills acquired in an educational institute differ from those required for the job. This means educational institutions should look beyond academics and offer students real-time experiences, where they are able to gain first-hand exposure of working in the real world. To some extent, such programmes can help students get a taste of the actual professional world and help them establish critical networking connections. However, it is workplace training that can enable employees to acquire new and specific skills for a certain role, increase their contribution to the business and build their self-esteem. The skill sets required for jobs are ever-changing and it is the responsibility of companies to plug the skill gap between education and employment. Offering the right training to employees will help in strengthening their skills, enhancing their capabilities and acquiring new knowledge. The companies that invest time and money in developing and expanding the knowledge of their employees bring in more productivity and are able to position themselves better in the larger business landscape. Here's a look at how on-the-job training can prove to be a worthwhile investment for companies and equip employees with the right set of skills: Helps tackle shortcomings: While one employee maybe good at calculations and market segmentation, another may prove her excellence in ideation and churning out new strategies. Every individual will have some shortcomings and it is timely training and development programmes that can upskill employees to perform different tasks with the minimum required skill. Workplace training plays a pivotal role in bridging the skill gap and keeping employees on the cutting edge of industry developments Increases productivity: In a rapidly-evolving job landscape, employees need to be trained and taught about new technologies and their applications. With training and development, employees can stay up-to-date, use new technologies and give up on the old ways of performing a task. They can finish a task faster and show improved results with the right training. It will also give them confidence and enable them to adopt new and better ways to achieve their goals and objectives Boosts employees' morale: Lack of guidance often kills the morale of employees. Training and development programmes not only improve the skills of employees but also boost their morale, thereby making them happy and leading to longer tenures. Apart from breaking the monotony in the workplace, training programmes offer employees a learning platform where they are able to master new skills and become more marketable. Encourages creativity: With training and upskilling, employees are able to think outside the box and widen their thinking capabilities, hone their communication skills and develop new skills that can improve a company's competitive edge. Such programmes are the best ways to promote innovation and improve employee involvement. Enhances company reputation and profile: Offering the right training and development programme makes the company stand out in the recruitment sphere. Employees are likely to feel valued if they are being invested in, and they work harder to exceed expectations. However, the company should adopt stronger and successful training strategies that help them build their brand name and enable them to emerge as a sought-after firm among employees. (Divya Jain is CEO of Safeducate) Washington, Sep 1 : US President Donald Trump and the ruling emir of Kuwait will meet at the White House on September 5, an official statement said. Emir Sabah al Ahmed will meet Trump as the head of a delegation to discuss trade, investment and cooperation in security, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a press release, Efe news reported. She did not provide further details of the meeting's agenda, but the Kuwaiti emir and President Trump are expected to discuss the diplomatic crisis and trade blockade against Qatar, which has been going on for more than an year. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain severed their ties with Qatar in June 2017, accusing the small emirate of supporting terrorism. The US, which has one of its main regional military bases in Qatar, has unsuccessfully tried to resolve the conflict with the mediation of Kuwait. Moscow, Sep 1 : At least 18 persons were injured as a plane skidded off the runway and caught fire during landing in Russia's Black Sea resort city of Sochi early on Saturday, a Ministry statement said. The incident occurred at 2.59 a.m., when a Boeing 737 plane of Russia's Utair airline en route from Moscow to Sochi with 164 passengers and six crew members on board skidded off the runway, and ended up on the bank of a river, the statement said. The plane's landing gear and one of its wings were damaged, while the left engine caught fire. All passengers were safely evacuated. The fire has been put out, Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying. The injured, included three children. Russia's aviation authorities and Utair have launched a probe. Srinagar, Sep 1 : Police in Jammu and Kashmir arrested a senior bureaucrat on Saturday for faking his birth date. M.D. Khan, administrative secretary of ARI and Trainings, faked his date of birth to gain three years on his retirement, the police added. New Delhi : Among the dozen or so guests US Ambassador Frank Wisner was escorting to Bhutan for a holiday was Richard Holbrooke, former US Ambassador to the UN. Wisner had invited a few Indian friends to the long hall of Roosevelt House to meet the group. The year was 1996. The ebb and flow of conversation was interrupted when Holbrooke raised his hand like a Japanese tour leader. "Silent," he whispered audibly. He walked to the far end of the hall to talk on the telephone. He returned with his mouth full of news. "US-Taliban romance is over," he announced with authority. Until the previous day, the US was operating on the assumption that the Taliban was the most organised and muscular group in Afghanistan who could be relied upon to stabilise the country. TAPI, or the Turkmenistan, Afghan, Pakistan, India gas pipeline, would then begin to look feasible to the US oil company, UNOCAL -- the principal reason for the Afghan conflict. What the US had not bargained for was the brutality with which the Taliban applied Shariah law on Afghan women. A series of prime time features on Taliban cruelty against women, telecast by the CNN's Christiane Amanpour, created a sensation in Washington. Without any waste of time, the US decided to distance itself from the Taliban. US officials supportive of the UNOCAL project did not conceal their disappointment. "US gender politics has scuttled a strategic initiative." Fast forward to the great Tajik leader, Ahmad Shah Massoud (the lion of Panjshir valley) addressing the European Union in Brussels, in early spring 2001. He alerted the EU leaders, of the information his anti-Taliban Northern Alliance had collected: Al Qaeda, helped by the Taliban, were planning a major attack on the US mainland. For this audacity Massoud was to pay with his life. On September 9, two days before the attack on the Twin towers in New York, Massoud was assassinated at his hideout on the Tajik border. It is interesting that the two Tunisian suicide bombers who had approached Massoud disguised as journalists travelled on passports forged in Brussels, the city where Massoud exposed the plot which turned out to be 9/11. At whose behest was Massoud killed? Had the financial crisis of 2008 not weakened the West, there may have been different scripts for many regions, including Afghanistan. But given the ground realities, President Barack Obama settled on July 2011 as the date on which US troops would begin to withdraw. In August 2011, precisely a month after the Afghan withdrawal date was announced, the Syrian theatre was opened up. Coordination or chaos? In a paper for the Observer Research Foundation in September 2010, I had argued that Obama's exit plans were a pipedream. Do Americans have an endgame planned? Can a superpower, in a theatre of strategic importance, have a linear exit plan when multiple strategic options present themselves? The US has been extremely watchful of a nuclear Pakistan. Is it now willing to walk away leaving the world's only "Islamic" bomb unmonitored? Let's not forget, Afghanistan has been the US watch tower on this count. Moreover, a US being bled by an endless war suits all powers in the region. Demanding American departure but doing everything to keep it tied down in Afghanistan is an elementary game everyone is playing. Would interests in Pakistan wish the logistical supply line from the Karachi harbour to Afghanistan past Baluchistan to dry up? It is a regular source of incalculable earnings. Would not a possible US departure cause Iran, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Russia and China to contemplate the Afghan real estate as a huge vacuum which each power must rush to fill up before the next one does? Here is a recipe for the mother of all civil wars. Are the Americans likely to walk away simply because they are exasperated? After having spent a trillion dollars, losing thousands of lives, losing face -- so soon after their reversal in Syria -- are they really contemplating withdrawal? Will the bosses of UNOCAL suck their thumbs now? Will the priceless poppy fields of Helmand, the oil in the North, the unexplored mineral wealth now become a Russian asset? Of course not. Absence of consistency has been one of the constants in US policy on Afghanistan. To cloak this inconsistency, amplified in the time of Trump, we have strange reports coming out of the White House. Before Steve Bannon, the President's Chief strategist, was shown the door in August 2017, he had drawn the President's attention to an outlandish proposition put forward by Eric Prince, the founder of Blackwater, the world's biggest provider of private armies. At a strategy session in Camp David, Trump's Best and Brightest considered the plan: Afghanistan should be administered exactly as the British controlled India -- under a viceroy. Is former US ambassador to Kabul, Zalmay Khalilzad, to be that Viceroy? He is an ethnic Afghan and is being tipped as special Envoy which is what the Viceroys were. Of course, the senior military brass around Trump shot down the first Prince proposal. But with Trump beginning to look vulnerable, all manner of risky adventures are being contemplated. The other day, National Security Adviser John Bolton leaked the alarming news that Syria was about to launch a chemical attack in Idlib. How did he know? From Hezbullah leader Hasan Nasrallah's speech last Sunday? Nasrallah said, "Data indicates that preparations are underway to stage a new chemical incident in Idlib." This is the Western "ruse to launch an aggression on Syria". Meanwhile, there are statements by Iranian Supreme leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, Russian Foreign Ministry and reports by independent journalists like Robert Fisk that militant groups like Jabhat al Nusra, trounced in Syria, are being secretly airlifted to Northern Afghanistan. There are unconfirmed reports of a Chinese retaliation: A battalion being raised in the Wakhan Corridor to block terrorism being transported from Afghanistan. An air strike on the Afghan-Tajik border killed eight militants. According to the Afghan spokesman Khalil Asir, the origin of the aircraft remains unclear. Strange things are happening. US Presidents have been known to dramatically divert attention when faced with internal crises. Is some catastrophe being manufactured to protect Trump? (Saeed Naqvi is a commentator on political and diplomatic affairs. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached on saeednaqvi@hotmail.com) Washington, Sep 1 : US President Donald Trump's administration has decided to end all funding to the UN agency tasked with supporting Palestinian refugees and call for a large reduction in the number of Palestinians considered to be refugees. A formal announcement with respect to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), is expected in the next few weeks, a senior administration official told CNN late Friday. The State Department on Friday described the agency as "irredeemably flawed" and that the US administration has "carefully reviewed" the issue and "will not make additional contributions to UNRWA". The US has for long been the biggest individual donor to UNRWA, established by the UN General Assembly in 1949 to take care of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. It donated more than $350 million to the agency in 2017. The official told CNN that the decision was made at a meeting between Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a White House senior adviser and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, but that US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley had also been pushing for the move. UNRWA offers educational, health and social services across the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon to registered Palestinian refugees. The agency educates about 500,000 children in nearly 700 schools and its doctors see more than 9 million patients in nearly 150 primary health clinics every year. A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the move was an "assault" against his people, the BBC reported. A spokesman for UNRWA, Chris Gunness, slammed the US move in a series of tweets. "We reject in the strongest possible terms the criticism that UNRWA's schools, health centres, and emergency assistance programmes are 'irredeemably flawed'," he wrote. Friday's announcement comes after the US said in January that it would withhold $65 million, from an initial instalment of $125 million it was expected to hand over to UNRWA at the start of the year. Washington said it wanted UNRWA to reform and believed other countries should increase the amounts they contributed to the agency. London, Sep 1 : A British man suspected in the murder of a school girl has been sent to jail for refusing to share his Facebook password with police investigating her death, the media reported. Stephen Nicholson was jailed for refusing to share his Facebook password with police, which they claimed obstructed their investigation into the stabbing of 13-year-old Lucy McHugh on July 26 this year, the Independent reported, late on Friday. The police hoped to read through his private messages to see if he had sent any messages to the girl before her murder. Nicholson, who pleaded guilty to the charge under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), argued that giving police access to his private Facebook messages could expose information relating to cannabis. However, the judge described this excuse as "wholly inadequate", considering the severity of the case and ordered a 14 month jail term. Under the RIPA, police investigating a crime has the power to compel people to disclose a password used to access a phone, computer or any service accessed through an electronic device. Refusing to comply with RIPA, intended as an anti-terror measure, can result in a maximum sentence of two years imprisonment, or five years in cases involving national security or child indecency. "The police are able to request disclosure if the reason is to prevent or detect crime, if it's in the interests of national security or the economic well-being of the UK," Saunders Law, a London-based law firm, stated on its website. However, the criminals may be wiser to not disclose a password and plead guilty to the RIPA offence, rather than face significantly more severe charges brought on by whatever the password-protected data reveals, the firm pointed out. Thus, "there could be a completely disproportionate result if someone is imprisoned for not providing a password but not the crime they are originally under investigation for, of which they might be innocent", the firm stated. A decision on whether to charge Nicholson with further offences is expected on October 27, the report stated. Kabul, Sep 1 : Two Taliban senior commanders were killed when military aircraft targeted the militants' hideout outside Qalat city, the capital of the southern Zabul province, provincial police chief Mohammad Mustafa Mayar said. According to the official, the aircraft of the US-led coalition forces conducted the sorties against Taliban hideouts in Amki area, on Friday afternoon, killing Mullah Asad and Mullah Sangari, the commanders on the spot and injuring a few others. Mayar, however, didn't provide more details, Xinhua news agency reported. Taliban militants have not made any comments so far. Mumbai, Sep 1 : Actress-turned-director Nandita Das has been invited to participate in a movement called 'Share her journey' by Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2018 where she will speak about gender inequality in the film industry. Nandita took to Twitter and wrote: "At TIFF, in addition to 'Manto' North American premiere, I will participate in 'Share her journey' and will share my perspective along with six incredible women at a public rally hosted by the festival. Can't wait." The filmmaker, who earlier attended the film's screening at the Cannes Film festival where she was seen protesting against gender gap, feels proud at getting the opportunity to speak on gender parity in films at an international platform once again. On the same, she penned a long post on Facebook which reads: "This year was doubly rewarding when 'Manto' began its journey with a world premiere at Cannes, and I participated in the march with a select group of 82 women protesting gender inequality in the film industry. "Soon, I will be going to the Toronto International Film Festival for Manto's North American premiere. There, I have been invited to participate in the movement called 'Share Her Journey' to champion female storytellers and push gender parity in films." She also mentioned that issues like sexism and sexual misconduct exist in the industry and almost every single actress has dealt with it. "We all know that sexism, gender disparity and sexual misconduct are widespread in the film industry. Almost all of us have been privy to it and most have experienced it firsthand. In the past year, the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements have shed a much-needed spotlight on the harsh reality faced by women in the industry. "While not enough criminal prosecutions have happened yet, it has given hope to women in the industry that silence does not have to be an option." She is also glad that finally important festivals are beginning to address this "inexcusable, longstanding wrong". "The fact that these movements have garnered such attention and support is a clear indication that we cannot and will not accept this culture of inequality and abuse. I look forward to standing, side-by-side, and sharing stories with my fellow speakers and audiences," she said. Starring actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the lead role, "Manto" is slated to release on September 21. New Delhi, Sep 1 : Nawazuddin Siddiqui's "Manto", which is helmed by actress-filmmaker Nandita Das, will open the second edition of the Singapore South Asian International Film Festival (Sg.SAIFF). "We are delighted to screen 'Manto' as the opening film at Sg.SAIFF. 'Manto' was very much a South Asian writer," Nandita said in a statement. "But unlike the Europeans, we South Asians do not own this identity, despite many cultural and social similarities amongst the countries in the region. Therefore, it is important to support such festivals that celebrate cinema from the sub-continent. "Last year, Sg.SAIFF screened a film I acted in, 'Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai' as the opening film, which is yet to be released. I was unfortunately unable to make it. So, I very much look forward to attending it this year," she added. The fest will be held in Singapore from October 5-14. "Manto", co-produced by HP Studios, Filmstoc and Viacom18 Motion Pictures, traces the life of writer Saadat Hasan Manto. Nawazuddin will be seen bringing the character to life. The film follows the most tumultuous years in the life of the iconoclastic writer Manto and those of the countries -- India and Pakistan -- which Manto inhabited and chronicled. The film stars Rasika Dugal as Manto's wife and Tahir Raj Bhasin, Rishi Kapoor and Divya Dutta in key roles. Abhayanand Singh, Chairperson of Sg.SAIFF, also said: "We are happy that Nandita Das accepted our invitation to come and present the film at the festival." The fest line-up represents a diverse mix of feature films, short films and documentaries, which include films from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal and Afghanistan. Hanoi, Sep 1 : Four children from Vietnam's central Quang Ngai province drowned while bathing in a river here, the provincial police said on Saturday. Two sisters aged 10 and 15, and two twin brothers aged nine from two families in Nghia Hanh district were having a bath in Ve River on Friday afternoon when they slid into a deep hole in the river. By Saturday morning, all the four bodies had been found by local police and residents. "Drowning is a silent epidemic claiming more than 2,000 children's lives per year in Vietnam," an official from the World Health Organization in Vietnam told Xinhua, adding that the number of children drowning in Vietnam is higher than other Southeast Asian nations and 10 times higher than that of developed countries. The official said that many deaths caused by drowning in Vietnam could be prevented if adults supervised the kids' activities more closely. Kabul, Sep 1 : At least four al-Qaeda operatives were killed in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province as an unmanned plane targeted the extremist outfit's hideout, said a statement from the Afghan national army corps stationed in the eastern region on Saturday. The unmanned plane, according to the statement, targeted the al-Qaeda hideout in Wata Pur district very recently, killing four operatives on the spot, Xinhua reported. The statement did not say if there were any civilian or security personnel casualties. New Delhi, Sep 1 : In a no-holds-barred attack on Congress and its chief Rahul Gandhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday accused "one privileged family" of being responsible for the huge scam in bank loans through "phone banking" during the UPA regime and vowed to bring back every rupee that has been caught in NPAs. He described NPAs as the biggest scam of UPA which it tried to bury by dishing out a figure of Rs 2.5 lakh crore as defaulting loans which was actually Rs 9 lakh crore. Modi did not take either Rahul Gandhi's name or anyone else in the Congress' first family but he has been using the "naamdaar" (privileged) jibe at Rahul Gandhi and his family. Launching the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) at a function here, Modi said none of the loans that turned bad were given during the NDA regime. He said his government has identified 12 largest defaulters of pre-2104 period, who failed repay Rs 1.75 lakh crore and action to recover the amount is on. The government has also identified another 27 defaulters of Rs 1 lakh crore NPAs and the government ws working on its recovery, he said adding that this was found during a review of defaults of above Rs 50 crore after he took charge. The Prime Minister said earlier the banks used to chase such defaulters but today they were running to the banks to hand over the money as investigative and enforcement agencies were tightening the noose around them. "Those who were feeling that the loan amount they have taken from banks with the help of 'naamdaar family', will remain always 'incoming' but now 'outgoing' has started from their accounts," he said. "Every rupee that has been forced into defaults will recovered and used for the development of the poor," he said. The Prime Minister said the 'privileged' family left a number of landmines in the economy through their indiscriminate lending by phone banking. "If the government had made it public, it would have had a disastrous effect on economy. The NDA government meticulously brought the country out of this crisis," he said. The Prime Minister said that his government has taken a number of reform measures like the passage of Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, which would enable seizure of the assets of defaulters even if they are not in the country, and adoption of a professional approach in the banking system. He said a new measure that has been introduced in banking through which the passport details of those who take big loans were being collected so that they cannot flee the country after defaulting. Apparently replying to Rahul Gandhi, who had claimed two days ago that the NPAs were only to the tune of Rs 2.5 lakh crore during UPA, Modi said the reality was to the contrary. "The claim that it was Rs 2.5 lakh crore was a lie and fraud. In fact the real figure was Rs 9 lakh crore. At a time when huge scams were coming to the fore, they (Congress) were busy in suppressing their biggest scam," he said. He said the UPA government knew that some day the fraud would be unearthed. So they hatched a conspiracy and misled the country by hiding the real figures. "Instead, when the loans were turning bad, the "privileged" put pressure on the banks to give further loans in the name of 'restructuring' which was another fraud. The banks knew that the money would not come but the officials continued to advance loans recklessly because they had the 'blessings' of the 'naamdaars', he said. "After independence till 2008, the banks had advanced loans to the tune of Rs 18 lakh crore while in six years alone between 2008-14, it jumped up to Rs 52 lakh crore," he said. Moscow, Sep 1 : The death of a pro-Russian separatist leader in the conflict-ridden eastern Ukraine could serve to escalate tensions in the region and impede the so-called Minsk peace process, a Kremlin spokesperson said on Saturday. Alexander Zakharchenko, the 42-year-old leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), a region of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian insurgents since 2014, was killed when a car bomb struck a cafe in downtown Donetsk city on Friday. "Zakharchenko's death will no doubt lead to increased tensions in the region, which will of course not help create the conditions to fulfill the Minsk Accord," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media in Sochi. "We are without a doubt looking at a provocation that will have serious negative consequences in the region," he added. The Minsk Accord, named after the Belorussian capital in which it was signed, brought Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany together in an effort to draw up a viable peace solution in the warring Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian troops and pro-Moscow separatists were engaged in an ongoing conflict that, according to the UN, has claimed over 10,000 lives. Authorities in the DPR were quick to lay the blame for the attack at the feet of Ukraine's security forces, an accusation denied by Kiev. Dmitry Trapeznikov, 37, was named as Zakharchenko's replacement. Pro-Russian insurgents took control of two major regions of eastern Ukraine in the wake of a revolution in 2014 that ousted Russophile former President Viktor Yanukovych. The conflict erupted simultaneously with the Russian annexation of Crimea. Lucknow, Sep 1 : A staggering Rs 40 lakh in salaries is paid every month to the 86 staffers of the Uttar Pradesh Raj Bhawan, the Governor's official residence, a response to an RTI query has revealed. As per the RTI data provided by Hemant Kumar Chaudhary, Public Information Officer (PIO) of Raj Bhawan, Uttar Pradesh to activist Nutan Thakur, the staffers include a principal secretary, a special secretary and a legal advisor. There are four officers on special duty (OSD), four personal secretaries and other secretariat staff. In addition, there is one chef, one steward, six drivers, three senior attendants and 19 attendants. There are also sixteen bearers, five assistant bearers, three mates, two cooks, one tailor, one washerman and five 'safai karmis'. The RTI response also mentioned that the salary of principal and special secretary is given by the government, while the cumulative monthly salary of other 84 personnel is Rs 39,70,530. The Raj Bhawan, however, refused to provide the number of police personnel posted there and the monthly salary given to them, citing provisions of RTI Act. The activist told IANS that "the reasons of denial do not seem proper". Lucknow, Sep 1 : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday said the date for construction of a grand Ram temple will be set by Lord Ram himself. Speaking at a conclave in the state capital, organised by a Hindi newspaper, the monk-turned-politician said what has to happen at a given time will happen at that time only. "No body can stop if once it is ordained by the gods." He also pointed out how previous state governments were afraid of visiting the temple town of Ayodhya and added that he has visited the holy town, so that it can be developed to the level it should be. To a question on education, the Chief Minister said for years a section of the society was being deprived of modern and technical education and his government is committed to changing it. "Children of a specific section are being deprived of modern education and restricted to 'mazhabi shiksha' (religious education). We have decided to change it and hence we have initiated modernization of Madarsas," Adityanath said. He also trashed the efforts of the opposition to gang up against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and said this "mahagathbandhan" (grand alliance) would never work as there is confusion over who would be its leader. He also refuted charges that the BJP pursues politics of caste and community and pointed out that the mantra of BJP governments was only and only development. "Welfare of the people and comprehensive development drives the BJP government," he added. Adityanath also rubbished charges of government laxity in the Deoria incident where girls and women were sexually abused in a government-run shelter home. "We acted immediately and the guilty have been brought to book." Claiming that the BJP government had rolled out several thousand jobs for the unemployed youth, Adityanath went on to say that the state government would be recruiting 1.37 lakh teachers and 1.62 lakh police personnel. Strict action against criminals has yielded good results after which investment worth crores of rupees has come to Uttar Pradesh, he added. New Delhi, Sep 1 : The Delhi Police on Saturday said it has arrested three wanted criminals, who had been hiding in Delhi and adjoining districts after committing heinous crimes since long. The police said the dreaded criminals, who were declared proclaimed offenders, have been identified as Khursheed, 35, Jai Prakash, 32, and Akaram, 36. They were arrested on Thursday and Friday in separate raids conducted at various locations in east and west Delhi. "A team of Special Investigation Unit (SIU) Crime Branch headed by ACP Sandeep Lamba and Inspector Upendra Kumar first arrested Kursheed near Nand Nagri Bus Depot on Thursday night and Akaram from Pilli Kothi in Kotwali area," Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP) Rajiv Ranjan said. They were involved in a series of crimes including attempt to murder, robbery, possession of illegal arms, cheating and others, the officer said. The police team later on Friday night arrested Jaiprakash near Nawada Metro Station. They had gone missing between 2011 and 2012 and were later declared proclaimed offenders, Ranjan added. Patna, Sep 1 : A special court on Saturday rejected the plea of the shelter home rape key accused to shift him from the high-security cell of the Muzaffarpur Central Jail to the general prisoner ward on the ground of security threat to him. Brajesh Thakur on Saturday appeared before the special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) court in Muzaffarpur via videoconference. The accused informed the court that neither anyone can approach him nor can he talk to anyone in his high-security cell. The court citing security threat to him rejected his plea. Last month Thakur had told the authorities about a threat to his life as he was currently lodged with Maoist rebels. Thakur has been lodged in the Muzaffarpur Central Jail since June 2. He was shifted to the prisoners ward from the hospital ward barely two weeks ago. The Patna High Court is monitoring the CBI probe into the case. The Muzaffarpur rape case 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. Mumbai, Sep 1 : A short film on Jammu and Kashmir tourism, launched by the state government, has won "gold" at an award ceremony organised by the India chapter of International Advertising Association (IAA) here. The ad film titled "Warmest Place on Earth" launched by the state's Tourism Department in September 2017 has been declared the winner in the 'Travel and Tourism Category' at IndiAA awards held here on Friday, according to an official statement. IndIAA Awards is the intellectual property of the IAA India chapter, and was instituted in 2015. The award recognises mainstream creative advertising campaigns. The film highlights the hospitality of Kashmir. The 5-minute film was the first such big campaign launched by the Kashmir government. Conceptualised by J. Walter Thompson, it was directed by filmmaker Amit Sharma In 2014, the Union Ministry of Tourism had launched a campaign and won the 'Blue Elephant' at 'Kyoorius Creative Awards'. New Delhi, Sep 1 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday spoke to Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and took stock of the flood situation, assuring him of all support. "Spoke to Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and took stock of the situation in the wake of floods in parts of the state. Assured all possible support to the state in the rescue and relief operations. We stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Nagaland and pray for everyone's wellbeing," Modi tweeted. Incessant rains since July have caused floods and landslides in several areas of the state claiming at least 12 lives and rendering hundreads homeless. Kolkata, Sep 1 : Terming the ongoing violent political clashes in Bengal over the formation of Panchayat boards as "unfortunate", Union Minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday said right to dissent and oppose is part of democracy. "There should be free and fair polls in the democracy. Continued violence and killing of activists of opposition parties is unfortunate. Many candidates of opposition parties in Bengal were not allowed to file nominations in the panchayat elections," Prasad said here. A three-year-old child sustained a bullet injury in his head in Malda district on Thursday and three persons were killed and at least 15 injured in armed clashes between groups allegedly belonging to the Trinamool Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist in North 24 Parganas district's Amdanga block late on Tuesday night. "There is right to dissent, right to oppose in the democracy. People who oppose the ruling party have the right to file nomination. It was also unfortunate when supporters of an elected panchayat member were killed," he added. New Delhi, Sep 1 : A woman was arrested for allegedly killing her seven-month-old daughter, whose birth, she felt, brought bad luck to the family, police said on Saturday. "Adiba was alone in her home in Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti on August 20, when she killed her sleeping daughter by strangulating her with a dupatta. After that she put the child's body in a bucket of water to show drowning as the cause of her death," said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Southeast, Chinmoy Biswal. After killing the daughter about 4 p.m., Adiba ran to her husband, Israr Khan, whose shop is near the house, to inform him about the "drowning" of their kid, police said. The two took the unconscious girl to Moolchand Hospital and told the doctors about how the baby had died by drowning. "She was declared brought dead by the doctors there," Biswal said. "The police noticed some marks on the baby's neck. The body was shifted to the AIIMS mortuary for post-mortem," Biswal said. On August 27, the post-mortem report contradicted drowning. "The cause of death was revealed to be fatal pressure over the neck," said Biswal. "The bathroom of their house, where the incident took place, was scrutinised. On sustained interrogation, Adiba broke down and finally confessed to the murder," Biswal said. "The woman thought that since her daughter's birth, the entire family had faced medical and financial problems. She considered her death to be the only solution for their problems," Biswal said. New Delhi, Sep 1 : A woman was arrested in the murder case of her boyfriend, who had allegedly blackmailed her after discovering that she was involved with another man, police said on Saturday. Deputy Commissioner of Police, Central, Mandeep Singh Randhawa said accused Dolly Choudhary had been in a relationship with Sushil Kumar, 23, for some years. Sometime back, she started living with a friend Mohit Mavi, who had reportedly helped her in getting a job in Greater Noida. The case came to light after Kumar's father lodged a police complaint on August 16 about his missing son. A case of abduction was registered and the police questioned Dolly about Kumar's whereabouts. "On sustained interrogation, she revealed that when Kumar learnt about her involvement with another man, he was annoyed and started blackmailing her through her nude photographs," Randhawa said. "That's when she decided to kill him," the police officer said. "Mohit Mavi's wife committed suicide on August 7 after she learnt about her husband's relationship with Dolly Choudhary," Randhawa said. "After receiving threats from his wife's family, Mohit had fled to Bengaluru, but remained in touch with Chaudhary," police said. Kumar, who suspected that his girlfriend might marry Mohit, insisted her to meet him in Mathura on August 11. She contacted Manish Choudhary with whom her father wanted to marry her and managed to get sleeping pills in bulk. "On August 11, Dolly received Kumar from the Mathura railway station and visited several places with him. In a hotel, where they were staying, she mixed sleeping pills in his drink," police said. "After he got unconscious, she called Manish and the two threw Sushil Kumar's body into the Yamuna in Mathura," Randhawa said, adding Dolly and Manish were arrested on Friday. Baghdad, Sep 2 : Iraq's Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Saturday confirmed that his Sairoon Coalition will not return to square one. On his Twitter account, Sadr said "no return to square one, as no return to quota system, sectarianism, ethnicity and corruption," Xinhua reported. Sadr said that he will resort to political opposition in the parliament if the next government would be formed on bases of former principles of quota system that harmed Iraq in the previous stages of the political process. "The government must be formed on condition of serving Iraqis," Sadr said. "It must be a government with Iraqi decision that serves the people through ministries led by independent technocrats." Sadr's comment came as the Iraqi political blocs are in negotiations to form the largest alliance before the first session of the new parliament. The negotiations have intensified since the Federal Supreme Court ratified the final results of May 12 parliamentary elections on Aug. 19, marking the first step toward forming the new Iraqi government. The court approval confirmed the preliminary results of the parliamentary elections which showed the Sairoon Coalition, backed by Sadr, won 54 seats in the 329-seat parliament as the front runner. The ratification widely opened the door for Iraqi politicians to form the next government and would give a push for the tough negotiations by the political blocs to form the largest alliance before the first session of the new parliament. According to the Iraqi constitution, the ratification of the results entails the outgoing President Masoum to call on the new parliament to hold its first session under the chairmanship of the eldest parliament member within 15 days from the court's ratification, to elect a president of parliament and then the president of the country, who will ask the largest alliance to form a government within 30 days. On May 12, millions of Iraqis went to 8,959 polling centres across the country to vote for their parliamentary representatives in the first general election since Iraq's historic victory over the Islamic State militant group in December 2017. Rescue and relief teams work tirelessly in wet and risky conditions. California Mobile Kitchens, (CMK), is helping provide hot meals and showers for relief crews. Stationed in evacuation areas, CMK mobile kitchens can also feed the individuals and families who have reached safety, The company has distributed mobile kitchens, mobile showers and refrigerator/freezers and generators in strategic locations throughout the United States and fully equipped units can be delivered anywhere they are needed. When ever a mobile kitchen is needed for anything, including an event or festival, for disaster relief, on location for a film set, a mobile community kitchen, temporary kitchen during repairs or remodeling, CMK is the nations most accessible, cost effective and customer oriented provider of mobile kitchens for Illinois. The companys 24-hour customer service can provide the appropriate mobile kitchen and support units when and where they are needed Illinoisans love to celebrate their food and lifestyles. Food festivals, such as the International Horseradish Festival in Collingsville, the Chicago Sausage Fest and Chicago Food Truck Festival are just a small taste. Springfields Downtown Bacon Throwdown and Music Fest and the New Orleans North festival in Joliet are two more indicators of the varied foods that Illinoisans enjoy. Add in two quirky festivals, The World of Faeries Festival in South Elgin and the Arcola Broom Corn Festival hosted by Illinois largest Amish settlement and anyone can enjoy a full taste of the food and culture Illinois has to offer. Mobile kitchens from CMK are an excellent way to join in the festivities and introduce new recipes and menus to the Illinois and visitor population. CMK can deliver fully customized and equipped kitchens for fairs, festivals, and commercial kitchen requirements. The company founders, Carly Medeiros and Tomas Medeiros, Jr., have a combined 35 years experience in catering, food service and management. This experience is available to help equip and plan for ever detail of a project, and within budget. California Mobile Kitchens 953 Peterson Ranch Templeton,CA 93456 (805) 459-1254 This Press release is by San Luis Obispo SEO company Access Publishing, 806 9th Street, #2D, Paso Robles, CA 93446. (805) 226-9890. Serviced Apartments for Rent in Hollywood When Europeans come to Los Angeles, whether for business or pleasure, they think 'Hollywood. Key Housing, the leader in helping Europeans find serviced apartments in California from Sacramento to San Jose to Los Angeles to San Diego, is proud to announce its featured September, 2018, property to be the "Vantage Hollywood Apartments" located at 1710 N Fuller Ave, Los Angeles, California. Europeans seeking to come to America and live short term can leverage the "insider knowledge" of Key Housing in the very tight Los Angeles short term rental market, specifically the market for "Hollywood Serviced Apartments." When Europeans come to Los Angeles, whether for business or pleasure, they think 'Hollywood,' explained Robert Lee, President of Key Housing. By selecting the Vantage Hollywood Apartments and identifying it as a source of so-called 'serviced' or furnished apartments in Hollywood, we're helping Europeans to find their dream short-term rental in the very tight LA housing market. To view the "Vantage" listing on the Key Housing website visit http://www.keyhousing.com/rightside.asp?action=form3&ID=343. To view all available Los Angeles short term housing rentals, visit http://www.keyhousing.com/rightside.asp?location=Los+Angeles. However, interested persons are urged to click on the button designated "Corporate Housing Pricing and Availability" or call into 800-989-0410 to work with a Key Housing expert. Everything is subject to change on both price and availability and the best step for a European seeking a "serviced apartment" is to reach out as early as possible to a California company that is "on the ground" and really understands how to find short term rentals in Los Angeles. A FEATURED APARTMENT COMPLEX IN HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES Here is background on this release. First, it should be noted that Key Housing identifies two monthly "featured complexes," one in Northern California and one in Southern California. This designation is highly coveted among apartment complexes, because it is common knowledge in the industry that Key Housing is one of the leading services to locate hard-to-find corporate, short term, and furnished apartments in cities as diverse as Bakersfield, Los Angeles, Cupertino, and even Eureka. Second, the details of the Vantage Hollywood are impressive. According to their website: "Stationed in iconic Hollywood, Vantage Hollywood Apartments presents the definitive West Coast living experience. Swim laps in the pool and socialize on the rooftop lounge with the stunning view of Hollywood Hills in the backdrop. BBQ grills, a 24-hour fitness center and spa are additional treats for residents. Inside the spacious homes at Vantage Hollywood Apartments, the warm glow of the fireplace illuminates the gorgeous flooring and finishes. With these incredible amenities and a superb location, Vantage Hollywood Apartments is the epitome of luxury living." In addition, the Vantage is pet friendly, so Europeans that are bringing a pet along may be able to secure not only a serviced apartment in Hollywood, Los Angeles, but one that is pet-friendly as well. Finally, it should be noted that the designation as the September featured complex means that the Vantage will be harder to get into than ever; persons who are serious about locating a Hollywood serviced apartments are well advised to contact Key Housing or another agency immediately. It's never too soon to start "California dreaming" or "Hollywood dreaming," one might say. ABOUT KEY HOUSING Key Housing Connections Inc. (http://www.keyhousing.com/) specializes in serviced apartments, corporate housing and corporate rentals in large Southern California cities like Los Angeles and Orange County as well as Beverly Hills, Burbank and Anaheim. Whether the need is for a Los Angeles serviced apartment or short term rental in Hollywood, interested parties should browse listings on the website to find the rental that fits ones short term corporate housing needs. The service is competitive with extended stay hotels in cities such as Huntington Beach, La Jolla and Lake Foresta. Many Europeans on holiday and people seeking pet friendly short-term rentals or vacation rental apartment services depend on Key Housing for their serviced apartment or other temporary housing needs. Whether a person is after a Los Angeles serviced apartment, short term rentals in Hollywood, or a serviced apartment near Encino, Key Housing can aid the search for the right apartment in the Golden State. Key Housing Tel. (800) 989-0410 The company, California Mobile Kitchens (CMK) has provided mobile kitchens for long term military field training exercises. The company Vice President, Tomas Medeiros, Jr., has designed dining facilities for the US Army, US Navy, National Guard and the Federal Aviation Administration. CMK applies this experience to the design and configuration of mobile kitchens, mobile showers, refrigerators/freezers and generators. Colorado also celebrates food and beverages in a variety of food, art and cultural fairs and festivals; all requiring mobile food service. Some of the favorite festivals celebrate barbecue, tacos, burgers, corn and gelato. Along with the Food Truck Rally in four different locations in Denver, the Bacon & Bourbon Festival, The Slow Food Nations that focuses on local food and VegFest Colorado. CMK mobile kitchens can be custom equipped for every chefs specific needs and the kitchens meet industry hygiene standards. As a national leader in mobile kitchen solutions CMK is ready to meet the rapidly growing demand for mobile kitchens in Colorado. The company 24-hour customer service dispatches the appropriate mobile kitchen and support units when and where they are needed. The company has mobile equipment stationed at various locations throughout the United States and matches every project with the best and closest equipment. Whether a mobile kitchen is needed for events and festivals, on location for a film set, a mobile community kitchen, temporary kitchen during repairs or remodeling, or kitchens and support units for military training or disaster relief, CMK is the nations most accessible, cost effective and customer oriented provider of mobile kitchens. Both of the principals of CMK, Carly Medeiros and Tomas Medeiros, Jr., have a combined 35 years experience in catering, food service and management. This experience is available to help equip and plan for every detail of a project, and within budget. California Mobile Kitchens is the industry leader, specializing in short and long term mobile kitchen solutions for Colorado. Contact them today. California Mobile Kitchens 953 Peterson Ranch Templeton,CA 93456 (805) 459-1254 This Press release is by San Luis Obispo SEO company Access Publishing, 806 9th Street, #2D, Paso Robles, CA 93446. (805) 226-9890. The United States Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the average national hurricane damage is $2.8 billion a year. Florida accounts for 55-percent of those damage costs. Although not always in the direct path of a hurricane, Florida recovery and relief crews working around the clock need to be supported by hot meals served from mobile kitchens. People who evacuate to safety are also often provided meals from mobile kitchens. A California company, California Mobile Kitchens (CMK) has positioned fully equipped kitchens, showers, refrigerator/freezer units and generators, at strategic locations to be quickly delivered to aid relief efforts during natural disasters. Florida has hundreds of miles of beaches and despite the storms and hurricanes, these beach communities are visited regularly by thousands of Florida residents and visitors. The city of Miami is known for a vibrant Latin-American cultural influences, notable arts scene, and nightlife. With a 2017 population of 20.98 million, Floridians are undaunted by the storms. The state has the fourth fastest growth rate in the nation. The warm weather, beaches and other natural resources and cultural activities are a big draw for new residents and the more than 100 million who visit each year. Floridians celebrate their lifestyle and varied cultural resources by hosting an array of annual festivals throughout the year. From events celebrating strawberries to A-list parties, succulent seafood, Cuban flavors, the Key West Lobster Fest and the Key West Lime Fest, St. Petersburg Ribfest are just a handful. Fairs and livestock shows, arts and crafts expositions quirky local festivals fill out the annual calendar. Fully equipped mobile kitchens from CMK are available for caterers and food vendors who work at any of Floridas festivals, including festivals in Tallahassee, the state capital. Tallahassee festivals include the famous Tallahassee Brewfest, usually held in October, a two day book festival, Asian and Greek food and culture festivals, and the 10 day North Florida Fair, just to name a few. Whether the need is for a Florida mobile kitchen for an event or festival, for disaster relief, on location for a film set, a mobile community kitchen or a temporary kitchen during repairs or remodeling, CMK is the nations most accessible, cost effective and customer oriented provider of mobile kitchens. CMK has more than 25 years of experience providing mobile kitchens and support units for a variety of needs from individual caterers to large operations including emergency relief and military field exercises. The companys 24-hour customer service and strategically located kitchens and support units mean kitchens, showers, generators and refrigerator/freezer units can be fully equipped, configured and quickly delivered on site when and where they are needed. California Mobile Kitchens 953 Peterson Ranch Templeton,CA 93456 (805) 459-1254 This press release is by San Luis Obispo SEO company Access Publishing, 806 9th Street, #2D, Paso Robles, CA 93446. (805) 226-9890. Mobile kitchens play an important role in helping culinary entrepreneurs launch or expand emerging food businesses. Depending on local regulations, mobile kitchens and refrigeration units can be one way of growing a new business and participating in Georgias $19 billion restaurant business. CMK is able to deliver fully equipped mobile kitchens to help a small business grow to the next level and community food services reach the populations they serve. The kitchens and additional mobile showers, refrigeration/freezer units and generators are essential for feeding survivors and relief crews in the aftermath of natural disasters. Georgia regularly faces natural disasters including hurricanes, tornadoes, severe storms, wildfires and floods. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), tornado activity across the U.S. during 2017 was above average. The deadliest tornado of 2017 impacted southern Georgia, causing over $100 billion in damage. By March 2018, six tornadoes had already touched down in Georgia. Mobile kitchens in Georgia feed survivors and relief crews and are available to serve as temporary kitchens to help restaurants reopen for business as soon as possible and to help community food services continue to support those who rely on them. CMK is prepared to deliver fully equipped mobile kitchens, showers, refrigeration units and generators to any disaster relief area in Georgia. The Georgia spirit is undaunted and Georgians celebrate their lifestyle with hundreds of festivals and fairs all during the year. Cultural events including music, performances and arts and crafts draw thousands. Georgians love to share and celebrate their world famous peaches and peanuts. There are even festivals for prize-winning stews and fried pies. CMK is proud to provide mobile kitchens to support the prize-winning food at any of these festivals. More than 20 years in the food service industry that includes providing fully equipped mobile kitchens, refrigeration, showers, and generators for on-location film crews, military field exercises, and disaster relief crews gives California Mobile Kitchen a strategic edge. CMK is ready to meet the rapidly growing need for mobile kitchens in Georgia. As a national leader in mobile kitchen solutions CMKs 24-hour customer service provides appropriately equipped mobile kitchen and support units when and where they are needed. Whether the need is for a commercial kitchen, community food service, disaster relief, serving food at one of Georgias famous fairs or festivals, or on location for a film, CMK is the nations most accessible, cost effective and customer oriented provider of mobile kitchens. We have mobile equipment stationed at various locations throughout the United States and match every project with the best equipment for speedy delivery to any location. California Mobile Kitchens 953 Peterson Ranch Templeton, CA 93456 (805) 459-1254 This Press release is by San Luis Obispo SEO company Access Publishing, 806 9th Street, #2D, Paso Robles, CA 93446. (805) 226-9890. Over the past 10 years, Texas has survived Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Ike in 2008, the Bastrop County Complex Fire in 2015 and the Memorial Day Flood in 2015, plus tornadoes and flooding. Texas is not just about hurricanes and flooding, Texans represent a mixture of people and cultures, supports a variety of industries and lifestyles and is home to close to 30 military bases. California Mobile Kitchens (CMK) is always ready to deliver the mobile kitchens, showers, refrigerator/freezer units and generators that are necessary to support emergency relief, food and cultural celebrations, on-location film crews, community food programs, and military field exercises. CMK can deliver fully equipped mobile kitchens to Texas anywhere and any time they are needed. The company has mobile kitchens and support units stationed in strategic locations throughout the United States and 24-hour customer service makes it possible to dispatch units where they are needed as soon as possible. Mobile kitchens from CMK come in a variety of sizes, sufficient to meet any need. Refrigerator/freezer units, mobile showers and generators are also provided if needed. Mobile kitchens for fairs and festivals Texans have a lot to be proud of and their food is no exception. Texas food is not all barbecue and Tex-Mex. Influences include Austrian, Cajun and Creole, German, Czech, Jewish, Moroccan, British, Chinese and Japanese. A few of the festivals where one can find food from around the world that is homegrown in Texas include the Houston Japan Festival, DFW Africa Festival, the Original Greek Festival, India Fest, the Texas Lunar Festival celebrating Chinese New Year and food, a Turkish and Scottish fest, the Texas Folk life Festival and a Wurstfest. A mobile kitchen from CMK is the prefect way to showcase and share favorite recipes with the public. Even rodeo fans and bronc riders appreciate tasty gyros from grandmothers recipe. Mobile kitchens and support units for the military Texas military installations house around 164,000 troops. Field training exercises usually include troops from other states as well as the National Guard and can greatly increase the number of troops and support personnel that need to be fed. Supplying mobile kitchens for Texas military training exercises is an area of CMK expertise. The CMK Vice President, Tomas Medeiros, Jr., has run military dining operations, designed dining facilities for the US Army, US Navy, National Guard and the Federal Aviation Administration, including providing mobile kitchens for long-term military field training exercises. Emergency response CMK is always ready to deliver the mobile kitchens, showers, refrigerator/freezer units and generators that are necessary to support relief crews and those who have been evacuated to safety. We station our kitchens and support units strategically around the country so we can dispatch them to where they are needed as soon as possible. California Mobile Kitchens 953 Peterson Ranch Templeton, CA 93456 (805) 459-1254 This Press release is by San Luis Obispo SEO company Access Publishing, 806 9th Street, #2D, Paso Robles, CA 93446. (805) 226-9890. Mossy Oak, the Mississippi-based camouflage and outdoors lifestyle brand, has partnered with Visiture, an award-winning eCommerce marketing agency, to provide the company with search engine optimization driven content. The company has selected Visiture as its agency of record for content creation. Founded by Toxey Hass in 1986, Mossy Oak took its inspiration from the natural earth colors and patterns found in Mississippi to create a revolutionary new type of camouflage design. Today, these industry-changing pattern gives hunters the ultimate concealment, allowing them to seamlessly blend into the environment. Looking to further grow their online presence and expand their search marketing efforts, Mossy Oak selected Visiture as a partner based on their experience, creativity, and past success. The move comes as a part of Mossy Oaks overall efforts to expand their advertising and marketing efforts in order to further reach and engage with their consumers. Visiture will help develop a robust search optimization strategy designed to increase the visibility of the Mossy Oak brand and drive relevant search traffic to their website. Visiture and Mossy Oak aim to leverage a diverse set of tactics in order to further connect with both new consumers and brand loyalists. Visiture VP of Client Services, Ryan Jones, is excited about the opportunity to work with such a successful and iconic brand. Their success story is so compelling, and we are pleased to be partnering with them to continue expanding their online presence.. Through creative search marketing strategies, we fully expect that Mossy Oak will continue to experience strong growth in the years to come. About Mossy Oak Mossy Oak is a camouflage and outdoor lifestyle brand rooted in the love and respect for the natural environment. Founder Toxey Haas took his inspiration from a handful of fallen leaves, sticks and Mississippi dirt and envisioned a new type of camouflage that would revolutionize the experience of hunting. The initial pattern, Mossy Oak Bottomland,changed the industry by allowing hunters to obfuscate their presence and blend in with the natural landscape. With more than three decades of experience, Mossy Oak continues to advance design and performance to perfect the experience of hunting concealment. Mossy Oak remains committed to designing the ultimate camouflage patterns engineered to help everyone find success and enjoyment in the natural world. About Visiture Visiture is a full-service digital agency focused on helping eCommerce merchants acquire more customers through search engine optimization, pay per click management, conversion rate optimization, website development, and user experience design services. We help pave the way for online merchants to achieve higher returns from their online marketing channels and outpace the competition in a dynamic, digital world. Purity Coffee Logo The California warning about cancer and its possible relationship to coffee is totally misplaced. Coffee actually lowers the risk of 6 common cancers." -Dr. Sanjiv Chopra The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a statement August 29th pushing back against the recent California Prop 65 acrylamide ruling that requires cancer warning labels on coffee. Acrylamide is one of dozens of chemicals listed under Californias Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, better known as Proposition 65. Acrylamide, forms in the many foods that turn brown when roasted or baked at high temperatures. Bread, toast, chocolate, french fries, cookies, coffee are examples of foods that contain acrylamide. The FDA warns California that Prop 65 as it applies to coffee, "could mislead consumers to believe that drinking coffee could be dangerous to their health when it actually could provide health benefits." FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb stated clearly what hundreds of scientists, the World Health Organization and the FDA itself have been saying for years: Strong and consistent evidence shows that in healthy adults moderate coffee consumption is not associated with an increased risk of major chronic diseases, such as cancer, or premature death, and some evidence suggests that coffee consumption may decrease the risk of certain cancers. Dr. Sanjiv Chopra, professor of medicine and former Faculty Dean for Continuing Medical Education at Harvard Medical School, confirmed, The California warning about cancer and its possible relationship to coffee is totally misplaced. Coffee actually lowers the risk of 6 common cancers including cancer arising in the liver, which we primarily call liver cancer, metastatic prostate cancer, colon cancer, skin cancer, head and neck cancer, endometrial cancer. In three large-scale studies, people who drink coffee have lower total and cause-specific mortality. In addition, Dr. Stephen Gruber, director of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center stated, We found that drinking coffee is associated with lower risk of colorectal cancer, and the more coffee consumed, the lower the risk. Andrew Salisbury, Co-founder of Purity Coffee and an expert on coffee and health stated, There are thousands of peer-reviewed studies that show the health benefits of coffee are profound. The application of Proposition 65 to coffee does a disservice to consumers trying to make food decisions that are good for their health. At Purity Coffee we make every decision based on health and want to advance the conversation about coffee and science." The American Cancer Society also weighed in on coffees potential health impacts, and coffee is included in a list of foods that fight cancer published by the American Institute for Cancer Research. Studies have repeatedly shown that in those who drink coffee regularly, there is evidence for lower rates or risks of several cancers: Liver cancer Colorectal cancer Prostate cancer Endometrial cancer Head and neck cancer For coffee drinkers who are sensitive to toxins, Purity Coffee is roasted to be low in acrylamide and high in antioxidants. **** Purity Coffee was started in 2015 by Andrew Salisbury and Missy and Jon Butcher. The Purity Coffee mission is to craft coffees that are specifically developed for health. Purity Coffee is certified organic Arabica coffee that has been independently lab-tested to deliver the optimum level of healthy antioxidants using well-designed roast curves, while it is also tested to be mold, yeast, mycotoxin and pesticide free. For interviews with Dr. Sanjiv Chopra or Andrew Salisbury Contact: Erin Berrios erin(at)PurityCoffee(dot)com 323-393-3746 http://www.puritycoffee.com http://www.facebook.com/mypuritycoffee http://www.twitter.com/purity_coffee http://www.instagram.com/purity_coffee Cookies What are cookies ? How do we use cookies? How to control cookies? Managing cookies in your browser see what cookies you have got and delete them on an individual basis block third party cookies block cookies from particular sites block all cookies from being set delete all cookies when you close your browser X A cookie is a small text file that a website saves on your computer or mobile device when you visit the site. Cookies are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.Website use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google") to help analyse the use of this website. 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You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed.Most browsers allow you to:If you chose to delete cookies, you should be aware that any preferences will be lost. Also, if you block cookies completely many websites (including ours) will not work properly and webcasts will not work at all. For these reasons, we do not recommend turning cookies off when using our webcasting services. Can you imagine confessing to a crime you didn't commit? The prospect seems counterintuitive, yet the work of organizations such as the Innocence Project and documentaries like The Central Park Five have shown the phenomenon of false confessions to be widespread. Anatomy of a False Confession: The Interrogation and Conviction of Brendan Dassey by criminal defense attorney Michael D. Cicchini examines the methods of police interrogators and their psychological impact on the accused, which often lead innocent people to believe that confessing would be in their best interest. Over the course of five interrogations in a six-month period, Brendan Dassey, a teenager from Manitowoc County, Wis., confessed to assaulting and murdering Teresa Halbach with his uncle Steven Avery in 2005. After the case was profiled in the Netflix series Making a Murderer, Cicchini says, "many people were angry about the way the interrogators treated Brendan Dassey. Yet most people were seeing only the tip of the iceberg of what the police and prosecutors did to obtain a confession and win a conviction." Anatomy of a False Confession offers a staggering view of what goes on during a police investigation and how the courts systematically uphold faulty confessions. "I wanted to shine a light on the entire process," Cicchini says. "The police and prosecutors use these tricks in every case, not just in Dassey's, and we citizens need to know what our government agents are doing." Cicchini draws on observations he made early in his criminal defense practice, when he discovered that many of his adult defendants who were charged with misdemeanors had confessed to the police. "I quickly noticed a problem," Cicchini writes, "My clients... would either deny having confessed or would admit to saying some things to the police that weren't true." As Dassey's interrogation wore on, the officers led Dassey to agree to their version of what he'd seen and done, rather than accept what he'd originally told them. All of the sessions were recorded, and Cicchini deconstructs the two police officers' seemingly friendly rapport with Dassey, along with their repeated promises to help him if he helped them, to reveal their true motives. Despite repeated statements to the contrary, the officers did not want to help Dassey; they wanted to convict him. Perhaps most critically, the police persuaded Dassey to waive his Miranda rights. Cicchini shows how they were able to glide over this fundamental constitutional roadblock with ease, both by minimizing the importance of Miranda, making Dassey believe they were on his side rather than his adversaries (thereby steering him to overlook the conflict of interest that Miranda is meant to protect him from), and by reading the rights in such a way as to essentially change their meaning: "You have the right to, you have the right to talk, to a lawyer for advice before we ask you any questions and have him with you during questioning. You have this right to the advice and presence of a lawyer even though you cannot afford to hire one. We have no way of getting you a lawyer but one will be appointed for you if you wish and if and when you go to court." Just before the book was published, the Supreme Court passed on hearing Dassey's case. "By doing so," Cicchini says, "the Court, in a sense, has rubber-stamped one of the highest-profile injustices our country has ever seen," thus further highlighting the need for reform. Of the many critical elements that Cicchini outlines in the book, the best first step, he says, would be to "rewrite the Miranda warning and require the police to read it to the suspect in a meaningful way." Otherwise, he says, our constitutional rights are not enough to protect us. Cicchini's book is essential reading for anyone interested in criminal justice reform, and is a riveting addendum to Making a Murderer, one of the most widely discussed true crime narratives in recent history. Publishers Weekly, in partnership with the Frankfurt Book Fair, is pleased to announce the honorees and finalists of the fourth annual Star Watch program, which recognizes outstanding individuals who further the cultural and economic success of publishers, bookstores, and the industry at large. Each year, judges from PW, the American Booksellers Association, and the Frankfurt Book Fair select 45 honorees and then five finalists. This year, among the spots for honorees and finalists, there are two pairs; each pair is considered a single entry, so overall we have 47 honorees this year. The 2018 Superstarwho will win an all-expenses-paid trip to the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, courtesy of the fairwill be announced at the Star Watch party, set for September 12 in New York City. Booksellers grabbed a spot among the finalists and took several honoree slots, reflecting a recognition of the effort required to make bookstores a success in a persistently difficult environment for bricks-and-mortar. Finalist Elizabeth Jordan, CEO of BookPeople in Austin, Tex., through her why cant we do this? approach, has made BookPeople the official bookseller at such major book festivals as South by Southwest, the Massachusetts and Pennsylvania conferences for women, and the Texas Book Festival. Comics and graphic novels are in the spotlight as well. Finalist Matt Gagnon, editor-in-chief of Boom! Studios, whose entire career has been dedicated to comics, is far more excited about bringing recognition to the genre than to himself. Gagnon has a singular focus on growing the world of comic books, says Filip Sablik, Booms president of publishing and marketing. Then there is finalist Abbe Wright, who exemplifies how to expand readership through new channels. She is senior editor for Read It Forward, Penguin Random Houses publisher-agnostic online community, whose mission, she says, is to help readers find the literary loves of their livesto help people find the books that will excite them, and touch their heart, and make them cry. A pair of finalists, Francesca Cavallo and Elena Favilli, founders of Timbuktu Labs and creators of the Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls series, made crowdfunding history in 2016 by raising more than $1.2 million to launch the first book in the series about women who aim high and fight hard, as they describe it. We are filling a vacuum, Favilli says. When we started Timbuktu, we could see how many female stereotypes were still around. Helping to fill that vacuum is another finalist, Daniella Wexler, an editor at Atria, who has a clear-eyed focus on the types of books she wants to publish: literary fiction and narrative nonfiction centering on womens issues and representing culturally diverse points of view, says Peter Borland, the presss v-p and editor-in-chief. On Wexlers list are Moriel Rothman-Zechers debut novel, Sadness Is a White Bird, which examines the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the upcoming Rage Becomes Her by journalist and activist Soraya Chemaly. The mission to turn up the volume of marginalized voices in publishing is something weve seen among the honorees and finalists since Star Watchs launch. But this year, there is a twist. Though much of the work heretofore was outside of the office through small grassroots community organizations and national campaigns such as We Need Diverse Books, this years talented group of editors, publicists, marketers, and designers are making their mandate for diversity a reality through the books they publish, as Cavallo, Favilli, and Wexler demonstrate. Read on to learn more about the finalists and the other honorees who make the future of publishing look very bright indeed. PW Star Watch 2018 Finalists PW Star Watch 2018 Honorees Though Mays BookExpo was reimagined and the National Association of College Stores is rebooting its annual Camex show, most regional associations are planning to make only minor tweaks to their trade shows this fall. Thats because the regionals continue to be the top shows for indie booksellers, even drawing small stores that are forced to close in order to attend. Preliminary figures for BookExpo 2018 showed bookseller attendance at 1,073, but last years fall regional trade shows taken together attracted 2,338 booksellers. With strong programming and increased membership in some regionals, that figure will likely rise again this year. Some regionals are continuing to add new members at a rapid pace. Midwest Independent Booksellers Association (MIBA) executive director Carrie Obry signed 24 new bookstore members between July 2017 and July 2018. Some just opened, such as Canterbury Books in Escanaba, Mich., which launched in April. Others will open soon, such as River Dog Book Company, a mobile bookstore in Wisconsin (owned by BrocheAroe Fabian, a moderator of PWs BXsellers Facebook group) that will be roadworthy by spring 2019. Older storesincluding 20-year-old Sly Fox Bookstore in Virden, Ill.are returning to MIBA after a hiatus. Some regionals, including the New England Independent Booksellers Association (NEIBA) and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA), already have high levels of participation. But upticks in membership are more common than dips, according to PNBA executive director and marketing director Brian Juenemann. Challenges on the Horizon Unlike past years, when indie bookselling was thrown into turmoil because of concerns over the rise of e-books or Amazon removing the buy buttons for Hachette titles prior to the shows, 2018 has been relatively calm. I feel like stores are finding their groove, says Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) executive director Wanda Jewell. Theyre finding ways to present themselves to their community as more than just a bookstore. The book-buying experience has to exceed convenience and price and the idea that you can sit in your house and get a book sent to you. In the Pacific Northwest, Juenemann says that he has visited at least a dozen stores so far this year and hasnt found any big-button panic issues. We talk more about nuance and what makes their store particular and what they might focus on, he notes. In California, sales are up for most stores and awareness of the importance of independent booksellers among consumers is also up, says Calvin Crosby, executive director of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA). But his region is feeling pain from a different quarter: rising costs. The challenge is not from a predator, Crosby says. Its out of our wanting to pay people. But where does this money come from? The other thing facing California is a shortage of employees. California has negative growth, and commutes are ridiculous; real estate is insane. Landlords want all this money for rent, but the moneys not there. Large cities in Texas and Colorado are also facing longer commutes for employees as rental and real estate prices go up. Getting qualified staff for low pay is an ongoing struggle, says Heather Duncan, executive director of the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association (MPIBA). She finds that the rents employees pay for housing is even more of an issue than commercial real estate costs. For bookstore owners, the pressure from rising costs for rent and wages has made getting good margins on books and other goods essential. Rent is a tough one, says New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA) executive director Eileen Dengler, who advises booksellers to purchase their buildings if they can afford it. But she thinks that buying stock to maximize marginand gearing displays to maximize it as wellcan help. Thats a hard thing for people to wrap their minds around, says Dengler, who led a roundtable on buying for margin at BookExpo. She plans to reprise it at NAIBA. SIBA is getting proactive about margins by launching a new program to help booksellers in the region find one special high-margin item that will keep selling throughout the year. This fall, member stores will be able to test a variety of productsranging from notebooks and coffee mugs to chocolates. The products and/or their packaging will link back to the region with signatures from some of the Souths biggest authors. Bookstores will also have branding opportunities to market the merchandise: as exclusive collectible objects, as products that support local businesses, or as items specifically created for Southern writers and readers. Jewell calls this the fail fast, fail cheap stage of the process. Based on bookstore responses, she will refine the concept until she finds that one single item that works across the board. Changing Things upand Getting More Diverse Despite the success of the fall showsone of the oldest, NEIBA, is holding its 45th annual conference this yeareach regional continues to make some changes. (For more highlights of the different shows, see Regional Show Highlights, p. 42.) After going with a very full one-day show for many years, booksellers in Southern California told executive director Andrea Vuleta that it was too much. So she is adding a second day this year. At NAIBA, Dengler has decided to do away with educational panels. When I went to panels at Winter Institute, I felt that there were a lot of questions that werent being answered, she says. So this years morning of education will be devoted to roundtables on a variety of topics, from author events to in-school book fairs and membership programs. Dengler wants to help booksellers solve store problems through these sessions and the show overall. Thats why this years overarching theme for the show is Solutions. For PNBA and MPIBA, one of the biggest changes is adding even more authors17 or 18 for the latter and having a total of roughly 100 altogether for the former, which received a record 190 proposals this year. We have authors that are not necessarily regional that we wouldnt have gotten pitched in the past, says Juenemann, who is testing a new author event: a keynote interview with Nicole Chung for her memoir, All You Can Ever Know. Though the Heartland Fall Forum is back in Minneapolis this October, the biggest transformation that the show will make is slated for 2019. Instead of rotating between Chicago and Minneapolis, which it has done since the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association (GLIBA) and MIBA held their first joint show six years ago, it will move to Cleveland next year. GLIBA executive director Larry Law says that future stops include St. Louis and Louisville. But this years Heartland show is not without a few tweaks, including two keynotes: one will be with local indie favorite Kate DiCamillo, the other with Valerie Jarrett, the Obama White House advisor. Diversity has definitely been in the forefront of my mind, says Law, who helped plan education for the forum for the first time in conjunction with MIBAs Obry. Were offering diversity and inclusivity panels at our trade show. Its my hope that this will translate into a more diverse staff. MIBA has also added a new mentorship committee specifically aimed at fostering networking and communication among booksellers from diverse backgrounds. Diversity and activism are key for this years NEIBA conference, which also scheduled Jarrett for its opening keynote and will hold an educational session on how bookstores can be politically active but still make all customers feel welcome. Outside the trade show, executive director Beth Ineson says that shes working on an initiative with 826 Boston, the local arm of the national nonprofit youth writing and publishing program, to build a diverse customer base from the ground up. She wants to embed kids who are active with 826 into bookstores to make young people from different backgrounds feel welcome there. In addition, Ineson would like to find a way to turn NEIBA and NCIBAs four-year-old Windows and Mirrors Project, which aims to promote diverse books for children, into a national bookstore program. NEIBAs childrens group, the New England Childrens Booksellers Advisory (NECBA) council, generates a list of new diverse books for toddlers through YA that stores can get behind and sellparticular during the holiday season. Getting booksellers to diversify their inventories in other ways and stock genre fiction and more graphic novels is a mission that a number of regionals are undertaking this fall. Romance is hugeI think its a very underserved genre, says GLIBAs Law, who is also a fan of comics and graphic novels. Heartland will have a session on how to sell romance novels, as well as a panel discussion with graphic artists on graphic novels as memoirs. A number of regionals are also scheduling sessions on science fiction and fantasy, including one on alternative SFF at SIBA. ABA at the Regionals As in years past, ABA will have representatives at the eight fall shows, including members of its IndieCommerce team. With new bookstores opening and older stores changing hands, ABA will reprise its popular introductory seminar on principles of bookstore finance, conducted by ABA CFO Robyn DesHotel and a local bookseller. Booksellers from any region are invited to attend; registration is through ABA. In addition, ABA will be presenting an educational session on maximizing preorders, the importance of which came to the fore when indies were cut out of advance orders for John Olivers instant bestseller, A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo. ABA is looking forward to meeting with booksellers, to be as present as possible in order to get their feedback and discuss issues of concern, says ABA CEO Oren Teicher. The regional shows also are an opportunity for ABA to meet with the boards of the regional associations when possible. And were always grateful to the associations for the opportunity to provide brief updates at their annual meetings. ABAs presence will give booksellers an opportunity to ask about Batch, the online payment system developed by the Booksellers Association of the U.K. and Ireland in 2000, which ABA is planning to launch in January 2019. Below, more on the fall regionals. Fall Regionals 2018: Read the World at the Regionals Fall Regionals 2018: Regional Show Highlights Fall Regionals 2018: Making the Connection Fiction Declaracion: cuentos reunidos (Debriefing: Collected Stories) Susan Sontag Literatura Random House ISBN 978-84-397-3403-1 This collection features Sontags shorter fiction, in which she dramatizes her private grief and lets characters take her where they will. El escandalo Modigliani (The Modigliani Scandal) Ken Follett Debolsillo ISBN 978-607-31-6441-2 Behind the elegance and glamour of the art world, anything goestheft, forgery, betrayal, and maybe even murder. El favor de la sirena (The Largesse of the Sea Maiden) Denis Johnson Literatura Random House ISBN 978-84-397-3415-4 This collection of short stories finds Johnson in new territory, contemplating the ghosts of the past and the elusive and unexpected ways the mysteries of the universe assert themselves. El hombre de tiza (The Chalk Man) C.J. Tudor Plaza & Janes ISBN 978-84-01-01981-4 A psychological suspense that weaves a mystery about a childhood game gone dangerously awry. El mal camino (The Wrong Way) Mikel Santiago B de Bolsillo ISBN 978-84-9070-300-7 In the South of France, a man emerges from the darkness and triggers a series of strange events, turning the lives of a writer and his friend into a nightmare. Las largas sombras (Long Shadows) Elia Barcelo Roca ISBN 978-8-417-09271-9 Rita returns to her village after years away and goes to Lenas house, but a happy encounter is truncated by an unexpected image. This book is more than a crime novel. La novia gitana (The Gypsy Bride) Carmen Mola Alfaguara ISBN 978-84-204-3318-9 Susana Macaya, daughter of a gypsy, disappears after her bachelorette party. Her body is found two days later. Her sister Lara suffered an identical fate seven years earlier. Los dias de abandono (The Days of Abandonment) Elena Ferrante Lumen ISBN 978-84-264-0527-2 The gripping story of a womans descent into emptiness after being abandoned by her husband, with two young children whom she must care for. Ravelstein Saul Bellow Debolsillo ISBN 978-6-073-16329-3 Abe Ravelstein is a professor at a prominent Midwestern universitya man who revels in training the movers and shakers of the political world. Tigres de cristal (Crystal Tigers) Toni Hill Grijalbo ISBN 978-84-253-5648-3 Hills story is set in a neighborhood in Barcelonas Red Belt in the 1970s and today, where its characters find themselves in a conflict between loyalty, silence, and revenge. Zumbido (Buzz) Juan Cardenas Editorial Periferica ISBN 978-84-16291-55-7 After receiving the news of his sisters death, a man escapes from the congested center of a Latin-American city to its outskirts, where the jungle is taking over. Nonfiction Adios muchachos (Goodbye, Fellows) Sergio Ramirez Debolsillo ISBN 978-84-663-4564-4 The Nicaraguan intellectual Ramirezs memoir was first published in 1999. This is a new edition of his account of how a generation brought democracy to Nicaragua. Alimentamos una isla (We Fed an Island) Jose Andres, with Richard Wolffe Vintage Espanol ISBN 978-0-525-56562-8 Andres, a chef, arrived in Puerto Rico four days after Hurricane Maria ripped through the island, where for many there was no clean water, food, power, or gas, and no way to communicate with the rest of the world. He and his team fed hundreds of thousands of people. Entre eternidades (Between Eternities) Javier Marias Vintage Espanol ISBN 978-0-525-56593-2 Marias is an essayist, novelist, and translator. This new collection of essaysby turns literary, philosophical, and autobiographicaljourneys from the crumbling canals of Venice to the wide horizons of the Wild West. El libro de Emma Reyes (The Book of Emma Reyes) Emma Reyes Vintage Espanol ISBN 978-0-525-56498-0 This memoir was hailed as a classic when published in Colombia in 2012, nearly a decade after the death of its author, who was encouraged in her writing by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Composed of letters written over the course of 30 years, it describes in vivid detail the courage and imagination of a young girl growing up with nothing. La polis literaria (The Literary Polis) Rafael Rojas Taurus ISBN 978-6-073-16486-3 In this new look at the Latin-American Boom, Rojas shares the intellectual and social struggles of the literature that transformed the region. Children's/YA Dios siempre cumple sus promesas (God Always Keeps His Promises) Max Lucado Grupo Nelson ISBN 978-141-85-9897-6 Lucado aims to show children that God is trustworthy and keeps promises. Hora de banarse! (Its Bath Time!) Begona Oro and Ester Garay Beascoa ISBN 978-8-448-84979-5 Nico goes to the park with his friends. They play and get messy, until their parents come for them and make them take baths. Me planchas mi elefante, por favor? (Could You Iron My Elephant, Please?) Rafael Barajas El Fisgon Duran Fondo de Cultura Economica ISBN 978-607-16-5633-9 Simon is a typical kid, just shy, and that gets him into a lot of trouble. Whenever hes asked to please do something, he cannot refuse, no matter how weird the request. Everybody starts asking him for favors, including his teachers and people in town. Mozart Mariano Veloy Lectio Ediciones ISBN 978-8-416-91801-0 Young readers will be entertained and informed by this colorfully illustrated life of Mozart, which covers the composers childhood and the many challenges of his career. Vamos a cenar? (Are We Having Dinner?) Begona Oro and Ester Garay Beascoa ISBN 978-8-448-84978-8 Every time a carrot disappears from the dinner table, Nico must come up with a little white lie to explain to his mother what happened. Every time the lie gets bigger. Citron Research a short-selling firm with a history of wiping out stock prices and run by Andrew Left has a new target: cannabis stocks. In a report published Thursday, the firm says Cronos, one of the most valuable publicly traded marijuana companies, is worth roughly one-third of its current price: $3.50 per share. "Citron would like to inform investors of caution on the ongoing and real green rush," the firm said. "Although the hype is big and the prohibition after 100 years is real, it is critical to understand that in the Canadian landscape, there are over 100 licensed producers and there will ultimately be more losers than winners." Specifically, Citron cites a lack of disclosures from the firm which trades only in Canada, unlike some of its US-listed competitors about major events. First, Citron criticized Cronos' lack of specifics in terms of its provincial supply agreements, and notes all other suppliers, including competitor Canopy Growth, have specified the amounts they've been tapped to supply. "Cronos management appears to have been deceiving the investing public by purposely not disclosing the size of its distribution agreements with provinces unlike every other major cannabis player," Citron wrote. "Our sources have informed us that its because the agreements are so small they could never justify the premium investors are paying for the stock." Citron also says a major recall in May of Cronos' product in Germany wasn't disclosed to investors. Cronos has been a popular investment among traders on Robinhood, who tend to skew younger than on traditional brokerages. The stock currently has more than 96,000 holders on the app, Robinhood's website shows, up from just 60,000 less than a month ago. Cannabis stocks, including those of Cronos and its competitors, have seen an impressive run-up following investments by the beverage makers Constellation Brands and Lagunitas, but Citron says reports suggesting Britain's Diageo was interested in the space have already compelled investors to price a new deal in to Cronos' stock. "Yeah right, Diageo would ever do a deal with a company who has a history of contamination and has proven that they cannot even produce a small amount of commercial product," Citron wrote. "This is a NON EVENT. Citron feels stupid even discussing this, but it had to get mentioned." Reached by email, a Cronos Group spokesperson declined to comment on the Citron report, but said " Deep underwater, on submarines equipped with nuclear missiles, British crews are constantly prepared to fire their weapons, and potentially play a part in bringing about the end of the world. Sailors on the four Vanguard-class submarines which patrol the waters and hold the UK's nuclear deterrent operate under strict protocol for working out when to act and what to do part of which is said to include listening to BBC radio. According to a prominent British historian, the broadcast of BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme is one of the official measures the Royal Navy uses to prove that the United Kingdom still exists. "Today" has been broadcast at around breakfast time since 1958 and is the highest-profile news programme in British media. Lord Peter Hennessy, a history professor who joined the UK's House of Lords in 2010, said that if it can't be heard for three days in a row, then it could signify Britain's demise, and trigger their doomsday protocol. According to " If no sign comes through, the commander and deputy will open letters that contain instructions from the prime minister and execute their final wishes. These letters, each known as a "Letter of Last Resort' are secret instructions, written when a prime minister enters the office and sealed until an apocalypse. They tell the UK's submarine commanders what to do with the country's nuclear weapons if the country has been destroyed. Writing these letters is one of the first tasks undertaken by any new prime minister. They are Do nothing, launch a retaliatory strike, offer yourself to an ally like the USA, or use your own judgment. "Essentially, are you going to use the missiles or not?" The UK has four submarines that are capable of carrying the country's Trident nuclear missiles. At least one of these has been on patrol at all times since 1969, the government says. There are 40 nuclear warheads and a maximum of eight missiles on each submarine. British Airways owns the largest flight simulator facility in the UK, which houses 16 of the $13-million machines. Pilots train around 50 hours inside before ever getting into a real plane. We spent only an hour inside to learn how to take off, fly and land a plane, so how did we get on? READ MORE: Christian Council open to changing location for National Cathedral The display of the billboard comes following heated debate about the need for the nation to have a national cathedral. The Akufo-Addo administration is leading the construction of a national cathedral by providing land while the Christian community provides funding. However, the project has come under attack owing to the land the project will be built on. About nine houses of some Appeal Court judges are to be demolish for the project which has sparked uproar. At a meeting with Christian leaders early this work, President Akufo-Addo hinted of further discussions about the project. It is unclear how much it is costing the Student's Chaplaincy Council of KNUST to construct the project. While working for the investment company, it dawned on him why he was helping other businesses with the knowledge he had acquired from school but could not use it to set up and grow his own. It was at this that he recalled that his mother was in the business of selling Kente, but age was fast catching up with her so she could no longer exert herself that much. Having no one to take care of his mothers business, he resigned from the investment company to take charge of it by himself. He put together a business plan and started thinking about what to do to make the Kente more marketable. What was the turning point? I realised a growing trend in America and Europe that wasnt common in Ghana. That trend was the use of graduation stoles by many universities across the aforementioned continents, he said. This prompted him that it could be a good business idea to use the Kente cloth to make stoles for students in Ghana during their graduation. He outlined a number of universities and pitched the idea to them, and to his surprise, all those universities bought into the idea. Currently, Benjamin supplies Kente stoles to eight universities in Ghana and two other universities outside the country, which include the famous Harvard University in the United States. He has also added the production of adinkra symbols to complement the Kente stoles. Seeing the interest some schools showed when he pitched the Kente stoles idea to them, he decided to spread his tentacles to the main Kente fabric. This birthed the idea of a new websitewovenafrica.com What is unique about our stoles is that every institute that we serve we incorporate their logo onto the cloth, he added. Tells us more about wovenafrica.com? What we are doing with the website is that we are trying to push the Kente cloth to the diaspora at the same price that they would get it when they have to buy directly from the weavers. Through this medium, buyers are confident and assured of quality and original Kente cloth, compared to going through a third party which may not guarantee that. The cloth can be shipped to the buyer through EMS and delivered in just five days. So, the website is to help us penetrate the international market. People in America and Europe are ones that are enjoying these products, so with the website, we are able to reach out to the rest of the world. Aside from the stoles, what other products do you make from kente? We make travelling bags and a lot of stuff, depending on what the customer requests for. We will also be introducing other new stuff which I cannot put out there at the moment. Apart from the above, he said there are many in the diaspora who like the Kente cloth and always ask Ghanaians coming home for holidays to get them the original. So, the cloth can also be purchased directly from the site. What is your staff strength? The beautiful thing is that we have been able to create opportunities for two communities; one in the Ashanti Region and the other in the Volta Region because kente is woven by communities. The products are made from locally sourced materials, so you can imagine the opportunities we are creating? Where do you want your business to be in the next five years? The vision of Wovenafrica.com is to send Ghana as far as possible using the traditional Kente cloth. We are targeting Europe, especially places like the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and most of the big economies in that part of the world. North America is another huge market. As tradition demands, the event was held at Pearls hometown, Bolgatanga, Upper East Region where the lovely couple was dressed elegantly in their native wear. The ceremony started on Thursday and it is expected to continue for some few more days with various activities and ceremonies. READ ALSO:4 wedding gift ideas newlyweds will love and use Sammy has shared an adorable photo of himself and Pearl captioned:Happy is the man who finds a true friend, and far happier is he who finds that true friend in his wife God bless you, my queen. It follows a Memorandum of Understanding between Ghana and German car manufacturing giant, Volkswagen, last Thursday. READ MORE: Uproar over VW assembly plant in Ghana The MoU was signed following German Chancellor Angela Merkels visit to Ghana. Kantanka in a series of tweets Friday slammed the president for failing to honour his promise to support local car manufacturers. "The German chancellor came to our beloved country to promote her automobile industry whiles our President..............., he began. "What happened to your word Mr President ," he noted with a quote of the president promising to support local carr manufacturers. In another tweet, he questioned why the president is allowing VW into the Ghanaian market to compete against his company. "I still remember this day like it was yesterday . If we didnt get the support why then do you bring another company to compete against us." He further said: "Mr President. Only thing we need is good policies to protect the automobile industry and help grow our local industries Welcoming the deal, President Nana Akufo-Addo explained that the agreement was reached following a business meeting between officials from Ghana and a German business delegation. He stressed that the key part of this agreement is that it will boost investment, trade corporation and will reduce the unemployment rate in the country. There are so many areas that our bilateral relationship has offered us, but the key part of it for me is the emphasis on investment and trade corporation, Nana Addo said. He said Ghana is determined to deal with the matters confronting our country such as youth employment, the desire of our youth to seek greener pastures elsewhere by improving the management of our national economy. READ MORE: Volkswagen to establish vehicle assembly plant in Ghana They have questioned the need for a foreign vehicle assembly plant in Ghana when the country has Kantanka automobile company, a local car assembly plant established by Apostle Dr. Kwadwo Safo Kantanka. "Absolute nonsense!! Instead of the [President Nana Akufo-Addo] government to focus on boosting the local automobile company (Kantanka) you rather about to create competition for it. All this nonsense in the f*ck name of industrialization. This isn't industrialization, it's lack of common sense," a Twitter user wrote. Another wrote: "Ghanaians are blindly happier about VW setting up here than getting empowered to do better." "Ebi witchcraft and wizardry. They dont want to help build from the scratch but they want to enjoy with you when you are at the top. I know Kantanka Cars will make a breakthrough globally then we will see their hypocrisy," another Twitter user wrote. A Facebook user, Nicholas Antwi, noted: "If we've still not mustered the courage to pass a legislation that mandates all Public institutions to procure only KANTANKA automobiles, let's not make the waters muddier by extending a hand of invitation to a global gaint who is likely to at best give the Star of Africa a run for its "small coins". "Ghanaians need more employment opportunities, FACT! But certainly not at the detriment of indigenous businesses." A statement by the German car manufacturer said the move is to explore the development of new mobility solutions in Ghana. Quoting the Head of the Volkswagen Sub-Saharan Region, Thomas Schaefer, the statement also noted that the assembly plant in Ghana would also include developing a sales and service network in Ghana as well as establishing a Training Academy for Production and After Sales. "In addition, Volkswagen undertook to commence with a feasibility study in Ghana for integrated mobility solutions which will include a review of the commercial viability of introducing rental, car sharing, ride hailing and shuttle services by way of a Ghanaian subsidiary of VWSA (Volkswagen South Africa), or the appointment of a local service provider. He is reported to have sent "emissaries" to Anyidoho to persuade him so he goes unopposed. "There is unconfirmed report that Asiedu Nketia had sent emissaries to Koku [Anyidoho] to pipe down to allow him to go unopposed," the newspaper reported on Saturday. The newspaper also reports him as saying that the changes in the leadership of the party in the 2014 national executive election was a major factor in the massive defeat that the NDC suffered in 2016. Meanwhile the party is electing its regional executives today, September 1, 2018. In a message, ex-president John Mahama, who has declared he contest the party's presidential race, urged the party to remain united after the vote. In a statement posted on his Facebook wall, Mr Mahama said: "Let me once again extend to you all, my very best wishes as you go through the final stage of campaigning for positions at the regional level of our party. "With some regions already done with elections for the youth and women wings, I reiterate my call for mature, decent and all-inclusive campaigning. "With our goal firmly fixed on victory in the 2020 elections, the NDC can only be better off if we come out of these elections across the ten regions united." The party's founder Jerry John Rawlings has also in a statement has called on delegates to elect committed persons to run the regional branches. According to him, said the outcome of the regional elections would go a long way to determine the future of the NDC. Delegates from all 275 constituencies will assemble at various designated centers to perform a very important democratic function on behalf of party constituents this weekend. The outcome of these conferences will go a long way in determining the future direction of the party. To ensure the consolidation and re-invigoration of our party, I urge delegates to listen to their constituents and elect persons with integrity who genuinely have the party at heart, Rawlings said. Lance Corporal Godzi Frederick Amanor, aka Skalla, is before the court on charge of assault. He pleaded not guilty on his first court appearance and has been granted a GHC60,000 bail condition. The substantive judge is on leave and the case was yesterday taken to another court for mention since the accused persons are on bail, the Daily Guide newspaper reports. When the case was called before a relieving judge, M.E. Essandoh, the prosecution and the defence lawyers, agreed to appear before court on September 26, 2018, the newspaper adds. A video went viral on social media showing a policeman assigned to the Savings and Loans physically abusing a woman who was carrying a baby at the headquarters of Midland Savings and Loans at Shiashe in Accra. Lance Corporal Amanor brutishly assaulted the 36-year-old customer in the banking hall over a misunderstanding following her inability to withdraw GhC250. Patience Osafo had refused to leave the banking hall after the company failed to allow her to withdraw GHC250 from her savings account. The staff asked the AK-47-wielding policeman to get her out and in the process, assaulted her. The policeman was 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. The company has issued an apology to the assaulted customer and the general public. READ MORE: NDC holds regional elections today The NDC is holding its regional elections today across the country at some selected centres. The delegates are drawn from all the 275 constituencies across the country. In a statement posted on his Facebook wall, Mr Mahama said: "Let me once again extend to you all, my very best wishes as you go through the final stage of campaigning for positions at the regional level of our party. "With some regions already done with elections for the youth and women wings, I reiterate my call for mature, decent and all-inclusive campaigning. "With our goal firmly fixed on victory in the 2020 elections, the NDC can only be better off if we come out of these elections across the ten regions united." The party's founder Jerry John Rawlings has also in a statement has called on delegates to elect committed persons to run the regional branches. According to him, said the outcome of the regional elections would go a long way to determine the future of the NDC. Delegates from all 275 constituencies will assemble at various designated centers to perform a very important democratic function on behalf of party constituents this weekend. The outcome of these conferences will go a long way in determining the future direction of the party. To ensure the consolidation and re-invigoration of our party, I urge delegates to listen to their constituents and elect persons with integrity who genuinely have the party at heart, Rawlings said. There were no queues as voting began at 0700 GMT in the capital's residential district of Tevregh Zeina. "I voted for people I support in different parties including some from the ruling party and others in the opposition," a woman who identified herself as Fatimatou told AFP. "It's not easy," she added after taking eight minutes to fill in the forms and deposit them in five different ballot boxes. Polling booths were to close at 1900 GMT with first results not expected until the middle of next week. There are no international observers. The opposition, which boycotted the last polls in 2013, is standing in the triple elections with a record 98 parties are taking part. Potential run-off elections would take place on September 15. Aziz, 61, who came to power in a coup in 2008, won elections in 2009 and again in 2014 for a second five-year term. He has been frequently accused by opposition figures and NGOs of rights abuses, including the arrest of a former senator and the "secretive" detention of a blogger. Aziz has said several times he will not seek a third mandate, which would be against the constitution, but statements by his ministers and supporters have allowed suspicions to flourish. Final campaign rallies drew sparse attendance despite the opposition shelving its boycott. Aziz has slammed opposition leaders as "villains" and "troublemakers". He has described some as "dangerous Islamists, racist extremists and the leftovers of former regimes which brought the country to its knees". 'Assassinating democracy' Earlier this week he accused Islamists of "just awaiting their political failure to take up arms". That brought an indignant response from Jemil Ould Mensour of the Islamist party Tewassoul. "It is Mr Aziz who took up arms against an elected regime and is assassinating democracy," he charged, referring to the 2008 coup. Veteran opposition leader Ahmed Ould Daddah, who heads the Gathering for Democracy (RFD), has urged voters to make "the necessary leap to get rid of dictatorship and generalised bankruptcy". The ruling Union for the Republic is campaigning largely on changes it made in the 2017 constitution, abolishing the senate and bringing in a new national anthem and flag. Voters endorsed the controversial measures in a referendum, while the opposition warned they would give the president more power. After more than a year of detention on corruption charges, former senator Mohammed Ould Ghadda was due to be released on Friday, his lawyer said. However, Ould Ghadda, who led the campaign against the constitutional changes, rejected the conditions set for his release and remained in detention, laywer Mohamed El Mamy said in a statement. Living standards On the economic front, authorities say growth has revived, with three percent reported in 2017 and a poverty rate of 31 percent, against over 40 percent in 2008. The opposition sees a fall in living standards since the introduction at the start of the year of new, lower-value bank notes. National debt is equal to GDP. Mauritania, which hosted an African Union summit in July, has recently revived diplomatic ties with Morocco, after years of tension over the status of Moroccan-annexed Western Sahara. Directed by Muyiwa Ademola, the movie also featured Yemi Solade, Jide Kosoko, Lanre Hassan, Jaiye Kuti, Bimbo Oshin, Allwell Ademola, Wale Akorede, Shotayo, Lateef Adedimeji and Bukola Fagbuyi. Speaking on the movie, Laz said: A lot of people have been asking if Im Bipolar like why I would even think of this thing. No I am not Bipolar but I decided to look around me, I have a lot of people around me suffering from Bipolar which was exactly what inspired me. she said. When I first gave the story to Muyiwa Ademola, who is the director, he was like this is Nigeria I dont think they are going to accept it and I am like I dont care if they accept it or not I just want to put this thing out there I want people to see it, I just took the risk. The Bipolar plot Bipolar tells the story of a lady who lives abroad but finds herself back in Nigeria due to her temper issues with her boyfriend, Bolanle Ninalowo. She meets with a doctor who was able walk the journey with her by helping her manage her anger. Co-incidentally, she has a twin sister somewhere in the village that also has same temper issue. The actress took to her Instagram account few days ago to announce that she will be dazzling fans, colleagues and movie buffs at the awards ceremony with her outfits. ALSO READ: 4 things you should expect to see at 2018 AMVCA She wrote, "Hiya! Just got back from fitting One of my Outfits for #amvca2018 ! What???? Its going to be fire! \uD83D\uDD25\uD83D\uDD25\uD83D\uDD25Remember this look? What color(s) do you think Im going for? And what designers do you think Im wearing?!!! Hehehehehe.... #Alterego #Awardseason #Nollywood." Omotola will be aiming at getting the award for the AMVCA best actress in a drama or TV series with her role in her movie, Alter Ego. A Police prosecutor made this revelation during the trial of the accused teenager before an Ebute Meta Chief Magistrates Court, Lagos. The prosecutor, Chinalu Uwadione, further told the court that the teenager allegedly shot the victim, Abraham Umaru in the head on August 7, 2018 at Cele Bus Stop, Ijanikin, on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway. Umaru died as a result of the wounds he sustained after being shot, Uwadione narrated to the court. ALSO READ: Girl gives man poisoned chocolate bar tries to steal his bike The young teenager has bee accused of contravening sections 223 and 233 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015. Presiding over the two counts charge of conspiracy and murder, Chief Magistrate, Mrs. A. O. Adedayo, remanded the teenager at the Special Correctional Centre for Girls in Idi-Araba, Mushin, Lagos. In a report by Tuko, a Kenyan online platform, the policeman's death was confirmed by the police force. The police have also launched an investigation to determine the actual cause of the officer's death after it is widely believed that he had drank alcohol non stop for two days. The officer allegedly drank alcohol excessively and was later found lifeless after the second day. A senior police officer of the Kenyan police division, Matwa Muchangi, also confirmed the incident. Muchangi also expressed shock at how the officer managed to drink too much alcohol without eating any food. Delta State police reportedly shoot two brothers for arguing ncident which saw policemen shoot two brothers for arguing publicly in the Ovwian area of Delta State. According to User, Isreal Joe, the officers attached to the Ovwian police division shot at the two brothers who were having an argument at Victory View Hotels along Udu Road. ALSO READ: Although Joe revealed that the police are taking responsibility for the treatment of the two boys who were immediately hospitalised, he called on the Delta state government to intervene in the situation. He accused the officers of becoming more and more unruly and unlawful on a daily basis. 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! Represented by the Chief of Staff of the Command, Air Commodore Noah Oyibo, he noted that all personnel of NAF should exhibit discipline and professional traits typical of NAF. You should at all times maintain the level of discipline and professionalism NAF is known for in your daily dealings both on duty and off duty. If anyone goes against the set standard, discipline and professional norms, surely there will be consequences for flouting the rules, he warned. He also urged them to maintain the cordial relationship between NAF and other sister security agencies as well as the public to win their trust and co-operation, directing them to be security conscious. As we approach the last quarter of the year, we must be highly security conscious of our environment. There is a need for us to take the security of our assets, collective and individual security very serious, he said. He also assured the personnel of improved welfare as they put their best in the service of the nation. All NAF personnel in the command must be pro-active and report any matter or new development in time to his or her superiors for action to be taken promptly, he said. On the compulsory quarterly route march, Kaita said that the programme was initiated and supported by the Chief of Air Staff to ensure an organised physical fitness for officers, airmen and airwomen. He also noted that the march would increase the mental alertness of the personnel and prepared them for combat deployment. Adeniji, who is a Senior Registrar, Department of Pediatrics, Federal Teaching Hospital (FTH) Gombe, spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gombe on Saturday. According to him, mixed feeding is not advisable for babies, who are born by HIV positive mothers. She said: For a woman, who has been diagnosed with HIV positive and placed on medication, prior to delivery, she is advised to choose the feeding option that she wants. For a HIV positive mother, we encourage her to stick to one, if it is breast milk, let it be exclusive for six months before complementary feeding starts. If it is formula feeding, let her do it without mixing. But we are advocating exclusive breast feeding. Adeniji said that those mothers, whose viral loads had been suppressed, could breastfeed exclusively but after six months, they can begin complementary feeding with pap. She also said that nursing mothers, who took in, should continue breastfeeding up to the time of delivery. In fact, there is what we call tandem breastfeeding; both the new and the older baby can suck. In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Minna, he said that the agency had engaged the services of no fewer than 200 local divers in affected communities for rescue operations. He said that the local divers would complement the efforts of agency rescue unit whenever the need arose. Salisu also appealed to residents of the state to desist from building on waterways and to stop indiscriminate dumping of refuse to reduce the effect of flooding in the state. He also urged communities experiencing gully erosion to relocate whenever the threat of flood became high. My major fear is that, most rains are usually at night when the people are sleeping, but the only way is to create environment for smooth flow of water, he said. Alhaji Garba Salisu, Director Relief, Niger State Emergency Management Agency, announced this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna on Saturday. He said that N210 million was spent on the procurement of assorted building materials and cash assistance to residents in 16 local government areas affected by the flood. He named the local government areas affected by the flood as Mokwa, Lapai, Bosso, Suleja, Mariga, Bako, Shiroro, Wushishi, Gurara, Lavun, Agaye,Chachanga, Munya, Magama, Rafi and Gbako local government areas. He explained that N363 million was expended assistance to victims of Minna fire disaster, Mokwa and Tudu Uku in Paikoro as well as victims of tanker explosion in Kagara, Tegina and Mokwa. N61 million was expended on the purchase of food items while N29 million was spent on the purchase of relief materials and cash assistance to the victims of communal crash between Fulani and herdsmen and cattle rustlers attacks in Bosso and Paikoro local government areas, he said. He also said that N11 million was spent on the procurement of skill acquisition items for internal displace person from north eastern states in Zumba, Makere and Gbajibo local government areas of the state. He said that the recent flood was devastating because it claimed the lives of several people as there was no proper concrete drains in the affected areas. According to Daily Post, Oshiomhole said Sarakis declaration shows that he left the ruling party for selfish reasons. Saraki almost destroyed APC The APC chairman also said that the Senate President almost destroyed the ruling party. When I was saying that all these defections is not about APC but the personal ambition of these people, they took hired writers to say I was being too hard. But Sarakis declaration has vindicated me. Thank God he has moved on, because his inordinate ambition was almost destroying our party, but he has failed. These are not principled politicians but bread-and-butter politicians who can go the extra mile to pursue their selfish ambitions and never think about the well-being of Nigerians. Nigerians wont forgive PDP Oshiomhole said Nigerians will not forgive the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in a hurry. He accused the former ruling party of arming youths and introducing do or die politics. As things stands today, APC remains the darling of the Nigerian people because PDP is the vomit of yesterday and our people will not chew it back today; not under three and half years. People have not forgotten and people will never forget. In fact, a senior palace chief in Nigeria said this generation of Nigerians will not forgive the PDP in a hurry. Even to say you want to forgive, you must do reparation. The damage they did to our economy, the damage they did to our electoral process, even the culture of rigging was institutionalised by them. They introduced do or die politics. They are the ones buying weapons for young people to go into thuggery while their own children are schooling abroad. They introduced all these vices. The presidents Personal Assistant on New Media, Alhaji Bashir Ahmad, who is on the presidents entourage to China, confirmed this on his twitter handle on Saturday. He posted: President arrives in , the Peoples Republic of China to participate in the 7 Summit of the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (). The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Buhari left Abuja on Friday for the summit after receiving the German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. During the bilateral meeting between Nigeria and Germany, Buhari reiterated his administrations position to always upholding the sanctity of the rule of law in governing the country, while assuring Merkel that all agreements would be fully respected. The president maintained that unity and harmony in every society could only be preserved by observing the rule of law, ensuring her that agreements reached in good faith would be followed for mutual benefit of countries. A statement earlier issued on Aug. 30 in Abuja by the Presidents Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, said that Buhari would participate in the summit scheduled to hold between Sept. 3 and Sept.4. He said that before the formal opening of the summit, Buhari, in his capacity as the Chair of ECOWAS, would deliver remarks at the high-level dialogue among Chinese and African leaders, business representatives and African entrepreneurs. He added that the Nigerian president was scheduled to join President Xi Jinping of China and other African leaders for the opening and roundtable sessions of the summit. The theme of the summit is Towards an even Stronger China-Africa Community with a shared Future. Shehu said that after the FOCAC Summit, Buhari would hold bilateral meetings with Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang, to discuss infrastructure financing for strategic projects in Nigeria. He stated that their discussion would also cover the upgrading of Nigeria-China relations from strategic partnership to comprehensive strategic partnership. The president will also use the occasion of his audience with the Chinese leadership to assess the progress made so far in Chinese interventions in Nigerias key priority infrastructure projects, particularly ongoing projects in the railway and power sectors. It is noteworthy that since the last FOCAC VI Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, in December 2015, the current administration has pushed forward practical cooperation with China in the areas of infrastructure construction, trade, investments, finance, power, agriculture, education cooperation, among others. The statement said that Buhari would be accompanied to Beijing by his wife, Aisha, who was scheduled to participate in a spouses programme on China-Africa at the Great Hall of the People, with the theme: Joining Hands for a Future of AIDS. Also on the presidents entourage are Gov. Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar; Bauchi State, Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode; Lagos State, Gov. Mohammed Abubakar; Jigawa and Gov. Rochas Okorocha; Imo. Others are Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, Sen. George Akume, Sen.Godswill Akpabio and Sen. Aliyu Wamakko. Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of Transport Rotimi Amaechi Minister of Power, Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola and Minister of FCT Muhammad Bello were also in the entourage. Similarly, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment Okechukwu Enelamah, Minister of Budget and National Planning Udoma Udo Udoma, Minister of Water Resource Suleiman Adamu, Minister of State, Petroleum Resources Ibe Kachikwu and Minister of State, Aviation Hadi Sirika, went for the summit. Mr Francis Enobore, the Public Relations Officer of the service, said in a statement issued in Abuja that said that the remains were buried amid tears on Friday. Gunmen killed Gwali in his farm, Laminga, near Keffi, Nassarawa, on Aug. 10 and the gunmen have not be found. The Controller-General of Prisons, Mr Jaafaru Ahmed, in his condolence message to the deceased family noted that the late Gwali was a gentleman officer. Gwali was courageous and astute with a remarkable sense of commitment to the service of his father land throughout his career. It is sad that his life was cut short by evildoers and would be certainly missed by all, he said. Jaafaru urged the family members to take solace in the fact that the late officer lived a life worthy of emulation. Gwali was born on April 5, 1956 and was enlisted into the Nigerian Prisons Service in November 1989. Shehu said this while speaking to newsmen after Buhari landed in China for the According to Punch, the summit is slated to hold from September 3 to September 4, 2018. The presidential spokesman said the development shows that leaders all around the world like Buhari. Major development You know that as a policy, we said that we are not going to answer the American President, however, the fact that the entire world and world leaders are queuing up to meet President Muhammadu Buhari, is an indication that there is something about President Buhari, there is something about Nigeria he now leads, that the world likes. ALSO READ:Trump called Buhari lifeless after April meeting I think that Nigerians themselves should better look at this from this positive point of view, is a major development. We had situations in the country in the past where key world leaders didnt want to meet our own leaders, all of that has changed in the last three years, he added. The lawmakers said they left APC because of alleged nepotism. Akanbi, who spoke on behalf of other lawmakers, said: We know the foundation of the All Progressives Congress in the state, and we agreed with Gov. Aregbesola to spend eight years in power. It is not that when he is leaving, he will anoint a candidate. We kick against nepotism in the party; many more supporters of APC are still coming to ensure the victory of Moshood Adeoti, ADPs Candidate in Sept. 22. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a member of APC in the Assembly, Mr Clement Akanni (Ila), had on Aug. 23 defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He also alleged unfavourable treatment by APC. In his reaction, the Osun APC Publicity Secretary, Mr Kunle Oyatomi, said that the defection was political miscalculation. He said that the defected lawmakers must resign as members of the Assembly since they used APC as the platform to secure their seats in the assembly. Our concern is not about their defection because that is their personal choice, but our concern is their statuses as members of the assembly. A statement from prosecutors said the 13 -- eight Colombians, three US citizens, a Costa Rican and a Honduran -- would face charges of aggravated criminal association. In 2007, lawyers for Chiquita Brands entered a guilty plea in a US court to having financed the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, once the largest paramilitary organization in the country. The firm was fined $25 million after acknowledging that it had paid the paramilitaries some $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 in exchange for protection of its workers. The group's long and bloody struggle against leftist guerrillas was marked by multiple human-rights violations. Some 20,000 militia members demobilized between 2003 and 2006, under the Alvaro Uribe government. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a letter to European Union colleagues that the agency was a "key factor for stability" in the Middle East whose breakdown could entail an "uncontrollable chain reaction". Maas did not say how much money Germany would give in addition to 81 million euros it has already provided so far this year, but appealed to the EU to jointly support the agency to make up the deficit. The foreign ministry confirmed the content of the letter. UNRWA director Pierre Krahenbuhl said Thursday that the agency needs $200 million to continue its work until the end of this year. The agency supports some five million registered Palestinian refugees and provides schooling for 526,000 children in the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. But UNRWA has warned it currently only has the funds to keep its 711 schools open for the next month. Both the Commission and prosecutors presented evidence that Morales' FCN-Nacion party failed to report nearly one million dollars in financing to electoral authorities during his successful 2015 presidential campaign. The omission would constitute illegal election financing. "We have officially notified the secretary general of the United Nations of the non-renewal of the CICIG's mandate and the immediate transfer of the capabilities to the corresponding institutions," Morales said during a ceremony in the capital. The Commission's spokesman Matias Ponce, told reporters that the body had received the support of the international community and social sectors in Guatemala, but he avoided any reference to Morales' announcement. Set up in 2006, the mission, known by its Spanish acronym CICIG, is an independent body with investigative and prosecutorial powers. Its success in tackling corruption has inspired calls for similar bodies to be set up in other Central American countries. The country's Congress this week installed a commission of five lawmakers to study the request to lift Morales' immunity so that he can stand trial over the alleged illegal campaign financing. Lee stabbed his ex-wife to death outside the kindergarten their two daughters attended and then took one of the girls to his car, where he attempted to kill both her and himself by carbon monoxide poisoning. Lee survived after they were rescued but the girl died two months later despite treatment. "His actions were brutal and ruthless... and inflicted irreparable harms to the victims' families," deputy justice minister Chen Ming-tang told reporters. The court had ruled there was no likelihood of Lee reforming, he added. Taiwan resumed capital punishment in 2010 after a five-year hiatus, with the death penalty reserved for the most serious crimes such as aggravated murder and kidnapping. Some politicians and rights groups have called for its abolition, but various surveys show majority support for the death penalty. Chen said the government was gradually decreasing its use, but would not abolish it for now. "Abolishing (the) death sentence is an international trend and a long-term goal for the justice ministry... but there is no consensus in our country," Chen said. There are currently 42 prisoners on death row in Taiwan. Lee's execution was the first since a former college student was put to death in May 2016 for killing four people in a random stabbing spree on a subway that shocked the generally peaceful island. In 2012 the murder of a young boy in a playground reignited debate over the death penalty, after the suspect reportedly said he was anticipating free board and lodging in jail and would get a life sentence at most even if he were to kill two or three people. The European Union expressed sympathy towards those close to Lee's victims but said it was "unequivocally opposed to the use of capital punishment". The US and Mexico announced a breakthrough accord on Monday, potentially leaving Canada out in the cold if no deal is reached, but Ottawa's foreign minister insisted that a "win-win-win" agreement is within reach. US and Canadian officials said talks will resume on Wednesday, but the White House already notified Congress Friday of its "intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico -- and Canada, if it is willing -- 90 days from now." The White House now has 30 days before it must present the full text of the new agreement to Congress, which will give Ottawa and Washington time to iron out remaining differences. 'Win-win-win' "We know that a win-win-win agreement is within reach," Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters after a week of talks to rewrite the 25-year-old NAFTA. "With good will and flexibility on all sides, I know we can get there." However, she repeated that Canada will only sign an agreement that is in its national interest. "We'll keep talking until we reach a good deal," Freeland said. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the negotiations over the past four days were "constructive, and we made progress. "Our officials are continuing to work toward agreement. The USTR team will meet with Minister Freeland and her colleagues Wednesday of next week," he said in a statement. Lighthizer stressed that the new agreement will have "huge benefits for our workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses." After the US and Mexico reached an agreement on new rules for auto trade, and tougher protections for workers and intellectual property, talks with Canada were hung up on the mechanisms used to resolve disputes among partners, and on Ottawa's strictly controlled dairy sector. "I think all three countries have worked together very productively, and we're getting more and more excited about the results," a senior US official told reporters. But the official said that Washington could go ahead with just Mexico if Canada decides not to sign on to the near trade deal. Mexican officials stressed in a joint statement that they are "continuing to promote an agreement to which Canada is a party." Jake Colvin of the National Foreign Trade Council agreed with that priority, saying: "Our strong preference is for a trilateral" agreement. "That's the preference of the business community, and the preference of Congress," Colvin said. 'I can't kill these people' As negotiations went down to the wire earlier on Friday, Trump, who has been highly critical of Canada's managed dairy market, confirmed he was taking a hardline stance in the talks. Then the Toronto Star reported that Trump boasted in an interview that he was playing hardball with Canada in the negotiations. "If I say no -- the answer's no. If I say no, then you're going to put that, and it's going to be so insulting they're not going to be able to make a deal... I can't kill these people," the newspaper quoted Trump as saying off-the-record during an interview with Bloomberg. While Freeland said the US trade team was negotiating in good faith, a Canadian source told AFP that Ottawa expressed their disapproval to Lighthizer. The Star said officials in the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who had been optimistic about reaching a deal with Washington, were angered by the reported comments. Trump lashed out on Twitter for what he said was a breach of an off-the-record agreement, but he confirmed that he was taking a hardline stance in the talks. "Wow, I made OFF THE RECORD COMMENTS to Bloomberg concerning Canada, and this powerful understanding was BLATANTLY VIOLATED. Oh well, just more dishonest reporting. I am used to it," Trump tweeted. Missed Delivery? If missed delivery or wet paper please call our office 909-628-5501 ext 110 Leave a detailed message with name, address, and phone number. Readers must call before 1 p.m. on Saturday. Re-deliveries are available for Chino residents until 1 p.m. Saturdays. Click Here The Ministry of Foreign Affairs disclosed that President Kenyatta had nominated Muturi as his special envoy at the burial of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in Ghana on September 13. Muturi will lead a delegation of dignitaries comprising of officials from the government, legislature and an official representative from the High Commission of the Republic of Kenya in Abuja at the high profile event. Annan who spent his professional life advocating for peace and dignity was instrumental in saving Kenya from descending into a failed state following the disputed 2007 presidential elections and the chaos that followed. A statement from the Foreign Affairs Ministry acknowledged his role in the 2007-2008 post-election crisis stating: "The Government and the people of Kenya join the people of Africa and the international community in remembering his remarkable service to the world". "In this regard, the people of Kenya are grateful to him for the critical role he played as a mediator during the 2008 post-election crisis." The move towards eco-friendly services just took a big step, but this time, its where you go for your monthly trim or highlights. Salons are now being encouraged to amp up their recycle game, from hair to foils, with the help of Australia-based service Sustainable Salons. Sustainable Salons collects waste which is normally hard to dispose of from salons such as beauty, hair and even dog groomers. Commodity waste like foils and colour tubes are sold with 100 percent of the proceeds going towards programmes to feed hungry people across Australia and New Zealand. Chemical waste like hydrogen peroxide is turned back into water used for manufacturing and building, rather than going dribbling down the drain. Sustainable Salons was born solving the problem of salon waste in general, said founder Mr Frasca. Mr Frasca came about Sustainable Salons when he and his partner, who was studying Sustainability in the Fashion Industry, investigated the waste of a hair salon. Just three years later the business plan was written up for Sustainable Salons. Mr Frasca said that Sustainable Salons wanted to make hair into a valuable resource so they enlisted the help of students at the University of Technology Sydney to see what they could make. What they came up with is called a hair boom, or a metre-long sausage of hair waste used to soak up crude oil from the ocean. Each one can contain four litres of crude oil and you can squeeze out three litres, making it reusable. The services ultimate goal is to make salons in Australia and New Zealand zero waste and they are currently able to take 95 percent the salons waste. For us it really mattered to us about building not just a business, but ultimately a social enterprise that really gives back, said Mr Frasca. Listen to the full interview with Paul Frasca above. Weekend Life with Carly Flynn,10am - 2pm on Saturday and streaming live on 'rova' channel 9 - available on Android and iPhone. RadioLIVE. Astronomer Dr Grant Christie joins Graeme Hill to talk the latest in astronomy news. He takes a look at the on-going mission to collect a bag of asteroid stuff and bring it back to earth. There is a really nice video to check out here. Graeme and Dr Christie take a look at a new solar system being born. Aucklander Rolf Olsen attracted world acclaim in 2011 by being the first amateur to image the disk of dust and gas that surrounds the star, which has just now been found to contain a massive planet. Beta Pictoris b has now been weighed by astronomers and has a precise new mass measurement. If youre interested in learning more click here. Graeme and Dr Christie also look at asteroid Itokawa. A Japanese research group has clarified the chronology of the near-Earth asteroid, after they examined particles collected from the asteroid Itokawa by the spacecraft Hayabusa. The pair gander at Jupiters growth disorders, tiny spacecraft and the latest from the Arecibo Observatory. Listen to the full interview with Dr Grant Christie above. Weekend Variety Wireless with Graeme Hill, 8pm - midnight Saturdays and Sundays, on RadioLIVE and streaming live to the Rova app on Android and iPhone. RadioLIVE. The California Assembly has approved a state-level network neutrality bill by an overwhelming majority, which would instate Obama-era internet regulations across the Golden State. On a vote of 61 to 18, the states house of representatives approved SB 822, which would mandate no blocking, throttling or paid prioritisation by ISPs for broadband services for California consumers.The fight isnt over yet: The state senate still needs to pass it, and Governor Jerry Brown (D), will need to sign it.ISPs have tried hard to gut and kill this bill, pouring money and robocalls into California, said the Electronic Frontier Foundation. There was a moment where that campaign looked like it might have been successful, but [the people] spoke out and got strong net-neutrality protections restored. But that hiccup means that, although a version of the bill already passed in the California Senate, its now different enough from that initial version to have to be re-voted on.If approved, the law would attempt to apply the federal net-neutrality rules that Ajit Pais conservative FCC rolled back last autumn, with a new aspect: applying them to interconnections between ISPs. However, its likely that it will face court challenges on a federal level, given that the FCC said that its order preempts states rights, and therefore theyre not allowed to restore the rules.Consumers expect a single, national approach to keeping our internet open, not the confusing patchwork of conflicting requirements passed today," said Jonathan Spalter, president at USTelecom, an industry group for telephone companies across the US. "The California Assemblys vote today keeps the country strapped into a roller-coaster ride of state net neutrality regulations, but wont get us any closer to the stable and consistent net neutrality protections consumers deserve in the long term.The EFF added, Were in the home stretch here. California could ... provide a template for states going forward. California can prove that ISP money cant defeat real peoples voices. On Aug. 27, 1914, the Japanese navy set up a blockade of Tsingtao, a German-run port on the coast of China, after declaring war on the German state just four days earlier. The Japanese navy then waited for the British navy to arrive at Tsingtao, and the two combined forces attacked and then captured the German-held port. The Japanese went on to seize most of Germanys overseas colonies in the Pacific and began setting up its own empire, which of course put the country on a collision course with the United States and the United Kingdom. The German-Japanese rivalry is an odd one to think about, given that the two states were allies in World War II, but it was so short-lived that the term rivalry is probably the wrong term to use to describe their fight in World War I. Even today, Germany and Japan are sometimes thought of as rivals in the global economy because both countries specialize in high quality goods, and they oscillate between having the third or fourth largest economy in the world (nominal GDP) behind the United States and China, but rumors of a commercial beef between Germany and Japan today are non-existent. You could even argue that the Japanese-German rivalry is a bit overhyped, especially given the rich treasure trove of rivalries throughout history. This weeks Top 10 list will highlight the most interesting ones. Now, everybody knows about the rivalry between Russia and Germany over the past few centuries, and everybody knows that China and Japan have been rivals since the mid-nineteenth century, when Japan began industrializing rapidly, and everyone knows about the United States versus the Soviet Union during the first several decades of the postwar world. We also all know about the British-French rivalry during the 18th and 19th centuries, and todays rivalry between India and Pakistan is no slouch either, with nuclear weapons and world religions both being wielded as bludgeons by the two countries. Most people are even aware of the rivalry between the Romans and their barbarian neighbors (or their Carthaginian foes across the Mediterranean). Yet these famous rivalries, for all their importance, are only part of the story of how (and why) we, as humans, got to where we are today. Here are 10 rivalries that shaped the history of the world: 10. Russia versus the Ottoman Empire (1500s-1918). No list of major, world-shaping rivalries would be complete without mentioning the rivalry between Russia and Turkeys predecessor, the Ottoman Empire. Turkey today is a mere shell of its former self, as the Ottoman Empire spanned three continents and lorded over the all-important Bosphorus Strait. Hawkish politicians in Turkey today, eager to restore Turkey to its former glory, are often referred to as neo-Ottomanists due to their appeal to imperial nostalgia when arguing for a more aggressive foreign policy. The rivalry between these two empires was so important that RealClearHistory dedicated an entire article to the subject: 10 Most Important Russo-Turkish Wars in History. 9. The Dutch versus the British (1650s-1790s). The Anglo-Dutch rivalry of the 17th and 18th centuries was just as important as the later Anglo-French rivalry of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Netherlands was actually the first Protestant country to establish a worldwide empire, and it was able to do so merely by tracing the footsteps of the Catholic Spanish and Portuguese empires. (It was relatively easy for the Dutch to do this, because the Netherlands was at one time a province of the Spanish empire in Europe and many Dutch people served in the overseas empire of Spain.) The British basically did what the Dutch did to the Catholic monarchies, except that the British did it to the Dutch themselves. RealClearHistory has also covered this rivalry in much more depth: 10 things you didnt know about the Dutch Empire . 8. The Ottomans versus the Persians (1500s-1820s). The Ottoman Empire cant help being on this list more than once, as it was located in the middle of Eurasia and straddled some of the most important straits in the world. Persia was the Ottoman Empires next door neighbor to the east, and had a long history of its own. Today, these old empires have cultural cores in Turkey and Iran, two of the most important actors in the volatile Middle East. While the Ottoman Empire remained relatively stable, hierarchically, the Persians went through four dynasties during their centuries-long struggle with the Ottomans: the Safavids (1501-1736), the Afsharids (1736-1796), the Zands (1751-1794), and the Qajars (1789-1925). If you are having trouble grasping the immensity of this rivalry, just imagine Turkey and Iran fighting a war against each other today. RealClearHistory has some more Ottoman-Persian rancor: 10 Battles that Shaped the Ottoman Empire. 7. The Arabs versus India (710-810). Beginning in the early 8th century, the Umayyad caliphate launched a series of invasions into South Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The subsequent defeat of the caliphates armies and navies by numerous independent Indian kingdoms had ramifications for world history that can still be felt today. The Umayyad caliphate was the second (of four) major caliphate to appear after the death of Muhammad in 632, and is responsible for the largest of the Arab expansions that happened after Islam took root in Arabia. The Umayyads conquered present-day North Africa, Spain, Afghanistan, the Caucuses, and Pakistan in the name of Islam. At the height of its power, the Umayyad caliphate ruled an estimated 25-30 percent of the worlds population. After conquering an area called Sindh, which roughly correlates to present-day Pakistan, the Umayyads attempted to sweep across what is now present-day India and put all true-believing polytheists to the sword (there was always the option to convert, of course). Several Indian monarchies, acting independent of each other, repelled the Arab invaders by land and by sea, and the effort to conquer India led directly to the downfall of the Umayyad caliphate in Arabia. India, for its part, would remain predominantly Hindu, and Pakistan, which kept the Islam of its Arab conquerors, became another non-Arab Muslim powerhouse (along with Iran and Turkey). 6. India versus China (current). Forget about the rise of China and the decline of America narrative. Its too neat and assumes that China will continue to rise and America will continue to fall. The real 21st century rivalry is going to be between China and India. All the trappings for a great rivalry are already here. For starters, the two countries cannot even agree on what to call the increasingly interconnected region of Asia stretching from Pakistan to the Philippines. China prefers to call the area the Asia-Pacific region, whereas India prefers to use Indo-Pacific. Even Donald Trump has figured out that this is a contentious competition. There is also a stark contrast between how the two countries govern: China is a one-party authoritarian state, while India is a multi-party democracy. Both countries have vastly different methods of pursuing foreign policy, too, with India preferring a multilateral approach and China aiming for hegemony. Then there is the fact that the two sides have several border disputes that have yet to be resolved, and India still warmly hosts an exiled community of Tibetan nationalists. This is the rivalry of the 21st century. 5. Russia versus Poland-Lithuania (1560s-1790s). Today, Poland and Lithuania are separate, independent countries that were recently under Moscows thumb, but in the 16th and 17th centuries the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a major power in European politics, and it would push Russia around quite a bit. Russia eventually wrestled primacy of the Baltic commercial world and the Slavic cultural world away from the commonwealth, but not before the two rivals spent a few centuries at each others throats. RealClearHistory has more here: 10 Battles that Shaped Russia. 4. The Mughals versus the Persians (1600s -1739). The Mughal Empire, an Indian polity that ruled over much of the subcontinent, fought three wars against two Persian dynasties (Safavids and Afsharids) and lost all of them. Much of the fighting was done around the city of Kandahar, in what is now Afghanistan. Kandahar was for a long time an important fortress for empires and dynasties that lorded over both Persia and India. While the Mughals had their pride stung by the losses, they could at least find solace in the fact their realm was the most economically successful on the planet at the time. India and Iran have long been weary regional rivals and sometime allies, but geographic distance and terrain have made outright wars between the two civilizations rare and limited. The rivalry between Iran and India has been a cultural one rather than a military one. 3. China versus Java (1200s-1600s). Java is the most densely-populated island in the world, and has been for a long, long time. It has been the commercial, cultural, and political capital of the Pacific-Indian Ocean trade for millenia, too. Today it is part of Indonesia, the fourth most-populous country in the world and a dark horse on the contemporary international scene. Chinas foreign policy, regardless of which dynasty is in power, has long been about receiving tribute from foreign states in exchange for peace, and late in the 13th century Kublai Khan of the Yuan dynasty sent a large fleet to Java to punish the island for refusing to pay tribute. The Chinese navy was destroyed. China and Indonesia, like Iran and India, are distant rivals that prefer to trade with each other and compete culturally rather than militarily, and the plethora of distinct cultures in southeast Asia makes this rivalry all the more important. 2. Portugal versus Kongo (1400s-1850s). Portugals worldwide empire, which is well-known for its rivalry with the Dutch, had an even tougher rival in Africa known as the Kongo Kingdom, which dominated present-day Angola, both Congos, and Gabon. The Kongolese elites were quick to adapt Catholicism as their religion, and competition between Portugal and Kongo was limited to religious competition. The Portuguese struggled to maintain Catholic traditions in the face of Kongolese adaptations to the Catholic faith. Later in their rivalry, the slave trade brought hostilities to a boil, and the two civilizations fought a series of wars. Kongo had signed a treaty with Portugal stipulating that slaves could only be bought from Kongo, but Portuguese traders had been bypassing Kongolese trading forts in favor of less expensive markets just outside of Kongos realm.The rivalry was made more complicated by the arrival of the Dutch in the 1640s. The Netherlands and the Kongolese allied with each other and crushed the colonial Portuguese presence, but the Dutch made a quick peace with the Portuguese while the Kongolese wanted to wholly eliminate them from their region of the world. Kongolese worries were proved correct, and the Portuguese ousted the Dutch from central Africa for good in 1648. Kongo and Portugal continued to vie for supremacy in the 18th century, but Kongolese succession crises hampered the African empires efforts at ousting Portugal from central Africa, and by the 1850s Kongo was nothing more than a vassal of the Portuguese empire. 1. Comanche versus everybody (1700-1900). The Comanche fought everybody that dared to cross them. They were hated by the Utes and the Apache and feared by the Cheyenne and Kiowa. The Comanche fought Mexico, the United States, Texas, and France. In New Mexico, and among the Sioux and the Pawnee, the Comanche were loathed. The Comanche were so powerful that they forced Texas, Mexico, and the United States to the negotiating table on numerous occasions, and Sam Houston repeatedly tried to hammer out a stable peace with them. The California Gold Rush devastated Comancheria in the 1850s, but by the 1860s and 70s the Comanche were thriving again, this time making life difficult for the likes of Kit Carson and William Tecumseh Sherman, architect of the total war strategy that devastated and demoralized the confederacy during the civil war. Both men barely escaped with their lives while trying to pacify Comancheria. In the end, a combination of heavy warfare, disease, ecological degradation (in the form of declining buffalo populations), and the growing ease of sedentary life led to the end of Comanche rivalries. The diplomatic spat puts the United States, hypersensitive to any inkling that Iran's influence abroad is growing, in an interesting position. In late July, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Robert Karem met with Morocco's minister of national defense to reinforce bilateral military and security cooperation. According to local newspaper Assabah, which is owned by a media company that is owned by the Moroccan king, the U.S. sees Morocco as the western tip in a strategic alliance with Sunni nations to contain Shiite Iran. Morocco has shown its support for Washington's anti-Iran efforts by backing U.S. sanctions and warning local financial institutions and businesses not to engage in trade with Iran. Diplomatic sources told Assabah that this anti-Iran bloc would also include the Gulf states, Jordan and Egypt, giving it a reach beyond the Middle East and into North Africa. (It's worth noting that the U.S. also has other security concerns in North Africa, like checking the size and strength of the Islamic State and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.) Syria's Idlib region is rapidly turning into what could be the final and bloodiest flashpoint in the Syrian conflict. Millions of predominantly Sunni civilians, and tens of thousands of Syrian opposition forces and jihadis, have sought refuge in the region, which has taken on the appearance of being a de facto Turkish protectorate, although not a very secure and stable one. Meanwhile, President Bashar al-Assad appears determined to recapture the region and is reportedly continuing with military preparations to launch his attack. Turkey has 12 military outposts in Idlib governorate under an agreement with Russia and Iran arrived at last year on setting up de-escalation zones in the region. Turkish forces are holding positions between Syrian opposition forces and the Syrian army. Preparations for battle by the warring sides, nevertheless, continue, forcing Ankara into a bout of intense diplomacy with Moscow over the past two weeks in order to prevent an operation by the Russian-backed Syrian army. 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 Ukraine and Russia are trading blame for the killing of a top separatist leader in eastern Ukraine. Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the head of the head of the breakaway separatist entity known as the Donetsk Peoples Republic, was killed in an explosion at a cafe in Donetsk on August 31. Zakharchenko's killing was the latest in a series of violent deaths of separatist officials and commanders in eastern Ukraine, where the Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014 in a war that has killed more than 10,300. Many of the assassinations have been blamed on fellow rebels. But Russia was quick to blame Kyiv for Zakharchenko's death. In the latest comments, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said September 1 that the bombing was "Ukraine's provocation ... obviously aimed at derailing the implementation of the Minsk agreements," referring to the September 2014 and February 2015 pacts aimed at resolving the conflict. It is now "impossible" to talk about planning the next international talks over the conflict, Lavrov said, according to the state-run TASS news agency. "This is a serious situation that needs to be analyzed," he added. However, Ukraines security service said it believes the attack was the result of a conflict between "terrorists and their Russian sponsors." "We do not exclude an attempt by the Russian special services to eliminate a rather odious figure who, according to the information we have, was meddlesome for the Russians," the security service was quoted by state media as saying. The TASS news agency reported on September 1 that Zakharchenko's bodyguard also died as a result of the blast, while a dozen others were injured. Another separatist figure, Aleksandr Timpfeyev, was injured in the blast, but his condition was reported to have stabilized on September 1. Dmitry Trapeznikov, the first deputy prime minister, had been named as acting leader. Zakharchenko, twice wounded in combat, played an important role in the separatists military operation from the beginning, taking part in the seizure of the Donetsk regional administration building by those saying they were protesting against the new pro-Western authorities. The 42-year-old Zakharchenko, a former coalmine electrician who was born in Donetsk in 1976, survived a car bomb explosion in August 2014, and later in the year he was picked as prime minister by the parliament of the self-proclaimed Donestk Peoples Republic. TASS quoted Trapeznikov as telling the Donetsk News Agency that "several suspects" in the blast were detained and in questioning "confirmed the Ukrainian side's involvement in this crime." The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has denied any role in the blast. Plagued By Infighting The separatist movement has been plagued by infighting, with several leaders fleeing the region after saying they had been subject to threats from former comrades. In February 2017, separatist commander Mikhail Tolstykh, 36, whose nom de guerre was Givi, died in an explosion in his office in Donetsk. Another separatist commander -- Arseny Pavlov, known as Motorola -- was killed when a bomb exploded in an elevator in his apartment block in Donetsk in October 2016. On January 1, 2015, Aleksandr Bednov, a separatist commander in Luhansk, was killed resisting arrest by fellow separatist authorities on charges he ran a torture chamber in the basement of a separatist-held building. Since April 2014, more than 10,300 people have been killed in fighting between Kyiv's forces and the pro-Russia separatists who control parts of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Moscow has denied providing the separatist forces with weapons despite what Kyiv and NATO say is evidence proving that it has done so. Russia in 2014 also seized and annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. The United States and the European Union have condemned Russia's actions in Ukraine and have slapped a series of sanctions against Moscow in response. Zakharchenko was sworn into office as the head of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic on November 4, 2014. At one point, Zakharchenko announced plans to create a country called Malorossia -- Little Russia -- encompassing all of Ukraine with its capital in Donetsk. However, in August 2017, Zakharchenko called off the plan, saying it "was rejected by many" after it was met with derision and criticism in Kyiv and the West and did not receive the Kremlin's support. With reporting by Reuters, Interfax, and TASS Three former presidents, members of Congress, current and former world leaders as well as family and friends gathered on September 1 for a memorial service for longtime U.S. Senator John McCain at the Washington National Cathedral. His daughter, Meghan McCain, opened the ceremony with a tearful and impassioned tribute that turned into a clear rebuke of President Donald Trump's politics. Trump, who often feuded with McCain, was not invited to the ceremony. He traveled instead to his Virginia golf course, arriving as the service was taking place. Daughter Meghan McCain did not mention Trump directly but referred to his campaign slogan of "Make America Great Again." "The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great," she said. McCain said her father was a "great man" and she encouraged others to live up to his example. "We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness -- the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who lived lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served," she said. Among those in the front row at the cathedral were Barack and Michelle Obama, George and Laura Bush, Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as former Vice Presidents Dick Cheney and Al Gore. Also among mourners in Washington this week was the senator's 106-year-old mother, Roberta McCain. Obama, a Democrat, and Bush, a Republican, were among those who had been asked by McCain before his death to speak about the six-term senator during the service. Obama, who beat McCain in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, hailed the one-time prisoner of war for his commitment to truth and core democratic values. "So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty, trafficking in bombast and insult, and phony controversies, and manufactured outrage," Obama said. Bush, in his eulogy, described McCain as a man with a code. "He loved freedom with the passion of a man who knew its absence. He respected the dignity inherent in every life, a dignity that does not stop at borders and cannot be erased by dictators," Bush said. It is the last public event in Washington, where McCain lived and worked for over four decades, and part of McCain's five-day, cross-country funeral procession. He died from brain cancer on August 25 aged 81. A private burial service will be held on September 2 in Annapolis, Maryland, at the U.S. Naval Academy. With reporting by AP and Reuters The spiritual head of the worldwide Orthodox Church has hosted Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill for talks on Ukraine's bid to split from the Russian church, a move strongly opposed by Moscow. The meeting was hosted on August 31 by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, who is also known as the Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and the Ecumenical Patriarch. Bartholomew is regarded as the "first among equals" of the world's estimated 300 million Orthodox Christian believers. He is expected to rule in coming months on a Ukrainian appeal to cut spiritual ties with Moscow. But Kirill, who has strong connections with the Kremlin and is seen as an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is determined to prevent this from happening. The church's decision is being made after four years of conflict between Kyiv and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 10,300 people and prompted many Ukrainians to turn away from the Moscow church. The Metropolitan Emmanuel of France, who was present at the meeting between Bartholomew and Kirill, said afterwards that the main question they discussed was the "situation in Ukraine." Emmanuel said that Bartholomew informed Kirill that he decided in April to begin "exploring all the ways in order to issue the autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church." "We are implementing already this decision, and this was also reported to Patriarch Kirill," Emmanuel said. Emmanuel told AP that the final step of granting Ukrainian clerics full ecclesiastic independence has not as yet been reached, but he said that the process of reaching that point is now under way and "there's no going backwards." Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Orthodox parishes in Ukraine split into three: most of the parishes belonged to the Moscow Patriarchate, while a few parishes joined the Kyiv Patriarchate led by Metropolitan Filaret. The smallest group called itself the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church. However, the situation has changed and now the number of faithful and parishes belonging to the Kyiv Patriarchate, coupled with supporters of autocephaly, far outnumbers pro-Moscow parishioners. Moscow still does not recognize Metropolitan Filaret. Were Moscow to lose formal authority over a significant part of the Ukrainian church that is loyal to the Kyiv Patriarchate, and backed by Ukraines government, it would be seen as a blow to the prestige of the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian influence in general. The Associated Press reported this week that the Kremlin apparently is so concerned about the possibility of a split with the Ukrainian church that Russian intelligence operatives have been spying on Bartholomew's top aides for years. Kyiv on August 31 hailed the Istanbul talks as "historic." "It seems that our fair aspiration to receive autocephaly and the support of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew forced the Russian Orthodox Church to...begin a dialogue with Constantinople," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin wrote on Facebook. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has pushed for the Kyiv church to break away from Moscow, but he has said it is up to the clerics to decide. Bartholomew is the primus inter pares (first among equals) of Orthodox churches across the world, including Greek, Russian, Serbian, and Romanian. His degree of influence varies, but many consider him to be the the spiritual head of the entire Orthodox faith. His term in office has been marked by rocky relations with the Russian Orthodox Church, which has not always conceded that he is the spiritual leader of Orthodox believers. After Bartholomew's meeting with Kirill, Russian news agencies quoted Russian church officials as dismissing reports that a split with Ukraine is now under way. The TASS state-run news agency quoted Kirill as saying that "the organization of the Orthodox churches is such that not one church can make a decision that contradicts the position of the other churches. Therefore we are simply programmed for cooperation." With reporting by AP, AFP, and TASS Russia is in talks with Eritrea to set up a logistics center at one of the North African country's seaports, Russian news agencies cited Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on August 31. Eritrea occupies a strategically significant location on the Red Sea across from the Arabian Peninsula on a major shipping route between Europe and Asia. Lavrov did not specify where the center would be located, but he said the project would be aimed at developing bilateral trade in agriculture and mining as well as helping Eritrea develop its transportation and energy infrastructure. "A negotiation process is under way regarding the creation of a logistics center at one of the ports in Eritrea to boost our bilateral trade," Lavrov was quoted as saying by Interfax, after talks with his Eritrean counterpart Osman Saleh in the Russia resort city of Sochi. Lavrov said the center will advance "promising joint projects involving shipments to Eritrea of specific transport agricultural equipment," as well as help Russian businesses establish contacts in the country, Interfax reported. The Kremlin will be encouraging Russian companies to take part in African projects, including building regional transportation corridors and cross-border pipelines, he said, adding that the Eritrea region presents "excellent opportunities" for "economic integration" with Russia. Russia has been pursuing closer ties with a number of African countries in recent months, including signing a military cooperation with the Central African Republic and developing closer military relations with Egypt. The negotiations with Eritrea also come as Moscow is beefing up its naval presence in the nearby Mediterranean Sea, where Russian forces are backing Syria's government in a seven-year civil war against Sunni rebels. Based on reporting by Reuters and Interfax An airport worker has died and 18 people were injured when a passenger plane skidded off the runway after landing at Sochi airport in strong winds and heavy rain. Russia's Transportation Ministry said on September 1 that, while landing in bad weather, the aircraft skidded off the runway and into a riverbed before catching fire. The airport worker died of a heart attack while assisting with the evacuation of 164 passengers and six crew from the burning wreckage, Transportation Minister Yevgeny Ditrikh said. The airplane, a Boeing 737, was operated by Utair and was arriving from Moscow. The cause of the crash has not been determined. State-run TASS news agency quoted a source as saying the flight-data recorders of the aircraft had been recovered and are in satisfactory condition. In early August, 18 people were killed when a helicopter crashed after a midair collision in Siberia. Both aircraft were owned by Utair-Helicopter Services, a unit of Utair. The passengers were workers heading to their shift at an oil-pumping station in eastern Siberia. Dutch police on September 1 said they were investigating a double stabbing at Amsterdam's crowded Central Station as a suspected terror attack. The assailant, who stabbed two people before being shot by police, was identified as a 19-year-old Afghan man with a German residency permit. Witnesses described scenes of panic shortly after midday as gunshots rang out and thousands of commuters and tourists were evacuated from the rail terminal, which hosts about 250,000 travelers a day. Police spokesman Rob van der Veen said the two people who were stabbed were "very badly injured, and they were brought to the hospital." "We are looking at all scenarios, also the worst scenario, which is terrorism," he said. The Netherlands has so far been spared from a series of terror attacks which have hit neighboring countries France, Belgium, and England in recent years. Dutch police declined to speculate on the reasons for the stabbings, but the Afghan Taliban on August 30 called for attacks on Dutch troops because of plans by a Dutch far-right politician to stage a Prophet Muhammad cartoon competition -- an event which was cancelled hours after the Taliban announcement. Based on reporting by AP and AFP The U.S. military has announced it has made a final decision to cancel $300 million in aid to Pakistan that had been suspended due to Islamabads perceived lack of action against militants. President Donald Trump suspended the so-called Coalition Support Funds (CSF), along with other aid to Pakistan, at the start of the year. The Trump administration accuses Islamabad of harboring insurgents who are waging a 17-year-old war in neighboring Afghanistan, a charge Pakistan denies. "Due to a lack of Pakistani decisive actions in support of the South Asia Strategy, the remaining $300 [million] was reprogrammed," Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner was quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency on September 1. Faulkner said the Pentagon aimed to spend the $300 million on "other urgent priorities" if approved by Congress. He said another $500 million in CSF was stripped by Congress from Pakistan earlier this year, to bring the total withheld to $800 million. Based on reporting by Reuters The United States has announced it will cut all funding for a UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees. In a statement on August 31, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said its business model and fiscal practices were an "irredeemably flawed operation." "The administration has carefully reviewed the issue and determined that the United States will not make additional contributions to UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency)," Nauert said. UNRWA says it provides services to about 5 million Palestinian refugees. Most are descended from individuals who fled Palestine in the 1948 war that led to the creation of the state of Israel. The decision was denounced by Palestinian leaders, with President Mahmud Abbas calling it a "flagrant assault" on the Palestinian people. "Such a punishment will not succeed to change the fact that the United States no longer has a role in the region and that it is not a part of the solution" to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Abbas said. An UNRWA spokesman said the agency was "disappointed" with the U.S. decision, but would seek to fill the gap with extra funding from supporters in Europe, Asia, and the Persian Gulf. Based on reporting by dpa and Reuters An occasional passerby could be seen laying flowers at the site of a badly-damaged cafe on September 1 in the separatist-held Ukrainian city of Donetsk, where a blast is said to have killed Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the leader of the Russia-backed breakaway entity in the region. Shortly after the explosion on August 31, Russia's Foreign Ministry accused Ukraine of killing the separatist leader in an attempt to precipitate an upsurge in fighting in the eastern Donbas region. Kyiv, however, said it had nothing to do with the blast, which it blamed on separatist infighting. Ukraine says it has imprisoned the man it accused of being recruited by Russias secret services to organize a murder plot against self-exiled Russian reporter and Kremlin critic Arkady Babchenko. Vasyl Hrytsak, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), said on September 1 that Borys Herman had been sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison by a court in Kyiv on August 30. According to Hrytsak, Herman had pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with authorities. Hrytsak shocked reporters and the world when he announced on May 30 that Babchenko was still alive, a day after Ukrainian authorities reported he had been killed by a gunman outside his Kyiv apartment. The SBU said it thwarted the planned killing by working together with Babchenko to fake his death. Herman is alleged to have promised $40,000 to a would-be assassin for the killing of Babchenko. The alleged would-be killer, a former Ukrainian monk turned army veteran named Oleksiy Tsymbalyuk, said he went to the SBU after Herman approached him. Tsymbalyuk said he worked with the agency to foil the plot. Despite its apparent success, the SBU operation of faking Babchenkos death received heavy criticism from media watchdogs, journalists, and others who said it undermined the credibility of journalists and of Ukrainian officials. In Paris, Reporters Without Borders head Christophe Deloire said that staging Babchenkos death "would not help the cause of press freedom." "It is pathetic and regrettable that the Ukrainian police have played with the truth, whatever their motive...for the stunt," he added. Relations between Moscow and Kyiv have been badly damaged by Russia's seizure of Crimea in 2014 and backing for separatist militants in a devastating war in eastern Ukraine. With reporting by AFP But there is one speech Emanuel and his aldermen arent making: that speech where they stand and say in a loud and clear voice that Van Dyke deserves a fair trial, and that the rule of law will be observed in Chicago regardless of the verdict. The United States has warned Damascus and Moscow that it views any military assault on Syria's last rebel-held province in coming days as an escalation of the seven-year Syrian civil war. The warning from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on August 31 came as rebels in Syria's Idlib province bordering Turkey blew up bridges and dug trenches in preparation for an all-out government assault promised by the leaders of both Syria and Russia, which is providing air support for Syrian ground forces. "The U.S sees this as an escalation of an already dangerous conflict," Pompeo said on Twitter in a post that also lambasted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for defending Syria's assault plans. "The 3 million Syrians, who have already been forced out of their homes and are now in Idlib, will suffer from this aggression. Not good. The world is watching," Pompeo said. The United Nations has warned that a major military operation in Idlib could displace another 800,000 people in a war that has already killed more than 400,000 people and displaced millions. Lavrov has said the Syrian government has every right to push rebels out of Idlib, including an estimated 10,000 fighters in an Al-Qaeda affiliated group that is believed to be the dominant rebel force in the province. Lavrov got backing from an unexpected source on August 31 for the government's avowed plans to "liquidate" the extremist Al-Qaeda group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, which includes many recruits from foreign countries. The UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told reporters in Geneva that "no one doubts that Al-Nusra and Al-Qaeda are terrorists...and terrorists identified by the UN need to be defeated." But de Mistura continued to plead for protection for the millions of civilians who could be caught up in the battle. Russian military leaders have said their forces are providing a humanitarian corridor for civilians to leave the province, and they also are attempting in talks with Turkey to separate out what they have called the "terrorists" from more moderate opposition groups that have Ankara's backing. While Russia and Syria in the past have often have referred to all of their armed opponents as "terrorists," in the case of Idlib, they appear to be making a distinction in a bow to Turkey, which provides backing for many of the more moderate Sunni rebels in the province and which has joined Moscow and Tehran in sponsoring Syrian peace negotiations in the past year. With a major battle over Idlib seemingly only days away, the U.S. State Department said on August 31 that it is sending the new U.S. special representative for Syria, James Jeffrey, to Israel, Jordan, and Turkey on his first official trip abroad from September 1 to 4. Jeffrey and his delegation will "underscore that the United States will respond to any chemical weapons attack perpetrated by the Syrian regime," and will "address Russias specious allegations of international plans to stage a chemical weapons attack in Syria," the department said. Russia and Syria have denied planning any chemical attacks and have charged that the extremist Hayat group -- with backing from the West -- is planning to stage one and then blame it on the government, creating a pretext for Western air strikes. The latest exchange of warnings between Washington and Moscow comes as war monitors say thousands of Syrian government troops and allied fighters have been amassing in areas surrounding Idlib in preparation for an assault. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian forces have deployed at least 2,000 armored vehicles along the front lines surrounding Idlib and Hama. The area, which has been controlled by rebels since 2015, has been targeted by government and Russia air and artillery strikes for months, devastating infrastructure such as schools and hospitals. With reporting by AP, AFP, dpa, and Reuters The United States is ready to widen arms supplies to Ukraine to help build up the country's naval and air defense forces in the face of continuing Russian support for eastern separatists, the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine told The Guardian. Kurt Volker told the newspaper in an interview published on September 1 that pro-Western, anti-Russian sentiment was growing in Ukraine and that the Trump administration was "absolutely" prepared to go further in supplying weaponry to Ukrainian forces than the antitank missiles it delivered in April. "They are losing soldiers every week defending their own country," Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, said in the interview. "And so in that context its natural for Ukraine to build up its military, engage in self-defense, and it's natural to seek assistance and is natural that other countries should help them. And of course they need lethal assistance because theyre being shot at," he added. Moscow's takeover of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine prompted the United States, the European Union, and others to impose sanctions on Russia. Russia seized Crimea in March 2014 after sending in troops, taking over key facilities, and staging a referendum deemed illegitimate by at least 100 countries in the United Nations. The Kremlin, which has denied sending troops and heavy weapons to the region, has said providing new lethal weapons to Ukraine would foment bloodshed. Volker said that, while time was not on Russian President Vladimir Putin's side, he would nonetheless likely wait for presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine next year before reconsidering his negotiating position. "We can have a conversation with Ukraine like we would with any other country about what do they need," Volker said, according to the Guardian. "I think that theres going to be some discussion about naval capability because as you know their navy was basically taken by Russia. And so they need to rebuild a navy and they have very limited air capability as well. I think well have to look at air defense," he added. Now they were lugging heavy tables and sofas, up and down stairs, in Chicagos summer heat. They quickly learned they had to put limits on what they would haul with their own bodies. They began going to the gym at night CorePower Yoga for Witherspoon and drinking more protein shakes, hoping to stay in shape. The defendant has violated (the judges) order by providing an interview to the Chicago Tribune reporters, and then after we actually typed up and were ready to file the motion to increase bond, the defendant doubled down on that by giving a television interview, Cullen said in reference to Van Dykes Wednesday interview with the Chicago-area Fox affiliate. Five arrested in Cancun kidnapping of 39 Cubans Cancun, Q.R. State officials have announced the rescue of 39 Cuban nationals reportedly being held against their will in a building in downtown Cancun. La Procuraduria General de la Republica (PGR) of Mexico reported that in coordination with members of the armed forces, they rescued 39 Cuban migrants who had been kidnapped by four of their Cuban companions. General director of the PGR, Jorge Nader Kuri, explained that the rescue was made Thursday night in Cancun after an anonymous tip. The official said that members of the PGR, in coordination with personnel from the Secretariat of the Navy (Semar) of the National Defense (Sedena), Rescued 35 men and 4 women in Cancun, all of them migrant victims and of Cuban nationality, who, it seems, were deprived of their freedom and waiting for a probable payment for their release. Photo: La Procuraduria General de la Republica Nader Kuri explained that the discovery of the people was derived from an anonymous report to which security elements responded. Authorities went to the location provided by the tip, which was in downtown Cancun. He noted that when police neared the building they heard cries for help. Once inside, the victims pointed to four men, all of Cuban nationality, as the people responsible for their deprivation of liberty. All four were arrested. Nadar Kuri added that while they were transporting the victims to hospital for medical attention, a fifth man of Mexican nationality was also identified as being part of the kidnapping ring. The official explained He was pointed out by approximately 30 victims as the one who brought them food, so he was also arrested. He added that inside the building, police found cash in addition to telecommunication equipment and vehicles. The four arrested Cubans and the 39 Cuban victims were all made available to the Public Ministry of the Federation to determine their legal status. Due to Cubas proximity to Cancun, which is about 300 kilometers, Nada Kuri says migrants from Cuba see the Mexican resort as a place to stay or a first step on their journey to the United States. Florida company interested in Mexicos presidential plane Mexico City, Mexico A Florida company has expressed interested in renting the Mexican governments air fleet, including the presidential airplane. During his campaign, president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he would not use the plane and that he would sell it if elected. On Friday, he announced that he has received a proposal from a Miami company to Acquire for a time and pay rent to the government for all planes and helicopters. In a press conference, the president-elect explained that We will do what is best for us with the helicopters that are used for the transfer of high public officials. I am already receiving proposals and offers. I just received a proposal. A company in Florida is proposing to rent, acquire for a time and pay an income to the government for all the planes and helicopters, adding that the interested company is JeatLease based in West Palm Beach. He says they sent a list of aircraft and helicopters that they are interested in using. According to the proposal by JeatLease, the company says they are interested in leasing the presidential plane TP-01 (Boeing 787-8-2009) and the Boeing 757-1987 that is in custody of the Presidential General Staff, in addition to helicopters assigned to dependencies such as the Secretariat of the Navy Armada of Mexico, National Defense, National Water Commission and Attorney General of the Republic. Lopez Obrador did not provide details about the terms of the proposal or if he was going to meet with the company. When Lopez Obrador takes office on December 1, only 19.18 percent of the cost of the presidential plane will have been paid, less than 20 percent of a multi-billion peso loan that was financed over a 15-year period. The presidential plane was purchased in 2012 during the last year of the government of former President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa for just under 6.1 billion peso. Shortly after 11:35 a.m., officers were alerted to a body behind a building in the 700 block of South Campbell Avenue. When they arrived, they found a male whose age was unknown, police said. Punjab and Haryana High Court Chandigarh, September 1: Kerala, popularly known as God's own Country, has suffered worst ever floods due to unprecedented rains which wrecked havoc leaving hundreds of people dead and lakhs of people homeless. The extensive damage to public and private property has paralyzed normal life of millions of people. The task of rehabilitation of the affected and re-development of the infrastructure requires huge resources. In this need of hour the members of legal fraternity in the State of Punjab and Haryana and U.T. Chandigarh share the pain and agony of the people of Kerala and extend their solidarity and support to them. On the initiative of Hon'ble Mr.Justice Krishna Murari, Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court and other Senior Judges, in the meeting of Full Court, Hon'ble Judges resolved to contribute Rs.10,000/- each in 'Kerala Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund'. Advertisement Punjab and Haryana High Court Hon'ble Judges also resolved that all the District and Sessions Judges, other Judicial Officers, High Court and Subordinate Court employees and Members of High Court Bar Association and District Bar Associations in the State of Punjab and Haryana and U.T.Chandigarh be requested to make voluntary contributions. The Hon'ble Chief Justice and Hon'ble Judges have contributed an amount of Rs.5,10,000/-. The Registrars and Officers on Special Duty of the Registry of High Court have contributed an amount of Rs.1,19,000/-. Other Officers and employees of the High Court have volunteered to contribute one day salary to the 'Kerala Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund'. All the Judicial Officers and Subordinate Court employees in the State of Punjab and Haryana and U.T. Advertisement Kerala Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund Chandigarh have also volunteered to make similar contributions. The amount of contribution from all the Hon'ble Judges, Judicial Officers and Court employees is likely to be 1.5 crores besides the contribution to be made by the Bar Associations. No one was hit, according to police, who said a suspect was taken into custody and a gun recovered. Ah, the freedom of cruising! No commute, no schedule, no phone ringing WAIT A MINUTE THERE. Phones? We gave our cell phones up when we took off in 2008 for a blue horizon. But the world changed and they crept back in a few years later, and are now indispensable travelers tools. Used as a hotspot, a smartphone is our primary vehicle for getting online aboard Totem. Apps connect us to helpful tools from mapping to translation and a myriad of other tools. Necessary to keep up Totem's Instagram! Can you use what you have? Do you get a local burner? What about international roaming? Heres what works when youre a border-hopping nomad. [Updates in March 2019, now that Project Fi has become Google Fi.] Our current solution is to have two phones: one is a permanent US number (keeps us connected to folks at home and gets us online faster in a new place), and the other gets a new SIM card for whatever country we're in (local rates are typically more affordable, and we may want to make local calls/texts). The US phone is part of Google Fi; it means we are instantly online when we pick up a new country's cell tower, as long as it's one of the 135 countries in their plan (newest awesome add for cruisers: French Polynesia, where data rates are otherwise sky-high!). We are easily reached on a single number for text or calls, and billing is scaled at transparent, affordable rates: free texts, international roaming calls at $.20/minute, and data metered at $10/gigabyte. [Update: there's now also an unlimited plan. See T&Cs for details!] It cracked me up as we sailed up the west side of central America this spring when Google Fi announcement on our phone was the first clue an international boundary line was crossed. The local phone starts with any international-friendly unlocked phone. Unlocked is essential for swapping out SIM cards when you're in a new country, of course, so make sure that doesn't require a trip to the Genius Bar first. Will your current phone will work internationally? Ask the carrier, try this map, or look up the device in Wikipedia. If youre buying a new phone, look for phones that are GSM, or work on quad band, or work specifically on 850/900/1800/1900 MHz bands. Why do you want a local number? If we only had one phone aboard, we'd probably choose this route. First, because this is our primary way to get online. Local carrier usually have cheaper data rates in Mexico, (Telcel in Mexico runs around $5/gb, and Google Fi is $10/gb). Second, because we make and receive calls and texts in other countries, and a local contact isn't going to place an international call to reach our US number. For example: local calls/texts to arrange inland travel or just to coordinate a ride with a taxi to get fuel. Getting around on the back of a motorcycle is common in Indonesia, and when I had a good driver I'd text to request them specifically. However, growing use of data-based texting with WhatsApp makes this less critical. The Emanuel administration has said that because a state law limits the number of questions on each ballot to three, the council's batch would leave no space for Quinn's. The former governor says his binding referendum is unaffected by the three-question rule because it's a constitutionally protected right of voters to limit the number of terms their mayors can serve. The coalition said an internal investigation had "concluded that there were mistakes made in abiding by the rules of engagement." The coalition expressed "regret for these mistakes, and offers its condolences and solidarity with the families of the victims and wishes for a speedy recovery for the injured." It seems most of the American electorate is in the deep end of the political pool, drowning in false moral equivalencies, when it should be swimming for the center, where voters can touch the bottom and take a cleansing breath. San Francisco banned electric scooters from its streets for months, but across the bay up to a thousand of the devices zipped around Oakland, shuttling kids to school and ferrying office workers downtown. Politicians welcomed the scooters, hoping they would drive Oaklands economy and provide a new mode of transportation for residents who cant afford cars. That trusting approach stood in sharp contrast to San Francisco, where officials were initially put off by the scooter companies aggressive tactics and ultimately picked just two companies to offer dockless rentals. In other cities theyre considered more of a nuisance, but we can see long-term how smaller electric mobility could solve a lot of problems, said Ryan Russo, director of Oaklands Department of Transportation. He counts himself among the optimists, predicting that scooters will bring foot traffic downtown and help merchants on the Jack London Square waterfront an area thats long struggled because its too far from BART. Now Playing: Oakland embraces e-scooters Video: SFChronicle Members of the Oakland City Council share Russos enthusiasm. In July, the council approved regulations that aim to spread scooters evenly throughout the city by setting up a permit system and requiring each company to drop at least half its fleet in low-income communities of concern. If the rules work as City Council members envisioned them, then many of the lightweight, dockless vehicles would wind up in isolated pockets of East and West Oakland, where mass transit options are sparse. Whether Oakland can build this electric scooter utopia without sowing dissent among neighbors remains to be seen. While many residents embrace the slender two-wheelers, others are terrified by riders who carelessly speed down sidewalks, park their scooters in front of building entrances or pile them in bike lanes. The problem with the scooters isnt the scooters themselves its the way people are using them, said Warren Mead, 49, who lives near Lake Merritt. I would say about 5 percent of them are being used as an alternative form of transit. The other 95 percent are people driving to the lake, getting on a scooter and joyriding. The new transit fad incited a spirited debate on the Lake Merritt neighborhood Nextdoor message board. Some residents decried the scooters as high-speed terrors barreling down busy corridors like Lakeshore Avenue, sometimes with two riders astride one vehicle. Others touted the devices as a cost-effective solution for 1- to 3-mile trips, saying they would help wean people off cars. People are really negative on Nextdoor, but in my social circle, we feel really positive about scooters, said Carrie-Andrea Koppelman, 46. She regularly uses scooters to get from her home in the Crocker Highlands neighborhood to her nonprofit job downtown, a few miles away. So far, three companies Bird, Lime and Skip are operating in Oakland. They came in more gradually than in San Francisco, Russo said, which might explain Oaklands more genial response. Company representatives even met with city officials and obtained business permits before bringing in their fleets. By midsummer, downtown Oakland and Lake Merritt were awash in scooters. Jessica Christian / The Chronicle On a recent Monday morning, a construction worker rode a Lime from his work site at 14th and Webster streets, en route to buy a sandwich on his lunch break. A teenager pinballed down Broadway on a Bird. A middle-aged man grabbed a Lime outside the Whole Foods on 27th Street and rode it while shouldering groceries in his backpack. These are very inexpensive, said Jamar Welch, 44, a hip-hop dance instructor who was piloting a Bird around the lake. Welch said hes criss-crossed the city on a scooter, riding from East Oakland to West Oakland, and from downtown to Eastmont Town Center, a shopping mall at Bancroft and 73rd avenues. You can spend $20 and go all over, he said. Many San Francisco commuters also praised the devices when three well-funded tech companies Bird, Lime and Spin plopped them on the streets in March. But others fretted that people were riding and stashing them willy-nilly on sidewalks, blocking pedestrians and wheelchairs. In the ensuing weeks, people began showing up to emergency rooms with scooter-related injuries: broken wrists, dislocated elbows and concussions. Christopher Colwell, the chief of emergency medicine at San Francisco General Hospital, said he observed dozens of similar wounds on people who rode scooters while intoxicated or tore down steep hills at high speeds, usually without wearing helmets. The head injuries are what worry me the most, Colwell said. I really wish people would wear helmets. Though California law mandates that anyone riding a motorized scooter wear a helmet, a bill to lift that requirement passed the Legislature last week, and went to Gov. Jerry Browns desk. Bird is one of its lead backers. Meanwhile, a new era of scooter regulation dawned in San Francisco. On Thursday, the city picked two startups Skip and Scoot Networks to each rent 625 scooters, starting by Oct. 15. Officials at San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency might double the number of scooters in six months. In some ways, San Franciscos more stringent regulatory process paid off. The city extracted various concessions from the companies it selected for permits Skip proposed a community advisory board and hired ambassadors to hand out helmets; both companies are developing lock systems to prevent their vehicles from blocking sidewalks. The companies also promised to put their rental devices in areas with spotty mass transit mostly southeastern neighborhoods like the Bayview. San Franciscos approach signaled that the city is no longer going to tolerate the show-up-and-ask-for-forgiveness model that so many technology startups have tried, when they dump their products onto public roadways. We support the spirit of innovation, said Tom Maguire, MTA director of sustainable streets. And we want the private sector to help us. But at some point we do need to make sure that were protecting the public interest and the public right-of-way. Jessica Christian / The Chronicle 2018 In Oakland, as the trend gains momentum, complaints about reckless riding and cavalier parking are rolling in. Ive gotten complaints from frightened pedestrians because these electric scooters are quiet and kind of speedy, Russo said. And theres definitely concern that they can block the pedestrian right-of-way. 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. Oaklands Police Department began tracking scooter injuries this month, but a spokeswoman said it hadnt gathered enough data to show any patterns. City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan, lead sponsor of the scooter permitting ordinance, said she considered potential hazards of the mode when she wrote her legislation. People arent allowed to ride these things on the sidewalk, and well be enforcing that, she said. And Oakland wont allow riders to park scooters just anywhere, Kaplan added. Theyll have to stick near curbs, in the same furniture zone as newspaper stands and bus stop poles. Like Russo, Kaplan sees the potential for scooters to be a great equalizer in a city of stark economic and geographic divisions. While the more upscale areas of Rockridge and Temescal teem with buses and bike lanes, the flatlands of East Oakland are cordoned by freeways, striated with wide boulevards and underserved by buses and BART. Even Ford GoBike stations are concentrated in the northwest swath of the city, with none east of Fruitvale. Electric scooters could help rectify that problem, Kaplan said. Her ordinance requires companies to submit data on the usage patterns and geographic distribution of the vehicles, to ensure theyre scattered among the neighborhoods. Companies operating in Oakland would also have to provide a model for disabled riders say, a three-wheeled scooter and a way for people to pay without a smartphone. Kaplan said she wants to debunk the myth that new forms of mobility are white people things. She also wants to encourage more companies to come in: Oakland isnt picking which companies get permits or capping the total number of electric scooters on its streets. Were not trying to have a bunch of companies compete so we can pick winners and losers, Kaplan said, alluding to San Franciscos permit cap. Were saying, Here are a bunch of rules. If you follow them, you can come in. San Francisco has spent years battling Silicon Valley companies that swooped in before the city could set rules for them from ride-hail services to tech shuttles to delivery robots. That might explain San Franciscos cautious approach to electric scooters, and why it contrasts so sharply with Oakland, a city that still hungers for investment and innovation. San Francisco has traditionally been the place where these companies all want to play particularly in the Financial District, said Clarrissa Cabansagan, new mobility policy director for TransForm, a regional transportation nonprofit. Because Oakland hasnt shouldered the burden of being a laboratory, its in a much better position to welcome new technology, she said. In fact, city leaders are using new gizmos like electric scooters to fix injustices of the past. If you look at our strategic plan, were all about lifting up Oaklanders who havent had advantages, Russo said, referring to his departments mission of helping low-income families, community college students and teens who take multiple buses to get to school. Whats interesting is how the scooters fit into that, he said. Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan California prison officials are investigating the circumstances surrounding a construction project that used inmate labor to build a family playhouse for a high-level official on San Quentin State Prison grounds. The canary yellow, Victorian-styled structure sits next door to the on-site home of the prisons health care chief, Stephen Harris. It was built for his grandchildren. In an email, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation press secretary Vicky Waters said, It is incumbent upon all CDCR staff to follow and adhere to the departments policies on government code. But Waters did not respond to specific questions about the playhouse project, including whether it was within policy. Waters said she would follow up when she had more information. Harris told The Chronicle that the idea for the playhouse was borne out of an inmate vocational program that focuses on carpentry. The inmates are trained on about 400-500 skill sets during the 18-month program, he said. About a year ago, the instructor asked for some ideas about projects, Harris said. (The inmates) were building things and taking them apart. Harris said he suggested creating something for his grandkids, and that he would pay for the $4,000 worth of materials himself. The construction took about nine months for two to three inmates to complete, he said, adding that it was a source of pride for both the inmates and instructors. Some of them were so thrilled and so thankful to be able to see it through, he said. Harris, whos 71, stressed that the structure is owned by the state of California and that he wouldnt be taking it with him when he retires soon. It will stay with the house it will last 30 years and Ill probably last another year, he said. Harris said the project had approval from CDCR headquarters in Sacramento. 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. Warden Ron Davis declined to comment for this report and, through a representative, referred all questions to Waters. San Quentin State Prison is a sprawling 432-acre complex overlooking northern San Francisco Bay in Marin County. The all-male facility currently houses about 4,400 inmates and holds the states only gas chamber and Death Row for male inmates, according to the facilitys website. The property additionally includes housing for some prison officials. Prisoners rights advocates say its important for inmates to learn marketable skills while incarcerated, and that they often lead to work opportunities upon release. Sometimes those opportunities come in the context of providing services to (prison) staff, said Sara Norman, managing attorney for the Berkeley-based Prison Law Office. And I think thats fine, as long as the appropriate balance is struck, she said. (This includes) giving people a chance to work productively and be respected for their labor which would include getting paid appropriately and providing prison staff the benefit of those services. Norman said shes not familiar with the prisons specific policies, but said obviously we want public officials who play important roles in our prisons to operate according to very strict guidelines. Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy Its wonky. Its a bunch of data and names. And it will most likely save a lot of homeless peoples lives. For the past two years, program managers in San Francisco have been quietly crafting a system to closely track every homeless man, woman and child. The purpose is two-fold: to tailor housing, rehab and other services to them, but also to eliminate wasteful and costly duplication of efforts. The idea is that by punching in a homeless clients name, information about every health, housing, jail and counseling program that person has ever tried will come up instantly. It would give homelessness counselors and people running shelters a complete picture of whatever didnt work, allowing them to avoid repeating those failures and figure out the next, best step. That systems time has finally come. The rollout began last month for logging individuals into whats been dubbed the One System, and counselors hope to have the entire system up and running by early 2019. So far, more than 1,000 homeless people are logged in, putting the teams well on the way toward meeting their goal of registering 2,000 by the end of October. If all goes as planned, the city will see a drop next year in the point-in-time homeless count, which currently sits at 7,499. That drop would mean less mess in the streets, and less anguish in the lives of the people who leave them as they get routed more efficiently into housing, rehab and mental health treatment. No one is sure how much money can be saved by eliminating wasteful efforts, and calculations will be difficult since it will involve preventing money from being spent inefficiently. But everyone involved estimates the savings will be noticeable. Im really excited about this, said Mayor London Breed, who has advocated for a better tracking system since being elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2012. People say we need to fix the problem, get people off the street well, its not that simple. In addition to those who became homeless after losing jobs or due to terrible luck, people are struggling with drug addiction and mental illness, and that is a huge challenge, she said. This new system is important because it gives us an understanding of the big picture for whats going on with each person. The trouble has always been that one person would be in one system, and another would go to get help somewhere else. And then theyd have to do a lot of different interviews with different places. Some people would give up, or not get sent to the right places. This new system addresses that. Photos by Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle Tightly coordinated tracking systems have helped reduce the homeless counts in recent years in Salt Lake City, Chicago, Houston and other cities, and the top homeless policy manager in the U.S. believes it will work in San Francisco. Its one of the best things you can do to use your resources in the best way possible, said Matthew Doherty, head of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. I am very encouraged by what San Francisco is doing, and it is long overdue. I do believe it will make a difference. Every homeless policy manager in San Francisco over the past 20 years has been frustrated by the lack of such a tracking system. As recently as 2016, a grand jury and San Franciscos budget and legislative analyst both excoriated the city for not having one that worked. The challenge is immense: A system has to tie together information from 15 different databases involving departments like health, human services and others, and they have to be confidential enough to maintain client privacy. In the early 2000s, much of what passed for the citys tracking system was piled into sagging cardboard boxes. In 2006, the then-director of the Community Housing Partnership supportive housing program railed to The Chronicle about not having a good way to assess the most acute needs of people on the streets. Today, that former director Jeff Kositsky is head of the citys Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, and when he took the job two years ago creating the One System was one of his first priorities. He started the system rollout for families late last year, and it has already helped cut families typical wait time for shelter spots from a week to about two days. Kositsky expects similar success for the individuals component. That component, the biggest element of the system, by far, includes the costly and tough-to-treat contingent of a couple thousand longtime chronically homeless people. A separate log-in specifically for youth is planned for later. Its really exciting to see this system coming to life, he said. I know its going to make a difference. Maybe not right away, but it will happen. The work of registering individuals is being conducted by Episcopal Community Services, and so far it is based at two walk-in offices called Access Points one at 123 10th St., the other at 2111 Jennings St. Counselors are also registering clients at shelters and other locations. After taking down identification information, they ask 17 questions designed to assess history and needs. The questions seek to find out how much violence a person has experienced, how he or she will react to shelter environments, how many mental health services the person has used in the past five years, and so on. For people like 53-year-old James Taylor, screening could have staved off the misery that being a longtime homeless crack addict seared into him. Lea Suzuki / 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. Taylor bounced through six different drug rehabilitation programs, each not quite calibrated to what he needed, before hitting the right one nearly two years ago. That helped him into the right living situation. Today, the former Marine lives in a supportive housing complex on Treasure Island run by Swords to Plowshares for formerly homeless military veterans like himself. A higher spiritual power kept me going and, finally, he put the right people into my life, Taylor said. I know that, in the end, it was up to me to change, but it would have been nice to not have to go through so many programs. You want people to look at you and know you are somebody, that you want to climb to a higher peak. And thats what I finally found. It just took a while. One of the keys for Taylor was having counselors at Swords who more intimately understood the dynamics of a despairing veteran. Many veterans just give up after getting ping-ponged around, said Janice Yee, one of Taylors counselors at Swords. If they could just go to one place to get logged in and assessed, they would know what to expect and have a better chance of succeeding. During the log-in process for the One System, a lot of whats done is figuring out whether problems can be solved quickly. But, mostly, having a detailed history of past efforts and a persons frailties will allow counselors to serve those most in need, rather than those who showed up first. In a perfect world, there would be enough housing to immediately place everybody inside, but unfortunately there is a finite amount, said Holly Aversano, a manager at the 10th Street Access Point. So we need to use good listening skills, figuring out what resources you (the homeless person) already have and can use to quickly exit from homelessness. For now, the emphasis is on logging people in. The more vigorous placement process happens next year once the database is sufficiently filled. That cant happen soon enough for Mickey May. May, 34, came to the 10th Street Access Point the other day to get logged in, and as she left with her pit bull, Sassy, she shivered at the prospect of bedding down that night at a nearby gas station. Ive already been in and out of a navigation center (a service-enhanced shelter), done all kinds of paperwork before, but this sounded like it might actually lead somewhere, she said. I hope it helps. I cant take any more of this horrible life out here. Kevin Fagan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KevinChron On March 3, 1863, an advertisement appeared in El Voz de Mejico, a Spanish-language newspaper in San Francisco. The notice invited Californios native Californians to enlist in a new cavalry unit. Interested parties were told to go to the corner of Pine and Sansome streets. This recruiting notice was the first public appeal for one of the most unusual units in the history of the U.S. military: the 1st Battalion of Native Cavalry, also known as the Californio Lancers. As Tom Prezelski writes in Californio Lancers: The First Battalion of Native Cavalry in the Far West 1863-1866, state Sen. Romualdo Pacheco urged the U.S. Army in 1863 to raise a cavalry battalion of Mexican American volunteers. Pacheco was driven not only by the desire to showcase his fellow Californios patriotism, but also their legendary horsemanship. To take advantage of their skills, the Army armed the new cavalrymen with an ancient weapon: the lance. Spanish troops had been using the lance since they arrived in the New World. In California, the lance was the main armament carried by mounted soldados de cuera leather soldiers so-called because of the long leather coats they wore to protect them from Indian arrows. Ironically, Californio prowess with the lance had been most potently displayed in a battle with U.S. troops during the Mexican-American War, 17 years earlier. At the battle of San Pasqual on Dec. 6, 1846, mounted Californio lancers overwhelmed the troops of Gen. Steven Kearny, impaling them on their lances and killing 21. It was the worst defeat suffered by U.S. troops in the California campaign. The lance used by the Native Cavalry, manufactured at the federal arsenal in Benicia, consisted of a 9-foot-long ash shaft whose butt end fit into a socket on the right stirrup, and whose attacking end was an 11-inch triangular blade. But these lethal, if cumbersome, weapons were rarely used. During its three-year existence, the Native Cavalry fought against Indians, hunted down bandits, guarded the Mexican border against imperial forces and skirmished with Apaches in Arizona. But it saw almost no actual combat. Indeed, many more Native Cavalry troops deserted than ever hoisted their lances in anger: Over the battalions three-year existence, 38 percent of its troops went AWOL. The 1st Battalion of Native Cavalry consisted of four companies, recruited in San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Few of its troops were drawn from the flower of Californio society. Most were destitute and illiterate. Besides desertion, drinking, fighting and insubordination were constant problems. The two northern companies were mustered and trained at the Presidio in San Francisco. The 82 men of San Joses Company A were a motley mixture of native Californians, Mexicans, Chileans, Indians, Germans and Anglos. Under the incompetent-at-best leadership of Jose Ramon Pico, morale was terrible. By the end of 1863, when the company was sent to the Eureka area to ineffectively join in a campaign against the Hupa Indians, 20 men had already deserted. Trivia time The previous trivia question: Which San Francisco mayor intoned, "The horse car had to go, the cable cars have to go"? Answer: Roger Lapham. This week's trivia question: What iconic American skyscraper is closest to the Salesforce Tower in height? Editor's note Every corner in San Francisco has an astonishing story to tell. Gary Kamiya's Portals of the Past tells those lost stories, using a specific location to illuminate San Francisco's extraordinary history - from the days when giant mammoths wandered through what is now North Beach to the Gold Rush delirium, the dot-com madness and beyond. His column appears every other Saturday, alternating with Peter Hartlaub's OurSF. See More Collapse Company B, mustered in San Francisco, had an equally spotty track record. Almost half of its troops were French, some of them probably deserters from the imperial army in Mexico. In November 1864, the Presidio was put on alert that Confederate sympathizers planned to disrupt the national elections. Company B was assigned to patrol the city, but nothing happened. Meanwhile, desertion rates approached one man a week. In January 1865, Company B was ordered to march to San Juan Bautista, a pro-Confederate area, to hunt down a murderous secessionist band called the Mason-Henry gang. The towns citizens were impressed as the gay and gallant Spanish lanceroes came dashing through the town with the lances in hand, a flag flying from each of them. However, many of the troops ended up drunk and confined to a local adobe, and one was convicted of killing an Indian and sentenced to death by musketry, although he apparently escaped by, as usual, deserting. Company B was responsible for one of the Native Cavalrys few successes in the field, when its acting commander led a party that surprised one of the leaders of the Mason-Henry gang, wounding him and his horse. 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. In July 1865, all four companies of the Native Cavalry were dispatched on a sweltering march to a fort near the Arizona-Mexico border, to watch the frontier against Maximilians troops. Maximilian never threatened the frontier, but Native Cavalry troops did engage in one noteworthy if faintly ridiculous campaign, an unsuccessful cross-border foray to capture a band of deserters from, of course, their own battalion. After a tense standoff, the U.S. forces agreed to wait for imperial authorities to decide whether to return the deserters. In the meantime, the troops were wined and dined by Republican sympathizers who treated them to three fine dinners. After eight days, the emperors representatives sent word the deserters would not be returned, upon which the well-fed troops rode back across the border. The final orders of the Native Cavalry were to battle Apaches in Arizona. Like most of their campaigns, the effort came to little or nothing. In October 1865, the Native Cavalry battalion was ordered disbanded. The following spring, three companies of the battalion disembarked at the Folsom Street Wharf in San Francisco, then marched across the city to the Presidio. After waiting eight days for their pay, the threadbare veterans were seen on every street corner in town, spending their greenbacks with great liberality in clothing stores. Thus ended the odd saga of the 1st Battalion of Native Cavalry Californias less-than-glorious last link with its storied past of mounted lancers fighting under the flag of Spain. Gary Kamiya is the author of the best-selling book Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco, awarded the Northern California Book Award in creative nonfiction. All the material in Portals of the Past is original for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: metro@sfchronicle.com Sen. John McCains death brought out many memories and anecdotes, but my favorite is one you didnt hear. It comes from San Mateo attorney Joe Cotchett, who filed a lawsuit on behalf of thousands of investors who lost their shirts in the collapse of Charles Keatings Lincoln Savings and Loan in the 1980s. McCain and four other senators were accused of improperly intervening on Keatings behalf when he was under investigation by the feds before his S&L cratered. They had all received healthy campaign support from the crooked banker and were known as the Keating Five. Joe tells the story of how McCain was the only senator who agreed to give a deposition in the case. And how McCain told the truth about the ways he and his fellow senators became involved with Keating. None of the other senators, including California Democrat Alan Cranston, would fess up. Cotchett was so impressed with McCains honesty, candor and sympathy for the victims (including tears) that he later testified to the Arizona Republicans character at the Senate Ethics Committees hearing into the matter. The panel ended up reprimanding Cranston and two other senators but let McCain off with a tut-tut for using poor judgment. Of course, McCain isnt the only great American whose loss were mourning. Theres also Aretha Franklin, the undisputed Queen of Soul. Diane Bondareff / Associated Press 2005 Like McCain, she could cross party lines she performed at inaugurations for Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush. And she never stopped pushing for equality for women and people of all races. To see that white old-fashioned hearse carrying her gold-encrusted casket and red 6-inch heels what a sight. Florida follies: This column would be incomplete if I didnt opine on the comments made on Fox News by the Republican nominee for Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, about Democratic rival Andrew Gillum. DeSantis, who is white, complimented Gillum, who is black, for being both well educated and an articulate spokesman. I was half-expecting him to call Gillum a credit to his race. DeSantis then unloaded the kicker. Florida is on a roll, he said, and the last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state. It was a truly racist comment, and if white people didnt get it, black people sure did. Gillum called it out for what it was. Will it have an effect on the Florida election? Probably not. But if a Democrat wins in 2020, Gillum will be headed for a Cabinet slot. Movie time: Mile 22. Mark Wahlberg is at it again, this time in one of those triple-cross espionage plots that kills everyone off and leaves you wondering why you paid for a seat. Its just that bad. Then theres this: The other night I had occasion to speak at the Chinese Historical Society on Clay Street, and I asked the audience of about 100 people, How many of you have seen Crazy Rich Asians? Everyone raised their hands. How many have seen it twice? About 30 peoples hands went up. And about 15 people had seen it three times. Deposit: Ive been to a lot of unique restaurants, but nothing matches NoMad in Los Angeles, where Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters celebrated her birthday the other day. 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. NoMad is in what was once the Bank of Italy. I still looks like a bank when you walk in. And get this the bathrooms are downstairs in the vault. A waiter told me it is probably the most photographed bathroom in Los Angeles. The building was an appropriate setting for the party, because if the Democrats take back the House, Waters will chair the banking committee. Senior moment: Andrea Gourdine, San Franciscos former human resources director who now holds the same job in Oakland, had me come out to Rossmoor in Walnut Creek the other night to address the senior communitys LGBT club. Five hundred people showed up, a bigger crowd that youd be likely to get in the Castro. I was blown away. The club has come up with a great idea for a second AIDS quilt its starting a thank you quilt for all the people who helped fight the epidemic. Pray for me: Hell Week, as Herb Caen called it, is upon us. The Opera and the Symphony kick off their seasons. Its tails for the Opera and black tie for the Symphony. But you can also end the week at the much more relaxed Sound Summit, which will be held across the bridge at the Mount Tamalpais open-air theater Saturday. It benefits Mount Tam State Park, with a lineup of Herbie Hancock, Grace Potter, Nikki Lane, Con Brio and Bob Weir. Ill be there that is, if I can find my hiking tuxedo. Want to sound off? Email: wbrown@sfchronicle.com The Democrats never abandon their own. They support the hard-core socialist wing with a wink and a nudge, and push, either harshly or gently, in that direction. Lately they have been emboldened because they have weakened the Republican center. The hard right remains committed to Trump. The centrist Republican Party was always a party that just wished to govern, with or without principles. Unlike the Democrats, they would govern from left-center, middle or slightly right-center according to the politics of the day. They would profess hard-right rhetoric to nail down the base to win primaries, then shift to the center or even to the left to win general elections. The disrupters are being disrupted. Companies such as Uber established an ask forgiveness, not permission ethos, treating city streets like the software code they uploaded and updated with frenetic speed. The playbook was simple: Swarm a town with your service, grow really big really fast, win over lots of customers, and enlist them as allies in lobbying to allow your business to operate. Not on that game plan: getting a go-ahead from civic leaders before rolling things out. But increasingly cities from New York to San Francisco are fighting back. Case in point: scooters. While scooter companies followed the classic game plan when they dumped hundreds of electric two-wheelers here in March, it took only a few weeks for San Francisco to put the kibosh on them and create a framework that the companies had to work within. On Thursday, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency picked two smaller companies, Scoot Networks and Skip, for a one-year pilot program, snubbing well-funded players including Lime, Bird, Lyft and Ubers Jump division. This is the first time the city got out in front of an issue, albeit the companies did deploy before regulation, said Supervisor Aaron Peskin, a vocal critic of tech company excess. San Francisco clearly learned lessons from the behavior some companies have exhibited in the past. It stuck to a profound principle: If you want to use the public right-of-way, it has to be in the public interest. His view: Mayor Ed Lees administration was too friendly to tech companies. That led to a backlash for public opinion and legislative efforts, he said. Were striving to find the sweet spot that balances all the needs. Michael Macor / The Chronicle On the other hand, some tech observers say San Francisco could be in danger of squelching innovation if its regulations are too heavy-handed. Its regulation of sidewalk delivery robots allowing just eight for the entire city and limiting them to industrial areas exemplifies what critics call a nanny-state tendency. Some companies that failed to get a scooter permit are already crying foul, saying the process was too opaque. Lime said it will appeal the decision. Uber and Lyft said they are disappointed and still hope to rent e-scooters in the city one day. But its not just scooters. Uber and Lyft, the ride-hailing disrupters, face more and more blowback from cities even though they are often regulated at the state level, as is the case in California. Both companies in July compromised with Peskin on to the possibility of San Francisco taxing their rides in the city, rather than face the prospect of the city imposing a harsher tax via a ballot measure. On Friday, the Legislature passed a bill allowing San Francisco to have a 2019 ballot measure about the ride-hailing tax. In New York, the City Council last month voted to freeze the number of ride-hail cars for a year while the city studies effects on traffic and livable wages. Airbnb, the other giant disrupter, likewise is facing new barriers erected by cities. In its hometown, a bruising lawsuit forced it and other vacation-rental companies to knuckle under to the citys requirement that all hosts register to ensure they abide by local laws. In New York, the City Council required home-rental companies to provide detailed data about hosts. Cities have learned from past experience and gotten more savvy, said Sunil Paul, who founded Sidecar, a now-defunct San Francisco ride-hailing company. The world has changed. We as a city and as a society need to rein in companies that abuse their power. Ride-hailing was a gray area when Sidecar came along in 2011. Sunil said the company had talked to the mayors office before starting service, but Sidecar, along with Uber and Lyft, received cease-and-desist orders from state regulators in 2012. California then crafted regulations for ride-hailing in 2013. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Still, he thinks that regulating by the numbers such as capping the number of scooters is an old-fashioned approach. With all the technology available, we should be able to create a better system that takes advantages of location, data and all the rest so it can measure scooters behavior. But tech companies still have some juice with regulators. In Santa Monica, Bird and Lime, which had pioneered e-scooters there, appeared poised to be shut out of the citys pilot program when a rating scorecard placed Ubers Jump and Lyft at the top. The two younger companies mobilized their users and on Thursday ended up getting permits for the citys 16-month pilot program, alongside Lyft and Jump. At the state level, a Bird-backed bill that would let adults ride e-scooters without helmets sailed through the Legislature this week, passing the Assembly 73-0. Gov. Jerry Brown has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto it. Scoot, one of the two successful applicants for e-scooters in San Francisco, several years ago spent months working with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to devise a permit for its Vespa-like sit-down scooter rentals an example lawmakers cite of a company that behaves. Some companies try to play a short-sighted startup game in urban infrastructure, said Michael Keating, Scoot CEO and founder. As an urban planner, he sees any city where Scoot operates as somewhere it wants to be for decades. We want to be the next mode of mass transit for cities, he said. That takes time and its a long game. If you dont listen to the community and government, if you dont play like youre going to be there for years and years and years, you can trip up along the way. Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid ORLANDO This city has long been a leading tourist destination. Now, it is vying for another distinction: to be a pioneer in weaning itself from carbon-based energy. You can see its aspirations in the thousands of ponds all over the city that collect the runoff from Central Floridas frequent downpours. Floating solar panels rise and fall in the water, sending power to the grid. There is also evidence along city streets, where solar panels sit atop streetlights to power them instead of using the electric grid. About 18,000 of the 25,000 in the city already have been converted to high-efficiency light-emitting diodes. Even algae pools may play a role. Thats where officials are testing a system to trap the carbon that the city emits from power plants or transportation, rather than release it into the atmosphere. Orlando, in short, is charting its own course to help curb the effects of climate change. In part, it is stepping in where the federal government has pulled back. It is among almost 300 U.S. cities and counties that have reaffirmed the goals of the Paris climate accord since President Trump announced last year that he intended to withdraw the United States from the pact. Cities, were having to take the lead, said Chris Castro, the citys director of sustainability. You would have expected the federal government to be taking the lead, but the federal government seems to be backing away every day from the commitments theyve made. Orlando has set a goal of generating all its energy from carbon-free sources by 2050. But setting goals is proving far easier than achieving them. And environmental groups like the Sierra Club are agitating to make sure the commitments are more than just talk. Mayor Buddy Dyer acknowledges that the citys goals will require more than resolve. As a community, weve been really good about creating visions, he said. I think we all recognize that we need technology advancements to get to 100 percent. Here in the center of the Sunshine State, significant potential rests with solar power. By 2020, solar power is expected to make up 8 percent of the electricity generation of the city-owned utility, which powers much of the metropolitan area, including Universal Studios and SeaWorld, while investor-owned utilities serve some neighboring areas. The municipal utility has installed equipment to generate 20 megawatts of community solar power enough to power roughly 3,200 homes on places like canopies over parking lots. The citys 280,000 residents contribute an additional 10 megawatts of solar power from equipment on their rooftops. As an incentive to install solar panels, homeowners receive full retail value for electricity they send to the electric grid, an arrangement known as net metering. The utility also provides discount installation of home solar equipment and is looking at offering batteries. And the city wants to float a large solar array on the pools of a water treatment plant, potentially offering a model for cities and utilities nationwide. But solar power alone will not get Orlando to 100 percent clean energy, experts say. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes For one thing, like other cities, Orlando struggles with its reliance on one of the dirtiest fuels for producing electricity coal. Los Angeles, which also generates municipal power, has proposed to replace remaining coal plants with natural-gas facilities, which produce half as much carbon as coal units. In Orlandos case, about 47 percent of the energy mix comes from two coal units at the Curtis H. Stanton Energy Center, home also to two generators powered by natural gas. The city is reviewing the future of the coal component. A transition from power plants burning coal and natural gas might force consumers to foot the bill for closing facilities by paying off their remaining debt early while also paying for the new technologies. As Orlando tries to increase its use of intermittent sources like wind and solar power, battery storage will be important, but it remains costly. And critics argue that focusing on power plants addresses only a portion of the greenhouse-gas problem. In 2017, a little more than a third of the nations energy consumption came from the electric power industry, while transportation and the industrial sector made up about half, according to the Energy Information Administration. Some measures, at this point, aim to curb rather than eliminate the use of carbon fuels. Natural gas powers the government-run bus system that serves the city and three neighboring counties, and garbage trucks have hybrid engines, reducing the use of gasoline. (The police force has gone a step further, with electric motorcycles.) Ivan Penn is a New York Times writer. A bill designed to let higher-income taxpayers in California get around the new $10,000 limit on the federal income tax deduction for state and local taxes passed the Legislature on Friday night, but the Internal Revenue Service has proposed regulations that would thwart its intent. New York, New Jersey and Connecticut already have created such programs, dubbed SALT workarounds, and others have been waiting to see what California would do. In general, these programs give people who made a donation to a designated state-run fund or private charity a dollar-for-dollar state tax credit equal to a certain percentage of their contribution. Then, they can deduct 100 percent of their donation as a charitable contribution on their federal return, if they itemize. The combination of the state tax credit and federal deduction could come close to offsetting the loss of state and local tax deductions over $10,000, the limit set by the the Republican-backed tax bill that President Trump signed last year. This deduction was previously unlimited. SB539, by Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, would expand an existing state program that gives people who donate money to a program that provides Cal Grants to college students a state tax credit equal to half their donation. It would increase the credit to 75 percent and double the amount of credits that could be given out each year to $1 billion. The bill now awaits Gov. Jerry Browns signature. Last year, Brown joined the governors of New York and New Jersey in urging Congress not to touch the state and local tax deduction. Since then, he has been mostly mum on SALT workaround bills. The IRS recently proposed regulations that would crack down on programs designed to get around the new $10,000 limit. It said people who get a state tax credit in exchange for a charitable donation must deduct the value of the credit from their federal charitable deduction. If those rules are made final, high-tax states are expected to challenge them in court. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes The proposal also would impact about 100 programs in 30 states that provide tax credits in exchange for donations to state funds and private charities, including some religious ones. Another SALT-workaround bill in California, AB2217, by Assemblywoman Autumn Burke, D-Inglewood (Los Angeles County), failed to pass by Fridays legislative deadline. Kathleen Pender is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kpender@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kathpender Friday was the official deadline for this years legislative session in Sacramento. Now its up to Gov. Jerry Brown to pick and choose the bills that become California law. Brown is facing many important choices over the coming days and weeks. By signing SB10, which makes California the first state to end the cash bail system, Brown has already made one groundbreaking and highly controversial choice. Heres are some of the most important bills on his desk. Bills with a Bay Area impact AB2923 is a bill from Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, to speed up badly needed housing development on BART-owned property near the stations. AB2923 met with entrenched NIMBY opposition in the East Bay and barely squeaked through both houses. Building housing near mass transit is good for the environment, good for traffic congestion and good for cash-strapped residents. The governor must sign it. AB186 would allow San Francisco to create a pilot safe injection site program, including access to sterilized needles and drug treatment referrals. San Francisco mayor London Breed is eager to beginning planning for a site, and San Franciscans are ready for a new approach to the opioid crisis. SB1045 is a bill from state Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, to allow three California counties, including San Francisco, to create pilot programs that expand conservatorship rules. These places are all struggling to help chronically homeless people who need mental health treatment, and SB1045 would give them more power to do so. SB221 would prohibit the sale of firearms and ammunition at the Cow Palace. Activists have wanted the Cow Palace to stop holding gun shows for many years. The bill still allows law enforcement to hold gun buy-back programs at the Cow Palace a sensible exemption to further the gun control cause. Bills with a statewide impact SB822 would restore net neutrality protections in California after the Trump administration moved to dismantle them. This is one of the most important consumer protection bills passed by the Legislature this session, and its key to maintaining a free and open internet. SB100 would require California to get 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2045. This bill represents the culmination of Californias efforts to fight climate change and permanently shift the states energy away from destructive fossil fuels. Brown has been vocal about the need for this change and shouldnt hesitate to sign this one. SB828 is proof of Wieners steady, determined progress against the multiple forces that have created Californias housing crisis. This bill would reform the Regional Housing Needs Assessment, which is how California determines how much housing each community should build. It would create an assessment process that relies on data and pushes local governments away from anti-development behavior. SB834 and AB1775 instruct state land managers to deny infrastructure permits for offshore oil and gas facilities. Lawmakers passed the bills after the Trump administration announced a plan to offer oil and gas leases off of Californias coast. Californians strongly oppose the Trump administrations plan, and Brown should, too. AB 3118 would require a statewide audit of all untested rape kits in California. Californias police departments have thousands of untested kits moldering on their shelves. Crimes can go unpunished because of this failure, and the situation is unbelievably frustrating for victims. AB1947 would outlaw paid signature gathering. Wondering why your ballot is so thick? Its because special interests of all kinds have learned how easy it is to bypass the legislative process and put their preferred policies before the voters. The result is a system that exhausts voters, prevents lawmakers from doing their job, and allows for wild initiatives that would have never passed muster to become law. Brown should sign AB1947. 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. SACRAMENTO After months of emotional debate, a bill that would have banned the sale or marketing of therapy in California intended to convert gays and lesbians to heterosexuality was pulled by its author Friday. Assemblyman Evan Low, D-San Jose, said so-called gay conversion therapy is not recognized by the medical community as legitimate and sends a message to lesbian and gay people that there is something wrong with them. Low, who is gay, said that was a feeling he felt too often as he was growing up. At hearings in the Capitol this year, medical professionals and advocates for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people said the bill would outlaw a deceptive and harmful practice. Religious groups argued in opposition, saying banning people from undergoing therapy to change their sexual orientation would violate their freedom of speech and religion. AB2943 had passed the Assembly and Senate and was pending a second vote in the Assembly to approve amendments. It was expected to pass and head to Gov. Jerry Brown, but Low decided to shelve the bill after talking to faith leaders. He said he thought he could work out a measure that would win over some opponents. A number of religious leaders denounced conversion therapy and recognized how harmful the practice is, while acknowledging it has been discredited by the medical and psychological communities, Low said in a statement. I left those productive conversations feeling hopeful. Low said he believes that with more time, he could reach a consensus with religious groups and produce a bill with greater support. That decision was applauded by supporters and opponents. This is an important issue and one that were committed to getting right, said Rick Zbur, executive director of the gay rights group Equality California. We look forward to working with Assembly member Low to continue this conversation with Californians across the state and leaders from the medical, mental health, civil rights and faith communities. In the meantime, Californias existing consumer protection laws continue to safeguard the LGBTQ community against these dangerous, discredited and fraudulent practices. Daniel Piedra, executive director of the advocacy group Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, thanked Low for understanding that he represents all his California constituents, regardless of political ideology or sexual orientation. Piedras group opposed the measure. His choice to at least listen to the millions of Californians who opposed AB2943 should be a model example for all elected politicians, Piedra said. In 2012, California became the first state to ban mental health professionals from performing conversion therapy on minors. Several states have since approved similar bans. Lows bill would have categorized conversion therapy as consumer fraud and made it illegal to charge people for it. As a young person I often found myself confused about my sexual orientation, Low said. It was hard to find any mainstream media surrounding the feelings I was having. Gay men were not depicted in movies or TV that I was exposed to. I hid myself and my feelings because I was afraid of what others would think of me. This left me feeling very lost, scared, alone and even suicidal. Low said he plans to work on a policy that best protects and celebrates the identities of LGBT Californians. Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez SACRAMENTO A bill to make some police disciplinary records public is headed to Gov. Jerry Brown. SB1421 by Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, would make police disciplinary records public when an officer has been found to have committed sexual assault or lied on the job, such as falsifying reports or planting evidence. The bill would also ensure that investigations and reports related to an officers serious or deadly use of force would be subject to the states Public Records Act. While all public employee personnel records are generally confidential, police have additional protections under state law that shield even substantiated misconduct records. Law enforcement relies on trust with the communities they serve to effectively do their job, Skinner said. When incidents occur the public deserves to know that a thorough investigation has occurred and that police are held accountable. The Legislature also sent Brown another bill, AB748 by Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, that would make it easier for the public to obtain body camera footage taken by a police officer. AB748 requires law enforcement to release the footage or audio within 45 days of a critical incident. As more and more law enforcement agencies begin to use body cameras, California needs a statewide standard for how the public can access those recordings, Ting said. Transparency is necessary after critical incidents occur, and AB 748 will help rebuild trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve. The bills head to Brown, who has until Sept. 30 to sign it, veto it or let it become law without his signature. The governor has not indicated whether he will approve the bills. Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez SACRAMENTO California would require all rape kits to be tested promptly under a bill headed to Gov. Jerry Brown. The state Senate approved SB1449 by Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino (San Bernardino County), on a 39-0 vote Friday, one day after the Assembly passed it unanimously. Under the bill, rape kits evidence collected after a sexual assault would have to be sent to a lab within 20 days, and labs would have to complete their analysis within 120 days. Those timelines are currently recommended in state law, but not required. If signed by Brown, the bill would go into effect Jan. 1 and would apply to any rape kit collected after Jan. 1, 2016. I am proud that California is again on the cusp of making history by standing alongside rape victims and making sure that the rape kits associated with their cases are analyzed so that we can finally hold their rapists accountable for their crimes, Leyva said. Also on Browns desk is AB3118 by Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco. It would create the first statewide count of untested rape kits by requiring law enforcement agencies to report how many they have to the state Justice Department by July 1, 2019. The state budget includes $7.5 million to help law enforcement pay for the rape kit testing and the audit. Alameda County District Attorney Nancy OMalley was among the most vocal supporters of the bills. She pointed to the Berkeley Police Departments failure for more than six years to test a rape kit from a 2008 abduction and sexual assault of two young women. The suspect in that case allegedly went on to attack a woman in her Berkeley home in February 2015 and, 10 days later, rape and murder Randhir Kaur her her Albany apartment. The woman who survived the first 2015 attack, Ann Reidy, went public with her case to urge lawmakers to act. Too many people have suffered the devastating consequences of law enforcements failure to treat rape kits as seriously as any other crime-fighting tool, Reidy told The Chronicle this week. These bills address that systemic failure head on and represent a long overdue shift in law enforcements treatment of sexual assault. The defendant in the 2008 and 2015 crimes, Keith Kenard Asberry Jr., pleaded not guilty in July to 14 counts including murder and rape. Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez SACRAMENTO As Sen. Bill Dodd walked out of the state Capitol in the early hours of Saturday, he said he had a great sense of relief that the Legislature averted an impending disaster by approving a bill that helps Pacific Gas and Electric Co. withstand the costs of last years devastating wildfires while protecting victims of the blazes and utility customers. It was a balancing act, the Democratic senator from Napa said after months of furious lobbying over whether lawmakers were going too far in helping PG&E with what critics called a bailout for a utility that has been accused of putting profits before safety. In the end, lawmakers easily approved SB901 in a 29-4 vote in the Senate and 49-14 in the Assembly, just ahead of Fridays midnight deadline that ended the legislative session. Under the bill, the state would dedicate $1 billion over five years to fire-reducing efforts such as clearing brush and setting prescribed fires. SB901 also eases restrictions for clearing drought-killed trees from the states forests and toughens financial penalties against utility companies that violate state rules. But it was the PG&E aid that left some consumer advocates seething. The bill heads to Gov. Jerry Brown, who is considered likely to sign it. Let me make one thing clear. If we dont provide a debt-stabilizing mechanism for the utilities, in this case PG&E, the corporation will certainly face higher borrowing costs, which will translate into significantly higher rates, or this company may very well face bankruptcy, said Dodd, who led the committee that crafted the legislation. And if the utility were to fall into bankruptcy, Dodd said, fire victims who are uninsured or underinsured would not be able to rebuild their lives. We quite frankly cannot allow that to happen, he said. With the bill, lawmakers said PG&E Californias largest utility could withstand the potential $17 billion liability from the fires. But it didnt necessarily represent a win for the utility. After last falls devastating wildfires, PG&E began lobbying for a change to state liability rules that hold utility companies liable for damage from blazes started by their equipment, even when they follow all safety laws. Brown backed the plan, but legislators abandoned it two weeks ago, saying it was too complex and contentious to resolve in the sessions final days. The new bill, however, offers PG&E significant protections. It would let PG&E use a type of state-authorized bond to pay off the more than 200 lawsuits filed against the company over the fires. PG&Es customers would repay those bonds bit by bit on their monthly bills, provided that regulators with the California Public Utilities Commission determine that the company acted reasonably in maintaining its equipment before the fires. In cases where the commission determines the utility did not act reasonably, PG&E and its shareholders would have to cover the cost. But there would be a limit to how much PG&E would pay. The bill calls for the PUC to conduct a bankruptcy stress test, determining how much of a financial blow PG&E could withstand. Any costs beyond that would be passed on to ratepayers. The San Francisco company estimates customers would pay an extra $5 per year for every $1 billion in bonds issued. PG&E said in a statement that the bill is a commonsense solution that puts the needs of wildfire victims first, better equips California to prevent and respond to wildfires, protects electric customers and preserves progress toward Californias clean energy goals. Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network consumer group, called it a shortsighted bailout. California fire investigators have blamed PG&Es equipment for starting at least 16 of the fires that erupted during a fierce windstorm on Oct. 8. In 11 of those instances, investigators found evidence the company broke state safety laws. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has yet to release its report on the most devastating of the blazes: the Tubbs Fire, which charred Santa Rosa and killed 24 people. Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, said the Legislatures goal was to ensure the state was doing enough to prevent fires and protect victims. But because California needs the utilitys energy, the state cant push PG&E off the cliff, she said. This is a balanced measure, Jackson said. It is not perfect, but it keeps us going forward. Critics considered it a giveaway to a company with a dubious safety history. The fatal 2010 explosion of an old PG&E natural gas pipeline beneath San Bruno led to a $1.6 billion fine from state regulators and a felony conviction for the company from a federal court jury. State Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, said the Legislature set out to craft legislation to aid victims of last years fires, make sure PG&E customers didnt shoulder the costs, and help prevent more fires. Of those three things, theyve done one, Hill said. On the other two, theyve gone in the opposite direction of where they said theyd go. Hill said PG&E could have done far more to improve the safety of its electrical system and instead focused on profits for its shareholders. Shouldnt we focus on requiring PG&E to improve the safety of their electrical system that they have been neglecting all these years? Hill said. Instead, this bill rewards their bad behavior. But the bill won support from some of the same people who blocked PG&Es efforts to change liability laws. The group Up From the Ashes, which represents homeowners and lawyers suing PG&E, described it as a fair compromise. Patrick McCallum, a lobbyist with the group who lost his home in the fires, said the bill ensures that victims of last years deadly utility-caused fires are compensated, future fires are prevented and utility rates are stabilized without putting PG&E in a position of potential bankruptcy. Melody Gutierrez and David Baker are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com, dbaker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez, @DavidBakerSF This writer would urge other political candidates, especially the millionaires running for governor, to emulate Wilson. We live in a society where millionaires spend millions on political campaigns trying to tear down opponents. Many of them on the local as well as the national level seem to have unlimited wealth that they and their families will never spend in a lifetime. SACRAMENTO California lawmakers want to bar middle school and high schools from starting before 8:30 a.m., but the final decision on when the first bell should ring will rest with Gov. Jerry Brown. Following an intense debate over what has been a local school district decision, the Senate and Assembly approved SB328 by Sen. Anthony Portantino, D-La Canada Flintridge (Los Angeles County). The bill would require all public middle and high schools to start no earlier than 8:30 a.m., including charter schools, with supporters arguing that research shows teens natural sleep patterns keep them up late and lead to sleep deprivation when schools have early start times. Research shows teens do better in school, have lower rates of depression and anxiety and fewer car accidents when school start times start later. The bill would be effective in 2021 and would exempt rural school districts. The bill failed last year in the Assembly in the final days of session after Portantino said the California Teachers Association and California School Boards Association began an aggressive campaign against it. The groups remained opposed to the bill this year. SB328 cleared the Senate 23-13 on Friday. Earlier Friday, it cleared the Assembly with the bare minimum 41 votes it needed, with 30 lawmakers voting against it. Opponents of the bill argued that starting school later would make it difficult for working parents to drop off their kids at school and impact extracurricular activities. We should not micromanage schools from Sacramento, said Assemblyman Patrick ODonnell, R-Long Beach. Why have a school district if we are going to pass this bill? SB328 will burden working families. A legislative analysis of the bill warned that moving school start times would result in significant local costs for school districts, particularly those that stagger their start times in order to use the same school buses at more than one school. The average time middle and high schools start in California is 8:07 a.m., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, said lawmakers should do what the research says is good for kids and ignore arguments about what is convienient for parents. Weber said schools that want to start later are often unable to because school boards are paralyzed by parential pushback. Weve tried everything to help kids and when the data comes back and it says this will help kids then you ought to at least listen to it, Weber said. Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez It has been years since the tobacco industry promised to stop luring young people to smoke cigarettes. Philip Morris International says it is designing a smoke-free future. British American Tobacco, likewise, claims to be transforming tobacco into a safer product. But while the Food and Drug Administration weighs plans to cut nicotine in cigarettes, making them less addictive, Big Tobacco has been making the most of the time it has using social networks to promote its brands around the world. Most countries, like the United States, imposed rules in the 1970s against marketing tobacco to youths; many have banned cigarette commercials on television and radio. So the industry that brought the world the Marlboro Man, Joe Camel and slogans like Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet has latched onto the selfie generations screens in a highly adaptive way that skirts the advertising rules of old. What they are doing is a really effective way to get around existing laws to restrict advertising to young people, said Robert Kozinets, a public relations professor at the University of Southern California, who led an international team of researchers examining the tobacco industrys use of social media. The most surprising thing to me was the level of sophistication of these different global networks. You get incredible campaigns, the likes of which Ive never seen before. International public health organizations are pushing back against tobacco companies around the world. Last month, Bloomberg Philanthropies chose three international research centers to lead a new $20 million global tobacco watchdog group called STOP (Stopping Tobacco Organizations and Products), with partners in the United Kingdom, Thailand and France, that will partly focus on social marketing. Kozinets work, paid for by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, an advocacy group, analyzed social media in 10 countries by looking for hashtags that connect to tobacco cigarette brands. By promising anonymity, Kozinets researchers were able to interview paid and unpaid ambassadors and microinfluencers to reveal the connection between the tobacco companies, their communications agencies and social media posts on Instagram and Facebook. The results of this study, along with research in 40 countries, led the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Lung Association and other public health groups to file a petition Friday with the Federal Trade Commission against four tobacco companies. The petition claims that Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International and Imperial Brands are targeting young American consumers with deceptive social media marketing in violation of federal law. The petition calls on the FTC to stop the practices. Several of the tobacco companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the petition. A spokesman for Philip Morris International said Friday afternoon that the company had yet to review the documents and therefore could not comment. According to Caroline Renzulli, who oversaw the project for the campaign, 123 hashtags associated with these companies tobacco products have been viewed 8.8 billion times in the United States alone and 25 billion times around the world. Representatives of some of the companies said they market only to adult smokers and comply with the laws of countries where they sell their products. Jonathan Duce, a spokesman for Japan Tobacco, said company-involved events were intended to switch existing adult smokers to our brands from those of our competitors. If smokers or vapers choose to share their social activity, he added, it is completely their choice. Simon Evans, a spokesman for Imperial Brands, acknowledged that the company paid public opinion formers to attend and post social media content about promotional events. Where this is the case, however, we make it clear to them they are not to post branded content, Evans said. Some posts use hashtags that are closely connected to the brands: #lus or #likeus for Lucky Strikes, for example. Other posts are more subtle, featuring cigarettes but no brand name, or appealing hashtags that signal autonomy or independence: #YouDecide, #DecideTonight and #RedIsHere are popular ones affiliated with Marlboro as is #FreedomMusic for Winston. Sometimes the posts omit the cigarettes altogether, but mention upcoming parties and other events where cigarettes are promoted in giant displays and given away. The party decor colors often match those of a specific brand. In an image from Indonesia, a pack of Dunhill cigarettes is a subtle prop. After a press inquiry, British American Tobacco said it would take down the post. Lucky Strike ambassadors received these instructions last year in Italy, according to Kozinets, and they included a note to cover up images required to be on the packages by law (presumably the warning labels). In an email, Simon Cleverly, an executive with British American Tobacco, said the companys team in Italy was reviewing those documents, which researchers translated into English. The Like Us campaign ran from 2012 through 2017, he said. Some themes repeated in several countries were British American Tobaccos #TasteTheCity, which promoted Dunhill and Kent brands, and Philip Morris Internationals #Newland and #Neuland, and #IDecideTo/#YouDecide. Bruno Nastari, a Brazilian business strategist, spent more than three years working for Geometry Global, in Sao Paulo, according to his LinkedIn page. His accounts included British American Tobacco brands Dunhill, Lucky Strike and Kent, his page noted. Describing the strategy he used, Nastari wrote, Our insight was that Dunhill is the brand that transforms the city into a platform of discoveries, delivering exclusive experiences to younger audiences. Make Dunhill recognized as a modern, bold and sassy brand, thus being more appealing to the average smoker under 30 years. All this considering Brazils legal restrictions of cigarette advertising. Nastari did not respond to a reporters inquiry, but these notes are no longer available on LinkedIn. The New York Times reached out to the social media posters included in this article. Several, including tico13, vikicecarelli1 and Nastari, acknowledged receipt but declined to be interviewed. Representatives for British American said the company believed that neither tico13 nor Polpettadiriso were posting on its behalf. She also said the company was not aware of the Lucky Us platform. In Uruguay, the researchers interviewed several ambassadors paid to post by Wasabi, a public relations firm working for Philip Morris International. Corey Henry, a spokesman for Philip Morris International, said that none of the companys marketing is aimed at recruiting new smokers, and that promotions include health warnings. He also said that no digital programs were conducted in Brazil this year. He said the companys Uruguay affiliate uses digital programs to research trends among current adult smokers, not to market cigarettes. As we transform our business toward a smoke-free future, we remain focused on maintaining our leadership of the combustible tobacco category outside China and the U.S., Henry said. The researchers flagged posts they believe are designed to promote electronic cigarettes to youth. One post, from Romania, features iFuse, the tobacco heating product sold by British American Tobacco. Cleverly, the spokesman for British American, said all promotional material and events were geared toward adult smokers and were in line with local regulations in its 200 markets. Across the BAT Group, we are clear that social media can only be used for activities that do not involve the advertising of any of our cigarette brands, Cleverly said in an email. We sometimes use social media, and we also sometimes work with bloggers and brand ambassadors, for posting unbranded content (i.e., showing no tobacco brands or products), he said. The petition filed by the antismoking advocacy groups asks the FTC to require tobacco companies to disclose all pictures, videos and hashtags that are paid advertising or endorsements by adding some new, and likely less viral, hashtags: #Sponsored, #Promotion or #Ad. Sheila Kaplan is a New York Times writer. Lets get this out of the way first: There is no basis for the charge that President Trump leveled against Google last week that the search engine, for political reasons, favored anti-Trump news outlets in its results. None. Trump also claimed that Google advertised President Barack Obamas State of the Union addresses on its home page but did not highlight his own. That, too, was false, as screenshots show that Google did link to Trumps address this year. But that concludes the defense of Google portion of this column. Because whether he knew it or not, Trumps false charges crashed into a long-standing set of worries about Google, its biases and its power. When you get beyond the presidents claims, you come upon a set of uncomfortable facts uncomfortable for Google and for society, because they highlight how in thrall we are to this single company, and how few checks we have against the many unseen ways it is influencing global discourse. In particular, a raft of research suggests there is another kind of bias to worry about. The naked partisan bias that Trump alleges is unlikely to occur, but there is a potential problem for hidden, pervasive and often unintended bias the sort that led Google to once return links to many pornographic pages for searches for black girls, that offered angry and loud as autocomplete suggestions for the phrase why are black women so, or that returned pictures of black people for searches of gorilla. I culled these examples which Google has apologized for and fixed, but variants of which keep popping up from Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, a book by Safiya U. Noble, a professor at the University of Southern Californias Annenberg School of Communication. Noble argues that many people have the wrong idea about Google. We think of the search engine as a neutral oracle, as if the company somehow marshals computers and math to objectively sift truth from trash. But Google is made by humans who have preferences, opinions and blind spots and who work within a corporate structure that has clear financial and political goals. Whats more, because Googles systems are increasingly created by artificial intelligence tools that learn from real-world data, theres a growing possibility that it will amplify the many biases found in society, even unbeknown to its creators. Google says it is aware of the potential for certain kinds of bias in its results, and that it has instituted efforts to prevent them. What you have from us is an absolute commitment that we want to continually improve results and continually address these problems in an effective, scalable way, said Pandu Nayak, who heads Googles search ranking team. We have not sat around ignoring these problems. For years, Noble and others who have researched hidden biases as well as the many corporate critics of Googles power, like frequent antagonist Yelp have tried to start a public discussion about how the search company influences speech and commerce online. Theres a worry now that Trumps incorrect charges could undermine such work. I think Trumps complaint undid a lot of good and sophisticated thought that was starting to work its way into public consciousness about these issues, said Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia who has studied Google and Facebooks influence on society. Noble suggested a more constructive conversation was the one about one monopolistic platform controlling the information landscape. So, lets have it. In the U.S., about 8 of 10 web searches are conducted through Google. It also owns YouTube and Gmail, and makes the Android operating system and its app store. It is the worlds dominant internet advertising company, and through that business, it also shapes the market for digital news. Googles power alone is not damning. The important question is how it manages that power, and what checks we have. Thats where critics say it falls down. Googles influence on public discourse happens primarily through algorithms, chief among them the system that determines which search results you see. These algorithms are secret, which Google says is necessary because search is its golden goose (it does not want Microsofts Bing to know what makes Google so great) and because explaining the precise ways the algorithms work would leave them open to being manipulated. But this secrecy creates a troubling opacity. Because search engines take into account the time, place and some personalized factors when you search, the results you get today will not necessarily match the results I get tomorrow. This makes it difficult for outsiders to investigate bias. A lot of people made fun of the paucity of evidence that Trump put forward to support his claim. But researchers point out that if Google somehow went rogue and decided to throw an election to a favored candidate, it would only have to alter a small fraction of search results to do so. If the public did spot evidence, it would look thin and inconclusive, too. We really have to have a much more sophisticated sense of how to investigate and identify these claims, said Frank Pasquale, a professor at the University of Marylands law school who has studied the role that algorithms play in society. The kind of blanket, intentional bias Trump is claiming would necessarily involve many workers at Google. And Google is leaky; on hot-button issues debates over diversity or whether to work with the military politically minded employees have provided important information to the media. If there was even a rumor that Googles search team was skewing search for political ends, we would likely see some evidence of such a conspiracy in the media. Thats why, in the view of researchers who study algorithmic bias, the more pressing concern is not about deliberate bias against one or another major political party, but about the potential for bias against those who do not hold power in society. These people women, minorities and others who lack economic, social and political clout fall into the blind spots of companies run by wealthy men in California. Its in these blind spots that we find the most problematic biases with Google, like in the way it once suggested a spelling correction for the search English major who taught herself calculus the correct spelling, Google offered, was English major who taught himself calculus. Why did it do that? Googles explanation was not at all comforting: The phrase taught himself calculus is a lot more popular online than taught herself calculus, so Googles computers assumed that it was correct. In other words, a long-standing societal bias was replicated on the web, which was reflected in Googles algorithm, which then hung out live online for who knows how long, unknown to anyone at Google, subtly undermining every female English major who wanted to teach herself calculus. Eventually, this error was fixed. But how many other such errors are hidden in Google? We have no idea. Farhad Manjoo is a New York Times writer. The Healdsburg town square feels as if it is from a bygone era: lush greenery, redwoods and palm trees, a bakery that sells its famed sticky buns each morning, a more-than-a-century-old inn that proclaims its wine country warmth. It is also the sort of place, with an abundance of wealth and aging Baby Boomers, that loves its local newspaper. Even so, last year Rollie Atkinson, owner and publisher of the Healdsburg Tribune and three other weeklies in Sonoma County, was staring down a grim financial reality. The business model, he said, was failing rapidly. He was tired of throwing his savings into the newspapers to keep them going, and weary of the daily struggle of staying afloat in an environment where readers have access to a torrent of information for free. I knew we had to do something different, he said. He hired a broker to put a value on his business, thinking perhaps he could find a deep-pocketed investor. That went nowhere. Then he found another possibility. In Berkeley, an online news site called Berkeleyside had taken a new approach to the crisis in local news: Sell stock to its readers. It was wildly successful. The sites direct public offering a more intimate version of an initial public offering in which a company sells stock without an investment bank began in 2016 and closed this year. It raised $1 million. The DPO just hit all the right buttons, Atkinson said. It allowed for longer-range planning. It provides for community ownership, community buy-in. So, in what is believed to be a first for a local newspaper, Atkinson undertook a similar strategy for the four newspapers that make up his Sonoma West company, which have a combined paid circulation of 9,900: the Healdsburg Tribune, the Cloverdale Reveille, the Windsor Times and Sonoma West Times & News. Since March, he has gotten a quarter of the way to his goal of $400,000. The offering lasts until March, and the road show consists of Atkinson making his pitch over cocktails, at dinner parties and in everyday conversations around town. (A prospectus is posted online, offering a rare look at the finances of a local newspaper chain.) Were a high-contact sport around here, Atkinson said in a recent interview alongside Ray Holley, his managing editor. Our readers are right here. Were face to face. When we are in the grocery store checkout line, there are our subscribers and readers. For Ray and I, it takes a long time to get our shopping done. Local newspapers have long been staples of communities across the country. But the shifts in the wider media industry have been devastating to these smaller publications. Over the past decade, many have closed while others have cut their newsroom staffs and how many times a week they publish. Yet the political moment the nation finds itself in has helped Atkinsons crusade. Sonoma County is reliably blue although there are pockets of conservatism in its agricultural communities and President Trumps constant attacks on the news media have worried many of the papers readers. A number of Atkinsons new investors have told him that they dont just want to save their local paper. They also want to save democracy, he said. One investor is Marie Gewirtz, 67, who has lived here for three decades and is retired from her job in marketing in the wine industry. Many of us really treasure our local newspaper, she said. I was raised to believe that journalism was key to democracy. In recent years, as the print paper cut back by two pages some weeks, there was a backlash among members of the community, especially older ones, who felt a cherished ritual was disappearing. The people who wanted to sit and read the print paper with a glass of wine or cup of coffee, Gewirtz called them. She added, I think, now more than ever, we can support democracy by supporting our communities. Rick Theis, 72, also retired from the wine industry, said: I get my notifications from the New York Times every day, and I open them up with dread. What did our infamous president do now? So he put $5,000 in Sonoma West, an investment that he said made him feel that he was pushing back, in a small away, against forces that have diminished the role of traditional journalism in American society. I really depend on the small community newspaper, Theis said. They at least have trained journalists reporting the news, which social media does not. Mary Fricker, a retired reporter who worked for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, said the national mood had not been behind her decision to invest. She has lived in the area for decades, and write-ups in the local paper about her children and grandchildren fill her scrapbooks. I grieve every day over whats happened to journalism, especially newspapers, she said. I need to put my money where my mouth is. Many of the same issues that animate communities across California, like an affordable housing shortage and devastating wildfires, are the ones that dominate the pages of Atkinsons newspapers. There is a deep affinity for local businesses witness the two independent bookshops on the town square, and the locally owned hardware stores and the countys communities have been more successful than others in the United States in keeping big-box retailers away. Still, the cost of housing is so high that Holley, the managing editor, always asks potential new hires if they have a stable place to live. Atkinson said he believed that his was the first local newspaper to sell stock directly to readers. Rick Edmonds, media business analyst at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank, said he knew of no other examples, even at a time of great experimentation at the level of local news, with owners testing online pay walls and nonprofit models. Were kind of in a period now an inflection point, you could say where more and more different things are coming up, Edmonds said. In a note to its readers published this year, Berkeleysides editors wrote, Local news around the U.S. is in peril, but Berkeleysides D.P.O. shows that small sites can raise the capital they need to succeed from within their very own communities. Berkeleyside also helped Sonoma West with its DPO. Atkinson was quick to stress that he did not believe a stock offering would work for many other local newspapers, especially those that are not in wealthy areas like Sonoma County, or have the same kind of older readership with liberal leanings. Now that he has an influx of money, however, one of the first things he plans to do is raise salaries for his staff, which has eight newsroom employees. Reporters have been making $15 an hour, a rate that California has decided will be its minimum wage in a few years. Thats not because Im stingy, Atkinson said. Thats because its all we could afford. Tim Arango is a New York Times writer. While Tesla grapples with internal issues like production delays, a sometimes-erratic CEO and a recent about-face on whether to go private, its rivals are moving aggressively into the luxury electric vehicle space. This month, German competitors Mercedes-Benz and Audi, the luxury arm of Volkswagen, are both showing off production-ready electric sport utility vehicles aimed at Teslas Model X. Meanwhile, Jaguar Land Rover is offering the I-Pace electric SUV, while Porsche plans to take on Teslas Model S high-performance luxury car with the Taycan, expected to reach the market in late 2019. The established carmakers have plenty of motives. They need zero-emission vehicles to meet tougher greenhouse gas limits coming into effect in Europe in 2021. Diesel is in the doghouse. And China, a major market, is pushing hard for more electrics. But the new models will also help them win back some of the luxury customers drawn away by Teslas electric vehicles at a time when the company is consumed by distractions. Its CEO, Elon Musk, took to Twitter on Aug. 7 to abruptly announce he had secured funding to take his company private, only to turn around 17 days later to say that Tesla would remain public. The carmaker is also facing financial pressure, with a $230 million debt payment due in November, on top of the $920 million that must be paid off three months later. And it has only recently hit production targets for its Model 3 mass-market vehicle. In the meantime, its rivals who had emphasized diesel and hybrids are finally ready to release the first of what they say will be a slew of all-electric models. Their latest offerings are the vanguard of more to come, said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen. By 2020, Tesla must stabilize itself or be overtaken, he said. The new entrants challenge what has been one of Teslas key selling points: range. The EQC sport utility crossover from Mercedes, for instance, should go up to 300 miles on a single charge. Thats comparable to Teslas SUV, the Model X, which has a range of up to 295 miles. The EQC, to be unveiled outside of Stockholm on Tuesday, is the first in the Mercedes EQ line that bundles the companys efforts in electric, connected and autonomous driving. Company representatives didnt provide a price ahead of the unveiling. Volkswagens Audi will show off its e-tron in San Francisco on Sept. 17. It will go more than 248 miles on a single charge. The company says the e-tron should be able to use high-speed chargers if theyre available to charge in less than 30 minutes. The German price will be around $93,000 and it should go on sale near the end of the year in Europe, and next year in the United States. The Porsche Taycan will also pose a stiff challenge to Teslas Model S in terms of range: Porsche claims it can load enough power for 248 miles in just 15 or 20 minutes. The company hasnt announced a price. The I-Pace, whose price starts at $69,500 before local and federal incentives, offers 292 miles under the tougher European Union standard. The Model S, meanwhile, has a range of up to 335 miles. The starting price for Teslas Model X is around $80,700 while the Model S starts at $74,500. Not that Tesla is standing still. Musk has said the company intends to develop a Model Y, a small SUV to be unveiled in the first half of next year. But Teslas ambitions go way beyond the luxury electric vehicle market. Thats the whole point of the Model 3, which is aimed at the mass market with a starting price of $35,000 and an EPA range of 310 miles. But there, too, the company must go head to head with rivals. They include the BMW i3, with a starting price of $44,500 and an EPA range of 114 miles; the Nissan Leaf, with a starting price of $30,000 and an EPA range of 151 miles; and the Chevrolet Bolt, with a starting price of $37,495 and an EPA range of 238 miles. Teslas Supercharger network has a big advantage. The companys website says it has 1,332 fast-charging stations with 10,901 charging units worldwide. Electric cars made by other manufacturers cant use Tesla stations, and public and private charging stations are sporadic. European carmakers are rolling out their own fast-charging highway network through a joint venture, but only a few stations are running. Chris Hopson, manager of North American light vehicle forecasting for IHS Markit, said that established manufacturers are going electric not just in response to Tesla, but because of a whole host of other things, with Tesla in mind. New electric vehicles serve not just to alleviate some of sales going to Tesla but to also to grab hold of global trends. China is also pushing for more electric vehicles through regulation, requiring carmakers to ensure that 10 percent of their fleets are electric in 2019. Regulations limit foreign brands to about 4 percent of the market, with Tesla owning half that. BMW, Ford and GM work with local partners. David McHugh is an Associated Press writer. DNY59 / Getty Image The former business manager of a San Francisco architecture firm has been charged with stealing $235,000 from the firm. Karen Posey, 57, of Martinez was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on seven felony charges of fraud and identity theft. She was arrested Friday, appeared before a federal magistrate and was released on a $50,000 bond. I am standing at the corner of Steuart and Market Streets in San Francisco on a sunny Saturday, talking with a gaggle of people wearing a surprising number leather jackets, lined with pins. We are gathered around a small wooden podium covered in stamps, bearing a central insignia: the Elsewhere Philatelic Society. It would be easy, in the rush of the flea market, to miss the tiny stand and the pin-adorned people if you didnt have a reason to look for them. My reason is steel. Historic Bay Bridge steel, to be precise. In 2015, the historic east span of the Bay Bridge was torn down, and parts of it were awarded to artists around the Bay Area. When I started contacting the artists, The Elsewhere Philatelic Society was the first one to respond. Never heard of it? Neither have most people. If you go to their website, you get, among other things: an elaborate series of maps, promising the seeker a shiny item of great import; a long, tumultuous historical narrative involving an Underground Library; its bowling center; and a rival faction called the Elsewhere Numismatic Society. Needless to say, the Elsewhere Philatelic Society can feel a little impenetrable. But when I talk to the crowd wandering about the stand, theyre more forthcoming the phrase public art collective and Bay Area scavenger hunt come up more than once. After a few conversations, I get the impression that the art might not lie in the steel, but rather the pins that line the jackets of the EPS members and, perhaps, the members themselves. Really, its about going interesting places and collecting stamps, a guy with a beard and friendly smile tells me. When I ask him his name, he says, in this universe? Im Tybeck. Then he laughs a little, and concedes, most people know me as Tyler Heibeck. Tybeck got into it for the stamps. Philatelism, or the study of stamp collecting is what the Philatelic Society is supposedly all about. Really, its more of a performance piece, where each member can embark on quests throughout the city, and experience different semi-fictional narratives unfolding and interacting like a real-life simulation game. And the proof that youve gone on a quest? A stamp. Just as USPS stamps commemorate certain events or figures in US history, so do the EPS stamps commemorate their own. Often, these overlap with events that are already happening in the Bay Area. Things like the Berkeley Kite festival: We went out, we flew kites, we got stamps, it was a great time, one EPS organizer, Marissa Falco tells me. She has short hair with one long side bang streaked with blue. Falco explains that each EPS member has a passport that they fill with stamps earned by attending certain events. She opens hers, revealing a page with a bunch of triangular stamps. One depicts a hummingbird dipping its beak into a cartoon tree to commemorate an event that took place in the Tenderloin National Forest, a park in the Tenderloin that has free mending services once a month. If an EPS member helped at the event, they got the hummingbird stamp, and a chance to see the art installations that line the park walls. It was an opportunity to go to a neighborhood you might not otherwise, and also help a community, Falco says. Her passport is an amalgam of odd shapes and intricate designs that make it feel more like an antique art book than a travel document. Each of the stamps is an original piece, designed by a member of the EPS for an official event, or just for fun. A lot of us are writers, designers, artists by day. Falco tells me. Anyone can make a stamp, and most members have. I watch two members, MacKenzie Stuart and Suzie Davis exchange their personal collage stamps. Davis learned about the EPS during St. Stupids Day, a parade through North Beach celebrating stupidity. EPS members who attended got a stamp that, as Stuart says, is so stupid its not even a stamp. She explains that you cant lick it and stick it. Instead it requires normal glue. Other events have their own narratives. Some reveal the history of the EPS, and others, well in this format, Falco says, eyeing my notebook, I shouldnt divulge the details. That would be ruining the fun of discovering it for myself. MORE: Curious about what happened with the rest of the steel? Read our update, here! For all their mystery, these events arent exclusive. You can go online and find all of this stuff even download the map and the instructions to earn a passport and map for the initial walkabout that starts just down the street. Thats what people are gathered here today to do: Eager first-timers or philat-enthusiasts gather to get a stamp for attending an event and the map necessary for embarking on the first walkabout. Its accessible and cheap, and Falco emphasizes, completely family friendly. A lot of people bring their kids she says. And in fact, it seems like some of the kids bring their families. One of them, 11-year-old Elias, has been a member for five years. Its kind of a paradox, Elias muses about the collective. You only know where to look once youve already looked! Which brings us back my original purposes: Bay Bridge steel. We applied for 20 rivets, Falco says. And we got it! Well, officially, they were awarded five. It was a great day, she chuckles, describing the ceremonial celebration picnic. At the celebration, a rivet was installed into the bottom of most esteemed EPS member, Phil. Phil, the mobile lecturn, that is. Hes kind of our mobile mascot, says Falco. Phil is the wooden booth with the signs and stickers advertising the EPS. At Phils base, next to a smattering of stamps is the historic rivet, complete with its own plaque, requesting that people refrain from licking it. Phil has a long history; some people remember when his head was merely a pizza box. Some remember the time he wasnt so portable. Now, we can fold him up, or wheel him around, Stuart says. Imagine taking that whole thing on BART. Characters like Tybeck or Phil, and their eccentric narratives are woven into the fabric of EPS. Most involve an intricate interchange between the history and geography of San Francisco and that of the Philatelic Society. Where one ends and the other begins is often not entirely clear. Its beautiful, odd, compelling, Tybeck says of the EPS. He calls it a a layering of realities, the EPS narratives folded over the landscape of SF. Some might call it exercising imagination. Sometimes its good to leave things unanswered it adds more depth, Elias says, affirming his status as the most mature 11-year-old Ive ever met. Also left unanswered is my quest for elaborate art made from Bay Bridge steel; instead, it led me to a web of offbeat characters and places I never would have otherwise found. Which is kind of the point. [The EPS] gives you permission to stray out of your daily path. Falco tells me. Its a totally different way of interacting with people and San Francisco. What else could I do but take a map and begin? Emma Heath is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her with comments or questions at Emma.Heath@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @emmabheath. WASHINGTON Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says she has no intention of taking any action regarding possible use of federal funds to arm teachers or provide them with firearms training. DeVos comments came after a top official in her department, asked about arming teachers, said states and local jurisdictions always had the flexibility to decide how to use federal education funds. Frank Brogan, assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education, said arming educators is a good example of a profoundly personal decision on the part of a school or a school district or even a state. President Trump and DeVos have said schools may benefit from having armed teachers and should have that option. DeVos said Friday that Congress did not authorize me or the Department to make those decisions about arming teachers or training them on the use of firearms. Her comments were in a letter to Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, the top Democrat on the House committee overseeing education, and were posted by the department on Twitter. I will not take any action that would expand or restrict the responsibilities and flexibilities granted to state and local education agencies by Congress, DeVos wrote. Democrats and education groups have argued that the funds are intended for academics, not guns. DeVos heads a federal commission on school safety that was formed after the deadly Valentines Day shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla. An early draft of the commissions report recommends that states and communities determine based on the unique circumstances of each school whether to arm its security personnel and teachers to be able to respond to violence. The drafts section on training school personnel was reviewed by the Associated Press. The approach, the draft says, can be particularly helpful in rural districts where the nearest police unit may be far away. In an interview Thursday, Brogan cited the school marshal program in Texas where school employees can volunteer to carry weapons on campuses after undergoing training. Educators from some remote rural schools also told the panel that they rely on armed school personnel because the police may take too long to arrive. Others, however, argued that arming teachers is dangerous and could make schools feel like prisons. Brogan said the Every Student Succeeds Act, a bipartisan law that shifts education authority to states, provides about $1 billion in annual funding for various school needs, including 20 percent specifically set aside for school safety. The people at the local level whove been there for years could make the decisions about what services to purchase, what equipment to buy to fulfill the general broad obligations laid out in that law, he said. It would be up to Congress, not the Department of Education, to place any restrictions on the use those funds for purposes not currently in the law, a department spokeswoman said. Maria Danilova is an Associated Press writer. Fair enough, and a very libertarian sentiment. Given that Jackson is not trying to conceal his former identity he was happy to discuss it with me, and the November ballot will note the recent name change in the interest of full disclosure to voters its unlikely to be an issue in the upcoming election. WASHINGTON A federal judge in Texas has declined to halt an Obama-era program that protects young unauthorized immigrants from deportation, handing a temporary victory to activists who are waging a legal fight against the Trump administration to save it. The judge, Andrew Hanen in Houston, said the program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, denied a request for a preliminary injunction. He said the program had been relied upon by hundreds of thousands of immigrants since it was established almost six years ago, and should not be abruptly ended. The ruling means that Dreamers who were brought illegally to the United States as small children can continue to apply for the program, which shields them from immediate deportation and provides a permit to work legally in the United States. Its a huge sigh of relief, said Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center. Trump announced a year ago an end to the DACA program, calling it an illegal use of executive power by his predecessor, former President Barack Obama. Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the time called DACA an unfair system that had victimized millions of Americans by allowing illegal aliens to take their jobs. But Trumps effort to end the program was blocked by several other federal judges, who have temporarily required the administration to allow qualified unauthorized immigrants to renew their protected status under the DACA program. Texas and eight other states filed a separate lawsuit seeking to declare the DACA program illegal and seeking an injunction to stop it, but Hanen refused to do so. The Texas judge, who in 2015 blocked a similar effort by Obama that would have added protections for the unauthorized parents of citizens and other lawful residents, compared the idea of ending the DACA program to an attempt to unscramble an egg. Hanens ruling was unexpected. In his ruling in 2015 about the program for parents, he made it clear he thought both efforts to protect unauthorized immigrants were illegal. Immigrant rights activists were bracing for a ruling by Hanen against the DACA program. In his ruling Friday, Hanen made it clear he thought the DACA program was likely to be declared illegal in the long run. Michael D. Shear is a New York Times writer. WASHINGTON President Trump nodded with approval at the suggestion of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a court filing that seeks leniency for a former campaign aide who lied to the FBI. Lawyers for George Papadopoulos are seeking probation, saying the foreign policy adviser misled agents during a January 2017 interview not to harm an investigation but rather to save his professional aspirations and preserve a perhaps misguided loyalty to his master. Papadopoulos is a pivotal figure in Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation as the first Trump campaign aide to plead guilty and cooperate with prosecutors. The revelation that hed been told by a professor during the campaign that Russia had dirt on Democrat Hillary Clinton in the form of emails helped initiate the FBIs counterintelligence investigation in July 2016 into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. The 16-page defense memo filed late Friday paints Papadopoulos as an eager-to-please campaign aide who was in over his head, and seeks to counter the prosecutions narrative that Papadopoulos deception irreparably damaged the investigation. The defense lawyers say Papadopoulos was hired by the campaign in March 2016 despite having no experience with Russian or U.S. diplomacy. That month, he traveled to Italy and connected with a London professor who introduced him to a woman described as a niece of Putins even though that was not true. That professor, Joseph Mifsud, would later tell him that individuals in Moscow possessed dirt on Clinton. When Papadopoulos returned to Washington, he was eager to show his value to the campaign. At a March 31 meeting, Papadopoulos proposed that he could leverage his newfound Russian connections to arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin. While some in the room rebuffed Georges offer, Mr. Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr. Sessions who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it, defense lawyers wrote. That language is a reference to Jeff Sessions, who at the time was a Republican senator from Alabama and key campaign aide and later became the Trump administrations attorney general. Sessions, however, told the House Judiciary Committee last November that he resisted the idea of any Russia meeting. I pushed back at his trip and I was concerned that he not go off somewhere, pretending to represent the Trump campaign, Sessions told lawmakers. He had no authority for that. Papadopoulos is scheduled to be sentenced Friday. Eric Tucker is an Associated Press writer. A federal appeals court has revived a San Jose restaurant servers suit challenging his unions agreement with his employer to pay less than the citys minimum wage in exchange for increased benefits. If successful, the suit could affect similar opt-out agreements by unions in several other Bay Area communities. San Jose voters approved a citywide $10-per-hour minimum wage, with future cost-of-living increases, in 2012, when the states minimum wage was $8 an hour, $3 below its current level. The ballot measure allowed unions and employers to agree on a lower wage, to the extent required by federal law. The suit was filed by Ian McCray, a food server at the Marriott Hotel, because it did not raise his $9-an-hour wage in 2012. That was because his union, Local 19 of Unite Here, had negotiated an agreement with Marriott to forgo the $10 wage for servers in exchange for improved health care coverage. Filed as a proposed class action for other servers, the suit sought damages for lost pay. The hotel company moved the case from Santa Clara County Superior to federal court, where a judge dismissed it because McCray hadnt first filed a grievance under his union contract. But the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled 2-1 on Friday that the case belonged in Superior Court and should be decided based on the meaning of the local ordinance, not the union contract. If the San Jose law prohibits a waiver of the minimum wage, its irrelevant whether the (union contract) contains a waiver, Albert Diaz, a judge from the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., temporarily assigned to the Ninth Circuit, said in the majority opinion. He noted that the local law allows such a waiver only to the extent required by federal law but no federal law requires the minimum wage requirement to be waivable. Dissenting Judge Mary Schroeder said the union and McCrays employer had done all that federal labor law requires, negotiating an agreement on wages and benefits, and that federal courts had uniformly upheld such agreements. The argument in McCrays lawsuit, she said, would nullify the opt-out provision altogether. The unions lawyer could not be reached for comment. In a court filing, the unions attorney, Paul More, said federal labor law allows unions and employers to agree to opt out of minimum-wage laws and that such agreements are common for relatively low-paid workers, like food servers, in exchange for improvements in health care, pensions and other benefits. More also said nearly every other local minimum-wage law in California has an opt-out provision similar to San Joses. But McCrays lawyer, James Pagano, said there was a crucial difference in wording: Some of the local measures, like San Joses, allow an opt-out only if required by federal law. He said they include Richmond, Santa Clara, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Emeryville, Sunnyvale and El Cerrito. Other Bay Area cities, including San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley, allow such agreements as long as theyre permitted by federal law, so they should not be affected by the ruling, Pagano said. If the ruling stands, he said, cities whose laws are worded like the San Jose ordinance could rewrite them to remove the required language, because those laws were passed by city councils. A change in San Joses ordinance would require voter approval. Pagano said the ruling should benefit a lot of low-wage workers and give the people of San Jose, who voted for this, what they wanted. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@BobEgelko They do, but only in certain areas. Favored locations include the waters of the central and western South Pacific all the way to the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean around Australia. One area generally immune to tropical cyclones is the South Atlantic, largely due to cool ocean currents and unfavorable upper winds, though an unprecedented hurricane dubbed Catarina did strike Brazil on March 28, 2004. They can occur any time of the year but are most frequent during the December through April warm season. Unlike Northern Hemisphere tropical cyclones that feature counterclockwise rotating winds, wind flow around the Down Under counterparts rotates in a clockwise direction. Forcing Jimenez to wait until a few weeks into the 2019 season for his debut would appear to be even more unfair than what the Cubs did to Bryant. Hes in his sixth season as a professional, with much of that time spent in remote outposts; Bryant was only in his second full year of pro ball after playing at the University of San Diego for three years. A flight from Oakland International Airport bound for Kahului, Hawaii on the island of Maui took a harrowing turn Friday when a passenger brought a can of pepper spray on board and the container dispersed the pepper spray mid-flight, injuring several fellow passengers, according to the airline. 12 passengers and 3 flight attendants were treated for respiratory issues when the plane landed at Kahului International Airport, Hawaiian Airlines said in a statement. "Authorities were questioning a passenger and investigating what appears to have been an accidental cannister discharge," the statement read. It was the second unfortunate incident linked to the flight leaving from Oakland International Airport on Friday. Earlier in the day, the plane was delayed 89 minutes and forced to return to the gate when a 15-year-old girl accidentally shared a bizarre fake crime scene photo with fellow passengers through the iPhone's Air Drop feature another apparently unintentional incident that was nevertheless distressing to fellow passengers. The first class passengers were reportedly most severely affected by the pepper spray situation, passengers wrote on Twitter. Passengers at the front of the plane were moved to the rear until the pepper spray dissipated, according to the airline. "First class was hit the hardest," wrote passenger Lisa Sakimura on Twitter. Nicholas Andrade, another passenger on board the flight, told Hawaii News Now that passengers were covering their mouths with wet paper towels in an effort to stem the irritation from the pepper spray, and that a baby onboard threw up during the ordeal. The airline said that all 256 passengers aboard the troubled flight were given a $500 travel credit. Filipa Ioannou is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at fioannou@sfchronicle.com and follow her on Twitter Attorneys from the firms Romanucci & Blandin and Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge held a joint press conference outside Sterigenics Saturday afternoon to say they had been retained by more than 12 people and are launching an investigation of not only the current levels of emissions from Sterigenics, but emissions over the past 34 years. SAN JOSE (BCN) East San Jose residents are demanding answers after a vibrant, 30-year-old mural was obscured by gray paint on Wednesday. Artist Jose Vesa Velasquez painted "Mural de la Raza" in November 1985 at 2100 Story Road in collaboration with the Eastside Youth Center. The mural depicts Mexican-American and indigenous history by showcasing local heroes, including Cesar Chavez, Pancho Villa and Dolores Huerta. Juanita Meza Velasquez, the artist's wife, said he said he was "shocked" to learn it had been painted over. "The insensitive disrespect and loss of this art piece is against the law and a detriment to artists, the world of art, and the community who proudly embraced it," Jose Velasquez said in a statement. The couple lives in Oakland now, and Juanita said she remembers her husband painting in the hot sun to complete the mural. "He did it in record time, he's highly skilled," she said. She said East San Jose was grappling with infiltration from Los Angeles gangs at the time the mural was painted, and Jose wanted to design a positive influence for children in the area. When she would visit over the years, she heard children research the figures on the mural for school reports, and saw a mother place photos at the wall after her children were killed by gang violence. The mural also depicted Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., she said, inviting neighborhood youth to learn about figures who weren't Latino. Magdalena Carrasco, San Jose vice mayor and city councilmember, said on Facebook Thursday that she is "devastated" by the loss of the mural. She said she took her children there on numerous occasions. The building on which the mural is painted is owned by a real estate company, according to Jose Valle, founder of local advocacy group Souleros Ball. "Not only did we lose our mural, our history and culture, we also lost our education, being that there is currently no mandatory Chicano studies in our public schools," Valle said in a statement published by Carrasco. Carrasco said she has been communicating with the building's owner and found another place near the building for a new community mural. Juanita said Jose is well-versed in laws that protect artists, such as the Visual Rights Act of 1990, and said they are looking into restoring the mural. When she first heard about the mural being erased, she said she wondered whether the re-painting had been racially-motivated. "I just don't know who did it, or what kind of politics they have," she said. "The fact is, it could turn into a legal matter." 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. A married couple has been charged with 79 misdemeanor and felony counts after allegedly stealing $800,000 from customers of a Santa Clara-based home renovation company, Santa Clara County prosecutors said. Constance and William Gabriel, 50 and 65, who operated Sunrooms America Inc., are accused of tricking online clients into paying for construction work that was never completed, or never started, between 2015 and 2017. "The victims wanted to beautify their homes, but they were taken advantage of by an ugly criminal scheme," prosecutor Cherie Bourlard said in a statement. The two defendants were arrested on Aug. 9 in Maricopa, Arizona, where they allegedly fled after taking money from the victims. Prosecutors said they spent the money on Disneyland tickets, car payments, rent and other personal expenses. The couple was extradited to Santa Clara County this week, according to prosecutors, who said more than 30 local customers were victims of the couple's scheme. The Contractors State License Board revoked business licenses from three businesses associated with the Gabriel's earlier this year. The Gabriels were arraigned today on charges including grand theft and elder fraud, which received white collar crime enhancements due to the large sum of money involved in the alleged crimes. Their plea hearing is scheduled for Sept. 17 in Santa Clara County Superior Court. They will be assigned defense attorneys from the Santa Clara County Public Defender's Office at that time. 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. A 33-year-old Vallejo man suffered burns over most of his body in a crash and car fire Saturday morning, police said. The man was taken to a hospital in grave condition after the single-car collision in Overland Alley west of Sutter Street, police said in a release. After a report of a car on fire at 7:23 a.m., officers responded and found a Kia Optima engulfed in flames. The driver was found a short distance away, according to police. The car had reportedly been headed east on Overland Alley when it hit a wooden fence and caught fire. No other vehicles or people appear to have been involved, police said. Investigators were working to determine whether drugs or alcohol were a factor in the collision. Anyone with information is asked to call the Vallejo police traffic division at (707) 648-4329. 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) The San Francisco Fire Department is reporting the cause of a fire that broke out Friday at an apartment building in they city's Outer Richmond neighborhood was accidental. One person was seriously injured when they jumped from the third floor of the building, and an animal was killed in the blaze, fire officials said. The fire was reported at 4:49 p.m. in a three-story, seven-unit building in the 800 block of 48th Avenue. Police arrived at the building prior to the fire department and started rescuing people. Arriving firefighters raised ladders and rescued three from the building's windows, fire department spokesman Lt. Jonathan Baxter said. Five people were rescued and five people were injured in the blaze. Ten people were displaced in the blaze and are being assisted by the American Red Cross and city employees. 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. OAKLAND (BCN) A Hawaii-bound flight was delayed more than an hour this morning at Oakland International Airport when grisly crime-scene photos from a teenage passenger's forensics science project were accidentally shared to the phones of other passengers, causing alarm, authorities said. At about 7 a.m., as Hawaiian Airlines Flight 23 pulled away from the gate and moved toward the runway, a 16-year-old passenger seated with her mother tried to send the photos to her mom's cell phone, Sgt. Ray Kelly, Alameda County Sheriff's Department spokesman, said. "It was her mom's first day with an iPhone and they were trying to use the AirDrop app to share the photos between each other, but the photos accidentally went to at least 15 other passengers," Kelly said. Alarmed travelers alerted the flight crew, who contacted the pilot, who decided to return the plane to the gate. Sheriff's deputies met the plane and interviewed the teenager and her mother, soon discovering it was an accidental photo share, Kelly said. "The other passengers were vigilant and did the right thing by reporting something that looked pretty bad," Kelly said. "Fortunately it turned out to be nothing more than a mistake." The flight eventually lifted off at about 8:30 a.m., but without the teen and her mother. In a statement from Hawaiian Airlines, a spokesperson said, "In order to resume the flight and minimize the inconvenience to our guests, the teenager and family were re-booked on a later flight while the incident was investigated." 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. PETALUMA (BCN) Petaluma Police Chief Ken Savano this week said the Police Department has to cut police services for less urgent calls because of a shortage of officers. There will be 15 vacancies on Oct. 1 due to injuries and a lack of competitive wages to recruit and retain peace officers, Savano said. The 15 vacancies represent half of the patrol force. "Like other Petaluma city departments, we are struggling to provide the services our community deserves," Savano said. As many as four officers are leaving Petaluma to work for another agency that offers better pay and hiring incentives, and the only officers remaining to fill the vacancies will come from specialized assignments such as the Auto Theft, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and Computer Crimes task forces, traffic division, homeless outreach services team and school resource team, Savano said. According to Savano, there were 66 officers, supervisors, commanders and a police chief in 1998 when Petaluma's population was 47,000. "Our current staffing model requires a minimum of 30 officers in patrol for 24/7 coverage," Savano said in a letter to community members. After the economic downtown in 2008 and 2009, staffing reached a low of 62 authorized officers, Savano said. Petaluma's General Plan calls for a staffing level of 1.3 officers per 1,000 residents, or 77 officers, and the city's average currently is 1.06 officers. Savano said the national average is 1.7 officers per 1,000 residents and the California average is 1.4. Response times have increased every year. Less urgent services that police will no longer respond to include non-injury collisions where the vehicles are not blocking the road and the drivers have exchanged information, and misdemeanor thefts with no identifiable evidence or suspect leads, Savano said. Officers no longer will perform checks on homes of residents on vacation, and correctable citations issued by police will only be signed off at the Police Department on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Savano said the service reductions are difficult but necessary, and long-term solutions require adequate funding. 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. There were, however, real problems. There were no paved streets and rain often turned the community into a quagmire. There were few services and no stores. Residents wanted more and on the Saturday after Thanksgiving of that year, a tent meeting was called for all new tenants and those on the waiting list. As the newcomers sipped their coffee and chewed on hamburgers, Klutznick presented them with their keys to the future. He told them Park Forest was their town, and did not belong to American Community Builders. After speaking with two people involved in a fight aboard a San Francisco Municipal Railway light-rail train Thursday night, which was filmed and has since gone viral, both men declined to press charges, police said. The incident occurred around 8:45 p.m. on the N-Judah Muni line near Judah Street and 34th Avenue, police said. In two videos posted on Twitter, two men appear to be attacking a Muni rider who appears to be a juvenile. In one of the videos, one man appears to be holding a male passenger in a headlock, as a female passengers yells, "He's a kid!" Another passenger off-camera says, "Over music? Leave him alone." In a second video, two men appear to be trying to push the male passenger down the steps of the train and off onto the street, as he pleads for them to stop. An animal died and a person was seriously injured when the person jumped from the third floor of an apartment building in a fire in San Francisco's Outer Richmond neighborhood, fire officials said. The one-alarm blaze started Friday afternoon. It was reported at 4:49 p.m. in a three-story, seven-unit building in the 800 block of 48th Avenue, not far from the ocean. Police got to the building first and started rescuing people and firefighters arrived and raised ladders to rescue three from the building's windows, fire department spokesman Lt. Jonathan Baxter said. A total of five were rescued and a total of five were injured. Baxter said the fire has been extinguished and is not suspicious. A student at San Francisco's Balboa High School was arrested on suspicion of a slew of felonies after a gun in their possession went off inside a classroom Thursday, police said. The student was booked into the Juvenile Justice Center on suspicion of assault with a firearm, carrying a concealed firearm, possession of ammunition on school grounds, being a minor in possession of a firearm, carrying a concealed weapon on school grounds, being a minor in possession of live ammunition and negligent discharge of a firearm, according to police. Three other students, who were detained on suspicion of being accessories after the fact, were released to their parents. They're facing possible charges pending further investigation, police said. Officers responded to the high school, located at 1000 Cayuga Ave., around 11:15 a.m. for a report of a gun possibly going off in a classroom. The high school immediately went on lockdown, and all students were kept in classrooms behind locked doors and out of site, according to the school district. Nearby Leadership High School, James Denman Middle School and San Miguel Early Education School were also placed on lockdown as a precaution. A Hawaii-bound flight was delayed more than an hour at Oakland International Airport when grisly crime-scene photos from a teenage passenger's forensics science project were accidentally shared to the phones of other passengers, causing alarm, authorities said. The delay occurred Friday morning. At about 7 a.m., as Hawaiian Airlines Flight 23 pulled away from the gate and moved toward the runway, a 16-year-old passenger seated with her mother tried to send the photos to her mom's cell phone, Sgt. Ray Kelly, Alameda County Sheriff's Department spokesman, said. "It was her mom's first day with an iPhone and they were trying to use the AirDrop app to share the photos between each other, but the photos accidentally went to at least 15 other passengers," Kelly said. Alarmed travelers alerted the flight crew, who contacted the pilot, who decided to return the plane to the gate. Sheriff's deputies met the plane and interviewed the teenager and her mother, soon discovering it was an accidental photo share, Kelly said. East San Jose residents are demanding answers after a vibrant, 30-year-old mural was obscured by gray paint. The mural was painted over Wednesday. Artist Jose Vesa Velasquez painted "Mural de la Raza" in November 1985 at 2100 Story Road in collaboration with the Eastside Youth Center. The mural depicts Mexican-American and indigenous history by showcasing local heroes, including Cesar Chavez, Pancho Villa and Dolores Huerta. Juanita Meza Velasquez, the artist's wife, said he said he was "shocked" to learn it had been painted over. "The insensitive disrespect and loss of this art piece is against the law and a detriment to artists, the world of art, and the community who proudly embraced it," Jose Velasquez said in a statement. Petaluma Police Chief Ken Savano said the Police Department has to cut police services for less urgent calls because of a shortage of officers. Chief Savano made the statements earlier this week. There will be 15 vacancies on Oct. 1 due to injuries and a lack of competitive wages to recruit and retain peace officers, Savano said. The 15 vacancies represent half of the patrol force. "Like other Petaluma city departments, we are struggling to provide the services our community deserves," Savano said. As many as four officers are leaving Petaluma to work for another agency that offers better pay and hiring incentives, and the only officers remaining to fill the vacancies will come from specialized assignments such as the Auto Theft, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and Computer Crimes task forces, traffic division, homeless outreach services team and school resource team, Savano said. The median sale price for homes sold in the Bay Area in July was down 2.9 percent to $850,000 from the record high of $875,000 recorded in May and June, according to a report by CoreLogic Data, a supplier of U.S. real estate and business data. The report was released Friday. Still, the median price for July 2018 is up 11.4 percent from July 2017 when the median price was $763,000, the report showed. "It is not unusual for a regional median sale price to slip back from a new peak," CoreLogic analyst Andrew LePage 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 tech CEO was remanded into custody today in San Francisco in connection with a probation violation stemming from a 2014 domestic violence case, prosecutors said. Gurbaksh Chahal, 36, appeared for a hearing today in San Francisco Superior Court after losing an appeal with the California Supreme Court in the domestic violence case and Judge Tracie Brown remanded him into custody to serve a one-year jail sentence. Brown originally sentenced him in 2014 but granted a stay of proceedings, meaning Chahal would not begin to serve his sentence, pending an appeal, which his defense attorney at the time eventually filed on his behalf. He's been out of custody on $250,000 bail. Earlier this month, the state Supreme Court declined to review his case and upheld his sentence. In 2014, Chahal was charged with 45 felony counts and two misdemeanors for an alleged domestic violence incident that took place at his South Beach apartment in 2013. He pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor domestic violence charges and avoided jail time after a video used as evidence during the trial was deemed inadmissible because it was seized without a warrant. While he was on probation, however, a different victim came forward, alleging Chahal assaulted her at the same South Beach apartment in September 2014. In light of those allegations, prosecutors then moved to revoke Chahal's probation. In that case, prosecutors said Chahal kicked the female victim 10 to 12 times, angry that she had gotten into an argument with his security guard. Prosecutors also said Chahal took away her cellphone as she tried to call 911 to report the alleged violence before ordering her to leave his apartment. Chahal, an entrepreneur, founded tech-advertising company RadiumOne and was once interviewed by Oprah on her television show. Chahal's attorney, Robert Shapiro, was not immediately available for comment. 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. BERKELEY (BCN) Two suspects were arrested in connection with a robbery in Berkeley in which one of the suspects jumped out of a car near a bus stop and grabbed a woman's cell phone, police said. The robbery was reported at 5:13 p.m. Aug. 13. A 21-year-old woman was waiting at the bus stop near the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Ashby Avenue when a car pulled up next to her and the passenger got out and allegedly tried to snatch her phone. Police said the woman did not immediately let go of the phone as the suspect got back in the car, which started moving forward, causing the woman to be briefly dragged in the road. Police said she was not injured, however. After an investigation, detectives arrested the alleged driver, Daevon Laquan Hudson, 18, of Antioch on Aug. 15. On Thursday, they arrested the suspect who had grabbed the phone, a 17-year-old from San Leandro, police said. In a review of street robberies, Berkeley police discovered that more than half of victims were holding an electronic device or were walking alone at the time of the incidents. Police encourage the public to remain alert and aware of their surroundings when using a device. 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. 5316 Lawn Ave., Western Springs: $2,399,000 | Listed: Oct. 27, 2021 This six-bedroom home has seven full bathrooms, one half-bath, two fireplaces, a foyer with stone flooring and a sauna/steam room. The kitchen has hardwood floors, custom cabinetry, granite counters, a butlers pantry, a kitchen island and a double oven. The primary bedroom is located on the second floor and has hardwood flooring and a full bathroom. This home also has an office with built-in shelving, a laundry room with ceramic tile, a family room, a dining room, an atrium and a finished basement with a recreation room. Wine storage, a four-car garage and outdoor seating and dining areas complete this home. Agent: Linda Feinstein, Compass, 630-319-0352 *Some listing photos are virtually staged, meaning they have been digitally altered to represent different furnishing or decorating options. To feature your luxury listing of $800,000 or more in Chicago Tribunes Dream Homes, send listing information and high-res photos to ctc-realestate@chicagotribune.com. Join our Chicago Dream Homes Facebook group for more luxury listings and real estate news. Elgins panhandling ordinance says it is not intended to regulate or restrict the content of any personal solicitation other than to prohibit threatening, abusive or false or misleading speech that is not protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and to restrict the immediate receipt of funds in certain nonpublic forums. Two Rivers Head Start is based out of Aurora but has locations in six other cities in Boone, DeKalb, Grundy, Kane, and Kendall counties. According to Two Rivers, its sites have more than 1,000 enrollment slots for its preschool and birth-to-3 services. Elgin and Aurora have a combined five sites, according to a list of Two Rivers Head Start locations. If there is a shortage of funding for mental health services its because the Democratic majority in Springfield failed to fund them with their 32 percent income tax increase. The property taxpayers in the Elgin Township should not have to compensate for that failure with an increase in their already unaffordable property tax burden. I am objecting to this petition as an Elgin Township citizen, and also as the chairmen of the Elgin Township Republicans. We will hold the Democrats to their promises and defend the citizens from egregious taxation. Saudi Arabia has a serious child-marriage problem. It's emblematic of the nation's struggle between modernity and traditional Islam. But the lives of thousands of little girls are being destroyed as the Saudi government ponderously debates a solution. Child marriage has been acceptable, even encouraged, in many Islamic states since the religion was born. After all, among the prophet Muhammad's dozen wives was Aisha, who is believed to have been 6 or 7 years old when the two were married. But in Saudi Arabia, at least, the practice slammed headlong into modern values last spring, when a Saudi court refused to nullify the marriage of an 8-year-old girl from Unaiza to a man in his late 50s. Over the past few years, long-standing social practices in Saudi Arabia have been thrown into the glare of world opinion, embarrassing the state and forcing at least cosmetic changes. In 2006, for example, a judge sentenced a young woman to 200 lashes and several months in prison for being alone in a car with a man she was not related to, where they were attacked and she was raped. Opprobrium from around the world rained down on Riyadh. President George W. Bush asked: "What happens if this happens to my daughter? I'd be angry at a state that does not support the victim." King Abdullah commuted the sentence. In 2008, one of the nation's most senior religious authorities directed that two reporters for a mainstream Saudi newspaper be executed for publishing stories suggesting that religions other than Islam are worthy of respect. Once again, the cleric's remark spawned international outrage, and the cleric's order was ignored. Then came last spring's court ruling on that 8-year-old wife. More for you U.S. to end aid to U.N. program For centuries, clerics on the Arabian Peninsula have been issuing execution orders for religious "crimes"; women have been marginalized and punished to protect male malefactors; parents have sold little girls, too young to ride a bike, to elderly men. Hardly ever did anyone outside the region notice. But that was before the Internet, before blogs and Twitter, YouTube and Facebook - before almost anything that happened anywhere in the world was broadcast instantly to almost anyone who cared. The hook that caught people's attention in last year's case was the judge's refusal to grant the 8-year-old a divorce, indicating that the state endorsed child marriage. The judge was willing to order the man not to have sex with the girl until she reached puberty, four or five years later. (If he violated that, who would know?) Once again, Saudi Arabia faced rebukes from around the world, prompting the justice minister, Mohammed Al Issa, to suggest that it was time for child marriage to end. His ministry, he told a Saudi newspaper, intended to stipulate 18 as the minimum age for marriage, "to put an end to arbitrariness by parents and guardians in marrying off minor girls." His intent, he added, was to "preserve the rights, to end the negative aspects of underage girls' marriage." Like unfavorable news coverage? Well, that was almost a year ago. Still no law has emanated from the government, almost certainly because senior clerics control large areas of domestic policy, and most of them, including the chief cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, oppose this change in tradition. Now a spate of new cases has been thrown up for public scrutiny. Last month, a 12-year-old girl, fighting to divorce an 80-year-old man who paid her father $22,000 for permission to marry her, suddenly dropped her divorce request. She failed to appear in court on the day the judge was supposed to issue his decision. One can only guess what happened, but most 12-year-olds would find it difficult to reject adult advice or commands about something like this. Saudi Arabia is hardly the only state facing this problem. Last year, Turkey made it legal for 12-year-olds to marry, if their parents agree. The Turkish Statistical Institute estimates that one-third of the state's brides are under 18. In Yemen and Bangladesh, even among some sects in Burma, child marriage is commonplace. The victims, in those places and elsewhere: little girls who are forced into wasted, often miserable, lives. Saudi Arabia has publicly committed to change its law, to protect the children. For the Kingdom, this is hard. But if Saudi Arabia, of all places, can change the law and recognize that little girls have the right to grow up normally, that will be an act heard around the world. Catch and release is a fairly normal procedure for wildlife officials dealing with animals who have wandered into the wrong places. But in one recent case in Montana, a bear did not take kindly to having been cooped up in a cage by the pesky biologists and took that anger out on said cage, "Office Space"-style, upon his release. Video from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks filmed in Northwest Montana in August shows one bear released from the holding crate and bound off into the woods without much apparent resentment toward its now-ended captivity, which wildlife officials noted was a pretty standard response. The second bear captured and released had a response that was considerably less standard. After being released, he circles the crate, smacking it around, seeming to attempt to push it over, and standing on his back legs so that he's as tall as the crate itself. ALSO: Hunter mauled to death by bear after shooting it with arrow "This bear was more aggressive," wildlife officials noted in the video, "but was safely released and left the site after FWP staff honked the truck horn. This reaction is not typical for most releases but shows why grizzly bears must be respected." Check out the footage above to see for yourself. Filipa Ioannou is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at fioannou@sfchronicle.com and follow her on Twitter Two people stabbed at a busy railway station in Amsterdam are U.S. citizens, the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands said Saturday, and Dutch authorities said the suspect appeared to have had a terrorist motive. In a statement, Ambassador Pete Hoekstra said the Americans had been visiting the country when the attack happened on Friday and that the embassy had been in touch with their families. He did not identify the two people. We wish them a speedy recovery and are working closely with the city of Amsterdam to provide assistance to them and their families, the statement said. Police in Amsterdam said officers had shot and detained a suspect, a 19-year-old Afghan man identified on Saturday only as Jawad S., according to local media reports. His initial statement pointed to an extremist motive, officials said in a statement. Dutch authorities also asked German police to carry out a search of the suspects home in that country, according to the city government. He is expected to appear before a magistrate on Monday. The man was being treated at a hospital for gunshot wounds and questioned while under guard, Amsterdam City Hall said in a statement. The people stabbed were also treated in a hospital; their injuries were serious but not life threatening, according to the citys statement. The victims were not chosen deliberately or with a clear reason, Amsterdam authorities said, according to the Associated Press. The investigation is still under way, and all scenarios remain open for the investigation team. The stabbings occurred shortly after noon local time at Central Station in downtown Amsterdam, when a man walked into a group of people. Something happened; we dont know yet what, but during that, two people were stabbed and one person with a knife in his hand walked away, and he was shot by police, Rob van der Veen, a police spokesman, was quoted as saying by the AP. Forensics experts spent hours combing the scene, and rail services were disrupted into the evening. Trams to and from the square in front of the station were stopped as police and emergency services converged on the area. Central Station is a busy entry and exit point for visitors to Amsterdam, with regular trains linking it to Schiphol Airport. Friday is also one of the busiest days of the week for train travel as tourists arrive for the weekend. CHEMNITZ, Germany Police in eastern Germany halted an anti-immigration protest march Saturday that far-right activists had hoped would inspire a nationwide movement capable of challenging the political establishment. Three nationalist groups held separate rallies in the city of Chemnitz over the Aug. 26 killing of a German citizen, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq. The two largest groups also organized a joint nighttime march, hoping a broader force might emerge from the display of unity. If the number of people who attended was any gauge, the envisioned far-right movement was in the earliest of embryonic stages. It drew about 4,500 participants, Saxony state police reported before citing security concerns as the reason for ending the event early. The demonstrators screamed angrily as officers broke up the protest. The march was stopped several times along the way as counterprotesters blocked the route and police officers deployed to keep them and the marchers apart flooded into the streets. The counterprotesters numbered about 4,000, state police said. The opposing camps clashed in Chemnitz on Monday, the day after the fatal stabbing of the 35-year-old German citizen and the arrests of the migrants on suspicion of manslaughter. Scenes of vigilantes chasing foreigners in the citys streets have shocked people in other parts of Germany since then. Leaders of the two groups that combined forces Saturday night cultivated a different image for the mourning march, wearing dark suits and carrying white roses. But the mood at the event bringing together previously isolated clusters of nationalists from lawmakers to Hitler-saluting skinheads darkened as the sun set. People from both ends of the political spectrum could be seen drinking beer and shouting slurs at police. The tension in the air reflected the polarization over Germanys effort to come to terms with an influx of more than 1 million refugees and migrants seeking jobs since 2015. The right blames Chancellor Angela Merkels decision to allow in hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers from war-torn countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan for multiple problems. Some far-right supporters argued before the killing in Chemnitz that migrants are responsible for an increase in serious crimes, especially attacks on women. Adam Pemble and Kirsten Grieshaber are Associated Press writers. RAMALLAH, West Bank The U.S. decision to end its decades of funding for the U.N. agency that aids Palestinian refugees and their descendants is an attack on the rights of the Palestinian people, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbass spokesman said Saturday. Nabil Abu Rudeneh said the move does not serve peace but rather strengthens terrorism in the region. He said it was just the latest hostile act of the Trump administration against the Palestinian people, after it recognized Jerusalem as Israels capital and moved its embassy there. He said the Palestinian leadership was considering appealing to the U.N. Security Council to confront the American stance. This decision, which violates all resolutions of international legitimacy, requires the United Nations to take a firm stand against the U.S. decision and to take appropriate decisions, he said. The U.S. supplies nearly 30 percent of the total budget of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, and had been demanding it carry out significant reforms to what it called an irredeemably flawed operation. The decision cuts nearly $300 million of planned support. UNRWA was established after Israels 1948 War of Independence to aid some 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes. Over time, the number bloomed to an estimated 5 million refugees and their descendants, mostly scattered across the region, who had an aid agency devoted solely to them while the rest of the worlds refugees had to depend on the general UNHCR refugee agency. Palestinian leaders assert the right of those refugees to return to land now under Israeli control. Israel has long argued the agency was politicized, ineffective and merely perpetuated the refugee crisis. However, Palestinians have come to heavily rely on UNRWAs expansive health, education and social services, particularly in impoverished Gaza. Adnan Abu Hasna, the UNRWA spokesman in Gaza, said they currently have 280,000 students in 274 schools and provide food aid to more than 1 million people. Stopping or cutting aid to UNRWA could really affect UNRWAs operations, he said. We dont think cutting this aid will help stability or pushing the peace process, especially as UNRWA plays a big role in the stability of the region. The move follows the American slashing of more than $200 million in bilateral aid to the Palestinians, and as Trumps Mideast team plans its rollout of a much-anticipated yet unclear peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians. Mohammed Daraghmeh is an Associated Press writer. The couples three daughters ages 10, 11, and 7 months were first taken to Methodist Hospitals Northlake campus. One of the girls was then airlifted to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. The other two were airlifted to Comer Childrens Hospital in Chicago, Wojas said. BRUSSELS In his sixth week of detention, Cafer Topkaya stopped counting the days in his prison diary, realizing he wouldnt be going home anytime soon. Like many caught up in the crackdown after the failed military coup in Turkey two years ago, the 42-year-old naval officer had believed he could simply prove his innocence in court. But after weeks of sleeping on the floor in his cell, without enough food and with no explanation of the charges he faced, Topkaya said he understood the cards were stacked against him. After 39 days I lost my hope, he said in Brussels, where he rejoined his family this year after he managed to escape Turkey while on a conditional release from prison. Its rare for military officers accused of supporting the coup to speak in public. But Topkaya said he was inspired by the courage of a young Swedish woman whose recent protest aboard a passenger plane stopped the deportation of an Afghan migrant. Topkaya was working as a Turkish officer at NATO in Brussels when news broke of the military uprising against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that killed 250 people in July 2016. Erdogan blamed the attempted coup on Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally living in exile in the United States, and swiftly cracked down on suspected supporters of Gulens movement across Turkey. More than 130,000 people have since been purged from the public service. Over 77,000 have been arrested for alleged links to Gulens network or Kurdish separatists. Topkaya says he supports neither Gulen nor Erdogan but the secular principles of modern Turkey. The charge sheet said the father-of-three was accused of insulting Erdogan on Twitter. Topkaya noted that his supposed account was posting Tweets even when he was in jail. If the charges seemed surreal to him, conditions in Sincan prison outside Ankara were all too real. Living with four men in a cell meant for three, Topkaya said he slept on the floor without heating in sub-zero temperatures that first winter. Human rights group Amnesty International has reported extensively on cases of abuse and torture linked to the coup. Some of the worst punishment was reserved for military personnel. Lorne Cook is an Associated Press writer. Page Content California could become the first state to require publicly traded companies that are headquartered there to have at least one woman sitting on their boards. Boards that have five or more members would need to add two or three women by the end of 2021. Failure to do so would mean financial penalties. The state Assembly passed the bill on Aug. 29 and it headed to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk after the senate approved it Aug. 30. California's 2018 legislative session came to a close in August, and Brown must sign or veto bills by Sept. 30. The legislation provides for creating an extra board seat to accommodate a new female member instead of removing a man already on a board. The proposed law does not apply to private companies in California. Companies would need to comply by the end of 2019. A coalition of 30 businesses and groups led by the California Chamber of Commerce are against the bill. Opponents say a quota based solely on gender considers only one element of diversity and would violate the U.S. and California constitutions because it could conceivably put companies in the position of turning down a male board candidate or displacing a male board member based on his sex, according to the Wall Street Journal. SHRM Online has collected the following articles on the topic from its archives and other news outlets. California Moves to Mandate Female Board Directors A new bill would require major companies, whose principal executive offices are located in California, to put female directors on their boards. The bill now advances to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature. If signed into law, it will likely help fuel similar movements elsewhere. Massachusetts and Illinois have passed nonbinding resolutions that push companies to improve the gender balance of their boards. (Wall Street Journal) California Could Become First State to Mandate Women on Boards Skechers U.S.A. Inc., TiVo Corp., and other California-based companies that have only men on their boards would need to add at least one woman under the bill. Countries such as Norway, France and Germany already use gender diversity quotas to bring more women into boardrooms. There are no similar quotas in the U.S., though some states, including California, have adopted nonbinding resolutions urging companies to diversify their boards. (Bloomberg) Why Breaking Into the Boardroom Is Harder for Women Women looking to land their first board seats have a much tougher time than men, recruiters and corporate directors say. Some businesses are now trying to solve this problem in the face of intensified shareholder pressure for more female directors. (Wall Street Journal) Why 2018 Could Be a Record Year for Women Joining Corporate Boards From January to May, women made up 31 percent of new board directors at 3,000 of the largest publicly traded U.S. companies, according to a data analysis by corporate governance firm Institutional Shareholder Services. That's the highest percentage of female board seats in at least a decade. This increase in female board representation shouldn't be all too surprising, given a growing body of research showing that diverse boards improve business performance, as well as the gender inequality issues that have plagued companies over the last year. (CNBC) [SHRM members-only toolkit: Developing Organizational Leaders] Viewpoint: Women Leaders Build the Bottom Line Organizations seem to understand that putting more women in the C-suite gives them a clear, competitive advantage. SHRM's executive network HR People + Strategy reports that 82 percent of organizations believe advancing women is a critical business issue. But they are less sure about how to make this happen. Only 28 percent of HR leaders believe their organizations have the ability to elevate women into leadership roles. (SHRMblog) Senate Bill 826 Hits Twittersphere (#SB826) While prosecutors said that Catlett and Mayes were the ones who went with guns into the Holiday Inn, Hill was outside in the getaway car. Hill aided and abetted the other two, James Dillon, the other deputy prosecuting attorney, said. By: David Pizzuto | Special to the Advance Flemington, NJ | Although official team results have not been posted as of press time, the results are in for the Ramapo College Invitational, and the College of Staten Island represented well in both the men's and women's race. Both parties ran a 5K race this evening at Deer Path Park and a total of 20 CSI racers came across the line. Unofficially, by CSI's count only, the Dolphins came in 7th of 11 total teams on the women's side and 7th out of 10 total teams on the men's side. Ramapo College is deemed to have won the men's race and Kutztown University took the women's side. In the women's race, a total of 94 entrants were on hand, and CSi was right in the mix. The first to cross for CSI was newcomer Brittani Broderick, who crossed at 24:12, good for 58th overall in the field. Not too far behind were both Rachel Edmunds at 24:26 and Tristiana Adragna at 24:32, good for 62nd and 63rd overall. N'Zinga Duverney-Beavers was next to come in for CSI with a debut time of 26:15, placing her in 70th. Rounding out the coring side for CSI was Deavion Brown, another first year standout who crossed at 28:26, coming in at 76th. Ariel Ng (28:47, 78th), Victoria DeBernardo (31:42, 83rd), and Jolisa Wright (33:22, 85th) rounded out the women's running troop. On the men's side, the Dolphins were also represented well. A total of 98 runners were on hand for their installment of the 5K. Once again, it was a first-year face that came in the top spot, as Spencer Milito did the honors for CSI, coming in at 17:59, good for 43rd overall in the race. The race time was the 9th-fastest in CSI history in the 5K. From there, senior Liam McMunn was next in line, sporting a time of 18:29, good for 56th overall. Jaron Thompson and Erik Sanchez came in 70th and 71st respectively from there with race times of 20:16 and 20:25. The final scorer for CSI was Ahmed Khodir whose time of 21:41 merited 76th. Adding support for the men's side were Justin Fernandez (21:44, 78th), Daniel Palmieri (23:12, 82nd), Wilson Esguerra (23:49, 83rd), Trevin Robinson (23:52, 85th), Adebayo Animashaun (25:41, 87th), Canaan Rodriguez (27:45, 88th), and Molique Lawson (30:11, 91st). CSI will now have nine days off until their next meet, when they travel to familiar Van Cortlandt Park to race in the Baruch College Invitational on Sunday, September 9, at 10am. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It was a breezy day in Dongan Hills Colony as the late City Councilman Jerome "Jay" X. O'Donovan was honored Friday by elected officials for the lasting impression he left on his community. The Chapin Woods pond was renamed in O'Donovan's honor because he continuously fought to preserve and protect public green spaces. Friday would have been O'Donovan's 74th birthday and was celebrated by his friends and family. "I'm overwhelmed by today," said O'Donovans wife, Vita Cannavo O'Donovan. "I'm so proud this pond has been dedicated to him. I want him to be remembered as pro-environment. I'm so proud we've been able to do it. A native Islander, O'Donovan attended New Dorp High school and was a lifeguard at Midland Beach during his college years. O'Donovan was a Vietnam War veteran and received two Bronze Stars along with a field promotion for the rank of captain. O'Donovan was a member of the New York City Council from 1982 until 2001. He was active in the preservation of the pond, along with being the chairman of the Economic Development Committee. Those in attendance included city Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver; Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon; Assembly Member Michael Cusick; Assembly Member Matthew Titone; congressional candidate Max Rose, and former State Sen. and City Councilman Vincent Gentile. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The barber of a Staten Island man injured in a freak accident in Colombia last month is holding a fundraising event to help with the medical costs. Chris Cruz traveled to Cartagena, Columbia in late August with his wife, Dayna, to attend a friend's wedding, later electing to extend their trip to celebrate a honeymoon they'd delayed due to the recent birth of their daughter. Unfortunately, Cruz suffered extensive injuries when he jumped off a boat, hitting his head and seriously injuring his spine. He was taken to a local hospital where he was diagnosed with four fractured vertebrae that would require surgery. After various complications in Colombia, Cruz's friends and family collected $30,000 to get a private medevac to transport Cruz to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where he will have his surgery. Cruz's barber, Richie Hernandez, a longtime friend of Cruz's wife, Dayna, has announced that he will host a fundraising event at his barbershop on Monday, Sept. 3, where he will give haircuts with all proceeds going towards the family's medical expenses. "I was devastated," said Hernandez. "He [Cruz] had come in on a Tuesday with a bunch of friends to get haircuts just before their flight on Wednesday." "It's just sad. They just had a newborn baby. They're new homeowners. He's just a really good, hardworking guy and it's just a tragedy what happened," Hernandez continued. The event will take place at Richie's Barber Shop, 19B Olympia Blvd., from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Refreshments will be served. Cruz's family has also started a GoFundMe page where you can donate money towards the family's extensive medical bills. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The landscape of Staten Island is shifting -- quite literally -- from the development of St. George to new businesses and housing on the South Shore. Local community boards give residents an opportunity to offer input in the decision-making process for many of these long-term projects. Community Board meetings are open to the public and afford a great way to learn more about what's going on in your neighborhood and to get involved. If you have something you would like to speak out about, all you need to do is sign up -- before the meeting is called to order -- to speak in the public session. The following meetings are scheduled for the week of September 3 to September 7. COMMUNITY BOARD 1 Arlington - Castleton Corners - Clifton - Concord - Elm Park - Fort Wadsworth - Graniteville - Grymes Hill - Livingston - Mariners Harbor - New Brighton - Port Richmond - Randall Manor - Rosebank - St. George - Shore Acres - Silver Lake - Stapleton - Sunnyside - Tompkinsville - West Brighton - Westerleigh There will be a Steering Committee Meeting on Tuesday, September 4, at 6 p.m. at the Community Board 1 office, 1 Edgewater Plaza, Suite 217. The board office is located at 1 Edgewater Plaza, Suite 217, Stapleton. The office phone number is 718-981-6900. The board chairman is Nicholas Siclari; the district manager is Joseph Carroll. COMMUNITY BOARD 2 Arrochar - Bloomfield - Bulls Head - Chelsea - Dongan Hills - Egbertville - Emerson Hill - Grant City - Grasmere - High Rock - Lighthouse Hill - Midland Beach - New Dorp - New Springville - Oakwood - Ocean Breeze - Old Town - Richmond - South Beach - Todt Hill - Travis There are no meetings scheduled for Community Board 2 during the week of September 3. Community Board 2 meetings will resume the week of September 10. All committee and full board meetings are in the board office, which is located in the Lou Caravone Community Service Building on the campus of Sea View Hospital Rehabilitation Center and Home, 460 Brielle Ave., Sea View. The office phone number is 718-317-3235. The chairman of the CB 2 board is Dana T. Magee; the district manager is Debra A. Derrico. COMMUNITY BOARD 3 Annadale - Arden Heights - Bay Terrace - Charleston - Eltingville - Great Kills - Greenridge - Huguenot - New Dorp - Oakwood - Pleasant Plains - Prince's Bay - Richmond Valley - Richmond - Rossville - Tottenville - Woodrow There will be a Quality of Life Committee Meeting on Tuesday, September 4, at 7:30 p.m. at the Community Board 3 office, 1243 Woodrow Rd. There will be a Traffic & Transportation Committee Meeting on Wednesday, September 5, at 7:30 p.m. at the Community Board 3 office, 1243 Woodrow Rd. All committee meetings take place at the Community Board 3 office, located on the second floor of 1243 Woodrow Rd. All general board meetings take place at the Woodrow Methodist Church Hall located at 1075 Woodrow Rd. The office phone number is 718-356-7900. The CB 3 board chairman is Frank Morano; the district manager is Charlene Wagner. President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, told The Daily Beast that he was spearheading a secondary investigation to "counter" special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Giuliani admits that most of the information in this new report is easily found on the internet, but maintains its legitimacy. Some critics have come out and said this is nothing but a PR stunt to discredit the Mueller investigation. Giuliani's camp insists he's just seeking the truth. What do you think? PERSPECTIVES In The Daily Beast interview, Giuliani claimed the report was simply to root out possible conflicts of interest in the Mueller investigation. Some worry this is yet another gaffe from Giuliani, who has become increasingly unhinged in his media appearances. Giuliani doesn't need to see Mueller's report to know it's B.S. Trump, meanwhile, has continued to rail against what he sees as a "rigged" investigation. Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations. Jeff, this is GREAT, what everyone wants, so look into all of the corruption on the other side including deleted Emails, Comey lies & leaks, Mueller conflicts, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr...... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2018 The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! The move blindsided Portage Police Chief Troy Williams, a former resource officer at the high school, who said he heard about his officers dismissals from the Post-Tribune. For nearly 20 years, two Portage police officers, one at the high school and one roving between the two middle schools, have served as full-time resource officers for Portage schools, with the school district and the city splitting the salaries for those officers. At a high level, Google's search engine is based on a long list of websites from which Google has already scraped information, using automated software it calls a "crawler". The crawler gathers keywords and other data about sites on the internet, and at this point billions of Web pages have been analysed this way. When users type in a search query, Google takes their request and goes looking in its records for any matches. Then it faces another problem: How to organise all the results. This is where the more subjective parts of Google's search engine come in. Over 100 factors - from where the user is located to how recently a given webpage was updated - contribute to how highly a certain result may appear. In addition, the company's famous PageRank algorithm, developed by co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, plays a role in determining the authoritativeness of a given source. Loading Google executives are hesitant to discuss the specifics of their software, for fear of encouraging those who may seek to game the algorithm. And a core aspect of Trump's critique is that Google is mistaken in the way that it assigns authority in the first place. But, said Pandu Nayak, the head of Google's search ranking team, Google tests its own search results with regular humans to ensure that the search engine does what it is meant to do: Provide relevant and authoritative results. "We've developed a detailed series of guidelines about what it means to be authoritative," said Nayak in an interview. "It's a 160-page document, it's been publicly available on the Web for several years now, and it's our representation about what it means to give relevant and authoritative results. Raters must study it and pass a test" before they can participate in the evaluation process. A booth for Google at the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing last year. More than a dozen human rights groups this week sent a letter to Google urging the company not to offer censored internet search in China. Credit:AP Google News' secret sauce Some of Trump's criticism appears to revolve around which stories appear in Google News. Recent changes to Google News have turned it into a much more personalised product. The company now applies artificial intelligence and accounts more for your expressed preferences. This approach has given rise to questions about what determines News results and just how much its engineers truly understand about the decisions their AI is making. A consistent theme in current machine learning research is that the algorithms are typically black boxes - often, the only way to determine why an algorithm made a decision is to try to reverse-engineer the logic from the results. Influencing the sauce? Still, it appears that companies and individuals can influence Google search results. Reverse-engineering Google has practically become something of a cottage industry, particularly in media. Publishers are constantly trying to find ways to compete for visibility on Google News and on Google Search. For example, Google's tendency to favour "freshness" incentivises media ompanies to create their webpages with metadata keywords that the search engine can easily read. But not even the best experts can know for sure whether their techniques are working. "The file that has the smart meta-title on it is the file that people land on for the latest updates," said Megan Chan, director of digital operations at The Washington Post. "A lot of it is trial and error." Google's office in Collins Street, Melbourne. While the Post has a relationship with Google on special initiatives such as The Trust Project, an effort to promote integrity in journalism, Google does not use those relationships to provide insights into how its algorithms work, Chan said. Google is certainly capable of tailoring search results, but often does it less than you think That media outlets tinker with ways to boost their performance on Google is a byproduct of Google's success and dominance, not evidence of any favouritism by Google, experts say. "If you're a publisher, it's impossible to simply remove yourself from any interaction with Google," said Chris Pedigo, senior vice-president for government affairs at Digital Content Next, a trade association representing online publishers. Still, by setting up the system this way, Google clearly has some degree of control over how information is presented to the user. Loading The question for many is how aggressively Google intervenes in this process. Google's algorithm, particularly for search, is a master algorithm that is applied in real time against each search query as it comes in, according to the company. Although the algorithm itself frequently changes as Google makes tweaks, it is applied identically to each search. If the results differ from person to person, that could be because they may be using a browser in incognito mode, which deletes the cookies and other third-party tracking software. Or they may be searching from a different location, triggering Google's reflex to return local results. Or they may simply be performing a search slightly later in time than another, said Christo Wilson, a computer science professor at Northeastern University who has studied Google's search practices for six years. Wilson's research involves comparing Google searches under different conditions - having one group of testers search Google in incognito mode, for example, while another group uses Google in normal mode. In other studies, Wilson assigned one group to log on to Fox News and another group to browse CNN before performing an identical Google search. What he has found may seem surprising. "We have never seen big differences," said Wilson. "In fact, what we typically have seen in the past is that your search history - things you've looked for in the past - they only matter for about 10 minutes and even that's not true anymore for most queries." This may be a function of Google's "bias" toward freshness, Wilson explained. And this is likely what Trump experienced as well. "The results he's getting are going to be the same results that everyone is getting for those [same] queries," said Wilson, "at least for the US." Overseas, it's a different story Which brings us to Google's activities in other countries that underscore the company's ability to censor results - literally. In China, the search giant has reportedly sought to build a version of its engine that complies with the government's policy of blocking certain sensitive results, such as those related to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. And it wasn't long ago that Eric Schmidt, then the chairman of Google's parent company, Alphabet, publicly considered the possibility of demoting content that's considered hateful or extreme. "We're very good at detecting what's the most relevant and what's the least relevant," he told Fox Business in 2017. "It should be possible for computers to detect malicious, misleading and incorrect information and essentially have you not see it. We're not arguing for censorship, we're arguing just take it off the page, put it somewhere else ... make it harder to find." NAPLAN year 3 results usually show that 90 per cent-plus of students "pass the National Minimum Benchmark" in reading. Yet UNICEF rated Australia as 39 out of 41 countries "in achieving quality education" and the 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) found that 21 per cent of year 4 children cannot read, with a "significantly long tail of under-achievement". Is there an illiteracy problem in Australia or not? Loading NAPLAN gives parents an independent indicator of their childrens progress and is important to keep. But with questions having only four multiple choice answers, giving a 25 per cent chance of a false positive result, reports of teachers "helping", and no one actually knowing what the National Minimum Benchmarks scores are, they paint a much rosier than true picture. When the PIRLS 2016 results are considered, 70,000 year 4 children are illiterate, and at all year levels there will be 400,000 children in schools who cannot read. Schools blame parents for not reading enough to their children and blame older children for "not wanting to learn" as if it is not a school problem. This was apparent on the recent ACE/CIS Phonics Debate on YouTube. Before the 1980s, older teachers remember it was unheard of that any child could go to year 3 without knowing the foundation literacy skills they have to have learnt, before building on. But since whole language/balanced literacy approaches were adopted in Australia, literacy standards have consistently fallen. These ideas are based on a falsehood that children learn to read naturally by being read to, as they learn to talk. Advocates wont accept that while oral language is inherent; reading is a skill that needs to be systematically taught to be learnt. Ms Steendam's troubles began in 2015 when she enrolled into a double diploma in community services and counselling at the now-defunct Careers Australia. She was then working full-time at an employment agency in Albury that helped the jobless find work through a federal government back-to-work scheme. A Careers Australia representative visited her work and started signing up unemployed people for diplomas. Careers Australia was one of the most aggressive recruiters of VET students. Credit:Eddie Jim Although Ms Steendam had a full-time job, she was also interested in upskilling. Shed started looking for a new job and thought a diploma would improve her credentials, and she also liked the thought of being able to study at her own pace. It doesn't take long for a good salesman to sell something and make it sound really good, she said. But three weeks into the double diploma, after completing only two units, Ms Steendam phoned Careers Australia and told them she was pulling out. Instead of being self-paced, as the salesman had promised, she was receiving daily calls from the training college who were hassling her to submit work. It was becoming too much. I told them this is ridiculous, she said. Yet, instead of taking her off the books when she quit the course, Careers Australia kept charging her, telling her only after shed discovered the ongoing debt that it was because she hadnt withdrawn in writing. I cannot believe this company knowingly kept claiming the government funding for me, knowing I wasn't completing the course, she said. They even had the audacity to ask me to return the laptop that I never received''. Figures from the Student Loans Ombudsman show the federal watchdog received 5193 complaints in nine months from people who said they had been ripped off through VET FEE HELP. The highest proportion of those complaints came from people who, like Ms Steendam, only became aware of their debt when they started earning above the repayment threshold. As the repayment threshold decreases from $55,874 to around $45,000 its expected more Australians caught up in the rort will also discover they also owe the government money. Michaelia Cash is the new minister for VET in the Morrison government. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Now pressure is mounting on new Skills and Vocational Education Minister Michaelia Cash to wipe out debts that were issued unethically. Asked if the Minister would help students who had been ripped off, her spokeswoman said on Saturday: The Coalition Government is doing work to clean up the mess the previous government left in vocational education with their failed VET FEE-HELP scheme. The VET Student Loans Ombudsman (VSLO) has been established to administer complaints, including complaints about VET FEE HELP debts. The VSLO is separate from the Department of Education and Training and has its own legal powers to investigate and deal with complaints. Meanwhile, the VET Student Loans Ombudsman contacted Ms Steendam on Friday morning, after being approached by The Age for comment, informing her that she could apply to the ATO to defer the repayments on her debt while the watchdog continued to investigate the matter. In a statement issued to The Age on Friday afternoon, a spokesperson for the Ombudsman said it could not discuss the specifics of the case, but confirmed the office was investigating numerous complaints about the now-closed Careers Australia. In the interim, the Office and Australian Taxation Office (ATO) have an arrangement where complainants compulsory student repayments can be deferred while we investigate their complaint. The complainant is made aware that the deferment is temporary, the debt remains and indexation continues to accrue unless the debt is re-credited or otherwise cancelled, the spokesperson said. For Ms Steendam, its a welcome reprieve at least for now. But the Consumer Action Law Centre predicts more Australians will start coming forward with stories of dodgy training colleges once they discover their debt as the repayment threshold is reduced. The centres Mick Bellairs is urging the federal government to waive VET FEE-HELP debts that were sold unlawfully or unethically, often to vulnerable, low-income people. We believe there are many thousands of legacy debts that need to be resolved by the federal government, he said. HEARTS BEAT LOUD PG, 97 minutes. Classic, Lido, and Sun Theatre, opens Thursday. The lure of Generation X nostalgia is obvious in this wry but heartfelt father and daughter drama, but Brett Haley's film gets past the Wilco references and record store setting to craft a change of circumstances that speaks to the way in which we desperately try to hold on to what we should let go. With his Brooklyn record store closing and his daughter, Sam (Kiersey Clemons), soon leaving home for university, widowed former musician Frank Fisher (Nick Offerman) doesn't know what his future holds. When he inveigles Sam into a jam session, Frank is so delighted by the cracking song they write that he puts it online, drawing both attention and a shared project to bind the unlikely creators together. The filmmaking is as warm as the beats Sam programs, but for all the comforts in the storytelling including Ted Danson as the genially high proprietor of a local bar as well as new relationships for Frank and Sam, with Toni Collette's landlord and Sasha Lane's artist respectively, the movie reveals creativity as a way of saying goodbye. Heats Beat Loud: Generation X nostalgia. THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS CTC, 96 minutes. Cinema Nova, now screening. The real-life story expertly told in this documentary about the unexpected meeting in 1980 of identical American triplets who had been separated at birth, raised by different families and were unaware of each other growing up, defies easy belief. Even as it's recounted by those who were involved or witnesses to the linkage the first reunion by chance at a college, and the second through the news for Robert, Edward, and David, is stranger than any fictional concept. But what elevates the movie is the way British filmmaker Tim Wardle excavates that lack of believability, beginning with the joyous wonder of discovery and through a plethora of pop culture archival material the trio had a cameo in Desperately Seeking Susan to steadily dig down into questions of their different upbringings, the trauma of separation, and eventually the shocking reasoning behind their cleaving at birth. Footage that was at first celebratory is seen again as a form of reckoning, and the moment where the narrative breaks the frame of individual interviews for a reunion is heart-rending. All American ... Hailey Baldwin in Los Angeles. Credit:AP Growing up in Melbourne, AFL has been a part of my life for longer than I remember. And, having a fashion obsession from an early age, my team had to look good and play well. Which is probably why Essendon (red and black) and Hawthorn (yellow and brown) never got a look in as far as this sartorially minded sports fan was concerned. My team, the Sydney Swans, is red and white: not the most flattering combination but far from the worst. The point is, when we combine certain colours, different associations come to mind. And one of the biggest trends for this season is the red, white and blue of the American flag. An ACT women's organisation says some student visa holders and their families are demanding money, jewellery, real estate and cars from prospective partners in return for a life in Australia. Initiatives for Women in Need has called for safeguards to protect vulnerable people from paying hefty dowries to the families of student visa holders, some of whom demand more and more from their partner upon arrival in Australia, making them particularly vulnerable to domestic violence. A senate committee is examining dowry abuse in Australia. Credit:Thinkstock Organisation chairwoman Madhumita Iyengar said she had dealt with many instances of such abuse in Canberra but emphasised it was not isolated to any particular migrant community. "Unfortunately I cannot disclose how many because of privacy reasons, but there are quite a few cases. Its a real thing thats happening," Dr Iyengar said. Year four and five students at Torrens Primary have been learning about asylum seekers and refugees. They've read books and poems, watched documentaries and held a special assembly, with teachers hoping their charges gain empathy and understanding for people fleeing persecution. Staff have been at pains to keep the topic apolitical. The nine, 10 and the 11-year-olds have drawn their own conclusions about Australia's approach to asylum seekers. Torrens Primary year five students Catherine Bashford, Samantha Khaw and Christian Wang, part of a story dance about asylum seekers. Credit:Elesa Kurtz "When I heard what they were doing to the refugees it made me really sad because everyone should have at least a safe home to live in," said Christian Wang. Classmate Catherine Bashford agreed: "Let them live with us. They enrich our culture. Police have appealed for a Melbourne mother to come forward after her newborn baby was discovered abandoned outside a suburban hospital. The baby girl was found wrapped in towels and placed in a cardboard box outside Dandenong Hospital as Mother's Day dawned. A night shift nurse retrieved the crying newborn from outside a security door about 6am (AEST) as temperatures dipped to eight degrees Celsius. The hospital's head of paediatrics, Cathy McAdam, said it was unknown how long the baby had been outside but she was "blue and cold" and suffering from hypothermia when she was found. "It was cold but it was breathing by itself and our doctors who were on site attended to the baby immediately and brought it round to the special care nursery where we were able to warm the baby up," she told reporters. In documents released to Fairfax Media, Dr Kelly expressed frustration with the situation. In August 2016, Dr Kelly wrote to the Chief Ministers delegate for Wreck Bay, urging that the investigation be progressed immediately and be prioritised above competing demands. He noted that, quantitatively, the level of contamination and the population of the affected area was very similar to Williamtown, but the contrast in the way they had been treated was stark. In Williamtown, an independent environmental consultant wrote a 3550-page report while, in Wreck Bay, there had been "a half-page email by a Commonwealth public servant on their last day on the job". "I am getting increasingly uncomfortable about reputational risks to the ACT government and to me personally," Dr Kelly said. The half-page email he referred to said that, through conversations with the Wreck Bay community, a federal Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development public servant had determined that children were known to explore the surrounding bush and creekbed of the contaminated area, and the creek was used occasionally, but not regularly, for food gathering and for swimming. In Williamtown, land and water use was restricted after initial testing. In Wreck Bay, testing of the area was not undertaken for more than a year, and the waterway was not closed for months after positive tests results. Loading In September 2016, Dr Kelly emailed Ms Leigh to advise that "based on the environmental results to date, Mary Creek should be closed right now to all human contact". On October 4 and a week later, he again urged the government to close off the area and tell the community about the contamination. "These results need to be urgently, transparently and carefully communicated to the community," he wrote. Later in October 2016, a federal public servant emailed Dr Kelly to say the Wreck Bay board had been informed, and they were preparing warning signs to close the creek as a precautionary measure. The email said the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community Council had advised the government that Mary Creek was not a source of drinking water, and the community had been "well aware" of contamination in the creek since the 1990s. An ACT government spokeswoman said it had consistently urged the Commonwealth to act collaboratively, openly and quickly to respond to PFAS in the Jervis Bay territory. "The ACT has provided prompt and extensive public health advice when asked and stands ready to support Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities in any further investigations and response," she said. "[The federal department] is the decision-maker for all health protection activities and the release of public health advice to the community. The ACT has no jurisdiction to take unilateral actions unless specifically engaged by [the department] to do so." Wreck Bay is a secluded village on the coast near Jervis Bay. In 1986, the federal government gave the land to the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community Council, which effectively acts as a body corporate for the self-regulating community. The council's chief executive, Mal Hansen, declined a request for comment. "The board of directors of council have advised that, until the final test results have been received and examined, then it is premature to discuss this issue," he said. Loading The village is accessed by invite only. It is technically a Commonwealth territory managed by the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development, however the ACT and NSW provide services. This tangled web of decision makers proved complicated for the Department of Defence, who has responsibility for managing the contamination investigation. An old agreement permitted Environment Protection Agency testing on the land being undertaken from the 1990s, when separate contamination concerns were first raised, and this agreement was used to test the water initially. However, in March 2017, the communitys board requested an independent expert to represent them in the new matter before any further samples were taken, which delayed a detailed environmental investigation for a year. It was also noted that when faced with "near certain but undocumented" contamination in May 2016, not a single community member came to the open meeting to find out about the issue. Another meeting held in October that year saw just two people attend. In March 2017, a meeting attracted 18 people. As to what sort of a Prime Minister Scott Morrison will make, the suspicion, as I write, is that he will be a brief one. His major job appears to be to save the furniture, at the coming election, but there is disagreement as to which way their chaise longues and dimpled divans went. Much of the commentariat say they disappeared out to the right of the political spectrum, and so applauded Morrisons first announced move which was to invite President Trump who as you know was impeached in 2019 to Australia. On the reckoning that elections are won by those who control the centre, however, many of us reckoned this was madness. But at the conclusion of a week of his prime ministership, there were further signs that Morrison was looking to harness some of the same electoral dynamics that so extraordinarily propelled Trump to the presidency in the first place. Out of nowhere, one of his ministers suddenly said there were 14,000 refugees just waiting to launch themselves at us the implication being that without the LNP in power the unwashed hordes would come. (With the LNP, however, the worst would be the streets awash with fragrant French au pairs . . . but thats another story.) Loading Meantime, never mind that the Great Barrier Reef is demonstrably dying, that no one serious denies the need to reduce emissions , the PM put in the position of Energy Minister, a bloke who claims he is not a climate sceptic but says and does things that climate sceptics endorse. Only five years ago he spoke at a rally against wind farms. The PM maintains, even as late as 2018, that the future is coal-powered and there is even thought he might put tax-payers' money to it. This is a workplace where its clear that the bosses and owners do not respect the workers and are trying to take as much money from them as they can, said CALA attorney Will Bloom. Here we have folks who are very clearly working directly for this company, under the timeframe the company expects, being paid what the company expects, delivering exactly the newspapers the company expects. It is very clear these workers are not independent contractors. They are employees. The 81-year-old woman had fallen while walking from the bathroom through her unit on Station Street in Thirroul, south of Sydney. Police witnessed the alleged assault through a rear window of the unit, after being tipped off by a member of the public around 10.45pm on Friday, according to Inspector Don Faulds, from Wollongong Police Unit. A carer who allegedly punched and verbally abused an elderly patient in her home after she fell on the floor on Friday night has faced court. The officers alleged they saw a 28-year-old woman verbally abusing the older woman before "punching her with a closed fist to the inner thigh". The carer, identified as Alicia Gawronski, allegedly took the elderly woman's legs "out from underneath her" as she tried to "regain her composure", making her fall on her back. Shouting, moaning and slapping noises were also heard from outside the front of the home, police allege. They also allege they heard Gawronski say to the woman, "do it again, I dare ya". The woman said, "I didn't do nothing", to which Gawronski allegedly replied, "you did, you slid your ass back on the seat, don't". The woman continued to make a moaning noise, with Gawronski again telling her to "stop sliding her ass back", the court documents said. When the elderly woman said she was scared, Gawronski allegedly replied "yeah, you oughta be scared, especially where you're gunna go the nurses will beat the f--- out of you every day". Westpac has fired a senior lawyer in the wake of bombshell allegations that he stalked a junior colleague. Group legal and strategic investments counsel Siddhartha Maharaj was sacked by the bank in May when a police investigation into his alleged stalking of another lawyer at the bank began. Siddhartha Maharaj, who is being investigated for stalking a junior colleague, and the damaged Audi he was arrested in connection with. Police sources say that that the married father of three approached a junior female colleague, who Fairfax Media has agreed not to name, and asked her to go for a coffee with him. She said no. Late last year the then treasurer, Scott Morrison, took a stand against the mockery and jokes targeting Christians by promising to call out people who are offensive to religion. His resolve to defend people of faith was portrayed as political, but he was right to do so then and will need to do so now as Prime Minister. Following the same-sex marriage plebiscite a report was commissioned by the government to consider whether there are sufficient legal protections for religious freedom in Australia. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen If Christians, and religious people more generally, were to withdraw from their volunteering, philanthropy, welfare, caring or advocacy roles, Australia would be greatly impoverished. A 2018 study found that Australians who become religious are more likely to be donors and volunteers than those who continue through childhood and adulthood without faith, a process that was calculated to contribute an additional $481 million to Australia's economy. The agnostic Australian majority generally recognises this contribution. Sociologist Hugh Mackay noted that 88 per cent of non-Christian Australians want churches to stay in their suburbs, realising that the churches foster community and do a great deal of important work. A man threw a knife at officers, shrugged off a Taser and continued advancing towards police before he was shot dead in the central Queensland city of Rockhampton on Friday night, according to the police union. The officers involved were responding to reports of a domestic disturbance when the man came out of a house, confronted them while armed with several knives and refused to surrender. The scene in the Rockhampton suburb of Norman Gardens after the fatal shooting. Credit:Darren Curtis - Nine News Queensland Queensland Police Union general secretary Mick Barnes said if the officers had not taken the action they did when their lives were at risk, then it could have easily been a different outcome. He said he had spoken to the two "experienced constables" involved and they were "doing fine" and handling the situation well. Societys image of a nurse as a woman in a white starched apron bustling through a hospital ward is contributing to the tiny number of men taking up nursing as a profession, an experienced male nurse says. More than nine out of 10 of Australias 365,000 nurses are female, meaning only 7.2 per cent of Queenslands nursing workforce are male, according to the data from the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. More men need to be encouraged into the nursing profession to help deal with a predicted nursing decline. Credit:Michel OSullivan Registered nurse Haydon Cunninghame highlighted the issue at the recent National Nursing Forum held on the Gold Coast this week, saying a national strategy was needed to encourage more men into the profession. Mr Cunninghame said the lack of men was a concern, and not just because Australias nursing workforce was ageing rapidly, with a predicted shortfall of 125,000 nurses by 2030. Housing all these new people, providing them jobs and moving them around is causing headaches for governments, federal and state. Some of the ructions we saw in Canberra last week were about a backlash against high immigration, high house prices and problems of congestion and overcrowding being experienced by fed-up voters in many parts of our major cities. Whether this is a good or a bad thing is, of course, debatable. As anyone who battles the daily commute on Melbourne's trains, trams and roads knows, today's city is more crowded and congested than it was even 10 years ago. About 120,000 new residents settle in Melbourne each year, as do tens of thousands of international students. About one million international tourists visit annually. More than 40,000 now live in the CBD, while a generation ago barely anyone did. Melbourne is growing fast. This month we are expected to welcome our five millionth resident, more than 20 years earlier than was forecast by demographers just a few short years ago. On present trends there is a distinct possibility that Melbourne may overtake Sydney as the country's largest city within a decade or so. The almost daily announcements of major infrastructure projects by the state government is a response to growing voter anger about the increasing dysfunction of a public transport system that was designed for a city of three or four million, not five, six or seven. The train system is especially problematic, designed to get office workers to the city centre for a 9am start and then home to the suburbs again at 5pm, much like John Brack's grim Melburnians did in the mid-1950s. The fact that fewer and fewer of us have such jobs or set commuting patterns seems lost on the public and private bureaucrats who run our public transport system. While many are keen to talk the talk on efficiency and "customer-focussed outcomes", as well as accept the bloated pay packets that come with such modern management-speak, few seem prepared to grasp the idea that a city of five million with a flexible labour market and night-time as well as a day-time economy requires a public transport system where trains come at least every 10 minutes for at least 18 hours a day, and that interchanges between lines should mean a wait of no more than a few minutes, especially on a cold, dark station on a Melbourne winter's night. Victorian premier Daniel Andrews and Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan at Box Hill to talk to media about Labors plan for the suburban rail loop. Credit:Joe Armao To be forced to wait 30 minutes for a train after 8pm as is common on many lines, and then to wait for another 30 minutes for an interchange was unacceptable in the Melbourne of three million people in the 1980s, let alone the one of five million today. Premier Daniel Andrews' most recent infrastructure announcement about an underground outer circle rail loop will, if it goes ahead, do something to alleviate the problems that many of face in getting from one side of Melbourne to the other without both going via the CBD and enduring those interminable interchange waiting times. But with a proposed starting date of 2022 and completion nearly 30 years later we shouldn't be planning our journeys to and from work, let alone a night out, around this proposal just yet. But it is a start. One of The Ages numerous requests was for access to a police report containing allegations of a grooming ring linked to a school in Melbournes north-east. The education department immediately issued a Section 25 which allows agencies to refuse access without searching for all or any of the documents where it is apparent from the nature of the documents that no obligation (to release the information) would arise. To this day, the department still hasn't explained why such a blanket ban was issued, or answered questions about what action, if any, was taken in response to the report. The Age can also reveal the Andrews government had an army of 97 staff to oversee FOI in 2016-17 (the latest public figures on record) but the proportion of requests released in full dropped to a new low that year, to 19.45 per cent. And in a frank assessment of the system, Information Commissioner Sven Bluemmel has confirmed that a culture of secrecy prevails, with some bureaucrats deliberately manipulating the legislation to stop sensitive material being released. This included FOI officers claiming that a document is cabinet-in-confidence simply because it has been given to a minister for briefing purposes, or misusing an exemption that allows information to remain private if it relates to trade secrets or "other matters of a business, commercial or financial nature. Some are better than others, of course, but I think there is still very much a culture in large parts of the sector thats more about How can I refuse disclosure rather than just saying: Why cant we just give this out? says Mr Bluemmel, who was appointed by the government last year to oversee the system. Former premier John Cain created the FOI Act to extend as far as possible the right of the community to access to information in the possession of the Government of Victoria. Credit:Eddie Jim Victorias FOI Act was created by the Cain Labor government in 1982, with public sector agencies now receiving record a 36,209 requests for information, according to the latest data. But an Age investigation into state secrecy has been indundated with feedback from readers expressing their frustration with the system. Some have lamented how difficult it is to get the documents they seek, while public servants have highlighted another side of the debate: the thankless nature of the job and the growing pressure involved in making access decisions, particularly for junior staffers working in departments and ministerial offices. Others raised concerns that many public and private bodies such as state parliament, school councils or the Victorian Governor are exempt from the FOI Act altogether. In Anglesea on the Surf Coast, residents been trying to get information on whether they have been exposed to airborne asbestos fibres after mining giant Alcoa's botched attempt to blow up an old power station earlier this year. However, the company argues it is not compelled under FOI to make its reports public. "There is zero transparency," says Andrew Laird, from environmental organisation Surf Coast Air Action. Experts say that part of the problem is that Victoria's FOI laws have had incremental changes over the years, but no major overhaul. And some reforms have missed the mark: for example, the Baillieu government introduced the state's first FOI Commissioner but it had no power to review decisions by ministers or department heads, couldn't compel agencies to act on her recommendations, and wasn't able to conduct "own motion" investigations. Special Minister of State Gavin Jennings is responsible for the government's FOI reforms. Credit:Justin McManus A spokesman for Special Minister of State Gavin Jennings said the Andrews government had made important changes, including reducing the time frame to process requests to 30 days (down from 45); expanding the Commissioners powers to review FOI decisions; and reducing the time that agencies have to seek VCATs review from 60 days to 14 days. He also cited the appointment of the new Information Commissioner, saying: "We now have a single body to oversee Victorias FOI, public sector privacy and data protection laws, making it easier to access government information." Whether things improve is the great unknown, but some, like former premier John Cain, the architect of the state's FOI laws, are yet to be convinced. A Malaysian national on the run from immigration authorities for more than a year has been deported after an off-duty Australian Border Force officer spotted him walking through Morley Galleria shopping centre in July. The 54 year-old man, an unlawful non-citizen, left Australia for Malaysia on Friday night following his conviction for exploiting an illegal foreign worker through an unscrupulous labour hire intermediary business in Perth. Australian Border Force sent the man back to Malaysia from Perth on Friday night. He had been on the run for more than a year when the officer spotted him at the shopping centre. He was arrested and last week pleaded guilty to two charges in the Perth Magistrates Court relating to the company. When doctors found a tumour at the centre of five-year-old Audrey Anderson's brain, her mother Sue says it flipped their family's perspective of life on its head. Their daughter would die if the tumour was left untreated, but her age and the cancer's location meant that it would be a particularly fragile operation. Today, Audrey (pictured with The Kids' Cancer Project founder Col Reynolds) is a healthy young girl heading to high school next year. "We had to pursue some safe-as-possible options to try and make sure that we could preserve her life as much as possible," Ms Anderson said. "That was a journey that really adjusted everything about the way we viewed life, quite clearly." The new federal minister for population and cities, Alan Tudge, has backed a "bigger Australia" with more decentralised cities as he assembles a policy aimed at easing congestion in the major capitals. As the Morrison government turns the focus from immigration cuts toward a redistribution of where new migrants live, Mr Tudge also rejected accusations the Coalition blamed immigration for choked roads and overburdened infrastructure. "Im not suggesting that for a second that its migrants fault not at all," he told Fairfax Media. "Im not suggesting that for a second that its migrants fault," says Alan Tudge. Credit:Andrew Meares Asked about former prime minister Kevin Rudd's junked vision for a "Big Australia", with its lofty population goals fueled by immigration, Mr Tudge said he was a proponent of population growth. Australia is one of the easiest places in the world to depose a sitting prime minister compared to other countries with a Westminster system of government, political experts say. Griffith University emeritus professor Patrick Weller said Australia is too trigger happy in replacing prime ministers, which has led to a revolving door of political leadership. While other countries with a Westminster system such as the UK, New Zealand and Canada can remove a prime minister in a leadership ballot, more processes are in place to ensure it is difficult to do so. "In Australia, leaders are kicked out on the spot," Professor Weller said. The peak national body for public school parents has been torn apart after its largest member state, NSW, quit the organisation because of its support for the Coalition's school funding model. The decision means the Australian Council of State School Organisations - which bills itself as the "one voice" for public school communities - is now backed by only Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and the ACT. There has been serious discontent within the public school lobby over ACSSO's support for the Turnbull and Morrison governments' Gonski 2.0 funding model, which cut the amount of money expected to flow to schools over the next decade by $17 billion compared to Labor's promises. Students at Oatley West Public School with former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. Credit:AAP The Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations of NSW decided to disaffiliate from the national body at a meeting on Sunday. In a terse letter seen by Fairfax Media, president Susie Boyd said there was a need for "a truly representative body for public education at a national level" to ensure there was "no conflict in the messaging between the national voice and its members". When Fairfax Media revealed that Julie Bishop was claiming family travel entitlements for her boyfriend but refusing to declare his financial interests, insisting he was not her partner, sources close to Bishop suggested its publication was motivated by misogyny. The suggestion was Bishop was being targeted for her gender rather than paying a penalty for her own choices. That the motive could only be about her sex rather than her political actions is the same logic behind the curious narrative that has emerged claiming the veteran MP is not leader today because she is a woman. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and her partner David Panton in the Lexus marquee. Photo by Jesse Marlow. . Credit:Jesse Marlow As foreign minister, her indefatigable work ethic, poise, and quick wit, combined with her unrelenting pursuit for justice for the MH17 victims, saw the deputy Liberal leader touted as the natural leader-in-waiting - at least at the start of her time in the portfolio. I have no doubt that Bishop encountered the Liberal Party boys' club and had to fight against it. But the reason she is not prime minister today is because she poorly navigated the ideological turbulence within the Coalition. And she failed to capitalise on her longevity as deputy to demonstrate to the satisfaction of her colleagues she had matured politically after her disastrous attempt at the economic portfolio in 2009. "There would be thousands of cases where host families and au pairs are either ignorant of the regulations or knowingly engaging the services of au pairs who do not have appropriate working rights in Australia," Ms Pember said. "As to how many cases like this that Peter Duttons office may be aware of, that is anyones guess." "I'm sick and tired of having to explain to federal ministers how their own system works, (or doesnt work) and I just dont have the patience to wait for changes to be made," she added. Mr Dutton faces questions - and a Senate inquiry - over his intervention to stop the deportation of Alexandra Deuwel, a French au pair who had previously worked for relatives of AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan. Labor and the Greens also accuse Mr Dutton of potentially misleading Parliament over his intervention to save from deportation another au pair who was destined to work for the family of Russell Keag who worked with Mr Dutton in the Queensland Police in the 1990s. Peter Dutton faces questions about his intervention in a number of deportation cases involving au pairs. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Shayne Neumann, Labors spokesman for immigration and border protection, said: "As each day goes by, there are more serious questions Peter Dutton needs to answer about the use of his ministerial intervention powers including granting a visa to an individual who was previously counselled about breaching visa conditions. "The Australian Border Force advised against the Minister granting the visa but he granted a visa anyway. Why did Peter Dutton act against Border Forces advice?" French au pair Alexandra Deuwel. Credit:Facebook The Department of Home Affairs did not respond to Fairfax Media's inquiries before deadline. Dr Berg, who has surveyed 1500 au pairs about their work experiences, said au pairs on tourist visas which dont permit work most frequently get into trouble. "But it could also apply to Working Holiday Makers or international students who contravene the work limit on their visa." She said a foreign au pair travelling with her host family was deported from New Zealand to Australia after it was determined she would be performing childcare work. Another au pair was removed to Thailand when she attempted to re-enter Australia on a tourist visa to stay with a family for whom she had previously worked. A foreign au pair is meant to live with a family as a domestic arrangement, helping out with childcare and household duties in exchange for board and pocket money rather than pay. Dr Berg said a lack of regulation was a huge problem for foreign au pairs and families, especially when things go wrong. "Lack of an official au pair program also means there is ambiguity about what au pairing is from the perspective of both au pairs and families," she said. "Is it a cultural exchange? Is it a job? It is some combination of rental agreement and childcare?" Foreign au pairs working in Australia face other issues, including underpayment, unreasonable work demands, unceremonious sackings and unwanted sexual advances. "[T]here can be a big power disparity between families and au pairs, who are young, new to Australia, probably have no family or support structures here and may not be fluent in English," Dr Berg said. "There are many accounts of au pairs being paid treated effectively like low-paid nannies or housekeepers." Wendi Aylward, the president of the Cultural Au Pair Association of Australia, said a dedicated visa would clear up uncertainty over work rights, provide safeguards for au pairs and families and address Australias childcare crisis. Loading Felix Reiners, an 18-year-old au pair from Germany, looks after Ms Aylwards children for about 25 hours a week since arriving in Australia in July on a working holiday visa. Mr Reiners said he planned to au pair with the Aylward family until January when he would travel around Australia. The Coalition voted with Labor in 2016 in favour of the fracking ban and this week said "the Liberal Nationals support the ban on fracking. Kilmartin, who was visibly nervous in the interview, corrected himself almost immediately and apologised. Ah no fracking, sorry, he said. Labor snipped that part of the interview out, in an act Kilmartin labelled a "dirty trick". Social media, particularly Facebook, has emerged as a powerful tool for politicians, who can use it to project their message to voters without filtering it through journalists. This week, the Andrews government bypassed print, TV and radio and used Andrews Facebook page to break the news of what might be the defining promise of November's election: its pledge to build the 90-kilometre, $50 billion suburban rail loop. Its a devastatingly effective way of communicating, because they are presenting the message they want to present, without having to go through the filtration of news processes they had to go through in the past, said Zareh Ghazarian, a lecturer in politics and international relations at Monash University. But social medias unfiltered nature also makes it a means to spread misinformation. Did you know, for example, that the Andrews government has quietly been developing secret plans to reduce lanes on the Monash Freeway to build bike paths and urban forest. You might have read this if you follow the Facebook page of Liberal upper-house MP Gordon Rich-Phillips. This government is more concerned about pondering a 'green utopia' where you can no longer own your own car than it is about improving your commute to work, and helping you to get home quicker, Rich-Phillips posted on August 17. His source was a discussion paper on automated vehicles government agency Infrastructure Victoria put out in August. Luke Donnellan, Victoria's Roads Minister, said the claim was false. "Are you joking?" he said. "What we are doing is putting 36 kilometres of new traffic lanes on the Monash, in addition to the 30 kilometres of new lanes we opened earlier this year." With just 1555 followers, Rich-Phillips audience is tiny compared with the Premiers, whose rail loop announcement had reached 1 million people by Thursday. But despite the extraordinary potential reach of social media, there are no laws governing Victorian politicians use of the medium. A parliamentary inquiry into the impact of social media on Victorian elections found it would be impractical to even try to legislate against misuse. Victorian legislation will always struggle to keep pace with technology and how social media is used for political and electoral purposes, the committee found in its 2014 report. The Victorian Electoral Commission has no authority to regulate material that seeks to influence the political judgment of voters, online or otherwise. In a statement, the commission said that the Electoral Act 2002 prohibited the production of electoral material that misleads or deceives in relation to casting a vote. Dr Ghazarian said there were few examples of Victorian politicians using social media to spread outright lies, despite the absence of regulatory control. Its a new battleground that the parties in Australia have been using generally quite properly because we have struggled to find many clear examples of misinformation, he said. The University of Canberra's News and Media Research Centre published a digital news report in June, which analysed examples of fake news in Australia. It argued that in the absence of regulation, the wisdom of the crowd might be the best corrective. At the collective level, the wisdom of the crowd, once decried as unreliable, could now be advanced as the means to vet information claims: the Wikipedia model could conceivably be applied in other domains, such as social media channels. Kilmartin said he keeps the full video on hand, having been confronted by several people over his assumed support for fracking. A number of times in the community Ive had people approach me and have a go at me about fracking, and Ive gone to the trouble of showing them the video, he said. Then they become angry that Daniel Andrews has lied to them. Former foreign minister Julie Bishop has revealed her surprise that no WA federal MPs voted for her in last week's leadership vote, and says she was caught up in an "unbelievable conflict" within the Liberal Party. The former deputy Liberal leader also said she believes there's a Queensland influence on the federal party. WA Liberal MP Julie Bishop will contest the next election. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Speaking about her decision to quit as foreign minister, Ms Bishop did not deny being told she wasn't wanted in Scott Morrison's new cabinet, Post Newspapers in Perth reported. "I just felt it was best I not be part of that cabinet," Ms Bishop told the newspaper. Jakarta: Ninety-nine per cent of Australian exports to Indonesia will now be able to enter tax free, or will receive preferential treatment, under the free trade deal struck by the two countries. And everything Indonesia exports to Australia will enter without being subject to tariffs or taxes, which Prime Minister Scott Morrison says will reduce costs for Australian business, and grow Indonesian exports. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Jakarta on Saturday. Credit:AP It was not immediately clear what goods or services have been excluded from the agreement. Mr Morrison also suggested the Australian government would look at making greater use of technology to make it easier and simpler for Indonesians to get a visitor visa to come to Australia for a holiday. Photographs from the scene posted on social media sites showed blown-out windows and armed men milling about. The blast killed Zakharchenko and wounded three others, including his dining companion, the minister of finance of the self-declared People's Republic. Rebel and Russian authorities blamed the Ukrainian government, with some suggesting that the United States had a role, while a top Ukrainian security official said the blast was likely the result of the separatists' factional infighting or an operation by Russian special forces. The death of the most prominent pro-Russia rebel underlined the dismal prospects for resolving the conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people. A Zakharchenko adviser, Aleksandr Kazakov, reportedly told Russian outlet RT the Donetsk borders have been closed and an investigation was under way. "Both Ukrainian and Russian borders are closed. We are searching for the executor [of the murder]. The military council is ongoing at the moment, it will be followed by ministry council where he decision on republic management will be taken. All the military and police units are up in arms," he was quoted as saying. The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, blamed the Ukrainian government, saying that "there is every reason to suggest that the Kiev regime stands behind this murder." And Russia's speaker of Parliament suggested that because Zakharchenko was one of the parties who signed the Minsk II peace agreement, that pact was no longer valid. Zakharchenko, a former electrician, 42, was named prime minister of the so-called Donetsk Peoples Republic in November 2014. Ukrainians say he filled a mostly figurehead position for the Russian security service agencies that manage and finance the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, and they attributed his death to infighting in the rebel ranks or a Russian targeted killing. Washington: The Trump administration's decision to end funding to a United Nations agency that provides assistance to millions of Palestinian refugees has been denounced broadly by international officials, former American diplomats and Palestinians who are reeling from the elimination of a decades-long policy of support. The State Department announced the funding cut on Friday, after it had already been confirmed by a former senior official at the US Agency for International Development who had spoken to journalists. "The United States will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation," Heather Nauert, the chief State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement. White House Adviser Jared Kushner, son-in-law to President Donald Trump. Credit:AP The move was pushed by Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and top adviser on the Middle East, as part of a plan to compel Palestinian politicians to drop demands for most of the refugees to return to what they call their homeland. Washington: Meghan McCain, John McCain's daughter, delivered a powerful speech at her father's funeral on Saturday, and in a reproach of President Donald Trump, said the "America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because it was always great." McCain's speech contrasted her father's legacy with the "opportunistic appropriation" and "cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly." "He was a fire that burned bright," McCain said. "A few have resented that fire for the light it cast upon them, for the truth it revealed about their character, but my father never cared what they thought. And even that small number still have the opportunity, as long as they draw breath, to live up to the example of John McCain." McCain's speech, and her rebuke, came as Trump, wearing golf gear, a white shirt and a "Make America Great Again" hat, left the White House for his Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia. Trump, who was not invited to McCain's funeral, has long mocked and condemned the senator. PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport (ECYS) Wycliffe Smith continued his visits to the various schools on the island today. On the schedule were the Milton Peters College and the Vocational Training School. He used the opportunity to encourage the school management and staff and wish them well for the new school year. PHILIPSBURG:--- To the people of Sint Maarten and guests visiting our shores, as Prime Minister of this wonderful and resilient Country and Chairlady of Emergency Operation Center (EOC) I would like to take a minute to remind you that the peak of the Hurricane season is upon us! We all remember Hurricane Luis that hit St. Maarten on Sept 5th, 1995 and 22 years later, approaching almost a year, Hurricane Irma devastated our island on September 6th 2017. As the first week of September is approaching which seems to be a time when the most powerful hurricanes hit St. Maarten, let us take this time to scale up preparations for the peak of the Hurricane Season. As Prime Minister, I urge you to take all the necessary precautionary and preventative actions in order to be prepared, for any system that may develop. Actions such as, but not limited to the following: 1) Ensure you have your Hurricane & Emergency Package; you are advised to have 1 gallon per person per day of drinking water and enough water for cooking and sanitary purposes to last 1 week for the household. 2) Stock up on canned goods and ensure that you purchase the necessary materials to protect your home/residence/property and/or life. It is month end now and I would highly recommend that persons purchase some extra hurricane items to ensure that you are able to feed your family in the unfortunate event that we experience a storm. 3) Ensure that you refill all your Medical Prescriptions and have enough medication for at least 1-2 weeks preferably. 4) Make sure that you are properly insured and you have reviewed your insurance policy. Please check to see if your policy is based on the current value to avoid the Under-Insurance problem currently being experienced by many in the community. 5) Additionally, please have enough cash on hand and put it in a safe location where you wont spend it but be able to have it on hand if necessary. Please dont wait until the last minute as supermarkets and hardware stores most likely will be sold out. 6) On the topic of Safety, I am calling on all the owners of Containers, that are parked and/or placed near or on the public roads, to have them removed now! This is an extremely dangerous situation, containers can block roads and depending on the strength of the winds these containers may become airborne and potentially pose a threat to persons in the community. 7) We all should take the necessary measures to secure and prevent any debris from being a danger to others and their surroundings. Flying debris, structures that are under construction and/or having wooden frames that are exposed, need to be taken down to avoid these structures from becoming flying objects. In closing, if history is supposed to be our guide and an instrument that we should learn from, we should avoid making the same mistakes of the past. The goal of the Government of Sint Maarten in these times, is to ensure that our community is well informed, prepared, protected and safe against the unpredictable elements of nature. To this end, early preparation is key and fundamental so Let us be pro-active, let us be prepared and let us establish these objectives as our priority. Thank you for your attention and May God Bless our Sint Maarten land and keep it safe. PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports, the Honourable Wycliffe Smith received an overview of the program Education On The Move from the coordinators, Angelique Roumou and Janelle Presentacion-James on Thursday. The program is an initiative which began under the administration of former minister, Silveria Jacobs and it will continue with Minister Smith. Education On the Move is a community-wide program aimed at encouraging all stakeholders to promote education. Schools, government agencies and the private sector participate in varying activities. Moving forward, there will be a Literacy campaign during the first two weeks of September where community leaders will be reading to children. Also, a Teachers Appreciation Seminar will be held on September 28, honouring and encouraging the islands teachers. A UNICEF collaboration for the Too Cool To Loot campaign will be highlighted in an Education On The Move debate. There will be an art auction of paintings on the theme and an environmentally-conscious initiative of making compost in each school. Angelique Roumou, coordinator for the Education On the Move program, anticipates great success and participation from companies and schools as we move Sint Maarten forward together. This initiative is in line with the Governing Program 2018-2022 which aims to promote lifelong learning and to stimulate learning outside the classroom. Minister Smith encourages all persons and organisations to participate in the activities and support Education On the Move. WASHINGTON The Defense Department is moving ahead with previously announced plans to stand up a four-star U.S. Space Command as part of a broader effort to reorganize military space forces, Defense Secretary James Mattis said Tuesday at a joint news conference at the Pentagon with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford. Mattis said the new command will be funded with existing resources and staffed with existing personnel. Congress in the 2018 defense policy bill directed DoD to create a "sub-unified" Space Command under U.S. Strategic Command, but the Pentagon has proposed taking this a step further and forming an independent U.S. Space Command to "improve and evolve space warfighting, including integrating innovative force designs, concepts of operation, doctrines, tactics, techniques and procedures," DoD explained in its proposal submitted to Congress Aug. 9.[Trump's Space Force Plan Revealed by VP Mike Pence] Dunford said he met on Monday with "key leaders in the department" to work through the details of the Space Command reorganization. "We are still a few months away from standing up that command," he said. Presumably most of the resources and personnel would come from Air Force Space Command. The creation of U.S. Space Command does not go far enough, however, to fulfill President Trump's order to stand up a sixth branch of the military, a Space Force, with its own civilian leadership. Mattis said DoD has been working with Congress "on the way ahead with regard to needed legislation for a separate department." A cost estimate for the new department is in the works. Mattis has long opposed creating a new military service in part because of the costs associated with a new civilian bureaucracy. He changed his stance in recent months after Trump indicated this was not up for debate. Vice President Mike Pence is now overseeing the reorganization and the implementation of the president's directive. "We have worked with Congress and the White House to define the evolving space problem that we confront," Mattis said on Tuesday. He noted that a unified Space Command is "in line with the president's vision" of a Space Force. DoD also is "revising our vision for defending our assets in space and revising antiquated space acquisition processes," Mattis said. In this vein, DoD has proposed establishing a "Space Operations Force" of career space experts to help units sharpen war fighting skills, and a "Space Development Agency" charged with rapidly developing and fielding next-generation technologies. Pence said in a speech Aug. 9 that the president wants DoD to appoint an assistant secretary of defense for space to oversee the transition. Pence noted that the goal is to have a Department of the Space Force with its own civilian secretary by 2020 a new military service that would be co-equal with the Army, Navy and Air Force. But DoD did not include this in its Aug. 9 proposal to reorganize space forces. The Congressional Research Service said in a recent report that many lawmakers are confused because the Defense Department and the White House are not speaking with a single voice on what a Space Force should be. "Inconsistencies between these various executive branch proposals have puzzled some observers and Congress could play a major role in adjudicating among them," CRS said. "Given the long-standing nature of the debate over how space assets should be managed, some observers view recent proposals as initial positions in a longer-term negotiation." On Capitol Hill, the dynamics surrounding the Space Force could be shifting. The Republican-led House has been a proponent of a separate branch of the military for space whereas the Senate has rejected the idea. If Democrats retake control of the House in November, support for the Space Force could evaporate. The Senate could go either way, based on recent comments by Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla, who has been at the helm of the Senate Armed Services Committee in the absence of long-time SASC chairman, the late Sen. John McCain. Inhofe told Congressional Quarterly that he would hold hearings on Trump's Space Force plan even though he opposed the idea when the House voted for it in the 2018 defense authorization bill. "If we're gonna have [Space Force]," Inhofe said, "let's go ahead and get on with it." This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry. Ford Motor Co. has forsaken the plan of bringing its new China-built Focus Active crossover to the United States as a result of tariffs imposed on Chinese imports by President Donald Trump, the U.S. automaker announced Friday. The Dearborn-based automaker originally planned to build the vehicle in its joint venture in China and ship it to the United States for sale by late 2019. But recent tariffs imposed on imports from China by the U.S. administration would have trimmed profits on an already low-margin vehicle, according to the Detroit News. Unlike General Motors Co. which had asked for an exemption from the tariffs for its China-built Buick Envision, Ford did not seek an exemption for the Active, the Detroit News reported Friday. "Given the negative financial impact of the new tariffs, we've decided not to import this vehicle from China," the local newspaper quoted Kumar Galhotra, Ford president of North America, as saying. "This is just the first of many such announcements," said Kristin Dziczek, vice president of the Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research. She predicted tariffs on Chinese imports, compounded with a possible 25-percent tariff on all imported cars and parts, would push a lot of products out of the U.S. market. "Many models will be withdrawn from the U.S. market, and many won't be built in the U.S. at all," she said. "There are a whole lot of implications for the automotive industry and for consumers in terms of choice and prices." Ford had projected to sell fewer than 50,000 Focus Active crossover vehicles annually in the United States. It will have options for its U.S. consumers now, Galhotra said. Ford is in the transition from sedans to new crossover in America and other major markets. It projects that by 2020, nearly 90 percent of its vehicles sold in North America will be trucks, SUVs or commercial vehicles. NASA on Thursday (Aug. 30) announced a deadline for its recovery of the Mars rover Opportunity, which has been silent for months while battling a dust storm, and some scientists intimately familiar with the project say that new timeline doesnt do the grizzled robot justice. The rover, which launched in 2003 and landed on Mars in January 2004, has been giving its humans the cold shoulder since June 10, when a fierce dust storm enveloped the Red Planet and blocked the sun from the robot's solar panels. The storm has started to die down, so the team hopes that with enough time, the rover should be able to power on again and get back to work after its long hibernation. But scientists familiar with the mission say that NASA's new schedule doesn't offer the hardworking rover that time. "Opportunity has everything going for her," Tanya Harrison, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University and a science team collaborator on Opportunity, told Space.com. She said that depending on how the timeline aligns with Martian weather, "We're not giving it a fair shot." [Send the Opportunity Mars Rover Your Support (and a Postard)] Here's NASA's plan: First, the team will wait until the tau a measurement of how much dust clouds the air lowers to 1.5. (At the peak of the storm, the tau was likely around 10, a level one rover expert called "terrifying.") Then, the team will begin a 45-day active-listening period, during which they will send commands up to the rover that should force it to respond. Finally, if the silence continues, the team will transition into passive listening, eavesdropping on Mars-observing antennas for chance signals from Opportunity. Regardless of when that 45-day period ends, the team will continue passively listening through the end of January, John Callas, Opportunity project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Space.com. (NASA's original statement about the decision said simply that the team would be given "several months" for passive listening after the period of active listening ends.) But at the end of January, the rover's time will be up and, with it, the Mars Exploration Rover mission, which originally consisted of Opportunity and its sister robot, Spirit. "We're not ending the mission after 45 days," Callas told Space.com. "But I'm not going to keep full staffing around for six months or eight months if the chance of success is low." Dust in the wind These side-by-side images of Mars show how the planet appeared in May 2018 (left) and in July 2018 after the planet's surface was completely covered by a massive dust storm. NASA used images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to create these views. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS) If this year's dust storm is indeed the end of Opportunity, no one will be able to say the rover wasn't a survivor. Opportunity and Spirit, which landed on the planet in 2004, were expected to last only 90 Martian days (each about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day), on the planet's surface in part because scientists expected that dust would slowly bury the robots, according to Don Banfield, a planetary scientist at Cornell University who works with the Mars Exploration Rover team. But Spirit lasted for seven years, and Opportunity was approaching its 15th year at work when the storm hit. [Mars Dust Storm 2018:What It Means for the Opportunity Rover] Banfield said that this storm is serious business, one of the biggest observed from the Martian surface to date. Although the storm is clearing, it's difficult for scientists to predict how tau, their crucial measure of light penetrating to the surface, will fare. "Getting that last little bit of dust out of the air takes a good amount of time," Mike Seibert, a former flight director for the Mars Exploration Rover program, told Space.com. There's also one big problem with the Martian skies clearing: All that dust has nowhere to go but down. "I think that's the real scary thing right now, is that we know that the dust is going to fall out of the sky, but it has to go somewhere," Banfield said. Dust sitting on Opportunity's solar panels will block the rover's power supply just as effectively as dust in the air does, and according to Seibert, engineers have no way to figure out how dusty the panels are. One factor could rescue Opportunity's solar panels from that fate a phenomenon that surprised scientists when they first observed it early in the rovers' careers: a predictable seasonal cycle of winds that are strong enough to blow dust off instruments and rovers. Those wind events should begin, in terrestrial time, in November and last until January, said Harrison, who began her work with the Mars Exploration Rover team by producing Martian weather forecasts when there were still twin robots. But it's not yet clear how that will align with the 45-day window opening after the atmosphere hits 1.5 tau so, from what NASA has stated publicly so far, engineers trying to reach the rover may not be able to send it active commands at the times when those commands are most likely to work. The overwhelming team consensus Harrison has heard is that active listening should continue through dust-cleaning season, "which, in the grand scheme of things, is not that long from now," she said. "You're not going to suddenly be saving tens of millions of dollars by cutting the mission short." Twin rovers, different fates Both Harrison and Seibert were struck by the timeline Opportunity is being offered in comparison to how its twin, Spirit, fared nearly a decade ago, when its travels came to an abrupt end. "We did everything we could have done: Spirit was in much worse condition going into that fourth winter than Opportunity was going into the dust storm," Seibert said. "Spirit had much less of a chance of actually returning to contact with Earth than Opportunity does now." In April 2009, Spirit got stuck in a position that meant the robot lost power when winter came, likely freezing vital electronics on the rover. The team left the robot alone over the Martian winter, but in July 2010, NASA began an intensive, 11-month-long listening campaign that blended active and passive listening, Seibert said. Anywhere from three times a week to daily, the team would call Spirit, performing what they nicknamed a "sweep and beep" maneuver. That included one procedure to force the rover's radio to a specific frequency and a second to cue a signal. Sessions usually lasted an hour but occasionally stretched as long as 5 hours, and they took place day and night to fit the Martian schedule. Between those active-listening sessions, engineers with the Deep Space Network, which communicates with Martian missions, automatically scanned their feeds for signals that may have come from the trapped rover. [10 Amazing Mars Discoveries by Rovers Spirit & Opportunity] After nary a whisper, NASA declared the rover permanently dead in May 2011. That decision came after a meeting with all the senior team members, which Seibert said he remembers well. "It was a very purely democratic discussion," he said, adding that he was the first to hesitantly suggest giving up on Spirit, focusing the mission's resources on Opportunity alone. "It hurt to say, but in my mind, I was OK saying it, because we had done so much to try to recover Spirit and the odds were so much against that rover," he said. And back then, the team still had a piece of the mission at work. "Mars Exploration Rovers continued on. It was just losing half of the spacecraft, but there was still plenty to do." "Shock and awe and sadness" But there's no longer a second active rover, and Opportunity scientists and engineers have been publicly speaking out about how demoralizing the rover's silence is. Earlier this week, they realized that NASA was deciding how to proceed, with one rumor suggesting that the rover would be given 30 days of active listening after tau reached 1.5. On the evening before the meeting deciding the rover's fate, they enlisted mission allies to launch a Twitter campaign showing public support under the hashtag #SaveOppy. And they saw a flood of responses, which Harrison thinks may have influenced the managers' decision. But even a 45-day period isn't satisfying to her or Seibert, who said that he hasn't seen the same sort of exhaustive efforts for Opportunity as he and his colleagues conducted for Spirit. "It just seems like it's an easier thing to say we're done than putting the extra effort into soldiering on in the face of adversity," Seibert said. "It still seems like it's walking away early." NASA doesn't seem to be effectively communicating with current team members about their decisions, either, Harrison said, adding that the team didn't get a heads-up about the Aug. 30 announcement. "It seems pretty arbitrary, because [a] tau of 1.5 is still relatively high, and we're not sure where that number came from. That information has not been released to the team," she added. (In addition, tau measurements may not be particularly precise right now. Banfield mentioned that tau is more difficult to measure with confidence when the rover itself is out of order, because Curiosity is on the opposite side of the planet, forcing scientists to rely on images taken by orbiters.) [Top 10 Discoveries by Mars Rovers Spirit & Opportunity: A Scientist's View] But Callas, JPL's project manager for Opportunity, said NASA has to draw the line somewhere, as sympathetic as he is to his grieving colleagues. "It's just like a loved one that's missing in action the more time that passes, the less likely you are" to hear anything, he said. "I mean, you still hold out hope, and we are. We'll still listen. But we have to be realistic, too, as difficult as that is emotionally." Other Opportunity team members may not be there yet, still focused on hoping for the best for the robot they've tended to for more than a decade. And the emotional strain is reaching beyond engineers in mission control. "It's killing me not to be there and not to be in the trenches with that team working on the problem," Seibert said. He's told friends still working with the mission to call when they get a signal, so he can jump on a plane and foot the bill for celebratory drinks. "I really hope I get that phone call soon." Space.com senior writer Mike Wall contributed reporting to this article. Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. Brussels, August 31, 2018 (SPS) - the Minister Delegate to Europe, Mr. Mohamed Sidati, was received Thursday by the International Trade Committee of the European Parliament in the presence of several members of the European Parliament from different political spectrum and various actors of interested experts. In his intervention, Sidati gave detailed explanations on the latest developments of the Sahrawi issue, especially the European involvement in the wealth of the people of Western Sahara and the EUs institutions current maneuvers aimed at circumventing European court decisions calling for respect of the international legitimacy. The Sahrawi diplomat has strongly slammed the proposal of amendments submitted by the European Commission, which includes the Sahrawi territories in the agreements between EU and Morocco, considering it as a blatant violation of the provisions of the European judiciary, which was clearly in this regard, dubbing these attempts as Robbery and fraud as it undermines the credibility of the European judiciary. without the consent of the Saharawi people expressed through its unique and legitimate representative, the Frente POLISARIO, and without respecting its will which rejects the Moroccan occupation plundering policy of its natural resources , any EU-Morocco agreement is meaningless and desperate attempts he clarifies in his intervention He also stressed that the attempt to pass agreements at a time when the international community is calling for direct negotiations to settle the conflict brokered by Mr. Koehler is a hindrance to the work of the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General and that the signing of this type of illegal agreement is the green light for Morocco to continue its intransigence policy and its illegal occupation of Western Sahara. The Sahrawi minister called on the European Parliament not to bow to Morocco's pressure which could lead to deviations that have a negative impact on peace efforts in Western Sahara. The meeting concluded with an open debate through which many parliamentarians expressed their concern over the Commission attempts to pass agreements that contradict the legitimacy and European provisions, which also negate the founding principles of the European Union. During the meeting, the Minister Delegate to Europe met with the parliamentary delegation which will visit the occupied territories early next month. It is worth mentioning that the Commission listened to representatives of Sahrawi civil society, where they stressed in their interventions on the illegality of any agreements between EU-Morocco does not take into account the decisions of the European Court, voicing their concern over the precarious situation in the occupied territories marked by gross violations of human rights under a despotic, invasive and occupier regime. SPS 125/090/TRA Zaragoza, August 31, 2018 (SPS) -The Moroccan police has prevented on Thursday the entrance in El Aaiun of the lawyers Ana Sebastian and Pablo Jimenez, has informed to EFE a spokesman of the Aragonese Observatory for the Western Sahara, to which the lawyers belong. they left for El Aaiun to participate in a trial against the Saharawi activist El Fak Khalihenna, something that is usual for this Aragonese entity, dedicated to the defense of human rights in the area. Once the plane landed in El Aaiun, the Moroccan police prevented the two lawyers from leaving because, as they explained, they had not requested the corresponding permit from the consulate. The spokeswoman has told EFE that the reason given by the Moroccan police authorities is "unprecedented", since this type of procedure is not usually done to travel to Western Sahara. The Observatory, after knowing the facts, contacted the Consulate of Spain in Casablanca to try to clarify the situation. SPS 125/090/TRA S ticky floors and playlists cheesier than a fondue party in a Babybel factory if youve never had an amazing time at a 'bad' club night in London, youre missing out. As any seasoned clubber will attest to, sometimes the best nights out in the capital can actually be found in the least cool of places. In fact, there are dozens of guilty pleasures to be found all over the city, proving some of the very best clubbing experiences. So, put on your dancing shoes, grab your glow sticks and get ready to party like its 1999 these are the 'bad' club nights that are actually really quite good. Club de Fromage at O2 Academy Islington London's best clubs, in pictures 1 /17 London's best clubs, in pictures Fabric, Farringdon Fabric feels especially worthy of a spot on this list as it is a place London saved: after being shut in 2016, the capitals clubbers rallied round to have it re-opened. The campaign helped turn a spotlight on the legislation and challenges Londons nightlife is up against. Still, even if none of this had happened, Fabric would be entirely worth heading to. It's the London club, more famous than any of its counterparts and a genuine institution. Once you've made it through the airport-style security checkpoints, you're free to get lost in its subterranean bowels, free of any phone signal but full of clubland delights. It regularly pulls in the best DJs on the world circuit, from Seth Troxler to Ben UFO, with its esteemed residents Terry Francis and Craig Richards always on hand. Anna Wallington XOYO This Shoreditch staple has built its reputation on a pretty simple formula: top music from top DJs. Over two storeys, expect to party to straightforwardly good playlists; XOYO doesnt pigeonhole itself, booking whoever it likes, so long as theyll get people to dance (while staying cheese-free). For this reason, theres a weighting towards house and disco, spiced with techno. The residents are always amazing, too, with the likes of Ben UFO, Flava D and Motor City Drum Ensemble among the recent incumbents. Keep an eye out for its grime nights, too, which always turns into a bit of a mad one. Jake Davis Egg London, King's Cross London might not be huge on Ibiza-style clubs but Egg brings them to mind over its three floors, with light shows and throbbing bass, darkened rooms and plenty to drink. The highlight for many is the courtyard outside; the perfect place to watch the sunrise theyve a 24-hour license, so its possible, too, and you can have breakfast to boot. It is a little remote, in that peculiar industrial-feeling area just north of Kings Cross station, but this entirely works in its favour: the parties go on longer, are louder, and there are no neighbours to complain. Besides, they run a free shuttle bus from just by the station, so it isn't too much of a walk. Image courtesy of Egg London/Jukebox PR Corsica Studios, Elephant & Castle Now going for more than a decade, Corsica Studios is an independent, not-for-profit arts space that remains as popular as ever. Its usually a two room space, though sometimes split into three, which hosts some of the most highly regarded club nights in London. Theyve an iconic Funktion One sound system, and its a favourite with DJs who head there on nights off to party. The space itself, hidden beneath the railway arches, is small, rivetingly immediate and with a rough edge, but that's what helps to make one of the best, if not the best, small club in London. Expect plenty of techno and electro alongside disco, dubstep and drum'n'bass its main room is where it all goes down but, unlike quite a few clubs, you're likely to have just as good a time in its second space. Oval Space/Pickle Factory, Cambridge Heath Though distinct from each other, weve included these two together as theyre owned by the same group and sit opposite each other. The Pickle Factory it was one, once is the more intimate space with just 200 capacity, attracting a very headsy crowd who are there solely for the music (GO London once saw Floating Points there watching Soichi Terada, and if that's not a ringing endorsement, we don't know what is). Oval Space space is a much bigger affair, covering a giant 5,000 square metres. Its a multi use arena, playing all sorts of things on its first rate sound system. It does get awfully hot in there during summer, but we think that makes it all the better, in many ways. Keep an eye on their website for everything theyve on; the Oval Space runs an admirably forward thinking programme. Lee Arruci CLF Art Cafe/Bussey Building, Peckham This warehouse style nightclub has a lot going on over its four levels. It does a little more than simply clubbing, operating night and day and boasting art, film, theatre and more. As a club, theyve everything from house, electro and techno to funk and soul. Dont miss the the South London Soul Train on Saturday nights, or the various disco and boogie nights. As diverse a club as any in London and simple a great place to dance. Ministry of Sound, Elephant & Corscia The Ministry of Sound should be a mecca for any dance fan; sure, its been around a long old time, since 1991, and it isn't as cutting-edge as many of its competitors, but it still deserves a visit. Perhaps its suffered from its megabucks name, but in truth it serves up serious heavyweight DJs and first rate nights. Its easy to hear why the main rooms sound system has won awards and its pretty cool to be dancing there and suddenly realise that this is the place which helped send house music around the world. Village Underground, Shoreditch You already know Village Underground, even if you dont realise it: its the one with the old tube carriages on the roof. Its just as eye catching inside as it is out, with its huge skylights and bare brick walls. None of which would matter if the music wasnt great, but it is: they play a mix of indie, electronic, hip-hop and more, often all on the same night. It holds around 1,000, and that 1,000 people tend to all be in high spirits: VU is all about its atmosphere, and seems to welcome a cross-section of every type of Londoner, from hip hop heads to Hoxton hipsters, and everyone in and outside of those lines. Sophie Harbinson Phonox, Brixton Taking over the old Plan B site, Phonox opened in 2015 and quickly established itself as one of London's go-tos. It has an inverted snobbery thing going on no suits, no photography on the dancefloor but comes from the group behind XOYO and the Jazz Cafe, who know what theyre doing, and theyve got it right. Go for techno, house, disco, drum & bass, electronica and a little funk and soul too. We like it for the simplicity: one room, one killer Funktion One sound system and not a lot else. Job done. Jake Davis Printworks, Canada Water A massive 6,000 square metres, the Printworks can hold 5,000 and proudly puts on everything from concerts and exhibitions to fashion shows and immersive theatre. The cavernous main space is extraordinary, transformed from an old newspaper factory into some twisted, metallic temple, with a narrow, long dancefloor that seems to stretch on and on. They also get top DJs, always: Seth Troxler, Loco Dice and The Martinez Brothers have all played. It seems strange to think Printworks only opened last year, such is the establishment it has already become. It is a great, shining indication that, far from dying, Londons clubbing scene is happily keeping on keeping on. The Cause, Tottenham Tottenham is the new place to be for Londons clubbers. The corner of north London was largely dismissed not too long ago, but now, with Grow Tottenham, a community garden-cum-nightclub, Five Miles (more on that below) and, The Cause, the area is booming. The latter opened earlier this year, is the best of the lot. Its got a refreshing DIY feel to it, with lots of exposed wood and concrete, and a DJ booth slap in the middle of it all, giving everything a bracing, up-close-and-personal feel. The sound system is absolutely pelting, too. A share of the clubs profits are donated to local mental health charities, helping it lead the new wave of Londons conscious clubbers. Luke Curtis Fold, Canning Town Fold is a converted print factory on an industrial estate in Canning Town. Admittedly, it doesnt sound all too glamorous, but trust us its a marvellous addition to Londons nightlife scene. It delivers what the capital is quite often lacking: marathon club events, often stretching from the afternoon one day and then well into the next. Even though the club only opened in August 2018, its already garnered a reputation as the kind of place to and get lost, in the best possible sense. Its a place of massive potential if you havent been already, make a point to go there very soon indeed. The Jazz Cafe, Camden This Camden venue is probably best known for its live events, which draw in leading artists from the jazz, soul and hip hop scenes, but the club nights are superb, too. Each Saturday, it runs the Soul City event, covering the broad spectrum of disco, house and soul, with a string of different DJs each week. On Fridays, the programming loosens up a bit: one week it might be Turkish pysch-disco, the next it could be Ghanaian highlife or Arabic funk. The joy is in finding out. The club itself has a restaurant-mezzanine area, with a tightly packed, lively dancefloor and small stage beneath it. Bloc, Bow Tucked away at the end of an otherwise nondescript road in Bow, lined by grim industrial buildings, is Bloc. Its got a feeling of real seclusion, pinned between some warehouses and a canal, and that makes it all the better, allowing patrons to slip within the thumping four-four beats that rattle the walls of this venue every weekend. A few hundred people can pack inside, but theres still a real intimate feel to it be prepared to get pretty friendly with the people youll be dancing with, all the way through the night until the sun rises the next morning. Jake Davis/Hungry Visuals Dalston Superstore, Dalston LGBTQ venues in London are shutting down at a pretty distressing rate a report published last year revealed than more than half of them in the capital had closed their doors in the previous decade. It means that LGBTQ clubs should be cherished more than ever and, with that in mind: thank goodness for Dalston Superstore. The nights there are gloriously fun, with a real community feel between its regulars and the good people who run it. The music can veer from uber-cheesy pop to uber-pounding techno, which is what makes it so great. Got a sore head after a night spent dancing there? Just go back for a hangover-vanquishing brunch the following morning. Eivind Hansen Photography Five Miles, Seven Sisters Another new venue doing things for north London is this Seven Sisters club, Five Miles. It opened in 2017 and has quickly become an under-the-radar favourite. The club space is small and personal, with a banging soundsystem and a friendly, laid-back crowd. The DJ line-up so far has been impressive, with the likes of Moscoman and former Phonox resident Haai making appearances. But theres a lot more than just the music here. Its got 18 craft beers on tap wed recommend the precariously strong but entirely delicious Domino Topple by Pressure Drop, or something from the in-house brewery, Affinity Brew. There are a few cocktails on tap, too (6 for a negroni, not bad). Middle Eastern food comes courtesy of Torshi. Dine, drink and dance. VFD, Dalston Dalston has a lot of great basement venues UNDR is superb for darker electronic sounds, while Birthdays excels in raucous live gigs. Queer club VFD is another subterranean delight. Its a small place that puts on some pretty iconic disco nights, which are invariably sweaty, unstoppably groovy and a whole lot of fun. The general vibe of the friendly staff and inclusive clientele is fantastic, too. Youre always made to feel welcome, especially if you let yourself get loose and indulge in some of the rather more risque activities that often occur once youre inside. Femmetopia by Meg Lavender Found inside the shopping centre complex on Parkfield Street, the O2 Academy Islingtons Club de Fromage is one of the least pretentious and most entertaining club nights in the capital. The DJs spin the best bubblegum pop from the 90s and 00s and if youre lucky youll also get to see one of the best Spice Girls tribute acts perform here too. What are you waiting for? Spice up your life at Club de Fromage. 16 Parkfield St, N1 0PS, clubdefromage.com Infernos Hundreds of Claphams clubbers pile into Internos every week without fail, drawn back time and again like moths to a flame. Its become something of a ritual for the citys revellers to visit this place, and even one-time Clapham resident Margot Robbie is a fan. The club is open until 4am on Fridays and Saturdays, the playlist is one of the most nostalgic youll find anywhere. Were pretty sure this is the only major club in London with a carpeted dancefloor just try not to think about at the spilled VKs and Jagerbombs that its soaked up over the years. 146 Clapham High St, SW4 7UH, http://www.infernos.co.uk Pryzm London's best hip hop clubs and nights 1 /7 London's best hip hop clubs and nights Jazz Cafe Celebrating: the new Camden Jazz Cafe is one this year The Doctor's Orders Supa Dupa Fly Queen of Hoxton Hip Hop Karaoke Concrete XOYO The Macbeth Some of the 2018 Love Island contestants made personal appearances at Prymz after leaving the villa this summer and in many ways, the ITV2 show and this Kingston venue are a perfect match theyre both a guilty pleasure loved by many, full of peng sorts and members of the do bits society coupling up and having an unbelievable time. Pryzm, youre definitely our type on paper. 154 Clarence St, Kingston upon Thames KT1 1QP, pryzm.co.uk Tiger Tiger Found just off Piccadilly Circus, Tiger Tiger has been putting on some of the cheesiest and most enjoyable nights in central London since the late 90s. The club will be familiar to many across the UK, with chains in cities including Manchester and Leeds, but the flagship club in Haymarket is really the one to visit. The Decadia Room is the place to be if you like your 90s and 00s pop classics lets face it, who doesnt? This is the kind of place where the WKD flows like water, where the singalongs go on until late and the staff dance on top of the bar with sparklers. Truly a place worth visiting. 29 The Haymarket, SW1Y 4SP, london.tigertiger.co.uk Piccadilly Institute 5 of London's best electro clubs 1 /5 5 of London's best electro clubs XOYO An eclectic Shoreditch institution with excellent residences and regular nights. Jake Davis Printworks South-west London behemoth that is perfect for electro. Phonox Relatively new kid on the scene that regularly draws some of the most interesting DJs around. Jake Davis EGG A famous London favourite since the early 2000s. Image courtesy of Egg London/Jukebox PR Corsica Studios A small but mighty venue in Elephant and Castle that punches well above its weight. A well-trodden haunt of the capitals clubbing scene, Londoners are almost guaranteed to end up in the Piccadilly Institute eventually. With seven rooms to choose from, all playing different genres and catering to different crowds, youre bound to find something you like here although, much like Tiger Tiger, the Decadia room is the one to head for cheesy pop favourites. Rest assured, youll get lost in the labyrinth-like layout before long, but youll always manage to find your way back to your group of friends, singing along to No Scrubs and having the time of their life. The London Pavillion, 1 Piccadilly Circus, W1J 0DA, piccadillyinstitute.com Rowans Saturday night in Finsbury Park can only mean one thing going for a bowl and a dance at Rowans, one of the very best party spaces anywhere in the city. The bowling alley, arcade and karaoke rooms are great places to spend the night, before hitting the dancefloor for some of the cheesiest playlists youre ever likely to find. Its a north London institution which has barely changed in years, and its no surprise that its still one of the best-loved venues around. A laddin and Jasmine were right when they sung 'A Whole New World' while flying through the sky on a magic carpet - the world truly does look different when you're airbound. And you can see some stunning examples of this in this year's Royal Air Force Photographic Competition. Judging has recently taken place at the Royal Air Force Museum London for the competition that saw over 1,000 entires across the 13 categories. The judges have whittled down the entries to their top nine images which you can now vote for in the 'People's Choice' category - voting for this closes on September 16. As the Royal Air Force were celebrating their 100-year anniversary this year, they decided to open up the competition to the public for the first time also and ended up receiving 250 entries in this category alone. A young woman has been stabbed in a broad daylight attack in north London, police said. Scotland Yard said the woman, aged in her 20s, was rushed to hospital after she was attacked in Caledonian Road, Islington, on Saturday morning. Police and paramedics raced to the scene at 10.20am and emergency services vehicles were pictured lining the street. An air ambulance was also scrambled to the scene. Police officers cordon off an area on the Caledonian Road in Islington, north London / PA A witness said he heard a young woman screaming during the stabbing and two men with a blade. "Two of them attacked one and basically they got stabbed pretty badly," he added. "I thought the woman was just screaming I didn't realise she was hurt." Police at the scene in Caledonian Road, Islington / PA Piles of clothes could be seen lying on the ground outside a parade of shops and cafes. There was a trail of what appeared to be blood splatters along the pavement. A man, who has not been identified, has been arrested and is being held by Metropolitan Police officers on suspicion of attempted murder. The woman's injuries are not thought to be life-threatening, police said. A&E doctor Matthew Swann tweeted: "Major police incident on Caledonian Road N1. Potential stabbing street. "Two ambulance and police in attendance. Road closure in area. Incident control established. Cordon." The perpetrator or perpetrators are currently at large. A Met Police spokesman said no arrests have been made. An air ambulance landed near to the scene of the stabbing in Caledonian Road Buses and cars were being diverted away from the scene. A London Ambulance Service spokesman said: "We were called at 10.16am, there were a number of calls to us reporting a stabbing incident. "We sent a number of vehicles and our first ambulance arrived on the scene at 10.24am." T he Prime Minister has given her backing to a new '999 Day' to pay tribute to all the people working in the emergency services. Emergency Services Day, also referred to as 999 Day, aims to copy the success of Armed Forces Day, and will take place for the first time on September 9, beginning at 9am, to represent the 9th hour of the 9th day of the 9th month. The charity National Emergency Services Memorial (NESM) has won the backing of Theresa May for the event as it hopes to raise 2 million to build the first national cenotaph dedicated to the courage and sacrifice of public servants. The monument would honour the 7,000-plus personnel who have lost their lives in the line of duty and also give thanks to the more than one million people working in the sector today. The Prime Minister said: "I'm proud to support this national memorial and the creation of an official Emergency Services Day. Notting Hill: Paramedics have been praised for their work treating revellers at the Notting Hill Carnival (London Ambulance Service ) / London Ambulance Service "The men and women of our emergency services are there for us when we need them most. "As a nation, we are indebted to them for their courage and their sacrifice and it is absolutely right that we should honour their incredible service in this very special way." A special event to mark the first 999 Day will be held at Heaton Park in Manchester on September 9, to promote volunteering in the emergency services, educate the public about using the services responsibly, teach life-saving skills, and promote the work done on a daily basis. Theresa May has backed the plans for a '999 day' / EPA A thanksgiving service will be held ahead at Manchester Cathedral on September 7, to be attended by police, fire and other 999 personal along with the Minister of State for Policing and the Fire Service, Nick Hurd. Tom Scholes-Fogg, who founded NESM, said: "I am delighted that the charity and its aims have the support of our Prime Minister. "The NESM, festival and 999 Day are a great opportunity for us all to honour the men, women and service animals who have given so much in the name of public duty." D onald Trumps trip to Ireland looks set to be marred by mass protests planned just 24 hours after the visit was announced. Some politicians have called for the trip to cancelled over the presidents racist and misogynistic policies. It was announced on Friday that the visit would take place, as part of a European tour that will also see him travel to Paris for a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the armistice following the First World War in November. The Irish Labour party, Greens and Solidarity-People Before Profit all pledged to organise protests surrounding the visit, within an hour of the announcement. Irish Green Party Eamon Ryan leader released an official statement on Friday night. Donald Trump's UK visit was met by huge protests in London / EPA He urged the people of Ireland to "show their disgust and rejection of the Trump administration's policies by turning out, as we did during the Iraq War in 2003, in large-scale mass protest around the country". He said: "Donald Trump's administration champions policies that are destroying our planet, destabilising international order, and reaching new political depths by appealing to racism, misogyny, xenophobia and hatred. "These policies do not reflect the Irish people's values - we need to show him and the world that this is not normal 2018 Trump Protests in London - In pictures 1 /41 2018 Trump Protests in London - In pictures Demonstrators gather in Trafalgar Square, London during a 'Stop Trump' march as part of the protests against the visit of US President Donald Trump to the UK. PA Tens of thousands of people take part in a Stop Trump Coalition - Stop the War Protest against the US President Donal J. Trump visit at Trafalgar Square in London EPA 'Stop Trump' demonstrators gather in Trafalgar Square after marching through London PA Tens of thousands of people marched today in protest at Donald Trump's UK visit Reuters 'Stop Trump' demonstrators gather in Trafalgar Square after marching through London PA 'Stop Trump' demonstrators march through Regent Street in London PA The protesters took to the streets in anger at the US president's controversial visit PA 'Stop Trump' demonstrators gather in Trafalgar Square after marching through London PA Protestors hold banners during the 'Stop Trump' Women's March in London AP Donald Trump earlier gave a bombshell interview with the Sun in which he criticised the Prime Minister's approach on Brexit Reuters 'Stop Trump' demonstrators march through Regents Street in London PA Demonstrators also inflated a blimp effigy of Donald Trump PA An aerial view of the women's march in progress AP Donald Trump will meet the Queen later on today Getty Images Protesters for the 'Stop Trump' Women's March hold banners in London AP Thousands more people are expected to march later on Reuters As many as 70,000 people took to the streets Getty Images People held aloft placards that read: "Trump Not Welcome" Reuters Bianca Jagger joins protesters for the 'Stop Trump' Women's March in London PA The protesters hold balloons with anti-Trump messages on them Reuters Trump's visit was criticised heavily PA 'Stop Trump' demonstrators march through Oxford Circus PA Tens of thousands of people take part in a Stop Trump protest EPA Protesters gather in central London to demonstrate against President Trump's visit to the UK Getty Images A drag queen joins protesters against the UK visit of US President Donald Trump AFP/Getty Images Huge crowd: a bigger protest is due later today AP Protesters for the 'Stop Trump' Women's March pass along Whitehall in London PA Protesters against the UK visit of US President Donald Trump hold up placards as they take part in a march and rally in London AFP/Getty Images James O'Brien sells Donald Trump toilet paper, as part of the protests against the visit of US President Donald Trump to the UK PA Demonstrators protest against the visit of US. President Donald Trump Reuters A man dressed as President Trump poses for a photograph as protesters against the UK visit of US President Donald Trump AFP/Getty Images Protesters for the 'Stop Trump' Women's March pass along Whitehall in London PA Protesters for the 'Stop Trump' Women's March pass near to Trafalgar Square in London PA Protesters join a Women's march in central London to demonstrate against President Trump's visit to the UK Getty Images Tens of thousands of people take part in a Stop Trump Coalition - Stop the War Protest against the US President Donald J. Trump visit in London EPA Drag queens take part in the Drag Against Trump protest in Piccadilly Circus EPA Drag queens take part in the Drag Against Trump protest in Piccadilly Circus EPA The "Trump Baby" balloon joins demonstrators as they march to Parliament Square in London PA Demonstrators protest against the visit of US President Donald Trump REUTERS Tens of thousands of people take part in a Stop Trump Coalition - Stop the War Protest against the US President Donal J. Trump visit in London EPA Tens of thousands of people take part in a Stop Trump Coalition - Stop the War Protest against the US President Donal J. Trump visit in London EPA "Decency, integrity and fact-based politics still exist and are worth defending. "We're calling on Irish people to tell our Government to cancel this visit; and for them to demonstrate in never-before-seen numbers should they fail to do so." Workers' Party Cork City councillor Ted Tynan said that the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, were not representing the views of the majority of Irish people in extending the welcome. Anti-Donald Trump protests in Scotland while Donald Trump plays golf at his resort in Ayrshire "The deep and abiding connection between this country and the United States is based, not on the fawning and false obsequiousness of the Taoiseach and minister Coveney, but on the shared experiences of our peoples and their common struggles". Mr Trump was originally invited to Ireland by former Taoiseach Enda Kenny on his final St Patrick's Day visit to the White House. Details of the visit have yet to be released, however it is thought he will spend two days in Ireland. The announcement has proved overwhelmingly unpopular on social media, with many criticising Mr Trump's policies. Overseas Chinese people are happy to see the rapid development of their motherland and hope to make their own contributions to the prosperity of the country. "We are backed by our motherland, and the close ties with our compatriots in China can never be undermined no matter how far we go," said Han Jun, head of an overseas Chinese organization based in Kenya. "I have been working in the overseas Chinese community for more than 20 years. I will continue to convey the voice from China with other community leaders in Kenya and Africa, consolidate China-Africa relations, and keep a good image as a Chinese," Han said. Leaders of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government extended their congratulations to overseas Chinese at the opening ceremony of a meeting of returned overseas Chinese on Wednesday in Beijing. It was attended by nearly 1,300 returned overseas Chinese and their relatives as well as more than 700 overseas Chinese from more than 110 countries. President Xi Jinping, together with many other leaders, attended the ceremony. No matter where they are or how far they have traveled, the safety and happiness of overseas Chinese will always be a top concern for their homeland, according to the Party and government leaders. Andrei Xu, who moved to Russia two decades ago with his parents, said he is so proud to watch the rapid development of China from overseas. The 38-year-old restaurant owner in Moscow said he is glad to see relations between China and Russia become closer. Under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, more Chinese tourists visited Russia in recent years, which is improving his business. "The education about Chinese culture in my family never stopped and I told Chinese bedtime stories to my daughter, because I think whatever country we are living in, the feeling of belonging to China defined who we are," Xu said. Jane Lu, 29, a Chinese music teacher in London, said she is touched by how the Chinese government always cares very much about the lives of Chinese people living overseas. "I think about my home in China very much, and I am very proud to see that China is becoming more influential internationally," said Lu, who originally came to London to study, and has since decided to stay and open her own music school here. She said that her love for China has instilled in her a hope of one day being able to contribute to China in her field, perhaps by forming music sector partnerships between China and the UK. "This is a dream I have, and I would be proud to contribute toward China's development in my own way". T he captain of a charter fishing boat rescued four asylum seekers after their inflatable dinghy got into trouble off the coast of Dover. Matt Coker, 37, said he spotted the small boat, which was half full of water, three miles off the Goodwin Sands in Kent. He had been taking a group out on a day trip on Saturday. Three "distressed" men and one woman on board tied a red t-shirt to an oar as they tried to attract his attention, before making a leap for the bigger vessel. The Royal Charlotte skipper described how his fishing party pulled them aboard and administered first aid before calling the Coastguard. He told Press Association: "We were on our way out on a fishing trip and we noticed a small, little tiny dinghy on the horizon and I tried to look with the binoculars and I could see people in it and didn't think much of it. "But as we got closer, they see us and suddenly started waving. "I had another look with the binoculars and I could see they were actually waving the oars, and they tied a red T-shirt on to an oar and were waving that. A Border Force boat arrived after 'distressed' asylum seekers were rescued off the Dover coast / PA "So then I motored over to see who it might be, because they were clearly in distress, but in the back of my mind I thought this could actually be asylum seekers or it could be someone who's drifted off the beach. "As I got over to them I could see they were clearly in distress and the boat was half full of water, so they sort of made a leap for the boat as we got near." He continued: "Luckily I had 12 passengers on and they grabbed hold of them. We got them aboard pretty quick and then we got the boat aboard, which was a little inflatable dinghy. "They were in distress. They didn't speak any English but they kept saying 'Iran' because I was asking where they had come from and if they were okay." Mr Coker said he did first aid and tried to look after them while they waited for Border Force to arrive. "They boarded the boat, interviewed them and took them away," he added. A Home Office spokesman confirmed: "On Saturday morning Border Force received a call from the UK Coastguard regarding a small inflatable boat off the coast of Dover. E mergency services vehicles used in the response to Novichok poisonings in Wiltshire have been buried in a landfill site. The secure burials would pose 'absolutely no risk to the public", a spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said. Defra did not disclose the number of vehicles nor the emergency services they were used by, but confirmed that some had been sealed in a hazardous waste landfill site near Bishops Cleeve in Gloucestershire. The UK Government has blamed Russia for the nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury in March. Russian Spy Sergei Skripal: Salisbury Nerve Agent Incident 1 /14 Russian Spy Sergei Skripal: Salisbury Nerve Agent Incident Investigators in protective gear pursue the probe into the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal Getty Russian spy 'poisoning': Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal are fighting for life in hospital PA Personnel in hazmat suits work to secure a tent covering a bench in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill by exposure to a nerve agent Andrew Matthews/PA ilitary personnel are deployed to help remove vehicles from the scene after former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found critically ill after exposure to a nerve agent in Salisbury Getty Images Military in protective clothing remove vehicles from a car park in Salisbury EPA Police cordon: Military personnel in Salisbury PA Traces of the nerve agent used to poison Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found at Zizzi in Salisbury PA Amber Rudd: she visited the scene where Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found after having been poisoned by a nerve agent REUTERS Personnel are helped from their hazmat suits (right), after securing a tent covering a bench in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill by exposure to a nerve agent Andrew Matthews/PA Personnel in hazmat suits walk away after securing a tent covering a bench in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill by exposure to a nerve agent Andrew Matthews/PA Police put a red bag inside a police evidence bag immediately after the nerve agent attack on a Russian spy. Officers previously issued CCTV of a woman clutching a red bag Solent news Snap Fitness 24/7 Police activity in the cul-de-sac in Salisbury that contains the home of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal who was poisoned along with daughter Yulia with a nerve agent PA Sergei Skripal shops at Bargain Stop in a CCTV image from five days before his apparent poisoning In July, Dawn Sturgess, 44, died after becoming an indirect casualty of the poisoning, with authorities believing she and boyfriend Charlie Rowley picked up a discarded vial containing the substance. Victim: Dawn Sturgess died in hospital days after being exposed to a nerve agent / AFP/Getty Images A Defra spokesman said: "The clean-up work in south Wiltshire has been under way for some time and any potentially contaminated items continue to be removed and stored securely before being disposed of safely. "As part of this work, following review by specialist teams, some of the vehicles involved in the response to the incident in March have been moved to a hazardous waste landfill site. Charlie Rowley fell ill in June following exposure to the nerve agent Novichok / AFP/Getty Images "There is absolutely no risk to the public of using hazardous waste landfill sites. Russian spy 'poisoning': Sergei and Yulia Skripal / PA "These locations are fully sealed and highly regulated to ensure waste is disposed of safely. "This is controlled by regulation, overseen by the Environment Agency, which specifically ensures that sites are not prone to flooding or other hazards. "Our number one priority is making sure that the identified sites are safe, so they can be returned to use and Wiltshire can get back to normal." The Novichok attacks caused an international diplomatic incident, with Home Secretary Sajid Javid accusing the Russian state of using Britain as a "dumping ground for poison". Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has previouly said that linking Russia to the poisoning would be "absurd". T he 2018 summer is poised to be the hottest ever for the UK and is certainly the warmest on record for England, the Met Office has said. The Met Office said on Friday that it was clear this summer has been one of the warmest on record for the UK. It said the margin between the mean temperatures at the top of the league tables, which date back to 1910, was so small that it was impossible to say if this summer would be an outright winner. A prolonged heatwave throughout June and July saw Brits shunning their holidays abroad to stay at home and bask in the sunshine at the UK's beaches and parks. Forecasters said it is very close to the record-breaking summers of 2006 (average temperature 15.78C), 2003 (15.77C), and 1976 (15.77C) all of which are within 0.01C of each other. This summer saw sweltering temperatures across the UK / Getty Images It is almost certainly the hottest summer ever for England with the mean temperature standing at 17.2C and narrowly beating the 1976 record of 17.0C. The Met Office said it is not going to be a record for Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales where the records stand at 14.1C (2003), 15.5C (1995) and 16.1C (1995), respectively. The mean temperature for this summer in Wales was 16.0C, Northern Ireland was 15.1C and Scotland is 13.6C A more comprehensive analysis of the 2018 summer data will be undertaken early next week. Sunbathers relax on Hampstead Heath in London / AFP/Getty Images Forecasters predict that high pressure will dominate throughout the start of autumn and the first part of September with plenty of warm, dry and sunny days. More unsettled spells are forecast from mid-month. London will be hotter than Monaco this weekend as temperatures soar back up to the high 20s. A burst of sunshine will hit the capital this weekend with temperatures climbing to around 26C, which is hotter than it is expected to in Monaco, according to the Met Office. Children play in the fountains at Granary Square, King's Cross, London / PA Meteorologist Bonnie Diamond said that throughout the weekend temperatures will be above average for the start of September. It should be a largely dry, fine, and settled weekend with plenty of sunshine, she said. Most of the country will remain warm and dry as a band of showers breaks up tonight - meanwhile European cities like Barcelona and Berlin are expecting rainstorms. On Sunday it looks like temperatures in London will be 24C and could go up to 25C or 26C with sunshine," said the forecaster. And after one of the warmest, driest summers on record, the good weather is expected to continue into early next week. There will be some more cloudy patches in the west of England over the rest of Friday and some areas with a chance of showers. Northern Ireland, western Wales and some of Scotland will be covered with cloud by on Saturday morning. The midlands and West Country will be grey as well by Saturday afternoon while the south-east enjoys hot weather and sunshine. A former Navy chief has said the UKs lack of ships available to patrol waters after a scallop war broke out between French and British fishermen will be disastrous after Brexit. Ex-First Sea Lord, Labour's Lord West of Spithead, said Britain has insufficient ships to deal with clashes on open water and added that the co-ordination of the "few" available is "fragmented. The long-running dispute in the English Channel is over a scallop-rich part of the area French fishermen are prevented from harvesting due to domestic environmental laws. Rocks, smoke bombs and other missiles are reported to have been hurled at English and Scottish vessels during the confrontation in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Lord West said: "It is clear that we have insufficient ships to patrol the United Kingdom's territorial seas and our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). A new front: French and British scallop fishing boats clash in the waters off Normandy / VIDEO GRAB "Co-ordination of the few ships we do have is fragmented. "In theory, co-ordination is exercised by the co-located Joint Maritime Operations Command Centre. "But this command centre lacks a single commander with authority to order government departments to take action, and therefore is unable to exercise proper command. "After Brexit, this will be disastrous." Fishing boats clash during the 'scallop war' / REUTERS When Britain leaves the bloc, it will be responsible for patrolling its EEZ. The scallop-rich waters of the Baie de Seine are a source of tension due to differing restrictions on what British and French fishermen can do there. British sailors described being scared for their lives during the clash. The Honeybourne 3 was battered in the 'scallop war' / PA With one saying: "I've never had anything like it before. It was an absolute nightmare. French authorities try to preserve scallop stocks by banning their ships from fishing in the region over the summer, a measure that ends on October 1. French and British fishing boats collide in the English Channel / REUTERS This law does not apply to the British, however - who anger the French mariners by harvesting scallops during this window. The EU's Common Fisheries Policy allows any member state with a registered fleet - including Britain - "equal access" to EU waters more than 12 nautical miles off the shore of other countries. The Baie de Seine stretches from the coast of Normandy to considerably beyond the 12 nautical miles, meaning British boats can access it. F ormer US presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush led tributes to "warrior" John McCain at his memorial service. Democrat Mr Obama, who stood against Republican Mr McCain in the 2008 presidential election, said he embodied the best of America. His speech followed a heartbreaking eulogy by daughter Meghan McCain, who also appeared to lash out at Donald Trumps cheap rhetoric. Mr Obama said during Saturday's service, at Washington National Cathedral: We come to celebrate an extraordinary man, a warrior, a statesman, a patriot who embodied so much that is best in America." Noting Mr McCain was a conservative politician, Mr Obama added he did understand that some principles transcend politics, that some values transcend party. Barack Obama delivers remarks during John McCain's memorial service at Washington National Cathedral / EPA Mr Obama praised Mr McCain, who had represented Arizona in Congress since 1983, for opposing "bending the truth to suit political expediency or party orthodoxy" and as a proponent of a "free and independent press". He spoke after Mr Bush, who successfully stood against Mr McCain in the 2000 Republican primary. He summed up: He made us better presidents. Mr Bush had hailed Mr McCain's "combination of courage and decency" in a eulogy that touched on the state of the nation's politics under Donald Trump. George W. Bush speaks during a memorial service for John McCain at Washington National Cathedral / AFP/Getty Images The president between 2000 and 2008 said Mr McCain "detested the abuse of power" and added: To the face of those in authority, John McCain would insist that we are better than this, America is better than this." Noting Mr McCain's time as a prisoner of war for five-and-a-half years in Vietnam, Mr Bush said Mr McCain "loved freedom with the passion of a man who knew its absence". Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner were among the highest-ranking White House officials attending after Mr McCain's family made it clear that Mr Trump was not invited. He had been routinely criticised over his military record by the US president, who spent time ahead of the service tweeting out a series of long-standing grievances about the news media, Canada and the justice department. John McCain pictured in 2017 / EPA The Arizona senator had asked Mr Obama and Mr Bush to speak at the service to highlight the bridge-building that he espoused. Mr Kushner and Ms Trump could be seen greeting other guests inside the cathedral, including McCain's close friend, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. The family of John McCain watch as the casket is carried down the steps of the US Capitol in Washington / AP During the procession to the cathedral, the hearse stopped at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where Mr McCain's wife Cindy placed a wreath. Mr McCain died of brain cancer last week. He was 81. He will be buried on Sunday. A ghost ship found mysteriously drifting near the Yangon region of Myanmar had been abandoned by its crew in bad weather, officials have said. Myanmar officials were investigating after the large and rusty container vessel was discovered with no crew on board in the water near Myanmars commercial capital. The navy has said the 177-metre long Sam Ratulangi PB 1600 was being towed by a tugboat to a ship-breaking factory in Bangladesh. But the crew were forced to abandon the ship because of bad weather. Navy personnel had searched the boat after it ran aground on a beach and were baffled by how such a large ship had ended up in Myanmar with no sailors or goods on board. It was the first reported instance of an abandoned ship in Myanmars waters, according to the AFP news agency. The navy has suspected that the ship had been towed by another ship because it found two cables at its head. After questioning the Indonesian crew members on board a tugboat called Independence, about 50 miles from Myanmars coast, officials discovered they had been towing the ship since August 13 and were taking it to a factory in Bangladesh for it to be dismantled. P rotests have been planned by politicians and activists during US President Donald Trumps visit to Ireland. It was announced on Friday that the visit would take place as part of a European tour that will also see him travel to Paris for a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the armistice following the First World War. The Irish Labour party, Greens and Solidarity-People Before Profit all pledged to organise protests surrounding the visit, within an hour of the announcement. Irish Green Party Eamon Ryan leader released an official statement on Friday night. He urged the people of Ireland to "show their disgust and rejection of the Trump administration's policies by turning out, as we did during the Iraq War in 2003, in large-scale mass protest around the country". Donald Trump in the UK 2018 - In Pictures 1 /32 Donald Trump in the UK 2018 - In Pictures US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa meet at Chequers Reuters US President Donald Trump gestures as he prepares to board Marine One to depart the US ambassador's residence Winfield House AFP/Getty Images US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Theresa May shake hands at a press conference following their meeting at Chequers, the prime minister's country residence, near Ellesborough AFP/Getty Images The "Trump Baby" balloon joins demonstrators as they march to Parliament Square in Londo PA First Lady, Melania Trump high fives a Chelsea Pensioners at Royal Hospital Chelsea Getty Images Drag queens take part in the Drag Against Trump protest in Piccadilly Circus EPA Prime Minister Theresa May and US President Donald Trump walk through the doors at Chequers PA First Lady, Melania Trump, tries her hand at bowls as she meets British Army veterans, known as Chelsea Pensioners, at Royal Hospital Chelsea Getty Images Activists inflate a giant balloon depicting US President Donald Trump as an orange baby during a demonstration against Trump's visit to the UK in Parliament Square AFP/Getty Images US Marine helicopters (circled) pass the 'Baby Trump' balloon as it rises after being inflated in London's Parliament Square, as part of the protests against the visit of US President Donald Trump to the UK PA US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania are welcomed by Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband Philip May at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire PA Prime Minister Theresa May greets US President Donald Trump at Blenheim Palace Getty Images Prime Minister Theresa May stands with US President Donald Trump on steps in the Great Court as the bands of the Scots, Irish and Welsh Guards perform a ceremonial welcome for a black-tie dinner at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire AP US President Donald J. Trump, First lady Melania Trump, Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband Philip attend a welcoming ceremony at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire EPA Donald Trump leads Theresa May up the steps of Blenheim Palace, , Oxfordshire AFP/Getty Images Prime Minister Theresa May and U.S. President Donald Trump walk across the courtyard at Blenheim Palace Reuters US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania are welcomed by Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband Philip May at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire PA A US presidential helicopter leaves the grounds of the US ambassador residence in Regent's Park, London whilst demonstrators gather as part of the protests against the visit of US President Donald Trump to the UK PA Melania and Donald Trump join Philip and Theresa May at Blenheim Palace AFP/Getty Images US President Donald Trump and US First Lady Melania Trump are welcomed by Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband Philip May as they arrive for a black-tie dinner with business leaders at Blenheim Palace AFP/Getty Images Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband Philip May greet US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire Getty Images U.S. First Lady Melania Trump, arrives ahead of a black tie dinner at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire AP Prime Minister Theresa May accompanied by her husband Philip wait to greet U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania at v AP Protestors outside the entrance to Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire PA US President Donald Trump waves as he poses with US First Lady Melania Trump leaving the US ambassador's residence, Winfield House AFP/Getty Images US President Donald Trump with US First Lady Melania Trump leaving the US ambassador's residence, Winfield House Reuters Donald Trump and wife Melania touch down in Regent's Park AP The Marine One helicopter carrying US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump flies past the BT Tower before landing at Winfield House, the London residence of US ambassador Woody Johnson Getty Images A giant "Human Rights Nightmare" banner is unfurled by Amnesty International activists across the river Thames on Vauxhall Bridge to protest against the visit of US President Donald Trump, in London AP U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrive at Stansted Airport Reuters U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrive at Stansted Airport Reuters U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump disembark from Air Force One as they arrive at London Stansted Airport AP He said: "Donald Trump's administration champions policies that are destroying our planet, destabilising international order, and reaching new political depths by appealing to racism, misogyny, xenophobia and hatred. "These policies do not reflect the Irish people's values - we need to show him and the world that this is not normal. "Decency, integrity and fact-based politics still exist and are worth defending. "We're calling on Irish people to tell our Government to cancel this visit; and for them to demonstrate in never-before-seen numbers should they fail to do so." Workers' Party Cork City councillor Ted Tynan said that the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, were not representing the views of the majority of Irish people in extending the welcome. "The deep and abiding connection between this country and the United States is based, not on the fawning and false obsequiousness of the Taoiseach and minister Coveney, but on the shared experiences of our peoples and their common struggles". Mr Trump was originally invited to Ireland by former Taoiseach Enda Kenny on his final St Patrick's Day visit to the White House. Details of the visit have yet to be released, however it is thought he will spend two days in Ireland. The announcement has proved overwhelmingly unpopular on social media, with many criticising Mr Trump's policies. A Russian passenger jet burst into flames after skidding off the runway at Sochi, injuring 18 people, officials said. Sochi airport employee Vladimir Begiyan died from a heart attack during a mission to rescue passengers from the aircraft, a spokesman said. The Boeing 737-800 Utair airline flight from Mosco was carrying 164 passenger and eight crew when it crashed through a fence and erupted into a fireball. Injured passengers, including three children, suffered burns and carbon monoxide poisoning, official said A plume of smoke rises from flames after an Utair Boeing 737-800 passenger plane / REUTERS The jet crashed while landing amid high winds and torrential rain in the early hours of Saturday, according to Russia media. Footage shown on local new channels showed flames burst from the aircraft as it landed in river next to the airport. The cause of the crash is currently unknown. W e may not have had much of a summer but before we know it, it will be here - the C word. No, not that one. As much as we try to hang on to the prospect of warmer weather, the countdown is officially on to Christmas and there is a small part in all of us that is looking forward to it. Pretty twinkly lights! Good food! Parties! Family time! Its the most wonderful time of the year and theres much to be excited about. But more than any of that is the realisation that advent season is fast approaching. We arent talking purely chocolate-filled advent calendars. Although they will forever hold a place in our heart and we have every intention of still purchasing the traditional OG, over the years, the daily treats in the lead up to the big day have become more sophisticated than ever - youll find one tailored to just about every interest possible, from stationery, to socks and even ones for your furry friends who dont have to miss out on the fun with designated calendars for cats and dogs. But more sought-after than any other form are beauty advent calendars. The market for these - were talking skincare, haircare, makeup, or nail-filled products - have exploded in recent years, increasing by almost 20 per cent last year according to Boots where the retailer sold one every minute in the lead up to the festive season. Brands just cant seem to keep them in stock no matter how many more they produce year to year. What types of beauty products are generally featured in them? They just seem to get bigger and better each and every year. The competition is so rife that our favourite labels throw more goodies in just to keep up. All the major players get involved with every genre of product and at every price point. Youll find 100+ options from the likes of Diptyque, Jo Malone or Charlotte Tilbury, under 100 from Rituals, LOccitane or Elemis or under 50 that still pack a serious punch from The Body Shop, No7 and Yankee Candle. Its not just brands either. Retailers too have got involved with some of the best offerings on the market due to the versatility in the product line up selecting a mix of brands and those you may not have previously heard of - Amazon, FeelUnique, lookfantastic, Cult Beauty, Liberty, and Harrods to name but a few. Why are beauty advent calendars such good value? Each window opens up a world of beauty goodness to allow you to discover new or cult products, find your new signature, and explore previously unchartered territory to revive your collection - and often your complexion. Its the ultimate try-before-you-buy with travel or full-size products. Brands also pack hundreds of products at a fraction of the cost so you will be able to shop the calendar at a much more purse-friendly price tag versus what the items inside would cost individually. When will beauty advent calendars start to go on sale? As weve suggested, these are hugely popular items so pay particular attention to the launch date as depicted next to the product below. But dont ponder your decision too hard. These covetable calendars sell out super quickly so the race is on. Whether you are self-gifting or buying one for a loved one this season, we have the best beauty advent calendars below for a pampering treat to see you through the Christmas period. Over 100 Dior Beauty Advent Calendar Take a more luxurious approach to your countdown to Christmas with Diors Atelier of Dreams. In one of the most beautifully decorated calendars weve ever seen, it has an all-over magical garden design that is set on the brands flagship 30 Avenue Montaigne Paris boutique. Artist Alice Shirley adorns the facade with midnight blue foliage, golden winter buds, flying bees and colourful butterflies. It opens to reveal 24 Dior Beauty heroes including the iconic Rouge Dior, an exclusive mini La Collection Privee candle and mini fragrances like Miss Dior, Jadore, La Collection Privee and Sauvage. Dior Diptyque 2021 Advent Calendar We can think of few things that would make us more excited than waking up each morning to a Diptyque candle or fragrance. The luxury French fragrance house has some of the best in the game and its advent for 2021 even includes the brands seasonal offering the limited-edition Sapin candle, Flocon scent and festive decorations. Diptyque Penhaligons Advent Calendar For an extra special gift under your tree, get your fragrance fix from Penhaligons 24 scent-filled advent calendar. An olfactory treat each day, the pre-Christmas present plays host to the cult scents like the Elisabethan Rose, Duchess Rose and Juniper Sling as well as lip balms, body and hand lotions and even a candle or two. Penhaligons Charlotte Tilbury Beauty Dreams & Secrets Advent Calendar Youll want to make space under your tree for Charlotte Tilburys annual advent offering. The calendar or chest to be more accurate is adorned with a glittering gold design where each bling-adorned door opens to reveal one of 12 products. Theres a full-sized Hollywood Beauty Light Wand in Spotlight, an exclusive Colour Chameleon in Pillow Talk as well as skincare heroes like the Goddess Skin Clay Mask and Wonderglow primer. Charlotte Tilbury Dr Barbara Sturm Advent Calendar Facialist to the stars Dr Barbara Sturm has packed her eponymous range into an advent calendar with cult products like the Super Anti-Aging Serum, Glow Drops, Lip Balm, and Clarifying Mask in mini form. Whether you have always been a fan or looking for an introduction, this all-encompassing advent has almost the whole range within its walls. Dr Barbara Sturm Armani Beauty Advent Calendar Get well-versed in the world of Giorgio Armani with the brands beauty advent offering that is encouraging you to discover its most sought-after exclusive product range with 24 goodies packed beneath its red and gold walls. There is a mix of fragrance and makeup including Si Eau de Parfum, Lip Maestro #400 and the new fragrance Icon My Way Eau de Parfum. Armani Balmain The City of Lights medium advent calendar 2021 Balmains advent calendar for 2021 takes inspiration from the hometown of the label Paris and in particular the world-renowned nightlife. The circular box opens to reveal a haircare product a day, each of which is stored in a box resembling the iconic skyline. The selection includes the Moisturizing Styling Cream, Argan Elixir and Texturizing Salt Spray, and more. Balmain The 12 Days of Oskia The 12 days of Christmas can be a lot more pampering with Oskias calendar that packs its beloved heroes into an elegant red hued vanity. The vegan leather case zips open to reveal a selection of the bestsellers as well as a new launches with 10 deluxe mini-sized products and three accessories. The contents include the Renaissance Cleansing Gel, Quartz Facial Tool and Rest Day Cleansing Milk. Oskia TEMPLESPAs 2021 Beauty Advent Calendar With 225 worth of product packed within the calendar, Templespa has gone all out this Christmas. The brand is encouraging you to prime, pamper and perfect in the lead up to the big day with a combination of its Skin, Body and Soul Therapy ranges. Products include the BREAKFAST SMOOTHIE, TRUFFLESQUE, NAIL POLISH CASSIS and more. TEMPLESPA Cowshed 24-Day Advent Calendar Soho House-owned spa label Cowshed is doing its bit to ensure you have the most pampering festive season to date. Within the 24-day advent calendar, there are the brands signature products from the Relax, Sleep, and Awake ranges. The box itself is adorned with a lovely woodland-inspired design and a poem about the most magical time of the year at Babington House. Cowshed Mankind Advent Calendar 2021 Worth over 444, Mankinds calendar is brimming with 25 grooming goodies with some of the biggest names in the male beauty industry. Were talking Molton Brown, Dr Brandt, Daimon Barber and more. Mankind Shiseido Advent Calendar Shiseidos advent calendar is transporting you to Tokyo this festive season with a Hanabi Show. The calendar houses each of the daily treats into a skyline-inspired box. A proper introduction into the Japanese beauty world, youll find the brands Clarifying Cleansing Foam, ULTIMUNE Power Infusing Concentrate and more skincare and beauty favourites. Shiseido Selfridges Advent Calendar Theres 700 worth of products contained within Selfridges advent calendar. The luxury department store has stepped it up a few notches this year with a seasonal offering that is full to the brim of makeup, skincare and more chosen from the stores bestsellers. The goodies include Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Mascara, Dr. Barbara Sturm Hyaluronic Serum and Sunday Riley CEO 15% Vitamin C Brightening Serum. Selfridges Mr Porter 12 Days of Grooming Advent Calendar You can be sure that Mr Porters take on the classic advent calendar is going to be jam-packed with luxurious grooming essentials. There are 12 full-sized products across skin, body and hair that have been carefully curated from the retailers stellar offering. Brands include Augustinus Bader, Malin + Goetz, Horace and more with the contents valued over 570. Mr Porter Net-A-Porter 25 Days of Beauty Advent Calendar Net-A-Porters advent calendar is back and for the fourth edition, the luxury retailer has filled its seasonal treat with 17 full-size and eight travel-size products from its beloved skin, hair and makeup offering. With the contents totalling at 1,300, this may be the best value advent weve seen where you can get your hands on the likes of Charlotte Tilbury, Dr Barbara Sturm, Tata Harper and more for just 255. Net-a-Porter Harrods Beauty Advent Calendar Christmas is in full swing at luxury department store Harrods where its advent calendar packs the full 25 day lead up to Christmas with its famed offering. The opulence begins at the box that has been adorned with delicate gold foiled leaves and a white snow embellishment and doesnt end there. The products include range from the best known and loved - 111Skin, Charlotte Tilbury, Dr Barbara Sturm, Rodial to the lesser-known to give you a chance to find your new beauty heroes. Harrods 250 | Harrods *Available from October 14 Flannels Advent Calendar High end British retailer Flannels is on an expansion spree. With new stores opening up across the country, it has expanded its realm into beauty and to celebrate, it has even got an advent calendar packed with 25 goodies including 17 full-sized products. Collating some of the biggest brands on the market, it plays host to Augustinus Bader, Charlotte Tilbury, Acqua Di Parma and NARS with a value of over 764. Flannels Fenwick Beauty Advent Calendar Housed in a beautifully adorned box, thought up by the department stores artist in residence Kelly Anna, you will find beloved items from the beauty halls of Fenwick hidden within this calendar. The covetable and premium skincare, haircare and makeup offering includes Guerlain, Salvatore Ferragamo, By Terry and Laura Mercier to name but a few. It values over 360. Fenwick 150 | Fenwick *Available from October 5 Decleor Essential Oils Lab Christmas Advent Calendar French skincare label Decleor always knock it out the park with its advent offering and 2021 is no exception. Get prepped and pampered during the party season with 414 worth of products contained within its walls. There are six full-sized products as well as 13 travel-sized ones that are ideal if youre chasing winter sun and even an accessory. Decleor By Terry Jewel Exclusive Fantasy Advent Calendar By Terrys Christmas collection is aptly named Jewel Fantasy Beauty Advent Calendar looks like a glittering diamond and opens to reveal 14 make up treats and 10 skincare essentials in a combination of mini travel and full-sized variations. Worth 411. By Terry 169 | lookfantastic *Available from October 1 John Lewis Beauty Advent Calendar With over 600 worth of products, this is John Lewis most high value advent to date with a stellar line-up. Brands include Augustinus Bader, Sunday Riley, Neom, Charlotte Tilbury, Hourglass and more where every product has been handpicked by the department stores expert buyers. The box is also sustainable with a recyclable exterior and refillable drawers. John Lewis 24 Days of Clinique Try the entire Clinique range this festive season with a mini version of all the brands best-selling and beloved products as a treat a day in the lead up to Christmas day. Your full skincare routine is packed behind the windows as well as a little fragrance treat. Value totals over 220. Clinique La Mer 12 Magical Moments Does it get much more luxurious than La Mer? For a true indulgence this Christmas, the brand is offering a 12-day advent filled with 586 worth of its beloved skincare to countdown to the big day with the ultimate decadence. Youll find the likes of The Intensive Revitalizing Mask, The Eye Concentrate and of course the signature Creme de la Mer in mini form. La Mer Acqua di Parma x Emilio Pucci Advent Calendar for Save the Children The holiday season is about to get an extra special twist with this collaboration calendar from Acqua di Parma and Emilio Pucci. Designed to resemble the fragrance brands hatboxes, it has been beautifully embellished with Pucci print to make it a show-stopping design object as part of your festive decorations. Not all style over substance though, the contents are hidden behind 25 windows that open up to reveal the iconic Acqua di Parma fragrances, including Fico di Amalfi, Peonia Nobile and Arancia di Capri as body lotions, hand creams, hair mists and more. Acqua di Parma The Fragrance Shop Advent Calendar For the scent enthusiasts, The Fragrance Shop has got a treat for you. The perfume retailer is housing over 300 worth of olfactory goodness in advent calendar form. The seasonal offering play host to some of the biggest names in fragrance including Versace, Calvin Klein, Paco Rabanne and even a 10 off voucher so you can choose your own. TheFragranceShop MAC Advent Calendar MAC is keeping very tight lipped about the contents of its advent calendar to keep the element of surprise intact but you can be sure that it is filled to the brim with the brands most beloved products including lippies, setting sprays and a few skincare favourites totalling over 340 worth. They are housed in an intriguing optical illusion-inspired case that you can keep for years to come. Mac Chantecaille The 12 Days of Botanical Beauty Luxury skincare and makeup label Chantecaille has launched its very first advent calendar for 2021. While the brand often featured in the very best multi-brand iterations, this is the start of what we expect to be a fixture on the festive calendar scene. The sure-to-be cult calendar contains 12 of the brands hero products including the Bio Lifting Serum+, Gold Recovery Face Mask and Rose de Mai Face Oil. Chantecaille Paul & Joe Advent Calendar Paul & Joes playful makeup pieces make a great gift for the most wonderful time of the year and its advent is a carefully curated selection of the best. There are 24 beauty must-haves housed in a festive feline illustrated box. The advent values at 186. Paul & Joe The Liberty Beauty Advent Calendar 2021 Its not officially Christmas until the Liberty Beauty Advent arrives at our door. The luxury department store has become synonymous with the festive season not in the least part due to their extensive dedicated seasonal department but also for their beauty-filled calendars that each year sells out in a matter of minutes. There are 25 drawers that contain 840 worth of products from the famed beauty hall. Youll find exclusive brands like Vilhelm Parfumerie and Surratt as well as Le Labo, Augustinus Bader, Decree, and Olaplex. One golden ticket winner will even be treated to 5000 to spend at Liberty. Stock has been increased this year by 38 per cent but mark your calendar to avoid disappointment. Liberty Jo Malone Londons Christmas Advent Calendar We cant think of a better way to set the ambiance for Christmas than with fragrance and Jo Malone should be one of your first ports of call, especially its festive scenting offering. The Advent Calendar this year has an eco-conscious twist where the exterior can be reused and refilled year after year. It contains 24 gifts with exclusive new aromas like the Fig & Lotus Flower as well as cult favourites. JML Bobbi Brown Cosmetics 12-Day Advent Calendar For the first time ever, you can treat yourself or your loved one to a makeup-filled calendar from Bobbi Brown. The 12-day offering includes some of the most beloved products from the brand. Expect the likes of the Shimmer Brick in the universally flattering Bronze hue, the Bronzing Powder, the Crushed Lip Colour and even a couple of skincare heroes in the form of the Hydrating Water Fresh Cream and Vitamin Enriched Face Base. You save 102 versus the RRP for the products individually. BB Molton Brown Advent Calendar Molton Brown has gone all out with its advent calendar this year as the cherry on top of the cake of its 50th anniversary celebrations. The seasonal offering plays host to the most iconic scents over the years as well as festive aromas to make you feel Christmassy all over. The product selection includes bath and shower gels, bath salts, hand creams, bath oils and more with a value of 313. Molton Brown Cult Beauty Advent Calendar We are seriously impressed with Cult Beautys advent offering this year. It truly is the retailers most jam-packed one yet with a whopping 38 beauty heroes inside. The calendar is filled to the brim with a curated selection of the most beloved brands on the site, from the lesser-known Skindie labels to the big, bad and brilliant. With the contents worth over 975 - yes, you read that right - youll find the likes of Augustinus Bader, Victoria Beckham Beauty and more. Theres even a charitable twist where Cult is supporting Beauty Backed Trust by donating 40,000 and ClimatePartner will plant a tree for every advent sold. One calendar will even contain a Golden ticket that offers 1000 of Cult Beauty points. Cult Beauty Space NK The Beauty Advent Calendar Space NKs advent offering is always one of the most eagerly anticipated and it just never disappoints. This years theme is Light Up for the ultimate self-care bumper pack It contains an impressive 744 worth of products behind its walls from sought-after labels like Creme de la Mer, Olaplex, Augustinus Bader, Sunday Riley, Charlotte Tilbury, Drunk Elephant, Dr Barbara Sturm and many, many more. Space NK Fortnum & Masons 2021 calendar There is a reason why Fortnum & Masons advent calendars sell out almost immediately each year. The department store best-known for its luxury hampers puts the same love, care and attention into its seasonal advents that has solidified their cult status. Curating favourites from the beauty department and houses them in a recyclable, reusable calendar with the stores signature colourway. The interior - worth over 750 - combines the likes of Aromatherapy Associates, MZ Skin, Escentric Molecules and ESPA. F&M Jo Loves Advent Calendar The Christmas star takes on a new form for 2021 with this advent calendar from Jo Loves. The perfect top to the tree and your seasonal wish list, it contains 24 awe-inducing gifts including candles, three of the cult Fragrance Paintbrush among other bath, body and scent must-haves. The box comes alongside a the labels signature Red Ribbon so can even be hung from your door. Jo Loves Susanne Kaufmann Advent Calendar for 2021 This Christmas, we are in for a treat as Susanne Kaufmann is getting in on the advent action combining hero products for her eponymous range in calendar form. Each day of the month reveals products from the best-selling collection, including the Hyaluron Serum Moisturising, Eye Rescue Stick and Eye Cream Line T in full size. There are 25 days of skincare goodies which are housed in a limited-edition suitably festive red box with a sustainable edge. The products themselves are in recyclable glass, while the calendar is crafted from luxury recyclable card. Susanne Kaufmann Feelunique Beauty Advent Calendar 2021 FeelUnique promises that this years advent is its best yet and with the long list of beloved brands, were inclined to agree. There are 27 treats inside worth an epic 385. The calendar plays host to the likes of Charlotte Tilbury, Tan-Luze, Sol de Janeiro, Clarins, Elemis, Huda Beauty and more. Feelunique GLOSSYBOX 2021 Surprise Me Beauty Advent Calendar Its one of the most eagerly anticipated advents in the calendar and for 2021, Glossybox has packed its beautifully-decorated offering with 465 worth of products. The windows play host to brands like Elemis, Pixi, Sarah Chapman and Huda Beauty for just 85 for subscribers and 105 for non-subscribers. Theres also a bundle offer where you can save up to 30 if you buy three and you are part of the beauty box deliverys subscription service. Glossybox LOccitane Advent Calendars Theres not one but three LOccitane advent calendars this year. The first - Reusable Advent Calendar - is a follow up to the brands first ever repurposable model that was launched last year to the delight of eco-conscious Christmas lovers everything. It is made from recycled cotton with a joyful bright design and packed with products from both the skin and body care ranges including the Immortelle Overnight Reset Serum and Almond Supple Skin Oil. Theres also just the refill available for those still holding onto their 2020 calendar (120). L'OCCITANE Next up is the Luxury Calendar with a mix of full and travel-sized products chosen from the brands best-sellers including the Shea Butter Hand Cream and Almond Shower Oil as well as new scents and even makeup. L'OCCITANE The Classic Advent Calendar is the most purse-friendly in the offering in which the exterior is made entirely from cardboard sourced from sustainable forests. The boxes have a beautifully detailed illustration with the brands signature Provence flair given a Christmassy twist. Theres also no plastic within the interior of the calendars which last year saved 22.5 tonnes of the single-use material. L'OCCITANE ESPA Hidden Treasures 2021 Advent Calendar Each year, ESPA offer the ultimate pampering experience through its advent calendar. In the lead up to Christmas, you will gifted to one restorative treat after another from across the brands skin, bath and body range. This year is no different with the highest value contents to date - worth 389 (159 more than 2020). The offering includes the Restorable Bath and Body Oil, Restful PillowMist and Clean & Green Detox Mask among many others. ESPA Avant Skincare 12 Days of Beauty Avant was founded to provide skincare for everyone regardless of gender, skin colour or ethnicity. It puts your needs at the forefront with a vegan offering that packs a punch. For Christmas 2021, the brand is offering an advent calendar where each drawer reveals a hero product from the range as a great introduction to the brand and a treat for your skin - worth 900. Youll find the Deluxe Hyaluronic Acid Vivifying Face & Eye Night Cream, Blue Volcanic Stone Purifying Antioxidising Cleansing Gel and Glycolic Acid Vivifying and Firming Body Treatment among many others to tackle both your day and night routines. Avant 349 | Avant Skincare * Available from October 1 The Pip Box vegan, cruelty-free Beauty Advent Calendar Packed with 426 worth of products, The Pip Box advent calendar gives those on the hunt for vegan and cruelty-free beauty brands dont have to look much further. The seasonal offering gives you the chance to try out 26 products from 22 labels with the likes of Nails Inc and Ecooking included. The Pip Box Under 100 Clarins Advent Calendar To make Christmas that extra bit more thrilling, Clarins has got not one but four advents in its line-up. Whether you are looking for a 12-day or a 24-day, one for women and one for men, theres a Clarins advent to suit. Theres even an option targeted to skincare and another for the more general cult classics. Clarins Nuxe Beauty Countdown Advent Calendar Parisian label Nuxe is bringing the seasonal joy with its range of luxurious products in advent calendar form. The skincare selection includes the cult Huile Prodigieuse, Reve de Miel range and Creme Prodigieuse among many others totalling at 24 in total. Nuxe NYX Gimme Super Stars! 24 Day Holiday Countdown Advent Calendar NYX fans, youre in for a treat. The makeup label is offering not one but two advents for the holiday season. The first will take you through the 24 days in the lead up to Christmas with mini and full-sized variations of the brands bestsellers some of which have been given a limited-edition festive twist. The second is the 12 Day Vegan Advent Calendar (32) and as the name suggest the contents are all entirely vegan including a lip liner, eyeliner, concealer and more. NYX Lumene 24 Nordic Beauty Wonders Advent Calendar Nordic beauty label Lumene harnessing the power of nature and in particular Pure Artic Spring Water to give your skin the hydration boost that it needs. For its 2021 advent calendar, the brand has combined a selection of its skincare line-up with a few added makeup essentials to be a true treat to the skin during the festive season and beyond. The Nordic Hydra Oxygen Recovery 72h Hydra Gel Mask, Luminous Shine Hydrating & Plumping Lip Gloss and Arctic Hydra Care Protecting Day Fluid Mineral SPF30 are just some of the products included. Lumene 12 Days of Harrys Calendar For the lucky luxury-loving gentleman in your life, Harrys may have solved your gifting dilemmas with its take on the classic advent calendar. The razor labels offering combines its shower, shave and skincare ranges to stock up ahead of the big day. Harrys Cohorted Advent Calendar Get a daily dose of beauty in the lead up to Christmas with Cohorted. The beauty subscription service has turned its hand to advents, packing 12 beauty products into calendar form. With a value of over 460, youll find the likes of Sunday Riley, Laura Mercier, Irene Forte, and Illamasqua. Cohorted The Perfume Shop Advent Calendar The fragrance retailer has launched its very first advent calendar. It contains 24 mini scents for both him and her. The highlights include perfumes from Hugo Boss, Paco Rabanne and Versace with an extra special surprise come Christmas day. The Perfume Shop Amazon Beauty Advent Calendar The online retailing giant has packed 260 worth of products into its seasonal advent this year. There are full or deluxe-sized items from brands like Foreo, Max Factor, John Frieda, Elemis, Neals Yard and LOccitane that can be all yours for just 70. Amazon Ciate London Mini Mani Month Ciate is back with its new iteration of the hugely popular Mini Mani Month calendar. The limited-edition calendar has been adorned with a stunning illustration from UK designer Ruby Taylor that takes inspiration from the brands home base of London. Within the walls, there are 23 mini versions of Ciates vegan nail polishes in an array of shades taken from its bestseller list. The formulas have been created with naturally derived ingredients and biodegradable glitters and are packed with strengthening powerhouses like biotin, bamboo and bakuchiol. Ciate ASOS 2021 Advent Calendars There are two advent calendars on offer at ASOS, the Face + Body 24 Day Calendar (75) that is packed with some of the most coveted label including Charlotte Tilbury, Olaplex and MAC. The Grooming 12 Day Calendar (40) contains a range of skin, hair and self-care goodies with brands like Bull Dog, Gillette and Elemis. The packaging is entire recyclable and comes alongside an ASOS tote. You may even be lucky enough to win one of the retailers 36 golden tickets for a show-stopping beauty haul that will certainly bring the festive spirit. ASOS The Ritual of Advent: Countdown to Christmas Calendar Rituals is on hand this festive season to give your mind, body and soul the relaxation that you deserve. Within the suitably Christmassy exterior, youll find a happy discovery in the form of bath, body and fragrance goodies to help you create a spa-like ambiance. Rituals 24 Beauty Treasures Advent Calendar in Support of Macmillan Boots has teamed up once again with Macmillan for the third year running to offer its bestselling brand with a charitable twist. With every advent purchased, they will donate 2 to the cancer support charity. The calendar contains No7, Soap & Glory and Liz Earle with skin, makeup and fragrance goodies. Not ones to let the gentlemen in your life miss out on the fun, 24 Grooming Essentials in Support of Macmillan For Him plays host to grooming favourites. Boots 12 Days of Liz Earle Beauty Advent Calendar Known best for its now cult Cleanse + Polish, Liz Earle is offering far more than just this hero product to its loyal fan base this Christmas. The calendar reveals 12 daily gifts worth a total value of 125. Well keep the contents a surprise (although the picture may give it away) but just know youll find some of the most iconic products including the Skin Tonic and Muslin Cloths within. Liz Earle Real Techniques Advent Calendar There are 28 skincare and makeup surprises hidden within this attractive two-tone pink calendar from Real Techniques. The makeup brush extraordinaire has slipped in many of its bestselling products and even an extra special Miracle complexion sponge and case. Superdrug Benefit The More the Merrier calendar This shorter calendar from the beauty behemoths will see you opening 12 days of treats in the run up to December 25 with products for brows, face, eyes and lashes. The bestsellers are in travel size and include the likes of The POREfessional smoothing pore primer, Hoola matte bronzer and BADgal BANG! volumizing mascara in intense pitch black with contents worth a total of 132.46. Prepare to sleigh. Benefit 2021 Dr. Hauschka Advent Calendar A luxurious gift worthy of the most wonderful time of the year, Dr. Hauschka has pulled out all the stops for 2021. The advent plays host to 24 numbered cotton bags, each which contains one of the many skincare boosts from the brands collection in a handy travel-ready sizes. It packs 154 worth of products inside and you can use reuse the bags next year to craft your own personalised calendar. Dr.Hauschka lookfantastic Beauty Advent Calendar Within the walls of lookfantastics advent calendar, you will find 25 luxury beauty goodies worth a whopping 410 - but it will cost you just 85. Highlights include Kate Somerville Goat Milk Cleanser, Phillip Kingsley Elasti-Styler and Nars Blush in the cult Orgasm hue but well keep the rest secret to ensure the element of surprise. If youre a subscriber to the lookfantastic beauty box then youll get 15 off. The retailer is also offering a golden ticket in 300 advents, hidden behind door 1. Winners will recieve incredible prices like 2,000 in cash, holiday vouchers and more. lookfantastic OPI Nail Lacquer 25-piece Advent Calendar OPIs advent calendar coincides with a very important anniversary for the brand. The labels #40YearsofColor and 2021 festive period has given way to an epic calendar featuring the most iconic shades and suitably festive hues from the Celebration Collection. Each window reveals one 3.5ml polish. OPI Next Premium Beauty Advent Calendars Next is offering two advent calendars this year in their premium beauty category, one for men and one for women. The His and Hers options worth 254 and 243 respectively contain an array of beauty favourites designed to get you into the seasonal spirit with glow-getting skincare and makeup to get you ready to celebrate as well as pampering treat for the recovery. You will find the likes of Philip Kingsley, Urban Decay, LOccitane, Kiehls, Elemis, Murad and many more. Next Under 50 Barry M Cosmetics Beauty Advent Calendar To ensure you are prepped for the party season from fingers to toes, Barry M has collated 12 polishes in this calendar with six exclusive shades. Barry M Revolution Advent Calendar The purse-friendly Revolution advent calendar need to be on your radar. For each of the 25 days in the lead up to Christmas, you will open the windows to find lipsticks, lip glosses, highlighters, makeup brushes, and more. Revolution Invisibobble advent calendar Invisibobble changed up the hair tie game when it launched its revolutionary spiral bands and they are now available in advent calendar form with 24 kind-to-hair goodies packed within its walls. There are six of the now cult Original ties as well as scrunchies, bows, styling tools and more. Invisibobble M&S Beauty Advent Calendar Packed within the compact calendar, you will find a dizzying array of beauty products in M&S always eagerly-anticipated advent. There are 300 worth of product that extend beyond just its own-brand offering to also include the likes of Aveda, Ren, Philip Kingsley, This Works and LOccitane. All this can be yours for just 40. M&S Aldis beauty brand Lacura Advent Calendar Dont be fooled by the low price point, Aldis Lacura range is packed with premium ingredients and have become hero products to those in the know. For the lead up to the big day, the budget supermarket has curated a selection of 24 products that include the bestsellers as well as brand new products. Highlights include the Lacura Ebony Rose Face Mask and Lacura Ebony Rose Cream. Aldi 49.99 | Aldi *Available to pre-order from October 24 Holland & Barrett 25 Days of Clean Beauty Calendar Packed with clean beauty favourites, Holland & Barrett has got you covered for your vegan and cruelty-free skin, hair, home fragrance and tool fix. Last year, the calendar sold out in record timing so dont wait to get your hands on the 2021 edition. Theres over 170 worth of products from big name brands like Ren, Weleda, Q+A, Dr Paw, Tisserand, Wet Brush and more. H&B BeautyPro Advent Calendar Worth 59 but costing just 39, BeautyPro is encouraging you to take some much-deserved me-time with 12-days of masks for the face, eyes, hands and feet. They are designed to be versatile enough to work for all skin types and are made up of natural but effective formulas. BeautyPro BARBERPRO Advent Calendar Take some time to truly pamper yourself this Christmas with BARBER PROs dedicated sheet mask advent calendar for men. Back by popular demand, the countdown gift is back with 12 full-size masks for the eyes and face to tackle common concerns including a Brightening, Post Shave and Under Eye option. The masks are biodegradable and compostable. Worth 57.40. BARBERPRO Dove Gently Nourishing Advent Calendar With this fool proof advent calendar, you can treat your friends, family or loved one to all the essentials. It contains the Dove favourites including the Beauty Cream Bar, Intensive Repair Shampoo and Conditioner, Hand Cream and Body Wash in handy travel sizes. Theres also tweezers and a multi-charge cable to round off the ultimate holiday-ready set. The calendar is free from any unnecessary plastic. Amazon Harry Potter Hedwig Advent Calendar The enduring appeal of the wonderful wizarding world of Hogwarts shows no signs of wavering so bring the Harry Potter love this season with this advent calendar. Ideal for wizards and witches alike, the products are themed to the storylines and for every house so that if youre a Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin, theres the bath and body essentials to match. Boots Soap & Glory 24 Days To Prep Into Xmas Advent Calendar Feel your most fabulous this festive season with Soap & Glorys 24-day offering. Each day, open a window to reveal a surprise from the range including body wash, body butter, scrubs, foot creams, hand creams and many more pink-hued products. Boots Yankee Candle Advent Calendar Create a warming wintery sanctuary in the comfort of your own home with Yankee Candle and its always awe-inspiring selection of tea lights housed in its advent. Match your scent to your mood with the Twinkling Lights, Snowflake, Christmas Cookie, Candlelit Cabin and more to feel fuzzy and festive every time you step through your door. Boots The White Collection: 24 Days of The White Collection This calendar from The White Collection comes new and exclusive to Boots for 2021. Within the black and white themed calendar, youll find a luxury each day with a hand or body care mini as well as home fragrances in scents like Winter and Fir & Berry that are apt for the season. Boots Disney Minnie Mouse 12 Days Advent Calendar Disney fans rejoice, Minnie Mouses advent is back for 2021 exclusively at Superdrug. Adorned with the famous rodent, theres bath fizzes, salts, lotions, and hand creams as well as bath accessories and travel minis. Superdrug The Body Shop Advent Calendar The Body Shop has ensured that no matter your price point, you can get in on the advent action. The brand is offering not one but four epic product-filled calendars and have a charitable twist where with each purchase, they will support the Honeypot Childrens Charity to help young carers in the UK. The Share Joy Advent (55 with value worth 77) is the entry level one, followed by the Share Love Advent Calendar (80 worth 119), the Share Love & Joy (140 worth 204) and Share Love, Joy and Kindness Advent Calendar (320, worth 495). Each calendar is bright, bold and fun, packed with beloved items for the brands skincare and body collections. The Body Shop No7 Advent Calendar While the contents are top secret, we can share with you that Boots hugely sought-after No7 advent calendar will be returning for Christmas 2021 and it contains 184 of the powerhouse product line-up inside. There are both cosmetics and skincare must-haves and the waitlist is open now. Boots Nivea Advent Calendars There are two different advent calendars on offer this year from the Christmas elves over at Nivea - the Ski-Lodge Advent Calendar and Nivea Men Advent Calendar. Both have been constructed with an eco-conscious twist with recycled materials and entirely free from plastic. There are 24 treats beneath the cardboard walls containing a mix of travel and full-sized products from the covetable range. E R actress Vanessa Marquez has died after being shot by police who say she pointed a BB gun at them. The 49-year-old who played Wendy Goldman in the hit medical drama between 1994 and 1997 was fatally shot by officers carrying out a welfare check, South Pasadena police said. The actress, who also starred in film Stand and Deliver, died in hospital following the incident in her California apartment on Thursday. Officers responded to a call from Marquez's landlord who said that she needed medical help. When they arrived she was having a seizure, Lt. Joe Mendoza with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said on Friday. Paramedics treated Marquez who improved and began talking to three officers and a mental health clinician who spent an hour-and-a-half trying to talk her into getting medical help, Mendoza said. But the actress later became uncooperative and appeared unable to care for herself, he said. Mendoza said Marquez got what turned out to be a BB gun and pointed it at the officers, prompting two of them to shoot. "It looked like a real gun," he said, adding that it's unclear where the gun was during her lengthy interaction with police. The officers were wearing body cameras but footage won't be released for at least six months pending the investigation, Mendoza added. Terence Towles Canote, a close friend of Marquez's, said the actress was having health and financial problems but that she showed no signs of depression or other mental troubles. She still talked about her dream of winning an Oscar one day and was hopeful for a career comeback, he said. "She was looking forward to life," Canote said. "This is not a woman who wanted to die." Marquez posted extensively on Facebook and elsewhere about her health problems, saying she was terminally ill and had seizures and celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that can damage the small intestine if gluten is ingested. In 2014, she said in an online post that she had spent her life savings on doctors and hospitals who didn't properly treat her and that she couldn't work or "do most basic everyday functions." Marquez gained attention last year after tweeting that George Clooney helped blacklist her from Hollywood when she complained about sexual harassment and racist comments among their "ER" co-stars. Clooney said in a statement to US Weekly at the time that he was just an actor on the show and was unaware of any effort to blacklist her. Yagmyrgeldi Durgyyev, an entrepreneur from Turkmenistan, is proud of what he is "selling" in China -- the beautiful scenery of his country. As director of Ashgabatsiyakhat, a tourism company in Turkmenistan, he is confident about his "commodity" at the sixth China-Eurasia Expo that opened Thursday in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Turkmenistan has many amazing places, especially the "Shining of the Garagum", he said. The tourist destination is a huge crater, 60 meters wide and 20 meters deep, in the middle of the Garagum Desert with 10-meter-high tongues of flame which have burned for more than 40 years. Durgyyev considers the expo a great opportunity to expand into the Chinese market. Most Chinese tourists know little about Turkmenistan's tourism resources, which makes the expo the perfect platform to show them the beauty of our country, he said. Turkmenistan has several beautiful places, and the "Shining of the Garagum" makes me very curious, said Ma Sai, a tourist from central China's Henan Province who attended the expo. "Our company received about 1,500 Chinese tourists a year," said Durgyyev, expecting the number to double in 2018. Previously, Russia was our major market, but we have decided to focus on the Chinese market considering its huge potential, he said. Mohammad Jan Aminzai, president of a carpet company from Afghanistan, is another entrepreneur who has realized the potential of the Chinese market. Attending the expo is not just about promoting our products, he said. He is seeking a Chinese company to cooperate with at the expo, aiming to develop products that are designed for Chinese customers, given that half of his company's products are sold to China. We have made many changes in traditional Afghan carpets, increasing the patterns of the flowers such as lotus on our carpets, he said. Although we are researching Chinese customers' preferences, it is more effective to work with a Chinese company that knows more about what Chinese people like, he added. Unlike Aminzai, Yadigar Israfilov, managing director of a canned food factory in Azerbaijan, believes that originality is a key to finding success in the Chinese market. Our brand of juices and canned food is one of the oldest and best in Azerbaijan, famous for its high quality and no added preservatives, he said. We believe the original Azerbaijani flavor would be a unique attraction for Chinese customers, he added. The expo is a great platform for foreign entrepreneurs to display their products to Chinese customers and seek cooperation with Chinese companies, said Bandara Diss, chairman of the Chamber of Friendship of Sri Lanka and China. Under the theme "The Belt and Road -- Wide Discussion, Joint Contribution and Shared Benefits," the China-Eurasia Expo drew participants from more than 700 domestic and foreign companies. Letter: Supporting Benitez for city council because character matters I have known Sebastian Benitez for over a decade. During this time, I have witnessed his compassion for the less fortunate. It shouldnt be a surprise that he wants to run for the Ogden City Council. Few people spend the time campaigning for projects left unfinished in the community. ... 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 Minister of Research and Innovation Nicolae Burnete has resigned from office, on Friday says a release by the relevant ministry's website. "Minister of Research and Innovation, Professor PhD Nicolae Burnete, by this communique announce the public opinion that this very morning I have tabled my resignation with the Prime Minister's Chancellery. My resignation is irrevocable and at least at this moment makes the subject of no press conference," the quoted source reads. President Klaus Iohannis request the gov't authorities to bring under control the situation generated by the swift spread of the African swine fever and draws attention to the budget situation invoked by the Executive. "Against the backdrop of the crisis generated by the swift spread of the African swine fever virus and in relation to the latest statements made by members of the Government, Romania's President, Mr. Klaus Iohannis draws attention to the imperative responsibilities incumbent upon the government authorities to bring the situation under control, so that the spread of the ASF be blocked to other counties than the ones already affected in a direct way. As regards the compensation of the population and the producers affected by the swine fever, President Klaus Iohannis requests that the Government ensure a process, as swift, simple and efficient as possible of drawing up, approving and paying the damages files of the population and the producers affected by the swine fever, through efficient evaluation committees, so as to ensure the conformity of the records and the compensations. The well-being of the population's households affected by the virus depends on the way these compensations are granted, but also the future of the pig breeding industry," reads a press release of the Presidential Administration. The head of state maintains that the Gov't has not spent anything from the Reserve Fund for the African swine fever.President Iohannis considers that "the defective and reckless way" the Reserve Fund was handled has led to the present situation, where, in a crisis situation, the Gov't no longer has at its disposal money in this fund, although he shows that the Executive's Reserve Fund receives constant supplies, not just through budget amendments."It is outrageous that members of the Gov't credit fake topics, which condition the budget amendment by a series of essential payments, such as the payment of pensions or medicine acquisition. This approach does not represent anything else but a cynical exercise to manipulate the public opinion, that PSD [Social Democratic Party, major at rule, e.n.] has turned into a real governing way. The blame for the critical budget situation where the Gov't is at present lies completely with the ministers who were not capable at the beginning of the year to make correct estimates regarding the funds necessary to the ministries they coordinate," the quoted source mentions.The Presidential administration underscores that the head of state has repeatedly drawn alarm signals in relation to the precarious sustainability of 2018's budget, the sub-financing of certain expenditure chapters being obvious.President Iohannis affirms that "from the desire to check the respective assumed targets with regard to deficit, the budget project underestimated certain spending categories, due to subsequently receive the necessary financial resources.""A serious budget amendment does not mean mending and resorting to last-minute actions," President Iohannis concludes. So, the metamorphosis is done. President Trump has finally, fully, shed his 2016 Campaign skin of loosely imagining a grand foreign policy bargain that could be the foundation for WORLD PEACE, nothing less! as Trump tweeted when imposing sanctions on Iran. We wrote, on 3 August, quoting Prof Russell-Mead, that Trumps 8 May metamorphosis (the US exit from JCPOA), constituted a step-change of direction: one that reflected [Trumps] instincts, telling him that most Americans are anything but eager, for a post-American world. Trumps supporters dont want long wars, but neither are they amenable to a stoic acceptance of national decline. It all began, very precisely, with Trumps 8 May metamorphosis which is to say, to the moment when the US president definitively took the Israeli line: exiting from the Iranian nuclear accord, deciding to sanction and to lay siege to Irans economy, and when he endorsed the (old, never materialized) idea of a Sunni Arab NATO, led by Riyadh, that would confront Shia Iran. In practical terms, Trumps Art of the Deal geo-strategy, as we now see, became thus transformed into the search for radical US leverage (through weaponising a strong dollar and tariffs) looking always to the means to force the capitulation of the counter-party. This cannot be rightly termed negotiation: It is rather, more as if the script has been lifted from The Godfather. But, when Trump unreservedly took the Israeli (or, more properly the Netanyahu) line, he assumed to himself all the baggage that comes with it, too. The 1996 Clean Break document, prepared by a study group led by Richard Perle for Binjamin Netanyahu, meshed the Israeli and US neocon camps into one. And they are still umbilically linked. Team Trump now is filled with neocons who are unreserved Iran-haters. And Sheldon Adelson (a major Trump donor, a patron of Netanyahu, and the instigator for the US embassy move to Jerusalem), consequently has been able to implant his ally, John Bolton (a neocon), as Trumps chief foreign policy advisor. The Art of the Deal has effectively been neocon-ised into a tool for enlarging American power and there is nothing of earlier mutual advantage to be heard of, or to be seen, these days. And now, this week, the metamorphosis has been cemented. After the Helsinki summit between Trump and President Putin, there seemed to have opened a small window of opportunity for co-operation between the two states to return stability to Syria. Many hoped that from this small terrain of tentative Syria co-ordination, some lessening of tensions between the US and Russia, might have found fertile soil. Trump said some positive things; the area around Deraa, in south Syria, was smoothly cleared of insurgents, and was retaken by the Syrian army. Israel did not demur in having the Syrian army as their near neighbours. But then co-operation rather obviously stalled. It is not clear why, but perhaps this was the first sign of power fracturing apart in Washington. The Helsinki understandings somehow were melting away (though military-to-military co-ordination continued). Putin dispatched the head of the Russian Security Council to a meeting with Bolton in Geneva on 23 August, to explore whether there was still any possibility for joint co-operation; and, if so, was such activity politically viable. But before even that bilateral meeting with a Russian envoy could be held, Bolton speaking from Jerusalem (from what was billed as a roll-back Iran brainstorming with PM Netanyahu) warned that the United States would respond "very strongly" if forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were to use chemical weapons in the offensive to retake Idlib province (expected to commence early September), claiming that the US had intelligence of the intent to use such weapons in Idlib. The Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, however, said on August 25 "Militants of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), [trained by a named British company], are preparing to stage a chemical attack in northern Syria that will be used as a pretext for a new missile strike by the U.S., the UK and France on facilities of the Damascus government". Russian officials said they had full intelligence on this false flag operation. What is clear is that since early August the US has been moving a task force (including the USS The Sullivans and USS Ross) into position that would be able to strike Syria, as well as positioning air assets into the US airbase in Qatar. French President Emmanuel Macron too has declared that France was also ready to launch new strikes against Syria, in case of a chemical weapons attack there. The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet says that the US military is laying the groundwork to close the airspace over northern Syria. US military freighters are reported to have transported radar systems to the city of Kobani, controlled by the Kurdish militia, and to the US military base in Al-Shaddadah in southern al-Hasakah. Hurriyet claims that the US plans to use these complexes to establish a no-fly zone over the territory between Manbij in Aleppo and Deir ez-Zor. (This claim however, is unconfirmed) Evidently, Russia takes this US threat seriously (it has deployed 20 naval vessels into the E. Mediterranean, off Syria). And Iran evidently takes the threat seriously, too. The Iranian Defence Minister on Sunday made a rapid unscheduled visit to Damascus in order to agree a tri-partite (Russia, Syria Iran) response to any US attack on Syria. Then, in the wake of Boltons chemical weapons claims, and the pre-positioning of US guided-missile vessels close to Syria, Petrushev and Bolton met. The meeting was a disaster. Bolton insisted that Petrushev admit to Russian interference in the US elections. Petrushev refused. Trump said we have secret evidence. Petrushev retorted if that were so, what was the purpose of demanding admission. Bolton said effectively: We sanction you anyway. Well not surprisingly, the two were unable to agree on Iranian withdrawal from Syria (which Petrushev put on the table). Bolton not only said flatly no, but afterwards went public with the Russian initiative to talk possible Iran withdrawal thus killing it, and killing the initiative as a gambit to leverage further diplomacy. Even the customary, bland, uninformative, final communique that is usual in such circumstances, could not be agreed. The message seems clear: any Helsinki understandings on Syria are dead. And the US is prepared it seems (they have actually moved assets into position) to strike Syria. Why? What is going on? One obvious element is, that until now, Trump's hand in all this is not visible. Now, power appears to have fractured in Washington with regard to Middle East policy. The neocons are in the lead. This is very significant, since the slender pillar on which Trump's rapport with President Putin had been built, was the prospect of US-Russian co-operation over Syria. And that hat seems, now, to be a dead letter. Lawrence Wilkerson, now a professor, but formerly the Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell during the infamous Saddam Husseins weapons of mass destruction episode says it cold: It has to do with the return of the Neoconservatives (Neocons) what is happening today, as Trump is preoccupied increasingly with the considerable, ever-growing challenges to him personally and to his presidency institutionally, is the re-entry into critical positions in the government of these people, the people who gave America the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Even those many of them who declared Never Trumpas arch-Neocon Eliot Cohen summed it upare salivating at the prospect of carrying out their foreign and security policy while Trump essentially boils in his own corrupt juices. A vanguard, of course, is already in our government to beckon, comfort, and re-establish others of their type. John Bolton as national security advisor to the president leads this pack though hes not, strictly speaking, a card-carrying Neocon Presently, their first and most identifiable target is the unfinished businesswhich they largely commencedwith Syria and Iran, Israels two most serious potential threats. If the Neocons got their wayand they are remarkably astute at getting their wayit would mean a reignited war in Syria and a new war with Iran, as well as increased support for the greatest state sponsor of terrorism on earth, Saudi Arabia. Bolton, Pompeo and the neocons have made it abundantly clear that they at least have not abandoned 'regime change' in Syria, as their objective and they remain set on delivering somehow a strategic setback to Iran (Bolton has said that sanctions alone, on their own, and without Iran suffering some extra strategic blow, would be insufficient to alter Iranian malign behaviour). Whether or not Mattis and Votel are fully on board with Boltons very strong military reprisal on Syria threat (for alleged chemical weapons use) is not clear. (Mattis succeeded in mitigating the last missile strike by Trump on Syria, and to co-ordinating with Moscow a nil response to Trumps Tomahawk salvo). Will it be the same this time if the US again makes an unsubstantiated (and later unproven) claim of chemical weapons use by the Syrian government? Will Israel join in any attack using the pre-text of its self-awarded right to attack Iranian forces anywhere in Syria? Given the new strategic fact of the Iranian Defence ministers surprise Sunday visit to Damascus to sign a common resolve on countering any such attack on Syria. Will Netayahu bet on the Russians not responding to hostile Israeli aircraft entering Syrian airspace? Who will blink first? Netanyahu? Or will Trump surface from his domestic tribulations sufficiently, to take notice and to say no? Whatever happens, Presidents Putin and Xi can read the runes of this affair which is to say that President Trumps highest officials remain committed, openly, or through false flags, to defend the American global order. These officials share a disdain for the Obama administrations retrenchment and retreat. They want to arrest, and even truncate the rise of Americas rivals, whilst restoring to their former position, those former pillars to U.S. world power: i.e. Americas military, financial, technological and energy, dominance. Russia is trying to defuse the critical situation by sharing their intelligence with Washington that Tahrir al-Sham (formerly known as al-Nusra), was plotting a chemical attack that would then be misrepresented as another atrocity committed by the Syrian regime. Eight canisters of chlorine have been delivered to a village near Jisr al-Shughur city, and a specially trained group of militants, prepped by a British security company, have also arrived in the area, to imitate a rescue operation to save the civilian victims. Militants plan to use child hostages in the staged incident, Russian officials say. But will Washington listen? From the moment that the Syrian or the Iranian regime is subjected to a judgement of moral delinquency (irrespective of evidence) in the context of Americas claim to its own Manifest (moral) Destiny these regimes become transformed from being a temporary, relative adversaries, into an absolute enemy. For, when one is upholding humanitys destiny and seeking WORLD PEACE, nothing less!, how can one wage war unless it is in the name of a self-evident good. What is afoot is not attacking an adversary, but punishing and killing the guilty. Faced with the radical moral devaluation of the Other across western media; and on the other hand with the virtue signaling of western good consciousness, can Russias rational presentations hope to carry weight? The only fact that might just weigh in the balance is the threat that Russia will use its missile arsenal assembling in the East Mediterranean. But what then? According to Defense News, the US administration is pushing ahead with plans for a new security alliance, tentatively dubbed the Middle East Strategic Alliance," or MESA, which is to include Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain. An official announcement is expected to come during the Oct. 12-13 US-Gulf summit in Washington. Obviously this is a serious attempt to create a new security architecture in the region. The issue was raised during US President Trumps visit to Saudi Arabia last year. At that time, Saudi officials broached the idea of a security pact and the US president strongly supported it. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi aspire to take on the leading roles. The Arab NATO-style alliance will be focused on the establishment of regional missile defense, personnel training, and the acquisition of weapons that will upgrade the Arab states militaries. The Arab nations poised to join the alliance have no indigenous defense industries, which will mean increased profits for US arms manufacturers. A collective defense clause is likely to be included in the list of the Arab NATO members common commitments. The need to protect the Persian (Arab) Gulf shipping routes is another rallying point for those nations. The formation of this new bloc is taking place as US sanctions are being abruptly reinstated on Iran, with the August embargoes to be followed by an even more damaging round in November. Support for the idea of creating a pact is bolstered by the fact that the Arab League has evidently failed to engage in peacekeeping, stabilization, or humanitarian operations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA region). The United States has a strong military presence in the Persian Gulf. Iran and Yemen are the only countries of the region that dont host US military facilities. The US military uses large air installations in Qatar and has expanded its operations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman. Bahrain is home to the US Navys Fifth Fleet. The US has encouraged the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states to purchase the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile-defense systems. The Patriot Advanced Capability-3 is already being used by Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, and Bahrain. The UAE and Qatar are also protected by THAAD systems. US leadership is indispensable for making those systems interoperable. It is worth noting that the THAAD in Qatar is supported by AN/FPS-132. Its range of 5,000 km. (3,100 mi.) far exceeds the requirement to counter a missile threat coming from Iran. Normally the AN/TPY-2 radar with a range of 1,500 km. (932 mi.) to 3,000 km. (1,864 mi.) is used to support the THAAD. The maximum instrumented range is 2,000 km. (1242 mi.). This radar is deployed to support THAAD operations in South Korea. The 5,000 km. range is excessive for countering a missile approaching from Iran. But the range of the AN/FPS-132 allows it to monitor large parts of Russia. It makes the Qatar-based AN/FPS-132 radar an element of the emerging US global missile-defense system that was created to counter Russias strategic nuclear forces. Evidently Iran, in addition to Hezbollah, is being used as a bogeyman to justify the need for a new alliance. As President Trump put it, Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States. Now it appears that anyone prepared to oppose Iran is welcome to become a US ally. But is the alleged menace coming from Iran enough to unite the nations mentioned above? Only Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain view Iran as an enemy they might go to war against. Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait maintain normal relations with that country. Jordan and Egypt have never said they viewed Tehran as an existential threat. The UAE, Saudi Arabia (the largest buyer of US weapons), and Bahrain are united against Qatar, a country that is home to a large US military base. Saudi Arabia even planned to invade Qatar in 2017. Diplomacy has so far failed to bridge those differences. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are also divided by their divergent views on the situation and their respective roles in Yemen. It is thus a tall order to bring all these nations together. In truth, its hard to understand why the US needs the Middle East so much. No country from that region poses a threat to US territory. America has recently become the worlds largest energy producer. If the Gulf is blocked by Iran that wont be so damaging to the United States. But the formation of this alliance will promote the interests of the US defense industry. Once it is in place, itll have a mandate to intervene and conduct operations that violate the sovereignty of other states in the region such as Syria, for example. The US has reportedly installed airdefense and electronic radar systems in Kobani, the Aleppo governorate in northern Syria, and on the territory of the al-Shaddadi base in the Hasakah province as one more step on the path toward establishing a no-fly zone in northern Syria stretching from Manbij to Deir ez-Zor. If that happens, the US will stay in Syria for a long time, and it will need an alliance to support its actions militarily and diplomatically. With regard to American foreign and security policy, President Donald Trump presents a paradox. Aside from some harsh bluster (fire and fury directed towards Pyongyang in the lead-up to an unprecedented US-North Korea summit), Trump generally seems to want more peaceful ties with the rest of the world and an end to wasteful and dangerous conflicts. On the other hand, if that is his intention, hes been unable to make much headway with an establishment that constitutionally is totally under his authority but in practice seems to be almost entirely independent of his supervision. For example, Trump expresses his desire the get US forces out of Afghanistan but then announces that contrary to his own preferences hes putting more troops in. He meets in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin to achieve detente but then the State and Treasury Department immediately poison the well with more sanctions and evidence-free accusations of Russian meddling in the upcoming Congressional elections. Trump announces his willingness to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani without preconditions but then is immediately overruled by uber-President (a/k/a Secretary of State) Mike Pompeo. Much of this reflects the nature of his appointments. As Lawrence Wilkerson details (The Neoconservative Comeback), Trumps foreign and security policy apparatus is dominated by the reentry into critical positions in the government of the people who gave America the 2003 invasion of Iraq, [even] those many of them who declared Never Trump in 2016. Indeed, its hard to think of a single member of his top team, or even anyone identifiable in the secondary rank, who agrees with the Trump campaign vision of an America First national interest-based strategy that means getting along with Russia and China, versus unending, reckless, global hegemonism. Well fine, one might say, thats an explanation but not an excuse. In the end, its his own fault. He picked these people. Thats true. But one still wonders Why. Does he not know better? Is he so supremely confident of his own ability to make the final decision that he doesnt care how his underlings might seek to stack the deck to implement their preferences, not his? Are there no alternative personnel available, given the danger of ending up like General Mike Flynn? Is he just paying off his donors? In the end, the Why may not matter as much as the What which is that Trumps policies, in substance, differ little in the end from what we would have gotten from a Mitt Romney or a Hillary Clinton administration: More NATO expansion, more deployments in the east, more sanctions and provocations against Russia. There is danger of an escalation in Ukraine, where Donetsk Peoples Republic leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko , more deployments in the east, more sanctions and provocations against Russia. There is danger of an escalation in Ukraine, where Donetsk Peoples Republic leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko was just assassinated in a bomb blast and a major conflict and perhaps a worldwide schism may be about to break out over the status of the local Orthodox Church Attempts to unravel the understandings reached at Singapore between Trump and North Koreas Kim Jong-un by accusing Pyongyang of dragging their feet on denuclearization while pressing for renewed US-South Korea military drills (which ). As Justin Raimondo of Antiwar.com observes : The North Koreans are no dummies: they know a regime change operation when they see one. As they watch our Deep State go after a democratically elected President whose hopes for peace complement their own, the North Koreans are waiting to see if Trump survives. I cant say that I blame them. by accusing Pyongyang of dragging their feet on denuclearization while pressing for renewed US-South Korea military drills (which Trump appears to be resisting Raimondos reference to regime change is important. Since before he took office Trump was besieged within his own administration by a hostile phalanx of Democrats, almost all of the GOP establishment, the federal law enforcement and intelligence nomenklatura, and the media. It doesnt help that his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, seems to think he has nothing better to do than crank up the civil forfeiture machine and give states a hard time for playing fast and loose with federal marijuana laws, while a criminal anti-constitutional conspiracy operates under his nose at the Department of Justice and the FBI in cahoots with elements of the US and British intelligence agencies. Certainly Trumps enemies and false friends, both inside and outside his administration, would love nothing better than to goad and cheer him into a splendid little war that, when it inevitably proves a disaster, would be blamed not on their globalist ideology but on someone they see as a shallow, superficial, unqualified Twitter-addicted unstable personality who never should have been allowed into the Oval Office. That would certainly alienate independents and maybe chip into his supporteven among his core Deplorables. With the approach of an election that may produce a Democratic House of Representatives that almost surely will impeach him a distinct possibility given voter fraud and government and corporate collusion to censor alternative and social media Trump himself maybe be tempted toplay the death card. Ordering military actions is one of the few commands to his subordinates he can be confident will be carried out, since that is their overwhelming preference too. Plus, as we must well remember, on previous occasions when he ordered military strikes on Syria he won a brief respite from the constant pounding from his political and media antagonists, who instead praised his leadership, summed up in Fareed Zakarias moronic observation after the April 2017 strike on Syria: I think Donald Trump became President of the United States last night. Whether Trump decides to lay down the Ace of Spades or the self-guiding machinery of power seeking to undermine him does so on its own, we are in for a run of heightened danger between now and Election Day (November 6). While there are a number of possible flashpoints, one theater stands out: again Syria, where the impending government offensive against the last significant area still held by jihadists, al-Qaeda-occupied Idlib, sets the stage for yet another false flag chemical weapons attack. In an unusual move, Russian officials briefed the State Department on plans for a chlorine gas strike by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra Front, formerly just plain old al-Qaeda, with British special services actively involved in the provocation, which will serve as another reason for the US, the UK, and France to hit Syrian government targets with air strikes. US, British, and French forces have concentrated in the eastern Mediterranean in preparation for an attack against Syrian government forces (effectively in support of the al-Qaeda-led jihadists), and Russia has also beefed up its naval presence. Without any sense of irony, the State Department summarily dismissed Moscows warning as just more false flag type reporting for the simple reason that it came from the Russians and Deep State mouthpiece media like Bellingcat treat it as itself an indication that Damascus plans to use chemical weapons. As Caitlin Johnstone observes: This past April the US, UK and France launched airstrikes against Damascus in retaliation for an alleged chemical attack allegedly perpetrated by the Syrian government against civilians in the city of Douma. The strike was launched with no investigation having taken place whatsoever into the nature of the civilian deaths, and subsequent investigation found no evidence implicating the Syrian government in a chemical attack. This is unsurprising, because the Syrian government had no incentive to use chemical weapons in a battle it had already won at that point and every incentive not to provoke the wrath of powerful western military forces just to suffocate some kids to death. [ . . . ] Even if you dismiss the intelligence which Russia supplied to the US saying that a false flag chemical weapons attack is being prepared for in Idlib, it is self-evident that the jihadist militants would have every motive to stage one if given the opportunity. Keep an eye on this one, please. Syria is a key strategic region that the western power alliance has been plotting to take control of for decades, and it is entirely possible that they will pounce on any opportunity to prevent the Syrian government and its allies from shoring up control of the nation and bringing stability to the region. Stay skeptical. It should also be noted that this scene is unfolding in the aftermath of an unusual peace overture to Damascus, under which the US offered to withdraw the illegal deployment of American troops on Syrian territory under three conditions. As described by Tom Luongo: According to a recent report by Joaquin Flores at Fort Russ News, the U.S. offered a withdrawal plan to Bashar al-Assad of Syria with three conditions. What should be immediately obvious is that the U.S. offered the meeting and opened up the talks. This is proof positive that the U.S. position in Syria is untenable and the U.S. [JGJ: or maybe just Trump?] is searching for a way out that will save a little face. From Fort Russ: First: Irans full withdrawal from the Syrian south. Washington: withdrawal from the [al-Tanf] and eastern Euphrates against three conditions, including giving us a share of oil. Second: obtaining written assurances that US companies will receive a share of the oil sector in eastern Syria. Third, to provide the Syrian side with the Americans with full data on the terrorist groups and their members, including the numbers of foreign victims of these groups and those who survived, and those who have the possibility of returning to Western countries, considering that the terrorist threat is intercontinental, we can get hurt in the service of international security. The Syrian response to this generous offer could easily be termed as dismissive. Assad has no reason to guarantee the U.S. anything after its shameful display over the past seven years. [ . . . ] Trump is surrounded by vipers and neocons (or do I repeat myself) who, despite his better instincts, fill him with nonsense which he then acts on without much reflection. I still feel that Putin laid on him some very eye-opening information behind closed doors in Helsinki which is why the intelligence agencies freaked out afterwards. But, this offer to withdraw from Syria is, yet again with Trump, two steps forward and one step back. [ . . . ] If Trumps goal is peace in the region, then this operation needs to go smoothly and it will if its allowed to. But, thats the problem. Once Syrias settled it makes it easier for Trump to declare, Mission Accomplished. If he doesnt hes going to have to go back to his base and tell them we need to stay to counter Iran? A country he keeps telling us is on the verge of collapse thanks to sanctions? Thats not going to fly with his base who wants the empire dismantled. So, the argument for the false flag makes sense to trap Trump into having to stay, if not expand the conflict, to push Assad from office while damaging him at home on the eve of the mid-terms. This is the trap thats being laid right now because peace is not allowed to break out in the Middle East. As Trump considers the next card he must play in the coming weeks and days, he needs to know that most of those advising him the vipers and neocons he has surrounded himself with have at heart neither his interests nor Americas. If he plays the Ace of Spades and things go terribly wrong, hes the one who will end up the Joker or switching game metaphors, draw the card that tells the millionaire GO TO JAIL: Go directly to Jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Of course at that point, if things outside the US get really ugly, what happens to Trumps political fortunes could be the least of everybodys worries. Bay of Plenty We are on the hunt for a Welder to join a heavy and light engineering company on a temp/casual basis.. so if you are in between... View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nz Could Prince Harry and wife Meghan really come to the Bay of Plenty in October? It's a genuine possibility and local radio station, The Breeze, and Tourism Bay of Plenty are doing all they can to make it happen. When the news came out earlier in the year that the newly-weds would be visiting NZ, The Breeze's breakfast hosts, Mark and Jolene, contacted Tourism Bay of Plenty's CEO, Kristin Dunne, to ask how they could help convince the royal couple to visit the Bay. The idea of creating a video to showcase our local attractions and messages welcoming them from locals spawned from that conversation, says Mark. And it's being included in Tourism Bay of Plenty's official pitch for a royal visit. Over the past week, the radio pair have been out filming, from Otamarakau Marae to Dive Crescent. Wed love to see you in the Bay of Plenty and Tauranga when you visit New Zealand, says Mark addressing the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in the video. Were all about the welcome, says Jolene. It is the Bay of Plenty after all. They go on in the video to list many of the activities the couple could do when they come here. There are images of Mauao, Whakaari/White Island, dolphins, glow worm canoeing, Moturiki Island, and Mount Main beach. We even featured Baycourt Community & Arts Centre which was officially opened by Harry's parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales, in 1983! says Jolene. We thought Harry would love to see that. We were surprised to find three of the people weve filmed have already met Harry, says Jolene. Locals Ken Carrick showed Harry around the War Memorial Museum in Whanganui; Dan Busbridge met him as a child in Canterbury, England; and Tauranga MP, Simon Bridges, rubbed shoulders with him in an official capacity on the last Royal visit. Id like to invite you, Harry and Meghan, to come and enjoy our city, says Mayor Greg Brownless on the video. Especially come in the warmer weather and well take you out sailing on the harbour and enjoy the beaches and all the other wonderful things that Tauranga has got to offer. Harry and Meghan, I just want to invite you along with The Breeze, to the Bay of Plenty, says Simon. Harry it would be amazing to see you. Ive met you before, youre a great guy. And if you remember Im a great guy too, Ive even got a son whos kind of named after you. Harry, you probably wont remember me, says Ken, but I showed you around the Whanganui War Memorial Centre in 2015. We would dearly love you to come back with your new wife and have a look around Tauranga. In the video, Kara Awhimate from Otamarakau Marae invites Harry and Meghan to fly in by helicopter to their beachside location for a powhiri, while V8 Trike Tours are offering to chauffeur them on their five-seat trike. In Papamoa, Diane Howell is offering them a room at her place Bijou Bed and Breakfast. This is the most beautiful place in New Zealand, and wed love you to come and visit, says Diane. You can take a beautiful stroll along the Papamoa beach and come back and enjoy a home-cooked roast lamb dinner, homemade apple pie, and we may even be able to source some beautiful NZ red wine. The video is being included in Tourism Bay of Plenty's official pitch to the Visits and Ceremonies Office at the Department of Internal Affairs in Wellington. Today, our CEO Kristin Dunne is being interviewed by Mark and Jolene on The Breeze, says Angela Beardsmore, the Consumer Marketing Manager at Tourism Bay of Plenty. The video will also be released. On Monday we will be submitting our proposal, which will include our written proposal, along with the video and radio interview from The Breeze. We dont know when they are coming to New Zealand. When we did the quick email chat, they had no dates set but it was always planned to be in October. That was what the nation was told, but there are no secure dates as yet. With October only one month away, the question is whether there is enough time to plan. Ive had history of working with royal visits and it can all happen in a very short space of time, says Angie. I was involved in the Nelson part of Prince Charles and Camillas last visit. In the proposal we do talk about being the kiwifruit capital of the world and the home of Whakaari/White Island, says Angela. Obviously for them to get out to an active marine volcano would be fantastic. We also talk about being the home of high performance sport, which will appeal to Harry who created the Invictus Games, an international adaptive multi-sport event. Part of the proposal includes naming a kiwi trapline, which is dependent on time available for the couple to get to the site. We also talk about the Otamarakau Marae, glow worm kayaking, Zespri, BayStation, Baycourt, and various activities you can do that are unique to the Bay, says Angela, as she completes the final proposal inviting the royal couple to the Bay of Plenty. Mark and Jolene are crossing their fingers that Harry and Meghan will say "yes"! Check out the video that Mark and Jolene at The Breeze created here - https://www.thebreeze.co.nz/home/shows/mark-eagle/vids/2018/watch-our-video-inviting-prince-harry-and-meghan-to-the-bay.html The two candidates running for the Democratic Party nomination for governor - incumbent Andrew Cuomo and challenger Cynthia Nixon - staged their one and only debate Wednesday at Hofstra University on Long Island. They did Upstate New York voters a disservice by largely ignoring their concerns. Cuomo and Nixon spent most of their hour sparring over problems with the New York City subways, the current occupant of the White House, whether Cuomo would run for president in 2020 and the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge (nee Tappan Zee). Cuomo, Nixon trade insults, accusations in debate; Cuomo nixes presidential talk Sure, the candidates addressed issues that concern voters statewide: corruption in the Cuomo administration's economic development schemes; the idea of single-payer health care; the collapse of the breakaway Independent Democratic Conference in the state Senate; the corrosive influence of campaign contributions; and State Police troopers from Upstate sent to patrol in New York City. But they said nothing about reducing New York's high property taxes (also a problem on Long Island, by the way). Or stanching the exodus of young people from opportunity-starved Upstate cities. Or what to do about the financially struggling Upstate casinos, once touted as a source of jobs and growth. Or the wisdom of the Buffalo Billion, the DeWitt film hub or any number of high-profile projects funded by the Cuomo administration. Or the sorry state of our infrastructure and public transportation systems. Or the problems of the dairy industry. Or the future of the Adirondack Park. Let's not be too hard on the debate's moderators from CBS New York. (Been there, done that, and it's not easy.) It's only natural they would focus on the concerns of their audience. Up to now, Nixon's campaign has focused on New York City almost exclusively; she reportedly will make a swing through Upstate in the coming days, including a meet-and-greet scheduled for Saturday in Syracuse. Simply put, there should have been more candidate debates in different parts of the state. Voters in a state as big and diverse as New York deserve as much. Incumbents have little to gain from them, but it's their duty as candidates for public office to explain their positions and defend their actions. Perhaps we should be grateful that there was even one debate - that's one more than Cuomo did in the 2014 primary cycle - but it's not enough. The irony is that Cuomo has a good story to tell about Upstate. This governor has paid more attention to the geographic bulk of this state than many other governors before him. He speaks often of the political imbalance between Upstate Republicans and Downstate Democrats in the state Legislature. We can debate the merits of specific projects, but the state's huge investments in Upstate cities, our parks, our brewing and wine industries and even the New York State Fair are having an impact. Primaries are usually low-turnout affairs; fewer than 10 percent of the state's 5.8 million registered Democrats voted in the 2014 gubernatorial primary. More than half of those voters came from New York City. If Upstate voters want candidates to pay attention to their concerns, they know what to do: Vote in the primary on Sept. 13, if you are eligible, and in the general election Nov. 6. Syracuse.com editorials Editorials represent the collective opinion of the Advance Media New York editorial board. Our opinions are independent of news coverage. Read our Members of the editorial board are Tim Kennedy, Jason Murray and Marie Morelli. To respond to this editorial: Post a comment below, or submit a letter or commentary to . Read our If you have questions about the Opinions & Editorials section, contact Marie Morelli, editorial/opinion leader, at Why it matters: When it rains, it pours. Intel is fending off investors and partners on 10nm because of poor yields, and now, it seems, it has irked Taiwanese partners about the share of 14nm CPUs coming their way. Partners are publicly complaining about it, trying to drum up some more inventory from Intel. Taiwan's Digitimes has said that Intel is coming up short on the chip supply front, but this time on 14nm, and that the recent release of Whiskey Lake and Amber Lake CPUs has not helped. As one of the primary go-to spots for ODM and OEM manufacturing in the tech industry, Taiwan is a good place to take the pulse of the CPU industry. With Intel's upcoming launch of "9th generation" CPUs, some partners in Taiwan feel short-chagned and have become quite public with warnings of doom for Intel. Quoting sources from Acer and Compal Electronics, the latter one of the biggest ODMs who does a lot of manufacturing of notebooks for HP, Dell and Toshiba, the article states that Intel is unable to supply enough CPUs to go around. While the article is not specific about which CPUs are supply-constrained, it is clear about these being 14nm SKUs, and hints that this may be related to newly-released Amber Lake and Whiskey Lake CPUs used in their own soon-to-be released devices. Acer CEO Jason Chen weighed in on the matter, stating that while the global PC market is expected to pick up in the second half of 2018, the tight supply of Intel's 14 nm processors will pose a significant challenge to the supply chain management capability of brand vendors. Compal Electronics, by way of its President, CP Wong, added that Intels (in)ability to supply CPUs would eclipse even the US-China trade dispute. The report also seems to confirm what weve been hearing through the grapevine: that Apples upcoming lower-cost notebook will be powered by one of Intel's brand new processors. Despite these low- and ultra-low power CPUs, not having even hit the market, they are already bringing problems to Intels doorstep. This ties in to the fact that Compal's direct competitor, Quanta Computers, is in charge of manufacturing the MacBooks for Apple, and is expected to see a revenue surge next quarter which will eclipse Compal. Despite this being a rude wake-up call from Intel partners in the Far East - which should be taken with a grain of salt - what is obvious is that Intel seems to prolong a multi-pronged strategy when it comes to market segmentation. With this it currently maintains seven CPU families based on a similar number of microarchitectures, despite consumers still having access to previous generation stock at major etailers. AMD, on the other hand, have designed a successful reuse strategy with its Zen architecture, using a single design to power all the possible SKU variations of their CPUs. The Google Titan Security Key, which promises to protect users' online accounts against phishing attacks, is now available on the Google Store for $50. Tech companies have been creating better products and methods to protect both their customers and themselves from hackers. Physical security keys are just one of the many tried and tested options in cybersecurity, and Google is now making the technology even more accessible to the public. Google Employees Protected From Phishing By Physical Security Keys One of Google's appearances in the headlines last month featured its amazing claim that since early 2017, none of its over 85,000 employees have fallen victim to phishing attacks. Phishing attacks come in various forms, but their goal is to trick users into revealing information such as passwords. Google employees, however, have been protected against them since they were required to use physical security keys. Physical security keys are USB-based devices that enable an alternative form of two-factor authentication. The security method usually requires users to input their password and a one-time code sent through SMS. Physical security keys make the second factor even harder to acquire for hackers because they need to be inserted into a computer's USB port to access the protected account. Shortly after proving that physical security keys work wonders, Google announced that it will soon be selling its own version. It is named the Titan Security Key, and it is now available on the Google Store. Google Titan Security Key Now Available For $50 Google is looking to provide an even better answer on keeping online information safe with the Titan Security Key, which is now available on the Google Store. The Google Titan Security Key follows the standards of the FIDO Alliance, which looks to support authentication technologies that provide proper protection to users against cybersecurity threats. The key has actually been in active use within Google for over eight months, but it will now be released to the public. The $50 bundle includes two types of keys, namely one that plugs into a computer's USB port and one that connects to the user's smartphone through Bluetooth. Setting up the keys is easily done through Google's two-factor authentication page. Whenever users log in to their Google account on their computer, the first key will need to be plugged in to the USB port, and its button will need to be pressed in addition to entering the password to gain access to the account. Meanwhile, whenever users log in on their smartphone, tapping on the button on the Bluetooth key will be required. Of course, the downside is that users will need to be extra careful not to lose their physical security keys. They will still be able to access their accounts from computers or smartphones where they are still logged in, but they will have to wait a few days for Google to help them reset their passwords. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Can't find your way on Bayon Teche Paddle Trail? Informational kiosks along 135-mile route will help soon Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commission Prosecutors have scuttled a multi-agency investigation into a notorious strip club in St. Helena Parish, saying an undercover agent crossed the line and may have committed a crime by digitally penetrating a woman during two private dances. The month-long sting operation included another officer asking a dancer at The Mansion to lactate on him "because he was curious," according to court documents filed by authorities. The repeated penetration of the dancer was described in a lengthy affidavit signed in December by Scott Jarreau, a Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office deputy who recounted the undercover agents' actions in graphic detail but did not name the officers. It's unclear from the document what role Jarreau played in the investigation. The affidavit was filed in support of a civil asset forfeiture case against the club's owner that was ultimately dismissed. The agents' questionable conduct was among the reasons prosecutors decided not to pursue charges against 13 people arrested in the raid, including the club's proprietor. "There was some unusual conduct, unusual methods in conducting this raid and investigation," 21st Judicial District Attorney Scott Perrilloux said in an interview. "At the end of the day, there wasn't a whole lot of substantive criminal charges to go forward on." A half-dozen current and former law enforcement officials said in interviews that the agents' tactics not only ran afoul of policing standards, but may have violated state law. Undercover officers often arrest dancers and prostitutes for solicitation, but they are not permitted to engage in sex acts during the course of their investigation. "Not only did this cross the line, it lost sight of the line," said Rafael Goyeneche, president of Metropolitan Crime Commission, a watchdog group. "Its so far beyond the pale of whats acceptable." St. Helena strip club inspected, minor violations found, inspectors claim Within months of reopening, a St. Helena Parish strip club has landed in hot water with the state Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control, which Perrilloux said he will consider referring the agents' conduct to local and state law enforcement for criminal investigation, listing State Police, the Attorney General's Office or the sheriffs' offices in St. Helena and Tangipahoa parishes as possibilities. Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Daniel Edwards initially defended his deputies, telling The Advocate that the tactics used by the agents are the right ones for an undercover prostitution sting. "You have to act like one of the customers, like a civilian and you're cool and you're not the police," Edwards said. "Sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do." The sheriff, in a subsequent interview Saturday, said he regrets "that any agents involved touched any dancers." He said he intends to retrain his deputies so they do not engage in similar conduct. "They should have been instructed to have as little physical contact as possible," Edwards said. "I accept full responsibility for that." An undercover probe Louisiana Alcohol and Tobacco Control organized the sting following a series of complaints of drugs and prostitution inside the rundown gentleman's club located along La. 16, west of Amite City. The Mansion is one of two strip clubs in the rural parish of 10,000 people that for years have been the subject of scandal and public debate. A group of religious leaders sought to get rid of them around 2012, but the clubs' owners persisted by securing exemptions from new regulations. The investigation included undercover agents visiting the nightclub on four occasions between Nov. 15 and Dec. 1, according to the affidavit. It involved agents from the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office, Louisiana Alcohol and Tobacco Control and the Shreveport Police Department. Edwards said ATC "asked if I could loan them some undercover help." "It was obvious that this establishment was running a prostitution and drug business with management not just complicit but actively involved," the sheriff said. St. Helena jurors consider changing strip club laws GREENSBURG St. Helena Police Jury members decided at a special meeting Wednesday that they need more time to study provisions in two revised It's not clear why Shreveport, which is more than four hours away, lent officers to the effort. The agents posed as boorish club-goers, tipping the dancers and putting themselves in a position to be offered sex or drugs. During one of the visits, an unnamed agent agreed to pay a dancer $80 for a private dance in a back room. The agent handed the woman an additional tip, the affidavit says, and then "began to enter her vagina with his fingers in a rotating manner." The document includes other salacious details about the encounter and the dancer's appearance, such as her "matching" white top and thong underwear, and her shaved pubic area. It's unclear why Jarreau included such graphic details, but the descriptions are presented as incriminating. The same agent performed that routine with the dancer for another $80 two hours later. A week later, an undercover agent returned to the club and asked the same dancer for "a hand job or a blowjob, and she replied by whispering in the undercover agent's ear she can do more than that," according to the affidavit. Although the agent was using recording equipment, it picked up none of the alleged solicitation, according to the affidavit. Agents attempted to ask two other dancers about their "limits," and both told the officers sexual activity was against the rules. In a separate encounter, an undercover agent purchased a $200 private dance with another woman. She removed her top and placed herself "within the 'immediate control' of the undercover agent," the affidavit says. "The undercover agent was able to embrace, touch, grab, caress the topless performer." The woman said she had given birth three months earlier and that her breasts still had milk in them. The agent asked the woman to demonstrate that, the affidavit says, "because he was curious to see if it was true." She obliged, spraying milk on his face. The affidavit cited that encounter as an example of the strip club violating the terms of its state license, which requires that dancers wear "pasties" over their nipples and forbids them from exposing their genitalia. "Agents found that these rules were not enforced or followed," Jarreau wrote, "and a simple request could be given to have anything you desired." The bust After visiting the strip club three times, the undercover squad raided The Mansion the night of Dec. 1. Armed with a search warrant, they called in backup from the St. Helena Parish Sheriff's Office and Louisiana State Police. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up In total, 13 employees and guests were booked on counts that included possession of marijuana and Adderall, prostitution by massage and possession of a stolen firearm. The owner of the business, Tyrone Butler, was booked with "letting a disorderly place" and malfeasance in office. Manager John Catalano Jr. was also wearing a "duty weapon" and was booked with possessing illegal narcotics, "letting a disorderly place" and malfeasance in office, the affidavit says. Butler and Catalano were both found to be carrying badges issued by the St. Helena Parish Sheriff's Office. That may have served as the basis for the malfeasance charges, which generally may only be lodged against public officials. Chester Pritchett, the chief criminal deputy for the St. Helena Parish Sheriff's Office, said in an interview that Butler had an honorary commission because he was serving as an informant. He said the commission had been suspended two months before the raid, but he neglected to retrieve it. Pritchett said Catalano had an honorary commission because he had assisted a sheriff's detective. The chief deputy said the commission was revoked after the arrest. Butler declined to comment for this story. When a reporter visited his establishment, he simply said: "Get off my property." Butler was recently rearrested for allegedly beating a student reporter at Southeastern Louisiana University who tried to film video of the exterior of the club. Catalano did not return a message seeking comment. Perrilloux, the district attorney, said his prosecutor assigned to St. Helena Parish decided not to pursue charges after the raid. The case was dropped, he said, due to the questionable conduct of the agents, the length of time it took to get reports from the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office and the strength of the evidence. "We didnt think it was good idea to have this conduct aired publicly in a prosecution," Perrilloux added. Edwards, the sheriff, said it did not "sit well" with him that he learned from The Advocate that Perrilloux had declined to prosecute the case. "If none of the charges were deemed worthy of prosecution, it seems quite inconsistent that the DA sought to have the $13,000 in cash seized forfeited," Edwards said. "I wish that undercover officers had not gone as far as they did, but I do not believe they committed a crime." It's unclear whether Jarreau participated in the undercover sting, or if he merely wrote the affidavit. The document names only one other officer, Maurice Rodriguez, an undercover narcotics detective with the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office. Rodriguez was one of the officers who visited the nightclub on Nov. 15, but it's unclear what specific role he played. Attempts to reach Jarreau and Rodriguez were unsuccessful. Pritchett faxed a statement to The Advocate that said the December raid "exposed several weaknesses in dealing with 'extra duty side jobs' and communications problems with task force and outside agencies by my department." He did not elaborate. He said the agency's involvement was limited to the final raid. A State Police spokesman said his agency was not involved in the undercover operations and only assisted in the execution of the search warrant. A Shreveport Police Department spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. Assigned to federal task force Jarreau, the officer who wrote the affidavit, previously investigated juvenile crimes for the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office. He was assigned to narcotics after returning to the Sheriff's Office in late 2015. A month or two after the raid, Jarreau was named to a multiagency task force led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, said Special Agent Debbie Webber, a DEA spokeswoman. Before that appointment, the DEA task force had been without a Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office representative since the U.S. Justice Department in 2016 charged two former task force members with distributing drugs and stealing cash during federal drug raids. Both deputies, Karl E. Newman and Johnny Domingue, had been Tangipahoa Parish deputies who worked alongside Chad Scott, a longtime DEA agent who remains under federal indictment. Goyeneche, of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, said the DEA should take "a long look" at whether Jarreau should remain on the federal task force. He said the agent's actions in the strip club case and his failure to recognize misconduct call his training into question. Webber said Jarreau underwent a thorough background check before his appointment to the task force. The DEA declined to comment on the conduct that Jarreau described in the warrant, noting the feds were not involved in the investigation of the strip club. Ernest P. Legier Jr., the deputy ATC commissioner, said that prosecutors did not contact the ATC before deciding not to pursue charges. He said the owner of the strip club pleaded guilty to administrative charges filed by the ATC, which resulted in a suspension of the club's license, probation and a "consent agreement" that requires changes recommended by ATC. "I can say unequivocally that ATC undercovers are trained to avoid encounters which could jeopardize the investigation," Legier said. 'You dont do that kind of s--t' The episode comes at a time when the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office has come under intense scrutiny: It's a focus of at least three ongoing federal probes led by the FBI. But Edwards, the sheriff, insists his officers did nothing wrong in this case. He compared the exchanges to a law enforcement drug bust. "When setting up a dope transaction, we buy drugs all the time," Edwards said. "You have to have some discretion to your undercover agent. You have to see what is offered or allowed." Edwards, whose brother is Gov. John Bel Edwards and whose father was also the sheriff of Tangipahoa Parish, said he would not condone his officers "having intercourse to completion" in the service of a prostitution case. He stressed that the investigation revealed illegal activity inside the club. But Goyeneche, a former prosecutor, called for an investigation into the supervision of the undercover operation. He said Jarreau appears to have "had no clue and no training as to what is appropriate." "Not only did this officer who wrote the warrant not realize that what he was writing was inappropriate, but neither did his supervisors," he said. "They didnt do their job either, and that is equally disturbing." Tim Bayard, a former longtime New Orleans Police Department captain who led that agencys vice and narcotics squad, said that an officer penetrating a dancer is "definitely not what should have happened." He said undercover officers can arrest a dancer or prostitute based solely on a verbal offer for a sex act. "As far as inserting anything, that was a no-no for us for damn sure, Bayard said. You dont do that kind of s--t." Embattled East Baton Rouge Parish School Board member Connie Bernard on Friday gave up her position as vice president of the panel, saying her husband was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. Bernard has been in hot water since an Aug. 10 profanity-filled confrontation she had with several young people having a party down the street from her home an incident caught on video. Sheriffs deputies issued her a misdemeanor citation for entering and remaining after being forbidden. +3 BR school board member issued summons over confrontation at neighbor's party An East Baton Rouge Parish School Board member landed in hot water Friday after a confrontation involving a party at a neighbor's home. Bernard disclosed her resignation as vice president and her husband John's cancer diagnosis in a letter she sent Friday to Board President David Tatman and the other seven School Board members. Recently, my husband of 25 years, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, and I need to assume responsibly making critical medical decisions and caring for him and our son, she wrote. We will be traveling to MD Anderson (Cancer Center in Houston) over the weekend and early next week to receive care there. Bernard did not mention the Aug. 10 incident in her Friday letter; on Aug. 13 she apologized for the foul language she used during that encounter. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up District Attorney Hillar Moore has said he is looking into the confrontation to determine whether Bernard should be prosecuted. Louisiana education group calls for Connie Bernard's resignation in wake of profanity-filled video Stand for Children Louisiana, a prominent educational group in the state, is asking Connie Bernard to step down from her seat on the East Bato Bernard, who was elected to the board in 2010, was re-elected in July to a third term after no one else signed up to run against her. She has resisted calls from critics to resign from the board entirely due to the Aug. 10 incident. Her fellow board members first elected her as their vice president in January 2017. She thanked them Friday, saying it had been a "pleasure and an honor to serve in that capacity with you," and she plans to continue on the board to "advance educational opportunities for all of our children." Now that every Baton Rouge police officer has a body camera, the question has turned to whether the city still needs a body camera committee t Even Jesus would never forgive what you do Scott Morrison believes in strong Christian values, and yet Jesus would never have condoned locking up asylum seekers indefinitely. Robert Preston, McKinnon Hats off to the fishermen Peter Dutton is back and there's a new Prime Minister in Scott Morrison and at least two refugee boats have arrived. So "We have stopped the boats" can now be removed from each comment on how great the Liberals are. Perhaps they will handle the issue with more compassion, as did the two fishermen who welcomed the refugees. Geoffrey and Mary Lane, Mornington FORUM Lost chance The regular backstabbing in Canberra would never have occurred if the Indigenous people, owners of this land, had stopped the boats and sent all the white people back to where they came. Jennifer Gomes, West Melbourne Grand hopes I am a grandmother so I obviously need emergency action on climate change and to see refugee children off Nauru and brought to safety in Australia. Marie Goonan, Northcote Own your actions The article ("Asylum seekers arrested in the first landing in four years", The Age, 28/8) reports that it is an inopportune time for the new Morrison government. It is even more inopportune for an "incensed Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton" because it gives us another opportunity to ponder recent events and his reinstatement to the Home Affairs portfolio after his own "insurgency". One wonders what the victims of the "Stop the boats" initiative who have "jumped the queue" and now languish in detention on Manus and Nauru as a warning to the people smugglers, think of this reappointment. Every day they are living with the responsibility of their actions motivated by a desire for a better life for themselves and their families. These refugees must wonder, like so many Australians, how easily Peter Dutton has been let off taking responsibility for his actions. Patricia Parkinson, Main Ridge Christian values The Sunday Age reports (26/8) that Scott Morrison once said, "The Bible is not a policy handbook." It certainly isn't his. Jesus said it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven. Scott Morrison wants to give them big tax cuts. Jesus threw the money changers out of the temple. Scott Morrison tried his best to protect them from a royal commission. Jesus fled to Egypt as a refugee. Scott Morrison would have turned him back. The Bible's not my handbook, either, but it's a pity such a committed Christian rejects the best bits. Greg Platt, Brunswick What is fair? Michelle Green, the CEO of Independent Schools Victoria, (Letters, 26/8) asserts that her organisation "strongly argues that all students should be treated fairly, regardless of which school they attend". Superficially it would hard to disagree. However, what she fails to do is define "fair". Given the position of her organisation with respect to funding, I suspect she means "equally"; with all schools being given the same amount per student irrespective of the school they attend (and ignoring the financial circumstances from which they come). If "fair" is defined as giving every child an equal opportunity for success in life irrespective of the financial and social circumstances of their parents we end up with a very different funding mix to the one her organisation would prefer. Richard Jamonts, Williamstown Death penalty stance Australia's new 2018 publicised strategy on the death penalty begins "Australia opposes the death penalty in all circumstances for all people". We are now known internationally for this policy. As a nation, our position on this issue has waxed and waned. In one of our best non-partisan endeavours, our governments in the past 10 years gradually reached this policy of supporting total abolition, seen to fruition by then foreign minister Julie Bishop. As foreign minister at the time of the impending Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran 2015 executions, Bishop was fantastic, working so hard for them with DFAT. We were fortunate that her shadow minister at the time was Tanya Plibersek, who supported Bishop on the common life-saving objective. They made an extraordinary team, leading the nation through those events. Both Andrew and Myuran, and the legal team, were deeply grateful for their efforts. Julian McMahon, barrister, Melbourne Cambodia's flaws It is difficult to take seriously Scott Morrison's bland assurance that dealing "calmly" and "directly" with Cambodia's autocratic Hun Sen government is the best way to handle the jailed Australian James Ricketson's conviction on what appear to have been trumped-up espionage charges. Neither the $40million in aid given via then immigration minister Morrison to Cambodia in 2014 to resettle seven asylum seekers, nor the 2017 "memorandum of understanding" in Phnom Penh, has provided our nation with political leverage within Cambodia. The main opposition party there has been dissolved and its leaders jailed or exiled; and independent media within what is now a "sham" democracy is largely impotent. Realistically, consular assistance is the best James Ricketson can hope for from Australia. Jon McMillan, Mount Eliza Golding's hairlooms Matt Golding's drawing (26/8) makes me wonder whether the hairless ones will manage to give us the bald truth, or whether Peter Dutton has pulled the rug out from under them, so to speak. Hair today, gone tomorrow. It's easy to see how Julie Bishop missed the cut. Jenifer Nicholls, Armadale Essential reading Let's hope Energy Minister Angus Taylor has read the recent ACCC report on power prices. He will discover that the biggest contributor to real cost increases over the decade is network costs (35 per cent), followed by retail (23 per cent), wholesale (22 per cent), and renewables (20 per cent). We assume he will tackle the problem in the order of most benefit network costs, especially in NSW and Queensland. He might also like to explain why our gas is landed in Japan at a lower cost than it is available in eastern Australia, even after expensive LNG processes and shipping. Our lightly regulated gas industry has locked in contracts that subsidise Japanese and Korean industry, rather than our own industry. Finally, Minister Taylor doesn't like subsidies. OK, but his purist anti-subsidy view should only be accepted if applied consistently, across our energy industries. Ian McKenzie, Canterbury Committed? Sort of Speaking about emissions reductions under the Paris agreement on measures to combat climate change, Environment Minister Melissa Price boldly states that Australia "stands by the international commitments it makes" (The Age, 1/9). Well, sometimes, sort of. Not in the case of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. When the EU observes our selfish disregard for certain provisions of the Refugee Convention we have ratified, how can it be confident that we will not treat the Paris agreement the same way? Bob Morrow, Clifton Hill Remote control "Envoy" normally describes a messenger or representative on a diplomatic mission to a foreign power. So making Barnaby Joyce and Tony Abbott "envoys", to farmers and Aborigines respectively, effectively demonstrates just how remote Parliament is to the rest of Australia. John Laurie, Newport Abbott's bold move Kevin Rudd may have been a bit hard on Tony Abbott (Comment, 27/8) when he says that he cannot recall him championing and implementing a single positive policy initiative. Who can forget his bold move in awarding Prince Philip a knighthood? Bill Pimm, Mentone For shame The Catholic Church's refusal to reform its confessional practices means it remains in certain instances a protector of paedophiles and their crimes against young people. All the mumbo-jumbo in the world won't conceal this appalling reality and its all-male leadership ought to hang their collective heads in shame. Almost half of Australian women suffer from anxiety or depression, and many women dont feel comfortable discussing their issues with their doctors, a new study has found. A national survey of more than 15,000 women across Australia, conducted by not-for-profit organisation Jean Hailes for Womens Health, also found that one in four women said they couldnt afford to go to their preferred GP. Of the 15,262 respondents, 46.1 per cent indicated they had been diagnosed with depression or anxiety by a doctor or psychologist. Almost 67 per reported feeling nervous, anxious or on edge nearly every day, or on more than seven days in the past month. The survey found 34 per cent of women surveyed reported not getting time to themselves on a weekly basis. Amsterdam Police Study Possible Terror Motive for Stabbings AMSTERDAM Police investigators in Amsterdam included an extremist attack as a possible motive for the stabbings of two people at a busy railway station Friday as authorities in the Dutch capital reported that a suspect shot by police is an Afghan citizen. The 19-year-old man was questioned about his intent late Friday at the hospital where he was being treated for gunshot wounds while under guard, Amsterdam City Hall said in a statement. The people stabbed at Central Station around noon also were being treated in a hospital. Their injuries were serious, but not life threatening, according to the citys statement. Neither they nor the suspect were identified. The victims were not chosen deliberately or with a clear reason, Amsterdam authorities said. The investigation is still underway, and all scenarios remain open for the investigation team. The suspect has a German residence permit, and Amsterdam police were in contact with authorities in Germany to find out about his background, according to the city government. The stabbings occurred shortly after noon at Central Station in downtown Amsterdam when a man walked into a group of people. Something happened, we dont know yet what, but during that two people were stabbed and one person with a knife in his hand walked away and he was shot by police, police spokesman Rob van der Veen said during the afternoon. Forensics experts spent hours combing the scene, disrupting rail services into the evening rush hour. Two platforms were temporarily closed to train traffic, but the station wasnt evacuated. Trams to and from the square in front of the station were stopped as police and emergency services converged on the area. Red and white police tape kept members of the public away from the scene. Central Station is a busy entry and exit point for visitors to Amsterdam, with regular trains linking it to the citys Schiphol Airport. Friday is one of the busiest days of the week for train travel as tourists arrive for the weekend. By Aleksandar Furtula Amsterdam Stabbing Suspect Had Terrorist Motive, Officials Say AMSTERDAMAn Afghan man shot by police at Amsterdams central station on Friday after stabbing two American tourists had a terrorist motive, city officials said on Sept. 1. The suspect, who was identified as a 19-year-old Afghan with a German residence permit, was questioned on Sept. 1, in a hospital where he was being treated for gunshot wounds to his lower body. First statements made by the suspect indicate he had a terrorist motive, Amsterdam city council said in a statement. German police searched the mans house at the request of their Dutch colleagues and seized several data carriers, the authorities said. The suspect, who is being held in solitary confinement, will be brought before a judge on Sept. 3, to decide whether he should remain in custody. The two people injured in the incident were U.S. citizens, the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands said in a statement on Sept. 1. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra said the pair were tourists visiting the city. They remained in hospital on Sept. 1, with serious injuries, local police said. Earlier this week, Dutch police arrested a 26-year-old man suspected of threatening to attack far-right politician Geert Wilders over his plan to hold a contest of cartoons depicting Islams Prophet Mohammad. Wilders on Thursday canceled the contest citing security risks, as thousands of people in Pakistan marched in protest of his plan, while the Taliban in Afghanistan called for attacks on Dutch troops serving in the country. The National Coordinator for Counter-terrorism and Security Policy said the national threat level in the Netherlands was unchanged at substantial, or one notch below the highest. Since attacks by Islamist radicals in France, Belgium, Britain, and Germany, the Netherlands has been considered a target, because it supports U.S.-led military operations against Islamic State in the Middle East. The last major attack in the Netherlands was the killing by a Muslim radical of Theo van Gogh, the outspoken filmmaker and great-grandnephew of the famous painter, in 2004. Painter, video producer, and teacher Thomas Kegler talks about his life and work in his studio in East Aurora, New York, on Aug. 17, 2018. (Milene Fernandez/The Epoch Times) Artist Thomas Kegler Celebrates the Creation of Nature EAST AURORA, N.Y.The beauty and magnificence of nature can reveal truths for us. When Thomas Kegler paints outdoors, he is feeling air currents, watching the leaves move, and hearing their rustling. Hes observing birds glide in the distance or listening to their singing in nearby trees. Hes noticing squirrels scurrying, and hearing a concert of acorns thumping on the ground. Occasionally, hell see a deer family or even smell them before he sees them. He smells other thingsthe earth, the forest, wild flowers, and the mist. In nature, the senses become more alive, and that makes me a better painter, he said. Paint what you know, and you can share that bettermore passionately, hopefully, Kegler said in his loft studio at his East Aurora home on a mid-August day. With every composition he makes, every mark he draws, every color he chooses to paint, he feels whispers throughout the entire process. Id like to say that Im having epiphanies, but they are not, he said. They are really subtle whispers. Im feeling them, not hearing them. They are so soft and quiet that typically I dont become aware of them until the painting is done, he said. He seizes the days, waking at 4:00 a.m. every morning to paint before taking care of his two children. The morning before the interview for this article, he drove to Letchworth State Park, also known as the Grand Canyon of the East. He arrived before sunrise and made sketchesa contour grid drawing, a tonal value sketch, and a color study with watercolorsin preparation for an autumn painting. The inspirational seed for it had lain dormant for five years and started to germinate. He plans to complete the painting around the time the color of the leaves turn this autumn. Whenever he takes his small field sketches and painting studies back to his studio, the whispers he feelsthose subtle currents, perhaps of elation and guidanceresume. Frequently, while driving in the countryside, walking through a forest, or fly-fishing in a river, a scene will captivate him, and he will say to himself, Thats a painting. He has hundreds of quick sketches that he keeps as reference for future paintings. Some painters suffer from staring at a blank canvas, from not knowing what to paint. I suffer from the opposite, Kegler said. I have this incessant voice that is driving me to keep painting every day. I have 20 lifetimes worth of ideas, he paused. So much to paint, so little time. I love that; its really invigorating for me, he chuckled. A Humbling Journey Keglers painting career rose to international prominence in just the past decade. While he also creates portraits and figure and still life paintings, his landscape paintings are considered above and beyond what is being created by landscape artists today. He is self-taught like the 19th-century Hudson River School painters, who also held high standards for themselves. His style of painting could be described as a perfectly calibrated balance between the dreaminess of Tonalism, which was a late-1880s American landscape style, and the more precise descriptiveness of Hudson River School paintings. He draws inspiration from Americans like George Inness (18251894), Frederic Edwin Church (18261900), Asher Brown Durand (17961886), Sanford Robinson Gifford (18231880), and John Frederick Kensett (18161872), as well as Australian painters of the Heidelberg School such as Frederick McCubbin (18551917), and Russian painters like Ilya Yefimovich Repin (18441930), and Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin (18321898). Masterpieces in museums of those artists can arrest you. They can unfold before you, and inspire awe or a myriad of other emotions in capturing your attention. Keglers paintings can also evoke all of those emotions, but above all, they invite you to breathe with them. They gently call upon you to focus your attention on them. Once you do, they can simultaneously emit a sense of gentle intimacy as well as of expansiveness that is quite powerful. Whether a forest interior, like Emery Maple, Ecclesiastes 9:10 (featured in his instructional documentary Painting en Plein Air: Resolving the Landscape), or the dawn in Song of the Whippoorwill featured in another video in an episode of The Line at East Oaks Studio, or a grand vista like the monumental painting Niagara, Psalms 84:11 (currently at the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University and featured in his documentary Painting Niagara), all echo the famous line by the poet John Keats, Beauty is truth, truth is beautythat is all. More specifically, they echo the biblical verses accompanying the titles of his paintings, meant to be open to interpretation and experience, Kegler explained. Just like the 19th-century Hudson River School painters, whose sincerely religious intent was to reveal the unseen spiritual order that shaped nature, Kegler continues the tradition wholeheartedly. In contrast to much contemporary art that is mostly pointing toward self-aggrandizement, the Hudson River School painters were painting to point upward, Kegler said. They were about bringing society to betterment. That philosophy resonates with me and has given me direction. Those voices have been subdued so long that, in some small way, through my landscapes, I hope I am a part of rekindling that flame in this contemporary realism scene. Hes unapologetically open about his faith as an integral part of who he is and why he paints. In a humbling way, he asks to be a conduit for the divine. I dont know how much I am realizing that, but I often like to think my day of painting on the canvas will start with a prayer. Kegler is currently drafting a coffee table book with 120 of his paintings and 365 devotional biblical scriptures in honor of his late wife, Kimberly Kegler, for publication in the fall of 2019. Growing Through Adversity Born in West Seneca, New York, in 1970, Kegler grew up in a family with eight siblings, some of whom also work in artistic fields. His parents owned a hunting and fishing store, G & R Tackle Co., which had a small art gallery. Kegler remembers painting as soon as he could first hold a paintbrush. He studied graphic design, taught fly-fishing as a guide in Alaska, and became a certified high school art teacher. He was making about five to ten paintings a year but not at the aesthetic level that he aspired to reach. I knew what good art was, but I couldnt do it, Kegler recalled. He would ask for direction and receive gracious, long critiques from the first artistic mentor outside of his family, Thomas Aquinas Daly. He didnt hold back, which I appreciated, Kegler said. It wasnt until Kegler had an accident and nearly lost the ability to hold a brush that he was catapulted toward his fine art career. In 2006, while helping someone clear a path, a chainsaw cut his arm to the bone. He underwent surgery and sustained nerve damage. To this day, he cannot feel half of his right forearm. I can shake a hand, and I can hold a paintbrush. I guess thats all that really matters, he said. During my recovery period, I said, I am going to walk out of this somehow better, and I decided that my focus would be on painting. I bought a whole stack of art books and read them for several months, he said. Most of the books were published about a hundred years ago, like The Practice & Science of Drawing by Harold Speed, The Artistic Anatomy of Trees by Rex Vicat Cole, and Carlsons Guide to Landscape Painting by John F. Carlson. Coincidentally at that time, as he leafed though an art magazine, Kegler discovered the Hudson River Fellowship (HRF). He was immediately excited to apply that first year the HRF was established by the renowned artist and founder of the Grand Central Atelier, Jacob Collins. The Hudson River Fellowship will build a new movement of American art, modeling itself after the artistic, social, and spiritual values of the Hudson River School painters, Collins had announced. Keglers first application was rejected. It spurred him to hone his skills with more dedication and to paint more frequently outdoors. He went from making about 10 paintings to more than 50 a year. The following year, Kegler was thrilled to be accepted to the fellowship, grateful for the opportunity to partake in a community of artists who shared his artistic sensibility: seeking to renew a reverence for the land. Like Daly, Collins became a mentor and friend he highly esteems. His work ethic is like a laser, he said about Collins. The energy level, the camaraderie was amazing! There was an air of respect and expectation that was very high, Kegler said, recalling especially his first year with the fellowship. The core groupJacob Collins, Travis Schlaht, Edward Minoff, and Nick Hiltnerthey held that bar high. They were out there seven days a week, pretty much sunup to sundown, bringing their lunch into the woods with them, and just like a laser, focused. I walked out of that experience witnessing what it takes to become what I aspired to be, he said. In 2012, Kegler became a senior fellow, and Collins invited him to give workshops in conjunction with the HRF. Kegler continues to give these workshops every year; he also gives workshops at the Grand Central Atelier and impromptu workshops outdoors. Looking back, Kegler regards the chainsaw accident as one of the best things that ever happened to him. I wouldnt be the painter I am now. I would have remained in that same complacent, comfortable state otherwise. It is through adversity that you either cave or grow. Through comfort comes complacency, through complacency comes apathy, through apathy comes rebellion. But through humbleness comes, hopefully, a yearning for betterment, not necessarily just for yourself but for humanity as a whole, he said. When asked about his goals for the future, Kegler laughed, saying hes no longer a list person. In other words, in the past, happiness at the end of the day for me meant a checked-off list, he said. Life is funny. Now I make loose, very flexible, generic lists. Ive learned that God is going to reveal a path to you. Its much easier if he steers your life, I have found. And submitting to that, I am happier, life goes smoother, and l let him plant the seeds of inspiration. Thomas Keglers paintings will be shown at the American Masters exhibition and sale at The Salmagundi Club in New York City, Oct. 826, 2018. Milene Fernandez is on Instagram @milenejf Bishop McGrath Will No Longer Live in $2.3M Willow Glen Home The bishop of the Diocese of San Jose will no longer live in a $2.3 million home in San Joses Willow Glen neighborhood when he retires, the bishop said in a statement August 28. The Diocese purchased the real estate for retiring Bishop Patrick McGrath, but community members quickly began raising concerns over the expensive home. McGrath said the home was purchased using funds from the sale of Bishop Pierre DuMaines condominium. DuMaine will be relocating due to failing health, according to McGrath. McGrath will now live in a rectory at one the dioceses parishes. He said he had initially hoped to live at a home owned by the diocese on graveyard property, but the retrofitting was too expensive. The Diocesan Finance Council and the college of consultors then approved the purchase of the Willow Glen home. However, I erred in judgment in the purchase of a 5-bedroom home for $2.3 million, McGrath said. I failed to consider adequately the housing crisis in this valley and the struggles of so many families and communities in light of that crisis. He said the diocese will sell the Willow Glen home as soon as possible and any profit will be donated to Charities Housing, which is part of Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County. I assume full responsibility for this decision and I believe that the sale of the house is the appropriate action, McGrath said. I thank those who have advised me. By Supriya Yelimeli. California Couple Accused of Torturing 13 Children Plead Not Guilty LOS ANGELESA Southern California couple accused of beating, shackling, and starving their 13 children as captives in the familys home pleaded not guilty on Aug. 31 to dozens of charges of torture, false imprisonment, and abuse. David and Louise Turpin, who were arraigned in Riverside County Superior Court, could face life in prison if convicted on all counts. Sheriffs deputies raided the Turpins home in Perris, about 70 miles east of Los Angeles, in January after one of the captive siblings, an emaciated 17-year-old girl, escaped through the window of the dwelling and called authorities. Deputies found the girls 12 brothers and sistersranging in age from 2 to 29trapped inside the darkened, foul-smelling house, some of them chained to beds. Signs of Severe Abuse The siblings were found to be suffering from malnourishment, muscle wasting, stunted growth, and other signs of severe abuse. They were taken into protective custody and the parents were arrested. Prosecutors said the victims had been denied proper nutrition, basic hygiene, and medical care and were harshly punished for perceived infractions such as wasting water by washing their hands above the wrist. The couple also was accused of taunting their children with pies and other food that they were forbidden to eat. Defense lawyers have never offered an explanation for the circumstances alleged by authorities. Louise Turpins sister said that David Turpin used to watch her shower. The defendants were each charged with 12 counts of torture, 12 counts of false imprisonment, seven counts of abuse of a dependent adult, and eight counts of child abuse. Louise Turpin, 50, also faces an assault charge. David Turpin, 56, who worked as an engineer for aeronautics and defense contractors Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, also was charged with one count of committing a lewd act on a child, plus eight counts of perjury over his claims that he was running a private school with his children as the students. Not Guilty Pleas The couple entered not guilty pleas to all charges and denied all allegations on Aug. 31, said John Hall, a spokesman for county prosecutors. Judge Bernard Schwartz denied a defense motion to try the perjury counts apart from the other charges. Hall said the next court date would be Oct. 5 for a trial-readiness conference. Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Bill Trott (L-R) Brandon Gressette, 33, Steven Fox, 40, and James Thomas Gersky, 35, were sentenced to 40, 30, and 30 years in prison, respectively, for a conspiracy to sexually exploit minors. (Charleston County Detention) Child Pornography Gang Sentenced for Exploiting Dozens Through Social Media Seven men were slammed with lengthy prison sentences on Aug. 29 and Aug. 30 for operating a scheme to trick over 90 underage girls into performing sexually explicit activities on camera. Six of the men, aged 24-45, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to produce child pornography and conspiracy to receive and distribute child pornography, and are facing 18-30 years behind bars. The seventh, Brandon Gressette, 33, of Summerville, South Carolina, was sentenced to 40 years after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to produce child pornography and two counts of production of child pornography. Todays sentencings involve another example of a disturbing and reprehensible new trend: the crowdsourcing of child exploitation, said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division in an Aug. 30 release. The seven Americans, as well as others abroad, operated a password-protected website where they organized to target the social media accounts of girls as young as 10, according to court documents (pdf). The perpetrators contacted the girls and, posing as underage boys and girls, tried to convince them to engage in sexually explicit activities in front of a web camera. Sometimes, they streamed pre-recorded videos of other underage girls doing the same, tricking their targets into believing they were seeing a peer engaging in such activities. When the target followed suit, the men would record the video and share it among themselves through their website. They seemed especially focused on the YouNow live streaming site. Investigators identified 91 victims from 28 states and Canada. The defendants hailed from South Carolina, Michigan, Maryland, Georgia, Colorado, Utah, and Missouri. Another man connected to the conspiracy was sentenced to 18 years in March 2017. The defendants were also ordered to pay a fine and restitution to victims to the tune of more than $200,000. This case illustrates that even sophisticated technological means will not protect predators online from being brought to justice, said U.S. Attorney Sherri Lydon of the District of South Carolina. The case was investigated by the FBI field offices in Newark, New Jersey; Columbia, South Carolina; and the FBI Major Case Coordination Unit. These crimes are especially disturbing and it is very satisfying to see the results of the hard work of our special agents, said Alphonso Jody Norris, FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Columbia field office. The FBI in South Carolina will remain vigilant and continue our active role in the national strategy to ensure children are protected. Epidemic The method used by the perpetrators in this case represents a new trend in how online predators operate, a senior Justice Department official told The Epoch Times. Sometimes they also force their victims into producing more explicit content by threatening to release the already obtained pictures and videos to the victims families or online. The case was a part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Justice Department to reduce sexual exploitation of children. Prosecutors have been charging over 3,000 people a year under the project. While the prosecutions have remained steady, the crime has skyrocketed as the social media provides predators easy access to potential victims. Analysis of the explicit images online revealed a five-fold increase from 3,000 identified victims in 2010 to 15,000 in 2017, the official said. Reports of suspected child sexual exploitation jumped from one million in 2013 to 10 million in 2017, the official said based on tips received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The FireEye logo is seen outside the company's offices in Milpitas, California, U.S., December 29, 2014. (Reuters/Beck Diefenbach). Exclusive: Iran-Based Political Influence Operation Bigger, Persistent, Global An apparent Iranian influence operation targeting internet users worldwide is significantly bigger than previously identified, Reuters has found, encompassing a sprawling network of anonymous websites and social media accounts in 11 different languages. Facebook and other companies said last week that multiple social media accounts and websites were part of an Iranian project to covertly influence public opinion in other countries. A Reuters analysis has identified 10 more sites and dozens of social media accounts across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. U.S.-based cybersecurity firm FireEye Inc and Israeli firm ClearSky reviewed Reuters findings and said technical indicators showed the web of newly-identified sites and social media accounts called the International Union of Virtual Media, or IUVM was a piece of the same campaign, parts of which were taken down last week by Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc. IUVM pushes content from Iranian state media and other outlets aligned with the government in Tehran across the internet, often obscuring the original source of the information such as Irans PressTV, FARS news agency and al-Manar TV run by the Iran-backed Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah. PressTV, FARS, al-Manar TV and representatives for the Iranian government did not respond to requests for comment. The Iranian mission to the United Nations last week dismissed accusations of an Iranian influence campaign as ridiculous. The extended network of disinformation highlights how multiple state-affiliated groups are exploiting social media to manipulate users and further their geopolitical agendas, and how difficult it is for tech companies to guard against political interference on their platforms. In July, a U.S. grand jury indicted 12 Russians whom prosecutors said were intelligence officers, on charges of hacking political groups in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. U.S. officials have said Russia, which has denied the allegations, could also attempt to disrupt congressional elections in November. Ben Nimmo, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Councils Digital Forensic Research Lab who has previously analyzed disinformation campaigns for Facebook, said the IUVM network displayed the extent and scale of the Iranian operation. Its a large-scale amplifier for Iranian state messaging, Nimmo said. This shows how easy it is to run an influence operation online, even when the level of skill is low. The Iranian operation relied on quantity, not quality, but it stayed undetected for years. Further Investigations Facebook spokesman Jay Nancarrow said the company is still investigating accounts and pages linked to Iran and had taken more down on August 28. This is an ongoing investigation and we will continue to find out more, he said. Were also glad to see that the information we and others shared last week has prompted additional attention on this kind of inauthentic behavior. Twitter referred to a statement it tweeted on August 27 shortly after receiving a request for comment from Reuters. The statement said the company had removed a further 486 accounts for violating its terms of use since last week, bringing the total number of suspended accounts to 770. Fewer than 100 of the 770 suspended accounts claimed to be located in the U.S. and many of these were sharing divisive social commentary, Twitter said. Google declined to comment but took down the IUVM TV YouTube account after Reuters contacted the company with questions about it. A message on the page on August 28 said the account had been terminated for a violation of YouTubes Terms of Service. IUVM did not respond to multiple emails or social media messages requesting comment. The organization does not conceal its aims, however. Documents on the main IUVM website https://iuvm.org said its headquarters are in Tehran and its objectives include confronting with remarkable arrogance, western governments and Zionism front activities. App Store And Satirical Cartoons IUVM uses its network of websites including a YouTube channel, breaking news service, mobile phone app store, and a hub for satirical cartoons mocking Israel and Irans regional rival Saudi Arabia to distribute content taken from Iranian state media and other outlets which support Tehrans position on geopolitical issues. Reuters recorded the IUVM network operating in English, French, Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Pashto, Russian, Hindi, Azerbaijani, Turkish and Spanish. Much of the content is then reproduced by a range of alternative media sites, including some of those identified by FireEye last week as being run by Iran while purporting to be domestic American or British news outlets. For example, an article run by in January by Liberty Front Press one of the pseudo-U.S. news sites exposed by FireEye reported on the battlefield gains made by the army of Iranian ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. That article was sourced to IUVM but actually lifted from two FARS news agency stories. FireEye analyst Lee Foster said iuvmpress.com, one of the biggest IUVM websites, was registered in January 2015 with the same email address used to register two sites already identified as being run by Iran. ClearSky said multiple IUVM sites were hosted on the same server as another website used in the Iranian operation. Reporting by Jack Stubbs and Christopher Bing. FDA Warns Against Popular Liquid Nitrogen Dragons Breath Dessert Fad The Food and Drug Administration issued an alert on Aug. 30, advising against consuming liquid nitrogen prepared foods like the popular Dragons Breath treat commonly available in malls. The alert advises against eating foods prepared with liquid nitrogen at the point of sale. The wafting mists of the liquid nitrogen can cause damage to the human body if inhaled or ingested, although the substance itself is non-toxic. The damage occurs from the extremely cold temperatures that are key to the fascinating presentation of foods like dragons breath, according to the FDA alert. The snack is often seen at malls in kiosks. A smoky mist created by the cold liquid nitrogen floats out of a container of bright, multicolored cereal balls or other crunchy treats. Last year a child in South Korea burned a hole in his stomach after eating the snack, and then gulping down the leftover nitrogen, still in liquid form, left at the bottom of the container, The Korea Times reported. Some bars also serve drinks prepared with liquid nitrogen, giving them a swirling, mystical fog. The FDA also recommends against these. Injury can still occur once the liquid nitrogen has evaporated from a food or drink product due to the extremely cold temperature left by the liquid nitrogen infusion. The FDA does not warn against all ways of preparing a product with liquid nitrogen. Cold sweets that are prepared with liquid nitrogen during processing are generally fine. The liquid nitrogen is given a chance to fully evaporate and the product temperature has already risen by the time it is sold for consumption. According to The Straits Times, dragons breath started to appear in the nighttime markets of South Korea and the Philippines in 2015. The popularity of the snack exploded after U.S.-based vendor Chocolate Chair started selling the snack in Los Angeles. A burst of excitement around the food trend soon spread through social media, and more vendors started offering the smokey, cold, sweet treat. A vendor from Singapore said the snack is the most Instagram-able street food in the world right now, in an article from last year. She also remarked how the popularity has little to do with the snacks taste. While the dessert doesnt have much flavor, most diners are after taking photos of the dessert and playing with their cold breath. A Google search for dragons breath brings up numerous videos showing people blowing smoke out of their mouths and nose after consuming the dessert. In some cases, they show people getting injured in the process. Inside Edition showed a video of a man burning his mouth consuming dragons breath. I stuck my finger in my mouth and there was blood on my hands, Lane Mattison told Inside Edition. For about three weeks, I was limited in what I could eat, he said. Florida mother Racheal Richard McKenny wrote a long post on Facebook sharing the story of how eating dragons breath caused her son to suffer an asthma attack. She didnt have his asthma medication since he rarely needed it, so she almost wasnt able to get him the medical attention he needed. Fortunately, her son recalled a nearby fire station. Emergency personnel managed to save his life and get him to a hospital. She posted the story, which had 121,000 shares and 15,000 reactions as of the time of this publication. From NTD.tv German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer talks to journalists after the ARD- Sommerinterview in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany August 5, 2018. (Reuters/Joachim Herrmann). Germany, Seeking Independence From U.S., Pushes Cyber Security Research Germany announced a new agency on August 29 to fund research on cybersecurity and to end its reliance on digital technologies from the United States, China, and other countries. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told reporters that Germany needed new tools to become a top player in cybersecurity and shore up European security and independence. It is our joint goal for Germany to take a leading role in cybersecurity on an international level, Seehofer told a news conference with Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen. We have to acknowledge were lagging behind, and when one is lagging, one needs completely new approaches. The agency is a joint interior and defense ministry project. Germany, like many other countries, faces a daily barrage of cyber attacks on its government and industry computer networks. However, the opposition Greens criticized the project. This agency wouldnt increase our information technology security, but further endanger it, said Greens lawmaker Konstantin von Notz. The agencys work on offensive capabilities would undermine Germanys diplomatic efforts to limit the use of cyberweapons internationally, he said. As a state based on the rule of law, we can only lose a cyber politics arms race with states like China, North Korea or Russia, he added, calling for scarce resources to be focused on hardening vulnerable systems. Germany and other European countries also worry about their dependence on U.S. technologies. This follows revelations in 2012 by U.S. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden of a massive spying network, as well as the U.S. Patriot Act which gave the U.S. government broad powers to compel companies to provide data. As a federal government, we cannot stand idly by when the use of sensitive technology with high-security relevance are controlled by other governments. We must secure and expand such key technologies of our digital infrastructure, Seehofer said. By Andrea Shalal. A Grab motor driver is seen in a street in Jakarta, Indonesia, February 13, 2017. (Reuters/Beawiharta). Grab to Invest $250 Million in Indonesian Startups in Race Against Go-jek Grab will invest $250 million in Indonesian startups over the next three years through its newly launched innovation arm, as the ride-hailing firm aggressively pushes to cement its position in Southeast Asias largest economy. The Singapore-based firm has raised $2 billion in funding in recent months and also launched the Grab Ventures arm to develop technology start-ups in sectors beyond ride-hailing as it locks horns with Indonesias Go-Jek for regional dominance. We are looking at startups in both series A and B, which we could integrate into our ecosystem, Ridzki Kramadibrata, managing director for Indonesia, told Reuters. The company, which counts Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing and Japans SoftBank Group Corp among its backers, has already started looking at startups and will start funding rounds later this year, he added. Grab is interested in healthcare and food-and-grocery delivery startups as well as those that facilitate digital payments and automated processes, he added. Grabs rival Go-Jek has already evolved from a ride-hailing service to a one-stop app allowing Indonesian clients to make online payments and order everything from food, groceries to massages. It is now looking to expand in Southeast Asia, to Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Singapore. Kramadibrata said Grab is currently the top ride-hailing player in Indonesia and that he was confident the firm would be able to maintain the lead. The firm is valued at around $11 billion, according to sources. We hold 65 percent of (Indonesias) ride-hailing market, as based on total rides and transactions, said Kramadibrata. And it wont stop there, our market share is increasing. He reckons Grab holds majority market share in 137 cities in Indonesia, compared with Go-Jeks roughly 50. Kramadibrata said he based his estimates on internal and third-party data that he declined to reveal. Go-Jek did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. Its CEO, Nadiem Makarim, told Reuters this month that the companys app was a market leader in Indonesia, processing more than 100 million transactions for 20-25 million monthly users. He did not specify how many of those transactions were only for ride-hailing. Ride-hailing services in Southeast Asia are expected to surge to $20.1 billion in gross merchandise value by 2025 from $5.1 billion in 2017, according to a Google-Temasek report. By Cindy Silviana. Grain-Reserve Fires in China Fuel Speculation That Facilities Are Skirting State Inspections Recent reports of fires at grain warehouses across China have sparked speculation that the facilities may have been set ablaze intentionally to skirt state inspections. In Hunan Province this year, two fires occurred at Sinograins grain reserves, which may have been attempts to cover up false reporting about the warehouses contents, according to an Aug. 29 report by Chinese newspaper China Times. To ensure that the country has enough food to feed its population, the Chinese regime has implemented a system of grain reserves. State-run food companies fill warehouses with grain purchased from local farmers, and prices are kept low with subsidies from the central government. But the quality of the grain occasionally has been called into question. In 2015, a state media investigation of the grain reserves found that some warehouses in northeastern China were buying up old or inferior quality grains at discounted prices, passing them off as new grains, and selling them at higher prices. The China Times reported on fires in February and May at the facilities of Sinograin, the states grain reserve corporation. On Feb. 25, a blaze at a office building in Hunan Province destroyed equipment and records. There were no injuries, primarily since the fire occurred on a Sunday. Many local residents posted videos of the blaze to social media at the time. On May 13, a Sinograin warehouse in Hengyang City, also in Hunan Province, caught fire. While records exist of firefighters appearing on the scene to stop the fire, no official statement was ever released about estimated financial losses or what may have been damaged or destroyed in the fire. State media on July 26 announced a notice from the State Council, stating that all grain reserves were to be inspected for quality and quantity. But a few days later, on July 29, local media reported a granary fire in Taonan City, Jilin Province in northeastern China. The local grain authorities said that the fire had nothing to do with the inspection, although more granary fires have been reported since the inspection announcement, including in Jiaozuo City, Henan Province, and Guixi City, Jiangxi Province. Netizens and Chinese media have raised the possibility that the fires are attempts at avoiding the inspections by destroying evidence. In June 2013, a similar fire occurred in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, destroying almost 52,000 tons of corn and rice crops, just days after central authorities had dispatched special inspection teams to uncover corruption. An investigative report by the Sina news portal found that Sinograin ordinarily has a firefighting department to do regular inspections and prevent such occurrences. The fact that a massive fire spread throughout the granary was suspicious, the report concluded. The residence of Luis Perez Garcia, a Mexican journalist who was bludgeoned to death, shown cordoned off by police on Aug. 28, 2018, in Mexico City. (Tim MacFarlan/Special to The Epoch Times) Mexico a War Zone for Journalists, and May Be Getting Worse Cameraman in Cancun latest victim of fatal attack MEXICO CITYThe situation for journalists in Mexico is comparable to some war zonesand its only getting worse, according to press-freedom advocates. The murder of a cameraman in the tourist city of Cancun is the latest fatal attack on a member of the media to hit the headlines. Javier Enrique Rodriguez Valladares, who worked for local television station Canal 10, was shot dead in a central part of the coastal resort city between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Aug. 29, according to local news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that the 31-year-old, who was to be married on Aug. 31, was gunned down alongside another man, to whom he may have been selling a car. Many Mexican journalists have to maintain other sources of income because the pay and conditions on offer from their main employers are poor. A motive for the killing has yet to be established. The attorney generals office for the state of Quintana Roo announced there was so far no indication Rodriguez Valladaress death was linked to his work. He has become the third journalist to be killed in Quintana Roo in just over two months, after Ruben Pat Cauich Jose and Guadalupe Chan Dzib, who were both shot. The killings forced the outlet they both worked for, Semanario Playa News, to close; no suspects have been apprehended in either case. The deaths in Quintana Roo are part of a dangerous new pattern in a state that hasnt previously been among the most perilous for journalists in Mexico. However, the lack of progress in either investigation is a familiar theme in the country. Unfortunately with the case of journalists in particular, the impunity rating is actually higher than with citizens in general, Jan-Albert Hootsen, CPJs Mexico representative, told The Epoch Times. Only about 2 1/2 percent of all the cases of violence, and not just lethal but all kinds of violence, against reporters ever lead to a conviction. CPJ keeps track of cases where killers of journalists arent captured and assigns an impunity index to each country. Mexico had the sixth-highest impunity index in the world last year. We look at countries like Iraq, Yemen, the Philippines, and Syria. Three of those are active war zones and Mexico isnt, so that tells you a lot. Public officials and organized crime membersthe two principal originators of violence and threats against journalistsare pretty sure theyll never be convicted if they threaten or attack a journalist, according to Hootsen. While impunity is the No. 1 cause of the continued violence, he says Mexicos weak institutional framework is another problem. Lethal Violence The number of journalists killed in Mexico for their work stands at more than 100 since 2000, according to a number of free-speech organizations. According to CPJ, last year was the most deadly with 11 fatalities, and there have been seven this year already. Rodriguez Valladares isnt yet on that list, since his killing hasnt yet been linked to his work, but the pain of losing another journalistic voice to Mexicos rampant violence is no less keen for those who knew him. German Espiridion, of Quintana Roo and Yucatan news website Balcon, posted a video to Facebook praising Rodriguez Valladares as a good friend, young, with a future and very talented. To his fiancee, we have no words. We are in shock, he wrote. Hootsen said the situation for journalists is getting worse, a trend parallel with general violence and high rates of homicide in the country. Lethal violence against journalists, which is the most important indicator of how bad the situation is, runs usually parallel with the generalized context of violence [in Mexico], he said. In another recent case, Luis Perez Garcia, who directed a small magazine called Encuesta Hoy in Mexico City, was found bludgeoned to death at his home on July 23 this year. The 80-year-old lived alone in a tiny house in the rough neighborhood of Juan Escutia, abutting the roaring 150D highway heading out of the city toward.s Puebla. While emergency services who were called to a fire at the property initially thought its occupant had died from asphyxiation, an autopsy revealed he had suffered head trauma caused by a sharp instrument. Its likely his killers set the home on fire to try to cover their tracks. His slaying also hasnt yet been linked to his work, but his family has been too scared to speak to another press-advocacy association, Reporteros Sin Fronteras. A former colleague contacted by The Epoch Times declined to be interviewed for this story. Garcias neighbor of eight years, Miguel Angel Morales Garza, 51, described Garcia as a calm and reserved man devoted to his work. I cant explain why it happened, why anyone would want to do such a thing or whether it was because of the fact of his work, Garza said. We lived only a few meters away from each other for so long. Its very sad. Memory chip parts of U.S. memory chip maker MicronTechnology are pictured at their booth at an industrial fair in Frankfurt, Germany, July 14, 2015. (Reuters/Kai Pfaffenbach). Micron Technology Plans $3 Billion Expansion of Virginia Plant Chipmaker Micron Technology Inc said August 29 it plans to spend $3 billion over the next 12 years to expand a plant in Virginia about 40 miles (64 km) west of Washington, D.C. Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra told Reuters in an interview the expansion aims to meet increasing demand for chips in automobiles, which are gaining more computer power for features such as collision avoidance systems or lane departure warning systems. The company expects that market to double to $6 billion by 2021. Think of the automobiles of the future as data centers on wheels, he told Reuters. The money will be spent to build about 100,000 square feet of additional clean room space for making memory chips at Microns existing Manassas, Virginia factory, which employs about 1,500 people. Micron expects the expansion to create 1,100 permanent jobs for engineers and technicians once complete. Boise, Idaho-based Micron, the worlds fourth largest semiconductor firm by revenue according to research firm Gartner, differs from much of the chip industry in that it still makes its own chips rather than farming the work to contract factories and that it still makes many of its chips in the United States. It also makes chips in Singapore, Japan, and Taiwan, but only performs assembly and test work in China. The company has become a prominent point in trade relations between China and the United States. Micron in 2015 rejected a takeover bid made by a state-backed Chinese company as China was trying to build out its chip industry, a development that the U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer highlighted in a report in March about Chinas trade practices. Micron later alleged in a U.S. lawsuit that a different Chinese firm stole its trade secrets. That firm, in turn, sued Micron in a Chinese court alleging Micron violated its patents, and the Chinese court banned some of Microns chips while the trial proceeds. U.S. officials brought up Microns story during trade talks with Chinese trade officials earlier this month, according to two people familiar with the talks. Mehrotra said the decision to expand in Virginia really does not have anything to do with the recent discussions with China on various trade matters. Instead, he said, Virginia was chosen for expansion because it has been making chips for 15 years there for car makers, who demand higher levels of durability and reliability than gadget makers. We have a deep culture in the Manassas facility of supporting the demanding requirements of these customers, he said. By Stephen Nellis and David Lawder. New Mexico Compound Suspects Arrested by FBI on Firearms Charges The five adults living at a remote compound in northern New Mexico were arrested by the FBI on firearms and conspiracy charges. The arrests on Aug. 31 were announced after a judge released three of the suspects on Aug. 30, due to failure by local prosecutors to follow a procedural rule. The judge dismissed child abuse charges against Lucas Morton; his wife, Subhannah Wahhaj; and her sister Hujrah Wahhaj. Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, brother of the two women, and his wife, Jany Leveille, were not released because theyre facing separate charges over the death of Wahhajs 3-year-old son. The toddlers body was found at the compound, while 11 other children were discovered during the Aug. 3 raid on the compound, starving and living in dismal conditions. New Charges The FBIs charges focus on Leveille, an illegal alien from Haiti who had been living in the United States for years. The criminal complaint charged Leveille with being an alien unlawfully in possession of firearms and ammunition in New Mexico from November 2017 through August 2018; the other four defendants were charged with aiding and abetting Leveille in committing the offense, and with conspiring with Leveille to commit the offense. During the raid, law enforcement officers found at least 11 firearms and a large quantity of ammunition, which officials believe was transported from Georgia and/or Alabama to New Mexico in Leveilles vehicle. All five adults face up to 15 years in prison, with Levelle facing deportation after completing her sentence if convicted. How the 3-Year-Old Died Leveille allegedly led the group initially to New Mexico, and was a practitioner of occultism. Tariq Abdur Rashid, whose daughter is married to Siraj Wahhajs brother, told The Epoch Times that she convinced her husband that she was a messiah. She set herself up as the interpreter of Gods word, he said. Related Coverage New Mexico Compound Suspects Planned to Attack Atlanta Hospital: Prosecutors Prosecutors said evidence indicated that the 3-year-old boy died during a religious ritual intended to cast out demonic spirits, reported Reuters. The boy was initially kidnapped from his mother in Georgia. The boy stopped breathing and soon died during a ceremony, prosecutors said. Wahhaj had placed his hand on the boys head and was reciting verses from the Koran just before the boy began suffering seizures and foaming at the mouth. He was soon dead. Ibn Wahhajs 15-year-old son recounted to officials that one of the adults told him the spirit of the dead boy would return as Jesus to direct the group on where to carry out the violent attacks they were allegedly training for. From NTD.tv Officer, Three Others Pull Child From Culvert A police officer from Jackson, Wisconsin, helped three other adults rescue a 9-year-old child being sucked into a drainage culvert. Jackson Police Officer Kyle Henning was driving his patrol car through the Green Valley neighborhood on the afternoon of Aug. 27 when he spotted a group of people that seemed to be struggling on the side of the road, according to the police department. He instinctively knew they needed help, and he sped to the scene without hesitation. Accelerated as fast as I could, got there, got out. Didnt even call it out on the radio, didnt even put the lights on. Just ran and tried to help, Officer Henning told Fox News. At first the officer didnt know what was wrong. But then you saw the water and those arms sticking up from it, he told Fox. Henning ran up to the group of adults and realized they were trying to pull a child out of a drainage culvert. The child, nine-year-old Gavin Moederndorfer-Quella, said one of his friends dared him to jump into the water. I thought it would not suck me in, he told Fox. The fast-moving water did suck him inand only the quick response of Officer Henning and the other adults kept the child alive. Officer Henning had to lay flat on his chest and wrap both arms around the boy, and with help from the other bystanders, managed to drag the boy out of the culvert. He told Fox, I was able to kind of twist myself and him enough to wrench him away from the water vortex. His face was pale. He was in shock. Officer Henning had his dash-cam turned on, so the entire rescue was recorded. Rescue Buddies Reunited Gavin Moederndorfer-Quella, his mother Taylor Moederndorfer, and Officer Henning all got together again on Thursday, Aug. 30. Henning got a hug from Gavin and a tearful expression of thanks from his mother. She knew that if those people hadnt been there, the outcome could have been tragic. If it wasnt for them he would not be here today, she said. Officer Henning was happy to see that Gavin was doing well. Officer Henning didnt see himself as a life-saver, or a hero. He was just a person doing his job. Thats the whole thing of a first responder, he explained. You dont question it. You just go in where people need help. From NTD.tv Watch Next: I Was a Communist Slave A story of tragedy, faith, and resistance in the face of brutal totalitarianism, Memoir of a Communist Slave is one mans journey to uncover what he believes has held him and his people hostage for too long. John Schnatter (R), founder and chief executive of Papa John's Pizza, arrives at the 2011 American Music Awards in Los Angeles on Nov. 20, 2011. (Reuters/Danny Moloshok/File Photo) Papa Johns Founder Sues Company Board to Stop Irreparable Harm WILMINGTON, Del.The founder and largest shareholder of Papa Johns International Inc sued the pizza chains board and chief executive late on Aug. 30, to stop what he described as the irreparable harm they are causing the company, according to a court filing. John Schnatter has been in an escalating battle with the companys board since he stepped down as chairman in July after he apologized for using a racial slur during a media training call. Schnatter remains a member of the board and holds 30 percent of the companys shares, and said it was a mistake to resign as chairman. Lawsuit Aims to Stop Board Members Schnatter is suing the board and CEO Steve Ritchie to stop the irreparable harm those individuals are causing due to their repeated, and ongoing, breaches of the duties of loyalty and care they owe to the company, according to a statement from Schnatter. Papa Johns said the allegations were without merit. John Schnatter will do anything to distract attention from the harm caused by his inappropriate words, said the company in a statement. He continues to make reckless allegations in his attempt to regain control and serve his own interests. The lawsuit filed was under seal in Delawares Court of Chancery, and Schnatter asked the court to expedite the case. Suit Follows Company Criticism of Schnatter On Aug. 30, the company criticized Schnatter publicly for attending a meeting in July about a potential deal with hamburger chain Wendys Co without Ritchie present, as the board had instructed. A Papa Johns shareholder also filed a lawsuit on Aug. 30, seeking class-action status, accusing the company and Schnatter of securities fraud for concealing his alleged inappropriate workplace conduct, and how its code of ethics was inadequate to prevent it. Shares of Papa Johns were flat at $46.02 on Aug. 31. Schnatter Wants Leadership Back Earlier in August, the founder of Papa Johns took out a full-page ad in the companys hometown paper, the Courier-Journal, to direct employees of the Louisville, Kentucky-based firm to a website hes launched, called SavePapaJohns.com. Papa Johns has about 120,000 workers worldwide, including those at its franchises. The Board wants to silence me, Schnatter wrote on the website, which includes copies of legal documents in his fight with the pizza company. So this is my website, and my way to talk to you. The website is part of Schnatters bid for new leadership at the chain, which is struggling with declining sales and controversies related to his comments. The 56-year-old came under pressure after a July media report that he used a racial slur and descriptions of violence against minorities on a call with a media agency. He admitted to using the slur but said he was taken out of context. Papa Johns said in a statement Aug. 22, that its not dependent on one person among its corporate and franchise team members. Investors support the companys actions to separate itself from Schnatter, it said. President Trump Participates in a Signing Event on Strengthening Retirement Security in America Watch Next: President Donald J. Trump Committed to Protecting Religious Liberty President Trump signed an Executive Order entitled Establishment of a White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative President Donald Trumps Message to Family Members of the Fallen President Donald Trump paid a Memorial Day tribute at Arlington National Cemetery on May 28. Father Who Lost Child Tells Trump: I remember the hug you gave me Trump Wants to Create a Space Force US Leaves UN Human Rights Council If the righteous many do not confront the wicked few, then evil will triumph. Steven Spielbergs Schindlers List Returns to Theaters to Celebrate 25th Anniversary Schindlers List is having a special theatrical re-release by Universal Pictures on Dec. 7, in order to celebrate the films 25th year following its first opening in 1993. The Oscar-winning film follows the true story of a German businessman and a member of the Nazi Party, Oskar Schindler, played by Liam Neeson, who saved more than 1,100 Jewish peoples lives during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. According to Variety, the restored version has been remastered in 4K, Dolby Cinema, and Dolby Atmos, with Steven Spielberg personally supervising the restoration from the original film negatives. Universal Pictures released a new trailer to celebrate the films 25th anniversary. Steven Spielberg shot the film in Poland in black and white, in order to present the feel of a documentary. Schindlers List won several Academy Awards, not only best picture and best director, but other prizes such as best composer, screenwriter, and director of photography, reported Variety. The film was selected by the Library of Congress to be preserved in National Registry in 2004, and it was ranked as the 8th of the best 100 American films by the American Film Institute in 2007. Survivor of New Mexico Bus Crash Gave Birth to Twins Hours Later A pregnant survivor of the collision between a passenger bus and semi-trailer truck on a New Mexico interstate that killed eight people, gave birth to twins just hours after the crash, hospital officials said on Friday. The woman, who was not identified by name, was in stable condition after giving birth at a Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services clinic, said Addie Patel, the hospitals chief quality officer. The two newborn babies were in neo-natal intensive care at University of New Mexico Hospital (UNMH) in Albuquerque, Sonlee West, a surgeon there and director of the hospitals trauma unit, told reporters at a news conference. It was not immediately known if the infants were born prematurely. Eight people were killed when a Greyhound passenger bus collided head-on with a semi-trailer truck blew a tire on Interstate 40 in New Mexico and jumped a highway median strip, colliding with a Greyhound bus in the town of Thoreau, about 100 miles (161 km) west of Albuquerque. Photos showed a truck on its side with the trailers cargo scattered across the highway and the Greyhound bus upright, but with its front end obliterated. Most of the 49 passengers on the Phoenix, Arizona-bound bus were injured in the wreck and taken to local hospital. Their injuries ranged from spine and pelvic fractures to broken legs, West said. Several of them will have a long road of recovery ahead, she said. Three of the six victims taken to UNMH were in critical condition, but the condition of the rest had not been released, said spokeswoman Cindy Foster. At the seaside town of Jinshan, visitors can relieve stress and fatigue in the hot springs while enjoying exquisite views of the ocean. There are a variety of facilities, including private rooms and outdoor pools. (Courtesy of Taiwan Tourism Bureau) Taiwans Top 10 Hot Springs Hot springs have long been treasured for their therapeutic benefits. Emerging from deep below the earths surface, hot springs offer a variety of healthful minerals. Some of the best hot springs in the world can be found on the island nation of Taiwan, thanks to its location at the confluence of two major tectonic zones. With more than 100 hot springs, cold springs, mud springs, and seabed hot springs, Taiwan is the perfect place for a rejuvenating, therapeutic soak. In 1896, the islands first hot spring hotel was opened in Beitou, Taipei City. Since then, hot springs have grown into a flourishing industry and become a central part of Taiwanese culture. Taiwan has a wide range of offerings, from outdoor public baths (some are free of charge!) to exquisite, private retreats. Some hot springs have largely been preserved in their natural state, while others have been tapped into by resort-style hotels to create luxury spa and health centers with hot spring hydrotherapy. Most hot springs in Taiwan are located among beautiful landscapes in Taiwanfrom stunning mountains to enchanting valleys. You can enjoy not only a rejuvenating soak, but also breathtaking views. And, of course, such a trip wouldnt be complete without some nourishing local cuisineall within arms reach at Taiwans many hot spring destinations. Jiaoxi On the northeastern coast, Jiaoxi is one of the few lowland hot spring sites in Taiwan. The hot springs are rich in minerals like magnesium, sodium, potassium, calcium, and carbon. In Jiaoxi, local cuisine is made with vegetables irrigated with nutrient-rich hot-spring water. Vegetables raised with this water grow quickly and become unusually crisp, tender, and sweet. Especially well-known are locally grown water spinach, tomatoes, sponge gourd, and water bamboo, which are collectively known as the four treasures. Zhiben Zhibens hot springs, odorless and colorless, are located in a breathtaking valley in the southeastern part of Taiwan, with views of canyons and waterfalls. The area is home to a variety of five-star resorts, as well as small to mid-size inns. In recent years, many hotels here have added hydrotherapy and spa facilities, massage pools, and herbal baths. Visitors to Zhiben can also relish the delicious cuisine. Local specialties feature sailfish as well as roselle and sugar apples. Beitou Beitou, the hot-spring capital of Taiwan, is just a 30-minute metro ride away from the center of Taipei City, Taiwans bustling capital. When you first arrive, youll be struck by the smell of sulfur, but if you can get past the odor, youll be able to revel in Beitous wonderful thermal pools. The springs boil up from the volcanic core of Mount Datun and come in three types: one yellowish-white, one slightly green, and one filled with iron that makes it reddish-brown. The bathing facilities here vary widely from traditional Japanese-style bath houses to more modern spas, catered to both day-trip and overnight visitors. If youre interested in learning more about the history of this town, head to the Beitou Hot Spring Museum, which was once the largest public bath house in northeast Asia. Guanziling Guanziling is about three hours drive from Taipei City, but the trip is worth it. Its rare mud springsone of only three in the worldrejuvenate the skin and boost health. Back in the early 20th century, Japanese nobility frequented the site. The area is also home to the Water and Fire Cave, where a fire seems to dance on top of a natural spring. This captivating natural wonder results from a fissure that releases both spring water and natural gas. According to legend, the fire has been burning for centuries. For dinner, make sure you get a taste of the regions exquisite lotus flower cuisine. In midsummer, lotus flowers blanket the area, blossoming in white, yellow, blue, purple, and pink. Every part of the lotus can be eatenincluding the root, leaves, flowers, seeds, and even the white membrane and husks of the seeds. The local restaurants use these delicious and nutritious ingredients to make a variety of dishes, like lotus seed congee, lotus seed sticky rice tamales, lotus chicken, lotus leaf ribs, and lotus root tea. Wulai About an hour south of central Taipei is the town of Wulai. The baths in Wulai are right along the river, so you can go for a swim to cool off after a soak in the hot spring. Unlike sulfur hot springs, the hot springs here are odorless and clear. Theyve been dubbed beauty springs for their beauty-enhancing properties, naturally exfoliating and moisturizing the skin. After a luxurious soak, you can savor the local delicacies of the indigenous Atayal people, who use ingredients from the nearby mountains. The flavorful sausages here are a must-try, as well as the local eggs cooked in the water of the hot springs. Jinshan Close to the sea, the hot springs at Jinshan, or Jin Mountain, emerged after an earthquake in the mid-19th century. At Jinshans Governor-General Hot Spring, one of the oldest hot springs in Taiwan, visitors can soak while enjoying beautiful mountain and ocean views. Besides the hot springs, the area is known for its duck meat. The ducks are raised for 130 days, almost twice the typical breeding period, and fed wheat, corn, and lard. While visiting Jinshan, make sure you also try other local specialties, which feature sweet potato, taro, and white bamboo shoots. Guguan At Guguan, many spas are designed in elegant Japanese style. It is said that the Japanese Meiji Emperor came to Guguan with his wife in the early 20th century. After a soak at the hot springs here, the Meiji Emperor and his wife conceived; since then, these springs have been known as the male child springs or the Meiji hot springs. The area is also known for its trout, a freshwater fish that lives only in exceptionally clean water. Taian To reach the hot springs at Taian, in the northwestern region of Taiwan, you have to drive up a winding mountain road. The waters here are clear, tasteless, and odorless. Nestled among mountain peaks, its the perfect spot for a quiet retreat. Besides the allure of the beautiful valleys and waterfalls, the area is also home to the cultures of the Hakka and Atayal people, who have contributed to the distinctive local cuisine. Ruisui At Ruisui, on the eastern coast of Taiwan, the waters have a murky brownish tint, which often misleads visitors into thinking the water is unclean. The color is actually the result of the waters rich iron content. The iron oxidizes when it comes in contact with the air, leaving a layer of crystallized minerals on the surface of the water. It leaves bathers skin feeling smooth. Baolai and Bulao Fed by clear water from the Baolai and Bulao Valley, the hot springs here are colorless and odorless. They contain carbonic acid and thus, are great for nourishing the skin and alleviating fatigue. The name Bulao means forever young in Chinese. Most of the hotels here have hot spring pools as well as spa and hydrotherapy facilities. Visitors can also enjoy the local barbecue and camping areas. Taro is a local specialty, so make sure you try the local taro shaved ice, taro biscuits, and taro rice cake. Three Displaced Following Early-Morning Attic Fire Three people were displaced following a fire at a home in Antioch early this morning, according to Contra Costa County Fire Department dispatch. The blaze was first reported at a residence in the 2800 block of Gentrytown Drive around 12:40 a.m. A fire dispatcher said the blaze was contained to the attic and nobody was injured. The American Red Cross was dispatched to the scene to help those displaced, fire officials said. By PF. The offices of Swiss bank UBS are seen in the financial district of the City of London, Britain October 31, 2012. (Reuters/Chris Helgren). UBS to Sell Digital SmartWealth Platform to Fintech Startup UBS is closing its British digital wealth management platform and selling the intellectual property rights to wealth management startup SigFig, executives at the Swiss bank told staff on August 29. UBS decided to discontinue the SmartWealth pilot program, launched in Britain in early 2017, following a review that found the limited short-term potential for the service, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. The contents of the memo were confirmed by UBS. While we were satisfied with the initial commercial progress, at this time we believe the near-term potential is limited and have therefore decided to close our digital-only offering in the UK, Eva Lindholm, head of Wealth Management UK, and Reto Wangler, chief operating officer of Global Wealth Management, said in the memo. Were pleased, however, to have entered into an agreement to sell the intellectual property relating to UBS SmartWealth to SigFig a financial technology firm that we have an equity stake in and with whom weve been working for two years in the U.S., the memo added. Clients would be informed during the course of the day, Lindholm and Wangler said. The sale was reported by Citywire earlier on August 29. The launch of the pilot program, which provided digital real-time advice to customers with a minimum of 15,000 pounds ($19,300) to invest, marked a foray into a far broader clientele for the worlds biggest private bank, which counts millionaires and billionaires amongst its wealth management customers. The bank was considering a wider rollout of the program as recently as December last year. However, following a wealth management reorganization under which its North American and international businesses were folded into one global unit, prompting senior management changes, the bank decided to invest resources elsewhere. Founded in 2007, SigFig sells software to large financial institutions to enable them to offer new digital services such as automated wealth management, known as robo-advice. It also provides robo-advice directly to consumers. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. ($1 = 0.7769 pounds) By Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi. Flash Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday held talks with Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore in Beijing, and the two leaders agreed to open a new chapter of bilateral friendly cooperation on the momentum of the restoration of diplomatic ties. Kabore, on a state visit to China, is to attend the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) scheduled for Sept. 3 and 4. Burkina Faso's first time participating in the forum is of great importance for the development of China's relations with not only Burkina Faso but also Africa, said Xi, adding that China highly appreciates Kabore's political determination to resume diplomatic ties with China. Bilateral relations between the two countries have made encouraging progress and are off to a good start since China and Burkina Faso resumed diplomatic ties three months ago, said Xi. China will plan and promote the bilateral ties with a strategic and long-term perspective and is willing to continuously enhance political mutual trust, carry out exchanges and mutual learning, promote bilateral cooperation in various fields in a comprehensive and orderly manner and open a new chapter of friendly cooperation in the new era on the principle of equality and mutual trust as well as win-win cooperation, said Xi. China supports Burkina Faso's efforts to fight terrorism and maintain stability in the country and in the region, said Xi. Kabore said the Burkina Faso government recognizes there is but one China in the world, that the Government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. Burkina Faso highly values China's commitment of multilateralism and win-win cooperation in international affairs, said Kabore. Thanks to China's great concern for African people's demands and support to Africa's development, Burkina Faso independently made its decision to restore diplomatic relations with China and return to the family of Africa-China cooperation, which fully conforms to the direction of Burkina Faso's future development, said Kabore. Kabore said Burkina Faso is satisfied with the rapid advancement and positive achievements of the bilateral cooperation since the restoration of diplomatic ties, adding that the country is willing to learn from China's ideas and theories of development, enhance political mutual trust and deepen practical cooperation in various fields. Burkina Faso appreciates the leadership China has demonstrated in the framework of FOCAC and expects the FOCAC Beijing Summit will inject new impetus to the development of Burkina Faso-China relations and Africa-China relations, said Kabore. After the meeting, the two leaders witnessed the signing of cooperation documents. Update: 4 Students Taken Into Custody After Gun Goes Off Inside Classroom Officers in San Francisco took four high school students into custody after a gun went off inside a classroom late on August 30 morning, police said. The incident occurred around 11:15 a.m. at Balboa High School, located at 1000 Cayuga Ave. The discharged gun caused the school to be on lockdown. As a precaution, San Francisco Unified School District officials also moved to place nearby Leadership High School, James Denman Middle School and San Miguel Early Education School on lockdown. After conducting a search, officers located the gun and a spent bullet casing, according to police. Of the four students taken into custody, only one is under investigation in connection with the firearms discharge. The other three student suspects are being investigated as possible accessories after the fact. One student suffered injuries not considered life-threatening during the ordeal. The students injuries, however, were not related to the gun discharging. That student was evaluated and has been released to their parents, police said. The lockdowns have since been lifted and no other students were injured, according to police. By Daniel Montes. Yellow ribbons decorating railings in a street in Alella, near Barcelona, Spain, on Aug. 30, 2018. (Anna Llado/Special to The Epoch Times) Yellow Ribbon War Intensifies in Catalonia BARCELONA, SpainWearing white jumpsuits, masks, and goggles, a determined group of around 80 people gather in the Catalan village of Cabrera de Mar, around 18 miles northwest of Barcelona. The nightly outing is one of the latest attempts of the self-styled cleaning brigade that seeks to free the region of Catalonia from the pro-independence movement. Their targets: Yellow ribbons that have decorated the streets and public places as symbols of solidarity with secessionist leaders who were jailed during the regions fight for independence last year. The battle over the yellow ribbons, dubbed by some the yellow ribbon war, has intensified this summer. The campaign to clean up the streets was fuelled by the center-right Ciudadanos party, which received the most popular votes in Catalonias 2017 elections. According to the partys leader, Ines Arrimadas, the government, formed by a coalition of pro-independence parties, has the obligation to maintain neutrality in public spaces, but since its doing nothing, the pro-Spain party is taking matters into its own hands. Jose Casado is the spokesman of the cleaning brigade that organizes its activities by using communication apps such as Whatsapp and Telegram. The initiative consists of 18 groups, each formed by around 30 people, working on the sly with secret maps showing where the ribbons are. Public spaces must be neutral; the streets belong to everyone, Casado said. On their balcony or at home, separatists can put whatever they want. But not in public spaces. Pep Cruanyes, vice president of the pro-independence Catalan National Assembly, doesnt see it that way. Public spaces shouldnt be neutral, Cruanyes said. Democracy should allow us to express our ideas and to dangle yellow ribbons or banners asking for the release of political prisoners. We will put up yellow ribbons peacefully as many times as necessary, he said, implying that the battle between the groups will continue. Removing the yellow ribbons goes against freedom of expression. But neither side is committing any crime, according to Spains attorney general, Maria Jose Segarra. Both are covered by freedom of expression, Segarra said. Nonetheless, the pro-independence Catalan President Quim Torra, who always wears a yellow ribbon on the lapel of his jacket, urges police to take action against the aggressive groups that remove the ribbons. Several people have already been identified and could face hefty fines, according to the regional government. The tensions have led to violence, at times. A man was arrested on Aug. 29 for punching a woman who he thought was removing ribbons from a park fence. During a protest to condemn the aggression, a cameraman from a Spanish TV channel was attacked because demonstrators thought he was a separatist. Eventful Autumn The battle for yellow ribbons has intensified ahead of an eventful autumn expected in Spain. Two key dates are Oct. 1the first anniversary of the failed independence referendumand Oct. 27, when the Catalan Parliament, illegally, declared independence. The trials of secessionist leaders currently in jail are also expected to start in the fall. There are nine leaders in prison, while another seven, including former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, are in self-imposed exile. Puigdemont lives in Waterloo, Belgium, where he continues his political activism. Another key date is Sept. 11, the National Day of Catalonia, when the Catalan National Assembly organizes a massive annual rally. Last year, 1 million people marched for independence during the event. President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to withdraw the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement, asserting his right to broker a new trade pact that does not include Canada despite opposition from lawmakers and questions over his legal authority to do so. Trump on Friday formally informed Congress of his intent to enter into a trade deal with Mexico, with the notice adding the administration hopes Canada would be added to the new pact later. U.S. and Canadian negotiators worked throughout the week on adding Canada to Friday's notice, but the negotiations failed to produce an agreement ahead of Trump's own Friday deadline. Negotiations with Canada are set to continue Wednesday in the hopes of adding Canada to the deal, and lawmakers have told Trump they will only sign onto a new NAFTA deal that includes all three North American nations. But Trump issued a warning to both to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Congress on Saturday in a post on Twitter, writing he would go on without Canada and could unwind North American free trade if lawmakers would not support his approach. "There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. If we don't make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out. Congress should not interfere w/ these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off...," Trump wrote. "We make new deal or go back to pre-NAFTA!," Trump wrote as part of a subsequent post. It's unclear whether Trump could withdraw from NAFTA without support from Congress, though he has repeatedly threatened to do so. Many lawmakers have said they would move to stop Trump if he attempts to withdraw from the deal, and the move would likely face legislative and legal challenges. The withdrawal process would require Trump to give Mexico and Canada 6 months' notice of his intent to leave the pact. Ending NAFTA without a replacement would cause large-scale economic disruption across North America and beyond. Companies accustomed to moving products across borders with few or no taxes would see costs jump - price hikes that would pass to consumers - and domestic producers would find their access to foreign markets diminished. Canada is the No. 1 destination for American products shipped abroad, and more than 8 million U.S. jobs are supported by trade with Canada, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The move would shelter some domestic industries from foreign competition, part of Trump's aim to revitalize some domestic industries that have opted to move production overseas. U.S. lawmakers have generally backed NAFTA, saying the overall economic benefits of cheaper products and greater efficiency have outweighed the negative consequences of job losses. But Trump has focused on areas where industrial decline has led to deep economic hardship. Trump's renewed threat to withdraw from NAFTA comes as U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland are set to resume negotiations Wednesday. The two sides are divided over substantive issues such as rules governing trade of dairy products, patent protections for pharmaceuticals, and disagreements over the process for resolving trade disputes. Canadian officials accused the U.S. side of refusing to offer concessions. That sentiment appeared validated Friday morning when the Toronto Star published comments Trump had made in which he told Bloomberg journalists that negotiations to rework NAFTA would take place only on his terms. Trump is attempting to get a new NAFTA deal signed before current President Enrique Pena Nieto leaves office Dec. 1. Nieto's successor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has had representatives at the U.S.-Mexico talks, but if the deal is not signed before he takes office he could add new demands and complicate the deal. That timeline was the impetus for Trump's Friday letter to Congress notifying them of the preliminary agreement with Mexico. That letter started a 90-day required notice period for Congress before the president can legally sign a new deal. Now, under U.S. trade law, Trump has 30 days from Friday to get final text to Congress. If Canada is not included in that final text, it would be legally very difficult -- if not impossible -- to include the country later. For Canada, losing access to the U.S. market would be a severe economic blow. And Trump has further threatened to put 25 percent tariffs on cars and auto parts sent from Canada into the United States - a move he could make without Congress' permission. Foreign leaders "keep underestimating Trump on trade," said Dan DiMicco, a former steel executive and trade adviser to Trump who was with the president Friday in Charlotte, North Carolina. "If he's not tough on everybody, why is China going to believe he's going to be tough on them?" But for Trump, failing to get Canada on board would set up a showdown with Congress in which all parties would be in murky legal territory. It's unclear whether the authority Trump has to renegotiate NAFTA extends to a deal done with just Mexico, and lawmakers - as well as Mexican officials - continue to stress the need for Canada's inclusion. NEWTOWN Garner Correctional Institute is facing two lawsuits claiming that dangerous levels of radon and uranium at the prison have caused cancer among correction officers and inmates. A class action lawsuit announced earlier in the week in New Haven on behalf of correction officers is headed to state Superior Court in Waterbury, and grows out of a federal suit filed in 2017 representing inmates. The latest claim contends that radon a naturally occurring radioactive gas killed at least two correction officers and caused nearly a dozen to contract cancer from dangerous levels of radon and uranium at the prison, according to attorney Lori Welch-Rubin of Bethany. Scott Semple, the commissioner of the state Department of Correction and other correction officials are the targets in both class action suits. Correction Department officials declined to comment Friday citing the pending litigation. Rubin claims state officials did little over more than two decades to prevent thousands of inmates and hundreds of prison guards from being exposed to high levels of the radioactive materials. Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer in the United States for nonsmokers, according to The American Cancer Society. While smoking was banned at the prison when it first opened in 1992, the levels of radon in some parts of the facility are equal to smoking more than two and a half packs of cigarettes a day, Rubin stated in the earlier federal filing. Tests by the town of Newtown have shown that the water contains as much as eight times the safe levels for uranium, Rubin maintains. While the state is not required to test for radon in public areas other than schools, the federal government has been suggesting radon testing be completed since the late 1980s. The area where the prison was built is also known to have a high potential for radon exposure, according to the federal suit. Forcing inmates to be exposed involuntarily to radon, a recognized human carcinogen, far in excess of any publicized safe level constitutes deliberate indifference by correctional officials, that suit states. The high levels of radon at the prison were discovered in late 2013 after a teacher in one of its classrooms complained about potential exposure. While federal guidelines warn of radon levels in excess of 4.0 picocuries per liter, areas of the prison showed levels in excess of 20 pCi/L, the federal suit states. Welch-Rubin said employees were told about the problem in 2014 and given a one-year window to apply for workers compensation benefits, but those who had already retired or were transferred to other facilities were not notified. A retired guard, who wasnt named, was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in 2016 and lived for about five months after the diagnosis, the attorney said. If he had been told years before when state officials knew about the problem hed probably still be alive today, Welch-Rubin said. While the federal government has set the action level for radon at 4.0 pCi/L, health officials advise residents that levels above 2.0 pCi/L should be of concern, according to Allison Sullivan an environmental analyst with the state Department of Public Healths radon unit. Sullivan also said all of the areas in the prison had been tested for radon, which runs counter to allegations in the lawsuit. We tested each of the correctional bubble in each of the residential areas, she said. They identified a problem and did what they had to do to fix it. The leading plaintiff in the new lawsuit is Frank Crose, the first warden at the prison who was diagnosed with nodules on his lungs. Other plaintiffs say theyve been diagnosed with a variety of ailments from breast and lung cancer to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The federal lawsuit claims the testing done in 2014 was limited and officials intentionally didnt test areas where the inmates were housed. A mitigation system that was put into place after the testing also doesnt cover the areas where the inmates are housed, the lawsuit states. Officials with the Department of Corrections went so far as to censor an article in Prison Legal News that discussed the problem, according to the filings. The Department of Corrections removed and censored the article as part of its ongoing effort to cover up what took place at Garner and to keep prisoners who were housed at Garner ignorant of the potential medical risks," stated one of the inmates, Scott Pickles, in an affidavit filed as part of the federal lawsuit. No member of the Department of Correction has ever informed me that I was exposed to radon while incarcerated at Garner, he said. Lawyers representing the state argued in federal court Monday in New Haven that the case should be withdrawn citing immunity state officials have from litigation. A decision on the motion has yet to be announced. dperrefort@newstimes.com WASHINGTON - Two factors animate U.S. Appeals Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh's crucial Supreme Court confirmation hearings that begin Tuesday in the Senate: one is the justice he would succeed, and the other is the president who chose him. A host of issues are at stake with the departure of the court's pivotal justice, Anthony Kennedy, whose swing-vote jurisprudence did not fit neatly into a conservative or liberal box. Abortion, affirmative action, the interplay of religious beliefs and gay rights, and the government's protection of the environment are among the issues impacted by Kennedy's departure, and Kavanaugh is likely to be to the right of Kennedy on all. But this confirmation fight also comes as the powers of a special prosecutor to investigate President Donald Trump are part of a national debate, with important constitutional decisions on executive power and prerogative possibly awaiting the high court. The politics of the Trump age only add to the battle over a judge whose lifetime appointment could seal a consistently right-leaning majority that the conservative legal movement has long labored to establish. "This is an appointment that almost certainly will change the ideological makeup of the court in a meaningful way," said Lori Ringhand, a University of Georgia law professor with an expertise in Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Kavanaugh, 53, has a unique perspective on the issue of investigating the president. He spent years working for Kenneth Starr on the probe of President Bill Clinton, taking a hard line on what he termed Clinton's lies and "pattern of revolting behavior" in connection with Clinton's relationship with a White House intern. But Kavanaugh has since written that he believes a president should not be distracted by civil suits and criminal investigations while in office. If Kavanaugh's view is nuanced - he's never said the Constitution prohibits such investigations - reaction from Democrats has been simple enough to fit in a tweet. Such as this one by Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democrat from California who will be among those on the Senate Judiciary Committee questioning Kavanaugh: "The president is an unindicted co-conspirator in federal crimes and he has nominated someone to the Supreme Court who believes a sitting president should never be indicted." Kavanaugh's Ivy League credentials, his outgoing personality, his close ties to the conservative legal establishment and his voluminous string of opinions and law review articles have long made him a likely choice for the Supreme Court under a Republican president. "I don't see him as remotely controversial," said Lisa Blatt, a Washington lawyer who regularly argues before the Supreme Court and considers Kavanaugh a friend. "He's such an obvious, conventional choice for a conservative. If Jeb Bush were president, he would have picked [Kavanaugh] before Neil Gorsuch." Blatt is a liberal Democrat, and has taken heat from progressives for her endorsement of Kavanaugh and her plans to introduce him Tuesday to the committee, along with former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and Republican Sen. Rob Portman, Ohio. At this point, it appears more likely that a handful of Democratic senators will cross over to support Kavanaugh than any Republicans will desert him. And just as with Trump's first nominee - now Justice Neil M. Gorsuch - all Kavanaugh needs to become the nation's 114th Supreme Court justice are the votes of Republican senators who make up the majority. "I've been on the Judiciary Committee for the last fourteen Supreme Court confirmation hearings," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said in a speech last week. "Judge Kavanaugh's will be my fifteenth and final. He is as qualified and as ready to serve as any nominee I have seen to our nation's highest court." The American Bar Association, which conservatives accuse of having a liberal bias, said Friday that Kavanaugh received a unanimous rating of "well qualified" from its screening committee, the highest ranking. Democrats are far from over Republican efforts that denied President Barack Obama's nominee Merrick Garland even a hearing in what would have been an appointment that would have moved the court in a different direction. Obama nominated Garland - like Kavanaugh, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit - to fill the spot of the late justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative stalwart. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., refused to consider the nomination until after the election, and his gamble paid off with Trump's victory. Liberal interest groups and Democrats also object to Kavanaugh's nomination on both process and substance. Only a portion of records amassed from Kavanaugh's more than five years in President George W. Bush's White House, as staff secretary, have been requested by Senate Republicans, and even those are being screened by Bush's lawyer, who represents, among others, White House counsel Donald McGahn. Beyond that, Kavanaugh's opponents say the importance of replacing the court's pivotal justice requires an examination of not just credentials but judicial philosophy and ideology. Kennedy, chosen by President Ronald Reagan three decades ago, voted with conservatives about two-thirds of the time. But in the court's most recent examination of state efforts to restrict abortion, as well as universities' use of affirmative action in student admissions, Kennedy sided with liberals. He wrote the court's 5-to-4 decision that said gay couples have a constitutional right to be married. As is usually the case at confirmation hearings, the abortion issue is likely to receive the most attention. Republican senators Susan Collins, Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, have said they will not support a nominee who would overturn abortion rights established by the court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. After meeting with Kavanaugh, Collins said he told her he considered Roe "settled law," just as Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. had at his confirmation hearing. But that meant little to abortion rights supporters. While there has not been a recent Supreme Court case directly challenging Roe or the other court precedents affirming the right to abortion, the chief justice and fellow George W. Bush nominee Justice Samuel Alito Jr. have been reliable votes for abortion restrictions in the most important cases to come before the court in their tenure. Abortion rights supporters and those opposed expect Kavanaugh would be a justice in the same vein, forming a majority with fellow conservatives Gorsuch and Justice Clarence Thomas that would make it more difficult for a woman to obtain the procedure. Kavanaugh has praised the late chief justice William Rehnquist and noted his dissent in Roe. He wrote a high-profile dissent when his court agreed that a teenage undocumented immigrant in government custody should be allowed to obtain an abortion. "On the vital issues of protecting religious liberty and enforcing restrictions on abortion, no court-of-appeals judge in the nation has a stronger, more consistent record than Judge Brett Kavanaugh," former law clerk Sarah Pitlyk, now special counsel for the Thomas More Society, wrote in the National Review. Beyond Kavanaugh's judicial opinions, Democrats will press his views on past writings and comments that could have a bearing on special counsel Robert Mueller III's investigation of the Trump administration and Russian interference in the 2016 election. He is sure to get questions on doubts he once expressed about the wisdom of the 1974 Supreme Court decision forcing President Richard M. Nixon to turn over secret White House tapes, and reservations Kavanaugh expressed about whether a sitting president should be protected from civil suits and criminal investigations. Twenty years ago, at a lawyers' roundtable discussion, Kavanaugh questioned the court's decision in United States v. Nixon. "Maybe Nixon was wrongly decided - heresy though it is to say so," Kavanaugh said, adding "Maybe the tension of the time led to an erroneous decision." But in a 2016 speech, he listed the decision with several others when he said that "some of the greatest moments in American judicial history have been when judges stood up to the other branches, were not cowed, and enforced the law." The latter view is the one he has stressed in private meetings with senators. As legal questions have arisen about whether Trump could be indicted while in office or forced to comply with a subpoena by Mueller, the Supreme Court could play a vital role. In a 2009 Minnesota Law Review article, Kavanaugh said he had concluded that a president is too busy to be distracted by civil suits and criminal investigation while in office. Impeachment is the proper remedy for a president's wrongdoing, Kavanaugh said, and Congress should protect the chief executive from other investigations until he leaves office. "Your previous statements give me serious pause: an expansive view of presidential power held by a Supreme Court Justice occupying Justice Kennedy's seat would undoubtedly mark a significant shift from our historical understandings and Supreme Court jurisprudence recognizing constitutional limits on the executive," Sen. Christopher Coons, D-Del., wrote to Kavanaugh in a letter Coons' office released last week. But others who have analyzed Kavanaugh's writings say they are not out of the mainstream. For instance, the Justice Department for years has held the position that the president cannot be indicted. And they say that Kavanaugh's suggestion that Congress protect the president from investigations shows that he has not made up his mind that there is already a legal bar to such probes. BRANFORD For four seconds on Wednesday morning, Aug. 22, the blast of a horn reverberated across the Stony Creek town dock, through scattered shell seekers on the town beach, and along the gabled houses up and down Thimble Islands Road. Welcome aboard the Volsunga, said Capt. Anna Milne into a microphone headset, as she piloted the 40-foot Thimble Islands Cruise tour boat and its 48 passengers into choppy waters amid a faint smell of engine oil and wind-whipped foam under threatening skies. From the way she simultaneously plied the lashing waters and held her passengers in thrall in the 45 minutes that followed, you wouldnt know Milne has been captaining the Volsunga IV for just three years; this is the first season she is alone at the helm. Or that shes among the 3 percent of cruise ship captains who are female worldwide, according to the Womens International Shipping and Trading Association. Its safe to say that few, if any, of those cruise ship captains lead up to seven 45-minute narrated tours each day, six days a week, from Memorial Day to Columbus Day, tracing crazy eights around craggy rock formations in sometimes less-than-ideal conditions. Or that any of them are 26-year-old business owners negotiating the vagaries of a seasonal enterprise. Which is not to say that the stiff headwinds and turbulent waves werent prompting a slight unease in Milne earlier that morning. This might be a bit challenging, the willowy, laid-back Stony Creek native said, emerging in bare feet from the engine room as the boat squeaked in its moorings, in preparation for the first tour of the day. Of course, rough waters, both figuratively and literally, are nothing new to Milne. Growing up, this was my life, she said. I spent what seems like most every single day, following him on a little 13-foot Whaler. Thats how I learned to navigate through this area. Him is her father, Bob Milne, the native Creeker known around the village as Captain Bob. From a young age, he was accumulating information about the islands and their colorful history. In 1986, he assumed ownership of the Volsunga III, a line of ferry boats that stretches back to the 1950s. Soon he became renowned for animating the rocks that form the Thimble Islands with stories as intricately crafted as a New Yorker piece, as Yankee Magazine put it. This was my dads everything, Anna Milne said. Two weeks before her graduation from Franklin Pierce University, she got the news. Her father had suffered life-threatening injuries after his motorcycle collided with a pickup truck near Route 1 in Branford. He was on life support. It was May 2, 2015. He was 55. For the first couple of months, it was something between he was never going to wake up to he could be totally fine, said Milne, who had majored in American history with a concentration in Native American studies and had plans to attend graduate school in Colorado. While she and her mother, Beth, were focused on Bobs care, the small coastal community rallied around the family. Before the hospital even contacted me the night of the accident, Mike Infantino, our direct competitor, called and told me the Volsunga would leave the dock tomorrow as if nothing happened, she said. For Infantino, captain of the Sea Mist Thimble Islands Cruise, enlisting employees and family members to keep the Milnes business afloat was a given. Bob and I were great friends. Its a small town, and it was the right thing to do, he said. Thats the beauty of the Creek, Mike and Bob Lillquist and so many others stepping in; everyone is family, whether its blood family or not, said Anna Milne, as she waved at family friends boating in from Governors Island. There was also her mother, Beth, the unsung hero of the story, she said. Without her, I cant even imagine where I would be. Shes been there to support me emotionally plus she keeps everything going on land. She really runs the business. When it became clear that Bobs injuries would leave him with lasting, permanent damage, Milne attended a 12-hour-a-day, six-week captains course and purchased the business from her fathers estate. The course was grueling, but incredibly educational, she said, adding that she was the only female in a group populated by mostly older men. All along, she was piecing together the tales of Tom Thumb and Miss Emily, and the quips about how Mother-in-Law Island got its name, stories that shed listened to her father narrate year after year, as deeply ingrained in her as the rhythms of the tides. In a bizarre way, everything Ive done has prepared me for this, she said. I studied American history, and what I do is drive around all day long telling the history of the Thimbles. I minored in womens studies and Im a woman running a business thats pretty exclusively male. I feel like I got here in a really nasty and sad way, but I feel very fortunate and happy and grateful to be where I am. To judge from the show of enthusiasm among the Wednesday morning passengers, thats evident. She made the islands come to life, said Barbara Simard, of Watertown, as Milne maneuvered the boat into a tight spot at the dock, the waters having calmed. Aside from being great ladies, Beth and Anna are invaluable to the Creek, said Bruce Deegan, the longtime window clerk at the U.S. Post Office on Thimble Islands Road, later that morning. Every time I hear that blast coming from the Volsunga, it means its summertime and everything is as it should be. For information on the Thimble Islands Cruise, visit thimbleislands.com or call 203-481-3345. Lisa Reisman may be reached at lisareisman27@gmail.com. Special Events Tuesday, Sept. 4 Wilton Newcomers and Neighbors Boo-Hoo Woo-Hoo Brunch, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Wilton Newcomers and Neighbors is partnering with Wilton Library and Realty Seven for its annual back-to-school Boo-Hoo Woo-Hoo brunch. Traditionally this has been a members-only event held in someones home, but in concert with the organizations rebranding and updated mission to foster connections within the Wilton community, the event will be held in Wilton Librarys Brubeck Room and is open to everyone. Whether youre commiserating or celebrating the first day of school, lets do it together! is the organizations invitation. Light nibbles and mimosas will be served. Advanced registration is strongly encouraged at wiltonlibrary.org or call 203-762-6321. Thursday, Sept. 6 Author Talk: Robert McWilliams, The Kiss of Sweet Scottish Rain, 7-8:30 p.m. Robert McWilliams, Scottish by birth but now a U.S. citizen and a Wiltonian, takes readers on his ambitious trek across Scotland with his debut book, The Kiss of Sweet Scottish Rain: A Walk from Cape Wrath to the Solway Firth. The walk was an obstinate ambition and the start of a new direction in life. McWilliams was born in Glasgow, Scotland and graduated from Wadham College, Oxford. He joined Reuters news agency in London and spent 16 years at Reuters as a business manager in Hong Kong, Japan, the U.S., Venezuela and Brazil. Now in Connecticut for more than 20 years, has contributed the Taking a Hike column to local newspapers every month for the past five years. He has written for A.T. Journeys, CTVisit.com, and volunteers for other outdoor causes such as the Norwalk River Trail. Q&A will follow the talk. No charge. Registration highly recommended. Books available for purchase and signing courtesy of Elm Street Books. Register online or call 203-762-6334. Friday, Sept. 7 Daryl Hawk: Distant Journeys Photography Exhibition Reception, 6-7:30 p.m. Daryl Hawk: Distant Journeys, is a 30-year retrospective of color images from around the world by the explorer and international documentary photographer. Fifty of Hawks favorite images from North, Central and South America, Cuba, Patagonia, the Arctic, Antarctica, India, Ladakh, Bhutan, New Zealand will be on display. Reception free and open to the public. A majority of the works will be available for purchase with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the library. Exhibition runs through Oct. 5. Calendar Thursdays, Sept. 6 through Sept. 27 Autumn Poetry: Goethes Faust Part II, A World of Fantasy, Fascination, Fortune, and Fate, 10:30-noon. In this four-week seminar, Dr. Gerald Weiss will be delving into Part Two of Goethes Faust, the great masterpiece, entering a world of fantasy, fascination, fortune, and fate. In this part, Faust continues to strive after the highest possible existence and the eternal feminine with the aid of Mephisto (the devil). His search for the meaning of life is the readers search, too and the universal search for what it means to be human and the purpose of life itself. Weiss earned both a Bachelor of Arts and a masters degree in classical languages from St. Louis University. He pursued graduate studies in philosophy and theology at Innsbruck University in Austria and later at the Gregorian University in Rome where he received his doctorate. While writing his dissertation he taught for a year at the Rome Center of Loyola University of Chicago. No charge for program. Packets will be available at the Circulation Desk one week before the first session begins. Advance registration required. By registering for the first session, attendees will automatically be registered for all four sessions. Register online or call 203-762-6334. Mondays, Sept. 10 through Oct. 22 Sign, Say and Play, 10:30-11 a.m. The Baby Signs Program teaches caregivers and children from 6 months of age to the toddler stage signs for everyday activities so they can communicate before the child can speak fluently. Each workshop session focuses on one everyday activity. The signs are learned through activities, songs, and a book. Every participant will go home with a handout. There will be six workshop programs. No session on Columbus Day, Oct. 8. Please register for each session separately. Ages 6 months to toddlers with caregivers. Registration required; no fee. Register online or call 203-762-6336. Mondays, Sept. 10 through Nov. 12 Caregiver Support with Visiting Nurse & Hospice of Fairfield County, 6-7:30 p.m. Visiting Nurse & Hospice of Fairfield County and Wilton Library invite you to attend this caregiver group where you will find support, empathy and understanding with others in similar circumstances. This support group is free of charge and open to the public but pre-registration is required. For more information, call Laurie Petrasanta at Visiting Nurse & Hospice of Fairfield County at 203-762-8958, ext. 316. Tuesday, Sept. 11 Books and Buddies, 4:15-5 p.m. Children in grades K-2 are invited to join us on Tuesday afternoons for a special story time and craft program. Children will listen to a popular storybook and then make their very own stuffed animal inspired by the book to take home. Registration required. Register online or call 203-762-6336. Wednesday, Sept. 12 Wilton Library Readers: The Portrait of a Lady & Mrs. Osmond, 12-1:30 p.m. Professional book discussion leader Susan Boyar discusses two books this month: The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James, and Mrs. Osmond, by John Banville. Bring lunch; beverages will be provided. Group meets second Wednesday of each month through June. For a complete listing of meetings and titles, visit wiltonlibrary.org and click on Wilton Library Readers in Books. Advance registration suggested. Register online or call 203-762-6334. Classes in Innovation Station this week Wednesday, Sept. 5: Embroider or Monogram It!, 10 a.m.-12 p.m.; Thursday, Sept. 6: Enhancing Your Pictures with Photoshop, 2-4 p.m.; Friday, Sept. 7: New Life for Old Videos, 10-11:30 a.m.; Monday, Sept. 10: Vinyl Adornments with the Cricut Die Cutter, 10 a.m.-12 p.m.; Stitch Time for Knitters and Crocheters, 1-2:30 p.m. WILTON LIBRARY 137 Old Ridgefield Road 203-762-3950 www.wiltonlibrary.org The library is closed Sept. 2-3 for Labor Day. See More Collapse Childrens programs beginning next week Monday, Sept. 10: Fantastic Fours and Fives, 4:15-4:45 p.m.; Tuesday, Sept. 11: Terrific Tales for Twos and Threes, 10:15-10:45 a.m.; Wednesday, Sept. 12: Books for Babies, 10:15-10:45 a.m.; Wonderful Ones and Twos, 11-11:30 a.m. The Democratic Town Committee will hold its monthly meeting from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Sept. 4 at the Comstock Community Center, 180 School Road. There will be a monthly update on DTC activities. Everyone is welcome. This month the group will focus on the November election and what is being done to get Democratic candidates elected. The DTC is also hosting it annual fall barbecue on Sept. 8 from noon to 3 p.m. at Merwin Meadows, 52 Lovers Lane. Expected speakers include U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, state Senate candidate Will Haskell and candidates for state Rep. Ross Tartell and Stephanie Thomas. The upcoming midterm elections are among the most important in our nations history, said DTC Chairman Tom Dubin. This is a chance to learn more about the issues, meet our Democratic candidates and show your support. Plus, its a lot of fun. Picnic fare will include hamburgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers, pasta, salads, chips and salsa, brownies and soft drinks. Ticket are $45 until Sept. 5, then $55. Children 6-18, $10, under 6, free. Tickets available at wiltondems.org and at the door. Wilton Encore Club welcome newcomers Looking to get out, have some fun and meet new and interesting people? Wilton Encore Club is inviting prospective members to their September Coffee on Sept. 7 from 10 a.m. to noon at a members home. For more information or to RSVP, call Kathy Gebbia at 203-834-1177. Encore is a social womens club, embarking on its 49th year. They encourage fellowship among their members through various group interests, such as Lunch Bunch, Exploring the Arts, and Chick Flicks. All women from Wilton and surrounding communities are welcome. Visit wiltonencoreclub.org for a list of activities. Booked for Lunch at the Historical Society Looking for a great read, something engaging and informative? Drop by Booked for Lunch, a history reading group at the Wilton Historical Society, 224 Danbury Road. On Sept. 6, from 12:30-1:30 p.m., they will be discussing 97 Orchard Street: An Edible history of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenemant, by Jane Ziegelman. In 97 Orchard Street, Ziegelman explores the culinary life that was the heart and soul of New Yorks Lower East Side around the turn of the 20th century a city within a city, where Germans, Irish, Italians, and Eastern European Jews attempted to forge a new life. Through the experiences of five families, all of them residents of 97 Orchard St., (now the Tenement Museum), she takes readers on a vivid and unforgettable tour, from impossibly cramped tenement apartments down dimly lit stairwells where children played and neighbors socialized, beyond the front stoops where immigrant housewives found respite and company, and out into the hubbub of the dirty, teeming streets. Participants should bring a brown bag lunch; the society provides a beverage and dessert. There is no charge, but register by email at info@wiltonhistorical.org or call 203-762-7257. Flash China and Japan on Friday agreed to protect the multilateral trade system and enhance fiscal and financial cooperation as officials met in Beijing for the seventh financial ministers' dialogue. The dialogue was attended by China's Minister of Finance Liu Kun and Japan's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso, as well as other senior officials from finance ministries, central banks and financial regulators of both countries. The two sides discussed issues including the macroeconomic situation, policies, and structural reform in China and Japan, bilateral fiscal and financial cooperation, and cooperation under multilateral frameworks. Acknowledging that no country can benefit from protectionism, the two sides agreed to jointly protect and enhance the free, open, and rule-based multilateral trade system. China and Japan pledged to increase cooperation in infrastructure, poverty reduction and development, regional fiscal and financial affairs, as well as regional economic and financial stability. The two countries also exchanged views on third-market cooperation and agreed to maintain regular communication and share experiences on fiscal management and reform of fiscal and tax systems. Officials from Chinese and Japanese central banks and financial regulatory bodies, attending the dialogue for the first time, reached consensus on further opening up financial markets to each other and carrying out multilateral and bilateral cooperation on financial regulation. The two finance ministers were briefed on the results of a joint study on pension funds in China and Japan. A joint report will be released on this research, and the two sides agreed to keep on working together to study major issues of mutual concern. The next China-Japan finance ministers' dialogue will be held in Japan in 2019. Courtesy GODFREY An Alton man was arrested Friday for allegedly calling in a threat to Lewis and Clark Community College earlier this week. Mintai A. Bedford, 32, of the 1100 block of Washington Avenue, Alton, was charged Thursday with making a terrorist threat, a Class X felony. The charge was sealed until Friday. A growing chunk of school funding is bypassing the classroom to pay for past due retirement bills, according to a new study that found such spending increased more in Illinois than any other state. A study by Bellwether Education Partners found that education spending on a national level over the 10 years ending in 2014 slightly increased, by 1.3 percent, even though student population grew by more than 3 percent. But spending on education benefits, typically teacher retirement and retiree healthcare spending, has exploded. From 2005 to 2014, the national benefit spending increased by 22 percent on average, leaving fewer dollars for everything else. Benefit spending is increasing much faster than K-12 spending overall, and as a result, benefits are eating up a rising share of school district budgets, according to the study. Illinois benefit spending from all sources increased at more than five times the rate that the states overall education budget grew over that same time, an 85 percent increase from federal, state and local sources. Illinois is in dire straits in terms of ballooning benefit spending, said Max Marchitello, senior policy analyst with Bellwether Education Partners. The Teachers Retirement Fund of Illinois, which manages the states teacher pension funds outside of Chicago, ow its own is more than $73 billion underfunded. Blame for underfunded pensions is often laid at the feet of previous state and local officials, all too happy to offer future benefits that had no effect on immediate budgets. Tier I teachers in Illinois those hired before Jan. 1, 2011 have benefit plans that include compounding cost-of-living increases. Even with a revamp of the states education funding formula, the report predicts the problem will only get worse because of the amount of debt and mandated payment increases. Illinois problem of ballooning benefits spending is unlikely to slow down anytime soon, Marchitello wrote in the report. The states recent reform of its school funding system and the decision for the state to pick up the bill for Chicago Public Schools benefit costs are positive but wont be sufficient to disrupt this troubling pattern. The problem of growing teacher benefits has gotten relatively little attention, Marchitello wrote, noting that nationally it amounted to a $7 billion cut in instructional spending. As a comparison, a $7 billion cut in instructional spending is comparable to cutting the main federal investment in education, Title I, Part A, by more than 40 percent. If Congress proposed slashing Title I by more than 40 percent, educators, parents and community members across the country would inundate the Capitol with calls to protect the funds, he wrote. And yet these cuts occurred quietly, state by state and year after year, and hardly anyone noticed. Even though more money is going to teacher benefits, teachers might not notice. For teachers, higher benefit costs do not necessarily mean theyre receiving more valuable pensions or more generous health care, according to the report. It is instead more likely that the state is spending more to pay down debts. Worse still, growing benefit costs make salary increases far less likely because states by and large are not increasing their K-12 investments. The study recommends careful consideration and reforms. Legislators also feel the squeeze, Marchitello wrote. Their investments in education are not going as far as they used to, and fewer dollars make their way into the classroom. To increase K-12 funding, state policymakers need to make even larger allocations to accommodate the ever-increasing benefit costs. Doing so can lead to politically difficult decisions, such as raising taxes, as Arizona recently did. Cole Lauterbach reports on Illinois government and statewide issues for INN. Lauterbach has managed and produced shows for news/talk radio stations in both Bloomington/Normal and Peoria, and created award-winning programs for Comcast SportsNet Chicago. ALTON Two people have been charged with first-degree murder and two have been charged with weapons counts after a shooting Aug. 26 on West 19th Street. Charged with first-degree murder are Markell Taylor, 18; Jordan T. Jackson, 20. Each one is accused of shooting Keron W. Hickman in the leg and back. Bail on each is set at $1 million. Depending on the circumstances, each could receive a life sentence. Three people are charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. They are Daelin Hampton, 19; Bryanna L. Kingcade, 19; and Kiondo Jones, 19. Bail on Hampton is $103,000; bail on Kingcade is $53,000; and Jones bail is $53,000. Each of the suspects is from the North St. Louis County area. All of them are in custody, except for Jackson and Hampton. Police said there is an active search for the missing suspects, and anyone with information is urged to contact authorities. They should be considered armed and dangerous, said Lt. Ken Wojtowicz, who headed the investigation for the St. Louis Area Major Case Squad. Jackson and Taylor are also charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder, and two counts of aggravated battery with a firearm. Jackson is also charged with unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon, and Taylor is also charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. The identity of the suspects was announced Thursday at a news conference at Sandidge Alton Law Enforcement Center. Police Chief Jason Jake Simmons praised the St. Louis Major Case Squad and the Madison County States Attorneys Office for tracking down the facts of the case. Authorities are releasing only limited information, pending further information. Violent crime will not be tolerated in Alton, he said. States Attorney Tom Gibbons said police and prosecutors in his office are responsible for the progress in the case. If you come here and commit a violent crime, you are going to get a heavy dose of Madison County justice, he said. Gibbons said assistant states attorneys Crystal Uhe and Rachell Aud-Crowe are largely responsible for his offices contribution to the investigation. Flash The fourth summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) ended in Kathmandu on Friday, with commitments to enhance regional cooperation in multi-dimension connectivity, counter-terrorism, trade, tourism, investment and agriculture. The two-day summit noted the eradication of poverty as the greatest regional challenge to development while expressing commitment to work together for the implementation of the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, said a declaration issued after the summit. Other areas of regional cooperation outlined by the BIMSTEC declaration are disaster management, poverty alleviation, mitigation of environmental problems, technology transfer and fisheries. The summit has set out future direction of the BIMSTEC, a regional organization founded in 1997. Of the seven members of the BIMSTEC, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are from South Asia, while Thailand and Myanmar are from Southeast Asia. "The summit reaffirmed its faith in the principles and purposes of the UN Charter and pledged to strengthen the multilateral system by reforming its rules, institutions and instruments to make it relevant to the present time," the declaration said. The summit directed to conclude the Free Trade Agreement, BIMSTEC Coastal Shipping Agreement and the BIMSTEC Motor Vehicle Agreement as early as possible. Expressing commitments to operationalize the Paris Agreement, in accordance with principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, the BIMSTEC leaders expressed concerns over environmental degradation, adverse impact of climate change and global warming on the fragile Himalayan and mountain eco-systems and their inter-linkages with the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean. With the conclusion of the summit, Sri Lanka has taken the rotating chairmanship of the BIMSTEC and the island nation will host the fifth BIMSTEC summit. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is holding public meetings about chronic wasting disease and the impact it will have on deer populations. Chronic wasting disease is a neurological disease that is threatening the health of white-tailed deer in Illinois. 1 minutes ago Paycom May Look Expensive But You Should Buy it Anyway Earnings Will Continue to Propel Paycom Stock Higher There are many reasons that investors could look at Paycom (NYSE: PAYC) and think its better to stay away. PAYC stock is up 21% for the year which closely approximates the 24% gain in the S&P 500. Read Article Flash Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Friday that his country will maintain its influence in the region despite U.S. demonization. "Iran has been and will always be a stable, powerful and responsible regional actor," Zarif said on Twitter. In an interview with Bloomberg News on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran is facing a question of survival one and a half years after he took office. "When I came into here (office), it was a question of when would they take over the Middle East ... Now it's a question of will they survive. It's a big difference in one and a half years," Trump said. "Bipolar demonization of Iran as either 'taking over Middle East' or 'fighting for survival' indicates U.S. cognitive disorder and demagoguery unleashed by collapse of America's moral compass," Zarif warned. Also on Thursday, Trump said his administration's policies, including quitting the international nuclear agreement with Iran, may lead to the collapse of the Iranian government. Flash Moroccan Prime Minister Saadeddine El Othmani will take part in the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) due on Sept. 3-4, a local news website reported Friday. The summit in Beijing will discuss the Belt and Road Initiative, the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union's Agenda 2063, le360.ma news site cited official sources as saying. The initiative, proposed by China in 2013, refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which aim at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road. Flash The China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) will hold a high-level dialogue between Chinese and African leaders and business representatives during the upcoming Conference of Entrepreneurs. The conference will support and synchronize with the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), running from Sept. 3 to 4, Jiang Zengwei, Chairman of the CCPIT, announced at a press conference on August 31 in Beijing. Jiang made his remark while briefing media ahead of the conference, to be attended by 2,088 delegates comprising State leaders and business representatives. "This is the largest diplomatic event in China this year, being attended by the largest number of foreign leaders," he said, adding that the Conference of Entrepreneurs was an "important and supporting event of the summit." Since its inception in 2003, the Conference of Entrepreneurs has been held every three years, making this year's event the sixth such event. "Frequent high-level exchanges, fruitful results in China-Africa cooperation, stronger coordination in regional and international affairs and closer people to people bond have made China and Africa the community with the shared future and interests," Jiang said. The conference will focus on ways to promote industrialization, deepen trade coordination and push forward infrastructure construction between the two sides, with China transferring industrial capacities to Africa to upgrade indigenous industries at the same time creating job opportunities for local communities in line with international norms and on equal basis. It will also discuss the way to facilitate African exports to the Chinese market. China has been the largest trade partner for Africa nine consecutive years and it has continued to encourage its entrepreneurs to invest in helping African countries upgrade their industries and improve economic structures. Crew Training a factor in Thailands worst maritime disaster? PHUKET: The sinking of the 29-metre tour boat M/V Phoenix off Phuket on July 5 this year with the loss of 47 tourist lives, including 13 children, was the worst man-made maritime disaster in Thailand for many decades. tourismmarineSafetydisasters By The Phuket News Saturday 1 September 2018, 10:00AM Tourist Police Deputy Commander Gen Surachate Hakparn conducted inspections in Phuket on Aug 3. Photo: Tourist Police There are all too frequent collisions, fire on board incidents, speed boat accidents and tour boat sinkings and in many, if not all, such incidents better crew safety training and the provision of adequate safety equipment on board could reduce the occurrence of unnecessary loss of life or injury. All vessels, commercial and private, that are 24 metres long or more are subject to international standards of crew safety training, competence and safety equipment requirements. There are 173 maritime nations, including Thailand, which are signatories to the IMO (International Maritime Organisation) and for whom these safety training and equipment standards are mandated by international law. Vessels under 24 metres length are subject only to local national standards and requirements for crew training, competence and safety equipment. The great majority of Thai vessels engaged in tourism related activities are thus subject to Thai safety regulation and crew training standards. In July 2017 Galileo Maritime Academy, an MCA accredited professional seafarer training centre based in Phuket, proposed that Thailand could adopt a modified version of the MGN 280 training standards. These crew training standards have been developed and implemented over the last 10 years by the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) for small vessels in commercial use for sport, tourism, work boats and pilot boats. This proposal was presented to the Thai Marine Department, which is a division of the Ministry of Transport. The modified MGN 280-based proposals would provide internationally approved crew training standards, experience levels and safety equipment requirements for these vessels and would be directly relevant to the Thai marine tourism industry on a day release practical and progressive program for captains and crew of tourism-related vessels under 24 metres length that is, those vessels not covered by international maritime law. This training program closely follows the MCA, IMO and Solas (Safety of Life at Sea) guidelines and standards whilst being provided in Thai language and arranged so as not to interrupt normal tourist vessel operations but would enable all vessel operators, their insurers, customer hotels, tour agencies and guests to be assured of competent crew and proper safety standards and equipment on board all tourist boats. Whilst the M/V Phoenix was a 29-metre vessel and should have been subject to the IMO crew training and safety equipment standards under STCW (Standards of Training, Certification and Watch-keeping for Seafarers) it remains to be seen from the conclusions of the enquiry now under way whether this was in fact the case. From the videos and reports of survivors and witnesses to the disaster, the actions of the captain and the crew appear not to have followed proper maritime procedures in the lead up to the sinking or during the emergency. The sinking of the M/V Phoenix and the loss of 47 tourist lives surely will provide the impetus for the Thai marine authorities to accelerate their consideration of adopting the proposed MGN 280-based safety and crew competence standards for tourist-related vessels in Thailand, or at least something similar. Anthony H Gould Anthony H Gould AFNI FRGS is the Chairman and CEO of Galileo Maritime Academy, an MCA accredited professional seafarer training centre based in Phuket. New Work Permit rules confirmed by Phuket Employment Office Chief The Chief of the Phuket Provincial Employment Office, Kattiya Pandech, has confirmed to The Phuket News this week that new provisions issued by Royal Decree in March are in effect, allowing foreigners with work permits to legally work in any field, anywhere in the country, for any employer as long as the work being done in not on the list of occupations prohibited to foreigners. economicscrime By Tanyaluk Sakoot Saturday 1 September 2018, 09:00AM Mr Kattiya stressed that foreigners were still banned from working in the 28 categories still prohibited by law. Photo: Tanyaluk Sakoot Phuket Provincial Employment Office Chief Kattiya Pandech holds up a work permit book, which will soon become a thing of the past. Photo: Tanyaluk Sakoot This means that foreigners who have been issued work permits are no longer restricted to performing only the type of work listed in the work permit, or at the exact location listed in the work permit, or for the employer listed in the work permit, or even in accordance with the conditions listed in the work permit, Mr Kattiya told The Phuket News. There is not even any legal requirement for foreigners to inform his office of any changes, he added. However, Mr Kattiya did caution that foreigners and employers should register any changes to their work situation with the Employment Office to avoid any confusion or misunderstandings that may arise. There is no law requiring this anymore, but it would be best if people did register their changes, he said. The changes came via the Emergency Decree on Non-Thais Working Management (No.2) (2018), Mr Kattiya confirmed. This law was passed on March 27, and came into effect on March 28 We have announced it on the website www.doe.go.th in Thai, but we dont have an English version posted yet, he said. Section 37 of the Emergency Decree this year annulled Sections 70, 71, 72 and 74 of the Emergency Decree issued in 2017. That is correct. These sections have been cancelled. They are not active anymore, Mr Kattiya confirmed More importantly, Mr Kattiya also confirmed that Section 28 of the Emergency Decree issued this year provides that a work permit holder may engage in any work that is not specifically prohibited to all foreigners (see below). Regarding the now-annulled Section 70 of the old law, Mr Kattiya noted, Foreigners are now able to work anywhere in the country without registering the change in their work permit, but each foreigners employer must be listed in the work permit. If an employee is transferred to another office elsewhere in the country, the employer should notify the Phuket Provincial Employment Office, he said. It is the employers responsibility to inform our office of the location and the employees job to be listed in the work permit, but then the employee does not need to strictly adhere to that. It is just to register the main place of work and the main type of work the foreigner was hired to do, he added. PLEASE DISREGARD Mr Kattiya noted that the Phuket Employment Office renewed or issued new work permits for 16,000 foreigners from March 28 through July 30. However, the work permits issued during that period still contain the warnings on the inside back cover specifically stating the old restrictions forcing foreigners to strictly abide by the descriptions literally printed in the work permit itself. To this Mr Kattiya urged foreigners to disregard Note 2, which states: A work permit holder shall engage and perform works only in the particular category of work with the specific employer, permitted locality and conditions. Any work permit holder who violates or fails to comply with the foregoing shall be liable to a fine of not exceeding four hundred thousand Baht. These are the old books that were printed in accordance with the Emergency Decree issued last year, Mr Kattiya said. The new books will not have Note 2 when they arrive, he said. OCCUPATIONS PROHIBITED TO FOREIGNERS Mr Kattiya was very strong on the point that foreigners were still banned from performing work in the fields still prohibited by law. The list stood at 39 occupations prohibited to foreigners since the law was introduced in 1979, but was revised down to 28 occupations in June this year. Although for some reason as of Wednesday (Aug 29) the Ministry of Interior still listed the 39 occupations in full on its website (www.mol.go.th), Labour Minister Adul Sangsingkeo in June announced that 12 occupations had been removed from the list, with foreigners allowed to engage in work in the 12 new fields from July 1. The 12 new fields that foreigners are now allowed to work in predominantly focus on unskilled labour, Thai handicraft production and other forms of manual labour. However, in professional work, foreigners may now work in engineering, architecture and accounting as long as the foreigner has been accredited by the relevant Thai authority or trade association. Meanwhile, for example, it is still illegal for foreigners to sell products at a shop; work as a tour guide; work as a secretary; provide legal counselling service; sell by means of an auction; and work as a trade and investment representative or broker (unless hired by an international organisation). SMART CARD Some old rules still apply, such as the requirement for foreigners to carry their work permit with them at all times while performing work, Mr Kattiya noted. The penalty for failing to do so is a fine of up to B10,000. However, Mr Kattiya explained that the Labour Ministry is working towards the old-fashioned work permits books being replaced by smart cards. We are working on foreign employees in the future to have smart cards (instead of books), and we are currently developing a system for submitting work permit applications online. We want this part of our job to be easier, he said. On closing, asked whether Royal Thai Police and Immigration officers in Phuket had been informed of the new laws, or more accurately which old laws are no longer valid, Mr Kattiya said, The Royal Thai Police and Immigration must know about it. They must not ignore this because the national official in Bangkok communicated this very clearly shortly after the law came into effect in March. They cant pretended they do not know this information. They cant charge foreigners for breaking the old law, the update has been made already, he said. Sunk Cost Error - The irrationality behind decision making Heres the scenario. Last week you thought it was a really smart manoeuvre to purchase tickets to see a new-fangled guitar band at a venue in Patong. Now its Friday night after a long week at work and sitting in rush-hour traffic. The concert starts in two hours, and whatever rock demon that possessed you to buy the damn ticket in the first place has left the building. And if it couldnt get any worse, youre south of the Chalong Circle. Great. In truth, youre less than enamoured about the whole affair. Culture By David Jacklin Saturday 1 September 2018, 09:00AM A world of confusion Photo: ElisaRiva, Pixabay You are caught in the dilemma best described by The Clash song Should I Stay or Should I Go? Inevitably, most people would still decide to go. Why? Because youve just fallen foul of Sunk Cost Error. Welcome to the club. Sunk Cost Error is a form of irrational thinking, where an individual continues with an endeavour simply because they have already invested something in it, whether that be time, money or effort. What tends to happen is that this poor decision making leads to the individual increasing their investment in something that is already a lost cause. It coined the phrase, throwing good money after bad. Professor Stuart Sutherland, a British psychologist, advised, The willingness to change ones mind in the light of new evidence is a sign of rationality not weakness. Since learning about this error in human judgement from Prof Sutherland as a young University student, armed with this ammunition through life, Ive been a liberated man from many a tedious, time-wasting activity and have never looked back. Ive saved myself from a plethora of painful events, but it hasnt always been a gentle ride. I had the great misfortune to be involved with Paramout Pictures on promoting that fat turkey of a movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. They should have known if this were the best title they could come up with, and I certainly knew things were not going to go well after I saw some early rushes and later was duly invited to the premiere. In the cheap seats, I hasten to add. After one minute 30 seconds into Cate Blanchett (aka Irina Spalko yes, really) strutting around as some kind of kitsch Soviet dominatrix and straining her way through an even more nauseous faux-Russian accent, I stood up, squeezed past my less-than-delighted superiors and departed into the ether like smoke. On a more serious note, some of the most tragic decisions by humankind have been made due to this irrational belief system. Most notably in times of war. Proud generals, in their safe war rooms, will literally send countless numbers of soldiers to their unnecessary deaths because the idea of a withdraw after lives had been lost is perceived as dishonouring the memory of the soldiers who had died in the failing offensive. Lets first consider Field Marshal Douglas Haig, who, on July 1, 1916, refused to change tactics in a futile and suicidal attempt to claim ground across no mans land in the Battle of the Somme. As a result of one mans irrational defiance, the British suffered 57,470 casualties, of whom 19,240 men were killed on the very first day. The French had 1,590 casualties and the German 2nd Army lost between 10,00012,000 men. And it seems that another irrationality of the human mind is a failure to learn from its mistakes. In the final years of Americas military involvement in Vietnam, those who supported a policy of continued involvement appealed by the following consideration: The United States has invested much in attempting to achieve its objectives. In addition to the many millions of dollars that have been spent, many thousands of lives have been lost, and an even greater number of lives have been irreparably damaged. If the United States withdraws from Vietnam without achieving its objectives, then all of these undeniably significant sacrifices would be wasted. Lets all hope the current bullish rhetoric aimed at Iran doesnt spark further fisty-cuffs we can ill afford. Making no judgement on whether a mono- or polytheistic universe exists, Im sure sunk cost goes some considerable way to sustaining an individuals belief system. Once youve decided to have faith and invested time and ritual in worshipping an omnipotent being or two, you might be mistaken for feeling foolish to adapt your view based on your evolving knowledge and experience through life. All in all, I think its safe to say the Homo sapien is an irrational beast. Wed all do well to stop for a minute and consider our judgement in light of these revelations that, on the face of it, are little more than basic common sense. So, dont wear that awful dress and look like a clown in front of your friends just because your colour-blind husband bought it. And Russia, please dont increase budgets for the 2020 US presidential election. Vladimir, the mans irrational at best, just let him sink. Thai womens spikers going for gold at Asian Games Sport >> Thailand Phuket World Thai womens spikers going for gold at Asian Games JAKARTA: The Thai womens volleyball team made history yesterday after defeating South Korea and booking themselves a place in the final for the first time. Asian-GamesVolleyball By Bangkok Post Saturday 1 September 2018, 11:58AM Thailands Onuma Sittirak (white) skipes the ball past South Koreas players (red) during the womens semi-final volleyball match between Thailand and South Korea at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta yesterday (Aug 31). Photo: AFP / Aamir Qureshi The Thai team fought with determination and experience to overcome the Koreans 3-1 (25-15, 25-20, 20-25, 25-22). Pluemjit Thinkaows last spike touched a Korean player and the ball went out during the matchpoint, bringing victory for the Thai players. This time, they are vying for the gold and are guaranteed the silver if they lose in the final match today. The team will play seven-time champions China, who on Friday beat Japan 3-0 (25-22, 25-10, 25-20). Read original story here. Sheriff who investigated fatal Jason Ravnsborg crash dies A rural lawman thrust into the spotlight in the aftermath of Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg's fatal crash in September 2020 has died. Brace yourself. On Monday we pause for a day to honor the notion of Labor, saluting working men and women and the jobs they perform every day. On Tuesday politicians across the Commonwealth will revert to their full-time pre-occupation getting re-elected. The traditional post-Labor Day dash to the polling places will be at two months and counting before the November mid-term elections. Pennsylvania voters have plenty on their plates. We will be electing a governor, U.S. Senator, U.S. Representatives, every member of the state House and half the state Senate. Sitting atop the Pennsylvania ballot will be the battle for the governors mansion. Incumbent Democrat Tom Wolf is being challenged by Republican former state Sen. Scott Wagner. Call it the Battle of York County. Both Wagner and Wolf are millionaire York County businessmen. Wagner made his fortune in the trash-hauling business. Wolf was in the lumber and building products biz. They are at opposite ends of the political spectrum. Wolf won office on a pledge to increase education funding, including raising taxes to do it. Before resigning his Senate seat to run for governor, Wagner was part of the conservative firebrand faction in the Legislature that thwarted Wolfs tax hike plans at every move. In the U.S. Senate race, incumbent Democrat Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. is being challenged by Republican U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta of Hazleton. A new Franklin & Marshall College poll out this week showed both Democrats with double-digit leads, while the Republicans have their own polls showing the races much closer. One thing is certain: The state will have more women representing them in Washington. Thats because in the newly created 5th Congressional District, Democrat Mary Gay Scanlon will square off against Republican Pearl Kim. The winner will replace Rep. Pat Meehan, who resigned his 7th District seat after being ensnarled in a sex harassment case he settled with taxpayer dollars. The state Supreme Court tossed out the old Congressional district boundaries and drew up their own, making the 5th include all of Delaware County, along with a sliver of Montgomery County on the Main Line, and a chunk of South and Southwest Philly. In Chester County, Democrat Chrissy Houlahan is considered a prohibitive favorite to beat Republican Greg McCauley for the 6th District seat being vacated by Rep. Ryan Costello, who opted not to seek re-election. But its a person whose name will not be on the ballot that likely casts the biggest shadow on the Pennsylvania vote. The November Mid-Terms are being cast as a referendum on the first two years of the presidency of Donald Trump. The F&M poll reinforced that notion, with both Democrat and Republican voters indicating President Trump was an essential motivating force behind the vote. In other words, both Republicans and Democrats plan to capitalize on the president. Expect to hear lots from Republicans on jobs, the economy, tax cuts and the bullish stock market, while Democrats focus on the scandals that have dogged the president, as well as the problems that have plagued his immigration policies. Both Wagner and Barletta have aligned themselves with the president, enthusiastically embracing the commander-in-chief. Barletta has done several campaign appearances with Trump. The poll indicated 67 percent of those planning to vote for Democratic candidates will do so mainly as a vote against President Trump and Congressional Republicans. On the flip side, 74 percent of those who will cast ballots for Republican candidates will do so as a show of support for the president. Political analyst and poll director G. Terry Madonna notes its not unusual for the mid-terms to morph into a referendum on the president, but that this go-round will likely take that partisan fever to a new level. There is some good news in the F&M pool, and it has nothing to do with who is leading the horse race. The poll indicates more than half the states registered voters, 54 percent, say they are very interested in the mid-term elections. Do your homework. Analyze the candidates. Learn where they stand on the issues. As tempting as it may seem, dont succumb to using President Trump as a bellwether for your vote. Hes not on the ballot. Wagner, Wolf, Costello, Barletta and a boatload of others are. Youve got two months to make up your mind. In the Book of Lamentations, written about the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 587 B.C., you can find heartbreaking descriptions of loss and grief, betrayal and absolute despair. Hear how I am groaning; there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies hear of my misery and rejoice, is one line among many. These ancient words resonate today, in the wake of a brutal summer of news about the most recent abuse scandal in the Catholic church. Certainly, lamentations are an appropriate response. Groaning. Grieving. Struggling to see hope. It stings. And no one is immune. Cardinal Timothy Dolan in New York just confessed this. Talking of his own mother, a woman whose love of faith and church has always been strong, he related that she told him: I skipped lunch today. Im ashamed to go to the dining room. Im so embarrassed to be a Catholic. I dont know what to say to anybody! Dolan called his mother only one of the millions of faithful Catholics who today are ashamed of their clergy and bishops, of their Church. Dolan is shaken. Everybody is shaken, as well as humiliated, angry and disappointed. A host who was interviewing me for CBS the other day shared that her mother, a Catholic schoolteacher, skipped Mass the other day as she tried to process the headlines. The schoolteacher is far from alone. An Uber driver ferrying me around the city recently told me how Jesus Christ has saved his life and that the only good that can come from evil in the Church is a cleansing that will bring more people truly to Christ. Priests who do evil do not read their Bible, he said. At a service at St. Josephs Church in Greenwich Village later that evening, the pastor added that such priests do not know Jesus Christ and are not His friends. It was an intensely prayerful hour and a half that included a singing of the Lamentations, as they are typically sung during Holy Week services, at which Christs tribulations on the cross and death are dwelt upon. These songs dont cause despair, because they ultimately lead to the Resurrection, but theres still a palpable sense of grief and desolation that goes with them. We feel deep sorrow for our sins, which contributed to the gruesome torture and crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ. We feel the pain of separation from God. The heart and mind grapple with doubts: What if Easter Sunday doesnt come? What if death is the end of the story? What if sin strangles and kills? These are some of the questions that people of God are asking right now. Its not just Catholics suffering this news that will continue to unfold. Some of my most heartening conversations lately involve people of all faiths or no faith. People want a healthy Catholic Church, which serves all. Also at St. Josephs that night, Dominican friars prostrated themselves down the main aisle of the church, in front of the Blessed Sacrament, what Catholics believe is the real presence of God. There was shame and sorrow expressed in front of God and man. In his homily that night, the pastor admitted to having had his faith be shaken and implored that everyone in the church choose a side. In recent days, as is our typical bad habit, politics has taken center stage in some of the media coverage of the Church. But thats not what the pastor meant. God or evil are the choices. And if its God, youve got to be all in. Not walking away, but loving more and leading the renewal where you are. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, return to the Lord your God, is the refrain during the singing of the searing Lamentations. That return is the only recourse. The Church isnt any one person. It belongs to Jesus Christ, and the baptized are called to live the Gospel. And reform and renewal will benefit from every witness to the reality of Gods grace in the face of evil mothers, spiritual fathers, TV hosts, Uber drivers, and all. Kathryn Jean Lopez is senior fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large of National Review Online and founding director of Catholic Voices USA. She can be contacted at klopez@nationalreview.com. WINNIPEGFour men have been charged in the shooting of an RCMP officer this week in western Manitoba. Therae Racette-Beaulieu, 18, from the Sandy Bay First Nation faces charges that include two counts of attempted murder and possession of property obtained by crime. Three other men from Portage la Prairie Tommy Beaulieu, 21; Shane Beaulieu; 30, and Delaney Houle, 23 face break-and-enter and weapons-related charges. RCMP say shots were fired Wednesday night when two officers responded to a break and enter at a home in Onanole, a small resort community near Riding Mountain National Park. One officer, Cpl. Graeme Kingdon, was seriously injured and was airlifted to hospital in Winnipeg. RCMP said Friday Kingdon is recovering and doing well. Read more: Manitoba RCMP officer in stable condition after being shot; one suspect still at large, considered armed and dangerous He remains in hospital recovering from his injuries. He is receiving strong support from his family, friends and colleagues, the RCMP said in a written statement. All four men have been remanded in custody. After the shooting, four suspects fled the immediate area and three were captured the following morning. A fourth was arrested several hours later after a standoff at a home in Neepawa, about 75 kilometres by road southeast of Onanole. Read more about: After the Federal Court of Appeals ruling that put the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion on hold, the Alberta governments decision to opt out of the federal governments climate plan wasnt far behind. But the provinces move has left environmentalists and political observers perplexed. Last Thursday, the court quashed the project approval based on insufficient consultation with Indigenous peoples and a failure to include tanker traffic related to the project in the National Energy Boards review. By that evening, Premier Rachel Notley announced that Alberta would no longer support the federal plan. What does this mean for the environment? No ones quite sure. Notley maintained that Albertas own climate leadership plan will remain in effect it just wont fall in line with the benchmarks for carbon pricing outlined in the national plan. In the federal plan, jurisdictions with a priced-based system, like Alberta, are required to price carbon at a minimum of $10 per tonne in 2018, and increase the cost by $10 per year to reach $50 per tonne by 2022. Currently, Alberta is charging $30 per tonne, well above the federal minimum, and thats where the premier said the price will remain until Ottawa gets its act together, maintaining that co-operation with the federal plan was contingent upon the Trans Mountain expansion. The problem, said Tim Gray, executive director of Environmental Defence, is that Albertas plan doesnt do enough to help the country reach its emissions targets, adding that the provinces emissions are still expected to grow significantly over the next 10 to 12 years. Read more: Justin Trudeau is rerunning in the 2019 federal election Alberta to pull out of national climate plan, Premier Rachel Notley vows Trans Mountain expansion could be delayed for years by court decision: experts According to Environment Canada, Albertas carbon dioxide emissions are expected to climb above 300 million tonnes by 2030, while emissions under the provinces climate leadership plan should sit just above 250 million tonnes. When Albertas NDP government brought in its own climate plan, it was characterized as a commitment to transitioning the provinces economy away from a reliance on oil. But that message doesnt fit with the one Notley sent Thursday night, Gray said. Seeking revenge on the environment for a court decision that protects First Nations rights and the requirement to undergo proper environmental assessment seems very odd to me, said Gray, who called the decision misguided and politically off-message. Whether Notleys gambit affects Canadas ability to reduce overall emissions and meet its climate commitments largely depends on whether and how the federal government prices carbon. Alberta has indicated it will retain its existing price on carbon, but if it doesnt escalate in line with or more quickly than the federal plan, Ottawa would have to enforce an added price on top, Gray said, adding that Albertas existing climate plan alone isnt enough for the country to reach its goals. No one is talking about shutting down the oilsands, but the pipeline was about expanding the industry, Gray said. At some point, he said, we need to ask should Canada in 2018 be making plans and building infrastructure that is meant to last 20 or 30 years for a future of expanding oil production? Does that make sense economically? Does it make sense from a planetary-survival perspective? According to University of British Columbia political scientist Kathryn Harrison, Albertas withdrawal will undoubtedly challenge Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus plans but likely wont scupper them altogether. The nationwide impact on greenhouse gas emissions certainly isnt insignificant, she said, particularly after the new Ontario government of Premier Doug Ford also signalled an exit, following Saskatchewans staunch opposition. To have the province that accounts for the largest share of Canadian emissions not a majority but among all the provinces withdraw is a big challenge, Harrison said in a phone interview from a convention in Boston. The pan-Canadian framework, in which provincial governments linked their arms and agreed theyll all get to $50-a-tonne by 2022, was fragile already. Because Alberta still has a carbon price program, Harrison argued, the main damage, at least for now, is to Trudeau. Hes said he is a champion of getting Canadas oil to new markets, but at the same time went to Paris and announced, Were back as a champion of climate action, she said. The contradictions among some of these things are starting to become evident: Reducing Canadas emissions by 30 per cent and expanding Canadian oil production and exports are hard to reconcile. Echoing Harrison, University of Alberta political scientist Ian Urquhart said he understood Notleys reaction from the perspective of a politician boxed in between the courts, economic pressures and climate commitments. Its hard for me to imagine a worse political nightmare for the premier than what the Federal Court said. While sympathetic to the political quagmire Notley landed in last week, Urquhart was more critical of the decision, which he called misleading. You say youre not going to be part of the plan, but youre going to do the same and more of what the plan calls for, Urquhart said. Unless she does something with respect to the carbon tax, you can say youre not part of the federal plan, but if your policies are exactly what the key pillar of the federal plan is, it doesnt make sense. On the one hand, shes trying to ... take the tried-and-true, traditional Alberta decision with respect to the federal government. In other words, blame the feds for whats going on right now. The effect of the decision to pull out of the national climate plan wont take effect until 2021, when the federal price increases to $40 per tonne, well after the Alberta provincial and federal elections in 2019. This is all assuming that you still have an NDP government in Alberta and that you still have a Liberal government in Ottawa, Urquhart said. Read more about: OHSWEKENSix Nations is drafting its own cannabis law rather than wait for outside governments to impose regulations. Our main concern is the health and safety of our community, particularly the young people, elected Chief Ava Hill said. The most populous First Nation in Canada also sees the potential economic benefits of legalization. We have to start developing our own source revenue, Hill said. If this is one avenue to do that, thats one avenue we want to explore. But Hill and other Indigenous leaders say they has been excluded from the national discussion on legalization. It seems that again weve been left out in the dark with all the stuff thats going on, and weve become a footnote. Read more: Harold Calla | Opinion: Significant economic opportunities for Indigenous communities in the new cannabis market Senate Aboriginal Peoples committee withdraws support for deferring marijuana bill Emma Teitel | Opinion: With cannabis legalization, its not the teens we have to worry about. Its seniors In June, Parliament passed Bill C-45, the Cannabis Act, which leaves it up to provinces to decide the nitty gritty about distribution and sales. Ottawa will bank 25 per cent of cannabis tax revenue while the provinces and territories will receive 75 per cent. The total is estimated to be roughly $400 million annually in early years. But with the clock ticking away to legalization day on Oct. 17, much is left up in the air for First Nations, who have called on Ottawa to slow down the pace. Indigenous communities have no revenue-sharing arrangement with Ottawa, no word on taxation and nothing definitive on self-regulation. Theres a lot at stake. With autonomy comes the ability to generate economic benefits and look out for public health and safety. Indigenous leaders argue cannabis production, distribution and sales are elements of self-determination, a right of First Nations written in the Constitution. The federal and provincial governments must recognize and respect First Nations sovereignty and jurisdiction over their reserves and traditional territories, an Assembly of First Nations resolution said about cannabis in June. As well, the Chiefs of Ontario wrote Senators still mulling Bill C-45 in June that Ottawa had failed to involve First Nations and the legislation must respect their jurisdictions. The missives came after Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus Liberal government pledged a renewed, nation-to-nation relationship with First Nations. Recent statements from Ottawa to The Spectator suggest this is a work in progress albeit after the passage of Bill C-45. The Department of Finance says its committed to ensuring tax arrangements that are consistent with the principles underlying reconciliation and a renewed fiscal relationship. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice is committed to continued engagement and work ... to address and accommodate jurisdictional issues in an appropriate way going forward. Health Canada says it has consulted widely with First Nations on legalization and recognizes the importance of ongoing engagement. Moreover, the ministers of health and Indigenous services have promised a Senate standing committee that critiqued Bill C-45 they would provide a progress report on action areas by June 2019. An official response to the Senators May 2018 report will also be tabled in the House by Sept. 30, 2018. But like Six Nations, other Indigenous governments are forging ahead with cannabis regulations tailored to their needs. Hill says her community, which is on the banks of the Grand River near Brantford, doesnt plan to wait for Premier Doug Fords new Progressive Conservatives to dictate the terms. The days of them sitting and telling us this is how its going to be need to end. Hill said the draft regulations for cannabis use, sales and distribution still require research and input from community members. Council is also considering proposals from the private sector for commercial aspects of the industry, the chief has noted. First Nations across Canada are taking varied approaches to cannabis. Some are mulling minimum age requirements for use that clash with provincial regulations. Others are saying no legal weed outright, much like dry reserves have outlawed alcohol. Top of mind are the potential costs that come with legalized pot for vulnerable communities. I believe we have many issues to deal with and this will add to social impacts, said Chief Stacey Laforme of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, which borders Six Nations. I realize that it can provide economic opportunity, but I am concerned that social issues will outweigh economic activity, Laforme told The Spectator in an email. Donald Maracle, chief of the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory near Belleville, said a will be price attached to addiction services and enforcement of regulations. There is no revenue sharing with First Nations, even though theyre going to be heavily impacted by that. In Ontario, the Ford government is limiting weed vending to online sales through the Ontario Cannabis Stores website starting Oct. 17, with private dispensaries joining the market by April 1, 2019. This is a departure from the ousted Kathleen Wynne Liberals, who planned to roll out 150 brick-and-mortar Ontario Cannabis Stores by 2020 but no private outlets. The law is changing, Maracle said. And yet Premier Fords government has not said anything about First Nations and how theyre going to deal with that. In an email to The Spectator, a spokesperson for Ontarios Ministry of the Attorney General said the provinces Cannabis Act will apply to reserves. However, some First Nations may wish to develop their own approaches to cannabis, and as a result the Act contains authority for the Attorney General to enter into agreements with First Nations communities related to cannabis regulation, Brian Gray wrote. In Ohsweken, Jeff Hawk isnt holding his breath about what the future may hold for his shuttered Highway 54 dispensary. Im just going to be shut down either way. Police have raided Green Health for Six twice in less than a year of operation. Hawk is facing drug charges as a result. He predicts whatever emerges from the band office will lay the groundwork for larger players, much like what happened with tobacco. All the little shops like myself were just starved out by the bigger guys, said Hawk, who used to operate a tobacco business. (Small smoke shops dot the landscape in Six Nations, but the industry is dominated by Grand River Enterprises, a massive tobacco manufacturer and global distributor.) Hawk doesnt recognize the elected band council, which he sees as an extension of the colonizing federal government. It is a view thats shared by other Indigenous people in Canada. The federal Indian Act, which fuelled the notorious residential school system, stipulates that provincial laws of general application (read cannabis regulations) extend to reserves. Whether that means a provincial government can stop a First Nation from selling marijuana on reserve isnt cut and dried, said McGill University law professor Mark Walters. The orthodox legal answer is that provincial cannabis laws apply to reserves under the Indian Act despite the Constitution Act (1867) deeming them federal jurisdiction. And while a section of the Constitution Act (1982) protects existing Aboriginal and treaty rights, the courts have interpreted Aboriginal rights in a relatively narrow manner, Walters said. He offers this analysis in the context of Nova Scotia, where MLAs have opted for a retail model strictly operated by the provincial liquor corporation. Mikmaq communities there are vying to sell directly to consumers, nonetheless. That case, Walters says, suggests provinces and the federal government may have to adjust their approach ... if they are really serious about their commitment to the aspiration of reconciliation and of respecting a nation-to-nation relationship with Indigenous peoples in Canada. For Jamie Kunkel, who operates Smoke Signals in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, there is no debate. Provincial and federal pot laws dont apply to First Nations full stop, he said. Were a sovereign people. Were a self-governing people. Kunkel says he has four dispensaries in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. Smoke Signals is among roughly 30 pot shops in Tyendinaga, which is near Belleville. Unlike Hawks experience with police in Six Nations, Kunkel said he hasnt been busted. In fact, Smoke Signals hosted nearly 60 vendors over four days at its first Indigenous Cannabis Cup in May. Police were there, but only to direct traffic, Kunkel said. The thousands of people that were here were amazed ... Maracle says local police view the unlicensed dispensaries as a legal grey area. Kunkel, who has been in the cannabis business for 25 years, said the plants use comes naturally for Indigenous people. It grows on Mother Natures back. Its given to us from Mother Earth. In Tyendinaga, there has been a critical mass of dispensaries that pushed the cause forward, he said. Its very evident that the community for the most part agree with this. Maracle has a different view, saying the community is certainly not unanimous on the pot shops. But most can live this, as long as its regulated, he adds. That doesnt mean provincial control, Maracle is certain to clarify. Jazz.FMs board of directors got an earful from the stations donors Friday, many calling for the board to dissolve and for ex-CEO Ross Porters Saturday radio program to be pulled from the air. After the tumultuous, packed annual general meeting, interim CEO Charles Cutts told the Star that three large, for-profit corporations have recently approached and expressed an interest in some sort of business relationship with the station. Talks with one of the corporations were general, Cutts said, while the other two corporations expressed interest in speaking further about some sort of business deal, he added. We have assets and maybe we can help each other, Cutts said, declining to name the corporations the station has spoken to. Any conversations must bear in mind the fact the station operates its radio licence as a not-for-profit, Cutts said. But these discussions must take place because Jazz.FM, a small outfit with a $4.5-million annual budget and 143,000 daily listeners, needs to explore a more viable business model, Cutts said. Read more: Ex-radio host sues over dismissal The trouble at JAZZ.FM Moguls daughter in bid for control The station expects to lose several hundred thousand dollars by the end of this year. Jazz.FM has recently launched a strategic review of its operation, and part of that process is looking at options in the marketplace, board chair David McGown said in an interview. The review will report back to the board in the coming months with recommendations on moving toward financial sustainability, he said. But Fridays noisy AGM came as Jazz.FM faces controversy on several fronts. In the spring, a group of 13 former and current employees called the Collective wrote a letter to the board accusing Porter, who was CEO and president, of sexually inappropriate behaviour and bullying. The group blamed a senior manager and some members of the board for supporting Porters behaviour. After the May completion of an independent review struck to look into the complaint, Porter resigned his management position. And this week Garvia Bailey, a former Jazz.FM morning host, filed a $420,000 lawsuit against the station, claiming she was effectively terminated for being part of the groups complaint against Porter. Porter says the groups allegations against him are fabricated or stem from incidents that have been taken out of context. During Fridays meeting, in the offices of the downtown law firm that Jazz.FM retains, several of the nearly 100 people who turned up, including 70 donor-listeners, called for all the stations board of directors to step aside. Part of the reason for the meeting was to vote on two names nominated to fill board vacancies, as well as vote on extending the terms of three other board members whose terms are expiring, including McGown, the chair. The meeting came amid an effort over the past few weeks by a group of donors, led by major donor Marie Slaight daughter of Canadian billionaire media baron Allan Slaight to put forward a list of new names to replace the entire board. But the attempt to have Slaight and members of her group, or anyone else new, join the board was thwarted Friday, to howls of protest from several donors in the room. According to Jazz.FMs bylaws, anyone interested in submitting their name to join the board had to do so 10 days before the meeting. The boards lawyer informed members that the board had the names of 460 people who had given proxies supporting the Jazz.FM nominees so the vote for the nominees carried. Theres no transparency, no integrity from the board! one donor shouted during the process. I want you all to tender your resignations! Earlier this week, Slaight returned to Australia, where she lives. She has indicated to Jazz.FM that she no longer wants to be on the board, and only wants whats best for the station. Several donors also complained at the meeting that they hadnt received any prior notification of the AGM. The station says it has a database containing details of donors preferred means of communication. Of the roughly 2,000 donors, 1,800 received notice Aug. 21 about the AGM and board nominees, and 200 members were notified by that date by regular mail. Meanwhile, there were also calls from donors during Fridays meeting for Porters relationship with the station to be terminated. After the scandal he was named president emeritus, and he continues to host a two-hour Saturday morning show for the station from his home. Why is Ross Porter still on the air, drawing a salary from my hard-earned money that I donate to the station? said one woman, who later declined to give her name. He should not be on the air. Others demanded to know Porters current pay. McGown told the room Porters Saturday show continues to be popular with listeners. As for his pay, Cutts declined to discuss the matter at the meeting, citing confidentiality. In a phone interview after the meeting, Porter said he continues to serve at the pleasure of the board and the stations senior management. I continue to play a significant role in making the station successful. Porter added. I am a resource they can use as they like. Ultimately I want the station to succeed and I want musicians to become stars. Toronto police have identified a suspect after shots were fired at Yorkdale Shopping Centre yesterday. The incident caused panic to break out and the mall to close for the rest of day. Zion Sankar-Beharry, 20, is wanted for allegedly discharging a firearm with intent. He was last seen in the area of Warden Ave. and Steeles Ave. E. Police say he is considered armed and dangerous. The incident occurred shortly after 2 p.m. near the Starbucks at the Yorkdale mall. Toronto police Supt. Rob Johnson said the suspects fled in the south-east direction, towards the TTC. Yorkdale Mall was evacuated, locked down, and closed for the rest of Thursday. It reopened on Friday at 10 a.m. Police allege that two groups of men had an altercation, and that two shots were fired. Six men in total, three in each group, were involved in the incident. No one was injured by the gunshots, police said yesterday. Two people were hurt while exiting the mall. One received a minor leg injury, the other a minor arm injury. Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-3200, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477). Read more: Shots fired at Yorkdale Mall after altercation between two groups of men, police looking for suspects Supreme Court wont hear Crown appeal over new trial in 2012 Eaton Centre shootings NEW YORK The Village Voice, the Pulitzer Prize-winning alternative weekly known for its muckraking investigations, exhaustive arts criticism, naughty personal ads and neurosis-laden cartoons, is going out of business after 63 years. Its publisher, Peter Barbey, announced Friday that the paper is ceasing publication altogether because of financial problems, a year after it stopped circulating in print and went to digital-only. Today is kind of a sucky day, he told staff members. Eight of the Voices 18 remaining staffers were laid off. Others stayed behind to digitize its print archive so that future generations can read it. News editor Neil deMause said staffers were more saddened than shocked by the news. Its 2018 and were all aware of the state of the journalism industry, said deMause, 52, who started reading the Voice as a teenager in the 1980s. The Voice was the countrys first alternative newsweekly, founded in Greenwich Village in 1955 by a group that included writer Norman Mailer. It once had a weekly circulation of 250,000 copies and was home to some of New Yorks best investigative journalists and music writers. The combative, left-leaning paper became known for its brash political reporting and its coverage of music and theatre. It also became a powerful advocate for New Yorks gay community. It won three Pulitzers, for editorial cartooning and feature writing in the 1980s and for international reporting in 2000 for a series on AIDS in Africa. The Voice nurtured such talents as jazz maven and civil libertarian Nat Hentoff; investigative reporter Wayne Barrett, whose targets included Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Donald Trump; and culture writers such as Manohla Dargis, now a film critic for The New York Times. This is a tragedy, and it hurts my heart, Dargis wrote on Twitter. This is where I started my professional writing life and where I met brilliant writers and many friends too numerous to mention. Cartoonist Jules Feiffers jagged, satirical comic strip ran in the Voice form 1956 through 1997. His obsessions included psychoanalysis, sex and the manifold urban anxieties of Cold War America. As a longtime reader and fan of the Voice even more than as a writer and editor, I am deeply saddened that we wont have the Voices voice anymore, deMause said. Its a huge, huge loss. Barbey, also president of The Reading Eagle newspaper in Pennsylvania, bought the Voice in 2015 in an attempt to save it following a series of ownership changes, staff departures and losses in readership and advertising that had left it in a state of perpetual peril. He tried to stem the papers losses by giving up print publication last summer and publishing online only a step that removed the Voice from the sidewalk boxes that were a fixture on New York street corners for generations. It failed to stop the financial bleeding. In recent years, the Voice has been subject to the increasingly harsh economic realities facing those creating journalism and written media, Barbey wrote. Like many others in publishing, we were continually optimistic that relief was around the next corner. Where stability for our business is, we do not know yet. The only thing that is clear now is that we have not reached that destination. WASHINGTONAn American lobbyist who worked with Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs pleaded guilty Friday to failing to register as an agent of a foreign power and disclosed to prosecutors that he helped a Russian political operative and a Ukranian businessman illegally purchase four tickets to U.S. President Donald Trumps inauguration. Prosecutors disclosed that the inauguration tickets were worth $50,000 and were purchased with funds that flowed through a Cypriot bank account. Prosecutors did not name the foreigners involved. However, the tickets were purchased for Konstantin V. Kilimnik, a Russian political operative believed to have ties to a Russian intelligence agency, and a Ukranian oligarch. The lobbyist, Sam Patten, also agreed to co-operate with prosecutors as part of his plea agreement. He could provide prosecutors insight into a range of activity and individuals relevant to the special counsel investigation, as well as connections between Trump, his associates and Russia. Prosecutors said they would not bring additional charges against Patten for giving false statements to and obstructing the Senate Intelligence Committee. The committee, which questioned Patten on Jan. 18, is among the congressional panels that are conducting investigations into Russias election interference. Foreigners are not allowed to contribute any money to the organization that runs presidential inaugurations. According to federal documents, Patten misled the Intelligence Committee several times and intentionally withheld documents that could have revealed the foreign purchase of the tickets. Details disclosed in the plea agreement were the latest reminder of the far-reaching effects of the investigation by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, into Russias interference in the 2016 presidential election. Trump has called the special counsel investigation a witch hunt and rigged. And allies of Trump have complained that Muellers mandate to investigate Russias election interference as well as any related crimes that are unearthed in the process is too broad. In January, Paul Manafort, Trumps former campaign chairman, unsuccessfully sued the special counsel, asking the court to narrow Muellers scope. Patten has worked in the same world as Manafort, who was recently convicted of financial fraud and is scheduled to go on trial in September over different charges. As recently as this year, Patten worked as a foreign agent for the Opposition Bloc, a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party, according to a court document filed Friday. Manafort worked for the Opposition Bloc in 2014. Manafort has also been charged with failing to register as a foreign agent for his work on behalf of pro-Russia Ukrainian interests, including the Opposition Bloc. For decades, prosecutors have rarely brought charges for violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA. But that changed, even before the appointment of the special counsel, as the Justice Department worked to meet the counter-intelligence threats from foreign adversaries. Mueller has pursued other investigations into lawyers and lobbyists who did work in Ukraine, and he has handed some of those cases off to federal prosecutors in other jurisdictions. A lawyer working for the special counsel was present in the courtroom Friday when Patten entered his guilty plea. Pattens lawyer declined to comment after Fridays hearing. Patten faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. He was released after the hearing. Pattens work for the Opposition Bloc was done in conjunction with Kilimnik, who served as Manaforts longtime deputy on the ground in Kyiv. Mueller and his team have accused Kilimnik of having ties to Russian intelligence. Kilimnik was indicted in June on charges of obstruction of justice related to witness tampering in the foreign lobbying case against Manafort. Kilimnik was not named in Fridays charging papers, but is identified as Foreigner A, described as a Russian national who formed a company in the United States with Patten. That company, identified as Company A in the court document, is Begemot Ventures International, a company created by the two men in February 2015, according to corporate records filed in Washington. According to the charging document, Company A was paid more than $1 million through an offshore Cypriot bank account to advise the Opposition Bloc and its members, including a prominent Ukraine oligarch, who is not named. Patten assisted the party and the oligarch by lobbying the U.S. government and providing public relations assistance in an effort to influence United States policy, which should have triggered a FARA registration, prosecutors said. Patten has worked around Republican politics for years, and he came to specialize in representing foreign interests and political campaigns, particularly in former Soviet states. On his website, he describes himself as an international consultant. Patten also had a years-long business relationship with Cambridge Analytica, the political data firm that worked on Trumps 2016 campaign. Starting in 2014, the firm used Patten as a consultant for election campaigns and other projects in Africa, Europe and the United States, according to a person with direct knowledge of his activities. During the same year, Cambridge Analytica sought to drum up business in Russia. Cambridge Analytica closed down in May after revelations that it had improperly harvested personal data from tens of millions of Facebook users without their permission. The company has since come under scrutiny by the Justice Department, though it is unclear whether that investigation is connected to Muellers inquiry. In 2014, the same year Patten worked as a consult for Cambridge Analytica, he also worked for one of the candidates running for mayor of Kyiv. Later, he and Kilimnik shifted their attention to the Opposition Bloc, which emerged from the ashes of the administration of President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled Ukraine in February 2014 amid mass street protests of his governments corruption and pivot toward Moscow. Though Patten and Manafort both worked on behalf of the Opposition Bloc, people familiar with the political party said the men were not close, and their primary connection was through Kilimnik. Read more about: WASHINGTONA federal judge in Texas declined on Friday to halt an Obama-era program that protects young unauthorized immigrants from deportation, handing a temporary victory to activists who are waging a legal fight against the Trump administration to save it. Judge Andrew S. Hanen of U.S. District Court in Houston said the program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, had been relied upon by hundreds of thousands of immigrants since it was established almost six years ago, and should not be abruptly ended. The ruling means that young immigrants who were brought illegally to the United States as small children can continue to apply for the program, which shields them from immediate deportation and provides a permit to work legally in the United States. Its a huge sigh of relief, said Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center. This is a huge loss for Trump and the Department of Justice, who clearly want to end the program. U.S. President Donald Trump announced a year ago an end to the DACA program, calling it an illegal use of executive power by his predecessor, former U.S. president Barack Obama. Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the time called DACA an unfair system that had victimized millions of Americans by allowing illegal aliens to take their jobs. But Trumps effort to end the program was blocked by several other federal judges, who have temporarily required the administration to allow qualified unauthorized immigrants to renew their protected status under the DACA program. Texas and eight other states filed a separate lawsuit seeking to declare the DACA program illegal and seeking an injunction to stop it, but Hanen refused to do so. The Texas judge compared the idea of ending the DACA program to an attempt to unscramble an egg. Here, the egg has been scrambled, Hanen wrote. To try to put it back in the shell with only a preliminary injunction record, and perhaps at great risk to many, does not make sense nor serve the best interests of this country. Read more about: MOSCOWThe leader of the Donetsk Peoples Republic, a Russian-backed separatist enclave in eastern Ukraine, was killed Friday when a bomb exploded at a restaurant where he was having dinner, an attack that threatened to set off an escalation of the Ukraine war. The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, blamed the Ukrainian government, saying that there is every reason to suggest that the Kyiv regime stands behind this murder. And Russias speaker of Parliament suggested that because the victim, Alexander Zakharchenko, was one of the parties who signed a peace agreement with Ukraine called Minsk II, that pact was no longer valid. Ukrainians say Zakharchenko, a former electrician, filled a mostly figurehead position for the Russian security service agencies that manage and finance the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, and they attributed his death to infighting in the rebel ranks or a Russian targeted killing. Zakharchenko became the latest in a long list of separatist leaders to die in mysterious assassinations. He had reportedly dined often at the restaurant, which was paradoxically called Separ, short for separatist. Photographs from the scene posted on social media sites showed blown-out windows and armed men milling about. The blast killed Zakharchenko and wounded three others, including his dining companion, the minister of finance of the self-declared Peoples Republic. President Vladimir Putin of Russia issued a statement that stopped short of directly blaming the Ukrainian government. The despicable murder of Alexander Zakharchenko is once again evidence that those who chose the path of terror, violence and fear dont want to find a peaceful, political resolution to the conflict, he said. They are making a dangerous bet on destabilizing the situation. Igor Guskov, the chief of staff for the SBU, Ukraines intelligence agency, told reporters in Kyiv, Ukraines capital, that Zakharchenkos death could be the result of internal, criminal conflicts among the fighters or an effort by Russian special services to liquidate a fairly odious figure on the pro-Russian side. Zakharchenko, a native of eastern Ukraine who had worked in the regions mines, was elevated to the leadership role in 2014, putting a local face on the rebellion by replacing a Russian citizen. Infighting soon ensued within the separatists leadership. Russian Cossacks, who had sought to carve out their own separatist ministates in the area, were repressed in internecine fighting on the pro-Russian side that by some estimates killed about 100 people. Cossack supporters blamed Russian government-backed forces for several assassinations and attacks, lending credence to the idea that Russia has used targeted killings to retain control over local militias in eastern Ukraine. In 2016 and 2017, two separatist field commanders, Arsen Pavlov, who went by the nom de guerre Motorola, and Mikhail Tolstykh, known as Givi, were killed in assassinations. Then, too, the Russian and Ukrainian authorities blamed one another. The Minsk II peace accord, reached in 2015, tamped down the violence but never stopped the war, which is fought in trenches along a front line between Ukrainian-controlled territory and two breakaway regions. Read more about: WASHINGTONFacing demands from members of his own party to include Canada in any new North American trade deal, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Saturday to terminate the existing NAFTA if Congress tries to prevent him from proceeding with Mexico alone. There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. If we dont make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out. Congress should not interfere w/ these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off... Trump said on Twitter. The tweet was posted as Trump was riding in his motorcade to a Trump golf course in Virginia. Trump struck a preliminary trade deal with Mexico on Monday. Negotiations with Canada, which are logjammed over several unresolved policy issues, will resume on Wednesday. Seeking to pressure Canada into concessions, Trump has said that he will simply finalize a two-country deal with Mexico, replacing the three-country North American Free Trade Agreement, if Canada does not give ground. But members of Congress, including Republicans, have insisted that any deal include Canada. And second-ranking Senate Republican John Cornyn, along with independent trade experts, has warned that Trump might not have the legal authority to send a Mexico-only deal through Congress after initially notifying Congress that he was renegotiating a three-country deal. My hope is that Canada comes on board rather quickly, Cornyn said, according to the Washington Post. I hope we can get this done, and I hope Canadas on board. Because that would eliminate some of the technical, procedural problems . . . that might otherwise arise. A Trump official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity on Friday argued that the administration does have the authority to make a Mexico-only deal. But the official acknowledged that at the end of the day, obviously its going to be up to the Congress to make a judgment. Trump issued the threat as his two predecessors, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, attended and spoke at a National Cathedral memorial service for the late Republican senator John McCain, who did not invite the sitting president. Trump has threatened since his campaign to withdraw the U.S. from NAFTA, which he called one of the WORST Trade Deals ever made in another Saturday tweet. This is the first time he has specifically threatened to initiate a withdrawal in response to Congress refusing to let him go forward without Canada. Experts differ on whether Trump actually has the power to terminate NAFTA on his own. Such a move would be guaranteed to face legal challenges. Canada and the U.S. negotiated from Tuesday to Thursday without reaching a deal by Trumps informal deadline of Friday. Shortly afterward, Trump sent Congress a formal notification of his intention to enter into a trade agreement with Mexico and with Canada if it is willing, in a timely manner, to meet the high standards for free, fair and reciprocal trade contained therein. The notification starts a 90-day countdown to the possible signing of an agreement by the countries leaders. But the U.S. could also decide to extend negotiations with Canada well beyond that; there is no requirement that the U.S. and Mexico sign at the 90-day mark. Influential U.S. business lobby groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, are also urging Trump to include Canada. Anything other than a trilateral agreement wont win Congressional approval and would lose business support, Chamber of Commerce chief executive Thomas Donohue said in a Friday statement. Trump delivered his threat to Congress and to Canada a day after the Star revealed that he had said, in remarks he intended to be private, that he was not making any compromises at all with Canada and that any deal would be totally on our terms. He said he could not say this publicly because its going to be so insulting theyre not going to be able to make a deal. Trump complained in two tweets and in a speech about the disclosure of the quotes, which he had made off the record to Bloomberg News. But he also insisted that he did not mind the leak because now Canada knowing his true feelings. These are very dishonourable people, he said Friday of the Bloomberg journalists, though he provided no evidence they were behind the leak. But I said, in the end its OK, because at least Canada knows how I feel. So, its fine. Its fine. Its true. Read more: Trump makes 67 false claims in 5th-most-dishonest week as president Canada and the U.S. cant reach trade deal by Trumps deadline; talks to resume Wednesday Donald Trump confirms Star story on his secret bombshell remarks about Canada Read more about: Justin Trudeau lost more than a big court battle in the pipeline war this week. He also lost part of his re-election narrative. In 2015, Trudeau promised Canadians he would have the environmental back of the communities that host new pipeline developments. He also vowed to establish a real partnership with First Nations. The Federal Court of Appeal found that in the Trans Mountain case the only interprovincial pipeline project the Liberal government has steered it had fallen short on both counts. There is no quick fix to turn the page on this weeks legal fiasco before Trudeau seeks re-election next fall. In the very unlikely event that the government has an abrupt change of heart and cuts its losses by renouncing the expansion, it would still have the existing Trans Mountain pipeline on its hands. Between now and the election, expect protagonists on both sides of the debate to depict it as a prime exhibit of Liberal incompetence. From a political perspective, keeping alive the notion that the project will eventually see the light of day might seem like the more expedient solution. But while the government has a number of road maps at its disposal, none offer a shortcut to success. Trudeau can appeal this weeks ruling to the Supreme Court. But that would take more than a year and there is no guarantee the federal government would prevail. Read more: Justin Trudeau is rerunning in the 2019 federal election Alberta to pull out of national climate plan, Premier Rachel Notley vows Trans Mountain expansion could be delayed for years by court decision: experts Little creative jurisprudence went in to Thursdays ruling. For example, in finding that the duty to consult the First Nations had not been fulfilled, the court was guided by criteria set forth by the Supreme Court. Alternatively, Trudeau could attempt to address the failings that caused the federal court to nullify the expansions approval. That will be easier said than done. Under that option, the government would send the National Energy Board back to the drawing board to assess the impact increased tanker traffic resulting from the Trans Mountain expansion would have on the coastal environment. But the NEB findings would be just as likely to add fuel to the fire of those who oppose the project out of fear of potential spill damage to British Columbias coastal water as to consolidate the projects case. The court ruled that the federal government could not acquit itself of its constitutional duty to consult the Indigenous communities affected by the plan simply by listening to their concerns and moving on. But even if Ottawa engages in what it construes to be more meaningful consultation, it is unlikely to bring the First Nations who went to court to block the expansion around to its side. In light of those irreconcilable differences, it would probably take more litigation to determine whether the federal government has met its obligations. There are those who believe this weeks ruling can be bypassed at the stroke of a federal legislative pen and a legal declaration that the Trans Mountain expansion is in the national interest. But it is hard to imagine that the courts would concur with the notion that Canadas constitutional obligations to its Indigenous peoples take second place to the resource development agenda of the federal government of the day. It is not just Trudeaus political capital with the First Nations that took another hit this week. His capacity to advance his environmental agenda also took a beating. The federal climate-change framework now hangs by a thread that could be cut in next years election. Andrew Scheers Conservatives are poised to turn the campaign into a federal plebiscite on Trudeaus carbon-pricing scheme. At the same time, in a Meech-style domino effect, the prime minister is losing the wide provincial support his initiative used to enjoy. Alberta is opting out of the federal framework in protest over this weeks court ruling. That provinces ongoing participation was always contingent on NDP Premier Rachel Notleys re-election next spring and the odds of that happening were low even before the latest Trans Mountain setback. Trudeaus court defeat strengthened the pre-election hand of his opposition rivals. There is little doubt that a Conservative government would have fared equally poorly in court this week. But it is the Liberals who wear the singular purchase of a $4.5-billion pipeline on behalf of taxpayers. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh had called on Trudeau to refer the Trans Mountain file to the Supreme Court for a definitive read on its legal standing last April. At the time, the government dismissed the suggestion out of hand, claiming its case in federal court was bulletproof. One cant help but think that Trudeau is at least fortunate in that he will be facing a rookie New Democrat leader next year rather than the battle-tested Thomas Mulcair. Chantal Hebert is a columnist based in Ottawa covering politics. Follow her on Twitter: @ChantalHbert Read more about: After this momentous week in North American relations, it may be a long time before we see a revival of those old Three Amigos summits. You may remember them. In happier times, the prime minister of Canada would get together with the presidents of the United States and Mexico to have their photos taken together and talk about how to make North America a more co-operative place. The last one was held in Canada in the summer of 2016. No Three Amigos summit has been held since Donald Trump became president later that year. And chances of a reunion seem even more remote today, especially if this week has helped set a new standard in the every-nation-for-itself approach to continental relations. Trump isnt just averse to summits, hes clearly not big on the whole idea of multilateralism. The president didnt enjoy himself at the G7 Summit in Charlevoix, Quebec last June to put it mildly and no matter what else has happened this week, he has turned what should have been multilateral trade negotiations into two bilateral sets of talks. So its not just that Trump is an isolationist, hes turning his North American partners into isolationists, too. At least Canada knows how I feel, is destined to become an important marker in Canadas relationship with Trumps America in the coming months and years. Trump uttered those remarks in the context of his off-the-record boasts of no compromise with Canada in this weeks trade negotiations. But we also know now how Trump feels about overall North American co-operation, and the answer is, not much. Read more: Trade talks end without meeting Donald Trumps deadline, will resume next week Donald Trump confirms Star story on his secret bombshell remarks about Canada Opinion | Rick Salutin: Trump, Trudeau and NAFTA: what could possibly go wrong? Even before Trumps controversial remarks exploded into the public on Friday (courtesy of Star reporter Daniel Dale,) the president had forced Mexico and Canada into isolated corners. Although the two countries had long been saying they wouldnt toss each other under the bus and go it alone with the United States in NAFTA negotiations, thats essentially what happened when Trump unveiled his U.S.-Mexico deal on Monday. And make no mistake, Canada noticed. Neither Mexico nor Canada was dwelling on that reality this week, but its said that Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland did let Mexican government officials know that their go-it-alone approach had been noted when she arrived in Washington this week to get caught up on what Canada had missed. Several trade experts have been saying this week that when all this current drama is over, Canada-Mexico relations are going to need some repairs. Sarah Goldfeder, a principal with the Earnscliffe Strategy Group in Ottawa, is a former U.S. diplomat who has worked for two American ambassadors to Canada and also in Mexico as a foreign service officer. Shes been keeping a close eye on how the North American trade relationship has been evolving and says that things between Canada and Mexico were already somewhat shaky before this week. Last years negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade arrangement, for instance, saw some tension between Mexico and Canada when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau didnt show up at a negotiating session in Vietnam. When Canada didnt show up, Mexico kind of had to cover, Goldfeder said. Nor has Canada appreciated the depth or complexity of Mexicos economic ties to the U.S., she said. These are all strains on the relationship. Peter Clark, an international trade strategist who has been writing commentary in iPolitics during the ongoing negotiations, said some of the Canada-Mexico tension over this weeks developments may dissipate when the new Mexican government takes over in December. Trumps deal with Mexico, such as it is, was made with the outgoing regime and Canada could just decide to see the go-it-alone decision as an ill-considered move of Enrigue Pena Nietos government on the way out. Still, no matter how much Canada tried to minimize the impact of the bilateral U.S.-Mexico negotiations, and how much it insisted this country was in the loop, as Clark says, its not like we knew what was going on, right up to the last minute. Canadian officials, speaking off the record, insist that negotiations with the United States ended Friday on a good note, despite the comments from Trump, and that no one in Trudeaus government is interested in picking a fight with Mexico over how everything unfolded this week. But even if Trump doesnt end up getting everything that the U.S. wants in whatever new trade deal is reached, he has succeeded in making Canada and Mexico fall into his isolationist, anti-multilateral way of looking at trade relations. And as a bonus, Trump wont likely be asked to go to any Three Amigos summit anytime soon. Susan Delacourt is the Star's Ottawa bureau chief and a columnist covering national politics. Reach her via email: sdelacourt@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @susandelacourt Read more about: VANCOUVERA group of Aboriginal children from a remote mountainous village in southern Taiwan are getting ready for the world stage in Vancouver this long weekend. Eighteen out of 45 students from Cingye Elementary School of the Rukai tribe have been visiting Toronto and Vancouver Island ahead of their performances during this weekends TaiwanFest. They live in Taiwans most southern county of Pingtung, with a population of 800,000 tucked in the central region that divides the nation between east and west. The Auba Rukai Childrens Choir was what brought Charlie Wu, managing director and organizer of this years TaiwanFest, back to Cingye Elementary twice in the past year, travelling hours by train and taxi to see the Rukai students. The organizers last visit was in March. Wu filmed a portion of the performance sung by lead singer Sasuzu, a boy in Grade 6, who belted out songs in the Rukai native language. Thats the moment that we all get goosebumps, Wu said. Its one thing to hear the choir singing, its another to hear the lead vocal sing solo. When he started, I couldnt resist picking up my phone and capturing that feeling for myself. Their school, Wu noted, was decorated in murals depicting the tribe history and its wars fought. From these war murals, you know how storied a tribe they are. And the members of the tribe use every opportunity they can to remind their kids of their own unique identity. In Canada, the students have met the Komoks First Nation in Courtenay, B.C., and will be visiting the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art. This is an opportunity for them to see how Indigenous communities present themselves in Canada, as Taiwan and Canada are going through a very similar reconciliation process, Wu added. Carol Pan, board member of Asian Canadian Special Events Association, was the one who introduced the choir to Wu. She had heard about them through the director of programming at the National Concert Hall in Taipei, where the children had previously performed. She said their ability to sing in their Rukai language and musical talents made a lasting impression on her, and she will join the rest of Vancouverites this weekend to hear them sing. The choir will perform Sept. 1 at 2:30 p.m. and Sept. 3 at 4:30 p.m. at the Vancouver Art Gallery North Plaza. Read more about: EDWARDSVILLE Two Alton drug dealers have pleaded guilty and were sentenced to prison in two days this week, as a result of prosecutions under a new program aimed at reducing violent crime by reducing the drug trade. A lot of violent crime can be eliminated by eliminating the drug trade, said Madison County Assistant States Attorney Tara Steele, who has been assigned to drug cases, working under the Violent Crimes Division, headed by Assistant States Attorney Crystal Uhe. She prosecuted Orlandus M. Lacey, 42, of the 2100 block of Amelia Street, Alton, who pleaded guilty Thursday to a count of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a park, Rock Springs Park. He agreed to a six-year prison term in exchange for his plea. Brandon E. Blake, 29, of the 1300 block of Rixon Street, Alton, pleaded guilty Friday to a count of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance and was sentenced to eight years in prison. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped a count of aggravated battery on a police officer. Both dealers were arrested and charged after undercover drug buys by the Alton Police Department. Neither defendant was convicted of a violent crime this week, but States Attorney Tom Gibbons said there is a clear connection between the drug trade and violent crime. The reason is because of the massive increase in the use of methamphetamine and fentanyl coming in from Mexico and the unfortunate connection between drug distribution and violent crime, Gibbons said. He said that there have also been murder cases linked to other drugs, including marijuana. Taras mission is to take a hard line against people in the drug trade, to lock them up, he said. We want people to know there is a specific person watching their every move, Steele said. The program is under a federal grant program called The Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Grant. The grant is for three years of Steeles salary and other expenses. Steele, formerly a high school English teacher, has also worked with the St. Clair County States Attorneys Office. She graduated from Southern Illinois University Carbondale Law School. The program is named for New York City police officer Edward Byrne who was killed in the line of duty in 1988, while protecting an immigrant witness who agreed to testify against drug dealers. Both Lacey and and Blake have extensive criminal records. Lacey has convictions for misdemeanor battery, four counts of drug possession, and home invasion causing injury. He has also been charged with, but not convicted of, armed robbery, aggravated criminal sexual assault with a weapon, violation of probation, obstruction of justice, and misdemeanor charges of domestic battery, aggravated assault on a police officer and resisting arrest. Blake has been convicted of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, property damage, home invasion and misdemeanor possession of alcohol by a minor. He has been charged with, but not convicted of, armed robbery, being a felon in possession of a weapon, aggravated battery of a peace officer, resisting a peace officer, and driving under the influence. Reach EDWARDSVILLE Family law attorney Kathleen Buckley has announced that she is teaming up with her daughter, attorney Bridget Buckley, in Madison Countys first mother-daughter law firm. Buckley & Buckley Law is to open at 216 North Main Street in Edwardsville today, Sept. 1. Kathleen Buckley has practiced law at that location for 20 years and is pleased to have the new firm continue to provide excellent legal services at the same place. I have been a lawyer in the Metro East for the past 29 years and Bridget has worked locally since 2014, said Kathleen Buckley. Bridget and I both graduated from SIU-Carbondale School of Law, albeit 25 years apart; and we are very happy to bring our client-centered approach to managing cases to this new venture. Buckley & Buckley Law will provide a wide range of legal services. They include all areas of family law from simple divorces through those involving business owners and high net-worth clients; child support for minors, college-bound students and disabled adults; adoptions; custody cases (visitation, allocations of parenting time and responsibilities); parentage; orders of protections and other domestic violence issues; DCFS investigations; wills and tax deeds. Buckley & Buckley Law handles DUIs, traffic offenses, and criminal misdemeanors. The law firm also offers mediation in family law, real estate, and business disputes. Kathleen Buckley graduated from SIU-Carbondale School of Law in 1989. She is a member of the Madison County Bar Association, the Illinois State Bar Association and the Alton-Wood River Bar Association. Kathleen has been a speaker for continuing legal education programs and is a past Chair of the Madison County Bar Association Scholarship Committee. Bridget Buckley earned her J.D. in 2014 from the SIU-Carbondale School of Law. Bridget has served as a Special Public Defender in Madison County. She has been a presenter at continuing legal education programs. Bridget is a member of the Madison County Bar Association and the Illinois State Bar Association. Buckley & Buckley Law are proud members of the local legal community. For more information or to schedule an appointment, contact them at 618-692-4422 or recept@2Buckleys.com. The adage that failures can teach many lessons seems quite... The inaugural 2+2 dialogue between the foreign and defence ministers of India and the United States scheduled for September 6 in New Delhi has a somber setting. Of late, the regional and world situation has dramatically worsened, Indian foreign policy is passing through a period of adjustment and the India-US relationship has lost some of its verve. To take the last point first, Trumps 'America First' strategy has reached the high noon. The neo-mercantilism dominating the US foreign policy is an offensive credo geared to accumulating trade surplus by coercing other countries to part with some of their wealth. Simply put, mercantilism uses economics as a tool for 'war' by other means. Historically, mercantilism frequently led to wars. This is because a country wedded to mercantilism as national economic policy is fixated on augmenting its state power at the expense of other national powers. Illustration: Bhaskaran All these tendencies are casting their shadows on India-US relations, making it more difficult than ever for Delhi to seek an equal relationship. The scope has narrowed to leverage the partnership with the US for Indias own economic transformation and development, which has reached a critical stage. From the US perspective, too, the locus has shifted to boosting exports of weaponry and, in the medium term, oil and gas. And, Washington is demanding that India should atrophy its defence partnership with Russia and terminate its oil trade with Iran. Clearly, the meeting on September 6 will be keenly watched in regard of the USs prescriptive approach towards Indias time-tested friendship with both Russia and Iran and how it plays out in the months ahead. This is where the other two templatesrecent calibration in Indias ties with China and Russia and the regional and international milieubecome relevant. A dialectic has appeared involving on the one hand the defining India-US partnership and on the other, Indias strategic autonomy in the contemporary world situation. Arguably, the Doklam face off, and its denouement, has been in some ways its manifestation. Managing dialectical tensions is always challenging. We cannot be in the denial mode, responding to only one side of the tension, while ignoring the other. The choices are between disorientation or alternation and balance and recalibration. Disorientation means ending the relationship in which tension exists while alternation means going back and forth between the two sides of the tension. Neither is feasible, since Indias relationships with the US, Russia and China are all highly consequential. That leaves balance and recalibration as the realistic option. The good part is that the current international situation is broadly favourable for the pursuit of independent foreign policies. Suffice to say, the strengthening of Indias strategic autonomy is of utmost importance. However, the governments record causes disquiet. A telling example has been the US-India logistics agreement of April 2016, which grants the US military access to our bases. A leading Chinese pundit wrote recently that the apparent tilt in the Indian foreign policy towards the US soured China-India cooperation. Russian analysts, too, voice similar concern over Indias dalliance with the US-led Indo-Pacific Partnership. Indeed, the optics of the US-India 2+2 dialogue is bound to create misgivings in Beijing and Moscow. Curiously, in September, China is participating in a Russian military exercise focusing on traditional security, which is billed as the biggest since the Zapad-1981 drill by the Warsaw Pact countries. Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are expected to watch the drills, which are taking place in near alliance conditions. India cannot play the ostrich. Washingtons recent move to grant Strategic Trade Authorisation Status to India on par with the NATO allies underscores where the US priorities lie. But what are the Indian priorities? The writer is a former diplomat. It isnt always good to have an illustrious predecessor. People tend to compare you with him, and find you wanting. Thats what happened to Henry Addington, who was prime minister of Great Britain at the turn of the 19th century. Coming between two tenures of William Pitt the Younger who is hailed as one of the greatest prime ministers, Addington was found wanting in many respects. This led George Canning to compose the famous doggerel, Pitt is to Addington as London is to Paddington. The line, drawing a parallel to the great city and its humble suburb, was the most-quoted line for comparing rulers, till Winston Churchill called the pawns on a chessboard as [Stanley] Baldwins, and Americas accidental and unintellectual president Gerald Ford remarked, I am a Ford, not a Lincoln. What happened to Addington happened to the successors of Jawaharlal Nehru, too. Like Pitt, Nehru towered over all his contemporaries and successors in the vastness of his scholarship, sharpness of intellect, syncreticism of beliefs, liberal worldview and grandeur of vision, so much so that he came to be almost deified. Nehrus successors institutionalised the deification by naming roads (a practice he expressly forbade), stadiums, colleges, universities, an airport, a seaport, and several other things after him. Yes, they carried it too far. Illustration: Bhaskaran But the spirit of Nehru, the spirit of eclecticism, is housed in Teen Murti House which, originally built as the Flagstaff House for the commander-in-chief, was Nehrus official home from 1948 till his death in 1964. It got its name from the nearby square situating the statues of the Jodhpur, Mysore and Hyderabad troopers who served in British expeditionary force that captured Haifa in World War I. The square was renamed Teen Murti Haifa Chowk on the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modis Israel visit last year. The Roberts Road in front, named after the 19th century general who modernised the Indian Army, was renamed Teen Murti Marg after independence. Another one, Kushak Road, gets its name from the quaint-looking Kushak Mahal, a 14th century hunting lodge built by Feroze Shah Tughlaq and situated in the grounds. A truly eclectic place. Once a symbol of imperial military might, the Flagstaff House was chosen by Nehru to be the PM House simply to assert the supremacy of the elected civilian leadership over the military in a democracy. He lived a spartan life there, surrounded by books, buddies and birds, and often agonising over the mounting bills for the breakfast eggs and milk which he paid for from his pocket. The house soon came to symbolise the spirit of a syncretic India, where the leader of the worlds largest and newest democracy argued atomic physics with Homi Bhabha, learnt of cosmic rays from Niels Bohr, exchanged notes on Buddhism with Andre Malraux, debated civilisational history with D.D. Kosambi, and wrote letters to Arnold Toynbee. Yes, Nehru loved to be surrounded by wise men, even as he grappled with the problems of a post-colonial nation, grounded it firmly on the foundation of democracy, steered it onto the path of development, and toiled to build a non-aligned world, almost becoming what Lord Minto said of Pitt, the Atlas of our reeling globe. The house was made into a museum after his death, not just of Nehru, but of the entire independence movement. A research library was appended to it later. Located on vast wooded grounds where peacocks strut around, the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, today, could well be a scholars idea of Paradise. It has the best collection of books on humanities, a rich reprography and manuscript section, the best collection of journals, photos and personal papers of several personages who made 20th century history. Now Modi wants to build a new building in the complex and house memorials for all prime ministerspast, present and future. Manmohan Singh thinks of the move as vandalism, and has written to Modi to lay off. So its a tie between two Addingtons. Lets ask a third. Deve Gowdaji, are you listening? prasannan@theweek.in The publication of The Fall of Gondolin by JRR Tolkien completes a publishing project that began in the distant past of 1977, when Christopher Tolkien edited The Silmarillion, the first volume of his fathers posthumous stories. When Tolkien senior died in 1973, he left four full length published novels and a mass of uncollected papers behind him. His youngest son Christopher, now aged 93, has spent almost half a lifetime annotating his fathers work and preparing it for publication. The 12 volumes of the History of Middle-earth provide an astonishingly detailed account of the languages and landscapes of Tolkiens fictional world. This monument of scholarship allows readers of The Lord of the Rings to gain the fullest possible understanding of the careful preparation which stood behind the handful of books published by Tolkien in his lifetime. As a literary critic who specialises in archival work, I admire the heroic labours of the Tolkien estate in presenting the authors private papers, letters and illustrations to a wide readership of scholars and enthusiasts. But not all heirs and executors take the same view when it comes to publishing posthumous work, and there are often ethical problems arising from an authors drafts and manuscripts. The Larkin Letters When the first edition of Philip Larkins posthumous Collected Poems appeared in 1988, many readers were dismayed to find that the editor had chosen to include a large number of unfinished poems and apprentice work written when Larkin was a student. Critics of that volume argued that Larkin would never have allowed publication of this inferior work, and the overall effect was to diminish the impact of the poems he valued. Publication of the Collected Poems was followed in 1992 by a volume of Larkins letters (heavily cut to remove libels), which revealed the poet to have been seething with racist prejudices. It took many years for Larkins reputation to recover from these deep wounds, which had been administered by his own literary executors. There will be no posthumous edition of Larkins diaries, which were shredded shortly after his death, according to his own instructions. Read more: After years of scandal, Philip Larkin finally has a spot in Poets' Corner Virginia Woolfs letters and journals offer a positive counter example. Edited by her nephew Quentin Bell and published posthumously, Woolfs Diaries have established themselves as an inspiring series of books for everyone who studies her novels. The pleasure of watching over Woolfs shoulder as she documents the ups and downs of her writing life is immense. The lost works of Auden and Burgess Other writers have attempted to take control of their reputations more directly. W.H. Auden, who died in 1973, stipulated in his will that no edition of his letters should be published, and he requested that anyone who had letters in their possession should burn them. Fortunately for posterity, many of his friends had already sold their batches of Auden letters to university archives, and other people simply ignored his wishes. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that an edited collection of Audens letters will ever appear. Edward Mendelson, who is Audens literary executor, recently wrote an article in which he discussed his own ethical dilemmas as the editor of the Collected Poems. Mendelsons guiding principle has been to value the poems that Auden chose to include in his two volumes of Collected Longer Poems and Collected Shorter Poems. But what to do about the poems published in magazines but excluded from Audens books? Those appear in the Collected Poems on the grounds that Auden had signed them off for publication. And what about the rejected early work, such as the poem Spain a response to the Spanish Civil War published in pamphlet form but later excluded from the Collected Shorter Poems? That does appear in The English Auden, an edition of poems written in the 1930s, but it is absent from the Collected Poems. There is another category of lost work by Auden, existing only in manuscripts and notebooks, but never collected in book form. Mendelson has recently unveiled his plans to publish some of these poems, carefully edited and contextualised, in a volume of Audens Personal Writing, which will include poems and verse-letters written for friends. But none of this work will be finding its way into the next edition of the Collected Poems. Anyone who manages a literary estate faces hard questions about what should or should not be published. In September 2018 Manchester University Press will publish Paul Wakes edition of Puma, a science fiction novel by Anthony Burgess. The manuscript, completed in 1976, was unpublished in Burgesss lifetime, but letters in the archive confirm that he was actively seeking to find a publisher shortly after hed written it. What readers will make of this lost novel by Burgess remains to be seen. The Tolkien example is a story of a sons devotion to his fathers work and there is much to admire in Christopher Tolkiens determination to put as much unpublished writing as possible into the public domain. For the future, as electronic communication becomes more pervasive, it seems likely that writers will find it harder to delete published work from the record, or to edit their past in the ways evidenced by Auden and Larkin. If only they had survived into the age of social media, their Collected Tweets might have been required reading for every diligent student of their poems. Andrew Biswell, Professor of Modern Literature, Manchester Metropolitan University This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. After much outrage from women directors over the lack of women representation at the Venice film festival, the organisers signed a pledge for gender parity. With this move, the festival follows in the footsteps of Cannes, Locarno and Sarajevo. The pledge was signed by the festival's artistic director Alberto Barbera at a news conference that he attended; Paolo Baratta, the president of La Biennale, the fest's parent organisation; and the Italian groups Dissenso Comune and Women in Film, TV & Media Italia, reported Variety. "The Venice festival is already quite far ahead," said Italian actress Jasmine Trinca of Dissenso Comune, who participated in the signing of the deal. "From the start, I wanted clarity about the fact that no festival has signed any pledges regarding quotas [in] selections.and nobody has ever asked them to. Because we agreed on that basic principle, the dialogue with the [women's] movements has been serene and constructive," said Baratta. The Venice Film Festival had come under fire for shutting out female directors from its competition section. In an open letter, the European Women's Audiovisual (EWA) Network said: Female creators from around the world are demanding genuine reform. We want intersectional changes at every level of our industry. We want to create lasting differences in the spaces we occupy as female producers, directors, film selectors. They demanded that the fest sign a gender-parity pledge. Venice Film Festivals main competition lineup this year features only one female director, Jennifer Kent for The Nightingale. Similarly, Angels Wear White by Chinese director Vivian Qu, was last years lone competition title directed by a woman. Every festival has the luxury and the freedom to not worry about diversity. But these festivals indicate their priorities and values. And they have valued and prioritised films made by males for as long as they have existed, the letter said. In an incident that could prove damaging to Air India' public image, the national carrier has been accused of not initiating action against a drunken man who allegedly urinated on the seat of a fellow woman passenger on board a New York-Delhi flight on August 30. @sureshpprabhu @SushmaSwaraj @airindiain 30thAug AI102 JFK to Delhi, seat36D. My mother traveling alone had to face extreme shock and trauma when a drunk passenger post dinner service fumbled across to her seat removed his pants and urinated on her seat! Please lookinto urgently Indrani Ghosh (@indranidreams) August 31, 2018 The incident was brought to light by Indrani Ghosh, the daughter of the woman passenger, who posted a series of tweets about it. Ghosh claimed the man, who was drunk, allegedly removed his pants and urinated on his fellow passenger's seat after dinner aboard Air India flight AI 102, which was flying from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport to Delhi. In her first tweet on the incident, in which Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj were tagged, Ghosh wrote, My mother travelling alone had to face extreme shock and trauma when a drunk passenger post-dinner service fumbled across to her seat, removed his pants and urinated on her seat. Except for giving her another seat, nothing else that we know of yet! My mother while waiting in her wheelchair at Delhi airport(for her connecting flight) saw him walk away. Indrani Ghosh (@indranidreams) September 1, 2018 In response to a tweet from activist Kavita Krishnan, Ghosh claimed Air India flight crew only changed her mother's seat and apparently did not act against the drunken man. Ghosh wrote, My mother while waiting in her wheelchair at Delhi Airport (for her connecting flight), saw him [the accused passenger] walk away." @airindiain when I called to make a complaint the usual call centre guy following the script asked me to go to the website and write a feedback!! Really FEEDBACK! Indrani Ghosh (@indranidreams) August 31, 2018 Furthermore Ghosh also tweeted that the staff at the Air India call centre merely asked her to register her feedback on the airline's website. @airindiain please follow up immediately and report back to MoCA / DGCA. Very unfortunate that your mother had to go through this harrowing experience. https://t.co/TcUxEiZ4lR Jayant Sinha (@jayantsinha) September 1, 2018 Taking note of the incident, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on Saturday tweeted a reply to Ghosh. He also directed Air India to immediately follow up the incident and report to the ministry of civil aviation and the DGCA. (With PTI inputs) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday declared that people were hopeful that a grand Ram temple will be built in Ayodhya and "Lord Ram will decide its date". "A grand Ram temple will be built in Ayodhya. The people are very hopeful. Ramji will decide its date. But it will be built definitely," Adityanath said at an event in Lucknow organised by a media house. Adityanath ridiculed attempts by opposition parties to form an anti-BJP front ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The opposition is worried that the BJP is going from strength to strength. They are opposed to development and have been ganging up to join hands with the only aim to take on the saffron party," Adityanath noted. Adityanath sought to poke fun at the opposition parties, saying they were not clear as to who will lead the alliance. "They cannot project any leader who can head the alliance," he said. The BJP will fight the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 on the plank of development, Adityanath said and exuded confidence the party will retain power under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "The BJP will again come to power at the Centre and under the able leadership of the prime minister, we will put up a grand show in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections," Adityanath said. He was responding to a specific question about whether the BJP would repeat its performance in 2014 when it bagged 73 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh along with its alliance partners. Adityanath declared that the BJP does not believe in playing the caste card for the sake of votes and it would go to the polls on the development plank. "The BJP does not play caste card," he said. "We believe in development and welfare of the people without any discrimination," he said. On the issue of police encounter cases in Uttar Pradesh, Adityanath said the authorities are trying their best to instil confidence in the minds of the people that lawbreakers would not be allowed to go scot-free. "At the same time, we have warned the police that there should not be any fake encounters. If they misuse power, action will be taken against them," Adityanath said. Adityanath, who assumed power last year after the BJP scored a landslide victory in the 2017 Assembly polls, slammed the previous Samajwadi Party dispensation, saying, "People voted against the SP as they came to realise the misdeeds of the Akhilesh Yadav government." However, state Congress chief Raj Babbar, who was the next guest at the meet, refuted Adityanath's remarks on opposition unity. "The unity among the opposition parties is to save the country from the BJP's misrule," he said. Babbar said that the unity efforts were in the context of Uttar Pradesh, which sends the highest number of MPs, 80, to the Lok Sabha. "This is Lok Sabha election and national leaders will take a call," he said. The actor-turned-politician said the efforts to strike unity among non-BJP parties were not directed against any individual. "The sole purpose is to save the country from the BJP's misrule," Babbar said. To a specific question as to who will head the alliance, Babbar said the issue will crop up at a later stage. "The issue will be decided at a later stage. It is for the people to decide, the country will decide...," Babbar said. "But, one thing is for certain that if the Congress heads the alliance, it will be our party chief Rahul Gandhi who will head it," Babbar added. Several labour organisations across Chhattisgarh hit the streets on Saturday, protesting the house arrest of Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha (CMM) leader and Bilaspur High Court advocate Sudha Bharadwaj. About 20km away from steel city Bhilai, in Kumari where CMM is headquartered, several labour unions affiliated to left parties and municipal workers of Kumhari municipality joined together to protest the arrest of Bharadwaj and four other activistsGautam Navlakha, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira and P. Varavara Rao This was the sixth such protest meeting in a row in the state. Earlier, advocates of Bilaspur held a protest meeting. Similarly, labour unions in Dalli Rajhara, Rajnandgaon, Raipur, Bhilai and Dhamtari had organised protests. Speaking on the occasion, Kaladas Dehariya of CMM said the arrest of Sudha Bharadwaj was being planned for a long time as she has been fighting against powerful corporate houses having business interests in the state. Labour union leader Surendra Mohanty of Bhilai Steel Plant said this arrest is part of an effort to curb the freedom of speech of citizens. Sudha Bharadwaj is an important pillar of CMM after the murder of its founder Shankar Guha Niyogi in 1991. Niyogi was a labour leader in Dalli Rajhara iron ore mines in Chhattisgarh. The mines used to supply iron ore to Bhilai Steel Plant. Niyogi was murdered in September 1991 at Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha office in Bhilai at the behest of an industrialist. After the demise of Nirogi, Sudha Bharadwaj took over the affairs of the labourers in the region. She studied law from a local college in Bhilai to fight for the poor people of the region, especially the labourers. Born in the US, Sudha Bharadwaj received an Indian citizenship. She studied in IIT but chose to spend her life among labourers of Chhattisgarh. The ruling BJP has collected data on temples, Hindu priests and mutts across Madhya Pradesh ahead of assembly elections, scheduled for the end of this year. However, the purpose of this entire exercise is not clear in Madhya Pradesh, where the BJP is seeking a record fourth straight term in office. Interestingly, the BJP took up the data collection drive after an opinion poll in mid-August said the saffron outfit may fare badly in the upcoming polls. "Yes, we have collected data on temples, mutts along with their priests and sadhus [ascetics]," state BJP spokesman Rajnish Agrawal said on Friday. Agrawal also said the BJP collected details of activists, social organisations and influential people of the state from the party's booth-level teams. However, Agrawal did not disclose what the BJP is going to do with the collected information. "We will contact them [Hindu temples and priests]. We will neither disclose when we will contact them nor our strategy in this regard," Agrawal added. Terrorists released late on Friday night at least nine relatives of policemen whom they had abducted from various places in south Kashmir, official sources said. At least nine relatives of people working in the Jammu and Kashmir Police were abducted on Wednesday and Thursday night by terrorists. Unconfirmed reports had said the total number of kidnapped kin of policemen was 11. However, a senior police official said they had to check whether all those abducted people had returned home. Former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah had condemned the abductions. Officials said the victims were picked up by militants from Shopian, Kulgam, Anantnag and Awantipora. "Some incidents of abduction have come to the notice of police in south Kashmir. We are ascertaining details and circumstances. In due course, it shall be placed in the public domain," a spokesman of the Jammu and Kashmir Police had earlier said. The militants' action came after the NIA arrested the second son of globally wanted terrorist Syed Salahuddin, leader of the Hizbul Mujahideen, on Wednesday. Salahuddin's son was arrested on charges of receiving secret funds. Terrorists kidnapped the nephew of a deputy superintendent of police from Trenz area in Shopian district, a police official said. In another incident, the son of a police officer was kidnapped by the ultras from his home in Wathoo village of Shopian, he said. Yasir Bhat, whose father is presently on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, was also abducted late on Thursday. The Jammu and Kashmir Police official did not divulge the details of other abductions. Militants threatened to set afire the family home of a constable at Berthipora in Shopian, the official added. Abdullah tweeted on Friday the abductions were a worrying reflection of the situation in the valley. The National Conference vice president also lashed out at those who were vocal in condemning the alleged excesses by security forces but were silent about the abductions. "What's worse is the selective outragepeople/leaders who are so vocal about alleged security force excesses are silent about these abductions," he said. PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said families of either militants or security forces should not be made to suffer for something they have little control over. Allegations were made that security forces went on a rampage on Wednesday after killing of four policemen in Shopian in south Kashmir and damaged some houses belonging to terrorists. "Militants and forces victimising each other's families is highly condemnable and marks a new low in our situation. Families shouldn't become casualties and made to suffer for something they have little control over," Mufti tweeted. Brazil's former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was barred from running in this year's presidential election because of his corruption conviction. Though the decision was expected, Lula's lawyers have said that they would appeal in the Supreme Court. Lula is currently serving a 12-year sentence for a corruption conviction. His party workers have registered him as its presidential candidate for the October 7 vote claiming he is innocent. Lula is ineligible for office under Brazils Clean Slate law, which prohibits candidates from running if they have convictions that have been upheld on appeal. But the conviction has not affected Lula's popularity and he still leads the race with 39 per cent voter support, pollster Datafolha reported. A party statement said the court had bowed to the wishes of Brazils elites to stop Lula returning to office. The court had also ignored a recommendation by the United Nations Human Rights Committee to restore Lulas political rights which he appeals his conviction, it said. The party has until Sept. 17 to swap their names on the ballot, though the court gave it 10 days to make the change. The court also ruled that Lula should not appear in the Workers Partys television and radio ads campaign until the ticket has been officially altered to remove him. (With inputs from Reuters) The Turpins, a southern California couple, who were arrested after police found 13 of their children being held captive at their home have pleaded not guilty on Friday to dozens of charges of torture, false imprisonment and abuse. The children were found in horriffic conditions in a house in Perris, about 70 miles (113 km) east of Los Angeles. Some of them were shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks and appeared to be emaciated. One of the siblings, a 17-year-old girl, managed to escape through a window of the house and called 911 in January. This led to the discovery of the rest of the family and the arrest of the parents David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49. Deputies found the girls 12 brothers and sisters - ranging in age from 2 to 29 - trapped inside the darkened, foul-smelling house, some of them chained to beds. The siblings, found to be suffering from malnourishment, muscle wasting, stunted growth and other signs of severe abuse, were taken into protective custody after the parents were arrested. Prosecutors said the victims had been denied proper nutrition, basic hygiene and medical care and were harshly punished for perceived infractions such as wasting water by washing their hands above the wrist. The couple also were accused of taunting their children with pies and other food that they were forbidden to eat. The defendants were each charged with 12 counts of torture, 12 counts of false imprisonment, seven counts of abuse of a dependant adult and eight counts of child abuse. Louise Turpin, 50, also faces an assault charge. David Turpin, 56, who worked as an engineer for aeronautics and defence contractors Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, also was charged with one count of committing a lewd act on a child, plus eight counts of perjury over his claims that he was running a private school with his children as the students. The couple entered not guilty pleas to all charges and denied all allegations on Friday, said John Hall, a spokesman for county prosecutors. The diplomatic feud between Saudi Arabia and Qatar has led the former to consider digging a canal which would turn the latter into an island. I am impatiently waiting for details on the implementation of the Salwa island project, a great, historic project that will change the geography of the region, Saud al-Qahtani, a senior adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said on Twitter. The canal would physically separate the Qatari peninsula from the Saudi mainland. The project is the latest point in a fractious 14-month long dispute between the two states. Diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar were cut on charges that Doha supports terrorism. Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut its ties in June 2017. Saudi Arabia also did not appreciate the fact that Doha shared good relations with Iran, Riyadh's arch rival. In April the pro-government Sabq news website reported government plans to build a channel 60km long and 200m wide stretching across Saudi Arabias border with Qatar. Part of the canal, which would cost up to 2.8 billion riyals ($750m), would be reserved for a nuclear waste facility, it said. Five unnamed companies that specialised in digging canals had been invited to bid for the project and the winner would be announced in September, Makkah newspaper reported in June. Amit Shah ji, you say in Jammu and Kashmir three families are now powerless. I say in India only two people are powerful, and the people of India are powerless. This is our mother of democracy! Kapil Sibal Congress leader, on Twitter Those who are Captain Amarinder Singhs detractors today sat at his feet till yesterday. They are hyenas; when they see a big prey, their first thought is to tear it to pieces to devour it. I will not forgive them... Aroosa Alam Pakistani journalist and friend of Singh, after the Punjab government ordered a probe over Alams alleged ISI links Why should I invest my energy and involve so many people in the project to tell a story thinking that it will not be appreciated by the audience? The fact is their reaction is not in my hand, but my next story is. Ram Gopal Varma filmmaker The Modi government may hope that its failures in managing the economy and in containing the pandemic will be forgotten by 2024, and that an aggressive Hindutva agenda, based on the construction of the Ram Temple and fears of Muslim demographic expansion, will polarise Hindu opinion in their favour. Ramachandra Guha historian Professor Shyam Manav I FIRST HEARD about Dr Jayant Balaji Athavale in the early 1980s. I was studying hypnotism, reading a lot of books and related literature. Being an anti-superstition activist, I wanted to make doctors and social activists aware of how hypnotherapy could be used to deal with phenomena like poltergeist and possession. I wanted to make them hypnotherapists. So I was in search of an expert in the field. In 1985, I attended a workshop by Dr Athavale. He had studied hypnotherapy in England, and practised and taught there. Soon, we became friends. I used to meet him whenever I had any work in Mumbai. I would go to his place after my work and then we would sit down chatting for long. Very often, we discussed spirituality. Those were the days when I used to expose godmen and tantriks. He used to read a lot about godmen. I told him that I had exposed some of them. One day, he suddenly asked me to open my palm. I was curious, so I did. Then he placed his palm on my palm and told me that he was transferring positive energy to me. I told him that I did not feel anything, let alone any sort of energy transfer. He then told me that my hand had a lot of negative energy. I did not expect this kind of talk from an expert clinical hypnotherapist. In hypnotherapy it is clear that one has to accept a suggestion in order to feel it. If I was not willing to accept his suggestion of energy transfer, there was no question that I was going to feel anything. When Narendra Dabholkar was killed in 2013, I was one of the first to publicly say that the RSS and the Shiv Sena had no role in it, and the police should probe the Sanstha. I used to send my patients to him for hypnotherapy. But the patients started returning disappointed. They told me that Dr Athavale told them that their kuladevata (family deity) was angry with them and hence they should do naam japa (chanting). This was exactly opposite to what I had in mind. I was trying to teach rational and scientific approach to my patients and rid them of their superstitious beliefs. Eventually I stopped sending patients to him. But our friendship continued. One day, I went to meet him at his place. We soon began discussing godmen. I told him that I would expose all the godmen. He asked me to wait for some time. Then he and his wife began meditating. I sat there quietly. After some 15 minutes, he came out of the trance and told me that he had seen all my past lives. He said that in my previous life I had been born as a Shudra and had performed a lot of tapa (meditation), which made people angry and they beheaded me. He said that was the reason I was against godmen. Basically, he had told me the story of Shambuka from the Ramayan. Your negative energy is overpowering all the positive energy of godmen, he told me with a straight face. That was the last straw. I felt that I should not visit him anymore. In 1990-91, a magician friend of mine told me that Dr Athavale had vastly improved his powers of psychokinesis. He could cause vibrations in objects, such as a clock on a table. This was a common magic trick practised abroad at that time. Today we have mobile phones which we put on vibration mode. In those days clocks with vibration power had just been introduced. Dr Athavale must have purchased one such clock, I told my magician friend. I wrote an article in a Marathi magazine on how Dr Athavale was on his way to becoming a baba. But I decided not to intervene in his work. I had grown up in a spiritual household. I have no problem with spirituality if it does not talk about miracles and superstitions. After the Sanatan Sanstha was founded, I often came across their sadhaks in villages during my tours. I never paid much attention to them and thought of them as yet another cult. It was after 2000 that they began obstructing our anti-superstition programmes. They would come and make every effort to disrupt the events. At one such event they began arguing with me over Manusmruti. I tried to reason with them, but to no avail. That was when I first thought what if those boys had been brainwashed and their minds programmed. In 2006, they assaulted me and tried to choke me on stage during one of my talks in Pune. A large group of their supporters had gathered outside the auditorium. I had shared the information I had on the Sanatan Sanstha with the police and the then home minister R.R. Patil. When Narendra Dabholkar was killed in 2013, I was one of the first to publicly say that the RSS and the Shiv Sena had no role in it, and the police should probe the Sanatan Sanstha. After the 2009 Madgaon blasts, the Goa Police had done a very good investigation. The then Goa home minister was very keen on banning the Sanstha. However, his colleague Sudin Dhavalikars wife was among the top office-bearers of the Sanstha. Dhavalikar said that if any action was taken against the Sanstha, the government would fall. So the Goa Police could not take their investigation to the logical conclusion. Over the years, the Sanstha has evolved into a very dangerous organisation. They are engaged in making human robots who would not hesitate to become human bombs. There is no doubt in my mind that this organisation has terrorist intentions. It should be banned before it causes havoc in the country. As told to Dnyanesh Jathar Prof Manav is a rationalist and anti-superstition crusader. Hate crime carnage: The aftermath of the 2009 bomb blast in Madgaon, Goa. This was the last case in which the UAPA was invoked against Sanatan Sanstha activists. WHEN POLITICS takes centrestage, and finer elements of investigation and record-keeping by successive governments get drowned in loud calls for banning, it becomes a classic case of much ado about nothing. This is what appears to have happened in the case of the Sanatan Sanstha. The first official proposal to ban the Sanstha was made by the Maharashtra government in April 2011 when Manmohan Singh was the prime minister. It was the Congress chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, who requested the Union home ministry to ban the Sanstha under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for indulging in terror activities and spreading fear and hatred. Chavan told THE WEEK that, in early 2014, a second proposal was sent in the form of a 1,000-page dossier on the Sansthas activities and the cases against it. We kept on pursuing the 2011 proposal to ban the Sanstha, and queries marked by the Union home ministry were duly answered. There were several rounds of communication till 2014. We have no idea what happened after that, he said. Chavan resigned as chief minister after the Nationalist Congress Party pulled out of the ruling coalition before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. It is only when we name the organisation as an accused under the UAPA that we will be able to press for a fresh ban.senior ATS officer Former Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde told THE WEEK that there had been no proposal to ban the Sanstha during his tenure. The proposal landed in the home ministry during the fag end of the tenure of his successor P. Chidambaram, who asked for more information. There has to be sufficient and strong ground to ban any outfit, said a senior investigator of a case against the Sanstha. He said the UAPA was invoked against Sanstha activists in only one case: the explosion which took place in Goas Madgaon town in 2009, in which two activists of the outfit were killed. All other cases were registered under the Indian Penal Code. The two dead activists in the Madgaon case were charged with waging war against the state, and the case was handed over to the National Investigation Agency. The NIA filed a charge-sheet against six members of the Sanstha, but a technical error by the agency led to their acquittal in 2013. NIA sources confess that if the case had been pursued properly, the case for a ban on the Sanstha would have been strengthened. The chorus for banning the Sanstha has begun once again, after the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested five persons and invoked the UAPA once again. In the FIR registered by the ATS, the arrested persons have been described as members of a terrorist gang. But, there is no mention of the Sanstha or any other organisation. While filing a charge-sheet within the stipulated 60 days, the ATS will have to confirm whether they have any link to the Sanstha or any radical outfit. It is only when we name the organisation as an accused under the UAPA that we will be able to press for a fresh ban, said a senior ATS officer. The ATS will need direct and technical evidence to prepare a fresh list of casesthis will take some monthsand share it with the state home department. It is premature, at this stage, to name any organisation or pursue a fresh ban. We have to prove the complicity of the organisation, said an ATS officer. From left- Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, M.M. Kalburgi, Gauri Lankesh | AP, PTI, Bhanu Prakash Chandra Notwithstanding the status of investigation, the politics over the ban continues. Chavan demanded an immediate ban, saying at least 25 people with links to the Sanstha had been apprehended in connection with the murders of Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh. Is it possible that an organisation can sustain itself by collecting arms and ammunition and imparting training in the use of firearms, and the government is still not convinced that it should be banned? It is definitely finding some support from somewhere, he said. The first dossier on the Sanstha, initiated by former ATS chief Hemant Karkare, remains in the files. It has a list of seven cases of terrorism and promotion of hatred and enmity from 2005 up to 2011. However, none of the cases invoked the UAPA. But, the ATS plans to cover more ground this time, and it says that one of the arrested persons has confessed that he and another person were involved in the murder of rationalist Dabholkar. This confession led to the CBI arresting a key accused, Sachin Prakashrao Andure. The CBI says that it has gathered sufficient evidence to link the Dabholkar murder with the murder of Gauri Lankesh. While the investigation agencies connect the dots, they will require close coordination and zero political interference to pursue leads. Vijay Rokde, who filed a public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court in 2011 to ban the Sanstha, said, The organisation wants to overthrow the government to achieve the goal of ishwari rajya (divine kingdom). They believe that those who do not follow their system are durjans (bad people who must be killed. However, in February 2017, the Union government informed the court that there was not enough evidence to conclude that the activities of the Sanstha were of a terrorist organisation. The Sanatan Sansthas declared goal is the reinstatement of divine kingdom. The radical Hindu organisation, which was founded by hypnotherapist Jayant Athavale in 1991, seems to have a plan in place to fulfil that. The Sanstha has been spreading its wings from its headquarters in Ponda, Goa. Around 300 outfits are now said to be associated with it. The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS), an affiliate set up in 2002, has been in the public glare, often more than the parent organisation, owing to its religious and social activities. People who frequent the ashram say Athavale no longer meets anyone, and remains confined to his room. The idea of India as a Hindu nation is more than a sloganthe Sanstha believes that it will be a reality by 2023. The first time the Sanstha got nationwide attention, however, was for the wrong reasons. In 2008, it was named in the bomb blasts in the Mumbai suburbs of Panvel, Thane and Vashi. It was alleged that Hindu activists planted crude bombs at cultural venues to protest the staging of the play Amhi Pachpute, which allegedly portrayed Hindu deities in a bad light. The prosecution contended that all six persons accused in the case were members of the Sanstha. Two of them were convicted. A year later, the organisations name popped up in the Madgaon bomb blast case. In September 2016, a special investigation team claimed to have recovered psychotropic drugs from the Sansthas Panvel ashram. What put the Sanstha in the eye of a storm was its alleged links to the killers of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar (killed in 2013), communist leader Govind Pansare (killed in 2015), Kannada scholar M.M. Kalburgi (killed in 2015) and journalist Gauri Lankesh (killed in 2017). The special investigation team probing Lankeshs murder has said that a large network of indoctrinated youths trained in using firearms has taken up the cause of protecting dharma. It is said to have a hit list of some 25 anti-Hindu intellectuals. Recently, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad seized explosives from the house of Vaibhav Raut, who is said to be a Sanstha worker, and arrested five people. The explosives were allegedly meant for attacks in various locations in the state. Matter of faith: Dr Jayant Athavale, founder of the Sanatan Sanstha. The Sanstha says the allegations against it are a conspiracy to malign the organisation and an effort to establish the notion of saffron terror. People arrested by the ATS might have attended meetings and programmes organised by us, says Chetan Rajhans, spokesperson for the Sanstha. They might be staunch supporters of hindutva. But that does not mean they are our members. A closer look at the Sanstha, however, would reveal that it is a lot more than a religious organisation. It is a powerful social and political entity which keeps itself abreast of the developments in the country and abroad through its vast network of affiliates. It regularly convenes conferences to promote Hindu values and rituals, and conducts workshops on topics such as love jihad and Bangladeshi infiltrators. Other initiatives include conducting social media camps to strengthen the propagation of Hinduism and the hindutva ideology, networking with like-minded organisations and bringing Hindus together irrespective of caste. It had campaigned against the Maharashtra governments move to take over the Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar and the renaming of the Haj Bhavan in Karnataka after Tipu Sultan. Athavale, 76, started the Sanstha in the middle of a successful career as a hypnotherapist. Born in Nagothane in Raigad district in Maharashtra, he studied medicine and psychiatry, and did research in hypnotherapy in Britain for seven years. After returning in 1978, he started a practice in Mumbai and trained some 400 doctors in hypnotherapy. A turning point in Athavales career was the realisation that many of his patients who failed to respond to medicines were getting relief by going on a pilgrimage or meeting a saint or performing religious rituals. He figured out that spiritual science, unlike medical science, treated a human at both physical and mental levels. His desire to learn led him to saints. In 1987, he received the guru mantra from Bhaktaraj Maharaj in Indore, and set out on the spiritual journey. He founded the Sanatan Bharatiya Sanskruti Sanstha in 1990, and the Sanatan Sanstha in 1991. Athavale soon took up the causes of Hindu unity and protection of the nation, and started giving the title Dharma Rakshak to people working for them. He urged Hindus to raise their voice against mockery of Hinduism and its deities, scriptures, saints and national leaders. This has often pitted Sanstha followers against the free-speaking liberals. People who frequent the ashram say Athavale no longer meets anyone, and remains confined to his room. Apparently, he has been a recluse for almost a decade and is said to be unwell. However, the ashram celebrated his 75th birthday in May 2017, and he attended the various yajnas performed on the occasion. Some reports on the official blog and website of the Sanstha claim that he has undergone divine changes, like images of lotus and trishul appearing on his body and divine particles emanating from him. Athavale advocates a path known as Gurukrupa Yogaa combination of Karma Yoga, Dnyan Yoga and Bhakti Yogafor fast spiritual progress. Here, the seeker pursues vyashti sadhana (for the welfare of the individual) and samashti sadhana (for the welfare of society), while focusing on the progress of the nation and dharma (righteousness/ religion). Through a sadhana performed under the guidance of a guru, one can progress faster, realise God and get liberated from the cycles of birth and death. The Sanstha has developed a formula to assess the spiritual level of an individual. The level of an average person who does not engage in spiritual practice is 20 per cent. That of a person performing spiritual practice regularly through karmakand (path of rituals) like daily puja (ritualistic worship), reading pothis (holy verses) and fasting is 25 to 30 per cent. If one reaches a spiritual level of 60 per cent or above, he starts moving towards sainthood. An individual with a spiritual level of 70 per cent attains sainthood. Moksha (final liberation) is achieved when the spiritual level is 100 per cent. Athavale says saints have zero ego and have love for others. The spiritual experiences like spiritual healing, spontaneous chanting, thoughtlessness, anand (bliss) and shanti (peace) are experienced in their presence, he says. Moksha cannot be attained without gurus grace. To earn gurus grace, one has to practise the various aspects of sadhanachanting, satsang (sacred gathering), satseva (service), sacrifice for spiritual love without any expectations, bhav-jagruti (invoking of spiritual emotion), removal of personality defects and removal of ego. God-realisation (the highest state of consciousness) is possible only when one pursues not just the individual welfare but also the welfare of society. According to Sanatan Prabhat, the mouthpiece of the Sanstha (a fortnightly in Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, English and Gujarati), 1,142 seekers, including women and children, have attained the spiritual level of 60 per cent or above. Eighty of them have already attained sainthood. Remembering the Martyrs: Volunteers collecting funds in Bengaluru for a literary meet against intolerance, planned for the death anniversaries of M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh | Bhanu Prakash Chandra The Sanstha tries to propagate the right knowledge of Hindu deities, festivals and rituals, the traditional roles of men and women, Hindu society and relationships through its camps, seminars and discourses. Various professions are also seen through the spiritual prism. For instance, the black robe of lawyers causes spiritual distress, says a saint at the Sanstha. He adds that it comes as no surprise that lawyers defend falsehoods in courts. Sanatan Prabhat often reflects on the spiritual perspectives in crucial issuesfrom the National Register for Citizens and the water crisis in India to the intolerance debate and political parties attitude towards building a Ram temple in Ayodhya. All discourses, invariably, hover around the idea of Hindu rashtra. The Sanstha had lauded the Israeli parliament for passing the Jewish nation law, and it assures the followers that a Hindu nation will promote Sanskrit and follow the Hindu calendar, just like Israel did for the Hebrew language and calendar. The Guru Purnima is one of the most important events at the Sanstha, and the faithful are reminded of their role in establishing a Hindu rashtra at these celebrations. According to the Sanstha, a nation rich in character is an ideal nationthe Ram rajya and Chhatrapati Shivajis Hindavi Swarajya were ideal, but todays rulers have allowed things like pornography, pubs and live-in relationships, thus weakening the character of the citizens. The Sanstha envisages a Hindu nation which will have no caste demarcations or reservations, and it does not think it will be achieved through ballots or political leadership, but with the blessings of the saints. The idea of India as a Hindu nation is more than a sloganthe Sanstha believes that it will be a reality by 2023. Long before the invasion of Muslim rulers and Christians, Bharat was a Hindu nation, said Umesh Sharma, a sadhak, in his Guru Purnima address. None of the kings from Bharata, Harishchandra and Prabhu Shri Rama to King Dahir of Afghanistan and Maharana Pratap of Rajasthanwas secular. Their kingdoms were Hindu states. At the time of independence, too, there were 566 Hindu kingdoms in Bharat. But in 1976, during the Emergency, when the opposition party leaders were behind bars, Indira Gandhi, driven by the liberals, included the word secular in the Constitution. Secular democracy has caused tremendous loss to the nation and Hindus. As devout Hindus and Hindu organisations, we must unite to establish a Hindu rashtra. The Sanstha has been under the scanner for a while for its alleged role in radicalising the youths to commit crimes. Rajhans, the spokesperson, says the Sanstha is a soft target. Previously, the RSS was the target. But now it has grown bigger and stronger. So, the anti-Hindu liberals and politicians are trying to implicate the Sanstha. But the truth will always prevail, he said. The Sanstha has the means to fight for its causes and against the challenges. The Hindu Vidhidnya Parishad, a lawyers collective formed under the HJS, helps Hindu activists in the cases against them. We are with Hindu activists, said lawyer Amritesh N.P., who is a member of HVP in Karnataka. The others have an army of supporters rushing to their aid and to bail them out. The Hindu activists are suffering from police torture and political victimisation, and we want to stop that. We will extend free legal assistance to all Hindu activists irrespective of the organisation they belong to. The Sanstha, which was bailed out in the Madgaon blast case, is now cornered again over the murders of the liberal thinkers and the charges made by the Anti-Terrorism Squad. Though the Sanstha dismisses it as a political controversy, the tension is palpable. The ashram in Goa, which used to open its doors even to strangers on Guru Purnima, has suddenly turned hostile. No, the media is not welcome to the ashram, said a trustee, citing the malicious campaign against the Sanstha for the ban. Doctor of death: Virendra Tawade (wearing white shirt), an ENT specialist and Sanstha member, was one of the alleged masterminds behind the Dabholkar murder. THE MURDERS of Narendra Dabholkar and Gauri Lankesh took place four years and 800 kilometres apart. Dabholkar, a renowned rationalist and medical doctor, was killed in broad daylight, near a temple in Pune on August 20, 2013. Lankesh, an activist and editor, was gunned down at night, outside her home in Bengaluru on September 5 last year. In both the cases, the assailants used country-made pistols and escaped on two-wheelers. The CBI is inquiring into the Dabholkar murder, while a special investigation team of the Karnataka Police has come close to cracking the Lankesh case. A potentially clinching evidence of the link between the two cases, however, was unearthed by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad. On August 11, the ATS began a series of arrests and raids across Maharashtra that not only blew the lid off a terror plot, but also unearthed a huge arms cache. Part of the cache, investigators say, was a 7.65mm country-made pistol that could have been used to kill both Dabholkar and Lankesh. Investigations into the two murders have long been converging. The SIT has arrested 12 persons and charged them under the Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act, describing them as highly indoctrinated and trained criminals. One of the accusedK.T. Naveen Kumar alias Hotte Manja, a hindutva activist from Mandya who allegedly supplied firearms to the assassinstold investigators that Lankesh was killed for her anti-Hindu views and criticism of Hindu gods. In May, the SIT filed a 650-page charge-sheet, which mentions a bigger network and a larger conspiracy that Naveen was part of. It has found that at least five of the accused are associated with the Goa-based Sanatan Sanstha and its affiliate Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, which has branches in Karnataka and Maharashtra as well. Investigators say they have avoided naming the organisations for operative reasons. A Maharashtra ATS officer said the arrested men have links, one way or the other to the Sanatan Sanstha. Apparently, the plot to kill Lankesh has roots in Maharashtra. A big breakthrough in the case came on May 21, when the SIT nabbed three hindutva activistsAmol Kale, Amit Degweker and Manohar Yavadefrom Davangere. They confessed to hatching a plot to kill Mysuru-based rationalist K.S. Bhagwan in 2015. Kale, a graduate in mechanical engineering from Pune, allegedly masterminded Lankeshs killing. His personal diary gave investigators vital clues to the whereabouts of other suspects. A businessman, Degweker is the promoter of Sanatan Prabhatthe mouthpiece of the Sanatan Sansthaand is suspected to be funding the covert operations of the organisation. Kale is the crucial link that connects the Lankesh and Dabholkar murders. According to the CBI, Kale and an associate called Virendra Tawade, who was arrested in June 2016, masterminded the Dabholkar killing. Tawade is an ENT specialist, and has been a sadhak (spiritual seeker) in the Sanatan Sanstha for more than 15 years. He used to treat fellow sadhaks at the Sanatan Ashram in Panvel. The role played by Kale and Tawade became clearer after the recent arrests by the Maharashtra ATS. One of the arrested men, Sharad Kalaskar of Nalasopara near Mumbai, told the ATS that he was the one who shot Dabholkar. Kalaskar also revealed the name of an accompliceSachin Andure. On August 18, Andure was taken into custody by the ATS and handed over to the CBI. According to the CBI, it was Kale and Tawade who ordered Andure and Kalaskar to kill Dabholkar. Andures confession led to the seizure of arms and ammunition from a house in Aurangabad, which belonged to Andures cousin. The 7.65mm country-made pistol was part of that cache. The ATS also arrested another crucial suspect, Sudhanva Gondhalekar, in Pune. An animator and graphic designer, Gondhalekar has a diploma in mechanical engineering. According to the ATS, he was the technical brains of the hindutva terror module that was recently dismantled by the raids. He is also said to have links to the Sanstha. As far as we know, he is the only one who knew about Kalaskar being involved in the Dabholkar murder. He is at the same level as Amol Kale, said an ATS officer. Investigators are now looking at whether the terror modules operated by Kale and Gondhalekar were involved in the murders of communist leader Govind Pansare in February 2015 and Kannada scholar M.M. Kalburgi in August 2015. Both Pansare and Kalburgi were shot dead by men who escaped on motorcycles. A forensic report had found that the gun used to kill Kalburgi and Lankesh were the same. Pansare was also shot with a country-made pistol. The overlapping clues in the four cases had prompted Kalburgis wife, Umadevi, to move the Supreme Court in January this year, demanding better coordination among investigating agencies. The Kalburgi murder is being now probed by the crime investigation department of the Karnataka Police, which has made little headway in solving the case. We hope the developments [in the Lankesh case] will help solve all four cases, said Kalburgis son Srivijaya. In my fathers case, we havent heard of any concrete breakthrough. The only assurance we are getting is that investigation is going on. Kavita Lankesh, Gauri Lankeshs sister, said she was happy with the progress of the investigation. I believe the SIT is on the right track, she said. The accused might be killing because of the dharma drilled into his mind. They are misguided youth who are puppets in other peoples hands. For now, all eyes are on the ballistics report on the pistol recovered from Aurangabad. We need to ascertain whether the bullet casings found near Lankeshs home match any of the pistols seized by the ATS, said an SIT officer. Striation marks (grooves on the surface) of a bullet, made when it is fired, are unique; it is like the fingerprint of a pistol. Asked whether the ATS is certain whether the Sanatan Sanstha is involved in the murders, an officer said the arrested men have links, one way or the other to the organisation. We will not hesitate in raiding the ashram in Goa, and question [Sansthas head] Jayant Athavaleor, for that matter, the entire top brass of the organisation. THE SANATAN SANSTHA works in extreme secrecy, says Vasant Bhat, one of the main priests of the Ramnath temple in Ponda in Goa. Bhat has been battling a case filed by the Sansthahe has been accused of pelting stones at the sadhaks. It all started when I launched a campaign to ban the Sanstha and remove its ashram from Ramnathi village, he says. Bhat started his campaign after the 2009 Madgaon bomb blasts in which the Sansthas name popped up. I organised a huge march against them, and even got the gram sabha to pass a resolution against the ashram. We dont want them here, he says. The ashram is situated in between two famous templesShanta Durga and Ramnath. The locals main grouse was that the Sanstha was trying to intervene in the local festivals and rituals. They wanted us to celebrate religious festivals as per their dictum, says Bhat. The villagers came together to form a Janjagriti Manch and it demanded a ban on the Sanstha. Bhat was asked to head the movement. That is why they filed a case against me, he says. Saurabh Lotlikar, a resident of Ramnathi, said all the locals who opposed the Sanstha were Hindus. In 2013, they put up posters all over the village opposing our Narakasura burning celebration. As the effigy was being brought to the temple, a fight broke out between the sadhaks and the villagers, he says. Goa police had raided the ashram when Ravi Naik was the home minister. He was in favour of banning the Sanstha, says Lotlikar. But it did not work out. ON AUGUST 28 last year, in a surprise move, China and India agreed to pull their forces back from the Doklam trijunction of India, Bhutan and China, after a standoff that lasted 73 days. A year later, India and China have put their defence preparedness on the fast track, and are preparing to be in a much better position tactically, in case of another confrontation. In a big shift after Doklam, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said it was time to shift the Armys focus to its northern border to handle Chinese assertiveness. India has enhanced its deployment of Su-30 MKI fighters, which can fire the supersonic BrahMos missiles, at the Bagdogra and Hasimara airbases. China has deployed in the region its early-warning and command aircraft, HQ-9 surface-to-air missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles. It has upgraded facilities at the airbases in Lhasa and Shigatse and will open three more airbases in Tibet by the end of next year. Defence ministry officials in Delhi said around 1,600 Chinese troops in north Doklam had set up permanent huts. The area was earlier barren, and ignored by patrols. China has constructed an observation tower and is developing a road network nearly 12km north of the standoff site to circumvent Indian positions. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told Parliament about Chinas construction of sentry posts, trenches and helipads near the standoff site. Jayadeva Ranade, former additional secretary in the cabinet secretariat, said the Chinese army was not happy with the Doklam disengagement decision, and was itching for revenge. There is no urgency for them. But I dont see an easy relationship for a while between the two nations, he said. The 73-day standoff exposed the Indian Armys inability to mobilise its resources including artillery and additional ammunition swiftly because of inadequate road infrastructure. As a result, the Army has decided to re-prioritise its 2018-2023 five-year plan to meet the operational requirements along the Line of Actual Control. A senior Indian official said the emphasis would be to fast track infrastructure development by creating better roads, fuel storage facilities and troop accommodation facilities. Priority will be given to capability enhancement, by adding more infantry weapons with night fighting ability, and placing intelligence and surveillance equipment along the LAC and the International Border. Construction of 73 strategic border roads has been prioritised to ensure quick mobilisation of troops. India is also constructing 17 tunnels along the LAC to ensure all-weather connectivity. Besides, efforts are on to strengthen the railway network and to build advanced landing grounds and helipads close to the border. Lieutenant General (retd) Vinod Bhatia, who had commanded the Sukna-based 33 Corps in charge of Doklam, said the Chinese had multi-model infrastructure. We are no match for them. He said 73 strategic road projects had been pending since 2005, and while 46 roads were nowhere close to completion, the construction of 19 roads had not yet started. Mountain Strike Corps, the Armys primary offensive formation against China, has been delayed because of budgetary constraints. Of late, however, both India and China have been working on improving bilateral ties. President Xi Jinping told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he wanted to put Sino-Indian relations on the right track. The Wuhan Summit played an important role in breaking the ice between the two militaries. In a gesture of conciliation, India kept a distance from the events commemorating 60 years of the Dalai Lamas exile. During his recent visit to New Delhi, Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe said India and China shared a friendship dating back to ancient times. Post Doklam, the Chinese are looking at us more carefully, including on military terms, said Ranade. They have understood that they need to deal with India in a different manner, and that threats will not work. 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Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Cardinal Health: A+ Secure Packaging LLC, Access Closure, Access Closure Inc., Aero-Med Ltd., Alaris Medical Systems, Allegiance Corporation, Allegiance Healthcare, AssuraMed, AssuraMed Inc., Automatic Liquid Packaging, Bergen Brunswig Corp, Bindley Western Industries, Boron LePore & Associates, Borschow Hospital & Medical Supplies, Cardinal Health 100 Inc., Cardinal Health 104 LP, Cardinal Health 105 Inc., Cardinal Health 107 LLC, Cardinal Health 108 LLC, Cardinal Health 110 LLC, Cardinal Health 112 LLC, Cardinal Health 113 LLC, Cardinal Health 114 Inc., Cardinal Health 115 LLC, Cardinal Health 116 LLC, Cardinal Health 118 LLC, Cardinal Health 119 LLC, Cardinal Health 121 LLC, Cardinal Health 122 LLC, Cardinal Health 123 LLC, Cardinal Health 124 LLC, Cardinal Health 126 LLC, Cardinal Health 127 Inc., Cardinal Health 2 LLC, Cardinal Health 200 LLC, Cardinal Health 201 Inc., Cardinal Health 222 (Thailand) Ltd., Cardinal Health 247 Inc., Cardinal Health 249 LLC, Cardinal Health 3 LLC, Cardinal Health 414 LLC, Cardinal Health 5 LLC, Cardinal Health 6 Inc., Cardinal Health 7 LLC, Cardinal Health Australia 503 Pty. Ltd., Cardinal Health Austria 504 GmbH, Cardinal Health Belgium 505 BVBA, Cardinal Health Canada Holdings Cooperative U.A., Cardinal Health Canada Inc., Cardinal Health Chile Limitada, Cardinal Health Colombia S.A.S., Cardinal Health D.R. 203 II Ltd., Cardinal Health Denmark ApS, Cardinal Health Finland Oy, Cardinal Health Foundation, Cardinal Health France 506 SAS, Cardinal Health Funding LLC, Cardinal Health Germany 507 GmbH, Cardinal Health Germany Manufacturing GmbH, Cardinal Health IPS LLC, Cardinal Health International Philippines Inc., Cardinal Health Ireland 419 Designated Activity Company, Cardinal Health Ireland 508 Limited, Cardinal Health Ireland Unlimited Company, Cardinal Health Italy 509 Srl, Cardinal Health Japan G.K., Cardinal Health Korea Limited, Cardinal Health Malaysia 211 Sdn. Bhd., Cardinal Health Malta 212 Limited, Cardinal Health Managed Care Services LLC, Cardinal Health Medical Equipment Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Cardinal Health Medical Products India Private Limited, Cardinal Health Mexico 244 S. de R.L. de C.V., Cardinal Health Mexico 514 S. de R.L. de C.V., Cardinal Health Middle East FZ-LLC, Cardinal Health Netherlands 502 B.V., Cardinal Health Norway AS, Cardinal Health P.R. 120 Inc., Cardinal Health P.R. 218 Inc., Cardinal Health P.R. 220 LLC, Cardinal Health Pharmaceutical Contracting LLC, Cardinal Health Pharmacy Services LLC, Cardinal Health Poland Spolka z ograniczonaa odpowiedzialnossciaa, Cardinal Health Portugal 513 Unipessoal Lda., Cardinal Health Singapore 225 Pte. Ltd., Cardinal Health Spain 511 S.L., Cardinal Health Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Cardinal Health Sweden 512 A.B., Cardinal Health Switzerland 515 GmbH, Cardinal Health Systems Inc., Cardinal Health Technologies LLC, Cardinal Health Technologies Switzerland GmbH, Cardinal Health U.K. 432 Limited, Cardinal Health do Brasil Ltd., CareFusion, Cirpro de Delicias S.A. de C.V., Convertors de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Cordis, Cordis (Shanghai) Medical Devices Co. Ltd., Cordis Cashel Company Unlimited, Cordis Corporation, Cornerstone Partners G.P.O. L.P., Covidien Manufacturing Solutions S.A., Curaspan Health Group Inc., Denver Biomedical, Dik Drug, EPIC Insurance Company, Emerge Medical, Enturia, Especialidades Medicas Kenmex S.A. de C.V., Futuremed Health Care Products, Gala Biotech, Geodax Technology, Griffin Capital LLC, HLS Freight Services, Healthcare Solutions Holding, Innovative Therapies Inc., Instant Diagnostic Systems Inc., KPR Australia Pty. Ltd., KPR Italia S.r.l., KPR Switzerland Sales Gmbh, KPR U.S. LLC, Kendall Patient Recovery BVBA, Kendall-Gammatron Limited, Kinray, Leader Drugstores Inc., Limited Liability Company "Cardinal Health Russia", Ludlow Technical Products Canada Ltd., MCD, Magellan Laboratories, Marin Apothecaries, MedMined, Medicine Shoppe International Inc., Mediquip Sdn. Bhd., Medtronic - Patient Monitoring & Recovery, Mirixa Corporation, NaviHealth, Nippon Covidien Ltd., One Cloverleaf LLC, Outcomes Incorporated, Owen Healthcare, PCI Pharma Services, ParMed Pharmaceuticals, Pinnacle Intellectual Property Services Inc., Pinnacle Intellectual Property Services-International Inc., Post-Acute Care Center for Research LLC, Pyxis Corporation, Quiroproductos de Cuauhtemoc S. de R.L. de C.V., R Cubed Inc., R.P. Scherer Corporation, RGH Enterprises Inc., RainTree GPO LLC, RainTree Oncology Services, Renal Purchasing Group LLC, Rxealtime Inc., Sonexus Health LLC, Syncor International, TelePharm, TelePharm LLC, The Harvard Drug Group, The Harvard Drug Group L.L.C., Tradex International Inc., Viasys Healthcare, WaveMark Inc., Zuellig Pharma China, mscripts, mscripts LLC, and mscripts Systems India Private Limited. Troy Two of the Capital Region's most promising sectors manufacturing and technology encountered setbacks this summer as hundreds of local jobs were eliminated by two prominent employers. General Electric cut 225 positions at its massive turbine plant in Schenectady, followed by semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries, which cut 455 jobs. The cutbacks come as overall job growth in the Capital Region has slowed, and they followed earlier layoffs by both employers. One longtime observer of the local economy wasn't surprised. "The real growth is clearly in downstate New York," said Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer at Hugh Johnson Advisors LLC in Albany, citing its larger and more diversified economy. Of the 38 counties statewide with over 50,000 population, the strongest job growth was in those in the New York City area. Locally, Johnson projects Saratoga County will rank eighth with 1.6 percent job growth in 2018-19; Rensselaer County will rank 16th with 1.3 percent job growth over the two-year period; and Albany County will rank 21st with 0.9 percent job growth. "Sadly, Schenectady County will have negative 0.4 percent growth, which is 33rd" in the rankings, Johnson said. In July, annual job growth in the Capital Region was 0.6 percent, according to the state Labor Department, unchanged from a year earlier but a third of the 1.8 percent growth two years ago. Annual statewide job growth in July was 1.6 percent. "It's unfortunate what's happening at General Electric," Johnson said. "It's clearly impacting the numbers." Manufacturing is one of the higher-paying job categories in the Capital Region. Data from the state Labor Department's most recent Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages show the average annual wage was $82,895. The figure for computer and electronic product manufacturing was $98,435. "Having a large number of layoffs at two of the largest employers in the area isn't good news to hear," said Kevin Alexander, the state labor markets analyst for the Capital Region. "But in the last year we've been hearing about shortages in these skilled trades." Dave Larkin also has been hearing about those shortages. More Information Technology and manufacturing job fair The Times Union is sponsoring a job fair for manufacturing and technology positions from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 18, at the Albany Marriott hotel, 189 Wolf Road, Colonie. Admission is free to job seekers, who are encouraged to bring a current resume that will be shared among recruiters and to be prepared for on-the-spot interviews. More details: timesunionjobfair.com See More Collapse And he has seen layoffs turn into new opportunities for workers. The professor in the advanced manufacturing technology program at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy recalls how General Electric paid for the education of several manufacturing workers, only to subsequently lay them off. Those workers soon found new jobs, Larkin said. "It goes in waves," he said. "When GE was booming the (Watervliet) Arsenal was down." Now the arsenal has been adding workers as it ramps up for millions of dollars in new defense contracts. The Arsenal had more than 600 employees in April, with plans at that point to add another 100. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The Capital Region, despite slowing job growth, still has one of the lowest unemployment rates among the state's metropolitan areas, at 3.9 percent in July, down from 4.3 percent a year earlier. Johnson said the outlook was particularly bright for Saratoga and Rensselaer counties. One fast-growing employer in Rensselaer County is Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. The company employs 2,500 people in the Capital Region, a spokesman said, and has dozens of openings it's trying to fill. "I'm very impressed by the Albany metropolitan statistical area," Johnson said. "If you're in upstate New York, that's the place to be." Larkin, in an email last week to Capital Region employers, advised them that he had just seven senior class students in his advanced manufacturing technology program who hadn't yet been hired. "Since I wrote," he added that afternoon, "four companies have contacted me." Larkin expects demand for machinists and other manufacturing skills will continue to be strong. To meet that demand, Hudson Valley is in the midst of building the $14.5 million Gene F. Haas Center for Advanced Manufacturing Skills on campus. HVCC plans to add an operations/management technology program and increase the number of students in its existing programs, Larkin said. And while he talks of a shortage of 300,000 machinists and programmers nationwide, Larkin's focus remains local. "We have a tough enough time supplying (employers) in the Capital Region," he said. eanderson@timesunion.com 518-454-5323 Target will now make house calls Target is the latest retailer to offer home delivery service. Following a major remodeling of the Latham Target store, the company began touting same-day home delivery to certain areas. It has teamed up with Shipt to transport the products. Other retailers also have taken steps to make shopping easier, from Hannaford and Walmart (delivery to your car in the parking lot) to Price Chopper and ShopRite (home delivery). Amazon may be driving some of this innovation. It's adding fulfillment centers, including a 1 million-square-foot behemoth in Schodack. Immigration agency hikes fee for workers Here's the latest challenge to employers seeking to hire foreign workers: higher fees. The U.S. Customs and Immigration Service on Friday announced it is raising the fees for petitions to hire "non-immigrant and alien workers." The increase to $1,410 from $1,225 is equal to 14.92 percent, which USCIS says is how much the consumer price index has risen since the last fee increase in 2010. The premium processing fee allows petitioners to request 15-day processing. It's in addition to the base filing fee and other costs. USCIS said it plans to hire additional staff and update its technology with the additional fee income. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. How really 'random' is 3 times in a row? One Buzz member was chosen three times out of three passes through security checkpoints for additional screening as he traveled in recent days. All of the choices were done on a "random" basis, Transportation Security Administration agents assured him each time. Which made him think that it might be a good time to buy a lottery ticket. In the end, he decided to save his dollar. COLONIE - They traveled from more than 20 different countries to cross the southern border to apply for asylum in the U.S., their attorneys said. Some of the migrants said they were beaten because of their political affiliations or targeted because of their stance against corruption. Others said they fled violence because of their sexual orientation. They've been in immigration detention for two months. Now, some are leaving their first legal support system in the U.S. The 296 migrants, who were transferred from the southern border to Albany County jail in Colonie this summer face uncertain legal representation as many move to a site near Buffalo. After Friday, 126 will have been transferred to the Batavia Federal Detention Center, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Another 74 are "slotted" to be sent there. Batavia currently has 538 detainees. A wave of volunteer attorneys stepped up to represent detainees in Albany this summer, and legal organizations are now scrambling to ensure that those moved still have representation. Asylum seekers are five times more likely to get asylum when represented by a lawyer, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University reported. Last year, 20 percent of asylum seekers didn't have a lawyer. Last year, 62 percent of asylum applications were denied. "Legal service organizations that try to fill that gap are already strapped and underfunded," said Albany Law School Professor Sarah Rogerson. "It's reflective of the access-to-justice gap in this part of the state for immigrants generally, and the geographical distance makes it difficult." Rogerson said attorneys from Albany and New York City face the possibililty long hours in transit to Buffalo for one immigration hearing - with no warning if or when the detainee might be moved again. Meredith Fortin, director of Immigrant Support Services at the New York Immigration Coalition, connected with attorneys from volunteer legal societies, refugee nonprofit organizations and law school immigration clinics near Batavia to ensure a smooth transition for clients. All detainees transferred already have had credible fear interviews with an immigration officer to explain why they are seeking asylum. An immigration judge reviews their case in a court hearing and decides whether they get asylum. Detainees in New York are appointed a state-funded lawyer, but only at their first hearing - which none of the transfers have had yet. The first hearing scheduled for Aug. 31 was postponed. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. At the hearing - conducted either at the immigration court at Batavia or video conference from Albany - asylum seekers may be considered for either parole or bond. Detainees are eligible forparole if they promise they'll show up for immigration court and they aren't a danger to the community, or have a serious medical condition or pregnancy. Last year, the New York Civil Liberties Union won a lawsuit challenging unlawful parole denial for Batavia detainees after a spike in denials under the Trump administration. As a result of the lawsuit, nine asylum-seekers were released on parole and another 17 received bond hearings. But bond can often be unaffordable: in eight cases, it was set at $15,000; others ranged from $5,000 to $12,000. Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple, who worked closely to provide access to attorneys at the county jail, said he has no concerns about continued representation because of attorney coordination. But legal providers are keeping an eye on whether detainees have any possibility of release during the long road ahead. ALBANY -- A second person was arrested in connection with the June slaying of an Albany man shot on Livingston Avenue. Albany police arrested Trayron Palmer, 21, Saturday morning following an investigation. Palmer is from Vergennes, Vt., police said. Farming groups voiced their opposition to the Irish Water to pump 330 million litres from Parteen basin to the Greater Dublin area at a meeting in Nenagh Arts Centre. The rally against the Irish Water proposal to bring 330 million litres of water daily to Dublin was organised by the River Shannon Protection Alliance, Kennedy Analysis and Fight the Pipe. ICSA rural development officer Seamus Sherlock, told the meeting that it was scandalous the way Irish Water was behavinbg towards those opposed to the plan We won't stand for compulsory purchase orders, he declared. People power will beat this. He reiterated the associations position that it will support all landowners affected by the proposal. There is a lot of disquiet among farmers in this region about the proposed water pipe; It is quite clear the whole logic of the project needs to be critically evaluated by the political process before any public money is committed, he said. He warned that there will never be clarity around future water requirements until the myriad of problems in Dublin were fixed. Irish Water currently loses 49% of its own product through leaks. It makes absolutely no sense to pipe water half way across the country for it to leak back into the groundwater through faulty pipes and for it all to cost the princely sum of several billion euro, he said. Mr Sherlock said that farmers were sick with worry about the potential impact of a pipeline being forced through their farms with the potential for extreme short term disruption and long term devaluing of the land. While we are not against progress we are against waste and the case for this pipeline seems very dubious, he said. Mr Sherlock said fixing leaking pipes needed to be a priority before any money was wasted. I would also like to make quite clear that this is not just an issue affecting farmers, the whole community is affected and are abjectly opposed to wasting vast sums of money on this, he sad. Tommy Egan, also of the ICSA, said it was crazy that Irish Water was thinking of putting a spur from the pipe to Athlone on Lough Ree. It is impossible to estimate the amount of damage that will be done to land, he said. William Reid, chair of Offaly IFA, also spoke out against the proposal. The launch of Dr Senan Cooke's book The Enterprising Community took place earlier this summer at Dublin City University. The launch was attended by Sean Kelly, MEP and speeches were given by Michael Ring TD, Minister for Rural and Community Development, Professor Joe O Hara, Dublin City University, Dr. Anne Looney, Dean of Education Institute, Dublin City University, and Mr. Brendan Whelan, CEO Social Finance Foundation and Chair of the Special Olympics. Dr. Senan Cooke is a native of Kilmacow, County Kilkenny and has lived in Dunhill, Waterford since 1974 where he has been an active member of his community, social enterprise groups and has contributed to a growing national discourse on social entrepreneurship and the potential for local communities to create jobs and shape their own futures. Through the work of an inspiring and committed group of community volunteers of which Senan is a member, the rural parish of Dunhill-Fenor Co. Waterford has developed 15 social enterprises ranging from Dunhill Rural Enterprises Ltd to Fenor Bog in the past number of years. Pic: Seamus Goggin, Communities Creating Jobs (CCJ), John Hinchey, Teresa Hinchey, Manager Tipperary Community Council Ltd. and Dr Senan Cooke, Author Senans book is informed by this life time of involvement with voluntary and community groups both locally and nationally, and provides a bottom up perspective on the capacity within communities to re-generate. The book describes the age old values which sustain volunteerism, communities as problem solvers and wealth creators and the potential of dormant resources all of which combined with sense and pride of place can serve to strengthen and grow rural and urban communities in innovative and sustainable ways. In his book, Dr Cooke heralded Loughmore Cottage as one of the most important community led projects to emerge from Ireland in the last 10 years having documented the value of the co-operative in the Tipperary village. Drawing on a number of case studies, including a look at Loughmore Cottage in Tipperary, the book gives a practical and insightful understanding into the challenges and approaches to socio-economic innovation. Professor Joe OHara said the book would inform national and international strategists. As Irelands university of enterprise, Dr. Anne Looney, Dean Institute of Education spoke of the growing importance of sense of place and social entrepreneurship across all disciplines and in particular in the field of teacher training. Mr. Brendan Whelan, CEO Social Finance Foundation spoke of the challenge of financing social enterprise, and the author, Mr. Senan Cooke spoke of how a co-ordinated support environment hindering would assist in developing this untapped national asset when it is addressed and improved through a new policy which is about to be launched by government shortly. The new policy will also serve to strengthen rural and urban communities across the island which is vital to help counter the effects of globalization and international political instability. [August 31, 2018] USI Signed Joint Venture Agreement with Cancon to Jointly Establish a Server Component Company SHANGHAI, Sept. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 25 this year, USI, a giant electronics designer and manufacturer in the world (SSE: 601231), and Cancon Information Industry Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Cancon) announced to sign a Memorandum of Understanding on establishment of a joint venture. On August 31, Universal Global Technology (Kunshan) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as USI-Kunshan), a wholly-owned subsidiary of USI, signed the Joint Venture Framework Contract and Shareholder Agreement with Cancon, to formally launch the joint venture project. The two parties would jointly invest 220 million yuan to establish a joint venture, with Cancon holding 51% of shares, and USI-Kunshan holding 49% of shares. Cancon is a share-holding subsidiary of Dawning Information Industry Co., Ltd. (SSE: 603019, hereinafter referred to as "Sugon") that holds a 30.2% stake in Cancon. In the future, USI and Cancon will deepen their cooperation in the R&D, design and production of safe and controllable high-performance server products, and integrate the industrial resources of USI and Sugon to provide solutions that conform to network security and related standard products for customers in the domestic market. "To grasp the current market opportunities, we offically sign a joint venture with USI and cooperate deeply in the field of secure and controllable high-performance server products. At the right time, we will integrate the respective advantages of the core technologies, products, markets, R&D, intelligent manufacturing, and supply chain etc. In the future, I hope to use this as an opportunity to promote the comprehensive cooperation between Sugon and USI," said Nie Hua, President of Cancon. Jeffrey Chen, Chairman of USI, said, "I am very pleased that today USI has signed a contract with Cancon. USI is a reliable partner in the electronics manufacturing service industry and is curently accelerating the pace of 'expansion'. Sugon has good growth and potential in the field of independent security and controllable high-performance server products. Through joint ventures and strategic alliances, it could benefit both parties to jointly expand the market and business growth." After formulating the "Expansion" strategy in early 2018, USI has signed a joint venture agreement with Qualcomm to establish a joint venture in Brazil, and acquired a 60% stake in the Polish subsidiary, Chung Hong Electronics Poland SP.Z.O.O., of Taiwan Lead Data Inc.. Its expansion plan and plan to invest in the establishment of a new factory in Shanghai, Kunshan, Mexico, and Taiwan are also in progress. USI has accelerated its steps of "globalization" to respond to the adjustment of customers' needs for product delivery and strives for more business opportunities. About Cancon Dawning Information Industry Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Sugon") is a national high-tech enterprise established under the vigorous promotion of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and based on the major scientific research results of the National "863" Plan. On September 12, 2017, the Kunshan Municipal Government signed a Cooperation Agreement on "Security and Controllable Information Technology Industrialization Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences" with Sugon. The Chinese Academy of Sciences Holdings Co., Ltd., Sugon and Kunshan Hi-tech Group Co., Ltd. jointly initiated the establishment of China Science and Technology Controlled Information Industry Co., Ltd., and established the National Advanced Computing Industry Innovation Center and the Chinese Academy of Sciences Security Controllable Information Technology Industrialization Base. The main project base is located in the Kunshan National Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone. In 2018, is planned to build a National Advanced Computing Industry Innovation Center, a national integrated circuit major project, Security Controlled Chip R&D industrial, with an annual output of 1 million sets of security and controllable high-performance computer server. About USI (SSE: 601231) USI is a leading global D(MS)2company providing design, miniaturization, material sourcing, manufacturing, logistics, and after services of electronic devices/modules for brand owners. USI is a member of ASE Group and has been listed in Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2012. It has many years of experience in the electronics manufacturing services industry and leverages the industry-leading technology of ASE Group, which enables USI to offer customers diversified products in the sectors of wireless communication, computer and storage, consumer, industrial, and automotive electronics worldwide. Through the sales service network in North America, Europe, Japan, Mainland China, Taiwan, and manufacturing sites in Mainland China, Taiwan and Mexico, USI has about 17,000 people worldwide. For more information, please visit the website www.usish.com. Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180831/2225768-1 SOURCE Universal Scientific Industrial (Shanghai) Co., Ltd [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 31, 2018] CBS CORPORATION INVESTIGATION UPDATE by Former Louisiana Attorney General: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC Investigates the Officers and Directors of CBS Corporation - CBS 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 CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS). Beginning in November 2017, a series of news reports revealed claims of widespread and long-term sexual harassment and lewd conduct by veteran CBS anchor Charlie Rose toward numerous female employees, dating as far back as 1976 up to 2017, and that CBS executives knew of the behavior yet failed to respond or take adequate remedial measures over the many years. Then, in July 2018, media reports detailed workplace sexual harassment claims by multiple women against CEO Leslie Moonves for conduct spanning the 1980s and mid-2000s that included forcible physical touching and threats of career sabotage, which was ignored by the Company. The Company's actions, directed by its executives, have exposed it to a sexual harassment lawsuit resulting from Rose's alleged misconduct as well as a recent securities class action lawsuit relating to the Moonves allegations for failing to disclose material inormation to investors that when made public caused a precipitous decline in the market value of the company's securities, violating federal securities laws. KSF's investigation is focusing on whether CBS officers and/or directors breached their fiduciary duties to CBS 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 CBS 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-cbs/ 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/20180831005395/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Former corrections officer sentenced for smuggling contraband at Jackson County Detention Center JACKSON COUNTY, MO (KCTV) - A former corrections officer has been sentenced in federal court for smuggling contraband cell phones and other items to inmates in the Jackson County Detention Center. Andre Dickerson, 27, of Kansas City, MO, was sentenced Friday to one year and four months in federal prison without parole. Important note on the crisis at the jail . . . Here's a look at the recent crackdown underway as corrections officers are targeted in much the same way as the inmates.Read more: 'We are being eaten alive': Behind the scenes as Johnson County scrambles to avoid yet another election disaster Johnson County has tried to put a brave face on efforts to fix reporting software that failed in the August primary. County commissioners have reaffirmed their confidence in Ronnie Metsker, who runs the elections. Metsker, in turn, praises Election Systems and Software, the company that sold him on the brand new voting machines. Call this one pattern recognition as nothing really changed following a national embarrassment that handed the election to the guy currently in charge of voting.Checkit: The piercing story of a Jew who helped the Nazis: 9-1/2-18 One thing that was remarkably clear to me after spending almost five years working on a Holocaust-related book is that in Judaism, memory is of central importance. In fact, it's one reason why Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn and I wrote They... Presented without much commentary because you do what you have to do to survive . . . Here's greater detail from Kansas City's top faith blogger . . . TV news follow-up on a political passing this week andthis week . . . Take a look: Koenigseggs line of top-shelf performance machines is epic, no doubt about it. But how do you take it a step beyond? Apparently, you need to take a page from Norse mythology for that one, as it was recently revealed that the successor to the Agera might carry the name Ragnarok. The Full Story The Koenigsegg Agera RS is currently the fastest production car on the planet, going an average of 278 mph last November on a closed public road in Nevada. Its impressive stuff, no doubt about it, but Koenigseggs competitors are waiting in the wings to snatch that title away. As such, the boutique supercar producer is gonna need to once again one-up itself, hence its prepping a successor to the Agera. Apparently, the new hypercar might carry the name Ragnarok. The rumor stems from an unnamed source thats close to Koenigsegg, who recently spoke to our friends at The Supercar Blog. Ragnarok is an interesting name for the Ageras successor. It comes from Norse mythology, which is appropriate for the Swedish manufacturer, wherein a great future battle takes place that results in a series of natural disasters and the death of a number of gods. With competitors like the Hennessey Venom F5 named after the most destructive type of tornado on Earth, it makes sense to step up the naming game too. Specs on the forthcoming monster machine include a twin-turbo 5.0-liter V-8 making as much as 1,440 horsepower, besting the 1,360 ponies created by the top-spec Agera RS. The new hypercar will also carry massive aero components, a centrally placed cockpit, and enough go-faster equipment to challenge the worlds most hardcore performance machines. Pricing should eclipse the $2-million mark. Look for a full debut next year at the Geneva Motor Show. Further Reading Read our full review on the 2010 Koenigsegg Agera. Read our full review on the 2015 Koenigsegg Agera RS. Read more Koenigsegg news. Source: Supercar Blog rchopra@tribunemail.com New York, September 1 An Indian-origin woman has been sentenced to over five years in prison for health care fraud and making false statements related to a health care benefits programme. Vilasini Ganesh was sentenced on August 28 to 63 months in prison, US Attorney Alex Tse said. Ganesh, 47, and her husband Gregory Belcher, 56, both of California, were convicted of the charges in December last year after an eight-week trial. The evidence at trial demonstrated Ganesh submitted a series of false medical claims related to the family medical practice she owned in Californias Saratoga town. She submitted claims for days when a patient had not been seen by the provider and claims for patients who had been seen by a physician provider who no longer was affiliated with her practice. Additionally, she billed insurers with claims that certain patients were seen 12-15 times in a single month. In July 2017, a federal grand jury indicted Ganesh and Belcher, charging them with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering as well as on multiple other counts of health care fraud. During Ganeshs sentencing hearing, Judge Lucy Koh said that Ganesh obstructed justice by misrepresenting her understanding of the legal system, the amount of money she was paid by insurers, and whether she understood that it was improper to upcharge when submitting claims to insurers. In addition to the prison term, Koh sentenced Ganesh to a three-year term of supervised release and ordered her to pay restitution in the amount of over USD 344,000. Ganesh will begin serving the prison sentence on November 1, 2018. In April this year, Belcher was sentenced to a year and a day in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. PTI monicakchauhan@gmail.com New York, September 1 Six Indian nationals are among over 300 people arrested by American authorities for criminal activities and violating the country's immigration laws during a month-long crackdown across six states. Federal officers with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) arrested 364 criminal aliens and immigration violators during a 30-day enforcement action across Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin. Those arrested during this operation came from 25 countries, including six from India. Other nationalities included Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and and Ukraine. Of the 364 arrested, 187 had criminal convictions, 16 were women and 346 men and 236 were from Mexico. From the Chicago area, ICE arrested a 25-year-old man from India in Champaign, Illinois. He was convicted of criminal sexual abuse on July 30 and remains in ICE custody pending his removal. More than half of the aliens arrested by ERO deportation officers during this operation had prior criminal histories that included convictions for crimes such as assault, attempted murder, burglary, child neglect, child sexual exploitation, domestic violence, drug trafficking and illegal re-entry after deportation. "This operation targeted criminal aliens, public safety threats, and individuals who have violated our nation's immigration laws," said Ricardo Wong, field office director for ICE ERO Chicago. PTI singhking99@yahoo.com Washington, September 1 A US airman has been found guilty of aggravated assault with a hate-crime enhancement for beating a Sikh man two years ago, a media report said on Saturday. The victim, Mehtab Singh Bakhshi, according to court records, was standing, talking with friends near Dupont Circle on August 21, 2016, when Dylan Millhausen from Texas came up behind him, pulled off his turban and punched him in the face until he was unconscious, Washington Post reported. A jury found Millhausen guilty and added a hate-crime enhancement as the victim was targeted for race, religion or national origin, according to a media release. The crimes carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for November 30. Millhausen was apprehended by police and told them he likened the victim to Islamic extremists responsible for terrorist attacks, according to court records. Millhausen, at the time an Airman First Class stationed at Fort Meade, told officers he was acting in self-defence, and the victim had swung at him. His account was in direct contrast to statements by the victim and witnesses, the court records show. PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com Washington, September 1 A US airman has been guilty of aggravated assault with a hate-crime enhancement for beating a Sikh man two years ago, a media report said on Saturday. The victim, Mehtab Singh Bakhshi, according to court records, was standing, talking with friends near Dupont Circle on August 21, 2016, when Dylan Millhausen from Texas came up behind him, pulled off his turban and punched him in the face until he was unconscious, Washington Post reported. A jury found Millhausen guilty and added a hate-crime enhancement as the victim was targeted for race, religion or national origin, according to a media release. The victim, an adherent to the Sikh religion, was wearing a turban. The crimes carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for November 30. Millhausen was apprehended by police and told them he likened the victim to Islamic extremists responsible for terrorist attacks, according to court records. Millhausen, at the time an Airman First Class stationed at Fort Meade, told officers he was acting in self-defence, and the victim had swung at him. His account was in direct contrast to statements by the victim and witnesses, the court records show. Millhausen was also tried in military court on unrelated charges, federal prosecutors said. He was sentenced for incarceration on those charges, as well. PTI editorial@tribune.com Pradeep Sharma Tribune News Service Chandigarh, September 1 In a relief to hundreds of extension (guest) lecturers, the Haryana Government has asked college principals to re-employ those lecturers who were relieved from service recently. A total of 174 extension lecturers are set to benefit from this government decision in the first phase. The Director-General, Higher Education, has asked the college principals to adjust extension lecturers as per the established norms. Extension lecturers have been advised to approach colleges of their choice via email within two days. Other displaced eligible extension lecturers, whose names are not on the first list, can apply. First, eligible extension lecturers will be adjusted in the colleges which relieved them if the workload is available. Thereafter, in case of availability of further unmet workload, other eligible extension lecturers displaced from other government colleges will be considered whose seniority will be determined on the basis of the length of service, reads a government order. The order empowered principals to adjust other applicants at their own level keeping in view last years policy regarding the appointment of extension lecturers. Recently, the Education Department relieved hundreds of extension lecturers apparently on the plea that there was no workload on account of merger and rationalisation of students. Under the rationalisation process, candidates, who had taken admission to undergraduate courses in government colleges this academic session, were asked to change their subject, stream or college if the student strength was less than 20. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Chandigarh, September 1 After Punjabs crackdown on spurious milk and dairy products, Haryana, too, saw statewide raids by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) Department on Saturday to ascertain the purity of milk products being sold across the state. While the teams of the Health Department led by Food Safety Officers seized over 50 samples, these raids would continue tomorrow as well. Saket Kumar, Commissioner, FDA, said that these samples would be sent to the food testing laboratories in Chandigarh as well as Karnal. We will get the results in a fortnight or so. The idea of conducting these raids was to ensure that edible quality of dairy products is available to the consumers. Also, in view of the forthcoming festival season, we did not want spurious items being sold in the market, he said. According to information, a maximum of 11 samples were collected from Gurugram, 10 each from Faridabad, Kaithal and Ambala, seven from Rohtak, six each from Mewat and Rewari, five from Fatehabad, three from Mahendragarh and two from Sonepat though the FDA put the number of samples at 53. In Ambala, the team took away samples of khoya, paneer, milk and desi ghee from popular manufacturers and suppliers in the city and cantonment. In Faridabad, the samples were collected from sweetshops, food items retailers and outlets supplying eatables from various parts and localities, including Old Faridabad, Palla, Kheri Pul, Dabua Colony and vegetable and fruit market of NIT. According to Prithvi Singh, District Food Inspector, the samples had been lifted as part of the state-level drive to detect the supply of spurious food items in the market. Action would be taken against those whose samples would be found unfit for consumption, he said. The Food Safety Authorities, Gurugram, conducted raids at various renowned dairies and collected 11 samples, three of khoya and eight of paneer. Small-time paneer sellers in local markets and dairies were also raided. We are concentrating on individual vendors or dairies which have sprung up in all areas and are getting immensely popular, said Food Safety Inspector KK Sharma. In Mewat, raids were conducted at dairies being run from homes and catering to small sweetshops and even supplying to villages. A team of health staff took 10 samples of khoya and paneer from various localities of Kaithal. The samples were collected from Dogran Gate, Siwan Gate, HUDA Market-19, Model Town, Dhand Road, SBI Road, Keorak Gate among others. pardeepdhull@gmail.com TORONTO: Scientists have developed a self-powered sensor that could allow doctors to remotely monitor the recovery of surgical patients. The small, tube-like device is designed to be fitted to braces after joint surgery to wirelessly send information to computers, smartphones or smartwatches to track range of motion and other indicators of improvement. That data would be continuously collected, so it would be as though the physician or physiotherapist was always there, always observing the patient, said Hassan Askari, a doctoral candidate at University of Waterloo in Canada. The same sensor could also be used in a variety of other ways, including in the tires of autonomous vehicles to detect and respond to icy roads. A prototype built and tested by the researchers combines electromagnetism and triboelectricity, a relatively new energy harvesting technique that involves bringing different materials together to produce current. When bent or twisted, the device generates enough electricity for sensing and powering electronic circuits for processing and wireless signal transmission. The aim was to develop a sensor that works without having a battery attached to it. It is its own power source, said Askari. That makes the device well-suited for applications that put a premium on reliability and where it would be difficult or expensive to replace worn-out batteries. Askari estimated the sensorsabout six centimetres long and one centimetre widecould be commercially manufactured for USD 5 to 10 each. Research is now focused on making them smaller and more sensitive using triboelectricity alone. Software is also being developed to process signals for the tire application. When attached to the inside of tires, they could sense changing road conditions and instantly send information to control systems to enable self-driving vehicles to make adjustments. Based on the forces, the interaction between the road and the tires, we could actually detect ice or rain. That is extremely important information for autonomous driving, said Askari. PTI editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Dharamsala, September 1 BJP MP from Kangra on Saturday stirred a controversy by demanding that the Himachal Pradesh Assembly complex in Dharamsala should be handed over to Central University Himachal Pradesh (CUHP). Addressing a press conference here, Shanta said there was no logic in maintaining the Assembly complex for holding just the Winter session that lasted just for a few days. The complex was constructed here in 2006 by former Congress CM Virbhadra Singh to negate the allegations levelled against him for being anti-Kangra. Shantas statement is likely to evoke strong reactions from Congress leaders of the region. He is not the only leader who has expressed opinion regarding winding up the Assembly complex. Earlier, former Speaker BBL Butail had also expressed similar opinion. However, every time the demand had met with strong resistance from political leaders in Kangra. When asked about the declining value of Indian rupee which had reduced to Rs 71 against dollar, Shanta Kumar said it was a temporary setback due to macro steps taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, in the long term, the steps would be beneficial to economy, Shanta Kumar said, indicating towards demonetisation and GST. About the Circuit Bench of the High Court at Dharamsala, he said the state government had done its part. Now, the High Court should consider the request of the state government and bring the Bench to Dharamsala. Shanta Kumar said he did not want to contest the next Lak Sabha elections. I want that some younger leader should replace me from Kangra. Shanta Kumar also flayed the Congress leaders for opposing the state guest status accorded to MS Dhoni during his recent visit to Shimla. Circuit Bench of HC About the Circuit Bench of the High Court at Dharamsala, MP Shanta Kumar said the state government had done its part. Now, the High Court should consider the request of the state government and bring the Bench to Dharamsala. editorial@tribune.com Pratibha Chauhan Tribune News Service Shimla, September 1 The week-long monsoon session of the Vidhan Sabha was an animated affair with the Opposition attacking the BJP government on the use of force on protesting Youth Congress activists and amendments to the power policy. While the Congress displayed aggressive posturing by staging four walkouts, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur adopted a conciliatory approach as he gave in to the Congress demand for a magisterial probe into the lathicharge on the workers. The Congress staged two walkouts on the issue, but the Chief Minister chose to end the stalemate by agreeing to a magisterial probe, though not judicial as demanded by Congress MLAs. The government put in its best efforts to reply to most of the questions filed by the legislators. While the Chief Minister led the attack on the Opposition by putting the blame on the previous Congress regime for several lapses and shortcomings, there appeared to be a lack of cohesiveness among the Congress legislators. Leader of the Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri remained aggressive throughout the session. In contrast to the pervious monsoon sessions, not only were there a maximum seven sittings, but a lot of business was taken up. Besides two Bills, lengthy debates were held on issues like illegal mining, amendments to the power policy, formulation of a policy on outsourced employees, vacancies in health and educational institutions. One of the highlights of the session was the manner in which Nurpur MLA Rakesh Pathania and Jwalamukhi MLA Ramesh Dhwala did not hesitate to point out the shortcomings in the functioning of their own government. Pathania raised the issue of illegal mining and lack of facilities and staff at Tanda medical college in Kangra, making the ministers uncomfortable. Another highlight was the protest by Kinnuar MLA Jagat Singh Negi on not being allowed to raise issues of his segment. The CLP too seemed confused whether to support him, which led to his walkout. Four walkouts by Opposition editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Jalandhar, September 1 On the second day of the ongoing Apeejay Stya Model United Nations Conference (ASMUN18) being organised at Apeejay School here, political leaders presiding over the main session came across a serious discussion. A girl from Panjab University, Chandigarh, (name being withheld), held the mike and said, I am the daughter and sister of Army officers. My father is serving as Brigadier. My brother got recently posted near the Line of Control. We often hear about slogan Jai Jawan Jai Kisan but I have been going through something else. When my brother came home recently, I asked him what have you been eating. Since he has lost weight, my mom asked him what has gone wrong with you? He replied, Our ration have got slashed for high altitudes. It does not get sanctioned. We dont even get potatoes to eat. My brother is in such a sorry state of affair. Since my father is still serving, he called me this morning asking me not to speak up as his job is at stake. It is such a shameful act. People will take out your details and mine too if I go ahead. Can I being the daughter and sister of Army officers not have an independent voice? Can I not express myself without fear? Everyone including PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar, Joint Secretary AICC Krishna Allavaru, president Punjab Congress Amanpreet Singh Lally and president Jalandhar Youth Congress Ashwin Bhalla, were taken aback. At this, she received a lot of appreciation for her courage. Allavaru replied, You must always speak up. You are a motivation to all. It is your freedom of expression. Jakhar too encouraged her, You will be betraying our martyrs if you dont speak up. Do not be cowed down. The brainstorming session brought about ideas and perspectives put across by student delegates on burning topics of national and international concern on human rights, international affairs, women empowerment, drug addiction, agrarian crisis and brain drain. Students from Pune, Delhi, Chandigarh and far-off places attended the event. The delegates representing their committees in a high quality simulation of UN proceedings were Sukhamdeep, Zorawar Singh, Bhavna Chaudhary, Sahil Singh, Riya Sharma and Ankita Sabharwal. The programme concluded with an interactive session followed by a debate contested by delegates on the prospect of youth entering politics. Girish Kumar, principal, Apeejay School, appreciated the role of such conferences in creating global leaders of tomorrow. The second day ended on a lighter note with a fun-filled social event at night. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Srinagar, September 1 A top J&K bureaucrat was arrested by the Crime Branch for allegedly fudging his date of birth in official record. Administrative Secretary with the administrative reforms, inspection (ARI) and training department MD Khan was arrested by Crime Branch sleuths on Friday night. He is accused of fudging his date of birth records by at least three years. The government had written to us that the officer had made insertions in the date of birth in his service book. So we registered a case, Inspector General Police, Crime, Afadul Mujtaba said, adding that the officer had been arrested. The Crime Branch will now scrutinise the service record of the Administrative Secretary for further investigation. Government sources said the officer as per the records was to retire in November this year and had fudged his date of birth by at least three years. As per the record available with the government, he was born in November 1958 and was to retire in November 2018. As we were about to issue a notification as per the norms, the officer submitted his APR showing his date of birth as November 1961 and as per it, he had to retired in November 2021. We immediately wrote to the government for a thorough investigation, a senior government official, privy to the investigation, said. The case is now being investigated by the Crime Branch. This is the first time in recent past that a top bureaucrat has been arrested in J&K on cheating allegations. Before his posting to ARI & training department, Khan had also remained additional secretary with the consumer affairs and public distribution department and agriculture production department. amansharma@tribunemail.com Tribune News Service Srinagar, September 1 An Army soldier and three unidentified militants were killed in a gunfight in north Kashmir's Bandipore district on Saturday, officials said. The gunfight took place at Chandaji forest area, 70 km from Srinagar. Srinagar-based defence spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said three militants were killed in the encounter. "Three terrorists were killed in the operation. Weapons and other war-like stores have been recovered," the spokesman said. He said the operation is over. The identity of the slain militants could not be established immediately. The anti-militancy operation in the forest area was launched on Thursday after input about militant presence. There was a brief contact between militants and forces on Friday also. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Srinagar, September 1 A soldier and three unidentified militants were killed in a gunfight in north Kashmir's Bandipora district, officials said. The gunfight took place at the Chandaji forest area, some 70 km from Srinagar, on the third day after the anti-militancy operation was launched. Srinagar-based defence spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said three militants were killed in the encounter. "Three terrorists were killed in the operation. Weapons and other war-like stores were recovered," the spokesman said. He said the operation was over. Defence sources said a soldier was also killed in the gunfight. The identity of the slain soldier and militants could not be established immediately. Sources said they suspect the slain militants were fresh infiltrators who were heading towards the Kashmir hinterland. The anti-militancy operation in the forest area was launched on Thursday after an input about the presence of militants. There was a brief contact between militants and forces on Friday also. This week security forces killed at least seven militants in three different operations. On Thursday, two Pakistani Lashkar-e-Toiba militants were killed at Hajin in Bandipora district. A day earlier four policemen were killed in a militant attack in south Kashmir's Shopian. Rasheed welcomes release of cops relatives Srinagar: Welcoming the release of abducted relatives of policemen by militants, MLA and Awami Ittehad Party leader Engineer Rasheed has said Kashmiris cannot afford infighting under any circumstances. It is encouraging that at least good sense has prevailed on both the sides and relatives of the militants and policemen have been released unharmed, he said in a statement. TNS editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Srinagar, September 1 The J&K Police have arrested a Srinagar-based journalist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, alleging that he was complicit in harbouring known terrorists. Asif Sultan, who works with a local English news magazine, was picked up from his house in Batamaloo on Monday night. However, Asifs editor termed the police allegations a cock and bull story, saying the policemen were offended by the reportage of the arrested journalist. Asif Sultan has been arrested by the Batmaloo police. The initial questioning of the accused, subsequent searches and disclosures made in the case so far have led to seizure of incriminating materials from various locations. It also establishes his complicity for harbouring known terrorists involved in serious terror crimes, a police spokesman said. He said investigation was going on in the case. Showkat Motta, editor of Kashmir Narrator magazine, said, For six days, they have been discussing headlines and reports with him. On Saturday, they came up with a statement that he is involved in some case. They were offended by his reportage. The editor said they would challenge Asifs arrest in the court. Superintendent of Police (South) GV Sundeep Chakravarthy said they had solid evidence against Asif. We have got his police remand from the court, he said. Magazine refutes charge The editor of the English news magazine Asif Sultan works with has termed the police allegations a cock and bull story, saying the policemen were offended by the reportage of the arrested journalist. editorial@tribune.com Manav Mander Tribune News Service Ludhiana, September 1 Backyard poultry farming, which is an age-old practice, can turn into a lucrative profession for rural population which is predominantly occupied by poor, marginal farmers and landless labourers. It can prove most potent source for subsidiary incomes for landless and poor farmers. It is an enterprise with low initial investment but higher economic returns and can easily be managed by women, children and old-aged persons of the households. Nowadays, poultry meat and eggs have been the best and cheapest source for meeting out the per capita requirement of protein and energy for rural areas of India. Though India has shown a tremendous growth in poultry production over decades, rural poultry farming is still lagging behind and always found neglected. As it is the best alternative for small-scale farmers to subsidise the income with negligible input, this farming system needs uplift with recent advancement of research in the field of rearing of chicks, balanced feeding, disease control and efficient marketing system for the egg and meat, said Balwinder Singh Dhillon from Krishi Vigyan Kender, Bathinda, of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU). Nowadays, the backyard poultry can easily start with good egg laying birds of RIR (Rhode Island Red), Chabro, Punjab Red and Partapdhan breeds. Backyard poultry production system is a low input business and is characterised by indigenous night shelter system, scavenging system, natural hatching of chicks, poor productivity of birds, with little supplementary feeding, local marketing and no health care practice. In India, growth in the livestock sector can definitely contribute to poverty reduction because people live in rural areas depend on livestock for their daily livelihoods. It has also been observed that the demand for the animal protein source is increasing rapidly in developing countries, added Ajitpal Singh from Krishi Vigyan Kender, Bathinda. Small holdings containing 2-3 hens per unit were found to be more efficient producer of eggs compared to those with five or more hens per unit. The main interest of the poultry farmers having backyard poultry is not the production of eggs as returns are very low from sale of eggs. They hatch all their eggs and sell them as birds because of broodiness habit of these breeds, said Jitender Singh Brar from Krishi Vigyan Kender, Bathinda. Advantages of backyard poultry farming Gives employment to rural small-scale and marginal farmers. Provides additional income to rural communities. Aids in enhancing the soil fertility in backyards (15 chickens produce 1-1.2 kg of manure/day). Products from rural poultry farming fetch high price compared to those from intensive poultry farming. Almost double the rates of brown-shelled eggs in the local market. Provides egg and meat with almost no or very less investment through backyard poultry farming in free range system. Birds reared under free range conditions give eggs and meat of low cholesterol concentration compared to those produced under intensive poultry farming. Lessens protein malnutrition in susceptible groups such as pregnant women, feeding mothers and children. Management of backyard poultry birds editorial@tribune.com LUDHIANA: The Antarashtri Samrasta Manch is organising an event on the occasion of Teachers Day at New Delhi. Nepals first vice-president Parma Nand Jha would honour Dr Arvinder Singh, Principal, GGN Khalsa College, Ludhiana, with Shiksak Ratan Award for his commendable contribution, professional diligence, progressive leadership and constructive role in academics. Dr Singh said he has organised three national and two international conferences on various themes. Janmashtami celebrated Students celebrated Janmashtami at the DD Jain College of Education with great enthusiasm and religious devotion. Students recited poetry, hymns and enacted a play on the life of Lord Krishna. Students recalled that Lord Vishnu reincarnated in the form of Lord Krishna on the auspicious day of Janmashtami. English literary show held The Post Graduate Department of English at the Guru Nanak Khalsa College for Women, Gujarkhan Campus, held an English literary show. The show included a theatrical presentation of William Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice, poetry recitation, songs and Who am I. The members of the English Literary Society displayed their hidden skills. Visit to Central Instrumental Lab The Chemistry Department of the Khalsa College For Women, Ludhiana, organised an educational visit to the Central Instrumental Lab (CIL), Panjab University, Chandigarh. Fifty students accompanied by three faculty members, gained practical knowledge related to the instruments. The students termed the visit informative. TNS rchopra@tribunemail.com Jaipur, September 1 Twenty-eight schoolchildren were injured when their schoolbus overturned in Rajasthans Dausa district on Saturday, police said. The children belonged to Krishna Public School and the incident took place around 7 am at Saray village, when the bus took a sharp turn to avoid hitting a biker. Aged between five and 15, the frightened children started screaming as their schoolbus tilted and then overturned. A police team rescued the children after much difficulty, Sub-Inspector Ram Singh from Bandikui police station said. The injured were rushed to the Dausa hospital. While one student has sustained serious injuries, at least eight others have grave wounds but are reported to be out of danger. The rest had been discharged from hospital, he added. The driver Sushil Gurjar is absconding, Singh said. The parents have filed a complaint against him. IANS shalender@tribune.com Suhail A Shah Anantnag, August 31 All relatives of Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel abducted by militants from different parts of south Kashmir on Thursday evening were freed on Friday. Militants at the same time released videos of those abducted appealing to the state Director General of Police to not harass the families of militants. The abductions started on Wednesday evening from Tral in Pulwama district where a policemans son was taken away from his house. The first abduction was carried out hours after Hizbul Mujahideen operation commander Reyaz Naikoos father was taken into police custody. Naikoo had then warned the police to release all relatives of militants within three days or face dire consequences. The arrest of Naikoos father coincided with the setting ablaze of at least three houses of militant families in Shopian, allegedly by security forces. Those abducted included close relatives of some senior police officials, including at least two Deputy SPs, an SHO and a Sub-Inspector. Naikoo announced their release via an audio message circulated over social media: We have released them for now, but the policemen should learn a lesson and be aware that we can harm their families at will. He said the war was not against the policemen, but the militants were being pushed to take extreme steps. The next time we abduct their kin, they should know we cant keep them for long. And they know we have only one way of punishment, Naikoo said. singhking99@yahoo.com Naveen S Garewal Tribune News Service Hyderabad, September 1 Telangana IT Minister KT Rama Rao (KTR) on Saturday accused the Centre of going back on its promises made to the state at the time of its creation in 2014. The son of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), KTR alleged that despite repeated requests, the BJP government at the Centre had not responded to several of the states legitimate rights. He said both the BJP and Congress had failed the country and needed to be replaced with federal alternative comprising regional parties. Besides being seen as an heir apparent in Telangana politics, KTR is the think tank of the party along with his sister and party MP K Kavitha. Amid speculation about possibility of early polls to the Legislative Assembly, he said there had been a discussion within the party about it and the decision would be taken only by the Chief Minister. The media is drawing too much into the party meeting (rally) to be held on Sunday at Kongarkalan in Rangareddy district. The party will only tell its 46 lakh members about the achievements of the government in the last 51 months in power, he said, adding that it was bound to fuel the political atmosphere in the state. Ruling out any alliance, KTR said the party would go it alone in the next General Election to the Vidhan Sabha. Both the Congress and the BJP need to be removed from the scene as they have done nothing for the country. Congress ruled the nation for half a century and did nothing for the welfare of the people. Similarly, the BJPs role has been questionable. Only the TRS is the party of the people of Telangana and people will bring it back to power as they alone are its stakeholders, he said. He saw the Congress as a distant second and predicted not even a single seat (currently it has five) for the BJP. Power staff pay up monicakchauhan@gmail.com Gaya (Bihar), September 1 A Buddhist monk has been sent to jail by a court, a day after he was taken into custody over allegations of sexual abuse of children lodged at his monastery. Bhante Sanghpriya Sujoy, a Bangladeshi national, who ran a Buddhist school-cum-meditation centre in Bodh Gaya, was produced before a court, which remanded him to 14 days in judicial custody, Superintendent of Police (City), Gaya, Anil Kumar said. He said the victims - 15 boys from Assam - were also taken for medical examination and the statements of four of them were recorded before a magistrate. Senior Superintendent of Police Rajeev Mishra said a Special Investigating Team (SIT), which would be monitored by the SP (City) and headed by Deputy SP, Bodh Gaya, Raman Kumar Chaudhary, has also been set up to probe into the scandal. The monk ran an institution called "Prasanna Jyoti Buddhist School and Meditation Centre" at Mastipur village in Bodh Gaya where the 15 children - all hailing from Karbi Anglong district of Assam - were studying. The police had received information that the boys were being sexually exploited by the monk. Meanwhile, the International Buddhist Council (IBC) held an emergency meeting at Bodh Gaya where it passed a resolution condemning the "heinous crime against children in the name of religious teaching". "All cooperation will be extended to the SIT so that the truth came out. A close watch will be kept on the activities of all monasteries here and those found involved in such dirty activities will be debarred from IBC membership," IBC Secretary Pragya Bhante said. The IBC Secretary also pointed out that while there were more than 200 monasteries in Bodh Gaya, which were registered either with the Council or with the Bodh Gaya Temple Management Committee, many functioned without any registration with either authority. The IBC Secretary urged the district administration to ensure that no monastery was allowed to function without registration. Situated on the outskirts of Gaya city, Bodh Gaya is an international pilgrimage town where people come to pay obeisance to the Buddha who had attained enlightenment there. PTI amansharma@tribunemail.com Tribune News Service New Delhi, September 1 Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra is understood to have endorsed the name of Justice Ranjan Gogoi - the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court - as his successor even as government sources said they are yet to receive a formal communication in this regard. A source privy to the process said the letter is ready and will be sent to the government. This is in tune with the convention of recommending the name of the senior-most judge of the top court as the CJI. Justice Gogoi will replace CJI Misra who is due to retire on October 2. He will have 13-month tenure and will retire on November 17, 2019. Ever since Justice Gogoi took part in a press conference along with three other judges on January 12 and criticised CJI Misra, there had been speculation about the next move of the CJI who maintained a studied silence on the issue. Appointed as a permanent judge of the Gauhati High Court on February 28, 2001, Justice Gogoi was transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court on September 9, 2010, and then appointed as its Chief Justice on February 12, 2011. Justice Gogoi was elevated to the top court on April 23, 2012. There has been a convention of CJI recommending the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court as his successor. Only twice, it was not followed - first when Justice AN Ray was appointed as the CJI on April 25, 1973, superseding three senior-most judges and second time when Justice MH Beg was appointed the CJI on January 29, 1977, superseding Justice HR Khanna. In a joint meeting of the Bar Council of India with the representatives of State Bar Councils, Co-ordination Committee of all District Bar Associations of Delhi, Delhi High Court Bar Association and District Bar Associations of Delhi and NCR held here on Saturday, the members of the Joint Committee unanimously welcomed the recommendations made by CJI Dipak Misra for appointing Justice Ranjan Gogoi as the next CJI. The BCI had earlier a requested CJI Dipak Misra to recommend the name of Justice Gogoi because the Bar would not have tolerated any deviation from the well established tradition. "The Bar Council of India on behalf of the entire legal fraternity is grateful to the present Chief Justice of India and believes that the entire country will be benefitted by getting such a legal luminary as the next head of the Indian judiciary," BCI said in a statement. singhking99@yahoo.com Aditi Tandon Tribune News Service New Delhi, September 1 Amid clear possibilities of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) extending an invitation to Rahul Gandhi for their upcoming lecture series in Delhi, the Congress has begun to weigh its options. The party is clearly in unfamiliar territory considering that in her 19 years as the party president, Sonia Gandhi never had anything to do with the Sangh, let alone engaging it. As party chief, she had declined an invitation to attend an event organised by one of the RSS affiliates. But veteran Congress man and former President Pranab Mukherjee recently turned a new leaf by visiting the Sangh headquarters at Nagpur and delivering a lecture at a valedictory event. How Congress president Rahul Gandhi would respond if the RSS sends him an official invitation is anybodys guess though privately party leaders acknowledge it would be difficult for Gandhi to turn down the invite after his new I love my rivals narrative. Before hugging PM Narendra Modi during the monsoon session recently, Rahul had eloquently spoken of how he doesnt hate his ideological rivals and can embrace them while still fighting them ideologically. You can hate me you can call me Pappu but I have no hatred in my heart for you, he had said. By this logic, he may find it hard to disengage the RSS especially if the RSS seeks to engage him which it would after Rahuls recent Europe trip where he accused the Sangh of spreading poison in India. Congress leaders, meanwhile, are in a piquant situation over possibilities of receiving the RSS invitation. Let the invitation come first. We will respond accordingly, Congress spokesman Jaipal Reddy says. On the history of RSS and Congress engagement, Reddy adds: While Hindu Mahasabha and Arya Samaj people could always become Congress members, RSS swayamsewaks could never become members of the Congress. That is the reality. The RSS is a highly opportunistic organisation. To a query on how Rahul would refuse to attend the RSS event after claiming love for ideological adversaries, Reddy said, We will cross the bridge when we come to it. RSS sources, meanwhile, say Congress leaders in the past have engaged the Sangh. They speak of late PM Indira Gandhi, after the overnight conversion to Islam of the Dalits of Tamil Nadus Meenakshipuram village, engaging RSS to work on the issue. THAT HUG TO PM AND EUROPE TRIP... uttara@tribuneindia.com Jitendra K Shrivastava Tribune News Service Patna, September 1 Union Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey sparked controversy on Saturday when he said Rahul Gandhi appeared to have lost his mental balance and appeared to be suffering from schizophrenia. Choubey, who is the minister of state for health and family welfare, told a news agency on Saturday that he objected to Gandhis remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the controversial Rafale deal. Rahul Gandhi called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a liar. That hurt me a lot. What he says clearly points to the fact that hes a patient of schizophrenia. Gandhi appears to be committed to making India Congress-free. Modis very popular among people, and his popularity is soaring to the sky, he said when he spoke to the press in Sasaram district, adding that the anti-BJP coalition that was still in the making was Thagbandhan (an alliance of thieves) because its leaders weer cursed by people. Yet another minister who found himself in the middle of another controversy was Union Minister Giriraj Singh. On Friday, Singh targeted Gandhi saying he should first explain whether he is a Hindu, Muslim or Christian before going on the Kailash Mansarovar visit. With IANS singhking99@yahoo.com Deepender Deswal Tribune News Service Hisar, September 1 An uneasy calm prevails in the caste-sensitive Mirchpur village as the Delhi High Courts deadline for the convicts, belonging to the Jat community, to surrender in connection with the 2010 violence against Dalits expired on Saturday. Sources said the Dalit basti had virtually cut itself off from the rest of the village due to tension after the HC reversed the acquittal of 20 and upheld the conviction of 13 persons involved in the arson and assault on the Dalit basti in April 2010. Four Dalit families have reportedly shifted out to safer places in the past two days. A Jat activist, who was actively involved in the peace process following the violence, said almost all the convicts, most of them earning hands of their families, have left the village. And nobody is coming forward to extend any help to the families. A villager said they were unlikely to surrender and will move the Supreme Court against the verdict. Meanwhile, the police carried out patrolling in the village on Saturday. Narnaund SHO Sadhu Ram said, We have the court orders. No one has surrendered. amansharma@tribunemail.com Tribune News Service New Delhi, September 1 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday blamed 'phone-a-loan' scam of the previous UPA government for the bad loans in the banking sector and said every penny given at the behest of 'namdars' (dynasts) will be recovered. Speaking at a function to launch the payments bank of the postal department, he said a majority of bank funds during the previous regime were reserved only for rich who were close to a particular family. Against Rs 18 lakh crore loans given since Independence to 2008, the figure rose to an astronomical Rs 52 lakh crore in six years thereafter, he said. "Loans were given on phone calls made by 'namdars' (dynasts)," he said without taking anyone's name. Banks lent crores of rupees in contravention of rules to businessmen who were referred by the 'namdars', he alleged. "Knowing fully well that loans will not be paid back, banks lent money on orders of a family to a few," he said adding the lenders were forced to restructure the debt when the borrowers defaulted. PM Modi also made a mention of the just released government data projecting country's GDP growth at 8.2 per cent, attributing it to the government's progressive policies. The IPPB will contribute to economic growth of the country and include rural sectors banking system in a big way. It will help all sections of society, including farmers, Modi said. He dwelt on the services rendered by the postmen and said they were once in danger of losing jobs as their services would become redundant due to advancement of information technology. Hailing their services, he said they would be now play a pivotal role under IPPB. The IPPB is a public sector company under the Department of Posts and Ministry of Communication with 100 per cent equity of Government of India. It will have 640 branches and 3,250 Access Points spread across the country. Simultaneous launch events were held at these centres. All the 1.55 lakh post offices in the country will be linked to the IPPB system by this year-end. It will offer a range of products such as savings and current accounts, money transfer, direct benefit transfers, bill and utility payments, and enterprise and merchant payments. These products, and related services, will be offered across multiple channels (counter services, micro-ATM, mobile banking app, SMS and IVR), using the bank's state-of-the-art technology platform. Modi charged the previous UPA government with hiding the extent of NPAs. Since coming to power in 2014, the NDA government has analysed the enormity of the situation and asked banks to strictly recover dues, he said. "Congress had put the economy on a landmine," he said. "Our government brought out the true picture of NPAs and the scam of the previous government." During the last four years, all loans in excess of Rs 50 crore have been reviewed and ensured that terms are strictly complied with, he said. Modi said 12 of the biggest loan defaulters have an outstanding of Rs 1.75 lakh crore. Another 27 have Rs 1 lakh crore. "We never gave any loans to any of the 12 big defaulters," he said. - With PTI inputs singhking99@yahoo.com Mumbai, September 1 The family of Vernon Gonsalves, one of the five activists arrested for their alleged links to the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), on Saturday accused the police of presenting fabricated evidence against him before the media. Susan Abraham and Sagar, the wife and son of Gonsalves, told reporters here that police officials read out excerpts from letters fabricated by them. On Friday, DCP Parambir Singh read out excerpts from letters allegedly exchanged by Gonsalves and others with members of the banned organisation. The letters read out by the police during the media briefing are manufactured. None of these letters were filed or submitted to the court... this is against the Bombay High Court judgment prohibiting leaking information to media during investigation, she said. Abraham said the police had filed false cases against the activists to divert attention from the real accused who were behind the Koregaon-Bhima violence on New Years Day this year. She said imaginary assassination plots were being invented to divert attention from the killings of Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, MM Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh. TNS singhking99@yahoo.com Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, September 1 Holding the culture of seeking adjournments responsible for judicial delays, President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday expressed confidence that the members of the entire legal fraternity will resolve not to seek adjournments except in absolutely unavoidable circumstances. There are many reasons for such delays. There are infrastructure gaps and considerable vacancies, particularly in subordinate courts. There is a culture of seeking adjournments as a norm rather than an exception. New thinking is gradually taking place on frequent adjournments. I have been told that the judiciary is making sincere efforts to curb this practice, the President said at a conference organised by the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association here. Noting that Indias judiciary is respected across the world as an upholder of justice for the defenceless, Kovind said it was also true that the judges were overburdened by the sheer volume of cases. As a consequence, the Indian legal system is marked by long delays. There is a backlog of 3.3 crore cases in various courts of the country. Of these, 2.84 crore cases are in the subordinate courts. Another 43 lakh are in the High Courts and about 58,000 in the Supreme Court, he said in the presence of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, senior judges and lawyers. The President, however, appreciated the efforts on the part of the government the biggest litigant to bring down the number of cases. The government has taken several remedial measures. It has enhanced the threshold for filing appeals in tax disputes in various tribunals and courts. In the Supreme Court, the threshold has gone up from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 1 crore. The government has also decided to withdraw many pending appeals, he added. Kovind also appreciated the enactment of the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Act 2015 which was aimed at efficient and fair disposal of complex commercial disputes. The Act which was further amended in 2018 would ease business procedure and benefit small investors involved in disputes of even Rs 3 lakh, he added. This Conference has two themes Technology, Training and Infrastructure: Key to Speedy Justice and Changing Face of Legal Education in India. CJI Misra said infrastructure gaps in judicial system must be addressed at the earliest before it left a scar on the justice administration. Maintaining that fiscal constraints must not be used as an excuse, the CJI said strengthening of judiciary would result in qualitative and speedy justice. amansharma@tribunemail.com Our Correspondent Jaipur, September 1 A South African national was on Saturday arrested with 10-gm cocaine by Special Operations Group of Rajasthan Police here. Tony Harrison (32) of Johannesburg was on way from Mumbai to Pushkar in Ajmer district when he was apprehended from a hotel near airport where he had checked in yesterday, Additional Director General of Police, SOG-ATS, Umesh Mishra said. The contraband is worth lakhs of rupees and the accused has been arrested under NDPS Act (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act). During preliminary investigation, the accused confessed that a gang of drug peddlers was active in Mumbai and Delhi. He is on tourist visa since March 8 and was staying in Mumbai for over a month. uttara@tribuneindia.com Hyderabad, September 1 Telangana could hold early elections as all eyes are on a crucial state cabinet meeting followed by a massive public meeting by the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) here on Sunday. Amid strong indications of polls being advanced, TRS is all set to hold a massive show of strength. The rally will be preceded by a meeting of the state cabinet, which is likely to decide for dissolution of Assembly seven months ahead of its term. TRS leaders said Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao would take "key decisions" at the cabinet meeting and announce them at the public meeting. The cabinet may pass a resolution to dissolve the Assembly and recommend this to Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan. If the Election Commission agrees, the polls may be held in December along with the elections in three other statesRajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The state cabinet will meet at 1 pm while the public meeting is scheduled to begin an hour later. For the last few weeks, Rao had been dropping hints of assembly elections being advanced. He has already declared that the party will announce the candidates in September. KCR, as Rao is popularly known, is keen to advance the assembly polls to avoid simultaneous elections to the Assembly and the Parliament. His two meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August further added to the speculation. Over the last few days, he announced sops for various sections of people and also transferred IAS and IPS officers. On Saturday, the Chief Minister announced 35 per cent pay hike for the employees of electricity department. KCR's son and cabinet minister K.T. Rama Rao said the chief minister would take a final decision on early polls. Rama Rao, who is number two in the party and the government, is confident of TRS retaining power whenever the elections are held. Titled "Pragati Nivedana" (Progress report), the meeting to be held at Kongara Kalan at Ibrahimpatnam on the city outskirts is expected to attract 25 lakh people. Rama Rao claims that this will be the biggest political rally in the country. According to him, TRS has 47 lakh members and if half of them turn up, the meet would be a huge success. TRS leaders are mobilising people for the meet from across the state. TRS, which formed the first government in Telangana after the state came into being on June 2, 2014 with the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, will highlight its achievements during the last four years while KCR is expected to sound the poll bugle. TRS workers from various parts of state started pouring in for the meeting. The massive mobilisation of people is expected to hit the traffic on Outer Ring Road (ORR) as thousands of vehicles will be heading towards the venue from different entry points along ORR. Rama Rao has suggested to people not attending the meeting to stay indoors. IANS singhking99@yahoo.com Naveen S Garewal Tribune News Service Hyderabad, September 1 The Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao (KCR)-led Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) will contest the Assembly elections in the state on its own, but is open to a non-BJP, non-Congress alliance. The party is ready for elections and will deliver a knock-out result in the poll, says K Kavitha, Nizamabad MP and daughter of the Chief Minister. Part of the partys think tank, she says the partys leadership doesnt want to close its options with a pre-poll alliance. However, the party is open to talks with non-BJP and non-Congress fringe groups that want to come under the banner of the TRS. Giving some insights into the partys preparation for the Assembly elections due in April-May next year that many party leaders, including the Chief Minister, want advanced to November-December, Kavitha told The Tribune in an interview that the TRS was all set for a comeback based on its performance. To showcase its achievements in the past four-and-a-half years, the TRS is organising what it calls mother of all meetings (rally) scheduled for September 2 at Kongara Kalan, close to state capital Hyderabad. Called the Pragathi Nivedana Sabha, every Assembly segment will have at least 25,000 people coming to this sabha, where the attendance expected is 25 lakh. It will be the biggest rally (spread across 2,000 acres) seen anywhere in India where people are coming to appreciate what KCR has done for them in four-and-a-half years. The party leader (KCR) will present his report card, she says. TRS had, in the past, entered into an alliance with the Congress and TDP to make the separate Telangana state a reality, but they have not performed any constructive role in the development of the state in the past four-and-a-half years. But at the same time, she said, the contribution of Sonia Gandhi in making Telangana state a reality cannot be undermined. Kavitha said the talk about the announcement of elections at the September 2 rally was only a creation of media imagination. What KCR will say is for anyone to guess. There may be some announcements as KCR will be the main speaker. From what I know, he will mainly highlight the development issues undertaken by TRS, she says. Telangana is the youngest state and a lot has happened in the past 51 months that the people need to know. Thats the main reason for the sabha, she added. uttara@tribuneindia.com Chandigarh, September 1 The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) held protests in all 117 assembly constituencies across Punjab on Saturday to protest the Congress government's "deep rooted conspiracy to weaken Sikh institutions as well as the Sikh Panth in league with radical elements and AAP leaders". An SAD spokesman said party workers along with senior leaders took to the streets in each constituency raising slogans against the Congress government. Effigies of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar as well as radical leaders such as Baljit Singh Daduwal were burnt, he said. SAD workers condemned Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar for threatening them that they would not be allowed to enter villages. They warned the Congress that they stood for maintaining peace and communal harmony and that Congress should desist from instigating violence. Akali Dal leaders said the Congress government was in league with radical groups and was hatching a conspiracy to defame the SAD in order to take control over the Sikh religious institutions, including the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). They said that the Amrinder Singh-led Congress government was trying to implement its anti-Sikh agenda for its petty political goals as it did in 1980s to take control over the Sikh religious institutions as well as push the state back in to the dark era of terrorism. IANS editorial@tribune.com Our Correspondent Abohar, August 31 Three former executive officials of the Municipal Council here have been indicted for carelessness, negligence and causing financial loss to the council in a property scam that was raised by then Leader of Opposition Sunil Jakhar in the Vidhan Sabha also. While the previous government took no action, Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu had assured to get it investigated. The Vigilance Bureau had registered a case on March 9, 2016, under Sections 409, 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the IPC and Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. A special report was submitted on February 6, but an FIR was registered only against Jaspal Singh, clerk, and ex-president Shivraj Goyal. However, both got bail from different courts. The MC had recently passed a resolution to reinstate Jaspal, approval for which has been sought from the Director, Local Bodies. The government on February 26 had appointed Dr Ramesh Chander Nayyar, a retired IAS officer, to probe the role of three former executive officials of the Abohar Municipal Council in connection with a property scam. In his five-page report, Dr Nayyar has indicted Jagsir Singh Dhaliwal, Bhushan Aggarwal and Bhushan Singh Rana, who served as EOs in Abohar. They were earlier issued chargesheets on August 10, 2017. The trio appeared before Dr Nayyar and tried to plead not guilty. The inquiry report also questions the role of the resident auditors who ignored the misdeeds. The Rs 71-lakh property scam came to light in 2010. The matter was initially investigated by the Deputy Director, Local Bodies, and Regional Deputy Director of the Local Funds Departments. The Retired Employees Welfare Association had submitted a complaint in which it had alleged that the MC staff had tampered with the conditions laid for the auction of MC commercial property on Nai Sadak in 2010. Shivraj Goyal of the BJP was president then and Dhaliwal served as executive officer. In the forged copy of conditions, the rate of interest was reduced from 18 per cent to 7 per cent, transfer fee from 3 per cent to one per cent and the clause for 10 per cent extra charges against the corner plot was removed. The report said Rana showed extraordinary interest in transfer of a plot and getting the sale deed registered. The pre-audit wing in the council delayed action by issuing requisition only after Rana left the charge of EO. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Pathankot, September 1 The police conducted an extensive search on the Punjab-Jammu & Kashmir border near Janial village after a woman rang up the Control Room on Saturday afternoon and told officials that she had spotted two well-built middle-aged men roaming in the village. Control Room officials informed SSP Vivek Sheel Soni, who in turn informed his senior officers, including IG (Border) Surinder Pal Singh Parmar. Police personnel swung into action and sealed all the roads, including the link roads leading to the village. The SSP said preliminary investigations had revealed that the men were unarmed. The terror angle has definitely been ruled out. However, we are deploying more men in and around the village. The search will continue in the night. Vital installations in the city have been fortified. We are taking no risks, he said. The Pathankot Air Force Station had witnessed a terror attack in January 2016. FS Aijazuddin FS Aijazuddin Pakistan has few enough friends as it is. To lose two within the same week is calamitous. Former Indian PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee died on August 16 and journalist Kuldip Nayar on August 23. Both were in their mid-nineties. They, like another friend of Pakistan Khushwant Singh, belonged to an age when pre-August 1947 was another country. I knew all three, the other two better than Vajpayee sahib. One could never know him well. He was as unfathomable as the deepest ocean. I had the privilege of hearing him speak once during his bus yatra to Lahore in February 1999, and the second time when we shared the stage in April 2001 at the Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. By 2001, Kargil had taken place. PM Vajpayee disappointed but undeterred re-iterated his resolve not to give up our policy of peaceful co-existence with our neighbours. His theist heart, if not his BJP mind, taught him: Hate had no religion. To him, secularism had a universal application: equal respect and equal treatment of all religions. In 2001, after our speeches, Vajpayee sahib met me privately. Teasingly, I asked him whether he still had the return ticket in his pocket. He smiled. He used it in 2004 when he revisited Pakistan. Vajpayee sahibs heart and tongue had an umbilical connection. He felt before he spoke. At the reception in Governors House, Lahore, in 1999, Kuldip Nayar whispered to me as Vajpayee sahib rose to address 300 of Pakistans elite: If he reads from a text, he will be a disaster. Vajpayee spoke extempore. Gradually, he so mesmerised his audience that even when the azaan for maghrib prayer was called, not one person from the PM of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the lowest attendee left his seat. Both Kuldip Nayar and Khushwant Singh appeared to be vociferously pro-Pakistani, except that neither of them loved Pakistan as much as they loved provoking their own governments. Kuldip made frequent bee-like visits to Pakistan to collect pollen of information that he could use as a working journalist. In 1987, he was handed a scoop by Dr AQ Khan who revealed to him in confidence that Pakistan had gone nuclear. Kuldip did what every freelance journalist would have done. He touted the information (so General Zia-ul-Haq suspected) to the highest bidder. Eventually, General Zia, irked by the delay, used another detonator to agitate the Indians. Soon after General Musharraf took over in 1999, Kuldip, en route for his first meeting with Musharraf, asked me: Is Kashmir the core issue? My response was spontaneous but indiscreet. Kashmir is not a core issue it is more a Corps Commanders issue. Marvellous, he chuckled, I will put that into my column. And he did, all but naming me as his Deep Throat. On occasions, I detected an anti-Muslim bias in his writings. At first he denied it, but when we met again after a few months, he asked me whether there was still a bias. I replied that there must have been one for him to rectify it. Now that Khushwant Singh, AB Vajpayee and Kuldip Nayar have gone, the flickering torch of Indo-Pak amity has been left for the uninterruptible, courageous Mani Shankar Aiyar to carry. Mani (a Congress-ite) often sparred with Vajpayee sahib. He never hugged him, but he did embrace (like millions of sane Indians and Pakistanis) Vajpayees belief that ultimately, we will have to return to the goal of living together in peace, howsoever haywire we may go on this path. Khushwant Singh, Kuldip Nayar and AB Vajpayee will no longer be our fellow passengers on that path. Their lives have shown us the way. The writer is a Pak-based historian Sushil Manav Sushil Manav in Chandigarh Instances of atrocities against the Scheduled Castes by those belonging to the dominant castes have shown no sign of abating even after 71 years of Independence. The statement is part of the 209-page Delhi High Court judgment in response to the appeals filed by 13 convicts of the 2010 Mirchpur caste violence. Perpetrated by members of the Jat community against the Dalits in Hisar district of Haryana, the violence, as the High Court said, is grim reminder of absence of equality, fraternity in society. Not only did the High Court dismiss the appeal, but also overturned the acquittal of 20 others in the case. It held them guilty of killing a Dalit and his physically-challenged daughter, among other offences. In the gory incident, 51 persons belonging to the Balmiki community were injured and 18 homes were torched. Also, large-scale rioting and looting were witnessed. The residents had to flee the village and take shelter at a farmhouse. All this, shockingly, happened because of a dog! The backgrounder A dog belonging to a Dalit barked at a group of inebriated Jat youths passing through a Dalit locality. The trivial incident led to the Mirchpur killings, as has also been observed by the Delhi High Court in its judgment. When Mirchpur happened in 2010, a magazine even published a story, Mirchpur: A dog story. More than about the canines natural instinct, the article was about how humans failed to recognise the basic democratic rights of the fellow citizens. When acceptance becomes ailment Oppression of Dalits and minorities by self-styled custodians of the majority make headlines almost on a daily basis. Labelling it as state-sponsored oppression might be jumping the gun, but, the condemnation of such inhuman acts is too little and too late a proof of states reluctance to check caste-based crimes. Col Dilbag Dabas (retd), says, We need concrete action to check crime than just kadi ninda (severe condemnation). The perpetrators perceive ninda a tacit acceptance of their heinous acts and not as deterrence. For Dalits and the targeted minorities, sadly, it remains a fait-accompli. Heinous crimes are often brushed under the carpet, and this is becoming the new normal. Parveen Kumar, an advocate belonging to a Scheduled Caste, says employment quotas in government sector is also one of the causes behind the occurrence of caste-based clashes and tensions. It makes upper caste envious and the anger is vented out more than often. Dark past, bleak future If the importance of social transformation is not realised, Haryana will continue to be dogged by such incidents in the future as well. Social scientists believe that the states rural society is going through a positive transitional phase. The social and cultural taboos are being challenged by those who have been at the receiving end of the prejudiced mindset for ages. However, over the years, social and cultural taboos, which otherwise amount to atrocities on the Scheduled Castes, have been accepted as the new normal by the perpetrators as well as the victims. The problem occurs when this new normal is violated by the Dalits. All this while, people belonging to upper-caste communities have held a superior position in the social hierarchy. And, Scheduled Caste communities have been trying to assert equality, a fundamental right. Thus, the caste cauldron requires just a spark to fire-up, leading to gory incidents like the one that occurred in Mirchpur. Common phenomenon or aberrations Sociologists and activists differ in views on whether such social friction is a common phenomenon or incidents like Mirchpur are, at worst, aberrations. Dr Jitender Prasad, a sociologist, maintains that everything remains hunky-dory until the Dalits are subservient to Jats in the Khadar region, Ahirs in Ahirwal and Rajputs in Bhiwani district. They are not allowed to carry out ghurchari (procession of the groom on mare during weddings). They are supposed to back a particular candidate as per the wishes of upper castes in panchayat polls and even Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Whenever they challenge the set norms, all hell breaks loose, Prasad says. Prof Sanjeev Kumar of Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology says that though there has been inter-dependence between the land-holding community, which is the upper caste, and the landless class i.e. the oppressed community, the fault line exists between the two segments. A social gap persists among the communities of the village. The upper castes are not comfortable with the elimination of this chasm. The middle class also feels that people who used to or are working in their fields are below them by virtue of their caste. On the other hand, the Dalits are aware of their Fundamental Rights like never before. CB Singh Sheoran, who writes on the social evils of Haryana, negates any scope of mobility in our social set up. Whenever the dominance of upper caste is challenged, it leads to consternation. Such consternation obviously manifests at some point if not tackled sensitively by our society. Incidents like Mirchpur, he says, are historical aberrations. According to Krishan Swaroop Gorakhpuria, a panchayati raj activist, the political relevance of the caste issue Jat or non-Jat has gained ground in Haryana and that has led to fragmentation of society. We need social bodies to work on the field to make people from varying castes share a platform on social, political and economic issues. Khap panchayats are dominated by Jats, and thus lack credibility. Their functioning should be revised to gain confidence of people across the castes, adds Swaroop. Equally important is to rein in miscreants who try to fuel Mirchpur-like incidents. The convicted jats in the Mirchpur case also seem to have realised that there is little reaction from other Jat groups to the Delhi High Court verdict. Whose blame is it anyway Inderjit Singh, a veteran CPI (M) leader from Haryana, says it is important to assess the factors behind escalating caste violence. The solution to the problem, he adds, lies in understanding the dynamics of socio-economic trajectory of Haryana. It should be read since its inception and three decades of neo-liberal policy dispensation, leading to mounting unemployment and deepening agrarian crisis. Inderjit maintains that some upward social mobility has been witnessed among the Dalits. This is perceived as a threat to the caste hierarchy by the upper castes, generating constant hostility. He adds that this assertion of the Dalits was seen on April 2 in the form of Bharat Bandh against the dilution of SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act by the apex court. Mahabir Jaglan, professor of geography in Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, explains, Haryana is a feudal society, which has not seen the light of social movement till date. Consequently, democratisation, socio-economic inclusion and modernisation hang in a limbo. It is a classic case of democracy dressed up in liberal ideas, but inside is a stifled caste-based society. Also, social institutions like khap panchayats have obstructed the flow of democratic movement in society. Certain studies have proved that the villages where upper castes dominate have experienced weak implementation of pro-poor policies and programmes. Lack of education among the Dalits and more importantly upper castes has hampered socio-economic progress of the state. As Prof Jaglan says, Village-level studies conducted by our department at Kurukshetra University have revealed that the level of education of Jats is worse than artisans and Scheduled Castes in the state. The result is unemployment in villages, already marred by underemployment in agriculture. Economic liberalisation since the early 1990s has adversely affected the rural economy, which restricted itself to crop and animal production. In this scenario, if a Dalit educates himself to better his economic condition, he isnt taken to kindly by the upper castes, says he. Flashback to horror April 21, 2010: Jat youths torch houses of Dalits in Mirchpur village following a scuffle with Dalit youths. A disabled teen and her father are burnt in their house. More than 150 Dalit families flee the village and take shelter at a temple in Delhi. Jat youths torch houses of Dalits in Mirchpur village following a scuffle with Dalit youths. A disabled teen and her father are burnt in their house. More than 150 Dalit families flee the village and take shelter at a temple in Delhi. April 29: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi makes an unscheduled visit to the village to meet the victims. The visit puts the then Haryana Congress in a spot. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi makes an unscheduled visit to the village to meet the victims. The visit puts the then Haryana Congress in a spot. August: The Haryana police make arrests across the month after it is pulled up by the Supreme Court. The Haryana police make arrests across the month after it is pulled up by the Supreme Court. Dec 8: The SC transfers the case from Hisar to Delhi to ensure a fair trial. The SC transfers the case from Hisar to Delhi to ensure a fair trial. Dec 23: Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau asks the government to appoint special public prosecutor to conduct the trial. Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau asks the government to appoint special public prosecutor to conduct the trial. Jan 9, 2011: Court orders transfer of the accused to Tihar from a Hisar jail. A total of 98 accused are shifted. Out of 103, five are juveniles. One is out on bail. Court orders transfer of the accused to Tihar from a Hisar jail. A total of 98 accused are shifted. Out of 103, five are juveniles. One is out on bail. Jan 15: The Jat community, led by Sarv Khap Sarv Jatia Mahapanchayat, sit on dharna and block the Delhi-Ferozepur rail section in Jind in protest against the transfer of the case. The Jat community, led by Sarv Khap Sarv Jatia Mahapanchayat, sit on dharna and block the Delhi-Ferozepur rail section in Jind in protest against the transfer of the case. Jan 20: The state government decides to hand over the investigation to the CBI. The state government decides to hand over the investigation to the CBI. Feb 1: Court orders deployment of the CRPF at Mirchpur to protect witnesses. Court orders deployment of the CRPF at Mirchpur to protect witnesses. Feb 10: Court asks chief secretaries of Delhi and Haryana to ensure transportation and stay of witnesses here. Court asks chief secretaries of Delhi and Haryana to ensure transportation and stay of witnesses here. Mar 10: Trial court passes order on charge against 97 persons. Trial court passes order on charge against 97 persons. Sept 24: Trial court convicts 15, acquits 82 persons. Trial court convicts 15, acquits 82 persons. Oct 31: Three convicts get life sentence, five persons are awarded a five-year jail while the remaining seven are released on probation. Three convicts get life sentence, five persons are awarded a five-year jail while the remaining seven are released on probation. Aug 24: The high court upholds conviction and sentence of 13 convicts, reverses acquittal of 20 and convicts them. The long list of oppressed Mob torches homes in Gohana Armed with spears, petrol and kerosene oil, a mob of about 1,500 to 2,000 Jats went about burning down houses. At the receiving end was a particular Dalit community in Gohana. The incident happened after a Jat youth died in a scuffle with Dalit boys. Five lynched in Dulina A violent mob lynched five SC men on suspicion of them being cow slaughterers. The incident took place in October 2002. The victims were dragged from the police post at Dulina village in Jhajjar district. The mob also set a four-wheeler, which it thought was used to hide the skinning of the cow, on fire. Social boycott in Bhagana In April 2012, Hisars Bhagana village saw tension between Jats and Dalits. The panchayat constructed a wall to block access to a few Dalit houses as a solution to a dispute over shaamlat (common) land. The panchayat later socially boycotted the Dalits, forcing several families to leave the village. Mistaken for poacher, one lynched In May 2014, a Dalit man was lynched and another critically injured by members of the Bishnoi community. Rajbir (40) and Ram Avtar (26) of Gangwa village were on their way to Hisars Kalwas village to enquire about fodder prices. They were waylaid by four men, who claimed they were poachers. The youths tied the hands of the two men and beat them up with iron rods. House set afire, two kids charred Two children of a Dalit family were burnt alive and their parents suffered injuries after a few upper caste persons set their house on fire at Sunped village in Faridabad district in October 2015. An old enmity between the Dalit and a Rajput family was the reason behind the attack. Dispute over house, five attacked Five persons, including a woman, from the SC community were attacked by a few upper caste men in Jhajjars Naya Gaon village on September 30, 2017, following a dispute over a house at Dalit basti in the village. Ghurchari of groom stopped A Dalit groom was forced to climb down from the horse during ghurchari. His family members were beaten up by a dozen upper caste men at Sanjarwas village in Charkhi Dadri district in April 2017. The perpetrators plea was that the Dalits were not allowed to perform the ritual. Marriage marred by violence Another Dalit groom was stopped from performing ghurchari by some upper caste youths in Karnals Sagga village in March 2017. It resulted in stone pelting, leaving a cop and several others injured. Stopped from offering prayers in temple A groom from Dalit community was barred from offering prayer in a temple, a day before his marriage in Kurukshetras Bhustala village in May 2016. Tension prevailed as Dalits resisted oppression from the Jats. The police later persuaded them to offer prayer at the Valmiki temple. Forced to resign In Bapora village of Bhiwani district, people from upper caste boycotted the panchayat polls in 2010 when the post of Sarpanch was reserved for an SC candidate. When a Dalit youth defied the diktat and the villagers did not allow him to work. He had to resign. With inputs from Deepender Deswal in Hisar and Ravinder Saini in Jhajjar pardeepdhull@gmail.com Kabul, September 1 Two Taliban senior commanders were killed when military aircraft targeted the militants hideout outside Qalat city, the capital of the southern Zabul province, provincial police chief Mohammad Mustafa Mayar said. According to the official, the aircraft of the US-led coalition forces conducted the sorties against Taliban hideouts in Amki area, on Friday afternoon, killing Mullah Asad and Mullah Sangari, the commanders on the spot and injuring a few others. Mayar, however, didnt provide more details, Xinhua news agency reported. Taliban militants have not made any comments so far. IANS traineesubeditor@tribuneindia.com Sydney, August 30 Australia has signalled it is preparing to ban US whistleblower Chelsea Manning from entering the country ahead of a scheduled speaking tour, the organiser of the engagements said. Manning, the transgender US Army soldier who served seven years in military prison for leaking classified data, is scheduled to speak at the Sydney Opera House at the weekend. However, Suzi Jamil, owner of the company organising Mannings speaking tour in Australia, said late on Wednesday Manning had received a notice from the Australian government informing her Canberra was considering cancelling her visa. We are looking for support from relevant national bodies or individuals, especially politicians, who can support Chelseas entry into Australia, Jamil said. A spokeswoman for Australias Department of Immigration declined to comment on the possible visa ban on Thursday. Australian law allows the immigration minister to deny anyone a visa if they do not pass a character test, a broad criteria that affords the government sweeping powers. Manning is scheduled to travel to New Zealand after finishing her three events in Australia but the centre-right opposition National Party has also called for her to be denied entry. Manning was denied entry into Canada late last year but was subsequently allowed to appear at another event. Manning was sentenced in 2013 to 35 years in prison for sending more than 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks. Her sentence was later commuted by former President Barack Obama. The classified and sensitive documents leaked by Manning - who was assigned to an army unit in Iraq as an intelligence analyst - shone a light on the nature of warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan. Reuters. pardeepdhull@gmail.com Brasilia, September 1 Brazils top electoral court on Friday barred jailed former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from running in this years presidential because of his corruption conviction. The widely expected decision removes a cloud hanging over Brazils most uncertain election in decades - though Lulas lawyers have said they would appeal an adverse decision to the Supreme Court. What is at stake here today is the equality of all citizens before the law and the Constitution, Judge Og Fernandes told the court in his vote to declare Lula ineligible. Judge Admar Gonzaga, who as a lawyer worked for Lulas handpicked successor Dilma Rousseffs 2010 election, cast the decisive vote in the 6-1 decision that sealed the leftist icons ejection from the presidential election. Lula, Brazils most popular politician, is serving a 12-year sentence for a corruption conviction. His Workers Party registered him as its presidential candidate for the Oct. 7 vote anyway, saying he is innocent. Lula is ineligible for office under Brazils Clean Slate law, which prohibits candidates from running if they have convictions that have been upheld on appeal. Despite his conviction and several graft cases pending against him, Lula leads the race by a long stretch, with 39 percent of voter support, according to pollster Datafolha. His nearest rival, far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, has 19 percent. Ads by the Workers Party calling on Brazilians to vote for Lula began to appear on social media on Friday, and will be shown on television as of Saturday when the race enters its final 35 days of campaigning. A party statement said the court had bowed to the wishes of Brazils elites to stop Lula returning to office. The court had also ignored a recommendation by the United Nations Human Rights Committee to restore Lulas political rights which he appeals his conviction, it said. Vice-presidential running mate Fernando Haddad, a former mayor of Sao Paulo, is expected to head the ticket hoping to inherit the bulk of Lulas votes. The party has until September 17 to swap their names on the ballot, though the court gave it 10 days to make the change. The court also ruled that Lula should not appear in the Workers Partys television and radio ads campaign until the ticket has been officially altered to remove him. The court on Thursday had rejected another request by opponents of Lula to exclude his name from opinion polls. Reuters pardeepdhull@gmail.com Kuala Lumpur, September 1 Malaysian police are seeking two Indonesian women to appear as witnesses in an ongoing trial over the murder of Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Kim Jong-nam died at the Kuala Lumpurs International Airport in February 2017 after a toxic VX nerve agent was rubbed on his face. The police identified the two women as 24-year-old Raisa Rinda Salma and 33-year-old Dessy Meyrisinta, reports CNN. Their last known address was given as the Flamingo Hotel in Ampang, Malaysia, a town on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. As the two women could not be contacted, the authorities are appealing to the public for information on their whereabouts. Speaking to CNN, Selangor State Criminal Investigations Department chief Fadzil Ahmat wouldnt say whether the women were associates of two women who have been charged with killing the murder, only that they are being sought as witnesses. Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong, nationals of Indonesia and Vietnam respectively, are currently on trial for allegedly murdering Kim Jong-nam by wiping his face with the highly lethal nerve agent VX at an airport in the Malaysian capital. Lawyers for both women maintain they were duped by a group of North Koreans, four of whom have been charged in relation to Kims murder but have since left the country. In August, Aisyahs father Asria maintained that his daughter was tricked and called upon the government of Indonesia to do more to secure her release. She was framed. I asked her and she doesnt know what really happened, he told CNN. The lawyers for both Aisyah and Doan said their clients will take the stand to defend themselves once the trial resumes later this year. It will be the first time either of them has spoken publicly about the killing. Sitis hearing will begin in November and Doans next year. IANS Maruti Suzuki posts 3.4% decline in August sales New Delhi, Sep 1 (IANS) Automobile major Maruti Suzuki India on Saturday reported a 3.4 per cent dip in sales in August as the car maker sold a total of 158,189 units in the month, compared to 163,701 units sold in the year-ago month. Sales during the month were adversely affected due to severe floods in Kerala and heavy rains in other parts of the country, it said. In the domestic market, it sold 147,700 units during August, down by 2.8 per cent from 152,000 units sold in the corresponding month in 2017. The carmaker exported 10,489 units registering a 10.4 per cent drop from 11,701 units shipped out in the year-ago month. It sold 114,261 units of passenger cars in the August 2018, falling by 1.4 per cent from 115,897 units sold in the corresponding month 2017. Sales of its utility vehicles dropped by 16.2 per cent to 17,971 units in August, while vans sales were at 13,663 units, decrease by 1.9 per cent over corresponding month 2017. However, during the first five months of the current fiscal, it posted a 12.4 per cent growth in sales to 813,037 units as compared to 723,618 units sold in the corresponding period of 2017-18. IANS amansharma@tribunemail.com Islamabad, September 1 Pakistan temporarily closed its consulate in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad citing "intervention" by the provincial governor and a lack of security, but an Afghan official said Saturday that the issue was a simple misunderstanding and would be resolved shortly. In a letter to the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan's embassy in Kabul requested that the governor of Nangarhar province refrain from "interfering" in the functioning of the consulate. The Pakistani mission also requested that Afghan authorities restore security on the premises. It said the consulate will remain closed until security arrangements are completed to the embassy's satisfaction. Sebghatullah Ahmadi, spokesman for the Afghan Foreign Ministry, said there was a misunderstanding which caused concern among staff at the Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad. He did not elaborate. "We have already held meetings with Pakistani officials from their embassy in Kabul. Soon the problem will be solved," he said. The governor of the eastern Nangarhar province, Hayatullah Hayat, said in a statement that he hadn't intervened into Pakistan's consulate affairs in Jalalabad. He went on to add, however, that the procedures to obtain a visa must be organized and with no corruption involved. Hayat said that every day thousands of Afghans gather in front of the Pakistani consulate, some paying 5000 to 20,000 rupees (around $40 to $160) to get a visa, and are getting beaten, among other offences. "Any disrespect to Afghans can't be accepted," Hayat said adding "Providing security, organising people and avoiding corruption outside the consulate are our duties. We won't let anyone abuse the dignity of Afghans." Pakistan's Foreign Office did not immediately respond the governor's remarks. The closure of the Jalalabad mission is a reflection of strained relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Both blame each other of harboring militants along the porous border. - AP pardeepdhull@gmail.com Riyadh, September 1 A Saudi official has hinted that the kingdom is moving forward with a plan to dig a canal that may turn neighbouring Qatari peninsula into an island, amid a diplomatic feud between the Gulf nations. I am impatiently waiting for details on the implementation of the Salwa island project, a great, historic project that will change the geography of the region, Saud al-Qahtani, a senior adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, tweeted on Friday. The plan, which would physically separate the Qatari peninsula from the Saudi mainland, is the latest stress point in a highly fractious 14-month long dispute between the two states, The News International reported. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar in June 2017, accusing it of supporting terrorism and being too close to RiyadhAs archrival, Iran. Doha denied the charges. In April, the pro-government Sabq news website reported government plans to build a channel 60 km long and 200m widestretching across the kingdoms border with Qatar. Part of the canal, which would cost up to $750 million, would be reserved for a planned nuclear waste facility, it said. Both Saudi and Qatar authorities did not respond to requests for comment and there was no immediate reaction on the plan from Qatar, The News International reported. After the dispute erupted last year, Qatara small peninsula nationfound its only land border closed, its state-owned airline barred from using its neighbours airspace, and Qatari residents expelled from the boycotting nations. Mediation efforts led by Kuwait and the US, which has its largest Middle East air base in Qatar, have so far failed to resolve the dispute. IANS pardeepdhull@gmail.com Washington, September 1 US President Donald Trump will visit France and Argentina this November, while giving the ASEAN Summit in Singapore a miss, the White House has announced. Trump will participate in a November 11 event in Paris commemorating the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I, and would then travel to Buenos Aires to attend the G-20 Summit, the White House said on Friday. The US president will, however, skip the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and the East Asia Summit in Singapore, and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Papua New Guinea. He has asked Vice President Mike Pence to attend these, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said. The vice president will, in these meetings, highlight the United States vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific, based on respect for sovereignty, the rule of law, and the principles of free, fair and reciprocal trade. The vice president looks forward to meeting with our allies and partners from across the region to advance security, prosperity and freedom for all, Sanders said. The president will also visit Ireland after attending the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the conclusion of World War I in Paris, she said. The presidents participation in this event will highlight the sacrifices that Americans have made, not only during World War I, but also in the century since, in the name of liberty. While in Europe, he will visit Ireland to renew the deep and historic ties between our two nations, Sanders said. Later in November, Trump will attend the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The G20 Summit will be an opportunity for the president to highlight his pro-growth economic policies on an international stage and meet bilaterally with other key world leaders, Sanders said. Trump will also travel to Colombia to discuss opportunities for greater collaboration in security, counter narcotics, and regional affairs with the Duque administration, the White House press secretary said. PTI traineesubeditor@tribuneindia.com Washington, September 1 An American who is the business partner of a Russian national accused by US Special Counsel Robert Mueller of having ties to Russian intelligence pleaded guilty on Friday to unregistered lobbying for a pro-Kremlin political party in Ukraine. Samuel Patten, 47, also agreed to cooperate with Muellers probe. Patten admitted to arranging for a US citizen to act as a straw purchaser to pay $50,000 for four tickets to the inauguration of President Donald Trump on behalf of a Ukrainian oligarch, who reimbursed Patten through a Cypriot account. The move circumvented US law prohibiting foreigners from providing money to an organization running the inauguration. The tickets were given to the oligarch, another Ukrainian, Patten and the Russian national, according to the charging documents. While the documents did not name the Russian national, the description matches Konstantin Kilimnik, Pattens business partner, who was indicted along with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in June for witness tampering in an ongoing criminal case in Washington. Mueller has said Kilimnik, who once served in the Russian army as a translator, has links to Russian spy agencies. Kilimnik, who in the past has denied such ties, did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. Pattens plea agreement, which includes cooperating with Mueller, raises the prospect Patten will be called to testify against Manafort, who was found guilty by a Virginia jury last week on bank and tax fraud charges and faces a second trial in Washington next month. The charge Patten pleaded guilty to violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) by not disclosing lobbying work for Ukrainian politicians is similar to one of the core allegations against Manafort in his upcoming trial. Michael Zeldin, a former federal prosecutor, predicted Patten will be a witness in the trial. I expect his value as a cooperating witness is he will know how those guys conducted their business relations and can probably shed light on efforts made to evade FARA reporting requirements, he said. Patten admitted to working with the Russian national to lobby members of Congress and the executive branch on behalf of the pro-Russian Opposition Bloc without disclosing the work to the US government, as required by law. The charge, which carries a maximum of five years in prison, was brought by the US Attorney for the District of Columbia and the Justice Departments National Security Division, which started investigating Patten after a referral from Mueller. Patten appeared before US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who will oversee Manaforts upcoming trial. Patten did not speak to reporters at the court, but apologized to family and friends on Facebook after entering his plea. I was wrong not to have filed under FARA for the representational aspects of my work on behalf of the Opposition Bloc in Ukraine, Patten wrote in a post seen by Reuters, adding that he had sought to promote democracy during a political consulting career that included work in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. That is why I deeply regret any damage my failure to register has done to the transparency the FARA statute seeks to guarantee. Pattens work in Ukraine dovetailed somewhat with that of Manafort. Manafort made most of his money working for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych before he fled to Russia in 2014, but like Patten also sought to drum up business with the Opposition Bloc in the aftermath of Yanukovychs exit. Pattens ties to Kilimnik are more concrete. The two set up the political advisory firm Begemot Ventures Ltd LLC in February 2015, which was paid more than $1 million for their work for Ukrainian interests. The unidentified oligarch was one of their biggest benefactors, the charging documents said. The description of the oligarch, including his attendance at Trumps inauguration and the placing of an op-ed in February 2017 by Patten, appeared to match that of Serhiy Lyovochkin, an Opposition Bloc lawmaker and Yanukovychs former chief of staff. An opinion piece titled Ukraine Can Win in the Trump Age by Lyovochkin was published in US News & World Report on February 6, 2017, two weeks after the inauguration. Among other assertions, the article blamed a newly created anti-corruption bureau in Ukraine of manufacturing a case against Manafort. At Manaforts Virginia trial, his former protege Rick Gates testified that Lyovochkin paid Manaforts consulting firm millions of dollars for political work, including for the Party of Regions, the predecessor of the Opposition Bloc. Gates said Lyovochkin wired the funds from his Cyprus bank account. Lyovochkins office did not respond to a request for comment. Patten also did work for the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, the now-defunct political data firm that was embroiled in a controversy over its use of Facebook Inc data, according to interview transcripts submitted by academic Emma Briant and published by British lawmakers earlier this year. Reuters. sanjiv@tribunemail.com Washington, September 1 The Trump Administration has announced an end to all funding to the United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA), alleging it to be irredeemably flawed. The administration has carefully reviewed the issue and determined that the United States will not make additional contributions to UNRWA, State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said on Friday. The fundamental business model and fiscal practices that have marked UNRWA for years tied to UNRWAs endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries is simply unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years, she said. The US will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation, Nauert said. In January, it had made a $60 million contribution to the UNRWA. At the same time, she said the US was very mindful of and deeply concerned regarding the impact upon innocent Palestinians, especially schoolchildren, of the failure of the UNRWA and key members of the regional and international donor community to reform and reset the body. These children are part of the future of the Middle East. Palestinians, wherever they live, deserve better than an endlessly crisis-driven service provision model. As such, the US will intensify dialogue with the United Nations, host governments, and international stakeholders about new models and new approaches, which may include direct bilateral assistance from the US and other partners, that can provide todays Palestinian children a more durable and dependable path towards a brighter tomorrow, Nauert said. The UN regretted the US decision in this regard. We regret the United States decision to provide no further funding to UNRWA, which provides essential services to Palestine refugees and contributes to stability in the region. The US has traditionally been the largest single contributor to UNRWA. We appreciate its support over the years, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, said. The UNRWA move is the latest in a number of actions by Trump that have alienated the Palestinians, including the recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital and the decision to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Agencies UNRWA provides services to about 5 million refugees The lamp of Divali will rekindle its brilliance everywhere, as the festival of lights is celebrated once again. This observance marks a time of illumination, wisdom, enlightenment and positivity. As we observe Divali in these difficult times of the ongoing pandemic, we will find the necessary strength to light the lamp that will uplift us. Divali is a symbol of hope and humankind. It signifies the brilliance that removes all forms of darkness. Disclaimer: haven't researched this fully, but hoping for basic input on logistics. Active Couple in our mid 50's headed to Australia to visit our daughter who is currently working in Perth. (LOVES it btw!). She'll be spending 2 weeks in the Sydney office in October. We'll fly in the week of the 8th (coming from San Fran). Spend time in Sydney. She has plans to meet a friend in Melbourne the weekend of the 20th so we'll join her. And we met a lovely couple from Queensland when we were in Venice and hoped to visit them too. Need to be back in SF on the 26th. We have never been to Australia. Love exploring, anything outdoors is great, the arts, good pubs...pretty much anything goes. While she works during the weekdays we thought we'd venture out - so just trying to figure out the logistics. Looking at arriving in Sydney morning of 10th - spend time there through weekend. Head to Queensland to visit friends Fly to Melbourne for the weekend of the 20th Maybe head back to Sydney and spend a day or so in Canberra. Depart out of Sydney. Too much? More of one and less of another? Any suggestions welcome. Thanks in advance. I am just back from a short trip to Australia - I visited the cities of Sydney (4 days) and in Melbourne (5 days). I travelled from Hyderabad to Singapore and Singapore to Sydney on Scoot Airlines. Overall, my trip was really good. I liked the way the Australians have built such a great country - the main streets and especially public transportation is spotlessly clean! I have gone to six countries now and I must say after Japan I am seeing such a beautiful country. However, one some occasions I faced racism. It was not direct, but in a way the people involved were trying to give me an impression, although sarcastically;that they did not want me over there. First, I was at this convenience store a short walk away from Albert Park. During my turn to go to thr cashier, a middle aged man (45-50 years probably) placed his hand over my back, just like tapping me and said Hello and asked what I was buying. Then he goes on to talk about India and that he has met many indians blah blah and all that, with a big smile. Back home, no one strikes a conversation like this at our convenience stores and people dont ask what am buying for, so am sure he suspected something and his intention was to make me feel threatened at the store! After 2 days then in Sydney (26th) when I was on my way to Kingsford Smith the taxi stopped at a signal, a few boys started making unpleasant signs at us and at other taxi that were lined up. I hope am not thinking too much and I am planning to return later this year during the India test series but some experience like this has made me give it a second thought. Hi, Husband and I and 3 kids, 13, 12, 8 planning a 3 week trip to Australia for mid April next year. This is our proposed agenda, I would love feedback or suggestions on this. Arrive Sydney, travel that same day to Port Stephens with family based in Sydney and have 4 days to relax, do some watersports and recover grom the flight. Back to Sydney for 3 nights, sightseeing etc. Fly to Darwin and have 4 nights between Kakadu and Litchfield Parks. Fly to Cairns and have 5 days Northern QLD, day trip on GBR (none of us dive), spend time in Daintree. Fly to Adelaide to more family and have 4 nights hanging out there. Then home. Objectives of trip are to see as much "different Australia" as we can. We are all fit and active and will enjoy watersports, hiking, snorkelling etc. But saying that I dont want to spend too much time in airports etc. Do you think itinery sounds do-able? Any suggestions for mid range accommodation in Top End and QLD appreciated. We were planning to base ourselves in Port Douglas. Is a car essential for both those legs of the trips? Anything very obvious that I am not considering? Thanks! Hello: We are planning our first safari (late June to 1st week of July 7 days) and I cannot decide which itinerary to pick. Working with a TO and like the recommendations so far, very prompt and personable to work with. Ideally we would have liked to do Kenya and Tanzania and unsure how we can work both in our budget and time. We planned 1 week and could stretch to 9-10 days. We have several choices for tented camps but it is also so hard to decide. Initially we were looking at budget safaris but travelling with a 10 year old and my interest in photography we definitely like the private safari option. And are willing to splurge for mid scale to luxury option as this trip is something we wanted to take for some time. Unsure if will have another opportunity soon. The airfare is also a factor, prices to fly to Nairobi are much better, than flying to Killi the cost is almost double. Masai Mara was very top on the list however due to logistics we may be able to visit Serengeti only. proposed itinerary, fly in safari - 3 nights Masai Mara (Ol Seki Hemingways) - 2 nights Amboseli (Tortilis Camp) - End with a beach break OR - 2 nights in Tarangire (tented camp) - 1 Lake Manyara (Rhotia valley lodge) - 1 Ngorongoro Crater (Rhotia valley Lodge) - 2-3 nights in Serengeti (tented camp) - May return home or add a beach break Logistically and economically is it possible to start in Nairobi move on to Tarangire, the Crater, lake Manyara and end with Masai Mara? We opted for a fly-in safari after considering all options. Is the migration around central Serengeti in late June? Should we just focus on Tanzania? Thank you very much for your responses. TB Only five sleeps until we depart for our fourth adventure to Vietnam! Im just wanting to share a few tidbits from my planning process. We are once again taking a red eye flight from Vancouver flying premium economy. I like premium because it provide a two seat configuration for my wife and I but isnt exorbitantly priced as business class and not as squished as economy. We like the red eye because we get into Hanoi at 1030 hours and by the end of the first day are exhausted and we have the best sleep for our first night in country (The last time we did the red eye, there was a medical emergency aboard the flight and my wife was the only medical personnel aboard. She spent the majority of the flight in the back of the plane looking after the person while receiving instructions from a Doctor in Taipei.). Upon landing we are immediately catching another flight to DaNang (well 3.5 hour connection) to make our way to Hoi An. We have limited time this trip of twelve full days on the ground that dont include our arrival and departure day. I tried to keep travel days very efficient this trip to ensure we lost minimal time due to transport. We are once again staying at the Vinh Hung Riverside. This will be our third trip to a Vinh Hung Resort. If you are a returning customer, share this information with the hotel. The resort is picking us up in DaNang free of charge and will ensure we are well looked after for our twentieth anniversary. At this time we have three excursions planned while in Hoi An. I have hired a well known guide to take us for a trek on Son Tra Mountain to see some rare red shanked duoc monkeys. We are going to Cham island for some snorkelling (Vietnam does not have good snorkelling!) and to Ba Na Mountain (not my idea but must admit that I LOVE cheesy Vietnamese amusement parks). Im a wee bit nervous and really hoping Hoi An will still have the charm we have loved on previous trips. This trip we are adding SaPa for the first time. Mr. Ba from Eco-Friendly Vietnam on Cat Ba has organized the trip for us. We are going to the Sunday market and also doing a boat trip near the Chinese border? Not really sure about this but Mr. Ba has provided my family services on every trip and everytime I have been unsure of his itinerary but it has exceeded me expectations and was a highlight of our vacation. Mr. Ba is my man on the ground. Note: Mr. Ba has provided 2 trips to Halong Bay, train and guide in Hue, a three day Mekong cruise and transport to Rach Gia/ Phu Quoc and now SaPa and we are yet to have an issue. The rest of our time in Hoi An is relaxation. Our SaPa portion of the trip will be a surprise to us as we have never been and only have an extremely rough itinerary. We are eagerly awaiting this excursion. We end our trip with three full days in Hanoi and our exit day (1700 hour flight out). I booked a food tour on motorbike yesterday. Dont really know why? We have never been on motorbike in Hanoi and I thought it is time. Anyways, after booking my wife was a wee bit upset and shared that she didnt want to do a food tour with a bunch of newbies! I understood her thought process and contacted the company and they have agreed to do a private tour for us and will allow us to plan the itinerary. If anyone knows some good secret food locations, please respond and share! Also, we are staying at the Splendid Star Boutique. This will be our fifth seperate booking at the hotel and while it isnt luxurious and there are sometimes small issues, they are like family. It is located behind the cathedral and in a lovely area. They are giving a room for the day on our transit time from DaNang to SaPa. We have an early flight to Hanoi and an evening train to SaPa. The room will allow us to have a sleep, shower and leave Hoi An purchases behind. Anyways, very excited for this much needed trip. Each trip we have done has included something new. We have travelled to Vietnam with our oldest daughter when she was 14, then all our children (6,8,16 at the time), next was just wife and I and this trip is just wife and I again. We always respect that Vietnam is a country that is slow moving but has so much to see. Every trip we have added a new location for discovery and given ample time for exploration. Trip 1- The big three- Hanoi (Tam Coc, Halong Bay), Hoi An, HCMC Trip 2- Hanoi (Halong Bay), Hue, Hoi An, DaLat, Nha Trang Trip 3- HCMC, Mekong River (Ben Tre, Can Tho), Phu Quoc, Hanoi Trip 4- Hoi An, SaPa, Hanoi We have began planning for trip 5 and it will include Phong Nha and some coastal area between Nha Trang and Hoi An. Visas- we have always utilized visa on arrival and have never had an issue with it. Again for this trip I also got our letters for VOA. I had tried the e-visa but for the life of me I couldnt figure it out on my home iMac. I could not get the photo to upload? Mantadollar reminded me it was 2018 so I decided to give it another shot earlier this week. My wife scanned the required photos and passport and emailed to me. I used a windows based computer and was able to have both applications done in under twenty minutes. I got my e-visa within twenty four hours but my wifes took the full three days. Once I figured it out, it was easy and we are now set for our departure in the very near future! Anyways, sorry for the ramble... Hi everyone, Sorry super confused and hyperdia has me even more confused. Can somebody please kindly help me decide JR pass vs individual tickets? My itinerary is as follows: Tokyo (arrive Haneda) 26th-29th Jan (including day trip hokane loop) Hakuba/negano 29th-3rd Kyoto 3rd-6th 6th - day trip from Kyoto to Nara and then on to Osaka 7th - fly out of Osaka I guess I would be looking at the 14 day JR pass as the 7 day one wont stretch far enough even if I don't activate it until the day I leave Tokyo. My other option is to do individual tickets and get a kintetsu rail pass for one day (1500Y) to take me from Kyoto station to Nara and then to Osaka. Thanks in advance for your help/time! -:- Message from Tripadvisor staff -:- This topic has been closed to new posts due to inactivity. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one. To review the Tripadvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason. - The cleric accused Director of Public Prosecutions and police for harassing prominent individuals associated with corruption - He said public embarrassment before conviction could dent professional reputation of the individuals - Okinda said senior public officers had careers to protect and families and friends looking up to them and needed to have their dignity protected Even as a section of clergy across the country call on President Uhuru Kenyatta to declare corruption a national disaster a Nairobi Bishop contrarily pleaded for leniency on prominent individuals associated with graft. Bishop John Okinda, Pentecostal Evangelistic Fellowship Assembly (PEFA) Kenya secretary general urged Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Noordin Haji and Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to be gentle on senior public officers implicated in corruption scandals. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Church leaders call for law to protect corrupt leaders willing to return looted wealth Bishop John Okinda, national secretary general of PEFA church wants prominent people suspected of engaging in corruption to be handled with gentleness. Photo: John Okinda/Facebook. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Picha ya kusisimua ya Gavana Ann Waiguru akiwa shule ya upili Speaking in an interview with KTN News in an interview monitored by TUKO.co.ke, Okinda accused the two agencies of publicly embarrassing prominent public servants suspected to have abetted corruption. "We support how the president is dealing with the monster of corruption. The only thing we are appealing for as a Church is the arrests and prosecutions must be done with dignity. Those arrested must be handled with respect until the law states otherwise," he said. He said it was unfair to harass such suspects in public because it could dent their careers yet it had not been proven they were guilty of charges levelled against them. Bishop John Okinda of PEFA church prominent public officials deserved to be protected from embarrassment if found culpable of graft scandals. Photo: John Okinda/Facebook. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Asbel Kiprop's lover moves in with her sister after her attempted suicide "These people are not guilty until proven according to the law and need to be handled with care. They have careers which need to be protected. They have family members and friends all over. DPP and DCI should continue with their work but must do it with decorum," Okinda explained. The man of the clothe lauded the reignited purge on graft but raised questions on whether State agencies tasked with slaying the corruption dragon were making any recoveries of looted public resources. "There have been high profile arrests and prosecutions. We are however, not sure if the government is recovering any public wealth from the suspects and those convicted. All recovered resources need to be declared. What are those monies doing to help Kenyans?" he posed. Initially a section of National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) had issued mixed reactions on the war on graft, wanting Uhuru to declare corruption a national disaster at the same time requesting for amnesty for the corrupt. 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. Kenya News Latest: Kenya Marks 20th Anniversary of Embassy Bombing | Tuko TV Source: Tuko Newspaper - ODM condemned the rearresting of Bobi Wine during his London trip for treatment - The party called on the Ugandan government to allow Bobi to receive medical attention - Raila's party asked Ugandans to keep pushing for a peaceful revolution in their country Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party has come out strongly to castigate and condemn President Yoweri Museveni's government over the mistreatment and torture of Opposition MP, Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine. The party expressed disappointment after the Ugandan government rearrested Bobi at Entebbe airport on August 30. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Ugandan government demands apology from Kenyan MPs for threatening to stage demos in Kampala over Bobi Wine Raila's ODM party has come out strongly to castigate and condemn Museveni's Uganda government over the mistreatment and torture of Bobi Wine. Photo: UGC Source: UGC READ ALSO: Picha ya kusisimua ya Gavana Ann Waiguru akiwa shule ya upili In a press statement to newsrooms on Friday, August 31, ODM urged Ugandans to embrace the values of democracy and justice and shun all forms of dictatorship in the country. "In particular, he (Bobi) must be allowed to immediately access the medical attention he deserves on humanitarian grounds. There are no two ways about this," read the statement. READ ALSO: Ugandan musicians begin prayers for Bobi Wine as his condition worsens "We encourage the forces of democracy and peaceful revolution to remain unwavering and firm in their resolve to make our countries more responsive to the needs of their people," ODM's statement went on. Bobi Wine was rearrested on Thursday, August 30, night at the Entebbe International airport, as he tried to board a plane to London for treatment. Photo: UGC Source: Twitter READ ALSO: Bobi Wine arrest story, protests and reactions Bobi was rearrested on Thursday, August 30, night at the Entebbe International airport as he tried to board a plane to London for treatment. The unexpected arrest came barely a week after he was released from his illegal detention and admitted at Lubaga Hospital in Kampala. The MP and 11 other co-accused were released on a non-cash bond of KSh 135, 000 and a surety of equal amount and were required to report to Gulu Magistrate Court on Thursday, August 30. 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 Kenyans demand for the release of Bobi Wine | Tuko TV Source: Tuko - Atwoli said the lack of campaign money has barred luhyas from clinching the presidency - He has since initiated a fundraiser to support an aspiring Luhya presidential candidate - The COTU boss said President Uhuru and Raila will have a hand in determining the next president Central Organisation for Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary General Francis Atwoli has dismissed luhya politicians aspiring for 2022 presidency telling them they have no money for campaigns. Atwoli said western Kenya region has never had a president since independence because of lack of enough financing in their presidential campaigns. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Wetang'ula attacks Atwoli, accuses him of dividing Luhyas COTU Secretary General Francis Atwoli has dismissed luhya politicians aspiring for 2022 presidency telling them they have no money for campaigning. Photo: UGC Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Inside story of Francis Atwoli's bitter fallout with second wife In an interview with the Nairobian, Atwoli said he had set aside KSh 500 million to support anybody who they (Luhya leaders) would choose to vie for the presidency in 2022. "I have friends worldwide and when I approach them with the idea of Luhya presidency, they are ready to support me. I have set aside KSh 500 million for whoever we shall have agreed to support to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta," said the unionist. The COTU boss said all the candidates aspiring for the country's top seat from the mulembe nation would be subjected to a thorough vetting process and an opinion poll carried to find the most appropriate one. READ ALSO: Francis Atwoli is rich but he never uses his money to control me - TV girl Mary Kilobi "Musalia Mudavadi, Moses Wetangula and Wycliffe Oparanya have all declared their interest for the top seat. But the most important thing we need is to get KSh 10 billion for campaigns," he added. Atwoli further said President Uhuru Kenyatta would play a pivotal role in the outcome of the 2022 presidential elections. Candidates aspiring for the country's top seat from the mulembe nation will be subjected to a thorough vetting process. Photo: UGC Source: UGC READ ALSO: I bought my watch at KSh 5 milion - COTU boss Francis Atwoli "Raila Odinga is also essential in determining the outcome of 2022 polls and we should not write him off but instead seek his support," said the COTU boss. He said the best candidate who shall pass the vetting process would be announced in 2021 in what he termed the Bukhungu Declaration. 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 Kenya News: Former Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero Arraigned in Court Over Corruption Charge| Tuko TV Source: Tuko - The police said stern and firm action would be taken against demonstrators - Uganda police boss said the protests were criminal and those engaging in them were breaking the law - Earlier on, there were protests in Kampala city to press for the release of MP Bobi Wine - The legislator was rearrested at Entebbe International Airport before boarding a plane Uganda police have given a stern warming to citizens engaging in protests saying they would be dealt with firmly and decisively. The police laid blame to the citizens for the several deaths and property destruction that have been witnessed in Kampala in the recent past days. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Bobi Wine arrest story, protests and reactions Uganda Inspector General of Police Okoth Ochola and another senior police in a past press conference. Photo: Twitter / Okoth Ochola Source: Twitter READ ALSO: We will march to Uganda to push release of Bobi Wine - Babu Owino In a press statement seen by TUKO.co.ke, Inspector General of Police Okoth Ochola said protests were criminal and unnecessary and any person engaging in them would be dealt with accordingly. "You are further reminded and cautioned that there are set clear and adequate laws, principles and guidelines for public order management, arrests, use of force and proclamations and that all members of the public including media and security officers must adhere to these guidelines," read part of the statement "We therefore caution and remind those who intend to violate the laws and guidelines of public order they will be dealt with firmly and decisively," said Ochola. READ ALSO: Ugandan government demands apology from Kenyan MPs for threatening to stage demos in Kampala over Bobi Wine Ochola's statement came barely hours after protests were witnessed in Kampala city with the public demanding for immediate release of Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi popularly known as Bobi Wine. Bobi was rearrested on the night of Thursday, August 30, at the Entebbe International airport as he tried to board a plane to London for treatment. Protests were witnessed in Kampala city with the public demanding for immediate release of Kyadondo MP Bobi Wine. Photo: NTV Uganda Source: UGC READ ALSO: Railas party sounds warning to Museveni over treatment of MP Bobi Wine The unexpected arrest came barely a week after he was released from his illegal detention and admitted at Lubaga Hospital in Kampala. The MP and 11 other co-accused were released on a non-cash bond of KSh 135, 000 and a surety of equal amount and were required to report to Gulu Magistrate Court on Thursday, August 30. 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. Kenyans demand for the release of Bobi Wine | Tuko TV Source: Tuko.co.ke - The DPP in Uganda had directed that Wine be examined by doctors to ascertain torture claims - He had attempted to leave the country but was arrested on Thursday before he could fly out - Uganda officials claim he has been examined and is free to leave the medical facility Ugandan police on Friday, August 31 cleared Bobi Wine (alias Robert Kyagulanyi) to travel abroad where he is set to receive specialised treatment. An earlier report filed by TUKO.co.ke, stated that Wine had been violently rearrested at Entebbe International Airport after allegations that he was fleeing from the country headed to Europe to seek treatment. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens. READ ALSO: Jose Chameleon visits tortured nemesis Bobi Wine in hospital Ugandan police on Friday, August 31 cleared Bobi Wine to travel to the US where he is set to receive specialised treatment. Photo: UGC Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Bobi Wine rearrested at Entebe Airport TUKO.co.ke has learnt that the node to have Wine seek medical attention from abroad was arrived at following a meeting convened by the Uganda Medical Board. "Now that Hon. Kyagulanyi has been examined by the medical team of experts at the Mulago National Referral hospital, the Uganda Police Force has allowed him to leave the medical facility," read a statement by the Uganda police Force. During the rearrest, the celebrity MP was bundled into a waiting police ambulance and driven to Mulago National Referral Hospital where he was put under custody of hawk eyed police. The Police however stated that the move to arrest the MP was to ensure he had been examined after they learnt he had intended to depart from the country through Entebbe International Airport. READ ALSO: Ugandan police take Bobi Wine to another hospital after rearrest at airport Ugandan police take Bobi Wine to another hospital after rearrest at airport "As a result, Hon. Kyagulanyi was halted from departure and was taken to Mulago National Referral Hospital in the company of specialist doctors from the same hospital for the examination," stated the Police. The same also happened to Mityana municipality MP Francis Zaake (Wine's co-accused) who had also tried to flee to India for treatment but was blocked. The two legislators have been charged with treason following their arrest on Monday, August 13. 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. Kenya News: Kenyans Demand for the Release of Bobi Wine | Tuko TV. Source: Tuko - The officer was on his to Nairobi from Lamu but decided to make a stop over at Malindi - That was where he spent two straight days drinking and later found dead - According to Malindi OCPD, the officer drunk for two days without eating anything Police in Malindi have launched investigations over the death of one of their own who died under unclear circumstances after a drinking spree in Malindi. According to one of the officers attached at Malindi police station, who sought anonymity, said the deceased who served in Lamu County passed on after drinking alcohol for 2 consecutive days. READ ALSO: Bobi Wine allowed to seek medical attention abroad Malindi OCPD Matwa Muchnagi confirmed the incident. Photo: Onesmus Barasa Source: Original READ ALSO: Uhuru introduces his brother to British PM Theresa May in lovely fashion Malindi OCPD Matwa Muchangi confirmed the incident saying he was shocked at how the officer managed to drink too much alcohol without eating any food. He also noted the officer was on his way to Nairobi from Lamu but decided to make a stopover in Malindi. That was when he drunk excessively and was later found laying lifeless. READ ALSO: Bomet county succumbs to social media pressure, to demolish shoddy bridge which cost KSh 8.4 million The OCPD further alleged the officer could have been depressed and stressed thus resorted to drinking alcohol as most people do to relieve depression. Muchangi said the body of the deceased had been transferred to Nairobi and would give more details concerning the incident later. Story by Onesmus Barasa, TUKO.co.ke Correspondent 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. Kenya News: Kenyans Demand for the Release of Bobi Wine | Tuko TV. Source: Tuko News - Ethiopian air traffic controllers have gone on strike causing inconviniences - Nairobi air traffic controllers claim they are receiving wrong information on flights - The misguided information has been causing serious air misses in Kenyan airspace - The Ethiopian airspace allegedly being manned by retired controllers The Kenya Air Traffic Controllers' Association (KATCA) has expressed concerns over misguided information by the Ethiopian Air Traffic controllers to Nairobi bound flights. This safety concerns were raised as a result of on-gong industrial action by staff from the Ethiopian air controllers forcing retired controllers to man the airspace. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens. READ ALSO: Bomet county succumbs to social media pressure, to demolish shoddy bridge which cost KSh 8.4 million This safety concerns were raised as a result of on-gong industrial action by staff from the Ethiopian air controllers. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Police officer on a 2-day drinking spree dies mysteriously in Malindi According to a statement by KATCA seen by TUKO.co.ke, the retired controllers currently manning the Adis Ababa airspace do not have current validation. The association also claimed their Ethiopian counterparts were overwhelmed, too slow, have no understanding of the airspace, do not know the co-ordination procedures and could not pass or receive estimates correctly. "Letters of agreement between Adis Ababa and Nairobi on co-ordination procedures are not being followed. Flights inbound Nairobi from Adis Ababa are calling Nairobi Control tower without prior estimates, with the possibility or creating serious air-misses with known traffic at the transfer point," read the statement READ ALSO: Uhuru introduces his brother to British PM Theresa May in lovely fashion The association noted the Nairobi control tower was now overwhelmed because they have to pass one estimate even more than five times to the Adis Ababa controllers who are not able to copy correct estimates. "There have been several incidents of loss of standard separation between aircrafts at the point of transfer between Adis Ababa and Nairobi due to wrong or no estimates from Adis Ababa," the statement read on. "The few estimates passed to Nairobi by Adis Ababa in most cases are wrong, the aircraft call signs are wrong, the aircrafts types on estimates are wrong and sometimes even the destinations as passed are wrong," argued the association. READ ALSO: Bobi Wine allowed to seek medical attention abroad The Kenya Air Traffic Controllers' Association is now calling on Ethiopian association and its management to resolve their stand-off. Source: Original It also noted danger loomed as aircrafts were entering the Kenyan airspace from Adis Ababa at flight levels that are different from those passed by those manning the Adis Ababa airspace. "Some flights originating from Adis Ababa are entering the Nairobi airspace at wrong flight levels, some east bound flights are coming in with west bound flight levels while some west bound are coming in with east bound flight levels increasing chances or serious air-masses," it added. The Kenya Air Traffic Controllers' Association is now calling on Ethiopian association and its management to resolve their stand-off as it threatens aviation safety in the region. The Kenya Air Traffic Controllers' Association is now calling on Ethiopian association and its management to resolve their stand-off. Source: Original 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. Kenya News: Kenyans Demand for the Release of Bobi Wine | Tuko TV. Source: Tuko - Energy Regulatory Commission says it is yet to receive official communication on the implementation of new taxes - According to the commission, the letter is still being drafted by the national treasury - Once it receives the letter, fuel prices will go up and so will bus fares - Henry Rotich said the new taxes will be implemented since they were legit despite parliament's disapproval of it Hours after National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich insisted the 16% fuel tax will be implemented on Saturday, September 1, as it is law, he is yet to officially communicate to relevant authorities. TUKO.co.ke understands the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has not yet received official directives to effect the new taxes. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens. READ ALSO: Treasury insists fuel prices will go up despite MPs voting to stop it Once ERC receives the letter from national treasury, fuel prices will go up. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Relief for Kenyans as MPs suspend implementation which would have pushed fuel prices up Understandably, an official letter is still being drafted by the national treasury and once ERC receives it, fuel prices will go up. Rotich on Friday, August 31, said the move to suspend implementation of the fuel tax by two years was null and void while citing increased international fuel prices. This came despite parliament having suspended the implementation of the new Value Added Tax (VAT) on petroleum products on Wednesday, August 29, following public uproar. READ ALSO: Matatu owners ask Kenyans to prepare for higher transport cost Confusion as Energy Regulatory Commission says yet to get nod to effect fuel tax Source: UGC The 16% VAT tax on petroleum products was a proposal by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It had stated the recommendation would improve the country's revenue at a time the national debt is estimated to have crossed KSh 5 trillion mark. The law had been continuously suspended to date, but the window closed on Friday, August 31. READ ALSO: Tough times for motorists as ERC increases super petrol prices Prior reports by TUKO.co.ke indicated the move is expected to push the price of Super Petrol from a current KSh 112 per litre to approximately KSh 130 per litre. Matatu operators had also warned they would increase fares by 20% starting Saturday, September 1, raising the current prices with between KSh 10 and KSh 30. 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. Chef Rachel's Beef Stew Recipe. On TUKO TV. Source: Tuko - Uhuru is expected to attend the China-Africa Cooperation summit in Beijing - He will also have bilateral talks with China's president on trade and infrastructure among others - The meeting comes barely days after he hosted UK prime minister in Nairobi - He also met with US president Donald Trump in Washington DC where investment deals worth KSh 23.9 billion was also signed President Uhuru Kenyatta left the country on the evening of Friday, August 31, for Beijing where he is scheduled to attend the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit. Uhuru is also expected to hold bilateral talks with China's President Xi Jinping on trade, infrastructure, education and technology. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Confusion as Energy Regulatory Commission says yet to get nod to effect fuel tax Uhuru in China for trade talks days after hosting UK PM Theresa May Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Confusion as Energy Regulatory Commission says yet to get nod to effect fuel tax A statement by the presidential press service indicates the topics of discussion between the two presidents are common areas of interest for both Kenya and China. The statement further indicates the goal of the 2018 FOCAC meeting is the promotion of economic and trade cooperation between China and African economies. "The meeting seeks to synergize China's Belt and Road Initiative, the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the African Union's Agenda 2063, and the development strategies of individual African countries," read the statement. READ ALSO: Uhuru introduces his brother to British PM Theresa May in lovely fashion Uhuru in China for trade talks days after hosting UK PM Theresa May Source: Facebook Uhuru left for the Chinese capital after meeting British Prime Minister Theresa May in Nairobi on Thursday, August 30, and shortly after his returned from a historic meeting with US President Donald Trump in Washington DC. Prior reports by TUKO.co.ke indicated while in US, Uhuru witnessed the signing of two agreements which will see two companies from the US invest about KSh 23.9 billion worth of projects in the country. Another signed agreement was a KSh 5 billion letter of commitment in financing to expand the distribution network of Twiga Foods and improve food security and agricultural wages in Kenya. READ ALSO: Uhurus busy schedule to see him visit China, Rwanda in under one week During his meeting with the UK Prime Minister, the issues discussed during the bilateral talks were security and trade ties between the two countries. She then proceed to Embakasi to launch a new cybercrime security wing and pay a visit to the base where British soldiers are training Kenyan and other African troops. After his return from China on Wednesday, September 5, Uhuru will again leave on Thursday, September 6, for Kigali Rwanda where he will attend the Africa Green Revolution meeting. 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 Top 5 Facts About Uhuru Kenyatta - Raila Odinga Pact | Tuko TV Source: Tuko Pointing out one thing which Deputy President William Ruto would be unable to do could be a herculean task owing to his quick adaptive and rejuvenation skills. Ruto is simply a jack of all trades who can interweave sharp mastery of statistics, combative political jibes, hustler elements, generosity and humility in one go, if his speeches and interaction with supporters was anything to go by. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: UhuRuto bring out their lovely magnetic chemistry during UK Prime Ministers visit William Ruto rides on a camel during the camel derby event in Mararal. Photo: William Ruto/Twitter. Source: Twitter READ ALSO: William Ruto in his hustler element, buys roast maize for supporters On Friday, August 24, charmed his supporters in Trans Nzoia county when he assured farmers government would buy their maize and even purchased a few cobs of the roast cereal himself, shared with his supporters and chewed it with some development politics. Before dust could settle on Ruto's maize affair which was equated to rare humility, new dust was raised in Samburu county on Saturday, September 1, as a camel carrying the DP strolled the streets of Mararal. The DP confidently sat on a spongy saddle strapped close to the hump of the dromedary camel which strolled majestically with the State House in 2022 seeming to be the likely destination. DP William Ruto steadily rode the camel as residents of Maralal and other camel race enthusiasts trailed the mamal in amazement. Photo: William Ruto/Twitter. Source: Twitter READ ALSO: Langata landlord hires goons, violently throws out tenant and her 5-year-old son over rent All the while Maralal and other camel race enthusiasts who had attended the Maralal International Camel Derby trailed the desert mammal admiringly. "The Maralal International Camel Derby is an opportunity for Kenya to showcase its diverse offerings, including sport, scenic, economic and cultural tourism. The annual race attracts local and international participants and is a rewarding immersion experience," Ruto tweeted. Ruto was not yet done for the day as he went ahead and showcased a fascinating Kalenjin aspect in him as he joined in a jump and shove dance and it was amazing how high the 51-year-old could go airborne. William Ruto joins Samburu dancers in a jig during the Maralal International Camel Derby. Photo: William Ruto/Twitter. Source: Twitter Here are some of adoring messages from Kenyans about Ruto's new skills; 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. Kenya Trending News: Nazlin Umar - Ruto Is Behind The Sugar Scandal | Tuko TV Source: Kenya Breaking News Today - The woman was arrested by Pumwami hospital security as she attempted to escape - Identified as Mercy Atieno Ochieng, she had stolen and hid the the 1-day-old baby in a bag - The incident has been reported at Shauri Moyo police station A lady who stole a newborn baby from Pumwani hospital in Nairobi on Friday, August 31, has been arrested and helping police in investigations to unravel the syndicate. Mercy Atieno Ochieng was found with the one-day-old baby she had stolen from 35-year-old Rebecca Kasaya Ayiro as she attempted t escape. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Woman who stole baby at Kenyatta National Hospital is part of a baby-stealing racket - Police A lady who stole a newborn baby from Pumwani hospital in Nairobi on Friday, August 31, has been arrested and helping police in investigations to unravel the syndicate. Photo: Pumwani Hospital Source: UGC READ ALSO: Man arrested in Nairobi with stolen baby in sack In a statement issued by Nairobi governor through his communication's director Elkana Jacob, Kasaya had left her child unattended as she processed for her clearance before being discharged and only realised the baby missing when she returned. "The babys mother raised the alarm upon returning to her ward bed and found her baby missing," read the statement. A security officer manning the gate at the hospital's entrance heard the cries of a baby from the backpack of Ochieng' who when asked said it was her phone ringing in the bag. READ ALSO: Nairobi woman steals her house help's baby and it's just weird The officer, however, alerted police who were on patrol in the hospital and Ochieng' was arrested and booked at Shauri Moyo police station. The case adds to the number of cases of child theft from hospitals in Nairobi. The case adds to the number of cases of child theft from hospitals in Nairobi. Photo: UGC Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Woman captured on camera stealing 10 week infant from Kiambu hospital Early 2018, a woman was arrested for stealing a child from Nairobi's Kenyatta National Hospital in what was suspected to be child theft syndicate. In August, a man was arrested in Parklands area with a baby in a sack. 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 Kenya News: Theresa May, British Prime Minister, visits Kenya | Tuko TV Source: Tuko - Nyeri MP Ngunjiri Wambugu accused Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa of disrespecting Uhuru - He said it was mannerless to challenge Uhuru to return land allegedly grabbed by his father - Ngunjiri said Barasa risked unspecified consequences for demeaning the president - The Nyeri Town MP said Barasa was campaigning for Deputy President William Ruto Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu has hit out at his Kimilili counterpart Didmus Barasa over his remarks challenging President Uhuru Kenyatta to return parcels of land allegedly acquired illegally by his father and Kenya's founding president Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. Wambugu told Barasa to clothe himself with some decorum when addressing the president who is also their Jubilee party leader or would suffer unspecified consequences. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Jubilee MP dares Uhuru to surrender land illegally acquired by his late father Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu accused Barasa of being mannerless by asking President Uhuru Kenyatta to return land allegedly acquired by his father illegally. Photo: Ngunjiri Wambugu/Facebook Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Ruto allies dismiss Uhurus lifestyle audit call, claim it's political blackmail In his Facebook tweet, seen by TUKO.co.ke on Saturday, September 1, Ngunjiri insinuated Barasa's sentiments were disrespectful and politically inclined in favour of his preferred 2022 presidential aspirant Deputy President William Ruto. "Even as you campaign for your 2022 presidential candidate please show the current President Uhuru Kenyatta some respect my friend. He is not your age mate but the president of the republic of Kenya and chief of Kenya Defence Forces," read part of Wambugu's tweet. The Nyeri Town MP, a fierce critic of Ruto said it was illogical for Barasa to cast such accusations against his party leader who had himself declared he was ready to have his family subjected to the lifestyle audit dating back to the era of his great grandfather. Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa said President Uhuru Kenyatta needed to prove he was serious on war against graft by returning land allegedly grabbed by Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. Photo: Didmus Barasa/Facebook. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Radio presenter takes own life due to depression He challenged Barasa not to speak about Uhuru's family and wealth if he had himself not undergone a lifestyle audit to prove he was clean from any scandal. "Meanwhile I hope you can survive one too, my brother. Because naona ukijua vile hujui (you may realise things were not as you thought)," .Wambugu said. 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 Top 5 Facts About Uhuru Kenyatta - Raila Odinga Pact | Tuko TV Source: Kenya Breaking News Today - Police Spokesperson Charles Woino said suspect hang himself in police cell toilet using Jacket lining - The suspect was sharing cell room with two other suspects - He dismissed allegations that police officer investigating matter had been arrested - Owino accused some suspects in attempted murder of Idris Muktar a former Garissa county finance boss of attempting to tamper with investigations - According to Owino Idris Muktar had recorded statement indicating he was facing death threats Police have dismissed allegations David Mwai who had been arrested for allegedly shooting former Garissa county finance executive Idris Adan Muktar was killed in police custody. National Police Service Spokesperson Charles Owino instead stated Mwai had hang himself in a toilet within police cells using the lining of his jacket. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Suspect in murder of ex-Garissa county finance boss commits suicide inside cell David Mwai was found hanging on a noose in a toilet in Parklands police station. He had been detained for attempted murder of Idris Adan. Photo: Daily Nation. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Garissa governor arrested Speaking to the press on Saturday, September 1, Owino also revealed Muktar was planning to file a petition to have Garissa Governor Ali Korane, one of the suspects in the attempted murder case struck off Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) list. "The accused person was detained in the police cell after being arraigned in court because we had sought for 15 days to advance investigations. He had spent two days in the cell before he attempted to kill himself and unfortunately passed away," said Owino. According to the police, Mwai was in the company of two other suspects who were detained for different cases when he committed suicide on Thursday, August 30. Police Spokesperson Charles Owino said David Mwai a key suspect in the attempted murder case had hang himself using his jacket's lining. Photo: Nation. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Pumwani hospital baby thief arrested "He said he was going to relieve himself in one of the toilets. He had removed the lining of his jacket which he used as a noose. A bucket which he used to climb to the noose was also found. police found him when he had not died but passed away while being resuscitated," Owino explained. The spokesperson said the two cell mates of the deceased recorded statements about the incident and they had photographs of the suicide scene. Owino accused suspects who are on loose for spreading lies that Mwai had been murdered and investigating police officer arrested to divert attention from the real issue which had been superbly investigated. Garissa Governor Ali Korane was arrested in connection with attempted murder of Idris Muktar. Photo: Daily Nation. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Respect Uhuru, he is not your age mate - Ngunjiri Wambugu tells Kimilili MP "The deceased suspect had linked us to another lady suspect still in custody who led us to another man also in our hands. Three vehicles from showrooms in Nakuru and Nairobi were impounded. The persons who hired the vehicles are also known," the police officer disclosed. He said Muktar who was admitted in Nairobi Hospital had recorded a statement indicating his life was in danger on Sunday, August 19 a day before he was shot while leaving a mosque in Kileleshwa area. 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 Kenya News: Theresa May, British Prime Minister, visits Kenya | Tuko TV Source: Tuko.co.ke - Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore says the telco is planning to roll out a new data plan - With the new plan, customers will be allowed to choose their preferred browsing speeds - This follows complaints from Kenyans Safaricom data is chewed at alarming rates After several months of public outcry over faster and mysterious depletion of Safaricom data bundles, finally the company has listened to the cries of Kenyans. Safricom has launched a pilot plan that seeks to give users authority to choose the browsing speed and track data usage to avoid instances of quick data depletion. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Safaricom to suspend MPesa services when your SIM is swapped to curb runaway fraud Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore said they were focusing on enabling customers to manage their browsing experience for a satisfying and quality customer outcome. Photo: ugc Source: UGC READ ALSO: Telco giant Safaricom moves to crack the whip amid storm over SIM card scam involving its staff Speaking during a press conference in Nairobi on Saturday, September 1, Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore said they were focusing on enabling customers to manage their browsing experience for a satisfying and quality customer outcome. "We will improve our services by enabling customers to manage their data usage by choosing their preferred browsing speeds and notifying them of any abnormal spikes in data usage, which often occurs during auto updates of apps and software, streaming and archiving of multimedia content " said the CEO. READ ALSO: Steps every Kenyan must follow to prevent their SIM cards from being swapped by conmen Collymore said they were considering to expand their network coverage, innovations and new technologies to enable them handle issues of data products that have been affecting their customers. To curb fraudsters, Collymore said they have introduced biometric registration and facial recognition to make it difficult to access one's information without their authorization. The announcement follows a series of arrest of dozens of fraudsters behind the SIM card swap scam among them current employees of Safaricom. Photo: UGC Source: Twitter READ ALSO: M-pesa agents will soon be required to enter customer ID number during transaction The announcement follows a series of arrest of dozens of fraudsters behind the SIM card swap scam among them current employees of Safaricom, an electronics engineering student and a bank employee. Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) made the arrests after Kenyans raised concerns over the increase in how people were loosing money from their Mpesa accounts. Prior reports by TUKO.co.ke indicated among the things recovered from the fraudsters during the arrests were thousands of both used and unused SIM cards, Mpesa agent record books, till numbers, smart phones and laptops. 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. BEEF STEW. Tuko Bites with Chef Rachel | Tuko Lifestyle Source: Tuko - Area residents claimed a screaming sound could be heard from the billboard - It emerged the screaming devil's voice was a sound made by wind passing through several holes on the billboard' posts - The residents had sought the services of a local priest to conduct exorcism and Fire Brigade officers to cut a hole on the billboard Wonders will never cease. Drama unfolded in Kisumu on Saturday, September 1, after residents in conjunction with fire brigade and Kenya Power officers destroyed a billboard by the road side after suspecting there was a screaming devil trapped in it. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Radio presenter takes own life due to depression READ ALSO: The Fighters of Kenya: The blood, the lies and the tears According to area residents who spoke to Citizen TV at the scene, a wailing voice could be heard by anyone passing near the billboard, something that sparked fear among locals. Kisumu residents claimed a devil lived in the billboard. Photo: Kenyamoja Source: Instagram READ ALSO: SportPesa CEO throws lavish 40th birthday bash days after flaunting multi-million private jet The residents decided enough was enough and sought the services of a local clergy who was mandated with exorcism, and Fire Bridage officers whose work was to cut a hole on the billboard to find out whether the devil was inside or it was a human being trapped inside. READ ALSO: For how long will you clean the corrupt? Kenyans lash out at Jeff Koinange for hosting Waiguru Well, cutting they did, and the devil was nowhere to be seen. It emerged that the screaming devil's sound was nothing but it was sound caused by wind passing through several holes near the bottom side of the billboard. 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. ALSO WATCH: Lady In a Groceries Shop (Animated Video Joke) | Tuko TV Source: Tuko By Michael OKeefe, August 31, 2018 WARRENSBURG, MO - The KMOS-TV production Missouri Life was recently recognized by the Mid-America Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. In an announcement made in August, two programs from the third season of the series were nominated for Regional Emmy Awards in the category of Best Magazine Program for profiles of Callaway County and Cape Girardeau. The awards will be announced at a ceremony on Sept. 22 in St. Louis. The KMOS production team responsible for the current season is Roy Millen, Christy Millen and Eric Boedeker. The on-screen host is Meredith Hoenes. Missouri Life is produced in partnership with the publishers of Missouri Life Magazine, Greg Wood and Danita Allen Wood. In 2017 KMOS was nominated for two Missouri Life programs in the same category, and received the Regional Emmy for the program on Silver Dollar City. The program on Callaway County included visits to the National Churchill Museum in Fulton, the Green Meadow Barn Company, Beks Restaurant, as well as profiles of, and interviews with, local artists and prominent citizens. The Cape Girardeau program included a visit to The Glenn House, and profiles of astronaut Linda Godwin and cartoonist Don Greenwood. KMOS is presenting broadcasts of seasons 2 and 3 of Missouri Life each Thursday between 7 and 8 p.m. The fourth season airs Thursday nights beginning Oct. 4. Missouri communities profiled include Independence, Clinton, Lebanon, and Ste. Genevieve. --- About KMOS-TV KMOS serves the citizens of 38 central Missouri counties with high quality, educational content and experiences online, over-the-air and in our communities. We are integral to engaged learning as a professional learning lab for students from a variety of disciplines at the University of Central Missouri. KMOS-TV broadcasts programming on four channels throughout the region with programs for all ages on 6.1, lifestyle and how-to programs on 6.2, international news and dramas on 6.3, and a full schedule of kids programming to fit the schedule of every busy family on 6.4. About Missouri Life Magazine Greg Wood and Danita Allen Wood revived a previous version of the magazine to feature Missouris stunning scenery, its fascinating people, its rich past, and energetic present. The magazine is delivered to 130,000 Missourians and has received many awards from state and international organization, including the International Regional Magazine Association Magazine of the Year Award six times between 2008 and 2017. Judging procedures All entries will be judged by panels assembled by other NATAS Chapter, comprised of no fewer than seven judges who shall be certified as peers. No more than three judges on a panel may be employed by the same station or company. Judges may not have a conflict of interest, which is described as having a direct involvement in the production of an entry, or having a personal relationship with a member of the production staff of an entry. KMOS staff members are eligible to join panels to judge entries only from other Regional NATAS Chapters. The Audit Chamber of Ukraine and the Supreme Audit Office of Poland will conduct joint audits over observing the rights of Ukrainians in Poland and Poles in Ukraine as well as other issues. This was discussed at the bilateral meeting of Chairman of the Audit Chamber of Ukraine Valery Patskan and President of the Supreme Audit Office of Poland Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, an Ukrinform correspondent learnt from the press service of the Zakarpattia Regional Council. "On Friday, August 31, the bilateral meeting of Chairman of the Audit Chamber of Ukraine Valery Patskan and President of the Supreme Audit Office of Poland Krzysztof Kwiatkowski took place at the [Zakarpattia] regional council. The parties discussed joint international audits which will concern Zakarpattia region, particularly, the response to problems related to movement, employment and social protection of Ukrainians in Poland and Poles in Ukraine, compliance with the requirements of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal and the environmental protection in Zakarpattia region," the report says. ol Ukraines Foreign Ministry considers Russia's objections to the jurisdiction of the Tribunal hearing Ukraines case against the Russian Federation under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea unfounded and is ready to address them before the Tribunal. This is said in the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on the jurisdictional phase in the case under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea concerning the coastal state rights in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait (Ukraine v. the Russian Federation). On 31 August 2018, the Tribunal hearing Ukraines case against the Russian Federation under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) published a procedural order determining that it would rule on certain jurisdictional objections raised by the Russian Federation in a preliminary phase of the proceedings Ukraine does not believe that the Russian Federations jurisdictional objections are plausible or that they will be accepted by the Tribunal, the statement reads. The Ministry reminds that on 19 February 2018, Ukraine filed a Memorial with the UNCLOS Tribunal establishing that Russia has violated Ukraines sovereign rights in the Black Sea, Sea of Azov, and Kerch Strait. Ukraines Memorial showed that, since 2014, Russia has unlawfully excluded Ukraine from exercising its maritime rights. Rather than respond to the merits of Ukraines case, the Russian Federation filed objections to the jurisdiction of the UNCLOS Tribunal on 22 May 2018, as permitted by the Tribunals rules of procedure. As is common practice in inter-state disputes, the UNCLOS Tribunal has elected to hear these objections in a preliminary phase of the proceedings, before hearing the case on the merits. Russias primary jurisdictional objection is that Ukraines claims do not actually concern UNCLOS, but instead are an attempt to obtain a ruling confirming Ukraines sovereignty over the Crimean Peninsula. This objection blatantly misconstrues Ukraines claim. Ukraine has brought a dispute concerning maritime rights in the Black Sea, Sea of Azov, and Kerch Strait that are established under and defined by UNCLOS. That Ukraine enjoys such maritime rights is recognized by the international community for more than two decades after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine's continuous and peaceful exercise of the rights now at issue attracted no controversy, Ukraines Foreign Ministry stressed. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs looks forward to fully addressing each of the Russian Federations jurisdictional objections before the UNCLOS Tribunal, and to returning to the merits of its case as expeditiously as possible. Ukraine believes that Russia must and will be held accountable for its serious breaches of the international law of the sea, says the statement. ol The European Parliament positively assesses Ukraines implementation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, noting the need for completing the ongoing reforms. This is stated in the draft report, prepared by Michael Gahler, the European Parliaments Committee on Foreign Affairs member from Germany, Brussels-based Ukrinform correspondent reports. "The findings of the Foreign Affairs Committee provide a positive image of the implementation of the Association Agreement with Ukraine despite a number of shortcomings that Ukrainian authorities still need to address," Gahler states. As noted, there have been positive developments in many areas, notably judiciary, decentralisation, energy, health, pension and education. However, the Foreign Affairs Committee highlights its concerns about a proper functioning legal framework to fight corruptions, including institutions, financial transparency and audit; finalisation of the decentralisation reform; lack of efforts in de-Oligarchisation and privatization. The European Parliament calls on the Ukrainian authorities to complete the ongoing reforms as well as to lift the e-declarations for NGOs activists, provide full independence of the prosecutor general and rapidly establish the High Anti-Corruption Court. The European Parliament intends to vote on the resolution on Ukraine's implementation of the Association Agreement with the EU at the plenary session in autumn. ol The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine expressed concern about the raid of Russian security forces on the home of activist of the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Simferopol Olga Pavlenko. "We are concerned by FSBs raid on the home of Ukrainian Cultural Center co-founder Olga Pavlenko. Another example of Russias systematic campaign to suppress Ukrainian identity in Crimea," the embassy posted on Twitter. At about 6 a.m. on August 29, representatives of Russian de facto authorities in Crimea raided the home of Ukrainian Cultural Center Olga Pavlenko. The human rights activists believe that the real purpose of persecuting Pavlenko is her civic stance and popularization of Ukrainian culture in Crimea. ol The expert suggested that Zakharchenko could be sent to have a "peaceful rest" closer to Ukraine's ousted ex-president Viktor Yanukovych or former "LPR" head Igor Plotnitsky. The Kremlin needs a less odious figure, without a trace of embezzlement and involvement in shelling of civilians, that's according to a military columnist, coordinator of the Information Resistance OSINT group Yuriy Karin, who commented on DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko's murder. According to the military observer, the incident explains Putin's future plans to bring to power in Ukraine a pro-Russian president and organize direct talks with Kremlin puppets in Donbas, Karin told Segodnya. Why did they kill him? To ensure dialogue with the pro-Russian president of Ukraine, this is what Russia is trying to achieve, so that they can happily strike a deal and have the occupied territories return to the bosom of Ukraine in the format of Chechen funding," Karin said. Read alsoInglourious Basterds In addition, the military observer does not rule out the version of the struggle for territory between the FSB and GRU (military intelligence), as a result of which Zakharchenko was "removed", and also suggests Zakharchenko was murdered in blood feud. "It may be a 'war of towers.' The fact that Surkov's crony is killed already raises questions: the FSB is in a clash with the GRU over Donbas ... Or perhaps it's some local 'bloodshed' and another redistribution of assets," says the IR coordinator. The military observer adds that the incident could have been "staged." "It could be a simulation of death, and soon Zakharchenko will continue to live peacefully somewhere in 'friendly' unrecognized states, rogue states or in places where Yanukovich and Plotnitsky are staying," the observer says. Read alsoRussia's reaction to Zakharchenko murder means Kremlin trying to cover up their puppets MFA Ukraine According to Russian media, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova blamed "Kyiv regime" for the murder of Alexander Zakharchenko. Meanwhile, the so-called security forces of the "Donetsk People's Republic" reported on the arrest of "Ukrainian saboteurs" who militants claim are allegedly responsible for the death of terrorist leader Alexander Zakharchenko. The Security Service of Ukraine confirmed Zakharchenko's death and suggested that his death could be the result of internal criminal conflicts among militants, primarily related to the re-distribution of businesses seized in 2014-2018. In addition, the SBU does not exclude the involvement of Russian special services, for whom the odious Zakharchenko could become a burden hindering their plans. The diplomat says it is "natural that other countries should help" Ukraine. Washington is ready to expand arms supplies to Ukraine in order to build up the countrys naval and air defense forces in the face of continuing Russian support for militants in Donbas, according to the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine, Kurt Volker. In an interview with the Guardian, Mr Volker said Ukraine needs "to rebuild a navy and they have very limited air capability as well. I think well have to look at air defense. Read alsoU.S. could give Ukraine weapons to repel possible Russian attack from sea expert The diplomat went on to say that it is "natural that other countries should help" Ukraine and "of course they need lethal assistance because theyre being shot at. As reported earlier, Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States, Valeriy Chaly, said that the U.S. had long denied lethal assistance to Ukraine over the advice of their European partners. Lavrov called the assassination of the leader of the "DPR" terrorist organization, Alexander Zakharchenko, "a frank provocation" aimed at frustrating the implementation of Minsk agreements. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said further talks in the Normandy Four format were "impossible" after the murder of the leader of the "DPR" terrorist organization, Alexander Zakharchenko. "In the current situation, of course, it is impossible to talk about the next meetings in the Normandy format, as many European partners wanted," Lavrov told journalists on Satuday, according to an UNIAN correspondent in Moscow. "This is a serious situation that needs to be analyzed. That's what we're doing now," said Lavrov. "This is a provocation, a frank one, aimed at frustrating the implementation of Minsk accords. Although, Kyiv authorities never fulfilled them anyway," Lavrov claimed. Read alsoGetting rid of inconvenient puppet or imitation of death: Military columnist names versions of Donetsk blast As UNIAN reported earlier, on August 22, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin said a possibility was being considered to hold a Normandy Four meeting at the foreign ministers' level in the framework of the UN General Assembly in New York in the second half of September. UNIAN memo. On August 31, head of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" Alexander Zakharchenko was blown up in a Donetsk restaurant "Separ" and died at a local hospital shortly after the incident. The Security Service of Ukraine confirmed Zakharchenko's death and suggested that his murder could be the result of internal criminal conflicts among militants, primarily related to the re-distribution of businesses seized in 2014-2018. In addition, the SBU does not exclude the involvement of Russian special services, for whom the odious Zakharchenko could become a burden hindering their plans. In turn, MFA Russia put the blame on Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of being behind the assassination. The Ukrainian side expects to hear from the OSCE details of yesterday's explosion in Donetsk. The murder of the so-called "DPR leader" Alexander Zakharchenko testifies that Russia continues liquidating witnesses of its crimes in Donbas, Vice Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Iryna Gerashchenko said. On her Facebook page, Gerashchenko noted that the Ukrainian side seeks to see all militant leaders and their curators from Russia tried in The Hague. However, Russia is eliminating witnesses of its crimes, she added. Read alsoInglourious Basterds "For 9 months, nothing at all has been heard of yet another militant [leader Igor] Plotnitsky as his fate remains unknown. Another witness of Putin's crimes was eliminated by the FSB in a more radical way, "she said. Gerashchenko has also noted that she expects more detailed information from the OSCE monitoring mission about the Donetsk blast that killed Zakharchenko on Friday, August 31. As reported earlier, Gerashchenko asked the OSCE to help unlock crossing checkpoints in Donbas that were put on lockdown by terrorist following the Zakharchenko assassination. Read alsoGetting rid of inconvenient puppet or imitation of death: Military columnist names versions of Donetsk blast Meanwhile, Russian president's press secretary Dmitry Peskov warned that the assassination would increase tensions in Donbas. He also said that in the Kremlin perceived Zakharchenko's murder as provocation. UNIAN memo. On August 31, head of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" Alexander Zakharchenko was blown up in a Donetsk restaurant "Separ" and died at a local hospital shortly after the incident. The Security Service of Ukraine confirmed Zakharchenko's death and suggested that his murder could be the result of internal criminal conflicts among militants, primarily related to the re-distribution of businesses seized in 2014-2018. In addition, the SBU does not exclude the involvement of Russian special services, for whom the odious Zakharchenko could become a burden hindering their plans. In turn, MFA Russia put the blame on Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of being behind the assassination. The terrorist organization leader died at a local hospital shortly after the incident. Chief of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic," Alexander Zakharchenko, was blown up in one of the restaurants in a militant stronghold of Donetsk. Read alsoExpert predicts when and how "DPR" terrorist chief Zakharchenko to be toppled Zakharchenko died at a local hospital, where he was admitted following the incident, a Russian propaganda media outlet Life.ru reported citing its sources on the ground. The blast occurred in the Separ restaurant on Pushkin Street in Donetsk. Zakharchenko suffered fatal wounds, the report says. First photos emerged from the scene. The warlord was 42 years old. He headed the self-styled "Donetsk People's Republic" from November 4, 2014. UNIAN memo. Alexander Zakharchenko is a pro-Russian terrorist, leader of the so-called "DPR". During the pro-Russian rallied in the east of Ukraine, he led the Donetsk branch of the Kharkiv Fight Club "Oplot." On April 16, 2014, he was the leader of a group of militants, who seized the headquarters of the Donetsk city administration. In May 2014, he was appointed "military commandant" of the militant-held Donetsk. Subsequently, he was appointed to the post of "deputy minister of the interior of the Donetsk People's Republic." In August, he was replaced by Alexander Boroday, chairman of the council of ministers of the "DPR". In November 2014, after illegitimate elections held in the "DPR," the unrecognized CEC of the "republic" announced that Zakharchenko had won the polls. According to the media, in 2010, Alexander Zakharchenko was examined at the Kharkiv Regional Center for Medical and Social Expertise and officially recognized as a person with mental disability. The report stated "stable irreversible mental disorders." He was prescribed treatment in the Kharkiv Regional Clinical Psychiatric Hospital No. 3. The certificate also notes that the patient was a "threat to others." The years 2010-2013 were removed from Zakharchenko's official CV. However, in 2013, Zakharchenko resurfaced in the media, already as an activist of the Kharkiv-based pro-Russian organization Oplot. The IED was triggered by a telephone call. The deadly explosive device, set off in the Separ cafe in the center of the occupied Donetsk, killing the self-styled "DPR leader" Alexander Zaakharchenko, was planted either in a chandelier or a floor lamp inside the building, preliminary data say. To set off the IED, it was enough to make a single phone call, the law enforcement sources told Russia's Kommersant newspaper, adding that it was practically impossible to plant a bomb without the assistance of people close to Zakharchenko. The Kommersant points out that the cafe belongs to a chief of "DPR" leader's security. High-ranking guests were often visitors of the location, so the "Separ" cafe was a fairly tightly guarded place. In this regard, local security forces are looking for accomplices in the crime among Zakharchenko's closest associates, the sources say. Read alsoTerrorist Dmitry Trapeznikov takes lead in "DPR" At the same time, the man who actually put the IED into operation was near the cafe at the time of the explosion as he had to see when Zakharchenko arrived at the scene. The sources believe the perpetrator made the call, which triggered the IED as soon as the warlord entered the building. As UNIAN reported, on August 31, head of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" Alexander Zakharchenko was blown up in a Donetsk restaurant "Separ" and died at a local hospital. Read alsoInglourious Basterds The Security Service of Ukraine confirmed Zakharchenko's death and suggested that his death could be the result of internal criminal conflicts among militants, primarily related to the re-distribution of businesses seized in 2014-2018. In addition, the SBU does not exclude the involvement of Russian special services, for whom the odious Zakharchenko could become a burden hindering their plans. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova blamed "Kyiv regime" for the murder and demanded that the West guarantee an unbiased investigation into the incident. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences over Zakharchenko's death and promised the occupied Donbas "support." The convict has entered into a deal with the investigation and will spend 4.5 years in prison. Boris German, the man charged with organization of the murder attempt of journalist Arkady Babchenko, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a 4.5-year prison sentence, according to the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Vasyl Hrytsak. Hrytsak said the relevant guilty verdict had been handed down by the Holosiyivsky District Court in Kyiv on August 30, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Bureau reports. "He is cooperating with the investigation, providing very interesting testimonies, which we will later be verified and documented," said the top security official. Earlier, the SBU chief has already reported that the suspect in the Babchenko "assassination" case, Borys Herman, went for a deal with the investigation. This information was also confirmed by Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko. Read alsoOrganizer of Babchenko's "assassination" pleads guilty, strikes deal with investigation As UNIAN reported, on the evening of May 29 came the reports that Russian opposition journalist Arkady Babchenko was killed in Kyiv. On May 30, SBU chief Vasyl Hrytsak in an astonishing twist revealed that the journalist was in fact alive, while his assassination had been staged as part of the security agency's special operation. The SBU detained a Ukrainian national Boris German, whom security operatives said had been hired by Russian intelligence to organize the journalist's murder. Since midnight, the enemy shelled four settlements in eastern Ukraine's war zone. Over the past day, August 31, Russian-occupation forces opened fire 11 times on the positions of the Joint Forces. At the same time, the enemy did not use weapons banned by the Minsk agreements, the JFO press service reports. The militants opened aimed fire from grenade launchers of various types, large-caliber machine guns, and small arms, the report says. "Russian-occupation forces fired on the positions of the Joint Forces in the areas of Krymske, Yuzhne, Maryinka, Starohnativka, Pavlopil, Hnutove, Lebedynske, and Vodiane," reads the report. Read alsoRussia's reaction to Zakharchenko murder means Kremlin trying to cover up their puppets MFA Ukraine It is noted that there have been no losses among the Ukrainian military. According to intelligence reports, one militant was killed and two more were wounded. "Today, the enemy fired four times on our positions in the area of Troyitske, Yuzhne, Vodiane and Shyrokyne from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, and small arms," the JFO Staff said. As UNIAN reported earlier, on August 31, a Kremlin puppet "DPR leader" Alexander Zakharchenko was killed in a blast in one of cafes in the center of the militant-held Donetsk. The Trudeau team, which is certain the quotes are accurate, sprung them on Trump's team at the meeting on Friday. U.S. President Donald Trumps off-the-record comments during a Bloomberg interview leaked to the Toronto Star. In the remarks, Trump said he wouldnt compromise with Canada on a deal but would instead insist on one totally on our terms. Reporter Daniel Dale tweeted the following on Friday: "Trump also said off the record that any deal would be 'totally on our terms.' Trump said he is scaring Canada into submission by repeatedly threatening auto tariffs, showing the Canadians a picture of a Chevrolet Impala, which is assembled at the GM plant in Oshawa, Ontario," according to Mediaite. In a subsequent tweet, the reporter added: "What happened: I obtained these quotes. I'm not bound by Bloomberg's "off the record" promises. I asked the White House and the Trudeau team for comment. The Trudeau team, which is certain the quotes are accurate, sprung them on Trump's team at the meeting this morning." Read alsoManafort associate charged over illegal lobbying for Ukraine's pro-Russian politicians Mr Dale said the White House had not disputed the authenticity of the quotes but suggested that the reporter "shouldn't publish." Deputy Press Sec Lindsay Walters said, If this was said, it was said in an off the record capacity. I understand you guys have obtained it; Im not sure where youve obtained it from, according to the reporter. The Canadian team did not comment on what had happened at the morning meeting, but the White House has made clear to me that the comments were indeed raised. President Trump has now weighed in on this leak, targeting Bloomberg: "Wow, I made OFF THE RECORD COMMENTS to Bloomberg concerning Canada, and this powerful understanding was BLATANTLY VIOLATED. Oh well, just more dishonest reporting. I am used to it. At least Canada knows where I stand!" Dale subsequently tweeted this is pretty clear confirmation from Trump that his reporting was accurate, but he added, I wont be commenting on the source of the leaked quotes. A Bloomberg spokesperson on the Toronto Star's publication of off-the-record comments from Trump in Bloomberg's interview: "When we agree that something is off the record, we respect that." In Indian occupied Kashmir, the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has condemned the arrest of the relatives of freedom activists by the Indian police. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Sep, 2018 ) :In Indian occupied Kashmir, the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has condemned the arrest of the relatives of freedom activists by the Indian police. According to Kashmir Media Service, A JI spokesman in a statement in Srinagar said, "Jamaat strongly condemns the arrest of the relatives of freedom activists and damaging their properties. "He also condemned the arrest of two sons of the prominent freedom leader, Syed Salahuddin, and demanded their immediate release along with other political detainees lodged in different jails of India and the territory. (@FahadShabbir) Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed on Friday said that China-Pak Economic Corridor (CPEC) is the backbone of Pakistan's economy. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 31st Aug, 2018 ) :Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed on Friday said that China-Pak Economic Corridor (CPEC) is the backbone of Pakistan's economy. He said this while talking to Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing who called on him here at Ministry of Railways, said a press release issued here. In the meeting, both discussed matters related to mutual interest in railways and CPEC projects. The Ambassador showed keen interest of his government's desire to work closely with their Pakistani counterpart. The minister on the other hand, praised Chinese support in railway projects. He said Pakistan could learn a lot from China's experience in railway sector and both showed full support to each other in completing the railway projects swiftly. The meeting was also attended by Chairman Ministry of Railways M. Javed Anwar, Chief Executive Officer Aftab Akbar, Secretary Railway board Farukh Taimur Ghilzai and Director General Techinical Munawar Ali Shah. (@ChaudhryMAli88) LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 31st Aug, 2018 ) :Punjab Minister for Agriculture Malik Nauman Ahmad Langriyal on Friday said that agriculture development and prosperity of farmers were among the priorities of the Punjab government. The Minister was briefed by the Secretary Agriculture Punjab Wasif Khurshid about the activities of Agriculture department at Civil Secretariat, here Friday. This year, agriculture sector recorded a remarkable growth rate of 3.81 percent comparing to 2.09 percent of last year, the Secretary disclosed. He said the Agriculture department had planned to ensure sectoral growth on pure scientific basis. He said through Connected Agriculture Platform Punjab (CAPP), the Department was providing extension services to the farming community through specialized Apps of smartphone and 110,000 registered farmers were being given such smartphones in Punjab. For immediate relief and to avoid farmers' loss, the Department had started crop insurance (Takkaful) scheme for farmers, he told. The Secretary Agriculture also briefed the Minister about on-going projects of Agriculture department. The Agriculture Minister said the Department should work as per the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan to facilitate growers in all possible ways. Malik Nauman Ahmad Langriyal lauded the Department's performance and advised the officers to sustain this progress as economy depended on performance of agriculture sector. The meeting was attended by all heads of the Agriculture department and high officials. ISLAMABAD, Sep 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Sep, 2018 ) :Chief Minister Balochistan Jam Kamal Saturday said internal and external elements were involved in terrorist incidents in the province but they would fail in their nefarious designs. Afghan border was a major issue for Pakistan. Afghanistan was under war since past 40 years and it was directly affecting Pakistan, he said talking to a private news channel. He said Pakistan's valiant armed forces had rendered supreme sacrifices in war against terrorism and courageously eliminated terrorism from its soil. Police and other armed forces would be deployed in Balochistan to play their role in eradication of terrorism from the province and to avoid any untoward incident in future, he added. He said honest officers would be appointed in every department to bring improvement in the system. Jam Kamal said Balochistan had faced issue of good governance in the past and claimed that good governance would be ensured in the province to facilitate the people. He said no hospital was fully functional in Balochistan but measures were being taken now to provide modern health facilities to the people of the area. (@rukhshanmir) He said the Cabinet also decided to conduct the audit of Metro Bus and Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) projects, adding that the government would also devise a policy so that these projects were maintained without becoming a white elephant and a burden on the economy. LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 31st Aug, 2018 ) :He said the Cabinet also decided to conduct the audit of Metro Bus and Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) projects, adding that the government would also devise a policy so that these projects were maintained without becoming a white elephant and a burden on the economy. Fayaz-ul-Hassan Chohan said the Cabinet had decided to impose emergency in agriculture sector. He said the Punjab government would implement the directions by the apex court in letter and spirit in the DPO Pakpattan case. He said the provincial Cabinet emulated the austerity and frugality drive by the Prime Minister Imran Khan and tea and biscuits were served duringt the four and half hours long Cabinet meeting. About the creation of the Southern Punjab province, he said the Cabinet meeting resolved to take practical step towards the making a new province during the implementation of 100 days agenda, adding that the legal and administrative initiatives would also be taken in this regard. Regarding the Local government institutions, he said the previous Punjab Local government (LG) system was a replica of the Gen. Zia-ul-Haq era under which no administrative and financial powers were delegated to the local representatives, adding that Senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan had informed the Cabinet about the amendments in the LG law. He said all good aspects of the KPK, 2001 and 2005 LG systems would be included in the new proposed law which would empower the local bodies representatives and people's problems would be solved at their door-step. Fayaz-ul-Hassan Chohan said Senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan had been appointed coordinator on future project in the province. He said Punjab police would be made apolitical on the model of KPK, adding that Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar had resolved to introduce legislation in this regard and get it passed by the Punjab Assembly by November 30. He said the Cabinet also decided to introduce necessary legislation regarding the Health Insaaf Card worth 500000 rupees and holder of the Card could get free treatment from a private or public sector hospital in the province. He said the legislation would be completed on the Health Insaaf Card within 100 days as well. He said corruption of billions of rupees was committed in Saaf Pani (Clean Drinking Water) projects in the past and the former chief minister was appearing before the courts in these cases. He said the people were forced to drink polluted water, adding that the work on the clean water projects would also be started by 30 November. The Information Minister said the Cabinet had decided to promote institutions like TEVTA so that the youth could become skilled and more jobs could be created. He said, keeping in view the 92 billion rupees foreign debts, the province could not afford lavish spendings, adding that the Punjab Cabinet had decided that every minister and officer would use only one car. He said the economy was in tatters, adding that the country's exports had diminished to 17-18 billion rupees as compared with the 36-37 billion rupees during Musharrf era. He said the Cabinet meeting also discussed to promote small industry in the province. The Punjab Information Minister said the provincial Cabinet also decided to ensure the passage of the Right to Information Act from the Punjab Assembly and it would be effective from Naib Qasid to the Chief Minister. The Minister said the Cabinet had decided to set up the first ever art academy to provide film, theater, drama and singing education with certification by the government. He said step had been taken to promote art and culture in the province. He said the Cabinet was also briefed on the law and order situation in the province, adding that the provincial administration also briefed the Cabinet on the fool-proof security arrangements during the holy month of Muharram-ul-Haram so that peace could be maintained. To a question, he regretted his arguments with an anchor person, adding that the government would accept its mistakes if some wrong was committed, adding that the PTI government would not follow suit of those who committed 14 murders in Model Town in daylight and denied them. A three-day single country Thailand Exhibition kicked-off on Saturday with 50 companies showcasing their range of products at a local hotel. KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Sep, 2018 ) :A three-day single country Thailand Exhibition kicked-off on Saturday with 50 companies showcasing their range of products at a local hotel. President of Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Muffasar Atta Malik inaugurated the exhibition along with Khun Apipan Cheecharoen, acting Consul General of Royal Thai Consulate-General Karachi, Suebsak Dangboonrueng, Director Thai Trade Centre, Dhaka, Department of International Trade Promotion, Ministry of Commerce, Royal Thai Government, Arif Suleman, Honorary Trade Advisor, Thailand and Director Event & Conference International Rashid ul Haq. Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, President KCCI called for further enhancement of bilateral trade between the two countries. Pakistan's imports from Thailand ascended to $1400.36 million in Calendar year 2017 against 1008.45 million which shows 38.8 percent growth while Pakistan exports to Thailand increased by 24.4 percent to $148.32 million from $119.21 million, Malik added. Pakistan exports yarn and fibers, chemicals, finished oils, edible meat to Thailand. There are plenty of other Pakistani products and services which are capable of capturing a sizeable market and promotional activities", he observed. President KCCI called for exploring opportunities and avenues for setting up joint ventures between the companies of both countries. "Undertaking joint venture in different sectors of the economy would not only go in favor of the two countries but will also help them to jointly explore and penetrate into some of the most promising and untapped markets", he said. Apipan Cheecharoen while speaking on the occasion highlighted the importance of Pakistan as a growing economy. "Pakistan with the population of around 200 million offers attractive opportunities to the investors from across the globe". "The population's major segment comprises of young people and middle class that is a major attraction for the international investors and makes it major market in Asia", he noted. Arif Suleman, Honorary Trade Advisor to Ministry of Commerce, Royal Thai Government, said that more than 10 categories of products that include hardware, car paint, machinery/rice mill, food & beverage, household products, water purification, home textile products, footwear, health & beauty products, medicine and herbal products, motorbike parts, party accessories, jewelry cleaner, electrical appliances are being exhibited. Commenting on the pending Free Trade Agreement between Pakistan and Thailand, Arif Suleman hoped that it would be signed by next year. "We are experiencing a wonderful period where Pakistan and Thailand are developing and working hand in hand as close partners. We are hopeful of finalization of FTA by next year", he said. Director Event and Conference International Rashidul Haq said they are expecting more than 50,000 visitors over the course of three days. The exhibition is organized by Department of International Trade Promotion, Ministry of Commerce, Royal Thai Government with the supportof Royal Thai Consulate-General Karachi and being managed by Event and Conference International. Exhibition will continue till Monday. (@mahnoorsheikh03) Says don't claim victory too soon. I will expose your barbarism in many other ways Karachi (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News 1st September, 2018) After far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders cancelled the blasphemous Muhammad Cartoon Contest owing to death threats and large-scale protests in Pakistan, the Pakistani government took credit for it. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had termed it a victory of Muslim Ummah. Cancellation of blasphemous contest is a great moral victory of Muslim Ummah: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the Government of Pakistan tweeted. Responding to this tweet, Wilders said, Dont claim victory too soon @pid_gov I am not finished with you yet. I will expose your barbarism in many other ways. Pakistanis had even great replies to Geert Wilders for his warning. On Thursday, Wilders cancelled the holding of blasphemous caricatures contest, against which Tehrrek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) was leading a rally to Islamabad. Geert stated on his Twitter account that he was cancelling the contest as it could pose danger of violence against innocent people. In a published statement, he said that he would never personally stop his campaign against islam but the risk to innocents, and of attacks on the Netherlands, stemming from the proposed contest, were too great. My point about the intolerant nature of Islam has been proved again by this, he had said. (@FahadShabbir) Kosovo's Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said on Friday that redrawing existing borders between the self-proclaimed republic and Serbia may bring about a new conflict in the Balkans and lead to a second NATO intervention. BELGRADE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 31st August, 2018) Kosovo's Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said on Friday that redrawing existing borders between the self-proclaimed republic and Serbia may bring about a new conflict in the Balkans and lead to a second NATO intervention. In early August, Serbia proposed partition of Kosovo along ethnic lines as a means of avoiding further conflicts. According to Belgrade's plan, Serbia would give up its southern areas, mostly inhabited by Albanians, for Kosovo's territories where Serbian population prevails. On Thursday, Haradinaj announced that Pristina had decided not to put the territories exchange issue on the agenda of the EU-mediated meeting between Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic in Brussels on September 7. "Continuation of the public debate on redrawing borders and swapping territories is a call for a new tragedy in the Balkans. It will destabilize and bring about risks for the long-term political investment in peace in Kosovo and the region," Haradinaj said, as cited by the RTK broadcaster. The official added that Pristina would work on preventing such "destructive ideas" which could eventually develop into a new NATO intervention. Earlier in the day, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini refused to comment on the idea of exchanging territories between Serbia and Kosovo, but noted that the European Union would support any mutually agreed solution based on international law. In 2008, Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija unilaterally proclaimed independence from Serbia, nine years after NATO engaged in a war against Serbia and Montenegro over the alleged mistreatment of Albanians. The Kosovo authorities were to present a draft statute for the Association of Serb Municipalities by August 4. The statute is supposed to include 10 municipalities with a total area of over 15 percent of Kosovo's territory and a population of over 100,000 people, with ethnic Serbs prevailing. The establishment of the association was initiated by the European Union and Pristina in 2013 as part of the settlement, but still was not achieved. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The number of people infected with cholera in Algeria increased to 74, the country's Health Ministry said Saturday in a statement obtained by Sputnik. ALGIERS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st September, 2018) The number of people infected with cholera in Algeria increased to 74, the country's Health Ministry said Saturday in a statement obtained by Sputnik. Earlier reports said that two people had died and 56 more had been infected with cholera in the northern province of Blida. "As of August 30, the number of confirmed cholera cases amounted to 74," the statement said. According to the Health Ministry, the people infected with cholera were hospitalized in six provinces of the country but all of them caught the illness in the province of Blida. In late August, Algerian Minister of National education Nouria Benghabrit-Remaoun said that the cholera outbreak would not affect the start of the academic year, the En-Nahar broadcaster reported. (@rukhshanmir) Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated on Saturday his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev on Uzbekistan's National Independence Day and expressed his hope for the continuation of strategic partnership between the two countries, the Kremlin press service said in a statemen MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st September, 2018) Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated on Saturday his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev on Uzbekistan's National Independence Day and expressed his hope for the continuation of strategic partnership between the two countries, the Kremlin press service said in a statement. "President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin sent a congratulatory telegram to President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev on the occasion of the national holiday - the Independence Day," the statement read. Putin pointed out that Uzbekistan had made significant achievements in the social and economic development of the country as well as in increasing the state's authority in the international arena. The Russian president also "highly assessed the level of relations between Moscow and Tashkent based on the traditions of friendship and neighborliness." Putin expressed his confidence in further active boost of bilateral strategic partnership and alliance, as well as constructive cooperation on regional issues in the interests of the peoples of Russia and Uzbekistan to ensure security and stability in Central Asia. (@rukhshanmir) Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev met on Saturday and signed a package of documents boosting bilateral cooperation. BOCHAROV RUCHEY (Sochi) (UrduPoint news / Sputnik - 01st September, 2018) Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev met on Saturday and signed a package of documents boosting bilateral cooperation. The signing ceremony took place in the Russian presidential residence of Bocharov Ruchey. According to Russian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mikhail Bocharnikov, the package of documents seeks to expand the economic cooperation between Moscow and Baku. He noted that the parties wanted to increase bilateral trade. After talks with Aliyev, Putin pointed out the strategic nature of Russian-Azerbaijani relations. "I would like to stress that our meetings are held regularly, and this is only natural since we enjoy extensive collaboration, which we call a strategic partnership ... Our relations are developing along both the political lines and in the economy. Last year trade between our countries grew by 34 percent, even over 34 percent, whereas in the first six months of this year the volume of the trade in civilian industry products grew by 20 percent. These are very good indicators," Putin said, as quoted by the Kremlin press service. After the talks Putin and Aliyev signed a joint statement on key areas of the bilateral economic cooperation. The Russian president thanked his Azerbaijani counterpart for the productive and substantiate negotiations. "I am sure that the reached agreements will promote further development of Russian-Azerbaijani friendship, will help develop mutually beneficial cooperation for the benefit of our countries and peoples," Putin said. During negotiations the presidents also signed an agreement on jointly exploring the Goshadash oil and gas block located in the northern part of the Absheron Peninsula. The Russian Rosneft oil giant signed a contract with the SOCAR Trading S.A. company. (@ChaudhryMAli88) CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd September, 2018) Supporters of Moldova's reunification with Romania continue to protest in the center of Chisinau in total darkness and police warned the participants that they should leave the square before 23.00 (20:00 GMT). The organizer of the event was the Alliance of the Century - the name is associated with the 100th anniversary of the unification of Bessarabia (modern Moldova) with Romania, which occurred in 1918. The organizers' goal is adoption of a declaration on the unification of the two states by the Moldovan parliament. About 2,000 people went on foot to the exit from Chisinau, because the police blocked the entry of three buses with the participants of the rally. At the exit, the column divided, part of protesters went further to Vatru, a settlement on the outskirts of Chisinau, to negotiate with the police about letting the buses pass. The remaining people blocked the road, provoking a clash with the police demanding to unblock traffic. The second clash with the police occurred when the rally organizers reached the location of the blocked buses. The police explained that they had received reports that explosives and other dangerous items might be on the buses. The protesters returned to the square and stated that they would not leave it until the situation with vehicles was resolved. The protest continues in the dark, as the lighting in the square and in the neighboring park was turned off. The previous rally in support of Moldova's unification with Romania was held in Chisinau on March 25, and ended with protesters adopting a declaration in favor of reunification. Moldova's General Police Inspectorate (GPI) Deputy Director Gheorghe Cavcaliuc told Sputnik that approximately 7,000 people took part in the rally. Moldovan President Igor Dodon earlier suggested holding a referendum in order to outlaw the idea of unification. According to opinion polls, the overwhelming majority of Moldovan citizens oppose the idea of unification. The Kingdom of Romania was established in 1881 when the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia decided to unite in a single state. The present-day Republic of Moldova is composed of the Bessarabia region, which belonged to the Russian Empire that time, as well as the Transnistria region where many Russians and Ukrainians are residing alongside Moldovans. Supporters of Moldova's reunification with Romania on Saturday organized a demonstration at the central square of Chisinau, a Sputnik correspondent reported. CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st September, 2018) Supporters of Moldova's reunification with Romania on Saturday organized a demonstration at the central square of Chisinau, a Sputnik correspondent reported. Over 1,000 people gathered at the central square waiving flags of Moldova and Romania. The crowd then marched to the outskirts of the capital when police stopped three buses with protesters from entering the city. Some time later the activists declared that the demonstration turned into an open-ended protest. "Our manifestation turns into a protest, we are ready to stay here at night, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, until the authorities allow buses with our supporters to enter Chisinau," the organizers told the crowd. When police tried to clear the road, clashes between officers and activists erupted. Traffic was restored with no reports about any injuries. The previous rally in support of Moldova's unification with Romania was held in Chisinau on March 25, and ended with protesters adopting a declaration in favor of reunification. Moldova's General Police Inspectorate (GPI) Deputy Director Gheorghe Cavcaliuc told Sputnik that approximately 7,000 people took part in the rally. Moldovan President Igor Dodon earlier suggested holding a referendum banning the idea of unification. The Kingdom of Romania was established in 1881 when the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia decided to unite in a single state. The present-day Republic of Moldova is composed of the Bessarabia region, which belonged to the Russian Empire that time, as well as the Transnistria region where many Russians and Ukrainians are residing alongside Moldovans. (@ChaudhryMAli88) WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st September, 2018) Kuwait's Emir will meet with President Donald Trump in Washington on Wednesday to discuss trade and security, the White House said in a press release. "Trump will welcome His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of the State of Kuwait to the White House for a working visit on September 5, 2018," the release said on Friday. Trump and the Emir will discuss trade, investment, and security cooperation, the release added. Earlier on Friday, the Pentagon announced that Defense Secretary James Mattis met this week with representatives of the six Gulf Cooperation Council states and other Arab countries to seek a unified approach to common strategic threats. (@ChaudhryMAli88) A US nuclear-powered attack submarine armed with Tomahawk missiles has entered the port of Gibraltar at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, days after Russia warned about a new strike on Syria MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st September, 2018) A US nuclear-powered attack submarine armed with Tomahawk missiles has entered the port of Gibraltar at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, days after Russia warned about a new strike on Syria. The Angeles-class USS Newport News was photographed sailing into the port on Thursday evening, the Gibraltar Chronicle news website said. The Defense Ministry in the British overseas territory referred to the port call as "a scheduled logistical visit," according to the publication. A Spanish customs boat reportedly tried to approach the US Navy submarine but was chased away by a local police vessel. This is the second time a US submarine has called on Gibraltar after the USS John Warner passed through in March on the way to the Mediterranean where it fired Tomahawk missiles at targets in Syria. The Russian military this week accused Syrian militants in the restive northwestern Idlib province of preparing a chemical attack they wanted to blame on Syrian authorities to provoke another strike by the United States and its allies. The increase in the use of multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging for the detection of prostate cancer has led to the rapid adoption of MRI-guided biopsies (MRGBs). To date, there is limited evidence in the use of MRGB and no direct comparisons between the different types of MRGB. We aimed to assess whether multiparametric MRGBs with MRI-US transperineal fusion biopsy (FB) and cognitive biopsy (CB) improved the management of prostate cancer and to assess if there is any difference in prostate cancer detection with FB compared with CB. Patients who underwent an MRGB and a systematic biopsy (SB) from June 2014 to August 2016 on the Central Coast, NSW, Australia, were included in the study. The results of SB were compared with MRGB. The primary outcome was prostate cancer detection and if MRGB changed patient management. A total of 121 cases were included with a mean age of 65.5 years and prostate-specific antigen 7.4 ng/mL. Seventy-five cases (62%) had a Prostate Imaging and Reporting Data System 4-5 lesions and 46 (38%) had a Prostate Imaging and Reporting Data System 3 lesions. Fifty-six cases underwent CB and 65 underwent FB.Of the 93 patients with prostate cancer detected, 19 men (20.5%) had their management changed because of the MRGB results. Eight men (9%) had prostate cancer detected on MRGB only and 12 men (13%) underwent radical prostatectomy or radiotherapy based on the MRGB results alone.There was a trend to a higher rate of change in management with FB compared with CB (29% vs. 18%). This is one of the first Australian studies to assess the utility of MRGB and compare FB with CB. MRGB is a useful adjunct to SB, changing management in over 20% of our cases, with a trend toward FB having a greater impact on patient management compared with CB. Prostate international. 2017 Nov 02 [Epub] Jonathan Kam, Yuigi Yuminaga, Raymond Kim, Kushlan Aluwihare, Finlay Macneil, Rupert Ouyang, Stephen Ruthven, Mark Louie-Johnsun Department of Urology, Gosford District Hospital and Gosford Private Hospital, Gosford, Australia., PRP Radiology, Gosford, Australia. PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30140657 Pope Francis message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation focuses on water as a precious resource and describes access to it as a human right. By Lydia OKane At the heart of Pope Francis' message for the IV annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which the Church now celebrates in union with the Orthodox Church, is the vital resource that is water. Describing it as a precious element, the Pope underlines that access to safe drinkable water is a basic and universal human right, since it is essential to human survival and, as such, is a condition for the exercise of other human rights. He also draws attention to the fact that access for many people is either difficult or impossible. Noting the fundamental role of water in creation and human development, the Pontiff stresses that it is precisely for this reason that care for water sources and water basins is an urgent imperative. He goes on to say, there is an urgent need for shared projects and concrete gestures that recognize that every privatization of the natural good of water, at the expense of the human right to have access to this good, is unacceptable. Water a Christian perspective Dwelling on water from a Christian perspective, Pope Francis says this fundamental resource represents an essential element of purification and of life and comments that Jesus, in the course of his mission, promised a water capable of quenching human thirst for ever. Threats to Seas and Oceans In his message, the Pope also focuses on seas and oceans saying that constant care for this inestimable treasure represents today an ineluctable duty and a genuine challenge. He goes on to say that, we cannot allow our seas and oceans to be littered by endless fields of floating plastic. We need to pray as if everything depended on Gods providence, and work as if everything depended on us. Pope Francis then invites those in positions of authority, to look with a farsighted approach at, what he calls the more sensitive questions of our day, such as those linked to movements of migration, climate change. Safeguarding On the issue of protection and preservation, the Pope prays for all those who are involved in safeguarding the seas and for those who contribute to the development and application of international regulations on the seas in order to safeguard individuals, countries, goods, natural resources. Concluding his message Pope Francis expresses the hope that Christian communities, and young people too, may contribute more and more concretely helping everyone to enjoy this indispensable resource, in respectful care for the gifts received from the Creator, and in particular rivers, seas and oceans. Listen to the report Please find the full message below Dear brothers and sisters! On this Day of Prayer, I wish first to thank the Lord for the gift of our common home and for all those men and women of good will committed to protecting it. I am likewise grateful for the many projects aimed at promoting the study and the safeguarding of ecosystems, for the efforts being made to develop more sustainable agriculture and more responsible nutrition, and for the various educational, spiritual and liturgical initiatives that involve Christians throughout the world in the care of creation. It must be acknowledged that we have not succeeded in responsibly protecting creation. The environmental situation, both on the global level and in many specific places, cannot be considered satisfactory. Rightly, there is a growing sense of the need for a renewed and sound relationship between humanity and creation, and the conviction that only an authentic and integral vision of humanity will permit us to take better care of our planet for the benefit of present and future generations. For there is no ecology without an adequate anthropology (Laudato Si, 118). On this World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which the Catholic Church for several years now has celebrated in union with our Orthodox brothers and sisters and with participation of other Churches and Christian communities, I would like to draw attention to the question of water. It is a very simple and precious element, yet access to it is, sadly, for many people difficult if not impossible. Nonetheless, access to safe drinkable water is a basic and universal human right, since it is essential to human survival and, as such, is a condition for the exercise of other human rights. Our world owes a great social debt towards the poor who lack access to drinking water, because they are denied the right to a life consistent with their inalienable dignity (ibid., 30). Water invites us to reflect on our origins. The human body is mostly composed of water, and many civilizations throughout history arose near great rivers that marked their identity. In an evocative image, the beginning of the book of Genesis states that, in the beginning, the spirit of the Creator swept over the face of the waters (1:2). In considering the fundamental role of water in creation and in human development, I feel the need to give thanks to God for Sister Water, simple and useful for life like nothing else on our planet. Precisely for this reason, care for water sources and water basins is an urgent imperative. Today, more than ever, we need to look beyond immediate concerns (cf. Laudato Si, 36) and beyond a purely utilitarian view of reality, in which efficiency and productivity are entirely geared to our individual benefit (ibid., 159). We urgently need shared projects and concrete gestures that recognize that every privatization of the natural good of water, at the expense of the human right to have access to this good, is unacceptable. For us Christians, water represents an essential element of purification and of life. We think immediately of baptism, the sacrament of our rebirth. Water made holy by the Spirit is the matter by which God has given us life and renewed us; it is the blessed source of undying life. For Christians of different confessions, baptism also represents the real and irreplaceable point of departure for experiencing an ever more authentic fraternity on the way to full unity. Jesus, in the course of his mission, promised a water capable of quenching human thirst for ever (cf. Jn 4:14). He prophesied, If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink (Jn 7:37). To drink from Jesus means to encounter him personally as the Lord, drawing from his words the meaning of life. May the words he spoke from the cross I thirst (Jn 19:28) echo constantly in our hearts. The Lord continues to ask that his thirst be quenched; he thirsts for love. He asks us to give him to drink in all those who thirst in our own day, and to say to them, I was thirsty and you gave me to drink (Mt 25:35). To give to drink, in the global village, does not only entail personal gestures of charity, but also concrete choices and a constant commitment to ensure to all the primary good of water. I would like also to mention the issue of the seas and oceans. It is our duty to thank the Creator for the impressive and marvellous gift of the great waters and all that they contain (cf. Gen 1:20-21; Ps 146:6), and to praise him for covering the earth with the oceans (cf. Ps 104:6). To ponder the immense open seas and their incessant movement can also represent an opportunity to turn our thoughts to God, who constantly accompanies his creation, guiding its course and sustaining its existence (cf. St. John Paul II, Catechesis of 7 May 1986). Constant care for this inestimable treasure represents today an ineluctable duty and a genuine challenge. There is need for an effective cooperation between men and women of good will in assisting the ongoing work of the Creator. Sadly, all too many efforts fail due to the lack of effective regulation and means of control, particularly with regard to the protection of marine areas beyond national confines (cf. Laudato Si, 174). We cannot allow our seas and oceans to be littered by endless fields of floating plastic. Here too, our active commitment is needed to confront this emergency. We need to pray as if everything depended on Gods providence, and work as if everything depended on us. Let us pray that waters may not be a sign of separation between peoples, but of encounter for the human community. Let us pray that those who risk their lives at sea in search of a better future may be kept safe. Let us ask the Lord and all those engaged in the noble service of politics that the more sensitive questions of our day, such as those linked to movements of migration, climate change and the right of everyone to enjoy primary goods, may be faced with generous and farsighted responsibility and in a spirit of cooperation, especially among those countries most able to help. Let us pray too, for all those who devote themselves to the apostolate of the sea, for those who help reflect on the issues involving maritime ecosystems, for those who contribute to the development and application of international regulations on the seas in order to safeguard individuals, countries, goods, natural resources I think, for example, of marine fauna and flora, and coral reefs (cf. ibid., 41) or sea beds and to guarantee an integral development in view of the common good of the entire human family and not particular interests. Let us remember, too, all those who work to protect maritime areas and to safeguard the oceans and their biodiversity, that they may carry out this task with responsibility and integrity. Finally, let us be concerned for the younger generation and pray for them, that they may grow in knowledge and respect for our common home and in the desire to care for the essential good of water, for the benefit of all. It is my prayerful hope that Christian communities may contribute more and more concretely helping everyone to enjoy this indispensable resource, in respectful care for the gifts received from the Creator, and in particular rivers, seas and oceans. From the Vatican, 1 September 2018 FRANCIS Grace Relucio Princesa, the new ambassador of the Philippines to the Holy See, presenting her credentials to Pope Francis on Sept. 1, 2018. Ms. Grace Relucio Princesa presented her credentials to Pope Francis on Sept 1, at the start of her diplomatic mission to the Holy See. By Robin Gomes Pope Francis on Saturday welcomed to the Vatican the new ambassador of the Philippines to the Holy See, Ms. Grace Relucio Princesa. At the formal ceremony in the Vatican, the 62-year old diplomat presented her credentials to the Pope at the start of her diplomatic mission to the Holy See. Born on 20 January, 1956 in Ligao (Albay - Philippines), Princesa is a widow and mother of five children. A diplomat for nearly 3 decades, she is a graduate in International Relations (University of the Philippines, Diliman, 1977) and has a Master's degree in Migration Studies (Miriam College, Quezon City, Philippines 2016). Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte appointed Princesa as Philippine Ambassador to the Holy See in January, a move the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philipppines welcomed. Her appointed was later approved by the bicameral Commission on Appointments. Grace Relucio Princesa has held the following positions: 1979-1986 - Official at the Ministry of Human Settlements in Manila 1986-1989 - Acting director and then director of the Department of European Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 1989-1990 - Special Assistant at the Department of Consular Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 1990-1994- Consul General in Chicago, U.S.A. 1994-1996- Consul General in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. 1996-1998- First Secretary of Embassy and Consul in Cairo 1998-1999- Director of the Department for Asia and the Pacific at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 1999-2001- Director of the Department of Personnel and Administrative Services at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2001-2003 - Charge DAffaires and Consul General, Embassy in Baghdad 2003-2007 - Minister and Consul General at the Permanent Mission to the European Union in Geneva 2007-2009 - Executive Director of the Department for the United Nations and Other International Organizations (UNIO) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2010 - and Permanent Representative to the International Renewable Energy Agency - IRENA 2009-2015 - Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates Since 2015 - Assistant Secretary at the Legislative Liaison Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dr. Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo and Dr. Sima Jeha with Global Pediatric Medicine at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital speak with host Rebecca Ward and VOA Medical Correspondent Carol Pearson about treating pediatric cancer patients in the most dire of circumstances as refugees. They tell VOA that they have successfully treated hundreds of patients at the largest refugee camp in the world in Lebanon, and now hope to ramp up their efforts worldwide to provide treatment to other child refugees with cancer. Community and conservation groups in Myanmar have branded a planned highway linking a port project to Thailand an ecological and social disaster, saying it would uproot indigenous people from their homes and farms. Critics said an environmental and social impact assessment for the road project, approved by the Myanmar government in June, failed to adequately specify compensation for loss of land and livelihoods, among other problems. This is a road to an ecological and social disaster (in Myanmar), said Christy Williams, Myanmar director for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), an international conservation group. The highway is considered strategically important to both nations as it would link Thailand to a deep-sea port and planned Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Dawei, a town on the Myanmar side of an isthmus divided between the two countries. The industrial complex would serve as a gateway to Southeast Asias markets, with goods trucked between Dawei and Thailand, avoiding the need for ships to sail southward through the Malacca Straights, the worlds busiest shipping lane. Region of rich biodiversity But Williams said the planned road would pass through a region of huge ecological importance with rich biodiversity. The assessment looked only at the effects on people and the environment within 500m (550 yards) of the road, he added, but the impact will affect a much wider area. He said WWF had been working with communities and provided extensive recommendations and solutions to the Myanmar government and Myandawei Industrial Estate Co. Ltd, the Thai firm developing the road and SEZ, but these had been ignored. The impact assessment failed to address many issues brought forward by residents during consultation sessions, said Thant Zin, director of the Dawei Development Association, a local civil society group. Our main concerns over the project are forced relocation of thousands of local indigenous people, potential industrial pollution ... land grabbing and livelihood issues, and human rights violations in project area, he said. A spokesman for Myanmars environment ministry did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Gunn Bunchandranon, a spokesman for Myandawei Industrial Estate Co. Ltd, said the highways impact assessment was in line with the laws of both Myanmar and Thai. He said people from affected communities who attended public consultations did not raise any concerns about compensation for loss of land. However, a 2015 draft of the impact assessment provided by conservation group EarthRights International included the minutes of one such meeting where the land compensation question was raised. Risk of renewed conflict Myanmar residents have also expressed fear that the highway could reignite conflict between the government and Myanmars oldest armed group, the Karen National Union (KNU), according to Ben Hardman of EarthRights International. Those concerns did not make it into the impact assessment, Hardman said. The KNU signed a cease-fire agreement with the military in 2012, ending six decades of fighting. In 2015 it signed a national cease-fire agreement (NCA), along with other armed ethnic groups. But relations with the government remain tense, and the KNU claims control over territory the highway would pass through. Saw Tah Doh Moo, the groups secretary general, said the NCA required that the KNU be consulted about any development projects in areas under its control. However, neither the company nor the government have officially discussed the road project with them, he said. I dont want to say what would happen, but it would undermine the NCA, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. We have to think about how to respond. Arab media reported Saturday that warring militias in the Libyan capital had agreed to a cease-fire, but it was unclear whether it would hold for long. Clashes were reported overnight in Tripoli, and its only functioning airport was closed after rockets hit the area Friday. Militia fighters from several warring brigades fired multiple rounds of ammunition into the air around the Yarmouk military camp, scene of bitter fighting in recent days. Control of the camp changed hands several times during the week, and fighters from the so-called Seventh Brigade, based in Tarhouna, held it at last report. Ahmed Maitiq, deputy head of Libya's Presidential Council, part of the country's national unity government, said brigades loyal to the unity government had been sent to recapture the base and end the fighting. National unity government Prime Minister Fayez el-Seraj, under criticism from leaders on all sides, urged opposing parties around the country to agree to unite their forces and end the chaos engulfing Libya. He called on the parliament and the council of state to work together to unite the institutions of state, especially the army and the central bank, and issue the necessary decrees in order to hold elections. Amateur photographs posted on Twitter showed buildings, including a hospital and a hotel, that had been hit by rocket fire during the past 24 hours. Arab media said about 40 people had been killed in a week of fighting. Many residents complained that they had been pinned down by the fighting and that electricity was in short supply. One resident said that on some days, just three to four hours of electric power was available. Refugees have been hit hard by the fighting, although amateur photos on Twitter suggested that food got through to at least one group that had been isolated by fighting. Abdel Salam al-Milad, who is in charge of the U.N.-run Az Zara refugee facility, said several hundred people had been moved to a safer location in Tripoli, where they were given medical and food aid. He said most of the refugees were from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan. The United States and four European governments urged the warring militias to observe the latest cease-fire. Family, loved ones, celebrities and political leaders, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton, were among the thousands who gathered at Detroit's Greater Grace Temple Friday for an all-day funeral to honor Aretha Franklin. The star-studded event with performances by Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Hudson and Faith Hill among others was at times somber and often joyful, a larger than life tribute to the woman known and loved around the world as the "Queen of Soul." VOA's Cindy Saine has more. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says she has no intention of taking any action regarding any possible use of federal funds to arm teachers or provide them with firearms training. DeVos comments came Friday after a top official in her department, asked about arming teachers, said states and local jurisdictions always had the flexibility to decide how to use federal education funds. Frank Brogan, assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education, said arming educators is a good example of a profoundly personal decision on the part of a school or a school district or even a state. President Donald Trump and DeVos have said that schools may benefit from having armed teachers and should have that option. DeVos not authorized DeVos said Friday that Congress did not authorize me or the Department to make those decisions about arming teachers or training them on the use of firearms. Her comments were in a letter to Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the House committee overseeing education, and were posted by the department on Twitter. I will not take any action that would expand or restrict the responsibilities and flexibilities granted to state and local education agencies by Congress, DeVos wrote. Democrats and education groups have argued, however, that the funds are intended for academics, not guns. DeVos heads a federal commission on school safety that was formed after the deadly Valentines Day shooting at a Florida high school. An early draft of the commissions report recommends that states and communities determine based on the unique circumstances of each school whether to arm its security personnel and teachers to be able to respond to violence. The drafts section on training school personnel was reviewed by AP. Official cites Texas program In an interview with The Associated Press Thursday, Brogan cited the school marshal program in Texas where school employees can volunteer to carry weapons on campuses after undergoing training. Educators from some remote rural schools also told the panel that they rely on armed school personnel because the police may take too long to arrive. Others, however, argued that arming teachers is dangerous and could make schools feel like prisons. Brogan said the Every Student Succeeds Act, a bipartisan law that shifts education authority to states, provides about $1 billion in annual funding for various school needs, including 20 percent specifically set aside for school safety. The people at the local level whove been there for years could make the decisions about what services to purchase, what equipment to buy to fulfill the general broad obligations laid out in that law, he said. The debate arose earlier this month after a small rural school district in Oklahoma and the state of Texas asked the department to clarify what the funds can be used for. The position is: You have the language ... the language was written specifically to and always interpreted to mean this is your money, Brogan said. Democratic lawmakers and teachers blasted the idea, accusing the Trump administration of acting in the interests of the National Rifle Association, and several congressmen called for legislation that would prohibit the use of those funds for guns. Orson Swindles first conversation with the late Senator John McCain was tapped out in code on a wall between prison cells. The retired Marine officer met McCain in 1967 when both were prisoners of war at the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison in Vietnam. U.S. servicemen used a secret code to communicate with each other while confined to their cells. The first thing he tapped to me was a joke that I cant tell you, Swindle said, because the joke was a bawdy one. The two men, imprisoned together until their release in early 1973, quickly formed a friendship that lasted until McCains death last week. McCains condition was dire when he was brought into what was formally known as Hoa Lo prison with two broken arms, a broken leg and other injuries sustained after his Skyhawk bomber jet was hit by a Vietnamese missile, October 26, 1967, forcing him to eject and parachute into Truc Bach Lake. He was rescued from the lake and beaten by North Vietnamese fighters. Air Force Colonel Bud Day, a close friend of both men, told Swindle that when McCain was dumped in his cell after his capture, immobile in a full body cast, he didnt look like he would survive. [Day] just said, I dont see how this guys going to live, Swindle said. But thats John McCain. He never, ever gave up. During a phone conversation Friday, Swindle said he and McCain, later imprisoned in the same cell, talked constantly partly to keep their minds sharp, partly to pass the time. We talked about everything we had ever done, remembered, thought of, hoped for. It was just an amazing friendship; he was a fascinating guy. We told stories about our kids and everything. Every movie wed ever seen, every book wed ever read. Cracking jokes, lifting spirits Leon 'Lee' Ellis, a retired Air Force colonel, was also imprisoned with McCain. He was one of the youngest of the POWs and knew McCain first by reputation, as the son of the admiral in charge of U.S. Pacific forces. McCains refusal of a chance for release had made an impression on Ellis. Despite his status as an admirals son, despite his life-threatening injuries, McCain refused to leave prison until all of the men imprisoned ahead of him could be released as well. I knew hed refused an opportunity to go home, but I didnt know him personally until we were moved into the same camp, Ellis said. Once the two men were acquainted, he enjoyed the famous sons company. We would walk together inside the courtyard of the camp, inside the walls, and talk and joke and tell stories. Swindle said humor was one of the tools the POWs deployed against the terror, uncertainty and monotony of life in enemy territory. You could easily get down in the dumps, he said. With some men enduring captivity as long as eight years by the end of the war, Swindle said, we needed to pick each other up. We had been through so much that was terrifying and painful, he said. He noted that the torture to which POWs were subjected thats the subject of a whole lot of other discussion largely stopped after the death of Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh in 1969. But with the easing of the struggle to survive came the challenge of staying optimistic in the face of monotonous uncertainty. McCain was often the ringleader of projects designed to lift the mens spirits. The last Christmas we were there, Swindle said, we decided wed have a Christmas play. We enacted A Christmas Carol, totally ad-libbed. John played Scrooge, of course. Three months later when word of their impending release finally came, Ellis said the men were careful not to betray any joy or hopefulness to their captors. We were determined, one, not to give them a photo op of cheering and going crazy, and two, we also had an attitude of well wait and see. So when they read the protocol to us out in the camp yard there, we all just turned and walked away and walked back to our cells. He said even the day his group left the camp, unbridled celebration didnt break out until their plane was over international waters. From hell-raiser to statesman Many of the POWs from that time are still in touch today, their struggle to survive the experience binding them together in a unique fraternity. McCain, Swindle, and Ellis have all been involved in POW reunions. McCain wrote the foreword to Elliss 2012 book on leadership. Ellis and Swindle supported McCain in the 2008 presidential election. The time in the POW camp shaped the rest of McCains life, Swindle said. He was a carefree, hell-raising young naval aviator when he got shot down, and by his own admission, he had not excelled in much of anything except resisting authority and raising hell. Emulating the courage of others in the camp, McCain became more serious and focused. He became, Swindle said, the John McCain that the public came to know when he went to Congress. By the end of McCains career, he had become an example of the rare lawmaker who would engage in across-the-aisle compromise. He was courageous. He was a statesman, something we desperately need in our Congress, Swindle said. In fact, I would say that we need about 90 more senators like John McCain, and wed be a hell of a lot better country. He never gave up, Swindle added, summing up what was most admirable about his longtime friend. He never gave up in prison, when he was on his deathbed. Never gave up when he was being tortured. He never gave up in the heartache and pain of being separated from family. And youve seen him operate in Congress. He never gave up on his efforts to do the right thing. The longest-serving NATO commander in Afghanistan is stepping down Sunday. Before his confirmation in 2016, U.S. General John Nicholson told Congress the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan has "largely defined" his service. Nicholson has served about six years in the war-torn country since Sept. 11, 2001, and, as VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb reports, experts say only time will tell if his legacy set the Afghan government up for success or simply maintained a stalemate with the Taliban. The Islamic State terror group is losing its grip on parts of Afghanistan, slowly succumbing to pressure from U.S. and Afghan forces, the outgoing commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan said Saturday. General John Nicholson rejected the notion that IS-Khorsasan, also known as ISIS-K or IS-K, has been able to meaningfully expand its presence following a concerted effort to wipe it out, which began last year. That effort included use of the largest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal. "ISIS-K is not growing," said Nicholson, who hands over command of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan on Sunday to Lieutenant General Austin Miller. "They have been able to replenish a portion of their losses by recruiting from other violent extremist organizations," he added in an email statement to VOA. "Despite this recruiting, they are losing fighters and losing ground." Recent estimates from U.S. counterterrorism officials put the number of IS-Khorasan fighters at more than 1,000, even after the defeat last month of IS-K in northern Jowzjan province, where 250 fighters surrendered along with their commander. More recently, on August 26, the Afghan government announced the death of the IS-Khorasan emir, Abdu Saad Erhabi, along with his nine commanders in a U.S. airstrike, calling it a "major blow" to the terror group. Staying power But U.S. defense and intelligence officials have been cautious of predicting the group's demise, noting that IS-Khorasan, like IS in Iraq and Syria, has been resilient. Erhabi was the third IS-Khorasan emir killed by U.S. or Afghan forces since April 2017, when the estimated number of fighters dropped to about 600. For now, senior U.S. counterterrorism officials believe the bulk of the remaining IS fighters, mostly local Afghans, as well as fighters from Pakistan and Uzbekistan, are in Afghanistan's southern Nangarhar province, with a small number also operating in the country's eastern Kunar province. Some Afghan officials worry more may be lurking, warning that the terror group has been bolstered by an influx of foreign fighters first a surge of about 3,000 from Pakistan and Uzbekistan, and later from hundreds of jihadists fleeing Iraq and Syria. U.S. defense officials, including some familiar with border security measures that have been put in place by the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan and by Afghanistan's neighbors, are skeptical. In either case, Nicholson said, there will be no letup in the effort against IS-Khorasan. "United States counterterrorism forces and Afghan Special Security Forces will keep up the pressure until they are defeated," he said. "This reinforces the importance of the United States and NATO mission in Afghanistan, to prevent the resurgence of international terrorist groups from the region." The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is expelling a United Nations human rights team two days after the body published a report blaming it for the violent repression of opposition protests. Guillermo Fernandez Maldonado, chief of the U.N.s human rights mission in Nicaragua, said in a news conference Friday that he and his team would leave the country Saturday. We put forward the report not to polarize, but rather to make known what we had seen, Fernandez said. This has had a lot of media coverage and we did not expect the governments reaction in this sense. We only did our job. In a statement, the U.N. human rights regional office for Central America said that it had received a letter Thursday from the foreign ministry notifying it that the governments invitation was over. The letter indicates that said invitation was extended with the purpose of accompanying the Verification and Monitoring Commission and that with the reasons, causes and conditions finished that spurred said invitation, the invitation is considered concluded, according to the statement. The U.N. statement said the team will continue monitoring and reporting on the situation remotely. The U.N. Security Council will discuss the situation in Nicaragua on Sept. 5. The U.N. issued a statement late Friday saying that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres regrets Nicaraguas decision to withdraw its invitation to the human rights office and urges it to continue constructive engagement with the agency. What the report describes The report released Wednesday by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights described repression in the country that stretched from the streets to courtrooms, where some protesters face terrorism charges. More than 300 people have been killed since popular protests began in mid-April triggered by cuts to the social security system. Ortega reversed the cuts, but demonstrations quickly expanded and turned into a call for him to step down. In July, the government forcefully cleared the last of the roadblocks erected by protesters that had snarled the countrys traffic. It also retook the last of the university campuses occupied by students. The U.N. report called on the government to immediately halt the persecution of protesters and disarm the masked civilians who have been responsible for many of the killings and arbitrary detentions. It also documented cases of torture and excessive force through interviews with victims and local human rights groups. Government sees bias In response, the government said that the report was biased and did not consider that its actions occurred in the context of what it alleges was a failed coup attempt. It said the report ignored violence committed against members of his Sandinista party. Ortega has called the protesters terrorists working in coordination with domestic and foreign interests that want him removed from office. The government also accused the U.N. team of overstepping its authority in violation of Nicaraguas sovereignty and said the U.N. had not been invited to evaluate the human rights situation, but to accompany the commission working to end the crisis. A national dialogue aimed at finding a resolution ultimately stalled, and Ortega accused the Roman Catholic bishops who were mediating talks of working with coup mongers. Human Rights Watchs director for the Americas, Jose Miguel Vivanco, issued a statement calling on the U.N. Security Council to apply pressure to Ortegas government. Ortegas move to expel the top U.N. human rights body exposes his administrations determination to conceal its brutality, he said. The council should demand an end to the crackdown and consider imposing targeted sanctions against high-level officials who bear responsibility for the abuses unless they reverse course, and ensure perpetrators are held accountable. The five-day mourning period for the late Senator John McCain will end Sunday when he is buried at his alma mater, the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, near Washington. The final resting place of the Arizona Republican, who died last Saturday at age 81, will be next to that of his longtime friend and academy classmate, Admiral Chuck Larson, who died in 2014. McCain, a former aviator who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for more than five years, made one of his last public appearances at the academy in October, when he told the student body that the school prepared him for challenges he had yet to confront. "I would discover that a sense of honor had been imparted to me here that would speak to me in the darkest hours," he said. "And so I came back, again and again, to the place where I learned to dread dishonor." At a private memorial service for McCain on Saturday in Washington's National Cathedral, former Democratic President Barack Obama hailed McCain, his friend and onetime political opponent, as an inspiration to all Americans "to be better, to do better, to be worthy of the great inheritance that our founders bestowed." So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty, trafficking in bombast and insult and phony controversies and manufactured outrage, Obama said. Without mentioning President Donald Trump by name, Obama added, Its a politics that pretends to be brave and tough, but in fact is born in fear. John called on us to be bigger than that. He called on us to be better than that. In his eulogy for his fellow Republican, former President George W. Bush said McCain was honorable, always recognizing that his opponents were still patriots and human beings. Bush also rejected the status quo of Washington politics, which he said was contrary to McCains personal beliefs. He respected the dignity inherent in every life, a dignity that does not stop at borders and cannot be erased by dictators, Bush said. Perhaps above all, John detested the abuse of power. Bush and Obama were invited to remember their friend at the service, which McCain planned himself as he battled brain cancer. McCain lost the Republican presidential nomination to Bush in 2000 and the presidential election to Obama in 2008. McCain's wife, Cindy, his seven children and his 106-year-old mother were among the hundreds of relatives, friends, former congressional colleagues, staff members and foreign dignitaries who gathered at the cathedral before his flag-draped coffin. McCains daughter Meghan also paid tribute to her father with a veiled reference to Trump and his "Make America Great Again" mantra. America does not boast because she does not need to. The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great, she said to applause. "We live in an era where we knock down old American heroes for all their imperfections when no leader wants to admit to fault or failure, Meghan said, adding that her father was an exception, and you gave us an ideal to strive for. Others who delivered tributes and readings included Senator Lindsey Graham; former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who advised then-President Richard Nixon on Vietnam; and other McCain family members. Pallbearers included actor Warren Beatty, former Vice President Joe Biden, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza. McCain's body lay in state in the U.S. Capitol rotunda Friday into Saturday morning after a ceremony honoring him. At the Capitol, McCain's coffin rested on a wooden platform known as a catafalque, which was first used in 1865 to support the casket of assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. The cortege Saturday from the Capitol to the National Cathedral paused at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where Cindy McCain laid a wreath to honor those who died in the war. McCain said in a farewell letter to the country, "We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe." He added, "We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been." Trump was not invited to any of the ceremonies for McCain, a decision viewed by many as a rebuke of the current president. A bitter feud between Trump and the two-time presidential hopeful took root during Trump's 2016 campaign, when he mocked McCain for having been captured during the Vietnam War. "He's not a war hero," Trump said. "He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured." Trump, who went golfing in nearby Virginia while the eulogies were delivered, received military deferments from service during the Vietnam War for his college education and bone spurs in his heels. 'John had character' On Thursday, at a funeral service for McCain in the Arizona capital of Phoenix, Biden described his old friend as a man who lived by an ageless code of honor, courage and duty. "Character is destiny, John had character," Biden said. Pakistan has temporarily closed a consulate in neighboring Afghanistan, citing a lack of security and accusing authorities of interfering in the work of the diplomatic facility. The consulate is located in Jalalabad, capital of the eastern Nangarhar province next to the border with Pakistan. Letter to ministry Islamabads embassy in Kabul in a letter to the Afghan Foreign Affairs Ministry on Friday blamed undue intervention of the provincial governor in the functioning of the consulate for prompting it to shut down the diplomatic facility. The letter urged the ministry to see that Governor Hayatullah Hayat refrain from undertaking actions in complete violation of the international treaties on diplomatic relations. It also requested the restoration of security arrangements Afghan authorities allegedly withdrew earlier this week. The embassy wishes to inform that the Consulate General will remain closed until the security arrangements are complete to the satisfaction of the embassy, said the letter. Accusation of visa fees Hayat on Saturday rejected the allegations he was interfering in the internal matters of the Pakistani consulate and accused the foreign mission of insulting Afghans and illegally charging money for processing their visas. We were not happy with activities of the Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad. According to our information, the consulate was charging 5,000 ($40) to 20,000 ($160) Pakistani rupees from Afghans for processing their visas, he told a news conference in the provincial capital. We wont interfere in the internal matters of the consulate. But we also wont allow anyone to dishonor Afghans outside the consulate and encourage bribes, Hayat said. Pakistani officials were not available immediately to respond to Hayats allegations. Pakistan and Afghanistan issue free of charge visas to each others citizens. Hundreds of Afghans line up every day outside the Jalalabad consulate to get Pakistani visas, and a large number of them had gathered Saturday, officially a working day in Afghanistan, as they were unaware of the abrupt closure of the facility. Governor's visit Local Afghan media quoted a provincial government spokesman as confirming that Hayat personally visited the Pakistani consulate Thursday to facilitate Afghan visa applicants and called on the diplomatic staff to put in order their visa issuance process. The governors visit apparently provoked Pakistan to close the Jalalabad consulate. The controversy is another reflection of Pakistans strained ties with Afghanistan. The two uneasy neighbors share a nearly 2,600-kilometer, largely porous border and each accuses the other of supporting militant attacks against their them. It has been one year since the Burmese military began a violent campaign to force ethnic minorities to leave Myanmar's Rakhine state. Witnesses say the campaign included razing villages and separating families. More than 25,000 were killed and thousands of women and girls were sexually assaulted. Since then, more than 700,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh, settling in refugee camps. In one such camp, VOA Bangla reporter Selim Hossain spoke to some of the women who survived the purge. A U.S. senator who was held as a prisoner of war (POW) in Vietnam and then ran for U.S. president twice was given the honor of lying in state in the U.S. Capitol Friday, two days before his burial. Arizona Senator John McCain lost his battle with cancer. But the 81-year-old will probably be best remembered for his ability to cross party boundaries. VOA's Carolyn Presutti reports. A United Nations watchdog committee accuses China of holding possibly more than one million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in political re-education camps in its Western Xinjiang region. The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has published its findings on China and other countries examined during its latest session between August 6 and 30. The 18 independent experts forming the committee say they have received numerous credible reports of widespread torture and ill-treatment in China. Committee member Nicolas Marugan said those subjected to cruel treatment include Uighurs, Tibetans, and other ethnic minorities as well as political protesters and human rights defenders. The committee has been alarmed by numerous reports of detention of large numbers of ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities held incommunicado and often for long periods without being charged or tried under the pretext of countering terrorism and religious extremism. The Committee regrets that there is no official data on how many people are in long-term detention, Marugan said. The committee reports many people are forced to spend varying periods of time in the re-education camps. It says even non-threatening expressions of Muslim ethno-religious culture like daily greetings are enough to get people locked up. The committee estimates the number of people detained in these secret camps runs from tens of thousands to upwards of a million. The Committee also raises concerns about reports of mass surveillance, disproportionately targeting ethnic Uighurs, and of Uighurs abroad who have been returned to China against their will. China denies these accusations, saying they have no basis in fact. It contends Uighurs enjoy full rights, though it acknowledges some religious extremists are being held for so-called re-education. Russia is not giving up on efforts to destabilize Afghanistan and drive divisions between the United States and its coalition partners, according to the outgoing commander of U.S. forces in the country. The commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan and of Operation Resolute Support, General John Nicholson, is scheduled to step down Sunday after serving in the position for more than two years. But before relinquishing command, he took time to cast doubts on Russia's intentions in the region, despite recent overtures from Moscow to help the Taliban reconcile with the Afghan government. "We know that Russia is attempting to undercut our military gains and years of military progress in Afghanistan, and make partners question Afghanistan's stability," Nicholson said in an email to Voice of America, following on questions from his August 22 briefing with Pentagon reporters. "It is no secret that Russia seeks any opportunity it can find to drive a wedge between the United States and our Central Asian partners, including Afghanistan," Nicholson added. Aid to Taliban U.S. and Afghan officials have previously accused Russia of meddling in Afghanistan by providing Taliban insurgents with both weapons and training. Moscow has rejected the allegations, saying it has only political ties with the Taliban. Still, Russia has faced growing suspicion from the U.S. and its allies, who say the Kremlin has been increasingly working to expand its influence in Afghanistan and beyond. Most recently, the U.S. and Russia have been competing over efforts to kick-start peace negotiations between the Taliban and the U.S.-backed Afghan government. Russia was set to host both parties, along with the U.S. and other countries, for talks starting September 4, but was forced to postpone after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani declined the invitation. The U.S. also has been hoping for talks between the government and the Taliban. "We talk about an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned reconciliation process," U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said during a briefing with reporters this past week. "We believe that the best way to get there is to ensure Taliban recognizes they can't win on the battlefield, they must negotiate." But while U.S. officials have touted what they see are signs of progress, including increased support for a peace process from various sectors of the Afghan population, the government's recent cease-fire offer to the Taliban appears to have fallen on deaf ears. Meanwhile, U.S. officials have been angered by what they see as Russian efforts to derail peace and stabilization efforts with disinformation campaigns. Charges repeated Just over a week ago, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova raised concerns about "unidentified" helicopters flying missions in support of fighters for the Islamic State terror group, also known as IS-Khorasan or IS-K, in the northern Sar-e-Pul province, suggesting the U.S. and NATO might be responsible. "Who is arming the terrorists and secretly creating their bases?" she asked. "Why is this happening if NATO command is effectively in control of Afghanistan's airspace?" Pentagon officials rejected the suggestion of U.S. or NATO involvement as "completely untrue," noting it was not the first time Moscow had levied such charges. "As they [Russia] perpetuate false narratives about ISIS-K, the United States and the Afghan Special Security Forces eliminated the Jowzjan ISIS-K enclave and are killing ISIS-K leaders and fighters in Nangarhar," Nicholson said in his statement to VOA. Still, the outgoing commander said he held out hope Russia could play a constructive role. "We have shared interests with Russia in Afghanistan peace, counterterrorism and counternarcotics," Nicholson said. "We hope to see Russia support Afghanistan and the NATO-led coalition in these areas going forward." VOA's Ayaz Gul contributed to this report. We organize tours to particularly active volcanoes and during ongoing eruptions for extended observation time from various viewpoints. These trips, exclusively for very small groups, are often announced only at short notice and require fast travel and flexibility. Each trip is accompanied by a volcanologist from our team. Examples include: Kilauea (Hawai'i), Colima (Mexico), Krakatau and many others. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 1) China is not assisting with the retrieval of a Filipino warship that is currently stranded in disputed waters, a ranking military official said. Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson Col. Noel Detoyato, in a text message to CNN Philippines Saturday said that there are no Chinese ships assisting in the retrieval of BRP Gregorio del Pilar, which ran aground in the shallow waters at the Hasa-hasa or Half Moon Shoal some 100 kilometers off Palawan island. READ: Retrieval efforts underway for Navy ship 'slightly damaged' in South China Sea Earlier, Detoyato said that should there be Chinese ships, they would be able to pass near Hasa-hasa shoal because its within international waters. International waters na yan sya. Freedom of navigation dyan sa slog, Detoyato told reporters. [Translation: Those are international waters. Theres freedom of navigation.] He added that according to Navy Spokesperson Commander Jonathan Zata, the Navy has yet to receive formal word about an offer from China to help remove BRP Gregorio del Pilar from Hasa-hasa shoal. Detoyato referred further questions on Chinese assistance to the Department of Foreign Affairs. Ongoing retrieval A joint task force Goyong was created to retrieve the ship, led by Commodore Rommel Galang, who was flown in by helicopter to the shoal. The task force is made up of members from the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), Philippine Air Force and Philippine Navy. He will manage, supervise and direct the retrieval operations. He was formerly assigned with the Naval Sea Systems Command, Detoyato said about Galang. The coast guard will assess the condition of the ship, and how to best retrieve it from the shallow water. So, while waiting for the tugboats and other PCG and Navy platforms to arrive, surface and underwater assessments are being done to come up with the right plan of retrieval, Detoyato said. The precise contours of the probe are unknown, but investigators have subpoenaed information about lobbyist Adam Corey, a longtime friend of Gillums who once served as his campaign treasurer. Three people who claimed to be out-of-town developers or business executives who cozied up to public officials for more than a year before suddenly vanishing are now widely presumed to have been undercover FBI agents. Last year, two of the purported developers met up with Gillum and Corey in New York. Gillum has acknowledged that the trip is the subject of an investigation by the state ethics commission, as is one Gillum took to Costa Rica with Corey and other lobbyists. Hes right. Most cops are good. They work under incredibly stressful, unpredictable circumstances, and the least we can do is to prepare them to do their job well and remain good cops. None of them should be placed in a situation where they might hurt or kill a person because they werent trained on how to interact with someone who may not respond in an expected way. If these officers dont know that a person with autism may lash out when touched, or that someone who is deaf is not ignoring them but cant hear them say, Put your hands up, then we have failed them, along with some of the most vulnerable members of our community. Gaona was 9 in 2005 when her mother said they were taking a trip to the United States. Mary Caceres secured travel visas so she and her daughter could visit the country legally at first. But trying to escape the violence in her native country of Colombia and domestic problems, she applied for asylum when the visas expired. Colombia was in the middle of a civil war that took the life of Caceress brother, who was killed by guerrillas. It should be like it was back in the day, when I went to school. If you had a problem with somebody, just fight it out and get over it, the 43-year-old dressed in camouflage said. Times have changed so much now, as far as society and the way we deal with children. 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 San Francisco transit officials said they have not even considered the technology because they lack the personnel who would be needed to run the system. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has not tested it and is not considering it, an agency spokesman said. But the agencys board chairman said hed be interested if money wasnt an issue. The citys subway, with 91 stations and 117 miles of track, is the second-busiest in the country. The Postal Service declined to provide any identifying information about the other three individuals whose information was mistakenly released, or to say if they are candidates for public office, according to two aides who were on the call. The aides spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter. Lundergan is a former state lawmaker and chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party. He has close ties to former president Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, both of whom came to campaign for Grimes during her failed 2014 bid to unseat Sen. Mitch McConnell (R). Lundergans attorney denied the allegations, saying they were wrong on the facts and wrong on the law. He noted Grimess campaign and other committees together raised more than $25 million for her 2014 campaign. Family sues over needle left in patient's chest: The family of a Tennessee man who died shortly after a surgeon left a needle inside his chest cavity has sued the hospital. John Burns Johnson had open-heart surgery at TriStar Centennial Hospital in May 2017. After about nine hours, a surgeon closed his chest, only to discover that one of his needles was missing. An X-ray revealed that it was inside Johnson, who died about a month after the surgery. Rosenbaum started to pull together a detailed timeline about the case, which was launched in the 1990s after OSI historians found Palijs name on a roster of Nazi guards that had been stashed for decades in the archives in Prague. They were ultimately able to place Palij, in February 1943, in an obscure camp in the southern Polish village of Trawniki, where the Nazis trained guards for Operation Reinhard, the program to murder the Jews of occupied Poland. Though Palijs personnel file did not survive the war, historians analyzed dozens of statements from his comrades, who reported that they guarded Jewish prisoners at a forced-labor camp adjacent to the training center. Next in line, making our way east, catch the large Saturn in the south in the early evening, hanging out above the teapots dome shape in the constellation Sagittarius. To the unaided eye, the ringed planet will look like a bright dot because it is a zero-magnitude object less bright than Jupiter or Venus. Russia says Ukraine peace talks are in jeopardy: Russia is ruling out any rapid progress in peace talks for eastern Ukraine after pro-Russian separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko was killed in a bomb explosion. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday's attack was "Ukraine's provocation . . . obviously aimed at derailing the implementation of the Minsk agreements," referring to the 2015 deals aimed at resolving the Ukraine conflict. Zakharchenko, 42, was a native of the Donetsk region who led the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic in an armed rebellion against the Ukrainian state for the past four years. A host of issues are at stake with the departure of the courts pivotal justice, Anthony M. Kennedy, whose swing-vote jurisprudence did not fit neatly into a conservative or liberal box. Abortion, affirmative action, the interplay of religious beliefs and gay rights, and the governments protection of the environment are among the issues affected by Kennedys departure, and Kavanaugh is likely to be to the right of Kennedy on all. At his confirmation hearing in January 2017, Sessions was asked whether anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign had communicated with Russia. He said that he was not aware of any of those activities and that he did not have communications with the Russians. The Washington Post then reported that Sessions had spoken twice to the Russian ambassador at the time, Sergey Kislyak. This may be the latest and most dramatic breach in the process, but we already knew it was a sham, broken at every step along the way, said Kang, who is now with Demand Justice, an advocacy group working to defeat Kavanaugh and other conservative judicial nominees. The issue now is what are Democrats going to do about it? Unite in opposition? Boycott the hearing? This kind of brash coverup requires an equally forceful response. By a vote of 6-1, the Supreme Electoral Court barred Lula from running because it would violate an anti-corruption law that the former president himself signed. The 2010 Clean Slate law prevents any candidate who has had a conviction upheld from running for office for eight years. He is the first presidential candidate to be barred from running because of the law. Still, she clings to the belief that one day, her reporting will have an impact: My dream is that I will do a story and the next day, prosecutors will start a criminal case, and the corruption will be exposed, people will be arrested. Then I will know things have changed. And I will be really happy. The coalition said that an internal investigation had concluded that there were mistakes made in abiding by the rules of engagement. The coalition expressed regret for these mistakes, and offers its condolences and solidarity with the families of the victims and wishes for a speedy recovery for the injured. When they reached their barbed-wired-surrounded houses, the crews signed their names to assume responsibility for as many as 10 nuclear missiles and rode the elevator 60 feet down into capsules that are each about the size of two cars. Surrounded by the buzz of mint-green Cold War equipment, the job can feel like a mission that history left behind. Some study for masters degrees during downtime. One lieutenant said she does yoga. That argument will be hard for the president to resist, at least while he remains responsible for its implications, said James Dobbins, another former senior diplomat now at Rand. Today, as they did during his strategy review, the presidents aides are likely to present him with a blunt choice about the war. Comic, actor and television personality Shane Jacobson is universally loved for his endearing characters, but none more so than Kenny Smyth, a fictional Melbourne plumber who works for a portable toilet rental company who became a national hero. Kenny starring Shane Jacobson got its start at the St Kilda Film Festival over a decade ago. His lead role in the 2006 film Kenny is by far Jacobson's most successful, still popular with millions of Australians more than a decade later. There is rarely a day that goes by when Jacobson does not receive an email, letter or phone call from a fan going through a rough patch asking if he has any spare DVDs of the film he could send their way. "I guess people assume that I have a warehouse full of them ... in reality, I have to go out and buy the copies just like everyone else and send them out ... I don't mind doing it. I reckon I've spent many thousands of dollars over the years ... but how could I ever say no?" Jacobson half-joked last week as PS quizzed him about his charitable pursuits. Perth activists have flagged their intention to protest controversial British politician Nigel Farage ahead of his speaking engagement at the Perth Town Hall on Sunday. Farage is known as the former leader of the UK Independence Party, and is currently the vice chairman of the pro-Brexit Leave Means Leave political organisation. Nigel Farage, former leader of the UK Independence Party, has arrived in Australia. Credit:Bloomberg Hosted by GME Events, Farage's speaking engagement is due to take place at 6pm on Sunday evening with tickets ranging between $45 and $995. "Farage has been described as 'the most important British politician of the last decade' and one of the most influential," the event's description reads. The state government will spend $30 million to form a 'Team Perth' with the goal of attracting new airline routes into Perth and grow its reputation as Australias western gateway. The partnership between Tourism Western Australia and Perth Airport regularly meets with airlines, shares information and seeks opportunities to grow aviation access to WA. 'Team Perth' is trying to secure more direct flights to city like the Perth to London flight that started earlier this year. The team is investigating increased capacity from China and new direct routes from Japan, India and Europe. Tourism Minister Paul Papalia said the combined funding contributions of $30 million would be used for destination marketing agreements with individual airlines to help drive demand for the new routes. The Chinese Communist Party put Australia in the rhetorical naughty corner last December and kept it there for most of this year. Beijing signalled that it was angry at the Turnbull government's laws to limit foreign interference in Australian politics. Labor also supported the laws, making amends after the damaging scandal of Sam Dastyari. A rising chorus of concern went up as Australian companies and universities fretted that a furious dragon would unleash its anger on their business interests. Peak hysteria came from a business consultant who had once been Australia's ambassador to China, Geoff Raby. He demanded that Turnbull sack Bishop to rescue relations. So when Wang met Bishop in May, the encounter was closely watched. Would there be rapprochement or rage? According to Bishop there was rapprochement. According to China's official statements and state-owned media, there was rage. The clashing accounts dominated the Australian news coverage. Illustration: John Shakespeare Bishop said the meeting on the sidelines of a Group of 20 meeting in Buenos Aires was warm and positive. Wang's ministry issued a stiff note stating that Australia must "take off their coloured glasses and look at China's development from a positive angle, and provide more co-operation between two countries instead of recoiling". It was all theatre, Bishop says now. "I'd had 12 or 13 formal meetings with Wang over the years," she tells me. "The Chinese call them formal or informal depending on whether they're in a good mood or not. But I'd met Wang hundreds of times in different settings. "I thought it was positive because we met. Was it warm? Absolutely. Wang and I get along very well. But China wanted to portray it differently." Why? "They wanted to send a message home that Australia was not going to get away with saying [China is] going to militarise the South China Sea." A Chinese H-6K bomber patrols the islands and reefs in the South China Sea. Credit:Liu Rui Australia had consistently voiced its concerns whenever China added more military assets to the islands it built in disputed waters, and when its long-range bombers touched down in the Spratly Islands for the first time on newly built runways alongside newly installed missile batteries. But President Xi Jinping had promised publicly from the steps of the White House that they would not militarise the islands and so the line had to be maintained. Wang told Bishop the facilities were strictly for self-defence, she says. "Against who?" she responded, in her telling. "Anyone who wants to attack us," came Wang's reply. "Who? Name them!" rejoined the disbelieving Australian minister. In the entire half-year span of China's displeasure, there was no evidence of any material damage to the annual $160 billion two-way trade relationship. The number of Chinese students enrolling at Australian institutions continues to boom. China's theatrics so far have been like the Chinese traditional lion dance - all dance, no lion. Former US ambassador to Australia John Berry is a fan of Julie Bishop. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Bishop refused to be intimidated. Her five years as foreign affairs minister was a time of rising belligerence by Russia and assertiveness by China, capped by an outbreak of populist disruption in the United States. The hallmark of Bishop's performance was that she was not frightened or fazed by any of it. Barack Obama's ambassador to Australia, John Berry, publicly held her up to be one of the world's best foreign affairs ministers. Privately he put her in the top 10. There was "none finer" he liked to say. Bishop has said that her proudest achievement was confronting Vladimir Putin after Russian-backed rebels in Ukraine shot down the civilian airliner MH17. Though Russia has never admitted responsibility, Bishop led the international response and managed to win safe access for Australia to the crash zone. The advent of Donald Trump sent many foreign capitals into despair and many countries recoiled. Turnbull and Bishop immediately set about dealing with the reality of the new US administration. Bishop has said that her proudest achievement was confronting Vladimir Putin. Credit:AP "Trump respected Turnbull as a no-nonsense businessman," says Bishop. "We maintained the Obama agreement for the US to accept refugees from Nauru, we kept Australian steel and aluminium exempt from US tariffs, last year's Ausmin was stronger than ever, we even produce non-papers" for the US at Washington's request, she says. Non-papers? A non-paper is a government-produced document that has no official standing. At the request of Trump's first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, Bishop sent him a non-paper explaining the logic of changing the Asia-Pacific as a strategic operating concept to the Indo-Pacific. That is, a zone which doesn't end at the edges of the Pacific Ocean. The US has since followed Australia's lead on this. Being foreign affairs minister had been Bishop's dream from the moment she entered Parliament, but the reality, she says, was "far more exciting. I learned that Australia is so highly regarded, that our voice matters. We are a significant economy, we are a significant country and we should act like one. "That's why I never called Australia a 'middle power'. Middle of what? There are 200 nations in the world. Are we in the middle, number 100? We are a top 20 country." Bishop would have called Australia a top 10 nation for most of its attributes if it weren't for the fact that Australia's economy, ranking 13th biggest, doesn't quite make it. After unsuccessfully running for the leadership last week, Bishop decided to leave her dream job as foreign affairs minister. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen After unsuccessfully running for the leadership last week, Bishop decided to leave her dream job even though the new Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, was happy to keep her in it. She will say only that she is "considering my options" while remaining in Parliament for now. (Her local newspaper, the Cambridge Post, reported on Friday that she intends to contest the next election). Why? Her travel schedule was frenetic but at 62 years old she says she is still "raring to go", so it's not her energy levels. In winning just 11 votes in the ballot for the Liberal leadership we can assume she was left feeling overlooked, under-appreciated and dismayed at what she's since called the "treachery" of the other Liberal MPs from Western Australia, none of whom voted for her. Loading The Liberals can't be said to have entered into a popularity contest in their leadership contest. Bishop was - and remains - by far the most popular with the people among any of the federal Liberals, a status confirmed by an Essential Media poll last week. In a struggle dominated by factions rather than electability, Bishop ran third of the three contenders. Bishop doesn't say so, but people close to her say that she couldn't work in a Morrison cabinet and in a leadership group increasingly under the sway of the right-wing faction headed by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. Dear son, Its a cool, damp, morning in Sydney. Last weekend your mother, brother, and I enjoyed putting some of the final preparations together for your nursery, as youre due to join us in just over a month. Amid our joy, the past fortnight has also seen political disorder at the highest level in both of the countries in which you will have citizenship. Across the Pacific, two of the US Presidents former confidantes were found guilty in a federal court. Here, the fifth Prime Minister in as many years was sworn in after intense intra-party discord. In sharp contrast to this setting, I write to you about a hero of mine and millions of others whom we sadly lost to brain cancer last weekend: US senator John McCain. I write because I fear his passing marks the end of an era during which the perspective of his integrity reverberated in Washington, DC and around the world. Sadly, I expect we will only truly understand his value now that he has left us. John McCain in 2017. Credit:AP One morning in September 1999, weeks into my final year at the US Naval Academy, I was told that McCain would be joining my table for breakfast, a particular honour considering there are 400 tables for the 4000 midshipmen that dine together in King Hall. Jim was a hard-working man who always had a smile for everyone By the time you read this, Tuesdays election will be history. We will know whether or not Texans came out... Always leave things as you would like to find them. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 31/8/2018 (1159 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Always leave things as you would like to find them. Outgoing Manitoba Film and Music CEO Carole Vivier evidently subscribes to that philosophy. Vivier, who announced earlier this week that she will retire in June 2019, will oversee a record-setting amount of film and TV production in the province during her final months on the job. In 2017, Manitoba topped $173 million in film production, and the province is on track to repeat or surpass that in 2018, according to Nicole Matiation, executive director of On Screen Manitoba. "This year is looking very similar," she said, adding the abundance of work is keeping Manitoba film crews hopping. "People are moving between shows a lot and are in high demand," she said. So if youre noticing a lot of film production trailers parked in your neighbourhood, they may have something to do with these projects: Christopher Walken as Percy Schmeiser Christopher Walken (right) is in Winnipeg shooting a film about Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeisers battle with biotech giant Monsanto. (Nathan Denette / The Canadian Press files) Yes, the Oscar-winning actor is in Winnipeg shooting a film about Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeisers battle with biotech giant Monsanto. The production is tight-lipped about the film, which is titled Percy Vs. Goliath, according to the Directors Guild of Canada website. It started shooting this week under the direction of actor-filmmaker Clark Johnson (Homicide: Life on the Streets, The Wire) and is likely to stay in Winnipeg until early October... after the canola harvest. A Dog Re-Purposed A Dogs Journey, a sequel to the Manitoba-lensed hit A Dogs Purpose, is shooting with the star of the original film, Dennis Quaid, as well as Marg Helgenberger (CSI) and Asian-Canadian star Henry Lau. Notably, Betty Gilpin, best known from the Netflix series GLOW, has returned after being in town earlier this summer shooting The Grudge, a Sony studio reboot of the horror franchise. (While talking with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show, Gilpin told a hilarious story about an astrologer telling her she was a "ghost portal," a cause for some distress since she stayed at the "haunted" Fort Garry Hotel during that shoot.) Taking over from director Lasse Hallstrom for the sequel is multiple-Emmy winning director Gail Mancuso (Modern Family). The film is scheduled to shoot into October. Striking the set After years of effort, the Danny Schur-Rick Chafe-penned stage musical Strike! is finally in production as a film, directed by Robert Adetuyi (Stomp the Yard) and starring seasoned pro Gregg Henry as Mike Sokolowski. Using the Exchange District locations that witnessed the original events of the Winnipeg General Strike, the film is due to be released next year, the centenary of the historically momentous strike. TV handles the Truth Peter Mooney and Kristen Kreuk star in Burden of Truth, which is shooting its second season in southern Manitoba. (CBC) The second season of the CBC series Burden of Truth is filming, mostly in Selkirk, until mid-September. Kristen Kreuk stars as a big-city lawyer obliged to return to her small hometown, which presents her with professional challenges she didnt anticipate. Besides its CBC run, Burden of Truth, produced by Manitoba-based Eagle Vision Inc., was picked up by the U.S. network the CW, which showed the series in this summer, and by Universal TV in the United Kingdom. Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Even more coming Winnipeg will see even more production next year with the announcement of a busy Los Angeles-based production company, The Cartel, officially opening a new division in Winnipeg as of Sept. 1. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Cartel Pictures Canada will focus on producing, financing and developing TV movies, indie films and TV series, all taking advantage of Manitobas competitive tax credits and a low Canadian dollar to minimize production costs. "Our goal is to be producing a minimum of 20 projects next year, with around eight to 10 in Winnipeg," Cartel partner Eric Woods said in a statement. The company has staked out a specialty in Hallmark movies, shooting four in Winnipeg last year, including Christmas Connection, One Winter Weekend, Love in Design and most recently, Under the Autumn Moon. The company is producing two more Hallmark movies this year (apparently including one titled A Shoe Addicts Christmas), and will be producing three indie films before the end of 2018, according to the Hollywood Reporter. randall.king@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @FreepKing When it came to the ways of business and money, Katy Hawthorne was largely in the dark. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/9/2018 (1159 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion When it came to the ways of business and money, Katy Hawthorne was largely in the dark. But since she joined Junior Achievement (JA) in Grade 11, the recent grad of Nelson McIntyre Collegiate has become well versed in the art of the deal, the sell and the hustle when it comes to amassing capital. "Before starting the program, I didnt really know what an entrepreneur was," says Hawthorne, who is enrolled at the University of Manitoba this fall, aiming to take engineering. "Now, I have a better understanding of how businesses work, so if I do want to invest in one in the future or start one myself, I feel like I have a better idea of what to do." Hawthorne is among millions of students who see a big upside to the international organization that aims to boost students knowledge in business and finance. Since the 1950s, Junior Achievement has been illuminating young minds in this regard, even giving them hands-on experience running small ventures. But for the thousands of Manitobans who have gone through its programs, JA offers more than business education. Its also a leader in financial literacy something thats sorely needed to navigate life effectively. In fact, the youth organization is celebrating a banner year enlightening youth about business and money, says Greg Leipsic, president and CEO of JA Manitoba. "We taught (our programs to) more than 11,000 students, and thats a 29 per cent increase over the last two years," Leipsic says. The de facto largest financial educator in the province, the organization has long filled a void within the education system teaching students about business and money. Evelyn Jacks, president of the Winnipeg-based Knowledge Bureau, says organizations like JA are indispensable for this reason. "Financial literacy education is largely inaccessible, or at the very least, spotty (in our formal education system)," says Jacks, who was a member of the federal Task Force on Financial Literacy a few years back. Moreover, JAs particular brand of learning is more relevant today than ever before, she adds. "Increasingly, our emerging gig economy speaks to the need for young people to have even more skills to make a good living, save money and build wealth," she says. "And that is in the areas of entrepreneurship and business building." These are skills young people are generally not learning in school curriculums, she notes. "Meanwhile, public universities often have an emphasis on skills required by large organizations, instead of where the vast majority of young Canadians begin in small to medium-sized businesses." And practical small-scale business experience is in Junior Achievements wheelhouse. More than 100 years old, JA started out in the U.S. and came to Manitoba in the early 1950s, brought here by local business people, including the founder of Pollard Banknote, Leipsic says. All along, its goal has been nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurs. Central to JAs efforts is its Company Program, in which members start a business, raise capital by selling shares and eventually manufacture and sell a product. For example, Hawthornes group launched a company called "Heart" which sells organizers. "It was a small piece of wood with a magnet in the centre, and there were two shapes heart and Manitoba shape," says Hawthorne, recipient of several scholarships and a speaker at JAs most recent Business Hall of Fame gala. "Our product was crafted in our school wood shop, made from recycled wood found within the school division. It was locally sourced, so we kind of had an environmental focus." The entire experience of launching and running a business was eye-opening, she adds. Previous to JA, like most teens, Hawthorne didnt pay much attention to finance and business or even basic money management for that matter. "It was a really interesting program on the financial side because, obviously, (corporate) financials can be very complicated and youre not really introduced to (them) as a high school student otherwise." She points to just the opportunity to interact with a banker as a key learning experience that will likely help her going forward. Partnered with Scotiabank, Junior Achievement offers its young entrepreneurs the chance to open a business account to run their fledgling enterprise. "I had a personal account before that, but when youre under 18, your parents help you with it," Hawthorne says. "You always need an adult to sign your documents and help you through it." But with JA, the students were on their own though experienced members of the provinces business community do provide mentorship. Advice from the pros has always been a key part of the JA experience, Leipsic adds. "What makes Junior Achievement unique is the programming isnt delivered by the teacher," he says. "Its delivered by an experienced volunteer from the business community." He points to its partnerships with global business consulting firm KPMG and Canadas largest bank RBC with JAs financial literacy program, which starts at Grade 3 and continues into high school, as an example. Dozens of employees from both organizations fanned out across the province over the past year to educate students in the ins and outs of the financial world. "At Grade 3 or 4, for example, students learn about what a bank account is and why you put money in it," Leipsic says about the program. In middle school, the initiative focuses on the "Economics of Success" teaching students about the need for education particularly post-secondary education to get ahead in life. Among the important tools they learn is budgeting. "So we get them thinking about, If you wanted to move out of your house with Mom and Dad, what does that look like?" he says. 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. Long successful in Winnipeg, JAs financial literacy programming is rapidly expanding in rural areas and among francophone communities. "Five years ago, we might have been teaching 30 kids in immersion and other French programming, and this year, were up to more than 2,900," Leipsic says. While the general financial literacy initiative makes up a large part of what JA does, its key strength is fostering entrepreneurism among youth. Hawthorne can certainly attest to JAs benefits in this respect. "The more experience you have learning about running a business, the more comfortable youll be with your own personal finances," she says. "I certainly gained a lot of skills that can help me become more independent as I start university." The first Statistics Canada crop estimate of the year is probably too pessimistic, but still shows Manitoba farmers didnt fare badly in a moderate drought year, market analysts say. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/9/2018 (1159 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The first Statistics Canada crop estimate of the year is probably too pessimistic, but still shows Manitoba farmers didnt fare badly in a moderate drought year, market analysts say. The main figure being picked apart by the grain trade Friday was Statistics Canadas estimate of just 19.2 million tonnes of canola in Canada, a 10 per cent drop from last year. Thats a significant change that could mean having to cut some exports, market analysts said. Canolas market price rose $2 on early trading Friday. But the trade thinks Stats-Cans figure is too low. Some trade estimates are as high as 20.7 million tonnes. The difference may be explained by the timing of the StatsCan survey. "The survey (in July) was probably done when farmer pessimism was the greatest," said Neil Townsend, senior market analyst with FarmLink Marketing Solutions. Most crops dont look so bad now that harvesting has arrived, he said. Townsend felt a 20-million-tonne canola crop is nearer the truth, and 2.9 million tonnes estimated by StatsCan for Manitoba should also nudge higher to more than three million tonnes. Similarly, people think StatsCans durum wheat estimate of five million tonnes is too gloomy. The trade holds to a 5.7-million-tonne crop. Excluding durum, the StatsCan estimates a wheat crop of 24 million tonnes. Soybeans, which are later maturing and dont have deep root systems, will be hit hard by the hot, dry conditions. StatsCan estimated a crop of 7.1 million tonnes, a drop of more than 20 per cent from last year. Soybeans are expected to fall 18 per cent in Manitoba to 1.77 million tonnes. "Its not surprising, but I was surprised at the average yield of 41.2 bushels per acre, up five per cent from last year," said Ed Baldwin, manager of AgChieve Grain Marketing Experts. Thats the estimated average for the country, but Baldwin said Manitoba and other parts of Western Canada will be lower. 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. Meanwhile, the United States is looking at a big crop of soybeans with a record carryover from last year. That should weigh heavily on the market, Baldwin said. Canadas barley crop of just below eight million tonnes is on the small side and that should be a boost to prices, Townsend said. However, the worlds largest importer of barley, Saudia Arabia, is not hitting it off with Canada right now, after Canada questioned its arrest of a female political activist. Other markets will be searching for feed grains, too. "We could export heavy volumes of feed barley to China because Australia (which often supplies the Chinese market) has a big drought right now," Townsend said. Corn for grain is expected to come in at about 13.8 million tonnes in Canada, including 1.3 million tonnes in Manitoba. Townsend sees what he termed "a genetic bounce" in yields for most crops, thanks to new varieties more resilient to is the hot, dry weather. Conditions would have hurt crops much more in the past, he said. bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca Trying to follow the markets and longer-term outlooks for agricultural commodities these days is enough to make one dizzy. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/9/2018 (1159 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion Trying to follow the markets and longer-term outlooks for agricultural commodities these days is enough to make one dizzy. Wild cards in play right now will shape both the short- and long-term outlooks for Canadian farmers. Fridays Statistics Canada production estimates for Canadian crops confirmed what many predicted. It was hot enough and dry enough to cut into yields, although if the early harvest reports out of Manitoba are any indication, the losses wont be as high as earlier feared. The fact that farmers have something to harvest is good news, as drought has cut a wide swath into potential yields across Europe and key growing regions of Australia this year. This week, there was talk of Russia and Ukraine imposing export controls after rains during harvest reduced the quality of cereal crops in that region. The question on a lot of peoples minds is whether the heat waves and sporadic rainfalls much of the world is experiencing right now is weather- or climate-related. Whats the difference? According to the NASA, its a function of time. "Weather is what conditions of the atmosphere are over a short period of time, and climate is how the atmosphere behaves over relatively long periods of time." Both are pointing to hotter and drier right now, which has implications for how and where crops will be grown. Recent rains locally have provided some welcome relief, but a lot more will be needed before next years growing season to replenish soil moisture reserves and restore confidence. Yields after last years dry summer were surprisingly good. This year, it was even drier and yields are turning out OK. But they have definitely been compromised. Without timely rainfalls, will next year be the year production hits a wall? On the trade front, few predicted the developments this week with the U.S. and Mexico inking a deal, forcing Canada back to the table in a much weaker position. The key issues for agriculture are of course dairy supply management and better access for U.S. wheat farmers to the Canadian grain-handling system. But also key to agriculture is the dispute-settlement mechanism the Trump administration wants to axe. But the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China is the one to watch It could contribute to some fundamental changes in global trade patterns as well as how benchmark prices are set. China responded to U.S. sanctions earlier this summer by slapping a tariff on U.S. soybeans. That doesnt mean it would buy less in total, only that it would be sourcing them from someplace else, as in South America. That puts the spotlight on the fact that Brazil now matches the U.S. as a world producer of soybeans and is now the worlds largest exporter. The U.S. only produces eight per cent of the worlds wheat and holds 13 per cent of the global export market. Russia is now the largest world exporter by far. The U.S. is still the worlds largest producer of corn, but it is expected South American exports will soon overtake those from the U.S. 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. Yet the global market prices for these crops are still set by U.S.-based commodity exchanges, which are disproportionately influenced by domestic issues. Some are starting to ask why. As four economists from the University of Illinois pointed out earlier this summer, when U.S. politics interfere with trade flows, it calls into question that countrys reliability as a supplier. U.S. farm prices decline, but they increase for their competitors, which in turn, increases their production. They analyzed U.S. exports of key commodities in the aftermath of the grain embargo the U.S. imposed by Russia in 1980, and found that the U.S. exports of corn and wheat ceased to grow in the aftermath. "It should be sobering to the U.S. that the quantity of U.S. corn and wheat exports have never really exceeded the levels of the early 1980s, a time span now approaching 40 years," they wrote. Weather and politics have made this a long, hot summer. Climate and trade issues are setting the stage for variable conditions ahead. Laura Rance is editorial director at Glacier FarmMedia. She can be reached at 204-792-4382 or lrance@farmmedia.com. The internet was going to revolutionize business. Free information and exchange of ideas were the most visible early benefits. Then tools and platforms arrived that allowed users to communicate, articulate and access content more quickly and across a wider geography than ever before. We dont search anymore, we Google. We can communicate with anyone, at any time, on various platforms like Skype, Zoom or Facebook Live, among others. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/9/2018 (1159 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion The internet was going to revolutionize business. Free information and exchange of ideas were the most visible early benefits. Then tools and platforms arrived that allowed users to communicate, articulate and access content more quickly and across a wider geography than ever before. We dont search anymore, we Google. We can communicate with anyone, at any time, on various platforms like Skype, Zoom or Facebook Live, among others. Companies built websites that evolved from online brochures to online catalogues and other interactive tools designed to improve your web experience. As marketers, we must responsibly manage our use of the wide array of tools available. There can be a strong temptation to use the newfound data for different reasons than people have given you permission for. And this is where problems can arise. The recent uproar about the amount of data Facebook was collecting is just the tip of the iceberg. What people, and many companies, that access these platforms do not really know is that their personal data and click preferences are being manipulated to track and recommend beyond anything humans have ever experienced. Companies have sold your data to other companies, so they could target you with "great offers," many times for something that you probably dont need. Is your primary strategy to drive sales through coupons and discounts? Consider the impact of Groupon on the many companies that signed on to this service only to have their best customers adjust their spending behaviours to only use the coupons. Restaurants and other retailers started losing money because they adjusted their customers purchase behaviour. Did you use Groupon? What were your results? For companies that are buying customer clicks, you must take special care to know the environment your ad is placed in. In 2017, the Times of London uncovered that many ads for organizations, like charities and cruise companies, were placed on Nazi, porn and terrorist websites. This occurred without the companies knowing it was happening. When someone clicked on those ads, the advertiser had to pay the site for hosting their ad. Companies such as Procter & Gamble were unwittingly funding terrorist and porn sites. YouTube and Google, among the other big web companies, all pledged to fix this problem. In April 2018, the Sun newspaper in the U.K. confirmed the same situation happened again. But wait, theres more! Earlier this year, Facebook and Twitter had to publicize their actual number of users had been inflated due to fake accounts and bots. Advertisers were paying for supposed exposure to these "persons." This builds from the situation in Australia in 2017, where Facebook claimed to reach 1.7 million more 15-to-39-yearolds than actually lived in the country. Are you paying for people that dont exist? Are you unknowingly supporting vile organizations? Are you doing anything about this? As an advertiser, you need to have confidence and trust in the location of your ad and the people you are reaching. Never did you see such placement issues happen in newspaper ads. The local television and radio stations are also safe havens in this regard because you can easily see or hear where your ad is placed. A childrens toy manufacturer would never have mistakenly booked an ad in Playboy in the 60s and 70s. The ad industry has measurements that have been used for decades. While not 100 per cent accurate, they provide a consistent measurement and the entire industry accepts the methodology and tools used. This is not so in the digital realm. Parents can readily check the shows their children watch or listen to and the articles being read. Parents know what other program and advertising material surrounds what is being consumed by their children. Unless you are looking over your childs shoulder, this is not the case on the web. If you are truly a socially responsible organization, you need to know exactly where your ads are being placed. In traditional media, this is called a proof of performance, so you know where every ad was placed. 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. Users must also be aware of what data companies are sharing and for what reason. I have submitted data and later tried to delete my account. And, on several occasions, I have received material that could only have come from the data I supposedly deleted. This is worse than not being able to clear your browsing history. Your responsibilities as a consumer and user of these various platforms have increased with the new tools used to aggregate, consolidate and track you. Bob Hoffman, the ad contrarian, rightly asks, "Whats more important the privacy rights of individuals or the convenience of marketers?" Marketers must take the lead in establishing how you and your company will collect and use data. Remember to always keep the customer at the centre of your decision-making. When you do, you are likely to be considered a good company and steward of the information you collect. If you choose a course of action for short-term gain, the likelihood is that it wont lead to long-term success. Tims Bits: Not everything on the web is bad or evil. There are many great sites, wonderful tools and opportunities to share ideas and help the world become a better place. Are you honest with your customers about how you use their data? Is your staff knowledgeable and able to stand up in support of your online principles and values? Are you careful with the messaging and tools used so your company is always presented in the best light and most ethical perspective? If we only ask "how," we simply gain information. When you know the "why," you gain the wisdom to do the right thing. Tim Kist is a certified management consultant, who works with organizations to improve their overall performance by being truly customer focused. He can be reached at tim@tk3consulting.ca This isnt the end of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, but it might be the end of a cycle. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 31/8/2018 (1159 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. This isnt the end of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, but it might be the end of a cycle. On Thursday, the Federal Court of Appeal rejected the National Energy Boards approval of the project, stating the NEB failed to consult adequately with First Nations communities. In other words: until this happens, the twinning of the pipeline that carries oil to the West Coast from Alberta cannot be legally built. This was not the only reason for the decision (the court also found the NEB failed to adequately consider the projects impacts on marine life), but represented a remarkable development in Indigenous relations. Lets examine how Canada has historically done business when it comes to lands and resources claimed by Indigenous communities. Following the Seven Years' War, when the British defeated the French, King George III claimed dominion over North America in 1763, by making a Royal Proclamation. This did two things: 1) it defined lands west of British coastal colonies as "Indian Territories" and pronounced the Crown as the primary liaison with Indians, and 2) created a process in which Indians could "freely" sell their lands (basically on terms set by and at a price declared by the Crown) and thus be moved to lands "reserved" for them. With the stroke of a pen, Indigenous peoples became little more then pawns and land-sellers in a grand acquisition plan. Coldwater Indian band Chief Lee Spahan, centre, raises an eagle feather before he and other First Nations leaders respond to a Federal Court of Appeal ruling on the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion (Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press) This is the legal foundation for Canada, the basis for Canadian land claims and, eventually, treaty-making. Sir John A. Macdonalds western expansion, the reserve system, and the Indian Act all emerge from the Royal Proclamation of 1763. While Canada recognizes Aboriginal title, the parameters of this title is often framed in a way Canada understands land as something to be owned, extracted from, and exploited. This is what drives Canadian partnerships with corporations and announcements of mines, pipelines and dams in the national interest. At its core is the premise the Crown controls the lands and lives of Indians and besides "freely" agreeing to this they have no say otherwise. (How anyone can "freely" agree to give up freedom is a legal puzzle but, hey, welcome to Indigenous life.) With the Royal Proclamation in place, Canada proceeded like a bully who barged into a neighbours home, threw $5 down, imprisoned the neighbours, declared they "freely" chose this, and started remodelling. When Indigenous peoples resisted and did in many ways laws were created to tighten the grip. Movement was outlawed. Lawyers were banned. Prisons were filled. Until the 1950s and '60s, Canada never really had to worry about Indigenous resistance or land claims or consultation because the Crown set the rules. Then, things began to change. Decades of non-Indigenous allies, civil rights leaders, and Indigenous activists bravely fought, organized, and attained law degrees to carve out a small piece in Canadas 1982 Constitution, entitled Section 35. Section 35 recognizes and affirms "Aboriginal and treaty rights." This means anything and everything in Canada must consider these rights and cannot override them. The problem? The Constitution never defines Section 35, and, for almost three decades, the Canadian government has refused to do so, leaving it mostly to the courts. Cedar George-Parker, back centre, and others listen as First Nations leaders respond to a Federal Court of Appeal ruling on the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion. (Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press) While Canada recognizes Aboriginal "title," the parameters of this title is often framed in a way Canada understands land as something to be owned, extracted from, and exploited. This is what drives Canadian partnerships with corporations and announcements of mines, pipelines and dams in "the national interest." Timeline: Key dates in the history of the Trans Mountain pipeline Here are some key dates in the history of the Trans Mountain pipeline and Kinder Morgan Canada's efforts to expand its capacity. click to read more Here are some key dates in the history of the Trans Mountain pipeline and Kinder Morgan Canada's efforts to expand its capacity: October 1953: The Trans Mountain pipeline begins shipping oil with an initial capacity of 150,000 barrels per day. The project features four pump stations along its 1,150-kilometre route and a marine dock that connects loading facilities on the east side of Edmonton with ocean tankers in Burnaby, B.C. 1957: Pipeline capacity is expanded via the construction of a 160-kilometre pipeline loop. The Westridge Marine Terminal is built and commissioned in Burnaby, B.C. Jan. 14, 1985: Trans Mountain's biggest spill occurs at a tank farm in the Edmonton area. Nearly 10,000 barrels of oil are released. 2006 - 2008: The Anchor Loop project adds 160 kilometres of new pipeline through Jasper National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park between Hinton, Alta., and Hargreaves, B.C. The extension includes 13 new pump stations and modifications to existing stations, increasing capacity from 260,000 bpd to 300,000 bpd. Feb. 21, 2012: Kinder Morgan says it wants to expand the Trans Mountain pipeline after receiving support from oil shippers and will begin public consultations. Dec. 16, 2013: An application is made to the National Energy Board (NEB) to expand the Trans Mountain pipeline. Construction is proposed to begin in 2017, with the aim of having oil flow through the expansion by December 2019. November 2014: More than 100 people are arrested after they camp out in a conservation area on Burnaby Mountain, east of Vancouver, to block crews from conducting drilling and survey work related to the pipeline expansion. Most of the charges are later dropped. August 2015: The NEB postpones public hearings after striking from the record economic evidence prepared by a Kinder Morgan consultant who was to begin working for the regulator. Jan. 12, 2016: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says in a written submission to the NEB that the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is in the best interests of both Alberta and Canada. Jan. 27, 2016: The federal Liberal government says pipeline projects such as the Trans Mountain expansion will now be assessed in part on the greenhouse gas emissions produced in the extraction and processing of the oil they carry. Proponents will also be required to improve consultations with First Nations. May 17, 2016: Ottawa appoints a three-member panel to conduct an environmental review of the Trans Mountain expansion project. May 29, 2016: The NEB recommends approval of the pipeline, subject to 157 conditions, concluding that it is in the public interest. Nov. 29, 2016: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sanctions the Trans Mountain expansion, part of a sweeping announcement that also saw approval of Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline replacement but the end of its Northern Gateway project. Jan. 11, 2017: B.C. Premier Christy Clark announces her support for the project, saying Kinder Morgan has met five government conditions including a revenue-sharing agreement worth up to $1 billion. May 15, 2017: The Federal Court of Appeal grants Notley's government intervener status in a lawsuit filed by municipalities and First Nations against the project. May 25, 2017: Kinder Morgan makes its final investment decision to proceed with the development, now estimated to cost $7.4 billion, subject to the successful public offering of Kinder Morgan Canada. May 29, 2017: The B.C. NDP and Greens agree to form a coalition to topple the Liberal party, which won a minority government in an election earlier in the month. The parties agree to ``immediately employ every tool available'' to stop the project. May 30, 2017: Kinder Morgan Canada debuts on the Toronto Stock Exchange after a $1.75-billion public offering. June 29, 2017: The B.C. Liberals lose a no-confidence vote, clearing the way for NDP Leader John Horgan to become premier. Aug. 10, 2017: The B.C. NDP government hires former judge Thomas Berger to provide legal advice as it seeks intervener status in the legal challenges against the project filed by municipalities and First Nations. Oct. 26, 2017: Kinder Morgan Canada asks NEB to allow work to begin despite a failure to obtain municipal permits from the City of Burnaby Dec. 7, 2017: NEB allows Kinder Morgan Canada to bypass Burnaby bylaws. Jan. 17, 2018: Kinder Morgan Canada warns the Trans Mountain expansion project could be a year behind schedule. Jan. 18, 2018: NEB establishes a process to resolve permitting issues between Kinder Morgan Canada and provincial and municipal authorities. Jan. 30, 2018: B.C. government moves to restrict any increase in diluted bitumen shipments until it conducts more spill response studies, a move that increases the uncertainty for Trans Mountain. March 9, 2018: B.C. Supreme Court grants interim injunction aimed at preventing anti-pipeline activists from protesting construction at two terminals in Burnaby. March 15, 2018: B.C. Supreme Court grants indefinite injunction preventing protesters from coming within five metres of two work sites for the project. March 23, 2018: Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and New Democrat MP Kennedy Stewart arrested at a protest against the pipeline expansion; Federal Court of Appeal dismisses a B.C. government bid challenging a NEB ruling that allows Kinder Morgan Canada to bypass local bylaws. March 27, 2018: City of Burnaby, B.C., says it will file an appeal to the Supreme Court in connection with the Federal Court of Appeal ruling. April 8, 2018: Kinder Morgan Canada suspends non-essential spending on the Trans Mountain expansion project and sets a May 31 deadline to reach agreements with stakeholders. May 29, 2018: Federal government announces deal to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline and expansion project from Kinder Morgan Canada for $4.5 billion. Aug. 23, 2018: The Supreme Court dismisses an appeal by the City of Burnaby to reconsider a lower court decision that denied the port city leave to appeal the ruling by the National Energy Board. Aug. 30, 2018: The Federal Court of Appeal overturns the Trudeau government's approval of the contentious Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. In a unanimous decision by a panel of three judges, the court says the National Energy Board's review of the project was so flawed that the federal government could not rely on it as a basis for its decision to approve the expansion. Close In response to this, Indigenous peoples evoke a Section 35 claim -- and are framed as anti-economy, anti-Canada, or anti-progress. What theyre actually interested in is rights and whats fair, constitutionally or otherwise. In this atmosphere, the two sides go to court. Sometimes, Canada agrees Section 35 is relevant and a consultative process happens. Virtually every time and likely because Canada sets the term of "consultation" the project is approved. Years later, usually via dozens of lawyers and millions of dollars spent, the Supreme Court renders a decision. Then things get interesting. Most Section 35 cases that reach the Supreme Court result in Canada being chastised for not performing its constitutional duty to consult. Judges usually demand Canada pay compensation, change the law, or facilitate meaningful consultation before a project can continue. Sometimes, the Supreme Court will define a bit of Section 35. Which brings us to Thursday and the Federal Court decision in the case of Tsleil-Waututh Nation v. Canada, regarding the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. Amanda Nahanee, right, a descendant and cultural ambassador of the Squamish and Nisga'a Nations, embraces Tsleil-Waututh Nation councillor Charlene Aleck in celebration before First Nations leaders respond to a Federal Court of Appeal ruling on the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline expansio. (Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press) In most cases, this decision would signal the end. Former Trans Mountain owner Kinder Morgan would likely just thrown its hands up and refused to spend millions on a project that requires millions more just to get approved. If Canada is listening, it will hear: Indigenous peoples are not antieconomy, but antideath; pipelines protesters are land and water protectors; projects in the national interest should produce life, not end it. The difference is Canada owns this project. The Trudeau Liberals spent $4.5 billion to purchase the pipeline from Kinder Morgan and has vowed to finish it. Some say they have staked their political future on it. Trudeau has said many times in this mandate his government will act differently with Indigenous peoples. He has used the term "nation-to-nation" when describing his an "era of reconciliation." 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. Well, heres his chance. For this pipeline project to proceed, Section 35 will need to be defined and an actual, meaningful consultation the likes Canada has never seen before will have to take place. And, if Canada is listening, it will hear: Indigenous peoples are not anti-economy, but anti-death; pipelines protesters are land and water protectors; projects in the national interest should produce life, not end it. Imagine that, a Constitution for everyone, not just about proclamations and control. Maybe, this weeks decision will result in the interruption of a 256-year-old cycle. Maybe, it will even be a beginning. niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca A youth police say was involved in nearly two dozen Liquor Mart booze thefts and robberies one of which left an off-duty cop injured is facing a long list of charges after he asked to be arrested Thursday. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 31/8/2018 (1159 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A youth police say was involved in nearly two dozen Liquor Mart booze thefts and robberies one of which left an off-duty cop injured is facing a long list of charges after he asked to be arrested Thursday. The charges stem, in part, from two brazen, back-to-back incidents in south Winnipeg Aug. 24. Four suspects went to a Liquor Mart in the 2800 block of Pembina Highway at 4 p.m. on August 24. A man driving the vehicle parked behind the store. The other three suspects, all youths, concealed their faces and went inside, filling up shopping carts with as much booze as they could before running back to the vehicle. The stolen alcohol was worth between $3,500 and $4,000. Minutes later, the suspects drove to a Liquor Mart in the 400 block of North Town Road in the Bridgwater area, where they again parked around back to avoid detection, and two of the youths went inside with masked faces. That theft didnt go as smoothly. The stores manager approached the youths but was immediately threatened. As they gathered bottles of liquor, an off-duty RCMP officer who was in the store confronted them after identifying himself. The youths threw bottles at him, at least one of which struck him in the head. Winnipeg police Const. Jay Murray called the incident "alarming." "They literally pelted him with liquor bottles, anything they could grab, even as he backed off, he continued to be hit with these bottles." The thieves made their escape with about $1,200 worth of liquor after the assault. The officer suffered minor injuries. Police continued investigating, but on Thursday received a 911 hang-up call from an address in the 300 block of Pacific Avenue. Shortly after, a 911 dispatcher spoke with a 16-year-old boy, who asked police to come arrest him. Officers went to the residence and arrested one of the youth suspects and found a folding knife. Investigators then connected him to at least 23 different thefts from Liquor Marts. The total value of the stolen alcohol was approximately $11,275. The 16-year-old youth is charged with two counts of robbery, assaulting a peace officer, possessing a weapon, theft over $5,000, possessing property obtained by crime over $5,000 and two counts of failing to comply with a sentence. He was also processed on four outstanding warrants for six charges of theft under $5,000 and 12 counts of failing to comply with a sentence. Hes in custody. An adult was later arrested near Keewatin Street and Logan Avenue. Thefts and robberies from Manitoba Liquor Marts are increasing, but police dont know why, Murray said. Just two-thirds of the way through 2018, police have received 1,182 reports of Liquor Mart thefts, he said, but couldnt provide theft numbers from previous years for comparison. Earlier this year, police made an arrest in a series of thefts at Liquor Marts between June 1 and July 8 in which $4,000 worth of alcohol was taken. erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca A spokeswoman for Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries pointed to increasing city crime rates overall. "Unfortunately, we have seen an escalation in theft occurrences which has resulted in increased product loss," communications officer Susan Harrison wrote in an email. Harrison said she couldnt share information about internal security measures because it "could compromise ongoing investigations or the safety of both our employees and customers." 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. Beyond sharing that Liquor Mart locations have "state-of-the-art" cameras and surveillance systems, Harrison said she couldnt share information about internal security measures as it "could compromise ongoing investigations or the safety of both our employees and customers." She did say, however, that Liquor Mart locations have "state-of-the-art" cameras and surveillance systems. The 16-year-old youth is charged with two counts of robbery, assaulting a peace officer, possessing a weapon, theft over $5,000, possessing property obtained by crime over $5,000 and two counts of failing to comply with a sentence. He was also processed on four outstanding warrants for six charges of theft under $5,000 and 12 counts of failing to comply with a sentence. Hes in custody. Caiden Jessy Bjornsson, a 24-year-old Winnipeg man, was charged with robbery and theft under $5,000. Hes also in custody. Earlier this year, police made an arrest in a series of thefts at Liquor Marts between June 1 and July 8 in which $4,000 worth of alcohol was taken. erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca OTTAWA As a meth crisis ravages Winnipeg, it appears the issue is hardly on Ottawas radar though the federal Liberals insist their response to fentanyl will undercut the impact of all street drugs. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/9/2018 (1159 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. OTTAWA As a meth crisis ravages Winnipeg, it appears the issue is hardly on Ottawas radar though the federal Liberals insist their response to fentanyl will undercut the impact of all street drugs. Since taking office last August, federal Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor has received a single, two-page briefing note on methamphetamines, according to an access-to-information request filed in June. Through an access-to-information request, the Free Press sought any mentions of meth in the main documents departments prepare for ministers. The only document was a note explaining how methamphetamines work, the lack of data about the issue in Manitoba and the need for counselling. Despite lacking a specific policy on meth, Petitpas Taylors spokesman said Ottawas push for harm-reduction measures should help fight both fentanyl and other drugs. "We are committed to helping people struggling with substance-use disorder and we have taken action to reintroduce harm reduction as a key pillar to help them," Thierry Belair wrote. "We will continue to expand public awareness around stigma and reduce barriers to treatment to address opioid and drug use." The federal Liberals have supported supervised injection sites, though the Manitoba government, led by Premier Brian Pallister, has been cold to such proposals. In January, Trade Minister Jim Carr held a wide-ranging discussion with Mayor Brian Bowman and deputy premier Heather Stefanson, a rare meeting of all three levels of government. "The need for collaboration in response to the rise in methamphetamine use in Manitoba communities was also discussed," according to a later statement from Carr. Its unclear whether all three levels of government have co-ordinated on any response to the meth crisis. 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. In May, First Nations from the Island Lake area travelled 3,000 kilometres to Winnipeg and on to Ottawa, asking for help in beating back an uptick in meth overdoses as well as related crime and child-welfare apprehensions. Last summer, roughly 6,500 Island Lake residents were airlifted to Winnipeg during wildfires and band councillors claim the citys drug dealers plied youth with free meth samples, getting them hooked. The Island Lake delegation met briefly with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and had a sit-down conversation with Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott about a possible treatment centre. Her department wrote Friday it has been in talks with local leadership about how to use this springs budget allocations. "Our government made significant investments in the last three federal budgets to support greater access to mental-health and addictions services that are designed and directed by Indigenous peoples," spokeswoman Martine Stevens wrote. Earlier this year, public-health experts told the Free Press that Ottawa had limited means to tackle meth, compared with fentanyl. For example, meth is largely homegrown, whereas border enforcement can try intercepting fentanyl, which mostly arrives from abroad. dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca An 18-year-old man from Sandy Bay First Nation has been charged as the triggerman in Wednesdays ambush shooting of a Mountie on the outskirts of Riding Mountain National Park. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 31/8/2018 (1159 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. An 18-year-old man from Sandy Bay First Nation has been charged as the triggerman in Wednesdays ambush shooting of a Mountie on the outskirts of Riding Mountain National Park. SUPPLIED Therae Racette-Beaulieu Therae Racette-Beaulieu faces two counts of attempted murder, alongside a slew of other charges. He was at-large at the time of the attack, sought by the RCMP Portage la Prairie detachment for breaching court orders. Cpl. Graeme Kingdon, 42, sustained "serious injuries" after he was shot in the "upper body" Wednesday night. Kingdon and his partner were ambushed after responding to a report of a break-and-enter near the small community of Onanole, located on the south edge of the popular national park and tourist destination. The shooting set off an 18-hour manhunt that essentially put the western part of Manitoba on lockdown. The police operation came to a close in the nearby town of Neepawa, when a fourth and final suspect was taken into custody following a tense, dramatic standoff at a home in a quiet neighbourhood near an elementary school. In total, 21 charges have been laid against four men in connection with the shooting. They paint a picture of a minor crime spree that ended in violence. FACEBOOK Tommy Edward Beaulieu Tommy Edward Beaulieu, 21, Shane Donovan Beaulieu, 30, and Delaney Marcus Houle, 23, all of Portage la Prairie, also face charges in connection with the incident. A social media page for Tommy Edward Beaulieu, which used a pseudonym, included many posts expressing disdain for law enforcement. Numerous posts contained statements such as: "Im a thug"; "kill kill"; "wanted dead or alive"; and "(expletive) the cops." One post on the page, which he liked, included the ominous message, "shoot first ask questions later." On Friday, RCMP refused to provide details on whether the firearm used in the attack was reported stolen. However, multiple area residents told the Free Press the suspects had taken the weapon used in the attack from a nearby home. All four men have been detained in custody. The RCMP major crimes unit is continuing the investigation and has indicated more charges could be coming. Shane Beaulieu appeared Friday in Brandon Provincial Court. The other three accused are scheduled to make their first appearances before a judge in a Brandon courtroom next Tuesday, following the long weekend. RCMP officers take down the fourth suspect involved in the shooting of an RCMP officer in Onanole, Man. on Thursday afternoon after an approximate four-hour stand-off in Neepawa. (Erin DeBooy/ The Brandon Sun) Three of the four men have been charged with various weapons offences, although it remains unclear how many of those charges relate to firearms. All four have been charged with possession of stolen property. The events began when RCMP responded to a report of a possible break-and-enter in progress, shortly after 9:30 p.m. Wednesday in Onanole, about 260 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg. "As soon as our officers exited the vehicle, they were shot at," RCMP Assistant Commissioner Scott Kolody told reporters Thursday. 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. The Mounties have yet to say how many shots were fired. Kingdon's RCMP partner, who has not been named, was not injured in the attack. The officers did not return fire, police said. Kingdon was taken to a nearby hospital, before being airlifted to Winnipeg. He remains in hospital and is recovering, RCMP said. The severity of his injuries has not been released. Three of the four suspects were taken into custody shortly after the shooting, not far from where the incident took place; the fourth was arrested the following day in Neepawa. -- with files from Mike McIntyre and Ben Waldman ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @rk_thorpe Demonstrators outside the $4-million Lights of the North festival which opened Friday night say they want to shine a light on human rights abuses in China. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/9/2018 (1159 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Demonstrators outside the $4-million Lights of the North festival which opened Friday night say they want to shine a light on human rights abuses in China. "We hope the persecution will stop," said protest organizer Phuong Nguyen, an adherent of the spiritual practice Falun Gong. She said she wants to let Canadians know about Falun Gong and its practitioners, whove been harassed and held as political prisoners in China. "We want to let people know (Falun Gong) is good," Nguyen said before the event, billed as Canadas largest Chinese lantern festival, opened its doors at the Red River Exhibition Park. (It runs through Oct. 14.) "Its a Chinese spiritual practice and (is) based on truthfulness, compassion and forbearance," she said, citing Falun Gong values written on the protest banner. "Unfortunately, it is persecuted right now in China, so were trying to raise awareness of persecution," said Nguyen, who immigrated to Canada from Vietnam 10 years ago. "We hope more people know about this situation, so the Chinese government will do something. Jian Wang, a light artist at The Lights Of The North - Chinese Lantern Festival puts the finishing touches on a 37-metre dragon earlier this month. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press) "We criticize the (Communist Party), not the Chinese people and not the Chinese culture with 5,000 years of history." A member of the committee promoting Lights of the North which includes a lantern art replica of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights said it is a celebration that aims to promote stronger ties between Winnipeg and its sister city in China, Chengdu. "Were looking at stimulating trade and tourism," Brian Wood said. A ping-pong ball polar bear on the fairgrounds exhibit. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press) In 1989, Wood managed the Winnipeg zoo visit of pandas from China. It was part of an exchange arranged in 1988 by then-mayor Bill Norrie and chamber of commerce president Dorothy Dobbie: Winnipeg got two giant pandas for a one-year visit and Chengdu received a pair of polar bear cubs. Lights of the North was crafted by dozens of artisans from Chengdu. The six-week show celebrates 2018 as the "Year of Canada-China Tourism" and aims to revive Winnipegs relationship with Chengdu. "With Winnipegs sister city Chengdu coming here, its a good opportunity to raise awareness and ask that city to stop the persecution of Falun Gong members," Nguyen said. Dorothy Dobbie, co-chair of The Lights of the North Chinese Lantern Festival, was at the celebration of Winnipeg and Chegndus twinning in the Chinese City in 1998. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press) In 1999, as Falun Gong became more popular in China, it alarmed the communist regime, which targeted its practitioners, said Winnipeg sociology professor and protester Maria Cheung, who practises Falun Gong. In 2006, a report co-authored by international human rights lawyer David Matas documented cases of forced harvesting of the organs of Falun Gong members and other involuntary donors in China. 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. Chinas relatively new organ-transplant industry has quickly become one of the worlds largest, despite a lack of donors. After being questioned internationally about how it was sourcing organs, the Chinese regime announced in 2015 it would stop using organs from executed death-row prisoners and rely entirely on voluntary donations. Liu Qiong Xian, a light artist, works on one of the displays earlier this month. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press) A 336-page report released in July by the China Organ Harvest Research Centre which mentions a hospital in Chengdu said evidence indicates large numbers of organs continue to come from prisoners mainly prisoners of conscience. Human rights advocates hope Winnipeg can pass along some sisterly advice to Chengdu. "A true sister tells her sister the truth," Matas said. "Sister-city arrangements are meant to foster cultural understanding. "The Chengdu Chinese should understand what the Winnipeg culture of human rights means," he said, referring to the human rights museum. "It does not mean just a building. What the building stands for is promotion of respect for human rights." carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca Ten days after the province dropped a bombshell report containing testimony of historical abuse in northern Indigenous communities, another First Nations leader has come forward with allegations against Manitoba Hydro workers. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/9/2018 (1159 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Ten days after the province dropped a bombshell report containing testimony of historical abuse in northern Indigenous communities, another First Nations leader has come forward with allegations against Manitoba Hydro workers. The chief of York Factory First Nation says workers from the Keeyask generating station construction site have sexually assaulted women, used racial slurs, and introduced cocaine to northern Manitoba communities. SUPPLIED Racism, harassment and substance abuse continue to be issues for York Factory First Nation members at Keeyask, says Chief Leroy Constant. In a two-page statement sent to the Free Press, Chief Leroy Constant outlined disturbing concerns surrounding the Hydro megaproject, located about 725 kilometres north of Winnipeg on the lower Nelson River. Hydro began construction on Keeyask in July 2014, and work is ongoing. More than 3,000 employees from around the world are involved, as are four First Nations partners: York Factory, Tataskweyak Cree Nation, War Lake First Nation and Fox Lake Cree Nation. The chiefs of Fox Lake and War Lake have previously gone on the record with their concerns about the alleged actions of Keeyask workers, and the work environment at the site. "As chief of York Factory First Nation, I want to be clear that racism, harassment, drug and alcohol addiction are continuing issues for our members at Keeyask," Constant wrote this week. "YFFN has been hearing stories of traumatic sexual violence and assaults from our members and other Indigenous workers involved at Keeyask, from the beginning of the project until as recently as within the past month." Constant acknowledged there is work being done to address the issues he mentioned, including efforts with Hydro, RCMP and other service providers to improve responses. In an email Friday, RCMP said they are looking into the allegations about sexual violence brought up by York Factory. Spokesman Robert Cyrenne noted the Gillam and Thompson rural detachments cover large areas that encompass many communities, including those with workers at Keeyask. RCMP are also part of a Keeyask worker interaction subcommittee comprised of Hydro officials, members of Fox Lake Cree Nation, the Town of Gillam and Gillam Hospital, he said, adding their last subcommittee meeting was in April. "Gillam RCMP officers are in regular contact with Manitoba Hydro for issues surrounding the Keeyask worksite and hydroelectric development as well as with leaders of surrounding First Nations to discuss safety and security issues affecting their communities," Cyrenne said. On Thursday, the Free Press asked Hydro for comment on York Factorys allegations and spokesman Scott Powell offered a brief email statement. "These are serious allegations that we are going to address directly with our partner First Nation communities. No further comments will be issued on this matter," he said. After conducting a workplace culture assessment in late 2016, D. Carriere & Associates offered 64 recommendations to improve life at Keeyask, including reviewing its drug and alcohol policy. The suggestions were sent to Hydro in June 2017. Hydro previously said it completed 63 of the 64 suggestions and the last one mandatory conflict-resolution training for managers is underway. Hydro said it wouldnt rejig its drug-and-alcohol policy, which mandates anyone caught intoxicated on site or possessing drugs or alcohol be suspended from work for one year. It wouldnt budge as "the potential consequences of reporting to work in an unfit condition are serious," spokesman Bruce Owen told the Free Press earlier this week. In the spring, York Factory members approached the board of the Keeyask Hydropower Limited Partnership about an increased presence of drugs and alcohol in the community, Constant said. "Cocaine has arrived since the beginning of the project, some members have developed addictions at the worksite, and problems at the community level have been aggravated," the chief stated. In written testimony provided to the Clean Environment Commission (CEC) in October 2017, another community member acknowledged the cocaine problem. "One community effect I notice ever since Keeyask went up: theres been more drugs in the community. Theres now cocaine in our community. Thats one effect that Ive noticed from Keeyask," said Silas Ryle of York Factory. In its written submission to the CEC, the First Nation likened northern hydroelectric development in Manitoba to "part of the colonial legacy, and (it) needs to be recognized as such." "It should stand alongside the residential school system, the 60s Scoop, and missing and murdered Indigenous women, as one of the foremost issues in Manitobas reconciliation dialogue," the statement reads. Constant said York Factory members have been working on Hydro projects in their territory since the late 1950s, often facing discrimination in the workplace. "For many, this racial violence is a continuation of racism and assault that they experienced at hydro work camps over the last 50 years. Sadly, there are now three generations of our members who can relate to the incidents that have been in the media this last week," he said. On Aug. 21, the province released a CEC report dated May 2018, which detailed Hydros historical impact on northern communities with input from more than a dozen groups. Members of Fox Lake Cree Nation provided testimony regarding sexual assaults, racism and discrimination involving Hydro workers that affected their community dating back to the 1960s. The allegations are being looked at by police. The CEC report is only the latest document to outline major concerns raised by First Nations about Hydro. The Interchurch Council on Hydropower held hearings about the power utilitys impact in the North in 1999 and presented its findings to government in 2001. Hydro received an environmental evaluation report from Fox Lake in 2012 detailing "social tension" since the companys arrival. 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. "Many reported incidences of racism and discrimination in their work, school and community lives, including involvement with the RCMP. There were incidences of violence and crimes, including rapes and sexual assaults. Our people typically list the impact of the influx of workers, and the resulting toxic social environment in the town of Gillam, as the main socio-economic impact resulting from hydroelectric development," the 2012 report stated. Constant said interviews are currently being conducted with members of the First Nations communities involved at Keeyask to understand the projects impact on workers and families. The interviewees are raising many of the same issues addressed in Keeyasks 2017 workplace culture assessment, including being on the receiving end of racist comments, and some of their complaints "are not being dealt with satisfactorily," he said. "One member was called a dirty Indian while serving in the cafeteria. She reported the incident but there were no consequences for the offenders," Constant said. "There have been other incidents of graffiti at camp with language like: F---ing Natives or If I dont get home soon, Im going to f--- a Sodexo Pig (referring to Indigenous women)... Site staff have not been able to determine who wrote these statements. "We are hearing again about family separation and stress related to the work schedule of 21 days on the job and just seven days off the job," the chief said. "Stresses at the worksite are reflected back in our community of York Landing." More than 460 people live on reserve, and there are 1,435 members of York Factory First Nation. More than 100 members of York Factory are working at Keeyask, Constant said, noting the number fluctuates. jessica.botelho@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @_jessbu After nearly 14 years as a judge in Manitobas Court of Queens Bench, Justice Karen Simonsen has been promoted to the provinces highest court. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/9/2018 (1159 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. After nearly 14 years as a judge in Manitobas Court of Queens Bench, Justice Karen Simonsen has been promoted to the provinces highest court. 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. The federal Justice Department announced Friday it had appointed Simonsen to the Manitoba Court of Appeal to replace Court of Appeal Justice Marc Monnin. The Honourable Madam Justice Karen I. Simonsen at her swearing-in ceremony to the Court of Queens Bench of Manitoba in 2004. (Mike Aporius / Free Press files) Monnin had been a judge for 21 years and served on the Appeal Court for seven. Simonsen was called to the Manitoba bar in 1982 and practised civil litigation until she was appointed to the Queens Bench in 2004. In a news release, the federal government noted her participation on and leadership of several court committees aimed at increasing access to justice. "During her more than 13 years as a trial judge, Justice Simonsen heard a full range of civil, criminal and constitutional cases. She brings this extensive trial experience to the Court of Appeal," the release said. Last fall, she delivered a high-profile decision in the murder retrial of Mark Edward Grant, acquitting him of second-degree murder in the 1985 death of 13-year-old Candace Derksen. As trade talks continue to unfold in Washington, one thing is very clear: there is very little middle ground in the debate over supply management. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/9/2018 (1159 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion As trade talks continue to unfold in Washington, one thing is very clear: there is very little middle ground in the debate over supply management. Talks on redrafting the North American Free Trade Agreement struggled again on Friday, with published comments from U.S. President Donald Trump boasting that he would ultimately get Canadas negotiators to do whatever he wanted them to do without having to give anything back in return. That "whatever" will likely involve a dismantling of supply management. Depending on who you talk to, supply management is either the backbone of the rural economy in many parts of Canada and a critical component of food sovereignty, or an insidious manipulation of dairy and poultry prices that has forced consumers into paying higher prices and soured our relationship with the United States, our biggest trading partner. Supply management the system that controls production of dairy and poultry and sets minimum prices on the grocery shelf, as well as imposes high tariffs on foreign imports is really neither of those two things. That hasnt stopped extremists in the conversation from pumping the issue full of the worst kinds of hyperbole. Without an agreement to end supply management and allow unfettered access to Canada for U.S. dairy and poultry producers, Trump has warned, he will leave Canada out of NAFTA, a move that would lead to severe tariffs on automobiles and other manufactured goods. Given the stakes, Canadian officials have signalled that they are open to modifying or eliminating supply management for dairy. At first blush, there seems to be an obvious imbalance to this conflict. Canadas dairy industry is valued at about $6 billion per year, but it pales in comparison to our manufacturing sector, a behemoth worth more than $140 billion. As a negotiating ploy, threatening our manufacturing with tariffs (a move that would, in and of itself, raise consumer prices in the U.S.) to give American dairy and poultry producers access to Canada (a market that is still only about the size of California) seems a bit over the top. But supply management has been a burr under the presidents saddle since even before he came into office. Canadas punitive tariffs on foreign dairy and poultry products which run as high as 270 per cent have been regularly cited by Trump as evidence of the raw deal that his country gets in almost all aspects of international trade. So, if supply management were to be sacrificed to save NAFTA and protect the trade prospects of more valuable industries in Canada, what exactly would be the net impact? Not surprisingly, opinions vary. Dairy producers in particular are forecasting economic catastrophe. They point out that, thanks to supply management, Canadas 11,000 dairy farmers function as stable drivers of economic activity in rural economies. Largely insulated from the volatile market lurches that afflict farmers in other sectors, dairy farmers are able to not only protect their own economic well-being, but also support rural businesses that supply producers with everything from feed to farm equipment. And because of the stability that comes with controlling supply and prices, dairy farmers do not need expensive government insurance schemes or taxpayer bailouts. Without supply management, the farmers argue, there will be a rash of bankruptcies, a slowing of investment in new technology to boost productivity, a drop in ancillary economic activity and layoffs across the industry. Critics of supply management believe those claims are mostly hogwash. Some, like Martha Hall Findlay of the Canada West Foundation, believe eliminating supply management would trigger lower consumer prices and greater competitiveness in the dairy and poultry industries. In a widely published position paper released earlier this week, Hall Findlay accused farmers of using "alternative facts" to support supply management. Findlay argued that "there is not a single voice in Canada that supports supply management that does not have a vested interest." In short, she believes that the higher prices driven by supply management make dairy farmers hideously rich at the expense of just about everyone else. "For the sake of the rest of Canadas economy, now is the time to finally do whats right," Findlay concluded. The broad rift between pro- and anti-supply management arguments is a source of extreme frustration for economists like Prof. Michael von Massow of the University of Guelph. He has spent a lifetime studying the flow of agricultural commodities around the world and believes that there is a lot of misinformation and hyperbole at work in the supply management debate. First off, von Massow says, critics of supply management need to note that despite Trumps rhetoric on the issue, Canada currently imports more U.S. dairy and poultry products than it ships south to the U.S. The trade deficit is particularly acute in dairy products, where U.S. producers shipped US$640 million into Canada, with Canadian producers sending only about US$160 million into the U.S. Which brings us to the debate over consumer prices. Yes, prices are higher in Canada; research from the University of Guelph showed that, this summer, Canadians paid about 20 per cent more for milk than consumers in some U.S. markets. However, it is wrong to attribute that entire price gap to supply management. "There really hasnt been a lot of research on exactly why our milk prices are higher," von Massow said. "Do we pay a premium for milk and some poultry in Canada? Yes, but the degree to which that premium is attributable to supply management is not clear." One big factor to remember is that groceries in general are less costly in the U.S. Again, von Massow points to his own research, which showed that, this summer, Canadians paid more for whole-wheat bread (+15 per cent), lean ground beef (+16 per cent), soda crackers (+nine per cent), ketchup (+20 per cent) and broccoli (+32 per cent). The reasons for the higher prices in Canada vary, von Massow said. Canada is a large country with much fewer people than the U.S., and that means longer and more expensive supply chains to stock grocery store shelves. Those costs are invariably passed on to consumers. However, the lower prices down south can also be attributed to a U.S. grocery industry that is much more competitive and price-sensitive, von Massow adds. U.S. dairy producers, for example, frequently complain that American grocery stores use staples such as milk as loss leaders to attract customers and drive higher overall sales. Although thats good for consumers, von Massow said, its disastrous for producers. All that having been said, von Massow acknowledges that Trumps obsession with supply management is likely driven by the fact the U.S. dairy industry is in full-blown crisis right now. Total milk consumption is down 40 per cent in the U.S. from just four years ago. In some milk-producing states, this has led to mass bankruptcies. In California, more than one-third of dairy farms disappeared between 2000 and 2017. 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. Despite precipitous drops in consumption and production, the U.S. still regularly produces more dairy products than it can consume. Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture spent US$50 million buying surplus milk from dairy producers, distributing it free to food banks. And dairy farmers are expected to receive more than US$1 billion in bailout money from a massive, US$6-billion farm subsidy program, brought in to protect U.S. farmers from tariffs imposed on their exports in retaliation to Trumps trade war with China and the European Union. Supply management may drive higher prices, but von Massow noted that has created a system in which Ottawa does not have to step in and buy surplus products or bail out the industry. And if supply management is discontinued, its likely Ottawa will have to step in with a taxpayer support package to help transition the industry into a new era of competition from U.S. producers. Of greatest concern, however, is the fact supply management may be altered or dismantled on a rapid-response basis in high-pressure NAFTA negotiations now taking place in Washington. "Before we go about re-making policy helter-skelter, we should try to figure out what the impacts (of ending supply management) will really be," von Massow said. "Right now, we have a lot of people saying a lot of things without a whole lot of evidence to back them up." dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca When politicians are forced to reveal something embarrassing, controversial or overtly negative, they typically wait until late on Friday afternoon and then in the parlance of backroom politics they take out the trash. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 31/8/2018 (1159 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion When politicians are forced to reveal something embarrassing, controversial or overtly negative, they typically wait until late on Friday afternoon and then in the parlance of backroom politics they "take out the trash." Its a well-worn and somewhat cowardly strategy to catch news media off guard and, with some luck, suppress coverage to dampen consequences. Sometimes, it actually works. Many other times, however, it only serves to make a bad situation worse. Making a bad situation worse is the likely outcome of Premier Brian Pallisters most recent bid to take out the trash. On the last Friday of August, right before the Labour Day long weekend, the Canadian Press moved a story around 3 p.m. indicating Pallister owed thousands of dollars of back taxes on his luxury villa in Costa Rica. The story was a bit of a surprise given that last April, Pallister refuted an exclusive Free Press report that suggested he had not paid all of his taxes in Cost Rica. In fact, it turns out he did owe taxes. Pallister told the Canadian Press the bill amounted to about $8,000, which he has already paid. Pallister told CP he had failed to do a regular "evaluation" of his property to see if it was subject to the luxury tax. He said he was never "advised that we owed anything on this, and actually were told we were not in this (luxury) category." Pallister said that, as a result, "we had no reason to believe... that we would owe anything." Its a pretty big deal when the premier is forced to admit that, contrary to earlier assertions, he did in fact owe taxes on a property that has been a constant source of controversy since he re-entered politics. In this instance, however, no news release was issued. Pallister refused to be interviewed by any other media. Imagine the questions we would have asked him. Back in April, Pallister bristled at the mere suggestion that he owed taxes to anyone, anywhere. He did promise to look into the allegations to see if he had somehow missed this obligation. However, in the aftermath of our original story, he felt sufficiently aggrieved that he threatened to sue the Free Press for defamation. The threat of legal action was an odd tactic, particularly when there was evidence to support the Free Press story in the form of local government tax records, including building permits, property assessments and published details of the threshold for the luxury tax. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Premier Brian Pallister had threatened to sue the Winnipeg Free Press after it reported his tax issues in Costa Rica. In the face of this evidence, Pallister decided to go on the attack. Winnipeg lawyer Robert Tapper sent a letter to the Free Press claiming that our story had overestimated the size of Pallisters vacation home and left readers with the "impression that Premier Pallister flouted the law of Costa Rica, ignored tax obligations and did not make tax payments that were due and owing." To avoid a lawsuit, Tapper demanded a front-page apology and that the newspaper reveal its source on the story. In short, Pallister wanted the Free Press to admit that it was wrong about the tax arrears, even as he was unable to show any evidence to the contrary. The big question now is whether the decision to try and hide this story in the Friday afternoon trash will dampen interest. The answer is, not likely. Instead, this shameless attempt to bury the story will only serve to draw attention to what has become merely the latest chapter in a long and winding tale about a premier with a tragic propensity for self-inflicted wounds. Which brings us back to the issue of apologies. At this stage, apologies are most definitely warranted, although not the kind that the premier initially envisioned. If nothing else, Pallister owes an apology to the members of his own government for, once again, creating an unnecessary controversy that has soiled the party brand and painted its leader as a man who cannot be trusted. This is a government that has done a lot of controversial things in its first two years in government. It has virtually frozen funding for health and public education, cut back on other government services and capped infrastructure spending and shrunk the size and scope of the civil service. All this has been done to convert Manitobas stubborn budget deficit into a surplus. And theres been more. 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. Pallister introduced a regime for the legal sale of cannabis. He delivered a "made-in-Manitoba" carbon tax plan. Not everyone will agree with everything the Pallister government has done over the past 26 months, but no one will accuse the premier of thinking small. However, just when it seems like he and his team are getting a handle on running the government, the premier does something to derail his own momentum. Whether it is alleging that a "race war" was brewing between Indigenous hunters and municipal councils, or making inappropriate comments about an architects high heels, or fudging the details of the timing and frequency of his trips to Costa Rica, this is a leader who spends a lot of time getting in his own way. Pallister is known as a demanding taskmaster, a man who expects great things from his team and who is unafraid of dishing out criticism if someone is not pulling his or her weight. And that raises a second, big question. Would this premier tolerate this kind of behaviour from any other member of his government? dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Lawyers for former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos said the future president "nodded with approval" when Papadopoulos offered to arrange a get-together with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a sentencing memo from Papadopoulos' legal team released late Friday. In the same memo, Papadopoulos' lawyers argued he should serve no jail time after he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI when interviewed in January 2017. Papadopoulos was the first person to be charged in special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. He is set to be sentenced on Friday. The former campaign foreign policy adviser's lawyers also claimed in the memo that current Attorney General Jeff Session was even more eager to set up a Putin meeting than Trump. "Eager to show his value to the campaign, George announced at the meeting that he had connections that could facilitate a foreign policy meeting between Mr. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin," the sentencing memo states. "While some in the room rebuffed Georges offer, Mr. Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr. Sessions who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it." Congress has repeatedly grilled Sessions about his recollections of the March 2016 meeting in which Putin was discussed, eventually telling the House Judiciary Committee he pushed back on the suggested summit. "I do now recall the March 2016 meeting at Trump Hotel that Mr. Papadopoulos attended, but I have no clear recollection of the details of what he said during that meeting," Sessions said during his testimony. The court filing puts to rest weeks of hand-wringing that played out in public, as Papadopouloss wife and informal spokeswoman went on television to suggest he might withdraw his plea. She told ABC News on Wednesday he had decided to stick with his decision to plead guilty. His lawyers used Friday's sentencing memo to argue the then-28-year-old was not malicious, just in over his head, blinded by loyalty to candidate Trump and that his lies to FBI agents did not hinder the special counsel's investigation. "George will take responsibility for some inaccuracies during the interview with the FBI," his wife, Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos, said in a statement to ABC News on Wednesday, adding that she hoped the judge determining his fate would not send the former Trump campaign adviser to jail. The sentencing memo echoes those sentiments. Papadopoulos was interviewed by the FBI in Chicago on Jan. 27, 2017, when they surprised him at his parents' house. "George found himself personally conflicted during the interrogation as he felt obligated to assist the FBI but also wanted to distance himself and his work on the Trump campaign from that investigation," the sentencing memo states. "Attempting to reconcile these competing interests, George provided information he thought was important to the investigation while, at the same time, misleading the agents about the timing, nature, and extent of his contacts with Professor [Joseph] Mifsud, Olga, and Ivan Timofeev. "In his answers," the memo continued, "George falsely distanced his interactions with these players from his campaign work." Papadopoulos had met with Mifsud, a London-based professor, who facilitated a meeting with Olga, whom he told Papadopoulos was Putin's niece. The meeting came a week before his promise to Trump and Sessions that he believed he could organize a meeting with Putin himself. Following that campaign meeting, he met with Timofeev, who Mifsud told him had connections to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Putin meeting never came to be, and Papadopoulos began cooperating with Mueller's probe after his arrest on July 27, 2017. Earlier this month, prosecutors with the special counsel recommended Papadopoulos serve up to six months in jail for lying to federal investigators, arguing that he should be held accountable for having repeatedly misled them about "critical facts, in an investigation of national importance, after having been explicitly warned that lying to the FBI was a federal offense." "The nature and circumstances of the offense warrant a sentence of incarceration," prosecutors wrote. Papadopoulos' wife tweeted late Friday that she hopes the judge will show mercy. I trust that the facts are clear now. Hope for a fair decision. The defense sentencing memorandum is a very accurate portrayal of George genuine cooperation and the fact that he never hindered the investigation," she tweeted. "#freeGeorge. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 1) Another research vessel of the Chinese government has docked at a port in Davao City, less than two months after a Chinese ship made a call there. Major Ezra Balagtey, spokesperson of the military's Eastern Mindanao Command, on Saturday confirmed that Yuan Wang 7 dropped anchor at Sasa Wharf on Friday. Balagtey said the ship is expected to leave on Monday and is staying at the port "for replenishment." "Her stay in the Philippines is subject to the conditions as stated through Diplomatic Note issued by DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs)," Balagtey told reporters in a text message. In July, another Chinese research and surveillance ship, Yuan Wang 3, also docked at Sasa Wharf. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana then said there was "nothing unusual" in the port call, saying the ship would only replenish supplies. Retrieving PH frigate Meanwhile, retrieval operations are underway for BRP Gregorio del Pilar, the Philippine Navy's flagship that ran aground at a shoal in the disputed South China Sea on Wednesday night. Reports said China has sent Coast Guard and rescue vessels to help with the retrieval operations, but the Philippine Navy said it was not informed of such moves. The Armed Forces also said the Philippines can do it alone. "We did not ask for help from anybody... We can on our own, we can resolve this one," Armed Forces Public Affairs Chief Col. Noel Detoyato told reporters in a phone interview Friday. Malacanang refused to speculate on what China would do in response to the grounding incident. Associated British Foods plc operates as a diversified food, ingredients, and retail company worldwide. It operates through five segments: Grocery, Sugar, Agriculture, Ingredients, and Retail. The Grocery segment manufactures and sells grocery products, including hot beverages, sugar and sweeteners, vegetable oils, balsamic vinegars, bread and baked goods, cereals, ethnic foods, and meat products to retail, wholesale, and foodservice businesses. The Sugar segment is involved in growing, processing, and sale of sugar beet and sugar cane to industrial users. The Agriculture segment manufactures and sells animal feeds; and provides other products and services for the agriculture sector. The Ingredients segment manufactures bakers' yeast, bakery ingredients, enzymes, lipids, yeast extracts, and cereal specialties. The Retail segment is involved in buying and merchandising clothing and accessories through the Primark and Penneys retail chains, which offer womenswear, menswear, children's wear, footwear, accessories, homeware, and skincare products. The company was founded in 1935 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Associated British Foods plc is a subsidiary of Wittington Investments Limited. 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 Gardner Denver Holdings, Inc. provides mission-critical flow control and compression equipment; and associated aftermarket parts, consumables, and services in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It operates through three segments: Industrials, Energy, and Medical. The Industrials segment designs, manufactures, markets, and services a range of air compression, vacuum, and blower products, as well as offers associated aftermarket parts, consumables, and services. Its products are used in process-critical applications, such as the operation of industrial air tools, vacuum packaging of food products, aeration of waste water, and others. This segment sells its products through an integrated network of direct sales representatives and independent distributors under the Gardner Denver, CompAir, Elmo Rietschle, Robuschi, and other brand names. The Energy segment engages in the design, manufacture, marketing, and service of a range of displacement and liquid ring vacuum pumps, compressors and integrated systems, and engineered fluid loading and transfer equipment, as well as offers associated aftermarket parts, consumables, and services under the Gardner Denver, Nash, Emco Wheaton, and other brands. It serves customers in upstream, midstream, and downstream energy markets, as well as petrochemical processing, transportation, and general industrial sectors. The Medical segment designs, manufactures, and markets a range of specialized gas, liquid, and precision syringe pumps and compressors for use in oxygen therapy, blood dialysis, patient monitoring, laboratory sterilization and wound treatment, and other applications. This segment sells its products under the Thomas and other brands. Gardner Denver Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1859 and is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Abbott Laboratories: 3A Nutrition (Vietnam) Company Limited, ABON Biopharm (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd., AGA Medical Belgium, AGA Medical Corporation, AGA Medical Holdings Inc., ALR Holdings, AML Medical LLC, APK Advanced Medical Technologies LLC, ATS Bermuda Holdings Limited, ATS Laboratories Inc., Abbott, Abbott (Jiaxing) Nutrition Co. 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KG, Abbott Health Products LLC, Abbott Healthcare (Puerto Rico) Ltd., Abbott Healthcare B.V., Abbott Healthcare Costa Rica S.A., Abbott Healthcare LLC, Abbott Healthcare Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Healthcare Private Limited, Abbott Healthcare Products B.V., Abbott Healthcare Products Ltd, Abbott Holding (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding GmbH, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited Luxembourg S.C.S., Abbott Holdings B.V., Abbott Holdings LLC, Abbott Holdings Limited, Abbott Holdings Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Hungary Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Iberian Investments (2) Limited, Abbott Iberian Investments Limited, Abbott India Limited, Abbott Informatics Asia Pacific Limited, Abbott Informatics Canada Inc, Abbott Informatics Corporation, Abbott Informatics Europe Limited, Abbott Informatics France, Abbott Informatics Germany GmbH, Abbott Informatics Netherlands B.V., Abbott Informatics Singapore Pte. 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Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Australia Pty Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Hong Kong Limited, Inverness Medical Innovations SK LLC, Inverness Medical Investments LLC, Inverness Medical LLC, Inverness Medical Shimla Private Limited, Inversiones K2 SpA, Inversiones Komodo S.R.L., Ionian Technologies LLC, Irvine Biomedical Inc., Kalila Medical, Kangshenyunga S.A., Knoll UK Investments Unlimited, LLC VeroInPharm, Laboratoires Fournier S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano Lafrancol S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano del Ecuador S.A., Laboratorio Internacional Argentino S.A., Laboratorio Synthesis S.A.S., Laboratorios Lafi Limitada, Laboratorios Naturmedik S.A.S., Laboratorios Pauly Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Laboratorios Recalcine S.A., Laboratorios Transpharm S.A., Laboratory Specialists of America Inc., Lafrancol Dominicana S.A.S., Lafrancol Guatemala S.A. Sociedad Anonima, Lafrancol Internacional S.A.S, Lafrancol Peru S.R.L, Lake Forest Investments LLC, Lightlab Imaging Inc., Limited Liability Company Abbott Laboratories, Limited Liability Company Abbott Ukraine, Limited Liability Company VEROPHARM, Lung Fung Hong (China) Limited, Mansbridge Pharmaceuticals Limited, MediGuide LLC, MediGuide Ltd., Medscreen Holdings Limited, Metropolitana Farmaceutica S.A., Midwest Properties LLC, Murex Argentina S.A., Murex Biotech Limited, Murex Biotech South Africa, Murex Diagnostics Inc., Murex Diagnostics International Inc., Natural Supplement Association LLC, Negocios Denia Sociedad Anonima, Neosalud S.A.C., Nether Pharma N.P. C.V., NeuroTherm LLC, Normann Pharma-Handels GmbH, North Shore Properties Inc., Novamedi S.A., Novasalud.com S.A., Nutravida S.A., OJSC Voronezhkhimpharm, Omnilab Iberia Sociedad Limitada, OptiMedica, Orgenics France SAS, Orgenics International Holdings B.V., Orgenics Ltd., PBM-Selfcare LLC, PDD II LLC, PDD LLC, PT Alere Health, PT. Abbott Indonesia, PT. Abbott Products Indonesia, Pacesetter Inc., Pantech (RF) (PTY) LTD, Pembrooke Occupational Health Inc., Penagos S.A., Pharma International Sociedad Anonima, Pharmaceutical Technologies (Pharmatech) S.A., Pharmatech Boliviana S.A., Polygon Labs S.A., Quality Assured Services Inc., RF Medical Holdings LLC, RTL Holdings Inc., Ramses Business Corp., Recben Xenerics Farmaceutica Limitada, Redwood Toxicology Laboratory Inc., Rich Horizons International Limited, SC VEROPHARM, SJ Medical Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., SJM International Inc., SJM Thunder Holding Company, SPDH Inc., Saboya Enterprises Corporation, Salviac Limited, Scanax AS, Sealing Solutions Inc., Selfcare Technology Inc., Shandong Abbott Dairy Product Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Medical Devices Science and Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Shanghai Si Fa Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Sinensix & Co., Spinal Modulation LLC, St. Jude Medical, St. Jude Medical AB, St. Jude Medical ATG Inc., St. Jude Medical Argentina S.A., St. Jude Medical Asia Pacific Holdings GK, St. Jude Medical Atrial Fibrillation Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Brasil Ltda., St. Jude Medical Business Services Inc., St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Colombia Ltda., St. Jude Medical Coordination Center, St. Jude Medical Costa Rica Limitada, St. Jude Medical Europe Inc., St. Jude Medical Export Ges.m.b.H., St. Jude Medical GVA Sarl, St. Jude Medical Holdings B.V., St. Jude Medical India Private Limited, St. Jude Medical International Holding, St. Jude Medical LLC, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings II, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings NT, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings SMI S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings TC S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Mexico Business Services S. de R.L. de C.V., St. Jude Medical Middle East DMCC, St. Jude Medical Operations (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., St. Jude Medical Puerto Rico LLC, St. Jude Medical S.C. Inc., St. Jude Medical Systems AB, St. Jude Medical Turkey Medikal Urunler Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Standard Diagnostics Inc., Standing Stone LLC, Swan-Myers Incorporated, TC1 LLC, Tendyne Holdings Inc., Tendyne Medical Inc., Thoratec Delaware LLC, Thoratec Europe Limited, Thoratec LLC, Thoratec Switzerland GmbH, Tobal Products Incorporated, Topera GmbH in Liquidation, Topera Inc., Tremora S.A., Tuenir S.A., TwistDx, UAB Abbott Laboratories, UAB Abbott Medical Lithuania, Union-Madison Realty Company Inc., Unipath Limited (dba Alere International/aka Cranfield), Unipath Management Limited, Unipath Pension Trustee Limited, Veropharm, Veropharm Limited Liability Partnership, Vida Cell Inversiones S.A., Vida Cell S.A., Vivalsol, W&R Pharma Handels GmbH, Western Pharmaceuticals S.A., X Technologies Inc., Yissum Holding Limited, ZonePerfect Nutrition Company, eScreen Canada ULC, eScreen Inc., ( ), and Abbott Laboratories Baltics. IMAX Corp. is an entertainment technology company, which engages in the business of motion picture technologies and presentations. It operates through following four business segments: IMAX Technology Network; IMAX Technology Sales and Maintenance; New Business Initiatives; and Film Distribution and Post-Production. The IMAX Technology Network segment represents box office results and which includes the reportable segment of IMAX DMR and contingent rent from the joint revenue sharing arrangements and IMAX systems segments. The IMAX Technology Sales and Maintenance segment includes the sale and installation of theater systems and maintenance services, primarily related to the IMAX Systems and Theater System Maintenance. The New Business Initiatives segment involves content licensing and distribution fees associated with the firm's original content investments, virtual reality initiatives, IMAX Home Entertainment, and other business initiatives that are in the development and/or start-up phase. The Film Distribution and Post-Production segment provides licenses film content and distributes large-format films, primarily for its institutional theater partners. The company was founded Read More Tailored Brands, Inc. (NYSE:TLRD) issued its earnings results on Wednesday, March, 18th. The company reported ($0.46) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.54) by $0.08. The business earned $690.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $708.46 million. Tailored Brands had a negative trailing twelve-month return on equity of 138.49% and a negative net margin of 14.39%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.28) EPS. View Tailored Brands' earnings history. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, a diversified financial institution, provides various financial products and services to personal, business, public sector, and institutional clients in Canada, the United States, and internationally. The company operates through four strategic business units: Canadian Personal and Business Banking; Canadian Commercial Banking and Wealth Management; U.S. Commercial Banking and Wealth Management; and Capital Markets. The company offers chequing, savings, and business accounts; mortgages; loans, lines of credit, student lines of credit, and business and agriculture loans; investment and insurance services; and credit cards, as well as overdraft protection services. It also provides day-to-day banking, borrowing and credit, investing and wealth, specialty, and international services; correspondent banking and online foreign exchange services; and cash management services. The company serves its customers through its banking centers, as well as direct, mobile, and remote channels. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was founded in 1867 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Read More DATA Communications Management Corp., together with its subsidiaries, provides business communication solutions in North America. It provides a range of communication solutions, including multi media campaign management, location-specific marketing, 1:1 marketing, custom loyalty programs execution, and brand management, as well as commercial printing services. The company also offers warehousing and freight services. It serves the financial institutions, insurance, healthcare, lottery and gaming, retailing, not-for-profit, energy, and governmental industries. The company was formerly known as DATA Group Ltd. and changed its name to DATA Communications Management Corp. in July 2016. DATA Communications Management Corp. was founded in 1959 and is headquartered in Brampton, Canada. Read More Wall Street analysts have given iShares Currency Hedged MSCI EAFE 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 Currency Hedged MSCI EAFE 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 Aquantia 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 Aquantia 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 SK Telecom Co.,Ltd: ADT CAPS Co. Ltd., ADT Caps, Atlas Investment, CAPSTEC Co. Ltd., Cyworld, DongGuan Iriver Electronics Co. Ltd., Dreamus Company, Eleven Street Co. Ltd., FSK L&S (Hungary) Co. Ltd., FSK L&S (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., FSK L&S Co. Ltd., FSK L&S Vietnam Company Limited, Hana Card, Hanaro Telecom, Happy Hanool Co. Ltd., Home & Service Co. Ltd., ID Quantique, Id Quantique LLC, Incross Co. Ltd., Infra Communications Co. Ltd., Iriver China Co. Ltd., Iriver Enterprise Ltd., K-net Culture and Contents Venture Fund, Korea Thrunet, LG HelloVision, Life & Security Holdings Co. Ltd., Life Design Company Inc., Mindknock Co. Ltd., Onestore Co. Ltd., PS&Marketing Co. Ltd., Panasia Semiconductor Materials LLC, Quantum Innovation Fund I, SK Broadband, SK Broadband Co. Ltd., SK Communications Co. Ltd., SK Global Healthcare Business Group Ltd., SK Infosec Co. Ltd., SK M&Service Co. Ltd., SK O&S Co. Ltd., SK Planet Co. Ltd., SK Planet Global Holdings Pte. Ltd., SK Planet Japan K. K., SK Telecom China Fund I L.P., SK Telecom China Holdings Co. Ltd., SK Telecom Innovation Fund L.P., SK Telecom TMT Investment Corp., SK Telink Co. Ltd., SK stoa Co. Ltd., SK telecom Japan Inc., SKP America LLC, SKT Americas Inc., SKinfosec Information Technology (wuxi) Co. Ltd., Service Ace Co. Ltd., Service Top Co. Ltd., Shopkick, Tbroad Nowon Broadcasting Co. Ltd., YTK Investment Ltd., iRiver Ltd, and id Quantique Ltd.. The following companies are subsidiares of Crown: Adularia Inversiones 2010 S.L., Angleboard Sweden AB, Bates Cargo-Pak ApS, Butimove, CMB Machinery and Technology (Shanghai) Co Ltd, CROWN AP (Thailand) Company Limited, CROWN Aerosols & Promotional Nederland, CROWN Aerosols Italia Srl, CROWN Aerosols Nederland BV, CROWN Aerosols UK Limited, CROWN Americas LLC, CROWN Arabia Can Company Ltd, CROWN Asia Pacific Holdings Pte. Ltd., CROWN Asia Pacific Investments (T) Limited, CROWN Bevcan Espana S.L., CROWN Bevcan France SAS, CROWN Bevcan Slovakia s.r.o., CROWN Bevcan Turkiye Ambalaj Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, CROWN Bevcan and Closures (Thailand) Company Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans (Cambodia) Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans (Dong Nai) Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Beijing Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Changchun Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Danang Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Hangzhou Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Hanoi Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Heshan Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Hong Kong Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Huizhou Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Malaysia Sdn Bhd, CROWN Beverage Cans Nanning Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Putian Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Saigon Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Shanghai Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Sihanoukville Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Singapore Pte. Ltd., CROWN Beverage Cans Ziyang Limited, CROWN Beverage Packaging LLC, CROWN Beverage Packaging Puerto Rico Inc., CROWN Cans Ghana Limited, CROWN China Holdings (Hong Kong) Limited, CROWN Commercial Belgium BVBA, CROWN Commercial France SAS, CROWN Commercial Germany GmbH & Co. KG, CROWN Commercial Hungary Kft, CROWN Commercial Netherlands B.V., CROWN Commercial Vermogensverwaltung GmbH, CROWN Cork & Seal USA Inc., CROWN Embalagens Metalicas da Amazonia S.A., CROWN Emballage France SAS, CROWN Emirates Company Limited, CROWN Envases Mexico S.A. de C.V., CROWN Famosa S.A. de C.V., CROWN Food Packaging (Thailand) Public Company Limited, CROWN Foodcan (Hat Yai) Company Limited, CROWN Foodcan (Nakhon Pathom) Company Limited, CROWN Foodcan Germany GmbH, CROWN Foodcan GmbH, CROWN Imballaggi Italia Srl, CROWN Imgallaggi Italia Srl, CROWN Italy Finance srl, CROWN Khmer Beverage Cans Limited, CROWN Maghreb Can, CROWN Magyarorszag Csomagoloipari KFT, CROWN Metal Packaging Canada Inc., CROWN Metal Packaging Canada LP, CROWN Middle East Can Co. Ltd., CROWN Packaging (Barbados) Limited, CROWN Packaging Holdings LLC, CROWN Packaging Investment (H.K.) Limited, CROWN Packaging Ireland Ltd, CROWN Packaging Jamaica Limited, CROWN Packaging Polska Sp.z.o.o., CROWN Packaging Technology Inc., CROWN Packaging Trinidad Limited, CROWN Packaging UK Limited, CROWN Promotional Packaging UK Ltd, CROWN SIEM, CROWN Senegal, CROWN Societe Malgache d'Emballages Metalliques, CROWN Speciality Packaging BV, CROWN Speciality Packaging Investment Pte. Ltd., CROWN Specialty Packaging UK Ltd, CROWN TCP Beverage Cans Company Limited, CROWN Verpakking Belgie NV, CROWN Verpakking Nederland B.V., Caretex Asia Ltd., CarnaudMetalbox Engineering Ltd, CarnaudMetalbox Food South Africa (Pty) Limited, CarnaudMetalbox Group UK Limited, CarnaudMetalbox Overeseas Limited, CarnaudMetalbox Overseas Limited, Cierres Hermeticos S.A. DE C.V., Constar International, Crown Americas Capital Corp., Crown Americas Capital Corp. II, Crown Americas Capital Corp. III, Crown Americas Capital Corp. IV, Crown Americas Capital Corp. V, Crown Americas Capital Corp. VI, Crown Brasil Holdings Ltda., Crown Canadian Holdings ULC, Crown Closures Spain S.L., Crown Colombiana S.A., Crown Comercial de Envases S.L., Crown Commercial Italy Srl, Crown Commercial Polska Sp. z.o.o., Crown Consultants Inc., Crown Cork & Seal Company (DE) LLC, Crown Cork & Seal Company Inc., Crown Cork & Seal Deutschland Holdings GmbH, Crown Cork & Seal Receivables (DE) Corporation, Crown Cork & Seal de Portugal Embalagens S.A., Crown Cork Kuban, Crown Cork and Seal Receivables II LLC, Crown Developpement SAS, Crown European Holdings, Crown Food Espana S.A.U., Crown Foodcan Turkey Ambalaj Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Crown Hellas Can Packaging SA, Crown Heshan Trading Company Limited, Crown Holdings Italia Srl, Crown Holdings Spain S.L., Crown International Holdings B.V., Crown International Holdings Inc., Crown Luxembourg Holdings, Crown Mexican Holdings S. de R.L. de C.V., Crown Overseas Investments B.V., Crown Packaging Commercial UK Limited, Crown Packaging Distribution UK Limited, Crown Packaging European Division GmbH, Crown Packaging European Division Services SAS, Crown Packaging European Holdings GmbH, Crown Packaging Lux I S.a.r.l., Crown Packaging Lux II S.a.r.l., Crown Packaging Lux III S.a.r.l., Crown Packaging Manufacturing UK Limited, Crown Packaging Maroc, Crown Receivables III, Crown Services Iberia, Crown UK Holdings Limited, Crownway Insurance Company, Dacro B.V., EMPAQUE, Fabricas Monterrey S.A. de C.V., Form Koruyucu Ambalaj Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Foshan Continental Can Co. Limited, Foshan Crown Easy-Opening End Co. Limited, Glass & Silice S.A. DE C.V., Globoplastt s.r.o., Gunther S.A.S., Haloila Bulgaria EOOD, Interstrap B.V., Josef Kihlberg AB, Kiwiplan GmbH, Kiwiplan Inc, Lachenmeier ApS, Liljendals Bruk AB, Litec France S.A.S., Mezger Heftsysteme GmbH, Mima Films S.a.r.l., Mima Films Sprl, Mima Packaging Systems S.A.S., Mivisa, Nordic S.A.S., Norsk Signode AS, Oy M. Haloila AB, PT CROWN Beverage Cans Indonesia, Package Design and Manufacturing, Prolatamex S.A. DE C.V., Quandel Verpackungs- und Foerdertechnik GmbH, SMB Schwede Maschinenbau GmbH, SMP Schwede Maschinenbau Weischlitz GmbH, SPG Denmark, SPG France Holdings SAS, SPG Germany Service Management GmbH, SPG Industrial Packaging S.a.r.l, SPG Netherlands B.V., SPG Packaging Ireland Limited, SPG Packaging Systems GmbH, SPG Packaging UK Ltd, Scybele S.A.S., Shippers Europe S.p.r.l., Signode BVBA, Signode Brasileira Ltda, Signode Hong Kong Limited, Signode Industrial Group, Signode Industrial Group AB, Signode Industrial Group Colombia S.A.S., Signode Industrial Group GmbH, Signode Industrial Group Holdings Lux S.a.r.l., Signode Industrial Group Holdings US Inc, Signode Industrial Group Lux S.A., Signode Industrial Group Mexico, Signode Industrial Group Sweden AB, Signode International Holdings LLC, Signode International IP Holdings LLC, Signode International Investment LLC, Signode Kabushiki Kaisha, Signode Korea Inc, Signode NZ Limited, Signode Netherlands B.V., Signode Packaging (Qingdao) Co., Signode Packaging (Shanghai) Co., Signode Packaging Espana S.L., Signode Packaging Group (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Signode Packaging Group Australia Pty Ltd, Signode Packaging Group Canada ULC, Signode Packaging Group NZ, Signode Packaging Systems Limited, Signode Pickling Holding LLC, Signode Polska sp. Z.o.o., Signode Singapore Pte. Ltd., Signode Sweden Holdings AB, Signode System GmbH, Signode System Packaging GmbH & Co. KG, Signode Systems (Thailand) Ltd., Signode US IP Holdings LLC, Silice De Veracruz S.A. DE C. V., Silice Del Istmo S.A. DE C.V., Silices De Veracruz, Societe Civile Immobiliere Rousseau-Ivry, Societe Civile Immobiliere des Baquets, Societe de Participations CarnaudMetalbox, Stopak India Pvt. Ltd, Strapex Austria GmbH, Strapex Embalagem L.d.a., Strapex Holdings Limited, Strapex S.A.S., Strapex Srl, Superior Investments Holdings Pte. Ltd., Superior Multi-Packaging Limited, TopFrame LLC, V.A.C. B.V., Vichisa S.A. de C.V., and Warehouse Automation Iberia S.L.. Wall Street analysts have given Hertz Global 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 Hertz Global wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. 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 ConocoPhillips engages in the exploration, production, transportation and marketing of crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, natural gas liquids, and liquefied natural gas on a worldwide basis. It operates through the following geographical segments: Alaska; Lower 48; Canada; Europe, Middle East and North Africa; Asia Pacific; and Other International. The Alaska segment primarily explores for produces, transports and markets crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. The Lower 48 segment consists of operations in the U.S. and the Gulf of Mexico. The Canada segment is comprised of oil sands development in the Athabasca Region of northeastern Alberta and a liquids-rich unconventional play in western Canada. The Europe, Middle East and North Africa segment consists of operations and exploration activities in Norway, the United Kingdom and Libya. The Asia Pacific segment has explorations and product operations in China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia. The Other International segment handles exploration activities in Columbia and Argentina. The company was founded in 1875 and is headquartered in Houston, TX. Read More Valley National Bancorp is a bank holding company, which engages in the provision of retail and commercial banking services. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Lending; Commercial Lending; Investment Management; and Corporate and Other Adjustments. The Consumer Lending segment consists of residential mortgage loans, automobile loans and home equity loans, as well as wealth management and insurance services. The Commercial Lending segment includes the floating rate and adjustable rate commercial and industrial loans as well as fixed rate owner occupied and commercial real estate loans. The Investment Management segment refers to investments in various types of securities and interest-bearing deposits with other banks. The Corporate and Other Adjustments segment represents the income and expense items not directly attributable to a specific segment. The company was founded on November 12, 1982 and is headquartered in New York, NY. Read More The investigation by special counsel and former FBI director Robert Mueller into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election is close to issuing an indictment against WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange. That is the conclusion that can be drawn from a lengthy article authored by James Gordon Meek and Ali Dukakis and published on August 29 by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). James Gordon Meek is not just any journalist. He must be ranked as one of the prime conduits in the American media for the positions of the US intelligence, police and military apparatus. Throughout his now 25-year career, he has been repeatedly used by unnamed sources within the state to luridly report on a myriad of purported terrorism conspiracies that have been used to justify the military operations and anti-democratic outrages carried out under the pretext that the US is fighting a war on terror. From 2011 to 2013, he worked as the leading counterterrorism advisor to the congressional Committee on Homeland Security. Julian Assange Meeks attention to the issue of Julian Assange is therefore of significance. The underlying and unsubstantiated premise of the article is that WikiLeaks was part of a conspiracy, involving Russian intelligence and Roger Stone, a person who supported the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, to manipulate the outcome of the US election. Meek and Dukakis wrote, as fact, that Assange is embroiled in the global political scandal surrounding Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election, with questions about his role in that drama being raised by friends and foes alike. They asserted: In more ways than one, the very walls protecting Assange also appear to be closing in. The article continued: Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigators have been probing WikiLeaks possible role in Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 elections, recently questioning at least five witnesses about their contacts with WikiLeaks. If his hosts at the Ecuadorian embassy were to rescind his asylum and evict him, he faces immediate arrest by British authorities for failing to surrender on an arrest warrant related to a since-dropped rape investigation in Sweden. That arrest could pave the way for his potential extradition to the United States, should US officials decide to charge him with a crime while he is in custody. It is necessary to review the context in which such a scenario is elaborated. Due to WikiLeaks publication in 2010 of damning exposures of US imperialist war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, followed by its release of US diplomatic cables that revealed the sordid anti-democratic intrigues that Washington conducts around the world, Assange has been subjected to relentless persecution and slander. For over six years, he has been forced to live in the small Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he sought and was granted political asylum on June 19, 2012, under conditions in which he faced extradition to Sweden to answer questions over false and manufactured allegations of sexual assault. Julian Assange did not commit and was never charged with any crime. The only motive behind the Swedish extradition warrant was to render him to a country where he could be rapidly extradited on to the US to face a show trial on false charges of espionage and decades of imprisonment or potentially even a death sentence. Swedish prosecutors abandoned their fraudulent investigation in May 2017. The determination of the British government to arrest and detain Assange if he sets foot outside the Ecuadorian embassy has ensured that he remains deprived of direct sunlight, adequate medical and dental treatment and social engagement. He endures what a United Nations working group characterised in December 2015 as arbitrary detention, deprivation of liberty and violation of his human rights. Since March 28 this yearthat is, for over five monthshis circumstances have been made even more draconian. As part of its attempts to ingratiate itself with Washington, the Moreno government in Ecuador has turned on Assange. It has stripped him of his right to communicate in any way with the outside world, including with his family in Australia, and to receive any personal visitors apart from his legal representatives. Meek and Dukakis wrote in their ABC report: Little is known about how Assange, who friends say is a creature of the Internet, has managed his time there, especially since his electronic devices were taken away in March. Visitors have told ABC News he reads, uses a treadmill, and observes the street life below from a window. Arguably the most obscene paragraph in the Meek/Dukakis article was the following: In a series of interviews with his lawyers, supporters and friends, the people closest to Assange painted a bleak picture of his present and a grim outlook on his future, telling ABC News that he may both long for and dread the day he is forced out of the embassy. Mouthpieces for the American state effectively gloat over the fact that all people, regardless of how courageous, can be torn down and brought to a psychological or physical breaking point. That is the grim outlook they envisage for Julian Assange. The claim that Assange was part of a conspiracy to manipulate the 2016 US presidential election is based on amalgams, distortions and outright lies. The accusations centre on the fact that in July 2016, WikiLeaks published a trove of emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC). In doing so, Assange and his media organisation exposed the fact that the DNC, ostensibly an impartial body, had worked to undermine and sabotage the presidential campaign of self-styled socialist Bernie Sanders and ensure that Hillary Clinton won the Democratic Party presidential nomination. In October 2016, WikiLeaks followed up with the publication of emails sent by Clinton campaign chairperson John Podesta, which further exposed her as a big business stooge and warmonger. Those who have joined the denunciations of WikiLeaks for publishing the DNC and Podesta emails generally do not spell out their political standpoint, because it is utterly reactionary. The entire argument that Julian Assange assisted Donald Trump is predicated on the assumption that American workers and young people should have been denied information about the character of Clinton and her campaign and, in a state of ignorance, elected her as president of the United States. There is absolutely no evidence that WikiLeaks obtained the DNC and Podesta emails from Russian intelligence agencies, let alone that it conspired with such agencies to hack the DNC. Assange has publicly stated that his source was not Russian-linked. Craig Murray, a British-based whistleblower and prominent WikiLeaks supporter, has stated he knows that the sources of the leaks were disgruntled employees of the DNC, who were outraged over its conspiratorial efforts to sabotage the Sanders campaign. Nor is there any evidence of collusion between Assange and the Trump campaign. WikiLeaks published the DNC emails in July 2016. The first attempt by Trump backer Roger Stone to contact Assange did not take place until August. He sought to reach WikiLeaks through radical American radio presenter Randy Credico, who based on public records of the correspondence, did nothing more than tell Stone to read what the organisation had published. Moreover, when Stone wrote to Credico, it was more than year after he had been sacked by Trump from his official campaign team. Every political and media organization that either repeats the slander that WikiLeaks operated on behalf of Russia and Trump, or remains silent as Julian Assange is vilified and set-up for criminal indictment, deserves the utter contempt and condemnation of all defenders of democratic rights and freedom of speech. The World Socialist Web Site is committed to the fight to win the unconditional freedom of Julian Assange. WikiLeaks must be able to continue its groundbreaking journalistic work. The defence of Assange and WikiLeaks is a crucial part of the broader struggle to defeat the systematic attempts of the ruling class to suppress the ability of independent and critical voices to use the immense democratic potential of the Internet to develop political opposition to war, social inequality and attacks on democratic rights. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen last week called a Consultation Forum in Phnom Penhs Peace Palace to involve 20 political parties that failed to gain seats in the July 29 national elections in a new culture of dialogue. The presidents of the 16 parties that showed up were offered positions as advisers to the Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) government, which won all 125 seats in the new National Assembly. This rigged election came after the CPP won all 58 seats in the countrys upper house or Senate in February. The forum was a desperate effort by the CPP regime to legitimise its one-party rule and avoid punitive sanctions that the US and European Union threatened in the lead up to the July 29 poll. Brussels and Washington have demanded that the main opposition party, the pro-Western Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) be reinstated and its jailed leader Kem Sokha released. The CPP-controlled Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP last November and Sokha was jailed on trumped-up treason charges. Having suppressed its main rival, the CPP focussed its election campaign on a bid to prevent a low turnout. In the end, the government claimed an 83 percent turnout, up on 2013, with the CPP gaining 4,889,113, or 77.36 percent, of the valid votes counted. No one should credit this sham result. Even the official result pointed to widespread dissatisfaction, with 596,775 ballot papers, or 9 percent of votes cast, spoiled, up from 1.6 percent in 2013. The pretext for banning the CNRP was the partys alleged links to Washington-funded organisations, including the National Democratic Institute (NDI), and involvement in a plan to bring down the government in a colour revolution. At the same time, the NDI and media outlets linked to Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, set up to promote US imperialist interests, were forced to cease operations in Cambodia. The CNRP undoubtedly has ties to US imperialism and its various agencies. However, it is a measure of the political bankruptcy of the CPP that it is compelled to resort to blatantly anti-democratic methods to ensure its grip on power. The CNRP has been able to falsely posture as the defender of workers and peasants precisely because of governments continuing attacks on living standards. The CPP has ruled since the 1979 Vietnamese invasion that toppled the Pol Pot regime. Hun Sens ruling clique was shaken in 2013 when the CNRP won 44 percent of the vote and 55 seats in the then 123-seat national assembly. In regional elections in June 2017, the CNRP increased its vote by over 13 percent while that of the CPP declined by almost 11 percent. The regime calculated it would be voted out of office in last months poll. Following the November court ban on the CNRP, Hun Sen drove its 55 legislators out of the parliament and allocated their seats to minor parties. The CPP installed their own cronies in 489 positions of commune chief and 5,007 positions of councillor that had previously been occupied by the CNRP. The CPP and the CNRP represent rival factions of the capitalist class. Both support the transformation of Cambodia into a cheap labour platform for foreign investors. Some 700,000 workers are engaged in the garment industries, which account for 70 percent of the countrys exports, as well as in footwear, natural rubber, fish and other industries. In 2013 and 2014, Hun Sen used the security forces to violently suppress the struggles of textile and garment workers over poor wages and appalling working conditions. Hun Sen only began to offer limited concessions when CNRP sought to posture as a defender of these workers. The CNRP represents sections of the ruling elite frustrated by the domination of the Hun Sen regime and their exclusion from business opportunity, profits and power. The CNRP is oriented to Washington, which has provided aid to the opposition as a means of placing pressure on the ruling party. The CPP government has sought to maintain and improve relations with the US and EU, which in 2016 were the destination for $US10.1 billion, or 61 percent, of its exports. Washington, however, is hostile to the governments orientation to Beijing, on which it relies for aid, investment and political support. Hun Sen has championed Beijings interests inside the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) against Washingtons drive for ASEAN support for its anti-China drive. Chinese President Xi Jinping was the only major foreign leader to congratulate Hun Sen on the CPPs victory in the July poll. While the US announced aid cuts after the February upper house election, Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe visited Cambodia, promising increased defence cooperation and military aid. Virtually all the $2 billion foreign direct investment (FDI) flowing into Cambodia annually comes from Asia. The leading investors are China, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia and Japan. China, however, provides more FDI than all the others put together and accounts for more than $20 billion worth of accumulated FDI stock. At the same time, Cambodia depends heavily on the US as the countrys biggest single market, taking more than $US3 billion in exports. China accounts for only 6 percent of Cambodias exports. Concerned that Cambodia could move closer to China, the Trump administration has not imposed major economic penalties, such as ending its tariff-free export status. When the election results were announced on August 15, the US State Department responded by imposing limited extra visa restrictions on select officials. However, as it escalates its confrontation over trade and other issues against China, Washington could also turn on Beijings partners and allies, including Cambodia. After neo-Nazis rioted on Sunday and Monday in the east German city of Chemnitz almost undisturbed by the police, and attacked people they identified as foreigners, more and more details have come to light about the close coordination and cooperation between the right-wing extremists, the police and the state apparatus. On Thursday, an official from Dresden Prison was suspended, suspected of having passed on the arrest warrant for a 22-year-old Iraqi to right-wing extremists. The Iraqi is accused of stabbing a 35-year-old man on Sunday on the street near the city festival in Chemnitz. The arrest warrant was published by Pegida leader Lutz Bachmann, numerous far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) politicians and the Pro Chemnitz initiative, which organized the right-wing march on Monday evening in Chemnitz. Another right-wing politician who published the arrest warrant on the Internet is Jan Timke, a federal police officer and member of the right-wing populist electoral association Burger in Wut (Angry Citizens). According to a report by the Berlin Tagesspiegel, the two-page document contains the full names of the victim, the alleged perpetrator and the judge. Also mentioned is the place of residence of the alleged perpetrator, but only the street; the names of witnesses were blacked out in first published versions. Later, however, the arrest warrant appeared on the Internet without anything blacked out, including the complete address of the alleged perpetrator and the names of the witnesses. Apparently, the official who passed on the arrest warrant to the right-wing extremists sought to further fuel agitation against supposedly violent refugees and immigrants and incite the neo-Nazi mob to carry out vigilante attacks. Ronald Glaser, the deputy chairman of the AfD parliamentary group in the Berlin House of Representatives (state legislature), tweeted the arrest warrant with the words: indict, convict, punish, deport. The far-right blog Journalistenwatch published the arrest warrant with the comment, Chemnitz killer is rejected asylum seeker with 'considerable criminal convictions'. It is still unclear what exactly happened in Chemnitz Saturday night. According to the police, several people of different nationalities were involved in a dispute following the city festival. Several people then fled the crime scene. A short time later, the Iraqi mentioned in the warrant and a 23-year-old Syrian were arrested. Both men are accused of having stabbed the 35-year-old several times without justification. According to various media outlets, the victim was carpenter Daniel H., a Cuban-German who grew up in Chemnitz and held left-wing political views. According to a report by Spiegel Online, Daniel H. had liked pages of the Left Party and various anti-fascist groups. In one comment, he wrote positively about the anti-fascist fashion label Storch Heinar, and in a post about Nazis are mad shirts, he commented with the words, I would also like one, in Chemnitz there are still too many of the nut cases. The Freie Presse, the largest subscription newspaper in Saxony, quoted from a Facebook post by Daniel W, a good friend of Daniel H.: I ask you one thing, don't let your grief become anger and hatred. These right-wingers, who use this as a platform, with whom we had to fight earlier, because they did not regard us as German enough. Anyone who knew Daniel H. knows that this would not have been what he wanted. Don't let yourself be used, but mourn. Against the backdrop of recent events, and the way in which the alleged knife attack on a left-leaning worker with an immigrant background is being politically exploited, it would be politically naive to exclude the participation of right-wing extremists or elements in the state apparatus. In Saxony in particular, the security services have repeatedly used their close ties with right-wing extremist circles to pursue reactionary political goals. When two bomb attacks were carried out on September 26, 2016, on the Fatih Mosque and the International Congress Centre in Dresden, counterfeit letters accepting responsibility by the Dresden Antifa and the Anti-Einheitsfeier-Alliance 3oct were published on the website linksunten.indymedia.org, which has since been banned by the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Later, it turned out that a speaker of the right-wing Pegida movement, which was in part built up by the Saxony State Agency for Civic Education, and has close ties to the Saxony police and the intelligence services, was behind the attacks. In spring of 2017, it became known that Franco A., a right-wing professional army officer, had hoarded weapons and registered in Bavaria as a Syrian refugee, where he received protection status despite his full-time service with the Bundeswehr. There is a suspicion that he, together with at least two other accomplicesone of them, Maximilian T., who is now working as a personal advisor for the AfD member of parliament Jan Nolteplanned attacks on high-ranking politicians and institutions such as the Central Council of Muslims and the Central Council of Jews in Germany, to then blame them on refugees to stir up right-wing and xenophobic sentiments. On Thursday, new details about the role of the secret service (BfV) in the 19 December 2016, truck attack of at Berlin Breitscheidplatz came to light. According to research by broadcaster ARDs political magazine Kontraste, the rbb and the Berliner Morgenpost, the secret service had apparently tried to ensure that the fact that the BfV had placed an undercover informant in the vicinity of the assassin Anis Amri did not become public. The document, which Kontraste was able to review, says: Public knowledge of the use of sources must be avoided for reasons of source protection and further inflaming the topic must be prevented. Anis Amri, who committed the attack, had been driven to Berlin by an undercover informant from the North Rhine-Westphalian state secret service. The same undercover informant is said to have repeatedly incited Amri to act. Like the attack in Berlin, the events in Chemnitz are being used to intensify the xenophobic anti-refugee campaign and to strengthen the extreme right. Neo-Nazis who publicly give the Hitler salute and roar foreigners out are considered by the media to be concerned citizens. Representatives of the right-wing extremist AfD are granted even more airtime on talk shows and news broadcasts to justify the neo-Nazi riots in Chemnitz. And politicians from the establishment parties, who pretended to be shocked immediately after the riots, are singing the same tune. On Thursday, Saxony state premier Michael Kretschmer (Christian Democratic Union, CDU) and Chemnitz mayor Barbara Ludwig (Social Democratic Party, SPD) organized a so-called civil dialogue in Chemnitz, in which they played down the violent actions of the right-wing extremists. Ludwig expressed understanding for the anger and consternation in Chemnitz and, in the style of the AfD, Kretschmer added, When you describe that as 'rabble-rousing through the city' or a 'pogrom', then it does not apply to what happened there. That is totally exaggerated. That's nonsense. After the right-wing extremist mob was able to march through Chemnitz almost undisturbed by the police on Sunday and Monday, thousands of police are now being concentrated in Chemnitz. The target is not the fascists, but the workers and young people seeking to oppose them. A Rock Against the Right concert with well-known bands like the Toten Hosen and Kraftklub is planned for next Monday, with tens of thousands expected. On the first day, more than 12,000 people signed up to participate in the event. In Berlin, more than 10,000 workers and young people protested on Thursday under the slogan Take to the streets against right-wing violence. This September, hundreds of thousands of Russian, NATO and Chinese troops are being mobilized in dueling war games across Eurasia. These exercises, the largest in Russia and Europe since the end of World War II, come amid an escalation of military conflicts and tensions directly posing the danger of a clash between nuclear-armed powers. Today, as the Russian Navy mounts its largest deployment in the Mediterranean Sea in decades, Moscow is launching eight days of naval-aerial exercises in that region. The exercise involves 25 ships and 30 aircraft, including Tu-160 strategic bombers, whose capabilities include continental nuclear strikes. The Russian Defense Ministry advised that areas covered by the drill will be blocked off and declared dangerous for navigation and flights. On September 11, Russia and China will launch the Vostok-18 (East-18) drills in eastern Russias trans-Baikal region. Vostok-18 is to surpass in size even the 1981 Zapad-81 drill, the largest war game carried out by the Soviet Union after World War II. It is to involve a staggering 300,000 troops, 1,000 aircraft, and 36,000 vehicles on the Russian side, together with 3,200 troops, 30 aircraft and 900 vehicles from China. Mongolian troops will also participate. On September 3, 2,270 NATO troops will participate in Exercise Rapid Trident 2018 in Ukraine, on Russias borders. This is only a prelude, however, to what will likely be the largest NATO war game in Europe since the end of the Cold War: Trident Juncture 2018, from October 25 to November 7 in Norway, again on Russias borders. This will involve 40,000 NATO troops, together with 130 aircraft and 70 warships. They are to be spearheaded by an unprecedented German contribution of 8,000 troops, 100 tanks and 2,000 combat vehicles. The vast scope of these exercises is a warning to working people everywhere. In the capitals of the major powers, behind the backs of the people, cabals of state and military officials are planning wars that would devastate the planet and kill billions. These exercises come as tensions in various flashpoints created by decades of US-led NATO wars reach new heights, and the danger of direct conflict between NATO, Russia and China is openly discussed. These flashpoints include: The breakdown of US talks with North Korea, which borders on eastern Russia and which Trump threatened last year with fire and fury like the world has never seen, that is, with nuclear war. Now Washington is warning it may resume military drills in South Korea, which last year involved 23,000 US and 300,000 South Korean troops in practicing pre-emptive attacks targeting North Korea. Russian warnings that UK intelligence is preparing a chemical attack in Syrias Idlib region, the last holdout of NATO-backed Islamist rebels, as a provocation for Washington, London and Paris to justify another unprovoked bombing of Syria, like this April. We have sent a strong warning to our Western partners not to play with fire, said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, as US guided missile destroyer USS Ross arrives in the Mediterranean, facing off against the Russian flotilla. The killing in a terror bombing yesterday of Alexander Zakharchenko, the leader of the Russian-backed separatist Donetsk Peoples Republic in east Ukraine. The Russian foreign ministry said it views this as an assassination carried out by the NATO-backed Ukrainian regime in Kiev. Main responsibility for the war danger lies with the imperialist powers, above all the United States and the major Western European powers. For over a quarter century since the Stalinist dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, they have escalated aggressive military interventions across Eurasia, from Yugoslavia to Iraq and Syria, through to Afghanistan and beyond. These wars cost millions of lives and shattered entire countries, as Washington sought to maintain its failing global hegemony. Washingtons threats against Russia and China came into the open in January when it published a new National Security Strategy, dropping the pretense that it was waging a war of terror and naming Russia and China as targets. Presenting the document, US Defense Secretary James Mattis branded Russia and China as revisionist powers threatening a US-led world order and said great power competition, not terrorism, is now the primary focus of US national security. Moscow and Beijing are declaring that their exercises are a response to the US National Security Strategy and stepped-up US military activity worldwide. Russian state media cited foreign policy commentator Mark Sleboda, who said the exercises are a signal to Washington and a response to their national security strategy, as well as a response to US and NATO posturing in the South China Sea, in the Taiwan Strait, as well as the permanent stationing of troops that we are seeing on Russias western border. Sleboda bluntly stated that Moscow and Beijing are planning joint missile defense exercises to prepare for potential global nuclear war, as they foresee that any strategic nuclear conflict that embroils one would, naturally, involve both. The Chinese Defense Ministry has stated that the exercises aimed to strengthen strategic military partnership between the two countries, deepen friendship and cooperation between the two militaries and further boost the two countries' joint capability to deal with security threats. The scale of the Russian-Chinese exercises appears to be a warning addressed to military strategists and ruling elites in the imperialist countries, that Moscow and Beijing earnestly believe they could be on the brink of all-out nuclear war. Francois Heisbourg, the well-known strategist at Londons International Institute for Strategic Studies think-tank and the Fondation de recherche strategique in Paris, Tweeted: This new exercise goes beyond what may be useful for prestige purposes. It involves 30 percent of Russian active duty military & must be costly at a time when Russias defence budget is under strain. This only makes sense if large-scale war is viewed as a high probability contingency. Jonathan Holslag of the Free University of Brussels told the South China Morning Post the exercises are a signal of deterrence, adding: It shows that, while there is still a lot of distrust between Moscow and Beijing, Moscow sees no other choice but to work with China, especially as relations with the US remain unstable and Chinese financial support is needed to mitigate the effects of Western sanctions. The policy of Moscow and Beijing, rooted in the bankrupt nationalism of the post-Soviet capitalist oligarchies in both countries, offers no way forward in opposing the imperialist war drive. These regimes are incapable of appealing to anti-war sentiment in the international working class. Rather, they oscillate between risking an all-out war with the imperialist powers that could cost billions of lives and begging the United States and its allies, which Moscow dubs its Western partners, for a deal. There are indications that, as Trump threatens Europe with trade war, Moscow has some hope of splitting NATO and winning over the European imperialist powers against Washington. Indeed, Berlin has indicated it may be open to Moscows proposals for talks on Syria including Turkey and France, Germanys main partner in plans to militarize the European Union, and excluding Washington. This plan is bankrupt, however: it entails backing EU countries plans to plunge hundreds of billions of euros to build up their military machines which, as the NATO exercises show, are aimed at Russia. As at the beginning of the 20th century, rival capitalist governments are teetering on the brink of world war, this time involving nuclear weapons. This drive to war cannot be stopped outside of a conscious intervention by the working class. The main danger is that masses of people are not aware of the immediacy of the risk. This is why the WSWS stresses the urgency of building an international anti-war movement in the working class, based on an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist perspective. Niles Niemuth is the Socialist Equality Partys candidate for Congress in Michigans 12th Congressional District. Visit niles2018.com to donate and get involved in the campaign. Viewers of television broadcasts in Detroit and Lansing were subjected this week to open propaganda for the US war in Iraq and the role of the CIA in it, paid for by multimillionaire Elissa Slotkin, the Democratic candidate for Congress in the 8th Congressional District of Michigan. The 30-second ad features footage of US troops on combat missions in Iraq, followed by images of the Pentagon and the World Trade Center towers in flames after the 9/11 attacks, as well as posed photographs of Slotkin with President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama. As these images flash by, accompanied by somber music and American flags, Slotkin outlines her career, declaring that she joined the CIA and did three tours in Iraq, working for two presidents, one from each party. She ends the ad with the statement, We need members of Congress to remember its about service to country, not themselves. No one watching the ad would have any idea which of the two corporate-controlled parties Slotkin was affiliated with, or even that she was a candidate for political office. All that is communicated is that she worked for the CIA, that this constituted service to country, and that, by implication, it was more praiseworthy and valuable than the work of a representative in Congress. Slotkin puts herself forward, not as a representative of a party, let alone an advocate for any specific program, but as a representative of the military-intelligence apparatus. With its glorification of militarism and its implicit connection between the 9/11 attacks and the war in Iraq (the political lie peddled by the Bush administration), Slotkins ad might seem to be for a right-wing Republican candidate. Actually, however, it is for a Democrat who is trying to outflank the Republicans and the Trump administration from the right. After her three tours with the CIA in Iraq, Slotkin worked as Iraq director for the National Security Council in the White House and as a top aide to John Negroponte, the first Director of National Intelligence under George W. Bush. Slotkin moved to the Pentagon, where, as a principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, her areas of responsibility included drone warfare, homeland defense and cyber warfare. Slotkin is one of more than three dozen such candidatesformer CIA agents, military intelligence operatives, combat commanders, and high-ranking Pentagon, State Department or National Security Council officialswho have won Democratic Party nominations for Congress in Republican-held districts that the Democratic Party leadership has targeted in the 2018 campaign. This faction was identified by the World Socialist Web Site six months ago and given the label The CIA Democrats. It represents something entirely new in American capitalist politics: the effective (and entirely friendly) takeover of one of the two big-business parties by a group whose primary allegiance is to the military-intelligence apparatus. If the Democrats win control of the House of Representatives in November, it will be Slotkin and her fellow military-intelligence operatives who will hold the seats that give the Democrats a majority, giving them the balance of power in the House. The 8th Congressional District is slightly to the north of the 12th District, where I am running, but it has many similarities, including large populations of college students and autoworkers. It covers Ingham County, including the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Livingston County and the northern part of Oakland County. Two GM plants, in Lake Orion and Lansing, are in the district. Slotkin makes no effort to appeal to the students drowning in debt, or the autoworkers who have had concessions contracts imposed on them by the UAW, because she has no intention of fighting for their interests. Rather she is running as a representative of the most reactionary and repressive force on the planet, the American military-intelligence complex. Besides being a career national security official, Slotkin comes from a wealthy family, the heirs of the Hygrade Foods fortune, and has virtually unlimited funding for her campaign. She is one of the three dozen Democratic challengers who have bigger campaign war chests than the Republican incumbents they are seeking to oust. Slotkin has already raised more than $3 million, $1 million more than her opponent, Republican Representative Mike Bishop. She has the full backing of the Serve America PAC, set up by Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton to promote military-intelligence candidates in the Democratic Party, which has given her campaign more than $140,000. She has also received donations from former Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, and billionaires Tom Steyer and Barry Diller. My opponent in the 12th district, Representative Debbie Dingell, has no significant political differences with Slotkin. Like Slotkin, she is a multimillionaire, an heiress to the Fisher Body auto fortune and a former lobbyist for the auto industry. Like Slotkin, Dingell backs American militarism in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world, and supports the intelligence agencies that are spearheading bogus claims that the greatest threat to democracy comes from Russian interference. In reality, it is the military-intelligence agencies of the federal government that are the greatest threat to the democratic rights of the American people. It is not just Dingell who is running in the same party. The supposed left wing of the Democratic Party, including figures like Senator Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Democratic Socialists of America, have said nothing about the influx of military-intelligence candidates. All factions of the Democratic Party join in excluding the antiwar sentiments of the majority of the population and work to redirect popular hostility to the Republicans and Trump into support for the CIA, FBI and Pentagon. Those who are interested in putting an end to war and social inequality should break with the Democrats and Republicans and take up the fight for socialism. Support my campaign for Michigans 12th district and help build a powerful socialist movement that will fight for the interests of the working class well beyond November 6. Visit niles2018.com to donate and get involved in the campaign. Australian documentary filmmaker James Ricketson was convicted today of espionage for an unnamed country by the Cambodian government and sentenced to six years in that countrys prison system. Ricketson was arrested in June 2017 and charged with endangering national security by flying a drone over an opposition party rally. The charges mushroomed from there. The soon-to-be 69-year-old filmmakers incarceration has sparked international outrage by his fellow filmmakers, most prominently director Phillip Noyce (Salt, Patriot Games, Dead Calm), with many fearing he wont survive the rigors of Cambodian prison. The guilty verdict against James Ricketson is a massive miscarriage of justice, Noyce posted on Facebook. I call on filmmakers the world over to join me in offering ourselves to Cambodian authorities as equally guilty of all the crimes James is accused of. We must journey to Cambodia and present our selves on mass as ready to join him in Cambodian prison. If James is guilty, we are all equally guilty. The Australian Directors Guild (ADG) called on the Australian government to intervene on Ricketsons behalf. We call on the new foreign minister, Marise Payne, to contact her counterpart in Cambodia and seek clemency for James and for him to be sent home ADG CEO Kingston Anderson said in a statement. Based on the evidence and what we know of James we do not believe he was spying for anyone. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time and may have contravened some local regulations but he was not spying for any government. The Australian government said Cambodian law tied their hands on what could be done. Mr Ricketson is subject to legal proceedings under Cambodian law and must now consider his response to the courts decision using the avenues open to him under Cambodian law, said a statement from Foreign Affairs minister Marise Payne. The Australian Government will consider what further appropriate support we can provide after that time. Story continues Ricketsons work has focused on life in Cambodia. Among his works is the documentary Sleeping with Cambodia, described by Screen Australia as an exploration of paedophilia and children at risk. But beyond his filmmaking, Ricketson has been critical of Cambodian leader Hun Sen. That led to the charge that he was trying to foment a color revolution in the Southeast Asia country. Related stories Phillip Noyce To Direct 'Gone Baby Gone' Pilot Adaptation For Fox Phillip Noyce To Helm WWII Drama 'Rats Of Tobruk' Backed By Oz's DEMS Entertainment ABC Nabs Family Vineyard Drama From Julia Brownell & Philip Noyce As Put Pilot Chris Watts and his wife, Shanann Watts, seemed to have a comfortable life in Frederick, Colorado, a northern suburb of Denver. They lived in a 4,177-square-foot home valued at $484,000, on a quiet, well-manicured street in a new neighborhood. The couple, who married in 2012 and relocated from North Carolina, were often seen playing outside with their two young daughters, 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste, and they were expecting a third child, a boy named Nico. Most neighbors say they had no indication that anything was amiss though, in light of the violence three weeks ago, no one is sure what to believe about the family at 2825 Saratoga Trail. I dont know what life was like in that home, but there were no red flags at all that the girls were scared of their parents, a neighbor tells PEOPLE in this weeks issue, which traces the investigation into the mid-August murders of Shanann, then 15 weeks pregnant, and her girls, allegedly at Chris hands. While Chris, 33, has allegedly admitted killing 34-year-old Shanann, according to police documents reviewed by PEOPLE, he claimed not to be responsible for the other deaths. Instead, he allegedly said, he was driven into a rage after watching Shanann strangle Celeste when he announced that he wanted to split up. He said he also saw Bella, blue and apparently lifeless, on her bed. According to the neighbor, Bella and Celeste really didnt seem to be the least bit scared of their dad. On the contrary, [they] would greet him with hugs and kisses. And hed kneel down happily and give them kisses and then kiss Shanann. It was exactly what you expect from a happy family. But at least one observer noticed something amiss in the couples relationship. For more on the shocking killings of Shanann Watts and her two young daughters, subscribe now to PEOPLE or pick up this weeks issue, on newsstands now. Story continues Shan'ann Watts (center) and her daughters I think they were always putting on a show, says Melinda Phillips, who recalls seeing Chris and Shanann clearly having an argument in their driveway one day earlier this summer. Their body language was really angry, and they were just fighting back and forth, Phillips, 34, says. He was gesturing his hands and they were shaking their heads, and it was definitely an argument. I didnt really think much of it, because Lord knows that Ive had the same arguments with my husband, she continues. They caught my eye and suddenly, everything changed. They stopped being so angry, and they started talking a lot more calmly. He even gave her a hug. Mind you, this was in the space of 30 seconds to a minute. From a full-blown fight to hugs in less than a minute, it was incredible, she says. RELATED: Chris Watts Was Emotionless After Murder Arrest, Source Says Like He Couldnt Be Bothered The savagery and deception authorities described in the murder case which began when Shanann and her daughters appeared to vanish from home on Aug. 13 have left loved ones and locals reeling. The bodies of Shanann, Bella and Celeste were recovered not long after Chris was arrested on Aug. 15 and accused of their murders. Their remains had been concealed on property belonging to his former employer. (He was fired the same day he was taken into custody.) Motive has yet to be confirmed, drawing greater scrutiny to Chris suspected infidelities. Among other alleged revelations, according to investigators, was the confirmation that Chris was cheating on his wife with a co-worker at the time of the three slayings. A source close the investigation told PEOPLE this week that Chris had relationships with both men and women outside of his marriage. From left: Chris and Shan'ann Watts RELATED VIDEO: Pregnant Mom & 2 Daughters Likely Killed at Home Allegedly by Husband Before Bodies Were Dumped While one friend told PEOPLE that Chris appeared to be a selfless father, a friend of Shananns told ABC News that he had grown distant before his wife was killed: He wasnt touching or hugging or doing stuff like that. A family friend echoed that, previously telling PEOPLE that Chris and Shanann were having marital problems. RELATED: Chris Watts Alleged Ex-Lover Speaks but Hes Not the Co-Worker Police Say Chris Was Seeing Chris has been charged with first-degree murder, among other crimes, in the deaths of his wife and daughters. He has not entered a plea. His attorney is barred from discussing the case, according to a statement from the states public defenders office, which represents him. Its really like it was another family, not the family we knew, a neighborhood resident tells PEOPLE, which is why everyone here cant stop talking about it. Bees develop a taste for some pesticides the way humans get addicted to nicotine, say scientists originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Bees can become addicted to pesticide-laced foods the same way that humans become hooked on nicotine, according to a new study. Agricultural pesticides, particularly neonicotinoids -- a class of neuro-active insecticides chemically similar to nicotine -- have long been believed to be detrimental to bee populations, affecting their ability to reproduce, limiting lifespans and other potential consequences of exposure to pesticide-laced foods. But the new study, published in the British scientific journal The Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggest that bees can get hooked on neonicotinoids-laced foods. We originally wanted to know if the bees could detect the presence of this class of pesticide and, if given enough time, learn to avoid food containing the pesticide, Richard Gill from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College in London told ABC News. In mammals, for example, we know that nicotine is an addictive property, so we could make that inference that maybe these neonicotinoids -- considering they act on similar targets -- may have similar addictive properties, said Gill, who led and supervised the research team. And our behavioral experiments suggest that that might be the case. Neonicotinoids target nerve receptors in insects that are similar to the human receptors that nicotine binds to, according to the 18-month study, which was conducted by a group of six researchers and scientists. PHOTO: A bumblebee gathers pollen from a flower in this undated stock photo. (STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images) (MORE: New clue found to disappearing honey bees) The researchers placed individual colonies of bumblebees in arenas in a laboratory -- which allowed individual bees to leave the colony and fly within the arena to find the food that was left out for them, according to Andres Arce, one of the team members. During the research, the group provided the bees with three different types of food containing either no pesticide, a low amount of the neonicotinoid pesticide, or a higher amount, said Arce. Story continues For 10 days, the group monitored the behavior of the bees toward the food provided and how much of each type of food was eaten. They also counted the number of times the bees visited each type of food and the amount of food they consumed, Arce said. The researchers also changed the position of the feeders, which were identical, halfway through the experiment, to see if the bees tracked their preferred treatment. PHOTO: A bumblebee gathers pollen from a flower in this undated stock photo. (STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images) At the start of the experiment we saw that the bees preferred the food containing no pesticide, with the pesticide-treated food visited and consumed less than the pesticide-free food, Arce said. However, as time went by the bees started to change their behavior and they increased the amount of pesticide laced food they foraged on and brought back to the colony. (MORE: Invading bees gain 'killer' genes) By showing this change over time, the group demonstrated that the bees were developing a preference for the pesticide treated food. We also saw that when the position of the feeders was changed, the bees responded and would still visit the feeders containing the pesticides - which indicates that they could detect the pesticide and would track it, Arce said. (MORE: Buzz off! Bees swarm Times Square hot dog stand) The researchers hope that their findings will help to foster more responsible use of pesticides. If we understand how often they come into contact with these pesticides in the wild, it can give us an idea of how we can then use those pesticides a bit more responsibly," Gill said, "so that we can try and lower the risk of exposure and that could be not only where we apply them but it could also be the timings of when we apply them. Earlier this month, California's Department of Pesticide Regulation released a report which concluded that neonicotinoids cause a significant risk to the bee populations that are brought in to pollinate crops in the state's $45 billion agricultural industry, according to the Los Angeles Times. The more we learn about the toxicity of neonics, the more apparent it is that pretty much any plant with nectar or pollen sprayed with these poisons is unsafe for bees, Nathan Donley, a senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity, told the newspaper, using a common shorthand term for neonicotinoids. FBI arrests New Mexico compound residents after they were set free earlier in week originally appeared on abcnews.go.com The FBI charged five former residents of a dilapidated compound in New Mexico with weapons offenses after three of them were released earlier in the week. Lucas Morton, Subhannah Wahhaj and Hujrah Wahhaj -- who are sisters -- were taken back into custody on the weapons charges, authorities said. Jany Leveille and Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, who had not been released, were also charged by the FBI. Leveille, who is from Haiti and in the U.S. illegally, was charged with being "an alien unlawfully in possession of firearms and ammunition in the District of New Mexico from Nov. 2017 through Aug. 2018." The other four were charged with aiding and abetting Leveille, according to a release from the FBI. In this Aug. 29,2018, file photo, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, from left, and Jany Leveille talk with with attorneys Kelly Golightley and Tom Clark after a hearing on a motion to dismiss in the Taos County Courthouse. (The Associated Press) (MORE: Judge dismisses child neglect charges against 3 adults found on remote New Mexico compound) The five adults were originally arrested on Aug. 3 when the Taos County Sheriff's Office stormed their compound in northern New Mexico and found 11 children living in a filthy, ramshackle trailer buried in the dirt and surrounded by tire and earthen barricades. The facility had no running water or electricity and officials found 11 guns, including an AR-15-style rifle and four handguns, as well as a stockpile of ammunition. In addition to the 11 children, a search of the compound resulted in the discovery of remains of the 3-year-old son of Siraj Ibn Wahhaj. He and Leveille, his partner, had been charged with child abuse resulting in death. However, those charges were dropped earlier in the day Friday in anticipation of taking the case to a grand jury for indictments later this month, Taos County District Attorney Donald Gallegos said. In this Aug. 13, 2018, file photo defendant Siraj Ibn Wahhaj sits in court in Taos, N.M., during a detention hearing. (AP) (MORE: Suspects in New Mexico compound case expected to be released despite sheriff's pleas) The grand jury indictment will allow prosecutors to build a better case and avoid another 10-day deadline, he said. Story continues A judge ruled on Wednesday that Morton, Subhannah Wahhaj and Wahha could not remain in custody on child neglect accusations since prosecutors missed a 10-day limit to establish probable cause for the neglect charges. "I don't know if they are overworked or they don't have enough people at their office. I don't see the district attorney here or the chief deputy district attorney, but it is disturbing to me that the district attorney would put this court in that kind of a situation," Judge Jeff McCelroy said Wednesday. This Aug. 10, 2018, file photo shows a makeshift compound in the desert area of Amalia, N.M. (AP) (MORE: Investigators working to identify remains from New Mexico compound) The five are due to make an appearance in court on the weapons charges on Sept. 4. The maximum penalty for Leveille's possession of firearms is 10 years in prison, after which she would be deported, FBI officials said. The other four face prison sentences of up to 5 years each for conspiracy. Prosecutors accuse Siraj Ibn Wahhaj of training the children to commit school shootings using a short-distance shooting range that had been installed on the compound. Trouble for Trump: Disapproval at a high, 63% back Mueller, half favor impeachment originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Disapproval of Donald Trump is at a new high, support for the Mueller investigation is broad and half of Americans in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll favor Congress initiating impeachment proceedings against the president. Sixty percent in the national survey disapprove of Trumps performance in office, numerically the highest of his presidency, albeit by a single point; that includes 53 percent who disapprove strongly, more than half for the first time. Thirty-six percent approve, matching his low. See PDF for full results, charts and tables. PHOTO: Michael Cohen leaves Federal court, Aug. 21, 2018, in New York City. (Mary Altaffer/AP, FILE) The results come a week after Trumps former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted of fraud, and his former longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to eight felonies, including illegal campaign finance actions that he said Trump directed. Trumps average approval rating since taking office is the lowest for any president in modern polling since the 1940s. One factor: Contrary to his drain the swamp rhetoric, 45 percent say corruption in Washington has increased under Trump, while just 13 percent say its declined. PHOTO: 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, June 15, 2018. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) Suspicions of the president relating to the Mueller investigation are substantial. Sixty-one percent say that if assertions by Cohen are true, Trump broke the law. Fifty-three percent also think Trump obstructed special counsel Robert Muellers work. The national survey, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, finds that half the public supports Congress initiating impeachment proceedings against Trump, 49-46 percent; support rises to 57 percent among women. And support for the investigation running its course is broader: Americans overall back Muellers probe by 63-29 percent. Fifty-two percent support it strongly, a high level of strong sentiment. PHOTO: Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, the special counsel probing Russian interference in the 2016 election, departs Capitol Hill following a closed door meeting in Washington, June 21, 2017. (Andrew Harnik/AP, FILE) Mueller prosecuted Manafort and referred the Cohen case to federal prosecutors in New York. Support for Muellers investigation peaks at 85 percent among Democrats, but also takes in 67 percent of independents and even a third of Republicans (32 percent). Forty-one percent of conservatives back Mueller, rising to more than seven in 10 moderates and liberals. Story continues In Trumps dispute with Attorney General Jeff Sessions for allowing the investigation to proceed, the public sides with Sessions, 62-23 percent. Sixty-four percent also oppose the idea of Trump firing Sessions; just 19 percent support it. Further, while Trump has railed against the Manafort prosecution, Americans call it justified by an overwhelming 67-17 percent, including nearly half of Republicans. The public opposes Trump pardoning Manafort by essentially the same margin, 66-18 percent, with 53 percent strongly opposed. Even among Republicans, 45 percent oppose a Manafort pardon; 36 percent support it. The damage to Trump on these ethics concerns overwhelms his better rating for handling the economy, an essentially even split, 45-47 percent. That demonstrates that a good economy only makes it possible for a president to be popular its no guarantee. Approval, Groups The presidents approval rating is highly partisan, but with relative challenges for Trump across the board. His job rating matches his low among Republicans (78 percent approve) and Democrats (6 percent) alike. Its 35 percent among independents. Hes at new lows among college-educated Americans (albeit just by a point; 29 percent approve), moderates (24 percent) and blacks (3 percent, with a nearly unanimous 93 percent disapproving). The single biggest shift is among college-educated white women just 23 percent now approve of Trump, down 17 points from the peak in April 2017, with disapproval up 20 points, from 55 percent then to 75 percent now. Still, even among non-college white men, a core Trump group, his approval is down 15 points, from 70 percent just this spring to 55 percent today. Other Group Results Trumps approval rating is 12 points lower among women than men, and that gender gap is reflected elsewhere. As noted, 57 percent of women favor Congress initiating impeachment proceedings; that drops to 40 percent of men. Seventy percent of liberals support impeachment proceedings, declining to 51 percent of moderates and 30 percent of conservatives. Impeachment support is highest, a vast 80 percent, among blacks; 37 percent of whites agree. Some of these gaps narrow on whether or not the charges against Manafort were justified. Two-thirds of men and women alike say they were, as do two-thirds of whites including 64 percent of white men without college degrees. Even among Republicans, conservatives and those who approve of Trumps work in office, more see the charges as justified than as unjustified, by 48-28, 49-30 and 47-29 percent, respectively. (The rest express no opinion.) As noted, 45 percent of Republicans oppose Trump pardoning Manafort, with 36 percent support. Its similar among conservatives, 46-34 percent. Trump approvers split about evenly on a Manafort pardon, with 39 percent opposed, 37 percent in favor. Opposition to a pardon goes higher in other groups 68 percent among men and 64 percent among women, for example (no real difference between them), 64 percent among whites and Hispanics alike, and 82 percent among blacks. Sixty-one percent, as noted, say that if Cohens claim that he acted at Trumps direction is true, Trump committed a crime. That view is lowest among Republicans, 28 percent. But theres concern for Trump in other core groups: A substantial minority of conservatives, 41 percent, say he broke the law if Cohens telling the truth. So do 44 percent of evangelical white Protestants, 52 percent of whites and 52 percent of non-college white men, all groups whose support Trump needs. Methodology This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cellular telephone Aug. 26-29, 2018, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,003 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.6 points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions are 33-25-37 percent, Democrats-Republicans-independents. The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates of New York, N.Y., with sampling, data collection and tabulation by Abt Associates of Rockville, Md. See details on the surveys methodology here. Trump won't say if Sessions' job is safe past November: Report originally appeared on abcnews.go.com President Donald Trump would not say whether embattled Attorney General Jeff Sessions who he has repeatedly criticized throughout his tenure would be safe in his job after the November election, according to a report. I just would love to have him do a great job, Trump said of Sessions on Thursday in an Oval Office interview with Bloomberg News. The president declined to comment on whether Sessions' job is safe through the midterm election on Nov. 6, telling Bloomberg: Id love to have him look at the other side, underscoring his demand for Sessions to reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton and the origins of the Russia investigation. Trump made the comments in an interview Thursday with Bloomberg News. Last week, in an interview with Fox, Trump lashed out at Sessions, saying he failed to take control of the Department of Justice. In his most forceful public rebuke yet, Sessions hit back, saying he "will not be improperly influenced by political considerations." Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a close Trump confidante, predicted Sessions would be out of his job in the near future, but insisted Trump should wait until after November's midterm elections. "The presidents entitled to an attorney general he has faith in, somebody thats qualified for the job, and I think there will come a time, sooner rather than later, where it will be time to have a new face and a fresh voice at the Department of Justice," Graham said. "Clearly, Attorney General Sessions doesnt have the confidence of the president." Trump also continues to dance around the question of whether he will grant an interview to special counsel Robert Mueller. Ill see what happens," Trump told Bloomberg. "I view it differently. I view it as an illegal investigation because great scholars have said that there never should have been a special counsel." Trump's leaked 'off-record' comments complicate trade deal with Canada originally appeared on abcnews.go.com As efforts stalled Friday to persuade Canada to sign onto a rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement, President Donald Trump blasted dishonest reporting for complicating a potential deal after off-the-record comments he made during an interview with Bloomberg leaked into the Canadian press. According to a published account of the presidents leaked remarks, Trump told Bloomberg News Thursday that he is not entertaining any compromises at all in discussions with Canada but he cannot admit his posture publicly because its going to be so insulting theyre not going to be able to make a deal. PHOTO: President Donald Trump speaks during a fundraiser at the Carmel Country Club, Aug. 31, 2018 in Charlotte, N.C. (Brendan Smialowksi/AFP/Getty Images) At an event on retirement security in Charlotte, North Carolina on Friday, the president confirmed the off-record remarks that leaked out of the Oval Office. "I gave an interview yesterday to Bloomberg Business, and I said 'off the record,' and I made a statement about Canada, which is fine because I love Canada but they have taken advantage of our country for many years," Trump explained. "I said off the record, off the record, I said something strong, that is my belief. They violated it and they said they were violating it," Trump continued. "When you say, off the record -- that is a very -- it is not a legal term but it is a term of honor." Wow, I made OFF THE RECORD COMMENTS to Bloomberg concerning Canada, and this powerful understanding was BLATANTLY VIOLATED. Oh well, just more dishonest reporting. I am used to it. At least Canada knows where I stand! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2018 On Saturday, the president tweeted that he loves Canada, "but they've taken advantage of our Country for many years!" I love Canada, but theyve taken advantage of our Country for many years! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2018 A Bloomberg spokesperson denied that the news organization was responsible for the leak. Story continues "When we agree that something is off the record, we respect that," a Bloomberg spokesman stated. According to the Toronto Star: In a remark he did not want published, U.S. President Donald Trump said that a possible NAFTA deal with Canada would be totally on our terms, according to a source. "Off the record, Canadas working their ass off, and every time we have a problem with a point, I just put up a picture of a Chevrolet Impala, Trump reportedly told Bloomberg, according to the Star. The administration had tried to make Friday an informal deadline to pressure Canada to agree to the deal in order to then send an agreement to Pena Nieto before he leaves office on December 1. Changes to NAFTA would require congressional approval before taking effect. PHOTO: Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland speaks at a press conference, Aug. 31, 2018, at the Embassy of Canada in Washington, D.C. (Eric Baradat/AFP/Getty Images) We continue to work very hard. We're making progress. We're not there yet, Chrystia Freeland, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada told reporters Friday afternoon. This is a very complex agreement and we are going to continue working at it. As we said from the outset, our objective in these talks is to update and modernize NAFTA in a way that is good for Canadians, good for Americans and good for Mexicans. We know that a win-win, win, agreement is within reach and that's what we're working towards. Even though negotiations failed to produce an agreement Friday, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer called the prospective deal the most advanced and high-standard trade agreement in the world and announced that Trump formally notified Congress of his intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, if it is willing 90 days from now. Lighthizer added that trade negotiations are expected to continue on Wednesday next week with both Mexico and Canada. The talks were constructive, and we made progress, Lighthizer said. Our officials are continuing to work toward agreement. In Charlotte, Trump added that if the U.S. does not reach a deal with Canada, "thats just fine, offering a variation of one of the lines leaked to the Toronto Star paper: "I say affectionately, well just have to tariff those cars coming in, thats a lot of money coming into the coffers of the United States. On Monday, Trump and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto announced an agreement with Mexico to revise key parts of NAFTA and both leaders expressed hope that Canada might negotiate to revise bilateral issues with both countries in order to conclude a trilateral negotiation by the end of the week. "We'll see if Canada can be part of the deal," Trump said on Monday, though he expressed an openness to a separate bilateral deal with Canada and pledged to terminate the existing NAFTA agreement after deals are reached with both countries. During Mondays announcement with Mexico, Trump threatened to put tariffs on all cars made by Canada -- an apparent effort to build pressure on America's northern neighbor only reinforced by his off-record comments to Bloomberg. The new agreement between the U.S. and Mexico focuses primarily on automobile manufacturing, including a provision to require that 40 to 45 percent of all automobile components be made by workers earning $16 or more per hour, which the U.S. hopes will help American manufacturers compete against low-wage auto workers abroad. The deal also proposes requiring a significant portion of automobile parts -- 75 percent -- be made in the U.S. and Mexico. ABC News' Katherine Faulders contributed to this report West Coast travelers rejoice: a new airline is coming your way. California Pacific Airlines, based in Carlsbad, California, announced details of its inaugural West Coast service and fares. Connecting the West Coasts tech- and tourism-heavy regions, the airline will fly nonstop from Carlsbad (outside of San Diego) to San Jose and Reno starting Nov. 1, and to Las Vegas starting Nov. 15. Todays announcement marks the culmination of a multi-year effort that will bring significant convenience in air travel between San Diegos North County and the top Western-Region destinations our community wants to fly to nonstop, Ted Vallas, the airline's chairman, said. Located less than an hour's drive from downtown San Diego, McClellan-Palomar Airport provides an easy and less congested alternative to San Diego International Airport. Our initial set of cities will address the needs of both business and leisure travelers from nearby McClellan Palomar Airport, Vallas said. Passengers can spend less time fretting the drive to and from the airport, and spend more time enjoying their destination." In addition to the convenience of the new routes, California Pacific aims to keep prices competitive, with fares starting as low as $99 each way. Booking at least 21 days in advance will typically get you the lowest prices, according to data provided by the airline, and you'll want to book early anyway considering each flight will only offer 50 seats. After purchasing Aerodynamics, Inc. earlier in 2018, California Pacific Airlines will also continue offering the small regional airline's routes from Denver to Pierre and Watertown, South Dakota. Not exactly California Pacific, but still an extremely affordable option for travelers heading to South Dakota. English and French people will likely continue to make snide remarks about each other forever, but the days of all-out war between the two would seem to be over. Except, apparently, when it comes to scallops. This week has seen a serious escalation in what has been dubbed the scallop wars. Though not quite of the scale of the Hundred Years War, these small skirmishes between unarmed finishing boats in the English Channel are the result of growing tensions about who can harvest scallopsand more importantly, when can they do itin the stretch of water that separates England and France. According to the BBC, about 40 French boats drove away five British boats from an international fishing area just beyond a restricted 12-mile region off the French coast. Vessels were rammed, and rocks, metal, and smoke bombs were thrown. A couple British boats ended up with damaged windows, but no one was reported injured. At the heart of the conflict is an inherently imbalanced arrangement. In a desire to prevent overfishing of the coveted scallops, the French passed a law that only allows the bivalves to be harvested from October to mid-May. However, the Brits apparently dont believe any sort of regulation is necessary, and instead, are legally allowed to grab scallops year-round. For the Brits, it's an open barthey fish when they want, where they want, and as much as they want, Dimitri Rogoff, head of Frances Normandy fishing committee, said according to the BBC. We don't want to stop them from fishing, but they could at least wait until 1 October so that we can share. Meanwhile, Britains National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations suggested any issues should be resolved at a more proper time and place. We have raised the matter with the British government and asked for protection for our vessels, which are fishing legitimately, Chief Executive Barrie Deas was quoted as saying. The deeper issues behind the clashes should be settled by talking around the table, not on the high seas where people could be hurt. Story continues Indeed, footage posted by the BBC shows that these boats did not seem to be taking a safety-first approach. Scallop war: French and British boats clash in Channel https://t.co/GBI74wOYsx pic.twitter.com/NdTlFioPR6 BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) August 29, 2018 Much like many tensions between the French and English, these scallop wars arent new and have been ongoing for at least 15 years. Apparently, in the past, different gentlemens agreements have led to truces between the two sides. But as both sides will tell you, its hard to have a gentlemens agreement between frogs and roast beefs! Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today: 1. MCCAIN TO DEPART ARIZONA FOR THE LAST TIME Arizona residents have been invited to honor Sen. John McCain by lining the route from the Capitol to the North Phoenix Baptist Church. 2. "HE CAN ACTUALLY SEE LIFE AGAIN AFTER 15 YEARS" Family members of an unarmed black teenager who was fatally shot leaving a house party in suburban Dallas say jurors gave the white ex-police officer who killed him too lenient of a prison sentence. 3. TRUMP WARNS OF 'VIOLENCE' IF DEMOCRATS WIN MIDTERM ELECTIONS President Donald Trump urged evangelical leaders this week to get out the vote ahead of the upcoming midterm elections and warned of "violence" by opponents if they fail. 4. TRUMP MAY RELAUNCH WARGAMES WITH SOUTH KOREA AS TALKS WITH NORTH STALL President Donald Trump is leaving open the possibility of relaunching military wargames with South Korea while saying there's no reason at this time to spend millions of dollars on the exercises. 5. WHO WANTS TO BRING NEW VOTERS TO POLLS IN FLORIDA Florida's Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum says he's intent on bringing a flood of new voters to the polls in November. 6. FANS STREAM IN FOR SECOND DAY OF ARETHA FRANKLIN'S PUBLIC VIEWING Mourners streamed in for a second day to pay their respects to Aretha Franklin before her casket was moved ahead of her funeral Friday. 7. WHICH TRUMP LAWYER IS LEAVING THE WHITE HOUSE White House counsel Don McGahn will be leaving the White House in the fall, adding to the record turnover in the 19-month-old Trump administration. 8. TRUMP-FRIENDLY TABLOID SEES DECLINE IN CIRCULATION Private financial documents and circulation figures obtained by The Associated Press show the National Enquirer's business was declining. 9. WHAT WILDLIFE ADVOCATES HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH Wildlife advocates hope to convince a judge grizzly bears living in the Yellowstone National Park area face too many threats to their survival to add trophy hunting to the mix. 10. WILLIAMS VS. WILLIAMS MATCH SET AT US OPEN Superstar siblings Serena and Venus Williams will meet in the third round at the U.S. Open, their earliest showdown at a major tournament in 20 years. Before recreational marijuana became legal in some parts of the U.S., starting in 2012, you needed cash to buy weed. These days, even many legal weed businesses are still cash-only because banks refuse to deal with them forcing some dispensaries to transport their money in armored cars and pay their taxes with stacks of $20 bills. Last month, a Florida politician said Wells Fargo went as far as to close her account simply because she accepted money from lobbyists for the medical-marijuana industry. But federal data suggests theres been a slight increase in the number of banks dealing with pot businesses. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) reports that, as of March, 411 banks and credit unions work with pot businesses up from 318 in October 2016. Patrons of big marijuana dispensaries like San Jose, Californias Airfield Supply Co., Colorado-based LivWell, or Culver City, California-based MedMen might be pleasantly surprised to find they can finally, at long last, pay for their weed with a debit card. Credit: David Foster/Yahoo Finance Weed businesses that take debit cards have presumably found banks to work with them. But, asked to identify which banks work with cannabis companies, Harvey Englander, a spokesperson for the United Cannabis Business Association wrote, via email: Your question provides me with a conundrum because if I identify some banks they may close the accounts. So I must decline to respond. That might be because its still technically illegal to provide banking services to weed companies and, potentially, because marijuana is still stigmatized. One thing is clear: Even as more states legalize marijuana, a tiny fraction of banks are willing to work with cannabis companies. The financial institutions that do serve cannabis companies tend to be smaller banks and credit unions and most do not advertise their services to the world. It is 100% legal under federal law to bank the cannabis industry It was less than six years ago that Washington and Colorado became the first states to legalize marijuana for recreational use. While a total of nine states and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational pot, and 30 states have legalized it for medical purposes, weed companies still operate in a legal grey area because pot is illegal under federal law. The DEA classifies cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug, meaning it has currently no accepted medical use. That puts it in the same category as heroin. Story continues Under the Obama administration, then-Deputy Attorney General James Cole issued a memo, known as the Cole Memorandum, that clarified the Justice Departments stance on pot. The memo, from August 29, 2013, asserted that, for the most part, the Justice Department would not enforce the marijuana ban in states that had legalized it. (Cole laid out a number marijuana enforcement priorities, including preventing drugged driving.) Following suit, in February 2014, FinCEN, which is part of the Treasury Department, issued its own guidance on how banks could provide services to the cannabis industry without violating an anti-money laundering law, the Bank Secrecy Act. One apparent goal of that memo to ensure that cannabis companies could find banks. The guidance noted: This FinCEN guidance should enhance the availability of financial services for, and the financial transparency of, marijuana-related businesses. When the FinCEN guidance was issued, banks could theoretically avoid the threat of federal prosecution as long as they complied with its guidelines including filing Suspicious Activity Reports, or SARs, for transactions related to all marijuana companies. (The recent FinCEN report showing an uptick in banks that work with cannabis companies arrived at its numbers by examining SARs.) But the Donald Trump administration has threatened the legitimacy of that FinCEN guidance, which itself referenced the Cole memo multiple times. In January, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Cole memo, calling marijuana a dangerous drug and asserting that marijuana activity is a serious crime. While Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told Congress in February that he wanted the cannabis industry to have access to banks, that might provide little assurance to notoriously risk-averse financial institutions. At the end of the day it is 100% illegal under federal law to bank the cannabis industry because of the Bank Secrecy Act, said business lawyer Hilary Bricken, who writes a column on cannabis policy and regulation for Above the Law. She added, None of the big banks openly do business with cannabis companies These are massively conservative institutions and are probably more regulated than any other institution in the U.S. Were prohibited to say who we bank with Still, Brickens firm, Harris Bricken, does represent a half-dozen banks and credit unions serving cannabis companies in compliance with the 2014 FinCEN guidelines. These banks and credit unions might not advertise themselves as pot-friendly financial institutions, though. Indeed, LivWells executive director and chief legal strategist, Dean Heizer, said he was not at liberty to say which bank or credit union his company works with. In fact, he said, that financial institution required him to sign a non-disclosure agreement. In this May 19, 2018 file photo tourists Randy Wilkie and Keya Cole from Buffalo, New York, check out the offerings of cannabis at one of the MedMen cannabis dispensaries in Los Angeles, prior to boarding the Green Line Trips bus tour. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel) As a condition of banking with the institution, were prohibited to say who we bank with, said Heizer, who said his company was kicked out of three banks before it finally found one. Other banks that work with cannabis companies also require NDAs, according to Bricken. Many banks want to keep a low profile if they are participating, so NDAs make sense, she wrote an email message, while also noting that not every bank that works with cannabis companies requires an NDA. A representative for another major pot company, MedMen, said he wasnt sure whether his company had signed a non-disclosure agreement. However, that representative, Daniel Yi, declined to name the financial institutions that work with MedMen. In the past, hes asked the financial institutions that serve MedMen whether theyd like to speak to reporters covering the cannabis industry. I havent had one of them say yes, said Yi, MedMens senior vice president of corporate communications and investor relations. He added, referring to credit unions and banks that work with cannabis companies, Right now they are not wanting to advertise to the world that theyre banking cannabis I think its more the stigma than anything else. If the federal government really wanted to crack down on this, youre not safe simply because you did not publicize the fact that youre banking [with the weed industry.] The challenge of finding a bank and serving the weed industry With relatively few banks dealing with cannabis at all, and those that do declining to advertise their services, its not exactly easy for a marijuana company to find a bank. LivWell has 15 locations in Colorado and Oregon and hundreds of employees, and Heizer said the banks that didnt want to work with the company didnt think it was doing anything untoward. Rather, he said, They got cold feet. Heizer noted: Whether or not Justice has the motivation or resources to go after banks, the fact that it remains illegal and Justice hasnt reaffirmed the FinCEN memo. Practically speaking, its only the most robust marijuana companies that are able to get banking. FILE In this July 1, 2017 file photo, a person buys marijuana at the Essence cannabis dispensary in Las Vegas. . (AP Photo/John Locher, File) Acreage Holdings a cannabis company that will soon operate in 15 states has found banking services because it has the resources to account for every dollar of its business, according to the companys CEO, Kevin Murphy. But smaller firms have a tougher time finding banks. He noted that one of his friends in the cannabis industry recently took a picture of over $1 million he had to pay the IRS in $20 bills because his business didnt have a bank. This business is quickly becoming a business of haves and have nots, he said, referring to cannabis companies that can and cannot get banking services. One credit union that openly banks marijuana companies, Seattle-based Salal Credit Union, opens roughly one marijuana-related account for every 10 applications it receives, according to Carmelia Houston, its vice president of business services. Thats partly because the credit union has high standards for its business clients and also because, Houston acknowledged, they dont want to pay the extra fees that credit unions like Salal charge cannabis companies. Cannabis companies get charged extra fees for a few different reasons, including the fact that banking weed businesses demands a lot of paperwork. To comply with the 2014 FinCEN guidelines, Houston said that Salal has to file a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) every time it starts working with a cannabis company and again every 120 days after that. Moreover, banks like Salal have to assume the added risk that comes with banking cannabis money. For example, banks might attract the attention of federal authorities if they work with a cannabis company thats sending its wares to a state that hasnt legalized pot. Christopher Barry, of counsel at Dorsey & Whitney, noted that the following scenario might be problematic: Lets say youre a bank, and youre banking a cannabis producer, and it turns out that the cannabis producer is putting a portion of its cannabis on a pickup truck and taking it to Idaho to sell on the black market. To assume that risk, and to file mountains of paperwork with FinCEN, banks and credit unions get to charge a massive premium to marijuana businesses, according to Bricken. That premium can amount to a fee thats three to four times higher than what non-marijuana businesses would pay, Bricken said. For credit unions like Salal, though, serving marijuana businesses could have benefits other than the extra fees they can charge. We know that its an underserved market, and credit unions are known for serving underserved markets, Salals Houston said. Moreover, she said, We wanted to help get the cash off the streets to improve public safety. In the future, other financial institutions might be able to generate good will from the public by serving the cannabis industry as more states legalize pot and consequently decrease its stigma. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, is currently working with Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner to pass a bill that would let states regulate marijuana without interference with federal law-enforcement. For now, though, many banks will continue not to touch weed money. That means that a lot of weed smokers, for the foreseeable future, will have to hit the ATM before they buy pot from legal dispensaries just like they did when they met their drug dealers on the street corner. Correction: An earlier version of this article said LivWell had 6 locations. In fact, it has 15. Erin Fuchs is deputy managing editor at Yahoo Finance. Read more: The #MeToo movement is a boon for big law firms Supreme Court likely to have a strong business vote for decades The tech execs that have called out Facebooks trust problem Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - At least 30 Nigerian soldiers died in combat with Boko Haram jihadists who overran a military base in the northeast near the border with Niger, two military sources told AFP on Saturday. Scores of jihadists in trucks stormed the base at Zari village in northern Borno state late Thursday and briefly seized it after a fierce battle, they said. "They came in large numbers in trucks and carrying heavy weapons and engaged soldiers in a battle that lasted for an hour," a military officer said. "We lost at least 30 men," the officer said, adding that the attack took place at around 4:00 pm. "They overwhelmed the troops who were forced to temporarily withdraw before reinforcements arrived," said the officer who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak. Boko Haram has intensified attacks on military targets in recent months. The attacks appear to undermine repeated claims by the military that Boko Haram had been defeated. The militants took weapons and military equipment before they were pushed out of the base by troops with aerial support, said a second military source who gave a similar death toll. The militants were pursued and bombarded by a fighter jet, said the military sources. "The terrorists also suffered heavy casualty from the bombardment", one of the military officers said. Zari is located 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the town of Damasak on the border with Niger. The jihadists are thought to have attacked the base from the nearby Garunda village, where 17 troops were killed and 14 injured in an attack on another military base last month, the sources said. In a statement late Friday the Nigerian military confirmed troops fought Boko Haram "insurgents...on rampage to loot the community and extort money from villagers". - Army silent on casualties - "Troops...have successfully routed Boko Haram insurgents in an encounter that ensued yesterday evening at Zari village," the military said in the statement. Story continues It did not speak of military casualties and the raid on the base but maintained "several Boko Haram fighters and weapons" were destroyed in the fight. The Nigerian army has on several occasions disputed reports on losses to Boko Haram and has in some cases played them down. On July 14 Boko Haram militants overran a military base in Jilli village, in neighbouring Yobe state when dozens of troops were said to be been killed, wounded or missing. The army at the time conceded the base was attacked but said troops remobilised and succeeded in repelling the attackers. In a short statement on Wednesday, IS-affiliated Boko Haram jihadists claimed to have killed "several" Nigerian troops in mortar strikes on a military base in the town of Arge in the Lake Chad area. AFP could not independently verify the claim. The Boko Haram insurgency which is in its ninth year has left 20,000 people dead and displaced 2.6 million. Soldiers and civilians have also been targeted in separate attacks in neighbouring Chad and Niger. London (AFP) - British fishermen called on their government Thursday to offer greater protection after they clashed dramatically with French fishing fleets over scallops in the English Channel this week. A years-long dispute over the prized shellfish boiled over early Tuesday when five heavily-outnumbered British boats sparred with dozens of French vessels in waters near France. Fishermen from both sides hurled stones and insults while some of the boats also rammed each other, and flares were set off, according to video footage. Andrew Mcleod, 49, who captains a trawler based in Brixham, in southwest England -- where two of the boats involved in the fracas sail from -- said the incident would not deter British vessels from fishing there. "I'd like to see the government take a firmer stance with the French regarding the actions of their boats," he told AFP by message from his boat in the Channel. Describing the violence witnessed this week as "standard French tactics", he recounted having "rocks and (metal) shackles thrown at us before" while fishing off the French coast. A petition launched Wednesday on Change.org "to help the Brixham fishermen to get naval protection against the French" attracted nearly 1,000 signatures by Thursday. "If you do not help, the fishermen's lives and livelihoods are in danger," it said. Meanwhile officials in French fishing ports on Thursday expressed fears the violence could be repeated elsewhere. Laurent Jacques, the mayor of Le Treport in Normandy, said: "My fear is that this will happen again soon because everyone is very angry," he warned. - 'Fishing entirely legally' - The skirmish took place in the scallop-rich waters of the Baie de Seine area of Normandy, more than 12 nautical miles out to sea where the British are legally allowed to fish all year round. French fleets are restricted to fishing for scallops between October 1 and May 15 to allow stocks to replenish Story continues They have accused the British of depleting them and want the same rules applied. Tensions have spiked this year after negotiations between the two countries' scallop industries broke down without a deal to limit summer fishing. Agreements had been struck in recent years limiting British vessels over 15 metres from entering French waters closed to their own fleets. Environment Secretary Michael Gove, whose father was a fisherman in Scotland, said he sympathised with British vessels "caught up in the terrible scenes". "They were fishing entirely legally, they had every right to be in those waters and we talked to the French authorities in order to ensure that we have a protocol," he said. Pro-Brexit lawmakers critical of the European Union's Common Fisheries Policy seized on the incident. "Shocking violence... remember UK boats wouldn't have to go outside our waters if they had fair share of our own resources," Conservative MP Owen Paterson said on Twitter. The European Commission on Wednesday urged France and Britain to find an "amicable" solution, but insisted it could not get involved because arrangements for trawling were made between individual countries. (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) said on Thursday it will host an event on Sept. 12 at the Steve Jobs Theater in the company's Cupertino, California, campus, where it is widely expected to unveil new iPhone models. Analysts believe Apple plans to release three new smartphones this year, including one with a larger display than previous models. Analysts also expect Apple to release an iPhone with a edge-to-edge display similar to the iPhone X but using less-costly LCD screen technology. Apple's event invitation made heavy use of the colour gold, fuelling speculation on social media that the company plans to launch a gold-coloured successor to the iPhone X, which was made available only in silver and grey last year. Documents filed at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission unsealed earlier this year showed Apple had sought approval for a gold version of its iPhone X, but it never released the colour. A few hours after Apple's announcement, 9to5Mac, a technology news website, posted photographs of two gold iPhone models stacked on top each other, with a larger-screened model on the bottom. Both models resemble the current iPhone X. The site said the new flagship model will be called the iPhone XS and that Apple also plans to release a new version of the Apple Watch with a larger display by reducing the edges around it. 9to5Mac told Reuters the photographs were not mockups and represented Apple's actual planned products but declined to say how it had obtained them. Apple did not respond to requests for comment about the authenticity of the photos. Apple shares were up 2.2 percent at an all-time high of $227.97. Apple has for years released its new phone models in the second week of September, and often updates other product lines such as the Apple Watch at the event. The company has already given base-model iPads and some MacBook laptops an update this year. Apple typically starts selling new iPhones a few weeks after launching them, in time for the holiday shopping season. The iPhone X, priced at $999 and up, has helped Apple beat Wall Street sales expectations. Investor Warren Buffett, speaking on Thursday to CNBC, said the iPhone is "enormously underpriced" even when it costs $1,000, given how indispensable it has become for so many people. (Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Dan Grebler) By Ricardo Brito and Anthony Boadle BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's top electoral court on Friday barred jailed former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from running in this year's presidential because of his corruption conviction. The widely expected decision removes a cloud hanging over Brazil's most uncertain election in decades - though Lula's lawyers have said they would appeal an adverse decision to the Supreme Court. "What is at stake here today is the equality of all citizens before the law and the Constitution," Judge Og Fernandes told the court in his vote to declare Lula ineligible. Judge Admar Gonzaga, who as a lawyer worked for Lula's handpicked successor Dilma Rousseff's 2010 election, cast the decisive vote in the 6-1 decision that sealed the leftist icon's ejection from the presidential election. Lula, Brazil's most popular politician, is serving a 12-year sentence for a corruption conviction. His Workers Party registered him as its presidential candidate for the Oct. 7 vote anyway, saying he is innocent. Lula is ineligible for office under Brazil's "Clean Slate" law, which prohibits candidates from running if they have convictions that have been upheld on appeal. Despite his conviction and several graft cases pending against him, Lula leads the race by a long stretch, with 39 percent of voter support, according to pollster Datafolha. His nearest rival, far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, has 19 percent. Ads by the Workers Party calling on Brazilians to vote for Lula began to appear on social media on Friday, and will be shown on television as of Saturday when the race enters its final 35 days of campaigning. A party statement said the court had bowed to the wishes of Brazil's elites to stop Lula returning to office. The court had also ignored a recommendation by the United Nations Human Rights Committee to restore Lula's political rights which he appeals his conviction, it said. Vice-presidential running mate Fernando Haddad, a former mayor of Sao Paulo, is expected to head the ticket hoping to inherit the bulk of Lula's votes. The party has until Sept. 17 to swap their names on the ballot, though the court gave it 10 days to make the change. The court also ruled that Lula should not appear in the Workers Party's television and radio ads campaign until the ticket has been officially altered to remove him. The court on Thursday had rejected another request by opponents of Lula to exclude his name from opinion polls. (Reporting by Ricardo Brito and Anthony Boadle; Editing by David Gregorio, Brad Brooks and Kim Coghill) By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California lawmakers moved on Thursday toward imposing the nation's strictest net neutrality laws on internet providers, flying in the face of sweeping new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules seen as a win for the companies. Members of the California Assembly voted 58-17 to send the bill to their colleagues in the state Senate, who have until midnight to pass so-called SB 822 on the final day of the legislative session or wait until next year. If the measure passes both chambers of the Democrat-controlled state legislature it would still require approval from Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, who has not said if he would sign it into law. "We have just one final vote left to go to get the strongest net neutrality protections in the nation passed out of the legislature and onto the governor's desk," state Senator Scott Wiener, the bill's author, said in a statement. "We will take nothing for granted, but we have momentum and the support of a broad and diverse coalition that understands the importance of a free and open internet for everyone," Wiener said. Proponents of California's proposed regulations contend that net neutrality rules would bar major internet providers from blocking, slowing down or giving preferential access to online content. Critics say the restrictions limit internet providers' ability to recoup the costs of network improvements and lead them to curb investment. In June, the FCC under President Donald Trump repealed rules adopted during the Obama administration that barred internet service providers from blocking content or charging more for access, a move intended to establish a more level playing field or "net neutrality." State attorneys general and the District of Columbia asked a federal appeals court earlier this month to reinstate the Obama regulations. They were joined in that action a week later by a coalition of trade groups representing companies including Alphabet Inc, Facebook Inc and Amazon.com Inc. Story continues The U.S. Senate voted in May to keep the Obama-era internet rules but the measure is unlikely to be approved by the House of Representatives or the White House. (This version of the story corrects day of the week to Thursday in first paragraph) (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Paul Tait) Los Angeles (AFP) - A California man has been arrested for making death threats against employees of the Boston Globe, which recently organized a newspaper editorial response to attacks on the media by President Donald Trump. Robert Chain, 68, of Encino, California, was arrested on Thursday and charged with one count of making threatening communications, the US Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts said. Chain was to appear in federal court in Los Angeles later Thursday and would eventually be transferred to Boston, it said in a statement. "Everyone has a right to express their opinion, but threatening to kill people takes it over the line and will not be tolerated," said FBI special agent Harold Shaw. "Today's arrest of Robert Chain should serve as a warning to others that making threats is not a prank, it's a federal crime." The Boston Globe and more than 300 other newspapers around the country published an editorial on August 16 decrying Trump's relentless attacks on the news media. "Today in the United States we have a president who has created a mantra that members of the media who do not blatantly support the policies of the current US administration are the 'enemy of the people,'" the Globe editorial said. "This is one of the many lies that have been thrown out by this president, much like an old-time charlatan threw out 'magic' dust or water on a hopeful crowd," it added in a piece entitled "Journalists are not the Enemy." According to the US Attorney's Office, Chain called the Globe newsroom repeatedly between August 10 and August 22, threatening to shoot Globe employees and calling the newspaper the "enemy of the people." The Globe, citing an affidavit filed in the case, said that Chain owns several guns. It quoted him as saying in one call: "As long as you keep attacking the President, the duly elected President of the United States, in the continuation of your treasonous and seditious acts, I will continue to threaten, harass, and annoy the Boston Globe." Story continues US Attorney Andrew Lelling promised such threats would be prosecuted. "Anyone - regardless of political affiliation - who puts others in fear for their lives will be prosecuted by this office," Lelling said. "In a time of increasing political polarization, and amid the increasing incidence of mass shootings, members of the public must police their own political rhetoric. Or we will," he said. Chain could face up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Montreal (AFP) - Canada's Conservative opposition on Saturday demanded that a parliamentary panel meet urgently to consider the fate of a major oil project suspended by court order, saying Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is "personally responsible for this failure." Conservatives on Parliament's Natural Resources Committee requested the panel meet to discuss the controversial expansion of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline, said Shannon Stubbs, a party spokeswoman. "On Thursday, we learned that the Trudeau Liberals are spending $4.5 billion in taxpayer money to buy a pipeline that they can't even build," she said. "The prime minister is personally responsible for this failure and he and his ministers owe Canadians an explanation and a clear plan of action." Canada's Federal Court of Appeal on Thursday suspended the proposed pipeline expansion, siding with indigenous people worried about increased tanker traffic and ruling that federal authorities had not adequately studied the project's environmental impact. The decision was a setback for the Trudeau government's energy policy with federal elections just a year away. The 1,200-kilometer (720-mile) pipeline, which links Alberta's oilfields to Canada's Pacific coast, currently operates at capacity. The proposed project would triple its capacity, helping Alberta's landlocked oil industry reach new Asian markets. Canada now pumps nearly four million barrels of oil a day, the great majority of which -- for lack of access to other markets -- it unloads at discount in the United States. Given the overdependence on the US market and facing steep opposition from environmentalists and others to the project, the Trudeau government announced in May that it was buying the pipeline from Texas-based Kinder Morgan for Can$4.5 billion (US$3.5 billion). That company's shareholders approved the sale on Thursday -- the same day the Canadian court was suspending its expansion plans -- leaving the now-hampered pipeline as Canadian government property. The Conservatives accused the Trudeau government of damaging investor confidence rather than defending Canada's energy industry. N'Djamena (AFP) - Chad forces bombarded rebel positions around Tibesti, a town in the far north on the Libyan border, security and local sources told AFP Saturday. A security source said the bombardment, which followed weeks of monitoring of rebel movements, targeted a site between the localities of Miski and Yebibou. A local source said a dozen local people had been injured in the operation, which it said "targeted a wedding convoy" -- an allegation which could not be independently confirmed. Contacted by AFP, the armed forces made no comment. Chad late last month launched ground and air operations in the area following an attack on a local town in mid-August blamed on a rebel group long based inside Libya. Security Minister Ahmat Mahamat Bachir said the crackdown was designed to deal with an incursion of rebels opposed to President Idriss Deby as well as illegal miners whose arrival in recent years in an area troubled by a gold rush has fomented unrest with locals. Largely desert northern Chad is sparsely populated and home to several rebel groups involved in people trafficking between Chad and neighbouring states Sudan, Niger and Libya. Dave Majumdar Security, If all goes as planned, Boeing will complete the design, development, fabrication, test, delivery and support of four MQ-25A unmanned air vehiclesincluding integration into the carrier air wingfor an initial operational capability by 2024 under a fixed-price-incentive-firm-target contract with a ceiling price of $805.3 million. The service expects to buy 72 production MQ-25 aircraft at a total program cost of roughly $13 billion. Here Comes the MQ-25A Stingray: Boeing Wins Big (And So Do Navy Aircraft Carriers) The United States Navy has awarded Boeing a $805.3 million contract to develop the MQ-25A Stingray, which will become the worlds first operational carrier-based unmanned aircraft. While the MQ-25 will be breaking new ground, the new unmanned jet is destined to fulfill a decidedly unglamorous role as an aerial refueling tanker. However, the Boeing designassuming the companys prototype is representative of the eventual operational aircraftdoes appear to have the potential to evolve into something more over time. This is a historic day, Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations, said on August 30 as the contract was awarded. We will look back on this day and recognize that this event represents a dramatic shift in the way we define warfighting requirements, work with industry, integrate unmanned and manned aircraft, and improve the lethality of the airwing all at relevant speed. Everyone who helped achieve this milestone should be proud we're here. But we have a lot more to do. Its not the time to take our foot off the gas. Let's keep charging." Leanne Caret, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, said in a statement that the company is already preparing for the first flight of the new unmanned aircraft, which could occur as early as 2021. As a company, we made an investment in both our team and in an unmanned aircraft system that meets the U.S. Navys refueling requirements, Caret said. The fact that were already preparing for first flight is thanks to an outstanding team who understands the Navy and their need to have this important asset on carrier decks around the world. Story continues One of the reasons that Boeing and the United States Navy are able to move so quickly is because the MQ-25 is an accelerated acquisition program that expedites decisions that will enable rapid actions with less overhead compared to traditional Defense Department acquisition efforts. The intent is to significantly reduce development timelines from contract award to initial operational capability by five to six years, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) said in a statement. By reducing the number of key performance parameters to mission tanking and carrier suitability, industry has increased flexibility to rapidly design a system that meets those requirements. Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition James F. Geurts extolled the virtues of the MQ-25 acquisitions model. MQ-25A is a hallmark acquisition program, Geurts said. This program is a great example of how the acquisition and requirements communities work hand in hand to rapidly deliver capabilities to our Sailors and Marines in the fleet. If all goes as planned, Boeing will complete the design, development, fabrication, test, delivery and support of four MQ-25A unmanned air vehiclesincluding integration into the carrier air wingfor an initial operational capability by 2024 under a fixed-price-incentive-firm-target contract with a ceiling price of $805.3 million. The service expects to buy 72 production MQ-25 aircraft at a total program cost of roughly $13 billion. Executing the contract will be challenging in the short amount of time allotted, but Boeing is only responsible for the air vehicle portion of the MQ-25 system. NAVAIR is developing the carrier-based control station and command and control networks for the MQ-25 aircraft internally, which mean the service will own those technologies and be able to use those systems for follow-on unmanned aircraft. While initially the MQ-25 will be purely focused on the aerial refueling rolebeing able to offload 15,000lbs of fuel to strike fighters such as the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and F-35C Joint Strike Fighter at a range of 500 nautical milesthe Boeing airframe is clearly adaptable for future missions. Arguably, the rival General Atomics design was too focused on aerial refueling while the Lockheed Martin flying-wing design was too geared toward future modification into a strike role, the Boeing design struck healthy middle ground. The Boeing designwith its buried top-mounted intake and other low-observables featureswas clearly adapted so that it could eventually be converted into a narrow-band stealth aircraft. Recommended: What Will the Sixth-Generation Jet Fighter Look Like? 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? Indeed, the Navy seems to be moving towards adding an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capability to the aircraft in the futurewhich was one of the potential roles envisioned for the Navys previous Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) effort from which the current tanker program emerged. The idea, at least as I see it, is, we can very very efficiently and effectively and for a great price put an ISR package on this aircraft and let it do its tanking mission, Richardson told reporters. It was very very important that [ISR] did not become a driver in terms of its cost and design and all those things. Having said that, these days its very easy to integrate some ISR capability, so well take a look at what those possibilities are going forward. Dave Majumdar is the defense editor for The National Interest. Read full article Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 1) As Vice President Leni Robredo praised recipients of a prestigious award for transformative leadership, she criticized President Rodrigo Duterte's governance. "Quiet courage and empathy, and leaders that put in the hard work of actually transforming the lives of people, are rarities in these times, when dictatorship is claimed by some to be better," Robredo said in a speech Friday as she led the presentation ceremony of the Ramon Magsaysay Award. In a statement released earlier that day, Robredo hit back at the President for saying he would rather leave the country in the hands of a "dictator" like the late President Ferdinand Marcos, instead of Robredo, his constitutional successor. Robredo said, "Instead of continuing to glorify a dictator who stole billions from our country, drove the nation into debt, and presided over the murder and imprisonment of thousands of Filipinos, he (Duterte) can work on truly unifying the nation, and assuring our people, especially those at the fringes, that their voices are being heard and that their daily suffering will soon be eased." Marcos is accused of amassing billions of dollars in ill-gotten wealth and human rights violations during his two-decade rule. "When those trusted by the electorate threaten lives instead of protect them, divide the nation instead of unite it, attack people's cherished beliefs instead of nourishing them, and present themselves only through bravado and empty promises as the antidote to what they say are outdated and decaying ideas like democracy, we don't move towards a better future," Robredo said in her speech. Instead, Robredo said countries with these kinds of leaders are off to "a scorched-earth existence where people are killed, institutions are decimated, and our very way of life is threatened." 'Quiet heroes' Robredo called the Ramon Magsaysay Awardees as the "quiet, courageous, and hardworking heroes", whom their countries need to avoid such grim future, inspiring people to still be "defiantly hopeful." This year's awardees included Philippines' Howard Dee, who was recognized for "his abiding dedication to the pursuit of social justice and peace in achieving dignity and progress for the poor, and his being, by his deeds, a true servant of his faith and an exemplary citizen of his nation." Dee co-founded the Assisi Development Foundation in 1975, a foundation that seeks to "pursue peace through development with justice." The Ramon Magsaysay Award, dubbed as the Asia's version of the Nobel Prize, is given annually to individuals or organizations in Asia who have shown selfless service and positive influence that marked the life of the late President Ramon Magsaysay. It was established in 1957, and has been awarded to over 300 laureates. Other winners this year include Youk Chhang from Cambodia, Maria de Lourdes Martins Cruz from East Timor, Bharat Vatwani from India, Vo Thi Hoang Yen from Vietnam, and Sonam Wangchuk from India. Duterte-Robredo word war The verbal tussle between the country's highest government officials come as Duterte publicly accuses Robredo of incompetence. Malacanang on Friday said the President believes "almost anyone," including a dictator, would be a better successor than Robredo. Duterte earlier said he prefers Marcos' son, former Sen. Bongbong Marcos, who has filed an electoral protest claiming that he, not Robredo, won the 2016 vice presidential race. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque on Friday also said the President's allegations are all based on facts, including his claims that Robredo's hometown, Naga City, is a "hotbed of shabu" and that her brother-in-law was to blame. Robredo on Friday dismissed these claims as "ridiculous" and called on the President to just get back to work. Cairo (AFP) - Egyptian villagers have attacked and looted the properties of Coptic Christians in the southern province of Minya in protest at the use of homes and halls for worship, the region's archdiocese said Saturday. "Four Coptic homes were attacked Friday by residents from the village and other nearby areas," said Bishop Makarios of Minya, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) south of Cairo. In a statement posted on its Facebook page, the archdiocese of Minya said "extremists" had attacked the village of Demshaw Hashem because of the "existence of a church". It said Christian residents of the village use homes and halls for prayer. "Extremists attacked Copts, stole quantities of jewelry and money, destroyed household appliances and set fire to property," it said. Three people including a firefighter were injured. "There have been reports for several days about the intention of extremists to carry out the attack," it said. Authorities were informed of the threats but security forces arrived to the village after the assault, it added. A security official said 38 suspects had been arrested. Copts, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's nearly 100 million people, have long complained of discrimination and intermittent sectarian attacks. The Coptic minority has been targeted by a series of bloody attacks over the past two years, most claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group. On August 11, an attempted suicide attack on a church in northern Cairo was foiled when the presence of security forces prompted the assailant to detonate his explosive belt on a bridge some 200 metres from the house of worship, according to security sources. Many churches are built illegally in Egypt due to administrative obstacles. Authorities hailed as a breakthrough a law passed in 2016 on the construction and restoration of churches. But in late 2017, a church around 100 kilometres south of Cairo was attacked by a crowd chanting hostile slogans and calling for the building's demolition. Dutch police officers point their guns at a wounded 19-year-old man who was shot by police after stabbing two people in the central railway station in Amsterdam - Tdwholesale A knife attacker on Friday stabbed two people at Amsterdam's Central Station before being shot by police in a suspected terror attack, Dutch police said. The suspect was identified late on Friday evening as a 19-year-old Afghan man with a German residency permit. "We are seriously taking into account that there was a terrorist motive," Frans Zuiderhoek, Amsterdam police spokesman, told AFP. Witnesses described scenes of panic earlier as gunshots sounded and thousands of commuters and tourists were evacuated from the rail terminus shortly after midday. "Around 12.10 a man in the west side tunnel of Amsterdam Central Station stabbed two other people and directly after that he was shot by the police," another police spokesman Rob van der Veen said, adding terrorism was not being ruled out by investigators. "The two people are very badly injured, and they were brought to the hospital," he said. "We are looking at all scenarios, also the worst scenario, which is terrorism." Policemen and forensic scientists are at work after a stabbing incident at the central station in Amsterdam Credit: REMKO DE WAAL/AFP One witness said he saw a young man "stumble" into his flower shop at the station with a bleeding wound to his hand. "Shortly afterwards I heard some shots and I know something has gone badly wrong," Richard Snelders told the ANP news agency. A while later he saw another man lying on the ground nearby, he said. "The first thing that comes up in your mind is that it's a terror attack. After all, you are at Amsterdam Central Station. There was a lot of panic," Snelders said. Police quickly arrived at the scene with video images showing police ordering the suspect in English to "stay down" after he had been shot. "It happened really quickly," Mr Snelders said. Images posted on social media showed security guards ushering passengers towards exits and paramedics arriving at the scene with stretchers. Mr Zuiderhoek said the knifeman's condition was not life-threatening, but that he had been shot in the lower body. Story continues "At this moment he is under police custody in hospital. He is being questioned about his motive," Mr Zuiderhoek added. Dutch police were also in close contact with their German counterparts in regards to the suspect's background, he added. Policemen are at work after the stabbing incident Credit: SEM VAN DER WAL/AFP Initially, police said that the station - located in the Dutch capital's historic canal-ringed city centre - had been evacuated and closed off to all rail traffic. However, police shortly afterwards issued an update to say there was "no talk" of a complete evacuation and that only two platforms had been closed off to passengers. A special police department opened a routine probe into why police shot the man. The Netherlands has so far been spared from the spate of terror attacks which have rocked its closest European neighbours in the past few years. But amid reports that people linked to those attacks may have crossed into the country, senior Dutch security and intelligence officials have warned of an elevated risk. Passengers are pictured outside the Central Railway Station in Amsterdam Credit: GERMAIN MOYON/AFP Police declined to speculate on the reasons for Friday's incident, but the Afghan Taliban in a statement Thursday called for attacks on Dutch troops following plans by Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders to stage a Prophet Mohammed cartoon competition in the Dutch parliament. The plan angered Muslims and sparked protests before Mr Wilders, who received several death threats, announced he was cancelling the competition, saying he wanted to "avoid the risk of making people victims of Islamist violence". About 250,000 people travel through Central Station every day, according to statistics provided by the Amsterdam.info travel guide. Duke Fuqua Dean Bill Boulding As dean of the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, Bill Boulding has been going back-and-forth to India twice annually for the past eight years. But only in the past 12 months has he been hearing a disturbing, even hurtful, question. Parents are asking him if their children would be safe on an American campus these days. It is terrible, he confides. To hear that question is so opposite of the community weve worked so hard to build. It hurts to hear it. Yet, behind the question is an increasingly important concern among U.S. educators: the pipeline of international students is shrinking dramatically as anti-immigration rhetoric and uncertainly over work visas has made the U.S. a less desirable place to earn a degree (see MBA Applications Take A Shocking Plunge At Leading U.S. Business Schools). THERES NO DOUBT THAT IMMIGRATION POLICY IS HAVING A NEGATIVE IMPACT ON BUSINESS SCHOOLS Theres no doubt that immigration policy is having a negative impact on U.S. business schools, says Boulding in an interview with Poets&Quants. Youve seen growth in business schools outside the U.S., but the U.S. is losing the pipeline of talent. If we are going to maintain our reputation for having the best business schools in the world, we have to be able to attract the best and brightest in the world. Student mobility has become a big issue. This year, many of the most highly selective business schools in the U.S. are reporting substantial declines in MBA applications, largely as a result of fewer candidates from abroad. Many schools got clobbered, adds Boulding, who says the decline of internationals in U.S. business school applicant pools has become a major topic at gatherings of B-school deans. As the new chairman of the board of the Graduate Management Admission Council, Boulding says he is making it his mission to speak out on immigration policy because of its long-term impact on U.S. competitiveness. When you think about keeping the business school industry healthy, there are two things we need to pay attention to, he says. Story continues MY FEAR IS THAT WE WONT BE ABLE TO DRAW THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST One, wherever you go in the world, there is a steady drip of bad news about business. That it is immoral, greedy and slimey. Business continues to be attacked from all sides in all corners of the world. We have an obligation to show that business can be a force for good in the world. We need to think proactively about our collective reputation. People want meaning and purpose in their lives. If they perceive business as evil, the talent pipeline will dry up. Secondly, we need to be able to maintain student mobility. With the rise of nationalism, we need to make sure students can go to business school wherever they want. Erecting barriers to student mobility has severe consequences for the economy. Business school have the responsibility for producing talent for sustainable economic activity. My fear is tht we wont be able to draw the best and brightest and help companies innovate and create value. Boulding says Fuquas recent 6.2% decline in applications to its full-time MBA program was largely driven by a drop in international applicants. He attributes the fall off at his school and other peer institutions to two major concerns, one a long simmering issue over H1b visas and one that is relatively new and related to the feelings that prompt the question about safety he keeps getting on his overseas trips. OUTBOUND & INBOUND ISSUES HAVE BECOME A TWO-SIDED THREAT TO STUDENTS COMING TO THE U.S. Outbound issues hve been perculating for many years, he says. Its difficult for companies to hire internationals so we have seen a slow moving train of companies that are not long willing to go through that process and that has had a cumulative effect. Whats different now is the worsening of the outboard issues combined with concerns over whether an international student is going to be welcome here on the inbound side. Parents in India want to know if their children will be safe. That rhetoric has taken its toll and become a two-sided threat to students coming to the U.S. for business school. To counter the fears, Boulding says he is more deeply engaging the community so students and alumni have these conversations with prospective students. Hes also doubling down on events outside the U.S. to show our commitment to maintain the pipelines of the best and brightest. In welcoming the latest crop of MBA students to Fuqua last month, Boulding reminded them of the need for open communication and the value of the schools openly supportive culture. Incoming MBA students in the Class of 2020 at Duke Fuqua QUESTIONS OVER SAFETY IN THE U.S. CUT DEEP There has been a noticeable difference in the conversations Im having, he says. Is it going to be safe is the new question. I try to reassure them, but our own commmunity has to recognize that questions are being asked. We have to be able to provide assurances that it is not only safe but welcoming. The question cuts deeply because the culture of Dukes business school has been one of support and inclusion. At the heart of Team Fuqua is the belief that the more diverse the team, the better the results. Academic research, Boulding notes, has shown that diverse teams outperform ones in which members are all alikeif each member identifies with the team and has a sense of belonging. That is why he believes it is essential for business leaders to be able to unlock the power that lies in those differences. The current political climate, he says, raises and changes the stakes for business leaders to make themselves relevant. We are in an environment where there is so much polarization over race, gender, politics and religion. The fault lines are deep. Its both a threat and an opportunity. The opportunity is for the business community to serve as an exemplar in bringing diverse people together with common purpose. But events leak into your work environment and can carry into the workplace. We have to step up and prepare people for this environment. A FIRST-GENERATION AMERICAN WHOSE PARENTS WERE IMMIGRANTS For Boulding, a one-time marketing professor who counts among his former students Apples Tim Cook and Melinda Gates, it is an issue that runs deep. His parents were immigrants to the U.S., and he is a first generation American. His father escaped the slums of Liverpool, while his mother left Norway because her family faced limited prospects for a good life. A key to economic prosperity in this country is immigration, he maintains. Many of our Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants. Many of the most promising startups in Silicon Valley have been created by immigrants. We are now entering a period of time when everyone is talking about massive shifts in the world of work due to new technology. We are going to see a new generation of entrepreneurs create the jobs of the future. If that is not happening here, we risk becoming the economic dinosaur of the world. Were ready to impact that transformation, but we have to have the talent to do it. Otherwise, were looking at a long-term slide toward irrelevance. THE WORLD HAS CHANGED Asked how optimistic he is for change, Boulding says he isnt sure. On the one hand, he notes, Trump seems ready to listen to business leaders who are telling him that closing the doors to immigration will hurt the economy and make it more difficult for them to attract the necessary talent for growth. But Trump seems heavily invested in an anti-immigration stance. It would be very difficult for the current administration to reverse course because they have made immigration a flagship issue, believes Boulding. The President believes it helped get him elected and his base of support strongly believes that immigration is bad. I dont think it (the decline in international applicants) is permanent, but the world has changed. For many years, the epicenter of great busines schools was in the U.S. Over time, youve seen the rise of more and more business schools options around the world. U.S. schools are no longer the only place to get a good business education. I do believe students will come back when the time is right for them. DONT MISS: MBA APPLICATIONS TAKE A SHOCKING PLUNGE or MORE AMERICANS HEADING TO EUROPE FOR THEIR MBA DEGREES Rafael Nadal, of Spain, returns a shot to Karen Khachanov, of Russia, during the third round of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow) It wasnt the marquee match-up of the day that was supposed to be Serena and Venus Williams but defending U.S. Open champion Rafael Nadal and 20th seeded Karen Khachanov turned in one of the best matches of the tournament. The world No. 1 fell behind a set and a break to Khachanov before coming back to win in four sets grueling sets 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (3). Nadal, who moves on to face Nikoloz Basilashvili in the fourth round, came through by winning big points including this 39 shot rally on set point in the third set. Khachanov fought off four set points and three double faults but couldnt stop Nadal from taking the set and the two sets to one lead. Rafael Nadal Karen Khachanov 39 shot rally in 3rd set 8-7 tiebreak. Hit for :56 seconds straight. Not to mention this was 3 hrs 20+ mins into the match. Unreal conditioning & fight! WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BREAK YOU!? pic.twitter.com/wqixtFUijU BIG SHOTS (@BigShotsNation) August 31, 2018 The rallies got even better from there. Nadal had the early break in the fourth set before Khachanoc clawed his way back to earn himself set point. But the Spaniard came through once again on another long rally. Khachanov scampered around the court, even trying to use a tweener to win the point, but ultimately Nadal at the net was too much for the young Russian. With rallies like these, its no wonder that it was Nadals longest match ever in New York, clocking in at 4 hours 23 minutes. But even with the long match and knee strapping he added to his right knee, Nadal said he expects therell be no physical problem for him in the fourth round. My personal feeling is that I am going to be at 100% for the next match, Nadal said. Mark Todd is looking for title number six at Burghley. Pic: Peter Nixon Mark Todd believes it is all still to play for in the cross-country after taking the overall lead at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, toppling defending champion Oliver Townend. The five-time winner put himself in prime position for his sixth title after posting a dressage score of 26.4 on Kiltubrid Rhapsody to storm into first at the prestigious four-star event. In the process, the New Zealand Olympian dislodged Townend, who had been sitting pretty at the top having opened the competition on MHS King Joules on Thursday. But having also led the way after the dressage stage last year before falling off in the cross-country, the 62-year-old is not taking anything for granted ahead of Saturdays test. He was very good I was very pleased with him and hes getting better and better, said the Wiltshire-based rider. Hes got a wonderful temperament, he can just go out there and it doesnt bother him. He was getting a little bit nervous out here, as there was a little bit of noise just before went out, but I think once they actually get out there, its a bit calmer, but hes very good. Not everything went right, he had one little skip in the middle of his extended trot which he normally never does, but other than that, from where he is now and his training, it couldnt have gone a lot better. Hes a very good jumper, he jumped around Badminton in the spring and he was very good. I wouldnt ordinarily say Burghley is his ideal track hes not a lot of thoroughbred. This year, Mark Phillips has used the hills more than ever, especially with Winners Avenue coming around the seven-minute mark. Thats going to take its toll on him, but hes a real trier, he keeps galloping, keeps jumping and well just have to see how it plays out. Theres still a long way to go yet. Fellow Kiwi Tim Price has also leapfrogged Townend into second with Ringwood Sky Boy, who was fourth and fifth at Burghley in 2016 and 2017 respectively, scoring 26.9. Story continues The pairing is just half a penalty behind Todd, with Townend rounding off the top three with 27.2 on MHS King Joules, going into the cross-country stage. And while Price admitted he has had his troubles with the 15-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding, the Rio 2016 Olympian fancies his chances after a strong dressage showing. I had high hopes for him hes been here a few times and seen the atmosphere, but that doesnt mean weve had an upward curve to improve him, he said. Its been like snakes and ladders with him sometimes its all gone wrong but maybe hes maturing. I like to think this guy is a specialist Burghley horse, so well see. The ground is almost bang on perfect isnt it? And I cant see it changing, so thats one thing we dont need to worry about, but there are a lot of jumps to worry about. I think the times are going to be really tight. It doesnt mean you can go like a derby at any time around here you must have rhythm, jump the fences well and bring home a healthy horse thats still got some gas in the tank. Hes not a speed machine but hes a very genuine horse that has the stamina and desire to keep going, and if I can ride him well enough, hopefully well have a good shot. Despite losing his place at the top of the leader board, Townend remains the leading Brit ahead of Sarah Bullimore, who dropped down into fourth on Reve Du Rouet. Townend also features twice more in the top ten after last years winner Ballaghmor Class moved into fifth (27.9), while Cooley SRS sits seventh with a score of 29.4. Reflecting on the performance of Ballaghmor Class, who finished off the dressage competition, the Shropshire-based eventer said he was hoping for better. It didnt quite come off what I was hoping would come off but at the same time, weve won big classes from worse positions, said Townend. Were one and a bit off the lead and its certainly not a dressage competition. I was thrilled with his performance and hes been in some big atmospheres from very quickly recently. For him to go in there, keep level, look very cool and walk very nicely is a testament to him and how special he is. Ive no complaints and Im happy with where we are. Elsewhere, Germanys sole representative Andreas Dibowski is sixth with FRH Butts Avedon, with Harry Meade, Piggy French and Bill Levett finishing off the top ten. Five-time winner Andrew Nicholson is also in much better shape on his second horse, Swallow Springs, who sits in a tie for 16th, with Jet Set IV 29th after his dressage. Thursday and Fridays dressage are followed by cross-country on Saturday and show jumping on Sunday at family-friendly Burghley, which attracts 160,000 visitors each year and hosts the top equestrians on the planet. The multi-award-winning Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials from August 30 September 2 has been established as a major international equestrian and social event in the Autumn Sporting Calendar for over 50 years. For more information visit burghley-horse.co.uk Tripoli (Lebanon) (AFP) - The only operational airport in the unrest-hit Libyan capital Tripoli suspended all flights Friday, an airport source said, after fierce fighting near the city that has left at least 39 dead this week. Hundreds of people have been injured in the clashes between rival militias, which broke out on Monday in suburbs south of Tripoli, according to a new toll by the health ministry released Friday. Fighting had temporarily ceased on Thursday following a ceasefire deal, but reignited in the evening and continued into Friday, with intermittent bursts of heavy fire. Witnesses and Libyan rescue services said rockets and shells had hit multiple areas around and within the capital, causing civilian casualties. Several rockets landed near Tripoli's Mitiga airport, forcing authorities to suspend flights for at least 48 hours for security reasons, according to the airport official. The UN in Libya said it "strongly condemns the loss of civilian lives" in the city and called on all parties to prevent further casualties and cease hostilities in a statement on Twitter. Flights were temporarily rerouted to the airport in Misrata, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) east of Tripoli, the airport source said. The Libyan capital has been at the centre of a battle for influence between armed groups since the fall of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011. A former military airport, Mitiga was opened to civil air traffic after the destruction of Tripoli's international airport in the south of the city during clashes in 2014. The internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) has charged forces from the west and centre of the country with enforcing the ceasefire. But a commander of these forces has declared that he has to wait for a pause in the fighting to be able to re-enter the capital and intervene between the rival factions. A family in Florida with a six-foot long uninvited lizard as their guest, has said they are scared to enter their own backyard for fear of encountering the massive reptile, after wildlife officials were unsuccessful in efforts to capture it. Maria Lieberman told local news stations she first encountered the 100-pound lizard just as she was about to take her 2-year-old son in the familys pool, in the backyard of their home in Davie, ten miles west of Fort Lauderdale. I am just worried if I am out there, if it comes back, what it would do, she said. Ms Lieberman captured a video of the large lizard and posted it on Facebook on 27 August. Days later and after unsuccessful attempts to capture the lizard by Florida Fish and Wildlife (FFW) officials the reptile remained on the loose. Ms Lieberman has posted updates about the lizard debacle on Facebook. The Independent has reached out to the Florida Fish and Wildlife for comment. Ms Liebermans husband, Zach Lieberman, told NBC that having the big fella in their backyard made him concerned for his childrens safety while theyre outside. The lizard has since been identified as an Asian Water Monitor lizard and potentially dangerous. It was apparently a neighbours pet that had escaped their property. Since it is a large, potentially dangerous lizard, we want to make sure that we remove it as soon as possible to minimise any impact it might have on human health and safety or any of our ecological natural resources, Eric Suarez, FWC senior nonnative wildlife biologist, told ABC . FWC had since set up a trap in the Liebermans home; they placed a chicken drumstick inside a cage to bait the lizard. This thing can come out of the bushes and eat our small children as food, Mr Lieberman told The Daily Beast. We just want it out of our environment so we can go back to our lives. Photo credit: The Manufacturer - Car and Driver From Car and Driver Earlier this year, Ford announced an audacious plan to move away from passenger cars, instead focusing the entire brand on trucks, crossovers, and utility vehicles, along with the Mustang. That meant that while the United States wouldn't get the Focus, it would get the Focus Active, a lifted, crossover-y version that would be imported from Ford's factory in China. Unfortunately, that's no longer the case. Thanks to new tariffs being placed on Chinese imports by the Trump administration, Ford is scrapping those plans, meaning that the U.S. will be without a Focus for the first time in nearly two decades. It's purely a business decision. The Focus Active will also be made in Europe, but the margins are such that importing it from Germany wouldn't make any financial sense. That means the loss of the Focus Active in America is purely a casualty of the escalating trade war between the United States and China. Ford told Automotive News that even if the tariffs were retracted, the company wouldn't change course and import the Active. When reached for comment, a Ford spokesperson didn't seem too concerned with the change to its future plans, telling us that Ford didn't expect to sell more than 50,000 of the vehicles per year in the U.S. market in the first place, which means that impact to sales volume would be negligible. That may sound like a lot of cars, but to Ford that makes the Focus Active "low volume." Ford isn't immediately abandoning all cars, of course. The Mustang isn't going anywhere, while the Fiesta will stick around for another year and the Fusion will soldier on for a few more after that. But the Focus, as we know it, is dead. ('You Might Also Like',) Former ER actress Vanessa Marquez was shot and killed by California police after pointing a BB gun at officers, Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department Homicide Bureau detectives confirmed. Officers arrived at South Pasadena apartment complex on Thursday to conduct a welfare check on the 49-year-old former TV actress, who was suffering from a medical condition, police said. When officers arrived, they noticed Marquez was having seizures and requested paramedics to help assist her. Police said that while speaking to Marquez, she appeared unable to care for herself and they were aware that she was possibly suffering from mental health issues when she became uncooperative. A mental health clinician joined police as they tried for over an hour in a half to convince Marquez to receive medical care, police said. Marquez then armed herself with a gun and pointed it at officers, after which she was shot by officers, police said. Police said the weapon recovered was a BB gun which was a replica of a semi-automatic handgun. Marquez was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Marquez was best known for her role as Wendy Goldman on the hit NBC show ER She appeared on the show from 1994 to 1997. Mary Lee Tracy says she trusted Larry Nassar like she would her father or her brother, but she was fooled by a master manipulator. The USA gymnastics turmoil continues. Two days ago Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman criticized USAG for hiring Larry Nassar defender Mary Lee Tracy as elite development coordinator for its womens program. Now USA gymnastics has asked Tracy to resign for inappropriately contacting a survivor (Raisman). USA Gymnastics has asked Mary Lee Tracy to resign from the elite development coordinator role. We strongly believe in a culture that encourages our athletes and survivors to speak up and make their voices heard. USA Gymnastics (@USAGym) August 31, 2018 Tracy had stated in a 2016 interview with WCPO in Cincinnati that she was defending Nassar despite more than 50 women stating they had been abused because her four Olympians had all worked with the now-disgraced doctor. We were all defending him because he has helped so many kids in their careers. He has protected them, taken care of them, worked with me and worked with their parents. Hes been amazing. Raisman blasted the new hire on Wednesday, saying that it was a slap in the face for survivors. In a Facebook post on Friday, Tracy said that she tried to contact Raisman to apologize and to learn from all of the mistakes of the past, but did not know that such contact was barred. Mary Lee Tracy says she has to resign as USA Gymnastics' elite development coordinator. pic.twitter.com/Kk0GNoZP0q Marisa Kwiatkowski (@IndyMarisaK) August 31, 2018 Tracy goes on to say that USA Gymnastics president and CEO Kerry Perry offered her two options: to resign or be removed. But Tracy said that she notified USA gymnastics that she would not resign. Raisman wasnt the only gymnast and Larry Nassar survivor to criticize Tracys hiring. Rachel Denhollander, the first to speak out against the doctor, was critical of both the initial hiring of Tracy as well as USA gymnastics subsequent handling days later. Story continues USAG: The organization where supporting a pedo against 50 victims and charges of child porn will get you promoted to the top, but calling a victim to apologize gets you fired. Rock on USAG. Keep telling us about all that change. https://t.co/hLW78xOnO9 Rachael Denhollander (@R_Denhollander) August 31, 2018 Tracy stated that USA Gymnastics president and CEO Kerry Perry offered her two options: to resign or be removed. But she said that she notified USA gymnastics that she would not resign and would instead seek counsel on how to proceed. New U.S. Olympic Committee CEO slams USA Gymnastics Just 11 days into her tenure as the new CEO of the United States Olympic Committee, Sarah Hirshland isnt wasting any time. Hirshland slammed USA Gymnastics on Friday night in an email to USA Today, and said she thinks that it is time to consider making adjustments in the leadership. Weve been following their activity and as we close the day Im afraid I can offer nothing but disappointment, Hirshland told USA Today. Under the circumstances we feel that the organization is struggling to manage its obligations effectively and it is time to consider making adjustments in the leadership. We are engaging with the USAG board to offer our perspective, and also our assistance, as they manage the situation. We expect some additional discussions will occur this weekend. Hirshland was hired last month, replacing former CEO Scott Blackmun who resigned earlier this year amid the fallout from the Nassar scandal. Blackmun said he resigned due to health issues related to prostate cancer. Previously, Hirshland worked as the chief commercial officer for the U.S. Golf Association. More from Yahoo Sports: 32 breakout star candidates for 2018 NFL season Terez Paylor: Caylin Newton, the younger brother of Cam, already has a legacy as king of underdogs Yankees get another big bat in deal for Andrew McCutchen Usain Bolt makes his soccer debut (Bloomberg) A former associate of Paul Manafort pleaded guilty to a lobbying violation and agreed to cooperate with the U.S., giving prosecutors access to insights from a longtime international political operative whose Russian business partner has already been indicted in Special Counsel Robert Muellers probe. The lobbyist, Sam Patten, 47, admitted that he failed to register in the U.S. as a foreign agent for his work lobbying on behalf of a Ukrainian political party. The nature of his cooperation isnt clear. Patten worked with Manafort and on Ukrainian campaigns, and reportedly worked on microtargeting operations with Cambridge Analytica. Muellers office referred the prosecution to U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu in the District of Columbia, according William Miller, a spokesman for Liu, who declined to comment about the nature of the cooperation or other matters relating to an ongoing investigation. Patten appeared in federal court in Washington on Friday. No date has been set for his sentencing. Patten, who served in the State Department under George W. Bush, headed the Moscow office of the International Republican Institute in the early 2000s. A Russian employee of IRI at the time, Konstantin Kilimnik, went on to work as a fixer for Manafort in Ukraine and is a business partner with Patten. Kilimnik has been indicted in absentia alongside Manafort on obstruction of justice charges. Manafort, who was one of President Donald Trumps campaign chairmen, was found guilty this month in Alexandria, Virginia, of tax and bank fraud charges. Manafort is due to stand trial in Washington next month on the obstruction charges as well as charges of money laundering and failure to register for his own lobbying work in Ukraine. Manaforts Second Trial Looms, and There May Still Be Third Patten entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, the same judge whos overseeing Manaforts money-laundering and obstruction of justice trial in Washington, scheduled to start next month. Story continues Watching from the gallery was Andrew Weissmann, an expert on money laundering and complex fraud cases who will be the lead prosecutor in Manaforts trial in Washington. Also in attendance was Scott Claffee, a trial lawyer in the Justice Departments National Security Division. From 2014, Patten provided a prominent Ukrainian oligarch who isnt named in court papers and his Opposition Bloc political party with lobbying and consulting services, according to the criminal information. A company Patten co-owned with a Russian national received more than $1 million for the work, the U.S. said. Details about the Ukrainian oligarch match those of Sergei Lyovochkin, an Opposition Bloc leader whom prosecutors have previously identified as funding Manaforts work in Ukraine. He couldnt immediately been reached for comment. As part of his lobbying work, Patten violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act by not disclosing the work to the U.S., prosecutors said. Cambridge Analytica Patten worked for multiple political parties and office-holders in Ukraine, according to his website. His work for Cambridge Analytica came during the 2014 election cycle, the Daily Beast reported in April. It was later adopted by at least one major U.S. presidential candidate, the Daily Beast said. Patten told the publication that his work for Cambridge Analytica was separate from the work of his consulting firm. Cambridge Analytica Files U.S. Bankruptcy After Data Scandal Patten formed a consulting firm in 2015 with Kilimnik, whom Mueller indicted in June. Kilimnik has been identified in filings as having worked for the Russian militarys intelligence service known as the GRU. One filing cited an FBI assessment that his relations to the GRU continued through the 2016 election, which Kilimnik has denied. The firm that the two set up, Begemot Ventures International Ltd., listed Patten and Kilimnik as the sole officers, according to its Washington, D.C., incorporation records. The companys website describes it as a strategic and political advisory firm that helps its clients win elections, strengthen political parities, build the right arguments before domestic and international audiences and achieve better results. Begemot, which is Russian for behemoth, matches details of the unidentified firm that prosecutors say received cash for Pattens Ukraine work. Patten registered with Congress in 2016 to lobby for a group called the Committee to Destroy Isis, which was financed in part by a Jordanian construction company, according to disclosures filed with the Senate Office of Public Records. He disclosed payments of $50,000 and stopped lobbying for the group in July. Its unclear why Mueller referred the case. Previously, he referred information about Trumps former personal lawyer Michael Cohen to the U.S. attorney in Manhattan. In July, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said the Justice Departments national security division would take over responsibility of a case filed against a dozen Russian military intelligence officers accused of hacking into the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clintons campaign. It may have to do with the size of the case, the nature of the case, the resources needed for the case, said Mike Koenig, a former Justice Department prosecutor. France's new ban on pesticides will go further than those of the EU, in a bid to protect the country's declining bee population - REUTERS France will take a radical step towards protecting its dwindling bee population on Saturday by becoming the first country in Europe to ban all five pesticides researchers believe are killing off the insects. The move to ban the five so-called neonicotinoids has been hailed by beekeepers and environmentalists, but cereal and sugar beet farmers warn it could leave them all but defenceless in protecting valuable crops against other harmful insects. By enforcing the blanket ban, France is going further than the European Union, which voted to outlaw the use of three neonicotinoids - clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam - in crop fields starting on December 19. France has banned these three, along with thiacloprid and acetamiprid, not only outdoors but in greenhouses too. Initially opposed, Britain now backs the less comprehensive EU ban due to evidence supporting claims the chemicals contribute to colony collapse disorder, a mysterious phenomenon that has seen bee populations plummet by up to 90 per cent in some cases. Other potential causes are mites, viruses and fungi. French farmers have said that the ban leaves them with no effective alternative for protecting some crops from pests Credit: HILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images Introduced in the mid-1990s, synthetic neonicotinoids share the chemical structure of nicotine and attack the central nervous system of insects. Intended to replace older, more harmful pesticides, they are now the most widely used to treat flowering crops, such as fruit trees, beets and vineyards. But scientific studies have shown that neonicotinoids cut bees sperm count and scramble their memory and homing skills. Fresh research out this week even suggests the bees can develop a dangerous addiction to the insecticides, much like smokers for nicotine. Some French farmers are angry, however, and say there is not enough evidence that neonicotinoids are responsible for bee decline. Farmers faced a dramatic technical dead-end," said Frances biggest farming union FNSEA, calling for exemptions in sectors "where there are no alternatives or insufficient ones. Story continues Scientific studies show that neonicotinoids cut bees sperm count and scramble their memory and homing skills, as well as being addictive Credit: FRED TANNEAU/AFP/Getty Images The ban "will exacerbate unfair competition with European and non-European producers" still allowed to use the pesticides, they warned. A report by France's ANSES public health agency said in May there were "sufficiently effective, and operational" alternatives to the majority of neonicotinoids used in France. Others believe the ban should go further. There are pesticides all over the place, Fabien Van Hoecke, a beekeeper in Saint-Aloue in Brittany, who lost 86 per cent of his bees over the winter. While the ban was a good thing, it wont save us, he told AFP, predicting that as soon as they are withdrawn, they will be replaced by others. Despite campaigns to reduce pesticides, France increased their use by 12 per cent between 2014 and 2016. An upcoming French food safety bill, if adopted, will widen the ban to all chemical substances that act in the same way. The United Nations warned last year that 40 per cent of invertebrate pollinators - particularly bees and butterflies - risk global extinction. By Oliver Barth CHEMNITZ, Germany (Reuters) - German police in the eastern city of Chemnitz on Saturday halted a march by far-right groups protesting last weekend's fatal stabbing of a man, allegedly by two migrants, after a few dozen anti-fascist demonstrators tried to barge toward the crowd. Some 6,000 supporters of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and the anti-Islam PEGIDA group were stopped by riot police near a massive bust of Karl Marx in the city center, prompting angry shouts of "Resistance!" Thousands had earlier joined a rival demonstration in Chemnitz organized by leftist groups who accuse the AfD and PEGIDA of exploiting the stabbing of the 35-year-old German man to stoke hatred against migrants and refugees. Skinheads clashed with police in Chemnitz soon after a Syrian and an Iraqi were identified as the main suspects in the killing, exposing bitter divisions over Chancellor Angela Merkel's liberal immigration policy. On Saturday, riot police chased black-clad anti-fascist protesters who had tried to make their way toward the far-right crowd whose members waved the German flag, sang the national anthem and shouted, "Merkel must go!" Soon after, dozens of far-right protesters ignored police orders to stay put and made their way past a line of police cars blocking a major street in the city centre to prevent the rival marches from crossing paths. Riot police were seen making arrests, but the tense standoff ended without violence, keeping the police's truck-mounted water cannon dry. Merkel's decision in 2015 to welcome a million people seeking asylum, mainly Muslims from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, has dramatically changed Germany's political and social landscape. The AfD, which says Islam is incompatible with the German constitution, entered the national parliament for first time in an election last year, securing third place after stealing voters from Merkel's conservatives. After the stabbing in Chemnitz, AfD leaders said the far-right riots that followed were understandable. Images of skinheads raising their arms in Nazi salutes, chasing anyone they saw as outsiders and wrestling with riot police shocked many Germans. The leaking of the arrest warrant for one of the two stabbing suspects to PEGIDA raised concerns that some justice officials in the state of Saxony, where Chemnitz is located, were sympathetic to the far right. SPECIAL DUTY Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, whose center-left Social Democrats (SPD) hold the mayor's office in Chemnitz and helped organize Saturday's leftist march, said on Twitter that Germans had a special duty to stand up against any form of fascism. "When people are once again roaming our streets with the Hitler salute, our history mandates us to stand up for democracy," he wrote. Grievances over Merkel's liberal immigration policy are stronger in the east of Germany, where unemployment is higher and anti-immigrant attitudes are more common than in the west. Merkel, who on Friday wrapped up a three-day visit to Africa, has not yet commented on the events in Chemnitz, near the Czech border. "Where is she? Traveling in Africa," said a grey-haired man addressing the anti-immigrant crowd. "She should come here and face us citizens." At the counter-demonstration across town, a woman in her 50s who declined to give her name asked: "Who was the stabbing victim? The far right is exploiting his death by saying: 'A German has been murdered.' But he was an anti-fascist and people outside the city don't know that." German police have said little about the man and the circumstances surrounding his death. As both demonstrations started to disperse, the Saxony police wrote on its Twitter account: "The overwhelming majority are behaving peacefully. For those looking for trouble we say that we remain heavily deployed in the city and we repeat our request: stay peaceful!" (Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Ros Russell and Andrew Roche) Guatemala City (AFP) - Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales on Friday announced he was shutting down a UN mission investigating corruption in his country, accusing it of interfering in its internal affairs. The move to muzzle the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) came shortly after it made a joint request with the state prosecutor's office to lift his presidential immunity as part of an investigation into campaign finances. Both the Commission and prosecutors presented evidence that Morales' FCN-Nacion party failed to report nearly one million dollars in financing to electoral authorities during his successful 2015 presidential campaign. The omission would constitute illegal election financing. "We have officially notified the secretary general of the United Nations of the non-renewal of the CICIG's mandate and the immediate transfer of the capabilities to the corresponding institutions," Morales said during a ceremony in the capital. The Commission's spokesman Matias Ponce, told reporters that the body had received the support of the international community and social sectors in Guatemala, but he avoided any reference to Morales' announcement. Set up in 2006, the mission, known by its Spanish acronym CICIG, is an independent body with investigative and prosecutorial powers. Its success in tackling corruption has inspired calls for similar bodies to be set up in other Central American countries. The country's Congress this week installed a commission of five lawmakers to study the request to lift Morales' immunity so that he can stand trial over the alleged illegal campaign financing. On two previous occasions, Congress rejected requests from the prosecutor's office and the CICIG to remove his immunity. The Daily Beast Instagram/Tarrant County Sheriffs OfficeA man charged with murdering an exotic dancer in Fort Worth, Texas, was a customer at the club where she worked and had stalked and threatened her after claiming to have paid her thousands of dollars, authorities said.Stanley Szeliga, 54, is accused of fatally shooting Abigail Saldana, an exotic dancer at Ricks Cabaret, last week while she was behind the wheel of her car not far from the club.I dont know where she was going that night, Saldanas mom, A few minutes past 3 p.m., after Henna Qureshi and Adeela Khan take a moment to pray, they settle on a living room rug with two more friends to talk. Its a drizzly July afternoon, and Qureshi, Khan and Freshta Mohammad have gathered in Nafisa Isas family home in Ashburn, Va., for their monthly halaqa, an Islamic study group. Isa tucks her feet beneath her knees as she spreads colored pens across the floor for all to share. The topic of the day is Nice for What? title inspired by the Drake song a theme that women of all backgrounds can relate to. As ambitious Muslim women, we have to hold ourselves to high standards of conduct in our lives whether its in the workplace or in community settings prioritizing being kind, helpful and compassionate above all else, Isa begins, reading the prompt theyve each pondered in preparation for this meeting. How do we react when people arent kind to us? How do we assert ourselves and express our emotions in a way that doesnt stifle us or contradict our values? The four women, along with a few other friends, been meeting regularly since 2016, when Isa decided to create a dedicated setting for her peers to discuss Islam and their experiences as Muslim American women. There are halaqa groups across the country, but theirs is uniquely Millennial, Isa says while they study the Quran, they also draw upon pop culture for discussion topics and add activities like visiting museums and crafting to their agendas. We have these conversations about faith, personal growth, philosophy, theology, all the stuff that you would expect, Isa says. But then well also paint unicorns. My 20s were built on trying to be beautiful and loving, says Qureshi (left, with Khan) of the pressures associated with womanhood. Now some days I'm like, You know what? I don't care to be beautiful today. The women, all northern Virginia residents, come from diverse backgrounds and lead vastly different lives outside of the group. Isa, 31, born in Bangladesh and raised in Columbia, S.C., is a program manager at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. Qureshi, 34, grew up in a Pakistani family in Bradford, Pa., and is a pediatrician. Mohammad, 33, a chief of staff at a consulting firm, was born in Afghanistan. Khan, a 33-year old Pakistani American grew up outside Rochester, N.Y., and now works for a healthcare nonprofit. Were creating sisterhood and a soulful space where we can be vulnerable with each other, where we can express our emotions and be honest about how were feeling, Isa says. This group helps all of us deal with these broader issues of prejudice and violence. Story continues Isa, Qureshi, Khan and Mohammad say they need the supportive outlet theyve built together more than ever before. This is a room where they can talk about the ways that prejudice looms in a political moment that has enabled, and at times even encouraged, expression of hate against immigrants and people of color. Isa has been called everything from Osamas niece to a terrorist. In their regular meetings, all four share stories of being stereotyped or forced into prescribed boxes, both by members of their own communities and people outside of them. Khan struggled with racism growing up in a predominantly white community. Qureshi, who felt pressure from members of the Pakistani American community to be married at a younger age, now has a husband who does half the housework, which confuses the older generation. Mohammad is sometimes met with surprise when shes assertive, or even just present, in the workplace. The prophets wife was a businesswoman one of the wealthiest in the region, she says. Freshta Mohammad, left, was born in Afghanistan and has worked her way up in the consulting field in the U.S. I feel like Ive always lived two lives, she says. The halaqa members bring notes and reading materials to inspire their monthly discussions about theology, philosophy and personal struggles. Each has her own way of finding her place in a culture loaded with misunderstandings about South Asians, Muslims and women and together, they make a point to consider the vast range of experiences within Muslim Americans in all their diversity, recognizing that their point of view is limited. A lot of people have a misconception that Muslim women dont have their own minds, that theyre submissive people, or that theyre the exact opposite, where theyre ultra feminine, says Khan. Were not a monolithic group. Isa starts the Nice for What halaqa discussion with an anecdote of her own recently, a woman spoke to her aggressively and Isa wasnt sure how to respond. Qureshi offers wisdom gleaned from her daily experiences in her medical practice, where she sometimes works with patients who are emotionally distressed and behave abusively. It can be a lesson, just being able to say, I under what youre saying, but I cant really hear you when youre using that tone, she says. What I struggle with, though, is feeling like I dont stand up for myself, Isa continues. Its a constant internal battle, given that Islam calls for its followers to greet others with peace, while those who practice it in the U.S. arent always given that benefit. It feels like an analogy for how I relate to things that are going on in the world, too, because Im like, Why cant I do more? Mohammad nods and adds, Were a lot harder on ourselves than other people are. Isa shares her home with her mother Rubyna Isa, her father and her two siblings. The group speaks about the pressure theyve each felt to represent Muslim women that feeling of needing to set a good example (a virtually impossible task on its own, given the worlds subjective views of how women should be). Mohammad describes how her name is taken as a face-value signifier of her religion, and how people sometimes interpret that signifier as an invitation to ask her questions about all Muslims. Well, theres a lot of cultural diversity, she says. Im just telling you my version. Khan nods and adds, I just want to be me. The image of a Trump campaign volunteer blocking the lens of a news photographers camera at a rally Thursday went viral overnight. Even by the standards of a rally by President Donald Trump who frequently points out journalists covering his events and calls them enemy of the people and fake news this was out of the ordinary, says the photographer who captured the moment in Evansville, Indiana. Were all just trying to do our job, which is to be fair and accurately document the President. When someone impedes you from doing your job, thats something to be upset about, Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci tells TIME. Vucci says he made the picture as a fellow photojournalist Kevin Lamarque of Reuters tried to photograph Trump supporters pointing out a protestor in the crowd. In a flash, a campaign volunteer put his hand in front of Lamarques lens to stop him. Lamarque managed to get a shot anyway plus a photo of the hand blocking his lens. Lamarque tells TIME that the volunteer was Nick Barbknecht, who was assigned to help journalists covering the event. Barbknecht, who did not respond to requests for comment, is well known in Indiana Republican circles, says Indiana attorney and political commentator Joshua Claybourne. Claybourne tells TIME that Barbknecht is a seasoned political operator in the state who is married to a staffer for Vice President Mike Pence. A biography for political consultant Majority Strategies says Barbknecht joined the firm from the blocking and tackling of Republican politics in Indiana where he served on the Indiana Republican State Committee and as a County Chairman. Lamarque says Barbknecht apologized after being called out for blocking his camera. I told him, That thing you did in the buffer? You cant do that, its a big no-no. And he said, I know, Im sorry, Lamarque says. Trump supporters point out a protester to be removed during President Trump's Vucci and Lamarque have been covering Trump since his 2016 campaign and have photographed numerous Trump rallies. Vucci says Trumps staff is usually professional and no different from other campaign staff he has worked with in the past. Story continues It was just something so out of the ordinary, Ive never seen that before so I assumed people would react to the photo. Vucci says. Vucci, who knows Lamarque well, says he talked to him right after the incident. I said Hey man I have a photo of this happening and everyone was happy it was captured, Vucci says. A volunteer for Trump attempts to block the view of protesters a Lamarque says that was the first time something like this has happened to him but that the press always feel a little on edge during Trump rallies. Theres always a little undercurrent of hostility at these events, you can feel that eyes are watching you and judging you. Trump really woke up the crowd yesterday, ramping it up a little bit by calling out the New York Times, he says. White House Correspondents Association President Olivier Knox said in a statement Friday he had spoken with both the White House and the Trump campaign about the volunteer. The Trump campaign assures me that these were the actions of an inexperienced volunteer, who understands he acted in error. The campaign has taken him off the road and promises this will not happen again. Knox said in a statement. In 2016 TIME photographer Christopher Morris was detained by U.S Secret Service and local law enforcement while attempting to photograph a Black Lives Matter protestor at a Trump rally in Virginia. I just cannot state strongly enough how totally dishonest much of the Media is. Truth doesnt matter to them, they only have their hatred & agenda. This includes fake books, which come out about me all the time, always anonymous sources, and are pure fiction. Enemy of the People! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2018 Trump was in Indiana in support of Republican Senate candidate Mike Braun, who is running against Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly. At rallies, he often directs angry comments at journalists covering his events and pauses to let supporters boo. He also has a history of pointing out protestors and encouraging the crowd to boo until security removes them. During the campaign, there were instances of protestors being assaulted at Trump rallies. Baghdad (AFP) - Senior Iraqi military commanders hosted their Russian, Iranian and Syrian counterparts in Baghdad on Saturday to discuss security cooperation and information-sharing in the Middle East, where the Islamic State group continues to carry out attacks. The Iraqi defence ministry said it had received delegations led by their respective deputy chiefs of staff, to "strengthen cooperation and coordination in terms of security and intelligence between these countries". Russia is fighting rebels and jihadists in Syria alongside President Bashar al-Assad's forces, while Iran is a key ally of both Baghdad and Damascus. The four countries had created joint operations rooms to coordinate the fight against IS, now driven out of all urban centres in Iraq and largely confined to desert holdouts in Syria. In a rare address last month, the jihadist group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi urged his followers to continue their fight. According to jihadist expert Hisham al-Hashemi, there are still 2,000 IS fighters -- nearly all of them Iraqi -- active in four regions of Iraq. Their aim is "to take revenge on those that ousted them", he said. Despite major setbacks in Iraq and Syria, in July IS managed to carry out a string of coordinated attacks in southern Syria that killed more than 250 people. There he is! A text came to me, from the 12-year-old daughter of good friends. It was accompanied by a photo of Pope Francis as he stepped onto Irish soil, for the second time in his life. In 1980, the year after John Paul IIs visit 39 years ago, Jorge Bergoglio the pontiffs name before he became Pope had spent a few weeks here studying English. Now Pope Francis had come to a changed Ireland, where some would say the Catholic Church is on the way out. This Ireland is a vastly different country from that visited by Pope John Paul. After the rise of Irelands economy as the Celtic Tiger, some of us are wealthier, and fewer of us go to Sunday mass. However, a significant majority 78.3% in 2016 still declare as Catholic, and have contact with church, even if only at funerals, weddings, Christmas or Easter. In a way, the Catholic Church community is healthier. Today we have fewer merely cultural Catholics. People practice their faith because they choose to, not due to societal pressure. A student of theology recently told me: It is radical to be Catholic in Ireland today. But in response to much press about a dying Catholic Church, a friend texted me from Knock, the pilgrim site where Francis held 45,000 people in silent prayer: It is a very healthy looking corpse. I had similar thoughts when I prayed the mass in Phoenix Park in Dublin on the Sunday of the Popes visit alongside 200,000 or 300,000 people the numbers are disputed, but dont really matter. We were all ages and sizes. We would have been many more except for security announcements that prohibited transport anywhere near the park, warned of long walks, hours of standing, and to bring no chairs. One woman summed it up for me: Tis great to be here after all the negativity on the media. It gives you great hope. He is a great man and I want to support him. Mounting crises The Pope and his church are facing a clamour of crises. A report into decades of sexual abuse by priests, and its cover up, in the US state of Pennsylvania brought them to the forefront, just before the Popes visit. Story continues In Ireland too, there has been the crime of clerical sexual abuse, and its cover up. It seems the institution was deemed more important than the people. Then we have the dreadful stories of abuse at mother and child homes and industrial schools. And the horrific discovery of 796 bodies of children and babies buried in a mass grave at Tuam, County Galway. Ireland is still far from knowing the truth of what happened there. Derek Speirs/EPA The Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, Irelands prime minister, gave an excellent address to Pope Francis on behalf of the Irish people. He acknowledged the states, and societys, complicity in the poor, at times dreadful, treatment of women and children. He also acknowledged that at the birth of the Irish Free State in 1922, Ireland was happy to leave education and health in the hands of the religious. One less responsibility for a new country. The issue is how to respond. The churchs response to clerical sexual abuse has, albeit too late for many children, resulted in the setting up of an excellent child protection system in Ireland today. There are no more mother and baby homes, no more industrial schools. But there are many homeless children, many abused mothers and children in homes in Ireland, as there are around the world. In search for forgiveness One response was Pope Franciss prayer for forgiveness at the mass in Phoenix Park. This was likely to have been a direct response to the listening Francis had done the previous evening to a number of Irish survivors. I know some were pleased this happened. Others keep saying that it is not enough, and demand action. At the mass, Pope Francis spoke in the plural, for all of us Catholics. We are all sisters and brothers in Christ, together we beseech God for forgiveness for the Church, the people of God, and especially for its leaders. To beseech God, to seek to be forgiven by God, is for a Catholic to ask of God that I, that we, might be changed, transformed. The seeking of forgiveness is an activity at once humble, and terrifying. Who knows how the church might yet be transformed and freed from the deep-seated patriarchy that Catholics term clericalism. Remember, Francis was in Ireland in August for the World Meeting of Families. His advice focused on teaching children to pray, first to make the sign of the cross. Christianity is founded on the story of cross and resurrection. The cross is where, at the moment of the most dreadful crime, the crucifixion of an innocent man, the son of God, Christians witness the greatest act of forgiveness. This is perhaps the Irish peoples greatest challenge in the aftermath of Pope Francis visit: can we ensure that the demand for justice coincides with the forgiveness gifted from Christ on the cross? This would empower us all to work together, with renewed creativity, to face myriad issues and problems in Irish society, so that in another 39 years time we will not be looking back on horrors that remain unattended to. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. The Conversation Fainche Ryan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's defense minister described Iran on Friday as having slowed down its long-term force deployment in Syria, attributing this to Israeli military intervention as well as an economic crisis gripping Tehran as U.S. sanctions are restored. Israel, which monitors neighboring Syria intensively, has long alleged that Iran came to assist the Damascus government in Syria's civil war in part to set up a permanent garrison there, including advanced missile factories and air and naval bases. The Israelis have carried out scores of air strikes in Syria targeting suspected arms and troop movements by Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas it sponsors. The Israeli actions have been mostly ignored by Russia, Damascus' big-power backer. "The Iranians have reduced the scale of their activity in Syria," Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in an interview published by Israel's top-selling Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. He said there was "no activity, at this stage", in Iranian efforts to build missile production factories on Syrian soil. "Nor have they built a port in Syria, and they have no airport there, but they have not abandoned the idea. They are continuing to negotiate with the Assad government on the creation of garrison outposts in Syria," Lieberman added. "The main reason for why this has stopped is the result of our daily, hard work in Syria." Iran, Israel's arch-enemy in the Middle East, has been a core supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad throughout the 7-year war, sending military advisers as well as materiel and regional Shi'ite militias that it backs. This week, Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami visited Damascus and said the Islamic Republic would maintain its presence in Syria. The countries had signed a pact for defense cooperation, including to restore Syria's military industries. Yedioth asked Lieberman whether Iran's conduct in Syria was linked to its economic crisis, precipitated by the restoration of U.S. sanctions after President Donald Trump exited world powers' 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. "Obviously there is heavy economic pressure on them. The budget for Iranian forces in the Middle East was $2 billion, and even today less money is going to Syria and Hezbollah," he said. "I believe that when the second stage of the American economic sanctions starts, on November 4, the situation will get worse," he added, predicting that reduced funding for Hezbollah meant it "will not be able to exist in its current format". (Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Mark Heinrich) Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel welcomed Saturday a US decision to end funding for the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), accusing the organisation which supports some five million Palestinians of perpetuating the Middle East conflict. Israel and the United States have accused the nearly 70-year-old agency of maintaining the idea that many Palestinians are refugees with a right to return to the homes from which they fled or were expelled during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel's creation, an idea they both oppose. On Friday, Washington, which until last year was by far the agency's biggest contributor announced it was ending funding to the "irredeemably flawed operation." "Israel supports the US move," an official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on condition of anonymity. "Consolidating the refugee status of Palestinians is one of the problems that perpetuates the conflict." Palestinian ambassador Hossam Zomlot accused the United States of "reneging on its international commitment and responsibility" towards a body that was set by UN General Assembly resolution in 1949. "By endorsing the most extreme Israeli narrative on all issues including the rights of more than five million Palestinian refugees, the US administration has lost its status as peacemaker and is damaging not only an already volatile situation but the prospects for future peace," he said. UNRWA now supports some five million registered Palestinian refugees and provides schooling to 526,000 children in the Palestinian territories as well as in camps in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the agency had his "full confidence" and called on "other countries to help fill the remaining financial gap, so that UNRWA can continue to provide this vital assistance." UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness tweeted: "We reject in the strongest possible terms the criticism that UNRWA's schools, health centres and emergency assistance programmes are 'irredeemably flawed.'" Story continues Washington, which had already frozen $300 million in funding this year throwing the agency into financial crisis, said it would seek ways to prevent its decision from hurting "innocent Palestinians". Israel expressed support for a new conduit for humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians. "It would be good to allocate the funds to other elements that would use the money properly for the benefit of the population, and not for perpetuating the notion that they are refugees," the official in Netanyahu's office said. A Military Honor Guard carries the casket of US Senator John McCain from the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Saturday - AFP John McCains daughter has said her father embodied American greatness as she used his funeral to dismiss cheap rhetoric in a pointed rebuke of Donald Trump. As the president enjoyed a round of golf after a week dominated by the death of one of his most prominent Republican critics, Meghan McCain took a swipe at him during a heartfelt eulogy. Speaking at times through tears about her father, the former Arizona senator and presidential candidate, Ms McCain said: The America of John McCain has no reason to be great again because America was always great. Ms McCain did not mention Mr Trump by name but it was clear that her comment - which was greeted with applause by those at the Washington National Cathedral - was directed at the Oval Office. Elsewhere during the two-and-a-half hour service the US president, who was not invited, and his approach to politics appeared to be critiqued by Barack Obama among others. A Military Honor Guard carries the casket of US Senator John McCain from the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Saturday Credit: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images One of three former presidents in attendance, Mr Obama warned of how modern politics was dominated by bombast and insult and phony controversies before urging Americans to live by Mr McCains principles of patriotism. George W Bush, the former Republican president who also gave a eulogy, said Mr McCain recognised his opponents were still patriots and human beings. Henry Kissinger, one of Americas best known former diplomats, praised the former senator for warning against America's withdrawal from the world. Mr Trump, who clashed frequently with Mr McCain in recent years despite both men being from the same political party, spent the morning issuing familiar attacks on Twitter. As the body of Mr McCain was being processed through Washington DC in a coffin draped in the American flag, Mr Trump was tweeting criticism of his own law officials from inside the White House. Around half an hour into the service, which was broadcast live on cable news channels, Mr Trump left the White House in a Make America Great Again hat and short-sleeved shirt, heading for one of his golf clubs. Story continues Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, George W Bush, Laura Bush and Bill Clinton at the funeral of John McCain Meghan McCain, daughter John McCain's daughter, wipes away a tear as she speaks at his funeral Credit: REUTERS/Chris Wattie The day epitomised a political struggle inside the Republican Party which Mr McCain, a war hero and six-term senator, and Mr Trump, a reality TV star turned elected president, had come to embody in recent years. Mr Trump once mocked Mr McCains time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, joking: I like people that weren't captured. Mr McCain last year voted against Mr Trumps attempt to repeal the healthcare legislation dubbed Obamacare, leading to its defeat. At the funeral of Mr McCain, who died aged 81 of brain cancer and has been mourned in public ceremonies for much of this week, were many leading figures of the Washington establishment from both sides of the aisle. Mr Obama and Mr Bush were joined by Bill and Hillary Clinton on the front row of the cathedral. Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer, the Republican and Democrat leaders in the US Senate, sat together in a sign of bipartisanship. The casket carrying John McCain arrives at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington on Saturday Credit: AP Photo/Susan Walsh Dignitaries and invited guests attend John McCain's memorial at Washington National Cathedral Credit: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais Top Trump administration figures were also there including Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, White House chief of staff John Kelly and US defence secretary Jim Mattis. But Mr Trump, overlooked for an invite, was not. Ms McCain, 33, made clear her views of the US president during her address. We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness, she said. The real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who lived lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served." Mr Obama, who has not often criticised his predecessor, also appeared to have Mr Trump in mind as he issued a critique of todays political debate. "So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty, trafficking in bombast and insult and phony controversies and manufactured outrage," Mr Obama said. "It's a politics that pretends to be brave and tough but in fact is born in fear. John called on us to be bigger than that. He called on us to be better than that." Cindy McCain, the wife of John McCain, accompanied by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, left, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, second from left, lays a wreath at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington Credit: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik There were lighter moments during the ceremony as former presidents remembered Mr McCains quirks and flaws as well as his bravery. Mr Obama and Mr Bush, who beat Mr McCain in the 2008 US election and the 2000 race for the Republican presidential nomination respectively, had been picked personally by the former Arizona senator to give eulogies. Mr Obama said the decision reflected Mr McCains irreverence and sense of humour, saying: What better way to get the last laugh than to make George and I say nice things about him to a national audience. Mr Obama also joked about Mr McCains temper, saying: When it flared up, it was a force of nature, a wonder to behold. His jaw grinding, his face reddening, his eyes boring a hole right through you - not that I ever experienced it firsthand, mind you. Ivanka Trump, daughter of the US president, and her husband Jared Kushner attended the funeral Credit: Newscom / Alamy Live News But he also paid tribute to Mr McCains belief in American values: "John understood, as JFK understood, as Ronald Reagan understood, that part of what makes our country great is that our membership is based not on our bloodline, not on what we look like, what our last names are, its not based on where our parents or grandparents came from, or how recently they arrived, but on adherence to a common creed: that all of us are created equal, endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. Mr Bush recalled Mr McCain as a champion for the "forgotten people" at home and abroad. He said: "John's voice will always come as a whisper over our shoulder - we are better than this, America is better than this. Earlier in the day a coffin draped in the American flag bearing Mr McCains body, which had been lying in state at the US Capitol, was processed through Washington DC. The procession stopped at a memorial for the Vietnam War, which Mr McCain served in and eventually held capture as a prisoner of war for six years. Mr McCains widow Cindy laid a wreath at the memorial alongside Mr Kelly and Mr Mattis. She paused and clasped her fingers in what looked like a moment of prayer. Johnny Bobbitt, left, Kate McClure, right, and McClure's boyfriend Mark D'Amico - The Philadelphia Inquirer A US judge has ordered a couple to hand over the money they raised for a homeless man through a crowdfunding initiative. Kate McClure, 28, and her boyfriend Mark D'Amico, 39 have until Friday afternoon to transfer over the remains of the $400,000 (307,000) they raised. The couple started the crowdfunding attempt when homeless veteran Johnny Bobbit came to Ms McClure's aid when she ran out of petrol on a motorway. But Mr Bobbitt's lawyers claimed the couple had refused to hand over the majority of the funds to the homeless veteran. On Thursday, the judge presiding over the case in New Jersey ruled that the remaining cash should be placed in an account controlled by Mr Bobbitt's lawyers and frozen pending a new court ruling. The couple deny Mr Bobbitt's claim they spent the money on themselves. The former marine's tale went viral last year when the couple launched an online appeal to thank Mr Bobbitt for giving his last $20 (15) to Ms McClure after her car ran out of petrol. The overwhelming response led to donations from more than 14,000 well wishers, but the couple's relationship with Mr Bobbitt eventually soured as they accused him of using the money to feed a drug habit. Judge Paula T Dow has now ordered the couple to transfer the money into an account and hire a forensic accountant to review financial records within 10 days, local media reported. Judge Dow said the court would decide how the money would eventually be managed. Jacqueline Promislo, Mr Bobbitt's lawyer, has said she estimates the couple spent about $75,000 on his care. Mr D'Amico recently told US media around $150,000 of the fund remains. Mr Bobbitt's legal representatives have claimed the couple spent remaining cash to "fund a lifestyle that they could not otherwise afford". For their part, the couple allege the marine veteran had once spent $25,000 of his new wealth on drugs in a single fortnight. No one can deny that Kavanaugh is qualified to be a supreme court justice. But a closer look at his career should be concerning to all Americans A recent CNN poll revealed that only three in 10 women surveyed think he should be confirmed as an associate justice of the supreme court. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images Why is Judge Brett Kavanaugh so unpopular in the court of public opinion? A recent CNN poll revealed that only three in 10 women surveyed think he should be confirmed as an associate justice of the supreme court. Overall, only 37% of those polled (equally weighted to Democrats and Republicans) support his confirmation. The reason why becomes painfully apparent upon a close review of his judicial record. No one can seriously quarrel with the proposition that he is qualified for the position. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School, clerked for three federal judges including a justice of the supreme court, has taught at top law schools, has been an appellate judge for 12 years, and has served in responsible positions in the White House. But that is only half the story. The other half, and by far the more important half, is his record during his many years of public service and what that record reveals about how he might influence supreme court decisions for the next several decades. The stakes are high. In many important recent decisions the supreme court has split along ideological lines, with four so-called liberal justices on one side and four so-called conservative justices on the other. The members of each camp are well known. The liberals: Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. The conservatives: Justices John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch. The retirement of Justice Sandra Day OConnor left only Justice Anthony Kennedy as a swing vote, and it is his seat that Kavanaugh would fill. Is Kavanaugh a centrist a middle-of-the-road jurist who can be counted on to take a non-ideological stance and continue to occupy a swing vote position? Based on a close reading of his opinions, speeches and actions over the course of his career, I doubt it. Story continues The best place to start is with his judicial decisions. During his 12 years on the bench, he has authored more than 300 opinions. While it is impossible to discuss all of these cases, I chose a few that have caused or should cause concern to many Americans. Several cases reveal an anti-worker, anti-union or anti-immigrant bias. In one case, Kavanaugh dissented from a majority opinion that would permit undocumented workers to be counted as employees and therefore able to vote in union elections. Kavanaugh would exclude them. In another case, he dissented from a majority opinion that would guarantee the protections of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act to US citizens working abroad. Kavanaugh would deny those workers those protections. In a third case he dissented from a majority opinion that would require individualized suspicion before government employees working in the Job Corps could be drug tested. Kavanaugh would allow drug testing on a random basis without a demonstration of individualized suspicion. In one case that has drawn a lot of attention, Kavanaugh dissented from a majority opinion that required an employer to institute safety measures after an animal trainer was killed by a killer whale. In that dissent, he wrote that the trainer knew the risks of working with killer whales and therefore the employer was not required to take any special steps to provide protection. Indeed he thought it was irrational to require an employer to do so. Kavanaughs positions on criminal justice issues are of equal concern. In one case, the majority of a full appellate court held that unzipping a defendants outer jacket during an identification procedure constituted unlawful search because there was no probable cause for the police to do so. Kavanaugh dissented, writing that he would allow the police to maneuver a suspects clothing to facilitate identification, and arguing that this was not a search requiring probable cause. As a judge who was closely involved in examining New Yorks stop-and-frisk program, there is little doubt in my mind that such tactics fall disproportionately on people of color. Yet Judge Kavanaugh justified police stops in two cases where a person was driving in a high crime area and appeared to be extremely nervous when officers stopped his car. How exactly would Kavanaugh define a high crime area? He doesnt tell us. One of Kavanaughs opinions appears to support the notion that voter ID laws are not discriminatory and should be allowed because of voting system problems exposed during the 2000 elections. That opinion should concern the many voting rights organizations who believe conservatives are trying to rationalize voter suppression. Issues involving voting rights including questions of gerrymandering will definitely be brought to the supreme court in the next year or two. Other opinions by Kavanaugh show that his appointment would threaten the continued existence of the Affordable Care Act and a womans right to choose. In a recent dissent, Kavanaugh wrote that it would unfairly burden religious organizations to merely require they submit a form requesting exemption from the Affordable Care Acts contraception mandate. In another case, Kavanaugh authored an opinion that would have denied an immediate abortion to an undocumented minor. His opinion was vacated by the full court. In a dissent from that order Kavanaugh wrote that the majoritys decision would recognize a new right for unlawful immigrant minors in US government detention to obtain immediate abortion on demand. He went on to say that the government has permissible interests in favoring fetal life ... and refraining from facilitating abortion. In a recent speech Kavanaugh praised both originalism and textualism, which are known as code words for the notion that the right to an abortion is not found anywhere in the constitution, nor was it something that the founders would have condoned as it is not a right firmly established in the nations history. The same can obviously said about the right to obtain contraceptives or the right to marriage equality. Kavanaugh has also expressed strong views on deference to executive power. While he once staunchly defended the supreme courts decision compelling former president Richard Nixon to respond to a subpoena in the context of the Clinton investigation, he now says he believes that that case may have been wrongly decided. This is a forecast of how he might rule should Donald Trump be subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury. Similarly, when he worked with Kenneth Starr on the Clinton impeachment proceedings, Judge Kavanaugh strongly in fact relentlessly sought to indict or impeach the president. Now that the shoe is on the other foot he has said he thinks his actions then were mistaken. Does anyone think he would be fair and impartial in deciding whether Trump could be indicted while he is office? There is much more that could be said. My only hope is that Kavanaughs upcoming confirmation hearings which will unfortunately be held without the benefit of a full record of his years serving as senior counsel and staff secretary to former president George W Bush will be rigorous in their review of the man who would replace Kennedy. And I cannot help but end by noting that the man who has nominated this would-be justice, Trump, is under investigation by state and federal prosecutors but nonetheless retains the power to affect the judicial branch for decades to come. SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) A startling rebuke of a local prosecutor and questions about legal tactics by a hard-charging sheriff are casting a shadow over efforts to prosecute members of an extended family who were arrested at a squalid New Mexico compound where the body of a 3-year-old had been hidden for months. State politicians expressed alarm after child neglect charges were dismissed against all five defendants from the compound and three were set free with only misdemeanor trespassing charges against them. Allegations of anti-government plotting, jihad and martyrdom at the compound stocked with guns drawn in part from FBI interviews with children has done little to persuade judges of any immediate threat to public safety. None of the suspects has known criminal convictions, while authorities blame the boy's death on his father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, and the father's partner, Jany Leveille. They remain jailed on more serious child abuse charges that can carry a life sentence. U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, the Democratic candidate for governor, called the dismissal of neglect charges "inexcusable" and said she was "appalled at the failure to hold these defendants accountable." Republican gubernatorial hopeful Steve Pearce called for the resignation of local district attorney, who is a Democrat. Two judges say they had no choice but to dismiss charges and free three defendants after the district attorney's office missed a 10-day deadline to show probable cause of a crime at a required court hearing, which was never requested. "I don't know whether they are overworked, if they don't have enough people at their office. I don't see a district attorney here," Jeff McElroy, chief judge for the state district court, said in a courtroom Wednesday. "It is disturbing to me that the district attorney would put this court in that kind of a situation where we must comply with the rule, and we must dismiss this." Story continues Taos-based District Attorney Donald Gallegos said Thursday that he intends to refile charges against the three or take the case to a grand jury. Prosecutors from his office told the judges that they had expected the suspects to be released on house arrest under terms of a pretrial detention order, which would have extended the deadline to 60 days to hold the required court hearing. Prosecutors are preparing to justify new charges of child abuse resulting in death and conspiracy to commit child abuse against Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and Leveille. The couple pleaded not guilty Wednesday. Hearings next week will decide whether the couple can be released until trial, with separate procedural questions looming over the case. The more serious charges against the couple initially were filed by the Taos County sheriff a possible violation of state law, McElroy noted. "I can't answer for the prosecution," Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe wrote in a Facebook post. "Taos County Sheriff's Office stepped up and put the search warrants and charges together lawfully and correctly without waiting on another agency any longer." Prosecutors say the boy, Abdul-ghani Wahhaj, died in December 2017 during a religious ritual aimed at casting out demonic spirits. The exact cause of death has not been determined by forensic specialists. The boy's mother initially reported him missing last year from Jonesboro, Georgia, after Siraj Ibn Wahhaj said he was taking the child to a park and didn't return. The upgraded charges are tied to an extensive account of the boy's death in a journal that prosecutors attribute to Leveille. The sheriff attests in his filing that all five adults at the compound knew that Abdul-ghani had a seizure disorder and took no action to protect him from harm or seek medical services as he died. But child neglect charges were dismissed against Lucas Morton, his wife, Subhannah Wahhaj (sub-HANA' wah-HAJ'), and her sister Hujrah Wahhaj (hujh'-RAH wah-HAJ'). The women are Siraj Ibn Wahhaj's sisters. Marie Legrand Miller, an attorney for Hujrah Wahhaj, expressed frustration at a lack of evidence and vague allusions to terrorist activities and responsibility in the boy's death areas where no charges have been filed. "My client has not been charged with anything involving Abdul-ghani's death, and I am fully prepared to vigorously defend her in this matter," she said. The other two remain in the area without tracking devices, under release provisions for trespassing charges. The compound was installed on someone else's property, possibly by mistake. Legrand Miller said Hujrah is allowed to the leave the state but has stayed as she seeks to visit and regain custody of her 8-year-old daughter. "She is not hiding from the court," Legrand Miller said. "I'm trying to keep her safe obviously from anyone who might wish her harm." All 11 children taken from the compound are in state custody, and it was unclear whether the released parents have visitation rights, according to Children, Youth and Families Department spokesman Henry Varela. An outside expert will evaluate the well-being of the children, who are not enrolled in school, he said. Hogrefe said his deputies and the FBI are pouring over written documents and digital evidence. In recent court filings, the sheriff and prosecutors say they discovered a hand-written document called "Phases of a Terrorist Attack" that was seized from the compound and includes vague instructions for "the one-time terrorist" and mentioned an unnamed place called "the ideal attack site." Reviewing those filings Wednesday, Judge McElroy backed a previous order by state Judge Sarah Backus that found allegations of danger to the general community to be vague and unconvincing. Backus said no evidence was provided to back up accusations that the children were malnourished, dehydrated or otherwise physically neglected. President Trumps proposed tariffs on $200 billion worth of imported goods from China, which could hit in early September, has unnerved many American businesses and customers who think that Trump is causing unnecessary economic damage. But Art Laffer, renowned economist and former advisor to President Ronald Reagan, argues that its all for the better because Trump is using tariffs to pressure China to behave in regard to globally-connected trade. Trump is doing a great job with Mexico and, I believe, with Canada as well. But the real goal is to get China into the free trade world and to behave like a proper country should behave in a free trade world, Laffer, who advises Trump on tax policy, told Yahoo Finances Midday Movers on Friday. Dont steal our [Intellectual Property]. Dont have tariffs against our products. Dont manipulate currency. Just trade, and trade fairly. Laffer added that China is a huge plus to the U.S. because without China there is no Walmart [WMT], and without Walmart there is no middle class or lower class prosperity in America. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable discussion on the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA) in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018. (Photo: Yuri Gripas/Bloomberg) China is going to be left out in the cold President Trump made progress with a bilateral trade deal with Mexico early this week, while discussions with Canada are ongoing. Laffer, sometimes called the father of supply-side economics, sees Trumps work with Mexico and Canada as a necessary step to eventually pull China back to the table. Once we get the deals with these other countries, China is going to be left out in the cold, Laffer said. And they really depend upon trade. Chinas economic growth depends more on trade than the U.S. Exports of goods and services account for about 20% to the 2017 GDP of China, the worlds second-largest economy, compared to 12% of U.S. GDP in 2017. (Photo: KEI) Consequently, Laffer believes the economic miracle of 21st century China driven by mass manufacturing meeting globalization could be the weak spot when it comes to a trade war. In July, Laffer, whose thinking has been influential with President Trump, sent an analysis titled The Great Fall of China to the White House. He argued U.S. tariffs on Beijing were causing substantial risk of derailing much of the past 50 years of growth in China, the Wall Street Journal reported. Story continues Laffer reiterated the point on Midday Movers, warning that China could ill afford a setback in a trade war scenario. I believe deep down that hes a free trader Laffer, a staunch free-trade advocate who called Trump an amazing negotiator, sees Trump borrowing a page from Reagans playbook by first imposing tariffs and then suggesting zero tariffs. Now what hes told me and what I believe is happening is the threats of protection have brought these people to the table. And he said to me personally he has very little leverage except by threatening tariffs, said Laffer. And I have to trust him that hes telling me the truth because I believe deep down that hes a free trader. Any chief owner of an international business has to be a free trader if they know how to do business and he does. Art Laffer in Washington, DC on Sunday, March 8, 2015. (Photo: Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) Despite singing praises for President Trumps negotiation tactics, there is one thing Laffer doesnt stand with the president: that a trade war is easy to win. A trade war is the exact opposite of anything I want to see, Laffer said, citing the lessons of Nixons presidency. Trade wars are horrible and that is the one thing we may need to make sure we avoid, and free trade is the only real answer. Krystal Hu covers technology and economy for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter. Read more: The real reason why traders are shorting Alibaba Why China and US tech stocks are diverging Walmart buys from US suppliers, but that doesnt protect it from tariffs TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) The Latest on the Florida governor's race (all times local): 3:45 p.m. Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum is picking up cash and lots of attention in the aftermath of his surprising win in Florida's primary. Gillum is seeking to become Florida's first black governor. He edged out several Democrats in this week's primary, including former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham. Gillum raised less than $7 million ahead of the primary, a total far less than the other main contenders. But on Wednesday, the Democratic Governors Association gave $1 million to Gillum's political committee. The 39-year-old Democratic nominee is also getting plenty of exposure on national television and becoming quite popular on Twitter. Gillum's campaign said that in the past 21 days he has gained 200,000 additional followers on Twitter. As of late Thursday, he had more than 241,000 followers. ___ 9:35 a.m. Civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson is urging Floridians to focus on issues such as senior services, lower tuition for students, better wages and gender equality in a governor's race that quickly heated up the day after the state's primary. Trump-endorsed Republican candidate Ron DeSantis assailed Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, a Democrat, during a television interview Wednesday that critics denounced as racist. Gillum is seeking to become the state's first black governor. DeSantis said the last thing "we need to do is monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting this state." In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Jackson said DeSantis' comment was "clearly a race-based message." He said voters should "take their anguish to the polls" in November. ___ 3:15 a.m. Florida's high-stakes race for governor has quickly become heated and personal, signaling that the next 10 weeks of campaigning until the general election could get ugly. Story continues Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, a far-left Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, a Republican loyal to President Donald Trump, pulled off surprising primary victories Tuesday. Each is vying to succeed term-limited Gov. Rick Scott, who is running for the U.S. Senate. DeSantis assailed Gillum in a Wednesday TV appearance that critics denounced as racist. Trump also weighed in on the race by calling Gillum a "failed socialist mayor" on Twitter. Gillum, who is seeking to become the state's first black governor, responded by decrying what he called the "gutter politics" of DeSantis what he calls the echo of Trump's influence on American politics. ___ An earlier version of this report misspelled the first name of the Rev. Jesse Jackson. BEIRUT (AP) The Latest on the conflict in Syria (all times local): 5 p.m. The head of the U.N. agency for refugees says a potential military offensive in the last rebel stronghold in Syria threatens to cause renewed displacement and discourage refugees from returning home. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said Friday that an offensive on Idlib is "going to be very difficult." He said he has appealed to the government in Syria to find a way forward for the area, packed with civilians and armed groups, that "spares civilian lives." Grandi said an offensive threatens to cause many civilian deaths, fresh displacement and would also discourage refugees from returning. "You risk also sending a message to refugees that the situation is not secured. Refugees will be watching very closely what is happening in Idlib in the next few months." Grandi is in Lebanon after a visit to Syria and neighboring Jordan. ___ 4:30 p.m. Russia's foreign minister says negotiations are underway to establish a humanitarian corridor for civilians to be able to leave Idlib, the northern rebel-held province of Syria where concerns of an imminent large conflict are mounting. The U.N. on Thursday proposed establishing the corridor, which would channel civilians to government-held areas. That would send many back into parts of Syria they once fled in its 7-1/2-year-old civil war. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters Friday that it is necessary to minimize risks for civilians in Idlib. Russia has repeatedly claimed that rebels are preparing a chemical weapons attack in Idlib that the West could blame on President Bashar Assad's forces and use as a pretext for retaliatory strikes. ___ 2:20 p.m. Syrian opposition fighters blew up bridges Friday linking areas they control to government-held territories in northwestern Syria in anticipation of a military offensive against their last stronghold in the country, activists and a war monitor said. Story continues The explosions rocked the area in al-Ghab plains, south of idlib and came after rebels detected government troop movement in the area, according to Rami Abdurrahman, head of the war monitoring Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Abdurrahman said two other bridges remain in the area and could be used by government forces to move in on the rebel stronghold. Most of Idlib province and adjacent strips of Hama province remain in the hands of an assortment of armed groups, some Turkey-backed and others independent Islamist groups. But the strongest alliance of fighters is led by an al-Qaida-linked group that controls most of the area that is also home to some 3 million people. Thousands of government troops and allied fighters have been amassing in areas surrounding Idlib while Russia, Syria's powerful ally, has said a military operation was necessary to weed out "terrorists" it blames for attacking its bases on the coast. EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) The Latest on President Donald Trump (all times local): 9:40 p.m. A volunteer member of the advance team for President Donald Trump has blocked a photojournalist's camera as he tried to take a photo of a protester during a campaign rally in Indiana. A photo taken by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci on Thursday night in Evansville shows the volunteer stretching out his right hand over the lens of a news photographer's camera after a protester disrupted Trump's campaign event. Trump paced on stage at the Ford Center during the moments it took for the protester to be led out. The president was in town to stump for Republican Senate candidate Mike Braun, who is looking to unseat Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly in what is viewed as one of the nation's most competitive Senate races. ___ 9 p.m. President Donald Trump is urging Indiana Republicans to unseat Sen. Joe Donnelly, saying the vulnerable Democrat is "not going to vote for us on anything." Trump appeared in Evansville on Thursday to boost support for wealthy Republican businessman Mike Braun, who is facing off against Donnelly in what is viewed as one of the nation's most competitive Senate races. Before a wildly enthusiastic crowd, Trump called Braun a "special guy" and said he will "be a truly great senator." Braun took the stage and pledged to be a "true ally" to Trump, "not somebody that says something when you're in Indiana and does something differently when you're in D.C." In a state the president carried by roughly 19 percentage points in 2016, both candidates have sought to stress their connections to Trump. ___ 8:10 p.m. President Donald Trump is once again threatening to intervene in the Justice Department if it fails to take the actions he's demanding. Trump told thousands of supporters at a rally in Evansville, Indiana, on Thursday night that the leaders of the Justice Department and FBI "have to start doing their job and doing it right" because "people are angry." Story continues He says if they don't, he "will get involved and I'll get in there if I have to." Trump has a long-standing feud with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and has called on him to investigate former rival Hillary Clinton and others. Some of the issues he's raised have either already been examined or are being investigated. Trump has repeatedly threatened the Justice Department's traditional independence. ___ 7:50 p.m. President Donald Trump is giving Republican Senate candidate Mike Braun a boost as he campaigns by his side in Indiana. Trump told a rally crowd of thousands in Evansville on Thursday that Braun is going to be a "truly great" senator. "A vote for Mike Braun," he tells the crowd, is a vote "to Make America Great Again." Braun is facing off with Democrat Joe Donnelly in what is viewed as one of the nation's most competitive Senate races. Both candidates have stressed their ties to Trump, but Trump and Braun argue that Donnelly is not genuine. Braun says Trump "needs a true ally" and "not somebody that says something when you're in Indiana and does something differently when you're in D.C." Trump is predicting a win for Braun, telling the crowd, "We need the votes." ___ 5:25 p.m. President Donald Trump has arrived in Indiana, where he will rally Republicans on behalf of Senate candidate Mike Braun. Braun is seeking to unseat Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly in what is viewed as one of the nation's most competitive Senate races. Trump tweeted his support for the businessman earlier Thursday, saying he "is strong on Crime & Borders, the 2nd Amendment, and loves our Military & Vets." Trump plans to spend more than 40 days on the campaign trail between the beginning of August and the Nov. 6 midterms as he hopes to best his predecessors' travel schedules. Before the rally, campaign manager Brad Parscale touted the "sellout crowd" expected. ___ 11:40 a.m. President Donald Trump is making a midterm election push in Indiana on Thursday as Republicans seek to unseat vulnerable Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly. Trump will hold a rally in Evansville, Indiana, on Thursday evening. Donnelly faces wealthy Republican businessman Mike Braun in what is viewed as one of the nation's most competitive Senate races. The president tweeted Thursday that Braun is "a very successful businessman," adding that he "is strong on Crime & Borders, the 2nd Amendment, and loves our Military & Vets." Trump plans to spend more than 40 days out campaigning between the beginning of August and the Nov. 6 midterms. Campaign manager Brad Parscale says in a statement that Trump "will fight harder than any candidate on the ballot over the next 67 days to get out the vote." KAMPALA (Reuters) - Prominent Ugandan opposition lawmaker Robert Kyagulanyi arrived in the United States on Saturday to seek medical treatment for what he said was torture by authorities in his country. Kyagulanyi, a popular musician known by his stage name Bobi Wine, was elected last year and has amassed a large following among youth electrified by his scathing criticism of President Yoweri Museveni, sometimes delivered in his songs. Protests had erupted in the Ugandan capital on Friday after police detained Kyagulanyi at the airport during a previous attempt to travel abroad for medical care. In a tweet posted on Saturday evening, Kyagulanyi said: "Safely arrived in the US where I'll be receiving specialized treatment following the brutal torture at the hands of SFC soldiers." That referred to Uganda's Special Forces Command. "I will soon tell you what exactly happened to me since 13th August and what is next," he said, referring to the day he was detained after being accused by authorities of throwing stones at a presidential convoy. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Kyagulanyi posted in his tweet a picture of himself sitting in a wheelchair and holding crutches, posing in an airport next to his wife. The lawmaker has said he was beaten up and tortured while in detention. Ugandan authorities initially dismissed the allegations that Kyagulanyi was beaten up in detention as "rubbish" and "fake news." But late on Friday a police spokesman said there would be an investigation into those allegations. Kyagulanyi, who has emerged as a formidable threat to the president who has been in power for 32 years, was charged with treason over his alleged role in the stoning of Museveni's convoy. Museveni has won praise in the West for his opposition to militant Islam in the region, but many Ugandans regard the 73-year-old as out of touch with his people, nearly 80 percent of whom are under the age of 30. He has been in power since 1986 and has repeatedly been accused by his opponents of rights abuses and the widespread use of security forces to suppress opposition to his rule. He denies charges that his government is involved in rights violations. (Reporting by Omar Mohammed in Nairobi and Elias Biryabarema in Kampala; Writing by Omar Mohammed; Editing by Ingrid Melander and Alexandra Hudson) Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - After a top Brazilian court disqualified ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from participating in October elections, his party on Saturday was mulling whether to persist with their jailed leader or turn to his running mate. Following hours of debate on Friday, Superior Electoral Court judges voted 6-to-1 against the 72-year-old Lula's candidacy, hours before television campaigning for the fall election began. They gave the Workers' Party (PT) a September 12 deadline to find a replacement candidate for what is the most uncertain Brazilian election in decades. But the PT has vowed to "continue fighting with all means" to secure Lula's candidacy. On Saturday, Lula appeared in the party's television campaigning slot, which saw running mate Fernando Haddad promise: "We're going with Lula until the end." Haddad campaigned Saturday in Lula's native state of Pernambuco, where he vowed the party would maintain a political and moral stance in keeping with Lula's leadership "and the desire of over 50 percent of Brazilians." He is also set to visit Lula on Monday in the Curitiba prison where he is serving a 12-year sentence for accepting a luxury seaside apartment as a bribe from a construction firm. "The PT must readjust its strategy," columnist Tereza Cruvinel wrote in the Jornal do Brasil newspaper, but "nothing will be decided before the meeting between Haddad, other party members and Lula on Monday." If Haddad is named as the PT's candidate, Manuela D'Avila of Brazil's Communist Party will assume the running-mate position, according to a previous agreement between the parties. But unlike Lula, former Sao Paulo mayor Haddad commands little popular support. In the latest opinion polls, Lula was awarded 39 percent of voting intentions -- 20 points ahead of his closest competitor, far-right former military officer Jair Bolsonaro. Story continues Millions of Brazilians still adore him due to the prosperity the country enjoyed under his leadership from 2003 to 2010. On Saturday, former Argentine president Cristina Kirchner -- herself facing multiple corruption investigations -- expressed support for Lula. "Now they are preventing @LulaOfficial from being a presidential candidate because they know he would win October's elections," she tweeted. Terror in Davie That might sound like the title of a B movie, but its a real-life nightmare for a family of four in South Florida who are being harassed by what looks like a prehistoric reptile on amphetamines. Dude, hes big real big, Zach Lieberman, 33, told HuffPost of the massive creature thats been slinking around his house. Hes every bit of 6-feet and every part of 100- to 150-pounds. Hes a monster. Liebermans wife, Maria, also 33, spotted the behemoth outside their Davie home on Sunday. My wife was walking by our sliding glass door and let out a pretty loud scream, he said. I ran over and looked out the shades on the door and, lo and behold, Godzillas smaller cousin was right there. It was alarming to me and terrifying to my wife and kids. Davie isnt Tokyo and the lizard in question isnt related to Godzilla (that we know of), but to show they werent losing their minds, the Liebermans took several videos of the giant lizard. Its since been identified as an Asian water monitor. At one point, Lieberman said, he decided to lure the monitor away from his door. Thats the moment, he said, that he realized just how big of a problem the lizard could be. I was trying to lure it into my garage, so I could contain it, and it got a little aggressive, he said. He apparently got hip to my idea, turned on me and took off running. It was a full-on sprint. Id thought this was a slow creature. Man, its not! That really frightened me because we have two small kids, 2 and 4 years old. They cant go in the backyard now because this thing could dart out in an instant. The Liebermans contacted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which has been trying for the past several days to capture the slinky monitor. So far it has proved to be one slick lizard. Its not falling for the dead rats theyre using as bait. Mike Kimmel, a state-contracted python hunter in the Everglades, said that, although he prefers to focus on catching snakes, he's "not going to let this huge lizard run free." (Photo: Trapper Mike Kimmel) Mike Kimmel, owner of Martin County Trapping & Removals and Martin County Wildlife Rescue in Indiantown, got wind of the problem and traveled to Davie on Tuesday. Story continues Originally, they were going to euthanize the animal, so thats why I got involved, said Kimmel, whos known as Trapper Mike and is typically out capturing large snakes. I knew I could find a home for him, and I really wanted to preserve his life. According to Kimmel, the lizard is a water monitor whose native habitat is Southeast Asia. Theres been some discrepancy as to whether its a Nile or Asian, Kimmel explained. I think the media wants it to be a Nile because then its a little scarier, but its an Asian water monitor. However, the expert trapper warned that a water monitor, no matter the size, shouldnt be taken for granted. They are, as Lieberman discovered, extremely fast, and their teeth are like serrated razor blades. Their bite can be vicious, but, because they eat dead flesh, the parasites that line their jaws can be even more deadly, causing dangerous infections. Add to that some very long and very sharp claws and there is potential for serious injury. Their teeth can rip you apart and do a hell of a lot of damage, Kimmel said. But, in general, most of them dont want anything to do with us. If they are handled every day, they can basically be like a puppy dog. Its mainly when they feel cornered that they can absolutely be dangerous. No one initially knew where the monitor came from. Although such lizards are sold at pet shops, its illegal to release any exotic pet in Florida, whether accidentally or intentionally. Officials said they had no record of anyone reporting a lost or stolen monitor. But on Tuesday, a neighbor claimed it was his lost pet, according to Lieberman and Kimmel. I spoke with the supposed pet owner, Kimmel said. He told me its name is Bamboo and it escaped a few weeks ago. He said he kept it in his pool and that he has three others as well. He will most likely not be getting this one back. What he described how he was housing it and why he didnt report it shows hes not a responsible owner. As luck would have it, it rained in Davie on Tuesday. According to Kimmel, monitors prefer sunny weather, so the conditions werent ideal. I didnt see him. If I had, that thing would be caught right now. Lieberman said he and a group of friends came close to catching the monitor on Thursday, but then it ran into a nearby lake. People need to leave it to the professionals, Kimmel said. Ill be back this weekend, and I will locate and remove him. And so its yet to be seen whether Bamboo will be rousted from this once peaceful residential area or if hell take a cue from his big cousin, Godzilla, and lumber off into a nearby waterway, biding his time until his next adventure. Send David Lohr an email or follow him on Facebook and Twitter. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. Related Coverage Here's How Frozen Alligators Survived Last Week's Winter Blast Alligator Knocks Florida Wildlife Trapper Unconscious in Video Turtle Gives Finger To Louisiana Police Also on HuffPost Titanis walleri This North American bird, which stood over 8 feet tall, would have had an enormous, axe-like beak. Dunkleosteus terreli This heavily-armored predator had the second most powerful bite of any fish. Indricotherium The hornless rhinoceros-like creatures of this genus were the largest land mammals of all time. Megatherium Giant ground sloths of this genus were about the size of today's elephants. The megatherium only went extinct around 10,000 years ago (right around the time when humans started farming), and smaller relatives may have survived as late as the 16th century! Dinornis novaezealandiae Richard Owen, director of London's Museum of Natural History, stands next to the largest of all moa. Moa, which originated in New Zealand, were flightless, and some were even wingless. Argentavis magnificens The Argentavis magnificens, an early relative of the Andean Condor, was the largest flying bird ever discovered. Diprotodon optatum These creatures, the largest marsupials that ever lived, roamed Australia. Some scientists have suggested that stories of the supernatural 'bunyip' creature in Aboriginal folklore could be based on diprotodonts. Deinotherium giganteum These distant relatives of modern elephants had an imposing appearance, with strange, downward-curving tusks and heights of up to 16 feet at the shoulder. Leedsichthys problematicus & Liopleurodon rossicus The fearsome Liopleuredon, right, had a jaw nearly ten feet long. The Leedsichthys, left, was a bony fish that may have been even larger than it looked; some estimates put its maximum length at 53 feet. Correction: An earlier version of this slide had the positions of the Liopleuredon and Leedsichthys reversed. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. United Nations (United States) (AFP) - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday urged "all parties" in Mauritania to contribute to "peaceful and credible elections" the following day. The UN chief "is closely following developments in Mauritania on the eve of the legislative, regional and municipal elections scheduled for 1 September," a statement from his office said. Guterres "urges all parties to ensure the holding of elections that are peaceful and credible and allow for the participation of all interested stakeholders," the statement said. "He calls on all parties to ensure respect of the rule of law and that the human rights of all Mauritanians are upheld," it added. The elections are a test for the regime of President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz less than a year from the presidential vote in mid-2019. Aziz, 61, came to power in a coup in 2008. He was elected in 2009 and again in 2014 for a second five-year term. Nouakchott (AFP) - After a turbulent campaign, Mauritania, a frontline state in the Sahel's fight against jihadism, goes to the polls Saturday for triple elections that will test head of state Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz's record seven months before a presidential vote. Military personnel cast their votes Friday to free themselves up to provide security in the vast and arid west African state with a registered electorate of some 1.4 million. Polling booths will open at 0700 GMT and close 12 hours later with first results not expected until the middle of next week. There will be no international observers. Unlike in the last polls which it boycotted in 2013, the opposition is standing in the legislative, regional and local elections in which a record 98 parties will take part. Potential run-off elections would take place on September 15. Aziz, 61, came to power in a coup in 2008. He was elected in 2009 and again in 2014 for a second five-year term. He has been frequently accused by opposition figures and NGOs of rights abuses, including the arrest of a former senator and the "secretive" detention of a blogger. Although Aziz has said several times he will not seek a third mandate, something that would be against the West African country's constitution, statements by his ministers and supporters have allowed opposition suspicions to flourish. Final campaign rallies drew sparse attendance despite the opposition shelving its boycott. Aziz has slammed opposition leaders as "villains" and "troublemakers." He has described some as "dangerous Islamists, racist extremists and the leftovers of former regimes which brought the country to its knees". "We must keep them far from office with a massive vote for the UPR," his Union for the Republic party, which he vowed would "continue on the path of high achievement and the fight against mismanagement". - 'Assassinating democracy' - Story continues Earlier this week he accused Islamists of "just awaiting their political failure to take up arms". That brought an indignant response from Jemil Ould Mensour of the Islamist party Tewassoul. "It is Mr Aziz who has taken up arms against elected regime and is assassinating democracy," he charged. Longtime opposition leader Ahmed Ould Daddah, who heads the Gathering for Democracy (RFD), urged voters to make "the necessary leap to get rid of dictatorship and generalised bankruptcy". The UPR is campaigning largely on changes it made in the 2017 constitution. Under it, the country's senate was abolished and a new national anthem and flag were ushered in. Voters endorsed the controversial measures, while the opposition warned they would give the president more power. - Living standards - On the economic front, authorities say growth has revived, with three percent in 2017 and a poverty rate of 31 percent, against over 40 percent in 2008. The opposition, on the other hand, says there has been a fall in living standards since the introduction at the start of the year of new, lower-value bank notes. National debt is equal to GDP. Mauritania, which hosted an African Union summit in July, has recently revived diplomatic ties with Morocco, after years of tension over the status of Western Sahara. That territory, lying inland from the Atlantic coast beside northern Mauritania, was annexed by Morocco in 1975 after Spanish colonial rule ended. The largely desert country also signed fishing and oil exploitation agreements with its southern neighbour Senegal earlier this year. In July, a Mauritanian general took over the command of the G5 Sahel force. The armed forces work alongside Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Chad in a joint military operation aimed at tackling jihadists in the region with backing from Europe. Nouakchott (AFP) - Mauritania, a frontline state in the fight against Islamic extremism, voted on Saturday in legislative, regional and local elections that will test head of state Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz's record seven months before a presidential vote. Military personnel cast their ballots Friday to free themselves up to provide security in the vast and arid west African state with a registered electorate of some 1.4 million. But logistical problems saw one booth in the Teyarredt district of the capital Nouakchott remain open beyond the 1900 GMT closing deadline with hundreds of people still waiting to vote. "All those inside the (booth) courtyard will be able to vote," the official in charge of the venue said, insisting voting would continue if necessary until "late into the night". Polling began at 0700 GMT in the capital but several voters were sent to different polling stations due to last minute changes, an AFP reporter said. President Aziz hailed the "peaceful and democratic nature" of the ballot after casting his vote but leading opposition figure Mohamed Ould Moloud deplored logistical snags and hinted the outcome could be flawed. "There are voters who have been misdirected and don't know where to vote," he said, adding that there were "serious signs of possible fraud." Moloud added that "entire polling booths vanished", with their registered electors unsure where to go while some polling stations had seen their voter lists quadrupled. The opposition boycotted the last polls in 2013 but a record 98 parties are taking part this time. The electoral commission put turnout by 1800 GMT at a national average of 42 percent. Results are not expected until the middle of next week. There are no international observers. "I voted for people I support in different parties including some from the ruling party and others in the opposition," a woman who identified herself as Fatimatou told AFP. Story continues "It's not easy," she added after taking eight minutes to fill in the forms and deposit them in five different ballot boxes. Potential run-off elections would take place on September 15. Aziz, 61, who came to power in a coup in 2008, won elections in 2009 and again in 2014 for a second five-year term. He has been frequently accused by opposition figures and NGOs of rights abuses, including the arrest of a former senator and the "secretive" detention of a blogger. Aziz says he will not seek a third mandate, which would be against the constitution, but statements by ministers and supporters have allowed suspicions to flourish. - 'Assassinating democracy' - Aziz has slammed opposition leaders as "villains" and "troublemakers". He has described some as "dangerous Islamists, racist extremists and the leftovers of former regimes which brought the country to its knees". Earlier this week he accused Islamists of "just awaiting their political failure to take up arms" drawing an indignant response from Jemil Ould Mensour of the Islamist party Tewassoul. "It is Mr Aziz who took up arms against an elected regime and is assassinating democracy," he charged, referring to the 2008 coup. Veteran opposition leader Ahmed Ould Daddah, who heads the Gathering for Democracy (RFD), has urged voters to make "the necessary leap to get rid of dictatorship and generalised bankruptcy". The ruling Union for the Republic is campaigning largely on changes it made in the 2017 constitution, abolishing the senate and bringing in a new national anthem and flag. Voters endorsed the controversial measures in a referendum, while the opposition warned they would give the president more power. After more than a year of detention on corruption charges, former senator Mohammed Ould Ghadda was freed on Saturday despite rejecting the conditions set for his release, his lawyer said. Ould Ghadda, who led the campaign against the constitutional changes, was reunited with his family, lawyer Mohamed El Mamy said. Mauritania, which hosted an African Union summit in July, has recently revived diplomatic ties with Morocco, after years of tension over the status of Moroccan-annexed Western Sahara. The companys new policy, prompted by legislation passed in its home state of Washington, will give workers 12 weeks paid leave Microsoft says its contractors will get 12 weeks paid leave to care for a new child. Photograph: Jeff Chiu/AP Microsoft has announced a policy requiring its contractors to offer employees a minimum of 12 weeks paid parental leave, paying them up to $1,000 a week. The policy, which affects US-based companies that do work for the technology company and have more than 50 employees, will be rolled out over the next year. It will affect people including the companys cafeteria workers, janitors, IT support staff and engineering consultants. Microsoft was prompted to introduce the policy after Washington state, where the company is headquartered, passed legislation requiring companies to offer employees and contractors paid parental leave. The company said that it wanted to give the same benefit offered by the legislation, which comes into effect in 2020, to contracted staff across the US. The company noted that the policy could increase its costs. The policy will bring the parental leave benefits of affected contractors in line with those of full-time employees, who also get 12 weeks parental leave, while birth mothers get an additional eight weeks off. The case for paid parental leave is clear, said the companys general counsel, Dev Stahlkopf, in a blogpost, citing various studies showing that it improves productivity, morale and retention of new mothers. Men also take more paternity leave when that leave is paid, allowing for more bonding with young children, which is linked to higher cognitive test scores for the children. Further, when men and women have the opportunity to take paid leave, it can help counteract gender caregiving stereotypes, neutralize stigmas and promote equity in the home and office, added Stahlkopf. In spite of the proven benefits, just 13% of private industry workers in the United States have access to paid parental leave, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The US is the only developed country in the world that doesnt guarantee paid parental leave to workers. The UK guarantees 39 weeks for mothers, Australia offers 18 weeks, while Mexico gives mothers twelve weeks of leave at full pay. Story continues It is not clear exactly how many Microsoft contractors will benefit from the new policy, which covers supplier employees who perform substantial work for Microsoft. Microsoft told the Guardian it had about 1,000 supplier companies based in the US and that it can confidently say this will impact thousands of workers. The policy will not cover contracted or subcontracted employees based outside of the US. We applaud Microsoft for the leadership theyve given in the fight for paid leave. At the same time, we have to ensure time to care does not remain a workplace perk dependent on who you work for or where you live, said a spokeswoman for Family Values @ Work, an advocacy group that pushes for paid leave, in a statement. Microsoft has been under pressure to improve working conditions for contractors after some workers unionized in 2014 and started pushing for benefits like paid leave. In 2015, Microsoft announced it would require its suppliers to give their workers at least 15 days paid time off. The small victory was offset when the contracting company Lionbridge laid off all 38 unionised workers, who had been doing bug-testing for Microsofts apps. Those workers filed a union-busting complaint against Lionbridge and Microsoft to the National Labor Relations Board in December 2016, but they settled this year after months of negotiations. Philippe Boucher, the leader of the union in question, the Temporary Workers of America, has since been trying to engage Microsoft shareholders about the paid leave policies. He congratulated Microsofts management for moving in the right direction and urged other companies including Google, Facebook and Amazon to follow suit. In-N-Out: Getty Images Californias popular fast food chain In-N-Out Burger has apparently donated tens of thousands of dollars to the states Republican Party, according to a state filing. The public filing, spotted by journalist Gabe Schneider, states the Irvine-based In-N-Out Burgers made a contribution of $25,000 (19,000) to the California Republican Party on 27 August. Notice of the public filing has sparked mixed reaction on social media. One Facebook user wrote: Never eating at [In-N-Out] again. Not going to support them support the party of Trump. Was fun while it lasted. Another commenter shared their support for the burger chain, charging" We need to fill every political seat in California with Republicans." According to public filings, In-N-Out had also made considerable contributions to other groups, notably Political Actions Committee (PAC) Californians for Jobs and a Strong Economy. Earlier this year in May, In-N-Out gave the PAC $50,000 ( 38,000). The burger chains contribution comes ahead of the states hotly contested midterm elections in November. California will be a significant player in the Democratic Partys mission to win back the majority in the House of Representatives. Democrats are vying to flip seven districts currently held by Republicans but where voters had favoured former presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016. California residents have responded to the high stakes of the 2018 elections; the state saw its highest percentage of voter turnout in midterm primary elections in two decades. After word on the fast food chains contribution spread online, a hashtag #boycottinnout had been created on Twitter. Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman called for a boycott using the hashtag on Twitter. "Let Trump and his cronies support these creeps... perhaps animal style!" he wrote. Many Twitter users have also since used the hashtag to air out their grievances with the California staple. One Twitter user shared the hashtag and wrote Im OUT! in response to the announcement. Paul Manafort: Mark Wilson/Getty Images Prosecutors from the US Office of the Special Counsel have been handed an extension to decide whether to push forward with a potential retrial for Paul Manafort. Judge TS Ellis III, who presided over Mr Manaforts trial that resulted in eight guilty counts and a mistrial for 10 other charges, gave the government an extension of one week after the court rules on Manaforts post-trial motions. The presidents former campaign chairman was given one month to decide whether he would file for acquittal or appeal after his initial 21 August verdict. "Because the defendants post-trial motions have not been filed or ruled on, the government does not at this time have sufficient information to make an informed decision on whether it will seek retrial of the remaining counts," the prosecutors said in their request for an extension. The judges extension grants prosecutors one week after the court rules on Manaforts post-trial motions to determine whether or not they will retry the remaining 10 counts of bank and tax fraud. A jury was unable to come to a consensus over ten of the 18 charges Manafort faced. Donald Trump praised Manafort for "refusing to break" during the trial in a series of tweets that simultaneously attacked his longtime confidant and personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, who separately pleaded guilty to eight counts of financial crime on the same day as Manafort. "I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family," the president wrote. "'Justice' took a 12 year old tax case, among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him." "A large number of counts, ten, could not even be decided in the Paul Manafort case," he continued. It remains unclear whether or not the government will decide to retry Manafort for the remaining 10 charges. However, even if they dont, the former campaign chairman faces further legal action. Manafort faces a separate trial in September, and his lawyers have already begun accusing it of being an unfair process for Manafort. Story continues Defence attorneys requested for the trial to be moved from the nations capital, Washington DC, to Roanoke, Virginia, citing intense media coverage. "The conclusion of that trial, less than four weeks prior to the start of jury selection in this case, presents new and increasingly difficult challenges to Mr. Manafort's effort to ensure a fair jury and fair trial in this case," they wrote in a request. Five weeks after the U.S. government failed to meet a federal judges deadline to reunite all children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border under President Donald Trumps zero tolerance policy, nearly 500 children are still awaiting their parents in government shelters including 22 under the age of 5 according to updated numbers released Thursday night. Trump administration officials provided the data in response to a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union. They indicate only a slight decrease from the 528 children reported last week. Some 322 of the 497 children still in custody have parents who were deported, making it more difficult to reunite them. Government officials reported Thursday that they have been able to contact the parents of 318 of them. But a steering committee, formed by the ACLU and other advocacy organizations, say the number of parents contacted is lower than that. The advocacy groups say that difficulties in facilitating the reunions include discrepancies between the children who have been identified in shelters and recorded on the governments official list of separated children, finding phone numbers for parents, and other issues related to information exchange, according to Thursdays court filing. After the Trump administration received widespread condemnation over its zero tolerance policy earlier this summer, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw gave the government until July 26 to reunite the more than 2,600 separated children with their parents. As of this week, a total of 1,937 children have been reunited with their parents, according to the numbers released Thursday night. Related Coverage Trump Officials Keep 'Temporary' Tent Shelter For Migrant Kids Open Yet Another Month Migrant Kids Choose Between Possible Death And Never Seeing Parents Again Immigrant Dads Say ICE Separated Them From Their Kids Again With No Explanation White House Still Using Grieving Parents To Defend Family Separations Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Sao Paulo (AFP) - Brazil's ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, better known as Lula, was Friday dealt a blow by an electoral court that barred him from running in October's presidential election. The 72-year-old has been leading polls in Latin America's largest economy despite his incarceration for corruption. Here is a list of key dates in the life of one of the world's most popular politicians. - October 27, 1945: Lula is born to a poor farming family in Brazil's northeast. His family moves when he is seven to the state of Sao Paulo to escape hunger. - 1975: He becomes president of the metal workers' union, having worked in that sector since the age of 14. - 1978-80: At the height of the military dictatorship, Lula leads major strikes in the industrial suburbs and is jailed for a month for his role. - 1980: Lula co-founds the leftist Workers' Party (PT) and goes on to take part in the creation, in 1983, of the Unified Workers' Central (CUT), which becomes Brazil's largest trade union federation. - 1986: He is elected to Congress. - First leftist president - - 2003: Lula becomes Brazil's first leftist president after winning election in the previous year. He is re-elected in 2006 for a term ending in 2010. - 2016: The Supreme Court blocks his appointment as chief of staff to President Dilma Rousseff, his handpicked successor. She is then impeached in August after allegations of financial wrongdoing. - July 2017: Lula is found guilty of receiving a bribe from a Brazilian construction company in return for contracts with state oil giant Petrobras. He is sentenced to nine and a half years behind bars. - January 2018: He loses an appeal and his sentence is increased to 12 years and one month. - April 5, 2018: After losing an appeal to delay the start of his sentence, Lula is ordered to turn himself in within 24 hours. He defies the order but later agrees to comply. - April 7, 2018: Shortly before midnight, Lula becomes an inmate at the federal police headquarters in Curitiba. - August 15, 2018: Lula's Workers' Party officially registers his presidential candidacy. - August 31, 2018: A majority of Brazil's electoral court bars Lula from running in October's election. By Stephen Farrell JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian refugees reacted with dismay on Saturday to a United States decision to halt funding to a U.N. agency, warning that it would lead to more poverty, anger and instability in the Middle East. The U.S. announcement on Friday that it will no longer support the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has deepened a cash crisis at the agency, and heightened tensions with the Palestinian leadership. [GRAPHIC: https://tmsnrt.rs/2P0TJmx] The 68-year-old UNRWA provides services to about 5 million Palestinian refugees across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza. Most are descendants of the roughly 700,000 Palestinians who were driven out of their homes or fled the fighting in the 1948 war that led to Israel's creation. In Gaza, Nashat Abu El-Oun, a refugee and father of eight, said: "The situation is bad and it will become worse...People can hardly afford living these days and if they became unable to earn their living they will begin thinking of unlawful things." State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Friday that UNRWA's business model and fiscal practices were an "irredeemably flawed operation" and that the agency's "endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries is simply unsustainable." UNRWA rejected the criticisms, with spokesman Chris Gunness describing it as "a force for regional stability." Speaking in Jordan, where more than 2 million registered Palestinian refugees live, including 370,000 in ten refugee camps, Gunness said: "It is a deeply regrettable decision...some of the most disadvantaged, marginalized and vulnerable people on this planet are likely to suffer." Gunness said UNRWA provides health clinics, schooling for 526,000 refugee children across Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and food assistance to 1.7 million people - a million of them in Gaza. The agency, which has a funding gap of $217 million, will now ask donors for more and seek new sources of income, he said. BIGGEST DONOR The United States, by far UNRWA's biggest donor, slashed funding earlier this year, paying out only $60 million of a first installment in January, and withholding $65 million. It had promised $365 million for the whole year. Washington said the agency needed to make unspecified reforms and called on the Palestinians to renew peace talks with Israel. The last Palestinian-Israeli peace talks collapsed in 2014, partly because of Israel's opposition to an attempted unity pact between the Fatah and Hamas Palestinian factions and to Israeli settlement building on occupied land that Palestinians seek for a state. Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz said the U.S.'s decision represented a "realistic view of the situation and supports Israel's position." UNRWA is "the body that enshrines the Palestinian refugee problem," he wrote on Twitter. Earlier this year Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged action against UNRWA. "We already have great-great-grandchildren of refugees who are not refugees," he said in January. "I suggest a gradual conversion of all funds going to UNRWA to other agencies." On Friday, before the U.S. decision was confirmed, the head of the international U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, Filippo Grandi, was asked if his agency could assume UNRWA's role. "The Palestinian refugees in the region are the responsibility of UNRWA," he said, making no further comment. The UNRWA move is the latest in a number of actions by the Trump administration that have alienated the Palestinians, including the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. That move was a reversal of longtime U.S. policy and led Palestinian leadership to boycott the Washington peace efforts led by Jared Kushner, Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law. Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Washington of implementing the agenda of "Israeli extremists who have done nothing but to destroy the prospect of peace." Speaking in Ramallah, he said: "The United States may have the right to say that we don't want to give taxpayers' money, but who gave the U.S. the right to approve the stealing of my land, my future, my aspirations, my capital, my Aqsa Mosque, my Holy Sepulchre Church?" In Jalazone refugee camp near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Ayoub Abeidi, whose family once lived in what is now the city of Lod in Israel, said the decision was political. "Trump wants to finish off UNRWA so he can terminate the right of refugees (to return)," said Abeidi, 53. "Our right to return exists and neither Trump nor anybody else can cancel it." Successive Israeli government have ruled out any right of return, fearing the country would lose its Jewish majority. (Reporting by Bushra Shakhshir in Amman, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem, Writing by Stephen Farrell in Jerusalem; Editing by Ros Russell and Alexandra Hudson) WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump "nodded with approval" at the suggestion of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a court filing that seeks leniency for a former campaign aide who lied to the FBI. Lawyers for George Papadopoulos are seeking probation, saying the foreign policy adviser misled agents during a January 2017 interview not to harm an investigation but rather to "save his professional aspirations and preserve a perhaps misguided loyalty to his master." Papadopoulos is a pivotal figure in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation as the first Trump campaign aide to plead guilty and cooperate with prosecutors. The revelation that he'd been told by a professor during the campaign that Russia had "dirt" on Democrat Hillary Clinton in the form of emails helped trigger the FBI's counterintelligence investigation in July 2016 into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. The 16-page defense memo filed late Friday paints Papadopoulos as an eager-to-please campaign aide who was in over his head, and aims to counter the prosecution's narrative that Papadopoulos's deception irreparably damaged the investigation. The defense lawyers say Papadopoulos was hired by the campaign in March 2016 despite having no experience with Russian or U.S. diplomacy. That month, he traveled to Italy and connected with a London-based professor who introduced him to a woman described as a niece of Putin's even though that was not true. That professor, Joseph Mifsud, would later tell him that individuals in Moscow possessed "dirt" on Clinton. When Papadopoulos returned to Washington, he was "eager to show his value to the campaign" and "witnessed his career skyrocketing to unimaginable heights." At a March 31 meeting of Trump's national security adviser, Papadopoulos proposed that he could leverage his newfound Russian connections to arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin. Story continues "While some in the room rebuffed George's offer, Mr. Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr. Sessions who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it," defense lawyers wrote. That language is a reference to Jeff Sessions, who at the time was a Republican senator from Alabama and key campaign aide and later became the Trump administration's attorney general. Sessions, however, told the House Judiciary Committee last November that he resisted the idea of any Russia meeting. "I pushed back at his trip and I was concerned that he not go off somewhere, pretending to represent the Trump campaign," Sessions told lawmakers. "He had no authority for that." The inclusion of details about that meeting by defense lawyers seems intended to show that Papadopoulos provided the Mueller team with valuable insight about Trump campaign operations, even though prosecutors have said in their own sentencing memo that he did not provide "substantial assistance to them." One morning in January 2017, two FBI agents knocked on the door of Papadopoulos's mother's home seeking to interview him. He agreed to accompany them to their office thinking they wanted to ask him about a Russian businessman, Sergei Millian, but soon the questions shifted to Russian influence in the election and Papadopoulos was "surprised" and caught "off guard," the defense lawyers wrote. Defense lawyers acknowledge that Papadopoulos "lied, minimized, and omitted material facts" to the FBI about his foreign contacts, including about when he had learned from Mifsud that the Russians had dirt on Clinton. "Out of loyalty to the new president and his desire to be part of the administration, he hoisted himself upon his own petard," they wrote. But they rejected the idea that those lies impeded the investigation, calling that argument by prosecutors speculative. Papadopoulos was arrested on July 27, 2017 and began cooperating with federal investigators. He participated in four proffer sessions with prosecutors and provided important information, including a description of the March 2016 meeting at which he proposed to arrange a meeting with Putin "and the reactions of the people in the room." "George Papadopoulos is now a convicted felon," the lawyers wrote. "When it came time to make a good decision he made a bad one. His arrest and prosecution served as notice to all involved that this was a serious investigation. He was the first domino, and many have fallen in behind. Despite the gravity of his offense, it is important to remember what Special Counsel said at George's plea of guilty: he was just a small part of a large-scale investigation." HOUSTON (AP) Police documents from a decades-old drunken-driving arrest of Democratic Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke provide a more complete picture of an incident that the congressman has long acknowledged. The Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News recently obtained copies of state and local police reports pertaining to the arrest. They show O'Rourke was found intoxicated after losing control of his vehicle on Interstate 10 and hitting a truck. Nobody was hurt in the accident in Anthony, Texas, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from El Paso. A witness told police that O'Rourke tried to drive away, but the witness stopped him until officers arrived, the documents show. The witness also said that O'Rourke had been driving at "a high rate of speed." O'Rourke has talked about the 1998 arrest while campaigning to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. But news stories about the arrest earlier in the campaign did not include details such as the crash and the reported attempt to flee. O'Rourke did not address those details in a statement Saturday. "I drove drunk and was arrested for a DWI in 1998. As I've publicly discussed over the last 20 years, I made a serious mistake for which there is no excuse," the statement said. O'Rourke had just turned 26 when the arrest happened. He did a court-ordered diversion program and a drunken-driving charge was dismissed. According to police, O'Rourke recorded a 0.136 and 0.134 on breathalyzers, above a blood-alcohol level of 0.10, Texas' legal limit for driving at the time. Cruz has never been arrested, but was once ticketed for underage alcohol possession when he was 17 and police stopped him and found unopened beer in his car. A spokeswoman for Cruz did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday. Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis on Saturday issued a call to clear up oceans threatened by plastic waste and underscored the need to provide drinking water to all as a basic right. "We cannot allow our seas and oceans to be littered by endless fields of floating plastic," the pontiff said in a message on the fourth World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. "Sadly, all too many efforts fail due to the lack of effective regulation and means of control, particularly with regard to the protection of marine areas beyond national confines." The pope also said that access "to safe drinkable water is a basic and universal human right" and deplored that for many it was "difficult if not impossible. "Our world owes a great social debt towards the poor who lack access to drinking water, because they are denied the right to a life consistent with their inalienable dignity," he said. Beirut (AFP) - A pregnant woman and her daughter were killed Saturday by regime artillery fire on Syria's Idlib province, a monitor said, as Damascus prepares an assault on the country's last major rebel bastion. President Bashar al-Assad's forces have been amassing along Idlib's borders for weeks and shelling rebel-held territory on a daily basis, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. On Saturday near the city of Jisr al-Shughur, "a pregnant woman and her daughter were killed by these regime strikes", the Observatory said, reporting similar artillery fire in other rebel-held areas. Experts say Jisr al-Shughur could be a key target if the government and its Russian ally were to launch an offensive on the region. Idlib is adjacent to Latakia province, the coastal heartland of Assad's Alawite minority and home to the Russian military airport of Hmeimim. In recent days, Damascus and Moscow have stepped up warnings of an imminent assault on the province, which shares a border with Turkey and is dominated by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist alliance led by the former branch of Al-Qaeda in Syria. Turkish troops are also stationed in Idlib and rebel backer Ankara fears an assault on the province may spark a new influx of refugees. More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since Syria's war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests. The Oakland Raiders traded All-Pro pass rusher Khalil Mack to the Chicago Bears. The deal, according to the latest report from ESPNs Adam Schefter, is official. And per Schefters report, the bundle of draft picks headed to Oakland in return will essentially make Mack one of the most valuable defensive players in NFL history. What are the Raiders getting in return? The Raiders will reportedly get two first-round picks the Bears 2019 and 2020 selections plus a 2020 third-round pick and 2019 sixth-round pick. The Bears, though, in addition to getting Mack will get a 2020 second-round pick and a conditional 2020 fifth-round pick from the Raiders, per Schefter. So Trade official, source tells ESPN: Bears get: Khalil Mack, a 2020 second-round round pick and a conditional 2020 fifth-round pick. Raiders get: 2019 first-round pick, 2020 first-round pick, 2020 third-round pick, 2019 sixth-round pick. So Bears get back second-round pick, too Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 1, 2018 Thats a hefty price. It is arguably the most expensive package ever paid for a defensive player. But its a necessarily hefty one for one of footballs unmistakable stars. The trade will almost certainly go down as the biggest of the NFL year, and perhaps one of the biggest in modern NFL history. Why are the Raiders trading Mack? Mack was entering the final year of his contract, and remained at odds with Raiders brass over how lucrative an extension would be. Mack believed he should be paid his worth as one of the best defensive players in the league. The Raiders, under new head coach Jon Gruden, wouldnt meet the asking price. So Macks holdout had no end in sight, and the prospect of him missing regular-season games became more probable by the day. Khalil Mack was the NFLs defensive player of the year in 2016 with the Oakland Raiders. Now hes reportedly off to the Chicago Bears. (Getty) Rather than pay Mack, or rather than deal with the holdout drama and let the 27-year-old walk as a free agent after the 2018 season, the Raiders have reportedly opted to trade him. Story continues Mack was the Raiders first-round pick fifth overall in 2014. He was the NFLs defensive player of the year in 2016. He is a three-time Pro Bowler and two-time first-team All-Pro selection. Where does Mack fit in Chicago? A player of Macks caliber fits on any roster, in almost any scheme. He has excelled as and been named an All-Pro first-teamer as both an outside linebacker and defensive end. He can can play in a 4-3 or a 3-4. He will immediately elevate Chicagos pass rush to one of the best in the league under first-year head coach Matt Nagy. Hell play alongside the Bears 2016 first-round pick, Leonard Floyd, and join a front seven that also includes Akiem Hicks, Eddie Goldman, Danny Trevathan and 2018 first-round pick Roquan Smith. Mack got a lucrative extension Hours after the deal, Mack and the Bears reportedly agreed on a six-year extension valued at $141 million. The Bears were in position to absorb Macks $13.8 million salary-cap hit for the 2018 season. They negotiated a long-term extension in the same stratosphere as the one Aaron Donald signed with the Rams on Friday. Donalds deal six years, $135 million, $87 million guaranteed is the richest for a defensive player in NFL history. Mack will reportedly get $90 million guaranteed and average $23.5 million per year. The Bears think they can win now The Bears have not had a winning record since 2012. They have not made the playoffs since 2010. The franchise has been searching for a direction for some time. But it drafted quarterback Mitchell Trubisky with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2017 draft, and turned to the North Carolina product five weeks into his rookie season. It then fired John Fox and hired Nagy, a bright, young offensive mind, at the helm. Chicago is confident it has the pieces in place to win soon rather than later. Thats why its been so active this offseason. And thats why its now sacrificing two potential future stars, in the form of two first-round picks, for one superstar in his prime. More from Yahoo Sports: 32 breakout star candidates for 2018 NFL season Terez Paylor: Caylin Newton, the younger brother of Cam, already has a legacy as king of underdogs Yankees get another big bat in deal for Andrew McCutchen Usain Bolt makes his soccer debut MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian foreign minister said on Saturday talks on Ukraine with leaders from Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany, known as the Normandy format, were impossible after the killing of a rebel leader in eastern Ukraine, Interfax agency reported. "It is impossible to talks about upcoming meetings in the Normandy format as many of our European partners wanted," Sergei Lavrov told reporters. "This is a serious situation that needs to be analyzed," Lavrov said, referring to the killing of Alexander Zakharchenko, leader of Russian-backed separatists in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine who died in an explosion on Friday. (Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Edmund Blair) Californias wide-reaching net neutrality bill passed the state assembly on Thursday, in a major victory for campaigners that hailed the bill as the best state-level action in the country. Bill SB822 will now go to the Senate before passing to the governor for signing into law. The result came as something of a surprise based on public support. In the day before the vote, campaign group Fight for the Future listed 22 assembly members supportive versus 58 unsupportive. In the third reading vote, 61 voted in favor and 19 against. The vote fell largely along party lines, with six of the 25 Republican members voting in favor and none of the 55 Democratic members voting against. Todays vote is a huge win for Californians everywhere, state senator Scott Weiner, co-author of the bill, told Gizmodo. Campaigners have focused on passing legislation at the state level to mitigate the effects of reversing net neutrality. The FCC, led by Ajit Pai, voted to reverse the 2015 decision to treat the internet as a Title II utility similar to landline telephones. A total of 36 states have some sort of legislative action in process, while 22 state attorney generals have taken legal action. An open society in the 21st century requires an open internet. Internet providers offer a utility & should be governed to ensure equitable & unfettered access by all people. I was proud to support #sb822 & to ensure that #netneutrality is the law of the land in California. Asm. Kevin McCarty (@AsmKevinMcCarty) August 31, 2018 Californias result came after a passionate debate on the role of government in the internet markets, the effect net neutrality has on peoples lives, and the question of the federal governments role in guaranteeing protections for consumers. Story continues The one thing that these companies say is we dont block, we dont throttle, we dont do these things, assembly majority leader Ian Calderon declared in a speech prior to the vote, invoking the story of the Santa Clara fire department that found its internet connection throttled by Verizon amid state wildfires, an issue that Verizon claimed had nothing to do with net neutrality. They clearly do it. Its an issue that hit the firefighters that are fighting to protect our constituents homes. Our #NetNeutrality advocacy coalition is just tremendous. Today in the Capitol, we were joined by Courage Campaign, Voices for Progess, California Labor Federation, Western Center on Law & Poverty, & Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights. Thank you! pic.twitter.com/0kTfHMIjHG Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) August 31, 2018 Fight for the Future hailed the bill as strong protection against the worst effects of net neutrality in the lead up to the vote: #SB822 is the best damn state level #NetNeutrality bill in the country No blocking No throttling No paid prioritization No harmful zero rating scams No interconnection violations Allows AG to investigate incidents like Verizon throttlinghttps://t.co/DH2CfrSwwD Fight for the Future (@fightfortheftr) August 30, 2018 The group is now urging people to call the California Senate and ask them to pass SB822, warning that internet providers will be lobbying senators to vote against the bill. The Senate is currently comprised of 25 Democratic senators and 14 Republican senators, and Fight for the Future plans to release a scoreboard of where they stand on the issue. Photos via Scott Weiner More From Inverse Spurs star Son Heung-min avoids national service Tottenham fans can will breathe a little easier after Son Heung-min avoided two years of national service when leading South Koreas U23 side to the Asian Games gold medal. Son was instrumental in defeating Japan U-23 2-1 in the final match on Saturday, providing both assists in extra time for Lee Seungwoo and Hwang Hee-chan. Aysase Ueda pulled one back for Japan late on, but they could not force the much-needed equaliser. READ MORE: Mauricio Pochettino says Spurs will crash if they believe the hype READ MORE: Pochettino still concerned over Spurs performances READ MORE: Mourinho gamble backfires as Spurs thump Manchester United The win gave South Korea a fifth Asian Games title and, more importantly for Spurs fans, Son earns an exemption from serving in his countrys two-year national service as an Asiad gold-medallist, and is now free to return to the north London outfit. New York (AFP) - She hasn't yet taken off in the polls, but as actress Cynthia Nixon seeks the Democratic nomination for governor of New York, she has managed to push incumbent Andrew Cuomo to the left while raising concerns among other establishment Democrats about the party's rising and restive progressive wing. The 60-year-old Cuomo -- whose father, the late Mario Cuomo, was himself a respected governor -- is the embodiment of an establishment Democrat and remains strongly favored in the state's September 13 primary election. The most recent poll, published July 31 by Siena College, gave him a lopsided 31-point lead over Nixon. Another survey, released July 18 by Quinnipiac University, showed him with an even wider 36-point lead. With a campaign budget exceeding $30 million, Cuomo can flood the airwaves with ads extolling his record and positioning him as a last line of defense against a president, Donald Trump, who took only one-third of the state's vote in 2016. For her part, Nixon has refused to accept the big donations from wealthy individuals, unions and corporations that Cuomo has raked in, relying instead on small donors, an aggressive use of social media and an enthusiastic base of supporters. Still, the sometimes biting tone and personal attacks Cuomo lobbed at the "Sex and the City" star during their lone televised debate Wednesday suggested that the two-term governor does not think he is out of danger. "Can you stop interrupting me?" an exasperated Cuomo snapped at one point, prompting Nixon to shoot back, "Can you stop lying?" The 52-year-old actress and activist has never held elected office, but is clearly at ease before the public. Cuomo had not taken part in a debate since 2006. The fact he agreed to a televised faceoff against Nixon showed he "is sufficiently worried (and)... did not want to take his opponent for granted," said Robert Shapiro, a political science professor at Columbia University in New York. Story continues - As progressive as she is - "Her running has pushed him to the left politically," Shapiro said. "He needed to be on the stage with her to show that, on certain issues, he compares in a sufficiently liberal way." Cuomo is now quick to describe himself as a "progressive leader," citing his work for the homeless, the environment and for a higher minimum wage. Since Nixon announced her candidacy he has begun saying he is open to legalizing recreational marijuana. Nixon, an openly bisexual mother of three, has long been active in the causes of public education and LGBTQ rights. She describes herself as a "socialist." She has denounced Democratic establishment figures as being overly cozy with Wall Street bosses. And she advocates for working-class people and minorities in areas as diverse as housing, education, justice and transportation. Her positions are largely in line with those of Bernie Sanders, the radical Vermont politician who lost to Clinton in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries. She is even closer to the stances of the young Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, who stunned the political world in late June when she won a New York primary election against greatly favored Democratic heavyweight Joe Crowley. Ocasio-Cortez's victory galvanized the Democrats' progressive wing, which scored another victory on Tuesday in Florida. In a major upset, Democratic primary voters there chose Andrew Gillum -- a black progressive backed by Sanders -- to represent the party in the November election for governor. Can Nixon similarly beat the odds to become the first woman to govern New York's 20 million people? - A Democratic microcosm - Shapiro and most other observers consider a Nixon victory unlikely but not impossible. "Her campaign should be taken seriously," said Michael G. Miller, assistant professor of political science at New York's Barnard College. He said New York, a Democratic bastion, is something of a microcosm of the national debate within the party over how to respond to the Trump phenomenon. What makes New York different, he added, "is there is a greater chance for a candidate like Nixon to win, compared to places like Midwestern states like Ohio or Minnesota, where Democratic candidates have to walk the line on guns or fiscal issues." Miller said the debate between centrists and progressives could benefit the party. But some Democratic strategists fear the party could be caught up in an internecine tempest such as divided establishment Republicans from the ultraconservative Tea Party movement in 2010. Given the depth of opposition to Trump -- a new high of 60 percent of Americans disapprove of his job performance, according to a Washington Post-ABC poll released Friday -- "Democrats have a golden opportunity" to regain a congressional majority in November, said Sam Abrams, a politics professor at Sarah Lawrence College. "But it means they have to stop fighting and have to start acting in a governed, responsible way," he added. "When you have Democrats in complete disarray, as you had Wednesday night" in the Cuomo/Nixon debate, "it opens the door to a GOP win." Anu Duggal and Sutian Dongs tiny co-working office is stacked high with 100 swanky gift bags. Every item stuffed inside the black and cream weekend duffles is trendy and coveted by the New York Millennial set Swell water bottles, Sustain Natural organic tampons, Google Home minis. One product has extra appeal to Duggal and Dong: the newest lip balm from Instagrammable beauty brand Winky Lux, the creation of which was made possible by the women loading the loot into each bag. They are the partners of the Female Founders Fund, a venture capital firm dedicated to funding new tech-related companies created by women. And on one late-July morning, they were preparing for their August CEO Summit, a day-long event that would bring newly minted chief executives into conversations with established leaders like Marissa Mayer, Cecile Richards and Danny Meyer. Its just one of 40-50 events Duggal and Dong host for the founders in their portfolio each year. They run an ambitious calendar of gatherings to help advance the businesses theyve had a hand in launching everything from off-the-record press dinners and breakfasts with uber-successful CEOs to office hours at Instagram. Duggal, an entrepreneur herself, launched the fund solo in 2014, bringing on experienced investor Dong as a partner in 2016. Their mission to support women entrepreneurs comes in part from a place of wanting to see women succeed but it also makes good business sense. Studies have shown that diversity only helps the bottom line; McKinsey & Company found in 2015 that businesses in the top quartiles for racial and ethic diversity and gender diversity are 35% and 15% more likely to outperform their competitors. Duggal founded F3 in 2014, bringing on Dong as her partner in 2016. Together, they announced a new $27 million fund in May, with investors including Melinda Gates. When you think about the face of entrepreneurship 10 to 20 years ago, it looked very different than what it does today, says Dong. For investors who look for patterns in past successes to recreate, female founders rarely fit the model, she says, but thats where she and Duggal see profit potential. The biggest challenge has been convincing others that female founders will make big returns, Duggal says, but she and Dong have taken massive strides toward overcoming it: F3 announced in May that it has raised an impressive $27 million from investors like Melinda Gates, Stitch Fix CEO Katrina Lake and Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani. Were paving the way and opening up the path for so many other female investors to take that leap, Dong says. Story continues The roadblocks facing women in the startup world are not limited to access to funding. When Susan Fowler published a blog post in February 2017 about the discrimination she faced as an engineer at Uber, she blew open a national conversation about sexism in tech. A year and a half later, Dong nods to Fowlers impact. The generation right now is really committed to changing permanently how people interact and how people treat each other, she says. F3 is part of the movement to reimagine an industry that offered only 2% of venture capital dollars to women entrepreneurs last year. Were talking about looking forward and building something new that we want to see, versus existing in a system and a construct thats designed for people that dont look like us, she says. Duggal was born in India; Dong in China. Dong says shes seen fellow women of color in her industry struggle with moments of internal doubt following rejection: Is that because of what I look like, or did that happen because of how they were feeling? she describes people wondering. That unknown piece is hard. The women who come to Dong and Duggal with business ideas often enter with a sense of relief, as if to say, Thank God you exist, Duggal says. Were saying to the world that you can have a fund thats 100% female founders and compete with everybody else in the market. Dong and Duggal visit Natalie Mackey, CEO of beauty brand and F3 portfolio company Winky Lux at her New York City office. The brand that shes built [speaks] to this very particular Millennial audience, and [is] very successful in understanding how to reach them, Duggal says. After a morning of meetings and CEO Summit prep, Duggal and Dong journey 20 blocks east to the Winky Lux offices on the Lower East Side for a mentor session with CEO Natalie Mackey. The Winky Lux storefront, spotted with products including a signature flower lip balm, is a shiny little pink oasis. Customers can test out makeup and pose in front of an Instagram-friendly floral backdrop under the neon-lit words, Youre like really pretty. (If you dont get the reference, Winky Lux is probably not for you.) Duggal and Dong zip past the cutesy setup into the office a room full of glitter-eyed young staffers tapping away at computers half buried under products. Mackey greets them in the back, her sleepy French bulldog Pippy at her side. The three women settle at a white conference table and catch up on the next big thing for Winky Lux: a museum-inspired pop-up shop designed to stand out on social media. Mackey is planning a disco room, a whipped cream room, a cashmere room and a lemon-themed ball pit, all tied to her products. How are you going to move the in-store customers to online? Dong asks. Mackey and her team are engineering ways to capture customer data through the store and creating opportunities to make GIFs that visitors will share online. Whats keeping you up at night? Duggal asks. Mackey is struggling to hire people who can guide customers through the experience with passion for the brand. Duggal suggests hiring actors, as another of F3s portfolio companies is doing for a kids programming business, because theyre comfortable in front of an audience and skilled at taking on new roles. Thats awesome, Mackey says. Good advice. Mackeys French bulldog Pippy works by her side. Theres a unique set of challenges that a female founder has, so its important to have this network, Mackey says later, after Duggal and Dong have left to head back to the office. When she started pitching her company, which uses a proprietary manufacturing process to create new products and capitalize on trends at a rapid pace, tons of venture capital firms said no. I got questions like, Why arent you selling to men? Youre cutting out half of the market, and, Well, I gave this to my wife and she only uses Goop products, so she doesnt think that this would sell, Mackey says. She was introduced to Duggal and Dong through another woman they invest in, Mariah Chase from fashion brand Eloquii. It doesnt surprise me that the first group to write a substantial check was a group that focused on female-led businesses. For the first F3 fund, Duggal offered the founders she invested in the chance to own a piece of the fund. For the second fund, she and Dong invited their portfolio founders to write a small check and become limited partners, in order to gain experience as investors. From day one, its been all about the network, Duggal says. Mackey would love to join the investing process someday. Its interesting being a female founder its definitely the best time yet, she says. But its not as good as its going to be. US President Donald Trump: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump has been accused of waging a "war" on government workers as he announced his plans to cancel planned pay raises for US civilian federal employees. We must maintain efforts to put our Nation on a fiscally sustainable course, and Federal agency budgets cannot sustain such increases, the US president wrote in letter laying out the change. Federal employees were set to receive 2.1 per cent across-the-board pay increases, as well as, increases based on location beginning January 2019. Mr Trump has set both pay increases to zero. He charged that locality pay increases alone would cost $25bn. Virginia Democrat Senator Mark Warner called Mr Trumps announcement an attack on federal employees. Lets be clear: this is not motivated by a sudden onset of fiscal responsibility. This has nothing to do with making government more cost-efficient. Its just the latest attack in the Trump Administrations war on federal employees. https://t.co/y6vQS0P8MN Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) August 30, 2018 Lets be clear: this is not motivated by a sudden onset of fiscal responsibility, Mr Warner wrote on Twitter. This has nothing to do with making government more cost-efficient. Its just the latest attack in the Trump Administrations war on federal employees. Mr Trump insisted in his letter that cancelling the increases would not hinder the governments competitiveness to attract and maintain qualified federal employees. A spokesman for the Democratic National Committee told the Wall Street Journal Mr Trumps latest move was a another slap in the face to American workers. Maryland senator and Democrat Ben Cardin called Trumps plan outrageous and hypocritical and criticised the US president for previous tax cuts. Last December, Mr Trump signed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law, a $1.5 trillion proposal that temporarily cut individual tax rates and gave corporations a tax break by decreasing a 35 per cent tax rate to 21 per cent. It is outrageous and hypocritical that after spending billions of taxpayer dollars on unnecessary tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations and as the President boasts about the 'great' state of the American economy, that suddenly the White House finds that there is zero money left to pay a minimal cost-of-living adjustment to the patriotic, dedicated public servants, Mr Cardin said. The UNRWA provides health care, education and social services to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon: AFP/Getty The United States is ending its decades of funding for the UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees, a week after slashing bilateral US aid for projects in the West Bank and Gaza. The US supplies nearly 30 per cent of the total budget of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and had been demanding reforms in the way it is run. The US State Department said in a written statement the United States will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation. The decision cuts nearly $300m (231m) of planned support. It comes as Donald Trump and his Middle East advisers, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, prepare for the rollout of a much-vaunted plan for Israel and the Palestinians, and it could intensify Palestinian suspicions that Washington is using the humanitarian funding as leverage. The Palestinian leadership has been openly hostile to any proposal from the administration, citing what it says is a pro-Israel bias, notably after the US president recognised Jerusalem as Israels capital in December and moved the US embassy there from Tel Aviv in May. The Palestinian Authority broke off contact with the US after the Jerusalem announcement. In 2016, the US donated $355m to the UNRWA, which provides health care, education and social services to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, and it was set to make a similar contribution this year. In January, the Trump administration released $60m in funds but withheld a further $65m it had been due to provide. The remaining amount around $290m had yet to be allocated. When we made a US contribution of $60m in January, we made it clear that the United States was no longer willing to shoulder the very disproportionate share of the burden of UNRWAs costs that we had assumed for many years, the statement said. Several countries, including Jordan, Egypt, Sweden, Qatar, and the UAE [United Arab Emirates] have shown leadership in addressing this problem, but the overall international response has not been sufficient. Story continues The statement criticised the fundamental business model and fiscal practices of UNRWA, and what the department characterised as the endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes during the war that led to Israels establishment in 1948. Today, there are an estimated five million refugees and their descendants, mostly scattered across the region a figure that has become a point of contention. Palestinian leaders assert the right of those refugees to return to land now under Israeli control. Associated Press Donald Trump, George Papadopoulos, Robert Mueller (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Win McNamee/Getty Images, Alexandria Sheriffs Office/Handout via Reuters, Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images) The lawyers for former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos say in a new court filing that their client lied to the FBI about his contacts with Russians because he was seeking to get a job in the administration at the time and wanted to preserve his loyalty to his master an apparent reference to President Trump. The new explanation for Papadopouloss lies to the FBI came in a 16-page court filing by his lawyers Friday night that also revealed new details about what the former Trump adviser has told special counsel Robert Muellers investigators, including his claim that Trump himself specifically approved his efforts to set up a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the 2016 campaign. As asserted by Papadopouloss lawyers, FBI agents first confronted their client after he stepped out of the shower at his mothers home in Chicago on Jan. 27, 2017 just one week after Trumps inauguration. The agents sought to question him about his contacts with Joseph Mifsud, a Kremlin-linked professor in London, and other key figures of interest in the investigation into Russian ties to the Trump campaign. Papadopoulos admittedly threw agents off the track, telling them that his contacts with Mifsud had begun before he joined the Trump campaign instead of after he was named as a campaign adviser in March 2016. It was a crucial difference, misleading investigators about Mifsuds reasons for reaching out to him as part of what the FBI later concluded was a wide-ranging Kremlin effort to cultivate officials of the Trump campaign. For that, Mr. Papadopoulos is ashamed and remorseful, his lawyers wrote. George Papadopoulos (Photo: George Papadopoulos via Twitter) But Papadopouloss lawyers insist that their clients motives for lying were far from the sinister spin that Muellers prosecutors have suggested: Papadopoulos lied because he was trying to get a job with the Trump administration at the time and feared that if he told FBI agents the truth, it would hurt his chances. Story continues Caught off-guard by an impromptu interrogation, Mr. Papadopoulos misled investigators to save his professional aspirations and preserve a perhaps misguided loyalty to his master, the lawyers wrote. The filing by Papadopouloss lawyers came a week before his scheduled sentencing by U.S. Judge Randolph Moss. Muellers team is seeking a sentence of up to six months in federal prison, contending in their own brief that his lies damaged the FBI investigation, costing agents the opportunity to confront Mifsud when he was in the U.S. The prosecutors also argued that even after he pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate, Papadopoulos provided little substantial information that the FBI didnt already have. To rebut that contention, Papadopouloss lawyers provided other new details about what the former campaign adviser revealed to Mueller as part of his cooperation agreement. One example of previously undisclosed critical information, the lawyers wrote, is that in late May 2016, just before Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to Athens for a state visit, Papadopoulos tipped off the government of Greece to a closely held secret that could affect that years U.S. presidential election: that the Russian government possessed dirt on Hillary Clinton. Greek Foreign Minister Nikolaos Kotzias greets U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at the State Department in Washington, March 13, 2017. (Photo: Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters) It has previously been reported that over drinks at a London bar, also in May 2016, Papadopoulos told an Australian diplomat that the Kremlin had dirt on Clinton in the form of thousands of emails. But the disclosure about his conversation with a senior Greek official described in the court filing as the foreign minister, apparently a reference to Nikolaos Kotzias is the first indication that he spread the same information to another foreign government. Even more significantly, the lawyers wrote, Papadopoulos also informed the FBI about Trumps positive reaction when he first proposed using his Russia contacts to set up a pre-election summit between the then-GOP presidential candidate and Putin. As laid out in the court filing, Papadopoulos presented his plan to arrange the summit with Putin at a March 31, 2016, meeting in Washington of the Trump campaigns new national security advisory team. Trump himself presided over the meeting, which included then-Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., now Trumps embattled attorney general. Eager to show his value to the campaign, George announced at the meeting that he had connections that could facilitate a foreign policy meeting between Mr. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the lawyers wrote. While some in the room rebuffed Georges offer, Mr. Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr. Sessions, who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it. That account would appear to contradict Sessions testimony to Congress last year that he pushed back on the idea of a Trump-Putin summit and told the young adviser that he was not authorized to represent the campaign on the matter. Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, Nov. 14, 2017. (Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images) But it confirms an account first revealed in Russian Roulette a book written by this reporter and David Corn that Papadopoulos believed Trump gave him encouragement to pursue the idea. In fact, after the meeting with Trump and Sessions, Papadopoulos aggressively followed up on his efforts to arrange a Putin summit. He met on several occasions with Mifsud, the Kremlin-linked professor; a young woman named Olga who he believed (wrongly) to be Putins niece; and a Russia-connected think-tank director in London all while keeping senior officials of the Trump campaign informed about his efforts. Georges giddiness over Mr. Trumps recognition was prominent during the days that followed the March 31, 2016, meeting, the lawyers wrote. He had a sense of unbridled loyalty to the candidate and his campaign and set about trying to organize the meeting with President Putin. Papadopoulos apparently learned about the Kremlin file on Clinton during one of his conversations with Mifsud in London in late April, after getting what he believed was the nod of approval from Trump to set up the conference with Putin. As previously detailed by Muellers prosecutors, Papadopoulos had breakfast with Mifsud at a London hotel on April 26, 2016, and first was told that the Russians had emails of Clinton. They have thousands of emails. What Papadopoulos told the Trump campaign about this if anything remains unclear. His lawyers wrote that their client later told the FBI he does not recall ever passing along the information about the Clinton emails to others in the Trump campaign. (The day after the Mifsud breakfast, Papadopoulos did email campaign policy official Stephen Miller vaguely: Have some interesting messages coming in from Moscow about a trip when the time is right.) Joseph Mifsud (Photo: Juan Manuel Herrera/OAS) But Papadopoulos did relay the information about the Clinton emails to Alexander Downer, the top Australian diplomat to the United Kingdom, during a night of heavy drinking at the Kensington Wine Room in London. Downers later report of that conversation was a critical event that triggered the FBI to open up a counterintelligence investigation into Russias efforts to interfere in the 2016 election and its outreach to members of the Trump campaign. Left unexplained in the new court filing is why Papadopoulos passed along the same information about Russian dirt on Clinton to the Greek foreign minister. But the fact that he did so just a few days before Putin visited that country suggests he may have been trying to spur closer ties between Moscow and Athens. At the time, according to published reports, Putin was seeking to drive a wedge between Greece and the European Union and encourage the Greeks to support rolling back E.U. sanctions on Russia for its 2014 annexation of Crimea. That effort had an echo in the Trump campaigns ambivalence about continuing sanctions against Russia. Putins visit apparently bore some fruit. At his meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Putin told him that Russia would never negotiate over its annexation of Crimea. Tsipras did not push back. I would like to once again emphasize that strengthening our connections with Russia is our strategic choice, Tsipras told Putin, according to a Kremlin transcript of the meeting. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, left, welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Maximos Mansion in Athens, Greece, May 27, 2016. (Photo: Orestis Panagiotou/EPA via AP) _____ Read more from Yahoo News: Staffing shortages and struggles to recruit top-class talent have left Donald Trumps administration unprepared for the looming prospect of impeachment, White House insiders fear. Allies of the president reportedly believe job changes and firings have severely weakened the presidents legal and communications teams, two departments crucial to him staving off growing threats to his position. Novembers midterm elections could hand the Democrats the power to impeach Mr Trump, as special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential vote edges closer to the Oval Office. Nine current and former White House staffers and administration allies expressed concerns that the West Wing was unprepared for the potential troubles ahead. They spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. The upcoming departure of White House counsel Don McGahn has highlighted the challenges facing Mr Trumps legal department, an office that has shrunk by a third since last year. Mr McGahns deputy and chief of staff, Annie Donaldson, is also expected to leave soon after her superior departs, two staffers said. Meanwhile, the White House media office is down to four press secretaries working on day-to-day White House matters, and the regional and Cabinet affairs teams in the communications office have been hollowed out. Former Fox News executive Bill Shine, who joined the White House earlier this summer as communications director and deputy chief of staff, is looking to rebuild a shrunken media affairs team in anticipation of the challenges ahead. Mr Shine is said to be looking for experienced staff to handle questions about the Mueller probe and congressional oversight. Hes doing a lot of thinking about how to properly structure everything, not only for a Trump White House but for what the next couple of years will be like, said former White House press secretary Sean Spicer. But filling the job vacancies is proving difficult, with qualified candidates steering clear of the volatile West Wing because of fears about their reputation and even potential legal exposure, according to current and former officials and one candidate who was approached by the White House. Story continues Others are wary of joining the team to defend the president, knowing he will often ignore their advice or could turn on them by tweet. A White House official disputed that the administration has had difficulty filling positions. Mr Trumps allies reportedly fear the staffing shortages have left him ill-prepared to handle the legal onslaught expected to be triggered by Mr Muellers probe and the flood of congressional investigations that could follow a Democratic takeover of the House. Despite the looming threat, the president is not thought to have advised his legal teams or political advisers to begin preparing action plans in the event of his impeachment. I dont know if hes really thought about it in depth yet, Rudy Giuliani, Mr Trumps person lawyer, told the Washington Post this week. On Thursday Mr Trump signalled that he has settled on a successor for Mr McGahn, tweeting: I am very excited about the person who will be taking the place of Don McGahn as White House Councel! He later published another tweet that spelled counsel correctly. Emmet Flood, who joined Mr Trumps White House in May as in-house counsel for the Mueller probe, has been tipped to replace Mr McGahn, who has given him his backing. Mr Flood is a veteran lawyer who defended Bill Clinton during his impeachment process and represented George W Bush during disputes over his refusal to disclose information to Congress. "You couldn't ask for a more qualified and better-prepared attorney," said Mark Corallo, a former spokesman for the president's outside legal team. That experience may well be vital to Mr Trump, he added. If the Democrats win a majority in the House in November, the president is expected to face not only possible impeachment hearings, but a bombardment of Congressional subpoenas, inquires and hearings that his opponents hope will hobble his administration. "At that point the president's going to need some very skilled attorneys," said Mr Corallo. President Donald Trump seems pleased that "at least Canada knows where I stand!" (Photo: Yuri Gripas / Reuters) President Donald Trump on Friday confirmed insulting comments that hed first made off the record regarding his unwillingness to work with Canada on the North American Free Trade Agreement. During an interview with Bloomberg News on Thursday, Trump said he was not willing to compromise with Canada on revising NAFTA. He put those remarks off the record, but they were quickly leaked to the Toronto Star. Heres the problem. If I say no the answers no, Trump said about a possible compromise. If I say no, then youre going to put that, and its going to be so insulting theyre not going to be able to make a deal. ... I cant kill these people. Any potential trade deal with Canada would be totally on our terms, he said, and expressed his pleasure with his current strategy of repeatedly threatening to impose tariffs, according to the Star. Off the record, Canadas working their ass off, Trump said. And every time we have a problem with a point, I just put up a picture of a Chevrolet Impala. As the Star noted, the Impala is produced in Oshawa, Ontario. Trump gave Canada a Friday deadline to sign on to what hes calling a NAFTA replacement after Mexico and the U.S. reached a preliminary agreement on Monday. David Stockman, Ronald Reagans budget director, described that agreement as an older version of NAFTA with Trump missteps sprinkled in. There was never a problem with NAFTA anyway, and what he has done is basically remove the name and complicated the machinery [and] given a big wage increase to Mexican workers, Stockman told Bloomberg Television on Friday. Trump, meanwhile, has admitted to those quotes while once again raging at the media. At least Canada knows where I stand! he tweeted. Wow, I made OFF THE RECORD COMMENTS to Bloomberg concerning Canada, and this powerful understanding was BLATANTLY VIOLATED. Oh well, just more dishonest reporting. I am used to it. At least Canada knows where I stand! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2018 Trump then repeated the comments again at an event in Charlotte, North Carolina. Story continues President Trump: "The said 'President Trump said off the record' and then they go onto thisThis is a first. These are very dishonorable people. But, I said in the end it's ok, because at least Canada knows how I feel. So, it's fine." pic.twitter.com/cCg6oDya9j CSPAN (@cspan) August 31, 2018 The Canadian government has not issued a response to the presidents remarks. Related Coverage Donald Trump Hasn't Scared American Companies Out Of Ditching U.S. Workers David Stockman Calls Trump A 'Complete Ignoramus' On Fiscal Policy Weed Growers Not High On Vicente Fox's Goal To Add Pot To NAFTA Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to exclude Canada from a new NAFTA agreement after negotiations to rewrite the pact ended without an agreement the night before. "There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. If we don't make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out," he tweeted. "Congress should not interfere with these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off." US-Canadian trade talks are set to resume on Wednesday, and Ottawa and Washington still have time to reach an agreement that would keep Canada in the 25-year-old trade pact with Mexico. But Trump's tweet seemed designed to ramp up pressure on Canadian negotiators. Earlier in the week, officials appeared close to reaching a deal that would rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement, but leaked inflammatory comments from Trump -- seen by some Canadians as suggesting he was bargaining in bad faith -- threatened to upend the talks. Trump has repeatedly denounced NAFTA as "one of the worst trade deals ever made," language he repeated on Saturday. - 'If it is willing' - The US and Mexico had announced a breakthrough accord on Monday, potentially leaving Canada out in the cold, but Ottawa's foreign minister Chrystia Freeland insisted that a "win-win-win" agreement was within reach. The White House notified Congress on Friday of its "intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico -- and Canada, if it is willing -- 90 days from now." The White House now has 30 days to present the full text of a new agreement to Congress, which will give Ottawa and Washington time to iron out differences. Trump's caution to Congress to "not interfere with these negotiations" appeared to refer to one potential obstacle: the fact that lawmakers have empowered him to reach a so-called "fast track" agreement with both NAFTA partners, not just Mexico. Story continues It is unclear how that will be sorted out. In a second tweet Saturday, Trump suggested that the United States would be better off with no trade agreement than with a flawed NAFTA deal. "We were far better off before NAFTA... We make new deal or go back to pre-NAFTA!" he said. Sounding a more optimistic note, Freeland had said late in the week that "with good will and flexibility on all sides, I know we can get there." But she repeated that Canada would only sign an agreement that was in its national interest. "Our officials are continuing to work toward agreement," US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement, stressing the benefits to US workers and businesses. The US-Mexico agreement laid out new rules for auto trade, and provided tougher protections for workers and intellectual property. But the talks with Canada snagged over the mechanisms used to resolve disputes among partners, and on Ottawa's strictly controlled dairy sector. On Friday, a senior US official emphasized that Washington was ready to move ahead with just Mexico if Canada failed to sign on. Mexican officials have made clear that they prefer an agreement that includes Canada. Two prosecutors, including a top computer crimes investigator, have departed special counsel Robert Mueller's team investigating links between Trump associates and Russia, leaving Mueller with 15 attorneys on staff. The departures did not have to do with any allegations of wrongdoing or political bias, said a spokesman for the special counsel. It was notable when one of the prosecutors, Ryan Dickey, joined Mueller's team in November 2017 because he was the first prosecutor on the team known to specialize in cyber crimes. Two prosecutors, including an expert in computer crimes, have departed special counsel Robert Mueller 's team investigating links between Russia and associates of President Donald Trump , a spokesman for the special counsel confirmed to CNBC Friday. Ryan Dickey and Brian Richardson appear to have left the team this summer, according to a report by CNN , which first broke the news of the departures. Mueller's team now has 15 attorneys. The exits did not have to do with any allegations of wrongdoing or political bias, special counsel spokesman Peter Carr said. The president has regularly berated the special counsel's team of prosecutors, accusing them of being politically biased and conducting an illegal "witch hunt." In particular, Trump and his allies have gone after Peter Strzok, a former top investigator on the probe, who was removed from the team after Mueller was made aware of anti-Trump texts that Strzok exchanged with a Justice Department lawyer during the 2016 presidential campaign. The recent departures from the probe, which entered its second year under Mueller's direction in May, show no evidence of the sort of impropriety alleged in the Strzok case. Dickey will continue to work for the Justice Department , and Richardson has taken a position as a research fellow at Columbia Law School. It was notable when Dickey joined Mueller's team in November 2017 because he was the first prosecutor on the team known to specialize in cybercrimes. After joining the team, Dickey worked on the two computer crime cases Mueller has brought so far in his probe of Russian election interference. Story continues In February, the special counsel obtained an indictment against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities accused of operating a social media troll farm to meddle in the 2016 election. In July, a grand jury handed up an indictment against 12 Russian nationals accused of hacking into servers belonging to Democrats during the race. Dickey has not formally removed himself from those cases. The Washington Post reported in June that Mueller was preparing to hand off some of his prosecutions to the Justice Department. Transferring cases to career prosecutors outside Mueller's office could make it more difficult for the president to end the inquiries by ordering Mueller to be fired. Richardson formerly worked as a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. He worked on Mueller's prosecution of Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan, who pleaded guilty in February to lying to investigators. WATCH: Everything Trump and Putin said when asked point-blank about Russian meddling More From CNBC By Nathan Layne and David Alexander (Reuters) - An American who is the business partner of a Russian national accused by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller of having ties to Russian intelligence pleaded guilty on Friday to unregistered lobbying for a pro-Kremlin political party in Ukraine. Samuel Patten, 47, also agreed to cooperate with Mueller's probe. Patten admitted to arranging for a U.S. citizen to act as a straw purchaser to pay $50,000 for four tickets to the inauguration of President Donald Trump on behalf of a Ukrainian oligarch, who reimbursed Patten through a Cypriot account. The move circumvented U.S. law prohibiting foreigners from providing money to an organization running the inauguration. The tickets were given to the oligarch, another Ukrainian, Patten and the Russian national, according to the charging documents. While the documents did not name the Russian national, the description matches Konstantin Kilimnik, Patten's business partner, who was indicted along with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in June for witness tampering in an ongoing criminal case in Washington. Mueller has said Kilimnik, who once served in the Russian army as a translator, has links to Russian spy agencies. Kilimnik, who in the past has denied such ties, did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. Patten's plea agreement, which includes cooperating with Mueller, raises the prospect Patten will be called to testify against Manafort, who was found guilty by a Virginia jury last week on bank and tax fraud charges and faces a second trial in Washington next month. The charge Patten pleaded guilty to - violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) by not disclosing lobbying work for Ukrainian politicians - is similar to one of the core allegations against Manafort in his upcoming trial. Michael Zeldin, a former federal prosecutor, predicted Patten will be a witness in the trial. "I expect his value as a cooperating witness is he will know how those guys conducted their business relations and can probably shed light on efforts made to evade FARA reporting requirements," he said. Patten admitted to working with the Russian national to lobby members of Congress and the executive branch on behalf of the pro-Russian Opposition Bloc without disclosing the work to the U.S. government, as required by law. The charge, which carries a maximum of five years in prison, was brought by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and the Justice Department's National Security Division, which started investigating Patten after a referral from Mueller. Patten appeared before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who will oversee Manafort's upcoming trial. Patten did not speak to reporters at the court, but apologized to family and friends on Facebook after entering his plea. "I was wrong not to have filed under FARA for the representational aspects of my work on behalf of the Opposition Bloc in Ukraine," Patten wrote in a post seen by Reuters, adding that he had sought to promote democracy during a political consulting career that included work in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. "That is why I deeply regret any damage my failure to register has done to the transparency the FARA statute seeks to guarantee." Patten's work in Ukraine dovetailed somewhat with that of Manafort. Manafort made most of his money working for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych before he fled to Russia in 2014, but like Patten also sought to drum up business with the Opposition Bloc in the aftermath of Yanukovych's exit. Patten's ties to Kilimnik are more concrete. The two set up the political advisory firm Begemot Ventures Ltd LLC in February 2015, which was paid more than $1 million for their work for Ukrainian interests. The unidentified oligarch was one of their biggest benefactors, the charging documents said. The description of the oligarch, including his attendance at Trump's inauguration and the placing of an op-ed in February 2017 by Patten, appeared to match that of Serhiy Lyovochkin, an Opposition Bloc lawmaker and Yanukovych's former chief of staff. An opinion piece titled "Ukraine Can Win in the Trump Age" by Lyovochkin was published in U.S. News & World Report on February 6, 2017, two weeks after the inauguration. Among other assertions, the article blamed a newly created anti-corruption bureau in Ukraine of "manufacturing a case" against Manafort. At Manafort's Virginia trial, his former protege Rick Gates testified that Lyovochkin paid Manafort's consulting firm millions of dollars for political work, including for the Party of Regions, the predecessor of the Opposition Bloc. Gates said Lyovochkin wired the funds from his Cyprus bank account. Lyovochkin's office did not respond to a request for comment. Patten also did work for the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, the now-defunct political data firm that was embroiled in a controversy over its use of Facebook Inc data, according to interview transcripts submitted by academic Emma Briant and published by British lawmakers earlier this year. (Reporting by David Alexander in Washington, and Nathan Layne and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Dan Grebler and Kim Coghill) The U.S. is poised to cut all funding for a U.N. agency dedicated to helping Palestinian refugees, The Washington Post reports. The U.S. is the largest individual donor to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, according to the agencys website. The organization provides education, health services, community centers, and financial aid to millions of refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank. According to CNN, the decision to cut funding was made during a meeting between President Donald Trumps senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, is said to support the move. President Trump threatened to revoke aid to the organization in January on the grounds that Palestinians are no longer willing to talk peace with Israel, eventually cutting the amount of donated funds in half. Fridays news, expected to become a formal announcement within the next few weeks, will end all funding. The Trump administration is also expected to call for the end of refugee status for many Palestinians, a move that would revoke their right of return to homes in Israel. According to the Post, the White House wants to reduce the numbers from their current levels at more than 5 million to a few hundred thousand. In a statement to The New York Times, a spokeswoman for the United Nations relief agency said they havent received notice of funding being cut, but added We remain grateful for the funding that the United States has provided thus far. Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, told the Post that the U.S.s decision could have severe destabilizing effects on the region. With less aid and less education, more Palestinians may be at risk for recruitment by groups such as Daesh (Islamic State). Geneva (AFP) - The UN urged Syria Friday not to "revictimise" the children of fighters in Idlib amid a feared government offensive on the rebel-held province, insisting they were not responsible for their parents' actions. The United Nations children's agency, UNICEF, voiced alarm at the likely impact of a major military operation in the province, which is home to some three million people -- a third of them children. "The greatest concern is that among the very strong military rhetoric at the moment, we seem to forget that there are more than one million children living in that area," UNICEF's director for emergency operations Manuel Fontaine told AFP in an interview. Fontaine was just back from a trip to Syria, where he travelled to Damascus, Homs and Aleppo but did not gain access to Idlib. He voiced particular concern for the children of rebel fighters in that province, worrying that they might suffer the consequences of their parents' choices. "I think there is a real risk to revictimise these children and again associate them to what their fathers might have done," said Fontaine. "It is extremely important that common sense prevails... and that frankly, when you are a four-year-old, a five-year-old, a 10-year-old or 11-year-old, and your parents have made a particular decision, that is not your responsibility," he said. "The protection of these children is extremely important to us, and we will certainly be watching over that very carefully." - 'Particularly vulnerable' - Fontaine's comments came amid fears of an imminent government offensive on Syria's only remaining rebel-held province. Government forces looked poised to launch what could be one of the last major battles of the civil war that has torn Syria apart since 2011. After retaking a succession of rebel bastions around the country this year, the government of President Bashar al-Assad has set its sights on Idlib. Story continues The province, which borders Turkey, is home to nearly three million people, up to half of whom are rebels and civilians transferred en masse after pro-government forces retook formerly rebel-held areas. "We know that in Idlib, there are children who have been displaced five, six, seven times already," Fontaine said, pointing out that many had already lived through massive military attacks in places like Aleppo, Homs and Eastern Ghouta. "They are particularly vulnerable," he said. A major military operation in the province is expected to pose a particular humanitarian nightmare because there is no nearby opposition territory left in Syria where people could be evacuated to. UN envoy Staffan de Mistura called Thursday for the creation of a "humanitarian corridor" to allow civilians to evacuate to nearby areas under government control. Fontaine stressed that anyone opting to leave "would have to be protected and provided immediate humanitarian assistance. "We need to be given access to them very rapidly so that we can help." He also stressed that "any movement needs to be voluntary," and that "those who decide to stay still need to be protected. They are civilians, and they shouldn't be put in harm's way." He said UNICEF was laying contingency plans "to provide immediate assistance to up to 400,000 displaced people." The UN humanitarian organisation has meanwhile estimated that as many as 800,000 people might flee in one of the Syrian war's largest displacements yet. Los Angeles (AFP) - A US judge on Thursday blocked the opening of grizzly bear hunts that were set to take place this weekend around Yellowstone National Park for the first time in 40 years. The ruling by US District Judge Dana Christensen, of Montana, marked a victory for wildlife advocates and Native American tribes that had sought to stop the controversial hunt scheduled to open in Idaho and Wyoming on Saturday. "This is a pretty major victory and we are nothing short of elated," Melissa Thomasma, executive director of Wyoming Wildlife Advocates, told AFP. "The hunt was controversial from the beginning and we have been firmly opposed to it from the start." The Crow Indian Tribe and several other Native American tribes filed suit last year against the US Fish and Wildlife Service over its decision to remove protections for about 700 grizzly bears in the Rocky Mountains on the grounds they were no longer an endangered species. Christensen heard arguments in the case on Thursday and issued a temporary restraining order for 14 days while mulling whether the federal government should reinstate federal protections for the bears. "As we explained to the judge today, the removal of protections for Yellowstones iconic grizzlies was illegal," said Tim Preso, an attorney for Earthjustice, which is representing several conservation groups and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe. "The bears should not be killed in a hunting season made possible by an illegal government decision." The judge in his ruling said he had received substantial documentation that the impending hunt would cause irreparable harm to the bears "because once a member of an endangered species has been injured, the task of preserving that species becomes all the more difficult." - High mortality rate - A spokesman for the US Fish and Wildlife Service could not be immediately reached for comment. The planned hunts would have allowed for up to 23 bears to be killed outside of Yellowstone National Park, which is located in the western US states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Story continues Renny MacKay, spokesman for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, said 12 people had sought licenses to hunt the grizzlies and his office was notifying recipients of the judge's order. Conservationists have challenged the federal government's contention that the grizzly population in that area is stable and argue that the hunts would put more pressure on a species already struggling to survive. "There have been high mortality rates among grizzly bears in the past few years and their traditional food sources are diminishing because of climate change," Thomasma said. "Bears are having to work harder to simply get the same number of calories and so we thought it was completely inappropriate to add the additional pressure of hunting on top of these already record-breaking mortality rates." Ronaldo still hasnt hit the net in a competitive game for Juventus Cristiano Ronaldo has asked Juventus for at least three bodyguards to look after him and his family in Turin. Ronaldo moved to Juventus in the summer following nine years at Real Madrid, and has been getting used to life in northern Italy. READ MORE: Mourinho: I am one of the greatest managers in the world READ MORE: Seri tells Liverpool & Chelsea they didnt work hard enough to do 30m deal READ MORE: Manchester United still top team Guardiola defends Mourinho According to the Corriere di Torino newspaper, the Ballon dOr winner is concerned his villa in the Gran Madre park is too exposed. The former Manchester United man asked Juve to organise two security guards, one for his family and one to keep an eye on the villa at all times, plus a third bodyguard to accompany him everywhere he goes. Ronaldo is setting down roots in Turin, as his son Cristiano Jr has started training in the Juventus youth academy. He has played two Serie A games so far, a 3-2 win at Chievo and a 2-0 home victory over Lazio. Ronaldo has had a sensational career, with many believing him to be up there with Lionel Messi as the greatest player of all time. He has won five European Cups, a host of league titles, and Euro 2016 with Portugal. And theres plenty more still to come. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=823167 Warfare History Network, John W. Whitman Security, Asia Japans ambitious plan to build aircraft carriers in wartime could not be supported by available resources. Why Japan Didn't Go Aircraft Carrier Crazy To Beat America During World War II Japan lacked the industrial strength needed to wage a war against the United States. Yet, Japanese military planners seldom considered the limitations to their nations construction capabilities. One example is the Imperial Japanese Navys June 30, 1942, plan for aircraft carrier construction. The loss of one light and four fleet carriers sunk and one badly damaged at the Battles of the Coral Seaand Midway had shocked naval planners. Warship construction in June 1942 was already minuscule, yet the Navy laid impossible goals on an industrial base patently incapable of meeting expectations. Mass-Producing the Unryu-class Aircraft Carrier At the time, Japan was constructing a single, keel-up, purpose-built aircraft carrier. Kawasaki had laid down Taiho on July 10, 1941; she was the only carrier laid down in 1941 and the only ship of her class. That same year, the United States laid down five Essex class carriers. Taiho was the only nonconversion fleet carrier laid down from 1941 onward by the Japanese versus 24 U.S. Essex and Midway-class carriers laid down in the same period. Taiho displaced 29,300 tons and was Japans only nonconversion, war-built fleet carrier that was similar to (actually bigger than) an Essex. The Japanese Navy commissioned Taiho on March 7, 1944. Taiho exemplifies Japans industrial capabilities. She was the only nonconversion fleet carrier commissioned during the war against 17 U.S. purpose-built fleet carriers. Taiho took 32 months to complete. Essex, laid down less than three months before Taiho, was commissioned in just 20 months. The Japanese Navy ordered two improved Taiho designs in 1942 but then cancelled both. Another attempt, the June 30, 1942, effort, resulted in plans for five modified Taihos. The appearance of these ships in the order of battle was scheduled for 1947 (two ships) and 1948 (three ships), not an encouraging production program. They, too, were never laid down. Story continues Regardless of actual performance, Japanese naval construction priorities in 1942 went to air strength, and that strength included aircraft carriers. There is quite a lead time in budgeting, planning for materials, and movement of materials to a shipyard before workers can lay a keel. It was not until late 1942 that Japans carrier program went into high gear, spurred by Midway and the June construction plan. Yards began the first three semi-fleet carriers of the new Unryu class. The keels of Unryu, Amagi, and Katsuragi were laid on August 1, October 1, and December 8, respectively. With a standard displacement of about 17,150 tons, the Unryu-class carriers were based on the prewar, two-ship Hiryu class, with improvements. The Unryu class fell short of the capabilities of both an Essex that displaced 27,500 tons standard and below the Japanese carriers Shokaku and Zuikakuat 25,675 tons standard. Unryu-class carriers were similar in displacement to, but lighter than, the original Yorktown class of 19,872 tons. The Japanese did not really expect the Unryu class to perform as full-fledged fleet carriers; the Taiho class would do that. In accordance with Japans post-conquest strategic defensive posture, Unryu-class carriers would be the core of anticonvoy strike groups supported by cruisers and destroyers. These three Unryu-class carriers were the first of a mass production run. The Japanese originally expected to build Unryu and 15 more, but then settled on Unryu and 13 more, for a total of 14. The Navy planned to complete two in calendar year 1944, five in 1945, four in 1946, two in 1947, and one in 1948. Nine or more would be under construction during peak production. The plan to construct 14 Unryu-class carriers counted on a number of assumptions. Shipyards needed steel from imported raw materials. Industrial power had to come from Home Island oil, hydroelectric, and coal. The training base had to produce trained pilots, sailors, and mechanics. Aircraft manufacturers had to produce carrier aircraft. Shipyards needed skilled labor, yard space (there had better not be too much repair work to interfere), and ship power plants. Once completed, the ships needed oil and escorts. As with so many Japanese assumptions, all these failed to materialize. Recommended: What Will the Sixth-Generation Jet Fighter Look Like? 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? Too Many Carriers, Too Few Escorts The June 30 plan for 14 Unryu-class carriers suffered from a serious lack of reality. If planners really expected to build so many, completely excluding the demands of constructing ships of the Taihoclass (one Taiho under production and five more planned), they needed 2.5 destroyers and 1.2 cruisers per carrier as escorts. Those ratios are based on the destroyer and cruiser escorts used per carrier at Pearl Harbor, Rabaul/Kavieng, Darwin, Indian Ocean, Coral Sea, Midway, the Aleutians, Eastern Solomons, Santa Cruz, the Attu response of May 1943, and the September and October 1943 Eniwetok sorties. A balanced 14-ship Unryu-class plan meant that the Imperial Japanese Navy needed 35 new destroyers and 17 new cruisers to arrive with the carriers from 1944 through 1947, all in addition to normal construction, to make good wartime losses. If one were to delete the unusually large cruiser and destroyer forces of May, September, and October 1943, and count only 1941-1942 averages, the Navy still would have needed 30 destroyers and 12 cruisers. During the entire war, Japan commissioned 31 destroyers, while the United States commissioned 365. The Japanese commissioned five light cruisers and no heavy cruisers, while the United States commissioned 46 large, heavy, and light cruisers. In defense of the 14-ship Unryu plan, the Japanese might have assumed that existing escorts could protect the new carriers. As of June 30, 1942, the Navy had suffered few escort losses: only nine destroyers sunk and one converted to a target ship. They had accepted five from new construction, a net loss of five. Another nine were in port undergoing battle damage repair. Future destroyer production did not look good, just 11 over the next 12 months. The June 30 cruiser status looked better than destroyers, only one of 18 heavy cruisers lost, and none of the 17 light cruisers sunk. One of each was out of action for battle damage repair. Like destroyers, cruiser production forecasts for the next 12 months were very low, no heavies and just three light. The first Unryu-class carriers could have used the escorts that had supported Coral Seas Shoho and Midways Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu. Escorts that had in 1941 and 1942 protected transport units, invasion forces, and occupation forces might be available in 1944 and later. Planners had to assume that those destroyers and cruisers were still afloat in 1944 when the first Unryu-class carriers appeared. One might also assume that more carriers would be sunk and under repair than escorts, such as Shokaku, damaged twice in 1942 and drydocked 20 weeks that year and 11 weeks into 1943. Therefore, escorts could shuffle between active carriers. All this assumed few escort losses, a very risky assumption indeed. Planners briefly considered converting 13 heavy cruisers to light aircraft carriers. That would have removed them from the escort force and increased the need for new cruiser construction. Regardless of these possibilities, escort assumptions and strength both collapsed in late 1942 during the New Guinea and Solomons campaigns. By the time the Navy commissioned Unryu on August 6, 1944, the destroyer fleet had lost 56 ships, leaving them at 46 percent of their December 8, 1941, destroyer strength, including destroyers over 1,200 tons and not counting new Matsu-class destroyer escorts. Losing the Production Race To overcome carrier engine production shortfalls and a lack of suitable power plants, the Japanese had to use turbines that had been built for canceled ships. The Navy turned to cruiser machinery for the Unryu class: engines developed for Mogami-class heavy cruisers. There were problems with this substitution. A shortage of parts even for cruiser engines meant that the third and fifth Unryu-class carriers ended up with destroyer turbines. Both ships thereby lost one-third of their planned power, and their maximum speed dropped by two knots. Where the Navy could have acquired power plants for five more Taiho-class carriers and the remaining Unryu-class carriers is a good question. The Navy commissioned the Unryu, Amagi, and Katsuragi in the fall of 1944, too late to be of any use. Unryu did sortie on a logistics transport mission in December only to be torpedoed and sunk. The seventh, eighth, and ninth Essex-class carriers, Hornet, Franklin, and Bennington, were laid down on August 3, December 7, and December 15, respectively, dates similar to the first three Unryu-class carriers. The Japanese required 24, 22, and 22 months to lay down, launch, and commission Unryu, Amagi, and Katsuragi. The United States took 16, 16, and 20 months for Hornet, Franklin, and Bennington, each of which displaced 63 percent more than an Unryu. Considering these six specific carriers and not counting other Essex-class carriers under construction, the Japanese built 25.2 tons of Unryu-class carriers per day, and the United States built 52.1 tons of Essex-class carriers per day. U.S. shipyards built twice as much tonnage each day and delivered each ship 24 percent faster. The United States sustained similar construction efforts over the course of the war, whereas Japan did not. So, from mid-1942 to early 1944, Japan could bring into service only three fleet carriers, Junyo, Hiyo,and Taiho, all laid down before war began, the first two of which were conversions from ocean liners rather than purpose-built. Shipyards laid down or converted more carriers, launched them, and commissioned them during the war. For example, the light carriers Chitose and Chiyoda were converted from seaplane carriers, but all too late. Japan built no light or escort carriers from the keel up during the war. Troubles with Training There is more to building an aircraft carrier than shipbuilding. Early in 1943, the military realized it had to drastically expand pilot training to a level three times the current structure. The Japanese wanted to do three things: increase the numbers of replacements going to units engaged in combat, build up the training base, and accumulate a reserve of pilots for future operations. The Navy increased its training air groups from 15 to 48. The first part of the pilot requirement came from the optimistic need to man up to six Taiho-class carriers, up to 16 and later 14 Unryu-class carriers, carrier conversion Shinano, up to four hermaphrodite battleship conversions, one cruiser conversion to a light carrier (Ibuki), the conversion of heavy cruiser Mogami into an aircraft cruiser, and the light carrier conversions Chitose and Chiyoda. There were also three 1943 escort carrier conversions planned, Kaiyo and Shinyo, both completed, and Brazil Maru, sunk before conversion. The Japanese actually used their escort carriers most frequently as aircraft transports, so those ships did not often need pilots. A second part of the pilot requirement came from plans to activate the First Air Fleet of over 1,600 authorized aircraft with two air flotillas, the 61st and the 62nd. A third part of the requirement came from simply maintaining the current strength of land- and carrier-based air groups as well as pilots for seaplane carriers and light and heavy cruisers. In mid-1942, the pilot training program might have looked achievable. No new fleet carriers were expected to come on line until 1944 with Taiho. But no one had foreseen the severity of pilot losses soon to come. Most of these training air groups operated from 52 bases in Japan, while two bases were in the Philippines, five bases on Formosa, and five bases in the Singapore area. The critical bottleneck in training pilots and crewmen was inadequate training equipment. Training bases had low priority for the issuing of Japans limited number of aircraft. Training aircraft were in short supply and often of poor quality. Any delays or shortfalls in aircraft production seriously affected training units. The Japanese increased fighter production 171 percent from 1941 to 1942 and 143 percent from 1942 to 1943. They increased bomber production by 66 percent and 72 percent during those same two years. The production of trainers, however, increased only 46 percent in 1942 and 32 percent in 1943. The Japanese had established their production priorities, and trainers were well down the list. Instructors had too many students to manage them effectively. The urgency to train pilots overwhelmed the curriculum. Veteran naval ace Saburo Sakai recalled in early 1943, We couldnt watch for individual errors and take the long hours necessary to weed the faults out of a trainee. The decision to press for quantity over quality meant that poorly trained fliers graduated to combat units. We were told to rush men through, to forget the fine points, just teach them how to fly and shoot. Thus, aside from the problems of actually building aircraft carriers in the numbers projected, the Japanese could never have built escorts or trained enough fliers, mechanics, and armorers to operate with them. The last gasp of naval air power afloat occurred in June 1944, at the Battle of the Philippine Sea, before the first of the Unryu-class carriers was commissioned. Production Grinds to a Halt The Japanese war effort was so unbalanced and so crippled by industrial and managerial weaknesses that the June 30, 1942, aircraft carrier plan was little more than a feverish reaction to Coral Sea and Midway. The fever would ultimately break. The five-Taiho program was cancelled. The 14-Unryu program ground to a halt after six hulls had been laid and launched, three ships commissioned, and one of those three deployed as a transport. John W. Whitman is the author of Bataan: Our Last DitchThe Bataan Campaign, 1942. He is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and a holder of the Combat Infantrymans Badge. He resides in Alexandria, Virginia. Originally Published in 2016. This article by John W. Whitman originally appeared on the Warfare History Network. Image: Wikimedia Commons Read full article Gothenburg (Sweden) (AFP) - Matilda Hagerman laughs with her friends as she queues at a man-free music festival, which kicked off in Sweden on Friday in protest against a wave of sexual assaults at festivals in recent years. "This festival was necessary because of everything that happened during festivals last year," says the 27-year-old student with long pink hair and purple lipstick as her friends nod in agreement. Held in Sweden's second-largest city of Gothenburg, the two-day Statement Festival, forbids men but not transgender people. It was announced last year after police received four rape and 23 sexual assault reports at Sweden's largest Bravalla Festival, which was cancelled this year as a result. "What do you think about us creating an awesome festival where only non-men are welcome until ALL men learn how to behave?" Swedish comedian Emma Knyckare, who founded the Statement Festival, tweeted at the time. Located inside an industrial building in Gothenburg's harbour, only female bands are performing and neither male security guards nor journalists are allowed to enter. Rebecka Ljung, spokeswoman for the festival, told AFP "thousands" of women were expected to attend the festival. Under cloudy skies, the festival got started with women holding beers and smiling and walking harmoniously in groups. With two main stages for the mainly Swedish women performers, there was plenty of space to rest outside on pink coloured seats at the centre of the site, turning the festival into a convivial place in contrast to traditional festivals. "This place feels like a safe-zone where women can just get together and have fun and celebrate ... especially in light of the assaults that have happened at other festivals," said Julia Skonneby, a 34-year-old performer. "It feels like a certain tension is gone... we're here to make a statement together," Hanna Gustavsson, a 31-year-old designer, chimed in. Story continues Statement, launched after raising more than 500,000 kronor (47,000 euros, $54,000) through crowdfunding, defines a transgender person as "a person who does not identify with the sex assigned to them at birth". This means transgender women born as men are allowed to attend. Only men who identify with the sex they were born with, also called cis men, are banned. - Discriminatory? - The Scandinavian country is one of the most gender equal countries in the world. After receiving several complaints, the Equality Ombudsman (DO), a government agency that promotes equal rights and handles discrimination complaints, has asked the festival to specify what it means by "cis men". "We want to examine whether the festival is compatible with discrimination laws," the agency's spokesman Clas Lundstedt told AFP, adding it would take a couple of weeks to reach a conclusion. Festival-goer Gustavsson said she thought it was fair to bar men. "I don't believe in complete separatism but I think it's very important to have this festival right now." According to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, 4.1 percent of women reported that they had been the victim of a sexual crime compared to 0.6 percent of men in Sweden. Knyckare told AFP that the MeToo wave exposing sexual assault unveiled "serious problems" in Sweden, one of the most gender equal nations in the world, at not only festivals but several institutions. "It seems like men have woken up to how huge the problem with sexual violence is," she told AFP. U.S. President Donald Trump delivers his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress inside the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 30, 2018. REUTERS/Win McNamee/Pool TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY W. James Antle III Politics, Americas It depends on what Senate Republicans think and how the midterms go. It Won't Be Easy for Trump to Fire Sessions Heres a line that jumped out at me from a recent news story about President Trumps efforts to build Senate support for firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Though they once cautioned him that dismissing Sessions would feed special counsel Robert Muellers investigation of Trumps potential obstruction of justice, these people say, Trumps legal team has become increasingly convinced Mueller will make that case regardless of whether the president fires Sessions or leaves him in place, Politico reported. If true, that doesnt bode well for Trump avoiding impeachment proceedings next year. Democrats are highly likely, if still not quite certain, to retake the House in the November elections. Any presidential wrongdoing reported by Mueller would make it extremely difficult for Democratic leaders to keep the lid on impeachment talkand thats assuming the current cautious leadership team remains in place. If the elusive blue wave comes to fruition, it could also wash away Nancy Pelosi and allow a progressive more in the thrall of the Resistanceand without any institutional memory of how impeachment backfired on Republicans in 1998to surf toward the speakership. Either way, Democrats will be in control of the chamber they need to advance articles of impeachment and initiate the process of removing the president from office. At that point, it really comes down to Senate Republicans. It is quite possible they will retain, even expand, their majority in November given the favorable map. Several states where Trump remains popular have vulnerable Democratic incumbents running for reelection. Trump loyalists could replace Trump critics like Jeff Flake, Bob Corker and the late John McCain (though Orrin Hatch will be swapped out for Mitt Romney). But even if the Democrats retake the Senate, Republicans will retain the votes to block a conviction and keep Trump in office. A 55-45 Democratic Senateinconceivable under the current mapwould still require 12 Republicans to vote to remove Trump. Story continues How Senate Republicans feel about Trump at that point will determine whether his presidency continues. Thats why the initial Trump/Rudy Giuliani strategy of discrediting Muellerand raising valid questions about the pre-Mueller FBI investigation of Trump-Russia, during which some dubious decisions were mademade so much sense. The more questions they raised about the investigation, the higher burden of proof Republicans were going to demand. This is similar to Bill Clintons counterattacks against Ken Starr before his own impeachment and Senate trial. Over time, Trump has built up a constituency among conservatives in the House for firing Sessions and even shuttering the Mueller probe. We are starting to hear the first rumblings that he is winning converts on Sessions in the Senate, though that is partly because some Republicans have disagreements with the attorney general on other, unrelated issues. Were not at the point where there would be much Senate GOP support for hampering Muelleryet. At the same time, from trade policy to pushing out White House counsel Don McGahnan unsung hero of the conservative judicial revolution that ranks among the presidents top accomplishmentsTrump is doing plenty of things Republicans dont like. This includes his poor behavior in the aftermath of McCains death. Maybe they will acquiesce, as they are beginning to on Sessions. But once the midterm elections are over, there will also be a brief end to the imperative of pre-election party unity (though it will return in time for the 2020 election cycle). If those elections are a disaster, unfolding amid new Paul Manafort convictions and a steady drip of Michael Cohen revelations, perhaps GOP senators' patience will start to wear thin, and they'll want to kick the tires on Vice President Mike Pence. It also merits watching whether the Trump tariffs and the foreign retaliation they bring about begin to eat into the economic growth that remains the Republicans biggest asset. Trump with a good economy is stuck in approval ratings in the 40s. What happens to Trump in a bad economy? On the other hand, if the Senate majority grows it will be in no small part because Trump played nice with Republicans in that chamber and stopped pushing inept populist candidates on the primary electorate. Mueller is still far removed from alleging, much less proving, any collusion with Russia, even though Trumps own behavior inspires little confidence that this will necessarily remain the case. At this point, anything remains possible. Trump could successfully, if gradually, end the investigation or the investigation could end his presidency. W. James Antle III is politics editor of the Washington Examiner and author of Devouring Freedom: Can Big Government Ever Be Stopped? Image: Reuters Read full article A UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees said a US decision on Friday to halt funding was disappointing and surprising, and rejected the US assertion that its programs were irredeemably flawed. "We reject in the strongest possible terms the criticism that UNRWA's schools, health centers, and emergency assistance programs are 'irredeemably flawed,'" Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said in a series of Twitter posts. A US decision to halt funding to a UN agency helping Palestinian refugees was a "flagrant assault" against Palestinian people, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday. "The consecutive American decisions represent a flagrant assault against the Palestinian people and a defiance of UN resolutions," spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah told Reuters. "Such a punishment will not succeed to change the fact that the United States no longer has a role in the region and that it is not a part of the solution." The State Department said the new US special representative for Syria, James Jeffrey, would travel to Israel, Jordan, and Turkey a from Saturday to Tuesday on his first official trip abroad. Jeffrey and his delegation will underscore that the United States will respond to any chemical weapons attack perpetrated by the Syrian regime, the State Department said in a statement. They will also address Russias specious allegations of international plans to stage a chemical weapons attack in Syria, the statement said. The United Nations on Thursday called on Russia, Iran and Turkey to forestall a battle in Idlib which would affect millions of civilians and could see both militants and the government potentially using chlorine as a chemical weapon. The United States on Friday halted all funding to a UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees in a decision further heightening tensions between the Palestinian leadership and the Trump administration. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the decision as "a flagrant assault against the Palestinian people and a defiance of UN resolutions." US President Donald Trump and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Photo: AP, Reuters) "The administration has carefully reviewed the issue and determined that the United States will not make additional contributions to UNRWA," she said in a statement. Nauert added that the agency's "endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries is simply unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years." The latest announcement comes a week after US administration announced it would redirect $200 million in Palestinian economic support funds for programs in the West Bank and Gaza. UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness voiced the agency's "deep regret and disappointment" at the decision, which he said was surprising given that a December US funding agreement had acknowledged UNRWA's successful management. "We reject in the strongest possible terms the criticism that UNRWA's schools, health centers, and emergency assistance programs are 'irredeemably flawed,'" Gunness added in a series of Twitter posts. The United States paid out $60 million to UNRWA in January, withholding another $65 million, from a promised $365 million for the year. The 68-year-old agency says it provides services to about 5 million Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza. US President Donald Trump and his aides say they want to improve the Palestinians' plight, as well as start negotiations on an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. President Trump talks about Jerusalem as Israel's capital (: ) X But under Trump, Washington has taken a number of actions that have alienated the Palestinians, including the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. That move was a reversal of longtime US policy and led the Palestinian leadership to boycott the Washington peace efforts being led by Jared Kushner, Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law. Clashes have erupted along the Gaza border every Friday since Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israels capital and announced his plans to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to the capital. "Our people went out today to make it clear that we will not give up Jerusalem and that there is no alternative to Palestine and the right of return," Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh told gatherers at a violent demonstration on along the Gaza border. 'Not part of the solution' The US decision was a "flagrant assault" against Palestinian people, Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday. "Such a punishment will not succeed to change the fact that the United States no longer has a role in the region and that it is not a part of the solution," Rdainah told Reuters. "Neither the United States nor anybody else will be able to dissolve UNRWA," he added. PA President Mahmoud Abbas (L) and Hamas political bureau Ismail Haniyeh In Gaza, Hamas condemned the US move as a "grave escalation against the Palestinian people." "The American decision aims to wipe out the right of return and is a grave US escalation against the Palestinian people," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. "US leadership has become an enemy of our people and of our nation and we will not surrender before such unjust decisions," he added. Earlier on Friday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Germany would increase its contributions to UNRWA because the funding crisis was fueling uncertainty. "The loss of this organization could unleash an uncontrollable chain reaction," Maas said. UNRWA has faced a cash crisis since the United States, long its biggest donor, slashed funding earlier this year, saying the agency needed to make unspecified reforms and calling on the Palestinians to renew peace talks with Israel. US spokeswoman Nauert said the United States would intensify talks with the United Nations, the region's governments and international stakeholders that could involve bilateral US assistance for Palestinian children. "We are very mindful of and deeply concerned regarding the impact upon innocent Palestinians, especially school children, of the failure of UNRWA and key members of the regional and international donor community to reform and reset the UNRWA way of doing business," she said. Gunness told Reuters earlier in August that UNRWA's support would be needed as long as the parties failed to reach an agreement to end the crisis. "UNRWA does not perpetuate the conflict, the conflict perpetuates UNRWA," he said. "It is the failure of the political parties to resolve the refugee situation which perpetuates the continued existence of UNRWA." 'Corrupt, inefficient and doesn't help peace' UNRWA has become the subject of significant scrutiny since Trump entered the White House. After appointing his son-in-law Jared Kushner as a Mideast advisor charged with formulating a long-awaited peace initiative to put an end to the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the UN refugee organization appeared to occupy a significant spot on his radar. In an internal email published by Foreign Policy magazine, Kushner called for a "sincere effort to disrupt UNRWA." "This (agency) perpetuates a status quo, is corrupt, inefficient and doesn't help peace," he reportedly wrote in an email dated January 11. The agency was founded in 1949 after the first Arab-Israel warthe War of Independencein the wake of the exodus of around 700,000 refugees who fled or were driven out of Israel on its founding as a state. US State Department's statement The nascent state of Israel absorbed Jewish refugees who were expelled or who fled from neighboring Arab countries, while other Arab states refused to grant the Palestinians citizenship. As a result, UNRWA now looks after more than 5 million descendants of those original refugees, in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel argues that UNRWA perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem by grossly inflating the number of bona fide refugees. Since the agency includes descendants of Palestinian refugees from the War of Independence, it grants refugee status to Palestinians according to criteria that is not adhered to in any other refugee question. US S Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley X Last week, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley appeared to question the world body's count of Palestinian refugees. By casting doubt on what some describe as an inflated number of Palestinian refugees, the US is removing a central stumbling block that has frustrated peace negotiations in the past, which calls for the so-called right of return of the millions of Palestinians defined as refugees. Palestinians have clung to the notion that the refugees and their descendants should be allowed to settle in Israel as part of any peace deal, a precondition Israel says is designed to destroy its Jewish majority and therefore eradicate the Jewish state. For Nikki Haley, however, the decision to withhold funds to the organization also stems from the Palestinians bashing of the US, despite the fact that it has for years been the chief financial donor to UNRWA. PLO Executive Secretary General Saeb Erekat criticized on Saturday the US decision to stop funding to UNRWA. "We condemn the resolution and refuse it. The Americans cannot shut down UNRWA because the decision to establish the agency was accepted By the General Assembly. The US cannot congratulate the theft of Palestinian lands, stealing Jerusalem and handing it to Israel, and it cannot act according to the whims of Sheldon Adelson and Benjamin Netanyahu," Erekat stated. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will make his first visit to Israel on Sunday to discuss tourism, labor and defense deals, and visit Yad Vashem. Since the Philippine president has a rich record of both domestic and international scandals, officials on both sides will try to play down his record of jarring invective while promoting commercial and military ties. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Israel sees the four-day tour by Duterte and his top ministers as a chance to thank Manila for taking in Jews during the Holocaust and backing the Israeli independence campaign that followed. Philippine President Rodrigo Duarte (Photo: EPA) The Government Press Office (GPO) has said most of the visit will be closed to the media, an apparent precaution against faux pas by a president whose two-fisted crime-fighting tactics and rhetoric have raised hackles at home and abroad. At the age of 16 Rodrigo Duterte had stabbed someone to death . "There was a tumultuous fight at the beach," he told the Philippines edition of Esquire. "We were young men then and we went to this beach and we were drinking and suddenly there was this... maybe I stabbed somebody to death... something like that," Duterte said. Dutertes advisers have repeatedly told journalists not to believe everything the he says, dismissing his comments as jokes and saying Duterte has a tendency to exaggerate.The president always resorts to hyperbole he always exaggerates just to put his message across, they said. But the man who always exaggerates is the president of the Philippines, and according to Western claims he is responsible for one of the most brutal killing spree in the past decade. Even his boastful comments about the murder on the beach seem more appropriate for a gangster than a head of state: "At the age of 16, I already killed someone. A real person, a rumble, a stabbing. I was just 16 years old. It was just over a look. How much more now that I am president?" Duterte was elected president of the Philippines in 2016, mainly because of his promise to establish law and order in the country and to eliminate drug trafficking. During his campaign, Duterte promised to put an end to drug trafficking within six months and declared that 100,000 people would be killed during his war against drugs, saying bodies will be "dumped into Manila Bay, and fatten all the fish there. Within months of being sworn in, thousands of people were shot dead in the Philippines. Their relatives claim that many of them were defenseless people, poor drug addicts or criminals who committed minor offenses. In contrast, local authorities claimed that the dead were suspected of drug trafficking and other serious offenses, and that the police only opened fire in self-defense. Human rights groups and several governments in the West demanded explanations from Duterte's government, but were strongly rejected. Duarte makes controversial statements (: ) X The Philippine president made it clear that he would not change his ways and that the violent operation would continue until his last day in office in 2022. Petitions against Duterte have been filed to the International Court of Justice in Hague this week. 'The Hitler of the Philippines' Duterte, 73, known as Rudy, was born on March 28, 1945. In his youth, Duterte was expelled from school for inappropriate behavior and was arrested several times. He later completed degrees in political science and law, and became a prosecutor in the city of Davao on the Philippine island of Mindanao. Duterte eventually became mayor and held this position for more than 22 years. The world was introduced to the blunt style of the Philippine president in 2016, when Duterte said he would be happy to slaughter three million drug addicts as Adolf Hitler slaughtered six million Jews in the Holocaust. In that speech, the brash president said without elaborating that he has been "portrayed or pictured to be a cousin of Hitler" by his critics. Moments later, he said, "Hitler massacred 3 million Jews ... there's 3 million drug addicts. There are. I'd be happy to slaughter them." His remarks drew shock and outrage across the world, leading the Filipino president to apologize and even pay a special visit to the Beit Yaakov Synagogue in Manila during the Jewish New Year. I would like to apologize and it comes from the heart, Duterte told members of the Jewish Association of the Philippines. Duterte at the Beit Yaakov Synagogue (Photo: AFP) Deriding critics who had compared him to Hitler, Duterte acknowledged he erred in referencing what happened to Jewish people under the Nazi leader. "I mentioned the word Jewish and that was what was terribly wrong and for that I apologize," Duterte said, drawing an applause. "But I'm not one of the racist members of this republic." He said he had never intended to derogate the memory of the 6 million Jews murdered under Hitler before and during World War II. Ernesto Abella, an official with the Foreign Ministry in Manila and a former Duterte spokesman, said the controversy around Duterte's Hitler comments had been settled "way back." While Duterte apologized for that, he has been dogged by accusations from activists that thousands of killings in his ongoing war on drugs were executions, which he rejects, and is rebuked by women's groups for his sexist remarks. The Philippine president is expected to lay wreath at Open Doors Monument in commemoration of the saving of Jews by the Philippines during the Holocaust. Some Israeli pundits have recoiled at his planned attendance. In June, Duterte called God stupid and has lashed out repeatedly at the Catholic church, deeming it hypocritical. His visit will include sight-seeing in Jerusalem's walled Old City, which houses major Christian, Jewish and Muslim shrines. "There's just no knowing what he will say from one moment to the next, so both sides want to keep this (Israel) visit as low-key as possible," one official involved in the planning, and who asked not to be identified by name or nationality, told Reuters. Singing to Trump Contrary to growing criticism, for most of his tenure, polls have shown that Duterte's popularity is huge. In January of this year, his support rate stood at 79%. Commentator Ramon Caspila explained at the time that his popularity stems from the fact that he kept his promises, including the fight against drug dealers, the construction of infrastructure, and the fight against corruption. In recent months there has been some decline in his support rate, partly due to territorial struggles between the Philippines and China, The Philippines's economic problems, and Duterte's statements against God and the Church. However, he is still considered a popular president. Duterte met with US President Donald Trump last year and sang a duet with a local pop star who sang, among other tunes, "You are the light in my world, a half of this heart is mine. "The Philippine ABS-CBN television channel reported that after the performance, Duterte told leaders he had not planned to perform, but "this was done under the orders of US Supreme Commander Donald Trump." The United States and the Philippines have been considered allies since World War II , but in recent years relations between the countries have deteriorated as a result of the Philippine President's ties with Russia and China, and the tensions between Duterte and former US President Barak Obama. Since his inauguration, the Philippine president has stated several times that he wants to break the alliance with Washington. Relations between Manila and the Trump Administration slightly improved after Trump spoke with Duterte in April and praised him for his war on drugs However, in July, Duterte declared: There will never be a time that I will go to America during my term, or even thereafter. So what makes that guy think I'll go to America? I've seen America, and it's lousy. The Philippines is considered relatively friendly country toward Israel, including in UN votes. Duterte was supposed to visit Israel in May 2017, but the visit was canceled due to internal matters in the Philippines. Officials in Israel hope that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will manage to persuade Duterte to transfer his country's embassy to Jerusalem, but there is no indication that this attempt will succeed, and one must not forget that the Philippines has many interests in the Arab world. Duterte will arrive in Israel on Sunday evening for a three-day visit. During his visit to Israel he will sign a series of agreements with Prime Minister Netanyahu and visit Yad Vashem. He will also meet with President Reuven Rivlin, plant a tree in the Grove of Nations and address the members of the Philippine community in Israel. Among the issues on the agenda: signing long-term care agreements between the two countries, combating drug trafficking, examining the possibility of direct flight routes between the countries, agricultural cooperation and security deals. Duterte will be accompanied by a delegation of Filipino businessmen. The rulers of the United Arab Emirates have used Israeli intelligence gathering software for over a year, and may have used it to spy on the Qatari and Saudi royal family, the New York Times reported Friday. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter According to the report, through the Pegasus program of the NSO group (NSO Technologies Ltd.), whose main office is located in Herzliya, Abu Dhabi has transformed home-based smartphones belonging to opponents of the regime and officials in rival countries, into surveillance devices. NSO group (Photo: Orel Cohen) According to The New York Times, after the company offered Abu Dhabi an expensive software update, customers asked if the software could be used to record calls made by Qatar's ruler, a Saudi prince who served as the head of the National Guard, and editor of an Arab newspaper published in London. Lawsuits filed against the company in Israel and Cyprus state that NSO group sent UAE two recordings of phone calls made by the senior Arab journalist Abdulaziz Alkhamis. Alkhamis confirmed this week that he had carried out these talks without knowing that he was being monitored. NSO group now faces lawsuits claiming it committed illegal espionage. The lawsuits were filed by a Qatari citizen, and five Mexican human rights activists and journalists who claim the company hacked into their phones. In their lawsuit, the five Mexican journalists and human rights are demanding NIS 2.5 million in compensation from the NSO and have asked the court to issue an injunction against the company. Mutaib II bin Abdullah, a Saudi prince who served as the head of the National Guard (Photo: AP) A similar lawsuits filed in Panama revealed that the President of Panama used NSO's software to spy on political enemies and critics. The lawsuits in Israel were filed by attorney Alaa Mahajna and Mazen Masri, a senior lecturer in law at the City University of London. NSO group claims that they only sold the software to governments' officials after they committed to only using the software against criminals. A correspondence reveled in the lawsuits indicates that the UAE asked the Israeli high-tech company to hack into the cellphone of Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the current Amir of Qatar, in 2014. The United Arab Emirates also asked NSO to hack into the cellphone of Saudi monarch Mutaib II bin Abdullah, who was once considered a potential candidate for the crown and served as commander of the National Guard. heikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the current Amir of Qatar (Photo: EPA) The lawsuits also show that Abu Dhabi has used the software to spy on 159 members of the Qatari royal family. In addition, email correspondence reveal that the emirates also wanted to eavesdrop on phone calls made by former Prime Minister of Lebanon, Saad Hariri. The technology operates by sending text message to the targets' cellphones, in order to persuade them to click the link attached. These messages are specifically designed for each target. A message sent to a Muslim official, for example, read "Ramadan is right hereamazing discounts." When the target clicks the link, the software is secretly installed and can track phone calls, emails, contacts, and perhaps even face-to-face conversations held nearby. According to The New York Times, the NSO group as well as the Emirati Embassy in Washington declined to comment on the report Ynet was unable to obtain NSO's comment. Since NSO's technology offers offensive cyber tools, the company is under the supervision of the Ministry of Defense. In the past, as revealed by Ronen Bergman in Yedioth Ahronoth , the Defense Export Controls Agency (DECA) has granted NSO a license to sell its espionage program, Pegasus, to a private company in an Arab state. NSO is an Israeli company founded in 2010 by Niv Carmi, Omri Lavie, and Shalev Hulio. Among its developer are veterans of the elite units of the intelligence community. Since 2014 it is owned by the US investment fund "Francisco Partners Management" and operates mostly under the radar. Two people wounded in a knife attack at the Dutch capital's busy main railway station on Friday are both American citizens who were visiting the Netherlands, the US ambassador said Saturday as police investigated possible motives, including the possibility it was an extremist act. Police shot and wounded a 19-year-old Afghan man immediately after the attack and are questioning him as a suspect. A dramatic photo captured by a passerby shows two police officers pointing their pistols at a man wearing jeans and sneakers lying on the ground inside a tunnel in the station. A delegation of Egypt's general intelligence service will arrive Saturday in Ramallah for a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and senior PA officials. Senior Fatah member, Hussein al-Sheikh, said that Egyptian intelligence personnel would update the Palestinian leadership on recent developments and that the two would discuss a possible internal Palestinian reconciliation. As general elections seem to be likely, sooner rather than later, there are those in the Zionist Union Party who are working energetically behind the scenes and are examining the possibility of a split in the party. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter "At this point in time or later, a split up in the party is inevitable," said a political source in the party. Gabbay, Livni at press conference (Photo: Motti Kimchi) In addition, the fact that Gabbay reserved the right to set aside seats for candidates of his choosing, and it is not yet clear whether those candidates, already approved by the party commission, also include the seats guaranteed to his running mate, MK Tzipi Livni. In recent days, there have been quite a few behind the scenes discussions regarding the possibility of a split in the party. Party Knesset members admit that political elements, not currently in the party, have held various talks with them over the last few days examining the possibility that eight MKs will breakaway, even during the current Knesset session and establish a party platform as the first stage. In the second stage, they will call on a veteran candidate , Ehud Barak for example, to head the new list. Ehud Barak (Photo: Motti Kimchi) Among politicians in the party, a list of names of nine potential MKs who might potentially split from Gabbay and set up the new platform has been circulating in recent days. Some of the members on the list who Ynet contacted vehemently deny their involvement; others confirm that such a move has taken place, but that it has not yet matured. There is still the issue of recruiting the number of MKs needed for a split (one-third of the faction eight MKs). Last month, Gabbay and MK Tzipi Livni concluded an agreement to continue their political cooperation in the framework of the Zionist Union Party. As part of this agreement, Livni was appointed opposition chairman instead of former MK Isaac Herzog who left for his new post as Chairman of the Jewish Agency. Gabbay and Livni also agreed that if the party wins the elections, there will be no rotation between Livni and Gabbay: "We are making a significant step today in building an alternative to the current government, which will be a new hope for the citizens of Israel and allow us to invest all our energy outwards, said Gabbay at the time. As for Ehud Barak's possible reentry into politics, at the moment he is still vague. In a dramatic speech last month, Barak said he prefers not to return to political life, "but I will help anyone who wants to, or can, or will. I will do everything to unite forces that will be a turning point, but I do not care if I am in the 20th place on the list, the 120nd, or absent completely; it's not about me." Barak declared that there is an opportunity for a political upheaval : "If we understand the need and urgency to join hands, there is a historic, very practical possibility of establishing a different, strong, cohesive, sober and fearless leadership that will bring with it vision, hope and initiative to act, make decisions and the ability to execute them. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met Egyptian officials in Ramallah, and discussed a potential Egyptian effort to heal inner-Palestinian animosity, reported the Palestinian official news agency. Egyptian officials reaffirmed Egypts commitment to healing the divide and establishing one government under Abbas leadership, said the report. Palestinian officials agreed to continue the reconciliation process and asserted their trust in Egypts mediation. Jordan said on Saturday it regretted a US decision to halt funding to a United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, saying that jeopardising the fate of an agency that helps millions of refugees would only fuel radicalism and harm prospects of Middle East peace. Foreign Minster Ayman Safadi told Reuters his country which hosts over 2 million registered refugees would continue to rally donor support to ease the acute financial crunch faced by the agency. The US announced on Friday that it will no longer support the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Earlier this year the United States, long its biggest donor, had slashed funding. The United States' decision to cut funding for the United Nations agency that supports Palestinian refugees is a "realistic view of the situation and supports Israel's position", a senior Israeli minister said on Saturday. "I praise the decision of the president of the United States to halt all funding of UNRWA - the body that enshrines the Palestinian refugee problem," Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz wrote on Twitter. The US announced on Friday that it will no longer support the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), a move that has deepened a cash crisis at the agency 2,000 protesters rally at Rabin Square to demonstrate against the establishment of the Leviathan gas rigs alongside the Hof HaCarmel coast. A 20-year-old woman from northern Israel was injured this Saturday after falling from a cliff in the Mitzpe Ramon area. She was evacuated for medical care and is suffering from fractures. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Around 11 am police received a report that a young woman, who went out to watch the sunrise in the Mitzpe Ramon region, did not return or contact her two friends who stayed behind at the hostel. The area where the woman was found (Photo: Police Spokesman) Police volunteers and the Har Hanegev Search and Rescue Team assisted by a helicopter started scanning the area, and located the woman after a few hours of searching. Police rescue squad (Photo: Police Spokesman) She was found injured in an area that is not accessible by foot, and was evacuated by an IAF helicopter for medical care. Police rescue squad (Photo: Police Spokesman) The police said that we continue to ask hikerstake precautions and inform your friends or family about your planned route, as well as your estimated time of arrival. Contact the police if any problem arises Meet Salem Ghanem: He is 32 years old from the northern Galilee town of Maghar. He served in the Border Police and currently works as a Western Galilee coordinator in HaShomer HaChadash (a social-educational movement with the goal of assisting farmers and ranchers as well as strengthening the Jewish peoples connections to the land, Jewish values and Zionist identity) under a joint venture with the Jewish National Fund; we will return to him shortly. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Much ink has already been spilled regarding the simple and complex matter of the recently passed Nation State Law. Simple because there is not a single Zionist who read the law and experienced an emotional shake-up due to some ideological novelty or unfamiliar insight. Salem Ghanem Complicated because it is clear to all of us that the State of Israel is challenged by its internal issues more than any existential challenge on its borders. Questions regarding self-identity and clear definitions that will shape the coming centuries are relevant and necessary. Like an adolescent whose mindset is beginning to crystallize and he has began to direct his life according to his beliefs, so too the State of Israel's conduct on its 70th anniversary: striving for truth, but struggling with large-scale ventures; a scope that contains complexities that do not pose a risk to those whose identity is clear and solid. The New Guard (Photo: Hashomer HaChadash) And now for a real life example: HaShomer HaChadash (the "New Guard") came to life in the Galilee following the abandonment of land by Jewish farmers and especially against the backdrop of thefts , property destruction and land-grabbing by minorities. Over the years, many have tried to portray us as politically right-wing, including lies accusing us of engaging in violence, rudeness and bullying against the Bedouins. To my delight, every passing day we succeed in proving that right or left is not what we are about. Moreover: What we are doing on the ground is perhaps what the Nation State Law attempts to say using words, and in a manner that provides expression and a place in the Jewish and democratic State of Israel for every citizen, regardless of religion, race or gender, without compromising even a millimeter of ideology or land that we adhere to. In this spirit, the organization assists Jewish and non-Jewish farmers based on a uniform criterion: those who operate in agricultural land legally, while ensuring that they have no involvement in criminal activity. Moreover, the movement employs Druze, like Salem and Bedouins, in its various projects. They see the organization as a home, just as I see it, with the same mission and vision. This is not about self-marketing but rather a microcosm that clarifies the responsibility we have for the Zionist idea, regardless of the superficiality of the right and the left, but out of concern for our existential future in one of the most complicated areas of the world. The Nation State Law can be a means for those who want to destroy the State of Israel under its unique and essential character, as certain groups do, and on the other hand it can be a unifying force for all citizens of Israel and for its special purpose. Salem knows the uncompromising Zionist vision of the organization and still finds a home within it. The law needs a clear reference to the minority populations in Israel, and therefore the amendment to the law proposed by MK Benny Begin (Likud), which refers to "equal rights for all citizens of Israel," is just and important. It is time to move on from the stage of definitions and words to the stage of deeds and unity. In the long-term view, my heartfelt recommendation to members of the various minority groups in Israel is to maintain a safe distance from any leadership that tries to undermine the existence of the state and to join in carrying the burden. On our part, the Jewish majority in Israel, cowardice is the great danger, which also breeds hatred and disunity. The possibility of overcoming it begins with a strong and clear identity, one that in any case is not threatened by equality of opportunity but aspires to it. Yoel Zilberman is the founder and CEO of "HaShomer HaChadash" Jordan said on Saturday it regretted a US decision to halt funding to a United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, saying it would only fuel radicalism and harm prospects for Middle East peace. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Foreign Minster Ayman Safadi told Reuters his country, which hosts more than 2 million of the over 5 million registered refugees whom the agency supports, would continue to rally donor support to ease the acute financial crunch faced by the agency. The US announced on Friday it would no longer support the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Earlier this year the United States, long its biggest donor, had slashed funding, paying out only $60 million of a first installment in January, and withholding $65 million. It had promised $365 million for the whole year. Trump cuts US UNRWA funding (Photo: AP) The 68-year-old UNRWA provides services to about 5 million Palestinian refugees across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza. Most are descendants of the roughly 700,000 Palestinians who were driven out of their homes or fled the fighting in the 1948 War of Independence, that led to Israel's creation. A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeina, said Saturday that Palestinian leadership is examining the possibility to turn to the UN general assembly and security council in order to oppose the US decision regarding UNRWA funding. In a statement Rudeina published he added that the US decision does not serve peace, but rather strengthens terror in the region and hurts the rights of the Palestinian people. The 73rd session of the UN General Assembly will open on 18 September 2018. Rudeina added that The American decision is a bold violation of the UN decision. This punishment will not change the fact the that US no longer has a role in this region. Staunch US ally Jordan lies at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict with many of its citizens refugees or descendants of refugees of the 1948 war. More than 2 million registered Palestinians live in Jordan, including 370,000 in ten refugee camps "Disruption of UNRWA services will have extremely dangerous humanitarian, political and security implications for refugees and for the whole region," Safadi said. "It will only consolidate an environment of despair that would ultimately create fertile grounds for further tension. Politically it will also further hurt the credibility of peacemaking efforts." UNRWA facilities at Balata refugee camp (Photo: AFP) Safadi said a meeting on Sept. 27 in New York in the United Nations which the kingdom was co-sponsoring with Japan, the European Union, Sweden and Turkey would seek to "rally political and financial support for the agency". "We will do everything possible to ensure that UNRWA gets the funds it needs to continue offering its services to Palestinian refugees," Safadi added. Diplomats say the US decision has stirred fears of a new Middle East policy under US President Donald Trump's administration that seeks to dilute and eventually strike out the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees. Safadi said the international community's support for the agency was inseparable from future talks on the fate of refugeesamong the most sensitive issues in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The issue was agreed to be among final status talks that were stalled in 2014 ultimately over whether Israel would make territorial concessions in return for a lasting peace deal with the Arabs. UNRWA facilities in Gaza (Photo: AP) "The status of refugees is not determined by any one single country, it is determined under international law and as such no country can take away that status," Safadi said. Earlier this year Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged action against UNRWA. "We already have great-great-grandchildren of refugees who are not refugees," he said in January. "I suggest a gradual conversion of all funds going to UNRWA to other agencies." Interior Minister Aryeh Deri issued a response Friday to Thursdays angry demonstration in south Tel Aviv, during which demonstrators burned his picture, reassuring residents "that the events of last night will not diminish my sincere concern for you." Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter In a tweet Deri released shortly before Shabbat he wrote: "Dear residents of south Tel Aviv, I assure you that last night's events will not diminish my concern for you and my activities to restore the neighborhoods to you, the residents. Shabbat Shalom to you and to all of Israel." Setting a photo of Deri alight (Photo: Amit Sha'al) The residents protested the government's inaction in handling the migrants and refugees in their neighborhoods and demanded that they be expelled from Israel. The events at the demonstration aroused many reactions throughout the political system. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated: "I respect the real plight of the residents of southern Tel Aviv, and the government under my leadership, together with Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, is making unremitting efforts to remove the infiltrators from Israel, both openly and behind the scenes. I strongly condemn the act of burning the photo of Minister Deri, such actions have no place among us." Protesters calling on PM to act (Photo: Amit Sha'al) In response to the prime ministers condemnation, organizers of the rally said:"If Netanyahu and Deri and the other members of the right-wing government, who constantly claim that they are acting for the sake of South Tel Aviv and its residents, would bother to condemn the gang war that rages in our streets and would not abandon us to the mercy of the infiltrators and the whims of the police , we would not have felt the need for such a performance. "Every artistic performance, however acute, is dwarfed by the crying of one woman who was afraid to come to the demonstration yesterday because the Sudanese from across the street threatened to murder her son," they explained. It is a pity that it was necessary to burn a picture in order for you to pay attention to our plight. (Photo: Liberation of South Tel Aviv Front) It seems that murderers who are released to the streets, drug dealers who operate without interference, infiltrators who threaten civilians and a public space that is entirely controlled by a hostile population are worth much less than a picture and a lighter. But now that we've managed to get your attention, we're looking forward to seeing work soon," they added. MK Yinon Azulay (Shas) sent a letter to the Attorney General and to Minister Erdan demanding that criminal proceedings be opened against the organizers of the protest and the demonstrators who set fire to Deris picture, in effect calling for acts of violence and murder against a minister in the Israeli government. "Freedom of speech cannot tolerate calls for murder in general and against a government minister in particular, and the severity of the act requires intervention by law enforcement agencies," he wrote. Azulay added: "In light of the threat directed against the interior minister, I will ask that Minister Erdan provide security for the interior minister until the matter is clarified and the threat is removed." Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman wrote in his Twitter account: "No protest justifies the burning of pictures of ministers; these images are suitable for other countries, not for us, and I expect the protest leaders in South Tel Aviv to condemn the act." News Wellton, Arizona - Border Patrol agents assigned to the Wellton Station Interstate 8 Immigration Checkpoint arrested two United States citizens as they attempted to smuggle two Mexican nationals. At approximately 11:00 a.m., agents referred a 2002 Ford Explorer to the secondary inspection area after a canine alerted to an odor it was trained to detect emitting from the vehicle. A subsequent search of the vehicle revealed two male illegal aliens from Mexico, ages 17 and 19, hidden in the cargo area. The driver, an 18-year-old female U.S. citizen from Victorville, California, was arrested for bringing in and harboring certain aliens. The 17-year old female U.S. citizen passenger was released to a family member. The two Mexican nationals were processed for immigration violations and the vehicle was seized. Federal law allows agents to charge individuals by complaint, a method that allows the filing of criminal activity charges without inferring guilt. An individual is presumed innocent unless or until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents effectively combat smuggling organizations attempting to illegally transport people and contraband through Southwestern Arizona and California. Citizens can help the Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection by calling 1-866-999-8727 toll-free to report suspicious activity. Callers may remain anonymous. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 1) The mayor of Davao City, presidential daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio, hit critics of her father's recent rape remarks. "I pose this question to all who seemingly want to see Davao City fail - what have you done to help?" Duterte-Carpio said in a Friday statement. President Rodrigo Duterte joked on Thursday that Davao City recorded the highest number of rape cases in 2017 since the women there are beautiful, a comment which critics said promotes rape culture in the Philippines. READ: Duterte: Davao has a lot of rape cases because it has a lot of pretty women Duterte-Carpio, however, said the city government and other agencies have interventions to curb the rising incidence of rape, dropping the crime's incidence with 95 cases in January to June from 120 cases in the same period last year. "One of these interventions, and the most effective of which, targeted communities where children are taught about sexuality and sexual abuse, including when a touch by a family member is no longer appropriate and acceptable," she said. She added a local study reveals most of the cases were incestuous in nature, or done by closely-related assailants. "This positive effect of government action should not be lost in the repertoire of the President and the attacks by those who hate his guts and humor," she said. Duterte earlier had controversial remarks slammed by women's rights advocates. In 2016, the President cracked the controversial "Dapat mauna ang mayor" rape joke about a detained Australian missionary. He later apologized. He also kissed a married Filipina on the lips during an official visit to South Korea in June. Malacanang maintains that the President is neither misogynist nor anti-women. Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business. 27 minutes ago Paycom May Look Expensive But You Should Buy it Anyway Earnings Will Continue to Propel Paycom Stock Higher There are many reasons that investors could look at Paycom (NYSE: PAYC) and think its better to stay away. PAYC stock is up 21% for the year which closely approximates the 24% gain in the S&P 500. Read Article Rowan Companies PLC (NYSE:RDC) announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October, 31st. The oil and gas company reported ($1.13) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($1.15) by $0.02. The oil and gas company had revenue of $192.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $179.39 million. Rowan Companies had a negative trailing twelve-month return on equity of 9.19% and a negative net margin of 42.12%. The company's quarterly revenue was down 33.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.16) EPS. View Rowan Companies' earnings history. Wall Street analysts have given iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. Manulife Financial Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides financial products and services in Asia, Canada, the United States, and internationally. The company operates through Wealth and Asset Management Businesses; Insurance and Annuity Products; And Corporate and Other segments. The Wealth and Asset Management Businesses segment provides mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, group retirement and savings products, and institutional asset management services through agents and brokers affiliated with the company, securities brokerage firms, and financial advisors pension plan consultants and banks. The Insurance and Annuity Products segment offers deposit and credit products; individual life, and individual and group long-term care insurance; and guaranteed and partially guaranteed annuity products through insurance agents, brokers, banks, financial planners, and direct marketing. The Corporate and Other segment is involved in property and casualty insurance and reinsurance businesses; and run-off reinsurance operations, including variable annuities, and accident and health. It also manages timberland and agricultural portfolios; and engages in insurance agency, portfolio and mutual fund management, mutual fund dealer, life and financial reinsurance, and fund management businesses. Additionally, the company holds and manages oil and gas properties; holds oil and gas royalties, and foreign bonds and equities; and provides investment management, counseling, advisory, and dealer services. Manulife Financial Corporation was incorporated in 1887 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Read More All programs on TV Africa have been suspended effective Monday, September 3rd. This report, coming from Star FM, claims that the rebranded television station is struggling with its finances and also not able to pay salaries of workers. The owner of the business has told senior management members that he is unable to pay workers going forward. "Obuobia Darko-Opoku who was made the General Manager of the company after the departure of popular filmmaker Shirley Frimpong Manso resigned just under a week of accepting the post," Starrfmonline.com reported. READ ALSO: Body of late Kofi Annan arrives in Ghana on September 10 This development has happened just two years ago after a private financial holding company, the Ideal Groupe, acquired a majority share in the TV station after 13 years of operation under the management of Kwaw Ansah. On the other hand, YEN.com.gh has also learned that Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduoms GN media a subsidiary of his Groupe Nduom, has laid off about 30 workers. A letter signed by the head of recruitment and selection at the GN media subsidiary thanked workers for their contribution to the company and also further offered them their one month salary in advance. READ ALSO: Family of late Kofi Annan 'exposes' Mahama's powerful team for 2020 Also, some persons who have been on their mandatory annual leave have been recalled and also issued with dismissals that have rocked the media company of the founding father of Progressive Peoples Party (PPP). Do Ghanaians know about late Kofi Annan? | #Yencomgh Use the comments section below to share your views on this story. Do you have a story to share or you have information for us? Get featured on YEN.com.gh. Message us on Facebook or Instagram. Source: Yen Last week, YEN.com.gh published a report of a photo of Ghana's second lady, Samira Bawumia, which was causing a stir on social media. The photo which had Samira standing beside her husband, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and the President of Cote d'Ivoire, Alassane Ouattarra, caused the stir for one simple reason. Samira had no makeup and looked unusually different from the regular beauty Ghanaians have been used to. Since the photo came up, there have been a lot of many discussions on social media over how makeup affects the beauty of women. READ ALSO: Ebony's sister drops wild photos from her surprise birthday party For lot of people, many of the Ghanaian women, celebrities especially, would not be as beautiful as they are considered if not for makeup. Despite this notion, there are a good number of our female celebrities who are widely considered as very beautiful with or without makeup. YEN.com.gh lists a few of them below: 1. Nana Ama McBrown: Actress Nana Ama McBrown, on any given day, is a very beautiful woman. Throwing in the fact that she is over 40 years makes her beauty more impressive And she does not only exude beauty in makeup but also without it as in the photo below. READ ALSO: Wild video of Princess Shyngle smoking pops up and her fans are angry 2. Jackie Appiah: Jackie Appiah is not only one of the best actresses in Ghana, she is one of the most beautiful. These photos of Jackie without makeup say it all. 3. Yvonne Nelson: Yvonne Nelson has always been considered as a very beautiful lady. Her beauty is not just makeup based. READ ALSO: Photos of the judges residences set for demolition for National Cathedral pop up 4. Kafui Danku: The mother of one does not force herself to be beautiful but you cannot make an objective list of beautiful celebrities without including her. Her no makeup photo below clearly attests to this. 5. Hamamat Montia: The 2006 Miss Malaika winner is undoubtedly one of the naturally beautiful women without makeup you can ever find. Moreover, she often cuts her hair but still looks so gorgeous. 6. Nana Aba Anamoah: The Ghanaian female celebrity space is dominated by actresses. Nana Aba is one of the few non-acting people who are just as celebrated as the actress. Obviously, she is a hardworking and brilliant journalist but the physical beauty she possesses has also gone a long way to win her some admiration. 7. Nadia Buari: Nadia Buari's beauty, with or without makeup, will never contested by any objective person. In fact, she is one of the few people you will find it very difficult whether she is wearing makeup or not. READ ALSO: Shatta Wale grabs another powerful luxurious car and social media is on fire 8. Lydia Forson: When it comes to no makeup photos, Lydia Forson surely ranks very high. The photo below clearly shows her beauty even without makeup. 9. MzVee: One of MzVee's most popular songs is called 'Natural Girl'. An indeed she is not just a natural girl but a very beautiful one. 10. Joselyn Dumas: Undoubtedly, Joselyn Dumas is one of the most beautiful and curvaceous ladies around. And even before she got her current physique, her facial beauty was not in doubt. 12. Yvonne Okoro: Just like her namesake, Okoro is also a beautiful woman. Her beauty has stood the test of time. READ ALSO: Fans slam Moesha for confidently displaying her 'tonga' in latest photo 12. Menaye Donkor: As the winner of the 2004 edition of Miss Universe pageant, Menaye's beauty is unquestionable. And she is not just beautiful because of makeup. 13. Salma Mumin: Salma Mumin may not be as popular as many of the names mentioned here. But she surely can challenge many of them when it comes to natural beauty. What do you make of our list? Let us know in the comment box below. Ghana News Today: Becca's Marriage in Danger? Want to be featured on YEN.com.gh? Send us a message on our Facebook/Instagram pages with your stories, photos Source: Yen - A journalist, Ken Kuranchie, has revealed that John Mahama may be ineligible to run for flagbearer of the NDC - He made reference to Article 68(2) of the 1992 constitution which prevents former presidents from holding offices of emoluments - He however said that he does not intend to further pursue the matter as he was only drawing attention to it The Editor of the Daily Searchlight newspaper, Ken Kuranchi, has revealed that the 1992 constitution of Ghana may bar Former President Mahama from running for presidency. According to him, per article 68(2) of the constitution, Mahama is not supposed to engage in any activities that provide profit or emolument. Speaking on Eyewitness News, he said that when it comes to former presidents, there are limits as to how far he (John Mahama) can go. Ken Kuranchie Source: www.primenewsghana.com Source: UGC READ ALSO: Video of jobless nurse who becomes a kayayo two years after leaving school leaks online Quoting the constitution, he said, the president shall not, on leaving office as President, hold any office of profit or emolument, except with the permission of Parliament in any establishment, either directly or indirectly, other than that of the State. He further argued that once Mahama runs for flagbearer, it becomes a journey that is being done on behalf of the state which is directly against what the constitution provides. Ken Kuranchie also said the flagbearer position would provide him a money making avenue. In his opinion, as politics costs lots of money, there is the urgent need to raise money to fund the campaign. As Mahama is firmly under the laws of Ghana, he went on, there was the need for a further scrutiny of the laws. Ken Kuranchi however said hes not interested in pursuing the matter further, and that hes only drawing attention to it. Former President Mahama confirmed his presidential ambition to contest the partys presidential primary, after his letter of intent was presented to the party on his behalf by a delegation led by Former Ambassador, Daniel Ohene Agyekum at the NDC headquarters Thursday, August 23, 2018, in Accra. The former President indicated that he owes God and the good people of Ghana the greatest responsibility of recapturing power from the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP). Eleven members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) have so far expressed interest in leading the party into the 2020 elections. READ ALSO: Court orders Obinim to provide his signature for forensic examinations Ghana News Today: National Cathedral Drama / Kofi Anan to be buried back home | #Yencomgh: Want to be featured on YEN.com.gh? Send us a message on our Facebook page or on Instagram with your stories, photos or videos Source: Yen.com.gh Ghanaian actress, Priscilla Opoku Agyemang, popularly known as Ahuofe Patri has caused stir on social media with her latest photo. In a photo sighted by YEN.com.gh , Ahuofe Patri posted a picture of herself on Instagram wearing pink swimming costume. She posed for the camera with a pretty smile holding two coconuts. READ ALSO: Shatta Wale acquires brand new Toyota She captioned the photo, Do you care for some juice please.? The caption and photo drew lots of compliments from her followers on Instagram. A fan with the handle @kingyab1 admired Ahoufe Patris beauty. READ ALSO: Wild photos of Ghanaian celebrities who have been married in the last 10 years He wrote, You look very beauty in ur dresses then this. Went beauty meet u,she will know that she meet her friend, Cheers. @stillpopn commented, Black is beautiful.. Can't wait to take a selfie with ya. @ademolaobadare said, So beautiful. READ ALSO: Victoria Lebene slams critics @konaduadomako also commented, You are just outstanding. @fhrancis_pogba also admired Ahuofe Patris look, You look so gorgeous. YEN.com.gh previously reported how Ghanaians blasted Ahuofe Patri for putting her body on display in a video on Instagram. In the video, she wears a red jumpsuit that exposes her breasts. She is spotted throwing some kisses in the air probably for her fans. Watch: Ghana News Today: Becca's Marriage in Danger? | Yen.com.gh Your stories and photos are always welcome. Send us a message via YEN's official Facebook page. Source: Yen It was a colourful ceremony as family and friends gathered to support Sammy Forson and his girlfriend, Pearl on their wedding day. According to a report by zionfelix.net, the Joy FM presenter and his fiancee, Pearl Yahaya, had a private traditional wedding on Friday, August 31 in Bolga, in the Upper East region. The traditional wedding was reportedly attended by family members and few friends of the new couple since it was strictly by invitation. Source: zionfelix.com Source: UGC READ ALSO: It may illegal for Mahama to contest as president - Top journalist tells it all YEN.com.gh understands that Former Interior Minister, Mark Woyongo, musician Coded and Multimedia employees Lexis Bill, Philip Nai and Edem Knight-Tay were at the ceremony to support Sammy Forson and Pearl. Source: zionfelix.com Source: UGC The Weekend City on Joy FM for host, Sammy Forson proposed to Pearl at the Action Chapel branch of the Fidelity Bank on the Spintex Road on Saturday, April 21 this year and she responded yes. Source: zionfelix.com Source: UGC READ ALSO: Akufo-Addo is a cheat and a dictator - GFA Chairman boils with anger In My Feelings Drake: Stop It! | #Yencomgh YEN 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. Send us a message via Instagram or on YENs official Facebook page. Source: Yen Information available to YEN.com.gh shows that photos of properties belonging to the General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), Pastor Mensa Otabil, have leaked online. According to a report by MyNewsGH.com, a mansion, located at 15315 Mountain Crest Cr Haymarket, VA 20169 was valued by Prince William County Property Assessment to cost $850,000. The said property was in the name of Pastor Mensah Otabil, Joy Otabil and rented out to a 60-year-old Barbara A. Zimmer. The house allegedly belonging to Pastor Mensa Otabil Source: MyNewsGH.com Source: UGC READ ALSO: Video of jobless who becomes a 'kayayo' two years after school leaks online YEN.com.gh is yet to independently verify the accuracy of the information. Pastor Mensa Otabils name has been making the rounds on social media lately, following the collapse of the Capital Bank, of which he served as Board Chairman. Source: MyNewsGH.com Source: UGC YEN.com.gh understands that in a bid to save the distressed bank, the Bank of Ghana gave out GHC610 million, but the result was not as expected. Source: MyNewsgh.com Source: UGC The bank is alleged to have diverted the money into buying properties and re-routing part back to the central bank to create another bank, the Sovereign Bank. Since the collapse of Capital and Sovereign Banks, several state institutions -including the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), have been working to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of what happened and who was responsible for what; for which reason Pastor Otabil has been invited to respond to queries Source: MyNewsGH.com Source: UGC He had sought to clear his name in the banks collapse, saying in a press release that he played a non-executive role and so was not involved in its day-to-day running. Source: MyNewsGH.com Source: UGC The leader of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) noted that he accepted to be Board Chairman in a bid to help strengthen a promising Ghanaian enterprise that had potential but also challenges. READ ALSO: Akufo-Addo is a cheat and a dictator - GFA Chairman boils with anger Ghana News Today: Mensa Otabil Commented His Role In Capital Bank Collapse | #Yencomgh: Want to be featured on YEN.com.gh? Send us a message on our Facebook page or on Instagram with your stories, photos or videos Source: Yen.com.gh - An Accounts Officer of Cal Bank, Assan Dickson, has been sentenced to 4 years in prison - He was charged with stealing GHC109,501 from the bank - He is said to have stolen the money through dubious transactions between 2015 and 2016 at the Osu branch of the bank. An Accounts Officer who worked with the Osu Branch of Cal Bank has been sent to jail for stealing a total of GHC109,501 from the bank. Assan Dickson is said to have stolen the money through dubious transactions between 2015 and 2016 at the Osu branch of the bank. A Circuit Court in Accra has sentenced consequently sentenced him to 4 years in prison on the charge of stealing. Source: Supplied Source: UGC READ ALSO: Video of student nurse who became a 'kayayo' wo years after school leaks online This was after the court presided over by Jane Harriet Akweley Quaye had found him guilty at the end of the trial. Assan was also found to have used the passwords of some authorising officers to transfer the money into his three different accounts. The convict had previously told the police that he used the money to support school-going family members and his personal use. Prosecuting Chief Inspector Emmanuel Haligah said the complainant in the matter is the Financial Controller at Cal Bank, Osu branch. On September 27, 2016, the prosecution said the complainant on his routine checks of the bank accounts discovered that the convict has opened two different accounts in addition to the official one that he operated with the bank hence making his accounts three in number. READ ALSO: Stunning photos from radio presenter Sammy Forson's wedding go viral The prosecution said further checks showed that Assan had transferred an amount of 109,501.72 from the Banks account to into his three personal accounts and same had been withdrawn on various dates. On October 25, 2016, the prosecution said the complainant reported the matter to the Police and accused person was nabbed. The prosecution said Assan in his cautioned statement admitted the offence and stated he managed to ascertain the passwords of five authorising officers of the bank. Based on that, the Prosecution said Assan stated that he intermittently used the passwords to transfer the money into his accounts. When Assan was quizzed he told the police that he used the money to support his school going family members and his personal use. READ ALSO: Akufo-Addo is a cheat and a dictactor - GFA Chairman boils with rage Ghana News Today: National Cathedral Drama / Kofi Anan to be buried back home | #Yencomgh: 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 - A Nigerian man has been caught stealing from an offering box - The man was caught using a wire to unlock the box - It was gathered that the man was caught at a church in Port-Harcourt YEN.com.gh has come across the story of a man who was caught stealing at a church in Port-Harcourt. The man was caught stealing money from the offering box at St Marks Anglican Church. The story was shared on social media by a Facebook user identified as Ezekiel West Tamunominabo. The Facebook user revealed that the thief was caught trying to unlock the offering box with a wire and a gum. Man reportedly caught using wire to steal from tithe box in Port-Harcourt Photo source: Facebook user Ezekiel West TamunominaBo According to Ezekiel, the man was only able to steal five hundred Naira (GHC from the tithe box. READ ALSO: Wild photos from the surprise birthday party of Ebony's sister pop up He noted that the pastor of the church prayed for the thief after he was interrogated by the members of the church who caught him. It was also gathered from the Facebook post that the thief had been doing the same for a while. He was reported to have committed the same crime around churches in the area. Read the post below: "A man caught stealing from St Marks Anglican Church port Harcourt Earlier this morning in St marks Anglican Church a man was caught stealing from the tithe box in the church alter.... Which at the end it was 500 Naira he ended getting from the box, from investigation the young man has been doing this in several churches in town he used a long constructed wire and inserted a gum to dip into the tithe box as it was locked with padlock. The vicar of the church prayed for this young man who claimed to have been stealing in the church several times... They say one day for the thief and one day for the owner. Reported By Ezekiel tamunominabo west Port Harcourt." READ ALSO: Wild video of Princess Shyngle smoking pops up and her fans are angry Ghana News Today: Becca's Marriage in Danger? Want to be featured on YEN.com.gh? Send us a message on our Facebook/Instagram pages with your stories, photos Source: Yen.com.gh Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. 1. How to find the right product on Pinterest: Analyze the available pins As its founder said, Pinterest is a thought list that gives people inspiration and good mood. But beyond that, Pinterest is a great marketing tool for companies because it helps promote and promote trends. Go on Pinterest Sign in or create your account Turn it into a business account To make sure you're done with all your settings, go to your profile settings The language you need to choose is English and the country is the United States. Now you are ready to do magic and find the most available stitches! The pin is a small post with an image. People save their favorite stitches to their virtual "board". Go to the home page and type keywords in the search box Click on the "Purchasable Pins" tab Analyze the displayed items. Even if you can't rank them by popularity, you can see how many people save certain items on their motherboards (as many as possible), as well as the names and image styles of the most popular products. Use this information wisely, and your direct store will only contain the best products. In addition, you can use the search results displayed in the All Pins tab - the same information is also provided here. Please note: These are not commercially available pins, so it does not mean that people save these pins to the motherboard because they want to buy them. Related: is dropshipping legal 2. Find niche products on Ebay: Explore the products that are most interesting We use the special services provided by watchcount.com to display the most eye-catching eBay items/auctions. Go on observe Type keywords in the search box (you can also use categories to filter your search results) See how many people are watching the products you are searching for and what are the most popular on Ebay. this is very simple! 3. Use Amazon to find niche products: learn about the best-selling products In fact, the Amazon website is a great place to monitor top products. Simply enter your keywords in the Amazon search box and filter your results. There are two ways to do this: 1. Filter by customer comments Based on customer reviews, your search results are now ranked by product rating. 2. Filter by relevance Hey! You will see the best-selling niche products on Amazon! It's really worth analyzing popular products and placing similar products in the store. Using these sites to find the most popular products, we have achieved many goals: We always pay attention to the preferences of potential buyers We research the latest trends and learn more about new dropship toys products that appear in this niche market. We created a perfect store where every customer can find what they like We collect data on top sellers so we can create beautiful and informative product pages As a result, we have increased customer loyalty, which in turn helps us increase our income. Yes, right Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. In modern times, there are countless guidelines implemented across Australia to ensure that advertisements don't contain 'discrimination or vilification' on account of 'sex'. In fact, according to Australian Ad Standards, this term now includes not just the physical characteristics of being a man or a woman but also include discrimination on the basis of gender. However, in years gone by, this was far from the case, with thousands of companies relying on gender stereotypes and the 'sex sells' mentality to sell their products and services. Here, FEMAIL looks at some of the most amusing, shocking and downright bizarre gender-targeted ads from over the years - and my, how times have changed. As the number one in plain paper copiers, this company boosted their sales by using a half-nude woman holding a rugby ball to advertise their machines There's no guessing who this Slimloaf was targeted at, with the bizarre creation said to 'take pounds off where they show most' It's not known whether this cheeky ad was real or created later as a joke - but in any case it is still amusing to this day The Colonel claimed to have women's backs, with his tasty chicken he dubbed a 'mother's little helper' Palmolive helped women remember to moisturise to prevent the dreaded 'middle age, lifeless' skin that makes their husbands stray According to Pyrex, the 'girlhood dreams' of every young woman is to 'plan lovely meals for her man, preparing all sorts of interesting little dishes' - because, of course, all successful marriages start in the kitchen! This ad suggested women longed for a bottling outfit to preserve the family's jams for the months ahead 'For birthdays... for weddings... for anniversaries': This vintage Pyrex ad raises eyebrows in modern times for all the wrong reasons Pyrex at it again - this time claiming that the Pyrex range is 'man-bait' and helps women make food look more 'appetising' According to Cornelius, 'a woman who knows the value of true femininity' wears their fur coats Just before 11pm, a six-year-old was gently roused from his sleep by his mother and carried into the living room where friends and family members were watching a flickering 26in black and white television. Suddenly a fuzzy figure appeared on the screen as astronaut Neil Armstrong sealed his place in history, making the short jump from Apollo 11s ladder and on to the surface of the Moon with the immortal phrase: Thats one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. For his son Mark that sleepy six-year-old on July 20, 1969 the pictures that captivated the world were a puzzling letdown. While those gathered at the Armstrong family home near Nasas HQ in Houston, Texas, cheered wildly, and a squawk box next to the TV gave them a direct audio link to Mission Control, he couldnt recognise the grainy image of a man in the silver spacesuit as his father. The quality of the images coming from the Moon was so poor, it was hard to tell it was Dad out there, Mark, now 55, explains in an exclusive interview. But his youthful confusion was nothing compared to the emotions his mother Janet was feeling: She must have been beside herself with worry. She held everything in to protect me and my brother Eric. Neil Armstrong's son Mark has praised Claire Foy's portrayal of his mother in the new film First Man The quality of the images coming from the Moon was so poor, it was hard to tell it was Dad out there, Mark, now 55, explains in an exclusive interview We never felt Dad was in danger of not coming home. But Mum, of course, knew the risks. Dad was the first man on the Moon, but Mum was the unsung hero. Mark has just seen a special family screening of the new film First Man, which opened the prestigious Venice Film Festival last week to rave reviews. It stars Ryan Gosling as the publicity-shy astronaut and British actress Claire Foy best known for playing the Queen in the Netflix series The Crown is being tipped for an Oscar for her bravura performance as Armstrongs long-suffering wife. Janet died in June, aged 84, after a long battle with lung cancer. And for Mark, Foys tribute to the woman he describes as the real power behind the throne, is a fitting legacy that moved him to tears. While Dad got all the fame and glory, my mum and all the astronauts wives were the ones who held it all together, he says. Its wonderful that, finally, these remarkable women are getting their due. Foy, in her first major Hollywood role, has been described as outstanding by critics for her heart-wrenching and searing portrayal of Janet. It is a role in which she is almost unrecognisable from her glossy perfection as the Queen in The Crown. In First Man, her hair is cropped into a neat 1960s bob and she dresses simply in Janets uniform of capri pants and no-fuss blouses. The film was a labour of love for 34-year-old Foy, who was not able to meet Janet because of her illness, but she spent hours speaking to Mark via Skype to hone her every nuance and emotion: She wanted to know the minutiae. Mum called me Marco and my brother Ricky. She wanted to know the balance and strength of my mother. What she was really like? When I saw her on screen, I was overwhelmed with emotion. Mum only passed away recently so, to see her up there, alive and so real it was incredible. Claire captured Mums essence. She communicates so many feelings without words. I got very emotional. Director Damien Chazelle, who was the youngest winner of a Best Director Oscar for La La Land, recreated the Armstrong family home down to the exact dining table where Janet forced her taciturn husband to address Mark and his elder brother Eric, now 61, on the eve of the Apollo 11 mission. I knew something serious was up because it was weird being called to the dining room, Mark recalls. We never sat there except Thanksgiving and Christmas. I knew Mum was worried, in a stressed state. But neither she nor dad passed those worries on. Dad said he was going on a mission and he thought they had a 50-50 chance of actually landing on the Moon, but that he felt very confident in the spacecraft and support team, and while there was some risk, he was confident hed come home. That was enough for me. While millions of words have been written about the Moon landings, First Man tells the story through the emotions of Janet a doctors daughter who met Armstrong at Purdue University in Indiana in 1953 as she struggles to cope with her husbands long absences and frequent brushes with death. Mark says: She was swimming and Dad turned to a friend and said, Thats the woman Im going to marry. But it took the quiet, bookish Armstrong three years to ask her out. Mark said: I like that the film tells Mums story properly for the first time. Dad wasnt the only hero in the family.' Pictured: Jan and Mark Armstrong watching the historic mission Mum said Dad was never one to rush anything, he adds. The pair married in 1956; Eric was born the following year, daughter Karen in 1959 and Mark in 1963. The film also focuses on Karens death in 1962 from brain cancer a shadow that always hung over the Armstrong family. I dont remember her death ever being discussed at home, says Mark. There was a portrait of her which showed her just before she died. Dad treasured that portrait more than any other possession. His way of dealing with grief was to throw himself into work. He was always away. That left Mum home alone to deal with it on her own. My sister died on January 28, which happened to be my parents wedding anniversary. They never celebrated their anniversary for that reason. It was a wound that never healed. The film charts Armstrongs meteoric rise, first as a Navy test pilot based at Edwards Air Force base in California and, later, as one of the first Nasa astronauts training in Houston after John F. Kennedy famously vowed to beat the Russians in the space race by putting an American on the Moon by the end of the 1960s. One of the most dramatic scenes in the film and a startling tour de force for Foy takes place during Armstrongs Gemini 8 mission in 1966. Mark explains: When the men were on a mission, those families had squawk boxes inside their homes. This was basically a hotline to Mission Control so the families could hear everything that was going on. During missions our house was an open house. The whole neighbourhood had Nasa families living in it everyones dad had something to do with Nasa so when the men were on mission the wives would come over with potluck dinners. Mum was vivacious, outgoing. The doorway was always open. She greeted everyone with a smile. We kids would all play together and swim in the pool and the men would stand around discussing the mission. Gemini 8, commanded by Armstrong, was to be the first time two manned spacecraft docked in orbit. But the procedure went disastrously wrong as the joined craft began to spin through space. Armstrong managed to undock Gemini 8 from the other vessel to solve that problem, but inadvertently sent his own craft tumbling out of control. Nasa responded to the crisis by cutting the live feed from Mission Control to the squawk box in the Armstrongs home in the movie, Mark plays a cameo role as the Nasa aide who decides to cut the audio signal. In the film as in real life Janet was furious: Mum got into her car and drove over there and banged on the door of Mission Control. They wouldnt let her in. She screamed at boss Deke Slayton before the crisis was averted when Armstrong regained control of his spacecraft. The experience of being locked out stayed with Janet, however, and before the Apollo 11 mission, she told her husbands superiors: If there is a problem I want to be in Mission Control and if you dont let me in again I will blast this to the world! Mum had all of the work and none of the control, Mark recalls. But she and the other wives were every bit the heroes. They served their country as much as the men did. Mark vividly remembers the Apollo 11 mission: Mum, my brother and I were flown to the Cape [Cape Kennedy] for the take-off. We were on a boat on the Banana River [the lagoon next to the space station] with Dave Scott and his wife. Dave was dads crewmate from Gemini 8. At Janets instruction, there was no champagne after blast-off, which was watched by an estimated half a billion people around the globe: Not until the men were safely back home. We saw the blast-off and then we flew straight home to Texas, Mark says. It would be two and a half days before Apollo 11 made it into lunar orbit: Mum came and got me and said they were getting close. Janet died in June, aged 84, after a long battle with lung cancer. And for Mark, Foys tribute to the woman he describes as the real power behind the throne, is a fitting legacy that moved him to tears. Pictured: Ryan Gosling in the film We had the squawk box next to the TV in the living room, but the images were really grainy. A lot of the footage has been cleaned up since using modern technology. Mark recalls seeing the lunar module touching down on the surface of the Moon at 4.18pm on July 20, 1969, and hearing his fathers voice come crackling over the radio to say his second most-famous quote: The Eagle has landed. Mark then had dinner and was put to bed with his mothers promise that he would be woken shortly before 11pm to watch his dad take his step on to the lunar surface. Armstrongs few steps made him one of the most famous men on the planet, yet after returning to Earth, he struggled to get back to leading a normal life, not helped by a procession of ticker-tape parades, visits to the White House to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and endless speaking engagements and tours as the poster boy for the American space industry. There were even more demands his time. Dad was the most famous man on the planet. He was getting 10,000 pieces of mail a day. It was overwhelming and Nasa doesnt prepare you for it. He didnt like the fame. He just wanted to lead a normal life. Searching for someone who could share his experience, Armstrong struck up a close friendship with Charles Lindbergh, who made the first solo transatlantic flight in 1927, but whose infant son Charles Jr was kidnapped and murdered five years later. Mark says: Dad valued privacy. He moved away from fame because he didnt want what happened to Lindberghs baby to happen to us. I know there were bona fide threats against us. The family moved first to Washington DC and then to a remote 200-acre dairy farm in Armstrongs home state of Ohio, where he landed a job teaching at Cincinnati University and spent time with his sons, who both became soft-ware engineers. We had a telescope and would look at the night sky. Dad knew all about the cosmos. We looked at the Pleiades, he would teach us about stellar navigation. But he never pointed at the Moon. We didnt look at the Moon. Mark, who is married with three children, says it was tough sharing his father with the world. It took a toll on his parents marriage, too. Armstrong and Janet slowly drifted apart, finally divorcing after 38 years: I was sad but not shocked, Mark says. There were no screaming rows. Janet once said: Silence is Neils answer. The word no is an argument. Armstrong remarried, but died, aged 82, in 2012 after suffering complications from heart surgery. His family funeral was, at his own request, small and strictly invitation-only to reflect his intensely private nature. However, then-President Barack Obama ordered flags across the United States to be flown at half-mast as he paid tribute to the astronaut as a hero not just of his time, but of all time. But for Mark, his mother deserves every bit as much recognition which, thanks to Claire Foys performance, she is belatedly receiving after her death. He says simply: I like that the film tells Mums story properly for the first time. Dad wasnt the only hero in the family. First Man opens in the UK on October 12. For Royal watchers, it has long been considered the most heartbreaking moment of Princess Margarets life. But the Queens younger sister may have actually viewed the end of her engagement to dashing divorce Group Captain Peter Townsend as an escape from becoming rather an ordinary housewife, according to one of her closest friends. The pair split in 1955 following pressure from the Queen and the government, but Lady Jane Rayne tells a forthcoming documentary: She looked as if she was absolutely heartbroken but I dont think she was. I think she thought, Right, go back to my old bachelor days. She weighed everything up to realise what her life would have been like [had they married]. The early-1950s saga was central to the first series of the Netflix drama The Crown, starring Vanessa Kirby as Margaret and Ben Miles as Townsend (pictured together) She would never be a nobody, but she would have lost part of her glamour. I think if shed have married him, she would have been rather an ordinary housewife and she didnt want that at all. Margaret asked her sister for permission to marry Townsend in 1953. The Queen asked her to wait, and it later emerged that a plan was struck to remove the Princess and any children from the marriage from the line of succession. The saga was central to the first series of the Netflix drama The Crown, starring Vanessa Kirby as Margaret and Ben Miles as Townsend. Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend, pictured left in Belfast in 1947, ended their engagement amid pressure from the Queen, right, and the government Now a two-part BBC2 documentary, Princess Margaret: The Rebel Royal, which starts on September 11, will return to the topic. It also suggests that Margaret harboured some bitterness towards her sister. Her former lady-in-waiting Lady Anne Glenconner says: She always said, I was never educated as well as my sister in order not to be a threat to her. Lady Jane adds: Margaret didnt really have a proper role. I think she was afraid of being belittled. A new NHS-backed treatment could dramatically improve the day-to-day lives of people plagued by severe asthma attacks and who require regular trips to A&E. The new procedure involves a tiny probe that resembles an egg whisk being inserted into the lungs. This emits heat that shrinks scarred, thickened lung tissue, and aids breathing. Although the minimally invasive operation has been performed since 2011, NHS watchdogs the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have now given it the green light, after studies showed it reduced emergency hospital admissions for life-threatening asthma attacks by 55 per cent and that benefits continue for ten years after treatment. The NICE decision means it can be routinely offered to patients. One patient transformed by the treatment is Nicola Kerr, 43, who within two months of having surgery earlier this year was able to complete a 170-mile hike in the French mountains. This would have been impossible for Nicola before as intense exercise could easily trigger a terrifying, life-threatening attack. She said: Instead of reaching for the inhalers every morning and coughing all day, I now wake up fine. Its simply changed my life. About 5.4 million Britons suffer from asthma and of these, 200,000 are believed to have severe symptoms that leave them regularly gasping for breath, and requiring urgent medical care. The disease kills more than 1,400 each year. Asthma affects the small tubes or airways that carry air in and out of the lungs, with attacks triggered by so-called allergens substances that are harmless to the majority of people, but can cause an immune system reaction in those with the illness. This response leads to the lining of the lungs becoming inflamed and swollen, so the airways narrow, making it harder for air to pass through. One patient transformed by the treatment is Nicola Kerr, 43, who within two months of having surgery earlier this year was able to complete a 170-mile hike in the French mountains Inhaled or oral steroids prevent attacks by reducing the inflammation making the airways narrow. But for many, the severity of inflammation is such that drugs no longer work to open the airway. These NHS patients will now be offered the treatment, called bronchial thermoplasty, which uses a type of heat called radiofrequency to reduce airway narrowing. Some of our patients had difficulty walking upstairs, and are now doing intensely physical things like rock-climbing, says Professor Pallav Shah, consultant physician in respiratory medicine at the Royal Brompton Hospital and Chelsea & Westminster Hospital in London, who offers the treatment. It takes place under general anaesthetic and is carried out in three separate 45-minute sessions. Doctors treat the lower part of the right lung first, and the lower left part three weeks later. A few weeks later a third 45-minute operation treats the upper sections of both lungs. First the consultant inserts a camera on a flexible tube a bronchoscope through the mouth and deep into the lungs. A wire with a basket-like structure at the end the egg whisk is then fed down the bronchoscope and heated up to 50C to 65C for eight to ten seconds. The heat causes the smooth muscles of the airways to shrink permanently, but doesnt damage the delicate lining of the lungs. Nicola, from Putney in London, suffered from debilitating asthma since her 20s and had exhausted all treatment options by the time it came to her bronchial thermoplasty procedure. In January 2017 she collapsed and was rushed to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Her doctor told her about a clinical trial for bronchial thermoplasty and she went on to have the first treatments in February and March 2018. Nicola says: My lungs were so big that I actually needed four treatments. After the final treatment, I began to feel the difference. Two weeks later, the difference was amazing. In July, I hiked down Mont Blanc and Ive just come back from a trip to the Pyrenees. Im down to a quarter of the medication I was on and still use inhalers, but I havent needed to go back to A&E since its wonderful. Ask a stupid question WHY DOES MY MOUTH FEEL SENSITIVE AFTER DRINKING HOT SOUP? The tissues in your mouth, gums, cheeks and tongue are thin, with a lot of nerve endings, which means they are very sensitive to heat, says Dr Ben Atkins, dentist and trustee of the Oral Health Foundation. But sensitivity to hot food and drink can be down to a few things, such as inflamed oral tissues due to gum disease, burning mouth syndrome or physical trauma. It could also be caused by an infection in the gum. This would need to be treated by your dentist. Blog me better THE BLOG: thegutstuff.com THE BLOGGERS: Part-time DJs Alana and Lisa Macfarlane, below, aka The Mac Twins, who have spent four years participating in research into the effect of gut bacteria on body weight and overall health alongside professors at Kings College London. WHATS IT ALL ABOUT? From YouTube videos featuring advice for IBS sufferers to summaries of the emerging evidence linking gut bacteria with Parkinsons disease, thegutstuff makes for a digestible, microbiome hub. Yes, please! Redken Frizz Dismiss Hair Mask, 18.80 Reinvigorate heat-damaged, thirsty hair with this intensive mask containing Brazilian pracaxi oil. hairtrade.com Weve seen Neil Oliver staring out to sea many times on Coast and other television shows, his lustrous hair streaming in the wind like a Scottish Poldark. Its perhaps inevitable, then, that he has been branded a heart-throb historian. Im not a heart-throb, he insists. Im the wrong side of 50. Nor is he a historian, as it turns out. When I was announced as the presenter of the BBCs big landmark series A History Of Scotland, some of the academic community were up in arms about it. Ive got an MA in archaeology and thats the limit of my credentials. Ive never published a paper on anything. The harbour of St Michaels Mount, Cornwall. The name of St Michaels Mount in Cornish is Karrek Loos yn Koos, which means the hoar rock in the woods. The Phoenicians were sailing to that island 3,500 years ago, but the Cornish language still remembers it as a rock surrounded by trees. Thats how old the language is But Oliver is about to publish a book and embark on a nationwide tour called The Story Of The British Isles In 100 Places, an idiosyncratic choice of locations that tell us how our nation became what it is today. They start in Norfolk with the footprints of a family from nearly a million years ago, and go up to the Highlands and the Orkneys and as far west as you can possibly go, before ending up at the nuclear power station at Dungeness in Kent. He says: Ive lapped the coast of Britain and Ireland more times than I can count. So I genuinely began to think, who could have seen more of this place than me? And because of the magic carpet of television, I was taken to all sorts of places you wouldnt even know were there. And what he has found there is fascinating. The modern veneer of England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and our culture the things that we take for granted is all thinly laid over something impossibly old. Take one of Cornwalls biggest tourist attractions. The name of St Michaels Mount in Cornish is Karrek Loos yn Koos, which means the hoar rock in the woods. The Phoenicians were sailing to that island 3,500 years ago, but the Cornish language still remembers it as a rock surrounded by trees. Thats how old the language is. The 51-year-old from Renfrewshire is a born storyteller who got the taste for history early, at the age of about seven. My grandpa had come out of the First World War with shrapnel behind his ear. It was never removed, and you could feel the edge of it under the skin. That meant that when we did the First World War at school, it didnt seem like something that happened to other people a lifetime ago. He studied archaeology at Glasgow University, then became a freelance field archaeologist. If somebody was building a motorway or knocking down a building, they were obliged to excavate and look at what had been there. I thought digging things up was the greatest thing ever, but I couldnt make any money. And in winter it was brutal. IT'S A FACT Nazi foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop planned to retire to St Michaels Mount after the successful German conquest of Britain. Advertisement So Oliver became a reporter on local papers in Scotland, before going on to edit one of the first British websites, for BT. For holidays, he kept going on adventures with an archaeologist friend called Tony Pollard. We went to excavate the battlefield of Isandlwana in South Africa. A US science foundation set up a tour, so high-paying tourists would come and help us excavate the battlefield and we would teach them about life. After a while, the tours caught the attention of TV producer Pat Llewellyn, who kick-started the careers of Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay and Mary Portas. She discovered us and put together Two Men In A Trench, which was me and Tony digging up British battlefields, seeing what we could find. They lasted two series. We got overtaken by Peter and Dan Snow doing Battlefield Britain. We were knocked for six by that. Pollard went back to his day job as an academic at Glasgow University, while Oliver was out of work for a year before the call to take part in one of the BBCs biggest hits of recent times. Coast was so popular, and all of us presenters are bathed in a glow because people are so fond of it. They are fantastically friendly. They come up and say, Were only here on holiday because we saw it on Coast. Nicholas Crane was the initial lead but over six series, from 2005 onwards, it was Oliver who caught the eye. The critic A A Gill called him the male Joanna Lumley, which really makes Oliver laugh. Some people took it too far: a Scandinavian fan was ordered by a court to fly home after stalking Oliver. But Olivers reaction to fame was to move from London back up to a stone cottage in Stirling. Trudi and I have known each other since we were 19 and 17, so any time theres any kind of Poldark suggestion, we just have a wry smile at one another. She knows the reality of me. Shes seen me hung-over changing a nappy. Wandering all over Britain led him to become a passionate supporter of the union, which Oliver declared just before the vote on Scottish independence in 2014. Im always reported as being anti-independence, but the truth is I was pro-union. By that time Id been doing a huge amount of filming around the British Isles and it genuinely felt like one place to me. Nationalists complained again when he became president of National Trust Scotland, which led to him coming off social media. I was getting bombarded with stuff, and some of it was unpleasant. Nothing that I could have reported to the police. It was just hassle. Oliver has written that Britain is currently behaving like a screeching, fear-filled hysteric, so does he stand by that? Yeah. I think so. Look at the Brexit debate. Its very difficult to have a reasonable conversation in the public domain. As soon as you say anything, theres a screeching response to it. Thats not good. When people cant talk, they act. And its always better to be talking than acting. Hes worried about the future, on behalf of his children. Our civilisation in Britain is possibly the best there is. Its flawed, but in the league table of places to raise a family safely, this is a really good one. And its not like this by accident. If theres a generation coming up that think this is the normal state of affairs, that this is natural, then theyre wrong. Natural is a mess. Neil Oliver and Tony Pollard in Two Men In A Trench. We got overtaken by Peter and Dan Snow doing Battlefield Britain. We were knocked for six by that We need to celebrate what we have, to safeguard it, he says. All of the benefits weve got come at the end of a long and bloody road. And, actually, its a very short short cut back to the bad times. Oliver has produced a book full of compelling stories (who knew that Pontius Pilate was said to have lived in Scotland?), but at the end of it he is back on the beach. At Dungeness, you see how fragile Britain is, he says. Famed for defiance and for standing up to all invaders, it is at natures mercy most of all. We must look after her. She will be gone sooner or later, and I would rather it were later. The Story Of The British Isles In 100 Places, by Neil Oliver, is published by Bantam Press on Sep 20 at 25. Offer price 20 (20 per cent discount, with free p&p) until Sep 16. Pre-order at mailshop.co.uk/books or call 0844 571 0640. For tour details see neiloliver.com First she dished up Fleabag, the TV comedy about a young woman struggling with modern life. Now British comedian and writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge gives us Killing Eve, an eight-part series about a bored, deskbound MI5 operative, Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh, Greys Anatomy) and glamorous Russian assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer, Doctor Foster). Eve is assigned by her boss Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) to track the psychotic Villanelle and becomes obsessed with her target. But when Villanelle realises shes being watched she becomes equally fixated with Eve. The two begin a deadly cat-and-mouse game falling in espionage love as Waller-Bridge puts it that takes them all over Europe. Jodie Comer as Villanelle. Killing Eve is not for the fainthearted. The murders are all coolly executed by Villanelle 007 meets Nikita Writer Waller-Bridge based the series on the four Codename Villanelle books by Luke Jennings, seen as a cross between Luc Bessons film Nikita and Ian Flemings James Bond stories. Its suspenseful, dark, cruel, sexy, glamorous, dirty, clinical, epic and immediate all at the same time. Villanelle captured my imagination completely. Lady Thrillers Killing Eve is unusual in that its two lead roles are played by women. Key supporting roles are also now women, though both parts were written as men in the books. The decision wasnt universally welcomed. There was a meeting where someone said, We cant have too many women, meaning it will look unbelievable, says Waller-Bridge. I said, What are you talking about? Not if its written well and shot well. Walther PPK? No, a toilet brush! Sandra Ohs Eve is not an ass-kicking agent. She cant do a backflip, pull out a gun and shoot three people with one bullet, says Waller-Bridge. She barely knows which way round to hold a gun when this thing starts. When Eve and Villanelle finally meet halfway through the series and the tension hits a peak, Eve picks a toilet brush as her weapon of choice. British comedian and writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge gives us Killing Eve, an eight-part series about a bored, deskbound MI5 operative, Eve Polastri Its coming home Its a BBC America series, made by a UK production company, with a mainly British cast and has been filmed in London and Europe. But Killing Eve debuted in America (to universally rave reviews) five months ago. Variety predicted it would be the must-watch series of the year. Sandra Oh has been nominated for best actress at this years Emmys and a second series is filming now. Shes Cruella de Villanelle Jodie Comer says Villanelle is a woman people can relate to, despite the murders she commits. Of course shes not to be trusted she enjoys killing, she says. But I found myself on her side. I dont want her to be disliked even though what she does is so awful. I want people to be excited by what shes going to do next. Itll slay you Though theres a seam of black, deadpan humour running through it, which wont be a surprise to those whove seen Fleabag, Killing Eve is not for the fainthearted. The murders are all coolly executed by Villanelle a psychopath and assassin with a melodramatic vein. In the pilot theres one murder thats so excruciatingly creepy it elicits an admiring cool from Eve. Another is even more graphic and involves a hairpin and an eyeball. What, no Phoebe? Having appeared in Broadchurch, starred in Fleabag and gone on to win herself a role in the recent Star Wars spin-off movie, Solo, Waller-Bridge has taken a step back behind the cameras, though she really wanted to make an appearance. She says, I wanted to be brutally murdered but the schedule meant I couldnt do it. I would have liked to have been blown up or something. Killing us softly with its songs The soundtrack plays against type in a thriller format. At moments of extreme tension youre as likely to hear a love song as a typical dramatic score. Modern pop hits such as Julia Michaels Issues are mixed in with French songs from the Sixties. Shes dressed to thrill Villanelle has a weakness for designer fashion and is often seen swanning about in Chanel or Dior. Sandra Oh as Eve, however, has swapped the white doctors coat she wore in Greys Anatomy for something even more dreary: trainers, shapeless trousers and uninspiring cardigans. Sandra Oh as Eve. Sandra Oh has been nominated for best actress at this years Emmys and a second series is filming now It couldnt happen... could it? Unlike Lisbeth in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Villanelle looks like someone who wouldnt scare you if you sat beside her on a train. The series of murders she commits are all connected, with her handler Constantin (Kim Bodnia from The Bridge) seemingly under the control of a shady, powerful group known as The 12. Producers insist its founded in fact: they spoke to the BBC security correspondent Gordon Carrera and NBCs chief global correspondent Bill Neely for information on how and why people around the world are bumped off. Killing Eve will be shown on BBC1 and BBC3 from mid-September Paul McCartney Egypt Station Capitol, out Fri Rating: More than any other living soul, Paul McCartney has written songs that stand the test of time. But he wants you to hear his new stuff too. He wants it so badly that hes willing to spend a whole day with James Corden. Behind the bonhomie of McCartneys Carpool Karaoke, it wasnt hard to detect the deal: sure, Ill go to Liverpool and do some Beatles songs, as long as you play my new single. And so Come On To Me has racked up 31 million views on YouTube, as against 1.4 million for its lyric video. Even a living legend can do with a helping hand. Sir Paul is 76 now. Will he still need us when hes 84? On past form, he probably will. He loves writing songs and he longs to see them being loved by the public. Sir Paul is 76 now. Will he still need us when hes 84? On past form, he probably will. He loves writing songs and he longs to see them being loved by the public Egypt Station, his first album of new material for five years, could equally well be called Life In The Old Dog. Spanning 57 minutes and 16 tracks, it overflows with energy. Where Ed Sheeran wrote only one song by himself on his last album, and drafted in 21 co-authors, McCartney writes 15 alone and uses just the one co-author. He plays the bass and the piano, as ever. And he pops up on acoustic and electric guitar, drums, bongos, harmonium, harmonica, harpsichord, synthesiser, tom-toms, Wurlitzer, Brennel guitar tape loops, triangle, congas, handclaps, foot stomps, ankle bells and bird recording. He even painted the sleeve. McCartney writes 15 alone and uses just the one co-author. He even painted the sleeve If all this sounds a bit one-man-band-ish, he also deploys his touring band, an orchestra, a choir and the Muscle Shoals Horns (take them on tour, Paul). And the songs, like the instruments, demonstrate his astonishing range. He dishes up rock, pop and folk, ditties and diatribes, lullabies and experiments, songs about sex and songs about Trump, songs that could have been sung 100 years ago and songs that could only have come along today. One track, Fuh You, is a co-write with Ryan Tedder, who co-wrote Beyonces Halo; the rest are co-produced by Greg Kurstin, who co-wrote Adeles Hello. The results are always stimulating but not always satisfying. McCartney, who once had sounding boards from heaven in John Lennon and George Martin, is no great editor of his own work. Back in the day, a few of these tracks would have been jettisoned, to bob up again as B-sides. The good bits, though, are very good. I Dont Know is a classic McCartney piano ballad, effortlessly elegant, with a twist raw vulnerability. What am I doing wrong? he sings. I dont know. His voice is ragged, and even his hair is now showing its true colours. The punchiest numbers, Come On To Me and Fuh You, are rock-solid. The commentary on Trump, Despite Repeated Warnings, combines the subtlety of Blackbird with the intricacy of Live And Let Die. The other political track, People Want Peace, is a lovable anthem. But the greatest pleasure here is McCartneys keyboard playing, especially on Do It Now and Hand In Hand. Whether playing the piano or the harpsichord, he delivers delicious chords, perfectly paced. When the muse is with him, Macca still has the magic. GIG OF THE WEEK St Vincent Edinburgh Playhouse Rating: St Vincent is the Texan-born art-rocker who has as much stage presence as any pop superstar more than Taylor Swift, about the same as Beyonce. Appearing at the Edinburgh International Festival, she attracted a packed house that was described by a friend in the stalls as half middle-aged men, half young lesbians. In London last autumn, St Vincent performed alone, commanding the stage at the Brixton Academy but leaving many fans frustrated with her prefabricated slabs of electro-pop. In Edinburgh, she brought a band another stylish woman, and two men, not stylish at all, in brown overalls and Boris Johnson wigs. St Vincent herself wears very little and she wears it well. But the band turn out to be a mixed blessing, supplying energy while rather swamping their bosss delicate vocals. At the end, she sings two or three songs alone, and they are glorious. In her bold staging, you can see the influence of her friend and mentor David Byrne, but he would surely advise her to let her voice ring out more often. THIS WEEK'S CD RELEASES By Adam Woods Paul Simon In The Blue LIght Out Fri Rating: Evidently not heading for retirement after his final tour concludes this month, Paul Simon has reworked ten tracks from his solo catalogue including four from 2000s Youre The One. His voice holds up amazingly well at 76, and the songs have been tweaked and subtly orchestrated to create something warm, wise and new Troye Sivan Bloom Out now Rating: The second album by South African-born, Australia-raised teen-pop idol and vlogger Troye Sivan is stylish, confiding dance-pop of a gentle kind. The Robyn-ish title track, Ariana Grande duet Dance To This and synth-pop strum-along The Good Side stand out in pleasing but sometimes slightly anonymous company Spiritualized And Nothing Hurt Out Fri Rating: Jason Pierces eighth album as Spiritualized lets rip more sparingly than previous releases, with extravagant, jazz- and gospel-infused clouds of guitars, strings and choirs making way for lullaby melodies. But the grand crescendo of Im Your Man and the psychedelic garage-rock of On The Sunshine show he can still blow the roof off Neil & Liam Finn Lightsleeper Out now Rating: More Wordcrime: Solving Crime with Linguistics John Olsson Bloomsbury Academic 9.99 Rating: How can you tell if this review is written by me, or by someone pretending to be me? Your first step should be to look for telltale words and phrases, or even peculiarities of punctuation that I have used in previous articles. For instance, I use the word even rather more frequently than most writers, not to mention the word rather, and, as it happens, the phrase not to mention. Oddly enough, I also have a slightly irritating habit of using the phrase oddly enough to begin sentences. But if someone clever were pretending to be me, they would already have noticed these particular traits, and would deliberately ape them, to make their impersonation all the more convincing. So, for a more thorough investigation, you would probably have to contact a forensic linguistics expert such as John Olsson, Adjunct Professor at Nebraska Wesleyan University, and Visiting Professor of Forensic Linguistics at the International University of Novi Pazar, Serbia, no less. Killer Peter Chapman (left) and his victim Ashleigh Hall (right) Prof Olsson specialises in working out who wrote what, based purely on their writing style, and its associated tropes, such as where they place commas or dashes. It is his contention and Im sure he is right that no two people write the same, and that, subjected to careful study, even the most diligent impersonator can be detected. As Shakespeare noted, every word doth almost tell my name. Prof Olsson starts More Wordcrime by saying what he does not do. He does not analyse handwriting or perform a psychological evaluation of any given writer. He does not try to work out whether a writer is lying or telling the truth. He simply scrutinises different documents not just letters but texts and emails and so on and tries to work out if they were written by the same hand. A fairly typical case involved threatening letters sent anonymously to a businesswoman. The first letter began: Just thought Id tell you Im going to pay you a visit cos thats the job I do. Visit people. Its a bit sad for me that they dont seem to like me visiting them. Well, not much anyway. The writer then added, nastily, that he was writing on behalf of someone who was capable of hurting people beyond their wildest dreams. The woman suspected the writer might be a middle-aged businessman whose sexual advances she had rebuffed a few years before, and who now wished to frighten her. Luckily, she had kept a number of business emails he had written to her before the rebuff, so Olsson was then able to compare the business emails with the threatening letters. Were they written by the same man? Close examination showed the two had much in common: both used the abbreviation cos instead of because, and began sentences with Well, followed by a comma. More tellingly, both writers wrote Dyou know rather than Do you know, a habit that is, Olsson observes, extremely rare. For these and other reasons, Olsson concluded that this businessman was also the anonymous letter-writer. The victim sent Olssons report to the police, the police confronted the businessman, and the businessman immediately confessed. Hey presto! A triumph for forensic linguistics! An infinitely more chilling case involved the murder of a teenage girl, Ashleigh Hall, who, in October 2009, had been due to meet a young man called Pete whom she had been chatting to on Facebook. As he couldnt drive, Pete texted that his father would pick her up from her home in Durham: My dads on his way babe he said excuse the state of him lol Hes been at work lol he doesnt have to come in and meet your mum does he lol hell be a mess probably lol x A little later Ashleigh received a text from the father: Hi hun its petes dad are you sure you dont mind me picking you up? Pete is really looking foreward to seeing you and yes its ok for you to stay IT'S A FACT Forensic linguistics isnt new: in the Bible, the Gileadites identified defeated Ephraimites after a battle by making them say shibboleth which they said differently. Advertisement Sure enough, Ashleigh got into the car. She then exchanged reassuringly chatty texts with her best friend about The X Factor. An early one from Ashleigh read: I liked that ollie he was realli gd i thought, his dancin was mint haha x x And a later one read: Haha thts great tht programme i watch it all the time haha The next day, a 33-year-old convicted rapist called Peter Chapman was stopped in his car by local police. His car was uninsured, and, as a sex offender, he had failed to notify the police of a change of address. While they were questioning him, Chapman suddenly confessed to killing Ashleigh the night before, but claimed that he had smothered her by accident. It soon became clear that Chapman had sent all the texts that purported to come from both the young man and his dad. But did he also send the texts that seemed to have been sent from Ashleigh to her best friend, using Ashleighs phone, after he had killed her? The best friend had certainly thought they came from Ashleigh, but had they in fact come from her murderer? At this point, Olsson was called in. He immediately recognised that Chapman had a diabolic talent for impersonation, both for being a male teenager, and also for being the boys father. But he also spotted a number of revealing discrepancies between the texts purportedly from Ashleigh before and after she got into the car. First, the real Ashleigh kept her texts as brief as possible: the last two texts were more wordy. Second, she never wrote Haha both at the beginning and at the end of her texts. Finally, Olsson thought it unlikely that a girl who constantly sent texts to her best friend would need to remind her that she watched X Factor all the time: surely any best friend would already know? What of Olssons own linguistic characteristics? Im afraid to say that though a fair number of his cases are quite interesting, the way he writes about them is not. He has the prose style of a particularly cautious solicitors clerk apparently, a not inconsiderable number of people came to believe and that sort of thing. Instead of writing he or she or they, he writes s/he. He can be oblique and repetitious, and sometimes both at the same time. Instead of saying Google, on four different occasions he calls it a well-known internet search engine, as though its very existence were top-secret. Often, the points he makes are almost embarrassingly obvious. It is clear that in most cases an adult will have a significantly richer vocabulary than an adolescent, who, in turn, will have a somewhat richer vocabulary than a child. Golly! We hardly need a Visiting Professor of Forensic Linguistics at the International University of Novi Pazar, Serbia, to tell us that. He is also prone to finishing off his case-studies with banal little homilies. For instance, at the end of a brief chapter about how one company the exact nature of the product in question is not of any importance dissed another on the internet under the guise of consumer feedback, he concludes: Nobody minds a bit of competition, but at least it should be honest and above board. Most of the time, he takes extraordinary care to avoid being judgmental or outspoken, but then hell suddenly fire off, as though suddenly overcome by a temper tantrum. Our hysterical, immature press, fuelled by irrational, narcissistic, self-serving politicians begins one sentence. And then he goes back to being bland and cautious. On such occasions, it is almost as though there were two different writers at work. Could this be so? Send for a forensic linguist! Bodyguard Sunday & Monday, BBC1 Rating: (Spoilers aplenty, so avert gaze if not up to date) After the first two episodes of Jed Mercurios Bodyguard it had you just where any dramatist would wish to have you: desperate to know what will happen next. Will David Budd assassinate Julia Montague? Or not? The two ended up in bed together, rather inevitably, because it just had to get messy in that way, but whose side is he on? Really? My nerves are shredded just thinking about it, so it absolutely works as a thriller (if he doesnt kill her, will he bring her eggs the way she likes them?) even if its also a bit wanting at times. Even though Bodyguard is sometimes wanting, you cant much argue with the power and tension of the central relationship Unlike Mercurios previous shows (most notably Cardiac Arrest and everyones favourite adrenaline ride, Line Of Duty) this did feel slightly familiar; did feel slightly like Homeland (with its enemy-within scenario) coupled with a full-out Hollywood action film. Heres Detective Sergeant Budd talking down a suicide bomber, heres DS Budd swerving a car though a London street, heres DS Budd racing up to the rooftop of a building to see off a sniper. So hes Bruce Willis, and will plainly die hard if the job demands it, for now, but hes also a Damian Lewis/Brody, deep down. Budd (Richard Madden) is a former solider-turned-personal protection officer who has been assigned to protect Julia Montague (a terrific Keeley Hawes), the Home Secretary. She is a piece of work, you might say, possibly because shes a woman, whereas a man would just be ambitious. But either way, she bullies her staff Chanel is not going to go away, is she? plays the police against the security services and is using the threat of terrorism to shore up her own political power and introduce draconian snooping laws. Plus, she has always voted pro-war, whereas Budd is most decidedly not of that mind. Budd saw active service in Afghanistan and Iraq and suffers from PTSD, although why no one else has ever noticed this remains a mystery.* Deep down he is angry and bitter and blames the PTSD for the breakdown of his marriage. There is turmoil beneath the surface, in other words, yet I dont know if I bought it that much. It was quite clumsily spelled out. He meets up with Andy (Tom Brooke), a fellow soldier from their active service days, who says, You said in Helmand that if you were ever beside one of those bastards that put us out here youd close your eyes and just pull the trigger. Later, Andy, who has a badly scarred face, will say, Who suffers? Her kind? I cant believe you are protecting her. Theyre in it for themselves and couldnt give a s**t about a bloke like you who suffers the consequences. Budds emotional state isnt weaved into his character but laid out before us, which makes this a much blunter instrument than Homeland. But as with Brodie, we do want to find out which way Budd is going to turn. And it is nerve-shredding. That scene with the suicide bomber. That scene where the van nearly rammed the school playground. And the assassination attempt on Montagues life which led to her crouched down and screaming in the back of the car, splattered in blood from her driver, whod had his head blown off in effect, while Budd took command. But as he located the sniper (it was Andy, also rather inevitably) and swerved the car and raced to the rooftop you did think: does Budd have to do everything around here? Are there no other protection officers? No rota or anything? So there are implausibilities and they did start to mount. If Budd has himself become a terrorist target he wouldnt be allowed anywhere near the Home Office, surely. And if hes a terrorist target, why does he visit his family in their safe house so blithely. Wouldnt he fear being followed? And if, as an MP, Montague voted for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and was previously a criminal barrister, wouldnt she be considerably older then she is now? Meanwhile, on Twitter and elsewhere, some have complained about the number of female characters in top jobs. The explosives expert was a woman. The firearms officer who led the raid on the train was a woman. The chief commissioner of the Met is a woman. Budds boss is a woman. Its PC gone mad, they are saying, but if you noticed (I didnt) and this jarred, Id just like to say: this is your problem, not the shows. Now please go away. But even though Bodyguard is sometimes wanting, you cant much argue with the power and tension of the central relationship. She is vulnerable and lonely at heart Im not the Queen. You can touch me unless she is somehow playing him. Is she? Or does she imagine she has discovered the one person she can truly trust. If so, can she? You will just have to keep coming back for more. No question. *Unless they do know, and hes been assigned to the Home Secretary in the hope he will go rogue, or is that too far-fetched? Nothing wrong with Sauvignon Blanc. In fact, I cracked a bottle of Kevin Judds Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand this week and its still as mind-blowing as ever. Best in the world? Maybe. But fatigue sets in whenever theres too much of a good thing, and while Sauvignon Blanc hasnt quite plummeted in popularity as Chardonnay once did, there are plenty of zesty alternatives. The reliable way to hunt zippy thrills in your vino is by choosing wine from vineyards embracing cool coastal breezes. Decent examples include Godello and Albarino from Galicia in Spain or Muscadet and Picpoul de Pinet from northern and southern France respectively, as well as other cool climate areas such as our homegrown wines right here in Great Britain. You can also find pockets in warmer places. Im thinking of Txakoli from the Basque country, and Clare Valley Riesling in Australia, both of which are generally stellar in their bone-dry, laser freshness. Another way to the font of the Zing Spring is to choose grape varieties that are prone to similar zest that you find in Sauvignon Blanc. Italy has a wealth of these, but my two go-to grapes this summer have been Vermentino and the little-known Passerina Ive found a cracker to recommend from Tesco this week. If you want to travel deep into little-known grape varieties, look out for Grasevina from Croatia, Assyrtiko from Greece or Arinto from Portugal. Two grape varieties that are chameleons capable of making sweet or very zesty wines are Furmint and Harslevelu, which you can find in Hungarian wines Ive found a stunning Slovenian Furmint this week on the shelves in Waitrose. But sometimes the unexpected can deliver a dose of unparalleled deliciousness. Ever tasted a white Tempranillo from Rioja? Appley and refreshing as a glacier of frosted Granny Smiths. Or try Sauvignon Gris a slightly richer and more tropical risk-free way to expand your personal flavour frontier beyond the borders of Sauvignon Blanc. TV's dark-comedy queen Joanna Scanlan tells Judith Woods how she followed her career dream on doctor's orders and found The One mid downward-dog. Joanna wears BLOUSE, Elegant London. TROUSERS, Marks & Spencer How to convey the brassy, ballsy, blunt-speaking magnificence of DI Viv Deering in Channel 4's outrageous, blackly comic police drama No Offence? Think of a 5ft 1in dynamo with ship's prow curves, a potty mouth and racy red heels. She has no qualms about fighting dirty or deploying her cleavage when she needs to distract, deter and discombobulate. Unstoppable, unorthodox and unembarrassable, Viv cares about results, not rules. 'I love her,' admits her alter ego Joanna Scanlan, Cambridge-educated and one of our finest, funniest actresses as well as a cracking screenwriter. 'She's so utterly secure in her sexuality her low-cut frocks are just part of her arsenal. She means to intimidate and ultimately she doesn't care if a man finds her attractive or not because her all-terrain ego means she'll ride roughshod over him anyway. I feel that life has got better and better; my 50s are a fantastic, happy time 'That's a powerful position to be in. Women like her aren't often portrayed on TV but when they are, we recognise and embrace them; it's crazy to assume that bigger or older women are no longer attractive, that they don't have sex or use their sexuality to get what they want.' But the irresistible appeal of No Offence isn't just about Viv, says Joanna. 'We tackle important issues head-on. The first series was about a serial murderer targeting kids who had Down's syndrome, the second dealt with gangsters exploiting the innocent and the new series is about right-wing extremists.' Joanna, 56, is engaging, quirky, feminine and paradoxical though it sounds a deceptively dainty size 18 to 20. Let's just say her latest hobby is paddleboarding with her 6ft 7in husband (more of which later). She arrives for the YOU shoot dressed in white linen and navy suede sandals, an Alexander McQueen silk scarf draped around her neck. She's thrilled at the prospect of being styled: 'I never have a clue how to put outfits together,' she says, beaming with delight. 'If I'm going to an event I always need someone to tell me what to wear and I'm happiest in athleisure from Beige, which is a plus-size shop for ladies like me.' COAT, Bessin, from Navabi. EARRINGS, Pandora While Joanna's size is hardly the most interesting thing about her, she acknowledges that her portrayal of Viv marks something of a watershed. In most comedies, bigger women tend to be the butt of the joke: think Miranda, pilloried as Queen Kong in her sitcom, or Rebel Wilson calling herself 'Fat Amy' in the Pitch Perfect franchise. 'I do take on some of society's prejudices about weight,' admits Joanna. 'I have worried a lot in the past about not fitting in, so playing Viv really gives me a boost. You can't waste your whole life feeling 'other' and wishing you were a size 12.' Ironically, it was an oppressive feeling of 'otherness' that led Joanna to gain weight in the first place. She was accepted to study history at Queens' College, Cambridge, in 1980, the first year women were admitted. It may have been a progressive move but the new female undergraduates felt under siege. 'I put on weight as a result of finding myself in a hostile male environment,' she says. 'It was literally a protective mechanism; I was one of 39 women in a college of about 500 male students and there was a sexually aggressive atmosphere: intimidating, frightening. I remember walking with a friend who was suddenly goosed; some man pushed his hand up between her legs and it was just assumed she wouldn't report it. And she didn't, because it was 1980 not 2018. My extra padding prevented me being an obvious target; I did have relationships, but with men who got to know me first. I've intermittently attempted to lose weight since, but it's never worked.' My illness brought me something valuable. I became a softer, more open person At Cambridge, Joanna joined Footlights, that uber-competitive crucible of comedy talent, where Tilda Swinton became a friend. Then, as Tilda's career went stratospheric (she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company within a year of graduation), Joanna floundered professionally. For the first time she started to doubt herself. Growing up in North Wales, the eldest of three (she has two brothers), she had always known she wanted to act. Her parents bought a hotel in Ruthin when Joanna was 14 and she would help out during the holidays, taking on every role thrown at her. 'I imagined I was on stage playing a barmaid, a dogsbody, the waitress who served morning coffee and afternoon tea it was brilliant fun. Acting meant I wasn't shy; I immersed myself in the character. I even ordered a couple to leave the premises; I can't recall why but I think they had been rude to my little brother. I must have looked like a right uppity brat; I do remember demanding the 1.70 they owed me for coffee before they left.' After Cambridge, Joanna's self-belief deserted her. She found herself lecturing in drama at Leicester Polytechnic, and then working in a similar role at the Arts Council. Both were great jobs, she says, but neither made her happy. She became very stressed which led to depression and chronic fatigue syndrome, prompting her to move back in with her parents, who by then had left the hospitality industry. For several years, taking the dog for a walk or going to the shop was as much as she could manage. 'My parents were wonderful, concerned and supportive. They just wanted to see me well again. Joanna met her husband Neil at a yoga festival when she was 46 'My illness was hard but it also brought me something valuable. I became a softer, more open person. I was in a supermarket once and a complete stranger started telling me about her treatment for cancer. I listened and afterwards I remember thinking that wouldn't have occurred if I'd been well. At work I was so preoccupied with putting on a brave front when inside I was feeling wretched that there wasn't much room for empathy and kindness. I draw on these, and on my experience, when I write characters,' Joanna says. During her lowest period, Joanna made another life-changing discovery; she went to see a GP who effectively prescribed acting as medication. After asking a few salient questions, the doctor swiftly concluded that Joanna would never be happy or fulfilled unless she pursued her dream to be an actor. It was the diagnosis she desperately needed. After her recovery, and aged 34, she relaunched herself as an actress and quickly landed a role as a nurse in the 1990s doctors drama Peak Practice. More small roles followed but she was also writing and submitting scripts and keeping the rejection letters stacked in a drawer. She was 46 before something was commissioned: a devastatingly comic sitcom about the NHS called Getting On (think The Office but with catheters and gallows humour) which she co-wrote and co-starred in with Vicki Pepperdine and Jo Brand (and which included a guest appearance by Tilda, who has remained a friend since Cambridge). It ran for three series on BBC Four, garnered awards yet never transferred to BBC Two. 'If it had been written by men and starred men I think the response would have been very different,' says Joanna, pursing her lips. 'But it was taken up by HBO in the US and ran for three series there, which was nice.' Joanna with No Offence co-stars Alexandra Roach and Elaine Cassidy Other standout roles include an un-Christian cost-cutting cleric in the church comedy Rev, and a conspicuously useless Whitehall press officer in the biting political satire The Thick of It Terri, who is too dim to be scared of foul-mouthed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker. 'When I met my husband, he claimed to be a huge fan of The Thick of It,' muses Joanna with an indulgent smile. 'But he didn't remember me because he 'must have missed' that episode. I was upside down in a field at the time and hadn't had a bath for days, so I really appreciated any interest at all.' To explain: Joanna and Neil, an accountant from Croydon, met at a yoga festival in Devon, when she was 46, and married two years later. They share a love of outdoor activities (hence their latest passion for paddleboarding), take part in weekly park runs and their ideal holiday would include whitewater rafting. They have a rescue dog called Millie, but no children, although Joanna had always hoped she would be a mother. 'I just didn't meet the right person at the right time,' she says matter-of-factly. 'When I was 38 and single, I wanted to adopt. I had some interviews with social services but I was rejected on the grounds that I had insufficient family around me in London to help out, and that was a real blow. I also thought about donor sperm but truthfully I found that I couldn't make that choice on behalf of the child, to have a father who would not be part of his or her life. 'Not that I consider there's anything wrong with doing that, but personally I was fearful of making the wrong choice. I didn't want that responsibility which was probably, on reflection, cowardice. If you have a burning desire to do something you will somehow make it work; I didn't overcome every obstacle, which speaks for itself.' Joanna as inept Terri in The Thick of It There is no wistfulness in her tone; she has long since come to terms with her situation, and admits that she would have found it nigh on impossible to combine work and child-rearing. 'The advantage is that I have a lot of time for my friends, their children, my niece and the rest of my family. And, of course, it means I've been able to work at quite an intense pace for the past 15 or 20 years.' Other high-profile roles have included Charles Dickens's long-suffering wife in The Invisible Woman (opposite Ralph Fiennes and with Felicity Jones playing his much younger mistress) and this year's critically acclaimed British film Pin Cushion, an eccentric, surreal and terrifying coming-of-age story in which Joanna plays a mother forced to relinquish the hold she has on her teenage daughter and who struggles with feelings of abandonment. Her most recent success was the whimsical Puppy Love, a six-part comedy she co-wrote and starred in with Vicki Pepperdine, both of them giving unforgettable performances. That series, too, was taken up by HBO. 'I do feel that life has got better and better; my 50s are a fantastic, happy time,' says Joanna. 'I have achieved the right balance between energy and experience and I love to do new things. I took part in the World Naked Bike Ride in London recently, which was set up to protest against cars and celebrate the human body. I wore big underwear and it was wonderful to be part of something so joyful and nonjudgmental. Neil and I are also planning to do the classic pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela next year, but I'll have to leave my phone behind because if I get a call and have to choose between Scorsese and St James, I can't be relied upon to make the right choice.' Joanna with Getting On co-writer Vicki Pepperdine By her own account, Neil is the sensible, reliable and consistent one (all reassuring attributes in an accountant as well as a spouse) who views the world in black and white. Joanna, by contrast, sees only grey, which is an essential part of an actor's and writer's toolbox. But the ability to acknowledge different points of view and accept the validity of opposing motivations can be hard work. 'I can be ridiculously indecisive,' she sighs. 'A few years ago we realised our house urgently needed work done so I got in three different architects. Then I decided we should solve the problem by moving house so I started looking everywhere and I mean everywhere: Yorkshire, North Wales, Oxfordshire. I think even Location, Location, Location's Phil and Kirstie would have been hard-pressed to figure out what I wanted. In the end, I realised I didn't want to be on trains constantly travelling to work, so we settled on the suburban bliss of Croydon and we love it.' Joanna's joys Handbag essential Stamps, because I like sending random cards to people. Heels or flats Ash trainers in silver leather with stars. If you had a windfall I would add to my collection of Welsh landscapes, particularly by women painters. Listening to Dear Sugars, an agony aunt podcast from the US. Reading Claire Tomalin's deeply moving memoir A Life of My Own. Beauty must-have Ren Moroccan rose oil: it's chemical-free and gorgeous. Advertisement Joanna is too busy for trains these days. She has just set up a production company with Vicki, called George & George an enigmatic name that salutes the 19th-century female rebels behind the noms de plume George Eliot and George Sand, women who could only get published by pretending to be men. It's also a tribute to tomboy George from The Famous Five, who could easily beat the boys at their own game. 'We've just signed a deal with BBC Worldwide and we're joining forces with Steve Coogan's company Baby Cow for a three-year deal to make new comedy and drama for television. It's all very exciting stuff.' Meanwhile, the third series of No Offence is about to explode into our sitting rooms with a first episode so shocking it ought to come with a health warning and possibly a helpline. It's not pretty, but it reeks of four-letter-word authenticity. Moreover, the exhilarating, quickfire quality of writing means the fact that Viv's top team is female Alexandra Roach and Elaine Cassidy are her right-hand women comes across as purely coincidental rather than any tub-thumping feminist statement. 'We would all like to think there was someone like Viv out there who had our best interests at heart and who would go through blood, sweat and tears to see justice being done,' says Joanna. 'Yes, her methods are a bit old school, but she's on the side of the vulnerable and is out to stop those who are exploiting them. So she demands respect and she gets it; frankly I think Viv should be put in charge of every public inquiry going.' When you witness DI Deering's barnstorming determination in the new series of No Offence, you'll find it impossible to disagree. No Offence returns to Channel 4 on Thursday 13 September at 9pm STYLING: Holly Ounstead. HAIR: Elvine Roux. MAKE-UP: Dani Guinsberg. PRODUCER: Sian Parry. Chuck out the rule book, says star stylist LUKE HERSHESON. These days, anything goes as long as it looks fabulous. From sleek to sexy, here's how to have a good hair day, every day Who said that blondes should never have dark brows? IT'S TIME TO SMASH THE RULES Some long-held hair beliefs are totally irrelevant for the way we live now. Personal style is so much more important than rigid edicts about how you should look. Here are the ones to ignore Women over 40 shouldn't wear their hair long Try telling that to Julianne Moore and Julia Roberts, both of whom are in their 50s and look incredible with long hair. Age shouldn't define you. The length of your hair has everything to do with your style and nothing to do with the year you were born. An 18- or an 80-year-old should be able to have the same haircut and rock the same vibe. You may just need to adapt how you style it. You should dye grey hair No one should feel obliged to do this unless you want to. Grey hair can do wonderful things for your skin tone and make you stand out from the crowd. If you feel like embracing your greys, go for it, and more power to you! Colour first, cut later? It is traditional for a salon to colour hair before cutting it, but at Hershesons we do it the other way around. It makes much more sense for the colourist to see the final cut in place so that they can paint around it and highlight the most important bits. Advertisement Blondes should never have dark brows Darker brows can look great with blonde hair. Blonde brows can sometimes get a little lost among other facial features and introducing a darker shade to them (whether with a semi-permanent tint or make-up) can bring focus and definition to the eye area. As well as this, slightly darker brows with blonde hair can be a style statement just look at Cara Delevingne. You should grow a fringe to hide your wrinkles Lines and wrinkles are nothing to be ashamed of. Although you can hide them if you want. If you do want to address your lines, your money might be better spent in the pursuit of great skincare. Luke Hersheson (pictured) is one of the UKs leading hairdressers. He and his father Daniel are the dynasty behind the Hershesons salons and brand. Luke is as well known for his celebrity clientele as his session work for leading magazines and on pop videos. He is also responsible for reinvigorating the hair salon with the Hershesons Blow Dry Bars. Great Hair Days is his first book. Dark roots are a no-no Never heard of balayage? Modern techniques such as this colour the hair roots dark and the ends lighter to emulate natural regrowth, in which the roots are always half a shade or so darker than the rest of the hair. Re-creating this with colour lends more credibility to the result. What makes hair sexy? Sexy hair doesnt necessarily mean long hair I hate that assumption. Think Linda Evangelista in the late 80s, Demi Moore in Ghost, Winona Ryder in the 90s all short-haired, all undeniably sexy. Thats not to say long hair cant also be incredibly alluring hello Kate and Gisele. For a quick sexy hair fix theres a lot to be said for changing your parting. Moving it a centimetre or so to one side can transform you from serious to flirtatious in a moment. Remember: sexy hair is touchable hair. You want the person you desire to fantasise about running their fingers through it not so easy when it looks as though it could withstand an earthquake. Ease up on the hairspray sexy hair never looks contrived. Advertisement Short hair is for tomboys It's time to challenge gender stereotypes. Nowadays women (and men) are defying such outmoded ideas as long hair being feminine and short hair boyish. Choose a length that you like and feel happy with. You can't have everything Yes you can! Or at least you can give it a go. Although there's still a school of thought that tells women that a particular haircut or colour is out of bounds because it won't suit them, I like to take a more flexible approach. I consider how things can be adapted to suit the client's needs. You may have to consider the downside or constraints of doing something, but there's no reason why you can't set your sights on a look. You must cut your hair every six weeks We're not in the 1980s any more and women don't tend to have those super-structured, high-maintenance styles that need regular pruning. Unless you have short hair or a specific length that you wish to maintain, you don't have to make frequent trips to the hairdresser's. Thanks to colour techniques such as balayage and clever ways of cutting hair, you can actually have some fun with the growing-out process. HOW TO PERFECT THE DIY BLOW-DRY You don't have to be a pro to be able to blow-dry your hair and make it look great. Just follow these simple steps PROTECT Before you lay a finger on your hair, treat it to a heat-defence product. ROUGH-DRY When your hair is wet it's very vulnerable to damage and a brush is about as damaging as it gets, so rough-dry it with your hands first. This technique can also shorten your styling time by about half. Use a hairdryer on a low heat and speed setting until your hair is 95 per cent dry. After this you can use a brush to begin shaping it properly. Static attack? Air-conditioning can be drying, which is a nightmare for static hair, and brushing will only make it worse and create frizz. Instead, use a light hairspray such as Elnett to tame it. This can be layered on as needed because it remains soft. Advertisement TO BRUSH... It's essential to choose the right one for the job. If you're creating a style with lots of volume, use one with a round barrel. Section by section, wrap your hair around the barrel and blast with your hairdryer in a downwards direction (the nozzle should be parallel to the brush). Turn off your hairdryer and allow your hair to cool slightly around the bristles before releasing it from the brush. ... OR NOT TO BRUSH I don't actually use brushes much these days. I find it better to rough-dry hair then use tongs or irons to do the styling. You can even do some of the styling by using your hands during the rough-drying process. To soften a cowlick, for example, use your fingers like a comb to pull your hair taut while it is still wet. You can reduce the appearance of frizz by using the same technique; keep the hair taut and the airflow from your hairdryer pointed downwards in the direction that you want your hair to fall. 'Remember: sexy hair is touchable hair,' says Luke Hersheson CREATE VOLUME There is a formula for volume, and it's very simple: wherever you point the airflow from your dryer is where you will create body and lift. Get the nozzle of your dryer close to the roots if that's where you want to see volume and pull your hair from side to side in opposite directions to lift it away from your scalp. Follicle facts We each have around 100,000 hairs on our head and lose about 50 to 100 strands a day. Typically, natural blondes have the most, around 140,000, brunettes around 108,000 and redheads who have the thickest hair strands 90,000 or so. Advertisement POLISH IT UP For your hair to look shiny, you must encourage its cuticles (the protective outer layer of the hair shaft) to lie flat. To promote this, make sure that your hairdryer is fitted with a nozzle to concentrate the air in one place and keep the airflow skimming downwards along the hair shaft. Freshly washed hair tends to be quite soft and fluffy and not so easy to style, which is why you hear hairdressers talking about 'day two' hair. If your hair is drying on the fluffy side, just add another drop of styling cream, about the size of a 2p piece, rub it into your hands and scrunch it into your hair. It will give some guts to the strands and take down some of the fluff. FOR CURLY GIRLS, it's time to bring the diffuser out of the 80s. This appliance is brilliant for quickly drying curly hair and adding definition and bounce because it allows air to circulate around the shafts. There was a time when hairdryers typically came with a diffuser attachment; that's not always the case now, but just go to the website for the company that made yours and order the diffuser separately. Or try the fabric diffuser by YS Park, which can be attached to any hairdryer. Hold your dryer with the diffuser facing upwards and pool your hair (do not allow the diffuser to actually touch your scalp) one section at a time into the bowl of the diffuser. Handle your hair gently so as not to disturb your curl pattern and leave your hair in the diffuser for as long as it takes to dry completely. HAVE PATIENCE If you're feeling lazy or in a hurry it may be tempting to stop styling your hair before it's fully dry but, if you're prone to frizz, be warned: any remaining moisture will bring it on and puff up your hair at the slightest provocation, undoing all your hard work. WIN a Hershesons luxury hair makeover worth 550 Hershesons is offering five lucky readers a cut and colour makeover with a leading stylist at the newly opened Hershesons salon at 29-32 Berners Street, London W1. To enter visit you.co.uk/hershesons Terms and Conditions: Open to UK (excluding Northern Ireland) residents aged 18 and over. one entry per person. Draw open until 11.59pm on 9 September 2018. To enter, complete an online form at you.co.uk/hershesons. Full Terms and conditions apply, see you.co.uk/hershesons Advertisement FINISHING FLOURISHES Once your hair is completely dry, give it a final blast of cold air from your hairdryer to lock the cuticles in position and ramp up the shine. Keep the airflow travelling down the hair shaft so that it doesn't frizz at the last hurdle. My wife has a brilliant technique when it comes to finishing her hair. She rough-dries it, flicks it back and forth a couple of times, then flings it forward over her head so that it's all falling in the same direction. Then she ties it up into a loose bun and leaves it alone for a bit to set before letting it down. And the result is amazing. I'm not one for hair looking too manicured, and this finishing technique is a great antidote to this. It has a kind of Parisian vibe: very easy and nonchalant. This is an edited extract from Great Hair Days & How to Have Them by Luke Hersheson, which will be published by Ebury Press on Thursday, price 20. To order a copy for the special price of 16 before 16 September, visit mailshop.co.uk/books or call 0844 571 0640; p&p is free on orders over 15. A new service is giving travellers a unique way to potentially save money on their flight - by buying and dropping off expensive items to rich shoppers at their destination. Top ticket items such as iPhones, luxury handbags and even perfumes are being asked for by well-heeled shoppers, but it isn't just expensive items. Home comforts, such as teabags and cheesecake also make it onto the list of items that people are requesting through the AirWayBill app. Global shopper: Nada Al Nahdi gets her favorite cheesecake delivered using the service AirWayBill, a Spanish company based in Paris start-up campus Station F, pairs travellers with those shoppers who want to buy items but don't necessarily want the inconvenience of flying themselves to the luxury boutiques where they are based. For those looking to make some cash for an upcoming trip, the first step is to check the app for demand from where they are travelling. Cities such as Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Mumbai, India have particularly high demand for designer goods meaning cash can be made by savvy travellers. Once an item is found, whether a fidget spinner or a guda drum, both parties consent that carrying the item is legal, the logistics are arranged via the app and the traveller is free to fly with the item. The finances are simple enough. A party wanting an item bought pays 110 per cent of the high street value to AirWayBill which says it keeps the money safe in escrow. Once both buyer and seller agree that the item has been delivered, AirWayBill refunds the traveller for the item, and gives them an additional eight per cent of its value. For a 1,000 handbag, the traveller would stand to make 80, not a fortune, but nothing to be sniffed at either - especially if the buyer demands more than one. The service keeps 2 per cent of the item cost, meaning for the 1,000 handbag, the company would make 20. 'I'm always on the lookout for more things' Budget traveler: Nada Al Nahdi first used the app when returning home from Spain One entrepreneurial traveller made use of AirWayBill on a trip from Europe to Saudi Arabia. The cargo? Specific electronic cigarette filters from Spain. Nada Al Nahdi, a 25 year old account manager and blogger, told This is Money that 'it all felt very normal. I just had to go to a store and buy a some vape filters.' Once she arrived, the filters were picked up and she was paid within 24 hours. Since getting back home to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Ms Nahdi has been making use of the service for her favorite food: cheesecake. 'I had it couriered from Khobar to Jeddah,' she explained, showing how the service is used for sourcing more day-to-day items as well high ticket luxury pieces. This is Money spoke to co-founder Khaled Sehly and asked what happens if an item is lost or stolen during transit. 'In case of theft or Force Majeure, we shall refund the traveller after receiving the appropriate documents as a proof,' he said. Happy shopper: iPhones, luxury handbags and even perfumes are being requested A police report would be sufficient proof for theft. In the case of lost luggage, confirmation from the airline would work. Such an outcome hadn't yet happened but the company is insured for when it does, Mr Sehly explained. When it comes to keeping everything above board Mr Sehly told This is Money that the AirWayBill team 'inspects each request to assure that nothing is going against the regulations'. The name, he says, comes from the official document that accompanies goods shipped by an international courier to provide detailed information about it and allow it to be tracked. Fine figures: Revenue at Lululemon has climbed 25 per cent to 556.7m High-end yoga wear specialist Lululemon has flaunted impressive sales figures, boosted by growth in its mens business. The Canada-based retailer, whose leggings sell in the UK for up to 138, raised its outlook for the year as sales rose 20 per cent. Revenue climbed 25 per cent to 556.7million, as online sales jumped by almost 50 per cent and the brand saw strong demand in China through its digital outlets. Shares in Lululemon, which announced the second-quarter results late on Thursday night, shot up by almost 15 per cent in US morning trading yesterday. Analysts at Susquehanna and RBC Capital said the companys revised full-year revenue projections of between 2.4billion and 2.5billionn, up from 2.3billion to 2.4billion, were still likely to be conservative, adding to investors excitement. The results will have been a pat on the back for new boss Calvin McDonald, who joined from make-up giant Sephora last month. McDonald replaced Laurent Potdevin, who was ousted after the company accused him of falling short of its standards of conduct. It later emerged he had been in a long-term relationship with a female designer at the company. She resigned after the relationship began, but he brought her back as a contractor. Her contract, however, was not renewed in January. Unemployment in the crisis-torn eurozone has fallen to its lowest level since the financial crisis but is still more than twice as high as in Brexit Britain. In a report that laid bare the jobs crisis gripping the Continent, official statistics agency Eurostat said unemployment in the single currency bloc was now 8.2 per cent. That is the lowest level since November 2008, shortly after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, when the global economy was in the depths of recession. Unemployment in Britain has not been this low since early 1975 when Harold Wilson was Prime Minister and Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Tory Party But it is still more than double the 4 per cent rate seen in the UK where years of steady economic growth have pushed the number of people in work to a record high. Unemployment in Britain has not been this low since early 1975 when Harold Wilson was Prime Minister and Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Tory Party. The jobless rate in France is 9.2 per cent while it is 10.4 per cent in Italy, 15.1 per cent in Spain and 19.5 per cent in Greece. And while youth unemployment in Britain has fallen below 500,000 for the first time and stands at 11.3 per cent, it is over 30 per cent in Greece, Spain and Italy. Brexit supporter John Longworth, former director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: It is astonishing that the EU celebrate reducing their unemployment rate to an eye-wateringly high 8.2 per cent. In some parts of the eurozone, youth unemployment is a shameful 30 per cent or more. Who would want to be a member of that club when Britain continues to have the highest level of employment in history? In a devastating analysis of the jobs crisis in the eurozone, the International Monetary Fund this summer warned that sky-high youth unemployment posed a major threat to prosperity in the region. Prolonged unemployment and inactivity can have long-lasting effects on young peoples skills and incomes, adversely affecting human capital, the IMF said. Poor job prospects for the young can make them increasingly dependent on their family wealth, therefore reducing social mobility. All in all, lower human capital and growing inequality of opportunity will in the long term be detrimental to the euro areas growth potential. The megastar, 46, who now describes himself on social media as an 'actor and environmentalist', was mobbed as he arrived at the Glasgow SEC Centre at around Midday (left). He was swept into the building by police and bodyguards just as US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared together at an event where they shared their vision for a 'Build Back Better World' and the need to invest trillions in fighting climate change and creating millions of green jobs. Wearing a blue mask and smart suit, Leo, a good friend of Greta Thunberg , was flanked by security through big crowds as he entered the conference centre having reportedly flying into Edinburgh via London on commercial planes before heading to Scotland's largest city yesterday. Mr DiCaprio, who is expected to speak at the conference, first popped up last night at a fringe event hosted by environmentalists at The Engine Works venue in Glasgow's Maryhill district, in the north of the city. Leo had posed with Emmy nominated writer and producer Paul Goodenough (right) and held a copy of his new climate change book: 'The Most Important Comic Book on Earth: Stories to Save the World'. Mr Goodenough shared a picture of them together with the caption: 'What a hero', and told his Instagram followers: 'He was wonderful and we chatted for ages despite everyone wanting a piece of him'. Saudi Arabia is planning to dig a canal that would turn its Gulf rival Qatar into an island. Tension between the two states has been brewing for the last year after the kingdom cut diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar and accused it of supporting terrorism. Saud al-Qahtani, a senior adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed in Salman, confirmed the Salwa Island Project on Twitter. The Salwa Island Project would physically cut Qatar off from the Saudi mainland and turn it into an island He said: 'I am impatiently waiting for details on the implementation of the Salwa island project, a great, historic project that will change the geography of the region.' The 580 million channel would be 60 miles long and 200 metres wide, stretching across the kingdom's border with Qatar. Part of the canal would be reserved for a planned nuclear waste facility. Five unnamed companies that specialise in digging canals had been invited to bid for the project and the winner will be announced in September, Makkah newspaper reported in June. Saudi authorities did not respond to requests for comment and there was no immediate reaction on the plan from Qatar. After the dispute erupted last year, Qatar found its only land border closed, its state-owned airline barred from using its neighbours' airspace and Qatari residents expelled from the boycotting countries. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt all cut diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar following the fallout. Mediation efforts led by Kuwait and the US, which has its largest Middle East air base in Qatar, have so far failed to resolve the dispute. A black Maryland father has filed a lawsuit against Six Flags America claiming he was beat and handcuffed by security guards after a white female employee called for help during a dispute over him not wearing a shirt inside the park. Nicholaus Mims said he was visiting Six Flags America over Father's Day weekend with his family when he was thrown to the ground and attacked as he was walking to his car. Mims said the incident started when his 12-year-old son disappeared from the water park they were at and he went searching for the boy. According to a lawsuit obtained by the Washington Post, Mims was with his son at Hurricane Harbor when the child ran off. Mims said he had taken his shirt off while at the water park, and took off searching other areas of Six Flags when he noticed his son was nowhere in sight. He said as he ran through Six Flags looking for the boy a couple security guards told him that it was against park rules not to have a shirt on. The frantic father said he explained what was going on and they let him continue searching. Nicholaus Mims said he was attacked and beaten by security guards at Six Flags America because he wasn't wearing a shirt inside the park Mims eventually found his son safe and well playing arcade games. He said he called his wife, who had his shirt in her bag, and told her where to meet them. 'You don't know what crazy people are going to do out here,' Mims told the Washington Post. 'Everything flashes through your mind at that time. You're worried.' He added: 'I'm nervous, afraid and scared because I can't find my child. Not one time did anyone say, "Is something wrong? Do you need any help?"' According to Mims, a white female security guard approached him minutes after he found his son and told him he needed to put a shirt on. He said he tried explaining that his wife was on her way with his shirt. The Maryland father said his son went missing in the park and he was trying to find him 'In response, the Caucasian female employee activated her handheld radio device and called park security,' Mimss lawsuit states. He told the Washington Post that the call the security guard made for backup was racially motivated. Mims said two more security guards approached him and told him to leave the park. Mims said he again tried explaining what happened and told them that his wife was on the way with his shirt. 'Man, I told you, Im waiting for my wife,' Mims, in court filings, recalled telling security. 'I dont understand, Ive spent all this money almost $400 to get into this park, and now you are telling me I have to leave because I dont have a shirt on?' Mims said he used an expletive and that's when one of the security guards placed his hand on his mace and told the father to leave. Mims, according to his lawsuit, responded: 'What are you doing? Are you really about to mace me right in front of my son because I told you I dont know whats going on?' Mims said the guards again told him to leave so he started walking towards the exit. He said once they stepped outside the park's gate, one of the security guards told him he was under arrest for disorderly conduct and grabbed his arm. Mims said before the incident he was at Hurricane Harbor, a water park, with his son and he had taken his shirt off Mims, who says the attack was racially motivated, is seeking $10million in damages Mims said he yanked his arm away, and that's when several guards threw him to the ground and allegedly beat him. He said he was bruised during the alleged attack. One photo shows swelling above his eye. 'This beat down is unacceptable, Mims' lawyer Donald Huskey said. Mims said he knows he broke park rules by not having a shirt on and by cursing, but he doesn't think he should have been attacked as he was trying to leave. 'I could see if I was fighting with someone or not compliant, but I was leaving,' Mims said. 'I broke the rules. Thats my bad, but that doesnt mean you need to slam my face into the ground.' His lawsuit is seeking $10million in damages. A Six Flags spokeswoman Denise Stokes says the company believes the lawsuit has no merit. Company lawyers have denied his allegations in court. 'Six Flags stands by its answer and intends to vigorously defend this matter in court,' said David A. Skomba, a Maryland-based attorney for the park. A Northern Washington DC woman has been arrested and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon after smashing the windows of a Greyhound bus in a road rage incident. In a video captured by an eyewitness, Mariana Silver, 20, can be seen outside of her vehicle shouting to other commuters in the center of carriageways before proceeding to run over the man who was trying to stop her from driving off. It begins with the enraged woman cracking the windows and side view mirror of the larger vehicle on the drivers side, before placing what appeared to be the car jack she used to break the glass back into her trunk. Police have arrested Mariana Silver, 20, a Washington DC woman who smashed the windows of a stopped bus involved in a road rage incident on Thursday The woman then threw the item back into her trunk before trying to get away in her Audi The incident took place around 6pm and happened after the Audi made an illegal pass in front of the passenger vehicle heading from Pittsburg and in the direction of the 1800 block of Bladensburg Road. People inside the bus can be heard commenting in disbelief. Shes going to f***ing jail, one woman says. While others ask the woman why she is reacting in this way, asking her to calm down, to which she responds: 'He f***ed up my whole car.' In the next shot its apparent the front windshield had been broken earlier. The midriff-bearing woman then gets into her car and runs the gray-haired man over not once but three times, after he persistently obstructs her driving path. 'You're a crazy driver. You need to get off the road,' the man had told her according to a police report. A man filming the video, Juan Blanco, can be heard trying to reason with her: What are you doing? This is an old man. However the persistent Greyhound bus driver (right) stayed in front of the vehicle to stop her The driver was run over three times trying to stop her from moving her car from the scene While others warn the man recording not to put his hands on the woman who had tried to drag the older man off her car, he can later be heard confirming he has it all recorded on video. 'She just started pounding like she wanted to get inside the bus,' he told WUSA9 about the moment that was captured two minutes after the altercation began. 'And everybody was really scared. Most of the people on the bus were elderly.' Onlookers can be heard screaming, Why would you jump in front of a car like that? Even after being run over twice the man glued himself the vehicle before being bumped off a third times after traveling quite a way down the road. The man remained on the phone presumably to report the incident the whole time. He responds: She was gonna get away with it, to the people who helped him up and out of harm's way. Witnesses desperately tried to get the man to move away from the woman's car and into safety Witnesses can be heard questioning the man about why he put himself in harm's way Ethan Kane shared the unbelievable clip captured 13 hours prior on Twitter Friday morning, much to the disbelief of social media users. Mannnn, whats going on DC?! She really had no more f***s to give lmao, he captioned the clip. Many suggested the man refused to let the woman get away so he could claim money in damages. The man appeared to okay after the bump and indeed be seen smiling after the woman speed off down the road. While he was left with bruises and scratches on his left elbow after the fall and is reported to have pain in his left hip. Greyhound said in a statement before her arrest: 'The driver was able to complete the route by transporting customers to their scheduled stop at Union Station. 'Our standard protocol includes an interview with drivers following any incident, and we will continue cooperating with law enforcement on this matter as it is still under investigation. For additional information, please contact local authorities.' Julie Bishop's tenure as foreign minister may have come to an end, but she's already plotting her way back to the top. After stepping down from the frontbench following her failed attempt to become Prime Minister, there was speculation that Ms Bishop would step down as an MP. But the member for Curtin, in Western Australia, has not taken her eyes off the prize. Former foreign minister Julie Bishop's time near the top of the power echelon may have ended for now but the MP won't rule out a power play in the future Ms Bishop gave a press conference to officially step down as foreign minister after the leadership vote . 'Given the circumstances, I believed it was appropriate for me to resign my Cabinet role as foreign minister,' she said. 'This is one of the most significant positions in the Government for our economic prosperity and our national security, depends upon our international engagement, our relationships, our reputation, our standing in the eyes of the world.' Ms Bishop was asked directly if she intended on making another run at a senior position in the party, whether frontbench or the leadership itself. After leaving her role as Foreign Minister there was speculation around what the future would hold for Miss Bishop, with a future shot at party leadership being a possibility 'Its far too early for me to even contemplate what I might do. But I will certainly have plenty of time to consider my options and reflect on what has been an extraordinary time,' she said. But Ms Bishop has now spoken to Post Newspapers in her home state about her decision to quit as foreign minister. 'I just felt it was best I not be part of that cabinet, I got caught up in unbelievable conflict between the Left and the Right of my party,' she said. Ms Bishop also said she felt she could have put together a good team and had the had the policy depth and experience for the top job. Not gaining the vote of a single WA MP was something that 'surprised' the former minster. 'I always believed West Australians had a responsibility to look out for the interests of this state.' Ms Bishop wished new Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured with Governor General Peter Cosgrove) and the new ministry all the best Some pundits believe that her pre-selection to contest her seat of Curtain is a sign of her future political ambitions to take a run at the party leadership in the future She also said she felt there was a 'Queensland influence' over the Liberal Party. Some believed that her pre-selection to contest her seat of Curtin is a sign of her future political ambitions to take a run at the party leadership in the future. Ms Bishop was also asked about her future in politics during the Tuesday press conference. 'I will remain as the Member for Curtin, as I had the overwhelming support of my constituents. Im optimistic about my future, whatever it may hold. So, thank you to everybody who has sent me good wishes over the last week,' she said. The West Australian MP made the surprise admission that no other WA MP's voted for her during last week's leadership vote 'I wish ScoMo and Joshy and the Cabinet and the Ministry, every success in providing good government for Australia, and by upholding the values of the Liberal Party.' During the press conference Ms Bishop was asked about the impact on the Liberal Party after her being move to the back bench. 'Well, obviously, as a back bencher, I am somewhat constrained. As a Deputy, I had much more ability to travel the country at the request of my colleagues,' she said. 'But Im sure that the Party will put forward a set of policies that will be in the interests of business and individuals that take risks, build businesses, are looking for opportunities, and the Liberal Party has always been a pro-business Government. 'Im sure that Government will want to see the Liberal-National Coalition continue, rather than risk their future with the Labor Government.' The founder of Papa John's has filed a lawsuit against the company, its board of directors and CEO in the latest twist in the drama surrounding the pizza chain. John Schnatter filed the lawsuit in Delaware's Court of Chancery asking the court to help stop what he sees as irreparable harm being done to the company. Schnatter resigned in July as Papa John's chairman amid a report that he used a racial slur during a media training session. But he remains the Louisville, Kentucky-based company's biggest shareholder and has said his resignation was a mistake. Papa John's founder John Schnatter filed a second lawsuit against company CEO and board of directors, asking the court to stop what he thinks is irreparable harm being done to it Schnatter resigned as company chairman in July, after admitting to use a racial slur during a meeting. He had previously stepped down as CEO in December 2017 The complaint filed Thursday is sealed. But a statement from Schnatter's representatives said the lawsuit claims CEO Steve Ritchie and the board of Papa John's International Inc. are harming the company by 'their repeated, and ongoing, breaches of the duties of loyalty and care' owed the company. Papa John's said it will fight Schnatter's lawsuit, which it said is without merit. 'John Schnatter will do anything to distract attention from the harm caused by his inappropriate words,' the company said. 'He continues to make reckless allegations in his attempt to regain control and serve his own interests.' On August 27, Schnatter posted a letter on the Save Papa Johns website, in which he spoke directly to franchise owners. In the letter, he blamed Papa John's recent 'poor performance' on 'rot at the top' of the company, alleging that the company's HR department has 'detailed evidence of sexual misconduct, harassment and intimidation by virtually everyone in Steve's [Ritchie] inner circle, and relating to Board members as well.' Schnatter is said to suing over claims that CEO Steve Ritchie (pictured) and the board of Papa John's International Inc. are harming the company by 'their repeated, and ongoing, breaches of the duties of loyalty and care' owed the company Schnatter filed a lawsuit in July, suing to gain access to the company's books and records, accusing the company of treating him in an 'unexplained and heavy-handed way' Schnatter also used the letter to lob accusations that he had been pushed out of the company when Ritchie found out that Schnatter apparently with the company board's agreement was preparing to replace Ritchie. Schnatter claimed that Ritchie learned that he was on the chopping block because one of Ritchie's 'direct reports was having an affair with someone in our IT department,' and the female IT person 'secretly accessed' Schnatter's draft performance review of Ritchie and gave it to her 'boyfriend,' who turned it over to Ritchie. 'Steve then decided, and communicated to others, that he needed to get rid of me to save his own job,' Schnatter wrote. Friday's lawsuit is the second filed by Schnatter in the court in Delaware, where Papa John's is incorporated. In July, he sued to gain access to the company's books and records in a complaint where he accuses the company of treating him in an 'unexplained and heavy-handed way.' Schnatter is expected to be deposed over the second lawsuit by Papa John's lawyers beginning September 7, according to Yahoo! Finance. In August, a shareholder waded into lawsuit territory by suing Papa John's, claiming that the company misled shareholders when it failed to disclose Schnatter and other executive's supposed bad behavior. 'The forgoing conduct would foreseeably have a negative impact on Papa Johns business and operations, and expose Papa Johns to reputational harm, heightened regulatory scrutiny and legal liability,' shareholder Joanne E. Danker said in her complaint, according to Yahoo. Papa John's has been experiencing declining sales since Schnatter resigned as CEO in late 2017, with shares falling as much as 18 per cent in 2018 and 39 per cent over the past 12 months. He resigned as chairman in July. Papa John's has moved to scrub Schnatter's image from its marketing materials as it tries to distance itself from the man who founded the chain in 1984. In December 2017, Schnatter stepped down as CEO after blaming disappointing sales on the NFL's handling of player protests during the national anthem. The chain's business, meanwhile, has suffered amid its public spat with its founder. In July, Papa John's slashed its sales outlook for the year after reporting a third straight quarter of sales declines in North America. The FBI on Friday arrested five former residents of a ramshackle compound in New Mexico on firearms and conspiracy charges as local prosecutors dropped charges in the death of a 3-year-old boy at the property. Taos County District Attorney Donald Gallegos said his office will now seek grand jury indictments involving the death. He said seeking indictments will allow more time to gather and analyze evidence, and enable his office to avoid calling juveniles from the compound as witnesses in court. Three of the adults from the compound had been released Wednesday after state judges dismissed child neglect charges, noting that prosecutors missed deadlines to present evidence and that charges may have been improperly filed by the sheriff and prosecutors. (L to R) Lucas Morten and Siraj Ibn Wahhaj were two of the five former residents arrested in connection with a raid by authorities on a squalid compound in rural New Mexico where 11 children were taken into protective custody (L to R) Subhanah Wahhaj, Hujrah Wahhaj and Jany Leveille were the three others arrested Deadlines loomed in state court next week to show evidence backing up charges of child abuse resulting in death against Jany Leveille and Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, the father of the boy whose body was found in an underground tunnel at the compound near the Colorado border. Those charges were dropped in lieu of taking the case to a grand jury set to convene in late September. 'Going to a grand jury allows us to get that information and vet it and not be under the 10-day window, which is quite burdensome,' Gallegos said, describing state rules on due process for jailed defendants that require a quick showing of probable cause that a crime was committed. All five people arrested by the FBI will remain in custody pending a Tuesday hearing in federal court. Joe Shattuck, an Arizona-based criminal defense attorney who has practices in New Mexico, described the firearms possession and conspiracy as 'low hanging fruit' that keeps all five defendants behind bars. Siraj Ibn Wahhaj sits in court in Taos, New Mexico on August 13, during a detention hearing. Federal prosecutors say the FBI has arrested five former residents, including Wahhaj, of a ramshackle compound in northern New Mexico on firearms and conspiracy charges Jany Leveille, from left, with her attorney Kelly Golightley, and Siraj Ibn Wahhaj with attorney Tom Clark listen to the prosecutor during a hearing on a motion to dismiss in the Taos County Courthouse on August 29, 2018 'The feds are looking to get their thumbs into the pie - they may want to get deeper into the case later,' said Shattuck, who is not involved in the case. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Albuquerque said compound resident Jany Leveille has been charged with being an alien unlawfully in possession of firearms and ammunition. The other four people are charged with conspiring with Leveille. They include Lucas Morton; his wife, Subhannah Wahhaj; and her sister Hujrah Wahhaj Federal immigration authorities have accused Leveille, a native of Haiti, of residing illegally in the U.S. for 20 years after overstaying a visitor's visa, though she was authorized to work in the U.S. from April 2017 through April 2018. Local law enforcement authorities previously said the firearms they found at the compound were all legally owned. Kelly Golightley, a defense attorney for Leveille, said she was unfamiliar with the new charges and could not immediately comment. 'I need to investigate my cases more thoroughly to determine if charges were properly filed,' she said. Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, from left, and Jany Leveille talk with with attorneys Kelly Golightley and Tom Clark after a hearing on a motion to dismiss in the Taos County Courthouse on August 29, 2018 Wahhaj, left, talks with her attorney Marie Legrand Miller during the hearing on August 29, 2018 Eleven children were taken into state custody in an Aug. 3 raid on the squalid compound, where a half-submerged camper was surrounded by walls of used tires and adobe walls topped with broken glass. Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said the property was under surveillance since May, and that he launched the raid based on an intercepted message that children were starving. A district court judge says authorities have failed to provide evidence that the children were physically neglected. Authorities say that Abdul-ghani, the deceased boy found at the property, initially was reported missing by his mother last year from Jonesboro, Georgia, after Siraj Ibn Wahhaj said he was taking the child to a park and didn't return. Forensic medical investigators have not yet identified the cause and manner of the boy's death. Law enforcement officials previously accused Wahhaj and Leveille of denying the boy proper medicine and health care before he died in December 2017 during a religious ritual aimed at casting out demonic spirits. In filings in federal court on Friday, an FBI agent reiterated accusations drawn from accounts by children at the compound that Leveille expected Abdul-ghani to be resurrected as Jesus and provide instruction to 'get rid of' corrupt institutions that involve teachers, law enforcement and banks. One in five GCSE entries from private school pupils scored the highest grade this summer more than four times the national figure, data shows. The Independent Schools Council said 20.5 per cent of entries from fee-paying schools were awarded a 9 the new top grade. In comparison, only 4.3 per cent of all entries state and private schools achieved a 9. Barnaby Lenon, the ISCs chairman, said: The results demonstrate the quality of teaching and ambition in our schools and prove the vital contribution the sector makes to the British education system. The figures, collected from 549 UK independent schools on 37,913 candidates, show 62.6 per cent of entries scored at least a 7 (equivalent to an A under the old system). This compares to 20.5 per cent at state schools. Some 87.7 per cent of independent school candidates gained at least one 7-9 grade (A-A*), while 73.7 per cent achieved at least one 8-9 grade (A*). Pupils at private schools are more likely to achieve top grades when taking GCSE exams new research has shown Ed Elliott, headteacher at The Perse School, a fee-paying school in Cambridge, said: There is no single ingredient for a grade 9, but historically independent schools have developed a winning formula that stretches all pupils and allows the brightest to achieve the best. This includes highly-qualified staff teaching in ways that maximise each childs achievement, extra-curricular and character education, a culture of high aspirations and positive peer groups in which it is cool to work hard and succeed. Under the biggest shake-up of exams in a generation, GCSEs in England have been toughened up and a new 9-1 grading system has been introduced, replacing A*-G grades. Grade 7 is equivalent to an A, while a 4 is equivalent to a C. The vast majority of entries in England this year were for the new-style GCSEs, while entries in Wales and Northern Ireland were graded A*-G as they have different education systems. Twenty per cent of private school pupils achieved the top mark in examinations this year - way above the national average combined with state schools However, Nick Gibb, the Minister for School Standards, said: Our reforms since 2010 are leading to higher standards in our schools. We are determined that all state schools will deliver the quality of education common in the best independent schools. Grieving Meghan McCains husband, Ben Domenech furiously hit out at Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Friday after the website kept an offensive tweet about his wife up for hours. The publisher of The Federalist and CBS News contributor, shared how outraged he was after a doctored photo showed the daughter of late Senator John McCain crying at his casket with a gun pointed in her direction. America this ones for you, the caption read, much to the horror of libertarian and radio host. Meghan McCains husband, Ben Domenech furiously hit out at Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Friday after the website kept an offensive tweet (pictured) about his wife up for hours The tweet was depicting Meghan at the memorial service in the Arizona Capitol August 29 The publisher of The Federalist (center right) shared how outraged he was after a doctored photo showing the daughter of late Senator John McCain crying at his casket with a gun pointed at her was posted Hundreds of complaints were made to the social media site but the photo only vanished after five hours when the troll made his account private to avoid the storm. Eventually Twitter suspended his account the next day. It only came after Domenach went straight to the boss by publicly tweeting to his 66.8k followers that nothing had been done about the image depicting Meghan at the memorial service in the Arizona Capitol August 29. McCain passed away from brain cancer August 25, aged 81. His daughter, who a host on The View, married Domenach in November 2017, just months after her war hero father was diagnosed with Glioblastoma, which eventually took his life. Tell me why this is cool by you, he asked in the tweet, mentioning @Jack. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey didn't respond on Twitter but the offending account was suspended Twitters rules state: You may not make specific threats of violence or wish for the serious physical harm, death, or disease of an individual or group of people. 'This includes, but is not limited to, threatening or promoting terrorism. You also may not affiliate with organizations that whether by their own statements or activity both on and off the platform use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes. McCain and her husband have been attending the various event for the late senator this week The @austindelafrog account went private within 30 minutes of Domenach posting about it. However he noted that it was the users own decision not Twitters. It took my hours later tweet to finally get a reaction. Did not want to elevate it but that is what Twitter requires apparently, he wrote, adding; Oh, and the reaction was from the guy, not Twitter. Looks like he set his account to private. Once the offending account was suspended by moderators, McCains furious spouse told followers hed be getting rid of the post from his own account. Twitter finally suspended this account this morning. No one should have to raise a ruckus or highlight this sort of thing publicly to get their attention, he shared. I am going to delete the initial tweet now so no one has to see it. Still want an explanation for why something so obviously in violation took so much attention for Twitter to react. Jack did not publicly tweet about the reaction Friday, instead he posted about some fresh features the micro-blogging site had been testing out, including reply threads. Playing with some new Twitter features: presence (who else is on Twitter right now?) and threading (easier to read convos), he wrote. Donald Trump's first visit to Australia as president has been called off less than a week after Prime Minister Scott Morrison invited him down under. The pair planned for the American leader to visit during a call to congratulate Australia's newest Prime Minister last weekend. The U.S. President announced on Friday that he will skip the meeting with Asian leaders in Singapore as well as Papua New Guinea and instead travel to Europe in November. Donald Trump's (pictured) first visit to Australia as president has been called off less than a week after he spoke to Scott Morrison It is believed Vice President Mike Pence will come to Australia in his absence. Mr Trump was expected to visit Australia in November as part of a tour that included stops in Singapore for the East Asia Summit and Papua New Guinea for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings. There was speculation Mr Trump would also stop in Queensland, Canberra and Sydney. 'The Vice President will highlight the United States' vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific, based on respect for sovereignty, the rule of law, and the principles of free, fair, and reciprocal trade,' the White House said in a statement. The pair planned for the American leader to visit during a call to congratulate Australia's newest Prime Minister, Scott Morrison (pictured) 'The Vice President looks forward to meeting with our allies and partners from across the region to advance security, prosperity, and freedom for all.' The White House confirmed Mr Trump will travel to France to participate in a November 11 commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended the fighting in World War I. While in Europe, the president also will visit Ireland to 'renew the deep and historic ties between our two nations'. Later in November, Mr Trump will attend the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and visit Colombia. An anti-Trump rally had already been planned for in Sydney for November 19. Martial arts fighter Aarron Peet (pictured), 19, received yet another suspended sentence for attacking two students in a racist assault A thug has avoided jail for his third appearance in court for a violent crime. Martial arts fighter Aarron Peet, 19, received yet another suspended sentence for attacking two students in a racist assault. Carol Hall, 59, whose disabled son Scott died after being kicked and punched by the thug in an unprovoked battering in Durham, said she was sickened by the decision. She told the Mirror: How did he not go to jail this time after yet another violent attack? What is the point of yet another suspended sentence? You just wonder what he has to do to go to jail. It is unbelievable he gets yet another slap on the wrists. I just cannot understand the criminal justice system, and how it works. It sickens me that he now thinks of himself as a fighter and promotes his bouts on Facebook. Peet was only 15 when he another teenager launched a vicious assault on Scott, 28, near his home in Durham in July 2014. He died just days later. The teenage accomplice later updated his Facebook status to full-time killer. But neither were given murder charges over Scotts death - and they both received referral orders instead of jail sentences. Peets violent spree continued in January last year after he was involved in a series of murky incidents. He admitted affray and using threatening behaviour and was hit by an eight-month jail term suspended for two years. Peet (pictured) and his father and brother followed Ihsan Abualrob and Sherif Mohyeldeen out of a pub before knocking them to the ground and repeatedly stamping on them And Peet, from Durham, escaped jail again last month despite a shameful race attack on two foreign students with his dad and brother last December on Christmas Eve. They followed Ihsan Abualrob and Sherif Mohyeldeen out of a pub before knocking them to the ground and repeatedly stamping on them. He was given another suspended sentence for the assault. David Spencer, of the Centre for Crime Prevention, said: This case begs the question how many violent assaults does a person have to commit before he faces jail? The constant offending suggests this man deserves time behind bars. Dozens of elderly residents are outraged as a tree on the council strip outside their block of units and villas has caused them to feel trapped in their homes. The Blue Gum tree, on Essex street, in Killara on Sydney's upper north shore, has lifted the road, the footpath, service box and the private driveway belonging to the block of units. Residents have damaged their cars coming in and out of the property, and services such as Meals on Wheels refuse to visit the block. One couple was forced to move out of the block of units, as the services they required couldn't access them due to the steepness of the driveway, 9News reported. The Blue Gum tree sits on the Essex entrance into the block of units, causing problems for residents of Essex House Dozens of elderly residents are outraged as a tree on the council strip outside their block of units and villas has caused them to feel trapped in their homes Units in the block, named 'Essex House', have sold in the past for up to $1.3 million. Another man also risked his life when he needed an ambulance, staggering out the front of the building and onto the highway so they wouldn't have to deal with the driveway. The residents have raised concerns with Ku-ring-gai Council for six years, as the tree is on council land. The residents say that all the council is willing to do is pay just half the cost of shaving the driveway down. They refuse, saying that the concrete will crack and cause even more danger for the elderly residents. The tree is now in the hands of lawyers and insurance companies, with quotes of over $100,000 to take the matter to the Land and Environment Court. Residents are begging for change, even opting to compromise and plant up to four more Blue Gum trees on the property, but away from the driveway. Residents have damaged their cars coming in and out of the property, and services such as Meals on Wheels refuse to visit the block Council continues to refuse, so the two dozen residents of the block of units on Essex street are forced to try and find the money to take action. Council issued a statement on the situation, saying that they believe appropriate negotiations were attempted with the residents, The Daily Telegraph reported. 'We understand that the residents have concerns and the Council has offered a number of options to manage these concerns, including undertaking appropriate works and assistance in meeting the costs,' a council spokesperson said. 'The Council's insurers have also made an offer of settlement to the lawyers representing the residents and we are awaiting a response.' Residents are begging for change, even opting to compromise and plant up to four more Blue Gum trees on the property, but away from the driveway Two blocks away in the same council region, an abandoned office site stands alone, waiting for a legal battle to come to its end. Four years ago, Bunnings bought the office site in the hopes of building a store and providing 200 much needed jobs to the area. A big tree sits in the middle of the land, and Ku-ring-gai council demands the tree must stay. Bunnings has been in a four-year battle with the council, who have spent $520,000 of ratepayers money in legal fees to keep the tree. The council has lost out five times to Bunnings, but they keep appealing the decision. In a desperate bid to build on the land, Bunnings has offered to plant 200 trees if they can take the one tree down, but the council refuses. A billionaire's son has snapped up the iconic Australian watermelon cake empire and plans to take it international. Rumoured to be the most Instagrammed dessert in the world - Black Star Pastry's strawberry watermelon cake has just been claimed by hotel mogul Louis Li. The aesthetically pleasing strawberry watermelon cake, topped off with pistachios and dried rose petals, was first tasted by Mr Li three years ago and he became obsessed - watching its popularity rise on Chinese social media app WeChat. Scroll down for video With two layers of almond dacquoise, rose-scented cream, watermelon and strawberries - the strawberry watermelon cake from Black Star Pastry is set to take over the lamington The company blossomed into a tourist hot spot after a partnership with Destination New South Wales With two layers of almond dacquoise, rose-scented cream, watermelon and strawberries - the cake has become the signature slice for the quaint cafe in Sydney's inner west. Mr Li, as the new majority shareholder and CEO of Black Star Pastry, plans to take the brand to New York, Los Angeles as well as Asia. 'This cake is a phenomenon, not just a fad,' the 30-year-old told the Sydney Morning Herald. 'This is a Sydney pastry that's so iconic it will displace the lamington as the best-known Australian pastry.' There are pop-up stores across the globe as tourists fight to have the lasting taste of the iconic slice The company blossomed into a tourist hot spot after a partnership with Destination New South Wales. There are pop-up stores across the globe as tourists fight to have the lasting taste of the iconic slice. Black Star pastry chef and founder, Christopher The said the new partnership will help him workshop some new ideas for his stores around Sydney. He told the paper, 'I have a very Newtown/inner west mindset, but Louis has a worldwide business view.' The 46-year-old father-of-four originally crafted the luxurious slice for a friend's wedding. Mr Louis Li is now the majority shareholder and CEO of Black Star Pastry plans to take the brand to New York, Los Angeles as well as Asia 'When I first made it I asked myself what would romance taste like and developed these aromas that get your emotions going it seems to work well with the Asian palate and the fragrance is so long-lasting it has a life of its own,' he said. The Chinese celebrity said his goal is to keep Sydney as the focus for the Black Star brand. 'I want Sydney to remain known as the roots of the brand and for people to come visit the Newtown store just like people go to Seattle to see the first Starbucks,' Mr Li said. Two daughters in Mexico's first family have new tattoos. President Enrique Pena Nieto's daughter by a previous marriage, Paulina Pena Pretelini, 22, was photographed showing off her new tattoo along with the daughter of first lady Angelica Rivera, Sofia Castro, 21. The step-sisters posed in front of the presidential residents with American tattoo artist to the stars JonBoy. Sofia, an actress, posted a series of photos with a caption Friday that read in part: 'We offer apologies to those who we may have bothered with this, especially our parents.' President Enrique Pena Nieto's daughter Paulina Pena Pretelini, 22, and step-daughter Sofia Castro, 21, got tattooed Sofia (center, right) who is the daughter of first lady Angelica Rivera, posted photos of the ink alongside celebrity tattoo artist JonBoy with Paulina (left) Sofia (right) posted the photos and in the caption apologized to her parents, mother Angelica Rivera and step-father President Enrique Pena Nieto The tattoos were discrete, small ankle and wrist designs consisting of one or two letters. Sofia, who is also an actress, got the letter 'J' and explained that it was her father Jose Alberto Castro's initial. Her step-sister Paulina got the letters 'ML' in memory of a phrase her late mother Monica would say. Tattoo artist Jonathan Valena, who goes by the name of JonBoy, posted photos of himself and the women at Los Pinos, Mexico's equivalent of the White House, where he tattooed the ladies. In Sofia's caption she reassured the JonBoy was not paid for his work - and issue that was highly critisized by the public online. Sofia also gave JonBoy a tattoo herself, inscribing her name on his arm Sofia, an actress, wrote a caption explaining what each tattoo meant and an apology to her parents Paulina, 22, (left) got a tattoo for her late mother and Sofia, 21, a tattoo of her father's initial JonBoy has tattooed celebrities including Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and Kendall Jenner and is known for his minimalist style. Evermore, Sofia took over the needle and tattooed the artist herself. She inscribed her name on JonBoy's arm, explaining in her caption: 'Jonboy is my friend and I invited him to my home so we could exchange tattoos.' She ended the caption with an apology to those they have inconvenienced and 'especially our parents'. JonBoy has tattooed Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyris and Kendall Jenner Hitler's plot to completely destroy London with an atomic bomb was very nearly a success, a new documentary has revealed. Scientists and naval historians in Norway have found the boat which Nazis were using to transport heavy water - an ingredient for nuclear reactors. Winston Churchill ordered the sinking of the 170ft SF Hyrdo ferry in 1944 - without knowing what the ship's secret mission was. It was a choice which is now believed to have saved England's capital city. Evidence of this has been dragged up 460ft from the bottom of a Norwegian lake around 100 miles from Oslo. National Geographic teams working on the Drain the Oceans series found 40 barrels of heavy water when they virtually lifted the vessel - more than enough to push Germany a huge way to becoming a nuclear power. About a ton of heavy water was discovered on the lakes bed proof that, without the heroism of a few soldiers, the Fuhrer could have dropped an atom bomb on London and, in the words of one scientist, turned the war in the blink of an eye. Lake Tinn Norway where National Geographic teams have centered their investigations into Nazi transportation of heavy water Winston Churchill ordered the bombing of SF Hyrdo ferry in 1944 as it carted heavy water to Germany Heavy water has a unique atomic structure and is coveted for the production of nuclear power and weapons. Naval historian professor Eric Grove told the Daily Telegraph: 'After the war, those involved in the German nuclear programme said that the loss of the heavy water was absolutely decisive. It stopped their reactor programme in its tracks.' Norwegians began producing heavy water by 1934, above Lake Tinn at Vemork, making the country a target during the war. In 1939 the nation began its 'uranium club'. Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann had put Germany ahead of its competition in the nuclear race after discovering fission - the radioactive decay process in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts. However, the scientists needed heavy water because of its ability to control the fission process. Nazis invaded Norway in 1940 and headed straight for the plant in Vemork. Operation Gunnerside in 1943 was launched as London feared Hitler would use heavy water against his enemies. Kirk Douglas starred in The Heroes of Telemark which was about the Nazis in Norway and the mission to blow up the heavy water plant kirk Douglas pictured on set in 1965. Heavy water has now been found at the bottom of Lake Tinn in 40 barrels Norwegian commandos blew up the plant entirely while the Hydro was sunk. However, they did not destroy all the German supply of heavy water which the Nazis began to move the following year by train and ferry. But Churchill was one step ahead. London had already given the order for Norwegian forces to attach a bomb to the vessel. Years later the mission was documented in The Heroes of Telemark. Dr Frank Soreide of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology told the Daily Telegraph: 'We wanted to go down and take up a barrel and prove that this was being shipped to Germany.' Drain the Ocean will air weekly from September 6 on National Geographic. Companies should put at least two women on every job shortlist to improve gender equality, according to official guidelines. The Government Equalities Office is also urging firms to appoint diversity managers and diversity task forces. Officials say the 12-page report called reducing the gender pay gap and improving gender equality in organisation is a summary of the best evidence on how to help women in the workplace. The guidance says one woman on a shortlist is not enough and two are needed to increase the chance of a woman being selected. The guidance says one woman on a shortlist is not enough and two are needed to increase the chance of a woman being selected. File photo It says employers should encourage women to negotiate their salaries by showing the pay range available for the post. Firms should set time-specific targets for achieving pay equality while monitoring recruitment and promotion would reduce biased decisions by managers. But Kate Andrews, of the Institute of Economic Affairs think-tank, said the move encouraged box-ticking exercises and was unlikely to actually help women. Increased diversity is good for companies, and good for their profits. If firms think its worthwhile to invest their resources into diversity training or management, that is what they should do, she added. But implementing a diversity task force for appearances sake is only going to increase bureaucracy and administrative burdens, thereby forgoing the benefits that could have been gleaned from a more nuanced or thoughtful policy. Suggesting multiple women should always be on a shortlist promotes a form of quota system that is, a system which assumes women need more support than men to get into top positions. Quotas rob women of any sense of achievement they might otherwise feel from being rewarded a pay rise or a promotion; they can never know if their achievements were due to their gender, or based on merit alone. Laws brought in this year forced all organisations with at least 250 staff to publish gender pay audits. File photo Laws brought in this year forced all organisations with at least 250 staff to publish gender pay audits. The figures suggested that almost four out of five large firms have gender pay gaps in favour of men. A report this month by the Commons business committee suggested extending the audits to all firms with more than 50 staff. Rachel Reeves, the committees Labour chairman, said the biggest gender pay gaps were obscene and entirely unacceptable. But critics have warned the audit is meaningless and has unfairly demonised companies because it takes no account of the fact men and women may be doing different jobs. Ryanair, which reported a 72 per cent pay gap, said the differential was explained in part by the fact it employed few female pilots but many female cabin crew. Miss Andrews added: Given their warm embrace of the new pay gap reporting measures, it is not clear the Equalities Office understands how to calculate the gender gap accurately, let alone how to tackle it. Im sure their guidance is well-meaning, but it totally misses the mark. A health trust at the centre of a maternity scandal was praised by watchdogs for performing a low number of caesareans. The Shrewsbury and Telford hospital group is the subject of a major review over concerns that dozens of babies and mothers died needlessly. Yesterday the Mail revealed that up to 60 possible cases of poor maternity care have been identified at the trust since 1998, three times more than first thought. The NHS regulator has since confirmed it is planning to widen its review to consider all of the additional cases. The Shrewsbury and Telford hospital group (pictured) is the subject of a major review over concerns that dozens of babies and mothers died needlessly But documents reveal that the trust was praised by two official bodies for having a low caesarean section rate and for encouraging women to have natural births. Both the Care Quality Commission and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists singled out the low number of surgical births as one of the trusts strengths. Several families claim their babies died because midwives were intent on them being born naturally, rather than via caesarean or through the use of forceps. Published last August, the CQCs report, states: The trust was achieving higher than average vaginal birth rates. The caesarean rates were below (better than) the trust and national targets. It rates the trusts main maternity department the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford as good, in terms of effectiveness, in part because of the low numbers. A second report published last month by the royal college highlighted the trusts low caesarean section rates as a strength. he Princess Royal Hospital Telford had its maternity department rated as good, in terms of effectiveness, in part because of the low numbers The document states that only 14 per cent of women who had their first baby at the trust had a caesarean section, compared with a national average of 22 per cent. Just 19 per cent of women having their second, third or fourth babies had caesareans where the national figure is just under 22 per cent. The documents were unearthed by Pauline Hull, editor of the caesareanbirth.org website. Experts believe the drive for natural childbirth may have contributed to many of the deaths and incidents of poor care. Even the trusts website encourages natural labours, stating: We promote normality in childbirth. The failings at the trust are feared to be worse than those at the Morecambe Bay hospital trust in Cumbria, where 16 babies and three mothers died. Yesterday the health watchdog, NHS Improvement, said it would widen the review into the hospitals maternity services to consider additional cases. Health watchdog, NHS Improvement, launched by former health secretary Jeremy Hunt (pictured) said it would widen the review into the hospitals maternity services to consider additional cases It was launched by former health secretary Jeremy Hunt last January to look into 23 cases and was expected to report back later this year. But figures uncovered by the Health Service Journal and shared with the Mail show that at least 60 cases have now been identified. The Shrewsbury trust tried to play down its failings yesterday by accusing the Mail and other news organisations of scaremongering. While it acknowledged that 60 cases of potential poor care had been identified, it claimed that 19 of these had been dismissed. The trusts chief executive Simon Wright said: We take our responsibilities in reviewing these cases very seriously. To suggest that there are more cases which have not been revealed when this is simply untrue is irresponsible and scaremongering. A CQC spokesman insisted its report was not praising the trusts low caesarean rates but merely pointing out how they compared. Have you been affected by this scandal? Contact the Mail at maternity@dailymail.co.uk A top California lawyer has been slammed on social media after going on a racist tirade directed at the 'Asians that took over Orange County' sparked by the new film Crazy Rich Asians. Christina Ignatius, who touts herself as 'the most well-known, most respected and most requested law tutor in the nation' took to Facebook after learning about the newly released blockbuster Crazy Rich Asians - the first major Hollywood studio film to feature an all-Asian cast in 25 years. Ignatius, who describes herself as Tenacious Ignatius, said the film 'reminds me of all the Asians who flooded into Orange County and then took over our mall at South Coast Plaza.' Spewing racially charged phrases, the lawyer mentioned stereotypes such as 'driving like an Asian' and refers to the race as 'rice rockets' who were raised by 'Tiger moms'. Screen shots were taken of the offensive post and quickly circulated online before Ignatius deleted it. Lawyer Christina Ignatius went on a Facebook tirade against Asians She wrote the film Crazy Rich Asians reminded her of the 'Asians that took over Orange County' Ignatius wrote that Orange County experienced an influx of 'Crazy Rich Asians, which she called 'snoshy' in her post. 'It stands for posh and snobby,' she wrote. 'They have a zoned-in personality where they act as if no one else exists and they just run straight in front of you to grab the next purse,' Ignatius wrote.' They also drive that way near South Coast Plaza.' The newly released blockbuster is the first major Hollywood studio film to feature an all-Asian cast in 25 years 'That's why we have the term ''driving like an Asian'''she added. Ignatius works as a law tutor and said that Asians are now seeking her services for law school. 'They keep telling me that they are attending UCRA,' she wrote. 'I need to translate that into my head to deduce that they are going to UCLA.' The University of California, Irvine student wrote that she went to school with a lot of 'rice rockets' - a derogatory term for Asians - who went there 'to become doctors'. She then attempts to imitate an Asian 'Tiger mom's' accent, writing that her Asian classmates were told 'to become docta' by their parents. 'Then if they were not smart enough to become a doctor, ''marry docta'', she wrote. 'If they didn't marry a doctor they were encouraged to marry a lawyer.' 'Yes, my sucker Caucasian male lawyer friends who marries Asian women were completely poached for dollars and earning potential.' She continued: 'If you thought you could get away from them for a hot second and go on vacation to Yosemite, think again. 'They came in huge buses and stood in front of each waterfall to give the peace sign in their selfies.' Ignatius ended the post with: 'From one annoying thing to another, welcome the Asians!'. Screen shots were taken and circulated before Ignatius deleted the post She spews stereotypes and slurs including 'rice rockets', 'Tiger moms' and 'driving like an Asian' The screenshots made their way on a Chapman Law Alumni Facebook page and quickly made rounds on the internet. After receiving backlash, Ignatius attempted to pass her comments off as 'something funny about Crazy Rich Asians'. 'Apparently it was so provocative that it was considered abuse,' Ignatius later posted. 'I had no idea that talking about stereotypes would be so provocative,' she defended, 'Somehow my post goes down bu this one manages to stay up with 10million views,' she wrote, referring to a parody video titles 'S*** Asian Mom Say, which depicts an Asian man dressed as an Asian mother. 'By the way, I do not hate Asians,' she said. 'I really love them and I find differences to be funny and interesting.' Her post has been shared by the Asian community and allies who have called for the California Bar to suspend her license. Sean Rayford/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Reality Winner, the former U.S. intelligence specialist sentenced to five years in prison for leaking classified documents on the Russia probe, has told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she will seek a pardon from President Trump. Winner's prison sentence caught the eye of the president, who tweeted "Ex-NSA contractor to spend 63 months in jail over classified information. Gee, this is small potatoes compared to what Hillary Clinton did! So unfair Jeff, Double Standard." The Justice Department has said that her sentence is the longest-ever for leaking classified information. "It appropriately satisfies the need for both punishment and deterrence, in light of the nature and seriousness of the offense," the Justice Department statement released after her sentencing reads. Winner told the Journal-Constitution that her legal team is preparing an application strategy and will likely make the request after the midterms. When he said that, it just reminded me of everything Ive learned, in that, it doesnt matter if you agree or disagree with a person or a policy, she told the AJC. You can criticize and call someone whatever you want, but if you turn around and youre not kind, and you dont drop everything for the person next to you to help them, then your criticism means nothing. On "CBS This Morning" Wednesday, she said of President Trump's comments, "I can't thank him enough." After her sentencing, U.S. Attorney Bobby L. Christine, a Trump appointee told reporters that her betrayal was not a victimless crime. Contacted by ABC News, Winner's lawyer had no comment. Prior to her sentencing, she said that she didn't mean to harm national security. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Former Texas nurse William Davis was indicted on a capital murder charge A former Texas nurse already charged with murder following the suspicious death of a patient faces an additional charge of capital murder. William George Davis was previously indicted in June for one murder and two aggravated assault charges. His charges were amended this week to include one capital murder charge and three aggravated assault counts. Davis, who worked at Christus Mother Frances Louis and Peaches Owen Heart Hospital in Tyler, is accused of tampering with the IVs of at least seven patients resulting in the death of at least one. Authorities say Davis intentionally injected air into catheters inserted into the arteries of patients recovering from heart surgery. One patient, Christopher Greenaway, died. Two others, Pamela Henderson and Joseph Kalina, were left in vegetative states. Davis, 34, was fired from Christus Mother Frances in February, weeks after hospital officials reported a number of suspicious deaths involving patients recovering from heart procedures. He was arrested in April after police learned that Davis was the only employee consistently around each of the patients and surveillance video showed him entering and leaving their rooms moments before the patients experienced stroke-like symptoms. Davis is accused of intentionally tampering with patients' IVs causing the death of at least one patient, Christopher Greenaway (pictured), and leaving at least two others in vegetative states According to reports, Davis was not the assigned nurse for the patients. The Tyler Morning Telegram reports that the first incident took place in June 2017 when a 61-year-old man experienced 'a profound and unexplainable incident resembling stroke-like symptoms'. Less than a month later another patient, a 58-year-old man, suffered similar symptoms. On August 2, Greenaway was admitted to the hospital and received a coronary artery bypass graft surgery, the outlet reports. Two days later as Greenaway was recovering, his assigned nurse asked Davis to keep an eye on him so he could take a break. When the assigned nurse returned he heard the code sounding for Greenaway's room and rushed in to find his patient suffering from an unexplained neurological incident. Greenaway, a 47-year-old Army vet, was declared brain dead and died on August 6. From October 2017 to January 2018, four other patients experience similar stroke-like symptoms after Davis visited their rooms. One patient, 64-year-old Pamela Henderson, was left with limited mobility and vision problems, according to the Tyler Morning Telegraph. A lawyer for patient Joseph Kalina said the 58-year-old is now quadriplegic, suffers from severe brain damage and is unable to talk. Kalina's wife told NEWS4 SA that it's been a 'nightmare' for her family. Davis worked at Christus Mother Frances Louis and Peaches Owen Heart Hospital in Tyler for five years before he was fired Investigators believe Davis intentionally injected the patients catheters with air. He worked at the hospital for five years before he was fired. Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham told the Tyler Morning Telegraph he could not comment on what led to the new charges of capital murder. Davis remains at Smith County jail on $4million bond. His trial is now set to begin on December 3. Christus Mother Frances released a statement on its website on Friday, stating: CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital Tyler continues to be grateful for the Grand Jurys work and the efforts of the Tyler Police Department since we reported this issue on Jan. 28, 2018. Working in concert with the Tyler Police Department, we are reviewing patient files since the beginning of Will Daviss employment. However, due to a protective order put in place by Judge Christi Kennedy, were unable to speak to specifics of that review or our processes and referrals of cases to Tyler law enforcement for investigation. We continue to be distressed by these serious allegations. However, our health care ministry remains rooted in our mission to extend the healing ministry of Jesus Christ. We will not allow this matter to take away from the exceptional holistic care provided to our patients and their families.' Taxpayers could be slugged with a hefty $500million bill if Sydney's controversial light rail project fails. As work on the contentious light rail continues, New South Wales taxpayers may have to front the amount if the consortium behind the project goes under. To ensure the light rail is completed sooner, the government requested an extra $500million loan, provided by private banks, to the ALTRAC Light Rail Partnership. The NSW State Government on Friday admitted it is guarantor for the hefty loan. Taxpayers could be slugged with a hefty $500 million bill if the controversial Sydney light rail project fails Transport Minister Andrew Constance initially refused to answer the question posed by Labor about the funds but said the loan 'will be paid back'. 'The NSW Government is not loaning the funds, but is providing a guarantee on the drawn down portion of the loan,' he said in the state's budget hearing. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the project was now set to be completed in 2019 - a year earlier than intended. Ms Berejiklian said 'every major project has its challenges' but her government was 'pedal to the metal' to bring the project's completion date forward to 2019. But Labor deputy leader, Michael Daley described the light rail as the 'worst project in Australian history'. Transport Minister Andrew Constance (pictured) initially refused to answer the question posed by Labor but said the loan 'will be paid back' Earlier this week dozens of businesses and landlords will file a class action lawsuit against the NSW Government over the light rail project 'We don't know when it'll be finished, and we don't know what it'll cost,' Labor deputy leader Michael Daley said. Earlier this week dozens of businesses and landlords filed a class action lawsuit against the NSW Government over the light rail project. More than 60 clients joined a class action seeking around $40million in compensation over disruption caused by Sydney's light rail project. Sydney's light rail construction has caused major traffic disruptions since the inner-city development began three years ago. Just days after relatives of slain Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts slammed conservatives for using her murder as 'political propaganda,' Donald Trump Jr. authored a column for a local paper in which he criticized liberals for downplaying the illegal alien status of her alleged killer. Trump Jr. first kicked off the fiery column Friday for the Des Moines Register: 'The reaction from some Democrats and others on the left to the murder of Mollie Tibbetts is as despicable as it is revealing. 'The mask is off and the true radical face of the Democrats has been exposed... they are seemingly more concerned with protecting their radical open-borders agenda than the lives of innocent Americans.' The executive vice president of the Trump Organization followed in his father's footsteps with the remarks, after the president called for tighter immigration laws at his rally in West Virginia last Tuesday. In his column for the Iowa outlet, Trump Jr. claimed liberal media outlets have omitted prominent details about the 20-year-old Tibbett's alleged killer, Cristhian Rivera, a 24-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico. Donald Trump Jr. (pictured August 1 in Washington, DC) penned a column Friday for an Iowa paper in which he slammed liberals for their response to the death of Mollie Tibbetts Trump Jr. said Democrats have downplayed the illegal alien status of her alleged killer, Cristhian Rivera (pictured at his initial court appearance, Wednesday, August 22, 2018, in Montezuma, Iowa) Rivera was charged last Tuesday with killing Mollie Tibbetts (left on Facebook) and dumping her body in a cornfield in her hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa on July 18 'Liberal media outlets went through great pains to cover the story without actually covering the story. 'Instead of truthful headlines such as "Illegal immigrant arrested in connection with murder of Mollie Tibbetts," multiple outlets ran headlines such as "Man arrested in connection to disappearance of Mollie Tibbetts,"' he wrote. 'They dont want you to know what happened to her - and they certainly dont want you to know who is responsible.' He further reprimanded US Senator Elizabeth Warren, who he said 'played down the killing and said the focus should be on the "real problems" of our immigration system, such as the separation of families at our border.' Warren, however, said in a statement on CNN: 'I'm so sorry for the family here, and I know this is hard not only for her family, but for people in her community, the people throughout Iowa. But one of the things we have to remember is we need an immigration system that is effective, that focuses on where real problems are. 'In the same interview, speaking about the separation of children from their parents, I think we need immigration laws that focus on people who pose a real threat and I dont think mamas and babies are the place we should be spending our resources.' Trump Jr. also called out a few journalists in the column - who he slammed for their jarring remarks regarding the college student's death. He said the most outlandish comment came from Chris Riotta, a writer for The Independent. Riotta 'claimed in the Independent that "Russian bots used Mollie Tibbetts' death to distract from Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort,"' Trump Jr. wrote. 'Riotta and his ilk simply cant face the fact that the murder of an innocent girl at the hands of an illegal alien is news that Americans actually care about.' Aside from the Trump family, other conservatives, including commentator Candace Owen, tweeted asking what leftists would do for the victim after they 'cried when illegal immigrants were temporarily separated from their parents.' Mollie's cousin, Sam Lucas, lashed out at Owen in a series of fiery tweets last Wednesday. The victim's cousin, Sam Lucas, (pictured on Twitter) slammed conservatives for using the 20-year-old college student's murder as 'political propaganda' in wake of killer's arrest The victim's cousin said Owen was using the college student's murder as political propaganda. 'We are not so f**king small-minded that we generalize a whole population based on some bad individuals. Now stop being a f**king snake and using my cousin's death as political propaganda. Take her name out of your mouth,' Lucas wrote on Twitter. 'And fyi @RealCandaceO, my whole family is hurting right now and you're not helping. 'You're despicable and this is so far from the loving and kind soul that Mollie was. My prayers go out to you in hopes that maybe you'll become a better person. Not hedging my bets tho.' Lucas later clarified that she didn't speak for the whole Tibbetts family - and was only trying to argue that they should be able to grieve without politics. The Mexican national charged over Mollie's death had been living in Iowa and, according to cops and the government, had been working illegally for anywhere between four and seven years, police said. He was arrested and charged in her death after recently recovered surveillance footage led police to his Chevy Malibu following a month-long investigation into Mollie's disappearance. A man has come forward claiming he is the seven-month-old baby who was kidnapped from his crib 32 years ago. Relatives of Christopher Abeyta, who was taken from his Colorado Springs home, say their hopes have been raised by the man's claims - particularly as he has a photo of himself as a toddler that backs up his case. It's also believed the anonymous man's story of growing could help convince the family he's the missing person. Investigators have put out various impressions of what he could look like now. However, real photographs over various years are a better indication and the new finding could finally help crack the case. A man claims to be Christopher Abeyta, the seven-month-old baby (right) who went missing 32 years ago (left, is an artist's impression of what he could look like as a man) The family have never given up the continuous searching for Christopher over the years and a dedicated Facebook page shared what he may have looked like age 27 (right) It has given the family a glimmer of hope but the image has not been shared with the public as yet. The family haven't shared what details about the man's upbringing have made them believe he could be Christopher. Colorado Bureau of Investigation says it could take 'some time' to come back with the man's DNA results to put an end to speculation. While Abeyta's sister Denise Alvez admits the image was good enough to 'make someone take a second look at it,' Colorado Springs law enforcement aren't as convinced according to The Colorado Springs Gazette. The publication reports while they're still investigating the claim, they think it will have a negative ending. For decades the Abeytas have been following tips on where he might be now and many impressions of how he may have appeared at certain stages of his life have been circulated via National Center For Missing & Exploited Children Family say after Christopher (pictured as a newborn in 1986) was snatched, his late mother Bernice Abeyta was left with a 'hole in her heart' Christopher was seven months old when he was snatched in the night as his family slept 'Unfortunately at this time it does not appear this will be credible information, however, we are working to confirm,' cold case Commander Jeff Jensen said in a statement Friday. Law enforcement won't reveal why they're not as hopeful as the family, which had the father and mother take heritage tests to determine their background and possibly help identify any relation between those who come forward. Christopher's mother Bernice Abeyta passed away aged 73 last year following a battle with gallbladder cancer. She was revealed to have Scandinavian and British roots. Dad, Gil Abeyta, Gil is 32 percent Native American and 55 percent European according to the DNA test results. The family have been convinced they'd found Christopher three times in the past. They resorted to not telling their mother when they had a lead to avoid disappointment. Christopher's sisters Linnea Abeyta (left) and Denise Alvez (right) pictured at the Colorado State Capitol Senate Chambers, the reading of the Colorado Missing Person's Resolution in February Christopher's mother and father alongside his sisters ran a Facebook page to help the search Alvez was just 15 years old when her brother was taken away on July 15 1986. She was asleep in the room next to him when he was kidnapped from his crib. Bernice and Gil woke to found no trace of their son and they searched the house before calling police at 6.30am. Detectives said there were no signs of forced entry at the address but the front door was unlocked and a window had been left open. 'This individual believes that he's Christopher,' Alvez said, describing waiting as a 'rollercoaster of emotions'. 'You want it so bad. It doesn't stop. Regardless of the outcome, if it doesn't turn out to be him, we'll keep seeking answers,' she added. Before she died Christopher's mother traveled the country to follow tips on what happened to her son. A Facebook page dedicated to the missing case revealed Bernice was left with 'a hole in her heart' after all the efforts to find her son. It's also believed the person who took baby Christopher was seeking personal revenge from the family and it's thought to be a woman. The family believes a woman snatched him and it was part of a personal revenge mission 'Your brain is telling you not to but your heart is saying this might be it,' Christopher's sister Linnea Abeyta told KKTV about having hope for the return of her brother. There's a $100,000 reward for anyone who can help find a suspect which leads to an arrest in this case. 'We just want some peace or some closure,' Alvez added. The family continues to appeal on Facebook with an August 29 post reading: 'Maybe you were fearful of retribution from the kidnapper. You aren't alone. No one can blame you. Or, maybe you tried to talk with the authorities before and they made you uneasy in some way. You can come forward now and tell us what you know without concern.' Anonymous tips can go via Crime Stoppers on 719-634-6876. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is reachable on 1-800-the-lost. Alternatively submit a tip to www.findchristopher.com or Christopher's Facebook page. The sons of Neil Armstrong are defending Damien Chazelle's docudrama about the moon landing after conservative pundits decried the film's lack of emphasis on the American flag's planting on the lunar surface. In a statement Friday, Rick and Mark Armstrong, along with 'First Man' author James R. Hansen, denied that Chazelle's film is 'anti-American in the slightest.' Though 'First Man' includes several shots showing the American flag on the moon, it does not depict the flag planting. In a statement Friday, Rick and Mark Armstrong, along with 'First Man' author James R. Hansen, denied that Chazelle's film is 'anti-American in the slightest' After the film premiered earlier this week at the Venice Film Festival, some commentators on social media who hadn't seen the movie criticized the film. Including Senator Marco Rubio After the film premiered earlier this week at the Venice Film Festival, some commentators on social media who hadn't seen the movie criticized the film. 'This is total lunacy. And a disservice at a time when our people need reminders of what we can achieve when we work together,' said Senator Marco Rubio. 'The American people paid for that mission, on rockets built by Americans, with American technology & carrying American astronauts. It wasn't a UN mission.' 'This is a film that focuses on what you don't know about Neil Armstrong. It's a film that focuses on things you didn't see or may not remember about Neil's journey to the moon,' the letter reads Neil Armstrong's son and the author's letter addressed people's qualms, adding that most hadn't even seen the movie, which hits theaters October 12. 'We've read a number of comments about the film today and specifically about the absence of the flag planting scene, made largely by people who haven't seen the movie. As we've seen it multiple times, we thought maybe we should weigh in, they said, according to Vulture. 'This is a film that focuses on what you don't know about Neil Armstrong. It's a film that focuses on things you didn't see or may not remember about Neil's journey to the moon. 'It's a very personal movie about our dad's journey, seen through his eyes,' the brothers added 'The filmmakers spent years doing extensive research to get at the man behind the myth, to get at the story behind the story. It's a movie that gives you unique insight into the Armstrong family and fallen American Heroes like Elliot See and Ed White. It's a very personal movie about our dad's journey, seen through his eyes. 'This story is human and it is universal. Of course, it celebrates an America achievement. It also celebrates an achievement 'for all mankind,' as it says on the plaque Neil and Buzz left on the moon. It is a story about an ordinary man who makes profound sacrifices and suffers through intense loss in order to achieve the impossible. 'Although Neil didn't see himself that way, he was an American hero. He was also an engineer and a pilot, a father and a friend, a man who suffered privately through great tragedies with incredible grace. 'This is why, though there are numerous shots of the American flag on the moon, the filmmakers chose to focus on Neil looking back at the earth, his walk to Little West Crater, his unique, personal experience of completing this journey, a journey that has seen so many incredible highs and devastating lows. Ryan Gosling, who is playing Neil Armstrong, said: 'I don't think Neil viewed himself as an American hero, quite the opposite' he added. 'Neil was someone who was extremely humble, as were many of these astronauts...the way we made the film was to honor the way Neil viewed himself' 'In short, we do not feel this movie is anti-American in the slightest. Quite the opposite. But don't take our word for it. We'd encourage everyone to go see this remarkable film and see for themselves.' The sentiment had been shared by Ryan Gosling, who is starring as Neil Armstrong in the movie. 'Full disclosure, I'm a Canadian, so this might be some form of cognitive dissonance, but I think this achievement was widely regarded not as an American, but as a human achievement, and that's how we chose to view it,' Gosling said, according to the Hollywood Reporter. 'I don't think Neil viewed himself as an American hero, quite the opposite' he added. 'Neil was someone who was extremely humble, as were many of these astronauts...the way we made the film was to honor the way Neil viewed himself.' A South Carolina woman, known by locals who attended her neighborhood bible study, has been arrested and charged with murdering after husband. York County deputies allegedly found out 52-year-old Lana Clayton killed her spouse, Steven Clayton, 64, when an autopsy uncovered a high amount of tetrahydrozoline in her husband's body. The chemical found in over-the-counter eye drops brands like Visine, restricts blood vessels when poured over eyes, and takes the redness away. However, when taken orally the decongestant acts as a neurotoxin and can attack the nervous system. York County deputies allegedly found out 52-year-old Lana Clayton (pictured) killed her spouse, Steven Clayton, 64, when an autopsy uncovered a high amount of tetrahydrozoline in her husband's body Steven Clayton was poisoned The nursing employee of the US Department of Veterans Affairs in Charlotte, confessed to investigators after the coroner revealed it had been in his system for three days. Clayton admits to spiking his food with it between July 19 and 21 and lethally poisoning him. The 64-year-old was found dead July 21 in the couple's home on Island Forks Road in Clover. He was in a position to suggest he'd fallen down the stairs. Seemingly without suspicion from others, his wife had held a funeral for him in their back yard earlier in August. However it was before the autopsy happened according to wsoctv.com. According to neighbors, the couple had been married for eight years. According to posts on her Facebook page from 2010 she had trouble in a marriage but it's not clear whether this was an ex. She claims the man was unfaithful to her and fathered her children. 'Sorry guys. My sister just upset for me. My husband is not a drunk he had an affair. However, he is the father of my children and my kids look at my facebook. soooo . I do appreciate the support though,' she wrote February 2010. Steven obituary reads that he survived by two stepchildren and grandchildren. Clayton (pictured January 2017) has children according to her Facebook profile and claims she previously had marriage trouble, although it's not clear with whom One person who lived in the area was shocked at the news about her bible study friends, telling Channel 9 News the deceased was known for his big personality. Arrest warrants and the statement from deputies didn't give a motive. Lana was the appointed representative for his estate according to York County Probate Court. The home they lived in was worth $822,000 and modeled after the George Washington Mount Vernon Estate, his friend Ken Sanford told The Herald. Adding that Lana seemed like a 'sweet lady'. 'I am just stunned, Sanford said. 'Steven was very proud of her accomplishments.' The home they lived (pictured) in was worth $822,000 and modeled after the George Washington Mount Vernon Estate according to his friend Ken Sanford The lot next door, which the Florida native also owned was worth $385,000. His success came from founding Physical Therapy Resources which has branches across the United States. 'It makes no sense,' Deborah Pollard said. Adding: 'They are just finding all kinds of crazy ways to do things nowadays aren't they?' Lana also is charged with malicious tampering with a drug product or food and is being held at York County Detention Center. Jail records did not indicate if she had a lawyer but as she is charged with murder, she will not have the option of being released on a bond. An 'unliveable' possum-infested home with sinking floors and a collapsed roof has sold for more than a million dollars. The derelict property located in a hip inner-west Sydney suburb has had no one living in it since the death of its inhabitants - with much of its interior frozen in time from the 1980s. Many of their belongings - gifts, birthday cards and beloved books - sat rotting inside the two-bedroom, one-bathroom home before being prepared for auction. The modest 'home for possums' went to auction this weekend with a price guide of $800,000 and sold for more than a million dollars The house hasn't been updated since its buyer, Karl, began to retreat from his friends and his life when his wife died in the 1980s And on Saturday, the property, which had a price guide of $800,000, sold for $1,000,050. Candice Huffman, the LJ Hooker Newtown selling agent, told Daily Mail Australia that the home went to 'a young family with a bub looking to live the Erskineville lifestyle'. According to 9 News the Erskineville home was reportedly bought for $30,000 in 1975 by tradesman Karl, an Austrian immigrant. Many of his slight adjustments still remain. Before the property went under the hammer Ms Huffman, was every bit confident they would reach the asking price. She said: 'The location is number one - this is five-star rating. You've got a tree-lined street that's a stone's throw away from Erskineville Station and some of the best cafes. It's also in the catchment for the Newtown Performing Arts school and it has King Street within a five-minute walk away.' Many of their belongings - gifts, birthday cards and beloved books - sat rotting inside the two-bedroom, one-bathroom home before being prepared for auction Candice Huffman, the LJ Hooker Newtown selling agent, told Daily Mail Australia that the home went to 'a young family with a bub looking to live the Erskineville lifestyle' Australian house rules Sydney, down 7% to $998,270 Melbourne, down 1.4%, $813,064 Brisbane, up 1.3%, $538,693 Adelaide, up 0.7%, $465,992 Perth, down 1.8 %, $481,612 Hobart, up 12.4%, $456,868 Darwin, down 2.2%, $507,480 Canberra, up 3.5%, $676,109 Source: Core Logic July Home Values Index measuring annual changes in median house prices. Units are a separate category Advertisement After Karl's wife died from cancer in the 1980s, Ms Huffman said that he began to stop caring for the home and never allowed friends inside, so much of its interior is as if it's been frozen in time 'He wouldn't allow them to come in. Everyone believes it was because of the state of the home - the aftermath of continuing to be this single widower... and his pride.' she said. Karl too passed away last year with his own battle of cancer - all proceeds from the house will now go to his relatives in Austria. Ms Huffman said the family was surprised people would line up for the property after seeing photos of it. Despite its roof collapsing, floors sinking and general rotting appearance LJ Hooker were confident it would reach the asking price A family of five was kayaking near a Michigan Island when the boat capsized, killing a Wisconsin father and his three children. Erik Fryman, 39, was identified as the deceased father by the Ashland County Sheriff's Office. He was found on Thursday night along with two of his children in Lake Superior. The last child was found on Monday morning. The only person to survive the near Madeline Island accident was his wife and mother of the children, 29-year-old Cari Mews. Erik Fryman, 39, was identified as the deceased father by the Ashland County Sheriff's Office. He was found on Thursday night along with two of his children in Lake Superior. The last child was found on Monday morning The only person to survive the near Madeline Island accident was his wife and mother of the children, 29-year-old Cari Mews The Loyal, Wisconsin, woman was rescued by a search and rescue vessel, Ashland authorities explained to WDIO. 'We had multiple assets on scene. We had a small boat station that launched out of Bayfield. Traverse city sent a helicopter over there,' United States Coast Guard Lieutenant Daniel Peters explained. Rescue efforts began after the children's aunt called police and said that she received 'alarming text messages reading "911" and "Michigan Island"' from her sister. She knew that the couple and their children - nine, six and three years old - were on vacation at Madeline Island. Mews sister knew that the couple and their children - nine, six and three years old - were on vacation at Madeline Island Authorities state that all five family members had on life jackets and it is possible that hypothermia had a hand in the accident. The children pictured The mother was found on the west side of the island while her husband and two of her kids were found between midnight and 1am in the water LaPointe Police on Madeline state that the family had planned to tour the Apostle Islands and had left earlier in the day. Authorities state that all five family members had on life jackets and it is possible that hypothermia had a hand in the accident. Mews was found at approximately 10pm by a United States Geological Survey vessel after various agencies began a water search and rescue mission. Her Facebook indicates that she is a veteran Mews was found at approximately 10pm by a United States Geological Survey vessel after various agencies began a water search and rescue mission. The mother was found on the west side of the island while her husband and two of her kids were found between midnight and 1am in the water. The third child was found by a National Park Service vessel at around 10am on Friday. Mews explained that she became separated from the rest of her family after the kayak capsized between Michigan and Stockton Islands. 'The importance of making sure we do a really good job of informing our visitors here of the dangers of this lake. I think that's a responsibility that we all have to take,' said Bayfield resident, Steve Sandstorm. 'It just is so sad. It's been quite awhile since we had anything this tragic in this area.' Meghan McCain seemingly threw shade at Vice President Mike Pence Friday morning when he offered a eulogy honoring her father at his funeral. As Pence began his speech commemorating the former US Senator's impressive military record, Meghan appeared to glare at Pence and give him the side eye for some time as she grasped her 106-year-old grandmother's hand. Pence said during the speech: 'The president asked me to be here on behalf of a grateful nation, to pay a debt of honor and respect to a man who served his country throughout his life, in uniform and in public office. 'Today as a reflection of the esteem in which his colleagues and our country hold him, Senator John McCain joins those ranks.' Meghan's facial expression attracted attention from several social media users. 'The side eye Meghan McCain is giving Mike Pence...,' one Twitter user said. Another added: 'I feel like Meghan McCain is trying to set Pence on fire with her mind.' Meghan McCain is caught on camera throwing side eye at Mike Pence when he mentioned Trump during father's eulogy Friday Pence said during the speech: 'The president asked me to be here on behalf of a grateful nation' Meghan appeared to glare at Pence and give him the side eye for some time as she held on to her 106-year-old grandmother's hand Another Twitter user wrote: 'Meghan McCain is side-eyeing as Mike Pence uses the occasion of John McCain's remembrance service at the US Capitol to stand for Trump. I completely support that side-eye.' And one more added: 'Meghan McCain looks like she's ready to drop Mike Pence.' Pence said during the eulogy: 'The son and the grandson of four star admirals, John came from a family that prized military service. He entered the United States Naval Academy when he was just 17 years old. 'His service as a naval aviator took him around the world and eventually to the war in Vietnam.' Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan also delivered speeches at the service where they discussed McCain's time in the military and his love for his country. McCain, who planned his funeral before died, banned Trump from attending his memorials, but wanted Pence to be in attendance. Meghan's facial expression attracted attention from several social media users The vice president remembered traveling with McCain and his energy on the long trips. 'On behalf of a grateful nation we will ever remember John McCain and served his country honorably. May God bless John McCain.' Pence shook hands with the McCain family after his remarks and gave Cindy McCain a warm embrace. The Capitol rotunda was packed with lawmakers and administration officials with the exception of Trump during the service Friday. Emanuel Devon Mcalpine, 21, is said to have been behind the July 31 crime at a local Chevron, according to the Mobile Police Department Alabama police have identified a suspect who allegedly fatally shot three people during a robbery at a gas station. Emanuel Devon Mcalpine, 21, is said to have been behind the July 31 crime at a local Chevron, according to the Mobile Police Department. Police are looking for any information pertaining to the man's whereabouts and shared that he goes by the nickname 'Man Man'. Parthiv Voram, one of the victims in the robbery, explained that he feared for his life when the 'psycho' gunmen came in. Voram was shot twice and now suffers PTSD in connection to the shooting, FOX 10 reports. 'I don't even consider him as a human being, he's an animal, he's a complete animal,' Vora said. 'He needs to behind bars for his life.' The other two victims - employees along with Voram - are said to be in stable condition. One victim, Parthiv Voram, was shot twice and claims that the suspect was a 'psycho' Police are offering a $5000 reward for any information leading to Mcalpine's arrest. Mcalpine is said to have allegedly stolen only cigarettes from the gas station when he went on his shooting spree. He will be charged with three counts of attempted murder and first-degree robbery, once he is detained. The MPD explained that Mcalpine had been previously detained for third-degree domestic violence and attempted eluding of police. The 21 year old is currently on bond for second-degree assault charges. He is considered to be armed and extremely dangerous. Police have charged a man over allegedly attempting to sexually assault an elderly woman during a break and enter in August. At about 7.30pm on August 26 a man is alleged to have forced entry to a home in Newtown, Sydney. The man allegedly grabbed an 80-year-old woman and placed her in a headlock before attempting to sexually assault her. Police have charged a man over allegedly attempting to sexually assault an elderly woman during a break and enter in August (stock image) The woman allegedly fought back and the man fled the house. The female victim suffered injuries to her hands and legs and was treated at the scene. Officers from Inner West Police Area Command were called to the scene and have launched an investigation. Police then arrested a 30-year-old man outside a unit on Enmore Road, Newtown, at about 5.30pm on Friday Police then arrested a 30-year-old man outside a unit on Enmore Road, Newtown, at about 5.30pm on Friday. He was taken to Newtown Police Station where he was charged with assault with act of indecency, aggravated break and enter and commit serious indictable offence - use violence, and aggravated sexual assault break and enter with intent. The man was refused bail to appear before Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday. Women working as nurses and male oceanographers had the biggest salary drops for Australians, according to new data. The data, examined by finder.com.au, revealed the professions for men and women that took the biggest cuts between 2015 and 2016. The top two jobs for men that took the biggest hits were geophysicist or oceanographer, which saw a 10 per cent drop from $171,247 and a petroleum engineer, which was down six per cent. The data, examined by finder.com.au , found the professions for men and women that took the biggest cuts between 2015 and 2016 (stock image) For women the top jobs which took a massive pay cut were nurses, which was down 8.1 per cent to $61,504, and plant operators, which was down 6.1 per cent. Overall public servants came in third with a 3.1 per cent salary decrease. However, despite the massive pay cut, petroleum engineers are still in the top 10 paying jobs with an average salary of $191,101. Pay cuts in FIFO industries such as mining engineers, which was down 3.7 per cent, were due to a reduction from full-time to part-time and casual, according to experts. Insurance expert at finder.com.au Bessie Hassan said: 'Professions that rely on shift work are quite volatile in terms of salary due to trends in shorter shifts or lower wages per hour. This could be why we're seeing nurses and security workers on the list.' However Ms Hassan said with the increased need for resources it is likely the salaries will go up again. Pay cuts in FIFO industries such as mining engineers, which was down 3.7 per cent, were due to casualisation of the work force, according to experts. However Ms Hassan said with the increased need for resources it is likely the salaries will go up again (stock image) Ryan, from the Gold Coast, has worked in mines across Northern Territory, Western Australia and Queensland and he believes the pay drop is related to workers losing rights. He told news.com.au: 'It's all about the bottom line - big companies making their cash, hitting their quotas. As long as they hit their deadlines and get the job done, the welfare of workers takes a back seat. 'The government is getting rid of penalty rates and if you're full-time there, that's where you make most of your money.' FIFO workers are now being offered a flat rate of $55 when they used to get $40 for a regular hour and $60 per hour once it passed the eight-hour mark. A famous skateboarder from Washington has been sentenced to four years in prison on Friday for a DUI crash that led to one of his friends getting killed and another hurt. Cory Kennedy, 27, had been driving in Vashon Island on August 30, 2017, when he rammed into two trees, killing 45-year-old Preston 'p-Stone' Maigetter. He had been found to have consumed marijuana and had a .11BAC level, Q13 reports. 'Losing Preston couldn't have weighed heavier on my heart. He was a very close friend and a one-of-a-kind individual that I truly loved,' Kennedy said, according to KIRO-7. 'This will forever be the biggest mistake of my life,' Cory Kennedy, 27, had been driving in Vashon Island on August 30, 2017, when he rammed into two trees, killing 45-year-old Preston 'p-Stone' Maigetter Kennedy was charged with vehicular homicide and vehicle assault and will be under 'home monitoring' for 369 days following his four year sentence. He had been found to have consumed marijuana and had a .11BAC level, immediately after the crash He was charged with vehicular homicide and vehicle assault and will be under 'home monitoring' for 369 days following his prison time. 'Mr. Kennedy might be a talented athlete and a good person, but on Aug. 30, 2017, he was selfish and irresponsible,' said Amy Freedheim, a deputy prosecuting attorney with King County. More than 40 people filled the court room on Friday to support the professional skateboarder, and Kennedy even had the backing of Maigetter's mother Karen. But the man's wife spoke out against Kennedy More than 40 people filled the court room on Friday to support the professional skateboarder, and Kennedy even had the backing of Maigetter's mother Karen. 'He (Preston) would do everything to prevent this situation where his friend would be imprisoned he would not want that his friend suffer any more from the burdens of guilt, sorrow and stigma,' the mother said in a letter to Judge Teresa Doyle, requesting that Kennedy get no prison time. The sentiment was shared by Allan Wade - the other victim in the crash who suffered a fractured foot. 'He has so much to offer our community by remaining out,' Wade added. But the 45-year-old's wife, Anna Cobb, spoke for the prosecution and directly to Kennedy. 'Oscar and Felix (their sons). There is no way I can know how their personalities would've been shaped if Preston was still alive,' Cobb said. 'Mr. Kennedy might be a talented athlete and a good person, but on Aug. 30, 2017, he was selfish and irresponsible,' said Amy Freedheim, a deputy prosecuting attorney with King County 'One day, you're going to have kids and you're going to understand the depths of this. I know you didn't mean to do it and I love you.' Judge Doyle threw out any possibility of no prison time, however. 'It's this concern about having a sentence that reflects seriousness of the behavior. The disastrous effect on families and the community. And this deterrence the law seeks to have reflected in this sentence,' Doyle explained. Kennedy had sponsorship deals with Girl Skateboards and Nike shoes Kennedy was to get eight to 11 years but because of his support, prosecutors reached a deal for lowering the time. The earliest Kennedy could get out of prison would be April 2021, if he exhibits good behavior. Kennedy had sponsorship deals with Girl Skateboards and Nike shoes. He had appeared in films 'Pretty Sweet' and 'Beware of Sasquatch.' The Chicago Police Department is putting an extra 1,400 officers on the streets to try to reduce the number of shootings over the Labor Day weekend. The deployment is part of a strategy the department employs over the three warm weather holiday weekends of Memorial Day, July 4 and Labor Day when the number of violent crimes typically increases. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that last year over the same holiday weekend, Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson deployed an additional 1,300 officers. The weekend ended with seven people killed in shootings and another 35 wounded. Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Friday he is deploying an additional 1,400 officers to patrol the streets for the holiday weekend Members of the Chicago Police Department and an angry crowd at the scene of a police involved shooting on Saturday July 14, 2018 in Chicago Demonstrators in the South Shore neighborhood protesting the shooting death of 37-year-old Harith Augustus have a heated exchange with police on July 15, 2018 in Chicago Johnson had said during a press conference on Friday: 'CPD and our federal partners and our state partners simply will not tolerate violent behavior.' The holidays sweeps are a prime time for police to take action in helping reduce violent crimes and other potentially dangerous issues around the city. He said the raids this weekend already resulted in the arrests of 107 people and the seizure of 12 guns and numerous drugs. 'We build these things up over a period of time and we like to coincide it with the holiday weekend so we can, hopefully, reduce some of the potential issues we might have going in to that holiday weekend,' Johnson said. As the department has done just before previous holiday weekends, this year it teamed up with other law enforcement agencies to execute raids in which dozens of people were arrested and several guns were seized. Donald Trump is dismissing a new poll that shows an increase in the president's disapproval rating and outlines public opposition to pardoning Paul Manafort or firing attorney general Jeff Sessions. Among those surveyed in the new Washington Post / ABC News poll, the majority of 63 per cent backs special counsel Robert Mueller's probe, which Trump brands a 'witch hunt.' The poll also gives Trump a 60 per cent disapproval rating, an uptick since before former campaign chair Paul Manafort's conviction in a Virginia trial. However, Trump took to Twitter Friday night to discredit the polls as 'fake news', instead promoting a Rasmussen poll which shows the president's approval rating at 48 per cent - numbers that Trump can agree with. A new poll gives Trump a 60 per cent disapproval rating Trump disagrees with those numbers and prefers Rasmussen's Poll that shows a much better approval rating The president deems the Washington Post/ABC News poll 'fake news' Trump praises Rasmussion's poll in his tweet, writing that their numbers show a higher approval rating than election day and 'higher than President Obama.' 'Rasmussen was one of the most accurate Election Day polls!' he added. He followed that tweet with another bashing the Washington Post/ABC News poll, saying it was 'by far the least accurate one 2 weeks out from the 2016 Election. 'I call it a suppression poll - but by Election Day they brought us, out of shame, to about even. They will never learn!' Only 29 per cent in the Washington Post/ ABC News poll say they are opposed to the Russia probe, which Trump on Thursday said was 'illegal.' This includes a 52 per cent majority who 'strongly' back an inquiry Trump has spent months trying to expose as a partisan exercise. A majority of respondents were against firing attorney general Jeff Sessions The poll was taken after longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's guilty plea on eight counts. According to the poll, 61 per cent of voters say Trump committed a crime if he directed Cohen to make payments. Prosecutors laid out a scheme where Cohen paid $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with Trump, then got reimbursement. Cohen said in court he was directed to violate campaign finance laws by an individual who charging documents revealed to be Trump. Only 31 per cent said he didn't commit a crime. A tape secretly recorded by Cohen also has Trump discussing a $150,000 payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal. A majority of 64 per cent said Trump should not fire attorney general Jeff Sessions, who Trump complains lost control of the Justice Department. 61 per cent of voters saying Trump committed a crime if he directed longtime lawyer Michael Cohen to make payments to two women Among those surveyed in the new Washington Post / ABC News poll, a majority of 63 per cent backs special counsel Robert Mueller's probe, which Trump brands a 'witch hunt' Trump gets 78 per cent job approval from Republicans, but an overwhelming 93 per cent disapproval rating from Democrats and a politically perilous 59 per cent disapproval from independents. As Trump has vented about the prosecution of former campaign chair Paul Manafort, saying he was treated 'very badly,' only 17 per cent said his prosecution is unjustified Sixty-seven per cent of Americans says they think the case against him was justified. A Virginia jury agreed, convicting him unanimously on eight counts, though according to reports a single juror kept the panel from agreeing to ten other counts. A prominent Donald Trump supporter took to Silicon Valley in an attempt to get to the root of an alleged tech bias this week. Ben Bergquam gathered other conservatives to visit the San Francisco Bay areas campuses for Facebook and Google Thursday and Friday afternoons with a mission to get answers from bosses at the companies. However the Frontline America publishers plan didnt quite carry out as expected. Without an arranged meeting with the people higher up, Bergquam and his group were instead met by security who asked them leave certain areas. Ben Bergquam gathered other conservatives to visit the San Francisco Bay areas campuses for Facebook and Google Thursday and Friday Bergquam and his group were instead met by people who asked them leave certain areas at Facebook The man states in the video that they're on private property and he's asking them to leave At Facebook, they are told by a staff member to leave the building which is private property, as they seek a person to make an official complaint to. Eventually the group finds tablets they can file feedback on. In another video, they catch the attention of a man at Google who began filming them on his mobile phone. When shouting for a response on why there is political collusion in what he thinks is rigged search results to disadvantage conservative views, the man tells them he disagrees with their idea. They caught the attention of a man at Google who began filming them on his mobile phone Thats not true, he quietly laughed but refused to argue with them further as they coaxed an elaboration from him Thats not true, he quietly laughs but refuses to argue with them further as they coax an elaboration from him. On the whole, most people they run into are polite and attempt to help him and the other people he is joined by as they hold statement signs and wear Make America Great Again caps. They weren't expecting us to come. I think they were irritated that we were there, he pointed out in a video. Bergquam enlists a Latino man as well as a black man on the trips which make up four videos on his company Facebook page. At points he asks them if they are racist because they support Trump, mentioning that many people attach the idea to their political view. Elsewhere in the clips, he says the big corporations have taken over the judiciary and threatened lawmakers in California that they wont rule for them, suggesting that they are not putting anti-discrimination into practice. Bergquam goes on to say that he cant fight the companies alone as he has already been a target. Bergquam says that he cant fight the companies alone as he has already been a target Bergquam was previously blocked from Facebook and claims he's being watched Admitting that he thinks he has been under surveillance, Friday also marked the day he posted a video about his return to Facebook after he says the social media network blocked his account for opposing a liberal womans views. He says he was banned from Facebook for trying to expose this hateful teacher Randa Jerrar who called Barbara Bush a racist who raised a war criminal in reference to former President George W. Bush. The Mountain View, California trip was in reaction to the US Presidents social media posts on Tuesday that suggested the companies, as well as Twitter, had purposely pushed down more positive news about him to lower ranking pages on search results. The Mountain View, California trip was in reaction to the US Presidents social media posts Tuesday He suggested Google had purposely pushed down more positive news about him to lower ranking pages on search results Google search results for Trump news only shows only the viewing/reporting of fake news media. In other words they have it rigged for me and others so that almost all stories and news is bad. They are controlling what we can and cannot see, Trump claimed. They better be careful because you can't do that to people. You can't do it. We have tremendous, we have literally thousands and thousands of complaints coming in. During the live stream of his confrontation with the tech giants, Bergquam told people not to stand for it. If they can make your post appear on the third or fourth page, you're basically invisible, he said. Adding: The companies that were founded on free exchange of ideas have become the thought police. Google eventually did give a statement, reports YourCentralValley.com. Search is not used to set a political agenda and we dont bias our results toward any political ideology, they said in a statement. Australia is known for its 'big things', and now the 17-metre high Big Lobster is up for sale. Known locally as Larry the Lobster in the small coastal town of Kingston SE, on South Australia's south-east coastline, he could be picked up and moved to another state. There are roughly 150 things in Australia's collection of large objects scattered across the country, including the Big Banana, the Big Pineapple, the Big Merino and the Big Prawn. Known locally as Larry the Lobster (pictured) in the small coastal town of Kingston SE, he could be picked up and moved to another state When Casey Sharpe bought Larry 11 years ago, he hoped the gigantic crustacean would help bring crowds into his seafood restaurant. Unfortunately, the business behind Larry's tail closed two years ago, and a tempting offer has come up for Mr Sharpe to sell. There's only one cost - to ship the lobster to Western Australia, The New York Times reports. Although, Mr Sharpe said that if he were to strip Kingston SE of their beloved Larry, residents are not going to be happy. 'My name will be mud. I might have to move towns,' he said. There are roughly 150 things in the Australia's collection of large objects scattered across the country, including the Big Banana (pictured) AUSTRALIA'S TOP TEN BIG THINGS The Big Redback Spider, QLD The Big Banana, NSW The Big Koala, VIC The Big Kangaroo, SA The Big Crocodile, WA The Big Platypus, TAS The Big Tasmanian Devil, TAS The Big Golden Guitar, NSW The Big Lobster, SA The Big Pineapple, QLD Advertisement Larry the Lobster has welcomed tourists to the small beachside farmland area for 39 years, sitting at the entrance of the town, populated with only 1,400 people. An artist with a gallery on Kingston's main street, Uncle Rob, didn't hold back when asked about Larry's removal: 'Without that lobster, Kingston dies.' Two years ago, an engineer warned Mr Sharpe that Larry would need restoration. He put aside $35,000 of his own money for the makeover, as he didn't want to have to ship the lobster to another state. But Mr Sharpe has two young children, so he said enough is enough. The American man dubbed 'The People's Prime Minister' will be touching down in Australia in October to visit his 'newest cousins'. Peter Dutton, a young American Twitter user who shares the same name as Australia's former Minister for Home Affairs, was inundated with tags and direct messages during the recent Liberal leadership party vote. 'I wish the people of Australia would look at my profile and realize (sic) I'm a 30-year-old black man before sending me tweets and DM's,' he wrote to his Twitter page at the time. Peter Dutton (pictured) the American man dubbed 'The People's Prime Minister' will be touching down in Australia in October to visit his 'newest cousins' Mr Dutton has capitalised on the extra exposure and has since released a statement on his Twitter about visiting Down Under Now, after being the most popular he has ever been on social media, the Austin, Texas native has used the exposure to help promote his business, Soul Popped. He describes it as a gourmet popcorn brand which infuses 'soul' into its product to honour soul food. Now it looks like Mr Dutton will be hitting the promotional trail in Australia. 'Just days ago after an outpouring of messages expressing both hope and concern about our collective future, I shouldered responsibility and offered my name as The People's Prime Minister of Popcorn,' he wrote in an official statement. 'In my first step of fulfilling my campaign promise, I will lead a diplomatic fact finding mission to Sydney, Australia to discuss my health, education, and trade initiatives.' Mr Dutton's wife, Audrey, will be coming along for the whirlwind trip scheduled for October 8 to October 12. 'In my first step of fulfilling my campaign promise, I will lead a diplomatic fact-finding mission to Sydney, Australia to discuss my health, education, and trade initiatives,' Mr Dutton (pictured) wrote on his Twitter page Mr Dutton has made the most of the extra exposure from a case of mistaken identity He has infused the recent case of mistaken identity into his promotional campaign to great effect. 'My 'security detail'...have placed me on a rigorous schedule to complete marsupial training certificates in kangaroo defence and koala cuddling,' he wrote. 'On behalf of our campaign team at Soul Popped, we thank you deeply. My promise stands true as we work non-stop to bring our popcorn down under.' A number of Twitter users expressed their happiness to hear that Mr Dutton would be making the trip, to which he responded in kind. The 30-year-old told AAP he was 'enjoying' his new-found fame and that Australians had been 'more than pleasant' after they realised he wasn't running for the Liberal leadership 'We cant wait. Im still blown away by the love and support that continues to pour in. Ill always represent for The People who made it happen, our Australian family,' he wrote. 'It has seriously been a highlight of my life. I hope its inspired people to show a little more compassion and love to one another. If so, Ive done my job,' he wrote to another Twitter user. The 30-year-old told AAP he was 'enjoying' his new-found fame and that Australians had been 'more than pleasant' after they realised he wasn't running for the Liberal leadership. 'Pretty sure my last tweet has made me the leading candidate for PM of Australia,' he wrote. 'Packing my bags!' Police are hunting for the drivers of a ute that smashed into the front of a milk bar and a Coles before ram-raiding a cigarette shop. The unknown bandits ploughed their utility truck into the entrance of a milk bar on Austin Road, Seaford in Melbourne's south east at around 1.45am on Saturday. The men then smashed into the Frankston shopping centre on the corner of Ashleigh Avenue and Karingal Drive a short time later, Nine News reported. Scroll down for video Police are on the hunt for drivers of a ute that smashed into the front of a shopping centre (pictured) in Melbourne's south on Saturday morning The ute is shown crashing over benches and shopping trollies before it steers directly into the front of a store (pictured) at the bottom of the screen. Footage of the offenders driving inside the shopping centre, toppling trollies and shattering glass, was captured on the store's security vision. In the video, a white ute with a silver tray is seen entering the empty shopping centre before it maneuvers throughout the unoccupied corridors. The ute, which still has its headlights on, is shown crashing over benches and shopping trollies before it steers directly into the front of a store at the bottom of the screen. After the impact, the ute reverses backwards, and a man is seen getting out of the driver's side before he approaches the store front. Footage of the offenders driving erratically inside the shopping centre (pictured), toppling trollies and shattering glass, was captured on the store's security vision. A reflection in the ute's windscreen shows the unidentified man grabbing a number of items from inside the store, which he throws onto the front seat of the white truck. The video then shows the man back inside the vehicle as it reverses away from the storefront, around the corridor corner, over a half-broken bench and out of the store. Victoria Police believe the men were targeting a cigarette shop in the out-of-hours shopping centre but confirmed they left empty handed. Police believe the utility truck sustained significant enough damage, however, as a result of the ram raids to make the vehicle easily distinguishable. Investigations are still underway, and the vehicle was last seen heading towards Peninsula Link. The grieving father of Lucie Blackman has vowed to stop the twisted man who dismembered his daughter's body from being released from jail. To mark what would have been her 40th birthday, Tim Blackman has said he will do everything in his power to stop serial rapist, Joji Obara, from being freed. Obara was jailed for life in 2008 after he drugged and cut up the former flight attendant's body. Lucie Blackman's body was not found until seven months after her disappearance in Tokyo Tim Blackman, the father of murdered Tokyo hostess Lucie Blackman, has vowed to fight against the release of his daughter's killr Her badly decomposed body meant Obara was able to avoid being jailed for murder as a cause of death could not be established. Obara, who police believe could have raped up to 400 women after drugging them and filming his horrific crimes, may be eligible for parole in less than two years. Mr Blackman told the Mirror: 'If I thought he was going to be eligible for parole at some point I would really seriously look in to doing everything I could to stop it. He has never taken any responsibility, admitted guilt or shown any contrition.' Ms Blackman went missing in Tokyo in July 2000, where she was working as a bar hostess. Her body was found in February 2001 in a sea cave just a few hundred yard from Obara's home. The millionaire business had an obsession with western women. Ms Blackman was found cut into eight piece and her shaved head encased in concrete. Obara was finally jailed in 2008 after being aqcuitted a year before. But because he was not convicted of murder, he was spared the death sentence and got life imprisonment instead. Under Japanese law, life imprisonment is a minimum of 20 years, but taking into account the seven years he spent in custody during his trial, he was been incarcerated for 18 years now - which means he may be illegible for parole in two years. Mr Blackman said the feeling of anguish and anger had not subsided since her death, and described Obara as a 'monster'. He said: 'Every day you think about what she'd be doing now, whether she would be married, whether I'd have grandchildren by her now. It leaves a constant chasm of emptiness when you lose someone young like that.' Serial rapist Joji Obara was not convicted of murder as Ms Blackman's body was so He also believes his daughter would have been a mother by now, raising her own family. He said: 'The word memory doesn't really work for Lucie, because it reflects to the past. Whereas I just think about her and she's around us all the time. So many people would like to hear that you're getting better. 'You hear this word closure. But it just doesn't exist in these sorts of cases. The notion that you just shut the door on that part of your life just doesn't happen. As a father you don't want to put that burden down.' Blackman's father Tim accepted 450,000 in condolence money from a friend of Obara's. Her other family members were opposed to accepting the money, causing rifts between himself and his ex-wife Jane Steare. Everyone eligible should be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of long-distance travel or employment. Vaccination should be voluntary but those who don't get vaccinated should be frequently tested for COVID-19 as a condition of long-distance travel and employment. Both vaccination and testing should be voluntary and not required as a condition of long-distance travel or employment. I defer to the judgment of lawmakers as long as they base their decisions on a consensus of medical professionals. Vote View Results An American man has been arrested a day after an Australian businessman was found stabbed to death with a plastic bag over his head in his Manila office. Lambros Zervas, who had been running a cleaning company in the city, was found dead by police on Tuesday with multiple stab wounds. Kenneth Bethea, 58, who police believe was a business associate of the victim, was arrested in the building's basement on Wednesday afternoon following a standoff with police. Scroll down for video Australian businessman Lambros Zervas (pictured) was found stabbed to death in his office in Manila on Tuesday Kenneth Bethea (pictured) was arrested on Wednesday over the expat's murder following a standoff with police in the basement garage in the same building as Mr Zervas' office Investigators believe Mr Zervas, originally from Adelaide, and Mr Bethea were business associates, and that prior to the incident Mr Bethea had called the victim's wife and demanded money. According to the Manila Bulletin, Mr Zervas' body was found by one of his staff - who had been sent to check on him by his concerned wife. Police said the businessman had been dead for three to four hours, which was consistent with a witness report - according to Philippines Lifestyle News. Further investigations revealed Mr Bethea had asked for the office's locks to be changed before the body was found. Mr Zervas (pictured) had been running a cleaning company in the Philippines and police believe the two men had had disputes over money prior to the Australian's death According to The Inquirer, Pasig City police chief Rizalito Gapas said: 'He may have (wanted) to change the (lock) to delay the discovery of the body, giving him time to escape.' Mr Bethea was a retiree who had been living alone in the Philippines for several years, according to police. In a video of the arrest released by Pasig City Police, officers can be seen negotiating with the suspect to surrender - who is then arrested after being lured to the ground with a bottle of water. Mr Bethea is being detained at Pasig City police station - on Manila's eastern border. Both the Australian and US embassies have been informed of Mr Zervas' death and investigations are ongoing. Advertisement Yesterday it was announced the Elizabeth line is facing further delays, and is now set to open in autumn 2019, 600m over budget and nine months late. But as the line named after one long reigning queen is opening, another is celebrating a major anniversary. London's Victoria line turns 50 today, and Transport for London has released some historic photos to mark the occasion. When the line opened in 1968, it ran from Walthamstow Central to Highbury & Islington and was the first new line in 61 years - before that was the Central line in 1907. Queen Elizabeth II opens the new Victoria Line on the London Underground London's Victoria line turns 50 today, and Transport for London has released some historic photos to mark the occasion But Crossrail isn't alone in facing issues that pushed opening back. Just 24 hours before the Victoria line was due to open, newspapers reported dampness affecting signalling equipment needed to be retested. George Follenfant, London Transport's chief civil engineer, was quoted said 'I think it will be ready on time', and he was right first passenger took the 5.7mile journey on September 1, 1968. Workmen tend to the still escalators far below ground in London on July 7, 1969 An access tunnel under Oxford Circus used to extract clay from excavations during the construction of the Victoria Line on the London Underground system, April 23 1964 Queen Elizabeth II opens the new branch of the Victoria Line on the London Underground, March 7 1969 A tube worker being lowered into a tunnelling shaft in Cavendish Square during work on London Underground's Victoria Line The line was extended south in the following two years and was completed at Pimlico in 1972, it was approved by Parliament in 1955. By 1966, most of the tunnels had been finished, and the first stations opened in 1968, later extending as far south as Brixton. The official opening of Victoria Tube station was on March 7, 1969, when Queen Elizabeth II unveiled a commemorative plaque. She then took the Victoria line to Green Park, becoming the only reigning monarch to ever use the Tube. Today, the Victoria line is the most frequent train service in the UK, and the second most frequent in the world, and operates 36 trains per hour at the busiest times, with 100 seconds between trains. It is only beaten by the Moscow Metro which runs trains every 95 seconds. This means that more than 250 million passengers each year are served by the train. Queen Elizabeth II opens the new Victoria Line on the London Underground, March 7, 1979 (left). Right: The Queen's Cousin, Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy going down the escalator at Brixton station after she officially opened the new Victoria Line extension in 1971 July 23 1971: The Queen's cousin, Princess Alexandra travelling in the driver's cab after she had officially opened the extension of the Victoria line to Brixton The Queen travelling on the London Underground after officially opening the Victoria Line service, making her the first monarch to ever ride the tube Workmen boring a 21ft diameter tunnel linked the Victoria line with the Bakerloo line at Oxford Circus station In 2016, the Night Tube opened on the Victoria Line providing a quick and affordable way to travel across London during weekend nights. The anniversary coincides with the completion of works at Blackhorse Road station, which serves 15 million customer journeys every year. Frank Ibe, Head of Line Operations for the Victoria line said: 'The Victoria line has been a key part of London's transport network for 50 years and it's amazing to think how many billions of journeys have been made in its history. When it opened, the Victoria line was one of the most modern subways in the world and, thanks to the recent improvements, it still sets the standard for the rest of the world today.' Prince Philip visits London Underground: The Duke Of Edinburgh looks at the South Tunnel facing on the Victoria Line works at Vauxhall Park in 1968 Bruce Horncastle who worked as on the construction of the new Victoria Line Elevated view looking onto the rail tracks leading to the Northumberland Park depot for the newly completed London underground train service Victoria Line on 30 August 1968 David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, said: 'The Victoria line has served as the beating vein between Tottenham, Haringey and the rest of London, ever since it opened 50 years ago. Throughout my life, it has allowed the people of our constituency to access work, education and culture across the capital. With the recent modernisation and the improvements still being made, I look forward to the Victoria line benefitting people in my constituency and across London for years to come.' Leader of Waltham Forest Council, Clare Coghill said: 'We'd like to wish the Victoria line a very happy 50th birthday! The Victoria line has been instrumental in connecting Waltham Forest to central London. It has helped millions of residents get to work, helped local businesses thrive and opened the borough up to visitors from London and further afield. Next year it will be play a key role in helping Londoners visit us for the first Borough of Culture celebrations. We look forward to the next 50 years and beyond!' 'Im not crossrail... Im disappointed-rail': Long-suffering commuters despair as London's new 15bn Elizabeth line will NOT open by December leaving passengers waiting until Autumn 2019 Surprise announcement angers businesses coming just three months before the Christmas trading period Angry and 'gutted' commuters have been taking to Twitter to express their frustration with the recent news Project has already gone over budget by 600m rising from 14.8bn to 15.4bn - now extra funding is needed Full Elizabeth line will include journey from Reading to Shenfield in Essex, and from Heathrow to Abbey Wood Transport for London would not confirm to MailOnline whether this would be the final delay to the project By James Wood for MailOnline Infuriated passengers have spoken out following the shock announcement Crossrail is to be delayed by nine months - now with just a vague autumn opening date next year. The delay has caused much 'frustration' among passengers and business owners alike with one irate commuter labelling himself 'not Crossrail' but 'disappointed rail.' The colossal project had been expected to open in December this year bringing significantly reduced journey times to the capital - but the need for 'further testing' has led to the delay. London's new east-west railway service site at Farringdon on the day it was announced Crossrail would be delayed until Autumn - missing its scheduled December opening Irate commuters have been taking to Twitter to share their frustration, with one user called Mark Button describing the situation as 'bad news, no doubt'. While Steve Merrylees said: 'I know I'm a transport nerd but I'm gutted about Crossrail being delayed. It's going to cause a lot of problems for TfL .' London's new east-west railway service site at Farringdon on the day it was announced Crossrail would be delayed until Autumn - missing its scheduled December opening An Elizabeth line train at Abbeywood train station in London as hundreds of angry commuters deal with the news Crossrail will be delayed by nine months An Elizabeth line train at Abbeywood train station in London as hundreds of angry commuters deal with the news Crossrail will be delayed by nine months Commuters walk alongside London's new east-west railway service site at Farringdon today as Crossrail have announced they will miss the December opening date and services will be delayed until Autumn The Crossrail line had been due to open in December of this year but the need for 'further testing' has meant it will now not open until autumn next year A map of the new Elizabeth line which will take commuters from Reading and Heathrow Airport in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east. Angry commuters have been taking to Twitter (below) to share their thoughts following news of the delay Commuters walk alongside London's new east-west railway service site at Farringdon today as Crossrail have announced they will miss the December opening date and services will be delayed until Autumn Another user, called Jeff, questioned whether this was 'more evidence of a nation in crisis'. While Elliot Howells, who has bought a home along the new line, said: 'Simply not good enough and hugely disappointing from TfL. 'I bought a property on the line on the promise of the Elizabeth Line's December opening. I appreciate the complexity of the project but to announce this a few short months before the expected opening is poor' The news has caused particular concern among business leaders due to the fact the Christmas trading period is just three months away. The Crossrail line had been due to open in December of this year but the need for 'further testing' has meant it will now not open until autumn next year Jace Tyrrell, the chief executive of the New West End Company - a group that represents hundreds of businesses in London - said the decision would put greater pressure on retailers. He said: 'We are disappointed that the opening of this major and vital piece of infrastructure is being delayed'. Although touching upon the need for the line to be safe, he said: 'Retailers throughout the UK are facing difficult trading conditions with rising costs, changing shop habits and falling consumer spending, partly because of Brexit uncertainties. 'The delay increases the urgency for the Government to introduce measures to support Britain's retailers and high streets.' General view of construction during the Crossrail breakthrough beneath Finsbury Circus. Thousands of construction workers have been involved in the project since its inception An artist's impression of how stations might look on the Elizabeth line once open to the public. Londoners will have to wait a little longer for the futuristic stations, as the line has now been delayed A map showing the new route of the Crossrail project, which has now been delayed until autumn next year. It will take commuters from Reading and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east A map of the new Elizabeth line which will take commuters from Reading and Heathrow Airport in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east. Angry commuters have been taking to Twitter (below) to share their thoughts following news of the delay He urged the government to cut business rates and called for an interim tax of just one per cent for online businesses. Conservative transport secretary Chris Grayling has been called out following news of the delay, while Mayor of London Sadiq Khan labelled the news 'disappointing'. Andy McDonald, the shadow transport secretary, wrote on Twitter: 'Yet again an announcement is made while Parliament is in recess, allowing the Transport Secretary to avoid scrutiny. 'He should be explaining how the Crossrail delay happened and what he plans to do about it - but he has gone missing.' MailOnline contacted TfL to see if this would be the last delay the project would face - but a spokesman for the organisation refused to rule out the possibility . The spokesman also refused to confirm whether this delay would impact on stations at the terminus ends of the line - meaning passengers getting on trains in Berkshire may also have to wait. Transport for London (TfL) has expressed ' disappointment ' following the news but stressed that a safe and reliable line is of ' paramount importance'. Addressing the delay, a spokesman for Crossrail Limited said: 'The revised schedule is needed to complete the final infrastructure and extensive testing required to ensure the Elizabeth line opens as a safe and reliable railway.' General view of construction during the Crossrail breakthrough beneath Finsbury Circus. Thousands of construction workers have been involved in the project since its inception When contacted for more information by Mail Online, a spokesman for TfL said: As you can imagine it is a very big project which has been going on for ten years and so there is no one reason for the delay. We dont think the December opening date was ambitious. We need more time for testing more work is needed on checking the signalling and software. Testing is needed to introduce the next phase of the railway the central section between Paddington and Abbey Wood in a way that can be guaranteed to be safe and reliable. The latest setback comes soon after it was announced by a rail minister that the project had already gone 600m over budget. An artist's impression of how stations might look on the Elizabeth line once open to the public. Londoners will have to wait a little longer for the futuristic stations, as the line has now been delayed Jo Johnson, in his annual update on the project, said that the schemes budget had increased from 14.8bn to 15.4bn. He blamed 'cost pressures' but said that additional funds would be provided by the Department for Transport and Transport for London. The hugely complex ten-year project is bringing together multiple infrastructure contracts, new trains and three different signalling systems. The Elizabeth line will add 10 per cent to central London's rail capacity, and the project is estimated to boost the economy by an estimated 42bn. A map showing the new route of the Crossrail project, which has now been delayed until autumn next year. It will take commuters from Reading and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east Once open it will allow journeys between Reading in the east and Shenfield in the west - all the way to Essex. Another journey could take people from Heathrow Airport in the east to Abbey Wood in the west. The autumn opening will only see the central section of the Elizabeth line open. When asked by MailOnline how long it would take the full line to open, a spokesman for TfL said: 'We are still aiming to open the full Elizabeth line from Reading and Heathrow to Shenfield and Abbey Wood as soon as possible after the opening of the central section next autumn.' The passenger thoroughfare at Farringdon Crossrail station will see thousands of commuters pass through it every day once open A major passenger thoroughfare is seen as work continues at the Farringdon Crossrail station. The Elizabeth line was expected to open in December 2018 but it has now been announced that it will not until autumn 2019 Addressing the reasons behind the closure, the spokesman for Crossrail Limited said: 'The original programme for testing has been compressed by more time being needed by contractors to complete fit-out activity in the central tunnels and the development of railway systems software. 'Testing has started but further time is required to complete the full range of integrated tests.' Crossrail in numbers: How journey times will be slashed across London and economy will be boosted by 42billion The new railway will become known as the Elizabeth line when it opens in autumn 2019. Not only will it significantly slash journey times across the capital, it is expected to boost house prices, and welcome 200million passengers each year. At its peak, a massive 10,000-strong workforce was responsible for completing the project, which included more than 700 apprentices. The Crossrail project is building 10 brand new stations at locations including Abbey Wood, Bond Street, Canary Wharf, Customs House, Farringdon, Liverpool Street, Paddington, Tottenham Court Road, Whitechapel and Woolwich. Over three million tonnes of excavated material from the tunnels was shipped to Wallasea Island in Essex to create a new 1,500 acre RSPB nature reserve. The construction of the new railway is expected to add an estimated 42bn to the UK economy. Residential capital values are projected to increase immediately around Crossrail stations in central London by 25 per cent, and by 20 per cent in suburbs. House prices in Reading, on the western tip of the Elizabeth line, are expected to grow by a whopping 50 per cent. In March 2013, workers digging the tunnels for Crossrail uncovered 13 skeletons under a road near Charterhouse Square, Farringdon. The bodies were believed to be 14th Century plague victims. Elsewhere 3,500 skeletons were excavated at the Crossrail project Liverpool Street site from the Bedlam burial ground by MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) between February and August 2015. Up to 100 archaeologists have also worked on the project, uncovering thousands of items and artefacts spanning 55million years of London's history. Advertisement Crossrail workers in a train tunnel at the construction site of the Paddington Crossrail station, in central London. At its peak, a massive 10,000-strong workforce was responsible for completing the project Passenger escalators are seen in an entrance hall as work is carried out at the Farringdon Crossrail station. More than 700 apprentices were also involved in the project An artist's impression of the trains that will run on the Crossrail project when it opens in the autumn of next year. More work needs to be completed on the Reading station before it opens to the public An artist's impression of how the new trains will look once fully operational. The line was originally scheduled to open in December of this year, but further testing is now required on the line The new Elizabeth line will take commuters from Reading in the west all the way to Shenfield, Essex in the east. Here is how trains on the new line might look The focus remains on opening the full Elizabeth line, from Reading and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east, as soon after the central tunnels open as possible. Simon Wright, Crossrail Chief Executive said: 'The Elizabeth line is one of the most complex and challenging infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the UK and is now in its final stages. 'We have made huge progress with the delivery of this incredible project but we need further time to complete the testing of the new railway. 'We are working around the clock with our supply chain and Transport for London to complete and commission the Elizabeth line.' Relief: An artist's impression of the scene at the new Whitechapel station, which is will operate the new Crossrail service Futuristic: The new designs, such as this one at Liverpool Street, emphasise airy spaces and lots of light New: A design of the station concourse being built on top of the existing Overground line at Whitechapel station The new Elizabeth line trains are already operating between Shenfield and Liverpool Street and between Paddington and Hayes & Harlington, in readiness for the full opening. The trains are also being tested in the Heathrow tunnels. Crossrail workers in a train tunnel at the construction site of the Paddington Crossrail station, in central London. At its peak, a massive 10,000-strong workforce was responsible for completing the project The Crossrail station under construction at Tottenham Court Road - this will also see thousands of commuters pass through once open Construction activity is drawing to a close including the completion of the remaining architectural fit-out in the new central section stations. The new railway, jointly sponsored by the Department for Transport and Transport for London with support from Londons business community, will connect stations such as Paddington to Canary Wharf in only 17 minutes. Crossrail is one of the biggest engineering projects ever undertaken in the UK. The new railway will become known as the Elizabeth line when it opens in 2019 A major passenger thoroughfare is seen as work continues at the Farringdon Crossrail station. The Elizabeth line was expected to open in December 2018 but it has now been announced that it will not until autumn 2019 Crossrail is one of the biggest engineering projects ever undertaken in the UK. The new railway will become known as the Elizabeth line when it opens in 2019 Passenger escalators are seen in an entrance hall as work is carried out at the Farringdon Crossrail station. More than 700 apprentices were also involved in the project The passenger thoroughfare at Farringdon Crossrail station will see thousands of commuters pass through it every day once open The Crossrail station under construction at Tottenham Court Road - this will also see thousands of commuters pass through once open The line got its name in 2016 when London Mayor Boris Johnson announced it would be named after the Queen - who was visiting the construction site at Bond Street station that day. On the day of the announcement she unveiled the purple Elizabeth line logo which will feature across the network, in an Angela Kelly lilac wool crepe dress with matching coat and hat for the occasion. An artist's impression of how the new trains will look once fully operational. The line was originally scheduled to open in December of this year, but further testing is now required on the line After greeting representatives, she was taken in an industrial lift to the site 92ft below ground, where she viewed part of the railway tunnel and met construction apprentices dressed in bright orange jackets and trousers. The new line was named after the Queen (pictured) in 2016 with Boris Johnson, the then Mayor of London, making the announcement at Bond Street station The Queen became the first reigning monarch to travel on the London Underground in 1969 when she opened the Victoria line. In 1977 the Jubilee line was opened by the Prince of Wales and was named to mark 25 years since the Queen's accession to the throne. The new line was named after the Queen (pictured) in 2016 with Boris Johnson, the then Mayor of London, making the announcement at Bond Street station Britons have turned their back on the traditional cup of tea as people alter tastes to herbal teas. The nation drank nearly 870 million fewer cups of tea last year as their love affair with traditional brews went off the boil. And they bought 2.6 million fewer kilograms of tea in the year to May 2018, the biggest drops in four years. With consumers saving the tea market from a complete slump as Brits turned to pricier premium teas and fruit or herbal blends. The traditional cuppa has long been part of the national psyche but consumers are beginning to swap it out for premium and herbal teas The decline in popularity of standard black brews of tea was the key driver behind the fall in volume, said The Grocer magazine. According to figures from retail analysts Kantar Worldpanel, the value of tea bought in the UK rose by 0.6 per cent to 669.2 million over the past year. The move away from the traditional cuppa has prompted big supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury's to review the range they sell. In August this year, traditional tea maker Tetley lost nearly 40 per cent of shelf space in Tesco as the retailer made way for trendier fruit and herbal lines. Consumers have not abandoned tea entirely, instead they are focusing on premium teas and herbal teas But tea giants have been quick to respond with both Tetley and Twinings have launched quirkier versions of tea. PG Tips has launched a brew designed specially for drinking with non-dairy milk in a bid to grab a slice of the growing free-from market, which is up 37 per cent. Peter Dries, director of customer and shopper marketing at Tetley, said the tea market was changing 'significantly' and shoppers were demanding better quality brews. He told The Grocer: 'The growing acceptances of tea's good fit with health alongside the product innovations that meet changing consumer habits will be an impetus for growth.' PG Tips-owner Unilever claimed black tea still accounted for 85 per cent of the tea category and remained ' the nation's favourite'. Yorkshire Tea, which saw sales rise eight per cent to 88 million in 2017, said demand for its stronger brew was growing. A man charged with murdering a mother and daughter in Solihull appeared in court today following a three-day manhunt. Janbaz Tarin, 21, is appearing before magistrates in Birmingham in connection with the deaths of his ex-girlfriend Raneem Oudeh, 22, and her mother Khaola Saleem, 49. The pair were stabbed at Ms Saleem's home in Northdown Road just after 12.30am on Bank Holiday Monday. Neighbours described hearing the victims 'scream like animals' after the attack. A prison van carrying Janbaz Tarin, 21, enters Birmingham Magistrates' Court this morning Janbaz Tarin is on the run after he is believed to have stabbed his ex and her mother to death Appearing at court today, Tarin wearing a grey t-shirt and grey bottoms only spoke to confirm his name, age and address. In a hearing that lasted one minute and 20 seconds Tarin stood emotionless in the dock. Chairman of the bench Patrick Wing told him the matter was to serious and must be dealt with at Crown Court. Ms Oudeh's former partner Tarin, of Stonebridge Crescent, Kingshurst, had been sought by police in connection with the deaths and was arrested on Thursday evening in the Sparkhill area of Birmingham. A post-mortem examination concluded the two women died from multiple stab wounds. Detective Inspector Caroline Corfield, from the Homicide Team at West Midlands Police, said: 'The response to our appeals over the last few days has been fantastic and resulted in arresting and charging Tarin. I would like to personally thank the community for their support. Tragic: Raneem Oudeh, 22, was found dead in Solihull on Monday 'Our thoughts continue to remain with Raneem and Khaola's family who have been kept fully updated by this development.' Speaking on behalf of the family, Ms Saleem's brother-in-law said: 'The family would like to express their sincere thanks for all the police are doing to bring justice for Khaola and Raneem. 'They would also like to thank the local Birmingham community and general public for their continued help and support. 'At this time, their hearts go out to their loved ones who had their lives so tragically cut short and especially to the young children they left behind. The suspect can be seen on the left of this still running down the alleyway in the CCTV footage Moments later several police officers carrying torches follow the suspect Ms Oudeh (left) and her mother Khaola Saleem (right) died after they were stabbed in Solihull 'May they soon rest in peace and may justice be done.' Dramatic CCTV captured on Thursday night showed the moment officers stormed Tarin's hideout and arrested him after a brief police chase. Tarin is seen running from several officers in the Sparkhill area of Birmingham before trying to scale a wall in a last ditch bid to escape. But the 21-year-old realises there is no way out and he is quickly surrounded by police who pin him to the floor and arrest him. He is seen shaking his head several times before being led away in handcuffs. Witnesses told how they saw the suspect on the ground 'moaning and groaning' after being pepper sprayed in the face. The dramatic arrest comes just three days after his ex-girlfriend Raneem Oudeh, 22, and her mother Khaola Saleen, 49, were stabbed to death in Solihull in the early hours of Bank Holiday Monday. West Midlands Police offered a 5,000 award to track him down after the suspect allegedly went into hiding. Other video that was posted on Facebook showed a man in a red sweatshirt surrounded by police as he was led to a police car. Residents who live near to the scene said he had been visiting a flat nearby before he was tackled at around 10.15pm last night. One neighbour said: 'It was pretty dramatic, he tried to leg it on foot after jumping over a car but the cops were too fast, they were shouting at him to stop. 'They caught up with him by the alleyway and he gave up struggling, they pepper sprayed him and were pouring water into his eyes. 'They asked him what his name was and he told them is was Janbaz. He was asking for water and the police were telling him keep his eyes closed. 'He was moaning and groaning a lot when they cuffed him and he writhed around a bit and seemed pretty distressed by it all. 'Eventually he calmed down after they washed his eyes out and he came in quietly. The police did a good professional job.' Dramatic footage shared online appears to show the moment a suspect was led to a police car in handcuffs following a grueling three-day man hunt Another woman, who did not want to be named, said: 'I saw the police telling him to get down and detaining him. 'He was screaming 'water' and I realised he had been pepper sprayed. Bilal Khan, 29, a delivery driver said: 'I remember seeing him coming out of the flats on this road. 'It was unusual because he was running. 'I went to get milk and bread at 5.30pm or 6pm. I came back and saw him running again. Police are today at two sets of flats (pictured) on a road in the Sparkhill area of Birmingham this morning after a 21-year-old man was arrested last night on suspicion of the murder Officers today cordoned off a flat to the rear of a Naga Food Store, and this morning could be seen searching a property 'I don't think he was at the flat long. He had obviously gone in and been sent out again as he looked a bit displeased.' Officers cordoned off a flat to the rear of a Naga Food Store, and this morning could be seen searching a property. Detective Inspector Caroline Corfield, who is leading the investigation, said: 'I would like to thank the community for their support over the last few days, the response to our appeals has been excellent and tonight resulted in this arrest.' A West Midlands Police spokesman added: 'Police searching for the suspect in the double murder in Solihull have arrested a man. 'The 21-year-old was detained in Sparkhill on Thursday evening and will now be questioned by detectives on suspicion of the murders. 'Officers have been working tirelessly around the clock and have acted swiftly on any information that has come in over the last few days.' Police said the victims' family had been updated on the development. Officers launched a murder inquiry after the women's bodies were found in Northdown Road in the early hours of Monday morning. The force put out several appeals for information, and carried out raids at a number of addresses in Birmingham. One neighbour said Afghan shopkeeper Tarin (above) was 'a nice guy and really respectful' Two women were found dead near to their home in Northdown Road in Solihul. Pictured: Mr Janbaz Earlier this week police said they believed the man was being protected locally. Tarin's van and a knife was recovered in Birmingham with a mobile phone and computer equipment have also been seized for examination. Speaking earlier this week, Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Payne, head of West Midlands CID, said: 'We believe Tarin is still in the country, and still in the West Midlands.' The detective did not say what information they had to confirm this but added: 'It's very difficult to drop off the radar. He may have found a bolthole, but we believe he is being protected by someone. 'Those people are committing a criminal offence by harbouring him. 'We routinely track and find people with tried and tested methods and we believe he is still in the West Midlands.' Tarin, originally from Afghanistan, arrived in the UK on Christmas Day 2012 and was living in Britain legally. He and Miss Oudeh, a student, had been in a relationship, but she moved out of a flat they shared days before the attack following a series of rows and into her mother's home in Solihull. Neighbour Sarah Hollis described victim Ms Oudeh, who had a two-year-old son, as a 'lovely woman'. A toddler has been dumped outside a supermarket after an alleged car thief picked up more than he bargained for. Police were notified a grey Holden commodore had been stolen with a 2-year-old Perth boy, Ryan, sitting in the back of the vehicle at around midday on Saturday. An 'extremely emotional' caller notified officers minutes after the car was taken at Forrestfield, 15 kilometres south-west of Perth. A 2-year-old boy was taken after alleged thief stole a grey Holden commodore (pictured) A neighbour took off after the commodore to try and track down the alleged thief but they were unsuccessful. The young boy, who appeared to be okay, was pushed out of the car at a Foodworks about ten minutes after he was taken. Police continued to search for the stolen commodore which they sighted at 12.20pm with a lost tire. The alleged thief fled on foot. The suspect, who is in his late 20s, was arrested at 1.20pm and was taken to Midland Police station for questioning. Ryan's mother told 7news she was thankful for everyone who assisted with finding her son. 'On behalf of our family we would like to thank the police, the media and the members of the community who helped share the messages about Ryan on social media,' she said. 'Particularly, we would like to thank the people who came to Ryan's assistance when he was left outside the supermarket. 'The quick response from everyone involved has resulted in us having Ryan back in our arms and we can't thank everyone enough.' The young boy named Ryan was pushed out of the car at a supermarket about ten minutes after car was stolen This is the third incident of a vehicle being stolen with a child inside in the past two days. A ute was stolen in Coconut Grove, Port Douglas, with a 3-year-old girl strapped into a car seat at midday on Saturday. The car was found abandoned short time later with the child safe inside, NT News reported. CCTV footage captured the moment a vehicle was stolen outside a Melbourne unit block with a sleeping 8-week-old baby inside on Friday. The new mum left the car engine running and turned her back for a few seconds, allowing the opportunistic thief to pounce. She was reunited with the vehicle and baby a short time later. An elderly woman with dementia was hospitalised after she was allegedly punched and slapped by her 28-year-old carer. Police were called to Gladys Buchanan's home in Thirroul, south of Sydney about 10.45pm on Friday, after they received a tip-off from a next-door neighbour. The neighbour told Nine News he rang police after he heard yelling and shouting coming from the woman's home after was allegedly attacked by her carer Alicia Gawronski. Scroll down for video An 81-year-old woman who has dementia has been hospitalised after she was allegedly punched and slapped by her carer Alicia Gawronski (pictured) 'It was the sustained verbal abuse that I could hear coming through the double brick masonry wall,' he said. Officers went to the elderly woman's unit on Station Street and witnessed the alleged assault through a rear window, a NSW Police statement said. Police said they saw Ms Buchanan fall over as she was being led from the bathroom to the living room by Gawronski. Officers claimed they also overheard Gawronski verbally abuse the older woman before 'punching her with a closed fist to the inner thigh'. Ms Buchanan then tried to stand up again before Gawronski allegedly lifted both of her legs up, causing her to fall onto her back. 'She's obviously tried to regain her composure and her legs were taken out form underneath her by the younger lady,' Inspector Don Faulds from Wollongong Police told Nine News. 'It's very upsetting to see an elderly person treated in that way.' The elderly woman was taken to Wollongong Hospital where she was treated for bruises and swelling to her face, as well as bruises and scratches on her legs, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Gawronski, who recently became the elderly woman's carer, was later arrested and charged with domestic assault and elder abuse. Gladys Buchanan (pictured) has been hospitalised after she was allegedly punched and slapped by her 28-year-old carer The 26-year-old appeared in court on Saturday and was granted bail with conditions, including she abide by the conditions of the AVO, live at a separate Illawarra address, and not approach or contact the victim, the Illawarra Mercury reported. Inspector Faulds praised the next door neighbour for alerting officers to what her referred to as a 'disgraceful' incident. 'These vulnerable people need the communities help to be their voice,' he told AAP on Saturday. 'In this instance one call from the public has stopped this horrific act. 'Attending police did a great job with the victim's welfare until Ambulance arrived,' he said. Gawronski will face Wollongong Bail Court again on September 6. A man has been arrested of attempted murder after a woman in her 20s was stabbed on a busy London road. Police were called to the scene at 10.20am this morning on Caledonian Road in north London. An air ambulance was rushed to the scene and pictures on social media show police and other emergency services at the scene. Police were called to the scene at 10.20am this morning on Caledonian Road in north London Buses appear to be caught inside the cordon of where the incident took place this morning The victim has been rushed to hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Cordons are in place around the crime scene. Bus routes in the area have been diverted while police comb the scene for evidence. TfL Bus Alerts tweeted: 'Routes 17 91 259 are diverted in both directions in Caledonian Road N1 due to a Police incident.' Witnesses have been urged to call 101 reference CAD2686/sep01. The Government has said it has no idea how many terrorists may have been deported back to the UK. Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes made the admission in a response to a parliamentary question lodged by Independent MP John Woodcock in January. Mr Woodcock asked the Home Office for the number of UK nationals who have been deported 'on suspicion of terror offences' by country of deportation in each of the last five years. Some 850 Britons are believed to have joined ISIS in Syria or Iraq. Intelligence officers believe half of those suspected terrorists have returned to the UK Immigration minister Caroline Nokes, pictured, admitted data on UK citizens deported back to Britain is not recorded as Britons are not subject to immigration controls on arrival Following a delay of almost five months, Ms Nokes responded: 'The UK government does not hold a complete data set relating to individuals deported to the UK, broken down in this way, since UK nationals are not as a matter of course subject to immigration controls on arrival. 'In addition, not all countries will disclose that they are deporting an individual to the UK or that that there is a terrorism concern relating to them. 'The UK has developed close partnerships with countries which are a priority for joint work on international counter-terrorism in order to manage the risk to the UK from terrorism. 'Data on the use of tools and powers available to manage the threat to the UK from individuals suspected of involvement in terrorism, including managing their return to the UK, are due for publication shortly in the annual Government Transparency Report on Disruptive and Investigatory Powers.' An estimated 850 Britons travelled to Syria and Iraq in order to join ISIS. Approximately half of these people are believed to have returned to the UK. Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee in the House of Commons Dominic Grieve told The Express: 'There is quite a high level of co-operation between countries. 'The EU is a great facilitator of this, and theres co-operation with lots of other countries which leads to them telling us they have arrested a British national and are sending them back. 'But the co-operation needs to be improved as much as possible. There are some countries, usually those with very poor human rights records, where communication is very difficult.' A man charged with terrorism offences after police recovered a bomb in his fridge and another in his shed claimed he is 'white British', a court heard today. Edward John Harris appeared in Westminster Magistrates' court today charged with possession of explosives and bomb making manuals. Harris, 27, was arrested on Wednesday, after anti-terror police raided his home in Ely, Cardiff. The court heard that police found triacetone triperoxide (TATP) - known as Mother of Satan - in the fridge, and Another explosive substance, Hexamethylene Triperoxide Diamine (HMTD), - often used in homemade detonators - was allegedly discovered in the 27-year-old's garden shed, the court heard. Anti-terror police have charged Edward John Harris following a raid on a house in Ely, Cardiff Police searched the property and found four bomb making manuals Police said a second suspect remains in custody for further questioning Harris is also charged with terror offences relating to manuals on how to make and use explosives, including one entitled The improvised Munitions Handbook. Harris, 27, was a former director of a company involved in the 'research and experimental development on biotechnology' which was registered at his council house home in Cardiff. The company, The Ed and Nat Experience Ltd was dissolved in October 2014. He was arrested after police raided his home upon receiving reports explosive materials were being held at an address in the Ely area of Cardiff. Counter-terror police stressed there is no evidence of a specific terrorist threat against the Welsh capital. Harris, of Archer Crescent, appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Saturday wearing a grey tracksuit, speaking only to confirm his name, date of birth, address and that his nationality is 'white British' during a hearing lasting less than 20 minutes. He is charged with four offences of making or possessing an explosive substance with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property, under Section 4 of the Explosives Act 1883 and four charges of possessing a document containing information useful to terrorism under section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Anti-terror officers supported by the Bomb Disposal Unit, pictured, recovered explosives from a fridge and detonators from the garden sehd Police stressed they have no evidence about any planned terror attack on the Welsh capital The explosives charges relate to TATP and HMTD, while the terror charges state the documents were entitled The improvised Munitions Handbook, Preparatory manual for explosives, Home Workshop Explosives and Improvised Primary Explosives. There was no application for bail and District Judge Margot Coleman remanded him in custody until September 27 when he will appear at the Old Bailey as part of the court's so-called terror list. Detective Superintendent Jim Hall, the head of the Wales Extremism and Counter Terrorism Unit (WECTU) said: 'Our investigation continues but we must stress that there is no evidence to suggest any specific terrorist threat against Cardiff or that people in Cardiff are at any greater risk, however we would remind people to remain vigilant and report any suspicions to the police.' Police are continuing to question a 51-year-old woman who has also been arrested in connection with the investigation. Westminster Magistrates' Court heard Harris claim he was 'white British' in court Members of six outlaw motorcycle gangs have defected and are planning to establish a new Nomads chapter. Police intelligence suggests the notorious Nomads bikie gang are expanding to Tasmania, raising fears of tensions between established outfits. The Nomads will join rival gangs the Devil's Henchmen, the Satan's Riders, the Black Uhlans, the Outlaws, the Rebels and the Bandidos across the Bass Strait. Police intelligence suggests the notorious Nomads bikie gang are expanding to Tasmania, raising fears of tensions between established outfits The exact location for the new chapter is still unknown, and the move comes after a handful of members of other clubs, including the Rebels and the Outlaws defected, ABC News reported. The Nomads are already established in New South Wales and South Australia, but will be the first time they branch off the mainland. Police Commissioner Darren Hine was unwilling to discuss details of the impending arrival. 'We're concerned with any outlaw motorcycle gang that is coming to Tasmania or operating within Tasmania,' he said. High profile Nomads members include former chapter president Sam Ibrahim, the brother of nightclub boss John Ibrahim, and Moudi Tajjour, a cousin of the Ibrahims. High profile Nomads members include former chapter president Sam Ibrahim, the brother of nightclub boss John Ibrahim, and Moudi Tajjour, a cousin of the Ibrahims Ibrahim is currently serving a nine year sentence in jail for planning to supply illegal firearms. Police argue members of the Newcastle charter have been going 'tit for tat' with rival gang, the Finks for over 12 months, with seven drive by shootings and firebombings involving the gangs across the Hunter Valley throughout the first nine weeks of this year. The Newcastle chapters of the Finks and Nomads have seen their numbers rise in the first few months of 2018, as the two groups battle for supremacy in the region. Police allege the influx of gangs in Tasmania have surpassed it's South Australian counterparts, with over 260 known members residing in the state. 'We know they are coming here to set up criminal enterprise networks and we want to make sure the Tasmanian community is well protected against these groups. 'We've been quite open we don't want outlaw motorcycle gangs in Tasmania, especially those ones we know are involved in criminal activity, and Tasmania is not open for business and Tasmania is not open for criminal outlaw motorcycle gangs.' The news comes after Tasmania began the process of implementing laws banning bikies from wearing club colours, a step that New South Wales and Queensland have also taken. Up to two dozen Nomads OMCG members gathered in Canberra last weekend where the photo was taken. The powerful Strike Force Raptor and its strict anti-consorting laws mean bikies can no longer gather together, forcing them to the nation's capital. Tajjour, 34, a former vice president of the group and convicted killer, posted the image and a series of others to Instagram from the weekend's celebrations. For the laws to be effectively imposed in Tasmania, the Police Minister would have to specify which outlaw figures are unable to wear their colours in public or associate with one another. FOCUS ON DEFENSE CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA AND OCEANIA Ex-First Sea Lord, Lord West, said the 'insufficient' numbers of vessels had been exposed by recent clashes An ex-Navy chief has warned the UK doesn't have enough ships to patrol its territorial waters after British and French mariners went to war over scallops. Former First Sea Lord, Labour's Lord West of Spithead, said the 'insufficient' numbers of vessels had been exposed by recent clashes between fishermen. Rocks, smoke bombs and other projectiles are reported to have been hurled at English and Scottish vessels during the confrontation in the early hours of Tuesday morning. French fisherman are angry about a domestic ban preventing them from harvesting the scallop-rich region while British boats are free fish. 'It is clear that we have insufficient ships to patrol the United Kingdom's territorial seas and our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ),' Lord West wrote in the Daily Telegraph. 'Co-ordination of the few ships we do have is fragmented. In theory, co-ordination is exercised by the co-located Joint Maritime Operations Command Centre. 'But this command centre lacks a single commander with authority to order government departments to take action, and therefore is unable to exercise proper command. After Brexit, this will be disastrous.' On Tuesday, British and French boats clashed off the English Channel over fishing rights Footage shows a Scottish trawler boat on fire after flares were reportedly thrown after the latest flare-up in a years-long war over the prized shellfish When Britain leaves the EU it will be responsible for patrolling its EEZ, rather than being part of a shared EEZ for the whole of the bloc. EU members access to British fishing waters will then need to be negotiated as part of a Brexit deal. French authorities try to preserve scallop stocks by banning their ships from fishing in the region over the summer, a measure that ends on October 1. This law does not apply to the British, however - who anger the French mariners by harvesting scallops during this window. The EU's Common Fisheries Policy allows any member state with a registered fleet - including Britain - 'equal access' to EU waters more than 12 nautical miles off the shore of other countries. The Baie de Seine stretches from the coast of Normandy to considerably beyond the 12 nautical miles, meaning British boats can access it. The scallop feud came to a head on Tuesday in the Baie de Seine area when around 35 to 40 French ships boxed in a dozen British boats near the coast of Normandy. A dozen police officers have stormed the tarmac at Sydney Airport to arrest an 'aggressive' man on board a plane. The man was arrested on the aircraft on Saturday evening, according to an Australian Federal Police spokeswoman. It is understood the plane was scheduled to fly to Europe. More to come An 'aggressive' man has been arrested at Sydney Airport (pictured), an Australian Federal Police spokeswoman said Federal politicians from South Australia have charged taxpayers a whopping $3.4million for expenses in the last three months. A $108,000 printing bill was claimed by Labor MP Amanda Rishworth, who told The Advertiser the money was spent on a pamphlet for pensioners and two newsletters between April and June. Liberal MP Rowan Ramsey being one of four politicians to claim an excess payment for a private-plated car after a collision with a kangaroo damaged his vehicle. Federal Labor MP Amanda Rishworth's (pictured) office spent $108,000 on printing in the last three months Ms Rishworth blamed the costly printing bill on the fact that the 'pretty big document' was in high demand by South Australian residents. Liberal Boothby MP Nicolle Flint's office had the second biggest outlay on printing -spending $96,675 in the same three month period. Among the other pricey payments to make the list were luxurious charter flights. Insurance premiums also added up, including the claimed protection for Mr Ramsay's car. 'The only damage I've done to a car in the last 10 years is hit a roo and I've hit about 10 of them,' he said. 'I work on hitting at least one kangaroo a year. I can't remember having a car that didn't need at least a bit of repair.' Liberal MP Nicolle Flint's (right) office had the second biggest outlay on printing - spending $96,675 in the same three month period. Liberal Senator David Fawcett also spent $6,960 on chartering a plane from Adelaide to Ceduna in Feburuary, which returned via Peterborough. Mr Fawcett said the purpose of the trip was to see Indigenous Health and Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt launch an Aboriginal community program at a health facility. Other surprising big-ticketed items included flags, which were provided to community groups, child care centres and constituents each quarter. Ms Rishworth said while her office spent $4,400 on flags in the last quarter, they had received just as many requests - if not more - for pictures of the Queen. Advertisement Brits have been flocking to the beach to enjoy the sun on the first day of September- as official figures are poised to show it will be the hottest summer on record. There was patchy rain in the north and west, but other areas of the country took advantage of the glorious sunshine- with top temperatures reaching 73F in the south-east. Crowds In Bournemouth were bulging on the beach and enjoying the sun, sea and annual Air Festival, while in Cambridge families and couples are kicking back and taking a punt along the River Cam. In London people were out enjoying picnics, children frolicking in the fountains, horse riding in Hyde Park and lounging by the canal near King's Cross. Despite cooler and sometimes damp weather over the past month, forecasters said the hot June and July should still see 2018 beat the summers of 2006, 2003 and 1976 for the hottest on record. The annual Bournemouth Air Festival is hugely popular and people are thoroughly enjoying the show and the continuing warm temperatures In Hyde Park in London three riders on horses are galloping along in the heat with the London Eye looming in the background Children play in a water fountain in Granary Square, London, while they enjoy the sun before they have to head back to school next week People out punting on the River Cam in Cambridge on the first day of the meteorological autumn with a hot weekend forecast for most of the country People sit in the sun by a canal in Kings Cross, London, while others cycle along. People are sat enjoying picnics and some are sunbathing Hot air balloons take to the sunny skies above Chatsworth house in Derbyshire this morning. The early morning balloon lift-off took place at the stately home as part of Chatsworth Country Fair Early morning swimmers in The Serpentine lake in Hyde Park, central London, on the fist day of meteorological autumn A boat travels on the River Thames at sunrise, seen behind City of London skyscrapers on the first day of meteorological autumn The Met Office released provisional figures yesterday, covering June, July and August up to Thursday. As of Friday the mean highest daytime temperature for the UK as a whole stood at 60.44F. It compares with the current record of 60.40F in 2006, closely followed by 60.38F in both 2003 and 1976. Meanwhile, the provisional hottest average daily temperature for England in 2018 stands at 62.96F - beating the record of 62.6F, set in 1976. On Friday a Met Office spokesman said: With one day to go, it is clear that 2018 has been one of the hottest summers on record for the UK. However, the margin between the mean temperatures at the top of the league tables - records dating back to 2010 - is so small that at this point it is impossible to say if 2018 will be an outright winner. Usually we will only quote statistics to the nearest 0.1C as differences smaller than this could result from small numerical differences arising from the statistical calculations. But records for Scotland, of 57.38F set in 2003, and 60.98F in Wales, set in 1995, are unlikely to be beaten. This year, the mean summer temperature for Scotland was 55.58F, and 60.8F in Wales. The Northern Ireland average in summer 2018 of 59.18F is also unlikely to exceed the average of 59.9F set in 1995. The Met Office said it will officially confirm the statistics next week, once today has been taken into account. Pub baron Justin Hemmes is in talks to buy joy flight company Sydney Seaplanes, less than a year after a horror crash involving one of the company's aircraft. The tragic December 31 accident killed all six people on board, including British businessman Richard Cousins and his family. The multi-millionaire Merivale boss is in talks to take over the troubled company, in a dramatic shift from his usual investments in pubs and hotels. Scroll down for video Pub baron Justin Hemmes (pictured with Kate Fowler) is in talks to buy joy flight company Sydney Seaplanes, less than a year after a horror crash involving one of the company's aircraft The tragic December 31 accident killed all six people on board, including British businessman Richard Cousins and his family Mr Hemmes often uses his own aircraft to travel, but leaves it permanently berthed at the Rose Bay headquarters of the company when it is not in use. He also has a long-term business relationship with Sydney Seaplanes' managing director Aaron Shaw. 'I have put the feelers out and I have been dealing with Aaron for a couple of years now,' 'Mr Hemmes told The Daily Telegraph. 'We use their facility for promoting the berths we have at Newport so we have an interest in the business in that sense, but at this stage it's just very general chats with nothing too specific being discussed.' The company has suffered significant financial losses since the New Years Eve crash last year, and was once valued at around $8 million. A de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver owned by the company crashed into a river at Jerusalem Bay, 25 miles north of Sydney. Richard Cousins, the 58-year-old chief executive of FTSE 100 company Compass Group, died in the accident Richard Cousins, the 58-year-old chief executive of FTSE 100 company Compass Group, died alongside his sons, Will and Edward, aged 25 and 23, his fiancee, Emma Bowden, 48, and her 11-year-old daughter Heather. The experienced pilot, Canadian Gareth Morgan, 44, was also killed, with investigators probing whether he may have become disoriented or incapacitated. His employer believes the Australian Transport Safety Bureau's (ATSB) findings will support the theory. 'The preliminary report reflects the excellent flying conditions on the day and suggests no evidence of airframe, fuel or engine issues,' Mr Shaw said at the time of the incident. 'The report also highlights that Gareth Morgan was a highly skilled, experienced and trained pilot who was flying to a location he had flown to hundreds of times before. Emma Bowden, 48, with her 11-year-old daughter Heather in Sydney, days before the pair died in the crash 'A turn of this nature at low altitude by a pilot with Gareth's skills, experience and intimate knowledge of the location is totally inexplicable.' 'We're hopeful that once the report comes out that (business) will return to a healthier level, but obviously it was a terrible tragedy and something that we think about every single day,' Mr Shaw said. Mr Shaw started the joy-ride business in 2007, and confirmed he has been in preliminary talks with Mr Hemmes. He noted a formal offer was yet to be made. 'Like any small business owner if you got the right offer then you would obviously seriously consider taking it,' he said. A young mother-of-three who was due to marry her partner of 14 years has died suddenly after collapsing during a walk on a family holiday. Emma Rees, 35, from Barry in south Wales, was walking across a field in Pembrokeshire when she suddenly collapsed. The higher learning teaching assistant and her family were on the fourth day of their holiday in the scenic campsite in Solva when she collapsed on August 20. Her fiance, Ben Fitzgerald, 37, described the build-up prior to her collapse as 'normal', when she then just 'dropped down'. He said: 'Some people near the campsite had attempted to give her CPR with assistance from the emergency services on the phone. Ben Fitzgerald, 37, paid tribute to his fiance Emma Rees, 35, after she collapsed in a field in Pembrokeshire 'The ambulance came around six to seven minutes afterwards.' She was rushed to hospital in Haverfordwest, where medics worked on her for two hours. Mr Fitzgerald, from Cardiff, said Ms Rees had an overactive thyroid for which she took medication, but was fit and healthy otherwise. He has since spoken of his devastation following the passing of his 'soul mate'. He said: 'I was just shaking uncontrollably. I remember going to the toilet to vomit. 'We just kept the little ones away from what was going on when it happened. 'The other people in the campsite, these strangers, were amazing and took the little ones away to look after them.' Just days earlier, while driving to west Wales, the couple were discussing their future together. Mr Fitzgerald said the pair had got engaged a few years ago but on their way up to the campsite had discussed making plans for their big day. The couple's children, Aneurin, seven, and Finn, five, were informed about their mother's death at the hospital. Ms Rees also had an 18-year-old son Christopher from a previous relationship. Ms Rees worked as a higher education assistant in Penarth, Wales Mr Fitzgerald added: 'They came to the hospital with some family I and just hugged them and told them. I told them everything. 'Our five-year-old has high-end autism. His reaction was he can't and does not want to process it. 'Our seven-year-old was just heartbroken.' Mr Fitzgerald and Ms rees had been together for around 14 years after meeting while working at Beechwood College in Barry 15 years ago. He described Ms Rees as a 'magical, full-of-life person'. He added: 'She was a kind, generous, fiery and passionate person. 'She was a force to be reckoned with. She went out of her way to help people. Anyone who met her, particularly in a professional setting, would know that. 'She was outstanding in bringing out the best in people.' Her death remains unexplained until the results of various tests which are due in the next few weeks, according to Mr Fitzgerald. The couple's children, Aneurin, seven, and Finn, five, were informed about their mother's death at the hospital (pictured) He said: 'My children are amazingly strong and funny and they are helping me. We are all just clinging to each other now. 'It's still really raw and it's raw and difficult for the children too. There's this hole in our lives now.' Lucy Morgan, who worked with Ms Rees at the Ysgol Y Deri in Penarth, said everyone was devastated by the news of Emma's death. She said that Ms Rees had just been awarded a promotion and that the news had come as a shock to her rest of the staff. Ms Morgan said: 'Emma was such a bubbly person and so many people knew her. 'We are a very close knit community and the staff, pupils and parents are all devastated. 'She was loved by those who knew her and gave so much to all. She had the biggest smile and brightened up everyone's day.' More than 1,400 has been raised so far and several people have left heartfelt tributes to Emma. Responding to the tributes, Ben said: 'It's beautiful. I feel proud of her. That's exactly the woman I knew and loved.' A 10-year-old girl who was allegedly hung from a tree by a skipping rope by bullies has a rare heart defect and an oesophagus disconnected from her stomach. Children at Queen of Apostles Catholic School in the Perth suburb of Riverton, allegedly strung Amber Yoon up by her neck last Friday, causing her to choke. Amber was born with a hole in her heart and her mother said she had 'suffered more pain' in her life than most children hopefully ever would. Scroll down for video Amber Yoon (right) was allegedly hung from a tree by a skipping rope by bullies Children at Queen of Apostles Catholic School in Riverton, Western Australia - according to the girl's mother Belinda Yoon (left) The young girl was struggling to breathe and only escaped when a horrified teacher saw what was happening and cut her down, her family said. Amber's mother, Belinda Yoon, told Channel 9 her daughter's toes were barely scraping the ground and that she could have died. Catholic Education Western Australia is now liaising with police - who are investigating the claims. 'We have been having issues with Amber being bullied, causing major issues with anxiety,' Ms Yoon said. 'What happened that day could easily have had a very different ending and we'd be telling an even sadder story. 'Amber has been through more in her life, suffered more pain, and been in situations so terrifying most kids thankfully will never experience.' Amber's mother, Belinda (right), said her daughter's toes were barely scraping the ground and that she could have died Children at the school (pictured) allegedly strung Amber Yoon up by her neck, causing her to choke Ms Yoon said her daughter has had to have to counselling for her anxiety following the alleged attack. The school, which claims to offer children a 'nurturing, inclusive and safe environment' and has the motto 'love, unity and peace' said in a statement that it 'continues to consult with the families impacted'. No one has been arrested or charged. Daily Mail Australia has contacted the school for comment. Former vice president Al Gore has one message for Donald Trump: resign. The Democratic politician and environmentalist made the comments during an interview with Good Day LA about climate change and his upcoming event for the Climate Reality Project. When host Elex Michaelson asked Gore if there was anything he wanted to say to the president, Gore responded: 'Oh, my only message would be: resign'. 'I don't mean to be flippant about this,' he added. Gore, the chairman and founder of the Climate Reality Project, went on to say that he doesn't think Trump has been taking advice about climate change and the importance of having clean air and water. Al Gore said he thinks Trump should 'resign' and has not been taking advice on how to handle climate change 'I think everyone knows to discount what this current Administration is doing and saying. They've made the EPA the CPA! The Coal Production Agency! Instead of protecting the environment,' he told the station. 'This is a global emergency. It truly is! Look at the temperatures going to record levels, look at the fires!' Gore said. 'Don't take it from me. You don't even have to take it from me or even have to take it from the scientists, who are virtually unanimous, take it from Mother Nature! Every night on the TV is like a nature hike through the Book of Revelation.' Gore, an environmentalist, said people should 'discount' what Trump's administration is doing and saying. Pictured is Donald Trump at a fundraiser in North Carolina on August 31 Gore said the recent wildfires in California are examples of how important of a topic climate change should be. Pictured is an air tanker dropping retardant on the Ranch Fire in California on August 5 California has been battling Trump over climate change after he pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Change Agreement last year. Recently, California officials passed a bill that will require the state to run 100 per cent on renewable energy sources by 20145. The bill still needs to be approved in the state Senate and it needs to be signed by governor Jerry Brown. The state's effort to move toward cleaner energy sources has drawn criticism, especially from Republicans who say it's not feasible and will cause an increase in energy prices. Jeremy Corbyn (pictured) has been accused of failing to tackle the racism among his supporters The anti-Semitism scandal has dogged Labour since Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader in 2015. Here is a timeline of the controversies: April 2016: Labour MP Naz Shah is suspended for anti-Semitic posts - including one in which she appeared to endorse calls for Israelis to be deported to the US. She apologised and was given a formal warning. Ken Livingstone goes on the radio to defend Ms Shah - but sparks fresh controversy by claiming that Hitler supported Zionism. He is suspended by Labour but refuses to apologise and has repeated the claim many times. He eventually quits Labour two years later, saying his suspension has become a distraction. June 2016: A two-month inquiry by civil liberties campaigner Shami Chakrabarti finds that Labour is not overrun by anti-Semitism. But the launch is overshadowed when Jewish Labour MP Ruth Smeeth flees it in tears after being accused by Corbyn supporter Marc Wadsworth of colluding with the press. Critics accuse the report of being a whitewash and Ms Chakrabarti is widely criticised for accepting a peerage from Jeremy Corbyn shortly afterwards. October 2016: The Home Affairs Select Committee says Labour is guilty of incompetence over its handling of anti-Semitism and of creating a safe space for people with 'vile attitudes towards Jewish people'. March 2018: It is revealed that Jeremy Corbyn defended an artist who painted an anti-Semitic mural and said the offensive art should be removed. He apologises saying he did not properly look at the picture before he made the post. Jewish leaders take the unprecedented step of holding a demonstration outside Parliament protesting Mr Corbyn's failure to tackle anti-Semitism. Several Labour MPs address the crowds. April 2018: Marc Wadsworth is expelled from Labour after being accused of anti-Semitism. Meanwhile, Labour Jewish MPs tell of the anti-Semitic abuse they have suffered in a powerful parliamentary debate - and round on their leader for failing to tackle it. July 2018: The Labour leadership sparks fresh anger by failing to fully adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism Peter Willsman, a strong ally of Jeremy Corbyn, is secretly taped ranting that Jewish 'Trump fanatics' invented the anti-Semitism storm engulfing Labour. In an angry diatribe at a meeting of Labour's ruling executive committee, he said he was 'amazed' there was evidence party members hated Jews. He claimed 'some of these people in the Jewish community support Trump they are Trump fanatics' before shouting: 'So I am not going to be lectured to by Trump fanatics making up duff information without any evidence at all.' August 2018: Jeremy Corbyn issues a video insisting he is committed to tackling the racism - but it is panned by Jewish leaders. Corbynistas mount a social media campaign to get deputy Labour leader Tom Watson to quit after he criticises the party's handling of anti-Semitism. The Daily Mail exclusively publishes photos of Jeremy Corbyn holding a wreath at a ceremony where a terrorist linked to the Munich massacre was honoured. The Labour leader insists he was there to honour others killed - but faces fresh calls to quit over the scandal. February 2019: Nine MPs including Luciana Berger, Joan Ryan and Ian Austin are among those who quit the Labour Party with broadsides at inaction over anti-Semitism under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. Berger, the Jewish Liverpool Wavertree MP, had faced a barrage of attacks from members of her own local party as well as wider abuse, said Labour had become 'institutionally anti-Semitic'. Enfield MP Joan Ryan was attacked because she was the chairwoman of Labour friends of Israel. And Dudley's Ian Austen, who adoptive father was Jewish, said he had become 'ashamed' of what the party had become under Mr Corbyn's leadership. November 2019: MP Chris Williamson, a close ally of Mr Corbyn, quits the party after being blocked from restanding in his Derby North seat at the general election. He had been suspended after saying that Labour had been 'too apologetic' about anti-Semitism. Mr Corbyn later faced an anti-Semitism row of his own after a major intervention by the Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis. He accused the left-winger of allowing the 'poison' of anti-Semitism to take root in Labour. His comments were later backed up by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Mr Corbyn declined repeatedly to apologise to British Jews in a searing interview by the BBC's Andrew Neil and said that Mr Mirvis was 'wrong'. Former President George W Bush gave a moving eulogy to Arizona Senator John McCain, where he described their friendship as 'one of life's greatest gifts' Former President George W Bush remembered his friend John McCain in a moving tribute to both the man's service to the country, and his service as a friend to all. Addressing the Washington National Cathedral on Saturday, Bush spoke about McCain's military history and his great work as a senator, and his lasting legacy. 'A man who seldom rested is laid to rest, and his absence is tangible, like the silence after a mighty roar,' he said. 'The thing about John's life was the amazing sweep of it. From a tiny prison cell to the floor of the US Senate. From trouble-making plebe to Presidential candidate. 'In one life was written the courage and greatness of our country.' The pair became friends after the race for the 2000 Presidential nomination. During the race, horrible smear campaigns aimed at McCain's children and family, launched while the Arizona man was topping the polls, took him out of the running for the top job, and it's been reported the rumors left him in 'a dark place'. Bush said McCain's life was a reflection of 'the courage and greatness of our country' during his speech at the Washington National Cathedral on Saturday morning Bush said his friendship with McCain, which came after the bitterness of the 2000 election had dissipated, was 'one of life's great gifts'. The former Republican leader said the pair still constantly quarreled, and McCain wouldn't ease off just because he was fighting with the leader of the free world. 'He was honest, no matter who it offended,' he said. 'Presidents were not spared. He was honorable, always recognizing that his opponents were patriots and human beings.' Bush said McCain was a 'man with a code, who lived by a set of public virtues that brought strength and purpose to his life and to his country'. 'He was courageous with a courage that frightened his captors and inspired his countrymen,' he said. Bush and McCain had a rocky start to their relationship, as they fought a bitter race for the republican nomination for President in 2000 (pictured in 2008 after Bush endorsed McCain for President) 'He loved freedom, with the passion of a man who knew its absence. 'He respected the dignity in every life, a dignity that did not stop at borders and could not be swiped by dictators. Concluding his speech, he said he suspected McCain would not be one to dwell on the sadness of his own passing - and would want others to move forward with the boundless energy he always displayed. 'One of his books ends with the words "I moved on",' Bush said. 'John has moved on, he would probably not want us to dwell on it. 'We will remember him as he was: unwavering undimmed, unequal.' This unbee-lievable footage shows the moment a group of bees come together to help a friend. The stunning moment was captured on camera in Covert Township, Michigan, USA by Peter Walkosz. Beekeeper Mr Walkosz spotted the bee in trouble when she fell in the honey extractor so he placed it close to the hive. The clip shows a small group rally round the poor bee and diligently start cleaning her. The bee got into trouble when it fell in the honey extractor so beekeeper Peter Walkosz placed it close to the hive The small swarm rally round the poor bee and diligently start cleaning it so it can make a full recovery After a full clean the bee is fortunately alright and flies away to go off and pollinate some more flowers in Michigan He told UniLad: 'We are bee keepers in a small town in South West Michigan. 'Our small farm is located within a blueberry field where bees have lots of flowers to pollinate. 'They produce amazing honey from blueberries in the spring time that has a rich dark colour. The kindly bees came out their hive and spent the next thirty minutes cleaning up their messy comrade The kindly bees came out their hive and spent the next thirty minutes cleaning, and it was all filmed by the beekeeper 'A couple of weeks ago while I was harvesting honey one poor bee fell into the honey extractor and I could not let this hard working girl die. 'I rescued her and put her by the hive entry, knowing that her sisters would help her.' The kindly bees came out their hive and spent the next thirty minutes cleaning up their messy comrade, who then flew away. Advertisement Right-wing protesters and opponents of Angela Merkel's liberal immigration policy have staged a fresh rally in Germany today six days after a German man was allegedly stabbed to death by two migrants. Thousands of marchers waving German flags took to the streets on Saturday while leftists started a rival protest and more than 1,200 police officers kept watch in the city of Chemnitz. This evening police said they had asked the organisers to end the march for the day, prompting calls of 'resistance' and booing and whistling from the crowd. Tensions over Merkel's 2015 decision to open Germany's doors to a million asylum seekers have flared up this week since 35-year-old Daniel Hillig was killed last Sunday. Today's march led by members of the anti-immigration AfD party, which is represented in Germany's parliament, follows violence earlier this week involving neo-Nazi marchers making Hitler salutes. Right-wing groups including the AfD and the street movement PEGIDA said they had organised the march to mourn Mr Hillig, after a leaked arrest warrant revealed that two Syrian and Iraqi migrants are suspected of killing him. Today's protest is the latest in a wave of demonstrations in Chemnitz in former communist East Germany, the region of the country where the AfD has its strongest support. Huge crowds waving German flags march in Chemnitz, east Germany, on Saturday in a fresh anti-immigration protest Right-wing supporters wave German flags during the demonstration in Chemnitz on Saturday after the death of a German Police block the right-wing demonstration on Saturday following the killing of a German man in Chemnitz six days ago On Saturday, riot police chased black-clad anti-fascist protesters who had tried to make their way toward the far-right crowd, whose members waved the German flag, sang the national anthem and shouted: 'Merkel must go!' Police said around 4,500 right-wing demonstrators had marched through the city, days after Germany was shocked by scenes of violence and marchers making Hitler salutes amid clashes between protesters on Monday. Leaders of the AfD and PEGIDA wore dark suits and held white roses as they began what they called a 'mourning march' on Saturday night. Bjorn Hocke, a regional AfD leader who has come under fire in the past for calling Berlin's Holocaust memorial a 'monument of shame', was pictured at Saturday's protest. At the other end of town leftist protesters started a march under the slogan 'Heart instead of Hate' in the centre of Chemnitz, which was known as Karl-Marx-Stadt during the Cold War. Merkel, who on Friday wrapped up a three-day visit to Africa, has not yet commented on the events in the city. 'Where is she? Travelling in Africa,' said one of the speakers addressing the anti-immigrant crowd. 'She should come here and face us citizens.' Supporters of far-right groups say their march is to mourn the man who was stabbed to death and condemn what they say is government inaction in the face of rising migrant crime. The anti-migrant sentiment has been particularly strong in Saxony, the state where Chemnitz is located and a stronghold of two groups which are seeking to launch a nationwide movement on Saturday night. Riot police face protesters at the end of a demonstration organised by the right-wing populist 'Pro Chemnitz' movement Participants in a right-wing march confront riot police after police halted the march due to a blockade by rival demonstrators Riot police try to keep order after police told organisers to stop the demonstrations in Chemnitz for the day Police block roads on Saturday evening during demonstrations following the killing of a German man in Chemnitz Police lead away a right-wing protester in Chemnitz as hundreds of officers were on the scene to prevent fresh violence Right-wing protesters gather in front of a kebab shop in Chemnitz on Saturday where two rival demonstrations took place Eleven police vehicles block the road as officers seek to keep the peace during the march by right-wing demonstrators Hooligans run for left-wing protestors during demonstrations following the killing of a German man in Chemnitz The Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, or PEGIDA movement, has held weekly rallies in Saxony's capital of Dresden while the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, received almost a quarter of the Saxony vote in last year's federal election. Their leftist opponents accuse them of using the murder to stoke racial hatred against migrants and refugees. One of the anti-AfD marchers said: 'Who was the stabbing victim? The far-right is exploiting his death by saying: 'A German has been murdered.' But he was an anti-fascist and people outside the city don't know that.' Germany's interior minister Horst Seehofer, whose tough stance on migration has put him at odds with Merkel, said he understood why people 'are upset about the brutal killing' but said there was 'no excuse for violence'. He said: 'We need a strong state and we have to do everything politically to overcome the polarization and division of our society.' Images of skinheads raising their arms for a Hitler salute, chasing anyone they saw as outsiders and wrestling riot police to the ground were a painful reminder for many Germans of the country's Nazi past. Demonstrators hold flags of Germany during a protest organised by right-wing groups in Chemnitz on Saturday A protester holds a poster with a photo of the man killed last week during a demonstration in Chemnitz on Saturday A masked leftist demonstrator flees approaching police who try to separate leftist and nationalist demonstrators in Chemnitz Police guard the protest as federal officers and constables from other states were called in to protect the public today Bjorn Hocke, centre a regional leader of the right-wing Alternative for Germany party, participates in the march in Chemnitz A man holds a placard with the picture of Daniel Hillig who was killed in a stabbing in Chemnitz six days earlier People march in Chemnitz on Saturday carrying German flags and pictures showing alleged victims of refugee violence Demonstrators wave German flags by a bus stop as thousands gather in Chemnitz on Saturday in the latest right-wing march People hold portrait pictures of alleged victims of immigrant offenders during the right-wing march in Chemnitz today People take part in a gathering run by the right-wing Pro Chemnitz movement to commemorate the death of Daniel Hillig People carry German flags and hold up placards showing alleged victims of migrant violence during the Chemnitz protest A police officer stops a left-wing protester in Chemnitz as thousands of police were drafted in to avoid violence in Germany A demonstrator holds a poster with Angela Merkel's trademark gesture and the word 'guilty' during a protest in Chemnitz A demonstrator holds a German flag as he joins a nationalist march in Chemnitz following the death of a German man Police officers arrest a left-wing protester in Chemnitz on Saturday as they sought to avoid fresh clashes between marchers The leaking of the arrest warrant for one of the two suspects to PEGIDA raised concerns that some justice officials in the state of Saxony, where Chemnitz is located, were sympathetic to the far-right. Daniel Zabel, 39, a judicial officer, admitted to the newspaper Bild that he had leaked details of the arrest warrant which alleges that the men knifed 35-year-old Hillig repeatedly in the chest. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, whose centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) hold the mayor's office in Chemnitz and helped organise Saturday's leftist march, said on Twitter that Germans had a special duty to stand up against any form of fascism. 'When people are once again roaming our streets with the Hitler salute, our history mandates us to stand up for democracy,' he wrote. The influx of more than 1.6million people seeking asylum in the last four years, mainly Muslims from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, has already changed Germany's social and political landscape. The AfD, which says Islam is incompatible with the German constitution, entered the national parliament for first time in an election last year, securing third place after stealing voters from both Merkel's conservatives and the SPD. After the stabbing in Chemnitz, its leaders said the violent riots that followed were understandable. 'People are worried,' said teenager Jona Marschler. 'I don't think things will calm down anytime soon.' People take part in a march of silence and carry German flags and portraits of supposed victims of refugee violence Marchers hold up German flags during a protest which organisers said was to mourn the man who died in Chemnitz last week Protesters hold placards of people they claim were the victims of refugee violence as they march through Chemnitz today Police vehicles block the demonstration in Chemnitz, which is in the AfD stronghold of former communist East Germany Right-wing protesters clash with police officers during demonstrations following the killing of a German man in Chemnitz A left-wing protester shouts to police officers in Chemnitz during the rival demonstrations on Saturday Barack Obama said being asked to speak at John McCain's funeral was a 'precious and singular honor', but joked he had worked out why he and Bush - his political opponents - had been asked. 'What a better way to get a last laugh than to get George and I to say nice things about him to a national audience,' he said, lightening an otherwise emotional tribute. Obama and McCain were both in the race to become President in 2008, and though the democratic candidate won, the pair made headlines for how quickly they sat down after the election to find ways to work together. Scroll down for video Former President Barack Obama delivered a touching eulogy to Republican Senator John McCain on Saturday (pictured) The pair were pitted against each other for the Presidency in 2008 (pictured in 2008) and while Obama won the race, the pair quickly sat down to decide how they would work together 'We come to celebrate an extraordinary man. A warrior, a statesman, a patriot, who embodied so much that is best in America,' he said. 'President Bush and I are among the fortunate few who competed against John at the highest level of politics. 'He made us better Presidents, as he made the Senate better, as he made the country better.' In what could be seen as a shot at current President Donald Trump, who was banned from the ceremony, the former President said McCain's version of politics was cleaner than the one seen today, and more respectful. 'So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty,' he said. 'Trafficking in bombast and insult, and phony controversies, and manufactured outrage. It's a politics that pretends to be brave and tough but, in fact, is born of fear. 'John called on us to be bigger than that. He called on us to be better than that.' While Obama appeared to be tearing the President down, the President was trying to tear down trade relations with Canada - and get in a round of golf. In a series of tweets, Trump told Canada it 'will be out' of a revised North American trade agreement unless it's 'fair' to the United States, and threatened to scrap the current deal should Congress 'interfere' with the negotiations. 'There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal,' Trump said in one of a series of tweets as he visited his Virginia golf club. Obama noted McCain was always a bit of a troublemaker, who would not allow himself to be pushed into a box of what his high office should bind him to do. 'He had a disdain for self pity. He had been to hell and back, and he never lost his optimism or his zest for life,' he said. Obama said he admired McCain, and would often spend time with him privately 'He maintained his buoyant spirit until the end, too stubborn to sit still, devoted to his friends, and most of all to his family. 'For all our differences, for all the times we sparred, I never tried to hide and I think John came to understand, the longstanding admiration I had for him.' When McCain pushed back against protesters who questioned Obama's patriotism, Obama said he was 'grateful, but not surprised'. 'That's just who John was,' he said. Obama said for all the stories of John's quick temper, the Arizona man was quick to move on from an argument and quick to forgive. 'He knew more than most his own flaws, his blind spots - he knew how to laugh at himself,' he said. 'We didn't advertise it, but every so often over the course of my presidency, John would come over to the white house and we'd sit and we'd talk. 'Our disagreements didn't go away during those private conversations, but we enjoyed the time we shared away from the bright lights. 'We learned from each other, and we never doubted the other man's sincerity, or the other man's patriotism. 'We never doubted we were on the same team.' Dozens of secondary schools have excluded at least a fifth of pupils sparking calls for government action. Schools in England have faced criticism after a high number of pupils have been suspended. Some academy schools across Yorkshire, the Humber and the east Midlands excluded 41 per cent of pupils, compared the national average of 4.6 per cent,The Guardian revealed. Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, said high school exclusions 'should be a matter of huge concern to the government, and to the schools affected'. Schools in England have faced criticism after a high number of pupils have been suspended This comes after thousands of badly performing pupils may have been excluded by state schools looking to boost their position in league tables. It is believed exclusions were handed out to pupils to get rid of students who would do badly in their GCSE's. More than 30,000 pupils have not had their GCSE results recorded in tables despite previously appearing on school registers over the last three years, it is claimed. Pupils often vanish from the register in the months leading up to exams. More than 19,000 pupils who were in year 10 in 2016 had 'off-rolled' from the school system, an Ofsted investigation found. Ofsted said it was becoming 'increasingly concerned' about the illegal process known as 'off-rolling' adding it was 'never acceptable' to use exclusion to boost school performance (File pic) Ofsted said it was becoming 'increasingly concerned' about the illegal process known as 'off-rolling' adding it was 'never acceptable' to use exclusion to boost school performance. Last month it was revealed that more than 40 exclusions were handed out a day between 2016 and 2017, the Department for Education found. The Department for Education launched a review led by former Conservative MP and children's minister Edward Timpson to 'explore how head teachers use exclusion in practice, and why some groups of pupils are more likely to be excluded'. The launch of the review came after Cathryn Kirby, Ofsted's regional director for the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber complained to secondary schools about the high rates of excluions. 'Schools should only ever use exclusions as a last resort,' she said. 'If not properly applied, being removed from school can disrupt a child's education and affect their future life chances.' A spokesperson for the Department for Education said the decision to exclude should be a last resort. They said: 'Statutory guidance also states that schools should consider the underlying causes of poor behaviour before excluding a pupil, Britain's oldest person, a great-grandmother-of-11 who was renowned for her roast dinners, has passed away aged 113. OIive Evelyn Boar was alive during the reign of five monarchs, 22 prime ministers, and survived two world wars. Mrs Boar, the country's 10th oldest ever person, witnessed the invention the television when she was just 21. The former seamstress was born on September 29 in 1904. She met and married her late husband Claude Boar in 1932 and the couple bought their house in Ipswich, Suffolk, in the same year for the price of 300. She remained living in that same house up until 2013. Britain's oldest person, OIive Evelyn Boar, has died aged 113. The great-grandmother-of-11 embraced changes but favoured doing 'everything by hand' and never had an automatic washing machine Despite being internationally known as Britain's oldest resident, her son Robin, 73, told the local press that her mother had always preferred the quiet life. He said: 'She was very homely, very caring. She was a good friend. She was there if anyone needed anything - but she was quite strong-willed and wouldn't let anyone push her around, even in recent years. 'If she felt someone wasn't showing her enough respect, she would let them know. She was a fairly amazing woman in many ways.' When the former seamstress was born on September 29 in 1904, Edward VII was king (pictured in 1903) Mrs Boar eventually left her home of 80 years and moved to Kent Lodge care home in Felixstowe, Suffolk, and then finally moved to The Westcliffe where spent her final days. Speaking to local press her son spoke about her knitting and cooking - describing roast dinners as 'renowned'. He added: 'She would make five time as much as you could possibly eat.' But while she embraced changes - she favoured doing 'everything by hand', and never had an automatic washing machine and would not use modern electric food mixers. Mrs Boar had been holding the title for Britain's oldest woman following Bessie Camm's death in May. The title of the oldest person is now passed on to Grace Catherine Jones, aged 111, who lives in Worcestershire. A groundbreaking new study is underway to better understand why and how patients across America use medical marijuana. The anonymous survey is a first and aims to help standardize health and safety for cannabis users and improve the health of medicinal, and recreational users. Dr Marion McNabb, Public Health Doctor, CEO, and co-founder of C3RN, said: ''We're focusing on designing innovative research and education models that embrace community-level engagement and empowerment to collectively drive change. WHY I TAKE CANNABIS I am a 36 year old female INSA patient with multiple health issues. I get severe migraines. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and ptsd during my teenage years. In my twenties I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and interstitial cystitis. After years of medicating and seeing little results I was willing to try anything new. I received my mmj license hoping it would help with panic attacks I was having on a daily basis and severe pain from fibromyalgia. The first thing I noticed was it helped my depression and I was so much happier. My panic attacks had almost disappeared. My pain had lessened to the point where I have almost completely cut out all pain medication. My migraines are controlled if I medicate at the onset. The biggest surprise I had was with the interstitial cystitis also known as painful bladder disease. It affected every aspect of my life from waking up six times a night to use the bathroom to not going anywhere during the day because I had to use the restroom constantly. I can now sleep almost completely through the night usually only getting up once. I have experimented with different forms of mmj to find out what works best for me. It was trial and error. I find that I do not like to smoke which I thought everyone else did. What works best for me are the 1:1 cbd thc options. Insas 1:1 ginger tea hard candy and fruit chews are the best. I also like the cbd and thc patches for pain which last 12 hours. INSA is the only dispensary I know that sells ground flower at such a low price. I buy the ground flower and make my own vaginal suppositories for my bladder issues. I use the vape at the onset of my migraine and that usually stops it. They have so many options it's impossible to not find something that works for you. Medical marijuana has improved the quality of my life 100%. I am happier than I have ever been and I challenge anyone who has a debilitating health issue to give it a try because it could change your life. Thank you for reading my story. Advertisement 'This longitudinal anonymous survey is meant to give everyone a voice and an opportunity to be part of this movement.' 'The baseline information established here will be used to develop accessible, innovative, and evidence-based community education resources. 'We intend to highlight collective best practices that promote multi-sectoral collaboration between the cannabis industry, healthcare, academic, consumers and patient populations.' Three centers in Massachusetts have chosen to prioritize research and evidence-based education during this pilot in order to provide the highest quality of care to their patients: INSA in Springfield and Easthampton, MA; BASK in Fairhaven, MA; and Revolutionary Clinics in Somerville and Cambridge, MA. INSA CEO Mark Zatyrka said: 'The data that C3RN presented tonight is so valuable because it immediately adds legitimacy and credibility to the fact that this plant is not only helping people but improving their quality of life in a major way. 'The scientific data also helps to discredit the stigma that still surrounds cannabis. Medical cannabis affects our communities in a major way. And I mean in a positive way. 'We hear the stories of our patients. These are real people dealing with really tough ailments in difficult situations. Data is made up of numbers, but those numbers are made up of real people. Those patients who benefit from this plant, their lives are changed forever'. Those that take the survey will immediately see their results compared to Massachusetts and national findings, receive dispensary discounts. 'It's great to see Massachusetts medical dispensaries taking such a strong pro-research stance,' says Dr. Christina Miyabe Shields, director of education for C3RN. 'They are really tackling the problem of stigma head-on.' 'Before I studied the endocannabinoid system, I was so traumatized by the stigma - I felt ashamed, even when I knew Cannabis was the safest, most therapeutically potent drug for me,' she says. 'But after completing my PhD in pharmaceutical sciences, I now understand the role that propaganda and other political fear-mongering techniques have played in creating this stigma in Western medicine.' 'Participating in our survey is the first step that anybody can take in changing the stigma of Cannabis use,' Dr Shields states. 'Ultimately, the data produced will help provide specialized care for the entire community of patients. This in turn should empower the cannabis industry to reach towards a higher level of education and implementation of best practices. The results of the survey will be presented on September 23, 2018 at the final event of the 2018 C3RN Cannabis Science, Education, and Networking Series, which will be held in Boston. To take part in the study visit, click here Florida police arrested a couple for allegedly selling drugs out of a drive-thru window they'd installed in a mobile home. Police arrested William Parrish Jr, 32, and McKenzee Dobbs, 20, of Ocala, Florida, on August 23 following a raid of their mobile home. Authorities said that the pair had turned a kitchen window into a drive-thru window that they sold drugs including fentanyl-laced heroin through, in an effort to avoid drawing attention to themselves by having a constant stream of customers enter and then exit the mobile home, WFTV reported. William Parrish Jr., 32, and McKenzee Dobbs, 20, of Ocala, Florida, were arrested on August 23 following a raid of their mobile home, out of which they were allegedly selling drugs Authorities said the couple installed a drive-thru window in the mobile home's kitchen. Police said they posted a sign (visible in the window) indicating whether they were open for business Ocala Police Department investigators said that the pair had posted signs in the windows of the home advising whether they were open or closed for business and telling drivers where to go. Authorities said that they became aware of Parrish and Dobbs after noting four overdoses in the particular area where the couple were allegedly operating. Their arrest affidavit stated that on August 9, an undercover Unified Drug Enforcement Strike Team officer went to the mobile home and that Dobbs allegedly sold the officer drugs there. The apparent deal was caught by surveillance equipment, according to the Miami Herald. Authorities then raided the mobile home two weeks later. Authorities said that they became aware of the couple's alleged drug dealing after noting four overdoses in the area. An undercover officer was sent to make a buy, which was caught on tape Parrish and Dobbs now face six charged each and are due in court on September 25 Police said they posted signs indicated what direction people looking to score should drive Parrish's father said that he did not know that any drug dealing was taking place at the mobile home and said that Parrish was going to a methadone clinic to 'get himself straightened out' Parrish's father, William Sr., told WFTV that his son was supposedly 'trying to get himself straightened out' by going to a methadone clinic. He denied having any knowledge of the alleged drug dealing occurring at the mobile home and said that reports of overdoses were 'a lie.' Parrish and Dobbs both face six charges each. Both are charged with keeping or maintaining a dwelling used to keep/sell drugs, possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell - fentanyl and possession of drug paraphernalia. Parrish also faces charges of resisting arrest, as well as probation violations of being a felon in possession of a firearm or ammunition and driving under the influence. Dobbs, meanwhile, also faces fentanyl-related charges of introduction of contraband into a receiving facility, sale of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance. They are both still in jail with bond amounts for each charge ranging from $1,000 to $10,000, according to Marion County Sheriff's Office inmate records. They are both due in court on September 25. The captain of a charter fishing boat has told how he rescued four asylum seekers when their inflatable dinghy got into trouble off the coast of Dover. Matt Coker, 37, said he spotted the small boat, which was half full of water, three miles off the Goodwin Sands in Kent as he took a group out on a day trip at around 10.30am on Saturday. The three 'distressed' men and one woman on board tied a red T-shirt to an oar as they tried to attract his attention before making a leap for the bigger vessel, he said. Matt Coker, 37, said he spotted the small boat, which was half full of water, three miles off the Goodwin Sands in Kent as he took a group out on a day trip at around 10.30am on Saturday The three 'distressed' men and one woman on board tied a red T-shirt to an oar as they tried to attract his attention before making a leap for the bigger vessel, he said The Royal Charlotte skipper told how his fishing party pulled them aboard and administered first aid before calling the Coastguard. 'We were on our way out on a fishing trip and we noticed a small, little tiny dinghy on the horizon and I tried to look with the binoculars and I could see people in it and didn't think much of it,' he said. 'But as we got closer... they see us and suddenly started waving. 'I had another look with the binoculars and I could see they were actually waving the oars and they tied a red T-shirt on to an oar and were waving that. 'So then I motored over to see who it might be, because they were clearly in distress, but in the back of my mind I thought this could actually be asylum seekers or it could be someone who's drifted off the beach. 'As I got over to them I could see they were clearly in distress and the boat was half full of water, so they sort of made a leap for the boat as we got near. The Royal Charlotte skipper told how his fishing party pulled them aboard and administered first aid before calling the Coastguard A Home Office spokesman confirmed: 'On Saturday morning Border Force received a call from the UK Coastguard regarding a small inflatable boat off the coast of Dover' Mr Coker said he initiated first aid and tried to look after them, while they waited for Border Force to arrive 'Luckily I had 12 passengers on and they grabbed hold of them and we got them aboard pretty quick and then we got the boat aboard, which was a little inflatable dinghy. 'They were in distress. They didn't speak any English but they kept saying 'Iran' because I was asking where they had come from and if they were okay.' Mr Coker said he initiated first aid and tried to look after them, while they waited for Border Force to arrive. 'They boarded the boat, interviewed them and took them away,' he added. A Home Office spokesman confirmed: 'On Saturday morning Border Force received a call from the UK Coastguard regarding a small inflatable boat off the coast of Dover. 'A coastal patrol vessel was deployed and the four people on board have been brought to Dover, where they will be processed in line with the immigration rules.' The husband of an imprisoned British mother has spoken of her anguish at being returned to her cell after a three-day release. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for spying in 2016, but maintains her innocence, saying she was on holiday to introduce her daughter to her family in Iran. In an open letter to Iran's foreign minister Javad Zarif, Richard Ratcliffe has said his wife was deeply upset at being forced back to prison after the release, which he branded a 'cruel game'. The news comes as Middle East minister Alistair Burt held talks with Iranian deputy foreign affairs minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran about the situation. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has promised to heighten efforts aimed at securing the British-Iranian's release after she passed out during a panic attack and had to be taken to a prison clinic earlier this week. British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was released from prison in Iran for three days earlier this week. Pictured: Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe saying goodbye to her daughter Gabriella Her husband Richard Ratcliffe said: 'She said she felt like one of the radical Islamists' captives - as though she had been paraded on the balcony then hidden back away'. Pictured: Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe with Gabriella on August 23 Mr Ratcliffe said an Iranian official called his wife's father and warned him to ensure UK diplomats did not contact her while she was out of jail. The letter from Mr Ratcliffe stated: 'As Nazanin was being released, her interrogator called her father to privately warn him that the British Embassy should not visit her, if she wanted to stay safe. 'Each day he called to note they were monitoring her movements, and check her father was following her to make sure she did not suffer an accident on the street. Those calls cast a shadow over her release, as they were meant to. 'Nazanin called me on Tuesday - one of our toughest conversations. 'She wished she had never been released. She said she felt like one of the radical Islamists' captives - as though she had been paraded on the balcony then hidden back away. 'After that call, Nazanin collapsed, the result of two panic attacks. She still has numbness in her legs. She was taken by ambulance to the Evin hospital.' Mr Ratcliffe called on Mr Zarif to meet him next week at a UN summit in New York to discuss his wife's case. Mr Ratcliffe, pictured, has also said his wife was deeply upset at being forced back to prison after the release, which he branded a 'cruel game' The news comes as Middle East minister Alistair Burt held talks with Iranian deputy foreign affairs minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran about her situation Mr Ratcliffe told the Press Association on Saturday: 'Nazanin phoned her family in Iran today and they said she was better, but she sounded quite low still. 'I'm hoping to speak to her tomorrow. 'The family met with minister Burt. I think he was quite emotional, but didn't reveal what he said to the deputy foreign minister.' Mr Burt is using his visit to discuss the cases of British dual-nationals detained in Iran as well as holding talks on the Iran nuclear deal and the conflicts in Syria and Yemen. Speaking ahead of the visit, Mr Burt said: 'I will also use the opportunity of my visit to push for the resolution we all want to see in the cases of the British dual-nationals detained in Iran.' Mr Burt has stated the talks marked a 'crucial moment in Iran's relationship with the UK' around the nuclear deal. His visit is the first by a UK minister to Tehran since the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May. In the summer sky over rural Dorset, a swirling air battle rages. Supermarine Spitfires and Hawker Hurricanes vie for control of the air with Messerschmitt Me 109s, while Stuka dive-bombers plunge earthward, sirens screeching, to attack shipping off the coast. Theres a momentary miscalculation and a Hurricane collides with a 109, slicing it in half. The stricken fighters spiral to the ground as above them RAF and Luftwaffe pilots, twisting and turning in a desperate mass dogfight, battle on regardless. This is the Battle of Britain, fought not in 1940 but in the present day and at a tenth of the true scale. Scroll down for video Battle of Britain was re-enacted using model planes for three-part documentary filmed by Channel 4 The 1940 Battle of Britain was recreated using 4ft wingspan and the pilots, British and German, are on the ground, operating their aircraft by remote control These Spitfires are models with a 4ft wingspan and the pilots, British and German, are on the ground, operating their aircraft by remote control. The battery-powered fighters fire infra-red bullets that activate canisters on the planes they hit, creating the impression of a doomed fighter or bomber trailing smoke. They fly at an altitude of just 100ft, yet there is something eerily effective about this diminutive re-creation of one of historys truly decisive campaigns three months of frantic aerial duelling between July and October 1940 that saved Britain from invasion by Hitlers hitherto all-conquering armies. The Mail on Sunday has been given exclusive access to this extraordinary television event a Channel 4 re-enactment of the battle and the scene is remarkably true to life, thanks to the programme-makers cameras on the ground, tiny cameras mounted on the models themselves and on drones hovering above the battle space. The re-enactment was filmed by cameras on the ground and tiny cameras mounted on the models, as well as drones hovering above the battle gorund Three-part documentary was filmed to mark the centenary year of the RAF and the 78th anniversary of the battle Staged at a firing range near Weymouth for a three-part documentary series that marks the centenary year of the RAF and the 78th anniversary of the battle, the re-enactment involves 30 pilots and 70 models. In addition to sleek fighters and the sinister, gull-winged Ju 87 Stukas, the German contingent includes twin-engine Heinkel He 111s, mainstay of the Luftwaffe bomber fleet, and Messerschmitt Me 110 fighter-bombers. The rival squadrons were recruited from model aircraft enthusiasts from Britain and Germany. The RAFs ace is an electric-guitar-playing female taxi driver from Bristol called Shelly Redworth, who scythes through a formation of 109s in the first programme, shooting them out of the sky with her Hurricane. We sent up three Hurricanes against six 109s and had one loss to their six, said Shelly. The re-enactment involves 30 pilots who were model enthusiasts, and 70 models Modellers have a realistic pilots-eye view of the battle with a camera in the cockpit to immerse themselves in the dogfight though virtual-reality goggles But, just as in 1940, the modellers cannot be entirely sure who shoots who down. British pilot Richard Rowland says: Signals from the models allowed us to know who had fired and which model had activated smoke, but there might be a delay before the canister activated, so you have people claiming probable kills and the rest. Modellers have a realistic pilots-eye view of the battle. A camera in the cockpit allows Mr Rowland to immerse himself in the dogfight though virtual-reality goggles. He says: You become so involved that as you come in to land, you think, Whos this guy on the ground? And its you. Each of the three-part documentary will focus on a single day during the Battle of Britain Each of the three programmes focuses on a single day during the campaign. The first recreates the surprise Stuka attack on Portland Harbour on July 4, 1940. Two Hurricanes and two Me 109s were shot down in the real encounter, part of the Kanalkampf (Channel Battle), which saw preliminary Luftwaffe attacks on shipping prior to the start of the Battle of Britain proper on July 10. Thanks to Shelly and her comrades, the score in the re-creation was 6-1 to the RAF. Episode two relives so-called Black Thursday, August 15, when the Luftwaffe suffered its greatest losses of the campaign. In the past: Pilots pictured answering a call for reinforcements during an air battle on 1940 Five major German attacks stretching from Northumberland to Dorset resulted in 75 kills for the RAF, at a cost of 34 British fighters. Programme three re-enacts the climax of the campaign Sunday, September 15, later named Battle of Britain Day. More than 1,500 aircraft took part in fierce engagements as the Luftwaffe mounted a sustained daylight raid on London, resulting in 60 Luftwaffe planes shot down, double the RAFs loss. We tried to replicate scale-flying as much as possible and accurate dogfighting tactics at least on the RAF side of things, says Mr Rowland. Model enthusiast say they tried to replicate scale-flying and accurate dogfighting tactics 'at least on the RAF side of things' This number of models operating in such a confined space and in such tight formation hasnt been tried before. The battle begins with 70 aircraft, and 23 are destroyed in action, at a cost of about 200 per model. As losses mount, the team members find themselves having to cannibalise wrecks for parts, just like their real-life predecessors in 1940. To maintain a presence in the air, the teams had to mount sorties in waves, again just as commanders in the actual battle did. There were also blue-on-blue incidents aircraft downed by their own side. Again, this is true to the dogfights of 1940, when the decision to fire was taken in a split second. The number of model planes operation in such tight formation has never been tried before The Luftwaffe models display one concession to modern sensitivities there are no swastikas on their tails, due to the Nazi symbol being outlawed in Germany. Purists will also note that some of the planes are cannon-armed Spitfire Mark IXs, not in service until 1942, and Me 109Gs, also introduced that year. Serving RAF Wing Commander Manjeet Ghataora, part of the British team, said: We didnt want this to be a game. We wanted to study the battle and understand the stress it placed on young men. When our models collide, we have a laugh but when it happened for real in 1940, these men lost friends. But the model Battle of Britain has helped Anglo-German relations at least on a personal level. Jurgen Heilig, a retired lieutenant-colonel in the modern Luftwaffe, said: We are glad the Nazis lost because we can now enjoy a nice beer with the enemy. lBattle Of Britain: Model Squadron is on Channel 4 at 8pm next Sunday. Gavin Williamson has said British streets will only be safe when there is peace in Afghanistan, as he vowed to support the country's security forces in a meeting with country's president. The Defence Secretary met Ashraf Ghani in Kabul on Saturday and praised Afghan security forces for their work in combatting terrorism, saying Britain would continue to support Afghan troops. Mr Williamson also met the country's chief executive Abdullah Abdullah who praised Britain's efforts to increase Nato defence spending, a statement from the president's office said. Meanwhile in Baghdad military leaders in Iraq, Iran and Syria held talks with Russian counterparts today as they seek to drive out the last remnants of Islamic State. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson inspects a guard of honor during a welcoming ceremony before his meeting with the president of Afghanistan (not pictured) in Kabul on Saturday According to Afghan broadcaster 1TV News, Mr Williamson told the country's president that the the security of the two nations was linked. 'A complete peace will only be felt on UK roads and streets when there is peace on the streets of Afghanistan', he was quoted as saying. Abdullah Abdullah tweeted after the meeting to say he was 'honoured' to meet Britain's Defence Secretary. He said: 'In our meeting we discussed bilateral relations, political and security developments and the peace process. 'We also assessed ways of fighting terrorism and supporting the Afghan Armed Forces.' Mr Williamson's department came under fire this week amid a row over Afghan interpreters who said they felt 'betrayed' by the lack of clarity over their future. Officials have said around 50 who served on the frontline in Helmand, and their families, would be granted visas to Britain under new qualifying measures. Gavin Williamson speaks to Ashraf Ghani, the president of Afghanistan, in Kabul where he said British streets would not be safe until there was peace in the country Iraqi military commanders sit down with Iranian, Syrian, and Russian counterparts in Baghdad In Baghdad Iraq's defence ministry said it had held talks today to 'strengthen cooperation and coordination in terms of security and intelligence between these countries'. Russia is fighting rebels and jihadists in Syria alongside President Bashar al-Assad's forces, while Iran is a key ally of Damascus as well as Iraq. ISIS has suffered major setbacks in Iraq and Syria and has been driven out of Iraq's urban centres but the group has claimed responsibility for a number of suicide attacks. The four countries had created joint operations rooms to coordinate the fight against ISIS, now driven out of all urban centres in Iraq and largely confined to desert holdouts in Syria. On Thursday a suicide bomber killed two Iraqi policemen near a former ISIS bastion, days after the group claimed a similar attack near Syria's border. An attacker wearing an explosive vest drove a booby-trapped car into a federal police checkpoint near Hawija, north of Baghdad, officials said. The veteran MP who resigned the Labour whip over Jeremy Corbyns leadership has been bombarded with shocking abuse by internet trolls. Frank Field plunged his party into turmoil last week when he quit the party whip after nearly 40 years as an MP, blaming Mr Corbyn for making the party a force for anti-Semitism. Now the 76-year-old social reformer has been targeted by an outpouring of bile on the internet, with militant Left-wingers describing him as a Tory rent boy who should f*** off and die. Other messages accused Mr Field of being part of the Israel Zionist lobby and described him as an evil b******. Mr Fields resignation has led to warnings that the party faces a catastrophic split if other Labour MPs also quit. Mr Field has vowed to employ the best legal minds to challenge a ruling that he cannot remain a party member after resigning the whip. Frank Field plunged his party into turmoil last week when he quit the party whip after nearly 40 years as an MP, blaming Jeremy Corbyn, pictured together in 2016, for making the party a force for anti-Semitism The veteran MP, 76, has been targeted by an outpouring of bile on the internet, with militant Left-wingers describing him as a Tory rent boy who should f*** off and die In his parting shot, the Birkenhead MP warned that the party was governed by a culture of intolerance, nastiness and intimidation and the abuse he has received on tweets and emails appears to back his argument. Within minutes of his resignation, one Twitter user had written: Frank Field is a ****. End of. Others described him as a scumbag and Red Tory Mr Field has voted with the Conservatives on several policy matters and said he needs sectioning. The former Welfare Minister was also called a gammon ****. Gammon is a derogatory term used by Left-wingers for middle-aged white men a reference to their supposedly scarlet and irate complexions which was popularised by Matt Zarb-Cousin, Mr Corbyns former spokesman. Mr Field also received abusive emails at his Commons office, defending Mr Corbyn over the anti-Semitism and Zionism row which has engulfed the party for weeks. One said: The claim of anti-Semitism is obviously bogus AND YOU KNOW IT. Israel is the purest evil on Earth and you are siding with them. I am glad that you have left Labour, we dont need evil lackies [sic] like you. Last night Mr Field told The Mail on Sunday: Sadly, this provides a snapshot of the bile that exists beneath public life. Labour Deputy Leader Tom Watson deepened the row when he said Mr Fields departure was a serious loss for Labour and must be a wake-up call for the party. In his incendiary resignation comments, Mr Field said Britain fought the Second World War to defeat the Nazis but that victory was being eroded under Mr Corbyns watch. Mr Field said he made the decision to quit after former Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks accused Mr Corbyn, pictured, of being an anti-Semite in the wake of footage that emerged of the Labour leader saying British Zionists had no sense of English irony Mr Field also received abusive emails at his Commons office, defending Mr Corbyn over the anti-Semitism and Zionism row which has engulfed the party for weeks He said he made the decision after former Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks accused Mr Corbyn of being an anti-Semite in the wake of footage that emerged of the Labour leader saying British Zionists had no sense of English irony. Mr Field, who has represented his Merseyside seat since 1979, retained it last year with a majority of 25,514. He plans to spend the next few days deciding whether to stand down as an MP to trigger a by-election, in which he would stand against an official Labour candidate. Friends say the idea appeals to him to prove that he is the true voice of Labour, not Corbyn but he fears the Labour leader could try to sabotage the plan by banning him from the Commons for six months. Mr Field has been advised that Parliaments by-election rule book stipulates that although an MP can resign his seat, it is up to his party chiefs to set the date for the election and they can delay it for up to six months. Frank is worried Corbyns acolytes in the Whips Office will delay it as long as possible, prevent him being an MP in the meantime, and by the time they call the election, the reason for his resignation will be long forgotten, said one insider. Mr Field is also reportedly wary of an alternative means of forcing an early by-election: getting Tory chiefs to use their parliamentary right to trigger a poll. It would lead to some calling him a Tory stooge and that would not win him votes in Merseyside, said one Labour MP. Former Home Secretary David Blunkett said yesterday that the resignation meant the Labour Party faced irrelevance unless the situation was used as a catalyst for seismic change. He added: Frank Fields decision, and his concerns over both anti-Semitism and the behaviour of party members, indicate a deeper malaise. His actions need to be seen as a catalyst for seismic change and a rethink of the so-called Corbyn project. Theresa May last night declared war on Boris Johnson after allies said they had rumbled a plot by her Election guru to install the former Foreign Secretary as the next Prime Minister. Senior figures at Tory HQ claim that Sir Lynton Crosby is behind plans to mount a nationwide campaign against Mrs Mays Chequers agreement on Brexit as the precursor to a Boris leadership challenge. Australian-born Sir Lynton, who masterminded Mr Johnsons London mayoral victory in 2008 and who remains a close friend, is said to be motivated by revenge after No 10 blamed the strategist for last years botched General Election. Mr Johnson denies plotting with Sir Lynton to derail Mrs Mays Brexit negotiations and seize Downing Street. But in a sharply worded shot across his bows last night, a senior Tory source told The Mail on Sunday: Boris hasnt thought this through. His plan could result in us delaying leaving the EU, or even not leaving at all. If that happens, the party membership would never forgive him. Allies of Theresa May said they had rumbled a plot by her election guru to install former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson (pictured with Lynton Crosby) as the next Prime Minister The row comes as the Prime Minister last night vowed not to make any compromises to the Chequers deal, nor to give in to demands for a second referendum branding it a gross betrayal of voters trust. She said of the millions who voted in the original referendum: They trusted that their vote would count; that after years of feeling ignored by politics, their voices would be heard. To ask the question all over again would be a gross betrayal of our democracy and a betrayal of that trust. Mr Johnsons popularity among Tory Party members has soared since he resigned as Foreign Secretary in July in protest at Mrs Mays Chequers plan, which would see the UK agreeing to follow EU regulations on trade, the environment and social affairs. He said it left the country at risk of economic vassalage and accused Mrs May of dithering over the UKs strategy. Meanwhile, Mrs Mays allies say that executives working for Sir Lyntons powerful campaign company, CTF Partners, have been in discussions to put rocket boosters under Change Britain, a group set up to argue for a hard Brexit, and turn it into a guerilla campaign against the Chequers deal. They fear that the group will mount rallies around the country headed by Mr Johnson and other high-profile Brexiteers. Change Britain has strong links with the influential European Research Group (ERG) of Brexiteer Tory MPs led by Jacob Rees-Mogg. Mrs Mays allies believe that Sir Lyntons outfit has been targeting Eurosceptic Tory donors to fund the campaign. They are also suspicious that Mr Jonson seems to have been singing from the Lynton hymn sheet since his resignation and point to the furore over Mr Johnsons inflammatory claim that burkas make women look like bank robbers or letterboxes. Sir Lynton, 62, is an exponent of so-called dog-whistle politics, in which controversial messages, couched in relatively inoffensive language, are targeted at the Hard-Right. The Prime Minister (pictured in Cape Town) last night vowed not to make any compromises to the Chequers deal, nor to give in to demands for a second referendum Sir Lynton, dubbed the Wizard of Oz for his previous successes, lost some of his lustre after playing a key role in the disastrous 2017 Election campaign which led to the loss of Mrs Mays Commons majority. The row comes as MPs return to the Commons after the summer recess to prepare for a series of bruising battles over Brexit, with Mrs May hoping to strike a final deal with the EU within the next two months and then win Parliaments approval. But she faces opposition from dozens of Tory MPs in the ERG, who share Mr Johnsons objections to the Chequers deal. It has led to intense speculation among MPs that if Mrs May tries to force Chequers through, then the ERG would force a vote of no confidence in her. If 48 MPs make such a call, then a vote would be held, triggering a leadership contest if Mrs May lost. A source close to Mr Johnson said: Boris has always backed the aims of Change Britain but he has no role in the organisation. A spokesman for CTF said that while Sir Lynton had not personally spoken with nor met anyone from Change Britain, the companys senior staff were often consulted because of their campaign expertise and knowledge. He added: The better the deal the Prime Minister secures in Brexit, the better the prospects for the Conservatives at the next Election. SIMON WALTERS: Revenge of 'Wizard of Oz' Sir Lynton Crosby blamed for Theresa May's election humiliation The feud between Sir Lynton Crosby and Theresa May dates back to her disastrous decision to call a snap election in June 2017. Both are said to blame each other for the fiasco. When Australian-born Crosby first heard of the snap poll from a May aide, he was in Fiji at a family gathering and his stunned response was: Im not sure thats a smart idea, mate. The Mail on Sunday revealed last year how he sent Mrs May a killer memo warning her it could backfire. He said there was a lot of risk in calling a surprise ballot: voters were desperate to avoid uncertainty but by going to the polls, she was doing the opposite. Instead of the landslide win she expected, she could do no better than David Camerons narrow win in 2015, Crosby advised. In the event she did worse, and lost her Commons majority. For their part, Mrs Mays supporters said she blamed him for key campaign mistakes. They blamed Crosby for ordering her to run a presidential style strong and stable campaign which collapsed days after the manifesto launch when she was forced to tear up plans for a so-called dementia tax. Sir Lynton also fell out with Mrs Mays joint chief of staff Nick Timothy, with Timothy subsequently accusing him of failing to spot Jeremy Corbyns support among young voters. Theresa May and election guru Lynton Crosby, pictured, are said to blame each other for the Conservatives' failure to win a majority at the snap election in June 2017 Tough-talking Crosby is known as the Wizard of Oz because of his record of election campaign successes. He helped Right-wing Australian politician John Howard win four elections and secured two victories in London mayoral elections for Boris Johnson. He was reputedly paid 500,000 a year to advise Mr Cameron and helped him pull off a surprise victory over Ed Miliband in 2015. But his campaigning style is not to everyones taste. He is credited with inventing dog whistle tactics, whereby politicians echo shrill sentiments on populist issues such as immigration, without actually endorsing them. This newspaper disclosed in 2012 how he told Mr Johnson not to bother with f****** Muslims in his mayoral campaign, which was clearly echoed in the former Foreign Secretarys controversial recent comments about the burka. Sir Lynton also once boasted of getting Australian PM Mr Howard elected despite privately calling him as dull as bats***. He calls his no-nonsense political style getting the barnacles off the boat to offer voters a streamlined message. Norman Theuerkorn, 31, allegedly hit another man in the head last month, causing him to require brain surgery The former boyfriend of Mick Jagger's daughter has reportedly been arrested after beating a man so badly he required brain surgery. Norman Theuerkorn, 31, allegedly approached two men at the Blind Dragon in WeHo in August and touched one of them on the leg, telling him he was beautiful, TMZ reported. The pair, Andrew Knight - who has previously claimed to be the son of Suge Knight, and Darren Young, told him to leave, which he did. But law enforcement sources told the website Theuerkorn allegedly returned 20 minutes later, and punched Young in the head, causing him to fall and hit his head. The force with which he fell was allegedly so great that he suffered internal bleeding on his brain and required emergency surgery. Theuerkorn, whose relationship with Jagger ended several months ago, reportedly turned himself into police last week, and was booked for felony battery causing serious bodily injury. Reports claim Theuerkorn, pictured with ex-girlfriend Georgia May Jagger, handed himself in to police last week and was charged with felony battery causing serious bodily injury Theuerkorn allegedly punched Darren Young (left) in the head, 20 minutes after Young and Andrew Knight (right) told him to go away The German model is no stranger to police. He has served time in prison for burglary and theft. Norman was caught stealing at 13, after which he spent time in juvenile detention. By the age of 20, had been in prison. In an interview with a German magazine, he once said he only 'stole' to help launch his rap career, which saw him perform under the name 'Nocky'. 'Technology cost money microphones, computers and the studio we rented,' he said. 'Unfortunately, there is no section at the employment office where you say, "Hello, I'm about to become a rapper somehow. Can you finance that?"' Spokesmen from West Hollywood Police, Beverly Hills Police and Wilshire Police all told DailyMail.com there was no record of Theuerkorn's arrest. Jeremy Corbyn was at the centre of fresh controversy last night after it was revealed that he backed a strong-armed Haitian leader accused of supporting the necklacing of political opponents. Mr Corbyn and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell proposed a series of Commons motions in support of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who has been condemned by human rights activists for allegedly endorsing the threat of vigilante violence as a legitimate political tool. In 2011, Mr Corbyn tabled a motion calling for the return from exile of Aristide to help lead social justice and democracy for the people. Jeremy Corbyn proposed a series of Commons motions in support of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, pictured, who has been condemned by human rights activists for allegedly endorsing the threat of vigilante violence as a legitimate political tool Two years later, he signed a motion tabled by Mr McDonnell demanding protection for Aristide by then back in Haiti on the grounds that he is respected and held dear. The Labour leader has also hailed Aristide, who became Haitis first democratically elected president in 1990, as a proponent of social justice and democracy. But human rights groups have detailed a litany of allegations against the Aristide regime, with Amnesty International stating: Repression of government opponents was harsh, carried out by police and armed gangs. However, it is Aristides alleged support for necklacing a gruesome method of execution where petrol-soaked tyres are thrown over a persons neck and set ablaze which has proven to be the most controversial. It is Aristides alleged support for necklacing a gruesome method of execution where petrol-soaked tyres are thrown over a persons neck and set ablaze which has proven to be the most controversial. Pictured: a 'necklacing' victim awaits his fate According to the Associated Press, in September 1991, shortly before he was toppled in a coup, Aristide called on supporters to use it against opponents, calling it a beautiful tool... It smells good. His supporters claimed his words were misinterpreted but a 1996 report by Human Rights Watch report said: Aristide seemed to endorse the threat of vigilante violence as a legitimate political tool. In response, his defenders say incidences of torture and repression increased dramatically after he was toppled. Aristide returned as president in 2001, serving for three years before being overthrown in a second coup. After a period of exile in South Africa, he returned to Haiti as a private citizen in 2011. The Labour leader has also hailed Aristide, who became Haitis first democratically elected president in 1990, as a proponent of social justice and democracy A source close to Mr Corbyn said: The alleged implicit reference is hotly disputed, with Aristide always having claimed that it referred to the constitution. 'And it came shortly after an attempted coup and assassination attempt against him, the democratically elected leader of Haiti, just months after a landslide victory in the first elections in Haitis history that international observers said was free and fair. A Labour spokesman added: Jeremy has always sided with the forces of democracy and people-power over those of dictators and imperial intervention. 'Of course he welcomed the return to Haiti of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whose democratic rule had been cut short by a bloody military coup. A British couple who died suddenly on holiday in Egypt were staying next to a room that had been fumigated just hours before, raising fears they may have been poisoned by toxic gases. The Mail on Sunday can reveal that pest controllers sprayed chemicals into the room on August 20, the day before Susan and John Cooper died. The couples daughter Kelly Ormerod reported a strange smell in her parents room at the five-star hotel at the Red Sea resort of Hurghada in the hours before they died. Kellys daughter had intended to stay the night with her grandparents but returned to her mothers room due to the odour. The Mail on Sunday can reveal that pest controllers sprayed chemicals into the room on August 20, the day before Susan and John Cooper died Holidaymakers at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic resort say that, after the deaths, the next-door room was sealed off with thick industrial tape and a guard stationed outside. Sources close to the investigation told The Mail on Sunday last night that the rooms shared a false ceiling, potentially allowing a chemical to seep into the room occupied by the Coopers. The fumigated room number 5106 is located at the end of the first floor. The only connected room was that occupied by Susan, 63, and John, 69, from Burnley. A source said: There was a fumigation of the room next door. Some of these places use pretty heavy-duty stuff and chemicals which are allowed in Egypt are banned in Europe. The toxicology reports will be vital, but they are being conducted by the Egyptians. Once the bodies are repatriated the tests cannot be conducted again. Another post-mortem wont show chemicals. There are worries that Egyptian authorities will brush this under the carpet. Ms Ormerod last night confirmed that the neighbouring room had been fumigated. We dont know its significance because by now there are unlikely to be any remaining traces of substances that might have been there, she said. Its one more piece of information weve been told about. The fumigated room number 5106 is located at the end of the first floor. The only connected room was that occupied by Susan, 63, and John, 69, from Burnley Following the Coopers death, Thomas Cook evacuated 300 British holidaymakers from the resort. Its chief executive Peter Fankhauser last week met Egypts Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly. The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism said fresh tests were due to be concluded this week and the bodies will then be repatriated. Thomas Cook said: We remain committed to doing everything we can to get to the bottom of what happened to Mr and Mrs Cooper. The circumstances of their deaths remain unclear and it would be inappropriate to comment further until the Egyptian authorities complete their investigation and the autopsy findings are known. The hotel did not respond to requests for comment. The deaths bear similarities to that of Alison Sonnex, 54, who died at another Egyptian hotel in April. Her husband had earlier noticed a strong smell. And in 2011, the deaths of seven tourists including two British pensioners at a hotel in Thailand were linked to a banned pesticide used to treat bed bugs. Alan Boobis, professor of toxicology at Imperial College London, said: It may well be that the hotel was using methyl bromide to fumigate the room, which is a very toxic substance. We used to use it in Britain for grain stores. You were supposed to seal the store for 24 to 48 hours because it would be extremely dangerous if you inhaled it. But Im aware of an incident in the Middle East where methyl bromide was used to control bed bugs and people fell very ill as a result. Pictured: Anthony Williams, Britains ambassador in Buenos Aires Lord Carrington was told the Falklands War a conflict that cost him his job as Foreign Secretary started because Britains envoy in Argentina wanted to retire there, it has been revealed. The claim is made in a new book about the Tory grandee, who died in July, and which is serialised in todays Mail on Sunday. Carrington resigned on a point of honour when Argentina invaded the Falklands in 1982 while he was abroad on a diplomatic trip. According to Carrington: An Honourable Man by historian Christopher Lee, he believed that Anthony Williams, Britains ambassador in Buenos Aires, failed to represent the UK to the Argentine government, and properly report Argentinian intentions. On one occasion, the embassy objected to Carringtons suggestion that a senior official should be sent from London to assess the situation on the grounds that it would undermine the ambassadors authority. Lee says that years later, when Carrington was Nato Secretary-General, Swiss ambassador Gaspard Bodmer, who was in Buenos Aires at the time of the war, told him: [Williams] was withholding information as he wanted to make his career in Argentina after he retired. Lee questions whether Williams was more interested in feathering his own nest than reporting faithfully on the crisis. He says Carrington observed: I cant think what Williams would get out of it unless he was trying to ingratiate himself in a treasonable way, which I find difficult to believe. New book Carrington: An Honourable Man by historian Christopher Lee revealed in new book about Lord Carrington during Falklands War (pictured) who died in July Lee tracked down Bodmer, who endorsed Carringtons version of events. The author adds that Carrington maintained that when Williams was forced to quit his Buenos Aires post days after war started, he used a bitter valedictory despatch to justify his position by stating Carrington had ignored his advice. Williams died in 1990. The note reportedly said: [Argentina] is not just another banana republic, a tinpot country led by a tinpot dictator. It has its share of vandals, hooligans and roughs. But this is not the whole story, nor was the seizure of the islands a simple act of brigandage. Professor Lawrence Freedman, the official Falklands War historian, has said Williams believed Britain followed the worst of all diplomatic paths by promising to stand by the islanders without giving them the military means to defend themselves. He was so cross about the Falklands being British that he completely failed to notice that the country in which he worked was about to invade them, wrote Freedman. Two weeks before the invasion, Williams described Argentine dictator General Galtieris junta as too intelligent to do anything so silly, said Freedman. Days later, he said the fact that Argentine submarines had left their naval base was not necessarily sinister. A total of 255 British servicemen, 649 Argentinians and three Falklanders died in the conflict. Donna Pollard had only just turned 16 when she stood in a Kentucky state court house with a serial paedophile who had used his position of trust to groom and repeatedly rape her over the previous two years. Her abuser, smartly dressed in a dark suit and blue tie, was not cuffed or restrained in any way. For he was not facing any charges for the hideous crimes that devastated a fragile girls life from the age of 14. Incredibly, he was in court to marry his victim with the full consent of Donnas mother and under the authority of a state that not only sanctioned child marriage but turned a blind eye as abused children are forced into wedlock with their attackers. Donna Pollard (pictured aged 14) was raped in the year this photo was taken by her 29-year-old counsellor and forced to marry him two years later Indeed, that very act of matrimony helped Donnas abuser, a mental health counsellor almost twice her age, evade charges for statutory rape under laws that only applied to younger victims and could have put him behind bars for many years. I am appalled the law could allow such a thing, Donna told me. Laws are supposed to protect victims, not the people who exploit them. Instead my life was ripped apart by a paedophile who took advantage of our marriage laws. Yet her terrible and tragic tale is far from unique. I spoke to several other Kentucky women who told me similar heart-rending stories of being abused as teenagers and then forced to marry their attackers. One was just 13 and pregnant when made to marry her rapist. Donna, pictured now, is fighting back against her abuser And there are thousands more of these disturbing cases scattered across the United States, a few involving girls not yet into their teens when forced into matrimony. Some hail from religious communities, some from poor rural areas, some from prosperous cities. This is the legacy of archaic laws and outdated views on teenage pregnancy. Astonishingly, child marriage is still sanctioned in much of the United States and some conservative politicians and libertarian activists fight to protect the practice. Although data is incomplete, one study found that, during the first 15 years of this century, at least 207,459 minors legally defined as those under 18 were allowed to marry. Almost all were girls, and most were aged 16 and 17 but 12-year-olds received permits in three states and 13-year-olds in 14 states, including Kentucky. In Alabama, a 74-year-old man was given a licence to marry a 14-year-old girl yet, as in many other cases including Donnas, this relationship would have led to a statutory rape charge and being placed on the sex offenders register had it occurred outside marriage. Kentucky had the third-highest number of US child marriages, with 11,000 being permitted since 2000. But thanks to the efforts of Donna who was one of those cases a new law signed last month bans unions for people under 18 although 17-year-olds can marry if they meet strict restrictions. Judy Wiegand - aged just 13 - is pictured when she was forced to marry the man who had raped her Donnas story is horrific, although ultimately inspiring. Her father, a long-distance lorry driver, was loving but often away with work. He already had two children when, at 17, he married Donnas mother, who was just 13 at the time and later suffered mental health problems. Her mother was cold and violent, frequently beating her with a stick. When Donna was 13, her father died and soon after she began to fight back when attacked by her mother. As a result, she was sent to see a psychologist and ended up in a special behavioural unit for five weeks. There, the vulnerable, lonely girl was seized upon by a 29-year-old counsellor. He was very nice to me, very compassionate, making me feel special with lots of attention, said Donna. I just wanted to please him because I wanted someone to be kind to me. Soon they were having secret meetings, hugs and finally sex although she was just 14. After Donnas release, incredibly, her own mother drove her weekly to a hotel to carry on the relationship. She saw him as an exit card, a way to relieve the burden of me. Shortly after Donnas 16th birthday, the counsellors own mother discovered what was going on and threatened to tell the police. The man whipped out a gun, threatened to kill himself, then turned it on his mother and drove her out of the house. Within days, Donna and her abuser were before a court clerk, who did not even look up from her computer when asking who was the minor. Donnas mother and the official signed a licence and the troubled teenager was taken straight off to be married by a preacher to a paedophile. Glenda Welp with the violent neighbour she was forced to marry at 14 and their daughter, Tabitha Her school turned her away, so Donna lost a precious scholarship and her education was stymied. She was pregnant at 17, yet her controlling and violent husband forced her to work in a strip club, making her hand over wages and procure him drugs and girls. She determined to flee after seeing her infant daughter laugh thinking they were playing a game while she was being throttled on the ground by her husband. I went to a domestic violence centre, said Donna. But they turned me away since I was under 18 and a minor. She finally escaped at 19. Remarkably, she went on to college and obtained a degree a few years later, but kept her abuse and marriage hidden even from friends while struggling with serious psychological damage, including depression and severe anxiety. Two years ago, aged 32 and working as a health care manager, Donna decided to find out if other women had suffered similar situations and ended up talking with Jeanne Smoot from the Tahirih Justice Center, which opposes gender-based violence. I told her my goal was to change the law in my home state, she said. Smoot, senior counsel with the TJC, argues such cases show the urgent need for reform across the country. The state is failing to recognise child abuse, she said. These laws are the vestige of antiquated and misguided assumptions of what is in a girls best interests. Smoot added that many terrified victims went to courts desperately hoping they would be saved by officials, only to find their trauma intensifying. One girl told me she was crying, which the court clerk interpreted as jitters and told her it should be the happiest day of her life. Glenda (pictured today) is now fighting back against the abuse she suffered The Kentucky reform was promoted by Republican state senator Julie Adams, who said she was astounded when she met Donna last autumn. My jaw was on the floor as she was telling her story, she said. It was mind-boggling. I had no idea about child marriage. Yet when she raised the issue, Adams was stunned by the volume of emails and letters she received from women disclosing similar experiences. As a society, we allowed this marginalisation of women to be legal. We had to connect our civil and criminal laws. The issue exposes great hypocrisy in a country that campaigns against child marriage around the world. Theres no place in civilised society for the early or forced marriage of children, said Barack Obama when president. He is right. Yet it only really emerged in the US when a few brave survivors such as Donna started telling their life stories in public to protect future generations from suffering similar fates. Many women were suffering in silence, thinking their cases were unique. But since Donna set up a support group, called Survivors Corner, other women who have suffered similar experiences have come forward. Delaware became the first state to outlaw all marriage of minors in May, despite claims it would lead to more abortions from one opponent. Several others including Texas, which had most marriages of minors this century have updated and strengthened their laws. Yet 18 states still do not set an age floor, including Idaho, which has the highest rates of child marriage per head. Seven states have laws that accept pregnancy as a reason to waive minimum age rules and only 13 require minors to get approval from a judge before they marry. Reform has met resistance from some conservatives, including Albert Robinson, senator for the county where Donna lived when married. When he spoke against the bill, it was as if he was saying it was OK my rape was legal in his county because I was married, she told me. Robinson, a former sausage maker turned property dealer, told me he was opposed to government interference in family life. The parents are the reason the child exists and I find it hard to believe any parents would force their child into marriage. If the parents of the father-to-be and the pregnant girl can work things out, thats a lot better than having an abortion, he added. My wifes mother married at 14 and she arrived a year later and shes one of the best things that ever happened to me. Robinson backs child marriage yet opposes marriage for gay and lesbian adults. He is not alone: in nearby Rowan county, which has permitted 92 minors to marry this century, the court clerk famously went to jail rather than issue wedding licences to same-sex couples. Such arguments over parental rights angered Judy Wiegand, a paediatric therapist who suffered deeply as a naive 13-year-old forced to marry her 17-year-old rapist. Wiegand never dared tell anyone about the assault at a roller skating rink, thinking she must have been partly to blame, but then became pregnant. My father was very angry, she said. But in my mind I thought I had broken the rules and put myself in a bad place. They lived in a religious, ultra-conservative rural community, so the pairs mothers agreed their teenagers should marry. When they went to see the county clerk to get a permit, she looked at me down her glasses like I was tainted and never spoke to me, said Wiegand. She wore a yellow dress to get married, a slender girl weighing little more than five stone. I still slept with a teddy bear and played with my Barbies. I just wanted it all to be over. There was a preacher but he did not really talk to me either. Her subsequent story echoed others I heard: she was badly abused, her schooling was stopped, she became quickly pregnant again, then left after the child was threatened. Searching for security, she rebounded into another bad relationship before finally finding stability. It was really hard to build a decent life, said Wiegand, now happily married. I never had a first date, I never had a prom, I never graduated from school. I missed so much. Some of these unions were horrifically violent, such as that of Glenda Welp, who at 14 was made to marry a neighbour twice her age who beat her regularly. She suffered seizures after having a typewriter smashed on her head when eight-months pregnant. When she managed to escape, her husband came after her with a gun. He said he was going to kill me, my baby and then himself. Fortunately Welps mother called the police. He was just getting ready to shoot us when he heard the siren and ran off, but still tried taking the TV. Others were treated less violently but were still victims of paedophiles, such as Loretta Scott, a 38-year-old carer. She started being pursued aged just 12 by a man attending her Pentecostal church who befriended her family, then was forced to marry him by her parents three years later. I cried myself to sleep, she said. He stopped me going to school, which was where all my friends were, and did not want me around boys. One time my brother came to visit but was told not to come back. He wanted to control everything and everyone who spoke with me. After four years, she fled and later discovered her husband had married two other teenage girls. Its such a difficult thing to get over. Ive never really talked about it with anyone, said Scott. I have a girl of ten and I just cant imagine sending her away. Sherry Johnson, a prominent campaigner in Florida, revealed she was married to her rapist at 11 after becoming pregnant. Unsurprisingly, studies find child brides far more likely to suffer severe health, financial and educational difficulties throughout their lives than other women. Ironically, they also fare worse than unmarried teenage mothers since they are far more likely to quickly have a second child, said Vivian Hamilton, a law professor who has testified before several state hearings on the issue. Like so many others, Hamilton is stunned to find these practices still existing in the United States. I dont think God wants little girls marrying rapists, said one survivor to me. It is so bizarre that this is still going on in this day and age. 'I have always hated the Conservative Party, Lord Carrington told me towards the end of his life. Nothing made me hate it more than being chairman of it. Individual members, all right. Collective, so awful. Look at it now. Going down the plughole. From a man regarded by many as one of the greatest Conservative politicians of the last century, it was an extraordinary admission. Why would he say something that amounts to political treason in a party that, by and large, adored him? He said it because he had always felt it, and because he left political life in the saddest of circumstances. The public memory of Lord Carrington is of a trim, agreeable figure in spectacles who did the honourable thing in 1982 by resigning as Foreign Secretary from Margaret Thatchers Cabinet over the Falklands fiasco. Lord Carrington (pictured with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1980) said chairing the Conservative Party made him hate it He had failed to convince his Cabinet colleagues, most particularly the Prime Minister, of the immediate need to resolve the future of the islanders. As a result, Argentina caught Britain unawares when it invaded in April 1982. Carrington believed he had to resign. In his mind, to assume responsibility for a department meant that when something went wrong, he had also to assume the responsibility for that failure. Though as I shall reveal here, three decades on there is astonishing new evidence that Carrington was not to blame for the debacle. He became exasperated with being remembered as the last Minister to resign on a point of honour. He certainly felt he had done so much more for his country. At the time of his resignation, Carrington was one of the few politicians to have served in every Tory government since, and including, Churchills. He was also a war hero as a young officer in the Grenadier Guards, he won the Military Cross for bravery fighting the Nazis during the Arnhem operation. Lord Carrington also told Thatcher to quit over the Poll Tax (pictured, a police detain a protester demonstrating against the charge in London, 1990) The departure of Carrington from British politics was the symbolic exodus of the last generation to be imbued with a natural sense of public service and duty. He and I became frequent lunch companions about 40 years ago. After ten years I knew we had become friends when postcards signed Peter C in his cramped fist simply became Peter. When we agreed I should write his biography, he insisted it should never be published in his lifetime. That way, he said, you can write what you like, I shall never have to read it and we can still be friends. He often apologised for living on and we had an unspoken agreement that I would never ask after his health in case he suspected my motive. By the time of his death in July, aged 99, he had a secret hoard of vignettes: his very private pen-portraits of people, past and present, whom he had known through decades of public life. Not all were flattering, although none was spiteful. They were, in some ways, the end-of-term reports of a school housemaster, and enlightening about some of the most important people of the age none more so than Margaret Thatcher. When Thatcher became leader of the Conservatives in 1975, after beating Ted Heath in a leadership challenge, Carrington seriously believed his political career was at an end since he had been one of Heaths closest political allies. When Ted Heath (pictured) lost in a leadership contest with Thatcher, Carrington believed his career to be over Furthermore, Thatcher was out to change both the party and Britain. She was determined to fight the Tory grandees, of which Carrington was one. She later said: I felt no sympathy for them. Carrington recalled: I sometimes thought that she admired nobody from a similar background to hers who had not done as well as her. Equally, she admired nobody from an establishment background, since they were born with a silver spoon in their mouth. She liked those who were good-looking and with sex appeal, though platonic of course. But Thatcher needed Carrington because of his considerable influence as an elder statesman. Despite their wildly different backgrounds he the privileged only son of a wealthy family, she the daughter of a grocer Carrington came to admire and quite like Thatcher. She didnt always make it easy. Carrington recalled a dinner at the start of Thatchers premiership when she decided to have all Permanent Secretaries and their wives to dinner at No 10. He recalled: This was unheard of, never been done before and those involved were extremely gratified. Iona [Carringtons wife] and I were asked to dinner all went well until Thatcher rose to speak. She had them in the palm of her hand, but then told them they were not the sort of people who got things done, that she was not going to put up with any obstruction with what she wanted to do, and they must get on with it. Even so, Carrington became one of her two most loyal lieutenants (the other being Willie Whitelaw), though he had been surprised to get the job of Foreign Secretary in the first place. He thought, however, that he had the advantage over Thatcher of knowing about foreign affairs. His whole background, from a small child holidaying in France, speaking French, writing long and researched essays at Eton on foreign affairs and fighting through Europe during the Second World War, had given him an almost perfect grounding in his subject. Thatcher, on the other hand, knew next to nothing. Carrington said: I think she had hardly ever been outside the country. From my point of view, this was a considerable advantage, for she could hardly contradict me when I told her where Rhodesia was. In the early days of working with Thatcher, Carrington believed her most important failing was a total lack of a sense of humour. In all the time he knew her, he only once made her laugh. When foreign leaders came to see her, she would start speaking immediately and never let anyone, however important, get a word in. Carrington would pass notes to her saying, for example: He has come 500 miles, dont you think you could let him say something? Thatcher would take no notice. One day, Chairman Hua of China arrived and Thatcher made the mistake of asking him, as they were about to sit, what he thought of the world situation. Fifty minutes later, Hua was still telling her exactly what he thought. Thatcher was extremely irritated and started tapping the table with her ring a regular sign that she was displeased. The Chairman droned on. Carrington was amused by this and passed her a note which read: Youre talking too much as usual. Thatcher burst out laughing, much to the puzzlement of her guest. In Carringtons opinion, Thatchers lack of humour was in part because she was extremely wary of being laughed at. He and some of his colleagues played on this weakness. Carrington, Lord Hailsham, Willie Whitelaw and Christopher Soames would deliberately pass each other notes in Cabinet meetings, knowing full well that Thatcher would be unnerved because she instinctively thought the notes were about her. CARRINGTON saw a more aggressive side to Thatcher ahead of her first meeting with Ronald Reagan. She was worried her Foreign Secretary would upset UK-US relations because of his sympathy towards Palestine. Carrington had hardly got into the room when Thatcher went on the attack over his Middle East policy. Carrington replied that he thought this was government policy. She then said: If you go on like that we shall lose the next General Election. Not only will we lose the next Election but I shall lose my seat at Finchley. Carrington told her: If you think British foreign policy should be organised and run on the basis that you might lose your seat at Finchley, you can get another Foreign Secretary. They glared at one another and Carrington, his famously good temper for once utterly abandoned, walked out, slamming the door after him. Later they went to the White House together. Carrington recalled: She was absolutely furious and not speaking at all. But in order to get to the Oval Office she had to pass me. She stopped and she said, I dont think we did very well this morning, do you? That was the nearest thing to an apology that anybody has ever got from her. Carrington always believed that even if there had been no Falklands debacle, Id have eventually had a bloody row with Margaret and gone. But it was the invasion of the islands that brought their extraordinary working relationship to an end. Before the conflict broke out, Carrington had raised the issue over British sovereignty. He insisted Britain had to bring the Falklands question to a suitable conclusion because, after Rhodesia, which became independent in 1980, it was high on the Foreign Office agenda. One possibility would be, like Hong Kong, a leaseback arrangement. Carrington recalled meeting the Prime Minister, with Iona and Denis Thatcher in attendance, where there was a thermonuclear explosion. Typical of you and the Foreign Office. You would give the British Empire away to a lot of bloody foreigners, he remembered Thatcher fulminating. Finally, Denis said: I think youre being a little extravagant, my dear. In the end, the Argentinians invaded the islands on April 2, 1982, while Carrington was on a diplomatic trip to Israel, leading to the 74-day conflict and his resignation on a point of honour. Despite rising tensions over the islands, he left Britain for Israel because the Israeli government felt the British and particularly Carrington were hostile. More importantly, he had been told by MI6 there would be no Argentine attack until all diplomatic procedures had been exhausted. Now, three decades on, another astonishing factor suggests the Foreign Office had an inexplicable lack of authority over the British Ambassador in Buenos Aires, Anthony Williams. Carrington believed Williams had failed to represent the UK to the Argentine government, and to properly report Argentinian intentions back to Whitehall. On one occasion, the embassy objected to Carringtons suggestion that a senior official should be sent from London to assess the situation on the grounds that it would undermine the ambassadors authority. Years later, when Carrington was Nato Secretary-General, Swiss ambassador Gaspard Bodmer, who was posted in Buenos Aires at the time of the war, told him: [Williams] was withholding information as he wanted to make his career in Argentina after he retired. So facing a major international crisis, the Foreign Office was woefully prepared by its man on the ground. But could it really be that our man in Buenos Aires was more interested in feathering his own nest than reporting faithfully on the crisis? Carrington added: I cant think what Williams would get out of it unless he was trying to ingratiate himself in a treasonable way, which I find difficult to believe. To check Carringtons assertions, I also spoke to Bodmer in Switzerland and he endorsed Carringtons impression and what he believed to be Williamss motive. Certainly, later when Carrington saw Williamss bitter valedictory despatch from Argentina, he believed the departing ambassador was attempting to justify his position by stating that the Foreign Office, and by implication Carrington, ignored his advice. A valedictory despatch would usually be widely read. But Williamss was marked confidential, and remained classified until six years ago. As he neared the end of his life, Carrington mourned the Conservative Party that could no longer produce big beasts, as he called them. Where were the Hailshams, the Macmillans, the Douglas-Homes, the Butlers? Kenneth Clarke and Michael Heseltine were the last of them, he said. He thought no one had stood out in David Camerons Cabinet, apart from the Prime Minister himself who he thought could have achieved more and George Osborne, who he considered an interesting man and a good Chancellor. His mood was not that of a dozing nonagenarian wallowing in political nostalgia. He just supposed that politics had changed so much that there was no place for the kinds of people who went into Parliament after the war. Most of all, Carrington mourned what he regarded as the passing of a sense of duty and the responsibility of unearned privilege. Edited extract from Carrington: An Honourable Man, by Christopher Lee, published by Viking at 25. Order for 20 with free p&p until September 9 at mailshop.co.uk/books, or call 0844 571 0640. Royalist dog that defied etiquette... The Carringtons Christmas card list read like an international Whos Who, and his family had been close to the Royals since the late 1850s. During his stint as the Australian High Commissioner, Carrington (right) welcomed Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1958, followed shortly afterwards by the Queen Mother. The visit was deemed a success apart from the alarming experience of having her to dinner at his official residence. Carrington said: It passed off fairly well, except that Keith [one of his dogs], being a great Royalist, decided that he wanted to see her and, escaping from the clutches of the children in their bedroom, rushed into the dining room and sat underneath her skirts. The Queen Mother, I dont think, noticed but there was an ugly scene while the butler tried to remove him from this rather unusual position. Eventually he was got away but it was a nasty five minutes. In 2000, when the Queen Mother was celebrating her 100th birthday, she spent the weekend with the Carringtons at their manor house in the Chilterns. She had a new dress made for the occasion, and asked Iona Carrington how she liked it. The fact that the Queen Mother was buying new clothes at 100 made 80-year-old Iona consider that she should have more confidence in the future. Advertisement Carrington told Thatcher to quit over the Poll Tax Carrington told Thatcher (pictured in 1986) to quit over the Poll Tax Although Carrington came to like Mrs Thatcher much more than he imagined he would, there were moments when their relationship was fragile. When the Prime Minister was deeply unpopular with public and the party over the Poll Tax, she went to lunch with Carrington at Bledlow, his family seat in Buckinghamshire, to talk privately about what she should be doing. Carrington suggested she should resign. He told her that she should go while memories of her achievements were fresh in everybodys mind. He strongly believed that the Tories under her leadership would be defeated at the next Election and he told her that by resigning, she would at least be saved that humiliation. Thatcher did not regard Carringtons advice as kindly given. Reflecting on it in 2006, he said: If things were going right, why should she go? If things were going wrong, she was the last person to give up and throw in the towel. She is still more talked-about than any other politician of the 20th Century, save for Churchill. For someone to change things as radically as she did you have to be a little blinkered. This works very well if the objective is sound, but when it comes to such issues as the Poll Tax, the blinkers should come off. She was not a good judge of people. Luther Younger, 99, walks six miles, round-trip, every day, rain or shine, to visit his wife of 55 years in the hospital A 99-year-old man walks and occasionally jogs 12 miles every day to visit his ailing wife in the hospital. Luther Younger, 99, of Rochester, New York, has made the daily six-mile, round-trip walk from his home to the hospital where his wife of 55 years, Waverlee Younger, is recovering from pneumonia. Luther, who served in the Marine Corps during the Korean War, has been walking to see his wife every day for the past three weeks, rain or shine. He said that he opts to walk the six miles because he doesn't want to wait for either his daughter, Lutheta, to give him a ride or for the bus to come. 'I got a wife. I don't want to wait on the bus. I want to go up there to see my wife,' Luther told CBS News. Waverlee, who is now paralyzed, was diagnosed with a brain tumor nine years ago and has been in and out of the hospital since then. Every day that she is in the hospital, Luther makes the six-mile, round-trip walk to visit her. Occasionally, he will sleep at the hospital, sometimes on the floor. Luther said that he makes the walk to prove his devotion to his wife, who he said 'made a man out of me.' Although people have offered him rides, Luther said that he usually declines them because he likes walking and that it helps to clear his mind. He also said that he doesn't have any problem with the heat, after growing up in Texas and spending his whole life working hard labor jobs. 'People tell me to act my age yeah, right,' Luther told CBS News. 'They're jealous because I don't drink, I don't smoke, because it's no good. I wouldn't be here [if I did].' Luther, Marine Corps veteran who served in the Korean War, said he walks because he is so eager to see his wife, he cannot wait for his daughter to give him a ride or for the bus to come Luther's wife, Waverlee, was diagnosed with a brain tumor nine years ago and has been in and out of hospitals since then. Luther has walked to visit her every day during her hospital stays Luther's daughter, Lutheta (with mother Waverlee, in pink), said that she doesn't like the idea of her father walking by himself and often tries to find him a ride, but he insists on walking Luther's daughter, Lutheta, said that she tries to find someone to give her father a ride as often as possible and that she doesn't like the idea of him walking so far all by himself. However, since he insists on making the trek, she relents. 'My dad's always walked. He says he does it to stay alive,' Lutheta told Spectrum News Rochester, which first reported Luther's story. Lutheta has started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to help pay for Waverlee's hospital bills. So far, $56,700 of her $65,000 goal has been raised. The eastern Washington state congressional district (WA-05) is one of the hottest in the country. The highest ranking Republican woman in the House, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a pure Trump enabler and rubber stamp , is under pressure from former majority leader of the Washington state House and former Washington State University University (Spokane), Lisa Brown. The two candidates have raised $6,170,863 so far, far more than any other race in the state. As of the July 18 FEC reporting deadline, McMorris Rodgers had $1,232,499 left in her campaign account and Lisa Brown had $920,575 in her account. Paul Ryan's Adelson-funded SuperPAC has set up office in the district and is spending a great deal of money to bolster a weak incumbent. McMorris Rodgers has turned to arch-villains like Devin Nunes, one of Putin's favorite comgressmen to help her raise more money. Although WA-05 backed McCain narrowly against Obama-- 51.2% to 46.3%-- Hillary was just the wrong candidate for that district. Bernie was a big winner in the Democratic primary there. Trump beat her 52.2% to 39.1%. Bernie took the 3 biggest counties by big numbers-- Spokane County 78.1-21.7%; Stevens County 80.8% to 18.4% and in Walla Walla County, 70.8-29.2%. If you'd like to contribute to Lisa's campaign, just click on the thermometer on the right. The PVI is R+8, a point in the wrong direction from 2015. But there are enough independent voters in the district to give Lisa a great overcome the odds. She's running on a strong, forthright campaign embracing, for example, the idea of an economy that is more equitable for American workers. "True economic growth and jobs," she told us, "come from investing in people (through education) and in infrastructure." One of the things I like most about Lisa is that she understands how to work across the aisle to find shared interests in order to get good, solid legislation passed. That's the advantage of electing experienced, skilled legislators to Congress, people like Ted Lieu, Pramila Jayapal, Karen Bass, Jamie Raskin, Judy Chu, Katherine Clark, Adriano Espaillat... All that said, the way I first met Lisa was from Krist Novoselic, former bass player with Nirvana. He persuaded me to talk with her based on his own experiences with her. Lisa has always taken the arts seriously. In fact, in the state House, she sponsored the Washington State Motion Picture Competitiveness Program 10 years ago and just renewed last year. The bill helped lay the foundation for the creative economy in eastern Washington resulting in shows like Z Nation, which is filmed in Spokane. In fact, the show likes her so much that they sent a zombie to her campaign announcement event! From lighting, texture, pattern and colour, Moroccan style has it all. The look has evolved over centuries thanks to the countrys diverse history that encompasses the Moors, Berbers, Arabs, Romans and French to create a deliciously dazzling look. Classic elements of the style include kilim rugs, layered and patterned fabrics, pierced metalwork lights and lamps, ornately carved woodwork, and even Tadelakt plastered walls and surfaces. Classic elements of the Moroccan style can be evoked using items including kilim rugs, layered and patterned fabrics (Anya Lounge Chair 395 from soulccollective.co.uk) Mandala stencils from 15.98 at dizzyducksdesign.com (right) as well pierced metalwork (left, 139 from medinatrading.co.uk) can help to create a Moroccan interior style Ben Hillman (pictured) says you can transform your interior to showcase Moroccan style with a few simple changes For a contemporary take on this timeless style, consider painting woodwork a dove-grey against chalky walls. If your budget doesnt stretch to hand-made tessellated Moroccan tiles, then stencils can look just as striking consider painting and stenciling your floorboards to dramatic effect. Low-slung and effortlessly relaxed seating will work well with loose cushions, and a concrete coffee table (below, 189 from bluesuntree.com) will be a fitting nod to Moroccan Tadelakt surfaces. This Afghan rug costs just 110 and can be bought to spruce up your interior at yashar-bish.com This large sequin pouffe can be bought for 195 and is available at frenchconnection.com This fretwork panel costs 29.12 at jali.co.uk and can help add a unique character to your home's interior How to have a hotel bathroom From 150 Come home to a bathroom that doesnt measure up to the one you had on holiday? Keeping clutter under wraps by building in some storage will make the space feel more luxe. Commission a carpenter to build an under-sink cupboard, or make one yourself. Paint the doors in your favourite Farrow & Ball shade. Create recessed tiled shelving by the sink to show off some posh products. From 192 A statement mirror (below) will transform the space. This oversized, bleached wood mirror (192, maisonsdumonde.com) will make a small space feel roomier. A chandelier over the bath (make sure it can be safely used in a bathroom) will give a five-star vibe. From 400 Splash out on a free-standing bath like this gorgeous grey Victorian roll-top (below, 399.95, victorianplumbing.co.uk). If its not too much of a squeeze, why not super-size your shower and opt for a walk-in model. Finish off with plenty of fluffy Egyptian cotton towels from the White Company and scented candles galore. Kanye West insists he is seriously considering a run for president - though he has pushed back by four years his original plan to throw his hat in the ring in 2020. West told a Chicago radio station on Thursday that he is mulling a run for the White House in 2024. If I decide to do it, it will be done, Im not going to try, the hip hop mogul told Power 92s DJ Pharris. Yes, 100 per cent it could happen...2024. In August 2015, West said during the MTV Video Music Awards ceremony that he was planning to run for president in 2020. Courtesy: Power 92 Chicago Kanye West insists he is seriously considering a run for president - though he has pushed back by four years his original plan to throw his hat in the ring in 2020. West told a Chicago radio station on Thursday that he is mulling a run for the White House in 2024 'As you probably couldve guessed by this moment, I have decided, in 2020, to run for president,' West said during his acceptance speech moments after receiving a lifetime achievement award at the Los Angeles ceremony. He had, however, announced earlier in the epic speech that he had smoked a joint before heading up on stage. Y'all might be thinking right now, I wonder did he smoke something before he came out here? And the answer is yes, I rolled up a little something, I knocked the edge off, he said. West has become a controversial figure among a large portion of his fans because of his praise for President Donald Trump. During his interview on Thursday, West said that while he still supports the president, he also has positive views of Democrats, including Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. West has become a controversial figure among a large portion of his fans because of his praise for President Donald Trump. West is seen right with Trump after he won the election in December 2016 West said on Thursday that he supports Trumps economic policies and that his goal as president would be to make sure that the medical industry flourishes. He is seen with wife Kim Kardashian in New York City in September 2016 I like Bernie, I like Hillary, I like Obama, I love everybody, West told DJ Pharris. Im actually riding with everybody. For someone to say, You cant ride with both sides - thats like [saying] you cant go to the Nike store and go to Ralph Lauren. 'Its like a modern idea of gang banging. West said on Thursday that he supports Trumps economic policies and that his goal as president would be to make sure that the medical industry flourishes. Theres one thing I learned by hanging around with Jay-Z, and being married to my wife, is you cant f*** up the paper (money). Earlier this week, West told another Chicago radio station that he was sorry for his remarks earlier this year in which he said that slavery was a choice Thats the problem with a lot of the radical leaders in the past. Im not going in, when I become president, to f*** up the paper, because I tell you what? Trump aint f***ing up the paper. Those jobs are up, those taxes are being saved. West also apologized once again for his remarks earlier this year in which he said that slavery was a choice. It was the second time this week that West said he was sorry about his comments. I dont know if I properly apologized for how that slave comment made people feel, he told WGCI in Chicago earlier this week. 'I am sorry for hurrying - I am sorry for the one two effect of the MAGA hat into the slave comment,' said the rapper as he looked down and talked in a very slow, deliberate manner. Mike Pence has spoken out against claims that he is a 'Christian supremacist' - citing The Bible as his defense. In an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network, the vice president said: 'Any time I'm criticized for my belief in Jesus Christ, I just breathe a prayer of praise.' 'The Bible says, ''count it all joy'' when you endure trials of many kinds,' Pence said. The vice president is known for his strong Christian views and beliefs, which have labeled him a 'Christian supremacist' by a recent book. In an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network, Mike Pence responded to claims that he is a 'Christian supremacist. The vice president said: 'Any time I'm criticized for my belief in Jesus Christ, I just breath a prayer of praise' A book released this week, The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence by authors Michael D'Antonio and Peter Eisner deemed Pence 'the most successful Christian supremacist in American history'. The book casts the former Indiana governor in a harsh light, aimed at his strong religious views. The book states that he is functioning as a 'kind of replacement president' who is getting ready to 'fashion a nation more pleasing to his God and corporate sponsors.' But the book has received backlash by some of who accuse the book of religious bigotry. The book The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence released this week deemed Pence 'the most successful Christian supremacist in American history' In the interview with Pence, David Brody, chief political analyst for CBN News, told Pence he's been 'under attack'. The vice president replied: 'I really don't spend a lot of time thinking about it.' 'This is a nation of faith,' Pence said. 'We'll continue to stand for the things that we believe in.' 'This is a nation of faith, so we'll continue to stand for the things that we believe in,' Pence said . 'We'll always have gentleness and respect. We'll respect the beliefs and convictions of every American, but I'm just very confident that as we go forward and serve alongside this president that there are an awful lot of people across this country that share our faith and appreciate where we stand,' he added. Paedophiles operating online are becoming as cunning as terrorist gangs as they seek to evade capture, the Home Secretary warns. Sajid Javid is to reveal how child abusers are using the dark web a network of hidden websites and untraceable online activity and creating dozens of fake identities in order to evade detection. But he will insist that the Government is determined to crack down on the scourge of online child sexual exploitation, using new tools such as a program known as Project Arachnid that has trawled through 1.3 billion web pages looking for illegal images. Police are now arresting 400 suspects and safeguarding 500 children every month after a near-doubling of the National Crime Agencys Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command. Scroll down for video Home Secretary Sajid Javid (pictured) is to reveal how child abusers are using the dark and creating dozens of fake identities in order to evade detection Mr Javid will tell an audience of technology firms, victims charities and law enforcement chiefs tomorrow: These people are using encryption and anonymisation tools to make their detection harder than ever before. Theyre jumping from platform to platform, using the dark web and commercial sites, swapping aliases and endlessly creating and then deleting online accounts to try to avoid getting caught. These people are as sophisticated as terrorists at hiding their tracks. But be assured, we are coming after them. The NCA Britains equivalent of the FBI fears that paedophiles are increasingly working together on numerous online platforms in order to share tips on how they can evade capture. Director Rob Jones said: Even though there is a co-ordinated and sustained law enforcement effort against child sexual abuse and exploitation, the threat to children is evolving in severity, scale and complexity. The sort of material my officers are discovering is utterly repugnant and the hurt, distress and damage caused to children is indescribable. An investigation led to depraved university academic Dr Matthew Falder (pictured) being jailed after he admitted blackmailing hundreds of people into sending him indecent pictures As we work to keep pace with the challenges we face and sustain momentum, we need the help of partners across the public and private sectors in the UK and internationally to help us protect children and bring those committing these terrible crimes to justice. The NCA wants technology firms to do more to stop abuse images being uploaded from phones or computers in the first place, rather than relying on police to get them deleted later. Chiefs are particularly concerned about the trend for paedophiles watching children overseas being abused to order, over encrypted live-stream videos. The NCA receives up to 80,000 tips annually from overseas law enforcement agencies reporting suspected British paedophiles. One investigation into the worlds worst website took five years and involved painstaking work by the NCA, US Homeland Security, Europol, the Australian Federal Police and listening station GCHQ. It led this year to depraved university academic Dr Matthew Falder being jailed for 32 years after he admitted blackmailing hundreds of people into sending him indecent pictures of themselves, then trading them on sick hurtcore forums online. Last week, Theresa May announced the creation of a cyber centre in Nairobi to help stop Kenyan children being targeted by British paedophiles. And a British woman was arrested in Cyprus over allegations she abused a baby girl and a young boy in online chats. The family of a pregnant Colorado woman who was murdered by her husband paid tribute to her and said she was 'born to be a mother' at her joint funeral with her two daughters and unborn son. The funeral Mass for Shanann Watts was held at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Pinehurst, North Carolina, where she grew up. Her unborn son and daughters, three-year-old Celeste and four-year-old Bella, also had their services at the church. 'Shanann was a woman of love. She loved God, she loved her family and she loved her friends,' the Reverend John Forbes said, according to CNN. The funeral Mass for Shanann Watts was held at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Pinehurst, North Carolina, where she grew up 'Shanann was a woman of love. She loved God, she loved her family and she loved her friends,' the Rev. John Forbes said. Shanann's unborn son and daughters, three-year-old Celeste and four-year-old Bella, also had their services at the church Reverend Forbes also read a letter from Frankie Rzucek, the woman's brother, who emphasized that Watts 'was born to be a mother.' Christopher Watts was charged with nine felony counts after the bodies of his wife and daughters were found in an oil field 'Boy, was she ready,' the letter stated. 'Closets were full even before she knew she was pregnant. She couldn't wait.' 'She was very successful and independent before any man came along, and that's just the way she wanted it. 'I always worried about her and the girls being so far because I couldn't protect them.' Christopher Watts was charged with nine felony counts after the bodies of his wife, Shanann, and daughters, Celeste and Bella, were found on an oil field in August near their Frederick home. According to the arrest affidavit, Watts claimed that he had been having an affair with a co-worker at Anadarko Oil and he told his wife he wanted to separate after she returned home following her trip. They were found just days after they were reported missing by a family friend on August 13. According to Shannan's family, the mother had planned to name her unborn son Nico. Reverend Forbes also read a letter from Frankie Rzucek, the woman's brother, who emphasized that Watts 'was born to be a mother' He shared that Shanann's mother claimed that her daughter had several dreams and aspirations that she hoped to accomplice The family's joint services were live streamed from the Facebook page belonging to the funeral home. Reverend Forbes shared that Shanann's mother claimed that her daughter had several dreams and aspirations that she hoped to accomplice. She had lupus and planned on aiding in research for the disease. Pamphlet from the funeral. Amazing Grace was sang during the service The oil field where the bodies were found is near the family's Frederick home Shanann's daugthers 'were light for all around them,' Forbes added. 'They were filled with life and joy and shared it with all those they encountered.' Forbes stated for the family, it was important that they work toward finding the good out of such a travesty. 'The family would like to see good come from this tragedy,' Forbes said. 'They do not desire vengeance and death, but justice and light.' A brass band has sparked a diplomatic row by performing a string of concerts in Russian-occupied Crimea. Symphonic Brass Wales, which has previously performed at the Royal Albert Hall and at Six Nations rugby matches, played in six Crimean towns and cities during a truly incredible 12-day tour of the region last month. But Natalia Galibarenko, Ukraines ambassador to the UK, accused the band of legitimising Russias illegal annexation of Ukrainian Crimea which happened in 2014. Symphonic Brass Wales pictured after their performance in the Vorontsov Palace In a strongly worded letter ahead of the tour, she said: The Russian Federation is currently under international sanction of the EU, US and many other countries. I would like to request your organisation to cancel any event which may take place in the occupied territory of Ukraine. Natalia Galibarenko, Ukraines ambassador to the UK, pictured in 2016 The ten-piece band, which describes itself as a group of musical ambassadors for Wales, went anyway and performed in cities such as Sevastopol and Simferopol. Describing one concert during the tour, Craig Roberts, the ensembles musical director, told Russian media: We had a fantastic time. The audience has been absolutely incredible. A band spokesman said last night: Following our return to the UK, we have received a number of messages, both positive and negative. The negative comments have been mainly from Ukrainian journalists and bloggers. We went to Crimea to give a series of concerts for the people of the region and we hoped to see with our own eyes the current situation. Britain's parents will spend a hefty 915 million on back- to-school shopping as their children return to the classroom this month with 436 million going on uniforms and shoes alone. A typical mother or father spends 273, according to research from retail analyst Mintel. Spokeswoman Chana Baram said: Back to school is a major shopping event, beaten only by Black Friday and Christmas. Theresa May has insisted she will not be pushed around by Brussels as Brexit negotiations heat up as EU withdrawal nears. The Prime Minister stood by the Government's controversial Chequers exit plan despite continued sniping against it from Tory benches. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mrs May said: 'I will not be pushed into accepting compromises on the Chequers proposals that are not in our national interest.' Prime Minister Theresa May (pictured visiting Cape Town last week) has insisted she will not be pushed around by Brussels The comments came as it was reported that the election strategist who helped Boris Johnson win the London mayoralty was involved in a bid to scupper the Cabinet's Chequers compromise. Sir Lynton Crosby, who also advised Mrs May in last year's general election when the Tories lost their majority in a shock poll result, is manoeuvring to derail the PM's EU withdrawal agenda with a co-ordinated national campaign, according to the Sunday Times. The claims emerged as former minister and high-profile Tory MP Nick Boles, who backed Remain at the referendum, came out against the Chequers deal. He told the Sunday Telegraph that under current Government plans, the UK faces 'the humiliation of a deal dictated by Brussels', which is treating the Chequers proposals as an 'opening bid'. The PM also dismissed calls for a 'people's vote' on the terms of withdrawal. She said: 'To ask the question all over again would be a gross betrayal of our democracy.' Mrs May also said Britain would get through a no-deal outcome and 'thrive'. The PM's aides have held talks with senior civil servants about whether to call a general election if a Brexit deal is rejected by MPs, according to the Sunday Times. The pelt of a polar bear and several sealskins decorate the walls of the Mamartut restaurant. Through the panorama window, beyond the pastel coloured houses, icebergs are sweating in the late summer sunshine. Earlier it soared to 10c but is now down to 5c. Sensationally balmy for a Greenland evening, but not so good if you are an iceberg. Welcome to the land of the hunter and the hunted, where the midnight summer sun does its best to make up for the rest of the year. Panorama: Colourful houses (pictured above) in Greenland's stunning Disko Bay We are in Ilulissat, a town well inside the Arctic Circle, from whence the iceberg that sank the Titanic began its fateful voyage. The ice is now too thin for hunters sleds in much of Greenland but, up in the north, there are still icebergs the size of Manhattan, says Tagak, our guide and one of only 51,000 remaining Greenlandic Inuits. Greenland is the worlds largest island and is nine times the size of Britain. Lying between Iceland and Canada, it is a heavily subsidised autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark. The vast majority of us are Inuits, says Tagak. We used to be known as Eskimos, but that word is considered demeaning. Mamartut is his idea and I graze on Greenland tapas, a combo of whats locally available, prepared by chef owner, Kim Pedersen. A post mortem of my napkin would reveal three types of whale (roasted, smoked and stewed), musk ox and reindeer jelly, with the odd smear of claret, not to mention seal soup and puffin. But these folk live on the margins of Arctic existence so they have little choice. Further north they are still allowed to hunt polar bears for subsistence and are the only humans of whom the Arctic monster is (rightly) afraid. We awake to a panorama view of Disko Bay and its myriad icebergs glimmering antifreeze blue in the weak morning sun, like aliens on a vast indigo stage. After a hefty Danish breakfast at the Hotel Isfjord we board our sturdy fishing boat, the Sapangaq, and gun north for 50 miles, up the Ataa Strait and through the Pakitsoq fjord system to visit the Eqi glacier. Small icebergs bob and wobble as we thunder in and out of channels between the bigger ones, hitting larger and larger chunks of ice. Thunk! Thunk! Gradually, the sea turns from bluey-grey to grey as it changes into frozen sludge. Half a mile short of the glacier, a jagged ridge rising to 900 feet above sea level, the skipper brings us to a halt. 'Any closer, very dangerous,' he announces. Two minutes later a huge slab of the glacier collapses into the sea, sending a sludgequake which slaps the side of the boat and caused the bay to audibly quake. Large chunks of ice the size of whales appear to come to life and leap up before crashing down onto the freezing fastness of Baffin Bay. By mid-September the bay is ice-locked and the tiny local communities hunker down to face seven months of isolation. 'The glacier will gradually regroup and expand slightly, but during the past 10 years it has moved further back than during the previous 150,' says the lady from World of Greenland, who run the trips. Cosy: Locals wear traditional costume (above) As we labour through the thickening water Kristian Brandt, the 49-year-old Inuit skipper, assures me the Sapangaq would plough through ice a metre thick. 'This is fast changing. We see bears floating by on small patches of drifting ice. It is not right.' We eat lunch in the restaurant at Ilimanaq Lodge, where an old village is being restored and where World of Greenland owns 15 chalets. In the old chapel a simple confection of fish and locally grown vegetables is imaginatively cooked and we experience the apotheosis of the carrot. We now fly to Nuuk, the capital, checking into the excellent Inuk Hostels, where we meet the owner, a Greenlandic author and scholar, Liisi Egede Hegelund, a charming and knowledgable host. She suggests the hour-long boat trip we took across the glassy stillness of an inland fjord to the semi-abandoned village of Qooqqut. Here we meet Sulli, Greenlands breakdancing champion who is also a waiter at the cheerful Thai-style seafood restaurant some 400 yards from the pontoon. He gives me a spin on his quad bike during a fag break. 'Theres never a dull moment here,' he says. The fiery sunset glows orange across the water as we sail back and the stillness is occasionally disturbed by the distant thunder of glacial waterfalls. On the last day we lunch well at the upmarket Cafe Toqqorfik opposite the Greenland National Museum. The film of Inuit life, made in 1934 by the Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen, brings tears to my eyes. 'We are hunters for many generations. But hunting on thin ice is not safe and many think that the alternative fishing is a womans work. Thats why so many go to the pub,' says Tagak, as he drops us at the airport. The smell of hotdog fills the air. The trip ends where it began, in Iceland. We fly to the east of the island, the bit thats off the beaten track, and visit the Vatnajokull glacier and sea fjords amidst the mountains and vast national park in this least visited of areas. A volcanic end to an elegiac trip to the fast melting fastness of Greenland. TRAVEL FACTS Icelandair (icelandair.com) flies London to Reykjavik and, from there, Air Iceland Connect (airicelandconnect.com) to Greenland (total from 865 return). Internal flights with Air Greenland (airgreenland.com). Rooms at Hotel Icefjord, Ilulissat (hotelicefiord.gl) from 108 and Hostel Inuk, Nuuk (inukhostels.com) from 95. World of Greenland see worldofgreenland.com. Boat trip to Qooqqut with Tupilak Travel (tupilaktravel.com). More info: visitgreenland.com. Iceland: Hotel Herad, Egilsstadir (icelandairhotels.com). Advertisement Where in the world would you choose as the perfect place for hiking amid a spectacular mountain wilderness, with jagged limestone peaks giving way to valleys speckled with olive groves? A place so unspoilt youre unlikely to encounter another living soul for days on end? One place I suspect would not be top of your list is 20 miles from Benidorm. Yet it is here, close to the Costa Blancas party capital, that youll find some of the most fabulous walking routes in southern Europe. The Marina Alta range dubbed Spains Secret Mountains may offer distant glimpses of Benidorm but they are truly a world away. Here, life remains as peaceful and unhurried as Benidorm is hectic. Walkers' paradise: A peaceful hilltop town in the Marina Alta mountain range The few small towns and villages are still centred around what agriculture can be eked from the unforgiving soil, and from a very different kind of slow tourism. With old muleteers tracks and well-worn paths winding their way through the mountainscape, it is a walkers paradise. I headed to Spain with my 17-year-old son. Our travel firm organised the accommodation, transport and luggage transfers to our overnight stops, and provided detailed walking notes. Our four-day route, covering ten to 15 miles a day through the lower slopes of pine forest up to the craggier peaks of scrub, should be manageable for most. We began at Tarbena, a village that has been fought over through the centuries by the Moors, Iberians, Romans, British and even Majorcans. From the rooftop terrace of our overnight inn, my son usually constantly on his phone took one look at the view and was so bowled over that he got out his A-level art sketchbook. On Day Two we stopped at Els Arcs, giant limestone arches so slender I feared one sneeze could bring them tumbling down. Scenic: The village of Tarbena inspired Harry's son to get out his sketchbook Equally stunning was El Castelet, the ruins of a Moorish watchtower, but it was on the valley floor on our final day that we stumbled on a site I found most awe-inspiring. Here, daubed on to a rockface by the side of the road, are some of the oldest cave paintings in Europe faded ochre images of fertility symbols, made 8,000 years ago. Incredible, arent they? I said. Yeah. Theyre a bit rubbish, though, came the A-level artists reply. Normal teenage service resumed. The chance to try tasty local wines is one of the highlights of travelling to a thoroughbred wine-making country. And the holiday spirit often makes tourists less prone to worrying about splashing out on a pricey bottle but are they wasting their money if they do? Does paying a bit more really mean better-tasting wine? MailOnline Travel decided to find out by conducting a Cheap vs Expensive blind tasting of wines from countries popular with tourist connoisseurs to see if it's possible to tell the difference between budget and costly wines without the suggestive influence of the price tag. The master of ceremonies the wine buyer for Vagabond Wines in London, Colin Thorne. The venue Vagabond's Battersea bar. The panel me, MailOnlines Travel Editor and three other (very willing) helpers. Scroll down to discover the results. It's not quite 'The Judgment of Paris', but they're intriguing nevertheless. Round 1 white wine MailOnline Travel decided to find out whether it's really worth splashing out on wine by conducting a Cheap vs Expensive blind tasting of wines at Vagabond in London (pictured) We tried four pairs of wine, all available at Vagabond two red and one rose. But first up was a pair of whites. We had a glass each - with no food - with each vessel simply labelled No1 and No2. Only Colin knew which was which. Our mission was to determine which one was cheap and expensive and to indicate which one we preferred. To make the test realistic, the cheap wines were anything up to 10 and the expensive between 20 and 30 for each round. The white wine test resulted in a 50/50 split jury for preference. In my notes I described glass number one as a good party wine, while tester Kelly Grindle, from the Virgin Atlantic press office, said one sip down it feels I could neck a bottle and Anna Catchpole, also from the Virgin Atlantic press team and another volunteer for this challenge, said it was clean and crisp. Our fourth panellist, James Murphy, said it was a stayed-out-too-late kind of wine. Next glass number two. I reckoned it was more refined, James well behaved and subtler, Kelly easier to drink than the first and Anna not as refreshing. THE VERDICT Preference: Two of us preferred glass No1, two glass No2. Cheap vs Expensive: Three of us thought glass No2 was the most expensive. Kelly was sure it was glass No1. The answer: Glass No1 was in fact pricier so three out of four of us were wrong. It was a 22.95 Bodegas Biniagual Memories Blanco 2017 from Majorca. Glass No2 was actually an 8.95 Bayanegra Airen 2017 from La Roda, Spain. The Bayanegra (left) fooled most of the MailOnline panel into thinking that it was an expensive wine. The Majorcan wine on the right costs 22.95 - and 50 per cent of the panel preferred it The MailOnline Travel panel - Anna Catchpole (left), James Murphy (second from right), Kelly Grindle (far right, mid-sip) and with his back to the camera, Vagabond wine expert Colin Thorne, who set up the test and guided us through the experience Round 2 rose Glass No1 deeply impressed Anna. She said it was probably one of the nicest roses Ive ever had light and refreshing. Kelly said it had loads of flavour, I said it had a good structure and James said it was pleasingly robust. Glass No2 was more intriguing. I said that it smelt ordinary, but that it had hidden talents, because once you swirled it around in the mouth loveliness arose. Kelly said the taste was delightful, Anna said it was not easy to drink, more complex and James said it was spring when you smelt it, but autumn when you drunk it. THE VERDICT Preference: All four of us preferred glass No1. Cheap vs Expensive: However, three of us thought that actually glass No2 was more expensive. The answer: Glass No2 was in fact more expensive so 75 per cent of the panel were correct. It was a Grand Boise Jadis Rose 2017 from Provence, France, and costs 25.95. Glass No1 was from a bottle of 9.95 Pierre et Papa Rose 2017 Pays dHerault, also from France. In terms of preference, the 'cheap' rose on the left was the all-out winner. The Chateau Grand Boise on the right, however, was correctly perceived to be expensive by three out of four of the panel Round 3 red wine Anna declared that shes not really a red wine drinker but said that she quite liked glass No1. I said it had a smooth finish. Kelly said it smelt like burnt berries and is an easy drinkable red and James said it was best drunk with November bonfires. Glass No2 made a big impression on Kelly. He said: This wine punched me in the mouth pretty strong, heavy, flavourful. I said it was rustic in a great way, Anna said it was heavy and that one sip was enough and James said it was a smidgen spirit-y, several shades from port. THE VERDICT Preference: Three preferred glass No1. Cheap vs Expensive: But interestingly three said No2 was pricier. The answer: Glass No2 was in fact more expensive so 75 per cent of the panel were correct. It was a Cellar El Pereres Nuncito 2011 from Priorat, Spain, and costs 24.95. Glass No1 costs 8.95 and was a 2017 Bayanegra Tempranillo from La Roda in Spain again. The bottle on the left is the 'expensive' red - a 24.95 Nuncito from Priorat, Spain. However, only one of the panel preferred it to the 'cheap' bottle, pictured right - an 8.95 Tempranillo from La Roda The venue was Vagabond Wines in Battersea, London. It makes its own wine and sells top produce by the glass and bottle Round 4 red wine Glass No1 was universally declared to be heavy and oaky with a lot of flavour. Blankets in December, said James, keeping his seasonal analogies going. Glass No2 wasnt as popular. Strange tasting, said Anna. Too earthy, said Kelly. I reckoned it was a bit thin, a bit 2D. THE VERDICT Preference: Three preferred glass No1. Cheap vs Expensive: And three said No1 was more expensive. The answer: Again, three out of four were correct. Glass No1 was from a 2015 22.95 Tinta Tinto Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile and glass No2 from a 2017 Quincho Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile costing 8.95. The 8.95 Quincho (left), lost out to the 22.95 Tinta Tinto (right). The expensive wine in this round was preferred by three out of four of the panel RESULTS SUMMARY White round. Confusion. Preference was split 50/50 and three out of four thought the cheap wine was actually the expensive one. Rose. Three out of four correctly worked out which one was the expensive wine - but all four of us preferred the cheaper version. Red wine round 1. Three of us preferred the cheaper red wine but three out of four correctly worked out which one was pricier. Red wine round 2. A through and through winner for the expensive wine as three out of four preferred it and correctly declared it to be the pricier tipple. The expert opinion on the results For some insight into the results, we turned to wine expert Emily OHare (pictured) In conclusion it seems then that generally, it is possible for amateur wine enthusiasts to tell a cheap from an expensive wine. But on the whole, we generally preferred the cheaper stuff. So does that mean that makers of expensive wines are ripping us off? Not at all. For some insight into the results, we turned to wine expert Emily OHare, who contributes to Decanter magazine and used to be the sommelier at Michelin-starred restaurant The River Cafe, in London. First of all, she mused, the fact that we didnt eat with the wines would have had an influence on what we thought of them. She said: Some wines refuse to perform without a meal. I would imagine the Provencal rose [the expensive one] felt drier than the Pays d'Herault [the cheaper rose that won the round]? On its own it may have seemed rather ungenerous and tight-lipped, but given a mouthful of toast and tapenade - I would bet that wine would have turned it on, and revealed a side to you that was way more fruity. Some older wines suffer if tasted next to a younger wine. Sometimes they knock the younger wine out of the park immediately. But generally older wines, like people, mellow with age, and will not exert themselves to grab your attention Wine expert Emily O'Hare Emily also leaped to the defence of the 2011 24.95 Priorat Spanish red that lost the first red wine round to an 8.95 Tempranillo from 2017. She said: Even though a good wine is a good wine regardless of what it is compared next to, some older wines suffer if tasted next to a younger wine. 'Sometimes they knock the younger wine out of the park immediately. But generally older wines, like people, mellow with age, and will not exert themselves to grab your attention the way a younger wine will, with its vibrant colour and powerful primary aromas and flavours. Not all wines age well, (dont go near those 1990 gran reserva Riojas under supermarket special offers for 8, theyll be well over the hill), but the ones that can, what they are offering you is a different conversation, a bit quieter but usually more interesting. A glass may be enough of the Tempranillo but the Priorat, in maybe a less challenging environment, that wine could be the one you would be glad to have a bottle of. Emily remarked that comparing the two Chilean Cabernet Sauvignons must have been fun, like walking into two chain stores but with one selling cheaper wares than the other. You know the difference, she said. Your senses tell you, the smell, the texture, the pleasure they are to walk in/drink. And finally, Emily was delighted with the white wine round result, where three out of four of us thought the 8.95 Airen Blanco from La Roda region was actually the expensive wine. She said: Airen is the most planted white wine grape variety in the world. The wine it produces is usually turned into brandy or sherry. So it is nice to see a producer trying to coax a bit more from this grape. And evidently I must admit to being very intrigued by glass No1 from Majorca, I would have loved to have tried it.' WHEN AND WHEN NOT TO SPLASH: THREE GENERAL RULES Here Emily offers sage advice on when to fork out for something and when it's best to save the pennies. DON'T SPLASH If you are in a large group. If you are with many people - don't splurge... there is nothing worse than having a tiny sip of a great wine. A great bottle is no fun for just one. Or eight. SPLASH! For two/three it is perfect, for four it's okay. I'd split a really good bottle between four maximum. You need a good glug of a wine to get to know it. DON'T SPLASH If you are eating lots of different dishes with lots of different smells and flavours. It is hard to focus on all the different qualities of a great wine. If you are choosing a wine to match a complicated meal I would err on the side of simplicity, save on the wine front and ask for a recommendation for a wine on the reasonable side - or choose a wine at the cheaper end of the list. Even the house wine. All good restaurants and bars work really hard to find a great house wine. A great house wine usually reflects a great wine list. SPLASH! However, if you are going for a simple meal, then you can really turn it into something super memorable by choosing a really smart wine. DON'T SPLASH If you've noticed that the restaurant/bar is serving great wines in crappy glasses. Tumblers are good for knocking back wine, so if you are in the mood for sinking a bottle without thinking too much then they are perfect. But if you are spending up, you deserve a decent glass with which to appreciate a lovingly made wine. A glass with which you can appreciate a wines colour, smell and flavour. You wouldn't want to eat an expensive meal off a paper plate. And a not-so-secret secret... If you want a bad wine to taste better chew a lemon, or have a lick of salt - prepare your tequila kit! Acidity and saltiness are friends to wine (bitterness and sweetness are enemies) so if you have ended up with a neutral, thin wine and you want it to feel bit fruitier and fuller-bodied, chew on a lemon before taking a sip. Or crunch a few granules of salt. Not great for the teeth enamel, and you'll need to have plenty of water to rehydrate before bed... but both tricks work! Advertisement She played Ren Stevens, the older sister of Shia LaBeouf's character in Even Stevens. And life is somewhat imitating art for Christy Carlson Romano, who's promoting her daughter to the role of oldest sibling. On Friday, the Kim Possible star revealed toPeople that she's pregnant with her second child. Coming soon: On Friday, Christy Carlson Romano, 34, revealed to People that she's pregnant with her second child. She is seen in LA in June 'I always wanted two kids and I feel so blessed to have this experience again,' said the star, who's due in February. 'My husband and I are overjoyed that our little girl is going to have a sibling.' The actress, 34, did not reveal her baby's gender. Her love: Since 2013, Christy has been married to film producer Brendan Rooney Big sister: The couple welcomed daughter Isabella Victoria, one, in December 2016 Since 2013, Christy has been married to film producer Brendan Rooney. The duo met two years prior, while the mother-of-two was studying film at New York's Barnard College. The couple welcomed daughter Isabella Victoria in December 2016. Her beginning: Christy shot to fame in 2000, with her role as Ren Stevens on Disney Channel's Even Stevens Christy shot to fame in 2000, with her role as Ren Stevens on Disney Channel's Even Stevens. This lead to a five-year gig as the voice of Kim Possible, the title character on the network's animated hit of the same name. And 11 years following its last episode, a live-action version will hit theaters come spring. Christy will come return, but has kept her role under wraps. 'The experience of filming was really rewarding. I think it was really good to be a part of this,' she began. 'The directors were big fans of the show. They were trying very hard to make sure that they would honor [the Kim Possible] world.' She recently revealed her relationship with architect Bill Coe. And Nikki Gogan and her new man put on a loved up display on the red carpet of the Myer runway show in Perth, on Friday. The 31-year-old reality star stepped out for the event in a revealing ruffled sheer teal top. Looking loved up! Bachelor star Nikki Gogan stepped out for the Myer fashion show in Perth, on Friday, in a ruffled sheer teal top that hinted at her bra, edgy faux leather leggings which she matched with sassy heels She teamed her look with a edgy faux leather leggings, matched with sassy black heels. She added a touch of luxury toting along her Gucci Marmont, worth $ 2,255, to complete her outfit. The blonde beauty kept her bob-length tousles short and sweet with a soft curls, while for makeup she opted to keep it fresh a hint of blush on her cheeks, mascara on her lashes and a pink pout. Nikki lovingly looked up at her boyfriend Bill as they posed for a photo together. Look of love: Alongside the reality TV star was her architect boyfriend Bill Coe (right) who kept his look simple in a blue blazer, white shirt and dark blue jeans The architect kept his look simple in a blue blazer, white shirt and dark blue jeans. Also at the event was newly minted Myer ambassador Elyse Knowles who was in her element in front of the cameras before going on the catwalk. The 25-year-old was all smiles as she flaunted her trim figure in a mini floral dress. Her luscious blonde locks were styled in long waves that cascaded down her delicate shoulders, while for makeup Elyse opted for dramatic eyes with strong brows, lashings of mascara and smokey eyeshadow. Runway queen: Also at the event was newly minted Myer ambassador Elyse Knowles who was in her element in front of the cameras before going on the catwalk. The 25-year-old was all smiles as she flaunted her trim figure in a mini floral dress Stunning: Her luscious blonde locks were styled in long waves that cascaded down her delicate shoulders, while for makeup Elyse opted for dramatic eyes with strong brows, lashings of mascara and smokey eyeshadow The model was more than happy to pose for a photo with former Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, 62, who also attended the event. The 62-year-old, who stepped down from the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party this week, attended the fashion event in stylish form. She dazzled in an '80s inspired shimmery navy frock, which she teamed with a pair of elegant pumps. He's the brother of Hollywood A-lister, Chris Hemsworth. And on Thursday, handsome Westworld actor Luke Hemsworth put on an animated display while making a rare public appearance at a Los Angeles launch party. The actor and his wife Samantha were attending the launch of the Outerknown S.E.A. JEANS at Ron Herman. Scroll down for video The third Hemsworth! Luke, 37, and wife Samantha Hemsworth, 38, put on an animated display while at the launch of S.E.A Jeans at Ron Herman in Los Angeles on Thursday Clearly in high spirits, Luke, 37, and his wife Samantha proved their love of fun as they made faces in front of a green screen. At times, the loved-up couple put on an affectionate display, with actor Luke draping an arm around his ladylove. At other times, Luke was spotted chatting up a storm with pro-surfer Kelly Slater, 46, who is the co-owner of Outerknown. Trippy: At the event, Luke flaunted his bulging biceps in a tight-fitted button down shirt, while his wife Samantha opted for a loose-fitting paisley blouse For the outing, Luke showed off his bulging biceps in a short sleeved, grey and black button-down shirt in a wavy psychedelic pattern. The Hemsworth, who obviously shares his brother's love of hitting the gym, completed his look with a pair of tight black jeans and slip on shoes. Meanwhile, his wife Samantha opted for a loose-fitting button down yellow and pink paisley blouse. Affectionate! The couple, who have been married in 2007, looked affectionate at the event, with the two cosying-up with each other while posing for the cameras The blonde beauty, who recently celebrated her 38th birthday, paired the eye-catching garment with a pair of boyfriend style jeans. Samantha, who wore her elegant blonde mane in a wavy style, finished the look with a beige handbag, which featured fringing and a leather strap. In April, Luke, who is the older brother of famous sibling Chris and Liam, spoke candidly about his personal life to The Daily Telegraph. Animated! The couple looked playful in front of a green screen at the event The handsome blonde compared his life to that of his superstar brothers, saying he relishes the fact he attracts a lot less column inches than his siblings. 'I worry about the loss of anonymity, which is the one thing Chris and Liam would want back,' he told the publication. Luke added his brother's height also means they attract plenty of attention wherever they go in La La Land. 'They are both 6 foot 4, they're very recognisable, whereas I am a little shorter (5 foot 11) and can disappear into the crowd,' he explained. Tana Mongeau isn't afraid to be a F*** Up. The Youtube favorite, who boasts 3.7million subscribers on the platform, debuted her new song F*** Up on Friday. Talking about her anthem of imperfection, which was produced by rapper Mod Sun, the 20-year old blonde explained: 'I wanted the song and music video to open people up to the thoughts of someone in my shoes.' Hot new music: Tana Mongeau dropped her new song F*** Up Friday 'The way the world acts when a 'celebrity' f***s up is crazy to me,' the Las Vegas native continued about her new track, which is available to stream on iTunes and Spotify. 'I remember writing 'I promise that I hate me more than you do' and 'I can't even live in the moment, Worried bout' another Twitter moment, Make the whole world my opponent, And they wonder why I'm never focused' and just sobbing. 'I was so excited for the people to understand that sometimes that's the way I'm thinking... and what the world is saying about me at the meantime.' 'For me, the most fun part about music is being able to tell a story with a song. I started all of this, on YouTube, telling stories. I'll always love being a storyteller. And now, being able to open up a new chapter, and tell stories through music, is the most incredible feeling.' Tana's passion for music has been fueled by her friends, who have become some of her closest collaborators. She thanked producer Mod Sun in particular for nurturing her talent in the studio. In her shoes: Talking about her anthem of imperfection, which was produced by rapper Mod Sun, the 20-year old blonde explained: 'I wanted the song and music video to open people up to the thoughts of someone in my shoes' Gifted producer: 'I truly don't think I would've ever even realized how much I love singing, writing, and making music if it wasn't for Mod Sun and the way we clicked in the studio' 'I truly don't think I would've ever even realized how much I love singing, writing, and making music if it wasn't for Mod Sun and the way we clicked in the studio. 'I remember sitting in the studio singing for the first time, and Mod looking at me and saying "It sounds like you've wanted to tell these stories your whole life." I have and I can't wait to share them with the world.' Bella played a particularly strong role in Tana's music. By her side: '[F*** Up] obviously wouldn't be possible without Bella, and her belief in me from day one' Tana (above with Thorne August 19 at Billboard Hot 100 Fest) explained '[F*** Up] obviously wouldn't be possible without Bella, and her belief in me from day one. She saw something in me before I did and did everything in her power to pull that out, because that's just who she is. This is Tana's first release on Filthy Fangs, Bella Thorne record label. Just a few weeks ago, the Assassination Nation actress signed a deal with Epic/Sony. Irv Gotti, famously of Murder Inc, is managing her music project and she has appointed Jen Stein as label manager. Filthy Fangs is also home to recording artists Mod Sun, CHXPO, & COM3T. It only takes one standout accessory to make an outfit. So on Friday, Sofia Richie spruced up her casual jeans and sneakers look with an expensive, pink Hermes bag. The beauty turned 20 last week, and was gifted the luxury item by dad Lionel. Standout item: On Friday, Sofia Richie, 20, spruced up her casual jeans and sneakers with an expensive, pink Hermes bag Sofia was styled in a black, cropped top with a keyhole and high-waist, mom jeans. The brunette beauty wore her chocolate brown locks back and in a bun. In addition to her pricey purse, Sofia accessorized with shades and multiple items of jewelry. Keeping her hair away from her face: The brunette beauty wore her chocolate brown locks back and in a bun Topping it off: Sofia completed her look with a black crop top and accessorized with shades and multiple items of jewelry Sofia turned 20 on August 20, and celebrated her big day with a vacation to Mexico. Upon her return, the social media influencer received a structured pink Hermes bag from her father, 69. The Los Angeles native took to social media to show off her pretty present, which also included an enormous bouquet of black and pink balloons. What a treat: Sofia turned 20 on August 20, and celebrated her big day with a vacation to Mexico. Upon her return, dad Lionel, 69, gifted her an expensive purse Beautiful: The Los Angeles native took to social media to show off her pretty present, which also included an enormous bouquet of black and pink balloons Since May of last year, Sofia has been in a relationship with Scott Disick. For her trip to Mexico, the star was joined by her boyfriend of over a year, and his three children. Prior to their relationship, Sofia was linked to Justin Bieber, while Scott shares his kids with ex-girlfriend, Kourtney Kardashian. Her love life: Since May of last year, Sofia has been in a relationship with Scott Disick T-Pain was caught trying to carry a loaded gun through HartsfieldJackson Atlanta International Airport on Friday. The 32-year-old rapper's 'bag was flagged during a main checkpoint screening,' and upon inspection 'they found a loaded Smith & Wesson .380 inside,' according to TMZ. The Buy U A Drank rapper was headed to Lubbock, Texas to play a show as part of Back 9ine Fest 2018. Carry on: T-Pain was caught trying to carry a loaded gun through HartsfieldJackson Atlanta International Airport on Friday The outlet is reporting that the police were called, they removed the gun, and took the rapper in for further questioning. However, it remains unknown if the rapper was arrested. T-Pain shared an Instagram post while the event was happening, showing a lock box with the a sign taped to it saying, 'FBI gun cases only.' He captioned the image, 'B****IMightBe a tad bit late to #Lubbock #TX today. Things at the Atlanta airport are getting........... eventful. Gun control: TMZ reported that the 32-year-old rapper's 'bag was flagged during a main checkpoint screening,' and upon inspection 'they found a loaded Smith & Wesson .380 inside.' Concert? He was headed to Lubbock, Texas to play a show as part of Back 9ine Fest 2018. Above, June 1 T-Pain was set to join Kyle, Gyyps, Waka Flocka Flame, and Felly at the Texas concert. As of six hours before the planned concert, he was yet to announce a cancellation. The rapper was next set to play Bumbershoot festival in Seattle, Washington on Saturday, but it remains uncertain if he will still be playing the event. After that he will head to Missouri for LouFest and then to Las Vegas for Life is Beautiful. He has three more shows in the United States scheduled in October, before heading to Australia and New Zealand for a string of dates in November. She rose to fame as one of the busty blondes hoping to find a match on the first season of Love Island Australia. And, perhaps still reeling from her experience on the reality show, Natasha Webster vented her frustrations about life in a busty Instagram post on Friday. The 24-year-old put on a regal display in a shimmery gold princess dress with a very low-cut frock that accentuated her cavernous cleavage. 'P***ed off with everyone and everything!': Love Island Australia's Natasha Webster (pictured) vented her frustrations while flaunting her ample cleavage in a very low-cut frock on Friday Her glittery gown led down to her sheer skirt that showed her high-waisted bottoms. In the post she told her legions of fans: 'P***ed off with everyone and everything but wearing this princess gown makes me feel much better.' She continued: 'Btw I'm meant to be flying to Sydney tonight but I'm in two minds about it and I'm always indecisive,' before going on to ask her fans if she should stay home in Perth or not. Annoyed! In her Instagram post, Tash told her legions of fans: 'P***ed off with everyone and everything but wearing this princess gown makes me feel much better' It appears the blonde bombshell chose to fly to Sydney after she took to her Instagram story to share photos from fellow reality star Eden Dally's birthday party on Darling Harbour. Natasha's frustrated yet busty Instagram post comes after she recently lamented a difficult week earlier this month. The beauty's tough week started after she purchased a pair of Tony Bianco boots, before claiming that the threading came undone. 'Everything is going wrong!': Her candid Instagram post came after she posted a teary video on social media earlier this month about her broken boots and 'too small' Gucci bag In a zoomed-in shot, she explained: 'I've worn them for one day and the thread has come undone,' before uploading a shot of the boot. The Perth native also lamented her recently purchased 'small' Gucci bag. 'I thought it would be the perfect bag to take to the clubs,' she said, before admitting she was being 'stingy' so she opted for the smaller bag. Unsure footing: The blonde starlet recently lamented a horror week during which her new pair of boots allegedly began to fall apart due to loose threading 'But it doesn't fit my stupid broken phone,' she said. During Natasha's time on Love Island Australia, she and friend Erin Barnett, 23, who placed runner-up on the reality show with boyfriend Eden Dally, 26, labelled themselves the 'silicone sisters' owing to their boob jobs. Tash previously said her incredible cleavage is thanks to a boob job, but insists it's the only 'work' she has had done on her body. They first dated in 2016 only to reunite and get engaged this July. And Hailey Baldwin and Justin Bieber looked very much in love while out to dinner at Dan Tana's in West Hollywood on Friday. The daughter of Stephen Baldwin wowed in a silky emerald green top with matching miniskirt on bottom as she walked hand-in-hand with her other half. Green with envy! Hailey Baldwin wowed in a silky green and blue set while out to dinner with fiance Justin Bieber on Friday Her head-to-toe tan was on full display in the shiny set, which she accessorized with double necklaces and small earrings. The model wore her shoulder length blonde in a high ponytail. Meanwhile, Justin wore the same look he sported to their movie date the night prior. He did switch up his shoes, however, trading checkerboard Vans for cool Nikes. Best tressed: The model wore her shoulder length blonde in a high ponytail Repeat offender: Meanwhile, Justin wore the same look he sported to their movie date the night prior The Sorry hitmaker has told his fiancee that 'money is no object' when it comes to their wedding. The couple are not planning on having a big 'showbiz' affair when they get hitched, but he has told the blonde model that he'll willingly splash the cash on whatever she wants to ensure it's a day she'll never forget. A source told the Hollywood Life: 'Neither Justin nor Hailey want a flashy showbiz type wedding. He's made it clear to Hailey that money is no object and whatever she wants for the big day she can have.' Spending big: The Sorry hitmaker (above July 27) has told his fiancee that 'money is no object' when it comes to their wedding The 21-year-old beauty is really enjoying the planning process but Justin is also having his own input. An insider explained: 'He's definitely engaged in the process and giving her feedback on things when she wants it. Hailey is absolutely loving planning the wedding. 'She's dreamed about this moment since she was a little girl, and now all her dreams are coming true. The fact she gets to walk down the aisle with Justin is more than she ever could have hoped for.' Justin proposed to Hailey during a trip to the Bahamas last month, and later confirmed the news on Instagram in a sweet tribute post dedicated to the blonde beauty. Matthew Newton was last month forced to withdraw as director of the Hollywood film Eve, after online backlash regarding his alleged history of assault. And the 41-year-old looked strained as he stepped out in New York City after stepping down from the role. The Australian star appeared pale and bleary eyed as he engaged in an intense phone conversation while walking alone in Manhattan's East Village recently. Tough times: Matthew Newton (pictured) looked strained on the streets of New York last month, a week after he stepped down as director of Jessica Chastain's forthcoming film Eve due to his alleged history of domestic violence Tied the knot? Matthew noticeably wore a silver ring on his wedding finger, adding fuel to reports that he has secretly married his girlfriend, 23-year-old Catherine Schneiderman Paying no mind to the warm summer temperature, Matthew wore a black button-down shirt teamed with a pair of boot-cut jeans and Nike trainers. The son of TV legend Bert Newton, 80, at one point shielded his eyes with a pair of thick rimmed sunglasses. He noticeably wore a silver ring on his wedding finger, adding fuel to reports that he has secretly married his girlfriend, 23-year-old Catherine Schneiderman. Denim day: Paying no mind to the warm summer temperature, Matthew wore a black button-down shirt teamed with a pair of boot-cut jeans and Nike trainers Chatty: Matthew's rumoured wife Catherine is the daughter of former New York Attorney-General Eric Schneiderman, who was forced to resign from his high-powered position earlier this year Catherine is the daughter of former New York Attorney-General Eric Schneiderman, who was forced to resign from his high-powered position earlier this year after four women accused him of sexual and physical abuse. Meanwhile, Matthew's outing came eight days after he officially withdrew from Eve, a highly-anticipated Hollywood film, set to star Jessica Chastain, 41. On August 11 he released a statement confirming that he was stepping down from the role as he wishes to do the right thing and take responsibility for his problems. Under pressure: On August 11, Matthew released a statement confirming that he was stepping down from his role as director of the upcoming movie, Eve 'Yesterday I notified Jessica Chastain and the other producers on the film Eve that I will be stepping down as director,' Matthew said in the statement. 'Since the announcement of this film, the responses, which are powerful and important, have not fallen on deaf ears. I am profoundly aware that I have a responsibility to lead where I have failed in the past. 'I can never undo the harm that I've caused the people I've cared about and I carry that shame and responsibility with me every day.' Matthew, who suffers from bipolar disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder, went on to explain that he's been seeking treatment for his issues. Making amends: Matthew has a history of alleged assault and domestic violence claims in his home country of Australia, and has sought treatment as part of his rehabilitation Film role: Oscar-nominated Jessica Chastain (pictured) is set to star in Eve, which Matthew was due to direct before he stepped down. Jessica is pictured in June 2018 'Over the past eight years, I have been working extensively with healthcare professionals to help me overcome my addiction and mental health illness. 'For the past six years I have lived a quiet and sober life. All I can do now is try to be a living amends and hopefully contribute to the positive change occurring in our industry.' Matthew has a history of alleged assault and domestic violence claims in his home country of Australia. Past history: Matthew, 41, has a long history of alleged assault and domestic violence claims (pictured in a 2012 mugshot after a Miami hotel brawl) In 2006, he was arrested for the alleged physical assault of his former partner, actress Brooke Satchwell. He pleaded guilty to 'common assault' after prosecutors withdrew three more serious charges, including assault occasioning actual bodily harm and stalking and intimidating Brooke. The conviction was later overturned by a court. In 2010, Matthew's then-girlfriend actress Rachael Taylor filed a protective order against him, alleging physical, verbal and emotional abuse, and he entered Sydney's Northside West Clinic for treatment. Matthew was also arrested twice in Miami, Florida, in 2012 - the first for trespassing and resisting officers, while a second incident saw him charged with battery and resisting arrest after he attacked a hotel receptionist. Following the charges, Matthew checked into the Betty Ford Center in California for 90 days of alcohol and drug treatment. Both matters were later dismissed under the conditions that Matthew completes community service and writes a letter of apology to the hotel clerk. Arrest: Matthew was arrested for the alleged physical assault of his former partner Brooke Satchwell (pictured) in 2006. The couple are pictured in November 2003 Tziporah Malkah is set to make her TV comeback in the hilarious new reality show My Fabulous Life. And on Friday, the 44-year-old enjoyed a leisurely lunch with co-star Christa Billich and producer Thomas Grainger. The former I'm A Celebrity star donned a quirky tulle ensemble at Sydney's Woolloomooloo. Swinging into a new era! Tziporah Malkah (left), 44, donned a quirky ensemble as she headed to lunch with Christa Billich (right), 70, in Sydney on Friday, ahead of the debut of her new reality show My Fabulous Life Tziporah looked fabulous in a black round-neck top, which she teamed with a black tulle skirt and Mary Jane heels. The former supermodel draped a black shawl over her shoulders and toughened up the look with fishnet tights, black beaded bracelets and finger-less gloves. Tziporah's brunette locks fell effortlessly around her face and shoulders, and she kept to a minimal makeup palette including lashings of mascara and a glossy nude lip. Pulling out all the stops: Tziporah looked fabulous in a black round-neck top, which she teamed with a black tulle skirt and Mary Jane heels The ex-fiancee of billionaire James Packer walked hand-in-hand with swinger and co-star Christa Billich, prior to their lunch with the show's creator, Thomas Grainger. Christa, 70, highlighted her slender frame in a black skin-tight top, tucked into cropped skinny-leg jeans. The blonde elongated her frame with black open-toe boots, and accessorised further with a black cardigan, an orange Hermes belt and a beaded handbag. Tziporah and Christa enjoyed a leisurely lunch with Thomas at one of the exclusive restaurants in Sydney's Woolloomooloo. Details: The former supermodel draped a black shawl over her shoulders and toughened up the look with fishnet tights, black beaded bracelets and finger-less gloves Beauty: Tziporah's brunette locks fell effortlessly around her face and shoulders, and she kept to a minimal makeup palette including lashings of mascara and a glossy nude lip The pair are set to star in new reality series My Fabulous Life, alongside housewife Matty Samaei and actress Krissy Stanley. Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Australia last month, Thomas said filming the pilot episode was a blast. 'It's been a lot of fun, we've had a lot of laughter and a bit of drama but it has been going really well so far,' Thomas said. 'They all have very big personalities and different opinions,' he added. 'But ultimately deep down, they're all lovely people and all want the best for each other and the show.' Exciting times: Tziporah and Christa enjoyed a leisurely lunch with producer Thomas Grainger (left) at one of the exclusive restaurants in Sydney's Woolloomooloo Thrilled: Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Australia last month, Thomas said filming the pilot episode was a blast: 'It's been a lot of fun, we've had a lot of laughter and a bit of drama but it has been going really well so far' Thomas also said that Tziporah, formerly known as Kate Fischer, is back with a bang after spending several years in the celebrity wilderness. 'I know she is looking very much to get back on her feet. She's got a few things in store, so watch this space,' he teased. 'She is really focusing on herself at the moment, and getting back into fitness. I know she's been working out a lot and has a lost a heap of weight.' According to Thomas, Tziporah's new boyfriend Justin Green is also helping her find her mojo again. 'He's very much helping her get back into finding health and she seems to be really focusing on pushing forward and moving forward with that.' Love life: According to Thomas, Tziporah's new boyfriend Justin Green is also helping her find her mojo again: 'He's very much helping her get back into finding health and she seems to be really focusing on pushing forward and moving forward with that' She has strutted the runway for high-end lingerie brand, Victoria's Secret. But on Saturday, Australian-born supermodel Shanina Shaik proved herself the ultimate glamazon in a make-up free selfie. Taking to Instagram Story, the 27-year-old showed she didn't need an army of stylists to turn heads as she flaunted her flawless complexion while resting in bed. Scroll down for video Bare-faced beauty! Victoria's secret model Shanina Shaik, 27, has proven herself the ultimate glamazon while going make-up free in a sultry selfie on Saturday Shooting the camera a sultry look, Shanina showed off her radiant skin and full lips while gazing at the lens. The model, who has graced the covers of Cleo, Cosmopolitan and Vogue India, opted to wear her trademark hair up in a bun. Shanina hashtagged the photographs, #nomakeupday. #nomakeupday: Shanina proved she didn't need an army of stylists in order to look high glam, with the model showing off her perfect complexion It comes after Shanina, who is of Lithuanian and Pakistani descent, told TooFab on Wednesday that life hasn't always been easy as a model. She said she often struggled to find work because of skin colour and cultural background, saying she did't always fit into a category. 'I did find at times that I couldn't book jobs because I didn't fit a certain category of like background or like cultural, like skin colour,' she told the publication. 'It tears you down': Australian model Shanina Shaik (pictured) spoke candidly about the racism she says she has experienced in the fashion industry this week She added: 'It doesn't happen so often now, for me. But it did happen and it was really hard for me, it does tear you down.' Shanina also revealed that she has developed a thicker skin to handle rejection, if she isn't the right 'fit' for the job on offer. 'Sometimes with a client, if they wanted apples and you come in and you're a pear, you're not right for that look or that idea that the designer or the client has with an image for the job,' she said. Professional prejudice: Shanina, who is of Lithuanian and Pakistani descent, told TooFab that she at times struggled to find work as a model because of her skin colour The brunette beauty is one of the stars of E!'s upcoming reality series Model Squad, a behind-the-scenes look at a group of young supermodels. Earlier this month, Shanina revealed she was 'annoyed' by the pressures to be tall in the modelling industry. The supermodel confessed to injuring herself in the past by wearing ridiculously high heels to impress casting agents. Difficult: 'I did find at times that I couldn't book jobs because I didn't fit a certain category of like background or like cultural, like skin colour,' Shanina earlier this week She said while she was 5'9", she technically still wasn't tall enough for the runway when auditioning eight years ago. 'Back then I was super annoyed, I used to wear the biggest heels and my ankles by the end of Paris Fashion Week were brittle,' the model said. 'I fell down the stairs one time, because my ankles were so weak from wearing super tall heels - I just wanted to be tall!' Model Squad begins September 7 on E! G-Eazy took his feud with Machine Gun Kelly to new heights on Friday when he dropped a diss track titled Bad Boy. The 29-year-old rapper was anything but subtle as he verbally trashed MGK, 28, over the course of 50 verses. 'MGK please stop trolling me, get over me. You wanna be me, you're mad that you're not as big as me,' G-Eazy stated in the song. Clap back: G-Eazy took his feud with Machine Gun Kelly to new heights on Friday when he dropped a diss track titled Bad Boy. The 29-year-old rapper was anything but subtle as he verbally trashed MGK, 28, over the course of 50 verses He continued: 'I'm everywhere, I'm your nightmare, you can't get rid of me. Call a Uber, turn on the radio, imagine hearing me. Him & I's on, mad you're listening to Halsey sing to me.' The Oakland native's latest track was a direct response to Machine Gun Kelly, whose freestyle rap session with Funk Flex on Hot 97 was all about G-Eazy. 'Let's just keep it G. Only Eazy I f**k with is E,' MGK spit into the mic on Thursday. 'I seen he dyed his hair and got a hanging earrings. I f***ed his girl now he look like me, this s**t is overbearing.' Bad Boy: 'MGK please stop trolling me, get over me. You wanna be me, you're mad that you're not as big as me,' G-Eazy stated in the new song. 'I'm everywhere, I'm your nightmare, you can't get rid of me. Call a Uber, turn on the radio, imagine hearing me. Him & I's on, mad you're listening to Halsey sing to me' The root of the rappers' continued feud is unclear, but their affections for Halsey seem to be a sore subject. MGK and the Bad At Love songstress have been longtime friends and were recently rumored to be dating following her split from G-Eazy in July. But according to Us Weekly, Halsey and the No Limit hitmaker are 'hanging out again and figuring things out.' Girl trouble: The root of the rappers' continued feud is unclear, but their affections for Halsey seem to be a sore subject. MGK and the Bad At Love songstress have been longtime friends and were recently rumored to be dating following her split from G-Eazy in July 'She's liking his pics on Instagram and they aren't trying to hide the fact that their on/off relationship is complicated,' a source said. 'They were so serious before and now they don't feel that same pressure to define it. They're super into each other still but they're being casual for now and avoiding labels. Their friendship is still strong and intact and they both care about that a lot.' The couple added fuel to the reconciliation fire on Friday when Halsey joined her former beau on stage during his New Jersey concert at PNC Bank Arts Center. The daughter of legendary TV funnyman Tim Conway has struck a critical blow in the legal battle against her stepmother over her father's care. Kelly, 56, 'received a temporary restraining order to stop his current wife's plans to move the ailing comic from his current medical facility,' according to Fox News. Charlene Conway had allegedly tried to move Tim 'into a lesser-quality home' according to the website. Legal war: The daughter of legendary TV funnyman Tim Conway has struck a critical blow in the legal battle against her stepmother over her father's care. Pictured in 1983 [l-r]: Kelly, Tim Conway, Charlene Fusco The 84-year-old television legend is reportedly suffering from severe dementia. That's according to documents filed by his daughter, and obtained by People on Friday. The outlet is reporting that Tim's daughter Kelly is seeking to become conservator of her ailing father. Unfortunate: Television legend Tim Conway, 84, is suffering from severe dementia (pictured in 2013) That appointment would afford her power over much of his affairs, including his medical treatments. It seems Conway's wife Charlene's recent actions motivated Kelly to get involved with her father's care. The documents stated that Charlene, to whom the comic legend has been married to since 1984, is 'planning to move him out of the excellent skilled nursing facility he is currently at.' Controversial? It seems Conway's wife Charlene's recent actions motivated Kelly, 56, to get involved with her father's care (couple pictured together in 2005) Instead, he would be placed in a facility where he won't have access to 'registered nurses at all times and his 24-hour caregiver and speech therapist (to help with swallowing).' A sad description went on to describe that Tim can no longer 'properly provide for his personal needs for physical health, food, and clothing.' In addition, the once animated actor is apparently 'almost entirely unresponsive.' Beginning a career: 1962's McHale's Navy was his first big break, and gave him a chance to play opposite Hollywood icon Ernest Borgnine (Tim pictured right) Tim, who is originally from Ohio, is primarily famous for several television roles he played back in the 1960s and 1970s. 1962's McHale's Navy was his first big break, and gave him a chance to play opposite Hollywood icon Ernest Borgnine. But it was his numerous appearances on the famed Carol Burnett Show that netted him a Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe in 1976. Margot Robbie has a huge movie career. But the Australian actress is making sure her carbon footprint is considerably smaller. On Friday, the 28-year-old urged fans to 'live sustainably' beneath an Instagram photo that showed her frolicking in a field with her younger brother Cameron. Green goddess! On Friday, Margot Robbie (right) urged fans to 'live cleaner and more sustainably' as she shared a powerful post about protecting the planet 'We only have one Earth and I want to keep on enjoying what it has to offer but we need to protect it, live more sustainably and cleaner,' Margot wrote. She added: 'Remember, it's the power of the many not the few that will make a difference.' Margot was spruiking Nissan cars, as she then stated: 'That's just one of the reasons I went electric @nissaneurope #electrifytheworld #zeroemission #ad.' 'We only have one Earth and I want to keep on enjoying what it has to offer': Margot revealed she is now driving an electric car as she sets to reduce her carbon footprint The accompanying picture showed Margot and Cameron relishing their natural surrounds as they jumped into the air. Cameron, who is currently based in Sydney and is quickly becoming a popular star in his own right, left a witty reply on his sister's photo. 'Discussing the important thing - let's not leave our future up in the air. Get it??' he wrote. Brotherly love: Margot's post featured her brother Cameron (centre) who is seen here with his famous sister earlier (right) this year Margot, 28, is currently hard at work in Los Angeles on Quentin Tarantino's highly-anticipated film, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. In the movie, the blonde beauty will be playing Sharon Tate, the actress who was brutally murdered at her LA home by members of the Manson family in 1969 The all-star film is also set to star Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Dakota Fanning. She's an up-and-coming model. And Sofia Richie looked every bit the stunner while out to dinner at celeb hot-spot Nobu in Malibu on Friday. The 20-year-old daughter of Lionel Richie wowed in a black tank which made a fine display of her cleavage and abs. Wow: Sofia Richie looked lovely in a black miniskirt and tiny crop top while out to dinner at Nobu in Malibu on Friday Sofia continued to show off her stellar figure with a mini-skirt that zipped down the center seductively. Elevating her form, she added strappy stiletto heels. The beauty pulled her hair back into a high bun and kept up a makeup minimal glow. Bun's the word: She pulled her hair back into a high bun and kept up a makeup minimal glow. Standing tall: Elevating her form, she added strappy stiletto heels Sofia added an eclectic touch with a bohemian looking bag. Boyfriend Scott Disick could be seen getting out of the other side of their car and making a quick entrance into the sushi eatery. The night prior the couple also enjoyed sushi, but it was at a restaurant in Calabasas. Hippie chic! Sofia added an eclectic touch with a bohemian looking bag Sofia celebrated her 20th birthday on August 24. For the occasion she and Scott traveled to Mexico. Scott and Sofia have now been dating for 18 months, after they were first pictured kissing while in Cannes last May. Ryan Thomas broke down in tears and claimed his 'life is in tatters' as he struggled to cope with the aftermath of allegedly punching Roxanne Pallett - who has now quit the show. The 34-year-old soap star was seeking solace from his Celebrity Big Brother housemates in scenes shown on the live feed, aired after Ben Jardine's eviction on Friday night. Ryan was given a formal warning by Big Brother on Thursday's episode of the show after he appeared to playfully punch Roxanne, yet she claimed it had left her in pain. Emotional: Ryan Thomas broke down in tears and claimed his 'life is in tatters' as he struggled to cope with the aftermath of allegedly punching Roxanne Pallett - who has now quit the show Speaking about how he is feeling in light of the row, Ryan admitted: 'Really, really really bad. I just don't get it. My life's in tatters...' Longing to be with his family and friends, he mused that they all have 'got my back...' adding: 'I just want to see them all.' Later on in the feed, Ryan screamed out: 'F***ing get me out of here now!' Quit: On Saturday morning, it was revealed that Roxanne had quit the show. A Celebrity Big Brother spokesperson said: 'Roxanne has decided to leave the BB House' Celebrity Big Brother's Roxanne Pallett and Ryan Thomas punch row: A timeline THE ROW: THURSDAY AUGUST 30 Punch row: Roxanne Pallett accused Ryan Thomas of assaulting her after he playfully jabbed her on Celebrity Big Brother Coronation Street star Ryan Thomas, 34, playfully jabbed Roxanne Pallett, 35, which later led to her saying he was a woman beater on Thursday's CBB Roxanne expressed her concern in the Diary Room and demanded for Ryan to be removed from the house In addition to this, she asked if she could sleep in a separate room because she didn't feel safe After reviewing the footage, Ryan was given a formal warning by Channel 5 THE AFTERMATH: FRIDAY AUGUST 31 Public outrage: More than 11,000 viewers complained to Ofcom over the scandal More than 11,000 viewers complained to Ofcom in defence of Ryan, complaining he was 'obviously play fighting' and 'hardly touched her' Roxanne was accused of 'setting back' the work of domestic abuse charities, while her social media accounts were deleted on Friday morning On Friday's show, Roxanne confided in housemate Ben Jardine as she alluded to the incident, branding it as 'bad' SOCIAL BACKLASH: FRIDAY AUGUST 31 Backlash: A slew of celebs defended Ryan and called the actress 'manipulative' 21 of her former Emmerdale co-stars called her out for her calculated and manipulative behaviour on social media Thomas's girlfriend and reality TV star Lucy Mecklenburgh called for Pallett to be removed from the show, adding that she does not think she is in a 'fit' state of mind. Her Wikipedia page was hacked, with details changed to say her career ended in 2018 when she appeared on Celebrity Big Brother THE REACTION: FRIDAY AUGUST 31 Emotional: Viewers watched Ryan Thomas break down in tears, worrying his career is 'ruined' after the accusations Viewers watched Ryan Thomas break down in tears, worrying his career was 'ruined' The pair hashed out their differences as he insisted he was 'showing his affection' Upon her friend Ben Jardine's eviction, Roxanne heard the crowd chant 'Get Roxy Out', leaving her questioning what she had done wrong Ryan broke down saying it was what he 'needed to hear' as the housemates turned on Roxanne THE SHOCK DEPARTURE: SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 1 Exit: The former Emmerdale star broke down in tears, saying: 'I'm going home' Sally and Nick are vocal in their support of Ryan, with former broker Nick urging Roxanne to 'do the right thing', and 'tell the truth' The former Emmerdale star later breaks down in tears in the show's Diary Room, saying: 'I'm going home, I need out, I need to go' Viewers took to social media, sharing their glee at the news she left but others vented they felt she had taken the 'easy way out' It is not clear if she will be forced to hand back her 75,000 fee after her dramatic exit. THE APOLOGY: MONDAY SEPTEMBER 3 Apology: Roxanne said: 'I got it completely wrong' and hopes Ryan will forgive her Appearing on Jeremy Vine, Roxanne has now said she didn't know she was wrong until she reviewed clip and hopes Ryan will forgive her She believes past domestic violence has made her overly sensitive She apologised for 'trivialising' the issue of domestic violence She claimed she was advised not to be on the show and wasn't being paid She said: 'I got it completely wrong' Advertisement He added: 'I feel emotionally absolutely battered. It came from nowhere, absolutely nowhere.' The star - who is dating Lucy Mecklenburgh - then vowed he will 'try his best' to patch things up with Roxanne despite their differing views on the incident. Earlier in the show, Ryan apologised to Roxanne over their explosive 'punch' row as he insisted he was 'showing my affection' after 'playfully' punching the actress. He said: 'I honestly want you to know I was showing my affection. Maybe it came across the wrong way, I just want to apologise. I want to put it to bed. I don't want it to affect other people in here.' In agreement, Roxanne responded: 'I don't want this to be our ending.' Tough times: The 34-year-old soap star was seeking solace from his Celebrity Big Brother housemates in scenes shown on the live feed, aired after Ben Jardine's eviction on Friday On Saturday morning, it was revealed that Roxanne had quit the show. A Celebrity Big Brother spokesperson said: 'Roxanne has decided to leave the BB House. The remaining housemates have been informed.' Roxanne had been accused of 'setting back' the work of domestic abuse charities after she accused a fellow contestant of punching her during a 'play fight'. She broke down in tears after labelling Ryan a 'woman beater' and called on producers of the Channel 5 show to kick out the fellow soap star. Working through it: The star - who is dating Lucy Mecklenburgh - then vowed he will 'try his best' to patch things up with Roxanne despite their differing views on the incident Following the accusations, outraged viewers took to social media in defence of Ryan, tweeting broadcasting watchdog Ofcom with their complaints. Many claimed Ryan was 'obviously play fighting' and 'hardly touched her' during the incident, which aired on last night's episode. An Ofcom spokesman told MailOnline it had received 11,215 complaints about last night's show. She said: 'We are assessing these complaints against our broadcasting rules, before deciding whether or not to investigate.' Ryan has now emerged as the bookies favourite to win, with bookmaker Coral, giving the star odds of 8-15 to win the show, taking over from Kirstie Alley, who has now dropped to 2-1. Coral's Harry Aitkenhead told Metro: 'The bets we are taking are only on Ryan and Kirstie and the last 24 or hours or so has seen a deluge on the former, making ex-Corrie star Thomas once again the odds on favourite with us as it stands.' Meanwhile, bookies predict that Dan Osborne will be the next to leave at 16-1. Ryan was favourite to win before he even entered the show, getting 3/1 odds in the days before the show started. Erin Barnett and Eden Dally are one of Love Island Australia's strongest couples. So it was a surprise that Erin appeared to be absent from Eden's 26th birthday celebrations in Sydney on Friday night. The hunky prison officer was seen celebrating on board a boat with Love Island co-star Natasha Webster, and the pair were spotted linking arms and getting cosy on the vessel. What will Erin say? On Friday, Eden Dally was spotted getting cosy with Love Island co-star Natasha Webster (pictured) as he celebrated his 26th birthday in Sydney... while girlfriend Erin Barnett was nowhere to be seen On his best behaviour! Eden wore a shirt that featured the word 'saint' splashed across the chest as he wrapped his arm around Natasha At one point, Eden and Natasha linked arms as they drank from red cups while on board the boat. Meanwhile, 24-year-old Natasha looked alluring as she showed some skin in a skimpy black dress. The blonde didn't appear to feel the winter chill, perhaps protected from the sea breeze by Eden's burly body. All aboard! The pair were seen drinking from red plastic cups as they waved to onlookers Protected: Scantily-clad Natasha didn't appear to feel the winter chill, perhaps protected from the sea breeze by Eden's burly body The prison officer donned a tight white T-shirt that showed off his hulking physique. Hinting that he was on his best behaviour, the garment featured the word 'saint' splashed across the chest. Both Eden and Natasha shared social media updates from the celebrations, with Love Island's Josh Moss and The Bachelorette's Davey Lloyd seen in the snaps. Time to party! Both Eden and Natasha shared social media updates from the celebrations Birthday treat! Eden was blessed with a bevvy of blonde beauties on board the boat It's unclear why Melbourne-based Erin did not attend the festivities, and the couple have not shared a photo together since August 18. The stunning nurse told New Idea on Monday that she and Eden were still together, and were even planning their wedding. 'We want to get married in a really nice big church,' Erin told the magazine. Keeping close: den was seen wrapping his arm around Natasha as they strolled along the docks of Sydney's Darling Harbour Reality stars: Eden and Natasha have been friends since appearing on Love Island Australia together Meanwhile, on Friday night, Eden was seen wrapping his arm around Natasha as they strolled along the docks of Sydney's Darling Harbour after disembarking the boat. The two caught up again the following day, enjoy lunch and a stroll along the water together. Natasha shared a selfie with Eden and captioned: 'So good catching up with the birthday boy'. Where was Erin? It's unclear why Melbourne-based Erin Barnett (pictured) did not attend the festivities, and the couple have not shared a photo together since August 18 She's set to walk down the aisle later this month to company director Dean 'Vee' Vicelich. And on Friday night, former Bachelor star Bec Chin decided to enjoy one last hurrah as an unmarried woman by throwing a wild bachelorette party in Sydney. The 31-year-old was joined by a group of glamorous girlfriends, including fellow Bachelor star Kiki Morris. 'Welcome to Bec's bachelorette party!' Former Bachelor star Bec Chin celebrated her hen's night on Friday ahead of her wedding to Dean 'Vee' Vicelich Bachelor villain Emily Simms was also invited, but the makeup artist was unable to attend due to being away in Bali with new husband Pierre Ghougassian. Commenting on one of Bec's Instagram photos, the former reality star wrote: 'Wish I was there with you all! You looked so gorgeous hun! Glad you had an awesome night.' Bec showcased her trim pins in a bridal white mini-dress and accessorised with a sash. Will you accept this cocktail? The 31-year-old was joined by a group of glamorous girlfriends, including fellow Bachelor star Kiki Morris Looking good! Bec showcased her incredible figure in a bridal white mini-dress Sharing images of the night to Instagram, Bec wrote: 'Words can not describe how absolutely perfect my hens was last night! 'I am beyond lucky to be surrounded by these strong, empowering and beautiful women! Thank you all so much for the most INCREDIBLE night! 3 WEEKS TO GO!' Bec and Dean recently sold their swanky Wentworth apartment for $726,000. The soon-to-be newlyweds then relocated to another Sydney suburb, Chipping Norton, leaving behind their old home for another abode further out from the city. Life in the suburbs! Bec and Dean recently sold their swanky Wentworth apartment for $726,000 and moved out to the suburbs Bec found fame vying for Sam Wood's heart in the 2015 season of The Bachelor, only to lose out to his eventual fiancee Snezana Markoski. But the nutritionist had her own fairy tale ending when she struck up a romance with former rugby league player turned company director Dean. Bec gave birth to their daughter Savannah Rose in December 2017, announcing on Instagram: 'Welcome to the world Savannah Rose Vicelich. Out of our dreams and into our lives 28.12.17.' She recently 'replaced' Jennifer Hawkins as the face of Myer. And on Saturday, Elyse Knowles showed exactly why she got the coveted job as she strutted her stuff in the Myer runway show in Perth. The 25-year-old showed off her gym-homed physique as she strutted down the runway in a gingham bikini. Sizzling hot! Elyse Knowles flaunts her toned abs and pert derriere in a bikini at the Myer runway show in Perth... after replacing Jennifer Hawkins as the face of the department store The Block star flaunted her toned derriere in the cute two-piece, and also displayed her incredible abs. The bubbly blonde also modelled some flirty frocks and cocktail dresses during a show in Perth on Friday. Elyse's career has gone from strength to strength since she won The Block last year. In addition to nabbing the Myer gig, the model also became the face of Seafolly swimwear and Davidoff's Cool Water fragrance. From the side: The Block star flaunted her toned derriere in the cute two-piece, and also displayed her incredible abs Work it! The 25-year-old showed off her flawless physique as she strutted down the runway in a gingham bikini Lace: The bubbly blonde also modelled some flirty frocks and cocktail dresses during a show on Friday in Perth (pictured) Elyse recently shut down rumours of a rivalry between herself and veteran Myer ambassador Jennifer Hawkins. Speaking with Sunday's Stellar, the stunner said the former Miss Universe has always been 'an inspiration'. 'We're in the Myer family together, which is nice,' she told the publication. All smiles! Elyse couldn't contain her joy as she walked down the runway tailed by a bunch of models Let's party! The former reality star looked like she was ready to celebrate She can pull off ANY look! The Instagram sensation worked the runway in a variety of different ensembles, from a pantsuit to cocktail frocks 'Jen was a big inspiration to try and get (the same job) myself one day,' she continued. The praise comes mere days after Elyse said a similar thing to The Daily Telegraph at the Myer Spring Summer launch in Sydney on Thursday. 'I have admired Jen for so long for her business sense and her ambition,' Elyse told the publication. 'Jen was a big inspiration': Elyse recently shut down rumours of a rivalry between herself and veteran Myer ambassador Jennifer Hawkins Jennifer, 34, took to Instagram earlier this month to make the announcement that she will retire as Myer ambassador in November, after Elyse reportedly inked a deal for $300,00 to replace her. Rumoured to have left over an alleged 'pay dispute', the beauty spoke highly of the department store - writing: 'Myer will always hold a special place in my heart.' 'After 12 years it's time to move onto a new a chapter in my life. I'll be finishing up my role with Myer this November,' she began. New face: Jennifer, 34, took to Instagram earlier this month to make the announcement that she will retire as Myer ambassador in November, after Elyse reportedly inked a deal for $300,00 to replace her Black and white: The blonde beamed after slipping into a flirty little polka dot dress 'But I would like to take this moment to thank everyone at Myer - the staff, the amazing designers, the suppliers and everyone else for working alongside me over those 12 years. 'Myer will always hold a special place in my heart and I wish the Myer team every success for the future.' Jennifer is now focusing on her other ventures, including her line of fake tanning products and tequila company. Royal blue: Elyse changed into a classy off-the-shoulder dress in royal blue They are playing the leading roles in Harry Potter franchise Fantastic Beasts. And Eddie Redmayne, 36, and Jude Law, 45, stunned fans when they made a surprise appearance at Kings Cross station in London for the annual Back to Hogwarts day on Saturday morning. To mark September 1st, where wizards and witches board the Hogwarts Express to travel to the school, the actors posed at Platform 9 3/4- much to the delight of the crowd. Wizards: Eddie Redmayne, 36, and Jude Law, 45, stunned fans when they made a surprise appearance at Kings Cross for the annual Back to Hogwarts day on Saturday morning Eddie, who plays Newt Scamander in the Fantastic Beast films, was casually-clad for the occasion in a brown suede jacket, which he layered atop of a red checked shirt. He paired the look with blue chinos and white trainers, while Jude, who has taken on the role of a younger Albus Dumbledore, opted for a grey ribbed jumper and black cargo trousers. In keeping with their characters, the pair posed with their trolley full of luggage as they prepared to head through the barrier into the magical world. Harry Potter mania: To mark September 1st, where wizards and witches board the Hogwarts Express to travel to the school, the actors posed at Platform 9 3/4 Handsome: Eddie, who plays Newt Scamander in the Fantastic Beast films, was casually-clad for the occasion in a brown suede jacket, which he layered atop of a red checked shirt Fans could hardly hide their disbelief at the actors' surprise appearance, with thousands turning up to the annual day to mark the event. Jude and Eddie have recently been on a promotional tour for the sequel to Fantastic Beasts, ahead of The Crimes of Grindelwald November release date. The Crimes of Grindelwald will once again be fronted by Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them protagonist Newt Scamander (Eddie) who links up with a young Albus Dumbledore (Jude) in the hopes of stopping the evil Gellert Grindelwald. Dapper: Jude, who has taken on the role of a younger Albus Dumbledore, opted for a grey ribbed jumper and black cargo trousers as he posed with fans Surprise! Fans could hardly hide their disbelief at the actors' surprise appearance, with thousands turning up to the annual day to mark the event Jude's Hollywood counterpart Johnny Depp depicts the villainous Grindelwald in the movie, though the actors share no scenes together in the upcoming flick - though their paths should inevitably cross later in the movie franchise. Discussing the film at Comic Con in July, Jude said: 'There's an awful lot at stake, it's very much about whose side you are on in the story. 'The muggle world [and] the wizarding world [are] somewhat pitted against each other but also the wizards within the wizarding world are suddenly asked what side are they on, what side of the line they choose to join. 'So, everything is at stake really, I don't know, I'd say it's possibly... the depths and the darkness in this story are possibly the darkest that this world has [seen] before.' In May, Rowling revealed she's working on the screenplay for a third Fantastic Bests movie. She's a Hollywood acting heavyweight with an eye for fashion and two Oscar gongs to her name. And Cate Blanchett proved her sartorial prowess once again on Saturday, when she arrived at the luncheon with Chopard during the Venice Film Festival in Italy. Celebrating the event that also acts as a launch for the Green Carpet Fashion Awards 2018, the Australian actress, 49, looked glamorous in a monochrome print gown. Stunning: Cate Blanchett looked glamorous in a quirky gown as she attended luncheon with Salma Hayek in Venice on Saturday The elegant gown was adorned with drawings of women, giving her ensemble an artistic flair as she cinched it at the waist with a large black belt. Adding to her already statuesque height, Cate stepped out in pointed black heels and kept her accessories to a minimum with a pair of gold dangling earrings. The starlet let her cropped blonde locks fall into a sleek, straight style, and she wore light touches of make-up to accentuate her pretty features. Stylish: The elegant gown was adorned with drawings of women, giving her ensemble an artistic flair as she cinched it at the waist with a large black belt Looking good: The starlet let her cropped blonde locks fall into a sleek, straight style, and she wore light touches of make-up to accentuate her pretty features Cate was joined at the lavish event by Salma Hayek, who opted for more comfortable attire as she paired jeans with a simple white T-Shirt. The actress, 51, kept warm with a black blazer that had a lace-trim across the bottom and the sides, while she accessorised with a dark pendant. Salma styled her raven tresses into loose waves, and made sure to highlight her plump pout with a slick of red lipstick. The pair were also joined by Italian actress Stefania Rocca, who looked stylish in a monochrome floor-length gown. Casual: Cate was joined at the lavish event by Salma Hayek, who opted for more comfortable attire as she paired jeans with a simple white T-Shirt Cate is set to star in the children's fantasy film The House With A Clock In Its Walls, but she recently admitted that she's not certain about how much longer she will keep acting. She said: 'I don't know what I am going to do next as an actor, I never do really. But I feel like I've probably got a couple more years left in it, before I lose my sanity.' Cate is mother to sons Dashiell John, 16, Roman Robert, 14, Ignatius Martin, 10, and adopted daughter Edith, four, with husband Andrew Upton, 52. The House with a Clock in Its Walls is released on 21 September. They are one of the most elusive couples in Hollywood. And Anne Hathaway proudly displayed her love for husband Adam Shulman as they both stepped out at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday. The Oscar-winning actress, 35, put on quite a leggy display in a billowing grey tunic dress, and her beau, 37, couldn't take his eyes off the stunning beauty as they made their way to the boat. Venice Film Festival: Anne Hathaway's husband Adam Shulman couldn't take his eyes off his stunning wife as they made a rare appearance at the star-studded event Anne teetered through the cobbles in a pair of sparkling jeweled heels and toted a chic white leather clutch bag for the glamorous evening. The Les Miserables star looked ever the A-list beauty with sophisticated cat-eyed shades and added extra glam with gold statement earrings. Anne styled her chestnut locks in a sleek straight 'do while nude make-up highlighted her natural beauty. Glamorous: The Oscar-winning actress, 35, put on quite a leggy display in a billowing grey tunic dress Actor husband Adam looked just as stylish in his evening attire, pairing a white polo shirt with a black jumper and matching slacks. The silver fox sported some scruff around his jawline as he accompanied his love to the boat before heading to the star-studded red carpet. Anne and Adam no doubt enjoyed some couple's time together as the couple raise their son Jonathan, two, together. The showbiz couple got married in 2012 in a traditional Jewish ceremony in California's Big Sur. Stylish couple: Anne teetered through the cobbles in a pair of sparkling jeweled heels and toted a chic white leather clutch bag for the glamorous evening Stepping out: The Les Miserables star looked ever the A-list beauty with sophisticated cat-eyed shades and added extra glam with gold statement earrings Their outing comes after Anne opened up about the empowering, body-positive environment on the set of Ocean's Eight earlier this year. The New York City native said she grew close with her famed castmates in the film - including Rihanna, Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Mindy Kaling, Helena Bonham Carter, Awkwafina, Sarah Paulson and Dakota Fanning. 'I'd met a couple of them before but I wasn't close with anybody: Now we're all close,' The Princess Diaries star said. Making an entrance: Anne styled her chestnut locks in a sleek straight 'do while nude make-up highlighted her natural beauty Handsome: Actor husband Adam looked just as stylish in his evening attire, pairing a white polo shirt with a black jumper and matching slacks On their way: The silver fox sported some scruff around his jawline as he accompanied his love to the boat before heading to the star-studded red carpet 'It just was this huge, huge love fest, which is great, cause there's this terrible rumour out there that women can't get along,' Anne said. 'And man, did we just murder that rumor. We just loved each other so much and it was so special.' Hathaway said that the support she received from her colleagues was 'really significant,' as it was her first appearance in a film after giving birth to her son in April of 2016. 'After I had my son, the weight was really slow to come off and I was a different size than I normally am,' she said. 'And the director [Gary Ross] told me, "That's great, we have eight women in this movie and need to have as many body types as we can."' Time off: Anne and Adam no doubt enjoyed some couple's time together as the couple raise their son Jonathan, two, together Confidence: Their outing comes after Anne opened up about the empowering, body-positive environment on the set of Ocean's Eight earlier this year Helping hand: Anne gracefully made her way to the boat for the glamorous evening Hathaway said she received a huge boost as she went to work, as many of her celeb colleagues showered her with compliments about her post-baby body. 'I walked on the set and I'm in my jeans and I've done my best and I'm gonna love myself no matter what,' said Anne. 'And Sandy Bullock just looks up and says, "Looking good, mama." Ooh, that made me feel amazing.' Anne continued: 'And then Cate Blanchett's like, "Nice jeans Hathaway." And then Rihanna looks up and goes, "Damn girl, you got an a**"... and I of course was freaked out and loved it so much. And I was like, "Really?"' Rihanna continued, 'You got an a** like me!' She's a Hollywood acting heavyweight with two Oscar gongs to her name. And Cate Blanchett looked every inch the screen star on Saturday night, as she attended the Suspiria premiere during the Venice Film Festival. The 49-year-old Australian actress exuded retro glamour in a showstopping one-shoulder gown and Forties-style waves. Showstopping: Cate Blanchett, 49, exuded Old Hollywood glamour in a silky one-shoulder gown and retro waves at the Suspiria premiere during the Venice Film Festival on Saturday The Talented Mr Ripley star certainly took centre-stage in her garment, which featured a satin bodice with an accentuated shoulder and a vampy velvet skirt. Styling her hair into sleek pin curls, Cate highlighted her striking features with glossy nude lipstick and metallic eyeshadow. Cate is set to star in the children's fantasy film The House With A Clock In Its Walls, but she recently admitted that she's not certain about how much longer she will keep acting. She said: 'I don't know what I am going to do next as an actor, I never do really. But I feel like I've probably got a couple more years left in it, before I lose my sanity.' Looking good: The Talented Mr Ripley star certainly took centre-stage in her garment, which featured a satin bodice with an accentuated shoulder and a vampy velvet skirt The mane attraction: She styled her glossy golden locks into sleek pin curls Cate is mother to sons Dashiell John, 16, Roman Robert, 14, Ignatius Martin, 10, and adopted daughter Edith, four, with husband Andrew Upton, 52. The House with a Clock in Its Walls is released on 21 September. arlier this week, Cate relived the horrors she saw when she visited camps full of Rohingya refugees forced to flee Myanmar in a speech to the UN. In a speech to the Security Council in New York on Tuesday, the actress said nothing prepared her for 'the extent and depth of suffering' she saw when she visited camps in Bangladesh for the refugees who fled a violent crackdown by Myanmar's military. Preened to perfection: Cate highlighted her striking features with glossy nude lipstick and metallic eyeshadow The finishing touches: Blanchett complemented her outfit with dazzling gem drop earrings Cate said she heard 'gut-wrenching accounts' of torture, rape, people seeing loved ones killed before their eyes, and children thrown into fire and burned alive. 'I am a mother, and I saw my children in the eyes of every single refugee child I met,' she said. I saw myself in every parent. How can any mother endure seeing her child thrown into a fire?' 'Their experiences will never leave me,' the two-time Academy Award winner told the packed building at the UN headquarters in New York. Cate visited the refugee camps in Bangladesh in her role as a goodwill ambassador for the UN refugee agency in March this year. Set to retire? Cate is set to star in the children's fantasy film The House With A Clock In Its Walls, but she recently admitted that she's not certain about how much longer she will keep acting Candid: She said: 'I don't know what I am going to do next as an actor, I never do really' She is a rising star of the acting world and fashion muse. And Elle Fanning proved her sartorial credentials as she stepped out on the red carpet for the screening of her film Galveston during the 44th Deauville US Film Festival in France on Saturday. The Maleficent actress, 20, looked like a fairytale princess in a dazzling gold cut-out gown, with a scanty bejeweled top set with a sparkling bow detail. Stunning: Elle Fanning, 20, looked every inch the fairytale princess in a at the Deauville US Film Festival in France on Saturday Elle's minuscule waist was on full display in her saucy cut-outs while a billowing tulle skirt cascaded to the floor. The Super 8 star injected yet more sparkle to her stunning ensemble with glittering bangles and rings, and upped the ante with a decadent up'do. Elle flaunted her natural glow with golden make-up as she playfully swished her delicate train on the red carpet, and larked around with the film's director Melanie Laurent. Billowing: The Maleficent actress dazzled in a gold cut-out gown, with a scanty bejeweled top set with a sparkling bow detail Stunning: Elle's minuscule waist was on full display in her saucy cut-outs while a billowing tulle skirt cascaded to the floor Playful: The Super 8 star injected yet more sparkle to her stunning ensemble with glittering bangles and rings, and upped the ante with a decadent up'do Princess: Elle looked totally in her element as she posed with passion on the red carpet Swish! Elle playfully lifted her tulle skirt to show off the outfit's full drama Sparkling: The star glittered from head to toe, with jewels lining her bralette top and around her tiny waist Smiles: Elle looked in a great spirits as she posed for fans with a beaming grin Earlier in the day, the star exuded glamour as she stepped out at the photocall for Galveston, and looked sensational in a flirty white mini dress which featured an elegant scalloped neckline. The chic dress cinched in at her slender waist and flared out into an elegant A-line skirt, revealing her toned legs. She added height to her frame with metallic sandals. Her blonde tresses were styled sleek and straight while her pretty features were enhanced with a rich palette of make-up. Looking delighted as she posed up with her director Melanie Laurent, the star put on an animated display. Floaty: Elle made the most out of her stunning ensemble as she turned heads in the billowing design Posing up a storm: Having grown up in showbusiness, Elle appeared a total pro on the red carpet, as she exuded confidence while in front of the cameras Making waves: Elle teased her glamorous footwear as she played with her tulle skirt Starry eyed: Elle flaunted her natural glow with golden make-up as she playfully swished her delicate train on the red carpet, and larked around with the film's director Melanie Laurent Larking around: Melanie and Elle enjoyed a good laugh as they posed sweetly on the red carpet Chic: Elle exuded glamour as she stepped out at the photocall for her new film Galveston earlier in the day Radiant: She looked sensational in a flirty white mini dress which featured an elegant scalloped neckline Sensational: The chic dress cinched in at her slender waist and flared out into an elegant A-line skirt, revealing her toned legs Glowing: Her blonde tresses were styled sleek and straight while her pretty features were enhanced with a rich palette of make-up Playful: The star looked delighted to be promoting the film Laugh out loud: Elle shared a warm laugh with director Melanie Laurent Chic: The two blonde beauties looked sensational as they posed Galveston tells the tale of a dying hitman who, after escaping a set-up, returns to his hometown of Galveston where he plots his revenge. It will be released on October 19 2018. As well as conquering the film world, Fanning made her runway debut back in March when she walked in Miu Miu's autumn/winter 2018 fashion show during Paris Fashion Week. She was granted the honor of opening and closing the show. Leggy: Elle flashed a radiant smile as she posed up for the snappers Embrace: The duo looked close as they held hands for the photocall Lead role: Galveston tells the tale of a dying hitman who, after escaping a set-up, returns to his hometown of Galveston where he plots his revenge 'It was insane! It was so much fun, but I was so nervous,' she told Net-A-Porter in an interview. 'My heart was pounding so much. My adrenaline was just through the roof.' In an interview with Selena Gomez for LOVE Magazine, Elle talked about her personal style. 'I think my style is quote boyish. Or it can be. Which maybe the public don't see as much,' she explained. 'I think when most people think of me, they think about the big ball gowns and the puffy princess dresses, and I love dressing up in that way. 'There is no dressing like a man or woman now; the sex doesn't matter so much. I like that being undefined. I don't want to be just one thing.' Hilary Duff stepped out in a Western-inspired ensemble on Saturday. The mother-of-two looked lovely in a sleeveless, denim Bella Dahl dress, paired with a neutral-colored, 10-gallon cowgirl hat. Her bump stood out quite a bit as she is due in just a few months. The mother to son Luca was on her way to Alfred's coffee shop in Studio City. Looking relaxed: On Saturday, Hilary Duff, 30, stepped out in a Western-inspired, casual ensemble during a coffee run at Alfred's in Studio City The 30-year-old added extra comfort to her look with a set of white sneakers. The pretty blonde wore her medium length hair down and in piecy waves. The Lizzie McGuire star kept her make-up minimal, allowing her natural glow to shine through. Hilary accessorized with several items of layered jewelry, including bracelets and rings. Her wardrobe: The mother-of-two looked lovely in a sleeveless, denim Bella Dahl dress, paired with a neutral-colored, 10-gallon hat Effortless: The pretty blonde wore her medium length hair down and in piecy waves In June, Hilary announced that she was expecting her second child, a girl. The Houston, Texas native is welcoming her little one with musician boyfriend Matthew Koma, 31. The Younger star is already a mom to son Luca Cruz, six, whom she shares with ex-husband, Mike Comrie, 37. Coming soon: The Houston, Texas native is welcoming her second child with musician boyfriend Matthew Koma, 31 The couple, who have dated on-and-off for a total of three times, have already decided on their daughter's name. 'It was the very first thing [we picked],' Hilary said in an interview with People. 'We've known her name for a really long time. Her name starts with a B, and I keep calling her baby B, which is awesome because people are like, "Oh, no, it's just because of his [real] last name.' " '...It's unique but it's not too weird. The name that we first thought we were gonna use is going to be her middle name, so we're like, "Let's not stress over this anymore." ' Jaclyn Smith broke down in tears when being interviewed in the living room of her Beverly Hills mansion. The 72-year-old Charlie's Angels actress discussed her life during a teaser for Sunday's episode of the FOX News Channel's Objectified. 'I saw a grief counselor and asked, "Is this much crying abnormal?"' the brunette beauty said as she then broke down in tears. Sad times: Jaclyn Smith broke down in tears when being interviewed in the living room of her Beverly Hills mansion Emotional: The 72-year-old Charlie's Angels actress was seen in a teaser for this Sunday's talk show Objectified for Fox 'I said I wasn't going to cry on TV!' she added as she started to tear up on the sofa. It is not known why she visited a grief counselor. It could have been over the death of her second husband, Dennis Cole, who appeared on Charlie's Angels with her. He passed away in 2009. Or is could have been the passing of her Charlie's Angels co-star Farrah Fawcett who also died in 2009. Gone too soon: It could have been about the passing of her Charlie's Angels co-star Farrah Fawcett who also died in 2009. Also seen with Kate Jackson A good life: The TV siren was seen in her home with her magazine covers framed in the background and her wigs on display Smith also showed off the black sculpture of a nude torso that Fawcett gave her before she died of cancer. It is not clear if the nude is of Farrah or not. 'Doesn't it look like Farrah?' is all Jaclyn would say. Smith rocketed to fame in the 1970s when she played Kelly Garrett on the hit TV series Charlie's Angels about three stunningly gorgeous women who work as spies for a man they have never seen, only heard on a speakerphone. Gift: Smith also showed off the black sculpture of a nude torso that Fawcett gave her before she died of cancer Beautiful: It is not clear if the nude is of Farrah or not. 'Doesn't it look like Farrah?' is all Jaclyn would say Smith - who started off as a model - also did several TV movies. And she started designing clothing and accessories for K-Mart, which she still does. The interview took place in her Beverly Hills mansion and reveals her antiques and penchant for solid wood furniture, velvet sofas and crystal. She also teared up in June when she was interviewed at home about growing up in Texas. It is not known what that interview was for. Dressed just right: Smith wore a white blouse and black-and-white slacks She shared images from an interview she did in Beverly Hills with members from the Lone Star state. 'I did an interview with fellow Texans about my childhood and growing up in Texas,' said the brunette who has also starred in several TV movies like 1983's Rage Of Angels. 'It was such fun reminiscing about all of those wonderful memories that will be a part of my life forever.' Her big hit: Smith rocketed to fame in the 1970s when she played Kelly Garrett on the hit TV series Charlie's Angels. Here she is seen with Farrah and Kate as well as Cheryl Ladd and David Doyle Her joy: The cover girl seen here with husband at the time Anthony Richmond and their daughter Spencer in 1987 Smith looked slender in a beige sweater with white slacks and beige booties. At one point Smith is seen wiping tears from her eyes. Smith, born Jacquelyn Ellen Smith, is from Houston, Texas. She graduated from Mirabeau B. Lamar High School in 1964 and attended Trinity University in San Antonio. After college, the siren moved to New York City with hopes of dancing with the ballet. But then she started doing commercials for beauty products like Breck Shampoo in 1971. In 1976 she was cast in Charlie's Angels and she was on the show for the full run until 1981. Ben Jardine's pregnant girlfriend has accused Roxanne Pallett of 'teasing' him and leading him on in the Celebrity Big Brother house. Silvia Sanchis, who is 29 weeks pregnant with Ben's baby, said she was horrified to see him kiss the engaged former Emmerdale actress and declare his love for her. The 'heartbroken' Spanish yoga teacher, 41, also fumed that Roxanne, 35, is 'just as guilty' as Ben and said she's to blame for 'pressing all of Ben's buttons'. Not impressed: Ben Jardine's pregnant girlfriend has accused Roxanne Pallett (pictured together) of 'teasing' him and leading him on in the Celebrity Big Brother house Ben has been flirting up a storm with Roxanne in the house, kissing her on the neck, calling her his 'soulmate' and saying he loves her - despite her being engaged to steel worker Lee Walton, 40. 'Roxanne's just as guilty as him. She's out of order. She has teased and sparked him into trying it on with her,' she told The Sun. 'Both of them needed to realise they've got people who care about them on the outside. He is acting like he's a single person but I'm in a relationship with him, I live in his house and I'm having his baby.' Oh dear: Silvia Sanchis, who is 29 weeks pregnant with Ben's baby, said she was horrified to see Ben kiss the engaged former Emmerdale actress and declare his love for her She added: 'It takes two to tango. I'm just as angry with her. She has been pressing all his buttons and I don't like it at all.' MailOnline has contacted Ben's representative for comment. Silvia said she felt 'betrayed' by Ben's actions and claimed both of them were showing that they 'take relationships very lightly'. 'It takes two to tango': The 'heartbroken' Spanish yoga teacher, 41, also fumed that the former Emmerdale actress, 35, is 'just as guilty' as Ben and said she's to blame for 'pressing all of Ben's buttons' Gutted: Silvia said: 'Both of them needed to realise they've got people who care about them on the outside. He is acting like he's a single person but I'm in a relationship with him, I live in his house and I'm having his baby' Celebrity Big Brother's Roxanne Pallett and Ryan Thomas punch row: A timeline THE ROW: THURSDAY AUGUST 30 Punch row: Roxanne Pallett accused Ryan Thomas of assaulting her after he playfully jabbed her on Celebrity Big Brother Coronation Street star Ryan Thomas, 34, playfully jabbed Roxanne Pallett, 35, which later led to her saying he was a woman beater on Thursday's CBB Roxanne expressed her concern in the Diary Room and demanded for Ryan to be removed from the house In addition to this, she asked if she could sleep in a separate room because she didn't feel safe After reviewing the footage, Ryan was given a formal warning by Channel 5 THE AFTERMATH: FRIDAY AUGUST 31 Public outrage: More than 11,000 viewers complained to Ofcom over the scandal More than 11,000 viewers complained to Ofcom in defence of Ryan, complaining he was 'obviously play fighting' and 'hardly touched her' Roxanne was accused of 'setting back' the work of domestic abuse charities, while her social media accounts were deleted on Friday morning On Friday's show, Roxanne confided in housemate Ben Jardine as she alluded to the incident, branding it as 'bad' SOCIAL BACKLASH: FRIDAY AUGUST 31 Backlash: A slew of celebs defended Ryan and called the actress 'manipulative' 21 of her former Emmerdale co-stars called her out for her calculated and manipulative behaviour on social media Thomas's girlfriend and reality TV star Lucy Mecklenburgh called for Pallett to be removed from the show, adding that she does not think she is in a 'fit' state of mind. Her Wikipedia page was hacked, with details changed to say her career ended in 2018 when she appeared on Celebrity Big Brother THE REACTION: FRIDAY AUGUST 31 Emotional: Viewers watched Ryan Thomas break down in tears, worrying his career is 'ruined' after the accusations Viewers watched Ryan Thomas break down in tears, worrying his career was 'ruined' The pair hashed out their differences as he insisted he was 'showing his affection' Upon her friend Ben Jardine's eviction, Roxanne heard the crowd chant 'Get Roxy Out', leaving her questioning what she had done wrong Ryan broke down saying it was what he 'needed to hear' as the housemates turned on Roxanne THE SHOCK DEPARTURE: SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 1 Exit: The former Emmerdale star broke down in tears, saying: 'I'm going home' Sally and Nick are vocal in their support of Ryan, with former broker Nick urging Roxanne to 'do the right thing', and 'tell the truth' The former Emmerdale star later breaks down in tears in the show's Diary Room, saying: 'I'm going home, I need out, I need to go' Viewers took to social media, sharing their glee at the news she left but others vented they felt she had taken the 'easy way out' It is not clear if she will be forced to hand back her 75,000 fee after her dramatic exit. THE APOLOGY: MONDAY SEPTEMBER 3 Apology: Roxanne said: 'I got it completely wrong' and hopes Ryan will forgive her Appearing on Jeremy Vine, Roxanne has now said she didn't know she was wrong until she reviewed clip and hopes Ryan will forgive her She believes past domestic violence has made her overly sensitive She apologised for 'trivialising' the issue of domestic violence She claimed she was advised not to be on the show and wasn't being paid She said: 'I got it completely wrong' Advertisement She said she is moving out of his house and feels there is an 80/20 chance of them splitting up. Ben met Silvia at a wedding six years ago at a wedding and they began talking again in December. They reportedly started dating eight months ago and moved in together in South London during the summer. Awkward: Ben has been flirting up a storm with Roxanne in the mansion, kissing her on the neck, calling her his 'soulmate' and saying he loves her - despite her being engaged to steel worker Lee Walton, 40 Ben, 41, played down their romance in the house, saying he was with an 'old friend' and hinting that it was a 'fling'. The reality star shot to fame this year on Married At First Sight where he met and married Stephanie Saint Remy. Stephanie has claimed that she was still dating Ben when he impregnated another woman - it is not known if she was talking about Silvia. Ben announced his marriage was over during an interview with FUBAR Radio in March, much to the shock of his wife Stephanie. Jack P Shepherd's lovechild, seven, is to be treated with cannabis oil amid his battle with crippling pain due to a rare genetic disorder. Little Greyson Milewski has the neurological condition, Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood (AHC), which causes temporary paralysis on one side of his body. His mother, Jack's former fling Sammy Milewski, has revealed she hopes to use the medical oil to help ease the pain of Greyson's paralysing attacks, which have been getting worse and now occur every day. Breakthrough: Jack P Shepherd's lovechild, seven, is to be treated with cannabis oil amid his battle with crippling pain due to a rare genetic disorder Sammy, 32 - who had a one-night stand with Jack in 2010 - can use the drug after a change in UK law makes it available through specialist doctors and hopes it will change Greyson's life. 'I have been fighting for two years for Greyson to be prescribed cannabis oil and doctors assure me they will give it the go-ahead by the end of November,' she told The Mirror. 'If you saw what Greyson goes through on a daily basis, it's heartbreaking. I don't want to have to keep him cooped up, it's really sad for him,' she added. 'I just want him to lead the happy life he deserves.' Horror: Little Greyson Milewski has the neurological condition, Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood (AHC), which causes temporary paralysis on one side of his body (pictured, Greyson with his mother Sammy) It is understood that Jack, 29, does not have a parental relationship with Greyson other than to pay maintenance, according to The Sun. Jack - who plays David Platt in Corrie - has two other children Nyla, six, and two-year-old Reuben with fiancee Lauren Shippey. Sammy has previously revealed the daily plight of the actor's forgotten disabled son, whose condition is so severe it has left him wanting to bite his own arm off. Hopes: Sammy Milewski has revealed she hopes to use the medical oil to help ease the pain of Greyson's paralysing attacks, which have been getting worse and now occur every day Last year, Sammy shared pictures of her little boy, captioned: 'Hate seeing my lil dude poorly,just stopped him biting an pulling his arm saying mummy arm t go. Another arm mummy. #heartbreaking #AHC' Greyson was diagnosed with AHC at the age of two. It is a rare condition thought to be limited to just 40 people in the UK. As part of the condition, paralysis in one or alternating sides of the body can last from minutes to days but it can also cause sudden attacks of uncontrollable muscle activity. Life-changing: Sammy, 32 - who had a one-night stand with Jack in 2010 - can use the drug after a change in UK law makes it available through specialist doctors and hopes it will change Greyson's life From a cognitive perspective, children suffering from AHC can be left with developmental delay or intellectual disability. Although Jack has never commented on his son publicly, he is known to support childrens charity Young Epilepsy. A DNA test confirmed that Jack was the father of Samatha's son Greyson not long after the birth in 2011, but Jack was unaware of his son's disability for the first two years of his life. The Warriors concede they won't get away with freezing on the NRL big stage in September. Stephen Kearney's men brought the curtain down on their best regular season in seven years with a jittery 20-16 win over Canberra in Auckland on Friday. It was the testing win they wanted but also highlighted frailties that will be exposed in the finals if not quickly addressed. Veteran forward Tohu Harris is particularly anxious about the errors that infected the hosts over the closing minutes as the Raiders threatened to snatch victory. Only scrambling defence and some lucky breaks prevented what would have been a deflating loss in Simon Mannering's 300th game. Harris, who played in the past two grand finals with Melbourne, says a repeat next week or beyond would be fatal. "You can't freeze up against the top teams in the competition when the whole competition's on the line," he said. "It might have come down to the occasion but we went away from the things that worked well for us throughout the match. "I'm glad we experienced that and we'll take the lessons from it." The Warriors could face any of Penrith, St George Illawarra or Brisbane in week one of the finals, probably in Australia. Crossing the Tasman shouldn't be off-putting having won recorded a club record eight wins outside Auckland in 2018. Kearney doesn't have a preference and is pleased his team will carry momentum with them, having won four of their past five games. Standards slipped against Canberra but the fact they muscled up against a big pack was invaluable. "We found a way to win, that's important. In the past few weeks, we've had physical teams (Roosters, Souths, Broncos) here and they've sort of bullied us off the park." Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call(HOUSTON) -- Texas Democrats are demanding an investigation into Republican Rep. John Culberson for what they say is his use of $50,000 in campaign funds to buy collectibles, books and Civil War memorabilia while claiming some of it was for research. Culberson's campaign calls it nothing more than an "obvious partisan attack." Daniel Cohen, a resident of Houston's 7th Congressional District, where Culberson is running for re-election, said he has filed complaints about the spending with the Federal Election Commission and Office of Congressional Ethics. He says he did so at the urging of the Texas Democratic Party. In a draft copy of the complaint provided to ABC News, Cohen urges the FEC to "immediately launch an investigation to determine whether approximately $17,000 in payments for Civil War memorabilia and almost $33,000 in payments disclosed for research purposes violated the prohibition on using campaign funds for personal use." "My priority is accountability. As a constituent in the district, I wanted to make sure the questions surrounding expenditures on memorabilia and other unusual items were proper and above board legally and ethically," Cohen, who is a Democrat, told ABC News. From 2010 to 2016, Culberson has reported selling between $575,000 and $1.3 million worth of collectibles, according to the congressman's personal finance disclosures for that time period. Since 2009, the congressman has reported spending more than $30,000 in campaign funds on books and other research materials. Democrats are also questioning Culberson's $300 purchase with campaign funds at The Black Hills Institute, which prides itself on helping supply collectors with "the finest in professionally prepared fossils and cast replicas," according to the geological company's website. Culberson's campaign team said the purchase was for books and maps to assist him in understanding paleoclimatology as the chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They say the money spent on these materials and others are simply just research required to aide Culberson in understanding different issues he oversees in Congress. Culberson's aides also say the congressman has a hobby of collecting Texas military and Civil War memorabilia but was not required to list the collectibles as assets on his personal disclosure by the House Committee on Ethics because they are a personal hobby. His team claims any artifacts or memorabilia given as gifts from the congressman to donors or guests is an expense allowed by the FEC. The national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee isn't satisfied. Culberson needs to answer for exactly why his campaign spent nearly $50,000 on Civil War memorabilia, coins, fossils, and more, DCCC spokesperson, Cole Leiter said. His constituents deserve answersand we all deserve better than what we are seeing in Washington, Democratic candidate Lizzie Fletcher stated, who is challenging Culberson in the November election. The Culberson campaign says the draft complaint documents are "ripped directly from the DCCC, are purely speculative, without merit, Catherine Kelly, a spokesperson for the Culberson campaign, said. The controversy comes in the wake of federal prosecutors alleging California Republican Duncan Hunter and his wife Margaret illegally spent more than a quarter of a million dollars of campaign money for his own personal use. Hunter dismissed the indictment in a statement, calling the investigation politically motivated. "We are seeing this with President Trump; we are seeing this with my case. This is evidenced by the fact that after two years of investigating, the Department of Justice decided to take this action right before my election," he said. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Chi Ma Border Gate in Lang Son province (Photo: VNA) Chairman of the Peoples Committee of Lang Son province Pham Ngoc Thuong on August 30th made a fact-finding tour of the Chi Ma border gate and worked with relevant agencies on the preparation for the launching event in Loc Binh district. He requested the provincial Department of External Affairs and the management board of Dong Dang Lang Son border gate economic zone as well as local police, border guard and customs forces to continue coordinating with Chinese counterparts to gear up for the opening and urge contractors to complete the installation of equipment while ensuring order and security. Head of the management board of the Dong Dang Lang Son border gate economic zone Phan Hong Tien said the construction of the No.1 inter-sectoral monitoring house at the Chi Ma border gate has been completed, covering 4,294 square metres. Other facilities such as air conditioner, fire prevention and security camera systems have been completed with a total investment of nearly VND110 billion (USD4.7 million). Local authorities had held talks with counterparts from Ningming county in Chinas southwestern province of Guangxi to discuss preparation for the launching ceremony as well as the transportation management. Thuong said the opening of the border gate pair is significant to promote socio-economic development in Vietnam-China border areas and contribute to building a border line of peace, friendship, stability, cooperation and development./. Australia has lifted the veil of secrecy from one of its top undercover operations during the Vietnam War, allowing veterans to be rewarded for their service. The 547 Signal Troop were in contact with enemy forces from day one of their deployment, monitoring communications for a United States intelligence team. "Due to the extreme secrecy surrounding the troop's operations their presence in Vietnam continued to be a closely guarded secret," Defence Personnel Minister Darren Chester said in a statement on Saturday. "Even today the troop does not appear on many maps drawn up by the Australian Task Force." While their work remained secret for decades, members of the troop will now be recognised with the Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry and a citation. Governor-General Peter Cosgrove formally approved the award, in recognition of assistance provided to the former Republic of South Vietnam. Formed in 1966, the 547 Signal Troop was deployed to Vietnam under the auspices of the United States intelligence network. Their primary role was to locate and monitor enemy radio signals to identify troop strength, location, capability and future intentions. The troop is directly credited with saving hundreds of lives - providing early warning of imminent enemy attacks against Australian, US and Thai forces. "The extraordinary courage and bravery of this troop is now being formally acknowledged," Mr Chester said. "I hope veterans and family members come forward to receive this well-deserved recognition." Prime Minister Scott Morrison has welcomed reports that former foreign minister Julie Bishop is planning to recontest her seat at the next election. Speaking from Jakarta, Mr Morrison said his visit to Indonesia and free trade agreement negotiations were owed to the work of Ms Bishop and former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. "We spoke about it after the change last week ... I think it's fantastic to have Julie in our team. I look forward to continuing to work with Julie. I think it's absolutely tremendous," he told reporters. A huge cache of weapons and ammunition including ten guns, dozens of knives and swords and three crossbows has been found at a home in northwest Sydney. A 64-year-old man has been arrested and is in hospital having been taken there for assessment, police say. Detectives searched the Richmond home last Tuesday morning after a tip-off from the Australian Border Force about imported firearm parts. They seized five rifles, including a semi-automatic, more than 2000 rounds of ammunition, some gun parts and accessories, three crossbows with arrows, and more than 100 knives and swords. The detectives also seized ballistic vests, armoured helmets, handcuffs, documents, literature and a computer. They later found another five guns, including pistols and handguns, after investigating a report of a suspicious bag hidden in a stairwell at the property. Police said the resident of the home is expected to be charged with firearms and weapons offences upon his release from hospital. In the humid pre-dawn of tropical Port Moresby, Australian soldiers waited anxiously for battle, seated in trucks ready to board transport aircraft for the flight across the Owen Stanley Ranges. These were members of the 2/33rd Battalion, battle-seasoned soldiers set to join the fighting to wrest the north coast town of Lae back from the Japanese. But more were to die that morning 75 years ago - September, 7, 1943 - than in their two brutal campaigns along the Kokoda Track and at Gona. As they waited in their trucks, ready to be loaded aboard the aircraft, a US Army Air Force B-24 Liberator bomber struggled to get airborne. It failed and crashed into five trucks carrying soldiers of the Battalion's Don Company at the end of the airstrip, engulfing them in an inferno of burning aviation fuel and exploding bombs. The final death toll was 73 - 62 dead Australian soldiers and 11 American airmen - and 91 injured, many horrifically burned. Various crashes are cited as Australia's worst air disaster. The worst on the Australian mainland had occurred just under three months earlier when a US B-17 crashed after taking off from Mackay, killing 40 of the 41 Americans on board. The worst civil air disaster remains Trans-Australia Airlines Flight 538, which crashed into the sea, also off Mackay, on June 10 1960, killing all 29 passengers and crew. The crash at Port Moresby's Jackson Strip that morning involved the highest death toll. Though the aircraft was American, Papua and New Guinea were at that time administered by Australia. This tragedy will be remembered at a commemorative service at the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park, Sydney on September 7, attended by relatives of some of those killed. The names of the 73 dead will be read out, each accompanied by a single beat of a drum. In Canberra, the tragedy will be remembered at the Australian War Memorial's Last Post Ceremony. By late 1943, Port Moresby, the main jumping off point as the fighting progressed along the country's north coast, was busy. Historian Phillip Bradley described it as bursting at the seems with new airstrips, aircraft dispersal areas, ammunition dumps and troop concentration areas all jammed into the limited space between coast and mountains. Adding to the congestion was the airlift of Australian troops north, requiring multiple loads aboard C-47 Dakota transport aircraft. The previous day there had been 68 flights. The area at the southern end of Jackson's Strip, named after Squadron Leader John Jackson killed in action in 1942, was used as an assembly area for troops waiting to head into battle. That tragic morning US B-24 bombers were off to raid Japanese held Rabaul, taking off before dawn to reach their target at first light. One successfully took off and passed over the Australian trucks. The second, piloted by Lieutenant Howard Wood, took off at 4.15am. Taking off in a laden multi-engine bomber, carrying maximum fuel and bombload, was always risky. Failure of a single engine could spell disaster and what happened next was sadly all too common throughout the Second World War. Bradley, in his book Hell's Battlefield, described what happened next. "Christ it's going to hit us," somebody yelled. The aircraft's port wing dipped, hit a tree and broke off, sending the plane crashing to the ground, its 12,000 litres of fuel exploding in a vast fireball, engulfing five trucks holding Don Company. Three of the aircraft's bombs exploded. Another detonated in the flames a few minutes later. Screaming, burning men ran in every direction to escape the inferno. Some of those who survived the initial conflagration were killed by their own exploding grenades and mortar bombs. One survivor Sergeant Bill Crooks was hurled into the air by the initial blast and found himself hanging by his belt from a tree branch. Crashing to the ground, he could see rivulets of fire flowing down a slope towards him. Those outside the flames assisted as best they could, gathering horribly burned survivors for the approaching ambulances. Two American firefighters in asbestos suits headed into the flames, apparently finding no survivors but recovering bodies and body parts. Eventually 26 bodies were recovered, 15 Australians and 11 Americans, but Bradley said that was just the beginning of the grim toll. Many more would die from their burns. Two of the Australian dead were drivers from 158th General Transport Company, the rest 2/33rd men. "So many mates gone," lamented Major Dave MacDougal. The war had to go on. The officers of 2/33rd Battalion conferred and decided they had to proceed, otherwise morale would plummet. They set off for Durand Strip to fly to Lae and continue the war. The systems protecting Australians' private information and communications from criminals could be undermined under proposed federal laws, two cyber security executives have warned. Under the new laws, tech companies such as Apple, Facebook and Google could be forced to help law enforcement view iMessage, WhatsApp or other encrypted messages to assist criminal investigations. Should the tech giants refuse or argue they aren't capable of doing so, the attorney-general will have the option to order them to write software to allow access. Joe Levy, the chief technology officer of global cybersecurity provider Sophos, says unintended consequences could occur once a company is forced to build a new feature. "All software has some kind of flaw or exploitable vulnerability," he told AAP. "Any attacker worth his or her salt would immediately go after those interfaces because they would effectively provide the keys to the kingdom." He says Sophos already complies with requests from law enforcement all over the world where it sees fit. But the global firm will not introduce flaws to its products or, as the bill proposes, allow agencies to view source code. The government stresses it doesn't want to "break" encryption but instead find other ways to view a target's messages. Companies who don't comply would face fines of up to $10 million while people under suspicion of certain crimes who refuse to unlock their phone to agencies could face up to 10 years in jail. Symantec, the makers of Norton virus protection, says it holds much less information on its users than Apple and Facebook but still won't write software that undermines its products. "No one wants to get in the way of law enforcement putting criminals behind bars or being able to investigate criminal activity," Symantec's Asia-Pacific chief technology officer Nick Savvides told AAP. "But on the other hand, you don't want to build a tool which can be used against you." Mr Savvides said he sympathised with lawmakers trying to find a workable solution amid a debate dominated by the fringes. But the Melbourne-based expert warned Australia can't legislate its way out of trouble. "You use encryption to keep the data secure from bad guys and to facilitate trust," Mr Savvides said. "If you're really after criminals and want to observe criminal activity, you'll end up with criminals using their own encryption." Australia's Home Affairs Department says 95 per cent of the most dangerous counter-terrorism targets actively use encrypted messages to conceal their communications. Companies would be asked to provide access to customers' information only where it is deemed "reasonable, proportionate, practicable and technically feasible". The government says it has "no interest in undermining systems that protect the fundamental security of communications" and the new bill "explicitly provides" that new powers cannot be used to compel companies to build weaknesses into their products. Any person who exposes the methods used to gain access would face up to five years in jail. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on "all parties" in Mauritania to contribute to "peaceful and credible elections" UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday urged "all parties" in Mauritania to contribute to "peaceful and credible elections" the following day. The UN chief "is closely following developments in Mauritania on the eve of the legislative, regional and municipal elections scheduled for 1 September," a statement from his office said. Guterres "urges all parties to ensure the holding of elections that are peaceful and credible and allow for the participation of all interested stakeholders," the statement said. "He calls on all parties to ensure respect of the rule of law and that the human rights of all Mauritanians are upheld," it added. The elections are a test for the regime of President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz less than a year from the presidential vote in mid-2019. Aziz, 61, came to power in a coup in 2008. He was elected in 2009 and again in 2014 for a second five-year term. Employees of Libya's national electricity company repair converters in Tripoli on August 27, 2018 On a sweltering night in Libya's capital, Ahlam Fathi watches her son study by candlelight as yet another power cut has plunged the family home into darkness. Despite the large windows being swung open, the air hangs heavily in the small central Tripoli apartment. "I can't even be mad at him for failing one or two subjects," said Fathi of her son, who is revising for his high school exit exams. The 41-year-old mother of two teenagers is one of millions of Libyans enduring prolonged power cuts amid high summer humidity and temperatures which sometimes reach 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). "The summer is difficult in Libya, as always, but you feel the heat even more in small apartments because of the electricity cuts, which often last more than 10 hours," she said. Libyans cool off in the Mediterranean Sea in the capital Tripoli on August 26, 2018 Tripoli residents flock to beaches and other public spaces during power outages, escaping the heat of their homes as air conditioning and fans remain switched off. Residents have also been hit by sharp price rises, including a fourfold jump in the cost of bread in less than a month. Cross-border smuggling of subsidised goods has created shortages which have left families struggling to get by. While these are nationwide problems, they are exacerbated in the crowded capital, which is home to 2.5 million residents and others displaced from fighting elsewhere in the country. - The generator industry - Cities in western Libya refuse to share the burden of power shortages, and militias often forcefully prevent national electricity firm Gecol from imposing rationing. In Tripoli, fighting erupted this week between rival militias in the southern suburbs, with Gecol warning of a total blackout after the clashes damaged the electricity network. University professor Amal Khayri, 40, said the situation has forced Libyans to install generators, but they are "often very expensive, not very powerful and of poor quality". A Libyan man repairs a power generator in Tripoli on August 25, 2018 The trade has created employment in a time of crisis, as selling and fixing generators has become a lucrative business. Abdallah al-Werfalli, an electrical engineer, said repairing generators has boosted his income. "That's how I provide for my family," said the 53-year-old father of three. The ongoing power shortages since dictator Moamer Kadhafi was toppled in 2011 illustrate the failures of successive transitional authorities in the oil-rich nation. Poor public services and dire living conditions have largely persisted under the UN-backed Government of National Accord, which was installed in 2016 and has committed to holding elections later this year. But for many Libyans, including 53-year-old Ramadan al-Bouni, talk of a vote is fanciful without first addressing people's basic needs. "I want to laugh when they talk to me about elections, a constitution or a referendum," said Bouni, who sells electrical goods. The headquarters of Libyan power firm Gecol in Tripoli, August 26, 2018 "(I) don't find the time or the energy to think about things other than the hours wasted... in queueing up outside the bank or the petrol station," he said. Gecol puts power supply shortages down to factors including theft and vandalism. The company also says numerous projects have been mothballed since 2011 as foreign companies have pulled out of Libya due to violence. "We run into difficulties, especially during summer peak" demand, said Gecol spokesman Mohammed al-Tekouri. "But it's also a consequence of insecurity". Syrian fighters fire AK-47 rifles during a graduation for new Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) members at a camp in northern Idlib province The Syrian regime and its Russian ally are threatening an offensive to retake the northwestern province of Idlib, Syria's last rebel bastion, where jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham holds sway. The jihadist alliance, the core of which is formed by the former Al-Qaeda branch in Syria, is likely to be the regime's toughest foe. Here is some background. - What is HTS? - HTS first appeared in Syria in January 2012 as the Al-Nusra Front, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian ally still refer to the jihadist group by that name. Classified as a "terrorist" group by the United States, the European Union and the United Nations, it arrived in Syria as an extension of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. The group's current leader, a Syrian who uses the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, is a veteran of fighting in Iraq. In 2013, the group swore allegiance to Al-Qaeda before splitting with the global jihadist syndicate in July 2016 and renaming itself the Fatah al-Sham Front. In 2017, it dissolved that group to form the backbone of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The group mainly consists of Syrian jihadists, estimated at about 30,000 fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The jihadists are "well organised and battle-hardened", said Syria expert Fabrice Balanche. "HTS definitely retains a sizeable foreign fighter component, perhaps comprising at least 20 percent of its total fighting force," said Charles Lister, an analyst at the Middle East Institute. The fighters are mostly from the Middle East, "but also from Russian-speaking areas, Europe and south Asia," he added. - How powerful is it? - HTS now controls nearly 60 percent of Idlib province. It has set up a civil administration that collects customs duties at the border with Turkey and imposes taxes on traders. The group "derives so much of its power from being the authority over how trade flows into and out of Idlib, which helps fund the group and gives it power beyond its size," said Nicholas Heras, a researcher at the Center for New American Security. Previously, HTS had a presence in many of the country's rebel-held areas, especially near Damascus and in the south. But it has lost that territory as its fighters were evacuated to Idlib in surrender deals. HTS has consistently been excluded from ceasefires negotiated by the United Nations or Russia. The jihadist alliance has been the target of air raids from both Moscow and the US-led anti-jihadist coalition, which have killed several of its senior commanders. - Who are its rivals? - Formerly associated with influential Islamist rebel groups like Ahrar al-Sham and Nureddine al-Zinki, HTS underwent a bloody period of power struggles in 2017 that included battles with former allies, creating resentment that persists today. In early 2018, Ahrar al-Sham and Nureddine al-Zinki announced their Turkey-backed merger to counter the growing power of HTS. They joined four other rebel factions in early August to form a new coalition -- the National Liberation Front. Separately, HTS has increased raids in recent weeks against "sleeper cells" linked to the Islamic State group (IS), which has claimed responsibility for assassinations and bombings targeting HTS's leaders and fighters. The two jihadist heavyweights have also clashed in Syria's northern city of Raqqa and in eastern Deir Ezzor province. In July 2014, Nusra's chief said the group's goal was to set up an "Islamic emirate", akin to the "caliphate" proclaimed by IS shortly beforehand. - What is its future? - On August 22 the reclusive Jolani broke a long silence to reiterate that the group was determined to repel any offensive by Damascus. "Just thinking about surrendering to the enemy and handing over weapons is an act of treason," he said. Russia has called for the dissolution of HTS, but neighbouring Turkey is trying to negotiate a solution with the jihadists to avoid a large scale offensive that would destabilise the border area, the Britain-based Observatory said. According to Heras, the jihadist alliance's "dissolution on the command of Turkey would rob it of much of its power, which would replace HTS rule with Turkish rule." New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and his challenger for the state's Democratic gubernatorial nomination, actress and activist Cynthia Nixon, frequently sparred during their debate Wednesday She hasn't yet taken off in the polls, but as actress Cynthia Nixon seeks the Democratic nomination for governor of New York, she has managed to push incumbent Andrew Cuomo to the left while raising concerns among other establishment Democrats about the party's rising and restive progressive wing. The 60-year-old Cuomo -- whose father, the late Mario Cuomo, was himself a respected governor -- is the embodiment of an establishment Democrat and remains strongly favored in the state's September 13 primary election. The most recent poll, published July 31 by Siena College, gave him a lopsided 31-point lead over Nixon. Another survey, released July 18 by Quinnipiac University, showed him with an even wider 36-point lead. With a campaign budget exceeding $30 million, Cuomo can flood the airwaves with ads extolling his record and positioning him as a last line of defense against a president, Donald Trump, who took only one-third of the state's vote in 2016. For her part, Nixon has refused to accept the big donations from wealthy individuals, unions and corporations that Cuomo has raked in, relying instead on small donors, an aggressive use of social media and an enthusiastic base of supporters. Still, the sometimes biting tone and personal attacks Cuomo lobbed at the "Sex and the City" star during their lone televised debate Wednesday suggested that the two-term governor does not think he is out of danger. "Can you stop interrupting me?" an exasperated Cuomo snapped at one point, prompting Nixon to shoot back, "Can you stop lying?" The 52-year-old actress and activist has never held elected office, but is clearly at ease before the public. Cuomo had not taken part in a debate since 2006. The fact he agreed to a televised faceoff against Nixon showed he "is sufficiently worried (and)... did not want to take his opponent for granted," said Robert Shapiro, a political science professor at Columbia University in New York. - As progressive as she is - The actress Cynthia Nixon has never held elective office but her advocacy of progressive issues has pushed Governor Andrew Cuomo to the left "Her running has pushed him to the left politically," Shapiro said. "He needed to be on the stage with her to show that, on certain issues, he compares in a sufficiently liberal way." Cuomo is now quick to describe himself as a "progressive leader," citing his work for the homeless, the environment and for a higher minimum wage. Since Nixon announced her candidacy he has begun saying he is open to legalizing recreational marijuana. Nixon, an openly bisexual mother of three, has long been active in the causes of public education and LGBTQ rights. She describes herself as a "socialist." She has denounced Democratic establishment figures as being overly cozy with Wall Street bosses. And she advocates for working-class people and minorities in areas as diverse as housing, education, justice and transportation. Her positions are largely in line with those of Bernie Sanders, the radical Vermont politician who lost to Clinton in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries. She is even closer to the stances of the young Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, who stunned the political world in late June when she won a New York primary election against greatly favored Democratic heavyweight Joe Crowley. Ocasio-Cortez's victory galvanized the Democrats' progressive wing, which scored another victory on Tuesday in Florida. In a major upset, Democratic primary voters there chose Andrew Gillum -- a black progressive backed by Sanders -- to represent the party in the November election for governor. Can Nixon similarly beat the odds to become the first woman to govern New York's 20 million people? - A Democratic microcosm - Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose father was also a New York governor, has a well-funded campaign that relies on large corporate donations, while opponent Cynthia Nixon rejects such donations, relying instead on small donors and aggressive use of social media Shapiro and most other observers consider a Nixon victory unlikely but not impossible. "Her campaign should be taken seriously," said Michael G. Miller, assistant professor of political science at New York's Barnard College. He said New York, a Democratic bastion, is something of a microcosm of the national debate within the party over how to respond to the Trump phenomenon. What makes New York different, he added, "is there is a greater chance for a candidate like Nixon to win, compared to places like Midwestern states like Ohio or Minnesota, where Democratic candidates have to walk the line on guns or fiscal issues." Miller said the debate between centrists and progressives could benefit the party. But some Democratic strategists fear the party could be caught up in an internecine tempest such as divided establishment Republicans from the ultraconservative Tea Party movement in 2010. Given the depth of opposition to Trump -- a new high of 60 percent of Americans disapprove of his job performance, according to a Washington Post-ABC poll released Friday -- "Democrats have a golden opportunity" to regain a congressional majority in November, said Sam Abrams, a politics professor at Sarah Lawrence College. "But it means they have to stop fighting and have to start acting in a governed, responsible way," he added. "When you have Democrats in complete disarray, as you had Wednesday night" in the Cuomo/Nixon debate, "it opens the door to a GOP win." A military honor guard team carries the flag-draped casket of the late US Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, at the US Capitol in Washington Late US senator John McCain will receive his final public sendoff Saturday in a nationally televised ceremony featuring eulogies from two ex-presidents, but with current commander in chief Donald Trump conspicuously absent from the proceedings. Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama will deliver remarks honoring their friend and former White House challenger, at a memorial service in Washington's National Cathedral that McCain planned himself in recent months as he battled brain cancer. That the men who vanquished McCain in their presidential battles were asked to speak is testament to the former war prisoner's commitment to looking beyond party and signalling that Americans, regardless of political affiliation, are rowing together in the same boat. Amid today's inflammatory political environment the message could serve as a soothing balm for a nation bruised by two years of divisive discourse. And the absence of Trump, whose bitter feud with McCain has wrangled US politics during that time, will serve as a final rebuke of the president, highlighting the clash between a Republican elder statesman and the current president from his own party. McCain's last public event, before he is laid to rest Sunday in a private ceremony at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, comes a day after he was accorded the rare recognition of lying in state in the US Capitol. While members of Congress honored one of their own in a touching ceremony that featured an address by Vice President Mike Pence, Trump was again not there. Cindy McCain, wife of John McCain, prays at the casket of her husband at the US Capitol Rotunda in Washington Instead he holed up in the White House and remained uncharacteristically silent on Twitter during the ceremony, before flying to a political event in North Carolina later in the day. McCain's widow Cindy, his seven children and his 106-year-old mother Roberta McCain joined scores of members of Congress, state governors, diplomats and other dignitaries at the somber Rotunda ceremony. Pence, in his tribute, told McCain's family that "it is deeply humbling to stand before you today at the United States Capitol to commemorate the life and service of an American patriot." "The president asked me to be here, on behalf of a grateful nation, to pay a debt of honor and respect to a man who served our country throughout his life, in uniform and in public office." It was an awkward message to deliver from a president who has studiously refrained from praising McCain, either during his illness or since his death. Their feud took root during Trump's 2016 campaign, when he questioned the notion McCain was a war hero -- because he had been captured after his navy fighter jet was shot down over Hanoi in 1967. McCain pushed back in the following months, calling Trump's behavior petty and "disgraceful," and in one of his final acts in the Senate blocked the Republican effort to repeal Obama's health care law known as Obamacare. - Presidential dreams dashed - McCain the aviator spent more than five years in a Vietnamese prison camp, returning home to launch a political career that saw him eventually run for president in 2000 but lose the nomination to Bush. Eight years later, he won the nomination in a contest that seemed almost predestined -- only to lose the election to Obama, who became America's first black president. Saturday's ceremony could serve as a rehabilitation of sorts for Bush, who will be delivering one of his most high-profile addresses since leaving the White House nearly 10 years ago. He has endured deep criticism for controversially leading the US into war in Iraq -- an invasion that McCain steadfastly supported at first, but eventually grew to believe was a mistake. For Obama, the moment will allow him to share his thoughts about a presidential campaign rival whose magnanimity in defeat only boosted his stature as an American statesman. "Tonight more than any night, I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Senator Obama," McCain said at the time. "I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president." Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh (R) received Tang Liangzhi, Mayor of Chongqing province (China), in Hanoi (Photo: VNA) At the reception, Minh lauded the mayors visit and collaboration with Vietnamese agencies in organising various trade promotion and transport connection activities. Congratulating Chongqing on its recent socio-economic progress, Minh stated that Vietnam always attaches importance to the win-win cooperation with Chinese localities, including Chongqing. He recommended the Chinese province step up friendship exchanges and share experience on socio-economic development with Vietnamese localities while helping Vietnam upgrade its border infrastructure and increase its import of Vietnamese products to expand bilateral trade towards balance and sustainability. The official suggested both sides boost transport connectivity and explore suitable measures to push up rail transport of cargo from Vietnam to Eurasian countries via China. Minh said the two sides should increase people-to-people exchange, particularly between youths, and reinforce cooperation in culture, education, and tourism as a basis for Vietnam China friendship. For his part, Tang Liangzhi affirmed that Chongqing attaches importance to cooperation with Vietnamese ministries, sectors and localities. Agreeing with his host, the Chinese mayor said his province is willing to boost friendship exchange, trade-economic investment, and transport infrastructure connectivity so as to contribute to the development of Vietnam China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership./. There are no concrete figures on how many children are still among the estimated 500,000 troops that serve in Myanmar's military Myanmar's military has released 75 child soldiers, a UN agency said, its first discharge this year as part of a gradual process to end decades of forced recruitment of underage fighters. There are no concrete figures on how many children are still among the estimated 500,000 troops that serve in Myanmar's military, or the ethnic rebel armies that it battles in the country's border regions. The state's army -- also referred to as the "Tatmadaw" -- has released 924 children and young people from its ranks since signing a deal with the United Nations in 2012, according to Friday's statement released by UN child protection agency UNICEF. The child soldiers released will have to attend reintegration programmes to return them to civilian life, a process that will contribute to "bringing lasting peace in Myanmar as productive citizens", the statement added. Friday's ceremony was attended by the discharged children and young people, with the youngest ex-soldier being 14 years old. UN Myanmar resident coordinator Knut Ostby said in a speech during the ceremony that it is much more difficult to recruit a child today than before the 2012 pact was signed. But more could be done to ensure the safety of children and young people in Myanmar, he said, calling out the Tatmadaw for "not having put in place measures for protection of children with regards to killing and maiming, and rape and other forms of sexual violence." Ostby on Saturday recounted to AFP scenes of joy from the children and their families during the ceremony. "The children and youth and their families were clapping, they were so happy that this was happening. These are (children) who are going back to their normal lives," he said. "The context is challenging but there has been considerable progress in stopping underage recruitment and discharge of child soldiers." Experts say that as long as the army and ethnic armed groups continue warring within Myanmar, children remain at risk of recruitment. They are usually kidnapped or taken by force from public spaces like parks and train stations before being threatened with jail time if they refuse to be conscripted. Myanmar UNICEF representative June Kunugi told AFP that there are also many who are pushed to join the Tatmadaw because of extreme poverty, lack of access to education and livelihood opportunities. "It is important to note that the recruitment and use of children by armed forces or armed groups is considered a grave violation of children's rights regardless of the child's perceived willingness," she said. UNICEF said in addition to the army there are seven other "persistent perpetrators" that recruit child soldiers, including the Kachin Independence Army and the Shan State Army South -- both ethnic groups that continue to engage in skirmishes with the Myanmar military. Bodh Gaya attracts tens of thousands of pilgrims every year Indian police have arrested a senior Buddhist monk accused of sexually abusing 15 boys at a meditation centre he ran in a holy city, officials said Saturday. Bhante Shanghpriya Sujoy was detained in the UNESCO heritage town of Bodh Gaya, which attracts tens of thousands of pilgrims every year, after boys complained that they had been beaten, abused and forced to dance naked, police said. The scandal is the latest to hit the Buddhist establishment after the former head of China's government-run Buddhist association was removed this week as abbot of a Beijing temple following a sexual assault investigation. A senior police officer at Bodh Gaya told AFP there are "serious allegations" against Bhante Shanghpriya Sujoy who took boys aged between six and 12 from impoverished families in India's remote northeast. "The children complained to their guardians about physical and sexual abuse by their head monk. "The children say they were thrashed and sexually abused at the school. They were locked up without food and water if they resisted," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Bhante Shanghpriya Sujoy was first arrested on Wednesday and police are also investigating the trust which runs the school. A Palestinian girl heads to her UN-run school in Balata refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on the first day of the new academic year on August 29, 2018 Israel welcomed Saturday a US decision to end funding for the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), accusing the organisation which supports some five million Palestinians of perpetuating the Middle East conflict. Israel and the United States have accused the nearly 70-year-old agency of maintaining the idea that many Palestinians are refugees with a right to return to the homes from which they fled or were expelled during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel's creation, an idea they both oppose. On Friday, Washington, which until last year was by far the agency's biggest contributor announced it was ending funding to the "irredeemably flawed operation." "Israel supports the US move," an official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on condition of anonymity. "Consolidating the refugee status of Palestinians is one of the problems that perpetuates the conflict." Palestinian ambassador Hossam Zomlot accused the United States of "reneging on its international commitment and responsibility" towards a body that was set by UN General Assembly resolution in 1949. "By endorsing the most extreme Israeli narrative on all issues including the rights of more than five million Palestinian refugees, the US administration has lost its status as peacemaker and is damaging not only an already volatile situation but the prospects for future peace," he said. UNRWA now supports some five million registered Palestinian refugees and provides schooling to 526,000 children in the Palestinian territories as well as in camps in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the agency had his "full confidence" and called on "other countries to help fill the remaining financial gap, so that UNRWA can continue to provide this vital assistance." UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness tweeted: "We reject in the strongest possible terms the criticism that UNRWA's schools, health centres and emergency assistance programmes are 'irredeemably flawed.'" Washington, which had already frozen $300 million in funding this year throwing the agency into financial crisis, said it would seek ways to prevent its decision from hurting "innocent Palestinians". Israel expressed support for a new conduit for humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians. "It would be good to allocate the funds to other elements that would use the money properly for the benefit of the population, and not for perpetuating the notion that they are refugees," the official in Netanyahu's office said. President Aziz is urging his supporters to flock to his UPR party, denigrating the opposition, who boycotted the last polls, as dangerous Islamists and extremists Mauritania, a frontline state in the fight against Islamic extremism, voted on Saturday in legislative, regional and local elections that will test head of state Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz's record seven months before a presidential vote. Military personnel cast their ballots Friday to free themselves up to provide security in the vast and arid west African state with a registered electorate of some 1.4 million. But logistical problems saw one booth in the Teyarredt district of the capital Nouakchott remain open beyond the 1900 GMT closing deadline with hundreds of people still waiting to vote. "All those inside the (booth) courtyard will be able to vote," the official in charge of the venue said, insisting voting would continue if necessary until "late into the night". Polling began at 0700 GMT in the capital but several voters were sent to different polling stations due to last minute changes, an AFP reporter said. President Aziz hailed the "peaceful and democratic nature" of the ballot after casting his vote but leading opposition figure Mohamed Ould Moloud deplored logistical snags and hinted the outcome could be flawed. "There are voters who have been misdirected and don't know where to vote," he said, adding that there were "serious signs of possible fraud." Moloud added that "entire polling booths vanished", with their registered electors unsure where to go while some polling stations had seen their voter lists quadrupled. The opposition boycotted the last polls in 2013 but a record 98 parties are taking part this time. The electoral commission put turnout by 1800 GMT at a national average of 42 percent. Results are not expected until the middle of next week. There are no international observers. "I voted for people I support in different parties including some from the ruling party and others in the opposition," a woman who identified herself as Fatimatou told AFP. "It's not easy," she added after taking eight minutes to fill in the forms and deposit them in five different ballot boxes. Potential run-off elections would take place on September 15. Aziz, 61, who came to power in a coup in 2008, won elections in 2009 and again in 2014 for a second five-year term. He has been frequently accused by opposition figures and NGOs of rights abuses, including the arrest of a former senator and the "secretive" detention of a blogger. Aziz says he will not seek a third mandate, which would be against the constitution, but statements by ministers and supporters have allowed suspicions to flourish. - 'Assassinating democracy' - Aziz has slammed opposition leaders as "villains" and "troublemakers". He has described some as "dangerous Islamists, racist extremists and the leftovers of former regimes which brought the country to its knees". Earlier this week he accused Islamists of "just awaiting their political failure to take up arms" drawing an indignant response from Jemil Ould Mensour of the Islamist party Tewassoul. "It is Mr Aziz who took up arms against an elected regime and is assassinating democracy," he charged, referring to the 2008 coup. Opposition leader Ahmed Ould Daddah has urged voters to take a stand to junk "dictatorship and generalised bankruptcy" Veteran opposition leader Ahmed Ould Daddah, who heads the Gathering for Democracy (RFD), has urged voters to make "the necessary leap to get rid of dictatorship and generalised bankruptcy". The ruling Union for the Republic is campaigning largely on changes it made in the 2017 constitution, abolishing the senate and bringing in a new national anthem and flag. Voters endorsed the controversial measures in a referendum, while the opposition warned they would give the president more power. After more than a year of detention on corruption charges, former senator Mohammed Ould Ghadda was freed on Saturday despite rejecting the conditions set for his release, his lawyer said. Ould Ghadda, who led the campaign against the constitutional changes, was reunited with his family, lawyer Mohamed El Mamy said. Mauritania, which hosted an African Union summit in July, has recently revived diplomatic ties with Morocco, after years of tension over the status of Moroccan-annexed Western Sahara. Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert served as the Netherlands' defence minister from 2012 until 2017 A Dutch former defence minister has been appointed as the United Nation's envoy to Iraq, to head a mission which plays an essential role in the country's political and economic spheres. Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert was named special representative and will head up the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), a statement from the organisation said on Saturday. She will replace Jan Kubis, a Slovak former foreign minister who took up the post in February 2015. During his tenure the mission tried to curb internal conflicts, such as the crisis which erupted between the autonomous Kurdish region and the central government in Baghdad. Hennis-Plasschaert, 45, served as the Netherlands' defence minister from 2012 until 2017. She was also a lawmaker in her home country and at the European Parliament, as well as working for the European Commission. UNAMI was established in 2003 by a UN Security Council resolution, at the request of the Iraqi government, and the mission was expanded four years later. It advises the government on matters including political dialogue and reconciliation, in addition to helping with elections and facilitating dialogue between Iraq and neighbouring countries. A Palestinian woman in Gaza City on September 1, 2018 Palestinians reacted angrily Saturday to a US decision to end all funding for the UN agency that assists millions of refugees, seeing it as a new policy shift aimed at undermining their cause. Washington, which until last year was by far the biggest contributor to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), announced on Friday that it would no longer make any contributions to the "irredeemably flawed operation". The move by President Donald Trump's administration was described as "cruel and irresponsible" by senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi. "The Palestinian refugees are already the victims who have lost their homes, livelihoods and security as a result of the creation of the state of Israel," she said. The US has backed Israel in accusing the agency of perpetuating the Middle East conflict by maintaining the idea that many Palestinians are refugees with a right to return to homes in what is now Israel. But to Palestinians, the right of return for the hundreds of thousands who fled or were expelled during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel's creation is central to their cause. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the American administration was invalidating future peace talks by "preempting, prejudging issues reserved for permanent status" negotiations. Palestinian and Israeli "elements that want to achieve peace peacefully, based on a two states solution, are being destroyed," he told AFP. - 'Destroying' children's futures - Palestinian school girls pose for a picture near a UNRWA tractor in the southern Gaza Strip, on September 1, 2018 Israel however welcomed the US move. "Consolidating the refugee status of Palestinians is one of the problems that perpetuates the conflict," an official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said. Trump had already angered Palestinians by his December recognition of the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and axing more than $200 million in bilateral aid for Gaza and the West Bank. The new policy on Jerusalem overturned decades of precedent and prompted the Palestinian leadership to break off relations with the White House. Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said Washington's latest decision "promotes terrorism" and was a violation of UN resolutions. He said Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was considering appealing to UN bodies to challenge the US decision. UNRWA, established in 1949, was already facing financial crisis after Trump announced a $300 million funding freeze in January. The agency, which helps more than five million registered Palestinian refugees, says it now faces major closures to its network of schools and health centres. Mahmoud Mubarak, director of committees that run 19 refugee camps in the West Bank which accommodate some 500,000 Palestinians, warned of "very serious repercussions". Mubarak said committee representatives would meet Tuesday to discuss their options. In the impoverished Gaza Strip, where most children attend UNRWA schools, 55-year-old Hisham Saqallah said the US move was "political blackmail" that would raise tensions. "If they stop aid to schools, this means destroying the futures of a large number of students and throwing them into the street," he said. "If they stop the aid completely it would have a major effect on our children." - 'Profound' consequences - A Palestinian child eats pumpkin seeds in Gaza City on September 1, 2018 UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said the agency would try to close a $217 million shortfall. "If not, some of the most marginalised and vulnerable people on the planet may well suffer," he told AFP. "People are going to become more desperate and marginalised," he said, warning of "dramatic, widespread, profound and unpredictable" consequences. Jordan, which is one of just two Arab countries to have signed a peace treaty with Israel, has announced plans to organise a fundraising conference on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York next month. The country's foreign minister on Saturday voiced disappointment at the US decision, saying Amman had worked hard to convince Washington to keep funding UNRWA. "Any decline in the agency's services and any attempt to diminish its role under its UN mandate would threaten dangerous consequences," Ayman Safadi said. "Cutting refugees off from the agency's services will deepen their feelings of deprivation" and create dangerous tensions, he said. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the US would "intensify dialogue with the United Nations, host governments and international stakeholders about new models and new approaches" for assisting needy Palestinians. But Hugh Lovatt, an Israeli and Palestinian affairs analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Washington would find scant support for its push for an alternative aid conduit. He said it was an attempt to "unilaterally take the Palestinian right of return off the table". "But US actions are misguided, dangerous, and won't work... neither Lebanon or Jordan can be expected to play along," he said. he-sa-jod-jjm/par/dco George Papadopoulos said that he was just a naive and star-struck young advisor to Trump when he met supposedly Kremlin-connected Russians in London to discuss a meeting between his boss and the Russian president The young foreign policy advisor whose London meetings first set off the FBI's Russian collusion investigation has said Donald Trump was initially enthusiastic about his early 2016 proposal of a meeting with Vladimir Putin. George Papadopoulos said in a sentencing statement to a Washington federal court late Friday that he was just a naive and star-struck young advisor to Trump when he met supposedly Kremlin-connected Russians in London to discuss a meeting between his boss and the Russian president. At the first gathering of Trump's foreign policy team in Washington on March 31, 2016, Papadopoulos, "eager to show his value to the campaign," told the candidate and his advisors that he had connections that could facilitate such a meeting. "While some in the room rebuffed George's offer, Mr. Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr. Sessions, who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it," the statement said, referring to Jeff Sessions, now the attorney general. Papadopoulos filed the statement ahead of his sentencing for lying when he was first interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation over possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians ahead of the November 2016 election. His meetings with individuals with apparent Russian intelligence ties in 2016 were the initial reason for the FBI launching the collusion investigation, which now has its focus on Trump, his family and top advisors. In the statement to the court, Papadopoulos admitted he lied to investigators, but asked for a very light sentence, saying he had not sought to obstruct the investigation but only wanted to protect his career path. He said he was a young, inexperienced fan of Trump when his application to join the campaign was accepted in March 2016. During his interview for the job with a senior campaign official, "George learned that the campaign's foreign policy focus would be improving relations with Russia," the statement said. "George landed the job despite having no experience with US and Russian diplomacy." Weeks later in Europe, Papadopoulos made contacts with a mysterious professor, Joseph Mifsud, who claimed Kremlin links and introduced him to other ostensibly well-connected Russians, including an alleged niece of Putin. "To say that George was out of his depth would be a gross understatement.... He had no experience in dealing with Russian policy or its officials," the statement said. Encouraged by the March 31 foreign policy team gathering, he continued to pursue a Trump-Putin meeting. At a breakfast on April 26, 2016, Mifsud told Papadopoulos that people in Moscow had "dirt" on Trump's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton -- information Papadopoulos later shared with the campaign. How the Trump campaign reacted to that and other Russian offers of damaging information on Clinton is now at the heart of the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The Nigerian army has on several occasions disputed reports on losses to Boko Haram and has in some cases played them down At least 30 Nigerian soldiers died in combat with Boko Haram jihadists who overran a military base in the northeast near the border with Niger, two military sources told AFP on Saturday. Scores of jihadists in trucks stormed the base at Zari village in northern Borno state late Thursday and briefly seized it after a fierce battle, they said. "They came in large numbers in trucks and carrying heavy weapons and engaged soldiers in a battle that lasted for an hour," a military officer said. "We lost at least 30 men," the officer said, adding that the attack took place at around 4:00 pm. "They overwhelmed the troops who were forced to temporarily withdraw before reinforcements arrived," said the officer who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak. Boko Haram has intensified attacks on military targets in recent months. The attacks appear to undermine repeated claims by the military that Boko Haram had been defeated. The militants took weapons and military equipment before they were pushed out of the base by troops with aerial support, said a second military source who gave a similar death toll. The militants were pursued and bombarded by a fighter jet, said the military sources. "The terrorists also suffered heavy casualty from the bombardment", one of the military officers said. Zari is located 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the town of Damasak on the border with Niger. The jihadists are thought to have attacked the base from the nearby Garunda village, where 17 troops were killed and 14 injured in an attack on another military base last month, the sources said. In a statement late Friday the Nigerian military confirmed troops fought Boko Haram "insurgents...on rampage to loot the community and extort money from villagers". - Army silent on casualties - "Troops...have successfully routed Boko Haram insurgents in an encounter that ensued yesterday evening at Zari village," the military said in the statement. It did not speak of military casualties and the raid on the base but maintained "several Boko Haram fighters and weapons" were destroyed in the fight. The Nigerian army has on several occasions disputed reports on losses to Boko Haram and has in some cases played them down. On July 14 Boko Haram militants overran a military base in Jilli village, in neighbouring Yobe state when dozens of troops were said to be been killed, wounded or missing. The army at the time conceded the base was attacked but said troops remobilised and succeeded in repelling the attackers. In a short statement on Wednesday, IS-affiliated Boko Haram jihadists claimed to have killed "several" Nigerian troops in mortar strikes on a military base in the town of Arge in the Lake Chad area. AFP could not independently verify the claim. The Boko Haram insurgency which is in its ninth year has left 20,000 people dead and displaced 2.6 million. Soldiers and civilians have also been targeted in separate attacks in neighbouring Chad and Niger. The Singapore trade minister said officials were hopeful of reaching agreement on the China-backed free trade pact - which will be the world's largest - in November Broad agreement on what would be the world's biggest free trade deal is expected to be reached at a leaders' summit in Singapore in November, the city-state's trade minister said Saturday. The 16-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which will cover about half the world's population and a third of its GDP, has taken centre stage as Washington embarks on a unilateral, protectionist agenda. The RCEP is backed by China and notably excludes the US, which had been leading another regional pact -- the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) -- until President Donald Trump abandoned it on coming to office early last year. Trump, whose administration has embarked on an America-first policy and is engaged in a tit-for-tat trade brawl with China, will skip two Asian summits in November, including one in Singapore. RCEP trade ministers and negotiators met in Singapore on Thursday and Friday on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) gathering. The RCEP will group the 10 ASEAN members plus China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. It will become the world's biggest free trade pact if agreement is reached. Singapore Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said the RCEP talks have reached their "most challenging stage" but maintained that an agreement was in sight. "We are looking for that broad agreement, that milestone to be achieved, or what we call substantial conclusion, when the leaders meet at the end of the year," he said at a news conference Saturday, referring to the November summit. "Just like climbing a mountain, as we go nearer and nearer to the summit, the climb can become steeper and more challenging," Chan said. A diplomatic source said one possible sticking point is the degree to which countries are willing to open up their markets to each other for goods, services and investments. For a deal to be reached, countries must work to narrow their differences and show flexibility to accommodate each other's concerns, Chan added. Beijing is keen to use Washington's rejection of the TPP to increase its influence in the region by backing the ASEAN-led RCEP and endorsing free trade. RCEP is a more modest deal that prescribes lower and more limited regulatory standards. The 11 remaining TPP members signed a slimmed down version of the agreement in March. Libyans observe the damage caused by fighting between rival militias in the capital Tripoli on August 30, 2018 Rockets rained on several parts of the Libyan capital Saturday despite a truce to end fighting between rival militias, with one projectile hitting a popular hotel and wounding three people, rescuers and medics said. The renewed violence came as Britain, France, Italy and the United States denounced the violence and warned that an escalation would hamper the political process in North African country. Rescuers and witnesses said three people were wounded when a rocket hit the Al-Waddan Hotel, which overlooks the bay of Tripoli and is popular with foreigners. It was not immediately clear if they were clients of staff members. Rockets also hit other areas of the city, which has been at the epicentre of a bitter power struggle since the fall of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a 2011 NATO-backed uprising. On Friday, at least 15 rockets rained on Tripoli and its immediate surroundings, including the capital's only operational airport, according to rescue workers and an airport source. Since then, authorities have suspended all flights in and out of Mitiga airport, just east of Tripoli, and rerouted them to the airport in Misrata, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) further east. The fighting broke out on Monday in suburbs south of Tripoli and continued into Wednesday evening after a truce collapsed, despite the United Nations appealing for calm. The clashes had paused on Thursday after a ceasefire agreement announced by officials from western Libya, but by late afternoon the hostilities had resumed. In a joint statement, Britain, France, Italy and the United States said they "warn those who tamper with security in Tripoli or elsewhere in Libya that they will be held accountable for any such actions." They also called on all sides "to refrain from any action that would jeopardise the political framework established by the UN-led mediation to which the international community is fully committed". The interior ministry of Libya's UN-backed unity government, the Government of National Accord (GNA), also denounced the renewed violence Saturday. In a statement, it blamed unnamed factions for "undermining the ceasefire (announced on Thursday)... by blindly launching rockets and shells on Tripoli and its suburbs". According to the GNA's health ministry, around 40 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded since the fighting first broke out on Monday in the capital's southern suburbs. Human Rights Watch said four children were among at least 18 civilians killed in the fighting. "The recklessness of armed groups currently fighting each other for power appears to have no boundaries, and civilians are paying the price," said the rights group's Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson. "All sides need to do everything they can to spare civilian lives." At the meeting, Nhan stressed that the special friendship, nurtured and developed by leaders and people of both countries, had become a priceless shared asset that requires preservation and promotion by younger generations. Ho Chi Minh City has always exerted efforts to organise diverse cooperation activities with the Lao side to further strengthen the friendship, including delegation exchange, experience sharing, and affiliation in economy, technology, education, and people-to-people exchanges, he noted. Nhan also conveyed his sympathy for the losses of the Lao people in the recent natural disaster and hydropower dam collapse in Attapeu. For his part, Bouddakham congratulated Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City on the recent socio-economic achievements, describing them as an encouragement for Laos in its national construction. He thanked the Vietnamese side for their timely and helpful support, especially during the recent disasters in Laos. Bouddakham said that in the future, the Laos-Vietnam Friendship Association will continue increasing cooperation activities with the Vietnam-Laos Friendship Association to launch new people-to-people exchanges, contributing to preserving, reinforcing, and developing the special friendship of the two countries people. Protesters demonstrate at oil fields in al-Qurnah, 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Basra, Iraq, on July 14, 2018 Iraq's oil exports for August hit their highest monthly figure this year, the oil ministry said Saturday, with nearly 112 million barrels of crude bringing $7.7 billion to the war-torn country's ailing economy. "In August, exports of crude reached 111.6 million barrels and revenues were $7.7 billion," on an average price of $69.59 per barrel, it said in a statement. In August last year Iraq earned $4.6 billion from the sale of 99.7 million barrels of crude oil. Iraq's sole source of foreign currency, oil revenues have pumped more than $60 billion into state coffers since January. Baghdad's economy has been hit hard by the war against the Islamic State jihadist group which had seized a third of Iraq's territory in 2014 before being ousted in a vast government offensive last year. Iraq suffers from persistent corruption and many Iraqis complain that the country's oil wealth is unfairly distributed. This summer saw weeks of demonstrations in the oil-rich but marginalised south, demanding an end to power shortages and graft. Iraq has the second-highest output of any member of the OPEC oil producers cartel, at some 4.5 million barrels per day. Major oil producers including OPEC members and Russia agreed in June to raise crude output. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a meeting in Moscow with his Syrian counterpart on August 30, 2018 The United States appears resigned to the likelihood of a final military victory by Syrian government forces, even as it warns Bashar al-Assad and Moscow against launching a major offensive in the rebel-held northwest, analysts say. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday accused his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov of "defending" the expected assault by Russian-backed Syrian forces on Idlib province, scene of the last rebel stronghold and home to nearly three million people. "The US sees this as an escalation of an already dangerous conflict," Pompeo said on Twitter. The American warning follows 10 days of toughly worded exchanges between Western powers on the one side, and Syria and its Russian ally on the other, just as Assad -- bolstered by crucial Russian air support since 2015 -- sets his sites on Idlib. Assad's forces suffered serious setbacks early in the war, but Russian backing has helped them retake control of 60 percent of Syria. The US, France and Britain, which together launched limited attacks on Syrian installations in mid-April in retaliation for an alleged Syrian chemical attack, say their red line against illegal weapon use remains in force. "As we have demonstrated, we will respond appropriately to any further use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime," they said in a joint Aug. 21 communique. John Bolton, national security advisor to US President Donald Trump, similarly vowed that the US would respond "very strongly" to any chemical attack. But Lavrov on Wednesday called on the West not to stand in the way of what he described as an "anti-terror operation" in Idlib, which borders Turkey. In language that seemed to confirm the imminence of an assault, he called Idlib an "abscess (that) needs to be liquidated," while adding that it was necessary to minimize risks to civilians. - A 'laissez-faire' approach - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, seen during a State Department appearance on August 23, 2018 Behind the scenes, American diplomats have been actively warning Moscow, which has been accused in the past of turning a blind eye to chemical weapon use by its Syrian proteges. But these "verbal warning shots" have little to do with today's reality in Syria, said Jonas Parello-Plesner, a researcher with the Hudson Institute think tank in Washington who recently published a study on the US approach to the region. And that reality, he told AFP, is that "Assad is advancing on the ground, aided by Iran by land and Russia by air," while the United States places its hopes on a UN-backed Geneva peace process that might best be described, he said, as "moribund." In the event of a new chemical attack, the Western powers might again react as they did in April, he said. But a new round of limited reprisals would not fundamentally alter the "US administration's military hands-off approach to Syria." Trump said in April that "it's time" to bring American troops home from Syria -- once the jihadists of the Islamic State group had been definitively defeated. While he quickly backed away from talk of an immediate withdrawal, his underlying determination to leave Syria's seven-year war as soon as possible seems unchanged. Faysal Itani, an expert with the Atlantic Council think tank, says he believes "the United States has already effectively acquiesced to the regime recapturing the remainder of Syria." "There's no reason they should object to this in Idlib after accepting this in the south, Damascus, Aleppo, etc.," he said, "and the regime and Russia understand this. "So the US has no credibility or leverage in this." Once matters are finally resolved on the ground, Itani said, the focus will return to diplomacy and efforts to hammer out a political solution, as Washington wants. "But by then," he added, "there will be nothing to negotiate about except to formally recognize the political realities, which in turn reflect military realities that favor the Syrian regime." This file photo of US President Donald Trump was taken on August 27, 2018 as he spoke by speaker phone to Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto about their tentative new trade agreement US President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to exclude Canada from a new NAFTA agreement after negotiations to rewrite the pact ended without an agreement the night before. "There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. If we don't make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out," he tweeted. "Congress should not interfere with these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off." US-Canadian trade talks are set to resume on Wednesday, and Ottawa and Washington still have time to reach an agreement that would keep Canada in the 25-year-old trade pact with Mexico. But Trump's tweet seemed designed to ramp up pressure on Canadian negotiators. Earlier in the week, officials appeared close to reaching a deal that would rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement, but leaked inflammatory comments from Trump -- seen by some Canadians as suggesting he was bargaining in bad faith -- threatened to upend the talks. Trump has repeatedly denounced NAFTA as "one of the worst trade deals ever made," language he repeated on Saturday. - 'If it is willing' - The US and Mexico had announced a breakthrough accord on Monday, potentially leaving Canada out in the cold, but Ottawa's foreign minister Chrystia Freeland insisted that a "win-win-win" agreement was within reach. The White House notified Congress on Friday of its "intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico -- and Canada, if it is willing -- 90 days from now." The White House now has 30 days to present the full text of a new agreement to Congress, which will give Ottawa and Washington time to iron out differences. Trump's caution to Congress to "not interfere with these negotiations" appeared to refer to one potential obstacle: the fact that lawmakers have empowered him to reach a so-called "fast track" agreement with both NAFTA partners, not just Mexico. It is unclear how that will be sorted out. In a second tweet Saturday, Trump suggested that the United States would be better off with no trade agreement than with a flawed NAFTA deal. "We were far better off before NAFTA... We make new deal or go back to pre-NAFTA!" he said. Sounding a more optimistic note, Freeland had said late in the week that "with good will and flexibility on all sides, I know we can get there." But she repeated that Canada would only sign an agreement that was in its national interest. "Our officials are continuing to work toward agreement," US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement, stressing the benefits to US workers and businesses. The US-Mexico agreement laid out new rules for auto trade, and provided tougher protections for workers and intellectual property. But the talks with Canada snagged over the mechanisms used to resolve disputes among partners, and on Ottawa's strictly controlled dairy sector. On Friday, a senior US official emphasized that Washington was ready to move ahead with just Mexico if Canada failed to sign on. Mexican officials have made clear that they prefer an agreement that includes Canada. The EU stressed the importance of continued international support for UNWRA which runs schools for hundreds of Palestinian children across the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria The European Union on Saturday urged the United States to reconsider "its regrettable decision" to halt funding for the United Nations relief and works agency for Palestinian refugees. The EU stressed the importance of continued international support for UNWRA which runs schools for hundreds of Palestinian children across the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. "The regrettable decision of the US to no longer be part of this international and multilateral effort leaves a substantial gap," a spokesperson for the EU's diplomatic service said in a statement. "And we hope that the US can reconsider their decision," said the spokesperson for the European External Action Service. "The US have always played, and will continue to play, an essential role in any effort to achieve peace in the Middle East," the statement said. "The EU will continue to engage with the US and its other regional and international partners to work towards that common goal." Washington has long been UNRWA's largest donor but is "no longer willing to shoulder the very disproportionate share of the burden," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement on Friday. Nauert said there would be no additional contributions beyond a $60 million dollar payment made in January, drawing condemnation from both the Palestinians and UNRWA but a welcome from Israel. Nauert called UNWRA a "redeemably flawed operation." The 28-nation EU, the biggest collective contributor to UNWRA, said it will discuss with its international partners "how to ensure sustainable, continued and effective assistance to the Palestinians, including through UNRWA," in the runup to the UN General Assembly this month. Tunisian security forces check vehicles near the Tunisian customs post at the Ras Jedir border crossing with Libya, south of the town of Ben Guerdane, on March 22, 2016 Libya has reopened its main border post with Tunisia after closing it for more than six weeks amid tensions over smuggling, Tripoli's interior ministry said on Saturday. The border at Ras Jedir was re-opened to "facilitate... Libyan and Tunisian travellers", the ministry said, without providing further details. An AFP correspondent in Ben Guerdane, a Tunisian town about 30 kilometres (18 miles) from Ras Jedir, confirmed the crossing had been re-opened, but said Tunisians were protesting over a lack of consultation with residents. More than 200 people set fire to tyres and blocked Libyan travellers between Ben Guerdane and the border. The correspondent said the protestors were angry that Libyan authorities did not negotiate with them over the crossing's re-opening, rather than with Tunisia's government. It was not immediately clear what the protestors were demanding from the Libyan authorities. But prior to the border's closure, Tripoli had banned the passage of goods to Tunisia in order to rein in the smuggling of fuel and other items, a local Libyan official said. The ban on goods and the closure provoked protests by traders in Ben Guerdane, whose residents depend on cross-border traffic -- including smuggling -- for their livelihoods. The Ras Jedir crossing has been closed several times in recent years, leading to repeated tensions on the Tunisian side. Tunisian authorities have cited difficulties in negotiating with Tripoli over customs arrangements amid the political chaos that has engulfed Libya since the fall of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011. The re-opening of the border came several hours after the closure of Tripoli's only working airport, due to fighting. Authorities have repeatedly warned citizens not to heed calls to protest during the independence day celebrations Vietnam has arrested at least four people this week in the lead-up to its national day on Sunday, state media said, accusing them of attempting to sabotage national security. The one-party communist state frequently jails and convicts critics, especially since a hardline administration took power in 2016. Authorities have warned citizens not to heed calls to protest during Sunday's independence day celebrations, vowing harsh penalties for anyone who causes "social instability". On Saturday, police in the southern province of Can Tho arrested two men over their calls on Facebook for demonstrations, according to a report by state-run media. Doanh Khanh Vinh Quang, 42, and Bui Manh Dong, 40, had also published posts "defaming party, state and senior leaders", the report said. The most high-profile detention was of an alleged member of the US-based anti-government group Viet Tan, which Vietnam considers a terrorist organisation. Le Quoc Binh, 44, was nabbed Wednesday in central Binh Dinh province in possession of seven rifles and 500 bullets he had brought in from neighbouring Cambodia, according to the Ministry of Public Security. The cache of weapons was intended to "cause unrest on national day", it said, adding that Binh possessed many "anti-state documents". A 38-year-old shrimp farmer, Nguyen Ngoc Anh, was also arrested on Thursday in southern Ben Tre province for planning a national day protest. It remains unclear if the four men are connected. At least 28 dissidents and bloggers have been convicted in Vietnam since the beginning of the year, according to a list tallied by AFP. Among them, outspoken activist Le Dinh Luong was sentenced to 20 years -- the harshest penalty levied in recent years -- for his alleged role in calling for an election boycott and inciting environmental protests. National day marks the declaration of independence on September 2, 1945 by Ho Chi Minh, the founder of the Vietnamese Communist Party. Chadian forces, similar to the soldier pictured in 2013, have monitored rebel movements for weeks before targeting a site between Miski and Ybibou for bombardment Chad forces bombarded rebel positions around Tibesti, a town in the far north on the Libyan border, security and local sources told AFP Saturday. A security source said the bombardment, which followed weeks of monitoring of rebel movements, targeted a site between the localities of Miski and Yebibou. A local source said a dozen local people had been injured in the operation, which it said "targeted a wedding convoy" -- an allegation which could not be independently confirmed. Contacted by AFP, the armed forces made no comment. Chad late last month launched ground and air operations in the area following an attack on a local town in mid-August blamed on a rebel group long based inside Libya. Security Minister Ahmat Mahamat Bachir said the crackdown was designed to deal with an incursion of rebels opposed to President Idriss Deby as well as illegal miners whose arrival in recent years in an area troubled by a gold rush has fomented unrest with locals. Largely desert northern Chad is sparsely populated and home to several rebel groups involved in people trafficking between Chad and neighbouring states Sudan, Niger and Libya. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces, like the ones pictured in June 2018, have been amassing along Idlib's borders for weeks and shelling rebel-held territory on a daily basis A pregnant woman and her daughter were killed Saturday by regime artillery fire on Syria's Idlib province, a monitor said, as Damascus prepares an assault on the country's last major rebel bastion. President Bashar al-Assad's forces have been amassing along Idlib's borders for weeks and shelling rebel-held territory on a daily basis, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. On Saturday near the city of Jisr al-Shughur, "a pregnant woman and her daughter were killed by these regime strikes", the Observatory said, reporting similar artillery fire in other rebel-held areas. Experts say Jisr al-Shughur could be a key target if the government and its Russian ally were to launch an offensive on the region. Idlib is adjacent to Latakia province, the coastal heartland of Assad's Alawite minority and home to the Russian military airport of Hmeimim. In recent days, Damascus and Moscow have stepped up warnings of an imminent assault on the province, which shares a border with Turkey and is dominated by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist alliance led by the former branch of Al-Qaeda in Syria. Turkish troops are also stationed in Idlib and rebel backer Ankara fears an assault on the province may spark a new influx of refugees. More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since Syria's war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seen meeting Kyrgyz counterpart Sooronbay Jeenbekov, said he would not want his hosts "to have the same problems we faced," referring to the 2016 failed coup Ankara blames on Gulen backers Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday warned ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan during a trip to the country that it risks instability if it fails to root out followers of his US-based nemesis Fethullah Gulen. Speaking during an appearance with Kyrgyz counterpart Sooronbai Jeenbekov Erdogan referred to the status of Gulen's network in Kyrgyzstan as an "outstanding question" in otherwise warm ties between Ankara and the Central Asian country. Supporters of Gulen -- a cleric and educator Erdogan once regarded as an ally -- "infiltrate the army, police and other state structures and carry out coups" Erdogan said during the appearance in quotes that were translated into Russian. "We would not want (Kyrgyzstan) to have the same problems we faced," Erdogan said, referring to the 2016 attempted coup that Ankara has blamed on Gulen allies. Gulen, based in the US state of Pennyslvania, has always denied the accusations. After the coup bid, Turkish authorities launched an unprecedented purge against coup-plotters and individuals linked to Gulen, but also against pro-Kurdish officials and critical journalists. Since July 2016, over 55,000 people have been arrested over coup links while more than 140,000 public sector employees have been sacked or suspended. The government has led in parallel a diplomatic offensive to shut down educational institutions affiliated to Gulen in countries around the world. Jeenbekov indicated when appearing with Erdogan in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek that the Central Asian country had already taken steps to bring schools once affiliated to Gulen under government control. To date, Turkey has given no indication that it has been satisfied by Kyrgyzstan's attempts to restructure a chain of schools that are regarded as among the best in the country. The United States' refusal to meet Turkey's demand to extradite Gulen is one of many sore points in a once-strong relationship. Ties between the two NATO members hit a new low last month as US President Donald Trump announced steep new tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminium in response to the detention of an American pastor in Turkey. The Coptic Orthodox Church of the Virgin Mary in Cairo's Shubra al-Kheima district was the target of a previous attack on August 11, 2018 Egyptian villagers have attacked and looted the properties of Coptic Christians in the southern province of Minya in protest at the use of homes and halls for worship, the region's archdiocese said Saturday. "Four Coptic homes were attacked Friday by residents from the village and other nearby areas," said Bishop Makarios of Minya, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) south of Cairo. In a statement posted on its Facebook page, the archdiocese of Minya said "extremists" had attacked the village of Demshaw Hashem because of the "existence of a church". It said Christian residents of the village use homes and halls for prayer. "Extremists attacked Copts, stole quantities of jewelry and money, destroyed household appliances and set fire to property," it said. Three people including a firefighter were injured. "There have been reports for several days about the intention of extremists to carry out the attack," it said. Authorities were informed of the threats but security forces arrived to the village after the assault, it added. A security official said 38 suspects had been arrested. Copts, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's nearly 100 million people, have long complained of discrimination and intermittent sectarian attacks. The Coptic minority has been targeted by a series of bloody attacks over the past two years, most claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group. On August 11, an attempted suicide attack on a church in northern Cairo was foiled when the presence of security forces prompted the assailant to detonate his explosive belt on a bridge some 200 metres from the house of worship, according to security sources. Many churches are built illegally in Egypt due to administrative obstacles. Authorities hailed as a breakthrough a law passed in 2016 on the construction and restoration of churches. But in late 2017, a church around 100 kilometres south of Cairo was attacked by a crowd chanting hostile slogans and calling for the building's demolition. The delegation paid a courtesy call to Deputy Speaker of the South African NA Solomon Lechesa Tsenoli. During a working session with Chairperson of the South African NAs Portfolio Committee of Defence and Military Veterans Malusi Stanley Motimele, the Vietnamese side expressed their wishes to facilitate high-level visits to further strengthen bilateral ties. The delegation said the Vietnamese Association of War Veterans appointed retired senior officials to its executive boards from central to local levels, serving as bridges among members. Both sides discussed measures to reinforce ties between the two committees and shared experience in monitoring the implementation of policies on national defence-security and war veterans. The delegation also held a working session with chief of the South African Police Services Serious Organised Crime Investigation Unit, Major General Ledwaba, during which both sides discussed the progress of negotiating and signing agreements on anti-crime, extradition of sentenced persons, and wildlife trafficking combat. The two sides underscored the need to strengthen their legal frameworks in order to consolidate the foundations for fighting crime in the future. The Vietnamese officials learned about the history of South African air forces, as well as the potential for bilateral ties and measures to help foster cooperation in the field during a working session with Deputy Chief of the South African Air Force M. I. Buthelezi. The delegation had previously also paid a working visit to Singapore from August 22-25. HONOLULU (AP) - A can of pepper spray went off inside a plane headed from Oakland, California, to Maui on Friday, requiring emergency help for several people aboard, Hawaiian Airlines said. Twelve passengers and three flight attendants were treated for respiratory issues and released by emergency responders at the airport in Kahului, Hawaii, airline spokesman Alex Da Silva said. A passenger illegally brought the pepper spray on the plane carrying 256 passengers and 10 crew members, but it appears it discharged accidentally, Da Silva said in a statement. The airline could not provide any details about the passenger or why officials believe the release was accidental. This Friday, Aug. 31, 2018 photo provided by Nicholas Andrade shows people gathered in a back galley on a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Oakland, Calif., to Kahului, Hawaii, after a can of pepper spray went off inside the plane. Twelve passengers and three flight attendants were treated for respiratory issues and released by emergency responders at the airport in Kahului, which is on the island of Maui. (Nicholas Andrade via AP) The flight crew of the Boeing 767 declared an emergency to get priority to land at the airport in Hawaii. Nicholas Andrade said he and his fiancee were trying to take a nap in their seats just behind first class when the problems began. "I was woken up by someone having a coughing fit. But what I came to find out is that it wasn't one person coughing, it was many people coughing. And then everyone was coughing and then we were coughing. And the flight attendants were covering their faces and passengers started covering their faces," he said. People had trouble breathing and were shouting. "People were definitely panicked," he said. Flight attendants told the affected passengers to move to the back of the plane where the air wasn't bothering people. He said about 40 people stood in the back galley for about a half-hour until the air around their seats improved. Andrade was among the 12 evaluated by medical professionals after the plane landed. He said he had a headache and felt light-headed. Other passengers had burning and watering eyes. Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said in an email that her agency and Maui police are investigating. She said the canister held about 1.5 ounces (42 grams). The fine for bringing pepper spray onto an airplane can reach $1,960 or higher, Farbstein said. The airline said the flight was delayed earlier Friday after a teenager in Oakland sent a photo depicting a fake crime scene "featuring a child-sized mannequin" to other passengers' cellphones. The teen and his family were booked for a later flight while officials investigated. Hawaiian Airlines said the two incidents were not related and the family's baggage had to be located and removed from the plane, causing the delay. __ Associated Press writer Audrey McAvoy contributed to this report. The Trump administration is withholding more than 100,000 pages of Brett Kavanaugh's records from the Bush White House on the basis of presidential privilege ahead of the Supreme Court nominee's confirmation hearing. The Senate Judiciary Committee was notified of the action Friday. George W. Bush's attorney Bill Burck told the panel it had essentially completed its work compiling documents, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press. Bush directed them to err 'on the side of transparency and disclosure, and we believe we have done so.' It was revealed Friday that the Trump administration has withheld more than 100,000 pages of Brett Kavanaugh's records But the current administration is also able to review the records, and the Trump White House 'has directed that we not provide these documents,' the letter says. In all, 267,000 pages of Kavanaugh documents from his Bush years are being made public. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called it 'a Friday night document massacre.' Schumer said the decision to withhold the documents 'has all the makings of a cover-up. ... What are they trying so desperately to hide?' Trump nominated Kavanaugh in June to succeed Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was the Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States until he retired this year. SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - The FBI on Friday arrested five former residents of a ramshackle compound in New Mexico on firearms and conspiracy charges as local prosecutors dropped charges in the death of a 3-year-old boy at the property. Taos County District Attorney Donald Gallegos said his office will now seek grand jury indictments involving the death. He said seeking indictments will allow more time to gather and analyze evidence, and enable his office to avoid calling juveniles from the compound as witnesses in court. FILE - In this Aug. 29, 2018, file photo, Jany Leveille, from left, with her attorney Kelly Golightley, and Siraj Ibn Wahhaj with attorney Tom Clark listen to the prosecutor during a hearing on a motion to dismiss in the Taos County Courthouse. Federal prosecutors say the FBI has arrested five former residents, including Leveille and Wahhaj, of a ramshackle compound in northern New Mexico on firearms and conspiracy charges as local prosecutors dropped charges in the death of a 3-year-old boy at the property. Taos County District Attorney Donald Gallegos said Friday, Aug. 31, his office will now seek grand jury indictments involving the death. (Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, Pool, File) Three of the adults from the compound had been released Wednesday after state judges dismissed child neglect charges, noting that prosecutors missed deadlines to present evidence and that charges may have been improperly filed by the sheriff and prosecutors. Deadlines loomed in state court next week to show evidence backing up charges of child abuse resulting in death against Jany Leveille and Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, the father of the boy whose body was found in an underground tunnel at the compound near the Colorado border. Those charges were subsequently dropped Friday in lieu of taking the case to a grand jury set to convene in late September. "Going to a grand jury allows us to get that information and vet it and not be under the 10-day window, which is quite burdensome," Gallegos said, describing state rules on due process for jailed defendants that require a quick showing of probable cause that a crime was committed. All five people arrested by the FBI will remain in custody pending a Tuesday hearing in federal court. Joe Shattuck, an Arizona-based criminal defense attorney who has practices in New Mexico, described the firearms possession and conspiracy as "low hanging fruit" that keeps all five defendants behind bars. "The feds are looking to get their thumbs into the pie - they may want to get deeper into the case later," said Shattuck, who is not involved in the case. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Albuquerque said Leveille has been charged with being an alien unlawfully in possession of firearms and ammunition. The other four people are charged with conspiring with Leveille. They include Lucas Morton; his wife, Subhannah Wahhaj; and her sister Hujrah Wahhaj Federal immigration authorities have accused Leveille, a native of Haiti, of residing illegally in the U.S. for 20 years after overstaying a visitor's visa, though she was authorized to work in the U.S. from April 2017 through April 2018. In federal court filings on Friday, the FBI said handguns, rifles and a shotgun found at the compound were purchased by Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and Hujrah Wahhaj, while one rifle had no purchaser information. Some firearms were transported in a vehicle registered to Leveille during a portion of the family's journey from Georgia to New Mexico in late 2017, and guns were later stored under Leveille's bed. An unnamed child at the compound saw Leveille train with a gun once and fire it, the FBI said. Kelly Golightley, a defense attorney for Leveille, said she was unfamiliar with the new charges and could not immediately comment. "I need to investigate my cases more thoroughly to determine if charges were properly filed," she said. Eleven children were taken into state custody in an Aug. 3 raid on the squalid compound, where a half-submerged camper was surrounded by walls of used tires and adobe walls topped with broken glass. Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said the property was under surveillance since May, and that he launched the raid based on an intercepted message that children were starving. A district court judge says authorities have failed to provide evidence that the children were physically neglected. Authorities say that Abdul-ghani, the deceased boy found at the property, initially was reported missing by his mother last year from Jonesboro, Georgia, after Siraj Ibn Wahhaj said he was taking the child to a park and didn't return. Forensic medical investigators have not yet identified the cause and manner of the boy's death. Law enforcement officials previously accused Wahhaj and Leveille of denying the boy proper medicine and health care before he died in December 2017 during a religious ritual aimed at casting out demonic spirits. In filings in federal court on Friday, an FBI agent reiterated accusations drawn from accounts by children at the compound that Leveille expected Abdul-ghani to be resurrected as Jesus and provide instruction to "get rid of" corrupt institutions that involve teachers, law enforcement and banks. FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2018, file photo defendant Siraj Ibn Wahhaj sits in court in Taos, N.M., during a detention hearing. Federal prosecutors say the FBI has arrested five former residents, including Wahhaj, of a ramshackle compound in northern New Mexico on firearms and conspiracy charges as local prosecutors dropped charges in the death of a 3-year-old boy at the property. Taos County District Attorney Donald Gallegos said Friday, Aug. 31, his office will now seek grand jury indictments involving the death. (Roberto E. Rosales/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, Pool, File) FILE - In this Aug. 29,2018, file photo, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, from left, and Jany Leveille talk with with attorneys Kelly Golightley and Tom Clark after a hearing on a motion to dismiss in the Taos County Courthouse. Federal prosecutors say the FBI has arrested five former residents, including Wahhaj and Leveille, of a ramshackle compound in northern New Mexico on firearms and conspiracy charges as local prosecutors dropped charges in the death of a 3-year-old boy at the property. Taos County District Attorney Donald Gallegos said Friday, Aug. 31, his office will now seek grand jury indictments involving the death. (Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, Pool, file) HONOLULU (AP) - The Latest on a can of pepper spray going off inside a Hawaiian Airlines flight. (all times local): 6 p.m. A man says he was trying to nap on board a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Oakland, California, to Maui, but was woken up by someone having a coughing fit. This Friday, Aug. 31, 2018 photo provided by Nicholas Andrade shows a fire truck outside a Hawaiian Airlines jet in Kahului, Hawaii, after a can of pepper spray went off inside the plane during a flight from Oakland, Calif. Twelve passengers and three flight attendants were treated for respiratory issues and released by emergency responders at the airport in Kahului, which is on the island of Maui. (Nicholas Andrade via AP) Nicholas Andrade says he then noticed everyone around him was coughing and flight attendants and passengers were covering their faces. He says flight attendants told the passengers to retreat to the back of the plane where the air wasn't affected. He later learned a can of pepper spray had gone off on the plane. He says about 40 people stood in the back of the plane for about 30 minutes. Hawaiian Airlines spokesman Alex Da Silva says 12 passengers and three flight attendants were treated for respiratory issues and released after the plane landed in Kahului Friday. Police are investigating. ___ 2:30 p.m. Hawaiian Airlines says a can of pepper spray went off inside a plane headed from Oakland, California, to Maui, requiring emergency help for several people aboard. Airline spokesman Alex Da Silva says 12 passengers and three flight attendants were treated for respiratory issues and released Friday. He says in a statement that a passenger illegally brought the pepper spray on the plane carrying 256 passengers and 10 crew members but that it appears the release was accidental. Hawaii Department of Transportation spokesman Tim Sakahara says about 30 people complained of being affected by the irritant, but no one was taken to the hospital. The airline says the flight was delayed earlier Friday after a teenager in Oakland sent a photo depicting a fake crime scene to cellphones of other passengers. WASHINGTON (AP) - Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says she has "no intention of taking any action" regarding any possible use of federal funds to arm teachers or provide them with firearms training. DeVos' comments came Friday after a top official in her department, asked about arming teachers, said states and local jurisdictions always "had the flexibility" to decide how to use federal education funds. Frank Brogan, assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education, said arming educators "is a good example of a profoundly personal decision on the part of a school or a school district or even a state." President Donald Trump and DeVos have said schools may benefit from having armed teachers and should have that option. FILE - In this May 31, 2018 file photo, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos speaks during a visit of the Federal School Safety Commission at Hebron Harman Elementary School in Hanover, Md. DeVos says she has "no intention of taking any action" regarding any possible use of federal funds to arm teachers or provide them with firearms training. Her comments came Friday, Aug. 31, 2018 after a top official in her department, asked about arming teachers, said states and local jurisdictions always "had the flexibility" to decide how to use federal education funds. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File) DeVos said Friday that "Congress did not authorize me or the Department to make those decisions" about arming teachers or training them on the use of firearms. Her comments were in a letter to Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the House committee overseeing education, and were posted by the department on Twitter. "I will not take any action that would expand or restrict the responsibilities and flexibilities granted to state and local education agencies by Congress," DeVos wrote. Democrats and education groups have argued, however, that the funds are intended for academics, not guns. DeVos heads a federal commission on school safety that was formed after the deadly Valentine's Day shooting at a Florida high school. An early draft of the commission's report recommends that states and communities determine "based on the unique circumstances of each school" whether to arm its security personnel and teachers to be able to respond to violence. The draft's section on training school personnel was reviewed by AP. That approach, the draft says, "can be particularly helpful" in rural districts where the nearest police unit may be far away. Other recommendations included employing school resource officers and ensuring they worked closely with the rest of the school staff. In an interview with The Associated Press Thursday, Brogan cited the "school marshal" program in Texas where school employees can volunteer to carry weapons on campuses after undergoing training. Educators from some remote rural schools also told the panel that they rely on armed school personnel because the police may take too long to arrive. Others, however, argued that arming teachers is dangerous and could make schools feel like prisons. Brogan said the Every Student Succeeds Act, a bipartisan law that shifts education authority to states, provides about $1 billion in annual funding for various school needs, including 20 percent specifically set aside for school safety. "The people at the local level who've been there for years could make the decisions about what services to purchase, what equipment to buy to fulfill the general broad obligations laid out in that law," he said. It would be up to Congress, not the U.S. Department of Education, to place any restrictions or barriers to use those funds for purposes not currently in the law, a department spokeswoman said. The debate arose earlier this month after a small rural school district in Oklahoma and the state of Texas asked the department to clarify what the funds can be used for. "The position is: You have the language ... the language was written specifically to and always interpreted to mean 'this is your money,'" Brogan said. Democratic lawmakers and teachers blasted the idea, accusing the Trump administration of acting in the interests of the National Rifle Association, and several congressmen called for legislation that would prohibit the use of those funds for guns. Senator Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate commission overseeing education, said on Twitter that she was "extremely disappointed that (DeVos) is moving forward with this awful plan to allow federal funds to be used to arm teachers." "I hope she reconsiders and we need to keep pressure on her until she does," Murray added. Brogan also clarified that the commission will tackle gun control as instructed by the White House. DeVos had told a Senate hearing in June that the panel will not look at guns "per se," causing confusion. Brogan said the commission will consider age restrictions for gun purchases, as well as whether people with mental health problems who are likely to harm themselves and others can possess weapons. Brogan said the panel will produce a tool kit "that provides recognized best practices, not just the shiny new object on school safety, but what people are already doing that seems to be showing a track record of success that can be put out there in inventory fashion." "You cannot do that with a uniform approach to this thing because the country is so very different, place to place, school to school, state to state," Brogan said. "There is no one way to make schools safe." Besides recommendations on arming and training school staff, the research and best practices identified by the panel will include suggestions on equipping schools with magnetometers and other safety tools, character development programs and the impact of video games and movies on violent behavior. The report will be issued in "very late fall or by the end of the year," Brogan said. The commission was created by President Donald Trump in March after 17 people were killed in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The panel is chaired by DeVos and also consists of the heads of the departments of Justice, Health and Human Services and Homeland Security. ___ This story has been corrected to delete reference to Brogan saying agency will let states decide on use of federal funds to arm teachers. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - President Donald Trump says the prospect of North Carolina drawing new congressional districts just weeks before the November midterm elections is "unfair." A panel of federal judges this week struck down the state's congressional map, saying Republican state legislators went too far in using political data to preserve GOP-held seats. The judges raised the possibility of drawing new districts by mid-September so they can be used in the Nov. 6 elections, or at least before the new Congress is seated in January. Republicans are objecting to the plan, which comes as the party - and Trump - fight to defend the GOP House majority. President Donald Trump holds up a list of his administrations accomplishments while speaking at a Republican fundraiser at the Carmel Country Club in in Charlotte, N.C., Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) Trump addressed the redistricting issue during a fundraising appearance Friday in Charlotte for a pair of GOP congressional candidates. "I think it's unfair with this whole redistricting thing they're doing in North Carolina. How unfair is that?" he said. "It's very unfair. You have an election in a little more than 60 days and they change the district on you? And you've already won primaries. How does that work? The court system, OK. How does that work?" Trump said. "You've all gone through primaries or most of you have. It's been districted for many years and now you have to redraw lines to have a new district even though you won a primary in another district?" Trump added: "I don't know. There has to be something going on there." Before arriving at the country club fundraiser for GOP House candidates Rep. Ted Budd and Mark Harris, Trump held a separate event where he signed an executive order directing the Labor and Treasury departments to help small businesses band together to offer retirement plans to their workers. Trump asked the departments to take steps to eliminate regulatory hurdles that he said keep small businesses from sharing costs so they can offer what are called association retirement plans. He said administrative costs and other barriers discourage small businesses from making retirement plans available to their employees. "They'll be banding together. They'll have such strength," Trump said. "They'll be able to negotiate incredible deals." Most Americans use plans offered by their employers to save for retirement. But about one-third of all private-sector workers, and just under a quarter of all full-time workers in the private sector, lack access to workplace retirement plans, James Sherk, assistant to the president for domestic policy, said Thursday. The problem is more acute among businesses that employ fewer than 500 people. About half of workers at these businesses don't have access retirement plans, Sherk said. He referenced surveys in which more than one-third of small- and medium-sized business that don't offer retirement plans cited high costs as the main reason. The fundraiser also benefited the state Republican Party and the National Republican Congressional Committee. The NRCC said the event was expected to draw 300 people and raise $750,000. ___ Superville contributed from Washington. President Donald Trump gestures while speaking at the Harris Conference Center in Charlotte, N.C., Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) WASHINGTON (AP) - A senior Justice Department lawyer says a former British spy told him at a breakfast meeting two years ago that Russian intelligence believed it had Donald Trump "over a barrel," according to multiple people familiar with the encounter. The lawyer, Bruce Ohr, also says he learned that a Trump campaign aide had met with higher-level Russian officials than the aide had acknowledged, the people said. The previously unreported details of the July 30, 2016, breakfast with Christopher Steele, which Ohr described to lawmakers this week in a private interview, reveal an exchange of potentially explosive information about Trump between two men the president has relentlessly sought to discredit. In this Aug. 28, 2018, file photo, Justice Department official Bruce Ohr arrives for a closed hearing of the House Judiciary and House Oversight committees on Capitol Hill in Washington. A former British spy told Ohr, a senior Justice Department lawyer, at a breakfast meeting on July 30, 2016, that Russian intelligence believed it had Donald Trump "over a barrel," according to multiple people familiar with the encounter. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) They add to the public understanding of those pivotal summer months as the FBI and intelligence community scrambled to untangle possible connections between the Trump campaign and Russia. And they reflect the concern of Steele, a longtime FBI informant whose Democratic-funded research into Trump ties to Russia was compiled into a dossier, that the Republican presidential candidate was possibly compromised and his urgent efforts to convey that anxiety to contacts at the FBI and Justice Department. The people who discussed Ohr's interview were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the closed session and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Among the things Ohr said he learned from Steele during the breakfast was that an unnamed former Russian intelligence official had communicated that Russian intelligence believed "they had Trump over a barrel," according to people familiar with the meeting. It was not clear from Ohr's interview whether Steele was directly told that or had picked that up through his contacts, but the broader sentiment is echoed in Steele's dossier. Steele and Ohr, at the time of the election a senior official in the deputy attorney general's office, had first met a decade earlier and bonded over a shared interest in international organized crime. They met several times during the presidential campaign, a relationship that has exposed both men and federal law enforcement more generally to partisan criticism, including from Trump. Republicans contend the FBI relied excessively on the dossier during its investigation and to obtain a secret wiretap application on Trump campaign aide Carter Page. They also say Ohr went outside his job description and chain of command by meeting with Steele, including after his termination as a FBI source, and then relaying information to the FBI. Trump this month proposed stripping Ohr, who until this year had been largely anonymous during his decades-long Justice Department career, of his security clearance and has asked "how the hell" he remains employed. He has called the Russia investigation a "witch hunt" and denied any collusion between his campaign and Moscow. The president and some of his supporters in Congress have also accused the FBI of launching the entire Russia counterintelligence investigation based on the dossier. But memos authored by Republicans and Democrats and declassified this year show the probe was triggered by information the U.S. government earlier received about the Russian contacts of then-Trump campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos. The FBI's investigation was already under way by the time it received Steele's dossier. The investigation's lead agent, Peter Strzok, told lawmakers last month that "it was not Mr. Ohr who provided the initial documents that I became aware of in mid-September." Ohr described his relationship with Steele during a House interview Tuesday. One of the meetings he recounted was a Washington breakfast attended by Steele, a Steele associate and Ohr. Ohr's wife, Nellie, who worked for Fusion GPS, the political research firm that hired Steele, attended at least part of it. Beside the "over a barrel" remark, Ohr also told Congress that Steele told him that Page, a Trump campaign aide who traveled to Moscow that same month and whose ties to Russia attracted FBI scrutiny, had met with more-senior Russian officials than he had acknowledged. The breakfast took place amid ongoing FBI concerns about Russian election interference and possible communication with Trump associates. By that point, Russian hackers had penetrated Democratic email accounts, including that of the Clinton campaign chairman, and Papadopoulos, the Trump campaign associate, was said to have learned that Russians had "dirt" on Democrat Hillary Clinton in the form of emails, court papers say. That revelation prompted the FBI to open the counterintelligence investigation on July 31, 2016, one day after the breakfast but based on entirely different information. Ohr told lawmakers he could not vouch for the accuracy of Steele's information but has said he considered him a reliable FBI informant who delivered credible and actionable intelligence, including about corruption at FIFA, soccer's global governing body. In the interview, Ohr acknowledged that he had not told superiors in his office, including Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, about his meetings with Steele because he considered the information inflammatory raw source material. He also provided new details about the department's move to reassign him once his Steele ties were brought to light. Ohr said he met in late 2017 with two senior Justice Department officials, Scott Schools and James Crowell, who told him they were unhappy he had not proactively disclosed his meetings with Steele. They said he was being stripped of his associate deputy attorney post as part of an internal reorganization that would have occurred anyway, people familiar with Ohr's account say. He met again soon after with one of the officials, who told him Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein didn't believe he could remain in his current position as director of a law enforcement grant-distribution initiative known as the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces program because the position entailed White House meetings and interactions. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined comment. KHUZAA, Gaza Strip (AP) - Each Friday, volunteer medic Asmaa Qudih goes through a tense ritual: She prays, kisses her mother's hand and packs a bag with medical supplies as she heads off to work at the weekly mass protests along Gaza's border fence with Israel. Treating the wounded has become dangerous for Gaza's emergency workers. In the past five months, three medics were killed by Israeli army fire, while dozens more, including Qudih, were hurt by live fire or tear gas canisters. Qudih, 35, says the weekly routine is terrifying, but that national pride, religious devotion and professional ambition drive her and other medics to risk their lives. In this Friday, Aug. 24, 2018 photo, Palestinian paramedic Asmaa Qudih sprays a homemade anti teargas liquid on a man near the fence of the Gaza Strip border with Israel, during a protest east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. Treating the wounded has become dangerous mission for Gaza's emergency workers. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) "As long as you go to work in the field, you expect at any time to get injured or killed," she said on a recent Friday as she prepared to head to the frontier. Before leaving home, she inspected her red backpack, filled with bandages, sticky tape and the saline spray that soothes the effects of tear gas on the eyes and skin. She hugged her young nieces and nephews, and then solemnly kissed her mother farewell. "She goes against my will," said her mother, Fatma, as she showered Qudih with blessings. "But this is her decision." In the latest violence, witnesses said volunteer paramedic Shorouq Msameh was shot in the back Friday while standing about 300 meters (yards) from a fence during a protest east of Rafah as demonstrators tried to launch a burning tire toward Israeli territory. Msameh, who was wearing a white coat marking her as a medic, was listed in critical condition at a hospital in nearby Khan Younis. The plight of Gaza's medics lies at the heart of a debate over Israel's use of force in the protests. European and U.N. officials, along with international rights groups, accuse Israel of using excessive force, citing the large numbers of civilian casualties, including medical workers. The U.N. and World Health Organization have both said Israel is obligated to allow medics to work safely. Israel says it does not intentionally target medics and even tries to protect them but accuses militants of mixing in with the crowds. Last month, Israel said a Palestinian nurse from the group Doctors Without Borders tried to carry out a late-night cross-border shooting attack on Israeli troops. Israel apparently killed the man, but has not revealed details. Qudih never planned to work at the protests, which are aimed in part at trying to break a blockade of Gaza imposed by Israel and Egypt to weaken the ruling Islamic militant group Hamas. The marches, led by Hamas but also driven by the desperation of Gaza residents over blockade-linked hardships, typically take place on Fridays along a perimeter fence. On March 30, the day of the first march, Qudih walked about half an hour from her home in the southern town of Abassan to the nearest protest site to watch. She saw thousands of Palestinians marching close to the frontier, burning tires and hurling rocks and firebombs in the direction of Israeli soldiers, including snipers behind earthen mounds on the other side of the fence. Soldiers responded with live fire and tear gas. Fifteen people, mostly young men, were killed that day, and hundreds more were badly wounded. Protesters and medics struggled to evacuate the wounded, in many cases carrying them "improperly and hastily" to ambulances or private cars, she recalled. Noticing the shortage of paramedics, Qudih volunteered as an emergency responder. "Seeing the injured in front of me gave me the courage to provide them the needed service," she said. The job has proved to be dangerous. In five months of marches, 125 Palestinians have been killed and about 4,500 others have been wounded by gunfire, according to Gaza health officials and rights groups. Palestinian officials say the vast majority were unarmed. Among the dead have been three paramedics, including Razan Najjar, a 21-year-old woman who also worked as a volunteer with Qudih in the Khuzaa protest camp. All wore white or fluorescent uniforms identifying themselves as medics. Witnesses said Najjar had just helped treat a protester when she was shot in the chest. Qudih, who did not see it, said word spread quickly among her colleagues. "We collected ourselves and hurried to the hospital, all the medics," she said. "There was big pain and shock." At least 100 medical workers have been injured by gunshots, shrapnel and direct hits from tear gas canisters, according to al-Mezan, a leading Gaza-based rights group. Rescuers typically walk slowly, their hands raised, when approaching the border to treat the wounded. "They noticeably target the medical crews recently," Qudih alleged. Qudih herself was hit with a tear gas canister dropped from a drone on May 14, the most violent day of the marches, in which about 60 Palestinians were killed. The canister knocked her unconscious and she was briefly hospitalized to have her head stitched up. After Najjar, a friend and neighbor, was killed, Qudih decided to work at a field hospital, far from the front lines, for three weeks. And if she felt in danger, "we would step back a little or hide ourselves behind a sand hill," she said. She once scolded her young nephews when she saw them at a protest. "Later, I felt embarrassed because the place was full of people and I looked as if caring for our children only." Her brother Loai initially objected to her going but eventually gave up. "This is who she is," he said. On a recent Friday, it didn't take long for Qudih to see action. Dozens of protesters ventured toward the border fence and set tires ablaze as Israeli forces responded with volleys of tear gas and occasional live fire. Qudih, wearing a medical coat over her full-body Islamic gown, moved quickly to treat the wounded. She darted to the front lines, sprinkling saline on people lying on the ground until paramedics carried them away. When the acrid smoke cleared, she removed her medical mask and wiped her face with tissues. Israel accuses Hamas of using the protests as cover to carry out attacks and says it is defending its border from infiltration attempts. One Israeli soldier has been killed by a Gaza sniper. But Israel has come under heavy criticism because of the large number of unarmed protesters who have been shot. It came under similar criticism during a 2014 war with Hamas in which 11 paramedics were killed and 24 ambulances destroyed, according to al-Mezan. In a statement, the Israel army denied targeting medical workers but said they operate very close to the fence "and are often mixed between those carrying out attacks and those acting violently." It said commanders "repeatedly and emphatically" ordered their troops to avoid harming medical workers. It said troops generally stop their activities when medical personnel near the border, even though this can heighten risks to soldiers by allowing Hamas militants to approach. "Nevertheless, despite these efforts, unintended harm to medical personnel may have been unavoidable in such volatile, challenging and chaotic situations," it said, adding that the deaths of medical personnel are being investigated. Professional medics from the Health Ministry, Civil Defense and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society provide most of the care. But trainees and unpaid volunteers like Qudih have played supporting roles because of the many injured, al-Mezan said. Being unemployed, Qudih said she hopes health officials will offer her a job. Unemployment in Gaza is close to 50 percent. But she said her main motivation is her "national and religious duty" - and to remember her friend, Razan Najjar. "We continue our volunteer work here in great part as an honor to Razan," she said. In this Friday, Aug. 24, 2018 photo, Palestinian paramedic Asmaa Qudih prepares her medics bag before she leaves her family house in Abassan, east of Khan Younis City, southern Gaza Strip, to treat protesters wounded near the Gaza Strip border with Israel. Treating the wounded has become dangerous mission for Gaza's emergency workers. A few medics have been killed by Israeli gunfire, while dozens more, including Qudih, have been wounded by either live fire or tear gas canisters. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) In this Friday, Aug. 24, 2018 photo, Palestinian paramedic Asmaa Qudih poses during an interview while her nephew Mohammad takes photo of her at her family house in Abassan, east of Khan Younis City, southern Gaza Strip, before she leaves to treat protesters wounded near the Gaza Strip border with Israel. Treating the wounded has become a dangerous mission for Gaza's emergency workers. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) In this Friday, Aug. 24, 2018 photo, Palestinian paramedic Asmaa Qudih carries her medics bag while walking between protesters near the Gaza Strip border with Israel, east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. Treating the wounded has become dangerous mission for Gaza's emergency workers. A few medics have been killed by Israeli gunfire, while dozens more, including Qudih, have been wounded by either live fire or tear gas canisters. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) In this Friday, Aug. 24, 2018 photo, Palestinian paramedic Asmaa Qudih kisses her mother's hand Fatma at her family house in Abassan, east of Khan Younis City, southern Gaza Strip, before she leaves to treat the protesters wounded of a protest near the Gaza Strip border with Israel. Each Friday, Gaza medic Asmaa Qudih goes through a tense ritual: She performs a prayer, kisses her mother's hand and packs a bag with medical supplies as she heads off to work at the weekly mass protests along the Israeli border. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) In this Friday, Aug. 24, 2018 photo, Palestinian paramedic Asmaa Qudih leaves her family house in Abassan, east of Khan Younis City, southern Gaza Strip to treat the protesters wounded near the Gaza Strip border with Israel. Qudih acknowledges the weekly routine is terrifying, but a mix of national pride, religious devotion and professional ambition drives her and other medics to risk their lives each week. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) In this Friday, Aug. 24, 2018 photo, Palestinian paramedic Asmaa Qudih shakes hands with her nephews at her family house in Abassan, east of Khan Younis City, southern Gaza Strip before she leaves to treat the protesters wounded of a protest near the Gaza Strip border with Israel. Qudih acknowledges the weekly routine is terrifying, but a mix of national pride, religious devotion and professional ambition drives her and other medics to risk their lives each week.(AP Photo/Adel Hana) In this Friday, Aug. 24, 2018 photo, Palestinian paramedic Asmaa Qudih wipes a protester's face near the fence of the Gaza Strip border with Israel, during a protest east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. Qudih acknowledges the weekly routine is terrifying, but a mix of national pride, religious devotion and professional ambition drives her and other medics to risk their lives each week. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) In this Friday, Aug. 24, 2018 photo, Palestinian paramedic Asmaa Qudih sprays a homemade anti teargas liquid on the faces of protesters near the fence of the Gaza Strip border with Israel, during a protest east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. Treating the wounded has become dangerous mission for Gaza's emergency workers. A few medics have been killed by Israeli gunfire, while dozens, including Qudih, have been wounded by either live fire or tear gas canisters. Qudih acknowledges the weekly routine is terrifying, but a mix of national pride, religious devotion and professional ambition drives her and other medics to risk their lives each week. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) In this Friday, Aug. 24, 2018 photo, Palestinian paramedic Asmaa Qudih and her mother's Fatma sit at their family house in Abassan, east of Khan Younis City, southern Gaza Strip before she leaves to treat the protesters wounded of a protest near the Gaza Strip border with Israel. Qudih acknowledges the weekly routine is terrifying, but a mix of national pride, religious devotion and professional ambition drives her and other medics to risk their lives each week. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) Medics and protesters run to evacuate wounded man during a protest east of Gaza City, Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. Gaza's Health Ministry says Israeli gunfire wounded about 80 Palestinians at a weekly protest along the border with Israel. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) Medics and protesters evacuate a wounded demonstrator near the Gaza Strip border with Israel, during a protest east of Gaza City, Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. Gaza's Health Ministry says Israeli gunfire wounded about 80 Palestinians at a weekly protest along the border with Israel. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) Medics evacuate a wounded youth in the middle of teargas fired by Israeli troops near the Gaza Strip border with Israel, during a protest east of Gaza City, Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. Gaza's Health Ministry says Israeli gunfire wounded about 80 Palestinians at a weekly protest along the border with Israel. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) A wounded asks for help the moment that he got shot as medics run to evacuate him during a protest east of Gaza City, Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. Gaza's Health Ministry says Israeli gunfire wounded about 80 Palestinians at a weekly protest along the border with Israel. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - The California Legislature voted Friday to allow power companies to raise electric bills to cover the cost of lawsuits from last year's deadly wildfires amid fears that Pacific Gas & Electric Co., would otherwise face financial ruin. The measure is part of a wide-ranging plan to reduce the threat of wildfires, which have killed dozens of people and destroyed thousands of homes in recent years. Consumer advocates and large energy users blasted legislation they say is a bailout for PG&E, which expects to pay billions of dollars due to fires started by the company's equipment in Northern California last year. The company would be allowed to charge their customers even if the fires are linked to mismanagement by the company. FILE - In this Oct. 9, 2017 file photo, Cazadero firefighter struggles to protect a home from catching fire in Coffey Park, in Santa Rosa, Calif. Utility workers won protections for their jobs, salaries, benefits and pensions as part of a measure allowing California power companies to raise electric bills to cover the cost of lawsuits from last year's deadly wildfires. The measure is scheduled for votes in the Senate and Assembly Friday night, Aug. 31, 2018, following months of contentious negotiations. (Kent Porter/The Press Democrat via AP, File) "Everybody's getting protected, but customers," said Michael Boccadoro, executive director of the Agricultural Energy Consumers Association. "Utility shareholders are protected. Trial attorneys are protected. Insurers are protected. Victims are protected. Labor's protected. Unfortunately, they forgot to protect customers." California courts have ruled that utilities are entirely liable for damage caused by power lines, even if they've followed all safety regulations. Lawmakers considered changing that standard but backed off amid a barrage of lobbying by wildfire victims and insurance companies. Fire investigators have blamed PG&E equipment for 12 of last year's wildfires in Northern California's wine country, including two that killed 15 people combined. In eight, investigators said they found evidence of violations of state law and forwarded the findings to county prosecutors. Authorities have not determined fault for the Tubbs Fire, the most destructive in state history, which destroyed thousands of homes in Santa Rosa. PG&E is facing dozens of lawsuits from insurers, which have spent billions settling insurance claims from homeowners. Lawmakers worry the costs to PG&E could be so severe that it would struggle to borrow money or would file for bankruptcy, which they fear would lead to even higher spikes in utility bills. "This is about protecting ratepayers, not helping utilities," said Sen. Bill Dodd, a Napa Democrat who helped craft the legislation. "The fact of the matter is ratepayers would be hurt in a utility bankruptcy." Regulators generally don't let utilities bill their customers for lawsuits linked to imprudent management of electrical equipment, but the legislation would create a special process for the 2017 fires. It seeks to take as much as possible from PG&E's investors without harming ratepayers. For the rest, the Public Utilities Commission would have the option to let PG&E collect from customers through a line-item on utility bills for the next two decades. The cost to ratepayers is unknown because it's not clear which fires will ultimately be linked to PG&E and what its final settlement will look like. Dodd said the average residential ratepayer would pay an estimated $5.20 extra for every $1 billion dollars that PG&E must finance. The bill "puts the needs of wildfire victims first, better equips California to prevent and respond to wildfires, protects electric customers and preserves progress toward California's clean energy goals," PG&E spokeswoman Lynsey Paulo said in a statement. While the help for utilities is gotten the most attention the bill also includes a variety of other measures to help utility workers It includes protections for utility workers from job loss or pay and benefit cuts in the event of a utility bankruptcy or change in ownership. That's a major victory for the politically connected International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union. The bill also would require investor-owned utilities - including PG&E, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric - to harden their equipment so it's less likely to cause fires. It would make it easier, in some circumstances, to do prescribed burns, clear dead trees and brush, log trees and build fire breaks. It includes $200 million a year for those purposes. It also extends the life of biomass plants, which use trees to generate energy. FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017 file photo, people walk past a fallen transformer and downed power lines on Parker Hill Road in Santa Rosa, Calif. Utility workers won protections for their jobs, salaries, benefits and pensions as part of a measure allowing California power companies to raise electric bills to cover the cost of lawsuits from last year's deadly wildfires. The measure is scheduled for votes in the Senate and Assembly Friday night, Aug. 31, 2018, following months of contentious negotiations. (Nhat V. Meyer/San Jose Mercury News via AP, File) State Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, left, receives congratulations from Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel, after the Senate approved a measure Dodd carried to allow utilities to pass cost of the 2017 wildfires on to customers, Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Both houses approved the bill and it was sent it to Gov. Jerry Brown. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesia will bid to host the 2032 Olympics following the success of the Asian Games held there over the past two weeks, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said in a surprise announcement Saturday that highlights the rising ambition of the giant but long underperforming Southeast Asian nation. Jokowi, who is campaigning for a second term, made the announcement at a meeting in Bogor with the presidents of the International Olympic Committee and the Asian Olympic Committee. "With the experience we have in organizing the 18th Asian Games, we are sure Indonesia can also host a bigger event," Jokowi said in a statement after the meeting. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, left, talks to Indonesian President Joko Widodo, right, during a signing ceremony at the presidential palace in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim) IOC President Thomas Bach welcomed the candidacy of Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, saying that the Asian Games provided a "strong foundation" for the country's 2032 bid. He said Indonesia has shown that it has all the ingredients to hold the Olympics successfully. "You see that Indonesia is on the move. And you see the enthusiasm of the people," Bach told The Associated Press. "It's a very young country. This of course also makes it very interesting for the IOC." About 12,000 athletes from 45 nations and territories as well as several thousand officials and journalists took part in the Asian Games, which end Saturday. As host, Indonesia provided a spectacular opening ceremony and also exceeded its own expectations in winning 30 golds, placing fourth on the medal table. Indonesia, projected to be among the world's 10 biggest economies by 2030, used the games to shift perceptions that it's in the "too hard" basket, paving the way for a tilt at even bigger sports hosting baubles. The country's hosting of the Asian Games without major organizational hitches has been a boost for Jokowi as he heads to elections in April. With the 2032 bid announcement, he gets to extend the shelf life of the Asian Games afterglow. Bach said the formal selection process for 2032 hasn't begun but Germany and India have also expressed interest. "And we have heard from other continents and other cities," he said. "Given that the decision will most likely be taken in 2025, you can understand that we are already very happy at this stage to have such an interest." Tokyo is hosting the 2020 Olympics. Paris and Los Angeles have already been selected to host the following two games, in 2024 and 2028, respectively. Massive problems with the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, a developing country with endemic corruption, may count against Indonesia's chances. It cost Brazil about $20 billion to host the Olympics, a bill that is likely to raise objections in Indonesia, where poverty remains widespread. ___ AP Sports Writer Stephen Wade contributed to this report. A man follows the soccer men's bronze medal match between Vietnam and United Arab Emirates at the 18th Asian Games in Bogor, Indonesia, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, left, shakes hand with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, right, during a meeting at the presidential palace in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Friday, Aug, 31, 2018.(Sonny Tumbelaka/Pool Photo via AP) At the reception, Deputy PM Minh lauded the mayors visit and collaboration with Vietnamese agencies in organising various trade promotion and transport connection activities. Congratulating Chongqing on its recent socio-economic progress, Deputy PM Minh stated that Vietnam always attaches importance to the win-win cooperation with Chinese localities, including Chongqing. He recommended the Chinese province step up friendship exchanges and share experience on socio-economic development with Vietnamese localities while helping Vietnam upgrade its border infrastructure and increase its import of Vietnamese products to expand bilateral trade towards balance and sustainability. The official suggested both sides boost transport connectivity and explore suitable measures to push up rail transport of cargo from Vietnam to Eurasian countries via China. Deputy PM Minh said the two sides should increase people-to-people exchange, particularly between youths, and reinforce cooperation in culture, education, and tourism as a basis for Vietnam China friendship. For his part, Tang Liangzhi affirmed that Chongqing attaches importance to cooperation with Vietnamese ministries, sectors and localities. Agreeing with his host, the Chinese mayor said his province is willing to boost friendship exchange, trade-economic investment, and transport infrastructure connectivity so as to contribute to the development of Vietnam China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's transportation minister says a supervisor at Sochi airport has died during an emergency response after a landing plane careered off the end of the runway into a riverbed and caught fire. The health ministry says 18 people were injured in the accident, which occurred about 3 a.m. (0000 GMT) as the Utair-operated Boeing 737 from Moscow, carrying 164 passengers and six crew members, was landing. The airport said the fire was extinguished within eight minutes. A view of the Utair-operated Boeing 737-800 which skidded off the runway and caught fire during landing, at Sochi international airport, of the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018. Russia's transportation minister says a supervisor at the airport in Sochi died during the emergency response after a landing airliner careered off the end of the runway, into a riverbed and caught fire. There were no deaths reported among the 164 passengers and six crew members aboard the Utair Boeing 737, but the Russian health ministry said 18 people were injured. The fire was extinguished within eight minutes, the airport said. (AP Photo) Transportation minister Yevgeny Ditrikh said airport shift supervisor Vladimir Begiyan, who was one of the first responders to the accident, died of a heart attack at the scene. The cause of the crash has not been determined. JERUSALEM (AP) - The Palestinians on Saturday condemned the U.S. decision to end its decades of funding for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, calling it an attack on the Palestinian people and accusing the Trump administration of trying to remove sensitive core issues from the negotiating table as it says it is preparing a Mideast peace initiative. The announcement raised new questions about the viability of any future U.S. peace plan. President Donald Trump's Mideast team, led by his adviser and son in law Jared Kushner, have been working on their plan for about a year and a half but have not said when it will be made public. The Palestinians accuse the U.S. of being unfairly biased in favor of Israel, citing a series of steps by the White House. Trump has recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital over Palestinian objections and last week cut $200 million in development aid to the Palestinians. Friday's decision cut an additional $300 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which serves millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants across the region. File - In this Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018 file photo, girls sit inside a classroom at an UNRWA school during the first day of a new school year in Gaza City. A spokesman for the Palestinian president says the American decision to cut funding for the U.N. agency aiding Palestinian refugees is "an attack on the rights of the Palestinian people." The U.S. supplies nearly 30 percent of the total budget of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, and had been demanding it carry out significant reforms. The decision cuts nearly $300 million of planned support. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File) The Palestinians say these steps are aimed at imposing outcomes for two of the most sensitive issues in the conflict - the fate of contested Jerusalem and the plight of Palestinian refugees - without negotiations. "What is the American administration doing? They are pre-empting, prejudging issues reserved for permanent status," said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator. "They are undermining the moderate forces in Palestine and Israel," he added. "Those elements that want to achieve peace peacefully based on a two-state solution are being destroyed." He said extremists across the region had been given "gifts." UNRWA was established after the war surrounding Israel's establishment in 1948 to aid the 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes. Today, it provides education, health care and social services to some 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The agency is also a major employer in the Palestinian areas. The U.S. in recent years has supplied nearly 30 percent of UNRWA's budget. But early this year, it suspended roughly $300 million in planned assistance, pending a review. Friday's decision formally cut that money, as well as future assistance to the agency. In a statement, the U.S. called the agency an "irredeemably flawed operation." It said the U.S. was no longer willing to pay for a "very disproportionate share" of UNRWA's costs and criticized what it called the agency's "fundamental business model and fiscal practices" and its "endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries." The statement largely echoed Israeli claims that UNRWA perpetuates the conflict by promoting an unrealistic Palestinian demand that refugees have the "right of return" to long-lost homes in what is now Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said UNRWA should be abolished and its responsibilities taken over by the main U.N. refugee agency. In Lebanon on Friday, the U.N. refugee agency's commissioner, Filipo Grandi, ruled out taking on the Palestinian refugee issue. "No! The Palestinians in the region are the responsibility of UNRWA," he said. UNRWA's spokesman, Chris Gunness, said the agency expressed "deep regret and disappointment" with the U.S. decision. He rejected "in the strongest possible terms" the U.S. accusations that its operations are flawed. "These very programs have a proven track record in creating one of the most successful human development processes and results in the Middle East," he said. The European Union, the largest contributor to UNRWA with its member states, urged the U.S. to reconsider its "regrettable decision." It said it would continue its assistance to the agency and discuss funding alternatives with other partners. The U.S. budget cuts have already hit UNRWA hard. In an interview with The Associated Press last month, UNRWA's commissioner, Pierre Kraehenbuehl, said his agency only had enough money to operate its hundreds of schools through the end of September. He said he is planning a major fund-raising campaign to keep operations afloat. He also rejected Israeli arguments that UNRWA perpetuates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He said his agency operates under a mandate approved by the U.N. General Assembly and that the refugee issue must be resolved as part of a broader solution to the overall conflict. Some in Israel have leveled even tougher criticism, accusing UNRWA of teaching hatred of Israel in its classrooms and tolerating or assisting Hamas, the militant Islamic group that rules Gaza. Kraehenbuehl rejected the accusations, saying his agency is a source of moderation and has condemned attempts by militants to use his facilities for cover. The Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, seeks the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem - areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and Hamas, after winning legislative elections, forcibly seized control of the territory from Abbas two years later. Trump has broken from a string of predecessors and is no longer demanding the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of a peace agreement. Netanyahu, who briefly endorsed the two-state solution during the Obama administration, no longer mentions the idea as a way of resolving the conflict. The Palestinian Authority, citing what it says is a pro-Israeli bias, broke off contact with the U.S. after the Jerusalem announcement and has said it will not accept the administration's upcoming peace proposal. Trump already has said his recognition of Jerusalem was meant to remove the issue from the negotiating table. The Palestinians now fear the U.S. is putting pressure on host countries like Lebanon, Jordan and Syria to absorb their refugee populations and eliminate that issue from future peace negotiations. Abbas' spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdeneh, said the U.S. decision "does not serve peace but rather strengthens terrorism in the region" and urged the U.N. to take a "firm stand" against the Americans. In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem accused the United States of going after UNRWA to eliminate the Palestinian right to return to their future homes. "It's clear that Trump has shifted from taking sides with the Israeli enemy to being a partner in the assault on our Palestinian peoples' rights," he said. "All these decisions will not stop our people's struggle to gain freedom and return." ___ Najib Jobain in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Immad Isseid in Ramallah, West Bank, and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report. A 19-year-old Afghan citizen had a 'terrorist motive' for allegedly stabbing two Americans at the main train station in Amsterdam, city authorities in the Dutch capital said Saturday. Amsterdam police shot and wounded the suspect after the double stabbing Friday at Central Station. The local government said hours later that it appeared the victims weren't targeted for a specific reason, but added that investigators were not excluding any possibilities. After the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands on Saturday identified the people injured as American tourists, Amsterdam City Hall gave an update. Dutch police point their guns at a man who was shot at Amsterdam Central station on Friday 'Based on the suspect's first statements, he had a terrorist motive,' the city administration said in a statement that did not elaborate on what the statements were or how they showed intent. The wounded Americans were recovering in a hospital from what police termed serious but not life-threatening injuries. Their identities have not been released. The suspect, who was identified only as Jawed S. in line with privacy rules in the Netherlands, also remains hospitalized. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte confirmed on Twitter that the investigation was focused Saturday on extremist ideology. W. had a residency permit from Germany. German authorities searched his home and seized data storage devices that would be analyzed as part of the investigation, the city government statement said. He was scheduled to be arraigned during a closed-door hearing with an investigating judge on Monday. Dutch officials did not disclose the charges he could face. Policemen and forensics are at work after a stabbing incident at the central station in Amsterdam on Friday In this image made from video, Dutch police officers stand near the scene of the stabbing attack A statement issued late Friday by Amsterdam's city council said the Americans did not appear to have been victims of a targeted attack. Amsterdam authorities also said Friday that it appeared from initial inquiries that the victims weren't chosen for a clear reason. The local government said Saturday it had no immediate plans to beef up security in the city, saying the swift action by police 'shows that Amsterdam is prepared for this kind of incident.' A passerby's dramatic photo showed two police officers pointing guns at a man in blue jeans and sneakers lying on the ground inside a train station tunnel. The Amsterdam Centraal station is the second busiest railway hub in the country - catering to more than 160,000 passengers a day Earlier Saturday, the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands confirmed that the two people injured Friday were Americans visiting the Netherlands when they were stabbed at the station. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra issued a written statement saying U.S. Embassy officials had been in touch with the victims or their families. 'We wish them a speedy recovery and are working closely with the City of Amsterdam to provide assistance to them and their families,' Hoekstra said. Central Station is a busy entry and exit point for visitors to Amsterdam, with regular trains linking it to the city's Schiphol Airport. Friday is one of the busiest days of the week for train travel as tourists arrive for the weekend. The station is patrolled by armed police and other security staff. WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump is playing loose with the facts in his exuberance to push through a trade agreement with Mexico. He insists the deal reached this past week between the United States and Mexico to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement is "one of the largest trade deals" ever. It's not. And in an effort to pressure Canada to join the reimagined trading bloc, or dismiss Canada as irrelevant if it doesn't, Trump also wrongly suggests that Mexico is a bigger and more important trading partner. In this Aug. 27, 2018, photo, President Donald Trump talks on the phone with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) The trade comments came in a week of outright fiction in which Trump also kept asserting that Mexico will pay for his long-promised wall along the southwest border despite Mexico's statements to the contrary; falsely accused Google of shunning his State of the Union address while promoting Barack Obama's; and cited high poll ratings for himself that don't appear to exist. A sampling of the claims and the reality behind them: TRADE TRUMP: "This is one of the largest trade deals ever made. Maybe the largest trade deal ever made." - phone call Monday with Mexican President Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. THE FACTS: Not even close. The Trans-Pacific Partnership, negotiated by the Obama administration, included the three NAFTA partners - United States, Canada and Mexico - plus Japan and eight other Pacific Rim countries. Trump withdrew the United States from the pact in his third day in office. Even the TPP shrinks in comparison to Uruguay Round of trade negotiations. Concluded in 1994, the round created the World Trade Organization and was signed by 123 countries. The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found the following year that the WTO's initial membership accounted for more than 90 percent of global economic output. ___ TRUMP: "We made the deal with Mexico. And I think it's a very - deal. We're starting negotiations with Canada, pretty much immediately ... It's going to be a - it's a smaller segment, as you know. Mexico is a very large trading partner." - phone call Monday with Pena Nieto. THE FACTS: Trump appears to be suggesting that Mexico is a bigger U.S. trading partner than Canada. That's not the case. America's two-way trade - exports plus imports - came to $680 billion with Canada last year. That's compared with $622 billion with Mexico. ___ TRUMP: "I smile at Senators and others talking about how good free trade is for the U.S. What they don't say is that we lose Jobs and over 800 Billion Dollars a year on really dumb Trade Deals....and these same countries Tariff us to death." - tweet Tuesday. THE FACTS: The $800 billion is a reference to America's trade deficit last year. But Trump exaggerates the size of the gap between what the U.S. sells and what it buys from the rest of the world. The trade deficit in goods and services came to $552 billion in 2017. The United States ran an $807 billion deficit in goods such as cars and machinery. But Trump ignored America's $255 billion surplus in services such as education and finance. Mainstream economists also take issue with Trump's assertion that trade deficits amount to a loss for the United States. The money didn't just vanish. In exchange for what they spent on imports, Americans got the benefit of owning everything from made-in-China iPhones to French wine. ___ BORDER WALL TRUMP: "The wall will be paid for very easily by Mexico. It will ultimately be paid for by Mexico." - remarks Tuesday. THE FACTS: Not according to Mexico. Immediately after Trump's remarks, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray tweeted to stress, once again, that his country won't foot the bill for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Videgaray wrote that his country has been "absolutely clear" that Mexico "will NEVER pay for a wall." ___ GOOGLE VIDEO TWEETED BY TRUMP: "For years, Google promoted President Obama's State of the Union on its homepage. When President Trump took office, Google stopped." - tweet Wednesday. THE FACTS: The video is incorrect as to Trump. There's no dispute that Google promoted Obama's State of the Union speeches from 2012 to 2016, according to webpages captured by the Wayback Machine, an internet archive site. In a statement, Google said it has not historically promoted "the first address to Congress by a new president, which is technically not a State of the Union address," so it didn't do so in either 2009, when Obama first took office, or 2017, Trump's first year as president. For 2018, several web pages captured by Wayback Machine show the Google homepage advertising a livestream of Trump's speech with the words: "Live! Watch President Trump's State of the Union address on YouTube." The archive site shows the webpages in Greenwich Mean Time, which is several hours ahead of the Eastern time zone in the U.S. That means the relevant images of the Google homepage promoting Trump's prime-time Washington speech on Jan. 30 are dated one day later, on Jan. 31, Mark Graham, director of the Wayback Machine archive site, told The Associated Press. ___ RUSSIA INVESTIGATION TRUMP: "What's going on at @CNN is happening, to different degrees, at other networks - with @NBCNews being the worst ... When Lester Holt got caught fudging my tape on Russia, they were hurt badly!" - tweet Thursday. THE FACTS: There is no evidence of the NBC interview having been "fudged" or doctored in any way, and the White House didn't respond to requests regarding what Trump was referring to. NBC declined to comment. In the interview, Trump referred in part to "this Russia thing" as a consideration in his decision to fire Comey. Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating possible obstruction of justice in the Russia probe. It's possible Trump is frustrated that other comments from the same interview may have received less attention. Minutes after he acknowledged that "this Russia thing" was on his mind when he fired Comey, Trump also acknowledged that he knew the decision to terminate him might actually prolong the investigation. In fact it did, with Mueller investigating the firing for potential obstruction of justice. His lawyers and other supporters have contended that that sentiment is actually helpful for the president, suggesting he couldn't have been trying to obstruct the investigation by doing something that he knew would actually draw it out longer. ___ CLINTON EMAILS TRUMP: "Report just out: 'China hacked Hillary Clinton's private Email Server.' - tweet Tuesday. TRUMP: "Hillary Clinton's Emails, many of which are Classified Information, got hacked by China. Next move better be by the FBI & DOJ or, after all of their other missteps (Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr, FISA, Dirty Dossier etc.), their credibility will be forever gone!" - tweet Wednesday. THE FACTS: Trump's own law enforcement agencies dispute that. Trump appears to be citing a story by the right-leaning Daily Caller publication, which reported that a Chinese-owned company in Washington, D.C., area hacked Clinton's email server. But FBI and Justice Department officials have said publicly that there was no evidence Clinton's server was hacked by a foreign power. A June report from the Justice Department's inspector general on the FBI's handling of the Clinton investigation said FBI specialists did not find evidence that the server had been hacked, with one forensics agent saying he felt "fairly confident that there wasn't an intrusion." An FBI official said Wednesday after the Daily Caller story and Trump tweet that the "FBI has not found any evidence the servers were compromised." ___ POLL RATINGS TRUMP: "Over 90% approval rating for your all time favorite (I hope) President within the Republican Party and 52% overall. This despite all of the made up stories by the Fake News Media trying endlessly to make me look as bad and evil as possible. Look at the real villains please!" - tweet Sunday. THE FACTS: He's wrong in regard to polls citing his overall job ratings. The Associated Press couldn't find any evidence of a recent poll that put Trump's approval at 52 percent, and the White House and his re-election campaign didn't respond to requests for specifics. Polls are a snapshot of public opinion at the moment they are taken. Job approval can - and has in recent history - vary during a president's term. Since his inauguration, however, Trump's job approval has been remarkably consistent, in the high 30s and low 40s, in polls from various media organizations and other pollsters. The latest AP-NORC poll, taken this month, finds Trump's approval among American adults at 38 percent. Some other recent polls measure his approval in the low to mid-40s. On his level of support among Republicans, Trump is correct that they broadly approve of his work as president. In the same AP-NORC poll that found 38 percent of adults approving of the president, 76 percent of Republicans and those who lean toward the GOP said they approved of Trump. Some polls have put that level of support as high as 90 percent. ___ Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Jill Colvin and Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report. ___ Find AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Andrew Gillum, who engineered a surprising upset victory in Florida's Democratic primary this week, is picking up endorsements, money and plenty of national attention in the aftermath of his win. But as the Tallahassee mayor mounts his bid to become Florida's first black governor, he is already coming under swift attack from Republican opponents who are trying to use a slow-moving corruption investigation into Tallahassee city government to portray Gillum as untrustworthy. The investigation broke into the open last summer shortly after Gillum joined the race, but it was not extensively debated or discussed by his Democratic opponents before he won Tuesday's primary. But by Thursday, the Republican Governor's Association launched a digital ad that blasted Gillum. It focused on both the City Hall probe and an earlier incident in which Gillum paid back the city after he used city money to buy software that was used to send out campaign emails. Likewise, the campaign of U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, who won the GOP primary, is also trying to draw attention to the investigation. Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, left, greets Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. before speaking to supporters at a Democratic Party rally Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux) The 39-year-old Gillum - who will appear on NBC's "Meet the Press" and CNN"s "State of the Union" this Sunday -contends he is ready for the onslaught of attacks that have just begun to ramp up. "A lot of people counted us out, they thought we would completely surrender under all the innuendo and the pressure of the moment," said Gillum this week. "I spoke directly to voters. I answered their questions. ... It wasn't as if those voters weren't aware of all the issues that were swirling." The first public knowledge of the FBI probe came in June 2017 when a federal grand jury subpoenaed five years of records from Tallahassee and a local redevelopment agency that involved high-profile projects and developers, including an ally of Gillum. In February, a federal search warrant was accidentally made public on a court website. It detailed that the FBI launched its corruption investigation in 2015 and that agents posed as out-of-town real-estate developers and medical marijuana entrepreneurs in order to gain access to various city officials. The warrant stated that agents were focusing on City Commissioner Scott Maddox, a former head of the Florida Democratic Party, and his former chief of staff and whether Maddox was paid to help out businesses seeking help from the city. He has denied any wrongdoing. Earlier this summer, the FBI asked for thousands of more records, dealing primarily with The Edison, an upscale restaurant frequented by lawmakers and lobbyists that is located in a city-owned building. The Edison received $2 million in financial assistance from both the city and the local community redevelopment agency. One of the owners of the restaurant was lobbyist Adam Corey, who once served as Gillum's campaign treasurer and has known him since college. Gillum says he has talked to the FBI and that he is not the target of an investigation. He also has told local news outlets that he has broken off his friendship with Corey. As the investigation has moved along, The Tallahassee Democrat has done a series of stories delving into the web of connections and has reported that Gillum vacationed at a luxury resort in Costa Rica in May 2016 with Corey and another investor in The Edison who is also a Gillum donor and campaign supporter. During that trip, Corey set up a meeting between Gillum and the FBI undercover agents. Local media have also reported on a trip Gillum took to New York where he also met with Corey and undercover agents and attended a showing of the Broadway show "Hamilton." Both the New York and Costa Rica trips are now being probed by Florida's ethics commission after a local businessman filed complaints against Gillum. Christopher Kise, an attorney for Corey, said his client is not a target of the FBI investigation, but he declined to say if Corey has testified to a grand jury or if he is cooperating. He said he did not know why Gillum has distanced himself from his longtime friend. "It appears the mayor is throwing Mr. Corey under the bus and I'm not sure why," Kise said. "Adam has always considered the mayor a friend." The seemingly glacial path of the FBI investigation has led to ongoing speculation of when, or if, indictments will be announced and who will be the eventual target of any charges. "I'm still wondering what they are looking for," said City Commissioner Gil Ziffer. "I'm not quite sure where all this goes." Gillum insists that he is cooperating with the FBI and says he wants anyone who broke the law to be "fully held accountable for their actions." He said that's a big difference between him and DeSantis, who has emerged on national television as a harsh critic of the ongoing investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russia's interference in U.S. elections and whether President Donald Trump or his close allies colluded with Russia. "In DeSantis' case, he and the president have worked at every turn to undermine the FBI," Gillum said. "They tried to squelch the work of that agency. They have gone out of their way to call them liars and call them part of a dark secret network to undermine the president." ___ Associated Press Writer Brendan Farrington contributed to this report. Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, left, speaks to supporters as his wife R. Jai Gillum listens during a Democratic Party rally Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux) Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, left, greets Patricia Farley, president of the Democratic Women's Club of Florida at a Democratic Party rally Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux) Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum greets supporters as he arrives at a Democratic Party rally Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux) Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum speaks to supporters during a Democratic Party rally Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux) Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum speaks to supporters during a Democratic Party rally Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux) Supporters cheer as Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum speaks at a Democratic Party rally Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, in Orlando, Fla. Gillum's matchup against the Republican nominee, U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, and Sen. Bill Nelson's race against Republican Gov. Rick Scott are two of the most-watched races in the midterm elections. (AP Photo/John Raoux) Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, left, poses for a photo with supporter Cynthia Harris at a Democratic Party rally Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, in Orlando, Fla. Gillum's matchup against the Republican nominee, U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, and Sen. Bill Nelson's race against Republican Gov. Rick Scott are two of the most-watched races in the midterm elections. (AP Photo/John Raoux) Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., center, poses for photos with supporters at a Democratic Party rally Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, in Orlando, Fla. Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum's matchup against the Republican nominee, U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, and Nelson's race against Republican Gov. Rick Scott are two of the most-watched races in the midterm elections. (AP Photo/John Raoux) Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., speaks during a Democratic Party rally Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, in Orlando, Fla. Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum's matchup against the Republican nominee, U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, and Nelson's race against Republican Gov. Rick Scott are two of the most-watched races in the midterm elections. (AP Photo/John Raoux) FILE - In this Aug. 28, 2018, file photo, Andrew Gillum and his wife, R. Jai Gillum, address supporters in Tallahassee, Fla. Gillum defeated former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham and four other candidates. Republicans are taking aim at his tenure as mayor of Tallahassee, including an ongoing FBI investigation into City Hall, that Gillum claims he is not a target. Gillum will face GOP gubernatorial nominee Congressman Ron DeSantis. (AP Photo/Steve Cannon, File) In this Aug. 28, 2018 photo, Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum greets supporters in Tallahassee, Fla. Gillum defeated former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham and four other candidates. Republicans are taking aim at his tenure as mayor of Tallahassee, including an ongoing FBI investigation into City Hall, that Gillum claims he is not a target. Gillum will face GOP candidate Congressman Ron DeSantis. (Joe Rondone/Tallahassee Democrat via AP) CLEVELAND (AP) - There wasn't much doubt in the minds of police in the Ohio village of Hartville, best known for its fertile muck farms, that Phil Snider killed his wife of 53 years. But it took an undercover female officer who played her role so convincingly that the 73-year-old man proposed marriage over numerous cups of fast-food coffee and he revealed in gruesome detail how he had bludgeoned 70-year-old Roberta Snider to death and disposed of incriminating evidence. Along the way, after his wife went missing in January, Snider spun different versions of what happened to her when questioned by police about how Roberta died and what happened to her body during what he initially said was a trip to Memphis to visit Elvis Presley's Graceland. Philip Snider sits in court in Canton, Ohio Monday, Aug. 27, 2018. Snider, on Monday pleaded guilty to aggravated murder, gross abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence in a Canton courtroom in exchange for a sentence of 20 years to life in prison and the promise that he'd lead authorities to where he dumped his 70-year-old wife's body. Roberta Snider was reported missing in January. (Michael Balash/The Canton Repository via AP) The undercover officer surreptitiously recorded all of their meetings, including their final coffee date on April 20. Snider had offered marriage and the promise that she would receive his pension when he died. The officer said Snider would have to be honest about what happened to Roberta if he wanted their relationship to continue. "Scenario-wise, if you hit her in the head, what did you hit her with?" the officer is heard asking Snider as they played cards at a McDonald's. "I can't tell you that," Snider replied. "Why?" "We aren't married," Snider said. She continued pressing Snider for details, which he provided while punctuating most of the revelations with the words, "Just scenario." Snider, in the recording provided by police to media outlets, described how he gently placed a shop towel over his wife's face as she slept on a love seat in the couple's condominium and used a 2-pound hammer to kill her with two blows to the head. He said he wrapped her body in garbage bags and placed it along with blood-flecked evidence into plastic storage containers that he slid into the bed of his pickup truck. Snider told the undercover officer he threw the hammer, a lampshade and two throw pillows from the love seat into commercial trash bins on the trip to Memphis. Even now, what Snider did with his wife's body is unclear. It's the one detail Snider failed to tell his faux fiancee. Snider agreed to take police to the spot where he discarded his wife's body when he pleaded guilty Monday to aggravated murder, gross abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence in northeast Ohio's Stark County. Snider's deal with prosecutors calls for a sentence of 20 years to life in prison. Snider's attorney declined to be interviewed. Hartville police became involved when Roberta Snider's brother asked for help Jan. 9, two days after Snider told some family members that Roberta had fatally choked on phlegm as they arrived in Memphis. Authorities say she was killed Jan. 3. Snider initially told Hartville police the same story. He added that an ambulance responded to a hotel parking lot in Memphis where he told medics that he was taking her body home to be cremated. No records of such a call were found. When police, on Jan. 14, showed Snider surveillance photos from a hotel in Sparta, Kentucky, that did not include images of his wife, he changed his story and said she died between Columbus and Cincinnati and that he continued to Memphis with her body in the back of his truck because he wanted to see Graceland one last time. He said he threw her body into the Tennessee River from an interstate bridge on his way home. No body was found. Police gathered more video, this time from an Ohio gas station where Snider filled up on his way to Memphis, showing only Snider in the cab of his truck. Before he could be questioned, Snider was found in the basement of his condo with a plastic bag over his head in what's been described by authorities as a suicide attempt. He was taken to a hospital, where he remained for weeks. The day after the suicide try, a cadaver dog hit on a large plastic tub in the basement of the couple's condo. Inside was a swatch of Roberta's favorite "Hartville, Ohio" sweat shirt that appeared to be blood-stained. Tests later matched the blood stains to Roberta. Confronted at the hospital, Snider provided yet another version of events. He said Roberta died at home and that he'd put her body in a garbage can. The undercover officer charmed her way into Snider's life after his release from the hospital, telling him she was in town to care for her dying mother. Hartville Police Chief Larry Dordea told The Associated Press the officer did a "great job" after sending her on what he called a "fishing expedition" to befriend Snider. Dordea wouldn't provide any details about the officer. Dordea said he interviewed Snider more than a dozen times before Snider's April 20 arrest, describing the retired carpenter as "smug." There are only seven full-time officers in Hartville, an agricultural community of around 3,000 people about 50 miles southeast of Cleveland that's known for its rich, black soil. "We got to know each other pretty well," Dordea said. "He was one of those individuals who felt he was smarter than the people he was talking to. Maybe he underestimated our law enforcement capacities here." Dordea believes Snider had thought about killing his wife for "a long time." He said that although the couple was known to argue, police had never been called to their home. In the recorded conversation, Snider tells the undercover officer: "I didn't snap. I was numb." "And fed up," the officer said. "And fed up." Authorities owe it to Roberta Snider's family and the Hartville community to find her body, Dordea said. He wouldn't divulge the location Snider has provided, but said Snider will be riding with him on the trip there. "Until we get there, we won't know," Dordea said. "Maybe there will be some enlightening conversations between here and there." HOUSTON (AP) - Police documents from a decades-old drunken-driving arrest of Democratic Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke provide a more complete picture of an incident that the congressman has long acknowledged. The Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News recently obtained copies of state and local police reports pertaining to the arrest. They show O'Rourke was found intoxicated after losing control of his vehicle on Interstate 10 and hitting a truck. Nobody was hurt in the accident in Anthony, Texas, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from El Paso. A witness told police that O'Rourke tried to drive away, but the witness stopped him until officers arrived, the documents show. The witness also said that O'Rourke had been driving at "a high rate of speed." O'Rourke has talked about the 1998 arrest while campaigning to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. But news stories about the arrest earlier in the campaign did not include details such as the crash and the reported attempt to flee. O'Rourke did not address those details in a statement Saturday. FILE - IN this June 22, 2018 file photo, Beto O'Rourke speaks during the general session at the Texas Democratic Convention in Fort Worth, Texas. Police documents reveal previously unreported details about a decades-old drunken-driving arrest of the Democratic Senate candidate. O'Rourke has long acknowledged the 1998 drunken-driving arrest, saying he made a serious mistake. (AP Photo/Richard W. Rodriguez, File) "I drove drunk and was arrested for a DWI in 1998. As I've publicly discussed over the last 20 years, I made a serious mistake for which there is no excuse," the statement said. O'Rourke had just turned 26 when the arrest happened. He did a court-ordered diversion program and a drunken-driving charge was dismissed. According to police, O'Rourke recorded a 0.136 and 0.134 on breathalyzers, above a blood-alcohol level of 0.10, Texas' legal limit for driving at the time. Cruz has never been arrested, but was once ticketed for underage alcohol possession when he was 17 and police stopped him and found unopened beer in his car. A spokeswoman for Cruz did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday. MOSCOW (AP) - The health minister of Ukraine's separatist Donetsk region says a cafe bombing that killed the separatists' leader also killed a bodyguard and wounded 12 others. Alexander Zakharchenko's death on Friday is re-escalating tensions in the conflict between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine. Separatists claimed that Ukraine was preparing new offensives. Zakharchenko was prime minister of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic. His death was reported soon after the cafe explosion, but the extent of the casualties was not revealed until DPT health minister Alexander Oprishchenko reported them on Saturday. A security officer stands by a destroyed cafe a day after a blask killed rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko, in Donetsk, Ukraine, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018. A blast in a war-themed cafe in eastern Ukraine on Friday killed the most prominent leader of the Russia-backed separatists who have fought Ukrainian forces since 2014, rebel officials said. (AP Photo/Alexander Yermochenko) The fighting in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014, but mostly has waned in recent years. A security officer looks through rubble of a destroyed cafe a day after a blask killed rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko, in Donetsk, Ukraine, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018. A blast in a war-themed cafe in eastern Ukraine on Friday killed the most prominent leader of the Russia-backed separatists who have fought Ukrainian forces since 2014, rebel officials said. (AP Photo/Alexander Yermochenko) Dmitry Trapeznikov, a newly appointed acting regional leader of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, talks at a press conference in Donetsk, Ukraine, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018. A blast in a war-themed cafe in eastern Ukraine on Friday killed Trapeznikov's predecessor, Alexander Zakharchenko, the most prominent leader of the Russia-backed separatists who have fought Ukrainian forces since 2014, rebel officials said. (AP Photo/Alexander Yermochenko) FILE - In this Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2014 file photo, Alexander Zakharchenko, the leader of pro-Russian rebels in Donetsk, left, addresses the media after shelling in the town of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine. The leader of the Russia-backed separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region was killed Friday, Aug. 31, 2018 by an explosion at a cafe, the separatists' news agency said Friday. Rebel news agency DAN said the afternoon explosion that killed Alexander Zakharchenko, 42, tore through the cafe in the region's principal city.(AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File) FILE - In this Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014 file photo, Alexander Zakharchenko, Prime Minister of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, is seen in Donetsk, Ukraine. The leader of the Russia-backed separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region was killed Friday, Aug. 31, 2018 by an explosion at a cafe, the separatists' news agency said Friday. Rebel news agency DAN said the afternoon explosion killed Alexander Zakharchenko, 42, the prime minister of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, file) FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 11, 2014 file photo, Alexander Zakharchenko, pro-Russian rebel leader speaks during a press conference in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine. The leader of the Russia-backed separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region was killed Friday, Aug. 31, 2018 by an explosion at a cafe, the separatists' news agency said Friday. Rebel news agency DAN said the afternoon explosion that killed Alexander Zakharchenko, 42, tore through the cafe in the region's principal city.(AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File) TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Paul Davis kicked off a promising Democratic campaign to flip a GOP-leaning Kansas congressional district with a pledge to oppose Nancy Pelosi's return as House speaker. It didn't change the GOP's strategy for keeping the seat: Republicans have branded him a "Pelosi liberal." Davis is among dozens of Democratic candidates across the U.S. who have backed away from Pelosi, including in Democratic strongholds such as California and New York. And Republicans are lobbing similar attacks against them, using the veteran California liberal's name as code for what's supposed to make GOP-leaning and centrist voters nervous about the left, including support for big government - and more recently, a desire to impeach President Donald Trump. In Kansas, a GOP super PAC tied Davis, a former state lawmaker, to Pelosi in an ad because of his propensity to vote with his own party in the Legislature when he was the state House leader. In this Aug. 24, 2018, photo, Paul Davis, the Democratic nominee in the 2nd Congressional District of eastern Kansas, answers questions during a news conference with representatives and public safety groups that have endorsed him, in Topeka, Kan. Davis has distanced himself from House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi but Republicans are nonetheless trying to tie him to her. (AP Photo/John Hanna) Pelosi, the U.S. House speaker when Democrats controlled the chamber in 2007-11, has been among Republicans' go-to attacks for more than a decade, with consultants from both parties estimating that the GOP has spent tens of millions on ads linking other Democrats to her. The spotlight on her has intensified with former President Barack Obama and 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton no longer front-and-center. "It's just kind of this tired of old playbook, I think, that they have been using for years and years," Davis said in an interview. Democrats need to pick up at least 23 new House seats for a majority in the 435-member House. With a narrow majority, a small group of recalcitrant freshmen could leave Pelosi short of the 218 votes necessary to become speaker. But Republican operatives and candidates argue that such Democrats can't avoid being associated with Pelosi because she's the most likely Democrat to become the new speaker if her party regains the majority. Pelosi recently told The Associated Press that she's not going anywhere and has a strong national political following. "It's probably a motiving factor for Republican-leaning voters," said Pat McFerron, a Republican political consultant in Oklahoma. "Here's your risk of a Paul Davis in office: You're not just electing Paul Davis." Davis is vying for retiring five-term Republican Rep. Lynn Jenkins' seat and raised $1.6 million before the state's August primary, when he was unopposed for the Democratic nomination. GOP nominee Steve Watkins, a first-time candidate, engineer and Army veteran, emerged from a six-person primary with 26 percent of the vote. Watkins called Davis a "safe" vote for Pelosi and "a vote for Donald Trump's impeachment hearings." Davis said the legal problems of former Trump associates Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen are "concerning" but added that it is not responsible to "prejudge" special prosecutor Robert Mueller's investigation. Davis also said he has differences with top Democrats on issues such as environmental regulation and is willing to buck them in Washington. But he ducked the question of exactly whom he would support instead of Pelosi. "I have to win a race first, and I'm not spending a great deal of time thinking about what happens after Election Day," he said. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC backed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, sponsored the ad that called Davis a "Pelosi liberal." It also features Pelosi in attack ads in a neighboring Kansas district, Kentucky, New Jersey and New York. In upstate New York, the PAC linked Democratic nominee Anthony Brandisi to Pelosi in an ad, suggesting he'd be a "rubber stamp" for tax increases. Brandisi hasn't declared his support for Pelosi, adding, "Where leaders have been in power for long periods of time, I believe change is good thing." In southern Kansas, Republican Rep. Ron Estes' campaign tweeted that Democrat James Thompson would vote "with Pelosi in lock step." Thompson said he opposes Pelosi for speaker because, "it's time to move in a new direction." He also called the GOP attacks on her "awfully misogynistic in some aspects." Other congressional Democrats have been GOP foils. In Missouri, Republican Senate nominee Josh Hawley rarely misses an opportunity to attack Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer in his bid to unseat Sen. Claire McCaskill. In Kansas in 2014, a crucial re-election tactic for veteran Republican Sen. Pat Roberts was attacking then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. But Pelosi's hometown of San Francisco is an ideal symbol when Republicans seek to portray Democrats as out of touch in GOP-leaning areas. "Nancy Pelosi is absolutely toxic across the country," said Congressional Leadership Fund spokeswoman Courtney Alexander. Pelosi has defenders. She remains an effective fundraiser and has kept her party relatively unified in the minority. Passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 hurt Democrats as they lost the House majority that year, but some of its changes have become popular with voters over time. "We let them demonize her and make her this big negative when she's ushered in life-changing successes for this country," said Democratic Rep. Cedric Richardson, of Louisiana, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. ___ Barrow reported from Atlanta. ___ Follow John Hanna on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apjdhanna . Follow Bill Barrow at https://twitter.com/BillBarrowAP . ___ Sign up for the AP's weekly newsletter showcasing our best reporting from the Midwest and Texas: http://apne.ws/2u1RMfv In this Aug. 24, 2018, photo, Paul Davis, the Democratic nominee in the 2nd Congressional District of eastern Kansas, speaks to reporters during a news conference with law enforcement and public safety officials who have endorsed him, in Topeka, Kan. Republicans are trying to tie Davis to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi even though Davis has said he won't support her bid to be speaker if Democrats recapture a House majority. (AP Photo/John Hanna). In this Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018, photo, Steve Watkins, the Republican nominee in the 2nd Congressional District of eastern Kansas, answers questions during an interview at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Watkins is calling Democratic opponent Paul Davis "a safe vote" for House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi even though Davis is distancing himself from Pelosi. (AP Photo/John Hanna) ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) - Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's office says he is back in the country after undergoing medical check-ups in Switzerland. His office's brief statement contained no details about the health of the 81-year-old president, who uses a wheelchair and suffered a stroke in 2013. Bouteflika traveled Monday to Geneva for what the presidency called a periodic health check. It said he returned to Algeria's capital, Algiers on Saturday. Bouteflika has been in office as president since 1999. His current term ends next year, and he hasn't said if he will seek another. In her opening remarks, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Nguyen Thi Phuong Hoa, said that the implementation of the 2013 Land Law, land registration work and the building of the LIS have so far gained positive results. More than 70 percent of the nations surface area has been measured and mapped, while 96.9 percent of the land that requires certification of land ownership has been certified. A total of 117 out of the 713 administrative units at the district level in 32 cities and provinces have officially put land-related databases into use. The databases of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, the northern city of Hai Phong, the central city of Da Nang, and Binh Duong, as well as Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Vinh Long provinces have been connected to the Vietnam General Department of Taxation, Hoa said. Victoria Abbott, a representative from HM Land Registry of the UK, said that her office has only one land registration system with 14 bureaus across the country. Maintaining the system is complicated work, as land registration is related to ensuring the upkeep of land use rights. Along with obeying legal regulations, land planning and withdrawal may depend on political priorities, she said. The official stressed that the registration of land-use rights aims to balance and protect peoples rights related to land, within the legal framework. Joy Bailey, also from the UKs land registry office, said that the Vietnam General Department of Land Administration could consider applying a similar approach. LIS may have bureaus across the nation, but it is controlled by only one office to ensure consistency, she added. At the seminar, participants also made recommendations on development orientations for land administration in general, and on land registration and the building of LIS in particular. CHEMNITZ, Germany (AP) - The Latest on anti-migrant protests in Germany after the fatal stabbing of a German citizen (all times local): 7:35 p.m. Police in eastern Germany say they have asked the organizers of an anti-migrant march to end their protest for the day due to safety concerns and the exceeding of their authorized time limit. A protestor holds a poster with a photo of Angela Merkel referring reading she is guilty of incitement in Chemnitz, eastern Germany, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018, after several nationalist groups called for marches protesting the killing of a German man last week, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) Demonstrators at Saturday's nights' nationalist protest in the city of Chemnitz could be heard screaming and whistling in response. A 35-year-old German citizen was fatally stabbed in the city six nights ago. Migrants from Syria and Iraq were arrested as suspects. Saxony state police said the march attracted about 4,500 participants. A massive police presence was on hand to try to keep the crowds away from a counter-protest of 4,000 people. The opposing camps confronted one another violently Monday shocking people in others parts of Germany. ___ 6:25 p.m. Thousands of far-right protesters have started marching through a city in eastern Germany where a German man was killed almost a week ago and two migrants face charges in the slaying. Leaders of Germany's Alternative for Germany party and of populist group Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West wore dark suits and held white roses as they began what they called a "mourning march" Saturday night. Several thousand people followed behind them in the city of Chemnitz. Many participants held German flags and posters of alleged victims of migrant violence. Large numbers of police officers lined the streets while watching to keep the far-right crowd away an earlier protest against anti-foreigner sentiment that drew about 2,000 participants, according to the German news agency dpa. The opposing camps confronted one another violently in Chemnitz on Monday, shocking people in others parts of Germany ___ 5:20 p.m. Germany's interior minister says he understands why people "are upset about the brutal killing" of a German citizen for which two migrants face charge. The Funke Media Group quoted Interior Minister Horst Seehofer as saying that despite the fear and anger, "there's no excuse for violence" in Chemnitz, the Saxony city where the slaying happened six days ago. Seehofer's tough stance on migration has put him at odds with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. However, he stressed a message of unity as far-right groups prepared to hold more anti-migrant protests in Chemnitz. He said: "We need a strong state and we have to do everything politically to overcome the polarization and division of our society." ___ 4:35 p.m. Emboldened far-right activists in eastern Germany hope a protest joining establishing groups announces the arrival of a nationwide anti-migrant movement to challenge the political establishment. Several groups scheduled rallies Saturday in the city of Chemnitz over the Aug. 26 killing of a German citizen, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq. The two largest groups invited concerned citizens to join them later as they converge for the first time, hoping a broader far-right drive emerges from their display of unity. Counter-protesters organized a rival rally that could test authorities' ability to keep the peace. The opposing camps confronted one another in Chemnitz on Monday, and scenes of vigilantes chasing foreigners in the city's streets have shocked people in others parts of Germany since then. The increasingly open displays of anti-migrant sentiment and violence reflect Germany's ongoing effort to come to terms with an influx of more than 1 million refugees and migrants seeking jobs since 2015. ___ 2:15 p.m. Germany's far right is trying to make protests this weekend a watershed moment in which different nationalist groups - from lawmakers in national parliament to Hitler-saluting skinheads - will come together in a national anti-migrant movement to challenge the political establishment. Several rallies by different far-right groups will merge on Saturday night, and organizers have invited concerned citizens to join the marches protesting the killing of a German man last week, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq. They are hoping that unity could signal the beginning of a broad far-right pact in eastern Germany. A rival rally by their opponents will test authorities' ability to keep the peace after scenes of vigilantes chasing foreigners in the city streets shocked Germany this week. People participate in a demonstration in Chemnitz, eastern Germany, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018, after several nationalist groups called for marches protesting the killing of a German man last week, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq. (Boris Roessler/dpa via AP) People gather around the Karl Marx statue in Chemnitz, eastern Germany, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018, after several nationalist groups called for marches protesting the killing of a German man last week, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) A cross is decorated with flowers in Chemnitz, eastern Germany, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018, at the site where 35-year-old man was stabbed the Sunday before. (Ralf Hirschberger/dpa via AP) Mounted police pass by demonstrators in Chemnitz, eastern Germany, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018, after several nationalist groups called for marches protesting the killing of a German man last week, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) Two men carrying German flags are photographed as they arrive for a demonstration in Chemnitz, eastern Germany, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018, after several nationalist groups called for marches protesting the killing of a German man last week, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) Police officers prepare for a demonstration in Chemnitz, eastern Germany, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018, after several nationalist groups called for marches protesting the killing of a German man last week, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) A protestor holds a poster with a photo of Angela Merkel's trademark gesture referring reading she is guilty of incitement in Chemnitz, eastern Germany, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018, after several nationalist groups called for marches protesting the killing of a German man last week, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) Far right activist Goetz Kubitschek arrives at a demonstration in Chemnitz, eastern Germany, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018, after several nationalist groups called for marches protesting the killing of a German man last week, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) A protester holds a poster reading 'migration background and German patriot' in Chemnitz, eastern Germany, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018, after several nationalist groups called for marches protesting the killing of a German man last week, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) A man wears a t-shirt with the Arabic writing 'No Nazis' as he sits in a wheelchair in front of the Karl Marx statue in Chemnitz, eastern Germany, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018, after several nationalist groups called for marches protesting the killing of a German man last week, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) A demonstrator holds a poster with Angela Merkel's trademark gesture and the word 'guilty' during a demonstration in Chemnitz, eastern Germany, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018, after several nationalist groups called for marches protesting the killing of a German man last week, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) Demonstrators carry German flags during a demonstration in Chemnitz, eastern Germany, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018, after several nationalist groups called for marches protesting the killing of a German man last week, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) Mounted police patrol in Chemnitz, eastern Germany, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018, after several nationalist groups called for marches protesting the killing of a German man last week, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) People carry German and Czech flags during a demonstration in Chemnitz, eastern Germany, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018, after several nationalist groups called for marches protesting the killing of a German man last week, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) AMSTERDAM (AP) - The Latest on stabbings at a train station in Amsterdam (all times local): 12:55 a.m. The Netherlands' counter-terror chief says the country's threat level will remain at four on a scale that tops out at five following a double stabbing at the city's main railway station that officials say had a "terrorist motive." In this image made from video, Dutch police officers stand near the scene of a stabbing attack near the central daily station in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Friday Aug. 31, 2018. Police the Dutch capital shot and wounded a suspect Friday following a stabbing at the central railway station. Amsterdam police said in a series of tweets that two people were injured in the stabbing and the suspect was then shot by officers. (AP Photo/Alex Furtula) Dick Schoof says on Twitter that: "Sadly, this reprehensible act fits into the current threat assessment." A 19-year-old Afghan citizen has been arrested in Friday's attack at Central Station. Two U.S. citizens were stabbed and authorities say they are hospitalized with serious but not life-threatening injuries. ___ 6:40 p.m. Authorities in Amsterdam say a 19-year-old Afghan citizen who was shot and detained after a double stabbing at the city's main railway station had a "terrorist motive." The Dutch capital's government said in a statement issued Saturday that investigators reached that conclusion based on the suspect's first statements to police. The suspect allegedly stabbed two American tourists on Friday before police shot and wounded him. He holds a German residency permit and was identified as Jawed S. in line with Dutch privacy rules. The Americans are recovering in a hospital. Their identities have not been released. The suspect also is hospitalized. Amsterdam City Hall says German authorities searched the suspect's home and seized data storage devices that would be analyzed as part of the investigation. The suspect is to be arraigned Monday at a closed-door hearing. The exact charges he could face have not been released. ___ 12:45 p.m. The U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands says that two people stabbed in an attack at the Dutch capital's main railway station on Friday are both American citizens. Police shot and wounded a 19-year-old Afghani man immediately after the attack and are questioning him as a suspect. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra issued a written statement Saturday saying embassy officials had been in touch with the victims or their families. Police say they have serious but not life threatening injuries. Hoekstra says, "We wish them a speedy recovery and are working closely with the City of Amsterdam to provide assistance to them and their families." Police say they are still trying to establish a motive for the attack and say it was possibly motivated by extremism. Dutch police officers point their guns at a wounded 19-year-old man who was shot by police after stabbing two people in the central railway station in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Friday Aug. 31, 2018. Police investigators in Amsterdam included an extremist attack as a possible motive for the stabbings of two people at a busy railway station Friday as authorities in the Dutch capital reported that the suspect shot by police is an Afghan citizen. (AP Photo) Dutch police officers point their guns at a wounded 19-year-old man who was shot by police after stabbing two people in the central railway station in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Friday Aug. 31, 2018. Police investigators in Amsterdam included an extremist attack as a possible motive for the stabbings of two people at a busy railway station Friday as authorities in the Dutch capital reported that the suspect shot by police is an Afghan citizen. (AP Photo) Dutch police officers near the scene of a stabbing attack near the central daily station in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Friday Aug. 31, 2018. Police the Dutch capital shot and wounded a suspect Friday following a stabbing at the central railway station. Amsterdam police said in a series of tweets that two people were injured in the stabbing and the suspect was then shot by officers. (AP Photo/Alex Furtula) SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Lawmakers voted to give a reprieve to Pacific Gas & Electric Co., take steps toward reducing years of secrecy surrounding police misconduct and push back school start times in the frenzied final hours of the two-year legislative session. The Assembly and Senate adjourned for the year shortly before midnight Friday after passing one of the most contentious bills lawmakers confronted. They sent Gov. Jerry Brown a measure allowing power companies to raise electric bills to cover the cost of lawsuits from last year's deadly wildfires, even if the utility is found to have behaved negligently. The lights of the Capitol dome shine as lawmakers work into the night Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Friday is the final day for California lawmakers to consider bills before they adjourn until after the November elections. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) Even many of the lawmakers who voted for it said they had misgivings but believed it was necessary to prevent financial ruin for PG&E. The company is potentially on the hook for billions of dollars if its equipment is ultimately blamed for wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes in Northern California wine country last October, the most expensive fire storm in state history. "This is about protecting ratepayers, not helping utilities," said Sen. Bill Dodd, a Napa Democrat who helped craft the legislation. "The fact of the matter is ratepayers would be hurt in a utility bankruptcy." The move has infuriated ratepayer advocates, who warned that the measure puts the utility on the hook for damages that haven't even been gauged yet. "Without a doubt the cost of our changing climate will be a shared one," said Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael. "But the costs we're talking about here - the costs of negligence- should not fall primarily on ratepayers." The measure is part of a wide-ranging plan to reduce the threat of wildfires, which have caused unprecedented levels of death and property damage in the past three years. The bill also would require investor-owned utilities - including PG&E, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric - to harden their equipment so it's less likely to cause fires. It would make it easier, in some circumstances, to do prescribed burns, clear dead trees and brush, log trees and build firebreaks. It includes $200 million a year for those purposes. Lawmakers also voted to lift some of the secrecy surrounding reports on shootings and other uses of force by police. They sent Brown a measure allowing the release of records when police are found to have improperly used force or discharged a firearm, committed sexual assault on the job or been dishonest in their official duties. Another bill would require police to release body camera footage within 45 days of a shooting causing death or serious injury. It grants extensions when release might interfere with an investigation. Brown, nearing the end of his 16th and final year in office, made surprise visits to both legislative chambers, where surprised lawmakers and their aides snapped photos and, in the Senate, demanded a speech. The Democratic governor called it "the most powerful legislative session in the last few years." The governor will also get the final say on a bill that would bar middle and high schools from starting before 8:30 a.m., a response to research showing later start times make children healthier by letting them get more sleep. More than 80 percent of California middle and high schools start before 8:30 a.m. Rural schools would be exempt from the mandate. The measure passed narrowly in both chambers following a debate that did not adhere to party lines. "This is the single most cost-effective thing we can do to improve high school graduation rates," Assemblyman Jay Obernolte, R-Hesperia, said. A few things failed, including a proposal to link oversight of California's electric grid with other Western states. It was a priority for Brown, who said it was needed for California to continue its climate leadership. Advocates hope streamlining the management of the Western grid would help integrate more renewables, allowing California to offload surplus solar power during sunny afternoons and import wind energy from other states when the sun isn't shining. Critics say California would be foolish to give up the unique control it has over its grid operator, especially when President Donald Trump is looking to expand opportunities for coal plants and California is looking to shed coal from the grid. "It is imperative that a regional grid is created at the earliest possible date," Brown said in a statement. A last-minute effort to create more state oversight of a project by Cadiz Inc. to pump water from under the Mojave Desert died in a Senate committee. A plan to raise taxes to pay for modernizing the 911 emergency dispatch system also fell one vote short in the Senate when Republicans refused to sign on to a tax increase. It would have charged between 20 cents and 80 cents per phone line, replacing an existing fee that generally charges more for landlines than cellphones. Assemblyman Evan Low, D-Campbell, watches the debate over a bill during the Assembly session Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Low announced Friday that he is ending his effort this year to pass a bill declaring gay conversion therapy a fraudulent practice. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) State Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel, and Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, watch as the votes are posted for a bill before the Senate Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. The Senate approved Leyva's measure requiring all new sexual assault evidence kits to be submitted to a lab with 20 days and tested within 120 days. The bill was sent to Gov. Jerry Brown. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) Ethan Gabriel the son of Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, got into the action of the day as he took over his father's microphone during the Assembly session, Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Ethan was celebrating his fourth birthday Friday and his father brought him to the Assembly for the last day of the legislative session.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) Nearly a year after Russian government hackers meddled in the 2016 U.S. election, researchers at cybersecurity firm Trend Micro zeroed in on a new sign of trouble: a group of suspect websites. The sites mimicked a portal for U.S. senators and their staffs. Emails to Senate users urged them to reset their passwords - an apparent attempt to steal them. The attempt to infiltrate the Senate network and others reported recently point to Russia's continued efforts to interfere in U.S. politics, which Moscow official denies. There is no clear evidence, experts said, of Kremlin efforts specifically designed to disrupt elections in November. This combination of 2017-2018 photos shows from left, a Facebook posting from a group named "Being Patriotic" attributed to Russian agents by the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri whose campaign was targeted by Russian hackers and voting machines in Chicago after hackers found a way into the voter registration database at the Illinois State Board of Elections in mid-2016. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick, Jeff Roberson, Kiichiro Sato) Still, "we fully realize that we are just one click away of the keyboard from a similar situation repeating itself," Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, said in July. Michael McFaul, architect of the Obama administration's Russia policy, has said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin perceives little benefit in major disruption now, preferring to keep his powder dry for the 2020 presidential contest. Experts said it is too late to safeguard U.S. voting systems and campaigns this election cycle. Trump's recent decision eliminating the White House cybersecurity coordinator's post confirmed his lack of interest in countering Russian meddling, critics say. Congress has not delivered any legislation to combat election interference or disinformation. But there is time to take stock of interference that has come to light - and to assess the risks of what we don't know. ____ In mid-2016, hackers got into Illinois' voter registration database. Special counsel Robert Mueller's indictment of a dozen Russian intelligence agents this July said the hackers had stolen information on 500,000 voters. It is the most notable case of foreign tampering with U.S. election systems made public. There has been no evidence of efforts to change voter information or tamper with voting machines, but experts caution hackers might have planted unseen malware in systems that could be triggered later. "My unofficial opinion is that we're kind of fooling ourselves if we don't think that they tried to at least make a pass at all 50 states," said Christopher Krebs, the undersecretary for critical infrastructure at the Department of Homeland Security. Before the 2016 general election, Russian agents sent spear-phishing emails to 122 state and local elections officials who were customers of election software vendor VR Systems. At least 21 state systems were probed by the same Russian unit, officials said. But federal officials have moved slowly to share intelligence. As of mid-August, 92 state election officials had been given clearances. Much of the machinery used to collect and tabulate votes is antiquated, built by a handful of unregulated and secretive vendors, the outdated software highly vulnerable to attacks, researchers say. "If someone was able to compromise even a handful of voting machines I think that would be sufficient to cause people to not trust the system," said Sherri Ramsay, a former National Security Agency senior executive. ___ Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, seeking re-election in a state that voted overwhelmingly for Trump, provided little detail in July when an attempt by Russian hackers to infiltrate her campaign came to light. "While this attack was not successful, it is outrageous that they think they can get away with this," McCaskill said. The failed hack, which included an attempt to steal the password of at least one McCaskill staffer through a fake Senate login website identified by Microsoft, is the most notable instance of attempted campaign meddling by Russia made public this year. Microsoft executives said recently that the company had detected attempts by Russia's GRU military intelligence agency to hack two senators. Since mid-2017, the group behind that attempt has aggressively targeted political groups, universities, enforcement agencies and others, according to TrendMicro. "Russian hackers appear to be broadening their target set, but I think tying it to the midterm elections is pure speculation at this point," said Michael Connell, an analyst at the federally funded Center for Naval Analyses in Arlington, Virginia. Eric Rosenbach, assistant secretary of defense for global security during the Obama administration and now at Harvard, said Russian intrusion that has come to light may be only a tip to larger, hidden schemes. "There probably have already been compromises of important campaigns in places where it could sway the outcome or undermine trust in the election," Rosenbach said. "We might not see that until the very last moment." ___ By the time a group called "ReSisters" began organizing a rally against white nationalism, it had spent a year sharing left-wing posts. But in late July, Facebook shut down ReSisters' account and 31 others that researchers said echoed Russian troll operations before the 2016 election. Since 2016, we've learned much more about social media infiltration. House Democrats' May release of thousands of ads placed on Facebook by Russian agents revealed a deliberate campaign to inflame racial divisions in the U.S. Tech companies say they are working hard to combat such behavior. But companies must be forced to act faster against such campaigns and be more accountable, said Dipayan Ghosh, who has worked at the White House and Facebook on tech policy and is now at Harvard. It is difficult to assess the threat of Russian disinformation efforts. In 2016, the greatest damage was done by hacking and leaking emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign and Democrats' national organization, widely reported by the news media. But comparatively few saw individual pieces of misinformation on social media, making it unlikely they swayed many votes, said Brendan Nyhan, a University of Michigan political scientist. Still, it is clear the Russian efforts have stirred others, like Iran, to try similar strategies, with long-term goals of influencing U.S. politics. "We can't just think in the context of the next election," said Lee Foster, manager of information operations analysis at the cybersecurity firm FireEye. "It's not like this goes away after the midterms." ___ Associated Press writers Barbara Ortutay in New York and Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta contributed to this story. Text of Meghan McCain's eulogy Saturday at Washington National Cathedral for her father, Sen. John McCain, as released by his office: ___ "The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for, and I hate very much to leave it." When Ernest Hemingway's Robert Jordan, at the close "For Whom the Bell Tolls" lies wounded, waiting for his last fight, these are among his final thoughts. My father had every reason to think the world was an awful place. My father had every reason to think the world was not worth fighting for. My father had every reason to think the world was worth leaving. He did not think any of those things. Like the hero of his favorite book, John McCain took the opposite view: You had to have a lot of luck to have had such a good life. Meghan McCain speaks at a memorial service for her father, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018. McCain died Aug. 25, from brain cancer at age 81. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) I am here before you today saying the words I have never wanted to say giving the speech I have never wanted to give. Feeling the loss I have never wanted to feel. My father is gone. John Sidney McCain III was many things. He was a sailor, he was an aviator, he was a husband, he was a warrior, he was a prisoner, he was a hero, he was a congressman, he was a senator, he was nominee for President of the United States. These are all of the titles and roles of a life that's been well-lived. They're not the greatest of his titles nor the most important of his roles. He was a great man. We gather to mourn the passing of American greatness, the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice, those that live lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served. He was a great fire who burned bright. In the past few days, my family and I have heard from so many of those Americans who stood in the warmth and light of his fire and found it illuminated what's best about them. We are grateful to them because they're grateful to him. A few have resented that fire for the light it cast upon them for the truth it revealed about their character, but my father never cared what they thought and even that small number still have the opportunity as long as they draw breath to live up to the example of John McCain. My father was a great man. He was a great warrior. He was a great American. I admired him for all of these things. But I love him because he was a great father. My father knew what it was like to grow up in the shadow of greatness, he did just as his father had done before him. He was the son of a great admiral who was also the son of a great admiral. When it came time for the third John Sidney McCain to be a man, he had no choice but to walk in the same path. He had to become a sailor. He had to go to war. He had to have his shot at becoming a great admiral as they also had done. The past of his father and grandfather led my father to the Hanoi Hilton. This is where all of the biography, campaign literature say he showed his character, his patriotism, his faith, his endurance in the worst of possible circumstances. This is where we learned who John McCain truly was. And all is very true except for the last part. Today I want to share with you where I found out who John McCain truly was and wasn't in the Hilton. It wasn't in the cockpit of a fast and lethal fighter jet or on the campaign trail. John McCain was in all those places, but the best of him was somewhere else, the best of John McCain, the greatest of his titles and the most important of his roles was as a father. Imagine the warrior the night of the skies gently carrying his little girl to bed. Imagine the dashing aviator who took his aircraft, hurdling off pitching decks in the South China Seas, kissing the hurt when I fell and skinned my knee. Imagine the distinguished statesman who counseled presidents singing with his girl in Oak Creek during a rainstorm to singing in the rain. Imagine the senator, fierce conscience of the nation's best self, taking his 14-year-old daughter out of school because he believed I would learn more about America at the town halls he held across the country. Imagine the loyal veteran with his eyes shining with happiness as he gave blessing for his grown daughter's marriage. You all have to imagine that. I don't have to because I lived it all. I know who he was. I know what defined him. I got to see it every single day of my blessed life. John McCain was not defined by prison, by the navy, by the Senate, by the Republican Party or by any single one of the deeds in his absolutely extraordinary life. John McCain was defined by love. Several of you in the pews that crossed swords with him or found yourselves on the receiving end of his famous temper or were at a cross purpose to him on anything, are doing your best to stay stone faced. Don't. You know full well if John McCain were in your shoes today, he would be using some salty word while my mother jabbed him in the arm in embarrassment. He would look back at her and grumble, maybe stop talking, but he would keep grinning. She was the only one who could do that. On their first date when he still did not know what sort of woman she was, he recited a poem called "The Cremation of Sam McGee" about an Alaskan prospector who welcomed his cremation as the only way to get warm in the icy north. "Strange things done in the midnight sun. The arctic trails have secret tales that would make your blood run cold." He learned it in Hanoi. A prisoner rapped it out in code over and over during years of captivity. My father knew if she would sit through that, appreciate the dark humor that had seen him through so many years of imprisonment, she might sit through a lifetime with him as well, and she did. John McCain was defined by love. This love of my father for my mother was the most fierce and lasting of them all, mom. Let me tell you what love meant to John McCain and to me. As much as he comforts, he was endlessly present for us, and though we did not always understand it, he was always teaching. He didn't expect us to be like him. His worldly achievement was to be better than him. Armed with his wisdom, informed by his experiences, long before we were old enough to assemble our own. As a girl I didn't appreciate what I most fully appreciate now; how he suffered and how he bore it with a stoic silence that was once the mark of an American man. I came to appreciate it first when he demanded it of me. I was a small girl, thrown from a horse and crying from a busted collarbone. My dad picked me up. He took me to the doctor, he got me all fixed up. Then he immediately took me back home and made me get back on the same horse. I was furious at him as a child, but how I love him for it now. My father knew pain and suffering with an intimacy and immediacy most of us are blessed never to have endured. He was shot down, he was crippled, he was beaten, starved, tortured and humiliated. That pain never left him. The cruelty of his communist captors ensured he would never raise his arms above his head for the rest of his life, yet he survived, yet he endured. Yet he triumphed. And there was this man who had been through all that with a little girl that didn't want to get back on her horse. He could have sat me down and told me that and made me feel small because my complaint and fear was nothing next to his pain and memory. Instead, he made me feel loved, said in his quiet voice that spoke with authority and meant you had best obey. "Get back on the horse." I did. And because I was a little girl, I resented it. Now that I am a woman, I look back across that time and see the expression on his face when I climbed back up and rode again, and see the pride and love in his eyes as he said, "Nothing is going to break you." For the rest of my life, whenever I fall down, I get back up. Whenever I am hurt, I drive on. Whenever I am brought low, I rise. That is not because I am virtuous, strong, resilient. It is simply because my father, John McCain, was. When my father got sick, when I asked him what he wanted me to do with this eulogy, he said, "Show them how tough you are." That is what love meant to John McCain. Love for my father also meant caring for the nation entrusted to him. My father, the true son of his father and grandfather, was born into the character of American greatness, was convinced of the need to defend it with ferocity and faith. John McCain was born in a distant now vanquished outpost of American power, and he understood America as a sacred trust. He understood our republic demands responsibilities, even before it defends its rights. He knew navigating the line between good and evil was often difficult but always simple. He grasped that our purpose and meaning was rooted in a missionary responsibility, stretching back centuries. Just as the first Americans looked upon a new world full of potential for a grand experiment in freedom and self-confidence, so their descendants have a responsibility to defend the old world from its worst self. The America of John McCain is the America of the revolution. Fighters with no stomach for the summer soldier and sunshine patriot, making the world anew with bells of America of John McCain is the America of Abraham Lincoln. Fulfilling the promise of the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal, and suffering greatly to see it through. The America of John McCain is the America of the boys who rushed the colors in every war across three centuries, knowing in them is the life of the republic, and particularly those by their daring, as Ronald Reagan said, gave up their chance as being husbands and fathers and grandfathers and gave up their chance to be revered old men. The America of John McCain is, yes, the America of Vietnam, fighting the fight, even in the most grim circumstances, even in the most distant, hostile corner of the world, standing for the life and liberty of other peoples in other lands. The America of John McCain is generous and welcoming and bold. She's resourceful, confident, secure. She meets her responsibilities. She speaks quietly because she's strong. America does not boast because she has no need to. The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great. That fervent faith, that proven devotion, that abiding love, that is what drove my father from the fiery skies above the Red River delta to the brink of the presidency itself. Love defined my father. As a young man he wondered if he would measure up to his distinguished lineage. I miss him so badly. I want to tell him that take small comfort in this. Somewhere in the great beyond where the warriors go, there are two admirals of the United States meeting their much-loved son, telling him he is the greatest among them. Dad, I love you, I always have. All that I am, all that I hope, all that I dream is grounded in what you taught me. You loved me and you showed me what love must be. An ancient Greek historian wrote, "The image of great men is woven into the stuff of other men's lives." Dad, your greatness is woven into my life, it is woven into my mother's life, into my sister's life, and it is woven into my brothers' lives. It is woven into the life and liberty of the country you sacrificed so much to defend. Dad, I know you were not perfect. We live in an era where we knock down old American heroes for all their imperfections when no leader wants to admit to fault or failure. You were an exception and gave us an ideal to strive for. Look, I know you can see this gathering in this cathedral. The nation is here to remember you. Like so many other heroes, you leave us draped in the flag you loved. You defended it, you sacrificed it, you always honored it. It is good to remember we are Americans. We don't put our heroes on pedestals just to remember them. We raise them up because we want to emulate their virtues. This is how we honor them, this is how we will honor you. My father gone. My father is gone and my sorrow is immense, but I know his life, and I know it was great because it was good. And as much as I hate to see him go, I do know how it ended. I know that on the afternoon of August 25th in front of Oak Creek in Arizona, surrounded by the family he loved so much, an old man shook off the scars of battle one last time and arose a new man to pilot one last flight up and up and up, busting clouds left and right, straight on through to the kingdom of heaven. And he slipped the earthly bonds, put out his hand, and touched the face of god. I love you, Dad. PHOENIX (AP) - An Amber Alert was issued Saturday for two young brothers and their biological father missing since the boys' mother and a male housemate were found fatally shot in the Phoenix home where police said the victims and boys lived. The alert said 47-year-old Dimas Coronado may have fled to Mexico with the boys, but Sgt. Armando Carbajal, a police spokesman, said investigators had no firm indication of the whereabouts of Coronado or the boys. Police say they want to talk to Coronado about the case but he hasn't been charged. This undated photo released by the Phoenix Police Department on Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018 shows missing child Victor Nunez-Coronado, 8 years old, 4' tall, 60 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. An Amber Alert has been issued for Victor and his brother, Jonathan, and their father, Dimas Coronado, missing since the boys' mother and a male housemate were found fatally shot in the Phoenix home where police said the victims and boys lived. (Phoenix Police Department via AP) Police say Coronado's 2009 white Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck was found unoccupied about six blocks from the home where the shooting occurred. There were no signs of him or the boys. On Saturday night, authorities said they are now looking for an older model light green Ford pickup truck with a white camper. The truck has a Mexican plate of ZUD-71-64. It's not known from which state in Mexico the license plate was issued. The mother and Coronado were married but had been estranged, and it's not clear whether they remained married, Carbajal said. Police say a relative of one victim called police early Saturday after finding the two people shot and the boys gone. The relative said the boys were with their mother the previous evening. Police initially identified the boys as 8-year-old Victor Coronado Nunez and 5-year-old Jonathan Coronado Nunez but the alert later identified them as Victor Nunez-Coronado and Jonathan Nunez-Coronado. The revised names for the boys likely reflected information newly learned by detectives, Carbajal said. The investigation was in its early stages, he said. This undated photo released by the Phoenix Police Department on Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018 shows Dimas Coronado, 46, 5'06" tall, 190 pounds, with gray hair and brown eyes. An Amber Alert has been issued for two young brothers and their father, Coronado, missing since the boys' mother and a male housemate were found fatally shot in the Phoenix home where police said the victims and boys lived. (Phoenix Police Department via AP) PHOENIX (AP) - The Latest on two killings and two missing boys in Arizona (all times local): 2:50 p.m. Phoenix police say a pickup truck belonging to a man sought for questioning in the disappearance of his two young sons and the killing of the boys' mother and another person has been found about six blocks from the home of the victims and the boys. Sgt. Armanda Carbajal says a person reported the location of the truck but there was no sign of the 5- and 8-year-old boys and their father, 47-year-old Dimas Coronado. The boys are the subject of an Amber Alert issued Saturday after the mother and an adult male housemate were found fatally shot earlier in the day. The alert said Coronado might be taking the boys to Mexico, but Carbajal says police don't know where he and the boys are or whether Coronado now has a different vehicle. Police have said Coronado isn't charged in the case. ___ 10:50 a.m. Authorities have issued an Amber Alert for two young brothers and their biological father missing since the boys' mother and a male housemate were found fatally shot in the Phoenix home where the victims lived. The alert issued Saturday said 47-year-old Dimas Coronado may have fled to Mexico with the boys. Police want to talk to him about the case but he hasn't been charged. Police said Coronado has a 2009 white Chevrolet Silverado four-door truck with custom rims and Arizona temporary license 43644T. Police initially identified the boys as 8-year-old Victor Coronado Nunez and 5-year-old Jonathan Coronado Nunez but the alert later identified them as Victor Nunez-Coronado and Jonathan Nunez-Coronado. Police spokesman Sgt. Armando Carbajal said the revised names likely reflected information newly learned by detectives. . DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - A string of powerful blasts from the direction of a military airport in Damascus lit up the skies and shook the capital city in the early morning hours on Sunday, residents and state TV reported. The explosions were seen and heard coming from the direction of the Mezzeh airport, southwest of the capital. The airport has been targeted in a number of airstrikes in recent years that the government has blamed on Israel. The state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV station showed what appeared to be hand-held footage shot by residents of the capital capturing a string of bright explosions lighting up the night sky. The TV station reported, citing an unnamed military source, that the explosions did not come from inside the airport but from a nearby munitions depot. The station said an electrical short circuit was to blame, and reported that emergency services were at the scene. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the explosions came from inside the Mezzeh air base and said they were likely caused by an Israeli missile strike. Israel rarely acknowledges strikes inside Syria but has said it would use military action to prevent weapons transfers to its enemies. Israel is alarmed by the the expansion of operations by Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to support President Bashar Assad in Syria's seven-year-long civil war. The blasts come at a tense moment, as Syrian government forces prepare to attack the last refuge of the opposition in the northwest of the country. The U.S. is warning Damascus against using chemical weapons in the battle, while Damascus alleges that the U.S. is preparing to falsify a chemical attack to justify military operations on Syria. The U.S., France, and the U.K. struck military installations around Damascus in April this year after a chlorine gas attack against rebels under siege outside the capital. The United States is ending its decades of funding for the UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees, the State Department has announced. The move comes a week after the country slashed bilateral aid for projects in the West Bank and Gaza. The US supplies nearly 30% of the total budget of the UN Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, and had been demanding reforms in the way it is run. The Gaza Strip border with Israel during a protest (Adel Hana/AP) The State Department said in a written statement that the United States will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation, cutting nearly 300 million dollars (230 million) of planned support. UNRWA said it rejected in the strongest possible terms the Trump administrations criticism of the agency and expressing deep regret and disappointment. The US decision comes as president Donald Trump and his Middle East pointmen, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, prepare for the rollout of a much-vaunted but as yet unclear peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians, and it could intensify Palestinian suspicions that Washington is using the humanitarian funding as leverage. The Palestinian leadership has been openly hostile to any proposal from the administration, citing what it says is a pro-Israel bias, notably after Mr Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israels capital in December and moved the American embassy there from Tel Aviv in May. The Palestinian Authority broke off contact with the US after the Jerusalem announcement. In 2016, the US donated 355 million dollars (275 million) to the UNRWA, which provides health care, education and social services to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, and it was set to make a similar contribution this year. In January the Trump administration released 60 million dollars (45 million) in funds but withheld a further 65 million dollars (50 million) it had been due to provide. The remaining amount had yet to be allocated. When we made a US contribution of 60 million dollars in January, we made it clear that the United States was no longer willing to shoulder the very disproportionate share of the burden of UNRWAs costs that we had assumed for many years, the statement said. Several countries, including Jordan, Egypt, Sweden, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates have shown leadership in addressing this problem, but the overall international response has not been sufficient. The statement criticised the fundamental business model and fiscal practices of UNRWA, and what the department characterised as the endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries. UNRWA responded by stating that its programs have a proven track record in creating one of the most successful human development processes in the Middle East. UNRWA added that it has been recognised by the World Bank for running one of the most effective school systems in the region, according to a statement released by the agency. A spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres office released a statement late on Friday regretting the Trump administrations decision to cut UNRWA funding, saying the UN has appreciated years of US support for the agency. UNRWA has a strong record of providing high-quality education, health and other essential services, often in extremely difficult circumstances, to Palestine refugees who are in great need, the statement added. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes during the war that led to Israels establishment in 1948. Today, there are an estimated five million refugees and their descendants, mostly scattered across the region a figure that has become a point of contention. Palestinian leaders assert the right of those refugees to return to land now under Israeli control. Childrens programme Thomas And Friends is to introduce an inclusive gender-balanced, multicultural set of characters as part of a revamp. The new series of the animated show about Thomas the Tank Engine and his Steam Team will see the beloved locomotive leave his home in Sodor to travel the world for the first time. Now called Thomas And Friends: Big World! Big Adventures!, the new series also marks the first collaboration between a childrens TV programme and the United Nations to promote the Sustainable Development Goals. New Thomas And Friends character Noor Jehan (Thomas And Friends) The changes to Thomas And Friends, the biggest relaunch the brand has had in its 73-year history with the aim of appealing to a wider global audience, were unveiled at a premiere at Baftas headquarters in London. There will also be a new theme tune for the show, a faster-paced format, increased humour and music and fantasy elements and dream sequences. For the first time in the series history, Thomas will discover new countries and cultures by travelling to China, India and Australia. YongBao is joining the train ranks (Mattel Inc/Mark Collins PR/PA) The Steam Team, the core group of trains on the fictional island of Sodor, will now comprise three male and three female characters. Long-running favourites Percy, Gordon, James and Emily will be joined by additions Nia and Rebecca, along with Thomas. The changes were made to represent the female viewership of the series, which is thought to be more than 40%, and send a strong message of gender equality to the young audience. In addition to these, the series will feature new characters from around the world, including Ashima from India, Yong Bao from China and Shane from Australia. Shane is an Australian train (Mattel Inc/Mark Collins PR/PA) New female characters, described by show bosses as strong girl characters, include Isla, an Australian flying doctor plane, Noor Jehan, a royal express engine from India, Hong-Mei, a number one blue tank engine from China, and female railway controller Charubala, from India. Another first for the show will see Thomas talk directly to the audience to narrate it himself. The programmes redevelopment included a collaboration with the UN Department of Public Informations Creative Community Outreach Initiative to develop content inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals appropriate for a pre-school audience while in keeping with the Thomas And Friends brand. Ian McCue, senior producer at Thomas And Friends, said: The show has undergone an evolution to remain relevant for the next generation of parents and children by opening up the world of Thomas And Friends so children can discover the world around them while being entertained. Isla, a Flying Doctors plane will be one of the new `strong girl characters (Mattel Inc/Mark Collins PR/PA) The changes and new additions of characters and geographies will make the show more entertaining, inclusive and global whilst ensuring all the favourite characters and storylines that fans around the world love remain at the heart of the action. Thomas the Tank Engine was created more than 70 years ago by Reverend Wilbert Awdry as part of his Railway Series of books, which have become a global brand including TV programmes, films, toys and live attractions. Awdrys granddaughter, Claire Chambers, welcomed the changes to the franchise, saying she thinks he would be very happy with them. If the gender-balanced Steam Team encourages more girls to maintain an interest then that can only be a good thing, she said. Thomas And Friends will air daily from September 3 at 7am on Channel 5s Milkshake. President Macron congratulated Thiep on his appointment, expressing his delight at the rapid and positive developments in the friendly Vietnam-France relations and cooperation since the official visit to France by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in March. The host spoke highly of Vietnams increasing position in the region and the world, while highlighting the similarities between the two countries in terms of interests and their stance on regional and global issues. He called for further bilateral cooperation within the Francophonie framework, affirming that he will visit Vietnam next year. For his part, Thiep emphasised that General Secretary Trongs visit to France opened up a new chapter for the Vietnam-France strategic partnership, further deepening the bilateral relations in economics-trade, security-defence, and Francophonie, while initiating a new area of cooperation in e-government building. The Vietnamese diplomat asserted Vietnams consistent foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, diversification, multilateralisation, respecting multilateralism and international law, supporting trade liberalisation, climate change adaptation, and combating the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. He called on the French President to give continuous goodwill towards Vietnam and support the country on its integration and development path. Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia associate Armenia, Ngo Duc Manh, and Armenian President Armen Sargsyan. * At a reception for Ngo Duc Manh, Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia associate Armenia, Armenian President Armen Sargsyan spoke highly of the relations between the two countries, as well as Vietnams position in the region and the nations achievements attained during its Doi Moi (Renewal) process. He highlighted the huge potential for bilateral cooperation, while expressing his wish to visit Vietnam in the near future. The host said he believed that Manhs work during his tenure in Armenia would contribute significantly to accelerating the friendly relations and cooperation between the two sides. Ambassador Manh conveyed the congratulations from the senior leaders of the Vietnamese Party, State and Government to President Armen Sargsyan for his success in running the country, while voicing his desire for new heights in the relations between the two countries. The diplomat shared the Armenian Presidents ideas on the enhancement of the multifaceted bilateral ties, parliamentary relations, coordination at international forums of which Vietnam and Armenia are members, people-to-people exchanges, and tourism cooperation. Earlier, Manh held meetings with Armenias Foreign Minister and National Assembly Vice President, while visiting a number of economic and cultural establishments in Yerevan city. Some emergency service vehicles used in the response to Novichok poisonings in Wiltshire have been buried in a landfill site. The secure burials would pose absolutely no risk to the public, a spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said. Defra did not disclose the number of vehicles nor the emergency services they were used by, but confirmed that some had been sealed in a hazardous waste landfill site near Bishops Cleeve in Gloucestershire. A police car being taken away by military personnel (PA) The UK Government has blamed Russia for the nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury in March. In July, Dawn Sturgess, 44, died after becoming an indirect casualty of the poisoning, with authorities believing she and boyfriend Charlie Rowley picked up a discarded vial containing the substance. A Defra spokesman said: The clean-up work in south Wiltshire has been under way for some time and any potentially contaminated items continue to be removed and stored securely before being disposed of safely. As part of this work, following review by specialist teams, some of the vehicles involved in the response to the incident in March have been moved to a hazardous waste landfill site. Personnel in hazmat suits examine the scene where the Skripals were found (PA) There is absolutely no risk to the public of using hazardous waste landfill sites. These locations are fully sealed and highly regulated to ensure waste is disposed of safely. This is controlled by regulation, overseen by the Environment Agency, which specifically ensures that sites are not prone to flooding or other hazards. Our number one priority is making sure that the identified sites are safe, so they can be returned to use and Wiltshire can get back to normal. The Novichok attacks caused an international diplomatic incident, with Home Secretary Sajid Javid accusing the Russian state of using Britain as a dumping ground for poison. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has previouly said that linking Russia to the poisoning would be absurd. The imprisonment of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is set to be discussed as Middle East minister Alistair Burt holds talks in Iran on Saturday. Mr Burt intends to raise the high profile case as he meets Iranian deputy foreign affairs minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to five years imprisonment for spying in 2016 but maintains her innocence, saying she was on holiday to introduce her daughter to her family in Iran. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has always maintained her innocence (Family Handout/PA) Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has promised to heighten efforts aimed at securing the British-Iranians release after she passed out during a panic attack and had to be taken to a prison clinic earlier this week. All our thoughts and prayers with Nazanin and her family today. Unbearable suffering to be apart from daughter with her hopes raised then dashed. We must redouble efforts to find a way to get her home #FreeNazanin Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) August 29, 2018 Mr Burt is using his visit to discuss the cases of British dual-nationals detained in Iran as well as holding talks on the Iran nuclear deal and the conflicts in Syria and Yemen. Speaking ahead of the visit, Mr Burt said: I will also use the opportunity of my visit to push for the resolution we all want to see in the cases of the British dual nationals detained in Iran. Mr Burt has stated the talks marked a crucial moment in Irans relationship with the UK around the nuclear deal. His visit is the first by a UK minister to Tehran since the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May. A controversial crowdfunding campaign launched by Alex Salmond to help fund his legal challenge against the Scottish Governments handling of sexual misconduct allegations against him has been halted after it raised just over 100,000. The former Scottish first minister announced he was asking for money to help with his court battle at the same time as he dramatically quit the SNP. But after his heavily criticised funding campaign raised double its 50,000 target, Mr Salmond announced he was closing it. Former first minister Alex Salmond has closed the controversial crowdfunder he set up to help pay for his legal challenge agianst the Scottish Government. (Jane Barlow/PA) He said: Many thanks to the thousands of people who have come forward with support. We will now press on with the challenge to the lawfulness of the procedure. All funds will be used exclusively to support the judicial review. If we are successful in the Court of Session then there are likely to be substantial surplus funds and, as I have pledged, every penny will then go to good causes in Scotland and beyond. Salmond puts Scottish independence first Help support the costs of Alex Salmond's Judicial Review in the Court of Session. https://t.co/rQmb7GGLU4#forFairnesshttps://t.co/7S5qkoNvDq Alex Salmond (@AlexSalmond) August 29, 2018 But his decision to ask the public for financial support has been branded unprecedented and unbelievable by opposition politicians with some urging people to donate cash to womens organisations instead of give money to the former SNP leader, who served at both Holyrood and Westminster during his lengthy political career. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon encouraged her Twitter followers to donate to a campaign to fund a legal challenge to the UK Governments so-called rape clause. If you can, please help Womens Aid launch a legal challenge to the #rapeclause - the deadline is 9am tomorrow. If the target is not met by then, the money already raised is refunded and this disgraceful, anti-women policy will escape challenge. Lets get it over the line. https://t.co/SoEu8dnGGD Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) August 30, 2018 It comes after Mr Salmond was informed in March of an investigation by the Scottish Government, after two complaints about his behaviour were made in January. The allegations date back to 2013, when he was still first minister, with Police Scotland having already confirmed details have been passed to the force. On Friday lawyers at the firm Levy & McRae confirmed a petition for judicial review in the Court of Session has now been served on legal representatives of the Scottish Government. Alex Salmond crowdfunding his court challenge of the SNP Government is a disgrace. Saying its about independence is rubbish. This is simply about distracting attention from the allegations of sexual harassment. It is an abuse of power and our politics should be better than this. Jackie Baillie (@jackiebmsp) August 29, 2018 The Scottish Government has pledged to vigorously defend its position in court, saying there are a number of inaccuracies in Mr Salmonds public statements. When the crowdfunder was closed it had raised 100,007 from 4,146 supporters in three days with people giving an average donation of just over 24. Mr Salmond told those who had donated: A special thank you to everyone who contributed and left such kind messages. The petition for Judicial Review has now been served and all of you helped make that possible. Alex Salmond has taken the decision to resign his membership of the SNP, but he has some brass neck to publicly crowdfund in the same breath.https://t.co/rnswiBRAyw pic.twitter.com/NaWHhP57Qx Scottish Conservatives (@ScotTories) August 30, 2018 But a Scottish Conservative spokesman said: Alex Salmond should never have been squeezing cash out of SNP supporters in the first place. His legal action has nothing to do with independence, yet he used the cause to convince the party faithful to cough up. It was crass and certainly not becoming of a former first minister of Scotland. Meanwhile Ms Sturgeon told SNP MPs and MSPs on Friday that she wanted to see a Scotland where there is equality before the law, where theres not one rule for the powerful and another rule for everyone else. She also stressed the importance of properly investigating the complaints, saying: Lets not forget that at the heart of this, amidst all the focus on process, politics and personalities, there are two people who have brought forward complaints, which cannot have been at all easy to do. Ms Sturgeon, who succeeded Mr Salmond as SNP leader and first minister in 2014, spoke to parliamentarians at a party event in Edinburgh on Friday. Mr Salmond, who has been both an MP and an MSP, had been a member of the party for 45 years when he resigned. He was party leader for 20 years over that period, with two decade-long spells in the job. He also became Scotlands longest serving First Minister Speaking about his complaint he said: There is a general interest in ensuring that such procedures are fair and lawful, just as complainers, and those complained about, have a right to confidentiality. That has been breached in this case. My entire focus is now on the judicial review and seeking fairness. I am content to let the court action take its course. Embattled Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho is expecting a response from his players as they attempt to end another turbulent week with a Premier League victory at Burnley. The Portuguese mounted a stout defence of his own record on Friday as he insisted he remains one of the greatest managers in the world, referencing philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in the process. However, he knows the pressure will continue to build if United do not turn around a season which began with victory over Leicester, but has since seen them lose at Brighton and then 3-0 to Tottenham at Old Trafford on Monday night. "The feeling was of great frustration, but during the week, people transform that into motivation to work." Our wide-ranging interview with the #MUFC boss is a must-read this weekend... Manchester United (@ManUtd) September 1, 2018 Asked if he sensed a determination within the camp to put things right, Mourinho told the clubs official website: I do. There are defeats and defeats. A defeat always means zero points, but there are defeats and defeats. I think the feeling was a great frustration and a great sense of it (the result against Tottenham) not being fair at all, far from it. But during the week, people transform that into motivation to work and once more the week was very, very good. We just hope to play as well as we did against Tottenham, but with different luck and a different result. Lucas Moura was the architect of Tottenhams convincing win at Old Trafford (Nick Potts/PA) United have won at Turf Moor in each of the last two seasons, goals from Anthony Martial and Wayne Rooney doing the damage in April last year and Martials lone strike securing the points in January. However, Mourinho is well aware of the threat posed by Sean Dyches men, who drew 2-2 on their last visit to Old Trafford having led 2-0 they also emerged with a point on their previous visit. Mourinho said: Matches against them are always difficult. They are competitive, aggressive and fight for every ball. If you are not ready for that, its even more difficult for you. PREVIEW | Sean Dyche previews Burnley's return to the Premier League this Sunday against Manchester United. WATCH MORE https://t.co/dqYIhV4gr6 pic.twitter.com/ExBSR1zrw0 Burnley FC (@BurnleyOfficial) August 31, 2018 The United boss was in the crowd on Thursday evening as the Clarets Europa League adventure drew to a close with a 4-2 aggregate defeat by Olympiakos, although he is not convinced he will have learned too much to help him on Sunday. He said: I knew that they would change the majority of their players and the majority of the players that played will probably be on the bench on Sunday. Its always a good way to have a look and to see the direction they go and try to compare with the things that we watch in video analysis and its a good experience. Unsettled Liverpool edged past battling Leicester 2-1 after Alissons howler threatened to blow their 100 per cent record. First-half goals from Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino put Liverpool in control at the King Power Stadium before the hosts hit back thanks to Alissons gaffe. His error, which saw him robbed of possession by Kelechi Iheanacho and resulted in Rachid Ghezzal slotting home, was the first goal the Brazilian has conceded since his 67million summer move from Roma. Alissons glaring error did not end up costing Liverpool (Mike Egerton/PA) But Liverpool survived to record their fourth straight win and continue their flying start to the campaign. Leicester battled well and worried the visitors but failed to cash in once they had Liverpool on the ropes. Ultimately, the Foxes paid the price for a slow start and Mohamed Salah missed a sitter after just four minutes when the usually lethal forward sidefooted wide from 10 yards after Kasper Schmeichel denied Firmino. 4 Games 4 Goals Sadio's fine start to the season continues. pic.twitter.com/0sGx38flHF Liverpool FC (@LFC) September 1, 2018 Salahs slip was a collectors item and Mane showed him a clinical edge just six minutes later. There had already been some worrying gaps in the Leicester defence and Mane capitalised on a lucky ricochet to open the scoring. Andrew Robertson bundled his way down the right and Harry Maguire deflected his cross to Mane and the forward poked past Schmeichel. "It's very important to score for the team. We just try to do our best for the team. We played some good football, but the attitude made the difference as it was a very tough game for us" - Sadio Mane#LEILIV pic.twitter.com/oEERLo5xyQ Premier League (@premierleague) September 1, 2018 A goal up, Liverpool settled and dominated, toying with their hosts as Firmino and Salah waltzed through the Foxes lines and Georginio Wijnaldums effort was blocked by Maguire. Leicester lacked presence and punch without the suspended Jamie Vardy but began to show signs of life after 22 minutes. A poor touch from Wijnaldum allowed Leicester to gain a footing and Demarai Gray forced Alisson into a low stop. A fan was hoping for a present from Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah (Mike Egerton/PA) Leicester were emboldened and with Liverpool no longer in charge James Maddison began to threaten, in front of the watching Gareth Southgate. The midfielder shot over 10 minutes before the break and found pockets of space to unnerve the visitors. But, marshalled by Virgil van Dijk the red wall refused to budge and even if they had briefly lost control of midfield there was never a sense Liverpool were in real trouble. Leicester had gained a foothold, at least, but it was whipped from under them a minute before the break. Under Jurgen Klopp, Roberto Firmino has had a hand in 60 #PL goals (37 goals, 23 assists). 15 more than any other Liverpool player...#LEILIV pic.twitter.com/lT2mU9tHXA Premier League (@premierleague) September 1, 2018 Schmeichel, making his 300th appearance for Leicester, turned Salahs curling effort behind before Firmino pounced. Leicester defended the initial corner but when James Milner swung the ball in from the other side Firmino brushed off Maddisons weak challenge to head in. At 2-0 it was a long way back for the hosts but Maddison almost started the revival six minutes after the break only for Joe Gomezs excellent covering tackle to deny him. Wes Morgan then failed to get a proper touch on Ben Chilwells cross with Alisson exposed. Leicester sensed a way back and they grabbed a goal after 63 minutes thanks to Alissons calamitous mistake. The Foxes forced Liverpool into retreat and while Van Dijks back-pass pushed Alisson wide the Brazil international was too slow to clear. His attempt to turn Iheanacho only allowed the striker to steal the ball and cross for Ghezzal to net from six yards. Jurgen Klopps Liverpool have now won all four Premier League matches this season (Mike Egerton/PA) Liverpool had failed to get going in the second half missing a four-on-two chance just before Ghezzals goal and paid the price. But Leicester could not find a second as Jurgen Klopps Reds clung on to all three points. Mohamed Salah looked to extend his Premier League run of 19 goals in 20 games against Leicester on Saturday. Here, Press Association Sport looks at how the Egypt striker got on. GOALS 4' Big chance for #LFC to open the scoring! Firmino's shot is well saved and Salah's follow-up is drilled wide. [0-0]#LEILIV Liverpool FC (@LFC) September 1, 2018 The short answer is none. He should have found the net, though. Early in the piece Salah missed what amounted to an open goal, inexplicably shooting wide after Kasper Schmeichel denied Roberto Firmino. It was a chance barely anyone in the stadium could believe he had passed up. CHANCES Mohamed Salah was not at his best at the King Power Stadium (Mike Egerton/PA) Shortly before the break Salah nearly produced a goal from nowhere. Taking the ball 25 yards from goal he span out of a tackle and curled a precise, low effort that Schmeichel had to be at his best to keep out. Beyond that, a charged-down shot in the second half and a moment of indecision between shooting and passing was as close as he got. GENERAL PLAY A fan holds up a sign asking for the shirt of Liverpools Mohamed Salah (Mike Egerton/PA) Salah was involved in lots of link-up play, often dropping deep as Liverpool worked hard to keep Leicester on the back foot, and spent lots of time deeper than the likes of Firmino and Sadio Mane. OVERALL Not a day Salah will remember for too long but, given his heroics since joining Liverpool, one quiet day is nothing to worry about. He was taken off with 20 minutes to go. The US decision to end its funding for a UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees and their descendants is an attack on the rights of the Palestinian people, a spokesman for president Mahmoud Abbas has said. Nabil Abu Rudeneh said the move does not serve peace but rather strengthens terrorism in the region. He said the Palestinian leadership was considering an appeal to the UN Security Council to confront the American stance, which he said was just the latest hostile act of the Trump administration against the Palestinian people, after it recognised Jerusalem as Israels capital and moved its embassy there. This decision, which violates all resolutions of international legitimacy, requires the United Nations to take a firm stand against the US decision and to take appropriate decisions, he said. Whatever the size of the conspiracies aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause, this will only increase the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and its leadership. The US supplies nearly 30 percent of the total budget of the UN Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, and had been demanding it carry out significant reforms to what it called an irredeemably flawed operation. The decision cuts nearly 300 million dollars (231m) of planned support. The US decision comes as president Donald Trump and his Middle East pointmen, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, prepare for the rollout of a much-vaunted but as yet unclear peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians, and it could intensify Palestinian suspicions that Washington is using the humanitarian funding as leverage. UNRWA was established after Israels 1948 War of Independence to singularly aid some 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes. Pierre Krahenbuhl, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency speaks at a press conference in Jordan (Raad Adayleh/AP) The number has since grown to an estimated five million refugees and their descendants, who had an aid agency devoted solely to them while the rest of the worlds refugees depend on the general UNHCR refugee agency. While Palestinian leaders assert the right of those refugees to return to land now under Israeli control, Israel has long argued the agency was politicised and ineffective. Israels prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the agency of perpetuating the conflict by helping promote an unrealistic Palestinian demand that refugees have the right of return to long-lost homes in what is now Israel. He has called for UNRWA to be abolished and its responsibilities taken over by the main UN refugee agency. Some in Israel have even tougher criticism, accusing UNRWA of teaching hatred of Israel in its classrooms and tolerating or assisting Hamas militants in Gaza. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem accused the United States of going after UNRWA to eliminate the Palestinian right to return to their future homes. Its clear that Trump has shifted from taking sides with the Israeli enemy to being a partner in the assault on our Palestinian peoples rights, he said. All these decisions will not stop our peoples struggle to gain freedom and return. Adnan Abu Hasna, the UNRWA spokesman in Gaza, said they currently have 280,000 students in 274 schools and provide food aid to more than one million people. Stopping or cutting aid to UNRWA could really affect UNRWAs operations, he said. We dont think cutting this aid will help stability or pushing the peace process, especially as UNRWA plays a big role in the stability of the region. A spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres office released a statement late on Friday regretting the Trump administrations decision to cut funding, saying the UN has appreciated years of US support for the agency. UNRWA has a strong record of providing high-quality education, health and other essential services, often in extremely difficult circumstances, to Palestine refugees who are in great need, the statement added. The husband of imprisoned Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has revealed her anguish at being returned to an Iranian jail. Richard Ratcliffe was speaking as Middle East minister Alistair Burt held talks with Iranian deputy foreign affairs minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran about the situation. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to five years imprisonment for spying in 2016, but maintains her innocence, saying she was on holiday to introduce her daughter to her family in Iran. In an open letter to Irans foreign minister Javad Zarif, Mr Ratcliffe said his wife was deeply upset at being forced back to prison after a three-day release, which he branded a cruel game. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has promised to heighten efforts aimed at securing the British-Iranians release after she passed out during a panic attack and had to be taken to a prison clinic earlier this week. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her daughter Gabriella during her temporary release from prison in Iran (handout/PA) Mr Ratcliffe said an Iranian official called his wifes father and warned him to ensure UK diplomats did not contact her while she was out of jail. The letter from Mr Ratcliffe stated: As Nazanin was being released, her interrogator called her father to privately warn him that the British Embassy should not visit her, if she wanted to stay safe. Each day he called to note they were monitoring her movements, and check her father was following her to make sure she did not suffer an accident on the street. Those calls cast a shadow over her release, as they were meant to. Nazanin called me on Tuesday one of our toughest conversations. She wished she had never been released. She said she felt like one of the radical Islamists captives as though she had been paraded on the balcony then hidden back away. After that call, Nazanin collapsed, the result of two panic attacks. She still has numbness in her legs. She was taken by ambulance to the Evin hospital. Mr Ratcliffe called on Mr Zarif to meet him next week at a UN summit in New York to discuss his wifes case. Mr Ratcliffe told the Press Association on Saturday: Nazanin phoned her family in Iran today and they said she was better, but she sounded quite low still. Im hoping to speak to her tomorrow. The family met with minister Burt. I think he was quite emotional, but didnt reveal what he said to the deputy foreign minister. All our thoughts and prayers with Nazanin and her family today. Unbearable suffering to be apart from daughter with her hopes raised then dashed. We must redouble efforts to find a way to get her home #FreeNazanin Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) August 29, 2018 Mr Burt is using his visit to discuss the cases of British dual-nationals detained in Iran as well as holding talks on the Iran nuclear deal and the conflicts in Syria and Yemen. Speaking ahead of the visit, Mr Burt said: I will also use the opportunity of my visit to push for the resolution we all want to see in the cases of the British dual-nationals detained in Iran. Mr Burt has stated the talks marked a crucial moment in Irans relationship with the UK around the nuclear deal. His visit is the first by a UK minister to Tehran since the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May. A 19-year-old Afghan citizen who was shot and detained after a double stabbing at Amsterdams citys main railway station had a terrorist motive, authorities said. The city council said in a statement on Saturday that investigators reached that conclusion based on the suspects first statements to police. The suspect allegedly stabbed two American tourists on Friday before police shot and wounded him. The suspect is an Afghan citizen (Alex Furtula/AP) He holds a German residency permit and was identified as Jawed S. in line with Dutch privacy rules. The Americans are recovering in a hospital. Their identities have not been released. The suspect is also in hospital. Amsterdam City Hall said German authorities searched the suspects home and seized data storage devices that would be analysed as part of the investigation. He will appear in court on Monday in a closed-door hearing. The charges he could face have not been released. The captain of a charter fishing boat has told how he rescued four asylum seekers when their inflatable dinghy got into trouble off the coast of Dover. Matt Coker, 37, said he spotted the small boat, which was half full of water, three miles off the Goodwin Sands in Kent as he took a group out on a day trip at around 10.30am on Saturday. The three distressed men and one woman on board tied a red T-shirt to an oar as they tried to attract his attention before making a leap for the bigger vessel, he said. The Royal Charlotte skipper told how his fishing party pulled them aboard and administered first aid before calling the Coastguard. We were on our way out on a fishing trip and we noticed a small, little tiny dinghy on the horizon and I tried to look with the binoculars and I could see people in it and didnt think much of it, he told the Press Association. But as we got closer they see us and suddenly started waving. I had another look with the binoculars and I could see they were actually waving the oars and they tied a red T-shirt on to an oar and were waving that. So then I motored over to see who it might be, because they were clearly in distress, but in the back of my mind I thought this could actually be asylum seekers or it could be someone whos drifted off the beach. As I got over to them I could see they were clearly in distress and the boat was half full of water, so they sort of made a leap for the boat as we got near. Luckily I had 12 passengers on and they grabbed hold of them and we got them aboard pretty quick and then we got the boat aboard, which was a little inflatable dinghy. They were in distress. They didnt speak any English but they kept saying Iran because I was asking where they had come from and if they were okay. Border Force took the group ashore (Andrew Milligan/PA) Mr Coker said he initiated first aid and tried to look after them, while they waited for Border Force to arrive. They boarded the boat, interviewed them and took them away, he added. A Home Office spokesman confirmed: On Saturday morning Border Force received a call from the UK Coastguard regarding a small inflatable boat off the coast of Dover. A coastal patrol vessel was deployed and the four people on board have been brought to Dover, where they will be processed in line with the immigration rules. The activity was part of various events to celebrate the 73rd National Day, which falls on September 2. The delegation also offered incense at the Ho Chi Minh Statue Park and at the Ton Duc Thang Museum, which is named after late President Ton Duc Thang. Also on Saturday morning, an art exhibition with the theme "The feelings of Ho Chi Minh City and Shanghai (China)" was opened at the headquarters of the Ho Chi Minh Citys Association of Culture and Fine Arts. Delegates visit the exhibition themed "The feelings of HCM City and Shanghai" in HCM City on September 1. (Photo: NDO) The exhibition introduces nearly 60 works by the two cities artists, expressing beautiful feelings about the life and development of Vietnam and China in general, and Ho Chi Minh City and Shanghai in particular. The works are expressed in various materials with rich subjects and diverse genres by the Shanghai and Ho Chi Minh Citys painters. On the same day, at the citys Nguyen Van Binh Book Street in District 1, the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Union held a meeting with Nguyen Long Trao, author of the memoirs " Khi To Quoc Goi (When the Fatherland Calls), published by the Ho Chi Minh City General Publishing House. Author Nguyen Long Trao signs his memoirs "When the Fatherland Calls at a meeting with young readers in HCM City on September 1. (Photo: NDO) The book introduces the younger generation to the intimate, simple and honest stories of a heroic generation, who fought against hardships and devoted all of their youth to the cause of national liberation and reunification. At the meeting, young readers raised questions to Nguyen Long Trao about the stories in his memoirs, as well as his suggestion for the younger generation today. Kyle Walkers first goal in almost three years broke Newcastles dogged resilience as Manchester City returned to winning ways. While normal service was not quite resumed in the 2-1 victory at the Etihad Stadium this being their lowest winning margin at home since beating Chelsea 1-0 in March it at least put Pep Guardiolas side back on track after last weeks hiccup at Wolves. They remain two points behind Liverpool and Chelsea, who both have 100 per cent records after four matches, but it needed a bolt from the blue to do so. Despite Walkers prowess as a marauding full-back his last goal came in November 2015 so to see him rifle home a 25-yard winner early in the second half was something of a surprise. Raheem Sterlings eighth-minute opener on his 100th Premier League appearance for the club was cancelled out by DeAndre Yedlin another defender not known for his aptitude in front of goal. With Newcastle, yet to win this season, set up to contain and hoping to avoid the sort of 6-1 hammering Huddersfield got here a fortnight ago, City had the freedom of the Etihad. The first half resembled an attack-versus-defence training-ground exercise as the visitors regularly ceded possession to invite yet another blue wave to crash over them. A first Premier League start for Riyad Mahrez saw the 60million summer signing drag wide an early chance but the breakthrough was not long in coming. If Newcastles captain Jamaal Lascelles, restored to the starting line-up after injury, was looking to redeem himself after a reported training ground bust-up with Matt Ritchie, he failed miserably. A horrible miscontrol saw him gift possession to Benjamin Mendy, who released Sterling outside him and the England international cut in from the left to curl a shot across Martin Dubravka and inside the far post. That is usually the signal for the floodgates to open, but for all their control the hosts unusually lacked a cutting edge. Manchester Citys Raheem Sterling, second left, celebrates his goal (Martin Rickett/PA) Sergio Aguero, who had previously scored 14 in 11 appearances against Newcastle, whipped an effort wide from distance while Gabriel Jesus shot straight at Dubravka. But while City, who omitted winger Leroy Sane from their matchday squad, were contemplating how to open up the visitors five-man defence again, they were caught napping on the half-hour. Kenedy played in Salomon Rondon on the left and he slid a low cross into the six-yard box towards the far post where Mendy would normally have expected to have been guarding. However, the France international had been dragged into the middle and Yedlin capitalised on the wide open space in front of him to charge forward from the halfway line, past the back-tracking Jesus, and convert from close range. Newcastles DeAndre Yedlin scored the equaliser for the visitors (Martin Rickett/PA) City came out a different side after the break and within eight minutes were ahead again as Newcastle again failed to learn from allowing Sterling to cut in from the left, the England forward offloading for Aguero to tee up Walker to drill home. That goal appeared to break Newcastles resolve as Jesus was denied by an offside flag before Dubravka made a good double save from Fernandinho and David Silva, who also missed a far-post header as City belatedly clicked into gear. The result leaves Newcastle with just one point a draw against newly promoted Cardiff and manager Rafael Benitez, after their midweek Carabao Cup exit to Nottingham Forest, with more questions to answer. It does not get any easier for the Spaniard as Arsenal are next up, the third member of the Big Six they have faced already this season. Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero faced Newcastle on Saturday having scored 14 goals in 11 Premier League appearances against the Magpies and eight in the last two at the Etihad Stadium. Here, Press Association Sport looks at how the 30-year-old Argentina international fared as City beat the Tyneside outfit 2-1. Goal threat Aguero had scored eight times in his previous two Etihad Stadium appearances against Newcastle (Martin Rickett/PA) Just after the quarter-hour mark Aguero collected the ball from Benjamin Mendy and struck narrowly wide from around 25 yards. He subsequently hit a free-kick into the Newcastle wall and had a shot blocked by Federico Fernandez, before getting a touch to a Riyad Mahrez delivery that sent the ball into Martin Dubravkas arms. Aguero was then put through late on but could not finish the chance off, being thwarted by Dubravka as he tried to go around him and then sending the ball off-target. Creativity Aguero teed up Kyle Walker for his goal (Martin Rickett/PA) At various times Aguero contributed well to build-up play, and he produced one particularly fine pass in the first half to feed Gabriel Jesus, the Brazilian being denied by Dubravka. It was then from Agueros lay-off in the 52nd minute that Kyle Walker fired home to put City 2-1 up, and 12 minutes later he produced a delightful cross from the left that picked out Fernandinho, whose shot was saved by Dubravka. Overall No goal on this occasion for Citys all-time record scorer, but he certainly put in a commendable display. MOSCOW, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Three people were killed and four injured in a blast on Friday at an explosives plant in the Russian city of Dzerzhinsk, 400 km east of Moscow, local officials said. An investigation to establish the cause of the blast was underway at the plant, which belongs to state-run manufacturer Sverdlov, the local branch of the Investigative Committee said in a statement on its website. Mikhail Lebedev, Sverdlov's acting director was quoted by RIA news agency as saying the blast was an accident which occurred while workers were destroying old anti-tank mines for the Ministry of Defence. Five people were still missing, Lebedev said. In a separate incident on Friday, two workers were killed in a blast in the region of Samara at the Kuznetsov factory which manufactures rocket and aircraft engines for state arms conglomerate Rostec. That accident happened when an oxygen tank was being cleaned, investigators said. (Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov Writing by Tom Balmforth Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky) By Nathan Layne and David Alexander Aug 31 (Reuters) - An American who is the business partner of a Russian national accused by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller of having ties to Russian intelligence pleaded guilty on Friday to unregistered lobbying for a pro-Kremlin political party in Ukraine. Samuel Patten, 47, also agreed to cooperate with Mueller's probe. Patten admitted to arranging for a U.S. citizen to act as a straw purchaser to pay $50,000 for four tickets to the inauguration of President Donald Trump on behalf of a Ukrainian oligarch, who reimbursed Patten through a Cypriot account. The move circumvented U.S. law prohibiting foreigners from providing money to an organization running the inauguration. The tickets were given to the oligarch, another Ukrainian, Patten and the Russian national, according to the charging documents. While the documents did not name the Russian national, the description matches Konstantin Kilimnik, Patten's business partner, who was indicted along with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in June for witness tampering in an ongoing criminal case in Washington. Mueller has said Kilimnik, who once served in the Russian army as a translator, has links to Russian spy agencies. Kilimnik, who in the past has denied such ties, did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. Patten's plea agreement, which includes cooperating with Mueller, raises the prospect Patten will be called to testify against Manafort, who was found guilty by a Virginia jury last week on bank and tax fraud charges and faces a second trial in Washington next month. The charge Patten pleaded guilty to - violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) by not disclosing lobbying work for Ukrainian politicians - is similar to one of the core allegations against Manafort in his upcoming trial. Michael Zeldin, a former federal prosecutor, predicted Patten will be a witness in the trial. "I expect his value as a cooperating witness is he will know how those guys conducted their business relations and can probably shed light on efforts made to evade FARA reporting requirements," he said. Patten admitted to working with the Russian national to lobby members of Congress and the executive branch on behalf of the pro-Russian Opposition Bloc without disclosing the work to the U.S. government, as required by law. The charge, which carries a maximum of five years in prison, was brought by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and the Justice Department's National Security Division, which started investigating Patten after a referral from Mueller. Patten appeared before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who will oversee Manafort's upcoming trial. Patten did not speak to reporters at the court, but apologized to family and friends on Facebook after entering his plea. "I was wrong not to have filed under FARA for the representational aspects of my work on behalf of the Opposition Bloc in Ukraine," Patten wrote in a post seen by Reuters, adding that he had sought to promote democracy during a political consulting career that included work in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. "That is why I deeply regret any damage my failure to register has done to the transparency the FARA statute seeks to guarantee." Patten's work in Ukraine dovetailed somewhat with that of Manafort. Manafort made most of his money working for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych before he fled to Russia in 2014, but like Patten also sought to drum up business with the Opposition Bloc in the aftermath of Yanukovych's exit. Patten's ties to Kilimnik are more concrete. The two set up the political advisory firm Begemot Ventures Ltd LLC in February 2015, which was paid more than $1 million for their work for Ukrainian interests. The unidentified oligarch was one of their biggest benefactors, the charging documents said. The description of the oligarch, including his attendance at Trump's inauguration and the placing of an op-ed in February 2017 by Patten, appeared to match that of Serhiy Lyovochkin, an Opposition Bloc lawmaker and Yanukovych's former chief of staff. An opinion piece titled "Ukraine Can Win in the Trump Age" by Lyovochkin was published in U.S. News & World Report on February 6, 2017, two weeks after the inauguration. Among other assertions, the article blamed a newly created anti-corruption bureau in Ukraine of "manufacturing a case" against Manafort. At Manafort's Virginia trial, his former protege Rick Gates testified that Lyovochkin paid Manafort's consulting firm millions of dollars for political work, including for the Party of Regions, the predecessor of the Opposition Bloc. Gates said Lyovochkin wired the funds from his Cyprus bank account. Lyovochkin's office did not respond to a request for comment. Patten also did work for the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, the now-defunct political data firm that was embroiled in a controversy over its use of Facebook Inc data, according to interview transcripts submitted by academic Emma Briant and published by British lawmakers earlier this year. (Reporting by David Alexander in Washington, and Nathan Layne and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Dan Grebler and Kim Coghill) The Chairmanship of the 5th Summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) was yesterday handed over to President Maithripala Sirisena. Pix by President's Media President Maithripala Sirisena who attended the 4th Summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) held in Kathmandu, Nepal, commenced his two-day state visit to Nepal with the conclusion of the Summit, today(01). President Sirisena marking his first programme worshipped several religious places including the magnificent Lumbini, the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama. Pix courtesy President's Media COLOMBO (Reuters) - The Sri Lankan rupee dropped to an all-time low yesterday, marking its ninth straight session of setting fresh lows, as dollar demand from importers remained strong. The rupee, which hit a fresh record low of 161.55 early in the trade, closed steady at 161.40/50 per dollar. The local currency surpassed its earlier record of 161.50 hit in the previous session. The rupee has declined 1.2 percent this month, and dropped 5.2 percent so far this year. The (importer dollar) demand was there. But we have seen some flows, probably remittances for a large local bank, which ease the pressure at the latter part of the day, a dealer said, requesting anonymity. The rupee will be under depreciation pressure with the year-end seasonal importer demand, dealers said. Absence of dollar conversions by exporters and outflows from equities and government securities also pushed the rupee lower, analysts said. Exporters are holding on to dollars as they expect the local currency to decline further, dealers said. The Sri Lankan currency is also hurt by weakness in the Indian rupee. India is Sri Lankas biggest trading partner and the countrys currency, which hit a record low yesterday, is one of the worst performers in Asia this year. Foreign investors sold government securities worth a net Rs.7.5 billion (US$46.5 million) in the week ended Aug. 21, bringing the outflow so far this year to Rs.47.4 billion, Central Bank data showed. He expressed his hope that the province will continue inspiring other localities with its achievements in institutional reform, and in developing green, clean and smart urban areas and boosting economic restructuring in line with growth model. Quang Ninh should act a role of connecting surrounding localities so as to foster economic growth in the northern region, he suggested. It was asked to become an international exchange centre, an attractive destination to investors and hold a leading role in the development of the key northern economic zone. The Government leader also proposed the northern coastal province strive to become a logistics service centre to serve the regions economic development and focus on developing high-quality tourism. Attention should be paid to developing hi-tech and multi-functional agriculture, sustainable processing and manufacturing, and border and cross-border economy, while ensuring social welfare, he added. PM Phuc stated that Quang Ninh is Vietnams most dynamic locality, as it has recorded high economic growth over years, its per capita income in 2017 doubled the nations average, and its poverty rate was kept below 2%. PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc poses for a photo with provincial officials. (Photo: NDO/Tran Hai) He also lauded the provinces achievements in Party building work, together with its positive results in human resources training, with the rate of trained labourers hitting 73.5% one of the highest figures in the country. Over the past years, Quang Ninh has gained important achievements in socio-economic development. Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) rose by 10.16% in the first half, and is expected to up over 11% this year. Per capita GRDP is US$5,065 per person per year, with an annual growth of 9.1%. The province is always listed in top five localities in terms of budget collection. It enjoyed a year-on-year increase of 25% in the number of tourists in the first eight months of this year, or 9.2 million arrivals, including 3.2 foreigners. Last year, Quang Ninh, for the first time ever, became the most competitive province in the country, topping Vietnams PCI 2017, with 70.7 out of 100 points. In 2017, Quang Ninh for the first time rose to the first place in the Public Administrative Reform (PAR) Index with 89.54 points. The locality is gradually separating public services from State management. The time spent on addressing administrative procedures is cut down by 40% compared with regulations. Up to 99.5% of dossiers are handled before or on schedule, and 98% of locals and enterprises said they are satisfied with the provinces administrative reforms. The diplomat said on September 2, 1945, President Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence, declaring to the world the foundation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The event created a milestone and brought Vietnam to the era of independence. The event, together with the Dien Bien Phu victory in 1954, raised hope for freedom and independence of other countries across the world, he said. Since then, Vietnamese people have united with each other to reap significant achievements in national defence and socio-economic development, Ambassador Minh noted. Regarding the relationship between Vietnam and Cambodia, the ambassador said the two sides have exchanged many high-level delegations, citing visits by Vietnamese and Cambodian leaders, especially Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sens upcoming trip to Hanoi to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) on ASEAN. Besides, the two countries have reinforced cooperation and closely coordinated with each other at regional and international forums such as Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam (CLV), Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam (CLMV), Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy Summit (ACMECS), and cooperation frameworks of the Mekong region, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations (UN). Apart from the strong development of collaboration between ministries, agencies and localities, the bilateral economic and trade ties have also developed rapidly, the diplomat said. He further explained that Vietnam is one of Cambodias leading economic partners with two-way trade reaching nearly US$3.8 billion in 2017, up more than 25% year-on-year. The two sides are striving to raise the figure to US$5 billion in the coming years. Earlier this year, Vietnam and Cambodia signed an agreement on double taxation avoidance. They are working together to soon complete another deal on border trade, he added. In 2018 and 2019, Vietnam will double efforts to further promote bilateral collaboration in all realms and implement commitments made at the 16th meeting of the Joint Committee on Economic, Cultural, and Scientific-Technological Cooperation in May 2018. The ambassador suggested two sides join hands to complete the land border demarcation and marker planting, finalise the legal framework for economic and trade cooperation, facilitate investment in the respective markets, support Vietnamese in Cambodia and strengthen their coordination at multilateral frameworks. Stressing the close-knit neighbourliness, traditional friendship and solidarity between Vietnam and Cambodia, Minh pledged to do his utmost to contribute to advancing the bilateral ties. The diplomat expressed his hope that the friendship will be enhanced in the time ahead, for the sake of people of both countries, and for peace, stability and development in the region and the world as well. By Allison Herrera 27 August 2018 (PRI) Nina is worried about her potato field. Shes standing in the middle of a two-lane road in the village of Karpylivka, Ukraine, showing me the bugs shes just pulled off her plants in the field nearby. The insects squirm inside a small, tin bucket. I have no money for the pesticides so I just pull them out by hand, Nina says in Ukrainian through a translator. Nina declined to give her surname for this story. Karpylivka is about 70 miles less than a two-hour drive from downtown Kiev. Its breathtakingly beautiful. There are forests, small roadside churches, fields of flowers and streams that snake through this bucolic eastern European landscape. You would never know that this village is less than 30 miles, about a 45-minute drive, from the epicenter of one of the worst nuclear accidents in history Chernobyl.Chernobyl was a beautiful place, she says. I dont know why they put this disaster there.In April 1986, Chernobyls reactor 4 exploded as scientists were conducting an experiment at the plant. The explosion sent clouds of radiation particles across Europe. Almost 100 villages in Ukraine were evacuated as hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the across the former Soviet Union, including Belarus and Ukraine, were sent in to clean up and contain the damage.Now, 32 years later with $700 billion spent, Ukraine is still cleaning up. The country has created a 1,000-square-mile exclusion zone around the disaster that prohibits people from living there. Scientists take samples of the soil, wood and vegetation inside the zone to monitor radiation levels.Ninas potato field isnt in the zone, but for a while, scientists also monitored the soil in her village. Sometimes the levels were just as bad as those in the zone.Why? Because the soldiers sent to clean up after the disaster stayed in her village.Almost 80 miles away from Nina is a block of Soviet-style buildings on the outskirts of central Kiev. Its here that scientists Valery Kashparov and Valentin Protsyk work for the Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology (UIAR). Theyre the people who monitor the soil, wood, plants and animals inside and outside the exclusion zone.In the first years after the disaster, the focus was the cleanup. Around 800,000 soldiers, firefighters, miners and engineers collectively known as liquidators were tasked with cleaning up the radiation. In 1991, they were able to stabilize the areas surrounding the plant. Thats when they implemented the exclusion zone, which includes the northernmost portions of Kiev and Zhytomyr oblasts. Cities closest to the plant will never be inhabitable like the city of Pripyat, which once had a population of nearly 50,000. [] The naval force will include ships from the Russian Northern, Baltic, Black Sea fleets and the Caspian Flotilla and they will be led by missile cruiser Marshal Ustinov, the ministry said in a statement. The air force will consist of Tu-160 strategic bombers, Tu-142MK and Il-38 anti-submarine aircraft, Su-33 and Su-30SM naval aviation fighters, it said. The group will work out a set of tasks for anti-aircraft and anti-subversive and sabotage defense as well as protection against mines, the ministry said. The Russian embassy in the United States said in a statement on Facebook that ambassador Anatoly Antonov earlier this week met US Special Representative for Syria Engagement James Jeffrey and Acting Assistant Secretary David Satterfield. Antonov expressed to the US, Moscow's concerns about US signals of preparing new strikes on Syria on the pretext of possible uses of "chemical weapons" by Syrians. "We warned the US not to engage in another baseless and unlawful aggression against Syria. The new aggravation in Syria would not be in anyone's national interest and only terrorists would benefit from it," Antonov said. On August 21, the United States, France and Britain said in a joint statement that "we remain resolved to act if the (Syrian President Bashar) Assad regime uses chemical weapons again." On August 26, the Russian Defense Ministry said that English-speaking foreign experts were preparing a false-flag "chemical attack" in Syria using chlorine-filled rockets so that the Syrian government will be accused. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a news briefing Thursday that Moscow had information that a large volume of toxic substances had been delivered to the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib. The substances were apparently meant to be used in a staged provocation, she said. The US armed force can build up a grouping capable of launching a massive missile strike against Syria within 24 hours, she said. According to Zakharova, around 70 aircraft with 380 cruise missiles of the United States, France and Britain have been deployed at bases in Jordan, Kuwait and Greece. Two US destroyers with 38 Tomahawk cruise missiles on board are already in the Mediterranean and they can be joined by four more warships with at least 112 Tomahawks, the spokesperson added. The consequences of the possible aggression of the West against Syria are unpredictable and it will deal a severe blow not only to the Syrian population but also to global security, Zakharova warned. According to the joint media statement of the AEM-MOFCOM Consultations, the ministers welcomed the forthcoming Strategic Partnership Vision 2030 Statement that will guide the future direction of ASEAN-China relations to be adopted at the upcoming 21st ASEAN-China Summit in November 2018. They reviewed the implementation of the ASEAN-China FTA (ACFTA) and urged the remaining parties to complete the ratification of the Protocol to Amend the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Certain Agreements thereunder between ASEAN and China (ACFTA Upgrading Protocol). The ministers welcomed the finalization of the negotiations on Product Specific Rules (PSRs) and looked forward to the timely implementation by the target date of January 1, 2019. They also welcomed China's contribution towards furthering ASEAN connectivity and integration through the various transport and infrastructure projects, noted the complementarities of China's Belt and Road Initiative with the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity towards supporting ASEAN Community building, and expressed the hope that the related activities would further enhance opportunities for trade and investment in the region. The ministers reaffirmed the commitment to a rules-based, non-discriminatory, open, transparent and inclusive multilateral trading system with WTO at its core. They will work together to uphold the basic principles of WTO and oppose trade protectionism and unilateralism, said the joint media statement. Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Gao Yan led the Chinese delegation and participated in the AEM-MOFCOM Consultations. Gao also participated in the 21st AEM Plus Three Consultations on August 30. At the AEM Plus Three Consultations, economic ministers from China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and ASEAN member states reaffirmed the importance of a rules-based multilateral trading system, that supports the WTO principles of openness, transparency, inclusiveness and non-discrimination, towards deepening regional economic integration and enhancing synergies between regions for long-term competiveness. According to the joint media statement of the AEM Plus Three Consultations, the ministers noted that the China International Import Expo would be held on November 5-10 in Shanghai, and its contribution to opening up further the Chinese market to the world and building a new platform that embraces inclusiveness, openness and cooperation. By CNBC , Aug. 30, 2018 Argentina is struggling to cope with yet another financial crisis. Investors are increasingly concerned Latin America's third-largest economy could soon default as it struggles to repay heavy government borrowing. This comes after Argentina's government unexpectedly asked for the early release of a $50 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday. Read More: Join us - become an Elderado today at: LarryElder.com Follow Larry Elder on Follow Larry Elder on Twitter "Like" Larry Elder on Facebook By CNBC , Aug. 14, 2018 Trade talks between the United States and Canada will kick off again Wednesday after the two sides ended Friday's tense negotiations without a deal. President Donald Trump on Friday notified Congress that he wants to sign a trade agreement with Mexico, and potentially Canada in 90 days, the period legally required to review a deal, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement. The neighbors emerged from talks Friday, the White House's deadline for Canada to join in on a deal the U.S. struck with Mexico earlier in the week, without resolving sticking points. Read More: Join us - become an Elderado today at: LarryElder.com Follow Larry Elder on Follow Larry Elder on Twitter "Like" Larry Elder on Facebook The three leaders have previously held summits in the Russian resort city of Sochi and the Turkish capital Ankara. At the three-way summit in April in Ankara, the three leaders discussed developments in Syria. A major item on the agenda at the summit is expected to be the rebel-held northwestern Syrian province of Idlib which Assad wants to re-capture, to crown a string of military successes. Turkey condemns US aid cut to UN Palestine agency After US announcement on Friday that declares the country is cutting all of its funding for the UN's Palestine refugee agency, Turkish ministry declared that they condemn the decision. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Washington "will no longer commit further funding" to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). "The fundamental business model and fiscal practices that have marked UNRWA for years tied to UNRWAs endlessly and exponentially expanding the community of entitled beneficiaries is simply unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years," she said. THE AGENCY PROVIDES SCHOOLING AND HEALTH SERVICES The US was by far UNRWA's largest funder, giving $350 million annually, or about one-quarter of the agency's budget. The agency is responsible for a number of critical programs for the more than 5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. It provides them with schooling, health services and food security, among other services. UNRWA earlier this week warned that if Washington went through with its funding cut, it would likely result in greater instability in the region. "US' DECISION IS A MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT" Turkish Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned the U.S. over its decision to end funding for the UN Palestine refugee agency. "The decision of the United States will affect the lives of over 5 million Palestinians in a negative way. At the same time, this decision will harm the vision of finding a two-state solution to the Palestinian issue; regional peace and stability," the ministry said in a statement. The ministry said the U.S. decision was a "major disappointment". "Under these circumstances, UNRWA's continuing uninterrupted operation has become a legitimacy test and a conscientious task in terms of the international community," it added. STUDENTS from Albanys Great Southern Grammar (GSG) will tomorrow, Friday, August 31, help InterGrain launch its latest Noodle wheat variety, as part of the companys naming initiative to help educate students on the breeding process and key markets of WAs premium niche product. GSG students have been working closely with InterGrain over the past few months to name the long-season Noodle wheat known as IGW8048 which will be commercially available for WA growers from next year. The new variety will be another option for WA farmers who export about one million tonnes of Australian Noodle Wheat (ANW) to Japan and South Korea, where it is used as a key ingredient for the traditional udon noodle dish. Udon noodle wheat is only grown in WA and Japan, making it a high value market for the WA grains industry with an estimated value of $300 million a year. InterGrain chief executive officer Tress Walmsley said the products end users were a key consideration in the naming process of the new variety and GSG was enlisted due to its Japanese language program. The school has a linkage program with Japans Nichinan City School, which also assisted in the Noodle naming project. Naming our Noodle varieties is important but also quite challenging for us because theres lots of rules when it comes to how you can name a variety under the Plant Breeders Rights Act, Ms Walmsley said. We also like to have a strong connection between WA and the Japanese end-user market. We were connected with Great Southern Grammar at Albany which has always had a Japanese program and has also a long-term relationship with the Japanese city of Nichinan. We were really excited about being able to combine the Japanese relationship and the end-user food angle with the agricultural production side of things, because Great Southern Grammar has a strong agricultural program as well. Ms Walmsley said the InterGrain team travelled to the Albany school to teach students how to cook and eat udon noodles, before participants were tasked with coming up with an appropriate name for the variety with the help of their Japanese counterparts in Nichinan. The name will be revealed in a naming ceremony at Albanys Garrison Restaurant tomorrow, where udon noodles made from the new variety will be available for tasting. What I love is that this program involved food, consumers, international markets and grain production so it was a great, broad project for the kids to have a look at, Ms Walmsley said. This is the first time students have been involved in an InterGrain variety naming project and Ms Walmsley hoped it would help raise awareness about WAs niche noodle product. We have a pretty amazing product that most Perth people, in particular, dont actually realise thats home grown in WA, she said. Ms Walmsley said the new InterGrain variety had been trialled by local grower group Stirlings to South Coast Farmers, which had a production crop in the ground this season. She said IGW8048 was best suited to the higher rainfall region of the Great Southern, where previous noodle varieties were not well suited. Another reason were launching it in Albany is because one of our target environments is the Great Southern, Ms Walmsley said. We havent had a suitable variety for that environment for a little while so were hoping that this will really suit their growing environment. It will also grow in other long season environments and it will be a potential replacement for hard variety Yitpi, but also Calingiri. Ms Walmsley encouraged growers interested in the new variety to place seed orders as soon as possible. * The Republic of Korea (RoK)s President Moon Jae-in will send his special delegation to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on September 5, Moon's office said Friday. * Six villagers were killed when unidentified gunmen abducted a Filipino business couple in a southern Philippine town, police said on September 1. * Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said on August 31 that Russia is "resolved" to support the Syrian army in its counter-terrorism efforts during the "final quarter of an hour" of the more than seven-year-long Syrian crisis, state news agency SANA reported. * EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on August 31 that Tehran complies with all its nuclear related commitments is a "good news", when EU is still working on preserving the Iranian nuclear deal. * The White House said on August 31 that US President Donald Trump will travel to France, Ireland, Argentina and Columbia in November for bilateral and multilateral issues. *The US State Department said in Washington on August 31 that the United States will not provide assistance finding any more for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). * Around 180 Palestinians were injured on August 31 during clashes with Israeli soldiers on the borders between the eastern Gaza Strip and Israel, the Gaza health ministry said. * The Pentagon said in Washington on August 31 that US Secretary of Defense James Mattis will embark on a trip that includes stops in India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Monday, September 3. * The Russian authorities on August 31 condemned the killing of Alexander Zakharchenko, leader of the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, which Moscow sees as a "terrorist act." * Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that his government will defend Canada's best interests in any new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) deal, the CBC reported. * South Sudan said Friday that it expects badly needed development aid from international community to kick start reconstruction from conflict after warring parties recently concluded the final peace agreement in the Sudanese capital. * The fourth summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) ended in Kathmandu on Friday, with commitments to enhance regional cooperation in multi-dimension connectivity, counter-terrorism, trade, tourism, investment and agriculture. * European Union (EU) plans to finish an investigation on food quality differences in Eastern and Western European countries by the end of this year, the European Commission's director-general for justice and consumers, Tiina Astola, said on August 31. Around 20 EU member states joined the investigation, she said. * Turkey is determined to purchase Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems soon despite objection pressure from the United States, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on August 31. AUSTRALIAS biggest live sheep exporter Emanuel Exports had its licence cancelled by the independent regulator last week, after what it described as a thorough investigation and show cause process. The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (DAWR), which doubles as the independent regulator, handed down its decision on August 21 in accordance with the requirements of the Australian Meat and Livestock Industry Act 1997. It said it had taken action against this company in the best interests of the industry and for the protection of Australias high standards of animal welfare and health. Cancellation of licence is a serious step and is not one taken lightly, DAWR said. The department is satisfied that this is the most appropriate response. The decision was handed down at the 11th hour, 60 days after the initial suspension of the companys licence in June, which has seen the industry encapsulated in a fog of uncertainty and concern. The WA-based company shipped more than one million sheep to the Middle East in 2017, making up more than 80 per cent of the trade out of WA, and without its presence in the industry sheep producers will likely lose a market for their wethers, despite other exporters still being able to trade, as well as experiencing less competition for their stock and reduced prices. No shipment of sheep has left Fremantle Port for 10 weeks and it is unlikely that any will go until late September/October due to the new requirements that have been put in place by the adoption of the McCarthy Review recommendations by Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud. Emanuel Exports was still hopeful that it would be able to resume trading, with director Nicholas Daws saying the company would appeal this decision to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Emanuels is a leading exporter of Australian livestock and we will appeal this notice as a matter of priority, Mr Daws said. Prior to the licence cancellation a company spokesperson said they had co-operated fully with DAWRs investigation and supplied all the required documents to assist investigators. The suspension of Emanuel Exports licence has been a major blow to its Kuwaiti importer, Al Mawashi or Kuwait Livestock Transport and Trading. Its WA-based branch, Rural Export and Trading (RETWA), has confirmed it is seeking an export licence which it hopes will be accepted in the next week or so even though it will likely trade at a loss initially. RETWA general manager Mike Gordon said the licence submission process usually took up to 40 days, but he was hopeful that DAWR would treat the application as a matter of priority. Mr Gordon said the issue was a matter of food security to the Kuwaiti company, which is majority government-owned. Its two livestock vessels, the Al Shuwaikh and the Al Messilah, have been waiting off the coast of Fremantle for the all clear to continue supplying Kuwait and other Persian Gulf States and have been idle since June. Mr Gordon hoped that a shipment could be put together within a month, given the necessary approvals. The last consignment left Fremantle on June 6 and the licence suspension of Emanuel Exports and its subsequent cancellation had crippled the company in Kuwait. He said the current halt to the trade had been like a death by a thousand cuts to the business and was the worst (hed) seen the trade in his 37 years with the company. With the current climate theres little reason for optimism, Mr Gordon said. He said Al Mawashi was committed to the trade, and would have exported at a loss if able, due to its investments in a new $110 million state-of-the-art livestock vessel to be launched next year, as well as $70 million spent on a new closed-loop abattoir in Kuwait, which was ready to go, but had nothing to do. It was very unfortunate timing, Mr Gordon said. There has been no throughput in the feedlot (in Baldivis) and we are still paying local wages and bills. The 60,000 head of sheep which were quarantined at the feedlot prior to export have all been sold to local processors. Al Mawashi has been looking at other markets to source from but we cant do it overnight although we can do it, he said. With the lack of certainty about the future of the trade it would be crazy not to look elsewhere. He said KLTT had been tied to Australia for so long that it had a whole of supply chain set up. We are open for business but with the conditions imposed most operators couldnt operate commercially, Mr Gordon said. KLTT would have shipped even at a loss in the short-term. Theres no one to ship otherwise. No exporter would want to touch it. In the past five years the business has conducted 78 voyages from Australia to the Arabian Gulf on its own vessels with an average mortality rate of 0.6 per cent. During the week the National Farmers Federation (NFF), WAFarmers and Sheep Producers Australia expressed confidence in the decision to cancel the licence of Emanuel Exports. In a joint statement NFF president Fiona Simson said from the beginning we have called for the regulator to be robust and transparent in enforcing the regulation governing the operation of exporters and the protection of animal welfare and health. It is a step forward to rebuilding the trust of farmers and all Australians and to securing the future of the trade, Ms Simson said. WAFarmers president Tony York said livestock exports were a crucial component of WAs sheep industry and without it, sheep numbers would decline dramatically, hurting farmers, regional communities and the workers and businesses that make up the value chain. Fortunately, the trade remains open and we look forward to working with other exporters to enable its resumption, Mr York said. Pastoralists and Graziers Association (PGA) president Tony Seabrook has expressed his extreme disappointment over the cancellation of the export licence, saying there were no winners in the decision, except for those animal activist groups determined to see the end of all live exports. The repercussions to the Western Australian livestock industry of removing Australias largest exporter of sheep are widespread, Mr Seabrook said. Removing our largest exporter from our key markets only serves to destroy an industry which provides much-needed jobs, supports regional businesses and communities, and provides a strong livelihood for thousands of WA farming families. Mr Seabrook said the removal of Emanuel Exports from the market would only lead to an overstocking of pastures, a loss of trade to the Middle East and a future drop in prices. It is pure folly to believe otherwise and that the other exporters and processors will be able to take up the surplus stock, he said. Eighty per cent of the sheep export trade has now been knocked out, thanks to the actions of a group of faceless bureaucrats in Canberra and a minister who is indifferent to the impact of such a decision on WA sheep producers. Western Australian livestock producers, their families and their communities deserve better. The RSPCA has welcomed the cancellation of Emanuel Exports licence but said removing one leading exporter is not enough to protect animals or farmers from the cruelty and volatility of live export. RSPCA Australia senior policy officer Jed Goodfellow said the organisation was waiting on confirmation of the permanent cancellation or otherwise of the two other licences associated with Emanuel Exports partner corporations, EMS Rural exports and International Livestock Exports (ILE). Dr Goodfellow said the RSPCA remained concerned there has been no indication of what improvements will apply from October onwards, following the highest-risk Middle Eastern summer period, especially in regards to stocking density. The 2018 FOCAC Beijing Summit will be held on September 3-4, and the high-level dialogue between Chinese and African leaders and business representatives as well as the 6th Conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs will be jointly hosted by the Chinese Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and Chinas Ministry of Commerce during this period. Against the backdrop of the China-Africa relationship entering into a new era, the conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs is set to be a grand international gathering highlighting China-Africa solidarity and cooperation, and an opportunity for Chinese-African business circles to open new approaches to cooperation. Jiang Zengwei, the chairman of CCPIT, made the above remarks at the press conference held Friday morning. Centering on the theme of "China and Africa: Toward an Even Stronger Community with a Shared Future through Win-Win Cooperation," three topics were assigned for discussion, including advancing industrial cooperation for win-win development, deepening trade cooperation for common development, and enhancing infrastructure cooperation for sustainable development. This conference has been highly valued by African countries, with all parties actively participating, and the number of applicants far exceeding expectations. After final confirmation, there were 2,088 delegates from 53 countries and China, including 1,019 representatives from China and 1,069 representatives from Africa. It is reported that leaders from more than 30 African countries will attend the opening ceremony of the Conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs. The participating enterprises, business associations and research institutions cover all African member states from FOCAC.The participating enterprises cover various industries, including not only the leading enterprises of traditional industries such as energy, finance, food, agriculture, manufacturing, medicine, infrastructure, etc., but also outstanding representatives of new economies such as the Internet, e-commerce, and sharing economy. Representatives of large enterprises in China and Africa, including 67 of the worlds top 500 companies and 111 of Chinas top 500 companies, will attend the opening ceremony. Meanwhile, a certain number of representatives from small and medium-sized enterprises will also participate in the conference. Strengthening economic cooperation for common development is an important aspect of China-Africa cooperation. Chinese and African economies are complementary with huge potential for cooperation. The Conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs was initiated in 2003, which is an important supporting event of FOCAC. It is held every three years, and this year will mark its sixth occurrence. The conference has contributed a lot to deepen China-Africa economic cooperation to build a stronger community for the shared future of mankind and promote common development and prosperity for China, Africa and the world. Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 31, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Xueren) Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday met with Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita ahead of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Xi said the Sino-Malian friendship was established by older generation leaders of the two countries and that the fate of the people of the two countries has been closely linked during the process of striving for independence and promoting social and economic development. Xi said China and Mali are good brothers sharing weal and woe, sincere friends and good partners in seeking common development. China will enhance practical cooperation with Mali in key areas of the country's development plan. China will as always firmly support Mali's efforts to safeguard sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity, and firmly support Mali's efforts to promote the peace and reconciliation process, and to combat terrorism, Xi said. China has actively participated in UN's peacekeeping missions in Mali and will continue to support the efforts of countries in the Sahel region to safeguard regional peace and security, Xi said. Calling China Mali's "old friend," Keita said the two peoples have developed deep mutual trust and Mali has remained committed to deepening Mali-China friendship. Keita expressed his country's gratitude for China's long-time support, and the hope that two countries could enhance cooperation in areas such as trade, agriculture, education, health, infrastructure and security. Mali appreciates and has actively taken part in the Belt and Road construction, Keita added, hoping the upcoming 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation a great success. After the meeting, the two presidents witnessed the signing of agreements on bilateral cooperation. Sections of a massive oak tree estimated to be at least 300 years old crashed down and damaged seven parked cars in a San Francisco Bay Area city. Residents in Pleasant Hill, California, are now asking who's responsible for the damage. KGO-TV reports Thursday that overnight, a giant limb snapped off the oak, which the city had named "Emma" and declared a heritage tree. Homeowner Ashley Cudd said the tree's protected status meant she couldn't chop it down and needed approval to trim it, which was granted once but denied several times. Pleasant Hill city official Mike Nielsen said the tree belongs to the homeowners and damage is their responsibility. He says the homeowners can now remove the tree since it's an emergency but will have to pay for it. Meghan Markle accidentally revealed her secret nickname for her husband, Prince Harry, while attending the special "Hamilton" gala in London's West End on Wednesday. On Wednesday, Markle joined her husband for a special gala performance of "Hamilton" with the show's creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda. Meghan turned heads while garbed in a $595 black Judith & Charles plunge neck-line tuxedo mini dress and matching pumps while Harry matched his wife in a dashing, all-black suit. Following the show, the royal couple met and posed for photos with the cast of "Hamilton," where the Duchess of Sussex found herself flustered after revealing her sweet pet name for her husband. While getting information for the group photo with the actors, Markle was overheard turning to Harry asking, Can you see, my love? Her loving question prompted a collective "Aww!" from the stage actors, to which the duchess blushed. The Broadway outing marked the first time the Duke and Duchess have appeared in public since they attended the wedding of Harry's close friend, Charlie van Straubenzee, on Aug. 4, which was also the duchess' 37th birthday. While thanking Miranda and the cast of the musical for the evening, Harry even took part in the show and did a little performance for the audience. Kensington Palace shared a video of the prince singing a few bars from the show's tune "You'll Be Back," with Miranda and the "Hamilton" cast behind him cheering him on. Wildlife officials in Wyoming and Idaho say they've been contacting hunters licensed to kill grizzly bears to tell them their hunts are on hold following a judge's ruling. The two states on Saturday had been scheduled to hold their first grizzly hunts in more than 40 years in the mountainous region surrounding Yellowstone National Park. OREGON HUNTER IN CRITICAL CONDITION AFTER HANGING UPSIDE DOWN FROM TREE STAND FOR TWO DAYS At the request of wildlife advocates and Native American tribes, a federal judge in Montana on Thursday blocked the hunts for 14 days while he considers whether protections for the bears should be restored. Idaho Fish and Game Department assistant chief of wildlife Toby Boudreau said Friday the ruling delays the bear hunting season opening but has no other consequences. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS About 700 grizzlies in the area lost federal protections last year. On July 12, the Food and Drug Administration sent a warning letter to the owner of a website selling a product known as PoppySeed Wash. In the letter, the FDA warned that the product was being marketed not as a food but as a drug. Among the claims on the website: The product can be used as a sleep aid, a pain reliever, and a remedy to ease opioid withdrawals. (However, these claims appear to have been taken down.) The site goes on to say that the product can even replace prescription opioids, including oxycodone and fentanyl. Your PoppySeed Wash product is not generally recognized as safe and effective for the above referenced use and, therefore, the product is a new drug, states the letter. New drugs may not be legally introduced or delivered for introduction into interstate commerce without prior approval from FDA. PoppySeed Wash is just one of many similar products sold to make poppy seed tea which is done by taking the supplied poppy seeds, steeping them in water, and drinking the resulting tea, minus the seeds. PILL DESIGNED TO HELP OPIOID ADDICTS NOW POSES RISK TO CHILDREN While this may seem harmless, poppy seed tea is in fact a growing concern among health experts and legislators because it can contain the opiates morphine and codeine. Its sort of a gray area right now because it is a food product, so you would think that it would fall under the FDA, but it also contains a Schedule II drug, so you think it might fall under the jurisdiction of the DEA, said Madeleine Swortwood, PhD, assistant professor and director of graduate programs for the department of forensic science at Sam Houston State University. They are marketing this for pain relief as a food product but they contain potentially lethal levels of a Schedule II drug, she said. Swortwood is part of a small group of researchers who have investigated the drug potency of poppy seed teas available on the market in the United States. Poppy seeds are harvested from the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), the same plant used to create opiates such as heroin and morphine. Poppy seeds dont inherently contain morphine or codeine, but can become contaminated during the harvesting process. During harvest, the latex the white, milky material contained in the pods of opium poppies that is used to make heroin can be transferred onto the poppy seeds. However, there is one important distinction between your average poppy seed for baking and those used for teas. Poppy seeds used for baking and food preparation have been washed or cleaned before use, which removes their narcotic component. Some residue can still remain, which is why poppy seeds can actually cause a positive drug test result. Unwashed poppy seeds, like those marketed for PoppySeed Wash, are left this way intentionally in order to leave the narcotic opiate components intact. Whats the danger? The danger, say experts, is that the unwashed poppy seed market isnt regulated, and the amount of morphine and codeine contained in the seeds can vary from one batch to the next. The purity of the active ingredient can vary batch to batch, and there may be dangerous contaminates. If there is enough morphine for a drug effect, then you have the same concerns for overdose that you would for any other strong opioid, said Edward Bilsky, PhD, provost and chief academic officer at Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences in Washington and an expert in opioid pharmacology. The use of poppy seed tea has already resulted in fatalities. CLUSTER OF HIV CASES IN NORTH SEATTLE PROMPT CONCERN OF POTENTIAL OUTBREAK A 2017 study co-authored by Swortwood in the Journal of Forensic Sciences reviewed case reports of two young men, one 24 years old and the other 21 years old, who both died from overdosing on poppy seed tea. The death of Stephen Hacala, the 24-year-old mentioned in the journal article, has since led Leslie Rutledge, Arkansas attorney general, to request that the FDA limit the sale of unwashed poppy seeds. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton also praised the FDAs recent action against PoppySeed Wash in a separate statement. Unwashed poppy seeds continue to be available through a variety of online retailers, including Amazon and eBay. Were really focusing on public awareness at this point, said Swortwood. Ive actually been in contact with a few physicians, especially addiction medicine physicians, who are treating patients with morphine addiction from consuming poppy seed tea. They are not heroin users, but they actually become addicted to the morphine from the tea, she said. This article first appeared on Healthline.com. A vibrant 9-year-old girls life was turned on its head last week when she learned that she has a rare, potentially fatal condition that will require a bone marrow transplant to better her chances of survival. Camryn Anderson, a student at Riojas Elementary School in Pflugerville, Texas, was recently diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a rare condition that occurs when your body stops producing enough new blood cells, according to the Mayo Clinic, which added that aplastic anemia leaves you feeling fatigued and with a higher risk of infections and uncontrolled bleeding. Each year, roughly 600 to 900 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with aplastic anemia, according to The Aplastic Anemia and MDS International Foundation. HOSPITAL OUTBREAK LINKED TO EYE EXAM KILLED NEWBORN, FAMILY'S LAWSUIT CLAIMS Sgt. Kurk Anderson, of the Pflugerville Police Department, announced tearfully at news conference on Thursday that his daughter was told she has about a year to live if she doesnt receive a bone marrow transplant. He is a rock in this household. Ive never seen him break down until this moment; hes not the type that cries, Kimberly Anderson, Camryn's mother, told Fox News of her husbands reaction at the news conference, adding that the event served as a way to raise awareness about the condition, as well as a plea for community members to register as bone marrow donors. At the beginning of the summer, Kimberly noticed that her daughter started having nose bleeds that just wouldnt stop, she wrote on a GoFundMe page that has been created to help the family with medical expenses. She also noticed that Camryn would wake up with unexplained bruises that would take weeks to heal. It wasnt weird to me that she would have bruising; she is an active child, always on her bike or wanting to be outside, Kimberly said. But when a bruise that was purple and visible everyday refused to fully heal, Kimberly knew it was time to take her daughter to a doctor, thinking it was the result of a potential vitamin deficiency. (The 9-year-old is a picky eater, she said.) Unfortunately, a series of blood work and other tests would later confirm that Camryns nose bleeds and unexplained bruising were both signs of something far more serious. It was something that I never expected, Kimberly said through tears. "Even though she knows what shes going through, shes still my happy Camryn." Kimberly Anderson After receiving the blood test results, doctors urged the Andersons to take Camryn out of school for her own safety. She was at risk of bleeding out if she were to be hit or cut because her platelets were so low, Kimberly said, noting that her daughters platelet and red blood cell count was steadily declining. Camryn was then admitted to the hospital, where she was given a blood and platelet transfusion and later underwent a bone marrow biopsy. Why did I miss this? Why Camryn? Why didnt I take this more seriously? Kimberly said, her voice shaking as she searched for a way to discern her daughters unexpected battle with aplastic anemia. I would wish this upon no one, she added. I just want to my children to be healthy. Camryn's 11-year-old brother is currently her best hope, with a 25 percent chance of matching. Though he was tested, the results wont be available for another two weeks, she said. As the family grapples with accepting the young girl's condition, Kimberly also worries about the looming medical expenses. Camryn will likely be treated in Houston or Dallas, where Kimberly said more resources are available to treat aplastic anemia. FLORIDA PASTOR'S WIFE DIES FROM FLU-RELATED COMPLICATIONS, FAMILY SAYS For now, Camyn is at home, spending each day with her mother doing what most 9-year-old girls love best: hair and makeup, arts and crafts and getting messy with slime. Camryn is the biggest thing that gives me comfort; she is amazing, Kimberly said, adding that her daughter often tells her that she shouldnt feel sad. Thats how she is, she wants everybody to be happy. Thats been her personality since birth, she said. Even though she knows what shes going through, shes still my happy Camryn. I wish I was more like her. A California hospital chain managed by Los Angeles billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong filed for bankruptcy Friday, citing mounting losses and debt, as it seeks a new buyer. Verity Health System, the nonprofit company that operates six hospitals in the state, said its facilities will remain open while the company restructures, the Los Angeles Times reported. The hospitals have reportedly struggled financial for years. In 2015 the hospitals were bought out by BlueMountain Capital Management, a New York-based hedge fund, as they faced bankruptcy. Then in July 2017, Soon-Shiongs holding company acquired a majority share of the hedge fund, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Soon-Shiong, a former physician who purchased the Los Angeles Times earlier this year, announced his plan to revitalize the company, which was then more than $1 billion in debt, according to its chief executive Rich Adcock. But those plans have evidently failed. "It has become crystal clear by the bankruptcy announcement that he virtually had no intention of keeping these hospitals open and to continue to serve the poor like [the previous owners] did." David Canepa, San Mateo County supervisor It has become crystal clear by the bankruptcy announcement that he virtually had no intention of keeping these hospitals open and to continue to serve the poor like (the previous owners) did, said San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa, whose district includes the location of one of the hospitals. Veritys six hospitals, which serve predominantly low-income communities and employ more than 6,000 people, include four locations in the Bay Area and two in Los Angeles County. Union and hospitals said in a news release that its facilities will remain open amid the bankruptcy proceedings, while updates to its digital health records will be put on hold, Politico reported. David Miller, an official at SEIU-UHW, a union that represents some hospital employees, called the move to file bankruptcy a destructive approach, and said other paths could have been taken. Verity secured a $185 million loan to stay afloat as it seeks potential buyers, Reuters reported. That process will be observed by a bankruptcy court and approved by regulators. Adcock told Reuters he expects the buyout process could take years. One German shepherd puppy has found a forever home with a Utah firefighter who rescued him from the Mendocino Complex wildfire in California. On August 28, KTVU reported that Draper City Fire Department member Patrick Cullen had been in Mendocino County to battle the massive blaze in August when he crossed paths with the 2-year-old pup, in the middle of the night. "I was running the pump at the engine. Kind of hear something or feel something and all you see is a few eyes and I thought, oh, me and a lion mountain. This will be fun, Cullen recalled. Bounding out of the darkness, instead, came a stray dog. I could tell he was super tired and he had clearly been out there a long time. He was pretty tired and weak and thirsty, Cullen told KSL. So we gave him a big drink of water and he slept under the engine for the next three hours." EMOTIONAL SUPPORT DOG MISSING AFTER LATAM AIRLINES FLIGHT The Draper City firefighters dubbed the dog Mendo after the Mendocino Complex blaze they were battling, and the name stuck. It became too dangerous for the crew to keep Mendo as they fought the fire, so they gave the dog to the Mendocino Animal Shelter, KTVU reports. "If by some chance you dont find anybody, I doubt you wont, or someone won't come forward, heres my number," Cullen told the animal shelter staffers, as he left his phone number. No one came forward to claim Mendo, and Cullen received a call from the shelter on August 27. "It was so heartwarming, and Mendo recognized Patrick right away and there was no doubt that this was truly truly meant to be," volunteer Chandra Brouilette told the outlet. The adoption marked an emotional moment not just for Cullen, but the entire Draper City Fire Department. Tragically, Battalion Chief Matt Burchett lost his life fighting the blaze and the fire crew returned home to Utah one crew member short, KSL repots. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS Moving forward, Cullen said that adopting Mendo is the silver lining to an otherwise heartbreaking story. "There's definitely meaning not only for me but a lot of other people, including the other firefighters that were there. People already want him to come to their station, he told KSL. Everyone that was there, they're excited. It definitely brings some sort of happiness to a terrible event that happened. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! Sunday marks the 73rd anniversary of V-J Day Victory over Japan, when World War II ended on Sept. 2, 1945 with Japans surrender to the United States in a ceremony about the battleship USS Missouri. It followed V-E Day Victory in Europe on May 8 that same year, when the Allies accepted the surrender of Nazi Germany. If youve ever watched the classic film Its a Wonderful Life, you may recognize these lines from the scene where an angel recounts George Baileys actions at the end of World War II: Like everybody else, on V-E Day, he wept and prayed. On V-J Day, he wept and prayed again. When the movie was first released in 1946, audiences got the reference right away. They had just lived through that long and bloody clash of arms. They knew full well why people wept and prayed on the day when the war in Europe ended, and again when our hostilities with Japan came to a close. But 73 years later, its a different story. At a time when many arent even sure what V-E and V-J stand for, their significance seems to have faded from memory. Perhaps thats because the images of a wars end arent as stark as those that mark its beginning. Americans, after all, were jolted into the conflict by the horrific events and footage of Dec. 7, 1941, as Japanese fighter planes attacked U.S. ships docked at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The scene on Sept. 2, 1945 was much quieter. And yet what was being communicated that the United States would be magnanimous in victory and not pursue a vindictive peace spoke volumes. Such a stance is a proud fixture of American history. Britain, the nation America fought in two bloody wars to win and then secure our independence, soon became our closest ally. Such healing also followed our nations Civil War, led by the stirring words President Lincoln delivered in his second Inaugural address. Lincoln said: With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. When the guns fell silent in 1945 it was the same story. U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur told those assembled on the deck of the battleship Missouri 73 years ago that they were not meeting in a spirit of distrust, malice or hatred. It was instead their duty to rise to a higher dignity. It is my earnest hope, and indeed the hope of all mankind, MacArthur said, that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past a world founded upon faith and understanding, a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance and justice. It worked. Appealing to what President Lincoln once called the better angels of our nature led to a true and lasting peace. We didnt put Japan under our thumb, creating rancor and vengeful feelings. We helped Japan rebuild and rejoin the nations of the world, not as a beaten foe but as a peaceful partner. The result? More than seven decades later, Japan is one of our staunchest allies one that helps preserve, rather than imperil, peace in the Pacific. I see that as the true hallmark of American might. We use our power not for subjugation and conquest, but to stop aggression and right injustice. And once the battles have ceased, we work to lift up others and make the world a better, safer place. The late Sen. John McCain, a man who lived true to the Warriors Code, embraced this conciliatory approach. Though tortured mercilessly as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, McCain worked diligently not for revenge, but to normalize relations between the United States and his former captors. As this true American hero explained in 2000: The object of my relationship with Vietnam has been to heal the wounds that exist, particularly among our veterans, and to move forward with a positive relationship. An open-hands, open-hearts approach can work at home as well as abroad. In a time of rising incivility and escalating rhetoric, Americans would do well to follow Lincoln and MacArthurs examples. To seek more peaceful ways to express our differences of opinion. Not to repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but to offer our blessings instead. As the proud generations before us demonstrated, its never easy. But it very often is the right and the smartest thing to do. And its what puts the victory in Victory Day. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! The life and death of Senator John McCain bring into striking focus what is truly most important faith. McCain was an American hero, both as a warrior and political maverick. But many may be surprised to know McCain was also a lifelong Christian. Though his faith wasnt ostentatious, it was undoubtedly refined by and necessary to survival during his yearslong experience as a POW in a Vietnamese prison cell and decades of service in the political fray of the U.S. Senate. During captivity, McCain turned to prayer for strength and relished the responsibility of being a sort of room chaplain for other prisoners. Last weekend, his daughter Meghan issued a moving statement, saying: My Father is gone, and I miss him as only an adoring daughter can. But in this loss, and in this sorrow, I take comfort in this: John McCain, hero of the republic and to his little girl, wakes today to something more glorious than anything on this earth. Today the warrior enters his true and eternal life, greeted by those who have gone before him, rising to meet the Author of All Things: The dream is ended: this is the morning. Of all the accomplishments, accolades, wins and losses, fame and influence Meghan McCain could have trumpeted to a watching nation, she chose instead to zero in on the one lasting truth of McCains life his time and trial-tested faith, forged in the furnace of torture, refined through a lifetime spent in selfless public service. What a reminder that this earth is not our home (Hebrews 13:14)! Though death will come for all great or small we can have eternal life through Gods free gift of grace in Christ Jesus (John 3:16). Its also a reminder of the importance of expressing our private faith in the public square by participating in the political process. Not all of us will become a U.S. Senator, but all of us can vote. Like John McCain we must vote our conscience, vote our values and vote with courage. John McCain exemplified duty, service, self-sacrifice, genuine goodness, compromise he truly wanted the best for others and for America. There has been a national outpouring of prayers and support for the McCain family. Sadly, there has also been negative responses and disrespectful comments, even from Christians, that fail to embody Gods love. While not everyone agreed with his political decisions and votes, he and his family deserve our gratitude and the utmost respect. In fact, all of our elected leaders do. An easy way to show this respect is to start praying for them. Pray for their hearts to be right with God, their families to be strengthened and Gods wisdom to fill their minds and guide their actions. This prayer guide is a helpful place to get started. Senator John McCain laid in state at the Capitol Friday as a grateful nation honored his life and service. It shouldnt take the death of a great statesman to inspire our gratitude and respect for those who serve. Therefore, I challenge myself and every Christ-follower to take a few minutes every day to pray for our elected officials. Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) holds a welcoming ceremony for President of Burkina Faso Roch Marc Christian Kabore before their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 31, 2018. (Xinhua/Shen Hong) Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday held talks with Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore in Beijing, and the two leaders agreed to open a new chapter of bilateral friendly cooperation on the momentum of the restoration of diplomatic ties. Kabore, on a state visit to China, is to attend the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) scheduled for Sept. 3 and 4. Burkina Faso's first time participating in the forum is of great importance for the development of China's relations with not only Burkina Faso but also Africa, said Xi, adding that China highly appreciates Kabore's political determination to resume diplomatic ties with China. Bilateral relations between the two countries have made encouraging progress and are off to a good start since China and Burkina Faso resumed diplomatic ties three months ago, said Xi. China will plan and promote the bilateral ties with a strategic and long-term perspective and is willing to continuously enhance political mutual trust, carry out exchanges and mutual learning, promote bilateral cooperation in various fields in a comprehensive and orderly manner and open a new chapter of friendly cooperation in the new era on the principle of equality and mutual trust as well as win-win cooperation, said Xi. China supports Burkina Faso's efforts to fight terrorism and maintain stability in the country and in the region, said Xi. Kabore said the Burkina Faso government recognizes there is but one China in the world, that the Government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. Burkina Faso highly values China's commitment of multilateralism and win-win cooperation in international affairs, said Kabore. Thanks to China's great concern for African people's demands and support to Africa's development, Burkina Faso independently made its decision to restore diplomatic relations with China and return to the family of Africa-China cooperation, which fully conforms to the direction of Burkina Faso's future development, said Kabore. Kabore said Burkina Faso is satisfied with the rapid advancement and positive achievements of the bilateral cooperation since the restoration of diplomatic ties, adding that the country is willing to learn from China's ideas and theories of development, enhance political mutual trust and deepen practical cooperation in various fields. Burkina Faso appreciates the leadership China has demonstrated in the framework of FOCAC and expects the FOCAC Beijing Summit will inject new impetus to the development of Burkina Faso-China relations and Africa-China relations, said Kabore. After the meeting, the two leaders witnessed the signing of cooperation documents. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! The State Department announced Friday that the U.S. will end all aid to UNWRA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency), the U.N. body dedicated to serving Palestinian Arabs it designates as refugees. The action is a victory for justice, eventual peace and a wise use of U.S. taxpayer dollars. While the U.S. has spent billions of dollars over the past 70 years to support generation after generation of Palestinian Arabs, the Trump administration will eliminate its annual contribution of $360 million, marking a new, vital approach in U.S. foreign policy. American aid covered almost a third of UNWRAs $1.1 billion annual budget last year. After Arab nations rejected the 1948 United Nations partition plan for British-ruled Palestine, which divided the land between Arabs and Jews, Israels Arab neighbors mobilized their armies and invaded the new Jewish state of Israel in an effort to wipe it off the map. Miraculously, Israel won the war. According to UNWRA, an estimated 750,000 Arabs fled their homes, many to neighboring countries. Using conventional wisdom, that number should now stand in the tens of thousands still alive some 70 years later. However, UNWRA claims that today 5.3 million Arabs are eligible for its services, owing to an inconceivable definition exclusive to Palestinian Arabs, whereby refugee status extends to the descendants the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the original refugees. President Trump reportedly plans to recognize only 10 percent of these 5.3 million people as Palestinian Arab refugees. If managed carefully, this policy and its follow-up provisions would constitute the only real opportunity to ensure prosperity for Palestinian Arabs, safety for Israels citizens and stability for the United States and its regional allies. The new U.S. policy exposes the absurdity of the perpetual, uninterrupted refugee population increases claimed by UNWRA. It will pour cold water on the idea of a right of return, the Palestinian Arab demand that any final status agreement afford 5.3 million Arabs the ability to flood Israel a country of 8.8 million people, including an existing population of 1.8 million Arabs. A sudden Arab population explosion in Israel is unacceptable, as it would end Israels status as the only Jewish state on the planet. The U.S. decision could also spell the end for UNWRA, an agency responsible for implementing a lethal and violent educational curriculum that teaches hatred of Israel and urges children to become terrorists. UNWRA has been instrumental in radicalizing Palestinian Arab youth, selecting teachers that moonlight as Hamas terrorists and utilizing textbooks that call for the mass murder of Jews. Shuttering UNWRA would provide the international community with an opportunity to create a peaceful curriculum for UNWRAs 500,000 existing students, who could be instructed to pursue professions that would enable them to support their families and help create more prosperous economies. The U.S. decision will also put significant pressure on Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, which collectively house 60 percent of the so-called UNWRA refugees. For 70 years, Palestinian Arabs and their descendants in these countries have been denied citizenship and equal employment opportunities as a ploy to control their influence in society, limit their social contributions and maintain an excuse to continue hostilities against Israel. The U.S. policy shift and its potential successes will not come without major resistance and inevitable violence. But the move by the Trump administration will establish the framework for a long and difficult process for Palestinian Arabs, who must be willing to form new lives for themselves, similar to those created by the more than 850,000 Jewish refugees who fled or were expelled from Muslim-majority countries between 1948 and the mid 1970s. Ultimately, the U.S. could not continue to support a Palestinian Arab population that will eventually surge into the tens of millions and will not accept attempts by Israels neighbors to perpetuate a crisis that should have never reached this point. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! President Trumps opponents may not like his philandering past and midnight tweets but on the economy, only cynics can argue with the results. The economy accomplished 4.2 percent growth in the second quarter and appears headed for an overall score of 3 percent for the entire year. A tight job market is finally rewarding workers with better treatment from employers, and low wage workers are receiving bigger pay boosts. Thats a lot better than the less than 2 percent average growth and stagnant living standards recorded by Presidents Bush and Obama. The big challenge for Mr. Trump and the Republicans in Congressshould they hold on in the midtermsis sustaining the pace. With unemployment already at 3.9 percent, most economists are pessimistic about continued 3 percent growth in 2019 and beyond. I take exception! The labor market still has lots of excess capacity among young people stuck in low level jobs in restaurants and other service businesses. Many of those positions hardly require the skills of a college education or provide high school graduates with a decent career track. Now, expanding sales opportunities and a tight labor market are forcing employers to get more realistic and practical when hiring for better paying positions. Recruiters are abandoning requirements for specific technical degrees and specialized job experience. Thats helping self-taught software engineers get placed at Intel and high school graduates land entry level managerial positions at Bank of America. To keep growth in high gear, businesses have to follow through by adding to training budgets and the many private apprenticeship programs that the Department of Labor certifies and helps young folks identify. The latter are not just in traditional building trades but also in technology, manufacturing and business services. Many pay about $15 an hour during training and average starting salaries of $60,000 for those who successfully complete programs. President Trump is establishing an advisory council comprised of corporate, nonprofit, state government and educational leaders that will work to implement results-oriented job training programs in classrooms and workplaces. Too many high schools dropped traditional vocational programs in recent decades under pressures from tight budgets and to channel students to college. Mostly that resulted in lots of young people who dropped out after a year or two or graduated from a degree program that did not adequately prepare them for the jobs market. The resulting burden of debt, especially for minorities, too often is overwhelming. Job one for the presidents council should be getting more young people steered from college track and into vo-tech and apprenticeships, and incentivizing states to redirect funds now going to useless university programs back into those areas. Finally, regulation has to make sensenot just for America but for the broader world. Suspending disbelief about the missions of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the World Trade Organization, the bottom line is that American compliance doesnt mean much if other nations are permitted to violate the rules or intent of those agreements. Handcuffing American industry does little good if Chinese emissions are growing in leaps and bounds and India and other developing nations are simply not adhering to the same standards as western economies. Until they are, more sensible regulations for U.S. auto efficiency and overall emissions standards are in order. President Obama rushed through higher gas mileage standards after to his horrors Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election to Mr. Trump. Consequently, freezing CAFE standards at their target for 2020fleet averages at about 37 MPGinstead of going all the way to 50 MPG in 2025 would be prudent, and Mr. Trump has initiated the necessary public comment processes. High tariffs on trade with China should not be our end goal but we simply cant go on destroying millions of jobs and permitting Beijings bureaucrats to coerce American companies to transfer valuable technology in frontier areas like artificial intelligence and robotics. If China cant play by the rules of civilized nations, then trade with China must be managed outside the WTO so that we may preserve the global body for trade among western nations. These are radical changes in policy that will reach deeply into our schools and affect relations with partners abroad but are necessary to provide Americans with a secure and prosperous future. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! Canadian actor Ryan Gosling stars as Neil Armstrong in the highly anticipated film titled First Man. Gosling who came out in 2015 as a fan of Bernie Sanders while later spoofing Donald Trump was recently quoted in the Telegraph newspaper in London explaining why the American flag was deliberately left out of a movie chronicling the greatest scientific achievement in American history. When asked by the paper if the film was an un-American take on the moon landing, the liberal actor replied that Armstrongs accomplishment transcended countries and borders. Gosling further explained: I think this was widely regarded in the end as a human achievement and thats how we chose to view it. I also think Neil was extremely humble, as were many of these astronauts, and time and time again he deferred the focus from himself to the 400,000 people who made the mission possibleSo I dont think that Neil viewed himself as an American hero That is Goslings viewpoint. One could also wonder if he, the Canadian director and others in Hollywood wanted the film to incorporate revisionist history to push an ideological viewpoint of today. In 1988, while working at the Reagan White House, I was afforded the rare opportunity to sit down one-on-one with Armstrong in the White House and it was, and is, one of the highest honors of my life. I was conducting interviews at the time for my first book, Footprints The 12 Men who walked on the Moon Reflect on their Flights, their Lives, and the Future. Armstrong and I spoke for about an hour and he could not have been nicer or kinder. He sensed I was nervous and put me at ease immediately by turning the tables and asking me questions about my background and my life. Even though I had heard he did not like to give autographs, when I mentioned my then-9-year-old niece Chrissy and 10-year-old nephew Christopher, he signed something to both on White House stationary. Gosling is correct about one thing for sure. Armstrong was beyond humble. Weeks after our interview, he called me to ask that I not use it. He told me how very sorry he was to ask, but that upon further reflection, he was not comfortable talking about himself and did not want anyone to get the impression that the mission was about him. I agreed immediately with his request. While greatly disappointed we ended up scrambling and using existing public quotes for the book I was deeply impressed at how truly humble Armstrong was and how important it was to him that others receive the credit he believed they deserved. On that subject, Gosling was only half correct when he speculated that: I dont think that Neil viewed himself as an American hero. While Armstrong never viewed himself as a hero, he was incredibly proud to be an American. An American, who before becoming a test pilot and the first human on the moon, was a highly decorated naval aviator who flew 78 combat missions during the Korean War. With regard to the slight against the United States and of the American flag being left out of First Man, Gosling jokes: Im Canadian, so might have cognitive bias. As someone who has more relatives in Canada than the U.S. my family making its way from Nova Scotia to Boston decades ago I would say his bias has nothing to do with Canada and everything to do with being liberal. When I spoke with Armstrong back in 1988, he along with all 11 other men who walked on the moon that I spoke with very clearly saw the moon landing as an American achievement and was in fact, quite proud to plant the American flag in recognition of the American blood, sweat, and tears which helped get him and Buzz Aldrin to the surface. Revisionist history in the support of partisan ideology is always dangerouson any side. Over the last five decades, liberals have obtained more and more control over Hollywood. Precisely because of that power, the temptation to use film to change history can be overpowering. That temptation acknowledged, the facts are that Armstrong felt very strongly about maintaining American preeminence in space. In 2010, Armstrong testified before the Senate saying that then-President Obamas disappearing space program: presents no challenges, has no focus, and in fact, is a blueprint for a mission to nowhere. While Ryan Gosling has the right to put his spin on any subject of his choosing, he is wrong in this case. Armstrong was a proud American who served his nation with great distinction who saw the moon landing as an American achievement worthy of an American flag being left on the surface forever in recognition of the tremendous sacrifice it took to get our nation there. An American flag now censored from his hands in the movie First Man. Suspects awaiting trial in California will now have their bail eliminated, according to a bill signed by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday. In lieu of bail, suspects will be gauged under a risk-assessment system, although the details of the program, which will take effect in October 2019, were not immediately clear. Suspects looking at serious, violent felonies wont be eligible for release prior to trial but the majority of suspects arrested for nonviolent misdemeanors will be let go within 12 hours of being booked, according to the legislation. The bill gives officials 24 hours to determine whether other suspects should be released before trial. That time can be extended by 12 hours if necessary. Today, California reforms its bail system so that rich and poor alike are treated fairly, Brown said in a statement, according to The Sacramento Bee. Brown's signature gives the state's Judicial Council, the policy-making body for California's courts, broad authority to reshape pretrial detention policies. Each county will use the council's framework as a basis to set its own procedures for deciding whom to release before trial, potentially creating a patchwork system based on where a suspect lives. Senate Bill 10, the formal title of the legislation, was approved by the legislature earlier this month, according to The Sacramento Bee, but faced significant opposition from the bail industry prior to Brown's signing on Tuesday. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Democrats on Saturday slammed what they described as a Friday night document massacre after the White House withheld more than 100,000 pages of Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaughs records, citing presidential privilege. Former President George W. Bushs attorney Bill Burck told the Senate Judiciary Committee in a letter Friday that it has mostly completed its work ahead of next weeks planned confirmation hearing. Kavanaugh, who has been tapped by President Trump to replace Anthony Kennedy on the nations highest court, served in the White House Counsels office during the Bush administration. The letter said that Bush told them to proceed expeditiously and to err as much as appropriate on the side of transparency and disclosure, and we believe we have done do. on the side of transparency and disclosure. But the letter said that the White House and the Department of Justice, conducting its own review of the presidential records, have identified certain documents of the type traditionally protected by constitutional privilege. KAVANAUGH CONFIRMATION HEARING LIKELY TO FOCUS ON ABORTION, GUN RIGHTS The White House, after consultation with the Department of Justice, has directed that we not provide these documents for this reason, it said. According to the letter, most of those documents withheld are about deliberations and candid advice concerning the selection and nomination of judicial candidates, the confidentiality of which is critical to any presidents ability to carry out this core executive function. The rest include documents that include advice to Bush, communications among staffers about communications with Bush, and discussion of executive orders or legislation he was considering. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., blasted the withholdings. FULL COVERAGE: JUDGE KAVANAUGH'S CONFIRMATION HEARINGS He said: Were witnessing a Friday night document massacre. President Trumps decision to step in at the last moment and hide 100,000 pages of Judge Kavanaughs records from the American public is not only unprecedented in the history of Supreme Court nominations, it has all the makings of a cover-up. Schumer added: Republicans in the Senate and the president of the United States are colluding to keep Judge Kavanaughs records secret, and trying to hide their actions from the American people by doing it on the Friday night of a holiday weekend. What are they trying so desperately to hide? Schumers office said it was the first time in history a president has used executive privilege to block the release of presidential records to the Senate during a Supreme Court nomination. It also claimed that the Senate has received only 6 percent (415,000 pages) of Kavanaughs White House records. The office of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement that the lawmaker has expanded access to confidential material beyond that for any other Supreme Court nominee. Grassley also offered to help facilitate the public release of specific confidential records that members wish to discuss during the open session of the confirmation hearing, his office said. Only one senator has taken him up on this offer, and the requested documents have since been publicly released at Grassleys request. In terms of quantity, Grassleys office said it has provided significantly more documents of executive branch material than was the case with past nominees. It said that 440,500 documents were produced in relation to Kavanaugh, compared with 182,000 for Justice Neil Gorsuch, 173,000 for Justice Elena Kagan and just 6,350 for Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Fox News Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Former Secretary of State John Kerry has refused to rule out a run for the White House in 2020, saying that talk at this time is a total distraction and urging Democrats to focus on the looming midterm races instead. "Talking about 2020 right now is a total distraction and waste of time," Kerry said in an interview with CBS News' "Face the Nation." The interview is set to air Sunday. "What we need to do is focus on 2018. We need to win back the confidence of the country to move in a better direction, and to do it in sensible ways," he said. Kerry ran unsuccessfully for the presidency against President George W. Bush in 2004. He went on to serve as the nations highest diplomat under President Barack Obama, where he spearheaded some of Obamas key foreign policy goals -- including the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate change agreement. President Trump has withdrawn the U.S. from both of those accords. Now, Kerry has a new book out, Every Day Is Extra, and he told CBS that both the country and the world are in a moment of crisis. But while not engaging in 2020 talk at this juncture, he said that he is going to continue to be an activist. Im going to continue to fight, he said. In January, the Israeli newspaper Maariv reported that Kerry, during a visit to the Middle East, told Palestinian officials he was considering running for president in 2020. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Firefighters in South Carolina have been praised for rescuing a hummingbird that was exhausted and dehydrated, Richburg Fire-Rescue wrote in an online statement. ANDEAN FLAMINGOS LAY EGGS FOR FIRST TIME SINCE 2003, CHARITY SAYS While the fire station said that several of its members worked to rescue the bird, two of the firefighters were identified by The Charlottesville Observer as Fire Marshal David McCain and Firefighter Jobeth Holmes. The men sat next to the bird, which was unable to stand or fly, serving it a small cap full of water as they waited for the hummingbird to regain its strength. "You can teach almost anyone how to be a firefighter, a medic or just about anything imaginable. What is virtually impossible to teach is compassion, Richburg Fire-Rescue said in the statement. We are fortunate that we have a tremendous group in our department that has passion and desire to help, regardless of the situation. PHOTOGRAPHERS ON SKOMER ISLAND ARE CRUSHING PUFFINS TO DEATH WHILE TRYING TO TAKE PICTURES, WARDENS SAY Such sweet, compassionate people," one Facebook user wrote. Very proud of these people who serve our community, another said. The bird, which was smaller than one of the firefighters fingers, eventually flew away. This isn't the first time this has happened and knowing our members, it will not be the last!" the fire station said. Emily Jashinsky said she is "baffled" by the silence from the media on the Lincoln Project's stunt at a Glenn Youngkin campaign event. It is "not surprising" for them to do something like that but it is surprising to see "virtually nothing" from the press on it. Tara Palmeri said of Washington Post burying Lincoln Project's white nationalist stunt in VA that "it should have been on the front page not the metro section. A lot of journalists feel privately horrified, and thats a front page story to stage that kind of spectacle. Jacqui Heinrich said the Progressive Democrats have been "clear the entire time" about what their demands are. They have not budged and you have to "take that into consideration" no matter what you're hearing from the White House. Andrew Sullivan said Facebook is "really looking like" Phillip Morris. Facebook has been "incredibly successful because it's selling an addictive drug," and it's kept "designing and tweaking" it's platform so that "you are more and more addicted to it." He added that he does not "believe that Dave Chappelle is in any way transphobic, as some have accused him of being in his latest comedy special. Susan Ferrechio said Donald Trump took a shot at the Pulitzer Board because "he is still defending his presidency." His presidency was "under siege" the entire term with accusations of Russian collusion. Cory Kennedy, a popular pro skateboarder who has appeared in the films Pretty Sweet and Beware of Sasquatch, has been sentenced to four years in prison in connection with a fatal DUI crash. Kennedy, 27, was behind the wheel Aug. 30, 2017, when his vehicle smashed into two trees, resulting in the death of one of his passengers and injuries to another passenger, Seattles Q13 FOX reported. Mr. Kennedy might be a talented athlete and a good person, but on Aug. 30, 2017, he was selfish and irresponsible, Amy Freedheim, a deputy prosecuting attorney with King County, said in court, according to Seattles KIRO-TV. Mr. Kennedy might be a talented athlete and a good person, but on Aug. 30, 2017, he was selfish and irresponsible. Amy Freedheim, deputy prosecuting attorney, King County, Wash. This will forever be the biggest mistake of my life, Kennedy said at Fridays sentencing hearing, the station reported. This will forever be the biggest mistake of my life. Cory Kennedy The crash occurred on Vashon Island in Washington state, about 17 miles south of downtown Seattle. Kennedy was a former resident of the island and was familiar with the curves of the road, the Seattle Times reported. The driver was found to have been drunk and high at the time, the station reported. He was subsequently charged with vehicular homicide and vehicular assault. The passenger killed in the crash was identified as Preston P-Stone Maigetter, 45, a husband and father of two, the report said. Maigetter, a friend of Kennedys, made videos of skateboarders and worked for Thrasher magazine, which covers the sport. In addition to his prison sentence, Kennedy will be placed under home monitoring for about a year after he is released, the report said. Police responding to the crash scene found empty beer cans inside the vehicle, the report said. Kennedy was found to have consumed alcohol and marijuana, and reportedly admitted to police that he had been speeding. In addition, court records show that Kennedy has a history of receiving speeding tickets. A dozen passengers and three flight attendants required medical attention Friday after a can of pepper spray went off inside the cabin of a Hawaiian Airlines plane, the airline said. Those affected were treated for respiratory issues after the plane landed in Kahului, Hawaii, around 10:30 a.m. local time, an airline spokesman said. The airline said a passenger had illegally brought pepper spray on board the flight, which originated in Oakland, Calif. The can discharged about three hours into the flight, the spokesman said. Airline officials said the incident was accidental. Passengers in the front cabin were forced to leave their seats for more than a half-hour, Hawaii News Now reported, citing Hawaiian Airlines and passengers. One baby threw up, according to a passenger cited by the news outlet. To clarify I was in the affected section. First class and premiere section were impacted, we were in premiere. First class got hit hardest. Its been a wild day, wrote one Twitter user. Worse. We had some crazy chemical in the front of the plane with 2.5hr left, wrote another user. Everyone around us starting coughing, eyes burning, etc. Captain has everyone stand in the back for almost an hours. @HawaiianAir had us on a 26year old plane too! The flight crew of the Boeing 767, which was carrying 256 passengers and 10 crew members, declared an emergency to get a priority landing at the airport in Hawaii. The Federal Aviation Administration could not confirm what substance was brought on the plane, but acknowledged that pepper spray is permitted on checked baggage. The incident is being investigated by the federal Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Maui police. The individual responsible for bringing the pepper spray on board could face civil penalties of up to $13,000, Hawaii News Now reported. No additional details were provided. Earlier Friday, the same flight was delayed after a teenage girl from Oakland sent a photo depicting a fake crime scene "featuring a child-sized mannequin" to other passengers' cellphones, the East Bay Times reported. The teen and his family were booked for a later flight while officials investigated. Hawaiian Airlines said the two incidents were not related and the family's baggage had to be located and removed from the plane, which caused a delay. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with President of Niger Mahamadou Issoufou in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 31, 2018. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday met with Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou ahead of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. China and Niger are good friends with mutual respect and trust, and good partners of mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation, Xi said. The two sides should enhance friendly exchanges, increase communication about governance and development experience, and continue to firmly support each other on issues of core interests and major concerns, Xi said. China is willing to expand cooperation with Niger in the fields of medical services, infrastructure building, energy, and transport, and support the efforts of West African countries to boost connectivity, Xi said. China firmly supports Niger's efforts to defend national security and stability, and will continue to provide support for the development of the G5 Sahel joint force through bilateral and multilateral channels, Xi said. While hailing China's great contributions to the progress of human civilization, Issoufou said China has achieved remarkable economic and social development in the past four decades. Niger admires and congratulates China, led by President Xi, for its brilliant achievements in all areas, Issoufou said. With long-standing friendly relations with China, Niger is ready to engage in pragmatic cooperation in the fields of economy and trade, energy and security, and enhance communication and coordination on major international and African regional affairs, Issoufou said. After the meeting, the two leaders witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents. One Connecticut man claims that his parents' beloved emotional support dog has gone missing in a bizarre twist of events after a LATAM Airlines flight from the U.S. to Paraguay, operating out of John F. Kennedy International Airport. On August 27, Jonathan Rolons parents were flying to the South American nation after visiting him in Connecticut with their emotional support dog, Logan, NBC New York reports. Upon deplaning in Paraguay, Rolon alleges that the carriers staffers told his parents that Logan did not make the flight due to a ramp issue. EASYJET PASSENGERS FILMED FIGHTING AFTER WOMAN ALLEGEDLY GIVES IN-FLIGHT LAP DANCES WHILE INTOXICATED Learning of the news, Rolon headed to JFK to find Logan. When he arrived at the Queens, N.Y., air hub, LATAM staffers told him that he couldnt see the dog because another worker took the pooch home. Rolon claims that he was then given the name of the LATAM worker who took Logan and also an intersection to search, since the pup apparently was missing from the employees home. Although reps for the Chile-based LATAM did not immediately return Fox News request for comment, the carrier confirmed to NBC that they are actively searching for Logan. They have posted 600 search posters around neighborhoods close to JFK Airport, offering a reward for information on the missing dog. Moving forward, over 50 LATAM reps and the Animal Care Center of New York are also involved in the search for Logan. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS LATAM deeply regrets the situation and will continue to provide all the recourses at its disposal in the effort to reunite Logan with his family, an airline spokesperson told the outlet, adding that they have been in contact with Rolons parents and have offered to fly them back to New York. Meanwhile, Rolon says that the dogs disappearance has taken an emotional toll on his family, especially for his mother, who has become extremely depressed." President Trump's education secretary said Friday that she has "no intention" of taking action regarding any possible use of federal funds to arm teachers. "Congress did not authorize me or the Department to make those decisions" about arming teachers or training them on the use of firearms, Betsy DeVos said. "I will not take any action that would expand or restrict the responsibilities and flexibilities granted to state and local education agencies by Congress," DeVos wrote in a letter to U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, the top Democrat on the House committee overseeing education. DeVos' comments came after a top official in her department, when asked about arming teachers, said states and local jurisdictions always "had the flexibility" to decide how to use federal education funds. Frank Brogan, assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education, said arming educators "is a good example of a profoundly personal decision on the part of a school or a school district or even a state." Democrats and education groups have argued, however, that the funds are intended for academics, not guns, adding that arming teachers is dangerous and could make schools feel like prisons. It would be up to Congress, not the U.S. Department of Education, to place any restrictions or barriers to use those funds for purposes not currently in the law, a department spokeswoman said. The debate arose earlier this month after a small rural school district in Oklahoma and the state of Texas asked the department to clarify what the funds can be used for. "The position is: You have the language ... the language was written specifically to and always interpreted to mean 'This is your money,'" Brogan said. Democratic lawmakers and teachers blasted the idea, accusing the Trump administration of acting in the interests of the National Rifle Association, and several Congress members called for legislation that would prohibit the use of those funds for guns. Debate over whether teachers should be allowed to carry weapons intensified after President Trump voiced support for the idea following a massacre at a high school in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14 that left 17 people dead. In the months since the shootings, DeVos has headed a panel on school safety that is supposed to issue a list of recommendations later this year, Politico reported. The Associated Press contributed to this report. California lawmakers voted Friday to bar middle and high schools from starting before 8:30 a.m., one of dozens of proposals debated in the Legislature on the final day of its legislative session. The bill, SB328, narrowly passed in both chambers. The development came as lawmakers scrambled to pass bills ahead of a midnight deadline, addressing topics ranging from internet neutrality and smoking at state beaches. Lawmakers also announced they were shelving several high profile bills, including one that would have declared gay conversion therapy a fraudulent business practice. IN-N-OUT BURGER CHAIN RECEIVES INVITATION FROM ALABAMA LAWMAKER AMID CALLS FOR CALIFORNIA BOYCOTT Nearly 80 percent of California middle and high schools started earlier than 8:30 a.m. in 2012, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If Gov. Jerry Brown signs SB328, schools will have about three years to comply. It would not apply to rural schools or to extra periods offered before the start of a school day. It would not mandate changes to school day lengths. Supporters point to science that shows later start times make kids healthier by letting them get more sleep and help them graduate. "This is the single most cost-effective thing we can do to improve high school graduation rates," Assemblyman Jay Obernolte, R-Hesperia, said. CALIFORNIA BULLET TRAIN PROJECT ON TRACK TO BLOW THROUGH BILLIONS OF MORE DOLLARS Opponents say local school boards, not the state, should determine start times. "When it comes to education, the farther away the decisions are made from the classroom, the worse those decisions are," Assemblyman Jose Medina, D-Riverside, said. Also on Friday, Assemblyman Evan Low announced he was ending his effort this year to pass a bill declaring gay conversion therapy a fraudulent practice. The Campbell Democrat said he authored the bill because conversion therapy has been proven ineffective and harmful. His measure would have banned selling or advertising sexual orientation change therapy. But Low said he needs more time as he tries to craft a national model that could be copied in other states. The bill had passed both the Senate and Assembly and was awaiting a final Assembly vote to send it to Brown. Low said he has had productive conversations with opponents, some of whom say lawmakers shouldn't limit therapy choices and others fighting the proposal on religious grounds at emotion-charged legislative hearings. The Humane Society of the United States is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible for jabbing a carabiner -- a device typically used for rock climbing -- through the neck of a Labrador retriever. UTAH FIREFIGHTER ADOPTS STRAY DOG HE RESCUED FROM CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE The Humane Society announced Friday that its offering $5,000, while a local animal refuge center and others are also offering a reward. The combined sums mean there's a total reward of close to $10,000 -- $9,750, to be exact -- the Humane Society said. The dog, which has been named Woodrow, was found in July; a man spotted it under his trailer. When animal control officials arrived, they noticed that a metal oval object with a chain hanging from it was embedded in the dogs skin, the statement reads. THE DAILY SPIKE: GOOD DOGS ARE ALWAYS LEARNING, EVEN ON VACATION Thankfully, the pup has since recovered from his injuries and will be placed for adoption in a new loving home after he is released from the Alaqua Animal Refuge, the Humane Society said. These injuries did not happen by accident, Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson said in a statement. Anyone with information can call the Walton County Sheriffs Office at 850-892-8186, or place an anonymous call to the Emerald Coast Crime Stoppers at 850-863-TIPS. More than two weeks after their bodies were found near an oil worksite in Colorado, Shanann Watts and her two young daughters were finally laid to rest Saturday morning. Family members of the pregnant Colorado mother, 34, and her two children, 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste, gathered to mourn at their funeral service in Shananns home state of North Carolina. Shanann was a woman of love, she loved God, she loved her family and she loved her friends, the pastor at the funeral said, according to Fox 31. He also said of the two young girls that they were filled with life and joy "and shared it with those they encountered. The womans husband, 33-year-old Christopher Watts, was charged last month with the killings despite speaking about missing his family in interviews with television stations shortly before his arrest. Authorities soon discovered that Watts was actively involved in an extramarital relationship with a co-worker, something he initially denied. Watts eventually told police he killed his wife after discovering Shanann strangled the girls shortly after he'd requested a separation. He told authorities he buried Shanann's body near two oil tanks and dumped Bella and Celeste inside the oil tanks. CHRIS WATTS, ACCUSED OF KILLING FAMILY, MADE VIDEO ABOUT SAVING RELATIONSHIPS Watts was charged with nine felony counts, including three first-degree murder charges. The Weld District Attorney's Office also charged Watts with two counts of murdering a child, one count of unlawful termination of a pregnancy and three counts of tampering with a deceased human body. He has not entered a plea to murder and other felony charges and is being held without bail. Fox News Nicole Darrah and The Associated Press contributed to this report. An Alabama state senator has invited the California-based In-N-Out hamburger chain to his state after some California Democrats called for a boycott of the chain over donations made to the state's GOP. State Sen. Phil Williams, a Republican from Rainbow City, Ala., tweeted his invitation Thursday night. "Hey #InNOutBurger c'mon to Alabama! We love burgers, and we love #Republicans! #alpolitics," Williams tweeted. In-N-Out reportedly donated $25,000 to the California Republican Party earlier this week, and the revelation has caused many who identify as Democrats or just not Republican to demand a boycott of the chain. "Tens of thousands of dollars donated to the California Republican Party ... it's time to #BoycottInNOut - let Trump and his cronies support these creeps... perhaps animal style!" Eric Bauman, chairman of the California Democratic Party, tweeted Thursday. This is not the first time In-N-Out has donated to the GOP. In 2016 and 2017, the company donated $30,000 to the Republican Party for general expenses, Los Angeles magazine reported. But the fast-food restaurant has also given thousands of dollars to support the Democratic PAC "Californians for Jobs and a Strong Economy," a pro-business group created by Democrat David Townsend in 2009. In-N-Out was founded in Baldwin Park, Calif., in 1948. Its headquarters is currently in Irvine, Calif. It operates restaurants in six states: California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and Utah. Fox News' Alexandra Deabler contributed to this report. Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 31, 2018. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday met with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir ahead of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. China and South Sudan have seen steady progress in cooperation in various fields since the establishment of their diplomatic ties, Xi said, noting that China is willing to work with South Sudan to enhance bilateral relations. Xi said China always makes it a priority to help South Sudan achieve national stability and development, and welcomes the signing of a comprehensive peace deal by all parties in the African country. China will continue to support the peace process in South Sudan, safeguard its legitimate interests on multilateral occasions including at the United Nations, and provide support for African regional organizations' mediation mechanisms on the South Sudan issue, he said. "China is ready to strengthen cooperation with South Sudan in such areas as infrastructure and agriculture, and to encourage more Chinese enterprises to participate in the country's economic and social development," Xi added. Kiir said South Sudan highly commends China for treating all countries as equals in international affairs regardless of their size and supporting all countries in independently choosing development paths in line with their national conditions. He appreciated China's efforts to facilitate the domestic peace process in South Sudan and its significant role in safeguarding world peace and stability. "South Sudan is willing to strengthen pragmatic cooperation with China in areas such as political exchanges and energy, and have closer communication and coordination in international and regional affairs," Kiir said. The two leaders witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents after the meeting. Opening concert in the WCCB : Beethoven festival inaugurated Bonn The Beethoven festival has begun. During the opening night, the audience enjoyed the Orchestre Philharmonie de Radio France under Finnish conductor Mikko Franck. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken Actually, the comparison between composers Maurice Ravel and Ludwig van Beethoven forbids itself. Their music is too different as is also their artistic nature. This was very noticeable in the two oeuvres which were played by the Orchestre Philharmonie de Radio France under Finnish conductor Mikko Franck during the brilliant opening concert of the Beethoven festival on Friday night in the sold out World Conference Center Bonn (WCCB). Ravels Le tombeau de Couperin and Beethovens fifth symphony are both influenced by fate, thus fitting perfectly into this years theme of the Beethoven festival: Destiny. But where Beethoven fights with boisterous energy to find a musical way through the night towards the light, Ravel meets his fate with wondrous gentle sounds. The one shines, the other sparkles. In the suite originally composed for piano which Ravel transformed into a four-movement orchestra oeuvre, the Frenchman intones the grief over friends who did not return from the First World War. Yet, it was comforting to hear this evening that Ravel dealt with the grief very smoothly, neither depressed nor pathetic. Franck conducted sometimes seated, sometimes standing. He, who has led the Parisien Orchestra since 2015, underlined the elegance and lightness of the music, let the sounds of the woodwind section and string instruments bubble during the prelude. It all sounded like a spring-like morning mood. The forlane then came across much livelier, even more so the final rigaudon. Only during the third movement, the menuet, were more melancholic sounds audible thanks to the beautifully played oboe. Before Beethoven had his say, the orchestra and particularly the French pianist Betrand Chamayou enthused the audience with Camille Saint-Saens piano concerto No 5, which was dubbed the Egyptian due to its orientalisms and because it was written in Luxor. That Chamayou was almost addicted to the charm of the similarly conservative look back and the ingeniously virtuos music, was very noticeable in his intoxicating play. The virtuoso passages he managed brilliantly in the phonetic refinements during the second movement. There was a lot of applause for the young French pianist, for which he thanked the audience with an encore in the shape of Ravels "Pavane pour une infante defunte. During Beethovens fifth symphony, which begins in the key of fate, c minor, the orchestra showed completely different qualities again than in the music of their fellow French men. The dramatic energy, with which Franck let the symphony start, was tremendously gripping: This is how destiny knocks on the door. And the musicians played on the edge of their seats so to speak, highly concentrated and with great passion. The contrast to this during the second movement was worked out convincingly by Franck, even though he kept the tempo at borderline speed. The way the low strings presented the fugato during the third movement had real class. During the final moments the musicians let the c major shine in its full and bright glamour. There was great applause in the WCCB hall, which was followed by the magical pianissimo effect of the adorably played Valse triste by Finnish composed Jean Sibelius. It can easily be assumed that the people on the market square also liked the music - where the opening concert was broadcasted live on a big screen. Two protests at the WCCB : Demo and counter demo on Saturday in Bonn Bonn Two protest demos will meet in Bonn on Saturday: A private group had registered a rally, the Bonner Jugendbewegung (Youth Movement Bonn) is demonstrating against right-wing extremism. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken The police in Bonn are accompanying two rallies near the World Conference Center in Bonn-Gronau on Saturday. The left-orientated Youth Movement Bonn wants to demonstrate against right-wing extremism. The motivation for their demo: A registered rally by a private initiative, which is taking place at the same time also near the WCCB. According to GA information there are connections between the applicants and the initiative Mothers Against Violence. Authorities have classified the group, who has also rallied in other cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, as right-wing, populist-motivated. The police in Bonn are expecting a smooth running of both rallies. Due to mismanagement : Farewell, cathedral shop Bonn The shop near the Bonn cathedral (Munster) has closed for good. It is not clear yet, what will happen with the premises. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken It was very obvious that staff and volunteer workers were sad to leave the cathedral shop for the last time on Friday. After 16 years of selling Christian literature, arts and crafts and devotional objects. As of now, the cathedral shop at the Gerhard-von-Are-Strae is closed for good. According to Bernd Kemmerling, it is not yet clear what will happen with the premises, which were only renovated six years ago. The Poppelsdorf priest from the Saint Sebastian parish, who is currently acting city dean, insisted on see off the staff personally. As reported, the previous city dean, Wilfried Schumacher, had to step down as part of the financial irregularities involving the Bonn cathedral. The cathedral parish Saint Martin had spend approximately two million Euro from the property assets to finance loss-making facilities. The shop had struggled with economical problems for a while already too. The also loss-making cathedral carre will also close by the end of the year. We dont understand why we have to give up already, said Thomas Minten, manager of the cathedral shop. We would have liked to still get the Christmas business. While Minten starts a new job in Munich in the next few days, the future for his colleague Andrea Weffer remains unclear. I am unemployed from January on, said the bookseller, who ran the organisation of the shop and who has to manage the closing down now. Joachim Gerhardt, priest and press officer of the protestant church in Bonn, also visited. It would be nice if we found a possibility to revive the cathedral shop as an ecumenical institution, he suggested and received approval for this idea. Kemmerling reported that the diocese has asked the main catholic bodies and all pastoral offices to describe how they imagine the profile of the new city dean. I hope that we can hire somebody for this position quite soon, said Kemmerling. A current roadmap for China-Africa cooperation in the new era is one eagerly awaited outcome of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which will begin on Sept 3. Themed "China and Africa: Toward an Even Stronger Community with a Shared Future through Win-Win Cooperation," the summit will be a significant diplomatic event hosted by China this year and attended by the largest number of foreign leaders to date. In this video, African journalists weigh in on what they expect of the upcoming FOCAC Beijing Summit.